Perhaps there was some reason behind it all. Perhaps Yunhui was under pressure from his family, too.
Ian kept trying to find some way to understand him.
"I'd rather die! The arranged marriage isn't even the problem. He's treating me like some kind of breeding vessel. How can anyone expect me to marry a bastard like that? I'd rather be dead!"
For Yudam, the issue had gone beyond whether he and Ian would have to break up.
Even before all this, Yudam had hated being confined to the role of an omega from the Han family. That was precisely why he had confessed to Ian back in high school, rather than waiting until they were older. He had said that, at the very least, he wanted to choose his own alpha.
So whether the man in question was the vice chairman of Sanha Group or Kang Yunhui, who had once been his close friend, Yudam couldn't help fiercely opposing anyone who regarded him as nothing more than a reproductive tool.
Yudam lowered his gaze to his bandaged wrist.
"I'll do it again as many times as I have to. If they try to force me to get engaged or marry that bastard, I'll cut my wrist again."
"Han Yudam!"
Horrified by his reckless stubbornness, Ian called out his full name, but Yudam merely pressed his lips together and refused to look at him.
"And if they take away my knife, I'll open the window and jump out next time."
"Yudam."
Ian couldn't help sighing.
Yudam's bedroom was on the second floor, so jumping from the window probably wouldn't kill him, but he could still seriously injure himself.
"I really don't want to! Are you okay with it? Imagine Kang Yunhui holding me in his arms. Would you really be okay with that?"
Yudam looked up at him, demanding an answer.
Ian couldn't say a word.
The truth was, he couldn't even imagine it.
He couldn't picture Yunhui holding Yudam in his arms.
Even with things having come to this, some part of Ian still wanted to believe that Yunhui would never do such a thing.
"I'll meet Yunhui and talk to him."
Yudam frowned at his answer.
"There's no talking to that bastard. I tried, and he wouldn't listen to a damn thing I said."
Yudam insisted that talking to Yunhui would be pointless. He cursed him, saying that he wasn't the Kang Yunhui they used to know anymore. He had come back after ten years a completely different person.
"But you never know. Maybe I can at least get him to postpone the engagement."
Ian tried to persuade Yudam that they needed time.
There was nothing he could do in his current situation. If he wanted to prevent Yudam from marrying Yunhui, he would first have to earn Yudam's parents' approval again.
Whether he reclaimed Haemyeong Industries or started over in another line of work, either way, he needed time.
"It's better than doing nothing, isn't it? Even if he's changed... we still have all those years we spent together."
Even as he spoke, Ian didn't have much hope that Yunhui would listen.
After Yena told him that people acting on the vice chairman's orders were putting pressure on him, Ian had felt as though the last remnants of his affection for Yunhui, along with whatever hope he'd still held for their friendship, had been trampled underfoot.
Nevertheless, he was trying to convince Yudam that he would meet Yunhui and at least buy them some time.
He couldn't allow Yudam to do something so reckless again.
If he could get the engagement postponed, even temporarily, Yudam would have no reason to cut his wrist again or cause another commotion by jumping out of a window.
"All right. For now."
Yudam nodded reluctantly.
Still, the fact that Ian was offering to step in and try to do something had been enough to sway him.
"Yudam."
Ian called his name before leaving the hospital room.
"Hm?"
Yudam looked up at him with an innocent expression.
If it were someone other than Yunhui... Someone who saw you as Han Yudam, not just an omega from the Han family... Would you be okay with someone other than me?
The words hovered in his throat, but he couldn't bring himself to say them.
A question had suddenly occurred to him.
If the other person wasn't as forceful as Yunhui, if he was simply an ordinary, kind, decent man, could Yudam let Ian go and find someone his family wouldn't oppose?
Ian didn't dare ask him outright.
Perhaps it was because, the moment he realized that he might be the one wishing for such an outcome rather than Yudam, he was overcome with guilt.
"It's nothing. Don't do anything reckless. Just stay here and behave yourself. I'll find some way to talk things through with Yunhui."
Yudam laughed at his warning, saying Ian was making too much of a fuss.
He even joked that after the commotion he'd caused, his mother probably wouldn't dare pressure him again for a while.
He seemed determined to put Ian's mind at ease.
When Ian stepped out of the hospital room, he found Yudam's mother standing directly outside.
