Chapter 12: An Unpleasant Encounter

As Noah left the team leader’s office and headed back to his desk, a persistent gaze followed him.

Not wanting to get into a conversation with Assistant Manager Lee, whose eyes screamed curiosity, Noah grabbed his phone from his desk and quickly headed to the breakroom.

He figured Lee would be leaving soon since it was almost quitting time, and he planned to just kill time in the breakroom until then.

“Yunoah-ssi. How can you just leave your phone on your desk? Don’t you know how loud it is when it vibrates?”

Assistant Manager Lee, his face contorted with annoyance, nitpicked for no reason.

‘The f*cker followed me all the way here because he’s curious.’

Noah forced himself to smooth out his automatically hardening expression.

“I forgot it because I was in a hurry. I’m sorry, Assistant Manager.”

He lowered his eyes, put on a pathetic expression, and made a whimpering sound.

Assistant Manager Lee cleared his throat with a “keuheum.”

He checked his phone to see if it had actually vibrated, but the notification screen was clean.

Lee had just needed an excuse to pick a fight and talk to him, and he must have been embarrassed when Noah immediately took a submissive stance.

“So… what did the team leader say? Any good news?”

That wasn’t an invitation to get friendly and press his body against him.

‘Sh*t, he smells like sweat…’

Noah took a step back from Assistant Manager Lee, who was pressing himself against his arm.

“Ah, sorry. I keep forgetting you’re an Omega.”

“…”

‘What do you want me to do about it, you idiot?’

Assistant Manager Lee would often make subtle physical contact and then spout moronic things like, “It’s fine between guys,” or “You don’t have to be on your guard, I’m not gay.”

He had no immunity to this kind of talk.

As Noah’s expression hardened, Lee laughed awkwardly and started spouting nonsense.

‘This is going to drag on…’

It seemed better to just tell him what he was curious about at this point.

He would find out eventually anyway, so what was he so curious about?

Noah couldn’t understand it.

“She said we’ve been pre-selected for the Jade Hotel magazine. The team leader’s connections. There’s a formal presentation next week, and I’m going too.”

“…”

“Well then, I’ll be heading home first.”

Leaving the distorted-faced Assistant Manager Lee behind, Noah bolted for his desk.

Noah still lacked the ability to pull his own weight at work.

The tasks he had handled so far were small, on the level of flyers or pamphlets.

But even a simple-looking flyer had to go through endless revisions to meet the picky client’s taste, so it wasn’t a small amount of work.

Sometimes, he wondered if his main job was to grovel to the designers, asking for just one more revision.

When he submitted a draft saying he wanted to appeal to the younger generation, they would make all sorts of vague revision requests, like “it lacks impact,” or “it doesn’t feel professional.”

There were many times he wondered what he was even doing when he had to relay messages to the designer like, “They want it to be more… ‘hwaa’.”

Compared to Assistant Manager Lee, who was excellent at proofreading and had copywriting skills, Noah was still at a beginner’s level.

It was only recently that the team leader had started taking Noah to client meetings and competitive presentations.

Originally, the design team leader would go, and it was usually a senior member of the planning team who attended.

But the team leader, who had happened to take Noah along as an assistant, had loudly cheered in front of the other employees, saying that just having Noah there made the atmosphere warmer and increased the success rate of the presentations.

Naturally, Assistant Manager Lee’s reaction was icy.

The clueless design team leader, on the other hand, had even encouraged her to keep taking Noah, saying it would save him from the hassle of a bothersome task when he was busy.

“Does this kind of thing require face-selling too?”

Assistant Manager Lee had sneered, as if he wanted Noah to hear, as he looked at the brochure proposal that the team leader had won by taking Noah with her.

Noah had the same thought, so for once, he thought Lee was right.

He felt that if he had to resort to selling his face, he should be bringing in more substantial work.

“I know, right? The team leader’s face is more than enough, but she’s so humble, don’t you think?”

Assistant Manager Lee made a strange expression, a mix of anger and laughter, as he looked at Noah, who was smiling brightly as he replied.

He understood Assistant Manager Lee’s feelings, who had lost the opportunity to build connections and hone his skills by meeting with external companies to a green rookie.

But what power did he have?

He had to do what he was told.

Noah had no room to deal with the fights Lee picked with him.

He had a rabbit-like child waiting for his father to feed him, so this kind of psychological warfare was nothing.

In his opinion, looks were also a skill.

It was just that the reality of having to show off his looks in an unexpected place was amusing.

Even after giving birth, he had received countless offers to become a celebrity.

He had refused them all, but one place had been particularly persistent.

