"Marry me."
The hallway went dead silent. Jihoon stared at Taewoo like he'd just sprouted a second head. Even Yoo looked surprised, her eyebrows shooting up toward her hairline.
"I'm sorry," Jihoon said slowly. "I think I just had a small stroke. Did you just say 'marry me'?"
"I did."
"You want me to marry you."
"Yes."
"To pay off my ex-husband's debt."
"Essentially."
Jihoon looked at Yoo. "Is he serious right now?"
Yoo shrugged. "Apparently."
"Has he suffered a recent head injury? Is he on drugs? Should I call someone?"
"I'm standing right here," Taewoo said dryly.
"Then please explain to me," Jihoon said, his voice climbing toward hysteria, "why on earth I would marry a complete stranger to pay off a debt that isn't mine?"
Taewoo crossed his arms, looking infuriatingly calm. "Because you don't have any other options. I can't find your husband. That means the debt falls to you. You can't pay it in cash, which means you need to provide something else of value. Due to certain circumstances, I need a spouse. You need your debt cleared. It's a mutually beneficial arrangement."
"Mutually beneficial? Are you listening to yourself right now? In what universe is this beneficial to me?"
"You'd have financial security. A comfortable home. Resources for your son. Access to education, healthcare, everything you're currently struggling to provide."
"In exchange for what? Being your bedwarmer? Your trophy Omega?"
"In exchange for appearing at social functions as my spouse and maintaining the appearance of a stable relationship. Nothing more."
Jihoon laughed, a sharp, bitter sound. "Nothing more. Right. And I'm supposed to believe that? You expect me to marry you, live in your house, play pretend family, and what? You'll just never expect anything else from me? No sex? No sharing my heats or your ruts? No actual relationship? You're either lying or you're delusional."
"I'm neither. I need a spouse to satisfy my mother's incessant nagging and I see the benefit for my public image. You need financial stability. It's a business arrangement, nothing more."
"A business arrangement that involves legal marriage."
"Yes."
"And you don't see any problems with that? At all?"
"I see a solution to both our problems."
Jihoon shook his head, feeling like he'd fallen into some kind of alternate dimension where nothing made sense. "You're insane. Genuinely insane. The answer is no. Absolutely not. Not now, not ever. I'm not marrying some acting crime lord—"
"I prefer 'entrepreneur.'"
"—who shows up at my apartment threatening me over a debt I didn't incur! Now please leave before I call the police."
Taewoo's expression hardened. "The police can't help you, Park Jihoon-ssi. And before you refuse so adamantly, perhaps you should consider your options more carefully."
"My options? My options are to not marry a stranger! How is that hard to understand?"
"Your options," Taewoo continued, his voice taking on that cold, authoritative tone again, "are limited. You're twenty-four years old with a double major from one of the best universities in the country, and you're working retail. Why? Because you're an Omega, and no one will hire you for anything better. You can't get promoted. You can't advance. You're stuck in a dead-end job that barely pays enough to keep you and your son fed."
Each word hit like a physical blow. Jihoon's arms tightened around Haneul, his breath coming shorter.
"You missed several significant milestones in your son's life because of work," Taewoo continued relentlessly. "You'll miss his first day of school, his first friend, all the important moments because you'll be too busy trying to make ends meet. Is that the life you want for him? For yourself?"
"Shut up."
"You could give him more. Better schools. Better opportunities. A future that isn't defined by struggle and limitation."
"I said shut up!"
"But instead, you're clinging to your pride, refusing help because it comes from someone you don't know. How logical is that, Park Jihoon-ssi? How wise?"
Jihoon was shaking now, his vision blurring with tears he refused to let fall. Because Taewoo was right. Everything he was saying was right, and that made it so much worse. Jihoon was struggling. He was barely keeping his head above water. And Haneul deserved better than what Jihoon could give him.
But this? Marrying a stranger? Living a lie?
