To Lee Hyeonseok, the other possessor ‘Seo Jiwoo’ was quite a spectacle in many ways. No pride, no principles, easily scared, yeah. He was to the point where one would think, wow, someone can be this insignificant.
However, it wasn’t that there was nothing he liked about him—it was none other than the fact that Seo Jiwoo acted without a speck of shame, or the fact that he acted according to his own will.
At a glance, it could look like he was submitting to those with power, but his appearance that seemed to have no sense of shame was exactly like saying, ‘Here, take this and get lost.’
He couldn’t feel raw emotions. One could say he didn’t feel sincerity.
When he was scared or felt fear, at least sincerity could be felt, but it wasn’t satisfying enough.
That way, Seo Jiwoo could gain Lee Hyeonseok’s curiosity without Seo Jiwoo even knowing. If Seo Jiwoo knew, it would be a matter of bowing all the way down and begging for him to please take that curiosity back.
Then something happened that changed Lee Hyeonseok’s relatively decent curiosity into a sinister curiosity. He manifested as an Alpha before even graduating high school.
Lee Hyeonseok thought that, in his own opinion, he himself was a human who acted very much according to his own will. Even if he looked thoughtless to others and looked like he couldn’t hold back, he did what he wanted, and if he didn’t want to, he didn’t do it.
Even holding back was his own will. Society promised to call that thought, but in any case, to Lee Hyeonseok it was subtly different. He had such pride, but manifestation thoroughly trampled on that pride.
Before manifesting as an Alpha, he persuaded his family to invest in companies that appeared in the novel, preparing in his own way. Not only that, but he even participated directly as a test subject and made suppressants faster than expected.
However, since it was a test product after all, it wasn’t stable, with elements like side effects or showing effects on and off. Still, Lee Hyeonseok was confident. In any case, since there was medicine, he thought he just had to try hard himself… but that wasn’t the case.
For some reason, Lee Hyeonseok, who manifested early, became in a state where it wouldn’t be strange to call him a beast. He acted like a beast in heat, showing no reason or intelligence whatsoever. He was just a beast in human form, crazy to do it once. He showed that state in front of people. Lee Hyeonseok, who showed disgraceful behavior for about a week, felt like he would go really, really crazy enough to want to bury everyone who saw his state in the ground or drown them in the sea when his reason returned. He couldn’t be in his right mind. In fact, he wasn’t in his right mind.
Even after suffering like that, Lee Hyeonseok’s physical condition repeated getting better and getting worse.
Lee Hyeonseok was venting his anger on other unrelated people when he suddenly thought of Seo Jiwoo. Seo Jiwoo, who had no pride and no principles.
In Lee Hyeonseok’s view, Seo Jiwoo was also a human who acted according to his own will like himself. He had no pride and no principles, but there wasn’t an inch of hesitation in carrying out what he chose. Even anger, fear, or scaredness were just basic behavioral patterns according to the situation, and no sincerity could be seen. Just not losing reason and according to his own will.
Those actions that were somewhat to his liking were reconsidered after Lee Hyeonseok lost his will and acted according to instinct, behaving in his raw state.
Lee Hyeonseok had to somehow see Seo Jiwoo also lose his reason. He felt like he’d only be satisfied if he saw him express raw emotions as they were. It was fine to call him despicable, fine to call him sinister. Even he thought he was trash in terms of character, and a lunatic.
While worrying if there was a good method, he heard that Cheon Jaekyung had bribed gangsters. When he investigated, it seemed they were going to prevent him from taking the college entrance exam. Probably knowing that Lee Juwon got beaten while covering for Seo Jiwoo, he was probably thinking of plunging Seo Jiwoo into an abyss of despair. Because preventing an exam student from taking the exam was really not something to do as a human.
Lee Hyeonseok thought, it’s still the college entrance exam though, and considered telling Seo Jiwoo. But he was still curious how Seo Jiwoo would come out if he couldn’t take the exam on exam day. He dragged his unwell body to school so emotions would intensify more later. And after throwing one meaningful remark at Seo Jiwoo, he immediately left early.
On exam day, Lee Hyeonseok’s physical condition was fortunately not bad. That didn’t mean it was good either though. Lee Hyeonseok was at the same exam site as Seo Jiwoo, so he went to the testing classroom first to look for Seo Jiwoo. Seo Jiwoo didn’t come. Lee Hyeonseok, who only returned to his classroom 5 minutes before exam time, anticipated that he’d be able to see Seo Jiwoo explode today.
His physical condition that wasn’t bad gradually got worse as time passed.
Lee Hyeonseok, who barely finished the exam, pushed away the guards who had been waiting for him to finish and moved his steps to a remote place. He didn’t want to be with others. Just thinking that someone might see his disgraceful state, he hated it enough to be able to cut off that person’s breath.
Whether it was because Lee Hyeonseok’s physical condition was sluggish, his head was also hazy like fog had set in. He was thinking of quickly catching a taxi and getting a hotel, but unexpectedly discovered Seo Jiwoo. Strength suddenly entered Lee Hyeonseok’s sluggish body. His head also started to clear up. Thinking he could see Seo Jiwoo’s exploding, raw appearance, he even became excited.
