Pheromone Off Chapter 8

࣪˖ ִֶָ🍇་༘

After the shocking mealtime ended, Hajin immediately headed to the restroom. Since it was a high-end restaurant, even the restroom was clean and filled with a fragrant scent. However, Hajin suddenly felt suffocated by all these luxurious things. The heavy atmosphere that continued throughout the meal, and the gazes choking him. Feeling a sudden tightness in his throat, Hajin fumbled through the inner pocket of his coat. He searched to see if he had packed his medication, but it didn’t come out. In the end, to at least douse himself with cold water, Hajin scooped water in both hands and wiped down his face.

As he repeatedly washed his face with cold water without stopping, he sensed someone’s presence. Only then did Hajin stop his frantic movements and roughly wiped his face with a paper towel. Immediately after, he was about to leave the restroom but suddenly came to a halt. He had no choice but to be stopped.

Thud! At the force roughly grabbing his forearm, his body turned on its own, and Hajin stared at the other person with a startled face, exerting all his strength into his legs as he almost fell over.

“What the…. You startled me.”

At the appearance of the person he hadn’t anticipated, Hajin caught his breath. Looking up, the person visible was none other than Kwon Sabin. With a face full of grumpiness for some reason again.

“What.”

“…”

“What are you dissatisfied with now.”

Hajin, who knew that expression all too well, spoke up as if letting out a sigh. It was the expression that came out when things didn’t go his way. Because they had run into each other throughout the three years of high school and all through growing up, Hajin, who had known Kwon Sabin for a long time, couldn’t help but know it. That expression was the same when he was seven years old.

“Let go for now, it hurts…”

“Are you really going to do it?”

“What?”

Kwon Sabin, who had been keeping his mouth shut tight with an irritated face, asked abruptly. His brilliant and pretty face crumpled as hard as possible.

“Marriage! I’m asking if you’re really going to do it!”

At the sudden shout that felt like his eardrums would burst, Hajin was startled out of his wits and his shoulders trembled.

“Gosh, you startled me… Why are you shouting like that.”

“What on earth did you pull for Grandfather to make you and Kwon Sayoung marry? Did you ask him to make it happen?”

Ha… Hajin let out a troubled breath at the words he had been hearing for several days.

“Why does everyone think I played tricks….”

As he muttered to himself as if talking to himself, a voice full of nervousness was heard once more.

“Do you even have the capability to marry Kwon Sayoung? You’re a Beta. When you can’t even have children? No, in the first place, that Seong Yeonwoo is right there?”

“It should be Yeonwoo ‘hyung’.”

“Anyway!”

“…Right. I’m the trash here….”

Hajin snapped back casually as if he didn’t even have the energy to get angry.

“You’re not going to do it, right?”

“What?”

“With hyung, you’re not going to marry him, right?”

“…”

“He’s the partner who was dating your hyung, can you really marry him? Are you that kind of guy? Is your style secretly not knowing your place?”

Hajin couldn’t understand why he was getting so worked up, or why he was questioning him so meticulously, but at the momentum that seemed like he wouldn’t let him go unless he answered, he contemplated for a moment.

“…Is my opinion important.”

Hajin, who contemplated for a time that was long if long and short if short, let the words slip in an ordinary tone. At the answer that was neither here nor there, the space between Kwon Sabin’s eyebrows warped fiercely. Facing that face that was throwing a tantrum like a child, Hajin added words.

“You’re the first.”

“What kind of talk—.”

“The person who asked for my opinion.”

“…”

“Talk of this marriage has been going around since two weeks ago, but you’re the first.”

“…”

“Got it? In everything, my opinion doesn’t matter.”

Seong Yeonwoo, Seong Suhyun, Father and Jo Hwayeong, and Kwon Sayoung. There is no one who asked him, even in passing, if he wanted to do it or had any intention to do it. Even Chairman Kwon was just pushing him to do it. Although he knew he did so with good intentions, his opinion was not needed at all. Therefore, would that be important? This marriage would also end if Kwon Sayoung said he would do it.

“What kind of bullshit is that. You can just say you won’t do it!”

“…”

“You’re not just snatching it up thinking it’s an opportunity, right? Do you feel like you hit the jackpot right now?”

“…”

“Hey, think realistically. What makes you better than Seong Yeonwoo? Is that face better, is your academic background good, and besides, you’re an illegitimate child. The child of a second wife. My mom and dad—.”

“I think I should do it.”

Hajin snapped back with a peaceful face at the words of Kwon Sabin, who was pouring out malicious remarks just like always. At the low answer, the bridge of Kwon Sabin’s nose fluctuated with irritation.

“What?”

