If You Want Me - Episode 40
<Episode 40>
“Then let’s see each other next week.”
Seo-won finished the lesson and promised Seulgi the next meeting with a beaming smile.
After leaving the room, Seo-won turned his neck to relieve the stiffness. Perhaps his stamina had dropped a bit. Was it because he hadn’t recovered from the long car ride yesterday…? His body felt sluggish.
Fortunately or unfortunately, not many outsourcing projects had come in yet. I should go home and rest. With that thought, he was leaving Seulgi’s house when a pungent cigarette smell wafted in.
Unconsciously turning his gaze, the red-haired brother of Seulgi he had seen earlier was squatting in front of the gate, smoking a cigarette in a sloppy manner.
While looking into the distance at the rice fields and sucking on his cigarette until his cheeks became hollow, he noticed Seo-won coming out of the gate and hurriedly extinguished the cigarette on the ground. Even to Seo-won, who had little interest in cigarettes, it was a long cigarette that had just been lit.
“You can keep smoking.”
“Oh well… Um, Teacher. Can I ask you something?”
The man approached and spoke, getting up from his squatting position.
Earlier, Seo-won hadn’t noticed because he was sitting, but the man was quite tall. Although less than Do-gyeom, he seemed to easily exceed 180cm. Judging from the subtle scent of an unfamiliar pheromone, he seemed to be an alpha.
Perhaps because he was pregnant with Do-gyeom’s child, the pheromone of an unfamiliar male alpha didn’t feel very pleasant. Rather, it was to the extent of feeling repulsed, and Seo-won unconsciously shrank his body, but the man slightly lowered his head to meet his gaze.
“I thought it was a face I’d never seen before, but I heard you moved here from Seoul not long ago?”
“What? Yes. That’s right.”
Seo-won had been nervous, thinking the man would talk about Seulgi’s tutoring, but he asked something rather out of the blue.
Why is he asking about that? As Seo-won answered with a puzzled thought, the man looked him up and down and asked.
“Why did you suddenly move to a place like this? It’s not a well-known place, and you don’t seem like someone who came to farm. Did you really run away here, chased by debt collectors?”
The way he looked at Seo-won and the word “someone” didn’t seem to be used in a good sense.
Moreover, debt collectors…? It was exactly the same content that Seulgi had asked him before. Since he had explained it well to Seulgi that it wasn’t like that, it wouldn’t be something Seulgi said. He didn’t know where the man had heard such a rumor.
The villagers often asked, so he thought he had answered a few times that it wasn’t the case… Anyway, it wasn’t pleasant to suddenly receive such a question.
“It’s not debt. There are simply some circumstances.”
“How long are you planning to stay here?”
It doesn’t seem like he’s asking with good intentions, and Seo-won didn’t know why he should answer kindly either.
As Seo-won thought that way and made his tone a bit sharp, the man seemed to quickly read his reaction and awkwardly scratched the back of his neck.
“No, it’s not common to see someone my age in this countryside. So I asked out of curiosity…”
“…”
“I didn’t mean to make you feel bad. I apologize if it was unpleasant.”
The man unexpectedly quickly admitted his mistake and apologized. He even bowed his head awkwardly.
Perhaps because he apologized quickly, the nerves that had been sharply raised quickly subsided. Seo-won thought the man was picking a fight openly, but it turned out he wasn’t. It seemed that prejudice based on appearance also made him perceive the man as more delinquent.
Feeling embarrassed at the man’s upright appearance, Seo-won answered in a softened voice.
“No… I think I was too sensitive.”
“Then can you tell me your name and phone number?”
The man quickly shoved the cigarette case he was holding into his pocket and took out his cell phone from the opposite pocket, holding it out to Seo-won. He was asking for his number.
Isn’t this too sudden? It wasn’t even that kind of context… As Seo-won looked at the man with an incomprehensible face, the man nodded and continued.
“I’m not a bad person. I won’t sell your personal information. I just get bored whenever I come down to the countryside.”
“…”
Seo-won wondered if it was okay to give his phone number to someone he had only conversed with once, but this person was Seulgi’s brother. It didn’t seem like he was asking with bad intentions, so it seemed fine.
Seo-won took the man’s cell phone. Perhaps because he used the device roughly, the screen of the man’s cell phone was half broken. As Seo-won applied force to his fingertips and wrote down his number and name, the man took back the phone and muttered softly.
“Yoon Seo-won? What’s your age?”
“I’m twenty-six years old. What about you?”
“What? Twenty-six? I thought you were much younger, but we’re the same age? I’m Lee Jihwan.”
When Seo-won stated his age, Jihwan seemed a bit surprised. Judging from the way he belatedly added his age, it seemed he hadn’t even thought Seo-won was twenty-six.
Indeed, although Seo-won was still young, whenever he revealed his age, everyone said it was unexpected. His facial features were delicate, so he looked young, and being an omega, his physique was smaller than others, so it seemed many people thought that way.
By the way, this person is younger than me. I didn’t think that way. As Seo-won looked at the man, thinking it was unexpected, he continued.
“Since we’re the same age, shall we speak casually?”
“Speak? Oh, uh… okay.”
