“Ready to stop stealing company money and get up?”
Surprised by the familiar voice at his ear, Junghyun looked up to see Jaehyuk standing right behind him.
His presence was so out of place that Junghyun briefly wondered if he was nodding off again, but no.
This was reality.
The moment he realized this, all color drained from his body.
“Do you have more work to do?”
With Jaehyuk’s kind gaze, as sweet as always—as if showing off to others—Junghyun stammered in confusion.
“Uh… no. Hyung, why are you…”
“My fieldwork finished earlier than expected, so I came here instead of going back to the office. Looks like you’re wrapping up too, ready to leave?”
“Uh… yes… I should go. But, just a moment. Let me prepare to…”
Despite his confusion at the sudden situation, Junghyun’s first move was to quickly grab his phone that was lying face-down on the desk.
Then, as he began hastily tidying up his messy desk, Jaehyuk smiled.
“What preparations does someone who doesn’t even carry a bag need to make?”
“…I need to turn off my laptop.”
As he fumbled, reaching for the laptop he had kept on for appearance’s sake to close the programs, a chill suddenly ran down his spine.
This was an office. That meant Hyung Yoonho was also inside.
Jaehyuk and Yoonho shouldn’t meet.
Come to think of it, he couldn’t remember where Yoonho had gone.
They had definitely returned together after lunch, but he didn’t know what happened after that.
Did Yoonho have fieldwork today? Or was he in his office?
Though Yoonho wasn’t someone who often left his office, Junghyun glanced toward it out of concern.
But of course, he couldn’t see inside.
No, more important than assessing the situation was getting out of here first.
Having organized his thoughts, Junghyun immediately stood up.
“I’m ready. Let’s go, hyung.”
“Like that?”
“…Pardon?”
“Your coat.”
“Ah…”
Only then did he realize he was about to leave in his indoor clothes.
Though his mind was still completely scattered, he forced an embarrassed smile and went to the coat rack to put on his coat.
Without time to button it, he just slipped his arms in and grabbed Jaehyuk’s wrist, trying to leave the office when a booming voice came from inside.
“Why is it so quiet? Has everyone gone ho—oh?”
Hearing Yoonho’s voice trailing off without finishing his sentence, Junghyun thought it was all over.
There was no room for excuses.
Encountering the worst possible situation at the worst possible timing, Junghyun froze in place, and Jaehyuk also stopped walking.
After a very brief silence, Jaehyuk’s refreshing voice rang out.
“So it was you, after all.”
At Jaehyuk’s calm question, showing no signs of surprise, Junghyun grew increasingly stiff. Yoonho, observing Junghyun’s reaction, awkwardly responded.
“…After all…?”
“I thought it sounded like your voice during our call earlier… but I still wasn’t sure.”
“Ah… the call…”
“This guy told me he worked part-time at your shop, so I had some suspicions, but what an interesting connection.”
Even in this nightmarish situation, Jaehyuk’s voice remained completely calm and gentle. It even carried a hint of pleasant surprise.
It was deeply unsettling.
“It’s been a while, hasn’t it?”
“…Yes. It’s been a long time.”
As Yoonho approached them with creaking steps in the quiet office and awkwardly greeted them, Jaehyuk continued the conversation naturally.
“I haven’t seen you around lately. Not surfing anymore?”
“…I’ve been busy with work. I’ve got a lot of projects going on.”
Looking at Junghyun accusingly as if to say “how are you going to handle this?”, Yoonho quickly turned to Jaehyuk. Then he did his best to smile, with a twitch at the corner of his eye.
“It’s good to focus on work when you should be working hard. You were a bit unusual before.”
“Haha, I did play too much.”
“Good that you know. We’re going out for dinner now, want to join us?”
“No, thank you, but I have dinner plans.”
“That’s a shame. Let’s have a meal together sometime later. Come to think of it, we didn’t know each other’s contact information.”
“Well, we only met at the beach.”
Having regained his composure somewhat, Yoonho continued the conversation with his usual good-natured smile.
While silently cursing “Lee Junghyun, you’ll pay for this later,” he finished the conversation with a smile. Then Jaehyuk took out a business card case from his coat pocket. He naturally pulled out a card and handed it over.
“Here’s my number. Contact me later.”
“Ah… I don’t have my cards with me…”
“No problem. Junghyun will know.”
“…Yes… he should… he’d better…”
“Good.”
With the conversation finally over, Jaehyuk turned back, took Junghyun’s hand, and pulled him along. Then, nodding goodbye to the employees inside, he left the office and naturally began speaking.
