Yunhui stood in the middle of the spacious living room. There was no one else in sight. Even that was exactly as Ian remembered it.
When Yunhui saw him, he gestured toward the sofa and took a seat opposite it. Ian didn't sit down immediately. Instead, he looked around the room.
"Nothing's changed here."
The words slipped out before he could stop them, drawing Yunhui's gaze to his face.
"I doubt you came all this way to make pointless small talk."
It was a cold rebuke that left no room for nostalgia. Ian naturally turned his attention back to Yunhui. Their eyes met, Yunhui having been watching him all along. His expression was unreadable, while countless emotions flickered through Ian's eyes.
"I came to ask you a favor."
At the word favor, Yunhui tilted his head slightly.
Only then did Ian sit down across from him. Yunhui's eyes followed his every movement.
"A favor..."
The faintest smile touched Yunhui's lips, only to vanish so quickly that Ian might have imagined it. The eyes fixed on him remained as cold as ever.
"Call off your engagement to Yudam."
"Ha!"
Yunhui let out an incredulous breath, as though he'd just heard something utterly absurd. His expression seemed to harden even further.
"Yudam cut his wrist today."
Even that shocking news failed to produce the slightest change in Yunhui's expression.
"Did you already know?"
His complete lack of reaction left Ian even more dumbfounded.
"It would be strange if I didn't know, wouldn't it? I am his fiancé, after all."
He called himself Yudam's fiancé, yet there was no affection in his voice or eyes, nor any concern over the fact that Yudam had cut his wrist.
"Aren't you even worried?"
"..."
"Do you really have to get engaged to Yudam? I know you're not doing it because you like him. But he's still your friend, isn't he? He's so desperate not to get engaged to you that he went as far as cutting his own wrist. Did you really have to push him that far?"
Ian grew increasingly agitated as he spoke. As a friend, he had expected something from Kang Yunhui. And now, seeing him react to the news of Yudam's hospitalization without so much as a change in expression, as though it were someone else's problem, Ian was beginning to grow angry.
"Han Yudam didn't cut his wrist because of me. He did it because of you."
The low, subdued voice was utterly devoid of inflection.
Ian's eyes widened. He could feel them trembling.
"You're the one who taught Han Yudam to behave like that. You turned him into someone so entitled that he doesn't hesitate to threaten people whenever he doesn't get his way."
Yunhui wasn't merely blaming Ian. He was also coldly suggesting that Yudam had cut his wrist simply because he refused to give up when things didn't go his way.
"Kang Yunhui!"
Ian raised his voice in outrage, but the moment he saw Yunhui staring coldly back at him, as if to say, And what about it?, he found himself unable to continue.
He let out a short breath and looked away.
He hadn't come here to get angry. Their previous encounter had already taught him that arguing with Yunhui was pointless.
Today, he'd come to plead with him.
Ian squeezed his eyes shut and took a long breath to steady himself. Then he raised his head and looked at Yunhui again.
"I'm begging you. Please call off your engagement to Yudam. If you keep pushing him like this, he'll do the same thing again. Over and over. Fortunately, he survived this time, but there's no telling what might happen next time. He even said that if they stopped him from cutting his wrist, he'd jump out of a building instead."
Yudam hadn't been making empty threats when he'd said he would rather die than get engaged to Yunhui.
Ever since he was little, once Yudam made up his mind about something, almost no one could change it. Ian himself had thought it was unreasonable to risk his life over something like an engagement.
But today, Yudam had shown him just how serious he was.
"Even if you don't consider us your friends anymore... we still have all those years we spent together, don't we? If only for the sake of those memories, couldn't you at least think about Yudam—"
"Why should I?"
Yunhui cut him off with a question of his own.
Caught off guard, Ian could only stare at him and blink.
"Why should I call off my engagement for Han Yudam's sake?"
Ian couldn't comprehend what he was hearing. It was as though his brain had stopped working, leaving him unable to process Yunhui's words.
"What do you mean, why...?"
You said you were going to get engaged to Yudam, didn't you? He's going to be your fiancé. And before any of that, he's your friend. Your friend is threatening to kill himself, and you're not even worried?
There were so many things Ian wanted to say, but none of them would come out.
Yunhui's cold gaze left him unable to utter a single word.
