“Ah, you’re back.”
When I returned to the hospital room, three guards were still standing in front of it. Looking at the back of my head, they were working like people being paid—unable to run their mouths while looking at my face even though they could strip me with their eyes, as if they were ill-bred.
“Yes. Um, you’re working hard so please have this.”
“It’s fine.”
“Aw, don’t be like that. I feel sorry since you’re working hard.”
“…Thank you.”
“We’ll enjoy it.”
I forcibly pressed the cola I’d bought earlier into their hands with a kind-looking face as if I were the most harmless person in the world. The guards were reluctant but ultimately accepted it.
Entering the hospital room, I didn’t go near Lee Hyeonseok and instead pressed my ear right against the door.
“…What are you doing?”
“Shh. Just a moment.”
That sight was no different from eccentric behavior in Lee Hyeonseok’s eyes, so he looked at me like I was crazy and asked. I didn’t spare him a single glance and put my index finger to my lips meaning to be quiet, concentrating on the sounds outside the door.
Befitting a VVIP room, the soundproofing was good so I couldn’t hear properly, but they were exchanging ill-bred words like “Still, there’s such a thing as knowing one’s place,” “Right. Well, it’s obvious it won’t last long, so he should do well.” Then eventually I heard the expected screams of “Aaaah,” “Huh? What… Aaah!” “You crazy bastard!”
It was worth vigorously shaking the cola earlier. Though not very satisfying, I decided to be satisfied with this much. As I sat on the sofa with a faint smile, Lee Hyeonseok asked again. He was quite persistent.
“What were you doing?”
“I went and picked a fight.”
“As expected, picking fights is your hobby.”
Not a hobby, but it might be around the level of a specialty.
When I briefly explained what happened with Lee Juwon, Cheon Jaekyung, and Han Taeseok, Lee Hyeonseok sneered at me with a serves-you-right face.
“I knew it.”
If you knew it would happen, why didn’t you stop it beforehand, why just know about it? It was truly a mystery.
“That’s why I told you to stay holed up inside the house.”
“Ah, yes.”
It did make sense. Certainly, if I had stayed holed up inside the house as Lee Hyeonseok said, I wouldn’t have run into them and wouldn’t have unnecessarily gotten into a fight. I thought he was a thoughtless bastard, but surprisingly that didn’t seem to be entirely the case.
“If you listen to me, rice cakes will appear even in your sleep.”
“Oh my. That’s right.”
Lee Hyeonseok seemed to have completely regained his energy now, as he was busy putting me down after that, saying I should listen to him well, that there was nothing I could do alone, but I found it bothersome so I just half-listened and went along with him. If the price for penile fracture ended with hearing shitty words and going along with it, it was quite cheap.
“Still, with Cheon Jaekyung’s setting, he wouldn’t say such petty words…”
“?”
Is it so strange for a petty bastard to say petty words?
* * *
Lee Hyeonseok, who was supposed to have a rut, didn’t have a rut throughout his hospitalization, but by the time he was discharged, it seemed like his rut was about to break out again. It seemed that if there were problems with the body or hormones, the cycle also got disrupted. It was information helpful not only to Lee Hyeonseok but to me as well.
Whether it was because there was a problem with his hormones, it didn’t come on severely and the rut came very faintly. Enough that he could restrain himself to the degree where he could fully contemplate whether or not to pounce on me. Lee Hyeonseok deliberated for a long time, then looked at me with distrustful eyes before entering his room. He seemed to have developed some trauma. For me, it was a very good thing. I should pray it won’t disappear in the future either.
After Lee Hyeonseok was discharged, for some reason I was in a semi-confined state at his house instead of the officetel.
If I tried to go out, he told me to have the guards do it, and if I tried to search about how society was going, he asked why I was deliberately looking for things I shouldn’t see and told me to watch the news or ask him. At least it was fortunate that he let me call my parents every evening. Though after the call ended, he would confiscate it without fail.
It was breaking that thing, after all. Even if his behavior was somewhat incomprehensible, I was planning to follow his words to some extent, but by the time over a week passed, I was gradually reaching my limit.
“I’m not even a child!”
I was so frustrated that informal speech even came out. When I protested again with an explosion of stress, Lee Hyeonseok wordlessly turned on the news. The announcer’s words about sex crime rates increasing and talking about incidents were good for instilling fear. Even though they only reported particularly excessive cases among them, the number was tremendous.
The news talked about new information on omegas or alphas every day, talked about research progress, and betas were practically an afterthought. Like this, since betas were completely unrelated, for me who hadn’t manifested, I felt vigilance but not fear.
