Woosung Alpha’s Sour Grapes

Chapter 40

“…Why…? Why did you keep pretending not to know?”

“……”

“Weren’t you angry with me?”

There was resentment in the sorrowful voice that spoke while shedding tears, head bowed low without meeting his gaze even once. Tae-geon carefully chose his words, as if trying not to further agitate the unstable Hyeon-woo.

“…I wasn’t angry.”

“……”

“There’s no other meaning.”

“……”

“I just pretended not to know because it seemed like you wanted to hide it from people.”

Hyeon-woo’s fists gripping the toilet turned pale white.

…What’s that…?

…People?

I wanted to hide it from people? So you just pretended not to know?

Hyeon-woo’s lips twisted self-mockingly, his head still bowed.

Why did I try to hide it…?

Why I had so desperately tried to conceal my nature, even to the point of covering myself with alpha pheromones, why I had no choice but to make such a decision to deceive someone – at least you, Choi Tae-geon, you of all people should have known the reason.

You shouldn’t have acted like an ignorant bystander like this, even if it meant condemning me, blaming me, or branding me a traitor.

As Hyeon-woo gritted his teeth, Tae-geon’s calm voice continued in his ears.

“Nothing will change between you and me.”

“……”

“So don’t think about it too deeply, Hyeon-woo.”

‘Nothing will change.’

Hyeon-woo’s eyes widened at this sudden death sentence for his love.

Every word Tae-geon uttered stabbed his heart like a dagger. It became clear now. 

Hyeon-woo strongly realized at this moment that Tae-geon’s feelings towards him were of a completely different color than his own.

The tears that seemed like they would never stop flowing from Hyeon-woo’s bloodshot eyes finally ceased.

There were no more concentric circles spreading in the toilet bowl.

*

Having fully recovered from the flu that had plagued him for days, Hyeon-woo threw himself into his studies more passionately than anyone else. If even the slightest gap formed in his mind, the red love bites that had remained on Tae-geon’s nape would appear like an afterimage, tormenting Hyeon-woo.

Despite witnessing clear evidence with his own eyes, he simply couldn’t comprehend it rationally. Whenever he zoned out, his mind would soon become overloaded with thoughts of Tae-geon.

They were traces of lovemaking. He knew better than anyone what those marks meant, as similar marks would appear on his own nape after spending heat cycles with alphas. Yet he couldn’t easily accept it because those marks were left on none other than Choi Tae-geon.

It was simply incomprehensible that red hickeys, carefully licked and sucked into existence, remained on Tae-geon’s body. The fact that it was accompanied by omega pheromones from a heat cycle made it even more so.

There’s no way Tae-geon would have sex with an omega.

It can’t be.

Hyeon-woo shook his head and started biting his nails. As he denied it, saying it was impossible, the face of an omega flashed through his mind like a nightmare.

Every night, Hyeon-woo lay in bed wrestling with his phone. The omega’s number remained in the phone.

[I found a locked phone. I’m contacting this number listed as the emergency contact.]

Dozens of times a day, Hyeon-woo would write and delete replies to the omega’s message. 

Five days later, Hyeon-woo made up his mind.

[Let’s meet.]

Not long after sending the message, a reply came from the omega. He didn’t make the foolish mistake of asking who it was, as he too remembered Hyeon-woo’s number. The omega unilaterally informed him of the time and place to meet. Hyeon-woo immediately pulled up a map to check the location. It was a place at least an hour’s drive away.

[AFFAIBLIR]

Affaiblir.

It sounded like it could be the name of a cafe, or perhaps a restaurant. With the omega’s final message instructing him to give his name at the entrance upon arrival, Hyeon-woo turned off his phone.

This was the owner of the face that had first come to mind when he detected the unfamiliar omega pheromones on Tae-geon. He was unbearably curious about this person’s identity.

What did he look like again? He tried to recall the face of the person he had met at the cafe, searching his memory.

It was a pretty face. Features so striking that anyone could tell his nature at a glance. Was that the type of face he liked? Why was his pathological aversion to omegas an exception for that person?

Numerous questions swirled in his mind.

Why not me?

Why couldn’t I be Tae-geon’s only exception?

What was so good about that person?

His chest felt hot and flushed, as if being seared by a burning fire.

‘Something came up at my family home, so I can’t come home for a while.’

