The man’s low-quality harassment was enough to recall those memories. When Ian completely froze and only dropped fat teardrops, the man stood up from his seat and brushed Ian’s cheek with the back of his hand. The face rubbing his lips against the tear-soaked back of his hand while laughing was revolting.
“The soup was good. This is a tip. I’ll come again.”
The man added one 50,000 won bill to the two 10,000 won bills and stuffed them into Ian’s shirt pocket. The other men also said they ate well and left one by one, stroking Ian’s shoulder, cheek, or forearm.
Ian couldn’t do anything and only gripped his apron tightly until the bones on the back of his hand protruded white. His breathing became rapid and wheezy, laden with moisture.
“Oh my, Ian-ah. Are you okay?”
Only after the men left did a lady sitting at a corner table approach. Though she wanted to step in, the men’s atmosphere was so menacing that while she was restless about whether to call 112 or summon her husband, the whole situation ended.
“I-I’m sorry……”
Ian, who belatedly came to his senses, wiped his eyes roughly with the back of his hand. He thought himself such a fool for not being able to do anything. Moreover, there were other customers, yet he only showed himself scared like a child and crying. It was pathetic.
“Goodness, what do you have to be sorry for? Those bastards are the bad ones. I thought those gangster bastards I hadn’t seen before were loitering around this neighborhood for days, and now you’ve been wronged, Ian.”
The lady comforted Ian and brought tissues to hand him. His small face had turned so white she worried he might have a seizure. This wouldn’t have happened if Ian’s grandfather were here.
Knowing how preciously Old Man Yeon had raised Ian, her heart felt heavy. The young child was admirable, trying to somehow revive his grandfather’s shop and doing business from morning.
“Sit here for a bit. I’ll get you some water.”
She sat Ian in a chair and went to the refrigerator to get a water bottle. Ian’s hand receiving the water glass was trembling, making her feel even more sorry.
The lady contacted Okjeong. It was because she was the neighbor Yeon Cheolho, Ian’s grandfather, had been closest with while alive.
“Ian-ah!”
Not long after, Okjeong entered the shop with a beet-red face. Angry sparks flew from her eyes as they swept around the shop.
“Where are those gangster bastards! These fuckers don’t know how scary the old people of Hyoseong-dong are!”
At the thought that what she’d been worried about had happened, Okjeong’s heart sank. Ian looked young with strikingly noticeable looks, and was a rare Dominant Omega who was also male.
There were fewer male Dominant Omegas than females. Even non-Manifested people who couldn’t sense pheromones could tell Ian was an Omega just by looking at him—unlike ordinary beta males or Recessive Omega males, he was different from his skin to his complexion.
His skin, white as if milk had been poured on it, didn’t have a single trace of beard. Even though he didn’t look like a woman, if you looked at his wrists or ankles, his bone structure was slender, and especially his eyes were unspeakably pretty.
His moist eyes, even without tears pooling in them, had an aspect that made viewers soften while also stimulating lustful thoughts.
That’s why when Ian said he’d start business carrying on his grandfather’s legacy, Okjeong couldn’t say it, but she worried a lot that low-quality bastards might be attracted.
Fortunately, things seemed to pass without incident for a while, but the problem was bastards who came in from outside.
Originally, the Hyoseong-dong redevelopment was informally agreed among residents to be done by Taehyun Construction. But recently, people claiming to be from Geumin Construction and Mijung Construction started meeting neighborhood people and stirring things up.
Mijung Construction sent people who looked like ordinary company employees, but Geumin Construction—you couldn’t tell if they were construction company people or gangsters—visited door to door making what was ostensibly persuasion but actually threats to cast votes for Geumin instead of Taehyun.
The bastards who stopped by the soup restaurant today and harassed Ian seemed to be from the Geumin side. Taehyun Construction, after coming into the light, at least tried to look like a fairly solid company, but Geumin was openly creating an atmosphere of fear among residents as if advertising that their roots were gangsters.
