Who’s pulling one over on whom? The more I listened to Baek Sahyun’s story, the more unjustly accused I felt.
“…Hey, fuck. Wait a minute. Let me sort this out, okay? I only just found out they were omegas when you told me.”
It was true. In fact, I had only just now learned that the guy in the baseball cap was an alpha. It was a natural result since I was a beta who couldn’t sense pheromones, but Baek Sahyun shook his head as if to say that wasn’t the case.
“You knew everything. You knew, but you went there because you wanted to play around with omegas.”
He spat out the word “omegas” with particular emphasis. It was true that I went out because I wanted to play around, but it absolutely wasn’t because I wanted to play around with omegas. Much less twenty-year-old omegas…. I pleaded haltingly.
“B-but I came right out as soon as I went in, so how can there be no mitigating circumstances?”
“Impossible. You’re the one who sold out even your parents to tell lies, Jang Woohyun. When every word that comes out of your mouth could be a lie, mitigating circumstances are out of the question.”
“Then ask Lee Yunjae, ask Lee Yunjae. He’ll prove it. I really opened the door, and the moment I saw the girls I was so dumbfounded I got out of there. As if I would do something with kids as young as Haesu…!”
Bang! That’s when it happened. Baek Sahyun swung the baseball bat and struck the trash can. It seemed he did it because it was blocking his path toward me, and thanks to that, I could only stare with my mouth hanging open.
‘That bastard…, he’s completely lost it.’
Goosebumps rose all over my body. Perhaps because my mind had completely frozen, I couldn’t think of any way to deal with this anymore. Just as I was feeling miserable thinking that all that was left was the process of getting beaten to a pulp, I let out my voice as if making a last-ditch struggle.
“…Are you my wife or something?”
“……”
“You’re not my fucking wife, so what does it matter to you whether a stranger goes on blind dates or not, whether I meet omegas or not? You had Lee Yunjae spy on me, didn’t you? I thought something was strange. Last time too, you guessed right away that I was with Lee Yunjae. You even went so far as to attach someone to me to monitor me?”
Tears were welling up. There’s a limit to reading Baek Sahyun’s moods, but to receive a beating with a club just for the crime of secretly going on one blind date.
If it had just been getting punched once, I wouldn’t have felt this wronged. I would have taken the hit cleanly and been done with it. I knew Baek Sahyun had trauma regarding omegas.
But Baek Sahyun was reacting excessively. Just like someone who had suffered an unprecedented betrayal from someone they loved.
I continued spouting off.
“Fine. I understand that you’re in a situation where you can’t help but be sick of the romance between alphas and omegas who have eyes only for each other. I also have trauma from a hit-and-run, so I don’t want to dismiss and ignore your trauma as if it’s nothing.”
“……”
“But you fucker, this is too extreme. I can empathize that you might feel bad, but instead of expressing those feelings with words, beating me with a club is really not right. Isn’t this something you could get arrested by the police for? If I report you…”
“Go ahead.”
Baek Sahyun answered with a calm attitude.
“Go ahead and try. Report me.”
“……”
“Call 112 and tell them to arrest me.”
“Think I can’t do it?”
“No. I think you will.”
Whirl, the baseball bat spun in a wide circle. Baek Sahyun, who had spun the baseball bat as if loosening his wrist, declared.
“But your ankle will break before that happens.”
“Hey, hey! Don’t come near! Fuck, I said don’t come near!”
“I clearly said I liked you, I even confessed, Jang Woohyun. Since you’re someone I like, I honestly told you my story too…, didn’t you feel it?”
“Baek Sahyun!”
“When I went that far and you still act like this…, wouldn’t even I feel like my heart is being torn apart?”
I did think that if he were the type to be okay with being stopped, he wouldn’t have started this in the first place, but I couldn’t just vaguely wait to be beaten.
“What the hell do you even want to do with me!”
I shouted until my throat was hoarse.
“Should we get married? Pick a date and hold a ceremony? Would you be satisfied if I stamp the marriage registration form?”
“……”
“Then when Nam Heejae’s soul comes back and you two become a married couple, that would be great, yeah. When you have to live under the same blanket with a bastard you found so disgusting, do you think you could even endure it?”
Perhaps because I had become extremely agitated, all sorts of words were pouring out.
“I’m not originally from this world, fuck. I told you so many times! This is inside a novel, and you’re the protagonist of that novel, and your partner isn’t me but Chae Eunwoo, okay? No matter how much you deny it, reality won’t change. Just as I look like a ghost to you who took over and settled into Nam Heejae’s body, to me you’re just a character made of paper, nothing more and nothing less!”
