Bad Relationship

Marcella, which they found after overcoming hardships and adversity, was surprisingly quiet for a Saturday lunchtime.

Of course, it was too expensive a restaurant to be crowded, but given its recent popularity as a dating spot with weekend reservations requiring booking two months in advance, it was eerily quiet.

Since they were at the entrance, there might be guests inside, and being fine dining, it would naturally be designed to prevent echo. Even considering that, it was too quiet.

To the point where one might wonder if they had mistakenly trespassed into a closed establishment.

While contemplating whether it was okay to enter the restaurant, an employee standing guard at the door spoke with perfect timing and polite manner.

“Welcome. I’ll guide you to your reserved table.”

Without asking whether they had a reservation or the name of the person who made it, the employee extended a hand with formal courtesy as if it were expected, guiding the two people into the excessively quiet hall.

As they crossed through the restaurant, Junghyun quickly became certain his premonition was correct.

There were no customers.

Not a single one.

The restaurant on the 81st floor with open views in all directions, feeling as if floating above the clouds, was completely empty.

It wasn’t that business was bad.

Rather, this person had rented the entire place.

Just for a blind date.

Thinking this person must truly be a prime catch, Junghyun silently whistled while sitting at the table the employee guided them to. The man sitting across from him spoke first.

“Make sure no one comes near this table until I call for them.”

Without even receiving menus, and with the abrupt order that no one should come close, the employee who had guided them immediately stepped back and gave a slight bow.

“Enjoy your time.”

After the employee disappeared with a greeting more suited to a hotel than a restaurant, leaving just the two of them at the table, the man checked the time on his wristwatch.

Then he immediately looked up and met Junghyun’s eyes.

His gaze seemed to say, go ahead and speak your mind.

Within 3 minutes.

Faced with his confident and relaxed gaze, Junghyun voiced what he was most curious about.

“The restaurant is very quiet.”

“Indeed it is.”

“Is it closed today?”

“Of course not.”

“Then, did you rent it out?”

“As you can see.”

“Why?”

“Because I wanted to talk in private.”

Junghyun wondered why someone would need to rent an entire fine dining restaurant in the middle of Seoul for a blind date—it wasn’t like they were planning a terrorist attack—but that was the man’s business. Another question followed.

“If that’s the case, wouldn’t it be better to book a private room?”

“If we enter a closed space, we wouldn’t know if someone approached from outside the door.”

“Is someone not supposed to approach?”

“More precisely, others shouldn’t hear us.”

“Are you planning some kind of terrorist attack?”

“Something similar, perhaps?”

With his expressions becoming increasingly puzzling like a guessing game, Junghyun raised his hand to pause the conversation.

“Wait, let’s start over from the beginning.”

As this was only adding to the confusion, Junghyun tried to organize things one by one from the start, and the man nodded with a benevolent face.

“By all means.”

With his seemingly kind but quite arrogant attitude that invited questions, Junghyun decided to return to the main point.

“You mentioned earlier that you specifically requested me. Did you come out today knowing I was your blind date?”

“I at least read the profiles of my blind date candidates.”

That was implying that the problem was with Junghyun, who came out only checking the appointment time and building.

That was true. He should have known at least the name of the meeting place, if not the name or face of the other person.

“Okay. I accept that. Then, what did you mean earlier about removing the blacklist?”

“When I was reviewing Omega profiles starting from S-rank downward, I noticed an unfamiliar F-rank file appear. It seemed like it was sent by mistake, but I was intrigued and opened it to find your photo—the same person who had confronted me while drunk the night before. So I immediately contacted them, telling them to move you up to D-rank and arrange a meeting right away.”

“…Is that even possible?”

“Would I have done it if it weren’t?”

“…How?”

“How do you think?”

At his implication to use his head and think, Junghyun recalled what the man had just said.

He said he reviewed Omega files starting from S-rank. That means…

“…Could you be a wild ginseng?”

When Junghyun pointed directly at him, asking if he was an S-ranker commonly called “wild ginseng,” the man’s eyes sent a message.

Put that finger down before I break it.

So Junghyun quietly lowered it and asked again.

“Is that something possible for an S-ranker?”

“Would I have done it if it weren’t possible?”

At his unhelpfully short response that might have been an answer or a question, Junghyun quickly began to think.

According to what he’d roughly heard from his uncle while getting scolded after fleeing on a motorcycle from his seventh blind date, there were a total of 12 people in S-rank.

Higher ranks tended to have more Alphas, so among the 12 in S-rank, 8 were Alphas. But 7 of them were married, if he remembered correctly.

