“I really wanted to raise it well. But it died.”
“…….”
“I watered it, told the gardener uncle to spray nutrients on it, put it in a place with good sunlight. I did everything, right? I did everything without lacking. But it died.”
The man’s eyes muttering like that looked somehow empty. It seemed like he was looking at a place very far away. A place that too much time had passed, that he’d walked too far a distance, a place he could absolutely never return to now.
But that gaze only passed by for a very brief moment. The man returned to a relaxed gaze and smiled brightly.
“Strange, right? I should be able to know why it died.”
“…….”
“So, what do you think I did?”
At the question the man threw, Lee Jeong briefly lowered his eyes and thought. Actually, his current situation was too dire to think about the disposal of a flower pot the man had raised in elementary school. He had absolutely no interest, but felt like he should at least pretend to think.
The man who gave the quiz didn’t seem to have any intention of just passing it by. He handed over paper and pen that had been placed on the bedside table, his eyes sparkling. It seemed to mean write down what he thought. To go along with the strange man’s games, Lee Jeong, who had been hesitating for a moment, chose the most ordinary answer he could give.
[I think you buried it.]
“…Buried it?”
For a moment the man’s eyes widened. The man’s chest heaved continuously as laughter burst out with a “Puhaha.” Laughing “Ahaha, hahaha,” the man looked truly delighted.
“Dig the ground, and bury it? A plant?”
“…….”
“Ah, Lee Jeong you’re really so funny and cute. Do you bury plants when they die too? Ah, really so funny.”
The man ridiculed Lee Jeong for a long time. ‘I think you buried it.’ It was an embarrassing answer even to himself who wrote it. But unlike before when he hadn’t even taken his paper, the man didn’t carelessly throw that paper away. He just made a humming sound and looked at the paper for a long time.
“I thought your handwriting was ugly back then… but looking at it now, it has a cute taste too.”
“…….”
“I guess everything looks pretty because it’s my puppy. Thinking of it as written with these tiny hands, no, front paws, makes it all cute.”
Saying that, the man took Lee Jeong’s hand, lifted it, and kissed the back of his hand. It was an unusually small hand for the man’s. Even before manifesting as an omega, there were many times he felt embarrassed by his hands being smaller and more delicate than other men’s.
Goosebumps quickly spread up his forearm along the back of the hand where the man’s lips touched. He could feel the fine hairs that must have risen on his arm standing on end. Lee Jeong almost reflexively pulled his hand away, but bit his rolled-up lips and barely endured.
“Anyway, that’s not the answer. Wrong. You got it wrong.”
“…….”
“What can I do? I just put it in a trash bag and threw it away.”
The face of the man giggling was making a silent accusation. ‘You thought something weird, didn’t you. Did you think I’d do something strange?’ Unable to meet the gaze coming straight at him, Lee Jeong lowered his eyes.
“I was going to give you a prize if you got it right. What was the prize?”
And the man smiled with a very cruel face.
“Since you didn’t get it right, I’ll have to give you a punishment. Our Lee Jeong, let’s just stay with me for a long time.”
Saying that, the man hugged Lee Jeong tightly. The man’s disgusting body scent hit his nose sharply, and at the same time, high body temperature was transmitted to his body.
To Lee Jeong, that body temperature of the man’s felt like an impact of catching fire. He couldn’t endure it anymore. Lee Jeong retched with a heave. His throat convulsed and quickly brought up the food the man had forced him to eat earlier from his stomach.
He hastily raised his hand to try to cover his mouth, but it was already too late. Before the man could even push Lee Jeong away, Lee Jeong ended up pouring all his vomit onto the man’s shirt-clad chest and stomach. Not a single bit of the food the man had carefully prepared had been digested in Lee Jeong’s body.
“You, fuck….”
The man’s eyes sharply furrowed. Looking at Lee Jeong with an expression as if seeing a filthy insect, he half-raised his body and picked up the tissue box on the nightstand. He frantically pulled out tissues and wiped Lee Jeong’s vomit from his hands and shirt. The room that had been filled with the man’s scent was instantly filled with a sour and disgusting smell.
Without realizing it, Lee Jeong tightly closed his eyes and curled up his body. It seemed like the man’s fist or kick would fly at him immediately. However, unexpectedly, there was no impact.
He cautiously opened his eyes a crack. The man was looking at Lee Jeong as if he were pathetic. Then, when their eyes met, he suddenly laughed pleasantly, “Puhahah.”
“Ah, was our Lee Jeong scared of being scolded by his master?”
“……”
“It’s okay, it’s okay.”
Speaking kindly, the man stroked Lee Jeong’s hair.
