Chapter 8: You Said You’d Do Anything

With his low voice, the grip on Go Ha-jin’s cheek slowly tightened.

It wasn’t strong yet, but it was more than enough to snap Ha-jin’s dazed mind back into focus.

“…P-please… h-hic… spare me…”

Maybe he’d been too shocked, hiccups burst out of his open mouth.

He didn’t even have time to process what was happening.

One thing was clear, though: while trying to escape Chae Woo-seok, he’d been caught again before even reaching his destination.

“It’s my fault for not warning you properly beforehand.”

Woo-seok gently stroked Ha-jin’s cheek again and again.

His gaze never wavered from Ha-jin’s eyes, while his left hand moved mechanically as he exhaled cigarette smoke.

Watching those relaxed motions, Ha-jin thought: He’s definitely deciding how to kill me right now.

Judging by the darkness swallowing his expression, it didn’t feel like an exaggeration.

“N-no! No-! W-wait, just wait a second!”

As if he’d made up his mind, Woo-seok opened the car door and grabbed Ha-jin’s wrist, dragging him out.

Ha-jin dug his heels in, clawing at the seat with whatever he could grab, but it was nothing more than useless resistance against the man’s strength.

“Hah. Fresh air really is nice.”

“…”

Woo-seok shrugged off his neatly tailored suit jacket and tossed it carelessly onto the taxi.

With the shortened cigarette still between his lips, he rolled up the sleeves of his white shirt.

The scene looked straight out of a movie, a brutal gangster preparing to bury his victim in the mountains.

“Don’t overthink it. If you want to live even a little longer.”

“…Hic…”

How did he know?

While Woo-seok looked away, Ha-jin briefly wondered if he could make a run for it.

A man in dress shoes, someone who’d clearly grown up sheltered, surely couldn’t navigate a rough mountain path well.

Unlike Woo-seok, Ha-jin had crossed mountains like this countless times.

The last time he’d been dropped near the tunnel, he hadn’t even waited for another car, he’d crossed the mountain and walked home.

“I may look like this, but I’m still a dominant alpha.”

The moment Ha-jin realized his thoughts had been read, he gave up.

As Woo-seok said, in front of a dominant alpha, other traits were nothing more than bite-sized prey.

If Woo-seok really tried, he’d probably outrun most birds.

“B-but… hic…”

“What.”

The constant hiccups only made Ha-jin look more pitiful.

Even so, Woo-seok showed no sign of softening.

“You said… if I want to live even a little longer…?”

Those were Woo-seok’s words.

If you want to live even a little longer.

Didn’t that mean he’d die either way?

“Isn’t that obvious? I hate it most when people break promises.”

Woo-seok dropped the cigarette butt at his feet and ground it into the dirt with his shoe.

Watching it disappear into the soil, Ha-jin was struck by a chilling thought that this might be his own future.

“Do you know where we are?”

“…I don’t want to know….”

“You’ve probably heard the story. About the omega serial killer.”

Woo-seok suddenly stepped closer.

Ha-jin staggered backward, too startled to even think about running, until his back hit the taxi and blocked his escape.

“W-why are you bringing that up now…?”

Woo-seok slid his knee between Ha-jin’s legs, closing the distance until their bodies nearly touched.

Then, like he was soothing a frightened child, he cupped the back of Ha-jin’s head and pulled him close, whispering into his ear.

“The tunnel last time was where the twelfth victim was found. And this place… makes thirteen.”

At the soft voice seeping into his ear, Ha-jin’s legs completely gave out.

It didn’t sound like a lie.

He nearly collapsed, but Woo-seok was faster, catching him around the waist and holding him up.

“T-that’s… a joke, right? It’s still only twelve… right?”

He couldn’t even think to push him away.

He didn’t even realize he was half cradled in Woo-seok’s arms.

Even his own voice sounded unfamiliar, like it belonged to someone else.

When was the last time he’d spoken with emotions this raw?

He couldn’t remember.

Fear, pure, unfiltered fear, filled his voice.

“Who knows. That’s just your wishful thinking.”

In contrast, Woo-seok was struggling to suppress his laughter.

The omega, no, the con artist, who’d always been acting turned out to be far more terrified than expected.

Woo-seok had anticipated that Ha-jin would try to run.

That was why he’d planted a lookout disguised as a taxi outside the building.

True to expectations, Ha-jin made his move within an hour.

The moment he got into the taxi, Woo-seok was notified, and redirected the car, not to Incheon Airport, but to the mountains of Gyeonggi Province.

“I don’t give people a second chance.”

Originally, he’d only planned to scare Ha-jin enough to ensure he’d never run again.

But seeing Ha-jin far more frightened than expected stirred something mischievous in him.

Maybe it was that face, ever since their first meeting, it had provoked a sadistic urge in him.

The wildly shaking eyes, the expressions stripped of all pretense, it was too amusing to stop.

“I’ll do it!”

Ha-jin suddenly shouted, as if he’d reached a decision on his own.

“Do what?”

“Anything-anything you tell me to! I-I won’t run… I won’t ever run again!”

That had always been Woo-seok’s intention.

He never planned to let Ha-jin escape again, and he’d intended to use him however he saw fit.

