Working from what Manager Kim had told him, Seojin sorted through his thoughts, trying to pin down exactly what point in the story he’d landed in.
When does the incident in the original happen?
How the sub top and the main bottom first met wasn’t important, so the date was never nailed down. What he did remember clearly was the incident that tangled the two of them together for real.
It all blew up at that fill-in shift Shin Seyoung took, the one a sunbae or a friend of his set up.
Of all times, that was when the warning signs of the main bottom’s heat cycle hit. Panicking, he went looking for his suppressants. But somehow, they weren’t in his bag.
With no other choice, Shin Seyoung called a taxi with a beta driver and hid in the bathroom to wait. Then Yoon Haegang found him, and, lured in by a dominant omega’s pheromones, lunged. That was the incident that kicked off their whole cursed history.
And that’s exactly where the difference between the main top and the sub top shows.
Before it could go any further, the secretary came looking for Yoon Haegang and held him back, so it never got past an attempt. And that was when Choi Munhyuk appeared. Reading the situation in a heartbeat, like a proper main top, he condemned Yoon Haegang for his shameless behavior, put Shin Seyoung into the taxi that arrived just then, handed over his business card, and told him to call if he ran into any trouble.
Now that was gentlemanly conduct.
Right. Which means the boss already knew Shin Seyoung by sight back then.
Judging by the circumstances, it also meant an enormous pile of background research had already been finished. That sort of fine detail never appeared anywhere in the novel.
Which made sense. Yoon Haegang wasn’t the lead.
And the thing noona hates most in the world is a side character getting a storyline.
She had an iron-clad conviction that a sub top must never be charming enough to threaten the main top. So she’d kept information about Yoon Haegang under strict lock and key.
“Wow... I can’t believe there was all this hidden backstory under it.”
“Hm? Seojin, what was that?”
“Ah! It’s nothing.”
The second Manager Kim’s gaze landed on him, Seojin’s shoulders went stiff on their own. He hurried his eyes back to the monitor and clicked the mouse a few times at nothing in particular. Just to look like he was hard at work.
“Oh, come on, why pretend?”
“...Sorry?”
Don’t tell me he figured out what I was thinking about. Seojin looked at Manager Kim, tension written all over his face. A knowing smile hung at the corner of the man’s mouth.
“I read webtoons too. Watch dramas and movies sometimes. It’s not like we’re busy, so go ahead. No need to walk on eggshells.”
“Ah... right.”
He’d worried for nothing. Seojin propped an awkward smile on his face, turned back to the screen, and picked up his train of thought.
So I can assume there won’t be much overlap with Shin Seyoung for a while.
That could actually be a good thing. The secretary’s role had been to stand at Yoon Haegang’s side and actively help him, and just as actively get in his way.
Above all, every time Yoon Haegang tried to sabotage things between the main couple, the secretary was the one who gave them the decisive assist.
Only if those two ended up together properly would the story wrap up safely. That was the calculation: finish the secretary’s mission, and then Yoon Haegang would be his.
The problem is he overlooked one thing. Yoon Haegang wasn’t just a sub top, he was a yandere.
The price for ignoring that came back with interest. Yoon Haegang hadn’t simply cut the secretary loose. He made sure the man couldn’t set foot on Korean soil ever again.
Lucky to have been sent off with all four limbs intact, was he?
Not a chance. He used his own dominant traits to completely wreck a pheromone system that had never settled properly in the first place. How was the secretary supposed to live a normal life after that?
And on top of that came the threat that if he ever laid eyes on that face again, anywhere, he wouldn’t let it slide. So the secretary had walked out of the country shaking like a leaf.
What became of him afterward, nobody knew. Neither the author nor the readers had ever cared in the first place.
They were all far more interested in how spectacularly Yoon Haegang would go off the rails and glue the main couple closer together.
Still, Yoon Haegang got a far better ending than the secretary. Noona might not have given the sub yandere top much of a narrative, but she liked the character himself so much that she let him turn over a new leaf in the end, starting a relationship with a sweet-natured omega. That was where she left him.
“So what, in the end the secretary’s the only one left out in the cold.”
“Hm? Is the webtoon good? Tell me too. Let’s watch whatever it is together.”
“Ah, n-no. I’m just watching shorts. Shorts.”
