The World of Contrasts Vol. 4 Chapter 5

“If the shock is severe, he might have another issue.”

“Fuck, then how long will he be like a living corpse…”

Seol Daeyoung’s harsh voice faded as Jaemin felt himself being sucked into somewhere. When he opened his eyes, he was back in the basement where it had been raining heavily a few days before.

“Now… Kkuk…! I can finally smell you properly, my son…”

Chairman Jang, sniffing like a beast, an unforgettable scene etched into Jaemin’s pupils. The face of Chairman Jang, laughing even as he bled and fell, soon turned into the faces of his subordinates who had assaulted him.

The faces of the minions who had bowed respectfully to him appeared and disappeared in sequence: Kim Jehyun, Seo Jinwoo, Baek Seongchan, Lee Seungjae, Kang Hyeokkwon, the bastards who couldn’t even look him in the eye, and Park Hyungoh, his father’s hunting dog, along with his son, Park Sejun.

The foul smell from these beasts writhing above him was unbearable, yet he was laughing like a madman with his face ground into the floor.

“Ha ha ha ha!”

The laughter stopped abruptly when Seol Daeyoung appeared in his sight.

Seol Daeyoung, screaming like a madman and beating them to death, his image blurred through Jaemin’s tears. And then, Jaemin’s soul slipped out. Lying on the cold floor with his lower half exposed, he saw himself looking at Daeyoung.

No, he couldn’t bear to see himself in such a horrific state.

“Huh…!”

Time skipped, and now he was in a hospital.

“Someone, please come here!”

The nurse’s shrill scream pierced his ears. Jaemin had twisted the bed sheet around his neck. In this shitty place with nothing to hang from, he had to use the bathroom door handle.

After that, the doctors removed the door from the bathroom in his private room. Those fucking bastards with no concept of human rights.

“The shock of the miscarriage was severe. That’s when the delusions started.”

Again, the idiot doctor’s words echoed. Why do doctors always say such stupid things like Hangyeol? Did I lose a child? That can’t be right. Are they all blind? Can’t they see my belly is about to burst?

“Please take good care of him.”

Seonho’s voice, fraught with concern, was heard.

“I’m sorry, Director. I’m sorry.”

Seonho kept bowing to him even though he did nothing wrong. Looking at him, Jaemin felt like laughing, asking what he was doing, so he pretended to just stare blankly out the window. Here, acting like a crazy person was somehow beneficial.

But… what if I really go crazy? What if I become a complete fool and lose even the will to commit suicide? Wait, why was I trying to kill myself in the first place?

“A letter from Korea.”

Seonho said he would come back soon and left. Only then did Jaemin turn around to look at the bed. The letter without a post office stamp indicated Seonho brought it personally.

Staring at it silently, he finally picked it up and opened the drawer. Inside, there were numerous unopened letters.

The faint scent of an alpha from within. Seol Daeyoung’s damn scent hadn’t disappeared even after crossing the sea. Why did this bastard lock me up in this prison-like place?

Pressing the letter to his nose and taking a deep breath, he finally understood why. Why Daeyoung couldn’t come to see him. Who was really imprisoned.

A hot surge of emotion swelled inside him like a snowball rolling down a hill, eventually bursting into sobs. Then came the seizure.

“Patient, come to your senses!”

He tried to grab the doctor’s coat who was running with an IV, throwing it to the ground, but his body was like a deflated inflatable doll, flailing helplessly. This is all because I’m pregnant. I’m pregnant with Seol Daeyoung’s child.

Their last sex. He must have gotten pregnant on the day he was imprinted by Seol Daeyoung. The sequence of events after being dragged by Chairman Jang. He had neither the time nor the state of mind for contraception.

Seol Daeyoung’s seed had stubbornly taken root in his body, which had been violated by those bastards, proving whose child it was just by surviving.

Even without revisiting the fact that an imprinted body can’t conceive with anyone else, it was clear whose blood gave him such indomitable spirit despite all the trampling.

“I’m pregnant…! Get your hands off me!”

“Jang Jaemin, it’s okay. It’s okay.”

Hearing the doctor’s bullshit, reality dawned on him. Oh, my child is gone now. I killed it without even knowing I was pregnant by swallowing a bunch of pills. After two days of induced labor, the conversation he had with the doctor echoed in his ears.

“It was 16 weeks. The guardian didn’t want to inform you.”

Stupid Seol Daeyoung. How long did he think he could hide it? Until my belly was about to burst?

“Are you even a doctor?”

To find out about the pregnancy through a miscarriage. There’s a limit to making someone stupid.

“We had to avoid further confusion.”

Shut up.

“…What was the gender?”

Why was he curious about that? Why did he grab the doctor by the collar to know? It must have been the hormones. The hormones still pumping from his pituitary gland, which hadn’t yet realized the child was gone, must have caused that heart-wrenching feeling.

“What was the fucking gender!”

“…It was a daughter.”

Tears streamed down from his tightly closed eyes, and with the feeling of the drug spreading, his vision went completely black.

“Huh…!”

When he opened his eyes, he was running through the snow. Why? Because someone had stormed into the hospital to kidnap him.

“You must be feeling suffocated here, Mr. Jang Jaemin.”

Jaemin nodded, and they put him in a wheelchair, switching beds to help him escape.

He followed their commands obediently, but there was a dangerous scent about them. Does one develop a sensor to distinguish friend from foe after surviving numerous brushes with death?

But it doesn’t matter. As long as he can get out of this prison-like mental hospital. And… as long as he can kill them all.

“We will deal with it at sea.”

While Jaemin pretended to be unconscious due to the anesthesia blocking his nose, he overheard their conversation.

He had expected this. There’s no one in this world he can trust, except for one person… The moment the face of someone he tried to forget but couldn’t intrudes into his mind, Jaemin bites his lip.

