JADE 14

No, because of Kwon Joowan’s own issues, he couldn’t trust what he felt one hundred percent. After spending his whole life avoiding his true nature, he had become a halfwit who couldn’t resolve anything maturely, no matter what it was—

“Do you always get an upset stomach because you insist on cold drinks? …Just go bald.”

He heard that if you come up all at once from a deep place when diving, your body gets messed up. It seemed there was a certain amount of shock even when you were pulled too abruptly out of your thoughts.

“Wait, what did you say?”

So it was right to give it to me even knowing I’d get a stomachache! As Kwon Joowan’s gaze moved back and forth in bewilderment between the coffee and the obnoxious face, Jin Sejun smiled even more coolly.

“Just lose your hair to the point where even Minoxidil won’t work.”

“No, what’s with all this, so suddenly…”

“What? Why? Go shave your bald head. Or don’t shave it, just let it fall out.”

“Excuse me.”

“You know very well why I’m tormenting you.”

“……”

I know, of course I do… The memory of being grabbed by the scruff of the neck on the day they met again was as vivid as if it had happened yesterday.

While running away from the hotel room, Kwon Joowan had blocked his number on the messaging app with the intention of completely separating their two worlds. But he was also the one who had unblocked it and told him to answer his calls.

I know I’m a coward…

After returning to the academy, Kwon Joowan brushed his teeth and was guarding the lobby desk.

‘Hmm.’

He had thought he’d stopped the petty tormenting with drinks, but it seemed the coffee Jin Sejun gave him today had an excessive number of extra shots. He had lived his life without ever thinking he was sensitive to caffeine, but judging by the feeling he was getting, he had no idea just how many shots had been poured in.

His hands felt slightly numb, and then a sudden urge to urinate came over him. When he looked at Jin Sejun, who had come to the lobby at some point, he naturally took over the desk and smiled slyly as if to say not to worry.

Being reassured by that was also Kwon Joowan’s mistake.

As soon as he entered the bathroom and unzipped his fly, someone came in, and he tried with all his might to ignore it, even when the person, instead of standing one or two urinals away, stood right next to him.

But he couldn’t ignore the unwelcome visitor staring intently at his just-exposed penis.

“It’s big? How annoying.”

“Ha.”

Whatever was about to come out went right back in. The man who had given a dependable nod as if he would take care of the desk, Jin Sejun, really just gawked at Kwon Joowan’s thing and then left the bathroom.

‘What kind of…?’

Kwon Joowan stared at the wall for a while, unable to even put his dick away. It was only after a long while that he was able to do his business and come out.

So far, it could be seen as him paying for his karma. Jin Sejun had pretended to be such a gentleman when he was being coy, but seeing him these days, he was just a childish person packed with alpha pride. There was no way such a petty Mr. Alpha would just leave alone the insolent person who had screwed him over.

No, if seducing hospital clients was his daily routine, couldn’t he just let one Kwon Joowan go?

Then again, perhaps it was because their relationship was that casual that he hadn’t been outright punched when they met again.

Yes… Jin Sejun was certainly a strange man, but so far, Kwon Joowan’s sin was greater. Whatever excuse he made, he wouldn’t be understood, and he couldn’t make excuses anyway.

He shouldn’t get swept up in Jin Sejun’s actions and show his emotions. No, he shouldn’t feel any emotions in the first place. Whatever those emotions may be.

Kwon Joowan clutched his head, which was dazed from the side effects of his medication, and yet he popped a few more pills.

✶⋆.˚

“Jun Teacher, Jun Teacher, look at this.”

Even though they bickered like that on a daily basis, whenever the children had a conflict or something they wanted to brag about, they would run to ‘Jun Teacher’. Jin Sejun raised his chin towards Kwon Joowan, who was watching with a strange expression.

“Did you see that? I’ve become totally popular. Wow, this situation where Jun Teacher is threatening John Teacher’s position.”

“People tend to like those who don’t have to be strict. You only have to be liked, since you don’t have to take responsibility.”

“Oh? You’re jealous, you’re jealous.”

It was obvious that he was pretending to check the calendar on the lobby desk to hide his momentarily scrunched-up face. When Kwon Joowan gathered the cleaning tools and headed to the empty practice room, Jin Sejun trotted along behind him.

“Hey, cutie Cheer Pink.”

“Yes.”

Kwon Joowan answered nonchalantly, spraying an antibacterial agent on the exercise mat and wiping it with a dry cloth. It seemed that because of the childish argument just before, he had decided to show only a boring reaction no matter what was said.

“So does John Teacher wear a cheer uniform too?”

“……”

“Wouldn’t a sparkly ribbon and a crop top be cute? Bling-bling Blingz Cheerleading?”

“You should wear it a lot, Mr. Sejun.”

“If I wear it, people won’t be able to keep their wits about them, so I can’t.”

“As if.”

“I don’t think so? Ahem, aren’t you curious about me in a cheerleader uniform?”

Jin Sejun, despite having a low voice himself, lowered his voice to a baritone to imitate Kwon Joowan and teased him.

The nuance was a parody of the conversation they had just before going to the hotel, that is, when he asked how he masturbated, and Kwon Joowan had replied by asking if he wasn’t curious about sex. Because of this, Kwon Joowan’s earlobes flared up.

Jin Sejun didn’t stop there and moved closer to the squatting Kwon Joowan.

“If you’re going to get on the mat, at least take off your—”

“Oh, a happy trail… You can’t wear a crop top, can you? You’re more wild than I thought. Don’t tell me you have chest hair too?”

This was his impression after lifting the hem of Kwon Joowan’s t-shirt without warning. As he teased him, trying his best not to pay attention to the deeply carved and defined abs, it seemed that even the great Kwon Joowan couldn’t stay still.

