Eventually, when Cheon Jaekyung, an omega, couldn’t regain his senses due to the alpha’s pheromones, Lee Hyeonseok withdrew his pheromones as if he’d seen something filthy and returned to his seat. Cheon Jaekyung lowered his head and trembled, feeling humiliated. Thinking he’d trampled on him sufficiently, Lee Hyeonseok returned to his place and stared at the screen.
Seo Jiwoo, whom he’d thought would be listening attentively, had put his phone far away and was lying down carefree. It wasn’t that he pretended not to listen—he hadn’t listened at all.
“Seo Jiwoo…”
Lee Hyeonseok called Seo Jiwoo as if dumbfounded, but there was no way he could hear. Naturally, no answer came back either. Eventually, uncharacteristically calling Seo Jiwoo loudly, he finally bolted up, grabbed his phone, and answered.
“Seo Jiwoo!”
—Hm? Ah, yeah. Right, of course.
Without even listening to what Lee Hyeonseok had said, he responded affirmatively first—it seemed Lee Hyeonseok’s reason toward Seo Jiwoo would finally snap. In fact, his ominous pheromones leaked out involuntarily, and Cheon Jaekyung was on the verge of fainting.
“You…”
—Yeah.
When he called in an ominous voice with the intention of making Seo Jiwoo pay the proper price, Jiwoo responded very gently. It was obviously an action aimed at the saying about not being able to spit on a smiling face, but Lee Hyeonseok stiffened just as Seo Jiwoo intended. Finding himself absurd as his reason seemed about to snap in a different sense, he even let out an empty laugh. It hurt his pride quite a bit that he acted too easily only when it came to Seo Jiwoo, but that would only be temporary at best.
Lee Hyeonseok decided to kindly advise him, looking down at the unwhole Cheon Jaekyung, meaning for him to take care of himself.
“Whatever. If you don’t want to have a terrible experience, just stay home obediently.”
—Ah, yes.
Of course, it was only advice in Lee Hyeonseok’s mind—naturally, it was a tone that would feel like a threat to Seo Jiwoo. Watching Seo Jiwoo being displeased by it, Lee Hyeonseok stroked Jiwoo’s face reflected on the screen once with his hand and smiled bitterly. It was an appearance he couldn’t deny even if someone called him gloomy.
“Don’t think I won’t know what you’re doing just because I’m not next to you.”
Lee Hyeonseok naturally didn’t think his words sounded like something a stalker would say. There was no one gutsy enough to tell Lee Hyeonseok, “To put it nicely, you’re a stalker; to tell the truth, you seem like a crazy perverted lunatic deviant.” If there was anyone with the guts to say it, it would only be Cheon Jaekyung, but regrettably, he was currently in a state where it wouldn’t be strange if he fainted right now.
“Answer.”
—Yeah.
“If you’re bored, play a game or something.”
—A game?
“Do you have something else you want to do?”
Not knowing he was being watched in real-time, Seo Jiwoo answered, feeling reassured by Lee Hyeonseok’s consistently personality-lacking words and actions. Lee Hyeonseok, for his part, thought Seo Jiwoo was reassured and moved by his generosity. Anyone who knew the situation wouldn’t believe it even if they saw it.
Lee Hyeonseok recommended a game to divert Seo Jiwoo’s attention from going out to something else. It was because he’d never seen a twenty-year-old who disliked games in his life. He thought an answer would come saying he’d do that without complaints, but a question came as if he’d never even thought about it. Lee Hyeonseok, uncharacteristically respecting others’ hobbies, asked right away, but Seo Jiwoo kept his mouth shut.
Seo Jiwoo knew well he shouldn’t be doing this now, but at the same time, he was also annoyed and tired. It was a precursor symptom of depression, but he didn’t know it himself, and the person watching in real-time didn’t know either. However, even if the watcher knew, he was someone who wouldn’t care. He truly couldn’t be anything but trash.
—…No, not really. Yeah, games are good.
From Seo Jiwoo, who had paused briefly, came an awkward affirmative answer. Lee Hyeonseok felt something strange but simply thought it was words that came out after pondering and ultimately not finding what he wanted, so he didn’t think much of it. The goal was already achieved just by making him not think about going out.
“And.”
“President, are you busy right now?”
“Can’t you tell by looking?”
—?
Just as he was about to say one last time not to even dream of going out without his permission, Secretary Cha came in without even a knock and called for Lee Hyeonseok. Lee Hyeonseok furrowed his brow and spoke, filled with displeasure at being interrupted. Secretary Cha, who should have apologized and withdrawn, bowed his head and apologized but didn’t withdraw.
When Lee Hyeonseok covered the speaker and gestured for him to speak, Secretary Cha approached as if he’d been waiting and opened his mouth so only he could hear.
“Someone named Choi Ilhyeon from the Ethics Committee is here looking for you, President.”
“What for?”
“Well, it seems… he’s come regarding the trait change matter.”
“I wonder which mouth it leaked from.”
At Secretary Cha’s words, Lee Hyeonseok recalled the faces of the researchers he knew and the research participants. He’d made all the devices to bury the person who opened their mouth by pinning all the blame on them the moment they opened their mouth. He thought they weren’t stupid enough not to know that. Lee Hyeonseok judged that since things had come to this, whether the person who let it leak did it intentionally or not, it wouldn’t be bad to make an example of them.
“I’m busy. I’m hanging up.”
Lee Hyeonseok, who had become busy with the obstacle named Choi Ilhyeon from the Ethics Committee along with Cheon Jaekyung, tried to hang up the call, saying he’d do the rest of the conversation at home.
—Wait, just a moment!
“Why, what?”
