Chapter 50: Honeyed Collapse

Even setting aside the fact that he had put his T-shirt on backwards, his neck was covered in dark red marks as though he had been attacked by some wild beast.

His lips too… whatever had happened to them, they were swollen so badly they looked as if he’d been stung by bees. His eyes were no different.

And the moment the bedroom door opened, an embarrassingly heavy wave of pheromones poured out. Even without all that, Go Ha-jin looked as though he might collapse at any second. There was no trace left of his usual lively self.

“My… condition isn’t very good right now. Should I come out for the meal anyway…?”

Anyone could tell what had happened to Go Ha-jin. Last night, undoubtedly, that had happened. To the point his whole body had been left in shambles…

Smack!

Without saying anything, Lee Ah-seong slapped Chae Jae-yi hard on the back. Why did he have to stir things up beside someone who had been minding their own business? Useless brat.

“Why are you yelling at someone who’s sick?”

Disbelief filled Chae Jae-yi’s eyes. Earlier he’d been signaling him to do exactly that with his gaze, and now he was dumping all the blame on him.

“Go back in and rest. And… until all that on your neck disappears, don’t come out if you can help it. Seriously, there should be limits.”

After seeing him in that state, there was nothing more Lee Ah-seong could really say. Even so, he couldn’t help speaking in a displeased tone. Honestly, part of him truly felt that way. In some ways, this should have been a situation worth celebrating wholeheartedly.

How desperately had he wished for a ‘normal’ grandchild instead of a defective one?

A child with almost no chance of manifesting, and even if they did, obviously only a recessive trait… In other words, the child of Chae Jun-seok and Tae Seol had wounded his pride more than enough already.

Because of that child, things he already disliked had become even more intolerable. A beta in the Chae family line, what humiliation. Something shameful enough he couldn’t show his face anywhere.

So in a situation like this, how wonderful would it be if his beloved son Chae Woo-seok soon had a child of his own? With his bloodline, it would be harder not to produce a dominant trait. There was hardly any need to even bother with testing.

“What kind of state is that…”

But strangely, he wasn’t pleased right now. It felt as though that sly little thing had stolen Chae Woo-seok away from him completely. Go Ha-jin, who had taken away the son he had raised like a precious jewel, irritated him endlessly.

Still, it wasn’t a situation where he could openly say anything, so he had no choice but to leave Go Ha-jin’s house without another word.

“Dad, why are we just leaving? He’s showing off right now!”

“Showing off…?”

“What else would you call it? He’s looking down on you because he’s got Woo-seok backing him up. Just wait until he gets pregnant or something, he’ll act like a king.”

At Chae Jae-yi’s noisy chatter beside him, Lee Ah-seong abruptly stopped walking. Come to think of it, maybe that was true. No matter how wild things got, did it make sense to be bedridden like that afterward?

When Lee Ah-seong had first married, no matter how exhausted he was, he had never skipped greeting the elders in the morning. Naturally, he had never ended up in such a state because of bedroom affairs.

“We’ll wait and see for now. In the end, only the second one can make up for the mess that thing caused.”

Lee Ah-seong’s anger turned toward that thing, Tae Seol. Tae Seol bit down on the tender flesh inside his mouth. He had bitten it so often already that it was completely torn up, blood bursting out again. A chest already slashed to pieces.

He’d thought after being cut so many times, words like that wouldn’t hurt anymore, but another deep wound was carved into him once again. It was the kind of pain one could never grow accustomed to.

****

“Haah, f*ck…”

Go Ha-jin slept like a newborn baby. No matter how much he slept, the exhaustion refused to leave his body. Still, with time, he could feel himself gradually recovering.

Perhaps because he’d used muscles he’d never used in his life before, the soreness lingered, but sleep truly was the best medicine.

“The director told you not to get out of bed…”

“It’s frustrating. I’m suffocating here.”

Before leaving for work, Chae Woo-seok had given Manager Yang strict orders. Make sure Go Ha-jin didn’t crawl out anywhere. Calling it “taking care of him” sounded nice, but it was practically house arrest.

“Watch him properly. Carefully.”

It had been a warning. Fail to obey his orders, and there would be consequences.

And what kind of man was Chae Woo-seok? The only person neither Lee Ah-seong nor even the strict Chae Il-joo could control carelessly. That was why, even while having his weakness exposed by Go Ha-jin, Manager Yang could only voice timid objections.

“What should we do about dinner…? Shall I prepare something?”

At the question, Go Ha-jin paused to think. Honestly, he didn’t have much appetite. Right now, even swallowing water made his throat sting. Well, that made sense. After all the crying and screaming he’d done last night, there was no way his throat would still be in good condition.

