“I’m seeing Young-ah again.”
A kind, and therefore more unpleasant voice stopped his steps.
“Not happy to see me? Why does your expression look so bad?”
The identity of the person he didn’t want to associate with, who appeared again without dying, was Ahn Chae-seung.
‘Who the hell keeps inviting this bastard?’
Young didn’t hide his displeasure. Then this bastard said,
“You still seem to hate me a lot.”
Ideally, he wanted to maintain dignity in a place with so many watching eyes, but he couldn’t hold back the hollow laugh that burst out.
Just hate? Even now I’m thinking about how many pieces you’d be in if I cut you at every joint.
Still, he didn’t spit out the words that came to mind. Not because the words seemed too harsh. He didn’t want to comply obediently because it seemed like that bastard wanted that reaction.
“I don’t hate you.”
“Really?”
“Who are you that I’d hate you or not? What do you have to do with me?”
At the words thrown out indifferently, Ahn Chae-seung let out a laugh with an amused sound of “Wow.” Then he sniffled once for no reason before opening his lips.
“Young-ah, I’m trying to help you right now. Isn’t it too cold to someone who’s helping?”
“What are you helping me with?”
“Didn’t you see the omegas lining up around your husband? You should be with another man too to feel equal.”
When he was about to solve it himself after seeing everything, who appeared and was interfering? Ahn Chae-seung attempted his mischief with such an absurd excuse. He smoothly approached right up close, then suddenly raised his arm.
If left alone, he looked ready to wrap it around either his shoulder or waist. Sensing what was coming, Young intended to take a big step back to prevent him from approaching. But, unintentionally, he was pulled to the side.
It was because of an arm that dug into his side and firmly wrapped around his waist. Young was startled and looked to his side. The owner of the arm wasn’t Ahn Chae-seung, who’d been making his move, but Kyung-heon.
“You know each other?”
While separating Young from the other person and simultaneously attaching him to his side, he asked gently. However, the pheromones surrounding them were full of edges. Young’s startled complexion didn’t fade at the ominous pheromones.
“Yes. We exchanged greetings on the wedding day.”
Kyung-heon gazed at Ahn Chae-seung with a straight look.
“You remember.”
The brief answer held many meanings. If he remembered it was the “wedding,” there was no way he wouldn’t know Young was married, so why had he tried to touch him carelessly? It was a sentence filled with interrogation.
“Young-ah was alone looking so lonely, you know? So I was just about to keep him company in conversation.”
At the shameless retort, Kyung-heon’s pheromones took on an even sharper aura.
It was blatantly displayed hostility. With pheromones that grew denser by the second, Ahn Chae-seung’s complexion turned pale in real-time.
It made sense. Even Young, who’d been trained among the Lee family alphas who were second to none in intensity, found Kyung-heon’s pheromones difficult to handle.
If such a Kyung-heon openly pressured him, it was natural that Ahn Chae-seung, who merely possessed the trait of alpha but was nothing more than a nobody, had no means to withstand it.
“If that wasn’t the case, I apologize. Then, I’ll be going now.”
Ahn Chae-seung turned around hurriedly with a face that looked like he’d throw up any moment.
Only then did Young take his eyes off Kyung-heon. Instead, he turned his head to follow the back of the man fleeing with his tail between his legs.
‘What the hell is his ulterior motive?’
Since that bastard’s family was what it was, he understood the fact itself that he showed his face at such events. But he didn’t understand why he kept pretending to be friendly when it wasn’t even working. What kind of thick skin was this when he already knew all his despicable intentions?
He probably hadn’t reflected belatedly, there was even less possibility he had lingering feelings after playing around with him, and there was even less chance he’d act cute for no reason.
That’s why he was following Ahn Chae-seung’s rear with unavoidably suspicious eyes. Suddenly his chin was grabbed and his head turned.
“Let’s stop watching.”
Kyung-heon said while still wrapping around his waist.
“……”
Young, who’d obediently followed the guiding hand, came to his senses at a beat too late. He flinched and trembled his shoulders, then turned his head, which had been looking at Kyung-heon, to face forward. His eyelids were half-lowered, lightly casting down his gaze.
