The previous vitality could no longer be found at CS Design.
A space filled only with cold air; all the employees had left, and only the empty desks seemed to faintly prove its past glory.
Cha Joowon remained alone in the CEO’s office, organizing the final documents.
His hands, settling the employees’ salaries and severance pay, were so mechanical that they conveyed no emotion whatsoever.
A week had passed since the closure notice was posted.
The investment funds received from H Pharmaceuticals had already been fully returned through a lawyer.
He was wrapping up everything he had built with his own hands, everything he had built up with Yoonwoo, so futilely.
Having worked with a stiff expression without even eating, he turned off his computer and relaxed his body once the work was somewhat finished.
Sinking deep into the chair in the CEO’s office, he looked around the empty office.
How many memories were imbued in this place.
The memory of feeling fluttery while staying up all night creating design drafts alone with Yoonwoo in that tiny but memory-filled, shabby officetel.
The memory of winning their first contract and popping champagne together in the officetel, rejoicing like children.
When they finally moved to a decent, spacious office, they had dreamt bigger, vowing to create the best studio in the industry.
The small happiness of sharing the lunchbox Yoonwoo had carefully packed, smiling together at his seat inside the CEO’s office on sunny days.
The times they would sit together on the emergency stairs to vent their frustration when ideas wouldn’t come or when clients made absurd demands, only to suddenly catch each other’s eyes and share a thrilling, secret kiss.
Everything felt so vivid, as if it had happened just yesterday.
A corner of his heart ached numbly.
A vivid pain, as if drops of red, hot blood were falling one by one from his heart.
Joowon bit his lip and tried hard to suppress that emotion.
Regret was useless.
Everything was already over.
He had ended everything.
His gaze lingered in the air.
Soon, he slowly lowered his head and looked at his left hand.
The ring finger of his left hand, where it had been a long time since he took off the ring, now leaving only a faint mark.
And naturally, Han Jiwon’s face surfaced in that spot.
Since the revelation at the hospital, he had moved out of the apartment he shared with Jiwon and was living alone in a newly rented small officetel.
Jiwon had persistently tried to contact him for days, but he ignored all the calls.
His sense of time was so blurred he didn’t even know how many days it had been since he last saw Jiwon.
Honestly, he was still confused.
The intense rut at the hotel, and Jiwon innocently and brightly comforting him afterward, saying it was okay—that Jiwon was a completely different person from the one who plotted to deceive his colleagues and frame another person as a plagiarist.
How could one person change so much, or had he failed to recognize his true nature from the beginning?
Did he make him change, or was he always that kind of person? Unable to figure it out, Joowon lacked the confidence to face him.
Everything was too complicated and dizzying.
Just then, the cell phone on his desk rang quietly.
It was an unknown number.
He hesitated whether to answer it or not, but eventually pressed the call button.
“…Hello.”
[Brother-in-law. No, should I call you CEO Cha now?]
A familiar yet languid voice that seemed to whisper lowly in his ear. As soon as he heard that voice, Joowon immediately knew who it was. It was Han Jiwon’s older brother, Han Jehoon.
[I thought you would call me first at least once, but you’re surprisingly quiet?]
Jehoon’s voice still carried an inexplicable sarcasm and composure.
Joowon recalled the meaningful words he had handed him on the day of the formal family meeting.
‘If anything happens in the future, please contact this number.’
“…Did you, by any chance, know it would turn out like this?”
Joowon asked in a low voice.
Without realizing it, a certain anger was laden in his voice.
[I don’t think this is something to talk about over the phone. I’m at a bar in Itaewon right now, let’s see each other’s faces for a moment, CEO Cha.]
With that one-sided notification, the call ended.
Soon, a text message arrived with an address.
Staring blankly at it, Joowon grabbed his jacket and stood up.
He had no choice.
He even felt that this man might hold the clue to all this confusion.
A high-end bar located in a high-rise building in Itaewon.
It seemed to be operated on a membership basis, as a strict atmosphere hung over the entrance.
When Joowon gave Jehoon’s name, the staff politely guided him to a private room inside.
Upon opening the door, Jehoon was alone inside, tilting a glass of whiskey.
Sitting against the backdrop of the night view outside the window, he boasted an overwhelming beauty, just like when he saw him at the family meeting, but he exuded a somewhat dangerous aura.
