METAL 8

If even a single piece of bone remained, a DNA test would probably be possible with the latest technology. After all, even in this Camellia Faction serial murder case, where the flesh was all melted and most of the bones were dissolved on the mountain, they managed to identify the victim in just two months with only the remaining fragments. Such things are possible these days.

After standing in front of the laundry basket for a long while, Hyunsoo finally turned around and began to change his clothes.

After buttoning up his pajamas, he sat on the edge of the bed, and when he felt something burst out from behind and soak his underwear, he reflexively frowned. Judging by the pain, it was probably blood.

I made a mistake. Regret belatedly sprouted in his mind.

He had classes and tutoring tomorrow as well. Why, instead of finishing his preparations and going to sleep, did he end up putting his body in a state that would be uncomfortable even to walk around in tomorrow? It would be an even bigger problem if he had damaged not just the entrance of his anus but his intestines as well. But as he thought that, Hyunsoo shook his head expressionlessly. A big problem?

It wasn’t as if he had ever lived with a normal body. Anyway, once he stepped out onto the street, in the gazes of people or in their imaginations, he would always be wet, or fucked, or about to be fucked, or screaming and moaning.

It’s no different. He had been like that his whole life, so he could just leave the house like that tomorrow as well. After being done and done again until his insides were all raw and broken. No matter what was done to his back hole, in the eyes of others, the body of ‘Omega Lee Hyunsoo’ was the same anyway. It was normal.

So, Hyunsoo himself really had nothing more to lose.

Hyunsoo blinked, looking at the wall, then his gaze suddenly turned to his wrist. When he rolled up his sleeve, layers of cuts, as if made with a knife or broken glass, were revealed.

It was an area that could be easily hidden by wearing a long-sleeved shirt and buttoning it up. Hyunsoo wasn’t very sensitive to heat, so he usually wore long-sleeved clothes even in the summer anyway. He got up, turned off the light in the room, and headed for the bathroom again.

In the bathroom cabinet was a bottle of alcohol-based disinfectant. He soaked a cotton ball with the solution, wiped the area around his anus, and then returned and lay down on the bed. It was only ten at night, but he thought it would be better to go to sleep. His head was dizzy and he felt nauseous.

He thought it would be impossible to prepare for class tonight in this state. It would be better to wake up early tomorrow and do it. It was only the final rehearsal stage; he had already laid out the entire framework, so even if he skipped it, it probably wouldn’t be a huge problem.

During the period of taking suppressants, one experiences mild indigestion and dizziness. He had heard it was worse for thin people. On top of that, he had masturbated twice, so it was only natural to be dizzy. Hyunsoo pressed on his stomach, curled his back, and covered himself with a blanket.

Just as he was about to fall asleep, a vibration was suddenly transmitted not only to his ears but also to his shoulders and back. Hyunsoo opened his eyes. Someone on the floor above was running a washing machine.

In the 5-story building, there was one laundry area each on the 1st and 4th floors. Hyunsoo lived on the 3rd floor, and since the laundry room was right above him, it was difficult to fall asleep when the washing machines were running at night. The person who had stopped by today seemed to be doing a backlog of laundry, as it sounded like they were running two machines at the same time.

Although there was a notice on the bulletin board saying not to use the washing machines after ten at night, the rule was not well-observed. This was because most of the residents left in the morning and only came home at night. Hyunsoo, with his eyes open, pressed his cheek against the pillow. Wearing earplugs would make it a little better, but he didn’t feel like using them. It was because of the memory from the gosiwon.

It was right after he had returned to Korea in early January. At that time, Hyunsoo had found an ordinary mixed-gender gosiwon. The real estate agency had said the security around the building was fine, and when he visited, the room seemed reasonably clean. Most importantly, the price was cheap.

But an alpha entered his room. It was only ten days after he had moved in.

When he woke up, he heard breathing and smelled the not-entirely-clear scent of an alpha’s pheromones, as if there was a dim fog somewhere. A recessive alpha was masturbating next to Hyunsoo’s face, trying not to make a sound.

