Cold City Romance Chapter 9.2

“Yes, as if you wouldn’t.”

Chairman Hyun stuck out his tongue while looking alternately at his two grown children who claimed to have no interest in marriage.

“Kangwoo and even Dokyung, both of you have no thoughts about marriage even at this late marrying age……. If things continue like this, even if the two of you end up getting married to each other later, it wouldn’t seem strange at all.”

A quiet silence hung over the grand dining table.

“Father……”

“What’s wrong with that? No matter how late Dokyung manifested, the fact is that both of you are alpha and omega……. Even if Dokyung became Kangwoo’s partner, I don’t think it would be surprising.”

“……”

“Director Cha, what do you think?”

What kind of ridiculous nonsense is this……

He knew well the urgent circumstances that were pressuring Kangwoo to get married because of the old chronic illness that had worsened, where a heart attack could come suddenly at any time. He understood the chairman’s heartfelt wish for his eldest son to start a family soon due to health reasons. Still, he never dreamed that Chairman Hyun would make such a shocking statement right in front of him.

At Chairman Hyun’s words, his father chimed in as if determined.

“If Kangwoo became Dokyung’s spouse, we would approve a hundred times over……. We would be grateful.”

In the absurd atmosphere, Hyun Serin childishly jumped in.

“What, what is this? This atmosphere? Are Uncle and Dad conspiring to marry off the two people who said they would live as bachelors?”

Hyun Serin added dramatically while making a fuss.

“Wow, this is really the biggest twist of the year. How did the conversation flow in such an extreme direction?”

Cha Dokyung, at that moment, absurdly checked not Hyun Kangwoo’s expression but Hyun Jaehwi’s expression. He knew he shouldn’t do that, and he knew Hyun Kangwoo was staring right at him from the seat next to him, yet despite that, like an idiot, his head automatically turned toward Hyun Jaehwi.

The expression disappeared from the stiffened, chilly face. Hyun Jaehwi glared at his own father with sharp eyes in a crooked manner.

A heavy and firm voice cut through the silent table and pierced coldly.

“Father, you’ve gone too far.”

“……”

“They are like brothers, childhood friends, so that kind of statement is rude. Dokyung hyung is looking so embarrassed like that.”

The rebellious gaze with his head tilted up defiantly urged Cha Dokyung for agreement.

“Uncle, don’t misunderstand. No matter how much I am an omega, Kangwoo is a guy I’ve seen all the ugly sides of since childhood……. I’ve never had those kinds of thoughts. He’s like a brother, it’s just friendship, absolutely nothing like that.”

Chairman Hyun cleared his throat falsely.

“That’s just talk. The two grown men stubbornly refusing to get married, and every time they show up at social gatherings, they ruin everything and come back smearing mud on my face……. It’s suspicious, of course it is.”

Cha Dokyung’s mother stepped in to help.

“Kid, for a stubborn person like you, Dokyung, a kind and polite partner like Kangwoo is too good for you. What are you saying……”

It felt like the whole family had gone mad.

Why Chairman Hyun and his own parents were trying to pair him and Hyun Kangwoo as partners.

Even more surprising was Chairman Hyun’s attitude of willingly accepting it. It was as if they had coordinated a script in advance without him knowing.

He had no idea what kind of conversation had taken place in his absence.

“……Haha, don’t joke around. Absolutely no such thing! Right, Kangwoo? You answer that.”

However, unlike Cha Dokyung who expected a rebuttal, Hyun Kangwoo, who had been unusually silent from the side, did not agree with his prompting words. He gave a very unexpected response.

“If Dokyung is okay with it…… I don’t mind.”

In the quiet VIP room, Cha Dokyung widened his surprised eyes with a dumbfounded face.

……Fuck, this crazy bastard……

“Hyun Kangwoo, what kind of nonsense are you saying right now……”

“The problem is that Dokyung doesn’t see me that way. If Dokyung is fine with it, then I am good.”

Cha Dokyung, sitting in the next seat, gripped Hyun Kangwoo’s thigh hard with all his strength as if telling him to shut up. As he pressed down on the thigh and kicked with his shoe heel to stop, Hyun Kangwoo firmly held onto Cha Dokyung’s hand.

At that attitude, Cha Dokyung was even more shocked and freaked out. He couldn’t understand what that meant at all. It was like the action toward an object with sexual intent, not a friend.

His head hurt from wondering what kind of situation this was right now.

Hyun Jaehwi’s chilly gaze pierced straight through the gesture of Hyun Kangwoo’s hand firmly suppressing Cha Dokyung. Hyun Jaehwi blocked Hyun Kangwoo’s words boldly while revealing hostility.

“Stop it. Dokyung hyung has someone he’s meeting.”

“Dokyung has someone he’s meeting? How do you know that……”

At Hyun Kangwoo’s rebuttal, Hyun Jaehwi insolently tilted his head back. He replied cheekily to his brother with an arrogant attitude.

“I know because I saw it with my own two eyes.”

“Where did you see it, and what did you see?”

Hyun Kangwoo’s tone became rough.

“What do you even know about Cha Dokyung to blabber like that? There’s no one who knows him better than I do!”

It was the first time seeing the always mild-mannered, quick-witted, and sociable Hyun Kangwoo raise his voice and get angry like that. The family members also looked back and forth at the two people fiercely clashing with puzzled faces.

Hyun Kangwoo sneered at Hyun Jaehwi with an authoritative face.

“That kid doesn’t open the door to his heart to anyone. He’s so cautious that he doesn’t even think about dating……. He’s a guy who runs away a step if you approach a step, so what do you even know to blabber.”

He had no idea why it had turned into such a mess. The most awkward one was Cha Dokyung, caught in the middle. His embarrassed face let out a deep sigh.

