Chapter 3

Putting aside the sheer, vitriolic disgust aimed at him, when Gi-hyeon first had that trashy, prejudice-riddled insult hurled in his face, he had simply kept his mouth shut. If he had turned around and marched back to the hospital, Team Leader Lim would have gleefully pounced on the opportunity to mock him for being a useless parachute hire. While it was true that Gi-hyeon was officially exempted from any medical dispatches requiring overnight stays, using that alone to brand him a parachute[1] was a massive stretch.

Yet, Team Leader Lim constantly weaponized the mere fact that Gi-hyeon was close to the Director, Beom-hee, and the Foundation Chairman, Jo Yeon-oh, to relentlessly slander him.

Ultimately, as long as Team Leader Lim was his superior, Gi-hyeon couldn’t afford to hand the man any ammunition. Forced into a corner, he had no choice but to swallow those vile insults in silence.

However, proving that he didn’t earn the title of “garbage” for just one reason, the Pro was an equal-opportunity lunatic who regularly unleashed his vile temper on everyone. He sexually harassed the Omega therapists deployed for medical support, picked physical fights with Betas and Alphas alike, and meticulously selected only the most abhorrent actions to commit. Because he was an Alpha born into significant wealth, he had successfully bought his way out of countless scandals.

There was absolutely no way a bastard like that would mesh well with Jo Yeon-oh. The Pro had undoubtedly run his mouth again. Considering Yeon-oh was attending as the representative of the Haeseong Foundation, the tournament’s primary sponsor, the Pro should have theoretically bowed his head in deference. Clearly, however, Yeon-oh had ruthlessly provoked the man until he utterly snapped.

“Do you want to know what this bastard said to the Pro?” Beom-hee continued. “He told him, ‘The reason your scores are trash is because the only thing you swing around besides your iron is your rotting fucking dick. When you hold your retirement ceremony, I’ll send you a bottle of champagne, so if you’re feeling scared, just go die.'”

Much like Beom-hee had done moments ago, Gi-hyeon slowly shook his head. With the Pro’s volatile temper, there was zero chance he had swallowed an insult of that magnitude peacefully. The atmosphere must have frozen over instantly, leaving the poor therapists caught in the crossfire to suffer the bloody fallout.

Gi-hyeon stared at Yeon-oh in quiet bewilderment, silently questioning why he would go out of his way to instigate such chaos. Catching his gaze, Beom-hee frowned and let out a sharp bark of laughter as she supplied the answer.

“That bastard cursed at you last time, Mr. So. Jo Yeon-oh, you deliberately picked a fight with him just to get revenge, didn’t you?”

No matter how arrogant the Pro was, the Golf Association would never look kindly upon a player who openly warred with a major sponsor. Only then did Gi-hyeon realize that Yeon-oh had known about the incident where the Pro had degraded him as a cripple.

…Having a painful humiliation he specifically wanted to keep buried dragged into the light left a bitter taste in his mouth. Letting out a soft sound that bordered on a sigh, Gi-hyeon murmured low.

“Why did you do that? You should have just left it alone.”

At those words, Yeon-oh’s exquisitely sculpted eyebrows shot upward.

“And why the hell do you never swear at that bastard in front of me? Are we keeping secrets now? Are you out here trying to achieve fucking enlightenment, So Gi-hyeon?”

The sheer absurdity of Yeon-oh staring at him with a deeply displeased, utterly irritated expression while aggressively demanding an explanation for something that wasn’t even his own business was highly amusing. A quiet, breathless chuckle slipped past Gi-hyeon’s lips, sounding like air escaping a tire.

Thinking he heard a laugh, Yeon-oh immediately snapped his gaze back to Gi-hyeon. However, the faint trace of amusement had already vanished without a shadow. Annoyed, Yeon-oh looked away and shoved Beom-hee’s shoulder.

“Your fucking mouth is way too loose, Director Lee. Having trash like you sitting in the Director’s chair makes me want to withdraw my investments. Stop flapping your lips and get out of the way. I’m taking my kid home.”

“And what about you, Chairman Jo? Is your mouth a fucking rag? And since when is Gi-hyeon a kid?” Beom-hee shot back, stepping aside from the elevator doors with an exasperated huff.

Only after stepping fully clear of the elevator did Yeon-oh finally shed his icy, intimidating aura, offering Gi-hyeon a soft, fleeting smile. Recognizing it as the Alpha’s unique method of greeting, Gi-hyeon offered a slow nod in return.

It was surprising that Yeon-oh, who had run into Beom-hee at the golf course during her medical dispatch, had actually tagged along with her all the way back to the hospital. While Gi-hyeon was merely a physical therapist whose shift ended precisely at six o’clock, Jo Yeon-oh was a high-ranking executive of a massive conglomerate. Since they had seen each other yesterday, Gi-hyeon hadn’t expected to see him again today, so the surprise was entirely welcome.

Watching their silent exchange, Beom-hee dramatically mimed gagging. “Everything else is fine, but please stop smiling like that, Chairman Jo. It makes me want to vomit. I don’t care if you’re in front of So Gi-hyeon, have some decency.”

“I endure looking at your face every single day, so why are you so utterly lacking in consideration?”

Trading venomous barbs, Beom-hee and Yeon-oh bickered like a pair of immature children. As a high school classmate of both men, Beom-hee was one of the few people fully aware of their intensely private, unpublicized relationship.

Gi-hyeon reached out to take the shockwave machine from Beom-hee’s hands. Without missing a beat, Yeon-oh, who was following right behind them, effortlessly snatched the heavy equipment straight out of Gi-hyeon’s grasp. Watching the display, Beom-hee scoffed in sheer disbelief.