Also, since people who would manifest had already shown signs of manifesting long ago, famous celebrities, talented people, or exceptional people weren’t seen in public. Moreover, even Lee Hyeonseok’s secretary hadn’t been seen recently, and when I asked, he said he was suffering from manifestation fever.
From what I knew, they suffered for about a week before manifesting, then after manifesting they acted like animals in heat for about four days. It seemed that the better the traits, the longer the period. Even after manifesting ended, they struggled for several days—the more I heard, the more I thought beta was the best.
When my face showed no signs of relaxing, Lee Hyeonseok sighed and said,
“Do you know how dangerous it is outside the house?”
“Inside the house seems just as dangerous.”
“What?”
“The world is full of dangers.”
For a moment I felt like I’d become a child throwing a tantrum, so I unconsciously recalled the incident where Lee Hyeonseok almost became unable to function as a man and retorted. Lee Hyeonseok seemed to have the same thought as he asked back menacingly, so I just went along with what Lee Hyeonseok said. I went along with it while smiling, but the murderous intent didn’t disappear from his eyes.
* * *
I decided to do my proper retaking-the-exam life after graduation. Until then, I had experienced a lot in a short time, so I decided to enjoy my winter vacation while stabilizing my mind and body. Honestly, even if Lee Hyeonseok didn’t say anything, unless there was business to attend to, I didn’t particularly want to go out in winter either. I was an indoor person to begin with.
But that’s only not a problem when you have a computer or phone—as a modern person, living without a computer and phone, I was bored to death.
Lee Hyeonseok was busy with research support and cooperation related to alphas and omegas, anyway busy, so he wasn’t stuck at home. It seemed like he was making an entirely new affiliate company.
Consequently, Lee Hyeonseok was busy and I was idle. From two weeks later, I openly demanded Lee Hyeonseok give me my phone. But each time Lee Hyeonseok only told me it wasn’t good for mental health, and if I was bored to watch dramas or movies. I was fucking pissed but I held back and watched at first. But watching only that all day actually took a toll on my stamina.
When I complained to him about why on earth everyone was busy manifesting during this period, Lee Hyeonseok said it was because of the setting so it couldn’t be helped. He added that he wasn’t just saying it—right now was really a bad time, so I should obediently stay home. But staying only at home made me too frustrated.
When I thought it would be okay if I didn’t go far, just in front of the house, and tried to at least get some air in front of the house, he reproached me asking what I was thinking going around without fear when I might manifest outside. Not even in front of the house?
Finally, on the night when I, having reached my limit, was about to ask to at least let me go to the rooftop, Lee Hyeonseok pressed a paper bag into my hands.
“Here.”
“?”
I was bewildered but since he was giving it to me I accepted it, but it was quite heavy so my upper body tilted down for a moment. When I asked with my face what this was, Lee Hyeonseok tilted his head with an expressionless face telling me to take it out. It wasn’t like “I picked this up on the way.” I was dumbfounded, but seeing his eyes that seemed to have given up on something, curiosity arose and I obediently took out what was in the paper bag.
“Books?”
“……”
They were books. Since I sang the song of being bored, did he perhaps buy reference books meaning I should study? Without even looking at the book covers, I looked at Lee Hyeonseok with furrowed brows. But Lee Hyeonseok covered his forehead with one hand and made an expression like he was going crazy. He seemed like his pride was hurt. Wondering what these books were for him to be like that, I looked again at the book in my hand. It was just a book with clouds drawn on a dark night sky, but the title was strange.
“How to Devour That Bastard?”
It was a title whose content I couldn’t guess. No, I could roughly guess, but it was an unfamiliar title for the genres I’d been watching. The genres I mainly watch were documentaries, thrillers, or comedies. Lee Hyeonseok wouldn’t be unaware of that either, yet “How to Devour That Bastard.” Was he telling me to watch romance? I looked at Lee Hyeonseok again with a slightly flustered face, and he had turned his head away completely. Somehow it became awkward to speak first, so I took out other books as well.
This time it was an illustrated cover, with a picture of one man embracing another man.
“…Why Does the Young Master Call the Butler Every Night?”
I put down the book I was holding and completely upended the paper bag to take out the contents. They were all books. Some had design covers but there were also illustrations. But the illustrations, without a single exception, had two men stuck together or intensely entangled.
“Devouring My Childhood Friend, My Older Brother, Mary, How to Tame a Beast, A Rotten Bastard…”
“Stop saying them out loud.”
Lee Hyeonseok stopped me as I read the book titles one by one as if possessed. Murderous intent dwelled in his voice. No, what did I do wrong? I really couldn’t understand what Lee Hyeonseok was trying to do with me. It seemed he gave me books because I was so bored, but why did he have to give me this genre of all things…? Even though I had no interest in this genre, I could tell that these books were BL.
“…As expected, you read this kind of thing…”
