By Zephyria 
“…….”
His eyes immediately locked onto Eun-myeong.
The bangs that hung long over his forehead like a shaggy dog, the somewhat vacant eyes, the flushed cheeks, the politely tucked knees, and the drink held submissively before the woman.
“Ha.”
Exhaling a heavy breath in one go, the man strode forward, grabbed Eun-myeong by the forearm, and hauled him up.
“Get up. Now.”
Startled, Eun-myeong let out a small hiccup and was pulled along helplessly, like a stuffed toy. He had never imagined he would see the man again so suddenly.
Flustered, Eun-myeong tried to push the man’s hand away. Of course, the difference in strength was stark, and the man didn’t budge an inch. Perhaps displeased by the arrogant gesture of trying to shake him off, the man’s thick eyebrows twitched sharply.
At any other time, Eun-myeong might have felt glad to see him. But right now, the situation was just terrible. There was someone who might be the man’s lover right in front of them; was it really okay to grab his arm and drag him away like this? Moreover, they were saying he smelled bad.
And then.
“You were hitting on my lover, weren’t you?”
At the woman’s voice coming from behind, Eun-myeong’s head naturally turned.
What on earth was she talking about? Did that mean he had touched the hidden lover of a lover? Eun-myeong’s eyes widened at a soap-opera plot that his mind simply couldn’t keep up with.
“Then do you want to sell that to me?”
That. Eun-myeong muttered softly to himself. He saw the man’s neck stiffen. A loud, dry swallow echoed from the man’s throat.
“Try saying that again.”
The man growled menacingly. In response, the woman smiled, curling the corners of her lips.
“Aren’t you tired of him? It’s so embarrassing that you didn’t even pay off your lover’s debt—”
“Is the world too noisy for you? Do I need to make it quiet?”
Cutting her off, the man toyed with his own ear. As his freezing gaze pierced the woman’s ear like an arrow, her shoulders flinched.
In an atmosphere as sharp as a well-honed blade, Eun-myeong could only roll his eyes back and forth. This felt… a bit different from the stories he’d heard from his aunties. While he was thinking this, his arm was suddenly yanked.
“I bet you were reaching out the moment I wasn’t looking.”
Leaving those final words behind, the man dragged Eun-myeong out of the shop. Eun-myeong’s steps tangled as he followed, and he nearly tripped several times along the way.
“Please let go, I have to work…!”
Despite Eun-myeong’s repeated struggles, the man did not release his grip on the forearm.
“Boss.”
The man completely ignored Eun-myeong’s plea to be let go. Instead, he opened the car door as if he were about to break it and tossed Eun-myeong into the passenger seat. Eun-myeong was loaded in like a piece of luggage.
“…Ugh.”
Then, cold words poured over his forehead.
“Who taught you the bad habit of pouring drinks so recklessly?”
Recalling the mention that the man had opened the door gently for that woman, Eun-myeong cast his eyes downward. When Eun-myeong didn’t answer, the door slammed shut with a loud bang!
He drove aggressively. A chilly air circulated inside the car. The tension was so strangely taut that it felt as if not even a single needle could pierce through it.
The moment they entered the hotel room, the first thing that hit the man was a sense of incongruity.
What is it? His eyes narrowed, glinting sharply. He scanned the room, his gaze darting everywhere.
Soon after, he let out a long sigh. He ran his tongue along the inside of his cheek. The traces of Eun-myeong that had been scattered everywhere were gone.
…Did he pack his things?
The man had marked Eun-myeong. Once they left the hotel, he monitored him twenty-four hours a day, clinging to him like a leech. Today was no exception. Since there were no signs of him straying, he must still be inside.
The man peered under the bed, opened the bathroom door, and searched the shoe rack.
“…….”
Finally, he flung open the closet door. Pushing the hanging clothes aside with his arm, he reached deep into the back, and his fingertips caught on something.
Gripping it tightly as if grabbing someone by the collar, he hauled it forward. A bundle of belongings was dragged out like a prisoner. The knots were tied so firmly it was almost absurd.
“Were you preparing to run away?”
The man ruthlessly tore through the knots. He flipped the bundle over and shook it out.
“Boss.”
Eun-myeong stepped forward to stop him, but the belongings had already begun to spill out messily.
Clatter. The items scattered. They were all shabby and wretched. Old clothes that wouldn’t be out of place as rags, cast nets that he clearly cherished and kept by his side, and equally unsightly socks.
Among them, one item caught the man’s fierce gaze. It was a pair of shoes. The ones that were far too shiny, which Park Woong had ordered him to throw away. Setting aside the thought of why they were in Eun-myeong’s bundle…
“You dared to try something like this behind my back?”
