Salt Society Chapter 76

There is much I have hidden. If you were to ask where the deception began, I could answer that it started from when you and I slept together, but I kept my mouth shut. It was because I was in a state of not understanding why he was asking me such questions.

The two of them had broken up. Quite a few times. Cho Yeonoh had gone beyond acting as if he couldn’t accept it and had even come looking for him at the Ilsan villa, but Kihyun assumed everything had been severed when he came down here. Because there was no way Cho Yeonoh would forgive So Kihyun for leaving him behind again.

When he fled to this place, Kihyun thought that the connection between Cho Yeonoh and himself was now surely erased. Because given Cho Yeonoh’s personality, which offered no second pardons, it didn’t seem like he would go easy on him like he did when they were young. Besides, hadn’t he left this time without so much as a single excuse?

Because of that, the only emotion Kihyun felt now, having suddenly encountered Cho Yeonoh in an unexpected place, was a vague nausea over the fact that his pregnancy had been discovered. After all, he had wanted to keep the matter of the child a secret until birth, and even after birth.

That was also a form of consideration in So Kihyun’s own way. The Cho Yeonoh that So Kihyun knew would not be able to endure the fact that he had slept with a friend who was a Beta and even conceived a child. Thinking about it after leaving, during their seven years together, Kihyun was the only one who thought of the other as a lover, while Cho Yeonoh had always treated So Kihyun as a friend. Cho Yeonoh, who had a clear boundary between affection and friendship, might find it disgusting that he had gotten So Kihyun pregnant with his child.

He didn’t particularly want a child who hadn’t even been born yet to be treated that way. The child would grow up fine without Cho Yeonoh. He felt sorry for taking away one of the two parents the child would have naturally had, but Kihyun truly had confidence that he could raise the child well.

And in the first place….

“I do not know why I have to tell you all of that.”

…What reason was there for him to be honest with Cho Yeonoh?

It has been seven long years. He knows that the fellow also made an effort. But on the other hand, Cho Yeonoh held Kihyun’s emotions hostage as if to tell him to see how it feels. He wasn’t saying he had done well, but Kihyun thought it was fair because there was give and take. That was why he hadn’t endlessly poured out words of resentment toward Cho Yeonoh even as he left.

Rather, Cho Yeonoh’s attitude was baffling. He couldn’t understand it because the fellow seemed to be feeling wronged toward Kihyun like someone who had been robbed of something. I thought we were equally bad for each other. Kihyun asked again with a furrowed brow.

“You said we should break up.”

“…”

“We broke up. How many more times do I have to say this.”

He blurted it out without even caring that he should watch his words in front of Cho Yeonsin. He thought it wouldn’t be bad if Cho Gyudeok found out through Cho Yeonsin that the relationship between him and Cho Yeonoh was completely over.

While he was thinking those thoughts, Cho Yeonoh just stared at him blankly with an expression of incomprehension.

“…So, what you are saying is…”

“…”

“…That I do not even have the right to ask you something like this?”

It was a voice that sounded hollow. He hadn’t put it quite like that, but the meaning was the same. Kihyun scanned the area near the hollow of Cho Yeonoh’s cheek, which seemed to have lost weight, before realizing it was meaningless and stopping even that.

“I said it clearly last time, too. I thought you would have understood even if you ignored my words, but was I wrong?”

At those cutting words, Cho Yeonoh, who had been standing there like a stone statue rooted to the spot, strode toward Kihyun. As Cho Yeonoh approached him, Kihyun almost reached out to grab him involuntarily. The pheromones coming from Cho Yeonoh were pulling at him.

Since even that was an unfamiliar impulse, Kihyun felt a sense of alienation instead. Only then did he realize that he had packed Cho Yeonoh’s things from the Seoul apartment not out of necessity, but out of a sense of satisfaction.

And as if in response to that thought, Cho Yeonoh reached out and grabbed Kihyun’s wrist. A burning sense of exhilaration overflowed from the skin where they touched. Kihyun couldn’t help but feel that something inside him was rejoicing. It was disgusting.

“Ugh…!”

The psychological rejection manifested immediately as a physical reaction. Kihyun raised his free hand and covered his mouth. Far from being nauseated, he actually wanted to touch Cho Yeonoh, and he hated that uncontrollably. It felt more unbearable now than when he felt his heart stirring upon seeing Cho Yeonoh, who had come all the way here.

“You…”

Cho Yeonoh muttered something. Since he was bent over, he couldn’t check what the fellow’s expression was. Kihyun felt as if his eyes were rolling back. He cradled his lower abdomen with the hand that had been covering his mouth. He couldn’t stop his knees from suddenly giving way.

“I, something is strange…”

Muttering that was all Kihyun could do.

