Chapter 77: Divorce Crisis

“You’re awake?”

The pleasant aroma of coffee sharpened Go Ha-jin’s senses little by little.

“Yeah… ngh…!”

But the clearer his mind became, the more aware he grew of his body’s discomfort. Having fallen asleep in the car as if he had passed out left his back stiff and aching. He raised the seat, sat upright, and accepted the cup Chae Woo-seok held out to him.

Even so, the rich scent of coffee alone made him feel a little more alive.

“Where did you buy this…? Is there a café nearby?”

Go Ha-jin couldn’t see anything around them. The world was still wrapped in a bluish darkness.

“There was one way over there. The owner said he couldn’t sleep because of your moaning.”

“…Cough- where? W-Where was there a café?”

Woo-seok’s words jolted him fully awake, and he hurriedly looked around. There wasn’t a single light in sight. This wasn’t a beach frequented by tourists to begin with, which was exactly why they had dared to behave so recklessly the night before….

“What? Last night you were practically trying to wake up the whole neighborhood.”

“What are you talking about?! Let’s get out of here. If we’re unlucky, we could get arrested for public indecency or something…”

“So you admit it was indecent.”

What on earth was this lunatic saying first thing in the morning?

“I’m joking. Disappointing as it may be, I’m not into letting other people watch me have s*x. Besides, there’s no way a café would survive out here. It would go out of business in no time.”

“Oh… you scared me. A-And don’t forget that all of that was your fault in the first place, Mr. Chae Woo-seok.”

At least that was a relief. He absolutely did not want anyone else seeing him like that. As for Woo-seok, there was hardly any dignity left to lose in front of him anymore.

“Fair enough. You’re right, that was all thanks to me. You don’t come across many Alphas who can wear an Omega out that thoroughly.”

What was with the proud look on his face while saying something like that? Seeing someone accept criticism as though it were praise left Ha-jin unsure whether to scold him or simply give up. What exactly was there to be proud of?

Then again, Woo-seok had never been entirely normal to begin with.

“Anyway, there’s no need to run off. Drink your coffee and let’s head back when we’re ready.”

“Sure. Let’s take our time.”

As they talked, the darkness surrounding them gradually began to fade. The bluish light deepened until the sandy shore and the sea, hidden by the night before, slowly came into view. No further conversation followed.

The silence inside the car was almost complete, yet somehow it wasn’t unpleasant. Sometimes, quiet like this was exactly what they needed.

They watched morning arrive with perfect clarity. For the first time in a long while, Go Ha-jin found himself truly observing the passage of time. The sea he had mistaken for endless blackness gradually filled with shades of blue.

The sand along the beach brightened beneath the growing light. The overgrown brush beyond the shoreline, untouched by people, seemed to stir with the energy of dawn. Then, beyond the boundless horizon, the first rays of sunlight emerged.

“I’ve never seen anything like this before.”

It was breathtaking. Watching the crimson sun laboriously rise into the sky filled his chest with emotion. It was an ordinary sunrise, something that must have happened every single day whether anyone watched it or not.

No matter how difficult his own reality seemed, could it truly be harder than that immense sphere climbing into the sky? The thought was almost poetic in its sense of wonder. At the very least, the sight gave him enough courage to face the day ahead.

“Same here. Who has time to sit around watching this? I’d rather sleep.”

If only Chae Woo-seok had kept his mouth shut, it would have been perfect.

“You’re… surprisingly unromantic.”

“As if. Do you know what I’m thinking right now?”

Go Ha-jin turned to look at him. Unlike his joking tone from moments before, Woo-seok was watching him with unusual seriousness. The crimson sun, now more than halfway above the horizon, seemed to have cast its color onto Woo-seok as well.

His lively eyes, his skin, even his lips looked as though they had been brushed with the dawn’s red glow.

That sight felt just as unreal. It stirred the same sense of awe as watching the sun rise over the horizon. Perhaps because of that, Ha-jin merely shook his head instead of answering. He feared that saying anything might shatter the dreamlike moment.

“It made me realize why people like morning s*x so much. Speaking of which, let’s do it.”

“…Sigh…”

Never mind. Forget everything. This guy was simply insane. Expecting any sentimentality from him had clearly been asking too much. Glancing downward, Ha-jin noticed the unmistakable bulge at the front of Woo-seok’s clothes.

He had no idea when, or why, it had gotten like that.

