Chapter 15

As they exited the restaurant after finishing their meal, Manager Yoo was waiting in the hallway.

Reading the room, Gi-hyeon intentionally dropped a few paces behind. Whenever the conversation drifted into highly classified corporate business, the secretary would constantly cast anxious, paranoid glances in Gi-hyeon’s direction.

While the vast majority of the high-level corporate jargon went completely over Gi-hyeon’s head anyway, Manager Yoo couldn’t afford to take that risk. Gi-hyeon couldn’t even feel offended by the suspicion; the capital moving through those trivial-sounding transactions was undeniably astronomical. Injecting a mere wage-earner like himself into the orbit of people who casually manipulated the global economy was exhausting for everyone involved. He simply trailed behind at a comfortable distance while they walked ahead.

Once they finally cleared the restaurant perimeter and stopped in front of the escalators descending to the main lobby, Gi-hyeon decided he desperately wanted to retreat to his sanctuary. It was glaringly obvious Jo Yeon-oh still had a packed schedule. I can finally just go back to my room and enjoy my freedom, he thought longingly.

“It looks like you’re busy, so go ahead,” Gi-hyeon told Yeon-oh’s back.

As if suddenly remembering he existed, Yeon-oh spun around. Scowling slightly, he checked the luxury watch on his wrist and clicked his tongue in deep annoyance. Closing the distance, he issued his command.

“I’ll be back later, so don’t you dare check out. Wait for me. That means you stay exactly where you are in the room after your spa appointment.”

“…”

“So Gi-hyeon, you’re ignoring me again. Are you not going to listen to your hyung?”

The sheer audacity was staggering. Is he seriously going to milk that three-month age gap for the rest of our lives? Fundamentally, Gi-hyeon was absolutely certain his own mental age vastly eclipsed Jo Yeon-oh’s.

However, this wasn’t the time to engage in petty verbal sparring. Over the Alpha’s shoulder, Manager Yoo was staring at Gi-hyeon with a desperately pleading, almost tearful expression, silently begging him to just appease the tyrannical third-generation chaebol so they could finally get back to work.

Releasing a heavy sigh, Gi-hyeon offered a defeated nod. “If you’re busy, you don’t have to come back.”

“I am busy. But I’m coming back.”

The stubborn bastard refused to yield even an inch.

Well, there goes my peaceful rest today.

If the idiot insisted on stubbornly returning to the hotel room late at night, Gi-hyeon concluded it would be infinitely better to simply check out then and flee back to his own apartment. He absolutely refused to step foot inside that horribly exposed, glass-walled bathroom while Jo Yeon-oh was in the vicinity ever again.

Desperate to terminate the exhausting, draining conversation, Gi-hyeon shooed Yeon-oh away with a dismissive wave of his hand, exactly like shooing a stray dog. Chuckling in amusement, Yeon-oh stepped completely into Gi-hyeon’s personal space, reaching out to aggressively ruffle his hair.

“Stop it.”

“Stop what? What kind of lunatic shows up to a nice restaurant with a literal bird’s nest on their head?”

The Alpha’s casual, teasing tone was incredibly refreshing. The genuine amusement lacing his words made him look remarkably happy. Are all people born in the summer like him? Gi-hyeon idly wondered. But he didn’t ask. Someone like himself—born only after all the vibrant, flourishing green of the world had already withered and died—could never truly comprehend the radiant warmth of summer anyway.

Turning his back, Gi-hyeon began to walk away. “Answer your phone the exact second I call,” Yeon-oh nagged one last time as he descended the escalator. Since there were too many watching eyes to casually flip him the middle finger, Gi-hyeon swallowed the urge purely to protect the Alpha’s public dignity.

Just as he was about to head back toward the guest elevators, a sudden realization struck him. He fully intended to sleep through the entire afternoon, meaning he needed to explicitly instruct the Alpha to leave him the hell alone if he didn’t pick up the phone.

Pivoting sharply, Gi-hyeon marched back toward the escalator. Standing by the glass railing on the second floor, he had a clear, unobstructed side profile view of Jo Yeon-oh striding across the expansive first-floor lobby. Realizing the distance was far too great to shout, Gi-hyeon pulled out his phone to call him. Just as his thumb hovered over the screen…

“…”

Someone approached Jo Yeon-oh and greeted him. The interaction was shockingly intimate; the person naturally, comfortably touched the Alpha’s forearm. Instantaneously, Gi-hyeon knew. He knew with absolute, biological certainty that the person was an Omega. The distinct, intoxicating aura unique to male Omegas completely enveloped the stranger.

Gi-hyeon had absolutely no idea what kind of expression was currently plastered across his own face. Because Yeon-oh’s back was angled away from Gi-hyeon’s line of sight, he couldn’t even see what the Alpha was saying in response.

“…”

Staring down at the scene in dead, suffocating silence, Gi-hyeon simply turned his back and walked toward the guest elevators.

Alphas and Omegas. A terrifyingly exclusive world completely incomprehensible to Gi-hyeon, yet agonizingly familiar to Jo Yeon-oh.

Ding.

The elevator doors slid open. Without a single word, a lowly Beta quietly slipped inside and hid himself away.

***