#31
Eunsol’s shoulders stiffened. His pitch-black eyes shook violently like a child caught doing something wrong by their parents.
Hyun-oh had definitely said he would come home late today. Eunsol reflexively looked down at the watch on his wrist. He should have welcomed Hyun-oh, who had come home earlier than usual, but because of what he had been doing just moments before, only a wheezing sound escaped between his lips.
“I believe I told you not to do housework.”
“Yes…?”
The words that barely escaped his mouth were just a single syllable. Hyun-oh seemed to have misunderstood. However, unable to tell him the truth about what he had been doing, Eunsol awkwardly stood up.
“I let you do kitchen work because you want to, but you don’t need to do laundry as well.”
Hyun-oh grabbed Eunsol’s arm and pulled him up in one motion. Suddenly lifted, Eunsol blinked slowly and looked up at Hyun-oh.
“…You came home early.”
He knew he should respond to what Hyun-oh was saying, but his mind wasn’t working properly. Eunsol had been longing for Hyun-oh’s pheromones and had been searching for traces of them in the clothes he had worn.
Unintentionally, their lower bodies were lightly touching. The distance was such that if Eunsol stood on his tiptoes, his forehead would brush against Hyun-oh’s chin.
Hyun-oh usually didn’t release his pheromones, as if he had some sort of obsessive-compulsive disorder. However, when he entered the house, perhaps because he considered it his territory, he tended to release them more comfortably than when he was outside.
The pheromones that circled around him subtly dug into the tip of Eunsol’s nose. Eunsol unconsciously took a deep breath.
“…I missed you.”
Eunsol’s eyes widened at the words that flowed out unconsciously. Eunsol wasn’t the only one surprised by his words. Hyun-oh’s eyes also wavered for a moment at Eunsol’s unexpected confession.
“And I…”
“It should be in the study. Go wash up and sleep first. Don’t think about doing housework.”
It was just when Eunsol had composed himself after the shock and was about to speak to tell him about what had happened today. But he couldn’t continue due to Hyun-oh’s resolute voice.
With those final words, Hyun-oh turned around and left the dressing room. Eunsol reached out his hand to grab him, albeit belatedly, but his fingertips didn’t even brush against him.
“I need… to talk…”
Unable to even leave the dressing room, Eunsol anxiously bit his nails. His nails were already so short that there was nothing protruding from his fingers, and at some point, flesh began to be caught between his teeth, but Eunsol didn’t even notice.
Hyun-oh had indicated that he didn’t want Eunsol to follow him. But he felt anxious that if he didn’t tell him about the incident with his half-brother now, he might never be able to.
Eunsol eventually went to Hyun-oh’s study and lingered in front of the door. Hyun-oh’s study was the only space in this house that Eunsol wasn’t allowed to enter.
Unlike usual, the study door was open about two finger joints, perhaps because he had entered in a hurry. Eunsol hid his bleeding finger in his fist and took a deep breath at the sight of Hyun-oh visible through the gap.
“Excuse me…”
He gathered his courage and knocked on the door. Hyun-oh, who had been looking at documents with thin-rimmed glasses on, finally raised his gaze from the papers.
“…Did you not hear me when I told you to go to bed first?”
It was clearly an accusatory tone. Though Eunsol had bravely opened the door, he couldn’t cross the boundary. He stood at the doorway, barely meeting Hyun-oh’s piercing gaze.
“Today… I met Han Hyunyong…”
At this rate, it seemed like he would be sent back to the bedroom again without any reward for having come this far with courage. Eunsol mentioned his reason for coming in a suppressed voice.
The space between Hyun-oh’s eyebrows narrowed at the unexpected words that flowed from Eunsol’s lips. Hyun-oh took off the glasses he had been wearing and rubbed between his eyebrows where a crease had formed.
“Come in.”
Hyun-oh rose from the chair he had been sitting on and indicated with his eyes the sofa placed in front of the desk. Eunsol moved his trembling legs and perched on the edge of the sofa.
“Where did you say you saw him? …My brother.”
Han Hyunyong was someone who made Hyun-oh feel disgusted just by thinking about him. He was the blood relative who had made Hyun-oh’s childhood more difficult than even his deceased father.
