Protection, My Ass
Around lunchtime Cha-heon had thought he might need to protect Baek Yu-gyeong, but by dismissal he had already changed his mind.
Protect him, my ass.
Living as a sturdy Korean man, had he ever once imagined sticking so close to another guy that the guy would try to put something in his mouth? For the record, even back in high school his height and build had kept him from living that way, and if he’d tried anything of the sort at an all-boys school he would have been buried as gay for sure.
“Hyuung, aaang.”
This wretched world, however, seemed perfectly fine with two guys doing exactly that.
One of them was glued to the side of the classroom chair, arms wrapped around Cha-heon’s waist, determined to force a piece of candy past his lips; the other sat quietly in the seat ahead, reading a book.
What the hell is this even supposed to be.
Baek Yu-gyeong acting like this was nothing new, so that much he could accept. The real question was why Ji Hye-han was sitting there at all.
Watching two people who weren’t even in this class—never mind this grade—plant themselves so brazenly in empty seats left Cha-heon not merely dumbfounded but practically short of breath.
I should’ve just gone home.
An unseasonable notice from the education office warning of a possible evening storm had forced the cancellation of self-study and every club activity. Kang I-hyeon had stopped by the kendo club room for a moment and suggested they walk home together, so Cha-heon had simply been waiting quietly in the classroom.
That was when Baek Yu-gyeong, pretending it was pure coincidence, had spotted him and walked in. “There aren’t any other students, so it’s fine, right?” he had said, and then sat down right against him—the start of the whole mess.
When Ji Hye-han followed naturally through the classroom door a moment later, Cha-heon had assumed the younger boy had come to peel Yu-gyeong off him.
Who would have guessed he intended to settle in for the long haul?
Moreover, the relationship between the two looked odd. Not close, yet not openly hostile either—a strangely ambiguous connection.
“…What is it, Ji Hye-han?”
Baek Yu-gyeong had stared at him as if he’d just seen something he shouldn’t.
“Ah, so he’s a friend? You’re both second-years.”
“Friend… yeah, that’s right~”
“…Yes.”
Ji Hye-han didn’t look especially pleased either. More precisely, he seemed to dislike being linked as “friends” at all.
Judging by how unsatisfactory both answers were, they clearly weren’t close. Just face-acquaintances for now, maybe?
Cha-heon decided not to dig any deeper. The fatigue he’d earn from prying looked greater than any curiosity he felt.
Still, he should have kicked them out right then. While he sat there blinking in confusion, Ji Hye-han claimed a seat and Baek Yu-gyeong simply stayed plastered to Cha-heon.
“What the hell is this… Ji Hye-han?”
Kang I-hyeon, returning from the locker in the kendo club room, frowned at the three people occupying a classroom that should have held only one. Worse, one of them was his junior, a face he knew all too well.
That morning the kid had suddenly announced he was withdrawing his club resignation form; now he was even showing up in the third-year classroom. It was strange.
“Hello.”
Ji Hye-han rose briefly at the sight of Kang I-hyeon, bowed his head, and sat back down.
“…What, you need something from me? Don’t just wait around—call.”
“No. I don’t.”
At the flat reply, I-hyeon’s eyes narrowed. Finding a second-year in a third-year classroom had seemed odd enough that he’d naturally assumed the boy had come looking for him. He rolled his eyes sideways.
The answer looked simple enough. Shin Cha-heon, practically locked in Baek Yu-gyeong’s arms, and his own junior sitting right in front of that Shin Cha-heon, calmly reading a book.
…An Omega who gave off pheromones, and two Alphas.
The guess came easily, yet—
“…Shin Cha-heon. What kind of picture is this? You explain.”
Still wanting to hear the story, Kang I-hyeon prodded the Cha-heon currently crushed in Baek Yu-gyeong’s embrace.
“Save me.”
“Ah, hello, I-hyeon sunbae. I’ve heard a lot about you from Cha-heon hyung.”
Baek Yu-gyeong looked up, smiled slyly, and offered a greeting. Then he went on with shameless ease about how nice it must be to be so close to hyung.
When the hell did I ever tell you anything about Kang I-hyeon, you bastard.
Did you dig into my background?
Quite the family resemblance between little brother and big brother, huh—blood will tell?
Speaking whatever came into his head without the slightest attempt to hide it was truly an excellent attitude.
Cha-heon fixed Baek Yu-gyeong with an ice-cold stare. Sensing something off on pure instinct, Kang I-hyeon declared an emergency exit.
“I’m out.”
“Ah—no! I-hyeon! Kang I-hyeon! You’re abandoning me? You said we’d walk home together!”
“Hey… don’t call me that pitifully. It’s fucking scary.”
“I waited for you all this time and you’re ditching me like this?”
