MORE 5

“It’s not that I don’t trust you, but…”

Kwon Yuwon couldn’t bring himself to say that the supplier’s preference was for fair-skinned, handsome Betas. As Siyul had said, in this place where the hierarchy was absolute, refusing a drinking session meant the supply would be cut off. There was no benefit in getting on their bad side.

However, that didn’t mean he was about to offer Siyul up as a sacrifice. To Kwon Yuwon, Siyul was no different from his only brother in the world.

“Don’t you trust this hyung? I’ve been working out lately, so I’ve built up some muscle. Look.”

Without knowing Kwon Yuwon’s inner thoughts, Siyul bent his elbow and flexed his biceps. For such a slender frame, the muscle lump was quite solid. It was funny and cute to see him bragging about a muscle that fit the description of a ‘water container’ more than a ‘bicep’—especially since he couldn’t fight to save his life.

Kwon Yuwon didn’t show it and just let out a heavy, “Ugh.” Surely, they wouldn’t try anything funny on the first meeting, right? He didn’t have much faith, but there was no other way. He clenched his fist tightly, thinking that if they so much as touched Siyul, he’d forgo the money, bury a wick in that fat belly, and play with fire for ten days and nights.

“Alright. But promise me one thing. If anything happens, you run without looking back. Don’t think about me.”

Though if something dangerous happened to Kwon Yuwon, his body would move before his brain did. He didn’t throw out some movie-like line such as, “I can’t leave you and run away alone.” That would clearly only amplify Kwon Yuwon’s anxiety.

To reassure the other, Siyul put on the most trustworthy smile he could muster and nodded sagely. He pretended not to see the distrust thickening on the other’s face.

‘Make yourself look as ugly as possible before you go.’

At Kwon Yuwon’s instruction, Siyul took out the shabbiest t-shirt and wrinkled pants he owned. He pulled a black baseball cap down low over his eyes, but even this didn’t seem to satisfy the other’s gaze. Kwon Yuwon frowned, looked him over in silence, and shook his head, saying that if he had a face full of acne, he might be less noticeable, but his skin was too clear.

Only after his hair was ruffled by Kwon Yuwon’s hands a few times was he able to leave the inn. The meeting place was a private bar located in a basement. Kwon Yuwon had sneered, calling it a ‘high-class, members-only club where anyone can’t enter,’ but to Siyul’s ears, the word ‘club’ hit harder than anything else.

Hadn’t his connection with clubs been suspiciously frequent lately? Moreover, most of them hadn’t ended well. Even though it was just a memory, the man’s warning not to come around if he could help it swam through Siyul’s ears as if the man were speaking right beside him.

Siyul shook his head vigorously and snapped out of it. This wasn’t the club the man told him not to visit. It was just a bar.

As he went downstairs, a bar and a spacious hall appeared first. The rooms circled the upper area like balconies. They were glass rooms similar to a club, but curtains were drawn so it was hard to see inside from the outside.

With its obviously luxurious interior and soft lighting, it smelled of money everywhere. It was a bar so intimidating that a timid commoner like him felt unworthy even stepping on the floor.

Kwon Yuwon had a face like he’d chewed on something bitter the whole time. That continued as they climbed the stairs. Only after standing in front of the curtained room did he regain his smile. It was a smile that looked fake to anyone who saw it.

Before entering, Siyul steeled himself. No matter how dim-witted he was, he wasn’t stupid enough to fail to deduce the situation from Kwon Yuwon’s reaction. There would probably be something unpleasant. Still, running away was his last resort.

“Hyung, we’re here.”

Opening the door and entering, Kwon Yuwon greeted them with a sweet voice, just like when he’d answered the phone. The pig, with a belly as round and plump as a roasted chicken, sat occupying the middle of the large sofa. He received the greeting sluggishly by waving his arm.

He wasn’t alone. The two sitting around him glanced at Kwon Yuwon and Siyul. With tattoos, thick gold necklaces, and scars, they didn’t look like good people no matter how you looked at them.

“You shouldn’t be wearing a hat when you come to greet someone. Take it off.”

The pig gestured at Siyul with his chin. Siyul quickly read Kwon Yuwon’s expression and took off his cap. As he swept back his messily tousled hair, the pig cackled and tapped the seat next to him.

“This little punk Kwon Yuwon was acting so protective, I wondered what kind of girl you were. I see why he was guarding you. You’re not even an Omega, he said. But girls who look like that are usually very wet.”

At the lewd remark thrown by the pig, the humans sitting nearby giggled meanly. Siyul heard Kwon Yuwon whisper “Fuck” like a ventriloquist, his face still smiling. But he couldn’t ruin things here.

“I don’t know about being wet, but I can sure drink, hyung-nim. Shall I pour you a glass?”