He had told them he had a child, but they had replied that it was fine to hide him for the time being and had been relentless.

Among them, one place had offered him an amount of money he couldn’t even imagine as a contract fee, but no matter how he thought about it, hiding his child was not right.

In the simulation he had run with Dongseok, it had naturally progressed to an X-Patch article with a picture of Noah and Peanut, followed by a statement from the agency, and then a tearful press conference a few days later.

In the end, he was doing all this to raise his child well, so he wondered if he really had to go that far and immediately refused.

Besides, there were many Alphas in the entertainment industry, so he would have to live on suppressants, and that was something he would absolutely refuse.

Strangely, his pheromone control was particularly bad when he met an Alpha.

So when he went to meet clients with the team leader, he would take a specially prescribed suppressant, which was a real ordeal.

Headaches, nausea…

Since he was a Dominant Omega, the usual suppressants didn’t work well.

Taking a high-dose suppressant every day was very taxing on his body, so for his daily commute, he always took a regular suppressant.

Just before leaving for work, Noah swallowed the prescribed suppressant with water and checked his reflection in the full-length mirror one last time.

Jade Hotel.

The reality of going back to that place, a place he hadn’t been to since his Omega presentation, suddenly made him nervous.

He had been a little surprised when the team leader told him they had gotten the job at this hotel, but he hadn’t thought much of it.

It had just reminded him of a faded memory from a long time ago, when he had thought it would be nice to get a job at the hotel’s restaurant because the lobby staff had been so kind and the banquet hall part-time job had been fun.

When he first found out he was pregnant, he had briefly considered going to find the person he had been with.

But…

“Who would welcome someone who shows up saying they got pregnant from a one-night mistake?”

He was anxious that they might tell him to get rid of the child.

Or he was afraid they would take the baby away after it was born.

He didn’t even remember the room number, let alone the floor, so he didn’t think he could find them anyway, but no matter how he thought about it, there was no happy ending at the end of that road.

Dressed in a neat beige suit, a change from his usual attire, and with his hair neatly styled, Noah took the bus to Gangnam.

His naturally curly hair was now styled into a sleek straight look, making him look like a fairly seasoned professional.

The sky was a clear, high blue without a single cloud, but for some reason, Noah’s heart felt heavy.

‘Nothing will happen.’

He comforted himself internally as he sat down.

He was staring blankly out the window at the scenery, which was different from his usual commute, when his phone buzzed with an alarm in his pocket.

It was Seungho.

[You didn’t forget about today, right? We’re meeting later, okay?]

Seungho would contact him every once in a while, pestering him to meet.

He was still reluctant to meet Seungho, who was an Alpha.

Even though he knew about his disorder, Seungho always said it was fine, that he had strong self-control, but Noah was cautious.

Still, he had been feeling sorry for always refusing his close friend and hardly ever seeing him.

Since he had taken a suppressant today, he had decided to have dinner with him for the first time in a while.

[OK]

As soon as he sent the simple reply, Seungho’s messages flooded in.

He had just arrived at his stop, so he couldn’t see the subsequent messages, but it was obvious that a string of meaningless emojis would follow, so he didn’t bother to check.

The hotel, which he hadn’t been to in a long time, had a much more sophisticated, sparkling, and bright atmosphere than he remembered.

Thinking how much it had changed, he entered the lobby and saw the back of Team Leader Choi, who was talking to someone.

“Team Leader.”

“Oh! Right, right, come over here. Say hello. This is Mr. Kim Moonho, the PR team leader. Team Leader, this is our employee, Mr. Yunoah.”

“Hello. My name is Yunoah.”

“Ah, uh…”

The man, with a stern impression and thick-rimmed glasses, suddenly couldn’t speak properly when he saw Noah’s face.

Seeing this, Team Leader Choi’s face brightened.

For some reason, the man’s forehead and the bridge of his nose were drenched in sweat.

“Um… Team Leader? Are you not feeling well? You’re sweating…”

When Noah took out a handkerchief from his pocket and offered it to the man, the man’s movements were robotic and jerky, and his hand trembled as he reached out.

He had given it to him to wipe his sweat, but the man didn’t even think of wiping it and just held the handkerchief tightly, unable to take his eyes off Noah’s face.

“You can use the handkerchief and throw…”

“I’ll return it! Thank you. You’re very kind!”

Ugh, I’d really rather you threw it away… If you insist on returning it, I’ll put it in the trash myself. Yes, yes, the subordinate should be the one to handle the trash.

Hiding his inner thoughts with a smile, Noah checked the time on his phone and urged the two team leaders to hurry.