TBR 13

Chapter 13

In an instant, their lips collided.

No, to be precise, their lips touched. Over the flesh lightly pressed by force, there was a pleasant scent of toothpaste.

Startled, Somang’s body stiffened like a dry twig, freezing from the inside out.

Her lips, shocked by a kiss that had only existed in her imagination, remained tightly closed, refusing to open.

So cold.

Hangeol took her upper and lower lips in turn.

The sound of their moist lips meeting echoed in her ears, making her feel as if all the moisture was draining from her body.

If she weren’t leaning against the door, she would have melted like soft-serve ice cream and collapsed in front of it by now.

As Hangeol continued to linger on her lips, the subtle curve of his mouth brushing against hers began to feel strangely ticklish.

“Baek Somang, even now, you still don’t get it?”

Hangeol wiped his glistening lips with his tongue and furrowed his brows.

“From now on, you’re no longer my little friend.”

Shocked as if struck by lightning, Somang blinked her wide eyes.

“Th-That’s…”

Her slightly parted lips murmured.

“Somang, make sure you lock the door tonight.”

Hangeol slowly wiped his lipstick-stained lips with his thumb.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

Her heart pounded painfully as if it might burst through her chest.

Her frozen body finally warmed up like a train with its engine switched on.

“Wh-What will you do if I don’t lock the door… huh!”

Somang shouted into the air and slammed the door behind her.

Hearing a quiet laugh from the other side, she pressed the lock.

“That guy must be crazy!”

Six hours earlier

Hangeol, sitting alone in a four-person room at the Japanese restaurant, glanced at his wristwatch.

6:20 PM.

They were already twenty minutes past the agreed time.

“About time.”

Yoo Jongmin, simply because he had inherited Clover’s complete bloodline, had tried to assert dominance over Hangeol.

When they were in elementary school, a mere three-year age gap felt enormous. He had used violence to control Hangeol, and when that didn’t work, he resorted to verbal abuse to slowly chip away at his sanity.

A disgusting presence.

A half-blood substitute.

A hybrid born by mistake.

That’s what Jongmin called him.

6:30 PM.

Hangeol suppressed a laugh.

The effort of always being thirty minutes late was pathetic.

“Sorry, sorry. The subway was blocked or something.”

Ah, does that lie not work anymore? Jongmin laughed and leaned back in his chair.

“You’ve worked hard coming here, hyung.”

Hangeol smiled lazily, squinting his eyes, and Jongmin’s face twisted as he hugged his own arms.

“Gross. Hyung, my ass. I’ve never had a hybrid like you as a younger brother.”

The blue veins on the back of Hangeol’s clenched fist beneath the table throbbed.

Ignoring him was fine, but his comment about Hangeol’s mother was irritating.

“When are you going back to the U.S., hybrid?”

“It’ll take at least a year to wrap things up.”

Hangeol explained the progress at the smart factory in deliberately long-winded terms, ensuring Jongmin wouldn’t fully understand.

As expected, Jongmin, whose concentration was like that of a kindergartner, scratched his ear and waved his hands.

“Enough, hybrid. What was that last thing you said?”

“The full survey of customers affected by the exploded appliances.”

“When you do that, you’ll go to their homes, apologize, replace everything with our appliances, show off a bit, and promote the company, right?”

“Yes.”

“I’ll do it.”

Do I need to go to a dermatologist for the perfect photo? Jongmin tilted his head in front of his phone’s selfie screen.

Hangeol smiled faintly and crushed some sashimi with his chopsticks.

“Doesn’t the chairman think you’re on vacation?”

“What, is that a threat now?”

Jongmin slammed his phone down irritably.

“Of course it’s a surprise. If I, inheriting the company, make my face known with good news first, how proud will Dad be?”

Hangeol nodded and chewed the crushed sashimi.

“I heard something about the illegitimate child going around the company community recently?”

“That was handled without issue.”

“Does your father know?”

Hangeol nodded, and Jongmin’s face trembled more than ever.

He hated that his existence as a ‘hybrid’ would be exposed more than anything.

Jongmin had wanted to use him as a pawn, not face him in a dirty mud fight.

But Hangeol planned to take away what Jongmin wanted most, just as Jongmin had done to him.

“The chairman said I should try my best at the Korean branch.”

With Hangeol’s sharp eyes curved into a gentle smile, Jongmin slammed the table.

“Ha! If you work hard, do you think you’ll get the company? Hybrid brat, haven’t you suffered enough?”

Seeing Jongmin’s one-dimensional provocation, Hangeol stood up, knowing it would frustrate him further.

His lean frame suddenly appeared like a mischievous creature dangling and causing havoc.

“Hyung, why are you acting like this? We’re not kids.”

Hangeol smiled kindly and lightly pressed, freeing Jongmin’s grip.

Crack. The sound of bones snapping like a broken cookie echoed.

“Ah! Yoo Hangeol. I’ll make you pay back many times over!”

Damn, that hurt. Jongmin, rubbing his hands like a fly, overturned the prepared table and stormed out.

Thwack. The paper door slammed with an unusual sound.

Somang, like a stealthy cat, had arrived at work early, placing a sandwich and black iced coffee on her desk.

Unable to sleep, she woke herself with the bitter double-shot coffee.

Buzz.

[Did you get home okay yesterday?]

It was a text from Yewon, likely busy preparing the café.

Yewon, who had drunk until she was drunker than Somang the day before, had been carried home on Dongho’s back.

<Hey, Baek Somang! Don’t you feel wronged? Your beautiful youth… five long years waiting! Isn’t that unfair!>

After grumbling for a while, she banged her chest while crying.

<Well, if you like him that much, then marry him.>

Yewon had screamed and stomped all the way home.

<But if it were me, I wouldn’t let him marry easily. You’d have to cling to him! That damn senior must have had plenty of romance in America!>

Though speculative and baseless, every word hit Somang.

If Hangeol had truly returned just to keep the promise of ‘marriage,’ she didn’t want to comply obediently.

This feeling—wanting to stand over him and wield some power—was perhaps the grand dream of an expert in unrequited love, a delightful rebellion.

Buzz. Ping.

[Why not ask that new guy instead?]
[He found out it’s your first love lol]

What kind of new voice phishing is this? She almost spit out her coffee.

[There’s nothing more frustrating than office romance, you know?]
[I’d test the waters first.]

She seemed to be enjoying the situation more than anyone.

That new guy wasn’t ordinary—he was the illegitimate child of Clover Electronics.

Somang tossed her phone aside, thinking it absurd, when it buzzed again.

[Baek Somang]

Anger in the message caused her to drop the phone.

“Could it be… he just woke up?”

As Somang bent to pick up her phone, the office automatic door opened. A sharp shoe tip and the scent of clean laundry in sky-blue hit her nose, and she looked up.

Sure enough, Hangeol entered in a neat suit.

“Why… why did you come out so early?”

“Someone came to work like a stealthy cat.”

Their eyes met in the air; Hangeol’s piercing gaze locked on Somang.

“I told you I’m light-sleeping. Can I drink this coffee?”

“I’ll get you a new one.”

The pink lipstick mark on the paper straw clearly showed it wasn’t new.

“It’s fine. I’ll drink this.”

His lips covered hers over the mark, and the Americano quickly diminished.

Somang stared blankly at the faint lipstick stain on the straw.

Another kiss…!

Her heart fluttered from the very morning.