When he answered cheerfully, the pig laughed heartily and gestured. Siyul scurried over. He had made a resolution before coming here: social life isn’t easy, so let’s just suck it up even if it’s dirty.

He sat next to the pig and filled the empty glass with alcohol. The pig had already slung his fat-lumpy arm around Siyul’s shoulder as if they were old friends. Siyul threw all his pride away and just kept smiling brightly.

“You need to drink, too.”

As if looking at something cute, the pig grabbed and shook Siyul’s soft cheeks. He poured the alcohol until it overflowed and shoved it toward him.

“I will drink it. That guy’s liver isn’t good, so if he drinks that, he’s a goner, hyung.”

Kwon Yuwon, sitting at a distance, stopped him. The pig’s eyes turned fierce in an instant.

“Hey, you fucker, did I give it to you? He’s the one who received it, so why are you sticking your nose in and acting like a bitch?”

The pig glared at Kwon Yuwon, gripping the glass as if he were about to throw it. The atmosphere turned hostile in an instant. Since it seemed like the deal would be over if he said even one wrong word, Siyul quickly wrapped his hand around the pig’s hand and pulled out the drink. Then, he downed the un-iced whiskey in one go. His throat felt like it was burning, but he endured it without any side dishes or water.

“It was given by hyung-nim, so of course I should drink it. Yuwon usually worries about useless things, hyung-nim.”

“Wow,” the pig said, relaxing his expression and admiring him. He pointed his index finger at Siyul’s face and giggled.

“I like this little punk.”

The first hurdle was cleared. While desperately racking his brain on how to deal with the countless crises he would face in the future, Siyul scratched his head as if shy.

The drinks went around, and the conversation flowed. Most of it was lewd talk. About how Omegas are this, or how Omegas have no taste and Betas are better. If he could, Siyul wanted to wash his ears and brain with clean water. He was a guy with a penis, so he liked appropriately erotic conversation, but what the pig and the other two were spitting out wasn’t talk; it was filth.

The pig kept giving Siyul alcohol. Siyul stayed sharp. He was terrified of what might happen if he showed even the slightest sign of being drunk. The hand that had initially just been on his shoulder kept sliding lower. It brushed his neck, played with his earlobe, and burrowed into his shirt to grope his chest. Whenever he tried to dodge, the pig would notice and pull his hand out of his clothes.

With that hand, he would grope Siyul’s thighs. He even brazenly squeezed them hard. Siyul’s smile crumbled as time passed. It was hard to even keep smiling. Kwon Yuwon’s situation wasn’t much different. His eyebrows twitched every time the pig pushed his face close to Siyul’s. He seemed ready to curse right then and there, opening his lips, but he would close them again after seeing Siyul’s desperate gestures.

But left alone, the pig’s touch moved beyond boldness and into the realm of crime. Now, he was even invading Siyul’s crotch. When Siyul pulled his body away, the pig squeezed his thigh painfully.

“I’ll be right back, I need to use the bathroom.”

Unable to take it anymore, Siyul jumped up. He added that he’d drunk too much and his bladder was about to burst, then hurriedly slipped out of the room. A little more, and the pig’s hand would have entered his pants and been moments away from touching his precious balls.

After wandering for a while, he finally found the bathroom. Even this was incomparably wide and clean compared to the bathroom in the inn where he lived. Siyul emptied his bladder and washed his hands at the sink. Even after he was done, he didn’t go back. He stood with his hands braced on either side of the sink and sighed as if the earth were collapsing.

I don’t want to go back.

Forget the resolution, forget the business—he wanted to run away.

Still, he couldn’t leave Kwon Yuwon behind. Siyul looked at the mirror and muttered that he could do it. Enduring was the key.

He dried his hands on a paper towel and was about to leave when someone blocked the doorway. In his downward gaze, he saw a massive belly that couldn’t be hidden by any shirt. The pig had followed him. Fuck, just like Kwon Yuwon did, Siyul spat a curse into his mouth. Still, his livelihood was at stake, so he put on a clumsy smile.

“Hyung-nim, you’re here. In that case, I’ll go back in first.”

He tried to leave, bowing his head repeatedly, but the pig blocked the door and didn’t move aside. The pig was quite tall and his bulk was so massive that there was no crack in the doorway to slip through.

“If you could just move aside for a moment…”

“I’m here to piss, too.”

“Ah, yes.”

“But while I’m at it, I’m going to spill some cum, too.”

At the moment Kwon Yuwon’s catchphrase about being “fucked” flashed through his head, his hair was seized. Siyul swallowed his breath and flailed his arms, but he couldn’t shove aside a bulk so much larger and heavier than himself. In an instant, he was shoved into an empty bathroom stall.