RACA 19

“Did you?”

Seeing him speak with the corners of his mouth turned up, Eunsol felt it wasn’t playful but probing, and he got angry and asked.

“So what if I did?”

But Jaebeom’s indifferent reply instantly made him deflated.

“No… I didn’t mean anything by it. I was just wondering if it’s okay to install something like that at home… There could be privacy invasion issues too.”

“It’s illegal for me to install it in my own house?”

Well, yes. The problem is that Jaebeom isn’t the only one living in this house.

“What if thieves break in? You have to prepare for the worst. In a scary world like today’s, don’t you think?”

Thieves? More like they’d tremble in fear upon realizing they’d stumbled into a gang boss’s house and turn themselves in to the police. That’d be their only way to save their own skin.

“Yeah…”

Seeing him say that, it seemed he had no intention of revealing where it was, so he just nodded vaguely. Then Pyo Jaebeom raised one eyebrow.

Why was he showing such displeasure again?

“You wouldn’t be thinking of running away, would you…”

“Oh, you’re such a suspicious person!”

“Huh?”

Eunsol, who had unconsciously clicked his tongue, quickly shut his mouth when Pyo Jaebeom gave him a dismissive look. Then he blurted out another excuse.

“No, that’s not what I meant! I just feel embarrassed. Imagine having cameras filming your every move!”

“Why couldn’t you just comfort yourself alone in your room…”

“Ah, I told you that’s not it!”

Eunsol’s cheeks flushed red.

“Does a person really live thinking only about that, that, that all the time? Like earlier too. What on earth is in your brain… Ugh!”

He muttered, then clamped his mouth shut. The last part was clearly a mistake.

He should have kept it inside!

Eunsol hurriedly scooped up some yukgaejang and shoved it into his mouth. It was an attempt to pretend he hadn’t said anything.

“Hot!”

The problem was he’d forgotten the soup hadn’t cooled yet. Jaebeom, watching him pathetically with tears in his eyes and his tongue sticking out, pushed a glass of water forward.

“You really do seem to have about the same IQ as a dog.”

Suddenly reduced to the intellectual level of an animal, Eunsol flushed and glared at Jaebeom. But his moist, teary eyes weren’t particularly threatening.

In fact, Jaebeom suppressed another chuckle, finding his expression not unlike that of a pet cat meowing its complaints.

“Guess it’s fine as long as you’re not doing anything suspicious.”

“What’s okay about it? This isn’t some observational reality show. Living with cameras 24/7…”

“Observational reality show?”

Watching Jaebeom tilt his head in confusion, Eunsol let out a soft “Ah.”

Come to think of it, he wasn’t an actor right now. He was just a gang boss wearing the mask of a financial executive. Even so, how could he not watch TV?

“Well, there are shows like that. Like ‘How to Live Well Alone,’ where popular celebrities open up their homes and show viewers how they eat, sleep, and play.”

“Exhibiting my home to strangers? What kind of crazy idea is that?”

Eunsol was the one taken aback by his retort.

“Huh? No, it’s just… viewers find it entertaining…”

“You’re practically putting your life on the line. What if someone breaks in? Honestly, how is that any different from telling thieves what’s in your house beforehand?”

“That’s not what I meant…”

So his earlier comment about thieves hadn’t been a joke after all.

‘Then again, that’s probably how a gang boss thinks.’

Eunsol stared at Jaebeom, whose thought process seemed fundamentally different from ordinary people, then decided to understand him on his own terms.

After polishing off a bowl of rice and finishing the dishes, he ran into the bathroom as if someone was pursuing him.

These days, spending the night with him had become routine, so preparation was necessary. He turned on moderately hot water, soaked his body, and emerged after a thorough shower, his cheeks flushed pink.

But stepping out felt hesitant. Since spending nights with him a week ago, wrestling with Pyo Jaebeom in bed had become frequent, inevitably bringing the next event to mind.

“Well, if it’s going to happen, it’s going to happen!”

Steeling himself, he quietly opened the bathroom door. Glancing around cautiously, he approached the direction of the master bedroom.