"You're the one who's beside himself with worry over what might happen to Han Yudam. Not me."
"You really...!"
Yunhui's response was even colder than Ian had expected. He felt as though his heart were freezing in his chest.
"Are you saying you wouldn't care if something happened to Yudam?"
"The Han family would simply lose an omega who was supposed to carry on their bloodline."
He didn't even call Yudam by his given name.
Do you seriously think that bastard considers us his friends? It's bad enough that he's doing this when he knows perfectly well about you and me. But do you know what he said when I asked why he wanted to marry me? He said, what other reason did he need besides the fact that I'm an omega from the Han family?
The arranged marriage isn't the problem. He's treating me like a breeding vessel. How am I supposed to marry a bastard like that? I'd rather die.
It was exactly as Yudam had said.
To Kang Yunhui, Han Yudam was nothing more than an omega from the Han family. He meant nothing else to him.
Ian could understand why Yudam had gone as far as cutting his wrist. Now that he was sitting across from Kang Yunhui, he could finally grasp why Yudam found the prospect of marrying him so unbearable.
Ian would have felt the same in his position.
The problem wasn't simply being forced to marry someone he didn't love.
"Haa..."
A long, deep sigh escaped him.
Once again, Ian realized that there was no point in expecting Yunhui to show any affection for Yudam as a friend.
"Even so..."
His thoughts were in such turmoil that he could barely get the words out.
It felt as though a solid wall within him, a wall that had always been Kang Yunhui, was beginning to crack. He could almost hear the fractures spreading through it.
"Couldn't you at least postpone the engagement ceremony? It's not as though you're in any hurry to get married. If you still think of me as a friend, surely you could do that much for—"
"I'm not a child, and I have no intention of playing at being friends with you."
The curt rejection brought the already fractured wall crashing down.
To Kang Yunhui, neither Han Yudam nor Seo Ian was a friend anymore.
There's no point in saying anything else. Kang Yunhui really isn't the person I used to know.
Ian lowered his gaze to the floor.
He exhaled quietly and rose from his seat.
What had he been hoping for when he came here?
When his mother's friend told him that Sanha Group's vice chairman's office was putting pressure on people, Ian had thought Yunhui wanted to negotiate with him directly.
He'd assumed that Yunhui must want something from him to be acting so openly. Whether it was for Ian to break up with Yudam or something else, he'd foolishly hoped that Yunhui might be willing to listen if Ian came to speak with him in person.
It had all been a misunderstanding.
He was no longer Kang Yunhui's friend. He was nothing to him.
His heart ached so badly that he could hardly think straight. He no longer had the strength to beg Yunhui for anything.
He needed to work out what to do next. He had to think of some way to prevent Yudam from attempting suicide again.
But right now, his mind was completely blank.
He couldn't think of anything at all.
"Seo Ian."
Before Ian could turn and take a step, Yunhui called his name.
The cold, weighty voice caught him in his tracks as effectively as a shackle around his ankle.
"I might be willing to call off the engagement."
The words were the complete opposite of everything Yunhui had said until now.
Ian wondered whether he'd heard him correctly.
"But there's a condition."
When Ian slowly turned around, Yunhui's piercing gaze was fixed on his face.
"A condition? What kind of...?"
"I've told you before. Stop seeing Han Yudam. No contacting him, either."
Ian frowned.
Yunhui was offering not to get engaged to Yudam, yet he was still telling Ian that he couldn't see him.
What was that supposed to mean?
"You want me to let Han Yudam go, don't you? Fine. I'll do that. But the same goes for you. You have to let Han Yudam go, too."
But why?
The question loomed large in Ian's mind, but Yunhui spoke with such finality that he couldn't bring himself to ask.
"I'll take care of your mother's treatment, too. At a hospital affiliated with Sanha Group, one that has nothing to do with the Han family."
His mother's treatment could be arranged as well, but that offer came with the same warning: Ian was to have nothing more to do with Yudam.
Yunhui's eyes gleamed darkly as he stared at him.
Meeting his gaze, Ian felt as though he might be swallowed whole by the darkness within them.
"Be mine. Then I can save Han Yudam and your mother. Both of them."
Ian's heart gave a violent thud at the words that followed.