Making Him Human

From the look of things, Baek Yu-gyeong’s nature itself was neither gentle nor brightly cheerful. If he could put on that high-handed attitude over nothing more than a bump with a second-year student earlier—as though that alone were enough to put him in a foul mood—then he had probably always been a little twisted at the core.

There had been a reason with Seo Ha-ra, but if this was his true face, it was easy enough to guess the kinds of things Yu-gyeong would go on to do. Thinking back on it calmly, he could have simply explained what had happened, yet instead of clearing the air Baek Yu-gyeong had gone straight into a feud and a shouting match with Seo Ha-ra.

Maybe he had never been a good-natured person to begin with, and once things had already soured with Seo Ha-ra he simply kept that attitude until some later turning point made him fall for her—and by then it would be too late to take any of it back, leaving him with nothing but regret.

…You’re going to end up bawling your eyes out like that, you know?

Cha-heon let out a quiet sigh as he looked at Yu-gyeong, who was stuck to his side with a wide, radiant smile as though he were the happiest person alive. He still could not quite figure out why the boy was acting this way right now, but the future was certain.

The female lead, Seo Ha-ra, had a personality worth loving. Whatever it was that first caught his eye, Baek Yu-gyeong would eventually fall for her. In fact there had been plenty of panels of him following her with his gaze. Even if Baek Yu-gyeong was a little crooked, if left alone this kid was guaranteed to be shedding tears a year from now.

Fine. Since it’s come to this, I might as well try turning him into a decent human being before Student Seo Ha-ra transfers in. A year from now… that should be enough time.

If he fixed the boy’s character enough that even the upright Seo Ha-ra would find him acceptable, that ought to do it.

Cha-heon set two goals for himself.

1. Give the body back to Shin Cha-heon.

2. Make Baek Yu-gyeong into a proper person.

With those thoughts in mind he slipped a hand into his pocket.

“Huh…?”

Something square caught his fingers. When he pulled it out, it was a name tag—a second-year’s, the same red as the one Yu-gyeong wore.

“Huh? What’s that, hyung—isn’t that a second-year name tag?”

“Looks like that kid’s name from earlier… Must have fallen into my pocket when he bumped into you.”

The name felt familiar. Thinking about it, it seemed to belong to that pretty-looking boy who had handed him chocolate not long ago, mumbled that it was just a gift, and then fled. A shame, really—he had dropped the chocolate by accident and never gotten to eat a single piece.

…Ah. So that kid must be an Alpha too.

Cha-heon turned the name tag over in his fingers with a faintly troubled look, then closed his hand around it tightly.

“…Yeah, give that to me. I’m a second-year, remember? I’ll pass it along to my friend.”

Cha-heon looked at Yu-gyeong.

Watching the boy hold out his hand with that bright, smiling face, Cha-heon let out a short laugh and slipped the name tag into his own pants pocket instead.

“No. I’ll return it myself.”

“…Why? You don’t trust me either, hyung?”

“No.”

Honestly he didn’t, but there was nothing to gain by saying so out loud.

“Just… I want to hand it over to him myself. Something about it is bothering me.”

Baek Yu-gyeong stared at him hard, then curved his lips into a soft smile.

Where had he heard it before—that poisonous animals were brightly colored so you would know they were dangerous. Looking at Yu-gyeong’s face, Cha-heon found himself thinking that very thing for a brief moment.

“Alright. If that’s what hyung wants, then fine.”

Baek Yu-gyeong had always given off an unusually elegant, refined air for a high-school student, but today that smile looked especially dazzling.

Cha-heon glanced at him once more, then casually took the first step forward.

Baek Yu-gyeong simply walked behind him at a distance of one pace, his footsteps light.

…Still, the name Min Ha-seong really does feel familiar.

…Is that kid a character too? It’s strange how the name alone rings a bell, like something I read in text.

After finally shaking Yu-gyeong off and heading back to class alone, his eyes met those of a boy walking past with a blank expression. The student—pitch-black hair, massive frame—was glaring straight at Cha-heon.

……?

The cold-faced boy stared at him, then walked on without a word.

…The personalities on these high-schoolers are no joke, huh?

Why the glare was anyone’s guess.

…Kind of intimidating, honestly.

Yes—separate from how ridiculously good-looking the boy’s face was, his presence alone was pretty frightening. He was only a student, not even an adult, yet he had the build of a mountain and a face sharp enough to cut.

…Though that look does seem like something I’ve seen somewhere before.

