PIA 7

Ji-an couldn’t concentrate on shopping because of his grandmother’s reminder of villain Ji-an’s misdeeds. This wasn’t an area he was interested in, and he was only  here to comply with his mother’s request. There was no way he could put on a happy face.

Manager Cha, the personal shopper who had come to assist Ji-an as requested by his mother, was quite uncomfortable due to this.

“It seems like you’re not very interested today. You don’t seem to be in good spirits, as Ms. Yoon mentioned. Would you like another cup of warm tea?

“Oh, no, thank you.”

“Or perhaps, you didn’t find anything you liked among the items I showed you? How about I recommend products from other brands?”

“No, no. I will buy everything you brought here. Just give me everything.”

Ji-an, who had been sitting on the couch absentmindedly, became worried that Manager Cha would bring out more new items. He had a lot to do today, making a hospital appointment was his top priority.

“Are you going to wear the watch that you mentioned from last time separately?”

Manager Cha said while looking at Ji-an’s empty wrist. His gloved hand was holding an expensive watch that Seo Ji-an of this world had ordered some time ago in his hand.

“No, I’ll just put it in the box and take it home with me. Could you give me some perfume, please?”

“Yes, of course.”

‘Villain Seo Ji-an’ enjoyed extravagant and flashy things. As for him, it was quite the opposite. It was undoubtedly his older brother who brought him here and wrote the drama script with strange delusions.

“He made our grandmother the same, but made me a crazy character. That lunatic.”

Ji-an glanced at the sports brand bag wedged in between the luxury shopping bags in a row. Inside, there were jersey tops and bottoms in unobtrusive colors, a black cap, and white sneakers, as requested. 

When he informed the personal shopper of the brand he used to like and expressed his intention to make a purchase, Manager Cha’s eyes widened as if he had seen a ghost. He had the expression of someone who wondered if this madman’s day of reckoning was approaching, and why his taste had suddenly changed overnight.

“And I’ll wear these to go.”

“Yes. I’ll set them up in the fitting room along with the perfume.”

There was nothing wrong if the customer’s tastes changed overnight. So long as they stick to the total amount spent. Manager Cha smiled broadly as he carried out Ji-an’s request.

When Ji-an came out of the fitting room after changing into the clothes, he felt a sense of relief. The headache that had been bothering him since he entered the dressing room this morning had finally subsided.

He removed the fitted and flashy suit that clung to his body and the tightly-wound tie, replacing them with a stretchy knit sweatshirt and jogger pants, which gave him a newfound sense of comfort. He wanted to discard his colorful underwear and replace it with plain ones, but since there was no one to see them immediately, he restrained himself.

“Just a moment. Just this…”

Manager Cha stopped Ji-an, who was about to go, thinking everything was finished. He took out a scarf from an orange shopping bag, carefully removed the tag, and wrapped it around Ji-an’s neck.

“Oh, it’s very pretty.”

“Uh… thank you.”

The word “pretty” didn’t really suit Ji-an, so he smiled awkwardly. On the other hand, Manager Cha looked very relieved. It seemed like it was heartbreaking to see that the customer, who always showed off his flashy outfits like a male idol in charge of visuals, was plastered in calm colors.

Ji-an pressed down the black cap and put on black sunglasses. He said his goodbyes to the staff who carried dozens of shopping bags and the driver as they stood in front of the personal shopper’s room. He then headed to the first floor of the department store using the escalator.

On the way down, he stopped at the in-store café to buy an iced Americano and took a sip. With the driver who had followed him like a shadow gone, he felt a refreshing sense of freedom.

Walking through the first floor, which was filled with cosmetics, Ji-an glanced at his reflection in a mirror. With this appearance, he thought he wouldn’t easily be recognized by his mother if they were to meet on the street.

“Would you like to try some perfume?”

“Oh, please.”

A salesperson extended a long piece of paper to Ji-an and asked him how he liked the new fragrance as Ji-an smiled contentedly. Ji-an slightly opened his scarf without hesitation and exposed his neck for the perfume.

Sch, another perfume was sprayed over the already saturated fragrance in the fitting room. Ji-an’s skin was now so overwhelmed with scents that his nose had become numb and even unresponsive.

Now, with this amount of fragrance, not only would an Alpha be unaffected, but even the dominant Alpha ancestors would not react to his pheromones.

Ji-an held out his card and bought the perfume he had just sprayed, then immediately opened the box and stuffed it into his pocket. He remembered that he had carried the perfumes he had bought earlier in the car.

