By Zephyria 
The company was, somehow, even more lavish, extravagant, and glittering on the inside. It was so radiant, as if gold had been spread over every surface, that it made one’s eyes ache, and ornate chandeliers hung from the ceiling.
It was beautiful, but the decoration was excessive. Naturally, Eun-myeong thought of the man. He was incredibly sophisticated, but his adornments were so flamboyant that he didn’t look like someone who wore ordinary clothes…
“Do you like the company?”
The secretary, whose hair was tied up in a high bun, asked with bright red lips. Her smile was so lovely and elegant that Eun-myeong pressed his lips tightly together. He felt as though he had been looking around too clumsily, like a country bumpkin.
“Yes…”
Maybe he shouldn’t have said he wanted to come. He felt diminished, feeling too shabby compared to this place. As Eun-myeong answered awkwardly with downcast eyes, the secretary gave a fresh smile.
“I’m glad.”
He followed the clicking sound of her shoes. Eun-myeong moved slowly, arm-in-arm with his Noona, who had a slight discomfort in one of her legs.
Eventually, the secretary stopped in front of the door at the very end of the hallway.
“Here it is.”
A plaque reading ‘CEO’s Office’ was visible above the large door.
“Boss, your guests have arrived.”
The secretary’s voice rang out clearly. Then, a moment of silence followed.
“Tell them to come in.”
Shortly after, a very deep voice, the kind that sounded as if it were echoing from a cave, resonated from inside. It was a voice that seemed to simmer in the throat, making it sound strangely damp and gloomy.
“Yes, I understand.”
Screeech, the secretary opened the door. Immediately, an overwhelmingly vast CEO’s office was revealed.
‘…Wow.’
Eun-myeong let out an exclamation inwardly. It was a space so wide that one could actually kick a soccer ball around in it. Several crystal chandeliers were attached to the ceiling, and the floor sparkled like marble.
The man’s pitch-black study desk was set back in the distance. Eun-myeong’s gaze was captured by the black nameplate placed in front of it. Hanja characters, written with a gold brush, were accompanied by a drawing of a dragon.
The secretary opened a file and held it out to the man.
“Please sign here.”
The man pulled a fountain pen from his shirt, which was stretched tight across his chest. As he scribbled his signature on the document, the fountain pen decorated with a gold dragon caught the eye. The secretary snapped the file shut and tucked it under her arm.
“It must have been a struggle getting here.”
Creak, the man rose from his leather chair. With a build as large as a bear, he approached, stepping heavily across the rug.
Eun-myeong tried to smile out of happiness, but he involuntarily shuddered. His Noona had grabbed his hand. She patted the back of Eun-myeong’s hand, as if the man were a wild beast released from a cage.
“…It’s okay, you don’t have to be afraid.”
For a moment, Eun-myeong almost bit his tongue. He realized his mistake. His Noona still knew nothing. About the relationship between him and the man. Thinking about how he would slowly explain it, Eun-myeong struggled to pull down the corners of his mouth that were trying to curl up.
“Sit.”
The man sat at the head of the table. With his elbows resting arrogantly on both armrests, he crossed one leg over the opposite thigh with a thud.
He was wearing a tightly buttoned vest. His tie was nowhere to be seen—perhaps he’d sold it off in the meantime—and he had left a couple of shirt buttons undone, looking languid.
Eun-myeong followed suit and sat obediently on the sofa beside him. With his eyes cast downward, he could see the man’s leather shoes clicking back and forth. They were the shoes he had polished.
The secretary placed teacups in front of them. Eun-myeong shifted his hips and bowed his head.
“Thank you.”
The secretary smiled brightly.
“I shall take my leave now. Please have a pleasant time.”
With the clicking sound of her steps, she departed. Eun-myeong’s head naturally turned in her direction.
As the secretary’s slender figure disappeared, his eyes immediately met the man’s. Eun-myeong’s heart gave a small thud.
“If they’re the family of my employee, they’re my family too, but I haven’t treated them well enough.”
Chattering thus, the man slowly rolled his eyes. He examined the two people sitting side by side. …Do they look alike?
Well.
If one dissected every single feature, there was almost nothing alike. If anything, they both had pale skin, like people who had just been startled, and were of similar height. That was about it.
How could they be so dissimilar? Setting aside appearance, their personalities were complete polar opposites. While Eun-myeong was a total innocent lamb, the woman was so fearless it could be said she had nerves of steel.
“Boss, are you perhaps monitoring Eun-myeong?”