Cha-heon thought about it for a second, then let it go. Baek Yu-gyeong alone was already enough to make his head feel like it was about to split open.

“Hey there, second-year.”

“Ah… hello…”

Kim Seong-un stared at the young man standing in front of him, looking thoroughly flustered.

The name written on the green third-year name tag: Shin Cha-heon.

Wasn’t this the school’s celebrity who had transferred in like a comet at the start of the March term?

First of all, that face and those clean-cut looks had made him famous from the beginning of the semester not only among the third-years but among the first- and second-years as well. Even the Beta girls had been in a bit of a stir for a while, then sighed in disappointment the moment they heard he was an Omega. Omegas, born with pheromones and a reproductive system designed to attract Alphas, naturally ended up dating the outstanding ones, after all.

Rumor had it he was one of the rare Dominant Omegas—maybe that was why he looked so polished. Handsome features plus the Dominant Omega title meant you could safely say every Alpha on campus had taken an interest at least once.

…I heard his scent is incredible.

Kim Seong-un twitched the tip of his nose. All he could smell was clean fabric softener. Those people were drawn to one another by scents only they could detect; it was a whole system a Beta like him would never understand. Living in such a different world made it awkward to approach Alphas or Omegas, and the distance between them had grown naturally.

…But well… these days none of the Alpha bastards even get near him anymore.

There had been a vicious rumor that “Baek Yu-gyeong” had latched on and was following him around, and after that every Alpha who had been after Shin Cha-heon dropped away in droves. Human society wasn’t so different from the animal world—Betas already knew better than to touch a girl a superior man was targeting, and among the secondary genders it seemed even more extreme. Baek Yu-gyeong was simply the superior one among those already superior Alphas.

Baek Yu-gyeong. Outwardly he was a boy with flawless looks, a solid family background to match, and a constant bright smile that made him wildly popular with the girls and Omegas. He seemed to live alone in a completely different world, like the protagonist of everything.

Even among the standout guys every school had, Baek Yu-gyeong was on another level.

On top of that his grades were excellent, so the teachers adored him as a model student; his conduct was upright and he was held up as an example to others.

That was the Baek Yu-gyeong everyone else knew.

…That bastard’s a psychopath.

In reality he was pure two-facedness.

Most students had no idea, but Kim Seong-un knew because he had seen it with his own eyes.

It had happened a year ago, not long after he entered as a first-year.

One of the popular Alpha seniors among the third-years had suddenly gone wild claiming Baek Yu-gyeong had stolen his girlfriend. Back then Baek Yu-gyeong had been walking down the hallway and taken a punch to the face without knowing a thing about it. Even so, he had apologized to the senior with a smiling face. Later they found out Yu-gyeong hadn’t stolen anyone—the girlfriend had simply used liking Baek Yu-gyeong as an excuse to dump the guy.

Even after getting hit unfairly, Baek Yu-gyeong had gone so far as to say he understood how upset the senior must be that things had turned out that way, so of course the mood had swung in Yu-gyeong’s favor. On top of that the ex-girlfriend standing behind them had slapped the senior across the face, shouting, “I’m the one who got sick of you—and you hit our Yu-gyeong?!” That had been the end of it.

In the end it seemed Baek Yu-gyeong hadn’t stolen anyone’s girlfriend; the girl had just needed a convenient reason to break up. Or maybe she really had fallen for Baek Yu-gyeong on her own.

After that, an absurd title started circulating among the girls: Baek Yu-gyeong, the soft-hearted prince. Considering how most Alpha guys lived off their own inflated egos, even among the boys Baek Yu-gyeong—with his good nature and soft-spoken way of talking—hadn’t left that bad an impression.

Every now and then stories drifted around about someone having their crush stolen by Baek Yu-gyeong, or about jealousy, but it was never that Yu-gyeong had actually taken anyone; it was more that the person they liked had a one-sided crush on Baek Yu-gyeong instead.

…They say Baek Yu-gyeong’s a Dominant Alpha, but he’s ridiculously mild.

Kim Seong-un had thought the same nonsense after watching that scene. He had heard the guy was a Dominant Alpha and a rich family’s young master—maybe he had just put up with the punch because he didn’t want to lose face. He hadn’t even received a proper apology.

Just when everyone assumed the incident had been neatly wrapped up and resolved, Kim Seong-un and a friend went to throw out the trash and witnessed a terrifying scene behind the school building.

The kind of scene where Baek Yu-gyeong, still wearing that smiling face, had the senior by the back of the head and was smacking him across the cheek.