“For an Omega, you’ve got a ridiculously high nose in the air. Huh?”
A stinging sensation rose from the fingertips clawing at the arm wrapped around his neck. Through the sensation like being gouged with a needle, Saehyeon could feel that Mr. Gwak was even mobilizing his pheromones.
Many things could be felt from it. Even in a situation where he couldn’t sense pheromones, the so-called second sense, it was like that.
Things like contempt and filthy greed toward an Omega who could be trampled at any time, and a cocky Omega at that, were things that could be understood well enough without that. They were terrible things he had never experienced once when living as a Beta.
“You must be lonely without a man too, so stop being difficult. Or even if one part of you becomes crippled, I don’t know…”
A situation he couldn’t escape no matter how much he struggled, hands beginning to grope his body. Amidst the obscene talk that only brought humiliation, Saehyeon felt something surge up and strike his chest with a thud.
It wasn’t something like despair. It was much hotter than that, the kind that burst out. Things Saehyeon had wrapped himself in his whole life. Things like rage and defiance.
When Saehyeon stopped struggling, the man snorted as if he knew it would be like this. But what came at the man wasn’t lewd pleasure but a blunt pain that made him involuntarily groan.
It was because Saehyeon had struck up at the man’s solar plexus with his elbow with all his strength while the man was off guard.
“Agh!”
The memories after that weren’t clear. He just remembered that he quickly got away, and that he targeted another vital point.
A vital point that could subdue a man with a large size difference in one go, and a part very suitable for pouring out rage in this situation. Directly at the filthy dickhead like Mr. Gwak himself. While stomping, he didn’t forget to slightly adjust the angle, remembering he’d heard somewhere that balls hurt more.
The rapid neutering of guys like this must surely be what saves our society. At least, Saehyeon was convinced of that.
Saehyeon stomped several more times hard. Thud, thud. Each time he trampled down, the body curled up like a maggot trembled and convulsed.
When the man finally staggered back, Saehyeon was heaving his chest and gasping for breath as if he had run at full speed.
Now in the deserted and damp alley, there was only the Alpha frothing and writhing, and the Omega with a pale complexion leaning against the wall.
Or so he thought.
“Who’s making such a fucking racket outside to piss off people passing by?”
A sharp voice pierced through the alley where a strange lull had been continuing.
Saehyeon stiffened at that moment. Part of it was that his body was already tense from the series of events, but it was also because he felt a different sense of dissonance.
The man’s voice, full of irritation, sounded exactly like a low growl. The rough voice and curses scratching at his throat were somehow familiar.
Two desires collided in that instant. The impulse to run away from this place immediately and the impulse to raise his head and confirm the man’s identity clashed fiercely inside. At the end of the intense conflict, the latter was the one that gained the upper hand.
Saehyeon slowly raised his head. At the end of the alley where pale light poured in, a man with a cigarette in his mouth stood tall.
Pale-colored hair flowed down his slightly tilted head as if displeased. His deeply furrowed brow, ash-gray eyes similar to what was falling from the end of his cigarette. Even the smoke slowly rising between his thin lips. It was clearly an unfamiliar yet familiar face.
And that face and gaze clung to Saehyeon like glue. The stare, as if entranced, scrutinized his entire body like a dissection.
It seemed to doubt his very existence as if what was here was a ghost, yet at the same time, it also looked like he couldn’t take his eyes away.
“……Lee Saehyeon?”
Saehyeon held his breath. It was that man. Perhaps the starting point of all this, and the person who might be the solution.
“Gil…… Taeseo.”
It was a scene that would be hard to stage deliberately.
The location: a shabby and unsightly alley with a sexual harasser who had been physically neutered rolling around at their feet.
The parties involved: the human dick-chopping machine Omega who had carried it out, and his enemy and baby daddy and the Alpha most likely to be the cure.
‘Is this…… right?’
The dramatic reunion after several years was accomplished so absurdly and suddenly.
***
It wasn’t that he hadn’t thought about Gil Taeseo. In Saehyeon’s view, the key to all of this was ‘Lee Saehyeon’s’ memories, and the only way to regain his memories was to treat the broken pheromone gland. And for that, he needed Gil Taeseo.
Though he had set the goal of saving up for treatment costs, that wasn’t the ultimate solution. It wasn’t that he didn’t know that. He just wanted to avoid it.
There were more than enough reasons. First, realistically, the way to meet him was remote. He didn’t even know where he was or what he was doing now, and after that much time had passed, wasn’t the possibility high that his contact information had changed?
