VDN Ch 35

Seo-oh looked at Nam-woon with a sullen expression, then soon sat down and started rummaging through his bag to take out a book. 

It had been a while since the rut incident. Nam-woon felt embarrassed as he remembered that day, but he was also glad to see Kwon Seo-oh, perhaps because he hadn’t seen him in a while

“Was it you who’s the new guy in the office?” 

As Nam-woon tried to approach Seo-oh, Yong-deuk frowned next to him and said, 

“Young master, we might need to spray some air freshener.”

Yong-deuk sniffed and opened the office window. Ah, does it smell like pizza? At Yong-deuk’s words, Nam-woon sniffed his sleeve, and suddenly there was a loud bang! Seo-oh, who had thrown a thick book on the floor, was glaring at Nam-woon. 

“Have you been at that acquaintance’s house until now?” 

“So what if I was?” 

Seo-oh suddenly kicked his chair away and approached Nam-woon. Then Yong-deuk, frowning even more than before, opened all the windows.

Seo-oh, still glaring at Nam-woon, spat out bitterly, 

“It stinks like hell.” 

“Does it smell that bad?” 

“What the hell did you do to come back smelling like that?” 

“I was just there for a bit…” 

Nam-woon stepped back from Seo-oh, trailing off his words. It was a disaster. After delivering five pizzas, it seemed the smell was lingering. Even though he smelled of food, he didn’t expect such an oversensitive reaction. Seo-oh was quite fussy in a lot of ways. 

“It looks like we’re out of air freshener, should I go buy some?” 

“I’ll go get it.” 

Nam-woon was about to head to the door when someone beat him to it. It was Seo-oh. He grabbed Nam-woon’s wrist and strode towards the door. Suddenly, Nam-woon looked like a little kid being dragged away by an angry mother in front of all his subordinates. 

Once outside the building, Seo-oh let go of Nam-woon’s hand and said in a low voice, 

“Damn, what have you been rolling in to smell like that?” 

“Do you hate pizza?” 

“Pizza? Why are we talking about pizza now? Do I look like I’m joking?” 

“No, why are you getting angry over something like this?” 

“Something like this…” 

Seo-oh closed his eyes and sighed deeply, causing his bangs to flutter slightly.

Nam-woon was dumbfounded. He had been sending messages and even calling for him for days, so he thought Seo-oh might have opened up a bit to him, but today it seemed that wasn’t the case at all. Nam-woon was also getting a bit annoyed. 

“Hey, you’re the one saying I stink, shouldn’t I be the offended one here, not you?”

“Then try behaving yourself for once.”

“What does ‘behaving’ have to do with anything? I behave just fine!”

Too well, in fact. So much so that his first kiss had been with Kwon Seo-oh. 

Hearing that, Seo-oh curled his lips as if the words were laughable.

“Even a passing dog would laugh.” 

“What?” 

“Do you think I don’t know you’ve been hopping from house to house like a slut? How many houses do you visit other than ours?” 

“Slut? Did you just call me a slut?” 

Nam-woon focused on the word that struck him directly more than Seo-oh’s harsh words. The word ‘slut’ was too powerful to ignore. He now understood how Jin-sang must have felt earlier. 

“Yeah, a slut.” 

“How could you call me a slut? Hey, why are you being like this? It’s normal for people to pick up different smells as they live. Why are you so hypersensitive?”

“Hypersensitive? Me?”

“Yes!”

“……”

Kwon Seo-oh had no response. Nam-woon took the opportunity to say what he had been wanting to say. 

“Honestly, haven’t we been pretty good lately? Why are you acting like this after meeting for the first time in a while?” 

“You…”

Seo-oh began but clamped his mouth shut again, stoking Nam-woon’s temper.

“What about me? Spit it out.”

“You’ve been acting weird since that day.”

“What day?”

“The night we… slept together at my place.”

“……”

Uh. He was at a loss for words. Because it was true. 

Since that incident, Nam-woon hasn’t been able to look Seo-oh in the face properly, especially at his lips. Whenever he did look at Seo-oh’s face, flashes of that night surfaced: Seo-oh gasping in heat and his bulging “center,” the slow press of tongue against tongue.

The combination of sight, touch, and hearing made Nam-woon’s heart race so fast, forcing him to meditate just to keep the memories at bay.

As Nam-woon avoided Seo-oh’s intense gaze and remained silent, Seo-oh said quietly, 

“See. It’s like that even now.” 

“……”

“Do you hate looking at my face now?” 

“It’s not that.”

Nam-woon suddenly looked up and met Seo-oh’s flawless face. Seo-oh was gazing at him intently with his characteristic black eyes. 

“Or did I do something wrong that night?” 

