#124

Shin Ho-jae’s cheeks trembled visibly as he clenched his teeth. The breath he slowly exhaled through his nose showed he was barely suppressing his rage.

Kwon Ki-hyuk sneered and placed a hand on his shoulder. Then, he whispered into his ear as if sharing a secret.

“Someone told me that if you choke them while fucking, the bottom tightens like crazy. Fuck, they said it gripped like a suction cup, so he couldn’t help but cum inside several times.”

Slap! Shin Ho-jae grabbed Kwon Ki-hyuk by the collar. Ki-hyuk didn’t resist and let himself be pulled along.

The veins on the back of the hand gripping the shirt bulged. Bloodshot eyes glared at Ki-hyuk as if they could burn him.

“What… the hell… are you talking about?”

His voice trembled, breaking between each syllable. Kwon Ki-hyuk curled the corners of his mouth into a smile.

“Who knows. I wonder how I know such a thing?”

“What the fuck did you do to the CEO?!”

As Shin Ho-jae shouted in agitation, Ki-hyuk smiled with narrowed eyes and drove the final nail in.

“It’s simple. I hired someone to fuck my little brother’s ass for me.”

In that instant, Shin Ho-jae lost his reason and raised his fist high. Exultation filled Ki-hyuk’s eyes.

That goddamn video wouldn’t have been this controversial if Shin Ho-jae hadn’t appeared.

The fact that an athlete currently at the peak of his popularity—the ace of the team and the key to their victory—appeared personally to support the allegations against the owner led the public to side with Shin Ho-jae and indiscriminately condemn Kwon Ki-hyuk.

There was no way a simple and ignorant brat like that could have come up with this plan, so it must have been Kwon Jung-hyun’s instruction. What? Not to touch the team or Shin Ho-jae? Bullshit.

He couldn’t wait for his father to handle things at a snail’s pace. Kwon Ki-hyuk knew a way to make up for everything in one go.

That was to become a direct victim of Shin Ho-jae’s violence.

Is ice hockey a rough sport? The fact that an athlete who was violent on the rink was also violent off the rink would easily create a narrative for the public.

And what if the victim was the owner at the center of the controversy? Furthermore, an athlete who causes a violent incident is suspended from playing. And if it were Kwon Ki-hyuk, he could make the suspension indefinite by bringing the incident to public light.

It was a way to flip public opinion instantly and end the allegations against him, as well as an opportunity to destroy everything Kwon Jung-hyun had tried to protect by even making a deal with their father. He felt a thrill run through his entire body.

Whoosh. He felt a fist cut through the air and approach his face. Kwon Ki-hyuk reflexively squeezed his eyes shut.

However, no matter how long he waited, the punch never landed. Opening his eyes slightly in confusion, he saw Shin Ho-jae release the collar and slowly lower his trembling fist. He even took a couple of steps back, breathing heavily as if fighting back his anger.

Tsk. Was the provocation not enough? Just as he was clicking his tongue.

Suddenly, he felt as if a wave the size of a house was swallowing him whole. First, he felt suffocated, and then a sensation arose as if his limbs were being uncontrollably sucked into a vortex created by the wave.

Kwon Ki-hyuk momentarily lost his balance and fell to his knees.

“Kh… what is this?”

Gurgle.

It was difficult to breathe, as if he were underwater. Whenever he opened his mouth, he had the hallucination that seawater was rushing in.

Seawater?

Kwon Ki-hyuk widened his eyes and glared at Shin Ho-jae, who was standing some distance away. Shin Ho-jae was simply standing there, breathing raggedly.

He hadn’t laid a single finger on him, but this was definitely pheromones. That piece of shit was crushing him with pheromones.

“Fuck. You know that using pheromones carries a heavier penalty than simple violence, right? Huh?”

Ki-hyuk grabbed his own throat, as even spitting out a single syllable was agonizing.

Shin Ho-jae looked down at him with dark, sunken eyes.

“Pheromones? What are you talking about?”

“You fucker, this… ack…!”

Unable to speak further due to the suffocation, Ki-hyuk collapsed. Once he was flat on the floor, the concentration of pheromones thinned enough for him to breathe. Pressing his face against the dirty floor, Ki-hyuk gasped for air and thought.

Ki-hyuk knew why Shin Ho-jae was playing innocent. For a charge of injury using pheromones to be established, it must be predicated on the pheromones being emitted through direct physical contact.

Goddamn… An Alpha who can exert influence over others without touching them. He’d never heard of such a thing. Ki-hyuk crawled as far away from Shin Ho-jae as possible and spoke.

“Hey… Player Shin. Are you trying to kill someone?”

Shin Ho-jae closed the distance Ki-hyuk had crawled in a few strides. Simultaneously, the pheromones descended heavily onto the floor where Ki-hyuk was barely breathing.

Ki-hyuk’s complexion began to turn pale blue. It was just as his fingers began to twitch and jerk convulsively.

“…The one who killed someone was you.”

At that moment, Shin Ho-jae suddenly withdrew his pheromones. Ki-hyuk gasped for air like someone who had just escaped from drowning.

Looking up with only his eyes, he saw Shin Ho-jae observing his condition closely. You pathetic piece of shit. Are you scared that I might actually die?

