Hero Hunter is on Parental Leave C54

Chapter 54

“If you’re going to treat him differently depending on your mood, then don’t approach this person again. Don’t even talk to him.”

At the man’s icy attitude, the old man’s tightly pressed, petty lips finally parted again. He snorted angrily and kicked at the dirt on the parking lot ground over and over.

“Ah, damn it! I was jealous, that’s why! Satisfied now, you punk?! All my friends have drifted away, and now the only person who even bothers with me is my wife—but she’s busy taking care of Jaehee’s dad and neglecting me!”

Madam Kim pulled her hand out from her apron and smacked her husband hard on his dry back.

“Oh, honestly—what an embarrassment in your old age!”

It seemed she had come out to take out the trash and happened to hear her husband’s apology and explanation.

“From the looks of it, things seem mostly settled, so hurry on in. Those two idiots are about to wipe out all the meat in the restaurant.”

When they reached the table, empty plates were piled up like a mountain. Won Iheun’s black card had no limit, but what was more astonishing than the bill was the idiot duo’s stomach capacity.

“Those lunatics. What kind of people go through meat plates like they’re sushi plates at a conveyor-belt place?”

And there was Jaehee, sitting in a baby chair, obediently accepting baby food from Hamgyeol with his mouth wide open. Sanghui, holding chopsticks loaded with five thick slices of pork belly in one bite, explained in his place.

“Hamgyeol’s got a niece, you know. Guess that’s why he’s amazing with babies. Tch—Jaehee likes Hamgyeol best, too.”

There was a reason Iheun had picked them as babysitters.

“Jaehee’s dads, hurry up and sit. The meat’s in perfect condition today.”

With Iheun and Yeongung seated, the real meat party began. Jaehee was handed back to Yeongung, and the idiot duo started pouring drinks without restraint. By the time empty beer bottles and soju bottles littered the table, a thoroughly drunk Sanghui began ranting with his tongue all twisted.

“They say even a quiet earthworm crawls up the hearth first, right?! Who would’ve thought it wouldn’t be the great demon, but Yeongung-hyung, who’d smack me in the back of the head!”

“Not an earthworm—more like a cat,” Hamgyeol corrected.

Unlike Sanghui, whose skin had turned red all the way down past his neck, Hamgyeol—who rarely got drunk—didn’t even change expression.

“Earthworm, cat, same thing!”

“Oh, so there are quiet earthworms. I see.”

Hamgyeol responded to his friend’s stupidity with a hollow nod.

“Of all people, you couldn’t even tell me?!”

“Because it was you, we hid it.”

“…Huh?! What’d you say?!”

Hamgyeol blocked the spit flying at him with a perilla leaf.

“No, I said you’ve got thick guts.”

“What?!”

“No—thick dick.”

“Kahahaha! Yeah, mine is sturdy! You little punk—guess you know your stuff!”

Laughing crudely like a department head at a company dinner, Sanghui suddenly jumped up, claiming a flowerpot in the corner of the restaurant was staring at him. Thankfully, Madam Kim and her husband weren’t there to witness the spectacle. As the drinks went down, the gathering had gone longer than planned, so Madam Kim had left them the shop keys, saying it was fine to leave the dishes as they were—just make sure to lock up properly.

Once the troublesome Sanghui finally took himself out, Hamgyeol downed an entire bottle of soju. Yeongung grabbed his arm, worried.

“Hyung… honestly, I’m a little upset too.”

“Because I’m an omega?”

“No. Not really. Whether you want to show or hide your trait—it’s personal information.”

“Right,” Yeongung agreed with a nod. Hamgyeol, a beta to begin with, didn’t care much about others’ traits anyway. Then what was he upset about? Yeongung opened a hangover remedy he’d bought at the convenience store an hour earlier and handed it to him.

“Then what are you upset about, Hamgyeol?”

“It’s just… I don’t know if it’s okay to say this…”

“It’s fine.”

“When I think about you running away alone, pregnant, all the way to the end-of-the-earth island… I feel pathetic for not being able to help you back then.”

Hamgyeol’s face darkened as he voiced his old regrets.

“I told you I have a niece. I’ve seen how hard that whole process is up close. And you’re male-bodied on top of that.”

Back then, Yeongung had been focused solely on saving his own child, unable to look around him. He had vanished without even leaving a letter—how bewildered that must have been. Knowing how much Hamgyeol relied on him like an older brother, Yeongung felt guilty too.

