The Uninvited Rival

“Ugh, why is there an assignment the second midterms are over?”

“He said just send it by the finals. The deadline is plenty generous.”

As the lecture, which had dragged on for nearly two hours, finally came to an end, Yoon Dae-eon stretched his arms wide. Oh Dong-chol tidied his desk while simultaneously tapping the shoulder of Kim Ye-jun, who had fallen asleep facedown next to him. Ye-jun eventually sat up, looking disheveled.

“Oh, is it already over?”

“Ye-jun, at this rate, wouldn’t it be better to just check your attendance and go to the PC cafe?”

“I tried that last time—checked in and pretended to go to the bathroom to bail—but the professor caught me,” Ye-jun replied shamelessly. It seemed he was a lost cause in his own right.

Dae-eon clicked his tongue and swept his belongings into his bag. “Are we heading straight to lunch?”

“Yeah. What should we eat? Ah, I haven’t had tteokbokki in forever. Should we go to that ‘instant’ tteokbokki place by the back gate?”

“Instant tteokbokki? Isn’t that a waste of money? You can get tteokbokki for 3,000 won at the PC cafe.”

“That’s just instant-ramen style tteokbokki!”

Dong-chol began a passionate lecture for Ye-jun on the fundamental differences between authentic instant tteokbokki and the convenience-store variety. Sensing a long debate, Dae-eon slipped away from the conversation and turned to Seon Ji-ha on his other side.

“Senior, are you coming to lunch too?”

“Yes……. I like tteokbokki……”

Seon Ji-ha, who had been eavesdropping on the trio’s conversation, subtly declared his love for the dish. In truth, he could count on one hand the number of times he’d actually eaten instant tteokbokki in his life, but he decided that as of today, it was his favorite food. His social instincts were surprisingly sharp when they wanted to be.

“Oh, I see. Then you should go eat with them, Senior.”

“……What about Dae-eon……?”

“I’m going home. Sniff. Is the smell really that bad? I feel like I need to wash up. Everyone passing by keeps staring at me.”

Dae-eon buried his nose in his arm and sniffed. It seemed the “pheromone shower” talk from before class was weighing on him. And for good reason—even now, eight out of ten people leaving the lecture hall glanced at him as they passed.

Dong-chol, despite being mid-argument with Ye-jun, managed to catch Dae-eon’s words and jumped back in.

“What? You’re going home, Yoon Dae-eon?”

“Yeah. You said the smell was bad.”

“No, well, it’s not that it smells bad exactly……. It’s just that the pheromones are ‘thick.’”

“That means it smells,” Dae-eon said flatly. Given Dong-chol’s earlier reaction to the “stench,” pheromones were definitely a scent to him. Dong-chol grimaced.

“How can pheromones be the same as a smell?”

“……Then what are they? Everyone talks about ‘scents’ and ‘fragrances,’ so it’s a smell.”

“No, it’s not. Have you ever heard a smell talk? If you walk past a dak-galbi place, can you understand the smell saying, ‘I’m delicious~!’?”

Three question marks practically appeared over Dae-eon’s head. He had absolutely no idea what Dong-chol was talking about.

“Good grief. I knew you were dull to pheromones, but I didn’t realize it was this bad. Pheromones carry words in their scent.”

“Really? Then what is the pheromone on me saying right now?”

“Huh? That’s……”

It was Kim Ye-jun who cut in. Known for getting chat-banned in games for toxic behavior, Ye-jun didn’t hold back on the crude interpretation.

“It’s saying: ‘Hey, f*** off.’”

“……What?”

“‘Don’t touch, don’t even look. This is mine.’”

“What are you even talking about?”

“I’m telling you, your pheromones are saying exactly that!”

Ye-jun was busy snickering as if it were the funniest thing in the world. Dae-eon’s mouth shut tight.

When he first heard he’d received a pheromone shower, he naturally assumed Seon Ji-ha was the culprit. Yesterday, Ji-ha had been quite agitated, so it was plausible he’d leaked pheromones onto the person he was with until the very end.

Even Jung Yoon-ki had mentioned earlier that even as a Dominant, he struggled with suppression, so Dae-eon had rationalized that Ji-ha might be the same.

But this interpretation was different.

“……I really need to go home. I’m washing this off immediately.”

“Hey, why bother? Pheromones don’t just go away with a shower anyway.”

“Then what am I supposed to do? Every single person is staring at me.”

“There’s no solution unless you get an even thicker coat of pheromones from someone else,” Dong-chol replied nonchalantly.

At that, Dae-eon whipped his head around to glare at Seon Ji-ha. His eyes were full of resentment. Ji-ha merely returned the gaze with a look of pure, feigned innocence. It was shocking to think that someone with that face could be thinking, ‘Hey, f** off.’*

While Dae-eon was racking his brain for a solution, Jung Yoon-ki finished packing his things and started to leave. The moment he saw him, Dae-eon called out his name.

“Jung Yoon-ki!”

“Hmm? Did you call me?”

