There was no more time to think.

I hurriedly sent a message to Joo Seunghyuk.

<< Geonwoo-hyung came to see me. He says he has something to talk about and wants to wait until the lecture ends.

A reply came immediately.

Don’t meet him.

I think this was the first time he’d ever texted me in banmal. Even when I intentionally misspelled words and acted out like a fool, he always used polite speech...

That probably meant he was really angry. What should I do...?

Even while I hesitated, time kept ticking forward.

After the professor’s brief farewell about having a good break, the students began to stand up and file out one by one.

What do I do? What should I do...

As I sat still, chewing on my lower lip, I heard Park Geonwoo’s voice.

“Yeonsu.”

“Hyung...”

“Why aren’t you coming out?”

Before I realized it, the classroom had emptied out, and I was the only one left behind.

“Let’s go.”

“Ah, it’s just...”

Beads of sweat had gathered on Park Geonwoo’s forehead. In this sweltering weather, he’d waited outside just to talk to me. 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

I really wanted to know what he had to say. On top of that, I wanted to ask why he’d marked me with ◈ Nоvеlіgһт ◈ (Continue reading) his pheromones that day.

But at the same time, I didn’t want to go against the obsessive madman and end up making a scene.

“Hyung, just a sec.”

I hastily messaged Joo Seunghyuk again.

<< Seunghyuk-ah, I’ll just talk for a minute. He waited outside all through class, so it’s hard to turn him down.

Lee Yeonsu, I hate saying the same thing twice.

Right. That’s right. Joo Seunghyuk hated repeating himself more than anything in the world.

I felt sorry toward Park Geonwoo, but that guilt wasn’t strong enough to overcome the fear I felt toward the obsessive madman.

“I’m sorry, hyung. I really am... but something urgent came up, so I think I have to go.”

“This is about Joo Seunghyuk.”

“Seunghyuk...?”

Ever since he got back to Korea, Park Geonwoo had looked like he had something to say to me.

And now it turned out it was about Joo Seunghyuk?

“I kept hesitating, but... I think I have to tell you. That guy, Joo Seunghyuk—”

“Park Geonwoo.”

A cold voice sliced through the air, cutting him off mid-sentence.

“Seunghyuk...”

Joo Seunghyuk strode into the room, stepping right between us as if to block me from Geonwoo.

“You’re still speaking casually to me, huh, Park Geonwoo?”

Seunghyuk was two years younger than Park Geonwoo and a year behind him at the Academy. Geonwoo hadn’t enrolled and went straight to military dispatch, but even that time counted as school attendance.

Still, Joo Seunghyuk never used polite speech with Park Geonwoo.

“Why are you bothering someone who clearly doesn’t want to see you?”

“You’re the one hiding something from Yeonsu—”

Boom!

Before Park Geonwoo could finish, a deafening explosion rang out. Joo Seunghyuk had unleashed mana in his direction.

Geonwoo barely dodged it, but the mana crashed into the floor and shattered it completely.

If this weren’t the first floor, it might’ve punched straight through to the floor below.

If that had hit Geonwoo directly, he would’ve died on the spot.

Even I was frozen in shock—and Park Geonwoo, too, stood rigid in stunned silence—when Seunghyuk reached out and grabbed my hand.

“Let’s go.”

“...Okay.”

I had no choice but to follow his lead.

***

“Seunghyuk, I turned him down.”

“......”

“I really turned him down. I listened to you.”

His expression was so cold and threatening that I rattled off excuses out of pure fear.

Then Seunghyuk placed his hand on my head.

“Good job. You’re a good boy.”

His hand gently swept over my hair. The moment he praised me, I finally felt like I could breathe again.

“Your lectures are over now, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Then let’s go back to the dorm.”

“Okay! Let’s do that!”

I braced myself to be dragged straight back to the madman’s house—but thank God, that wasn’t the case.

...Except he followed me all the way to the dorm.

“Just dropping by my room?”

“No. I’m planning to live here.”

“...What?”

“I already got the school’s approval.”

So that’s why he’d let me off so easily—he’d planned all along to move in.

Usually, transferring into the dorm mid-semester required a bunch of paperwork, but S-ranks were the exception.

If Joo Seunghyuk said he wanted to live in the dorms, the Academy would’ve welcomed him with open arms. Just like they did with Park Geonwoo.

Plus, there were still plenty of empty rooms on the 6th floor reserved for S-ranks.

“Oh... I see. Then what room did they assign you? 603?”

“No. 601.”