Hyunsoo endured, pretending to be asleep. A moment later, the man let out a low, nasal uuuummm, then soon rustled and left. After the front door closed, Hyunsoo turned on the reading lamp he had placed by his head and looked around. On the sheet right next to his pillow, there was a trace where semen had flowed.

From the next day, Hyunsoo began to look for another place. And at the end of the month, he moved to a slightly more expensive place, one that had not only a keyhole on each room’s door but also a keypad installed. It was only after two more months had passed that he finally found out about the existence of the hidden space that was an omega-exclusive studio apartment and applied to move in.

If he had been sleeping with earplugs in the gosiwon back then, Hyunsoo might never have known that the man had come in and left. Even if a trace of semen had been left, if he had discovered it only after it had dried, he might have mistaken it for a mark from his own drool while sleeping. Lying on the bed of the studio apartment, Hyunsoo blinked his eyes, taking in the full vibration of the two washing machines with his entire body. The inside of his wrist itched. Just a little more.

Knowing it wouldn’t make things any better, he thought. Just a little more, just,

I wish that red mark would be engraved more strongly than this vibration.

I wish the mark that I, with my own hands, can make on my body, would be redder and stronger than that… Hyunsoo got up from the bed, approached the table, and once again began to rummage inside his crossbody bag. He soon found a large box cutter with a slightly broken-off blade tip. It had broken a while ago while he was unbinding a book. No, had it?

Hyunsoo rolled up his pajama sleeve, placed the broken part against his inner forearm, and drew it across a few times.

His wrist and shoulder were already so densely covered with marks. Perhaps because his skin had already adapted, it didn’t bleed as easily as before, so Hyunsoo pulled his pants down halfway and also drew it across his inner thigh three or four times. The snow-like clean flesh readily bled wherever the jagged blade passed.

The washing machine’s vibration flowed ceaselessly from the ceiling, down the four walls to the floor, and hummed. Still, as the bright red lines appeared on his body, he felt a little better, and Hyunsoo, while sitting, tried scratching the bleeding areas with his fingernails. While scratching, he licked the stains that had gotten under his fingernails to clean them and tasted them, and while tasting, he also gnawed on his fingers. Then, his gaze fell on the table. The two snack bars.

At the beginning of last semester, Jun had also tried to give Hyunsoo something like that. Back then, it was coffee. Just before the start of class, Jun had held out a pitch-black Americano with his characteristic shy yet clear and bright expression. While telling the obvious lie that he had bought it for a friend but couldn’t meet them so it was left over.

Although he had refused at that time as well, Hyunsoo hadn’t particularly suspected Jun’s intentions until then. He had only felt sorry that he couldn’t accept it. It was because, in a lecturer-student relationship, reciprocity could be an issue.

From their first meeting at the beginning of March until that night in May, Hyunsoo had only seen Jun in a good light. Since his trait was alpha, there had been times when the goodwill he offered felt unsettling, but he tried not to entertain useless suspicions. It was because judging people solely by their trait was wrong. He believed that he, of all people, who had suffered and lived as an extreme dominant omega, should not do so.

But it had been a foolish stubbornness.

He didn’t know why he had tried so hard to believe in not just any alpha, but a dominant alpha, for several months like that.

March 3rd. Hyunsoo counted the exact date he had first met Jun in his mouth again. Jun was a student who had been in Hyunsoo’s first-semester class at Korea University from the beginning, sitting in the very back row on the first day, and from the second day onwards, always in the very front row.

And he was the first dominant alpha Hyunsoo had met after returning to Korea.

ʚଓ

About half a year ago, on the third day of March, was the first day of class of the first semester. Hyunsoo got off the shuttle bus and walked toward the building for the College of Language and Literature lectures.

