“I had fun too, so that’s enough.”
Even though Kang-woo firmly refused, Jung-yeon wouldn’t give up.
“I’m giving it to you because I’m really grateful, so please just accept it. Honestly, yesterday and today I had some business at the company because of some unlucky bastard, and it put me in a foul mood. Seriously—those guys who look down on someone just because she’s a woman should all have their dicks cut off and die.”
As the memory resurfaced, Jung-yeon seemed to grow momentarily heated, muttering vicious curses. Kang-woo looked flustered and let out an awkward laugh.
“Haha…”
“Well, that’s something I have to deal with as the responsibility of the position I’m sitting in, so it’s not something Kang-woo-ssi needs to worry about. It might be surprising, but I’m actually kind of a friendless loner, so on a gloomy day like this I almost ended up spending the day miserably by myself. Thanks to you, I’m feeling much better.”
Jung-yeon pushed the shopping bags even closer toward Kang-woo with both hands.
“Take them. If you keep refusing, I’ll really be upset.”
It seemed she had changed tactics after his firm rejection. Drooping the corners of her eyes, she spoke as if she might cry.
Kang-woo looked troubled for a moment, but eventually accepted the gift.
“Th-thank you. I’ll wear them well.”
As he set the shopping bags beside him and expressed his thanks, Jung-yeon nodded.
“Next time you meet me, wear the nice new clothes I bought you. Got it?”
“Yes. I won’t forget—I’ll make sure to wear them.”
Satisfied with his answer, Jung-yeon looked very pleased.
For a while after that, the two of them spent a quiet stretch of time together without much conversation, each absorbed in their own thoughts.
“But…”
Kang-woo traced the droplets of condensation forming on the surface of his glass with his fingertips before speaking.
“Are there really people who look down on you, Director?”
The woman they met on the first floor had addressed Jung-yeon as “Director.” Kang-woo had also struggled to think of a suitable way to address her, so he simply decided to follow the woman’s example and call her “Director.”
There was another reason as well. For some reason, saying “hyung” had come easily with Young-wan and Seok-ho, but the word “noona” didn’t come as easily when it came to Jung-yeon.
Jung-yeon didn’t correct the way he addressed her. That was a silent acknowledgment—that she indeed held the position of director at some company.
Considering Jung-yeon’s age, it was certainly a high position. At most, she looked to be in her early thirties.
In fact, that made the story she shared even more surprising. Although this was only their second meeting, she appeared—by anyone’s standards—to be an outstanding dominant Alpha. Alphas were genetically born with superior physical or intellectual abilities.
So it wasn’t strange that someone like her possessed such exceptional wealth and a lofty title that allowed her to spend money so freely.
And yet, the fact that there were people around her who still looked down on her because of her gender came as a fresh shock to Kang-woo.
“Why? Do I look like someone who’d never get looked down on anywhere?”
Jung-yeon smiled, pulling her bright red lips into a grin as she cast him an amused look.
How could anyone dare look down on someone so confident and self-assured? Kang-woo still couldn’t understand it.
“From what I can see, Director, you don’t seem to lack anything.”
“People are naturally best at tearing others down. No matter how perfect someone is, if people want to find a reason to criticize them, they’ll find one.”
Is that so?
Kang-woo couldn’t quite agree or disagree. The expression on her face as she spoke seemed almost detached. From it, he could vaguely sense how often being a woman had held her back—and how often it had been used as an excuse to pick faults with her.
“Of course, if someone looks down on me, I never just let it slide. I make sure to crush them somehow.”
The atmosphere around Jung-yeon suddenly changed.
Her previously indifferent eyes gleamed with a cold light. With the smile gone from her face, she looked momentarily cruel. A chilling sharpness radiated from her, like a finely honed blade.
“Because I have the ability and power to do that.”
Along with it came a powerful confidence and certainty in her own abilities.
Watching Jung-yeon, Kang-woo felt two emotions at once—fear and envy.
If only he had the same kind of faith in himself that she did.
No… perhaps things would’ve been different if he had simply been born into an ordinary family, with ordinary traits.
After sinking into thought for a while, Kang-woo asked:
“If the other person is someone you can’t do that to… someone I can’t do anything about… then what should you do?”
Jung-yeon crossed her legs and leaned her upper body toward him. Her long fingers cupped her chin.
“Is someone bullying you, Kang-woo-ssi?”
“…No, it’s not like that. I mean—if, hypothetically, there were someone like that.”
Though the question struck a nerve, Kang-woo quickly shook his head and emphasized that it was only a hypothetical.
“A hypothetical?”
“Yes. A hypothetical.”
“Hm… If there’s a bastard like that bothering Kang-woo-ssi, then tell me—”
She paused for a moment, then corrected herself with a strange smile.
“No. Tell Seok-ho.”
“Hyung?”
Jung-yeon nodded and added meaningfully,
“He’s secretly pretty talented when it comes to doing bad things.”
What did that mean?
Kang-woo blinked.
But Jung-yeon offered no further explanation. Instead, she stood up with a noticeably lighter expression.
“All that walking made me hungry. Shall we go eat dinner?”
***
Seok-ho’s work didn’t finally end until after nine.
