“I’ll need to check your membership card.”
At the man’s words, Ganghyuk pulled out a jet-black card that had been tucked in his money clip. Jaehyun received the card and handed it to the man. The man who confirmed the number written on the card bowed deeply.
“I’ll escort you inside.”
After the confirmation process ended, the staff politely opened the back seat door. Under the pale moonlight, long legs first revealed themselves.
When Ganghyuk completely emerged from the car, the gazes of people nearby naturally converged. Even though he was just standing there without saying anything, the air itself changed.
A huge height easily exceeding 190cm, shoulders broad to match. A waistline that fell without giving a dull feeling and a hairstyle neatly swept back suited the frighteningly deep night.
His languid eyes briefly frowned, then he let out a small sigh. His head already ached from the smell of numerous pheromones beginning to be felt.
“Are you alright?”
Jaehyun asked, taking a step closer to Ganghyuk’s side. To him it was only faintly felt, but Ganghyuk reacted particularly sensitively to others’ pheromones. Whether Alpha or Omega.
“No.”
Ganghyuk, who answered briefly, fumbled in his back pocket and pulled out a pack of cigarettes. As soon as he put it in his mouth, Jaehyun took out a lighter and quickly lit it.
Ganghyuk held the cigarette between his fingers and inhaled deeply. The strong cigarette scent somewhat suppressed the pheromone smell that had been terrible enough to make his head ache.
Only after finishing one cigarette did Ganghyuk approach the entrance. A guard opened the tightly closed door.
Through the open door appeared stairs that looked nothing special and ordinary at first glance. But down in that basement, all kinds of things happened.
Sometimes things that precariously went between illegal and legal, sometimes blatantly illegal things. Today was a day when the latter occurred.
This was Ganghyuk’s third visit to this place. Inside was the person who had issued him a membership card with an annual fee exceeding 100 million won. Knowing that Ganghyuk disliked spaces full of pheromone smells, he sometimes invited him like this to play tricks.
The closer to the entrance, the thicker the pheromone smell became. Now even Jaehyun, a recessive Alpha, could clearly feel it, so he too hardened his eyes in displeasure as he walked following Ganghyuk. It was because sexual nuance was heavily embedded in the pheromones.
Ganghyuk moved his steps with an expressionless face. Though it was a club, loud beat music couldn’t be heard. Rather, classical music similar to what he’d heard in the car gradually grew louder.
“Welcome.”
As he approached the entrance draped with red curtains, a woman wearing a refined black mini dress approached.
“This is a welcome drink.”
She lifted a glass of champagne and offered it to Ganghyuk. Ganghyuk silently only shook his head. The woman with an enchanting smile put down the champagne glass and pulled back the fluttering curtain.
“Then have a good time.”
Just passing one curtain, a decadent space appeared that made one frown.
The space under lighting mixed with red and purple light was overall dark. The musty smell characteristic of basements didn’t exist, but instead it was full of pheromone smells.
At tables placed here and there around the rectangular stage in the center, people of various ages mingled drinking alcohol.
The internal atmosphere was more sordid than any street Ganghyuk had passed while riding in the car, enough that elegant classical music didn’t suit it.
The younger they looked, the more clearly the number of pieces of cloth worn on the body decreased.
One middle-aged man with a bulging belly blatantly stuck his hand into the pants of a man young enough to be his son and kneaded, while a gray-haired man sat young women who looked to have just turned twenty on both sides and sipped a glass filled with golden liquid.
Some contributed to the messy atmosphere by sitting their partner on their lap and shaking their waist. Ganghyuk’s eyes sank low as if he could hear panting breaths in his ears.
In corners where lighting didn’t reach, people gathered in groups of three or five snorting white powder placed on silver plates through their noses while giggling.
No matter where he looked, similar scenes unfolded. Among those playing around with young kids, it seemed hard to find anyone around Ganghyuk’s age. They ranged from at least their 40s to their 70s.
Silence fell along the path Ganghyuk walked, then noisy clamor followed like a shadow. Some couldn’t focus on their partners and blushed at his appearance and atmosphere that instantly drew people’s gazes.
