OCMG chapter 30

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As Junhee hesitated, fragments of sentences flashed through his mind.

“The moment we said your brother was missing, that bastard rushed out of the hall and disappeared in an instant.”

“Whether he got stitched up with seven or seventeen stitches, I’ll sew his mouth shut to keep him quiet. Don’t worry. I’m hanging up.”

Though Junhee couldn’t remember it clearly, it seemed certain that Ki Taeryu was the reason he was able to get out of that place.

When Siwon first told him, Junhee brushed it off, but overhearing Ki Taeryu’s phone conversation later had left him feeling an unsettling sense of debt.

Junhee stood at the entrance, taking a deep breath before stepping inside, following Ki Taeryu’s trail.

A pair of black shoes.

A discarded jacket.

A bottle cap rolling on the floor.

Standing by the window overlooking the city, Ki Taeryu was there.

He tilted the bottle, and amber liquid trickled down the clear glass.

“…Director?”

Junhee called out cautiously, but Ki Taeryu didn’t respond, merely gripping the glass.

Junhee stood still, watching him.

The shadow of his throat moved as he swallowed the liquor.

The liquor poured again with a light trickle.

The time it took for the glass to empty was shorter than the time it took to fill it.

He drank as if self-destructing, just as twenty-year-old Junhee had once done.

By the time he drained his third glass in a row—

“You seem to be drinking too quickly.”

Junhee pressed down on the transparent glass with his hand.

A cold gaze swept over the back of Junhee’s hand, then up his arm, and finally onto his face.

A shiver ran along the path it traced.

“Trying to keep up with me?”

After a brief hesitation, Junhee flipped over the empty glass lying on its side and replied.

“I’ll just have one.”

As he thought, “Surely, one drink won’t cause any trouble,” a reluctance crept in when he actually tried to down the bitter alcohol on an empty stomach.

Ki Taeryu smirked as he asked, “What, you think I spiked it?”

Junhee’s hesitation seemed to have been misunderstood.

“No, nothing like that.”

Faced with Ki Taeryu’s unwavering stare, he finally confessed.

“…It’s just that it seems too bitter.”

Ki Taeryu would probably laugh at him, but Junhee couldn’t handle bitter things well.

He couldn’t even drink soju, which was less than 20% alcohol, without mixing it with beer, let alone handle 40% liquor with ease.

Before long, Ki Taeryu reached out and took Junhee’s hesitant glass from him.

Junhee stayed silent, wondering if he was trying to prevent another incident from happening.

Clink, the sound of ice being added, followed by the fizzing of tonic water pouring into the glass.

“You can’t drink, you can’t drive… What is it that Deputy Manager Yoo Junhee is good at?”

Perhaps because of the now somber atmosphere, Junhee reflexively extended his hand to take the glass.

Before he knew it, Ki Taeryu had returned to his usual self.

A reasonable suspicion crossed Junhee’s mind: was he acting just to get me to drink?

“Swiping cards?”

“That’s because I…”

Junhee’s ears turned red even though he hadn’t taken a sip yet.

“I made a mistake. I confused your card with our company’s corporate card. I’ll return it.”

He took out the card and held it out to Ki Taeryu.

“There are people who never swipe cards, but there’s no one who swipes just once, is there?”

“…I won’t swipe it again.”

“If you plan to keep showing up to get the card whenever you accompany me to events, then go ahead.”

As Ki Taeryu gazed at Junhee’s neatly manicured nails clutching the card, he snickered.

Junhee, who had been about to mention that he already had clothes bought for him, gave up arguing and shut his mouth.

Knowing Ki Taeryu, he’d probably accuse him of reusing outfits like he was rotating credit cards.

“…It really was a mistake this time.”

“Cute mistake, though.”

I thought you were wagging your tail, asking me to come see you.

At Ki Taeryu’s words, Junhee immediately reached for his glass and downed the drink in one gulp.

It was something he couldn’t bear to hear while sober.

The heavy alcohol burned down his throat.

It felt like a cold fire was scorching him from the inside.

The highball Ki Taeryu made was disgustingly bad.

As Ki Taeryu watched Junhee, eyes squeezed shut and lips pressed to the glass, a twisted smirk formed on his face.

“Well then, I’ll be going. You must be tired.”

Junhee set the glass down on the table with a sharp clink and wiped his mouth.

A surge of self-loathing rose within him. What right did a broke man like him have to worry about anything else?

“Tomorrow, after you finish up, come here right away. Three o’clock should be perfect.”

It irritated him that Ki Taeryu, who wasn’t even his direct supervisor, dared to tell him when to arrive.

Fueled by both the alcohol and defiance, Junhee responded.

“I already told you, I’m not accompanying you tomorrow.”

Junhee glared at him with slightly reddened eyes.

