DFLT 48

On the second day, which passed without incident, for some reason, all the schedules ended punctually at six o’clock in the evening. Seo Heonyoung had shot down almost all the agenda items during the meeting, and even postponed the external dinner scheduled for later. Wondering if he was very tired, Yeonoh drove carefully so as not to disturb him during the move.

Yeonoh, who had entered the underground parking garage of Heonyoung’s residence, parked the car in front of the entrance as always, but before his hand could even reach the door handle, wasn’t the door flung open?

“Yeonoh-ya, hello!”

Dojin, who had suddenly appeared, leaned his upper body in and greeted Yeonoh cheerfully.

“Oh, sunbae?”

“What is it, get lost.”

Even though Heonyoung barked in a voice full of irritation, Dojin was grinning without a care in the world.

“You said you were getting off work earlier, so I thought you’d be here around this time and came out to wait.”

“Ah, you saw my message. What brings you here?”

“Ji Yeonoh, who told you to make personal calls during work hours?”

Seo Heonyoung’s tone was unusual. He was not even half-joking but being genuinely serious, and he really did not look happy. Seo Heonyoung was his employer before being Dojin’s friend, and Yeonoh, who was stung by the thought that he had said something too thoughtless, flinched his shoulders.

“Hey, you are the one who makes the most personal calls with me. You should worry about yourself.”

“Ha, are you really not going to get lost?”

“Yeah, I’ll get lost, so hand over Yeonoh.”

“Pardon me? Me?”

Yeonoh, with his eyes wide open, pointed a finger at himself and asked. Dojin, with both corners of his mouth pulled up, nodded his head.

“Yeah. You haven’t had dinner yet, right? Let’s eat.”

Yeonoh, who had to eat dinner anyway and had always been treated by Dojin, so he really wanted to treat him to a meal, thought it was a great opportunity and opened his mouth.

“Yes! I’ll just park the car and be right back.”

“Has the memory of getting drunk and making that scene already faded? Didn’t I tell you to go straight home after work without wandering off somewhere else?”

“Ah, just Seo Heonyoung is bad enough, but a nagging Seo Heonyoung is really even worse.”

Dojin was openly mocking Heonyoung, who kept saying bitter things, as if something was displeasing him. Of course, it did not seem to have much of an effect on Seo Heonyoung.

“I’m not going to get him drunk, so wipe that look off your face. Who are you to boss him around? What are you without your rank?”

Yeonoh, who had no desire to join in the two men’s childish argument, quietly kept his mouth shut. But then, Dojin suddenly burst out laughing.

“Are you asking to be included, or what?”

“I never did.”

Perhaps annoyed to the core by the constantly grinning Dojin, Heonyoung retorted, sweeping his hair back with a long motion. It was a mystery, yet not a mystery, why he felt a sense of satisfaction.

“Yeonoh-ya, should we include the poor, friendless Seo Heonyoung?”

“Ah….”

Yeonoh, who glanced at Heonyoung’s hardened face, let out a small groan as if in a difficult position. If you’re going to stand there with a look of dissatisfaction, you should just say you don’t want to go….

“The Executive Director seems tired today….”

When he answered in that roundabout way, what was displeasing him again, Seo Heonyoung’s right eyebrow shot up.

It was obvious that he did not seem to want to go, so he had deliberately given him an opening to refuse, but what change of heart made him look so serious? Yeonoh had no idea what tune he was supposed to dance to. He had a certain pride in having reached a state where he knew everything down to his tastes after working under Seo Heonyoung for three years, but maybe he actually knew nothing at all.

However, as if he had never been like that, Seo Heonyoung erased his uncomfortable expression, got out of the car, and walked past Dojin into the residence without a word. Usually, he would offer a perfunctory ‘good work’, so was he really tired…?

He was not unaware of Seo Heonyoung, who extremely detested social life, but why did he feel so uneasy? He even felt a slight regret, wondering if he had been too unnecessarily considerate.

Dojin tapped Yeonoh on the shoulder, who was biting his lip and staring blankly at the entrance where Heonyoung had disappeared.

“Don’t worry too much about it. He’s not really a fan of things like that.”

Yes, Dojin, who has known him since they were young, would know Heonyoung better than I do. He tried to rationalize it to himself and quickly moved on from his worry.

The place he came to for dinner with Dojin was an Italian restaurant near the company, a place he had been to a few times for company dinners. He wondered if it was a bit too cheesy for two alpha and beta men to come to, but there was no better place to treat someone.

“Coming to a place like this with you, Yeonoh, feels really romantic.”

Dojin’s reaction was not bad either. They ordered steak and pasta, and just as he had boasted to Heonyoung, they did not order wine.

“Oh, this is delicious.”

Dojin, who had taken a bite of the perilla oil and wild vegetable oil pasta, clapped his hands lightly, saying it was delicious. Yeonoh, feeling proud that the restaurant he recommended was a success, was putting his share of the food on his plate when Dojin suddenly launched a surprise attack.

