Alpha Trauma Novel (Completed) - Chapter 104. Side Story 6. Guardian (6)

Having woken up amidst pheromones every day, it was natural for the empty space to feel hollow. He probably woke up and then scurried to the living room, looking for him like a chick looking for its mother. The image was vividly drawn in Dohyun’s mind.

“Aren’t you tired?”

“Just… is my hair sticking up a lot?”

“No, it’s all good.”

Dohyun instinctively moved to kiss him, but, conscious of Daniel’s eyes, he pulled his hand away. Sweet pheromones popped around Wooyeon. If Daniel wasn’t a Beta, his face would have flushed red.

“Wash your face and come. Let’s eat.”

Wooyeon obediently nodded and left the kitchen. Daniel, left alone, watched Wooyeon retreating back with a bewildered expression. A deflated chuckle escaped his parted lips.

“My goodness.”

It was a single word packed with many meanings. It was a look demanding an explanation, but Dohyun merely shrugged. Just in time, the kimchi jjigae was also completed.

After a simple breakfast, the three of them headed to the university together. Wooyeon, as usual, sat in the passenger seat, and Daniel, excited as yesterday, occupied the back seat. This time, Dohyun also chose to participate in the conversation instead of remaining silent.

The campus they arrived at was sparsely populated. A few students taking summer classes, some presumed graduate students, and a few outsiders. With summer vacation in full swing, there was no bustling atmosphere at all.

“Wow, it’s so spacious!”

Dohyun parked the car inside the school and guided them mainly through the humanities building. Since he couldn’t show them the entire vast campus, which was large enough for shuttle buses, he planned to show them the buildings they used most often first. Fortunately, the overly excited foreigner only uttered exclamations of admiration no matter what he was shown.

“Why did you try to quit such a good school?”

At Daniel’s words, Dohyun looked at Wooyeon. You tried to drop out? When he sent such a look, Wooyeon awkwardly avoided his gaze.

“…I messed up my course registration.”

There seemed to be more to it, but Dohyun didn’t press. At the beginning of the semester, he himself had made more than a few mistakes. He had even deliberately tormented an awkward Wooyeon, so he understood the talk of dropping out.

“Is that a smoking area?”

“Yeah, if you’re going to smoke, go ahead. I’ll wait.”

The smoking area, covered by a screen, wafted with the smell of cigarettes. Perhaps graduate students, exhausted from their theses, were burning their murderous intentions towards their professors along with their cigarettes. Dohyun, hands in his pockets, recalled what had happened just a few months ago.

‘He needs to quit.’

It was the memory of when Wooyeon, unknowingly, tried to learn to smoke. It was also the reason he vowed to quit the pheromone cigarettes he had smoked for four years. Perversely, at that time, Dohyun had felt a strange sensation looking at the filter caught on Wooyeon’s red lips.

“You?”

“…Ah.”

Dohyun snapped out of it and looked up. Perhaps because he had thought about cigarettes for a long time, he felt a slight thirst. Only after swallowing hard did a normal voice emerge.

“I quit.”

“Really? Then I’ll quit too.”

Daniel walked ahead as if he didn’t care. Dohyun followed him, subtly looking at Wooyeon. His eyes kept gravitating to Wooyeon’s lips, which felt like withdrawal symptoms in many ways.

“The club room? I want to go there too.”

Not far from the smoking area, a building with many club rooms was visible. Just as Daniel mentioned it, Wooyeon firmly shook his head.

“Club rooms are off-limits to outsiders.”

Strictly speaking, outsiders weren’t ‘forbidden’ to enter. It was just decided to refrain from frequent visits as it would make management difficult. Dohyun, pondering, subtly asked.

“Do you want to go?”

Two gazes followed. One was Daniel’s, the other Wooyeon’s. The two asked simultaneously with quite different expressions.

“Can I go in?”

“Can he go in?”

Really, he knew why they were friends.

“Why not? I’m the club president.”

Dohyun took out his phone from his pocket, weighing various things in his mind. Since it was vacation, there would be no other club members, and he, as the president, had the key. The weather was hot, so it might be better to let Wooyeon rest in a cool place rather than leaving him out in the scorching sun.

“Should I call Moon Garam and Seonkyu too?”

The club room, neglected for a month, was filled with the hot summer air. Dohyun first opened the windows and ventilated the stuffy interior. Turning on the air conditioner could wait; first, he needed to deal with the thick layer of dust.

“Hey, it’s been ages!”

“Hyung, hello!”

Garam and Seonkyu arrived when the club room was mostly tidied up. Having met nearby, both of them held identical plastic bags full of things. The sound of glass bottles inside the bags made their contents quite obvious.

“You two are exactly the same as before vacation.”

Only two people had been added, but the club room became noisy. Daniel seemed to feel the same way, his eyes wide with a bewildered expression. Just then, Garam, who was coming inside, stopped abruptly when he saw Daniel.

“…What is it, an exchange student?”

“No, Wooyeon’s friend.”

“Wooyeon’s friend?”