But he wanted one more thing, certainty.

Certainty that Ha-jin would keep his secrets.

He was interesting, sure, but at his core, he was still a con artist.

“You’d better engrave this into your mind. If you run even once more, you’ll never walk on two legs again.”

Adding just a hint more sharpness to his voice, Woo-seok felt Ha-jin’s weight slump heavier in his arms.

Looks like his legs had completely given out.

How did someone this weak-nerved even manage to scam people?

The thought crossed his mind.

“Yes… yes…”

One thing was certain.

The con artist in front of him wouldn’t try to run again.

And if, by some one-in-a-thousand chance, he did, Woo-seok had no intention of giving him another opportunity.

That was all Ha-jin was worth.

Terrified though he was, he was sharp enough to understand that much.

****

“Get in.”

It was his second time returning home that day.

Even without Woo-seok’s command, Ha-jin desperately wanted to sit anywhere at all.

Though he’d done nothing physically demanding, the stress had drained him completely.

“W-where… is this?”

But the place Woo-seok led him to wasn’t somewhere he could easily sit down.

“You know it well enough. This is Ritz Forest, the place you said you lived.”

“Well… I mean, I know that, but…”

It was on a completely different level from the place he’d visited with the realtor under false pretenses.

He wondered if it was even the same building.

The ceiling was so high he had to tilt his head back to see it, and beyond the massive windows, the Han River glittered under the city lights.

And the size, absurdly spacious.

“Sit down first.”

The sofa Woo-seok settled into was another matter entirely.

Cream-colored, unmistakably genuine leather, big enough that five adults could lie down on it.

The house was minimalist, but every piece of furniture screamed luxury.

Ha-jin had never owned things like this, but he had an instinctive eye for expensive items.

“You made such a big show of it. Shouldn’t you be living in a place like this?”

“…Me?”

“Who else? You didn’t think I meant myself, did you?”

“You’re saying… I should live here? Me?”

He scanned the apartment again.

Come to think of it, it suited him.

Simple. Elegant. Exactly the kind of place he’d always wanted.

Right, if he were a chaebol heir, this was how he should live.

“But… what exactly are you planning to make me do?”

He couldn’t enjoy it wholeheartedly.

If Woo-seok was offering a place like this, whatever he wanted in return could be far worse, and completely outside the bounds of common sense.

“Where did that resolve from earlier go?”

“…What do you mean?”

“You said you’d do anything. Crying and all.”

“I-I wasn’t crying!”

Look at this bastard, making things up.

He’d been threatened with death by what might be a serial killer in the middle of a deserted forest.

Anyone would say anything to survive.

No matter how miserable his life was, he wasn’t ready to end it yet.

“You were. Guess you didn’t notice.”

Fine, his eyes might’ve watered a little from the cold.

Purely physiological.

He swallowed the retort.

He really wanted to punch that smug face, but he didn’t have the nerve to deal with the consequences.

“Haa… so what do you want me to do, exactly?”

“I already told you. Are you slower than you look?”

“Don’t tell me… you seriously mean marriage?”

“Why not?”

The casual way he said it knocked the wind out of Ha-jin.

The straight brows, the unnaturally dark eyes, the sharp nose, the pretty lips that didn’t match his severe face, none of it looked like a lie.

“I just don’t get it… why would you marry me?”

“You don’t need to know.”

“I’m not even a dominant omega.”

“I know. I’m not forgetful like someone else.”

“…”

I want to kill him.

“No, I mean, why marry someone like me who can’t even have kids? If you’re going to marry, you’re a dominant alpha, shouldn’t you find a dominant omega? Honestly, someone like you probably has people lining up to marry you.”

He steadied himself and asked.

He still intended to do whatever Woo-seok demanded, but this situation was too illogical.

Woo-seok could pick anyone off the street, omega, beta, even another alpha.

With his looks, build, and background, he had everything.

“What the hell are you thinking?”

“…About what…?”

“I’m not marrying you to have kids. Don’t tell me-you actually imagined sleeping with me?”

“What-! No! Absolutely not!”

…He had.

Honestly, how could he not?

When targeting Woo-seok for a scam, he’d prepared for the possibility of sharing a bed.

And, objectively speaking… Woo-seok wasn’t bad-looking.

“You did. You totally did.”

Seeing Ha-jin’s flushed face, Woo-seok let out a scoff.

The contempt in his eyes, How dare you?, sent the heat spreading from Ha-jin’s face down his entire body.

“…Anyway. So if we get married, that’s it?”

“No. You have to make it happen.”

“…Make it happen?”

They were speaking the same language, yet Woo-seok’s words felt impossible to grasp.

Lighting a cigarette, Woo-seok continued calmly.

“You have to become my marriage partner by your own efforts.”

“…What?”

“I can’t just take you home and say you’re the one. You climb your way up there yourself.”

So… break through the SHS Group chairman, the ruling party leader’s son… and get personally selected as the omega son-in-law?

Even though he understood perfectly, Ha-jin could only blink.

After a long pause, he finally spoke.

“Are you… actually insane?”

Crazy bastard.

Spouting nonsense with such dedication.

If he were capable of that, he’d have scammed Woo-seok’s father instead of him in the first place.