Ido’s eyes widened as if about to pop out. The hand that hurriedly came out from under the blanket to examine Wookyung’s wound was as pale as his face.
“Wh-what do I do? Your face, your face… there’s blood…! Oh, what do I do….”
His hands trembled violently. In a panic, he hurriedly grabbed a towel from the corner and pressed it against Wookyung’s face where blood was gushing out. Watching the towel quickly soak with red blood, tears rolled down Ido’s eyes drop by drop.
“Wh-what do I do… your face… the blood won’t, won’t stop. The wound is too big.”
“Ido-ya, I’m okay.”
“Right now, we need to go to the hospital first, no, to the hospital… with, with this much blood….”
Before he knew it, his small forehead was drenched with cold sweat that had seeped through. His rambling voice shook pitifully. Wookyung called Ido’s name in a calm tone.
“Calm down. Yoon Ido.”
He pulled the slender body into his arms and held him tight. Removing the hair that stuck to him, Wookyung patted Ido’s back. The blood flowing from Wookyung’s face stained Ido’s face and shoulders, but no one cared about it.
“I’m okay. I told you, I get hurt often. This will heal quickly too, so you don’t need to worry so much.”
“But….”
“It’s okay. Ido-ya, I’m really okay.”
Wookyung carelessly wiped his blood-stained lips with the back of his hand. His eyes looking down at Ido gleamed sharp as a honed blade. Grasping Ido’s hands, Wookyung spoke with emphasis.
“…And. More than that….”
The words President Park had carelessly spouted bothered him. Right now Ido seemed too distracted caring for Wookyung’s wound, but earlier he must have heard it too. The words that he was sick of them and would send them all down. More than his own knife wound, he worried about Ido’s heart that would shake anxiously at those words.
“What President Park said earlier, you won’t be going to a place like that.”
“But….”
Ido hung his head low.
“…How….”
“I’ll… figure out a way.”
His murmuring voice was gloomy. However, Wookyung’s eyes speaking as if making a promise gleamed sharp as a honed blade.
“Go to the dormitory and rest. Ido-ya.”
“Team Leader….”
“Trust me… and just hold on a little longer.”
He held Ido tight as he clung to him trembling with anxiety like a child. Wiping his damp back, he stroked Ido’s head for a long while. When the trembling subsided, Wookyung slowly separated Ido from his embrace. Then he opened a drawer and rummaged inside.
Taking something out, Wookyung grasped Ido’s hand and pressed a small object into it.
“…Team Leader. What is… this?”
“My… treasure.”
Wookyung forced the corners of his mouth up to smile. Right now, soothing this child’s anxiety was the top priority. On Ido’s white, small palm, a ring was shining in the morning sunlight.
“My mother left behind… her only remaining keepsake.”
“This… to me… why would you give me something so precious….”
Ido looked at him with a surprised face. Wookyung reached out and wrapped Ido’s hand, curling his fingers to clutch the ring.
“Because now you’re precious to me.”
The weight of the gold in his hand pressed down on Ido’s chest. He had mentioned in passing before that his mother had passed away from illness. The weight of the sincerity in giving him the keepsake his mother had left behind didn’t feel light at all. A heavy and stinging pain in his chest washed over him.
“…Team Leader….”
“I absolutely… won’t send you to a dangerous place.”
The arms that held Ido with strength were solid. His scarred, dark arms wrapped around Ido’s body without a gap. Burying his nose in his scent like dried grass, Ido closed his eyes. Right now, at this moment, he was the only person in the world he could trust.
“So don’t worry and wait for me.”
“…Yes. I’ll wait.”
Transparent tears flowed down Ido’s cheeks. At the same time, blood flowing from Wookyung’s jaw stained Ido’s shoulder. Even as they helplessly became soaked in each other’s bodily fluids, the two embraced for a long while.
In the end, Wookyung laid down on the bed, holding the slender waist of Ido who climbed on top of him shedding tears. Their movements were urgent as they hastily explored each other’s lips and bodies. Between kisses came the fishy smell of blood and the salty taste of tears.
“Never again… will you have to enter President Park’s room.”
Along with the promise, a sharp pain swept across the back of Ido’s neck. Wookyung’s pheromones seeped deeply into the wound on his neck that had been savagely bitten.
