PO 40

“Ah, come in quick.”

Madam Kwak welcomed Woojeong who had returned after three days. Woojeong bowed his head and greeted her, then he hurried inside. He was in a hurry because he worried about his father.

“Father is…”

Woojeong tried to ask Kang Eonju, who was sitting on the living room sofa, about his father’s condition, but his words trailed off. The moment he saw Kang Eonju looking leisurely as always and Lee Doyoung drinking something beside her, a shiver seemed to run down his spine.

“You came fast. Sit.”

Kang Eonju pointed with her chin at the empty sofa. Woojeong, standing a little apart from them, asked.

“Where is Father?”

“Oh, that man?”

As if she had forgotten, Kang Eonju asked back. The smile on her face didn’t match the voice that had worried about his father.

“Didn’t you know? The day before yesterday he left on a business trip to the Philippines. He’ll probably take the return flight tonight.”

“Then, what about the words that Father collapsed…”

“Mom must have lied a little because she wanted to see you quickly.”

Lee Doyoung set down his cup, smiled broadly, and gestured to Woojeong. When Woojeong stayed frozen in place, Lee Doyoung came over and draped his arm on his shoulder.

“Woojeong, what happened? You always came home properly, but this time you didn’t contact anyone and even stayed out, so do you know how worried I was? Huh? But you… what’s all this on your neck?”

Lee Doyoung, who was kneading Woojeong’s shoulder, suddenly pulled the collar of his T-shirt. Woojeong hurried to straighten his clothes in surprise, but Lee Doyoung had already seen all the marks left on his skin.

“Who did this? Who’s the partner? Don’t tell me you didn’t come home because you were doing this kind of thing?”

Lee Doyoung raised his voice and demanded. With eyes full of contempt, he glanced at Woojeong and then looked deliberately toward Kang Eonju and spoke louder.

“Mom. What do we do about him? He came back looking like this.”

This wasn’t Woojeong’s fault. It had all happened because Lee Doyoung made him take strange medicine.

Until now, Woojeong had never been able to say anything no matter what he suffered from him, but this time it was too much to endure. Woojeong moved his lips and forced the words out.

“…Hyung, you gave me strange medicine.”

“Medicine? What medicine?”

“You mixed strange pills with the suppressants and gave them to me. You even told me to take those first.”

When Han Jaegang had told him that, Woojeong hadn’t wanted to believe it. Even though they weren’t blood related, they had grown up together, he hadn’t thought he would go that far.

“…Why did you do it?”

“Ya.”

But Lee Doyoung’s face, as he came toward Woojeong with a mocking smile, was filled with scorn.

“What nonsense are you talking about? I only picked them up for you instead. You had fun for a few days, so why are you saying strange things? Woojeong. Do you know that right now you reek of an alpha scent?”

As he grinned and pressed on Woojeong’s chest, Lee Doyoung suddenly stopped. His face turned cold, and he reached out and grabbed Woojeong’s wrist.

“Hey. Where did you get this bracelet?”

Woojeong was wearing the bracelet he had seen at Yoon’s gallery. The design was unique, so he remembered it clearly. That day, it was the bracelet Han Jaegang had said didn’t suit him. Why was it now on Woojeong’s wrist?

“This is the one I saw with Han Jaegang that time. Don’t tell me…”

“Let go.”

As Woojeong shook off Lee Doyoung’s rough hand, his phone fell from the pocket of his outer clothes. Everyone’s eyes turned toward it.

“Phone?”

At some point, Kang Eonju had come closer and she picked it up first.

“That’s mine. Please give it back.”

“What is this phone? Where did you get it? Doyoung, hold him.”

She pushed aside Woojeong’s hand that tried to take back the phone and stepped back. Behind her, Lee Doyoung seized Woojeong’s arm tightly.

Their builds were similar, but because his shoulder was twisted back, Woojeong couldn’t shake him off. While Woojeong was restrained, the phone without a lock opened easily.

“…What’s this? Han Jaegang? Why is Executive Director Han’s number saved here?”

“What, Han Jaegang?”

Kang Eonju’s face hardened as she looked at the phone screen. Lee Doyoung’s hand, which had Woojeong’s arm twisted, also grew tighter.

“Look at this.”

Lee Doyoung looked at the phone screen Kang Eonju held out. In the contacts there was only one saved number. Even the way the name was written as just “Han Jaegang,” without any honorifics, scraped at his nerves.

In the recent records, it hadn’t been long since they had spoken to each other. And of all things, on the very evening he had given Woojeong the pills, at the exact time the effect would have started, there were call logs one after another.

[Call me if you woke.]

When Lee Doyoung checked the message sent by Han Jaegang, his eyes trembled. The content of the text was a problem, but more than that, the tone made him tense.

Han Jaegang had never dropped formal speech with him. Lee Doyoung had urged him many times to speak comfortably, but each time he brushed it aside with a “later.”

Even now, when their contact had thinned compared to before, and even when he showed a cold side at times, Han Jaegang still kept his courtesy and spoke in honorifics.

But with Woojeong, he was dropping his formality and speaking to him familiarly. His mind became tangled.

The attitude he had thought showed respect was, in the end, just a line drawn to keep proper distance.

“This Han Jaegang saved here, is it the Han Jaegang I know?”

Lee Doyoung shook Woojeong who he was holding and pressed him, but Woojeong only lowered his eyes without giving any answer.

