Pheromone Off Chapter 23

“…There’s nothing to misunderstand. We just had a meal in the evening. Just because we broke up doesn’t mean we can’t even have a meal once, right?”

Seong Yeonwoo, who had been listening quietly, answered instead toward Kwon Sabin. It was a casual tone as if everything were fine, but Hajin could tell. That that face, which was smiling faintly, was oddly distorted. There was no way this situation would be comfortable for him either.

“What is this, Hollywood?”

Hajin felt that the words Kwon Sabin tossed out just as he thought them were absurd, yet they also made him feel slightly relieved. Seeing that, it seemed he wasn’t such a good-natured person either. Considering that despite being the one who forced them apart, his chest felt stuffy seeing the two of them attached like that.

“Sabin, you’re the one being strange, rather. I didn’t know you had this much interest in your brother’s business.”

At Seong Yeonwoo’s counterattack, this time Kwon Sabin paused. It wasn’t a wrong statement. Since he did both modeling and acting, Kwon Sabin originally rarely showed his face at home. He just as rarely involved himself in family matters, and his personality itself was that of a guy who had no interest in anyone other than himself. There was no way Seong Yeonwoo, who had watched him for a long time, wouldn’t know, and his biological brother Kwon Sayoung found it just as strange all the same.

“Go on in now. It’s late.”

The one who broke the flow of the strange situation first was Kwon Sayoung. Then Seong Yeonwoo hesitated for a moment with his answer before nodding his head.

“…Right. You go in, too.”

“Thanks for dropping me off, by the way.”

“Don’t mention it. You’ve dropped me off every single time. It’s nice dropping you off occasionally, too.”

Seong Yeonwoo smiled brightly toward Kwon Sayoung. If there weren’t watching eyes, the atmosphere made it seem as though the two would share a deep kiss as a parting greeting.

“…Look at them putting on a show.”

At Kwon Sabin’s muttering heard beside his ear, a faint laugh popped out from Hajin’s mouth. Either way, he was a guy to be envied for being able to say everything he wanted to say.

“What are you looking at.”

Whether he felt his gaze, Kwon Sabin tossed out a word crossly. Hajin couldn’t understand why the guy himself was acting so cross, but on the other hand, he felt inwardly grateful. It gave him the illusion as if the other were getting angry on his behalf.

“What are you smirking at. So peacefully.”

“Huh?”

“Those two, anyone can see they just came back from a showdown.”

“…What?”

“Anyone can see it looks like they just came back from screwing.”

At the words whispered into his ear, Hajin’s face gradually hardened.

“What are you talking about right now…”

“Look at how sweet those two are.”

“…”

“Anyone can see the picture clearly.”

At his words, Hajin casually looked at that well-matched couple. Kwon Sayoung was leaning his waist toward the driver’s seat where the window was open, intimately sharing a conversation that couldn’t be heard from this side. Hajin glared at Kwon Sabin with a flustered face.

“What. Did I say something wrong? Those two are still dating.”

“…”

“What would lovers do when they meet. They’d probably just screw.”

“…Stop it.”

“But it doesn’t really matter anyway, does it? You guys are a show window couple regardless.”

Whether he was determined to scratch his insides, Kwon Sabin lined up only words that were uncomfortable to hear. Kwon Sayoung in a comfortable form where his characteristic coldness could not be found, and Seong Yeonwoo looking at Kwon Sayoung brightly and affectionately, just like always.

Kwon Sabin’s words are right. If they were dating, they were in a relationship where it didn’t matter what they did. Gazing blankly at the two of them, Hajin suddenly imagined them rolling around naked. Funnily enough, it wasn’t a wild imagination. He had witnessed it directly with his own two eyes when he was young. He had casually ended up seeing that scene where the two of them kissed and made love in the bedroom.

‘Seong Yeonwoo…. Are you okay?’

His figure as he checked on him several times with eyes that looked worried to death that his hyung might be in pain.

‘Yeonwoo, tell me if it hurts.’

While having a face that looked like he himself was going to die, he suppressed it and felt sorry.

‘Ha… I love it. Seong Yeonwoo, Yeonwoo….’

Even down to the breathing, the gaze, and the voice that made it seem like he was truly going crazy because it was so good.

Seventeen. At that young age, Seong Hajin thought, if you are loved by someone, is it like that?

Being the abused underdog and a half-witted illegitimate child who didn’t even have friends back then, he envied his hyung for being loved by such a partner. Not only being loved by everyone, but receiving that feverish love even from that person…

“I’m leaving, see you again.”

At Seong Yeonwoo’s parting words, Hajin woke up from his other thoughts as if startled. The old matter that had suddenly crossed his mind overlapped with the current sight, and his insides began to taste bitter. Truly pathetic. Himself, getting upset and feeling bitter all alone, looked pathetic and foolish.

It was a greeting delivered toward Kwon Sabin. Without even glancing toward Hajin’s side, Seong Yeonwoo smoothly rolled up the driver’s seat window. And soon, the car departed. The distance between Chairman Seong’s main house, where Yujeongjae was located, and Chairman Kwon’s main house was not all that far.