If it were Daeyoung, if it were that bastard Seol Daeyoung, who is skilled at making everything go his way, he would not have accepted this situation so passively.

Who’s feeding who to the fish, you fucking bastards?

“…The bathroom.”

Jaemin mutters with a groggy voice, opening his eyes slightly.

“Mr. Jang Jaemin, if you can just hold on a little longer…”

As a thin stream of warm urine soaks the sheet, the face of the bespectacled flounder-like guy next to him wrinkles. He looks familiar. Where have I seen this face? Regardless, it’s a face he feels like drowning.

“My stomach hurts, damn it.”

When Jaemin grumbles, the flounder nods to someone else. They are far from the harbor, and they don’t want the car filled with the smell of shit.

At a rest stop selling local specialties, Jaemin slowly enters the restroom where only omegas can go. He splashes his face with cold water and then presses the SOS button.

―Do you need help?

“There’s an alpha loitering outside the omega restroom… I’m too scared to come out.”

To think the day would come when he would admit out loud that he’s an omega. The pale man in the mirror twists his long lips in self-mockery.

―Yes, we will take action immediately.

With the formal voice, the call ends, and Jaemin clenches and unclenches his fist. Soon, there’s a commotion outside.

“Would you mind coming with me for a moment?”

“What’s going on?”

The lookout assigned by the flounder argues with the staff without understanding the situation. Hearing this, Jaemin kicks open the bathroom door and runs out, sprinting until his breath is in his throat.

A fierce battle ensues as people chase after him. He gets hit several times and hits back several times, but one thing is clear: he’s the winner of this dogfight.

With his lips white and cracked, he runs, and keeps running. How long was I in that mental hospital? Maybe not even a month? To be this out of breath after just a month, am I getting old? But then, snow starts falling from the sky.

Watching the gently falling snowflakes, Jaemin finally realizes that this is the second winter he’s experiencing since parting with Daeyoung.

‘You’re still amazing, Jang Jaemin.’

I never believed your words, but I always tried to hear them.

But if you saw me now, you wouldn’t be able to say the same thing to me anymore.

At the moment tears fell from Jaemin’s eyes down his dry cheeks, he saw an old red BMW driving on the highway. Who on earth drives such a car these days? Jaemin chuckled and stepped onto the road. Its terrible fuel efficiency but flashy exterior seemed to match his final moments well.

“…Are you awake now?”

Damn it. Am I not dead yet? Images flashing in snippets every time he blinks.

Blink.

“Oh, oh, what’s this!”

Mama’s shocked face along with a scream echoing in the bathroom. Ah, that voice is so annoying.

Blink.

“The omega levels are incredibly high.”

The old doctor from O-okubo. Should I cut off that tongue that speaks carelessly?

Blink.

“Yukito, I’ll call you Yukito from now on.”

Did he forget, or rather, did he want to forget?

Because he wanted to live. Like ordinary people… like a grain of sand mixed on the beach… as if nothing had happened, just to live.

In this world where Seol Daeyoung had witnessed him at his lowest, Jang Jaemin could no longer live.

✽ ✽ ✽

Daeyoung, who had returned to the living room with the doctor, suddenly stopped.

“…The patient, has he woken up…”

The doctor, who was about to rush over to Jang Jaemin sitting cross-legged on the sofa, trailed off upon seeing the kitchen knife on the table in front of him.

Even though it was just a kitchen knife that should have been in the kitchen, the atmosphere in the room was palpably tense, and it wasn’t just the doctor’s imagination.

“Would you mind stepping out for a moment?”

Tapping his crossed legs on his long knees, Daeyoung spoke in a low voice. The doctor, sensing the ominous mood, quickly left the room.

“Are you awake? How’s your condition?”

Daeyoung approached him casually. Jaemin stared at him intently. His pale face contrasted with his bright red lips, which were speckled with blood droplets from being bitten, giving off a strangely erotic look.

“Seol Daeyoung.”

As Jaemin twisted his red lips and called his name, Daeyoung felt his throat bob. The moment his existence was confirmed by Jaemin’s mouth, he got hard. It couldn’t be helped.

“Yeah, Jaemin.”

Suppressing the urge to immediately embrace him and kiss him, Daeyoung spoke in a light voice.

“I won’t say much.”

Jaemin, with a sneering smile, commanded him.

“Die. Just do it.”

His lover, who had woken up after three days, gestured to the kitchen knife on the table with his chin. When did his hair get so long? He wanted to wrap that disheveled hair on his forehead around his fingers.

“Stab yourself in the neck and die in front of me in one go.”

Jaemin’s response sounded almost cheerful, it was so crisp. Daeyoung, looking at him, moved closer and placed his hand on Jaemin’s grown-out black hair. He wanted to look into his eyes properly.

“…You’re really angry.”

In an instant, Jaemin swatted his wrist away, stood up with the knife, and grabbed Daeyoung by the collar. It happened in a matter of seconds. Indeed, Jang Jaemin with his full memory back was even sexier than he had anticipated.

“Fuck off, bastard.”

Jaemin pressed the knife against Daeyoung’s throat, his voice cracking. Now that they were close, Daeyoung could finally see Jaemin’s eyes clearly. Blood vessels spread like spiderwebs in the whites, and his pupils were swirling with fury.

“I missed you.”

He felt the sharp edge of the knife against his neck. The cold sensation dried the saliva in his mouth. Jaemin furrowed his well-shaped eyebrows at Daeyoung.

“If you can’t kill yourself, you won’t complain if I do it, right, you fucking useless bastard?”

“Kill me.”

As Daeyoung tilted his head, the blade pierced his skin, drawing dark red drops of blood.