Though he now had a robust physique that could match anyone’s, Hyun-oh also had a childhood. Unfortunately, with a significant age difference from Han Hyunyong, when he was young, just a push on the shoulder from him would make Hyun-oh fall to the ground.
Even if he tried to fight back despite his young age, the fight between an adult and a child was never fair.
The more Hyun-oh showed his resentment, the more persistently Han Hyunyong tormented the young Hyun-oh. Because of this, Hyun-oh had to learn how to hide his emotions from a very young age.
It was a life lesson taught to Hyun-oh by none other than his half-brother.
“After you received the call… and left…”
Eunsol swallowed dryly at Hyun-oh’s heavily sunken gaze. He began to speak, trying to explain the situation as objectively as possible, but what actually came out of his lips was just mumbling.
It was then that Eunsol’s field of vision caught Hyun-oh’s hand gripping the sofa armrest. As time passed, the presence of the blue veins protruding on the back of his hand became more distinct. Eunsol rubbed his palms, which were covered in cold sweat, against his pants.
“We met… by chance…”
“By chance?”
“Yes…”
Hyun-oh deeply exhaled and swept back his hair.
The vote for selecting the construction company for a redevelopment project, which TH Construction, where Hyun-oh worked as the representative director, had been focusing on for about a year, was approaching in a week.
It was a project with a total business cost of 10 trillion won. In the current situation where he was in a succession battle with his half-brother, it was also a contract that Hyun-oh absolutely needed to secure.
TH Construction had also put great effort into selecting partner companies for this bid. However, a problem had arisen with the company that possessed the most crucial technology among the partner companies. The honorary chairman, who had handed over the company to his son and stepped down, suddenly expressed his intention to return to management.
As a signal of his return, the honorary chairman began to meddle with the contract that the company had made with TH Construction. It was something that couldn’t be done without solid backing. After all, Hyun-oh was currently the most likely candidate to be the next head of TH Group.
If that was the case, the number of suspects who could be backing this move was infinitely reduced. The most likely suspect was Hyun-oh’s half-brother.
He had thrown a bomb at Hyun-oh and then approached Eunsol. Eunsol said it was a coincidence, but Hyun-oh hadn’t lived a life romantic enough to believe in coincidences.
“Next time, if you see my brother, even from a distance, avoid the place. Don’t engage with him and create unnecessary troubles.”
Han Hyunyong was a person who closely resembled his father.
Hyun-oh slowly examined Eunsol’s face, whose large eyes were trembling uncontrollably. Eunsol’s appearance had aspects that could stir lust in people, enough for his deceased father to choose him as a companion in his old age.
The person who had been showing interest since Hyun-oh brought Eunsol as his partner after Han Chihun’s sudden death had approached him under the guise of a chance meeting. And it happened not long after Hyun-oh had left.
It meant that he had people following either his movements or Eunsol’s.
“And from now on, always go out with Secretary Song. Don’t go out alone.”
“…Yes.”
Hyun-oh was saying this out of concern that there might be danger to Eunsol’s safety. But because his expression was rigid, Eunsol hunched his shoulders like a scolded child.
“You can go now. I still have work to finish.”
It was Hyun-oh who stood up first. He moved to sit back at the desk piled with documents. He had put his glasses back on.
Seeing Hyun-oh immediately immerse himself in the documents with concentration, Eunsol slowly stood up. Due to the tension, he could hardly put strength in his legs.
Worried about disrupting Hyun-oh’s concentration, he moved quietly, which meant it took quite a while just to go from the sofa to the door.
“I’m sorry for… disturbing your work.”
Eunsol whispered in a small voice before closing the door. He thought perhaps it would have been better to ask Kim Myungjun to relay the message or to leave a note rather than coming to talk like this.
The study was Hyun-oh’s personal space. It seemed that Hyun-oh was upset by Eunsol’s sudden visit to such a space. Moreover, the encounter with his half-brother might have only been important to Eunsol.
He couldn’t even tell how Han Hyunyong had looked at him and what he had said.
Eunsol felt like he reverted to a younger version of himself whenever he stood before Hyun-oh. Even though Hyun-oh didn’t particularly act oppressively toward Eunsol, he became excessively timid with every change in Hyun-oh’s gaze and expression.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
