It was the line that inevitably came out whenever drama protagonists reached the peak of their conflict. I used to watch drama after drama and think how tired and clichéd that same old line was — yet here I was in that exact situation, and out it came from my own mouth.
Because I wasn’t confident enough to break up on the spot. My head hurt and I needed to think, but the moment I looked at that insufferably handsome face of his, I wanted to forgive everything right then and there.
The man made a strange expression at my words, seemed to deliberate for a moment, then gave a single nod.
“Okay.”
Okay? “Okay”?! I was the one who brought up needing time apart first — so why did that easy, compliant attitude of his make my blood boil? I turned my back on him without a word of goodbye and walked toward the hospital room door, driven by an irrational surge of emotion.
No, but seriously — these oblivious idiots? Their hyung is walking out and they can’t even get up?
I glanced over at the man, wondering if they were still being crushed by his pheromones — and he put on a sullen, pitiful expression like he’d been wronged. Wary of being ambushed by that unannounced face of his, I squeezed my eyes shut and turned my head away.
“You’re not coming?”
I called out to the guys still sprawled on the floor, and all three sprang up like coils. Pathetic little things.
I was heading out of the hospital room with them trailing behind me when the man’s voice came from at my back.
“Gang. I can’t wait long.”
There was a distinct note of hurt in his voice. It pleased me quite a bit. I thought — I want him to wait for me for a very, very long time, missing me and regretting it. Childish as it was, I couldn’t help it.
I walked out of the hospital room without looking back once. By the time I was standing at the elevator at the end of the corridor, the same guys who had blocked my way not long ago declaring they’d rather die than let me through were now escorting me. They fumbled over each other to press the elevator button, and even after we got in, they flanked me like bodyguards with me at the center. Should I kill these idiots or let them live?
Seeing how desperate they were to get out of there — even more than me — it seemed Jaeho hadn’t pulled back his pheromones after all. Otherwise they wouldn’t be covering their mouths with expressions like they were about to be sick, or standing there drained of all color.
“Haah……”
Even amid all the confusion, there was one thing I could say for certain now. The mannerly alpha I thought I knew was, in reality, a man who wielded his pheromones however he pleased.
The elevator doors opened and I shambled out, climbing into the backseat of the car I’d left carelessly parked in front of the hospital.
“Damn.”
Well — looking at the state of how I’d parked, I wasn’t exactly one to talk about manners. They do say birds of a feather. The past version of me who thought he was passionately in love with an ordinary civilian — even if that civilian had been deceiving me — felt like a complete idiot now.
If I didn’t pour this rage out somewhere immediately, I felt like my head was going to explode. There were people who needed dealing with before the boyfriend I’d left behind in that hospital.
“Head to the construction site. Round up every single one of my guys.”
“H-hyung. You mean all of them?”
“Yeah. Every last one. If even one person’s missing, I can’t be held responsible for what happens.”
I turned away from the guys frantically making calls and sending texts to summon the others, and fixed my gaze out the window.
“Traitors.”
I muttered it quietly out of nowhere — and the car lurched.
***
“On the way down, shout it! On the way up, you’re traitors! Begin!”
I am—!
A traitor—!
Summer was on its way out, but the sun still blazed. A corner of the construction site, still mid-build. The sun beat down hard, but the workers had long since knocked off for the day — nothing rolling around but tools — and into this place a chorus of tormented voices rang out.
From the start, I hadn’t planned to put them through the dirt. If they hadn’t known about my boyfriend’s identity, I’d had every intention of sending them home with a wave. But as it turned out — every last one of them had known and come clean about it.
About twenty men of all different builds were packed into the empty lot in orderly rows and columns. The black-clad figures had been holding a push-up position shouting I am— a traitor—! on an endless loop for about thirty minutes, give or take. A dropout appeared.
“Oh dear, our youngest. Tired, are you?”
The one who’d joined most recently had his stomach flat against the ground and couldn’t push himself back up. Every single one of the members drew a sharp breath at the sight.
“Huff— gasp— I’m fine!”
“Fine, but why’d you stop? Hm? Get up!”
I kicked hard at the guy’s sides a few times as he went limp, then climbed up and sat on a high stack of aluminum pipes.
“Everyone up.”
“Urgh!”
“Fall in.”
The large crowd packed in tightly and lined up in front of me. Faces at eye level high enough to cast a shadow — my expression twisted.
“Not going to get lower?”
I swept my gaze slowly over the faces of the guys dropping to their knees with a sharp crack.
“I’m truly disappointed in all of you today.”
