“That lawyer hyung seems more capable than I thought.”
“To be precise, it’s their investigator who’s capable.”
“Ex-police?”
“You know a lot, don’t you?”
“Just happened to. Addresses and family relationships can be found with simple input and output, but given they uncovered local rumors too, those investigators must be quite skilled. Criminal or civil law?”
“Civil. Specializing in divorce.”
“What’s the success rate?”
“He claims it’s high. He usually mediates without going to divorce, but his actual success rate is high.”
This meant he doesn’t take cases to trial that are difficult to win.
In other words…
“He’s a villain. I see… so that’s why you chose me?”
Junghyun had wondered why an S-ranked alpha, among the rare dominant alphas, strangely had such a loose tongue, but the conclusion was very simple.
Seeing Junghyun’s look asking if his guess was correct, Jaehyuk nodded.
“There’s no need to have a child in a marriage that’s already decided to end in divorce.”
It was a perfectly rational reason. Junghyun immediately understood and accepted it from his perspective as well.
“That’s true. But let’s add that to the contract too. Instead of inability to conceive being grounds for divorce, we’ll both be careful. But since humans are unpredictable, if by some extremely rare chance, an accident occurs, a condom must be used. If a condom is not used, the party who didn’t use it takes responsibility.”
“I’m glad we communicate so well.”
“My nickname is Human AI.”
“It suits you. And one more thing, if by chance you discover you’re pregnant after the divorce…”
“If I discover that?”
“There would be only one option in that case. I have no intention of remarrying you, nor do I want to create a child born out of wedlock.”
Momentarily, Junghyun stared at Jaehyuk curiously, finding those words unusual for an S-class ranker.
He appreciated that Jaehyuk was carefully addressing this point despite knowing a child wouldn’t be conceived.
“You really are an interesting hyungnim…”
“I’m glad we won’t be bored with each other.”
“A fortunate misfortune. Since a year isn’t such a short time, it’s better to enjoy living together while we’re at it. Well… alright. I accept. That possibility is extremely low, but I don’t want a child born out of wedlock either. So, we’ll have separate rooms, right? If it’s a two-story house, we could divide by floors and install a partition on the staircase. We’ll probably both be busy and won’t run into each other much anyway, but considering heat cycles, it would be good to have locks too.”
As Junghyun was suggesting they could have the door normally hidden and close it only when needed, Jaehyuk suddenly interjected.
“That would be ideal, but there’s one problem…”
Seeing his suddenly serious face, Junghyun asked:
“Please don’t tell me we have to live in the family home?”
“No, my brother is getting married soon too, so his couple will move into the family home, so there’s no need for me to move in as well. But people will be coming to our newlywed home daily. Consider them supervisors disguised as helpers. That was my grandfather’s condition for accepting this marriage. It’s someone who has worked at our family home, and they’ll come every morning to check the house condition. Especially the bedroom.”
At this point, Junghyun got it. Anyone would be the same if their grandson was a rare dominant alpha, even among the highest tier, but hadn’t married or had children even after passing thirty.
They would want him to have as many children as possible, as soon as possible…
Especially if that grandson was negative about having children out of wedlock.
“So, they’re not just looking around the bedroom, but checking the bed covers and trash cans, right?”
“You know well.”
“…Oh dear…”
In response to Junghyun’s unspoken sigh of “this is going to be troublesome,” Jaehyuk added about the unavoidable situation.
“He’s eager to see his great-grandchildren.”
“Even from a recessive omega?”
“He would have preferred a dominant omega as my partner, but since the chance of producing a dominant alpha is low even between two dominants, his position is that it doesn’t matter as long as we have children. However, the condition is that we must have many.”
That’s why he allowed this rushed marriage. Because Junghyun was healthy.
“So that means your grandfather doesn’t know much about me yet?”
“He knows enough. But he’s someone who doesn’t believe unfounded rumors.”
“He’s more rational than I expected.”
At Junghyun’s implication of “unlike typical alpha elderly,” Jaehyuk warned:
“He’s so rational that it’s problematic.”