In the middle of this damn mess, Hyun Serin poured oil on the fire. She nodded as if she finally understood.

“Ah, I see……. So Representative Yeom’s words were true?”

Ha, what the hell is this bullshit now.

The conversation among the almost only people who knew he was an omega was utterly confusing.

Hyun Kangwoo asked Cha Dokyung back with an angry face.

“Cha Dokyung, you who would knock on a stone bridge even while half-asleep if it’s a scandal. Really, is there someone you’re secretly meeting like that kid said? Is that true?”

Hyun Jaehwi, sitting across from him, coldly glared at Hyun Kangwoo who was gripping Cha Dokyung’s arm tightly and interrogating him as if he were the lover. The bold and arrogant eyes blatantly revealed an aggressive nature. Hyun Serin was looking at such Hyun Jaehwi with a sharp sidelong glance.

His father and mother, and his biological older sister Cha Sungjoo, with no idea what was going on, just stared blankly at their awkward son caught in the middle. Chairman Hyun stepped in to tidy up the messed-up table.

“As Director Cha said, my chronic illness isn’t progressing well, so it’s just out of worry. I’m not like I used to be anymore, so I need to see at least one of them properly starting a family and living before I die!”

At Chairman Hyun’s shout, the VIP room became as quiet as a mouse.

“I don’t know when a heart attack might come suddenly, and with only retirement left, with my health like this……. And the eldest son Kangwoo still doesn’t even have marriage on his mind.”

“……”

“I’m sorry for making you uncomfortable with unnecessary talk, Dokyung. Don’t mind it.”

Cha Dokyung shook off Hyun Kangwoo’s arm that was holding him and stood up from his seat.

“……I’m sorry. I’ll be excused for a moment.”

Kicking away from the villa’s VIP table, Cha Dokyung strode out of the VIP room door, and Hyun Kangwoo followed him one after another.

“I clearly told you that if you suddenly bring up that kind of talk, he would feel burdened and back away.”

At those words, Hyun Jaehwi smirked mockingly at his brother with a backward-glaring attitude and insolently sneered. It was a gaze of unfilial impudence that he could never direct at his older brother.

As Hyun Kangwoo hurriedly followed behind Cha Dokyung, Hyun Serin annoyingly joined in and asked back.

“What on earth is going on? Without me knowing, Aunt, Uncle, Oppa, Dad…… Everyone, what conspiracy have you all plotted? I need to know the lay of the land to join in too.”

Following that, Hyun Jaehwi straightened his broad shoulders and raised his tall body.

“Hyun Jaehwi……!”

Hyun Serin hurriedly followed after Hyun Jaehwi who left the VIP room. In the long corridor, she forcibly grabbed the hem of Hyun Jaehwi’s suit hard.

“Hyun Jaehwi, you stay put! Why are you getting involved between those two, who do you think you are?”

Hyun Jaehwi roughly pushed Hyun Serin away and whispered with a cold-blooded face so that the parents in the VIP room couldn’t hear.

“Your disgusting acting isn’t working, so stop pretending you don’t know in front of me. Make sure to keep your mouth shut so Yeom Taejeong can’t act out.”

“……”

“Both of them, fuck, there could be a way things get boring.”

Hyun Serin glared at Hyun Jaehwi and shot back.

“Insolent kid……. You have no respect for superiors or anyone you see, do you?”

“If I had any respect for those I see, I wouldn’t have started this crap in the first place.”

Hyun Jaehwi turned away self-mockingly with a chill and followed after the two.

“That crazy bastard……. Is he determined to turn this family into a powder keg.”

Hyun Serin just watched Hyun Jaehwi’s receding back.

Her head hurt from not knowing whose unrequited love to root for. From elementary school days, through university, and even in society, after debut in the entertainment industry, it was always the same pattern and repertoire. And always, by the side of Cha Dokyung at the center of the incidents, there was Hyun Serin, observing him from behind just like now, insensitive to others’ emotions toward him.

“He’s so dense. In the end, it’s a game where everyone finds out except Cha Dokyung.”

“Cha Dokyung! Dokyung……”

Having left the VIP room, Cha Dokyung did not stop his forward steps even at Hyun Kangwoo’s call. Hyun Kangwoo silently followed behind Cha Dokyung, matching his pace.

Cha Dokyung hurried his steps far ahead, paying no mind to Hyun Kangwoo closely following at his heels. In the end, the two escaped from the villa built by the lake shore and reached the deserted lakeside walking path in front of the villa.

The serene and blue scenic view of the lake unfolded before their eyes. As they stepped on the black and damp soil near the lake, the chilly scent of water moss wafted strongly. It was the scent of forgotten memories.

In their distant childhood days as little kids, he and the guy always caught bullfrogs around this lake. When they grew older, during family gatherings, they would sneak out without their parents knowing and, at this remote end of the lake away from the villa, the two rowdy boys would flop down, bump their heads together, and share a cigarette.

Finally stopping his steps, Cha Dokyung decided to give one last chance to his one and only friend. There were too many memories with the guy.

“You crazy bastard, explain properly.”

Hyun Kangwoo had already given him countless opportunities since childhood. So he too had to give him a chance to make excuses.

“What should I start explaining from.”

However, Hyun Kangwoo had a brazen face.

“All of it, everything……”

Cha Dokyung took out an electronic cigarette from inside his jacket with trembling long fingers and put it in his mouth. As he exhaled the cloudy smoke that filled his lungs, his reddened and swollen lips twitched.

The mucous membrane of his lips that had been sucked by Hyun Jaehwi all weekend last week stung. Invisible places didn’t matter. But the problem was that every time their eyes met. That damn young and vigorous blue-eyed kid was like a kissing maniac, giving him too many kisses.

Hyun Kangwoo said it so calmly with a very mature face.

“In the end, you’ll come to me.”