Chapter 7

When I turned my head at the unfamiliar voice, as expected, there was an unknown man standing with a cocky posture, one leg bent.

“Hey! Choi Sunwoo! Why aren’t you answering your phone?”

“…”

Even after looking again, Sunwoo still couldn’t guess who this man was.

“Today too. I sent you so many messages asking to talk over drinks, but you’re ignoring me!”

So, who are you?

Regardless of Sunwoo’s puzzled look, the man continued to pour out his words.

“You put your phone on silent and buried it in your bag again, didn’t you? Hand it over! I just sent you a message, let’s see if you checked it or not!”@@novelbin@@

The man suddenly approached Sunwoo with big strides, stuck out his arm, and waved it around. Sunwoo took out the phone he had put in his bag.

It wasn’t that he had put it on silent and buried it in his bag as the man said. He just put it in there because his hands were full after unexpectedly buying various things at the mart.

But it didn’t seem necessary to explain this to a man whose identity he couldn’t even guess. For now, what Sunwoo wanted to know was who this man was.

[Yeoltaeng]

“Ah…!”

Sunwoo’s head snapped up at the name that appeared as soon as he opened the messaging app.

“What? Why are you looking at me like that?”

The unknown man, Yeoltaeng, asked with a frown.

“Uh, well, um…”

Sunwoo tried to answer but couldn’t find the words.

Yeoltaeng? It was the appearance of a completely unexpected person.

When Sunwoo woke up in the hospital, he was in such a daze. As soon as he opened his eyes, the doctor told him he was a heat omega and pregnant.

So even when he saw the consecutive messages from this unknown Yeoltaeng, he didn’t have time to think about who it might be.

He was too preoccupied with wondering what on earth was going on and how he ended up in this situation to worry about who this person saved under a nickname rather than a name might be. Naturally, he didn’t remember the content either, as he had only glanced at it with blurry eyes.

But now, this Yeoltaeng had suddenly appeared before him.

“What’s that? Alcohol? Snacks?”

Yeoltaeng snatched the bag from the dazed Sunwoo and peered inside. He soon made a face of disbelief.

“What’s this? Don’t tell me you’re on a diet? That doesn’t suit you.”

It felt like Sunwoo had heard similar words somewhere before. After pondering for a moment, he shook his head.

“No, I’m just not feeling well, so I wanted to eat something light. But what are you doing here?”

Yeoltaeng, seemingly disappointed by the bag full of only healthy food, clicked his tongue and said grumpily,

“What do you mean? I heard you collapsed and were taken away in an ambulance? See? Didn’t I tell you to move back home earlier?”

After quickly scanning Sunwoo’s face, Yeoltaeng asked again,

“But why did you collapse?”

Sunwoo stared blankly at the face that showed more curiosity than concern, and suddenly had a thought.

‘What’s his relationship with Secretary Choi? Are they friends? Or family or relatives?’

No matter how much he looked, he couldn’t figure it out. Judging by his attitude, tone, and expression, they seemed quite close, but that information alone wasn’t enough.

What do they usually do in these possession stories…?

As a publishing house PD, Sunwoo had seen many works. Among them were, of course, many possession stories. The attitude of a possessed person when encountering someone they knew was mostly the same.

“What’s wrong? Hey? Don’t tell me you’re really not feeling well? What is it? Where does it hurt?”

As Sunwoo continued to remain silent, Yeoltaeng’s expression gradually changed.

“Gasp! Come to think of it, you’ve never collapsed before, have you? Even when you presented in your senior year of high school, you didn’t!”

Surprisingly, as soon as Sunwoo closed his mouth, Yeoltaeng started rambling on, providing the necessary information.

“Usually people faint and stuff, but you insisted on attending class until the end even with a raging fever. That’s why our homeroom teacher, unable to watch anymore, told me to take you to the hospital.”

From Yeoltaeng’s endless stream of words, Sunwoo gleaned one piece of information.

It seemed that Yeoltaeng and Secretary Choi had known each other since high school. So they were most likely friends.

“Do you know how panicked I was when I took you to the hospital while you were sick, only to hear it was because of your presentation symptoms? How relieved I was to hear that since you’re a heat omega, you can’t produce pheromones. They told me not to even hint at it, and I laughed so hard. Hey, aren’t I really good at keeping secrets? I’ve kept my mouth shut all this time as you wanted.”

So that’s what happened…

Thanks to Yeoltaeng, Sunwoo also learned the useful fact that Secretary Choi had presented as a heat omega in his senior year of high school.

Moreover, he couldn’t produce pheromones. Is that still the case now? Well, that’s probably how he was able to pretend to be a beta for three years.

While Sunwoo was carefully gathering information about Secretary Choi, Yeoltaeng continued to chatter loudly.

“But fainting… Someone as sturdy and un-omega-like as you…! What is it, what happened? Why did that happen?”

