Salt Society Chapter 66

Cho Yeonoh’s eyes narrowed as if he were lost in thought. Then, he spoke as if tossing the words out.

“Since he is quite cold-hearted, he might have actually crossed the mountain. Deploy more people.”

From the boss, who spoke expressionlessly, an indescribably overbearing pheromone was pouring out. Manager Yoo thought he should get outside before the patients passing by collapsed in shock.

It was earlier today that Manager Yoo learned of So Kihyun’s flight. On behalf of Yeonoh, who had no free time for several days while handling his grandfather’s errands, he had intended to go to Kihyun’s house in Ilsan to deliver a fruit basket.

When no one answered despite pressing the doorbell, Manager Yoo, who was about to leave the basket in front of the entrance, stopped in his tracks, surprised to see Lee Bumhee’s Mustang parked in the parking lot. After that, he went back inside the villa and knocked on the door again, but So Kihyun did not come out.

Feeling that something was strange, Manager Yoo reported immediately to Cho Yeonoh. He said only one thing.

—Is that so.

Then the call cut off abruptly. As Manager Yoo stood there dazed, wondering what to do, a call came back. On the surface, it was from the secretary’s office under the gallery. These were people whose salaries Cho Yeonoh personally handled without Cho Gyudeok’s influence, and the tasks they were assigned were not much different from what Manager Yoo was doing.

—Manager, the Director asks you to return.

At those words, Manager Yoo headed straight to the gallery and was briefed on So Kihyun’s movement patterns, which Cho Yeonoh’s secretaries had found in that short interval. Manager Yoo was tasked with delivering the news. It meant that it didn’t particularly matter if it reached Cho Gyudeok’s ears.

As soon as he opened his mouth to give the consolidated report, Cho Yeonoh had immediately driven his car alone toward Haesung Hospital.

“Before heading to the rest area, it appears he withdrew cash from an ATM near the villa. He stayed for about 5 minutes, and since we need the cooperation of the authorities to know how much he withdrew, we cannot know right away.”

“…”

Cho Yeonoh did not reply. Even as he felt Manager Yoo watching him anxiously, Yeonoh was lost in other thoughts. It was so clear where things had started to get twisted that it was almost funny.

The problem surfaced gradually starting from when they entered middle school. He knew Kihyun was contacting him through his mother. Even as he heard that news indirectly, he did not think to go and see him.

Since several years had already passed since the day So Kihyun left him, and even though he now knew that no ten-year-old exists who can disobey a guardian’s words, he didn’t understand why he had tried to distance himself so easily.

If it were him, if it had been himself, he would have acted differently. He thought that if the other person had let go of the seat next to him so easily, he likewise had no need to obsess over that hollow position.

That day was So Kihyun’s birthday. The one he had failed to forget for over several years. Since the birthday he celebrated every year would naturally come to mind whenever the cold wind blew, it was an irresistible force.

Thanks to that, the mood that had been sunken since the morning lasted until the end of classes. He was tired of playing along with the kids who clung to him pretending to be close, so he kept his mouth shut all day.

Even though going home after school wasn’t a good thing, the thought that he wanted to go somewhere did not leave him. Not knowing where that was, he stared out the window throughout class, and once class finally finished, he packed his bag slowly and left school.

At that time, Cho Yeonoh often wore a muffler. Because his secondary sex characteristics had begun, it was irritating that the scent of pheromones seemed to rise from the area of his nape. Furthermore, he hated it even more because the scent coming from his body seemed similar to Cho Seongheon’s.

Despite packing his bag slowly, he walked out to the campus and realized he hadn’t brought his muffler. It wouldn’t have mattered on days the driver came, but a few days ago, his grandfather confiscated the car with the driver he used for commuting on the grounds that he had defied Cho Seongheon. While taking the bus wasn’t difficult, the situation of exposing his nape in public transportation where he had to brush against others was quite uncomfortable.

In the end, Cho Yeonoh, who turned back at the school gate, walked back up against the crowd of other students leaving school. Even then, his steps were only slow. Because he went up slowly, quite a bit of time had already passed by the time he arrived at the floor where the classroom was located.

Inside the classroom, there was a Beta boy who was in the same class. Since his skin was fair and the sharp clarity of his eyes without double eyelids resembled So Kihyun, he hadn’t exchanged a single word with him, unlike the other kids.

The boy, left alone in the classroom, had his head bowed and was burying his nose in something. Cho Yeonoh stopped in his tracks and furrowed his brow, wondering what was going on. This was because the place where the boy was standing was near his own seat.