“Why did you call me?”
Joowon spoke first.
Jehoon set down his glass and slowly turned his head toward Joowon.
An incomprehensible smile still hung on his lips.
And the next moment, Joowon felt his breath hitch.
Jehoon had begun to release his Omega pheromones very strongly.
“Gasp…! Ugh…!”
Joowon felt nauseous from the sudden pheromones and reflexively covered his mouth with his hand.
It was a violent rejection reaction; his head spun and his stomach felt like it was twisting.
He staggered, ran to the bathroom, and vomited violently.
It was a painful time, to the point of throwing up even his gastric acid.
When Joowon barely managed to calm down and came out of the bathroom, Jehoon was still looking at him with a nonchalant expression.
There was no sympathy or surprise in his eyes.
As if he had expected this whole situation. Unable to hold back his anger, Joowon shouted.
“What do you think you’re doing right now! What is the reason you call someone here and then do something so rude!”
“Calm down, CEO Cha.”
Jehoon said leisurely.
His voice was soft and captivating like a snake’s tongue, but the blade hidden within was cold.
“Isn’t it a bit strange? I pride myself on my pheromones being captivating enough to make most Alphas lose their minds and lunge at me. So why are you, CEO Cha, uniquely finding it so disgusting?”
He looked at Joowon with meaningful eyes. At those words, Joowon’s eyes filled with confusion.
“By any chance… recently… have you ever properly smelled the pheromones of anyone other than Jiwon?”
At Jehoon’s words, Joowon briefly suppressed his anger and fell into thought.
Being engaged to Jiwon, there was no reason for other Omegas to release their pheromones to him.
Moreover, carelessly leaking pheromones in public places was considered impolite, so since meeting Jiwon, he had no memory of smelling another Omega’s pheromones so directly and strongly.
So he felt it was strange even to himself that he was showing such an intense rejection reaction to someone else’s pheromones right now.
In the past, even if he smelled other Omegas’ pheromones, it wasn’t this bad.
“What… did you do to me. Why am I feeling your pheromones are so disgusting?”
Joowon asked in a voice mixed with suspicion and anxiety.
“You probably won’t just find my pheromones disgusting? Probably… you will have come to feel all Omega and Alpha pheromones in the world, except for our Jiwon’s, are disgusting.”
Jehoon said coldly.
He suddenly pressed the call bell in the room.
A moment later, a young male server entered.
“Release your pheromones as strongly as you can toward that customer.”
Jehoon said as if commanding.
“H-Here?”
The server looked flustered, but pressured by Jehoon’s coercive atmosphere, he cautiously released his pheromones toward Joowon as if he had no choice.
“Urp…! S-Stop…!”
Joowon stopped the server urgently, feeling an even more violent nausea and dizziness than before.
As the flustered server left the room, Jehoon smiled coldly and asked.
“Do you understand a bit now? What has happened to your body.”
“What on earth… why is this happening…. Is my body… is something wrong with it?”
Joowon asked in a despairing voice.
Jehoon slowly stood up from his seat and approached Joowon. His eyes were cold and calm.
“I can tell you what was done to you.”
He placed a hand on Joowon’s shoulder and whispered lowly to him.
“In return… you’ll have to help me a little too.”
Only then did Joowon slowly examine Jehoon again. Pale, almost white skin and night-sky black hair.
Below that, his long, slanted eyes and sharp jawline created a cold yet fatal beauty.
His expensive custom suit further accentuated his perfect figure, and the watch on his wrist and subtly shining accessories implicitly revealed his wealth and status.
What kind of help could he possibly give to such an arrogant and beautiful Dominant Omega who seemed to have everything?
“I’m nothing but a penniless nobody. How can I possibly be of any help to an Omega like you?”
Joowon asked despondently, thinking of himself, who had now lost everything—money, company, honor, everything.
A fishy smile appeared on Jehoon’s lips.
“No, it’s a job only you can do. To achieve my goal… I absolutely need you.”
“What is… your goal?”
Jehoon replied with a cold sneer. His eyes glinted terrifyingly.
“To tear down my father… that man they call the Chairman of H Pharmaceuticals, with my own hands.”
Joowon’s face gradually hardened as he listened to Jehoon’s plan.