Trembling for a long while as he laboriously accepted the dominant alpha’s pheromones, Ido didn’t back down and climbed onto his waist. An identical wound appeared on the back of Wookyung’s neck as well. Deeply imprinting their pheromones on each other, the two embraced each other like that for a long while.
*
Around one in the afternoon, it started to rain. The brilliant sunlight that had covered the morning disappeared behind dark clouds. The surroundings grew dim and thick humidity pressed down damply on the skin.
Heavy footsteps headed toward the executive director’s office where Lim Moojin was. Before going to find him, he had tried to rest his eyes even for a couple hours, but it was futile. Though he hadn’t slept a wink since last night, sleep wouldn’t come. His sharply awakened nerves stood on edge like a honed blade, endlessly urging and pressing Wookyung.
That it was time to go find Lim Moojin now.
He was someone who had been sending secret overtures to Wookyung from before. A bold man who dared to approach Wookyung even while under Park Youngchul’s power within the same organization, he had dug in targeting the fact that Wookyung had been forced to join the organization unable to resist President Park’s threats.
“Team Leader Choi Wookyung, won’t you work with me and really get things done?”
When he first received that proposal, Wookyung had refused. Though his desire to escape from under President Park was more desperate than anyone’s, he knew well the fearfulness of this kind of organization. Because he was directly part of a group that latched onto targeted victims and sucked their lifeblood dry until not a drop remained. If they failed, it was as clear as day that what President Park would do to his family would be too horrific to even imagine.
However, Lim Moojin didn’t give up there and urged Wookyung several times.
“Come to my room the day your mind changes.”
He thought that day would never come. The violent daily life he had become accustomed to had left stains on Wookyung’s life, and the deeply seeped contamination couldn’t be erased. It was already too late to go out into society and live exchanging good influences with others like other people.
He had already become something like a social evil. Unwelcome to anyone. Even his mother had been shocked by his appearance and departed from this world, so he thought there couldn’t possibly be anyone who would fully accept someone like him. Because there was no reason to risk danger and overturn this daily life, Executive Director Lim’s proposal had been cast into the depths of Wookyung’s consciousness.
However, after falling in love with Ido, Wookyung had often thought. Perhaps there might come a day when he would seek out Executive Director Lim on his own feet.
And today was exactly that day.
After telling his secretary that he had arrived, while waiting, Wookyung let out a small sigh through his teeth. Soon following the secretary’s guidance to enter, Wookyung stepped inside the room.
Thick pheromones were pooled throughout his room. The man who had been working on something at his desk slowly raised his head. A crystal nameplate that read ‘Executive Director Lim Moojin’ was shining in the light.
The man dressed impeccably in a suit was in his early forties but looked much younger than his age. A bold man daring enough to make such a dangerous proposal to Wookyung casually, and to gamble with the confidence that Wookyung wouldn’t tell President Park about those words. His eyes were fierce and glistened with living ambition. His pitch-black eyes evoked the deep sea capable of extinguishing any life.
A man with dangerous eyes no matter when you see him. Thinking this, Wookyung bowed his head with an expressionless face.
“Hello.”
“Team Leader Choi coming to my room….”
Without any greeting, Lim Moojin suddenly spoke. Pulling the corners of his mouth taut, he smiled generously at Wookyung.
“Does this mean what I’m hoping for will happen?”
Though his mouth was smiling, his eyes still seemed to sting. Black ambition writhed like a snake inside his eyes trying to grasp Wookyung’s intentions. Meeting his cool gaze head-on, Wookyung stared at him expressionlessly. The murderous intent ready to stamp on the neck of the snake in Executive Director Lim’s eyes mixed with Wookyung’s pheromones and ran wild.
“That’s correct.”
Finally Wookyung opened his mouth. Lim Moojin slowly rose from his seat. Approaching Wookyung closely, he seemed to have no intention of hiding his excitement. His eyes gleaming with wildness, he extended his hand to Wookyung.
“Good. Team Leader Choi. From this moment when you join hands with me, Choi Wookyung is now my person.”
“However, I have a condition.”
Looking at Executive Director Lim with eyes like blazing flames, Wookyung slowly opened his mouth. Executive Director Lim looked with interested eyes at the man who dared to set conditions with him, someone who would become the new leader of the organization.
“What is it?”
“While I carry out the job.”
