A Checklist for First Love

“Pardon? What did you say? At first sight?”

“I-I think I fell in love at first sight…. They seemed to be from our department, but I’m not really close with anyone here, so……”

‘Wow, that’s the longest sentence I’ve heard from him yet.’

Yoon Dae-eon nodded silently as Seon Ji-ha spoke at length for the first time. It was clear Seon Ji-ha wasn’t the social type—he always sat alone in lectures and ate by himself.

Dae-eon felt a twinge of pity. ‘To think he has so few friends that he has to ask a near-stranger like me to help him find someone.’

“Um, you don’t even remember them, but you think it was love at first sight?”

“Yes. But… that touch… I remember it so vividly……”

“Touch?”

‘Touch? What touch?’

In response to Dae-eon’s question, Seon Ji-ha gave a short, embarrassed laugh and withheld any further details. It seemed he didn’t want to share the specifics of that sensation with anyone else. He fidgeted with his fingers and stammered.

“I-I just mean I l-like them. I’m not trying to… you know, do anything weird……”

“Oh, of course! I don’t think it’s weird at all!”

“I just… I just want to know who they are……”

After finishing his sentence, Seon Ji-ha flushed all the way to the tips of his ears and buried his face in his massive hands. ‘Is wanting to know someone’s identity really something to be that embarrassed about?’ Dae-eon wondered.

“So… could you help me?”

“Me? Uh… yes?”

“I’ll reward you if you help me find them.”

‘Help him.’

Dae-eon blinked several times, lost in thought. Finding someone in the department shouldn’t be that hard—especially for someone like him, who was on decent terms with both freshmen and seniors.

But the person Seon Ji-ha was looking for was…

“So, the person you’re looking for is the one who helped you during your Rut in the student lounge last week.”

“……”

“And you fell in love with them at first sight?”

“……”

Removing his hands from his face, Seon Ji-ha nodded vigorously, his face still crimson. His horn-rimmed glasses and hair were slightly disheveled from being buried in his hands. His eyes shone with a clear, earnest light.

Unlike Seon Ji-ha’s fervent reaction, Dae-eon was left speechless.

‘Because the person he’s looking for… is me.’

He swallowed hard. This was no laughing matter. Dae-eon instinctively felt a looming threat to his peaceful survival.

The reason was simple: the moment he was outed as the person in the lounge, any sane person would realize he was a Beta. In a room thick with Dominant Omega pheromones, what kind of ‘Recessive Omega’ would leave behind both Alpha and Omega suppressants and walk out perfectly fine?

‘And what? Love at first sight?’

Dae-eon had only one rule for his love life: Never date a dynamiced human. His heart was reserved solely for a beautiful Beta woman.

‘Well… maybe a male Beta if I really loved him.’

Regardless, he reached a swift conclusion. He could never let this man find out that he was the one in the lounge that day.

“Um… but I’m actually a freshman too, so I don’t know that many people in the department yet.”

“I heard you have a lot of friends.”

“……How do you know that?”

“I just… see you around often……”

If someone asked Dae-eon if he had many friends, he would usually say no. But he wasn’t exactly an outcast. It was just that whenever he tried to go home, people would drag him out for drinks or to the PC cafe…. Still, he didn’t consider himself ‘popular.’

“I really don’t know as many people as you’d think. I’m not exactly the talkative type. Maybe you should ask seniors from your own year level instead of—”

“It wasn’t someone from my year.”

“What?”

Dae-eon felt the weight of Seon Ji-ha’s gaze through those thick glasses. A chill ran down his spine—the kind of warning a prey animal feels when a predator is nearby.

Seon Ji-ha looked down and began speaking rapidly.

“I checked the CCTV and verified everyone who entered Building 114 that day. A total of 387 people entered at some point. 78 people were inside or entered during the afternoon when I was there. I asked all the professors, and it wasn’t them, so that leaves 64 people. Narrowing it down to the most likely timeframe……”

“……”

“There are exactly 38 candidates. None of them are from my year.”

