CH 10

Ji-an heard the announcement in the subway and quickly pressed the call stop button. He almost missed the station where he got off.

Ji-an, who had already moved into the dormitory, was on his way to SJ Entertainment to thank CEO Oh Seok-hyun and talk about future plans. It seemed like he hadn’t used public transportation in nearly ten years. The subway ride he hadn’t taken in a long time was pleasant enough to make him nostalgic.

Jian felt bitter that she had become a face that no one recognized. The person who happened to meet his gaze tilted his head.

Ji-an had become a forgotten face, he was now just someone who had once been known by some people. Ji-an’s popularity vanished in half the time it took to build it up. Retirement was a bad decision.

When he arrived at SJ Entertainment and was about to knock on the door of CEO Oh Seok-hyun’s office on the 7th floor, Ji-an sniffed his nose involuntarily.

Since he debuted at a young age, he has not been free from the diet for even a single day, so his sense of smell, which was more developed than others, sharply captured the salty and oily scent.

He moved his feet as if possessed by the strong scent of instant. He even closed his eyes to concentrate. Suddenly, the nose of the shoe reached the door that was slightly open in the room next to CEO Oh’s office.

“Huh?”

Carefully opening the door, he saw Seon Woo-young sitting in a space decorated like a client’s drawing room. Woo-young was about to crumple a large slice of pizza in his mouth with a pizza, oven spaghetti, and buffalo wings lined up on the table.

Ji-an smiled awkwardly at Woo-young and entered the drawing room. Woo-young looked confused.

“What? Why are you coming in?”

“If you eat all of this by yourself, you’ll gain weight, right?”

Ji-an sat down next to Woo-young. Even at first glance, no one could resist the temptation of pizza and oven spaghetti. After all, he was just a kid. Ji-an didn’t take him seriously simply because the young man was cheeky.

Ji-an gave Woo-young a disheartening smile before picking up a slice of pizza. Woo-young then placed a pizza on his right cheek and muttered. He said after swallowing the food.

“Why do you carelessly touch other people’s food? Were you supposed to be this type of person?”

Woo-young appeared to be confused and asked the question rather than questioning it out of anger.

Ji-an had previously established himself as a lyrical character. The concept was a mysterious, dominant Omega that was soft but difficult to approach due to his unfamiliarity. He has benefited greatly from the atmosphere created by his neat facial features and overall gentle expression.

Even a man like Seung-joon fell in love with the image, so it was worthwhile to evaluate it as a successful image creation. If Woo-young knew Ji-an’s past activities, it was natural for him to feel awkward about his natural appearance.

Woo-young’s dissatisfied expression softened slightly when Ji-an muttered, “Well, it’s delicious.” Ji-an laughed because it had been a long time since he had fun dealing with a youngster. Ji-an was thirsty, so he took a sip from Woo-young’s paper cup which he used to drink Coke. He did his best in a short amount of time to create a reason to eat.

“Seon Woo-young, who receives a lot of investment from the agency. What is our Woo-young doing?”

He asked, but Woo-young already looked like a model. A luxurious physique that stands out even more with a small head, tall stature, and an upright posture. Even the body proportions that would look like a distorted image if mixed with ordinary people were perfect.

Furthermore, while the three-dimensional effect of the features was clearly prominent, it was a trendy face that gave a detailed feeling rather than just a feminine feeling.

He had a similar appearance to Seung-joon, but his overall impression was different. Seung-joon personified the adjective ‘handsome.’ Woo-young required a more sophisticated description. Woo-young was too pretty in comparison to Seung-joon, who was threateningly handsome.

Woo-young snorted as Ji-an pretended to be close to him, having sold his soul to food.

“Mind your own business.”

“Did you get upset because I disciplined you last time?”

“I’ve never been disciplined!”

Ji-an burst out laughing when Woo-young became angry. When Woo-young asked, ‘Why are you laughing!?’ He couldn’t help but ask as he wiped his eyes with his index finger.

“You are really cute. How old are you?”

“Am I older than I look?”

“So how old are you?”

“… Twenty-nine.”

Woo-young put on an obvious lie and looked around as if he were reading the room. Ji-an’s expression had hardened in an instant. Woo-young might have known Ji-an’s age. Even the fact that he was lying about one year older than Ji-an was obvious, like a child.

Ji-an asked in a grumbling tone, lowering his tone from his original moderately low voice..

“Twenty?”

Woo-young lowered his gaze and grumbled only with his lips. Ji-an, whose prediction was correct, drew another soft smile on his lips and looked at Woo-young. He was a different person than Seung-joon, and the more he looked at him, the more he looked different from Seung-joon, even though some of his main features overlapped. His taste, tone, and personality were not the same as Seung- joon’s.

Still, seeing Woo-young reminded him of Seung-joon. So he was approachable and likable. It felt like he was treating Seung-joon’s younger brother. Life in the Woo household would have been less monotonous if such a kid was there.

“What are you staring at?”

