This... Is Minsu's Scent...
The basketball court on the main athletic field was thick with the rough voices and ragged breathing of men.
"Here! Over here!"
"Just shoot the damn thing!"
"Hey! That's a foul!"
Basketball was a lot like combat. It was a sport more than capable of stirring the aggression and competitive fire buried deep in a male's instincts.
"We're taking this one! Everybody stay sharp!"
"You gonna sit there and watch those bastards show off? You planning on losing?"
I could feel the atmosphere heating up. It was a completely different energy from before. A faint scent hung in the air — the smell of males slipping into a kind of sexual excitement.
It's because the girls showed up, most likely.
Over by the benches, the girls from the department who'd gone to buy drinks were watching the guys play. Every last one of the men was probably keeping those females in the back of his mind, whether he realized it or not.
This is an atmosphere you'd never get in the military. This kind of tension only exists on a campus where men and women mix.
I'd played basketball plenty of times in the service, but the men there never ran the court giving off the scent of sexual arousal. Probably because there weren't any females around worth showing off for. At university, though, you ended up paying attention to the women whether you meant to or not — especially when you were already worked up from vigorous physical activity.
I really did the right thing, holding out until discharge.
Of all the places in the cosmos, it had dumped me — the Demon King of Lust — into an otherworld army full of nothing but men. I'd wanted to desert so badly it burned. I'd swallowed that urge and endured by picturing my return to a university campus. Fortunately, reality had exceeded every expectation.
"Minsu! Ball!"
I was running the court lost in those thoughts when a teammate whipped a pass my way.
"Got it!"
I caught the ball and blew past the defender with a flashy dribble. The ball pounded the floor — thump, thump, thump — as I tore through the opposing half without hesitation, then rose into a natural layup.
Swish.
The ball left my hands and kissed the net with a soft, clean ripple. Standing over 180 centimeters, with outstanding athletic instincts — the physical gifts this body had been given let me show off some serious basketball even among the guys in the department.
"Whoa—!"
"That was amazing!!"
"Returnee oppa! You're so freaking hot!"
"So clean!"
Cheers rolled in from the sidelines. Freshmen, sophomores, juniors, even the girls in their final year — they were all looking toward my end of the court.
Whew... even I have to admit that last one was filthy. Straight-up YouTube Shorts material.
Catching my breath, I snuck a glance toward Senior Sohee. Sure enough, she was looking my way. Given her personality, she wasn't the type to cheer at the top of her lungs — but she was watching.
"Damn. You've got some serious game."
Byeon Yosep, running with the other team, flashed me a thumbs-up.
"You were pretty good out there yourself."
It wasn't empty flattery. Yosep had some standout skill of his own.
He's famous for skipping class to mess around, but the guy can actually play.
So he'd traded academics for social connections and athletic ability. He was the type who could easily be popular — an easygoing personality, a lean, well-cut frame, solid relationships with both men and women, and the physical ability to back it all up.
But he's not the type Senior Sohee would go for.
No, he wasn't her type at all. Anyone could see she was the kind of girl who'd fall for a fellow model student. If he'd wanted to win her over, he should have conducted himself differently. Tsk.
Not that it matters to me. I'm the kind of male who drives every female insane, regardless of her tastes.
I was clicking my tongue at Yosep in my head when he scooped up the ball.
"We'll take it this time."
Since it was a scrimmage, the teams had been trading possessions. This one was theirs.
Thump. Thump.
Yosep drove off the floor and came charging in. He was clearly coming straight at me.
He's going to try to blow past me?
That was the wariness unique to males — competitiveness, or maybe just a rivalry complex. He'd picked the wrong opponent, though. This body may have lost to the Hero, but until that day it had never once lost a contest against another male.
WHAM.
Yosep's body slammed into mine. He'd been the one charging, but he was the one who bounced back.
"Ugh—!"
He lost his balance, and the ball ripped out of his hands and rocketed off the court.
"Ah—"
Every guy on the floor froze mid-stride. The basketball was screaming toward the sideline — straight at the girls.
"Kyaa...!"
And of all people, it was flying at Senior Sohee. She didn't have a shred of athletic instinct; she just squeezed her eyes shut and stood there, unable even to think about moving.
I was the one who threw my body. Because I hadn't lost my footing when Yosep hit me, I could take off immediately.
I launched myself and swatted the ball away, crashing down in an ungainly heap for my trouble — but at least the ball never connected with Senior Sohee's head.
"Ah... huh?"
When the impact she'd been bracing for never came, she opened her eyes and found me sprawled on the ground.
"Minsu...!"
The brief hush on the court shattered as men's and women's voices erupted all at once.
"Sohee, are you okay?"
"Sohee!"
"Kang Minsu!"
"Minsu, you hurt?"
I pushed myself up and waved a hand like it was nothing.
"Aigoo... I'm fine. Just scraped my knee a little."
"Whoa. That scared me. You're our department ace. You can't get hurt."
"At least you fell well. Doesn't look like anything serious."
It stung a bit, but I'd managed to prevent a real disaster. I put on a show of being fine, but Senior Sohee looked thoroughly shaken.
"Yah. Byeon Yosep! Don't you think you were pushing it a little hard?"
A girl named Gayeon — one of Sohee's classmates — tore into Yosep. The playful glint he'd been wearing earlier vanished, and he approached Sohee with a serious expression to apologize.
