By Zephyria 
Was this a surge of terror, a thrill, or a petty sense of relief that he had finally found him?
Baby, you fucking little…
How much goddamn effort had he put into this? His brain felt as if it were boiling over with exhilaration. Just to lay eyes on that small thing. He had wandered like a madman just to hold that bird-brained little thing in his arms.
The man stepped closer to the iron bars. A cold chill seeped into his skin. Being this close, Eun-myeong looked even more vivid.
The hair that softly wrapped around his nape like dandelion fluff in spring, skin as white as porcelain that cost tens of millions of won per piece, and limbs so slender they looked as if they might snap.
…Yes, this is no nightmare.
This is not some fragment of a dream that vanishes the moment one wakes up.
Finally.
Finally, I have reclaimed him.
He tore his mouth open in a grotesque grin. He tried to soften his gaze, pulling his eyes down to suppress the sharpness. He acted out the utmost kindness he was capable of.
“Eun-myeong.”
Come here, hurry and come to me, and be held in the arms you once loved.
At that, Eun-myeong’s trembling stopped abruptly. The way his thin shoulders jumped was so incredibly lovely.
“…Boss?”
Tock, tock, tock. Eun-myeong turned his head with movements that looked like joints snapping.
“Is it really you, Boss?”
Soon, those large eyes widened as if they might pop out of their sockets and roll away.
“Why, why…!”
He murmured in a shrill voice. His voice was completely shot, as if he hadn’t opened his throat in a long time.
He looked as if he had a cold. His cheeks were flushed, his throat was raw, and there were bumpy rashes or eczema breaking out along his nape.
To be in such a pitiful state.
“Why on earth did you come here?”
Eun-myeong looked as if he had seen a ghost. At that, the man heard a crunching sound. It was coming from his own waist. A shock rippled through his firm side, as if a rib had shattered.
…Why?
Why on earth?
Weren’t you supposed to come and throw yourself into my arms? Just like the dreams he had spent countless sleepless nights dreaming—it was only logical for him to be embraced sweetly and whisper words of love.
“Go away, don’t come closer.”
However, Eun-myeong was busy scrambling backward into the corner, fleeing as far away as possible.
“We don’t know each other.”
Then he began to mutter obsessively again. Those fluttering lips were certainly the lips the man knew… but the words flowing from them were entirely unexpected.
A sharp spark flew in the man’s eyes.
“Come here. Come to me right now.”
He tried to seize Eun-myeong. He shoved his forearm through the iron bars to drag him out, but his arm slammed repeatedly against the metal.
“You piece of shit.”
The man could not overcome his violently raging temper. Having finally gotten his hands on him, he couldn’t let him be snatched away right before his eyes.
“Because of a fucking thing like this!”
Bang! He kicked the iron bars violently with his dress shoe. A loud crashing sound echoed through the wide hallway. The detention center warden, who had been standing far off, started and quickly hurried over, bowing subserviently.
“Oh, Boss…”
He acted as if he were a subordinate hired by the man, to the point where Eun-myeong noticed. Since this was a remote back room, no one else would see anyway.
“Oh dear, I’m not supposed to do this, but…”
The warden inserted a large key into the lock and turned it; a clanking sound followed.
Then, the iron bars that had never opened slid open with a clank. Eun-myeong stared at the opening door as if he couldn’t believe it.
“D-don’t come closer…”
Pale as if he had seen a ghost drowned in water, his shoulders shook. With his mouth wide open, he added that he shouldn’t come.
But the man did as he pleased.
He stepped inside, his dress shoes trampling the space where Eun-myeong was.
“……”
“……”
His piercing eyes scanned the narrow room.
The inside was freezing, and it was incredibly filthy. As for the food, it was unclear how many days he had gone hungry, but clumped-up rice had hardened and been left on one side of the meal tray.
“Fuck, how dare they give him this…”
He wondered what the side dishes were. Just looking at them, they seemed to drip with grease and reek of sourness. He lost his appetite instantly.
And what about the bed, which should be the most comfortable place? The metal frame had collapsed, but the bigger problem was the toilet.
How could a toilet be out in the open? Setting aside the streaks of grime, it was obvious that his naked lower body would be fully exposed every time he relieved himself.
“Dammit…”
Furthermore, Eun-myeong had a habit of lifting his short-sleeved t-shirt up to his stomach, perhaps to avoid getting urine on it. Thinking that someone might have seen that slender belly—which was so narrow it was satisfying just to look at—the man felt an immense rage.
To top it all off, the waste flowing from the toilet drained into a corner. It was a structure where it flowed like a stream and mixed with the waste from other rooms.
That meant other bastards could see everything Eun-myeong expelled from his body.
“Ah…”
The man felt like he was truly going insane. He thought the problem would end once he recovered Eun-myeong. But what was this? A much larger problem was lurking.
“Eun-myeong.”
The man looked down at Eun-myeong, who was huddled in the corner like a speck of dust. He approached with steady footsteps.
“Don’t come, no, I, I…”
Eun-myeong was wrapped tightly in a ragged blanket that looked like a Hanafuda card mat, as if it were his shield.
