Woosung Alpha’s Sour Grapes

Chapter 45

Hyeon-woo had disappeared from school again. As far as Tae-geon knew, he had already skipped classes and vanished more than a dozen times. At this rate, he was facing academic probation and his entire graduation schedule would be thrown off.

As if that wasn’t enough, his head felt like it would explode every day. Hyeon-woo’s heat cycle was rapidly approaching, and to make matters worse, his family had started contacting him again. Tae-geon turned off his phone in disgust, wondering which family’s omega they wanted him to roll around with this time.

He couldn’t carelessly mistreat the omegas sent by his family just because he felt bad during sex. It wasn’t just a one-night stand, but an extension of political maneuvering entangled with numerous interests.

Even the omega for whom he first created a uterus was the child of a government minister. 

Though he didn’t know exactly what was exchanged in return, it wasn’t unrelated to the noticeable rise in stock prices across the group’s companies that entire week.

Shhhh-

The sound of running water could be heard from the bathroom. Tae-geon sat at the dining table, waiting for Hyeon-woo to come out.

When Hyeon-woo finally appeared, water from his wet hair that hadn’t fully dried ran down his cheeks and soaked into his collar. Tae-geon frowned. He was wearing that damn turtleneck again.

He felt he needed to hear directly from Hyeon-woo’s mouth what exactly was happening to him.

“Come sit over here for a moment.”

Tae-geon pointed to the chair opposite him. As Hyeon-woo was drying his hair with a towel and heading to the indicated seat, his wrist was suddenly grabbed with tremendous force.

“Agh!”

A sharp cry escaped Hyeon-woo’s lips, and Tae-geon, snapping back to his senses at the sound, hurriedly let go of the hand he had grabbed. However, Tae-geon’s eyes were already engulfed in anger, flickering hotly like flames.

“…That must have hurt, I’m sorry.”

He didn’t look sorry at all. Hyeon-woo eyed Tae-geon warily, on high alert.

“Where have you been?”

“The bathhouse. I went to wash up.”

…Bathhouse?

Tae-geon raised an eyebrow.

“Why suddenly go to a bathhouse you’ve never been to before? …By yourself?”

“Yeah.”

“If you washed up there, why are you washing again at home?”

“…I stepped in a sewer on the way back.”

“……”

“The rotten smell was so bad I had to wash again when I got home.”

…Rotten smell.

This rotten smell was that of an alpha, not some sewer stench.

He had smelled something similar before. That day when Hyeon-woo said he had returned from resting at his parents’ house. Then too, this rotten alpha smell had faintly wafted.

It was such a crude and filthy smell that he couldn’t distinguish which alpha bastard’s pheromones they were. Mixed with the scents of dozens of omegas in a mess, it had twisted his insides so violently that he remembered just covering it up in the end.

That stench he had smelled then was emanating from Hyeon-woo again. He must have washed to try to hide this smell from him. It meant there was something he felt wasn’t right, something he needed to erase traces of.

Hyeon-woo’s shoulders tensed under Tae-geon’s sharp gaze.

“…Tae-geon, I’m too tired. I’m going to bed first.”

“Let’s talk.”

“I have nothing to say to you. I don’t want to either.”

“Hyeon-woo, what on earth…!”

The moment Tae-geon unconsciously grabbed Hyeon-woo’s shoulder:

“Eek!”

Hyeon-woo let out a ragged breath and collapsed to the floor, his whole body starting to shake violently as if having a seizure. Startled by the unexpectedly intense reaction, Tae-geon hurriedly stepped back.

After catching his breath for a while on the floor, Hyeon-woo got up and climbed the stairs with weak steps.

Bang.

Tae-geon, frozen in place like a statue, heard the sound of Hyeon-woo’s room door closing.

Once again, he had been rejected as always.

Tae-geon was furious at Hyeon-woo for starting to treat him openly like he was invisible. 

Before, he would at least give short answers, but now he was consistently avoiding any reaction at all.

“Han Hyeon-woo. Come down for dinner.”

Hyeon-woo came down at Tae-geon’s call and started moving his share of food onto a tray. 

He had been acting like this at every meal recently, as if he couldn’t even stand to eat at the same table.

It was fortunate that he was at least eating regularly, but seeing him wasting away day by day, even this didn’t seem quite right.

“Don’t you need more side dishes? Want more kimchi?”

“……”

Ignoring Tae-geon completely, Hyeon-woo turned around with the tray. Watching Hyeon-woo’s back disappear upstairs, Tae-geon rubbed his tired face.

In the early hours of the morning, Tae-geon woke to the sound of movement at the front door. Looking out the window, he saw Hyeon-woo hurriedly walking away, carrying something in a bag. Soon after, the front door opened again, and footsteps could be heard on the stairs.