“Wow, I didn’t expect to meet someone my age here.”
As soon as Seo-won awkwardly agreed, Jihwan acted very friendly. It seemed he was really glad to meet someone his age in this remote countryside, as if he had never even thought about it.
Well, it was someone who waited to talk because they seemed to be around the same age, so if they were the same age, they could feel happy for no reason.
“But now that you say we’re the same age, it makes even less sense. If you’re good enough to be a tutor, don’t you have good specs? Which university did you graduate from?”
“Me? Uh… Korea University.”
“What? Korea University? Wow, if you graduated from Korea University here, you’d immediately get a banner. You graduated from a really good university.”
As soon as Jihwan heard the name Korea University, he widened his eyes and patted Seo-won’s shoulders hard. His gaze of admiration was a bonus.
This was the usual reaction when people heard he graduated from Korea University. Because it was a prestigious university in Korea… But whenever he faced this reaction, Seo-won recalled what Do-gyeom had said to him. The words he had said sarcastically, that it wouldn’t be easy to get a job with a university like that. It wasn’t a very good memory, but it wouldn’t easily fade from his memory because it was a shocking statement.
I should stop thinking about Do-gyeom. As Seo-won tried hard to erase him from his mind, Jihwan opened his mouth with a face that was hard to understand.
“No, but now that you say you graduated from Korea University, it makes even less sense. Why did you really come down here? Not debt, but personal reasons? What is it?”
“Well…”
“Is it difficult to say?”
Even though they weren’t close, Seo-won wanted to tell him because of his friendliness.
However, he couldn’t bring himself to say it for fear that rumors would quickly spread in the small village and reach Do-gyeom. It wasn’t a story he particularly wanted to tell either.
So he had no intention of telling. This time, too, he was going to smile awkwardly and gloss over it, saying it was difficult.
But suddenly, when he saw Jihwan’s face, he remembered that Seulgi had described him as living in Seoul and being a professional gamer.
He came from Seoul, was the same age, and above all, this man was an alpha.
Seo-won, whose thoughts reached that point, opened his mouth without any further thought, making the most pitiful face possible.
“I’ll… tell you the reason, but can I ask you a favor? It’s something that only takes your time…”
Seo-won’s palm, clenched into a fist, became drenched with sweat.
* * *
On the weekend that came around again, as if thinking the promise to come at the same time was an appointment, Do-gyeom brazenly visited Seo-won’s house again today.
Now there was nothing to say about why he came. Moreover, since they had met in Seoul a few days ago, it didn’t even feel like they were meeting after a long time… Now that I think about it, I came down to the countryside to avoid him, but it seems like I’m meeting him the most often.
Something seems wrong. It was when Seo-won was having such thoughts while watching Do-gyeom enter the house. Do-gyeom held out an envelope he had been holding in his arm since getting out of the car and said to Seo-won.
“Take this.”
“…What is this?”
“You’ll know when you see it.”
“…”
Can’t you at least give a simple explanation? What’s the harm in that?
It seemed like he had brought another contract, so he didn’t have much expectation either. He would probably raise the conditions.
As Seo-won opened the envelope indifferently and checked the document inside, his eyes widened in surprise.
The document inside was none other than a document stating that the house Seo-won had been living in during the partner contract would be transferred to him.
“The apartment…?”
“I’m going to transfer it to you, so sign there. Our company will handle any tax issues arising from this, so you don’t have to think deeply about it…”
“No, no. That’s not what I’m asking… Why are you giving this to me?”
He had never coveted the apartment even once. He hadn’t done anything recently that would make Do-gyeom feel good enough to suddenly give him an apartment. Rather, he had only been doing things that got on Do-gyeom’s nerves lately, but he suddenly said he would give him an apartment?
Small snacks like macarons were things that wouldn’t even make a dent in his wealth, so Seo-won could accept them without any thought. But the apartment was different. No matter how rich Do-gyeom was, this was… too much.
Seo-won took his eyes off the document and looked up at Do-gyeom, asking. Then he shrugged his shoulders as if it was nothing and answered nonchalantly.
“I had said I would give you a penthouse if you continued being my partner until I told you to stop. Even if it doesn’t go that far, you took responsibility for 6 years, so I should give you something.”
“Don’t tell me you’re trying to make me your partner again with this…”
“It’s not like that, so take it. I was originally going to give it to you.”
“…”
Do-gyeom emphasized that giving the apartment and persuading Seo-won to extend their partnership were separate matters.
When he said he was originally going to give it, it felt like he could accept it, but at the same time, it felt like he shouldn’t, giving him mixed feelings.
Seo-won neatly slid the document he had been looking at back into the envelope and bowed his head.
“For now… thank you. I’ll just keep the documents in case.”
“In case of what?”
“In case you change your mind.”
“Me? I won’t change my mind about what I said I’d do.”
Do-gyeom snorted, saying Seo-won was worrying for nothing.
However, he had already once sent Seo-won away without any questions when he said he would quit being his partner, and now he was constantly chasing after him, so he had no credibility. And…
“I have a date planned today, so I feel bad receiving the transfer documents today too.”
“What?”
Do-gyeom’s expression completely distorted.