Salt Society Chapter 75

Yesterday evening, Cho Yeonoh received word of So Kihyun’s whereabouts from a secretary other than Manager Yoo. To be precise, it was the whereabouts of Yang Jisu, not So Kihyun.

When he first heard the name Yang Jisu, it was difficult to recall at a glance. Only after rolling his brain for quite a while did he remember it was the name of a Captain or whatever who had come to visit So Kihyun’s hospital room a few years ago.

Thanks to graduating high school together, he identified every single one of his classmates, and he even knew the names of all the classmates from the Department of Physical Therapy, but he had heard the name Yang Jisu for the first time that day.

As for fruit, the only kind Kihyun didn’t eat was soft peaches, for which he went crazy, so Yeonoh had bought an armful on the way to the hospital. Yeonoh was in the middle of peeling them one by one with his short fingernails so as not to cause any bruises. Cho Yeonoh, with hands dripping with peach juice, had reached out toward Yang Jisu.

Regardless of whether a stranger had hands messy with juice, Yang Jisu had held his hand with a smiling face, saying, “This, it is a pleasure to meet you,” which caused a vein to pop on Yeonoh’s forehead. There was no particular reason. To Cho Yeonoh’s senses, there was something about Yang Jisu that was different from the things that had been by So Kihyun’s side until then. Even as a fellow Alpha, there was a subtle scent that could not be smelled from Lee Bumhee.

Therefore, he had not been pleased that So Kihyun welcomed Yang Jisu with a bright smile, even with a face slightly swollen from being administered so many painkillers and anti-inflammatories.

However, Yang Jisu soon stood up saying he had busy business, and after uttering a greeting that sounded like nothing special, he had left the hospital room.

—Contact me if it gets too hard to endure.

However, those words were extremely subtle to Cho Yeonoh. Hard? The So Kihyun that Cho Yeonoh knew was not the type of personality to show it even if he found something difficult. He was closer to a beast that simply crunched and swallowed the things that befell him and then did nothing but sleep until they were digested.

Then, Cho Yeonoh had to linger in front of So Kihyun’s cave the whole time. Because the event of So Kihyun opening his cave and inviting Cho Yeonoh to enter had never once occurred.

However, Yang Jisu was using a way of speaking that made it seem as if he had been invited into So Kihyun’s cave before. Cho Yeonoh followed Yang Jisu out just as he was. Both Alphas faced each other with the juice of a fruit that had gone into someone’s mouth messy on their hands.

—I heard Kihyun is your junior.

Even at the words he brought up while cutting out the part about having heard it that way, Yang Jisu only gave a thin smile.

—Yes. His face was very swollen; it is a relief he has a friend.

Then, he turned his back and went away before he could say anything. Only the stickiness remaining in his hand was unluckily bothersome. That was Yang Jisu’s first impression and last afterimage. But to think he would hear that name only now, after several years had passed.

It was also absurd that he had been in constant contact with So Kihyun all this time. When on earth? As far as he knew, So Kihyun always spent his time with him. In the first place, did he not even know what the time spent in the hospital was like? It was to the point of being flabbergasted that he had missed that small gap even after being so on guard.

—During that time, Mr. Yang Jisu did not make contact with the target. It seems he was in another region for a while and recently returned to the greenhouse gambling den in OO Town he was operating, where we were able to find traces of the target.

The secretary’s words were simple and clear. Cho Yeonoh stepped on the accelerator toward the address the secretary told him, leaving even Manager Yoo behind. And the sight he faced was this kind of mess.

Cho Yeonoh loosened his tie and wiped the blood off his cheek. He was in an extremely foul mood.

“This bastard says there is a separate reason why your ankle became like that.”

“…”

So Kihyun did not answer. He hadn’t expected him to tell him easily. Because it is always like that. So Kihyun always does not tell Cho Yeonoh everything. Unless he asks, he will not tell him anything.

So until now, until today when he barely found out through this goddamn situation, he must have been keeping the truth hidden. Cho Yeonoh smiled crookedly while thinking of something.

“Lee Bumhee helped you, didn’t he?”

At those words, Kihyun’s complexion turned slightly pale. What should I do with this son of a bitch. He had handed him money under the guise of setting up a hospital for So Kihyun to work at, but all the while it was as if he had only helped him prepare to stab him in the back. He gnashed his teeth, deciding that the moment he went up to Seoul, he would kill Lee Bumhee just as he was.

As if sensing that murderous intent, So Kihyun knit his brows slightly and then said with a sigh.

“It is a long time ago.”

But, Kihyun. That old matter, it is your matter. Cho Yeonoh suppressed the words that were about to burst out and killed them. The words buried in his mouth perished without even leaving a grudge behind. Instead, a sneer escaped from between his teeth.

“You’re really talking shit, aren’t you?”

Cho Yeonsin was weeping steadily. He wailed and looked for his grandfather, and sometimes he babbled insults with completely crushed pronunciation, saying he wouldn’t leave Cho Yeonoh alone. Cho Yeonoh stepped closer and stepped directly on his ankle.