However, Ganghyuk didn’t spare even a light glance at those sneaking peeks at him and walked toward his destination.
“Vice President-nim.”
Ganghyuk, who arrived in front of a table, called out to someone. The low bass resonated heavily even in the noisy space.
“You came right on time.”
The man who had been leaning against the sofa raised the corners of his mouth in a grin while looking at Ganghyuk. The pupils visible between his half-closed eyes were unfocused.
It was Tae Minjae, the vice president of Taehyun Construction. He was the second son of Chairman Tae Hyeonseong, whom Ganghyuk served. Though handsome, his somewhat mean impression now looked limp and soggy, steeped in the effects of drugs.
“Sit here. Everyone move, an important guest has arrived.”
Minjae lightly pushed the head of the man who had been sitting next to him until just now. Though it should have annoyed him, the man with fluffy peach fuzz on his cheeks only gave a shy smile while sneaking glances at Ganghyuk.
Ganghyuk’s eyes stiffened as he walked past the man. His breathing became stuffy from the pheromones the sexually ripened Omega was blatantly releasing. A thick lily scent pierced his nose while a throbbing headache arose at his temples.
“His pheromones are nice, right? He’s the one I’ve been playing with lately, he’s Recessive but his pheromones are quite strong. What do you think? If you like him, I can lend him to you for today.”
As soon as Ganghyuk sat on the sofa, Minjae tilted his head and whispered in a secretive voice. However, Ganghyuk remained silent with an indifferent expression. Since this wasn’t the first or second time Minjae had tried something like this, it was too bothersome to react every time.
“Ah, how boring. Why is Director Tae so dull? Aren’t you tired of working every day? People, you know. Sometimes you have to put everything down and play for your brain to work even sharper. Look at me. I work when I work and play when I play, so I do my job well.”
Minjae patted Ganghyuk’s shoulder as if treating a subordinate. The jaw muscles of Jaehyun, who was standing behind the sofa, bulged. Every time this guy who wasn’t even worth a single punch treated Ganghyuk carelessly just because he was the chairman’s son, his insides boiled with anger.
“Let me pour you a drink.”
Without any particular agitation, Ganghyuk stretched his arm long and gripped the whiskey bottle on the table. When he shook the bottle toward Minjae, Minjae clicked his tongue but raised a glass containing round ice cubes.
Amber liquid poured into the glass. Just before the liquid touched the surface of the glass, Ganghyuk pulled back his hand.
“Isn’t your love for me overflowing a bit too much?”
Minjae smiled by only raising the corners of his mouth and brought the glass Ganghyuk had filled to his lips. Without a moment’s hesitation, he gulped down all the strong whiskey in the glass before the ice even melted.
“Director Tae, you receive one too. If you received, you should return it right away.”
At Minjae’s signal, Ganghyuk raised an empty glass. The inside of the glass without a single ice cube soon rippled with amber liquid.
Even as the whiskey rose to the surface of the glass, Minjae kept tilting his hand. The moment Jaehyun’s fingertips, which had been clasped behind his back, twitched, the liquid overflowed from the glass.
The hand with prominent blue veins was soon covered in whiskey. Even as the shirt cuff got soaked through, Ganghyuk’s expression was indifferent.
“It’s my heart.”
Minjae closely watched for changes in Ganghyuk’s expression while winking one eye. Ganghyuk spun the glass once in his hand then opened his mouth.
“Thank you.”
Following Minjae, Ganghyuk also downed the strong whiskey in one go. The feeling of his esophagus burning was rather welcome. The nerves that had been on edge from the pheromones eased a little.
“You drink well. Drink more. There’s plenty of alcohol.”
Watching Ganghyuk maintain his composure no matter how he provoked him, Minjae’s gaze turned cold. Even though he was three years younger, every time Minjae saw Ganghyuk, he felt a strange sense of pressure like when facing his father.
They even shared the same surname, Tae. The surname Tae wasn’t even common, yet seeing Ganghyuk with the same surname receiving his father’s favor over his own children made the desire to bring him down boil within him.
