[YSH] Did you get to work?
[YSH] What am I supposed to do since you left without eating breakfast
[YSH] Hongdan Hongdan should I buy you a sandwich and bring it to you?
[YSH] Why isn’t Hongdan answering… are you really busy
[YSH] Hongdan Hongdan can I use the same shampoo and stuff you used?
[YSH] I just used the same one as you anyway!! Now my body smells the same as yours I love it so much…hehe
[YSH] Hongdannn… how do you turn on the boiler? Hot water won’t come out..hng
[YSH] I don’t know where the hair dryer is either
[YSH] I’m cold and hungry and bored.. when are you coming home……..
[YSH] If you’re hungry you should eat why are you ignoring my textsㅠㅠㅠ
The moment he left the house, Hongdan’s phone really rang ceaselessly. It vibrated so repeatedly that now it was almost warm like a hand warmer.
“Ha…”
Hongdan despaired once again at his hasty judgment. The source of trouble was leaving his phone number out of concern that this idiot might cause an accident while he was gone.
Seonha’s phone, which hadn’t shown even a trace until yesterday, popped right out of his pocket as soon as Hongdan wrote the eleven-digit number on a post-it note. When asked why he pretended not to have it yesterday, he said he really didn’t know he had it. He said falling asleep alone in an unfamiliar place was so lonely that he naturally discovered it while stroking his body.
It was an excuse that didn’t even sound like an excuse.
Hongdan seriously suspected whether that bastard had sacrificed his memory to gain advanced intelligence.
What’s more, thanks to Seonha not changing his number after the divorce unlike Hongdan, when the first text came from him, the saved name appeared as ‘Seon♡ha’ in that style.
‘Pfft—!’
‘Oh my, Reporter Choi!’
The moment he faced those three characters filling the screen, he spat coffee on the monitor, making Hongdan today’s biggest crazy bastard. It was fortunate that the image of the tragic ex-husband created yesterday had quite a long lifespan, otherwise what would have come back would have been Team Leader Shim’s characteristic look of contempt. Fortunately, Hongdan was able to clean up his desk while receiving affectionate gazes as if pitying him.
Right after that, he changed the saved name to ‘ㅗㅗㅗ’ (flipping the bird). But since notifications popped up so often, it rather felt like he was the one being screwed over, so he changed it to ‘(Yeon-trash) Baby,’ but that felt like he’d put in unnecessary effort, so what he finally settled on was the current ‘YSH.’
Every time those three initials appeared on the screen, Hongdan wanted to turn off the power several times. However, he was a columnist who, rare in the industry, didn’t keep a separate work phone. In other words, turning off his phone to avoid contact from that stalker-like bastard was no different from declaring ‘I’m on strike today.’ It seemed like it would be even more annoying if he got cursed at unnecessarily just because of Yeon Seonha.
In the end, stewing alone in frustration, Hongdan’s main morning routine became looking up managed study rooms with the concept of an adult daycare to leave that bastard at. Ones that would confiscate phones of course, and where corporal punishment was possible in emergencies. However, he had to quickly give up on this too because it ate up more than 30% of his monthly salary.
Of course, considering the money he’d receive after 3 months, these few hundred thousand won would be pocket change he could generously give even to a passing ant, but he had to survive until then for that to be possible, right? This level of fixed expenditure was a high-risk investment that could threaten his immediate livelihood. Moreover, it was just a promise scattered in the air without a single document or recording, so if that bastard suddenly wiped his mouth clean after 3 months, then…
“Ah.”
Only then did Hongdan realize what he should be looking into now. What he should type in the search bar wasn’t Seoul’s cheapest managed study room, or all-day care centers that accept adults, or crap like that.
[Seoul notarization specialist lawyer]
This was precisely where he should willingly invest for his future 50 billion.
Hongdan, who had been staring at the monitor for a while, soon picked up his phone that was still vibrating repeatedly…
“But does this kid even have an ID…?”
…then put it back down after seeing the still-continuing text messages.
[YSH] Hongdan how do you turn on the gas stove?
[YSH] I opened ramen to cook it but the fire won’t turn onㅠㅠ
[YSH] (photo)
[YSH] Just eating crushed raw ramen..
[YSH] I’m so pitiful right.. I hurt my head but can’t even eat a warm meal…
[YSH] My only friend abandoned me too………
[YSH] I’m gonna cry
“…As if this idiot would have one.”
In the end, he just kept smacking his innocent forehead. But naturally, his stuffy feelings weren’t soothed at all. It only added red marks to his pitiful forehead.
***
“Hyung, are you okay?”
It was already the seventh time he’d heard that question today. Perhaps because his brow hadn’t found its place the whole time.
Hongdan was too lazy to respond anymore or to force a smiling face, so he just waved his utensils around dismissively to mean leave him alone.
