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After two or three puffs, the cigarette left on the ashtray continued to burn on its own, sending up smoke without anyone to inhale it.
Watching the gray ash grow longer until it broke under its own weight and fell into the ashtray, In-woo slowly brought the glass in his hand to his lips, swallowed the amber liquid, and furrowed his brow.
The cigarette, his first, wasn’t as harsh as he’d expected, so he didn’t cough ungracefully, but it also wasn’t so appealing that he could understand why so many smokers repeatedly failed to quit. The smoke that filled his mouth had none of the fragrance of whiskey, and when it went down his throat, it felt like swallowing the fumes of burning poison.
Still, it wasn’t bad, watching the long, dry, white body burn away bit by bit, sending up smoke. It wasn’t exactly calming, but it was a decent way to kill time blankly.
By the time the cigarette had burned about halfway, In-woo checked the time. About five minutes had passed since he had authorized a visitor’s vehicle entry through the parking lot management office. Was this what it felt like to be a bestiarius, a death-row convict thrown into the Colosseum without any training, waiting for the attack of a starving beast that would tear out his flesh? At his own grandiose metaphor, In-woo’s shoulders shook as he let out a dry laugh.
Just as he was about to tilt his glass again, the sound of a door being pounded on came from down the long hallway—bang, bang, each knock struck with deliberate force. In-woo paused his hand for a moment, then drank some more of his liquor. Only after the interval between the strikes shortened and the noise grew frantic, as if to break the door down, did he set down his glass and get up.
Liu, wearing a long, black trench coat that fell below his knees, relaxed the fist he had just raised to pound on the door again and lowered his arm.
“Don’t you know where the doorbell is?”
Without a word, Liu roughly shoved past his shoulder and stepped into the entryway, a reek of alcohol wafting from him.
“You didn’t drive here yourself, did you?”
Striding down the hallway, he glanced back, one corner of his mouth curling up as if such a concern was contemptible. He spun around and entered the living room, then scoffed at the sight of the smoke rising from the coffee table. He picked up the cigarette, now burned close to the filter, took a deep drag that hollowed his cheeks, and spat out his words along with the smoke.
“What’s his condition?”
“What about it?”
“Seo Yeehyeon . Seo Yeehyeon ’s body.”
The irritable response came back, as if to say, what else could it be, you frustrating fool. The face that turned to In-woo was red and disheveled with anxiety and alcohol. For a moment, a spark flew between them, then he swallowed dryly, wiped his face, and composed his voice.
“You said you had him examined. How is his body? He’s okay, right?”
Taking another drag, Liu avoided his gaze as he stubbed out the cigarette in the ashtray, looking like a man who was afraid to hear the answer to his own question.
“Everything’s normal. The uterus is in a stable position, and the thickness and length of the omega road leading to it are ideal.”
Liu turned to look at him, his eyes narrowing. His disheveled bangs fell over his eyes as he bent his head while keeping his back straight.
“Who asked about that? Are there any abnormalities in other parts of his body, or anything like that? Your health… are there any problems?”
“You wouldn’t have to worry about this if you hadn’t done the Changing, would you?”
“……”
Seeing Liu’s face as he narrowed his eyes further into a glare, In-woo let out a sigh.
“He’s perfectly healthy. The ovaries haven’t fully developed yet, so the uterus as a whole is about half-complete, but his general omega pheromones are extremely faint. Not enough to need suppressants yet. Though I can’t say about those special pheromones that supposedly only react to you.”
Only then did Liu relax his shoulders slightly, but the rough, unstable aura emanating from him did not subside.
Still standing, without even taking off his coat, Liu picked up the pack of cigarettes from the table and lit a new one. He took a shallow first drag with a hasty movement, blew out the smoke in a short puff, and muttered.
“Not the uterus, but the ‘triangle zone,’ you mean.”
“Were you the only one who got sex ed at Minton?”
“If you’re an alpha and a doctor, you should use the proper terms in daily life. Don’t act like one of those alpha bastards who are ignorant and indifferent to any gender but their own.”
In-woo walked to the other side of the coffee table to face him, crossing his arms over his chest and scowling.
“Are you in any position to be lecturing others right now?”
Tilting his chin up, Liu exhaled a long stream of smoke and replied.
“And why can’t I lecture you?”
A large, black figure in a coat closed in on In-woo, who was clicking his tongue.
“Why did you tell him?”
“……”
“You said… that hearing it directly from me would be the way to lessen the shock, even a little. Why did you tell him?”
He didn’t raise his voice, but the fury seeping from his suppressed tone spoke to the intensity of his anger. His entire body was tense. His gray-blue eyes had a more prominent blue tint than usual, as if they were sparking. He took another step closer, his lips twisting into a harsh sneer.
