Chapter 18: An Unwelcome Intervention

I need to get out of here.

Why me of all people, why is he making such a proposal, what’s the story behind it.

I didn’t want to hear any of that.

I was just uncomfortable with the thought that I had shown my weak side to Taekyung, and I was offended that I seemed to be seen as an easy target.

When did it start?

We haven’t known each other for long, but when did Taekyung start thinking I was an easy person?

Hot emotions kept welling up, and I couldn’t even confront Han Taekyung.

If I opened my mouth, a trembling voice would surely come out.

Yoonseo was about to shake off Taekyung’s hand, which was still covering his, and shoot up from his seat.

But he froze at the voice that came from above his head.

“Yoonseo, you were here?”

The moment he snapped his head up, the color drained from his face.

The person who had trapped him was none other than Kim Injun.

“I went to the office and you weren’t there, so I thought you didn’t come to work.”

Taekyung cast a glance at the unwelcome intruder.

The man, who had been one-sidedly expressing his familiarity with Yoonseo, finally looked at Taekyung.

The moment he properly saw his face, Taekyung couldn’t help but let out a dry laugh.

It was him.

The man who had been chasing Yoonseo down the emergency stairs, leaking his pheromones.

To think they would meet again like this.

Taekyung, feeling a surge of interest, discreetly scanned the employee ID hanging around the man’s neck.

Fortunately, it wasn’t flipped over, so he could see his photo and name.

‘Kim Injun’

Just as he was thinking he had heard the name somewhere, Kim Injun placed a hand on Yoonseo’s shoulder.

Then, he surreptitiously glanced at Taekyung.

Taekyung didn’t avoid his gaze and just offered a polite smile.

Seeing that Kim Injun wasn’t flustered or surprised to see him, it seemed his memory of their encounter on the emergency stairs wasn’t clear.

“…Ah.”

Taekyung, who had been racking his brain to figure out the source of the name, let out a soft sound.

He had finally remembered whose mouth the name Kim Injun had come from.

‘You’ll probably find it if you search for PD Kim Injun. I should tell my cousin about you too.’

Jung Hanna’s cousin.

The PD who had recently transferred to UBS.

The man who couldn’t hide his arousal for an Omega, not just anywhere, but at his workplace, was the man right in front of him, Kim Injun.

Taekyung, trying to suppress the laugh that was about to escape, lowered his head slightly and rubbed his brow, then suddenly offered a handshake to Kim Injun.

To shake this hand, Kim Injun would have to remove his right hand from Choi Yoonseo’s shoulder.

“Hello, PD Kim Injun. I’m Han Taekyung.”

After confirming that Yoonseo’s eyes had widened, Taekyung extended his hand closer to Kim Injun.

Kim Injun looked a little surprised, then he removed the hand he had placed on Yoonseo’s shoulder and took Taekyung’s hand, shaking it lightly.

He was already wearing an amiable smile.

“Ah, I heard about you from Hanna. I didn’t expect to meet you like this, it’s amazing. I’m Kim Injun.”

Seeing that he didn’t show any signs of being flustered or uncomfortable, it seemed Kim Injun really didn’t remember the incident on the emergency stairs properly.

At the very least, he clearly didn’t know that he was the one who had helped Choi Yoonseo back then.

Does Hanna know that her cousin harasses people at work?

A sneer kept trying to escape, and Taekyung had to clench his jaw every so often.

After barely managing to suppress his laughter, Taekyung asked in a friendly tone,

“You seem to know PD Choi as well.”

“Ah… yes, he’s a junior I’m very fond of. He’s very kind and sincere. And he’s good at his job, of course.”

Kim Injun’s face, as he praised his junior, was overly clean-cut.

To the point that it was hard to imagine him doing such dirty things.

But seeing Yoonseo’s reaction and the strange way Kim Injun was looking at him, it seemed he was doing dirty things behind that clean-cut face.

He didn’t know the details yet, but he was sure that Kim Injun was not a good senior to Choi Yoonseo.

“But how do you and our Yoonseo know each other, Han Taekyung-ssi…”

“I was in the middle of an important conversation with PD Choi.”

“…”

“I’ll contact you later through Hanna.”

Taekyung, who had cut off Kim Injun’s words without hesitation, maintained a smiling face.

Kim Injun laughed awkwardly and then placed his hand on Yoonseo’s shoulder again.

The slight tremor that ran through Yoonseo’s shoulder was reflected in Taekyung’s eyes.

