By Zephyria 
Acceptance
Yes, it took a full four days.
The man had scoured every inch of Gyeryong Bay. He searched Lee Eun-joo, the sashimi restaurant, and even overturned every single fish hold of the boats anchored in the open sea. Since he had once fished him out of such a dark, smelling place like a piece of trash, he wondered if the boy had shoved himself back in there like a fish.
No, however, they were all empty. He gained nothing.
After making such a scene that the nape of his neck was drenched in sweat, the man’s next destination was the orphanage. He stormed into the already vacant orphanage. Finding the main gate locked tight, he simply drove his car straight through it.
Crunch, crash! The iron gate crumpled miserably. The man climbed out of the car violently and stormed inside.
The orphanage looked exactly as he remembered. However, in the eyes of a man whose fuse had already blown, nothing was visible.
Inside the large building. In the empty space, he seemed to hear the thumping of footsteps. As he whipped his head around, a fluttering piece of white cloth caught the edge of his vision.
“I knew it.”
A smirk carved deep into the corners of the man’s mouth. He figured the boy wouldn’t have gotten far. Wearing a smile of victory, the man took large, heavy strides.
As he approached the room labeled ‘Bedroom,’ he found the inside empty. Only the white curtains, fluttering in the wind, welcomed him.
Incredibly, he had seen a hallucination.
“…….”
A bed sat beneath that window. The name ‘Lee Eun-myeong’ written at the head of the bed pierced his gaze. It was likely the bed Eun-myeong had slept in since he was a baby.
The man tore through the neatly folded blankets as if digging up a grave. Not satisfied with that, he bent his waist to peer under the bed. Nothing. He was nowhere.
“…….”
The man glared at the empty bed for a long time. That bed, which would be saturated with Lee Eun-myeong’s scent. Even the scent on the hotel beds had grown faint; he wondered how this one would be.
He lifted the pillow and took a deep breath.
“Hmm….”
It seemed there was a faint smell. The man opened his nose and mouth wide. He took in the scent as if stealing the smell of Eun-myeong’s lower body through his nasal cavity, his chest expanding and contracting violently.
The surging thirst was immense. He gasped for air like a fish that hadn’t had a drop of water for days.
The man imagined himself burrowing windingly beneath Eun-myeong like an eel, eating the water from the inner walls.
He gripped the pillow in his hand tightly. He didn’t know which piece of filth had stolen him, but he would shove a starving eel into every single one of their holes.
Only when that pitch-black, wicked thing became an organ and coiled inside their own belly would they realize how great the sin of coveting another’s property truly is.
The front of the man’s supercar was completely smashed. The wheels stopped, scraping the ground ferociously. He was in front of a secluded villa.
Similarly, the man tore the door open as if to rip it off its hinges and stepped inside. Moans that sounded like screams, heard faintly, grew closer.
“Ngh, ah, ugh! I feel like I’m going to die, President Kang, ah!”
Step, step. The heels of the man’s shoes drew closer to the source of the sound. He stopped in front of the master bedroom. He saw two bodies entangled and clinging to each other on the bed.
“Kang Chang-hui.”
As if unable to hear, long hair fluttered and moved. It was Kang Chang-hui who was crushing the body beneath him, like a lion that had starved for days.
“Ugh, hng, waah!”
An Omega, letting out whimpering moans as if being crushed underneath, caught his eye.
A white body, hair yellow as autumn leaves, ankles as thin as a bird’s legs, and reddened knees.
For a moment, it felt as if sparks flew before the man’s eyes. That was definitely Lee Eun-myeong. The Lee Eun-myeong he had searched for so desperately had been hiding here. He felt as if his heart were burning black like ash. He approached like a Grim Reaper, grabbed the Omega brat’s wrist, and plucked him out like a radish.
“My, my arm!”
The Omega’s face contorted in pain, claiming his arm felt like it was being ripped off. Only then did he see the face. The face moaning and streaming with tears was not Lee Eun-myeong’s.
“Kang Pyeong-won…? What the fuck are you doing!”
Kang Chang-hui, who had been on top, shrieked.
Ah, it wasn’t him.
The man threw away the wrist he was holding. The Omega rolled around the bed, crying that it hurt too much.
