Salt Society Chapter 13

“Forget it, just go sleep at your house.”

“I said I’ll go if you give me a reason. …Are you really trying to call someone over? You’ve never said anything like that before.”

Now he was speaking with his brow slightly furrowed. He had an expression that seemed to criticize So Kihyun for allowing a stranger to intrude upon their precious space. What did it matter to anyone else whether he called someone over or threw a party?

In the first place, this was Kihyun’s house. Even though he and Cho Yeonoh were not living together, he couldn’t understand why the guy was acting that way. He was angry at the attitude of speaking as if it were a house where the two lived together.

Kihyun reached a point where he simply couldn’t endure this annoyance anymore and wanted to pay Cho Yeonoh back. He wanted to disturb the fellow’s peace of mind even just a little. Having surpassed the limit of what he could pass over calmly, he now wanted to torment the guy.

“Don’t you remember taking everything off and coming out to hug me because you were drunk yesterday?”

Cho Yeonoh raised one eyebrow steadily as if he had heard something unexpected. Then he turned off the valve on the stove. He even crossed his arms as if telling him to go on. Since the stage was set, there was nothing he couldn’t say. Kihyun spat it out without hesitation.

“You seem to be mistaken about something, but I’m in a relationship where I can do anything with you. But because you said you hated it, I haven’t laid a hand on you until now—”

“Ah. I see. Was that what this was about?”

Cutting Kihyun off, Cho Yeonoh smirked. Kihyun slowly closed his mouth. He thought he should shut that mouth, yet Kihyun had no choice but to wait for Yeonoh’s next words without being able to say anything. Yeonoh opened his mouth with a smile as if he understood.

“You, you’re angry because I acted like Betas do when they date yesterday.”

“……What?”

He couldn’t understand what he had just heard. Dating like Betas? Because Kihyun was a Beta, he had no way of knowing what that was supposed to be like. But Cho Yeonoh did not stop talking.

“I’m sorry if I caused a misunderstanding, but wasn’t this issue all resolved and settled last time?”

What issue was resolved and settled. Kihyun felt as if all the blood was draining out of his body at those unbelievable words. As he kept his mouth shut with a face pale like someone experiencing ischemia, Yeonoh made a humming sound in his throat and said.

“Why, you have that face like you don’t remember again. I told you I’d look for someone for you if you really couldn’t stand it.”

“……!”

He didn’t even know what that had to do with this problem, and upon realizing he had heard those insulting words once again, Kihyun hurriedly covered his mouth with his palm. It was because he felt that if anything burst out of his mouth right now, it would be such harsh swearing that they wouldn’t be able to maintain their relationship even if it was between him and Cho Yeonoh.

So Kihyun didn’t swear often, but that was just because he was the quiet type and statistically didn’t swear. In reality, thanks to his years of military service, his mouth was quite foul. So, he had to keep it muffled even now.

However, Cho Yeonoh didn’t seem to have any intention of helping Kihyun with that effort.

“But try to do it with Omegas if possible. I’ll find someone like that for you too.”

“……What are you talking about, you son of a bitch.”

“Use your mouth pretty.”

Yeonoh spoke as if reproaching a child’s mistake with his brow furrowed. Kihyun let out a hollow laugh in disbelief. Cho Yeonoh narrowed his smooth brow at the sneer that laughed with only one corner of the mouth turned up, even while his eyes were dripping with emotions heated by anger.

“I asked to see you smile, but you only show me crap like that, So Kihyun.”

“Ha……”

He felt like he was talking to a wall. The problems between the two that So Kihyun thought of were always narrowed down by Cho Yeonoh to be only Kihyun’s problems.

Kihyun’s world narrowed in that way. Even though unvented emotions piled up and became anger, there was very little Kihyun could do.

He could just tell Cho Yeonoh to stop right now. He could just confess that he was tired of this seven-year house-play and that they should both go back to being normal—that he was exhausted among people who said relationships between Alphas and Betas were dirty.

If he did, if he said that……

“Actually, no. It’s better to do it only with Omegas. No Alphas.”

Cho Yeonoh, who had never harbored feelings beyond friendship for him, would likely try to go back to being friends as if he had been waiting for it. Toward Cho Yeonoh, who was speaking firmly while thinking of something, Kihyun wanted to demand with a pale face what the difference between the two options was supposed to be.

Just then, his long-time friend and lover spoke with a smile as if he had read his mind.

“I don’t know about the front, but using the back is a no.”