“Kill me with your hands.”

You fucking bastard.

Jaemin ground his teeth and swung his hand in the air. The sharp feeling of the knife penetrating between the ribs made Daeyoung take a short, sharp breath.

“It would be too wasteful to kill you in one go… There’s fun in watching how your shitty face changes as I cut off your fingers and toes one by one, isn’t there?”

Feeling Jaemin’s trembling hands, Daeyoung spoke in a low voice.

“If you don’t kill me this time, you’ve failed, Jaemin.”

“This fucking bastard…!”

Just as Jaemin was about to slash his face for speaking out of turn, his wrist was twisted. The kitchen knife fell to the floor with a dull sound, and Jaemin kicked him. Dodging the blow to his vital spot, Daeyoung staggered, and Jaemin reached for the knife again.

“Huh…!”

Daeyoung’s shadow loomed over him. Jaemin smashed a vase on the table over Daeyoung’s head, but Daeyoung didn’t even flinch. The blood that flowed from his torn shirt stained Jaemin’s chest red.

“I clearly gave you a chance.”

As Daeyoung tried to kiss him, tilting his head, his face was struck hard, turning sideways. It was a solid hit. Jaemin punched his abdomen where he had been stabbed, and finally, a groan escaped from Daeyoung’s throat.

“Was it fun…?”

Straddling him, Jaemin gasped out after slapping his face again.

“You fucking bastard, was it fun playing with me…!”

He punched his well-shaped face again. Daeyoung slowly licked the inside of his mouth, savoring the bitter taste of blood as if it were a delicacy. He thought the sharp sensation felt like chewing a rose petal.

“It was fucking great. Enjoying our honeymoon life, of course.”

When Daeyoung finally spoke, Jaemin’s eyes shook with shock.

“…Ha…”

“I’ve never had such fun moments in my life, Jaemin.”

“Shut your mouth.”

It was his mistake to ask. Daeyoung looked at Jaemin, who spat through his teeth, with narrowed eyes.

“Didn’t you like it?”

Didn’t you like it?

“Those moments when you could wipe out all the shitty things from your mind and just love me, weren’t they happy?”

Weren’t they happy?

Blue veins bulged at Jaemin’s temples as he stared wide-eyed.

Memories of the past six months with him flooded his mind chaotically. Countless times they said they loved each other, had sex far more often than they confessed. With terms like “honey”, “darling”, feeling comfort in his warm body temperature… he laughed, looking into the eyes of the man who deceived him.

For a moment, it felt like someone had shoved a burning stick down his throat, but eventually, his anger surpassed its limit.

“Shut up, you bastard…!”

Jaemin, with a contorted face, started to beat him. Even as Daeyoung took the punches, his eyes, filled with that damn look, were fixed on Jaemin. Looking into those eyes, Jaemin realized one thing for sure.

He didn’t regret anything. He had always been like this since they first met. Yet, the humiliation sweeping through his body was unbearable.

“You bastard… you fucking bastard!”

The blood from the wounds pooled on the marble floor, but Jaemin’s rage only flared up like a fire doused with oil.

Grabbing Daeyoung by the collar, he pushed him against the large window. It was the first time he realized breaking the glass was impossible.

“Ha… Ha…”

He couldn’t hold back his anger. Seol Daeyoung, who had made him walk into a prison even bullets couldn’t penetrate, was indeed Jang Wonjung’s son.

“Shitty, dirty bastard…”

Jaemin, who had been stamping on him, finally picked up the knife that had been thrown to the ground. The moment he envisioned Daeyoung’s face as Chairman Jang’s, murderous intent enveloped his body. He felt like he wouldn’t be able to stop until he gouged out this bastard’s eyes.

Daeyoung didn’t move, watching him, probably thinking Jaemin couldn’t kill him.

“You fucking bastard… Ha…”

Holding the knife, Jaemin climbed on top of him, who was leaning against the panoramic window. Daeyoung, with his face a mess, spoke to him.

“Remember? The first day we came to this house, we… did it here.”

“…What kind of bullshit are you spouting now?”

It was the place where Daeyoung first embraced him upon arriving at this house. That afternoon, with the bright winter sunlight pouring in, they had made love, feeling relief that no one was around despite the open space.

“You finally looked at peace.”

“Good…”

“Don’t forget this feeling forever.”

The confession he had unintentionally let out and the words Seol Daeyoung had spoken while staring into his eyes were vivid. The coolness he felt when he pressed his flushed cheek against the glass, even the sound of a bird’s wings flapping, kicking up snowflakes.

“Before I gouge out your eyes, I have one question…”

Jaemin gasped for breath. He couldn’t not ask this one thing. The Seol Daeyoung he knew wasn’t a dumbass.

“While you were deceiving me… didn’t you expect this day would come?”

“…”

“Did you not think I’d lose my shit once I got my memory back, you bastard?”

Daeyoung’s lips, stained with blood, moved slowly. But his expression was unreadable from his messed-up face. Was he regretting it? Or feeling hollow?

“Can I tell you honestly?”

The moment the slow question came from Daeyoung’s lips, Jaemin’s eyes narrowed instantly. His instincts, honed from repeated experiences, sounded an alarm. He should have torn his mouth before he could answer, but it was too late. Daeyoung’s even teeth, stained red with blood, were bared, and his suffocating gaze licked him thoroughly.

“I was looking forward to it.”

His expression, answering that he had been looking forward to this day, was indeed that of a madman. It was the look of the bastard who had made Jaemin go crazy since they first met. Jaemin’s hand holding the knife trembled.

“I missed you.”

Facing Jaemin, who couldn’t continue his words, Daeyoung licked his lower lip. His glaring eyes fixed on Jaemin, whispering as if sharing a secret.

