Lee Jaeha had grown up on Ms. Jung’s cooking. Because he had stayed in Seongbuk-dong for about ten days straight, Ms. Jung was so glad he was back that she poured herself into what he ate.
The table was full of side dishes he ate well, and the tenderness of it made him want to at least put something in his mouth, but his mouth felt rough and dry; even finishing one bowl of rice was hard.
In the end he blamed it on having no appetite in the morning and stood to leave for work first.
“Live moderately and come back. I know you’re rebelling since you’ve never had a proper rest, but you don’t have to do it in that den of punks. If it’s hard to go back to Electronics, then work in Distribution for two years and take Electronics after that—”
“Didn’t you tell him, Executive Director Lee Jaeho, that there’s a promotion ceremony coming up? Mother, Jaeho is getting promoted. Congratulations, Jaeho.”
Once again, Lee Jaeha turned Lee Ikhyeong’s arrows toward Kim Ranhui.
But this time it was exactly what she had longed for, and during breakfast her face—pale from enduring the sight of Jaeha whom she hated and the husband she wanted to kill—suddenly bloomed like a flower.
Watching her, Jaeha patted Lee Jaeho’s shoulder.
“Mother is this happy, so you—soon-to-be executive—do well. I’m sorry as your older brother. At least you make sure to marry a fine young lady the parents want.”
He meant it halfway, so his tone was earnest. Maybe because she sensed that, Kim Ranhui looked moved for once.
The sight was both funny and bothersome, so he simply left the table and headed to work alone. Taking the second car he used to drive before the wedding out of the garage felt strangely new.
He had not forgotten the time she harbored malice and tried to starve his mother to death. Even so, the reason he let her win once in a while was because Lee Jaeho had done nothing so terrible.
In Jaeha’s values, even that small, petty forbearance counted as the duty of the eldest son. He had grown up under his grandfather’s hand, so he was rather conservative. And Kim Ranhui’s first line of defense was exactly that part of him.
To use one’s own child as a shield until the very end. He knew too many people who, while wanting to set that child on the highest pedestal, would still use their kid as a bulwark when defending themselves.
Maybe it was a good thing he had married an Alpha.
Somewhere in him lay Lee Ikhyeong’s mean, petty genes. They hadn’t manifested, but it didn’t mean they didn’t exist.
If so, better not to have children. The problem was Jang Taegun.
…If we brought a child from somewhere else… If the child resembled him, I think I could raise the kid well.
There would be no child between the two of them, so the only way was for him to have one somewhere else, and thinking it through again, if the child looked like him, it wouldn’t be bad.
But that would never happen.
Jang Taegun didn’t look like someone so cowardly. However, since he had no feelings for Lee Jaeha, if he had a child outside he would remarry the child’s birth mother.
And the one thrown away then would be him.
It can’t be helped. I prepared myself for that.
Yes. He had braced himself for all of it. Because he had braced himself, he bit down so hard his jaw ached and proposed to him.
He became husband and wife with Jang Taegun after preparing for every possible outcome that could come from marriage. That included not only everything an ordinary person might face, but also what a broken family had no choice but to endure.
Jang Taegun’s betrayal, disregard, verbal abuse—there was no end to what he could endure. In return, Jaeha asked nothing of him.
“……”
Out of habit he rubbed the ring on the fourth finger of his left hand with his thumb. The fact that it was still there calmed him.
He started the car and shifted gears. First things first, he had to handle today’s tasks. Even to apologize to him, he needed results.
For the past ten days he had lived for that alone.
“How’s the Myungwon Park file?”
“Strategy passed us that packet. We also drafted media copy, but Strategy thinks it’s better to seed it online first.”
“Then do that, and send me the related materials one more time.”
Thinking how sick he was of all this, he gave Manager Im the day’s to-dos.
If he was going to choke them to death, he might as well shake the roots while he was at it.
These were the bastards who had put a hole in Jang Taegun’s abdomen. Was the man’s spouse supposed to forgive that? Lee Jaeha had his own way of hunting.
Since his teeth were already in their nape, rather than meekly sheathing his fangs, he wanted to cut their carotid clean through. His way was not a flashy one-strike kill. Find the original chapter at novelping(.)com.
Whoever the opponent was, he specialized in slowly strangling them out. It was one of the dirty habits that didn’t fit his neat character and polished exterior; he chalked it up to the paternal line.
Because he had gone straight to the executive office the moment he arrived, he thought of stopping for coffee on the way back. He’d picked at breakfast so much that it was better to have skipped it altogether, but caffeine had nothing to do with appetite.
Manager Im stood first, about to fuss that she’d brew it for him herself, and before she could bustle, he was quietly heading to the pantry when a voice caught him from behind.
“Director.”
“…Yes.”
He answered with a blank face, but he flinched inside. He’d been scolded more than once for making his own coffee.
He was weak with people like Ms. Jung Mihee, who worked at the main house, or Manager Im Yujin.
They treated him sincerely, and because he’d grown up only knowing how to meet people through set etiquette and education, responding to that kind of concern and affection was a little hard for him.
But Yujin said something entirely different from what he expected.
“…It’s just, there’s a guest waiting in your office.”
“A guest?”