Only when Woo-young shouted did Ji-an realize he had been staring at him intently. Woo-young looked very displeased. Maybe he misunderstood that Ji-an was interested in him.

It was natural to have boundaries. If it was a young Alpha of twenty, he wouldn’t be happy with the Omega of twenty-eight.

Despite the fact that Ji-an and Seung-joon were eight years apart in age, Ji-an was twenty-five when they first met. Seung-joon was a charming young man, enough to be the target of a 25-year-old romance. But twenty-eight would have been too old for a youngster who had just graduated from high school.

Ji-an wanted to tease Woo-young for nothing, but it was better to clear up the misunderstanding as they have to keep seeing each other in the future.

“I was curious if anyone I knew had a hidden half-brother. You look strangely similar to my ex. I was wondering what the hell this is.”

“Your husband.”

Ji-an’s eyes widened at Woo-young’s answer. Woo-young’s sharp eyes, defined by the inner double eyelids, were fixed on Ji-an. Then Seung-joon’s expression darkened. Looking at Ji-an’s bewildered face, Woo-young added an explanation.

“Your husband, not your ex. Aren’t you still married?”

“Ah.”

Woo-young was just trying to correct Ji-an’s slip of the tongue. With the divorce not yet finalized, it would be disastrous if the plan was poorly relayed to someone else’s ear. He had to be more cautious because there was also an article about divorce proceedings.

Ji-an was embarrassed because a kid was correcting him for making a mistake. Ji-an scratched the back of his neck, and Woo-young bit the pizza with a sarcastic look on his face

He had considered it before, but Woo-young ate so much without even taking a single chew. Ji-an had never seen someone with a strong appetite put food in his mouth and slurp it so indifferently. Seung-joon also followed table manners, but he disliked eating due to his small mouth.

It was so good to see how he was eating, so Ji-an was staring at him, but Woo-young suddenly got angry and put down the pizza he was holding.

“…But why is a married man dressed in such obscene clothes?”

Ji-an suddenly turned to look at his clothing on the ground. It was a gorgeous silk shirt that could not even be worn in a dream as the spouse of Executive Director Woo Seung-joon. The bases were made of gold and black, and the left and right designs differed from the button. Ji-an’s appearance was elegant enough to not look boring at first glance, but the more you look at it, the more beautiful it was.

Ji-an recalled the last time Woo-young said that it was a sacred accommodation and that outsiders should not be brought in.

Ji-an thought that he was an Alpha who had no legitimate reason to despise Omega, but it turned out that he was a typical Confucianist. It was unexpected. Ji-an responded sincerely.

“You’re young, but aren’t you too old fashioned for your age?”

Alpha was usually the embodiment of lust. Not to mention being an Alpha at Woo-young age. Ji-an was an Omega, and he suffered quite a bit because of the different Alphas who were after him until a shield called Seung-joon was created. If Ji-an had not had to uphold the iron rule of not dating while he was active while defending against iron walls in all directions, it would have been more difficult.

Freedom and indulgence were valued more highly than they were back then, so if you were an Alpha who was as energetic and attractive as Woo-young, you had to ‘play’. Woo-young, however, had excellent pheromone suppression; there was barely a body scent that made him known to be an Alpha. For an Alpha, it was an uncommon attitude.

It was funny that Ji-an was discussing about principles with a kid who was barely twenty. It was cute not being like youngsters these days. On the other hand, Woo-young was moved by Ji-an’s evaluation.

“It’s not old fashioned, it’s common sense.”

“Why does such a sensible punk keep addressing an adult as ‘you, you’? Did you just cut the saying in half?”

“Then I…!”

Woo-young swallowed the words without trying to raise his voice. He forced his lips to open as he moved her eyes to the left and right.

“…What should I call… you?”

Woo-young was far funnier than the celebrity dog Ji-an occasionally looks for on social media. Ji-an resisted the urge to tease Woo-young but eventually gave in. His fingertips caressed Woo-young’s shoulder as he sat next to him.

“If you want to call me ‘you’ like that, there is one way.”

“Ji-an-ssi, you keep forgetting that you are a married man!? Do you touch an outsider in this way?”

“I’m not the kind of old man who gets mad at a young lover when he says, ‘Hey, you, baby.’”

“What you are doing to me now is an affair! Do you also do this to another Alpha?”

Woo-young grabbed Ji-an’s hand after being surprised. The more strong the response, the more the initial playfulness tended to run wild. Ji-an gently raised the tip of his finger and touched Woo-young’s knee. Then, he looked at Woo-young with a charming smile, which had greatly contributed to On Ji-an’s being called the nation’s first love.

Woo-young shivered as he stood from the sofa. He walked out of the reception area while staring at Ji-an’s outburst of laughter and appeared to be rushing away while gasping for air. Ji-an felt bad for being so mischievous, but he couldn’t stop laughing.

Then, he began to be worried, ‘Am I going to be sued for sexual harassment because of this?’ Ji-an shrugged and took the pizza that had lost its owner.