Not just that bastard who fled disgracefully, but this man standing by his side—he couldn’t understand his intentions either. Using being busy as an excuse, not showing a hair for days, barely meeting at the event venue and still not being able to exchange a proper conversation…
Suddenly appearing, pulling his waist close and releasing pheromones? Telling him to stop looking at someone already far away? That too, ambiguously—whether to stop looking at Ahn Chae-seung, or to look at him, only him, instead of that bastard?
Young, who’d become confused, just stared obliquely into empty space. While he was doing so, a low voice flowed in quietly from the side.
“I’m sorry for unintentionally neglecting you lately.”
Only then did Young’s floating gaze glance at Kyung-heon.
Young had just been flustered, unable to understand the intentions of alphas, whether this one or that one. But in Kyung-heon’s eyes, it seemed to look like he was disappointed about the fact that they hadn’t properly faced each other these past few days.
Strictly speaking, it wasn’t an incorrect guess. Whether he’d become weird from being home too much, or it was a side effect of distancing himself from people, or whatever. It was true that he’d regretted Kyung-heon’s absence, even if briefly.
So he thought he should at least listen. Instead of receiving it gruffly saying he didn’t care, Young quietly lent his ear.
“I don’t know if you know, but I always keep the words I say out loud.”
“……”
“I remember all the days I’ve broken our promise. I don’t plan to just brush it off with the excuse of being busy.”
“……”
“I hope… you won’t be disappointed in me.”
In other words, the proposal to have time to meet for an hour a day and grow close to each other wasn’t a light promise that would be done if it worked out and forgotten if not.
For Young, who’d inwardly enjoyed their time together, it wasn’t bad to hear.
“I’m not disappointed.”
So he decided to readily accept the apology.
“But…”
Though he wanted to preserve his meager pride.
“I might be the busy one now. I told Grandfather I’d take on the gallery.”
He unnecessarily added more.
“Ah…”
For some reason, Kyung-heon had an expression that was neither here nor there. Like that dazed face he’d make before manifestation, when he acted somewhat clumsy about everything.
Actually, even calling it dazed was a stretch. It was an ambiguous complexion that seemed somehow blank, pitiful, and regretful. Young just smiled faintly, feeling déjà vu but unable to give a definite answer.
***
So that’s why that expression had seemed familiar. Young only now realized the answer.
“Ah…”
Why would you purposely choose the hard path? Wouldn’t it be fine for you to stay prettily as a flower in a greenhouse…
The faces of his family members, who hoped their flower-like omega youngest would never lift a finger his whole life, asking if he knew how harsh making money was, had looked exactly like that.
‘I’ve decided to take on and run the gallery.’
At the decision first, notification later, they couldn’t carelessly add words and looked dumbfounded. The surroundings were quiet enough that it was hard to believe five people were gathered. The one who broke the air, where even breathing felt careful, was his noona, Seon.
“Work… why?”
She looked genuinely curious. Why Young, who’d grown up without the concept of allowance, buying everything he wanted to buy and having everything he wanted to have since childhood, would say he’d work. She seemed unable to understand no matter how hard she tried.
Young idly rubbed his cheek. Then said in a nonchalant tone.
“Just, it’s not bad. Since Grandfather nailed down that he’d help, it doesn’t seem like it’ll be particularly troublesome either.”
I’ve been cooped up at home so much I feel like I’ve become a loyal dog just waiting for Joo Kyung-heon all day, so I need to at least function as a human. He couldn’t honestly confess that.
“No matter how much they actively support from that side, it’s not inheriting something that exists but a business starting from scratch, isn’t it? It won’t be as easy as you think, though?”
Seon still had a serious expression. She seemed quite worried that the youngest, raised without getting a drop of water on his hands, would taste society’s bitterness.
Of course, it wasn’t just his opinion.
“Right, you’re already struggling having gone into that family like Sim Cheong selling her face, and you’re going to work with your name on it too? Is there really a need to go that far?”
