“Hey. Get up.”
Why the hell is this bastard in such a foul mood first thing in the morning?
The hand shaking him awake was unnecessarily rough.
Whatever kind of marathon shower Jo Yeon-oh had taken in the middle of the night, by the time he returned to bed his entire body had been freezing cold. Since the Alpha was usually obsessed with clinging to him while sleeping, Gi-hyeon had spent half the night tense with fear that the moment Yeon-oh crawled back under the blankets, he would realize Gi-hyeon had only been pretending to sleep.
Strangely enough, though, Yeon-oh had kept his distance all night, lying stiffly at the very edge of the mattress.
That had been the one mercy.
The real problem was that the Alpha, who normally slept like the dead, had tossed and turned for the rest of the night without stopping.
Gi-hyeon had already been too disturbed by the cryptic thing Yeon-oh muttered before leaving the room to fall asleep properly in the first place. With the constant shifting of blankets beside him, every one of his nerves stayed painfully alert.
There was no chance of sleep after that.
Gi-hyeon knew Jo Yeon-oh suffered from mild insomnia, but he had always found it difficult to believe. The moment Yeon-oh lay down beside him, he usually lost consciousness instantly.
Seeing him unable to settle into deep sleep like this was unusual.
In the end, Gi-hyeon only managed to drift off shortly before dawn. Naturally, being shaken awake so roughly now filled him with immediate irritation.
What the hell did I even do to deserve this?
“…If you’re awake already, then just leave me alone. Why are you so obsessed with tormenting people?”
“I told you to watch your mouth. You’re not the only one who wakes up cranky. Get up. I made breakfast.”
Why is a chaebol heir cooking more often than my rice cooker?
Gi-hyeon was about to fire back when the Alpha abruptly turned and strode out of the bedroom, cutting him off before he could say anything.
Frowning deeply, Gi-hyeon dragged himself out of bed.
He wanted to squeeze in a morning workout, but lately he had been losing sleep every night thanks to the bastard beside him. These days, every spare minute in the morning went toward desperately trying to make up for it.
When he shuffled into the kitchen, still half-dead with exhaustion, Jo Yeon-oh had already laid out silverware for two.
The moment Gi-hyeon limped across the floor, Yeon-oh’s gaze dropped immediately to his ankle.
Feeling the weight of that stare, Gi-hyeon instantly straightened his posture and forced himself to walk normally.
He already knew exactly what was coming.
Does it hurt?
Are you doing your rehab exercises properly?
Why did I even build an entire hospital if Lee Beom-hee can’t fix one ankle?
Maybe I should pull my investments.
The interrogation was inevitable.
And the conclusion was always the same.
“Stop hanging out with Lee Beom-hee.”
Yeon-oh always arrived at that absurd conclusion somehow.
Sitting down at the table with his hair still sticking up in every direction, Gi-hyeon closed his eyes the instant the hospital director’s name came up, wearing the expression of a man who had suddenly gone deaf.
“Don’t pretend you can’t hear me. If I tell you not to see her, then don’t see her. She talked you into starting that hospital tennis club, and now she’s dragging you off to do rock climbing or whatever. All of that puts strain on your ankle.”
“Director Lee Beom-hee is a board-certified specialist in Rehabilitation Medicine, and I am a licensed physical therapist certified by the Ministry of Health and Welfare. Which of us do you think has a more accurate understanding of my ankle condition—you, someone with a Business Administration degree, or Director Lee and me?”
“I seriously hate how your sentences suddenly become five times longer whenever I tell you to stop seeing that bastard. Usually you can barely be bothered to answer with more than two words.”
Jo Yeon-oh interfered shamelessly in every aspect of Gi-hyeon’s social life.
That guy has entrepreneur brain rot.
That kid’s trash.
That guy’s too ugly.
Isn’t she married? Her husband’s obviously going to feel threatened by your face. Are you trying to ruin someone’s marriage?
