By Zephyria 
“Executive Director Kwon. Are you drunk?”
A troubled voice flowed into his ear. In an instant, his closed eyelids snapped open. Kwon Young-je, flustered, fumbled at his mouth. A sigh leaked out.
“…Why did you answer the phone?”
“You called, how could I not answer?”
“Aren’t we at a point where you can ignore me now?”
Kwon Young-je straightened his upper body while holding the phone. He threw off his jacket haphazardly and headed towards the kitchen.
He didn’t hang up the phone even as he took out a bottle of water and emptied it. Listening to the voice coming from beyond the speaker, it was as if Secretary Kim was still working with him.
Kwon Young-je took a deep breath and then threw the empty water bottle into the sink. Thud, an unusually loud noise echoed in the quiet house. He slowly headed to the bedroom.
“Executive Director, I was going to ask anyway… why haven’t you approved my resignation?”
“Is it urgent?”
“I can’t change jobs until my resignation is processed.”
“The resignation letter… I tore it up.”
In the silence, a small, questioning intake of breath could be heard.
“Are you kidding?”
Of course, it was a lie. The resignation letter Kim Hui-won gave him was safely tucked away in his office desk drawer.
If he had to give a reason for not approving the resignation, it would be because he was annoyed by what Kim Hui-won was doing. Of course, he knew it was a childish reason.
He just wanted to mess with him a little, and more than anything, he thought that if he dragged it out, Kim Hui-won would come to argue with him. But the stubborn guy didn’t even call once.
“Anyway, if you need anything, please contact Secretary Lee or Secretary Ji. If you’re having a hard time because of the alcohol, I’ll pass on the message.”
“……”
“Executive Director, are you listening?”
Kwon Young-je lay down on the bed and fell completely asleep. The phone right next to his face emitted sounds calling for Kwon Young-je several times. Before long, the call was disconnected.
“…Did he fall asleep?”
Hui-won stared blankly at the screen displaying the call history. Call duration: 17 minutes and 45 seconds. He wondered why they had such a long call with no real business.
Hui-won was also sipping on a can of beer. The moment Executive Director Kwon’s name appeared on his phone, his hand reached out before he could even think about ignoring it. He realized his mistake. He never knew habits could be so scary.
He heard that they still hadn’t found a replacement personal secretary. He was sure that only innocent secretaries were being ground to dust. Still, when he drank this much, he should have someone to take care of him…
Hui-won rubbed the phone screen. Was it because of the call just now? He was constantly worried about the intoxicated Kwon Young-je. It was past midnight, so he felt sorry to contact the secretaries.
What should he do…? They lived close by, should he just go and check on him? No, why would I? He’s someone I don’t need to worry about anymore.
He deliberately turned his attention to the TV and finished the rest of his beer. After drinking only a bird’s amount of beer, he finally shook his head and got up.
“Ugh, I feel so uneasy.”
He took out two masks and put them on. He tightly covered his nose and mouth as if under ironclad security, and also grabbed his wallet and phone.
What if the password has changed? Well, then he’d just come back. He decided to think of it as a short walk.
Hui-won didn’t give much meaning to his actions. People with nothing to do have plenty of time. His steps as he left the house were light.
* * *
The next morning, Kwon Young-je woke up with a terrible hangover. His head felt like it was splitting, and he couldn’t easily get out of bed even after waking up. His shirt and pants were also all wrinkled.
He barely managed to pull himself together and entered the bathroom. After washing for a while, he wiped the water dripping from his hair with a towel and looked at the quiet living room for a moment.
He clearly remembered throwing his tie and jacket haphazardly last night, but they were neatly arranged on the sofa as if someone had touched them.
“……”
He turned and headed towards the kitchen. This time, his gaze turned to the table. A bottle of tomato juice, which he usually drank the day after drinking a lot, was placed there. Next to it were hangover remedies and headache pills.
Kwon Young-je sighed and drank the juice first.
It was obvious who had come to his house last night. The faint fragrant olive scent lingering in the air was the proof.
He should be bothered by the Omega pheromone lingering in his house… but somehow, it only stirred up his heart in a disturbing way.
At that time, Hui-won also woke up late. He scratched his messy hair and yawned widely, trying to guess what day of the week it was.
Since he had been playing and eating every day, he had reached the point where he was confused whether it was a weekday or a weekend when he opened his eyes in the morning. There was definitely a time when he woke up on time every day and moved according to his schedule without any gaps, but that time felt like a past life.