No one should be coming at this hour. He recalled a classmate from a newspaper asking yesterday to buy him a meal, then thought there was no way an unemployed guy would show up first thing in the morning.
He glanced toward the office door without thinking—and slowly froze.
An Alpha was leaning on the simple steel frame, staring straight through him.
“Real cozy, this married couple of ours. I only get to see your face if I come in person.”
He said it with a crooked grin. Between the low drawl of his voice came a faint clink; there was a lemon-colored hard candy tucked in his cheek.
Jaeha stared at that, forgetting the situation for a beat.
Maybe he noticed the look, because with his usual bored expression, Jang Taegun bent his elbow and pointed behind him, toward the inside of the office.
“There was a candy basket on the table, so I took one. What, do I have to pay to eat it?”
“…No.”
First he denied that. He could buy him the whole factory if he wanted.
It wasn’t stinginess; it was just absurd that even in this moment he felt a tiny, ridiculous joy at learning Taegun’s taste from a candy meant for guests.
And the second he denied it, Jang Taegun strode up, seized his wrist, and growled.
“Yeah? Since the candy’s free, how about you pay with something else. I busted my ass running all over to find my runaway husband—how about you recognize my time and effort.”
With only that, he dragged Jaeha into the office.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Manager Im shoot to her feet as the door swung shut.
Taegun was in front of him and the office door was at his back. He was learning in his own body what it meant to be caught between advance and retreat.
Taegun’s pheromones were pooling in the office with no escape. He himself was looking down at Jaeha with that bored face, but the pheromones spreading along the floor were razor-edged.
The two had about a ten-centimeter difference in height—hard to notice usually, but clearly visible when they stood this close.
If Jaeha tipped his head just a little, his forehead would brush Taegun’s collarbone. It was a feeling he had never gotten from any Omega.
As arrogant as his temperament, Jang Taegun’s proud nose cast a shadow that close to him. A dense wild-rose scent drifted over. The sweeter the petals smelled, the more it meant he was angry.
Even so, it felt good. Seeing his face for the first time in ten days, he suddenly wondered if the abdominal wound had healed.
The faint dimple in his cheek made it look like his last few days had been hard, and a cool ache ran through Jaeha’s chest. The wound had been deep and the blood loss heavy—no matter how tough he was, waking up alone would have taken time.
He wanted to ask if he was all right now. The question stuck behind his tightly closed lips and sank back into his mouth.
A faint sweetness and lemon drifted out. …He likes lemon candy. I should stock only that next time.
Taegun’s eyebrow twitched.
“Spacing out again. Unreal. You walk out, ignore my calls, and when I show up you blank me. You really know how to turn on guys like me.”
“……”
“Or what. Been sampling only thug dicks? I’m curious how you’re this good at pushing my buttons. I go nuts for this, so how did you know, is it that obvious?”
He snarled from right there. There was too much profanity and most of it insults; it was hard to parse.
All Jaeha could tell was that he was angry. Taegun slid his tongue out and licked his lower lip.
Fresh from the candy, his tongue was slick with syrup. Jaeha caught himself staring and snapped back to his senses.
Even in this situation, he was looking at Taegun’s mouth. Ridiculous.
Luckily, Taegun didn’t seem to notice that look, and chewed out his words again.
“Director, I’m so turned on my dick hurts. Heat’s shooting up like crazy. You think about running off and leaving a guy with a hole in his gut. You look all innocent and you skin people alive, fuck.”
…Look innocent? Who? He wondered, but the phrase hole in my gut hooked him.
He already thought Taegun looked paler than usual. The wound had been fairly deep; he wondered how he’d recovered. With that kind of injury he must have had a high fever. He had a lot he wanted to ask, but for fear of annoying him, he let only one line out.
“…Is the wound all right?”
“No. I’m so hot it feels like my belly’s going to split.”
“Are you bleeding? Let’s go to the hospital.”
At his startled question, Taegun gave a thin smile. Not happy or amused—more a “well, look at that.”
“Hey. If you were that worried, you should’ve stayed put, sucked my lips, gave me that disinfecting you like, all that. Why’d you walk out and make me see red.”
“…I had circumstances.”
“What circumstances. Digging into those Myungwon pricks?”
Back in that familiar bored tone, he wrapped an arm around Jaeha’s waist and asked.
Remembering they were in the executive office, Jaeha squirmed without thinking. It felt like taking something far too private in a public space.
Taegun tightened his arm around him and, as if soothing a child, clucked softly.
“Stay still. Before the stitches pop.”
“……”
At that, he went rigid. After holding him for a while, Taegun asked in a leveled voice, as if weighing something.
“But why touch that. To get me some wifely revenge?”
Because he was in his arms, Jaeha felt the hum of Taegun’s voice every time he spoke. The vibration traveling along his bones made both his body and mind feel like they were melting.
But it wasn’t time to relax yet. Taegun hadn’t asked for the precise reason.
Sure enough, after holding him quietly, Taegun eased back a little, looked down at him, and asked.
“Just to check—do our dear Director happen to have a personal grudge against Myungwon?”
At that, Jaeha lifted his gaze to him. He told himself he had to answer well.
He’d had time to imagine this scene and run simulations of it more than once. All he had to do was answer exactly as planned.