By Zephyria 
Jeong-min didn’t want to eat or drink anything, but he couldn’t ignore the gesture of goodwill. No, if it weren’t for this specific place, he would have refused…
“Thank you.”
Once Jeong-min accepted the drink, Choi Yeon-woo seemed to gain courage; he sat lightly beside him and released pheromones of attraction toward Jeong-min.
He appealed to him, chirping like a small bird, but to Jeong-min, it was merely noise. Just an extra talking to him.
Then, sensing a gaze from somewhere, he snapped back to his senses and looked around.
“Is something wrong?”
“Ah, no.”
The gaze vanished. Was it an illusion?
Ha, the remaining time… about 10 minutes. He hoped it would pass quickly.
“Actually… I was really curious about you, Shin Jeong-min-ssi.”
A clear sign of affection.
With a good family background, decent looks, and above all, being an Omega, many Alphas were likely targeting him, though he didn’t know for sure.
Ah, is that so? Jeong-min thought that the gaze he just felt might have been one of envy.
“How about you, Jeong-min-ssi?”
“Pardon?”
“Haven’t you heard anything about me?”
“I’ve heard a lot about you publicly, Yeon-woo-ssi.”
“So you’ve heard, but weren’t curious.”
“I’m sorry.”
“No, it’s fine. Nothing to be sorry about. Actually, I’m one of the candidates for Jeong-min-ssi’s fiancé.”
At those words, Jeong-min looked at him in surprise. Why hadn’t he considered that possibility?
“That’s why I was curious about you.”
“I’m sorry. I haven’t heard anything from my family.”
“Yes, I understand. Nothing has been decided yet, and I’m just one of the candidates. But I hope I win. Your face is exactly my type, Jeong-min-ssi.”
The Omega subtly leaked his pheromones to show his liking for Jeong-min. In his heart, he wanted to push him away, but even with his short professional experience, he knew he shouldn’t do that now. Jeong-min didn’t readily embrace the pheromones, but he didn’t reject them either.
Choi Yeon-woo seemed satisfied with that alone; he smiled faintly and checked his watch.
“5 minutes… I should get up now. It was nice meeting you.”
Just as Jeong-min glanced at his watch and felt it was about time to leave, as he stood up to say goodbye—
“Ah.”
Choi Yeon-woo bumped the wine glass in Jeong-min’s hand. Consequently, the red wine soaked into Jeong-min’s white dress shirt.
“Oh no. I’m so sorry.”
As Choi Yeon-woo grew anxious and tried to call his staff, Jeong-min calmly stood up and said it was fine.
“I can just go to the restroom and wash it off.”
In truth, he was almost grateful to Choi Yeon-woo. He hadn’t wanted to go home wearing these clothes, so he thought he could use this as an excuse to change.
“I’ll go with you.”
“No. I can do it myself, so don’t worry about it. Goodbye then.”
“But…”
Choi Yeon-woo looked worried that Jeong-min might be displeased, but Jeong-min ignored him and left the hall. He felt people’s gazes, but he didn’t care and searched for the room where he had changed earlier.
“Where on earth was it?”
Actually, it wouldn’t matter if he went home like this, but no matter how he thought about it, he wasn’t keen on going home in the clothes Kim Ju-hwan had given him. Feeling the wet shirt clinging to his skin, Jeong-min clicked his tongue and entered a nearby restroom. He felt he had to at least take off the dress shirt.
Looking at himself in the mirror, Jeong-min gasped. He thought only the shirt was wet, but the jacket and pants were also a mess.
He thought it was a bit excessive, but the vivid red—so stark it looked as if his stomach had been sliced open—had soaked through his entire upper body. He definitely needed to change. Maybe he should have actually drunk the wine. He had just been holding it…
Jeong-min first loosened his suffocating tie and took off his jacket. Once off, the dress shirt had lost its original color, looking as if it had been reddish-black from the start. Moreover, it clung to his body, making him feel incredibly sticky. Since it was visible even with the jacket buttoned, he truly thought this was a disaster.
Just as he was thinking he might have to grab anyone and ask where the room was, he was inwardly startled to see Ju-hwan behind the mirror.
However, pretending not to be shaken, Jeong-min looked at Ju-hwan.
