Young was picking out shrimp from his salad when he suddenly raised his head. Then his eyes immediately met with Kyung-heon’s.
“……”
“……”
It didn’t seem to be an intention to look down on him as a gangster family or to be rude to an unwanted partner. The gaze looking this way was too… intent for that.
It had been like that all along. Joo Kyung-heon would end things emptily with brief answers when spoken to, yet didn’t know how to take his eyes off Young. Throughout the time when he should have spoken up if he had something to say, he just kept staring like that.
When it came to this, victim mentality or whatever was all unnecessary. Whether to get along well even if it was marriage in name only, or at least to spend this current meal pleasantly—any pretext was useless. Young was simply seized by the stubbornness of wanting to open that mouth right now.
He’d already avoided that direct gaze three or four times. This time, Young met his eyes straight on. While doing so, he threw out a question that couldn’t be left unanswered.
“Actually, I only heard about this matter roughly. So I don’t know well—could I know what conditions your side requested from our family?”
It was a question that only required stating the facts as they were. A question that guaranteed a lengthy answer, not something that could be sufficiently answered with just “Ah, yes—.”
Kyung-heon said “Ah… yes” this time too, then blinked his eyes a couple of times. After a brief pause, he finally opened his mouth slowly.
“Among our affiliates, there’s Joomyeong Bio. It’s currently divided and operating as various centers… This time, Father is pushing forward with integrated relocation.”
His speech was as slow as the speed at which he parted his lips. Kyung-heon repeatedly stopped mid-sentence, became lost in thought alone, then continued again.
He looked somewhat simple-minded, and from the way he occasionally pressed his forehead or temples, he also seemed uncomfortable.
Still, the effort to answer the given question was commendable. Young didn’t interrupt and quietly listened to his story.
To summarize, it was this: Joomyeong Bio, which started by acquiring a small pharmaceutical company, couldn’t physically handle its growing size, so it had unavoidably divided into centers by field, operating in various locations.
There had been attempts to integrate the scattered centers from before, but all had failed. Sufficient land and convenient accessibility, employee convenience and native residents’ acceptance, etc. It was naturally difficult since many factors had to align.
As a result, at some point, the integrated relocation of Joomyeong Bio became a long-cherished project, and President Joo, Kyung-heon’s father, was aiming for that big shot as justification to claim the next president position.
According to Kyung-heon’s explanation, there was already a site they had their eye on. They had found the perfect location, but for some reason, the landowner was stubbornly holding out, refusing to yield to any persuasion. There seemed to be something definitely suspicious, but it was difficult for Joomyeong, where corporate image was important, to directly get their hands dirty.
“So… we asked for help. I heard that there’s no one better than Imoon Holdings at resolving such complicated matters.”
Kyung-heon slowly but steadfastly completed his briefing with a clumsy speech pattern, yet sincerely.
It was a manner of speaking that could be called leisurely when packaged nicely, or frustrating when expressed without filter. Was it thanks to his low, soft voice? Young managed to listen until the end without losing concentration. Then he nodded a couple of times to indicate he had listened well.
Doesn’t it say even a dog in a seodang can recite poetry after three years? Having been born and raised in the Lee family for 28 years, Young caught the scent completely.
The people involved with the site President Joo coveted wouldn’t be people who could be resolved with just one-time compensation, and there would surely be an important reason why they weren’t giving up the land. It meant that the risk Joomyeong would have to bear was too great to ignore that point and push forward.
From that perspective, this marriage could be said to be a very clever choice. After all, there’s no law that says those who are greedy for money have a clean background.
What does that mean? It means that if they’d done even one shady thing, they would have interests tied to Young’s family. As a giant of the underground economy, they held tight to the corruption of anyone with a name, so Imoon Holdings was definitely advantageous in such negotiations.
Moreover, taking on a close relationship through marriage? Even concerns about talk arising later were blocked in advance. Standing firmly close by, they would guarantee thorough after-sales service. In return, Young’s family would receive numerous benefits for identity laundering and permits for business expansion with the nation’s number one corporation backing them.
Young quickly organized his thoughts. And he was about to show some reaction when Kyung-heon once again pressed his forehead with his fingertips. While lightly frowning his smooth brow.
