Daehoon led him to the sofa without removing his hand from Ilkyung’s waist. Ilkyung’s body trembled. He had a feeling he’d been caught in something bad. Now he seemed to properly understand why Secretary Min had patted his back with that kind of touch before he entered Director Ha’s room.
After seating Ilkyung on the sofa, Daehoon sat in the head seat and naturally crossed his legs. Ilkyung glared at those long legs.
“Assistant Manager Woo.”
Ilkyung was chewing his lower lip with his teeth when, at being called, he only rolled his eyes sideways, reading the situation.
“I don’t have very deep patience. Stop biting those pretty lips and answer properly from now on. As Assistant Manager Woo knows, my personality isn’t very good, so if Assistant Manager Woo doesn’t cooperate, I don’t know what I might do.”
It was clearly a threat.
‘Why is life like this, really? That fortune-telling place, I’m really going to go set it on fire.’
Tap tap. Daehoon tapped the table with his index finger. Ilkyung lifted only his eyes to look at Daehoon. Daehoon smiled brightly.
‘Fuck, that refreshing smile. It’s blinding.’
Ilkyung was daunted by Daehoon’s handsome smiling face.
“Focus. And answer well.”
“So what, what do you want!”
Yesterday, Daehoon decided on Ilkyung as his partner in a con and had Secretary Min investigate Woo Ilkyung’s background. He told him to dig up everything about Woo Ilkyung, no matter what. If he suddenly told him to act as his lover, with that personality he would definitely lift his chin and bark, asking what kind of bullshit he was spouting, so it seemed better to grab something he couldn’t wriggle out of and shake it.
After leaving the hotel and arriving home, as if waiting, contact came from Secretary Min. Secretary Min was originally someone who assisted his father, but his work speed was really fast, so Daehoon was quite pleased with him too. Daehoon looked at the file Secretary Min sent and wore a satisfied smile.
“Name Woo Ilkyung. Noona Woo Minkyung, mother Lee Haegyeong? Lee Haegyeong? That S-rank? Ha! Why didn’t I know?”
While looking at things about family relations, he learned that Woo Ilkyung was the youngest of that Woo family. He couldn’t not know Lee Haegyeong, who was famous as an S-rank Esper, if nothing else. And the more important fact was that Esper Woo Minkyung at the Center now was that Woo Minkyung! Though there should be more than one or two Espers. Even after coming to the central Center, Daehoon had no occasion to meet face-to-face with Woo Minkyung. Somehow there had never even been an Esper-Guide matching rate test. So naturally, he couldn’t have imagined that Woo Ilkyung and Woo Minkyung among all those many Espers were from the same family.
“That’s probably because it wasn’t the Director’s interest.”
Secretary Min, who was on the call, answered. It was true. In fact, Daehoon was pushed into going to that matchmaking meeting, so he only knew the name Woo Minkyung when he went—he knew absolutely nothing about photos or other personal information. He didn’t even know Woo Minkyung was affiliated with the central Center. At that meeting, he said he was interested in the other person, but that was obviously a lie. He had no interest in the matchmaking itself, so there was no way the other person would catch his eye.
“No wonder every time I saw Assistant Manager Woo, I felt like I’d seen him somewhere.”
Ilkyung gulped.
“Remember when I told Assistant Manager Woo—no, Woo Minkyung-ssi—that I was interested?”
“No! I don’t remember!”
Ilkyung started denying it outright. His instinct was telling him to do so.
“Ah, you don’t remember? Then you can remember from now on. What will you do? I have a bit of a situation where I need a man to play the role of my lover for a while. And I think Assistant Manager Woo Ilkyung is perfect for that—what do you think?”
“So how am I perfect! And why do you need a man as a lover?”
Ilkyung felt like his head would explode.
Yes, it was a big mistake that he got drunk like a dog while drinking and badmouthed a superior at work, and got caught doing it. But doesn’t everyone make that kind of mistake once?
“You’re thinking other thoughts again.”