“Fucking hell… This, did Han Jaegang give it to you?”

With Woojeong’s personality, there was no way he would have bought such an expensive phone without permission. If Han Jaegang had given it, then it meant the two had already been exchanging contact without his knowledge.

Lee Doyoung recalled, one by one, the moments they had been in the same place. At home, at the villa, at the gallery. It had been more times than he thought.

But he couldn’t recall no particular situation that was suspicious. Han Jaegang had always shown just enough courtesy to Woojeong, and the one who had joked with him or shown attention by caring kindly was Yoon Hyunjun.

So he had suspected Yoon Hyunjun. But even then, he hadn’t thought it was serious emotion.

There was no reason for someone like Han Jaegang or Yoon Hyunjun to think Woojeong was special.

But it wasn’t Yoon Hyunjun, it was Han Jaegang.

“This crazy bastard doesn’t even know his place…”

Lee Woojeong was nothing. For Han Jaegang to have interest in such a worthless, insignificant boy, a foolish being with nothing, was absurd.

Grinding his teeth, Lee Doyoung grabbed Woojeong’s hair.

“Ugh…”

Woojeong’s head was thrown back, and his nape was exposed clearly. His white, smooth skin was blotched with bruises. The marks were clearly from being bitten and sucked by someone.

“When the heat cycle broke, were you with Han Jaegang?”

“Let, ugh, go.”

“Say it. Before I really kill you.”

Judging from the fact that Woojeong had said he gave him strange pills, it was clear he had heat cycle symptoms. If he had been with an alpha the past two days, that would have been enough time for the symptoms to be resolved.

That Han Jaegang, who had been untouchable no matter how much effort was spent, had played around with nothing more than Lee Woojeong. It was unbelievable, and it made him furious.

“What are you saying? Are you telling me this brat slept with Han Jaegang?”

Kang Eonju, who had been watching the two, came forward and pushed Lee Doyoung away. She stood right in front of Woojeong and lifted her arm high, then slapped his cheek. Slap, slap. Woojeong’s head turned to the side with each blow, and he staggered.

“Is that really true? Tell me everything. You beast-like bastard. Was there no one else for you to cling to?!”

Her face twisted fiercely, she pushed Woojeong’s chest mercilessly. Woojeong stumbled back.

“Why are you keeping your mouth shut when I told you to speak? Even if you repay grace with betrayal, there should be a limit!”

Even when Kang Eonju slapped his cheek, clawed his skin, and shook him by the hair, Woojeong couldn’t resist once. Then Lee Doyoung joined in, and as if venting their anger, they began to beat him and drive him into a corner.

Woojeong, who endured the barrage of violence in silence until he could no longer keep his senses, finally collapsed on the floor. He anxiously looked up at Kang Eonju and Lee Doyoung as they closed in on him like hunters cornering a rabbit. Their eyes, staring down at him with contempt, were so terrifying it made his skin crawl.

“How are you going to take responsibility, huh? You must have been prepared if you went and did this, right?”

Woojeong wiped the blood running from his nose with the back of his hand and shook his head. He panted, breathless as if he were on the verge of a panic attack.

During the past two days at the Snow Reflection Residence, Woojeong had thought about many things. Because Han Jaegang’s words, that in this house there was no one who worried about him, had touched the part of his heart he tried so hard to ignore.

What happened with Han Jaegang had been his own fault, but now there was nothing Woojeong could do. He couldn’t go on living like this, always enduring, always avoiding, always hiding.

Woojeong clenched his fist as his eyes met Madam Kwak’s, who was staring at him in shock from the kitchen entrance.

He didn’t want to live like this anymore.

Woojeong pushed Kang Eonju, who was sitting in front of him, and rose to his feet. His thought was to run out of the house. But before he even reached the front door with his staggering steps, his hair was seized.

“Are you crazy? Where do you think you’re going?”

“Let go of me!”

“You’ve grown bold, huh? After being with Han Jaegang, now nothing’s in your eyes?”

“Let me go, please!”

“You stupid bastard, ugh!”

Woojeong grabbed the arm that had his hair in its grip. With all his strength, he twisted it and broke free, then he bit down on Lee Doyoung’s hand.

As Lee Doyoung screamed behind him, Woojeong tried to get away from the spot. At that instant, with a loud noise, a blunt impact hit the back of his head. Woojeong froze in place.

“Ah, I’m really dumbfounded. Hey, are you insane?”

On the living room floor, the shards of a broken vase and flowers were scattered everywhere. Woojeong, standing frozen and staring down at the scene, touched his head where the heat suddenly flared.

“…..”

His trembling fingertips came away stained with bright red blood. Lee Doyoung stepped in front of Kang Eonju, who looked a little startled, and grabbed Woojeong’s shoulder with a vile grin.

“That’s why, fuck, you should’ve behaved quietly. Why did you go and do something you never did before?”

“…….”

“You think I’m going to just sit by and watch you in that state?”

A ringing filled Woojeong’s ears, and he couldn’t hear Lee Doyoung’s words properly. Woojeong lowered the hand that had been feeling his forehead and let out a shuddering breath.

“Hey, can’t you hear me?”

Lee Doyoung shouted and shoved Woojeong’s shoulder roughly. Pushed by that force, Woojeong staggered back and lost his balance.

Thud.

Fallen on the floor, Woojeong blinked slowly. His vision blurred more and more, and then it went black.