I shot to my feet with a face burning red and launched into a deadly game of tag. We chased each other around in a loud, chaotic, crashing scramble — and the company motto hanging on the wall tilted precariously before dropping weakly to the floor.
All that pointless expenditure of energy, and somehow dawn was already breaking.
“So…… the guys who used to grovel and shake in front of me were actually trembling because they were scared of Director Kang’s pheromones.”
Tap.
“And the omegas who used to come onto me weren’t doing it because of this fantastic face of mine — they were drawn in by Director Kang’s pheromones.”
Tap.
“Meaning my body has been marinated in Director Kang’s pheromones for three whole years.”
Tap.
“And you two kept your mouths shut about all of it?”
Tap!
The passionate lecture on secondary characteristics had somehow resulted in an A4 sheet filled edge to edge with notes, and I was clicking the tip of my ballpen against it over and over as I spoke — by the time I reached that conclusion, a vein was throbbing above my brow.
The version of me who had stupidly believed, knowing nothing, that his fighting ability was exceptional — the version of me who had been smug about his popularity that crossed all secondary characteristic lines — felt more humiliating than getting caught masturbating on camera.
Just what exactly did the man give me that shower for?
If I hadn’t known Director Kang’s true identity yet, and if I hadn’t known he had a fiancée, I probably would have been jumping for joy. I would have thought: he must like me so much that he drenched me in pheromones to claim me as his.
But now I know that his act of coating me in his pheromones was nothing more than a meaningless prank. It’s called an alpha’s territorial marking, but he was a beta. Which means it was a completely useless thing to do.
The instinctive act of marking — done by a beta — is proof that the man is an alpha to his very bones. And me, unable to recognize that until the very end, felt like someone who could never hold him for good. And at the tail end of that thought, the omega in the photo surfaced. That woman condemned me. She said I was never meant to stand at his side from the beginning.
What broke me out of the long spell of brooding was the wet smacking sounds coming from the mouths of the guys sitting on the sofa eating hamburgers. They kept stealing cautious glances at me while burying their faces in their food like they hadn’t eaten in days. I watched them for a moment, then mercilessly crumpled the scrawl-covered paper and threw it.
“Quite the appetite you’ve got there?”
“Hyung, you should eat too.”
I got fed up watching them — totally unfazed, utterly absorbed in eating even after a crumpled paper ball landed on their heads — and let the tension drain from my upper body, sinking back against the chair. Whether it was the hour or the sheer volume of things that had poured into my head, I had no appetite.
“I’m fine.”
I’d lost count of how many times I’d shivered and layered on more clothes thinking a fever was coming on, only to suddenly overheat and switch on a fan. The guys were nearly done eating, and they wiped their mouths with tissues before asking:
“Hyung, how did you manage to get involved with Director Kang without even knowing this basic secondary characteristic common sense?”
My poor condition is probably because of these little bastards who just keep crawling further and further out of line. Here we go again, seriously! I should’ve said it all in one go. When I gave them the floor earlier! Before the chalkboard and the mic and before the glasses disappeared off that Mangchi bastard’s face!
Mangchi — who had been picking up even the stray lettuce that had fallen onto the table in front of the sofa and eating it — made a completely baffled expression at my sudden glare. With the glasses gone, all the principal energy had vanished and only a dim-witted hulk remained. God, should I just steal those fries in front of him?
“I don’t know, you idiot! I’m a beta — do I have to know all that too? I’m admitting I’m ignorant, so can we drop it?”
Diligent people would already have left their homes heading to work by now. Which meant it was genuinely morning. He’d had enough criticism for one night. He tried to cut them off with irritation, but the bastards seemed to have gotten their energy back after eating and wouldn’t stop running their mouths.
“It’s not just the pheromones. Do you have any idea how big the butterfly effect was from the things you said to Director Kang?”
These little shits have really got a death wish.
“You want to die? Where’d you dig up another fancy word to show off?”
I felt a little bad about hitting them earlier, so I’d gone out of my way to feed them breakfast on my own card — and they repaid me by getting their energy up and mouthing off. These idiots with ketchup smeared all over their lips making sour faces weren’t scary in the slightest.
“What exactly did I say that’s causing all this— fuss……?”
I was about to snap that I never said any such thing, already glancing around in case another microphone appeared from somewhere — but then several incidents flickered through my mind. It wasn’t even that long ago.
“Babe— has work been really hard lately? You look like you’ve lost some weight……”
I’d said it worriedly while tracing his sharp jawline, and the man had smiled and said he was fine. His eyes and the corners of his mouth curved beautifully when he smiled, and I’d found it so endearing that I’d pressed my lips all over his face with little smacking sounds.
