Salt Society Chapter 21

“Because the coach said his body felt a bit heavy.”

Kihyun and Cheoljin talked about the competition, and in the meantime, one bottle of beer was emptied. He hesitated whether to order more, but Cheoljin, perhaps noticing his look, ordered another bottle for him. Embarrassed that his desire to drink was caught by a kid, he murmured as if making an excuse, “Because I’m thirsty…,” and Cheoljin beamed.

Cheoljin seemed to hesitate for a moment, then asked Kihyun.

“By the way, ssam… did you change your perfume?”

“No. I don’t wear perfume.”

If a scent was coming from his body, it would be the aftershave scent that Cho Yeonoh had brought to Kihyun’s house as he pleased. However, that hadn’t changed in years.

At those words, Cheoljin made a somewhat awkward expression and his face turned bright red. Ahem, ahem, he cleared his throat alone and suddenly fidgeted as if his pants were uncomfortable.

Kihyun asked thoughtlessly.

“Are your pants uncomfortable? A guy who’s even managing his diet wouldn’t have gained weight. Didn’t you buy a size too small?”

“Ah, it’s not that…”

Looking thoughtlessly at how even the back of his ears had now turned red, he said.

“I’ll go to the bathroom, let’s go now.”

“…Already?”

“It’s 9:00 PM. I’m an old man, so I have to sleep by 10:00.”

Kihyun let out a smirk as he left Cheoljin, who was saying why was ssam an old man and that he looked similar to himself in terms of appearance. Even if they are young, those who are successful to that extent sometimes show a surprisingly mature side. Kihyun said okay, patted Cheoljin’s shoulder, stood up, and headed to the bathroom.

As soon as he entered the bathroom, Kihyun felt a damp sensation below and wondered what it was. Since he had never had such a place get wet in his life, he went into the stall and lowered his pants instead of standing in front of the urinal, thinking it was strange.

“…What is this.”

As soon as he lowered his pants, a thick, transparent mucus stretched out long, and then a silver thread clung to his thigh just like that, giving him a cold sensation. Kihyun covered his mouth in shock.

“…What kind of…”

The only thing that came out was something like that. He was so flustered that he couldn’t say anything else. Wondering why his body was acting like this after feeling strange, Kihyun, who quickly pulled up his pants, hurriedly left the bathroom.

“Oh, ssam…”

“Cheoljin, an urgent matter came up for me, so I’ll head out first.”

“Yes? What…”

Even before Cheoljin could answer, Kihyun went to the counter, paid, and quickly stepped out of the restaurant. He couldn’t figure out whether he should take a taxi or if walking would be faster. Since his house was nearby, walking would probably be faster.

…Furthermore, if he were to sit down with his bottom wet like this… It was when Kihyun shut his eyes tight after thinking that far. Someone grabbed his wrist.

“Ssam! You left your phone behind! And… calls keep coming.”

“Oh, oh… thank you. Cheoljin, I’ll contact you. Go on in. Be sure to ice your shoulder after you finish exercising.”

Even in the midst of that, he remembered the words that there was still some heat and quickly added the reminder. Kihyun quickly turned around while holding the phone Cheoljin handed him. Even though he knew Cheoljin would think it was strange, he was so flustered that it was hard to do anything more.

Why is something like this coming out? Between walking, the sudden gush that spilled out again was hot. Due to the nature of the male physical structure, it would be more likely for the area from the front of the pubic bone to the upper thighs to get wet, but it was rare for the space between the legs, and right in the center at that, to get wet.

In the first place, if it was an amount enough to soak through his underwear… if it were due to some inflammation, it would have been blood-colored, but that was exactly like lubrication… Kihyun walked toward home with a deathly pale face, then ran straight out, forgetting that his ankle was throbbing.

“Huff, huff—.”

Thanks to running for a long time, he was able to reach the apartment easily, but it was difficult to straighten his back because he was gasping for breath. As he was about to go inside like that, someone behind Kihyun muttered.

“What is this smell…”

Smell… Kihyun thought that such a thing was not something to care about and quickly entered the apartment. The moment he got off the elevator and tried to unlock the front door lock, Kihyun realized that his hands were trembling.

Smell, scent… In fact, Kihyun also couldn’t shake the thought that a subtle scent had been coming from him for a while. It felt like a vanilla scent, so thick that it was as if he had stepped into a bottle of perfume, and then it would completely disappear so that sometimes he couldn’t smell anything at all. He wondered what on earth this was.

Having entered the house, Kihyun quickly kicked off his sneakers and took off his clothes one step at a time. When he finally headed to the bathroom, he was only wearing his pants and underwear.