“See you later, Yoonseo.”

Yoonseo’s lips were pressed together, and his eyes were lowered.

Taekyung watched him intently for a moment and then exchanged a brief nod with Kim Injun.

Even after the sound of his receding footsteps had faded, Yoonseo’s head remained bowed.

Taekyung took a sip of his now-cooled coffee and observed him closely.

To be so sharp with someone who helped him, yet to be unable to fight back and just keep his mouth shut in front of the person who was tormenting him.

The way Yoonseo treated others seemed to deviate from his common sense, which strangely made him even more curious.

Was Choi Yoonseo really a good person, as Jinhyung had first thought?

Was he a kind and sincere person, as Kim Injun had evaluated?

“Shall I get rid of him for you?”

Only at the casual remark did Yoonseo’s head snap up.

His eyes, which met his, were trembling.

Until now, he seemed to have at least tried to maintain his composure, but now it seemed he didn’t even have the energy to put on that facade.

It was both pitiful and amusing.

Taekyung, who had let out a weak laugh, continued,

“It’s written all over your face. ‘That b*stard, I wish he would just disappear.'”

As he deliberately used harsh words, he could see Yoonseo’s eyes shaking violently.

Taekyung lowered his body and moved closer to Yoonseo, just as he had when he had explained that he wanted to date.

He heard Yoonseo take a sharp breath.

“You owe me one more time, PD-nim.”

“…”

“Then you won’t be able to refuse my request, right?”

Yoonseo’s lips parted as if he were about to say something, but that was all.

Not that Taekyung had expected an answer anyway, so he wasn’t too bothered.

“That PD, you probably won’t see him later. Maybe you’ll never see him again.”

“…”

“So relax your face. What’s a b*stard like that?”

“…”

“Try treating him the same way you treat me. To that senior of yours. That would be fair.”

Taekyung pulled back and grinned.

Just then, his phone vibrated in his coat pocket, and he took it out and pressed the call button. He picked up the paper cup, which was still more than half full, and stood up.

He could feel Yoonseo’s gaze slowly rise and finally land on his face.

For some reason, at that moment, he felt a tingling sensation at his fingertips.

“Oh, Jinhyung. Hmm… yeah, I got it. I’m coming down now.”

Taekyung, who had answered the phone, gave Yoonseo a nod and turned around without a second thought.

He strode away, completely unfazed by the gaze that was following him. He paused for a moment and looked back.

Yoonseo was still sitting in the same spot, clutching the cup pitifully.

He should have felt pity, but Taekyung couldn’t suppress the smile that was spreading across his face.

The anticipation that things would finally go his way this time filled his chest.

After finishing his call with Jinhyung, Taekyung turned and crossed the corridor with a light step.

While searching for the name ‘Jung Hanna’ in his recent call list with his hands and eyes.

As Taekyung had said.

Yoonseo was able to leave work that day without running into Kim Injun.

It might have been because he had been cooped up in the editing room ever since he had come down from the cafe, but it felt as if his words had come true, and he was unsettled.

‘Shall I get rid of him for you?’

Thinking back on it now, that overly lighthearted remark was not an appropriate expression to use for a person.

Didn’t it sound as if he were talking about an object?

‘It’s written all over your face. ‘That b*stard, I wish he would just disappear.”

Yoonseo let out a bitter laugh and rubbed his face.

In front of Han Taekyung, he couldn’t seem to maintain a calm expression, thought, or emotion.

And although Taekyung had expressed it a bit crudely, his inner thoughts that had been read were not much different from his words.

“…”

The two of them, they seemed to know each other.

As he blankly mulled over yesterday’s events with his hands on the keyboard, a question arose.

Yoonseo, who was replaying the short conversation between Han Taekyung and Kim Injun, shook his head.

It was because they had exchanged greetings that one would only use with someone they were meeting for the first time, making it hard to conclude that they knew each other.

Besides, hadn’t Taekyung asked him, ‘Who was that person chasing you?’

“Haah…”

He didn’t know what was going on.

Taekyung’s words only fueled his confusion and didn’t help him organize his thoughts at all.

‘It means, let’s date.’

And what was with that ridiculous proposal?

Dating, out of the blue.

Yoonseo let out a disbelieving laugh, which he should have done on the spot, and rubbed his face again.

He felt as if his weakness had been exposed to Taekyung, and it was hard to maintain his composure.

He could have handled it smoothly, but the deep-seated resistance in his heart overwhelmed his reason.