"What are you doing here?" Jaehyuk asked plainly and coldly.
It wasn't welcoming at all.
"I came here after hearing from Mr. Hwang that you were hospitalised. I got worried about you. And since you wouldn't see me, I decided to come," the lady spoke elegantly.
Jaehyuk cast Mr. Hwang a cold glare.
"I'm sorry I couldn't keep it from her..." Mr. Hwang explained softly, guilt written across his expression.
"I'm your mother," the lady added firmly, her tone laced with authority, "So of course I should know about it."
"It has nothing to do with you," Jaehyuk replied coldly, his words slicing through the air like sharp glass. "Nothing that happens to me has anything to do with you. So stop being nosy and acting as though you care. It's annoying."
His voice was calm, yet filled with detest. It was enough to make the atmosphere tense, making it clear what the relationship between these two was—strained and broken, without a hint of warmth.
There was an awkward silence for a while. The kind of silence that spoke louder than words.
Jaehyuk turned to Mr. Hwang and said, "Please let the doctor know that I'll be leaving."
"Huh?" Mr. Hwang was worried, his voice trembling as he watched Jaehyuk take off the drips and plasters from his hands before alighting the bed.
"But you still need to rest some more..." Mr. Hwang tried to stop him, his hand slightly outstretched.
"I can't stand the air here. It's disgusting," Jaehyuk muttered, staring at Mr. Hwang though the meaning of his words was directed elsewhere. "So let's go, now."
Mr. Hwang had no words left. He could only swallow his uneasiness.
"Can you stop being so childish and talk with me for once?" The lady ran a hand through her curly black hair as she turned to look at Jaehyuk, who was already making for the door.
Jaehyuk stopped at the door, his hand on the knob, Mr. Hwang standing right behind him with a helpless expression.
"Let's have a dinner at least. It's been years since we even stayed in the same space for even a minute," the lady said, her frustrated glare fixed on Jaehyuk.
Jaehyuk didn't turn around. He scoffed as he answered, "If being childish and unreasonable means avoiding the same air that you breathe, then I'd better be that."
With those words, he stormed out of the room, leaving Mr. Hwang no other choice but to go after him.
The woman stood there in the room, alone and frustrated, as she slammed a foot against the floor.
She let out a sharp gasp of frustration and glared at the couch in the room, panting in frustration.
---
Seo Yujin was done arranging his room for the night. Still, there wasn't a sign of his roommate returning.
"Maybe he's not back yet?" he wondered aloud. "But all contestants were present today. Did he leave?"
He asked himself again as he dug out his medication from his bag. They were the ones given to him by TaeHyun.
He had already taken some before coming and could feel it's effectiveness. So he figured TaeHyun was at least trustworthy.
Yujin placed the medication on the table, preparing to take the blockers and suppressants for the next day's activities when his phone beeped.
He had gotten a message.
He left the medications on the table and strolled to his bed to check it.
It was from Kim TaeHyun.
[Have you had your medications again?]
Yujin casually sat down on the bed and opened the message.
[I'm about having it]
He replied shortly.
He wasn't too engrossed in the conversation and was about to drop his phone to drink the pill when another message popped up.
[I hope it's effective. You could attend your dream academy now, right?]
Yujin stared at the message for a while before replying with a casual:
[Mm-hmm]
He was never the strongest soldier when it faking being enthusiastic in conversations he wasn't interested in.
He was about to close his phone when another message from TaeHyun appeared.
[Be careful. Don't let any alpha too close to you]
[Mm-hmm]
He replied again. And when he realised it sounded repetitive, he added another short line:
[Ok]
No emojis, no stickers, nothing more.
Kim TaeHyun sent another message almost immediately.
[Remember our date this Sunday. I'll send you the details a night before]
[Mm-hmm. Sure]
Yujin tilted his head as he stared at his own reply for a while.
And at that moment, curiosity struck him. He realised he had never taken the time to look deeper into Kim TaeHyun. Not once. He hadn't stalked him online or done anything of the sort.
But now, the thought lingered. He was in a deal with him after all, so he felt he should at least know who exactly he was dealing with.
While procrastinating on his medication subconsciously, he began looking up Kim TaeHyun online.
He first went to the official page of the hospital where TaeHyun worked. There, he found his social media account.
Yujin thought TaeHyun might have held some powerful position at the hospital. Maybe a senior doctor, or even someone like a board member or something. But surprisingly, he didn't see such titles.
He only seemed like an important employee of the hospital. Important because he was young yet successful—clearly because of his medical skills.
He seemed like a medical prodigy. And the fact that he had gotten this far at just the age of 24 said a lot.
So Yujin couldn't find anything particularly unusual about him on the hospital's page.
The only thing he noticed was that the hospital had strong connections with the ELITE ENTERTAINMENT COMPANY.
Yujin guessed it was just casual sponsorship or partnership and continued to stalk TaeHyun on the social media accounts linked from the hospital page.
He took his time, going through TaeHyun's SNS accounts for a long while, laying in bed, tracing possible dots to see if he'd uncover something interesting.
But after an hour, he had found nothing.
Kim TaeHyun seemed like the typical boring, nerdy type of doctor. The kind who posted the weather forecast on his page, reposted health tips, and shared the hospital's official posts. And he rarely posted at all.
His last post had been three months ago.
There was nothing interesting about his account. Nothing at all.
"Well, that's boring," Yujin muttered, continuing to scroll, almost giving up on the stalking mission because he didn't want to fall asleep while doing something so dull.
It was that boring.
But just when he was about to exit the page, something caught his eye.
He found a picture TaeHyun had reposted from the ELITE ENTERTAINMENT COMPANY.
It was a picture of the CEO of the ELITE ENTERTAINMENT COMPANY, his wife, and some other staff members. A formal photo taken at an award event.
And in that picture, Yujin was shocked to see Kim TaeHyun standing there—right beside the CEO and his wife.
He froze. His heart skipped.
"What's this...?" Yujin thought, his brows furrowing as curiosity struck.
He began his critical research immediately, tracing and connecting the dots with all the little details he could gather.
After a while, he was left with a single, simple answer.
"He's the son of the CEO of ELITE ENTERTAINMENT??!"