Rewinding two weeks to that evening at the restaurant Dojin had sent via text.
Yoonwoo, who had arrived a little earlier than the promised time, froze at the unexpected sight that greeted him as he opened the door to the reserved private room.
Inside the room, Dojin and CEO Kang Seoyeon were sitting together… and unexpectedly, Cha Joowon was there as well.
They were seated across from each other with a table in between, as if they were in the middle of an important meeting.
Yoonwoo had never imagined in his wildest dreams that he would see his ex-lover, who was also the representative of the company he was currently in conflict with, at a gathering arranged by Dojin.
“Uh…?”
Yoonwoo stopped at the entrance, flustered.
“Dojin… CEO…? And… Cha Joowon, what are you doing here…?”
Upon spotting Yoonwoo, Seoyeon sighed with a complex expression.
“Oh, you’re here? Just sit down.”
She pointed to the seat next to her with her chin.
When Joowon met Yoonwoo’s eyes, he flinched for a moment but soon gave a slight, awkward nod in greeting.
His face was still gaunt, but there was a faint glimmer of resolve that was slightly different from when Yoonwoo had seen him at his officetel last time.
Yoonwoo sat next to Seoyeon with a bewildered expression.
It wasn’t that he felt a burning hatred for Joowon or a desperate need to avoid him; it was just incredibly awkward and uncomfortable to be in the same room as his ex-lover—the man currently engaged to Han Jiwon.
What on earth was the “method” Dojin spoke of, and why were these three gathered together?
“Yoonwoo, I’ll explain.”
Seoyeon spoke first. Her voice still carried a mix of irritation and fatigue regarding Joowon.
“Honestly, I really didn’t want to accept help from this human… but he shamelessly approached us first to offer it, and looking at it coldly, I realized it wouldn’t be easy to solve this without his help, so I called him.”
She openly referred to Joowon as “this human” while lashing out.
“Dojin has been tracking that traitor Lee Minjae, and he witnessed him meeting Han Jiwon several times after work. It seems certain that the two of them are behind this plagiarism incident. If we secure the list of emails or chats exchanged between them, we’ll have irrefutable evidence.”
Seoyeon continued.
“Lee Minjae is our employee and uses a company laptop, so I can access his records. But for Han Jiwon… to get our hands on his laptop, we eventually needed the help of Cha Joowon, this human. It’s CS Design property.”
With Seoyeon’s explanation, Yoonwoo finally grasped the situation.
Han Jiwon’s laptop. All the truth must be stored within it.
However, the fact that he had to rely on Cha Joowon’s help to secure that laptop weighed heavily on his heart.
Joowon, who had been listening in silence, pushed a laptop across the table toward them as if he had been waiting for the right moment.
“…Inside this, all the records created by Han Jiwon are stored.”
His voice was directed toward Yoonwoo, mixed with lingering attachment and regret. Seoyeon looked at Joowon with a troubled expression.
“Hey, Cha Joowon. I hate Han Jiwon to the core… but he’s your fiancé, and he’s carrying your child. Are you really okay with exposing him like this with your own hands?”
Her voice carried a mix of concern and slight sarcasm.
As Seoyeon mentioned Han Jiwon and the “child,” a self-deprecating smile flashed briefly on Joowon’s lips before disappearing.
Joowon stroked his teacup with faintly trembling hands. His gaze lingered on Yoonwoo for a brief moment, filled with deep pain and regret, before falling back to the floor.
“…The problem I created, I must take responsibility for it.”
His voice was sorrowful, but no longer did it hold excuses or self-pity.
Looking at Yoonwoo once more, he spoke with great difficulty.
“And… Yoonwoo, there is one thing I… I want to ask for your leniency.”
His voice trembled thinly.
“If… if it is true that Han Jiwon staged all of this… for my sake… couldn’t you refrain from pressing charges? Since he is my fiancé… I want to take responsibility and settle everything on my own.”
His words were nearly a plea.
“Are you insane, Cha Joowon?!”
Seoyeon shouted.
“Do you know what that bastard did to us! Our company was on the verge of ruin, and Yoonwoo was branded a plagiarist, his career as a designer on the brink of being destroyed! Obviously, we should send him to jail—why would we let him off?”
Unable to contain her rage, she stood up abruptly.
Joowon said nothing in the face of Seoyeon’s anger.