The fact that he had dared to play tricks behind his back sparked a rage in the man that felt like a throbbing pain in his temples.
He violently kicked the shoes. With a loud thud, the shoes hit the wall and rolled randomly across the rug. At the loud noise, Eun-myeong flinched, shrinking his shoulders.
“Boss, that is…”
Right, go on, tell me. With that thought, the man kept his head down but flicked his eyes upward.
A cold silence followed. Even in that silence, the sleek gloss emanating from the toes of the shoes reflected the light of the chandelier, piercing his eyes painfully.
Eun-myeong’s nostrils flared. He wandered for a moment, as if not knowing where to begin, before finally mumbling with difficulty.
“I wasn’t trying to steal the shoes.”
What? The man’s face crumpled into a fierce scowl.
“I… I was actually the one who polished those shoes.”
Shoes?
The man wondered if he had misheard. Because Eun-myeong was mumbling as if his mouth were full of something, he hadn’t understood at first.
“It wasn’t a hotel employee; I was the one who polished them.”
The man was appalled by the words coming from that small, parted mouth. His eyes were bloodshot and moist, and the corners of his mouth were drooping. As if confessing something deeply upsetting, Eun-myeong’s inner thoughts poured out without pause.
“And I wasn’t trying to run away… it’s just that I’ve become an Omega now, so I thought you’d tell me to leave. I packed my things this morning.”
“…….”
The man narrowed his eyes. Then why had he pushed the luggage so deep into the closet, as if trying to deceive him? The story didn’t add up.
“But you hid them this deep?”
Eun-myeong opened his mouth with an “Ah.” He slowly raised his hand and covered his mouth, like someone who had just realized a fact they hadn’t even been aware of.
“…Because I didn’t want to leave.”
Eun-myeong continued in a faint voice. As he spoke, his earlobes turned red with shame, as if he had been slapped across the cheek.
“I thought if you saw them, you’d tell me to leave immediately… So I packed them and then hid them so they wouldn’t be seen.”
“…Ha.”
The man covered his mouth with his palm, as if utterly speechless.
For a moment, he thought the boy was brazen.
Kang Chang-hee had offered to sell this one to him. Since they shared the same blood, their tastes were similar; just as the man found him appetizing, Kang Chang-hee must have been salivating like a hungry dog. That was likely why he had sat him down to drink. Just imagining the satisfaction Kang Chang-hee must have felt in that moment made the man feel as if his internal organs were being flipped upside down even in his sleep.
Furthermore, upon returning to the hotel, he had discovered this luggage. He had thought Eun-myeong was excited at the prospect of finding another sugar daddy to lay his warm body upon and had packed in secret.
But the answer he received was that. The man narrowed his eyes, reading the boy’s expression to see if he was being deceived.
Eun-myeong was still tentatively gathering his words.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to be greedy.”
Even without the man digging into his heart, Eun-myeong stood before him, his face flushed like a ripe fruit. His skin was so thin that he revealed his inner softness like a plump plum, exposing his nape as if saying, ‘Please, take me.’
How on earth was he supposed to consume this?
The man let out a ragged breath and inhaled again. His chest heaved sharply. He slowly stroked his jaw to hide the mouth that kept wanting to open. For once, the fact that his expectations were being defied was seriously pleasing.
“Then why were you trying to steal the shoes?”
Eun-myeong’s feet looked as if they wouldn’t even reach the size of the man’s hand. They were clearly too big; they would undoubtedly slip off his ankles the moment he put them on. He might even trip after just a few steps.
Thinking of him wandering around foolishly, the man harbored a dirty thought that he wanted to see that sight with his own eyes someday. He sneered at himself for having such a wretchedly bad taste.
“I’m asking why you packed something like this.”
As he asked again, the rims of Eun-myeong’s eyes grew redder. He looked anxious and unstable, pushed to his limit, but the man had no intention of backing down.
“…I thought there was nothing here that I could take with me. I’m sorry, I thought you wouldn’t know since you’d already thrown them away.”
Facing his own hidden desire, Eun-myeong didn’t know what to do.
Ah, the man sighed deeply. Of course, taking his belongings and hiding them in one’s bosom deserved a scolding. However, the man, whose heart was as vast and merciful as the white sea, tended to be generous to those who were honest.
The man reached out his large hand. Despite it being the hand Eun-myeong feared so much, Eun-myeong just stood there, watching.
Until the man’s hand touched his cheek.
Finally, as his hand cupped the cheek, it caught a damp moisture. Tsk, the man clicked his tongue lightly.
“So, what you’re saying is that you don’t want me to throw you away.”
Eun-myeong nodded, confirming it was so. A tear, which had been clinging in a round bead to his eyelashes, finally fell.