“You’re the one who almost killed someone with pheromones.”
“No, you first provoked… nevermind.”
Geonyul, who was about to show his teeth aggressively, suddenly smiled again. Then he lowered his head. Suhwan stiffened again as Geonyul’s face came closer. He felt a cold breath on his ear.
“You were on your way to Professor Lee Jaehyun’s lab, right?”
“…!”
“They have a few bodyguards stationed there. Three? Four?”
“You…”
Suhwan stared at Geonyul with astonished eyes. When their eyes met, Geonyul straightened his previously bent waist with a leisurely attitude.
“Get in. Don’t make me say it twice.”
The tone was threatening, as if he wouldn’t tolerate any more. Suhwan frowned. The worst-case scenario he had occasionally contemplated was unfolding. The main character Geonyul still hadn’t given up on Seunghyun, and he was also keeping an eye on HS’s new drug. The fact that he knew the number of bodyguards protecting Jaehyun’s laboratory was proof of that.
As if suggesting he could easily remove those bodyguards and harm Seunghyun and Jaehyun if he wanted, Geonyul was looking at Suhwan with a leisurely face.
Sweat formed on the hand tightly gripping the phone. Had he been too complacent all this time? Just because nothing had happened, he was living in a sweet dream, not realizing that the protagonist blessed by this world could take everything from him at any time. Not knowing it was merely a period of reprieve. In Suhwan’s mind, the scene of his death from the novel kept flashing by.
“Last time, I heard something quite interesting from Lee Seunghyun.”
“What?”
“He said that since he has nothing, he doesn’t know what he might do.”
“…”
“Since I’m about to be in that situation soon, I’ve been feeling the same way lately.”
This time, Geonyul didn’t verbalize his words. He just mouthed them. ‘Get in.’ Suhwan saw the lip movement but remained rooted to the spot.
But for a moment, he unconsciously started to move his feet. Was it because of his omega trait? There seemed to be an instinct to obey the superior alpha trait. It felt disgusting.
“Stop talking nonsense.”
“You’re making this difficult.”
Geonyul clicked his tongue as he looked at Suhwan, who stood as if nailed to the ground. How much better would it be if he just came along when asked nicely? Both Lee Seunghyun and Suhwan, who still carried his pheromones all over his body, were not easy to communicate with. The corner of Geonyul’s mouth turned up.
“Ugh.”
“Do I really have to go this far? Huh?”
“Gu… Geonyul.”
Suhwan’s body slowly crumbled. Geonyul, with an indifferent face, embraced Suhwan’s body, which looked like it might fall to the ground. To an outsider, it might have looked like someone supporting a sick friend.
But Suhwan was currently being crushed by Geonyul’s pheromones. Suhwan’s squinting eyes scanned the surroundings. Unfortunately, there seemed to be only betas around, as people passed by without noticing anything strange. A few people were puzzled by Suhwan’s appearance, but as Geonyul supported him and walked, they averted their gaze and continued on their way.
“Let… go of this…”
“Sure, sure.”
“Ugh!”
The car’s back door opened, and Suhwan was forcibly pushed inside. The bag of bread Suhwan had been holding tumbled onto the back seat floor. Suppressing the dizziness in his head, Suhwan gasped for breath. At the same time, something black blocked his vision.
“Mmph!”
“Stay still.”
“What are you…”
“I’ll take it off when we arrive. It’s a route others shouldn’t see.”
A measured, calm voice reached his ears. Suhwan trembled slightly in the darkened vision.
In the original story, Jin Suhwan was kidnapped at night near his home. The people who kidnapped him had put a similar mask on him. Suhwan, terrified, could barely breathe.
“Don’t be so tense. I’ll take it off soon. It won’t take long.”
“…”
“That is, if hyung cooperates well.”
Geonyul whispered with a tone as if he was doing Suhwan a favor. His eyes held a strange delight, like a snake that had caught its prey.
‘Seunghyun.’
Suhwan silently muttered Seunghyun’s name as his vision began to blur.
***
Seunghyun glanced at the darkening window outside. After looking at the gloomy sky that seemed about to rain, he turned his head.
