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The sedan left the airport expressway, crossed the Banghwa Bridge, and was just entering the Gangbyeonbuk-ro.
Across the Han River, the Yeouido skyline came into view in the distance. He had only been gone for a little less than a week, but the scenery outside the car window looked different.
Travel had been a part of his life since childhood, but whenever he returned to his place of residence after visiting another city, it was this subtly discordant sensation, more than the jet lag, that always bothered him.
The feeling that while he was away, someone had secretly altered a part of the city that formed the backdrop of his life and then left. A change so minute it was hard to notice, yet because of it, the city no longer seemed to be the familiar one he once knew. Or, like the lingering unease after returning home from an outing to find that someone had rummaged through the house….
Gazing out at the cluster of buildings drawing steadily closer with an impassive stare, Liu Weikun swept his hair back and gathered it in his hand. A strange stubbornness arose, a desire to find the perfect metaphor for this peculiar feeling he had always experienced since he was young.
He furrowed his brow, rubbing the stubble that had sprouted during the more than twenty-hour flight, which had included a layover at New York’s JFK airport.
It was like… seeing an old lover with whom he had once been terribly in love, but who was now a complete stranger. Someone who had once belonged to him as if they could never be separated, yet who, despite being the same person, now had no influence on each other’s lives….
Thinking the metaphor was unbecomingly grandiose, Liu snorted and released the hair he was holding. He had never even experienced a long-lasting love, had he?
Fumbling in his jacket pocket for a cigarette, he suddenly glanced at the seat beside him. After confirming Yeehyeon’s sleeping face, sunk deep into the seat, he put the cigarette back and turned his gaze to the window again.
He could no longer think that only a long love could bring about an unbreakable, terrible bond.
“This is the only material I could find about his existence as you described it.”
What Marcus had handed him with those words was a diary, so worn that ‘old’ was an understatement, appearing to be a relic from at least the 19th century.
For about two months after he had first told Marcus about Yeehyeon over the phone, Marcus had striven to find even the smallest piece of information. Marcus’s personal and academic curiosity was certainly a factor, but it was also the first time he had seen Liu so confused, so desperately pleading for help and craving answers, which told him that Liu was in great trouble. That was the biggest reason.
Marcus was a well-known eccentric among major European antique dealers, an ardent fanatic of the unpopular legend of the Ghost. Thanks to this, whenever an item even slightly related to the Ghost appeared on the market, Marcus was the first to be contacted.
This time, too, Marcus had been able to acquire the diary from a dealer in Vienna, Austria, for the relatively decent price of 1,000 euros. While it was a precious, tangible piece of evidence for him and Marcus, to the dealers who regarded the Ghost as nothing more than the delusion of a handful of enthusiasts, it was merely a novel left by an unknown person, old but not particularly valuable.
Marcus presumed the diary’s author to be one of Liu’s ancestors. It was around the mid-to-late 19th century that his father’s maternal family, a noble house that had fallen after being embroiled in political strife, had used one of the Ghost members of their clan as a means to restore their fortune and honor. The period overlapped with the dates written in the diary.
After the harsh medieval atmosphere that treated Alphas and Omegas as mutants or demons had completely vanished, Alphas and Omegas had become incredibly popular in the European courts of the time. Royalty and nobility all over Europe were eager to turn their sons or daughters into Omegas to secure advantageous political marriages.
According to the family’s official account, the secret to reviving the house was their bold and brilliant ability to move beyond England and attempt intimate socializing with all the royal families of Europe. But to tell the truth, it was no different from another form of prostitution, providing Omegas through sexual intercourse.
Now that the family had fully recovered its former status, there was no need to ‘sell their bodies’ as before, even if a Ghost was discovered among the clan. However, the ability to turn a Beta into an Omega could still be the subject of secret deals among the perverted upper echelons of society. At the very least, it was a good tool to be used as a symbol of power and dominance.
He could only tell Yeehyeon that it was to protect him from those who simply wanted a superior Golden Alpha as an heir, but the real reason Liu’s parents had to choose divorce was to protect him as a Ghost.
To the people of the world, it might be a believe-it-or-not legend occasionally featured on shows like <True or False>, but to the people of Liu’s father’s maternal family, the Ghost was a definite reality and a secret source of pride. They believed that the next Ghost could emerge from their descendants at any time. Liu’s parents had wanted the assurance that their son was a non-Ghost, free from that possibility, so as soon as he was confirmed to be an Alpha, they had visited Marcus, with whom they had maintained a private acquaintance.
And the test results were the complete opposite of his parents’ wishes. The probability of winning the lottery three times in a row, surviving three near-death experiences, only to die from a trivial case of tetanus. Their son was a Ghost who had hit that near-zero probability.
If the diary was indeed a trace of his ancestor, as Marcus speculated, and if the contents of the diary that Marcus had briefly summarized were true, then he felt he could no longer condemn his parents’ choice as an overly extreme defense.
The diary, not even completely filled, sporadically recorded events over about a year. The author, who ‘worked’ for the family by traveling through various European countries, was dispatched to Austria, which was going through a turbulent period. There, he experienced a powerful attraction to a male Beta, a servant of the client he was supposed to turn into an Omega.
