‘Huh…? I can just do it my…’
‘You can’t reach. Just stay still.’
He stopped Ido, who was trying to sit up awkwardly while feeling embarrassed, and made him lie down. He carefully rolled up the short shorts hem all the way to his buttocks. He heard a soft giggle.
‘…What.’
‘It, it tickles.’
You can laugh even in this situation… Wookyung opened the ointment cap with a sigh. The ointment cap held in hands exceptionally large even compared to other men felt smaller than a child’s toy. He carefully turned the cap with his thick thumb and index finger so as not to lose it, squeezed out the translucent ointment, and scooped it onto his finger.
‘It’ll hurt a bit.’
‘…Ah… ah.’
‘Don’t exaggerate.’
The words came out gruffly, but he knew it wasn’t an exaggeration. How much must it hurt? The tender flesh was all torn up and turning blue. Wherever Wookyung’s medicine-covered finger touched, the white skin trembled. Before he knew it, Wookyung was frowning deeply as if he were in pain himself.
‘Ah… it hurts….’
‘Of course it hurts. With all these bruises.’
He carefully switched ointments, applying bruise ointment to the bruised areas and antibiotic ointment to the torn parts. After finishing the treatment, Wookyung waved his hand back and forth like a fan to dry the affected area.
‘While I’m at it, let me apply it to other places too. Where else? Where else did you get hit?’
‘Ah… I’m fine now.’
‘Aren’t there any other places that hurt?’
‘There are but… th-that, I can do myself…’
Trailing off and blushing bright red, Wookyung realized belatedly where the affected area was and turned his head away sharply. Wookyung’s face also began to turn red as if the heat had transferred from Ido.
‘…Right. The rest… you do it then.’
It was absurd. The sight of an alpha and omega in one room unable to even face each other and turning their heads away. He was in a position to see Ido’s naked body day in and day out, but that didn’t mean his body ever felt easy to him.
‘Team Leader-nim.’
‘What.’
‘The medicine… thank you so much.’
With blushing cheeks, he bowed his head, and Wookyung extended his hand to stop Ido’s gesture of getting up to see him off.
‘It’s fine. Stay lying down like that so the medicine absorbs.’
‘…Ah…’
‘…Sleep well.’
‘Yes. You too, sleep… well.’
While other people were all starting a new day in the morning, the two exchanged good night greetings like that. Coming out and closing the door from Ido’s shabby room located in the building’s basement, Wookyung let out a small sigh. Inside the rooms lined up in a row were omegas who had once been President Park’s playthings, but these days President Park only looked for Ido, as if thoroughly captivated by him.
The omegas who had become useless would disappear without a trace. They’d probably be sent to the establishments next month. Thinking this, Wookyung exited the corridor with emotionless steps and got on the elevator.
Fatigue hit him belatedly. Standing all night listening to sounds he didn’t want to hear was quite an ordeal. As soon as he arrived at his room, Wookyung collapsed on the bed and fell asleep without even showering.
*
‘Wookyung.’
‘Yes, President.’
‘Come with me there tonight. That arcade. President Kim’s guys are coming today.’
‘Yes, understood.’
It was an order from President Park he was receiving after a long time.
Unlike the words that he’d only need to handle personal security when he first brought Wookyung, President Park also used Wookyung efficiently for the organization’s territory management. He never intended from the start to let a dominant alpha with good combat ability rot away just guarding his door comfortably.
It was work he’d started reluctantly, taking consolation in the fact that he was at least “guarding” him. Of course, he didn’t want to do the brawling that thugs do. But just like when he was first dragged here, Wookyung had no option to refuse President Park’s orders. The sponsorship money he’d received, now transformed into debt, had multiplied with interest into a massive amount strangling his family. Wookyung couldn’t disobey President Park’s orders, who threatened him by even bringing up his only younger sister.
Although he’d done judo for a long time, the actual fighting rings he was thrown into were a completely different world. He’d been stabbed with knives many times and broken bones several times. He’d been hurt so much it was miraculous he hadn’t died, but during those 2 years Wookyung’s experience had hardened and he gradually became a subordinate that satisfied President Park. Whenever there were territorial disputes with rival organizations, Wookyung, who protected President Park’s right hand, was no longer just his simple bodyguard.
Breaking into rival organizations’ territories and destroying property, beating people down. Or responding to fights picked by organizations that encroached on Daneum’s territory or sent warnings.