With emotional people, it’s easier to find an escape by catching them off guard or pricking their pride, but with such rational and logical people, amateur tactics don’t work.
Junghyun had expected a stubborn old-fashioned person as the founder of Hanju and an elderly dominant alpha, but he was surprised.
“Unexpected, but should be interesting in its own way.”
Since they would be living separately anyway, and Jaehyuk had said he could live like a scoundrel, Junghyun could simply ignore any summons from the grandfather, but if he was dealing with someone unavoidable, it was better that they could communicate well.
Even if they might become enemies.
“People from your family also seem quite different from my expectations, so I’ll reserve judgment until I meet them in person… Until then, it’s best to act according to the manual. So I ask, this helper coming to our newlywed home, they’re not a biology, medicine, or genetic engineering major, right?”
“Not that I know of.”
“Then it’s fine. I can handle the semen issue. Since they want children, I’ll have to hide the condoms well… What time does this person come to work?”
“Usually 7 AM.”
At those words, Junghyun momentarily stopped moving.
This was quite unexpected.
“What do they do at that hour?”
“Prepare meals.”
“Ah…”
“And occasionally they’ll make surprise visits. In the early morning.”
The implication was that they would come to deliberately catch an embarrassing scene.
“Then separating spaces would be impossible too.”
“We need to share the bed, every day.”
At the explanation that they never knew when or how the helper would come, Junghyun nodded as if that was fine.
“Well, that doesn’t matter to me. I usually return home late and can sleep anywhere once my head touches something.”
“I sleep naked.”
Faced with another bomb as he was diffusing the previous ones, Junghyun unconsciously blurted out:
“…You’re really something…”
He stopped himself from adding “aren’t you” as it seemed too rude, and Jaehyuk conceded this point.
“I know it’s a difficult condition. But the person coming to our house has worked at our home for over 30 years, practically raised me, and knows all my habits. They’ll probably come around 5 AM sometimes and say ‘Oh, I got the time wrong, I keep forgetting things as I get older,’ while checking the bedroom. And if I’m wearing clothes at that time, they’ll report it immediately. Then my grandfather will summon me right away, and you’ll be harassed quite a bit. He’ll demand we have children first.”
While ignoring the grandfather’s summons would be simple enough, having someone who could enter the house at any time was problematic.
“So you’re saying I need to greet this person naked every morning?”
“Exactly, that’s right.”
“…Can I reconsider this marriage?”
Hitting this completely unexpected obstacle, Junghyun for the first time made a statement withdrawing his words.
He had imagined troublesome post-marriage situations like family conflicts, old-fashioned in-law troubles, or discrimination for being recessive, but he hadn’t anticipated this at all.
Random inspections were within expectations, but this man sleeping naked was not.
No, the very idea of having the bed inspected for such reasons was beyond imagination.
Someone might think they were royalty.
“I told you, didn’t I? You have no choice.”
That meant once the decision was made, there was absolutely no going back.
That’s true. In fact, Junghyun wasn’t in a position to back out of the marriage either.
“Sigh… Naked in the same bed…”
While honestly thinking it might not matter much, having someone sleep naked next to you isn’t particularly pleasant. As Junghyun ran a mental simulation of the situation, a thought occurred to him and he asked again:
“Do I have to be naked too?”
“Sometimes.”
“Sometimes” meant they needed to leave evidence of sex. And that meant they would have to be entangled sometimes…
“What if we sleep separately?”
“My grandfather will summon us.”
“What if I don’t go?”
“He’ll harass us until we do.”
“What if I ignore it and don’t answer calls?”
“Then he’ll come to our house.”
“What if I’m too busy and don’t come home?”
“Then he would probably visit your workplace. For reference, after retirement, my grandfather only holds the honorary chairman position and works from home, so he has plenty of time. And he’s full of energy. He retired simply because he has three young lovers.”
At this point, it was like hitting a wailing wall. Now Junghyun understood why this man had looked at him with such admiration for his insensitivity all day, with a face that said he desperately wanted him.
Grandfather is stronger than expected.
