Putting aside the sheer malice behind the insult, the first time that golfer had spat those prejudice-soaked words at him, Gi-hyeon had simply stayed quiet.
If he’d turned around and come straight back to the hospital, Team Leader Lim would have seized the opportunity to sneer about him being a useless parachute hire. Technically, Gi-hyeon was exempt from overnight medical dispatches, but using that alone as proof of favoritism was ridiculous.
That didn’t stop Lim from doing it.
As long as Gi-hyeon remained close to Director Lee Beom-hee and Foundation Chairman Jo Yeon-oh, Lim would continue twisting it into ammunition against him.
Which meant Gi-hyeon couldn’t afford mistakes.
So he swallowed the insult and endured it in silence.
Unfortunately, the golfer’s reputation as human garbage wasn’t limited to one incident.
The man lashed out at everyone.
He sexually harassed Omega therapists during medical support assignments, picked fights with Betas and Alphas alike, and somehow always chose the most disgusting behavior possible in any situation. Being a wealthy Alpha meant he could bury most scandals before they became public.
There was no universe where someone like that would get along with Jo Yeon-oh.
The bastard must’ve mouthed off again.
And since Yeon-oh had attended the tournament as the representative of Haeseong Foundation—the main sponsor, no less—the golfer probably should have kept his head down.
Apparently, he hadn’t.
“Do you know what this lunatic said to him?” Beom-hee demanded, still sounding half impressed, half horrified. “‘The reason your scores are trash is because the only thing you swing harder than your clubs is your rotten dick. When you retire, I’ll send champagne, so stop whining and go die already.’”
Gi-hyeon slowly shook his head.
With that golfer’s personality, there was no way a comment like that had ended peacefully. The atmosphere at the tournament must have frozen solid.
The therapists caught in the middle probably suffered for it afterward.
He looked over at Yeon-oh in disbelief, silently asking why he would deliberately provoke someone like that.
Beom-hee caught the look immediately and barked out a laugh.
“That asshole insulted you last time, remember? Jo Yeon-oh absolutely picked that fight on purpose.”
Only then did Gi-hyeon realize Yeon-oh already knew about the incident.
About the golfer calling him a cripple.
The realization left a bitter heaviness in his chest.
He’d wanted that humiliation buried and forgotten.
“…Why would you do that?” Gi-hyeon asked quietly. “You should’ve just left it alone.”
Yeon-oh’s eyebrows shot upward.
“And why the fuck do you never tell me these things?” he snapped immediately. “What, are we keeping secrets now? You trying to achieve enlightenment or something, So Gi-hyeon?”
The sight of Jo Yeon-oh glaring at him in genuine irritation over something that technically had nothing to do with him was strangely funny.
A soft laugh escaped Gi-hyeon before he could stop it.
Yeon-oh’s head snapped toward him instantly.
But by then, the trace of amusement had already vanished from Gi-hyeon’s face.
Annoyed, Yeon-oh clicked his tongue and shoved Beom-hee’s shoulder.
“Your mouth is way too loose, Director Lee. Makes me want to pull all my funding.”
“Oh, shut up,” Beom-hee shot back. “And since when is Gi-hyeon ‘your kid’?”
Only after stepping fully out of the elevator did Yeon-oh finally lose the cold edge he wore around other people.
He looked at Gi-hyeon and smiled briefly.
Small. Soft. Fleeting.
A greeting.
Gi-hyeon returned it with a slight nod.
It was unexpected seeing Yeon-oh here at all. Since they’d already met yesterday, Gi-hyeon hadn’t thought he’d see him again today.
Beside them, Beom-hee dramatically pretended to gag.
“Everything else aside, Chairman Jo, could you not smile like that in public? I’m seriously going to throw up.”
“I look at your face every day and survive just fine,” Yeon-oh replied flatly.
The two of them immediately resumed bickering like children.
As their former classmate, Beom-hee was one of the very few people who knew about their relationship.
Gi-hyeon reached for the portable shockwave machine in her hands.
Before he could take it, Yeon-oh casually snatched it away instead.
