DS Ch 5

He still couldn’t find even a single hair of his sister. While his sister’s vacancy stands out like a sore thumb, the boss is also absent. It was natural for the employees to sense something strange.

“No, I mean Eun-joo is…”

Eun-myeong’s footsteps abruptly stopped at the threshold. Clearly, his sister’s name had just been mentioned in the kitchen. He tightened his grip on the tray in his hands. In both hands, he was holding a pot of spicy stew that the guests had left behind.

“Did she abandon her little brother and run away?”

Eun-myeong’s gaze fell downward. His long eyelashes trembled. His eyes met the cold lifeless fish’s eyes. The powerless, drooping pupils seemed eerie yet somewhere melancholic.

“Stop talking. The debt in that house is already over 300 million… even I would run away.”

His tangerine-colored freckled cheeks drooped.

“He’s not even her real little brother.”

The more he heard, the more it felt like his chest was being pricked by thorns. He didn’t want to listen anymore. Eun-myeong placed the cold pot under the counter and quietly slipped into the side room.

“…”

It’s already long past lunchtime. Eun-myeong had to take advantage of the absence of guests to fill his stomach, but he couldn’t eat anything.  It felt like a thorn was stuck in his throat. He felt suffocated, and dry heaves followed.

Gulp, gulp…

In the end, he filled his hungry stomach with bottled water. The rounded belly swelled. The ribbon tied around his waist stretched tightly.

“…Ha.”

He wiped his damp mouth with the back of his hand. Even in this situation, crawling out of the seafood restaurant with the determination to earn money made him feel repulsive. Just thinking about it made him feel nauseous.

Regardless of the fact that the boss had died, his son was still around. When the time came, he would surely come after him again, demanding repayment of the debt. …Did the son know? About the boss’s death.

His normal life has long been distorted. Attempting to continue caused the already broken seams to emit creaking sounds like rusty metal.

“Eun-myeong!”

He heard Hyo-jin’s voice outside the door as he was looking down blankly. The door to the small room flew open.

“That customer…”

Eun-myeong immediately understood the meaning of the words. The same customer who calls him every time he comes has returned several times. It was clear who ‘the customer’ she was referring to.

He slowly lifted his hips, which were stuck to the floor of the room. His steps felt heavy as if wearing weights around his calves. Eun-myeong left traces slowly, like a snail leaving a trail, as he walked outside.

“Uh…,”

“Please come here,” he managed to swallow the rest of his words. It was him. Today, the man with a dark brown shirt tightly fastened with a deep blue vest was smiling as usual. Behind him, a gangster-like figure followed like a shadow.

“Please come this way.”

Eun-myeong went inside, where the rooms were arranged. The man was a customer who spent money foolishly every time he came. They were VIPs among VIPs to the employees who knew nothing, so it was natural to direct them to the best place.

Even in the presence of that man, they whispered many times throughout the day. What kind of person is he? Is he really a gangster? He uses Seoul dialect; did he just come down for a short while?

Eun-myeong stopped in front of the plum blossom room. He opened the door with lattice windows, revealing a room with a yellow mat.

“You can sit here…”

Kuung, the man entered first. A heavy sound echoed on the floor as the 190cm tall body entered the room, his shirt stretched so tightly that not a single ounce of air could enter.

Eun-myeong placed a water bottle and wet wipes on the table with trembling hands.

“What would you like?”

His tongue moved slowly as if it had stiffened. Please, pull yourself together,  Eun-myeong reminded himself while wiping and adjusting his apron.

There was a moment of silence. However, the man still didn’t look at the menu today. He just stared at Eun-myeong intensely.

Eun-myeong kept his eyes focused on the floor afraid of making eye contact. The light shining from above created a halo of light on the densely packed eyelashes.

As he was meaninglessly counting the patterns on the flooring, his lower abdomen tightened with tension. Eun-myeong clenched his fists on his knees.

Maybe I drank too much water earlier, but a sudden urge to urinate rushed to my lower abdomen. I wanted to go to the bathroom.

“Bring me something you’re good at, baby.”

“… Yes.”

He quickly rose from his seat. He let out the breath he had been holding after closing the door and stepping outside. His small chest rose and then went down. A man’s shoes came into view.

Suddenly, something welled up in his chest, but he quickly moved his feet.

“One special, please.”

He placed the order in the kitchen and then hurriedly passed through the narrow corridor to the restroom with a blue sign.

With hasty movements, he lifted the red apron with his impatient hands.

Just as he was about to unzip his jeans, the door opened abruptly from behind.

“Uh…”

His dry, protruding elbows and kneecaps trembled. It felt as if someone had forcefully hit the protruding bones with a hammer. It was a simple matter of dealing with nature’s call, but he stood still as if someone had tightly bound him with a rope.

It was because he felt the gaze from behind. No, it was more about the overpowering scent of violence wafting from behind. It was undoubtedly pheromones, aggressively pushing in like poking the nose with a chopstick.

