It was miserable to end up aroused while being hit, but his thoughts kept flowing in that direction.
“No way.”
It must just be because of pheromones. Saehyeon tried hard to think that way and drove out the strange leather gloves and whip from his mind.
Within the range Saehyeon remembered, he was a sexually fastidious person. To be honest, he’d never even properly masturbated. He’d been so plain he was like a monk—there was no way he could have such sexual proclivities… Probably.
“This is delicious. Hehe.”
While the child diligently ate fried rice and seaweed soup, even in front of the dining table, Saehyeon’s thoughts wouldn’t stop.
Even if he roughly brushed off yesterday’s sudden actions by Gil Taeseo and his own physical reactions as the influence of pheromones, it wasn’t the end. That was the second problem.
Lastly.
Saehyeon recalled Gil Taeseo’s appearance from yesterday. It was mostly dark places or he’d been backlit, and he’d been too out of it to look properly, but.
Even in that situation, this much was certain. Gil Taeseo had truly become a picture-perfect alpha.
His physique, still beautiful enough to make one gasp, seemed to have upgraded even further. The flow of time had left Gil Taeseo’s beauty as it was, only peeling away just one layer of boyish immaturity. And it had densely filled that space with other things. Things like maturity and intimidation.
The way he suppressed and pressed down opponents with overwhelming force, the way he commanded people casually. Expensive clothes, and from the talk of ownership and masters, he definitely had a lot of money too.
Thinking about the rumors during school days that he was the illegitimate son of a gangster family, he might have inherited the family business.
‘He said he hated it so much.’
It was questionable how the young master who extremely hated getting involved with his family and despised desire had become like that. Though it wasn’t incomprehensible.
People originally changed their minds easily and were beings of endless desire. Moreover, the more money the better was also an immutable truth.
Anyway, the crux was that the 28-year-old Gil Taeseo was a very successful alpha. Like in dramas or novels. Except for his personality, from his appearance to his wealth, there would definitely be nothing to criticize.
Then what about the 28-year-old Lee Saehyeon? Honestly, he was so poor and unseemly that comparing was pointless. No health, no future, no money… what the hell did he have? If he had to list what he had…
‘A body that could go any day…’
And maybe this Gil Taeseo mini-me.
Saehyeon’s eyes swept over the cheeks that had become puffy from stuffing in a handful of fried rice. The child, feeling the gaze, tilted his head.
“Hm?”
“Nothing. Eat well. Give me a bite of that too?”
“Okay!”
Anyway, removing all the praise for Gil Taeseo and pessimism about his own situation and organizing just the main point, it was this: Gil Taeseo had nothing to regret, and Saehyeon had problems that only Gil Taeseo could solve. In other words, he had to… cling to him. With your pheromones and effort, please treat me.
“It’s not something I can do in my right mind…”
The more he thought about it, the more absurd and truly ironic it was. He who had been obsessed with money and success had become a mayfly with nothing, while Gil Taeseo, who had been disgusted by such things and said he’d live leisurely, was instead living enjoying wealth and power.
Anyway, as long as Saehyeon’s right mind was alive, he couldn’t become a pitiful omega in a drama clinging to an unlucky bastard’s pant legs.
‘I have no choice… no, but.’
There were eyes quietly watching Saehyeon, who went back and forth between shabby morning dramas like Count Ashura and divorced success stories.
The child’s eyes, gripping the rice spoon tightly and moving his mouth, were fixed on his dad’s face. Eyes that had sparkled like finding a lost glass bead among countless grains of sand soon lost strength and dropped heavily to the floor.
“…I can wait well.”
Because I promised Dad.
“Huh?”
At the child’s words, Saehyeon lowered his gaze that had been looking into space. The child, noticing Dad’s gaze was fixed on his face, deliberately smiled brightly.
When he did this, Dad would always stare blankly then smile along. After giggling and rolling around the blankets together with hands tickling his sides, the dark clouds would have all run away and his chest would become fluffy like cotton candy.
So he had to smile more, smile wider. Even if the expected reaction didn’t come back. Because Dad seemed to be having a really hard time right now.
“Mm-hm. It’s nothing!”
Saehyeon, who had been watching the beaming face, let out a powerless laugh. His hand, which had put down the utensil long ago and been resting on his lap, patted the child’s head. Even though his head shook left and right from the clumsy, unskilled touch, the child giggled as if happy.