Director Ha put a cigarette in his mouth and lit it. The small sound of the cigarette tip burning and the pungent cigarette scent called back Ilkyung’s runaway mind.
“I wasn’t thinking other thoughts.”
Let’s deny whatever it is for now.
“I’ve thought this usually, but sometimes—no, often—Assistant Manager Woo Ilkyung seems to not understand what people say very well.”
“What did you say?”
Until Director Ha came to the Center, Ilkyung had never clashed with anyone. Since he got a job at the Center early on, it had already been five years, but whether it was because he was younger than people at the same seniority level, or because of his charming personality, Ilkyung always worked being loved like the youngest.
With his characteristic friendliness and eagerness to please, Ilkyung approached his seniors first, actively learned work, and did his job quite well. So when Ilkyung learned one thing and accomplished ten, his seniors were delighted as if they themselves had achieved results and doted on Ilkyung.
Moreover, he was above all the beloved of the powerful Woo family. Among the higher-ups at the Center, who wouldn’t know the Woo clan? They were a family of ability users for generations, and had always been affiliated with the central Seoul Center… So how adorable must it have looked when Ilkyung, the only ordinary person in that family, joined and worked hard as if this place was originally his place?
The only person who had no interest whatsoever in such Woo Ilkyung was Ha Daehoon. He was someone who received attention if anything, not someone who would pay attention to others. Ha Daehoon himself had received all kinds of public attention while growing up. To an extremely bothersome degree.
“Think it over carefully.”
“So why would I be Director Ha’s lover—ha! The more I think about it, the more ridiculous it is! Director, I’m not even gay…!”
“Does that matter in this situation? In fact, Assistant Manager Woo doesn’t have a choice. Or should I contact your mother right now? That the person who showed up at the matchmaking that day wasn’t Woo Minkyung-ssi, but Assistant Manager Woo Ilkyung in drag.”
He knows everything! Really, he knows everything from one to ten. He definitely seemed not to know until yesterday. Because at that gathering, the only person Director Ha recognized was Ilkyung alone.
“Why? You’re making quite the dumbfounded expression?”
“Ha! Do you also do mind reading or something?”
“As if. It’s not like I’m an Esper or anything.”
Ha Daehoon shrugged his shoulders and added:
“We call that a background check.”
A background check, out in the open! Ilkyung was even more flabbergasted at Ha Daehoon’s shameless attitude.
“Can you even do a background check so openly like that? That’s illegal!”
“That’s not what Assistant Manager Woo Ilkyung should be worrying about right now. To have a conversation, I need information about the other party, so I had no choice but to look into it, and I discovered something unexpectedly interesting. So whose idea was it for Assistant Manager Woo to go to the matchmaking in drag? Esper Woo Minkyung? Or Assistant Manager Woo?”
When the other party was too shameless, even the crazy troublemaker Woo Ilkyung realized that his mouth seemed glued shut and words wouldn’t come out.
“What are you going to do knowing that?”
“I need to know so I can speak in more detail when Assistant Manager Woo rejects my proposal. So whose idea was it? Or shall I guess?”
It was already like this before, but the more Director Ha spoke, the more infuriating it felt. But Daehoon didn’t care whether Ilkyung’s face turned red or blue and continued speaking.
“Should I call your mother and say that her youngest son has a hobby of cross-dressing, so much so that he dressed in drag instead of his noona and went to the matchmaking and ruined it?”
“Wh-what?”
“Or what should I say? That Esper Woo Minkyung was going to go to the matchmaking, but Assistant Manager Woo Ilkyung stopped her?”
Daehoon said with a smile. Continuing to say the same story with just different expressions meant the answer was already decided, so you answer. Right now.
If it had been an ordinary matchmaking, it might not have mattered. But this was a matchmaking based on nothing less than a political marriage. It wasn’t saying to get married right away, but it was essentially a promise made long ago between Director Ha’s grandfather, Chairman Ha, and Woo Minkyung’s maternal grandmother. Ruining such a matchmaking was something that would trouble and embarrass not just each other’s parents but even the grandparents. Regardless of the parties’ own intentions.
