AOA 137

“Minchae. A visitor’s here.”

“Yes.”

“It’s your visitor.”

“…Me?”

I reacted a little late to the unexpected words. No one was supposed to visit me now. Choi Jaeha wasn’t coming for another ten days.

Could it be my biological father sent someone? A lawyer? Was he trying to sue for damages?

Maybe he wanted me to pay back the money he invested when I got married. If it was my biological father, he was the type who’d do that and more.

But all my guesses were wrong.

“Your ex-husband.”

“Uh…”

“The bastard who dumped my grandson has the nerve to show up. We should beat him and chase him away. Don’t you agree?”

Grandma curled the corners of her lips into a terrifying smile. I swallowed the words that he wasn’t my ex-husband yet because we weren’t divorced.

*

Grandma didn’t beat Baek Mugyeong and chase him away. Instead, she invited him inside.

The spacious mansion had a separate area for receiving guests. Grandma sent Baek Mugyeong there. Then she called the driver and ordered him to keep an eye on Baek Mugyeong.

The driver we met on the way from the airport to the mansion was a large, black man named Rob.

Rob, wearing a meaningful smile, told him to leave it with him and then departed.

“Take this.”

The atmosphere was growing strange. Grandma handed him the gun the maid had brought. It wasn’t a loaded pistol, but a gas gun.

She strongly insisted that to deal with my ex-husband, she needed at least one self-defense item. Her sparkling eyes were sincere. I had to pull out all the stops to refuse it.

Finally, my grandmother, who had advised me not to talk to my ex-husband for more than five minutes, clicked her tongue in disapproval.

“Looking at your face, I can tell you won’t listen to me. Go quickly.”

The moment Grandma gave me permission, I jumped up from the sofa. The path to the reception room, guided by the maid, felt long.

Ever since hearing Baek Mugyeong had come, all sorts of questions filled my head.

He came without contacting me? Really? Why? What does he want to say? Could it be…?

I couldn’t suppress the hope that was blossoming, just in case. Even a direct flight from Korea to here takes over eleven hours. He wouldn’t have gone to such trouble to visit us when we’re about to part ways unless it was for something significant.

My heart kept pounding.

Don’t get your hopes up. You never know what might happen.

I kept telling himself to prepare for the worst, but it didn’t work. My nerves were just as frayed as his hopes.

Turning the corner of the hallway, I saw Rob standing by the door. I gave him a nod and stepped into the wide-open living room.

Baek Mugeong’s profile caught my eye, standing in the middle of the room, gazing toward the garden. Sensing someone’s presence, he turned his head toward me.

I had been unconscious and hospitalized for over a month. But it felt like it had only been about a week since I last saw him.

It hadn’t been that long, but I was glad to see him. I had to use all my willpower to keep that feeling from showing on my face.

Baek Mugyeong had a sharper aura than usual. I noticed a little late that he had lost weight. His suit, as if he’d come straight from the office, was unchanged.

“Hello.”

I greeted him from a comfortably distant spot, awkwardness settling in. My heart pounded, but I wanted to appear calm.

“Long time no see. How are you?”

“I’m fine.”

We exchanged greetings, then both fell silent. A familiar quiet settled between us. We stared at each other for a long moment without speaking.

So many things I wanted to say. What happened? Why did you provide the pheromones? When are we getting divorced?

I forced myself to swallow the words rising to my throat. Asking first somehow felt like losing. I knew it was childish, but I wanted to hold out until the end.

As I stood silently watching, Baek Mugyeong spoke first.

“I came because I have something to say.”

“Yes.”

“How much do you remember?”

“What…”

“I’m curious if the side effects of the medication you took in the past affected your memory.”

“Well, um. My cognitive abilities and judgment were significantly impaired, but my memory was fine. I don’t know why you were angry. Maybe chunks of my memory just vanished… And… I didn’t say anything to Vice Chairman Baek Jaehan. About your unusual behavior. I knew how Vice Chairman Baek Jaehan found out, that you had counseling in the US. I said I knew nothing.”

Explaining it suddenly made me choke up, so I spoke as stiffly as possible.

In the garden of Baek Jinseok’s mansion, Baek Mugyeong had accused me for reasons I couldn’t fathom. At first, I was bewildered, not understanding why. Then I was too busy to think about it.

