JADE 17

“Aha. Come to think of it, I thought you were an alpha when I first saw you, Jon-teacher. I just remembered.”

Then again, if he’d been competing among alphas, he might have been looked down on for being a beta. After all, it’s generally accepted that alphas are unconditionally better in terms of physical ability, regardless of actual skill. Of course, Jin Sejun was also in the camp that believed that.

There was no reply from Kwon Joowan. But Jin Sejun didn’t want him to fall silent just like that.

On this unseasonably warm winter night, his deep, resonant voice had a charm that made you want to listen to it for a long time.

“Tumbling… so that’s why you suddenly did a cartwheel when you almost fell.”

Pfft, the sound of someone spitting something out could be heard, but Jin Sejun considerately pretended not to notice.

Was it because I thought I’d get turned on that I kept my distance? Now that I was faced with his serious attitude toward his livelihood, it felt wrong to be lusting after him every moment.

“So, since what age, and how did you come to think of doing cheerleading?”

“How….”

“I don’t mean it’s weird, it’s just that I myself only learned about this field for the first time after turning thirty, so I’m curious.”

“Ah… I originally played American football, but it didn’t seem like my forte. My friend… my ex-fiancé, who happened to be a flyer, tempted me by saying you could get a college scholarship for cheerleading too. Though I think it was probably just because it would be more fun to work out together.”

American football? You? That really doesn’t suit you. No, more importantly….

“Ex-fiancé?”

It felt like a crazy decibel level. Jin Sejun clamped a hand over his mouth as soon as he shouted, then quickly cleared his throat.

“No, did you go to high school abroad? Wow, you don’t show it at all. My friends start differentiating between F and P sounds all of a sudden even if they just go for a language course.”

That was, in fact, Jin Sejun’s own story. He’d lost a few friends back then for pretending he couldn’t remember Korean, which he’d spoken his whole life, and even pointing out their Konglish. He felt like he had just realized a new reason why he had no friends in the present.

That’s not what’s important… he had a romance like something out of one of those damn teen movies? Kwon Joowan? He even had a fiancé?

Calm down, he said ex-fiancé. An ex, not a current one.

“Well, I’m not a Korean diaspora, and I’ve lived in Korea for much longer….”

He couldn’t even hear Kwon Joowan’s muttering. There was a lot he wanted to ask about the fiancé, but for now, he feigned disinterest and brought up a question about the sport first.

“American football is considered the epitome of alpha sports in the Americas. You’ve tried all the things alphas do, Mr. Joowan. Was it because of your physique?”

“I suppose so…. But even though it’s the home of cheerleading, there’s no pro league, so stunting ends with college.”

“I see. Then… if you were partners with your ex-fiancé, ah, I’m talking about stunting. You were already dating back then….”

He hadn’t intended to mention the ex-fiancé, but his thoughts kept converging on that topic, so he couldn’t help it. Kwon Joowan lowered his eyes as if reminiscing.

“…There was a time like that.”

Don’t get all sentimental by yourself! Weren’t you and I something, too? Is it okay for you to talk about this so comfortably when you’re the one who ran away?

At this point, he even felt a sense of betrayal. Even though they were nothing now and had done too many strange things to build up another “something.”

But… the look in Kwon Joowan’s eyes, fixed on him, was peculiar. Jin Sejun’s intuition told him that he was observing his reaction.

‘Is my lack of experience showing? There’s no way it is.’

Why did that thought pop into his head? It was possible Kwon Joowan had seen through his clumsy side, but it was more likely just his own inferiority complex.

Did he know I still have lingering feelings and is testing me on purpose? With such a shallow trick?

He thought he should handle it coolly, but Jin Sejun had an ace up his sleeve….

‘For a beta who posts videos of himself jacking off, you had a long-time fiancé?’

But there was no material evidence that he had jacked off and posted it anywhere, and if he used that to shake him up more, Kwon Joowan would probably abandon the academy too and disappear from his sight for good. Even though there were ways to ignore or get rid of Jin Sejun.

Jin Sejun asked, drained of energy.

“…That omega friend you often talk about is your ex-fiancé, right?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“I see…. That’s interesting, you were a beta and omega couple.”

“Couple… um, I suppose you could see it that way.”

If you were a couple, you were a couple. Why answer in such a complicated way? Anyway, they maintained that relationship for a long time. Because their relationship was that deep, that omega meddled, going on about his hairline and whatnot, and that’s why a perfectly fine person came rushing in to get a hair transplant.

It was plausible that there was more lingering attachment between those two than what Jin Sejun had for Kwon Joowan. He’d heard somewhere that when a pair does dances or sports together, it creates a world of their own that no one else can ever enter.

Thinking that far, Jin Sejun felt even more lonely.

“So… did you do cheerleading all through college?”

Together? Don’t tell me they continued even after graduation? That was what he was really curious about, but he couldn’t ask outright. If he were truly cool, he would have asked nonchalantly, but he couldn’t, because his heart was in turmoil.

