Salt Society Chapter 59

“But seriously, Director Cho, is it okay for you to be picking up and eating stuff like this here? Your grandfather wouldn’t be very pleased about you buying junk food outside. Isn’t this one an omega? He played hard to get when I asked him to go for a second round. If he’s going to settle things this quickly, why act so modest between us?”

Kihyun furrowed his brow and brushed the man’s index finger away with his hand. His expression, which said he was seeing all sorts of dog-like things, was a bonus. Being guessed as an omega made him flinch inwardly, but it wasn’t enough to make him startle outwardly. He simply didn’t smooth out his crumpled expression because this situation was annoying.

At Kihyun’s reaction, the man made a “Tsk” sound while biting his lower lip, as if scolding a young child.

“Where do you think you’re going, recklessly hitting an adult’s hand?! Director Cho, why is this one so poorly disciplined— Agh! W-what are you doing!”

It was the moment the man tried to poke Kihyun’s shoulder again, extending his chubby index finger. Cho Yeonoh grabbed it as it was and snapped it with a crunch.

“I told you if you came to empty your bladder, then empty it and get lost. Why the hell are you poking a law-abiding citizen? You must be dying to quit eating that measly little civil servant salary of yours, Mr. Vice Minister.”

“Agh! L-let go of this!”

As the man screamed with a face that was more than red, looking like it might burst, Cho Yeonoh threw him down with an indifferent expression while still twisting the finger.

“I let go, you son of a bitch.”

“Ugh!”

The force must have been considerable, as the man clutched his finger and collapsed on the floor, sobbing.

Oh my, my hand! As the man wailed, the manager approached with a panicked face to check on him. Since the entire restaurant was made of private rooms without a large hall, it was a relief, if one could call it that, that no one was peeking this way despite the commotion.

Kihyun watched the spectacle in disbelief and asked.

“Are you crazy?”

“If this looks normal to you right now, go get your eyes replaced. Just tell me what it is that I don’t know.”

Kihyun made a face of pure exhaustion at those words and ignored him, walking away. Even though Cho Yeonoh kept calling him from behind, he didn’t answer.

He returned to the original room and slid the door open. Damon, who was sitting in his chair, looked back at Kihyun with a surprised face.

“I’m sorry. If you’re okay with it, could we move to a different place to eat?”

“So Kihyun!”

His name was being called from behind. Kihyun, who didn’t look back even once, stood there with a serious air waiting for an answer, and Damon stood up as well. Kihyun gave a short thanks as he saw him coming over.

It was just as he was about to lead Damon out of the shop. Kihyun turned back toward Cho Yeonoh, who called his name once more, and pulled out his wallet. Then, he took out a single card and flicked it like a projectile. It was Yeonoh’s card.

The thing flew in a straight line, hit Yeonoh’s chest, and fell down. The sound of the thin plastic card hitting the marble floor was unexpectedly loud. Kihyun didn’t even bother to check where it fell after hitting his chest; he spoke toward Cho Yeonoh, who had been staring only this way the entire time.

“Take back everything you gave me. I’m sick of it.”

Then he turned his head, gave a nudge to the back of Damon who was standing behind him, and put him in the elevator.

Kihyun thought he was just dazed, but as soon as Kihyun followed him in, Damon repeatedly pressed the close button and the button for the first floor. Through the gap of the closing doors, Cho Yeonoh was staring piercingly at Kihyun. A sigh leaked out from deep within.

Damon had a surprisingly sweet personality. He was considerate of Kihyun, whose mood hadn’t been great that day.

—We can eat another time. If you feel indebted, just eat with me twice.

Of course, at that point, Kihyun made an ambiguous expression. No matter how he looked at it, it seemed like a display of romantic interest, which was strange.

However, he thought there was no reason for a successful sports star to set aside all the omegas who liked him and act that way toward Kihyun.

“You’re full of it, So Kihyun. That’s obviously a move. Why else would he be crazy enough to ask for another meal after seeing that mess?”

Bumhee burped loudly as she crushed a beer can. Kihyun sighed as he watched her.

“I told you not to drink in front of me because I want to drink too.”

“Then should I just throw this precious stuff away? Is it so hard for me to just eat it all for you?”

He had arranged for a professional moving service, but he still had to pack some things roughly, so he was in the middle of clearing out the refrigerator.