“…No.” 

Unavoidable as the situation had been, he was the one who’d started the mouth-to-mouth first. Seo-oh had crossed a line too, but Nam-woon wasn’t exactly innocent; if the stubborn man before him found out, he might wipe out his whole bloodline.

While Nam-woon hesitated, Seo-oh spoke in a calm voice. 

“You still hate me, don’t you? You were just trying because of Chairman Seok, right?”

“That’s really not it.” 

Nam-woon strongly denied it. And then he said, 

“I like big things!” 

Seo-oh’s eyes widened slightly. 

“I told you then. Remember?” 

Someone as smart as Seo-oh couldn’t have forgotten it. Sure enough, Seo-oh slowly nodded his head. Nam-woon patted him on the shoulder to soothe him.

“Look, if I were only humoring you for Chairman Seok, I would’ve started being angry the moment I saw your face at the office, right?”

“……”

“But think back, did I look like I hated you earlier?”

Kwon-Seo-oh shook his head. 

Nam-woon reached out to ruffle Seo-oh’s obediently bobbing head, but Seo-oh jerked back. The hair that brushed Nam-woon’s fingertips felt… a bit stiff.

“Right? I was really hap—”

Nam-woon suddenly stared into space.

“I was… happy, was happy, wasn’t I? Did you hate it?”

Seo-oh caught the hand hovering over his hair and locked eyes with him. Just when Nam-woon started feeling awkward under the piercing stare, Seo-oh finally spoke.

“No.”

“You didn’t like it?”

“I liked it.”

Nam-woon was as frozen as ice. Suddenly, the atmosphere changed. Just a few moments ago, they were clearly fighting. It felt like one of those awkward relationships where a small, trivial issue leads to a heated argument, only to be resolved with a single word of affection. 

Still holding Nam-woon’s hand, Seo-oh adjusted his grip and murmured,

“Hyung… can’t you stay over at my place tonight?”

“……”

Nam-woon couldn’t answer rashly. Seo-oh’s intense gaze was staring at him. Even though he was just looking, that alone was enough to make Nam-woon feel pressured. 

“Se-han’s been waiting for you too.”

“Ah, well…”

The moment Se-han’s name came up, Nam-woon lost his momentum. For some odd reason he just couldn’t push back when Seo-oh acted like this.

“…All right. I’ll come.”

Was it his imagination, or did Seo-oh’s eyes flash with relief—almost blazing—at that reply?
Either way, their bickering came to a complete end. But there was something warm about the atmosphere between them. Nam-woon, feeling awkward, looked around and then glanced at Seo-oh’s hair. 

“Hey, did you put something in your hair?”

“……”

“Heh. Is that because it’s your first day on the job?

Nam-woon couldn’t help but giggle. 

“Nervous about your first day, huh? Seriously, you look like a newbie. It’s not even noticeable—why bother? You didn’t have wax at home; did you buy a new one?” He kept teasing until Seo-oh quietly muttered,

“Shut up.”

Meanwhile, upstairs on the second-floor landing, three subordinates had their heads stuck out the window, mouths hanging open. They’d watched the pair argue, fall silent, and then end up laughing while fussing with each other’s hair. Jang-mi was the first to speak. 

“Whoa, since when did those two get so chummy?”

Then, next to him, Deok-chil said, 

“Why the hell is that guy holding the young master’s hand? Where the hell is my axe? I need to cut his hand off!” 

He whined as he looked around the office. Last came Yong-deuk’s mutter.

“The mood is kind of strange.” 

***

After Nam-woon returned to Seo-oh’s house for the first time in a while, it wasn’t long before Se-han, who had returned from taekwondo practice, greeted him cheerfully. 

“Wooni Hyung!” 

Se-han hugged Nam-woon tightly. Nam-woon also embraced Se-han’s small body and lifted him up. Se-han burst out into laughter, wrapped his arms around Nam-woon’s neck and said, 

“I missed you so much, Hyung. What about you?” 

His eyes wide, looking at Nam-woon, there was a ticklish feeling somewhere in his heart. “Yeah. I missed you a lot,” Nam-woon replied, and Se-han asked, 

“But why didn’t you come? Were you away on a business trip to make money?” 

At Se-han’s question, Nam-woon answered awkwardly, 

“Uh, well…” 

“Did you make a lot of money?” 

“Of course. I made a lot of money.” 

“Shall we go eat something delicious?” 

Nam-woon said with a grin, and Se-han shouted, “I’d love to!” 

“Hyung, I’ll go to the supermarket!” 

“I’ll be back.” 

“No sweets.” 

Seo-oh said and Nam-woon agreed, holding Se-han’s small hand.