“Because Jang Jaemin going crazy is the sexiest thing in the world.”

“…Ha.”

A sigh, almost like a gasp, escaped from Jaemin. The breath, akin to an exclamation, soon turned into a distorted laugh. Jaemin laughed as if screaming, his face contorted.

“Ahahaha…! Hahaha!”

He was this kind of guy from the beginning. He had a knack for completely turning Jaemin’s insides out. Knowing Seol Daeyoung was this kind of psycho, why, why did I…

“Kill me like we’re having sex.”

“Ha…”

“Stab me over and over, because the feeling of being pierced by you seems like it would be so thrilling…!”

It was at that moment that the blade grazed Daeyoung’s temple. The knife, unable to pierce his eye, was blocked by the sturdy window. Blood dripped from the knife that had cut deep into Jaemin’s palm, falling onto Daeyoung’s shoulder.

“Fuck…”

Daeyoung, who had been enduring Jaemin’s beating like a piece of meat, finally exerted force. To make Jaemin drop the knife amid his convulsive laughter, Daeyoung had to crush Jaemin’s wrist.

“Huh…!”

Even with a face twisted in pain, Jaemin giggled.

“You have no… shame… you swindler bastard…”

After tearing off his shirt and cutting it into strips to stop the bleeding from Jaemin’s bloodied hand, Daeyoung’s eyes blazed with a terrifying intensity. Jaemin then realized there was a different way to make Seol Daeyoung suffer.

“What’s next after chopping off the hand? The foot, you bastard?”

“Jang Jaemin…”

“Or douse me with pheromones and rape me?”

All the composure disappeared from Daeyoung’s face, replaced by wrinkles like knife marks on his forehead. Clenching his fist until it seemed to crush, he slammed it against the blood-stained window. The threatening noise vibrated through Jaemin’s entire body, which was pressed against the glass.

“What’s different between you… and those shitty bastards who fucked me like a dog after hitting me from behind…?”

Tears streamed down Jaemin’s contorted face, wetting his red lips drawn into a curve. Daeyoung’s entire body stiffened, the tension palpable even without touching.

“Shocked face, what’s this? Ha… so fucking pissed off…?”

Jaemin glared at him, twisting his lips. To hurt his opponent, he was willing to throw himself into the mud. That was Jaemin’s nature.

“…Stop it, Jang Jaemin.”

Daeyoung barely managed to say, but Jaemin didn’t stop. He couldn’t stop.

“I want to bite your dick off. Even now, you’d probably die with a hard-on, you beast… Do you know why?”

“Ha…”

“Because the shitty blood that wanted to have sex with your son and his hole keeps pumping from your heart.”

“…I told you to shut up.”

“Seol Daeyoung, no, Director Jang Daeyoung… no, Chairman Jang!”

Daeyoung’s hand covered Jaemin’s face, more precisely, his mouth. Veins bulged on his trembling hand. Blood flowed from the wound Jaemin had inflicted earlier. Seeing him in turmoil, Jaemin felt his heart pounding.

As if to say it wasn’t him, as if all this was done for Jaemin. How could you compare me to those bastards? Daeyoung’s expression seemed to say he couldn’t forgive that, but Jaemin couldn’t forgive him either.

Jaemin decided to present the evidence right before his eyes. He hoped the shitty cameras in this house would capture the moment clearly.

“…!”

Deep wrinkles formed on Daeyoung’s forehead. It was because the pheromones emanating from Jaemin like a flood overwhelmed the smell of blood, filling his nostrils.

“Ha… Ha…”

Feeling his hand, which gripped Jaemin’s face as if clutching it, Jaemin mocked him with his now free lips.

“Feel… exactly what kind of person you are…”

Even Jaemin, covered in blood, tapping Daeyoung’s cheek with his broken hand, was a stimulus to him. Daeyoung shivered, grabbing Jaemin’s long hair. The rush of arousal was enough to make him forget the pain of being stabbed, focusing all his nerves in one spot.

“You should crush my other wrist and rape me… Daeyoung… you should fuck me… honey… huh?”

Jaemin said, tears streaming down his face. He couldn’t bear not to give him the worst. Maybe then, he would see Daeyoung commit suicide right in front of him? No? If he’s that shameless, he might start showing his true colors and treat him like a sex toy.

Then, it would be the perfect opportunity to stab his own neck in front of him.

“Jang Jaemin…”

He could feel the pheromones seeping out of Daeyoung’s body. He was trying to hold back, clenching his teeth.

“…I love you.”

Such words were useless now. So Jaemin tried to mock him. But when he saw Daeyoung trembling as he stood up, when he saw him digging into the stab wound in his abdomen, Jaemin could no longer laugh.

Seol Daeyoung gasped for breath while digging into the wound as if to pull out his intestines.

“And you know that very well.”

That fucking bastard…

Even though it was visible how his pants were bulging from arousal, Daeyoung turned away from him. Despite the overwhelming release of pheromones and the pain evident in his staggering steps, this monstrous man didn’t move as Jaemin wanted until the very end.

Bang! The door closed, only to be flung open again.

Yes, that’s right. Come here and tear me apart.

Contrary to Jaemin’s expectations, what appeared was not Daeyoung, but a doctor, shocked at the sight. For a doctor who had been summoned by the blood-covered Daeyoung, it was reasonable to be surprised at another injured person lying there.

“…Let’s look at the wound first.”

Jaemin closed his eyes, feeling both frustration and anger as blood flowed like a flood from his injured hand. If only all the blood could drain from his body, he might feel some peace.

✽ ✽ ✽

When he opened his eyes, he was in the bedroom. Jaemin looked at the familiar ceiling, closing and opening his sunken eyes deeply. Just a few days ago, this was the space where he and Seol Daeyoung had intertwined. All the comfort was gone, leaving only a dirty feeling like that of a defeated soldier.