“Baby.”
To think he had done such a cute thing for him. The man felt a shock as if a bullet had pierced the back of his head.
Still.
Despite everything, seeing him do this made the man feel that Eun-myeong must love him like a fucking destiny.
His heart sank at Eun-myeong’s retreat, but if this was just a tantrum born of resentment, the man could handle it as much as he wanted.
He had finally arrived. Like the protagonists in all sorts of movies, he only had to claim Eun-myeong like a trophy in the ending scene.
That thrilling moment was now within reach.
How terrified must this soft, pure thing—like a newborn life that didn’t belong in such a dangerous and filthy place—have been?
The man wanted to ask that trembling face. If he had waited for him. If he had truly come here on his own, in his stead.
Of course, it was also true that he was incredibly angry. This wasn’t just a little anger; it was a fiery rage that could burn the man alive.
Why he hadn’t thought to tell him. Whether he had been that resentful of him—there were so many things he wanted to ask one by one.
He would quickly coax and soothe him and take him home.
A hotel wasn’t enough. Rather than a place stained with the breath and fingerprints of other guests, it had to be a place where he could restrict and bind Eun-myeong a bit more.
“Were you very lonely and scared?”
My baby, let’s go back, held in my arms.
“Let’s go back, with Mister, to Seoul.”
But Eun-myeong bit his lip hard and shook his head. He kept trying to push the man back with his hands.
“No, I’m not going. You and I are strangers, Boss. Boss, you shouldn’t be here.”
When the man didn’t budge, Eun-myeong retreated further, and in the process, the blanket got caught under his buttocks, and the cloth wrapped around his shoulders slid down.
It was then. Eun-myeong’s hidden body was revealed.
A fierce fire sparked in the man’s eyes. The waistband of Eun-myeong’s pants was completely stretched out. One wrong move and that soft pubic hair the man adored would be fully exposed.
“Which son of a bitch was it?”
The man could no longer keep a smile on his lips. He grabbed the waistband of Eun-myeong’s pants as if grabbing him by the collar.
“Ugh, ugh, no…”
Eun-myeong seemed terrified that his fragile little bag of flesh might come to harm.
But the man’s touch was only gentle. As if he were holding something exquisitely sweet, he stroked him like one would pet a cute, small puppy.
“Which fucking bastard touched you, hm?”
He played with his tongue as if soothing him. But even while his tongue was coated in honey, there would be a knife hidden in his gut. Eun-myeong knew that all too well.
“No one touched me…”
So he spoke quickly.
“B-because I’m an Omega, I asked for a single room.”
“Then why is it so red here?”
As the man said, Eun-myeong’s groin was flushed bright red. It had been painfully swollen even before he touched it, and he happened to see it.
“The elastic on your underwear is all stretched out, your cock is about to show. It’ll probably shrivel up from the cold, fuck.”
Even though they were in a corner and no one could see, the man acted obsessively. He used his large frame to hide Eun-myeong. Then, he pulled something out of his back pocket and brought it toward Eun-myeong.
“Aaah!”
Realizing what it was, Eun-myeong jumped in surprise. Why were his underwear coming out from there? Moreover, with that pattern, he had definitely left them at that detective’s house.
Eun-myeong asked, sounding like someone who had just been slapped.
“W-what happened to that person, Ji Jun-il?”
His voice was very low, very low. The man’s hand stopped abruptly.
“Why do you have that, Boss?”
He was trembling so hard that the sound of his teeth chattering could be heard from nearby.
“Did you beat him? D-did you perhaps kill him…?”
The man said nothing and just looked at Eun-myeong. Tears began to well up in those large, round eyes.
“…You shouldn’t do that to him.”
Shouldn’t do that. The man chewed over those words quietly. It tasted acrid, as if he had an ashtray in his mouth.
The man clenched his teeth hard. Eun-myeong was worrying about the life of someone else, not him, right in front of him.
Moreover, the words that followed felt like a knife slicing through the man’s ribs.
“Do you know why you came looking for me? It’s b-because of the debt, isn’t it?”
Eun-myeong bit his lower lip hard and then let go.
“It’s because you’re worried I won’t pay it back.”
Drip, drip. Round tears formed on the coarse shroud-like blanket that didn’t seem to suit Eun-myeong at all.
“M-my Noona said she’d get a loan from somewhere else. I’ll pay that back first.”
He swallowed hard with difficulty before continuing.
“Then we really will never have to see each other again.”
Wasn’t this the embrace he had wanted and craved so much? Yet Eun-myeong turned his back and looked away, as if he had no lingering regrets.
“Because we’re really strangers.”
At that, the man gripped his side tightly. Again. His internal organs felt as if they were twisting again.
‘I want to run away with the police. I’ll run away to a place where the Boss can never find me and live happily.’
Feeling as if bile were about to surge up, the man covered his mouth with his hand.
He bit down hard on the fingers of his black-gloved hand. He felt a maddening pain, but it was nothing compared to the agony felt in his organs.