But I just realized it now. Baek Mugyeong might have misunderstood that I had told Baek Jaehan about his weakness. Seeing how Baek Mugyeong had gotten angry, calling me shameless, it was almost certain.

Sure enough, Baek Mugyeong’s face twisted in anger.

“You mean my uncle already knew?”

“Yes.”

I watched Baek Mugeong, flustered. The man avoided my gaze for a moment before bowing his head.

“I… I’m sorry.”

I almost blurted out, “Is that all you’ve got?” But I desperately held back, knowing it would only lead to a fight. But I didn’t feel like forgiving him, so I just changed the subject.

“Forget it. It’s not like we can undo it. I can’t be sure the memory issues were from drug side effects. So?”

I spoke harshly without meaning to. Baek Mugyeong shrugged briefly before speaking.

“After graduating college in the US, I started a company with friends. When I accepted Grandfather’s proposal and came to Korea, I stepped back from management, but I always thought I’d return someday. But… you handed company information over to Baek Yeongseop.“

”Me?“

The accusation was so unexpected I could only repeat it. But Baek Mugyeong was serious.

”I couldn’t lift a finger. The entire company was taken from me.“

”That…”

Baek Mugyeong poke with such certainty it made me doubt my own memory. If the company was taken because of me, it would be understandable to be angry. 

No. I never told Baek Yeongseop anything like that. Not Baek Jaehan either.

My confidence in myself was faint. But since I didn’t even know Baek Mugyeong was doing business in the US, passing information to Baek Jaehan or Baek Yeongseop was impossible.

“That’s not it.”

“What do you mean?”

“I didn’t know you were doing business in the US. So how could I have passed on information?”

“On the day you first manifested, you greeted someone from the company at the hotel. You exchanged names, and he introduced himself as my co-founder.”

Hearing that, I remembered. It was right before my manifestation. He’d been unintentionally caught up in strange events and had to leave Korea for a while. Coincidentally, I’d followed Baek Mugyeong, who was traveling to the US on business.

In the hotel lobby, Baek Mugyeong met someone he knew. It was true they greeted each other and exchanged names. But my English skills were poor, so I couldn’t properly understand what the other person was saying. Honestly, even now, he I immediately recall the English term for co-founder.

“I remember saying hello… but I couldn’t understand most of what he said. My skills aren’t good.”

“If it wasn’t you, then who was it?”

“He must have done some digging or something. You thought I did it because of that?”

“Didn’t you tell Baek Yeongseop everything, down to the minutest details, including my schedule?”

Asking in disbelief, Baek Mugeong let out a sigh of exasperation. I was momentarily speechless.

Baek Mugeong was right. Under the influence of medication side effects, I couldn’t make sound judgments. I was just a lackey, being bossed around by Baek Yeongseop. When Baek Yeongseop asked about Baek Mugeong, I told him everything I knew.

Honestly, I hardly ever saw Baek Mugeong’s face, so I didn’t know much about him. So it was mostly trivial stuff: that Baek Mugyeong disliked cicadas, rarely came home, or had thrown out furniture my stepmother brought.

Baek Yeongseop already knew I was accompanying Baek Mugyeong on his business trip to the US. He whined, asking me to tell him what we did when we got back to Korea.

Thinking it through, I realized all this stemmed from a misunderstanding. Simultaneously, everything Baek Mugyeong had done to me came flooding back.

He acted as if I’d done something terribly wrong. He looked at me with contempt and accused me. I don’t know how much I blamed myself, doubting whether I’d forgotten something I’d done wrong.

But it was all a misunderstanding.

Resentment and rage filled my entire body.

Considering the circumstances, Baek Mugyeong had reason to misunderstand. But to just get angry without properly explaining? That was beyond unfair.

I remembered Baek Mugyeong once telling me to get angry when I felt like it. The problem was, I rarely felt that way, so I had no clue how to actually get angry.

“Wow… I feel like cursing.”

I sighed and ran my hand through my hair. The anger wouldn’t subside.

“You’re not serious, right?”

“Think whatever you want. You bastard. If you’d just explained properly, that would’ve been enough. Ah…”

This time, even sober, I cursed him out. I could see Baek Mugyeong’s momentary fluster.

What? Am I not even allowed to curse?

If he said any more here, I knew something awful would slip out of my mind. If Omegas had threatening pheromones like Alphas, it would have made him tear up and sniffle.

“Go back. No, get lost.”