Chapter 11 - BK Pharmaceuticals

“My brother asked me to bring one of his textbooks.”

A light ivory knit stood out among the dark brown uniforms.

Since there was such a large crowd, the boy’s face couldn’t be seen well, but to Jayden, it was a familiar build and voice.

“How cute! He came to run an errand for his brother!”

“Huh? If it’s his brother, then he’s a student here, right? Then he could just tell his brother to get it himself.”

To this, the boy spoke in a somewhat gloomy tone.

“My brother is sick and couldn’t come to school.”

“Sick? Who is it? Today’s absent student is…… Huh!”

“Don’t tell me your brother is…….”

When everyone thought of the same face,

The boy drove the nail in.

“Yes. Third-year Gabriel is my brother.”

“……!”

After a brief silence.

Everyone nodded as if they understood.

“Wow, no wonder.”

“Definitely, with that face.”

Surprisingly beautiful appearance, pretty yet with a strong impression!

Even if their features didn’t resemble each other, the soft expression contrasting with the sharp eyes was exactly like student council president Gabriel, like two peas in a pod.

“Should I show you the way? The president’s class happens to be three classes away from mine!”

“Hey, then it makes more sense for me to go since I’m in the class right next door! What’s your name?”

“Should sister buy you some snacks on the way?”

While students gathered in groups of threes and fives out of curiosity, only Jayden stood far apart.

Jayden, who had frozen in place at the unexpected face’s appearance, opened his phone screen again first.

Then he typed new content instead of the message he was originally going to write.

[Me: Hey did you send your little brother on an errand?]

[Gabriel: ?]

The guy who usually replied every other day immediately sent an answer as soon as the word ‘little brother’ appeared.

Jayden was choked up, but now wasn’t the time to scold him.

[Me: He’s at our school right now]

Jayden waited a moment for a reply, but even after a while, the phone remained quiet.

‘Don’t tell me. Is this bastard on his way here?’

Jayden scratched his head furiously, recalling their elementary school days. He’s definitely suffering from motion sickness-like symptoms even now.

“Ah, whatever. I don’t know.”

Only after taking his eyes off the phone screen did he realize Samuel was standing right in front of him.

“Brother Jayden. Hello.”

“……Oh! Oh yeah, you came to find Gabriel’s book?”

Jayden calmed his startled heart and subtly took half a step back.

He had encountered Samuel a few times. Having been friends with Gabriel for years, he couldn’t not know the ‘little brother’ that guy always had on his lips.

A kind, gentle, smart child, exactly like Gabriel’s little brother should be.

Nevertheless, Jayden didn’t quite like Samuel.

He didn’t know the exact reason himself. Every time he mulled over why, no suitable explanation came to mind.

“Thank you for taking care of my brother yesterday.”

“No, if a friend collapses, of course you should…….”

“I’m glad Jayden is our brother’s close friend.”

As if completely unaware of Jayden’s inner thoughts, Samuel smiled brightly, the corners of his eyes crinkling.

Then he whispered quietly enough that other students couldn’t hear.

“Thank you for always keeping the secret about my brother's constitution.”

The childlike laughter that followed those words tickled his ear.

Jayden narrowed his brow.

The reason he didn’t like Samuel.

He didn’t realize it when he was young, but now he could clearly pinpoint just one thing.

A sense of incongruity.

Like a child wearing an adult’s suit, like an adult wearing a school uniform…….

An unfamiliar sensation as if wearing something that didn’t fit.

Even that smile seemed to float on top of his expression like a mask that could be put on and taken off.

“Please continue to take good care of our brother.”

“……Yeah. But did Gabriel really ask you to bring the book? Then I’ll just.”

“No.”

Samuel cut off Jayden’s words and moved his steps.

“I want to go get it myself.”

Just as he passed by on the right, Jayden saw it.

The innocent smile that had been on the boy’s face disappearing without a trace.

* * *

Samuel hugged a single textbook tightly to his chest and smiled.

“Brothers, Sisters. Thank you. Thanks to you, I found the textbook brother mentioned right away.”

“Wow, Gabriel is really amazing too. Trying to study even when he’s sick.”

“Would someone who’s at the top of the whole school think the same way as us?”

Before they knew it, students had gathered in Gabriel’s class, dying to talk to Gabriel’s little brother.

“Do you need anything else?”

“I’m fine now. Thank you for buying me juice too.”

“You’re so good!”

Everyone kept repeating ‘cute,’ ‘so good,’ ‘as expected of the president’s brother,’ then lifted their heads at the school bell.

“Ah! Break time is over.”

“Then I’ll be going.”

“That’s too bad. I was curious about what you do at the president’s house.”

“Tell Gabriel to get better soon!”

As the students scattered to their respective classes, Samuel also moved his steps.

