Alpha Trauma Novel - Chapter 19. Cherry Blossom Rain (3)

Even as Wooyeon headed to the club room, he couldn’t shake off the lingering images of the past. When he left the lecture hall, when he crossed the campus, and even when he stood in front of the club room, Kang Junseong in his school uniform incessantly talked to him.

‘Don’t you smell something?’

In middle school, the classroom, with its thirty-odd students, was nothing short of a prison for Wooyeon. Every time he heard giggling, an unspeakable torment washed over him. He pretended to be fine on the outside, but at such a young age, it was impossible for him to truly be unfazed.

‘Sun Wooyeon smells like a pig.’

That day too, Junseong threw trash at Wooyeon. The boys around them snickered as Junseong pinched his nose, telling him to wash himself properly. Though Wooyeon didn’t even have a hint of sweat smell, bullying needed no reason whatsoever.

‘Dirty pig.’

Wooyeon went home and showered until his skin felt chapped. He washed his hair three times, his body five times, and then liberally applied the lotion he always used. If he’d had his way, he would have even sprayed perfume, but he didn’t dare enter his mother’s room.

‘Do I smell?’

Dohyun, who was tutoring him at the time, looked puzzled at Wooyeon’s question. He tilted his head as if asking what he meant and even pulled Wooyeon’s chair closer with one hand. At the suddenly narrowed distance, Wooyeon involuntarily tensed up.

‘Well, I have a really good sense of smell, and all I smell on you, Yeonie, is a baby’s scent.’

He was a man who always spoke with gentle words. It was also gentle of him to point to the lotion on the desk with his finger, saying it smelled just like this. Dohyun smiled softly and asked in a gentle voice.

‘Do I smell, Teacher?’

Smell? What smell? From him, there was always only the scent of fabric softener, like sunshine. His mature and subtle fragrance was incomparable to Wooyeon’s own youthful scent. When Wooyeon shook his head, he spoke as if it were obvious.

‘You’re the same, Yeonie.’

Wooyeon still couldn’t forget the feeling of his hand stroking his hair. The quiet comfort he’d offered while gently tidying the back of his head was the same.

‘So it’s okay.’

When Dohyun said that, it truly felt like everything would be okay. If the teacher says so, then it must be okay, that vague trust held sixteen-year-old Wooyeon together, preventing him from collapsing.

“Is your lecture over already?”

Only Dohyun was left alone in the club room. Dohyun, who was studying for a test in the same manner as before, spoke without even looking at Wooyeon.

“The others went to buy drinks, so they’ll be back soon.”

Instead of entering, Wooyeon lowered his eyes. He wished Dohyun would stroke his head, just like four years ago. Senior Dohyun wouldn’t do that, but just for now, Wooyeon wished he were his teacher.

“Senior.”

His lips parted impulsively. Senior instead of Teacher. At that awkward address, Dohyun’s gaze turned towards him at an angle. Wooyeon continued in a tiny, almost inaudible voice.

“Could you… stroke my head a little?”

The words had burst out thoughtlessly. It wasn’t an unreasonable request, but even to him, it felt out of the blue.

Amidst the awkward silence, the sound of Garam and Seongyu approaching could be heard, and he was about to brush it off as a joke when…

“……”

Dohyun suddenly approached and placed a hand on Wooyeon’s head. He gently caressed the back of his head, ran his fingers through his hair, and then slowly moved away. The feeling of his long fingers intertwining with his hair hadn’t changed at all from four years ago.

“Looks like the others are coming.”

Wooyeon looked up at Dohyun, unable to say anything. If he reached out now, they were close enough for him to pretend to stumble into his arms. He felt a sense of déjà vu, as if they had stood like this before. Before he could process it, Dohyun looked at him.

“You worked hard in class.”

Thump. Something sank down. It sounded like a fiercely rattling door that had been tightly shut. Dohyun was his usual self, but Wooyeon lowered his head, his face burning red. Thump-thump, an irregular heartbeat echoed dully in his ears.

“Oh? Why are you out here?”

“I heard you guys coming.”

The teacher was always like this. He never asked for details, only offered the exact comfort Wooyeon needed. It seemed as if he was drawing a line, but in the end, his actions were rooted in consideration. Unaware of how much it unsettled Wooyeon.

“Wooyeon, what’s wrong with you? Are you sick?”

“No…, I’m just cold.”

Wooyeon pulled up his hoodie and clutched his collar. His ears felt warm, and he thought he should hide them first. Thankfully, the large hood perfectly concealed his awkward face.

“In this weather? I bought iced drinks…”

Wooyeon shook his head, saying he was fine, and pressed a plastic cup to his cheek. The cold touch slowly cooled the heat on his face. Thoughts of Junseong had long since vanished from his mind.

Wooyeon’s house was an apartment not far from the school. The complex had elaborate landscaping, and the fountain in the center was so large it looked like a swimming pool. Garam, whose eyes widened as soon as she got out of the taxi, gaped at the building with a penthouse at the top.

