By Zephyria Seo Jeong-won stopped in front of the table, his face pale, trying to grasp the situation. Song Hae-seop tapped the chair as if telling him to sit next to him, but a hand reaching out was quicker to pull him to his side.
“A walk?”
Seo Jeong-won bit his lip tightly at the quiet question, asked with only a tilt of the head. He was confused, not knowing why Kwon Tae-hee was here. He looked out of place in the setting.
“How did you…”
Instead of answering the question he barely managed to ask, Kwon Tae-hee stroked Seo Jeong-won’s back. His slender shoulders flinched at the long, sweeping touch.
“I stopped by to pick you up on the way.”
“…”
“Shall we go? I don’t like seeing you sitting face to face so amiably.”
The low voice and the look that seemed to ask why he wasn’t getting up felt like a reprimand. Seo Jeong-won fumbled on the table as if trying to gather his belongings, even though he hadn’t taken anything out. Song Hae-seop sensed the awkward atmosphere and smiled gently.
“I was surprised you came so suddenly. How did you know I was here?”
“I didn’t.”
“…Yes?”
“I didn’t know. I only sat down for a moment to take Seo Jeong-won with me when he came in. You’re not stupid enough to misunderstand such a simple action.”
Kwon Tae-hee made it clear that he had no business with him. Seeing someone read unnecessary meaning into things was enough for once. His cold gaze didn’t turn to Song Hae-seop for even a moment.
Seo Jeong-won also sensed the strange current flowing between the two men. Unlike Song Hae-seop’s friendly attitude, Kwon Tae-hee was consistently cold. Did they perhaps fight? He had told him not to become close with Song Hae-seop back then, so he might be displeased with the current situation.
“I’m sorry, I… Hyung—”
He was about to call Song Hae-seop Hyung without thinking, but he corrected his address after receiving Kwon Tae-hee’s sharp glare.
“…I contacted Hae-seop. It’s not that I ignored Executive Director’s words, no… I’m sorry.”
“Why did you contact him? What did you have to say to Song Hae-seop?”
Kwon Tae-hee turned his body completely to face Seo Jeong-won and nodded as if telling him to speak quickly. His hand stroking his back didn’t fall away.
“It wasn’t, it wasn’t anything special. Just catching up…”
Catching up? Song Hae-seop interjected at the voice that murmured the words coming from Seo Jeong-won’s mouth. He was worried that Seo Jeong-won would misrepresent the conversation they had today. It would be difficult to meet Kwon Tae-hee in the future, so he couldn’t let him have strange misunderstandings.
“It’s not that, he was talking about someone Tae-hee had met before. I found out about it by chance too.”
“Ah.”
“It wasn’t anything special, as Jeong-won said.”
Even as he listened to Song Hae-seop’s explanation, Kwon Tae-hee’s gaze remained fixed on Seo Jeong-won. He could guess what kind of conversation they had without hearing it. Did that slut tell Seo Jeong-won the truth, or did he add to it?
“Let’s go.”
“…I, I, I’ll just go separately—”
“I meant get up now. Or did you not understand? Or did you think you could refuse because I was speaking nicely?”
The words, spoken while gently touching his cheek, were not at all affectionate, unlike the soft tone. Seo Jeong-won, glancing at Song Hae-seop as if gauging his reaction, hugged the bag he was tightly holding. He opened his mouth to say he would see him later, but closed it and only bowed his head. Kwon Tae-hee scoffed at the action, thinking he was clueless.
“Wait in the car.”
“…Yes.”
Kwon Tae-hee didn’t move his gaze until the retreating figure, hurrying away, had completely disappeared from his sight. He looked at Song Hae-seop, who was sitting across from him with an awkward smile, and opened his mouth.
“Shall we go through what you talked about?”
“Yes? Ah, that… um, well, it wasn’t really anything, but he was talking about how someone Tae-hee had met before committed suicide—”
Song Hae-seop blushed and lowered his head, looking at the hazel eyes that shone with a warmer color, embracing the yellow light. The man was elegant even in this shabby place. He realized once again that he was born that way. He rubbed his hot cheeks with the back of his hand and continued.
“He liked him, confessed… and it seems he made that choice because he wasn’t accepted.”
Feeling the intense gaze, Song Hae-seop recalled the conversation they had during the day. He remembered everything since he was the one who did most of the talking.
