Hee-won’s face was heavy with worry. He’d been hesitating for a while now, not sure how to say it. He was the type who could get a conversation started easily enough but struggled with what came after.
And yet he can never hide it on his face. Chae-won tore off a fresh piece of squid and started chewing. She waited quietly for Hee-won to speak. If she didn’t push him, he’d get it out on his own.
“You know the dominant alpha who’s been putting his mint scent on me.”
“Yeah. Want me to go to your company and cause a scene?”
“Why do you live like you have no future, noona?”
“I may not be a parachute hire, but I am dominant. Causing a scene at someone’s company isn’t exactly going to get me arrested.”
Chae-won laughed without a care. Hard to tell if she’s serious or not. Hee-won didn’t really know the extent of Chae-won’s reputation. Just that she appeared on TV and in magazines sometimes, and that she had plenty of people trying to recruit her.
What else was there beyond that? Chae-won hadn’t made a point of hiding it, but Hee-won had never made a point of asking, so he was more or less completely in the dark. Is it really okay for siblings to be like this?
Still, there were things he knew that others probably didn’t. Like the very revealing fact that Chae-won played trot music and danced before she started any design work.
“You want me to grab that mint guy by the collar and—”
“He hides his pheromones, apparently. It’d be a problem.”
“Since when are you worrying about him? So what happened?”
“He asked if I had time.”
“What? He’s interested in you? Is he trying to do something with you? Did he suddenly ask to book a room? Did he give you the date his rut comes? Did he say he’s never met a beta like you before?”
Hee-won gave a vague smile. Ha-geon had told him the date of his rut, yes — but that was because Hee-won had asked and Ha-geon had simply answered. And yes, Ha-geon had said he’d never met a beta like him before — but hadn’t he also said he’d never interacted with a beta at all? What exactly can you pin on Ha-geon here?
For starters — marking Hee-won’s body with that mint scent without permission. But wasn’t that also what was protecting him? Hee-won decided to let that one slide.
Next, the morning coffee runs. But Ha-geon always made sure to get Hee-won’s share too, and threw in food on top of that — so he figured he could let that go as well.
What else was there? The weirdly awkward way Ha-geon had pushed for lunch together out of nowhere? That was just because he had no friends. Not having friends isn’t a crime. Hee-won fell quiet again.
Kim Ha-geon’s one real offense is being insufferable. He was warm and considerate toward Hee-won, attentive in his own way — and yet, insufferable.
“But the date is a little strange.”
“I thought something was actually going on since you took so long to bring it up. You were sitting there calculating and weighing things with that scrunched-up face of yours — and the issue is the date?”
“Yeah.”
“What kind of date is it. Is it the nineteenth, a Friday?”
“You might actually be the one who’s truly beyond any standard… He asked if I was free the Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday of the second week, two months from now.”
“Wasn’t the mint guy a six-month thing?”
So Ha-geon had apparently been named “Mint” by Chae-won. It sounded like a puppy name, or some kind of codename. Hee-won was a little worried she might accidentally call him that if they ever crossed paths.
Not that there was any chance of them meeting to begin with.
With Chae-won calling him a “six-month thing,” it almost started to sound like she was talking about an actual sprig of mint you’d buy at a market. Chae-won seemed completely oblivious to that image, though, and was waving her squid around complaining about why he kept interrupting the story.
“That’s exactly why I said the date is strange.”
“That really is strange.”
“If you were that alpha, why would you say something like that to a beta? It’s a workday for both of them.”
Chae-won stared at Hee-won’s face. Even Hee-won himself didn’t fully know what kind of contract he’d gotten into with that Mint guy — so there was no way she, who had never seen or even passed by this person, could put herself in his shoes and come up with something meaningful.
Still, as the older sister, she knew she had to think of something. Hee-won, with no real friends or people to turn to, must be struggling. More than during school, he was now unavoidably surrounded by alphas and omegas on all sides.
Hee-won watched Chae-won’s face as she sank into thought, even forgetting to chew her squid. He wanted some kind of answer. Though he was also braced for the possibility that she’d scold him for not just asking Ha-geon directly in the moment.
The real problem was blurting something out in the confusion. What did he mean he didn’t know how things would turn out — it wasn’t as though he was even thinking about quitting. But the words couldn’t be taken back.
Which was exactly why he’d turned to Chae-won for help. Even if she wasn’t likely to give him any satisfying answer either.
“Jin Hee-won.”
“Yeah.”
“Isn’t this less about alpha-and-beta and more about work?”
“Huh?”
“You said you’re both going in. He’s only there for six months, so he’ll be at work that day too — even if you quit, it’s not like you could just take those days off easily.”