Haha. At the question that popped out instantly, the man smiled with his eyes.
“I must look like that kind of person to Lee Eun-joo, then?”
As the man frowned, the woman swallowed hard. Yet, she managed to chatter even with a trembling voice.
“Then what about those thug bastards who were following Eun-myeong?”
Though she threw the question out there, the man put a cigarette to his lips and shifted his gaze.
“Did you enjoy the baby jajangmyeon?”
He brought Eun-myeong into his field of vision. He suddenly blurted out nonsense to the white face that was glancing at him, not knowing what to do.
“You’ve got some on your lip.”
He reached out his long arm and rubbed Eun-myeong’s lip with his thumb. The plump lip was smudged.
“Uh, uh…”
Eun-myeong shifted his hips in embarrassment. Meanwhile, the other side was watching with hair standing on end.
He had intended to look around the office slowly first and then explain the whole story to his Noona… but because the two were in a sharp confrontation, Eun-myeong even felt guilty. He felt that he had created this situation by asking to come up.
Moreover, jajangmyeon sauce? He had definitely checked the mirror several times in the elevator before coming; when on earth did it get on there? Unaware that the man was simply playing a trick, Eun-myeong felt ashamed.
Furthermore.
As soon as the man touched his face, he felt even more out of place because of his Noona, who was staring at him as if seeing something bizarre.
“As a Noona, you can’t even buy him shark fin and you give him jajangmyeon? Jajangmyeon, of all things.”
The man clicked his tongue.
“It was tast—”
Eun-myeong stepped in to defend his Noona, saying it was plenty delicious, but the man flicked Eun-myeong’s cheek with his finger.
“Why do you eat and get it all over yourself? Are you a brat?”
Calling him ‘baby’ one moment and mocking him as a ‘brat’ the next; he was completely inconsistent.
Eun-joo was taking in all the strange currents flowing between the two. What is this, what on earth is this? The odd atmosphere she had felt even before coming up to the CEO’s office seemed to press down painfully on her brain. Ignoring the intuition that was fiercely surging, Eun-joo raised her voice slightly.
“It’s over once we pay back the debt. The contract…!”
The man curved one eyebrow and lit the end of his cigarette with a lighter.
“And Lee Eun-joo, I think you’re harboring a very strange misunderstanding.”
He tossed the lighter onto the table.
“Our Eun-myeong definitely agreed to the part about having people follow him.”
“Right?” the man asked Eun-myeong, keeping his head fixed forward.
“What does that mean?”
Eun-joo turned her head toward Eun-myeong with a deep frown.
“That is…”
Eun-myeong hesitated with his lips for a long time. In truth, even if it hadn’t turned out like this, he planned to explain everything to his Noona today. The fact that he had become an Omega, and the fact that he was living with the man.
However, the man doing this was not in his expectations. This was the man’s company, a public domain; he hadn’t expected him to be so arrogant after personally inviting them to the office.
“Noona, I’ll explain everything.”
As if he had been slapped in the face, Eun-myeong flustered. He was restless in front of someone with whom he shared not a single drop of blood. That sight was as piercing as a toothpick.
The man arched one eyebrow and gripped Eun-myeong’s knee tightly under the table. Startled, Eun-myeong jolted and hit the table, causing the teacup to clatter and spill. Hot tea flowed out, and white steam rose.
“Oh dear.”
Needless to say, the back of the man’s hand, caught in the spilled tea, turned red like boiled chicken.
“Uh, what do I do…!”
Startled, Eun-myeong sprang up from his seat.
“Boss!”
Visibly panicked, he quickly approached him. In his confusion, he looked toward the door.
“Quickly, the secretary…”
“Shhh.”
The man parted his lips slightly and let out a sound like escaping air.
“You shouldn’t make such a fuss in the company.”
The man trembled his stiffly erect middle finger.
“My finger hurts a bit.”
The end of his voice lacked its usual strength. The way he frowned his elegant eyebrows made him look like someone experiencing extreme pain.
“It’ll be okay if you soak it in cold water.”
Eun-myeong rushed out the door in a flurry. As soon as Eun-myeong disappeared, all expression vanished from the man’s face. It was as if the pretense of pain and suffering had all been fake. It was a high-class performance.
“…Ha.”
Eun-joo was utterly appalled.
“……”
In the space where Eun-myeong had left, a chilly silence flowed between the two.
At this point, for the quick-witted Eun-joo, it was impossible not to notice the atmosphere between them.