She appeared to have been waiting for him.
Perhaps concerned that Yudam might overhear them, she suggested they speak somewhere else.
She led Ian to the lounge in the VIP ward. At a glance from her, the bodyguards took up positions at the entrance to prevent anyone else from coming in.
"I won't waste your time."
Yudam's mother began speaking, her expression cold.
"End things with Yudam. You need to be the one to break it off. If you do, I'll cover your mother's hospital bills."
"...Yudam won't accept that."
"Which is why you need to find a way to make him give up on you! Tell him you've met someone else."
Ian couldn't help sighing at the absurd demand.
"Yudam isn't stupid. With everything that's happening to me right now, he won't believe I've suddenly started seeing someone else."
Yudam's mother frowned, apparently remembering that Ian had only recently buried his father.
"I don't care what you have to do. All that matters is that Yudam gives up on you. You're a clever boy. I'm sure you can come up with something."
She was being completely unreasonable.
Did she want Yudam to marry Yunhui that badly?
Was it because he was the heir to Sanha Group?
The cold reality of it left a bitter taste in Ian's mouth, but he couldn't argue.
"I'll think about it, so please give me some time. And don't pressure Yudam into doing something like this again."
Ian was angry, too, that Yudam had been driven to the point of cutting his own wrist.
He had tried to understand Yudam's parents and see things from their perspective, but when he thought about how desperate Yudam must have been to go this far, anger boiled up inside him.
How much could parents force upon their child simply because they were his parents?
Was any of this really for Yudam's sake?
There was so much he wanted to say.
If his own situation hadn't been so desperate, if he could have taken Yudam away and assumed responsibility for him right then and there, he might have given voice to every last thing he'd been holding back.
"You're a smart boy, so think carefully about what the sensible thing to do would be. And this isn't only about Yudam. You need to think about your mother, too. Don't you?"
The subtle threat to his mother's well-being made Ian draw a quiet breath.
How had he never realized what kind of person she was before?
Perhaps being driven into such desperate circumstances wasn't entirely a bad thing.
At least it had given him a chance to see who had genuinely cared about him and who had only valued him for what he could offer.
Unfortunately, discovering just how few people had treated him with genuine affection was painful.
*
"Go to bed without me, Mom. And please don't worry."
[Is Yudam all right?]
His mother's voice was full of concern.
She still didn't know that Yudam's family opposed their relationship. Naturally, when she heard that Yudam was in the hospital, she'd worried that he might be seriously ill.
"He's fine. He just got hurt a little."
[Oh, that boy. How did he manage that...? Shouldn't I go and visit him?]
"There's no need. They said he's being discharged tomorrow."
It would be a disaster if his mother went to the hospital and happened to run into Yudam's mother.
If that woman treated his mother the way she treated him, the shock alone might be enough to make her collapse again.
After finally persuading his mother not to visit, Ian ended the call.
He stopped walking and looked up at the towering wall before him.
This was Kang Yunhui's house.
Until high school, Ian had often come over to visit him.
Yunhui's parents were always busy and rarely home. Apart from a handful of employees, Yunhui had lived alone in that enormous house.
Even the household staff had kept themselves out of sight as much as possible to avoid bothering him.
Ian had worried that Yunhui must have been terribly lonely.
Looking back, all that concern seemed pointless.
There had always been people flocking around Yunhui, whether he wanted them there or not.
And it wasn't simply because he was the heir to Sanha Group.
Yunhui himself stood out in more ways than one.
He didn't have many friends because he wasn't particularly warm or approachable, but there had never been any shortage of people who wanted to be close to him.
Standing before the front gate, which looked easily twice his height, Ian took a deep breath.
Back then, he had pressed the doorbell without a second thought.
He'd never imagined that one day he would be so reluctant to press that tiny button.
He drew another deep breath and rang the bell.
A melody played, then stopped.
Ian expected someone to ask who was there, but no one spoke through the intercom.
They could see him on the video monitor anyway, so perhaps there was no need to ask.
[Come in.]
It was Yunhui's voice.
After those two brief words, the gate clicked open.
Ian pushed it open and stepped inside.
A vast garden stretched out before him. At the end of the stone steps crossing the garden stood an imposing mansion.
The view before him had changed remarkably little in ten years.
So little, in fact, that for a moment, Ian almost felt as though he'd stepped back into the past.