Chapter 31: A Different Kind of Interest

Shin Joowon, who had placed a pale Yooha in the passenger seat, immediately got into the driver’s seat.

Only after pressing the button to lock the doors was he able to catch his breath.

Yooha remained frozen in his seated posture, not making a single movement.

Because his head was lowered, Joowon couldn’t check his expression, but his tightly hunched body spoke volumes about the burden he felt in this situation.

‘We haven’t even started yet, and what have I even done for him to be this terrified already?’

A hollow laugh almost escaped him in absurdity, but brushing his hair back naturally, Joowon masked his face in a pitiable expression once again.

“It seems like you’ve been avoiding me lately…”

“…….”

“Did I do something wrong?”

Even if it didn’t show on the outside, Shin Joowon, whose patience had already hit rock bottom, immediately brought up the main point.

When he asked with a voice full of deliberate hurt and disappointment, Yooha’s deeply bowed head snapped up.

Suppressing the corner of his lip that subtly tried to rise at the immediate reaction, Joowon pressed his lips as if adjusting them.

“I thought about it hard, but I couldn’t figure it out.”

“…….”

“Did I make you feel uncomfortable, by any chance…”

“Oh, no… nothing like that…”

As the words continued, Yooha’s face turned even paler.

Joowon had been wondering when those tightly closed lips would open, when Yooha quickly cut him off and strongly denied it.

Shin Joowon, leaning weakly against the steering wheel, turned only his head toward Yooha.

His pupils, clearly showing embarrassment, were shaking.

Taking in Yooha’s bloodless lips, Shin Joowon buried his face against the horn, then slowly lifted his upper body to sit upright.

He stared intently at Yooha as if telling him to speak further, but Yooha only kept biting his lip.

‘f*ck, this is incredibly frustrating….’

Exercising superhuman patience, Shin Joowon prompted him once more.

“I wanted to get along well with you…”

“…….”

“Do you find me doing this burdensome?”

Shin Joowon gently placed his reached-out hand over the fist resting on Yooha’s thigh.

Although it had been cold enough to warrant winter coats in early March, the weather had softened considerably by now, yet Yooha’s hand was as cold as ice.

Shin Joowon lightly clasped his hand as if to warm it, waiting for Yooha to open his mouth.

The action of biting his lip to the point where it looked painful, and his shaking gaze, made it obvious that his mind was in turmoil.

Although it was extremely faint, he could even sense Yooha’s pheromones.

While everything else could be faked and manufactured, pheromones could never lie.

It meant Yooha was deeply agitated.

‘Should I wait a little longer?’

Shin Joowon began to count down in his head.

The moment the numbers he counted backward from ten finally reached zero, Yooha’s mouth finally opened.

“No… it’s not because it’s burdensome…”

“…….”

“It’s because of me… I did something wrong to you, Hyung…”

‘What kind of nonsense is he about to spout?’

Shin Joowon, who had been looking at Yooha with a cynical mind, slightly furrowed his brow at the unexpected words.

He had already done plenty of things wrong in the past, so why suddenly now?

He was dumbfounded by Yooha suddenly starting a confession out of nowhere.

Shin Joowon stared intently at Yooha as if telling him to go on.

“…It’s all because of me. Other people speaking badly even about you, Hyung…”

“What do you mean by that?”

Although he heard the words, he couldn’t understand them with his head.

Before he knew it, Yooha’s hand beneath Shin Joowon’s palm was trembling violently.

There was none of the pleasure or satisfaction he usually felt when someone was trembling before him.

He felt strangely foul.

“I don’t quite understand. It’s okay, so take your time and tell me.”

Shin Joowon lightly patted the back of Yooha’s hand, exercising his patience once more.

Although he didn’t like Yooha’s head bowing down even further, he didn’t let it show.

Yooha slowly continued in a trembling voice, desperately hoping that Shin Joowon wouldn’t misunderstand his words.

“A while ago… I got scolded by a Sunbae… for not greeting him…”

“…….”

“It was my fault for not greeting him, so that was fine… but he must have known I was the hoobae who had lunch with you, and suddenly he started speaking badly about you too…”

“…….”

“And because of the post that went up… I felt like you were only experiencing bad things because of me… that’s why…”

As Yooha’s words continued softly, the emotions vanished from Shin Joowon’s face one by one.

He wondered what on earth Jin Yooha was talking about.

Far from being solved, his questions only piled up further.

“I thought… I shouldn’t stay close to you, Hyung…”

“…….”

“Ah, it’s not because I dislike you, Hyung… I was worried you’d get into trouble because of me… so I thought it would be better if we drifted apart…”

“I really didn’t know you would feel so disappointed. I’m sorry…”

“…….”

“And I’m truly sorry for lying, too…”

At the faintly trembling voice, Shin Joowon completely lost his words.

Among the various hypotheses he had come up with in his head while waiting for Yooha to leave the Business School, not a single one was correct, leaving him feeling utterly hollow.

Everyone else had tried to show off that they were close to him in any way they could; no one had ever wanted to drift apart.

It would have been different if they hadn’t known each other from the start, but after getting acquainted, everyone was busy proudly boasting that they knew Shin Joowon.

As if the name Shin Joowon were their own honor.

Furthermore, as if they themselves had become Shin Joowon.

Yet, Jin Yooha had never once used him in that way.