“Hmm… please prepare something nourishing. Abalone or eel, maybe. Not Western food.”

Still, thinking of the bastard responsible for all this, he felt food should at least be prepared. Well… he had used up a lot of energy, so restoring his stamina was only fair. Absolutely, absolutely not because he cared about him.

He was merely following the old saying about giving even someone you hate an extra rice cake.

“I’ll sit here a little longer before going back in, so you can go.”

After sending Manager Yang away, he took out his phone. It might have been a little late, but there was something he needed to check.

“Hey, it’s me.”

“What’s going on? And what happened to your voice?”

Teacher Lee answered after only a few rings. Since Go Ha-jin was too exhausted for a long conversation, he got straight to the point.

“What happened with the investigation on Chae Woo-seok I asked for? Why’s it taking so long? Guess you’re making plenty of money.”

“Hey! Do you think your target is some ordinary guy? Do you know how hard this is?”

After being threatened with things like “If you took the money, then do your job,” and “Do you not want the rest of your payment?”, Teacher Lee quickly gave up resisting.

Knowing Go Ha-jin’s personality, he’d have to hand over at least what he’d uncovered so far if he wanted that noisy mouth to shut up.

“It is weird though. I couldn’t talk to many people, but… are you sure he isn’t impotent?”

“He’s not! It works perfectly fine… too fine, actually.”

Just remembering Chae Woo-seok’s thing made phantom pain tingle deep inside his backside.

“Hmm… but the strange part is, there’s no one who says they actually slept with him. Finding the people he’s met isn’t that difficult. There are several who went up to hotels with him, but that’s it. They all say he just slept and never touched them… Doesn’t that sound strange to you?”

“For now… got it. Keep digging.”

Go Ha-jin ended the call there. His thoughts were tangled.

If that information was true, then Chae Woo-seok’s behavior made no sense. The man met more omegas than one could count on both hands. Celebrities, random strangers from clubs, all kinds. Yet among them, there wasn’t a single person who had actually slept with him.

That was why Go Ha-jin had assumed he was either impotent or asexual. But last night had personally proven that theory wrong, hadn’t it? With a cock hard as an iron rod, he had pounded him roughly as though he were in rut. How could someone like that possibly be asexual?

Then why? Why would Chae Woo-seok create situations like this? Constant scandals that brought him no benefit whatsoever. Based on all the men Go Ha-jin had met, there was no way someone acted like that “just because.”

There had to be a reason. Yet he couldn’t think of any motive behind such behavior.

“Hmm…”

Go Ha-jin’s thoughts grew more and more complicated.

****

“Haah, I’m hungry…”

He definitely hadn’t had any appetite before. But now, staring at the table overflowing with food, his stomach growled and his mouth watered. After spending the entire day eating nothing but bland porridge, hunger had finally hit him.

And it was late. Chae Woo-seok should have returned from work ages ago, yet there wasn’t even a glimpse of him.

Still, Go Ha-jin decided to wait a little longer. During all the sleeping and waking throughout the day, he had reached a certain conclusion.

That perhaps… Chae Woo-seok had undergone some kind of change of heart.

Anyone hearing this would probably scoff and ask what nonsense he was spouting again, but he did have reasons. Maybe, contrary to the rumors, Chae Woo-seok wasn’t actually someone who slept around recklessly.

Maybe there was some hidden reason behind all those scandals.

A man who supposedly never had proper s*x with anyone had slept with him. And enthusiastically at that. On top of that, for the past few days he hadn’t been drinking outside or meeting other omegas either.

Wasn’t that a fairly reasonable suspicion? Even if this marriage wasn’t real, perhaps getting married had still changed Chae Woo-seok’s mindset.

Of course, maybe this was all just wishful thinking. It completely ignored the huge existence named Tae Seol, and there was still no clear explanation for why Chae Woo-seok acted so incomprehensibly.

But right now, Go Ha-jin shoved all those problems to the edge of his thoughts. He couldn’t help it. Last night had simply been too… intense.

The answer already felt decided. He was merely forcing together the process leading to that conclusion.

“What… it’s already ten?”

His hips and waist throbbed as he checked the time, it was already past ten o’clock. There wasn’t even a single message on his phone.

He should have been angry at the man for being late without saying a word, but instead his first thought was whether something bad had happened.

Unable to bear staying inside all day, he even wandered outside toward the security post for a short walk. But once outside, his poor physical condition became painfully obvious, so he couldn’t make it all the way there.

He listened hopefully for the sound of a car approaching behind him, but nothing came.

As the delay stretched on, his anxiety only continued to grow.

But it wasn’t that something had happened to Chae Woo-seok.

It was that Chae Woo-seok had caused something to happen.

And Go Ha-jin only learned that after the sun rose the next morning.

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