“What do you want for dinner?”
“What we ate yesterday! That was delishush.”
The child’s smiling face and the continuing trivial conversations swept away complicated thoughts.
‘…Right. Anyway, we probably won’t be facing each other for a while.’
Actually, thinking about it, whether they’d fought with fists or been bad friends before, or slept… together a few times while he couldn’t remember, it was all irrelevant now. It wasn’t like they’d had exchanges or love in the meantime.
Since the worlds and positions the two people lived in had changed like this, it was natural that the relationship would be hard to continue unless one side desperately clung with purpose.
Gil Taeseo’s side had nothing to regret, and Saehyeon was in a situation where he couldn’t muster the resolve to crumple his face and become the protagonist of a melodrama. Except for Saehyeon’s physical condition, there wasn’t a single factor urging a decision.
So let’s think carefully and steel his resolve. Saehyeon pushed this worry to the far end like that. It was an instinctive avoidance made by his extremely stressed mind.
Though it was like a sweet dream that would break soon.
***
Looking back, it had been quite strange days.
The convenience store where Saehyeon was employed did business well enough to add extra money on top of minimum wage. Though the proportion of problem customers was overwhelmingly high, people came and went until the threshold wore down. Until before.
So he really thought this much:
“…Did the world end without me knowing?”
Saehyeon unconsciously leaned out from the counter and looked outside. Originally, he would have definitely hidden behind the counter, pulled up his top as much as possible, buried his face, and acted like a hedgehog with its spines raised. But since people weren’t coming so much, his tension gradually loosened and at this point he was really curious.
…It was also true that he worried whether he’d be cleanly cut while only flies were buzzing around like this.
At first, he thought it was great because there were no people, but when it continued for several days, the worry became reality and gradually deepened.
“…Hey.”
“Oh, yes, hyung!”
He even went as far as directly speaking to the part-timer from the previous shift. It was when the part-timer, Kim Woohyeon, was about to sullenly give a greeting, expecting to be coldly rejected again today.
In front of someone asking with delight, Saehyeon hesitated. The more he dragged it out, the more the other person’s eyes brightened, and he even saw the illusion of a tail wagging behind him, so it became more and more burdensome.
“By any chance, is this place… going under?”
“Huh?”
“…Was wondering if there are no people during your shift too.”
“Aha…”
A big question mark appeared on his tanned face.
“Umm… hmm…”
“…I get it even if you don’t say it. Never mind. Have a good night.”
“Oh! Hyung, I haven’t finished talking yet!”
Only during his own shift… Saehyeon drove out Woohyeon, who was trying to persist, outside the door with light taps of a broom, then fell into thought again. Even the familiar regulars disappearing completely along with new customers was a strange thing no matter how he thought about it.
Ah, except for Mr. Gwak.
After having his precious stepped on by the part-timer he’d been ignoring so much, it seemed impossible for him to come and go here normally. He’d thought he might come to get revenge, but seeing that he wasn’t coming…
“Looks like he didn’t become crippled.”
It seemed he’d recovered without functional problems, and Gil Taeseo, who seemed to have money, must have stuck him with plenty of settlement money. He wished he’d become impotent, what a shame.
In the end, Saehyeon awkwardly sat in the counter without a single customer today and left the store. He couldn’t properly concentrate on the problem books he would have looked at intermittently or his phone that loaded infinitely several times.
There was also the reason that his thoughts unconsciously flowed to Gil Taeseo, making his head complicated again. Come to think of it, he owed a debt regarding Mr. Gwak too, and his head ached over how to write that off.
Like that, a strange but fairly peaceful day was ending. No, he thought it was ending.
The moment he left the door, habitually pulling on his hoodie, and was about to turn around.
“You… what.”
If only he hadn’t seen someone unexpected. The man who had been leaning his back against the wall slowly raised his head and looked this way.
Even at the words that flew out suddenly, the man showed no sign of surprise. He spat the cigarette he’d been holding in his mouth onto the ground, then straightened his body. Following that movement, the shadow quickly lengthened and approached Saehyeon’s feet.
“You work for a long time.”
The man who brushed off his coat hem leisurely moved his steps. The way the front of his body brightened with a clear boundary was like immersing his body in light. Unhesitatingly, and mercilessly.
“I thought my cock would fall off from waiting.”
Like a game boss that suddenly appeared in the beginner zone, Gil Taeseo smiled.
