NAME 41

He set the fork down with a sharp clatter and narrowed his eyes. This time, Seowon racked his brain to squeeze out a question with the utmost caution.

“You hate me, don’t you?”

“No.”

He answered immediately, without a hint of hesitation.

“…Pardon?”

“It’s my turn again.”

While Seowon stood dazed by his unexpected answer, the tip of the fork Baek Kanghyun spun stopped, pointing toward Seowon. Only then did Baek Kanghyun look at Seowon with narrowed eyes, appearing satisfied.

“When you were in university, did we ever meet?”

Ah—a small sigh leaked through Seowon’s parted lips.

“I already told you about that during the last company dinner.”

“Answer with only yes or no.”

After a moment of silence, Seowon picked up his glass. He didn’t want to answer ‘yes’ because he hated the follow-up questions that would come with it, but saying ‘no’ felt like lying and losing.

After draining the wine glass in one gulp, Seowon wiped his mouth and picked up the fork. The spinning fork pointed at… Seowon again.

“No, what is this…!”

“There’s nothing wrong with the fork. I already checked it.”

“…Just ask your question.”

He had only had one glass, but he was already starting to feel a buzz. The taste was moderately sweet and bitter, but the alcohol content seemed quite high, so Seowon rinsed his mouth with water and rubbed his cheeks.

“Do you hate me because I’m a ‘parachute’ appointment?”

“No.”

Fortunately, this was a question he could answer. The fork’s master was still Seowon. Praying that it would land on Baek Kanghyun, Seowon spun it with all his might. Once the fork’s judgment was over, Seowon immediately threw out a question.

“Did you tell Assistant Manager Lee Jaehwan that you spent a heat cycle with me?”

“That’s right.”

“Are you seriously crazy?”

“Now it’s my turn.”

Leaving the fuming Seowon in front of him, he calmly spun the fork. The fork sided with Seowon once more. Childish questions swirled in his head, like ‘If you don’t hate me, do you like me?’ or ‘Are you interested in me?’ After much deliberation, Seowon brought up something he had wanted to ask him for a long time.

“What about you, Team Leader? Did you ever see me at university?”

He had simply returned the same question he was asked, but his heart was pounding like crazy. The gaze staring intently at his face was unusual.

Even though he wore glasses back then and had a much more plain appearance, there wasn’t a huge difference between Seowon the Beta and Seowon the Omega. Besides, he had met and had sex with Baek Kanghyun almost every day… He hoped that perhaps a small piece of his image remained somewhere in his memory.

Hope? Good grief.

“No.”

But the answer that popped out of his mouth was cold and firm.

“Is from behind your preference?”

As the truth game matured, Baek Kanghyun’s questions became increasingly bold. Starting with whether the sex with him was good, the questions poured out like lewd jokes: Did you like my pheromones? How is my body? Seowon answered a few, but when he received a question he couldn’t bring himself to answer, he drank. As the alcohol became too much to handle, he chose the penalty instead.

His jacket was already off; he had loosened his tie and taken off his pants and socks. Now the only clothes left to remove were his shirt and underwear. Thoroughly drunk, Seowon just waited for this damn game to end.

“By the way, how long are you going to keep playing this game?”

“Until the alcohol runs out and there’s nothing left to take off. Just answer.”

In other words, the game would end when the last of the wine was finished and either Seowon or Baek Kanghyun was completely naked.

“No. I hate that.”

“Right, I’ll take that into account.”

The fork, which had sided with Seowon quite a bit in the beginning, gradually started handing victories to the master of the house. After hearing Baek Kanghyun’s answer that he hadn’t seen him before, Seowon started asking questions recklessly, as if he didn’t care what happened. He threw out a bunch of questions that technically violated the game rules, ranging from ‘Are you jealous of me and Jaehwan?’ to ‘I can’t figure out what you’re thinking at all.’

“What do you mean ‘take that into account’… are you crazy?”

Baek Kanghyun answered most of the questions clearly, and when a difficult question arose, he chose the penalty instead of the alcohol. Compared to Seowon, who was trying his best to take his clothes off as late as possible, he had boldly unbuttoned his shirt and bared his upper body from the start.

“Spin it.”

“I understand.”

