#128
“I came to see Suhyeok, and I heard you happened to be here, so I came to see your face.”
Eunhong’s eyes widened at the unexpected name. If he meant Suhyeok, wasn’t that Jaeha’s father? Chairman Lee looked at Eunhong’s expression and smiled kindly.
“I didn’t say it to make you worry. Forget it.”
“Y-yes…”
“If Jaeha finds out I mentioned Suhyeok in front of you, he’ll make a fuss. He should dislike his father a little.”
“……”
“My child. I heard you won the competition.”
At the sudden praise, Eunhong closed his mouth tightly and tried not to smile, which made Chairman Lee laugh heartily, showing his white teeth. Having never seen the Chairman laugh so openly before, Eunhong was surprised.
“See, didn’t I tell you this child has good instincts? I’ll admit now that I looked into some of your previous works. I wanted to show more interest, but whenever I tried, my grandson would cause such a commotion that I couldn’t say anything…”
“When did you look into them?”
Jaeseong opened her eyes in surprise beside him. Seeing her disbelief, the Chairman took out his phone from his pocket and showed her that he had even saved Eunhong’s works.
“Jaeseong, I think it would be perfect to put Eunhong in charge of the Cultural Foundation.”
Eunhong didn’t know how to react to the recruitment offer that came when he let his guard down. Jaeseong awkwardly smiled and stopped her grandfather. Seeing the sister’s effort to dispel the uncomfortable topic, Eunhong thanked her with his eyes.
“What has Jaeha been up to?”
“He said he got on a plane as soon as he finished work. He should be on the road by now. He even told me not to leave and wait for him because he’s coming straight here. That impudent kid…”
Eunhong quickly raised his head at this news he was hearing for the first time. Come to think of it, he had forgotten that his phone had been broken in the commotion.
“Well done.”
“Ugh, damn it all.”
Jaeseong shuddered, rubbing her arms with both hands.
Chairman Lee quietly took Eunhong’s hand and held it. With warm eyes, he examined Eunhong’s face carefully, then patted and stroked the back of his hand. His wrinkled hand was warm, making Eunhong smile, pulling up the corners of his mouth. After being lost in his thoughts for a while, the Chairman nodded repeatedly and said he would take his leave, standing up.
Jaeseong asked with surprise in her eyes:
“You’re leaving without seeing Jaeha?”
“Well, he’ll just get angry. I’ll see him next time.”
“Don’t say that. Have dinner with us. If Jaeha glares, I’ll poke his eyes out.”
Chairman Lee stopped Jaeseong, who was emphasizing her threat with two fingers.
“Don’t rush off to work either. Take the kids somewhere nice and feed them well. It’s easy to get sick during seasonal changes. Don’t be overconfident because you’re young—you need to learn how to take care of yourself.”
The Chairman’s shoulders looked unusually rounded today as he turned away, muttering. Though an alpha with a dignified physique despite his age, he was becoming more stooped day by day—perhaps time was truly difficult to overcome. He continued nagging like a powerless old man as he received his cane from his attending secretary. Just as the Chairman was closing the door to leave the hospital room, Eunhong ran out and caught him.
“Grand-grandfather. Soon, definitely… I’ll come visit the main house with Jaeha.”
The Chairman blinked for a moment, then smiled brightly, his eyes creasing with deep wrinkles. His voice was warm and kind as he repeatedly said thank you.
***
“Are you really going to be okay?”
Standing with one leg crossed in front of the other, Jaeha wore a dissatisfied expression as he parked the car on a quiet street quite far from Eunhong’s company. Despite Eunhong’s repeated assurances that he was fine, Jaeha grabbed his shoulders, turned him around, and covered his face with kisses.
“I wish you’d quit.”
“If you say that one more time, it’ll be a hundred times. Would you like to check if my ears are bleeding?”
Jaeha, who had been smiling at Eunhong’s complaints, suddenly changed his expression to a fierce one. When Eunhong turned to see who he was looking at, it was just a passerby. Eunhong grabbed both of Jaeha’s ears and pulled his face toward him.
“Why are you so vigilant? Are you… what was it? Some kind of guard dog? Stop glaring at people.”
Like you’re going to kill someone. Hm? Jaeha had been like this ever since he saw Eunhong throw punches the other time. He held Eunhong’s hands as if they were weapons that needed to be restrained. Jaeha looked down at Eunhong, who was caressing his ears, cheeks, and hands.
It’s your fault for getting prettier every day.
Jaeha firmly held Eunhong’s hands that were kneading his own, and rested his forehead on Eunhong’s shoulder. As his scent fully bloomed, his body relaxed completely.
“I think you made a mistake, Bunhong.”
“Me? What mistake?”
