Chapter 35: The Great Wall of Denial

“Are you leaving already?”

Euigeon came out of the bathroom after finishing his shower.

Chaewoo, who had washed up first, nodded as he put on his clothes.

“Yaaaawn. I should go.”

His eyes were half-closed.

He was so sleepy that he felt like he could fall asleep on the street while walking.

“Is tomorrow a lesson day?”

“Not exactly…”

Chaewoo mumbled.

The clock hands pointed to two in the morning.

When would he ever get home?

His body felt heavy and limp, but if he didn’t leave now, he would miss the night bus.

“Do you have something hidden at home? You rush off the moment we’re done.”

‘That’s because it’s rude to stay over at a s*x partner’s house.’

But instead of answering like that, Chaewoo made another excuse, pretending not to care.

“I feel more comfortable sleeping in my own room.”

“Should I give you a ride?”

“No. It’s quick if I take the bus.”

Knowing it was a courtesy, he refused.

Even in the midst of this, notifications from the opera team group chat were ringing on his phone.

It seemed the team dinner they were having today hadn’t ended yet.
Guys like Jeong Taehyun would probably hold out until the first bus came.

“What are you doing this weekend?”

“I’m busy with my part-time job. I have assignments, too. And I need to prepare for my lesson. Oh, and I have to go grocery shopping.”

Fearing he might ask to meet over the weekend as well, Chaewoo gathered every bit of his schedule to answer.

Euigeon leaned against the wall by the entrance and observed Chaewoo putting on his shoes.

“What about Monday?”

“That day… I have a report to write until the afternoon. I’d better get going.”

As soon as he put on his shoes, Chaewoo jumped up and brushed off his clothes.

“Most of my pheromones are gone by now, right?”

He was anxious because he hadn’t paid any attention to controlling his pheromones throughout the session today.

Even though he had showered, it seemed like more time was needed for the pheromones on his clothes to fade.

From the entrance, Euigeon leaned his upper body toward Chaewoo and brought his face close to his neck.

Chaewoo stood still as if undergoing an inspection, blankly looking at Euigeon’s face right in front of him.

“There’s a little left. Should I just give you a ride? I’ll go get the keys.”

“No, no. This much should… drift away while I’m walking.”

“Hmm. Wait a second.”

Euigeon disappeared into the room for a moment and soon returned with a thin hoodie.
It seemed he had worn it once, as Euigeon’s pheromones were moderately infused in it.

“Wear this and go.”

Chaewoo was too anxious to refuse even this.
Since it was late, it would be better to wear this than to walk all the way home feeling self-conscious.

“Then I’ll return it later.”

Chaewoo immediately pulled the hoodie over his head and hurriedly left the studio with his belongings.

As he went down the stairs, his legs were trembling so much that he had to walk while leaning his hand against the wall.

He was sleepy enough to die; when would he ever get on the bus and lie down in his room?

It had been the same on Tuesday… was he really planning to call him out whenever he felt like it?

If Euigeon rushed at him every single day, it would be difficult to maintain not only his part-time job but also his school life properly.

‘I can’t go on like this.’
He thought while waiting for the signal to cross the empty, black road.

While gathering his faltering body, until he reached his studio, Chaewoo pondered deeply on how he could effectively avoid Euigeon.

****

Monday returned.

Having devised a way to avoid encountering Euigeon at school all weekend, Chaewoo entered the lecture hall with a determined face.

Monday was manageable since there were no overlapping lectures, but from Tuesday to Friday, everything overlapped with Euigeon—opera practice, lectures, and so on.

If he ran into him or they were left alone during those times, he might be caught like in the dressing room last week and have to listen to lewd talk without warning.

Then it would be game over.

He’d surely be dragged off somewhere immediately to repeat those kinds of acts without a chance to refuse.

Since they had agreed to have s*x on Fridays, he planned to escape by dodging him skillfully on the other days.

So that Euigeon wouldn’t even have a chance to bring it up first.

Luckily, he was familiar with ‘avoiding Beom Euigeon’ since he had done it before.

Even though he would unhesitatingly spit out words that made Chaewoo uncomfortable, Euigeon generally didn’t speak to or stop Chaewoo in front of others.

It was clear that he, too, didn’t want to reveal to others any potential for ‘a special relationship’ with Chaewoo.

That was also a condition of the Reset Partner contract.

Chaewoo avoided the department room as much as possible.

If there was a break or extra time, he rested on a bench near the humanities building or chose the most secluded corner of the library.

For lectures overlapping with Euigeon, he entered one minute before the start and sat in whatever seat was left.

Of course, choosing a spot reasonably far from Euigeon.

He occasionally had the bad luck of sitting in the front and being bombarded with questions again, but he felt much more comfortable answering a few lecture questions than being caught by Euigeon.

Whenever he entered the lecture hall just in time like that, he would catch Euigeon’s lingering gaze.
Chaewoo ignored him cleanly.

He hadn’t done anything wrong.

s*x was for Fridays, and the other days weren’t mandatory.

If a message or call came from Euigeon, he planned to ignore it for about half a day before responding.

But fortunately or unfortunately, no separate contact came from Euigeon.
Not once.

As Chaewoo openly avoided Euigeon, rumors spread in the department that their relationship had soured significantly.

The argument they’d had in the department room had already spread to the entire vocal department.

It was expected, so it wasn’t surprising.

If it had been a conflict between underclassmen, upperclassmen who liked to intervene would have tried to mediate, but both Euigeon and Chaewoo were upperclassmen.

Therefore, there was no chance of being nagged or meddled with.

Chaewoo decided to enjoy the rumors of discord between him and Euigeon to his heart’s content.

