Gu Jongyeol couldn’t say a word.
“Not tens of millions — we’re talking hundreds of millions. Fuck. Since when is a few hundred million someone’s pocket change? Why does that crazy bastard Yeonkyu cause a scene every single time he breaks up with someone?! If someone’s clinging to you, you just ignore them. Right?”
That’s not as easy as it sounds.
Gu Jongyeol kept his mouth shut as he thought back on the handful of omegas who had grabbed at his trouser legs trying to appeal to Kang Yeonkyu. Kang Hojun, who had been stealing glances at him, let out a long sigh.
“Haah — Jongyeol! You don’t want to watch our KK go under either, do you? Right?”
Kang Hojun wiped away a fake tear.
“There’s really nothing else we can do now. Nothing at all!”
He looked as though he were about to drop to his knees in front of Gu Jongyeol, and the sheer theatrics of it left Gu Jongyeol with nothing to say. Kang Hojun, who had been watching him stand there stiffly, suddenly lit up.
“Oh, right. Come to think of it — didn’t you used to say you wanted to go to Cebu?”
Gu Jongyeol’s shoulders twitched.
Kang Hojun broke into a wide smile.
“I’ll send you to Cebu! An ultra-luxury resort, travel expenses fully covered, and if you want, I’ll even assign people to wait on you hand and foot! So just for two months — let someone else handle Yeonkyu. Yeah?”
Two months.
Gu Jongyeol stared at Kang Hojun in silence.
Kang Hojun pressed on, his expression desperate.
“‘That person’ said if we hand Yeonkyu over for just two months, they’ll turn him into a proper human being. I even asked CEO Yeo about it, and apparently no matter what kind of wild little shit goes through ‘that person’s’ hands, they come out civilized. So, Jongyeol.”
Kang Hojun grabbed Gu Jongyeol’s hand without hesitation.
“How about you take a little break — just two months?”
* * *
“Oh, for fuck’s sake!”
The moment Gu Jongyeol stepped out of the Chairman’s office and into the Secretary B Team leader’s office, he kicked a chair. The employees who had been on phone calls jolted in surprise and stared at him.
“What are you looking at, you little shits?! Eyes down, right now!”
Gu Jongyeol let the insults fly raw and cutting. The startled employees quickly buried their faces back in their desks. Gu Jongyeol looked down at his own hands, still trembling with anger that hadn’t settled.
This is such bullshit. Absolute bullshit. Complete and utter bullshit.
Not even thirty minutes ago, Gu Jongyeol had been about to tell the Chairman about his own secondary gender transition. But thirty minutes later, Gu Jongyeol had walked out with a forced vacation from Chairman Kang.
That goddamn Young Master. This is exactly why I told him to pull back on the shit-stirring.
Gu Jongyeol had more pride than he looked. The thought that he might actually quit before accepting this — being told he was unfit to manage Kang Yeonkyu — stung him in a place that was deeply, personally offensive.
Kang Hojun knew that about him, which was why he’d gone out of his way to soften the blow. He’d offered Cebu plane tickets, a resort, and even handed over a black card with instructions to charge everything to the corporate account — but as if Gu Jongyeol would ever just roll over and accept that.
[Would you like to transfer to the Apparel Division instead?]
Gu Jongyeol looked down at his palm — the hand he’d been clenching tight the whole time he stood in front of Kang Hojun.
Since he’d had his gloves off in front of the Chairman, his nails had apparently dug into his skin; his palm was covered in deep marks. He stared at the red lines scattered across his hand, then reached over and grabbed the coat he’d hung on the rack.
“H-hyung. Where are you going?”
Park Gangsu, who had been trailing behind him like a shadow ever since Gu Jongyeol had come back from the Chairman’s office, came rushing out noisily through the door as Gu Jongyeol left the team leader’s office. He latched on immediately. Gu Jongyeol gave him a light smile and opened his mouth.
“Starting today, I’m stepping down as team leader. Chairman’s orders — just so you know.”
“What?”
“If you follow me or try to contact me, even you won’t make it out alive, Gangsu.”
“H-hyung!”
“The Chairman will be sending a new team leader soon, so do as they say. Don’t bother trying to flex.”
“Hyung, what are you even—!”
“Gangsu. I told you. Follow me and you won’t make it. You want to die?”
“……”
“Good boy.”
Gu Jongyeol gave a small smirk as Park Gangsu froze at the very real edge in his voice, then turned and walked out of the secretary team.
Pushing every ounce of energy he had into shaking off this foul mood, Gu Jongyeol stormed out of the Construction Division — and then stopped dead in his tracks.
There, directly across from the Construction Division, stood a full-glass building. Gu Jongyeol fished his phone out of his coat pocket and fidgeted with it.
Rrrr. Rrrr. The dial tone rang in his ear.
—Jo, Jongyeol hyung?
Gu Jongyeol heard Yeo Mujin’s voice — startled, caught off guard. Then he spoke.
“Mujin. That offer you made me yesterday — is it still on the table?”
Gu Jongyeol, as a person, is not built to take something like this lying down.
* * *
11 hours before the incident.
—Rrrr. Rrrr.
The phone rings.
Gu Jongyeol had left his phone on the table. The moment he saw the three characters reading Young Master, his face creased with irritation. He pressed the red end button and slid it aside.
—Rrrr. Rrrr.
The Young Master was quite — no, extremely — persistent. Gu Jongyeol ground his teeth. Haah, fuck. He lifted the shot glass of soju in front of him to his lips and knocked it back.
The dark-haired young man sitting across from him watched Gu Jongyeol with a worried look, but he paid no attention. Gu Jongyeol was a little angry right now.
This time, messages came flooding in — not just one, but several at once.
He checked his phone screen.
Jongyeol hyung! Dad said something fucked up. He said you’re not handling me anymore. Is that true?
Fuck, Jongyeol hyung. Where are you right now.
Jongyeol hyung. Pick up.
Pick up, you asshole!
Gu Jongyeol, you son of a bitch!
Look who’s talking.
—Rrrr. Rrrr.
Unbelievably persistent.
Gu Jongyeol’s expression darkened at Kang Yeonkyu’s sheer nerve — not only hurling obscenities at the person who had been his caretaker this whole time, but calling nonstop on top of it.
He finally powered the phone off — and even that wasn’t enough, so he looked around. There it is. The moment Gu Jongyeol spotted the trash bin near the partitioned table, he threw his phone in without a second of hesitation.
Yeo Mujin, who had witnessed the whole thing, stared at Gu Jongyeol with a stunned expression. Gu Jongyeol caught his gaze and gave a casual smile.
“It was noisy. Now, where were we?”
[Jongyeol hyung. Did you mean what you said earlier?]
[……]
[Hyung?]
[Yeah, yeah. I’m saying I want to join your company. So let me ask you something, Mujin. Do I need any kind of certification to get in? Your people are pretty sharp, after all.]
Right — that’s where they’d left off.
A few hours earlier, Gu Jongyeol had flagged down Yeo Mujin, who came running toward him nearly breathless, and said it point-blank: he was taking him up on his offer and needed the details.
Yeo Mujin had stared at him blankly, like he couldn’t quite believe this sudden change of heart. Gu Jongyeol quickly decided this wasn’t a conversation for the street between the Construction Division and the Apparel Division, and dragged Yeo Mujin to a bar near the office.
“Hyung. Are you really… okay with not saying anything to Yeonkyu?”
Gu Jongyeol had just asked bluntly, “How much does it pay?” and was waiting for Yeo Mujin’s answer. In the middle of that, the careful question jabbed right at his nerves.
“Mujin.”
