By Zephyria 
Thump, thump.
Large bare feet tread upon the floor. Staggering. He entered the bathroom like a predator starved by famine, wandering in search of prey.
He turned on the faucet. With a roar, the stream of water flowed like a snake. After splashing his face roughly with cold water, he looked into the mirror.
“Fucking hell….”
His gaze was that of someone possessed by a gluttonous hunger. His eye sockets were deeply sunken, and his jawline was exposed with a wild, sharp edge.
Yes, Lee Eun-myeong. My dog-like, nightmare of a thing.
With a pretty face and a supple, lovely body, he had been a delight to hold in one’s arms.
No, that expression is insufficient. Had he not brought him to the peak of orgasm time and time again? It was practically ecstatic….
He had been so easy to handle. With a single glance, wouldn’t he wag his tail like a puppy and act obediently? If he were petted just once in a while, he would become utterly overwhelmed, exposing his belly completely.
He was a most convenient tool. For a man who pursued ultimate efficiency, he provided unparalleled satisfaction.
And now that Eun-myeong had vanished.
Why was he chasing after Eun-myeong like a jackal robbed of its prey?
No, if he were merely prey, it would have been better to simply bite into a new target. Why was he chasing him as if he had been robbed of his only pup?
That thing….
Yes, regardless of the reason, he had to get it back.
He moved obsessively. He gripped the handle of the razor. He traced his jaw with the sharp blade. The knife dug deep into the skin.
A piece of flesh clung to his lip and dangled. Blood flowed profusely.
“Ugh….”
The man gasped for air. Blood soaked his jaw. He looked as if he had eaten a herbivore alive.
Drip, drip. Blood fell. The white dress shirt was stained crimson. The shirt Eun-myeong had ironed was becoming filthily contaminated.
A high-pitched ringing, a tinnitus, echoed in his ears.
‘I want to run away with the police. I’ll run to a place where the Boss can never find me and live happily.’
…Run away.
Run away.
Happily….
I’ll never say I love you again….
“…Fuck.”
He flung the razor away. Clang, clang, clang! The razor rolled frantically across the sink. He took deep, heavy breaths.
“Ugh….”
He gripped his side tightly.
He had tried overturning his entire internal anatomy. Even after looking into every organ contained within his ribs, they said there was nothing wrong. Then why, on earth, did his organs feel as if they were being poked and prodded in such terrible pain?
The only loss he had experienced was one person: Lee Eun-myeong.
Yes, he had to get him back.
He looked into the mirror.
Yes, once I bring you back…. I shall pretend to be sweet. Like Satan, I will place love in his hand like a piece of candy and whisper.
‘Baby, I’ll give you the love you want so much, so you just keep being lovely.’
In that way, he would blind Eun-myeong’s eyes, block his ears, and keep him trapped in his embrace.
The man organized his thoughts while blood dripped from him.
Since he had searched everywhere possible, he now needed to look back at the places he had already visited.
He shaved his beard and put on a new dress shirt. As he fastened the buttons, he felt his ribcage tightening.
He also wore a shirt garter belt on his thighs. Normally, as the weather grew warmer, the volume of his thighs would increase firmly, requiring him to increase the size of the garter belt, but the winter one fit roughly. He had certainly lost weight.
He sprayed a shower cologne with a thick scent of roses. Whenever Eun-myeong buried his nose in the crook of his neck to smell it, his cheeks would flush.
“Hmm.”
Just the imagination made his crotch bulge. The starved part of him was already breathing hot air and dripping saliva inside his drawers.
This, too, would soon find the cave it was meant to enter. He stroked his groin with his large hand.
Dressed in a coat, he left the hotel and drove his car. Thump, thump, thump—his heart pounded like a man who had lost his mind.
Screech—with a sharp sound of friction, the car stopped in front of an inn. He slammed the car against the wall haphazardly and got out.
He walked forward. Within his sunken eye sockets, his pupils rolled gloomily. He chased Eun-myeong’s traces like a madman.
Then, he stopped in front of Room 301. The room where the police were staying. The window was opaque. Nothing inside was visible.
Without blinking, the man smashed the doorknob. A loud crash echoed.
“Which son of a bitch is making a scene again?!”
The door next door flew open. The man snapped his head to the side. The other person gasped at the sight of his wide, bloodshot eyes.
“Hieek!”
The neighbor scrambled back and shut the door quickly.
He calmly opened the door with the broken knob and entered. The lights were off. Upon entering, there was no sign of anyone.
