“Isn’t that person one of our gallery employees?”
At Choi Moonhyeok’s words, Seojin hurriedly checked Shin Seyoung’s clothes. He had said he was working as a substitute part-timer, and sure enough, just as Choi Moonhyeok said, Shin Seyoung was wearing a uniform with the gallery logo on it.
“From the look of him, he seems to be unconscious.”
Choi Moonhyeok approached and stood shoulder to shoulder with Yoon Haegang.
“Do you need help? If you tell me, I’ll take care of it on the gallery’s end.”
“Ah, then. Um, I’m his friend.”
Seojin forced himself to meet his gaze directly and calmly began explaining.
“He came down with a really bad flu and said he was having such a hard time that he contacted me and asked me to come pick him up. I’m sorry, but could you please tell whoever is in charge that he had to leave early because he was sick? His name is Shin Seyoung.”
Since things had already come to this, Seojin decided to make up a plausible excuse to Choi Moonhyeok and smooth over Shin Seyoung’s unauthorized departure.
He was disappearing in the middle of the shift anyway, so he probably wouldn’t get paid. Rather than vanishing without saying anything at all, wouldn’t it be better for later if they said he had been so sick and out of it that he had no choice?
Yoon Haegang, standing in front of him, looked at Seojin as though he found the whole thing absurd, but Seojin stubbornly kept his gaze fixed on Choi Moonhyeok.
‘I can just ask Shin Seyoung to get his story straight with mine later.’
The reason this mess had happened in the first place was his heat cycle, so if Seojin explained the situation, Shin Seyoung would probably go along with it.
‘At least it looks like the suppressant is finally starting to work.’
Even Seojin, who was holding Shin Seyoung, could only faintly smell it now. Of course, both alphas in front of him were dominant alphas. The longer they stayed here, the greater the chance that they would start reacting to the pheromones, so they needed to move before that happened.
“Then we’ll be going!”
Seojin bowed to the two men and tried to move, but his attempt came to nothing when the wall blocking his path refused to budge.
Yoon Haegang did not look like he had any intention of moving aside. If anything, his cold gaze seemed to demand where exactly Seojin thought he was going. Seojin looked at him with desperate eyes that practically begged him to move.
But Yoon Haegang only stared down at him with such persistent intensity that it felt as though he were trying to dig through every corner of Seojin’s mind.
‘What’s with him? Why is he looking at me like that? It’s scary…….’
It almost looked as if blue flames were flickering in his chilly eyes. Unable to endure meeting that gaze for long, Seojin slowly lowered his eyes toward the floor.
“Hmm…. I see. But while contacting the person in charge is all well and good, I think you need immediate help more than anything. You have a child with you, so moving around by yourself must be difficult.”
Choi Moonhyeok stepped forward as he spoke. At the same time, his gaze flicked toward Euni, who was clinging closely to Seojin.
“So I’ll support that employee.”
‘Oh……!’
Seojin inwardly cheered.
As expected of the main top!
These two were going to end up together in the original story anyway. If he connected them right now, Seojin himself might finally be able to escape this exhausting situation later.
‘And Yoon Haegang won’t even have room to interfere!’
Having finished his calculations, Seojin was about to eagerly nod.
“Executive Director Choi Moonhyeok, why don’t you head inside first? Didn’t you come because Executive Director Choi called for you? Or the gallery director, or whoever it was.”
Yoon Haegang cut between them in a cold tone. As though that were not enough, he stepped directly in front of them and blocked Seojin’s view entirely.
‘Ah, seriously! Stop doing this! I’m trying my damnedest to avoid the path where you and I both end up ruined, so you’re supposed to cooperate!’
Maybe Yoon Haegang was simply moving according to the narrative expected of a sub yandere top. But Seojin, who knew exactly what kind of outcome this would cause in the future, glared at him with eyes that looked ready to jump out of his skull.
At the same time, Choi Moonhyeok’s sharp eyebrows twitched.
“Shouldn’t you be the one to hurry back inside, President Yoon? Weren’t you in the middle of an important conversation with Executive Director Choi?”
His gaze dropped toward the documents in Yoon Haegang’s hand.
“If the sick person is one of the gallery employees, I’ll take responsibility.”
With those words, Choi Moonhyeok casually placed a hand on Yoon Haegang’s shoulder.
Seojin sucked in a startled breath.
A taut, icy atmosphere instantly stretched between the two dominant alphas. It even felt as though cold sweat was sliding down Seojin’s spine.
Both of them were surely pouring out aggressive pheromones. If even Seojin, who was practically beta-like and could barely sense them properly, felt this much pressure, then what about Shin Seyoung, who was in the middle of a heat cycle?
‘Haah… What if he completely loses consciousness at this rate?’
It was fine for now, but in the original story, the incident that set the main couple’s relationship in motion happened precisely because Shin Seyoung lost his reason during his heat cycle.
