Salt Society Chapter 78

Kihyun struggled in distress. The pheromones that had been constricting him like hooks were released in an instant. Kihyun, whose chest heaved as he took deep breaths, gradually found his stability. Until then, Cho Yeonoh said nothing.

The signs of distress settled quickly, but Kihyun had to catch his breath for a while. He also had to postpone checking the face of the silent person before him.

As things gradually settled, Kihyun lifted his head and looked at Yeonoh without wiping away the physiological tears that had pooled. Then, he could not help but open his eyes wide in surprise.

“…You, what is this.”

He asked in a mutter, out of absurdity. Both of Cho Yeonoh’s cheeks were wet with thick tears. Wherever the emotions he had been violently vomiting out had gone, tears were falling incessantly from eyes so vacant that no trace of them could be found. Kihyun blankly watched Cho Yeonoh’s eyelashes, which were soaked through with tears.

It was his first time seeing such an expression. The way he looked at him, soaked in resentment, was the same as at his commissioning ceremony. However, there was something ambiguous about calling it the exact same gaze as back then. Kihyun, who knit his brows slightly because he could not interpret the meaning embedded in the fellow’s gaze, let out a sigh.

He then reached out his arm to wipe Yeonoh’s cheek but hesitated. It was because eyes containing intense emotions, like someone who had swallowed something burning, were staring at Kihyun. The look in his eyes while watching him had been nothing but ominous for a while now. Eventually, realizing that the longer he remained silent, the more it was to his disadvantage, Kihyun opened his lips.

“…What are you trying to do.”

He was curious about how on earth the fellow had found this place, but the reactions Cho Yeonoh was showing now were even more bizarre.

Despite having dated for a long time, it had been so long since they had lived as unreservedly as any other same-sex friends that they had never exposed their crying faces to each other. If they had lived like others involved in a romantic relationship, they would have shown their crying faces to each other, but there are certain faces that are more difficult to show when you are old friends.

For that reason, Kihyun was also seeing Cho Yeonoh’s tears for the first time. He was flustered because he could not even guess the reason why the fellow was crying.

No, rather, unlike Kihyun who would shed even physiological tears when physical pain was extreme, the viciously tough Cho Yeonoh did not cry much even when they were young. There was no one who would suit the description of “having cried a lot if they had cried two or three times in their life” better than Cho Yeonoh. When such a guy suddenly looked at him with cheeks soaked in tears, Kihyun was bound to be speechless.

Furthermore, his crying face was truly strange. He knew his eyelashes were long, but every time they became wet and slightly stuck to the corners of his eyes before separating, it was strange how they veiled the gaze that was boiling like lava. As the eyes that had been bloodshot with resentment vanished behind the shadows cast by the wet eyelashes, Kihyun felt like a person who, despite knowing there was poison, became enchanted by the scent and pressed their lips to the wine glass.

To that extent, the sight of Cho Yeonoh crying stimulated something in Kihyun. Kihyun realized his Adam’s apple was bobbing as he swallowed dryly and clicked his tongue inwardly.

He thought he hadn’t felt it because Cho Yeonoh was so large, but So Kihyun originally liked faces that made him want to protect them like this. He did not know if it was a preference that developed because he had liked Cho Yeonoh for a long time, or if he liked Cho Yeonoh because he had such a preference, but the part that had been hidden by the fellow’s rough edges came into view. It felt as if Kihyun’s ideal type had appeared right before his eyes.

Kihyun felt heat rising in his neck for no reason and let out a groan. He had intended to soothe Yeonoh by asking why he was crying. However, such a resolution by Kihyun was soon weathered away. It was because his thoughts stopped at Cho Yeonoh’s next words.

“You said you need pheromones.”

“…What?”

That was what he said with a rough voice, as if his throat were completely scraped. Kihyun knit his brows. Rather than the frustration that Cho Yeonoh knew about it, he was suspicious of the intention behind the words.

Cho Yeonoh still looked at Kihyun with teardrops hanging from his cheeks. His eyes were circling with a strange heat.

“The doctor said so. That you need pheromones. That those fucking cheap supplements won’t be enough to handle it.”

“…”

“I cannot trust everything because this hospital doesn’t even seem like a hospital, but they said the blood test showed a positive reaction for pheromone supplement components. Is that right?”

The moment he heard the word supplement, the medicine he had been prescribed at the OB-GYN in town came to mind. Kihyun could not hide his fleeting expression.

And the predator named Cho Yeonoh, who had never once missed his prey, seemed to have not missed that gap. It was because the look in his eyes changed in an instant. Even though he knew that the longer he remained unable to answer, the deeper Cho Yeonoh’s suspicion would grow, Kihyun could only part his lips, unable to say anything.

