The next afternoon.
Jung Wonwoo, wearing a serious expression, stepped into Baek Kanghyeon’s office ahead of the meeting. He was carrying a thick black document case in his hand.
“Division Head, the car is waiting. The Head of Strategic Planning is ready and standing by as well.”
“Good work.”
Kanghyeon rose from his seat and put on the suit jacket he had taken off. While he lightly straightened his clothes, Wonwoo, sneaking a glance, spoke up.
“And a security team is on standby today.”
The motion of Kanghyeon’s fingers, which had been adjusting his tie, halted.
“A security team? What do you mean?”
“Special instructions from the chairman.”
At Wonwoo’s answer, dissatisfaction hardened Kanghyeon’s face. A small sigh slipped out of his mouth.
“Ha….”
Anticipating that reaction, Wonwoo’s eyes darted around.
“It’s just… since you’re personally taking the lead, the chairman seems very worried…”
“Send the security team away. It’ll only draw attention for no reason.”
Kanghyeon cut off Wonwoo’s attempt to defend his father.
He knew perfectly well what the place he stood in was for. And what the chairman—his father—wanted.
That didn’t mean he had any intention of moving with fanfare when nothing about Baek Kanghyeon had been publicly declared. If he went around with a security team attached to business-related outings, it would inevitably stir up pointless noise. And the one who’d be inconvenienced would be Kanghyeon.
Wonwoo looked troubled.
“But Division Head, those are the chairman’s orders.”
Having been thoroughly trained in Baekcheong Group’s security unit long ago, Jung Wonwoo did not give ground easily.
Kanghyeon picked up the black file folder from his desk and walked over to Wonwoo.
“I’ll contact the chairman separately after the meeting. And…”
Trailing off, he held the file folder out to Wonwoo.
Wonwoo hastily slung the document case onto one arm and accepted the folder with both hands. At his ear, Kanghyeon’s voice came, lowered a tone.
“An excellent Secretary Jung is more than enough bodyguard for me.”
When Wonwoo looked at him as if spellbound by the voice, the black eyes that met his curved in a faint smile.
“Right?”
Wonwoo’s lips fluttered; a beat late, he answered.
“Y-yes! Of course!”
Kanghyeon patted Wonwoo’s broad shoulder twice. For some reason, he could hear Wonwoo gulping down a breath. It was almost like an invisible tail was wagging furiously. This story is hosted at novelping.com.
“Let’s go.”
“Yes!”
Passing Wonwoo, Kanghyeon opened the Division Head’s office door and stepped out.
At the secretary-only counter in the reception area, a middle-aged female chief secretary, Yang Jiyeon, and another male secretary were waiting. With restrained, identical movements, they bowed politely to Kanghyeon.
Receiving the secretariat’s greetings, he strode out. His head was packed full with the content of the meeting to come—and with thoughts about the representative of club WAVE, the person he’d be meeting.
The representative of club WAVE was a figure wrapped in considerable secrecy.
There was information to trip over about the three presidents he put forward, because they handled all of club WAVE’s external affairs. The representative gave them orders from behind and watched from a distance, but did not show himself above the surface.
All that was known so far was that he was a man in his early thirties and an Alpha. Nothing else circulated. He seemed that reluctant to be outwardly exposed.
That wasn’t to say the representative never moved personally.
He was said to step forward himself when a contract of substantial scale came and went, like the proposal Kanghyeon was bringing this time.
However, the meeting could not happen unless there was a prior agreement to “keep silent about the representative regardless of whether a contract is concluded.” That was the same even when the counterpart was BC Holdings under Baekcheong Group.
Whoever he is, he’s needlessly finicky.
Kanghyeon found himself very curious about the representative of club WAVE, who attached a private condition even a major-conglomerate chairman wouldn’t push.
Just how exceptional did he think he was, to so thoroughly avoid exposure?
For all he knew, he might be a celebrity. Or perhaps there was some issue with his looks or temperament.
Thinking that far, a certain person came to mind.
If it’s someone with flashy looks and a strange personality, I know at least one.
He swallowed a small sigh as he recalled Kwon Haeil from the day before.
Even if the other party was an eccentric, as long as it wasn’t someone like that, he could handle it well enough.
***
A meeting room inside the Business Center of the Baekcheong Grand Hotel in Jung-gu, Seoul.
Having arrived a little early at the appointed place, Kwon Haeil and his party were waiting for the people from BC Holdings with bored faces.
“Haah… what a hassle…”
Lounging in a plush leather office chair, Haeil tilted his head back and twisted his body this way and that. An inexpressible level of annoyance was pouring off him from head to toe.
He yawned wide and loud. Behind him, the sturdily built General Manager Park Seong-gu yawned as if in sympathy. Unlike the two of them, only the thirty-something legal counsel sitting next to Haeil, busily typing on a laptop, had bright, shining eyes.
Rubbing his sleepy eyes with a hand, Haeil said seriously,
“Should I just bail? I’m dying of sleep.”
If anyone here said “yes,” he really might leap to his feet.
General Manager Park, who would have to take charge of the overall process if the contract was concluded, studied Haeil’s tired face.
“I did. But I didn’t sleep much.”
“Why not?”
Haeil stuck out his lower lip and grumbled.
“Don’t know. It’s all that Mr. Baek’s fault.”
“Sir? Mr. Baek?”
“There’s a thing.”
Thinking of the man with the surname Baek, Haeil let out a helpless sigh.
The faint sweet note still lingered around Baek Kanghyeon, whom he had met the previous day.
Ordinary Omegas would tuck their pheromones away, if only to protect themselves, but Baek Kanghyeon’s sweet note was as intense as ever. Because of that, while they were chatting yesterday he had almost buried his nose in the man’s nape without thinking.
As a rule, an Alpha’s pheromone gland sat in the lower abdomen, and an Omega’s at the nape. The source from which Baek Kanghyeon’s Alpha pheromones flowed was no different from a typical Alpha’s, including Kwon Haeil himself.
Only, from the nape, a good scent kept seeping out endlessly, as if some small seed had been tucked inside. Even after he’d bluntly told him he was giving off a sweet note, the concentration stayed uniform; it seemed he didn’t know how to control it. If he had known, he wouldn’t have poured it out together like that during the pheromone shower.
It made sense.
He was an Alpha who knew only how to handle the pheromones in his lower abdomen; he wouldn’t know any method to regulate the nape’s sweet note.
A laugh escaped him.
A Dominant Alpha who looked perfect on the surface getting all stiff because he couldn’t control that tiny bit of sweetness.
And how cute he’d been at the club.
A friendless straight-A loner who knew nothing but studying, boldly going to look around by himself—thinking back on it now still made him laugh. The way he trotted after him when told he’d guide him, and meticulously took everything in, too.
Remembering the sides of Baek Kanghyeon he’d seen, Haeil chuckled under his breath.
From behind, General Manager Park looked at him as if he were insane. It was the kind of look one could give only while outside Haeil’s line of sight.
Then, struck by a sudden thought, Haeil swallowed hard.
Wait, did I just call that guy cute?
His expression turned genuinely startled.
Up to now, the only times he’d thought someone was cute were when a pretty, dainty-type Omega turned into a mess beneath him. Aside from that, he’d never found anyone cute no matter how much they acted coy.
Yet here he was, thinking Baek Kanghyeon—who did nothing but glare fiercely whenever their eyes met—was cute.
I really must be out of my mind.
A hollow laugh finally slipped from his lips.
Then he fell back into thought.
But strictly speaking, isn’t it more beautiful than cute?
He recalled the neat, orderly figure Baek Kanghyeon had cut in the elevator yesterday.