Chapter 8: The Price of Kindness.

“What is it that you have to buy? Shoes? For you, hyung? Did you see something you liked? What do they look like?”

Wootae tilted his head in curiosity, clearly surprised that Yooha—who normally had zero interest in fashion—was the one bringing up shoes.

At the same time, his eyes sparkled as questions poured out of him.

Turning off his game and placing his phone on the dining table, Wootae grabbed Yooha’s chopsticks, picked up a few pieces of ribs, and urged him to hurry up and explain.

Yooha slid the plate of meat toward Wootae and began describing it slowly.

“They came up to the ankle… they were white… and there were blue parts too. The laces were white, I think…”

“Wait a sec… let me search.”

After chewing and swallowing the meat, Wootae picked up his phone again. Yooha added one more crucial detail.

“And there was something like a cubic at the end of the logo. Do you know what that might be?”

Wootae’s fingers paused mid-search.

He glanced up at Yooha, tilted his head slightly, then resumed searching.

Yooha waited with faint tension twisting in his chest, and soon Wootae turned the phone screen toward him.

“Is it this?”

“Ah—yeah. That’s it.”

Yooha relaxed and nodded when he saw the image on the screen.

The white-and-blue color scheme and the conspicuous gem at the end of the side logo were exactly the same as the ones Shin Joowon had been wearing.

Just as Yooha was thinking it had been the right call to ask Wootae, Wootae spoke again in disbelief.

“Hyung, are you really trying to buy these…? Are you serious?”

“Yeah… ah, they’re not for me. I messed up a bit, and I think I need to compensate for them…”

“What? Compensate?”

Wootae practically jumped up, demanding to know how something like that had happened. Still dazed, Yooha explained the situation in broad strokes.

He’d bumped into a senior from the same department, spilled the drink he was holding, and ended up dirtying the senior’s shoes.

On top of that, there had already been something he needed to apologize for, and the senior had refused to accept cleaning fees while being considerate toward him, so Yooha wanted to at least buy him a new pair of shoes out of gratitude.

As Yooha spoke in a quiet, careful voice, Wootae’s expression shifted steadily toward shock.

“Who even is that senior? Is he rich?”

“Huh? Uh… probably…?”

“Then he’s an alpha, right?”

“I don’t know… but, Wootae, not all alphas are rich…”

Unlike Wootae, whose voice grew louder with excitement, Yooha’s voice shrank little by little.

He had only asked about the shoes, so why had money come up? And how had that immediately turned into assumptions about alphas?

Thinking it might be a good idea to sit Wootae down one day and correct his warped value system, Yooha looked back at the shoe image on the screen.

Were they really that expensive? Otherwise, there was no reason for Wootae to suddenly bring up money.

He had expected them to be over a hundred thousand won, sure—but just how expensive were they?

As Yooha parted his lips, unable to contain his curiosity, Wootae beat him to it with a troubled expression.

“Hyung… people told you to charm an alpha, not make enemies out of them…”

“……”

“Have you given up on life? Did you just decide to start living recklessly?”

Yooha couldn’t respond to Wootae’s heated reaction.

As Wootae unloaded his blunt remarks like he’d found the opportunity of a lifetime, Yooha shrank back, chewing hard on the inside of his cheek.

He hadn’t expected Shin Joowon to suddenly appear there, and neither had Shin Joowon.

Setting everything else aside, it really had been a pure accident. Yooha hadn’t meant to crash into him, nor had he planned to spill the drink.

Yooha watched Wootae, who kept sighing and rubbing his face in frustration, with a conflicted gaze. He had never seen Wootae—who usually wore a mischievous grin—look this serious.

Yooha’s own face darkened as well, and he spoke hesitantly.

“Um… how much are they? Are they… really expensive?”

Two hundred thousand won? Three hundred thousand? Or more? Yooha steeled himself and waited for the answer, swallowing dryly, prepared to even break his savings account if he had to.

Wootae slumped his shoulders dramatically and let out a sigh before speaking.

“Hyung… there are only twenty of these in the entire world. A limited edition. They were handmade by an artisan through a collaboration with a luxury designer.”

“……”

“That ‘cubic’? It’s not a cubic. It’s a real dia—mond. An actual diamond.”

“……”

“The resale price is sixty million won…. No, even if you have money, you probably still can’t get them. Some things can’t be bought just because you’re rich.”

