By Zephyria 
The Boss had been absent for too long. By this point, it was impossible for the employees not to realize that things were spiraling out of control.
When lunch time arrived, the employees gathered around the table. As usual, the Boss became the topic of conversation on the chopping block. Lately, they spent every spare moment whispering about this.
“Where could the Boss have gone?”
Aunt Jeong-hye munched on a piece of radish. She was sitting comfortably cross-legged, wearing her loose floral pants.
“Probably off playing golf with some young chicken somewhere.”
“Then why hasn’t he stocked up on fish? That money-grubbing ghost.”
The Boss was never someone who paid much attention to the shop. The employees managed the day-to-day operations well enough, but the problem was the fish. The Boss had always insisted on handling the sourcing himself, and now that had fallen through.
Since payments weren’t being made, the Fisherman Ahjussis were naturally furious. They made a huge fuss, asking how they were supposed to make a living. Eventually, they cut off the supply entirely.
…The tanks were slowly starting to empty. Customers were flooding in, but there was no fish. Naturally, the employees had no choice but to huddle together and whisper.
However, as always, they reached no conclusion.
“By the way, what does that man do for a living?”
The conversation, drifting here and there, finally dropped anchor on that particular customer. Eun-myeong set down his spoon. His sullen face was reflected in the small silver circle.
“I wonder what he does to be able to spend a million won every single day without blinking.”
“Don’t even get me started; he’s a total thug. There’s no thug like him.”
The voices dropped significantly. The heads of the gathered group leaned in secretively.
“He doesn’t even use a card. It’s cash every single time. Just money, money.”
The reason banknotes were flowing through the shop was all because of that customer. The kitchen auntie added with a wave of her hand.
“Last time, oh my, I was so shocked. There was blood on the money.”
I was absolutely startled and jumped, but then he told me not to worry because he’d just killed a bug and the blood got on it. Does that even make sense?
Before they knew it, lunch had become an afterthought. Eun-myeong sat there, pale as a ghost. His hands, hidden beneath the table, were trembling. No one here knew that the Boss was dead. He felt as if he could hear a creaking metallic sound coming from somewhere.
Screech. The door opened. A large man stepped through the curtain. It was the Bear—the one the man kept like a loyal hound. Behind him, the man appeared. Today, he was wearing a dark red tie.
“Welcome!”
The employees stood up to greet them. And as one, they gestured toward Eun-myeong. It was only natural, as the man looked for Eun-myeong every time he visited.
“Please come this way.”
Eun-myeong pushed his chair back and stood up. He came again today. To monitor him. He wouldn’t even touch the food, yet he frequented the shop so often the threshold was practically worn down.
The intimidation the man had left behind clung to the back of Eun-myeong’s neck for a long time. Noona must never be found out, absolutely never….
“Give me whatever the baby is good at making.”
Since fish supplies were no longer available, the Special Deluxe was the first menu item to be unavailable.
“Shall I bring out some snow crab?”
The command to do so returned. Eun-myeong quickly bowed and hurried away as if escaping. His slippers clattered as he trotted off. Of course, he didn’t notice the strange gaze clinging to the soles of his feet, which peeked out occasionally.
Eun-myeong scooped a snow crab from the tank with a net. Today, a few of them had particularly bloated crab shells. Their movements were sluggish, as if they were in poor condition. Eun-myeong deliberately picked those ones.
They were people who didn’t eat anyway. They came to a sashimi restaurant but never touched the food. All they did was drink. And they continued to watch him. As if monitoring Eun-myeong’s every move.
He put them in the steamer and steamed them thoroughly. His freckled cheeks turned red from the escaping steam. With flushed cheeks, he loaded the snow crabs onto a tray.
Finally, he clenched his fist and knocked on the door of the Plum Blossom room.
“T-the food is here.”
“Yeah.”
A short reply came from inside. With a pounding, trembling heart, he opened the door. In the short time it took to enter, Eun-myeong measured the distance to the door in his head. Only four steps back. No matter how slow Eun-myeong was, he could escape in ten seconds.
“I’ll prepare the snow crab for you.”
Eun-myeong stood as far away from the man as possible. Pressing his lower abdomen against the corner of the table, he moved his hands busily. The man looked up at him. No, he was observing, gauging, and dissecting him as if he were slicing sashimi. It felt suffocating.
“…I’ll cut it for you so it’s easier to eat.”
Eun-myeong gripped the scissors and tongs to cut the crab himself. Even though it was something he did all the time, his hands shook violently. Was it really okay to hold scissors in front of this man? What if he suddenly snatched them and stabbed him….
He first cut through the back of the crab. Squelch, a bit of liquid leaked out. The damp water flowed down his white fingers.
“O-our shop is famous for Bakdal… ah, no. Bakdal snow crabs.”
The man tracked Eun-myeong with his eyes. Despite his entire body being pale, as if dipped in cow’s milk, his plump cheeks held a reddish heat. He wanted to peel back the inner flesh of that mouth with his hand. Wouldn’t it be an even deeper pink inside?
His neck was so slender that it felt as if it would snap with just a little pressure whenever he gripped it. His waist was so thin that the apron strings had plenty of room to spare. He would never be able to function as a man until the day he died. Someone like this would only find luck if they were embraced by a man.
“Snow crabs with full meat inside are called Bakdal….”
