Pheromone Monologue

“Whoa, hey. Guys, our next class is canceled!”

By the time they had polished off the tteokbokki like a swarm of locusts and cleared the table, there was still some time left in the lunch break. As a result, they were all sprawled out in the living room of Dae-eon’s house. Well, “sprawled” mostly applied to Kim Ye-jun and Oh Dong-chol.

Ye-jun, who had taken over the entire sofa to watch YouTube, suddenly sat up with the good news. At his announcement, Dae-eon, Dong-chol, and Jung Yoon-ki—who were all in the same elective—checked their phones. A group notice had arrived for everyone.

[Notice] The <Critical Thinking and Writing> class scheduled for today at 1:00 PM is canceled. My dog has passed away.

Reading the text, Ye-jun let out a scoff of disbelief.

“Unbelievable. This professor told me I couldn’t miss class when my grandmother passed away, but he cancels the whole thing because his dog died?”

“……Your grandmother passed away? When?”

“Like ten years ago?”

“You crazy bastard.”

While Ye-jun was getting smacked by Dong-chol for his thoughtless comment, Dae-eon glanced at Seon Ji-ha sitting next to him.

“Senior, isn’t your next class different from ours?”

“Yes……”

“Since ours is canceled, our next one isn’t until 4:00. I don’t think we’ll be heading out yet.”

Dae-eon looked around at his friends.

Ye-jun, who had briefly sat up at the news of the cancellation, had already flopped back onto the sofa like a wet noodle. Dong-chol was sitting on the floor, leaning comfortably against the couch. Jung Yoon-ki was still sitting upright at the table where they’d eaten, but he didn’t look like he intended to move either.

Dae-eon looked at Ji-ha with a sheepish face. It felt a bit awkward to send only Ji-ha, the only one in a different year, back to campus alone. Seeing Ji-ha’s face fall the moment he heard the class was canceled made Dae-eon feel even more apologetic.

Without thinking, Dae-eon made a spontaneous offer.

“Should I walk you to the back gate?”

“Hey, what are you talking about? I’m taking a nap here,” Ye-jun complained.

“Yeah, the Senior isn’t a kid, and the back gate is right there. Why would you walk him all the way?” Dong-chol added. The two of them were united for once, knowing that if the host got up, they’d probably have to leave too.

Jung Yoon-ki subtly chimed in as well. “I think you should just stay here with us, Dae-eon.”

With everyone saying that, Dae-eon briefly felt the urge to just stay put.

Ji-ha, whose eyes were darting around under his thick bangs as he monitored the conversation, sensed Dae-eon’s wavering resolve. He muttered gloomily:

“My next class is Dynamics……”

“Whoa, isn’t that Professor Kwak Chul-soo? Man, that guy has a legendary temper,” Ye-jun noted.

“Really? How do you know?”

“I saw him through an open door once. He was screaming his lungs out in the middle of a lecture because someone dared to take out a tablet.”

“A tablet? What’s wrong with a tablet?”

“He bans all electronic devices. He wants everyone to buy the physical textbook he wrote himself.”

As Dong-chol and Ye-jun went back and forth, Dae-eon listened. He was well aware of Professor Kwak’s reputation. A senior had once told him to be grateful he wasn’t a freshman in that department specifically because of that professor.

The thought of Seon Ji-ha heading off to that specific class alone made him look even more pitiful. Ultimately, Dae-eon patted his knees and stood up. The moment he did, Ji-ha’s gloomy eyes sparkled.

“What? You’re really going?”

“Yeah, just for a bit. The back gate is close anyway; I’ll just go in my slippers. There’s nothing to steal in my house, so stay here for a while.”

Ji-ha, who had been glued to Dae-eon’s side, abandoned his slow movements and stood up with lightning speed. He even snatched up his bag from the floor with a nimbleness that defied his usual sluggishness.

Seeing this, Jung Yoon-ki looked at Dae-eon with pitying eyes. But he couldn’t exactly warn Dae-eon to be careful when the guy was walking into the lion’s den of his own free will.

“Let’s go, Senior. I’ll walk you to the gate.”

“……Yes……”

Ji-ha couldn’t hide his blooming happiness as he walked toward the entryway. While he sat on the floor to tie his laces, Dae-eon spoke to the three in the living room.

“You guys are staying here until the 4:00 lecture, right?”

“Yeah, why?”

“Nothing. Oh, just don’t go into the innermost room. My parents’ belongings are in there.”