Ki-hyuk gnashed his teeth. The fact that a brat who had nothing could crush him simply because he was born with a dominant trait wounded his pride.

Having lived his entire life bound by traits, Ki-hyuk couldn’t help but have a complex about his recessive trait. Usually, he had managed this by using power to subdue Alphas with superior pheromones or by placing them beneath him.

You fucking piece of shit… A manic glint appeared in Ki-hyuk’s eyes.

After taking slow, deep breaths until his body could move, he took advantage of Shin Ho-jae’s lapse in guard and suddenly yanked his leg.

Staggering, Shin Ho-jae lost his balance and fell backward with a thud. It might have seemed strange that an athlete, whose reflexes should be superior to others, fell so easily, but the reason-less Ki-hyuk didn’t notice.

Kwon Ki-hyuk kicked the right shoulder of Shin Ho-jae as he tried to get up, knocking him down again. Thwack! The sound of the impact was quite satisfying.

“Ugh…”

Finally, a groan escaped Shin Ho-jae’s lips. Clutching his shoulder with his hand, Shin Ho-jae lay there, unable to get back up.

“Oh, dear. Did you say you had shoulder surgery not long ago? I’m so sorry. I completely forgot.”

Of course, it was a lie. He knew exactly that he had recently had surgery on his right shoulder. Sneering, Kwon Ki-hyuk clattered and removed a plate-shaped weight from the back of the bench press. It was heavy. About 20 kilograms, perhaps.

“Did you ask me what I did to Kwon Jung-hyun?”

Ki-hyuk approached Shin Ho-jae slowly, holding the weight plate. In the meantime, Shin Ho-jae’s face had turned pale. Beads of sweat—or perhaps cold sweat—were forming on his forehead. It seemed he had kicked the surgical site precisely.

Ki-hyuk laughed out loud. He had intended to make Shin Ho-jae hit him to end his athletic career, but he had changed his mind. Since when did he ever do things exactly as planned?

The original plan was no longer important. The only thing that mattered right now was completely destroying Shin Ho-jae before his eyes. Ending his athletic career would still be possible even if the shoulder was completely crushed.

“I choked him. Every single night. I wanted him to just fucking die. I also loved seeing my father’s anxious face whenever I did that.”

Ki-hyuk raised the weight plate high with both hands.

“Seeing a brat who usually looked down on me with such arrogant eyes sobbing beneath me… that was quite a sight.”

And then, he slammed the weight plate down with all his might. The target was, naturally, Shin Ho-jae’s right shoulder. However, it didn’t go as expected. Shin Ho-jae caught the weight plate with both hands.

But he only caught it; perhaps because the previous blow had drained his strength, his power was gradually failing. The disadvantageous posture likely played a part. Shin Ho-jae’s brow furrowed in agony.

The sight of a Dominant Alpha beneath him was exhilarating. Kwon Ki-hyuk licked his lips.

“You know, when looking down from above like this… Kwon Jung-hyun, Player Shin, or a rat… you all look exactly the same.”

Memories of Kim In-jung crept back. The sensation of taking a person’s life with his own hands provided a thrill more exhilarating than any drug he had ever tasted.

Moreover, what would it be like to subdue and take the life of such a Dominant Alpha? Pheromones began to leak from the excited Ki-hyuk’s body.

“Come to think of it, our Player Shin’s pheromones smell like the ocean. Then it wouldn’t be so bad to sink forever in the ocean, right? How about the waters off Incheon?”

“Kh…”

“Hey, do you not even have the strength to release pheromones? You were doing so well earlier…”

A small sense of incongruity finally crossed Kwon Ki-hyuk’s mind.

Why the fuck isn’t this bastard, Shin Ho-jae, using his pheromones? With the amount he used earlier, he could easily escape this situation…

It was then.

With a loud bang, the door flew open, and the field of vision suddenly brightened.

In Kwon Ki-hyuk’s squinting eyes were Yuk Du-min holding a phone, Ji Min-chul holding lighting equipment, and a reporter named Park Ha-na, whom he had seen on YouTube.

“Vice President Kwon Ki-hyuk! Are you currently swinging a 20kg weight plate targeting the shoulder of Player Shin Ho-jae, who has a shoulder injury?!”

The most infuriating part was that she was mimicking holding a microphone with her right hand curled into a fist. It felt like she was playing ‘reporter,’ making him feel mocked. Unable to grasp the situation, Kwon Ki-hyuk’s eyes darted around.

“By what method did you send Kim In-jung, who has a fear of flying, to the Philippines? I understand that ‘rat’ is a slang term Vice President Kwon Ki-hyuk uses to refer to the missing former reporter Kim In-jung. Did you perhaps sink Kim In-jung in the waters off Incheon? Please give us a comment!”

“Fuck… what is this?”

“We are currently live, so please refrain from using coarse language, Vice President!”

“What…?”

With a thud, the weight plate fell to the floor. Shin Ho-jae had pushed it away while Kwon Ki-hyuk was frozen in confusion.

Yuk Du-min, who had been holding his phone horizontally behind Park Ha-na, waved his hand in front of his nose in disgust.

“Ugh, damn. What’s this smell of burning rubber? Don’t tell me this is Kwon Ki-hyuk’s pheromone smell?”

125 – Puck Drop