"...Sohee. I'm sorry. I got a little too fired up out there."
"No, it's okay. These things happen."
An awkward atmosphere hung between the two of them. And with that, the incident was more or less settled. The only injury was a scrape on my knee, so it wasn't going to blow up into anything bigger.
Tsk. That bastard Yosep. Causing trouble for no reason.
In the end it had given me a chance to show off for Senior Sohee, but he'd apologized to her and hadn't said a single word to me. That was a little infuriating, wasn't it?
But what was I supposed to do? He was still a senior. I filed the grudge away for later repayment and went back to the game.
About thirty minutes passed.
"Alright! That's it for today. Anyone who wants in on the sports festival, hit me up. We'll practice every weekday at lunch, so come when you can. If you've got afternoon classes, go get ready."
Once the eldest senior called it, everyone stopped playing.
"Thank you for your hard work!"
"Good game!"
The guys exchanged greetings and broke off into their usual clusters. The girls who'd come to watch paired off with the guys from their year and headed out to prep for afternoon classes.
"Hah... I'm dead. For real."
"You actually went hard for once?"
Mincheol walked over, still catching his breath.
"I haven't run like that in forever. I feel like I'm dying. Your knee okay?"
"Just stings a little."
He glanced at my reddened leg. It clearly wasn't a serious wound, so I brushed it off.
"Gotta cool down before afternoon class. Hah...!"
"It's still pretty cold out and our clothes are soaked through."
Both of us were drenched in sweat. Even if we tried to air them out, we'd just be a nuisance to everyone else.
"I'll lend you something."
"Clothes?"
"I stashed a spare set in my locker in the department lounge. Heard we were playing basketball at lunch today."
"Ah."
Mincheol, huh. The guy was surprisingly well-prepared. Mildly impressed, I headed for the department lounge with him.
Min Sohee's afternoon class didn't let out until the sun was already going down. She and the other girls in her year dragged themselves into the department lounge, wrung out by a professor who didn't know the meaning of mercy.
"Uuuugh... I'm dying."
"Do we seriously have to get out this late every Tuesday and Thursday?"
"Right? I rested so well over break, and the second the semester starts my whole body hurts."
Complaints circulated among the girls, but Sohee alone kept a calm expression as she organized her locker.
"Sohee, you're not tired?"
"For real. Sohee looks totally fine. I feel like the jet lag between break and the semester is aging me in fast-forward."
Sohee offered her classmates a gentle smile.
"I didn't really have a choice but to keep studying over break."
There was nothing mysterious about why she looked fine. She'd maintained a course load over vacation that was nearly as brutal as the regular semester.
"Ah. Come to think of it, your dad's a professor, right?"
"At a university overseas, wasn't it?"
"Yeah. So last break I did some English over there and reviewed my major a bit too."
Her classmates looked envious and, at the same time, a little sorry for her.
"Your dad's really something."
"But doesn't it drive you crazy? You said you didn't even want to go this time. If it were me I'd throw a fit and refuse."
Sohee's reluctance to get involved in department activities came partly from a personality that found crowded places uncomfortable, and partly from how difficult she found men — but her strict father had played a solid role as well. Even from another country he called almost every night to check on her, so overbearing that even Sohee found it stifling.
"It is frustrating, but... it's still a good opportunity."
"That's our girl. The finest output our department, our year has ever turned out. Min Sohee."
"Not just our year — she's probably top-tier in the whole department."
After chatting a while longer, the girls left the lounge and headed home.
"See you tomorrow~"
"Yeah. Good luck on the assignment."
One by one they filed out, but Sohee lingered, pacing this way and that.
"Sohee, you're not leaving yet?"
"I just need to look for something real quick. You guys go ahead."
"Yeah? Okay, see you~"
Even the last remaining classmate waved and stepped out the door. And then Min Sohee was alone in the department lounge.
The spacious room held no more voices. Just empty desks and chairs, lockers, and a fold-out cot.
Haa...
She had stayed behind to look for something, just as she'd told her classmates. But not a single one of them could possibly have guessed what.
This... is Minsu's scent...
Sohee stood rooted to the spot, staring fixedly at the locker with the name Kang Minsu written on it.
This is definitely the smell that came off Minsu earlier, when I almost got hit by the ball.
She'd gone along with the other girls to cheer on the guys' basketball practice. Out of nowhere a ball had come flying at her head, and she'd nearly been in real trouble. Her body had locked up at the sight of it screaming toward her, and she'd squeezed her eyes shut — and in that instant, a strangely addictive, tingling sensation had brushed the tip of her nose.
Not an artificial fragrance. A person's body odor.
She'd never smelled anything like it before, but some feminine instinct sleeping inside her had recognized it instantly. This was a scent she couldn't refuse. A scent she could only be drawn to.
Minsu's locker.
Her sense of smell had grown strangely acute. The sudden amplification of sensation was something she neither understood nor had any desire to understand. For now, she was simply thinking whatever the feeling told her to think.
It's coming from there.
A scrap of fabric was caught in the crack of Minsu's locker door. That was definitely the shirt he'd been wearing on the court at lunch, during basketball practice.
"Haa..."
Sohee let out a short breath. In that fleeting moment, two enormous impulses were grabbing each other by the collar inside her head.
The urge to bury her nose in that shirt right now and savor Minsu's scent — and the warning that if she actually did it, she would be crossing a line she could never rationalize away. The two of them were colliding, hard.
