Chapter 66

After finishing his conversation with Jun Shin and returning in front of the lodging, Gyeol discovered that Woo Seok Jung was not the only one waiting for him. Sun Choi and Tommy were there too.

“Gyeol!”

“Gyeol.”

“I’ve been waiting the longest, so I’m first. Got it?”

Woo Seok threw out the pathetic threat toward the two men greeting Gyeol happily. It was so unbelievable that three Alphas had gathered in front of the lodging waiting for him that for a second Gyeol wondered if maybe they had simply happened to pass by.

“Yeah, yeah, we know. Woo Seok talks first, then Sun, then me. Right?”

Tommy’s voice—now firm enough to speak back properly to Woo Seok—dragged him back to reality.

They really had all come to see him.

“...A lot of people are waiting for you.”

Jun muttered weakly before lightly patting Gyeol on the back. Then, just as he was about to pass by him, he lowered his head and quietly warned him.

“Be careful around Woo Seok Jung.”

“...What?”

Gyeol’s eyes widened.

Right then, Woo Seok approached them, so the conversation could not continue. Jun gave a small wave before changing direction. It looked like he was heading back to his lodging.

Isu Yoon was probably waiting for him.

But that was no longer an area Gyeol could interfere in.

He did not even have the right.

“Come on. Good thing I came early. Seriously, you’re too popular. It’s impossible to get one conversation with you.”

Woo Seok deliberately raised his voice loud enough for the others to hear as he moved closer to Gyeol. Their bare arms brushed slightly.

Gyeol flinched and immediately pulled away. Woo Seok grinned.

“Cute. So where should we talk?”

“One second. I should greet the others too...”

“Ah, I already organized the order and everything. You can just come talk to me.”

“But they waited too....”

Gyeol’s gaze drifted toward Tommy and Sun watching him from farther away.

Woo Seok crossed his arms unhappily and lowered his voice.

“You’re seriously gonna keep worrying about other Alphas while you’re with me?”

“.......”

I’m seriously going insane.

His head throbbed.

Honestly, he did not want to be alone talking with Woo Seok at all, but the system was the system. He could not simply ignore the established rules.

At this point, the best he could do was stay nearby and avoid ending up somewhere isolated with him.

After hesitating, Gyeol guided Woo Seok toward a bench area installed nearby. It was a designated conversation space decorated with artificial flowers and fake candles. Since it was directly in front of the lodging, they would remain within everyone’s sight, while still feeling cozy enough that it hopefully would not offend Woo Seok’s mood.

“Mm. This place is nice.”

Woo Seok smiled in satisfaction and immediately took the cushioned armchair.

Suppressing the sigh trying to escape him, Gyeol sat in the remaining wooden chair.

“You don’t mind if I sit here, right? Maybe I worked too hard preparing dinner earlier. My back kind of hurts.”

“Of course. I like this seat too.”

Did he really work that hard preparing dinner?

Obviously not, but Gyeol did not want to drag out pointless conversation by arguing over every little thing.

Just twenty minutes.

Twenty minutes and endure it.

Woo Seok himself had declared that limit earlier, so surely he would be satisfied with that much.

But Woo Seok showed no intention of getting up even after thirty minutes passed, then forty. Gyeol deliberately pretended to check the time several times, yet Woo Seok ignored it all and continued rambling endlessly about himself.

None of it was interesting.

None of it had substance.

Just empty bragging mixed with swagger.

Finally, after they had spent more than forty minutes together, Gyeol could not endure it anymore.

“Woo Seok. There’s less than an hour left for conversations now, so maybe you should talk with the other people too—”

“What? You don’t want to talk with me anymore?”

“No, that’s not what I meant. I just thought maybe you should spend time talking with other people too?”

“Got it. So you’re worrying about me? Come on, you don’t have to do that. If you want to keep talking with me, you can just say so. I can make extra time for you specially, Gyeol.”

“That’s not....”

“You know, looking at you, you really don’t seem like it, but I think you’re actually the shy type. You’re bad at expressing your feelings too.”

“.......”

“But I prefer people who are more honest. Being considerate and playing hard to get isn’t bad either, but earlier you went off to talk with Jun first. And then there’s the thing with Yo Han Sung too. At this point you should start making it more obvious around me so I can also....”

There truly was no limit with him.

At this point Gyeol simply lost the will to fight.

Woo Seok’s logic was so wildly disconnected from reality that Gyeol no longer even knew where to begin correcting him.

The only fortunate thing was that Woo Seok had completely misunderstood Gyeol’s feelings and was openly stating it out loud.

Gyeol immediately seized the opportunity and carefully brought up the words he had spent all evening organizing in his head.

“Woo Seok. This is a delicate thing to say, but... I think there may be some misunderstanding.”

“Hm? Misunderstanding?”

Even though the other man had thrown basic manners out the window, Gyeol somehow maintained miraculous patience and remained polite until the end.

In a calm, careful tone, he continued.

“As I said during the truth game, there are two people I want to get to know better.”

“Yeah, you did say that.”

