AOA 35

Choi Jaeha, who had just made the ultimate statement of lookism, took another sip of his drink. As he said, not just alphas but most omegas tended to have good physiques by default. Still, it was also true that someone as good-looking as Baek Mugyeong was rare.

I had to admit objectively that Baek Mugyeong was handsome, but it was also a fact that his looks were as sharp as his personality. There was a reason why the wedding photographer had joked that he looked like he might pull a gun. If it hadn’t been a political marriage, I never would have gotten close to someone like him.

They say beauty is in the eye of the beholder. So I decided to respect Choi Jaeha’s taste.

“Yeah.”

“And he’s so sweet, too.”

“Is he…?”

If nothing else, the word “sweet” didn’t seem to suit Baek Mugyeong. I was about to say that, but closed my mouth. He wasn’t a total jerk, after all, he had caught me when I collapsed at the wedding and handed me a handkerchief when I had a nosebleed.

“Shit, you better keep it that way, no feelings. Wait, no, you’ve already slept with him.”

“I know, but it absolutely wasn’t my intention.”

“Oh, right. You manifested. Talk about timing… Ha, if only I’d manifested when I met him. But he just avoids me. Ugh.”

Choi Jaeha took another drink and then held up his phone toward me. I heard a shutter click, he’d taken a picture.

“Why are you taking pictures?”

“Just wait a sec. Done. I sent the photo to Mugyeong hyung. Told him that if he doesn’t show up now, we’re going to cheat on him.”

“What?”

“He’ll freak out, right? Maybe he’ll come running to catch his cheating wife in the act?”

Shocked, I snatched the phone from Choi Jaeha’s hand. Along with the photo, the message said something like “Come now or we’re going to have an affair.”

I was so stunned I couldn’t even curse. I tried to delete it immediately, but Choi Jaeha snatched the phone back.

His catlike face was full of mischief.

“Hey.”

“Relax. I’m not into omegas. Especially not ugly ones. Just hang out with me. Drink this, then how about the club? No, wait, too many people. I booked a room here, we can just drink there. Sounds good, right?”

Watching him smile so innocently, I let out a sigh. Being this impulsive was a kind of talent in itself.

“I’m heading back in a bit.”

“What? Why? Come on, let’s hang out. Isn’t that why you came?”

“I don’t do sleepovers. I’ll be home before midnight, just so you know.”

“What are you, Cinderella? Fine, then let’s just hang out till then. You like alcohol? I’ll buy you something nice.”

Choi Jaeha never gave up. Drinking together was, after all, the fastest way to get close, so I nodded.

“No alcohol. I’m drinking non-alcoholic. I drove here.”

Before the regression, I drank a lot. But now that I’d been given a second chance, I planned to live a clean life. Besides, I had driven, so drinking was out of the question.

“You’re such a grandpa. I love it.”

Laughing, Choi Jaeha ordered me a non-alcoholic cocktail. It was one wild Christmas night.

“Oh! It’s hyung! Mugyeong hyung!”

When the tipsy Choi Jaeha looked toward the entrance and suddenly smiled brightly, I thought he was just joking. After all, he’d almost finished a whole bottle of wine by himself and his eyes were half-glazed over.

And since it was just two omegas sitting together, all sorts of alphas had been hitting on us. I was thinking it was about time to wrap up when Choi Jaeha called Baek Mugyeong’s name.

“You’re drunk.”

“No, look. It’s him.”

When I glanced in the direction he was pointing, surprisingly, it really was Baek Mugyeong. I’d only had two non-alcoholic cocktails. I definitely wasn’t hallucinating.

As I wondered why he was here, Baek Mugyeong drew closer. The bar was dimly lit, but he was perfectly clear to me.

Suddenly, I remembered Baek Mugyeong sighing and telling me not to hang around Choi Jaeha back in Cebu. Maybe that was why this felt like getting caught red-handed doing something bad.

My heart was pounding like a cheating wife being caught in the act, just as Choi Jaeha had joked earlier.

“Hyung, sit here!”

Clueless about my nerves, Choi Jaeha gestured cheerfully to the seat next to him. But Baek Mugyeong stopped in front of the table. Instead, the large middle-aged man who had followed him stepped forward.

I recognized him at once as Choi Jaeha’s personal assistant. I couldn’t remember his name, but whenever Jaeha got into trouble, he always came to clean it up.

