4

As the end of filming approached, Chase's filming time decreased and the bodyguards' work also decreased. The number of off-duty days increased, and the number of days Chase was left alone in the trailer all day doing nothing increased.

Thanks to this, the security guards became much more relaxed. They took turns going out or staying out, and sometimes they took longer breaks than before and went into hiding. For the past few days, they had been spending their days comfortably as if they were on vacation.

There was only one thing they wanted. They hoped the peace would continue until filming was over. Once they were done, they'd stop by Miami before heading back east.

They had already talked about taking a rest for about a month. Everyone was having a great time, waiting for that day to come.

After Josh took his turn and went out to provide security, the other members sat together in the dorm and killed their time. After a few hours of rest, they still had to go out for another shift. Still, while everyone was scattered to their own places, enjoying the peace right before their eyes, Isaac, who had been staring blankly out the window for a while, opened his mouth.

"Isn't Josh acting strange these days?"

At the sudden words, Seth's hand, which was solving the crossword in the newspaper, stopped, and Mark, who had been carefully cleaning his surfboard, looked up with a frown. It was Henry who was suddenly feeling attacked. While holding a mug of coffee in one hand and throwing a peanut into the air to catch it with his mouth and eat it, he was momentarily surprised as it took the wrong direction.

"Eccch, eccch!"

"Henry!" A startled Mark quickly patted him on the back, and Henry, who almost suffocated to death due to a peanut blocking his airway, barely survived the crisis. After the moment of his death passed, his anger rose. He immediately glared at the man with bloodshot eyes.

"What the fuck, all of a sudden?"

Isaac was self-conscious to see Henry gritting his teeth with tears in his eyes and apologized. "Oh, sorry, are you okay? I didn't expect you to be that surprised."

Henry became angrier because he knew that for Isaac it wasn't a big deal. Even ignoring Seth's pity-seeking expression and Mark's clearly pitiful reaction, the biggest problem was that Isaac's expression was so dull.

He confessed to Isaac that he liked him, but then he brought Josh out of his mouth and now he had no idea what he did wrong? That fucking bastard.

What made him the most angry was the fact that he couldn't boldly ignore those words and revealed his true feelings. The problem was that no one but himself had any idea of the seriousness of this situation. As evidence, Isaac was looking at Henry with his usual blank expression, and Seth shook his head and turned to Isaac as if asking him to say more. Mark only said to be careful and returned to his seat.

I am the craziest person for liking that dull bastard, Henry thought. Just when he was falling into self-loathing, tired of the duality of wanting to beat him to a pulp or wanting to shower him with kisses, Seth spoke up.

"What's strange?"

Mark also looked at Isaac curiously, and Henry gritted his teeth and glared at Isaac. As everyone's eyes turned to him at once, Isaac scratched his head in embarrassment.

"No. Well, it's not that there's anything particularly strange about him..."

Now that he was in a situation where he couldn't just say, 'it's nothing', he continued speaking with difficulty.

"Should I say that Josh hangs out a little separately and that he disappears quite often? That doesn't mean he's wasting his time, but should I say that he is just doing his job and not showing up properly?"

Seth tilted his head at Isaac's words. "Is that so?"

Isaac answered with confidence. "It is."

"How do you know? Are you stalking him? You dirty bastard?"

Isaac, who was looking at Henry in shock as he continued to criticize him, immediately turned his head to Seth and Mark. Seeing his attitude of clearly ignoring him, Henry clenched his fist, but didn't have a chance to swing it. Now that Mark was thinking about it, he intervened.

"It seems like it. The last time we all had a day off, Josh was the only one who wasn't with us."

"Right?" Isaac smiled, as if encouraged by his own opinion. With his empty fist hanging down, Henry glared at Isaac and said sarcastically.

"I guess he had some business to run. Would you want to stay here, looking gloomy and full of only men? Better to go outside and get a tan."

At those words, Seth raised his head. It was a good idea. He needed to escape from these creepy guys. He roughly gathered his things and was about to leave when Mark asked him seriously.

"Business, what do you mean? Have you heard anything from Josh?"

"If there was, this story wouldn't have come out," Seth pointed out. Mark's expression became even darker.

Contrary to the expectation that Chase's existing bodyguards would return immediately after their return, the contract period was extended to 'until filming is completed' at the request of the employer, but in fact, there was nothing to do. The existing bodyguards were in charge of all the roles of watching and looking around during filming, and they sat down to kill time in between.

Therefore, they were in charge for about two to three hours a day, and most of the time they were hanging around with other bodyguards, and there were times when they just loafed around all day. It got to the point where they began to wonder why they had pressured them by giving them such a large amount of money. Of course, for Chase Miller, their salary was less than the watch he wears.