“Yeah, are you busy?”

Yoon-ki, who was halfway out the door, turned back. Today, his face was as chic and pretty as ever.

“No, not particularly. Why?”

As soon as Dae-eon called him over, every eye in the lecture hall focused on them. It was inevitable; one person was drenched in an Ultra-Dominant Alpha’s pheromones, while the other was leaking Dominant Omega pheromones. Dae-eon wanted to exploit exactly that.

“Do you want to have lunch with me?”

“……Lunch? Suddenly?”

“Yeah. I was going to order something at my place. Come eat with me.”

Dae-eon, the Beta, thought simply: if he stayed next to Jung Yoon-ki, whose pheromones were leaking, wouldn’t Seon Ji-ha’s scent be washed away? He suggested his house because he felt he couldn’t possibly walk into a restaurant looking—or smelling—like this.

Of course, Dae-eon failed to notice the look of utter shock on Seon Ji-ha’s face—the man who had just resolved to love tteokbokki. Yoon-ki, the recipient of the offer, simply gave a shrug of indifference.

“Sure, let’s do that.”

“Home? You’re eating at home? Without tteokbokki?”

“Yeah, you guys go ahead and eat tteokbokki. Oh, and Senior Ji-ha says he likes tteokbokki too. You guys can go together.”

Dae-eon spoke vibrantly as he slipped past Seon Ji-ha’s side. Before long, he was standing close to Jung Yoon-ki. The abandoned Seon Ji-ha stared at Dae-eon with a look of secondary trauma.

“……I hate…… tteokbokki……”

“Pardon? Senior, you just said you liked it.”

“……Tteokbokki is…… f***ing awful……”

Seon Ji-ha spoke gloomily, his fists clenched tight. While his eyes seemed to be looking at Dae-eon, he was actually glaring at Jung Yoon-ki. Yoon-ki noticed.

“……What’s up with that senior?”

“Hmm? Senior Ji-ha? Why?”

“His eyes are a bit……”

Feeling pressured, Yoon-ki subtly stepped behind Dae-eon. Being on the slender side, Yoon-ki was completely hidden behind Dae-eon’s frame. This act only served to infuriate Seon Ji-ha further.

As a silent battle of nerves began between Ji-ha and Yoon-ki, Dong-chol made a sudden suggestion.

“Then let’s all just go to your place and order something.”

“What? How did the conversation end up back there?”

“Why not? We can all go to your place and order some good food.”

Scratch, scratch.

Dae-eon slowly looked around at the four people gathered around him. Kim Ye-jun, Oh Dong-chol, Seon Ji-ha, and Jung Yoon-ki were all waiting for his decision. After a moment’s thought, Dae-eon shrugged.

“Fine, whatever.”

“Okaaaay! Housewarming at Yoon Dae-eon’s!”

“What housewarming? I’ve lived there since I was a kid.”

“If it’s our first time there, it’s a housewarming.”

Ye-jun and Dong-chol laughed amongst themselves and headed out first. Only Dae-eon, Ji-ha, and Yoon-ki remained. Yoon-ki poked his head out from behind Dae-eon.

“By the way, Dae-eon, did you get a pheromone shower? You smell different than usual.”

“Yeah. Apparently so,” Dae-eon replied awkwardly. Honestly, if Dong-chol or Ye-jun hadn’t told him, he probably still wouldn’t know why everyone was staring.

“From who?”

“Ah, Senior Seon Ji-ha. There was no one else it could have been yesterday……”

At Dae-eon’s answer, Yoon-ki glanced at Seon Ji-ha. Ji-ha was still staring at Dae-eon with an unreadable expression. Yoon-ki let out a knowing smirk.

“I guess the Senior likes you quite a bit.”

“He says I’m the only junior he’s close with.”

“Ah, I see. He likes you as a junior?”

Yoon-ki’s expression turned mischievous. Having just received Seon Ji-ha’s murderous glare, he decided to pay him back in kind.

“But you were like that in high school too, weren’t you?”

“Huh?”

“I mean, the reason I thought you were imprinted wasn’t just because you were dull to my pheromones.”

“What does that mean?”

Dae-eon tilted his head. Then, Yoon-ki opened his mouth to deliver the line that would start everything.

“You know, that Dominant Alpha you used to hang out with every day in high school. The one who waited in front of your house every morning.”

“……Ah, Ju-myeong?”

“I don’t know his name. Anyway, since you two were always together, I assumed you’d imprinted with him.”

Yoon-ki looked Seon Ji-ha directly in the eye as he spoke. Seon Ji-ha, who had been silent with his head half-bowed, met Yoon-ki’s gaze with a void-like expression.

“But it’s really not true, right? That you’re imprinted. He used to release so many pheromones around you too……”

Only Dae-eon failed to notice the freezing air swirling in the lecture hall. He was busy reminiscing about that name he hadn’t heard in a long time—Yoon Ju-myeong.

Dae-eon gave a light chuckle.

“Well, Ju-myeong did try to imprint on me.”