MORE 17

“Have you suddenly become possessed? Kwon Yuwon, wake up! How many fingers do you see?”

Even though Siyul held up two fingers and shook them in front of his face, Kwon Yuwon stared with his eyes wide open, as if haunted by a ghost, and shook Siyul’s shoulders violently. Because he was agitated, his volume kept rising.

“Out of all the Alphas, the most fucked-up ones are Dominant Alphas. Those bastards, dammit, you get affected just by being near them. I heard there are cases where unlucky Betas who are sensitive end up manifesting after spending too much time near them! You know it too, right? Neither of us has particularly good luck? Don’t get involved for no reason and end up like me—just stay a Beta―.”

Kwon Yuwon couldn’t finish his sentence. The person in the next room shouted, “Please, just let me sleep, fuck!” and banged on the wall as if to break it with their fist. Fearing they would wake everyone in the inn, the two shut their mouths tightly.

“Anyway, avoid Alphas. Sleeping with an Alpha… don’t even be curious about that kind of stuff. Those people have no sense of loyalty. Even if they have a lover, if their rut comes, they go off playing with other humans; that’s what that breed is like. You know that, right?”

Kwon Yuwon whispered at a volume only Siyul could hear. Siyul nodded. He could see that if he added one more word here, Part 2 of Kwon Yuwon’s possessed nagging would begin.

He wanted to wash up and go to sleep, but it felt like if he heard even the sound of water dripping in the bathroom, the neighbor would go crazy again. Siyul just changed his clothes and lay down on the bedding. As Kwon Yuwon turned off the TV, the cramped room sank into darkness.

“I just don’t want you to go through what I went through.”

The voice heard after a long while had lost its edge. Kwon Yuwon was lying down with his back to him. With eyes adjusted to the darkness, Siyul stared at that back. The back, which had always seemed dependable even though it was smaller than his own, looked frail today.

“Because you’re like a brother to me….”

Siyul lay looking at the ceiling. He reached out and patted that back. He knew the sincerity well. Whether in the past or now, in this harsh world, Kwon Yuwon was the only one who truly cared for him.

“The things you’re worried about won’t happen. So, just go to sleep.”

However, contrary to his heart that wanted to accept Kwon Yuwon’s advice, his mind was spinning elsewhere. Woo Hyunse’s voice was still clinging to his ears. It was stuck fast, like melted candle wax that wouldn’t fall off.

The sound fueled his imagination, and the two protagonists from the movie had already turned into Woo Hyunse and some nameless person. The two people who were neck-deep in passion, throwing their heads back, kissing the exposed napes of each other’s necks, and mingling their bodies together.

“….”

Siyul pulled the blanket up over his head. The taste of alcohol remaining in his mouth was bitter.

■ ■ ■

Light seeped in, and he opened his eyes. His neck and shoulders felt stiff, perhaps from the uncomfortable sleeping position. Or perhaps it was thanks to the four-day rut. As he stretched out, his fingertips tangled in the thick curtains. When he pulled them, blinding light filtered through the thin, fluttering inner curtains and lit up the room.

“Hmm,” Woo Hyunse cleared his raspy throat and sat on the edge of the bed. He gripped the back of his neck with his large hand and squeezed it tightly. The skin turned deathly pale in the shape of his hand, and as the grip loosened, the original color returned. He cracked his neck slowly and deeply, once to each side. Sharp, claw-like marks drawn in long lines ran between his flexibly bulging shoulder blades and muscles.

Beside him, a woman lay with her bare back completely exposed. She could have woken up at the slightest movement, but she slept as if dead. Well, she must have been exhausted from the acts that had lasted until dawn. Was she the second person he had found? Or the third? As he tried to carefully review the past nights, Woo Hyunse just let out a breath through his nose and sat up.

There was no need to dwell on it. It was already over, wasn’t it?

The rut had come earlier than expected. It wasn’t even his adolescent years when his cycle was erratic, but since such instances were rare, he had hurriedly brought whoever he could get in touch with to the hotel.

Omegas and Alphas were such beings. Their bodies were always craving, and they didn’t hesitate to mingle bodies whenever an opportunity arose. Woo Hyunse was no different. When horny, he’d fuck, and once he entered a rut, the boundary between lover and partner became ambiguous.

Some might curse them as beasts without loyalty, but what could one do when they were born that way? There was even a thesis suggesting that Alphas and Omegas might be a new breed of human optimized for species propagation. When that time came, his vision would blur, and his mind would be filled with only one thing. Like sinking slowly into a swamp from the tips of his toes until his mouth, nose, and eyes were submerged, he would be intoxicated by sexual desire, and everything else would be erased.

During his ruts, Woo Hyunse stayed holed up in a hotel and didn’t leave. He left work to Park Haejung. Although he would whine, if he provided enough incentives, he would leash himself and behave meekly as if nothing had ever happened.