He had ordered his subordinates to tail the police constantly. However, the subordinates reported that they had never once seen them make contact with Eun-myeong.
Yet, why did the man’s intuition keep leading him here?
He paced around the room in his dress shoes.
…A sunken bed, crumpled blankets, piles of dirty clothes.
Among things that were not special in any way.
At that moment, something jumped into the man’s field of vision. It was none other than a scrap of cloth hanging on the veranda.
He approached. It was a white T-shirt. He saw the armholes where Eun-myeong’s slender arms had passed through. The narrow passage where the armpits must have rubbed incessantly….
Furthermore, panties were hanging next to it. They were undoubtedly Eun-myeong’s. The man had bought them himself and had even stripped them off him personally.
The man approached and smelled them. He expanded his chest deeply. Though the scent was covered by a cheap fabric softener, he felt he could smell Eun-myeong’s watery, floral fragrance.
“Should I just kill him?”
His gloomy voice pierced through the eerie silence.
If that policeman had also stripped Eun-myeong’s pants….
If he had ever peered into the hole of those panties, if he had ever wound the soft pubic hair around his fingers, he would surely cut off his limbs and burn them.
Just then, he sensed a presence outside. The man gripped the panties tightly.
The outer door must be open. Step, step—someone entered, stealthily lowering their footsteps. The man looked down at the floor. He saw a shadow approaching.
Is it Eun-myeong?
The man’s mind heated up like a spark. He waited for the silhouette approaching like a stray cat.
However.
The one who appeared was Ji Jun-il. He was holding an expandable baton in his hand.
“Kang Pyeong-won?”
He discovered the man standing in the darkness like a goblin. The bundle in Ji Jun-il’s other hand dropped to the floor. It seemed to contain food. He couldn’t tell how many servings it was.
After a moment of confusion, Jun-il erased his expression. He observed the man warily and tossed out a comment.
“Rumors that you’re searching for Eun-myeong are spreading all over the country.”
The man felt like searing a cigarette into those blinking, fish-like eyes.
“You must be quite desperate, huh?”
He was mocking the man, who seemed to have lost his composure. Yet, the man only chuckled.
“I simply came to retrieve what is mine.”
At that, Ji Jun-il’s face crumpled in disgust.
“Why is Eun-myeong-ssi yours…. Do you think Eun-myeong-ssi is some cheap possession you can buy with money….”
In an instant, the man lunged forward and gripped Jun-il’s neck tightly. Thump—Jun-il’s head hit the wall.
“You hid him, didn’t you?”
His gaze burned as if it would incinerate Jun-il on the spot. This was the policeman who appeared countless times in the photos of Eun-myeong. In the gaze he cast upon Eun-myeong, there was an unmistakable affection.
“Yes, it would be impossible not to find him lovely.”
Any bastard with a cock would be unable to stop imagining planting his seed in that lower belly.
Despite being a mere Beta who couldn’t smell a thing. You don’t even know how incredible that scent is.
“How dare a piece of trash like a cop harbor such filthy desires?”
Gasp, wheeze—Jun-il’s lips trembled as he struggled for air. As expected, his eyes showed he had been hit where it hurt. Then, he raised his voice as if having a seizure.
“And what about you? Didn’t you play with that innocent person as much as you wanted?”
At Jun-il’s sudden outburst, the man blinked slowly.
“And what exactly is the problem with that?”
It was his thing to begin with; why on earth was that a problem? That was what the man spat back.
“Right now!”
Jun-il flailed his arms and legs in frustration.
“Who do you think is responsible for everything that’s happening right now…!”
“What?”
At the unexpected words, the man’s face twisted like a demon. He let go of Jun-il, and Jun-il tumbled to the floor with a crash.
“Ugh, ack….”
Just then, the incandescent light on the veranda flickered on. Light pooled on the face of the man who had been standing immersed in the black darkness.
“Because of you…!”
Jun-il, who had been venting his frustration, shut his mouth the moment he saw that sight. It was as if he had seen a ghost.
The flesh of his lips was deeply gouged, exposing the reddish skin, deep shadows cast over his eyes, and above all, that gaze… was insanely desolate.
“Do you think I can’t find one Lee Eun-myeong? Huh?”
If he hadn’t known he was Kang Pyeong-won of Kangsung, he would have suspected the man had escaped from a psychiatric hospital. That was how much of a madman’s eyes he had.
“Kang Pyeong-won, you….”
Jun-il swallowed hard.
“You’ll never have Eun-myeong-ssi, even if you die and come back to life.”