“He said he heard he had a younger brother and felt sorry for him. If his Hyung committed suicide for that reason… he said he would never want to know, that it was terrible.”
“That’s not something you can suddenly bring up. It’s a heavy topic to say it’s nothing special.”
Song Hae-seop’s shoulders jumped at the quiet remark. He thought for a moment, then mumbled an apology and slowly elaborated as if making an excuse.
“So… was it the second time? No, the third time we met. I didn’t have anything to say, it was awkward, and I thought it wouldn’t be bad to get along… so I brought up that person first. As I said before, I really found out about it by chance. Really by chance.”
Song Hae-seop desperately emphasized the coincidence. But they both knew that it wasn’t a story you could find out about by chance. He was constantly afraid of being questioned about who he had heard it from.
If asked, he would of course tell the truth without hiding it, but he already felt sorry for the lady who had told him this story, in case she got into trouble. He even resented Seo Jeong-won for being so curious about this and putting him in a difficult situation.
“Continue.”
Kwon Tae-hee felt the blood in his whole body turn cold. His expression twisted nervously as he realized today that Seo Jeong-won had heard the story closest to the truth from Song Hae-seop quite a while ago. It wasn’t that he had deliberately tried to hide it, but he had hoped that Seo Jeong-won wouldn’t know.
He also thought that the innocent voice that carefully checked his Hyung’s feelings came from the expectation that his Hyung might wake up. Not knowing that he knew everything.
“Ah… then, I went to Jeong-won’s flower shop, and he suddenly asked me then. What happened to that person. So that’s why the story came up again today. But I think I made a mistake. I’m sorry.”
Song Hae-seop bowed his head so deeply that his forehead almost touched the table and apologized for a long time. When he slowly raised his face because he didn’t get an answer that he was okay or that he understood, Kwon Tae-hee opened his mouth as if he had been waiting.
“To point out the wrong parts, he’s not dead. Seo Jeong-won is that person’s younger brother.”
“…Yes?”
“The two of them are brothers.”
Song Hae-seop followed Kwon Tae-hee, who was getting up from his seat with a dumbfounded expression. What, what is that… He soon realized how big of a mistake the words he had blurted out without thinking were as he gaped. On the other hand, he also felt resentful towards Seo Jeong-won, who had asked about that person with such an innocent face, pretending not to know.
“I, I didn’t know that…”
“Didn’t Song Hae-seop sign a confidentiality clause?”
“…”
“Besides that, are there any lies? Seo Jeong-won is hiding something else from me, and I can’t figure out why no matter how much I think about it.”
Song Hae-seop shook his head at Kwon Tae-hee’s words. What good would it do to lie to Seo Jeong-won, whom he only met occasionally…? Ah, at that moment, a memory quickly filled his head.
“If there aren’t any, shall we get up? I’ll be very busy from tomorrow.”
“…Yes?”
“You have to take responsibility for violating the contract terms. You’ll have to hire an expensive lawyer.”
“Wa, wait a minute. I remembered. But I don’t know if it’s because of this, but I once lied that I had Heat with Tae-hee before. Asking if it was the same when I was with Jeong-won… I was upset and jealous that you didn’t call me during Rut.”
Song Hae-seop quickly spat out the words and held his breath as he confirmed the intense look in Kwon Tae-hee’s eyes as he looked at him. He opened his mouth, arbitrarily judging that it wasn’t that bad of a lie.
“I had Heat with Tae-hee… and I thought I was going to get pregnant.”
Kwon Tae-hee let out a hollow laugh as if he was dumbfounded. Even if he gave him a Pheromone shower, Heat wouldn’t break out, and seeing him only writhing and moaning made him lose the will to have sex. He couldn’t get excited at all, so he hadn’t been intimate with him even once in the eight months since he brought him.
“I thought it would be okay to lie that much because I’m going to marry Tae-hee anyway… Ah, I also said that Jeong-won would be taken care of soon, so just bear with it.”
Kwon Tae-hee frowned annoyedly. Was that why he was hiding it? If Song Hae-seop got pregnant, there would be no reason for him to have a child. He must have understood the words that he only had to receive children from anyone like that, so he recognized that pregnancy was something he should never do.
In that case, staying Beta and not developing until the end of the year would be the best choice for him. Of course, that’s if he wasn’t caught developing.