Since there was no answer, I picked up the fork first.
Just as I was about to call a server, a trembling voice was heard.
“P-partner… who…?”
“An acquaintance of a close friend. They seem skilled at pheromone control and appear to have abundant experience, so I thought it would be okay.”
“E-experience is abundant…?”
Lee Yeongwoo trembled, then raised his head sharply and said.
“Me too.”
“Hm?”
“I’m abundant too…”
“What is?”
“E-experience…!”
For a moment I was at a loss for words.
I didn’t expect him to suddenly appeal about his sex life. Isn’t this usually the kind of behavior young men trying to show off their virility would do?
Slightly surprised, I asked with wide eyes.
“O-oh. So…?”
“Didn’t you think of asking me…?”
“What?”
“Partner.”
“No. Not at all.”
“N-not at all?! Why? I’m an omega too!”
“Before that, you’re a friend.”
“Ah. Friend… Right… Friend…”
Lee Yeongwoo’s lips twitched as he mumbled.
“Rather, because we’re friends… you could ask me comfortably.”
No, no.
A same-sex friend comfortably suggesting sleeping together. I’ve never heard of or seen such a crazy person.
“Rut, you know that… You know that dominant pheromones have much better, compatibility?”
For some reason, even while his face was completely flushed red, Yeongwoo struggled to continue speaking.
“You saw before too. I’m good at detecting pheromones and… I-I’ve been practicing control continuously so I’m better at it than others…!”
…Ah, now I understand.
Lee Yeongwoo is kind.
That guy is doing this again because he wants to help me somehow.
Even squeezing out embarrassing words forcefully.
“Th-that thing too! I’m really good at it…! At the club there’s a rumor I’m the Apgujeong Sex King!”
“Yeongwoo-ya. I’ve received enough help from you.”
So I rejected him even more firmly.
“I’ll just accept your feelings.”
“…Okay.”
But somehow, instead of brightening with relief, Yeongwoo’s complexion darkened.
Why?
* * *
[Cha Narin: Gunho oppa… I’m really really really really really sorry. Really sorry. Really my grandmother said if the whole family doesn’t attend there’ll be disadvantages in the inheritance distribution ah really honestly I want to give up that inheritance crap and choose Gunho oppa my heart is like a chimney but my mom and dad said if I skip this time too they’ll disown me aaaaahhh really I’m sorry I won’t cancel the hotel so oppa use it as you like and order lots of room service and if you need connections I’ll find you 10 people 1000 people as substitutes really I’m sorry but if you come for the next rut I’ll really do well (continues)]
“……”
I silently closed the message window, then searched through my contacts.
“Yeongwoo-ya. Are you asleep?”
* * *
“Fuck…!”
The atmosphere in Class 5 was chilly.
Because someone was messing up their hair roughly once every 4 seconds while spewing curses.
“Fuuuck!”
“Why is Bang Geunhyuk acting like that again?”
“I heard he fought with Baek Seolheon?”
“What? Fought? Who said that?”
“Someone who went to the party told me.”
“Huh? Seolheon at a party?! That’s really unexpected.”
The Class 5 students whispered among themselves and giggled.
“As if they fought. Bang Geunhyuk probably just had a one-sided meltdown.”
“Fuck, what did you say?”
“Ah, you heard? Sorry~”
Bang Geunhyuk glared threateningly, but not a single person showed any sign of being startled.
Eventually Bang Geunhyuk shot up. The chair scraped back making a loud noise.
“Where are you going?”
“I’m in a shitty mood so I’m ditching school.”
“If you fucked up regular admissions you should at least take care of your student record. Are you really not going to get into university like this?”
“Shut up! Are you my mom?”
Bang Geunhyuk shouted and stormed out of the classroom.
Even now, the mocking laughter of alphas and the cursing complaints of omega hyungs and noonas echoed in his ears.
So annoying.
Even if he was going to leave, he should at least say something to Baek Seolheon before going.
While walking toward Class 1 like that, his steps suddenly stopped.
“……”
It was because cold navy blue eyes suddenly came to mind.
