Seojin’s eyes darted around busily. On one side was a six-seat sofa and table for receiving clients, while four desks had been pushed together on the other.
There were potted plants here and there, and framed pictures hung on the walls. The office was much more respectable and tidy than he had expected.
“Sit over here.”
Startled by the gentle voice, Seojin quickly looked back and saw Yoon Haegang gesturing toward the sofa with his eyes.
“Uh, I’m, well…….”
“What brings you here?”
I mean, I came to work…….
“You don’t have to be that nervous. It’s not like anyone’s going to eat you.”
Since Yoon Haegang had beaten him to it, Seojin obediently shut his mouth and only shifted his eyes around. Just because the man spoke softly and had a beautiful face did not mean he could afford to underestimate him.
The person standing before him was, after all, the sub yandere top.
One wrong word, and Seojin could be grabbed by the back of the neck and thrown straight out the window.
In the novel, that was not a figure of speech.
Bang!
He had just been about to explain why he was here when the door suddenly flew open with a violent crash. Seojin jumped in his seat and completely missed his chance to speak.
“Ah, damn it. Of all days, why’d something have to happen today and fuc— Mr. Noh Seojin! You’re here! You came!”
The middle-aged man who had stormed inside, spitting out rough words, spotted Seojin sitting awkwardly on the sofa and immediately broke into a huge smile.
He wore a slightly rumpled no-tie suit with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows, making him look like an office worker worn down by his job, but the long knife scar beneath his chin gave him a distinctly unordinary air.
“Haha…. Look at that, the boss is actually in the office today too! Is the sun going to rise in the north? Come on, come on, say hello, say hello!”
Manager Kim hurried over to the sofa and casually dropped into the seat beside Seojin, pointing to both sides with his hands.
“This here is our indispensable company boss! And this is Mr. Noh Seojin, who’ll be working with us starting today!”
Was it just his imagination, or was he putting suspicious emphasis on starting today?
But Seojin could not question it and merely shifted his eyes around.
Yoon Haegang was staring at him so intensely it felt as if his cheek might be pierced through.
“A new employee?”
“Yes, yes.”
“An omega?”
As that gaze swept over him from head to toe, Seojin unconsciously straightened his back.
“No. I’m a beta!”
“Hmm…. You look exactly like an omega.”
How, exactly, did he look anything like the refined, delicate beauty associated with omegas?
If anything, wouldn’t that description suit the man on the other side better?
Judging only by his face, Yoon Haegang had finely sculpted, elegant features. It was just that his great height and broad shoulders made him feel less like a traditional beauty and more like a provocative, dangerous beast.
“I’m not.”
Even as he answered reflexively, Seojin hesitated for a moment.
‘But…… my secondary gender should still be the same as before, right?’
Seojin had originally been classified as an omega, but even after reaching adulthood, he had been diagnosed as having never properly manifested.
“I’m a beta, though.”
So strictly speaking, this was not a lie.
Seojin curled the corners of his lips upward and firmly drove the point home once more.
Yoon Haegang narrowed his eyes.
The look was so chilling, as if he were contemplating what to do with him, that Seojin’s shoulders naturally hunched forward.
“Well, fine. Let’s say you are.”
Yoon Haegang smiled and stood up.
Seojin thought he had gotten through the crisis.
It did not take long for him to realize how wrong that conclusion had been.
Yoon Haegang kept following him with his eyes like a predator waiting for the perfect moment to seize its prey.
Even when Seojin was organizing the office-supply inventory or reading through handover files, he could feel with his entire body that Haegang’s interest had not disappeared.
Eventually even Manager Kim, unable to stand it anymore, asked the boss what on earth he was doing.
But Yoon Haegang silenced his loyal subordinate by telling him to mind his own work and, if he was that bored, go out on a field assignment.
Even afterward, the gaze fixed on Seojin never went away, leaving him desperately wishing for quitting time to arrive.
A workplace with a sub yandere top was far too high-difficulty from the very first day.
* * *
The sun was slowly sinking toward the horizon.
As Seojin waited for Euni to come home, the chatter of children reached his ears.
“What do you want to be when you grow up?”
“An astronaut! What about you?”
“Hmm… I want to be a singer!”
Hearing them talk about their adorable dreams for the future suddenly brought back a conversation he had shared with his older sister a long time ago.
“Seojin, what would you want to do if you were born again?”
“I’ve never thought about it…….”
Having finally escaped a long series of tests, Seojin sprawled across the bed and answered indifferently.
“Oh, come on. Don’t be like that. Think about it.”
