Pig Government Official

-45-

Junjae, seated in his usual spot, didn’t lift his head once. Before, he used to glance at Jeonggwan in the kitchen occasionally and later even stare openly, but now he was solely focused on his tablet. To an outsider, it would seem he wasn’t here for pheromones but just a busy person who stopped by for a quick coffee, as he was only doing work.

The same was true for Jeonggwan. His hands, which were transferring cake to a tray, paused briefly at the sound of the door, but soon resumed moving busily to take it into the cafe interior as if nothing had happened. Their intentional avoidance of each other was too obvious.

“It’s intense. So intense.”

“If you have nothing to do, move this.”

“…I’ll let it slide.”

Jeonggwan usually went out to the cafe interior himself to display the cakes he made. But now he didn’t want to go out as it would bring him closer to Junjae. Since Jihoon was nearby, he sent him out with the tray, and Jihoon, after noticeably glancing back and forth between them, left the kitchen with an awkward face carrying the cakes.

Thud. As soon as Jihoon closed the kitchen door, Suki moved closer to Jeonggwan, who was turning to do the dishes right away to avoid looking at the window.

“Did you two really end things?”

“Sis, give me the spatula too. So I can wash dishes longer.”

“It seems such a waste no matter how I look at it…”

“Then you date him, sis.”

The age combination is just right for me. But unfortunately, he’s not my type. Suki chuckled softly and dumped her spatula, bowl, and even whisk into Jeonggwan’s sink.

“Damn it. I said just give me the spatula.”

“Tsk-.”

When Jeonggwan glared at Suki and spoke, she replied with an expression that said you really don’t know anything. That guy usually stays for an hour anyway. If you finish the dishes, you’ll have to clean the prep table and it’ll be awkward, so you wash my things too. I’ll clean your table for you. She presented a fairly plausible reason and logic.

“…Just for today.”

“Sure, sure.”

Suki smiled leisurely and approached to clean the prep table. Cleaning the table is the real treat…

“Huh…?”

But soon a surprised voice emerged. Jeonggwan turned around towards Suki, thinking ‘What is it?’, and Suki was also looking at Jeonggwan with a surprised face. What’s wrong? When Jeonggwan asked with his expression as if asking what happened, Suki slowly approached Jeonggwan again.

“I’ll do the dishes…”

“Huh? Why?”

“…Give them here.”

“Ah…”

At Suki’s hesitant behavior, Jeonggwan reflexively looked at the window and immediately understood. The seat where Junjae usually stayed until Jeonggwan’s quitting time was empty. Since an hour couldn’t have passed so quickly, Won Junjae had left without even staying for 20 minutes.

His stomach churned. Even though he had told him to do so, to actually just smell the pheromones and leave… In fact, Jeonggwan had thought this: that Junjae would come and apologize, saying what happened in front of his house was out of stubbornness. Even though Jeonggwan had avoided looking at him today out of spite, he thought Junjae would use pheromones as an excuse and stay for a long time as usual.

Jeonggwan’s eyes turned to the clock on the wall. Both the short and long hands were pointing at 10.

* * *

[Junjae. Father says to stop by if you haven’t had dinner.]

It felt like the interference was intensifying again. Already over thirty, but his father still seemed to treat him like a child. Junjae, who had briefly sighed at his mother’s text, turned the car heading home towards his family home. He hadn’t planned on dinner for the third day, but he had never once in his life not gone when his father called.

“We’ve arrived.”

Stepping out of the car, Junjae looked up along the long path of stepping stones stretching out in front of him. In the distance, a massive three-story house stood emitting light. The house where he was born and raised. Junjae had never once thought the house was big since childhood. But why did it look so big today?

The image of Kim Jeonggwan’s low and small house automatically came to mind. A house so small it was hard to believe six people lived there. Is their family close because they live so crowded together? Is the distance between his family members because they live in this unnecessarily large house with just three people? He had never thought about the house before, but today it struck him as particularly large.

“I’m home.”

“Young master, you’re here?”

“They’re having dinner in the dining room first.”

“I’ll guide you.”

As he entered the foyer, several employees approached as if they had been waiting. Come to think of it, including the employees, more than six people lived in this house. A small, hollow laugh spread and disappeared from Junjae’s lips. It wasn’t because the house was big, it was just that his family members were distant.