“Just once… please? Quickly…”

But he couldn’t honestly say he disliked the suggestion. He had never really considered it before, yet hearing it from Woo-seok made it sound oddly appealing. Maybe it would be a pleasant way to begin the day.

****

“I think we should postpone the gallery opening for now. Instead, it would be better to proceed with the Paris Opera Ballet performance.”

“…Sigh…”

“Since the media has been referring to it so heavily as the SHS Gallery, rather than emphasizing that… Father…?”

Lee Ah-seong looked as though half his soul had left his body. Even the art center report, which he would normally have listened to enthusiastically, was receiving only perfunctory attention. He looked as though the world itself had ended.

“I don’t know if we let the wrong person into the house or what. Maybe I should hire a shaman.”

The muttered complaint was obviously meant for Go Ha-jin to hear. After all, he was the only newcomer.

Fortunately, things were different now. If he had heard those words immediately after the incident, he would undoubtedly have flared up in anger and demanded to know what nonsense Lee Ah-seong was talking about.

“Please don’t be too discouraged, Father. And what if this reaction is exactly what the culprit wanted?”

“What…?”

Now, however, Ha-jin could respond even to those complaints with a smile. Ever since returning from the beach with Chae Woo-seok, he felt far more at ease. Calm enough to assess the situation objectively.

“Why else would they target the art center? It’s far too dangerous to dismiss as a prank. If all they wanted was attention, they could have displayed it on Gangnam Boulevard instead.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Whoever the culprit is, don’t you think they wanted to drive a wedge through our family? To make us suspect one another and push the blame onto each other.”

He wasn’t saying it lightly. He had discussed something similar with Chae Woo-seok before, wondering what the perpetrator had hoped to achieve.

Though he hadn’t told Lee Ah-seong, finding the bracelet there had only strengthened his conviction that the Chae family was the true target.
He still didn’t know whether the culprit was an outsider or one of the family members.

But one thing was certain, they wanted to drag the entire Chae family into ruin.

If Chae Woo-seok hadn’t hidden that bracelet, the family would probably have turned on each other even more fiercely. As it was, they merely concealed their suspicions instead of voicing them openly.

“So at a time like this, we need to stand together even more, Father. At the very least, we should look united to outsiders.”

Go Ha-jin reached out and clasped Lee Ah-seong’s hand with both of his.

Of course, he hadn’t said any of that because he trusted Lee Ah-seong. Unfortunately, Go Ha-jin trusted no one. People like them were fundamentally flawed to begin with.

On the surface, none of the members of the Chae family looked like they belonged alongside a murderer. But once you knew what they were really like, there were few people more fitting.

Not only did they lack compassion or mercy, they regarded everyone outside themselves as less than human. In that regard, Lee Ah-seong was perhaps the worst of them all.

“That’s why you need to manage the art center even more carefully. We have to make it clear that the death of some insignificant kid won’t shake us in the slightest.”

Just look at how he twisted Go Ha-jin’s words to suit himself.

“And don’t forget, if you fail to handle this properly, I may have no choice but to remove you from your position.”

For the first time in a while, there was unmistakable vigor in Lee Ah-seong’s voice. Specifically when he was talking about dismissing Go Ha-jin.

Go Ha-jin had barely begun working, yet it was easy to guess that Lee Ah-seong was already planning to use this incident as an excuse to get rid of him. No matter what justification he found, he clearly intended to reclaim control of the art center.

Perhaps he was even hoping it would fail.

“…Yes. Don’t worry.”

But Go Ha-jin had no intention of letting that happen. After everything it had taken to obtain this position, there was no way he would simply hand it over. When the incident first occurred, the shocking scene before him had left him too stunned to respond properly.

His only concern had been surviving the immediate crisis.

Now that he could assess the situation calmly, however, he saw countless ways to turn it around. If anything, the circumstances even invited sympathy, making the current crisis far from entirely disadvantageous. Handled correctly, it could raise his standing even higher.

And if that happened, it would become much easier to demand something else from Lee Ah-seong or Chae Il-joo in return.

Money.

He had just begun thinking about compensation he didn’t even possess yet when…

“Director!”

Team Leader Yang burst into the room, looking as though he were about to collapse from exhaustion, unable even to catch his breath.

“What happened that’s got you so-”

“Th-They’ve caught… no, they’ve found Miss Jae-yi!”

The moment he heard the news, it felt as though Go Ha-jin’s mind had gone completely blank.

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