The unexpected question left Jung Heeyeon blinking in confusion. His wide, clear eyes filled with embarrassment, and his hiccups abruptly stopped from the shock.
“Hmmm? Have you ever touched your penis? Ah, for omegas, do you touch back there?”
“N-No…”
Jung Heeyeon fidgeted with his fingers, unable to give a proper answer. What was the appropriate response to this? The only sex education he had ever received was that he should spread his legs when an alpha wanted it.
Even the additional knowledge he had gained was limited to the fact that omegas went into heat, alphas experienced ruts, and that pregnancy was most likely when knotting occurred.
Unable to form a reply, Jung Heeyeon simply stared at Director Yeon, who chuckled lightly and opened his mouth to speak.
“If someone is treating you with sexual harassment like this, you shouldn’t just sit still.”
Director Yeon roughly brushed his fallen hair back and stood up. Jung Heeyeon’s gaze followed him upward. As he looked at the omega’s innocent face, Director Yeon suppressed the aggressive urges rising within him. Jung Heeyeon was simply too harmless to unleash such feelings on.
“Sexual harassment?”
“Yes.”
“What is… sexual harassment?”
The unexpected question made Director Yeon frown slightly. The fact that the omega didn’t even understand such a concept disgusted him as he thought about Chairman Jung’s plans to sell Jung Heeyeon off to a much older alpha.
“What I said to you earlier.”
“When you asked if I had touched my penis?”
Hearing such words coming from Jung Heeyeon’s soft lips caught Director Yeon off guard, making him smirk. Perhaps because of his sheltered past, Jung Heeyeon was disarmingly honest.
“Anything that makes you uncomfortable is sexual harassment.”
“Oh, I see. I didn’t know.”
“Hmmm, you didn’t know?”
Director Yeon tapped Jung Heeyeon’s cheek lightly with his fingertip. Reflexively, Jung Heeyeon leaned into the touch as if seeking comfort, committing the newly learned fact to memory, if it’s uncomfortable, it’s sexual harassment.
But Jung Heeyeon didn’t feel like Director Yeon’s actions were sexual harassment. While they made him uneasy, he hadn’t been uncomfortable. He understood clearly that uneasiness and discomfort were different emotions.
“So next time, you need to say ‘stop it’, Heeyeon.”
Director Yeon said gently, brushing Jung Heeyeon’s soft cheek as he tried to withdraw his hand.
“Even to you, Director?”
“Yeah, even to this director.”
“But I don’t feel uncomfortable when you do it… So, it’s not sexual harassment when you say those things to me, Director.”
As Jung Heeyeon softly and earnestly delivered his words, Director Yeon let out a hollow laugh, furrowing his brow.
“You’re just too adorable, really.”
Director Yeon’s expression, though affectionate, appeared unusually fierce, and Jung Heeyeon only blinked.
***
As if the snow from earlier had never fallen, a mixture of rain and sleet began pouring down. The dark sky made the gray-hued city feel even gloomier. The so-called White Christmas and the fireworks-filled New Year were nothing more than ordinary days that had passed like any other. The wet snow and heavy, overcast atmosphere quickened people’s steps. In the distance, the faint rumble of thunder could be heard.
But neither the unpleasant humidity nor the unsettling sound of the sky mattered to Jung Heeyeon.
Jung Heeyeon, holding a takeaway coffee cup, was too preoccupied watching the snowflakes sticking to the window. His fair hands clutched the thick cup holder tightly. Due to the rain mixed with the snow, the snowflakes on the glass appeared to form ice crystals. Behind him, the rustling of papers and the scratch of a pen signing documents could be heard.
Not wanting to disturb the man at work, Jung Heeyeon carefully walked over to the sofa near the table and sat down. He quietly placed his coffee cup on the table. Next to the foam-filled takeaway cup was a pecan pie he had been gifted. Taking a bite of the neatly sliced pie, courtesy of Director Yeon, Jung Heeyeon returned his gaze to the outside. The rain-mixed snow was still falling.
The place where Jung Heeyeon was sitting was Director Yeon’s office. Recently, this had become a place where he spent a lot of time. As Director Yeon’s hours at the company grew longer, so did his. Although they didn’t share many conversations, Jung Heeyeon genuinely enjoyed this time.
As he absentmindedly chewed on the nutty pie and gazed out the window, memories from a few days ago came flooding back.