“…”

Seeing the clean bandage on his right hand with no trace of blood, Jaemin swallowed dryly. As he tried to sit up, the clinking sound of chains grated on his eardrums.

Fucking bastard.

Noticing the handcuff on his unbroken wrist, Jaemin bit his bloodless lips. From his pale lips, red blood began to course through his whole body.

Shouldn’t the place at least be changed? After throwing him into the place where they once whispered love and then chaining his wrist, Seol Daeyoung’s twisted intentions were something Jaemin might never understand, even if he died and came back to life.

Click.

As if someone had been waiting for him to wake, the door opened, and the protagonist entered. Jaemin, glancing at the black half-circle camera installed in the corner of the bedroom ceiling, let out a hollow laugh.

He had believed Seol Daeyoung’s words that the surveillance cameras installed all over the house were for preventing intruders. He didn’t know they were to completely monitor his movements.

“Let’s eat.”

The bastard who had driven him crazy sat down in the single armchair beside the bed. Jaemin slowly scanned him from top to bottom, dressed in a shirt with an apron over it, holding a wooden tray, and finally opened his dried lips.

“Are you filming a comedy now?”

Seol Daeyoung ignored his words and placed the tray on the table. Checking the temperature of the milky beef bone soup, he brought the spoon to Jaemin’s lips, which made him nauseous. Jaemin frowned sharply.

“Take it away.”

“You need to eat, Jaemin.”

A soothing, low voice.

“I said take it away.”

A small, exasperating sigh.

“Ha… You need strength if you want to escape from me…”

Jaemin’s foot escaped the bed and thrashed through the air. It didn’t reach Daeyoung, who had stepped back, but it was enough to push away the nightstand where Daeyoung had set the tray.

The plate shattered on the marble floor, turning the food into a mess. Daeyoung, with one hand on his hip, scratched his temple with the other. After chewing on his lower lip for a moment, he looked at Jaemin with a slight, curved smile in his eyes.

“Still sturdy even after starving for days. You don’t need to worry, Jaemin.”

Jaemin’s breath grew hot and rapid.

“Take off that shitty apron before you talk, you bastard.”

“Aaah…”

“Aaah?” Jaemin raised an eyebrow at Daeyoung’s low, understanding tone. Then Daeyoung slowly blinked and asked.

“Was it this?”

“What…?”

“Was this why you got excited?”

Fuck. Fucking bastard.

Seeing Daeyoung fluttering the apron around his waist, blood rushed back to Jaemin’s face. He wanted to scream, but after using all his remaining energy with that kick, even a scream wouldn’t come out.

Jaemin trembled as he saw Daeyoung slowly approaching, wearing a denim apron like one might see on a café worker. The clinking sound from the handcuff on Jaemin’s wrist made Daeyoung smile meaningfully at him.

“You get excited just looking at my clothes.”

Despite the hot breath reaching Jaemin’s nose, Daeyoung didn’t stop.

“Because whatever I wear, it’s your perfect type.”

“No other alpha catches your eye but me.”

The moment those words, spoken by none other than himself, vividly came back to him, Jaemin couldn’t hold back any longer. He tried to hit him with his broken hand, but the moment it touched Daeyoung, an intense pain shot through his wrist, making a grating sound from his throat.

“Huh…!”

Somehow, Daeyoung had climbed on top of him, pinning his shoulders to the bed, and looked straight into Jaemin’s eyes. Seeing the eyes of this crazed man made Jaemin’s heart pound wildly against his ribs.

“…Aren’t you going to leave?”

“I missed you.”

Daeyoung’s voice seemed to crawl into Jaemin’s ear like a worm, words that could drive one mad, as if infected by an incurable disease that would kill upon infection.

“You fucking bastard…”

Jaemin’s voice trembled at the end, his teeth clenched tight. Daeyoung, fully aware of Jaemin’s shame that fueled his anger, didn’t back down.

“I missed you so much, I thought I’d die. Jang Jaemin.”

Despite his calm tone, his body pressing against Jaemin’s became as hard as a rock. Jaemin, gathering the last of his strength from the ground, spoke while looking at Daeyoung, whose lips still bore the wound from Jaemin’s punch.

“You think I can’t beat you, that’s why you’re doing this now.”

“I love you.”

Even if he were talking to someone completely deaf, it wouldn’t feel this futile.

He was always like this. While pretending to give for Jaemin’s sake, he ultimately led every situation to his own desires, which Jaemin found utterly repulsive.

“I love you even more.”

Jaemin finally exploded at Daeyoung, who completely ignored his words and spoke only what he wanted to say.

“You bastard… just die… huh!”

Daeyoung didn’t avoid Jaemin’s overflowing anger; instead, he welcomed it, swallowing it whole. As if he had been waiting for this moment, he thrust his tongue into Jaemin’s mouth, sucking on it, pouring his own heat into Jaemin’s fiery rage, making the flames consume him.

With the sound of their tongues clashing and slurping, the handcuff on the bed rattled violently. Pinned down by one shoulder, Jaemin struggled against Daeyoung, who held his chin open for a kiss, but escaping was impossible.

“Huh… Ha…!”

He tried to bite, but his jaw wouldn’t close. Worse than having to endure the tongue that was drenched in whiskey and tobacco smell with a hint of pheromones teasing his own, was the fact that his pulse started to beat strongly in his abdomen.

Daeyoung pulled away, sucking Jaemin’s lower lip so hard it seemed like he wanted to detach it from his face, then stared at him intently. Jaemin could feel Daeyoung’s hard erection between his thighs, but Daeyoung didn’t seem ashamed of it. As always, it was Jaemin who should feel the shame.

“Huh…!”