Soon he forced the corners of his mouth up in derision. Because he didn’t want to admit he’d been momentarily scared.
Bang Geunhyuk roughly opened the Class 1 door and boldly shouted.
“Hey, you fucker Baek Seolheon! Come out!”
“Seolheon’s not here though?”
“What?”
“He just left early. Said he had an academy consultation.”
But the main character wasn’t there.
A thousand fires ignited inside Bang Geunhyuk.
“…That bastard. He dares run away from me?”
“No, he said academy consultation…”
“Where is that son of a bitch?”
Bang Geunhyuk spotted a figure outside the window on the playground, walking leisurely with a bag slung over one shoulder.
His height was so tall that like a handsome character model in a game, it wasn’t realistic.
Just as Bang Geunhyuk was about to leave Class 1 and run toward the school main gate.
“Hey! You, what are you going to do to Seolheon!”
Someone shouted while following behind him.
It was the person who had announced Baek Seolheon’s absence earlier, Class 1 class president Song Changu.
“I’m going to beat him up a few times. Why?”
“B-beat?!”
“If he pissed someone off, he should get hit.”
Already surrendering his body to anger, Bang Geunhyuk tried to chase his target without thinking,
And Song Changu, who thought he’d provided the opportunity, restlessly grabbed Bang Geunhyuk’s shirt collar.
“N-no! You can’t just beat him up!”
“Fuck off, you honor student bastard! I feel like I need to punch him at least once to feel satisfied!”
“Y-you, if you do that there’ll be problems with your student record!”
“Why is everyone so interested in my student record, fuck!”
As they bickered, just as Bang Geunhyuk’s hand was about to rise, Baek Seolheon had already left the main gate and was about to get into a car. At that moment the two stopped moving.
“That’s…”
An old 9-seater van with dark tinting.
The paint on the exterior was peeling in places, showing the passage of time.
It created a sense of disparity with Baek Seolheon’s background and appearance.
And most of all.
“Gangsters?”
Inside the vehicle were middle-aged men with rough-looking faces. One of them was wearing an impeccable suit, creating a sense of incongruity.
In a vehicle with such suspicious members, Baek Seolheon was getting into a seat.
Witnessing that scene, a word naturally came to Song Changu’s mind.
“I-isn’t that a kidnapping?!”
“Bullshit. Like that bastard would be someone who’d get kidnapped…”
Bang Geunhyuk’s mocking words gradually faded.
Baek Seolheon.
Second son of Baekil Pharmaceutical.
Member of the Baekil Group owner family.
Even with rumors of being ostracized for being a beta, a chaebol is still a chaebol.
Song Changu and Bang Geunhyuk immediately got into a taxi parked on the shoulder.
“Mister! Please follow that car ahead! That old Starex! Sh-should we call 112 too?!”
“Fuck, do whatever! I’m just going to beat that bastard up!”
However, the vehicle showed no signs of departing.
The anxious Song Changu shouted at the taxi driver.
“Ah, why aren’t we leaving!”
“Students, someone’s coming.”
“What?”
Before they could react, someone approached right next to the taxi.
Tap tap.
“Song Changu.”
“……”
“……”
“Why did you follow.”
At the sound of fingers lightly tapping the window, Song Changu and Bang Geunhyuk got out of the taxi and stood side by side on the roadside.
The van they’d tried to chase had stopped less than 5 meters away, and Baek Seolheon had gotten out of the car as if nothing was wrong and was standing right next to the taxi.
“S-Seolheon-ah… You weren’t being kidnapped?”
“I’m not, so go back.”
Baek Seolheon expressionlessly issued an order to leave.
“B-but, you don’t usually ride in cars like that.”
“I have business.”
“A-ah, I see. Business… A-as long as it’s nothing serious… I was just worried about you…”
Baek Seolheon just looked at him without saying anything.
At that attitude, Song Changu raised the corners of his mouth while reading the mood. He even looked somewhat servile.
At this, Bang Geunhyuk snorted and crossed his arms.
“This bastard. Don’t you see me?”
