Don’t you think we are going too fast? chapter 27

I set Taeshin up to play a game and didn’t watch the screen. Instead, I turned my body to look straight at Lee Taeshin’s face.

As I took in his white skin, clear eyes, well-groomed eyebrows, prominent nose, and smoothly sculpted nostrils, down to his elegantly curved lips and clean-cut chin, Taeshin’s throat visibly bobbed.

He really did have a handsome face.

“It’s hard to stay calm when you look at me like that.”

“Try to endure it.”

I’m holding back too, you know.

Taeshin, evidently feeling uncomfortable under my gaze, made a rookie mistake in the game and died. He lowered the controller and turned to look at me.

As he took his eyes off the game screen and looked at me, I also stared back at him.

He could have asked why I was acting this way, but Taeshin quietly met my gaze without saying a word.

Our connected stares lingered, and Taeshin’s pheromones became more intense, more vivid to me.

My heart pounded. It was definitely the sound of my heartbeat, but it wasn’t overwhelming yet.

I continued to watch Taeshin for a bit longer before taking the game controller back and turning my eyes to the screen.

“Is this all you could do? Lee Taeshin, you’re terrible at this game.”

“That’s the first time I’ve ever heard that.”

Why do his pheromones get stronger when he looks at me?

I thought I was confident I wouldn’t be confused by Taeshin anymore, but this new strange occurrence started taking over my mind.

We continued to play the game, bantering naturally as before, but I couldn’t stop Taeshin’s pheromones from occasionally intensifying.

From January, I had been partying recklessly for almost two months.

I was so worried about oversleeping on the much-anticipated first day of the new semester that I set two alarms and asked Taeshin to make sure to call and wake me up.

I tried to go to bed early, but my habit of staying up late hindered my efforts. In the end, I couldn’t fall asleep until the sky began to lighten.

When the first alarm went off, I groaned at the lack of sleep, hugging my blanket and burying my face in my pillow.

I fumbled to turn off the phone alarm with my fingers and enjoyed the silence. Just as I was about to fall back asleep, the phone alarm went off again, and I turned it off with my fingers once more.

Bzzz, bzzz, bzzz.

Lying on my stomach, I was drifting off when the phone alarm blared again. I turned it off, but after a moment of silence, the phone rang again.

“Ugh… Hello….”

– Sunwoo, are you up?

“Ugh… yeah….”

– Doesn’t sound like it.

“Ugh….”

Taeshin’s voice came softly over the phone.

Taeshin, you’re doing it wrong. If you want to wake me up, you need to be louder and more like a villain… you’re too gentle.

I grumbled in my half-asleep state, struggling to regain consciousness.

– Then, um….

Taeshin’s voice on the other end of the line was low and soothing, as if to lull me back to sleep. It felt like he called not to wake me up but to make sure I slept more soundly.

– I have a picture of Sunwoo taking a bath. Completely naked.

“…What……what did you say?”

Half asleep, I processed his words and then shot up, startled by the unusual content.

Taeshin’s voice over the speaker continued with more details.

– Dancing with your hands up and shaking your butt in the bathroom….

“Wait, what are you talking about? I’ve never done that!”

I turned off the speakerphone and held the phone to my ear.

Shocked by the mention of naked bath photos and dancing, I demanded an explanation.

– There are seven pictures of Moon Sunwoo-woo doing a dance routine in the bathtub after throwing off his kindergarten uniform.

“How did you…! I hid those in the storage when I was in elementary school…, when did you go into the storage?”

– Your mother asked for help, and she showed them to me, saying it was something fun.

Mom! Shocked by this backstory I hadn’t known for ten years, I lamented my mother’s thoughtlessness in exposing my embarrassing past without permission.

I scolded Taeshin, asking why he had the photos.

“Did Mom give them to you? Even if she did, you shouldn’t take them! I’m the owner!”

– I didn’t take them. I just saw them.

“Really? Did you really just see them? Didn’t take them?”

I sat up in bed and asked if it was true, demanding honesty.

Taeshin swore it was true, and I threatened that if he lied, I’d find his embarrassing photos and spread them. He laughed and agreed willingly.

– Are you awake now?

“Oh? Oh, yeah. I’m awake, but those photos….”