‘I guess our cycles are exactly the same.’

Now he seemed to understand what Tae-geon’s periodic outings, which coincided surprisingly well with his own heat cycles, meant. It wasn’t his family home, but outings to meet that omega. Like a fool, he had felt relieved every time Tae-geon left the house, not knowing this.

Feeling like his throat was being choked, Hyeon-woo got up from the bed and headed to the living room. As he was getting water from the purifier to drink, he heard the sound of water dripping somewhere. He checked the kitchen sink and bathroom faucet, but they were all properly closed.

Nevertheless, the drip, drip sound persistently followed Hyeon-woo. He returned to his room and closed the door. Drip, drip. Irritated by the sound that clung to his ears and wouldn’t let go, Hyeon-woo turned on the light in annoyance.

Only then did he see red droplets falling on either side of his feet. It was the sound of blood flowing down his arms.

Only then did he notice that the bed sheet he had been sitting on was soaked with red blood. 

Hyeon-woo raised his arm. The bandage that had been wrapped around it was torn haphazardly. Through the half-torn bandage, he could see the red, open wound.

“Ah…”

Confusion clouded Hyeon-woo’s eyes. He couldn’t understand why his arm was in this state. When he had lain down on the bed, he had properly disinfected it, applied medicine, and carefully wrapped it with a bandage. The disgusting stench emanating from his body and the gross maggots crawling through his flesh were now gone, but…

Suddenly, as he looked at his palm, Hyeon-woo’s face froze in shock. Under his nails were dried flesh and red scabs. It seemed he had dug at it with his own hands until it became like this. He hadn’t felt any pain. He had no memory of it. The faint light of dawn began to seep in behind Hyeon-woo as he stood with his back to the window.

As Hyeon-woo watched the breaking dawn outside the window, another look of shock crossed his eyes.

Recently, one or two hours of each day would disappear as if cut out with scissors. He had no memory of what he had done during those times. The last message he had received from the omega was at eleven at night. He thought only about ten minutes had passed since he had gotten up to drink water right after, but the time shown on his phone was six in the morning.

Seven hours had disappeared entirely.

*

Returning from school, Hyeon-woo immediately took off his ivory padded jacket and changed into a brown coat. It was this evening. The day he was to meet the omega.

He had told Tae-geon in advance that he would be resting at his family home over the weekend. As he adjusted his clothes in front of the mirror, this time he wasn’t satisfied with the sweatshirt he was wearing under the coat. After rummaging through the wardrobe drawers for a while, he finally found a knit sweater he liked.

It wouldn’t matter if he went out as he was, but his student-like appearance bothered him. He remembered how mature the omega had looked wearing a trench coat at the cafe where he had gone to find Tae-geon’s phone. An inexplicable sense of inferiority welled up.

Hyeon-woo checked his appearance once more in the mirror – denim pants, black knit sweater, and brown coat over it – before heading to the meeting place.

He paid the taxi fare and got out of the car. At the meeting place he arrived at, there was neither the restaurant nor the cafe he had expected. Although this was definitely the correct address, there were only a few old abandoned buildings standing alone.

The rusty iron doors, covered in moss from long neglect, were locked as firmly as a fortress, and thick wooden boards were nailed tightly in neat rows over what must have been windows.

He looked around. The quiet night air, far removed even from the sound of passing cars on the road, was utterly desolate.

Surely they hadn’t called him out here deliberately to play a trick on him. Just as Hyeon-woo furrowed his brow and looked around the building once more, that’s when it happened.

“Hey, who’s there!”

As he moved towards the source of the sound, he found the entrance was in an unexpected place. Focused solely on finding the entrance to the abandoned building, he had only now noticed the small staircase leading underground between the buildings.

On either side of the stairway entrance, black objects that looked like speakers were attached to the high walls of the building. Someone who had spotted him loitering around must have shouted through these speakers after confirming his presence on a CCTV installed somewhere nearby.

Hyeon-woo cast his gaze down the stairs. The narrow entrance to the pitch-dark underground staircase looked like the maw of a snake leading to its innards. With reluctant steps, he descended the stairs one by one. The eerie aura emanating from inside made the hair all over his body stand on end.

Relying purely on his senses, he barely made it down to the last step, where he saw light leaking from around a corner bent in an L-shape. He hurried towards it.