“If you were a person, I would have beaten you to a pulp. But it’s okay. Puppies can make mistakes, right?”
Saying that, the man helped Lee Jeong stand up. Lee Jeong’s naked body also had vomit on it. The man brought Lee Jeong over and made him kneel beside the nightstand. Then he kindly added.
“Wait here for a bit. I’ll change the bed sheets and wash you too. Got it?”
“…Whine.”
Since he had committed a wrong, just being grateful he wasn’t beaten, Lee Jeong obediently answered. The man really didn’t lay a hand on Lee Jeong and busily moved around, taking out the bed sheets and blanket. And when the man returned, he was carrying new bedding.
The man opened the window to ventilate, then spread the bedding on the blanket. Then he took Lee Jeong into the bathroom and washed him. Unlike earlier when he had given him a full bath, it was a simple shower with water sprayed on him. After quickly washing Lee Jeong, the man who brought him out of the bathroom made Lee Jeong kneel on the bath mat in front of the bathroom.
“But Lee Jeong-ah, your master said earlier. If you vomit, I’ll make you eat it all up.”
Looking up at the man’s grinning face, Lee Jeong couldn’t hide his anxious feelings.
“But what should I do… I like our Lee Jeong too much to do that.”
Saying that, the man grabbed the leash attached to Lee Jeong’s neck close and pulled it sharply. In an instant, pressure was felt on his neck. “Kek, kek” sounds came out involuntarily. With tears welling in his eyes, Lee Jeong looked up at the man with pleading eyes.
“You should be punished, right? You did something wrong.”
“Kek, kek, kheuk, keuk.”
“Stand here as punishment. Got it? Just stand as punishment for exactly thirty minutes, and then we’ll play together again.”
The man used the cord attached to Lee Jeong’s collar to fix and tie Lee Jeong’s hands to the bathroom doorknob. If not for being tied, it was exactly the posture of kneeling with hands raised as punishment. It wasn’t tied very tightly, but the cord wasn’t very long, so his neck was uncomfortable. If he disrupted his kneeling posture even slightly, his neck was immediately choked.
That wasn’t the end of it. The man said he needed to be punished for vomiting precious food, and made Lee Jeong hold a dog food bowl from the kitchen in his mouth. Holding the edge of the stainless steel bowl in his mouth made his jaw hurt as if it would dislocate. The weight of the bowl itself wasn’t very heavy, but it was sufficiently uncomfortable.
The man who completed the punishment posture looked down at Lee Jeong and smiled with satisfaction.
“Ahaha, it suits you well. Even if it’s uncomfortable for our Lee Jeong, stay like that for a bit, okay?”
I don’t like this, this is uncomfortable… With such eyes, Lee Jeong whined desperately while looking up at the man, but the man smiled gently and shook his head.
“No. Puppies need to be disciplined too. That’s how you become a good puppy. Understand?”
“Whine, whine.”
“Then your master will be reading a book over there, so let’s see… since it’s eleven-thirty now, you’ll stand as punishment until twelve. Got it?”
Saying that, the man sat comfortably in the rocking chair beside the bed. And he took out a book from the bookshelf beside it, packed full of books.
Soon, only the occasional sound of turning pages could be heard in the room. The man sat comfortably in the rocking chair, slowly turning the pages, and his gaze only ran over the book. He didn’t give even a single glance in Lee Jeong’s direction. Only Lee Jeong suffered alone, twitching his buttocks. He could already feel his kneeling thighs going numb.
“Heup, eup…”
Saliva dripped through the gap in his mouth holding the bowl. Saliva flowed down his chin and dripped drop by drop onto his knees and thighs.
If he dropped it, would he be scolded badly? The moment he was thinking that and slightly bouncing his thighs.
“If you lose grip of the dog bowl and drop it, I really won’t let our Lee Jeong go.”
“……!”
“I brought you all the way here, you don’t think I can’t do that, do you?”
Saying that, the man grinned at Lee Jeong. Then he fixed his gaze back on the book he was reading.
Under the man’s pressure, Lee Jeong desperately put strength in his jaw holding the bowl. He had to go tomorrow for the child’s sake, and no matter how much he cried and begged, the man wouldn’t care about his circumstances. If he was the kind of person who would care about those circumstances, he wouldn’t have kidnapped him here even though he had a child. The man’s patience must have already hit rock bottom from him vomiting.
He didn’t want to provoke the man further here. He had to endure somehow. Once again, silence found the room. Rustle, rustle. The man’s face looking down at the book while occasionally turning pages was detachment itself. The man’s expression absorbed in the book looked very unfamiliar to Lee Jeong.
