The dam infinitely vulnerable to warmth collapses so weakly. Over mere hot water someone else drew.
However, the warmth that person gave was no longer his.
He had abandoned him. Throwing him into the middle of a pitch-black world, he’d closed the door and left.
That’s why he had to scrape it out. The warmth or whatever that person had planted in his heart—he had to dig it all out without leaving any behind and throw it into the middle of the dirty world just as that person had done to him.
After that incident three years ago, Lee Jeong erased his name and erased that person’s existence from his heart as well.
As the stiffened muscles relaxed, he could see white, dirty fluids naturally flowing out from below him. The clear water surface was gradually becoming cloudy. Lee Jeong returned to a pitch-black dead expression and released the drain plug. The dirtied water was sucked down into the drain like a whirlpool.
*
“Executive Director, this is Kim Minho.”
-Come in.
The low voice was gently subdued. Secretary Kim carefully opened the door and entered.
With the interior decorated overall in dark gray tones, combined with the rain falling since morning, the atmosphere inside the office was utterly gloomy. Joined by Wookyung’s pheromones sinking gloomily, the atmosphere was dark enough to feel sticky and murky.
Kim Minho took a breath. Though it had been quite a while since his superior’s pheromones had changed like this, for Minho who had spent a long time with him, the old pheromones that smelled like dry wild grass were still more familiar.
“Here’s your morning schedule written down.”
“Mm. Thanks.”
An indifferent hand took the scheduler. After stopping his gaze that had been carefully scanning the schedule, the hand setting down the scheduler was rough. Though it had already been several years since he’d sat at a desk signing approval documents with a fountain pen, the hands that had originally harmed people still looked thick and sturdy.
“…Then I’ll be going.”
Minho bowed. From beyond the desk, Wookyung showed a gentle smile while raising his eyebrows. However, seeing that smile, Minho thought his dry smile seemed like it would crumble to dust.
Minho closed the door and leaned against the executive director’s office door for a moment. With his head dropped back, he let out a small sigh.
Just how long was he planning to be like this?
Even in the past, the Wookyung he remembered hadn’t been a noticeably bright and cheerful person, but he hadn’t been as sunken as now.
To Minho these days, he felt like an empty shell. He moved, breathed, talked with people and ate, but in reality seemed like a shell that would crumble without form with a crackle if touched.
When was the next appointment? Minho took out his phone and checked his hospital schedule. It was the first place he’d visited twice, though he used to just pick up the same medication every day from the neighborhood, saying sleeping pills were all the same anyway. Since it was an uncommon occurrence, Minho couldn’t miss the opportunity. Though he couldn’t accompany him to his last hospital schedule, fortunately Wookyung had made the next appointment on his own and returned. Deciding he must visit the hospital with him next time, Minho headed to the secretary’s office.
2.
Since afternoon, the color of the sky visible beyond the large window set in one side of the executive director’s office had been growing dark. The ominous signs of dark clouds gathering were serious, and the gray clouds that heavily covered the sky eventually poured down rain.
After around 4 PM passed, it began pouring as if determined. Occasionally with a boom, lightning flashed brilliantly with thunder. The sound of rain clinging to the glass windows was loud enough to make his ears ring.
Wookyung lifted his eyes from the documents he was reading and rubbed his eyes with his palms. As warm body heat flowed to his eyes, fatigue washed over him but he didn’t feel drowsy. Rather, his nerves kept standing on edge like a well-sharpened blade. His body, imprinted to feel unpleasant on rainy days, couldn’t control the unstable waves of sensation that fluctuated as the sound of rain drummed against his ears.
Rumble, boom!
Lightning shook the entire world. Despite the sound so loud it seemed to fall right before him, Wookyung’s body didn’t even twitch. The annoying sounds of rain and thunder constantly striking his mind showed no signs of stopping all afternoon no matter how much he immersed himself in work to pass the time.
Let’s stop. Wookyung gave up and slowly stood from his seat. He looked at the streets helplessly getting soaked beyond the raised blinds. The world entirely tinged with gloomy gray endlessly received and let flow the rainwater.
This is why he hated rainy days. Even if he didn’t want to remember, the memory of that day buried deep would inevitably come to mind upon hearing such rain that sounded like someone’s wailing.
The image of that child trembling in a white body completely soaked in rainwater.
When that child first came to the organization ‘Daneum’ disguised as a financial company that Wookyung belonged to, it had been raining like this too. During the short time from getting out of the van and being dragged up to the building, that child who had been fully drenched by the pouring rain was already trembling when thrown at Wookyung’s feet by Daneum’s loan sharks.
