An Attached Person

“Hey, Yun Dae-eon. Where are you going today?”

It was a day shortly before midterms.

Oh Dong-cheol, who was coming out of a lecture together, called out to stop him. Dae-eon, who had been as restless as a puppy needing to go outside since the lecture ended, hesitated at the call but kept the conversation going.

“Today? To study. Midterms are right around the corner; you think I’m going out for drinks or to a PC bang?”

“That bastard Kim Ye-jun goes to the PC bang just fine.”

“Whatever, not me. No PC bang for me… I have a place to be.”

“What? Weren’t you supposed to go to the study cafe with me today?”

“Huh?”

Dae-eon blinked. Suddenly, a memory flashed through his mind.

“Don’t tell me you forgot? You promised to go to the study cafe with me last week.”

“Gasp.”

Right. He had definitely made that promise.

Because Dong-cheol insisted he could only study well if he went to a study cafe during exam season, Dae-eon had readily agreed.

Honestly, Dae-eon didn’t understand why two people had to go together when they’d just sit in separate partitioned seats to study anyway…

However, this was an appointment he couldn’t run away from. Because Oh Dong-cheol was a guy who got easily jealous over his friends.

“…What’s with that reaction? Did you promise to study with someone else besides me?”

“Hey, no way! Who else do I have as a friend besides you? Hahaha.”

Look at him now.

Dong-cheol’s face, as he interrogated whether Dae-eon was studying with someone else, was as cold and frozen as an ex-lover’s. It was a known rule that you shouldn’t mess with Dong-cheol when he had that chilly expression.

“I guess you really did forget?”

“Uh, no, just a bit? I almost forgot, but I remember now. So, are we going to the study cafe right now?”

As Dae-eon smoothly played it off, Dong-cheol didn’t nitpick further. Instead, he just let out a deep sigh and said they should go eat first.

Just then, Dae-eon’s phone rang.

-Diring.

While Dong-cheol fiddled with his phone to look for a nearby restaurant, Dae-eon picked up his own. On the notification was, unsurprisingly, the six characters: ‘Senior Seon Ji-ha.’

[Senior Seon Ji-ha: Where are you?] 1:35 PM

Hesitating for a moment, Dae-eon’s thumbs moved quickly across the screen.

[Ah, Senior]

[I’m sorry T_T]

[I don’t think I can make it today 🙁 ] 1:37 PM

[Senior Seon Ji-ha: Why?] 1:37 PM

“Jeez, does this person never even let the ‘1’ stay there for a second…?”

Dae-eon muttered to himself while looking at the chat. Every time he sent a message, the ‘1’ next to it vanished instantly, making him feel like he had to reply just as fast. Dae-eon was scratching his head, trying to think of an excuse.

“Who is it?”

“Ah, Senior Seon Ji-ha.”

“You’ve been hanging out with him a lot lately, haven’t you?”

“He bought me a meal last time. After I went to apologize.”

Answering Dong-cheol half-heartedly, Dae-eon moved his thumbs again. The reply was brief.

[T_T]

[I had a prior engagement today but I forgot about it :< I’m sorry] 1:40 PM

I told him we should check the schedule before making plans… Dae-eon grumbled internally.

In fact, the reason he had made such a sudden appointment with Ji-ha today was because of the message rush that had hit him the moment he returned home from Ji-ha’s place the other day.

The day he came back from visiting Ji-ha’s house. Until Dae-eon set a specific appointment time, Ji-ha had sent over thirty messages asking ‘So when?’, ‘When exactly?’, and ‘Why can’t you?’

Back then, Dae-eon had casually brushed it off, thinking the senior must be a ‘J’ on the MBTI scale. He never imagined that his complacent thought would lead to such a disaster.

Though he hadn’t known him for long, the Seon Ji-ha he knew wouldn’t let him off the hook easily.

Just like right now.

[Senior Seon Ji-ha: Who is the prior engagement with?] 1:40 PM

[My friend…] 1:42 PM

[Senior Seon Ji-ha: So where are you?] 1:42 PM

“Hey, how about here? The pasta looks good, right?”

“Yeah, yeah. Let’s go there.”

Dae-eon agreed without even reading the restaurant review Dong-cheol showed him. Anyway, the one he needed to appease right now wasn’t Dong-cheol, but Ji-ha.

[Right now] 1:45 PM

“Do you want cream or tomato?”

