Bad Relationship

Laughing in disbelief, Junghyun muttered that way, and Uncle Juwon asked again.

— “What are you suddenly talking about?”

“Just that it’s funny. I was completely played by that person. I wondered why we suddenly went to a baseball stadium.”

He had thought they came to the baseball stadium to have a longer conversation, but it turned out it was planned in advance for the cameras to focus on them.

— “Played? What do you mean?”

“Just what I said. If it’s about the footage captured before the game started, it only looked that way because of the camera angle—we didn’t kiss. If I had to describe it, it was a kind of communication. We didn’t even touch.”

— “…You’re saying it didn’t happen?”

“It didn’t. I was the one who got tricked. Don’t worry. Nothing happened.”

— “It’s good that it didn’t happen, but… that ship has already sailed.”

“What do you mean ‘sailed’? Make some sense.”

— “I mean exactly what I said—whether you actually kissed or not isn’t important. You might say you just brushed past each other, but as long as screenshots that look explicitly like kissing are circulating, you kissed.”

Juwon, who worked in advertising, angrily asked if Junghyun didn’t know that much, then suddenly cleared his throat and started panting again.

He had run out of energy less than a minute into the call.

Thinking he might collapse again, Junghyun decided to stop discussing that subject.

“Well, let’s just say that’s the case then. Anyway, I was properly rejected, so mission accomplished.”

Speaking indifferently as if it were someone else’s business, he tried to wrap up the conversation, but his uncle laughed in disbelief.

— “You have no idea what’s going on, do you?”

“What situation?”

— “I nearly fainted after receiving photos of you two kissing, and then the broker contacted me. They said they want to proceed with the marriage immediately. Within a month, even.”

This news was surprising.

He had roughly expected it, but it happened faster than he thought.

“They’ve already made contact?”

He didn’t know when the photo surfaced, but if the video was circulating with screenshots, it must have been between the 4th and 5th innings. He hadn’t seen Jaehyuk sending a text or making a call then, so when did he make contact? Then it hit him.

It was all planned in advance. A complete timeline must have been set up already.

So he wasn’t really proposing.

Not “let’s get married,” but “we are getting married.”

— “Wait, when you say ‘already,’ that means you knew about this?”

“He said he wanted to marry me, and I rejected him…”

— “…You rejected him?”

“Yes.”

— “You weren’t the one who got rejected?”

“I know it sounds strange, but it’s true. When hyung said he wanted to get married, I immediately refused.”

— “…Why?”

That wasn’t asking why he rejected him, but why that man proposed to him.

It was an extremely realistic, objective, and rational question.

“Ask him why. I don’t know either. Anyway, I’m not getting married. He’s just unilaterally insisting.”

— “You idiot, did you not hear what I said earlier?”

“What did you say?”

— “I told you to go get rejected! Politely and respectfully, without hard feelings, in a way that wouldn’t offend him! You were supposed to be the one rejected!”

“Ah…”

Only then did he remember. The hot iced americano.

— “What are you going to do about this? We can’t refuse them! Your father has been contacted too, and he’s about to lose his mind.”

“Why? I thought he was so eager to get rid of me?”

— “Even if we were getting rid of you, it should be to a reasonably manageable family to avoid complications! How can we send you to such a house? The difference in status is too extreme!”

“Then you shouldn’t have accepted this blind date in the first place.”

— “Don’t you listen to people? How many times did I tell you this wasn’t a meeting we could refuse? That’s why I got involved!”

Come to think of it, that did seem familiar. He’d only half-listened, so the memory was vague.

“Compared to Hanju, they might be more influential, but he’s still just a third son, right?”

— “Yes, a third son. But that third son is the actual successor to Hanju, skipping two generations.”

“…Why?”

— “You met him, so you should know, right? Why?”

That was clear enough. If he was the legendary S-ranker, the answer was obvious. Out of all historical S-rankers, 8 were Alphas, and he was the only unmarried one…

“His older brothers were unmarried too, probably?”

— “All the brothers in that family are unmarried.”

“So only he is an S-ranker then?”

— “That’s how it is. With that kind of difference, it doesn’t matter if he’s the first son or the third.”