Beom-hee stared in disbelief.
“Wow. I carried this thing all the way from the parking lot and you didn’t move a finger. Incredible loyalty.”
“Are you going straight home?” Yeon-oh asked Gi-hyeon, completely ignoring her.
“Am I invisible?” Beom-hee deadpanned.
Shaking his head faintly, Gi-hyeon looked at her instead.
“I’ll be leaving now, Director Lee.”
“Yeah, yeah. Get out of here.”
As Beom-hee walked away, Yeon-oh glanced at Gi-hyeon.
“That bastard still making you stay late?”
Instead of answering, Gi-hyeon headed toward the shower room.
Sweat clung unpleasantly beneath his scrubs, and if he delayed much longer, Yeon-oh would inevitably start complaining again.
The moment he entered the locker room, he opened his locker and pulled his scrub top off over his head.
Just as he hooked his thumbs into the waistband of his pants, the door swung open.
Jo Yeon-oh walked in.
His hair had been brushed back, exposing the clean line of his forehead. He gave Gi-hyeon a brief glance, one eyebrow lifting slightly.
“What, you’re showering?”
“Mm.”
Starting yesterday, Gi-hyeon thought, Yeon-oh seemed bizarrely talented at starting conversations whenever he was half naked.
At work, their relationship officially amounted to nothing more than Chairman and employee.
Nobody knew they were dating.
People knew they had grown up together—that much was unavoidable—but inside the hospital, they acted almost like strangers. The arrangement had originally been Gi-hyeon’s suggestion, mostly because Yeon-oh seemed more comfortable that way.
Jo Yeon-oh occupied a precarious position within the Haeseong family.
Despite being the youngest among his cousins, he had clawed his way into the center of power almost by force.
If his father hadn’t happened to be the eldest son, Yeon-oh might never have been given a chance at all.
Instead, his grandfather had bypassed nearly everyone else in the family and poured his support directly into him.
Being a Dominant Alpha certainly helped.
Among a family crowded with Recessive Alphas, Jo Yeon-oh stood alone.
And once power landed in his hands, he managed it flawlessly.
None of his cousins could say the same.
Still, for someone in Yeon-oh’s position, rumors about dating a Beta man could become dangerous very quickly.
Gi-hyeon understood that better than anyone.
That was why he had never once spoken about their relationship inside the hospital.
Especially not here.
Haeseong Rehabilitation Centre Hospital had not originally belonged to Haeseong at all. Long before Gi-hyeon earned his physical therapy license, Yeon-oh and Beom-hee had acquired the place together and rebuilt it from the ground up.
Beom-hee, brilliant enough to skip grades in high school, had completed her residency, become head of Rehabilitation Medicine, and eventually risen to Director.
Gi-hyeon knew exactly why the hospital existed.
The two of them had created it for him.
A safe place to land after his forced military discharge.
For Beom-hee, the arrangement had worked out wonderfully. She became Director of a cutting-edge hospital funded almost entirely with Haeseong money.
For Jo Yeon-oh, though, the investment made little practical sense.
Haeseong General Hospital generated prestige and influence through its elite Alpha clinics and internationally renowned pheromone specialists.
Compared to that, Haeseong Rehabilitation Centre Hospital was tiny.
Rumor claimed even Yeon-oh’s grandfather had openly questioned why his grandson suddenly wanted a rehabilitation facility of all things.
Honestly, Gi-hyeon understood the confusion.
Even with more than two hundred beds, this place was insignificant compared to the scale of Yeon-oh’s empire.
And yet he’d acquired it anyway.
Just to make sure So Gi-hyeon had somewhere secure to work.
Without warning, Gi-hyeon thought of the goldfish tank sitting in his apartment.
The one Yeon-oh had abruptly brought over one day.
Whenever Gi-hyeon sat watching those tiny fish drift endlessly through their little glass world, he always found himself thinking the same thing.
Their universe was painfully small.
And somehow, every single time those thoughts surfaced—
Jo Yeon-oh was there beside him.
Just like now.