The headlights were behind him, so the man’s face wasn’t clearly visible. But even setting aside his height, it was plain that he was someone of considerable looks.
It showed in the straight line of his nose peeking out from beneath the half-covered face, the clean set of his mouth, the sharp line of his jaw.
“I’ll take care of things here. You can just go back inside…….”
As the man slowly began to approach, the driver — who had been shouting at Siyeon — opened his mouth with visible flustered urgency. But despite the driver’s attempt to stop him, the man had already walked around to the front of the vehicle.
“How am I supposed to trust Jihun with this and just go back in.”
“……But if someone takes a photo…….”
“If that was your concern, you should’ve thought about handling the accident before raising your voice out in the open, don’t you think?”
As the man continued his reprimand, the driver began to fluster and stumble. Watching that, the man dropped a word edged with irritation.
“That’s enough. Go start the car.”
“Going forward…… I’ll be more careful. But what just happened — that person came out of nowhere…….”
“Do I really have to say it twice?”
When the driver wouldn’t stop rambling with excuses, the man cut him off. He tilted his head as if to say why are you still standing here — and the driver hurried back to the vehicle.
White hair? No — blond? As the man turned his head slightly, bright strands of hair glinted beneath his deeply pulled-down cap.
The sight of it was like glittering golden thread draped all the way down to his shoulders — as though he were adorned with some precious ornament.
“Can you stand?”
While Siyeon had been quietly studying him, the man spoke to him. The abrupt informal speech caught him off guard, but the tone itself was surprisingly gentle.
“……Me?”
“Yeah, you.”
At the second address in that smooth, low voice, Siyeon startled and moved to get up in a hurry. But whether he’d twisted his ankle in the fall or not, even putting a little weight on it sent a wave of pain shooting through him.
“I’m…… fine…… gh.”
“Fine, sure. You can’t even stand properly.”
Whether he’d noticed Siyeon’s condition, the man strode right over to where Siyeon had slumped down.
Before Siyeon could even think to stop him, the man crouched down in front of him. Seeing him check Siyeon’s legs, it seemed he was trying to assess the injured area.
“Here?”
Siyeon blinked at him like he wasn’t sure what he was asking, and the man asked again. But before Siyeon could answer, the man had already reached out.
“Does it hurt when I press here?”
Long fingers gently worked over Siyeon’s exposed ankle. The hand that traced down along the gentle curve of the protruding ankle bone was slightly cool to the touch, and the feel of it against his skin was unexpectedly soft.
The sudden contact made him instinctively tense — but only for a moment. He wanted to say no, but a sharp sting traveled up through his body and the words came out wrong despite himself.
“No……. Ah……! Ow, it hurts…….”
“Hm? So it does hurt?”
At Siyeon’s pained sound, the man took hold of his ankle, careful to avoid the sore spot.
Glancing down at the hands carefully working over him, Siyeon could see that the man’s hands were large enough to wrap around his ankle with one hand.
The knuckles were prominent from lack of flesh on the fingers — but they were elegant hands that made you wonder if he’d perhaps learned piano as a child.
“Doesn’t seem broken, but you should go to a hospital and get a proper diagnosis.”
The pain was enough that, as the man said, getting treated somewhere — whether a hospital or otherwise — seemed like the better option. The only concern was that he didn’t know this body’s personal information, so he wondered if there was even a way to go to a hospital and get examined.
“Take my hand. I’ll take you.”
As he hesitated, the man held out his hand. But accepting the stranger’s kindness right away felt uncomfortable — the goodwill was of unknown origin.
“No, I’m…… fine…….”
HOOOONK —!
Just as Siyeon had the refusal on his lips, a horn blared from the opposite lane like a warning. Looking immediately, he could see Manager Kang in the large van, shouting something in Siyeon’s direction.
He looked like he was attempting a U-turn to get into the lane where Siyeon was.
Damn…… Manager Kang, that tenacious bastard…….
Given what he’d done, getting caught by Manager Kang right now would certainly mean taking a beating.
“Okay! Please take me with you.”
In a panic, Siyeon reversed course immediately and clung to the man. Suspicious or not, a man showing him goodwill looked a whole lot better than Manager Kang coming after him with murder in his eyes. The decision came from a strong desire to break out of this situation first and worry about the rest later.
“Weren’t you just about to say no?”
“You heard wrong. Hurry! Let’s go, quickly.”
