Salt Society Chapter 41

However, he could not hear an answer. Manager Yoo let out a sigh and hung up the phone.

“…”

“…”

Kihyun looked away from the gaze of Manager Yoo, who had pulled the cell phone away from his ear. There was no reason to look at him any longer. It was because he had accomplished his goal.

Manager Yoo, who had been staring at Kihyun’s expressionless profile, sighed and spoke.

“…Are you satisfied now?”

“Roughly. Please help me until the very end. I would like you to do your best so that it isn’t discovered.”

Kihyun answered with an indifferent face and stood up from his seat. Even now, the insides of his thighs felt terribly tight. It felt like the muscle pain that occurs the day after doing a lot of adductor exercises. He had learned for the first time in his life that such a thing was a trace of sexual intercourse.

Manager Yoo remained seated, looking up at Kihyun. It was a look as if he were staring at something dreadful. Kihyun did not make any particular expression.

Because for him, this was the best option.

“Continue to keep it hidden. Your ‘superior’ will want that as well. He probably never imagined a picture of a Beta male and his eldest grandson sleeping together.”

“…What do you plan to do now?”

Manager Yoo asked, hiding his miserable face. Kihyun felt more alright than he expected. The dull pain tightening his inner thighs or the soreness in a place he had never been aware of before were not big problems. Kihyun thought simply. Only Cho Yeonoh must not know.

No, it absolutely had to be that way. That was why he had come to Manager Yoo and blackmailed him, wasn’t it? He requested that the CCTV records of the guest room hallway be completely wiped and the traces of Kihyun entering that room be deleted. Rather, it was a relief that the person close to Yeonoh’s grandfather was the boy’s secretary. Because this way, he could say that your goal and mine are the same.

Cho Yeonoh would probably mistakenly believe that he spent the night with someone else to quell a rut that had occurred forcibly. Manager Yoo had worked hard to make it that way.

—I slept with Cho Yeonoh. I trust you will erase all related records.

From Manager Yoo’s perspective, this would not be for Kihyun and Yeonoh, but for his ‘real’ boss, Cho Gyudeok. Cho Yeonoh’s conservative grandfather would not stay still if he found out that Cho Yeonoh had truly slept with a Beta male.

His grandfather had people go through the trash bins coming out of Kihyun’s house twice a month. It seemed he was monitoring for contraceptives and seeing if any household waste related to sexual life appeared.

On the way to the convenience store to buy beer, while scouting the surrounding terrain out of habit from his soldier days, he had once discovered a person rummaging through the trash he had thrown away. Kihyun had followed him discreetly. The place the man headed with Kihyun’s trash was a place Kihyun knew all too well. He didn’t tell Cho Yeonoh. Because it was obvious that doing so would only stir up trouble. Now, he felt it was a relief that he hadn’t said anything.

Thanks to that trash thief, Cho Yeonoh’s grandfather knew very well that even if his grandson was dating Kihyun, they did not sleep together. That must be why he had left them alone without a word until now. But what would happen if he found out about last night? Kihyun had asked Manager Yoo that point.

—What do you think will happen, Manager Yoo?

If the party involved, So Kihyun, just pretends not to know, no one gets hurt. So Kihyun pretended not to know. He even ignored the fact that his inner thigh muscles were pulling severely.

He woke up after dreaming a storm. Cho Yeonoh furrowed his brows because he couldn’t remember what the dream was. Once again, he felt as if he had missed something very precious.

As if indifferent to Yeonoh’s sentiment, wind was leaking in through the living room window. It felt as though a scene of thin fabric curtains swaying with the wind was about to unfold.

The sound of someone talking came from the TV. Judging by the excited tone, it seemed to be a sports broadcast, but he didn’t know which match it was. Cho Yeonoh’s mind was returning slowly enough to barely perceive such things.

After that, he opened his eyes. He felt like it wouldn’t be evening, and it really was a spring midday. Instead of the stuffy sunlight, a cool breeze would visit and then leave the interior where the lights weren’t even turned on.

A familiar scent, a familiar space. It was the living room of So Kihyun’s house.

“Are you awake?”

A cold drop of water fell onto his forehead. Cho Yeonoh wiped his forehead, furrowing his brows as if blinded by the pouring light. In his field of vision, he saw the bottom of a beer can with water droplets condensed on the surface.

Cho Yeonoh was currently resting his head on Kihyun’s lap. Realizing this, he immediately saw So Kihyun drinking beer. Cho Yeonoh blinked his eyes. It was because he couldn’t understand the current situation.