“Young Master, you’ve had enough. It’s time to go home.”

“No! I’m fine.”

Choi Jaeha insisted he wouldn’t go home, but the alcohol was winning. In the end, with his eyes half-closed, he was carried off on the man’s back.

Only then did Baek Mugyeong sit down in the chair Jaeha had vacated.

“Why didn’t you answer your phone?”

“My phone? I didn’t get any calls.”

I picked up my phone from the table. Then I remembered, Choi Jaeha had taken my phone and switched it to silent. He’d even covered it with a scarf so I wouldn’t see it light up.

I’d been so sure Baek Mugyeong wouldn’t call that I hadn’t checked, but I never imagined it would turn out like this.

Nervously, I checked my phone. There were seven missed calls from Baek Mugyeong, and two unread messages.

“Oh… I didn’t hear it. It was on silent.”

Even with ten mouths, I wouldn’t be able to explain myself, but I spoke firmly. We’d agreed not to care who the other saw or spent time with, so I had no reason to be nervous.

“Was it intentional?”

“Not exactly… I just didn’t expect you to call.”

“Do you remember me telling you to stay away from Choi Jaeha?”

“We agreed not to interfere with each other’s lives. If I’m still not supposed to be around Mr. Choi, I need a proper explanation. Otherwise, I can’t accept that.”

This time, I spoke calmly, in a gentle voice. No stammering, no confusion. I hadn’t expected a moment like this, but I was proud I hadn’t been drinking.

As I looked him straight in the eye, asking don’t you think so?, Baek Mugyeong narrowed his brows. After a short sigh, he spoke.

“Madam Lee Heeyoung, Choi Jaeha’s mother, is close friends with my aunt. They went to high school together.”

“And?”

“My aunt is considering Choi Jaeha as a marriage candidate for Baek Yeongseop.”

“…What?”

My eyes widened at this new information. My brain refused to process who was being matched with whom.

“She said Baek Yeongseop and Choi Jaeha might get married.”

“What? They’re twelve years apart! That means Jaeha is… wow, that’s just wrong.”

I was so shocked and angry that I raised my voice before quickly lowering it. Baek Yeongseop was a scumbag through and through. Choi Jaeha might be a bit impulsive, but he was fundamentally a decent person. He was way too good for that.

Objectively, Baek Yeongseop wasn’t suitable husband material. Subjectively, I thought he was garbage. And being a daughter-in-law of the Daesong Group was basically walking into a pit of thorns.

Baek Yeongseop, Baek Mugyeong’s cousin, had been married once before. His wife had died three years into the marriage. Officially, she had tripped on the stairs in their newlywed home and broken her neck, but the rumor was that she had taken her own life.

It was hard to believe that the only daughter of K1 Securities, one of the country’s top three firms, would kill herself without a serious reason. But internally, the situation had been complicated.

Baek Yeongseop had been a negligent husband. Even if it was a loveless marriage, pictures of him partying on a yacht in Kota Kinabalu with models had spread nationwide, an utter disgrace. Their relationship had been bad to begin with.

Worse still, the child they had together was a beta, not an alpha or omega.

It was well known that Chairman Baek Jinseok of Daesong Group preferred alpha grandsons. Given his personality, he probably hadn’t said anything outright about the firstborn being a beta, but there was no doubt that both Yeongseop and his wife had suffered immense pressure.

People speculated that she had been driven to her death by postpartum depression and relentless in-law stress. I’d heard the internal details from my biological father and believed that was probably true.

It was only natural that her family was in an uproar after losing their daughter just three years into her marriage. The matriarch of K1 Securities collapsed from grief, accusing Daesong Group of killing her daughter. They insisted on taking their grandson, saying he would no longer be treated as family there.

With all that chaos, of course the rumors spread. Baek Yeongseop, Daesong’s heir apparent, was still considered a top-tier groom, but most prominent families avoided him.

So I couldn’t understand why Madam Lee of Taeyang Shipping was trying to push Choi Jaeha into that position. Or maybe… she was just like my biological father. A shameless opportunist willing to sell off her own child for the Daesong name.

As my mind grew tangled with all these thoughts, I suddenly remembered that, in the previous timeline, there had been talk of Baek Yeongseop marrying someone else. Maybe that meant Jaeha had been dropped from the list.

Even so, the possibility that Choi Jaeha might marry Baek Yeongseop gave me chills.