Kanghyeon was fairly startled by the unexpected encounter. Fortunately, he wasn’t the type whose emotions showed easily, so outwardly he was close to expressionless.
It wasn’t that he normally walked with his eyes fixed straight ahead.
This was a top-floor–residents-only elevator, and the Basement Level 4 (B4) parking garage was the same. The fact that there was rarely any chance of bumping into someone had made him careless.
He shouldn’t be home at this hour.
Whenever he got off work, Haeil was always out. Whether he was going to work or going to play at the club, he didn’t know, but in any case, once it was past midnight, that one red car of his would be gone.
Now that he thought about it, the cars he’d seen that morning when leaving for work were still right where they were.
The way Kwon Haeil was dressed in front of him was fairly casual. A cotton T-shirt, a thin cardigan, black track pants, and branded slides that showed his neatly aligned toes.
Judging by the outfit—like he was just running down to the convenience store—he didn’t look like he’d set out to go anywhere.
Though if it was this man, he could probably head to the club dressed like this and have a fine time anyway.
Either way, Kanghyeon didn’t particularly want to talk to Haeil. Where this man went at this hour was none of his business.
When Kanghyeon stepped into the elevator, Haeil stood alongside him as if he’d never planned to get off in the first place. Somehow it ended up exactly like the last time they’d met in the elevator.
Leisurely, Haeil asked:
“Where the hell do you work that they keep you there this late? It’s not just once or twice.”
There was a tiny sound from somewhere like something grinding.
“I could just smash it to fucking pieces.”
Kanghyeon didn’t answer. Staring fixedly at his profile, Haeil pressed him again.
“Want me to report them to the labor office? Call them a vicious company?”
“Let’s cut the pointless talk there.”
“It’s not pointless. I mean it.”
Since he was just playing with words, Kanghyeon, a little irritated, reached toward the Close button. Just before his fingertip pressed it, Haeil grabbed his wrist.
“Are you always this impatient?”
Haeil’s clear eyes watched him, taking him in point by point.
“Or are you only impatient in front of me?”
Kanghyeon gave him a look that was sincere in its glare. It was a gaze sharp enough to make a person flinch, but Haeil actually grinned, as if pleased to finally meet his eyes.
“I felt it last time too. You’re fucking scary when you menace someone, Mr. Baek Kanghyeon.”
Despite what he said, his voice sounded less afraid than amused.
For Kanghyeon, this kind of easy familiarity in Haeil’s words and actions was nothing but uncomfortable.
Facing Haeil like this was the first time since the day he’d showered him in pheromones in exchange for the guided tour of the club.
The way that day had ended in his memory wasn’t good.
“Why do you think I asked for a pheromone shower even though I’m an Alpha like you?”
“Because that’s the best way to really sense the scent, next to sex.”
“You have a sweet note.”
“A scent so fucking sweet it’s driving me insane.”
A sweet note?
There was no way something like that could be coming off him.
He was a Dominant Alpha.
He repeated that to himself more than once.
But what if and no way kept harrying him in succession.
He’d met Dominants besides Kwon Haeil.
Most of them saw him as nothing but a Dominant Alpha. They didn’t notice anything strange and didn’t harbor a shred of doubt about his being a Dominant.
Only one man.
At an unofficial reception he’d been dragged to by his father, a man with a complicated expression had whispered to him with care.
“I’ll give you the name of a hospital. It would be good to be re-examined there.”
The hospital he introduced specialized in research on atypical traits.
Only then did he realize that man was a Dominant Omega so sensitive to pheromones he practically deserved an extra word—extreme—tacked onto the front.
Kwon Haeil had sensed an irregularity like a sweet note on him as well. Maybe he was the same type—a Dominant Alpha with an extreme sensitivity.
Whenever that thought came up, his heart raced like mad.
It was an absolute secret that could never be exposed to anyone.
Not his father, not his brothers, no one. To them, he had to be a Dominant Alpha with no genetic defect whatsoever.
And a mere next-door neighbor had found out that kind of secret.
He’d been taught for years never to give anyone leverage on him; it was laughable in the worst way.
Even so, it didn’t matter much. There wasn’t anyone who would believe him.
