* * *
“Representative Cha, I need to speak with you.”
Team Leader Park’s voice was stiff and strained. Joowon looked up, immediately sensing from his expression that yet another problem had erupted.
He was right.
“Han Jiwoon has caused another incident. He arbitrarily changed the color values of the final design draft for the JX project after it was already confirmed and sent it to print. The printing house just called; the colors came out completely wrong… The client’s delivery date is the day after tomorrow. What are we going to do?”
Team Leader Park’s voice contained both bewilderment and subtle accusation.
Joowon involuntarily let out a deep sigh and pressed his temples.
It was Jiwoon again.
Hiring him to fill Yoonwoo’s void, and perhaps for personal reasons, was proving to be a painful mistake that was crushing him.
Jiwoon certainly had a good sense of aesthetics, but he had a strong, unfounded stubbornness about his own design combined with an absolute lack of experience.
Crucially, he lacked the meticulousness to check details.
This was now the umpteenth time he had either missed details in a critical final stage or arbitrarily changed the design without consulting others.
Furthermore, he was so obstinate that even after being warned repeatedly not to do so, he always caused the same problem.
And every time, the cleanup was entirely up to the other team members and Joowon.
“…Haa. Understood. Tell the printing house to put a hold on the job for now, and I’ll call the JX representative directly. Team Leader Park, quickly assign two other designers to work through the night to revise the design draft and resubmit it for printing by tomorrow morning, no matter what. The cost… we’ll have to cover the cost for now.”
“What? But Representative, this is clearly Han Jiwoon’s fault, why should the company cover the cost… and shouldn’t we call Han Jiwoon in?”
“It’s fine. It’ll be faster to fix it this way than to call in Jiwoon after he’s left for the day. And we can just deduct the cost from Jiwoon’s salary later. Let’s just fix the situation first.”
Joowon cut him off decisively.
While it looked like he was protecting his employee’s mistake, Joowon’s stomach was churning.
‘If only Yoonwoo were here.’
He repeated the same words in his mind several times.
If Yoonwoo had been here, such a ridiculous thing would be unimaginable.
He wouldn’t have had to feel anxious at the final stage of the design process.
Yoonwoo obsessively checked every detail, even right before printing after confirmation.
He was a perfectionist who tolerated no margin of error.
It was tiring at times, but the results were always flawless.
Joowon fought to suppress his complex feelings about Yoonwoo and reached for his phone to find the client’s contact number.
He knew that employee dissatisfaction had been growing recently.
It wasn’t just because the workload had increased.
There was resentment about Jiwoon, an inexperienced newcomer, suddenly taking on team leader-level work that Yoonwoo had handled without proper vetting, as well as resentment towards Joowon himself for openly favoring and shielding him.
Moreover, he knew there were sneering whispers going around that he had cruelly abandoned his business partner and lover, who had built the company with him for years and contributed significantly, to date a young, pretty Omega, putting company work on the back burner.
He could feel the employees’ cold stares.
But he didn’t have the luxury of worrying about the internal atmosphere right now.
He had to put out the fire under his feet immediately.
He pressed the call button to phone the client.
He had to apologize, ask for understanding, and somehow smooth over the situation.
Since Yoonwoo left, this kind of ‘cleanup’ was becoming one of his main duties.
It was a terrible irony that he was the one filling the void left by Yoonwoo, whom he had pushed away.
After a chaotic day, when Joowon returned home, pressing his throbbing temples, Jiwoon was sitting on the living room sofa in flashy going-out clothes, wearing a completely sullen expression.
It was likely a sign of displeasure that their dinner plans had fallen through again.
“Hyung! We were supposed to have dinner together today, how could you come home so late! It’s really too much! I waited for so long! I was all dressed up and ready!”
The moment Joowon entered the house, Jiwoon immediately shot him a complaint and clung to his arm, as if he had been waiting.
In that instant, a sweet, fragrant scent of Omega pheromones wafted over him, making him forget the fatigue and annoyance that had plagued Joowon all day.
The throbbing in his head miraculously cleared for a moment.
The tension in his shoulders, which had been tight with stress, slowly released.
Feeling his irritated and fatigued emotions melt away under the scent of the pheromones, Joowon let out a small sigh.
At least this scent, this moment, was a sweet comfort and an escape for him.
