Han Jinheon's brows furrowed as he stared at his phone. The location tracker app, which should have shown a blue dot fixed at home, had been stuck near a main road close to the house for quite some time.
"...What on earth is he doing?"
Feeling that something was amiss, Han Jinheon zoomed in on the screen. He quickly identified the building, then called Secretary Song and gave an order.
Tell Secretary Jeong Seongwoo I'm looking for him as soon as he returns. I have something to confirm.”
“Yes, I understand.”
Secretary Song's face showed he wanted to know the reason, but he tactfully surmised it was related to Han Sol and left the office.
Han Jinheon briefly watched him leave, then switched from the location tracker app to the real-time CCTV monitoring app installed at home to check for entry and exit records. Indeed, Han Sol had not gone home. He was stopped at some building.
He hadn't given permission for that, yet Han Sol had acted on his own.
"He's just like a green frog."
(t/n : 청개구리" [cheong-gaeguri] is a Korean idiom that refers to someone who does the opposite of what they’re told)
Putting his phone aside for a moment, he pressed and massaged his temples.
He knew he wouldn't be at ease until Secretary Jeong Seongwoo, who had dropped Han Sol off, came and confessed everything, and he certainly wouldn't be able to concentrate on work, so he leaned back in his chair and even closed his eyes.
Han Jinheon had installed a location tracker on Han Sol's phone a year ago, when he gave him the current phone as a gift. His reason was rather righteous, in its own way. He needed to keep a close eye on his younger brother, who stirred up controversy wherever he went and caused trouble with whomever he met.
Han Sol, suspicious of his brother who always appeared at the most opportune moments, eventually figured out the tracker's existence on his own and found it amusing.
A sneer escaped Han Jinheon's lips as he replayed Han Sol's reaction.
Anyway, he's amazing. He doesn't care whether his location was being tracked or not.
Even if Han Sol stayed by his side, he had no intention of removing the tracker. Given that it was Han Sol, he had to keep open the possibility that he could cause trouble at any time and consider all scenarios.
Just like how he said he was going home but then didn't, acting on his own whim. Even if he claimed to be reflecting and living quietly, his "wonderful" younger brother could get on his nerves at any moment.
If he's going to be like this, he might as well become an Omega first before roaming around. I told him I'd allow him to go out if he becomes an Omega.
"Should I hire people again?”
He had even assigned guards, but since they started living together, he thought they wouldn't be necessary and withdrew them.
He had hoped he wouldn't need to use guards again, but if days like today, where Han Sol acted willfully, kept occurring, he might have to assign eyes to monitor him in real-time again.
He might really have to. Monitoring Han Sol was one purpose, but there was also the suspicion that Chairman Han's people, Lee Geumyoung, or anyone holding a grudge against Han Sol might try to approach him.
Knock, knock—.
At the sound that broke the silence, Han Jinheon slowly lifted his eyelids. With permission to enter, the door opened, and through it appeared Secretary Jeong Seongwoo, his face pale.
He seemed to have come straight to the office upon returning to the company, still in the clothes he'd worn out.
“Executive Director…. You were looking for me….”
“Yes. I was.”
As soon as Han Jinheon saw Jung Seongwoo, his eyebrows twisted. More precisely, it was when his gaze landed on the familiar muffler around his neck.
The Alpha, feeling strangely displeased, kept his eyes on the Beta before him but asked gently, so as not to frighten him.
“Is that muffler my brother's?”
“Yes, it is….”
“He works fast, doesn't he? Already making moves on Secretary Jeong.”
Is Secretary Jeong Han Sol's type, I wonder.
“So, I told you to take him straight home quietly, but you dropped him off somewhere else?”
Jeong Seongwoo, startled, instinctively bowed.
“I-I'm sorry! He seemed to be feeling stifled…. So, at a cafe right near your residence, Executive Director….”
“That's enough. Leave that here and go.”
At the cold words, Jeong Seongwoo hastily unwrapped the muffler, hesitantly approached, and gently placed it on the desk.
Han Jinheon had watched Han Sol frequently engage in promiscuous and messy affairs, citing loneliness as his reason. Starting even before he liked Kim Gyuyeong, he had closely observed Han Sol immersing himself among men, especially Alphas, sleeping with them and squandering money.
From what he saw, there was truly no one around Han Sol who genuinely cared for him. Everyone was after Han Sol's body and money.
Alphas who wanted him by their side as a person, as their lover, were nowhere to be found, no matter how hard one looked. That's why Han Sol's promiscuous behavior was tiresome and pitiful.
He had told Han Sol he needed to become an Omega, if only to behave less promiscuously, but he was less certain. He was a guy whose relationships with men were complicated even as a Beta, regardless of trait; would becoming an Omega change anything? If anything, it would get worse, not better.