His sister grabbed the hem of his hospital gown and shook it insistently, and Seojin thought for a moment.
Honestly, he had no idea.
It was hard for him to imagine a life after being discharged.
‘I don’t even know how much longer I’m going to live.’
But giving her such a cynical answer would only make tears spill from her eyes, so he had to give her something that would satisfy her.
What would be good…….
“I think I’d just like to be an ordinary office worker with a stable job.”
Because he had never once gotten to work at a company.
“What about a house?”
“That’d be nice too.”
Just imagining having a home of his own where he could rest comfortably made the corners of his lips rise.
“What else?”
“Hmm……. Maybe I’d feel secure if I had about two billion won in my bank account?”
“What kind of answer is that…….”
She burst out laughing, then asked again without tiring.
“What about family?”
Seojin paused before turning his head.
Beyond the window, he could see little children running around the hospital playground.
“……I think I’d like a daughter.”
“Just a daughter?”
His sister let out a deflated laugh.
“Yeah. You know, things like that warm feeling filling the house, or the sound of a child laughing brightly. I want to know what that feels like.”
“What about a spouse?”
“I don’t know…….”
It was something he had never allowed himself to hope for, so no answer came easily.
Seojin subtly changed the subject.
“What about you? Didn’t you want to get married?”
“Of course I did. My dream was to live sweetly with an alpha husband and a child!”
“See? Kids are always good.”
When he said it with a snicker, his sister retaliated with a blow that did not hurt in the slightest.
“Ow, ow…….”
Rubbing his arm and making a show of being injured, Seojin looked back at the little kids running around excitedly as they played.
He really did like children around that age.
They could play innocently without a care in the world.
And he seemed to remember harboring a small wish that, if he ever raised a child of his own, he wanted them to live brightly and happily too.
“I didn’t mean for it to come true like this.”
Seojin muttered blankly.
His wish had come true.
If he ignored the condition that he had transmigrated into his sister’s novel, everything else was actually pretty good…….
“Dad!”
The instant the door opened, Euni climbed out of the van with her clear voice ringing out.
The little body that immediately ran over and threw itself into his arms made a smile naturally appear on Seojin’s face too.
“Thank you, teacher.”
“It’s nothing. Euni, see you tomorrow.”
“Yeees…. See you tomorrow.”
Still hugging Seojin tightly, Euni waved her hand back and forth.
Her body smelled faintly of milk and felt so warm and soft that Seojin rubbed his cheek against her squishy little cheek.
“Did Euni have fun today?”
“Yes! We played outside today! Euni isn’t even scared of the swings!”
“I see.”
“What about Dad? Did work go well?”
“Yeah. Dad also…….”
He could not bring himself to say he had done well, so Seojin awkwardly trailed off.
“Why, Dad didn’t like it?”
“Huh? No, no. Dad was fine too.”
As long as he ignored Yoon Haegang and that suffocating stare of his.
‘Starting tomorrow, just go chase the main bottom instead.’
Seojin prayed desperately.
Perhaps that wish actually worked.
When he came to work the next day, Manager Kim was the only one in the office.
“Ah! Seojin, you’re here? Sit down. Want some coffee?”
“No… I can make my own.”
“No, no. I was about to have some too, so just wait a second. Mix coffee? Black?”
“Black.”
Manager Kim gave him a playful wink and soon returned with the coffee.
“Here, black.”
“Thank you. I’ll enjoy it.”
Seojin accepted the cup and glanced sideways at the empty boss’s seat.
Manager Kim noticed the look and explained.
“He won’t be coming in today, so you can relax.”
“Looks like he went out on field work. But isn’t a secretary normally supposed to stay by the boss’s side?”
“Ah, that. The boss finds it extremely annoying when someone follows him around.”
Seojin nodded as he recalled the setting that they had hired a secretary who would only assist with office work because Haegang hated having people constantly beside him.
“Right……. So what am I doing today?”
“There’s someone I need you to get familiar with.”
“Someone?”
“Yeah. It’s nothing difficult. I just want you to know about them beforehand. You know, for client management.”
Unlike yesterday, Manager Kim looked as though something was bothering his conscience.
“…….”
Sure enough, there was a reason.
The moment Seojin opened the file he had been given, he understood.
“He’s a client the boss manages personally, you know? So the personal information is a little detailed. There’s also a lot you need to know in advance. Just work on that today.”
The dense document, packed almost like a résumé, contained information about a single person.
‘Shin Seyoung.’
The main bottom that the sub yandere top Yoon Haegang had his eye on.