#32

“Let’s go. Didn’t you hear me? Get up.”

“What’s with you all of a sudden? I’m sorry, CEO. I think Shin Ho-jae ate something weird.”

“Get up and walk. Put your shoes on.”

Shin Ho-jae relentlessly hauled his younger brother up and pushed him toward the hallway. Shin Yeon-jae, walking toward the entrance in a daze, offered a small resistance.

“What is wrong with you, seriously. You’ve gone crazy… I don’t have my shoes, you idiot!”

For a moment, Ho-jae realized his mistake, but it would be enough to just put him in his own sneakers. For now, the most important thing was to get out of this house as quickly as possible.

No matter how urgent the situation was, he should never have brought his brother into this house.

He should not have created a situation where his Alpha brother would be seen by a vulgar, flighty man who would do anything to become an Alpha.

Curses directed at himself lingered on the tip of his tongue.

“Yeon-jae. Wear the slippers at the entrance. They’ll be big, but you should be able to wear them.”

Just then, Jung-hyun’s calm voice came from behind.

“Don’t listen to him. Wear mine.”

“Huh…? Then what about you, Hyung…?”

“Just put them on. Hurry. Get out.”

By then, it seemed Shin Yeon-jae had also sensed the unusual atmosphere. Watching his brother’s expression, he did as he was told and slid his feet into Shin Ho-jae’s large sneakers.

Having stepped outside in only his socks, Shin Ho-jae called a taxi and seated Shin Yeon-jae in the back first. After telling him to wait a moment, he turned back toward Kwon Jung-hyun’s house.

Kwon Jung-hyun was standing in front of the entrance. It seemed he had watched from there as Ho-jae called the taxi and put Yeon-jae inside. Shin Ho-jae walked straight toward him, looking him in the eye.

Unfiltered words surged, threatening to burst through his throat. Normally, he would have tried to suppress them somehow, but right now, he felt no need to do so.

Kwon Jung-hyun had crossed the line. The absolute final limit of what he could tolerate.

“I will endure this only until today.”

Kwon Jung-hyun, standing a head taller, looked down at Shin Ho-jae with his arms crossed.

“Don’t ever think about laying a finger on Shin Yeon-jae—no, on my family—ever again.”

“…….”

“Whatever it is you want, CEO, I will play along enough, so be satisfied with that.”

Shin Ho-jae spoke with a growl. Kwon Jung-hyun looked at him without saying a word.

Ho-jae’s cheeks trembled with rage. The lukewarm air of an early summer night brushed against his cheeks as if to soothe him.

Honk—!

The horn of the taxi carrying Shin Yeon-jae blared.

Shin Ho-jae slowly shifted his gaze away from Kwon Jung-hyun, then turned abruptly and left the house. Even until Ho-jae climbed into the taxi and closed the door, Kwon Jung-hyun simply stood there, quietly watching him.

Only after the car started did Shin Yeon-jae, who had been cautiously reading the room until then, speak up.

“Why did you do that…? It was rude to the CEO….”

“Don’t ever mention that man’s name again. Don’t even think about him. No, if possible, just forget today entirely.”

“Why should I? He was trying so hard to help me. Even earlier….”

“Shin Yeon-jae.” At the low, warning tone, Yeon-jae shrank back with a startled expression.

“You still haven’t come to your senses even after what happened today.”

“…No, that guy today was a real piece of work, but the CEO is—”

“That guy is the same kind of bastard. No, he’s worse. Seducing naive Alphas like you…. Sigh. Anyway, there’s nothing good about being close to him.”

The thought of Kwon Jung-hyun doing to his younger brother what he had done to him made the back of Ho-jae’s neck stiffen with heat.

They were acts too vulgar and filthy to even explain to his brother.

“You’re the one who stays close to him….”

Shin Yeon-jae pouted and fiddled with the hoodie part of the bear-shaped keychain on his bag.

“It’s not because I like it. That man is my—”

Shin Ho-jae cut himself off and gripped his knees tightly.

Outside the car window, the night had fallen, and it was pitch black as if a curtain had been drawn. The only light was the cold-colored moon floating in the sky.

The tiny dust particles that sparkled like gold thread and the man’s eyes that had been dyed in warm colors had long since vanished under the razor-sharp silver moonlight.

Looking out the window, Shin Ho-jae murmured softly.

“He’s the team owner.”

As if drilling it into himself.

Shin Yeon-jae glanced at his brother’s profile, which felt strangely unfamiliar, and leaned back against the seat.

Not even the common sound of a radio flowed through the taxi.

* * *

“Gangneung?”

—Yeah. Two days and one night after next week’s practice match. You can make time, right?

Shin Ho-jae lay on his bed, staring into space for a moment.

It was because he didn’t immediately understand Min-chul’s words. More specifically, the context of the conversation suddenly suggesting a trip to Gangneung.

Had they talked about going on a trip? He tried to recall, but nothing specific came to mind.

Recently, he had tried to keep his mind blank to focus on training.

