Salt Society Chapter 32

The curses came out on their own. He slammed his forehead against the steering wheel and panted. His ankle throbbed. The person he had run into was one of those who had caused such pain in Kihyun’s ankle. As Kihyun remembered it, he was the one who stood by their side and kept watch to see if anyone else was coming rather than assaulting Kihyun himself.

“Ugh…!”

A dry heave escaped him. Feeling as though bile was rising, Kihyun was forced to press the start button despite his dizzy mind. Fortunately, the way back to the resort was short. He did not recognize the continuous beeping sound and only noticed it near the resort driveway. Because he almost collided with a vehicle coming out, he stepped on the brake, and since there was nothing catching him, he realized only then that he had not even fastened his seatbelt.

After turning on the hazard lights to apologize, Kihyun headed straight to the resort’s drive-in. Thinking it was a relief that the doorman opened the door and took the car key, Kihyun walked with staggering steps. The doorman asked Kihyun something.

“…are you?”

“…Yes?”

Since his mind was blank, the doorman’s words were perceived with the beginning cut off. When he asked again while blinking both eyes, the doorman said with a flustered expression.

“Do you need a suppressor for emergency use?”

“What…”

It was incomprehensible. A suppressor? What on earth was there to suppress? These overflowing memories? If it wasn’t to suppress those things that slept for a long time in Kihyun’s heart and then popped out to stab his brain whenever there was a chance, those things that visited again just as he was about to forget and shook him, those stupid traumas that he couldn’t avoid and made him dry heave—then what else could be suppressed?

Kihyun brushed off the doorman who tried to support him and walked straight toward the elevator. A cold sweat broke out. It felt as if a fishy smell of water was coming from his whole body, or perhaps a completely different scent.

…Did Cho Yeonoh’s perfume scent rub off while driving his car? However, among the perfumes for Alphas used by Cho Yeonoh that Kihyun knew, there was none that gave off this kind of scent. Then what was all this scent? It was a scent both unfamiliar and familiar. It wasn’t clear from where, but it was one he had certainly smelled before. Blinking his eyes vacantly, he searched for the card key. His hands slipped and a fever rose. It was clear that he was not in good health.

Beep, with that sound, the door finally opened. Kihyun went straight into the bathroom, barely managed to take off his clothes, and washed up. He felt like he wanted to wash his brain. It felt as if tears were coming out, but they were washed away by the hot water and no trace could be found.

Without even wiping off the water, he put on a robe and entered the bedroom. He wanted to lock the door and sleep, but he couldn’t help it because his body was feverish as if boiling. In that overturned state, Kihyun fell into a sleep like a swamp.

As if to make him forget the nightmare, the sleepiness that surged in made Kihyun’s body sink down, down. Suddenly, he wanted to have sex with someone. But with whom? There was only one person in this lonely universe who made Kihyun feel that way.

Amidst the heat and daze, his whole body sank as if being crushed. Kihyun thought for a moment that it would be nice if he didn’t wake up, but then quickly erased that thought. How had he escaped from the days when he was depressed like a seizure?

However, it was clear that despair, like a stray dog, had caught the scent of depression seeping from Kihyun. Curses came out. Kihyun began to dream a dream that could not come true.

⏳

Even though his dreams hadn’t been bad today, it was at a point where he wondered why there were so many unlucky events.

After dealing with those damn geezers, they suggested going to the sauna, but he brushed them off, saying he had no hobby for looking at the naked bodies of fellow Alphas. It was because he didn’t want to go to the sauna with old pigs who were bulging with fat.

Because he didn’t want to wash his body—which was dreadfully permeated with the smell of cigarettes and weed smoked by the geezers’ mistresses—in the room where he stayed with So Kihyun, he had another room prepared. After washing up and coming out from there, he had to be caught again and drink.

The only problem was that a fever was simmering for some unknown reason today. Cho Yeonoh, who picked up a Baccarat glass containing Salute with fingers holding a cigarette, smiled brightly while imagining slamming a hammer down on the heads of the old men who were whining about playing Hwatu instead of cards.

“Minister, fuck, just how much do you like me? My bladder is about to burst, so are you telling me to just piss right here?”

“Oh my, that won’t do. As soon as Director Cho unzips his fly, this guy here will start drooling, and if my lover is taken away, I can’t live anymore.”

Then please just drop dead. Cho Yeonoh thought indifferently as he looked down at the Minister of Economy and Finance, who was groping the chest of the Omega male next to him. He hid a sneer by bringing the Baccarat glass to his lips. Cho Yeonoh drained the drink in one go until the ice made a clinking sound, then set the glass down on the poker table and patted the Finance Minister’s shoulder.

