Chapter 9 : Drawing the Line

“Huh?”

Gyujin tilted his head as he looked at Yehyun. His expression asked why Yehyun was making that face after seeing him.

“…Why are you here?”

“Why else? If not for you, I wouldn’t have any reason to come to a neighborhood like this.” Gyujin smiled casually and approached Yehyun, trying to hug him.

Disgusting bastard. Yehyun firmly pushed Gyujin’s hands away and said, “If that’s the reason, you shouldn’t have come even more. We broke up, remember?”

Yehyun glared at Gyujin. Until a week ago, he never imagined he’d treat Gyujin like this, but now it was different. He felt pathetic, and he hated Gyujin for making him feel this way.

“Broke up? By whose will?” But Gyujin acted shamelessly, as if nothing from a few days ago had happened. “I never said I wanted to break up with you. And you never said you wanted to break up with me either.”

“Are you even hearing yourself right now?” Yehyun shouted without realizing it. Only then did he remember they were on the street. He glared at Gyujin and said, “Let’s talk somewhere else. If Yeseo hears…”

“Come to think of it, I haven’t seen Yeseo in a while. Should I say hi?”

“Are you crazy?” Yehyun grabbed Gyujin’s arm as he talked nonsense and shoved him into the alley.

There was no way a well-maintained dominant alpha’s body could be pushed around by a tired heat omega’s hands. Gyujin had simply let himself be pushed, and Yehyun realized that with a bitter smile.

“You sent me away that day without any explanation or apology. That means it’s over. Do I really have to say the words ‘let’s break up’ for you to understand?”

“So, I still don’t get why you’re this angry. You knew what my family was like when you started dating me, didn’t you? So weren’t you prepared for this kind of situation?”

Yehyun was overwhelmed by the urge to slap Gyujin for his shameless words. “You said you’re the third son of NW Group, so you don’t even get heir training, and you have nothing to do with management or the company. You whined about that all the time, and now you’re telling me to accept this?”

“Yeah, so I need to get married productively to help my family. In this world, marriage is all business. You’re smart. I never thought you were dumb enough not to understand that.”

This shameless jerk who doesn’t have a speck of common sense is calling me dumb? Yehyun struggled to keep his voice down and said, “I saw you as Park Gyujin, the person, not the third son of NW Group. Did I expect marriage? Yes, I did. We dated for seven years. You think I wouldn’t think about that?”

“Yehyun.”

“You’re so great that you have to treat marriage as business, but for people like me, thinking about marrying a partner of seven years is normal. And you, you knew I was a heat omega with nothing. You knew all that and still dated me.” Yehyun struggled to swallow the tears that rose unbidden. “You sent me off like that, didn’t contact me all night, and now you come back saying you’ll accept me as your lover?”

“I think you’re misunderstanding something.” Gyujin grabbed Yehyun’s shoulders and said, “Anyway, what matters is that we like each other, right? Don’t you think?” Gyujin looked down at Yehyun.

“Ha.” At that word, a tear fell from Yehyun’s eye. “Do you still like me?”

“Of course. Yehyun, you said it yourself. We dated for seven years. How could I have no feelings?” His gentle voice and the hand stroking his shoulder made it feel like facing the Gyujin from a few months ago.

“…Then why didn’t you contact me that day?”

“Ah. That day.”

Yehyun asked with a sliver of hope. If he came all the way to my house to say he was upset, at the very least, he must have brought some excuse. Fine, let’s hear it. I can decide after listening. It’s not seven months, it’s seven years. Seeing me next to someone else couldn’t have been easy for him either.

“Seoyeon made such a fuss that I had no time to think about anything else.”

But at that answer, Yehyun felt his blood run cold.

“Is Seoyeon the woman you were with?”

“Yeah. How could she embarrass me like that in front of people… Anyway, I had to calm her down.”

“Who is she?” Yehyun clenched his fists and asked. His soft palms ached under his nails, but that was nothing compared to the chill in his heart.

“Ah, the daughter of HJ Construction’s president. My father’s been interested in construction.”

How can he say that so casually, and to me of all people? Yehyun said through clenched teeth, “So you had no time to think about anything else because you were calming down the construction company’s daughter. But I guess she’s calmed down now, since you have time to come and calm me down. Should I be grateful you came in just three days?”

