Ch 13

<13>

 

5 Months Prior (3)

 

It had only been about five minutes since they met. Eunho felt not just burdened but even displeased by the sudden proposal, which lacked any meaningful context.

 

“…Is this a scout offer?”

 

“I don’t know how much you’re getting now, but I’ll give you more than that.”

 

The man took out a business card from his dark gray jacket pocket and handed it over. Eunho, with a suspicious expression, examined the name and company name.

 

Kang Taeoh, Managing Director, Seoin Construction.

 

Since Seoin Construction was in the same industry as his previous company, Samjeong Trading Company, there was a high possibility that what he said was true. Eunho stared intently at the business card, then felt a hot gaze from the top of his head and looked up. A faint smile lingered and passed over his face as he raised one eyebrow.

 

“I’m sorry, but I haven’t been here long, and I’m currently satisfied with my job. I appreciate you offering good terms.”

 

Eunho politely refused. If he hadn’t received the business card, he might have acted somewhat rudely, but given the circumstances, he was the person they were looking for, and it was difficult to say anything carelessly to someone who had access to this place. The access card around his neck read LV.7. It seemed to be a card with full privileges. As he reached out to return the business card, the man crossed his arms as if he wouldn’t take it and leaned his face in.

 

“Keep it. You might need it someday.”

 

Eunho’s face flushed as the man came close. An alpha with an extraordinary depth of pheromones. Eunho gave a light bow and quickly left the scene.

 

“…I definitely don’t remember.”

 

Eunho returned the card and hurried to the parking lot. As the wind fluttered his collar, Eunho turned it up and fastened it tightly around his neck. As soon as he sat in the driver’s seat, he quickly started the engine and warmed it up.

 

“Who is Junseo? How unpleasant.”

 

Hearing the same thing for the second time, anger surged. Was Junseo the person Yoonjae had talked about during his Singapore business trip, the one he had broken up with almost ten years ago? Eunho was very displeased to hear about Yoonjae’s ex-lover from someone else. Moreover, hearing that they resembled each other, the word “substitute,” as she said, wouldn’t leave his mind.

 

When he arrived back at the company, the Secretary’s office was in a flurry, as it was close to quitting time. As he went to Chief Yoon’s cubicle to report, Chief Yoon shook his head and stood up.

 

“I’m back.”

 

“I’m sorry, Eunho. Haa.”

 

Eunho blinked, not knowing what was going on, at his attitude of saying sorry out of the blue and not knowing what to do.

 

“Is something wr…?”

 

Before he could finish the question, Chief Yoon smiled bitterly and pointed to the Executive Director’s office with his chin.

 

“Go see the Executive Director.”

 

Chief Yoon, who shrugged his shoulders as if he didn’t know what was going on even when Eunho sent him a cautious look asking what was wrong, seemed to feel sorry for Eunho.

 

Sure enough, as soon as Eunho opened the door to the Executive Director’s office, he hesitated and stepped back because of the heavy pheromones. As Eunho’s complexion turned pale, Yoonjae quickly gathered his pheromones and stood up to grab his jacket.

 

“You should have told me before going.”

 

He wasn’t looking at him reproachfully, but he couldn’t hide his disappointment. Before Eunho could grasp the situation, he apologized as a habit.

 

“…I’m sorry.”

 

Yoonjae’s expression crumpled a little more. Because it was a hierarchical relationship, there was a high possibility that it would sound like he was scolding him, so he cleared his throat and explained as if he were admonishing him.

 

“I’m not angry. Eunho is my responsibility. I’ve taken steps to ensure that you don’t run errands for CEO Han in the future, but if something like this happens again without my knowledge, please let me know.”

 

“Yes, I understand.”

 

Was running errands for CEO Han such a sensitive issue? It wasn’t a frequent occurrence, and he had gone due to unavoidable circumstances. Eunho found it difficult to understand his attitude of being wary while talking about responsibility. His shy eyes flickered with a complicated feeling. Eunho had something else he wanted to ask if Yoonjae hadn’t made the atmosphere awkward.

 

“Executive Director.”

 

“Yes.”

 

“…No, never mind. I’ll be going now.”

 

As he softened the straight line of his lips and turned around, he heard a voice full of breath from behind.

