Salt Society Chapter 5

Bumhee replied with a scolding remark and moved away from the elevator door. Only then did Yeonoh, fully stepping out of the elevator, melt his cold expression and smile slightly toward Kihyun. It was his own way of greeting, so Kihyun nodded back.

It was surprising that Yeonoh, who must have met Bumhee at the golf course where she was providing medical support, had stopped by the hospital with her. While Kihyun belonged to the physical therapist occupation where work ends exactly at 6:00, Cho Yeonoh was an executive at a large corporation. Since he had seen him yesterday, he hadn’t expected to see him again today, but he was glad nonetheless.

Bumhee, watching the whole scene, made a retching sound and spoke.

“It is all well and good, but do not smile in a way that makes me want to throw up, Director Cho. Even if you are in front of So-kyun.”

“I live my life tolerating your face, so why do you have no consideration for me?”

Exchanging words one by one, Bumhee and Yeonoh bickered like children. Bumhee, a high school classmate of both Kihyun and Yeonoh, was one of the few who knew about the relationship between the two that was not well known to the public.

Kihyun took the shockwave machine from Bumhee’s hands. Yeonoh, following behind, snatched it from Kihyun’s hands and took it away. Watching this, Bumhee spoke as if it were absurd.

“Wow. When I was carrying this all the way from the car to here, you just stayed still. Your loyalty is truly grand, my friend.”

“You are going straight home, right?”

“Am I talking to someone?”

When Yeonoh ignored her words and asked while looking only at Kihyun, Bumhee, carrying her medical bag, wore an expression of disbelief.

Kihyun shook his head but spoke toward her.

“I am leaving work now, Director.”

“Right, go ahead, Mr. So.”

As Bumhee nodded, Yeonoh glanced at her and asked Kihyun.

“Is that jerk still not letting you leave work on time?”

Kihyun did not reply and headed straight toward the shower room. Sweat had soaked into his scrubs, which had been bothering him for a while. He thought he should just splash some water on himself and come out, because if he delayed here, Cho Yeonoh was bound to make a fuss. Entering the locker room and opening his own cabinet, Kihyun pulled off his top first.

He was hooking his fingers into the waistband of his scrub pants when the locker room door swung open.

Cho Yeonoh, with his smooth forehead, glanced at Kihyun and asked while slightly raising one eyebrow.

“What is this? Are you going to shower?”

“Mm.”

For some reason, he felt as if Yeonoh had been talking to him whenever he was taking off his clothes since yesterday.

On the surface, the relationship between the two at work was nothing more and nothing less than the Chairman of the hospital foundation and a physical therapist belonging to the athlete rehabilitation room.

They had kept the fact that they had been dating for a long time a secret. Since the fact that the two were longtime friends was a matter of public knowledge, it couldn’t be helped, but they had an implicit agreement to ignore each other within the hospital as much as possible. Since it seemed to be what Cho Yeonoh wanted, Kihyun had suggested it indirectly.

Cho Yeonoh was a figure who stood tall within the Haeseong Foundation despite the significant age gap between him and his older paternal cousins. Had his humanly immature father not been the eldest son of that family, the opportunities given to Yeonoh might have been nonexistent. However, despite being the latest born in that house, Yeonoh had managed to seize quite a lot.

Yeonoh’s grandfather, who had many worries because his eldest son was unreliable, held tightly onto the things that would have flowed to the second and third sons and passed them down to his grandson, Cho Yeonoh. Since he was born as a Dominant Alpha and stood tall among Recessive Alphas, his grandfather’s devoted love was practically overflowing.

Cho Yeonoh simply managed what he received well. Since his cousins were the kind of people who couldn’t even do that, Cho Yeonoh might have been the most deserving in his grandfather’s eyes.

In any case, for someone like Cho Yeonoh who had inherited so much, the rumor of a relationship with a Beta male could be a fatal blow. Kihyun knew that point well.

Therefore, Kihyun had never once brought up the story that he was dating someone at the hospital. This was because Kihyun was working at Haeseong Rehabilitation Hospital, where Cho Yeonoh served as the Chairman.

Originally, the hospital’s name was not Haeseong Rehabilitation Hospital. Even before Kihyun obtained his physical therapist license, it became Haeseong Rehabilitation Hospital through a collaboration between Lee Bumhee and Cho Yeonoh. Lee Bumhee, who was quite smart and graduated early through skipping grades after her first year of high school, finished her specialist course and started as the head of the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine before taking the position of Director.

Kihyun knew well that this was a consideration from the two of them for him, who had to be discharged from the military due to unavoidable circumstances. They had created a place for Kihyun to work no matter what.