“How did you know about this place? Did you go on a date here or something?”

He had never even been on a proper date, but the question came so naturally, like a snake slithering over a wall, that Yeonoh almost answered yes for a moment.

“No. I came here a few times with people from the company.”

“Tsk, you’re not falling for it.”

Dojin clicked his tongue as if disappointed, then resumed his meal. They were exchanging small talk, like how work was going and how Dojin’s startup was progressing.

“By the way, did you hear from Sehyun about the watch?”

Yeonoh’s hand, which was stirring his pasta, stopped for a moment. Yeonoh, recalling the unpleasant phone call he had during the day, mumbled and opened his mouth.

“Yes. So I got a manifestation test again today. They said I’m a beta.”

“Really? What did Sehyun say?”

“He said he’d check the logic again.”

“Really? Hmm…. I know they’ve done quite a lot of testing, but it seems it’s not perfect yet.”

“They’ve done a lot of testing?”

When he put the watch on Seowon’s arm, it had accurately displayed an error. Suspicious, he had even taken a manifestation test, but the result was beta.

“Sunbae, could I possibly be an omega?”

“Hmm?”

Dojin’s mouth crumpled as he stared blankly at Yeonoh with a bewildered face, and then he started to burst into laughter.

“You said the test you took today also said you were a beta. You were worried, weren’t you?”

“…A little.”

“Don’t worry. Sehyun will find the cause.”

“…Yes.”

He had definitely received the results, but why wasn’t the anxiety completely erased?

“Still, let’s keep it a secret from Heonyoung for the time being. He’s such a perfectionist that if he hears the news, he might say he’ll postpone the engagement. Then Sehyun might cry his eyes out.”

“The engagement will be postponed?”

In that moment, his chest stirred with an emotion of unknown origin. He hated himself for it. A terrible hypocrisy stuck clammily to his tongue. So what if their engagement was postponed? He was so disgusted with himself and felt nauseous at his true feelings in that fleeting moment, when he had hoped as if an opportunity would come to him.

“This marriage was pushed a bit from Sehyun’s side. Seeing as Seo Heonyoung, who hadn’t budged for years no matter how much he was pestered, changed his mind at the mention of the patent, the project is probably the main issue.”

“…I see.”

Yeonoh answered listlessly, unable to find anything else to say, and simply put the noodles twirled around his fork into his mouth. The perilla oil pasta, which had been so delicious just moments before, was reduced to a greasy lump of flour, slick in his mouth.

Late at dawn, with darkness settled. Yeonoh, unable to fall asleep easily, was just blinking his eyes. He tossed and turned his body for no reason and curled up, bringing his legs to his chest, but his mind was just as restless. Only sighs escaped.

As a beta, every time he climbed another step on the ladder through his own efforts, he was often hurt by the unintentional words and actions thrown at him by those around him.

In high school, after always being second in the entire school, there was a time when he finally surpassed the top student, who had been an alpha. As soon as the grades came out, what Yeonoh had to face was not sincere congratulations or encouragement, but an interrogation about whether he, the perennial second-placer, had committed some dishonest act.

Only after proving how he had gotten the questions that the alpha top student had gotten wrong correct did he hear the teacher’s reply: ‘It wasn’t intentional. We all know you’re good, Yeonoh.’ It was an excuse that he had wanted to believe Yeonoh no matter what, but the circumstances had not allowed it.

However, the expression ‘unintentional’ has a contradiction. It could be that the result was truly not intended, or it could be that the intention was hidden while pretending it was not. The reason why the crime of willful negligence is more serious than a careless accident would be the same, and the reason he started to have a one-sided love for Seo Heonyoung is not much different.

Seo Heonyoung was a person who did not even show the courtesy of hiding his intentions. Ironically, he was drawn to that schematic aspect of him, which treated him and other alphas as just another cog in the machine of society.

‘You were not interested in a grand cause, so you liked your boss?’

The thought he had repeated to himself while putting on a defensive posture at Do Sehyun’s question. The excuse that he had been in love with Seo Heonyoung long before the two of them discussed marriage was, in the end, nothing more than a low-quality self-comfort that he had no such intention.

He had been covering the sky, busy making excuses that he wouldn’t be like that, while doing the very things he hated. A self-contradiction if there ever was one.

‘He’s such a perfectionist that if he hears the news, he might say he’ll postpone the engagement. Then Sehyun might cry his eyes out.’

Did I really not know that it would ultimately lead to this result?

He could not immediately say no to that question. That was the reason why the feelings of love and the regret of having to give them up coexisted for three years. Then my one-sided love, which unintentionally became a stumbling block, would be considered willful negligence.

So, to escape this trap of self-contradiction, it meant he had to help the project be launched perfectly without a single flaw. So that the engagement of the two could proceed smoothly, and so that his intentions and actions would align.

Yeonoh sat up in bed, opened the lid of the medicine bottle he had placed on the bedside table, and swallowed the pill without hesitation.