Chapter 15: Julia and the Lost Jacket

“Ah… ugh… my stomach really hurts. CEO, please be a little gentler…”

“If I let go, you’ll fall, Si-hyeon. And then the dominoes will collapse again. Do you think you can set them up alone this time?”

Si-hyeon shook his head firmly. The way Cha Hae-jun’s hand pressed tightly against his abdomen was driving him crazy. Rather than continue this torture, he almost felt like knocking everything over and running out of the hospital.

It would be better to just finish quickly.

With trembling hands, he placed one domino at the connecting point.

Two more left.

Hae-jun’s hand was especially large, so large that it pressed firmly against Si-hyeon’s chest as well. He had thought the man was just tall, but apparently his hands were big too.

And solid.

“No… focus…”

Shaking away the distracting thoughts, Si-hyeon tried to place the final domino…

But the sound of the doorknob turning made him whip his head around.

“No… don’t come in! Don’t open the door!”

At Si-hyeon’s cry, both Secretary Kang, standing like a statue in the corner, and Cha Hae-jun, sitting on the bed holding Si-hyeon’s waist, turned their heads toward the door.

It seemed they all felt the same dread.

“No… no! No come! Come in!”

His strange pronunciation made come in sound almost like coming.

In his panic, he hadn’t even placed the no correctly.

Secretary Kang immediately realized how misleading that sounded and opened his mouth.

“What’s going on here?!”

Déjà vu.

The door swung open.

A bright rattling sound echoed.

All three of them stared blankly as the carefully arranged dominoes collapsed in rapid succession.

“Wow…”

This again…

Swallowing the words he couldn’t finish, Si-hyeon quietly slipped the last domino piece he was holding into his sleeve.

Then he slowly stood up.

His stomach hurt from the pressure, but it wasn’t unbearable.

“Well… actually… I had already finished it. And then that person opened the door at the perfect time, so… yeah. That’s what happened! Wow! It’s complete!”

There was absolutely no soul in his voice.

Just like Secretary Kang earlier, Si-hyeon clapped loudly.

At least for the sake of the two people who had helped him.

Clink-

Apparently he clapped too enthusiastically.

The last domino hidden in his sleeve popped out and rolled across the floor.

Straight to Secretary Kang’s feet.

The hospital room instantly fell silent.

Looking down, Kang stood still for a moment before picking up the final piece and tossing it out the window.

“Actually there were five extra pieces. I simply forgot about that.”

A smiling expression that clearly asked Are we all in agreement? spread across his face.

Si-hyeon awkwardly smoothed out his wrinkled clothes.

Cha Hae-jun tightened the loosened knot of his tie.

The only person completely confused was the nurse who had just walked in.

****

After inserting the tie into his collar, Cha Hae-jun tied the knot with practiced ease.

Secretary Kang stood behind him.

“At 11 a.m. you have a technology cooperation meeting with MMF. At 1 p.m. there’s a video conference with Cardia in Seattle. The points discussed there will be formalized into an LOI.”

“And after that?”

“You called me here just to work me to death. You do know I’m retired, right?”

While putting on his jacket, Hae-jun glanced at a woman calmly sipping tea nearby.

Sensing his gaze, she turned slightly.

Her face looked gentle, though the marks of time were clearly etched upon it.

“I know you’re still perfectly healthy.”

Despite Hae-jun’s dismissive tone, the woman simply smiled.

“I’ve kept the omega confined to the hospital. It’s definitely hyper-recessive. I’ve been making periodic contact to match wavelengths, but the environment here invites gossip.”

“Making a retired old person work the moment she arrives… how cruel.”

“Retired? Don’t pretend. I know you were desperate to dissect Mrs. Yoon’s corpse just to continue your research.”

Mrs. Yoon.

That was how Cha Hae-jun referred to the woman who gave birth to him.

But the word carried no emotion whatsoever.

“Corpse is such a harsh word,” the woman replied mildly. “Think of it as a researcher’s determination to solve trait-related issues. Imprinting is quite an interesting subject. I’m an omega myself, surely you can understand a little curiosity.”

