Chapter 62

Chapter 61.

Someone was approaching. Lee Jun’s heart pounded at the slow, confident footsteps that didn’t fit the escalating tension of the standoff.

He hadn’t even seen the face, but the sound alone made his ears tingle with a strange awareness.

When the sound stopped, Lee Jun saw the person who appeared behind Han Jeong-min. Han Jeong-min blocked his full view. However, a part of the upper body leaning against the doorframe and the relaxed gaze looking inside were clearly visible, unobscured.

Even though it hadn’t been long since he last saw him, Chaeheon looked different. He was so unfamiliar, Lee Jun doubted if it was the Chaeheon he knew.

“Haven’t you felt something like this before?”

There was no need to wonder who Chaeheon’s words were directed at.

The Club.

Back then, he had stumbled upon it by chance, and now, Chaeheon was witnessing a similar situation from the other side.

“I didn’t know back then, but now that I’m in the position of seeing it, I understand.”

Chaeheon took a step inside. It was just him entering the room, but it felt like he was intervening in the fight.

“I wonder if I should interfere. Although, that person was trying to leave me behind.”

He was even making jokes unsuited for the situation, making the atmosphere chaotic. No, Han Jeong-min might not know it, but for Lee Jun, Chaeheon’s appearance was a bewildering moment.

“Chaeheon.”

Han Jeong-min greeted him, raising both arms.

“Glad you came.”

“So you called me to show me this.”

“That’s right.”

Their conversation revealed that Chaeheon’s presence here was no accident.

“Your lover is here too, and I was hesitating a bit, feeling like I was causing trouble all by myself.”

So this was why Han Jeong-min had been stalling until now.

Lee Jun subtly moved Haein, who was holding the now-sleeping Hae Sol, to the side. He hoped to get Haein out first if an opportunity arose. Haein, sensing his intention, slowly began to move.

“I heard you’re joining the Company. The Chairman already dotes on his grandson, so I wonder how much he’ll give you. It would be amusing if he handed over a subsidiary to someone who hasn’t even graduated yet.”

“When did you hear that?”

“I was interested even before it hit the news.”

“You’ll see what happens next.”

Lee Jun stopped trying to understand the conversation only Han Jeong-min and Chaeheon seemed to grasp. Instead, he could only see the entrance blocked by the two of them, and it seemed difficult to push past the surrounding men to get Haein out through that one door.

‘I need to find an opportunity somehow.’

Pushing out blindly would likely fail, so he had to look for an opening, however small, when they might let their guard down.

“This conversation is boring, though. You’re not my objective.”

But Han Jeong-min blocked that opening. He turned his head from Chaeheon and met Lee Jun’s eyes.

“Are you going to ask Chaeheon for help here?”

“You…”

“Still, you should have at least one person to lean on…”

Han Jeong-min looked at Chaeheon, then at Lee Jun, and smiled.

“Then the despair will be greater, won’t it?”

At his characteristic sneering smile, Haein, who had been silent until now, let out a piercing scream.

“Don’t touch my brother.”

“Wah!”

Even Hae Sol, startled awake, burst into tears, making the situation chaotic again, and Haein tried to push past Lee Jun.

“Haein, calm down.”

Lee Jun quickly turned his body to stop Haein, but she, with her eyes heavily reddened, shouted at Han Jeong-min.

“You told me not to have him… If you told me not to have him, you shouldn’t have cared. Why did you come looking for me? Why did you contact me again?!”

“Haein.”

Han Jeong-min shook his head, trying to calm her down.

“If you were me, wouldn’t you check? Huh?”

“Han Jeong-min!”

“Yes, that’s right. I am Han Jeong-min. The fifth-generation only son of a chaebol family. So, Chaeheon.”

Han Jeong-min suddenly turned around and looked at Chaeheon, revealing something significant.

“Will you leave now? I just wanted to let you know what happened, so I don’t think you need to see any more.”

“You called me here, and now you’re telling me to leave?”

Chaeheon smiled and asked in a slow tone. His words carried the meaning of being displeased.

“Why? Are you perhaps abandoning me because of your lover? You haven’t forgotten who I am, have you? Even if others don’t know, we’re highly likely to become business partners.”

Han Jeong-min firmly instructed Chaeheon. He told him not to side with Lee Jun and to turn away.

“Do you remember what I said last time? We can’t marry the person we want.”

As his words continued, Lee Jun couldn’t say a single thing. He knew who Chaeheon was, so he knew Han Jeong-min’s words weren’t wrong.