“He’s taking too long.”
As soon as he muttered quietly, a reproachful voice flew back at him.
“It hasn’t even been 30 minutes since you hung up. You psycho.”
“It’s already been 30 minutes?”
“You crazy bastard, seriously.”
Jaehyun clicked his tongue in disapproval. At this point, should he really consider getting counseling? My younger brother is a crazy guy with serious attachment issues. Can’t even tell anyone about this, really. Jaehyun grumbled with a frowning face.
“I’m going to make a call.”
“Sure, go ahead. Go.”
Jaehyun waved his hand dismissively, no longer trying to dissuade him. Seunghyun stood up and went straight to the break room without looking back. Unlike the research lab that maintained a constant temperature, the break room was rather chilly with the heating turned off. Seunghyun didn’t mind as he took out his phone. He called his lover again, whom he had just spoken with.
—Unable to connect, after the beep…
“…?”
Suhwan didn’t answer the first call. Seunghyun looked at the darkened screen with confusion. He said he was going to buy bread, maybe he was focused on that? Just in case, he tried calling two, three more times.
—Unable to connect…
“What’s going on?”
As Suhwan continued not answering his calls, Seunghyun felt anxious. After hesitating, Seunghyun opened the location tracking app. Now it automatically logged in when opened, showing Suhwan’s location on the map without having to do anything else. Seunghyun frowned as he looked at it.
“This place…”
Suhwan’s location marker on the map was continuously changing. It was moving at high speed out of Seoul. Seunghyun’s eyes widened at the impossibility of the situation.
[User’s location is unknown.]
“…!”
And just like that, the moving icon suddenly disappeared. Simultaneously, a notification appeared saying the location couldn’t be determined. Suhwan’s phone had been turned off.
This had never happened before. Seunghyun stared at the phone screen with a bewildered face. All kinds of thoughts rushed through his mind. For a moment, he wondered if Suhwan had discovered that he had been tracking his location all this time.
But even if Suhwan found out that his location was being tracked without his consent, he wouldn’t have just turned off his phone abruptly. Rather, he would have called first, or met in person to ask why Seunghyun did it. This wasn’t something Suhwan would do.
It was more likely that someone had taken Suhwan and deliberately turned off his phone. Given how quickly the icon had moved, they must have put Suhwan in a car or some other fast mode of transportation. In that moment, a name flashed through Seunghyun’s mind.
“Fuck.”
Was that level of warning not enough? Seunghyun bit his lip. He thought they had given up since things had been quiet for a while. After cursing roughly, Seunghyun immediately called someone.
***
“Urgh.”
Suhwan opened his eyes, shaking his dizzy head. An unfamiliar scene entered his vision. Fragmented memories began to surface in his throbbing mind.
On his way home from work, he had agreed to go to the lab instead of Yunhyun, and stopped by a bakery on the way. And right after buying bread, he encountered Ju Geonyul. Eventually, unable to move under his pheromones, he had gotten into the car and headed somewhere. After having his head covered with a mask, his memory was hazy, as if he had lost consciousness.
With some minor differences, this was eerily identical to when Jin Suhwan was kidnapped in the original novel. Suhwan tried to move his hand to rub his arms, which felt cold.
Clank.
“…!”
But he couldn’t move his hands. Both his hands were unnaturally bound behind him. Surprised, Suhwan looked down at his body. His coat and suit jacket had been removed, but fortunately, he was still properly wearing his shirt and pants. Perhaps they had removed his clothes to check his belongings.
But this on his hands…
Suhwan looked down with confused eyes at the clanking shackles. What wrapped around his wrists was black leather, but between the leather cuffs was a chain. He thought he had seen something similar in Jin Suhwan’s BDSM collection in the original work. It felt strange to be wearing such restraints himself.
But in the original story, Jin Suhwan was treated much worse in the end. He was tied up so tightly he couldn’t move at all, locked in a dirty warehouse. However, this place was nothing like that. It was as clean and luxurious as the hotel suite in Hwamyeong where Suhwan had stayed before. Forgetting his current situation, Suhwan looked around.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
