101.
#Proposal?
“Don’t you think the writer himself has other intentions in constantly meeting Dawoon?” Jeong Hayun asked in a tone as cold as his eyes. Choi Seon-gyeom let out a sigh. Yes, from Jeong Hayun’s perspective, it might have looked that way. Usually, people would think that even he was approaching Jeong Dawoon hoping for the group’s financial power. So he didn’t feel wronged by the misunderstanding.
“It’s not like that.”
He could answer confidently. Not even once, even after knowing that Jeong Dawoon was from the Haedo Group, had he thought about it in that way.
“Is that so?”
Jeong Hayun calmly asked again. Judging by his expression and eyes, he didn’t seem to believe a word.
“Really…”
“Even if that’s the case, my proposal remains the same.”
Hayun cut off Seon-gyeom’s words and answered firmly. Choi Seon-gyeom took a deep breath and stared at Jeong Hayun.
“Do you just dislike me meeting Dawoon?”
Choi Seon-gyeom wasn’t someone who couldn’t read the room or beat around the bush depending on who he was talking to. When asked directly, Jeong Hayun’s dark eyes stared at him intently. He didn’t answer yes or no. However, Seon-gyeom could feel his emotions in those eyes that held his face.
“What if I refuse?”
If Choi Seon-gyeom had known how to avoid people he wanted to meet because of sponsorship money, he would have been rolling in money by now. He had lived following his heart rather than money, and he had no intention of changing that.
Jeong Hayun, who had been quietly staring at Choi Seon-gyeom, smirked. He stood up and looked down at Choi Seon-gyeom with his hands in his suit pockets.
“Well, I have no intention of standing by while flies gather around Dawoon. I believed you wouldn’t make the foolish choice of rejecting a good offer…”
Jeong Hayun’s eyes swept over Choi Seon-gyeom.
“I hope you won’t regret it.”
Jeong Hayun turned around without any lingering attachment, as if he had nothing more to say. Choi Seon-gyeom, dumbfounded, let out a sigh and called out to him as he was about to open the door and leave.
“Is that how it usually is?”
At the sudden question, Jeong Hayun turned to look at Choi Seon-gyeom.
“I asked if all the people in high positions are like you, Vice Chairman.”
Perhaps due to his prickly tone, Jeong Hayun’s eyebrows slightly furrowed.
“To put it bluntly, Dawoon has nothing to do with the Haedo Group yet, so why are you stepping in to control even his personal friendships? And he’s a grown adult, not a child.”
“Friendships…”
Hayun muttered lowly and snickered as if it was absurd.
“Excuse me, but how old are you, writer?”
At his question, Choi Seon-gyeom closed his mouth and frowned. He wanted to say that the age difference was too big to be friends. As he didn’t answer immediately, Hayun’s cynicism deepened as if he had expected this.
“Isn’t it stranger to think you have no ulterior motives?”
While it was far from the ulterior motives Jeong Hayun was talking about, thinking of Jeong Dawoon made things complicated, so Choi Seon-gyeom only frowned without giving any answer.
“Since you’ve refused the sponsorship offer, it seems there’s even less reason for you to meet Dawoon…”
Jeong Hayun trailed off, then his gaze sharpened as he looked at Choi Seon-gyeom.
“If it’s not money you want, is it Jeong Dawoon himself?”
It was a sensitive statement to make carelessly, even if he had suspicions.
“It seems like the one harboring different feelings is you, not me.”
Choi Seon-gyeom retorted while maintaining direct eye contact with Jeong Hayun. If he truly had other feelings for his own brother, shouldn’t he feel at least a tiny bit of conscience as a human being? However, Jeong Hayun showed not even a hint of wavering.
Looking at Choi Seon-gyeom with a calm expression, he slightly raised the corners of his mouth.
“Even if that were the case, it wouldn’t concern you, would it?”
He didn’t deny it. Rather, his attitude seemed to say, “So what if I do?” He didn’t seem to care at all about having an inappropriate relationship with Jeong Dawoon. He didn’t even seem to want to hide it.
This isn’t normal. How could he have no guilt at all about harboring desires for his own brother?
While Choi Seon-gyeom himself wasn’t a person with ordinary sensibilities, at least he had never crossed the line of what shouldn’t be done as a human being. But Jeong Hayun was different. He was the type of person who had to get what he wanted by any means necessary. When he heard that Hayun had gone to see Choi Yu-na, he had suspected, but now that Hayun had come to see him directly, he could be certain.
“Is this a relationship Dawoon has agreed to?”
Whether they were siblings or of the same gender, if they both liked it, it wasn’t his place to intervene. But what if that wasn’t the case? What if Dawoon was being swept up by Jeong Hayun’s overwhelming power and personality? Moreover, if Jeong Dawoon… was his own blood?
