* * *

“Happy New Year!”

‘Shut up. It’s an Unhappy New Year.’

Days passed, half-filled with lingering hope and half with growing resentment toward Kwon Juwan.

How could someone ghost him so coldly right after their one-month mark?

Was he a psychopath?

If Jin Sejun hadn’t gotten his hopes up, the disappointment wouldn’t have stung this much.

His friends were worried sick, watching him deteriorate.

Just a few days ago, they’d teased him about how love-struck he seemed.

Now, seeing him deflated, they couldn’t even joke.

“Sejun, are you okay? Why not take a break? A trip, maybe? I’ll book the hotel and tickets.”

“No, I’m fine…”

“It’d be nice to relax while basking in the sunlight.”

“I said I’m fine.”

Taking a leave from work only gave Jin Sejun more time to think, which felt like a highway straight to a mental breakdown.

He killed time every day, staring blankly at the night view—a view similar to the one he had seen from that cabin that day.

“It wasn’t about pheromones after all.”

Up until now, Jin Sejun had been confident in every aspect of himself, except for the issue with his pheromones.

He lived convinced that wherever he went, he’d be considered top-tier, grade A++.

But after being rejected by a Beta, he began to question whether Jin Sejun the person—independent of his traits—was just fundamentally defective.

Even the house he once adored started to feel hollow, offering no sense of comfort.

His life became confined to the bedroom and the kitchen.

What was the point of buying an expensive house and a fancy car when there was no one to invite over and no one to visit?

Former colleagues and classmates he’d lost personal contact with seemed genuinely happy on social media.

Many were married, some already had their first child, and even the single ones were either abroad or deeply immersed in hobbies, leaving no room for loneliness.

Most of those who seemed happy belonged to the group Jin Sejun used to look down on in his younger days.

People who let themselves be influenced by others, constantly worrying about what others thought.

Sejun had scoffed at them well into his late twenties—even while he himself carried various traumas caused by people.

“Guess I should’ve been more careful about my words… and my thoughts.”

Having nothing to do, he started browsing ‘those’ forums again.

But now, every time he looked at such things, it brought back memories of that disastrous night, leaving him seething with frustration.

Everyone else seemed to meet, hook up, and move on so effortlessly.

What kind of sins had he committed in a past life to deserve such humiliation?

He almost devolved into a full-blown internet troll but managed to stop himself just in time.

Still, he kept checking out ‘Beta’, and it seemed like they were also in bad shape.

Their rut cycle had apparently sped up.

From the times Sejun had seen them knotting in earlier posts, it looked like they’d gone into rut at least three times in less than six months.

Calculating someone else’s cycle naturally brought Sejun to think of his own.

It was about once every quarter, so his turn wasn’t far off either.

As always, he’d just pop some pills and endure it.

Even though Sejun’s pheromones acted similarly to an Omega’s, his actual secondary gender wasn’t Omega, which made both Alphas and Omegas a problem for him.

“Not that I have any intention of being with an Alpha.”

✽ ✽ ✽

It was hard to tell whether it had been weeks or just days since he started hiding away.

Jin Sejun, holed up like a fish in a cave, was dragged out like one caught by a fisherman.

His second-oldest brother, unwilling to leave the youngest sibling to wallow in his pit, had shaved off his scruffy beard and cut his overgrown hair.

Despite the cleaned-up appearance, Sejun’s expression remained as dreary as ever.

“Go pick up Iseo from the academy. Yoonmi and I have both been busy these days.”

“He’s old enough to take a taxi home… Doesn’t the academy have a shuttle anyway?”

He vaguely recalled someone at the academy driving a van for the kids.

He’d even tried showing off with an expensive sedan one day, only to get hilariously ignored.

“Yeah, but the shuttle takes forever since our house is the last stop. Can you just go for once?”

“Fine.”

It was the first time in a long while he hadn’t seen his nephew.

Normally, it was the other way around—Sejun seeking out the boy—so he couldn’t refuse.

Besides, it wasn’t like he had anything else to do.

During his contact with Kwon Juwan, Sejun had drunk so much “victory soup” in his head that just sitting in the driver’s seat brought back memories of imagining their budding relationship.

Embarrassing. Infuriating.

Kwon Juwan had seemed so gentle, but as they say, you can’t judge a book by its cover.

The more Sejun thought about it, the more unfamiliar Juwan became, making him question everything he thought he knew about the man.

---

“Whoa.”

The cheerleading academy Jin Iseo attended was bigger than Sejun had expected.

Its prime location made him think, ‘Guess they’re doing pretty well for themselves.’

“So many kids want to cheerlead…? Or maybe it’s like sending girls to ballet classes—it’s for the splits and stuff,” he mused.

Sejun was the type who preferred playing in the game rather than cheering from the sidelines.

His nephew’s interest in cheerleading seemed as peculiar to him as a kid wanting to become a police car instead of a policeman.

Initially, he thought it was kind of funny, but now he envied Iseo’s passion for something.

Sejun couldn’t live as a shut-in forever.

He needed to find something to pour himself into, but for now, he had zero motivation.

“How can I help you?”

The academy even had a receptionist at the front desk.

Sejun pulled his hands out of his pockets and forced a smile.

It had been so long since he’d spoken to a stranger—or maybe his self-esteem had hit rock bottom after being dumped—that his own smile felt awkward.

“I’m Jin Iseo’s uncle.”

“May I see some ID or speak to Iseo’s guardian for verification?”

“Oh, sure.”

‘Did I look like some pervert targeting kids?’

Well, an Alpha who targets Betas is definitely a pervert.

Lately, I’ve been so gloomy that it feels like a distant memory of the time when I lived as the ‘confident, cool Alpha Jin Sejun.’

“Mr. Jin, your confirmation is complete. Iseo is currently practicing in the junior beginner class. Would you mind waiting for a bit?”

“Sure.”

In the lobby, sparkling cheerleading uniforms were hanging, and there were a bunch of trophies, probably won by the students of the academy.

“There’s a competition for this too?”

Well, considering there’s even a pizza-eating competition, of course, there would be a cheerleading competition.

Jin Sejun listlessly skimmed through the densely written director’s credentials when the word “national team” caught his eye.

“A national team for cheerleading?”

Sure, if there’s a national team for solving Rubik’s Cubes, it makes sense there would be one for cheerleading too.

But then, a banner fluttered nearby, boasting about someone being accepted into a university specializing in cheerleading.

“I thought it was just waving sparkly pom-poms and doing cute little dances.”

Jin Sejun let the newfound information pass without much thought and approached the practice room.

A few other guardians were peeking in, so he naturally joined them.

The room, with its mirrored walls and a barre, gave off the vibe of a ballet studio.

* * *