If You Want Me - Episode 23
<Episode 23>
He tried to say something, his lips moving. However, when Seo-won took a hard-line stance, Secretary Bae seemed to intuitively know that persuasion wouldn’t work and spoke in a voice full of resignation.
“For now… I understand. I will convey it to the young master.”
“I’m sorry.”
“No, I’m the one who’s sorry for coming rudely. Just in case, I’ll leave the contract and my business card. Please contact me anytime if you change your mind.”
“…Okay.”
Even though Seo-won was adamant, Secretary Bae seemed to think he might change his mind if he saw the contract, so he placed the contract in the envelope and his business card together on the table.
Secretary Bae looked at Seo-won with a gaze dripping with lingering attachment, then slowly got up from his seat.
Seo-won saw him out to the front gate and returned inside. Exhausted just from dealing with a person, he plopped down on the sofa when the envelope Secretary Bae left caught his eye.
“…Why are you shaking me up?”
Seo-won muttered, holding his forehead with his hand.
He knew Do-gyeom was only after his body. Yet Seo-won was shaken a bit by the news that he was looking for him. Only after recalling that he had to keep the child a secret could he barely pull himself together.
When he convinced Do-gyeom, saying he found someone he loved and couldn’t continue being a partner, he had accepted it readily. He was curious, asking why he was suddenly doing this after getting along fine for five years without any issues and what kind of person he had come to like, but that was it.
But why was he suddenly… looking for him?
The reason he was kicking out all the other omegas, saying he didn’t like any of them…
He had no idea what was happening to Do-gyeom during the time he left.
* * *
“…Young Master.”
“Hi.”
Should I have moved away immediately on the day Secretary Bae visited?
On the seventh day after Secretary Bae left with a lot of lingering feelings, the face he had encountered countless times in his dreams appeared before his eyes.
It was really Seo Do-gyeom.
Just like Secretary Bae a week ago, he appeared in attire and with a face that didn’t match this village at all. The only difference between the two was that Secretary Bae gave off the vibe of a bodyguard or gangster, while Do-gyeom looked like a young business leader.
Although Do-gyeom was also a giant nearly 190cm tall with a solid body, his upright posture and every action exuded elegance, making it seem like he was in a different place by himself. How could he give off such an aura even in a remote countryside village…
Not knowing what to do with him who had come to his house, Seo-won just opened and closed his mouth when Do-gyeom glanced at the exterior of the house and spoke.
“Are you going to keep me standing here?”
He seemed annoyed that Seo-won wasn’t immediately letting him inside and keeping him standing in front of the gate.
Since he had come without notice on his own, Seo-won had no obligation to let him in, and now that their relationship had ended, he had no duty to call him “young master” and treat him as such either.
However, he could feel the villagers’ gazes turning this way at the appearance of an ominous person and the foreign car parked in the middle of the unpaved road.
Both Secretary Bae and the young master had appearances that sufficiently attracted attention even without dressing like this, so why did they come this way…
Feeling suffocated by their excessive appearance, Seo-won had no choice but to step aside from the gate he was blocking.
“…Come in.”
“Then excuse me.”
Do-gyeom spoke without much apologetic air and entered Seo-won’s house confidently as if he were the owner.
How in the world are things unfolding… Seo-won sighed in perplexity and followed him inside.
Fortunately, the inside of the house was relatively clean since he had cleaned it this morning. Although there was a limit to how much he could sweep and wipe since it was a very old house, it was better than when he let Secretary Bae inside last time.
Seo-won guided Do-gyeom to the sofa in the living room, then tried to sit across from him but thought it seemed too empty and stood up again.
“Would you like some coffee? I only have mix though…”
“What? You drink that stuff?”
Last week, after Secretary Bae unexpectedly visited, Seo-won had thought he should buy something to serve guests and stocked instant coffee. He remembered that and tried to serve it, but at the mention of mix coffee, Do-gyeom reacted as if asking why he would drink such cheap stuff.
Well, there’s no way the young master would have put mix coffee in his mouth. Seo-won understood since he knew how Do-gyeom had lived, but it was a bit disappointing to be criticized for preparing a few in case guests came when he himself had quit coffee and couldn’t drink it either.
As Seo-won was trying to have a proper conversation with a sullen face, Do-gyeom suddenly shook his head and changed his mind.
“…No, pour me a cup.”
“You don’t have to force yourself.”
“It’ll be different since you’re making it for me.”
“…”
I don’t know what he means… Whether I make it or someone else does, the taste of mix coffee is the same, but he seems to think it requires professional skill.
Anyway, Seo-won prepared a cup of coffee and the tea he would drink and placed them on the table. Even though Do-gyeom had asked for coffee, he looked at the cup Seo-won handed him with a dubious face. His expression was so unhappy that it seemed he was judging whether it was poisoned.
