“President Yeon, let’s do it like this.”
Hongdo, who finished calculating in his head in an instant, got up from his seat and looked at Sangmin. His grinning face looked as excited as when counting money piled in a safe.
“I’ll erase all the debt you’ve accumulated. Hand over your son to us.”
“What?”
At the unexpected words, Sangmin made a bewildered expression. The debt he owed to Hongdo was 1 billion won. Sangmin’s face, weighing 1 billion won against Ian, took on a bright light. There was nothing to think about.
Actually, he had been anxious thinking that even if he found the bankbook and sold the building, the neighborhood was so run-down and old that it might not reach 1 billion won. For now, he was thinking of withdrawing all the money in the bankbook to put out the urgent fire, but things worked out well.
“Really? You’re not going to say something different later?”
At the expression wondering what windfall this was, Ian looked up at Sangmin with an incredulous face. How could he have not a shred of hesitation in selling off his child?
Not some complete stranger, but his only child.
He felt like all the blood in his body completely disappeared. His terrified eyes looked around every corner of the house.
Hongdo’s subordinates were blocking the front door side, and jumping out the living room window also seemed difficult. Then his gaze reached the room door next to him.
It was the room Ian used as a bedroom. He thought he had to get inside the room first and somehow buy time to escape.
“Have you seen me lie? In this world, trust is life. What do you take me for?”
When Hongdo glared as if offended, Sangmin bent his waist to a servile degree.
“Of course not. Then shall we write a contract first? It’s not that I don’t trust President Gal, of course not, but money transactions should be done clearly. For later, yeah?”
“Dad…”
At the situation taking an ominous turn, Ian called Sangmin in a dumbfounded voice. Sangmin’s gaze briefly touched Ian’s face. In the eyes that looked exactly like Ian’s, an emotion like guilt seemed to flash past, but it was only for an instant.
“Sure, sure. Boys, this is precious merchandise. Be careful not to damage it and load it in the car first.”
“Yes.”
When Hongdo gave instructions to those waiting with their hands behind their backs, the men moved swiftly.
Ian got up from his seat, avoiding the men coming to catch him. He moved quickly, thinking he must not be caught, but before his fingertips could even touch the doorknob, his body was grabbed.
His feet floated off the ground. The man who easily lifted Ian by wrapping his arm around his waist headed toward the entrance with Ian.
“Let go of this! Dad! Dad, save me! Please! Dad!”
Ian struggled desperately. Even if he tried to report to the police, it was impossible because he didn’t have a cell phone. The only person who could help him now was, despairingly, Sangmin who was worse than trash.
He didn’t know what would happen to him if he was dragged away like this. Thinking about the look in Hongdo’s eyes as he looked at him, he was only certain it wouldn’t be anything good.
This person knew he was a dominant Omega. After Ian manifested as a dominant Omega, his grandfather lost sleep for a while. Becoming an Omega meant living while facing much greater and more numerous dangers than Alphas or Betas.
There were many entertainment establishments clustered in Hyoseong-dong, and there were quite a few Omegas who ended up selling their bodies regardless of their own will.
Omegas were generally smaller in height and build than Alphas and weaker in strength. If they took suppressants for heat cycles well normally it was fine, but there were cases of being exposed to sexual crimes by taking advantage of the fact that they lost reason if they couldn’t take the medication.
Among dominant Alphas with particularly strong pheromones, there were people who exploited the fact that Omegas were weak to Alpha pheromones. Laws for Omegas were being steadily created, but blind spots of the law existed everywhere.
Like the current situation where a kidnapping case was openly happening in a residential area.
“We need to take him quietly. If someone reports to the police at this rate, it’ll be a headache.”
When Ian’s resistance was fiercer than expected, Hongdo gave a look to one of his subordinates. The man pulled out a handkerchief and a spray from his suit pocket. When he soaked the handkerchief with the spray’s liquid and covered Ian’s nose and mouth, Ian’s eyelids slowly closed shortly after.
The man holding Ian placed the limp body on his shoulder like a sack of rice. Without delay, the man loaded Ian in the back seat of a vehicle parked in an alley near the soup restaurant.
Sangmin didn’t bat an eye even though his young son was being sold off somewhere. He even twitched his lips at the thought of quickly settling the debt and selling the building to gamble again.
Looking at Sangmin, who wasn’t much different from the countless gambling addicts he’d seen, Hongdo smiled contentedly. After all, when crazed by gambling, family was worth less than a bundle of money to become gambling funds.
He came directly with a just-in-case mindset, but the harvest was better than expected. To acquire a dominant Omega that had become even harder to see these days. And a male one at that.
“Then, President Yeon, shall we draw up a new contract?”
On Hongdo’s right hand extended to Sangmin to request a handshake, a bracelet and ring made of pure gold glittered greedily.
ლ
His breath was stifled. Before he could even open his eyes properly, the first thing he recognized wasn’t darkness or sound, but smell.
The damp and old dust smell, the mold smell rising from the cement walls, the rotten smell of water pooled on the floor, and strangely permeating between them… the smell of metal and the stench of blood.
At the eerie feeling that passed down his spine, Ian opened his eyes and looked around. He tried to lift his head, but it was stiffly hardened from the nape of his neck to the back of his head.
As if he had been in an uncomfortable position for a very long time, a stiff pain arose as soon as he moved. The inside of his mouth was dried up, not knowing how long he had been unconscious, and his tongue was heavy as if someone had pulled it.
The cement floor touching the back of his head was chillingly cold. The chill that seeped in from below his body penetrated to his bones. Even though his arms and legs weren’t tied, his body wouldn’t listen. The breath flowing out through the tip of his nose was hot.
As his eyes slowly adjusted to the darkness, he could examine the space where he lay collapsed. Gray cement walls stained with unknown marks here and there, a small window hazily covered with dust, and a single old incandescent bulb hanging from a thin wire were dyeing the space yellow.
Even though there was light, it felt dark as if all around was pitch black. The bulb flickered dimly as if it would go out at any moment.
Where is this…….
Ian tried to figure out with his throbbing head why he was here. He had come home after enshrining his grandfather at the tree burial site and met his dad after a long time.
He searched for his grandfather’s bankbook as if he had left it there, then sold him off to scary men who soon barged into the house. The moment unfamiliar hands covered his mouth was the end. He couldn’t remember anything after that.
His nose bridge stung at the situation he didn’t want to believe, and his eyes soon reddened.
“Huuk…….”
He tried to hold it in, but suppressed sobs burst out. The small sound couldn’t escape outside and spread into the air before disappearing.
At the echoing sound characteristic of basements, Ian’s heart beat noisily. It beat so loudly it rang all the way to the inside of his ears.
Cold sweat poured from his whole body like rain, and his fingertips tingled. Every time he breathed, the air coming in through his nose was so murky it was painful as if inhaling smoke.
“Uuk…….”
His stomach churned. Pain arose as if his stomach was being wrung, but nothing came up past his throat.
Ian, who had been flailing like an overturned bug, finally managed to raise his body after a long while. Then he swallowed dry saliva while leaning his back against the wall.
A parching thirst surged as if his throat was burning up. He saw a small iron door on the opposite side. He didn’t see anything like a camera monitoring him.