"Originally, Josh went out to see Pete every day off."

Isaac shook his head at Seth's point. "What I'm saying is that even the days when he doesn't go out he disappears."

"No way."

Breaking the momentary silence, Mark opened his mouth. "You don't think Josh wants to quit his job, do you?"

Everyone stopped moving for a moment at those words. Isaac gasped. He took a deep breath and Henry opened his tightly clenched hands. Seth also forgot that he was going to leave and hesitated on the spot. Mark continued speaking.

"Isn't the reason Josh disappears so often because he's looking for a new job? That makes sense, and he doesn't want to tell us about it."

"Now that I think about it, the reason he came here was because he needed money."

As Seth muttered to himself, Isaac shook his head in confusion.

"That's not true. I heard that his mother was getting better."

"That's only temporary, it's not a disease that can be completely cured, so the money will continue to be spent in the future, right? Maybe he needs more money?"

Mark's face became even paler at Seth's cold analysis. Henry took another drink and nodded.

"Well, our treatment is a bit poor."

"...I'm doing my best," Mark protested, albeit weakly. 

Seth tapped him on the shoulder a couple of times knowingly. 

Isaac hastily objected. "That's probably not the reason. Josh is a loyal guy, so there's no way he would suddenly stab us like that."

"It won't be sudden. I'll give him a month or two."

As Henry spoke harshly, Isaac paused again. After a moment of silence, Seth opened his mouth.

"Without Josh here, we'll have to do it without him."

He tried to say, 'It's not for sure, so don't worry too much,' but Mark interrupted him.

"It would be really difficult if Josh were to leave. Think about how valuable he is. With his skills and experience, he will be welcomed wherever he goes. If the conditions are ridiculously good, we won't be able to keep him."

Mark quickly fell into delusion as if he had already been notified that he would be changing jobs from Josh. At times like this, he thought it would be better to just leave it alone, so Seth prepared to leave again without saying a word. But this time Isaac intervened.

"There could be other reasons as well. I trust Josh."

"Why? What reason?"

When Henry asked sarcastically, Isaac answered seriously.

"It's not like there's been an incident that would cause him to become estranged from us. If there's something disappointing or a problem with Josh, he will say it directly and he won't be hurting anyone, so I don't think there's a problem with us."

"So what is it?"

"That..." Isaac was speechless as Henry continued to interrogate him. After a few seconds of rapid thinking, he opened his mouth and said, "Ah."

"Wait a minute."

Immediately Henry stopped him. While Isaac paused, Henry reached into his pocket and put something down.

"Now, I have five dollars."

Everyone was surprised to see him suddenly taking out cash and putting it on the table. Isaac asked in bewilderment.

"What? You want to make a bet? With Josh's job?"

"So? Is there any reason not to?" Henry snapped, and the man looked back at Mark as if asking him to take his side like a little boy. But what caught Isaac's eye was him taking out ten dollars from his wallet.

"Well, it's just for fun. Nothing much to do."

"Mark, not you too," he said it as if he was lamenting, but it was 2 to 1. Mark muttered like a sigh.

"I hope I'm wrong."

"Of course you're wrong, Mark," Henry, who quickly made a comment and saved a mark of $10 on his cell phone, turned to Isaac this time.

"If we find out the truth, we won't tell you. So if you want to know, you have to join the bet."

Isaac, who was making a groaning sound, said as if he were lamenting. "Josh might talk."

"Josh doesn't have a big mouth."

When Seth, who had been watching until then, agreed, Henry also reluctantly nodded his head.

Even if that bastard is tortured, he will never tell his secret. So he felt safe no matter what he did.

The man thought that was one of the coolest things about Josh, but he was wise enough not to say it out loud. There was silence for a moment, but soon Henry spoke as if nothing had happened.

"That's how it is. So you're not doing it? What about you, Seth?"

Of course Seth would ignore such a foolish bet, Isaac thought. But unexpectedly, he took out bills from his pants pocket, which he had clipped into his money clip, and took one of them and placed it on the table. As the score became 3 to 1, Isaac had nothing more to say. For a moment he was torn between conscience and curiosity, but ended up taking a crumpled bill out of his pocket. He accidentally put down a $20 bill, but before he could change it, Henry took it.

"It's not a job change. Josh is that loyal."

When Isaac spoke forcefully, Henry frowned.

"So? Again? Is that really it?"

That was the limit of Isaac's poor imagination. Without further questioning, Henry wrote 'Not a change of job' next to Isaac's stake recorded on his cell phone. Just as he was about to finish writing down the comment 'eliminated', Isaac opened his mouth.