So there was only one unmarried S-rank Alpha left, and with that level of rarity, people would probably accommodate most of his demands.

Of course, they wouldn’t listen to an F-rank Omega who was rarer than even this wild ginseng.

“Well… I understand the situation somewhat.”

“I’m glad we can communicate.”

“I may not think things through much, but I’m generally good at understanding.”

“I’m sure you are. That’s why I chose you.”

At that point, the most fundamental question came to mind.

So he asked directly.

“Why?”

An S-ranker could, literally speaking, request any unmarried Omega from the upper class. To be honest, even married ones would be possible. Ridiculous as it sounds, that’s how the system worked from what he’d heard.

So he could request any Omega he wanted.

Why would such a person go to the trouble of even changing ranks to pull me out, Junghyun asked bluntly, and the man smiled and asked back.

“Why do you think?”

“That’s for you to know, hyung, not me.”

When Junghyun tilted his head as if to say ‘why are you asking me that,’ the man gave a strange smile.

It was a look of observation, more precisely, evaluation.

Like an interviewer facing an interviewee.

“If you had to guess?”

With his tone and domineering attitude similar to what an interviewer had used during Junghyun’s college interview, he asked directly.

“I’m just curious, but am I being interviewed right now?”

“Aren’t blind dates and interviews basically the same thing?”

“They’re similar, but blind dates are supposed to be mutual, right? I feel like I’m being interviewed one-sidedly right now.”

“Precisely, that’s correct.”

With a smirk that seemed to ask if he expected the man to be interviewed by him, Junghyun couldn’t help but laugh wryly.

The man had a right to be confident.

Realistically, a blind date between an S-ranker and an F-ranker would be like an interview between a CEO and an intern. It meant a blind date where the absolute superior and subordinate were predetermined.

But if that intern had no intention of joining that company, the situation would change.

“What if I have no interest in that interview?”

“That’s not my concern. So, your answer?”

His arrogant attitude suggested that regardless of what Junghyun thought, once at this meeting, he had to follow the man’s opinion unconditionally. The situation was starting to get interesting.

He had no intention of complying with the man, but this was somewhat amusing.

“I have absolutely no interest in joining that company.”

“If you really had no interest, you wouldn’t have shown up.”

“Sorry, but I only heard about this blind date two hours ago. Normally, I would have ignored it and not shown up, but my uncle said you should be rejected politely and respectfully, so I came.”

“Nevertheless, you did come out.”

His face seemed to be saying that meant not to upset him.

He had figured out Junghyun’s weakness in an instant.

He was someone who knew too well that he held all the cards. It was natural since he had lived his entire life this way, but it was annoying.

“Really, you’re unnecessarily perceptive, hyung.”

“So, your answer?”

“It can’t be that you fell for me… Are you just pretending to have a blind date?”

At this most realistic answer, the man looked surprised.

“You’re more sensible than I thought.”

“I’ve always been sensible?”

“That’s just your opinion.”

Smirking as if telling him to stop talking nonsense, the man suddenly checked the time on his wristwatch.

“By the way, will you be okay?”

“With what?”

“It’s been over 3 minutes.”

“Ah…”

At his pointing this out, Junghyun checked the time on his phone and saw it was exactly 1:08 PM. They had sat down at the table around 1:05 PM, so three minutes had indeed passed.

If he wanted to reach the baseball stadium by 2:00 PM, he needed to leave soon.

Even though it was just one subway stop away, considering the time to reach the station, wait for the subway, and then walk from the station to the stadium, he needed to allow at least 40 minutes.

So he needed to leave now.

“I’m a bit disappointed. I was expecting to see how you’d wrap things up within 3 minutes.”

It was a clearly mocking tone. But that wasn’t Junghyun’s concern.

“Does that mean I can take it as permission to finish within 3 minutes?”

When Junghyun subtly tried to get his agreement, the man smiled prettily.

As he narrowed his long, sharp eyes into a smile, as if he’d expected this, Junghyun found himself entranced by that face. Then the man slowly straightened his body that had been leaning against the chair and murmured softly.

“It seems you want to pass the buck to me…”

Caught off guard by the man’s accurate reading of his intentions, Junghyun averted his gaze. At that moment, the man stood up and spoke.

“It seems our conversation will be longer than expected, so get up.”

“…Pardon?”

“It’s been 3 minutes, so get up.”

Highly suspicious of his attitude, Junghyun was trying to figure out his intentions when the man, who had already stood up, gestured with his head to follow.

“Let’s continue the next part at the baseball stadium.”