Cho Yeonoh, who was staring intently at Kihyun, opened his mouth.

“…According to the doctor, the pheromones of a dominant Alpha would be better than supplements.”

“…”

Kihyun watched Cho Yeonoh’s gaze without being able to answer. He received an unpleasant feeling from the fellow’s gaze that had passed by in a flash. However, even when he searched again in the eyes he met, he could not find that feeling he had discovered.

He had returned to the usual Cho Yeonoh to the point where he wondered if he should admit it was his delusion. The usual Cho Yeonoh who looked a bit delinquent and, on one side, was full of worry for So Kihyun. Among the gazes he had seen since waking up in the emergency room, it was the most familiar. As if the fleeting feeling or even the eyes soaked in tears were all a dream, Cho Yeonoh sat still with the face of a friend worrying about So Kihyun.

“That son of a bitch, no, the person who is the baby’s father… Is it true he isn’t by your side right now?”

It was a tone of certainty despite being a question. Kihyun let out a sigh. If Cho Yeonoh asked in that way, it was certain that he knew more than what he had told Kihyun.

To the point where it was a relief that he hadn’t been caught that the baby’s father was Cho Yeonoh himself. When Kihyun remained still without any response, Cho Yeonoh, who had been watching him for a long time, spoke slowly as if whispering.

“I cannot go and leave you like this.”

“…What are you going to do.”

“I said I cannot leave you.”

When Kihyun knit his brows at those words, Cho Yeonoh, who now showed no trace of tears and sat with the face of the friend Kihyun knew so well, crossed his arms.

“Saying something twice is for emphasis. Do you understand?”

“Understand what, you son of a bitch. Do you want to lecture me in this situation?”

“The baby will hear. Watch your language.”

He was about to say, “You’re really making a scene,” but he couldn’t say the reason he shut his mouth wasn’t because of the baby. Kihyun felt like he had been caught by Cho Yeonoh and chewed on a curse. With a huff of a sigh, he asked.

“So what do you want.”

“I will give them to you, the pheromones.”

It was a statement he might have expected, but Kihyun felt a sudden throb at the back of his head. With what kind of heart did I leave that chaos? He couldn’t ask, “Would you want to bring trash you threw out back into your house?” because he could clearly picture Cho Yeonoh pryingly asking what that meant without being affected at all.

“Why you.”

In the end, all he could say was such a simple retort. What use would such a question even be to Cho Yeonoh, who was indifferent even to words intended to scrape him down? The fellow instead glanced at Kihyun with a face as if looking at the biggest idiot in the world, then spoke slowly as if explaining to a child.

“The baby’s father ran away, and they say you only ate pathetic supplements. With what thought are you even asking, Kihyun? Did your IQ drop in the meantime?”

Kihyun felt anger rising deep inside at the face looking at him pathetically with crossed arms, but then he realized this was all Cho Yeonoh’s tactic and shut his mouth tight. Cho Yeonoh pressed him as if he would not give Kihyun time to think.

“Or, are you going to beg another Alpha for pheromones? What do you think it means for an Omega to plead with an Alpha, who might turn on them at any moment, to please release some pheromones?”

“…What does it mean.”

He had a face as if asking if he was really asking because he didn’t know, but for Kihyun, he only asked because he truly didn’t know. Would it be a violation of the law if he asked another Alpha for pheromones? He had heard that for an Omega whose pheromone waves were unstable like his, an Alpha’s pheromones were the ultimate prescription…

While Kihyun, who could no longer fully trust the words of the neighborhood clinic, was stuttering through the memories of his medical examination, someone’s persistent gaze was scanning Kihyun’s cheek. Feeling something unpleasant, he tried to turn his head to check the gaze that had stuck to his cheek, but in the place he looked back, Cho Yeonoh was still sitting with his arms crossed, just looking at him with a face that said, “What should I do with this dim-witted idiot.”

“Kihyun, I will explain it once, so listen well.”

“Just say it and don’t play around. Or just shut up forever, okay?”

Because the way he spoke was so annoying, Kihyun glared at Cho Yeonoh. Cho Yeonoh, undaunted by such a gaze, gave a smirk and continued.

“Asking to release pheromones is the exact same thing as saying, ‘I want to have sex with you right now, please fuck me.’ Do you understand?”

“…You’re lying, you son of a bitch.”

How could it mean that? He was definitely looking down on him, thinking he knew nothing. Kihyun knows very well that Cho Yeonoh never misses an opportunity to tease him. It seemed this was such an occasion again.