The weather was still chilly, but the young students were scattered around outside, wearing jackets. They were chatting, or listening to music alone, or looking at their phones. Hyunsoo deliberately didn’t look around, just held onto the strap of his crossbody bag tightly and walked toward the Humanities Building 2. Go in and give the lecture, he tried to think only of that.

It wasn’t an easy lecture to get, so I have to do well, Hyunsoo constantly repeated to himself. He had done his master’s abroad, so he didn’t have many connections in Korean universities. Suddenly returning right after his Ph.D. and landing a lecturer position was by no means an easy task.

As he walked, reflecting on this, his nose suddenly tingled.

It was a familiar yet somehow strange sensation. Wondering if he was getting a nosebleed, Hyunsoo quickly lowered his head and raised his hand to his face. It was plausible, since he had been suffering from insomnia ever since returning to Korea. Especially since the night before he had been plagued by nightmares because of the stalker.

Hurriedly feeling his philtrum, Hyunsoo already felt his surroundings closing in. It was a sunny day. That is, it was a day when Hyunsoo’s appearance was clearly illuminated from all sides. People would laugh when they saw the bright red liquid moistening his upper lip. They would laugh with their mouths, and with the folds of their brains and their groins. That omega, what was he doing last night? they would laugh. Just like his classmates had when his nose started bleeding while he was giving a presentation on the podium in high school.

That day, Hyunsoo’s nose had started bleeding because the wound inside his nose from being hit by his father the previous day had reopened. But one of his classmates, who knew that Hyunsoo had presented and had his first heat, shouted loudly. What did you do last night to get a nosebleed? Everyone else laughed along, the alpha kids intentionally sent out their pheromones, some betas pointedly held their noses, the omegas tried hard to pretend they didn’t notice, that sort of thing, that sort of thing.

Feeling his philtrum with his fingertips, Hyunsoo confirmed that, thankfully, the area under his nose was smooth. It had been a misperception.

A strange misperception. Even while tilting his head slightly, he continued to walk toward the humanities building. But perhaps because his nerves were on edge, his vision swam.

Even though he was walking under the sunlight, his vision flashed black. It’s definitely from not getting enough sleep, Hyunsoo thought, and though he staggered, as if not wanting to be defeated, he intentionally began to move his feet faster. Then, as his body swayed, his eyelids also fluttered, and like a cracked film, it projected an image in his mind. The scene from the alley in front of his studio apartment the very night before.

An alpha male had followed him right up to the front of the building.

The studio apartment he had newly moved into from the gosiwon was nice because it had both a key and a keypad on the room’s front door. Because Hyunsoo could change the keypad numbers frequently. But the location of the building was not very good. Although there were security cameras around the entrance, it was obvious there would be blind spots, and the building itself was tucked deep inside a poorly lit alley. Last night, on his way back late in the evening after finishing tutoring, footsteps had followed behind him.

That night had been the seventh time. For a week, every day, the footsteps had followed him to the building entrance.

For the first two days, Hyunsoo had tried to dismiss it as a misperception, as nothing more than paranoia. But after a week, he could no longer do so.

He didn’t think of contacting the police. Even if he told them, they would only reply that they would increase the number of patrols, and even then, they wouldn’t take action without clear evidence. It was understandable, as they would always have a lot of work to do even with just the clear-cut cases.

Last night, the footsteps had been particularly persistent. For the past week, they had at least stopped abruptly when Hyunsoo stopped in front of the common entrance, but yesterday, for some reason, they showed no sign of stopping even when he reached out his hand to press the keypad. Hyunsoo gripped the electric taser in his pocket tightly with his right hand and looked back.

He did see a shadow slinking back. But the alley, with only one small streetlight standing forlornly, was too dark, and Hyunsoo couldn’t even properly make out the color of his clothes, let alone his face.

It was only after two months had passed that Hyunsoo suddenly recalled it clearly. That it had been a figure with a large build and an upright posture.

