Was there really a need to run this desperately?
Haejin turned the thought over and over, wondering whether he was worth that much trouble. As Lyle had said, pregnancy was a concern. But he was recessive, after all. He did not know the details, yet he had heard that conception would not come easily. Lyle could not even regulate his pheromones properly. Above all, Haejin did not have the luxury to dwell on something so heavy right now.
If Lyle had failed to secure another Omega under contract, then perhaps there was still a chance he would be searched for. But Lyle was not a man with enough idle time to chase someone who was openly avoiding him. It was still unexpected that he had come all the way to the room before.
So this should be enough.
In truth, it was little more than an excuse piled atop others. For the past few days he had pushed his body to the point of surviving on little more than water. He was exhausted.
After withdrawing the money and carefully putting it away, Haejin looked around and spotted an old motel. For a moment he considered putting more distance between himself and the ATM machine, just in case. Instead, he simply dragged his feet forward. One leg trailed slightly, carving a faint path through the fallen leaves.
Why would Lyle chase someone like him this far?
He was too tired to go any farther.
***
The glittering ripples of a shining lake caught young Haejin’s gaze. Having lived only in an orphanage, it was the first time he had ever come this far from what little world he knew. His adoptive father’s large car, the enormous supermarket they had passed on the way—everything had been astonishing.
It was one of those rare days when the sun burned bright overhead. Still timid in the house, constantly reading the room, Haejin had been startled when his parents suggested they go on a picnic.
The moment he nodded shyly, the household burst into motion. His father headed to the garage to gather supplies. His mother fussed in the kitchen. His older brother held out his treasured toy box and told Haejin to choose whatever he liked.
Good weather was uncommon in this city. The lake, tucked away in a remote spot, was not particularly scenic. That was precisely why no one else came. His father had winked playfully, calling it their family’s secret place. In truth, that day too, only Haejin’s family had spread a picnic mat near the water.
Being invited to the secret place made him feel as though he truly belonged.
The sky was blue. The sandwiches his mother packed tasted like something heavenly.
It was a radiant day.
“…Jin…!”
“Ah…”
The long-cherished scene dissolved like ripples on the lake. Haejin opened his eyes to a dark, mold-stained ceiling and swallowed the familiar ache. As always.
“Open the door!”
The violent pounding tore through his fogged mind. He forced his creaking body upright and stared at the door.
A voice he could not possibly mistake came from outside.
For a moment, Haejin wondered whether that radiant memory had been swallowed by a darker nightmare. Did he truly have the strength left to fear Lyle this much? To resent him?
The pounding stopped abruptly.
As Haejin stared blankly at the door, barely upright, the lock turned with a harsh click.
Only then did he understand this was reality.
“….”
The door creaked open. Other guests staying nearby hurled furious curses toward the commotion. Cold night air, along with the silhouette of someone standing against the darkness, flooded into the room. The thin warmth he had barely managed to gather dissipated at once.
His eyes met Lyle’s, who stood looking down at him without a word.
Even then, Haejin found himself thinking something absurd. The man who always carried himself with arrogance had pounded on the door moments ago with something close to urgency.
“Jin.”
“….”
Still wearing the pitiful state he had rolled in from outside, Haejin remained crumpled on the bed. Lyle let out an unconscious sigh at the sight and brushed back his hair, disheveled from climbing the stairs in haste.
Not long after Haejin withdrew the money, the secretary reported that they had traced the movement. In an era where moving money was akin to moving the law itself, digging up the personal information of someone without backing was easier for Lyle than twisting a child’s wrist.
He could have waited.
Yet Lyle had been unable to remain at ease in the Estate. Before he knew it, he was ordering the car to be prepared.
Now, beneath a sky swallowed in black, he stared at the ATM where Haejin had made his final withdrawal. The fact that he had taken out every last remaining bill left an unpleasant weight in his chest.
