The effect was outstanding.
Seo Jiwoo, who had heard the news of completion ahead of Lee Hyeonseok by no less, asked Lee Hyeonseok for the suppressant with a flushed face that couldn’t be seen as someone who’d been living like a dead person for months until just before. Though he acted gruffly, asking if he’d reserved one, he eventually placed the suppressant in Seo Jiwoo’s hands at the sight of Seo Jiwoo being excited for the first time in a while.
Even though the suppressant was harsh, perhaps because it was also that effective, Seo Jiwoo passed through his heat smoothly. Even though he looked quite stupid groaning while grinning that it was good, Lee Hyeonseok decided to think positively since it wasn’t like he couldn’t understand the feeling.
If only Seo Jiwoo hadn’t excitedly left the house.
Lee Hyeonseok concluded that Seo Jiwoo’s outing happened because he’d let it slide without scolding him when he secretly left the house once last year.
Seo Jiwoo, who was caught in less than a minute, protested huffily even upon seeing Lee Hyeonseok, and Hyeonseok was dumbfounded thinking he must have been looked down upon quite considerably. How ridiculous and untrustworthy must he have been for Seo Jiwoo to be so brazen even after breaking his word—he wanted to slam Seo Jiwoo’s face into a wall right away. However, when it came to actually carrying it out, he didn’t feel like it.
But if he let it slide, Lee Hyeonseok was certain he’d repeat the same thing next time, so he had no choice but to let Seo Jiwoo see something slightly painful. Belatedly, Seo Jiwoo noticed that Lee Hyeonseok was unusual, but Lee Hyeonseok had already made up his mind.
Seo Jiwoo swung his fist at Lee Hyeonseok, trying to resist even without properly understanding the situation, and Lee Hyeonseok, knowing Seo Jiwoo wasn’t the type to obediently submit to his violence, intended to let him hit once. Even then, he didn’t know a hole would be made in the back of his hand.
He told Secretary Cha, who arrived just then, that Seo Jiwoo had done it. Seeing Secretary Cha accept it without any question, Lee Hyeonseok suddenly worried whether it was okay to let Seo Jiwoo go outside. It wasn’t a joke—he really wondered if one day he’d come back after accidentally killing someone. That was one of the reasons Lee Hyeonseok blocked Seo Jiwoo’s outings. Covering up murder was a tricky matter even for Lee Hyeonseok.
Anyway, Lee Hyeonseok really showed Seo Jiwoo something painful. For Seo Jiwoo, who thought it would slide this time too, it seemed to be a huge shock.
He was someone who knew how to keep his word. As a person doing business, he knew well how effective ‘actions over words’ were. So Lee Hyeonseok could say he had no regrets about this action.
Only until Seo Jiwoo refused to eat.
Without going far, from the employees to Lee Hyeonseok, everyone knew Seo Jiwoo had developed depression. Seo Jiwoo himself wasn’t unaware either. He just acted like someone who didn’t feel the severity yet. If it was fortunate, the meals he’d been forcing down were cut off completely after he sustained light bruises all over his body.
Lee Hyeonseok, angry to the top of his head, wondering ‘Is he planning to starve himself to death,’ forcibly shoved dog food into Seo Jiwoo’s mouth and kissed him. After that, perhaps deflated for another reason, he read Lee Hyeonseok’s mood to an odd degree. Lee Hyeonseok, not liking that, deliberately got under his skin.
For Lee Hyeonseok, it was an action done with the hope that he’d perk up, and to others it would look like something only an immature child would do. If Seo Jiwoo had been fine, it would have been behavior he’d ignore, not wanting to deal with. But receiving it when he wasn’t fine, he was busy feeling suffocated and tense.
Lee Hyeonseok would blame Seo Jiwoo for not listening and making things this way, then regret, ‘Should I have just moderately dealt with one spot?’ When Seo Jiwoo looked at him going outside with envious eyes, he even felt a very slight sense of guilt. That quiet, deflated appearance weighed on his mind this much. For Lee Hyeonseok, it was quite an exceptional emotion.
What was this thing called love, the culmination of irrationality that made emotions swing wildly and made one’s feelings rise and fall because of another person? Lee Hyeonseok, who ended up feeling regret and guilt he’d never felt once in his life, didn’t want to believe or acknowledge his feelings at all.
“I should have killed him earlier…”
Lee Hyeonseok deeply regretted that he should have killed Seo Jiwoo earlier. No, even if he’d just beaten him enough not to die on the day he first cracked his head, things wouldn’t have turned out this way. It was regret that was far too late, even if it was late.
“What’s so special about that bastard?”
It was truly maddening and infuriating. Unlike Lee Hyeonseok’s thought that it would end soon even when he confessed last year, far from ending, there wasn’t even a sign of getting tired. Originally, if it were him, seeing someone weakly drooped down should have made him sick of the sight. Whether tired or not, they should have gone their separate ways by now, but he didn’t feel like it. On the contrary, his nonexistent conscience and guilt kept poking their heads in, asking if they’d called for them.
“Oh, I’m sorry!”
“Haah… Fuck…”
Lee Hyeonseok, who had been lost in thought while taking a cold shower for a while, let out a deep sigh along with a curse at the voice heard from behind.
