Hyedam, who had been gauging Leo’s mood as he sat in the driver’s seat of the self-driving electric car—which couldn’t really even be called driving—used his tablet to input the address of a nearby cafe.
There hadn’t been a problem during filming, and the director and Taewon had been positive and proactive about the suddenly changed storyboard. While thinking about things that might have upset Leo’s mood, Hyedam was checking that the destination he’d entered was being set in the car navigation when he suddenly raised his head at a low coughing sound.
“…The closest place is here, but according to reviews, a cafe about 30 minutes away is good. Should I change it?”
“Because of coffee?”
“I’m sorry for not preparing coffee because I was preoccupied with the weather.”
“What does Hyedam-ssi have to be sorry about? It’s my temperament.”
At Leo’s unexpected confession, Hyedam couldn’t find an appropriate response. So you do know. I thought you were living without knowing your temperament was unique.
“How long until arrival?”
“It’ll probably take about three hours. If it’s okay with you, how about going to the newly searched cafe instead of the nearby place? There are comments saying the bakery is good too.”
“Do whatever’s comfortable for you, Hyedam-ssi.”
At the sight of Leo reclining his seat comfortably, crossing his arms and closing his eyes, Hyedam pressed his lips together and changed the stopover. After putting on classical music that Leo liked and stealing a glance at him, Hyedam relaxed with a short sigh.
When he was near Leo, all his nerves stood on edge. It wasn’t high-tension nervousness or discomfort either. It just felt like all his senses were directed toward him. He became extremely sensitive to even small changes in expression or meaningless movements.
How many years had he worked in the secretarial team, and how many superiors had he gone through?
At first, he glanced at Leo furtively, but when he seemed to be deeply asleep, Hyedam turned his seat a little and enjoyed looking at him to his heart’s content. After he suddenly disappeared, he’d thought a lot. He’d thought about reunion-related things too, but he’d never once thought of this kind of development.
That he was three years younger than him, that he would become his workplace superior, that his background would be so tremendous—none of it matched his expectations. Just one thing. Only his thought that perhaps he might have forgotten him hit the mark.
Still, it seems you lived well and healthily. I wasn’t doing so well though.
After examining his face for a while, Hyedam’s gaze moved to Leo’s hands. He recalled him suddenly grabbing and pulling him earlier. Going to one corner of the set like that and saying it was nothing. Acting like it was urgent. Then he looked at his own hand that he’d held and slowly brought his nose to his wrist.
Recalling the coffee scent he felt from Leo and the flower scent he’d felt from Taewon, he breathed in slowly and deeply. A fragrant bread scent. One corner of Hyedam’s lips rose slightly as he tried to find that pheromone that had disappeared from him. What pheromone? He only felt the scent of the body cleanser he used.
Should he get a detailed pheromone-related examination at his next comprehensive checkup? Though he often had odd thoughts, it seemed like a really odd thought, so a giggle leaked out. If he was diagnosed as omega even if recessive, he’d have to quit work.
A big portion of the reason he could do this job was the clause about being beta. Then he wouldn’t be able to see Leo naturally, and would all these strange feelings disappear too?
Hyedam looked again at his face breathing evenly with a comfortable expression. No matter how many times he looked, he was handsome. It seemed more like he took after his maternal side than paternal side. Above all, his eye color added to his mysterious atmosphere.
His eyes, which changed to various colors depending on the intensity or angle of light, seemed to hold many emotions. Sometimes, really just occasionally, it created the illusion that Leo liked him.
He didn’t know from when he’d been looking at him, but the look in his eyes when they met when he suddenly raised his head, or his lips that rose slightly along with it, were like that.
Feeling like delusions were starting again, Hyedam corrected his sitting posture and sighed as he took out his phone. Rather than having useless thoughts while leaving a sleeping person alone, it seemed better to do something a bit more productive.
So, something like appreciating our excellent Taewon-ssi. Hyedam, who entered his phone gallery, looked at the photo at the very front and grinned widely.
How could he be so handsome even taking casual photos? Even while looking, he missed him. The screen couldn’t properly capture the person. And that voice on top of that. A smile bloomed on Hyedam’s face as he recalled Taewon, who had affectionately called his name while smiling.
“Why did you stop looking?”
