#111

Shin Ho-jae hung up the phone and immediately approached him.

“I pulled over for a moment because I was running low on gas. It’s cold outside. Please stay inside.”

“I felt suffocated sitting for so long. My back hurts a bit, too.”

Jung-hyun replied slowly. Ho-jae spoke as he closed the passenger door for him.

“Ah, the ride quality isn’t great. It’s an older car…”

Then, he pulled a warm can from his bulging pocket.

“It’s not a silver moon, but please drink this in the meantime.”

“…….”

At those words, Ho-jae saw Jung-hyun check the beverage can. Jung-hyun’s face softened slightly as he took the can labeled green tea.

“You remember things like that?”

“…I remember every conversation I’ve had with you, CEO.”

Jung-hyun let out a small, airy smile. Ho-jae stood behind him and gripped his shoulders.

“I’ll loosen up your shoulders a bit. We still have a little further to go.”

He then carefully massaged his shoulders and the back of his neck. He would have been able to properly relieve the back pain Jung-hyun had mentioned if he were lying down, but this would still help.

Even though he was touching him over his coat, he could tell immediately that he had lost more weight than before. It was just as Ho-jae was touching his waist with a somewhat sunken expression.

“That’s enough filial piety.”

Saying so, Jung-hyun pulled away. Ho-jae awkwardly withdrew his hands and watched him walk a short distance away from the parking lot.

From afar, he could see him taking a pack of cigarettes out of his pocket. Jung-hyun took one out and put it in his mouth, but instead of lighting it, he stared up at the black sky that hung over them like a curtain.

Ho-jae slowly approached him and looked up in the direction he was gazing. He hoped to see at least one star, but unfortunately, nothing was visible.

Jung-hyun looked at him and lowered the cigarette from his lips with his fingers. Seeing this, Ho-jae spoke softly.

“You can smoke.”

“…….”

However, Jung-hyun never lit the cigarette. He simply held the single cigarette still and stared into the void. Sensing that he wanted to be in silence, Ho-jae simply stood beside him without saying a word.

It was about ten minutes later when the two returned to the car.

Ho-jae opened the passenger door and let him inside first. Jung-hyun seemed to hesitate for a moment, but whether it was just his imagination, he got into the car immediately.

Shin Ho-jae walked around the hood, got into the driver’s seat, and entered the exact address Ji Min-chul had sent into the navigation. Then, he muttered the thing that had been bothering him as if it were an afterthought.

“I wanted to say this before… who performs ‘filial piety’ for the person they love? Please don’t put it that way.”

He felt Jung-hyun’s gaze on his right cheek. Ho-jae ignored the look and quickly pressed the guidance button. The estimated travel time showed one hour from here. Now it was time to change the subject.

“I’m planning to buy some food if there’s an open convenience store on the way.”

“…I’m fine, so just buy something for yourself, Ho-jae.”

“Even if you aren’t now, you’ll get hungry in a little while.”

“It’s just that I haven’t been able to keep food down lately.”

At those words, Ho-jae looked at Jung-hyun’s face.

“Even if I eat, I’ll just throw it up, so I don’t want to waste energy for nothing.”

“…Have you been feeling unwell since then?”

It was only natural for Ho-jae to recall Jung-hyun repeatedly gagging in the corner of the banquet hall’s restroom. Concern immediately clouded Ho-jae’s face.

Jung-hyun, who had been staring blankly at the windshield, suddenly asked an unexpected question.

“Do you feel anything?”

“Feel what?”

“Anything.”

Ho-jae narrowed his eyes slightly.

What is he talking about?

The only thing he could feel right now was the very faint scent of Jung-hyun’s pheromone perfume. Ho-jae slowly shook his head. He surely wasn’t asking about a mere perfume scent.

“…No.”

“I see.”

With those words, Jung-hyun leaned his head back against the headrest. Ho-jae glanced at him and quietly started the car. Perhaps exhausted, he soon fell asleep again.

They arrived at the destination after 5 AM. They were delayed slightly because Ho-jae stopped at an open convenience store he saw along the way to buy food, water, and cleaning supplies.

After parking the car in the gravel front yard, Ho-jae quietly looked at Jung-hyun’s sleeping face. He hesitated for a moment to leave him, but perhaps because of the relief of having reached the destination, the desire to let him rest a bit longer outweighed the anxiety.

Ho-jae took off the jumper he was wearing and covered him with it. Jung-hyun seemed to wake up at the rustling sound, his eyelids lifting slowly.

“We’ve arrived. I’ll go in first and tidy up the place. Rest here a bit more before coming out.”

Sleepy eyes slowly dropped to Ho-jae’s hand. Ho-jae held up what he had in his hand and spoke.

“I thought something warm would be good on an empty stomach, so I bought some steamed buns. There’s green tea and kimbap too. Just eat as much as you can.”

“…….”

“I’ll be right back.”

Then, Ho-jae gathered the cleaning supplies and closed the car door. He left the engine running to keep the heater on.

Through the car window, he saw Jung-hyun’s heavy eyelids slowly close again.

* * *

Jung-hyun slowly lifted his eyelids. It seemed he had dozed off again.

Considering the past few days when he couldn’t sleep at all, whether day or night, it was a surprisingly deep slumber. It seemed the tension had naturally dissipated because Shin Ho-jae treated him so kindly.

Even though he knew he was acting spoiled, which was unlike him, he found himself wanting to lean on someone. This isn’t so bad.

As he straightened his upper body, the thing covering him slid off. Looking down, he saw the coat Shin Ho-jae had been wearing.

Jung-hyun smiled faintly to himself. Shin Ho-jae had told him not to call it filial piety, but strangely, his actions felt exactly like that.

Outside the window, the sky, which had been pitch black, was gradually turning deep blue as dawn approached.

