Dirty Switch

At the edge of his vision, he could see Joo Taehyun’s fingertips moving restlessly. When he glanced over with just his eyes, the kid’s face looked ridiculously unchanged from when they last ran into each other on that winter night.
Even though it would be hard to find someone else raised with as much love in a similar environment, Joo Taehyun still looked at him with the eyes of a stray who had spent his whole life on the streets. Eyes that could stop even the gaze of someone uninterested—hollow, heavy, and aching.

Because of that gaze, completely unchanged from the past, Seo Baekhan had a feeling that no matter what the boy tried to say today, at the very least, his feelings for him hadn’t changed.
It wasn’t some self-serving delusion. He’d only realized later that Joo Taehyun only ever made that kind of face in front of him—and, more accurately, that he made a conscious effort to craft that expression. Just to show his face at Haechi’s year-end party before leaving for study abroad—which wouldn’t end until before he turned twenty—just to confess to him, he’d pushed himself hard on the eve of his departure.
‘The royal family is so damn dramatic. What is it about this scholarship ceremony that they had to drag in this many people?’

‘The Crown Prince collapsed, apparently. Said this has to draw more people than the Haechi inauguration. I saw the Yoonra Foundation’s grandson stop by earlier, too.’
‘Seriously? They dragged back a kid from Washington? What grudge does that guy have against Prince Lee to pull this kind of shit?’
‘It’s because Prince Lee is an Alpha, obviously. Speaking of which, Joo Taehyun hasn’t shown up yet? Doesn’t he go to the same school as that Yoonra kid?’

‘Right? And since Taehyun’s also an Alpha, you’d think they’d be hounding him to show up.’
As he half-heartedly listened to the nobodies murmuring around him, Seo Baekhan paused with his drink near his lips. Oh—was Joo Taehyun’s study abroad destination Washington, not London?
‘I heard Joo Taehyun collapsed at the airport once from taking the wrong suppressant. After that, DH stopped letting him attend any public events.’

‘What? I thought it was from overdoing it trying to attend some Christmas party or year-end event or whatever?’
Ah… So he really did push himself before leaving to attend the year-end party. Well… too bad, but what could anyone do about it now?
Seo Baekhan took another drink. He planned to use the alcohol as an excuse to slip out of this unpleasant gathering. If the Crown Prince hadn’t personally asked him to show up, he wouldn’t have set foot in a place crawling with these half-wits.

‘I’m telling you, I heard it straight from the Crown Prince. The kid from the chaebol family who got health issues from suppressants? That’s not “owner risk,” that’s a walking disaster. Of course DH’s PR team gave a different excuse. They can’t let the stock crash.’
‘Whoa, whoa. You guys realize this is getting out of hand, right?’
Choi Yeonjun, who’d been glued to Baekhan since they were kids and was often called his only friend, tactfully stepped in.

‘There are a lot of people around. Can we stop talking about someone who’s not even here?’
‘Seriously, it’s the damn secondary genders. Even the Yeonhwagung budget is funneled under Prince Lee’s consort. That idiot popped too many pills and turned into a half-baked Omega. Fuck. Why do my taxes have to go toward making heat suppressants for those bastards?’
‘Hey, hey! Kim Seungjun!’

The atmosphere turned icy for a moment. Seo Baekhan, still present, was also a secondary-gendered Alpha who had to take suppressants. So what Kim Seungjun had just said wasn’t only targeting people like Joo Taehyun or the prince’s consort—it was also a direct jab at him.
Of course, Seo Baekhan didn’t show any reaction. Whether it was intentional or genuine, he didn’t care. Bringing up someone’s gender traits just to insult them was unpleasant, but irritation and disappointment required at least a shred of respect for the other person. The moment you react, you lower yourself to the same level as that idiot. And for what?
‘N-no, I wasn’t talking about you, Baekhan…! I meant Joo Taehyun is the weird one! You’re obviously fine! But that guy, he keeps tailing you like a lost dog even though he’s supposed to be an Alpha… Like, that kind of behavior’s impossible unless something’s off with him—’
Huh. So even idiots like that noticed Taehyun only ever had eyes for me…

Popping a grape into his mouth and rolling it on his tongue, Seo Baekhan thought about the kid again for the first time in a while.
That shadowed face of a seventeen-year-old, who couldn’t say a word even as he watched others drag Baekhan away again and again, and who only barely managed to summon the courage to speak when he reached the very end.
Trying to recall what kind of expression Taehyun had made that day as he turned away, Baekhan tilted his head in sudden puzzlement. He didn’t believe Kim Seungjun’s claim that he’d heard it directly from the Crown Prince, but judging by the way everyone else reacted, it seemed Taehyun’s name had been coming up often for a while now. Had he just been too disinterested to notice? What was there to gossip about someone as boring as Taehyun anyway?

