“……Friend?”
“Why, don’t you believe me?”
Baek Jeongwoo turned around and said.
“Are you curious how I became close with that Baek Gunho? How we became close? How close we are?”
Baek Seolheon didn’t answer, but Baek Jeongwoo continued excitedly without caring.
“But I’m not going to tell you. That’s Baek Gunho’s privacy, isn’t it?”
Baek Jeongwoo raised one corner of his mouth and smiled mischievously.
When Baek Seolheon looked at him with emotionless eyes without any change in expression, he clicked his tongue and snorted.
“I’ll just tell you this much—we’re extre~mely close, okay?”
“…….”
“Bastard. You have nothing to say.”
A few people passing through the corridor greeted him with words like ‘It’s Jeongwoo hyung’ and ‘Who’s next to you?’, but Baek Jeongwoo simply answered ‘A relative’ and passed them by.
Then Baek Seolheon spoke.
“So, you lured me here just to say that one thing—that you’re close with my hyung?”
“Hey, hey! Lured? I just wanted to see my cousin’s face once, so I slightly told Bang Geunhyuk…….”
“The fact that hyung has acquaintances with main family members isn’t that surprising in itself.”
Baek Seolheon spoke as if tossing the words out.
Unlike Baek Jeongwoo, who briefly stumbled in his steps as if flustered, Baek Seolheon’s gait didn’t waver until the end.
“I know that hyung occasionally shows his face at Baekil.”
“……Did Baek Gunho tell you?”
“No. I found out.”
“Oh really? You found out? How?”
“That’s my privacy.”
At those words, Baek Jeongwoo stopped dead in his tracks and glared at Baek Seolheon.
Even at his openly displeased expression, Baek Seolheon continued nonchalantly.
“What do you want? From me and my hyung?”
“…….”
“That’s what I came to hear. Even to a place filled with this disgusting smell.”
“……Smell? What smell?”
Baek Jeongwoo unconsciously sniffed and inhaled the surrounding air.
Aside from the artificial perfume smell and the rough pheromones characteristic of excited alphas and omegas, he didn’t particularly feel anything that could be called a foul odor.
“There’s no particular smell.”
“Just answer.”
“When you ask so openly like that, I’m getting embarrassed. I was trying to meet you out of pure curiosity and goodwill, but you’re treating me like some villain.”
Baek Jeongwoo returned to a relaxed face and waved his hand as he continued.
“I’m sorry for baiting you with talk about Baek Gunho. That bastard Bang Geunhyuk was drawing so much fucking aggro with talk about you that everyone was nagging about when he’d bring you. He kept whining that you were immovable, so I slipped him a tip.”
The finger that had been wagging in time with his words pointed at Baek Gunho.
“Your hyung. I told him if he brings up Baek Gunho, you’d come running.”
“…….”
“Are you that worried about your hyung? You live with Baek Gunho, right? For quite a long time too.”
At those words, Baek Seolheon looked at Baek Jeongwoo. His brow was fiercely furrowed.
“I heard your hyung usually takes very good care of you. He must be a really good hyung, right?”
Turmoil showed on Baek Seolheon’s face, which had been expressionless until now.
“He must have seemed like a really good hyung, right?”
Seeing his opponent finally react, Baek Jeongwoo got excited and his voice quickened.
“That bastard. He completely melted even the stubborn old folks, so it must be even more insane with his younger brother, right? I wish he’d ‘pretend’ to be a bit kind to me too?”
Baek Jeongwoo, who deliberately emphasized a certain word strongly, laughed like a mischievous child.
“After firmly declaring he has no interest in the main family’s assets, he’s been wiping our grandfather’s ass for over 10 years. After giving up his academic background saying he hates standing out, he’s trying to get involved in managing VivaPlay and other miscellaneous businesses. This is what I heard from grandpa’s secretary—he might be entrusted with something big soon? To that guy who kept saying like a mantra that he wouldn’t get involved in group business.”
Then, twisting his lips, he said to Baek Seolheon in a low voice.
“Isn’t this too different, front and back? Your hyung.”
“…….”
“Let me give you some advice as your cousin hyung. Don’t trust Baek Gunho too much.”
“To be honest.”
Baek Seolheon immediately responded.
“Between someone I’ve known for less than a day and family I’ve lived with my whole life, realistically who would I trust?”
“Ah. I know, I know. It can be hard to trust someone you’re meeting for the first time. But.”
When Baek Jeongwoo, who had stopped in front of a door, held up a card key, the lock released and it opened.
“I’m supposed to meet here, you see? With that Baek Gunho. Right now.”
Through the crack in the door, a considerably spacious interior was revealed.
A sofa that could easily seat 10 people, on the room table were champagne and whiskey bottles neatly placed in a silver ice bucket. Next to them, chilled glasses were arranged at each seat—there appeared to be over 10 by rough estimate.
“Wouldn’t it be okay to listen here and then decide whose words to believe?”
“…….”
“Of course, if that’s what you want.”
Without even waiting for an answer, Baek Jeongwoo strode in and stood in front of a latticed cabinet displaying decorative items.
“There are a lot of interesting things here. Want to see?”
He firmly pressed a button hidden behind one of the ceramic pieces.
Then the cabinet slid back, revealing a hidden door.
Baek Jeongwoo stepped inside the door and looked back.
“What are you doing not coming?”
At his continued urging, Baek Seolheon silently followed him in.
The interior was an ordinary bedroom with a bed and bathroom.
Except for the CCTV footage displayed on the large monitor.
