At Jubin's words, Yunhui stared at him for a long moment before one corner of his mouth curved upward.
Yunhui kept him around because he was quick on the uptake, but sometimes he was a little too perceptive for his own good. Add curiosity to that, and he had a habit of crossing the line.
Still, it was nothing more than Jubin being nosy. There were no ulterior motives behind it. Yunhui knew that, which was why he could usually let it slide even when Jubin overstepped.
“I'm genuinely curious. You know I can't sleep at night when there's something I want to know, right? Why are you getting engaged to Han Yudam? It's not like you actually need an omega.”
Jubin clearly had no intention of leaving until his curiosity had been satisfied.
At last, Yunhui set aside the documents he'd been reading altogether and leaned back in his chair.
Jubin's eyes lit up, apparently taking the gesture as a sign that Yunhui intended to answer.
“First, Seo Ian can't abandon Han Yudam. Whether what he feels is love or not.”
Jubin frowned at the answer.
It sounded as though Yunhui was saying Ian's feelings for Yudam might not be love.
Counting the years before they started dating, the two had spent nearly twenty years together. They had been a couple for almost ten of those.
Could someone really stay in a relationship for ten years on friendship alone?
Jubin couldn't understand it.
“They're an alpha and an omega, aren't they? Spend that much time together and feelings are bound to develop, even if they weren't there to begin with.”
They weren't children anymore. They were adults.
For an alpha and an omega, even the slightest attraction could easily flare into something stronger. If they already had years of friendship behind them, wouldn't it be even easier for that friendship to turn into love?
But Yunhui merely curled one side of his mouth as if the idea were ridiculous.
He clearly had no intention of elaborating.
Jubin didn't press him. If he pushed too hard, Yunhui might stop answering altogether.
“Second, because Seo Ian is an alpha.”
The answer was so vague that Jubin finally scowled.
As though anyone needed to be told that Seo Ian was an alpha.
“What does that have to do with anything? Especially for you. It shouldn't mean anything at all.”
The instant Jubin finished speaking, a bluish haze surged from Yunhui.
Hit by the pheromones of a powerful alpha, Jubin clapped a hand over his mouth and staggered several steps backward.
“Knock it off! Are you trying to kill someone?”
Jubin was an alpha too, and being threatened by another alpha's pheromones—especially an alpha stronger than himself—made his body seize up while instinctive revulsion turned his stomach.
Only after Yunhui withdrew his pheromones did the pressure that had seemed to close around Jubin's throat finally vanish.
A harsh breath escaped him.
“You're proving my point perfectly right now. That's why Seo Ian being an alpha is a problem.”
“Of course I react like this! I don't have even the slightest romantic interest in you. This is more psychological than anything.”
“So you understand that it's psychological. He's spent his entire life as an alpha. Do you really think he wouldn't feel any resistance?”
No matter how gentle Seo Ian's nature was, he was still an alpha.
An alpha who even had an omega lover.
An alpha who had probably never considered anyone besides that omega.
Jubin stared at Yunhui for a moment, then sighed and shook his head.
“This is seriously complicated.”
At Jubin's complaint, Yunhui gave a faint smile and picked up the documents he'd been reading earlier.
He already knew it would be difficult.
From the beginning, this was something that could never be achieved through ordinary means.
“Still, you never know what might happen between people. When I think about you and Seo Ian back in high school, I can't help wondering whether all this is really necessary.”
“We're not in high school anymore.”
And they had spent ten years apart.
During those ten years, the bond between Ian and Han Yudam had only grown stronger.
That wall had to be torn down first.
“Whatever happens, I'm on your side. I just hope you don't end up regretting this so badly someday that you want to beat your head against the ground. Because frankly, I'm terrified of what the fallout would look like.”
Whatever Jubin imagined, it made him shudder.
“Pull some strings. Make sure Seo Ian's mother gets thrown out of the hospital altogether.”
Jubin shook his head at the command. It was so cold that it was almost repulsive, as though every piece of advice he'd just given had gone in one ear and out the other.
“Didn't you already take care of all that yourself? You told them to check Seo Ian's call records because you're worried he might contact other friends and borrow money for the hospital bills, aren't you? You've already blocked every route you can think of.”
The very day Haemyeong Industries began appearing in the news, Kang Yunhui had immediately sent official notices to companies connected not only to Seo Ian's middle- and high-school classmates but also to his university acquaintances.
