Joshua Lockhart was born between a male Alpha and a male Omega. Damon Lockhart, who had passed away recently, was his paternal father, and his birth father was Damon Lockhart’s second marriage partner.
Before Joshua even entered kindergarten, his parents began living separately. When the two finally reached divorce after a messy legal battle that heated up the media, Joshua had just finished elementary education.
After that, Joshua had to leave for the West Coast with his birth father. Because of this, unlike other members of the Lockhart family, he couldn’t complete his studies entirely at Ashford. He was scouted as an ice hockey player and attended university on the West Coast as well.
But he still had plenty of friends in New York.
That is, if you could call a relationship where you simply ran around together and spent meaningless time “friends.”
“Twelve, thir…teen, four…teen!”
Three or four people gathered around the leg press machine slowly counted with mischievous faces. In contrast, the face of the person sitting on the machine pushing up the footplate was crumpled in pain.
“Ah, I can’t do anymore!”
He finally cried surrender and lifted his body from the machine. Beads of sweat streamed down from his temples.
A hotel fitness center in Manhattan.
It was a place where Joshua and his group often gathered to kill time.
The brown-haired man who had been sitting on the machine until just now was the heir to this hotel.
“Max, don’t be too discouraged about not breaking Joshua’s record. Fourteen at 200kg is plenty impressive.”
“You’re comparing him to Josh? He was on the national team reserve list.”
The brown-haired man called Max wiped his sweat with a towel while reproaching his friend. He pushed his friend toward the machine.
“You try it. Let’s see how many you can do.”
“Hang in there, Beck. Last place pays for all of tonight’s entertainment, right?”
The rest of the friends giggled.
The man called Beck, who had looked happy when teasing Max, listed excuses with an unconfident expression.
“What’s the rush? It’s just a bet between us anyway. Ah, I’m feeling a bit parched right now too…”
Joshua entered Beck’s field of vision as he rolled his eyes trying to avoid his turn. He was looking at his phone with a serious face, a bit away from the group.
Beck quickly turned the topic to Joshua.
“Josh! When are you going back to LA?”
“Don’t know yet.”
Joshua answered half-heartedly without even looking this way.
“You just don’t want to go because you don’t have to go to work if you’re here.”
When another guy snickered, Joshua threw an annoyed look at him.
“Am I you?”
“Right, Josh is more diligent with work than expected.”
Whether it was mockery or sincerity, Beck spoke with a silly grin, and Max frowned while taking Joshua’s side in his own way.
“Whether it’s Capital or Media, the headquarters are actually in the East. It’s probably better to work here anyway.”
Max, the heir to this hotel, was relatively interested in business among the group. The rest were prodigal sons who still only had hollow titles at their parents’ companies while enjoying irresponsible indulgence.
However, whether it was pathetic talk or talk from someone who at least knew something about the world, Joshua didn’t pay much attention to what these guys were babbling. They were just playmates who wouldn’t be much help business-wise anyway. He was more bothered about the phone in his hand to the point of going crazy.
Max’s gaze, watching Joshua who was on the verge of biting his nails, landed on the scar remaining on his shoulder. It was a surgery scar from a major shoulder injury during his ice hockey player days.
“Do you still go out to the rink sometimes these days?”
“No.”
“Some manager or coach keeps contacting you asking you to come to their team practice.”
“Isn’t that Joshua’s junior year coach? I heard he’s with a college team now.”
At another guy’s comment, Joshua clicked his tongue and shook his head.
“Those players are at a dismal level. It’s no fun playing with them.”
“Well, you were the top scorer in the NCAA Western League, and even among college players, you’re on a different level. If only you hadn’t had that shoulder injury back then…”
Beck, who had been chattering thoughtlessly, realized his own mistake and quietly shut his mouth. Joshua himself showed no particular reaction, but the fact that just because he was outwardly calm didn’t mean he wasn’t bothered—this was something all the gathered friends knew well.
Beck attempted an awkward change of topic.
“By the way, Joshua, I made money thanks to your brother.”
“What nonsense is that now?”
Only then did Joshua take his eyes off his phone and properly look at his friends. Because an unwelcome person had come up in conversation, his lips twisted and his eyes turned fierce.
“Helion Life. I bought some stock when Lockhart was acquiring it.”
“Ah, that. It went up a lot, right?”
When someone chimed in, Beck got excited and started chattering in earnest.
Helion Life. Its official name, Helion Life Sciences, was a pharmaceutical company that the Lockhart Group had acquired with Lorenz’s active promotion.
“Back then, I just bought it thinking since Lockhart was acquiring it, it would go up someday. I bought about half a million dollars’ worth? And then I just forgot about it. But a few days ago, there was an article about Lockhart Energy Solutions, right? Because of that wind power business, Helion Life’s profitability improved tremendously and it went up 230% in the meantime!”