If an article came out, it could be buried, and if rumor sheets spread, he could bring out a bigger story and smother them. It wasn’t exactly pleasant to have to do what his father had always done, himself.
So he just had to keep carrying himself as a 100% Dominant Alpha like he always had. He had lived that way, and he had to go on living that way.
But he couldn’t help that it bothered him. Even when he tried not to think about it, the day with Kwon Haeil flickered up now and then.
That was part of why he buried himself in work, to forget it more.
At least while he was neck-deep in work, he didn’t have to think nonsense. And since Kwon Haeil seemed to go out in the evening and only come back in the morning, if he left work after overtime, they wouldn’t run into each other.
It was obvious the memory of that day wasn’t very good for Kwon Haeil either. He’d doused him in a pheromone shower until his body was wrecked, and at the end he’d crushed him with pheromones and made him kneel. As a Dominant Alpha, that had to be the first humiliation of its kind.
If he felt anything toward him, it should have been disgust; he shouldn’t be smiling as calmly as this.
He couldn’t understand why Kwon Haeil was acting as if nothing had happened—or rather, as if they’d gotten closer.
He can’t have forgotten all of it…
Kanghyeon held Haeil’s eyes, which faced him without reserve.
While their gazes were briefly tangled.
The waiting time elapsed, and with the voice “Going up,” the doors slid shut. That was about when Haeil let go of Kanghyeon’s hand.
The moment the doors closed, Haeil’s eyes openly raked over him.
The last time he’d seen him, Kanghyeon had been in a dress shirt and tie, expensive suit jacket and trousers, and that was all. The only accessory was a wristwatch from a famous brand everyone knew.
Now he was in a three-piece suit, vest included, and the watch had been swapped for a limited edition from a high-end brand. Peeking from beneath the jacket, the cuffs of his dress shirt were set with black square links with an iridescent gleam, and the silver tie clip at his tie looked anything but cheap.
In just a few days, his outfit had changed so dramatically it was like he’d jumped up three or four rungs.
That didn’t mean it looked strange or awkward.
If anything, it fit Baek Kanghyeon so excessively well it felt like this was his true look.
Even at the sincere compliment, Kanghyeon wasn’t particularly pleased.
The day before he was to go in as Division Head of the Finance Management Division at BC Holdings.
An enormous number of boxes arrived at his home.
Each box bore the logos of several globally famous luxury brands.
Inside were multiple suits tailored exactly to his size, a variety of casual wear, several pairs of handmade shoes by top artisans in fine leather, accessories of every sort, and ten high-end limited-edition watches.
The elderly gentleman with the familiar face who delivered the gifts politely held out a stiff paper card. Two lines in a flowing hand like brush script were written on it.
[Carry yourself properly.]
[You need to think about the weight of the place you stand now.]
It was only two lines, but the moment he read them, he couldn’t breathe. His chest grew heavy, as if something big and solid had settled there.
Even so, he couldn’t ignore the things he’d been forced to accept.
This wasn’t like before, when he’d worked as a simple employee without his background being announced. At BC Holdings, Baek Kanghyeon would be stepping to the front as the legitimate successor of the Baekcheong Group chairman.
So from now on he had to pay attention to every piece of his outward appearance and dress accordingly. Enough to satisfy his father.
Maybe because he’d recalled a moment that wasn’t at all pleasant, a throb ran through his head. He was fine when buried in work, but he was fairly vulnerable to stress stemming from personal feelings like this.
Then, out of nowhere, Kwon Haeil’s voice cut in.
“You okay?”
A cool, firm hand touched his forehead, which had been a little warm. Following the shadow that fell over him with his eyes, he found Haeil standing right in front of him before he knew it, looking at him without a trace of a smile.
“What the hell, why are you warm?”
Haeil’s face twisted hard.
“Fuck, just how much are they grinding the kid down in there?”
Kid?
Kanghyeon was a little taken aback by the sudden treatment as if he were a kid. Had anyone called him a kid since he became an adult?
“If an Alpha’s sick, the rest of them must be dropping dead. What a fucking hellhole of a company.”
The dirty words kept spilling from Haeil’s mouth.
His cool hand, on the other hand, couldn’t have been kinder.