The cause those who asked that tiresome question guessed and the actual reason Hongdan was suffering were strangely different while ultimately meaning the same person. The former meant the only son of Yeonhwa Group. His twenty-nine-year-old ex-husband Yeon Seonha, who had lured a ash-covered boy as if he’d turned him into Cinderella and take responsibility for his whole life, then dared to abandon him first.
Then the latter? Yeon Seonha, who seemed to have suddenly regressed mentally to eighteen, no, maybe even eight years old, who needed an adult daycare.
To Hongdan, the two were almost different personalities.
“Hyuuung—”
There was one thing Hongdan forgot while only piling up sighs. That the bastard in front of him right now wasn’t simply a bystander who liked gossip, but his hiring cohort, Yoon Jaeon from the Life Team. Jaeon was the unnecessarily gentle type.
Even though he’d already expressed his answer indirectly, far from backing off, he poured out worried words. Getting more gloomy himself at Hongdan’s exhausted appearance, with even his eyebrows drooping.
“Should we go out for a change of mood after eating? I finished the manuscript due tomorrow this morning, so I have some free time. If hyung’s okay, let’s go to a nice cafe nearby. The People Team is pretty free until this week too.”
Hongdan thought about yelling at him to stop being so bothersome, but thinking what sin did this little lamb commit, he just let out a deep sigh. Especially when facing Jaeon’s innocent brown eyes, even receiving this kind of concern felt excessive.
“It’s fine. Just being quiet is the most helpful.”
“Still, hyung…”
“If you’re really concerned, just go stab all those eyeballs glancing at me over there.”
Hongdan said while pointing around with his chopsticks. Whether they realized they’d been blatant, the gazes that had been looking this way scattered like a lie. Only then could Hongdan scoop up his second spoonful. Even though his favorite galbitang came out, he’d unintentionally been playing the hungry beggar because he’d become a zoo monkey.
The fluffy rice grains were fully soaked in the galbitang broth, looking delicious just to see. Adding a piece of kkakdugi on top was Hongdan’s preference. Just as Hongdan lowered his head to finally taste the meal he’d been looking forward to, suddenly a grinning face filled his vision.
“Would that really happen? Honestly, I wouldn’t care about rotting in prison for a few years if it’s for hyung.”
Of course it was Jaeon. His cheeks now prettily flushed.
In the end, Hongdan couldn’t enjoy his meal this time either. He’d tried to ignore it and focus on eating, but the moment he saw that clear face, it was hard to just pretend not to know.
Was eating a bowl of rice with hot galbitang really such an arduous task? Or was it arduous because it was Choi Hongdan eating it?
Hongdan put down his spoon on the table with self-derision. Then he deliberately made a stern expression.
“I told you you’d get divine punishment for carelessly hitting on a divorcé.”
“As if you’d fall for it anyway.”
Right. Actually, Jaeon was a bastard who had confessed to him two months ago and got thoroughly rejected.
Of course, it was flirting that happened at a company dinner, no different from child’s play. But he couldn’t deny the fondness itself that he harbored. Hongdan didn’t want to become an adult shameless enough to completely strip an alpha three years younger who charged at him without knowing the ways of the world.
“That’s why I’m still sane. I don’t plan to ruin some other family’s precious son’s fortune.”
His appetite completely dropped at the immature affection. Wiping his mouth with a nearby tissue, he prepared to get up.
“What do you mean ruin fortunes, really… Huh, what? Are you done? No, you didn’t even eat half?”
When Hongdan actually picked up his tray and stood up, Jaeon also hurriedly rose.
“Who made my appetite drop, man. If you’re following me out, buy me a coffee.”
“Ah shit, sorry. I won’t say stuff like this when we’re eating from now on.”
“Can’t you just not say it at all?”
“No. That won’t work.”
Jaeon even snatched the tray from Hongdan’s hand and returned it to the return station along with his own. Hongdan unconsciously took a big breath.
As expected, no scent at all.
Even at this close distance, he couldn’t find even a trace of pheromones from him. In fact, Hongdan had mistaken him for a beta until Jaeon told him first.
Well, this was normal.
Except for idiots who couldn’t control even one pheromone at the age of twenty-nine, alphas and omegas generally didn’t go around dripping pheromones. Even if they did scent-mark, it was just like a stamp for their mate.
Hongdan let out a hollow laugh.
“You really have taste.”
Because the more he looked, the more he thought Jaeon was a perfect alpha. That’s why he was even more unsuitable for an omega like himself.
Whether he knew or didn’t know he’d just been rejected once more internally, Jaeon playfully pushed his shoulder.
“Ayyy- why is the Cinderella who even seduced a prince being like this?”
“Well, that prince doesn’t look at faces.”
It could have sounded like self-deprecation spat out just because praise was embarrassing, but Hongdan said it quite sincerely.
If Seonha had been the type to care about faces, there’s no way he would have married him.