He had definitely returned to Seoul from Namhae…

The memories after that were cut off. Even when he tried to recall, nothing came to mind, and a headache even rose up, making him groan. At that sound, Kihyun, who lowered his head toward Yeonoh lying on his thighs, casually wiped away the water drop that had been on his forehead. It must have been a drop that went drip from the edge of Kihyun’s beer can.

Leaving the still-confused Yeonoh aside, Kihyun asked.

“What are you going to make for dinner?”

“…What?”

“You said you’d cook for me after you woke up.”

…Did I say such a thing? So Kihyun spoke in his usual blunt voice while looking at Yeonoh, who was wearing an uncharacteristically stupid expression.

“You’ve been like this for a while. You said you had a severe headache; are you okay now?”

It was a monotonous tone for something that contained worry. Knowing that was the blunt Kihyun’s own way of being kind, he became even more dazed. He had no memory at all of how he had gotten here.

Cho Yeonoh had been lying in his own bed, being injected with suppressants and continuously receiving IV fluids to resolve the rut-inducing agent remaining in his body.

Manager Yoo should have been watching him, so he didn’t know how this happened. He didn’t even know how much time had passed; he blinked his hollow eyes and then raised his body.

Rising with a slight headache, Cho Yeonoh confirmed that this really was Kihyun’s house. Kihyun was watching a rerun of an Arsenal match while drinking beer with an indifferent face.

He stared at Kihyun’s appearance with a bewildered face and then realized something.

“…You, what is this on your neck.”

Kihyun’s nape was touched by his fingertips which he had reached out impulsively. Kihyun, who had rather fair skin, had a nape as soft as it looked. If it weren’t for the bite mark stamped on top of it.

The vivid mark was red, as if it had been bitten not long ago. Kihyun got annoyed and kicked Cho Yeonoh with his leg that didn’t hurt.

“You bit me as soon as you arrived, you son of a bitch.”

“…I did?”

“Why have you been like this for a while. Go and set the table. I’m hungry.”

At Kihyun’s words that he was hungry, Cho Yeonoh stood up reflexively, but even after standing up, he had a dazed face for a while.

Until Kihyun pushed him, saying he was blocking the goal post being broadcast on the TV screen. Cho Yeonoh thought about something for a moment, then soon shook his head and gradually relaxed his expression.

Then it seemed that truly was a dream. It seemed the afterimages that came to mind as soon as he woke up were all false. Seeing So Kihyun’s perfectly fine face made it certain. Cho Yeonoh reached out his arm, tousling Kihyun’s hair, and said.

“If you’re Korean, cheer for Tottenham.”

Then he turned his head once to loosen his stiff neck, stretched, and walked toward the kitchen. He thought it wouldn’t be too late to figure out what exactly had happened after feeding him an early dinner.

The events in Namhae or the circumstances of how he got here could be postponed until after the meal. …The problem was that he might have spent a night with someone other than So Kihyun, and his head ached because this wasn’t certain.

Trying to calm his churning stomach, Cho Yeonoh grabbed and opened the top part of the refrigerator door. He had to almost bend his body to check the vegetable compartment.

That was why it happened.

“What do you want to eat?”

What kind of expression So Kihyun made at those words.

“…Anything.”

What he was thinking while sending back that blunt answer.

“I’ll make soybean paste with chives. Let’s eat it with lettuce wraps. You don’t eat enough vegetables.”

What kind of face So Kihyun, who was staring only at the TV without any reaction even to a goal scene for his favorite team, was making.

Cho Yeonoh did not know.

Becoming an adult was synonymous with the time for crying decreasing.

“Is that a lunge?”

“Then what is it?”

“Teacher asked you first, Heeji.”

That meant one could only cry after hanging the laundry, doing the dishes, finishing preparations for work, and arriving at the office without being late.

However, adult circumstances tend to become even more complicated after going to work, so So Kihyun did not have time to cry yet.

His heart was heavy as if a weight that couldn’t be removed was attached to it, and his depression was like a layer of film that had descended over his body, making the surrounding noise and laughter all sound muffled. Even so, since he had to live for now, he had to brush it off as if nothing were wrong. That discrepancy had been bothering Kihyun all morning and was still sitting heavily on his back.

“Why are your knees coming forward so much. You have to fix them and only raise your upper body.”

“I am doing it like that…”

“Really? But Heeji looks like a Nuri rocket launch pad right now. I think you’re going to fly off into space.”

“Oh, damn it, what are you talking about?”