Salt Society Chapter 7

Can a person really look like an ink wash painting? His ink-colored pupils seemed to sparkle as if the moisture had not yet dried. On his own, he had a cold and austere impression, but because he so rarely made that face in front of Kihyun, Kihyun would occasionally forget. He would forget that the guy was startlingly beautiful.

Because he looked slightly apologetic, a smirk escaped Kihyun. Seeing his smile, the Alpha who was as large as a doorframe gave a short, fake cough. He seemed embarrassed.

“…But why did you say you didn’t want to leave work together.”

“Because waiting is a hassle. I’m tired from not sleeping.”

At those words, he reached out and brushed Kihyun’s thin forehead. It was a gesture stained with tenderness. When his palm brushed his forehead, Kihyun closed his eyes for a moment and then opened them slowly. Yeonoh was staring intently at such a Kihyun.

“Why couldn’t you sleep? Because I left in the early morning?”

“Who knows. Anyway, get out. I need to shower.”

Kihyun slightly avoided the answer and issued an order for him to leave. He had taken his top off long ago and was now even taking off his pants. Kihyun, who had his thumbs hooked near the band of his last remaining piece of underwear, arched one eyebrow like a ruffian teasing a modest nobleman.

“Or what is it. You want to see me naked?”

“No, wait a minute…”

Yeonoh seemed momentarily flustered by Kihyun’s behavior. Kihyun found his attitude a bit funny. Did anyone say they were going to eat him? What a wimp.

Just seeing me take off my clothes makes him act like that, which is why progress hasn’t gone past kissing for years. Every time Yeonoh froze up like that, Kihyun felt strange, as if he had trapped him out of his own greed.

Cho Yeonoh hesitated as if he had something to say. It also seemed as if something was wavering inside his pitch-black eyes. Kihyun was curious about what it was, but as soon as he turned around and left the dressing room, Kihyun stopped thinking about it and tuned it out.

Kihyun took off the rest of his underwear and entered the shower room.

“Smells like shampoo.”

Cho Yeonoh buried his nose near Kihyun’s nape where his hair began and muttered. Kihyun replied listlessly.

“I didn’t use shampoo, I washed with soap, so don’t be annoying and go away.”

They were walking home from the hospital. A third-generation chaebol traveling on foot. He had no idea where he had left his own car to hitch a ride in Bumhee’s car.

Thinking of Manager Yoo, who must have been abandoned along with the car, he felt like offering sincere words of consolation.

Kihyun’s apartment was not far from the hospital, so it was a distance that could be covered without a car. Conversely, Cho Yeonoh’s apartment was not that close. He lived in a luxury villa where the Han River was visible and privacy was strictly maintained for each unit. Even so, it was absurd how Yeonoh insisted on leaving work together every time he stopped by the hospital. Especially since the destination was Kihyun’s apartment.

While he liked being with Yeonoh, it was troublesome that he often slept at Kihyun’s place instead of going to his own house even when night fell. Because of that, Kihyun had no choice but to always sleep fitfully unless he was exceptionally exhausted. It was because he had to suffer from insomnia just from the fact that Cho Yeonoh was lying next to him.

Being a man himself, whenever Yeonoh’s body scent drifted across the bed, he inevitably had to endure the phenomenon of desire pushing away sleep.

As a Beta, Kihyun couldn’t know what Yeonoh’s pheromone scent was like, but whenever he smelled the Alpha-use perfume, soap, and aftershave he used blending with his body heat to produce a deep, deep fragrance, he would feel a subtle sensation.

When the silent dawn arrived for everyone, Kihyun felt Yeonoh through that scent alone. Then, when the guy would hug him in his sleep, it felt as if Cho Yeonoh’s pheromones were pouring over his skin. A world So Kihyun could never feel even if he stayed by Cho Yeonoh’s side for a lifetime. When he thought about such a world being placed upon his skin, his lower abdomen would harden and his inner thighs would tighten even without the other’s consent.

That was why on truly exhausted days, even if it was him who had been in a one-sided love for over a decade, there were cases where he would push Cho Yeonoh away.

“Go sleep at your house today.”

As if surprised by Kihyun’s words, Yeonoh arched one eyebrow and smirked. It was as if he was asking what he was talking about when they were almost home and only had to wait for the elevator now.

“How cold. This dog can’t sleep without his owner.”

Yeonoh boarded the open elevator first with a joke mixed with a laugh. While holding the door with his hand, he tilted his head, telling Kihyun to hurry up and get on. It was clear he took it as a mere joke. Kihyun let out a sigh and replied as if muttering to himself.

“Who’s a dog. The actual dogs would feel wronged hearing that.”

