Daehyeon Construction had a very different atmosphere from Taesung. Jeong Se-jin was slowly walking down the hallway of the office, which had a more rigid and refined ambiance.

 

“Good morning, Director.”

 

All the passing employees stopped and bowed their heads to Se-jin.

 

“Good morning, everyone.”

 

Se-jin passed by, responding to the employees’ greetings with a smile. As he gradually disappeared from view, the employees let out deep sighs they had been holding in.

 

“The director seems to be in quite a good mood these days, doesn’t he?”

 

“What does that matter? To be honest, even when the director greets us pretending to be nice like that, I still feel suffocated when I stand in front of him.”

 

“Still, it’s much better compared to before. Don’t you remember the atmosphere when the Haein City redevelopment project was confirmed last time?”

 

“Ah… that was truly hell. I couldn’t even eat properly then and lost 3kg.”

 

“Thanks to that, I failed to quit smoking.”

 

The employees eagerly discussed Director Jeong Se-jin while keeping an eye on their surroundings.

 

Jeong Se-jin, Director of Daehyeon Construction. As the second son of Daehyeon Chairman Jeong Hyeon-taek, he was mentioned as a strong candidate for the next chairman. There were various opinions about his reputation within the company, but there was one common point.

 

It was that he was an ambitious person with an exceptional desire for success.

 

In fact, despite being the second son, he had rapidly risen to the position of director due to his recognized abilities, and was now aiming for the chairman’s seat.

 

To those who didn’t know him well, seeing his appearance that could easily gain favor, his ability to smile well, and his outstanding capabilities, it was easy to evaluate him as a businessman who had everything. Indeed, there were quite a few articles about Jeong Se-jin with such content.

 

However, the employees and those who worked with him knew to some extent. How strong his desire to rise to the top was. What he was really showing behind that smile.

 

“Here are the news articles from this morning. I thought you might need to check them.”

 

As Se-jin entered the director’s office, his secretary, who had followed right behind him, handed him a tablet.

 

[Where Has the Well-Deserved Reputation of Daehyeon, the No. 1 in the Construction Industry, Gone?]

 

[Downward Trend of Daehyeon Construction, Ranked 1st in Last Year’s Construction Company Capability Evaluation]

 

[Smooth Haein City Redevelopment Project, Taesung Laughs While Daehyeon Cries]

 

There were numerous articles clearly criticizing Daehyeon. He didn’t have much attachment to articles that journalists wrote arbitrarily anyway. How could a large company only receive good evaluations? Therefore, in the past, he would have dismissed it as insignificant. But the problem was that these kinds of articles were continuously increasing day by day.

 

As expected, the impact of not winning the redevelopment project on Daehyeon’s side was very significant.

 

“So?”

 

“Pardon?”

 

“I wonder what your intention is in showing me these things.”

 

Se-jin sat in his chair and raised the corners of his mouth. The flustered secretary barely maintained composure and opened his mouth.

 

“It seems that newspapers and journalists favorable to Taesung are continuously writing unfavorable articles with intention.”

 

“Ah, of course I know that too. But that’s not what I just asked.”

 

“Then what…”

 

“Instead of showing me these one by one and reporting, you should take measures at your level. What is the PR team doing? I’m sure they’re paid to do things like this.”

 

Dismay settled on the secretary’s face. Se-jin maintained a gentle smile, but the more his smile deepened, the heavier the internal atmosphere of the director’s office seemed to become.

 

“I’m sorry. My thinking was short-sighted.”

 

“No, it’s fortunate that you realized it now.”

 

The secretary, with a flushed face, quickly gathered the tablet and was about to move when he stopped, remembering something he hadn’t said yet.

 

“Ah, Director.”

 

“Is there something else to report?”

 

“The Chairman has called for you this morning.”

 

At those words, the smile disappeared from Se-jin’s face without a trace.

 

“I understand.”

 

Afraid of unnecessarily getting caught in the crossfire, the secretary quickly left the room. Se-jin sighed deeply and then stood up from his seat.

 

After leaving the director’s office, he headed familiarly to the chairman’s office on the top floor. The chairman’s direct secretary, recognizing him, immediately informed of this fact and opened the door.

 

“You called for me, Chairman.”

 

Chairman Jeong Hyeon-taek was busy swinging a golf club at an indoor golf practice device.

 

“Sit down if you’re here.”

 

As Se-jin sat down, Chairman Jeong came over with his cherished golf club and headed to the main seat of the sofa. Then he picked up a towel from beside him and started carefully wiping the golf club.

 

“I heard you called for me.”

 

“Did you visit Taesung?”

 

“Yes, as per your instructions, I visited and apologized properly.”

 

Se-jin, reporting this, still maintained a calm expression.

 

“What did that young punk say?”

 

“He didn’t seem to accept the apology, but since we went directly to apologize, he probably won’t hold it in his heart anymore.”

 

“Right. What else can he do? That’s why I said what? I told you not to use such petty methods, didn’t I?”

 

“…I’m sorry. It seems the bribed journalist acted out without knowing his place. It’s my oversight.”

 

Se-jin bowed his head. His hands resting on his thighs gradually tensed.

 

“It’s fine, so be careful for the time being.”

 

“But Chairman. If we stay like this, we’ll lose everything to Taesung.”

