“Were you startled? Park Gwangho-ssi?”
“Brothers, both of you… My group is waiting, so I’ll be going now.”
Park Gwangho, who was about to curse, frowned and turned around to find his nearby group.
Chaehun was curious about why Park Gwangho’s attitude suddenly changed and asked Kang Yeonghwan.
“What did you do?”
“That person’s an Alpha.”
“Really?”
“He was releasing pheromones all over hyung, so I pushed back. Seeing that he couldn’t last even a few seconds, he must be recessive.”
“…?!”
Chaehun was shocked by Kang Yeonghwan’s words. He had suspected last time that Park Gwangho might be a Trait-bearer. If so, he had briefly thought about why he wasn’t saying anything. Among Trait-bearers, dominant and recessive were a kind of power difference and hierarchy.
In the case of recessives, the characteristics of Trait-bearers appeared relatively weak. Ordinary people couldn’t tell, but he had heard that among Trait-bearers, they couldn’t attract others. There was a reason why Park Gwangho, who liked to show off, hid being a Trait-bearer.
“Did hyung mistake him for an Omeragara? Huh, huh? Why are you looking over there? Hyung? You work with that person? But how is he going there? Huh?”
“What?”
“There, he’s going there. That’s not a place just anyone can go.”
Chaehun looked where Kang Yeonghwan was pointing. The spacious club had a two-story structure, and going up the stairs, you could look down at the entire club from the second floor. Two guards were standing at the entrance of the stairs. Chaehun realized that place was for VIPs. Park Gwangho, who had the hospital chairman of Taehwa Hospital as his backing and knew Sunny who hosted the party, would naturally be a VIP.
“Huh?”
As Chaehun was withdrawing his gaze from Park Gwangho, he discovered another unexpected person. Because of the flashing colored lights, he focused his eyes just to be sure. The guy whose head was a full head taller than the people around him was definitely Seunggeon.
The moment he was certain, he made eye contact with Seunggeon, who turned his head this way. Just like with Park Gwangho, he wondered why he was here.
Even though they were meeting under a contract, they didn’t touch on each other’s private lives. Still, he never expected to see Seunggeon in a place like this. Wearing a stiff classic suit, he didn’t look like he fit in at a club.
The distance was far and because of the lights, he couldn’t tell what expression Seunggeon was making. He just watched as Seunggeon turned his head and went up to the second floor. That guy was a VIP too.
“Hyung, hyung? What are you looking at?”
“Huh, why?”
Chaehun barely came to his senses and looked at Kang Yeonghwan.
“What kind of person is he?”
“Other than working in General Affairs on a 2-year contract, I don’t know anything either.”
“Introduce me.”
“I just did.”
“Not that. You said you work together, so give me his phone number.”
At the request for a phone number, Chaehun frowned. That was out of the question.
“He’s not someone to get close to. He can’t do his job and has a bad personality. Don’t bother.”
“Who said I’d work with him? Hyung, you’re really bad at social life. Whether he can’t do his job or has a bad personality, you just need to know each other appropriately and get along. Building connections with people like that helps later on.”
Watching Kang Yeonghwan lecture him while clicking his tongue, Chaehun swallowed a sigh. If it was Kang Yeonghwan, who acted as a mood maker and easily made friends, he might get along well with Park Gwangho. As Kang Yeonghwan said, knowing each other appropriately might be good. But he wanted to decline being caught in the middle.
“I don’t want to get involved with that guy.”
“It’s okay. I’ll handle it myself.”
“I’m not okay with it. I told you before—that bastard is the one who used my name and badmouthed the nurses. Do you know how awkward that made things for me? And even after that, he didn’t apologize. We fought once more after that, so we barely talk properly in the office. But you’re going to call him and be friendly? Setting aside my position, don’t get involved with a person like that. He’s low quality.”
“That’s not a big deal.”
Chaehun didn’t try to persuade Kang Yeonghwan any further when he said it wasn’t a big deal even though he was low quality. When he wouldn’t listen, going strong was the best approach.
“Kang Yeonghwan.”
“Aw. Fine. You’ve become such a old fogy. Hmph.”
The moment Kang Yeonghwan grumbled about him being an old fogy, a jingling bell rang inside the club. With that, the atmosphere changed completely. As the music quieted, the DJ shouted loudly.