Every Sanha Group affiliate would cease doing business with any company that had even the slightest connection to Haemyeong Industries.
On the surface, it looked like a simple attempt to avoid being associated with Haemyeong Industries' disgrace.
In reality, it had been meant to ensure that Seo Ian could get help from no one.
Kang Yunhui had already anticipated the internal conflict that would erupt at Haemyeong Industries, as well as the fact that the executives centered around Ian's maternal relatives would push him out.
“There's always the possibility of someone I missed.”
He hadn't been by Ian's side for those ten years. There could be someone Yunhui hadn't anticipated.
At that answer, Jubin found himself genuinely appalled by Kang Yunhui.
At the same time, he made a private vow never to become Yunhui's enemy.
Even if the sky itself came crashing down, he would side with Kang Yunhui first and ask questions later.
The moment he became Yunhui's enemy, he would end up like Seo Ian.
No.
Probably worse.
At least Seo Ian was going through all this because that vicious bastard Kang Yunhui wanted to possess him.
If Jubin ever became his enemy, Yunhui would crush him without even that tiny shred of mercy.
Sitting on a park bench, Ian stared down at the list on his phone, unable to hold back the sigh rising from his chest.
That made twenty calls already.
He had called every high-school and university friend he thought might be financially comfortable enough to help.
A third hadn't answered at all.
Another third seemed to have picked up without thinking, only to suddenly claim something urgent had come up before Ian could even finish explaining.
The remaining third had coldly told him never to contact them again before hanging up.
One of them had even asked whether Ian was trying to get them killed.
Did I live my life wrong?
Old sayings claimed that the friends who stayed beside you when you were truly struggling, when you genuinely needed someone, were your real friends.
Since his father's death, the only person who had continued treating Ian exactly the same was Han Yudam.
“At least I have Yudam.”
The self-deprecating words slipped out before he realized it.
And even Han Yudam had been cut off from him for days now because of his family's opposition.
Should I have just closed my eyes to everything and gone with him when he asked me to run away?
The thought that he might lose Yudam too left Ian deeply unsettled.
Get a grip. What are you going to do if you start falling apart too?
Ian slapped both cheeks hard with his palms and rose from the bench.
If he collapsed as well, there would be no one left to protect his mother.
He couldn't afford to sit here wallowing.
As he walked back toward the hospital, he called the lawyer.
At least the man who had handled matters for his father for years had also been his father's friend, and unlike everyone else, he had not turned his back on Ian.
[I'm working on the renunciation-of-inheritance process. But Haemyeong Industries keeps raising objections to one thing after another, so it isn't moving quickly. They're also threatening a lawsuit, arguing that your assets and your mother's ultimately came from profits generated through Haemyeong Industries, so renouncing the inheritance alone shouldn't shield them. It looks like it's going to take time before all the provisional seizures are lifted.]
The lawyer explained the situation.
“I expected that. Please don't give up on this either. Not until the end.”
A sigh came through the phone.
[I know how difficult things are for you right now. I have no intention of abandoning you. But something about this feels strange, as though someone keeps blocking us at every turn. I want to resolve it for you as quickly as possible, but it isn't easy.]
“It's all right. I trust you.”
[I heard you're having trouble with your mother's hospital bills. I'm not exactly well-off enough to cover all of it, but I sent a card to the hospital with someone today so you can at least use part of the money. Pay whatever portion of the bill you can with what's on that card for now.]
“…Thank you.”
Under normal circumstances, Ian would have refused, insisting that the man didn't need to do that.
But he could no longer afford such pride.
He had no one else he could turn to. Shameless as it felt, he needed to use whatever money he could get.
When Ian reached his mother's room, he froze.
She was gone.
The bed where she had been lying had been stripped and neatly made.
“Where's my mother?”
He stopped a passing nurse.
She looked uncomfortable.
“She was discharged about twenty minutes ago.”
“Discharged…? How could she be discharged when we haven't even paid the hospital bill?”
The nurse said she didn't know the details.
She had only received notice from the administration office that the discharge had been processed and had followed the procedure accordingly.
Ian hurriedly pulled out his phone and called his mother.
It rang only a few times before she answered.
“Mom! Where are you right now—”
[Ian.]
The unmistakable tremor in her voice stopped him from pressing her.
[Our house…]
She couldn't finish.
At the same moment, he heard someone scream beside her.
[Hello? The person you were talking to just collapsed…]
The instant the unfamiliar voice told him what had happened to his mother, Ian's vision went white.