As Junhee turned to leave, his wrist was suddenly seized.

Ki Taeryu’s fierce gaze locked onto Junhee’s face, taking in his flushed eyes and the defiant brown irises glaring back at him, filled with hostility.

Ki Taeryu’s lips curled into a smile.

“Then stay the night.”

“What the… What nonsense are you spouting?”

Junhee’s brown eyes clouded with confusion.

He tried to wrench his wrist free, but the more he resisted, the tighter Ki Taeryu’s grip became, like a trap closing in.

“What is it that Deputy Manager Yoo Junhee hates the most?”

The words “arrogant alphas like you” hovered on the tip of his alcohol-fueled tongue but never made it out.

Instead, his voice came out low and suppressed as it slipped past his red lips.

“Being controlled.”

“For example?”

Ki Taeryu asked, his voice laced with amusement, as if he was waiting for Junhee to finally say his name.

“Let me go.”

“Why? Afraid I might do something?”

At the faint mockery, Junhee’s eyes flared wide.

An impulse surged within him, the urge to shatter that deep, unshakable belief that alphas like Ki Taeryu would always be the ones on top.

“Haven’t you ever thought of the opposite?”

“What?”

“Haven’t you ever thought that you might be the one something happens to?”

The look of slight bewilderment on Ki Taeryu’s face mixed strangely with Junhee’s alcohol-infused glee.

But the next moment—

“Interesting. Then give it a try.”

As Ki Taeryu dragged Junhee toward the bedroom with brutal strength, that fleeting thrill evaporated entirely.

The world flipped upside down, and before he knew it, Junhee found himself on top of the bed.

No, more precisely, on top of Ki Taeryu, who was lying on the bed.

“What are you going to do, Junhee?”

Junhee tried to push himself up, but his wrists were firmly held down, making it impossible to move.

“Go on, do something.”

Ki Taeryu’s eyes were filled with a heat Junhee couldn’t understand. In that instant, Junhee realized far too late.

It was too late for apologies, too late for regret.

The wrists that were tightly gripped, the legs tangled together, radiated heat like they were on fire, making Junhee wonder if something inside him was broken.

“If you don’t, then I will.”

Ki Taeryu pulled him down with a strong force, and their lips almost touched, hovering on the edge between contact and a slight tremble.

Junhee tried to turn his head away from Ki Taeryu’s lowered gaze, but Ki Taeryu grabbed the back of his head, his fingers pressing into his scalp.

The sensation sent a shiver down his spine, his nerves taut with tension.

“You need to answer. I asked what you’re going to do.”

Along with Ki Taeryu’s ominous voice, the scent of his pheromones flooded Junhee’s senses.

When Junhee didn’t respond, Ki Taeryu’s grip tightened, pulling Junhee’s hair taut.

“…It’s not that I can’t… I won’t.”

“Why?”

Ki Taeryu’s lips were no longer smiling. His dark eyes were heavy, empty, like a dying star.

It wasn’t the pheromones, but the sheer heat that suffocated him.

“Let me go.”

Ki Taeryu’s large hand released its grip on Junhee’s hair, sliding down to grasp his neck.

Junhee’s stiff neck was now clutched in Ki Taeryu’s hand.

Like a small, cornered animal, Junhee let out a low growl.

“If you cross the line any further…”

“Go on. Keep talking. What are you going to do?”

As Ki Taeryu moved his lips, they hovered dangerously close to Junhee’s, grazing them ever so lightly.

“I’ll report you.”

The last word was cut off. Ki Taeryu swallowed it in his mouth.

With a thud, Junhee’s fist struck Ki Taeryu’s jaw at almost the same time.

As he pushed Ki Taeryu’s solid shoulder with all his strength, his body flipped back.

The soft, comforting bedding caught Junhee as he fell.

The circular light on the ceiling spun wildly, making it hard to tell if it was the ceiling or his own head that was spinning.

A breath Junhee had been holding in escaped.

“…Ha…”

Junhee covered his eyes with the back of his hand.

The fear that crept in, crawling up alongside the alcohol in his system, was undeniable.

It’s all over now… Drinking again and causing trouble, ruining everything.

The contract, everything—it’s all over.

Fragments of chaotic thoughts swirled violently in his mind.

Even in cases of assault, they say the one who strikes first often takes the blame, especially when the opponent is someone like him—a man connected to a powerful conglomerate.

Was he bound for prison now?

Despite his spiraling thoughts, Ki Taeryu remained completely unresponsive.

Junhee slowly placed his hands on the ground and pushed himself upright.

“… Director?”

Ki Taeryu lay motionless, in the exact position he had been during their standoff earlier.

The only difference was that his chin had tilted slightly to the right.

“D-Director?”

Junhee crawled closer to Ki Taeryu, his movements hesitant and shaky.

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