Beck was excited like someone who’d won the lottery, saying he’d only bought pharmaceutical company stock but didn’t expect to benefit along with it from an energy company’s business.
“The offshore wind farm that Lockhart Energy Solutions built in Massachusetts? You’re talking about that?”
“Yeah, that!”
“What does that have to do with Helion Life?”
At the group’s reaction, clueless about what was happening in the world, this time Max added a supplementary explanation.
“Lockhart Energy and Helion Life signed a contract with each other to supply the wind power energy that Lockhart Energy created. Operating profits improved dramatically while reducing electricity costs.”
“That wind power energy. Lorenz hyung is putting a lot of effort into that business, my parents said so too. Well, as long as I make money, I don’t know the details.”
Beck’s gaze turned to Joshua as he playfully clicked his tongue and shrugged his shoulders. His brown face, which had enjoyed yacht life in the Mediterranean all summer, grinned.
“Anyway, Joshua, tell your brother thanks. I’m torn between buying that Basquiat painting I’d been eyeing or upgrading my wine cellar.”
“Hey, stop it now.”
Max, who had been listening with an anxious expression, glanced at Joshua and signaled to the other friends. Only then did everyone become conscious of having gone too far and shut their mouths. It was common knowledge that Joshua didn’t have a particularly good relationship with his brother.
Sure enough, Joshua’s eyes flashed. He was smiling with his lips, but a sneering air was rampant.
“Why are you telling me about making money thanks to Lorenz Lockhart? If you’re that grateful, go give him some pocket money yourself.”
Joshua sneered coldly and took out his phone again.
Judging it was good to change the topic, Max asked in a friendly manner with a smile.
“But why do you keep looking at your phone?”
“Waiting for a call? Business?”
Beck, who had peeked at the phone in Joshua’s hand, smiled meaningfully.
“That’s not his business phone, though?”
The group showed a strange response that was neither cheers nor jeers.
“There’s a woman making Joshua Lockhart wait?”
Joshua replied in an annoyed tone.
“Not a woman.”
“Then an Omega?”
“……”
The group exchanged glances among themselves.
When Joshua found someone he liked, even if he was driving at 200 km/h, he would make a U-turn without even hitting the brakes and chase at full speed. He didn’t know how to push and pull. Before someone could even think, Joshua’s fierce pursuit left even the most high-nosed, solid defensive walls useless. But Joshua got bored just as easily.
For such a person to be checking his phone several times in just a short while, waiting for a contact—the friends’ curiosity couldn’t help but be aroused.
Without answering that curiosity, Joshua picked up the towel he’d draped over the machine.
“I’m leaving first.”
“What? Where are you going? I found a fun bar in SoHo.”
Max, watching Joshua’s back as he walked away without answering, pushed Beck’s shoulder and reproached him.
“Why are you so clueless? It’s obvious where he’s going.”
“Where?”
“Don’t you remember from a few days ago?”
“What about a few days ago.”
“The members-only bar in Tribeca. Platinum blonde.”
Only then did Beck seem to understand as he narrowed his eyes and nodded.
“Ah… that person was totally Joshua’s type.”
“Is there anyone whose type that wouldn’t be? People like us wouldn’t even dare to make a move.”
Beck snorted as if it was ridiculous.
“No matter how good-looking, they’re just working at a bar. I couldn’t make a move on someone like that?”
“Didn’t you actually not make a move?”
Max subtly teased Beck, and another friend giggled in agreement.
“He didn’t. He drooled as soon as he saw them, but since there seemed to be no chance, he introduced them to Joshua.”
“You bastards, really!”
Leaving Beck acting as if he would pounce right away, Max picked up his towel.
“With looks like that, it’s wealth and power. It’s practically like winning a Super Bowl-level lottery.”
However, Beck couldn’t agree.
“Ridiculous. You have to actually have money and power for it to be wealth and power.”
“Max’s words have some merit too. What if they debuted as a model or actor right now? No, even just making a social media account and uploading a few photos would gather hundreds of thousands of followers in an instant, right? Then with just advertising fees, they’d earn about $20,000 a month.”
“If it were that easy, why would they be serving customers at a bar?”
“Because it doesn’t fit their personality, they don’t do it. I’ve seen entertainment business people who frequent that bar give them business cards and try to persuade them more than once or twice.”
As the friends’ opinions seemed to converge, Beck stopped objecting. However, he didn’t abandon his contemptuous attitude of being unable to acknowledge it.
Max draped his arm over his shoulder and grinned.
“Why? Regret it?”
“What.”
“If it weren’t for Joshua, I would’ve made a move too. Something like that thought crosses your mind?”
Beck shoved off Max’s heavy arm and spat out irritably.
“Fuck off. They’re not my type so I’m not interested at all, okay?”
At their friend’s attitude of trying to protect his petty pride to the end, the group burst into laughter.
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