“It’s a battle. Battle!!”
The response to the word “battle” was amazing. People shouted, whistled, and began clearing the floor. Then a man standing in the middle of the floor, caught in a spotlight, cursed and pointed at someone. The man he pointed at stepped onto the floor with a crumpled face. Then the cheers rang out loudly again.
For Chaehun, it was a situation where he couldn’t understand what was going on.
“What is it?”
“It’s a battle.”
Kang Yeonghwan answered sulkily. Chaehun had also heard the word battle, but it wasn’t a word that should come up in a club.
“What’s that?”
“Geez. Hyung really is an old man now. An old man.”
“I am an old man. So what is it?”
“You call out someone you don’t like separately and fight in front of people. It’s been a trend for a while.”
Even before going to the military, Chaehun had gone to clubs and played around moderately. Back then too, all sorts of strange things became trends and disappeared. Pulling each other’s hair and fighting wasn’t anything to be surprised about. Fights breaking out in clubs happened often. Having everyone watch fistfights in front of everyone under the name of battle was truly a brilliant idea.
While he was admiring this, the battle started. Chaehun, who had been eagerly watching the fight, was soon disappointed. Despite the grandiose name and the DJ’s excited commentary, the actual content was lackluster.
The two men who had been keeping their guard up and only throwing jabs ended up grappling with each other and rolling on the floor. People cheered that this was good too. But to Chaehun’s eyes, having properly learned martial arts, it was below expectations.
After a takedown, controlling the opponent with a mount was important. But because both had similar builds and skills, they kept rolling back and forth without landing effective hits.
Then the man who happened to strike his opponent’s chin gained the upper hand. He mounted his opponent and punched frantically. Eventually, the man getting thoroughly beaten shouted surrender and the situation ended. Whether his nose was bleeding or what, the man who surrendered had a blood-covered face.
The man who lost the battle came down from the floor without being able to say anything. And the winner was surrounded by people and received cheers. Chaehun clicked his tongue at the childish but cruel winner-takes-all scene. Hanging out with kids felt like his energy was being drained away.
“I’m leaving now.”
“Already?”
“It’s boring. And I’m hungry.”
“No. I have someone to introduce you to.”
“What? An introduction?”
At this first-time mention, Chaehun looked at Kang Yeonghwan. The guy who had been sulking became urgent.
“He’s a hyung-nim I know. I talked a lot about how nice our hyung is. So he wants to meet you once. That hyung-nim is really great too. Handsome, tall. Right. Rich too. Good personality. So I was going to introduce you.”
Simply compressing Kang Yeonghwan’s explanation, it meant a blind date. Chaehun swallowed a sigh. In this situation, it was funny to be introduced to a man by his younger brother.
“You decided that on your own?”
“No, it’s not like I’m telling you to date right away. Knowing each other would be good for both of you. That hyung-nim is a company president too. He does car tuning.”
“No way.”
“Save me some face here. I’m the one who arranged this, so it’ll be a problem for me if you just leave, hyung.”
“Then what about me being in a bind? Why don’t you ask for my opinion?”
“Why would you be in a bind? I’m just asking you to exchange names and get to know each other. Wait. Don’t tell me. Do you have someone you’re seeing? Is that it? Then just put in a face appearance. Just say hi and then I’ll handle the rest and say you weren’t a good match.”
Kang Yeonghwan, who had jumped to his own conclusions, presented a solution. Chaehun didn’t bother to correct him that he wasn’t actually seeing anyone. It was too bothersome, and also because Seunggeon came to mind. But before that, there was something else he needed to ask Kang Yeonghwan.
“Before you handle everything yourself, shouldn’t you ask me first whether I’ll do it or not?”
“Well, you’d say no if I asked. She’s really a great person, I’m telling you. You think I’d call you all the way out here just to introduce you for no reason?”
“I don’t need ‘great person’ or whatever. Like you said, you handle it yourself. I need to fix that habit of yours this time. Seriously, how many times has this been now?”
“Why are you being so sensitive? It’s just asking you to meet once.”
“Right. I am sensitive and I have a bad temper. I’m not going to save my little brother’s face over just that. Are we good?”