Jung-hyun pressed a button to open the window slightly. Cold but refreshing, clean air touched his cheek.

The faint sounds of chirping birds and crashing waves reached his ears. Come to think of it, he had said it was the South Sea.

Gurgle.

Jung-hyun blinked slowly. Then, a growling sound echoed once more.

Could that sound have come from my stomach…?

Perhaps because he heard the sound directly, he suddenly felt a void in his stomach.

He was hungry.

Jung-hyun frowned. It had been a very long time since he felt hunger.

Since the cycle of eating and vomiting had repeated, his body seemed exhausted, and recently he hadn’t even felt hunger.

As if possessed, Jung-hyun rummaged through the plastic bag Shin Ho-jae had left. There were several cold kimbap rolls, water, green tea, and five steamed buns whose surfaces had wrinkled from the moisture.

He picked up one snow-white steamed bun and split it in half. He could see the black red bean paste filling the white bread. For some reason, his mouth watered, and he took a bite.

The fluffy texture of the bread and the sweet red bean paste permeated his tongue, and clear saliva welled up from his molars.

Jung-hyun finished one in an instant and picked up another. This time it was a pizza bun. After eating something sweet, the salty filling tasted delicious. After finishing the second bun, he drank some water.

A satisfied sigh escaped his lips. How long had it been since he had eaten something delicious and filling?

An absurd laugh escaped him.

It was only last night that he had wailed in front of his mother, begging her to save him because he couldn’t live like this.

Yet, in less than a day, it was funny that he felt hunger and satisfaction in order to survive.

Jung-hyun opened the door and stepped outside. Feeling a bit chilly, he draped the coat Shin Ho-jae had given him over his shoulders.

The scent of the sea brushed the tip of his nose, proving that the sound of the waves he heard earlier wasn’t a hallucination.

Jung-hyun slowly walked toward the sound of the waves. A clattering sound echoed every time he stepped on the gravel.

There was a narrow path on one side of the wide gravel yard. Following the path, yellow grass that had grown up to his thighs greeted him first, and below that was a downhill path made of large rocks. At the end of it, he saw the deep blue sea.

Crash—!

White foam collided in the air as the waves crashed. Jung-hyun stood there, staring blankly at the sight.

Like a time-lapse video, the sky grew brighter with every blink of his eyes.

After repeating this a few times, the sea, which had looked pitch black, began to take on a blue hue. He realized for the first time that the color of the sea changes according to the color of the sky.

It was a wonderful landscape. To the point where he thought it wouldn’t be so bad if the sea he was left with, without his mother, was that color.

Would Shin Ho-jae’s pheromones be like that sea? Cold and vast, but of a very beautiful color.

Jung-hyun blinked slowly and took in the sight for a long time.

Suddenly, he wondered if the food had gone down because he was by Shin Ho-jae’s side. The fact that his body felt more comfortable than ever, and that he had fallen asleep so easily.

If the child in his womb had a rejection reaction to the pheromones of another Alpha, Kyung Seung-hee, then conversely, it would be stabilized by its father’s side.

Jung-hyun chuckled.

The little thing was truly amusing.

He had felt it when he heard the heart beating wildly, even though the child didn’t know its fate was to be erased, but unlike him, this little thing had a strong will to live. Or perhaps, conversely, it was like him. Because he himself had lived quite tenaciously until now.

“…….”

Last night, his mother had sent him to the room he used as a child, telling him to get some rest and that they would talk again in the morning. It was a room where the bed he used as a child remained intact. He felt like he would truly go crazy if he stayed there, so he ran away.

His father would be very angry. Kwon Ki-hyuk would also be looking for him. But he didn’t want to go back. Then what happens now? Does he have to spend his life running away like this with Shin Ho-jae?

Haha. Jung-hyun laughed weakly. It was a laugh that came because, absurdly, he thought that wouldn’t be so bad.

Now that things had turned out this way, he wondered if his subconscious had made it happen.

In truth, he didn’t want to marry Kyung Seung-hee. That was obvious. As Shin Ho-jae said, now that he knew this feeling, there was no way he could marry someone else.

So, perhaps his subconscious had convinced him that breaking the engagement with Kyung Seung-hee was the best way. Perhaps the reason he didn’t end up erasing the child was also…

Buzz—.

It was a vibration. Thinking it might be his phone, he rummaged through his pockets, but then remembered he had turned his off when leaving the Seongbuk-dong mansion.

When he put his hand in the pocket of Shin Ho-jae’s coat draped over his shoulders, as expected, there was a phone. A preview message appeared on the screen, and Jung-hyun unconsciously glanced at it.

[Ji Min-chul]

I don’t know what’s going on, but don’t be late for the finals tomorrow. I’ll make some excuses for today’s meeting…

* * *

The interior of the pension wasn’t much different from his memories. Outdated accent wallpaper, a black leather sofa, and colorful accessories.

However, it’s always obvious when a place has been abandoned. As soon as Ho-jae entered the pension, he was horrified to see flying insects covering the floor. Moreover, the air smelled of acrid dust and mold.

He was glad he came first. He couldn’t let Jung-hyun enter a place like this immediately.

Ho-jae opened all the windows and found the circuit breaker to flip the switch. Fortunately, the power came on. He took the vacuum cleaner from the storage room and cleared away all the dead insects from the floor.

By the time he roughly wiped down the sofa, table, and various other spots with the wet wipes he bought at the convenience store, 30 minutes had already passed.

There was still a long way to go to clean it properly, but he couldn’t keep Jung-hyun waiting in the car forever. Ho-jae gathered the trash in one place and stepped out the front door.

The sun had completely risen by now. Thanks to the brightness, he could clearly see inside the crookedly parked car.

“CEO…?”

Jung-hyun was not there.

112 – Puck Drop