A bizarrely long silence followed Seon Ji-ha’s detailed explanation. Even Dae-eon, who usually couldn’t stand awkward silence, couldn’t find his voice. His mind was filled with a single thought:

‘Holy sht. This guy is a total lunatic.’*

Scouring university CCTV just to find someone he ‘fell in love with at first sight’ was crazy enough, but memorizing the exact numbers suggested he’d watched those tapes more than once or twice. Dae-eon felt a flicker of madness behind Seon Ji-ha’s clear eyes.

“Based on the payment time of the taxi I took that day, I was able to narrow down the candidates even further. It’s a relief.”

The corners of Seon Ji-ha’s mouth curved upward slightly. There was a subtle shyness in that smile. Seeing him act shy while saying something so unhinged made him look truly insane.

“Haha, hah…. When did you even count all of them? You must have worked so hard watching those tapes over and over.”

“Only once……”

“Pardon?”

“Once was enough……”

‘Is his dynamic vision just that good? Or is it his memory?’ Dae-eon wondered. He’d heard that Dominants often had superior physical and mental capabilities.

Trying to pull Dae-eon back to reality, Seon Ji-ha let out a soft chuckle.

“I have to find them…. I will find them.”

“I… I hope you find them too!”

True to his ‘Yes-Man’ nature, Dae-eon’s mouth moved before his brain could protest. Seeing the man clutching his sleeve with such desperation, how could he tell him to stop? Cold sweat poured down his back, but his mouth moved on autopilot.

“W-Will you help me……?”

“Huh? Oh.”

Actually, just a moment ago, Dae-eon had intended to refuse. He didn’t have the confidence to pretend he didn’t know the person when he was the target. But at the same time, confessing would expose his Beta identity.

Then, his mind changed.

“I don’t know if I’ll be much help, but……”

Seeing how Seon Ji-ha was analyzing CCTV footage, it was only a matter of time before he got caught if he left him to his own devices. Dae-eon instinctively realized he had to be by the man’s side to sabotage the investigation. By any means necessary!

“I’ll help you!”

“Really? Oh, thank goodness…. I was so lost on where to even start……”

“Don’t worry about it, Senior. Just trust me. I’ll ask around and see what I can find.”

Dae-eon thumpted his chest confidently. Of course, he had zero intention of actually ‘asking around.’ He was just going to pretend to look while keeping Seon Ji-ha’s eyes averted from the truth.

“I’ll start by asking the freshmen. I heard they’ve been using the lounge more than the seniors lately. Oh, should I ask my friends to help too?”

“……Friends?”

“Yeah, Oh Dong-chol and Kim Ye-jun.”

Dae-eon beamed a bright smile. He was a firm believer that you couldn’t spit on a smiling face. Of course, he only mentioned their names to sound convincing; he had no plan to actually involve them and make things bigger.

“No, not them.”

“Huh? Why not?”

“……I’d prefer to f-find them myself if possible……”

“……Um…… I don’t quite understand why.”

‘Wanting to find them personally?’ Dae-eon couldn’t fathom the man’s logic. Seon Ji-ha replied:

“It’s… more fluttering that way……”

“……”

“……”

At this point, Dae-eon couldn’t even look at Seon Ji-ha normally. He stared at him with a face that clearly said, ‘You are weird.’ Seon Ji-ha either didn’t notice the look or was just that socially oblivious, as he simply smiled bashfully.

“Then why did you ask for my help?”

“Because… you were also on the candidate list……”

‘Ah, so I was flagged.’

Dae-eon, who had never considered whether Building 114’s CCTV caught him, let out an internal groan. He should have known there was a reason the man specifically asked him.

If he left things as they were, Seon Ji-ha would find him in no time. Dae-eon made a solemn vow to sabotage the investigation. He would hide so thoroughly that he would never be found….

“Then first… I’ll show you the list of First Love candidates I’ve compiled……”

“Pardon?”

“Do you have an email? I’ve organized it into a spreadsheet…. I’ll send you the file.”

‘…Can I really hide from this?’