Soaked in alcohol, Seowon opened his eyes half-lidded and stared at the tip of the fork as it spun and stopped. It was so annoying that it pointed at him again.

“Have you met anyone on Cycle Gate?”

“Pardon?”

“I don’t think the quality of that thing is very good.”

“How did you know…?”

“Just answer.”

The feeling was enough to snap him out of his drunkenness and chase away his sleepiness. Seowon checked his body here and there to see if there were any wiretapping devices or hidden cameras. Or did he hack his phone? How did he know that?

“To think you’d look for a partner on a trashy app like that. How vulgar.”

“What… what are you talking about?!”

Seowon shouted, turning pale. Baek Kanghyun furrowed his brow and swirled the wine in his mouth. It was the last of the wine. Seowon was so flustered that he didn’t even notice that Baek Kanghyun had finished off the final penalty drink, even though it wasn’t his turn.

“I—I’ve never done anything like that.”

“Answer with only yes or no.”

“I can’t answer because I’ve never done it.”

Seowon began to unbutton his shirt. His head felt hot, as if someone had stuffed it with burning charcoal. The question itself was wrong. He should have asked if he had ever used the app first. However, Seowon didn’t want to talk any more about that terrible app, so he chose to strip instead.

“It’s Assistant Manager Jeong’s turn. This might be the last game.”

Seowon picked up the fork and glared at what was in front of him. Behind the fork, in his blurred vision, Baek Kanghyun was smiling with total composure.

“…”

Perhaps because it was the last game or because he had spun the fork too hard, it spun on the table for a long time. Seowon stared at the fork, feeling the alcohol spread rapidly through his veins. He was confused whether the fork was spinning or if his vision was spinning. The fork was turning clockwise while Seowon’s vision turned counter-clockwise, making his head spin.

Praying that he wouldn’t be the one caught this time—or rather, wishing he would be caught so this shitty truth game would end—he glared at the tip of the fork.

“They say if the beginning is good, the end won’t be. That describes Assistant Manager Jeong perfectly.”

“…Damn it.”

Seowon slammed his forehead against the table with a thud. The damn fork didn’t side with Seowon.

“Just… ask quickly.”

Seowon barely managed to speak, his tongue half-tied. His eyes were spinning and his stomach was churning. Seowon had already passed his maximum alcohol limit a long time ago; if he let his guard down for even a second, he felt like he would show something unsightly. In other words, a crisis had arrived where what Seowon had eaten for dinner, how much, and the digestive state of that food might be vividly revealed.

“Since it’s the last one, I want to be careful. No, it might not be the last. If you answer this time, you get another chance, right?”

“Just hur—ry up.”

He was prepared to answer no matter what he was asked. He had to protect his precious underwear. And a moment later, Baek Kanghyun’s final question finally flew in.

“Did you find a new partner?”

“…Pardon?”

“You broke things off with that PR team assistant manager bastard.”

“How—how did you… no, I!”

He had been completely played by Baek Kanghyun. He shouldn’t have answered in the first place… But the situation had already happened, and Baek Kanghyun was smiling broadly as if he had figured everything out. He had the face of a man who had finally won. With his reason halved and his courage doubled by the alcohol, Seowon yelled.

“No! There’s no need to find one. Things with Jaehwan are still—!”

Seowon stopped mid-sentence and grit his teeth. Baek Kanghyun was staring at Seowon with his chin resting on his hand, as if he already knew everything.

“It’s troublesome if you lie in a truth game. You have to follow the rules.”

He couldn’t even guess how much this man knew. How could he know what happened during lunch today so quickly? Was he really wiretapping him?

“Do you think the emergency stairs are some kind of secret hideout? Who wouldn’t know when you’re fighting so loudly in a place where sound echoes like that?”

“No, I…”

“Since that seems settled. This time, answer properly. Did you find a new partner?”

“…”

So this was what it felt like to be backed into a corner. He had gained almost no information from him, but he had shown his own hand completely. He thought it was a fair game, but it wasn’t at all. If only that damn fork had sided with him just a little more…

If he answered honestly, Baek Kanghyun would surely pounce and suggest being partners, and if he lied, he would pester him about who that new partner was. Until Seowon was scraped down to dust. Therefore, there was only one way to avoid this situation: taking off the clothes remaining on his body.