TIN 100

I didn’t think he’d make me wear the shirt for no reason. Though this was all just playing with dolls, he surely hadn’t gone so far as to actually dress me up. Especially not in buttoned clothes rather than just a T-shirt.

“Ah…”

Lee Yuna sighed deeply and hung her head. She covered her face with both hands and breathed heavily for a while. Previously I might have thought she was crying, but now I knew she wasn’t that type of person.

“…How boring.”

As expected, her voice came out completely deflated. She seemed thoroughly disappointed, but that wasn’t any of my concern.

Exhaling with a “whew” sound, Lee Yuna raised her head and roughly brushed back her loose strands of hair.

“The thanks is real though. I said it earlier, right? That debt should be paid properly.”

Her expression showed she wasn’t just saying empty words. Though she mixed in her personal agenda, it seemed she genuinely wanted to repay me. While it wouldn’t have been difficult to just accept some money, I refused without hesitation.

“It’s fine. I don’t need anything.”

“You’re really stubborn.”

The nuance suggested she was sick of me too. Though Lee Yuna called it stubbornness, it was closer to being unable to accept rather than unwilling. And the reason would be different from what Lee Yuna thought.

“Then tell me later if you need anything. I’ll remember.”

There wouldn’t be a later.

Lee Yuna probably didn’t know that after today, we would never meet again. Once I was no longer by Joo Do-hwa’s side, my connection to Lee Yuna would be severed too.

But I said nothing and naturally averted my gaze. At least she didn’t discover I was an omega, I thought to myself.

But at that moment, with surprising timing, the door clicked open.

“…”

Lee Yuna whirled around. Through the half-open door appeared Joo Do-hwa in a suit. He glanced at his wristwatch and spoke in a neutral voice.

“Five minutes.”

“…”

“Passed a while ago, probably.”

He didn’t seem angry. His leisurely, composed voice was similar to the usual Joo Do-hwa. Then, without even looking at Lee Yuna, he nodded at me.

“Come with me.”

“…”

I mechanically walked toward Joo Do-hwa. Though Lee Yuna wrinkled her expression, she didn’t argue. After all, our business was finished, and Joo Do-hwa had been somewhat lenient.

In the corridor we entered, Lee Yuna’s bodyguard was standing there. Though the guard bowed in greeting, Joo Do-hwa walked on looking straight ahead as if uninterested. The guard immediately entered the room, and seeing this gave me belated relief.

Right, she has a bodyguard. I’d wondered if it was okay to leave her alone, but it seemed she’d be fine returning. Though I’d been concerned about our conversation, surely he wouldn’t shoot Lee Yuna dead, right?

Joo Do-hwa took me to my room. After opening the door with familiarity, he turned to me with a slight smile as soon as we entered. Then he asked in an incredibly gentle voice, “Did you have a good talk?”

“…”

Looking at his face, he seemed to know nothing. His gently displayed smile couldn’t have looked more innocent. Even though I knew better.

“…Why ask when you heard everything?”

“Heard everything?”

His light response came without hesitation. Tilting his head to one side as if truly clueless, Joo Do-hwa gently placed his hand on my shoulder.

“How could I hear a conversation inside the room?”

As if you haven’t been doing exactly that all along.

His hand slid from my shoulder along my collarbone toward my neck. He played with the neatly folded collar while lazily pulling up the corners of his mouth.

“Did you discuss anything important?”

The button at my neck came undone with a pop. Under his touch, pop, pop, the shirt buttons came undone one by one. Thanks to wearing a T-shirt underneath, it wasn’t particularly embarrassing, but I was tense wondering when his hand would remove the listening device.

“What did you talk about, hmm?”

His softly smiling question almost sounded like he was coaxing me. Though it seemed gentle, to me it was practically a threat coming from him to speak honestly. Naturally, my next response was predetermined.

“She said she was grateful I took the hit for her last time and wanted to repay me. That’s what we talked about.”

“Repay?”

“Yes, she said she’d give me anything I wanted.”

I had no intention of lying and knew he wasn’t someone who could be fooled anyway. So I added something he would like.

“I told her what you give me is enough.”

“I see.”