“What?!”

601 was my room.

I whipped my head around to look at Seunghyuk in shock, and he raised the corner of his mouth.

“According to dorm regulations, rooms are originally meant for two people.”

That rule did exist. But it was a leftover from back when dorm living was mandatory.

Even when room shortages forced three or four students to share a room, students with connections still managed to get singles—and after a few exposés in the media, public criticism exploded. The Academy ended up issuing an apology and revising the dorm policy.

But things had changed since then. The S-rank floor wasn’t even fully occupied, and most A-ranks had singles too.

There was no real reason to enforce double occupancy anymore.

“Th-that’s true, but that rule doesn’t really apply anymore...”

“Lee Yeonsu, you’re very good at following rules that don’t apply.”

“......”

He was talking about what happened Friday.

I’d come back early, using the curfew rule as an excuse. But even that rule was basically null and void for high-ranking ability users.

Joo Seunghyuk knew that. And he let me go anyway.

“If you don’t want to share a room with me, then come live at my place.”

“Ah, no.”

I shook my head in panic. If I went there, it’d be straight back to lockdown mode.

And I couldn’t stop thinking about what Park Geonwoo said—that Seunghyuk was hiding something from me. I couldn’t go there without knowing what it was. I mustn’t go.

If we stayed in the dorm, at least I wouldn’t be locked up. Plus, with Geonwoo next door, maybe things would be a little safer.

“What’s the problem, then?”

His eyes turned icy. I quickly stammered a reply.

“N-no problem! I like being with you...”

“You like it?”

“Yeah. Let’s stay together here in the dorm.”

“Alright.”

And so, Joo Seunghyuk followed me right into my room. No—our room now, I guess...

The moment the door closed behind us, he pulled me into his arms and bit my ear.

“Finally, just the two of us.”

His low voice sent chills down my spine. I quickly slipped out of his grasp.

“But what about furniture and your stuff?”

The dorms for high-level ability users were furnished for singles. Just one bed, one desk, one wardrobe. It’d be inconvenient for him.

“I’ll buy them.”

“Huh?”

“I’ll just toss everything out and buy new ones.”

“But the furniture’s school-issued—you can’t just replace it...”

“I’ll pay the restoration fee when I move out.”

He said it so casually.

“Should we go shopping for furniture?”

How long was he planning to stay that he needed to buy furniture? He couldn’t seriously be thinking of living here long-term, right?

There were only a few days left in the semester. The Academy dorms stayed open during breaks, and a lot of students remained—but I couldn’t imagine he would.

No, that would be bad.

“Uh, well...”

“Or should we just share?”

“Y-yeah. Let’s just use what’s here.”

He’d probably never lived in such a cramped space before.

Even the guest wing of his childhood home, while smaller than the main house, was bigger than most apartments—and he only stayed in hotel suites at the very least.

Maybe he’d get uncomfortable in a few days and leave.

But before I could even set my bag down, Seunghyuk grabbed me again.

...He’s not seriously planning to cling to me like this the entire time, is he?

“I need to study for exams...”

“Go ahead.”

He let go surprisingly easily. But I couldn’t relax.

He was in a bad mood, and there was always a chance he’d pull something straight out of the original timeline.

But contrary to my worries, nothing much happened.

When I studied, we used the little folding table meant for meals, not the desk. He just sat and watched me study.

He got bored and nudged me now and then, but it was about the same level as Woongie.

If I found it cute that he was now nuzzling his face into my back, I had to be completely insane.

“Hyung, aren’t you hungry?”

“Huh?”

I jumped a little and looked at the clock.

“Sorry. I didn’t realize how late it was.”

It was nearly 8 PM already. I’d been so focused on studying that I lost track of time.

“Hyung, what do you usually eat at the dorm?”

Now that I thought about it, even though Seunghyuk had been to my room plenty of times, I couldn’t remember him ever actually eating anything here. He only dropped by between classes or after meals.

“Usually cafeteria food. Sometimes just cup noodles.”

“That’s no good. You need to eat properly.”

Seunghyuk was a serious foodie. While living with him, I felt like I’d tried every good restaurant in the country. Someone like him couldn’t possibly tolerate cup noodles.

“What should we do? Want to go to the cafeteria? I don’t think it’s closed yet.”

“No. Let’s just eat cup noodles.”

He hugged me tightly as he said it. It wasn’t because he couldn’t bear to be apart from me or anything... probably just that he didn’t like cafeteria food.

Come to think of it, I’d never seen him eat it even once.