Just as Yeongung habitually reached out to pat Hamgyeol’s lowered head, Won Iheun caught his hand mid-motion.

“Hamgyeol. Don’t dump that kind of emotional mess onto my person. Know your boundaries. There won’t be a warning next time.”

Then, after checking on the sleeping child in the stroller, he pulled Yeongung to his feet. Neither Yeongung nor Iheun had taken a single sip of alcohol. Yeongung tossed the key Madam Kim had given him to Hamgyeol, who caught it neatly midair.

Being dragged away by Won Iheun gripping one arm, Yeongung shouted,

“Lock the door properly when you leave, and take the key home with you!”

Hamgyeol shouted back at the picture-perfect trio from behind, his voice full of injustice.

“Master! I have a lover! We’re even meeting families soon!”

He was desperately clarifying that he had absolutely zero romantic feelings for Yeongung. At Hamgyeol’s wronged cry, the tight line of Won Iheun’s mouth loosened just a little.

“Unbelievable.”

Despite the scolding tone, a gentle smile had already appeared on Yeongung’s lips. He’d thought they didn’t need babysitters—but those guys would probably make great uncles to Jaehee.

He had a feeling life on Muhaedo was going to become even more enjoyable.

Ding.

“Welcome to 7-Eleven. A customer’s here—gotta hang up.”

[Why are you hanging up when a customer just came in?]

Yeongung propped his phone up beside the register and dealt with the customer. The two were on a video call.

[…Fuck.]

“Bastard. Calm down.”

[That’s not it—he pretended to pay and brushed the back of your hand just now.]

“I didn’t feel anything.”

Iheun cursed and got jealous over an innocent customer who had already left.

“I’m the one involved, and I didn’t notice. Maybe it just looked that way to you.”

[You have no idea how tempting Yeongung Hunter’s pale hands look to an alpha.]

The only alpha who went into heat over an omega who looked like an alpha on the outside but was a parched, extreme-heat omega inside was Won Iheun. Rearranging the shelves, Yeongung replied casually,

“Stop being paranoid. If you’re that suspicious, come see for yourself.”

It had been over a week since Iheun had left Muhaedo on a business trip. He video-called whenever he had a moment, wanting to know what Yeongung was doing—acting like a severely jealous husband. The long trip left Yeongung lonely too. With each passing day, Iheun’s absence felt larger.

“Jaehee keeps saying he misses Won bye-bye.”

Recently, Won Iheun had finally been promoted from ji-ji to bye-bye.

[Only Jaehee?]

“Huh?”

[What about you? Don’t you miss me, Yeongung Hunter?]

The times he’d directly confessed his love to Won Iheun felt like a dream now. Where had that courage gone? Even small expressions of affection felt awkward and embarrassing. Turning his head toward the phone screen resting on its stand, Yeongung saw the man waiting patiently for his answer.

Moments like this made it hard to believe that Yeongung had been Won Iheun’s first in every sense. To Yeongung, Iheun seemed like a seasoned expert at romance—always relaxed, unlike himself, and adept at drawing out Yeongung’s feelings like this.

“I don’t miss you. These days, I’m happy just being alone with Jaehee—I don’t even have time to think about some bastard like you.”

It was Yeongung’s way of saying I miss you, so come back soon.

[I miss you too. It’s hard every night, calming myself down while looking at your photos.]

Yeongung’s face instantly heated up.

[You’ve become a peach—nice to look at and nice to eat.]

Even as an adult, Yeongung’s fine white downy hair remained, a long-standing complex of his. Once, thinking it might be better to be completely hairless, he’d even looked into laser hair removal. When Won Iheun saw that search history, he’d made a huge fuss.

“Shut up.”

Yeongung checked the blinking name on his phone again. The contact once saved as “Pretty Psycho” had been changed to “Keyring Husband.”

“Keyring Husband?”

[Apparently younger keyring boyfriends are trendy these days.]

“That’s cute.”

[Right? Want to look at me for a second?]

When Yeongung picked the phone up again, Won Iheun smiled with his eyes curved and called him—not “Yeongung Hunter,” not “you,” but something else.

[Hyung.]

At the rarely used address, Yeongung’s ears burned red.

[Hyung, please dote on me.]

The beautiful man pleaded with a smile that could ensnare anyone.

[I’ll be even better. At night, or… the things we do in bed.]