“Give up everything of Yushin and come. Then who knows. Maybe I won’t care that you’re an Alpha.”
What had he done then?
Maybe he’d nodded. A useless recollection.
Lee Jaeha’s misfortune began like that.
For all his many talents, Lee Jaeha was human; there were inevitable gaps.
His gap widened wherever he tried to control feeling with reason.
His way of loving was distinctly Alpha. He was a man who had a lot, and having grown up his whole life surrounded by wealth, he sometimes counted that “a lot” as what Taegun called “coming with just your body.”
Having only just recognized love, he wanted to do anything for Taegun. Whether Taegun wanted it or not didn’t matter much.
No—he simply failed to care.
“Sure, I’ve long known Director Lee’s character and liked it, but I doubt the in-laws feel the same about our Team Manager Jang.”
“…That’s not so.”
People said Jang Changsik built Jang Construction with a fifty-jeon coin and two balls; even at his age he was a vigorous old man.
There was a force you sensed from a man who’d started as a thug and hacked his way up, cutting down hardships with his own hands until Janghan became a major company.
But Jaeha didn’t find this type difficult. Men like Jang Changsik were rough on the outside but clear on the inside.
It was about a month before the wedding with Taegun. The ceremony was moving along smoothly. Neither of them had much to fuss over in the preparations.
Secretariats from both groups could coordinate that sort of thing. Besides, neither had any particular romantic notions about weddings.
If anything, Jang Taegun was the more indifferent. The language of the flowers dressing the hall, the color of the boutonnière—he had no interest. He didn’t want to spend energy on questions like who would wear white.
In a traditional Alpha–Omega ceremony, the Omega—male or female—wears white. In this case it was Alpha–Alpha, which made it awkward.
Such matters could flare into a pride match between the two men, even between the families. If he disliked it, Jaeha assumed of course he himself would be the one to wear white.
He was the one who had proposed, and the one who had accepted was Jang Taegun; it felt right that he be the one to yield.
But when the wedding planner spoke, Taegun’s response was indifferent.
“Who stands on the left? I will. I can hold the bouquet and wear the veil, too.”
He said it with an expressionless face as if joking… or was it a joke? Hard to say.
He liked him, but he didn’t know him well. He knew the mouth could be filthy, yet after they’d promised to marry, the swearing had dropped sharply.
None of it was ever aimed at Jaeha. His tongue still seemed dry, but his careful manners stirred an unnameable feeling.
They didn’t meet every day, but about three evenings a week they ate together. He wasn’t picky, ate well, and his table manners were clean.
To Lee Jaeha—whose appetite shortened without fail when summer heat or personal stress hit—it was almost strange how much the man ate.
And he didn’t eat like a glutton either. At those meals they sometimes spoke about themselves. Mostly a few words from Jaeha, and Taegun would listen in silence.
“Ah, this must be boring… it’s just work talk anyway…”
“You stopped at the interesting part. Go on.”
To Jaeha, suddenly worried he’d babbled too much in his excitement, he answered in that same even tone. The easy reply settled him, and he could ramble a few more lines.
You couldn’t call Jang Taegun tender, but he wasn’t cold either. It was distinctly different from the first impression.
Just as that change began to feel curious, a message came from Taegun’s grandfather. He was at a Korean set-menu place near the office and would appreciate some time.
Telling Yujin to push two meetings and a call, Jaeha rose at once and headed over.
The restaurant in Nonhyeon was a place he’d been a few times, usually to entertain older counterparts.
Among those, Jang Changsik was the oldest and most uncomfortable—understandable, as he was Taegun’s grandfather.
It wasn’t the fretfulness of a man with little time left so much as a naturally forthright temper that made the old man get straight to the point.
“The in-laws don’t seem to care for our Team Manager Jang.” This chapter was copied from g.com without permission.
“…I apologize.”
He couldn’t say “That’s not so.” There were too many rumors already that, for this marriage, Lee Jaeha had stepped completely out of the succession line.
And you couldn’t even call them rumors.
They were all true. After announcing the marriage, he’d been clearing the way to hand board seats at choice subsidiaries to his half brother, Lee Jaeho.
The land, buildings, and stock his grandfather, Lee Wonung, had given him personally, he would take into the marriage intact, but the subsidiary directorships would fall into Jaeho’s hands by month’s end.
He had little attachment to those seats. Born at the top, he’d treated the duties like homework to be finished.
He had no intention of shoving his mother’s place, usurped by the stepmother, into that woman’s mouth, but neither did he have enough attachment to fight for it, teeth bared.
If the price he paid let him possess the first thing he’d ever truly wanted, it didn’t feel so wasteful. Jang Changsik, however, seemed to think differently.
“Taegun’s father went first two years ago. Dying before your own father is the worst unfilial act there is, and on top of that, the man left a few ventures half-cocked and sank them. Seeing our Team Manager Jang suffer over it keeps this old man up at night.”
By then, Jaeha understood why he’d been called in so suddenly: a clear ask for the spouse-to-be of his grandson.
