Side Story 05
“Mr. Gorgon, would you like me to prepare a drink for you? We have water, orange juice, and champagne available.”
Set, whose appetite had plummeted since being abandoned by Yeon Ji-ho, was about to dismiss the flight attendant with a casual shake of his head but changed his mind. He requested a glass of cold water, then immediately picked up his mobile phone.
“Ji-ho.” 1:54 PM
His touch on the small phone screen, dwarfed by his enormous hands, was remarkably skillful. Set first typed Ji-ho’s name, then anxiously bit his fingernail. He had no idea where to begin or what to say.
But contrary to his anxious state of mind, there was no indication that his message had been read, no matter how long he waited. Of course, even if he had received an immediate reply, he would have been too flustered to say anything, but this complete lack of acknowledgment made Set even more uneasy and anxious.
“Ji-ho, I’m sorry about earlier…”
“Ji-ho, I’m sorry about earlier.” 1:56 PM
Set unconsciously recited the message he was sending while busily moving his thumb. Concerned about potential typos, he carefully checked the spacing and special characters before sending the message, but cruelly, the read receipt never appeared.
“Damn it…”
In the end, Set let out a curse with no intended recipient. It wasn’t that he resented Ji-ho for not reading his message—rather, he resented himself for not noticing any sign of the issues that had grown to this magnitude.
Finally giving up on sending more messages, Set began to revisit everything that had happened while waiting for a reply. Where exactly had things gone wrong?
Suddenly, his eyes caught sight of their conversation history in the chat room. These were traces of peaceful exchanges with Yeon Ji-ho from just yesterday.
“Ji-ho, I bought everything you mentioned, do you need anything else?” 3:34 PM
“My Ji-ho: No, it’s fine! That’s enough :D” 3:35 PM
“Ji-ho.” 3:43 PM
“[Photo]”
“Should I buy fish-shaped pastries?” 3:44 PM
Set scanned the photo of the fish-shaped pastry stall that he had taken with his clumsy photography skills yesterday. As spring approached, the fish-shaped pastry stalls had begun to disappear one by one, but he had sent the message after remembering that Yeon Ji-ho had recently mentioned wanting to eat some.
“My Ji-ho: Looks delicious” 4:02 PM
“My Ji-ho: I want red bean filling! Just 2 since we need to eat dinner. Haha” 3:54 PM
After reading the reply, Set went to the pastry stall and purchased exactly 10,000 won worth without hesitation. 5,000 won of red bean filling, and 5,000 won of custard cream. Yeon Ji-ho had let out a short laugh when he saw the pile of fish-shaped pastries Set brought home.
“Did I… buy too many fish pastries?”
Despite the casual content, his voice was depressingly low. Set repeatedly went over his recent mistakes, but apart from the pastries, he couldn’t pinpoint anything. That was because Set had recently taken a long vacation after many months and was enjoying intimate time with Yeon Ji-ho.
Having missed being together due to work, Set had been inseparable from Yeon Ji-ho’s side. Of course, during the day, he had to look after Seho while Ji-ho tended to the pension.
As Set pondered the past with such intensity that deep furrows formed between his brows, unfamiliar voices suddenly reached him from beyond. They were coming from the seats directly in front of him.
“So, as I was saying, he cheated on me.”
“No way, really? Why? I mean, who does he think he is?”
“I’m still in shock… You know what he said to me?”
They seemed to be friends traveling together in first class, having a conversation in one seat.
A word entered Set’s ears as if destined to pierce him. Cheating. The other person… had cheated.
“He said I have too much money. And that hurts his pride.”
“Pfft, what? Didn’t you say he was a lawyer before?”
“Exactly, he’s a lawyer with a decent job, but he says he can’t stand being compared to me because I have too much money.”
Each word they spoke stabbed Set’s heart. The truth was, although he hadn’t explained it in detail to Yeon Ji-ho, Set’s assets were continuously growing with every breath he took. After all, he had Apophis as his capable subordinate.
At first, he had been excited about making money and would tell Yeon Ji-ho about every bit of his fortune, but at some point, Set had stopped doing that. Not only did it feel like bragging once his wealth became too substantial, but Ji-ho didn’t seem particularly pleased when Set’s money increased anyway.
He actually seemed to prefer the time when Set wore inexpensive tracksuits purchased from the market and rode a bicycle because he couldn’t afford a car. Set, who had exceptional intuition when it came to Yeon Ji-ho, was fully aware of this fact.
However, Set had a specific reason for deciding to make money—and lots of it. It was because of what had happened when Yeon Ji-ho gave birth to Seho.
“That’s just an excuse, really.”
Set’s ears twitched at the self-deprecating voice that reached him again. The people beyond the partition continued their conversation, unaware that someone was eavesdropping.
“He just got tired of me.”
“Hey, don’t talk like that…”
“What other reason could there be for cheating?”
Set silently held his breath. Getting tired of someone and cheating on them? How… how could someone get tired of the person they love? It was something Set had never even imagined.
“Hey, stop it. Why are you blaming yourself? He’s clearly the one who did wrong. He just lost his mind when he saw a young, handsome alpha.”
Young… handsome alpha.
Set tried to recall the alphas around Yeon Ji-ho. The Gorgon Knights, except for Set himself, had all been classified as betas, so he excluded them from the candidates. But apart from them, the only people Set knew around Ji-ho were the elderly neighborhood residents.
Among them, the closest alpha might be Soo-cheol, the pediatrician. Knowing that Seon-rok was by his side, Set excluded him as well. After that… there really wasn’t anyone.
“I thought there were no alphas around him except for me…”
“How did they meet?”
“What else? A client, a customer.”
“Ah, so they met through work.”
At those words, Set was belatedly horrified. Come to think of it, the now-famous pension had quite a number of guests visiting daily. What if… one of those guests had deliberately visited every day? What if they had approached Yeon Ji-ho with ulterior motives?
-CRASH.
“Oh my!”
Without realizing it, Set had released sword energy throughout his entire body. Simultaneously, the glass of cold water that the flight attendant was bringing to Set fell to the floor and completely shattered. The flight attendant looked down at the glass in shock and muttered.
“This… was tempered glass…”
Not only was it tempered glass, but the carpet in the aircraft aisle created an environment where it would be difficult to break a glass even intentionally. So when the well-held glass suddenly broke for no apparent reason, it was naturally confusing.
However, Set couldn’t even recognize that the glass had broken due to the sword energy he had released. The thought that someone might have approached Yeon Ji-ho behind his back filled him with uncontrollable rage.
If Yeon Ji-ho were to tell him that he had found someone new.
If the cheater were to apologize to him saying “I’m sorry”…
Set didn’t even realize what expression he was wearing as he stared at his phone. It was a murderous look that would be capable of killing.
At that moment, his dark phone screen suddenly lit up. On the lock screen, along with the messenger app icon, a familiar saved name appeared.
“My Ji-ho: Set” 2:34 PM
“My Ji-ho: I’m sorry” 2:35 PM
CRASH, CRASH, CRASH…!
All the glasses on the plane shattered simultaneously. The flight attendant, witnessing this bizarre phenomenon, covered her mouth and backed away as if she had seen a ghost.
And the culprit who had shattered the glasses…
“…I’ll have to kill them.”
Muttering quietly, Set made his decision. He would kill whoever Yeon Ji-ho had cheated with, and then, without regret, he would leave this world himself.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
This is so funny…Set you idiot!