Salt Society Chapter 58

That was when Damon cut in between them. Kihyun thought those words were unexpected. It was because Damon had been watching them even when he was arguing with Cho Yeonoh in front of the hospital.

Cho Yeonoh must have had a similar thought, as he let out a smirk and spoke toward Damon.

“Good at playing the fox, aren’t you? You know who I am.”

“I am not quite sure what you are talking about. More importantly, Mr. Kihyun, is there anything else you need to discuss? The food seems like it will be out soon, so why don’t we head back in.”

At Damon’s words, Cho Yeonoh pushed the inside of his cheek out with his tongue, making it bulge like he was eating a hard candy, and tilted the corner of his mouth mockingly.

“It is not like you are picking out and collecting these kinds of things on purpose.”

Those words were directed at Kihyun. His chilly eyes were staring straight into Kihyun’s. He seemed considerably pissed off, but Kihyun didn’t know why he was angry, nor did he have any intention of dealing with that anger.

He was about to suggest they just go, but Cho Yeonoh suddenly reached out and grabbed the back of Damon’s neck. Damon was not short, but perhaps because Cho Yeonoh held the physical advantage in terms of frame, the collar was pulled up unsightly, and Damon’s arms were lifted slightly.

“What are you doing—!”

“Why do you keep asking? Are you interested in me? Want my phone number?”

Cho Yeonoh ridiculed Damon with eyes frozen cold. Damon furrowed his brow at the look of mockery steeped into the guy’s face.

It was just as Kihyun was about to tell him to stop. Kihyun froze, his mouth clamped shut. An unpleasant feeling had suddenly begun to crawl over his body.

It was like a kind of pressure. He felt a damp, suffocating sensation, as if a towel soaked in water had been draped over his back. For a moment, he reflexively looked at Damon. The pheromones of an alpha harboring hostility toward an opponent were emanating from Damon. It was the first time he had been hit directly by such pheromones, and he was flustered.

Cho Yeonoh also realized that Damon’s pheromones were fluctuating, as he visibly furrowed his brow. Then, he muttered something incomprehensible.

“He was not… a beta.”

With those words, Cho Yeonoh suddenly gagged, covering his mouth as he dry-heaved. Kihyun knew that reaction of Cho Yeonoh’s very well. His aversion to relationships between betas and alphas had flared up.

Since he was a rare dominant alpha, he wouldn’t have been crushed by Damon’s pheromones no matter how much of an alpha Damon was. Seeing as he muttered that he wasn’t a beta, he must not have known Damon was an alpha. Right now, Cho Yeonoh was reflexively showing his disgust because the relationship between the beta Kihyun and the alpha Damon looked intimate.

Since he hadn’t released pheromones strong enough to lay waste to the area, Damon also seemed surprised by Cho Yeonoh’s reaction. Watching Cho Yeonoh’s back as he ran toward the restroom while covering his mouth, Kihyun let out a sigh and spoke to Damon.

“…Please go back in first. He is an acquaintance, so I should go check on him.”

“But…”

He walked past Damon, who seemed to want to say something. Even while walking, he held back a sigh that was about to burst out from exhaustion. He couldn’t hear Damon’s footsteps. The moment he realized that he wasn’t heading to the room but was staring at his back, his sense of fatigue became even more extreme.

The sound of someone suffering could be heard from inside the restroom. Kihyun walked toward it. The door was halfway open. Cho Yeonoh was bent over, clutching the toilet and gagging.

…It was somehow familiar. So Kihyun’s first confession had elicited a similar reaction. How had his heart felt back then? He couldn’t remember clearly.

Kihyun watched the guy’s broad back for a moment. He couldn’t help the complicated feelings that arose. He could have ignored it and left, but he blamed his habit for the reason he followed. It’s ridiculous to worry about someone you’ve broken up with, and it makes even less sense for a pair who have ended their friendship.

However, the surface where the affection had snapped was clean-cut, yet crumbs had fallen away. Kihyun wanted to pick up even those tiny remnants without leaving anything behind. That was why he had bothered to follow Cho Yeonoh.

“Are you okay.”

Kihyun approached and patted Cho Yeonoh on the back. When his hand touched him, he felt his back flinch and heave. It seemed the dry-heaving was gradually stopping. Having spent the last few days practically living by the toilet due to severe morning sickness, he felt a stray sense of concern.

What came out after that, however, was a pure realization.

“How did you endure seven years with me while finding it this horrifying.”

To think he would dry-heave just from an alpha and a beta standing side by side; what on earth was inside Cho Yeonoh that made him so extreme? He could only think that the guy was truly cold-blooded for enduring a long time by his side while waiting to pass judgment on Kihyun.

However, the hand that had been patting his back stopped quickly. This was because Cho Yeonoh, who had suddenly stood up, grabbed Kihyun’s hand and dragged him straight to the sink.

