By Zephyria 
The sticky air and the raw scent of pheromones piercing the brain tangled together, overflowing in the bedroom, which was suddenly enveloped in silence.
“You want to possess me?”
The man spoke, letting out a sharp breath.
“Yes, Boss.”
Eun-myeong nodded like someone possessed. Now, intoxicated by the effects of the drug, Eun-myeong was revealing the innermost core of himself that he had hidden more deeply than anyone else.
He was no longer cold, nor was he starving.
Except for one thing.
The only thing he hungered for was the Boss. Eun-myeong desperately wanted him. Even while cradling the man’s member between his buttocks, against his tenderest membranes, he craved him more and more.
However, no answer came from the man.
He wished the man would say something, anything; Eun-myeong grew anxious and impatient at the man’s heart, which felt just out of reach.
“…….”
Eun-myeong gripped the man’s chest with his hand. What was he thinking? He wanted to look into his eyes. He didn’t have the courage, but still…
As he slowly raised his gaze, fierce, dark eyes—like a cave—were looking down at him. His heart sank. Eun-myeong felt as if he were falling into those pupils of unfathomable depth. It was dizzying, as if his consciousness were fading.
“Do you think it works that way just because you want it to?”
He looked down at Eun-myeong as if he were a foolish child, scolding him as usual. Yet, there was a strange sweetness melted into that sunken gaze. It was a sweetness that the man himself likely hadn’t realized.
Eun-myeong’s head was blank and dizzy. His racing heart seemed to be goading him. Unconsciously, Eun-myeong’s lips parted.
“Bo—”
He managed to utter that much before quickly biting down on his lower lip. Startled by his own action, he clamped his hand over his mouth. What was I trying to say?
Am I truly insane? He was out of his mind because he had drunk alcohol spiked with drugs. He had almost told the Boss that he loved him.
It was all because of the way the man was looking at him. Because of that gaze, which felt softer than usual. Eun-myeong felt as if he were under a spell.
He knew this was just a crude, fragmented piece of a heart that should be buried deep within his chest, but it was too much for Eun-myeong to bear.
Could he just do it this once? Could he carefully let it slip, using the excuse that he wasn’t in his right mind due to the drugs?
So, Eun-myeong closed his eyes tight and just blurted it out.
“Boss, …I love you.”
In that instant, all of the man’s movements stopped. As the motion snapped shut, Eun-myeong shrank back in fear.
Gulp. The man swallowed hard. The Adam’s apple in the center of his thick neck bobbed down sharply.
Thump, thump, thump! The man’s chest beat rapidly, sounding like a drum. It felt as if the heartbeat were chasing after him, and the tension left Eun-myeong unable to even breathe.
What had the man said then, while holding Eun-myeong in that hot embrace?
“Precocious little thing.”
Yes, he called him precocious. He spat the words out ruthlessly, as if asking how someone like him dared to want him.
Hurt by those words, Eun-myeong looked up at the man with moist eyes.
“You actually say it? Just because we’re mixing skin like this, you think it’s okay, huh?”
The man sneered in an angry tone and licked Eun-myeong’s eye with his tongue.
“Hng, ah.”
The man was someone who would crunch through a fish, bones and all, with his strong teeth, but he had never sucked on an eyeball. However, he was currently thinking that if it were Eun-myeong’s eyeball, it would be delicious to place it on his tongue and pop it.
Just as he felt a salty taste on his tongue, he saw that Eun-myeong’s eyes were turning red. He seemed to be biting his lip to keep from crying, but the man sucked on his eyes, drinking up every single tear.
If he could, he felt like chewing this up, bones and all. The skin was as soft as a newborn baby’s, and the scent wafting from him was absolutely killer. There could be no greater delicacy.
Smack. Licking his lips, the man’s large hand spread Eun-myeong’s buttocks wide.
“…Ngh!”
He slammed upward, as if spanking his backside.
“…Haat!”
The act of love began once more. Thus, Eun-myeong’s confession was ignored. Eun-myeong rubbed his face against the man’s chest, hiding his sorrowful expression.
Curling his toes tight, he wrapped his legs around the man’s waist. As if he would be swept away by a rapid current if he didn’t cling to him right this moment.
Haa, ngh, ha-ut.
Before long, only beast-like moans remained in the room, shaking the walls with desperation. As he reached an orgasm that made his entire body tremble, his mental world began to shatter and twist.
Eun-myeong tried to discern whether it was his body or his heart that was breaking, before shaking his head violently.
Eventually, his consciousness flew away entirely to a world beyond, and Eun-myeong could do nothing but cling to him and let out moans.
“Haa…!”
His upper body instinctively bounced up from the bed. Eun-myeong gasped for air, like someone who had been submerged in a sticky swamp and suddenly dragged onto land.
Ugh. Eun-myeong held his head. A sharp pain shot through his temples. The memories that had been fragmented even before taking the drug began to fall back into place.
The man lying beside him rose from the bed without once making eye contact with Eun-myeong.
“…Boss, my Noona is…”
“At Hanil Hospital.”