“Oh my, then all the more reason why marriage is impossible.”

Muttering that it was somewhat fortunate, he was about to enter the subway station when Uncle Juwon raised his voice anxiously.

— “Listen, this is no time to be so casual. I don’t understand why this is happening either, but the marriage has already been decided! What on earth did they see in you, or rather, what did he see in you to want to marry you?”

At this fundamental question that returned once more, Junghyun answered indifferently.

“Maybe he found me amusing.”

— “Amusing? Your temperament? No, that can’t be… How long has he known you to find you amusing? Come to think of it, you keep calling him ‘hyung’?”

Juwon’s voice was filled with suspicion, implying Junghyun wasn’t the type of person to call someone he just met “hyung.” Junghyun realized his slip.

Indeed, as the conversation stretched on, he was caught.

“…We’ve met before.”

— “When?”

“Two weeks ago, after breaking up with Seojun, I coincidentally met him at a bar, and he was also having a breakup party, so we bonded. Then the next day, a blind date profile came in, and there was an F-rank in it, which was curious, so when he opened it, it was me. He thought it was interesting and decided to meet.”

— “Even I would do that. You’re the first F-rank Omega in history.”

Junghyun understood that the blind date itself was disguised as observation and exploration, similar to an influencer visiting a restaurant.

Honestly, if he had received an F-rank file, he would have opened it too. While a few F-rank Alphas existed, an F-rank Omega was like a unicorn from folklore or a dragon from legend.

“So he raised me to D-rank to bring me out, and since I said I’d forget about the breakup and focus on our team’s championship, we went to the baseball stadium when we met.”

— “But why did the marriage talk suddenly come up?”

“Because it seemed fun?”

— “The marriage? Or you?”

“Probably me. I told him I was dumped while eating jajangmyeon, but I didn’t follow my ex because the noodles were too delicious. And then the dongpayuk that came out next was so good that I decided to stay.”

Uncle Juwon, who knew about the breakup but not the details, was horrified by this story.

— “You broke up while eating jajangmyeon?”

“That’s why I drank so much that day. Who breaks up with someone while they’re eating jajangmyeon? And then he ran off, but the noodles were so delicious, and dongpayuk was coming out, so I couldn’t even follow him. That bastard clearly knew what he was doing. That place takes six months just to get a reservation.”

— “…Seojun did that? Not you?”

Hearing this question that his friends had also asked two weeks ago, Junghyun asked back in annoyance.

“Why does everyone think I would do that?”

— “Because you’ve done worse.”

But it meant Seojun wasn’t like that.

Indeed, Seojun wasn’t the type. That’s why Junghyun had been caught off guard. He never expected him to do such a thing.

“It’s totally something Choi Seojun would do. I guess he was afraid I might die after he broke up with me. So he let me live for now. I’ll destroy him all at once when I have time later.”

— “That’s why Seojun ran away.”

“But does that justify breaking up and running off? With a boyfriend he’d been seeing for a month?”

— “At least he fed you before leaving. You know, like in old movies where a mother takes her child to a bathhouse, washes them, buys them nice clothes, takes them for jajangmyeon, tells them to wait a moment, and never returns. If he even bought you dongpayuk, he really cared.”

“Well… the dongpayuk was delicious.”

Walking briskly down the stairs into the crowded station, tapping his phone at the turnstile and entering, Junghyun raised his phone again, and his uncle laughed incredulously.

— “That’s so Lee Junghyun. Now that I hear it, your breakup story is definitely funny… but still, does that warrant marriage?”

“Being born as a dominant Alpha and heir to a chaebol family, perhaps he needs some hardship in his life.”

— “Talk sense. What is this all about? What are you two planning? Why did he seek you out?”

Of course, he knew the criteria for why Jaehyuk had chosen him.

But he hadn’t heard why Jaehyuk urgently needed to marry someone like him—indifferent, shameless, uncaring about others, and living for the day—within a month. It wasn’t just for an easy divorce a year later.

NOTES: 

Jajangmyeon: Chinese-Korean black bean noodle dish

Dongpayuk: Chinese-style braised pork dish