Thus, he managed to pass Monday smoothly avoiding Euigeon, and during Tuesday’s practice, he stayed in places with as many people as possible.

No matter how crazy Euigeon was, he wouldn’t dare approach him and babble perverted things like his juices being full with so many eyes watching.

And Chaewoo’s prediction wasn’t wrong.

As soon as practice ended, he blended into the crowd of people leaving and managed to escape perfectly without running into the pervert!

****

– [Yeonseo University Vocal Music Department Group Notice] Undergraduate students who applied for the Seoul Arts Competition, please stop by the department office to fill out the paperwork~ Deadline is Friday!!

Having received the group notice on Wednesday morning, Chaewoo rushed to the department office as soon as he read the notification.

Ten minutes before the lecture started.
If he hurried now, he thought he could arrive just in time to check attendance.

Rather than going at an ambiguous time, going right after receiving the notice would likely lower the probability of running into Euigeon.

It was a plausible plan in its own way.

The front of the department office, which was always crowded with TAs and undergraduates, was still quiet.

With a relieved face, Chaewoo grabbed the doorknob.

“Oh.”

But before he could pull, the knob turned and the door opened on its own.

And Euigeon suddenly popped out.

The moment he saw those dry black eyes, he thought his heart would sink through the floor.

“…Hi.”

As their eyes met, Chaewoo greeted him with extreme awkwardness.

Surely he wouldn’t say anything here? It was in front of the department office.

“Aren’t you going in?”

Euigeon was holding the door that was about to close.

“Oh, I should. Tha…”

‘It’s not like I’m thankful.’
Chaewoo stopped mid-sentence.

And he swallowed hard, nervous under Euigeon’s steady gaze.

“Tha…?”

“The… cat.”

“…….”

“I like cats.”

Instead of saying thank you, he had tried to say anything and ended up babbling nonsense.

Euigeon was looking down at Chaewoo with a face that said ‘so what.’
His face flushed.

Did it look like some kind of aegyo like ‘Chaewoo likes cats’ that one might see on the internet?

The shame was indescribable.

Unable to continue, he passed Euigeon and entered the department office.

As luck would have it, the TA was printing documents from the copier in front of the door.

The TA’s pupils dilated upon coming face-to-face with Chaewoo.

“Chaewoo, you’re here for the competition, too… Eh, why is the tip of your nose so red?”

****

“Since this assignment covers a wide range and has a lot of material, we will proceed in groups.”

In Thursday’s lecture, the general education professor suddenly declared a team project.

While taking notes, Chaewoo subtly observed Euigeon.

He was in the front, and his own seat was in the very back.

Even if they formed teams now, they were far apart, so there was no way they’d end up on the same team, right?

“Excuse me, you’re Seol Chaewoo-oppa, right? Senior.”

At the mention that they could form groups freely, the female student sitting directly in front of

Chaewoo turned around and spoke to him.

Chaewoo knew her since he had run into her face several times while taking this lecture.

Was she a sophomore?

“Yes.”

“Would you like to join our group? We have two management majors and one English major. No one has a personality to skip assignments or ghost, so it won’t be uncomfortable.”

“I’d love to.”

“Then please sit here. I’m Gu Isol, a sophomore in management.”

“I’m Seol Chaewoo, a senior in the vocal department.”

Gu Isol explained that she decided to form a team with Chaewoo because she saw him always insisting on the back seat but still doing assignments and attendance diligently.

She hadn’t remembered his name at first, but she’d memorized it properly on the day the professor bombarded Chaewoo, who was sitting in the front, with questions.

Up to five people were allowed per group.

With the three people Gu Isol mentioned plus Chaewoo, it was a total of four.

However, there were only three people sitting together.

‘Has one person not come yet?’
As Chaewoo looked around, two men approached the group Chaewoo belonged to.

“Isol-ah. I recruited him as you said. Hello, this is Gu Isol, a management sophomore like me. And over there is…”

“I’m Beom Euigeon, a junior in the vocal department.”

“I’m Shin Minbyeong, a senior in the English department.”

Of all people, one of the two approaching men was Beom Euigeon.
From that moment, Chaewoo’s concentration blurred rapidly.

“I’m Seol Chaewoo. Senior in the vocal department.”

Chaewoo sighed inwardly as he subtly observed Euigeon, who had naturally turned a desk and sat across from him.
‘Why does the last group member have to be Beom Euigeon?’

“Now, we need to divide the research scope…”

While they were busily deciding who would take on what task, Chaewoo alone felt like he was sitting on a bed of thorns.

Whenever he happened to look up and ahead, his eyes met Euigeon’s.

At first, he thought it was an illusion, but after it repeated several times, Chaewoo didn’t look toward Euigeon at all during the meeting.

‘What if he drags me to a bathroom later?’
Anxious thoughts surged.

‘Maybe I should have stayed in touch reasonably instead of ghosting him. Was it really too much to only see him on Fridays when we have so many overlapping lectures and practices?’

“Then please take that part, Chaewoo-hyung.”

“Wow, but I think this is a pretty fair division, right?”

“If we just do it like this, our group will do well.”

“I guess so.”

Chaewoo reflexively agreed to the assigned role.

But his laptop had been acting up lately, so there were limits to researching the material.

When he navigated various sites, it often lagged or the window would close.

He wanted to set a date to create the PPT at the library or take on the presenter role, but he didn’t have the chance to voice his opinion because of a certain someone.

“I’ll be going now.”

As soon as the lecture ended, Chaewoo stood up with his already-packed bag.

While being the first to leave the lecture hall, he checked behind several times to see if Euigeon was following.

However, among the students leaving the lecture hall and scattering into the hallway, Euigeon was nowhere to be seen.