Yu Gojun clapped his hands with a smile.
“Now, let’s start twenty questions!”
“Is your surname Kim? Ahn?”
“Age—25, up? Down?”
“Which university? Did you graduate?”
“Study abroad? America? England? Germany?”
After the barrage of questions ended, I said.
“I never said I’d answer.”
“What the. Killjoy.”
“Boo, no fun.”
I agree. I’m not having fun either.
The place Yu Gojun guided me to was a room on the first floor of the building. It was a space that seemed like a combination of a mansion from a movie and a bar composed of rooms.
The interior reminiscent of an old European noble’s bedroom, the floor-to-ceiling glass windows, and beyond them the view of a stage flashing with neon lights and a giant swimming pool were utterly unbalanced.
All of Yu Gojun’s friends I met here were alphas—all five were children of business people, legal professionals, or artistic masters that anyone would know.
“Yu Gojun. This person’s not very funny, you know?”
“Right. There’s nothing to see besides the face. What about that idol group Emotionz? I heard they came, why don’t we just call them to hang out?”
“They’ve already been called elsewhere.”
“Ah, we’re late.”
When the audience’s reaction was lukewarm, Yu Gojun suggested something else.
“Then is it okay if we just speculate freely?”
It’s not okay. I said don’t do it.
“Let’s try guessing just by looking at the appearance first?”
“Let’s do it. If we keep guessing randomly, at least one thing will hit.”
In the end, they resumed the game on their own. These guys, do they have nothing to play with?
If it was going to be like this, I should have just run outside the hotel even if it meant filming a chase scene.
“Who are the kids who don’t come to parties often?”
“The Pyeonghwadang line really hates getting into scandals here so they don’t send people often. Isn’t it that side?”
“Let’s be perceptive. Isn’t he keeping his mouth shut because it’s an embarrassing family to talk about?”
“If he were a nobody, he wouldn’t even get invited here. Whose introduction did he come by?”
“How old is he? Seeing the hyungs I know, they don’t really come out after graduating university. Wouldn’t he be younger than that?”
“Looking at how he dresses, it’s old-fashioned though. That’s Brioni, right? I’m in fashion so I can estimate just by looking.”
Appraising someone right in front of them. If at the Baekil main family there was blatant negative gossiping, the people here were literally appraisers looking at an object’s estimate.
“You seem to prefer quite modest clothes. Your watch is also rather frugal.”
Calling top-tier brand suits and watches that easily cost hundreds of thousands modest. As a former commoner, my heart feels stuffy.
I haven’t been able to meet Chairman Baekil-do recently, so my immunity to the upper class must have weakened.
“With that face, wouldn’t something flashy like Tom Ford or Kiton suit better than Brioni?”
“Ah, I agree. It’d be better to really stand out.”
Actually, I was going to wear much more modest clothes than this.
But strangely, when I tried to find them today, they weren’t visible. Even though I searched every corner of the dressing room thoroughly, they weren’t there. I clearly remember wearing them several times when I went to meet Chairman Baekil-do before, but they weren’t visible.
‘Did I leave them at the dry cleaner and not pick them up?’
The laundry service might have forgotten to contact me, or I might have forgotten.
Anyway, as a result, I unintentionally came wearing somewhat flashy clothes…
“Still, his face backs it up so even the musty commoner fit looks okay.”
“See, fashion is all about face.”
“You must be tired of hearing you’re handsome every day, right? Hahaha!”
‘Musty commoner fit…’
As expected, the chaebols’ sense of money is hard to follow.
“But you know. I feel like I’ve seen that face somewhere.”
Then suddenly, at someone’s statement, the topic completely flipped.
“What? Where, where?”
“Uh, where was it. That, that, that…”
“Bastard, hurry up and remember! So frustrating.”
At that sound, I unconsciously turned my head and slightly covered my face.
You saw my face? When? I don’t know them at all though?
Cold sweat formed in my palms. Should I leave the room even now? Even if I say I’m going now, that slick Yu Gojun guy doesn’t seem like he’d step up and stop me.
Just as I was about to take a step after finishing my judgment in 0.1 seconds, that man snapped his fingers.
“The caddy guy!”
“Caddy?”
“That! The guy who was doing rounds at our golf course! The handsome guy who always stuck close to that person!”
“Who’s that person?”
“Chairman Baekil-do!”
…Ah. Too late.
“There was a rumor among the staff that there was an incredible beauty, so I deliberately tagged along with Dad to greet Chairman Baek, you know? The guy who was next to him then! That’s him! Why was I forgetting?”
“Chairman Baek—you mean the head of Baekil Group?”