Watching him, he wondered if he should just go home. He didn’t feel like going into the classroom to have a conversation. Then, as soon as he realized that the thing the boy was holding was his muffler, something inside him snapped.

When he came to his senses, the boy was rolling on the classroom floor, crying. One of the Beta boy’s permanent teeth was rolling on the floor. Cho Yeonoh, without an apology or comfort, simply unclenched his blood-covered fist, stood up, and looked for his muffler. Then, he threw it into the trash can at the back of the classroom and left the school.

It was that night that he had a strange dream. So Kihyun appeared in the dream. The overgrown So Kihyun, whom he had sought out and only watched from a distance on days he could not bear it.

For the first time, he experienced a nocturnal emission. He had merely faced So Kihyun appearing and quietly looking at him, but his lower half throbbed and his chest tightened.

He woke from the dream with a strange feeling. As soon as he opened his eyes, he could feel his pheromones filling the room. He felt like vomiting. He had to run straight to the bathroom. The more he realized his lower half was damp, the more he felt a disgust he couldn’t endure. Even amidst the pain of his stomach turning over, Cho Yeonoh kept his bloodshot eyes open and exerted all his strength to forget the So Kihyun who was lingering in his mind.

After that, Cho Yeonoh felt in heat toward So Kihyun from time to time. During his first rut, and during the rut after that. Without fail, he had those dreams, and within them, So Kihyun was merely smiling quietly at him.

The day after he hit his classmate, although his grandfather’s punishment upon learning the truth was enough to rupture the muscle in one buttock, what happened that night was more shocking to him. The fact that he had done something like Cho Seongheon toward So Kihyun.

Several years have passed since then. Cho Yeonoh still cannot stop doing things like Cho Seongheon, who feels in heat toward a Beta, toward So Kihyun. And now, as if he wanted to personally prove the shitty saying that one cannot hide their true nature, he slept with others even while having a lover.

That was why, even in this situation, he had no choice but to think that they had fairly given and taken from each other.

You, who tried to run away at any time, and myself, who whined like a castrated dog while hiding the desire boiling in my lower abdomen, and then didn’t even think to overcome it when the heat cycle arrived, and found the wrong hole.

So he thought that this time, he must be the one to find him. He couldn’t miss the opportunity where the giving and taking had become fair.

⏳

“50 buttons. You can count them.”

Kihyun spoke indifferently. Since he had dealt with the customer while eating the plums he had piled up inside the glass with a semi-circular hole, his hands were sticky. He roughly counted the bills the customer handed over and put them in the safe.

Then, wiping his hands with a wet towel, he looked at the man who was counting the buttons he had exchanged for money. The man, whose appearance was a mess because he spent all his time eating and sleeping in a place that only sold cup ramen as food, nevertheless had eyes that shone brilliantly.

The people here usually had the same look in their eyes as that man. Kihyun realized in just one day that it was the characteristic look of gamblers.

Still, the number of customers was on the lower side today. They said people were scarce during the farming season since it was a rural area after all, and it was true.

—Originally, people who farm have more money.

It was what Yang Jisu had said with a grin. Kihyun just took it as it was and didn’t pay any more attention. Because the work Kihyun did here was nothing but the simple task of exchanging buttons for cash.

Still, it served as a small job, so he was commuting consistently. The person who had begged for help saying they were busy had not been seen lately, perhaps having forgotten even about collecting the money. Since only messages saying they were busy came back when he called, for the past few days, Kihyun had to clock out after only exchanging a nod with his replacement.

It seemed to be the same today. The replacement was said to be a bank clerk working at a bank in the town. Hearing the stories, it seemed he took a lot of pocket money, and since he wasn’t stupid enough to get caught by the bank for working a suspicious second job, he had been helping with Yang Jisu’s work for several years already.

He nodded to him and moved away from the counter. The other person counted the buttons used as chips by eye, and then nodded as if the count was correct. Perhaps because he was a bank clerk, he was very fast at counting numbers, which was always fascinating. Even So Kihyun, who never opened his mouth first unless prompted, was curious enough to part his lips.

“Have you already finished counting?”

“…Yes.”

The man, who gave off a somewhat neat impression except for the fact that it was hard to see his eyes because his bangs were long, had a rather slight build, so Kihyun speculated to himself whether he might be an Omega. Though there wasn’t any particular pheromone scent he could pick up.