His mind was busy, but he couldn’t kick out Bumhee, who had barged in carrying loads of mango-scented grapes and strawberries, claiming they were for the baby’s father.

She made a fuss about washing the fruit herself, but it was ridiculous to see that the strawberries she brought out on a plate still had their stems attached, as if she’d just rinsed them a couple of times and stopped.

“Hey, you should remove the stems before giving them to me.”

“Excuse me, baby’s father. Don’t start with me. That piece of shit Yeonoh really spoiled your habits perfectly. Are you a prince?! Just eat what you’re given.”

Lee Bumhee was probably the only person who could bring up an ex-boyfriend’s name so naturally in front of a friend who had just broken up. Although it was absurd, she wasn’t dislikable, so he decided to just eat as she said. Intending to use the strawberries as a snack for her drinks, Bumhee began bringing out beer cans from the fridge one by one. Before long, empty cans were piling up in front of her.

It was a relief, since if Lee Bumhee hadn’t eaten them, he was planning to just pour them down the sink anyway.

She wanted to talk about Team Leader Lim being kicked out, but since Kihyun had no particular interest in people from the past, it wasn’t interesting to him, so he shifted the topic to something else.

“—So, what did they say at the OB-GYN.”

“Ah, that… I didn’t hear a detailed explanation because they said I’d be getting a consultation with pheromone internal medicine, but just the precautions and the fact that I’m different from other male omega patients?”

“You said you’re an omega too.”

Traits are determined from birth. Traits determined that way are fully manifested upon reaching puberty. Therefore, a trait changing was an extremely rare case.

“They said the omega trait gene must have remained recessive originally. They said if that wasn’t the case, no matter how dominant the alpha is, they can’t change a beta into an omega.”

“I looked into it too, and it seems that’s a necessary and sufficient condition. There are rare cases of people born with the omega factor among betas, but since there’s no dominant alpha around such cases, they just live and die as betas.”

However, Kihyun happened to have the factor, there was a dominant alpha nearby, and that alpha, even subconsciously, wanted Kihyun to become an omega. With those three conditions interlocking, Kihyun’s trait had transformed into an omega.

“Because of that, it’s unstable, so the stable period comes later than for normal omega patients, or morning sickness hits faster. They told me not to relax even after reaching the stable period.”

“That’s tough.”

Bumhee made a complicated face. That was why he couldn’t tell her the whole truth.

—To enter the stable period, you need the biological father’s pheromones. Other alphas could stabilize you, but that only applies to normal omega patients. In a case like yours, Mr. So Kihyun, you need the pheromones of the fetus’s biological father—the dominant alpha.

They said that if he didn’t enter the stable period, they couldn’t guarantee the growth of the fetus. He didn’t want to increase Bumhee’s worries by telling her that.

It wasn’t something that could be solved by talking about it, and he only thought about not making Bumhee suffer more, as she was already helping him with so many things.

But that was still a long way off. He could think about it after the months started piling up. For now, it seemed important to go to Ilsan, get settled, and stably create a space where he could be with the child.

“Hey, regardless of that, aren’t you going to give the baby a nickname?”

Kihyun, who was popping strawberries two or three at a time, glanced back at Bumhee at her words. Then he enjoyed the taste of the strawberry mashing in his mouth. He didn’t used to like fruit this much, but strangely, all fruit tasted delicious now.

“A nickname? Is it necessary… I just need to give it a good name. Who named you? If you were named at a naming center, I’m going to go there too to make my kid a genius.”

“Are you joking? Do you think my geniusness is just because of my name?”

“You never know. I’m asking where you got it?”

He thought if he got the name from the same naming center, perhaps the child would become a smart adult who carves out their own path, just like Lee Bumhee.

Kihyun didn’t want the child to take after him. It wasn’t because he was particularly lacking, but because So Kihyun had faced so many difficult things while living as So Kihyun that he hoped the child wouldn’t have to face such things.

“They say I’ll have to have a C-section anyway, so I’m thinking of getting a date picked based on their fortune.”

“…You’re strangely over-the-top, but it’s an old-fashioned kind of over-the-top…?”

Bumhee looked at Kihyun as if she were seeing something peculiar. He just gave a smirk at that look. You try having a kid. You’ll want to give them everything. He held those words back.

Because it was funny that he, who wanted to give everything, was already starting by taking one of the parents away from the child. Instead, he just gave Bumhee’s hip a nudge with his foot and ordered her to go wash more fruit.