His grip was so strong that Kihyun couldn’t shake his hand off. He must have been quite angry, as his face was expressionless and stiff.

While Cho Yeonoh, who had headed to the sink, washed his face and rinsed his mouth, Kihyun stared at him through the mirror while his wrist was still held. Seeing him straighten his bent back after turning off the water and look for paper towels, Kihyun opened his mouth.

“I wouldn’t have come if I had known you were coming here today.”

“Kihyun, let us just keep our mouths shut.”

The guy, whose masseter muscles protruded as he clenched his jaw tight, smiled with only the corners of his mouth and looked down at Kihyun. Kihyun shut his mouth as Cho Yeonoh desired. For a while, Cho Yeonoh’s chest heaved as if he couldn’t control his ragged breath. It was when he turned his head after watching the veins pop out on the guy’s forehead and his Adam’s apple bob up and down.

“Did you sleep with that bastard?”

“What?”

It was such an absurd thing to say that he had to look back. Cho Yeonoh was staring at Kihyun with his eyes narrowed.

“I asked if you slept with him. Answer me first.”

Is this guy completely out of his mind? Kihyun looked at Cho Yeonoh with a face of disbelief. Clicking his tongue, Cho Yeonoh asked in a voice that sounded like his throat had been scraped raw.

“Then why is that bastard acting like he’s protecting his own omega.”

“…Stop bullshitting.”

Omega? If you look at it, it was always Cho Yeonoh who went around talking about Kihyun being a beta or an omega. When Kihyun spat out a curse because he couldn’t listen to any more, the guy gave a short laugh.

“I am asking because you look like you wouldn’t care who it is as long as it’s an alpha. I lived for seven years thinking I was special without even knowing that.”

“I told you to stop.”

The guy took a step closer, sneering. Kihyun answered in a low, sunken voice. He even had the thought that he would rather just punch him.

Cho Yeonoh’s disgust was quite deep-rooted. It never exactly directed itself at Kihyun, but that didn’t mean it missed him entirely, either. The guy’s hatred used to subtly surround Kihyun.

Having to endure that for the past years was enough. Kihyun had no reason to tolerate him any longer. However, Cho Yeonoh, who had already lost his temper, was trying to trample Kihyun with a blade hidden in his tongue, whatever it was he was so heated about.

“Kihyun, the bullshit is you hanging around and having fun with a new alpha at a place you used to come to with the person you broke up with.”

Kihyun furrowed his brow at the crude accusation. Cho Yeonoh smirked as he pressed down on Kihyun’s brow with his thumb to smooth it out.

“Why. Are you pissed because I’m treating you like a person with no manners? Then you should have thought a little before you acted. This is a place you and I came to together. Were you confused about that?”

At those words, Kihyun let out a hollow laugh, looked all around him, and then stared at Cho Yeonoh once more.

“Fine, let us say I was confused. Then what about you.”

Cho Yeonoh looked at Kihyun with chilly eyes. He seemed to be asking what he meant.

“You, who goes around making a scene about everything just because you think you’re so great. It seems you aren’t confused like stupid me. But is there actually anything you know for sure?”

“What?”

Cho Yeonoh asked back, but Kihyun didn’t pay any mind and twisted his wrist out of the grip that was still holding him.

“Don’t touch me and don’t grab me when you don’t know a damn thing. Did you not hear what I said back then? I told you not to touch me.”

Kihyun turned his back and walked out of the restroom just like that. He heard the sound of irritable footsteps from behind. Before he could even go a few steps, he shook off the wrist that had been grabbed again.

“I told you not to grab me, does my talking sound like a joke to you, you son of a bitch.”

“What is it that I don’t know.”

He was tired of them only talking past each other. He was about to ignore him and go, but someone walking down the hallway saw the two of them and brightened up.

“Oh, oh, Director Cho! You were here? I’ve been looking for you. Where have you been so long… Hmm? Were you with a guest?”

A man who looked quite old smiled broadly while looking back and forth between Cho Yeonoh and Kihyun. The man, whose complexion was more black than red from being dead drunk, approached the two of them and let out words while smiling weakly.

“You two must be in the middle of a secret talk, eh?”

“Yes. As you can see. If you came to drain your water, just keep going straight. And don’t touch him.”

Cho Yeonoh pointed behind him with his thumb as if he couldn’t be bothered. The man, whose eyes were so small the irises were barely visible, rolled his eyes, then looked at Kihyun and replied while snickering.

“Yeah, I did come to empty my bladder.”

Cho Yeonoh rolled his eyes upward with a face that said he was bored to death.

“I get it, so I am telling you to just pass through.”

The man chuckled and muttered, “Right, right…” and was about to pass them when he suddenly changed direction and poked Kihyun’s shoulder, who was standing still, with his index finger.