The heat cycle ended after just one day.
In the past, even as a recessive Omega, his heat cycles had lasted two or three days. So while he was glad that this one had ended after only a day, he also couldn’t shake the uneasy feeling that something was off.
Is it because I’m in my thirties now?
But even so, he had been receiving hormone injections for several years. If there had been this little change, wasn’t there something wrong with the medication?
He pondered the question while crunching on cereal for breakfast.
—RRRR
His phone rang.
His body flinched at the sound of a call after such a long silence.
A mixture of anxiety and surely not… crossed his mind. When he checked the caller ID, it was an international call.
There was only one person who would call him from this number, so Jae-kyung quickly answered.
“Hello?”
[Oppa!]
His younger sister’s voice sounded brighter than before, and Jae-kyung immediately felt happier, too.
[What are you doing?]
“I’m having breakfast.”
[What are you eating?]
“Cereal. What about you?”
[I’m at my place in Canada right now~]
After receiving her fifth injection, his younger sister’s condition had noticeably improved, and she was now on the path to a full recovery.
Thank goodness.
If five years in that house had been the price, at least he had gained his younger sister’s health in return.
[Oppa, why are you eating cereal~? I guess I’ll have to buy you something delicious.]
“Haha, will you? I’ll go to Canada…”
Ah. I can’t, can I? I can’t leave.
[I called to tell you some good news.]
“Hmm? What is it?”
[I’m coming back to Korea soon!]
“What?”
[They said it’s okay for me to go back to Korea now. I don’t need to come to the hospital anymore.]
“R-Really?”
[“Yeah, hehe. So I wanted you to be the first person I told. I’m finally escaping that wretched hospital. I’ll go back to Korea soon and take care of you, Oppa. You just walk on a path of flowers.”]
“What are you talking about?”
[I mean it. I’m really going back to Korea for you, Oppa. So just wait for me a little while, okay?]
“That sounds like a proposal.”
[How did you know?]
Hearing the good news in his sister’s cheerful voice, along with her comforting words, lifted Jae-kyung’s spirits. He laughed freely, so happy that the gloom left behind by his heat cycle seemed to disappear completely.
Ever since leaving that house, everything had been going smoothly.
There had been a few small disappointments and farewells along the way, but perhaps those were what helped a person grow and broaden their world.
And then, one day, he suddenly found something he wanted to do…
He wanted to open a gallery.
A gallery for unknown, struggling artists.
While working at the gallery and learning under Director Ji, Jae-kyung had come to realize something that left a bitter taste in his mouth.
The value of a painting was often determined only after the artist died.
At best, their works sold for a few million won—absurdly little when you considered the time they had spent painting and the artistic thought they had poured into their work.
And if an artist was desperate for money or struggling to make ends meet, their paintings were sometimes bought for ridiculously low prices.
Then, after the artist died, those same paintings could suddenly soar into the hundreds of millions of won.
After seeing several artists live difficult lives because their work was never properly valued while they were alive, only to have its worth recognized after their deaths, Jae-kyung found himself wanting to help them.
Besides, spending so much time at the gallery had sharpened his eye for art.
There had been many times when paintings comforted him, giving him solace when he felt like a bird beating its wings against a cage, unable to fly outside.
He couldn’t make it as large as one of the major art galleries, but…
I can’t draw too much attention to myself, either. Maybe I should start with a small gallery?
From that day on, Jae-kyung began looking for commercial properties.
At first, he thought the location wouldn’t matter much since it would be a gallery. But then he realized that, precisely because of that, it needed to stand out.
So he searched for a place with a good location on a main street, visiting properties in person and narrowing his choices down to several promising candidates.
Eventually, he took over a former mobile phone shop in the Hongdae area.
It had 21 pyeong of usable floor space, was right by a subway station, and occupied the first floor. The asking price was two billion won.
A substantial portion of the settlement money he had received disappeared in one stroke, but Jae-kyung thought it was worth investing that much.
After stamping his seal on the contract, Jae-kyung walked around the store, taking in the space.
There was still so much to do.
And yet, for some reason, he had a feeling that many things were going to happen here.
******
It was a quiet night.
Even the towering forest of skyscrapers had fallen asleep for the night.
At that late hour, in a quiet office on the thirtieth floor of a forty-five-story building, the heavy nib of a fountain pen moved steadily across the page, making a soft, scratching sound.
The oppressive silence, so heavy that even breathing seemed inaudible, was broken by a knock.
The door opened, and even as footsteps approached from a distance, growing closer and closer, the sound of the pen nib did not stop.
-“Executive Director Han.”
Secretary Oh’s voice reached him, but he remained focused on his work.
-“…I heard he moved to Gangbuk-gu.”
Only then did the pen, which had been moving so diligently, come to a stop.
-“And apparently, Mr. Jae-kyung also purchased a commercial property in Hongdae under his own name.”
Secretary Oh handed him the documents he had gathered concerning the real estate.
Han Tae-seok set down his pen and took the papers, scanning them.
His brows furrowed.
“What’s he planning to use it for?”
-“According to the real estate agent, he said he intends to open a gallery.”
“A gallery…”
-“What should we do?”
Han Tae-seok tapped his fingers lightly against the desk several times before setting the documents down.
He rose from his chair and looked out the window.
