MIM 35

Seeing that you have time to dawdle, it seems you’re feeling quite bold. Shin-woo leaned back in his seat and let out a long yawn. He was subtly tired after moving his luggage to the hotel and organizing everything.

It was a modest amount of luggage, not even needing two trips. Rather than physical exhaustion, it was more that he had spent a while reminiscing about the old days while deciding what to keep and what to discard. Even when the hectic present demands full attention, the slightest lapse in focus leads to dwelling on the past. Was he trying to piece together the memories Jae-seung had lost? Shin-woo scoffed at himself and turned his gaze out the car window. Just then, a stray dog wandering nearby caught his eye.

He wasn’t particularly knowledgeable about dogs, so he couldn’t identify the breed, but its appearance resembled Shin-woo. The thought made him smirk involuntarily. One of the compensations Jae-seung had received was a brown-haired dog also named Shin-woo. That dog was currently being lovingly cared for by Ju-yeon, who had even changed its name to “Love,” but the dog in front of him seemed destined to remain on the streets.

“Hey you. What are you looking at?”

Shin-woo spoke to the small dog while resting his head against the window. Though his voice couldn’t have been heard through the closed window, the dog cautiously approached and crouched down next to the front wheel. Up close, he could see patches of missing fur, possibly due to a skin condition.

“…Ah, shit.”

He regretted calling out. The dog’s hearing was probably better than a human’s, and it seemed to have caught even the quiet muttering through the window. Shin-woo sighed in annoyance and pointlessly placed his hand on the steering wheel. He waited for the dog to move along on its own, but it had settled in place with no intention of budging. A collar was visible amidst its tangled white fur.

The dark green collar suited the dog’s fur color well. If it had been a truly wild dog, that might have been better; most pets that were abandoned didn’t survive long. This one must have been scavenging food scraps, as it licked its dirty mouth while wagging its tail at Shin-woo.

As he stared blankly, a memory surfaced.

[Your name is Shin-woo too?]

The moment Jae-seung first asked his name still felt as vivid as if it had happened yesterday. His reaction was so funny that Shin-woo would burst into laughter every time he recalled it. After teasing him for a while about how such a coincidence must be fate, Shin-woo finally confessed that the name had been given by Ma Jin-sung. Jae-seung then threw a fit, asking how his father could do such a thing. Still unsatisfied, he even went to confront Ma Jin-sung the next day, demanding to know why he had chosen that name.

It was by chance that Shin-woo was present for that conversation.

[It’s confusing, you know. Both the puppy and the dog being called ‘Shin-woo.’]

[Does it matter? They’re both dogs, and they’re both compensation given to you.]

Ma Jin-sung replied with a nonchalant face, even with Shin-woo standing right beside them. Jae-seung, who had hoped to wheedle his father, just pursed his lips and pouted without pressing further. Shin-woo realized then that Jae-seung’s initial purpose for knocking on his father’s door wasn’t to argue. Since his father wouldn’t come to him, he was creating excuses to visit.

Fully aware of his son’s intentions, Ma Jin-sung remained seated behind the massive desk that separated them, simply observing with a smile, never closing the distance. He always looked down at Jae-seung, never meeting his eyes as equals.

[How are you today? Were you in pain?]

[No. I wasn’t in pain.]

[That’s great, son. You’ll grow up to do great things like your father. You might even surpass your Alpha-born brother.]

Ma Jin-sung’s way of handling Ma Jae-seung was blatant. Jae-seung’s reason for existence and life goal was meant to be solely inheriting the Ma family legacy.

[People who do great things need several scapegoats around them.]

[…What’s that?]

[Misfortune, that is. A scapegoat is someone who takes on the bad luck that comes towards our family.]

As he said this, Ma Jin-sung glanced at Shin-woo. Meeting Jae-seung’s following gaze directly, Jae-seung averted his eyes with an awkward expression, as if feeling guilty. Ma Jin-sung continued his explanation, unfazed.

[Shin-woo is a perfect name for that. It’s written with the characters for ‘servant’ and ‘calamity.’]

That was how Shin-woo first learned the meaning behind his name. It wasn’t particularly pleasant, but he hadn’t expected much and simply accepted it as fact. It wasn’t until years later that Jae-seung suddenly brought up the topic of names again.

[Let’s change it to mean ‘trust’ and ‘friend’ instead.]