Ji-ha practically skipped out the door like a child with new shoes. He kept checking to see if Dae-eon was following, his steps betraying an uncontainable joy.

In contrast, Dae-eon followed at a leisurely pace, dragging his slippers.

The three left in the house fell into a brief silence following Dae-eon’s final remark. Dong-chol spoke first.

“……Dae-eon’s parents passed away?”

“……You didn’t know either?” Ye-jun asked.

“How would I know? We only got close after starting college.”

“And here you are, acting like you’re lifelong best friends.”

The three looked around the house with solemn faces. Yoon-ki spoke in a hollow voice.

“How can he talk about his parents passing away like it’s nothing……?”

Meanwhile, Dae-eon followed Ji-ha, his slippers making a shff-shff sound on the pavement. The 5,000-won slippers he’d bought from a nearby stationery shop only came in large sizes, so he had to drag them to keep them on.

Walking with his hands in his pockets, Dae-eon turned his head to look at Ji-ha.

It turned out Ji-ha was already looking at him. Dae-eon spoke as their eyes met.

“But Senior, are you sure you don’t want to eat anything else? You barely touched the tteokbokki earlier.”

Despite insisting he liked it, Ji-ha had only managed to clear his own plate through sheer force of will—an act followed by the bizarre feat of drinking two liters of water in one go. His stubbornness was clearly of a high caliber.

However, a small plate of tteokbokki and water wouldn’t be enough to satisfy a man of his size.

At Dae-eon’s worried tone, Ji-ha’s eyes shone. He gripped his backpack straps and asked in a trembling voice:

“……Then…… shall we go eat together……?”

“Eat? Oh, no, I’m stuffed. I thought Yoon-ki could handle spice, but he’s a total weakling; he left almost all of the Level 1 stuff.”

Dae-eon grumbled about having to finish two portions of Level 1 tteokbokki by himself. Hearing the rejection, Ji-ha’s shoulders slumped once more.

Even though it had been less than five minutes since they left the villa, the back gate was already in sight. The closer they got, the slower Ji-ha walked. He eventually became so slow that even Dae-eon, who was dragging his slippers, had to stop and look back.

“Senior, you’re going to be late for class at this rate.”

“……Sigh……”

“Even if you don’t want to go, you have to. You won’t keep your top rank if you skip attendance.”

“Haa……”

Ji-ha let out heavy sighs. In all his life, he had never wanted to miss a class this badly.

As Ji-ha followed Dae-eon like a cow being led to the slaughter, they reached the back gate. It was time to say goodbye. Dae-eon, having arrived first, gestured for him to hurry up.

“Hey.”

At first, Dae-eon didn’t think the call was for him. The voice came from behind him, so he assumed it was just one of the many students passing through the gate.

But in that moment, five thick fingers landed on top of his head. Dae-eon looked up in surprise to see a familiar face smiling down at him, his hand resting familiarly on Dae-eon’s crown.

“Hey, Yoon Dae-eon.”

Dae-eon’s eyes went wide. The face was familiar—far too familiar. In his shock, he blurted out the name.

“Yoon Ju-myeong!”

Yoon Ju-myeong. The Dominant Alpha with the “problematic” pheromone glands. The one who waited in front of Dae-eon’s house every morning in high school. The one who had tried to imprint on Dae-eon when they were teenagers. That Yoon Ju-myeong was standing right there at the back gate.

“Punk, who gave you permission to call your Hyung by his full name?”

Ju-myeong chuckled and began to ruffle Dae-eon’s hair—or he tried to. He was interrupted when Dae-eon was suddenly yanked backward as if someone had snatched him away.

The culprit was, of course, Seon Ji-ha. Having pulled Dae-eon toward him with a powerful grip on his waist, Ji-ha stared silently at the man called Yoon Ju-myeong.

Watching this, Ju-myeong let out a “Ha?” of disbelief. He looked at Ji-ha—who was baring his teeth at a complete stranger—with a gaze that wasn’t even particularly wary. After a tense silent exchange, Ju-myeong called Dae-eon’s name softly.

“Hey. Yoon Dae-eon.”

“Uhh, yeah?”

“You must have committed some serious crimes in your past life.”

“Crimes? Me? Why?”

Ju-myeong’s lips curled up, revealing his characteristically sharp canines. He gave a lopsided grin and spoke casually.

“Because you always seem to attract these kinds of sh*tty Alpha bastards.”

Like this guy, and like me.