Even though the forest of buildings outside was asleep, tangled emotions and countless lines seemed to weave chaotically through the city below.
Han Tae-seok closed his eyes.
It had only been five months since the divorce.
************
-“Jae-kyung, did you hear?”
Jae-kyung was having breakfast when the housekeeper asked him, her eyes sparkling with excitement. Since there was nothing he had heard either at home or at the gallery, he shook his head and stuffed some spinach into his mouth, chewing quietly.
-“I heard Division Head Han was promoted to Executive Director.”
“Ah… really?”
Jae-kyung merely nodded and let the news pass over him as though he were hearing about a complete stranger. The housekeeper felt sorry for him, but she didn’t say anything more. She thought it wasn’t her place to meddle.
The gallery was closed today, so Jae-kyung stayed home all day. He brought a stack of books worth reading from the study and tried reading in the garden, but soon found it uncomfortable. Eventually, he retreated to the bedroom, where he quietly read alone, falling asleep and waking up two or three times.
As he watched the sun slowly sink toward the horizon, he suddenly found himself thinking that if he kept living like this, he might not even realize that the Earth was round. That was when Han Tae-seok came home earlier than usual.
They had been married for a year and a half now… Yet there was nothing to be gained from the relationship they had settled into—if Jae-kyung happened to be awake when Tae-seok came home, he would greet him, and that was about it. Jae-kyung had no desire to change that, and Han Tae-seok seemed to feel the same way.
The strange thing was that no matter how late he worked, he always came home. Come to think of it, aside from business trips, he had never spent a night away from home. Find the original chapter at g.com.
“Welcome home.”
When the front door opened, Jae-kyung greeted him. Tae-seok merely gave a small nod, took off his shoes, and stepped inside.
Jae-kyung was about to return to his room. The housekeeper would take care of dinner anyway, so there was nothing he needed to do.
Sleep really is endless, no matter how much I get. I’m sleepy all the time.
-“Mr. Park Jae-kyung…”
For a moment, Jae-kyung wondered if he was hearing things because he was so sleepy. There was no reason for Han Tae-seok to call his name.
-“Mr. Park Jae-kyung.”
It was only when he heard him call his name a second time that Jae-kyung realized it was real and slowly turned around.
It wasn’t a dream. He hadn’t imagined it, either. Han Tae-seok was looking straight at him and calling him by name.
How long has it been since anything other than a greeting came out of his mouth?
-“There’s a party this weekend. It’s a couples’ event, so I’d like you to come with me.”
Oh. So it’s work.
Come to think of it, it was a couples’ gathering. This was the first time since they’d gotten married. Jae-kyung had thought there would be plenty of occasions like this after marrying him, but there hadn’t been a single one until now.
Publicly, they were a happily married couple, and Jae-kyung had promised to do his part as a good partner. So this was something he was expected to do.
“All right.”
-“Secretary Oh will give you the details.”
“Yes. Then… are we done?”
-“Yes.”
The moment he heard Tae-seok’s answer, Jae-kyung went into his room.
Oh, right. Should I have congratulated him on his promotion to Executive Director?
No. He hadn’t even told Jae-kyung about it himself… He probably hadn’t expected such a greeting from him in the first place. And even if Jae-kyung did congratulate him, it wasn’t as though the two of them would suddenly have a pleasant conversation. There was no need to force it.
Jae-kyung nodded to himself and flopped face-first onto the bed.
Come to think of it, what am I going to wear? Do I even have anything suitable?
He hadn’t gone clothes shopping even once since they got married, so all he had were the clothes he’d owned before the wedding. But this didn’t seem like the kind of occasion where he could wear any of those.
This is a problem.
Ah, whatever. I’ll ask Secretary Oh tomorrow.
Yawning, Jae-kyung closed his eyes.
********
-“You know Tae-seok was promoted to Executive Director, right?”
As soon as Jae-kyung arrived at the gallery, Director Ji called him over and spoke with her chin held high.
Tae-seok had always been the heir to NI, so it was only natural that he would eventually be promoted to Executive Director. It was probably something everyone in the country already knew. Still, was it really something to be so smug about?
“Yes, I heard.”
-“Did you hear that there’s a promotion party this weekend, too?”
Oh. So that’s what the party was.
“Yes, I heard.”
-“Make sure you dress properly so you don’t embarrass Tae-seok. I’ll pick out an outfit for you and give it to you as a gift.”
Oh, good. I was wondering what I was going to wear.
If she was giving him clothes for free, he might as well accept them. Jae-kyung quickly thanked her.
The schedule for the party that Secretary Oh had given him wasn’t anything particularly complicated. However, from what he’d heard, it was going to be a gathering of the third-generation heirs of the conglomerates who would lead the country in the future. The children of virtually every major corporation were expected to attend.
It was obviously going to be a chance for them to socialize while sizing one another up, a place where they would test each other’s mettle. In other words, it would be an exhausting battlefield of reading the room and invisible knives.
That was probably why Director Ji had offered to buy him an outfit.
It was bound to be some single outfit from a brand Jae-kyung had never even heard of.
And that wasn’t all. Director Ji had also booked appointments for him at a makeup studio and a hair salon.
Surely the other families were going through the same frenzy.
The battle had already begun.