Garam asked again, approaching the sofa. Wooyeon sat next to Daniel, Dohyun diagonally across from them, and Garam and Seonkyu on the opposite sofa.

Wooyeon introduced Daniel to the two after they had settled down. This was ‘Daniel Corner,’ a friend he had become close with in America. Garam, who was about to greet him warmly, froze like a machine after hearing the next words.

“He… can’t speak Korean?”

“No.”

“Not at all…?”

“He knows ‘hello’ and ‘thank you’ 정도.”

“…Oh, damn.”

Garam, who was more sociable than anyone, was an exception if he couldn’t communicate. Just as studying English literature didn’t mean one was fluent in conversation, Garam was someone who detested English.

“Hey, Seonkyu, you greet him instead of me.”

“Noona, I’m specialized in Suneung English.”

“Hey, you’re still better than me.”

“At times like these, the senior should set an example.”

“Is there such a thing?”

The whispered bickering was noisy. Their voices were clearly small, but it was a talent to be so boisterous. Dohyun chuckled in disbelief, watching the two exchange “How are you today?” and “I’m fine, thank you, and you?”

“Can you say their names? It’s ‘Garam’ and ‘Seonkyu’.”

“Garam?”

Meanwhile, Daniel, with a deeply furrowed brow, was busy practicing the names Wooyeon had told him. Watching him awkwardly repeat ‘Garam’ and ‘Seonkyu,’ Dohyun suddenly realized that Daniel had never once called his name.

“Danny, repeat after me.”

It was just a simple whim. He felt they had become quite close, and also that Wooyeon and Daniel were too close. Dohyun tilted his head slightly and spoke in a gentle voice.

“Kim, Do, Hyeon.”

“…”

Daniel’s eyebrows twitched. He let out a small snort and confidently lifted his chin. A crooked smile played on his lips.

“No.”

“Hey.”

It was Wooyeon who was taken aback. Wooyeon, with a stern face, grabbed Daniel’s arm. He seemed worried about Dohyun’s feelings, but Dohyun was more bothered by the fact that Wooyeon’s neat fingers had touched someone else.

“Why are you…”

Wooyeon whispered in his ear, so the rest of the sentence was barely audible. Dohyun looked at them, a slight smirk on his lips. What had he said earlier? That Daniel had no romantic feelings for him? Regardless of Daniel’s feelings, their close proximity was not welcome.

“Hey, I don’t know, let’s just drink. Daniel? Conner? What, what should I call you?”

Just as Dohyun’s patience was reaching its limit, Garam suddenly stood up. He seemed resigned, having failed to reach a conclusion with Seonkyu. Dohyun was very glad for his intrusion but pretended otherwise.

“Moon Garam, you’re boring. Is drinking all we can do after meeting for so long?”

“You sound like a lover in a rut. If you don’t like it, don’t drink.”

“I can’t anyway, I drove.”

“Ugh, you bourgeois bastard driving your own car.”

Even though the real bourgeois was right in front of him. His choice of words was always unreserved. Of course, Wooyeon didn’t care in the slightest.

“Oh, I like this!”

“What, you like that? Drink it all. There’s plenty over there.”

“Can I drink this?”

“Drink, drink. Drink it all.”

The drinking party started in an instant. Garam, with swift movements, locked the door, turned on the air conditioner, and half-closed the windows. The way they distributed drinks and took out snacks was as if they had been waiting for this moment.

“What should we order? Do you want anything to eat?”

“Tteokbokki?”

“Tteokbokki? I like tteokbokki!”

Dohyun listened in on the three people’s menu selection as if watching a play. Two spoke Korean and one spoke English, but strangely, a conversation was happening. To be precise, they were all just saying they liked tteokbokki, but what did it matter?

“Wooyeon, aren’t you drinking?”

“Ah, I’m a bit…”

Wooyeon hesitated, not readily reaching for the alcohol. Seeing his deeply conflicted face, it seemed the past mistakes made drinking awkward for him. Dohyun was about to tell him to drink comfortably, but Daniel was faster.

“Why, let’s drink together after a long time.”

Twitch, his brow furrowed. After a long time. It was a phrase that made his lips close involuntarily.

“I wanted to drink Korean beer with you.”

As far as Dohyun knew, Wooyeon was not of legal drinking age when he was in America. That meant he couldn’t buy alcohol, nor should he, as a minor. But he had drunk with Daniel. And from the sound of it, quite often.

“Can’t you just have a little? Huh?”

“…Be quiet.”

Wooyeon glanced at Dohyun, lowering his voice. He wondered why Wooyeon reacted so quickly, but then the truly astonishing words came out.

“You made me develop a weird drinking habit.”

“…”

This time, Dohyun tried his best not to let his expression falter. Only one phrase, amidst Wooyeon’s fluent English pronunciation, caught his ear. Daniel seemed to be in the same boat, tilting his head and asking again.

“Drinking habit?”

‘Just…’

For a brief moment, a memory flashed by. A single phrase Wooyeon had said with a flushed face on a beautiful night view terrace.

‘It was a drinking habit.’