Pheromone Off Chapter 29

“Stop doing ridiculous things and go change your clothes. We decided to have dinner at the main house.”

Whether he disliked Hajin going out of his way to buy himself this kind of work, he threw the coat he was holding onto the sofa with a look of rising irritation.

“Make sure not to do this kind of thing in the future. If the people below see—.”

“That must be incredibly important to you, hyung.”

Hajin spoke quietly before his words could even finish. And pulling down the headband that was wrapping his head, he looked at him serenely.

“That’s why you transferred companies for me, attached a manager to me, and even sent a car.”

At the somewhat self-mocking tone, one of Kwon Sayoung’s eyebrows twitched. It was a face as if asking what the problem was.

“What is it you want to say.”

“Please take it all back.”

“…What?”

“The company, or the people… things like that.”

At Hajin’s wish, he let out a scoff. It was a vain laugh that looked bewildered yet uncomfortable. Looking down at Hajin cynically, he soon passed by the opponent without any answer. The sign that he didn’t want to deal with him was stark.

Watching his back profile as he entered the bedroom, Hajin stood forlornly in the center of the living room. He dismissed his opinion in a single stroke. He had expected it to be so, but his attitude of not even wanting to deal with him was a little bit of a wound.

Hajin shook his sweat-drenched hair finely and quietly scanned his own appearance visible at a glance. Am I that eyesore to look at…. The moment he came in, astonishment had flashed in his eyes as they looked at his appearance. The blatant gaze brought a belated awkwardness rushing in, so Hajin headed toward the stairs to go up to the second floor. At that exact moment, a click, the sound of a door opening occurred. Hajin casually turned his gaze.

“Just what is the reason you dislike it?”

Coming out of the door, he looked a level more angered than before he went in. The moment Hajin was about to ask back, wondering what kind of talk that was, something crashed down at Hajin’s feet.

“Are you putting on some kind of coy act?”

The things he threw were the stacks of cash and the card that had been on top of his shelf this morning. Hajin looked at him blankly with a flustered face. He couldn’t comprehend why he was getting so angry. Failing to hide his bewildered inkling, Hajin hurriedly picked up the bank notes scattered on the floor.

“It’s not that, but…”

“If not, why do you keep digging your heels in so unfeasibly. You don’t want to receive money, and you dislike the company I transferred you to?”

“…”

“What kind of pride is that?”

His reaction was beyond bewildered; it was to the point of being absurd. It seemed he thought he was creating a friction, rejecting everything from one to ten. Facing him as he laid out his words somewhat fiercely, Hajin couldn’t bring himself to refute, merely moving his lips as he picked up the rest of the bank notes.

“Get up.”

Whether the appearance of walking on his knees to pick up the money also failed to please him, he directed coldly once more. Hajin let out a small sigh.

“…Then why did you throw them.”

Hajin mumbled so it was barely audible. However, whether it was still heard, his absurd scoff dropped down from above.

“I’m not digging my heels in.”

Picking up down to the very last bill, Hajin continued his speech as he raised his body.

“…It’s just that it felt wrong to use it carelessly, so I brought it back and put it down.”

“I brought it and put it down for you to use. Just how many pennies amounts to it that you’re drawing lines? Do you have no awareness that you yourself are the youngest of Seongsan?”

Kwon Sayoung wore an appearance as if it couldn’t be comprehended. It was similar to Kwon Sabin. Even if he knew Hajin’s position in Seongsan roughly, it seemed he couldn’t know each and every detail.

“…Is it that important for me to act like a chaebol?”

“At least, at least. You should do the bare minimum. It’s already dumbfounding that you’re under an agency that isn’t even like an agency, but what is this tiny thing that you’re bringing it back for? You seem to think that if you do that, you’ll be seen as a fellow who considers propriety. No. Rather, it looks better to just sit quietly and accept it all. On the contrary, digging your heels in like this looks more ridiculous. It looks like nothing but an appearance of being stubborn to guard that pitiful pride.”

“…”

“Will or whatever, I shouldn’t have just accepted this condition. I could have just married Yeonwoo. No matter how fake this life is, I get doubts whether it’s right for me to be doing this with a fellow who can’t even do the basics.”

“…”

“Don’t keep making me regret my choice.”

He warned while pulling apart his necktie irritably. And he turned around as if he hated the sight of Hajin, who was standing blankly without being able to say any word. With a slam sound, the door closed again. In the end, that money and card were forced back into his hand.

Fiddling with the uncomfortable things caught in his hand, Hajin looked at the closed bedroom door. His words didn’t feel wrong either. However, he didn’t think he himself was wrong either. Just because a chaebol couldn’t be chaebol-like. Just because he failed to act like his fiancé, he doesn’t think he is a wrong person.

