TIN 82

“…”

Why was I caught?

For a moment, that thought crossed my mind. He had been treating me as ‘hyung’ for a while now, but this time it seemed truly sincere. He wasn’t artificially acting kind as if intentionally putting up a front but was genuinely looking at me as if trying to confirm the truth.

However, as soon as my head cooled down, I saw the faint expectation and self-deprecation underlying his demeanor. Though he was asking calmly, there was a hint of doubt in his slowly blinking eyes. As if he wasn’t trying to test me, but to confirm something.

“I’ll forgive you no matter what your answer is.”

Amidst my tangled thoughts, I recalled what Joo Do-hwa had said. His nonsensical claims of innocence while saying the room couldn’t be bugged.

‘But why do you think I’ve already received a report?’

He had said ‘already.’ As if he wasn’t denying receiving a report itself, but denying the timing of it.

Perhaps Joo Do-hwa hadn’t lied to me in the first place. He might not have known anything last night but received a report sometime during the night. It was clear that he had been informed by Henry about everything I had said to Chairman Joo, and was now questioning me.

Yes, if that were the case, what I should say was simple. The answer he would expect from his hyung, the comfort that child would have given to Joo Do-hwa no matter what.

“I didn’t give it to you.”

“…”

“There’s no way I would give such a thing to you.”

It was an exemplary answer, and ridiculously, Joo Do-hwa seemed disappointed as soon as he heard it. Whether he felt deflated after hearing the answer he had hoped for, or if the learned response wasn’t satisfactory enough, a sense of emptiness soon after flashed in his yellow eyes.

“I didn’t know what it was, so I flushed it down the toilet.”

Out of fear. I swallowed those words. The memory of trembling and dissolving that tiny pill, no bigger than a fingernail, in water was vivid in my mind. Despite that, I had even hastily left this house, afraid of being caught for what I had done.

Looking back now, I regretted not taking it with me and selling it. While the source of items could be easily traced, drugs could be consumed without leaving evidence. But back then, I was such a naive child that I couldn’t even think of such things.

“…That’s quite impressive.”

Joo Do-hwa exhaled a thin breath with a light expression on his face. He didn’t look particularly pleased, and his steady gaze was meaningful. Even the way he tilted his head slightly.

“How do you always give just the right answer?”

The nuance of ‘just right’ was quite peculiar. He was complaining even when I gave out an answer. Even as I thought this, I could guess the intention behind his words well enough.

“It’s so real that it seems fake. You know?”

“…Hmm.”

I quietly swallowed my saliva. I had only spoken the truth, and that was possible because I was the real hyung. However, I had no intention of insisting that my attitude of treating it like someone else’s business wasn’t intentional. In fact, it was now half someone else’s business.

“At first, I thought you were acting well…but lately, it feels like you lack sincerity.”

“…Lack sincerity?”

“I’m not saying it’s bad. You’re doing well enough.”

It was half relief that I hadn’t been caught and half unresolved anxiety. Joo Do-hwa, with his unnecessarily sharp intuition, sometimes had an excessively keen side. Yet it was strange that he couldn’t recognize me.

He put the meat he had picked up with his fork into his mouth and continued, “So, throw away what you received this time too.”

“…”

I silently glared at Henry. I had expected this, but it seemed he had indeed told his master everything. And yet he claimed it was all a secret. As I thought this, Henry looked back at me with a brazen face.

‘…Then I’ll be going.’

After the conversation with Chairman Joo yesterday, I couldn’t leave his room immediately. Just as I was about to bow and leave, thinking the business was over, Chairman Joo called me back.

‘Ah, if you don’t mind, would you take this?’

His gentle voice was incredibly kind. His leisurely smiling face seemed to resemble Joo Do-hwa’s for a moment there.

‘I’ll give it to you as a gift.’

What he handed me was the glass bottle that had been catching my eye. Something that I would have taken and sold if I were still a child, but now I couldn’t even think of accepting it. A small, unidentified pill that I secretly coveted but couldn’t ask for myself.

‘Let me know if you need more.’

Now I understood his ambiguous smile. Even if I didn’t give the drug to Joo Do-hwa, I might take it myself and ask for more. Like the others who were said to have betrayed Joo Do-hwa and sided with Chairman Joo.

‘When an adult gives you something, you should accept it.’

Thankfully, Chairman Joo semi-forcefully pressed the pill into my hand. The atmosphere made it impossible to refuse, so I glanced at Henry and took the glass bottle with a deliberately reluctant expression.

As soon as I arrived at the mansion, I hid the pill I had received in a corner of my room. Thinking that someday when I leave this house, I might be able to sell it for a good price and use it wisely. As I mentioned before, drugs didn’t leave behind any traces.

“How could you accept it without even knowing what kind of drug it is?”

I hadn’t expected to hide it from Joo Do-hwa. I anticipated that everything that happened there would reach Joo Do-hwa’s ears through Henry eventually.