For the distinguished ducal guest who had come from England for a secret transaction and the lower-class Beta, their difference in status alone made their relationship impossible. Moreover, the person the diary’s author had to change into an Omega was that servant’s master.
But the two, perhaps due to the influence of pheromones, were swept up in a passion that felt like their bodies were on fire. They were unable to exercise any reason, even knowing the danger that they could both lose their lives if it were discovered that the changing was being attempted more frequently on the servant than on the contracted party.
If Austria’s defeat in the Austro-Prussian War hadn’t thrown the client’s family into chaos, on the verge of collapse, making the once-important contract for a political marriage irrelevant, and if the diary’s author hadn’t been driven out of Austria, treated as a troublesome burden in a crisis, he would have met a dishonorable death in Austria with his ‘Diamond Dust,’ his Diamond Dust, as he had named him.
The phenomenon Yeehyeon had spoken of, where ice crystals glitter in the sunlight, had not yet been named ‘diamond dust’ at that time. Even if such a name had existed, that was not why the diary’s author had given that name to his lover.
“If the diary is to be believed, as long as you are by his side, it’s impossible to defy the power of the pheromones that seek to bind you two. And if, regardless of the pheromones’ effect, you are also mentally drawn to his human charm and love him, then it will be even more so.”
Recalling Marcus’s worried face, Liu once again glanced at the seat beside him. Yeehyeon’s face was peaceful with his eyes closed. When he looked at Yeehyeon, who was changing into an Omega because of him, he had to feel both an overwhelming joy that made every cell in his body tremble, a joy that couldn’t be traded for anything, and a painful numbness that felt like his heart was being squeezed dry of blood.
He could endure any amount of pain. As long as Yeehyeon didn’t try to push him away, as long as he didn’t have to lose him.
Huuuhmm… Letting out a breath like the groan of a mortally wounded beast, Liu reached his arm toward Yeehyeon’s cheek. He wanted to feel more of the warmth and touch of the man who was still by his side, who said he loved him.
Liu’s hand stopped before it could touch Yeehyeon’s cheek as he felt the vibration of the phone in his pants pocket. The caller was Shu Shu.
[You’ve arrived, right?]
The first words after connecting the call were, as expected, aggressive.
[There’s something we need to talk about in person. I know you’re tired, but make some time. I’ll come to your place.]
“Can’t this wait until tomorrow, at least? I’m just… so exhausted right now.”
Liu rested his elbow on the window, massaging his brow as he lowered his head.
[I waited while you were enjoying your trip in Boston because I didn’t want to ruin your mood. You probably rested enough in first class, so just spare a moment.]
The voice on the other end of the line was firm, as if it had been lying in wait. Realizing this was not a problem he could avoid by refusing, Liu replied stiffly.
“Then let’s meet outside. I don’t want to… cause any trouble.”
Shu Shu didn’t bother to ask who he didn’t want to trouble. It seemed she had no interest in such things.
As he was about to turn his weary gaze back to the window after ending the call, a cautious voice came from the seat beside him.
“Who was that?”
He had tried to be quiet, but it seemed he had woken him up. Liu composed his expression before turning his head. As expected, Yeehyeon was looking at him with a tense face.
“It was Shu Shu. Looks like he was just waiting for me to get back.”
“Did he… find out….”
Watching the worry deepen in his lover’s eyes, he gave a small shake of his head.
“I doubt it. Hong Sunwoo isn’t stupid enough to think he can get what he wants from me by telling Shu Shu now. Besides, all he’d get from telling him is another earful from Shu Shu.”
Reaching his arm over to Yeehyeon’s shoulder, which seemed to relax a little, he massaged it and changed the subject.
“I’ll hire someone to prepare the things you need to take to New York, so don’t worry about anything and just focus on your art. You seemed to have sketched a lot on this trip.”
Yeehyeon patted Liu’s arm on his shoulder and managed a faint smile. His expression showed that it hadn’t sunk in yet that they would be leaving this city in two weeks.
“For work… I think I’ll have to tell Section Chief Han myself beforehand. What should we do about Baek Yuni and Kwon Juhan?”
“I’d like to tell them in person…”
“Then let’s all have dinner together on Friday evening. I’ll ask Section Chief Han not to tell the kids until then.”
“Should we invite Inwoo-hyung too?”
Hesitating at the name, Liu wet his lower lip with his tongue and glanced away. Then, taking out the cigarette he had been craving while Yeehyeon was asleep, he lit it and said in a casual, light tone.
“Ah… that bastard will just egg on Baek Yuni and Kwon Juhan, so let’s just meet him separately later. Let’s deal with the people of Phantom first.”
Facing Yeehyeon, who nodded, Liu smiled with the cigarette between his lips. He felt it was becoming more and more difficult to feign composure and a smile in front of him, and he squeezed the cigarette pack tightly in his hand. To the west of the city, which looked similar but was somehow different from before he left, behind them, the much-shortened autumn sun was setting.
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