Chapter 45: The Decent 3.6

“I… I believe I should do as you wish, Hyung. Any decision you make, I’ll be fine with it.”

It was the same refrain once more. Having waited for Yeon-chae’s reply with bated breath, Yoonwoo felt his energy drain away.

Yeon-chae’s lips, plump and crimson, parted slightly, betraying an expression that was far from ‘fine.’ Every feature, from his elongated eyes to his high-bridged nose and perfectly sculpted lips, was utterly flawless.

Why was this twenty-one-year-old Alpha, so strikingly handsome and with such a promising future, behaving this way? Why was he doing this to *him*?

Yoonwoo suddenly felt a pang of desire to cry. Yeon-chae, who had mumbled his response, promptly dropped his gaze and began idly tapping his phone screen.

“What are you doing?” Yoonwoo asked impulsively, his gaze fixed on Yeon-chae’s handsome face.

Yeon-chae, with an utterly innocent expression, replied, “Hyung, I looked it up. They say you can eat whipped cream.”

Yoonwoo’s mouth fell open in utter disbelief. He wanted to reprimand Yeon-chae, to ask if whipped cream was truly the pressing issue at hand, but a sudden, unrelated thought pierced his mind.

‘When exactly did he start calling me Hyung?’

For some time afterward, Yoonwoo found himself unable to reach any conclusion. He would tell himself at least seven times a day that there was no room for debate, yet each time he picked up his phone to call the hospital for an appointment, he couldn’t bring himself to dial.

As Yoonwoo wrestled with this internal conflict, Yeon-chae constantly lingered nearby, repeating like a mantra, “I’ll follow whatever Hyung decides,” all while wearing an innocent, pitiable expression. This offered absolutely no assistance in helping Yoonwoo make up his mind.

Yoonwoo felt a surge of irritation and wished to send Yeon-chae away. However, Yeon-chae’s pheromones acted as such a potent painkiller that Yoonwoo had no choice but to keep him close, which only fueled his frustration further.

As he agonized over a decision that could potentially alter the course of his entire life, time seemed to accelerate. By the end of April, a far more tangible and immediate crisis loomed, overshadowing even the surreal prospect of pregnancy or childbirth:

Midterm exams were fast approaching. Yoonwoo, who for a multitude of reasons hadn’t even managed proper attendance, let alone begun studying, felt his insides twist with anxiety.

“This is a disaster…”

“These are the notes for Investment Theory, and these are for Advanced Finance. Would you like the lecture recordings too?”

“I don’t think I’ll have time to listen to those…”

“Then start with the notes. I’ve solved the practice problems.”

“Oh…”

As Yoonwoo sat, his very soul seeming to evaporate in real-time, Yeon-chae calmly and lucidly explained everything. His explanations were far more digestible than the professor’s.

‘So this is what expert tutoring feels like,’ Yoonwoo mused, continuously impressed despite his dazed state.

As he listened to Yeon-chae’s explanations, almost like background music, Yoonwoo slowly began to regain his bearings. He realized that, given the circumstances, he would have to leverage Yeon-chae’s help to navigate this crisis.

He was in the midst of slapping his cheeks, trying to snap himself awake and steel his resolve, when Yeon-chae, observing him intently, offered a comforting thought.

“Don’t stress too much about your grades, Hyung. Even if your GPA drops a little once, it won’t significantly impact your job search. I’ve heard many companies actually dislike candidates with excessively high grades, thinking it suggests they might be too much of a perfectionist.”

“Really? Is that true…?”

Yoonwoo, who had never once in his life achieved exceptionally high grades, found himself intrigued. When he gestured for Yeon-chae to continue, Yeon-chae’s eyes crinkled as he offered a bright smile.

“Yes, really. You just need to get a decent 3.6, and that’s…”

“What? A ‘decent’ 3.6?”

Caught completely off guard, Yoonwoo felt as though Yeon-chae had struck him to the bone. He could only sit there, fuming silently, utterly unable to retort.

Even after attending every single lecture, sitting in the front row, taking furious notes, diligently preparing and reviewing, and pulling all-nighters during every exam period, Yoonwoo’s grades consistently hovered around the same unremarkable numbers.

When a classmate inquired, “What was your GPA this semester?” and he casually answered, “Around 3.5,” everyone would react with surprise.

‘Dude, I just assumed you’d have, like, a 4.3!’ Even in a school where a perfect score was 4.3, this was the common response he received.

Having strived his entire life only to receive consistently mediocre returns, Yoonwoo was now entirely unfazed by such reactions.

This semester, in particular, he had missed so many classes that his attendance score had been docked, and he was completely lost with the lecture material. No matter how diligently he studied from this point forward, he knew he wouldn’t be able to achieve his usual grades.

Yet, ‘just a decent 3.6’! He fumed, ‘Because of whom did I miss so many classes?!’

Yoonwoo, having conveniently forgotten that Yeon-chae had stubbornly refused to leave despite his repeated attempts to send him away, thereby causing their current predicament, glared at Yeon-chae, who tilted his head with an innocent expression.

As their gazes met, Yeon-chae’s beautiful eyes blinked at him. Yeon-chae, who had been gazing at Yoonwoo with pure innocence, only realized after a prolonged silence that Yoonwoo wasn’t looking at him kindly, but was, in fact, challenging him to a staring contest.

