Heavy Rain Chapter 21

That face looked as if it might become hollow again at any moment, and Lyle suddenly felt a sense of anxiety.

“Here is the contract.”

Once the butler finished the guidance and withdrew, the secretary placed the documents down in the small drawing room attached to the bedroom. Haejin, who remembered his previous room that barely had a private bathroom attached, sat awkwardly on the sofa.

The soft fabric brushing against his fingertips only made him feel more out of place. Why on earth would they give him such a fine room—one so spacious that even the bathroom wasn’t within his immediate line of sight?

In any case, it didn’t matter to him what kind of room it was. Since he had no intention of accepting it in the first place, things like this were meaningless.

“Do I really have to stay in this mansion? The room I rented last time isn’t far away, so it should be fine.”

Haejin spoke up lightly and gazed silently out the window. It was as if he were measuring the distance to that shabby short-term room he had left after throwing all his belongings away. Today, the sound of the rain pattering against the windowpane felt exceptionally heavy.

Now that he had said it, it felt like a good idea. When he first signed the contract, he had been so desperate for this position that he had simply nodded unconditionally. Since the situation had changed now, wasn’t it possible to consider other options? Though he had reluctantly agreed to the contract, he didn’t want to be swayed from start to finish all over again.

However, the moment Lyle heard Haejin’s words, he felt as if the heavy rain outside was streaming down his own back.

A damp, massive unpleasantness.

“No.”

“But…”

“Jin, staying in this mansion is a condition.”

“…”

By the time he realized he had spoken more sharply than intended, it was already too late. Before he knew it, Haejin’s hollow gaze turned toward him. His pheromones, which had been vibrating faintly when he first entered the room, had already scattered and vanished without a trace.

As if there had been no expectations from the very beginning.

“And your luggage has already been packed, so don’t have any foolish thoughts.”

Despite how humid it was outside, the inside of his throat felt so parched it seemed ready to crack and stick together. However, Lyle ignored all of that and simply pressured him. As if to tell him not to even think about such things.

Despite Lyle’s harsh tone, Haejin merely turned his head away in a gesture of agreement.

For some reason, an impulse surged within Lyle to snatch back that gaze that was avoiding him. However, Lyle, who had grown accustomed to such impulses lately, was barely able to suppress it.

The secretary, who had been watching the two talk from the side, took a quick look at the atmosphere and placed a pen down beside Haejin.

Without a word, he picked up the papers placed before him. This was despite the fact that he could have said something, seeing as his suggestion had just been rejected.

As an underdog, Haejin lacked the ability to manage his pheromones. Thus, while he made the rustle-rustle sound of turning pages and read through the long, thick contract, his faint pheromones emitted a thin presence in the room.

For some reason, the slight emotion that pheromones should naturally contain was missing from his. It was a dry body scent that simply flowed endlessly toward the floor.

Lyle felt that the inside of this room had become even drier than before.

“The compensation plan is detailed on page 5.”

“…”

Following that, the secretary added various explanations on Lyle’s behalf. Despite all the explanations, Haejin simply turned the contract page by page.

Lyle caught himself staring at the white hands holding the documents. They were small and weak, yet they were hands that flipped the paper flutter-flutter without shaking. The hands he remembered had been trembling pathetically.

Just as Lyle began to think that the gaze looking down indifferently at the documents was strangely insincere, Haejin stopped in the middle of the contract and set the papers down. It was an attitude suggesting he had found the clause he wanted and had no need to see more.

The compensation plan the secretary mentioned was on the page immediately following where Haejin had stopped.

Setting the documents aside just like that, Haejin picked up the pen. Then, he tapped-tapped on the signature line of the document, organizing his thoughts. As Lyle frowned at the recklessness of not even reading to the end, Haejin suddenly said something strange.

“When we do that, I would like it if you changed the thing used to tie my hands to handcuffs.”

“…What?”

He could understand immediately what he was talking about. However, Lyle’s face crumpled at the bizarre suggestion, which wasn’t even a request not to be tied up.

Haejin, observing that expression, reflexively let out a sigh. At the sound of that sigh, Lyle felt the muscles along his spine tense up, but Haejin, having lowered his eyes tiredly, failed to notice his agitation.

“At least let me prepare by myself. I don’t want to take off my clothes in front of the butler.”

“What… did you say…?”

In that moment, a realization struck Lyle.

He knew the butler tied Haejin’s hands. The fact Lyle had overlooked was that for Haejin to take off his clothes in that state, the butler’s touch was inevitably required.

Lyle, who had been uninterested until now, simply thought it was convenient. But now he knew. He knew the reason why the underdog Omega, who had come here in Haejin’s place once before, had been waiting for him with his clothes on.

Until now, he had essentially made Haejin be stripped and tied by the butler, who was an Alpha, as if it were nothing. And the recovery of the boy, who could not move a finger pathetically, must have taken place amidst such shame.

It was the result of a command given by none other than Lyle himself.

“Is that not allowed?”

“…Let’s do that.”

Lyle, who had been suffering from the impulse to snatch that gaze since a moment ago, turned his eyes away in distress as if the impulse had never existed. For some reason, it was uncomfortable to look Haejin straight in the eye.

Surely it shouldn’t have been his business what the boy endured, so why only now?

Finally, the sound of thunder from outside shook the heavens. In time with it, the heavy sheets of rain struck the window even more fiercely. It was a day where one could smell the rain just by breathing in. Nevertheless, Lyle slightly covered his mouth and swallowed hard. His throat had been so parched since a while ago that it felt like he was going crazy.

Having heard his answer, Haejin calmly picked up the pen and signed the document. The moment when those hands were shaking uncontrollably seemed to overlap on top of it.

“…I inform you that the contract has been concluded.”

The secretary, who had also been bothered by Haejin not looking at the contract until the end, declared it with some hesitation.

Haejin still had not even turned his gaze toward the massive compensation side.

Perhaps feeling uneasy, the secretary organized the file well and handed it to Haejin directly. He added a polite word asking him to please look at the back part when he had time. He nodded, but his head moving up and down was lighter than a feather.

Since the business was over, he had to leave. Yet, for some reason, Lyle felt that the path back to his own room was very long. As he left the room with Haejin’s puzzled gaze at his back, the secretary, who had been waiting first, followed by his side.

“Chairman.”

“…”

There was no answer, but the secretary, who had worked by Lyle’s side for a long time, knew that it was a silent affirmation. Just as Haejin had given a silent affirmation earlier by powerlessly turning away from them.

The secretary, who briefly weighed how far he would be permitted to take his next words, let out a faint sigh. Even though he was someone who would do anything for the benefit of Lyle and Vermouth, it was true that he felt a sense of debt toward Haejin.

Though they occasionally crossed into extra-legal territory, the foundation of the Vermouth corporation remained within the fence of the law. Even though Haejin, who had even been kidnapped, might not agree, that was the reason they took the form of a contract until the very end.

Just as Haejin had perceived, in the face of such a massive gap in power, a contract like this actually becomes a shield. Persecuting the weak using a contract as a pretext was something possible only when the gap was mediocre. Vermouth had more than enough power to sway Haejin without leaving behind such paper evidence.

Therefore, the secretary, who had just seen a cross-section of Haejin’s past five years, was simply appalled. Since he was a Beta, whose gender was more clearly defined, he couldn’t help but react somewhat sensitively to things that were practically akin to molestation. After all, the contract was strictly a matter between Haejin and Lyle.

“To urge such methods is an excessive treatment. Even if he manifested late, he is an Omega, after all.”