“……”
Jaeha raised his head again and looked at Eunhong. The hair falling over his round forehead, the white gleaming nose below, the neat eyebrows, round eyes, plump cheeks, the ears with visible capillaries… after examining each feature, he said with a sigh:
“I keep having these really dangerous thoughts, over and over and over.”
“What dangerous thoughts?”
Jaeha looked down at the clear eyes full of questions, then with mischievous sparkling eyes, brought his lips to Eunhong’s ear.
Before the whispered sentence could even be completed, Eunhong stepped back as if having a seizure, his face turning bright red.
“If you do that, really… you! Really!”
“Really what?”
“You’ll die. I’ll really hit you!”
Try and hit me. His grinning face showed no sign of fear at all. Eunhong patted his steaming face and pushed Jaeha into the car. If they continued this squabble, Jaeha would inevitably try to prevent him from going to work.
After a long leave of absence of more than 50 days, Eunhong had returned to work. Although he had expected some commotion based on the group chat, the fuss made by some of his close team members was more extreme than he had imagined. They had prepared a large feast in the conference room and welcomed Eunhong so boisterously that other teams might have felt uncomfortable. After filling up on cake, pizza, and chicken while chatting enthusiastically, he was able to blend back into the team as if his long absence had never happened.
Unlike Eunhong, who had resumed his plain and monotonous daily life, Woohyun seemed to be in a different situation. While checking the team schedule and task assignments on the intranet, Eunhong noticed Woohyun’s resignation notice that had been posted the day before.
[I am returning to my hometown due to health reasons. Thank you for everything.]
It was a brief resignation notice posted on the company bulletin board where personnel changes and various announcements were uploaded. There was also a group email, but it contained no additional information. Needless to say, there had been no separate contact to Eunhong.
People who enjoyed gossip seemed to be quietly discussing the reasons behind Woohyun’s sudden resignation. Whenever people from Woohyun’s department encountered Eunhong, they would look at him with eyes full of things they wanted to say. It was an effort to deliberately ignore them.
With a bitter feeling, Eunhong leaned back in his chair and stared blankly at the monitor, when Yoo Junseok from the next desk tapped the partition with his finger. He smiled slyly at Eunhong, who turned to look at him dazedly.
“Feels disorienting after such a long break, right? Man, I’m dying of sleepiness.”
“Yes… well…”
“Let’s have a drink later.”
His exaggerated winking gesture was amusing.
Despite having many good people around, there was a hole in his heart that made him feel empty. The feelings he had dealt with for over 10 years kept holding onto him, saying they felt dejected. Thinking about it now, they had never mixed well from the beginning, like oil and water, but he felt as if his inadequate self had clung to the relationship called friendship.
Although Woohyun had stated health reasons for his resignation, the upper management of the company probably knew everything. Eunhong recalled what he had heard from Jaeha. Secretary Kim had collected all the evidence of Woohyun stealing and selling the watches and submitted it to the investigative authorities. The alpha, who turned out to be involved in various crimes including loan sharks, tax evasion, embezzlement, and stock price manipulation, would be thoroughly investigated by Han Jung’s legal team. Woohyun, being deeply involved with him, wouldn’t escape unscathed either.
As he sat fidgeting with a pen due to his troubled mind, a call came in from Jang Haesung. It was about time for him to contact since he knew about Eunhong’s return to work. Eunhong entered an empty conference room and answered the phone without turning on the lights.
– You must have gone to work today. Did you see the news about Woohyun’s resignation?
Haesung’s voice sounded a bit excited, as if he hadn’t expected Eunhong to answer.
“Yes.”
– I really… don’t know what to say to you. Is it all true? About you and Woohyun…
“I don’t really want to talk about that. Ask Woohyun.”
Even if it seemed cold, it was his honest feeling. Half of him didn’t want to talk about it, and half didn’t want to see the reaction. As the silence continued for a long time and he was considering hanging up, a voice filled with hesitation came through.
– …Would you like to come? To that restaurant I mentioned before, I’m going with Hanjae. Woohyun is being discharged from the hospital this afternoon. He’s transferring to another hospital, so I was wondering…
“…Sorry. I’m busy after returning to work.”
– I see. Okay.
“Take care. Have a good… baby Bbombbo.”
Haesung swallowed hard, perhaps surprised by what sounded like a farewell. Just as Eunhong was about to hang up with nothing more to say, Haesung urgently tried to hold him back.
– Hong! Eunhong!
“Huh?”
– …I’m sorry, I’m sorry.
“What do you have to be sorry for?”
– Just, everything… all this time… just everything. I think you must have felt a lot of resentment towards us…
Eunhong couldn’t help but smile. He had thought he would feel good or relieved if he heard an apology from Haesung and received acknowledgment that he had suffered emotionally all this time, but that wasn’t the case. It only made the time he had wasted feel more futile.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
