TYS Ch 3

…Should I take this or not? After a brief hesitation, Seungwan let out a sigh and finally placed it inside the paper bag.

He glanced around to see if there was anything else worth taking and spotted a cheap Boston bag that looked like it had belonged to his father. After transferring his things from the paper bag into it, he stepped out of the house.

“That’s all you’re bringing?”

The man, a cigarette between his lips, gave him a curious look. Seungwan glanced at the cigarette and gave a small nod. The man took the Boston bag from Seungwan’s hand and tossed it onto the middle seat of the truck.

“Get in. I’m starving.”

“…….”

There was no way to know where they were going, but it didn’t seem like he had the option to refuse. Seungwan took one last look at the house before climbing into the truck.

Inside, the old truck was quiet. The man, his speech laced with a dialect, nagged at him to put on his seatbelt before suddenly starting the engine without warning. Seungwan, unable to ask where they were headed, simply stared blankly out the window.

After exhausting himself running from the debt collectors, it was absurd that he was now dozing off inside the car of a man he had just met. The cool air from the AC was a stark contrast to the stifling heat of his house, and the faint scent of the man’s pheromones, lingering in the truck, carried an unexpectedly soothing feeling. Ridiculous as it was, sleep crept up on him.

So this scent is why I was nodding off earlier. That hazy thought flickered through his mind, but he couldn’t fight off the drowsiness.

Seungwan woke to the sound of gears shifting as they arrived at their destination. Only then did he realize they were parked in the garage of a spacious country house. If the man hadn’t silently grabbed Seungwan’s Boston bag and headed inside, Seungwan might not have even realized he was supposed to get out too.

The house he hesitantly entered was just as magnificent as the ones he had seen in pictures or on TV. Built with red bricks, the single-story home had high ceilings that made it feel open and airy.

A large front-facing window let in plenty of light, and outside, rows of juniper trees, shorter than Seungwan, were planted in neat lines, giving the impression of a fence. It was surprisingly beautiful for a house owned by a man who had effortlessly silenced the rowdy shouts of loan sharks and taken Seungwan away.

The air conditioner was running quietly inside, making the space feel cool. But after dozing off, Seungwan’s body temperature had already dropped, and now it felt almost too cold. He thought he might be getting goosebumps, but he stood frozen by the entrance, not even thinking to rub them away.

The man tossed Seungwan’s Boston bag onto the sofa in the middle of the living room before turning to look at him. Then, as if they had known each other for over a decade, he spoke casually.

“I’ll take that house as payment, then.”

“……”

By “that house,” he must have meant Seungwan’s father’s place. Seungwan couldn’t imagine what use such a run-down building would be to him. But the man didn’t seem to care about his lack of response and continued speaking.

“So from today, that place is mine, which means you don’t have anywhere to stay anymore. You got that much?”

Seungwan nodded silently. Not that his understanding mattered. Debt worked that way. Whether the debtor grasped it or not, the wave of debt always crashed forward.

The man gave a brief nod, seemingly satisfied with Seungwan’s reaction, and continued.

“Good. It’s better for you too, if I need to put you to work. So just stay here.”

What kind of work was he supposed to do? Since the man had brought him home, it didn’t seem like he intended to make him a bar hostess. Then what? There wasn’t even a hint of a fishy smell in the house, so shrimp fishing was unlikely. He had no idea how he was meant to earn back the debt.

But the man had already made up his mind about Seungwan’s living arrangements and showed no intention of reconsidering. Seungwan neither agreed nor objected—he simply accepted it.

The man had said he was here to collect a debt from Seungwan’s father. Assuming it was gambling debt, Seungwan hadn’t even bothered to ask the amount. But then, the man showed him the promissory note, listing the total sum that had been transferred to Seungwan. That alone was surprising.

“This is the debt Ha Gongcheol owes me. And this is the debt those bastards tried to dump on you. In total, 116.4 million won. If we deduct the value of the house and land you so generously handed over, that leaves 56.4 million won. I’ll take 400,000 off that.”