“What?”
Since when had he been here? More importantly, why did he follow him in here?
“I thought the host shouldn’t just pass by when a guest is in trouble, so I brought this.”
What Ju-hwan held out was a freshly ironed new dress shirt.
In a way, it was chilling. To have grasped the entire situation in that short time and brought this as if he had been waiting… didn’t that mean Kim Ju-hwan, or someone else, had been watching him continuously?
“Take it.”
I don’t want to.
“Forget it. It’s time to go anyway. I’ll just go in my own clothes.”
“You’re going to the room dressed like that?”
“So what?”
At Jeong-min’s words, Kim Ju-hwan frowned for a brief moment before holding out the shirt again.
“I don’t care if you throw this away afterward. But wear this until you get to the room, okay?”
It seemed he wasn’t going to give up, and Jeong-min didn’t want to engage in a pointless argument. Above all, not wanting to talk to Kim Ju-hwan any further, Jeong-min took the shirt and stripped off the one he was wearing in one go.
It was distracting that Ju-hwan didn’t leave and kept watching, but he figured they were both Alphas, so what did it matter? In fact, hesitating would be weirder.
“Sunbae, are you working out?”
Ju-hwan asked abruptly while he was buttoning up. Without looking at him, Jeong-min focused on the buttons and nodded.
“I’ve been getting PT lately. I felt like my stamina had dropped.”
“I thought so. You’ve put on some muscle. It looks good.”
“Are you mocking me?”
“I’m saying it’s impressive. It’s a relief. It seems Sunbae is living well as an ‘Al. pha.’”
“What?”
“Ah, did I make a slip of the tongue?”
“Slip of the tongue or whatever, what do you mean by that?”
“Just—well, you know. Since you’re still following Shin-woo Sunbae around, I wondered if you were still dreaming of being an Omega.”
Jeong-min suppressed the urge to rip off the clothes he had just received and threw the wet shirt into the trash can. When he threw it hard enough to make the bin rattle, Ju-hwan laughed as if it were amusing.
“I don’t know why I have to say these things to you. Why don’t you just mind your own business?”
Speaking in a clipped tone, he brushed past Ju-hwan. And before he could put the final period on the conversation, Ju-hwan grabbed Jeong-min’s arm.
“What? Let go.”
“I had no intention of making you angry, Sunbae.”
“Angry? Why would I be angry? Who do you think you are?”
Jeong-min showed Ju-hwan the watch that was beeping.
“One hour. It’s already passed. I can go now, right?”
When Jeong-min spoke with a truly refreshed smile, Kim Ju-hwan smiled slightly and let go of Jeong-min’s arm.
“You worked hard enduring that one hour. Let’s go. I’ll show you where the room is.”
“The protagonist doesn’t need to escort me, so just assign a guide.”
“I’m a bit tired too. I want to rest under the excuse of taking Sunbae back.”
So they were using each other. Indeed, he had seen earlier that people had no intention of leaving Kim Ju-hwan’s side. Many dignitaries were crowded around him, and he was skillfully responding to each one with a loathsome face. A young adult who had just turned twenty was already dominating the many people here. So perfectly that one couldn’t even feel inferiority.
Fine. Though he didn’t want to, he could show that much generosity for the gift of clothes. He’d let himself be used and use him in return. Jeong-min nodded, and Kim Ju-hwan turned and walked ahead, with Jeong-min following behind. Since he didn’t know the way, he had no choice.
So, he followed behind him without thinking. A relaxed pace. Before he knew it, the promised hour had long passed, and they grew distant from the noisy hall.
He followed him into the elevator and walked through the darkness for a long time before Jeong-min felt something was strange. Did they always go this deep inside?
“Kim Ju-hwan, where are you going right now?”
He said nothing. He simply stopped in front of a door much larger than the room he had seen earlier. Then, looking at Jeong-min, he slowly opened the door.
The moment the door opened, Jeong-min’s body froze at the scent of lust that wafted in. Ju-hwan gently pushed Jeong-min from behind, ushering him inside.
The sound of the door closing with a thud echoed, but Jeong-min was speechless at the purple lighting unfolding before his eyes.
It was an orgy.
An orgy party was taking place.