‘Raise your head.’
‘……’
The omega before his eyes was said to be only twenty years old. It was a society where omegas weren’t even treated as human unless they were from prominent political or business families, and among them, that child’s situation—penniless and even in debt—was literally worse than a pebble on the street. There was no way anyone would look for him even if he was dragged into an organization like this.
The circumstances of omegas dragged to places like this were uniformly similar as if stamped from a mold. Either their family did something stupid and got into debt, or their family was sick. Ido’s case belonged to the latter. The money he’d fearlessly borrowed from ‘Daneum’ under his mother’s name since he was a student to care for his only single mother caught and tripped him the moment he turned twenty. Leaving only debt that had snowballed futilely, his mother left the world.
Omegas dragged here for being unable to repay debts mostly met one of two endings. They became the plaything of the old recessive alpha President Park Youngchul, the head of Daneum, or they were sold to establishments managed by the organization.
Both cases were tragic enough that it was difficult to judge which misfortune was greater, but Wookyung could feel it the moment they first met. In this child’s case, it would probably be the former first.
‘You’re Yoon Ido, right?’
‘…Yes.’
Having seen countless of President Park’s omegas by his side, he could tell. The appearance of the man who hurriedly lowered his eyes as if frightened by Wookyung’s low voice perfectly matched the chairman’s taste.
His face, which anyone would have to say was of exceptional beauty, was extremely small. His nose bridge wet with rainwater was straight and his eyebrows extended jet-black, but like an omega, the lines weren’t strong, giving an impression that was pitiful somewhere rather than masculine.
His white face shone smoothly without a speck of dust despite the hardships that must have clung to his frail body like a demon. On clean, pure skin that looked like it had grown up knowing no hardship, his red lips stood out. His lips were also small in proportion to his small face. Though his age was clearly said to be twenty this year, he looked younger than that.
Looking at his pale face and trembling lips, Wookyung thought he seemed to have been in the rain for quite a while. Wookyung looked down at the omega before his eyes with indifferent eyes for a moment.
Perhaps he’d resisted while being dragged, his small face was mottled with bruises. With wet lashes lowered as if frightened, he couldn’t even dare look directly at Wookyung. His limbs extending outside his T-shirt were slender, and his extremities were also bruised. Wookyung sighed only inwardly and ordered his staff.
‘Have him bathe first.’
‘Yes, Team Leader.’
‘…And.’
Wookyung’s gaze rested on the omega’s hands clutching his own arms while trembling. His pale fingers were exceptionally slender.
‘Draw the water hot. He can’t catch a cold.’
‘Yes, understood.’
The omega who entered the hot water and came out looked much more comfortable. The complexion that had been frightened by the cold until just before was flushed pink and somewhat relaxed. However, perhaps anticipating to some degree what was to come, he still showed signs of tension. His gloomy gaze remained lowered, unable to rise.
After that, well, it was the same. As he had done countless times before, he pushed the cleanly washed omega into President Park Youngchul’s room. Disgusting sounds of harassing the omega and suppressed crying sounds enduring pain continuously flowed thinly from inside the room.
‘…Fuck.’
Standing leaning against the door, Wookyung had to take those sounds fully into his ears. On days when he brought in young omegas who knew nothing like this and put them in the president’s room, his mood became shitty for no reason. He felt like smoking a cigarette.
President Park Youngchul was someone pathologically obsessed with his own personal protection. That’s why he organized a separate security team just for himself within the organization, and appointed the most skilled dominant alpha Choi Wookyung as team leader. And he didn’t establish his office building separately outside but kept it within the organization and stayed only there.
Wookyung’s job was to provide 24-hour close protection for him. Suspicious by nature, he didn’t completely trust ordinary security team members, and could only sleep if Wookyung guarded his door. Therefore, Wookyung guarded his nights without missing a single day.
Only when morning fully brightened did President Park allow other team members to guard him. Only after that could Wookyung go to his room briefly to close his eyes. From late afternoon, he had to come back to work and guard him again. Days when President Park was playing around with an omega like today were no exception either. These days were quite frequent—so frequent it would be faster to count the days he didn’t sleep with an omega.
Wookyung was a promising judo athlete who grew up in a poor household. President Park Youngchul, who saw him sweeping gold medals at the national athletic meet when he was in high school, contacted him personally and expressed his intention to sponsor him. Wookyung’s family, who wanted him to go to university for judo but lacked not only tuition but even living expenses, eagerly accepted that offer.
