Pig Government Official

-44-

Then, goodbye.

Jeonggwan, speaking in a voice so unfamiliar that one would never think they knew each other, turned and went into his house without a trace of lingering attachment. Watching Jeonggwan’s retreating figure, Junjae’s mouth twitched urgently as if to say something, but,

“……”

With only his fist tightly clenched, he ultimately couldn’t say anything. Junjae stared at the gate of the house Jeonggwan had entered, seeming to have trouble breathing again, but for a different reason this time. No, rather than having trouble breathing, this situation was extremely frustrating.

“…Ha. Shit.”

This wasn’t what he had intended…

* * *

Jeonggwan, who had entered through the gate as if nothing was wrong, immediately headed to the small vegetable garden in front of the yard that his father tended. He then roughly picked the beautifully hanging cherry tomatoes and stuffed them into his mouth. These were the cherished organic cherry tomatoes that his father only picked one a day to eat, but Jeonggwan had no sense of reason right now. He was in a state of extreme anger, so he couldn’t see anything else. Did he think he was blindsided by the words that it wasn’t because he liked him, but because of pheromones? No, that wasn’t it.

“Crunch. Crunch.”

Won Junjae. If you had just honestly admitted it, I would have just adored you, but you dare to provoke me? You? Because of pheromones? As if. You’re jealous but don’t want to give in to me, right? To someone like me.

“Who does he think he is?”

What’s so lacking about me that I have to hear words like ‘someone like you’? Ah, I don’t need an old man like you either. Jeonggwan’s eyes burned as he glared at the gate as if he could see through it.

“Jeonggwan… What are you eating?”

His father’s head, who had been crouched down watering the succulents at the bottom of the flowerbed, slowly rose. Jeonggwan’s jaw, which had been mindlessly chewing with four cherry tomatoes in his cheeks, suddenly stopped.

* * *

Jihoon massaged Jeonggwan’s shoulders while gauging his mood. He had heard roughly what happened in the morning, but he didn’t expect Won Junjae to lose control of his temper and explode so quickly. But when exactly did they meet? Saturday? Jihoon had readily agreed when Jeonggwan suddenly said he wouldn’t come to work on Saturday, thinking there must be a reason for this unusual behavior, but he didn’t know such a big incident had occurred when Monday came after the weekend.

The side of Jeonggwan’s nose was twitching, clearly showing his irritation to anyone who looked. Jihoon found it both amusing and cute to see Jeonggwan so angry after a long time, and as crabs side with other crabs, he was also annoyed at Won Junjae, his cousin. If you’re going to act, do it properly till the end. Why suddenly lose control?

Jeonggwan was also experiencing a sudden outburst. All weekend, Jeonggwan had thrown a pig-out party to relieve stress, something he hadn’t done in a while. I’m going to fucking earn money now, and when I’m angry, I’ll eat it all up. I’m a fucking adult, and I’m going to eat curry with only pork in it! I’m going to buy a whole can of Tenzing and eat it all! I’m going to buy Chex Choco and mix a whole can right away and eat it all! He had eaten like this all weekend. He ate like that even when he wasn’t stressed, but anyway, that’s what he did.

Still huffing, Jeonggwan was spreading whipped cream on a sheet and rolling it, his icing skills excellent as befitting a slave to capitalism. No, it even seemed neater than usual. Jihoon quietly watched from behind, briefly entertaining the evil boss-like thought of ‘Should I make him angry every day?’, but quickly changed the subject, realizing how trashy that sounded even to himself.

“So, are you going to switch to the Jung Taegeon route?”

From Jihoon’s perspective, it seemed natural for Jeonggwan to switch to the Jung Taegeon route in this situation. Since Won Junjae, who had been acting to smell Jeonggwan’s pheromones, had shown his true colors, he thought Jeonggwan, with his hurt pride, would turn his heart towards Jung Taegeon.

“…No. I don’t want to date right now.”

“…When was it ever right? You’ve only dated once.”

“Shut up.”

Anyway, it’s not that. And Jung Taegeon is even more of a no. Suddenly turning to Jung Taegeon just because things ended with Won Junjae would be wrong at this point. With his father’s situation, if Jeonggwan treated him well, he would hold onto hope and rely solely on Jeonggwan. Right now, Jeonggwan didn’t want such a burdensome relationship.

“If you don’t want to date, how about developing a new menu item?”

“…A new menu item?”

Suki, who had been quietly listening to their conversation, cautiously suggested to Jeonggwan. A new menu? Jeonggwan and Jihoon looked at Suki with questioning faces.

