TSG 44

“Wasn’t it something you could have just asked directly?”

“What am I supposed to do when I get a call telling me not to ask at all?”

Shin Tae-oh glared at Se-hyun’s name on his phone.

“I can’t just ask my diligent secretary who takes care of my meals where he is.”

So he poked the chief secretary on the side. Lee Jin-ho called Se-hyun to find out where he was and suggested having a meal together while he was at it. Lee Jin-ho responded somewhat nervously, but that could be ignored.

“I only know the general location. Are you going to go?”

In response to Lee Jin-ho’s question, Shin Tae-oh nodded while fiddling with his cell phone.

“Of course, I have to go.”

“Even though you don’t know exactly where he went?”

“I wish I had figured it out that far, but it was disappointing. Try to do better next time.”

After sending a message to Se-hyun, Shin Tae-oh patted Lee Jin-ho’s shoulder. He had finished his business with him and didn’t need to stay any longer.

“Enjoy your meal.”

Shin Tae-oh placed the card between Lee Jin-ho’s fingers. The price of calling Se-hyun and getting information from him.

“Enjoy your meal.”

Lee Jin-ho accepted the black card with a bright smile.

⍣⍣⍣

“Have a seat.”

Ha Jin-seong pointed to the sofa ahead. Se-hyun obediently took his seat at his gesture, and the secretary who opened the door approached.

“Would you like some coffee?”

“I’ll have tea, please.”

After hearing Se-hyun’s polite response, Ha Jin-seong’s secretary nodded and left.

“How is it?”

Se-hyun looked at Ha Jin-seong, unsure of the meaning behind his words. Ha Jin-seong gestured towards the door with his chin.

“Is it okay to work together in the future as colleagues?”

It was a remark made after seeing the departing secretary.

Colleagues to work together…

Se-hyun hesitated from saying he hadn’t thought about it at all. That wasn’t the important thing right now.

“Have I been the only one you offered a scouting proposal so far?”

“Are you asking if I’ve offered it to anyone else?”

“Yes.”

Ha Jin-seong sank completely into his chair. As his gaze involuntarily drifted towards the ceiling, Se-hyun waited for an answer.

Ha Jin-seong rose from his chair and approached Se-hyun.

Sitting on the edge of the table, he didn’t lean back on the sofa as one might expect. Instead, he leaned forward to see Se-hyun’s face more clearly.

The close proximity made Se-hyun feel uneasy, so he stiffened his face.

“What do you feel about me?”

“Pardon?”

Ha Jin-seong posed another question instead of giving an answer.

Se-hyun felt like he had to answer Ha Jin-seong’s question to hear what he wanted.

Reluctantly, Se-hyun looked at Ha Jin-seong’s face. His raised eyes and thin lips hinted at a pleasant emotion. Despite his sly appearance, he had an overall handsome face.

So, what did he want him to feel?

‘What kind of answer does he want, exactly…’

Furrowing his brows in thought, Se-hyun suddenly felt something.

‘Pheromones.’

He could sense Alpha pheromones emanating from Ha Jin-seong.

Unlike his mischievous personality, Shin Tae-oh had deep and heavy pheromones. It was a pheromone that was close to a woody scent, sensual and elegant. It has a scent like perfume, but smelling it feels like a full sense beyond the sense of smell.

On the other hand, Ha Jin-seong’s pheromones were somewhat ambiguous, but they seemed to focus more on the sense of smell.

Although Ha Jin-seong manifested as an Alpha, his pheromones didn’t emit strongly. Se-hyun knew this secret, which was why he spilled wine on him last time.

Even after summarizing what he knew one by one, Se-hyun did not pretend to know anything. There was nothing to gain from revealing it, so he remained silent. However, Ha Jin-seong’s subtle bait was akin to opening a door.

“As expected, you know.”

Ha Jin-seong leaned back and smiled slyly.

Se-hyun chose to remain silent because the answer that he didn’t know what he was talking about could actually be to Ha Jin-seong’s advantage.

“I thought you were a Beta…”

It seemed futile to pretend ignorance in this atmosphere. Although Se-hyun hadn’t explicitly mentioned pheromones in front of him, Ha Jin-seong undoubtedly noticed when he spilled the wine.

But revealing that he knew Ha Jin-seong’s secret as a beta wouldn’t be wise, as it would be a blatant lie.

“Thinking about it, you also seem like an Omega.”

At Ha Jin-seong’s reiterated observation, Se-hyun lowered his head.

“I’m sorry, but I didn’t reveal my traits.”

“So you’re an Alpha?”

It wasn’t like that.

At that moment, the door opened, and the secretary entered. She placed cups of tea in front of Ha Jin-seong and Se-hyun, respectively.

“Secretary Kim.”

“Yes, Director.”

“Was Secretary Kim an Omega?”

“That’s right.”

Ha Jin-seong kept his gaze on Se-hyun and continued to ask Secretary Kim questions.

“How do you perceive my pheromones?”