Trying to knee him in the balls only resulted in his body being pressed down harder. Daeyoung, sticking close to him, furrowed his brows and swallowed hard.

Jaemin wanted to bite into the protruding Adam’s apple that bobbed up and down. Maybe if he did, this burning pain and thirst would subside a bit.

“How can I die and leave you alone?”

Seol Daeyoung said.

“Ask for something possible, Jaemin.”

As always, he spoke unilaterally, without regard for Jaemin’s feelings. Jaemin thought there was no reason for him not to follow Daeyoung’s methods. It seemed impossible to have any kind of conversation with him anyway.

“You… should have told the truth.”

Instead of responding to his nonsense, Jaemin brought out one truth simmering from the depths of his heart.

“If you really loved me, you should have told me everything honestly, and whether I went crazy or went wild, you should have dealt with it all together, you bastard…”

Jaemin’s voice, hoarse, flowed from his red lips. Daeyoung just watched him silently, his mouth shut.

The perfectly symmetrical lips twitched subtly. Realizing it was not mockery but turmoil, Jaemin bared his sharp teeth like a beast going for a wound.

“Were you scared?”

Jaemin wanted to bite him. He thought Daeyoung needed to know how miserable he was making him.

“Was your guts that small, Seol Daeyoung… Say something. Huh?”

Finally, a low voice came from Daeyoung.

“I was happy.”

“…”

Jaemin’s tightly closed lips trembled silently.

“So I couldn’t say it.”

The heat of Daeyoung’s hand on Jaemin’s shoulder was palpable. Feeling Daeyoung’s pulse beating wildly was unpleasant. Because he could feel that his own heart was pounding against his ribs just as intensely.

“I fell completely for you, who honestly said you loved me, held me, and laughed loudly. I couldn’t get out of it.”

A faint self-mockery spread in Daeyoung’s words, and Jaemin felt like someone was roughly grabbing his hair. At the same time, an inexplicable, dirty feeling invaded his mind. Recalling himself, wagging his tail like a fool for Seol Daeyoung, gave him goosebumps.

So now, Seol Daeyoung was saying that he was happy with the time he spent with the Jaemin who had lost his memory. That he fell for a different persona, Yukito, rather than Jang Jaemin.

How can you say such things to me? What rose within Jaemin was a sense of betrayal he hadn’t even recognized. Because the Seol Daeyoung he knew never once turned his eyes to anything other than ‘Jang Jaemin.’

“…That wasn’t me, you idiot.”

Daeyoung narrowed his deep-set eyes. Thinking he might not have understood, Jaemin spat out again.

“You’re saying you fell for an idiot, not me, with your own mouth…!”

“…”

Some emotions become more certain once spoken aloud. Watching Daeyoung’s thick eyebrows slowly rise as he silently looked at him, Jaemin immediately realized what mistake he had made.

Even if he were to confess loudly in the middle of Gwanghwamun Square, it wouldn’t be more humiliating than this.

“Aah…”

A disturbing voice lazily flowed from Daeyoung’s throat.

It was natural for his eyes to gleam oddly. After all, he had just witnessed Jaemin, driven mad with jealousy over his own lost memories. Jaemin couldn’t blame anyone but himself for this display. His intelligence had clearly plummeted along with his sanity.

“Ha… Fuck…”

Daeyoung briefly met Jaemin’s red, trembling eyes glaring at him. Just as Daeyoung was about to break the shameful silence, Jaemin hurriedly shook his head.

“Don’t say anything.”

“He was your substitute.”

Daeyoung, holding Jaemin’s now sharper jaw, turned it towards him and spoke clearly.

“…What?”

Though Jaemin retorted in disbelief, Daeyoung didn’t laugh. He just added with a serious expression.

“A doll with your face, smiling.”

Jaemin’s heart beat wildly, at a different pace than before. What was clear was that Daeyoung’s response made him feel even shittier. Seeing the blood vessels burst in Jaemin’s red eyes, Daeyoung drove the point home.

“To put it more bluntly, a stupid fuck toy that looked exactly like Jang Jaemin.”

“You bastard… you fucking bastard!”

Finally, as Jaemin struggled, blood burst from his palm, soaking the bandage red once again. Daeyoung clicked his tongue, making a shallow tsk sound.

Seeing that, the urge to kill rose instinctively within Jaemin. As he rattled the handcuff on his other wrist fiercely, Daeyoung interlocked his fingers with Jaemin’s to stop him and spoke in a low voice.

“It wasn’t you, was it?”

Heat transferred from his large hand, which gripped Jaemin’s so tightly it felt like the joints might break.

“…Hey.”

Daeyoung stared intently into his trembling eyes. His gaze, like looking through a microscope, always made Jaemin feel naked.

“The idiot who confessed love to me every day wasn’t you. So why are you angry?”

…Fucking bastard. This is why Jaemin hated Seol Daeyoung.

Jaemin ground his teeth. Daeyoung always made him fall into a paradox. He forced Jaemin to realize an undeniable fact: even in this shitty situation, he was just an omega enslaved by his emotions for Daeyoung.

And to top it off, this cruel alpha needed to confirm that fact in front of him to be satisfied. From the first moment they clashed in the classroom to now, Seol Daeyoung’s perverted nature hadn’t changed.

And Jaemin, for the first time, thought that perhaps his method of dealing with him might have been wrong. His long, trembling eyelashes slowly lowered and then finally lifted.

“Could you let me go?”

Jaemin exhaled a deep sigh, speaking with a voice devoid of strength. Although he opened his mouth with a feeling as if his whole body was being burned black, Seol Daeyoung didn’t move an inch.

“Let me go… please.”

“…”

“Please.”

It took a long time to utter those two whispered syllables, and Daeyoung remained silent longer than Jaemin had hesitated. Then, he finally parted his dry lips.

