With an Alpha too?
…Don’t tell me he was looking at Lee Haram with those kinds of eyes.
“What kind of nonsense is that.”
They say you only see what you want to see.
After glaring at Baek Jeongwoo, I tried to gauge Lee Haram’s reaction, but he had already gotten out of the car.
“Are you hyung’s friend? Hello!”
Did he hear what Baek Jeongwoo said just now?
Lee Haram, who approached Baek Jeongwoo in an instant, bowed his head cheerfully with a smile all over his face.
“My name is Lee Haram. I’m Gunho hyung’s close dongsaeng.”
On the other hand, that bastard made a face as sour as possible and kept tapping the ground with his dress shoes.
“Close? How close?”
“Huh? Very close. We’ve been close since we were little…”
“Don’t make me laugh, fuck. There’s no way that pitch-black bastard Baek Gunho has friends.”
Not only treating Lee Haram carelessly, but treating me like someone who doesn’t have a single friend.
I was about to say something, but Lee Haram stepped forward first.
“Huh? No. Gunho hyung has tons of friends.”
“Friends my ass for a personality disorder case who puts up iron walls like crazy. Spit it out straight. You’re not just friends, are you?”
“Personality disorder? Our Gunho hyung?”
“Ha! Our hyung? Ouuur hyuuung? As far as I know, that bastard only has one dongsaeng, so when did he start a second household?”
Baek Jeongwoo put his arm on my car and giggled.
“Haha. As expected of Baek Gunho. Does he pick and choose people based on their faces, befitting how he looks? I knew his ass was loose.”
“…Gunho hyung. Is this person really your acquaintance?”
At this, the smile disappeared from Lee Haram’s face.
The atmosphere was getting increasingly hostile.
A crowd had already gathered quite a bit because of Baek Jeongwoo’s supercar, and now phone camera shutter sounds were going off like crazy with comments like “Wow, they’re fighting” and “love triangle fight legend.”
“Let’s stop this. Jeongwoo-ssi, you came here because you have business with me, right? Then don’t cause unnecessary trouble and…”
“Top or bottom.”
“Excuse me?”
“Are you a top or a bottom! Tell me!”
“Ah, this crazy bastard.”
My true feelings slipped out of my mouth without me realizing. Fortunately, Baek Jeongwoo seemed to be too busy fuming by himself to take my curse seriously.
Thinking I couldn’t let this go on any longer, I immediately pushed Lee Haram’s back.
“Haram. You have a lecture. Go in.”
“But.”
“Go in. Quickly.”
“…”
When I spoke sternly, Lee Haram turned around with a deflated face.
“If anything happens, contact me.”
“I got it. Go.”
“I’ll call you after the lecture.”
“I said I got it.”
As soon as I sent Lee Haram off, a hand landed on my shoulder with a thud.
“Oh my, acting all sweet. So that’s how you seduced Lee Yeongwoo too?”
“Jeongwoo-ssi. Please shut your mouth. And what’s your business?”
“You’re the one who should have business with me!”
Baek Jeongwoo did have business with me. But isn’t that not something the person who showed up first should say?
“How can we have a conversation if you start off irritated?”
“I don’t know, fuck! You were bleeding and dying, but now you’re perfectly fine. You dog-like bastard!”
“Did you want me to die?”
“Nooo! I mean, what I’m saying is!”
My ears are going to fall off. Even elementary school students speak more coherently than that.
More than that, I wish we could move locations. At this point, the crowd watching the situation with excited faces started munching on popcorn. When did they even buy that?
Just then, a black sedan suddenly approached at tremendous speed and screeched to a stop.
“S-sorry! Gunho!”
The back door burst open and a beauty with brown hair appeared. The sound of crunching popcorn grew even louder at the appearance of a new character.
“I, I brought a tail along…!”
“Lee Yeongwoo?”
“I was worried about you, Gunho, so I asked for your contact info! That bastard Baek Jeong wouldn’t tell me till the end, so I investigated which school you go to, okay? I’m really sorry for doing a background check! But he insisted on following me and threw a tantrum…!”
“First, calm down a bit.”
I showed my palm to Lee Yeongwoo, who was rambling incoherently.
“Let’s move locations first.”
Please.
* * *
Three cars lined up in the parking lot.
From each car, I, Baek Jeongwoo, and Lee Yeongwoo got out in turn.
“I told you to ride in my car. Why do you have to be annoying and go separately…”
“You ride in that shit-smelling car.”
“Lee Yeongwoo, I thought you’d be excited to stick to the seat next to Baek Gunho.”
“Wh-what are you talking about! It would make Gunho uncomfortable…!”
“I don’t know if you’re being modest or stupid.”
“What?!”
It was a waste of gas money, but it was an unavoidable choice.
I didn’t want multiple people riding in one car because of pheromones.
Lee Yeongwoo knew that well too.
That’s how we ended up riding in separate cars heading toward one destination.
“Follow me.”
Just going to a nearby cafe would have been enough, but because Baek Jeongwoo insisted, I had no choice but to head to the restaurant he told me about.
Past the luxurious sign, a fusion Korean restaurant as elegant as its exterior appeared.
There, I spotted a familiar face.
“Ugh, seriously. You maintained the one Michelin star, right? Everyone’s doing well on their own, but you annoyingly tell me to come and go… Huh?”
It was a friend of Baek Jeongwoo and Yu Gojun.
“Lee Yeongwoo? And isn’t that the person? Baek Jeongwoo, did you bring him?”
“You saw him then, right? Second son of Lagrange Food Holdings. Jo Minjae.”