He had tried to avoid him even by lying, making a pathetic struggle to distance himself from him in any way he could.

Jin Yooha thought of other people’s positions to an excessive degree, and was defensively closed-off to a frustrating extent.

All of the moves Joowon had anticipated had missed, and he couldn’t read Yooha’s inner thoughts at all.

“Ha…….”

A hollow laugh escaped him.

In an instant, his neck turned stiff and his crown throbbed, giving him a headache.

It was to the point where he wondered if he had ever felt this helpless.

Shin Joowon stared at Yooha, who had his head bowed the entire time as if even making eye contact was too difficult.

He didn’t know about anything else, but he felt he knew one thing for certain.

That Jin Yooha was different from the people who had crossed his path.

That his current appearance was not a clumsy act.

If so, was the offer to buy coffee at first, and the offer to buy lunch out of gratitude for driving him home, not a scheme either?

What if he had sincerely wanted to treat him out of gratitude and apology?

What if the brief, earnest look in his eyes, his cautious words, and his every single action were simply showing Jin Yooha exactly as he was?

“Yooha, lift your head.”

“…….”

“It’s okay, let me see your face.”

He wanted to check what kind of eyes Yooha would look at him with.

He wanted to find out if Jin Yooha truly had no intention or purpose.

He felt that the final suspicion he couldn’t easily let go of might vanish without a trace if he looked into Yooha’s eyes at this moment.

Shin Joowon, grasping Yooha’s hand, waited only for Yooha to lift his head and look at him.

Very slowly, Yooha lifted his head.

Shin Joowon didn’t prompt him at all, quietly waiting until Yooha’s gaze turned toward him.

Even at the slow movement that would usually have felt frustrating, a sense of anticipation welled up instead.

“…….”

The moment their eyes finally met, Shin Joowon realized.

Just how futile his suspicion and dogmatism toward Yooha had been.

In the pupils where apology and fear were blended, there was no shaking.

Even though he had hesitated for a long time before making eye contact, the pupils projecting his sincerity were only dark and clear.

Jin Yooha is different.

He is distinctly different from the humans who approached him thinking only of Shin Joowon’s utility value.

He seemed to have a personality that made him perfect for being taken advantage of because he was timid, lacked confidence, and had a weak heart, but because of that, he was even more interesting to Shin Joowon.

The unexpected inner schemes he had been curious about were no longer of any interest to him now.

Just how long had he been carrying around that cheap wallet he had thought was a concept?

Why did he have no interaction with others to the point of being called an outsider?

Was three glasses of soju truly the entirety of his alcohol tolerance?

What were the circumstances that made him live at his aunt’s house?

And whether he was truly a recessive Omega.

He wanted to know about Jin Yooha’s intimate private life, which he previously had no need to be curious about and hadn’t cared to know.

And besides that, there was one more thing he was curious about.

“Who is he, that Sunbae?”

“…Pardon?”

“The Sunbae who scolded you for not greeting him. Who is he?”

He wanted to know who the foolish people were who were still running around trying to establish military-style discipline.

Since they had not only touched Jin Yooha but had even spoken badly of him behind his back, he felt he would only be satisfied once he saw their faces.

A few faces that might hold a grudge against him surfaced in Shin Joowon’s mind.

Among them, a Sunbae who hadn’t graduated yet despite being of a quite high student number remained in his mind the longest.

“I also saw him for the first time that day, so I don’t really know who he is…”

Yooha, lowering his head slightly again, answered in a crawling voice.

But Shin Joowon didn’t care much, simply patting Yooha’s hand.

A thing like that could easily be found out by poking around the surroundings a little.

Setting aside the unimportant question for a moment, he stared persistently at Yooha again and asked.

“So, are you never going to see me again?”

Shin Joowon gently rubbed Yooha’s wrist with his thumb.

The prominent wrist bone stuck out even more than before, looking as if it would pierce through his skin if it bumped against something even slightly.

When Yooha, who shivered slightly as if it tickled, lifted his head, Shin Joowon gave him a brighter smile than ever before.

“Everyone just talks however they want anyway. As long as it’s not true and I’m confident, it’s fine. I’ve never cared about things like that.”

To Shin Joowon, who had received countless stares and suffered from numerous rumors since he was young, it was as familiar as breathing.

Because he had lived his life playing a perfect figure to the public, even if bad talk arose, before long it would all turn into groundless rumors and be buried.

He had truly never once been shaken by the various rumors surrounding him.

“It’s not your fault, so you don’t need to feel sorry to me. And there’s no reason to avoid me either.”

So, he couldn’t just stand by and watch Jin Yooha try to distance himself for a reason like that.

He had only just got to know Jin Yooha, and Jin Yooha, who had aroused a stronger curiosity and interest in him than anyone else ever had, was right in front of his eyes; he couldn’t let him slip away like this.

At least until he knew everything about Jin Yooha inside out, he had no intention of letting him go.

“Now, you’re going to hang out with me again, right?”

Shin Joowon, wearing a bright smile, firmly grasped Yooha’s hand as if seeking his agreement.

Yooha’s eyes seemed to waver for a moment, and then his dry lips pressed together.

Yooha, who seemed to have many thoughts and couldn’t easily produce any reaction, barely managed to nod.

Although it was a nod that still showed more hesitation, for now, that weak nod was enough.

Shin Joowon didn’t press Yooha further, simply showing him a wide smile.

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