Flower Fiancé Chapter 80

Holding the USB drive in his hand, Choi Moohyuk exhaled several times before, as if resolved, plugging it into his laptop. He moved the mouse, opened the folder, and saw several backed-up video files. Click, click. With the sound of double-clicking, the video played, and Pandora’s box was opened.

Because the lights in the house hadn’t been turned on, the screen was dark, but it wasn’t complete blackness. The glow from electronic devices and the light seeping in through the windows was at least enough to make out shapes.

He rewound the footage to roughly an hour before his own arrival. The corners of Choi Moohyuk’s eyes creased and twisted as he stared at the monitor.

The audio was low, so he turned the volume up to maximum.

«Does Choi Moohyuk treat you well? Just how well does he treat you? Does he hold you without letting you sleep every night? Then your holes must be all loose by now. I hear you’re living at that bastard’s place these days?»

From the laptop came sounds of things breaking and shattering. Interspersed throughout were Lee Hyunjoon’s crude remarks. As the playback time went on, Choi Moohyuk’s expression grew terrifyingly darker.

He had managed to endure up to that point, but….

«No, does that make any sense? Does it make any sense that you get pheromone deficiency just from being drugged a little? What the fuck, what kind of top-grade omega is this fragile. You faked your phenotype test report to marry me, didn’t you? Actually, you weren’t even a top-grade omega from the start, were you?»

After hearing the faint sobbing that followed Lee Hyunjoon’s indiscriminate shouting, his patience crumbled.

“That son of a bitch….”

His gaze sharpened, and Choi Moohyuk curled the hand resting on the desk into a fist. The fist, clenched so hard his knuckles turned white, trembled violently.

Only then did he feel like he understood, even a little, why Ji Yeonwoo had wanted to get tested immediately and recover his pheromones.

‘I was a top-grade omega. It was never phenotype manipulation—I really was a top-grade omega. If only I can recover my pheromones, then….’

He had always thought it was strange. He had thought it strange that he couldn’t detect pheromones, but he had never once doubted Ji Yeonwoo’s claim of having been a top-grade omega. Yet suddenly, Ji Yeonwoo had appeared utterly broken, saying he hadn’t done anything like phenotype manipulation—and his words and actions had been puzzling. Now he finally understood why.

In the end, he couldn’t even watch the entire video and closed the window. Choi Moohyuk swept his hair back and leaned against his chair.

Rage surged within him. He wanted to find that bastard Lee Hyunjoon right this instant and tear him apart, but perhaps knowing he wouldn’t survive unscathed if caught, Lee Hyunjoon had vanished like smoke, nowhere to be seen.

But he couldn’t hide forever. He had already set underground operations in motion among Lee Hyunjoon’s associates, including his secretaries and those who frequently interacted with him, so it was only a matter of time before someone slipped up.

Closing his laptop with a loud snap, Choi Moohyuk leaned back in his chair with a tense face. He opened a drawer and took out a cigarette and a Zippo lighter. He had hardly been smoking inside the house since bringing Ji Yeonwoo in, but today, he didn’t think he could endure it.

He took out a cigarette, put it between his lips, and was just about to flick open the Zippo with his thumb when his phone, which had been sitting on the desk, vibrated. It was Park Jincheol.

He put down the cigarette and lighter, swapped them for the phone, and picked it up.

“Yeah. What’s up.”

As soon as he answered, Park Jincheol’s urgent voice came through.

[I found him.]

The expression of Choi Moohyuk, who had been listening quietly, turned cold.

It wasn’t so much anger as the face of a predator with its prey right before its eyes.

∞ ∞ ∞

“Ah, fuck. Thought I was gonna get a hole drilled in my head.”

In the most secluded room of a VIP club blaring loud music, Lee Hyunjoon spat out a low curse and rubbed his head. The spot where Ji Yeonwoo had struck him with a flowerpot still bore the stitched-up scar.

“Birds of a feather really do flock together. One’s a thug, and the other’s a thug’s lover.”

Tch, he clicked his tongue and muttered. Turning his head at a small laugh from beside him, an omega sitting pressed close gave an eye-smile and slightly lifted his shirt—a gesture begging to be held. Lee Hyunjoon stared at that vulgar gesture with an unimpressed expression, then pulled the omega’s shirt up, stuffed it into his mouth, and buried his face in his chest.

