Wooyeon quietly took in the scenery before his eyes that had become familiar at some point. Come to think of it, the thought suddenly popped up that over the past 5 years, this kind of thing seemed to have become too natural.
“By the way, sunbae.”
At Jeonghan’s voice calling him, Wooyeon raised his eyes that had been lowered. On his broad shoulders, leisure was draped like a suit as always.
“I’ll solve it for you.”
“What……?”
Wooyeon’s pupils asking back to Jeonghan wavered like a candle before the wind. Anxiety crept over him, but Wooyeon tried hard to ignore that sensation.
“You know what I’m trying to say.”
“What…… I don’t know.”
Feeling dizzy, Wooyeon raised his hand to touch his forehead. No way, no way. There was something he suspected in his heart, but he wished Jeonghan didn’t know.
“About sunbae’s father’s matter.”
Aah. Wooyeon closed his eyes wearily. He had hoped he wouldn’t know. It was something he wanted to hide. Even if it was futile and cheap pride, it couldn’t be helped. Wooyeon didn’t want Jeonghan to know about his shameful father, and he had never even imagined a situation where he would pay off that debt. No matter how much he was an existence sold to Jeonghan for money, he didn’t want to add anything more to that.
“Did you know?”
“How could I not know what happened at my company.”
“……”
“Besides, it’s about sunbae.”
Wooyeon bit his lips and turned his head. He thought Jeonghan wasn’t at fault, but for some reason, anger welled up toward him.
“Then if you knew, why did you ask earlier if I had anything to say? Were you testing me?”
“Yes.”
Ha. At him answering immediately, Wooyeon felt completely deflated. Jeonghan didn’t seem to have any intention of hiding it. With a smile on his face, he tilted the porcelain liquor bottle and filled Wooyeon’s glass. Wooyeon, who let out a big sigh, irritably picked up the glass and brought it to his lips. The warmed liquor warmly moistened his lips and went down his esophagus hotly.
“I wanted to know how honest sunbae is with me.”
While having the kindest face in the world, Jeonghan really had a bad personality. His vision became dizzy from the liquor that suddenly went in. Wooyeon glared sharply at Jeonghan, but he just pretended not to know and poured liquor into Wooyeon’s glass again.
“Don’t worry about it. I’ll just solve it for you.”
“……Why would you.”
He almost had tears mixed in his voice. Pretending to be fine, pretending to be composed. Wooyeon thought he might really lose his expression at this rate.
“We’re not in that kind of relationship.”
“What kind of relationship would that be?”
For a moment, pink words like engagement and marriage flashed through his mind. In Wooyeon’s thinking, they were words that could never exist in the relationship between himself and Jeonghan. Who would stand by his side? Wooyeon clumsily imagined the ideal image of his partner that he thought of.
“I don’t know, anyway that’s.”
“We’ve slept together for years, eaten together, had sex. Isn’t that enough? I don’t know how amazing ‘that kind of relationship’ sunbae is thinking of is.”
“Kwon Jeonghan.”
A crack formed in the pride he had been protecting shabbily. Since he couldn’t know how much Jeonghan knew, he couldn’t rashly counterattack.
“As sunbae knows, that’s not a lot of money to me.”
“Stop it!”
So you knew everything. Wooyeon felt like blocking his ears. Even without his father’s gambling debt, he was sufficiently miserable and shabby in front of him. If he could, he wanted to disappear from before his eyes right now. Wooyeon’s eyes, gasping for breath, were pitifully shaking.
“How much did you dig around, it’s my problem!”
“That useless pride, didn’t you throw that away 5 years ago?”
“What……?”
He, who was unbearably sweet and affectionate, sometimes threw daggers like this with an indifferent face. Wooyeon looked at Jeonghan with a stunned face.
“Is that still so important to sunbae even now?”
With eyes without laughter, Jeonghan also looked back at Wooyeon. Wooyeon felt like his body would freeze from the coldness sent by his cold eyes.
“Because I want to solve it for you. Because I can solve it. I’m sick and tired of sunbae struggling.”
“……”
“I hate that sunbae worries about things other than me. That’s all.”
Wooyeon’s watery eyes wavered. He couldn’t tell if this version of him was affectionate or heartless.
“Don’t do that.”
Wooyeon barely answered.
“If you really think about me, just forget it. Please. I’m begging you.”
He didn’t want to receive sympathy from Jeonghan anymore. What he’d received so far was enough.
**3.**
On the way to work, people poured out from the packed subway. Wooyeon was mixed in among them. If they couldn’t commute together, Jeonghan consistently proposed that he ride in the car with the driver he’d assigned, but Wooyeon refused every time.
Among the office workers the subway endlessly spat out, Wooyeon took off the mask he’d been wearing and walked toward the station exit. There were several reasons for wearing a mask every time he used public transportation. There were a few people who asked for contact information regardless of gender, and once someone had groped Wooyeon’s body taking advantage of the crowded people.