He was dying of sleepiness and wanted to sleep well alone, but there was a reason he couldn’t push him away. It was because Cho Yeonoh could only sleep next to So Kihyun. He suffered from insomnia even more severe than Kihyun’s.

In Kihyun’s case, strictly speaking, it wasn’t quite insomnia. It was just that the situation wasn’t right for sleeping at night; if he finished his meal in three minutes during the hospital lunch break and climbed onto a massage bed and just closed his eyes, he could start snoring immediately.

Even during his time in the military, he was good at taking naps. But Yeonoh was different. He could never fall asleep easily. He didn’t know the reason, but he could only sleep deeply next to So Kihyun. He had no idea why it was so. It was no use even when he gifted him the bedding he used.

Since that repeated, he just ended up calling him to his house. He thought he could let him sleep at his place about five days a week and kick him out for the remaining two days so he could get some sleep too.

However, Cho Yeonoh wanted the whole week. To Kihyun, it was behavior he considered shameless, but since Cho Yeonoh had no way of knowing Kihyun’s desires, it was understandable.

Though he had treated Kihyun harshly at the time of the first confession, Cho Yeonoh fundamentally had deep affection for So Kihyun. So, if he had known of Kihyun’s desires, he would have made an effort to relieve them.

But such an effort would have made him feel far more miserable than he did now. Kihyun would rather stay awake through the dawn than see Yeonoh suffering through that nonsensical effort.

Because So Kihyun also cherished Cho Yeonoh. Between the two of them, where friendship still existed even after starting as friends, living like family, and then becoming lovers, So Kihyun also wanted to treasure Cho Yeonoh in his own way.

To say it again, it wasn’t like he would die if they didn’t do it. But if Cho Yeonoh wasn’t there? …Well. He didn’t know because that had never happened, but it was obvious that something harder than merely enduring desire would occur.

In any case, it was natural that even a guy who knew everything couldn’t guess Kihyun’s desires. It was because Cho Yeonoh felt no desire toward Kihyun. In the first place, maybe he was the strange one for feeling desire toward Yeonoh, who had been his friend.

Until he met Kihyun, Cho Yeonoh had mainly dated Omega women. Based on his past experiences, it was a given that So Kihyun, a male Beta, could not be an object of sexual desire for Cho Yeonoh.

Of course, if one is an Alpha, regardless of preference, a week inevitably comes where they feel excessive lust, but unfortunately, Cho Yeonoh’s heat cycles were regular. Furthermore, Cho Yeonoh took suppressants prescribed by an authority in Pheromone Medicine at Haeseong Hospital to prepare for unforeseen accidents. The pheromone suppressants developed solely for Cho Yeonoh by the entire medical staff of the Pheromone Clinic were said to boast a clean effect.

He didn’t know how he handled other minor desires, but in any case, Yeonoh felt no desire toward Kihyun. Even he, who had to do strength training along with rehabilitation every day because of his ankle, often found himself overwhelmed by desire, but it was to the point where he wondered if Cho Yeonoh was naturally someone without a sex drive. He thought he had been energetic about dating in the past, but wondered if he had changed with age.

Whatever the case, since Cho Yeonoh himself possessed sparse desire, he might have assumed So Kihyun was the same. Just as two people who have been cleaning a chimney look at each other’s faces to guess the soot on their own, people judge others by their own standards. Since Yeonoh had no notable desires, he probably thought Kihyun was the same.

Kihyun did not bother telling such a Yeonoh how his lower abdomen hardened, how his inner thighs tightened every time he hugged him, or how much his body scent turned him on.

‘In the first place, it’s something I can just solve by myself…’

It was a possible story because Kihyun also had a sex drive that was quieter than average. Besides, forcing affection on him was already enough with that day, that confession. Kihyun didn’t want to be any greedier.

Even so, what builds up, builds up. Kihyun, who had been planning to relieve himself and sleep today, let out a low sigh as he watched Cho Yeonoh naturally head toward his apartment. Looking at the guy’s expression, it seemed he would fail to fully push him away today as well.

“…What a sly bastard. Don’t you feel like your rent is a waste? Sleeping at our house every day.”

“Why would it be a waste. It’s not like I bought it.”

“That’s why I’m asking why you’re sticking to a commoner’s humble home when you have a nice house.”

“You talk too much. Mr. So.”

When the elevator arrived at the floor where Kihyun’s house was and the doors opened, Cho Yeonoh got off immediately and answered simply. Then he strode over and typed the password into the door lock. From the time he moved in, Kihyun had entered a number he didn’t even know just for his own convenience, and that had remained as the password.