Before dawn, Tae-geon went outside and opened the lid of the food waste bin installed at the end of the residential complex wall. The food Hyeon-woo had taken upstairs on the tray last night was discarded intact on the very top.

Tae-geon’s eyes narrowed.

Clack-

The lid closed roughly. He hadn’t imagined that Hyeon-woo’s meals were being thrown away like this.

It was obvious he was doing this to avoid another confrontation, knowing that if Tae-geon found out he was skipping meals, there would be an argument. Even going to the trouble of waiting until late at night when Tae-geon was asleep.

Why? Is what I make so disgusting you can’t even put it in your mouth?

It was blatant treatment as an abuser. The charge would be rape, perhaps.

Was my judgment wrong? Would it have been right to leave Hyeon-woo suffering from heat for days in that state?

Tae-geon rubbed his throbbing head, plagued by a headache.

*

With bloodshot eyes, Hyeon-woo stared at the calendar all day long. Whether sitting in a chair or lying on the bed. Calendar in one hand, Morpho in the other.

‘Heat cycle’.

The expected date of the heat cycle, repeatedly marked with a red pen, was approaching fast, just a day away.

Hyeon-woo, who had been waiting for this moment, spent the night wide awake.

Coming out to the living room, he saw Tae-geon sitting on the sofa. Seeing that Tae-geon didn’t seem to have plans to go out, Hyeon-woo inwardly felt relieved. He had been anxious that all his plans would be ruined if Tae-geon went to meet that omega with the same heat cycle as him, or if he ran out unable to bear the smell emanating from Hyeon-woo.

Soon, the precursor symptoms began. Hyeon-woo looked at the Morpho in his hand with eerily glistening eyes.

When evening came, Hyeon-woo, without being called, voluntarily came downstairs for some reason and sat at the dining table, picking up chopsticks and starting to eat the side dishes. As Hyeon-woo’s chopsticks frequently moved between the rolled omelette and grilled fish, Tae-geon’s hands were busy removing fish bones.

As Hyeon-woo, who had been eating well for once, awkwardly tried to get up from his seat, Tae-geon made him sit back down and asked:

“Why, do you need something?”

“I want some ketchup.”

“I’ll get it. Keep eating.”

After Tae-geon got up and disappeared into the kitchen, Hyeon-woo opened the caps of two Morphos hidden in his pocket and poured them all into Tae-geon’s soup bowl. As the guard had said, the blue liquid mixed into the soybean paste soup without a trace.

Tae-geon appeared at the right moment with a small dish of red tomato ketchup, sat down, and picked up his spoon. Hyeon-woo’s bloodshot eyes intently watched Tae-geon eat the soup mixed with Morpho. His heart pounded incessantly with expectation and guilt.

As the meal was ending, Hyeon-woo’s body, flushed red all over, began to break out in a cold sweat. As Hyeon-woo put down his spoon on the table and curled up with a pained groan, Tae-geon got up and picked him up. Laying Hyeon-woo on the bed and covering him with the blanket up to his neck, Tae-geon said:

“Don’t take the medicine. You know from experience it won’t have any effect anyway.”

“……”

“I’ll be outside. Call if you need anything.”

“……”

“I won’t act on my own like last time without your permission.”

“……”

“You have to call me first. I’m really okay. Make sure to call my name, Hyeon-woo.”

Tae-geon stroked Hyeon-woo’s hair, damp with cold sweat, a couple of times and got up. 

The forehead where his hand had touched felt numb and hot. Hyeon-woo pulled the blanket over his head, feeling himself start to get wet down below. He heard the sound of the door closing carefully.

It was about thirty minutes later when Hyeon-woo threw off the blanket and reopened that door.

His legs trembled at the excited alpha pheromones flooding in from beyond the door. Even the trace amount of pheromones seeping through the door crack was enough to make his hole go wild, gushing fluid.

“…Hngh!”

The intense stimulation made Hyeon-woo’s knees half buckle, his whole body staggering. 

He could barely walk properly.

Opening the door with shaking hands, he saw Tae-geon standing not far away. Their eyes met as Tae-geon stared fixedly at him, standing with his back to the pale moonlight in the dark hallway. However, there was nothing in those unfocused eyes. They were completely empty. Hyeon-woo felt an inexplicable chill at that gaze.

…I’m scared.

An unknown fear sent chills down his spine. As Hyeon-woo trembled and hurriedly tried to close the door again, Tae-geon approached in an instant and reached his hand through the closing door gap. Grabbing Hyeon-woo by the collar, he rushed into the room with tremendous force. It was a ruthless gesture, like a bird of prey snatching its quarry.