OMS 44

Park Dong-sik gaped like a fish. He needed to lie or make excuses or deny it, but no voice came out. Was he even breathing? His gaze darted anxiously around the room, and he unconsciously stepped backward.

“I don’t understand what you’re saying…”

“Tell me how it happened.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’m asking why Park Dong-sik became Lee Hee-soo.”

“…”

“Don’t bother with strange lies. I’m not one to believe in superstitions, and I certainly don’t believe in ghosts. But I do believe you’re Park Dong-sik. I’m giving you one last chance. Explain.”

His head was spinning wildly. Judging by Kim Jun-han’s expression, he was dead serious. When he started suspecting and when he became certain didn’t matter. What mattered was that more lies could get him thrown out with nothing, either onto the street or into a mental hospital. Being thrown out would actually be lucky. Despite his normal appearance, hadn’t he witnessed Kim Jun-han’s cruel side firsthand?

After contemplating what to do, Park Dong-sik made up his mind and took out a cigarette. “Mind if I smoke inside just for today?” he asked before lighting up. His hands trembled badly. After smoking for a while, he carefully began speaking.

“At first…Hee-soo asked me for a light.”

“The day he drowned?”

“Yes. That day…Hee-soo suddenly jumped into the water. I don’t know why.”

“So you jumped in too?”

Park Dong-sik nodded his head.

“I grew up near the sea and was confident in my swimming. Anyway, that’s not the important part…In the water, I couldn’t move my body. It felt like something was pulling me down under the surface…I lost consciousness, and when I opened my eyes…I had become Hee-soo…”

Even recalling it seemed unbelievable. Park Dong-sik gave a hollow laugh while Kim Jun-han just stared silently at him. He explained what happened afterward, how the shaman Madam Song took him to knew everything, and how Lee Hee-soo had achieved enlightenment so now he had to live as him.

However, he never revealed the fact that Chairman Kim had also switched bodies.

“Does Tae-han know?”

“No.”

“Kim Yoon-ah?”

“No.”

“So only the shaman and I know?”

Why did those words sound so chilling? Surely he wouldn’t eliminate the shaman. While carefully watching Kim Jun-han’s reactions, Park Dong-sik saw him throw the broken tablet in the trash. Park Dong-sik’s eyes followed his every move. Kim Jun-han sat across from him and picked up his glass. Each clink of ice made his nerves tighten.

“How is it?”

“What?”

“Going from beta to omega. You seem to accept it so naturally, were you always that way?”

“…”

“Have you done it with men before?”

“No.”

“Ah, so that’s why.”

He could guess the unspoken words, which the other man refrained from saying. He probably wanted to sneer about how that explained why he was so desperately drawn to men like a whore. But he wasn’t in a position to talk back. While keeping his mouth shut like a criminal, Kim Jun-han put down his empty glass.

He interlocked his fingers and kept his mouth firmly closed. Park Dong-sik anxiously watched his lips like a criminal awaiting a death sentence.

“About the divorce—”

To bring up divorce at a time like this, he was such a ruthless bastard.

“Let’s postpone it.”

Huh? Park Dong-sik looked like he’d just been slapped in the face. Did I hear wrong? When he should be kicking me out immediately, he wants to postpone the divorce? Why? What are you thinking…? While looking at him suspiciously, Kim Jun-han leaned back on the sofa and stared at him.

He suddenly released his pheromones, making Park Dong-sik’s body flinch.

“Hah!”

As his hole started getting wet, Park Dong-sik took shallow breaths. He wanted to jump on Kim Jun-han and start moving his hips right away. While barely holding back with his hips twitching, Kim Jun-han abruptly withdrew his pheromones. Gasp. Finally freed, Park Dong-sik collapsed on the sofa, his whole body going limp. Then he glared fiercely at Kim Jun-han.

“What the fuck are you trying to do?”

“I thought this would be faster than words with you.”

“…”

“It’s obvious how you’ll live, unable to control your pheromones and with no immunity. You’re already openly acting like a whore. If I let you loose, you’d go crazy like a fish in water.”

Listening to this, it looks like it’s not for my sake but his own after all.

“Afraid I’ll smear shit on that noble, perfect face of yours?”

“Stop being sarcastic.”

“Fuck…”

“No swearing.”

“…”

“That’s all I have to say. Anything else?”

“No…”

“Alright then. Go get some rest, Lee Hee-soo.”

