Alpha Trauma Novel - Chapter 17. Cherry Blossom Rain (1)

Spring arrived quickly. It felt like no time at all since the MT (Membership Training) trip, and before I knew it, it was April. Flower buds formed on the bleak trees, and fresh green shoots sprouted one by one. Wooyeon looked out the window, vibrant with color, and felt a pang of regret for not having seen snow last winter.

“Let’s stop here for today.”

The professor turned off the projector and left the classroom without looking back. Wooyeon skimmed through the notes he had just taken and took off his glasses. As he gently massaged his tired eyes, Seongyu groaned, face down on his desk.

“Ugh… the exam scope is insane.”

Was it said that the language of cherry blossoms was the midterms? The exam scope was released before they even had a chance to regret the passing season. If the content was difficult, it should at least be less; if there was a lot of it, it should at least be easy. Even subjects replaced by reports demanded an enormous amount of work.

“But why glasses? Was your eyesight bad?”

“No, they’re non-prescription.”

Wooyeon, whose eyesight had been corrected by LASIK, wore glasses like safety goggles when his eyes felt strained. He wondered what the point was of getting surgery because he hated glasses, but he couldn’t help it when he had to read so much text these days. Since they were non-prescription anyway, his eyes didn’t shrink to bean-size like they used to.

“My eyes are dry today, even though it’s cloudy.”

Since he woke up, his eyes had been strangely dry. His dream was unsettling, the sky was gloomy, and his shoulders were stiff, leaving him in a terrible mood. Bad things always seemed to happen when his condition was this poor. Wooyeon pushed away the ominous feeling and packed his belongings one by one.

“Hey, Wooyeon. Garam Noona said she’d buy tteokbokki and told us to come to the club room.”

Wooyeon checked his phone for the time and nodded. The mention of the ‘club room’ brought Dohyun to mind, but it was just past noon, so he would probably be in class. He’d likely be tied up in the College of Humanities until at least 1 PM.

“Is it okay if I leave to study before 1 PM?”

“Doesn’t matter, probably? She’s just calling us because it’s too much for her to eat alone anyway.”

Since the MT trip, Wooyeon had unconsciously been avoiding Dohyun. Every time he ran into him in the club room, or they took the same class on Fridays, or he happened to see him passing by, his heart would pound and his face would flush.

Wooyeon knew what this cold-like symptom was a precursor to. It was an emotion he had experienced four years ago, and the only solutions were pretense and evasion.

“Noona, we’re here!”

“Oh, you’re here?”

As expected, only Garam’s pheromones were detectable in the club room. The window was half-open, so it seemed she had belatedly remembered Wooyeon and aired the room out. Wooyeon casually looked around the club room, then stopped when he spotted a figure sitting on the sofa.

“You came?”

The senior was there. The face he hadn’t seen since Friday lunch glanced at Wooyeon. The beige cardigan with large buttons suited Dohyun’s neat appearance quite well.

“Hyung! Your class ended early, it seems?”

“Yeah, about an hour early.”

The murky clouds slowly drifted away. Just like the scent of spring wafting from outside, Wooyeon’s mood took on a different hue. His condition had remarkably brightened, a sudden change that even startled him.

“…Hello.”

Wooyeon mumbled a greeting and stepped inside. This was exactly why he had avoided Dohyun. The fact that they were in the same club ultimately held him back. His heart itched so much he felt like scratching his chest raw.

“Are you already studying for exams? Amazing.”

“Already? It’s about time to start.”

Seongyu gasped in admiration and approached Dohyun’s sofa. Dohyun let out a faint chuckle at the remark that he thought only Seon Wooyeon was so diligent.

“Diligent, indeed. Listening to all the classes I’m going to drop.”

It somehow felt like a sarcastic remark. Wooyeon flinched for no reason and sat next to Seongyu. As soon as he sat down, Dohyun’s eyes curved into a smile.

“Long time no see.”

Wooyeon awkwardly touched his earlobe and scanned the notes on the table. ‘But we saw each other on Friday,’ he replied, and Dohyun smiled silently. Wooyeon continued to observe the neatly written notes, leaning clumsily back into the sofa.

“Yah, Kim Dohyun isn’t just top of his class for nothing. He’s a madman who finishes assignments the day they’re given and submits them the next day.”

“Wow, Noona. This guy actually reads everything the professor tells him to. He even reviews what he learned during break time… Even high school students don’t study like this.”

Their tone wasn’t accusatory; they just seemed fascinated. Wooyeon calmly addressed them as they clucked their tongues, finding both of them incredibly diligent.

“If I don’t do that, I can’t keep up with the pace. I’m not smart.”

Dohyun gazed intently at Wooyeon’s earlobe. It had turned reddish from being touched so much. Wooyeon tried not to show his embarrassment, but Dohyun’s unwavering gaze didn’t falter until his expression twisted.

“Well… it’s good to work hard.”

Dohyun’s lips curled up in a faint smile, and he put down his pen. Wooyeon finally breathed a sigh of relief and put his hands in his hoodie pocket. The warm temperature somewhat calmed his pounding heart.