"You don't understand," Jihoon said, his voice barely above a whisper. "You can't possibly understand what you're asking."
"Then explain it to me."
"I don't want to be in a relationship with an Alpha! Any Alpha! You're all the same! You all think you own Omegas, that you can control us as you please, that we exist to serve you! I divorced Hyungtae to get away from that and look at the situation I'm currently in, a guarantor without my consent! Why would I willingly walk back into a marriage?"
Taewoo was quiet for a moment. Then, surprisingly, he said, "Not all Alphas are the same."
"Oh really? And what makes you so different?"
"I'm offering you a business arrangement with clear terms and boundaries. No romance. No expectations beyond public appearances. You'd have your own space, your own life. I wouldn't control you or restrict you. You'd be free to do as you please."
"Except I'd be married to you."
"On paper only."
"And you really expect me to believe you'd never expect anything more? That you wouldn't eventually demand to share my heats, or sex, or god forbid, children?"
Something shifted in Taewoo's expression. "I would pay you handsomely if you agreed to bear me an heir."
The anger that flooded through Jihoon was white-hot and all-consuming. "Get out."
"Park Jihoon-ssi—"
"Get out of my home! Get out right now!"
"You're being unreasonable—"
"I'm being unreasonable? You just asked me to be your broodmare! You want me to marry you, pretend to be your loving spouse, and pop out babies for you like some kind of Omega factory! And I'm the unreasonable one?"
"I merely said I would pay you if you chose to—"
"I don't care what you'd pay me! My body and any children I have are not bargaining chips, and I'm not an incubator you can rent! Haneul is my child, my family, and if you think I'm going to create some heir for you while my own son plays second fiddle, you're out of your mind!"
Taewoo held up a hand. "I would never treat your son as lesser. If you agreed to this arrangement, Haneul would be secondary heir to my estate. He would attend the best schools, want for nothing—"
"Oh, how generous of you! How kind! You'll throw some money at my son and expect me to be grateful while you dangle financial security in front of me like I'm some desperate—"
"You are desperate!" Taewoo's composure cracked just slightly, frustration bleeding into his voice. "You're desperate and struggling and too proud to admit it! I'm offering you a way out! A way to provide for your son, to live comfortably, to finally use that expensive education you worked so hard for!"
"By selling myself to you!"
"By entering into a mutually beneficial contract!"
They were shouting now, both of them, their voices echoing in the small hallway. Haneul, who had been looking silently between his mother and the two strange Alphas couldn't take the shouting anymore and started to cry, overwhelmed by the noise and tension, and Jihoon immediately shifted his focus to his son, bouncing him gently."Shh, baby, it's okay. I'm sorry. Eomma's sorry."
He looked up at Taewoo, his expression hard. "You need to leave. Now."
Taewoo opened his mouth, probably to argue more, but looking at the crying pup and the tightness of Jihoon's expression, he thought against it. He nodded curtly.
"Think about my offer, Park-ssi. I'll give you three days to consider."
"I don't need three days. The answer is no."
"Three days," Taewoo repeated. "After that, I'll be forced to pursue other methods of debt collection. Methods that won't be as pleasant as what I'm offering now."
It was a threat, thinly veiled but unmistakable. Jihoon's blood ran cold, but he kept his chin up, refusing to show fear.
"Get out."
Taewoo turned to leave, Yoo following behind him. But at the last second, he paused and looked back, handing Jihoon his business card.
"For what it's worth, Park Jihoon-ssi, if you agree and I find your husband, I'll let you land the first punch."
Jihoon felt his lips twitch into something between a smile and a snarl, this Alpha was unwell.
"If I ever agreed to anything," he said, "and that's a massive if, I definitely want more than one punch."
"We can negotiate terms."
Then they were gone, disappearing down the hallway and leaving Jihoon standing in his doorway, holding his crying son, his entire world tilted on its axis.
