Chapter 88
Tae-geon stood leaning against the wall in the dark, unlit bedroom, watching the sleeping Hyeon-woo.
‘He said it didn’t matter because he was just a dirty omega anyway.’
‘It’s because of you that he’s like this, isn’t it, hyung?’
Those words Ju-on left before departing kept echoing in his mind. Tae-geon’s expression was filled with despair as he rubbed his face. He couldn’t deny it.
‘Dirty omega.’
‘Filthy creatures consumed by lust.’
These were words he had habitually uttered for over a decade with Hyeon-woo by his side. What had he said to Hyeon-woo after he manifested as an omega?
‘Loose mouth.’
‘How much of a slut are you to have a body like this?’
‘You’ve got a hole even betas would go crazy for, don’t you?’
He had violated Hyeon-woo carelessly while spewing such filthy words. Tae-geon felt dizzy. He realized once again that what he had done was no different from the alpha bastards who tried to rape Hyeon-woo.
*
The morning sunlight rippled through the curtains. Hyeon-woo, waking up feeling the need to urinate, was startled by the large figure staring at him from across the room.
Soon recognizing the face, Hyeon-woo’s brow furrowed instantly. Tae-geon, who hadn’t shown his face recently, was gazing at him intently.
He was in a suit. Judging by his unkempt hair and tired face, he had clearly been watching Hyeon-woo sleep like that for a while.
As Hyeon-woo frowned in displeasure, Tae-geon slowly began to approach him.
Clang!
Hyeon-woo grabbed and threw the desk lamp from the bedside table, scattering sharp shards of the broken bulb at Tae-geon’s feet with a piercing noise.
“Don’t come.”
Hyeon-woo said to Tae-geon in a firm voice.
“Don’t come near me!”
Hyeon-woo’s shoulders trembled slightly as he shouted this.
“…Hyeon-woo.”
Hyeon-woo felt sick at Tae-geon’s hateful face calling his name softly. Tae-geon pushed the scattered glass shards aside with his indoor slippers and took another step towards Hyeon-woo, whose face turned pale.
“Don’t come…”
“……”
“Don’t come! Don’t come!! I said don’t come!!”
Hyeon-woo threw whatever he could grab mercilessly. Pillows, the alarm clock on the bedside table, books, and picture frames flew at Tae-geon. Hyeon-woo resisted fiercely with all his might.
‘Hyeon-woo hyung didn’t even resist.’
He didn’t even resist those bastards, but… Am I more terrifying?
Am I worse than those bastards who tried to rape you…?
A sharp picture frame scraped across the back of Tae-geon’s frozen hand. Red droplets of blood formed on the long gash that split his skin.
“What! What’s going on!”
Startled by the sounds of things breaking and crashing, Ju-on rushed into the bedroom with a shocked face to check on Hyeon-woo. Hyeon-woo was in the middle of throwing various objects at Tae-geon, who was standing still.
“Hey, hey! Calm down…!”
“……”
“Han Hyeon-woo!”
Ju-on urgently grabbed Hyeon-woo’s shoulders. Hyeon-woo’s body was trembling uncontrollably, just like that night in the park when he suffered a terrible ordeal.
“…Why on earth…”
Ju-on glanced at Tae-geon and then looked back at Hyeon-woo.
What on earth happened between you and Tae-geon hyung…
He pulled Hyeon-woo into his arms, completely blocking Tae-geon from his view. Like yesterday, he patted Hyeon-woo’s back lightly and reassured him several times that everything was okay.
“Huff, huff…”
“It’s okay. It’s okay now.”
Everything’s okay.
With that, Hyeon-woo’s chaotic breathing gradually began to calm down.
Watching Hyeon-woo find stability in his arms, Ju-on felt a twinge in one side of his heart. He was overwhelmed by an inexplicable sense of superiority. Unconsciously, Ju-on hugged Hyeon-woo tighter, as if to show off.
“…Ah, Ju-on. I can’t breathe.”
Hyeon-woo’s gentle voice softly resonated within Ju-on’s embrace. Tae-geon was watching the two with reddened eyes.
As Hyeon-woo left Ju-on’s arms, complaining of discomfort, he saw Tae-geon clutching his chest and gasping for breath. Tae-geon just stared at the two, unable to compose his crumbled expression, seemingly unaware that Hyeon-woo was looking right at him.
Hyeon-woo, who had been staring blankly at Tae-geon, shifted his gaze to Ju-on in front of him. Ju-on’s earlobes turned red under Hyeon-woo’s intense gaze.
“Ju-on.”
Hyeon-woo stretched out his arms and wrapped them around Ju-on’s neck.
“Thank you.”