As Yeoltaeng leaned in close, looking curious, Sunwoo thought again. So much for being good at keeping secrets, blabbing on about things I didn’t even ask about.

Anyway, with years of experience handling possession stories, he could think of the most appropriate medical condition for this situation.

“Well… I have amnesia.”

Sunwoo deliberately spoke slowly, as if dragging out his words.

“…What?”

Yeoltaeng asked back with a dumbfounded expression.

“You lost your memory? Is that why you fainted?”

“Huh? No! No, that’s not it…”

Sunwoo suddenly raised his head and waved his hand. No, how could he misunderstand so strangely?

“When I opened my eyes in the hospital, I couldn’t remember anything.”

Yeoltaeng’s face looked even more dumbfounded.

“So… you can’t even recognize…”

Me? Yeoltaeng was about to ask another question. But he couldn’t finish his sentence.

“What are you talking about?”

An unexpected voice cut Yeoltaeng’s words short.

Sunwoo’s head whipped around so fast it made a sound. He widened his eyes when he saw Director Kang Jinwook.

What is that man doing there!

“Secretary Choi.”

Director Kang Jinwook, who had suddenly approached, called out to Sunwoo in a threatening tone. Sunwoo was so surprised that he could only gape.

“Say that again.”

Director Kang Jinwook was glaring at Sunwoo as if he might stab him to death at any moment.

‘Gasp. Why is he so fierce?’

There was a reason he was called a madman. He was exuding an atmosphere that suggested he might bury you in cement and dump you in the sea if you said the wrong thing.

Sunwoo swallowed hard and opened his mouth. His lips trembled as they parted, showing how shocked he was.

“I-it’s true. I really don’t have any m-memories. So, I s-said I’d quit…”

His words came out stuttering. Director Kang Jinwook frowned deeply. He had thought something was off. After fainting and waking up, Choi Sunwoo hadn’t been acting like himself.

He had suspected some kind of scheme, but he never imagined Sunwoo might have lost his memory.

“Don’t lie. Are you trying to pull some trick again?”

Director Kang Jinwook asked coldly.

“No way! Not at all. If you doubt me… a-ask me anything…”

In his panic, Sunwoo blurted out whatever came to mind.

“Oh, then! Tell me what our high school badge looked like.”

Yeoltaeng suddenly interjected between the two. School badge?

“How could I remember something like that?”

Sunwoo looked at Yeoltaeng with an incredulous expression.

“Gasp! He really must have lost his memory. You always complained that the badge with the ginkgo leaf design looked like it would smell bad.”

However, Yeoltaeng seemed to believe Sunwoo’s words. It was truly absurd. Losing your memory just because you can’t remember one tiny detail!

But Director Kang Jinwook didn’t laugh. He just asked with a terrifyingly serious face.

“If you’ve lost your memory, how did you find your way home after being discharged? How did you come to work? How did you know I was your boss? How do you explain doing your work as efficiently as usual, if not better?”

Sunwoo, who had been staring blankly at Director Kang Jinwook as he fired questions like a waterfall, finally collected himself. Taking a deep breath, he answered.

“I found my home because the address was on my ID. Similarly, I knew the company name and that I was an employee because of the employee ID in my bag. As for you, Executive Director… you came to the hospital, didn’t you?”

Though it was baffling when you suddenly got angry and disappeared.

Sunwoo had roughly figured out his situation from the phone, notebook, and various items he found in his leather bag. Among these, the most useful was undoubtedly the phone.

“There was all sorts of information on the phone. Photos and such.”

It’s strange. Why do I feel my face getting hot saying these things that aren’t even about me?

Sunwoo rubbed his cheeks with both hands, doing a dry face wash. Indeed, there were probably hundreds of photos saved in the photo gallery.

Surprisingly, the subject of all those photos was Director Kang Jinwook, and most of them seemed to have been taken secretly. Moreover, the private SNS account was full of details about Director Kang Jinwook’s daily life.

…Secretary Choi was an excellent stalker.

‘This would definitely mean death if caught.’

When he realized this, Sunwoo firmly decided he had to quit.

“As for the work at the company, well… isn’t that level of work something anyone can do?”

It’s just trivial tasks, nothing difficult. Sunwoo intentionally shrugged his shoulders. For some reason, Director Kang Jinwook’s expression looked even worse than before.

‘Did I say something that bothered him…?’

He reviewed what he had said, feeling preemptively guilty, but couldn’t find anything specific.

“So you submitted a resignation letter?”

“Yes.”

Sunwoo answered promptly.

“I shouldn’t cause trouble. I don’t know when I’ll recover my memories.”

Hearing those words, Director Kang Jinwook’s expression changed dramatically.

“Since when did you have the personality to care about such things?”

Ah, that’s right.

That was such an accurate statement that Sunwoo unconsciously started to nod before stopping himself. Looking at Sunwoo, who had awkwardly lowered his head, Director Kang Jinwook said decisively:

“So stop thinking unnecessary thoughts and come to work.”