He stepped back into his apartment and closed the door, locking it with shaking hands, his body finally processing the fear. His knees gave out and he slid down to the floor, his back against the door, and let Haneul cry into his chest while he tried to process what had just happened.
Ten billion won.
Jeon Hyungtae, that absolute bastard, had stolen ten billion won and disappeared, leaving Jihoon to face the consequences.
And now some terrifyingly powerful Alpha was demanding either the money or Jihoon's hand in marriage.
Jihoon let out a laugh that was dangerously close to a sob. This couldn't be real. This had to be some kind of nightmare.
But Haneul's weight in his arms was real. The tears on his face were real. And the business card that had been handed to him, with Kang Taewoo's name and phone number printed in elegant script, was very, very real.
"What am I going to do, baby?" Jihoon whispered, pressing a kiss to Haneul's head. "What the hell am I going to do?"
Haneul, still crying, had no answers.
And neither did Jihoon.
********
Back in the car, a sleek black sedan that smoothly drove away from Jihoon's apartment building, Yoo broke the silence with a low whistle.
"Well. That went about as well as could be expected."
Taewoo stared out the window, watching the city lights blur past. His jaw was still tight, his pheromones still agitated from the confrontation. "He'll come around."
"Will he, hyung? Because from where I was standing, he looked about ready to castrate you with his bare hands."
"He's emotional. Once he calms down and thinks rationally about the offer, he'll see it makes sense."
"Or," Yoo said, leaning back in her seat, "he'll tell you to go to hell and disappear with his kid. Can't say I'd blame him. That was... intense, Taewoo. Even for you."
"I was simply being direct."
"You were being an asshole."
Taewoo shot her a look. "I presented him with a solution to both our problems."
"You threatened a struggling single mother in his own home and then proposed marriage like you were negotiating a business merger. Which, granted, you were, but still. Zero points for romance."
"It's not meant to be romantic. It's a business arrangement."
"That involves legal marriage and potentially babies. You really don't see how that might be a hard sell?"
Taewoo was quiet for a moment, turning over the conversation in his mind. The image of Park Jihoon kept surfacing: those large, doe-like eyes blazing with fury, his slender frame vibrating with anger despite the toddler in his arms. He'd expected submission, or at the very least, fear. What he'd gotten was defiance and attitude.
It had been... unexpected.
"He'll agree," Taewoo said again, more to convince himself than Yoo. "He doesn't have any other choice."
"Everyone has a choice, Taewoo. He might choose poverty and dignity over wealth and pretense."
"That would be illogical."
"Welcome to dealing with Omegas. Logic doesn't always factor into it."
Taewoo leaned his head back against the seat, suddenly exhausted. What a day. First his mother's nagging, trying to gather information on that bastard, Hyungtae, and now this confrontation with the prettiest, most infuriating Omega he'd ever met.
"Three days," he murmured. "We'll give him three days to see reason."
"And if he doesn't?"
Taewoo's expression hardened. "Then we proceed with standard debt collection protocols."
"Which are?"
"Persistent and thorough."
Yoo hummed thoughtfully. "You know, I almost feel bad for the guy. He seemed genuinely blindsided by all this."
"He married Hyungtae. That was his first mistake. That has nothing to do with me."
"He also divorced him. That shows good judgment."
"Not good enough to avoid getting tangled up in this mess."
They lapsed into silence, the only sound the gentle hum of the engine and the distant noise of Seoul traffic. Taewoo's mind was already moving ahead, planning next steps, calculating probabilities.
Park Jihoon would agree. He had to.
The alternative was unthinkable.
Behind them, in the modest third-floor apartment in Mapo, Jihoon was having similar thoughts. Except his version ended with "there has to be another way."
There had to be.
There just had to be.
But as he sat on his worn couch, his son finally asleep against his chest, the business card sitting on his coffee table like an accusation, Jihoon couldn't think of a single viable alternative.
And that terrified him more than anything else.