What Is That Mysterious Aura?
“Huh? Senior…?”
The instant Seo-yoon mumbled those words with her lips, the faint, muddy purple remnants hovering around her vanished without a trace.
And in their place, a completely new hue exploded into existence.
It was dazzlingly transparent and crystal clear.
Like warm, pure morning sunlight dissolved in crystal water, it was a soft, comforting radiance that cleansed the mind just by seeing it. A golden aura bloomed gently above Seo-yoon’s white shoulder, swirling in a cozy cloud.
Between the brilliant gold, a faint, delicate pink current spread slowly, resembling delicate cherry-blossom petals.
It was the exact opposite of the rough, unpleasant shade the irritating man had left behind moments ago.
The sharp, needle-like protrusions that had stabbed the space vanished completely. In their place, a round, plush, cotton-candy-like current wrapped around Seo-yoon’s body like a warm embrace.
Dong-oh felt goosebumps rise all over his body as he stared blankly at the beautiful sight.
Seo-yoon rose from her seat with a soft slide, leaving the laptop open on the table exactly as it was.
She pulled out the earphone from one ear, then walked over with light steps toward the corner seat where Dong-oh was sitting.
The closer she got, the more vivid and clear the golden and pink auras surrounding her became, filling Dong-oh’s vision.
“What brings you here at this time, senior? You have a morning major class, right?”
“Ah… The professor for the first class suddenly had some urgent matter, so a cancellation notice came out right after I woke up.”
“Oh, really? That’s why you’re in the corner.”
Seo-yoon nodded lightly with a bright smile.
“What about you? You don’t have any morning classes today, right?”
“That’s right. I came early before the afternoon major class so I could finish some homework before heading to the library. When I stay home, I just keep lying in bed and get nothing done.”
“Even on a weekday, coming out in the morning just to do homework… That’s seriously impressive.”
“Not at all. This has to be submitted by midnight tonight via professor email, so I had no choice but to force myself to come here.”
Seo-yoon smiled awkwardly, glancing at the small chair placed opposite Dong-oh.
Only then did Dong-oh realize he had casually placed his bag on the chair next to him.
“Ah, sorry.”
He hurriedly picked up the bag and lowered it beneath his feet.
“If the seat is free, can I sit here?”
“Oh, you can? Yes! Thank you, senior. Just a second, I’ll grab my laptop and things.”
Seo-yoon went back to her original seat by the window, then returned carrying her sticker-covered laptop, thick book, and personal items tightly against her chest.
Not long after, she returned with a pleasant soap-like scent and sat carefully on the narrow chair directly across from Dong-oh.
The table was so cramped that, with two people’s plastic cups and Seo-yoon’s big laptop placed on it, almost no space remained for even a single sheet of paper.
As Seo-yoon adjusted her posture and slid the chair a little inward under the table, their knees brushed softly and lightly.
“Ah, sorry! The table really is narrower than I thought.”
“No, it’s fine. I’m the one with the big build.”
Dong-oh answered casually with a flat voice, but his mind was completely locked on the shimmering colors still swirling around Seo-yoon’s space.
The faint pink hue had grown a little clearer and deeper between the brilliant gold.
These strange colors were too vivid and subjective to be simple distortion caused by the lighting.
They matched her emotional changes and the object’s shift with perfect, chilling accuracy.
What struck Dong-oh’s heart the hardest was the precise timing of the color shift.
When the annoying man had approached and tried to intrude, she had been drenched in muddy purple and dark-red spikes, as if her body was rotting.
But the moment he left and she found herself alone in the corner, her gaze met his, and everything flipped instantly to warm gold and pink.
“……Why? Why do those colors bloom?”
Dong-oh’s heart began beating much faster and rougher than usual.
Seo-yoon set her laptop on the table and looked up at him.
“By the way, senior.”
“What? Why?”
“You were watching me from a distance the whole time earlier, right?”
Dong-oh’s hand froze like ice.
Seo-yoon’s tone was not one of displeasure or anger.
It was playful and curious as she pretended to cover one eye with her finger, alternating.
“You were just staring from afar like that, covering your eyes.”
“……”
“Did a lot of dust get in your eyes? I kept watching because it was funny.”
Dong-oh was at a loss for words.
He couldn’t admit that strange emotional colors invisible to normal human eyes were swirling around her body, and that he had been checking if his own eyes were broken.
Nor could he lie by saying something absurd like dust suddenly got in his eyes and he acted weird.
Seo-yoon rested her chin on her hand, waiting for his answer with great interest.
The warm gold around her space was still gently rippling.
“Ah, it’s not that… the man from earlier.”
Dong-oh suddenly changed the topic to avoid the awkward situation.
“Huh? Ah, that person from before?”
“Yeah. Do you know him well? Is he a classmate?”
Seo-yoon blinked in surprise at the sudden topic shift.
But noticing that Dong-oh was struggling to answer, she didn’t dig further into the embarrassing reason for covering her eyes.
“No, not at all. I got to know him because we were in a general class last semester and had to work on a group project together. What was his name… I don’t remember.”
“You’re not close?”
“No. We haven’t contacted each other privately even once. We’re not close.”
The moment the man’s name was mentioned, a thin, unpleasant stream of muddy purple seeped into the clear gold aura around Seo-yoon.
Dong-oh’s sharp gaze followed the subtle changes in the color in real time.
“But earlier, even though you rejected him, he kept sitting next to you and talking.”
“Yeah, ever since last week he keeps doing this every time we bump into each other in the library or cafeteria. It’s annoying.”