The man slashed the amount like a merchant at a marketplace. Seungwan didn’t feel grateful. The man was an Alpha, with prominent collarbones and sturdy fists that exuded raw strength. Seungwan remained wary, suspecting that there was another motive. He didn’t even know how much the house and land were worth in the first place.

“……You didn’t calculate the interest.”

Instead of thanking him, Seungwan pointed out the part that had been bothering him. The amount the man mentioned was only the principal—there was no interest included. Even if he wasn’t planning to charge predatory loan rates like the others, at the very least, legal interest should have been factored in.

At that, the man looked at Seungwan with an expression of faint amusement, as if he found the remark unexpected.

“Are you looking out for me?”

“……”

Seungwan shut his mouth again. Come to think of it, he was in no position to be concerned about the man’s loss. The man seemed to hesitate between laughing and holding back, but when he finally did, as if he found the situation perplexing, Seungwan felt oddly troubled. The curve of his lips was unexpectedly gentle.

“…Hmm, you’ve been silent this whole time, so I was curious what you’d say. And you were thinking something so noble yet stupid?”

“That’s not what I meant…”

“How old are you?”

His tone wasn’t particularly pressing. He seemed genuinely curious, quietly waiting for Seungwan’s response. The atmosphere reminded Seungwan of his middle school PE teacher—someone he had liked for no real reason and had always wanted to strike up a conversation with.

Seungwan looked into the man’s coffee-colored eyes, the same shade as his skin, then quickly averted his gaze before answering.

“Twenty…”

“Twenty?”

“…Four.”

The man looked at him in shock, so Seungwan quickly added the rest. At that, the man let out a deep sigh. Seungwan stole a glance at his thick pectoral muscles as they rose and fell. Maybe because his father had been a Beta and there were few Alphas around him, this was the first time he had been in close proximity to an adult Alpha exuding such a strong pheromone presence. He kept glancing at him.

Whether the man didn’t notice or simply chose to ignore it, he clicked his tongue and spoke with a casual expression.

“Twenty, twenty-four—same thing. Still just a baby.”

“…”

He wasn’t at an age to be called a baby. He had a job, after all, so he didn’t understand why the man was looking down on him. As he silently wore an expression of dissatisfaction, the man narrowed his eyes slightly and let out a low hum.

“I came after hearing about Ha Gongcheol’s passing. He used to be a pretty decent man back in the day. I owe him a lot, so I don’t want to be too hard on you.”

Hearing his father’s name made Seungwan feel suffocated. Those men from earlier had come to make sure he didn’t submit a waiver of inheritance, intending to keep him tied down until the deadline passed. Their plan had succeeded. The deadline had been yesterday. Now, having inherited a debt he had never even laid eyes on, Seungwan was on the path to being sold off—after going through some “initiation” or whatever they had called it.

His face turned pale at the sound of that wretched name, one that followed him even into orphanhood. A decent man, his father? To Seungwan and his runaway mother, he had been nothing more than a bastard. But now that he was dead, he had finally earned the chance to be a good father to him. That illusion had lasted until Seungwan learned his father’s debts extended even to loan sharks.

Lost in bitter thoughts, Seungwan stood frozen at the entrance, saying nothing. With a small sigh, the man led him inside. The interior was so impressive that Seungwan hesitated, feeling guilty about stepping in while wearing sweat-soaked clothes, covered in dust after being dragged on the ground by gangsters.

“I don’t really come here much until the seasons change anyway, so just make yourself comfortable. We’ll start working when I get back. You work at the agricultural co-op in town, right? I’ll give you a scooter to get around.”

“……”

Seungwan couldn’t even bring himself to ask how the man knew about his job. As they walked through the house, the man busily explained its layout. The largest bedroom was his, but he didn’t mind if Seungwan wanted to use it.

To a complete stranger, someone who even owed him money, this man was entrusting an enormous house and wouldn’t return until the seasons changed. To him, this house, these rooms—none of it seemed to hold much value. Unlike Seungwan, who had thought it looked like something out of a painting the moment he saw it.

As Seungwan turned his head without responding, the man suddenly bent down to meet his gaze. Startled by the sudden closeness, Seungwan was about to step back when the man’s eyes crinkled, and he opened his mouth to speak.