 

“It seems like you have something to say… Tell me.”

 

“No. I’ll be down in five minutes.”

 

Eunho pushed the words rolling around in his mouth down his throat and left the Executive Director’s office. Asking who Junseo was felt like insubordination, and on the other hand, it felt like his pride was being scratched.

 

The drizzle that had started around quitting time gradually thickened and began to beat fiercely against the window. The weather had been fluctuating greatly for the past few days, with snow and rain alternating. Inside the car, everything was quiet as if cut off, except for the sound of rain and the wipers moving. Even the two men’s breathing quietly sank to the floor. Yoonjae, who had been carefully observing Eunho in the rearview mirror, broke the silence first.

 

“Is the performance report for the investment targets that the Investment Division has secured done?”

 

“Ah… I was in the middle of organizing it, but I’ll work on it as soon as I get home and send it over right away.”

 

He felt guilty that Yoonjae had caught him like a ghost for leaving the office with the unfinished work on his mind and uploading the data to the cloud. It felt like he had been caught for missing one thing after doing ten things well.

 

“How about working next to me?”

 

“Yes?”

 

“There are things I need to check. And I’d like you to have dinner with me.”

 

“Yes.”

 

No matter how well they paid for overtime, he didn’t know what the Executive Director’s mindset was, telling him to go home and work more without even checking his schedule after work. Eunho chewed on his lower lip and reluctantly agreed. In fact, all he would do at home was finish work, drink alone, and watch dramas, but at least he would feel more comfortable than being next to Yoonjae.

 

His head was as complicated as if it were full of tangled yarn. Unwanted emotions were jumping up and down. His boyfriend, Hyunjun, acted as if he had lost contact unless he contacted him first, and his superior, Yoonjae, was giving him even more attention than Hyunjun these days. Yoonjae kept crossing the line between a typical boss and employee, and Eunho was swept along with him.

 

Was that the result? Eunho wanted to ask himself why he was so on edge, thinking of Junseo. In fact, he didn’t want to care. He didn’t want to care, but it kept bothering him.

 

Eunho pursed his lips as if whistling and quietly sighed.

 

As soon as they arrived home, the two took off their coats and jackets and had dinner together. As the sound of dishes and spoons clashing filled the air without a word, the housekeeper, who was standing in the kitchen, quietly left, sensing the atmosphere.

 

‘Why is it so quiet? Shouldn’t you ask what happened at the auction house during the day?’

 

It was clear that Eunho himself was the one spoiling the atmosphere, but he didn’t know why he was so twisted inside. As he grumbled inwardly and only touched the rice, soup, and side dishes within 30cm in front of him, Yoonjae, unable to watch any longer, reached out and brought the side dishes right in front of him.

 

“Eat a variety.”

 

Poof. The tense atmosphere disappeared without a trace at the sight of the kind hand bringing the side dishes from afar and the added words. Eunho lifted his head and met his eyes.

 

“Chew well, or you’ll get indigestion.”

 

Eunho barely swallowed the laughter that was about to burst out in dismay and quietly focused on eating. Something that had been building up like indigestion slowly disappeared.

 

After finishing the meal, Eunho went to the living room, opened his laptop, and focused on organizing the report he had been working on in the afternoon.

 

“The report from the Real Estate Investment Division is…”

 

“I’m organizing it now, just a moment.”

 

“Don’t organize it, just give it to me.”

 

As he hesitated for a moment, wondering how to give it to him, Yoonjae took Eunho’s laptop altogether. Yoonjae, who showed off his dazzling finger movements on the touchpad, concentrated as if putting each number into his head, then turned his head and stared at Eunho.

 

“Yoo Eunho.”

 

“Yes.”

 

“Tell me what you want to say.”

 

“Yes?”

 

“It’s written all over your face.”

 

Yoonjae’s upright gaze poured over Eunho’s face. The sentence that had been filling his head all along, ready to spill out at any moment, finally leaked out.

 

“…Who is Junseo?”

 

Eunho asked, looking at Yoonjae without avoiding his eyes. Now that he had said it, he would get a clear answer and apologize politely if he had overstepped his bounds, depending on the situation.

 

Yoonjae raised his eyebrows at Eunho’s rigid tone, which had no inflection.

