Pig Government Official

-41-

“……”

“……”

Silence hovered between the two. No, between the three. When had the call been connected? How much had he heard? Jeonggwan and Jihoon just rolled their eyes at each other, not knowing what to do, until finally Jeonggwan quietly raised his hand and pressed the red button on the screen.

Click.

As the call ended, Jeonggwan’s phone lock screen appeared. It showed a white fat cat, the neighborhood boss, sprawled out sleeping on the hood of the second brother’s car – a cat that the family always said looked like Jeonggwan and gave him treats whenever they saw it. As soon as that peaceful screen appeared, Jihoon let out the breath he had been holding. Jeonggwan snatched the phone still in Jihoon’s hand and checked the recent call log. Outgoing call. 40 seconds. Jeonggwan took a deep breath.

“Wow, shit. That was scary! When did the call come through?”

And he slapped Jihoon’s back, who was sighing with his hand on his chest. Ack-!

“You! Dialed it! You! While talking nonsense!”

“Ah-. Hey. Hey-!”

“Didn’t I! Tell you! To give it back!”

Jeonggwan hit Jihoon’s back hard with each word. Jihoon tried to avoid it at first, but eventually, unable to stop the enraged Jeonggwan, he grabbed Jeonggwan’s pant leg and rubbed his palms together. I really didn’t know! Really. Uhuhuhu, I’ll treat you to whatever you want for second and third rounds today. Okay? At the end of Jihoon’s long apology, Jeonggwan’s beating stopped.

“You’ll follow whatever I want to eat.”

“Yes, yes.”

“And.”

As Jeonggwan opened his mouth once more, Jihoon glared at him with a look that said ‘enough already’, but Jeonggwan was looking down at his phone.

“Won Junjae came to see me yesterday too.”

“…Huh?”

“When I was sleeping. He waited for an hour in front of our house and then just left.”

“…For an hour? Isn’t that a delusion?”

Am I you? Jeonggwan glared at Jihoon with raised eyebrows and showed him his KakaoTalk chat. Won Junjae’s hour of waiting, sending messages every 30 minutes. Even as Jihoon looked again more intently, it was indeed sent by Won Junjae.

“Huh… Is this for real?”

“I’m telling you it’s real. Why. Don’t you believe it?”

“No, it’s just that you had pheromones at that time… Um…”

Jihoon rolled his eyes with a deeply contemplative expression. Pheromones? What pheromones? Jeonggwan looked at Jihoon as if asking what he meant, but Jihoon was already lost in his own thoughts.

So, Won Junjae pretends not to like Kim Jeonggwan in front of him, saying he’s using pheromones, but behind his back, he goes to see Kim Jeonggwan like that? And even waited for an hour before leaving? Why? When he knows that Jihoon and Kim Jeonggwan are best friends? When he knows they’ll share this kind of information… Whoa. Could it be that he wants me to keep quiet and go along with the act he’s putting on for me? That’s it. That’s right.

Won Junjae was trying to silence him by obviously showing through Kim Jeonggwan that things were going well. He was saying not to interfere in family business, best friend or not. Since he’s a member of the Won family, and he’s openly showing that I’m his person by giving me the first-floor cafe… He was telling me to shut up and pretend not to know what he’s doing. Jihoon let out a hollow laugh in disbelief. He was disgusted by Won Junjae flaunting his power and oppressing him like this. He clearly knows and is doing this. That I can’t go against his words because of my mother.

“Hey. You can seduce Won Junjae.”

“…Then what have I been doing until now?”

“Fuck. Do it properly this time.”

Suddenly switching to battle mode, Jihoon grabbed both of Jeonggwan’s shoulders. Jeonggwan tried to shrug off his shoulders in annoyance, thinking ‘What’s with this guy? Why so sudden again.’ But Jihoon was in a state of extreme anger right now. You dare to mess with my best friend and tell me to keep my mouth shut and stay still? Who do you think you are? Won Junjae, you really look down on me, don’t you?

Absolutely not. I can live well without this cafe. Of course, I’ll be cursed by my mother and socially buried, but I have nothing to fear anyway. I was already going off the rails and practically disowned by the Won family. The only one who looked at me without prejudice was Kim Jeonggwan. He’s not just a close friend, to me, an only child, he’s like a brother.

“You. Do you know when an alpha is most desperate?”

“You’re not even an alpha.”

“Listen.”

“…When is it?”

You want me to participate in backstabbing Kim Jeonggwan?

“When an omega they thought was theirs…”

“Is an omega a thing?”

“…Correction. When an omega they thought had completely fallen for them…”

No. The one who should be backstabbed is you, Won Junjae. Go ahead and drown in tears after falling head over heels for Kim Jeonggwan. For revenge, Jihoon decided not to tell Jeonggwan about the pheromones. It’s more effective to hear about it later when they’re really breaking up.