“This is still Jeonggwan’s first job. Wouldn’t it be a waste to only make one menu item here?”

Ah… Jeonggwan and Jihoon exclaimed simultaneously. Come to think of it, Jeonggwan had been too focused on making menu items here, having started working before even graduating. Jeonggwan originally liked making various things and often stayed late in the lab to experiment, but it was true that his interest in baking had waned as he focused on other things for nearly a month.

But as soon as Suki mentioned it, many things Jeonggwan wanted to make suddenly came to mind. Right. I was originally a busy person with lots of things I wanted to do, even without something like dating.

See how dating makes people stupid? Originally, Jeonggwan was only interested in bread and rice, but how priorities change just because of one relationship… He found it quite fascinating. He had lived very well without Won Junjae.

“Mr. Park. Shall we try making something?”

“Since we have many dessert items, it might not be bad to go with a basic type?”

Jihoon was already considering what to make, like a proper boss. Jeonggwan also took out fruits and started preparing them, putting their heads together with Jihoon to consider what would be good. Surprisingly, the irritation and anger he had felt all weekend because of Won Junjae dissipated so quickly with just talk of work.

* * *

Secretary Oh couldn’t gauge whether this was good or bad. These days, his boss would just stare at the clock while pretending not to when he got in the car. Then at 10:15, he would get up and go down to the first floor. But today, even though it wasn’t particularly busier than other days, he was just looking at documents, which was very strange. After leaving like that on Friday… Did they fight? I mean, they weren’t even dating, so what could they have fought about?

“What time is the morning meeting today?”

“…This morning?”

“Yes.”

“…Ah, it’s at 11 o’clock.”

“…I’ll go down to the first floor for a moment. Prepare as scheduled.”

Because he always spent at least an hour to an hour and a half until Kim Jeonggwan’s quitting time when he went down to the cafe, the morning meetings that had been scheduled for weeks had always been postponed to the afternoon recently. Today too, he had mentioned this to the marketing team, expecting the same. However, his instruction to prepare as scheduled meant that he would go down to see Kim Jeonggwan and come back up in less than thirty minutes. Did they really fight? Or had his boss suddenly come to his senses?

If so, he should have welcomed it with open arms. The Won Junjae who had been acting like he was going through delayed puberty lately was not the executive director of Won Electronics that he respected. This person who did exactly what needed to be done was the boss he had admired. So he should have been happy to see Won Junjae return to his usual self, but Secretary Oh somehow didn’t feel particularly happy.

“…Yes. Understood.”

Secretary Oh left Junjae’s office with a short reply. Even after Secretary Oh left, Junjae didn’t relax his posture. Usually, he would have checked his phone right away, but now he was forcibly only looking at documents. He had thought about going to see Kim Jeonggwan again all weekend because he was irritated, but he barely managed to grab hold of his reason and decided to be cool-headed.

His father, who had been quiet lately, came to Jeju Island without notice to give a warning. This was not the time for him to be complacent. He needed to pull himself together. Just because of one Kim Jeonggwan… He shouldn’t act like he’s lost his mind just because of a mere omega. The future of Won Electronics was riding on his back. He needed to return to being the usual Won Junjae who only worked for Won, as he always did.

‘Just come and smell the pheromones and leave from now on. I won’t misunderstand anymore either.’

Moreover, Kim Jeonggwan had solved the most important pheromone problem first. There was no need to worry about this part anymore, so the situation wasn’t bad. Rather, this was in line with the original purpose, so what was wrong… was nothing.

This is how it should have been from the start.

“If the chart for this quarter’s summary is ready, please send it up.”

The time was passing 10:10.

* * *

Jihoon turned his head to the large clock hanging in the cafe. 10:30. Won Junjae, who should have come 10 minutes ago, still hadn’t shown up. Now that he’s shown his true colors, is he trying to come at 30 minutes past like usual? He took a sip of warm cafe latte and looked up at the clock again. 31 minutes.

“Hey. Is your guy not coming today?”

“…Whatever.”

Unlike the grumpy voice coming out, Jeonggwan’s hands were calm. Until just now, his mood had been quite up while talking about the new menu item, but as 10:30 approached, his expression started to worsen again.

Ding-.

“……”

32 minutes. Jihoon turned his head towards the door. Oh my. Did they really end things…? Junjae, who was striding into the cafe, was the Won Junjae he knew. That Won Junjae who had been so cold that Jihoon could barely speak to him until recently.