But that was a device meant to make the novel entertaining. In this situation, with Seojin personally caught up in it, it was nothing but unwelcome.
‘What should I do?’
Seojin swallowed dryly and looked back and forth between the two of them. If he interfered carelessly, it felt like the sparks would fly straight at him. But the situation was gradually getting worse, so he could not simply stand there doing nothing either.
After desperately thinking of a way to smooth things over, Seojin finally opened his mouth, but Yoon Haegang beat him to it.
“Noh Seojin, make sure you get your friend home safely. We’ll see each other again later.”
“Huh? Later? Why?”
Seojin stared blankly at Yoon Haegang in confusion.
“What do you mean, why? You have to report back. Noh Seojin, you’re my employee, aren’t you?”
What was that?
Why did it feel like Yoon Haegang had just said something incredibly childish?
Suspicious, Seojin narrowed his eyes and looked at Yoon Haegang once.
“Why? Is there a problem?”
Yoon Haegang tilted his head. Seeing the way only the corners of his mouth lifted into a smile, Seojin came to a reasonable suspicion.
In other words, had Choi Moonhyeok saying things like Shin Seyoung was his employee put him in a bad mood, and now he was taking it out on Seojin?
‘That, that… Seriously, what a temper!’
While Seojin grumbled inwardly—
“Waaah… Daaad.”
Euni’s whining shattered the tense atmosphere in an instant.
“When are we goiiing? Euni’s sleepy.”
Apparently overcome by drowsiness, the child was rubbing both eyes with her little fists.
“Oh, Euni. We’re going. Sorry. Let’s go now.”
It was already well past nine. For a five-year-old child, it really was time to be in bed. Coming back to his senses, Seojin soothed Euni and shook his head at Yoon Haegang.
“Boss, I’m really sorry, but as you can see, my daughter is tired, so I don’t think I can come back here again.”
And if you have even a shred of conscience, you don’t order an employee who’s already clocked out to come and go wherever you please!
Seojin shouted the words inwardly, since he could hardly say them to Yoon Haegang’s face.
“I’ll be going home for today. Have a good weekend, and I’ll see you on Monday.”
Instead, he gave the stereotypically polite farewell of an office worker.
Yoon Haegang’s gaze swept between Seojin and Euni.
Then, without warning, he snatched Shin Seyoung away from him.
It happened so quickly, like a hawk swooping down and snatching up a chick, that Seojin’s eyes and mouth flew wide open.
Yoon Haegang slung Shin Seyoung over his shoulder like a piece of luggage and walked past Choi Moonhyeok.
“Executive Director Choi, go inside first and give this to the executive director. Tell him to look it over and contact me. He’ll understand.”
Then he shoved the documents against Choi Moonhyeok’s chest with a thump and leisurely started walking away.
“Hurry up and follow me, Noh Seojin. Otherwise, we’re going in my car.”
After dropping that horrifying statement, he did not even look back.
“I’m coming with you, Boss!”
Seojin hurriedly picked Euni up and started after Yoon Haegang. But he stopped short when a large hand blocked his path.
“Here. This is my business card. If you run into any trouble or need help, contact me here.”
Choi Moonhyeok spoke politely and held out the business card in his hand toward Seojin.
Seojin stared at it in confusion, unable to understand why he was giving it to him.
‘Ah! He’s supposed to give it to Shin Seyoung, but I got in the middle of things!’
Only then realizing it, Seojin accepted the business card and shoved it into his pants pocket for the moment.
In the meantime, the long-legged Yoon Haegang had already gotten far ahead, making Seojin panic.
“Then, excuse me!”
After bowing deeply, Seojin hurriedly ran after Yoon Haegang.
Left alone, Choi Moonhyeok watched Seojin and Yoon Haegang’s retreating backs with an interested gaze.
But Seojin did not have eyes in the back of his head, so there was no way he could have noticed.
It did not take long for him to catch up with Yoon Haegang.
More precisely, it was only because Yoon Haegang had slowed down for him.
“Huff, huff, huff.”
Omega or not, Shin Seyoung was still a fully grown adult man. Yet even with him slung over one shoulder, Yoon Haegang’s breathing remained perfectly calm without the slightest disturbance.
Meanwhile, Seojin, who had run at full speed while carrying a child, was so out of breath that it felt as though his lungs might give out at any moment.
“So where’s the car?”
“Haah… It should be near the security booth.”
When Seojin answered between pants, Yoon Haegang did not even respond and simply started walking toward the parking lot entrance again.
Seojin shot a glare at the back of his annoyingly calm head, then let out a deep sigh and followed him.
Was it just his imagination?
Carried on the cool night breeze, Yoon Haegang’s distinctive heavy, dangerous pheromones seemed to drift faintly toward him.