 

“What can we do! With things going the way they are now, what can we do! Think about trying to keep even the second place.”

 

Keep even the second place, Se-jin barely held back a snort. He didn’t want to be disgusted by his incompetent father’s appearance.

 

“That’s enough, you can go now.”

 

“Yes.”

 

But Se-jin didn’t say anything else and stood up, leaving with final words that he would keep it in mind.

 

“Se-jin, you listen well to your father’s words. Don’t do anything foolish.”

 

He bowed his head with a polite smile. Se-jin had no answer to give to those words.

 

* * *

 

Hyeseong, who had returned from his aunt’s house, was having very fulfilling days lately. First thing in the morning, he woke up early and exercised. It wasn’t anything grand to speak of, just jogging around the neighborhood once or twice. Still, starting the day after moving his body brought quite a refreshing feeling.

 

In the morning, he rested a bit and then went out to the field, struggling alone for a few hours to cultivate it. At first, after Dohyun left, he thought it might be a bit overwhelming to do alone, but who said it? Humans are animals of adaptation. Now he had become quite skilled.

 

Moreover, when Hyeseong was struggling because he didn’t know something, passing neighborhood elders would step in to help as if it were their own business.

 

Up to here could be considered his original daily routine. There was one changed scene recently, and that was…

 

“Hyeseong.”

 

“Hello, Ahjussi.”

 

Ihyeok was coming to Hyeseong’s house instead of his own home after work.

 

“Not ‘hello’, say ‘good work’. That would make me feel more energized.”

 

“If you provide a separate food allowance, I’ll consider it.”

 

It had been a week since he started naturally coming over and having dinner. Actually, it was a bit awkward, but the refrigerator was full of side dishes anyway. And he felt that if he sent Ihyeok home alone, he probably wouldn’t eat dinner properly, so there was no choice.

 

“What are you making for me today?”

 

Ihyeok stuck close to Hyeseong, who was busy moving around in the kitchen.

 

“We’re having bibimbap with vegetables. And this is strictly made by my aunt, not me.”

 

I see, Ihyeok was about to subtly wrap his arm around Hyeseong’s waist when he was hit with a slap loud enough to make a sound and chased far away.

 

The bibimbap, filled with gochujang, sesame oil, and vegetables, was completed, and so began the still unfamiliar dinner.

 

While eating together, Hyeseong comfortably shared his day’s events with Ihyeok, and Ihyeok did the same. Although half of it was cursing about Seongjin, Hyeseong enjoyed even that.

 

When he was laughing and talking comfortably with Ihyeok, he suddenly felt like he had returned to the past when he had no worries.

 

A few days ago, Hyeseong had revealed some of the emotions he had only thought about to Ihyeok, and Ihyeok had listened silently while making an even more pained expression than himself.

 

Nothing particularly notable had happened since then. Ihyeok now familiarly left messages in the morning saying he liked him, or called at lunchtime to say he missed him. And when they met like this every evening, he would look at Hyeseong with a gaze quite different from before and listen to his stories.

 

Nothing had changed. And Hyeseong knew. That the key to this change in relationship was held by none other than himself.

 

After finishing the meal, the dishes were naturally done by Ihyeok. The sight of his back doing the dishes with his sleeves rolled up and wearing bright red rubber gloves was strangely stimulating, and there had been several times when Hyeseong felt the urge to capture it in a photo. But he never actually did it.

 

It was when Ihyeok finished the dishes and came out to the living room. Suddenly, the living room lights flickered and the interior went dark.

 

“Huh?”

 

Hyeseong got up and tried turning on switches around the room, but the lights didn’t come on.

 

“Looks like a power outage for the whole neighborhood.”

 

Ihyeok said, looking out the window. True to his words, the entire neighborhood was engulfed in pitch darkness.

 

“I’ll go check the fuse box.”

 

It was when Hyeseong was about to cross the living room. As he tried to move quickly, he ended up stubbing his toe on the table leg and sat down on the floor with a short cry.

 

“Hyeseong.”

 

Startled, Ihyeok immediately rushed to Hyeseong. He felt the tremendous pain that anyone, not just Koreans but people worldwide, would know.

 

“Are you okay?”

 

“Yes, I just stubbed it.”

 

It was enough to make tears well up, but that was really all. However, Ihyeok, being overly concerned for some reason, lifted Hyeseong’s foot.

 

“Ahjussi, I’m really fine.”

 

And he was busy examining whether there was any injury, even in the darkness, after removing the sock.

 

“You should be more careful.”

 

Ihyeok’s hand felt Hyeseong’s toes. Hyeseong bit his lip at the ticklish sensation from the hot fingertips. It was just ticklish, but he didn’t know why his heart was pounding so loudly.

 

“Ah, Ahjussi.”

 

“What, does it hurt a lot?”

 

“It’s not that… it’s ticklish.”

 

“Huh?”

 

“It’s ticklish because you keep touching it.”

 

Hyeseong lowered his head deeply. Due to the power outage, skin color wasn’t visible well, but Ihyeok vaguely knew. That Hyeseong’s face was surely red like a ripe persimmon.

 

“Hyeseong.”

 

Because right now, a familiar soap scent was gently emanating from Hyeseong. Ihyeok unconsciously reached out and lifted his face.

 

The two pairs of eyes that met were trembling helplessly.