Cheon Tae-seong looked down at the hand pressing against his chest and chuckled.
“Dae-hong brought lunch for your brother when he dropped off the bags. Didn’t you see it?”
“He just got discharged. He’s supposed to be resting. You expect me to leave him alone to eat and clean up by himself?”
Instead of replying, Tae-seong pulled out his phone and made a call. As soon as it connected, he ordered a caregiver to be sent over immediately to look after Yushin. Ha-jin waved his hands, trying to stop him, but it was no use.
“One of the nurses who looked after him during his hospital stay will come by.”
His determination to cut off every possible route of escape was overwhelming. He was being completely overbearing without the slightest awareness of it. No hesitation whatsoever in solving things unilaterally.
With a quiet sigh, Ha-jin surrendered.
“Just lunch, okay? I’m coming back for dinner with my brother.”
“The CEO’s a busy man, too.”
There was no way to beat him. Ha-jin let out a dry laugh. He wasn’t the type to waste energy on battles with no gain. Once the direction was set, he adapted quickly.
Pulling out his phone, he brushed past Tae-seong and lightly bounded down the stairs.
“Let me just call Yushin.”
Tae-seong didn’t move a muscle, only watched Ha-jin with his eyes. With his pheromones soaked deep into Ha-jin like a pregnant Omega’s scent, there was no way he’d go back into a house with a sick younger brother without washing it off first. Tae-seong silently watched, annoyed, to see what he’d do.
Ha-jin stepped into the alley with a window, pressed himself right up to the glass, and started talking on the phone. That cheerful expression—so full of doting affection for his brother—was absolutely over the top.
Already in a foul mood, Tae-seong gripped the iron railing, venting his frustration.
“Hey, hey, you can’t press down like that.”
A voice he’d heard once before stopped him.
“Judging from the look of you, you’re not from this neighborhood, huh? Stuff breaks around here, the city doesn’t fix it properly.”
Go Yeon-mok appeared from the top of the stairs, eyeing Tae-seong with suspicion. He’d just returned from confronting a troublesome tenant, still tense with adrenaline.
He gave Tae-seong a good once-over and then said with forced casualness,
“Oh, so you’re the CEO where our Ha-jin works.”
Our? Tae-seong hadn’t even glanced at the man until now, but that word instantly caught his attention.
“……”
Tae-seong’s face twisted into a scowl, and he shot the man a cold, condescending look. Yeon-mok flinched.
“S-So, what brings you to our neighborhood? You looking for Ha-jin? Want me to call him for you? Unless he’s at work, he’s usually home. Oh, wait—I even have the key to their place.”
Yeon-mok adjusted the heavy bunch of keys dangling from his waistband and pointed toward the brothers’ house, stepping past Tae-seong as if to call Ha-jin himself. His casual, overly familiar attitude made Tae-seong’s mood sink even further.
And then there was that disgusting stench of Alpha pheromones trailing behind Yeon-mok as he passed—sharp and unpleasant—only adding fuel to Tae-seong’s foul mood.
“Don’t you take another step. Even I’m not going in there.”
His glare sharpened. Without hesitation, Tae-seong reached out and grabbed Yeon-mok’s wrist.
“Ow! Let go! What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
Yeon-mok twisted and shouted, trying to break free. Tae-seong didn’t budge, his grip ironclad. The skin around Yeon-mok’s wrist reddened rapidly under the pressure.
That was when Ha-jin, having just ended his call, spotted them and hurried over.
“Hyung? CEO? What are you two doing?”
He stepped between them, forcing himself into the narrow space. The height difference alone made it obvious Yeon-mok was the weaker one, not to mention the atmosphere. As Yeon-mok howled in pain, Ha-jin suddenly remembered something Kwak Mari had said over the weekend.
“By the way, Ha-jin, you remember that guy… Choi Chan-hyuk?”
He’d forgotten completely until Mari brought it up. Back then, he’d been dragged off by Tae-seong’s people, and Ha-jin had meant to check on him but hadn’t. When he apologized for forgetting, Mari’s face twisted with concern.
“He’s gotten a little weird.”
“What do you mean?”
“I don’t know… He said we don’t need to meet anymore. Said let’s just clean everything up—contracts, insurance, everything. And after all that clinginess, too. I double-checked just to be sure, but he couldn’t hang up fast enough.”
