DASH

Chapter 8

On Tuesday afternoon, Jihong finished his work early and cleaned up his workplace. As soon as he turned off the computer and forwarded calls to his mobile phone, assistant manager Nam poked his head out from behind the partition next to him and asked, "Mr. Jeong, are you leaving now?"

"Yes, but I'll be back

"Even if not, it's okay, just take Kwon Jaekyung with you

"I'll hurry up, and I'll continue my work at night

Assistant Manager Nam laughed. It was clear that his words were a joke anyway. He knew it, but he wasn't laughing now.

"Senior manager, I'll go," Jihong said goodbye to his boss before leaving the office.

When he left the building, he was immediately suffocated by the heat. Summer promised to be hotter than usual, and with the onset of July, daytime temperatures in Seoul soared to 34 degrees Celsius. Jihong caught a taxi right in front of the company building. Since it was an important meeting, he chose his shirt and tie carefully, and did not smoke all day, fearing that it would leave him with a foul smell. However, the scorching sun made it difficult to remain calm.

"Please go to Jamsil," he said the name of the hotel to the taxi driver, who immediately started the car without checking the navigation. Jihong looked at the time again and leaned against his seat. As the air conditioner cooled his bare forearms, Jihong looked out the window with his arms crossed over his chest. Even though he was in a similar situation because of work, it still seemed unrealistic to him.

The fact of meeting Kwon Jaekyung was simply incredible. Kwon Jaekyung always ignored any agencies, even when they begged him. However, he decided to give a chance to the young Spoin company, and it had to do with Jihon directly, which was even more surprising. Isn't that so? Ten years had passed, and the most they did was just say hello from time to time. Jihong wasn't close enough to him, and he also couldn't remember doing anything meaningful for him. Therefore, yesterday's call took Jihon by surprise. He had no idea that Kwon Jaekyung's mother would be so happy to see him.

But then again, she's always been like that. In a good way, she is exceptionally sociable. And in a bad way, she was just acting very friendly, even with strangers. She is even several times friendlier and outgoing than her son, as if trying to compensate for Kwon Jaekyung's harshness. And this was especially evident in relation to Jihon. She never acted indifferent and greeted him warmly, asked how he was doing, about his shoulder injury and joint pain, and even talked about swimsuit materials that he wasn't particularly interested in. And at the end of the conversation, she always said: "I hope Jaekyung will grow up soon and train with you. You have no idea how much he likes you. We came here after he saw a video from the World Championships on TV, and he wanted to train in the same place as you..."

— No, this is not true.

The reason why he was angry at Jaekyung's words was obvious.

"Hyung, you knew from the beginning, didn't you?" There are a lot of alphas in the world, but the hyun is still as tall as those alpha athletes, and he has a big wingspan! You can continue training, so why do you quit without even trying?

That's what a 12-year-old boy said, who just a few days ago was confirmed to have his secondary sex "alpha". Of course, Jihon knew. It wasn't Jaekyung's fault. After all, being born alpha is not something that can be chosen or controlled. Jihon himself would like to become one if he had the opportunity. He had no reason to react harshly to Jaekyung's remarks. Will he continue to be influenced by the words of a boy who knows nothing about the situation? Or perhaps this is something he will have to go through in the future? While Jihong tried to calm himself down with such thoughts, Jaekyung continued to speak.

– Even the alpha needs to take medication in order to stay in the sport. They say everyone's medications are different, so there may be some side effects, but at least you won't have to take them, hyung.

As he spoke, Jihon's barely calm heart trembled again.

"Medications? Are you saying that medication is a pain in the ass? What the hell? I'll have to live with the chip in my body for the rest of my life, and you can only count on drugs," Jihon thought. People said that when an emotion reaches its limit, it can be expressed in the opposite way, and that was true. Jihon only laughed at the child's words, spoken without malice.

"Hey, I've never seen you talk so much before. Smiling, Jihong removed his hand and continued. "I haven't heard your voice for a year, but today it's too much."

Jaekyung tried to catch him again, calling him hyung, but Jihong pretended to pick up the bag he was carrying on his shoulder, naturally avoiding touching. Taking a step back, he said proudly, "But what you're saying is so typical of alphas. I didn't know, because I never communicated with you normally."

Jaekyung stopped. His hand, which was reaching for Jihon, froze in the air. Jihon looked at his hand and smiled at him again.

"But today it was nice to realize it," he added jokingly in a slight tone, but the child obviously understood the true meaning of the words. That was probably why Kwon Jaekyung looked so offended.