It was a pleasant summer night, sitting by the fountain in the middle of the garden, getting bitten by mosquitoes. At the time, Jae-seung had shown a mild allergic reaction to insect bites, so Shin-woo had rolled up his sleeves to attract the mosquitoes instead. Focused on the mosquitoes, he almost missed what Jae-seung said.

[Shin-woo… my name?]

[That’s why you’re always getting hurt!]

Jae-seung pulled down Shin-woo’s sleeve without making eye contact. Then he kicked at the ground aimlessly. Adorably, it seemed he was referring to the stitches he’d gotten a few days ago.

[I don’t believe in that stuff. I’ve lived with different names and without a name, and it wasn’t much different from now.]

[It will be different.]

[…..]

[Wait. When I become an adult, I’ll change it for you.]

Jae-seung’s expression, fixated on his dirt-covered sneakers, was quite determined. It was a seriously sincere attitude that didn’t match the frivolous promise of changing the Chinese characters of a name. The image of his flushed cheeks and sparkling eyes, vivid even in the dark night, remained clear in a corner of Shin-woo’s heart.

That night, Shin-woo got eight mosquito bites on his arms alone. Not just his arms, but even places that weren’t bitten felt itchy, leaving him unable to sleep until dawn. It was a strange summer night that felt like yesterday, even after several years had passed.

The sound of the door opening snapped Shin-woo out of his reverie. Pushing aside the memory that remained as clear as a video from countless replays, he focused on the man standing at the entrance. Kim Ye-wook. The son of a director at Daesu Corporation who had invested heavily in genetic transformation research. As soon as he learned Jae-seung was here, Shin-woo had investigated the homeowner first.

The director’s family at Daesu Corporation had been utterly destroyed. The second son who participated in the genetic transformation experiments committed suicide, and shortly after, the director followed suit. He’d heard that even the wife succumbed to terminal cancer soon after, with no time for treatment. Given that the entire family had been ruined because of the genetic transformation research, there was no way Ye-wook could have approached Jae-seung with good intentions.

It hadn’t been long since the incident at the villa, yet here he was, fearlessly entering another stranger’s house. Shin-woo clicked his tongue and opened the car door. As he strode towards the entrance, he quickly scanned the surroundings. On his way, he had to shake off two teams of reporters tailing him.

Ye-wook grew increasingly pale as Shin-woo approached. Smiling at the retreating Ye-wook, Shin-woo nonchalantly put an arm around his shoulders and stepped inside. Only after confirming the heavy thud of the front door closing did he reach out and grab Ye-wook’s neck.

“Ugh! Let, let go!”

“What’s your scheme?”

Lifting him up with one hand, Ye-wook teetered on his tiptoes. Shin-woo’s patience for slow persuasion, like he’d done with Yoon-sung, had long since run out. He roughly pushed forward, immediately demanding answers. The Daesu Corporation director’s family would already be overflowing with money, so Joo-yeon couldn’t have hired him.

Shin-woo’s eyes suddenly narrowed as he observed the struggling Ye-wook. On closer inspection, his attire looked odd. An oversized shirt as if borrowed from someone else, a face still flushed with excitement, and slippers dangling from his bare feet as if he’d rushed out.

The shirt in particular looked familiar. Shin-woo abruptly lifted the shirt that covered half of Ye-wook’s thighs. There were no marks on his body, and while his well-fitting jeans made it impossible to tell if he was aroused, the fluttering shirt carried a familiar scent.

If Jae-seung was trapped somewhere in this house, stripped of his clothes again. The mere thought made Shin-woo see red. The sound of desperate choking brought him back to his senses, and he loosened his grip. Ye-wook rolled on the floor, coughing.

“Cough, cough… Huff, ha…”

As Ye-wook gasped for breath, Shin-woo’s mind raced. Having lost his entire family, Kim Ye-wook must be filled with a desire for revenge. The only reason he approached Jae-seung had to be revenge, nothing else. Shin-woo stared at Jae-seung’s shirt, which was so large on Ye-wook that it exposed his shoulders.

From the looks of it, was he planning to seduce Jae-seung using his Omega traits and then betray him? That was worse than stabbing him in the heart. Especially for Jae-seung, who had no one to trust, repeated betrayals would be excruciatingly painful.

Should he kill him?

The Daesu Corporation director loved yachting and often went to the river with his family. Accidents where people fall overboard while boating are quite common. Under Shin-woo’s sideways glance, Ye-wook struggled to regain his balance and stand up.