People bustled around frantically. They picked up everything that looked useful.
Emergency medical kits, compasses, soaking wet blankets, and so on.
And the biggest problem was food. There were crackers and cheese, canned fruit compote, instant rice, sausages, boxes of ramen, alcohol, and cigarettes.
How should they distribute all this? Over this, people started fighting and bickering.
“Hey, the women and omega bastard are obviously skinny as rakes, so they’ll eat less, right?”
The one who stood out among them was undoubtedly that bastard Director Hwang. Did he think everything that came out of his mouth hole was right? The beard around his mouth was dirty, just like a pig’s snout.
“What? Director Hwang-nim, what kind of petty thing are you saying?”
Paeng Hana stepped forward, sweeping back her long hair.
“I’m in a profession where I make a living with my face—are you going to take responsibility if my beauty gets damaged?”
“Hana-ssi, what beauty talk on a deserted island? Yeah, if you’re going to manage your beauty anyway, eating less would be good for dieting!”
“Are you done talking now?”
And then Lee Ijun, who had been curled up on one side, lifted his head.
“Isn’t that wrong? If we’re going to argue like that, shouldn’t we divide it by net worth?”
“Wh-what…?”
Director Hwang made a dumbfounded expression as if he’d been hit in the back of the head.
“Death insurance payouts are calculated based on net worth when you die, right?”
It was Lee Ijun’s counterattack, a genius only when screwing others over. Director Hwang grimaced, seemingly having nothing to say in response.
“You crazy, Director-nim is shorter than me, aren’t you?”
Director Hwang, who had been gradually cornered, turned his head as if a strange scheme had occurred to him.
“Oh, now that I think about it.”
And at the end of that gaze was…
“This bastard didn’t even have an invitation.”
There was Woonghee, who hadn’t even been invited to this cruise, was an omega, and had the lowest net worth here.
“……”
Immediately, eyes turned to him. Disgusting eyes.
If only you weren’t here, if only you disappeared, I feel like I could breathe, you’ve lived your life begging like a parasite anyway, how much tax did I pay to this country to feed vermin like you.
Like that, buzz buzz, it seemed like insects were chattering away. I don’t want to hear it. Even though I wanted to avoid it, it kept clinging to his ears.
And in the midst of all that, one gaze flashed.
“……”
Managing Director Gi, that very man. With his arms crossed in front of his well-trained muscular chest, he narrowed his eyes and watched him. Slowly biting the side of his index finger with his mouth.
An arrogant bystander.
No, it would be more fitting to call him a spectator who had even paid an expensive admission fee and was leisurely watching like a VIP.
Are you finding this situation interesting right now? I’m just a clown who puts on a fire show for you, nothing more than that, aren’t I?
“…There isn’t.”
Woonghee muttered blankly. His large eyes were cappuccino-colored, but their focus was completely empty. His chin, delicately carved to give a sharp, bird-beak-like sensitive and prim impression, trembled.
“What’s with this bastard?”
Then Director Hwang raised his fist. It was that threatening fist he’d seen countless times on set.
“Don’t mumble like an idiot moron, speak properly…!”
“I don’t need it, that dirty stuff.”
Woonghee’s eyes flashed through his damp hair that fell forward.
“How can I trust what you people give me?”
People exchanged sinister glances with each other. Did you hear that just now? It seems like he said he’s opting out… But it would make them look like trash to openly show they were pleased, so let’s just keep quiet—that kind of look.
Dirty bastards. Woonghee bit down hard on the tip of his tongue.
“So what are you going to do?”
In the midst of that, someone pushed through the crowd of cowardly humans. Those black leather shoes came forward, crushing the sandy beach.
The pitch-black leather shoes were polished so smoothly that Woonghee’s face reflected completely. What kind of expression am I making right now… reflected there?
“Do you have some kind of plan?”
Managing Director Gi, it was him.
Even in this situation, he had his silk necktie tightly knotted, constricting his thick nape. He threaded the button of his already torn-off suit vest through, and threaded it through again.
A distinctly compulsive and controlling appearance. Isn’t that man suffocated?
‘…Control freak.’
Woonghee muttered inwardly.
On the outside, he wore an elegant and luxurious exterior, but inside he must be just as pitch-black as coal briquettes.
Whoosh, a strange unpleasantness rose from within. Wasn’t he an emperor-like existence who ruled over others even among these crazy people?
He, who forcibly hid his barbaric nature behind a smile, asked.
“Or are you just being stubborn? Because of that measly pride?”
Woonghee glared at him through his hair. Was his pride some kind of ball of yarn? Why did he keep poking at it like a toy at every opportunity?
