Cheon Areum sat there watching the sky change colors from the window for 2 hours straight.
He definitely hates me. This is revenge for last night, isn't it?
Cheon Areum leaned his elbow against the armrest, cheek resting against his knuckles as he watched Yoon Seoyul's calm sleeping face. His eyelashes would twitch every once in a while. Other than that, he was sleeping without a care in the world. He didn't consider how boring it would be for Cheon Areum to sit in place for hours on end without doing anything. He would rather start working on his behalf and sort out the mess on the table. He was a business major and had worked in his parents' stead multiple times.
With a sigh, Cheon Areum switched his gaze to the stack of documents on the table. Contracts, reports, request forms—barely sorted and stacked in loose piles. His fingers moved. If he had to waste time anyway, he might as well make himself useful. He began organizing the papers into categories, scanning each one quickly. Running a guild wasn't all that different from managing a company. And this level of paperwork? He'd handled worse under tighter deadlines.
*Knock. Knock. Knock.*
He promptly dropped back the papers he had picked up. It was Joon who had entered the office. Inho must be back from the gate. He could finally leave.
"Master Inho is coming to the office as we speak. Please get up."
"Master."
Like hell he'll get up with that volume.
"Yoon Seoyul!"
At his shout, his eyes shot open in a flash—as expected. Cheon Areum looked at the secretary gleefully as Yoon Seoyul got up from the couch with wide eyes still staring at him ridiculously.
"Inho has cleared the gate and you've been sleeping for hours."
"Don't leave yet."
Cheon Areum once again sat back down on the couch. It felt like this couch and him were inseparable. It must be his destiny.
"Do you have a picture of your younger brother?"
"Yes. Is that needed to locate him? Can you give me your number? I'll send it to you."
Cheon Areum unintentionally asked for his phone number, hiding his intentions. If he could get his hands on his number, he wouldn't have to come all the way here and get glued to a couch again.
"Give me your phone."
Cheon Areum scoffed softly as he stared at the contact saved in his phone—'Y.S.' Just two neat letters, devoid of affection, or even effort. That was how Yoon Seoyul had chosen to save his number. It wasn't unexpected, but it was still oddly impersonal. Was the main character really this easy? So quick to blur lines, to hand out personal contact like it meant nothing? No wonder he'd ended up tangled with Lee Nari so easily in the book—someone just as forward, just as daring. But then again, who else would've had the guts to ask for Yoon Seoyul's number besides the supposed female lead... or him.
"I'll send you the picture and my bank account information. Call me when you find out where he is."
Cheon Areum stiffly rose from the couch, his joints mildly aching from sitting too long in the same position. Finally—he could part ways with this overly clingy stranger (the couch), which seemed to have swallowed half his will to move. He smoothed down his clothes, ignoring the slight cramp in his lower back, and headed out.
No one stopped him as he exited the guild building. The sun had already climbed high into the sky. He wanted to get Rian's whereabouts—now. But Inho wouldn't use his abilities while he was around, and he knew better than to waste time waiting in some cold hallway or unfamiliar lounge. Home. He'd wait there for Yoon Seoyul's call.
***
Cheon Areum's eyes wouldn't leave the phone on the dining table no matter how much he tried. It had been a few hours—why wasn't he calling him?
If I knew it would be this unendurable, I would've waited on that damn couch. He didn't forget, did he? Should I call him?
The thought had barely crossed his mind when the doorbell echoed through the apartment. It startled him out of his brief haze. Muddle headed—and still a bit sluggish from sitting all day—Cheon Areum stood up and padded toward the front door. Without checking who it was, he unlocked it.
"Yoon Seo-"
The words that had instinctively risen to his lips seeing the person at his door died in his throat the moment his gaze fell lower. There, standing slightly behind Yoon Seoyul, was a small figure—barely reaching above his knee—staring up at him with wide, quiet eyes. Without another word, without questioning anything, Cheon Areum dropped to his knees and pulled the boy into a tight embrace. His arms wrapped protectively around the child's small frame, holding him as if he might vanish again if he loosened his grip even slightly.
Only then did he realize he had been holding his breath the entire time. His chest rose and fell in a slow, shaky rhythm.
"Rian, I missed you. She didn't hurt you or anything, right? Let me see."
Cheon Areum gently pulled back from the hug, turning Rian around with careful hands, his eyes quickly scanning for any signs of bruises or scrapes. There was nothing visible—no marks, no swelling—but something still felt off. Rian stood too still, his small hands limp at his sides, his gaze lowered. Knowing him, he should've been jumping up and down, latching onto him excitedly.
"What's the matter, Rian?"
"...You won't tell Hyung?"
Rian rubbed his feet together gloomily before looking up at him and speaking in a runtish voice.
"She told me that you didn't want to live with me... that it was too tiring for you to care and provide for me."
"And you believe that?"
Cheon Areum looked him straight in the eyes. Does he not trust me? No—if he didn't, he wouldn't have told him at all. That dithering, that glimmer of doubt... it wasn't disbelief. It was fear. Fear that maybe, just maybe, those words were true.
"No...but I was thinking that maybe it was too hard for you."
Rian mumbled, shaking his head lightly. Cheon Areum pinched his cheeks softly.
"It was harder for me to stay away from you."
"Really?"
The sparkle he hadn't seen returned to Rian's eyes as he asked.
"It's true. I wouldn't lie to you."
"I also...I missed you too."
Rian started murmuring but burst out in tears at the last declaration, enclasping him. Cheon Areum chuckled, patting his back as he sobbed in his arms.
"Uh...I don't want to disturb but can you control your pheromones."
Yoon Seoyul spoke while covering his nose from a few steps away.
"Oh, sorry."
Cheon Areum had yet to learn how to control his pheromones. Most of the time, they remained dormant, hidden beneath the surface, but when they did leak out, it happened without warning—subtle and unintentional. He rubbed the back of his nape with a tense hand, hoping it would somehow help suppress the lingering scent.
"Why are you smelling Hyung's pheromones?"
Still sniffing, Rian shot him a fierce glare.
"..."
"Thank you, Yoon Seoyul."
Belatedly remembering, he spoke. Cheon Areum was at most hoping for the location, but he brought him back to him.
"How did you get him back from her though?"
"She wasn't home."
"...? So what, you broke into the house and kidnapped him then?"
Cheon Areum was half joking, but seeing Yoon Seoyul's deadpan expression and unresponsiveness, it didn't seem like he was wrong. Using abilities outside of the gate was one thing, but being this lawless and acting like a thug was a whole other matter.
"Are you perhaps trying to fulfil your long lost dream of being in jail?"