“Aargh!”

“Cho Yeonoh!”

So Kihyun looks at Cho Yeonoh in shock. His ankle, which moved hesitantly, was half a beat slow just like before. As Kihyun said, it was an ankle that had been injured a long time ago.

The blood vessels in his eyes felt stiff as if they would burst, and he wanted to rush in right now and do something to anyone, but there was only one reason he was enduring. Cho Yeonoh asked with a feeling of making a concession.

“Tell me something else.”

“…”

“And what the fuck is this bullshit about being an Omega.”

He shuts his mouth again. Like a hostage, Cho Yeonoh trampled on Cho Yeonsin’s ankle once more with his booted foot. The pony hair, oak-colored wingtips did not have particularly sharp heels, but they were quite agile weapons for trampling an ankle packed with bones and ligaments. The scream Cho Yeonsin let out—”Aargh”—echoed between the greenhouses and flew away into the rural night sky.

“…My traits were converted.”

So Kihyun’s low confession caused something inside Cho Yeonoh to come crumbling down. Beneath his foot, Cho Yeonsin squirmed and let out another long, piercing scream. He hadn’t intended to apply force this time. He had simply failed to control his strength involuntarily. Because he was in a dazed state.

As if So Kihyun was disclosing it reluctantly, perhaps thinking Cho Yeonoh was threatening him again, he continued speaking.

“I am pregnant, and that is why I came down here.”

What does that mean. Tinnitus rushed into his ears. Cho Yeonoh was about to take his foot off Cho Yeonsin’s ankle but involuntarily staggered. He regained his balance, but the thoughts that had flown out caused a storm inside his head without being organized.

It was something he had heard from Cho Yeonsin earlier, but he hadn’t believed it. Because it didn’t make sense. But, that is true? Cho Yeonoh felt like a laugh was about to come out so he didn’t stop the corners of his mouth from rising, but in reality, he was shining a pale light from his eyes without a trace of laughter.

“Kihyun, did you come all the way down to the countryside to prepare for a comedian recruitment? Stop acting like a total maniac and say it again. You did what?”

The tone of Cho Yeonoh saying that was shaking miserably, contrary to his phrasing. Whether he was trying to laugh as if it were a joke, his trembling corners of the mouth soon subsided as if giving up. So Kihyun gazed at him heavily.

Despite that question, the only thought penetrating Kihyun was, why is he standing there. He let out a low sigh and spoke.

“What does that have to do with you.”

At those words, Cho Yeonoh, whose eyes had been dyed blood-red, laughed as if bursting and then replied.

“How could it… have nothing to do with me?”

Something heavy pressed down on Kihyun as if floating in the air. The drifting scent was familiar. Since it was a smell like that from the bark of a flowering tree, he realized that it was soon Cho Yeonoh’s pheromones. Only then could Kihyun know that this was the communication through pheromones spoken of between Alphas and Omegas.

…He had occasionally thought that he and the fellow lived in different worlds, and it really was so. No wonder they couldn’t understand each other and had reached this point. If he had known they were this different in the first place, he wouldn’t have made that kind of effort.

Rather than a waste of time, it weighed on his heart that he had bothered the fellow all this time. He had held onto a thing that wouldn’t work and poured in too much time and too much heart.

Kihyun looked at the sprawled-out Cho Yeonsin and the junior who was groaning and moaning while holding his ankle, and then let out another deep sigh.

“Why did you come here.”

“Kihyun, I asked first.”

The fact that his presence was becoming increasingly ferocious was to the point that his skin stung. However, as for Kihyun, he really had nothing to say. In the first place, he didn’t even know why Cho Yeonoh had come all the way down here. He had clearly said let’s break up, and he had replied let’s end the friendship. Had they not witnessed together how the relationship, which had remained as a mere shell precariously for over a decade, had completely rotted on the inside?

It didn’t seem like he came down because of me…. Kihyun glanced at Cho Yeonsin. Cho Yeonoh, whose gaze followed his, let out a hollow laugh and then kicked Cho Yeonsin just as he was.

“Aargh!”

Whether he was hit squarely in the jaw by Cho Yeonoh’s boot, the Alpha rolled over and over while groaning. It seemed he chose kicking Cho Yeonsin over kicking the wall as a vent for his anger.

Watching that, his dizziness worsened. It felt like anemia and he felt nauseous like motion sickness. When he closed and opened his eyes tightly, Cho Yeonoh was still stepping on Cho Yeonsin. There was no more hesitation than there would be in pressing down and killing a bug beneath his foot.

Finally, Cho Yeonoh, who stopped the kicking, said once again without even his breath wavering.

“…You, what else did you hide from me.”

“What.”

“Your ankle, the fact that your traits were converted, that fucked up talk about pregnancy or whatever; besides what I heard from these thugs, what else is there?”