Seo Jiwoo urgently stopped Lee Hyeonseok. Lee Hyeonseok only now realized Seo Jiwoo was quite frustrated. Though the sight of him clinging to him because he had nowhere else to cling was quite pleasing, he pretended not to know and asked. Lee Hyeonseok, wanting Seo Jiwoo to show more desperation, deliberately didn’t ask anything and urged him as if telling him to hurry up and speak.
—Huh? Ah, uh, well…. Uh, are, are you busy?
“Yeah.”
—What, no, what does a student have to be busy about…?
“I’ll talk later.”
Though Seo Jiwoo struggled to continue speaking, even stuttering in case Lee Hyeonseok hung up, he answered in an indifferent voice. The answer without any further explanation was even cold, but Seo Jiwoo desperately continued speaking nonetheless. Even though he was watching that struggling appearance directly through the screen, Lee Hyeonseok, as if guilt or conscience didn’t exist in him, even hung up first.
Eventually, when Seo Jiwoo threw his phone, Lee Hyeonseok smiled contentedly as if watching something fun. It was a scene sufficient for everyone except Lee Hyeonseok to doubt his mental state internally.
“Oh dear.”
“What’s wrong?”
“Never mind.”
Perhaps the sound was quite loud, as the guards soon came to check the situation and ended up injuring Seo Jiwoo. When he made a pitying sound at how funny and pitiful his fallen backward appearance was, Secretary Cha asked, but Lee Hyeonseok answered without even looking.
Unlike Secretary Cha, who wanted to quickly finish the Ethics Committee matter, Lee Hyeonseok watched Seo Jiwoo in the screen for a long while before poking Cheon Jaekyung, who was slumped on the floor, with his foot a few times.
“……”
“Hey, get your wits together.”
A reaction finally came only after Lee Hyeonseok poked him several times. But at Cheon Jaekyung’s still dazed attitude, Lee Hyeonseok slapped his cheek, forcibly making him come to his senses. Perhaps his pride was hurt more by being hit with a palm than a fist—life began to dwell again in Cheon Jaekyung’s unfocused eyes. His cheek turned red, and blood flowed out as if the inside of his mouth had burst, but no one cared.
“I’ll at least deliver a letter.”
Lee Hyeonseok decided to make good use of Cheon Jaekyung. If he delivered Cheon Jaekyung’s threatening letter to Seo Jiwoo, who was beginning to feel frustrated after having his going out blocked using Cheon Jaekyung as an excuse, he would definitely depend on him either unconsciously or consciously. Lee Hyeonseok didn’t properly know what he wanted from Seo Jiwoo either, but at least being frightened and cowering was better than wandering around outside.
If possible, he only hoped he’d maintain as intact an appearance as possible.
“I’ll only deliver it once, so it would be good to write it carefully.”
Cheon Jaekyung, who couldn’t guess Lee Hyeonseok’s intentions at all, wrote a letter according to his proposal for now.
Very carefully and carefully. Sincerely, wholeheartedly, passionately.
He wrote it down with the hope that Seo Jiwoo would definitely understand his sincerity, rather than refusing saying it was enough, that he wouldn’t write it. Naturally, Lee Hyeonseok would see the content first before Seo Jiwoo could check it, but it didn’t matter as long as it was delivered to Seo Jiwoo.
Lee Hyeonseok pondered whether to use Cheon Jaekyung, who was grinning like a crazy person, for research or circulate him to people with good hobbies. Either way, he would fulfill his role and please him.
“Right now! Don’t think you’ve won!”
Cheon Jaekyung, who had been grinning, suddenly shouted at Lee Hyeonseok as if seized by evil. Thinking the priority was to make him docile at that spirited appearance, Lee Hyeonseok called Secretary Cha with his head.
“Assemblyman Park feels quite a lot of interest in omegas, doesn’t he?”
“Yes. I hear he buys them up as soon as he discovers them.”
When Lee Hyeonseok mentioned Assemblyman Park, Secretary Cha answered enthusiastically. Assemblyman Park Jingyu was a core member of the opposition party, famous for his dirty private life. Despite going around committing various bad acts like sexual harassment and molestation, he had been serving as a National Assembly member soundly through connections and money. His recent interest was omegas.
“He’ll like a special gift even more.”
“I’ll arrange a meeting.”
As Lee Hyeonseok said, Secretary Cha evaluated Cheon Jaekyung from various angles with the eyes of looking at a good item and made a new schedule in his head. When he was treated as an object not only by Lee Hyeonseok but even by Secretary Cha, Cheon Jaekyung turned his face bright red with grief and shame and shouted.
“I definitely won’t let you or Seo Jiwoo off!”
“You’ve caught us so many times with words.”
“You son of a bitch!”
“Why aren’t you dragging him out now?”
“Yes.”
Lee Hyeonseok, who mocked Cheon Jaekyung shouting in indignation, blocked Jaekyung’s words and instructed them to drag him out now. The guards, who had been still until now, first gagged Cheon Jaekyung and dragged him out. In less than 10 seconds, the chaotic situation was cleanly organized.
“Hmm…”
In the CCTV screen, Seo Jiwoo was rubbing his forehead. Lee Hyeonseok compared the world that had already gone very wrong from the original once, then called Secretary Cha. Lee Hyeonseok believed the theory that no matter how small a rat, you don’t know what it’ll do when cornered. Lee Hyeonseok himself had grown up that way from the start.
“Secretary Cha. That bastard is the only one who’s not just breathing but perfectly fine even after cracking my head twice and hospitalizing me several times, you know?”
“Yes.”
“Let’s do well.”
“Yes.”
He listed things that would surely be embarrassing to Lee Hyeonseok himself with his own mouth and reconfirmed Seo Jiwoo’s safety. Even at Secretary Cha’s answer filled with firm determination, Lee Hyeonseok didn’t feel his own strange aspects.