Hajin firmly gripped the bank notes caught in his hand and turned his steps. As he had said, to not make him regret, he had to wash up and change his clothes. Like a neat person. Like a person worthy of standing by his side. If it was to follow at least the heels of Seong Yeonwoo, who used to suit the seat next to him so well.

࣪˖ ִֶָ🍇་༘

By Nietzsche’s words, he said humans die anyway. So to live cheerfully.

A life that will die anyway, if one must live, to live cheerfully.

When Seong Suhyun was carted off to the hospital after taking out his anger over being dumped from his engagement on him, when he lived with one ear ruined because his eardrum ruptured. Hajin repeated it like a spell. Because otherwise, it really felt like he would die. Because it felt like dying would be more comfortable.

After changing his clothes in his room and taking the nerve stabilizers he took periodically, he headed toward Doseondang together with him. Chasing after him as he walked a few steps ahead, Hajin repeatedly recalled the past days once more.

Hajin spent his boyhood through frequently pouring violence and the parents’ standing by. If it was darkness, it was darkness, and if it was hell, it was hell, but in that place, Hajin lived cheerfully in his own way. Commuting to school using public transportation, buying and eating neighborhood tteokbokki that cost a mere few thousand won, and living while doing part-time jobs that everyone else did.

They were matters that Kwon Sayoung would feel were unsightly, so to speak, but for Hajin, that was his method. Living differently from them. Living in his own way to match the violent acts they handed out. Quite cheerfully, that is.

But on the other hand, he realized anew today that such an appearance could look ridiculous to the opponent. That place and this place seemed to be different. In a figure neatly dressed up according to his wish, Hajin headed toward the Doseondang dining room together with him. He was still cold. Whether his mood had not eased yet, or whether his irritation did not easily subside, he didn’t give a single glance toward this side.

“…Excuse me.”

Hajin cautiously brought out the words while glancing at his profile. His indifferent gaze landed heavily.

“…Shall we not do it today?”

When he asked cautiously, he wrinkled the space between his eyebrows as if asking what kind of talk that was. Then Hajin hesitated and added.

“Linking arms… I mean.”

Every time they moved together, to play his part in his own way, he used to place his hand on his arm, pretending to be close. Of course, it was a matter he liked as well.

Moreover, when seeing Grandfather, he still wanted to look as on good terms with him as possible. Because the fact that he accepted this contract was due to that one reason alone, he wanted to do well in that role at least.

“…Ha.”

At the question asking to do his role ordinarily even after hearing those verbal abuses, he let out a somewhat bewildered laugh. Truly, looking at Hajin closely for a moment with eyes that seemed unable to get a grasp, soon after, he pulled Hajin’s arm and tucked it into his own arm.

And crossing the hallway, he continued his words in a voice that would likely not be heard by others.

“Accept everything I give without a single complaint.”

“…”

“Since if you’re the youngest of Seongsan, they are things naturally matters of course.”

“…”

“And if you’re the person guarding my side, even more so.”

Whatever his intention was, whatever his inner mind, his plan was, it meant for him to accept everything he handed over without a single complaint. Even if he became a little miserable, completely regardless of such a thing.

“…Yes.”

Hajin answered quietly. Because anyway, he merely had to pull off the acting quietly and well by his side.

࣪˖ ִֶָ🍇་༘

“How is it after trying living at our house.”

Kwon Sahui, who showed her figure first at the dining room, struck up a conversation familiarly. Facing that familiar question, Hajin failed to answer straight away and subtly glanced sideways at Kwon Sayoung who was seated in the next seat. He was handling his phone without minding.

“…It’s good.”

“Is it? There is a bit of an old-fashioned feeling, though. I don’t know how it might look in a young kid’s eyes.”

Unlike the spirit that was felt or the power she possessed, Kwon Sahui had a simple side. She didn’t particularly guard against the partner of her sibling who held her in low esteem. Hajin did not dislike such people. People who kept manners to the opponent. Those who did not easily look down on the opponent.

“It’s more than he deserves for him anyway.”

At the answer that burst out abruptly, Hajin turned his head toward the side where the sound occurred. The appearance of Kwon Sabin, who approached shamblingly with his long legs, was visible.

“What are you, anyway.”

“What about it.”

To his own unnie who asked with a face of surprise while plonking himself naturally down in the opposite side seat next to him, he answered grumpily.

“Why do you come home so well these days?”

“…What about me. I originally came home well, you know?”

“Appearing consistently at the family dining seats, too.”

“Ah, fuck, I originally appeared.”

“As if. A fellow who wasn’t even visible to the naked eye, roaming around saying he’s busy every single day.”