Her brother, who was restless and red up to his neck, and this perverted bastard of a CEO, who was rolling his brother around on his tongue like a cute pet. She felt so indignant she could almost cry.
Eun-joo’s body trembled. Fuck, there’s a limit to playing with people. Touching someone’s heart is truly crossing the line.
Her brother had been exceptionally good at following people. Pitifully, when volunteers came and handed him bread, he wasn’t tempted by the cream leaking from the bread, but rather looked toward the overflowing affection.
Heartbroken that he couldn’t reach out and ask to be held, he would continuously watch for the right timing.
“We owe you money, but did we sell our lives to you?”
When she said that, the man gave a short laugh. If it had been anyone else, he might have strangled them instantly. The eyes meeting were shaking. Now that she looked, the light pigment was similar in texture to Eun-myeong’s.
He had thought she was just a girl with no resemblance to Eun-myeong, bold and overconfident, but her legs hidden under the table were already trembling. Because it was her injured leg, she couldn’t control it well.
“If it were any other brat, I would have twisted their neck by now. Perhaps it’s because you’re the baby’s family; you’re making things quite interesting for me too.”
With that, Eun-joo received the killing blow. He found it that enjoyable to play with Eun-myeong. For a moment, it felt as if her vision was burning white.
While she had been desperate to pay back the debt, he had been treating that person like a toy. She was so furious she wanted to smash the CEO’s head with the nameplate right then and there.
But she couldn’t. Her clumsy strength would be useless. Instead, Eun-joo decided to use her tongue to pierce his weakness.
“I noticed that slush funds keep flowing into the orphanage where we were.”
Eun-joo brought up the question she had been holding. She had harbored the doubt in her mind, but hadn’t been able to find the connection.
However, the moment she saw the immense interest the CEO had in Eun-myeong, it felt as if a puzzle piece clicked into place. She didn’t know the reason, but it felt filthy.
“And why is that?”
The man arched an eyebrow.
“Noblesse oblige, I assume.”
Eun-joo bit her tongue hard. What a load of bullshit.
CEO Kang Pyeong-won was buying up plots of land in sparsely populated areas across the domestic map every year. He paid in cash, so it didn’t leave much of a record, but buying useless places with no business income was something only a complete deviant would do. Unless, of course, he was burying people there.
Despite committing such dangerous acts, with what brazen face did he discuss noblesse oblige?
“The Director, you got rid of him, didn’t you?”
Eun-joo asked, lowering her voice as much as possible. The man’s mouth curled into a wide grin. The laughter vanished from his eyes.
“I have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about.”
“The timing of the Director’s disappearance matches up with when the money started flowing to the orphanage.”
Eun-joo clenched her hand tightly on her thigh.
“That son of a bitch shouldn’t have died like that.”
“Well, I don’t have a taste for eating old people.”
The man arched an eyebrow.
“Ah, does Lee Eun-joo have a taste for that sort of thing?”
The moment Eun-joo opened her mouth to respond, the door opened with a creak, and Eun-myeong came rushing back. Unable to wait for a towel to be prepared, he seemed to have soaked his own top. He quickly wrapped his wet stomach area around the man’s hand.
“D-does it still hurt…?”
Eun-myeong carefully wiped the man’s hand, his eyes full of worry.
“Of course it hurts, obviously.”
As soon as Eun-myeong returned, the man began acting again. He pulled his eyebrows down and formed a slight wrinkle between his brows. Eun-myeong flustered, casting his eyelashes down.
“I think we should go to the hospital right away.”
Finally, he gripped the man’s shirt and rubbed it. Eun-myeong’s eyes, looking up at the man, grew moist.
Eun-joo watched Eun-myeong’s hand vigorously rubbing the man’s shirt. Such a delicate and affectionate touch.
“Ah, this?”
But the man asked nonchalantly while facing Eun-joo. A smile of sheer delight hung on his lips.
“The baby ironed this for me this morning. He’s been so busy playing the role of my wife lately that he’s losing his mind.”
As he spoke, he narrowed his eyes suggestively, as if he were dying of pleasure.
“Didn’t he tell you? That we’ve set up a honeymoon room at a hotel.”
With that, he grabbed Eun-myeong’s wrist and pulled him close. Eun-myeong, completely flustered, tried to push him away, but the man planted a thick kiss on his temple.
The sound of a loud mwah echoed through the office. In that moment, Eun-joo was so enraged she felt a miserable urge to scream out loud.