“Whether it’s stubbornness or pride, why are you…”
He was about to ask why he was interfering. The other side cut off Woonghee’s words mid-sentence.
“Woonghee-ssi, I can’t see your eyes.”
Suddenly the conversation flowed in a strange direction.
“I don’t like it when I can’t see someone’s eyes during a conversation. I can’t read their expression.”
The man pulled out something sparkling from his pathologically elegantly arranged necktie. Madder sunset light pooled in the tie pin and flashed!
What was he going to do with that—he tucked Woonghee’s hair back to one side. Swish, his bangs were swept back.
It was the first time. The first time their eyes met so closely with that man.
Sharply torn eye shape. Eyes that seemed frozen and submerged coldly within. A gaze that didn’t waver at all.
Emotions were completely castrated.
The next moment, a heavy body scent pressed down on Woonghee’s nose with tremendous force like a giant’s fist.
It was the man’s smell. Alpha. From him came the smell of wood burning intensely. Crackling. It was the smell of destruction or predation that only burped contentedly after turning everything to ashes.
Wasn’t he the person most unsuited to this deserted island, more than anyone?
It seemed like that heat would burn this entire jungle to ashes. Thump thump, his heart began to beat heavily. Was this nervousness, or a manifestation of anxiety?
“Don’t touch me!”
Startled, he quickly stepped back. Thump thump, his frightened heart pounded violently.
“I, I ha-hate alphas, so don’t come near me.”
“Ah.”
Managing Director Gi showed both palms with exaggerated gestures and slowly stepped back. Like that, pretending to surrender while actually defeating him mercilessly.
“Oh dear, I also dislike dirty things.”
Dirty things. Of course he would. In their eyes, he was no different from maggots and flies crawling on a corpse. The man smirked, lifting one corner of his mouth as if his business was done.
“Someone will come soon anyway.”
Woonghee sneered. Because he could feel something fluttering very strongly in his stomach. It was that damn pride. That pride that threw a tantrum more and more the more it was trampled on.
“Aren’t you all very important people?”
Didn’t Lee Ijun’s manager have a fit even if that pretty face got a single red scratch? If Lee Ijun disappeared, the agency would come foaming at the mouth to find him. They’d come running even if they had to stir porridge with a spatula.
And Managing Director Gi, someone like you obviously has many enemies. You probably carry them around strung together like dried croakers, right? It seems like anyone would be desperately eager to come stab a knife in your belly.
“Won’t someone come looking?”
“Aah? So you’re going to try to endure alone until then?”
He curved his thick eyebrows as if interested. His thick, neat thumb tapped his forehead. Like a noble enjoying a boring card game.
He tilted his head slightly and slowly, really slowly, lifted one corner of his mouth.
“What, are you going to catch and eat birds, or try fishing?”
It was a voice that said he would bestow generous magnanimity. An tone that softly coaxed like, our baby listens well and is so good and pretty, pat pat. As if his superior self would enlighten the inferior and ignorant him.
“So what if I do?”
“Woonghee-ssi.”
Managing Director Gi tapped, tapped his temple with those large fingers. As if to say, if you have a head, use it to think, think.
“You need to conserve your energy. Why bother putting effort into such useless things?”
As if it were unnecessary, he spoke slowly and folded his arms in front of that thick chest. He even tilted his head diagonally to the right. His thick eyebrows shrugged.
“It’s inefficient.”
“So what if it is?”
Woonghee ground his teeth. While leaving one remark as hazily as fog.
“It’s better than living like a mosquito bastard sucking others’ marrow.”
Did he notice the rough thorns hidden in those words? Director Hwang, whose anger had flared, screamed loudly. His face flushed red all the way to the tips of his hair.
“This crazy bastard has no respect, are you mentally ill? Are you really insane?”
He spat while pointing at him with hair-covered fingers. The Assistant Director hyung blocked him as he was about to rush at Woonghee.
“C-calm down, Director-nim…”
“That bastard is really getting cocky because we kept saying he’s pretty, pretty, climbing up without knowing his place.”
That sticky and dirty liquid spraying like a mist on Woonghee’s white, round cheeks…
“I’ll die alone even if I die. You all live here on your own.”
Woonghee sharply turned his back. Then he stopped in place with a start. Weren’t only his footprints pitifully stamped on this vast place?
…It felt suffocating. Can I, can I survive here alone?
No, no. Don’t make weak sounds. It’s a path I’ve walked alone all my life anyway. There’s no need to get sentimental for no reason. Step by step, Woonghee deliberately walked more vigorously.