Faces drenched in sweat — they might have looked pitiable under other circumstances, but right now all I felt was the betrayal of being deceived by these very people. I fixed the guys at the front — doing nothing but sweating profusely — with a sidelong glare.
“My right hand, Bulgom. Remember when I had you look into my boyfriend’s background?”
“I remember. I’m sorry!”
“What exactly did the documents you brought me say. My memory’s a bit fuzzy — recite it as best you can remember.”
“I reported that he appeared to be an ordinary office worker…… no criminal record, unremarkable family situation, no debts!”
“Get down.”
“Sir!”
This brazen little—.
The very first thing I’d done the day I officially started dating the man was dig into his background. No bad intentions — it was just habit. In this world, trusting anyone easily wasn’t something that came naturally, so I’d handed the job to Bulgom, the person I trusted most. Which meant there had been no way to suspect it. That Director Kang Jaeho — the one I despised so thoroughly — and my perfect boyfriend were the same person.
How could that demon Director Kang possibly be—!
Ha — the list of things that man had done to me over the years was long enough to fill both hands and both feet and still overflow. Whenever I was trying to grow an operation and expand my territory, he’d dismantle it with a single word. On the rare occasion I tried to get into the field myself, he’d swoop in and hand the work straight to someone else to fatten up. Apparently he threw money around buying expensive drinks for the heavy hitters — but I’d never once received so much as a shot of soju from him. Wouldn’t approve my office’s staffing requests! Shot down every single thing I tried to do!
“My left hand, Mangchi. Seems you’ve forgotten how I skimmed money off a job behind President Park’s back when you said you needed money for your parents’ hospital bills.”
“Kill me now, sir!”
“Sure, sure. You get down too.”
“Sir!”
I stared coldly at the back of Mangchi’s head as he lay down next to Bulgom, then shifted my gaze to the guy next to him, fidgeting anxiously.
“And my…… well, anyway. Gamja.”
“Hyung!”
“You haven’t forgotten that I took a knife for you and kept you breathing, have I?”
“How could I ever forget, hyung!”
“Then get down.”
“Yes, sir!”
I’m truly sorry, hyung!
Seeing the three of them flat on the ground unable to lift their heads — something seemed to click for the others, because men with frames the size of mountains started clutching at my trouser legs and pouring out tears. And seemingly sensing the opening, the ones who had been kneeling in punishment began speaking up one by one.
“Hyung helped with my deposit and now I live like a decent human being! Even if he took back three times the amount later!”
“You rescued me when some thugs were stomping all over me! Though you did extort money for it as payment!”
“I was getting looked down on for being a worthless beta, and you said nothing in this world is useless and brought me into your crew and now I’m doing well! Even if you do the looking down on yourself now!”
Ah, why do these idiots always ruin a good thing with the follow-up? Why add that last part?
I tried shaking them off my legs, then gave up. For a good while after that I had to sit through more of their so-called heartwarming anecdotes that were really just thinly veiled complaints about me. I considered smacking the ones sneaking rest in the gaps, but let it go.
Most of them were guys I had personally chosen. Among them were some whose lives I had spared, others I had given a reason to keep living. There were those who had joined simply out of admiration for my fists. Whatever the reason, I didn’t dislike having that noisy office full of people.
Abandoned when I was young, with nothing resembling a family — they were my reliable support. To outside eyes it might look like I was playing boss — but that’s not how I saw it. And that was precisely why I wanted to kill every last one of them. Of all people, it’s you lot who betray me?
“You useless bastards! You think you can treat someone who knows you like this? Duck-walk, begin!”
I walked out in front of them like a mother duck and glared at the lot of them waddling along behind. In the old days I would have tied them up and beaten them — but taking on this many guys one by one was far too much effort.
How many laps had we done around the construction site? After hours of this, the anger slowly cooled. And then the whole thing started to seem absurd. The person I should actually be angry at is somewhere else — what am I even doing.
For them it had been a brutal punishment session, but for me it had been nothing more and nothing less than a walk to clear my head and sort out my thoughts.
“Alright. Everyone who lives alone, raise your hand.”
At my words, the majority of them shot their hands up. It wasn’t like I was handing out prizes, but they stretched their arms up high like they were begging to be picked.
“Everyone except those within a five-minute walk from my office — put your hands down.”
Arms dropped all around, and there stood Gamja, the only one left with his hand raised.
“Everyone else — don’t run your mouths, go straight home. I’ll be calling another assembly soon. Gamja, you’re coming with me.”
“J-just me?”
“Yeah. Just you. I’m sleeping at your place tonight.”
“What?”