He had lived his whole life keeping an appropriate distance, not getting involved in others’ affairs, but with Jeong Dawoon, he couldn’t do that. Even when he tried to ignore it, he couldn’t bear how much it bothered him.
If Dawoon was being forced against his will, he couldn’t turn a blind eye. The image of Dawoon’s gaze and expression looking into the distance while viewing his work was etched in his mind, refusing to fade. If there was even the slightest chance that Dawoon needed help, he wanted to help in any way he could.
“You’re more meddlesome than I thought.”
Hayun replied with a faint smirk. He smoothly avoided answering whether it was a relationship Dawoon had agreed to.
“I heard you’re preparing for a video project recently.”
He mentioned the Jeju Island shoot. Although it wasn’t a project Choi Seon-gyeom had started of his own volition, once he actually went to Jeju Island and looked around, he became quite motivated and had even called in his entire filming team that had been residing overseas.
“If you want that project to proceed smoothly, it would be better not to ignore my warning.”
It was a clear threat.
“It sounds like you’re saying you’ll sabotage my work if I ignore you. Is that right?”
When Choi Seon-gyeom asked, Hayun responded with a gentle smile instead of an answer. It was a smile that seemed to say, “Think what you will.” As if he had nothing more to say, he turned around and left the hotel room. Only then did Choi Seon-gyeom let out a long breath.
Regardless of age, he was a man with an overwhelming presence that seemed to crush the other person. If he had pressured Dawoon with that kind of atmosphere, Dawoon might not have been able to refuse properly.
But still. How could he do that to his own brother…
He shook his head with a frown, unable to understand, when a sudden thought made his breath catch.
What if Jeong Dawoon and Jeong Hayun weren’t related by blood at all? What if Jeong Hayun knew this?
Even so, there were still many problems. Did Jeong Dawoon know too? That was confusing. Thinking back to when they met at the charity event, unlike Jeong Hayun, Jeong Dawoon didn’t seem entirely comfortable dealing with his brother. But when they met in Jeju Island, it was different. At that time, there seemed to be no barrier in Jeong Dawoon as he looked at Jeong Hayun.
Was it because they were brothers? Or because they were more than that?
The more he thought about it, the more his head hurt. He also wondered why he had to care so much about their relationship.
His gaze turned to Dawoon’s hair on the table.
Let’s confirm it. And if it turns out to be none of his business, then he would stop interfering. How they lived, who they liked, who they dated was their life.
But what if it wasn’t? What if Dawoon really was his own blood…
He didn’t know. What he should do then. At the very least, he felt he couldn’t turn a blind eye.
***
Hayun returned to the car and coldly instructed to depart. Director Park, who briefly checked on Hayun sitting in the back seat through the rearview mirror, immediately realized that his mood was not good.
“Did things not go well where you went?”
In response to Director Park’s question, Hayun let out a long sigh.
“How is the London branch matter progressing?”
Hayun changed the subject instead of answering his question.
“It’s proceeding without any issues. You don’t need to worry.”
“What about the graduate school?”
“I’ve put the documents in the back seat. Please check them.”
Only then did Hayun open his eyes and check the seat next to him. As Director Park had said, there was an envelope of documents. After briefly flipping through it, he put the documents back without saying anything.
“The old man still hasn’t noticed anything, right?”
“No. He doesn’t seem to have noticed. There’s been no movement.”
“Please pay attention to the deception for just a few more days. Once the procedures are complete, it won’t matter even if he finds out.”
“Understood.”
Hayun put down the envelope he had been fiddling with and rubbed both sides of his forehead with his middle finger and thumb of his right hand.
How shameless, trying to send a perfectly fine kid to the countryside.
Hayun knew where Chairman Jeong was trying to send Dawoon. While tracking all the overseas buildings owned by Chairman Jeong, he had confirmed a recently purchased house a bit away from London. There was a university he had never heard of about 30 minutes away by car. When he found out that they were trying to send Dawoon there, he couldn’t even laugh ironically.
Dawoon probably wouldn’t have uttered a word of rebellion, even though it was a decision closer to exile than study abroad, made hastily just to hide Jeong Dawoon from him. That fact irritated him.
Was it that you didn’t care what happened to your future as long as you could escape from me?
He wasn’t just disappointed in Chairman Jeong. The fact that Jeong Dawoon was trying to break away from him even to this extent made a hot emotion well up inside him.
Whether Jeong Dawoon wanted it or was pushed by his grandfather’s coercion didn’t matter. Either way, things wouldn’t proceed according to their plan.