– Then wash up and get ready. I’ll pick you up in 40 minutes.

As I repeatedly checked that he didn’t have my embarrassing photos, Taeshin told me the time.

Looking at the phone, I realized I needed to get ready now to have time for breakfast and ended the call.

I hurried to get ready and went out on time to find a taxi waiting at the gate. As soon as I got in, I questioned Taeshin about the suspicious photos.

“Really, I just saw them.”

“Really? Swear to heaven?”

“Yes.”

After making him promise multiple times, I finally began to trust him again.

“They were cute.”

“Hey!”

Taeshin teased me. I decided that today I’d burn everything when I got back. Keeping those photos in storage for nostalgia had backfired.

I should have torn them up or burned them long ago, and now my embarrassing past was revealed.

The much-anticipated first day of university made me want to go home already.

The first lecture I attended after entering university was held in a large classroom that could accommodate many people.

Taeshin and I sat together in the back of the classroom, each at our own desk.

“Hi Sunwoo. Hi Taeshin.”

“Oh, hey. Did you just get here?”

“No, I came earlier. I went to the convenience store to get snacks.”

Jung Noeul appeared with a white convenience store bag, greeting us. He pointed to a desk with just a bag on it, saying he had saved seats at the front.

“You have to do other things at the front so you don’t get caught easily.”

Starting off with distractions on the first day of university. After parting ways at orientation, I met with Jung Noeul for the first time in a while, and we were catching up when Go Cheolmin walked in.

Greeting the other students, Go Cheolmin saw Jung Noeul and, with a nod, placed his bag down next to him. It seemed they had gotten closer after hanging out during the week.

Park Jonghoon came in, exchanged a nod, and placed his bag on a desk at the front where he could see the blackboard clearly. Other familiar faces also picked their preferred seats.

Five minutes before the first lecture on the first day, the classroom was more than half full.

I wondered how my grades would turn out.

Being a first-year class, it didn’t seem too difficult. Just then, as usual, Park Kangseop, who was habitually late, walked into the classroom.

“Wow, what’s this? So many people?”

Entering with a loud greeting, Park Kangseop looked around the crowded room in surprise.

After scanning the room twice, he made a face as if he couldn’t find a seat he liked and put his bag on the desk across from Taeshin.

“No way I’d end up sitting next to Lee Taeshin from the very first day of university.”

There were still empty desks, but Park Kangseop chose to sit next to Taeshin and grumbled about it. He picked the seat himself and yet blamed Taeshin.

“There are seats over there, you know. Sit over there. Why blame Taeshin?”

“Don’t you know the universal Lee Taeshin theory? All conspiracies in the world start with Lee Taeshin.”

“Stop talking nonsense and sit down. It’s almost time.”

I threw an eraser crumb at Park Kangseop, who started picking on Taeshin the moment he arrived and began quietly reading a book on his tablet.

Dodging lightly, Park Kangseop sat down triumphantly, and I looked back at the classroom door, thinking the professor would arrive soon.

Screech.

Thud!

“Ow! Damn!”

There was a scraping noise, followed by a thud. Startled, I turned to see Park Kangseop sitting on the floor after slipping off his chair.

Holding his butt, he couldn’t get up, glaring at Taeshin with fierce eyes.

“Hey, Lee Taeshin! Are you crazy?”

“Sorry. I slipped.”

“Slipped, my ass….”

Taeshin wiggled his crossed legs toward Park Kangseop.

“Are you hurt badly? Bleeding? Bone broken?”

“It just hurts like hell?”

“Really? That’s a relief. You know Taeshin can’t control his strength well.”

“Moon Sunwoo, not being able to control it and not controlling it are different.”

“Who doesn’t know that? Taeshin just isn’t good at it.”

Shaking my head, I recalled how, since high school, Park Kangseop always blamed Taeshin for these incidents.

We were in the same class in our third year, and Taeshin’s long legs often got tangled with Park Kangseop’s chair in front, causing him to slip.

Every time, I was the one to calm Park Kangseop, who falsely accused Taeshin of doing it on purpose. Once again, Park Kangseop was making a fuss, so I clarified the misunderstanding, and he glared at Taeshin with a deeply annoyed expression.

“Did you hypnotize him?”