“I’m sorry, Jiwoon. Something urgent came up at the company today, and I was late dealing with it.”
Joowon spoke in a gentle voice, patting his shoulder.
He deliberately hid the fact that the ‘urgent matter’ he had to deal with today was caused by Jiwoon.
“Always work! Work! Work! Which one is more important, me or your work?”
Jiwoon pouted and grumbled.
“You had another problem with a client today, didn’t you? That client is really weird.”
Jiwoon heatedly complained, as if he was the one who had suffered the humiliation.
“He was so annoying even when he was working with me. Do you know what he even said to me? He told me to bring back Team Leader Seo Yoonwoo if I was going to keep doing this! Ha! It was so ridiculous.”
Jiwoon was completely put out, feeling insulted.
‘Yoonwoo….’
At the name he hadn’t heard in a while, Joowon involuntarily held his breath.
His chest gave a painful thump.
While he could understand Jiwoon’s feeling of being compared, the weight of that name was greater than he expected.
But he didn’t even have the right to think of Yoonwoo.
“That client is just difficult, naturally. I’ll talk to him properly tomorrow. Don’t be too upset.”
Joowon managed to lift the corners of his mouth to soothe Jiwoon.
Jiwoon examined Joowon’s exhausted face for a moment, then spoke with a look of concern.
“Hyung, you look so tired. You have a lot of problems besides JX these days, don’t you? Why don’t you just… close the company and join my dad’s company instead? You’d get paid much more, and you wouldn’t have to deal with this kind of annoying work!”
There was no malice in Jiwoon’s face as he spoke, sounding frustrated.
He only showed a pure desire to solve his loved one’s problems using his own background.
But those words directly wounded Joowon’s last bit of pride.
Joowon instantly clenched his fists, a rush of unpleasantness and humiliation rising up inside him.
‘Throw away my company that I built up over eight years with my own hands and work under someone else? Who do you think I’m going through all this trouble for right now….’
Anger flared up inside, but he managed to control his expression and replied.
“…It’s okay. It’s something I can handle myself.”
At Joowon’s firm refusal, Jiwoon pouted again but didn’t bring up the topic further.
Instead, a chilly silence filled the living room.
Joowon, as if he had no energy left to argue, closed his eyes, sinking deep into the sofa.
He wanted to end this conversation quickly and escape this exhausting reality, even for a moment.
The moment he let down his guard, Jiwoon didn’t miss his chance and clung to his arm again, acting cute.
“Then let’s play. I got all dressed up to see you today.”
Then, he burrowed deeper into Joowon’s embrace, explicitly releasing thick, cloyingly sweet Omega pheromones.
His body deliberately pressed close to Joowon’s, and his slender white fingers slowly and temptingly toyed with Joowon’s shirt buttons.
“Hyung… stop thinking about complicated things and let me take care of you today. Hm? I’ll make you forget everything. I’ll… comfort you.”
His voice was already heated, taking on a deep, tempting color.
Even his breath, whispering in Joowon’s ear, was hot.
Joowon looked down at Jiwoon, feeling his throbbing head clear as if paralyzed by the strong, sweet pheromones.
His slightly teary eyes, his flushed cheeks as if he was throwing a tantrum, his lips half-parted in temptation, and the dizzyingly sweet scent.
His Alpha instinct rose strongly.
The thoughts and emptiness that had complicated his mind momentarily lost their power in the face of that intense stimulation.
At this moment, a beautiful Omega was before his eyes, and his body desperately craved that Omega.
Reason screamed, ‘You can’t give in like this every time,’ but his Alpha instinct had already completely surrendered to the Omega’s pheromones.
He felt like he would die if he didn’t hold this body right now.
He didn’t hesitate any longer, following his instinct.
He breathed heavily and strongly pulled Jiwoon’s waist toward him.
Slipping his hand under Jiwoon’s clothes to caress his soft skin, he lifted him without hesitation, whispering with heated breath near Jiwoon’s ear.
“…Will you really make me forget everything?”
“Of course, Hyung. Absolutely.”
Jiwoon’s happy and satisfied laugh further fueled his desire.
He buried his lips in Jiwoon’s neck and headed toward the master bedroom.
The door closed, and soon, faint sounds of two people’s strained breathing, entangled bodies, and muffled cries softly leaked out from inside.
Joowon was once again sinking into the perilous comfort Jiwoon provided.
* * *