“I thought no one was here. I didn’t know you were here…”
Contrary to his apologetic words, the man approached Lee Hyeonseok. At the suddenly overwhelming fatigue, Lee Hyeonseok furrowed his brow and turned around, then soon let out a hollow laugh.
A man who resembled Seo Jiwoo subtly in height, build, and impression smiled with his eyes while acting friendly, naked. Last time it was a man who resembled Lee Juwon, and this time it was a man who resembled Seo Jiwoo. Lee Hyeonseok, who didn’t even feel it was worth dealing with, turned off the shower and tried to go straight outside.
“W-wait a moment!”
The man who resembled Seo Jiwoo released his pheromones without any shame. He’d suspected it from when the intention was transparently visible, but as expected, he was an omega. The omega man urgently grabbed the arm of Lee Hyeonseok, who was trying to pass by him.
“Do you have a moment?”
“I’m confused whether the rumor hasn’t spread yet, or whether you’re stupid.”
“Huh?”
At Lee Hyeonseok’s murmur as if truly curious, the omega man asked with a smile. Perhaps wanting to look pretty to him somehow, Lee Hyeonseok’s stomach began to twist for some reason at that brightly smiling face.
Even this nameless omega was acting cute so obviously visibly trying to catch him, yet only Seo Jiwoo didn’t do such things. He knew that Seo Jiwoo clearly didn’t take even his confession seriously. If it were up to him, Lee Hyeonseok also wanted to abandon Seo Jiwoo as Seo Jiwoo wanted and sleep with someone who liked him. But it didn’t work out as he thought. He didn’t want to sleep with someone he wasn’t attracted to.
“I, I really wanted to meet hyung once and express my gratitude. I thought after becoming an omega I couldn’t go outside anymore, but I’m really grateful you let me come outside again like this.”
When Lee Hyeonseok didn’t answer, the omega started moving his mouth as he pleased. He thought he resembled Seo Jiwoo a bit, but the blushing cheeks and shy face didn’t resemble him at all. Lee Hyeonseok, who hadn’t raised his hand thinking he somewhat resembled Seo Jiwoo, roughly pulled his arm away.
“You really don’t know the story that I handed over the bastard who clung to me last time to a brothel?”
“Huh? What?”
When the word brothel came out of Lee Hyeonseok’s mouth, the omega shrank his body. He couldn’t even think of grabbing the pulled-away arm again. It was more so because since manifesting as an omega, he’d been hearing that he was the family’s shame and would be sold to a brothel at the drop of a hat.
“There’s more than one or two of your kind, you know. I personally handed them over to a brothel in case they’d misunderstand my intention if I just let them go… I don’t know if the rumor hasn’t spread, if you’re stupid, or if you’re a child your family has given up on to that extent.”
“I-I, I just…”
Even at Lee Hyeonseok’s rude words, the omega could only tear up and repeat the same words without properly refuting. He recalled his older brother’s voice saying it would be okay since Lee Hyeonseok liked men and there were aspects where he resembled the person he was keeping. Along with the mocking sound that he surely wouldn’t sell him anywhere.
“Right, right. I guess you came after hearing that since I seem like a guy who likes men, if you want to live like a human in your household, cling to me somehow. Didn’t you hear to come back pregnant?”
“H-hyung! Please spare me just once!”
Whether the words Lee Hyeonseok roughly spoke as if he knew were accurate, the omega knelt and clung to his legs crying. When Lee Hyeonseok smiled and placed his hand on his head, stroking it, he thought there was hope and smiled along.
“Aaah!”
“This one’s crazy.”
As soon as the omega smiled along with Lee Hyeonseok, he grabbed the omega’s hair tightly and slammed him to the floor. The omega burst into groans of agony and pain. Blood flowed from the bumped forehead, but Lee Hyeonseok wasn’t shaken even at the sight of blood.
“Why are you smiling so irritatingly? Am I funny to you?”
“Sorry, I’m sorry… Kuk!”
“You should have gone back on your own when I let the obviously stupid act slide, don’t you have any sense after becoming an omega? How are you going to live in this harsh world from now on?”
“I was… wrong. Just once… forgive… urk.”
The omega cried and begged for forgiveness, but Lee Hyeonseok threw punches and kicks at his face and stomach. There wasn’t a hint of hesitation in wielding violence. Perhaps the omega was used to being hit, as he only begged saying he was wrong rather than resisting. This omega probably had nowhere to complain even after being beaten like this now. Simply because he was an ‘omega.’
“Ha…”
“I’m sorry, I was wrong. Please forgive me.”
Even though Lee Hyeonseok stopped the violence, the omega curled up his body and kept only apologizing. Without Lee Hyeonseok, Seo Jiwoo might not be much different from this. He found it pathetic that Seo Jiwoo didn’t know he could act so brazenly because Lee Hyeonseok was backing him up.
When he should be bowing in gratitude even if it wasn’t enough, the sight of fearlessly constantly craving to go outside was so stupid it made him sigh.
Surely if he let him go outside, it was clear he’d suffer all sorts of harsh treatment and cry like this omega. Lee Hyeonseok resolved that he would never let Seo Jiwoo go outside.
“Should we go on a trip?”
Only until he came home and saw Seo Jiwoo, who made him seriously think ‘Could he have gone crazy?’