No matter how desperately Cha-heon pleaded, I-hyeon only flicked a glance at whatever was behind him and bolted for the door.
“Kang I-hyeon! I-hyeon! Kang I-hyeon!!”
Cha-heon called after him with raw urgency, but I-hyeon left without looking back. Yu-gyeong, still wrapped around him, rested his chin lightly on Cha-heon’s shoulder and spoke in a lazy drawl.
“Hyuung, how can you call another man so yearningly when I’m right here?”
“Because of you! Can’t you get off already?! You’re about to make me lose my friend.”
“Sob sob. I only have hyung, but for hyung friends come first? You called I-hyeon sunbae so pitifully, yet all I get is scolding.”
“What’s with the ‘sob sob’—ah, Hye-han, please drag your friend off me.”
“…It’s not an object I particularly wish to touch.”
“For fuck’s sake.”
The two of them were equally infuriating, as if competing to prove they weren’t friends. Cha-heon wrestled with the arms locked around his waist until he finally ran out of strength and went limp. Yu-gyeong seemed to find that deeply satisfying; he hugged tighter and nuzzled his cheek against the back of Cha-heon’s neck.
Teenage stamina…
This little animal of a kid.
Young, deaf to reason, and absurdly strong—roughly the same package.
Cha-heon shot him a glare loaded with pure resentment, then sighed.
How long he stayed limp he couldn’t say, but eventually Yu-gyeong’s soft voice drifted from behind him.
“Hyung, what kind of relationship do you have with I-hyeon sunbae?”
“What?”
“The kind where you wait for each other and walk home together?”
Even while using I-hyeon’s name so casually, the tone carried a faintly murderous edge. Sensing the voice drop, Cha-heon decided to clear things up for I-hyeon’s sake before Baek Yu-gyeong could start inventing baseless ideas. Broadly speaking, an Omega and a Beta male fell into opposite-sex dynamics. Of course, Kang I-hyeon and he thoroughly registered each other as guys, but still.
Looking at it, Baek Yu-gyeong isn’t exactly a problem child at this stage, yet that name-tag guy in the hallway last time… there’s a kind of territorial line, I guess.
He seemed to recall reading that Alphas possessed a basic possessiveness toward their Omega. Attachment to the opposite sex—he understood that. The fact that the current target was himself remained thoroughly awkward, but more importantly he refused to let Kang I-hyeon get dragged into it for no reason. Looking back, I-hyeon’s sudden flight made sense: he’d probably run to avoid any misunderstanding that he was involved with Cha-heon and Baek Yu-gyeong.
“He likes girls.”
“Ah, thank goodness.”
“But just so you know? I like girls too.”
“Should I show up in a skirt? If hyung plans to keep liking girls forever, I’ll just wear skirts from now on.”
“…….”
“If that’s hyung’s preference. I’d look ridiculously pretty in a dress, you know?”
Baek Yu-gyeong in a dress—an image of him in an expensive black gown tailored to his usual style flashed through Cha-heon’s mind.
He did not want to imagine it.
Wearing a skirt wouldn’t change anyone’s gender, of course, though appearances alone might be enough to swallow the difference. But this guy was still a dude.
Worse, he was exactly the type who would actually do it, so Cha-heon clamped his mouth shut. He had never once preferred men in skirts; his preference was women in skirts.
No—scratch that. Even without skirts, women were his preference.
…The more he thought about it the more resentful he felt, so he attempted a rebuttal.
“…Even if you put on a skirt, it doesn’t change your gender, does it?”
“Hyung. Whether it’s a woman or a man, if they’re an Alpha then what hangs down below is—mmph.”
“…Let’s just say you’re right.”
Unable to endure the filthy remark coming out of a minor’s mouth, Cha-heon hurriedly clamped a hand over it. Having tried and failed spectacularly to win an argument against a teenager, he could only click his tongue in bitter defeat.
“So, do you still like girls? Hmm?”
At Yu-gyeong’s question he wordlessly bumped his head against the shoulder behind him.
Don’t try to rewrite my sexual orientation, you ill-mannered high-school brat.
…Honestly, the only reason he could tolerate this at all was because the kid didn’t really register as a man to him.
Because he’s a minor, I guess…
Being clung to wasn’t pleasant, yet it didn’t trigger any strong disgust either. If a full-grown adult man had been plastered against him he would have been crawling with goosebumps, but treating them as kids let him let it slide without much fuss.
“…Sigh. Fine. Man or woman, what does it even matter.”
“Are you finally accepting me?”
He turned his head slightly and found Yu-gyeong’s face right beside his, eyes sparkling. Cha-heon exhaled something close to a sigh and muttered,
“You’re such a kid anyway. What does gender matter.”
“…….”
“Pfft.”
A short laugh slipped out of Ji Hye-han, who until then had seemed absorbed in his book. A murderous silence settled over the classroom.