“I’m okay now.”
Ian grasped Okjeong’s hand. Her blood pressure was so high she took strong medicine daily—she worried about what would happen if she collapsed from getting heated up like this.
“Okay my foot. Your complexion is still deathly pale.”
Okjeong’s eyes reddened with upset feelings. Ian also felt like the tears that had stopped would flow again, so he deliberately smiled broadly as if acting cute. His chubby cheeks that rose plumply were still damp with tears.
“They said they’d come again.”
Okjeong, who let out a deep sigh, patted Ian’s back with her wrinkled hand. Though she’d shouted with the momentum of not letting those bastards be, if those bastards were actually in front of her, there was almost nothing Okjeong could do.
They were bastards who sexually harassed young Ian unreasonably in broad daylight. She heard they didn’t care even though there were other customers in the shop.
She could report to the police, but for crimes with ambiguous punishment, there was a high risk of suffering retaliation after reporting. Hadn’t she already experienced it once?
Even when Yeon Sangmin handed Ian over to a loan shark, Okjeong couldn’t do anything. At the words that Ian would become more dangerous if she reported it, the time she could only hope he’d return safely was terrible to think about again.
Really luckily, Ian returned safely, but she knew heaven’s luck had followed. In dirty work like this, fists came before public authority.
Seeing Ian, who couldn’t say anything and only hung his head deeply, Okjeong’s heart crumbled.
“That man you’re living with went on a business trip?”
When he said he was living with a man she’d only seen at the funeral home, Okjeong and Soyeon had been shocked, but they ultimately left it alone because Ganghyuk seemed better than Yeon Sangmin or the bastards who’d dragged Ian away.
Listening to Ian’s words, not only had he rescued him when he was in a dangerous situation, he didn’t do anything bad, and let the kid run the soup restaurant business as he wanted, so they decided to watch over it.
Okjeong recalled Ganghyuk’s face. He was different from the bastards who just swagger around intimidating people. Even without being particularly threatening, the man had a power that made viewers feel intimidated.
Like Ian, whose Dominant Omega nature could be known just by looking at his appearance, she could feel the man was a Dominant Alpha. Not only his overwhelming physique and outstanding looks, but his characteristic languid atmosphere was exactly like a well-fed beast.
The imposing presence that couldn’t be casually approached even when still was extraordinary, as if letting you know he could turn ferocious at any time. Watching Ian nod at her question, Okjeong asked casually,
“How about talking to that person once? It seems like these gangster bastards are from Geumin Construction. Taehyun Construction is supposed to do the redevelopment here, so if he knows other bastards came and are causing trouble, he won’t stay still, right?”
At Okjeong’s words, Ian only wriggled his fingers. After drinking water and some time passing, he’d calmed down. Certainly, if things stayed like this, he might suffer worse.
The scary-looking man definitely said he’d come again. If the men kept going in and out of the shop, rumors would spread quickly, and regular customers would definitely stop coming. Just today, how many customers had suffered?
Ian, who finished making up his mind, took out his phone. He pressed Ganghyuk’s number and pressed the message button. The cursor blinked. Not knowing what to say, he hesitated then briefly wrote and sent it.
He was worrying about what to do if there was no answer this time either. The shop door opened with a rough jingling sound.
Seeing the man who suddenly appeared, Ian gasped in a breath. Okjeong, who had turned her head, also widened her eyes. Her wrinkled eye area fluttered and trembled.
The man with a buzz cut and a knife scar at the corner of his mouth had unbuttoned three buttons of his eye-searingly bright red shirt. His gold necklace glinted under the fluorescent light. Though not a brutishly large build, his solid physique stood out, showing he’d exercised for a long time.
His eyes, flashing like a fierce wild bird, quickly swept around the shop. Tilting his head, he walked toward Ian with large strides.
At the threatening momentum, Okjeong jumped up from her seat and blocked Ian’s front. Her legs trembled inside her floral pants, but she held out.