The outline of his body was conspicuously young and full of substance. For a person who did such things, he was unsuitably elegant and physically outstanding, and even in the darkness, he had glinted like a panther, Hyunsoo belatedly remembered with almost laughable vividness. Only after encountering that stalker again in the alley on a late evening on the second Thursday of May.

But on that night in early March, not yet knowing that he would recall it that way, Hyunsoo had slammed the common entrance shut and gone up to his room. Then he had locked the door with the key and keypad, curled up on the bed, and tried to sleep.

Sleep did not come easily. He did fall into dreams for brief moments, but he only had nightmares, and Hyunsoo woke up in the morning feeling even more tired than the night before and headed to Korea University. He was facing the first day of his major class in the worst condition, but it couldn’t be helped.

Korea University was the only university in Korea with a comparative literature department. At other universities, Hyunsoo had only taught language courses like German or French, but only at Korea University could he land a lecture in his own major. It’s a precious position, I have to do well. Repeating this, Hyunsoo walked toward the stone stairs leading to the entrance of Building 2.

Then, his nasal passages tingled again. He was sure it wasn’t a nosebleed this time, so he didn’t bother to feel his face. Instead, as he got closer to the stairs, he tasted clear saliva pooling in his mouth and realized. It was pheromones.

An alpha’s pheromones.

There was a reason he hadn’t identified it right away from the start. It was because it was a scent that felt completely new, with a purity and concentration different from what he was familiar with. Just as, even with the same rose scent, the fragrance of a flower blooming in the wild is different from an essence extracted from millions of blossoms down to a few drops.

A dominant alpha, no, special even among them. This must be the type people refer to in slang as an extreme dominant. Hyunsoo realized at once.

It was because of this fragrance that his nose had been feeling a tingling sensation all along. When he reached the stairs, the scent became much stronger. It rode on a timely breeze and rushed toward Hyunsoo from over his left shoulder like a swarm of butterflies, covered and caressed his cheeks, temples, and lips with its tiny wings, then mixed with his breath and was instantly sucked up to his brain.

It was not a scent being sent out intentionally. It wasn’t that strong, nor did it have any aggression. It was merely at the level of a body scent that was unavoidably emitted because it was mixed in with his very flesh and blood. However, it was so terrifyingly pure that even a single thread mixed in the air would feel as bright as a fire in the dark to a sensitive person’s senses.

Hyunsoo felt, to his core, that he was a dominant omega.

He had been forced to meet dominant alphas three times in Korea because of his parents, and he had also happened to meet one once in Kelnon. Each time, the other’s body scent had penetrated his nerves almost violently, and Hyunsoo couldn’t help but realize in a horrifying way what kind of animal he was designed to be.

Fortunately or unfortunately, far from being sexually aroused, Hyunsoo would always turn pale. Like a person who starts throwing up before they even get drunk. Thanks to that, he had very naturally ruined the arranged marriages that both sets of parents had set up.

However, as he climbed the stairs in front of Korea University’s Humanities Building 2, for the first time, Hyunsoo felt his spirits lift at the scent of a dominant alpha. As if he had smelled the scent of spring, his tongue became moist and clear, and his chest tingled with an itchy sensation. The scent soon turned into colors and began to drift in his breath. When he bit down on the pastel-hued color fragments of light green and violet that undulated between his teeth, a dense fruity taste burst forth.

I’m going to die, a sentence naturally surfaced in Hyunsoo’s mind.

He thought, unable to even swallow the overly sweet saliva. I’m going to die.

If an alpha like this were to speak to an omega in a dark alley at night, if he were to follow him all the way to the front of his studio apartment building, if he were to come inside his room, that omega would die.

He would spread his legs himself

and die from ecstasy.

The expression he had seen in old documents circled in his mind along with the texture of the fragrance. Hyunsoo entered the building without even thinking of looking back at the group of students who were sitting on the upper part of the stairs, went into the bathroom, spat out the saliva that had pooled in his mouth, and washed it out with water. Belatedly, his stomach started to ache.