This was something Gyeol had thought over repeatedly after the unpleasant incident with Woo Seok before dinner.

How could he safely create distance from this person without disrupting filming?

To do °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° that, it was better to say something ordinary rather than something special.

Something so plain and cliché that neither Woo Seok nor the viewers watching this scene later would think much about it.

“You’re not one of those two people, Woo Seok.”

“...What?”

But Woo Seok’s reaction was strange.

He looked genuinely shocked, as if he had just heard something absurd.

“Huh?”

“Say that again.”

Gyeol suppressed his confusion.

Because his mind tended to assume the best in people by default, for a second he wondered whether Woo Seok had simply failed to hear him properly over the strong wind.

As calmly as possible, he repeated himself.

“...You’re not one of the two people I want to get to know better.”

“.......”

But the instant he saw Woo Seok’s expression harden visibly, Gyeol realized his assumption had been wrong.

Woo Seok had heard him perfectly.

He had simply chosen to question it anyway.

“You’re saying you’re not interested in me?”

Woo Seok asked it bluntly.

This was exactly the opposite direction Gyeol had wanted things to go.

Carefully hiding his discomfort, Gyeol tried to soften the wording again.

“It’s not exactly that I’m not interested... it’s just that, like I said, among the two people I want to get to know more, you aren’t—”

“That’s the same thing.”

Woo Seok abruptly cut him off during the third repetition.

Gyeol stopped speaking and swallowed hard.

His throat felt rough, like he had swallowed a fistful of sand.

“You’re not interested in me? Why?”

Woo Seok reacted like someone experiencing cognitive dissonance.

Why?

No one in the history of R-Connect had ever asked a question like that.

Especially not the Alphas.

Even if their fragile pride got bruised, the moment they were rejected they usually accepted it at face value. Whether they later gave up or pathetically clung to the other person out of lingering feelings was a separate issue.

But Woo Seok was actually asking why Gyeol did not like him.

As if Gyeol obviously should.

As if that were objective fact.

As if Gyeol had denied some universal truth instead of rejecting him.

“That’s weird. Seriously weird. Are you being serious?”

No matter how much Gyeol thought about it, this was bizarre.

Even if Woo Seok was selfish, inconsiderate, and somewhat twisted by nature, this reaction was still deeply strange.

Quietly, Gyeol nodded again.

Inside, he desperately prayed that this would finally be the end of it.

Only then did Woo Seok’s face begin turning red.

He exhaled loudly for show before eventually starting to breathe angrily through his nose.

He stood up.

Sat back down muttering, “No.”

Then finally rose again and spoke to Gyeol.

“Fine. Then there’s nothing left to talk about, right?”

His attitude almost seemed to beg Gyeol to stop him.

Gyeol quietly nodded once more.

“Yes.”

“Hah.”

Woo Seok let out a sharp breath before turning around abruptly.

Gyeol watched his retreating back for a moment before straightening his gaze again, carefully examining the source of the unease Woo Seok left behind.

But Woo Seok was not the only one who had been making him uneasy.

That lingering wrongness he had felt for days now.

All of it always converged on one person.

Hanseul Ga.

***

After Woo Seok left, Gyeol spent nearly an entire hour talking with Tommy and Sun, who had patiently waited for him the whole time.

“Sorry for making you wait.”

“It’s okay. It’s not like you did it on purpose, Gyeol.”

“That’s right.”

Tommy and Sun were unfailingly kind.

The two of them naturally split the remaining time evenly between themselves and spent it with Gyeol.

Honestly, Gyeol barely remembered how the time passed at all.

He was still too overwhelmed by confusion over Woo Seok and guilt toward the two people who had waited for him.

They laughed together, joked around lightly, and before he knew it, it was already ten at night.

— Please place your card into the mailbox of the person who made your heart race the most today.

Standing in front of the Alpha mailboxes, Gyeol did not hesitate.

He placed his card into Sun Choi’s mailbox.

It had been his decision ever since the pheromone matching.

Sun.

Thank you so much for today.

After slipping the brief thank-you card into the mailbox, he returned to the lodging and waited.

Isu Yoon was unusually quiet tonight.

But Gyeol’s own thoughts were equally complicated, so the two of them spent the time in silence.

Not long afterward, an announcement informed them that each participant should check their mailbox in the called order before proceeding to their individual interview.

Isu Yoon’s name was called first.

He left the room.

A long time passed.

Once again, Gyeol was last.

An inexplicable anxiety slowly crept over him.

No way.

There’s no way.

I made myself perfectly clear with Woo Seok... and with Jun too....

Jun’s expression surfaced in his mind, making his chest ache painfully.

Taking a deep breath, Gyeol stood in front of the mailbox labeled with his name.

...I explained it clearly enough. So this time, he probably chose someone else too.

Gyeol’s fingertips wrapped around the mailbox handle.

He was not asking for much.

As long as it’s not another Alpha sweep.

He pulled the handle open.

Creeeak.

The mailbox opened—revealing the stack of cards piled inside.