“…You know I can’t do that.”

The odd light that had swept through Daeyoung’s eyes was gone, replaced by his characteristic composure. Looking into his fortress-like eyes, Jaemin suppressed himself, knowing that this would be the last time he’d appeal to Daeyoung’s sympathy.

“You… make me miserable.”

His voice trembled, contrary to his will. But he thought this might be for the better.

“You… make it so I can’t love myself, you bastard.”

“Cut the bullshit, fuck.”

A voice so sharp it sounded cruel came from Daeyoung. It was the first time Jaemin had seen his true face behind the facade of nonchalance, but unfortunately, it wasn’t a good sign for him.

Jaemin, feeling sticky sweat in the hand Daeyoung held, barely managed to speak.

“I’m being honest with you right now.”

“…Ha.”

Daeyoung let out a low, mocking laugh while looking at him. His perfectly symmetrical lips twisted as if chewed, then he raised his deep eyes. And like a venomous snake testing Jaemin, he whispered.

“It’s refreshing, Jaemin.”

…Fucking bastard.

“If you’re going to be honest, you should lay it all out.”

A faint killing intent passed through Jaemin’s now black eyes, which had seemed like ashes. Watching Jaemin with clenched teeth, Daeyoung continued.

“Then maybe I’ll give it a slight reconsideration.”

Jaemin’s eyes, with their whites expanding, lowered the temperature of his gaze. He didn’t think he’d fall for it so easily, but instead, it seemed to provoke him, which was typical of Seol Daeyoung. Jaemin decided he would do whatever this dog-like alpha, who had grasped and shaken his very soul, wanted.

“Being next to you makes me want to kill myself. No, just thinking about you makes me want to die.”

When Jaemin spoke honestly, with the feeling of baring his heart, Daeyoung paused for a moment.

“Don’t you know? How many times I attempted suicide in the psychiatric hospital?”

Reading emotions from Daeyoung’s face, which looked at him with its perfect, statue-like features, was impossible. But Jaemin couldn’t stop. This was his last chance to give something back to Daeyoung.

“Ultimately, erasing you completely from my life was my choice.”

“…”

“I… become unhappy when I’m with you.”

Jaemin gambled on the slightest bit of humanity Daeyoung had, or rather, on the pride that seemed like it could never be sullied even if smeared with filth.

He thought that if Daeyoung truly loved him as he claimed, he might be able to let him go. That bastard who committed the marking murder was nothing but low-grade trash not even worth mentioning, so whether marked or not, he could send him off with his own hands.

Because Seol Daeyoung was that kind of person, young Jang Jaemin had fallen for him without any chance to resist.

“Jang Jaemin.”

Finally, Daeyoung spoke in a choked voice.

“I understand how you feel. And what you mean by those words.”

Bastard, what do you know?

“I… know you well enough to mimic you if I wanted to.”

Maybe even better than you know yourself.

Daeyoung’s eyes went slightly out of focus as he added this like a monologue. Jaemin felt the heat rise to his face again, his nose stinging. Shit. Were the screws in his head still loose?

“Jaemin, you…”

Before he could say it would be better if he just shut up, Daeyoung spoke.

“You love me so much you can’t bear it.”

“…Get lost.”

Jaemin finally turned his face away. He wasn’t in a situation to be swayed by Seol Daeyoung’s gaslighting. So why was his stomach churning like an idiot? Daeyoung followed his gaze to the end.

“I’m telling you, I’m fine.”

Daeyoung muttered, his eyebrows deeply furrowed as he looked at him. Jaemin barely managed to feign nonchalance with a frown.

“What the hell is fine about this, you crazy bastard?”

“The day that drives you mad.”

“…”

For a moment, Jaemin’s expression hardened. His lips twisted next. A faint sneer escaped from his red lips. A cold wind blew through his mind, bringing back the sensation of his face being pressed against the cement floor.

“Those things are meaningless to me loving you, Jaemin.”

There was no tremor in Daeyoung’s eyes or his voice.

“Ha…”

Tears finally welled up in Jaemin’s elongated eyes. He hated how Daeyoung shoved the truth he didn’t want to acknowledge right in front of his face. The more honest he got, the more he felt defeated. Daeyoung’s bare truth, like his naked body stripped of all pretense, made Jaemin feel suffocated.

“I’ll do everything you want.”

Daeyoung’s beast-like eyes glared at Jaemin as if to devour him.

“If you want me to kill all the humans who know about it except for you and me, I’ll gladly do so.”

Daeyoung’s mad eyes showed he was speaking the utmost truth. Several had already been butchered by his hands, and just days ago, he had cut the long thread of life of his own father. Jaemin had finished them off, but it was Seol Daeyoung who had bound their hands and offered them to Jaemin.

“…Does killing all those people erase the fact that it happened?”

Jaemin’s voice was barely audible when he finally spoke. Daeyoung looked at him with his perfect features twisted, with an expression that seemed to say he was the one in pain.

“…Then shall I burn your mind once more?”

Of course, without pain.

At his added words, Jaemin let out a sigh that could be either a laugh or a sob. Jaemin’s black eyes, looking at Daeyoung, shimmered with moisture.

“I can start anew with you over and over.”

Daeyoung’s chest swelled firmly, warming his breath.

Jang Jaemin’s obsession. He knew better than anyone what his beloved couldn’t bear the most. Originally, that winter when Jang Jaemin was torn apart, he should have been by Jaemin’s side to fix it.

It might have taken years, maybe even a lifetime, but Daeyoung would have pieced him back together without giving up. Because the fact that Jang Jaemin was a masterpiece remained unchanged.

“Can’t you understand, you idiot?”