“Are you okay? You’ve been doing that since earlier—are you not feeling well?”
“Ah… I’m fine. I have chronic headaches. It happens briefly like this and then gets better.”
As Young answered, “That’s a relief then,” a new suspicion sprouted in his mind.
‘Isn’t he disposing of a deficient son with chronic illness while he has the chance?’
Considering what Kyung-heon had shown so far, it was quite a reasonable inference. At this point, the fact that Joo Kyung-heon was a beta didn’t even seem to be among the problems.
No matter how political the marriage was, they’d have to act like a married couple—but would it be possible with this guy who was only flashy on the outside? It was a proposal he’d directly stepped forward and accepted, breaking through his siblings’ fierce opposition. Now, at this point, his will wavered.
For that reason, while Young lost his words, Kyung-heon, who had smoothed out his narrowed brow, spoke to him first.
“Um, but… may I ask something?”
“Huh? Yes. Yes. Please ask.”
“This marriage, why did you say you’d do it?”
It was unexpected. For Joo Kyung-heon, who had never initiated conversation, let alone immediately put a period when this side started speaking, to ask something like this.
Young habitually showed a light smile.
Well, not because it was a welcome question or an interesting topic. It was to buy time to think about where to start speaking from. As he pondered how honestly and how to package his words, Kyung-heon suddenly added.
“You must have known… that the other party was me.”
The calmly murmured words somehow stabbed into Young’s chest. Because it didn’t sound like he was simply referring to the fact that he was a beta.
Joomyeong was a corporation that operated thoroughly centered on alphas. Probably anyone who had used even one daily necessity product from Joomyeong would know that fact.
‘Does it make sense to send Young to a discarded card?’
That was also the reason his noona had said that. She must have thought they were throwing a good-for-nothing with no possibility of taking a position in the group at the Lee family’s flower-like omega. That’s not what’s important right now.
Anyway, his noona could say that because she was an outsider, and his hyungs could readily agree for that reason. But for him to bring it up himself with a similar nuance—it made the listener uncomfortable.
It was a bit funny to feel this emotion toward someone inherently different from him. It was because of a certain sense of kinship that rose up. The shitty situation where they lock you in one fence saying you’re similar, but you’re strangely isolated because you alone have a different aspect. There was no particular explanation, but from Kyung-heon’s one remark, he could read a part of the times he must have gone through.
Originally, a sense of kinship easily broke down walls of the heart. Young erased his ingrained smile and raised the corners of his mouth more naturally. Then, instead of the refined words in his head, he threw out an honest answer.
“I’m all grown up, so I should become independent from home, right?”
With a playful tone, in a pleasant voice.
Kyung-heon showed his characteristic dull reaction, “Ah…” Though it wasn’t his intention to tease, somehow it felt like he had. Young needlessly cleared his throat lightly.
“I don’t know if you know this, but I’m the youngest, so I grew up really preciously at home.”
“Ah… yes.”
“I’m also the only omega among the siblings, and the age gap with my noona and hyungs above me isn’t small, so everyone is head over heels for me. It’s almost thirty, and even until now.”
Kyung-heon, as he had all along, stared intently at Young. Sending signals of attentive listening with minimal reactions like blinking or nodding briefly.
“Originally the atmosphere was protective since I was the youngest, but after Mom passed away, it got even worse.”
“……”
“I’m the spitting image of Mom. It could be because they’re reminded of Mom, or it could be to fill that place since she passed away when I was young. I don’t know for sure, but anyway, the affection became excessive from that point on. Then when I manifested as an omega on top of that, it became even more extreme.”
Kyung-heon’s silence, which he had considered somewhat frustrating, was good at times like this. The feeling that he was silently listening to the story made him open up without filtering this or that.
And what about that appearance of not taking his eyes off him even for a moment? Rather than burdensome, it seemed to concentrate without letting even a single word pass carelessly, making the speaker excited.
This might be Joo Kyung-heon’s weapon.
“They want to know who I’m friends with, what happened outside—everything. Because of that, it wasn’t easy to even date once. There was someone I really liked before, and even then they interfered so much, saying ‘this guy won’t do.’ I even seriously thought about eloping, you know?”
Seeing how even unnecessary stories flowed out smoothly, it was certain.