His response was excessively plain. As he let out a soft laugh, the last shirt button finally came undone.

“That can’t be all.”

“…”

My eyes twitched. After asking how he could possibly hear a conversation in the room. His quiet voice carried a hint of certainty. My lips moved involuntarily.

“She told me to ask for things you couldn’t give me…so I said I didn’t need anything. I really didn’t need anything.”

I slowly relayed what Lee Yuna had said. Though I didn’t explain further, this alone was essentially a confession of the truth. Indeed, as soon as I spoke, Joo Do-hwa’s eyes curved beautifully.

“How good, not even lying.”

Despite the readily given praise, I secretly swallowed hard. I must have been so tense that I hadn’t noticed my fists were tightly clenched.

“Why so tense? It’s not like I’m a voyeur.”

Annoyingly, Joo Do-hwa seemed to know my reaction. He removed his hands from the buttons and raised both hands as if to show he wouldn’t harm me. Then he shrugged his shoulders lightly.

“The shirt suits you well. Your neckline is pretty.”

This sounds just like he dressed me up simply because I looked pretty. As if claiming he really hadn’t been eavesdropping.

“Yuna is such a fool. As if there’s anything I can’t give you.”

It wasn’t dismissive. Just sounded very matter-of-fact.

Right, there’s nothing he can’t give. Unless it’s things he won’t give, rather than can’t.

“I’ll give you everything you need…right?”

For some reason, Joo Do-hwa seemed extremely pleased saying this. His beaming face was as bright as a painting. Though his unusually positive response was strange, when he turned away, I was suddenly struck with foreboding.

“Rest. You’re still unwell.”

“…Where are you going?”

I unconsciously grabbed his arm with both hands. Joo Do-hwa slowly turned to look at me. His mouth still wore that painted-on smile.

He gazed down at me intently before answering brightly, “To see my fiancée off?”

“…”

Seeing her off…since when did he do that?

“She can leave on her own. You let her go by herself last time too.”

Lee Yuna was Joo Do-hwa’s fiancée and not someone who could be carelessly dealt with like that middle-aged man from before. Just as he said he wouldn’t touch the Jaekyung Finance heir because the cleanup would be troublesome, the same should apply to the Gold Road Liquors heir.

But even so, with Joo Do-hwa as the other party, I couldn’t let my guard down.

“Don’t do this, just…”

“Hyung.”

I shut my mouth with a start. It was just one syllable, but it carried enough pressure. I also remembered Joo Do-hwa’s irritated response saying if I kept this up, he might want to do something troublesome.

“…”

But when I finally met his gaze, his expression was different from what I’d expected. His beast-like golden eyes were strangely gentle. Unlike before when he acted sweet while remaining sharp, now his gaze was infinitely generous.

“I told you, didn’t I? That I’d act like a pushover.”

My eyes grew wide. His soft voice and his words remained chillingly in my mind. My tight chest now began to flutter for a different reason.

“You refused, that’s enough.”

That was it. Joo Do-hwa added nothing more and carefully removed my hands. His back as he left the room wasn’t frightening like before.

***

Surprisingly, Joo Do-hwa’s words about seeing Lee Yuna off weren’t a lie. No disturbance occurred in the mansion, and the car carrying Lee Yuna smoothly left through the main gate. Returning to the room with a composed face, Joo Do-hwa said this to me as I stood there dazed, “How will you manage with such a tender heart?”

His slight smile didn’t seem like he was trying to interrogate me. If anything, his expression was generous, as if genuinely sympathetic, as if there was nothing to be done.

He was being lenient with me, not Lee Yuna. That fact wasn’t hard to notice. It was because of what Joo Do-hwa added as he came close and lightly touched my cheek, “I won’t do things that frighten you.”

Ridiculously, what I felt in that moment wasn’t relief but anxiety. His shown kindness felt like shackles gripping my ankles. His touch slowly trailing down my cheek felt threatening, as if he might grab my throat at any given moment.

“You won’t do things I dislike either, right?”

Those words sounded like a warning. As if his current gentleness would end if I did something he disliked.

Well, it didn’t matter either way. By the time I went against his wishes, I would never see him again anyway.