Right at that moment when he was blankly staring at the receding back where the foreign car emblem was stamped, the sound of the main gate opening clanged. As the three people of the uncomfortable atmosphere moved their steps inside, Kwon Sayoung instructed drily.

“Kwon Sabin, you go in first.”

It was an instruction highly visible with the intention that he had something to talk about with Hajin alone. Kwon Sabin rolled his pupils crossly as if something had been displeasing him the whole time, then shot back with a voice full of rebellion.

“Why are you bossing me around.”

“What has been so displeasing to you since a while ago?”

Kwon Sayoung let out a sigh mixed with annoyance at Kwon Sabin’s aggressive display for reasons unknown.

“Displeasing? Not at all? Why would I be?”

“Exactly, why would you be.”

Why would you, who has absolutely nothing to do with this. At the stern gaze and the simple question that caught him off guard, Kwon Sabin failed to continue his words and shifted his lips vaguely. Then he glared annoyedly at Hajin, who was standing blankly, and ground his teeth silently.

“Displeasing my foot. I don’t have a single bit of interest anyway, you know?”

He hadn’t asked if the other was interested, but Kwon Sabin tossed out the words as if his feet were sore from guilt.

“Why would I?”

Muttering as if talking to himself, Kwon Sabin turned around sharply. Then he kicked an innocent pebble and vanished into the interior of Doseondang while huffing and puffing. Kwon Sayoung’s gaze, which had been watching that receding back with an exasperated face, turned slowly.

“…Yesterday it was Kwon Sahui, today it’s Kwon Sabin.”

“Pardon…?”

“You truly have quite the talent.”

Letting out a faint, mocking chuckle, he suddenly began to pass him by and lead the way. At his figure passing him by even before he could ask what that statement meant, Hajin wrinkled his brow in unfairness and began to follow behind him. Perhaps because his leg length was long, following his stride, which had large steps, was not easy. Trying to stick close behind him, Hajin’s breathing began to turn somewhat rough.

Soon the detached house came into view, and after unlocking the door lock, he barely managed to follow inside through the door that was pulled open. Upon entering the space where only the two of them were present, he trudged into the living room and casually tossed the suit jacket he was wearing onto the sofa.

“What were you doing that you’re only coming back now?”

He asked indifferently. Whether he had thought that he would naturally be at home, quite a bit of wonderment was visible in that question. Was the problem that he had come home too late? Unable to understand the intention behind that question, Hajin asked quietly.

“…Is there a curfew time in our contract as well?”

“What?”

“I don’t know what relevance an adult like me coming in at whatever time has to do with this contract right now.”

“Ha….”

Though he wasn’t acting proud, at the words that refuted him quite clearly, Kwon Sayoung let out a faint laugh. As if acknowledging it was quite something, he stared arrogantly at Hajin.

“I think I should at least know where and what my fiancé is doing out until this hour before coming home, though.”

“…Are we allowed to interfere with each other’s private lives?”

“Ah, don’t interfere?”

Whether he found Hajin’s statement ridiculous, he let out a fishy, mocking chuckle. He hadn’t asked with that kind of meaning, but the opponent seemed to have taken it that way. Before Hajin could even make a denial, the opponent opened his mouth again first.

“I’m sorry, but I am fully qualified to interfere with what you do and where you go, you see.”

“…”

“Is it because you’re still young, does you and me being like this seem like a joke? Do you think we’re doing this simply to fool Grandfather alone?”

“…I’ve never thought of it that way.”

“If you didn’t, you wouldn’t be able to think of this situation simply as an interference with your private life.”

“…”

“We don’t know what a kid who just turned twenty might be doing outside, so then, are you telling me to shut my mouth and pretend not to know because it’s an interference with your private life.”

It seemed Kwon Sayoung felt his answer was pathetic. Currently, regarding his relationship with himself, he treated everything strictly business-like and professionally. While it was natural in a way, it seemed he was worried about what kind of accident the other, whom he couldn’t control directly, might cause somewhere.

It wasn’t that he couldn’t understand his behavior like that, but somehow it felt like he alone was at a disadvantage unilaterally. Yesterday getting a piece of his mind just for sharing a few words with Kwon Sahui, and today getting a piece of his mind for coming home late—this situation was a bit unfair. Especially when he himself had come back after meeting his lover.

Going on a date, and also, just as Kwon Sabin said, maybe having come back after sleeping together… Hajin forcibly erased the uncomfortable sensation that kept arising and replied to his refutation.

“Are you doing this because you’re afraid I might go somewhere and do something strange?”

Hajin asked while looking at him expressionlessly. Locking eyes with his dry gaze, Kwon Sayoung minutely furrowed his brow.

“I don’t usually trust people easily.”

“…”

“Even if it’s not for that reason, your return is too late. I know you’re excited because you just became an adult, but you are officially my fiancé right now.”

“…”

“I don’t want to hear talk that I failed to keep a leash on my young fiancé.”

“What about you, Mister?”

“What?”

“…Are you allowed to come home late just because you’re old, Mister?”

“…Ha.”

At Hajin’s returning question, he burst out into a loud laugh. It was a face that looked as though it had taken an unexpected hit.