Clear wishes were easy to handle. He’d thought the man very much like Taegun—flat tone, unreadable face—but perhaps not, he mused briefly.
“My condolences, sir.”
He dipped his head, then met his eyes again.
“I’d already planned a wedding gift to help with Team Manager Jang’s work. I fancied it a surprise, so I kept it to myself—perhaps I should have spoken sooner and spared you the worry.”
Jang Changsik’s face visibly brightened. He lifted his teacup to hide the satisfied tilt of his mouth.
“From now on I’m your grandfather, am I not? These stiff forms of address put distance between us.”
“Yes, Grandfather.”
That, too, must have been the right answer; the old man even let out a hearty laugh. He considered the lunch a modest success.
He’d lost little, and in marrying Taegun he had at least gained the blessing of one side of the family.
Since he was pushing through a marriage his father opposed, he wanted Taegun’s paternal side not to scold them, at least.
After liquidating so much of his personal property, what remained in his hands were Yushin stock and a few buildings in Nonhyeon.
To those without, it was an enormous fortune; to Lee Jaeha, it felt like he’d dropped to middle class in a single breath.
Still, that was fine. Better to say it didn’t matter. The mistake was thinking that as much as Jang Changsik liked it, Jang Taegun would be satisfied.
He, of all people, knew best that a family’s will and his own were not the same.
Just as he was about to leave for the day, Yujin came into the director’s office and said something that made him blink.
“Who’s here?”
“Team Manager Jang from Jang Construction.”
“You should add ‘future spouse,’ too.”
A heavy voice spoke from behind her. Without meaning to, he nearly sprang to his feet and barely stopped himself.
Compared to the Beta woman Yujin, the man behind her was so large he cast a shadow.
She’d just come in to announce a visitor; she lifted her gaze without thinking, met Taegun’s eyes, and gulped a startled breath.
Watching that, Jaeha let out a short sigh.
“Manager Im, head out. For the car—”
“If you’re thirsty, you can drink something else.”
Answering in his place, Taegun flicked out his tongue and licked his own lips.
“Just go home for the day. Thank you, Manager Im.”
“Ah—yes. See you tomorrow, Director.”
With a nod, Yujin closed the door and left. Jaeha glanced at the man, parting his lips to invite him to sit, but the other took the lead.
A quick sweep of the office and he spoke first.
“Your earholes are clean and pretty.”
“…Pardon?”
Caught off guard, Jaeha blinked. He needed time to process the non sequitur.
He spoke again.
“Then why didn’t you understand like you were deaf. Did someone see your pretty earhole and stick a cock in it?”
“…What?”
“I told you to come with just your body.”
The pressure ratcheted up. Jaeha smothered the sound that tried to escape his throat. There was no emotion in the eyes fixed on him.
Only then did he understand why he’d come to Yushin’s director’s office without an appointment. He was pressing him about the matter with Jang Changsik.
He bit his lip, hesitated, and couldn’t hold out long.
“I thought I could at least bring a trousseau.”
“I said not to bring so much as a spoon from Yushin. Because your face is pretty I’m supposed to put up with the stupid, is that it?”
“Team Manager Jang.”
He said the name to stop his mouth. The problem was that the insulting language didn’t offend him. But he’d lived far too long a life where feelings didn’t matter.
When someone slighted him, it often tied directly to the company’s interests; he hadn’t let such things slide.
Out of that habit he called his name as a warning, but in truth he wasn’t even very angry. He’d simply had his eyes and mind stolen by the Alpha before him.
As if fully aware, Taegun stepped in close and looked down on him.
There was about a ten-centimeter difference between the two Alphas. Tall as he was, it was rare for Jaeha to look up at anyone; without meaning to, his blank gaze tracked the strong line of Jang Taegun’s jaw.
With narrowed eyes, looking down at him, Taegun spoke.
“Pretty cute stunt.”
“……”
“Decide whether you’re marrying me or becoming the old man’s concubine. Since it looks like the latter, I’m in a filthy mood.”
“…That wasn’t my intention.”
For the first time since the engagement he mixed in a curse. The chill of an Alpha’s pheromones pressed him down.
It was a weight unlike before. A helpless sound slipped from him. His breath had gone short.
Clicking his tongue, Taegun stepped back. His pheromones still heaved in the air.
The anger hadn’t cooled, but he seemed to have stopped displaying it so nakedly to Jaeha.
“Stop doing useless things and stay put.”
After that, he didn’t contact him again until the wedding day.
Only then did Jaeha admit he’d made a mistake. The meetings they’d had until then cut off cleanly. All communication came through his secretary and Yujin.
The wedding day was no different. Even as they exchanged vows, he did not look at Jaeha; when they slid rings onto each other’s hands, Taegun only lowered his eyes and stared at Jaeha’s ring finger.
A real fear took hold in him. It felt like he’d plowed under, with his own hands, something precious that had only just begun to sprout; the chill of that thought made him hesitate.