“Then what is it? Stop talking in circles and just say it.”
“I’m genuinely baffled that you got into university through interviews with this little social awareness, little brother.”
“You’re insufferable, big sister.”
Seeing Hee-won’s sulking face, Chae-won burst into delighted laughter. Looking like she was finally getting tired of the squid too, she stopped eating and cracked open a can of beer, tilting her head in thought.
Of course, Chae-won wasn’t entirely confident in her own guess. It was a pretty far-fetched one, and it made her wonder just what kind of reckless parachute hire this was. She was playing it cool on the outside, but if the day ever came when her guess turned out to be right —
“Isn’t it a business trip?”
— she was fully prepared to have it out with that Mint guy face to face.
The next day, Hee-won arrived at work already in a bad mood. He’s taking me on a business trip? What was the reason. It made no sense. No matter how many times he turned it over in his head and counted the dates, he kept stopping at the tenth.
At least it didn’t seem to be around Ha-geon’s rut — but he had absolutely no idea why Ha-geon would want to bring him along. He frowned. What use could someone who’s only been at the job for a week possibly be — why is he already singling me out?
Was Ha-geon really planning to take him somewhere and try something? And what would he even get out of that? No answer came. He knew Ha-geon had some kind of interest in him — but wasn’t this going too far?
“Why the long face?”
“Oh…”
“You didn’t even glance up when you handed me my coffee this morning.”
He’d been lost in thought all the way until lunch without registering any of it. He didn’t even know how he’d gotten through his work. There were probably a staggering number of typos. But this wasn’t the time to worry about that.
Still, he must have been stewing over it for too long. He hadn’t even noticed it was just the two of them left until Ha-geon placed a hand on his shoulder and spoke.
It’s not like we’re hiding a secret relationship — and yet, during the day, with others around, Ha-geon wouldn’t spare him a single glance, and the moment people disappeared, he’d come straight over to talk or send a message.
Do you like me? The question rose all the way to the tip of his tongue, but Hee-won clenched every muscle in his head and held it back. Because if Ha-geon played along and said “Yes!” as a joke, it would obviously be Hee-won who ended up flustered and humiliated.
“I just really don’t want to work today… Yeong-min has been out for two days now, so my workload has gone up.”
“His heat cycle tends to last about three days, so that’s why.”
“That’s long…”
“It could go even longer.”
“Is there any compensation for the inconvenience that causes me?”
The weaker the trait, the longer the heat cycle and rut — a line from the book surfaced in his memory. He’d thought it was the most useless collection of information in existence, but apparently it wasn’t entirely without use.
Hee-won quietly studied Ha-geon’s profile as he rested his chin in his hand and stared at Yeong-min’s empty seat. He mentally revisited the section he’d read on the subway that morning.
It was from one of the chapters on alphas and omegas — specifically the part about alphas. It was a section that broke them into dominant, recessive, and general types, describing common traits and characteristics across each.
“In the case of dominant alphas, attachment to things they consider their own tends to be strong. They are deeply devoted to family and often spend long periods of time with a single partner. This also applies to objects, so it is important to guide children to ensure this attachment does not become obsession.”
“When they feel positively toward something or someone they regard as theirs, they have a strong tendency to pour every bit of attention they are capable of into it. The act of marking objects or people with their pheromones is also more pronounced in this type than in others.”
He’d been silently laughing the whole commute that morning, thinking it read like a blood-type personality chart — but come to think of it, this was no laughing matter. Hadn’t he been the one getting doused in mint scent and smothered in excessive attention every single day?
Hee-won figured he’d probably been filed away in Ha-geon’s mind as something like a possession. That’s why he’s this attentive. A new thing he doesn’t want to give away to anyone else.
“So I looked into it, and going through our company’s regulations and policies, there’s very little that covers betas at all. I’ve been thinking about raising it with my father.”
“Oh…”
Right. This person’s the Chairman’s son. Even if not the eldest, he was in a different world entirely from someone like Hee-won, who didn’t even rank in the sixties. Hee-won gave a vague smile.
When they feel positively toward something or someone they regard as theirs, they have a strong tendency to pour every bit of attention they are capable of into it.
So — because he’d taken an interest in the one and only beta on his team, he was going to go to the Chairman and ask him to improve the benefits for betas? And if the Chairman ever found out that specific beta was him — it would all be over that very day.
I’d rather just work myself to death covering for coworkers taking turns being out on rut and heat leave. Hee-won waved both hands frantically.
“Why are you doing that?”
“Please don’t bring something like that up to your father. I have no desire to attract that level of attention. I’m fine.”