“……Ha.”
The man looked at Siyeon, who had flipped his attitude like turning over a palm, with obvious bewilderment.
“Oh my, it suddenly hurts so much. It hurts…… ow…….”
When Siyeon started groaning and putting on a show, the man let out a short laugh — then slipped his hands beneath Siyeon’s legs and scooped him up in one swift motion.
“Wait — what are you……!”
“Stay still. You’ll fall.”
The man looked completely unbothered by Siyeon’s weight. He’d expected at most a helping hand to lean on, but……
Startled by the unexpected move, Siyeon thrashed — and the man patted him soothingly, as if to calm him down.
“It’s not safe to stay here. Let’s get in the car first.”
The traffic signals must have changed because cars had begun passing through — so as the man said, sitting here any longer looked dangerous. On top of that, damn Manager Kang was still after him.
Right…… at this point, might as well just be shameless about it.
Arms slipped under his thighs and his body was lifted. It was undignified, sure — but who cared about embarrassment. He’d already begged for money. Siyeon stopped struggling and pressed himself close, letting the man hold him.
Being this close, he caught the man’s natural scent.
The smell of flowers rising above the earthy scent of garden soil after rain. Not an artificial perfume smell — but a vivid, living fragrance, as though he’d stepped into a field in full bloom.
Did he just come from a flower shop or something. For a man to smell like this……
It was a refined scent that made him want to keep breathing it in — and before he knew it, Siyeon found himself inhaling deeply, nose buried against the man’s shirt. The man’s shoulder gave a light shake.
“You like it?”
He curved the corner of his lips and laughed — openly, freely.
“My pheromones.”
Pheromones? Not perfume?
Come to think of it — pheromones. That word. He was sure he’d read about it in the book. Something about each person having their own unique scent that draws others in?
There had been quite a long explanation written out, which he’d only skimmed and moved past — but had he known it would come to this, he would’ve sat down and read it more carefully.
So then — do pheromones come out of me too?
He found himself curious about what scent this body gave off.
But before he could dwell on the question, the man carefully settled Siyeon — who had been held against him — into a seat inside the van. Getting in right beside Siyeon, he turned toward the driver and spoke.
“Jihun, let’s go.”
“Where…… should I head?”
“To the hospital, hyung.”
Taking advantage of the exchange between the man and the driver, Siyeon pressed his face to the window and watched for any sign of Manager Kang. Luckily — perhaps because the U-turn point was far away — there was no suspicious van following behind.
By the time the van they were in safely pulled away, a sigh of relief escaped Siyeon before he could stop it.
“Ha…… thank goodness…….”
“What’s ‘thank goodness’?”
“Ah……!”
While he’d been absorbed in watching outside, the man had shifted close beside him at some point and was watching him intently. The man glanced briefly toward where Siyeon had been looking, then spoke.
“Is someone chasing you?”
There’s a saying — a thief’s own feet give him away. Siyeon startled badly at the man’s loaded question.
“What? What do you…… mean…….”
“You kept looking outside. I thought something might be wrong.”
The man craned his neck and peered at the spot Siyeon had been watching. Naturally, there was nothing particularly telling visible through the window.
It didn’t seem like he was saying it with any real knowledge — so Siyeon shook his head quickly.
“No, it’s just that I almost caused an accident because of me…… so I was checking if everything was okay.”
With Siyeon’s nonchalant answer, the man fortunately didn’t press further. Still, the piercing gaze he could feel suggested the doubt hadn’t entirely cleared.
What do I do now…….
Belatedly, Siyeon began to worry.
He’d gotten into the man’s car as a stopgap — but now that he was out of the immediate danger, real concerns started to weigh on him.
The biggest problem of them all was, of course…… having no money.
He’d had his bag taken from him while running from Manager Kang — so all he had was the phone in his pocket and one fifty-thousand-won bill.
For Siyeon, this was practically his entire fortune — and he couldn’t blow all of what amounted to a pittance of escape funds on hospital fees.
His injured leg was a concern, but the pain was still manageable.
Getting as far away as possible from Manager Kang and the alpha couple was the priority for now — so he figured treatment could wait until after.
“Um…… excuse me.”
Having made up his mind, Siyeon carefully turned to the man who had been studying him. The man, who had been watching Siyeon all along, answered as if he’d been waiting for it.
“Yeah, babe.”