As he hugged Ju-on, Hyeon-woo glanced at Tae-geon over his shoulder. He saw Tae-geon inhaling sharply with wide eyes. The corners of Hyeon-woo’s mouth curled up.
Found it. Tae-geon’s Achilles’ heel. A way to break Tae-geon more effectively than even news of his savior’s death.
Why hadn’t he thought of this before?
Hyeon-woo stuck out his red tongue and licked his dry lips. He knew from experience how terribly painful the sense of deprivation and loss can be when you lose someone you thought was completely yours to another person.
Your blind obsession and possessiveness towards me will ultimately destroy you.
I’ll show you clearly.
That all of this between us, which you believe to be your salvation, is actually just an illusion. I’ll engrave in your eyes the sight of another person nestling in the embrace that was your salvation.
Ju-on felt his shoulder, where Hyeon-woo had buried his head, growing hot.
‘Thank you.’
Ju-on felt like his heart would burst at the sight of Hyeon-woo looking up at him with shimmering eyes along with those pretty words. Hyeon-woo, who had snuggled up like a puppy, gently rubbed his forehead against Ju-on’s neck. Before Ju-on could react, Tae-geon responded faster. Ju-on’s shoulder, where Hyeon-woo’s forehead rested, was snatched away.
“Ugh!”
Pulled back, Ju-on almost tumbled off the bed but quickly regained his balance and stood on the floor. Tae-geon, with a coldly hardened expression, grabbed Ju-on by the nape and left the room. Left alone, Hyeon-woo curled up, lay face down, and chuckled.
It was too funny.
Hyeon-woo’s glistening eyes, staring at the doorway where they had disappeared, resembled those of Salome.
*
“Urgh…!”
Dragged outside, Ju-on groaned and leaned against the wall, suddenly enveloped by Tae-geon’s pheromones.
These pheromones… No way. Is he…!
Ju-on looked at Tae-geon with a shocked expression. He instinctively felt it. These were the pheromones of an alpha guarding against a rival for his mate. Even Ju-on, a recessive alpha, felt suffocated by Tae-geon’s overwhelming pheromones. His legs trembled. Feeling cold sweat running down his spine, Ju-on barely managed to open his mouth.
“…Hyung, I’m… Kwon Ju-on…”
“I know.”
“I’m Ju-on. Hyung! Ugh…!”
Tae-geon, who had been standing askew, approached with slow steps and poked Ju-on’s shoulder with his index finger. It was where Hyeon-woo had rubbed his forehead.
“That’s why I trusted you and left him with you.”
“……”
“Not knowing I was leaving fish with a cat.”
“…What do you mean.”
Ju-on looked at Tae-geon with an uncomprehending expression. Ju-on’s eyes wavered, hurt by Tae-geon’s gaze filled with hostility.
“Don’t you dare covet him while drooling. He’s my omega.”
My omega…? Ju-on was shocked.
The person who had been so pathologically disgusted with omegas was now saying ‘my omega’…?
No, more than that.
Ju-on unconsciously clenched his fists tightly. A surge of defiance welled up. It wasn’t at the part where Tae-geon warned him not to covet. Ju-on felt an inexplicable aversion rise when Tae-geon referred to Hyeon-woo as ‘my omega’.
“…Your omega, hyung?”
Ju-on, with a twisted smile, glared straight at Tae-geon, causing one of Tae-geon’s eyebrows to raise.
“He doesn’t seem to think so. Who decided he’s your omega?”
“……”
“…Urgh!”
Ju-on leaned against the wall again, bending over.
…Damn! These monstrous pheromones!
A sense of inferiority as a recessive alpha, which he had never felt before, enveloped Ju-on’s entire body. Tae-geon, who had been watching Ju-on trembling with humiliation, slowly withdrew his pheromones and spoke in a low voice.
“Know your position exactly.”
Ju-on, who had been breathing roughly, raised his head with a deeply furrowed brow at those words. Tae-geon was looking at Ju-on with an expression that was hard to read.
“Choose one: stick with me, or stick with Hyeon-woo.”
*
Returning home, Ju-on sat on the sofa to organize his thoughts. His head felt like it was about to explode.
Tae-geon, blindly obsessed with Hyeon-woo, and Hyeon-woo, who extremely rejected such a Tae-geon. Their relationship was hard to comprehend. He had to find out. What on earth had happened between them.
Ju-on anxiously waited on the sofa for his father to return home, who was busy day and night as the Taeryeong family’s personal physician and medical association advisor. His father would know all the inside story. The proof was that he had not only provided Hyeon-woo a place to stay but also agreed to the ridiculous request to keep it a secret from their parents.
What on earth had happened for their relationship to have become like this? As Ju-on anxiously glanced at the clock, Tae-geon’s warning-like voice came to his mind. Ju-on clenched his teeth.
