“Who said that?”
The moment he heard that name, Gyeonwoo’s eyes completely changed.
“I ran into a high school classmate a few days ago, and they said they saw Ahn Subin.”
“Where?”
“In Pangyo. I don’t know if he moved back for good or just came to visit temporarily.”
Hearing this, Gyeonwoo suddenly clamped his mouth shut.
Woosung only knew Gyeonwoo as someone who laughed and chattered endlessly. Such an unfamiliar expression was suffocating—no, it was downright eerie.
It would be terrible if Hyowoo came back in this situation.
Just as Woosung glanced outside wondering if he was still on the call, Gyeonwoo muttered quietly, “How perfect.”
“So that bastard who deserves to be beaten to death finally crawled back to Korea? The guy who ran away to America came back on his own two feet—this is the most welcome news I’ve heard in a while. Now all that’s left is to find that bastard and make him die young.”
“…Don’t make jokes like that even as a joke. When you say it with that face, it sounds like you’d actually do it.”
“Do I look like I’m joking?”
It wasn’t bravado but sincerity.
Seeing the murderous voice and an even more vicious face, Woosung’s shoulders trembled involuntarily.
The twins Hyowoo and Gyeonwoo had an extraordinary brotherly bond since childhood. If the perpetrator who committed such cruel acts against his precious hyung was in Seoul, there was no way he’d just sit still.
“It’s not that I don’t understand how you feel, but stop. That bastard isn’t just human scum trash—he’s a highly intelligent sociopath.”
Woosung hesitated momentarily at Gyeonwoo’s chilling expression but soon regained his composure.
“And what’s scarier than that bastard is that bastard’s father. Did you forget what that man did to cover up his son’s crimes?”
Unfazed by Gyeonwoo’s sharp gaze, Woosung continued calmly.
“He easily canceled my university admission, and kicked your father out of the university hospital where he’d been for over 30 years. Making one or two people disappear without a trace would be nothing to that man. You know that well.”
“……”
“If you touch Ahn Subin out of impulsive emotion, you’re the only one who’ll get hurt. Who knows what harm he might do to your family again. So don’t go lurking around Pangyo for no reason, and think of a way to keep Hyowoo from running into that bastard.”
Cold advice to the point where all affection seemed to have vanished. But he couldn’t refute it.
“…Damn it.”
The reality that he couldn’t touch even a single hair of the demon who trampled on his hyung’s life. He was crushed again by that sense of despair.
The perpetrator was living well with his head held high. Yet the victim, Hyowoo, had to hide and avoid for his entire life. Rage surged at this absurd reality.
Unable to contain his growing anger, Gyeonwoo irritably scratched his head roughly.
Watching Gyeonwoo swallow his anger while spewing profanities too vulgar to mention, Woosung deliberately snapped coldly.
“And are you planning to get permanently disbarred from the legal world before even taking the bar exam? Someone who wants to be a prosecutor trying to resolve things with violence?”
“That doesn’t sound like something that should come from the mouth of someone who barged into a classroom during class and beat Ahn Subin until dust flew on a rainy day.”
“Right. Since I beat him as much as I could back then, endure it. Revenge needs to be done in a more vicious way. Just killing him is too weak. Wasn’t it also why you, who aimed to be an engineer, decided to become a prosecutor—to make that bastard properly pay for his crimes?”
Following the cold advice with practical counsel, Gyeonwoo scoffed as if it was absurd. Seeing his friend’s face finally regain reason, Woosung also let out a sigh of relief.
“By the way, is Hyowoo seeing anyone?”
At the question of why he thought so, Woosung turned his gaze beyond the glass wall.
“He wouldn’t make that kind of expression while on the phone with a friend.”
A very faint smile rested on Hyowoo’s face as he talked about something. It was a gentle expression soft enough to guess what kind of feelings he had for the person he was talking to. It had been a really long time since he’d seen such a happy look.
Gyeonwoo’s mood improved as well, but conversely, Woosung’s displeasure was evident.
“I’ve seen that face before.”
Woosung muttered quietly and bit his thumbnail with his front teeth. It was an old habit that unconsciously emerged whenever he was anxious or worried.
“They’re not dating, but it seems like there’s someone he’s interested in.”
“He’s not meeting some weirdo, is he? That kid only has brains for studying, no eye for people.”
Woosung’s nerves were on edge, but Gyeonwoo was carefree.
“At least he’s not a weirdo… I mean, not a weird person.”
“Have you met him?”
“No, not yet.”
“You haven’t met him, so how do you know?”
Gyeonwoo knew well what Woosung meant by “that face.” He could fully understand what his friend was worried about.
In fact, Gyeonwoo felt the same way.
After that incident, he had become overprotective of Hyowoo.
People who didn’t know the full story of the incident would look at Gyeonwoo strangely for being unusually obsessed with his hyung.
Moreover, they were rare identical twins with different secondary genders. There were even ridiculous rumors that a possessive Alpha was trying to control even his blood-related Omega.