“Nobody’s giving you a hard time, right? If anyone messes with you — or even just bumps your shoulder — just deck them on the spot. Don’t worry about how it looks. I’ll take care of you.”
I’d said it with a serious expression, fist clenched, and launched into a full lecture on how to throw a punch to cause maximum pain to the other person. Like this — make a fist and bam! Using teaching him to fight as an excuse, I’d shamelessly run my hands all over the man’s arms — a lesson that was less of a lesson and more of an indulgence.
Come to think of it, the rumor that Director Kang had developed a compulsion — that a single strand of hair grazing him would send the other person to their grave — had started right around that time. And what had he said when he heard that? He’d cursed him out at length, calling him an utterly inhumane, brutal bastard. Not even knowing that he himself was the one who’d caused it.
He’d half-dismissed the talk of butterfly effects, but now he was starting to think that perhaps he himself was the one who had demonized Director Kang in this way.
“Ah — you remembered something, didn’t you, hyung?”
“No? I don’t remember a single thing.”
You got proof I did that?
He couldn’t decide whether to praise or smack the guys who were apparently taking the company motto to heart, being brutally honest like there was no tomorrow. He glared at the motto — the frame glass had cracked when it fell earlier and was now wrapped in clear tape — and then his eye kept drifting guiltily toward the phone sitting on the desk.
Not for any particular reason — just that the bare minimum of social functioning required being reachable. And in case whoever installed the cameras sent a threatening text or call……. For reasons like these and others, he turned his phone back on, which had been switched off.
He gave half-hearted replies to the guys who just kept pushing further and further, eyes fixed on the phone screen — when Gamja suddenly lowered his voice and asked something out of nowhere.
“Hyung. The ones you used to curse out endlessly for making your life hell — Park Gangsik, Seong Junho, Bae Changman. And others. Have you heard any news about how they’ve been doing lately?”
“No……?”
As if a ghost story broadcast had suddenly begun, the fluorescent lights in the office went out and a single lighter appeared before his eyes. Gamja’s face looming over that one flickering flame was, without question, the most terrifying thing among countless terrifying things. They kept rearranging the office to suit themselves like it was a broadcast set, and by now he had no desire to be surprised or to demand explanations.
“Do you really not know why you haven’t heard anything more about those guys?”
The names that came out of Gamja’s mouth belonged to enemies he couldn’t forget even if he tried. Guys who had wrecked his business, spread bad rumors about him — there were more than enough reasons they deserved to disappear — and he wasn’t particularly curious about how they were living now, but something about the atmosphere made him oddly anticipate what would come next.
“Huh, I don’t know. Do you?”
“Well, what happened to them was……”
What happened? He swallowed hard and asked, and Gamja quietly and slowly drew his thumb across his throat.
“They’re all dead…… coincidence, do you think?”
He’d been about to laugh it off as a pointless joke — but it didn’t seem like something Director Kang was incapable of, so he couldn’t bring himself to brush it aside so easily. The fact that those were the very names he used to recite like curses in front of the man made it worse.
Sometimes fuming and seething with rage, sometimes whining and pouting like a child — he had freely vented about every person who made his life difficult. It was no different from begging the Grim Reaper to take those people away.
Driiiing!
“Aagh!”
The bell that shattered the silence sent everyone hurling their hamburgers, fries, and cheese sticks in every direction, scattering in a panic. Whoever had turned off the lights must have been frightened too, because the office was suddenly bright again. He too had startled and shoved his chair back with a shout — but then he pressed his hand to his chest with relief at the brightly lit phone screen. For all the commotion, it was nothing major — it was a call from Director Kang.
“Director Kang……?”
Because he’d changed the contact name from my boyfriend to Director Kang, it took him a moment to register who was calling.
The impeccable timing of the call sent the guys collapsing to the floor in exaggerated faints. He wanted to do the same, but this was the first call since that day. He couldn’t ignore it.
“Hyung. Aren’t you going to answer?”
He hesitated. Because the truth was — knowingly or not — he had been waiting for contact from him. He hid the way the corners of his mouth were inexplicably lifting and put on a cool front.
“It’s my boss calling — why wouldn’t I answer?”
Honestly, I’d been dying for this call. How many times had I fantasized about this guy coming back to me in tears, begging me? Stay calm. I’m the one who ended it. Right?
It wasn’t even a video call, but he squarely squared his shoulders as if to look confident, and picked up.
“Hello.”