“CEO?”

He knocked on the door and waited for a response from inside, but it was strangely quiet. He knocked again, then waited, but still nothing.

He tilted his head in confusion, then turned the doorknob. Peering through the crack, he saw no one inside.

“Huh?”

He pushed the door open and craned his neck to look around. Still no sign of him. Walking forward, Eunsol pressed his ear against the bathroom door in the master bedroom.

Silence.

“Oh…”

The moment he confirmed Jaebeom wasn’t there, he hurriedly backed away. He closed the door tightly, rushed back into his room, and climbed onto the bed.

It was still a bit early, but maybe if he closed his eyes, he could fall asleep.

‘But where did he go?’

The fleeting question was swiftly washed away by the flood of sleep. Within mere seconds, Eunsol could hear his own breathing.

At that very moment, Jaebeom was answering a call from Kwak Sang.

•••

“Not registered at the center?”

[No. Lee Eunsol is there. But he’s not the age you mentioned.]

“Huh? What age did they say?”

[Twenty-four.]

The moment Jaebeom heard Kwak Sang’s words, Eunsol’s angry voice echoed in his mind.

‘TWEN! TY! SE! VEN!’

He’d pronounced each syllable, so he remembered it clearly.

“What a joke.”

He couldn’t believe it. Lee Eunsol hadn’t batted an eye when he saw the date on the employment contract. He must have noticed something odd then too, but hadn’t said anything.

“He’s got a weird way of acting drunk. Blowing his age out of proportion?”

Sometimes people do lie about being older. Once you enter society, being too young can bring disadvantages.

‘But that’s not his case, right?’

In fact, for Omegas, being even a year younger increases their value. Add dominant traits to that, and families with money and connections would take them in without hesitation, barring major flaws.

So why, drunk, did he insist so stubbornly that he was twenty-seven?

“Then again, he’s the one who claimed he wasn’t even an Omega.”

[Huh?]

He planned to thoroughly comb through whatever was in that guy’s head once the investigation concluded. True to his meticulous nature, one that rechecked every single detail if even the slightest doubt arose, Pyo Jaebeom gave another order.

“Since it’s confirmed to be Lee Eunsol, scrape together every bit of information you can find.”

When he’d ordered a re-investigation into Lee Eunsol, he’d specified to look for someone aged twenty-seven. It briefly puzzled him why they’d need to search for a different age group when his birthdate was clearly stated in the contract.

But Kwak Sang, who never questioned his boss’s orders, had followed instructions only to discover the information was incorrect and contacted him.

[Understood!]

“So when did he manifest?”

Pyo Jaebeom pressed the question as the call threatened to drop. After a moment of searching, Kwak Sang’s reply came through.

[Adult manifestation. He did it at twenty-two.]

“Ah?”

Among the many nonsense things Lee Eunsol had blurted out, at least one turned out to be correct.

“He said he did his military service in Gangwon Province. Guess that part was true too.”

When he’d asked why an Omega would serve in the military, his face had flushed. But that was something he could ask later.

“Hang up.”

Having received the information he wanted, Jaebeom didn’t even bother pressing the end button. He sauntered toward the main bedroom. But Lee Eunsol, who should have been waiting there, was nowhere to be seen.

“Look at this?”

Raising his eyebrows, he turned and crossed the hallway to open Eunsol’s door. The moment he stepped inside, a fresh, sweet strawberry scent wafted into his nostrils.

“Oh.”

So he wasn’t waiting, he was asleep? Jaebeom’s eyes flashed at the sight of his blissfully peaceful face, oblivious to the world.

•••

He suddenly opened his eyes. The sunlight streaming through the window was so bright that Eunsol felt momentarily dazed.

“Huh… Is it bright?”

Startled, he bounced out of bed. But a dizzying sensation made his legs give way, and he collapsed back onto the mattress.

“What… what is this?”

Flustered, he shook his head. His posture, sitting demurely like a newborn fawn, felt unfamiliar.

“Why am I so dizzy?”