“You live here alone?”

“Um… yes.”

Wooyeon swiped his card at the entrance, his answer trailing off vaguely. He had brought them here thinking it was a relatively normal apartment, but seeing their reactions already made him feel awkward. Does living alone in an apartment really seem that strange? I should have at least said I lived with my family.

They kept exclaiming in admiration even as they rode the elevator. The elevator was excessively wide, or they’d get acrophobia if it went this high. Only Dohyun remained calm, but he even changed expression when Wooyeon pressed the top floor.

“Your family must be really well-off…”

Seongyu muttered, wide-eyed, watching the indicator panel climb floor by floor. He had told them not to say such rude things at the orientation, but he seemed too surprised to even remember that. When Wooyeon inadvertently turned to him, he offered an embarrassed smile and apologized.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to.”

“Well… it’s not wrong.”

As long as they weren’t talking behind his back, Wooyeon didn’t really care. No, even if they were talking behind his back, it was fine as long as he didn’t hear it. Even though he hadn’t known Seongyu for long, he knew he wasn’t the type to gossip about such things.

“Please come in comfortably. There’s no one here.”

As soon as they entered the house, Wooyeon offered them guest slippers. They were brand new, never used, as the only people who came to the house were Wooyeon and the hired staff. Garam shuffled into the slippers hesitantly, then gasped as she lifted her head.

“Woah… Is that the Han River?”

The Han River was right in front of them. Even before reaching the living room, the entire world was visible beyond the terrace. Wooyeon, already accustomed to it, felt no particular emotion, but to the others, it was a shocking sight.

“The view is killer…”

Wooyeon slowly walked past them. Their reactions were so extreme that he couldn’t figure out what to say. He planned to seat them on the sofa first and then think, but even that wasn’t easy.

“Is this… a model home or something…?”

The spacious, open living room looked magnificent. A sofa, a table, and a TV. The living room, furnished with only minimal furniture, had wide spaces attached to it that felt too grand to be called ‘rooms.’ The ceiling was high, there were stairs, and the living room walls were all glass.

“How do you clean all this?”

“There’s a cleaning person who comes separately.”

Wooyeon answered with a half-resigned expression. At this point, he thought it might be better to just let them believe he was moderately well-off. Of course, there was an enormous difference between Wooyeon’s ‘moderately’ and their ‘moderately.’

“There’s a second floor too?”

Seongyu pointed to the stairs on the wall. It was a place Wooyeon hadn’t gone up to even once in the two months or so he’d lived there.

“There is, but I don’t use it. There’s nothing up there.”

“What about rooms? Do you use everything here?”

“No, just the bedroom and study.”

“Hey, hey, Wooyeon. Is that a real tree?”

Garam suddenly interjected. Wooyeon checked the tree on the terrace and answered uncertainly that it probably was.

“The grass? Is the grass real too?”

“I don’t know… I don’t manage it.”

“It must be scary living alone in such a big place.”

“It’s not really scary.”

Wooyeon replied indifferently and put his bag down on the sofa. Both the spaciousness and living alone had been familiar to him since he was very young. His main house, where all the staff had left for the day, felt like a vast prison to Wooyeon.

“How much would a place like this cost? Can you rent it monthly?”

“The deposit alone would probably be more expensive than our house, unnie.”

Hearing their whispers, Wooyeon involuntarily let out a laugh. Their serious expressions as they worried about monthly rent seemed a little cute. When he covered his mouth with his fist, Garam belatedly made an embarrassed face.

“Hey, Kim Dohyun, why are you so uninterested? Have you ever seen a house like this? Huh?”

Garam needlessly picked a fight with Dohyun, who was next to her. Dohyun, who had only said one thing since entering the house (“Excuse me.”), looked around with his usual indifferent expression. He was still unimpressed.

“It’s my first time in a penthouse… but I’ve been to bigger houses.”

“Where is that?”

Wooyeon asked reflexively. He had a feeling that the bigger house he was talking about might be a place Wooyeon also knew. Dohyun curled the corner of his lips into a smile, and instead of telling him where it was, he changed the subject.

“Stop poking around someone else’s house and put your bags down. We gathered to study, didn’t we?”

“……”

“……”

Their faces registered belated realization. They had clearly been so engrossed in looking around the house that they had completely forgotten about the study session. Wooyeon secretly swallowed his disappointment and headed to the kitchen, saying he would get drinks.

“There are… so many kinds.”

The refrigerator was full of various ingredients. Wooyeon hadn’t bought them; the hired staff regularly refilled them. The glass bottles were probably juice, but without labels, he couldn’t tell what was what.

Wooyeon first picked up an orange bottle. It’s orange, so it must be orange juice, he thought, a simple deduction. As he reached for a red bottle next, a familiar voice came from above his head.

“That’s a carrot.”