...I need to return the PE uniform. Should probably go to the second-year classrooms. That kid, what class was he in again...
Chaheun, whose morning had started with 3 penalty points, put his bag down in the classroom and immediately went to the second-year floor, looking around. In his hand was a well-ironed shopping bag with the PE uniform, but on thinking about it, he didn't know what class Baek Yugyeong was in.
...That's kind of a bad look.
A guy sticking to him saying he likes him, and Chaheun didn't even know what class he was in, he felt a little sorry.
...Come to think of it, Yugyeongie is a bit different.
He'd been observing to try to make a decent person out of him, and it kept bothering him how affectionate it was, to the point where he wondered if it was an act. It wasn't just directed at him either, he took care of the kids around him too. Especially watching on the playground, Yugyeong seemed popular with the girls, and it wasn't just because he was handsome.
At the original story's timeline he'd been a bit cold, and even to teachers he hadn't quite been the model-student image.
...But given his behavior yesterday and everything else, when told he doesn't like something, he doesn't do it, he listens well.
Comparing them was making things complicated, so Chaheun mussed his own hair a bit. Standing there hopelessly for a moment, he caught snippets of conversation from male students passing in the hallway.
"Yah, yah, they say Baek Hagyeong, Baek Yugyeong's little brother, came back? Fucking handsome, the girls are going nuts."
"Crazy... if he's Baek Yugyeong's brother, he's got to be a rich young master too, right? Baek Yugyeong might pretend he isn't but everything he carries is name-brand."
"Yeah, that one who briefly attended in first year before going abroad."
"What, what. What class is he in?"
"Class 4 or something?"
Chaheun caught the conversation and headed that way.
Alright. If it's the brother, he'll know what class hyung is in.
He probably could've just asked any random second-year in the hallway, but not having thought that far, Chaheun moved his feet toward where Hagyeong was.
Class 2-4.
Kim Seongun was uncomfortable with Class 8's Baek Yugyeong. It was partly because he'd seen Baek Yugyeong beat someone behind their back, but even more due to the incident with Seo Chaheun returning the nametag to Min Haseong.
Only a few days later did Min Haseong return to school, and he received the nametag with trembling hands, thanked him, and timidly bowed his head deeply. That image still haunted him.
Aigo, that bastard. Just how much did he bully him. Pretending to be nice in front and then behind...
The nervous-looking student behaving like that was pitiful. Kim Seongun had no intention of stepping in and fighting personally, but he was exercising a small bit of sympathy.
"Hey, your hyung, uh... Baek Yugyeong--"
Kim Seongun mentioned Baek Yugyeong without meaning to, then quickly clamped his mouth shut.
He'd been in the same class briefly with Baek Hagyeong in first year and had a shallow acquaintance with him, and mid-conversation he'd noticed Hagyeong looked slightly like Yugyeong, which reminded him of the incident with Min Haseong. Baek Hagyeong had a good personality and, even as an Alpha, got along well with Betas too, so Seongun had a slight positive feeling toward him.
Hagyeong, who had been talking with others around him, moved his gaze to Seongun at the familiar name. His eyes creased slightly as he smiled prettily and tilted his head.
"What about hyung?"
"No, sorry."
"Hm? Seongun, why are you being cautious like that? Did hyung do something bad to you?"
"No, not that... ah, never mind."
"Hmm... you're watching Yugyeong-hyung's reactions? Did hyung actually threaten you or something?"
"Threaten... not that, but."
Kim Seongun muttered that and avoided his gaze.
If he ended up spilling something like a rumor about Baek Yugyeong in front of Baek Hagyeong, and Baek Yugyeong found out, he'd be finished.
Hagyeong stared at Seongun with a peculiar look, then tapped the desk lightly with his finger.
After a brief silence, Hagyeong lowered his eyes and muttered with a bitter expression:
"Hmm... I'm sorry."
"What? Baek Hagyeong, why are you apologizing all of a sudden."
"Yugyeong-hyung has... been on father's bad side for a while. So he's got a bit of a twisted streak, and he might've taken it out on you."
"Ah...?"
"Growing up without a mother, sometimes he doesn't have manners... anyway, don't worry too much about it. Even at home, nobody really pays attention to hyung."
The moment Baek Hagyeong finished speaking, another Alpha male student beside him twisted his expression and clapped his palms together.
"Wow, fuck, I felt that too. Now I get it."
"So he's taking that out on us? Isn't that fucking insane?"
Baek Hagyeong watched the kids' mood, then slipped in another word.
"He used to be like that. Still, don't say it too harshly. Please be nice to our Yugyeong-hyung. Because he's pitiful."
"Wow, Baek Hagyeong's so fucking nice."
"Honestly, wasn't there something a little off about Baek Yugyeong?"
Starting from someone's throwaway comment, as if a floodgate had opened, complaints started tumbling out from every direction.
"Yeah, that bastard's a woman-lover. Only pretends to be nice to girls. Then picks fights with us."
"Did you see him fucking bumping into me and then dusting himself off like he touched something dirty?"
"You too? Wow, that pisses me off."
"But Hagyeong, why do you call Baek Yugyeong hyung? Even if he's born later, aren't you the higher one?"
"Well, still, he's family, so the one born first is hyung."
As the atmosphere in the class started swirling around Baek Hagyeong's central desk,
"Yah."
A voice cut through the noise from the opposite side.
At some point, Chaheun had leaned against the classroom doorframe, glaring at them with a frown.
Chaheun had been about to step into the classroom when his eyes met a large-framed boy who was half-rising from a hallway-side window seat.
...? That kendo... no, is it discipline committee? Anyway, the friend who gifted me 3 penalty points... was he trying to intervene? I thought I heard his voice just now.