The soft expression he had shown in front of the middle schoolers earlier was nowhere to be found, and he had already returned to an ice-cold expressionless face.

“……Gabriel was right. Smiling is comfortable.”

Even at the elementary school Samuel attended, he often caused needless misunderstandings because of his cold impression.

But after listening to his brother’s advice, such incidents clearly decreased.

‘Samuel. What you’re saying isn’t wrong. But people can get hurt even by correct words.’

For a moment, he recalled his brother’s face as he admonished him.

‘Brother will help you make up with your friend. So first, apologize with a smiling face. Everyone likes a smiling face.’

The voice was stern, but the warmth felt from the two hands placed on his shoulders was warm.

So Samuel couldn’t help but smile.

Whether others liked his smile or not wasn’t Samuel’s concern.

“…….”

He stopped walking briefly in the middle of the now-quiet hallway.

He closed his eyes then opened them, lightly caught his breath, and walked forward again.

“Where could it be…….”

Then an unpleasant ‘smell’ and ‘color’ began to distort his vision.

Red, blue, cold light, hot light.

An area that someone of that age, an immature child who hadn’t even undergone manifestation, could never perceive covered the world with various colors and patterns.

Like paint spreading in water, the colors spread, mixed, and undulated.

Samuel scanned the waves with his eyes and hurried his steps without hesitation.

‘No.’

Clumps of color gathering and scattering like smoke.

The boy’s footsteps had not a shred of hesitation.

‘This isn’t it either.’

Leaving the building, the moment he reached the elevated connecting passageway leading to another building……

Finally, one color caught his vision.

“……Found it.”

The most unpleasant color that made him step foot here.

Grabbing the collar of a student connected to that color.

“Hello?”

Samuel smiled.

The male student, caught without understanding why, flinched in surprise and hunched his shoulders.

“Wh-who are you……?”

“Where are you going?”

Samuel asked questions while smiling throughout, as if the male student’s reaction didn’t matter at all.

The male student trembled and his lips quivered.

“I-I’m going to the music room because of class…….”

“Gabriel.”

Then he flinched greatly.

“As soon as I said that name, you suddenly turned around, didn’t you?”

“……!”

“Like you were running away.”

“N-no! What are you talking……!”

“That thing you’re hiding inside. It’s my brother’s medicine, isn’t it?”

At Samuel’s interrogation, the male student reflexively pushed his hand deeper into his uniform jacket.

“Are you going to hide it somewhere else? Or throw it away?”

It hit the mark.

The male student was just about to put the medicine bottle hidden in his bag somewhere no one would know.

Originally, he had planned to return the medicine to Gabriel today and apologize, but…… he had no idea he would be absent. That he’d be in such critical condition, even more so…….

The male student wanted to immediately shake off the arm grabbing him and pour out excuses, but his body was frozen and wouldn’t move.

“Will it be okay?”

A situation where an elementary school student much younger than himself was sharply interrogating him.

The smile spread across those lips had no trace of mirth whatsoever.

“That’s expensive. Very.”

A warmly melting expression and lovely tone.

Contrasting with that, navy blue eyes where darkness had settled.

This contradiction felt eerie.

“N-no……! Th-this is just.”

“Yes. Just?”

Samuel nodded as if he would listen and waited.

Crushed by inexplicable pressure, the male student reflexively shouted loudly.

“I-it’s a suppressor! An omega pheromone suppressor!”

“Is that so?”

“Su-suddenly talking nonsense! This was mine from the beginning! I didn’t steal it!”

When he shook his arm off forcefully, the young boy’s body swayed greatly.

However, Samuel showed not a trace of surprise and merely crinkled the corners of his eyes slightly.

“Then what’s your name?”

“N-name? Why do you need my name…….”

“You have the exact same medicine my brother takes.”

Samuel pointed at the male student’s right hand.

The brown medicine bottle that slipped out from inside the uniform glinted in the sunlight.

On the bottle was a handwritten label.

“An unlaunched trial drug from BK Pharmaceuticals that only a very small number of researchers participated in.”

“BK……Pharmaceuticals?”

The male student’s face turned deathly pale in an instant.

BK Pharmaceuticals.

The nation’s largest pharmaceutical company and a first-class pharmaceutical corporation boasting global prestige.

A trial drug under research there? What’s more shocking was…….

‘Gabriel, aren’t you a conglomerate golden spoon?’

‘Haha. Instead of bringing such rumors, hurry up and do your Math homework.’

BK Group, the parent company of BK Pharmaceuticals.

There was a time when rumors were rampant that Gabriel was a member of that very BK Group.

But the person in question usually brushed it off vaguely, so the rumors ended as baseless gossip.

“So I’m going to ask mom. Whether that person’s name is on the test subject list.”

At Samuel’s following words, the male student instinctively realized that rumor wasn’t just simple gossip.

“It probably won’t be there anyway.”