‘Just thug work, really.’
He hadn’t done that stuff for a while recently. Like a guard dog he was raising, the boringly routine work of just guarding President Park’s door was suspended for today.
Cracking his tired neck left and right, Wookyung sat in the back seat of the car and cast his gaze out the window. The old man too would probably be too tired to bother Yoon Ido and just go straight to sleep after this bullshit today. At least it was fortunate that he wouldn’t have to hear that fucking sound leaking through the door crack tonight.
The place they arrived at was a narrow alley lined with gambling arcades. Daneum’s organization members wearing black suits slowly crossed the alley. From the dark corners of the alley came the smell of urine and rotting food waste, making Wookyung grimace. The doors of shops dimly visible under the streetlights were full of cobwebs. The men walked silently making the sound of their dress shoes, pipes over their shoulders. Soon they stopped in front of a shop and Wookyung opened the worn sliding door.
This alley under Daneum’s management was disguised as ordinary PC rooms or arcades to avoid police crackdowns, but in secret corners of the shops, gambling machines were lined up in rows. The amount of money scraped day and night from those blind fools who rushed toward the lights like moths was quite a gold mine, so Daneum’s rival organizations constantly had their eyes on this area.
President Kim’s organization that invaded this area today was one of those groups. He was someone who had been a subordinate under President Park before, and it hadn’t been many years since he betrayed President Park and left to set up his own organization.
‘Well, well, President Park gracing us with your presence. You always just sent Choi Wookyung.’
President Kim walked out from among the large men and spat out arrogantly. As President Kim walked slowly right up to Wookyung’s front, the cheap smell of a열성 alpha wafted unpleasantly.
‘Wookyung, you son of a bitch, you unlucky bastard. It’s been a while?’
Along with a vile smile, President Kim’s palm slapped Wookyung’s face. Even at the hand tap-tapping his face unpleasantly, Wookyung stood motionless with an expressionless face. Still not withdrawing his hand touching Wookyung’s cheek, President Park swaggered and spoke.
‘President Park Youngchul, no, fuck, hyung-nim. We have a history together, so let’s share a bit. I’m not asking for this whole territory, just from here to there, is even that difficult?’
‘You little shit, there’s a limit to how much bullshit I’ll put up with.’
President Park burst out laughing as if it was absurd. Adjusting his slightly disheveled tie with emotionless hands, he gestured with his chin toward Wookyung with a bored expression.
‘Hey, what are you doing, Wookyung? Put that traitor bastard to sleep so he can’t talk nonsense.’
As soon as President Park’s words fell, Wookyung grabbed and twisted the wrist of President Kim tapping his cheek. With a gagging sound, President Kim’s eyes widened. At the same time, President Kim’s body seemed to be placed on his broad shoulders, then was instantly slammed to the floor.
With a bang! sound, President Kim’s body was driven into the ground, unable to even scream before passing out, and the opposing organization members rushed over in a fluster to pick him up. Since it was only a warning at most, President Kim’s spine remained obediently intact without being shattered.
‘You fucking bastard!’
With curses, the opposing organization members rushed in like a pack of dogs. Looking at the pipes each one was holding, Wookyung frowned. Dodging the pipes being swung wildly left and right with now-familiar movements, he placed them one by one on his shoulder and slammed them to the floor. Unlike when he slammed President Kim, with properly executed attacks, the sound of bones breaking came from the waist of the fallen man with a crack, and the man collapsed on the ground foaming at the mouth with his eyes rolled back.
‘You… crazy bastard…!’
The opposing organization members’ faces turned white seeing the fallen man. When Wookyung took one step closer, the men unconsciously stepped back. President Park Youngchul, who had withdrawn to a distance at some point, sat pulling over an arcade chair, watching the fight with an intrigued face.
‘Hey, Wookyung. Go easy. If all those kids die, that’s no fun in its own way.’
‘Understood, President.’
Answering mechanically, Wookyung tilted his head back sharply to dodge a pipe that came right up to his face. He grabbed the collar of the man who was about to fall forward with his center of gravity shifted, lifted him as is, and threw him toward the opposing organization members. Several men hit by the heavy man’s body staggered back and fell. Not missing the moment, Wookyung rushed at the men, grabbed the collar of a fallen man, and swung his fist. With a thud sound, blood burst from the nose of the man who was hit.
‘Argh!’
‘You fucking bastard….’