According to the original plan, he was supposed to return to the hotel as soon as the job was finished. But somehow he ended up being dragged along by the client and even attended his birthday party.
The birthday party, held in a luxurious mansion, was attended by countless famous figures from various fields—proof of the host’s reputation.
The venue was lavishly decorated with gold balloons and various lighting ornaments. Combined with the pounding, deafening music, the party hall could easily have been mistaken for a massive nightclub.
After spending quite some time greeting people and mingling noisily, Seok-ho finally managed to slip out while everyone else was drunk and distracted.
Back at the hotel, he went straight into the bathroom and took a shower.
After washing himself from head to toe under cold water, he finally felt refreshed.
Wearing a bathrobe, Seok-ho stepped out of the bathroom and roughly dried his wet hair with a towel while admiring the night view outside the window. At his prior request, he had been assigned a high-floor room, so the view wasn’t bad.
He picked up the wine he had ordered earlier through room service and sat at the round table by the window.
He had already been drinking, but something still felt lacking. Seok-ho used an opener to pull out the cork and tilted the bottle, filling his glass.
Glug—
The room was so quiet that even the smallest sound echoed loudly.
Seok-ho liked silence.
Tattoo work was always accompanied by noise of one kind or another, so perhaps that was why he had come to love the opposite situation even more. Outside of work, he deliberately surrounded himself with quiet environments.
But at some point, things had changed.
After gaining a roommate, the sound of another person’s voice gradually began to fill the house. Even if Kim Kang-woo himself was a quiet person, some noise was inevitable.
And strangely enough… Seok-ho didn’t dislike it.
Of course, at first it had felt unfamiliar. After all, he had lived alone for years. If he claimed it hadn’t been uncomfortable at the beginning, that would be a lie.
But before he knew it, the presence of his roommate had become natural.
As if it had always been that way, Kim Kang-woo had quietly seeped into his life.
In fact, it had gone so far that this environment now felt strange instead. A hotel room occupied entirely by himself felt unbearably desolate.
Because of that, as if insomnia had returned, falling asleep these past few days hadn’t been easy.
Seok-ho took a sip of the wine, tinged with a reddish glow.
The moderately astringent flavor moistened his tongue before sliding down his throat and filling his body with warmth. It had a remarkably smooth finish.
One glass, then another.
Before he realized it, he had emptied an entire bottle by himself. Strangely, the more alcohol entered his system, the clearer his mind seemed to become.
And gradually, his thoughts filled with one person.
Kim Kang-woo.
Tapping his index finger against the table, Seok-ho impulsively searched for the guy’s number in his phone contacts and called.
— Hello?
The line hadn’t rung long before a calm voice answered.
For a moment, it felt as if the face he could never quite read clearly appeared before his eyes. A chuckle threatened to escape, so Seok-ho pressed his lips together.
Because of that, he missed the timing to respond.
— Hello? Hyung? Can you hear me?
Apparently it seemed strange that there was no reply. Thinking maybe his voice hadn’t gone through, Kang-woo called out again to check.
Instead of answering, Seok-ho blurted out the first thing that came to mind.
“You said you’d contact me often, but it’s been pretty quiet.”
Only after the words left his mouth did Seok-ho realize something.
It seemed that Kim Kang-woo not contacting him often—despite saying he would—had bothered him quite a bit.
If not that… then perhaps he had been a little disappointed.
…
For a moment, the sound of breathing on the other end stopped. Soon after, Kang-woo’s reply came back with a faint hint of laughter.
— Well, you seemed like you’d be busy, hyung. But I really did want to contact you a lot.
Holding the phone to his ear, Seok-ho lay back on the bed.
“You’re making excuses because you feel guilty.”
His voice stretched out lazily.
— That’s not an excuse—it’s the truth. But why are you still awake, hyung? Isn’t it almost 2 a.m. over there?
His calculation of the time was surprisingly quick. They said he was smart—maybe he had a good head for math too.
Thinking idly, Seok-ho slowly closed his eyes.
“I just got back to the hotel. I finished showering, so I’m about to sleep.”
He deliberately didn’t mention that he had been drinking alone. Why?
Well… even he didn’t know.
— I see.
Just like Seok-ho’s idle thoughts, Kang-woo gave an equally casual reply.
— You were out pretty late…
A small murmur followed, and then Kang-woo suddenly exclaimed as if remembering something.
— Oh, right. The day before yesterday, Young-wan hyung came by the house.
Seok-ho already knew.
As soon as he finished running the errand, Young-wan had flooded him with messages.
“Really?”
Pretending not to know, Seok-ho played along and asked,
“Did he buy you something good to eat?”
— Yes. He bought pork ribs. They were really delicious. And at a café he bought tasty cake and drinks too.
“That’s good.”
— And he told me a lot of good things too… Anyway, it was really fun.
It seemed that Jung Young-wan hadn’t been exaggerating when he proudly explained the whole course of how he had won over the heart of a high schooler ten years younger than him.
Kim Kang-woo sounded very satisfied.
Was Young-wan unexpectedly good at taking care of kids? Or were their mental ages just similar?
“Young-wan hyung seems to have a really good personality. Honestly, I thought eating with him alone would feel super awkward, but he kept asking me questions and telling interesting stories, so it wasn’t awkward at all.”