While the embarrassment of dreaming something inappropriate about Director Yeon had passed, the concept of sexual harassment still puzzled him. Despite his efforts to unlearn the ideas instilled by Lee Yootae, those teachings were so deeply ingrained that they were hard to forget. Wrong ideas continued to unconsciously dominate his thoughts.
What should I do?
Jung Heeyeon took a sip of his syrup-laden vanilla latte, lost in thought. The reason he had asked Director Yeon about sexual harassment wasn’t because he didn’t know the word’s definition, but because he found it difficult to accept the concept itself.
If an omega has to spread their legs whenever an alpha wants, then the idea of harassment wouldn’t even apply to omegas… The thought made him shake his head vigorously. The notion that omegas should comply with alphas’ desires was already wrong, but he kept using this flawed idea as a baseline.
Trying to push Lee Yootae’s distorted views on sexual-related things out of his mind, Jung Heeyeon reconsidered the criteria for sexual harassment. Director Yeon had told him that the key was discomfort, but even that was confusing.
‘Hmmm? Have you ever touched your penis? Ah, for omegas, do you touch back there?’
Although he had been shocked and flustered by the question, he hadn’t been uncomfortable. Upon reflection, he realized that if anyone else had asked something like that, he might have felt angry. Furrowing his brow, Jung Heeyeon brought the coffee cup back to his hands. A sip brought the soft milk foam to his lips.
‘But I don’t feel uncomfortable when you do it… So, it’s not sexual harassment when you say those things to me, Director.’
‘You’re just too adorable, really.’
Despite calling him ‘too adorable’, Director Yeon had still said that his own comment constituted sexual harassment. Then how could he prevent Director Yeon’s words from being sexual harassment? Jung Heeyeon began seriously pondering this relatively minor issue. Acknowledging Director Yeon’s words as harassment seemed simple, but Jung Heeyeon didn’t want to place him on the same level as others.
Would it be okay if they were in a relationship? But to be in a relationship, feelings need to be mutual. Jung Heeyeon frowned slightly. No matter how much he thought about it, it didn’t seem likely that Director Yeon shared the same feelings as him.
Thinking about how Director Yeon might feel about him left Jung Heeyeon feeling a bit down. He let out a deep sigh and poked the pecan pie with his fork.
“Director.”
The sound of a knock was followed by the door abruptly swinging open. Director Yeon, who had been openly observing Jung Heeyeon, moved only his eyes to glance at Team Leader Shim Soocheon. His usual neutral expression revealed a faint trace of annoyance.
Director Yeon had been watching Jung Heeyeon ever since he sat on the sofa. Due to the sofa’s diagonal placement from his desk, catching glimpses of Jung Heeyeon’s round cheeks wasn’t difficult.
The slight cracks in Jung Heeyeon’s expression, hinting he was deep in thought, didn’t escape Director Yeon’s notice. Though Jung Heeyeon furrowed his brow deeply—enough to crease the bridge of his nose—his lips continued to move busily, chewing on the pie. His fair cheeks puffed up rhythmically as he held the coffee cup tightly in his hands.
‘Director Yeon, I want to try drinking coffee.’
‘Coffee?’
‘Yes.’
It had happened on a day like any other. After giving Jung Heeyeon tea as usual, Director Yeon had been drinking coffee when the omega, staring intently at his teacup, showed interest in the coffee. His expression suggested he had been withholding his curiosity for some time.
‘Heeyeon, are you curious?’
‘Yes.’
‘Have you been curious for a while?’
‘Yes, ever since I saw you drinking it.’
‘If you had said something, I would have given you some right away.’
‘But coffee is only for adults, right…? Caffeine isn’t good for the body.’
‘Hmmm, really?’
Director Yeon had chuckled and brought his cup of coffee to Jung Heeyeon’s lips. The moment a tiny bit of the liquid passed through Jung Heeyeon’s lips, his eyebrows knitted together.
‘It’s bitter.’
‘You’re still a baby.’
‘I’m not a baby…’
‘Want to try another coffee?’
‘Another one?’
‘There’s one for babies.’
The next day, Director Yeon had instructed Kim Chulwoo to buy various types of coffee with syrup and milk. One of them must have suited Jung Heeyeon’s taste because he had been drinking coffee instead of tea ever since. While Director Yeon had been quietly observing Jung Heeyeon’s milk-foam-covered lips, Shim Soocheon entered the room.
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