He spoke with heavy sarcasm, and Gyujin frowned. “You’re not a kid. You can understand something like that.”

“Then why did you come here at all? To piss me off? All our college friends know we were dating, and suddenly my face is all over the news. Did they contact you asking if we broke up?” Yehyun shouted, failing to control his voice. He had tried to stay calm when he started speaking, but he couldn’t hold it in. “You’re going to marry that Seoyeon or whatever anyway, aren’t you? By then, you’ll have to say you broke up with Shin Yehyun, the worthless heat omega. So why bother with this hassle?”

“Shin Yehyun, watch your mouth.” When Yehyun shouted in anger, Gyujin’s expression twisted. He pressed his forehead as if he had a headache and said, “Why do you take it so cynically? I came because I was worried about you. You don’t like attention, and yet you’re going out of your way to act weird and show everyone you’re not normal. Can’t I even worry about that?”

He knows I hate attention, so why doesn’t he understand that hearing this makes me feel even more miserable?

Yehyun roughly wiped away the stupid tears that fell and said, “So, because I’m pitiful, you’ll give up marriage but keep dating me? Did you think I’d like that?”

“Marriage is just a system. We don’t have to get married…”

“Enough. I don’t want to hear any more.” Yehyun cut off Gyujin’s words and laughed bitterly. “Let’s break up. I’ll know my place and live, so you go back to your world and live there. If that woman catches you doing this, you’ll be too busy calming her down to care about ‘other things,’ right?”

“Shin Yehyun.”

“I hate that.” He was so deflated that he didn’t even have the energy to be angry. He had always known that Gyujin’s standards of common sense were a bit different from normal people’s, but he never expected it to be this bad.

Just because I didn’t say we were breaking up, we aren’t broken up. Even after seeing my lover, who had been avoiding me with the excuse of being busy, laughing and having fun with another woman. Even after he crushed my pride with those words. After doing all that, did he think I’d still like him? Maybe there were people like that, but Yehyun wasn’t one of them.

“Are you sure you won’t regret this?”

Yehyun couldn’t immediately give a confident answer. Seven years. Seven years. Gyujin was a lover he had considered family, someone who was almost his whole world. Yehyun had loved him a lot. Maybe there would be days when I’d wonder if it would have been better not to know, or if I should just pretend not to know and forgive him just once. Those foolish thoughts might come.

“Whether I regret it or not, that’s no longer your concern. And if you saw the article, you know. I have someone else too.”

“Ha. You expect me to believe that nonsense about you dating Kang Ijeong?” Gyujin laughed hollowly.

Love him or hate him, he’d known Yehyun for years. He knew him well. Gyujin didn’t believe Yehyun was really dating Ijeong, and Yehyun didn’t expect Gyujin to believe it easily either.

“Why? Can’t someone like me date Kang Ijeong?”

“You know that’s not what I meant.” Gyujin grabbed Yehyun’s shoulders and said, “You’re pretending to date Kang Ijeong just to get my attention? Of all people? Do you have any idea what that means? Your personal information getting leaked, putting up with all those annoying people?”

“…”

“Why would you do something so stupid? Just get along with me.”

“Let go.” Yehyun struggled to remove Gyujin’s hands, then looked up at him. “It’s not pretending. We’re really dating. He doesn’t cheat, and he only looks at me. Why would I refuse?”

“You’re just going for anyone…”

“I dated an older guy for seven years, and I got sick of it. So this time, I’m trying a younger guy who likes me.” Yehyun looked at Gyujin with tear-filled eyes. Gyujin, as if dumbfounded, loosened his grip, and Yehyun seized the chance to escape from him.

“We’re really over. Don’t come to my house again, and don’t contact me from other numbers.”

“Yehyun.”

“You need to be polite to someone who has a lover.” With that, Yehyun turned and left Gyujin behind.

“Hng.” Once he left Gyujin, the tears that had filled his eyes began to stream down. It’s really over now. Thinking that, Yehyun came out of the alley.

“…?”

But as soon as he exited the alley, someone grabbed his wrist. Park Gyujin was behind me. I didn’t hear any footsteps…

“I didn’t mean to eavesdrop, but I couldn’t find the right timing to call you.” A familiar voice stopped Yehyun’s tears.

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