Hearing that finally put him at ease. He had been certain the man had left the room to pick up his Noona, but hearing that she was at the hospital calmed his heart.
And as he looked at the man’s back…
‘I love you.’
The reckless words he had uttered last night flashed through his mind.
If he could, he felt like biting his tongue and just dying. On the other hand, his heart ached deeply at the fact that his sincerity had been ignored. Even if it was a confession blurted out under the influence of alcohol and drugs, it had been his truth.
Eun-myeong gazed longingly at the man’s back. He wanted to see his face. He wanted to know if the man was still displeased.
As the man unbuttoned his shirt, he issued a warning.
“If I catch you drinking loosely from some other bastard one more time, don’t think I’ll let it slide.”
Only then did he turn back to Eun-myeong, a smile playing on his lips. He smiled like a predator who had eaten his fill.
Since it was the first time the man had seemed so pleased, Eun-myeong looked up at him blankly. Far from looking upset, didn’t he actually look like he was enjoying himself?
Eun-myeong felt somewhat bewildered. He simply couldn’t figure the man out. He wanted to ask if something good had happened, but he didn’t dare. No, he couldn’t ask. Eun-myeong was afraid of being rejected again.
Eventually, the man stripped completely naked, returning to his primal state, and went in to shower. Eun-myeong sat blankly for a moment before carefully rising from the bed.
“…Ugh.”
With a throb in the back of his head, he gripped the blanket for a moment before tidying the man’s clothes laid out by the door. The man had never once told him to do such things, but Eun-myeong was always in a position of only receiving from him. Thinking he should do something, he would move quickly whenever there was a chore to be done.
Eun-myeong carefully slid his hand into the pants pocket.
He heard the rustle of a small piece of paper. What is this? Thinking it would be a disaster if it went through the washing machine, he pulled it out.
“…….”
Why does the man have this? No, more importantly, why is he keeping this instead of throwing it away?
It was none other than a photo of Eun-myeong taken when he was a child. For some reason, he felt as if he had seen something he wasn’t supposed to.
Just then, the sound of water stopped. Eun-myeong quickly hid the photo behind his back. The man came out wearing a robe and began preparing to leave for work.
He fixed his hair and fastened his cufflinks. Uncharacteristically, he hummed a tune while tying his tie. Once he was in a state of perfection, he squeezed Eun-myeong’s buttocks one last time before leaving.
“It hurts, Boss.”
Because they had done it so frantically at dawn, the area was swollen and sore, but the man acted as if he were desperate to tear Eun-myeong apart.
“You say you love me, yet you can’t even endure this much?”
He bit into Eun-myeong’s lips, letting out a panting moan.
“How can you call a mere emotion like that love?”
He spoke ruthlessly, his eyes full of mockery. Then, he rambled that he would let go if Eun-myeong said he loved him again.
How could he manipulate and mock the emotions that Eun-myeong had struggled so hard to reveal? Eun-myeong felt like he just wanted to wail and cry his heart out.
Naturally, he couldn’t bring himself to say those words, and the man left the hotel room only after he had thoroughly toyed with Eun-myeong to his satisfaction.
With swollen lips, Eun-myeong also prepared to leave. Hanil Hospital—that’s where his Noona was.
As Eun-myeong trudged outside, the bright sunlight beat down on his entire body. Like a lost dog, he waited blankly at the stop and boarded the arriving bus.
As he sat in an empty seat at the back, a pale face was reflected in the window. Looking at himself, he felt a strange sensation.
“…….”
His hairstyle, the clothes he wore, his shoes, the scent emanating from him, and even his fingernails and toenails. There wasn’t a single part of him that hadn’t been touched by the man’s hand. It was as if he were a pet raised by the man.
Eun-myeong once again pulled the crumpled photo of himself from his pocket and looked down at it.
At this point, no matter how oblivious Eun-myeong was, it was impossible not to know. The fact that the man was obsessed with him to an abnormal degree.
However, even if it was an abnormal level of obsession, it couldn’t be love.
He laughed so coldly at the words “I love you,” yet he kept him by his side, investing effort and obsessing over everything about him, being kind at times, and then sensing it like a ghost whenever Eun-myeong secretly fell deeper in love, only to mock him.
What on earth was the emotion the man held for him…?
His heart was too difficult. It was like looking at the sea on a pitch-black night. Eun-myeong was a small rowboat floating upon it. Since even the rudder was held in the man’s hand, all Eun-myeong could do was be helplessly swept away.
He had clearly told him not to get ahead of himself, but Eun-myeong wasn’t confident that he wouldn’t let his emotions leak again upon seeing the man. It was flowing so steadily that he felt he could no longer gather it back.
“Haa.”
As Eun-myeong let out a small sigh, his cell phone buzzed.
He pulled it out of his pocket and looked at the screen; an unknown number was displayed. It was strange. Since it was a cell phone his Noona had given him, the only person who should know this number was his Noona.
Who is it? He was wondering just that.
[Hanil Hospital, this is Hanil Hospital.]
Then, the bus announcement sounded, and Eun-myeong hurriedly got off at the stop. In his rush to cross the street as the light turned green, he completely forgot about the phone call.