Eyes Watching from the Shadows

A faint trace of interest hid beneath Seo Eunsu’s otherwise bored expression today.

“Report.”

“Yes.”

He was about to hear an update on Seong Chanyeong, the man he had ordered to be watched.

“He is currently waiting for an injured dog to be discharged from an animal hospital. The dog’s name is Janggun.

A Jindo mix. Their relationship appears very close. It seems he plans to adopt him soon.”

Janggun’s instincts had been correct.

The man he barked at in the hospital was, in fact, a planted observer sent by Seo Eunsu.

Janggun had sensed something off about the man, who kept glancing toward his target, and barked in an attempt to chase him away.

Of course, Seong Chanyeong had no way of knowing that.

“…That’s unexpected.”

“Excuse me?”

“Nothing. You don’t need to know.”

Seo Eunsu stubbed out his cigarette in the ashtray.

Then he quietly questioned this unfamiliar side of Seong Chanyeong once again.

‘He used to say animals were filthy and smelly… and now he not only rescued a dog, but plans to raise it?’

And in his own house, no less.

“Maybe the rumor about him dying wasn’t nonsense after all.”

Listening to these strange changes, Seo Eunsu found it almost amusing, as if Seong Chanyeong might truly be on the verge of death.

No one had confirmed that he was terminally ill.

It was nothing more than speculation.

‘But the circumstances line up too well, don’t they?’

That was the shared thought among the four Alphas who used to chase him, along with Chairman Seong Gongun.

A man who seemed incapable of change suddenly went off to farm.

He apologized for things he never would have before and cut off all contact.

Most of all, his sudden disappearance sealed the suspicion.

Even Seo Eunsu, who had always regarded him coldly, began to lean toward the idea that Seong Chanyeong might truly be hiding somewhere, sick.

In other words, the Alphas and the chairman, who were tearing through every possible lead to find him, were growing increasingly anxious by the day.

Except for Seo Eunsu, who had already located him.

‘What if he actually dies like this?’

Meanwhile, the person in question had no idea such rumors were spreading and was simply excited about raising a dog.

‘If he dies somewhere no one knows… then we’ll never understand why he cut off all contact and disappeared.’

The Alphas who had already been rejected by him were falling into confusion.

To rid themselves of this strange feeling, they felt the need to meet him again and settle things once and for all.

To them, Seong Chanyeong was like a hangnail.

Too irritating to ignore, yet too unpleasant to confront directly.

“Still no sign of him today?”

Joo Taegang wasn’t the type to search directly.

Instead, he lingered around Seo Eunsu’s surroundings, waiting for Seong Chanyeong to appear.

‘The others are wasting time and money chasing him. That’s just stupid.’

He despised Seong Chanyeong more than anyone.

He never believed the apology or the claim that he would let go.

If anything, he suspected it was the beginning of something worse.

So he stayed on guard, frequently appearing near Seo Eunsu’s apartment like a cicada, waiting for the chance to catch him.

‘If it’s Seong Chanyeong, he’ll show up within a day.’

That confidence, unfortunately, was nothing more than wishful thinking.

He was completely off track.

“…Why isn’t he showing up?”

Other than the one unlucky encounter on the day Seong Chanyeong went to apologize, there had been no sign of him at all.

A day passed.

Then a week.

Then a month.

And Seo Eunsu’s surroundings remained peaceful.

Like a city freed from its villain, Seo Eunsu was safe, and Seong Chanyeong had vanished without a trace.

‘Is he really sick? That guy?’

As Joo Taegang continued to circle around Seo Eunsu, creating chance encounters, unwanted thoughts crept in.

Memories of how harshly he had treated Seong Chanyeong.

The way he had mocked and belittled him when he begged for love came back vividly.

“Taegang… I baked your favorite chocolate cake myself. Will you try a bite?”

“Stop lying, Seong Chanyeong. You obviously had your housekeeper make it. And where did you even hear that I like chocolate cake?”

“…There are ways to find out. I learned it because I like you.”

“That’s called stalking, Seong Chanyeong.”

Disgusting.

The irony was that Joo Taegang himself wasn’t much different.

He frequented the café Seo Eunsu visited, ordering bitter espresso he didn’t even like just to become familiar.