 

“Did Executive Director Choi say that?”

 

“Yes.”

 

“What did she say?”

 

“…That we resemble each other.”

 

Yoonjae, who had been listening without any change in expression, laughed in dismay and stood up.

 

“Would you like to come here?”

 

Yoonjae stopped in front of the door across from the fitness room connected to the hallway, as if lost in thought. He focused on an unclear spot, briefly pondered something, then let out a hollow breath and opened the door. Why was he so troubled? The room, which seemed to be a study, was clean without a speck of dust, but it was devoid of warmth as if it hadn’t been used for a long time.

 

On the opposite side of the bookshelf that filled one wall, two oil paintings about 1m in size were hanging. Yoonjae went inside and stood in front of the oil canvas.

 

“This is the friend.”

 

“Yes?”

 

Yoonjae unraveled the story one by one as if he had nothing to hide, overturning Eunho’s misunderstanding that there would be a secret and private story.

 

“As Eunho guesses, an old lover. Who is no longer in this world.”

 

“…”

 

“About you resembling each other.”

 

Yoonjae, who was rubbing his forehead with his fingertips, seemed to be wondering how to explain it to Eunho.

 

“Do you have a cell phone? Search for Lee Junseo.”

 

Eunho took out his cell phone from his pocket and searched for Lee Junseo. There were many people with the same name, so when he re-searched as a painter, Yoonjae, who had come closer, pointed to one person with his finger while looking at the cell phone together.

 

“Do we resemble each other?”

 

“…No.”

 

He should have just let it go, but he volunteered to act like a fool by asking unnecessarily. The Lee Junseo in the photo had a completely different appearance from Eunho. His dark skin, straight eyes with long tails, high nose, and thin lips looked dry and sharp just by looking at them.

 

“What Executive Director Choi said was the same is probably because of the pheromones.”

 

“Yes?”

 

“The afterimage of your pheromones is similar.”

 

“Ah… Yes.”

 

“If I had to be specific, that’s all there is… Why would she say that?”

 

Eunho, who still didn’t seem to have his doubts resolved even after hearing this, still had no change in expression. Yoonjae leaned against one wall, crossed his arms, and asked cautiously.

 

“Ask me everything you’re curious about.”

 

“…Why… did you break up?”

 

Eunho spoke in a soft tone, but the look in his eyes as he looked at Yoonjae wanted a definite answer. As he acted as if he was determined to see the end of it since he had asked out of curiosity, Yoonjae, who was whistling to lighten the atmosphere, smiled faintly.

 

“The first question is strong.”

 

Yoonjae stood in front of the two paintings. Yoonjae, who looked back and forth between the oil paintings and Eunho, stroked his lower jaw and asked in a low voice.

 

“What do you feel when you look at these paintings?”

 

“I don’t know how to look at paintings…”

 

“Just tell me what you feel comfortably.”

 

Eunho, embarrassed by the somewhat sentimental question, stepped back and focused on the painting. The abstract brushstrokes were rough and heavy, and the colors were dark and dull.

 

“It looks lonely and painful. Maybe it’s because the saturation is low and there’s a lot of red.”

 

Eunho became embarrassed by his cheap commentary. He wondered what this had to do with the reason for the breakup.

 

“He was a friend who had been called a genius since he was young and only drew paintings. I met him for the first time in college, and he was unique. He would draw portraits if he liked you, but back then, unlike these paintings, he was bright.”

 

There was not a trace of longing or sadness in his indifferent tone.

 

‘Can you become this indifferent in 10 years?’

 

Eunho gave a self-deprecating bitter smile.

 

“Maybe it’s because he had no interest in anything other than painting, but he treated me like an ordinary person. I liked that he was easygoing, and then we naturally became close.”

 

Eunho sat on a nearby single sofa and placed his hands neatly on his knees. The atmosphere was such that the story would be long, so he wanted to listen more attentively.

 

“But… they said his paintings had deteriorated. I don’t know. At some point, his position in Korea kept falling. Should I say that his unique, melancholic colors were gone? Eventually, that became the reason why we grew apart, and around that time, my parents passed away in an accident.”

 

A bitter sadness swept across his face. He tried to pretend it wasn’t, but it seemed like he was having a hard time because he couldn’t erase that day even after time had passed.