“You guys too, if there are no seats in the library, come study in the club room. Nobody talks during the exam period.”

“Really? That’s a relief. He was just saying there were no seats in the library.”

“…It wasn’t like there were absolutely no empty seats.”

Seongyu’s face brightened, but Wooyeon meekly protested. It was true there were no seats in the library, but he didn’t want to come to the club room. He felt that if he kept running into Dohyun, something big would definitely happen.

“Oh, come on, last time you went to the library, and some kid next to you was hitting on you, so you just left. The club room is more comfortable and better.”

“What? Who’s hitting on our Wooyeon?!”

Garam, who had been lounging on the cot, shot up. Wooyeon, momentarily flustered, coughed awkwardly. Dohyun was also staring intently at Wooyeon.

“It wasn’t exactly ‘hitting on’…”

Wooyeon couldn’t find an excuse and fell silent.

A few days ago, Wooyeon, after a fierce battle for a seat in the library, managed to snag an empty one. And he left the library less than an hour later. It was because of the drink left on his seat while he had gone to the restroom.

“She said he left a note with pheromones on it. That’s hitting on you.”

It was an item drenched in alpha pheromones. He thought this kind of pickup attempt only happened in movies or dramas, but experiencing it in real life was quite unpleasant. Naturally, Wooyeon left the library without even touching the drink.

“Hmph, there are always those kinds of kids. Not studying what they’re supposed to.”

Garam crossed her arms and shook her head, as if she understood. Then she pushed Dohyun aside and sat next to him. She brought his notebook and pen as if they were hers, baring her teeth in a grin.

“Hey, since we’re talking about it, let’s start a study group.”

It was impossible to understand how she came up with that idea. All three of them gave her dumbfounded looks, but Garam didn’t care at all and scribbled with her pen.

“Our goal is… to get good grades.”

Grades. The big, boldly written letters were crooked. Dohyun, who already had good grades, looked exasperated and said, ‘Who is that for?’ Wooyeon also agreed.

“We’ll just meet and study during the exam period. To encourage each other, and to give the kids test banks.”

Garam surprisingly put forth a convincing argument. It still held no benefit for Dohyun, but Seongyu’s eyes shone, lured in. Difficult subjects surely flashed through his mind.

“Kim Dohyun, it’ll be good for you to study while teaching us. How can our Wooyeon suffer such humiliation in the library?”

“No, I don’t really…”

“Wooyeon, this is a matter of this noona’s pride.”

“Why is that your pride, Noona?”

Wooyeon let out a hollow laugh and ran a hand through the back of his head. No matter how he thought about it, he felt he was just being used. At that moment, Dohyun curved his lips into a smile and pulled out another pen.

“If you’re going to do it, set a longer period and a clear goal. Like, grades above a certain level.”

Wooyeon was startled that he readily joined the plan. It was closer to one-sided mentoring than a study group, and he never imagined he would agree so easily. Meanwhile, Dohyun was meticulously writing down the target GPA.

“Yah, 4.0 isn’t some easy feat, you know.”

“If we just haphazardly gather, it’ll just turn into a play session. We need a topic to study accordingly.”

With the exact day, time, and subject set, only the location remained, and Wooyeon belatedly snapped to attention.

“I’m not doing it.”

The gazes of all three turned to Wooyeon. Wooyeon narrowed his brows and shook his head. A study group? If he did that, he’d face Dohyun every week. He absolutely couldn’t do that.

“It’s more comfortable alone.”

Dohyun raised his eyes. Wooyeon’s delicate face was fully reflected in his dark pupils. Before Seongyu could even try to persuade him to join, a firm voice emerged from Dohyun’s lips.

“You have to.”

Wooyeon had thought he seemed displeased earlier. He was clearly no different than usual, yet a faint prickle could be felt. But it seemed Wooyeon was the only one in the club room who sensed it.

“Can you do English Phonology alone?”

“…”

Wooyeon didn’t answer and looked away. English Phonology was the only class he took with Dohyun. He had promised to help him study, and Wooyeon had kept the class based solely on that promise. Of course, Wooyeon was currently avoiding his promise with Dohyun by making various excuses.

“You have quizzes every week. You didn’t do so well last week, so you need to make it up.”

He had no words to refute. As he said, last week’s quiz was a complete disaster. What were plosives, and what were fricatives? The never-before-seen questions were so complex that even Daniel, who was born and raised in America, couldn’t solve them.

“…Still…”

Wooyeon couldn’t readily answer and rolled his eyes. It was at that moment that a bright smile appeared on Dohyun’s face. Dohyun began speaking in a soft voice, with a smile so gentle it felt like he was melting.

“Wooyeon.”

The moment their eyes met, Wooyeon instinctively straightened his posture. He was smiling like an angel, yet the surrounding temperature felt like it dropped by about 5 degrees. Whether he knew Wooyeon was nervous or not, an impossibly gentle voice flowed out.

“Am I making you uncomfortable?”

“I’ll do it.”

Wooyeon quickly shook his head. It was an action devoid of conscious thought, as if someone had grabbed his head and moved it. As if he had expected it, Dohyun’s eyes curved in satisfaction.