He deliberately enunciated each syllable of “Lee Hee-soo.”

When Park Dong-sik gave him a disapproving look, Kim Jun-han asked back.

“You said it yourself. That you’d live as Hee-soo.”

“Whatever.”

“Then you’ll need to fix that look in your eyes first.”

After saying that sharply, he headed to the bedroom. With the sound of the door closing, Park Dong-sik’s tension released and he collapsed limply onto the sofa. He opened his clenched fists slowly. His palms were soaked with sweat, and his body felt so drained that even standing seemed difficult.

Taking slow, deep breaths with his eyes closed, the world felt quiet. What just happened seemed like a dream. He thought no one would find out, but already two people knew. The shaman was one thing, but he worried about how to face Kim Jun-han starting tomorrow.

But simple-minded Park Dong-sik quickly organized his thoughts. Since he couldn’t leave this body and had to live as Lee Hee-soo anyway, he just had to endure. In life, victory always went to the one who endured the longest.

In the bedroom, Kim Jun-han deliberated before calling Secretary Choi. After a couple of rings, the other party answered.

[Yes, Director.]

“Sorry about the late hour.”

[Not at all. Please go ahead.]

“The Zeus Capital CEO…”

[Are you talking about Moon Ho-cheol?]

Kim Jun-han rolled his tongue in his mouth. Something incomprehensible had happened. He’d thought the person had just changed due to memory loss, but to have switched bodies? And with a Beta loan shark thug at that.

Normally, Kim Jun-han would have thrown him out immediately. Though he knew Park Dong-sik’s story, he didn’t feel pity or sympathy. If anything, Park Dong-sik was closer to the kind of trash Kim Jun-han usually despised.

Yet strangely, the look in the funeral portrait had lingered in his mind for quite a while. And today, he saw that same look in Lee Hee-soo’s eyes. It bothered him and made him curious. Why he felt this way…Time would tell. It wouldn’t be too late to throw him out after that.

On the other end of the line, Secretary Choi waited for orders, and Kim Jun-han finally spoke.

“Take care of it. Make sure there’s no trouble.”

***

Park Dong-sik only fully awoke after falling from the sofa with a thud. Ah! Opening his eyes, he found himself rolling on the carpet. Had he fallen asleep right there on the sofa? Looking aside, he saw a thick blanket lying there. He didn’t remember covering himself with a blanket…Could it have been Kim Jun-han?

“Why do something he never does…? It’s scary…”

Getting up, Park Dong-sik took out water from the fridge and downed it in one gulp. Then he went back to lie on the sofa. It was well past 10 a.m, and judging by the quiet, Kim Jun-han had gone to work already.

While mulling over last night’s events, he picked up the remote and turned on the TV. With a drowsy face, he was flipping through channels when the news came on. As he was about to skip past it mindlessly, a familiar place appeared on the screen.

[A fire broke out around 4 a.m. today in a two-story building in Jongno. Though the fire was contained, sadly, a badly burned body was discovered in the basement. Due to severe damage to the body, it’s expected to take considerable time to determine the circumstances. Meanwhile, regarding the unreachable Mr. Moon, the representative of this establishment, police—]

The announcer’s words faded away. Unable to rewind the live broadcast, Park Dong-sik quickly turned on his phone to search for news articles. Several came up, but they were brief and didn’t specify the victim’s identity.

It was definitely Moon Ho-cheol’s office. Why…?

No, more importantly, who…?

As he was considering Kim Jun-han as the likely suspect, his phone rang. Gah! Startled, he dropped the phone he was holding. Unknown number. When he answered, an unfamiliar voice came through.

[Hee-soo.]

“Who is this?”

[Have you forgotten my voice already? It’s Mom.]

Just as he was thinking ‘I don’t have a mom,’ he recalled the person he’d seen in the hospital room. Furrowing his brow, he asked what was up, and she suggested meeting if he had no afternoon plans. Though he wanted to postpone due to fatigue from yesterday’s outing, she wouldn’t hear of it.

[Come on, let’s have lunch together after so long.]

“I’m tired.”

[Why are you like this? Always ‘I don’t want to,’ ‘I’m tired.’ You heartless child.]

“Then stop bothering me. I’m hanging up.”

[Or should I come there?]

He was getting irritated. They weren’t even close as mother and child, so why was she being so clingy? But her coming here would definitely be troublesome in its own way. Park Dong-sik finally agreed to meet, though rather reluctantly.