***
It was his first time setting foot in Joomyeong Group’s headquarters. But it wasn’t difficult to find his destination in this unfamiliar place.
His very existence was Young’s business card. Wasn’t he the protagonist of a life reversal story—a mere omega youngest from a gangster family who entered the Joomyeong household through a thorough transaction, and after marriage it turned out his spouse was an alpha who had hidden his power?
That fact alone was enough to imprint his existence on everyone. And then appearing covered in Joo Kyung-heon’s pheromones? There was no way there could be anyone to stop him even if he barged in.
“……”
Young reached Kyung-heon’s office in one go.
It wasn’t an elegant and wonderful space like the chaebols’ personal offices that appear in dramas. Perhaps because it was a project team, desks of employees filled the space as soon as the door opened, and everyone was sitting at their seats busily working.
The person who discovered Young first was an employee sitting in a seat by the door.
“What brings you he…”
The person asking indifferently swallowed their breath mid-sentence—hup. Young asked confidently without caring at all about the other person’s reaction.
“Where is Team Leader Joo Kyung-heon?”
“Ah, well… the team leader went into a meeting. It’s not certain when it will end…”
To think he came after making a big decision but happened to find him away. Young looked around pointlessly with an awkward face. Not only because of Young’s appearance but also because of the pheromones he’d come thickly covered in, everyone couldn’t hide their surprised looks.
After coming all the way here with what feelings. He couldn’t run away just because others’ gazes were burdensome. Young met eyes properly with those looking at him. Then the other side averted their gazes first.
Having sorted out the gazes directed at him, he looked at the employee by the door again.
“I’ll wait. Where should I…”
He was about to ask. The door Young had closed when entering opened again. Through the door that opened to an appropriate width, Kyung-heon, who was said to have gone to a meeting, entered.
The eyes of the two people who discovered each other met. The employee who had unintentionally been caught between the two looked around nervously, then smoothly sat down in their seat.
“……”
“……”
Kyung-heon said nothing. Not even a greeting like, what brings you here without contact? or, you came?
However, the exchanged gaze indicated it. The fact that Young’s visit was unwelcome to him.
As expected, it seemed the words about taking time weren’t used in a good sense. The moment Young saw Kyung-heon, he felt one corner of his heart ache.
Still, having come all the way here, it was a waste to turn back after seeing just that one look.
“I think we need to talk.”
When he spoke first, Kyung-heon, who had been standing as if frozen, approached. Without a response, he grabbed Young’s arm and led him with quick steps.
After passing all the employees’ seats, one more door appeared at the very back. This seemed to be Kyung-heon’s personal office. Kyung-heon familiarly opened the door and entered inside.
Opening the door, entering, closing it. Every process seemed familiar to him. Yet somehow an impatient air was mixed in. The action that seemed rushed somehow came across as displeasure to Young.
“I thought about it like you said. No, I tried to think about it. But there’s a part that bothers me, and if this isn’t resolved, I feel like I can’t move forward, so I came to confirm.”
“……”
“That’s why I came, but it seems I made a useless trip.”
It was a tone that clearly showed his bad mood. There was no way he couldn’t notice this, yet Kyung-heon showed no disturbance at all.
“Coming to find me here can’t be seen as a good choice.”
It was a voice that sounded cold rather than calm. Young bit down hard on his teeth at the action of thoroughly lowering the blinds hanging on the glass surface of the office.
He recalled past relationships where they’d act as if they’d pluck the stars and moon when alone together, but were ashamed of the fact that he was from a gangster family in front of others.
Now he could pass it off as ‘they were cowardly bastards.’ Still, it wasn’t a pleasant experience to recall again. But Joo Kyung-heon’s attitude right now seemed similar to theirs.
Young stared at him with a disappointed face. While doing so, Kyung-heon, who had finished lowering all the blinds, met his eyes again.
“So what do you need to confirm?”
It was an unexpectedly cold atmosphere. Enough to make him conflicted about whether it was right to pour out his story here in detail.
But he couldn’t go back after coming this far carrying only dirty feelings. Young tried hard to calm his surging emotions and parted his lips.
“During the phone call earlier, I think there was a bit of a misunderstanding. I meant it was difficult to talk because I was with my family. I was worried you might have taken it as the conversation itself being difficult.”
“Thanks for telling me.”
Kyung-heon’s response was concise. It was a nuance that whether it was difficult or not, the misunderstanding caused by that one word didn’t matter.
“If there was a misunderstanding about that part, I wanted to clear it up, and I wanted to know what Kyung-heon-ssi’s position is. In the current situation, honestly I can’t think at all.”
Kyung-heon looked at Young intently. Then after a brief silence, he answered in a calm voice.
“Since we were born with these traits, it was unavoidable. It’s natural to be drawn to each other’s pheromones.”
“……”
“It was an unexpected part, but even if it’s a strategic marriage, we’re still married and publicly a couple. Legally and morally, I think there’s no problem. Rather, I think it was a natural interaction.”
“……”
“I hope you can accept it comfortably, but if it’s still hard to sort out, it wouldn’t be bad to take time and think about it.”
It sounded like he was saying sex between an alpha and omega—especially mating like beasts caught by pheromones they couldn’t refuse during a heat cycle—was no big deal.
If so, it was safe to say there was no more talk to have standing here any longer. Young stared at Kyung-heon with coldly chilled eyes, then immediately approached the door.
“I see. It was a position that could help with thinking. Sorry for taking your time when you’re busy. I’ll go.”
He flatly refused any offer to take him back. Young left Kyung-heon’s office with a hardened face.
***
Whiskey was poured into an ice-filled glass with a splash. Young silently glared at the clinking ice before draining the glass in one go. There was no gap before refilling it again.
It was shit. When did he approach someone who was trying to maintain an appropriate distance with talk of an hour a day or whatever, and now Joo Kyung-heon’s cold attitude. The timing of discovering that side of him after mingling bodies was all shit.
But among everything, what made his stomach burn and his blood boil most was, of course, his own emotions about finding this situation shitty.
It was the only fact that became clear in the series of processes from kicking out of the bathtub to kicking out of Kyung-heon’s office.
Young had hoped this happening wouldn’t be dismissed as simple desire fulfillment.
Otherwise, there was no way he’d feel this upset and the world would feel this shitty. Young gulped down whiskey once more.
“This is why they couldn’t leave me alone.”
He finally understood the hearts of his family members who still coddled and protected him like a child when he’d be turning thirty the day after tomorrow.
Even after experiencing such rotten bastards, to still have hope in love—could there be a bigger fool who knew nothing of the world?
He was even a moron who didn’t know he was falling in love and got helplessly entangled. And yet on top of that, he couldn’t even manage one heat cycle period and spent the night clinging together. No wonder his family saw him as a child left by the water’s edge.
“You nailed it down from the start, so what were you expecting, stupidly.”
Looking back, it was a foreseen thing.
‘From childhood, I learned that marriage is something done out of necessity…’
Wasn’t he someone who accepted this marriage out of necessity in the first place?
‘Anyway we’re married and publicly a couple. Legally and morally, I don’t see any problem.’
The only difference was the tone from before when he was so naive—the perspective wasn’t much different.
In other words, Joo Kyung-heon had maintained a firm stance from the start, but he was the complacent one who got entangled alone and ended up hurt.
“No, but he was the one who first…!”