Anyone seeing would think he was being forced to drink it. As Seo-won tried to take the cup away, saying not to drink it then, that it was fine, Do-gyeom picked up the cup first and took a sip of the coffee.
It would be hot drinking it like that… Worrying that his tongue would get burned, Do-gyeom quickly removed his lips from the cup and deeply furrowed his brows.
“…It’s too sweet.”
“Ah, I’m sorry. There was no black coffee.”
It wasn’t that it was hot, but that it was sweet. Right, he only drank Americanos. But sometimes he would share what I was drinking, so I thought it would be okay… Mix coffee seemed too sweet for his taste.
“It’s my fault for thinking there would be black at your place. You like this sickeningly sweet stuff.”
“…”
It’s not sickeningly sweet… It felt like my taste was being disparaged. Even though I knew he normally spoke that way, perhaps because it had been a while, I found myself reacting to his every word.
Still, despite reacting as if he didn’t like it, Do-gyeom sipped and drank the coffee.
Seo-won also sipped his tea and sneaked glances at him. Perhaps because it had been a long time. It was hard to take his eyes off him as much as he had missed him.
It hadn’t even been two full months since they last saw each other, but his unique sensitive-looking impression seemed to have deepened, as if he had lost some weight.
Even though he was a dominant alpha who needed to relieve pheromones two or three times a week, could it be that he hadn’t been able to have proper relations with an omega during this time and his pheromones had built up? Could he have become haggard due to the side effects?
As Seo-won keenly noticed the small changes and worried inwardly, Do-gyeom put down the half-finished coffee on the table and opened his mouth.
“I came to see how well you were living after leaving… Looks like you’re not living that well.”
“…”
Do-gyeom’s eyes meticulously scanned the inside of the house. Although Seo-won had tidied up neatly in his own way, in Do-gyeom’s eyes, it only looked like a ragged and shabby house.
Just by looking at the exterior of the house Seo-won was currently living in, Do-gyeom had thought it looked like it was about to collapse, so old he couldn’t even guess which year it was built. As expected, the inside was also a sight for sore eyes. It was much worse than the apartment he had given him before.
He thought he had paid Seo-won a substantial salary while keeping him as a partner. He had raised it generously every year so Seo-won hadn’t said anything for five years. But suddenly quitting as a partner and coming down to a place like this, what the hell did it mean?
He wondered if Seo-won had suddenly gained an interest in rural life, but the Seo-won he knew wasn’t someone who could do that. How could a person who collapsed weakly every time they had sex do farming? Could it be…
“Were you scammed in real estate or something?”
“…No, that’s not it.”
“But you’re living in a place like this?”
At Seo-won’s answer, Do-gyeom’s expression became even stranger. It looked like a house one wouldn’t enter unless scammed in real estate, so he couldn’t understand why Seo-won had come to such a place.
Seeing Do-gyeom continuously looking around the interior with dissatisfied eyes, Seo-won wanted to say he had adapted to this village to some extent and was getting along with the residents while making enough to get by.
However, he also knew that even if he retorted that he was doing well, in Do-gyeom’s eyes it would only be seen as putting on airs. So rather than refuting, Seo-won naturally changed the subject.
“Did you come for the partner job?”
“What other reason would I have to look for you if not for that?”
“…Yes, of course.”
Seo-won nodded at the answer implying it was obvious. He knew. Secretary Bae had come a week ago, so it was too easy to know the intention.
However, he had asked just in case. Because he never thought Do-gyeom would travel all the way to this remote countryside just for a partner job. Since it was completely different from his usual behavior, he had hoped there might be another… reason.
As the disappointed Seo-won averted his gaze, Do-gyeom narrowed his brows as if displeased and asked in a low voice, as if interrogating.
“Why won’t you accept it? If there’s something you don’t like about the terms, say it. I’ll give you anything.”
“I heard the conditions have improved. I didn’t read it though.”
“You didn’t read it? Secretary Bae clearly said he handed you the contract.”
“He did give it to me, but I have no obligation to read it.”
Seo-won had put the envelope Secretary Bae gave him straight into the drawer without even opening it.
He had considered tearing it to shreds so as not to have any lingering attachment, but he couldn’t do it because Do-gyeom’s pheromones very faintly remained on the documents.
It was like missing him too, but he had heard that receiving the partner’s pheromones while pregnant helped the baby’s development. Since he hadn’t met Do-gyeom after finding out about the pregnancy, he thought even a speck of Do-gyeom’s pheromones would be good this way.
Anyway, Seo-won explained that wasn’t the reason he had refused the partner job.
“The conditions were more than generous even before I quit. However, the fact that I won’t accept being the young master’s partner is a separate issue.”
“Are you referring to when you said you couldn’t do it because you found someone you love?”
“…That’s right.”
“You’re not seeing anyone.”
“You may not know, young master, but I am.”
“You think I came all the way here without knowing that?”
Do-gyeom spoke as if that was just an excuse, with the air of already knowing everything.