“What an interesting connection. I didn’t know that guy was the problematic senior you mentioned.”
“…”
“What do you want for dinner? Do you have something in mind?”
“…”
“Or should I decide?”
As Jaehyuk asked this while walking down the corridor after leaving the office, Junghyun, who had been silent until then, finally raised his head.
Then he managed to speak with difficulty.
“…Um, hyung…”
“Yes?”
At Jaehyuk’s kind response as he turned to look at Junghyun, Junghyun closed his mouth, unable to continue.
He couldn’t grasp Jaehyuk’s intentions.
Surely Jaehyuk must have noticed something, but his attitude was too calm.
It wasn’t that he was suppressing anger or showing signs of confusion.
He was completely composed, as if he had anticipated everything.
This was so confusing that Junghyun couldn’t decide what to say.
“What? Is there something you want to eat?”
“…No. Anything is fine.”
“Anything?”
“Yes.”
“Amazing. Did you really eat pork belly for lunch?”
“Yes.”
“That’s impressive. Then, shall we have something light for dinner?”
“…Yes.”
“Alright, I’ll decide. Where’s your car?”
“In the underground parking lot.”
“I’ll drive on the way there.”
Unable to meet his eyes, Junghyun just nodded and followed Jaehyuk into the elevator.
He definitely sensed something off about Jaehyuk.
But it was hard to pinpoint exactly what it was.
So he couldn’t speak rashly.
At least not at this moment.
***
“Is the food okay?”
While eating at the restaurant Jaehyuk had brought him to, Junghyun looked up in surprise at his sudden question.
“…Pardon?”
“The food, I’m asking if it’s to your taste. You haven’t been moving your hands much since earlier.”
At his concern, Junghyun looked down at the plate on the table and felt awkward.
He had mindlessly followed Jaehyuk, ordered food, and was eating, but everything tasted like chewing on paper.
“It’s delicious. I ate a lot for lunch, so I’m not very hungry.”
“Really? Four servings?”
At Jaehyuk’s skeptical question, Junghyun avoided his gaze and moved his fork, making up an excuse.
“Yes. Four servings of pork belly, soybean paste stew with rice, and cold noodles for dessert.”
“And you ate all that in 40 minutes?”
“No. I entered late, so…”
“Well, if you ate with the director, I suppose it doesn’t matter.”
At the mention of Yoonho again, Junghyun’s hand stopped once more.
Now he had time to think and calculate.
Though Jaehyuk pretended everything was fine, there was definitely something off that Junghyun could sense.
It was an instinctive feeling. This moment shouldn’t be avoided.
“Hyung.”
“Yes?”
He tried to continue speaking while meeting Jaehyuk’s eyes, but the words wouldn’t come out.
His mind went blank, unable to figure out how to start the conversation, and as he merely moved his lips, Jaehyuk spoke first.
“About Yoonho?”
Just as he thought. As Junghyun bit his lip at the true nature of the discomfort he’d been feeling from Jaehyuk, Jaehyuk lowered his gaze again. Then, resuming his movements, he spoke leisurely.
“If it’s about that, don’t worry. Given the circumstances, I understand why it was difficult to talk about. It must have been hard to speak honestly about someone who provided you with contraceptives.”
Stunned by this sudden revelation, Junghyun looked at Jaehyuk again, who calmly continued.
“I saw contraceptive packaging fallen in the hotel bathroom. I looked it up to see what kind of medicine it was, and found it was a contraceptive. Since you were the only one who entered that bathroom, you must have taken it. And the person who sent it was likely an employee or the owner of Surf-acation. If they sent you contraceptives, you must be quite close… Under those circumstances, it would have been difficult to explain truthfully, so it’s fine.”
“…”
“You handled it well. I should have taken care of it first, but I forgot because I was out of my mind at the time. Since you cleaned things up neatly for a possible situation, I won’t mention it anymore. After all, that’s why I chose you.”
Here, Jaehyuk paused briefly, put down his fork, and picked up his water glass.
“So, don’t worry about Yoonho. I won’t make an issue of it either.”
Jaehyuk tried to conclude the conversation as if he didn’t want to hear anything more.
And Junghyun, too, couldn’t bring himself to say anything further.
In this situation, there was no way he could tell Jaehyuk that he hadn’t taken the contraceptive and was now pregnant.
As he moved his lips, not knowing what to do, a small vibration sound was heard.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