“Ah, shit…”

When he took off even his pants, the butt area of the jeans was wet in a small but round shape. He couldn’t help but swear. Wondering what kind of liquid this was, he touched it and it felt slippery, which gave him the creeps.

It seemed that the source of the scent he had been smelling since earlier was that. But why on earth was a scent like this coming out? It was as strange as the fact that such a liquid came out of his body.

Kihyun first hung the discarded pants and underwear over the sink, washed only the parts that were stained with water, and then put them in the laundry basket. Then he stood under the showerhead. He thought only the area between his legs was slippery, but the entire gluteal cleft was damp and messy.

“What kind of fucking…”

He clenched his molars to suppress the curses trying to burst out. Kihyun stood under the pouring stream of water and repeated the task of wiping between the cleft with his own hand, and then with a red face, he squeezed body wash onto a shower towel and washed his body in turn. After even shampooing, he came out with a towel wrapped around him.

“…”

He didn’t even know what that liquid was, but a sense of self-loathing seeped in. …Don’t I have a terminal illness? However, even looking through all the human physiology, pathology, and anatomy that So Kihyun had learned, there was no disease where such a strange thing came out from behind.

If even someone with a bachelor’s degree in health sciences didn’t know, he thought it might be a rare disease, so he decided he should make a reservation at a large hospital and get an examination. If so, he was confused about which department he should make the appointment with.

It was when Kihyun was sighing the whole time while shaking the moisture from his hair with a towel and taking out and putting on underwear. Someone entered the house along with the sound of the door lock being pressed. Kihyun knew it was obviously Cho Yeonoh, so he put on his pants without even bringing up the words asking if he had arrived.

Cho Yeonoh’s voice was heard from the entryway.

“What is the state of this house. There’s a person who makes a mess and a separate person who cleans it up, really.”

The tone didn’t sound particularly annoyed; it was just the usual Cho Yeonoh who had a hobby of nagging him. The sound of him tidying up the sneakers that had been kicked off here and there from the entryway and coming in was heard.

“And why did you take off your clothes like this…”

The sound of him coming into the living room like that was heard, so he was about to head to the kitchen to drink water. He was about to open the cap of the water bottle and put it to his lips when the guy started staring at Kihyun. Since only the lights in the kitchen and bathroom were on, the living room where Cho Yeonoh was standing was darker, so his face was not clearly visible.

Wondering what was up, he was about to ask what the matter was. Even the automatic sensor light in the entryway turned off, and the place where Cho Yeonoh was standing became completely dark.

He asked Kihyun in a low voice.

“Did you let an Omega into this house?”

Kihyun closed the cap of the water bottle with an expression that said he didn’t know what that meant. It was such an out-of-the-blue statement that only one thing came to mind, so he just asked whatever came to him.

“Omega-3?”

“Don’t play around.”

Without even looking toward Kihyun, Cho Yeonoh started rummaging through the house in irritation. Since he was a guy who always washed his hands first when he came home, Kihyun thought he would obviously wash his hands and come out because he headed toward the bathroom. However, he only looked inside from outside the bathroom, then turned around and opened the bedroom door this time, didn’t he?

“What are you doing, you.”

As if he wasn’t interested in Kihyun’s question, Cho Yeonoh went into the dressing room this time. He went all the way inside the room, opened things like the closets, then came out just like that and even flung open the door to Kihyun’s study. As Kihyun stood blankly wondering what was going on, Cho Yeonoh, who stopped in the middle of the living room, said with his hands on his hips.

“I told you I’d do it for you. I told you to go through my hands. Can’t you understand what I’m saying?”

“Yeah. I can’t understand. What on earth do you mean?”

Kihyun continued to ask with a bewildered expression as he put the water bottle back into the refrigerator. Cho Yeonoh had his brow furrowed like a person who was irritated. He was just puzzled, wondering why he was acting like that.

“…What time did you finish work.”

“Just now. I came back from eating with Cheoljin.”

“Park Cheoljin? Alpha 400-meter freestyle?”

Thinking that he even knew the event in detail, he nodded his head. Cho Yeonoh stared intensely at that Kihyun. At his hair that was still wet with moisture or his bare white upper body. Only then did Kihyun realize that he was in a state of only wearing pants after coming out from washing.

Even during his time as a soldier and now working as a therapist, he had a solid physique because he did not neglect exercise, but it’s not like he was highly immune to such an intense gaze.

Furthermore, he didn’t know the meaning of the gaze. He knew well that Cho Yeonoh had practically no feelings regarding Kihyun’s bare body, but looking at it the other way, it meant he had never stared like that before either. Kihyun only then turned his back while pulling down a towel.

“Why did you eat with him.”