Da Haram stretched his limbs before he even managed to open his eyes, groaning at how sore his body felt. Then, his eyes snapped open at the rich, toasty scent tickling his nose—chestnuts, peanuts, and pine nuts were neatly scattered in a circle all around him. He looked left, then right—there were delicacies everywhere.
“Chirp…?”
Still groggy and confused, Haram sat up with effort—only to spot Tae-yi lying beside him with a warm smile. Haram’s eyes widened. While lying down, Tae-yi had been hidden behind a large chestnut, which was why he hadn’t noticed him until now.
“Morning, sweetheart. Sleep well?”
“…!”
Haram jumped up in place at the unfamiliar term of endearment he was hearing for the first time in his life.
“…Chirp?”
…Sweetheart?
Tilting his head to the side, Haram echoed the word.
“Yup, sweetheart.”
Tae-yi responded casually, clearly aware of what Haram was getting at. Startled and flustered, Haram began stamping his feet. The plush comforter swallowed his legs with each stomp, and he didn’t like the sensation one bit—but he couldn’t just sit still.
“Ch-chirp…”
Sweetheart…
He just called me sweetheart. Does that mean I’m really Tae-yi’s sweetheart now? Are we at the stage where he calls me that?
Haram murmured to himself for a while, then eventually twitched the corners of his lips. The term felt foreign, unfamiliar, and a little embarrassing—but at the same time, it made his heart flutter so much he could barely contain it.
Tae-yi watched as Haram skittered around the bed before speaking again.
“So, sweetheart, should we finish what we were doing in the bathroom?”
“Chirp!!”
Appalled by the shameless question, Haram glared at Tae-yi with all the wide-eyed innocence he could muster. Tae-yi just laughed out loud at the futile little gesture and held out a chestnut to him.
Haram found himself reflexively hugging the chestnut. Realizing how his mood was already starting to soften, he sighed under his breath, disappointed with himself. He should be glaring harder at Tae-yi, that shameless bastard…
“When are you going to transform?”
Tae-yi’s voice had a pleading tone as he asked the question again. Haram didn’t want to be the kind of Beastfolk who caved to bribes, but the way Tae-yi was practically begging… he didn’t stand a chance.
In an instant, Haram transformed into his human form. Still sitting on the bed, he gathered the scattered nuts into his palm and, turning his back to Tae-yi, began munching.
Seeing Haram cover his bare backside with his flat squirrel tail, Tae-yi gave a faint, helpless laugh and sat up. Wrapping his arms around Haram from behind, he rested his chin on his prominent shoulder bone. The quiet crunch, crunch of Haram munching continued, so Tae-yi asked,
“Were you really hungry?”
Haram nodded with a cheek puffed out. Well, they had worked up quite an appetite. Tae-yi murmured this to himself, and Haram’s cheeks flushed bright red.
“Let go…”
With Tae-yi hugging him tightly from behind, Haram couldn’t move anything except his chewing mouth. When he asked to be released, Tae-yi didn’t let go—he just showered light kisses down on Haram’s shoulder. Wherever his lips touched, it tickled.
Haram squirmed, curling his shoulder to dodge Tae-yi’s lips, but it was no use. Soon enough, he was perched on Tae-yi’s thigh. Alarmed, he glanced at him warily.
Bzzz.
“Phone’s ringing.”
The sudden vibration felt like salvation. Haram whipped his head toward the bedside table. But Tae-yi, ignoring the pitifully buzzing phone, pushed Haram down onto the bed.
“Hey, I said your phone’s ringing… Someone’s calling you.”
Flustered, Haram glanced at the phone again. Tae-yi merely nodded without a word and kept kissing him, never even glancing at the phone.
“Mmm…”
I knew it would end up like this.
With a resigned sigh, Haram dropped the handful of nuts and wrapped his arms around Tae-yi’s neck.
***
At this point, it was getting hard to tell who the real bastard was—Kang Tae-jin or Kang Tae-yi.
Tae-yi had always been someone to admire—a cool-headed older brother, so unlike that flaky, pill-popping junkie Yoon Ji-seok. So when Tae-yi unexpectedly told him to come work as a manager, he hadn’t hesitated.
But the Tae-yi he met in the real world? Just a damn bastard.
Now the guy wouldn’t even answer his calls. Fuming, Chief Yoon slammed his foot on the accelerator. Not a soul in sight on the rural road. He glanced back at the equipment crammed into the backseat and sighed.
He’d spent the whole night preparing everything meticulously for a proper inspection of the peanut field. Now, it all felt like a joke. Still, he drove toward the village entrance. Soon, the rumble of the tires stopped—replaced by silence on a bumpy dirt path.