Therefore, he planned to keep Han Sol under his wing until a trustworthy Alpha appeared. Though it was also pitiful that Han Sol, oblivious to his intentions, seemed only to be plotting ways to leave the mansion. Even if Chairman Han were to offer forgiveness, nothing would change.
Only by becoming an Omega and being tied to an Alpha would he realize the value of his own body. And by receiving affection, he would learn that unilaterally craving it doesn't make it happen.
There's more than one thing he needs to be taught. At best, all he could be was the trigger.
Han Jinheon organized his thoughts as he looked at the muffler carefully placed on his desk.
***
Facing the full-length window, I was kneeling with both hands raised high.
He'd frighteningly told me to kneel, saying if I did wrong, shouldn't I be punished, so I promptly knelt. I'd been holding this position for ten minutes since then, and even without asking, the reason was obvious.
Han Jinheon knew everything.
‘Did you have fun?’
Everything was implied in that question he asked as soon as he saw me. That I had lured Jeong Seongwoo, and that I had coffee at a cafe near the neighborhood. And also that I had returned about an hour and a half after that – all of it.
He knew I'd lured Jeong Seongwoo from the muffler he was wearing, and he knew I went to the cafe from Jeong Seongwoo's testimony and the location tracker he had planted on me.
It seemed he also found out I came back an hour and a half later through the tracker, and the mansion's CCTVs likely played a part too.
I was first stunned by the CCTV I discovered only upon reaching the main gate, and then a second time by the CCTV installed at the house entrance.
I thought, ‘Oops.’ I couldn't even dream of a perfect crime. I felt like such an idiot. Since I hadn't been going out, I couldn't have known about the CCTVs until now.
Even if the CCTVs were for the mansion's security, what was with the location tracker? Why plant something like that on me when I only stay at home? Since when had he planted this insidious thing?
“……”
If I had my way, I'd question him thoroughly, but Han Jinheon's aura was so intimidating that I cowardly bit my lip.
His confident demeanor wasn't the only reason I couldn't argue. The way he first spoke so casually about the location tracker, as if it were nothing. That made me, who wanted to point it out, feel strange.
Did Han Sol (the original) know about the location tracker? If so, this is awkward. I can't ask what this is.
“Hold your hands straight up.”
At the chilling voice coming from right behind my back, I straightened my spine and raised my arms straight.
Seeing my tense, disciplined posture from behind, Han Jinheon said no more and turned around. Even looking straight ahead, I could see Han Jinheon's reflection in the window. It was a good trick.
“I'm not a child….”
I am much younger than Han Jinheon, but I'm not a disobedient child, so why punish me like this?
My legs are thicker and my arms heavier than a child's, so my limbs were already tingling and aching to death. As soon as I confirmed through the window that Han Jinheon wasn't looking, I subtly lowered the angle of my arms.
A sense of injustice slowly swelled, becoming more pronounced. If I had had enough fun to confidently answer Han Jinheon's question, it would be one thing.
But I had only come back frustrated by the fact that my bank account was emptied. Oh, there was one more thing. I had also come back after hearing plenty of back talk.
"Han Sol."
At his low voice, I quickly raised both arms high.
Han Jinheon was leaning against the wall, watching me with hawk-like eyes. I had been careless and got caught. A person much taller and larger than me hides their presence remarkably well.
Hesitantly, I slowly turned my body to look at Han Jinheon. With a tearful, miserable expression, I clasped my hands together. This time, it wasn't to act cute, but to beg for forgiveness for my wrongdoing.
“Hyung, I was wrong. I just wanted to drink coffee….”
“If you wanted coffee, you should have said so when you were with me earlier.”
Come to think of it, just before we parted earlier, Han Jinheon had asked if I wanted to have coffee together, saying he knew a place that served good coffee, and I had immediately refused, saying I was fine.
That's how it was then. I was preoccupied with the shock that I could get pregnant if I became an Omega, and I had no mental space for anything else. And I wanted to be alone, separated from Han Jinheon, whose good looks made my heart flutter. I wasn't really craving coffee either.
But I went to the cafe partly because, in a fit of temper, I wanted to test if I could lure Secretary Jeong Seongwoo, and partly because I wanted to sort out my thoughts. Since he couldn't know my heart, Han Jinheon misunderstood that I had lied about not wanting coffee with him and then made a move to go drink coffee alone.
This was a moment that called for a well-placed lie.
“I'm sorry. Hyung is busy, so I thought I shouldn't bother you further….”
“You should have bothered me more.”
I should have.
Han Jinheon, leaving me who was agreeing that ‘hyung is always right,’ disappeared somewhere and came back with something in his hand. It was the muffler I had personally wrapped around Jeong Seongwoo's neck when I lured him. He casually dropped the muffler in front of me.
“I don't know how far you intended to go by luring an innocent person, but don't ever do such a thing again. Consider that someone's job depends on your behaviour.”
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