“Aww, it’s so nice to sleep in.”
Hui-won rolled around on the warm bed a few more times. He was actually born to be unemployed. Otherwise, there was no way he could be so happy every day.
He lazed around for another thirty minutes before coming out to the living room. He roughly wiped away the sleep from his eyes and lay down on the sofa again. Only the location had changed, but his lazy behavior remained the same.
After ordering lunch through a delivery app, he was fiddling with his phone. He opened his mailbox for the first time in a while and found it full of accumulated emails. Originally, it was his habit to check texts and emails immediately, but now he was trying to ignore them on purpose.
“…There are still places that send these.”
Hui-won clicked on a job offer email sent by a headhunting firm. It was an offer for the position of personal secretary to the COO of a foreign pharmaceutical company. The salary was considerable, and above all, the clean working conditions were very tempting.
He had been receiving job offers steadily for a long time. Hui-won was quite well-known in the same industry. Perhaps Kwon Young-je’s halo had something to do with it.
But what good were good conditions if the only answer was rejection anyway?
After becoming an Omega, the path to re-employment became difficult. A secretarial position was obviously impossible, and returning to the press was hindered by career breaks and age. He couldn’t just play and eat like an unemployed person forever at the age of just over thirty. Hui-won was spending more time worrying about his future these days.
“What is Executive Director Kwon even… when is he going to let me resign?”
The train of thought naturally flowed to Kwon Young-je.
Last night, when he went to check on him, Hui-won realized an important fact. Pheromones can easily shake a person’s reason more than he thought.
He wore two masks, but the masks were useless in front of the dense Alpha pheromone. Since he was drunk and asleep, the pheromones were probably stronger than usual. He almost lost his mind in front of him. It was a good thing he quickly closed the bedroom door and came out…
“Ugh.”
Hui-won shuddered at the chilling feeling of recalling it again. He couldn’t go on like this. He had to train or take medicine to find a way to increase his pheromone resistance.
“Let’s wash up first!”
He jumped up from the sofa and went into the bathroom. He finished showering in 10 minutes, and just as he came out, the delivery driver rang the front door bell at a good time.
Hui-won opened the door while humming. Just as he was putting on a T-shirt and shorts to wear casually at home, Ding-dong – the doorbell rang.
He ran to the front door. The moment he opened the door, the person standing in front of him was someone he didn’t expect at all.
Hui-won stood there holding the doorknob, dumbfounded. Kwon Young-je, holding a sushi bag, stared down at him and opened the door wider. Hui-won made an “uh-oh” sound and was pulled out along with the doorknob. He stood awkwardly, stepping on the ground with only his heels because he was barefoot in the hallway.
“Why is the Executive Director…”
“I have something to say. Let’s talk for a bit.”
“Now?”
Hui-won lowered his head to check his appearance. He was too shabby to have a conversation. Moreover, Executive Director Kwon was dressed smartly alone, making the comparison even more stark.
It wasn’t easy to let him into his house either. Just like Kwon Young-je’s house last night, his house was sure to be full of pheromones.
Hui-won gave an awkward smile and carefully expressed his refusal.
“I’m a bit busy right now… I’ve already ordered food.”
That’s my lunch you’re holding. Hui-won glanced down at the sushi bag in Kwon Young-je’s hand.
“I’ll buy you something more delicious, so just come out.”
Kwon Young-je threw the paper bag down without hesitation. As the unbalanced bag fell to the side, Hui-won quietly bit his lip. This rich bastard doesn’t know how precious food is.
“Then, please wait five minutes.”
Hui-won collected the ruined sushi bag and went into the house. My precious special sushi… He suppressed his sad heart and began to prepare to go out.
He roughly blow-dried his still damp hair a few times and simply put on a shirt over his T-shirt. There was no need to look good for Kwon Young-je anyway.
Just in case, he took an suppressant pill. When he put on a baseball cap as the last step, he made eye contact with Kwon Young-je, who was standing with his arms crossed in front of the front door.
He was practically a debt collector. He wasn’t running away, so why was he standing guard in front of the door like that, and why were his eyes glaring so fiercely?
Hui-won pretended not to see and asked, scratching his neck for no reason.
“Where are we going?”
“How about Mikazuki?”
“Yes, then I’ll make a reservation right now…”
He abruptly took out his phone, then paused for a moment. How could he get rid of this slave-like habit of reacting immediately to his master’s voice?