With excuses like those, he had gradually cut off most of Gi-hyeon’s friendships over the years.
The fact that he was now trying to isolate him from Beom-hee too was unbelievable.
“Just eat your food, Director Jo.”
Gi-hyeon dismissed him flatly and shoved a spoonful of rice into his mouth.
At first, Yeon-oh had only been capable of making either watery porridge or half-raw rice, but somewhere along the way he had somehow learned how to cook rice perfectly.
Do all Alphas naturally excel at domestic shit like this?
Because his childhood friend had sabotaged nearly every relationship Gi-hyeon ever tried to build with other Alphas, he honestly had no idea what normal Alpha behavior looked like.
One thing he did know was that their stamina was monstrous.
Even while pulling all-nighters, working overtime, and constantly flying around on business trips, Jo Yeon-oh still came back to Gi-hyeon’s apartment every single night without fail. He cooked, took care of him, fed the goldfish, and sometimes even drove him to the hospital personally.
The one thing Gi-hyeon had managed to force on him was hiring professional cleaners.
He hated strangers entering his home, but the alternative was watching Jo Yeon-oh eventually collapse from overwork.
Despite majoring in Business Administration, Yeon-oh currently oversaw the Naban Gallery. Under the excuse of “studying art,” he even had a fine arts professor come directly to his office every two weeks for private lessons.
Watching him maintain that kind of schedule was honestly absurd.
Even more absurd was the fact that, despite living like that, Yeon-oh still maintained more muscle mass than Gi-hyeon with only occasional evening workouts.
Sometimes Gi-hyeon genuinely felt certain people were simply born unfairly superior.
He himself had maintained strict physical training since childhood to enter the Military Academy. Even after becoming a physical therapist, he continued exercising and studying constantly so he could properly demonstrate movements to athletes.
Compared to all that effort, Jo Yeon-oh somehow maintained a body sculpted like a war god almost effortlessly.
Their food intake differed just as dramatically.
Because excess weight would put strain on his ankle, Gi-hyeon always kept his portions under control. Yeon-oh, on the other hand, ate terrifying amounts.
The mountain of rice in the Alpha’s bowl looked better suited for a laborer than someone with such refined, elegant features.
Even after all these years, Gi-hyeon still found it bizarrely fascinating. Back in school, Yeon-oh had already been notorious for piling cafeteria trays into impossible towers.
And yet somehow, despite eating like that, the man maintained an abdomen so flat and firm it bordered on offensive.
Trying desperately to distract himself with pointless thoughts before memories of last night resurfaced, Gi-hyeon noticed Yeon-oh’s phone light up on the table.
Assuming it was just an alarm, Yeon-oh casually silenced it.
“What alarm was that?”
As he piled fresh spring cabbage kimchi onto Gi-hyeon’s plate, Yeon-oh answered casually.
“The reminder to make you take your vitamins.”
“…Seriously, enough already. I’m not some eighty-year-old patient. You act like feeding me supplements is an act of filial piety.”
The level of micromanagement was genuinely suffocating.
Meanwhile, Jo Yeon-oh stared intently at the corners of Gi-hyeon’s mouth, apparently checking whether the scoff he’d just let out might accidentally turn into a smile.
Being watched that closely only made Gi-hyeon scowl harder.
Realizing his attempt had failed again, Yeon-oh merely shrugged.
“If you’d just take them when I tell you to, I wouldn’t need reminders. But since you never listen, I guess our Gi-hyeon just wants attention from his hyung.”
You’re completely insane.
Gi-hyeon ignored him and finished eating.
Pretending not to hear the continued nagging about leaving food behind, he tried to tune it out entirely. Unfortunately, Yeon-oh immediately started tugging at his ear, demanding he stop ignoring him.
The sharp sting finally snapped Gi-hyeon’s patience.
Without hesitation, he kicked Jo Yeon-oh square in the shin.
Watching the third-generation chaebol hop around the kitchen clutching his leg first thing in the morning was deeply satisfying.