As if Cheolho’s property was his own, Sangmin spoke as if doing a favor. Ian was engulfed in shock as if he’d been hit in the back of the head with a hammer.
“What did you just… say?”
It was already outrageous enough that he came to his deceased father’s house after several years and turned it into a mess. At the words that he would sell off the building where his grandfather’s years had melted into as he pleased, Ian gritted his teeth.
Though talk of redevelopment came up regularly, his grandfather had no intention of closing the store until everything was completely processed. Even if he had to leave someday, he said he wanted to stay in this neighborhood until the very end and do business so hungry people could eat a meal without burden.
So today, Ian had made up his mind to continue the soup restaurant business as far as he could, carrying on his grandfather’s will. There was the recipe his grandfather had written down, and there were things he had observed with his own eyes over the long years, so even if he couldn’t produce the exact same taste, he planned to do his best.
But Sangmin was shattering all those resolutions.
“The old man’s dead, so this building is mine too. So hurry up and tell me where the bankbook is. If you want to salvage at least 100 million won.”
Sadly, Sangmin’s words were true. He was Cheolho’s one and only son. A person with a sound mind wouldn’t say such things even if they feared heaven, but he had already been human trash for a long time.
“……I don’t know. Grandfather didn’t tell me.”
Though he had a hunch where it might be, Ian feigned ignorance. His head was complicated. He wondered if his grandfather’s inheritance would really all go to Sangmin.
He didn’t want to hand over the space filled with memories of his grandfather to someone else. But no matter how much he racked his brain, no good idea came.
Would there be time to seek legal advice? What if Sangmin sold the building before that?
Then Sangmin would squander all the property containing his grandfather’s blood, sweat, and tears on gambling.
Looking at Sangmin, whom he wanted to call a stranger instead, Ian bit his lips hard. Thinking he had to protect the bankbook at least, he put his hand in his pocket.
He couldn’t stop Sangmin alone. He took out his phone and looked for Okjeong’s number. He planned to contact Okjeong and ask for help.
“Who are you contacting?”
But before he could even press the call button, Sangmin, who had approached with big strides, snatched away his phone.
“Give it back!”
Ian stood on tiptoe trying to snatch the phone back, but Sangmin was stronger than expected. In the process of grappling back and forth, Ian’s fingertips grazed Sangmin’s face.
Blood droplets beaded up along the path the nail had passed. Sangmin, who rubbed his cheek with the back of his hand, had sparks fly in his eyes.
Sangmin swung his palm without hesitation. A thwack sounded and Ian’s head turned to the side. Hit in the face by a palm as large as his face, his nose instantly started bleeding.
His head buzzing, Ian staggered and sat down on the floor. Although he had been bullied by kids his age, this was the first time he had been properly hit in the head like this.
Red drops of blood dripped onto the floor, plop, plop. He felt the reality of his grandfather’s absence anew. If Cheolho had been here, Sangmin would never have been able to lay a single hair on Ian.
By casually using violence on his young child, Sangmin showed his rock bottom. The fact that this person was his father was too horrifying.
When he pressed his nose with his palm and glared at Sangmin, Sangmin bent his knees to match Ian’s eye level. He clicked his tongue while putting on a deliberately pitiful expression.
“The way this little brat looks at his dad. Hey, you’re really going to get in big trouble at this rate. It’s not just me who’s fucked if I can’t get the money. Your life’s over too. You don’t know how precious dominant Omegas are treated at rock bottom, do you?”
Sangmin’s eyes looking at Ian were greedy like someone appraising a valuable jewel. Ian shrank his shoulders at the feeling of goosebumps rising finely on his arms.
At the look in his eyes that seemed like he would sell him off, he felt deep disgust and fear.
“So hurry up and tell me. I really don’t have time.”
Sangmin spoke as if chewing and grabbed Ian’s hair and shook it. Even so, when Ian kept his mouth shut until the end, it was when he raised his hand again.
“President Yeon, why can’t I reach you? Making me come find you myself. You know I’m a busy person.”
The front door, which had been half-closed, opened wide and a man wearing a splendid gold necklace around his neck barged into the house.
Sangmin, who spotted the man, took a deep breath. The face that had been threatening Ian until just a moment ago quickly changed like a dog tucking its tail in fear.
“P-President Gal…”
Sangmin hesitated and got up from his seat. Then he spotted the men standing with presence behind Gal Hongdo and made a dismayed expression.
The men, each bearing large and small scars on their faces, were grinning while looking at Sangmin and Ian.
“You said you’d pay back all the overdue money by yesterday. Was that just lip service? I trusted our relationship all this time, but what do I do if you stab me in the back like this? I’m so upset.”
When Hongdo smiled widely, several gold teeth glittered, reflecting the fluorescent light. The eyes that had been smiling at Sangmin rolled toward Ian.
Unlike the naturally moving left eye, the somewhat unnatural right eye followed a beat late.
“Wow, what President Yeon said was true. You said you had an amazingly pretty Omega son. Just looking, he’s clearly built delicately—definitely a dominant Omega. He bullshits so well that I only half-believed him.”
Ian’s body flinched at the snake-like gaze scanning his face and body. The premonition wasn’t good. His gambling-crazed father rummaging through every corner of the house looking for grandfather’s bankbook was only the prologue to misfortune.
“Hey kid, hello?”
Hongdo bent his waist to look closely at Ian’s face and raised his right hand to wave. Ian removed the hand that had been blocking his nosebleed and moved backward little by little.
A foul smell came from Hongdo. It was different from the sense of pressure he felt from Ganghyuk. It wasn’t the feeling of looking down on people from above like Ganghyuk, but like a mosquito larva dragging him down into the mire from a place lower than himself.
“Oh my, your pretty face is a mess. Wipe it with this.”
Hongdo exaggeratedly drooped both eyebrows and pulled out a handkerchief from inside his jacket. When Ian remained still with no intention of accepting it, he wiggled one eyebrow and then wiped his face himself.
Ian’s complexion turned deathly pale at the rough touch. The tip of his nose, which had been hit by Sangmin, throbbed unbearably.
Ian unconsciously looked at Sangmin. In a place full of strangers, Sangmin was the only lifeline.
“President Gal, you came at a good time. There’s Father’s bankbook in this house. That old man said he’d give it to Ian later when he got married, so he saved up bit by bit—there should be quite a lot of money in it. Let’s look for it together with me. And I put this house up for sale too. You know this place is super hot for redevelopment these days, right? It’ll sell quickly. I can pay back the money. Really.”
But Sangmin was desperately trying to look good to Hongdo. He didn’t care at all about Ian being threatened.
He was busy sweating in fear, not knowing when the men now surrounding him in a circle would use violence. He rambled incoherently, actively appealing that he could pay back the money.
“Ugh, that thing calls itself a dad. Someone who abandoned and ran away when young like me would be better. Right?”
Hongdo pointed at Sangmin and grinned at Ian. Then he stuck the handkerchief dirtied with blood into his nose and inhaled deeply.
With his eyes half-open, he made an ecstatic expression and smacked his lips.
“Is it because he’s dominant? Even the smell of blood is sweet.”
A lustful gaze scanned Ian’s terrified face. Skin so white that capillaries showed through, unusually large eyes, and harmonious features packed neatly into a small face. Moreover, the way his eye corners turned up slightly subtly stimulated sadistic desires.
If dressed up nicely and put on the market, his appearance was enough to quickly pay back the debt Sangmin owed. He hadn’t smelled his pheromones yet, but with this much, there would be ten truckloads of bastards who would go crazy and rush over even if the pheromones were mediocre.