But in truth, what he thought was the biggest problem inwardly was different. It was because he had absolutely no idea what kind of face he should use to confront him.
The Gil Taeseo that Lee Saehyeon remembered, the Gil Taeseo he couldn’t remember. He couldn’t confidently step forward in front of either of them.
Meeting with this wretched appearance that could die any day was also terribly awful. But then what should he say?
Take responsibility? Help me? Or should he confess why and how they ended up like this?
None of those were words that the human called Lee Saehyeon could bring up in his right mind.
“Lee Saehyeon.”
But like this, so absurdly. To be reunited in such a terribly shabby state.
Saehyeon bit his lips tightly with his head hung low, when the man who had been standing like a minister at the end of the alley suddenly moved his feet.
The footsteps that were taken slowly at first gradually became more unrestrained. His pitch-black shoes fiercely trampled the damp and dirty ground.
“This motherfucker, who did this to you……”
Hearing the words spat out as if chewing viciously, Saehyeon squeezed his eyes shut. Yeah, in fact, this was also one of his worries.
They were originally closer to a relationship where they grabbed each other’s collars rather than hands, and exchanged fists rather than applause. Then what about now?
They were living like complete strangers even after having a child together. It could be inferred that one side didn’t seek out the other even while dying, and the other side wasn’t even curious whether they were dead or alive.
Maybe they had come to hate each other so much that they absolutely detested each other, to the point where even if one died, they wouldn’t even go to the funeral to pay condolences.
If they were such a relationship, it wouldn’t be strange if a fist came flying as soon as they faced each other, he thought. And if that happened, it would be a huge problem.
Previously, he could have been hit once and gritted his teeth to hit back twice, but now, the moment he got hit, wasn’t his body in a state where he could immediately buy a fast-track pass to the afterlife express train?
‘Last words…… what do people usually leave as last words.’
It was when he was thinking thoughts that didn’t fit the situation and squeezing his eyes shut. A large hand that approached in an instant grabbed his arm and shoulder and pulled him around.
“Doing such shitty things.”
When he suddenly raised his head that had been lowered, there was a pitch-black back before his eyes. While Saehyeon was confused, Gil Taeseo glanced slightly at Saehyeon behind him and muttered curses.
“Fuck, I’m also… so my hands also……”
He muttered too quickly and mixed in curses here and there, so it was impossible to know exactly what he was saying.
Before Saehyeon could come to his senses, a sleek shoe kicked the head of the man who had been writhing. Along with the sound of something hard breaking, Mr. Gwak let out an even more chaotic scream. It seemed the man, who had raised his upper body at some point, had been reaching out to grab Saehyeon.
Each time his long legs thrust out, sounds that shouldn’t come from a human body were made. The sound of bones breaking, the sound of something bursting out… from some point on, even the groaning sounds could no longer be heard.
Even though he couldn’t see the exact state hidden behind the surging large back, he felt an intimidating presence enough to freeze his body.
The face he’d seen earlier was definitely Gil Taeseo’s. There couldn’t be two people with that kind of face, could there? But that man was clearly a stranger to Saehyeon.
The teenager who met Gil Taeseo and fought viciously, the 20-year-old who had entered a lull but still didn’t stop grabbing the other’s weaknesses and collar.
Gil Taeseo gave the impression that he wouldn’t lose to anyone and actually was like that, but he was never the type to be obsessed with winning or fighting.
Rather, it even felt like he wouldn’t get involved in useless fights and held back appropriately. A boy who could grasp anything if he just reached out, but walked freely and leisurely with empty hands. That was the Gil Taeseo that Lee Saehyeon remembered.
But the man with the pitch-black back standing before him now wasn’t like that. Even with sounds of someone dying, there wasn’t a moment’s hesitation in the movements trampling down without care. Indelible madness and power could be felt, as if blindly immersed in a goal.
Like a beast in a dogfighting ring that once it starts biting, no one can stop it, and would attack whether it’s the owner or others.
It was when Saehyeon unconsciously stepped back. Just because something bumped against his heel, he fell noisily like autumn leaves in the wind, thud.
“Uh, uhhh.”
He tried to get up again in panic, but strength wouldn’t enter his body. Looking down for a moment, he saw his hands trembling. It seemed the shock he had briefly forgotten in the urgent situation was belatedly coming to his body.
At that sound, the man whipped his head around. Half-consumed by the dark night and shadows, Saehyeon could only see half of that beautiful face. His murkily clouded eyes glinted like sharp metal catching the light.