“……”

“Still, I’m your Alpha, so meeting another Alpha is—”

Kihyun squeezed his eyes shut and opened them. That brief moment felt so tedious it felt as long as an eon. He turned his head away as if he didn’t want to hear anymore. He felt like he shouldn’t hear anything beyond this.

He wished it were at least any day other than today. Today’s So Kihyun couldn’t embrace all of Cho Yeonoh’s thorns that were colored with a gentle temperature. But the words fired like an arrow leaving a bow.

“That’s just cheating.”

A bullseye. It pierced exactly into So Kihyun’s sternum.

⏳

“Doctor So, your face looks good today.”

“Is that so?”

Kihyun smiled slightly. Even if it felt like something was freezing up like a plaster statue pushing up the corners of its mouth against its duty, it couldn’t be helped. The downside of being an office worker was that no matter how shitty your private life was, the moment you showed it, you became the weird one.

While saying he hated it, Kihyun, who had come to work anyway, let the words of the ward head nurse pass through his ears.

“My shoulders have been so bad lately, can I stop by later?”

“Of course. If you come down at lunch, I’ll give you physical therapy.”

Kihyun nodded as he spoke. No matter how tired his body was, he couldn’t help but be kind to those who were around the age his mother was when she passed away.

The head nurse smiled, saying she would buy Kihyun’s share of coffee as if she were satisfied, and Kihyun waved his hand, telling her not to. If he got busy anyway, the ice would all melt and he’d end up pouring it down the drain.

In the morning, he had just left the house as it was. Kihyun intended to go to a hotel after work today. It was a runaway of his own sort. Even if he said a friend’s house, there was no friend of So Kihyun that Cho Yeonoh didn’t know, and he couldn’t exactly impose on the hospital people. To have to see a colleague for 24 hours straight. That was something he couldn’t do to himself or to the other person.

Since Cho Yeonoh—precisely Cho Yeonoh’s secretary, Manager Yoo—filled up the groceries, daily necessities, and other small things worth spending money on because Yeonoh practically lived there, Kihyun was able to save money disproportionately to his salary. In the first place, the assets his mother left him were quite substantial, so that much wasn’t a strain.

So, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to leave the house for a few nights and find a hotel. Once he made up his mind, only then did he start feeling that it was a truly good idea.

Thus, as soon as it became lunchtime, Kihyun swallowed his meal in three minutes and came down to the office to book a hotel. Since it was lunch break, the head nurse visited and as he was about to put her in a treatment bed, she peeked at the monitor and asked if he was going on vacation. Kihyun just smiled and shook his head. Perhaps thinking it was an evasive response, she asked probingly.

“Come to think of it, Doctor So, do you have a girlfriend?”

He didn’t have a girlfriend but a boyfriend, but since yesterday, that guy had become someone who should be called an enemy rather than a boyfriend. So Kihyun said that wasn’t it either.

“I’m just going to go alone to clear my head.”

“That must be nice. Go and get some good rest.”

Kihyun didn’t answer and pulled the extracorporeal shockwave machine next to the bed where she lay. It hurt like hell every time she received it, but after helping her up when she wailed that it felt refreshing later, quite a bit of time had passed. Kihyun lay down immediately after sending the head nurse away.

With only 20 minutes of lunch break left, every minute was precious. Kihyun fell asleep as soon as he lay down, then had to wake up groggily to the alarms set by other teachers and start preparing for the afternoon treatment.

“Who carved out my lunch break?”

“I think that bastard took mine too?”

“Is Doctor So’s intact?”

“No, mine was carved out too.”

The therapists, regardless of whether they were in the athletes’ room or the general room, gathered and grumbled all at once. Still, his body felt quite light since he had at least taken a nap. Kihyun pushed the things that kept coming to mind into a corner to avoid thinking about them.

Fortunately, he was busy in the afternoon as well, so there was no time for other thoughts. One middle school volleyball player didn’t come down to exercise even though lunch was over, so he had to run up and catch him.

“Hyunjin, if you’re going to be like this, just get discharged. Why are you doing rehab. Just boil ramen at home and watch volleyball anime.”

“Argh, I was wrong, Teacher!”

He couldn’t hit the buzz-cut kid anymore since he was begging for forgiveness saying he fell back asleep after turning off the alarm, so he sent him off to stretch first.

“Teacher, can’t I just do two sets of lunges?”

“Why.”

“Ah, just, my knees hurt and…”

“They don’t hurt. I saw you hitting Sungbin earlier.”