Episode 26

“Our deal is still valid even without the director’s information, isn’t it?”

“Well, that’s true. But it’s a bit of a waste of time coming here for nothing. I even took time out of my busy schedule.”

Hyeokjae grumbled, fully leaning back in the back seat. It was the first time he had seen Han Seung-hyun look so uninteresting in his life.

“I thought he would at least get fired up with competitiveness after seeing my face, even if it annoyed him. Are you really not going to tell me what happened?”

“It was clearly an important condition of our deal not to discuss the director’s personal matters. Have you already forgotten?”

“Ah. It’s really no fun. This is why I hate going around with this secretary.”

Although he had left the company, Seung-hyun had an inseparably close relationship with HJ. Anyway, he was Chairman Han’s grandson by family register and had been involved in many of HJ’s major projects.

His secretary, Lee Seok-hyung, was also like an information vault. The relationships between corporations were originally intertwined. Hyeokjae was not a fool to give up the benefits that had come his way.

“Yeah. Even if he says that, he’ll probably feel exhilarated seeing Han Tae-sung get hit. He might change his mind and return to the company as our secretary wants.”

“……”

Seok-hyung pressed his lips together and focused on driving. It was unlikely that Seung-hyun would return to the company, but Seok-hyung had no intention of abandoning this plan.

‘He will definitely regret it later. It’s for that time. No one knows him better than me.’

He was confident that no one knew Seung-hyun as well as he did. The Seung-hyun that Seok-hyung knew was definitely not someone who would be satisfied with this ending.

“…You must keep your promise.”

“Don’t worry. It’s not like it’s a loss for me anyway. At most… I’m fine as long as I look good to our elder.”

Hyeokjae waved his hand as if telling him not to worry. The car carrying the two passed through a mountain road and entered the highway.

***

[“I also tried. I tried to like you too. But it didn’t work.”

“……”

“I thought there was nothing that effort couldn’t do, but love, it turns out it’s not something that happens just because you try.”]

Seung-hyun, who had eaten dinner, was watching a movie on the large TV on the living room wall. Perhaps because it was an alpha-omega world setting. Dramas and movies were all stories with that subject.

[“No matter how hard I try, I can’t feel your pheromones, and I can’t even notice when you’re having a heat cycle and struggling. So I stupidly fall for the lie that you seem to have a cold.”

“That’s…”

“I know. It must have been for my sake. But I….”]

“So poignant. So poignant.”

Seung-hyun muttered, looking at the man crying and speaking in the TV. The co-star was also a man. It was still a bit unfamiliar to see such scenes, but indeed, this world was one where both same-sex and opposite-sex relationships were accepted as normal.

There were people who viewed relationships other than alpha and omega, or beta and beta negatively, but they were a minority. It was a perfect world setting for love.

Of course, it was still a story far from Seung-hyun. Naturally, Seung-hyun also had the desire to date. He was an affectionate person and had romantic dreams.

Coming into a world where dating between men was not an issue at all, he had naturally imagined such things.

But the time given to him was not very long. He had heard this somewhere before. The expiration date of love was about 18 to 30 months.

18 to 30 months. For Seung-hyun, it was long if long, short if short, but he didn’t even have that much leeway. He wasn’t sure if he could come to love someone in this world, but even if he did fall in love, it was a problem.

Then, wouldn’t it become a bit difficult to think that it doesn’t matter since he’s going to die soon anyway? He felt like he would have lingering attachments. He might even come to resent the current situation.

Seung-hyun didn’t want that. The time he had gained, even in this way, was too precious to think negatively and sink into sadness, and he didn’t want to waste time on useless things.

‘And if it does continue… that person will be left alone.’

Perhaps living might be more painful than dying. Seung-hyun thought like that and lightly rested his cheek on his knee.

[“But how can we love each other? No matter how hard I tried, it didn’t work. Reality, reality is… like that.”]

“…I chose the wrong movie.”

Seung-hyun shook his head and picked up the remote control. He pressed the back button on the movie screen he was watching and returned to the movie selection screen.