But the biggest reason was that when mixed in the crowd, if he smelled other people’s pheromones, he felt disgusted. Was it because Jeonghan periodically marked him? If there was an alpha nearby, just that alone sometimes made him nauseous. It seemed to get worse over time, but Wooyeon tried to attribute it to his own mood.
When he came out of the exit closest to the company, the air of the morning that still had dusk settled greeted Wooyeon. Among the office workers busily walking around with their respective destinations, Wooyeon, who had likewise been walking quickly, hesitated. Wooyeon took out his vibrating phone and lowered his head to look at it.
「Hyung, how’s your time today?」
It was Sunwoo. He was the almost only junior with whom Wooyeon, whose human relationships had been virtually cut off except for Jeonghan, consistently exchanged contact. If it had been someone else, it would have been a connection that would have been cut off long ago. This was entirely thanks to Sunwoo who didn’t care about Wooyeon’s insensitivity.
「It’s been forever since we saw each other ㅠㅠ」
When Wooyeon didn’t answer, at the message that quickly arrived additionally, Wooyeon smiled faintly. Come to think of it, it seemed like quite a long time had passed since they’d met. No matter how much he had no attachment to and was insensitive about relationships with others, there was no way he wouldn’t be grateful to Sunwoo who sought him out every time like this. Wooyeon sent a reply to his message while walking toward the office building.
「Okay, when should we meet?」
As soon as he sent the answer, messages arrived again in succession.
「Let’s meet today. No take-backs!」
「Can we meet right after you get off work? Let me know later when you finish.」
At the end of Sunwoo’s message was a smiling face emoticon.
「Okay.」
When Wooyeon, who sent such a short answer, took his gaze off his phone and raised his head, he had already arrived at the office building.
Wooyeon, who went in after scanning his employee ID at the entrance, was waiting for the elevator when someone tapped his shoulder from behind. When he turned around, it was Assistant Manager Yoon.
“Oh. Seo Wooyeon, do you come at this time every day? You come really early.”
“Good morning, Assistant Manager Yoon-nim.”
He met an uncomfortable person from the morning. Wooyeon’s face as he bowed in greeting was stiff. Assistant Manager Yoon’s hand that stretched out brazenly briefly brushed Wooyeon’s cheek. As Wooyeon looked at the elevator floor number with an awkwardly frozen face, Assistant Manager Yoon spoke to him again.
“I came early today because there was an amazing article that broke at dawn.”
“Ah, yes.”
When Wooyeon didn’t respond much even to the words “amazing article,” a “tsk” sound came from Assistant Manager Yoon’s mouth as if deflated. Just then, the elevator arrived on the first floor. When Wooyeon silently got on the elevator along with other employees around him, Assistant Manager Yoon followed on after him and chattered.
“Ah. Well, I guess Assistant Manager Seo already knew in advance? Executive Director Kwon’s engagement partner.”
Thump-
At his falling heart, Wooyeon stopped breathing. Just before the door closed, coincidentally, Jeonghan’s figure was visible in front of the executive elevator across from them, as if he had just arrived at work. Among the attendants, in the middle of employees bowing their heads in greeting, Jeonghan was looking at Wooyeon. The employees who got on the same elevator as Wooyeon also bowed their heads toward Jeonghan in unison, and as the elevator door closed, the gaze between Jeonghan and Wooyeon was cut off.
“Phew, seriously can’t say anything at the company.”
When the closed elevator went up, Assistant Manager Yoon next to him also let out a sigh. Even though it was something he knew about, Wooyeon was still frozen at the reality without warning. The elevator that quickly shot up stopped at the floor Wooyeon and Assistant Manager Yoon were going to.
“Seo Wooyeon, Seo Wooyeon!”
“Ah, yes?”
“What are you doing not getting off?”
Ah…… it seemed he’d lost his mind. After Wooyeon bowed to the other employees in the elevator, he got off the elevator. If he wasn’t conscious of it, he would stop breathing at some point.
Wooyeon barely exhaled and walked following Assistant Manager Yoon. He had to prepare his mind. Wooyeon kept repeating to himself that it was a matter unrelated to him. Whoever Jeonghan’s fiancé came out as in the article. That it didn’t matter.
“Assistant Manager Seo, good morning. What brings Assistant Manager Yoon here early today?”
When they entered Planning Team 2, Assistant Manager Kim, who had already arrived at work and had her head lowered below the partition, stood up.
“No, amazing news broke at dawn, how could I sleep. Somehow my eyes popped open.”
“I saw the article too. The PR team must be really busy today, right?”
Assistant Manager Yoon went to Assistant Manager Kim while almost throwing her bag down at her seat. Wooyeon’s face as he slowly pulled out his chair and sat down was still stiff.
“Who would have known Executive Director Kwon’s marriage partner would be a man. He looks like someone who’d like women no matter how you look at him.”
Wooyeon, who had been turning on his computer, slowly turned his head toward Assistant Manager Kim and Assistant Manager Yoon.
“……What?”
Could he have heard wrong? Wooyeon’s voice asking back trembled finely.
