Joo Seowon, who had been about to answer right away, paused for a moment and glanced sideways at Im Haekyung before replying evenly.

“The covenant’s terms are stronger than you’d think.”

“The terms?”

“Yes. It was something both sides accepted, so there’s no reason not to trust it. Setting aside my personal relationship with Jehyun. In the first place, that covenant was how things started with him.”

The longer the conversation went on, the clearer it became. Im Haekyung’s purpose was probably exactly what he had said at the beginning: to cut away the other people around Seo Jehyun.

'The fact that he’s saying that openly must mean he doesn’t see me as much of an obstacle.'

Then again, maybe that was only natural. The gap in weight class had been considerable from the start.