White liquid leaked down the fingers of the brat who was snapping the crab legs one by one.
“-. …The yield is good and it’s clean, so it’s delicious.”
Drip, drip, drip. The dripping juices reminded him of something dirty. He probably pissed himself just like that in the bathroom. Tucking a tiny cock, not even a handful, between his thin thighs to urinate. The man reached out. He slowly wiped away the flowing broth. He put his finger in his mouth and sucked it.
“It’s sweet.”
Eun-myeong flinched, his hand trembling. The scissors reflected the electric light haphazardly, sending a sharp glint from the tip.
‘Huh, ugh….’
It was then. The back of the crab shell was suddenly crushed by the scissor blade. It was a strange sensation. Usually, a crab shell would break with a crisp snap, but this time, it felt as if something soft had been torn apart.
As he pulled the scissors away, a white powder spilled out in a heap. Eun-myeong stared blankly down at his hand. What on earth was this?
A chilly air lingered in the Plum Blossom room.
Then, a large, hot hand lunged at Eun-myeong. Grabbing Eun-myeong’s hand, a gaze like a dark valley looked down between the fingers, which were grooved like a canyon. The man lowered his chin. He parted his lips, extended a smooth, thick tongue, and licked Eun-myeong’s hand.
“Mm, sweet.”
Slorp, slurp, squelch.
The spaces between Eun-myeong’s fingers were filthily sucked clean. Eun-myeong’s face turned bright red, like a butt that had been slapped. He tried to pull his hand away frantically, but he was held fast in the man’s grip. The dark blue veins popping out on the back of the man’s hand were grotesque and terrifying.
Slorp, slurp, slurp.
The soft skin was pulled into the mouth, sucked hard, and then returned to its place with a pop sound. The skin, sucked damp like a lollipop, swelled up in an instant. As if he had just stepped out of a long bath.
“Baby, do you know what this is?”
Eun-myeong looked at him like someone who had lost their soul. Naturally, there was no way he knew. With eyes reddened as if someone had pressed down hard with their palm, Eun-myeong looked up at the man.
“N-no….”
A strange tension and suffocating fear made his heart thud.
“A drug that makes brats like you leak all over themselves.”
The man wiped the corner of his mouth with a wet wipe.
“Leaking pussy juice from their holes, begging for a cock to plug it, just dripping everywhere…. I heard they even roll their eyes back in pleasure when a fist is shoved in.”
He gathered his thick, supple eyebrows, like a snake, toward the bridge of his nose. He crumpled the wet wipe and tossed it onto the table before continuing.
“But shitty bastard.”
The curse that followed was utterly vulgar and crude.
“Why the hell is this in a crab shell?”
“I-I don’t… I don’t know either.”
Even Eun-myeong couldn’t understand why such a thing was inside a crab shell. To make matters worse, as events crashed over him like undulating waves, Eun-myeong felt as if he were an old sailboat, shaking and about to be shipwrecked.
“Hmm?”
The man tapped Eun-myeong’s stomach with the back of his hand. As if pointing to the belly of a crab, he tapped Eun-myeong’s lower abdomen, urging for an answer.
“Are you telling me to eat this and leak everywhere?”
The man chuckled. If it were an Omega estrus inducer, it shouldn’t have affected this customer, who was an alpha, yet his eyes had gone wild. Come to think of it, he was always in that state.
He was smiling, but it wasn’t a smile. He looked at Eun-myeong as if he were a kind and gentle adult, but rather than simply watching him with kindness, it was closer to a gloomy, piercing gaze.
“I really don’t know why this was here, I’m truly sorry, I’m sorry….”
Eun-myeong gripped his thighs tightly. Occasionally, foreign objects did come out of the food. No matter how careful they were, a strand of hair would occasionally appear in the spicy fish stew. It could have been the customer’s or an employee’s, but once it appeared, the employees apologized unconditionally.
But powder. And an Omega estrus inducer at that….
“I’ll quickly c-….”
He started to say he would contact the Boss and ask, but stopped. If it was the Boss…. To this man. He squeezed his eyes shut. The sound of a loud laugh hit him in chunks right in front of his face. The man had likely realized what Eun-myeong was about to say.
What could this be? He bit his lower lip hard, and suddenly, a scene struck his mind like a bolt of lightning. It was a memory from the past that flashed by like a strobe light.
‘Eun-myeong… don’t touch that.’
Once, when Eun-myeong had gone to throw away trash at the waste area behind the sashimi restaurant, he had discovered a few styrofoam boxes set aside. When he opened the lids, he found snow crabs inside, and he was puzzled because they all looked fresh.
Wondering why things meant for customers were in a place like that, he tried to bring them into the kitchen before the truck arrived, but the bathroom door opened and Eun-joo noona came out. Seeing Eun-myeong about to pick up the boxes, she was startled and stopped him.
‘This is the Boss’s, don’t touch it….’
Eun-myeong, who had his boxes snatched away, blinked.
‘Why?’
Eun-joo shook her head violently. She even scanned the surroundings anxiously. Yes, what noona had been trying to hide back then was….
Eun-myeong opened his eyes, trembling. The darkness broke, and the face of the man, smiling suggestively, appeared before him.
“Why?”
Did you see something scary? the man asked. Thump, Eun-myeong’s heart dropped all the way to his lower abdomen.