“Then don’t think about following me. You’re making me report in front of Omegas just for draining some water. Are you giving me a hard time on purpose just because I’m a mere peddler or something?”

“Ahaha, sorry, sorry. Go ahead, Director Cho.”

Even so, the gaze staring at Yeonoh’s thick lower body was persistent. He had heard that in addition to the hobby of deflowering Omega males, the Minister demanded sexual favors from Alphas who brought bribes, even satisfying a greed for the back hole. He was disgusted to the point that his head throbbed from the sexual harassment he had suffered after a long time, but since he had no intention of slapping him while asking where he was looking like some brat who had become sensitive after a wet dream the night before, he just turned around.

Cho Yeonoh’s grandfather liked making him perform this kind of entertainment personally. While his cousins complained about the side dishes, saying they didn’t even like the buffet-style work brought in by the secretarial staff, Cho Yeonoh had to run the sales himself.

And that too, focusing on the filthy guys carefully selected by his grandfather.

—You must act as if you crawled up from the bottom without my help so that those bastards will look down on you and show their weaknesses first. In that way, you can use those dirty corners of theirs, gathered steadily like an autumn harvest, whenever it is useful for you. Would this grandfather make you do such a complicated task because I hate you? Don’t feel hurt, just close your eyes and think of it as swallowing medicine that is good for the body but bitter to the taste.

As for the grandfather, it seemed he really thought that was a downward love toward Cho Yeonoh. With poker and Hwatu where hundreds of millions moved in one round, and the smell of rotting money never leaving his thumb and index finger, he had no idea how on earth this was medicine good for the body.

He wondered if the grandfather knew his grandson was treated like a male prostitute who unplugs smelly back holes outside. Since there would be a raccoon that lived for hundreds of years inside him, he might be providing these spots while knowing everything.

As soon as he came out of the poker room, Cho Yeonoh made a gagging motion, took his phone out of his pants pocket, and pressed a familiar number. With a ringing sound, the call was disconnected with a message saying the customer could not be reached.

“Our Kihyun is ignoring hyung’s call again.”

Cho Yeonoh placed a call once more. The recipient was not So Kihyun, but Manager Yoo. He spoke as soon as the call was picked up.

[He went out around noon and went to the coast, and since around 3:00 PM, he has been in the room the whole time. I believe he is likely sleeping.]

“Is he possessed by a ghost that died from not being able to sleep?”

[He must have been tired during the week. Work at the hospital has been busy lately.]

“Please look after him properly on your own, Manager Yoo. I’m not stopping you from double-reporting to the old man, but shouldn’t I know what So Kihyun is doing?”

[It is nothing serious. He says he is busy because there are many checkups.]

Manager Yoo answered nonchalantly as if he knew Cho Yeonoh would say that. There was no sign of hiding anything, but seeing as it was unsettling, it was certain that reports about Kihyun were also flowing into the grandfather.

—It’s a relief he’s not an Omega. …I couldn’t stand to see you making a fuss with a Beta like your father did, but it’s another relief that there’s no worry about unnecessarily conceiving a brat.

What did I say back then.

—Grandfather, please stop it. Why don’t you just touch your dead son’s balls to your heart’s content, why do you keep dipping your feet into my life? I’m at a point where my nostrils are wearing out because of the rank smell wafting from your greed. Man, fuck, I can’t do this.

It was probably something similar to that. It was a statement worthy of making him stand up personally and slap his grandson’s cheek. It was Cho Yeonoh’s own way of being a filial son that he didn’t dodge and took the hit.

“Tell Lee Bumhee to take in fewer patients. How is it that only Mr. So works in that hospital?”

[Understood.]

Even if he gave such instructions, Director Lee Bumhee, who wouldn’t listen to the primary investor’s words even if he died, would once again fill the treatment room with patients. For some reason, neither this bastard nor that bastard showed any sign of acting according to his wishes.

Cho Yeonoh discovered a familiar face from the other side of the hallway and hung up the phone.

“Yeonoh.”

It was Cho Yeonsin, Yeonoh’s older cousin and a director of Haeseong Chemical. Yeonoh answered with a bright smile.

“Why are you acting like we’re close?”

“Why do you speak like that?”

Yeonsin laughed as if troubled. What a load of bullshit. Yeonoh also did not remove the smile from his face. Next to Yeonsin was a Beta he had never seen before. The man was glancing at Yeonoh. Seeing him peeking this way as if hanging around to scavenge something made him almost laugh.

“Grandfather got me a membership, so I’m going to start coming here from this year too.”

“Yes, go ahead. How much would the old man love it if he knew you called a male prostitute to your room.”