*Thwack*, a sound rang out. Lee Ijun, who’d been slapped across the face, tumbled across the sandy beach and immediately sprang up like a spring.
“You son of a bitch!”
He tried to lunge at him right away, but failed.
“Stop.”
At Managing Director Gi’s command, his subordinate sorted out the situation. And in a very convenient way at that. With an expressionless face, the thug grabbed Lee Ijun and threw him to the ground.
“It was you guys…”
It was you guys! Woonghee’s hands trembled violently. Even if he ripped out their organs and chewed them up, it wouldn’t be enough to satisfy him. The murderous intent surging up had crossed the line.
“When you snuck into my cave to steal, when was that? You stole the raincoat and machete then, you fucking bastards!”
The rain poured down again. The downpour stabbing down through the torn clouds was cold and sharp. Woonghee curled up his rain-soaked body tightly. He trembled violently. The pain, the anger, the despair—everything was swelling and bursting beyond what he could possibly bear.
He’d completely forgotten about it until now. He’d only thought the thief who broke into the cave was just Director Hwang.
But this time, Director Hwang had a solid alibi. He said he’d been with Managing Director Gi and that subordinate of his.
Then who was it?
Who the hell snuck into his cave? Who stole this food while even wearing his raincoat? Whoever it was couldn’t be more sinister. As his body temperature fled from his skin drenched in rainwater, chills ran through him.
“It’s not me…! I’m telling you it’s not me, so then who the hell among you is it?”
Woonghee shouted almost desperately. He whipped his head around, looking at his surroundings.
The rain still poured down like a crazed beast howling from the sky. His vision turned hazy. Everyone surrounded him in silence.
No words flowed from them. No expressions either. They just stood there like that. Were they human? Or were they… just a barrier surrounding him? It was as if some massive silence had sealed their mouths shut.
Who is it?
Who the hell is it?
Could it be, could all of you be in cahoots? Are you all ganging up to pin this on me?
That’s when it happened. Someone broke through that wall as if tearing it down and approached him. It was Managing Director Gi. Making squelching muddy water sounds. He attacked through the rain.
His shadow spread beneath Woonghee’s feet like ink. The man’s eyes directed at him were utterly indifferent.
As he knelt on one knee in front of him, the Assistant Director hyung behind him blabbered:
“Managing Director-nim, you absolutely can’t let him off. That bastard needs to be made an example of.”
Managing Director Gi didn’t spare even a glance toward the back. Those eyes were directed solely at him.
“Of course he should be punished, if Lee Woonghee-ssi is the culprit.”
The man’s two eyes bore into him.
“Right? That’s what should happen.”
Unable to control his anger, Woonghee’s body trembled violently.
“Should I confine you, just like this? Not let you drink even a sip of water?”
The man spoke as if dealing with a cat bristling with fur raised in anger. Then, he grabbed Woonghee’s wrist and suddenly placed him on his thick shoulder.
“Let go, let go of this!”
Hoisted like a piece of luggage on Managing Director Gi’s shoulder, Woonghee pounded his back with his fists repeatedly.
Let go, I said let go…! No, no…. Woonghee’s fingertips desperately pointed toward the sandy beach.
Or to be precise, they were reaching toward his bag sprawled out in a miserable state. My medicine! How long has it been since I got it back, and now I’m losing it again like this?
No matter how much he struggled and resisted, the man didn’t release Woonghee until they returned to the damn bungalow. Paeng Hana’s manager had completely turned the inside upside down—it was total chaos. Even turning it upside down like this, they wouldn’t find anything!
“You son of a bitch…!”
Woonghee tried to lunge at him right away, but the man placed his middle finger between his lips as if to soothe him.
“Shhhh.”
Flustered, Woonghee hesitated. Shouldn’t he at least let him throw a punch or two? What the hell kind of trick is this?
“You’re looking for this, right?”
He opened his grip before Woonghee’s eyes. There, what Woonghee had so desperately longed for was there.
“Come here.”
Omega suppressant. As if possessed, Woonghee pressed his palms to the floor and scurried over to him. The sound of wet splashing flowed.
“That’s right.”
Woonghee quickly grasped it in his hand. Looking at it, he’d crawled on his knees in front of him, but that didn’t matter at all. He felt so miserable and wretched that his eyeballs stung.