“An illegitimate child, unable to have kids, uglier and worse at studying than Yeonwoo hyung, with nothing great about me—I think I absolutely must marry your hyung.”

Hajin replied softly to the fully worked-up opponent. Throughout the three years of high school, Hajin had become quite used to Kwon Sabin’s pathetic torment. Of course, being attached was three years of high school, but since they had seen each other’s faces for over ten years, he had no choice but to get used to Kwon Sabin’s insults to human dignity and sarcasm that continued over that span of more than ten years.

Besides, since the one he saw and lived with every day was Seong Suhyun, Kwon Sabin couldn’t actually inflict that big of a blow. Well, it wasn’t that he didn’t get hurt, but he could strike back steadfastly. And because he also knew very well what kind of reaction would get under Kwon Sabin’s skin more, Hajin dealt with Kwon Sabin flexibly, just like he always did.

“This bastard has those eyes again?”

Saying things that annoy the opponent with an expressionless face. That was a crazy trick Hajin used from time to time. Kwon Sabin crumpled his eye area as if accustomed to it and stared at him. No matter what the opponent said, Hajin smacked his lips and blinked his eyes quietly. A face that had zero interest in everything in the world, saying ‘bark all you want’ no matter what Kwon Sabin said. A face that knew very well that the more he did that, the more Kwon Sabin would get annoyed. But a face that didn’t care whether he did or not.

“Ah, I want to get married quickly.”

When Hajin spat out thrilling words with a face that wasn’t even funny, a perfectly expressionless face, Kwon Sabin was dumbfounded and at the same time, his insides boiled over. However, Hajin passed by the guy mindlessly and left the place. From behind his back, Kwon Sabin’s shout telling him to stand right there was heard, but Hajin moved away as if accustomed to it and walked out composedly.

࣪˖ ִֶָ🍇་༘

Even though he had spoken so triumphantly in front of Kwon Sabin, it wasn’t actually his true feeling. It was by no means that he had a desire to do it. Even if his relationship with Seong Yeonwoo was bad, how could he do an act like stealing his half-brother’s lover? But as he said, his opinion did not matter in all of this. He had expressed his opinion to his grandfather several times that he didn’t want to, but what came back were only reasons why Hajin had to get married and rebukes.

Perhaps because of that, hearing such a question from Kwon Sabin, who was like an arch-enemy, made him feel strange. Of course, the one who was unilaterally on the receiving end was himself every time.

‘What are you?’

Those were the words an eight-year-old Kwon Sabin threw upon seeing him for the first time. When they were young, various families were invited to a home party held at the main house. The reason the home party was held was because Seong Yeonwoo had won the grand prize at a piano competition. At that time, Hajin encountered Kwon Sabin for the first time.

‘What do you mean?’

‘You don’t seem like an Alpha.’

‘…’

‘But it’s not like you smell like an Omega either.’

Kwon Sabin was a guy who divided people into Alphas and Omegas like this from a young age. Before that, because he had been living in America, it was the first time they were seeing each other, but he was rude as soon as they met.

‘…I’m a Beta.’

‘A Beta?’

‘…’

‘That ordinary person?’

Those who possessed superior genes, a historic chaebol family, and overflowing wealth regarded Betas as merely ordinary people, unremarkable civilians. In a word, they were a group full of elitism.

‘So you’re the one Seong Suhyun was talking about?’

‘…He’s Suhyun ‘hyung’ though….’

‘I don’t have to call him hyung.’

‘Why?’

‘Because I’m different from you.’

‘What’s different?’

Young Hajin opened his large eyes wide and asked purely. Eight years old. To the young Hajin, Seong Suhyun was the most terrifying existence at that time. Seong Suhyun, who was already eighteen, had a build larger than an adult man, and even before then, Seong Suhyun was already tormenting his under-ten-year-old self. Not calling such an opponent ‘hyung’ was a massive deal.

‘You don’t know? I’m the youngest of HK Group.’

‘…What about the youngest?’

‘Because my mom and dad would die for me.’

‘Do your mom and dad treat you well…?’

‘Of course. They probably like me more than my hyung or noona? Besides, I’m a dominant. A dominant Alpha. I’m different from you, an unremarkable Beta. Oh, and I heard you’re an illegitimate child? A concubine’s child.’

‘What’s a concubine?’

Hajin asked innocently about the unfamiliar word. Because it was rare to see someone his age in the house, and moreover, there was absolutely no one who spoke to him. Even if it was an attitude that disparaged him, Hajin was excited back then just by having a conversation like this.

Kwon Sabin seemed rather flustered by that innocent reaction. At the question asked so openly, Kwon Sabin was flustered for a moment and smacked his lips.