Jaemin said, tears streaming down his face. His voice couldn’t have been more sincere.

“I… don’t want to do that.”

“…”

“I want to end it with you, please.”

“I told you to shut up with your bullshit….”

In the end, Daeyoung gritted his teeth at Jaemin, who uttered the forbidden words. His patience, which he thought had been honed over the long time since Jaemin’s disappearance, evaporated like smoke in front of an omega begging for separation while shedding tears.

“You should admit it now.”

With his nose and lips turning bright red, Jaemin whispered in a subdued voice. We can’t be together.

“If you don’t want to die, I’ll die instead. But let me decide the ending of my life…”

Jaemin’s words abruptly cut off. It was because the pheromones from Daeyoung were pouring out.

“…You… right now…”

Jaemin’s face crumpled instantly, his expression one of disbelief. Jaemin realized another fact he hadn’t been aware of: he had been convinced that Seol Daeyoung would never force himself on him.

“Jaemin.”

Daeyoung called his name in a low voice. Jaemin struggled with another wave of self-loathing, but he couldn’t move as the pheromones enveloped his body like a shroud. The realization that the shackles Seol Daeyoung had put on him were mere formalities struck him with another wave of self-loathing.

“Why do you think I marked you?”

Hearing his gentle voice, Jaemin felt goosebumps on his neck. The place where Daeyoung had bitten him long ago seemed to burn.

“To say goodbye with a ‘hello’ and then let you go with an ‘okay’?”

“…Stop, please stop, please… Hik…!”

“Fuck, you’re so cute, damn…”

Daeyoung let out a snort, then lifted his waist and thrust down deeply. With a thud, as their bodies collided, Jaemin’s waist involuntarily arched upward. The sensation was like electricity zapping up his spine, stopping his breath with a sharp intake.

“What’s the problem when I say I love you?”

Daeyoung asked in a terrifyingly gentle voice, like someone who had lost his sanity. Jaemin shook his head vigorously, his cheeks flushing under the influence of Daeyoung’s pheromones sticking to his body. Inside his thin pants, his erect member drooled with shame, oblivious.

“Fuck, you bastard, hah…! Stop…!”

“You need to be disciplined, Jaemin.”

With Jaemin’s arms fully restrained, Daeyoung used his knee like a weapon to spread Jaemin’s thighs. Inside there, Daeyoung’s erect member thrust in with a thud, stimulating Jaemin’s perineum. Jaemin clenched his eyes shut, but he couldn’t stop the blood-rushed hole from gaping.

“Don’t get excited while getting slapped. Ha… I’m hitting you right now, Jang Jaemin.”

Jaemin wanted to rip apart Seol Daeyoung’s vocal cords for his reckless talking. The man who staged a scene more humiliating than being bent over and fucked was beyond Jaemin’s comprehension.

“If you don’t want to have sex with me right now, you should control your pheromones properly.”

“Hah…! Shit, huh…!”

“Well… it must feel good, though.”

Daeyoung breathed heavily as he watched Jaemin struggle not to moan, clenching his teeth.

“We always did best when we fought and fucked, didn’t we?”

“That… hik…! Ah, stop… hah…!”

Before he even thrust ten times, hot semen spurted from Jaemin’s tip. It was an ejaculation he couldn’t control with willpower alone.

“Look at this.”

As the thick pheromone-laden semen stained his pants stickily, Daeyoung licked his lips with a smirk. Then, he took off the apron draped over him and covered Jaemin’s face with it, pushing it in.

It was rather a relief for Jaemin, who didn’t want Daeyoung to see him panting. The next moment, he couldn’t bear to look at Seol Daeyoung’s face filled with satisfaction.

“Hik…! Hah…!”

With his nose buried in the cloth soaked with Seol Daeyoung’s scent, Jaemin shuddered, his knees trembling.

“It’s not over yet.”

Daeyoung grunted again, thrusting into Jaemin’s hips with a thud. Each time Daeyoung’s hard member pressed against Jaemin’s gaping hole, it felt like being punched with a large fist.

As love juice trickled from the itchy hole, Jaemin burrowed his head into the bed sheets, trembling with self-loathing. He was mortified by how he was being manipulated by this insane man, ultimately releasing pheromones.

“We are a perfect match because of this, Jaemin.”

Every time he tried to tell him to shut up, only moans that sounded like sobs escaped. The bed frame creaked sharply, bearing the brunt of Daeyoung’s thrusts. Jaemin could only mock himself as his hole opened and closed, seemingly yearning for more penetration.

“Let’s take ten more… ha… hits.”

The ten hits Daeyoung spoke of turned into twenty, then thirty. Seol Daeyoung’s brutal humping, like a blindfolded bull charging, continued long after Jaemin had ejaculated again, thoroughly soaking his pants, until it finally ended.

“…Are you even human?”

Jaemin, his face buried in his waistband, looked down at Seol Daeyoung, who was breathing heavily as if enjoying an afterglow, and muttered in a hoarse voice. Daeyoung’s broad shoulders seemed to stiffen. Next, Daeyoung’s hot breath was felt through the wet pants.

“…”

Daeyoung shook his head slightly, looking at him with deep eyes, then took Jaemin’s cock deep into his mouth. Pressure spread through the sack that had gone limp after two ejaculations, and then sharp teeth grazed it.

Jaemin froze, unable to move. Seol Daeyoung was looking at him with eyes that seemed like they might bite off his cock right there.

Goosebumps rose on Jaemin’s neck, but he didn’t want to retreat. Or rather, he couldn’t retreat. Glaring at the man who had admitted he wasn’t human, Jaemin spat out between his teeth.

“Bark, you bastard.”

Daeyoung, with Jaemin’s cock in his mouth, finally lifted his head and gave a faint smile. And then he barked.

“I love you.”