Twenty. Limited edition. Artisan. Diamond. Sixty million won. Yooha froze with his mouth hanging open as he listened.

The words weren’t difficult, but they felt unreal, impossible to process.

Still, his face had gone beyond pale, turning almost blue, as if he understood everything perfectly.

Yooha slowly lifted his unfocused gaze to look at Wootae.

Wootae, who looked equally drained after dumping all that information, met his eyes.

After a long moment, Wootae drooped his eyes and lips and muttered weakly,

“Seriously… when is your life ever going to get easier, hyung…?”

****

Clunk. Clunk. Clunk.

Yooha’s body swayed with the movement of the bus as he stood hanging onto the handrail.

The scenery passing by the window was as peaceful as ever, but his mind was tangled and restless.

Twenty. Limited edition. Artisan. Diamond. Sixty million won. The words refused to leave his head, even stealing his sleep the night before, and a throbbing headache set in.

Pressing his temples in hopes the pain would ease, Yooha let out a long sigh—loud enough that the man seated in front of him glanced back.

Stepping off at the Business Building stop, Yooha hunched his shoulders. Whether it was a late cold snap or not, the wind was sharp and biting. The walk from the stop to the building wasn’t far, yet today it felt like a journey of a thousand miles.

“……”

Shin Joowon’s sneakers, soaked in chocolate frappuccino, kept flashing vividly before Yooha’s eyes.

Wootae had told him to just shut his eyes tight and pretend it never happened since the man hadn’t demanded compensation, but Yooha didn’t have the nerve to do that.

And yet, he also had no way of buying sixty-million-won limited-edition sneakers. It was a dead end.

How could someone casually wear sixty-million-won shoes? Then again, someone who stayed ten nights at a hotel that cost thirty million won per night probably wouldn’t think much of them.

That was probably why Shin Joowon could tell him not to worry.

The more Yooha thought about it, the heavier his heart became.

Letting out another long sigh, he tapped his own head in frustration and entered the Business Building, his steps slow and heavy as he descended the stairs to the basement.

The second basement floor, where the lounge, café, copy room, and stationery shop were located, was always lively.

Even though it was underground, the building had been carved into elevated terrain, opening out to a neatly landscaped lawn garden where people leisurely spent their free periods.

Yooha only ever looked at them briefly with envy before heading to the lockers or copy room as usual.

Today was no different. He planned to stop by the lockers briefly, then head upstairs to class.

[Business Administration Class 1 Orientation Notice

Date: Friday, March 13, 6:30 PM

Location: Business Building, 6th Floor, Main Auditorium

After-party at Meat Warehouse (Freshmen: no fee / Upperclassmen: 20,000 won)

We look forward to your participation!

– Korea University Business Administration Class 1 Student Council, Sung Hyerim & Lee Jinhyung –]

What stopped Yooha in his tracks was the poster on the wall.

Normally he would have passed by without interest, but perhaps because of what he’d heard recently, his eyes kept returning to the words.

‘Ah… if only we were in the same class, I’d see him at the orientation.’

Kim Eunchae’s muttered words came back to him—the regretful remark that if they were in the same class, she’d be able to see Shin Joowon at the orientation.

Shin Joowon again.

His cold expression, the suffocating pheromones, the bright smile that followed as if nothing had happened, the grip on Yooha’s wrist—every detail resurfaced vividly.

The contrast between those sides was so extreme that Yooha even wondered if what he’d experienced had been real.

Standing still, Yooha gently rotated his aching wrist, as if it were proof that the encounter had truly happened.

“Oh? Hi, Yooha.”

“Hi!”

Startled by the sudden greeting, Yooha turned to see Kim Eunchae and Kang Sohyun approaching.

Since they had only eaten together once and barely talked, the greetings they exchanged were a little awkward. Yooha returned the greeting just as stiffly.

“They’re having the Class 1 orientation, huh?”

The two stepped closer, noticed the poster Yooha had been staring at, and stopped in front of the wall.

Kim Eunchae’s eyes sparkled as she suddenly turned to Yooha and asked,

“Yooha, you’re in Class 1, right?”

“Uh… yeah.”

The way her unusually bright eyes fixed on him made Yooha flinch slightly.

Kim Eunchae smiled in a way he couldn’t quite read, then looked at him again.

“Are you going to the orientation?”