While Bumhee got to wear the title of Director of a hospital equipped with the latest facilities using Haeseong’s money without initial capital, it wasn’t a business with particularly large profits for Cho Yeonoh. It was true that by establishing a new clinic for Alphas and inviting famous pheromone specialists from home and abroad, it became a hospital trusted by the ruling class, but that was the story of the main Haeseong General Hospital; Haeseong Rehabilitation Hospital was closer to a much smaller mom-and-pop shop by comparison.

There was a story that Cho Yeonoh’s grandfather also showed a sign of confusion, asking what the reason was for wanting the rehabilitation hospital. Kihyun had never confirmed it separately with Yeonoh, but even Kihyun understood the confusion the grandfather must have experienced at the time. Even though it was at the scale of a quasi-general hospital with over 200 beds, such a hospital would be the same to Cho Yeonoh whether it existed or not.

Despite that, there was only one reason Yeonoh acquired the hospital. Solely for a place where So Kihyun could work stably.

Kihyun suddenly thought of the goldfish tank at home. That fish tank that Cho Yeonoh had brought to So Kihyun’s house one day. Whenever he watched the pair of goldfish moving their fins and spinning around and around, he couldn’t help but think about their very small universe.

And, every time Kihyun had such thoughts, Cho Yeonoh was always beside him with impeccable timing. Just like now.

“Let’s leave work together later.”

Kihyun did not answer Yeonoh’s words and glanced at the clock. ‘Later’ meant he had some work to do at the hospital, and he wondered if it would be okay for him to go first. He was probably planning to talk about hospital operations with Bumhee.

It was also fascinating how he seemed to care quite a bit about Haeseong Rehabilitation Hospital, the smallest in scale among the businesses he owned. The fact that he was active when working, despite looking like a beautiful toy boy who had no proper occupation other than playing at home, was another fascinating part.

“Don’t think about running away alone.”

Unfortunately, Kihyun’s hope for escape was caught immediately. Despite frequently hearing that he was difficult to read, perhaps because they had seen each other for so long, there were frequent times when his thoughts were caught like this.

Kihyun reluctantly nodded. Since the locker room door was ajar, he gestured with his hands, wondering if a patient might pass by.

“I got it, so get out.”

“It has been a while since we saw each other, yet you keep keeping your distance.”

“We saw each other yesterday.”

He heard there was a business trip yesterday as well. The messages of complaint sent separately to Kihyun by Manager Yoo, Cho Yeonoh’s secretary, were at a level where they were about to burst through the scroll. Since there was nothing but sounds of crying no matter how much he scrolled, Kihyun could tell that he had canceled one schedule at the business trip site and come to his apartment.

He wanted to ask why he went out of his way to come up to Seoul and sleep at his apartment, but when he finished the dishes after dinner and went into the bedroom, he was already fast asleep.

Kihyun spent the night almost staying awake next to the sleeping Yeonoh. No matter how much desire one lacks, wouldn’t it be abnormal if no thoughts came to mind while the person you love is sleeping and breathing lowly next to you?

It was just that he didn’t have the intention to do so; it didn’t mean he lacked the desire altogether. Thanks to that, he had to wake up at 3:00 AM and take a cold shower.

Until he realized his feelings for Yeonoh, the people Kihyun met were mainly Beta women. They were short and clumsy relationships from middle school and high school, but regardless, Kihyun had enjoyed dating typical of kids that age.

It wasn’t that he dated them because he liked them all that much, but usually, he grew to like the partner once they were dating. Kihyun was quite kind in his own way, and the partners liked Kihyun’s handsome appearance, manly physique, and gentle personality despite being taciturn. However, the end was always the same.

—I am sorry. I think I like Cho Yeonoh.

One day, Kihyun felt a bit victimized. To think that the end of every ex-girlfriend he had met was Cho Yeonoh. He might have started perceiving Yeonoh in that way from then on.

The dating Cho Yeonoh did was the same. Though he wasn’t the type of person to spill every detail about his dating life, he seemed to mainly meet Omegas.

Since it was a relationship started by two people who had no reason to be sexually entangled from the beginning, an awkward air arose whenever they tried to do something in that area. Yeonoh had a sense of rejection toward Betas, and Kihyun did not want to force him.

So even in a state where they had been dating for quite a long time, they hadn’t even shared a deep kiss yet. Furthermore, Kihyun had never even seen Cho Yeonoh’s naked body. Since they had never even showered together when they were young.

In any case, as much as they became a couple by pushing forward with his own greed, Kihyun always suppressed and killed the greed that popped up in that direction from the very start. He tried to cut it off just as the sprout was showing and resolve it in other ways.

Before he injured his ankle, he used to go for a run whenever desire accumulated, but these days, he rode the indoor cycle more.

Still, once it built up for a long time, it simply wouldn’t subside through exercise, and the turn to resolve it alone was bound to come. Today was such a day. When he had to just grab it and shake it to release what was inside no matter what. But as luck would have it, he encountered Yeonoh on the very day he had made up his mind.