“How pitiful. If I’d just put this in Woonghee-ssi’s hand, he would’ve behaved so docilely.”
The man narrowed his eyes as if truly regretful. “Right?” he asked.
“I didn’t steal it.”
Woonghee looked up at him fiercely with strength in his eyelids. Having been caught in the rain, his whole body trembled from the cold. His molars even clattered together.
“Woonghee-ssi, does whether it’s the real truth or not matter to them?”
Woonghee stared at him blankly. The raindrops beaded on his eyelashes fell with a *plop*. It looked just like he was shedding tears.
“Suppressed anger becomes violence.”
The man’s thumb caressed Woonghee’s eyes. As if parting through brush to pick a flower, he rubbed Woonghee’s eyelashes, wiping away the moisture.
“If you don’t control your head and clothes, you’re no different from a beast. What do you think is in their heads right now?”
He brought it to his tongue and tasted it as if savoring it.
“They just want to grab and devour anyone.”
“It’s important to me, that truth.”
You don’t know. How terrible and filthy that feeling is.
That despair when the truth doesn’t reach no matter how much you struggle.
Words don’t reach, hearts don’t reach, and he’d endured and survived that loneliness among people who easily pushed him away saying, “That’s just how he is.”
He had to stare blankly at people who judged and mocked him freely from outside, as if trapped inside a transparent glass wall. Helplessly. He couldn’t do anything.
It was exactly like a curse placed upon him. As if Lee Woonghee, his very existence, was wrong from the start when he was born with Omega blood.
You wouldn’t know. That feeling is truly cold to the bone and terribly filthy.
“What is that truth Woonghee-ssi wants to say?”
The man asked.
“Things went missing from the cave. It seemed like someone stole them.”
Woonghee calmly moved his lips, and the man was staring intently at that reddish berry-like flesh.
That particular night, sleep wouldn’t come easily. The sea breeze was blowing so terribly fiercely. It was cold, he was starving, the bedding was hopelessly uncomfortable, and he kept being consumed by anxious thoughts.
But then he felt what seemed like a gaze watching him from somewhere.
And when he snapped his eyes open, footprints were densely stamped in front of the cave.
At that time, since he was in the cave, they couldn’t steal anything. But once that cave was emptied, a thief appeared.
“A machete and a raincoat went missing.”
The raincoat—he’d only had two. One of the raincoats he’d bought for 3,000 won for two at a cheap wholesale mart had disappeared.
“Someone wore that raincoat and stole.”
The man who’d been listening quietly slowly raised his eyebrows.
“I have to find that bastard, that bastard.”
On the surface, it was just stealing two ramyeon packets. But looking deeper, it was utterly vicious.
On a rainy day, didn’t they deliberately wear his raincoat to deceive so that Woonghee would be misunderstood? Maybe this was just the beginning.
“Then shall we catch them?”
“How?”
“We need to set a trap.”
What kind of trap would there be? Woonghee raised his eyes wet with confusion. Suddenly, a thought flashed through his mind.
“Laxatives in the food or something…”
“Then we’d be throwing away the food.”
*Ha*, the man laughed lowly. A short, quiet sneer mixed only with breath. Didn’t he have exactly the expression of someone who’d just seen some crude trick proudly shown by a kindergartener? The corner of his mouth was twisted upward, and he even had the same gesture of lightly stroking his chin with his arms crossed.
“And the punishment’s too weak.”
“Th-then how exactly…”
Since he couldn’t even grasp it at all, Woonghee was slightly frowning when the man’s mouth tore into a long line. Soon his attractively drawn lips moved.
“The method’s simple.”
This fucking island, what the hell is it exactly…
Isn’t this quite a rare sight you couldn’t see even if you paid for it? An island where filthy rich people are packed together. Risking their lives over just two ramyeon packets.
The <Fabulous> movie isn’t the problem. They should be filming what’s happening here. Even sacrificing the phone battery that’s only about 30 percent left now, all of this needs to be recorded on video.
It would immediately hit ten million viewers. Everything that makes humans go wild is here, isn’t it?
Murder, violence, theft, and even sex on top of that… Everything is jumbled together like dogshit.
And at the center of it all is naturally this man.
“…We’ll have to use Woonghee-ssi as bait.”
The words that flowed from the man’s lips were of a completely unexpected texture.