Kwon Joowan, who would never know Jin Sejun’s feelings, answered very earnestly.

“The school I went to wasn’t a prestigious one in that field. It was at a hobby level for everyone, including me, but we worked hard in our own way. I was introduced to the head director at the time, and after I came back to Korea, I went to see her.”

“Aha….”

Why was he suddenly feeling so gloomy? Jin Sejun sat down at the table, dejected. He downed the rest of his beer, and the tipsiness that had subsided subtly returned.

“Pom dance was fun, but I’m getting curious about stunting too.”

“Come in and watch during class.”

“I want to see you do it, Mr. Joowan.”

Ah, a slip of the tongue. The words themselves were not a problem, but his tone was too pleading, and it was tinged with a sense of disappointment that was close to being let down. Jin Sejun added on, as if to cover up what he had just said.

“Ah~. You must have to be incredibly strong to throw people. If you were a semi-pro, couldn’t you lift me too?”

“……”

“It’s a jo—huh?”

It was such a lame joke that he was about to trail off. Just then, Kwon Joowan’s long fingers lightly squeezed or brushed various parts of Jin Sejun’s body, as if gauging where to grab.

“It seems possible, but I think it would hurt when you land, Mr. Sejun.”

“Ha…haha. I’d probably break a rib.”

“True, clavicles and ribs break quite easily. There are also many cases of falling on your head, so the coach or team doctor is always doing concussion tests.”

“Ah… I didn’t think it would be smooth sailing, but that’s really intense.”

“I figure it’s better than martial arts.”

“I really can’t imagine you doing martial arts, Mr. Joowan.”

“I feel like I’ve heard that before.”

*I like hearing it…. *

That was what Kwon Joowan added. As an alpha male, Jin Sejun would have been offended if someone had said that to him. He would have felt it was tantamount to crushing his spirit by calling him weak.

But perhaps because he was a beta and his way of thinking was different, Kwon Joowan didn’t seem hurt at all. He didn’t just let it slide, he said he liked hearing it? Did he hit his head while tumbling and become a little strange?

Inwardly, he was sneering like that, but as usual, different words came out of his mouth.

“…Have you ever been injured while working out?”

‘I’m such a warm-hearted bastard… or maybe just a sucker for a pretty face.’

As if sensing his gaze lowering toward his head, Kwon Joowan rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly.

“Minor injuries… you get injured no matter what sport you do. But I’ve never been injured seriously enough to quit something.”

“That’s a relief.”

“I was lucky. I injured others several times. They all quit because of me.”

These days, with no one to impress, Jin Sejun shies away from working out, and if there’s nothing else to do, he barely makes it to the gym a couple of times a week. But when he was younger, he dabbled in quite a few things.

He did martial arts because it would be embarrassing for an alpha to be unable to fight, and kendo because it looked cool. In middle and high school, wanting the ardent support of the omegas at his school, he would even dash out to play soccer every break time.

He knows well how painful it is to be injured and rest for a few weeks, even at a hobbyist level. So he could guess what an unimaginably big deal it would be for an elite athlete to retire someone or be forced into early retirement by someone else.

Nevertheless, he wanted to unconditionally take the side of the good-looking but somewhat strange beta in front of him.

“Accidents happen when you’re serious about a sport. I’ve heard a lot about brain damage, especially in American football.”

That was, until Kwon Joowan opened his mouth again.

“My fiancé, they quit because of me too.”

“……”

Jin Sejun was momentarily speechless and just stared at Kwon Joowan. He picked up the cigarette butt Jin Sejun had thrown away, fiddled with the filter, and added.

“So… I don’t really want to throw you, Mr. Sejun.”

“……”

The slight buzz from the alcohol seemed to be fading. He had missed the timing to ask if there were multiple meanings behind that statement.

If it hadn’t been Kwon Joowan who said such a thing, Jin Sejun would have taken it as a joke and laughed it off, saying something like, ‘Isn’t this a total rival killer? You’re the team’s hitman,’ and moved on. The injured opponent was unfortunate, but they were a complete stranger to him.

But the atmosphere wasn’t right for that, and Kwon Joowan, although he often said strange things, was not a person who said nonsensical things seriously.

He seemed to have a screw loose but was good at navigating social life, and while he appeared weak-willed, at times like this, he seemed to absolutely not tolerate any encroachment.

The moment their eyes met anew, a belated shiver ran down the back of Jin Sejun’s neck.

What if Kwon Joowan was a person who intentionally hurt others? Could he be certain that it was all a mistake, an accident that was bound to happen in sports?

He’d been acting as if he had a good grasp on a lot of things… but what did he really know about this man?

But….

“Haha. Who said I was going to do cheerleading? What’s this all of a sudden about throwing me?”

The sound of Kwon Joowan sucking in a breath was audible. Jin Sejun’s voice was colder than he had originally intended.