He dug into his preferences.

He even picked up items Seo Eunsu had dropped and kept them at home.

‘That’s why I hated you even more.’

What he felt toward Seong Chanyeong was a kind of self-loathing.

The way Seong Chanyeong looked at him… was the same way he looked at Seo Eunsu.

That desperate, suffocating gaze.

Seong Chanyeong was like a mirror, reflecting just how ugly he himself was.

“You’re seriously disgusting. Do your parents, your sisters, or the chairman know you act like this?”

“What does that matter?”

“Stop embarrassing yourself and get lost. That’s the only way you can preserve what little pride you have left.”

“…”

“A Beta hitting on multiple Alphas at once? It’s revolting. Even an Omega in heat has more dignity than you.”

Harsh words came easily.

Because Seong Chanyeong was a bad person.

Because insulting him felt justified under the excuse of protecting someone kind and lovable like Seo Eunsu.

‘…Should I not have done that?’

But now that Seong Chanyeong might actually be seriously ill and had disappeared, guilt began to pile up inside him.

‘Not once have I ever regretted how I treated him… until now.’

It all started from that day he ran into him near Seo Eunsu’s apartment.

That day, Seong Chanyeong had looked… wronged.

When his arm was grabbed tightly, and those light brown eyes, slightly wet, looked up at him—

Joo Taegang had been caught off guard.

‘Why are you looking at me like that?’

Eyes filled with disgust, contempt, and something close to hatred.

That only made him angrier.

How dare someone like him look at him that way?

‘I just wanted to grab him and demand an explanation.’

As he continued to linger around Seo Eunsu, his self-loathing deepened.

At first, he used meeting Seo Eunsu as an excuse, calming himself by breathing in his dominant Omega pheromones.

But day by day, even that began to lose its effect.

“…What am I even chasing?”

Seong Chanyeong never appeared.

Seo Eunsu had become nothing more than an excuse.

And slowly, Joo Taegang realized something.

Seong Chanyeong had truly let go.

Of the Alphas who once claimed to love him.

And of the man he once hated—Seo Eunsu.

It was obvious just from how much brighter Seo Eunsu seemed these days.

At the café where Seo Eunsu worked part-time, even a brief conversation made it clear this whole effort was meaningless.

“Oh, you’re here again. You’re becoming a regular.”

“…Hello.”

“I’ve been recognizing your face since you come often. Espresso again? Double extra shot?”

“Yes, please.”

After the formal exchange, Joo Taegang asked carefully, hiding behind a polite façade.

“Has anyone been bothering you lately? I heard it used to cause you stress.”

“Ah… you must’ve seen what happened before. But it’s okay. He doesn’t come anymore.”

‘Doesn’t come anymore?’

That phrasing bothered him.

It sounded as if the man had disappeared from the world entirely.

‘Who said he could just disappear?’

It was Seong Chanyeong who had started everything.

Picking fights under the excuse of love.

The anger he felt should have been nothing more than a desire for revenge.

Otherwise…

“That’s good to hear.”

“Yes. But I’m a little worried.”

“…Why?”

“Maybe it’s because even resentment turns into attachment. When he came to apologize, he seemed like someone who had let go of everything. His expression was… too calm. And very pale.”

In reality, Seong Chanyeong had simply been overwhelmed by Seo Eunsu’s unexpectedly strong presence.

But the truth had been distorted by the time it reached Joo Taegang.

“I haven’t seen him in quite a while… I just hope he’s doing well somewhere.

He even left a written apology and compensation, so I thought maybe he wasn’t such a bad person after all.”

Seo Eunsu wasn’t someone who would lie.

That alone slightly improved Seong Chanyeong’s image in Joo Taegang’s mind.

Barely.

‘Or… was even that a misunderstanding?’

Joo Taegang had changed.

Like the others, he was growing anxious as Seong Chanyeong disappeared deeper into uncertainty.

And there was a creeping fear—

That if he never met him again, this strange feeling inside him would rot away.

So now, he wasn’t just watching Seo Eunsu.

Like the others, he had also begun sending people out to find Seong Chanyeong.

“Young master. We’ve received word that people connected to Seo Eunsu have been visiting a rural animal hospital regularly.”

“…Seo Eunsu? Look into it.”