Seo-yoon twisted the holder of her takeout cup with her fingers, looking a little troubled.
“Even once I waited for him at the front of the classroom right before class ended.”
“……He’s asking for your contact?”
“Yes, he straight-up asked me to give him my number.”
“So you gave it to him?”
Dong-oh swallowed dryly without realizing it.
Seo-yoon shook her head firmly from side to side.
“No. I told him I didn’t want to.”
Her tone was calm and indifferent, but the muddy purple fog rising from her shoulder had grown thicker and clearer than before.
It was the typical shade of displeasure and disgust she had shown when facing him directly at the table moments earlier.
Dong-oh tried to remain calm as he sipped his coffee, mentally replaying the strange color changes one by one.
‘Muddy purple… strong displeasure, rejection, or stress?’
He still couldn’t be completely sure after only two instances.
It could simply be irritation, or an instinctive defensive boundary when someone intruded on his territory.
What was certain, however, was that it was unmistakably a negative and dark psychological state, far removed from the positive emotions humans could feel.
“You just ran into me here by chance today, then? You didn’t make an appointment?”
“Yes. Since I was sitting by the window, I guess he saw me from outside and came in when he passed by.”
Seo-yoon sighed lightly, sounding tired.
In that instant, a red spark flickered briefly in one corner of the purple fog before vanishing.
“You clearly rejected him last week.”
“It looks like he still hasn’t properly understood what I meant or thinks I didn’t really reject him, so he’s running on happy circuits.”
“How am I supposed to say it so he properly understands I rejected him?”
A rough edge slipped into Dong-oh’s voice.
This was none of his business—a stranger’s romantic issues or intrusion—and yet he felt boiling anger inside. Even he didn’t understand why.
Seo-yoon looked at him with wide eyes, surprised.
“Ah… sorry. It’s none of my business, but I got mad without realizing.”
“No, it’s fine. Thanks to you scolding him on my behalf, I feel relieved. Still, you were clear with your eyes today, so hopefully he won’t bother me again for a while.”
“Still, just in case, don’t hesitate to tell someone if he comes back bothering you or crosses a line. Who? The police?”
“No need for the police. Tell your department professor or the office assistant auntie or anyone, and formally warn him. Don’t suffer alone.”
Seeing the sincere worry in Dong-oh’s eyes, Seo-yoon smiled faintly, lightly curving her lips.
“It’s not that big a deal. Once I become a college student, I’ll just be a bit of a loner and it’s my own loss.”
The moment she smiled, the muddy purple fog that had been pressing heavily on her slowly thinned and disappeared like melting ice.
And beneath the dirty colors that had cleared away, the radiant, cold golden aura from earlier rose again.
Dong-oh rolled his eyes wide, capturing every moment of the mysterious change without missing a single instant.
Muddy purple when the irritating man spoke negatively.
Warm gold when speaking normally with the one facing him.
He still couldn’t define the exact nature of the emotions this strange ability revealed 100 percent accurately, but he could clearly recognize that the color changed according to the other person’s psychological state and the object’s shift.
A short silence fell between them after the conversation paused.
Seo-yoon turned her attention back to the laptop screen, typing busily because the overdue assignment was urgent, while Dong-oh sipped his now half-melted coffee and fell into thought.
If he had been his usual blunt and unsociable self, he would have ignored the awkward silence and quietly checked his phone or done his own thing.
He simply didn’t have the tired personality that would try to erase awkward air with forced social conversation.
But today the situation was completely different.
The mysterious colors and rules rising around Seo-yoon were far too much on his mind.
If he talked to her about various topics, maybe he could learn a little more about this ability.
“By the way, what’s the content of the homework that has to be submitted by midnight tonight?”
Dong-oh asked in his usual casual senior tone.
Seo-yoon stopped typing and looked at the screen, answering quietly.
“Ah, it’s Professor Kim’s Modern Sociology class, a required major course this semester. I have to pick one social topic myself, make a creative presentation and report outline.”
“Ah… you’re in that professor’s class too. The professor is famous in the department for grading presentation scores extremely harshly.”
“Yes, I heard the rumors! I’m so nervous because they slash grades so strictly. That’s why I came early to start on it.”
“Did you decide on the topic clearly? The category is important for this class.”
“I still can’t decide on that either. I’m struggling. I’m going back and forth.”
Seo-yoon tilted her laptop screen slightly toward him, looking frustrated.
The screen was cluttered with Korean documents, Google search tabs, and dozens of PDF academic papers.
“I roughly narrowed it down to a few in my head, but they all seem a little short on something and ambiguous, so I can’t decide.”
Dong-oh leaned forward and carefully scanned the listed topics on her screen.
“Um… among the three, the second one seems the most straightforward and suitable to receive feedback on?”
“Huh? This one? It’s about the digitally excluded.”
“Yeah. The topic itself is a bit broad and common, but if I boldly trim the grand statistics in the introduction, the main body focused on empirical cases will be much easier to present. The professor likes that kind of concrete, case-centered structure.”
Seo-yoon listened to Dong-oh’s sharp advice and stared at the screen with serious eyes for a moment, then nodded vigorously as if she had gained great insight.
“Wow, now that you say it, that makes sense! The vibe coming from a senior who heard it first is completely different.”
She moved the mouse happily and quickly typed a note under the second title.
In that moment, the transparent golden aura surrounding her began to shine much brighter and more brilliantly than before.
‘……So this brightening gold… is it the satisfaction or relief felt when one’s own worries are resolved?’