“Did you want to tell him the truth to ease your own guilt, take him to the hospital… and have him, trembling in fear… all alone, go through the examination like that… and in doing so, remain a good person to Seo Yeehyeon ?”
“Does it bother you that Yeehyeon had to get examined alone? Now? Who was it that gave him that fear?!”
“You should have told me before you took him to the hospital, at the very least!”
Liu’s index finger jabbed at In-woo’s chest, and In-woo slapped the hand away forcefully, jutting his chin out at him defiantly.
“And if I had? Do you think Yeehyeon would have wanted to go to the hospital holding your hand?”
“……”
Liu licked the corners of his lips with the tip of his tongue, his eyes darting between In-woo’s. His bloodshot eyes were still simmering, but he was silent for a while, as if he’d been struck. Turning his back on In-woo, he took a drag from his cigarette and then flicked the ash. His aim was careless, and most of the gray ash missed the ashtray, scattering across the table.
In-woo moved to stand right behind Liu and sneered into his ear.
“Yeehyeon , he was really painful to watch. I wanted to do something, anything, for him.”
At In-woo’s provocation, delivered in a deliberately cheerful tone for the sake of mockery, Liu turned back, his eyes narrowing. The eyes he met were gleaming with madness. And he forced a cold, twisted smile.
“I guess Yeehyeon didn’t tell you we kissed?”
“……”
The muscles in Liu’s jaw clenched and twitched, and a tic started under his eye. The cigarette in his unconsciously clenched fist was crushed, but he didn’t even feel the heat as he threw it aside and lunged at In-woo, choking him. In-woo’s face instantly turned red, and with bloodshot eyes, he stared straight at Liu, trying to pry his hands away with his own.
He wasn’t holding back at all. Only when In-woo started to gag, gasping through his nose and mouth, did Liu fling him onto the sofa. His shoulders heaved, his fists clenched tight as if he were about to leap back in and unleash merciless violence at any moment.
“A bastard like you… and I still called you a friend…”
“Same to you!”
In-woo shot up and shoved his face right in front of Liu’s.
“That habit of hitting on any decent-looking guy you see. That’s how it started! But if you hadn’t seemed interested, I might have gotten serious about Yeehyeon . Who wouldn’t?”
“……”
“Especially for bastards like you and me, who’ve lived our lives acting all cool and smart about everything, with that attitude that life is boring! How could you not be drawn to that… pure sincerity, that tries to experience all of life’s sensations head-on without any tricks? It’s only natural to want to confess everything. To say that, actually, life isn’t easy for me either! That I talk like I know the answers, but I can’t act on them either! Because he’s the kind of person who would listen without laughing, even if you were that honest.”
Liu, who had been listening to In-woo with his shoulders heaving silently, turned as if to flee. As Liu bent to grab the glass on the table, In-woo roughly spun him around again.
“But it was you! You, who had never been swayed by or obsessed with anyone, seemed to be breaking yourself down, getting swept away! So I gladly stepped back and watched.”
Liu shoved his hands into the pockets of his trench coat. He lowered his chin, looked up, and scoffed.
“So, what, you’re saying you yielded Seo Yeehyeon to me? That if you had gotten serious, Seo Yeehyeon would have chosen you?”
“That’s something we’ll never know.”
“……”
“And now that you’ve made things like this, it’s become something we can never know for sure.”
In-woo raised his eyebrows and gave a bitter smile. Liu squinted as if standing in strong sunlight.
“You probably came chasing after me to take all your anger out, but when Yeehyeon came here, he already knew.”
Liu’s eyes narrowed further.
“He said he heard it from Shushu.”
This time, his eyes widened again, and his hunched shoulders straightened.
“Of course, Shushu thought you and Yeehyeon were proceeding with the Changing together, by mutual agreement.”
His face hardening, Liu mulled over In-woo’s words for a moment, then turned without hesitation and strode across the living room toward the hallway.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
In-woo, following right behind, spun him around with vicious force, and Liu shook his arm, instantly throwing off his hand. Not giving up, In-woo now blocked his path completely.
“Now that you know it wasn’t me, are you going to go choke Shushu?”
“I wouldn’t put it past me.”
“Get a grip, Liu Wiekun. No matter who you yell at or what you say. Even if you beat me half to death and go after Shushu… in the end, the one who made Yeehyeon turn away was you!”
“……”
“‘Ignorant alpha bastards indifferent to any gender but their own?’ You think you have the right to criticize those alpha bastards? Think about what you did to the body of the person you love, all because you were dragged around by those damn pheromones!”
You crazy bastard.
As In-woo added those words, chewing on each syllable, his face was, for a moment, no longer that of a friend or anything else. It was filled only with a cold, distant, bitter contempt that sent a chill down the back of one’s neck.
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