If he let his guard down for even a moment, the events of that day—at the tailor shop and Kwon Jung-hyun’s house—would scramble together and clutter his mind.

As he remained silent while thinking, a reprimanding voice came through the phone.

—Ho Jae-shin…. Don’t tell me you actually forgot. It’s Du-min’s birthday.

“Ah.”

—’Ah’ is not an answer. You didn’t actually forget, did you? You really—.

“Of course I know it’s Yuk Du-min’s birthday. I just didn’t know it was next week.”

—What kind of bullshit is that…. Anyway, clear your schedule.

Shin Ho-jae picked up the desk calendar sitting on the table next to his bed. The calendar his mother had brought from the bank at the beginning of the year had stopped three months ago.

The desk and bed he had used since middle school were now too small for him. He only used the desk he bought in elementary school as a place to put his bag, and the bed was too much effort to replace. He rarely looked at the desk calendar either.

Ho-jae flipped through three pages and opened the July calendar. The practice match was next Thursday, and the following two days were days off from training.

“Got it. But why Gangneung?”

Normally, he would have kept his days off free to fulfill his contract with Kwon Jung-hyun, but Ho-jae gave an affirmative answer first. He didn’t want to see Kwon Jung-hyun for the time being.

The hours he couldn’t fulfill would be carried over, which was a burden in its own right, but for now, that was preferable.

—You know that game prize I got during the training camp. The MJ Gangneung Resort voucher. I’m going to use that. Du-min really wants to go; he’s asked me several times who I’m going to use it with.

“Ah.”

He vaguely remembered.

The prize Ji Min-chul had received for taking first place in teamwork training. At the mention of a voucher, Yuk Du-min’s eyes had sparkled like a hyena’s. That was back when Ji Min-chul and Du-min were still awkward with each other.

—Where would I use it? I intended to use it with you guys anyway. Oh, but don’t tell Du-min yet. I told him we’d go for one night, but I haven’t told him the location. I think he’ll like it as a surprise.

“Yeah. He’ll love it. Yuk Du-min is obsessed with his birthday.”

—Hey, it only happens once a year, isn’t that natural? You know he looks forward to it a lot even if he doesn’t say it, right?

“Yeah.”

Ho-jae chuckled. He remembered how he had been cursed at for ten years after missing Yuk Du-min’s birthday party in middle school.

He heard that in the year Shin Ho-jae missed the party, Ji Min-chul had broken quite a sweat for the exceptionally depressed Du-min.

Ho-jae found out later that Du-min had been raised strictly under busy parents (Min-chul and Ho-jae believed that the current Yuk Du-min’s personality was a reaction to being raised by such parents) and had never been properly celebrated on his birthday.

Indeed, even thinking back to their days in the children’s hockey club, Du-min’s parents had never once come to pick him up.

For Ho-jae, for whom it was natural for his family to celebrate grandly on his birthday, it was something unthinkable.

Since then, Ji Min-chul had taken it upon himself as a mission to take care of Yuk Du-min’s birthday.

In the first year of high school, he randomly sent group texts to the entire student body saying, ‘I want to make an unforgettable birthday for my friend Du-min,’ causing Yuk Du-min’s phone battery to die from the flood of congratulatory messages (Yuk Du-min loved it immensely). In college, he scraped together his allowance and part-time job money to fly to Canada with him on a flight with three transfers over 36 hours (it was exceptionally cheap).

If they were going to Canada anyway, it would have been better to come during the hockey season, but he did it purely because he wanted to celebrate Du-min’s birthday together with Shin Ho-jae.

To be honest, Shin Ho-jae had no one he could call a friend other than those two. So, naturally, the two were special to Ho-jae, but there was something far more special in the bond between Min-chul and Du-min. Something he could never intrude upon.

As he thought this, Ho-jae spoke as if something had occurred to him.

“But is he really spending it with us this year? He’s taken now.”

—Ah…. About that. Apparently, his partner said they aren’t available on the actual day.

“Really? The birthday is the most important thing to Yuk Du-min. I guess they don’t know that yet.”

—Yeah. From the way he talked, it sounded like they fought a bit. Just last week, he came back from a date all excited and was rubbing it in our faces.

“Last week?”

—Yeah. Didn’t you see his Insta story? He spent the whole day touring from one end of Seoul to the other. He had a buffet at some hotel in Sogong-dong, hit a cafe in Seongsu-dong, and then went to a club in Hongdae. Isn’t that crazy?

Ho-jae, who had been listening to the conversation without much thought, looked up at those words.

Last week, Sogong-dong?

Was it the day he saw Yuk Du-min at the tailor shop?

Shin Ho-jae recalled the image of Yuk Du-min he had seen. The way he was affectionately linking arms with the person he was walking with at the crosswalk.

Thinking about it now, they looked like lovers to anyone. However.

“…….”

A slight crease formed between Shin Ho-jae’s brows.

—Anyway, since Yuk Du-min is feeling a bit down because of his partner, let’s have a blast so he doesn’t get depressed. Oh, what gift are you buying?

The person he had seen then was definitely….

A man.

33 – Puck Drop