“Yeah. But he wasn’t playing with him, he was just picking up irons from the side and being a conversation partner. So I just thought he was a secretary hired as eye candy.”
“But the fact that he came to this party…”
Means he’s not just a secretary, right?
Such gazes stabbed this way.
“No way, is your surname Baek?”
Cough.
I almost let out a cough, but Yu Gojun opened his mouth first.
“If that were the case, there’s no way I wouldn’t know.”
“Ah, right. Yu Gojun, you know a lot of people at Baekil.”
“Not just know them, I have friends too. Among the faces I don’t know from there, there are only about two sons at Baekil Pharmaceuticals.”
Cough hack!
At the pinpoint sniping, cold sweat began to flow down my back.
“Haha. Are you saying this person is one of those Baekil Pharmaceuticals young masters?”
“Say something that makes sense. Baekil Pharmaceuticals’ Baek Yeonhui, that person extremely dislikes their family being exposed to the outside. Looking at how even the main family people refrain from speaking, the level of information control is no joke.”
“But why is that? When everyone else is going on variety shows or YouTube pretending to be good for image-making?”
“I’m curious too. Even when I ask my friend, they absolutely won’t tell me. Something about a prohibition on leaking internal information being the head’s policy or something.”
…It seems Chairman Baekil-do’s threats work better than I thought.
No, if you want to spread rumors, there are plenty of ways. Unless Chairman Baek is an omnipotent god, it’s impossible to perfectly identify the source of rumors.
The reason they don’t is maybe just because it’s not pleasant for scandals surrounding their own family to spread. Or maybe it’s because I behaved well so interest has died down. Or…
The implicit rule that wealth accumulation occurs through bloodlines.
Living in the Republic of Korea, a society of aristocratic rule wearing the mask of democracy, they might not want to create unnecessary trouble with my existence for the citizens.
An adopted orphan appearing in a top domestic conglomerate. How much wealth will go to him?
What a stimulating subject for modern people exhausted by daily life.
“Hey, wait. I think I remember something too.”
Just then, another guy raised his hand. Stop remembering!
“Chairman Baekil-do came to our restaurant before. He reserved a whole VVVIP room with some young man to eat, so I sneaked a peek… and that Chairman Baek, famous for his bad personality, was smiling.”
“What? That Baekil head?”
“I think that young man was this person.”
Suddenly the venue turned cold.
“Moreover, the two seemed really close.”
“That… Baekil head?”
At the same time, my chest also turned cold.
‘Old man, I told you to stop dragging me around.’
I should have cut off the relationship with that person earlier.
I wanted to smack my past self who felt relieved meeting in private places.
“That Chairman Baek sat face-to-face alone with him, amicably ate course meals, and played golf rounds? Really?”
“I’ve seen Baekil-do in person too. He looked really fucking scary. He’s a dominant alpha so he’s fucking tall. His expression was nasty too.”
“But he smiled? That doesn’t match the image at all?”
“Exactly. Unless he’s like an illegitimate child born from a mistress…”
“Illegitimate child? Uhaha! Are we filming a drama?”
“Don’t you all have at least one nephew or cousin whose face and name you don’t know? Is it just me?”
“Yeah. Just you~”
I shouldn’t have followed Yu Gojun into this room. Every human here is insane.
This won’t do. I need to escape right now. I had an ominous premonition that if I stayed here any longer, they would inevitably dig up the truth.
Baek Jeongwoo or whatever, I have to save myself first, don’t I?
“Oh oh? He’s running away. Did we hit a nerve?”
“Shit, really? There’s an illegitimate child at Baekil? This is front-page material.”
“Ah. Besides that, there’s one more thing that comes to mind.”
Just as I was about to grab the doorknob and pull—
Yu Gojun said.
“Are you the Chairman’s lover?”
“Absolutely not.”
When I got goosebumps and answered immediately, Yu Gojun burst out laughing.
“Hahaha! You finally opened your mouth.”
“…”
“Who really are you? If you don’t answer properly, we’ll assume that’s what it is, you know?”
A mischievous gaze looking at me.
The emotion contained in that gaze is certain.
‘Contempt.’
Then I recalled what Lee Haram had told me in class.
‘Typically, alphas always tend to want to occupy a higher position in the hierarchy, right?’
Alphas are basically animals that like to establish hierarchies.
Whether throwing pheromones at a first-time meeting alpha to suppress them, engaging in a probing battle, or one side having no such intention at all—if there’s even one person trying to establish hierarchy… the relationship ends up with someone above and someone below.
‘Yu Gojun.’
That guy also kept looking at me as if gauging me, taking an ambiguous attitude of whether he was being polite or not, and seems to have reached a conclusion.
Like it’s okay to openly mess with me.