Gyeonwoo instinctively showed aversion to people who approached his hyung enough to hear such talk.
However, when Hyowoo mentioned meeting Lee Seohee, he showed a different reaction than usual. There was wariness, but strangely, no hostility was felt.
“Even though I haven’t met him directly, well, he’s a decent person for now.”
“How so?”
“He’s capable and has excellent visuals. From what Hyowoo said, his personality and character seem good too.”
Woosung couldn’t hide his displeasure at the relaxed attitude that contrasted so much with when they were talking about Ahn Subin moments ago.
“Wasn’t Ahn Subin like that too? Even now, classmates still think that bastard is an upright gentleman. Hyowoo was fooled by that disgusting act too.”
Certainly, Lee Seohee and Ahn Subin had many similarities.
Both were born as Alphas into good families and grew up wealthy, were tall and handsome, and smart too.
However, those were merely superficial commonalities—the two were clearly different.
Gyeonwoo had disliked Ahn Subin from the start. His first impression was an untrustworthy fake, hiding his sinister true intentions behind a gentle false smile.
If only he had told his hyung what he felt back then, perhaps such a tragedy wouldn’t have happened.
He felt like he could never forgive himself for not stopping Hyowoo at that time.
On the other hand, even though he’d never met Lee Seohee directly, he got the impression that he was someone whose character was exactly as it appeared.
Of course, he couldn’t judge just from photos or videos, but he had a strange belief that at least he wouldn’t be an evil hypocrite like Ahn Subin.
“Don’t worry. It’s different from back then.”
“What’s different?”
“It’s hard to explain, but anyway, it’s different.”
Looking at his friend still full of dissatisfaction as if unconvinced, Gyeonwoo suddenly recalled Hyowoo from a few weeks ago, the moment Seohee’s team won.
He said they were nothing to each other, just someone he didn’t dislike, but his hyung’s eyes looking at him on the screen were saying something else.
He could be certain.
‘That Hyowoo bastard has already fallen head over heels for Lee Seohee.’
A conversation the two had shared came to mind. That day, they drank alone in Hyowoo’s room. Tipsy Hyowoo had revealed his deeply buried inner feelings as if mentioning it in passing.
“PTSD, panic disorder, distrust of people, social avoidance, Omegaphobia despite being an Omega. Plus my abnormal physical condition… I’ve got all the worst conditions. Marriage and romance will be impossible for me.”
“You’re completely drunk? If you’re going to talk like that, stop drinking and go to sleep.”
“There might be someone who understands my past, but there won’t be anyone who accepts it.”
“Have you lived your whole life already? You’re only in your early twenties, why are you already deciding such things?”
“Actually… I’m scared of liking someone. I don’t want to like anyone ever again……”
Saying he’d rather be alone was more comfortable, Hyowoo smiled a heart-wrenchingly sad smile. Gyeonwoo still couldn’t forget that face.
His heart ached every time he saw his hyung living life having given up on both a normal life and happiness.
He wished his hyung wouldn’t be lonely. He wished he wouldn’t get hurt anymore.
He wished he could be happier than anyone else, as much as he had suffered.
And with Lee Seohee, he began to have expectations and greed that perhaps he could help his hyung, trapped in the past, take a step forward.
That’s why in March, when he heard about spending the night at the airport, he helped without hesitation.
“What are you grinning about by yourself, that’s creepy.”
Not realizing he’d been smiling, Woosung looked at Gyeonwoo with bewildered eyes.
“Let’s leave our hyung’s love life to investigate later—what about you? Are you seeing anyone?”
Instead of answering, Gyeonwoo countered with an unexpected question.
“Do I look like it?”
“You’re kind of rude and annoying, but you were popular.”
“You and Hyowoo were the popular ones.”
“Oh my, how unusual for you to say something right. Well, this body was quite popular, being an all-around beauty with both outstanding looks and superior brains.”
As Gyeonwoo struck a narcissistic pose, Woosung responded as if fed up.
“…I misspoke. Not you, only Hyowoo was popular.”
“Right. There were quite a few people who liked Hyowoo regardless of gender, Alpha, Beta, or Omega. You were one of them too.”
Woosung’s eyes widened at Gyeonwoo’s unexpected words.
“Don’t worry. Hyowoo doesn’t know. Our blockhead hyung quickly notices when people around him like someone, but he can’t tell when someone likes him.”
“Why would I worry like it’s some big secret?”
Although considerably flustered at having his inner feelings exposed, Woosung simply acknowledged his true feelings.
“When I was young, I thought a lot about why I wasn’t the one who could make him make that expression.”
“What about now? Do you still like him?”
“Well……”
Pausing briefly, Woosung looked at Hyowoo again.
“I can’t really say… that I don’t feel anything for him anymore.”
Woosung spoke calmly, his gaze fixed on Hyowoo outside the cafe. Meanwhile, Gyeonwoo silently watched his friend, whose attention was captured by his hyung and not looking at him. Somehow, a faint loneliness seemed to seep into those eyes.