“You collapsed bleeding from your nose. You look fine?”
“Whatever, empty room.”
“Bastard. Wait.”
Jo Minjae, who was laughing as frivolously as Baek Jeongwoo, grabbed an employee and asked, “That room’s empty, right?”
The employee flustered, saying, “Yes, but there’s a reservation…” but he unreasonably moved on, saying, “Then cancel the reservation. Just roughly move them to another room. Do I have to instruct every little thing for you to understand?”
“So, um, Gunho? Should I call you Gunho-ssi? This place is a bit small, but the taste is much better than the place you were at with Chairman Baek back then…”
“I’m just going to talk briefly and leave.”
“Excuse me?”
I passed by the chattering Jo Minjae and approached the employee from earlier.
“Is this room empty?”
“Huh? Y-yes…”
As soon as the employee finished answering, I entered a small four-person room.
“This is sufficient.”
“…You’re quite frugal.”
Jo Minjae tried to smile but his displeasure was evident.
Regardless, as soon as Baek Jeongwoo and Lee Yeongwoo followed in, I immediately closed the sliding door. Baek Jeongwoo’s pheromones were nauseating, but it was better than letting unnecessary words leak out.
“What happened. Back then.”
“You’re fucking impatient. Take it slow.”
“How did my dongsaeng end up at that place?”
I didn’t wait for Baek Jeongwoo to sit down.
“Tell me straight what happened that day.”
“What happened? He suddenly burst out and carried you away. It happened in an instant, so I don’t really know what happened either?”
“If you lie, I’ll never see you again.”
Baek Jeongwoo’s eyebrows twitched for a moment, then he smirked.
“No, really, that’s all there is to it, what do you want me to do? That kid’s friend arbitrarily dragged him to the party.”
“So you do know that Seolheon’s friend brought him.”
“…You’re fucking good at picking at things.”
He sat down in a chair, crossed his legs, and said.
“There was a guy who wanted to get close to your dongsaeng, so I only heard about it. I’ve never met him directly.”
“That’s a lie.”
At this point, Lee Yeongwoo interjected.
“Your dongsaeng knew Baek Jeongwoo’s name. As if they’d already met.”
“Lee Yeongwoo. Shut your mouth?”
“You stop bullshitting.”
That bastard.
My fingers naturally went to my brow.
“…Don’t tell me. You didn’t say anything unnecessary, did you?”
“Don’t worry. We just happened to meet and briefly exchanged greetings. It’s not a mortal sin to see your cousin dongsaeng’s face.”
Baek Jeongwoo wiggled his foot with a sleazy face.
“Why is he going around making a fuss about something that’ll be found out eventually anyway? Well, I guess he’d want to delay it as much as possible. Once he finds out your hyung’s identity is shit, his attitude will completely change, right?”
Then he shrugged his shoulders and raised the corners of his mouth.
“Aah, should I have latched onto Baek Seolheon instead?”
“…Do you know why I’m sitting here with you right now?”
I couldn’t stand that attitude.
“If you keep playing around with my dongsaeng, I won’t discriminate between fire and water either.”
“Listen here, you fucker. The brothers both think their cousin hyung is an idiot.”
When a chilly air began to circulate between Baek Jeongwoo and me, Lee Yeongwoo hurriedly inserted himself between us.
“D-don’t fight! Gunho, you avoid shit because it’s dirty, not because you’re scared of it, right?”
“Hey, Lee Yeongwoo. You keep calling people shit, shit. Are you in elementary school?”
“It’s true, you’re shit.”
Lee Yeongwoo snapped at Baek Jeongwoo, then turned his gaze to me.
“First of all, it’s true that your dongsaeng… took you away, like he said. I chased after you belatedly too, but you’d already taken the elevator down and were gone. I don’t know how he knew the location of the hidden door…”
He licked his lips a few times as if gauging my reaction, then said.
“After that, I was worried whether you got home safely and received treatment well, so I asked Baek Jeongwoo for your contact info and this mess happened… I’m sorry.”
“No. It’s not something you should apologize for.”
Did Baek Jeongwoo really just exchange greetings?
I was very concerned about what he talked about with Seolheon, but it seemed like there was nothing more to find out even if I pressed further here.
As I moved to leave, Baek Jeongwoo said mockingly.
“Hey, at least eat before you go? I went out of my way to bring you to a place like this.”
“Baek Jeongwoo-ssi.”
I put my hand on the door handle and glared at him.
“If you approach my dongsaeng again, I really won’t let it slide then.”
“Haha. How won’t you let it slide?”
“I won’t die alone.”
I warned him as he was still grinning.
“By any means necessary, I’ll bring you down.”
Only then did the smile disappear from Baek Jeongwoo’s face.
“I’ll bet my entire remaining life on it.”
* * *
“What? The two of them left first. Did they go out to smoke?”
“…”
“And you’re spacing out alone again… Ugh, seriously, what the hell are you doing?!”
Jo Minjae yelled as soon as he entered the room.
“Making a tent in someone else’s shop, what the fuck!”
At those words, Baek Jeongwoo blankly lowered his head.
The front of his pants was bulging as if about to burst.
Baek Jeongwoo recalled the voice from earlier with a dazed face.
‘By any means necessary, I’ll bring you down.’
‘I’ll bet my entire remaining life on it.’
Along with those words, the thick pheromones that rose up.
Deeply inhaling the air where the lingering scent faintly remained, Baek Jeongwoo muttered.
“Fuck. Am I crazy…?”