“Ah, fuck. I was fooled for a moment.”
“This was a whore bastard all along, wasn’t it?”
And this information spreads rapidly to other alphas through nonverbal expression.
“Wow, you fuck that old man alpha too? Wasn’t he at an age where he could die any day? Amazing.”
“He’s a dominant alpha, you know. His stamina must be extraordinary—how could an ordinary omega handle it? But the idea of even taking an alpha from behind is crazy.”
“These dominant ones are really crazy bastards… But with that face, maybe I could too?”
“You were the crazy bastard! Hahaha!”
Openly mocking attitudes and playful tones.
Even if they heard my real identity here, wouldn’t they gloss over it with ‘It was just a joke, why are you so serious~’? Even if I were the president’s son, they definitely would.
First of all, aren’t there empty bottles piled up like mountains and rolling around at those guys’ feet? They’re really not in their right minds.
“How is it? I told you it’d be fun, didn’t I?”
“Yeah, Gojun-ah! This gives way more dopamine than calling idols every day to hang out.”
“To think we’d see Chairman Baek’s lover! Good thing I came today.”
After that, the five excluding Yu Gojun started giggling and chattering.
“See, I said today would be fun. What was it, they said someone more handsome than actor Cheon Eunwook would come too. Lots of new faces.”
“Wasn’t that just an empty rumor spread by omega kids?”
“No. You know that Bang Geunhyuk bastard? He brought them.”
“Bang Geunhyuk? Who was that again?”
“Ah, forget that! So tell us what Baekil-do is like in bed. Fuck, there’s no better drinking snack than this.”
Haah…
I removed the hand that had been pressing my forehead and said.
“Yu Gojun-ssi.”
“Huh? Yes?”
Yu Gojun opened his eyes wide for the first time, as if he didn’t expect to be suddenly singled out and called.
“I’m disappointed.”
“Di-disappointed…?”
“To think the level of a descendant of the late Chairman Yu Yeonghwan of Yurim Culture was only this much.”
Cold water was poured on the cheerful atmosphere.
They seemed to expect me to be flustered and stammer, but I have not even a speck of intention to do that.
“If you feel wronged, properly stating your identity first would be…”
“I have no name to tell rude people like you, so I simply kept my mouth shut.”
“…”
“Every statement you made to me today. You will deeply regret it.”
Then no one dared to open their mouth.
Even until the moment I walked to the door and placed my hand on the doorknob.
At times like this, ‘Baek Gunho’s’ fierce face worked quite well.
‘Good. Let’s leave the hotel like this.’
That’s right.
Mentioning the name of Yurim Culture’s former chairman, and saying regret or whatever—
It’s all actually bluffing.
I’m not acquainted with that chairman, and I don’t particularly intend to sue or take revenge.
If I just leave this party, I’ll never contact these guys again.
I thought it was better to stay quiet than deceive with clumsy lies, but I never expected the story to flow like this, so I planned to somehow fluster the other party and escape through that gap.
Baek Jeongwoo was the one who was late, so he won’t say much even if I wait somewhere else.
Just like that, I was about to escape from this filthy hotel immediately.
“…The way you’re climbing up really pisses me off.”
One of Yu Gojun’s friends stood up and approached me.
“Fucking acting all high and mighty. Whore bastard.”
“Seonghyeon-ah. Wait a minute…”
“Hey, aren’t you guys pissed off? He’s defying us, that dickhead.”
An especially big man walked over in an instant, then roughly kicked and blocked the door I was about to open with a bang, thrusting his fierce face at me.
“Where are you going? I asked you to tell me. How did you get penetrated by Baekil-do?”
“…”
“Or do you penetrate that old man? Say something.”
I tried to ignore him and open the door… but the contest of strength was stronger than I thought.
Why does it have to be a pull door, of all things?
“Don’t want to talk? Then show us a demonstration here?”
Then he suddenly grabbed my collar.
From his reddened face came the smell of alcohol and rough pheromones rushing in.
My airway narrowed in an instant and I couldn’t breathe.
“Let me taste the hole that Chairman Baek fell for too.”
More than anything, the level of his statement was excessive.
I had no choice but to raise my hand too…
Right at that moment.
Drrrr- CRASH!
“D-don’t touch him!”
“…?”
Someone barged in through the balcony window.
A short boy with light brown semi-curly hair—
shouted with a face flushed with excitement.
“He’s my friend!”
From the open window flowed in night air full of fine dust, noisy music sounds, and the smell of messily mixed pheromones.
From there, I recognized a familiar and youthful…
smell from a certain memory.
“…Lee Yeongwoo?”
Wtf is he interfering, wont he go in heat in that place?