The man must be bored. Judging by how he kept taking an interest over here.
Seojin waved a vague hand to signal pay me no mind and sank back into his thoughts. At this rate, there was genuinely nothing in it for the secretary.
Helping the main couple didn’t earn him any reward from them. And all his loyalty to Yoon Haegang got him was exile overseas.
Yeah, I’ll work at a reasonable pace, wait for the right moment, and quit. Then I’ll move to a safer company and live a cozy little life with Euni!
Seojin closed the document window he’d had open on the screen.
Just do nothing at all. Yeah. That seems like the wisest option.
Once he’d reached a conclusion, the weight pressing on his chest eased a little. Seojin leaned back against his chair and let out a long breath. Nothing had actually happened yet. Was there any point in scaring himself in advance?
It wasn’t about doing absolutely nothing. The best policy was to bolt at the first hint of getting tangled up with that side of things.
“Doesn’t look like the boss is coming in today either. Seojin, pack it up and let’s head out.”
“Are we allowed to do that?”
The words were welcome enough that Seojin checked the time first. This was still a company, after all, and people normally clocked out at six.
But right now it was only four thirty.
“Yeah. You got anything else to do?”
“No.”
“Then let’s go.”
“What if a case comes in?”
“Then we don’t take it.”
Is that really okay? Can this office survive running like this? Somehow catching the incredulous look being aimed at him yet again, Manager Kim grinned from ear to ear.
“I’ll forward the calls to my phone, so quit worrying.”
“Ah...”
Then say that in the first place. Honestly, like boss, like manager: the two of them were subtly alike in the strangest places.
Seojin stole a glance at the president’s desk, empty all day, and checked the time again.
By now he’d be in the middle of that golf meeting with the managing director from Hanguk Construction.
The same company main top Choi Munhyuk worked at. Which meant that from the very start, this was an environment where not only the main bottom and the main top but the sub yandere top too were bound to get tangled up together.
That’s just how these things go.
On top of that, it was because of the managing director he was meeting today that Yoon Haegang took one massive hit from Choi Munhyuk near the end. It wasn’t as if Seojin hadn’t agonized over it when he found out about the appointment.
Nope. Not happening. Play dumb, play dumb.
Still, he’d done the right thing keeping his mouth shut. From here on he had to treat all of it as none of his business and keep one step back.
“Shall we head out?”
“Yes!”
Seojin snatched up his things in a flash. While he was checking that he hadn’t forgotten anything, his fingers were already rattling across the keypad. He was messaging the daycare to say he could pick Euni up early today.
[Euni’s Teacher
Dad~~~~ Euni’s so happy her daddy’s coming early >< See you soon!! 4:37 PM]
It wasn’t long before a cheerful reply came back from the daycare teacher. Picturing the delight on the child’s face, Seojin felt his own heart float right up off the ground.
I should suggest we eat something tasty out and spend some time at the playground.
The truth was, he hadn’t had much time with Euni at all. He’d been dragged straight to work the moment he possessed this body, too busy figuring out what he was supposed to do to pay her any attention, and he felt awful about it.
She was a precious bond his noona had arranged for him, thinking of him, and neglecting her like this left him with no face to show.
Not that this was the sort of payoff he’d been after, of course.
“Still, I’ll take it.”
“Hm?”
“I said it’s nice, clocking out early.”
“Aha! Looked like you were sending a KakaoTalk earlier. Who was it? A lover?”
Manager Kim sidled up against him as he asked, his face pure mischief.
Come to think of it, did I not mention I had a kid at the interview?
It seemed likely he hadn’t. And in that instant, a brilliant idea surfaced in Seojin’s mind.
The perfect chance to cut off at the root any misunderstanding that he had feelings for Yoon Haegang!
“Lover, nothing. I was messaging the daycare.”
“The daycare?”
“Yes. I have to go pick up my kid.”
“Huh! Seojin, you have a kid?”
What’s so shocking about that? At his age it’d be perfectly normal to be married with one child. Seojin nodded along to say as much and pushed the door open.
He was about to step outside when some enormous wall blocked his path. He looked up.
Yoon Haegang stood there, wearing a polo shirt like he’d been born in it, one eyebrow cocked crooked.