Hae-jun dropped onto a nearby sofa without much reaction.

Go Hye-young was one of the few omegas he knew who lived responsibly.

Checking the tablet his secretary handed him, he reviewed his schedule again.

It wasn’t particularly heavy.

He had been traveling constantly until recently, but the past few days had been relatively calm.

Which meant it was almost time to return to Korea.

Thinking about the mountain of work waiting there made his head ache.

But an even more troublesome issue remained.

The omega.

“Still, I’m surprised,” Go Hye-young said quietly. “You used to dislike me.”

Hae-jun glanced at her before replying slowly.

“Even if I put personal feelings aside… your skills are useful. Anyway, check his condition first. Give me the report this evening.”

For a brief moment, Hae-jun remembered Si-hyeon’s foolish grin while stacking dominoes.

Then he pushed the thought away.

****

“A few days ago I found a jacket in the trash, and when I asked my son about it he said it’s a luxury brand.”

“Son? Oh, I know that word! Your son, right? Then what does he do? Did he buy that jacket for you?”

On the rooftop garden of the hospital, where people rarely came, a strange conversation in mixed Korean and English continued.

It had been like this for over a week.

One person was a hospital janitor.

The other was Bae Si-hyeon, who had been staying in the VIP ward the entire time.

“It’s really nice. But isn’t it too big for Julia to wear? Oh, maybe it’s for your son?”

Clapping lightly, Si-hyeon admired the jacket.

Julia pursed her lips and scolded him.

“That’s not something to admire, Bae. Why would anyone throw away perfectly good clothes like this? Nothing’s even worn out. Back in my day we patched clothes with different fabrics and wore them again and again. You should never waste things like this. Save money while you have it.”

“That’s exactly what I’m saying. It’s clearly men’s clothing, why give it to Julia? Your son must have terrible taste.”

“Don’t stay in the VIP ward too long. American hospitals aren’t good places for travelers. They’re too expensive.”

“Exactly! This hospital is crazy expensive. Maybe it’s because it’s VIP? I seriously don’t understand the world of rich people.”

They spoke completely different languages and topics.

Yet both kept talking nonstop.

They seemed surprisingly good at carrying on conversations like this.

And it wasn’t their first time.

Every time Si-hyeon visited the rooftop after lunch, he encountered Julia.

Their schedules had gradually aligned.

And this strange conversation was the result.

“Still… this jacket isn’t great,” Si-hyeon said, examining it carefully. “Your son’s taste is suspicious.”

Taking the jacket Julia handed him, he looked at it thoughtfully.

The jacket was dark gray with a faint white check pattern.

While studying the sleeves and shoulder width, Si-hyeon felt a strange sense of familiarity.

He had seen it before.

When he had gone looking for his wallet with Cha Haej-un.

More precisely, Hae-jun had been wearing it.

Slowly measuring the sleeves and shoulders again, Si-hyeon discreetly held it up to his body.

It seemed like it might fit Hae-jun.

Maybe it really was Hae-jun’s jacket?

He was about to try it on…

But Julia snatched it back immediately.

“Bae, even if it’s you, I can’t give this away. Expensive lost items must be kept at the desk.”

“Wow… Julia, even if your son bought it, that’s a pretty scary look you’re giving me.”

“It was found in the trash, so it’s a bit unclear… but I wondered if it might belong to you. Since you can’t speak English, I thought you wouldn’t be able to retrieve lost things. But it doesn’t seem like yours. Anyway, I’ll register it as lost property today.”

Watching from a distance, the bodyguard was completely baffled.

How were these two even communicating?

No matter how he thought about it, it made no sense.

From observing for a month, Bae Si-hyeon’s English ability was barely above memorized textbook phrases.

If someone asked “How are you?” he would always reply:

“I’m fine, thank you. And you?”

Even if he got hit by a car and rolled across the street, the answer probably wouldn’t change.

Strangely, the janitor didn’t seem to find this odd at all.

The bodyguard, half-listening to the conversation, suddenly moved when a short instruction sounded in his earpiece.

He was told to escort the protection target back to his room.