Pyeonghwa, as if intoxicated with emotion, closed his eyes to feel the moment while naturally unbuttoning his shirt. Saebyeok, who hadn’t known that Pyeonghwa was wearing a couple T-shirt under his suit, felt his face heat up for no reason.
‘It might be embarrassing to show in public…’
Isn’t it cool to show anywhere?
Others might think differently, but for Saebyeok, it was. It might have been love goggles. Still, while Pyeonghwa might belittle or make fun of himself, he never put others down.
“I sincerely love him. Even though I may be a ruffian, please give me your son.”
Above all, he was honest with his feelings.
“If you don’t give him to me, I’ll have no choice but to steal him…”
…perhaps too honest.
It might have been better to have the virtue of hiding a little, but then again, that wouldn’t be like Pyeonghwa.
“That is all. Thank you for your valuable time.”
Pyeonghwa, bowing politely at 90 degrees, finally showed the virtue of hiding a little. He showed just a tiny glimpse of the couple T-shirt printed with images of Gong Pyeonghwa and Shin Saebyeok kissing.
“……”
“……”
“…Wow, wow…”
Saebyeok awkwardly clapped and cheered. It was business etiquette.
Normally, there would be a Q&A session now…
Chairman Shin’s atmosphere was ominous. Saebyeok tensed up. Feeling a sharp energy, he held his breath in fear, but amidst the tension, Pyeonghwa’s pheromones flowed in.
“Young man, are you now…”
It was at that moment, as his tense body relaxed and he let out a sigh of relief.
“Pyeonghwa!”
Pyeonghwa had a nosebleed. Before thinking about what to do, his body moved first.
Saebyeok pulled out his long sleeve and blocked Pyeonghwa’s nose. The white shirt quickly became soaked in red.
Given the traits of being an Alpha, who wouldn’t even have a nosebleed after staying up for three nights but would merely yawn, this sudden nosebleed was concerning.
Was it stress? He must have been stressed, right?
“Making such a fuss over just a nosebleed.”
“Just a nosebleed? Just a nosebleed? Our Pyeonghwa’s only value is his health, and suddenly he’s having a nosebleed—how can you say ‘just’?!”
For the first time in his life, Saebyeok raised his voice at Chairman Shin.
Chairman Shin, hearing his eldest son’s outburst for the first time, was momentarily frozen in shock.
“No, honey, I’m fine.”
“What do you mean, fine! Don’t tilt your head back! Let’s go to the hospital.”
“But it’s the Q&A time…”
True to being a romantic who was weakest to his Omega, Pyeonghwa was mercilessly dragged away by Saebyeok.
Saebyeok walked with fiery momentum.
“Mom! Give me Iseul!”
Saebyeok’s mother, who was feeding Iseul water, was startled by Saebyeok’s voice.
Saebyeok searched through Pyeonghwa’s pockets and pulled out the car keys.
“Ah, touching there might make my nosebleed start again…”
“Don’t talk!”
“Yes, sir! Yes, sir!”
Holding Iseul with her good diction, he bowed politely.
“We’ll be going now. I think we need to go to the hospital.”
“Oh…, yes, take care…”
Overwhelmed by Saebyeok’s bulldozer-like spirit, his mother absentmindedly waved goodbye.
Even while being dragged away by Saebyeok, Pyeonghwa took out a neat paper envelope from his chest and handed it to Saebyeok’s mother.
“I didn’t want to give it to you like this, but Saebyeok is completely crazy about me right now. I hope you can attend and grace us with your presence. I’ll see you again!”
The indomitable salesman Pyeonghwa managed to plant Iseul’s first birthday party invitation with his mother-in-law.
In Saebyeok’s mother’s arms, instead of the baby who smelled of milk, only the first birthday party invitation remained.
***
“Should we go to the emergency room?”
“No, calm down and listen to me.”
“We should at least get a leukemia test, just in case…”
“Calm down. Calm down! You’re scaring Iseul!”
Sitting in the passenger seat, Pyeonghwa rubbed his nostrils with his index finger. Showing his finger with no blood to Saebyeok, he smiled reassuringly.
“How could a perfectly healthy person suddenly get a nosebleed? Are you hiding some health warning signs from me…”
“I think I hit myself too hard during the presentation. The performance was excessive.”
Now that he looked, Pyeonghwa’s cheek was swollen red. It seemed like his cheek might have been slightly scraped. He had been punching his own face during the self-deprecation part, but who would have thought it would cause a nosebleed? Who told him to be so rough with his body…
After all that worry, Saebyeok felt deflated and empty. Seeing the injured face also made him sad.
Should he go back to the house now and at least scratch the back of his head in embarrassment…
“Gasp. My father might understand, but my mother probably doesn’t know anything.”
“She seemed to know?”
Huh?
Saebyeok couldn’t even start the car and just gaped.
“She seemed really shocked, but when she saw me, she seemed to have figured it out to some extent. She said something like, ‘No wonder our Iseul has such pretty eyes, she must take after you.'”
“……”
It felt strange.
“She seemed like a great woman. I think I’ll get along well with my mother-in-law.”