But Seo Jiwoo was very calm. He didn’t even look like he had cried. Seo Jiwoo, who was fixing his gaze on his phone screen, didn’t notice Lee Hyeonseok. Lee Hyeonseok was displeased by that. He deliberately blocked the way, but when Seo Jiwoo just avoided the way and went forward, Lee Hyeonseok quickly blocked his way again.
Only then did Seo Jiwoo raise his head. His furrowed brow had no emotion toward the college entrance exam anywhere. There was just faint displeasure toward the person blocking his direction of travel.
No, that wasn’t even displeasure. It was just an unconscious action done emotionlessly about having his actions blocked.
Lee Hyeonseok pretended to be nonchalant and provoked Seo Jiwoo. Seo Jiwoo was flustered at first, but Lee Hyeonseok knew that Seo Jiwoo, who was perceptive, would realize what his words meant. As Lee Hyeonseok thought, Seo Jiwoo thought for a while, then asked informally.
Did he know?
Only then did Lee Hyeonseok feel his mood improve a bit. Lee Hyeonseok was putting away that emotion to not show it and missed the timing to answer, but Seo Jiwoo asked once more. But in the time Lee Hyeonseok missed the timing, Jiwoo had also become calm again. Because Seo Jiwoo asked emotionlessly, Lee Hyeonseok also answered equally emotionlessly.
Lee Hyeonseok once again pretended to be nonchalant and provoked Seo Jiwoo. The result was absolutely astounding. He seemed shocked, but it didn’t seem like his emotions would explode at all. He wondered how one could be this calm about one of life’s important matters. He definitely didn’t seem to feel nothing, but he didn’t seem to be resigned either… it was incomprehensible.
Lee Hyeonseok ultimately couldn’t hold back and asked directly, but couldn’t see what he wanted. As his thoughts became complicated, his fever started rising again. Lee Hyeonseok roughly finished the conversation promising a later time and left the spot first.
Lee Hyeonseok leaned against a wall and answered a call from the security team leader who was calling him. It was content asking him to tell them his location so they could come pick him up, but he growled and refused, then ended the call. Whether it was because he got angry, his head got hotter and he staggered for a moment, so wanting to rest a bit, he tried to go to an alley he happened to see. Then, the sound of someone running was heard.
Lee Hyeonseok, who would normally have reacted nimbly, had a delayed reaction due to his shitty physical condition, and ended up getting headbutted by Seo Jiwoo just like that.
This was Lee Hyeonseok’s first time experiencing such an absurd thing. Blood flowed down. Seo Jiwoo asked with a face seeking praise if he was satisfied, and Lee Hyeonseok couldn’t believe how ridiculous that was. The moment he was about to say one word asking if he was crazy, he hit the wall with a meowing sound.
Ah. Lee Hyeonseok felt his state was quite a spectacle. In vulgar terms, it was even fucking ridiculous.
Seo Jiwoo called Lee Hyeonseok in surprise, but Lee Hyeonseok was already in a state where his anger had risen to the limit. He was about to beat him to death, but his consciousness was flickering and he absolutely wasn’t in a state where he could speak properly.
Seo Jiwoo was very shameless. To be this shameless even after headbutting. Lee Hyeonseok seriously thought that even if Seo Jiwoo wasn’t a psychopath, he might be around a sociopath.
Then Lee Hyeonseok snapped to attention at Seo Jiwoo’s words about calling 119 and with the last remaining strength stopped him, then demanded to go to a place where no one was.
And Lee Hyeonseok lost consciousness.
* * *
“…Crazy.”
I saw a flashback.
I got a fucking huge shaft from my half-sibling, got a shaft while having Seo Jiwoo wrapped around my palm, and while seeing such a flashback, I came to my senses at the sound of digging the ground going ‘thud. thuud, thud’ somewhere.
Whether all the fever had gone down, my whole body felt refreshed. It was even light. While being satisfied with my light physical condition, I noticed that the surroundings were dark. It seemed to be night.
The moment I tried to think to grasp the situation, I heard the sound of digging something going ‘thud,’ ‘thuud’ that I heard earlier. When I turned my head toward the direction of the sound, Seo Jiwoo was digging the ground with a shovel.
Seo Jiwoo.
Right. I got headbutted by Seo Jiwoo.
Though he was wearing a hat and mask, I could be certain it was Seo Jiwoo. As if he had been digging for a while, the depth of the pit was quite deep. If I went in, it was deep enough to bury up to the ankles. Seo Jiwoo, who was digging the ground not knowing I had woken up, took off his hat and mask to wipe his sweat. And while gulping down water, he turned his head toward me.
Our eyes met exactly.
Seo Jiwoo was so surprised that he forgot to swallow the water and drooled water down. And then he was shocked as if a criminal fact had been discovered. It was the most vivid expression among all the expressions I’d seen so far. I was somewhat satisfied when Seo Jiwoo shouted in a flustered voice.
“I-It’s a misunderstanding…!”
What’s a misunderstanding?