He was about to enter the bathroom when he picked up his phone. There were a few missed calls, but he ignored them. There was nothing urgent. He tapped his finger and looked at his other messages. He naturally pressed the chat window he had pinned to the top.

You seem very busy.

It was a text sent by Kwon Siyul. He had sent the reply late. The very fact that he had sent a reply was, in truth, a surprising thing. He ignored even the contact from Park Haejung that came in like clockwork, so who on earth was Kwon Siyul? Woo Hyunse was surprised twice over by the fact that even in such an out-of-it state, he had typed out the keyboard normally.

Besides, the call history remained as well. He didn’t remember the conversation very well. Kwon Siyul’s voice felt distant, as if rising from the depths of a pond. Still, it seemed they had finished the call safely and hung up.

He threw his phone onto the table and went into the bathroom. The rut was over, and the pheromones that had been running wild had returned to normal, yet strangely, the heat remained sticky.

It wasn’t satisfactory. The refreshing and relieved sense of liberation that should have followed the end of a rut didn’t come this time. It felt unpleasant, as if he had been eating only tasteless things that didn’t suit his palate at all for days on end. The whisper that this wasn’t it, and that what he should really be taking was something else, constantly circled in his mind.

He switched the lukewarm water to cold. He wanted the ice-cold temperature to wash away every lingering trace of sleepiness and heat. Sweeping his wet, dripping hair back, Woo Hyunse lifted his head.

Suddenly, Kwon Siyul’s voice, heard that dawn when he was intoxicated by his rut, seeped into his ears like raindrops. At the same time, he lowered his head.

“….”

Seeing his lower body, which had become aroused again as if it hadn’t even been tired, he whispered a low, “Fuck….” He leaned his forehead against the cool bathtub wall, but the sun-scorched heat wouldn’t cool down. It seemed he would need a little more time for the rut to be perfectly resolved.

He looked up at the sign that read . He hadn’t established the shop with any particular thought of making a profit; it was a place he’d set up so he could visit whenever he was bored or wanted to have a drink. After running it, he found it bothersome, so he put someone he’d met in the past in the manager’s seat; unexpectedly, they had a good head for business, so it was running quite well.

The atmosphere had also improved. They held jazz performances every Wednesday night, and played the piano three days a week. Perhaps because female customers frequented it often, no troublemakers came by to ruin the flow with their talk of hostesses. That point, in particular, pleased Woo Hyunse.

He had placed Kwon Siyul in a shop like this. He’d wondered where to put him, and it was the most wholesome place he could find. Manager Kang had accepted him readily. Although, just like Park Haejung, he’d teased him by asking if he’d taken up charity work lately.

He’d been doubtful whether he’d do well, but Kwon Siyul’s aptitude for work was not bad, contrary to his expectations. Manager Kang gave Kwon Siyul a favorable evaluation. He said it was admirable that he would prepare things on his own without being told and handle tasks nimbly.

The person who worked there before wouldn’t stop complaining even if the work increased just a little, but Kwon Siyul would do it silently without a word of complaint. He had even praised him later, asking where he’d found such a gem.

Kids these days.

He hadn’t revealed Kwon Siyul’s past of delivering drugs to Kang Jiwon. There was no good in instilling bias unnecessarily. For someone who had lived a wayward life, Kwon Siyul had no visible tattoos, and he didn’t even have a single luxury item on him, so if Woo Hyunse just kept his mouth shut, he could remain a young man living sincerely.

The shop was on the 6th floor. Woo Hyunse chose the stairs instead of the elevator. As he walked up calmly and opened the door, the cheerful greeting of “Welcome!” was heard first. Kwon Siyul, who had just been tucking the menu under his arm, lifted his head.

“Welco… me.”

The face that had been bright and radiant stiffened the moment it saw him. It had been several days, so shouldn’t he be welcoming him gladly? Seeing that subtly stiff expression, his mood, which had been fairly good, took a downward turn. He didn’t let it show. As always, he raised his hand with a pleasant smile. The bartender, as well as the chef, craned their necks to greet Woo Hyunse.

“It’s been a while, Mr. Kwon Siyul, but you aren’t even greeting me.”

Kwon Siyul avoided his gaze, greeting him with a “Hello” as if reading from a textbook. Woo Hyunse sat at the bar stool and ordered a non-alcoholic drink. A single drink wouldn’t even be felt by his liver, and even if he were to be checked, he wouldn’t be caught, but he didn’t want to hear that song-and-dance about designated driving again.

Why was he nagging him so much when he wasn’t even his wife…. The expression “wife” made him burst into senseless laughter. He covered his mouth with his hand to hide it.

“The manager isn’t here today.”

Kwon Siyul opened his mouth after hesitating. Woo Hyunse watched his companion while resting his chin in his hand. He was busy fidgeting with the fingers gripping the menu and shifting his eyes here and there. His will to avoid eye contact with him at all costs was pathetic.

“Yeah, so?”

“No, I just thought you came to meet the manager….”