The reason I accepted it anyway was because I was confident I could make the excuse that ‘I only accepted it because I was forced to.’ I could explain that I had no intention of giving it to him, that I brought it back only to throw it away.

“If you need medicine, I’ll buy it for you. So go ahead and flush that down the toilet.”

Just like before.

The intention behind his precisely added words was obvious. Act like the hyung you’re pretending to be, like that child.

Well, I suppose it was fortunate that he wasn’t angry. His attitude, much softer than yesterday, didn’t seem like the person who had lashed out asking if I had given myself to his father too. Judging by the fact that he didn’t force me to throw it away in front of him, it was obvious he was confident that I wouldn’t take it.

“What kind of drug is that anyway?”

At this point, I had to ask. Considering he said he had taken it a few times, it probably wasn’t a toxic drug, but what was it that made him so intent on giving it to Joo Do-hwa? If it was really a narcotic, what was Chairman Joo thinking, entrusting such an expensive item to others?

The answer was surprisingly simple.

“Pheromone suppressant.”

Joo Do-hwa blurted out, cutting the meat with his knife. His unhurried movements, as if ingrained in his body, were as elegant as his voice.

“To be precise, it should be called a concentrated drug for dominant types.”

Blood seeped from the finely cut meat. It didn’t look particularly appetizing since it had already cooled. Joo Do-hwa seemed to think so too, clicking his tongue and tossing down his fork.

“It’s not a commercially available suppressant, but a specially manufactured drug from a pharmaceutical company affiliated with our company. The researchers say it’s strong enough to even delay differentiation.”

“Do dominants usually take such things?”

“Of course not.”

Joo Do-hwa chuckled. His usual charming smile was filled with utter disgust.

“Why would anyone take such a thing when there are perfectly good suppressants? I heard even most recessives could damage their pheromone glands if they take it wrongly.”

It was called a suppressant, but for those with special traits, it was no different from poison. Why such a dangerous drug…As I thought about this, I suddenly frowned.

“…Didn’t you say you took it a few times?”

“Because it has no effect on me.”

The two eyes looking at me sparkled bright yellow. The scarlet lips had never looked as relaxed as it did right then.

“My pheromones can’t be suppressed by that kind of thing.”

“…”

Chairman Joo’s face overlapped with his face. Unlike Joo Do-hwa, eyes that barely turned golden only when they caught the light. ‘He doesn’t react to the young master’s pheromones at all.’ The expression that momentarily hardened at those words. Even the voice ordering to feed his son suppressants that supposedly damage pheromone glands.

Could it be that he disliked Joo Do-hwa for such a reason? I wondered why he was so wary of his own blood-related son, an extreme alpha who could hold his own anywhere.

“Anyway, it’s useless for a Beta like you, hyung.”

Since betas didn’t have pheromone glands, taking suppressants did nothing for them. Everyone who came to this house was a Beta, so all those who got pills from Chairman Joo did something pointless. …No, more importantly, the people who committed suicide were the problem.

“You can’t even sell that stuff.”

“…”

Ah, that’s a bit of a predicament.

Pheromone suppressants were the most accessible among such drugs. Despite being needed by only a few, I heard they were developed so quickly that there were almost no side effects. The problem was that the price was correspondingly cheap. Of course, the drug given by Chairman Joo wasn’t a common pheromone suppressant, but that made it even less in demand and valuable.

“If you understand, go throw it away. Henry, tell them to clear this and bring out new food.”

Seeming to be done with his business, Joo Do-hwa wiped his mouth with a napkin and got up to his feet. Despite not even eating half of his own meal, he only pointed at my food to be replaced. I was going to say I could eat it even if it’s cold, but Joo Do-hwa spoke first.

“Guests will be coming soon.”

“Guests?”

“It’s summer, you know.”

It was an irrelevant answer, but there was a related memory. When I first came to this mansion, the child had pointed to the spacious pool and said, ‘We have parties here in the summer.’

“We’re having a pool party, and there will be fireworks too, so look forward to it.”

Come to think of it, he did say that. I remembered the child boasting that there would be a very grand fireworks display, telling me to look forward to it.

“I have to see now what I couldn’t see when I was young.”

The nonchalant follow-up was directed at me. After all, the promise I made to the child around autumn was never kept and remained just a memory. Before winter passed and the year changed, I left this place and went out onto the streets.

“Yoon Ji-soo might come too. Right?”

“…”

Now he was just throwing things out there blatantly.

I, who was about to be momentarily lost in reminiscence, let out a hollow laugh upon hearing Joo Do-hwa’s words. He said I lacked sincerity, but wasn’t he the one making insincere lies? And with an indifferent face, as if it didn’t matter whether I believed him or not.

‘Let’s definitely watch the fireworks together, hyung.’

Who would have thought we’d end up keeping that promise made with linked pinkies like this? To think that I’d end up making up for lost time with him after leaving this place as a child.

The fireworks I had looked forward to so much in the past no longer excited me at all.