The cheerful smile that had graced Yeon-chae’s lips vanished. With a face that had gone pale, he furtively glanced around before finally dropping his gaze.

“I’m sorry.”

Yeon-chae apologized meekly. He still wore an expression that suggested he genuinely didn’t understand what he had done wrong, never having experienced a world below a 3.6 GPA.

Yet, it was clear he simply intended to apologize first, knowing Yoonwoo was upset. Yoonwoo crossed his arms, glaring at Yeon-chae, contemplating whether to let the matter drop.

However, Yeon-chae’s dejected glances and slumped shoulders were so endearing that Yoonwoo’s resolve kept wavering.

Finally, Yoonwoo sighed deeply and spoke.

“You know, there are all sorts of people in this world.”

“Yes.”

Yeon-chae replied docilely, his eyes cast down.

“When you get a 4.0, right? Grades are graded on a curve. Someone is always ranked below you, essentially propping you up.

That person could even be standing right in front of you. So, you always need to be careful with your words.”

“…Yes.”

“You’re thinking your GPA is 4.3, not 4.0, aren’t you?”

“…No, I’m not.”

Yeon-chae denied it with a flinch, but Yoonwoo’s memory of Yeon-chae’s name adorning the very top of the dean’s list last semester only intensified his irritation. He hadn’t explicitly checked, but he suspected Yeon-chae’s grades were probably consistently stellar every semester.

And to think, he, oblivious to this fact, had overstepped, offering unsolicited advice like “Intermediate Accounting is tough” or “I’ll teach you how to find research papers.”

Yoonwoo felt a wave of pity and embarrassment for his past self, his cheeks flushing with heat.

Yeon-chae, of course, had no way of knowing Yoonwoo’s internal turmoil.

“For me, whether it’s a 4.0, a 3.5, or a 3.0, they’re all equally difficult to achieve. So I still have to work diligently, even now.”

“Yes.”

Yoonwoo sighed deeply and explained with careful deliberation. Yeon-chae, as always, responded dutifully.

“Anyway.”

“Yes.”

“Thank you for explaining everything. It’s much more manageable with you teaching me.”

“Yes…”

He added this belatedly, feeling as though he had merely scolded the boy while receiving notes, practice problem solutions, and even one-on-one tutoring without offering anything in return.

Yeon-chae, who had been frozen with his eyes cast down, staring silently at the notes, finally smiled with a relieved expression.

With only a few days left until the exams, Yoonwoo spent every night burning the midnight oil in the library. Yeon-chae, his personal painkiller and nutritional supplement, silently followed him each time without being asked.

He would sit across the table in the reading room, always looking utterly spaced out.

“Yeon-chae. Go home and sleep. I’m fine now.”

“…”

Yeon-chae, with his eyes half-lidded, seemed not to have understood a word Yoonwoo said. He looked as though he was already asleep, despite his eyes being open.

Yeon-chae absolutely had to be in bed by 11 PM, no matter what. Yoonwoo had only discovered this recently, after spending every day with him and noticing Yeon-chae’s soul-drained expression every night. Not only did he need to sleep by 11 PM, but if he didn’t get a full nine hours, he couldn’t function the next day.

It was then that Yoonwoo finally understood why Yeon-chae had shown up looking like a puffy, boiled dumpling last year, after they had studied together until dawn at the business school library and even eaten late-night jjajangmyeon before heading home.

“Why do you sleep so much? Are you a newborn?”

When Yoonwoo had teased him about it upon first learning, Yeon-chae had given him a serious reply.

“Instead of thinking about sleeping less, let’s live well during the hours we’re awake.”

“…”

“That’s my philosophy of life.”

Even such nonsense sounded plausible coming from his doll-like face.

In any case, Yeon-chae needed a lot of sleep. Yet, he had been pulling all-nighters at the central library for several days now. Even if the doctor had urged him to stay by Yoonwoo’s side, it surely didn’t mean twenty-four hours of constant penance.

Guilt pricked Yoonwoo’s conscience like sharp needles.

Yoonwoo placed his hand on Yeon-chae’s, speaking soothingly. “I feel really bad about this. I’m in great shape these days from us being together constantly, so it’s okay if I’m alone for a few hours. We’ll see each other again at the morning lecture, won’t we?”

“…”

Still, no reply came.

Instead of responding, Yeon-chae’s head simply flopped onto the table with a thud. Yoonwoo’s eyes widened in surprise, but Yeon-chae showed no sign of pain, sleeping soundly and breathing softly without a stir. Yoonwoo was so dumbfounded that he forgot what he was going to say and just laughed to himself.

After another hour of focused studying, he started to feel hungry. The wall clock already showed 2 AM. Yoonwoo stretched, thinking he should go down to the basement convenience store to buy something.

He glanced over; Yeon-chae was still sound asleep, his cheek resting on a textbook. His wide shoulders were hunched uncomfortably over the narrow table, yet he remained undisturbed. His innocent face looked utterly blissful in slumber.

“I really need to make sure he doesn’t follow me tomorrow.”

Yoonwoo murmured as he draped his jacket over Yeon-chae’s shoulders. “If only I’d had the surgery sooner, none of this trouble would have happened. What a struggle this is.”

After adding those few words, Yoonwoo was startled by his own sentiment. This was not something to be said so lightly.