A group of elderly villagers had gathered early that morning, blocking the path and staring at something. The murmuring crowd could be heard even from inside the car. Alarmed, Chief Yoon stepped out and cautiously followed their gaze.
“What the hell is all this…”
***
Tae-yi had his eyes closed, listening to Haram’s peaceful breathing as he slept. Carefully, he sat up. Pulling a fresh blanket over Haram, tucking it up to his neck, he headed to the bathroom.
After finishing a cold, ice-chilled shower, Tae-yi opened the bathroom door—only to find a drowsy Haram waiting for him.
“The phone kept ringing…”
Haram, still barely awake, held out the phone. Instead, Tae-yi picked him up entirely and carried him back to the bed. Feeling the cold from Tae-yi’s firm body, Haram shivered slightly, prompting him to be gently laid down again.
Tae-yi tucked him back in, patting his chest twice before standing. He grabbed the phone—the same one that had woken Haram—and stepped out of the room. Five missed calls from Chief Yoon. Something shady was going on.
The call connected almost immediately. Before Tae-yi could say anything—
“Director!”
The voice on the other end was frantic.
“What happened?”
Tae-yi’s calm tone helped Chief Yoon gather himself enough to explain in a clear voice.
—Da Haram’s peanut field is completely trashed. I think Chairman Kang Tae-jin’s people were involved.
Tae-yi’s steps came to an abrupt halt in the hallway. He’d expected some fresh disaster—maybe something about his bedridden father, or another one of his brother’s idiotic stunts. But this? This, he hadn’t seen coming.
Letting out a long sigh, he pressed his fingers to his furrowed brow.
“Come up here first.”
Even after the call ended, Tae-yi stood still, mulling over Chief Yoon’s words.
He wrecked the whole peanut field?
To be related to such a petty piece of shit made him resent his parents.
Maybe it was meant to scare Haram into selling the land—but considering Kang Tae-jin knew Haram was here with him, it was more likely he’d done it just to piss Tae-yi off. Unfortunately, it had worked. Haram would be devastated when he found out. Tae-yi’s scowl didn’t ease for a second.
He went into the kitchen and downed a bottle of water. It was time to answer the gangster bastard’s little warning. But before that, he had to figure out what to do with Da Haram. After how hard he’d pushed him that morning, Haram was bound to sleep through the day—but Tae-yi needed a plan before he woke up.
If Haram found out that his beloved field had been ruined—that his entire peanut harvest was gone—it wouldn’t just be a shock. It would break him. He might run and disappear altogether.
The Da Haram he’d come to know was someone sweet and trusting—he’d taken Tae-yi in without hesitation, after all.
Tae-yi had wanted to gradually reveal the truth about his false identity. But thanks to that fucker Kang Tae-jin, that hope was gone. Everything was moving too fast now.
The peanut field might be destroyed, but Haram still owned the land. For now, Tae-yi had to focus on buying up the other villagers’ land first. The thought of playing a real-life land grab game at his age made his blood boil.
He called Chief Yoon right away.
“Don’t come up here. Go find that grandma with all the land. The one you mentioned.”
—Got it. I’ll check if she’s had contact with Chairman Kang’s people.
“Convince her to sell to us.”
—…What if she won’t?
Chief Yoon knew full well they weren’t any better than Kang Tae-jin—and it made him hesitate.
“I said, don’t come up here.”
—What? Director, wait—what do you mean? Director!
Chief Yoon’s urgent voice echoed from the phone, but Tae-yi coldly ended the call. He opened the fridge, pulled out another bottle of water, and chugged it. The burn in his chest eased just a little.
Will Da Haram trust me? Will he sell the land?
I’m not actually a Beta—I’m an Alpha. I’m the executive of the company that tormented you. I’m older than you, too.
No matter how he looked at it, there was no reason Haram would believe him. The moment he said I’m not a Beta but an Alpha, all he could picture was Haram sprinting away without a backward glance.
Tae-yi let out a long, heavy sigh and began pressing at his pounding temples.
***
“Ngh…”
Haram groaned and blinked open his dry, heavy eyes. He was alone in the bed, and the sky outside was already dark—it looked like he’d slept for quite a while. The nuts were gone. Apparently, Tae-yi only did that sort of thing when he was in squirrel form.
With a slight sense of disappointment, Haram sat up. Feeling a draft below, he lifted the blanket—he wasn’t wearing any underwear. Just a plain white T-shirt, which he didn’t remember putting on. Tae-yi must’ve dressed him.
If he had time to put a shirt on me, couldn’t he at least put on some underwear too? Seriously.