"Are you sure he's not sick? Maybe he's going to the hospital alone?"

He spoke to no one. Henry wrote 'eliminated' without hesitation. Isaac's $20 was just seed money for a bet, and he had done his job. Before giving his own opinion, he first asked Seth.

"You?"

Everyone focused their attention on Seth. Seth was the first to find out that Josh was an omega. Besides that, he was always quick-witted but quiet, so he would figure out things on his own that no one else thought of. The only problem was that he kept it to himself.

Everyone expected that Seth would come up with something decent this time too. While Isaac was glad that he had participated in the bet, he was also anxious about what he would say. Mark also thought that what Seth would say wouldn't necessarily be the right answer, but he prayed that he wouldn't say anything about changing jobs. Seth's mouth finally opened, and he spoke.

"Vote for 'I'm in a relationship'."

"What?"

"In a relationship? With whom?"

"It's not a job change?!"

Henry, Isaac, and Mark shouted almost simultaneously. Seth sighed. He frowned and then spoke again.

"My thoughts are, why does he keep talking out loud when he uses work as an excuse for something other than what we're doing? Besides, he didn't even mention the reason, and if he was going to change jobs, he would have said it first. Mark, we don't even discuss important things like that. Giving notice without notice doesn't fit Josh's personality."

"Right?"

Seth took his gaze away from Mark, who was smiling, and continued speaking calmly.

"It's not that Josh isn't feeling well or that there's a problem. These days, he seems to have more energy than before. Plus, some of the girls on set seemed to have fallen for Josh, so it wouldn't be impossible if he was dating one of them. The relationship may be deeper than you think."

Seth added, shrugging one of his shoulders. "I actually saw Josh get confessed."

"What? Confessed?"

"So? What happened?"

When Mark and Henry followed suit, he answered with a sour face.

"I think she was one of Naomi's assistants, but Josh rejected it right then and there and it was over. It was private and he didn't tell them because he didn't want to embarrass anybody."

"That's all you caught, but there's probably more."

Mark agreed with Isaac.

"Josh deserves it, but Rose will be disappointed."

Everyone knew that Rose, who worked in the office, had been crazy about Josh. The fact that Josh was an omega would have been a huge shock, but it would have been painful to know that he had a lover in the meantime. Everyone had agreed to keep this a secret within the team, as the number of requests might decrease or cause disruption to work. So, it was quite possible for other people who would never imagine Josh to be an omega to be passionate about him.

"You might think of it as a light romance on a business trip."

Seth spoke and Mark nodded his head as well. This was also a possible idea, but just as everyone was about to agree, Isaac raised an objection.

"But Josh always puts Pete first, right? He says he hasn't even had a typical one-night stand, but suddenly that's just a casual relationship, which doesn't make sense when you think about Josh's past."

"Hmm. That too," Mark agreed with Isaac again. 

Henry ignored them and turned his head to Seth. "So you're betting on Josh being in a relationship."

"Yes," Seth nodded.

He rarely took part in such foolish bets. However, the reason it took up space today was not just because it was a small pastime that came up in a moment of boredom. All of his colleagues were good and each had many strengths, but one thing was the worst: their senses. No one in particular had an easy time with that.

It's something only a fool would do to miss an opportunity to win money from a bunch of idiots. And Seth wasn't that kind of idiot. Henry, who was also one of the less emotional members, thought for a moment and wrote something in his place.

That isn't true.

The other three thought of the same thing at the same time, but no one said anything. Seriously, no one expects to make money from this. Except for Seth.

That's why you lose money on such a day, Seth thought, looking at Henry pitifully. It was truly bittersweet to see that the big guy who was always at the gambling table was his colleague.

"But if he were to date, who would it be?"

When Isaac hesitated to ask, Henry snorted and helped.

"Okay, if you get that right, I'll double your stake, right?" Mark and Isaac also nodded. 

Not wanting to go that far and extort his colleague's money, Seth chose the most unlikely name. "C."

"What? Miller?"

"That C? The one we know?"

"Can't this kid be serious?"

At the same time, cries erupted, and Seth packed his bags and left. From behind, boos continued to pour in toward Seth. He walked forward, bathed in the still long remaining sunlight. Suddenly, a heartless laugh was heard.

Chase Miller. I was a bit harsh.

Josh returned to his dorm at the end of the evening, completely unaware that such gossip had occurred. Henry waited impatiently to ask him the outcome of his bet, but missed his timing, and when he opened his eyes the next day, Josh was already out for work.