He stood up quietly from his chair and knelt before her.
Both Seoyeon and Yoonwoo looked at him in surprise at his sudden action.
“CEO Kang, you are right. I will accept any criticism.”
Joowon’s voice was low and calm.
“However… Han Jiwon… for better or worse, is my person. My fiancé. I will bet everything I have to help clear your name, Yoonwoo, so please… only that… please don’t do that.”
He bowed so deeply his forehead almost touched the floor.
Yoonwoo looked at Joowon, who was kneeling and begging, with complex emotions.
An Alpha who was once his entire world and held his head high.
Seeing him broken like this in front of him made Yoonwoo’s heart ache.
Finding traces of the person he had once trusted and relied on like the sky in this pathetic figure was a painful experience.
‘Right, this person… was originally this responsible, and kind to the point of being precarious.’
It was a side of him Yoonwoo had forgotten for a long time.
Seeing him lower himself like that to beg made the moments of devoted love he had once shown, and the courageous image of him willing to stand against the world for Yoonwoo’s sake, resurface cruelly.
It wasn’t anger or resentment, but a deep, sorrowful pity that clouded Yoonwoo’s mind.
Seoyeon sighed deeply and turned her gaze to Yoonwoo.
“…Yoonwoo. What do you think? In the end, you suffered the most, so I’ll follow your decision.”
Joowon also looked at Yoonwoo with desperate eyes. His gaze seemed to whisper, “Please.”
Yoonwoo closed his eyes for a moment.
Han Jiwon’s malice, the suffering he had endured because of it, and… Joowon’s desperate look.
Everything swirled together in his heart.
But he already knew the answer.
“…I understand.”
Yoonwoo spoke quietly.
“I also… don’t want to go that far.”
His voice carried no emotion, but it was a clear expression of forgiveness.
At Yoonwoo’s answer, Joowon bowed his head again and whispered a small thank you.
Once the situation was somewhat settled, Seoyeon asked Dojin, who had been sitting quietly in the corner of the table, out of sudden curiosity.
“By the way, Dojin, forensic work like this, which involves digging through deleted content on a laptop, requires a lot of technical skill and time… do you know someone? The clarification hearing is the week after next; what are you planning to do?”
Dojin answered Seoyeon’s question with his characteristic good-natured smile.
“Don’t worry, CEO. I have a route I know. If I ask them, I think we’ll have a conclusion quickly.”
His voice as he said that felt subtly sadder than confident, but no one noticed it.
The cold hospital emergency room.
A tense atmosphere lingered, mixed with the smell of disinfectants.
Han Jiwon lay precariously on a white sheet, hooked up to an IV.
His bloodless face was pale enough to break at any moment, and only the faintest breath escaped his thin lips.
Cha Joowon guarded Jiwon’s side, looking down at him with a bitter and troubled expression.
His mind was entangled with the shocking scene from the conference room just moments ago and the complex feelings toward Jiwon, who was the root cause of this catastrophe.
How much time had passed?
Jiwon’s eyelashes trembled thinly, and he opened his eyes slowly.
His pupils shook with anxiety at the unfamiliar ceiling and the faint smell of medicine.
“…Where… am I…?”
Jiwon asked in a cracked voice.
Joowon answered stoically, hiding his emotions.
“A hospital. You collapsed after the presentation.”
At those words, as if his memory had returned all at once, Jiwon’s face distorted into anger and resentment in an instant.
Forgetting that he had collapsed, he tried to sit up, only to fall back onto the bed due to dizziness.
“How… how could you do this to me!”
Jiwon lashed out at Joowon with a voice fueled by malice.
“I’m your fiancé! How could you only take the side of that Beta, Seo Yoonwoo? How could you betray me!”
Poisonous tears streamed down his eyes.
“Aren’t you supposed to take my side unconditionally? But why do you only care about that Beta bastard! Do you have any idea how much I…!”
Joowon silently listened to his desperate, venomous resentment.
There was no tremor in his expression.
Jiwon, even more enraged by Joowon’s attitude, wailed.
“You’re the father of our child! Aren’t you supposed to protect me?!”
At that moment, Joowon’s brow twitched.
As if he could no longer stand it, he gritted his teeth and cut Jiwon off. His voice was cold as ice and firm.
“Stop threatening me with a child that doesn’t even exist.”