Lee Jun looked at Chaeheon. Feeling his gaze, Chaeheon turned, and Lee Jun shook his head. He had pushed him away before, so this meant it would be better for him not to come any closer.

“Even so, leaving like this feels unsettling.”

Chaeheon muttered, his eyes still locked with Lee Jun’s.

“Oh, really?”

At the implication that he wouldn’t leave, Han Jeong-min nodded and said casually.

“But you know what? It just occurred to me that there was something I didn’t tell you.”

The last secret he had deliberately kept. Chaeheon might have known it if he had investigated separately, but he revealed a fact that someone with no interest in others wouldn’t know.

Very kindly.

“My child is over there. I have a right to be here, but for you to stay would be presumptuous.”

Han Jeong-min stretched out his hand towards Chaeheon, as if telling him not to approach.

“You’re nothing here.”

At Han Jeong-min’s dismissal, Chaeheon looked inside with an expression that seemed to ask, ‘What should I do?’ As his gaze sharply took in each person, Lee Jun swallowed and turned his head.

Despite calling Chaeheon here, Han Jeong-min’s words struck Lee Jun’s heart in one blow. They were a couple who could break up at any time. Han Jeong-min was drawing a clear line, telling Chaeheon that he couldn’t enter this space. But Lee Jun couldn’t claim otherwise or hold onto Chaeheon.

He couldn’t look at Chaeheon’s face out of apology.

“But I think I can do that too.”

“What?”

“?”

Han Jeong-min and Lee Jun reacted in turn. They had expected him to either ignore the implied insult or question what he was saying, but he gave an unexpected answer.

Han Jeong-min muttered in disbelief.

“Are you asking to join in on our little game here, like a child?”

“You can interpret it that way if you want. But I can also gain the right.”

Feeling Chaeheon’s gaze fixed on him, Lee Jun could no longer avoid it and turned to face him.

And he understood.

‘If I can help my Senior. If I can be certain I’m on my Senior’s side, will he fully trust me?’

“No.”

Lee Jun shook his head as if it were nonsense. Being in a relationship or anything else no longer mattered. So…

“My choice is Lee Jun.”

Chaeheon walked boldly inside and took Lee Jun’s hand. Han Jeong-min, understanding his meaning, laughed in disbelief and said.

“Abandoning me? You haven’t forgotten who I am, have you?”

“That line is tiresome.”

Chaeheon held Lee Jun’s hand tightly and turned to face Han Jeong-min.

“But since nothing is as effective, I’ll return the favor.”

“Wow…”

Han Jeong-min laughed as if in admiration, but Lee Jun knew he wasn’t genuinely amused.

“Let’s go. Haein, come here too.”

Chaeheon, still holding Lee Jun’s hand, took Haein’s shoulder. The men surrounding them seemed entirely unfazed, but then, men who had suddenly entered encircled Haein.

Lee Jun, surprised, looked at them, then suddenly noticed someone’s neck and understood.

“They’re my Bodyguards.”

Chaeheon nodded and asked the man with a scar on his neck to take care of Haein, and the man nodded back. As Haein, holding Hae Sol, walked out first, Chaeheon pulled Lee Jun’s hand.

“Let’s go too.”

Han Jeong-min seemed to have already slipped from his mind, and Lee Jun, as if mesmerized, followed him. As he left the room, Lee Jun inadvertently glanced back at Han Jeong-min and paused at the unexpected expression he saw.

“I told you. The world is on my side.”

The moment Han Jeong-min smiled and winked, Lee Jun understood the strange feeling he hadn’t grasped earlier. The difference between his father and Han Jeong-min… Unlike his father, who never spared a glance for his mother, Han Jeong-min was looking at Hae Sol and Haein.

Perhaps, what Han Jeong-min wanted from the very beginning was…

After sending Haein and Hae Sol home, Lee Jun approached Chaeheon. He wanted to conclude their conversation.

To say thank you… He didn’t know what else. He couldn’t think of anything.

Chaeheon had chosen him, not Han Jeong-min. Before he could feel touched, a sense of burden weighed on him.

What if he keeps choosing me like this in the future? Shouldn’t I distance myself from him even more then?

So all he could do was express gratitude, and just as he was about to say it.

“I made a deal with my grandfather…”

Before Lee Jun could begin, Chaeheon’s words, casually offered, cunningly filled the empty space.

“Want to hear it?”