“…Jang Woohyun.”
“What you’re doing right now, you were actually supposed to do all of this to Chae Eunwoo. It’s just that the content got twisted because I happened to possess Nam Heejae’s body and met you. You don’t actually think that you’re throwing this tantrum because you really like me, do you?”
“Shut up.”
“Man! You were planning to do this bullshit with that personality of yours to anyone! And yet you like me? You like me? When you’re just a paper character, when you act as the author wrote, as they set you up, what do you know to be talking about emotions! The only real emotion here is the horror I feel when I look at you.”
“……”
“Do you understand now?”
This could almost be called verbal abuse. Of course, it couldn’t compare to the foul language Baek Sahyun had spewed at me all this time, but my heart began to ache as I watched Baek Sahyun drop the baseball bat and turn around. A belated regret stabbed at my throat, wondering if I really needed to say it that harshly.
The rolling baseball bat and the quiet air. From my moistened eyes, teardrops finally began to fall, and I rubbed my eyes dry, holding back tears.
“Fuck….”
But my throat kept choking up again and again. The truth was, I didn’t think of Baek Sahyun as just a scrap of paper, just a novel character. At least here, Baek Sahyun was real. Right. He was also a real person, and he really….
Maybe he came to like me.
I don’t know what kind of chaos this is at my age. No matter how mature Baek Sahyun was compared to his peers, he was still much younger than the original me. Moreover, he was someone who couldn’t develop proper human emotions because he suffered from abuse by his biological parents, so I felt lingering regret that I might have hurt him too meanly.
What if I had spoken more gently? You never know, right? Maybe Baek Sahyun wasn’t really trying to beat me up, but just brought the baseball bat for threats….
However, Baek Sahyun had already left me, and so I could only lean against the wall in a daze for a long time.
“Haesu….”
I called out the name of the person I missed most at this moment and let out an empty laugh. I was an immature and hopeless older brother even by Haesu’s side, and that didn’t change even when I borrowed a body with completely different conditions.
Even inside this novel, Jang Woohyun was still an immature and hopeless bastard.
❖ ❖ ❖
I’ve thought of a proposal that Heejae-gun might accept, I hope you’re interested.
While I was regretting my own actions the whole time in the cold wind, mysterious messages arrived from Chairwoman Baek Seonghee, the head of Haseon Group.
If you accept my request, I’ll take responsibility and send Sahyun to study abroad. I can make sure he won’t come near Heejae-gun for the next 5 years. I can make it so he can’t even set foot on Korean soil without Heejae-gun’s permission.
It was truly eye-opening talk. Perhaps because it came right after having that dog fight with Baek Sahyun, the proposal sounded even more tempting.
Next Sunday at 7, I’ll wait at the restaurant where we met before, so think it over.
I only felt the urge to accept immediately without needing to think it over. I was tired of growling at Baek Sahyun, and furthermore, it was troublesome that even I myself wasn’t looking at Baek Sahyun with as much malice as before. Since I didn’t have even a speck of confidence to handle the increasingly complicated situations, it seemed like I could become free if I just got rid of Baek Sahyun far away.
So I spent a week without exchanging a single message with Baek Sahyun, and departed for the restaurant Chairwoman Baek Seonghee had designated.
“Right. This might be the best option.”
For both Baek Sahyun and me.
Standing in front of the restaurant, I did feel a bit like maybe I shouldn’t have come, but since I had already drawn my sword, I had the stronger feeling that I should at least cut something.
“Hello, Chairwoman. It’s been a while.”
Inside the restaurant was only Chairwoman Baek Seonghee. I hurried over and gave a relatively polished greeting. The Chairwoman, who had been on a call, put down her phone and smiled.
“You came, Heejae-gun. Please sit.”
As soon as I was called by that charismatic voice, I couldn’t help but straighten up. When I pulled out a chair and sat with precise movements, the Chairwoman immediately got to the point.
“I don’t want to drag out a boring conversation, so I’ll ask directly.”
“Yes? …Yes, Chairwoman. Please speak.”
“Are you interested in manifesting as an omega?”
“……”
“I’m asking because I want Heejae-gun to bear my grandchild. Naturally, I’m talking about Sahyun’s child.”
It was the moment when the rumor about Haseon Group’s breeding stallion became reality approaching me.