Because Kwon Joowan pulled the mat away abruptly, the squatting Jin Sejun fell flat on his back. But far from being discouraged, he even pretended to shake pom-poms in a cute pose while lying down.

“Then again, you’ll have to groom your armpit hair to wear a tank top. You’d be clean, okay.”

“What’s okay.”

If he completely ignored Jin Sejun’s words, he would roll over to this side and lie down on the mat he was wiping, so he had no choice but to answer. While Kwon Joowan did his work with the expression of a monk in meditation, Jin Sejun also persistently messed with him.

“Laser? Waxing?”

“Mind your own business.”

“Why, wasn’t it you who even went to a nail salon so you wouldn’t scratch oppa’s back? You like that kind of thing, don’t you.”

“Ugh, come on!”

‘What a surprise, he seems a little more human now.’

Jin Sejun chuckled and took a few steps back. The old Kwon Joowan would have turned completely pale at Jin Sejun’s thoughtless words and said he would go get waxed.

He always showed signs of being annoyed and uncomfortable (Jin Sejun knew, though he couldn’t say how it was objectively), but this was the first time he had openly scowled and shouted.

At first, he was such a loser who would get restless just seeing Jin Sejun get friendly with the other coaches.

He looked much more human when he got angry like this.

It was rare to find a man this age who suffered from such a severe case of ‘good boy’ syndrome. Had the man, who seemed to want control in his life and be extremely uncomfortable with conflict situations, become a little more comfortable thanks to the bomb that was Jin Sejun?

No way.

To say he had gone to the brink of doing the deed because he couldn’t refuse was not enough; Kwon Joowan had definitely been active too.

‘I still don’t get it.’

Jin Sejun glared at Kwon Joowan, then lay down at full length.

“You might as well get on the mat.”

“Yiseo told me to learn cheerleading last time.”

“Yes. Get on.”

“Okay. Anyway, I thought it was hilarious to think of myself doing cheerleading, but I got curious about how it’s actually done.”

“It’s a huge improvement that you’re not saying it’s disgusting.”

“Disgusting? What do you take me for? I’m not teasing you, I brought it up because I’m genuinely curious.”

“Haven’t you seen enough? How did you give counseling last time if you don’t know anything?”

“I just overheard what the director was saying, and it was all written in the lobby.”

“Hah…”

“So, are the cheerleaders at basketball or baseball games really people like you, Mr. Joowan?”

“Um… they’re all cheerleading, but the specific events are different.”

“There are separate events?”

Kwon Joowan made a face that clearly showed he was wondering why he had to educate this kind of guy about this at this point in time, but he explained calmly nonetheless.

“First of all, we don’t teach the action cheerleading that you know, Mr. Sejun. There are places that do both, but those are more like performance teams than academies.”

“Action cheerleading?”

Kwon Joowan rolled his eyes at Jin Sejun, who, fixated on ‘action,’ started shadowboxing with swish-swish sounds.

“It’s the cheerleading that most people in our country generally think of. You can see it at university festivals, baseball stadiums, and basketball courts.”

“Aha.”

“What the director does is performance cheer, which also includes hip hop and jazz, but what Yiseo is doing is pom dance. It’s done holding pom-poms… the cheering tassels.”

“Wait, I’m already starting to get confused, can I take some notes while I listen?”

“You don’t even want to know that badly.”

“What a disappointing thing to say. But baseball cheerleaders use pom-poms too, don’t they?”

“You’d know the difference right away if you saw it, I wonder why you’ve come here so often but never watched a single practice…”

“No, the kids were just doing the splits all the time?”

“Then again, you probably haven’t seen a full routine.”

Kwon Joowan averted his gaze from the now-closer Jin Sejun’s chest and continued.

“We’re holding an open class and trial session tomorrow, so we’ll be rehearsing later when the kids come. Would you like to watch?”

“Open class?”

“I’ve talked about this often with the teachers too… You really only hear what you want to hear.”

“If you hire me, I’ll remember everything.”

“You’re not actually looking for a job. You said you didn’t want to.”

“Uuungh.”

Kwon Joowan looked at Jin Sejun with an expression that clearly said, ‘What is with this crazy bastard?’, then opened his mouth with a sigh.

“It’s not a familiar sport like Taekwondo or ballet, so there are many people like you, Mr. Sejun, who only think of action cheerleading. That’s why we hold trial events regularly.”

“Aha.”

The corners of Kwon Joowan’s mouth turned up for no reason, feeling as if he were teaching a brand-new student. The fact that this Jin Sejun had asked without any intention to tease also felt good in hindsight.

But for some reason, it was now Jin Sejun who was acting self-conscious and cautiously backing away.

“Why are you getting up? I was going to make you work out a bit since you’re on the mat.”

“Um… I don’t know.”

“You’re going to watch the routine even if you don’t work out, right?”

“Not today.”

“You always hang around until the afternoon. You said you have a lot of money and a lot of time. It’s very short.”

“You’re making it hard for me to say anything…”

A few dozen minutes later, Jin Sejun was standing in the back of the practice room where the children were gathered in a tight bunch, with his hands clasped behind his back and a reluctant attitude.

He could forget about it for a moment when the kids swarmed in and started friendly bickering, but when he tried to stay quiet with his mouth shut, his gaze kept wandering towards the door.

He had said pom dance was the director’s event, but it wasn’t Kwon Joowan who was in the practice room. So what was Kwon Joowan’s event? Because he had started persuading him to watch the pom dance routine, he hadn’t even heard the explanation of his own event.

But since he didn’t want to run out of conversation topics, the thought of searching it up didn’t cross his mind.

‘I’m going crazy.’