Regardless, he tore through the villa, searching everywhere. Obsessively, he broke down the bathroom door to look inside the tub, and looked out the windows to see if the boy was hanging from the balcony upon hearing news of his arrival. He even smashed all the closed closets.
“Kang Pyeong-won, have you finally gone insane?”
Kang Chang-hui, having thrown on a silk robe, approached clutching a golf club, seemingly enraged. Of course, Kang Pyeong-won didn’t even spare a glance in that direction. Instead, a boiler room located to one side caught his eye.
“Couldn’t resist and hid in a place like this again…?”
He wondered how much the boy would whine this time. The man clicked his tongue.
“What the hell are you babbling about, you psychopath!”
Kang Chang-hui swung the golf club sharply, and the man blocked it with his arm. A crack sounded, and it seemed quite painful. Even so, the man’s expression didn’t change.
Instead, he snatched the golf club away. With it, he slammed it right into the boiler room door! He kicked the door with his shoe, and the wooden panel became a rag, breaking effortlessly. And as it creaked open, the inside was empty.
“Are you seriously crazy?!”
When Kang Chang-hui tried to grab him by the collar, the man smashed an ashtray against the wall. He pressed a sharp shard of crystal glass against Kang Chang-hui’s neck. Kyaaa! The Omega let out a high-pitched scream.
“Tell me right now where you hid Lee Eun-myeong. Unless you want your throat slit.”
Kang Chang-hui glared like a madwoman, raving about whether he had truly lost his mind. She looked irritated to the limit, as if the man had stopped her just before she could beg.
“You perverted psycho piece of shit!”
“Chang-hui.”
The man’s voice echoed gloomily through the air.
“I know you leaked information to the police.”
Kang Chang-hui gasped.
“Did you think I wouldn’t know you followed me that day?”
“Fu, fuck….”
She muttered curses, looking down at her own neck. The look in the man’s eyes was so crazed that the thought that he might actually stab her rushed over her.
“I won’t hold that sin against you.”
Give me Lee Eun-myeong while I’m still speaking kindly. He spoke in a ruined voice, as if scraping it from his throat.
“I told you I don’t know, you lunatic.”
Kang Chang-hui shook her head, spitting the words through her teeth.
“If it’s him, I didn’t take him! Because you’re such a psychopathic lunatic, the kid probably got scared and ran away!”
Ran away? At the word that burst from Kang Chang-hui’s lips, the man’s vision seemed to burn bright red. Who dared to run away from him? Lee Eun-myeong?
“But if I’d known you’d throw such a fit, I would’ve just taken him and slit his throat long ago. Why leave something you cherish so much wandering the world, I mean.”
Not her? Even Kang Chang-hui said no.
“Why? You should’ve just killed him like your father and taxidermied him. Why did you act so uncharacteristically nice?”
The man only breathed in and out harshly.
Lee Eun-joo hadn’t hidden Lee Eun-myeong, and following that policeman revealed no trace of contact with Lee Eun-myeong. If Chairman Kang hadn’t killed him, and Kang Chang-hui hadn’t touched him….
Ah, now the man had to accept it. Lee Eun-myeong had run away.
‘Boss, I….’
The voice that had softly landed in his ear played back like the sound of the wind.
‘I’ll make you marinated crab when autumn comes.’
He had said that, his cheeks flushing deep red. The man had remained silent, looking down at him. A life with nothing to his name; the face that had pondered deeply on what he could do for the man was clear and fair, as if he had just washed his face.
‘Of course, the medicine… the kind that doesn’t taste like medicine….’
‘If you buy something that expensive, the baby’s back pocket will be empty.’
‘I’ll pay back the debt well. It’s cheaper if an employee buys it.’
His nostrils flared, excited by the thought of doing things for him. His lips parted in a wide, beaming smile.
‘And I… I’ll mix rice in the crab shell for you. There’s a specific ratio for the sesame oil.’
Despite having nothing but a wretched body and his feelings for him. He had always said with his eyes that he would give his whole heart.
“…….”
The man let out a wheezing breath. His chest heaved violently. His hand dropped. Blood trickled down. A piece of glass had dug deep into his palm.
If there were a thief, he intended to tear them apart and kill them regardless of the means, but if the boy had run away on his own two feet, how on earth was he supposed to punish him?
The word ‘taxidermy’ floated into the man’s mind. If he finds him, if he finds him, so that he can never run away again, yes….