Stop looking at what? At Leo’s voice that was suddenly heard, Hyedam raised his head with a start and blankly stared at Leo, who was looking at him while lying comfortably in his seat.
“You were looking at me.”
I did look at you. But right now I’m looking at our excellent Taewon-ssi? So what? What? What did I do wrong again?
“I even pretended to sleep so you could keep looking.”
This crazy bastard.
Just as he upgraded him from elegantly crazy to just plain crazy, he acted suddenly normal and made him flustered, but it seemed he couldn’t abandon that temperament after all.
He wasn’t sleeping? He definitely struck a sleeping pose, closed his eyes, and his steady breathing and everything was the sleeping appearance itself.
“Should I stare at you?”
A tone he would absolutely never normally use popped out.
“Yes.”
Because the conversation would flow to strange places if he let his guard down even a little, Hyedam checked the time on the navigation.
“It might be boring, but if you can endure a little longer, we’ll arrive at the cafe.”
If you were a regular person, I’d tell you to drink cold water and get a grip, but I’ll specially tell you to drink espresso by the bowl and come to your senses. After eating your favorite coffee and bread, that weird temper should die down a bit.
“No matter how I look at it, aren’t I better than Han Taewon?”
Who are you comparing to what! Looks are neck and neck, but at least our Han Taewon-ssi isn’t a psycho.
“…Do you really think so?”
“I’m not worse.”
“That’s true.”
Seeing him get worked up like this, he really did seem young. Staking his life on useless things. When they first met and he spoke informally, he told him not to do that, and the words he said were something like anyone could see you seem older than me, wasn’t it?
“Did you say it takes about three hours to get there?”
“Yes, as long as there’s no special weather anomaly or traffic jam.”
“Let’s put down titles and positions and all that and talk comfortably.”
Just moments ago his tone was semi-formal and no different from usual, but he brought up a flustering agenda with a serious voice, so Hyedam straightened his seat that had been comfortably reclined.
“Team Leader-nim?”
“Let’s drop that title. No matter how much I think about it, I just can’t understand, so I’m going to ask directly, so you answer too without thinking about things.”
Asking directly is fine, but even if we take a step back and omit polite titles! You? You? You. You’re trying to be on equal footing with me now?
Huh.
A deflating sound came from Hyedam’s mouth in bewilderment.
“Is working with me uncomfortable?”
“Not particularly.”
“From now on, what I say won’t affect performance reviews or work at all, so speak comfortably.”
“Whether private or public, I don’t know which aspect you’re talking about, but I have no complaints about work life.”
He had been hurt by him suddenly appearing and not remembering him. The first week working with him had been quite difficult. Because he kept overlapping with Ondal in his memory. Small habits like narrowing his eyes or moving his eyebrows when thinking about something or concentrating kept catching his eye.
But as the time they spent together was short, there wasn’t much to remember or reminisce about. Only now was he finally starting to see Leo—not Ondal—as he was.
The problem was his small actions that seemed like flirting while saying he was ugly. While saying he didn’t have a taste for liking ugly things. He was clearly the superior he served, but rather it felt like he was taking care of him.
But irritation surged at his tone that seemed to create a strange atmosphere and probe his feelings.
He liked the handsome Han Taewon. He’d been excited meeting him a little while ago and was happy taking photos together. But what made him flustered, what made his heart race, what made him tense with just one small action—it was all Leo.
Because he was his workplace superior, because he was someone he had to serve, observing him and creating an environment where he could work comfortably was on a different dimension.
He flinched when he came close, and was swayed by such trivial things as just holding his hand to move locations together, not containing any particular emotion. Even if he tried to think and recognize it as just a passing connection, a one-night stand, his heart couldn’t do that.
“Then. Why do I feel like you’re putting up walls and not giving even a little opening?”
“I don’t really know Team Leader-nim’s standards. If we’d met privately, perhaps it would have become a slightly different relationship, but as a relationship that met and is maintained as superior and subordinate at the company, I think there are no special conflict issues between me and Team Leader-nim right now.”
“You mingle comfortably with others, laugh and talk, but you don’t do that with me.”
“Then. What changes?”
“It changes. Many things.”
As the coffee scent thickened along with small words that seemed like muttering to himself in a low voice, Hyedam slightly pulled his body back.