Isn’t there anything fun instead of this gloomy content? Seung-hyun pressed the remote control and scanned the movie summaries. It would be nice if it was just funny, regardless of alphas or omegas.

After much consideration, he found a comedy movie that felt light from the poster and pressed the play button. Fortunately, it seemed he had chosen well this time.

[“You didn’t do it, so I came.”

“Ack!”]

The content was one-dimensional, but that made it even more fun. It was perfect for passing the time since it could be watched without thinking deeply. Seung-hyun watched the movie while crunching on snacks on the sofa.

[“You only live once. I have to take responsibility, will you take responsibility for me?!”]

He was immersed in the scene where the main characters were smashing the set while lying on the sofa. He especially liked the refreshingly cool action scenes that made the viewer feel completely refreshed.

‘It kind of makes sense why Han Seung-hyun’s mother wrecked the house…’

While watching the movie with useless thoughts, Seung-hyun instinctively groped for his cell phone but soon remembered that he had thrown it into the pool.

He had fished it out, but perhaps because it had been left in the water for a long time, it had completely turned into a brick, so it was useless to bring it.

‘Well, I can do most things with the tablet anyway.’

Seung-hyun brought the tablet on the table and opened the screen. The webtoon screen he had been reading was paused at an important scene.

Except for calls and messengers, he could do most things with the tablet. If he had pre-installed the messenger app on the tablet, there would have been no problem with communication, but unfortunately, that wasn’t the case.

‘No. Do I need to call it unfortunate? There’s nowhere important to contact anyway.’

The phone had more calls for annoying things he wanted to block rather than important contacts. If there was a contact he absolutely had to check, it would be the one from the hospital.

But he had visited the hospital yesterday, so there would be no problem for at least 3-4 days. He just had to inform them of the changed number only after getting a new phone.

But why did it bother him a bit that the useless phone had turned into a brick?

[“Then is this mine now?”]

“Ah.”

Seung-hyun, who had been thinking for a moment and missed an important part, raised his head and rewound the movie’s playback bar.

‘I said I’d invite him over after I get back. Will he be a bit worried?’

It was a bit unexpected to think of the person he had been steadily exchanging messages with, although it was too trivial to be an important contact.

It wasn’t like he replied right away, and it wasn’t like they communicated all day long. But when the phone actually became unusable, he felt a bit regretful about that contact.

‘…Ju Jae-young was the only person I had a conversation with. Did I really think of him as a friend in my heart?’

Seung-hyun tilted his head and gulped down the cola next to him. At times like this, alcohol would be perfect, but he had to console his heart with soda, even if it was unsatisfactory.

“Eh. What’s so important about that? If you don’t have teeth, use your gums, think positively. There’s so much I can do here, and you’re hung up on just that.”

Seung-hyun muttered words that no one would listen to and nodded. Jae-young probably didn’t have such a significant weight in his existence either, so it must have been a temporary emotion stemming from wanting to have a conversation with a normal person after some thugs had come and gone.

‘Or it could be because of the movie I mistakenly chose earlier…’

Seung-hyun shook his head, recalling a scene from the movie where the character was crying and lamenting about love. Whatever the reason, it wasn’t a very significant emotion and it was something that shouldn’t go deeper.

Tomorrow, he planned to finish the water activities he hadn’t completed, and in the evening, he would stare blankly while stargazing and lighting a fire. Seung-hyun’s house was also spacious and nice, but it was incomparable to the interior designed solely for healing.

‘I should completely redo the interior when I go home. The current house lacks humanity too much. It darkens my mood just by looking at it.’

Seung-hyun looked around the interior of the pool villa to reference for the new interior. It seemed fun to directly design the house he would newly decorate.

“Change the password so anyone can’t enter. No, I have a lot of money anyway, should I just move?”

As he started thinking about spending money, his heart started to flutter a bit. Before long, the movie took a back seat, and Seung-hyun, who installed a real estate app, started looking at houses.

“I always wanted to live in a duplex. Wouldn’t it be okay if there’s someone to manage it? Hmm. This house has a nice view…”

Seung-hyun looked at this house and that house, making happy decisions. A little later, Seung-hyun, who had impulsively decided to move, fell asleep with the movie as background music.