THE LITTLE COPY ⋮ markhyuck

Chapter 𝟯𝟴

By telling his mom about what happened, Donghyuck expanded the supportive ally group. Those allies, however, knew different things. Donghee knew everything—from pregnancy to the latest events, Dongchan was only aware of Papa's happiness when it came to Teacher Lee, and Mom knew about the continuation of Haewon's toxic behavior and Donghyuck's closer friendship with Mark. Not to mention that he also had half allies—Dongmin and Dongwoo. One hid the fact that Donghyuck slept with Mark again, and the other rooted for them to become a couple. Only Dad had no clue about the secrets in his eldest son's life. And for a reason.

Anyway, Mom was terrified by what she heard from her son. Using her motherly intuition, she concluded, "It sounds like he's becoming obsessed with you. That's not healthy for any of you!"

"I don't know why he would even be so obsessed," Donghyuck sighed, but his fingers nervously picked on his green vest. "I didn't do anything wrong. I just wanted us to be friends, right? And he... Gosh... I didn't do anything for him to misunderstand me."

Donghyuck stayed in the parents' room as if things in here could calm him down. He was glad that Dongchan was with Dongwoo, somewhere at the mall, and didn't see Papa in such a state.

"If he doesn't stop, I'll have to take serious action," Donghyuck grunted. "He's bothering me with texts, he's following me around, he hurt Mark, and he's getting weirder and weirder. And all because he thought we could date, but never asked for my consent!"

"He was always weird to me," Mom admitted. "I just didn't say it because you liked him so much. He was always jealous and controlling, but you didn't see it since you were blinded by love. You don't even know how relieved I was when I heard you broke up. And when you told me he returned, I feared you two would get along too much..."

"Why didn't you tell me?" Donghyuck gasped. "I even asked you for advice, and you agreed."

"It's because I believed he would be good as a friend. But it turns out he planned to get back together..." the woman sighed. "It's as if he still thinks of you as a guy in his late twenties. He doesn't want any kids, therefore, he's fine with Dongchan as long as his partner looks younger than him."

"I hope you're wrong," Donghyuck quivered.

Later that day, the two made everyone dinner, and Donghyuck stayed over. He called a neighbor who watched over Nyx when he was on vacation and asked her to check on the cat once again. He didn't want to return to his apartment, fearing meeting Haewon there. But he knew that meeting that man at work was unavoidable. After all, Haewon kind of threatened to see him there.

Donghyuck woke up way earlier than usual. The rest of the family was asleep, and no one even noticed when he left. He got to work when only one or two cars were in the parking lot. This way, he managed to get inside the building without Haewon seeing him. And just like that, he spent the day on his floor, in his office room, barely leaving it in case Haewon got brave enough to hunt him in the halls.

Just in these two days, Donghyuck learned that he was a terrible employee when personal problems bothered him and got in his way with work. He was under so much stress that he didn't notice he had already consumed three cups of coffee, his heart rate increased, and he was sweating excessively. Despite his determination to get the work done, he did everything very annoyingly slowly and even made mistakes.

When the time for him to leave work approached, he got even more stressed. Donghyuck dwelled on time and even asked his boss for more work, but she asked him to go home and see his child. She also added that Donghyuck should see his child's father too. Only a brief mention, but enough for the economist to know that the news did reach her.

There was no other reason for Donghyuck to stay, so he started thinking about how to leave. Before he could gather his stuff and actually do it, he left the half-empty office room and walked to the end of the hallway to look out the window, which showed the parking lot. As soon as he saw Haewon on his phone, standing there menacingly beside his car, blocking it this way, Donghyuck felt shivers running down his spine. He ran back to his office, grabbed a phone, and returned to the window, choosing Mom's number to call.