Two alphas sitting on the opposite sofa watched the scene as they drew on their cigarettes.

“So, have you given up on it now?”

Lee Hyunjoon paused while leaving marks on the omega’s chest. His swollen, unsightly face twisted.

“Give up what.”

When he pretended not to understand, the alphas chuckled. Lee Hyunjoon didn’t care whether they spoke or not and focused on heating up the omega.

“This bastard still hasn’t come to his senses, huh.”

“Are you sure it’s okay for you to be out like this? I heard Choi Moohyuk is sniffing around.”

Lee Hyunjoon, who had been ignoring them and concentrating on what he was doing, only reacted after hearing the name ‘Choi Moohyuk.’ Flinching as if having a seizure, Lee Hyunjoon pushed the omega beneath him away as if his mood had soured.

“So what do you want to know. Are you curious about how much I got beaten? Can’t you tell just by looking? Do you need to strip my clothes and see the bruise marks to be satisfied?”

Frustrated, Lee Hyunjoon shouted at the alphas. One alpha, sitting with his legs crossed haughtily, frowned and shot back.

“Why are you getting excited and throwing a fit. I wasn’t even that curious. But because you went underground, calls have been pouring in even to me. What grudge do you have against Choi Moohyuk anyway?”

“What grudge I have against that bastard—why do you care. If you called me out to buy me drinks, then just buy them quietly and fuck off. Don’t stir shit up for no reason.”

“Watch your mouth. Then why don’t you step up and meet Choi Moohyuk to settle it yourself.”

Another alpha, watching the squabble, added.

“I heard the people working under Choi Moohyuk have been meeting everyone connected to you.”

Lee Hyunjoon’s expression stiffened for an instant. Glaring at one spot with sharp eyes, he ground his teeth so hard his masseter muscles bulged.

“…I know, fuck.”

Panting while standing, Lee Hyunjoon slumped down and roughly tousled the back of his hair. He had already heard through the few remaining secretaries, including Jung Doowon. They said people working under Choi Moohyuk had been tailing them, and with the atmosphere feeling ominous, he hadn’t even been able to step out to the convenience store right in front of him.

The reason Lee Hyunjoon had finally left his house after seven days was because he had received a call from these alphas offering to buy him drinks. Had they not added that it was a VIP club where no one could barge in, he would never have come out.

Fuck, I shouldn’t have come out. I only had to hold out one more day—I should have ignored the drinks and everything else.

Normally, they would have brought omegas along to enjoy themselves too, but it was strange that they had placed an omega only next to Lee Hyunjoon while they themselves only drank and smoked. The uneasy feeling wouldn’t go away, so he pretended to sip his drink with ice, when one of the alphas spoke up.

“Speaking of which, is Choi Moohyuk really that impressive? Why is everyone so flustered?”

Then the alpha next to him answered.

“It’s notorious in this scene. They say if you get caught, you won’t even be able to retrieve your bones. That turning someone into a cripple is nothing to him. Word is his work is so clean that it doesn’t even leave a trace.”

Listening, he was reminded of his secretary Jung Doowon, who still limped around with a twisted ankle. The thought that he might have to walk with a limp for the rest of his life brushed through his mind, sending a chill down his spine.

“Frankly, I find Choi Moohyuk scarier than Chairman Choi. Sure, Chairman Choi still has his old habits of using his fists, so there’s a simplistic side to him, but Choi Moohyuk has brains on top of that. He’s quick-witted, sharp-minded, and has financial power too. He’s a headache to have as an enemy, but when he’s on your side, he actively steps up, so a lot of people follow him.”

“Wow, that much?”

“That’s not all. He’s a top-grade alpha. At that point, does it even matter that he’s the son of a courtesan’s concubine? A top-grade alpha—that alone ends the game, doesn’t it?”

The alphas exchanged glances, and their eyes turned toward Lee Hyunjoon sitting across from them.

“At this rate, that’s a caliber that can’t even be compared to someone who kicked away a top-grade omega that rolled right into his lap.”