What did I leave behind? Kihyun looked back, but he couldn’t see anything. In the end, he had no choice but to just keep walking again. Then, his eyes stung from the brightness, and he frowned. As soon as he realized that the light was from the emergency room ceiling, the surrounding noise came rushing in.

“…”

So, why did I come here? Kihyun stared at the ceiling tiles and blankly retraced the moments before he lost consciousness. Then he realized that the area near the thigh of his uninjured leg felt heavy. Looking down to see what it was, Cho Yeonoh was sitting blankly with his head bowed and his forehead pressed against Kihyun’s thigh.

A sigh escaped him. Because he felt like he knew why he was acting that way. Kihyun thought for a moment, and then soon gave up. He felt as if he had been peaceful for a short time, only to realize he had to go back into the mire. Cho Yeonoh did not look like he had any intention of leaving So Kihyun here alone and going back up. It was something he could feel just by looking at his profile.

“…Why didn’t you tell me it was those sons of bitches who did that.”

And just as So Kihyun had realized Cho Yeonoh’s presence, Cho Yeonoh also seemed to know that Kihyun was awake. At that mutter, Kihyun’s heart felt heavy. Among the things Cho Yeonoh had pressed him about next to the greenhouse, that was the only thing he felt sorry about. Although he had hidden and withheld many things, that was what he felt most sorry for.

“Because I knew you would throw a fit like this. Look at you earlier, beating a person like a butcher and losing your mind. You looked like you had rabies.”

At Kihyun’s words, Cho Yeonoh let out a smirk. It was a smile where only the corners of the mouth were slightly raised. Since he still had his forehead buried in Kihyun’s thigh, he didn’t know what the look in his eyes was like, but Kihyun could tell that it was just a meaningless laugh.

“…Even knowing that, you didn’t tell me. You out-of-your-mind bastard.”

Cho Yeonoh let out the words like a sigh and then straightened his head from where it was bowed. He looked straight ahead without even glancing toward Kihyun. His profile with his arms crossed looked hollow. He hadn’t even looked directly at his empty gaze, but he couldn’t help but feel that way. Kihyun suppressed a slow sigh.

“Then it must have been fucking hilarious watching me throw a fit next to you all this time, wondering when on earth that pathetic ankle of yours would heal?”

Kihyun caught his breath for a moment. Then he answered without expression.

“Yeah. It was fucking hilarious and I was grateful.”

Hearing those words, Cho Yeonoh turned his head and looked at Kihyun. His eyes were smoldering with something pooled deep inside. It seemed like resentment, or perhaps something more delicate than that…. Kihyun thought it felt like it had been quite a long time since he had seen eyes that said so much.

“You really are a son of a bitch.”

Cho Yeonoh said in a low voice. His voice was poor, as if his throat were constricted.

Kihyun nodded slowly. I guess so. I do not know why we are both like this to each other. Right? He simply held those words back.

Cho Yeonoh seemed to be choosing the words he wanted to say. His masseter muscle, prominent from clenching his jaw tightly, was asking Kihyun something. An unknown sign hovered over his profile, which looked as if he were constantly retracing words that refused to come out. Kihyun just turned his head away.

Looking at the size of the emergency room, which wasn’t that large, it seemed to be a secondary general hospital nearby rather than one in the metropolitan area, so Kihyun also waited in silence. As long as he hadn’t been brought up to Seoul while he was unconscious, it seemed like it would be fine.

He wanted to ask what happened to Cho Yeonsin or the junior, but his body had been strangely languid for a while now. He was gradually realizing that it was the result of relaxing in response to Cho Yeonoh’s pheromones. It was the moment he let out a troubled sigh, feeling heat rising in his cheeks.

“…You.”

Cho Yeonoh finally managed to open his mouth. I know what he wants to ask. Kihyun naturally turned his head as the fellow’s gaze moved toward him.

“What do you mean by… becoming an Omega.”

It was a voice unlike him. Just like earlier.

Kihyun had no choice but to look back at Yeonoh again, curling his lips inward. Their gazes collided in midair. Kihyun found it unexpected that Yeonoh had such desperate eyes. Because of that, the words wouldn’t come out readily. In the meantime, the fellow continued.

“If you became an Omega…”

If I did, then what. A shrill question surfaced on its own. Kihyun continued to keep his mouth shut, but the moment he heard those words, he felt as if something was going to burst inside his chest.

“…The doctor said earlier… that you are pregnant…”

Cho Yeonoh, unlike his usual self, could not continue his sentence. He covered his mouth with his palm and looked away from Kihyun to take a deep breath. Every time the fellow inhaled, his latissimus dorsi muscles wrapped in his shirt could be seen heaving greatly, which was strange.

“Whose baby is it.”

Then, having finally made up his mind, Cho Yeonoh faced Kihyun with a clear gaze. Their eyes met before he knew it.