“Thank you.”

Leaving the store and the capitalist smiles behind, Ji-an stepped out of the department store into the bright sunlight.

“Wow, the weather is nice.”

Ji-an took out his phone to check the direction of the omega-specific hospital where he had made an appointment. It was the right direction to take a taxi instead of crossing the street.

He changed his clothes, put on sunglasses to alter his appearance, and added some fragrance to cover his pheromones. His pockets were full, and the weather was good. It felt like everything was going smoothly, and he was starting to feel good.

That was, until.

Beeeep— the sound of a car horn made him reflexively turn his head, causing the iced Americano he had been sipping to spill all over.

Jeong Hee-seo had rolled down the back window and was looking in Ji-an’s direction.

“Oh, shit, he scared me…”

There’s no way he recognized him. He must have business with someone else.

Ji-an adjusted his sunglasses and turned his body as naturally as possible towards the opposite direction. He tried to wipe the spilled iced Americano from his ivory-colored sweatshirt, but then, Beeeep— the horn blared again.

“…”

About a third of the way, Ji-an slightly turned his head back, and Jeong Hee-seo was tapping his finger on the window.

“Me?”

Ji-an glanced around and pointed to his chest with his finger-shaped mouth.

Jeong Hee-seo smiled instead of answering. Even though the distance was quite far, his expression was vivid. This time, he extended his hand further out the window, making a two-finger gesture.

It was a gesture to come to him.

…Why? Why?

Ji-an couldn’t let go of the hope that he hadn’t recognized him. He couldn’t understand why he had been called. After all, he was just a guy walking down the street…

“Huh. He must be crazy.”

Jeong Hee-seo pulled out two white sticks and waved them around. Although Ji-an couldn’t see it clearly, it was the pregnancy test he had left and forgotten about in Jeong Hee-seo’s office.

Ji-an quickly ran like a puppy that heard its owner opening a bag of chips and opened the back door of the car he was in.

Jeong Hee-seo had already moved to the inside and patted the empty back seat with his hand. It was an order to sit here.

“…”

Putting aside the question of how he recognized him, Ji-an decided to get in the car for now. He had already thrown one of the pregnancy test kits he had taken out, but he didn’t know that Jeong Hee-seo had kept the remaining two.

After closing the car door, he turned his head to ask about the situation, but he saw Jeong Hee-seo wrinkling his nose in apparent surprise. Ji-an removed his sunglasses to verify if he had seen him accurately.

“Why did you put on so much perfume… Did you break a bottle or something?”

He pulled a handkerchief from his pocket and covered his nose. Ji-an smiled in repentance and answered, 

“Why? I think it’s nice.”

“…”

Jeong Hee-seo stared at Ji-an without saying anything. An inexperienced child who didn’t know how to apply perfume.

The current Ji-an looked exactly like that. The look in his eyes when he attacked him while under the influence of drugs, or when he threatened him with a pregnancy test, had been completely wiped away to the point that he appeared to be a different person.

Jeong Hee-seo’s gaze was drawn to the small head covered by a black ball cap, the pale face underneath it, the slightly flushed cheeks, the comfortable clothes appropriate for his age, and the sneakers on his feet.

‘He… He is a younger brother whom I cherish. He is just a kid to you, Hyung.’

It was at that moment that he understood his younger brother’s agitation. Seo Ji-an appeared to be completely relaxed in this. Although he was the one investigating the drug case, not Seo Ji-an, it felt as if he might be the one who would have to be punished once the facts of the case were revealed.

“His atmosphere has changed a lot.”

Jeong Hee-seo muttered while fiddling with the pregnancy test he was holding in his hand.

“Oh, I was going to apologize properly for that… I’m not out for leisure right now; I have an urgent matter. I was planning to get everything sorted out and then buy something, and I was going to apologize in person. If everything is settled, that is.”

It was half-truth, half-lie. In fact, Ji-an had no intention of going near the building where Jeong Hee-seo was, or to Gangnam itself. However, he had considered sending an apology card and a fruit basket, so it wasn’t a complete lie.

“You don’t need to apologize.”

“Then, how about having a meal?”

Ji-an tried to carefully take the pregnancy test kits from his hand. However, Jeong Hee-seo resisted, and there was a brief struggle, but Ji-an lost.

“No… Please give me that. I’ll throw it away.”

“Are you going to take this and play a joke about getting pregnant again to another Alpha?”