A security guard searching nearby soon reported that Haejin had not gone far and had checked into a motel. In a city where neither an East Asian face nor black hair were common, Haejin was easy enough to trace if he left even the slightest mark.
After hearing that, Lyle had no space left for deliberation. Before his men could bribe the motel owner for the key, he had already come upstairs himself.
He did not understand why he had moved so urgently. Even he was startled by his own haste. And yet, the one being intruded upon showed no sign of surprise.
Haejin simply looked up at him with hollow, detached eyes.
The dry air seemed to force itself down Lyle’s throat. It burned.
“Enough of this. Come back.”
Come back.
Even through his dulled thoughts, Haejin felt resistance rise.
That place was not his home.
His warm home had long ago passed into the hands of strangers. How could that Estate be somewhere he could return to?
He had gone days without food and fallen asleep without ever warming his body. Exhaustion weighed him down so thoroughly that he could not gather his thoughts.
“That’s not my home.”
“….”
Though their eyes were locked, Lyle felt as if Haejin was not looking at him at all. The pheromones had accumulated to the point of stabbing at his brain. From the moment he entered this room, a bottomless thirst had begun to gnaw at him. He was on the verge of losing his composure.
“What do you want. Say it.”
The words came out like a growl.
Haejin’s gaze drifted faintly toward the outside. So many security guards surrounded the area that the night beyond the doorway was almost obscured.
Staring at that scene, he murmured, as if entranced. His voice was so small it could have dissolved into the late autumn night.
“I want to disappear.”
“…This is insane.”
Something snapped inside Lyle’s head.
For the first time, his reason could not keep pace with the agitation flooding his body.
Haejin looked too small in the dark room. As though he might simply sink into the shadows and vanish. The moment he heard that whisper—that he wanted to disappear—Lyle understood he could no longer endure it.
He strode forward.
The security guards waiting behind him surged into the room.
Even with several men crowding in, Haejin’s expression remained detached. That only provoked Lyle further.
“Take him.”
It might as well have been an abduction of a civilian. The guard stepped forward without question.
When Haejin looked up at the man approaching, the guard instinctively raised his hand to strike him unconscious.
“Wait.”
Lyle stopped him without thinking.
Before the guard could even process the order, Lyle stepped closer himself and lifted Haejin from the bed.
“Ah.”
A weak sound escaped him as he was thrown over Lyle’s shoulder. He tried to struggle, but he had no strength to match. After a few futile movements, his body went slack.
“Let’s go.”
And in that moment, Lyle found himself irritated without knowing why.
Was it Haejin’s near indifference, as if it had nothing to do with him? Or was it the fact that the weight in his arms was even lighter than he had imagined?
Having unilaterally ended the contract, Haejin was dragged away in Lyle’s grasp almost a month later.
<Chapter 3>
The soft cushion of the sofa beneath him jolted Haejin’s hazy mind awake.
It was the same reception room. The same furniture. Exactly as it had been when he first signed the contract with Lyle.
So I’ve returned to the Estate.
“….”
He had not expected Lyle to carry him back personally, almost as if abducting him. The unexpected turn of events made his mind churn.
But after days without food, his body felt feverish and weak. The cheap motel’s heating had been barely functional.
Unconsciously, he glanced toward the reception room door.
Lyle, who had been staring at him as though he might devour him, ground his teeth audibly. Even the secretary standing behind him looked faintly startled. It was unusual; the man never changed expression, even when business cards were torn up in front of him.
“Sign the contract again.”
“….”
That contract.
Why did Lyle keep looking for him?
Just as Haejin—who had held little presence in Lyle’s life over the past five years—had recently begun to grate faintly on him, Lyle’s sudden interest after years of neglect was incomprehensible to Haejin.
Come to think of it, the secretary had always listed terms when he visited, never explaining any special circumstance.
Had something been wrong with the blood test?
No. If that were the case, he would have been taken straight to the hospital, not dragged here.
“What do you want. Not that nonsense about disappearing. Tell me what you want.”