 

“He came to the funeral. But the look in his eyes wasn’t the friend I knew. And about… three years passed? I knew he had gone to study abroad, but he had succeeded there. He became an exclusive artist for a New York gallery, and his name became known here and there. One day, I happened to run into him at that gallery.”

 

“In New York?”

 

He nodded. A moist emotion had already mixed into his dry tone. It was as if he was nervous as he recalled the past and clutched at something he had put down.

 

“While slowly looking at about 50 works, my parents’ accident came to mind in some of the works. When I checked the pamphlet, it said it was a contemplation on human death and its shackles… What I felt was right. Even if it was abstract, I knew what it meant, so it was too hard.”

 

A corner of Eunho’s heart became desolate. He didn’t know the exact situation, but Junseo had become a popular artist who put Yoonjae’s painful memories into his paintings and appealed to the public. It would have been another wound for Yoonjae.

 

“And I never saw Junseo again. I couldn’t understand it. Why he drew paintings on that subject. No, I didn’t want to understand.”

 

“…”

 

“I forgot about it for a long time after that. Then one day, I came home from work and there was a painting gift. I didn’t want to see it, so I left it in front of the front door for several days. And not long after, Junseo’s death article came out. The story I heard was that he was addicted to drugs…”

 

Eunho suddenly thought that his loneliness was nothing. He had relied on a single raft in the middle of the vast ocean and had come out of the sea. The reason why he had become so indifferent, as if he lacked emotions, was because of his desperate efforts. The reason why he had no choice but to focus on work was ostensibly to save his parents’ business, but in fact, it was also because he wanted to live that he had become more desperate.

 

“I tried to burn it, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it, so I’m keeping it in this room.”

 

The last painting, which had now become a posthumous work. Yoonjae was able to smile lightly as he faced this painting after a long time.

 

“Anything else you want to ask?”

 

“…No.”

 

Eunho, who had heard all the stories with his ex-lover, took a deep breath and stroked his neck. The heart that had been strangely twisted because of Executive Director Choi Seryeong had disappeared a long time ago. Eunho, who was chewing on the inside of his cheek, couldn’t bring himself to meet his eyes and lowered his head.

 

“I’m sorry for overstepping my bounds.”

 

He gently released his arms and slowly approached the sofa. When Yoonjae’s slippers were visible at his feet and a shadow fell, Eunho’s head lifted up.

 

“Well, I’m going to overstep my bounds too. Take out the word ‘sorry’ after that.”

 

“Yes?”

 

As he acted blankly as if he had been hit in the back of the head with a blunt object, Yoonjae smiled brightly and sat next to Eunho. He gently covered Eunho’s hand on his knee with his own.

 

“It’s a bit funny because it seems like I’m suddenly breaking the flow… Shall we make a bet?”

 

The voice that quietly permeated Eunho’s ear was soft and cozy. Enough to forget what kind of conversation they had been having before that.

 

“The person who wins the bet gets their wish granted.”

 

“What’s the subject of the bet?”

 

He raised one corner of his mouth with a strange expression as if he was really going to do it, so Eunho smiled back, saying he would just listen to what he had to say. There was an unspoken pressure in Yoonjae’s serious eyes to respond quickly. When Eunho nodded, Yoonjae said something unexpected and absurd.

 

“We gave up on B-gate and ventured to invest in Studio G.”

 

“Yes.”

 

“How about we bet that the stock price of Studio G will jump almost ten times higher than it is now in two months?”

 

“Ten times? It’s an over-the-counter stock…”

 

It wasn’t a listed stock, and it was already a stock whose price had risen as much as it could even over the counter, so what was he believing in to make such a proposal? Was it that the FPS game they were making was going to be a huge hit?

 

“Does it seem reckless?”

 

“Yes. Of course.”

 

“Then Eunho is betting that it’s not.”

 

What was this confidence? This was beyond reckless, it seemed like he was doing it on purpose to lose.

 

Eunho was convinced that it wasn’t a deal where he would lose in terms of probability, so he took on the bet.

 

“Yes. Okay.”

 

“Keep your promise.”

 

“Yes.”

 

He was curious about the intention behind setting such a reckless condition, but he decided to wait patiently, believing that time would resolve the matter.