“It’s a local network with stock programs. A completely unmanipulated live broadcast. There are 30 installed cameras and the sound quality is good too. I heard the pheromones are completely blocked, but you’re a beta so you don’t need to worry about it.”
“…….”
“Bad taste, right? There are surprisingly many people who like this kind of thing.”
Baek Jeongwoo sat on the edge of the bed and said.
“Doesn’t it seem like it’ll be fun?”
“You want me to doubt my hyung.”
“I’m worried because our cousin seems to live too confined.”
Then he furrowed his brow and sighed as if truly regretful.
“What does being a beta matter in this day and age? I was concerned because it seemed like you weren’t coming to main family gatherings because you felt inferior about that. Of course, there’s also the bad relationship between your aunt and the family elders, but…… would that really be all?”
Then he clasped his hands together and bowed his head.
“Isn’t it too much of a waste to end your life living only in the prison Baek Gunho designed?”
Baek Jeongwoo’s gray-blue eyes and Baek Seolheon’s navy blue eyes met head-on.
“So. This cousin hyung is going to help you.”
* * *
Psssht.
“What the, what’s that?”
“Passing through…….”
Psssht psssht.
“Ah! It’s cold!”
“Excuse me…….”
Psssht psssht psssht.
“Hey! I got wet! What is this!”
“I’m sorry…….”
“Huh? Lee Yeongwoo? Isn’t that person LK’s youngest?”
“N, no…….”
Lee Yeongwoo covered his face with the back of his hand and cautiously looked back at me.
“……Gunho-ya. Is this really helping?”
“It’s better than nothing.”
Lee Yeongwoo’s other hand was holding something.
On the surface of that item, it read:
[Super Strong Pheromone Deodorizer! Mini Version Released!
Fits in your handbag! Fits in your inner pocket! Always with you!
We take care of your sexual health. Baekil Pharmaceuticals.]
This was my lifeline.
It was Baekil Pharmaceuticals’ new product that I’d taken note of when I received lessons from Lee Haram before.
Right now, Lee Yeongwoo was going around me like a satellite orbiting Earth, maintaining vigilance in all directions and spraying wherever there was a pheromone smell.
“Thanks, Yeongwoo-ya.”
“Yeah. It’s a bit embarrassing, but……. No, if you’re okay with it, Gunho…….”
There were two reasons I entrusted that precious lifeline to Lee Yeongwoo instead of holding it myself.
First, with pheromone control below elementary school level, Lee Yeongwoo, a dominant omega, was much more skilled at detecting pheromones than a half-wit alpha who had become dull from medication.
‘My legs…… are shaking.’
Second, I didn’t even have the strength to raise my hand.
Lee Yeongwoo’s eyes followed me as I walked swaying like a drunk.
“Gunho-ya. How about going back even now?”
“No. Since we came this far…….”
“This is almost used up though?”
“What?”
The poker face I’d been maintaining, pretending to be fine on the outside, crumbled. We’d entered the building less than 3 minutes ago, so why?
Actually, if you think about it a little, it’s natural. The 50ml spray that fits snugly even in Lee Yeongwoo’s small hand had done well just to last this long.
Maybe I should have just forgotten about appearances and brought the large 1-liter size. Regret came belatedly, but we were already in the middle of the demon king’s castle.
“It’s the room Baek Jeongwoo called for soon. Let’s hang in there just a bit more…….”
Perhaps because Lee Yeongwoo was spraying the deodorizer while adjusting the amount considering the remaining quantity, the foul smell gradually began to intensify.
‘Is this place crazy?’
My nasal passages filled with pheromones at least ten times thicker than that fishy smell I’d smelled on the 30th floor.
More unbearable than the pain of feeling like I’d suffocate to death was…… the continuously rising body temperature, the tickling in my stomach, the strange goosebumps climbing up my spine, and the unpleasant sensation like bugs crawling over my body.
Perhaps because even my sense of touch had become sensitive, I was unnecessarily conscious of the sensation of fabric brushing against me as I walked.
I had a dizzying premonition that if I wasn’t careful, I might show a disgraceful sight like the day I collapsed from a pheromone rampage.
‘Should I sing the national anthem or something in my head?’
Even that wasn’t easy.
In the dark corridor, through the cracks of open doors, worryingly loud and intense moaning sounds and very embarrassing collision sounds kept repeatedly coming, making it hard to hold onto my mental state.
How urgent must they be to do that without even thinking to close the door? I wanted to kindly close the doors tightly for them, but I stopped because just getting near the doors felt like gastric acid would come up.
Fortunately, shock therapy seemed to actually exist. Perhaps because I’d experienced the fishy smell of the male-male couple beforehand and developed some immunity, fortunately it was still bearable for now.
‘In a way, vomiting earlier was a good thing.’
If I hadn’t even done that, it would definitely be an emergency room trip. The situation is so dire that everything looks positive.
“Room 19…… Is it around here? Sorry, Gunho-ya. This is my first time here too…….”
Lee Yeongwoo diligently ran around looking for the room. He didn’t forget to spray the deodorizer intermittently either.
I was the one who should be sorry. If it weren’t for Lee Yeongwoo today, I really would have been in big trouble.
My heart was full of gratitude and guilt, but just opening my mouth felt like pheromones would mercilessly enter and beat my brain, so I had no choice but to save my words.
‘When I get back safely, I need to properly thank him.’
With the mindset of a diver going into the deep sea, I was holding my breath and moving when.
“Hm? Lee Yeongwoo?”
We ran into someone at the end of the corridor.
“And…….”
Fox-like eyes curved in an arc as they looked at me.
“We meet again? ‘Yeongwoo’s boyfriend.'”
It was Yu Gojun and his friends.