“In such a short time, what…? What do you mean, get along…”
Saebyeok responded weakly as he started the car.
Whether this was right, whether this was a good thing to do. Saebyeok was confused, but he gripped the steering wheel.
“Honey, are we going to my house now?”
“Huh? Huh? Huh? Uh… yes!”
There was no time to be caught up in conversations that hadn’t even happened yet. Harsh reality was waiting.
Pyeonghwa had already perfectly completed his self-PR and left his in-laws’ house.
Now it was Saebyeok’s turn to show something.
In fact, Saebyeok had also prepared premium beef, wild ginseng, and gold bars—a perfect gift for these economically unstable times with soaring international oil prices—just in case.
“Honey, don’t worry too much. I have a plan.”
He never thought the words “I have a plan” could sound so frightening.
“The preparations are perfect. You just need to show up. Trust me. It’s safe, I tell you.”
My family was safe too.
Saebyeok was somehow anxious, but he decided to depart anyway.
Since their school districts had overlapped, it was a relatively close distance, and they arrived not long after Saebyeok took the wheel.
When he pressed the doorbell with trembling hands, the door opened as if by magic.
“……”
Saebyeok mentally prepared himself.
‘Somehow I’ll support us. Somehow I can support us. I have two dependents. I am a man. Somehow we can survive. I can do this.’
Though he couldn’t make a PPT like Pyeonghwa, Saebyeok had a plan no less impressive than Pyeonghwa’s.
Saebyeok clenched his fist and entered his in-laws’ house.
“The second prince returns in glory!”
His legs wobbled a bit at Pyeonghwa’s tension-breaking voice, but he walked steadily as if nothing had happened.
Pyeonghwa moved around freely as if it were his own home—well, it was. Pyeonghwa roamed around the house he had returned to after a long time, looking for Butler Hwang.
Pyeonghwa kept winking at Butler Hwang. Butler Hwang, who had temporarily returned to duty for the day at Pyeonghwa’s plea, sent a small OK sign with a sour expression.
Pyeonghwa marched boldly towards the living room where all the family members were gathered. Saebyeok followed with trembling legs, holding Iseul.
“Father, Mother, whom I respect and love endlessly! Your precious child Pyeonghwa has returned in glory.”
“So dramatic.”
Chairman Gong, as soon as he saw his second son’s face, kept clicking his tongue and openly criticized him to his eldest son sitting next to him, saying, “When will that one ever mature?”
‘Even if he’s my father-in-law, how can he call my husband “that one.” Is our Pyeonghwa an object?’
Even amidst his nervousness, this was a slightly infuriating point.
“The way he is, I don’t know if we can ever marry him off. I’m too embarrassed to even send him to arranged meetings.”
“Ah! You don’t need to worry about that! I’m already married!”
You crazy bastard. When will you grow up? Those words rose to the tip of his tongue for a moment, but Saebyeok suppressed what he wanted to say with superhuman patience.
“What?”
Finding the nonsense too absurd, Pyeonghwa’s father and mother laughed incredulously. Gong Jeong, the eldest son, slightly rose from the sofa with a face that seemed to say “has he finally gone mad,” and moved away from his parents.
“I said I’m already married. Since the topic came up, let me say this—I don’t go on blind dates. Don’t try to set me up. I’m already a married man. If I get married now, that would be marriage fraud. I’ve already seen the fruit of love! Ta-da! Our precious Iseul!”
“…This kid, we sent him abroad to study, and what? Oh my! Oh my!”
Chairman Gong grabbed the back of his neck, but being so healthy, he failed to collapse.
His neck hurt, but not enough to make him fall, and in the end, the energy turned into anger.
“Where’s the ashtray that was here!”
“You said you were going to quit smoking. I put it away.”
Chairman Gong looked around embarrassedly.
“Where are all the golf clubs that were here!”
“I put them away in advance, afraid you might hit him!”
“That’s something to be proud of!”
Pyeonghwa winked subtly at Saebyeok.
Is putting away the golf clubs the plan? So that’s why he said it was safe?
But ten years is a long time.
Don’t they say rivers and mountains change in ten years? Chairman Gong, who had come to prefer baseball over golf after the TK Tigers, thought to be eternal last-place, won the Korean Series after ten years, took out a baseball bat instead of a golf club.
Pyeonghwa, who had overlooked the passage of ten years, was beaten on the buttocks in a prone position, a stance he would have taken ten years ago.
“Guh.”
“Stop exaggerating!”
Here’s the story of getting hit with a bat at twenty-eight.
“Father… you must have aged a lot. Your hitting strength is not like before…”
“Is that so? Lie down again.”
“Ah, Dad!”
What’s the reason for deliberately asking for a beating? Saebyeok gathered his resolve again.
‘Let me at least keep my wits about me.’
Saebyeok wanted to get between Chairman Gong and Pyeonghwa, but worried that Iseul might get accidentally hit by the baseball bat, he could only stomp his feet anxiously.
After entrusting Iseul to Gong Jeong, who had already secured a safe distance, Saebyeok stepped between Chairman Gong and Pyeonghwa.
“It, it’s all my fault!”
Though he shouted manfully, Chairman Gong was indifferent.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