“Wow. You didn’t lift a damn finger when I was lugging this thing all the way from the car to the elevator. Your loyalty is truly staggering, my friend.”

“Are you heading straight home?” Yeon-oh asked.

“Am I talking to a fucking wall?” Beom-hee deadpanned, exasperated that Yeon-oh completely ignored her and only addressed Gi-hyeon while she stood there wearing her heavy medical bag.

Shaking his head in amusement, Gi-hyeon turned to address her. “I’ll be clocking out now, Director Lee.”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever you say, Mr. So,” Beom-hee replied with a dismissive nod.

Glancing at the retreating woman, Yeon-oh turned to Gi-hyeon. “Is that bastard still refusing to let you clock out on time?”

Instead of answering, Gi-hyeon headed straight for the shower rooms. The sticky sweat clinging to the inside of his scrubs had been driving him crazy for a while now. He knew that if he delayed any further, Jo Yeon-oh would throw an absolute fit, so he decided to just rinse off quickly. Stepping into the locker room, Gi-hyeon opened his designated locker and immediately stripped off his top.

Just as he hooked his thumbs into the waistband of his scrub pants, the locker room door suddenly burst open.

With his flawless forehead on full display, Jo Yeon-oh threw a fleeting glance at Gi-hyeon, a single brow inching upward.

“What. You’re taking a shower?”

“Mm.”

Gi-hyeon couldn’t help but think that, starting yesterday, the Alpha seemed to possess a weird knack for initiating conversations precisely when he was half-naked.

On the surface, their relationship at work was strictly defined as that between the Chairman of the Hospital Foundation and a physical therapist assigned to the athletes’ rehabilitation ward. Nothing more, nothing less.

They had kept their long-term relationship completely under wraps. While the fact that they were childhood friends was public knowledge and largely unavoidable, they had reached an unspoken agreement to act like strangers within the hospital’s walls. Since Yeon-oh seemed to prefer it that way, Gi-hyeon had subtly suggested the arrangement.

Despite the massive age gap between him and his older cousins, Jo Yeon-oh stood as an untouchable pillar within the Haeseong Foundation. If his deeply immature father hadn’t been the eldest son of the family, Yeon-oh might never have been afforded a single opportunity. Yet, despite being the absolute youngest in the sprawling family, Yeon-oh had ruthlessly conquered and claimed an enormous share of power.

Yeon-oh’s grandfather, deeply anxious about his incompetent eldest son, had tightly hoarded assets that were supposed to flow to his second and third sons, ultimately bypassing them entirely to bequeath everything directly to his grandson, Jo Yeon-oh. Born as a Dominant Alpha and standing like a titan among a sea of Recessive Alphas, Yeon-oh was the sole recipient of his grandfather’s violently overflowing favoritism.

Yeon-oh simply took what he was given and managed it flawlessly. Since his cousins were completely incapable of doing even that, his grandfather’s decision to favor him was entirely justified.

Regardless, for a man like Jo Yeon-oh, who had inherited so much and stood to lose even more, rumors of dating a Beta male could prove to be a fatal blow. Gi-hyeon understood that reality perfectly.

Because of that, Gi-hyeon had never once breathed a word about being in a relationship to anyone at the hospital. After all, he was currently employed at Haeseong Rehabilitation Centre Hospital, where Jo Yeon-oh sat as the Chairman.

The facility hadn’t originally been named Haeseong Rehabilitation Centre Hospital. Long before Gi-hyeon had even acquired his physical therapy license, it had been rebranded through a joint venture between Lee Beom-hee and Jo Yeon-oh.

Beom-hee, brilliant enough to skip grades after her freshman year of high school, had finished her medical residency, started as the Head of the Rehabilitation Medicine Department, and eventually ascended to the Director’s seat.

Gi-hyeon knew perfectly well that this entire setup was a profound act of consideration orchestrated by those two, specifically designed for a man who had been forced into an early military discharge due to unavoidable circumstances. They had essentially manufactured a sanctuary for him to work in.

For Beom-hee, it was a massive win, as she got to wear the prestigious crown of a Hospital Director in a state-of-the-art facility funded entirely by Haeseong’s capital without investing a single dime of her own.

For Jo Yeon-oh, however, this venture was far from a highly profitable business move. It was true that by establishing a specialized Alpha clinic and flying in globally renowned pheromone specialists, the hospital had earned the absolute trust of the elite upper class. But that reputation belonged to the main branch, Haeseong General Hospital. Haeseong Rehabilitation Centre Hospital, in comparison, was little more than a tiny mom-and-pop shop.

Rumor had it that even Yeon-oh’s grandfather had expressed profound confusion, openly questioning why his grandson was suddenly demanding ownership of a rehabilitation clinic. Gi-hyeon had never bothered to confirm the rumor with Yeon-oh directly, but even he fully empathized with the old man’s bewilderment.

Even if it boasted the scale of a semi-general hospital with over two hundred beds, a facility of that caliber was functionally meaningless to an empire-builder like Jo Yeon-oh.

Yet, Yeon-oh had acquired the hospital for one singular reason. He did it solely to create a secure, unshakeable sanctuary where So Gi-hyeon could work in peace.

Suddenly, the image of the goldfish tank sitting in his apartment flashed through Gi-hyeon’s mind. The tank Jo Yeon-oh had unceremoniously dropped off one day. Whenever Gi-hyeon sat and watched that pair of goldfish endlessly swimming in circles, paddling their tiny fins, he couldn’t help but marvel at their incredibly small, contained universe.

And, with absolutely impeccable timing, whenever Gi-hyeon fell into those deep reflections, Jo Yeon-oh was always right there beside him.

Just like he was now.