‘Fuck’s sake. You guys are ruining my buzz. Knock it off, will you?’
Choi Yeonjun rapped the table with his glass. A swift move—he knew that as long as things wrapped up now, Baekhan wouldn’t bother causing a scene.
‘Since we’re on the topic, I’ve got something to say too. That bastard Joo Taehyun—!’

Kim Seungjun slammed his glass down harder, eyes hazy from drink. He probably thought he was mimicking Choi Yeonjun, but clearly couldn’t control his strength in his drunken state.
Seo Baekhan, eyes half averted, calmly chewed and swallowed the grape. Normally, he would’ve walked away by now. But maybe because Taehyun was the most unexpected person ever to confess to him, he suddenly found himself wanting to hear just what kind of bullshit these guys—especially Kim Seungjun—were spreading.
‘Did you ever hear the rumor that Joo Taehyun isn’t actually an Alpha?’

‘Jesus, Kim Seungjun… Stop watching those clout-chasing conspiracy channels. What kind of half-assed theory is that?’
‘Why? I find them fun. I’m curious, so spill it. What about Taehyun?’
‘Guys, for real, watch your mouths! Don’t you realize DH folks are probably here too?’

‘Wow, what a moral paragon. So what? Let me guess—you think just because they’re chaebol, we should kiss their asses? In the end, they’re just merchants like us. Why should we care what they think?’
‘What’s with this guy’s tone? Are we in fucking Joseon Dynasty now?’
‘What, am I wrong? And let’s be honest—Joo Taehyun keeps clinging to Baekhan because of his pedigree. His family’s been producing ministers since the Joseon era.’

Kim Seungjun slicked back his over-gelled side part with his palm and smacked his lips. He awkwardly angled his wrist to show off the logo on his gold watch, but all it did was mess up his hair and make his cheap face look even worse.
Even Choi Yeonjun, who’d been trying to contain Kim Seungjun’s nonsense, raised both hands and stepped back with a whisper of surrender.
‘Baekhan, I’m tapping out. I don’t have the energy to deal with someone that dense.’

‘No one asked you to.’
‘Fine. Let’s go. People are starting to stare.’
Seo Baekhan ignored Yeonjun’s elbow nudging him in the side.

‘What? You’re not coming?’
‘I want to see what other nonsense that idiot will spout.’
He wasn’t bluffing—he really was curious. He’d heard that Kim Seungjun’s dad ran a small startup. He didn’t like to judge people based on the size of their company, but there had to be a reason even a social climber like the Crown Prince invited someone like that to a scholarship ceremony he’d spent years preparing.

‘Do you think Kim Seungjun is really one of the Crown Prince’s people?’
‘Hard to say. But the way he keeps spewing that gender bullshit, it does seem like he’s influenced by that camp.’
Noticing the stack of gold bracelets peeking out from under Kim Seungjun’s watch, Seo Baekhan slowly closed his eyes. As much as he wanted to observe longer, just looking at that trash was starting to rot his brain.

‘Ugh. What the hell do we do with these nobodies. One of my older cousins is close with some folks in the Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs, right? And he said that at the last Haechi year-end party, Joo Taehyun actually—’
‘Kim Seungjun.’
Perfect timing. The moment he brought up Haechi, Seo Baekhan no longer needed to endure the presence of this revolting excuse of a human.

The fact that he was talking about something that happened inside Haechi’s inner circle confirmed it—he really was getting his info from the Crown Prince’s side.
Why would the prince lower himself to recruit trash like Kim Seungjun? People like that were meant to be used and discarded quietly. Even if the prince lacked polish, he wasn’t clueless. But then again, why would he invite someone like this to a scholarship launch packed with dignitaries?
‘Oh? Uh… Baekhan…’

Scholarships, startups, this hostility toward secondary traits…
Seo Baekhan stood up, calculating the line connecting Kim Seungjun and the Crown Prince. First things first—he’d need to look into the money trail.
‘Watch your mouth. Just because you’re jealous of Taehyun being an Alpha doesn’t mean you get to make up shit about a kid who’s not even here.’

Some of °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° the people who’d been snickering at Kim Seungjun’s disgusting remarks now looked awkward and turned to Baekhan.
They’re all the same. Pretending to reprimand him while secretly enjoying the trash talk through someone else’s lips. Every single one of them—pathetic. Even now, their eyes gleamed with curiosity like they couldn’t wait for more. Sickening.