“Actually turns out to not have fallen for them even 1%.”

Absolutely protect Kim Jeonggwan. Sparks flew in Jihoon’s eyes.

* * *

Under Jihoon’s surveillance, Jeonggwan was in a situation where he couldn’t even send a KakaoTalk message or make a call to Won Junjae. Jihoon confidently smiled and said not to contact him at all. Since the call ended like that, Won Junjae must be thinking about you now, he said. For better or worse.

If they talked for about 40 seconds, he must have heard about meeting Jung Taegeon yesterday, and by now, even if he’s trying not to care, he must be caring, so if Jeonggwan contacts him first at this point, he’ll surely think Jeonggwan has fallen for him and this relationship will end easily, Jihoon explained.

Somehow, Jihoon seemed to keep talking with the premise that Won Junjae ‘doesn’t like him, but is paying attention to him’, which made Jeonggwan a bit puzzled. Does he think Won Junjae doesn’t like me? But Won Junjae likes me? This was something only Jeonggwan could feel. That look in his eyes and… the strength in his arm when he grabbed him to turn him around. It was clear that Won Junjae liked him.

Still, since Jihoon said he could seduce the alpha more perfectly, Jeonggwan decided to listen to him. It was a bit embarrassing that there was no return contact from Won Junjae even after ending the call like that… So Jeonggwan focused on eating, drinking, and chatting, forgetting about Won Junjae as Jihoon suggested. Moreover, the stories Jihoon told completely captivated Jeonggwan.

“Big bro will tell you just once.”

Mm-hmm. Jeonggwan nodded eagerly, and Jihoon dipped the lamb skewer in mint jam once more and bit into it like a primitive man. As if he were a wild human. His wild appearance matched his wild talk.

“When Won Junjae kisses you, right?”

“Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.”

“Then exactly 20 seconds later, turn your head sharply as if you’re out of breath!”

“Why? Why should I do that?”

“Just trust me and do it.”

Jeonggwan swallowed hard, his face red from alcohol. He didn’t know the reason, but Jihoon was smiling confidently, saying this was a surefire method, and it seemed quite plausible to Jeonggwan, so he imprinted the method in his mind. Turn head sharply after 20 seconds-. Turn head sharply after 20 seconds-!

Jihoon nodded approvingly, watching Jeonggwan memorize it earnestly as if he were a proud disciple. That’s right. That’s right! Then, as if a certain question suddenly occurred to him, he looked around once, leaned towards Jeonggwan with a mischievous face, and asked.

“Then with Jung Taegeon… since you were students…”

“That’s a dangerous statement.”

“Right?”

Jihoon shrugged his shoulders and then gulped down his beer. Jeonggwan rolled his eyes at Jihoon, thinking ‘Tsk. This guy. What a scoundrel.’ Then, wondering why this guy knows these things so well, Jeonggwan leaned towards Jihoon with a mischievous face of his own.

“Hey… By the way, do you perhaps date men too…?”

“Yeah. Didn’t you know?”

“I wasn’t curious. Then do you… date alphas?”

This question was actually quite rude. Among betas who date men, asking if they date alphas meant ‘Are you a bottom?’ So Jihoon flinched for a moment and stared at Jeonggwan, but Kim Jeonggwan, who knew nothing about such things, seemed to be asking innocently out of curiosity if Jihoon dated alphas like himself since he was an omega.

“Yeah. I date alphas.”

“Whoa. Then do you get on the bottom?”

“You bastard-.”

No. This damn bastard. He was just being rude. Jihoon hit Jeonggwan’s forehead with a spoon. Jeonggwan giggled while rubbing his forehead that got hit. Jihoon shook his head. As expected, Kim Jeonggwan is Kim Jeonggwan.

“But I don’t get on the bottom.”

“What does that mean?”

“I’m a beta, you know.”

“…But.”

“For betas, there’s no distinction between top and bottom.”

I top. The alphas. As Jihoon said in a low voice, Jeonggwan first looked at him with a confused face, scanning him up and down for a while, then soon made a face like he was about to throw up, complaining that he didn’t want to know. Jihoon found Jeonggwan’s reaction amusing, so he kept spilling TMI even though Jeonggwan told him to stop.

“I just can’t resist guys who are bigger than me-.”

“Ah, what am I supposed to do with that-. I said I don’t want to hear it.”

“You have no idea how fun it is to break proud alphas-.”

“Aaagh-! Kill me! Kill my eardrums!”

Jihoon kept talking with half-closed eyes, while Jeonggwan struggled and suffered.