“It’s Japanese cuisine today, but if it doesn’t suit your taste, should we serve Korean instead?”

The house manager came to his side and asked as they were crossing to the dining room. A middle-aged woman who had worn the same clothes and hairstyle for over 30 years. When he was young, he found this lady quite scary. She reported everything to his father – what he did today, what he said, what he ate more of and less of. It was really scary. Looking at it now, she was probably just doing what she was told. But back then, he thought she was in league with the bad guys.

“…Korean, please.”

Then is father the bad guy? He had believed without doubt all his life that everyone would fear their fathers. However, the father who occasionally appeared on Kim Jeonggwan’s SNS momentarily stunned Junjae. With a face exactly like Kim Jeonggwan’s, eating ice cream with Kim Jeonggwan, going sledding, surrounded by Kim Jeonggwan’s siblings and smiling brightly while receiving a birthday cake.

He instinctively felt something was wrong, but he couldn’t ask or show it in front of his father. He just thought, if there are fathers like this, there must be fathers like that too. My father just doesn’t express it, but he takes pride in me, he believes in me as the successor who will lead the future Won Electronics…

“……”

“If you’ve arrived, you should greet us, not just stand there.”

“Oh my, Junjae, you’re here?”

He could only compromise with himself that his father loved him in his own way.

“Hey-. Won Junjae. Long time no see?”

However, his brain circuits seemed to momentarily stop at the figure waving and greeting him as if they were close. Flustered, he couldn’t even greet his father and mother, and the sound of his father clicking his tongue in disapproval was heard. That signal snapped him back to attention.

“…Oh. It’s been a while, hyung.”

“Come sit down?”

Won Sungjae. Won Sungjae was his father’s first son, Junjae’s half-brother. It had been about 3-4 years since he last saw him. Won Sungjae was the same as ever. Dressed in a white suit with a black round-neck T-shirt that even a local thug wouldn’t wear, he looked just like a neighborhood hoodlum.

“Won Executive Director-. I heard you became an executive director?”

“…Yeah.”

“Following the route exactly? You’ll soon be Won Director? Mother must be pleased.”

Sungjae always displeased him every time he saw him. Speaking to him freely just because they were brothers, dressing like that even when coming to see father. Being affectionate to his mother even though she wasn’t his birth mother – none of it sat well with him.

“Sungjae, don’t go around doing bad things.”

“Aw-. Father. You do worse things, don’t you?”

“This guy never knows when to stop talking.”

“I only smoked weed once. And I didn’t even know it was weed, I’m telling you.”

Rude… and uncultured. He was embarrassed to be related to such a person, and

“Alright, just don’t cause any trouble.”

Father, who always seemed to become a different person in front of this guy, felt unfamiliar. Others said the first son was abandoned for being too passionate. But whenever Won Sungjae was around… it felt like he was the one who had been abandoned. Even though the meal hadn’t even arrived yet, he already felt suffocated. His throat felt tight and stuffy, and when he touched his tie slightly, his father’s gaze immediately flew to him.

He immediately lowered his hand that was touching his tie. Father always restricted his every action even when others weren’t around. Even in a place with only family members, he interfered with all his actions. While Won Sungjae wore such crazy clothes and said crazy things without any reprimand.

The dining room, which already looked cold due to the black marble table mixed with cyan, felt even heavier.

“Oh right. I heard you’re going on a blind date?”

“…What?”

As if sensing the atmosphere, Won Sungjae immediately changed the subject. However, this was the first time Junjae had heard of it. A blind date?

“What do you mean…”

“It’s about time. I’ll send a list through Secretary Jang, so choose.”

Won Sungjae’s face that said ‘You didn’t know?’ and father who said of course that’s what he should do as if he wasn’t interested in his opinion or questions. His hand under the table involuntarily clenched into a fist. His body tensed up. He had never once answered ‘no’ to his father’s words, but now he felt a constant urge. To say he didn’t want to. Those words felt like they would burst out of his mouth at any moment.

“…Yes.”

However, seeing his mother’s anxious face looking at him, he couldn’t bring himself to say it.