“……”
“He even cleaned up all the paperwork through his lawyer. You’d think he’d never caused a scene.”
Which is why I’m saying… there’s something off about CEO Cheon.
That had been Kwak Mari’s pointed assessment. She told him to be careful—warned that if you got on his bad side, he wouldn’t show mercy.
Mari had met him when she was seventeen. Adding up both lives, Ha-jin had over ten years of accumulated data on her instincts. Her read on people was usually spot on.
“Ha-jin! This guy’s your CEO, right? Tell him to let go of my arm!”
“CEO?”
Ha-jin grabbed Tae-seong’s wrist and looked up at him. Despite the angry red mark blooming on Yeon-mok’s arm, Tae-seong’s expression was blank, as if nothing had happened.
“Why are you so angry?”
“I don’t even know!”
It was Yeon-mok who shouted in response, not Tae-seong. His pain-fueled scream was loud enough to make Ha-jin’s ears ring. Trying to calm things down, Ha-jin gently wrapped both his hands around Tae-seong’s.
Just as Ha-jin looked up to check on Yeon-mok’s arm again, Tae-seong finally let go, his strength vanishing like it had never been there. It was hard to believe just moments ago he’d been gripping tightly enough to snap bone.
“Agh, my arm!”
Yeon-mok fell away, wailing as he dramatically rubbed his swollen wrist. The way he glared at Tae-seong—blood vessels practically bursting in his eyes—was vicious.
With a small sigh, Ha-jin stepped in front of Tae-seong and faced Yeon-mok.
“Are you okay, hyung? Let me see.”
“Ugh, don’t even talk to me. This is gonna bruise for sure. If my mom sees it, she’s gonna flip. You know what she’s like.”
“Yeah, I know…”
Even as he examined Yeon-mok’s arm, Ha-jin couldn’t stop thinking about Tae-seong behind him. He glanced around nervously, half-expecting more men in black suits to appear and drag Yeon-mok off. If he kept pushing, maybe he really would get beaten to a pulp somewhere. Sure, he was clingy—but he wasn’t a bad guy.
Ha-jin looked up and studied Yeon-mok’s face, then offered an awkward, half-hearted excuse.
“I think our CEO’s just in a bad mood right now. He’s been on edge lately… Could you please try to understand?”
Just as he finished speaking, a loud exhale sounded from above his head. When he turned around, there was Tae-seong—smiling.
Great. Ha-jin narrowed his eyes in irritation. When he turned back, Yeon-mok’s face was a mess of red and purple.
“Anyway, sorry you got scared. I’ll apologize on his behalf.”
“Why are you apologizing, Ha-jin? He’s the one who did it!”
Yeon-mok shouted, clearly offended.
“Exactly. Why are you apologizing, Ha-jin? That damn pervert was trying to break into your house.”
Tae-seong’s low voice made Yeon-mok go silent. Even when Tae-seong reached out and pulled the key ring from Yeon-mok’s waistband, the man didn’t move.
Tae-seong held the keys up to Ha-jin with a grimace of pure disgust.
Even after hearing the whole exchange, Ha-jin just blinked silently. That bothered him.
“This pervert here was leaking pheromones, trying to get into your house while your brother was inside. I stopped him.”
Ha-jin silently reached out, took the keys from Tae-seong, and handed them back to Yeon-mok.
“Hyung, there seems to be a misunderstanding. Here, just take these and go.”
“What do you mean? I’m the landlord—I should have the keys.”
“Yeah, I know. But for now, just go. Our CEO’s not used to neighborhoods like this.”
“What do you mean ‘not used to it’? You can tell just by his pheromones—he’s obviously a perv.”
“Why are you trying to send me away—ugh!”
Ha-jin practically shoved Yeon-mok out of the alley. Despite yelling all the way, he let himself be pushed. Seemed like he was just trying to save face, not pick a real fight with Tae-seong.
After making Ha-jin apologize a few more times, Yeon-mok grumbled and stalked off toward the convenience store. Ha-jin waited until he was out of sight, nearly running away, before turning back to Tae-seong.
“We lock up from inside too. There’s a second lock on the door.”
And before Tae-seong could say anything else, Ha-jin spoke first.