...Really an impressive kid.
See? He was a principle-follower, wasn't he.
He'd thought this kid would grow up to be a big deal, and he really was an admirable student. Chaheun briefly scanned that handsome face, then smirked and stepped forward.
It'd be fine for the student to step up, but this kind of thing was better resolved by an adult, not sloppily wrapped up between students. It didn't matter if Chaheun's relations with them soured, but that student would have to live with these kids in this class, wouldn't he?
He quietly gauged the classroom's atmosphere. Among the boys surrounding Baek Hagyeong, one face somehow looked familiar.
Tracing back through his memory, he was one of the guys who'd hit him back then. When Chaheun met his eyes and smiled chillingly, the student flinched backward.
Usually one guy alone wouldn't be that way. ...So this bunch is a bit delinquent. Probably birds of a feather.
Chaheun scanned them with coldly cooled eyes, then looked toward Hagyeong.
"Isn't that many of you ganging up on one person school violence? Talk behind his back without anyone else if you must, don't spread that around in the middle of class and set a weird mood."
Who would've guessed. That coming looking for Baek Hagyeong, he'd catch a boy presumed to be Baek Hagyeong himself talking shit about Baek Yugyeong.
Rather than talking behind his back, this is essentially incitement.
At Chaheun's fearsome glare, Hagyeong smiled brightly like someone spotting an idol, waved his hand, and creased his eyes. Unlike Yugyeong, deep wheat-colored eyes folded in half and wavered.
"Ah! Sunbae, so you're that Seo Chaheun-sunbae?"
"You know me?"
"I've heard a lot. You're the sunbae Yugyeong-hyung likes so~ much, right?"
"...From how you were talking earlier, it doesn't look like Baek Yugyeong told you."
"He's just interested. Brothers talk a lot."
Chaheun huffed at Baek Hagyeong's shameless words.
Sure they do.
Do I look like a moron?
Nobody talks shit about a brother they're "interested in" this darkly, you high school punk.
Amid the disorderly classroom mood, only he sat calmly at the center smiling, which was startlingly out of place. Thinking that, Chaheun stared at Baek Hagyeong.
The neat brown hair, underneath which features that were similar-yet-somehow-slightly-prettier than Yugyeong's caught the eye.
...He's handsome.
Individually they didn't look alike, but bringing Baek Yugyeong to mind, the younger-brother feel was there.
From the conversation he'd overheard, this seemed to be the stepmother's son... and he seemed to be on considerably bad terms with Baek Yugyeong. He'd let out an "it's a shame" like sympathy, but that was clearly not in a good direction, likely deliberate.
...He's a smart kid.
Cunning, rather.
"By the way, sunbae, aren't you being nice to Yugyeong-hyung because you feel sorry for him too?"
"No, not really."
At Chaheun's flat reply, Baek Hagyeong burst into laughter like he'd heard something amusing, and lightly waved his hand.
"Aw, come on. Sticking to him that much isn't pure goodwill, I thought secretly you pitied him. Ah, or is that not it? You haven't heard about Yugyeong-hyung's situation?"
...I'm not the one going with him, that kid's the one sticking to me.
He wanted to protest but this wasn't the situation for that excuse, and Chaheun kept carefully reading the room while listening to Hagyeong's words as he answered.
"Even if what you said earlier is the situation, does that even count as a 'situation'?"
Chaheun answered flatly and looked at the male students who had been snickering earlier.
"And you guys, I shouldn't say this, but honestly... is he lacking in looks or lacking in grades? None of that applies to you, so what exactly is so great about you that you can talk about people this carelessly?"
One of the boys who'd been enthusiastically cursing about Yugyeong earlier bristled at eye contact and lunged forward.
"Did you just--"
"No, I can go further. If you don't like it, hit me. Come at me."
As Chaheun took a step forward cutting him off, that student flinched and backed off again.
The one I hit that time.
...One down, at least.
What mattered now was pulling the mood back to this side. Not persuading with logic.
If I let this pass, this mood will continue. I need to point it out and flip it entirely.
He had zero desire to launch this kind of attack on young students, but precisely because they were young kids, he thought that if not properly checked, they might blow up later.
Baek Hagyeong's gaze fixed precisely on this side. Hagyeong scanned Chaheun like he was watching something interesting, then smiled and clapped in the middle of the situation.
"Wow, is this that thing they call 'blood shield'? I saw it online, but never thought I'd witness it in reality."
"Right, you were living abroad and came back? Nice, on-site field trip the moment you touch native soil."
At Chaheun's light reply as if untouched, Hagyeong's eyes narrowed slightly for an instant. Soon he composed his expression again and smiled brightly. From his throat came a bright voice.
"Are you~ dating Yugyeong-hyung? From the way you're talking, you seem quite devoted."
"...Ha."
"Not knowing it's a rotten rope would be pretty unfortunate. Ah, but Yugyeong-hyung's handsome, so it wasn't a bad deal, was it? Or is he bad at something? Something bad enough that you have to defend and prop him up like that?"
"Astonishing... I'm not sure how to respond because it's the first time someone's speech has been vulgar enough that I don't want to engage."
"Aww, the vulgar one is you, hyung. If you wanted to improve your situation, want me to introduce you to a different handsome, rich hyung? An Omega as decent-looking as you should have people willing to date you."
The moment Hagyeong's words finished, short laughter spread around them. The contemptuous conversation and near-harassing gazes swept over his body.
Wow, this kid really is a smooth talker? Turned me into someone leeching off a rich guy in a heartbeat?
Chaheun briefly marveled at Hagyeong's verbal skill, but exposed to blatant gazes for the first time, he frowned.