Kim Secretary blushed slightly, seemingly caught off guard by Ha Jin-seong’s question. After briefly concentrating on his pheromones, she replied nonchalantly.

“I sense a strong scent of deep white musk.”

“Please leave.”

“Yes, Director.”

As Secretary Kim quickly left and closed the door, Ha Jin-seong asked again.

“Even my secretary who’s always by my side, don’t know what you know now.”

Typically, those with normal traits wouldn’t notice anything peculiar about Ha Jin-seong’s pheromones. But now that it had been confirmed, there was no escaping the entanglement.

Se-hyun felt as if he were caught in an invisible spider’s web from the moment he approached Ha Jin-seong.

“That’s why you spilled wine on me. You knew my pheromones were fake.”

Now that Ha Jin-seong mentioned it out loud, Se-hyun felt completely trapped.

“I asked you earlier if I offered scouting to someone else too, right? No. I approached the only person who knew my pheromones were fake.”

Se-hyun found himself in an uncomfortable situation after hearing Ha Jin-seong’s response. While he knew Ha Jin-seong hadn’t approached Yoo Jin-ha, he had inadvertently revealed that he knew Ha Jin-seong’s secret.

“What are you going to do now? Don’t you want to take care of pitiful me?”

Ha Jin-seong said those words with an expression that did not seem pitiful at all.

“I’m sorry.”

He made it clear that he wouldn’t comply.

“Is that why you came all the way here? To tell me to focus on someone else if I reached out to them too?”

Of course, Se-hyun hadn’t just come here without reason. If he had intended to do that, he could have simply waited for Ha Jin-seong to come again.

“The coffee here is quite good.”

Se-hyun handed out a business card to Ha Jin-seong.

“When did I ever ask you out on a date?”

As Ha Jin-seong asked as he accepted the business card, Se-hyun shook his head and looked at him with a straight face.

“That’s not what I meant. Anyway, you don’t need to thank me for spilling wine last time. Just go here and buy a lot.”

“I would have asked you to pay for the shirt.”

“I was helping you out.”

Asking for shirt payment seemed forced.

“You didn’t come here today to be my secretary, did you?”

“I can answer that anytime. I decline.”

Ha Jin-seong looked at Se-hyun who didn’t say a word.

“Is this how you work for Shin Tae-oh?”

“Why are you saying such things when he’s the one paying me?”

“You’re only doing it to me?”

“Specifically, I treat CEO Shin Tae-oh differently.”

Knowing he couldn’t afford to lose ground here, Se-hyun remained unchanged in expression and accepted the situation.

“Is that your usual personality?”

“It’s better than someone telling me to give them money after I helped them.”

This ungrateful scoundrel didn’t even appreciate this favor.

“Then I’ll take my leave. Thank you for meeting me.”

He was nervous because they were together, so let’s not pretend to know each other again.

Se-hyun turned around with a businesslike smile and walked out of the office at a fast pace out of fear that Ha Jin-seong would stop him. He greeted Secretary Kim, who was waiting outside and got into the elevator.

“Phew.”

He let out a sigh of relief, releasing the tension in his neck.

He had said everything he needed to say to Ha Jin-seong.

“It’s about to go wrong as expected.”

It was deviating from the original story he knew. It shouldn’t have been like that.

“If the original story deviates, it’ll affect Shin Tae-oh too. That’s inevitable.”

It’ll affect him too.

“No!”

That should never happen. How could he maintain this stable life? While he had used the original work as a reference, he had no intention of being swept away by it.

“I feel sorry for the main characters, but…”

For Ha Min-hyuk and Yoo Jin-ha, Ha Jin-seong was a threat and a trial. But there was no other choice. Ha Jin-seong had to continue tormenting them as he always had, to strengthen their bond further.

It was about sticking to Yoo Jin-ha, not him.

So Se-hyun gave him a business card. The cafe wasn’t anything special. Because it was just located in an alley that Yoo Jin-ha often passed by.

Ha Jin-seong was at the cafe and whenever Yoo Jin-ha passed by, he would call him. He would strike up a conversation, and recruit him to his side…

In any case, introducing him to the café was a move to enable him to carry out that little scheme.

If he clashed with Yoo Jin-ha like that, he would also be able to seize the moment to harass Ha Min-hyuk, who was a thorn in his eye…

“Secretary Ahn?”

As Se-hyun was leaving the building, he froze when he came face to face with Shin Tae-oh.

Shin Tae-oh stared directly at Se-hyun’s face before stepping closer.

“What?”

Se-hyun just blinked his eyes and looked at Shin Tae-oh.

Why was he here?

Shin Tae-oh raised his hand and gently brushed Se-hyun’s lips with his fingertips.

“Why are you smiling, Secretary Ahn?”

What’s so amusing when he was not even there?

“That… I can smile.”

“Is that so? But your smile seems a bit insincere.”

Shin Tae-oh muttered the reason he only brushed one side of Se-hyun’s lips. Just this side went up.