“Me? Cream….”

“Eh? Pasta is always tomato! Oh man. What should I do? The wood-fired pizza here is amazing, so I was going to order one spaghetti and one pizza.”

Because Dong-cheol kept talking to him, Dae-eon only managed to send an ambiguous “Right now” and couldn’t follow up with another reply. Consequently, Ji-ha’s message rush began without fail.

[Senior Seon Ji-ha: Right now?]

[Senior Seon Ji-ha: Where right now?]

[Senior Seon Ji-ha: Did something happen?] 1:46 PM

[No, nothing happened] 1:49 PM

“Then what kind of pizza are we eating? Is Tomato Basil okay?”

“Yeah, order whatever. I like tomato too.”

“Really? Then I’ll order tomato spaghetti and Gorgonzola?”

[Senior Seon Ji-ha: It seems like something happened.]

[Senior Seon Ji-ha: Tell me where you are right now.] 1:49 PM

“Oh, for heaven’s sake, I said nothing’s wrong!”

“Ack! You scared me! Hey, what’s with you? Are you crazy?”

Dae-eon, who had meant to type that into the chat, accidentally shouted it out loud. Dong-cheol, who had been chattering about the menu, jumped in surprise, his shoulders twitching.

Dae-eon messily ruffled the back of his hair and said to Dong-cheol.

“Ah, sorry. I keep getting messages.”

“You really are a social butterfly. The only time my phone pings is for ad messages.”

“Me, a social butterfly? You have to be someone like Jeong Yun-gi to be one.”

“She’s the ‘Engineering Goddess.’ There isn’t a soul in the Engineering department who doesn’t know her.”

Dae-eon finally decided to end the chat with Ji-ha once and for all. Leaving him on read would technically end the conversation, but as a junior, he couldn’t do that. He chose a different option instead.

[Senior]

[I’m busy so I’ll text you again later!]

[(Emoticon)] 1:55 PM

Since the atmosphere of the chat room felt like it had turned ice cold, he sent a cute frog emoticon. Simultaneously, the ‘1’ next to the message disappeared. Ji-ha was still looking at the chat room.

Even though he saw it, Dae-eon turned off his phone screen with lightning speed. To end a conversation, the correct answer was to pretend you hadn’t seen the ‘1’ disappear because you closed the screen too quickly.

“Why? Does that senior want you to come?”

“You saw?”

“Yeah. But Senior Seon Ji-ha doesn’t seem like the type to pester people like that.”

Before long, they arrived at the pasta place Dong-cheol mentioned. Stepping onto the stairs to reach the restaurant on the second floor, Dae-eon muttered.

“I don’t know. He said I’m the first junior he’s become close with.”

“What? Pfft, really? Then did he say if he has any close friends besides close juniors?”

“He probably has some… whatever. None of my business.”

Surely he had at least one close friend in university.

Dae-eon had always had plenty of friends in elementary, middle, and high school. Thanks to his parents, who said he needed to live among people with secondary genders to survive in society, Dae-eon belonged to the category of people with a decent number of friends.

Dong-cheol was also a friend he had become close with after entering college, not someone he had known for long.

“That senior is really unique too. Usually, if you’re a Dominant, you’re super popular in the department.”

“…What? You knew he was a Dominant too?”

“How could I not? All the major professors are spreading the word. They constantly praise him, saying our top student is a Dominant.”

“What, I never heard that.”

Recalling the personalities of the major professors, Dae-eon nodded. With those professors’ personalities, it was entirely plausible they would spread rumors. Just looking at how they chose their own books as textbooks and forced students to buy them…

“I guess the reason he’s an outsider despite being a Dominant is because we’re in the Engineering department?”

“Huh? What do you mean by that?”

“No matter how much of a Dominant you are, Alphas aren’t even treated as anything special in the Engineering department.”

…?

Dae-eon’s mind went blank. Alpha? He didn’t understand why the topic of Alphas came up while they were talking about Seon Ji-ha.

“If that senior were an Omega, everyone would worship him like Jeong Yun-gi.”

“…He’s an Alpha?”

Stopping dead in front of the restaurant’s automatic doors after reaching the top of the stairs, Dae-eon turned back to Dong-cheol. Their eyes met, and Dong-cheol spoke as if it were obvious.

“Yeah. He’s a Dominant Alpha. That senior.”