Baek Seolheon turned his gaze.
The moment their eyes met, Bang Geunhyuk had to desperately suppress the instinct to step back.
He himself wasn’t short either, but Baek Seolheon’s eyes always looking down at him from above always felt intimidating.
“Hey, Baek Seolheon. After you left the party on your own like that, fuck, do you even know how humiliated and shitty I felt…!”
“Don’t transfer to me what you should take up with Baek Jeongwoo.”
Baek Seolheon’s voice was calm and gentle without ups and downs.
But it sounded extremely cold and detached.
“I understand you want to vent, but I don’t have time to receive each and every one of your complaints.”
“……”
“Nor any reason to.”
Song Changu, who didn’t know what was going on, rolled his eyes around reading the mood, and Bang Geunhyuk just trembled with a distorted face.
Just then, the suited man got out of the van and approached Baek Seolheon.
“Is there a problem?”
“No, Driver Park-nim. Let’s depart.”
The moment Baek Seolheon turned his back and took a step, Bang Geunhyuk said.
“Ha! I knew it!”
Baek Seolheon sighed silently and turned around.
“What.”
“I knew you had something shady going on!”
Bang Geunhyuk pointed at the van and shouted boldly.
“Those guys! Don’t they look exactly like criminal gangster bastards!”
“……”
“Hey, Baek Seolheon. Just because the group won’t accept betas, you’re going completely wild? You think this is twenty or thirty years ago? If you get caught doing this kind of thing these days, you’re fucked.”
When Baek Seolheon showed no reaction, Bang Geunhyuk became anxious instead and poured out whatever words came.
“Seeing you can’t refute it, I’ve got you, huh? Hey, try telling that hyung of yours everything? Huh?!”
“Okay. Go tell him.”
Baek Seolheon turned around without regret and headed toward the van.
“But before that, I hope you’ll reconsider your perspective of judging innocent workers as gangsters.”
“Wh-what, innocent?! When they have fucking knife scars all over their faces, what kind of ridiculous excuse…”
“S-Seolheon-ah!”
Just then, Song Changu’s voice stopped Baek Seolheon.
“Really, it’s okay… right?”
“It’s okay.”
“But the academy consultation thing… that was a lie, right?”
Song Changu met the eyes staring intently at him, then soon averted his gaze and stuttered.
“Honestly, all we’ve done is be in the same class 3 times in high school… But still, as friends, at least I think of it that way…”
Song Changu continued speaking.
“But you always treat us with distance, like looking down from above, like watching a movie or something…”
Movie.
At that word, Baek Seolheon’s eyes faintly trembled, but Song Changu didn’t notice and continued.
“So, what I’m trying to say is…! In 3 years, not once, I feel like I’ve never seen your real feelings…”
The longer Baek Seolheon’s silence went on, the smaller Song Changu’s voice became.
“I always thought it would be nice if you’d talk about yourself even a little… The words aren’t coming out well. Haha.”
“……”
“Sorry for interfering. I’m glad you’re not involved in something scary like a crime, but if anything happens, please tell me.”
At the end, Song Changu gave an awkward smile.
“Get home safely, Seolheon-ah.”
Watching this from a distance, the suited man, Driver Park, returned to the van and said.
“Let’s go, young master.”
As Baek Seolheon followed him, Bang Geunhyuk turned around spewing curses, and Song Changu also headed toward the school main gate with listless, powerless steps.
Baek Seolheon stopped walking for a moment and opened his mouth alone.
“…Talk?”
Soon he looked up at the sky.
Even in the late spring sunlight shining brightly down, a thick shadow fell over his navy blue eyes.
“Who am I supposed to talk about this kind of thing to…?”
* * *
“This.”
A low voice echoed through the room.
“Who reported this.”
“Pardon? As I just mentioned, the Strategic Planning Office Director…”
“No.”
A bundle of papers fell onto the table.
The man who threw the documents, Baek Ildo, pressed the table with his index finger and said.
“I’m talking about the bastard who made this bomb.”
Soon he stood up from his seat.
“I need to see that face immediately.”