“…”

“…”

An inexplicable sticky silence flowed in the cramped silence of the small restroom. The sound of footsteps scraping against the floor echoed in his ears. A large man barged in from the side. It was the shadow of a man, his broad chest tightly wrapped in a suit vest.

Eun-myeong stood still, helplessly gazing at the tiled wall.

Shhh, the sound of water came from the sink.

Was he here to wash his hands? It seemed like it would only take a moment until he left… The problem was the sound of water. Shhh, as he listened to the refreshing flow, the urge in his lower abdomen intensified.

Eun-myeong put pressure on the inside of his thighs. The soft flesh stiffened slightly, like tofu cooked in a pan.

Just wait until he finishes washing his hands, just until that moment…

But the man stood in front of the mirror for a long time. He buttoned his vest tightly again and rolled up his sleeves to reveal his watch.

Eun-myeong looked up at him in fear.

“Why, baby?”

The man turned around as if he sensed his stare. He smiled like a madman.

“Why don’t you just pee and peek at this mister?”

He swept his large hand through his hair. A strand of hair descended unevenly over his rough eyebrows.

Eun-myeong couldn’t urinate in front of others. More precisely, he couldn’t pull down his pants. It was because he was born with a look more like an Omega than anyone, despite not being an Omega, and had been constantly teased since childhood.

Whenever he entered the restroom, all the kids would gather and watch him. Then, the urine would refuse to come out, and Eun-myeong would groan with a stomachache.

“Oh, no…”

Eun-myeong’s face turned paler. The space between his thighs felt as tense as if it would twist like white rice cakes. He lifted one foot slowly. Swiping between his legs, he entered the restroom stall.

He quickly lifted the apron again. At this rate, he might really wet his pants. It felt as if someone had poured white paint in front of his eyes, and his mind was gradually whitening.

But then, it happened. Shhh, the sound of the flowing water suddenly stopped.

“…”

“…”

A deathly silence hung in the restroom. Eun-myeong stood frozen, feeling the embarrassment rise in his throat. He hoped to hear the sound of the man leaving the bathroom quickly, but that didn’t happen. The bathroom became so quiet that one could almost hear the sound of ants passing by.

Why is he doing this, as if he’s someone eager to hear me pee? Eun-myeong wanted nothing more than to dash out of the restroom, but reluctantly, he urinated in the silence.

…The sound of trickling soon echoed.

His head ached as if he had a high fever. It was too embarrassing, and his face turned pale with shame.

He pulled down the toilet lever and came outside with his whole body bright red. The man was standing in the mirror. He watched Eun-myeong with his index finger in his mouth. His eyebrows were heavily furrowed.

“You sat down to pee because you’re an Omega bastard.”

He grabbed the restroom tissue as if grabbing someone’s hair, and wiped his large hand as if it was a weapon. His back rose in anger, and his arm muscles forcefully pressed against the shirt.

“You must have peed with the dick between your thighs.”

Eun-myeong stared at the man in shock at the provocative words. What did I just hear…? Then he slowly lowered his head. His fine hair covered his face, damp with shame.

“I didn’t sit down and pee…. And. And I, I’m not O-Omega.”

It was terrifying to refute the man’s words, but if he continued to misunderstand that Eun-myeong was an omega, it would be a big problem. If he tried to sell him out…

“Did you stand up and pee, but you look like this?”

The man laughed lightly as Eun-myeong trembled with a polite response. HHe approached step by step. Eun-myeong bit his lower lip as he got closer.

The man’s chest swelled substantially as he stood directly in front of Eun-myeong. His massive chest expanded grotesquely, like turning over a drum. It seemed like he was catching a whiff of Eun-myeong’s pheromones.

“You smell like milk, but you’re not an Omega?”

The lecherous smile was unbearably sinister. There was no trace of laughter around the eyes; the gap between the raised corners of the mouth and the absence of a laughter sent shiver down his spine even more.

“Seriously…”

Eun-myeong shook his head. Although he could emit pheromones himself and also directly smell the pheromones of others, no matter what anyone said, Eun-myeong’s nature was beta. He tried to say it again, but the man’s husky voice interrupted him.

“Baby.”

The shadow of the approaching man was cast over Eun-myeong’s face. A dark shadow gathered on Eun-myeong’s small and concave philtrum.

“Did you find your sister?”

His eyes welled up with tears. Eun-myeong lost his focus and lowered his head as if enchanted by something.

“No…”

“If you can’t find Lee Eun-joo, you will pay the price.”

The back of the man’s hand brushed Eun-myeong’s cheek. The tufts of hair that stood up like cotton sparkled one by one in the light of the overhead lamp.

“If the hole expands you’ll end up wearing diapers in the end….”

Then you won’t even be able to aim properly and live dribbling urine and feces. The man’s hand, which had let slip some words, lightly tapped Eun-myeong’s cheek.

“What are you going to do if some perverts say they’re going to pee on your face, huh?”

Eun-myeong’s face turned pale. After releasing even the strongly consumed water, the stomach expanded like a roll of wrapping paper and heaved with heavy breaths.