PM Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Could that man really be the one those guys were talking about?

They had the same last name, so maybe.

But Heeseong hadn’t sensed any pheromones from the man at all.

Even when they were pressed together, there had been nothing.

Then could the person those men were after be one of the alpha guests staying here?

Heeseong grew more confused.

He didn’t know.

Thinking too hard had made him hungry.

Heeseong took out a cup of instant noodles and slurped it down, soup and all.

Gnawing on the wooden chopsticks, he made up his mind to start with what he could do.

First, he’d try to get some suppressants.

If he had those, it would be a relief—even if he couldn’t stay here much longer.

Heeseong gave a small nod and jumped to his feet, brushed his teeth, and stepped out the door.

His plan was to ask at the counter to borrow a phone—either the motel’s or a cell phone—and find out where the nearest pharmacy was.

Not having a phone was unbelievably inconvenient; it was torture.

Surely they’d lend him one at the counter, right?

Just the thought of the man made Heeseong a little nervous.

Even having a light conversation with him was intimidating.

He swallowed hard and cautiously made his way down to the first floor toward the counter.

But contrary to all the tension he had built up, there was no one behind the small window at the front desk.

Caught off guard by the unexpected situation, Heeseong blinked in confusion.

He chewed on his lip, wondering what to do, when suddenly the stairwell door next to the elevator swung open and a crowd of people poured out.

“Hey, man, why would you pull that out right there?”

At the same time, a blast of musty, fishy odors swept toward him.

“How was I supposed to know he’d have that on him? I had a damn good feeling about it, too!”

Feeling nauseous, Heeseong ducked his head and tried to slip away quickly.

As he rushed to pass them, one of the men suddenly blocked him with his arm.

“Damn, you’re a cute one. Where you off to?”

“Wanna hang out with us?”

The men shoved their dark, rough faces close to Heeseong.

Flustered, he tried to duck away.

If only they hadn’t grabbed his arm, he might’ve slipped through.

“L-let me go!”

He twisted and pulled as hard as he could, but it was no use.

The men completely ignored his resistance.

One bald man grinned wide.

“Damn, your voice is something else.”

“And your skin—damn. What are you wearing these for?”

“Ugh!”

The guy with the squashed nose reached for Heeseong’s glasses.

Heeseong jerked his head back and shut his eyes tight.

That was when a voice, laced with amusement, cut through.

“What are you guys doing to a guest?”

“Gah—uh… B-Boss Pyo…”

“This is just, we thought he was staff from the basement, that’s all.”

The men quickly let go of Heeseong and stammered their excuses.

It was a complete 180 from how they had just been harassing him.

Heeseong slowly opened his eyes.

The man from the elevator stood nearby, head tilted, eyeing the men.

Their eyes met, and Heeseong flinched without meaning to.

“Staff?”

“Y-yeah! That’s what we thought!”

“Right! We were just trying to be friendly—”

The men scrambled to explain to the motel owner.

Even though they were all big guys, it was clear he was the dominant presence here.

The man snorted at their excuses.

“Our staff doesn’t do that. And he’s a guest too.”

“A-ah, s-sorry about that, Boss Pyo.”

“You shouldn’t mess with guests. Bad for business.”

“We—we made a mistake! Really sorry about that!”

They bowed and stammered, watching his expression.

Then the man tilted his chin toward Heeseong.

“You should be apologizing to the guest.”

“S-sorry about that.”

The men glanced at him, then quickly muttered apologies to Heeseong and fled the motel.

Heeseong stood there stunned, still trying to catch up with what had just happened.

As he blinked in a daze, the man opened the door to the counter.

“Lot of clueless guests around today.”

The man mumbled to himself and moved to step behind the counter.

Heeseong hurriedly grabbed the hem of his shirt.

“Um! I… th-thank you.”

He blurted it out, flustered.

The man stared at him for a moment, then looked down at Heeseong’s hand on his shirt.

“All right. Now let go, yeah?”

Heeseong hurriedly opened his mouth.

“I-I have something to ask.”

“What.”

He had expected to be ignored, but the man didn’t do that.

Leaving the door to the counter open, the man turned his body toward Heeseong.

Heeseong let go of his shirt.

The man’s eyes briefly flicked down to Heeseong’s hand, then back up to his face.

“To get to a pharmacy, which way should I go…”

“There isn’t one.”

“…What?”

Heeseong blinked slowly.

The thought that there might not be a pharmacy at all hadn’t even crossed his mind, and his head went blank.

Flustered, he didn’t notice that the man was studying him closely.

The man took out a cigarette, put it between his lips, and asked abruptly,

“You need medicine?”

Snapping back to his senses, Heeseong shrank his neck under the man’s gaze and gave a small nod.

When he answered softly, the man asked again,

“What kind.”

“T-the thing is…”

He hesitated, unable to speak easily.

If he mentioned suppressants, he would be revealing that he was an omega.

And acting so desperate to find them would make it obvious to anyone that his heat cycle was approaching.

An omega near heat was always a target and an easy prey.

“If you could just tell me where it is, I can—”

“I said there isn’t one. There’s nothing around here.”

The man replied casually.

It didn’t look like he was lying.

Heeseong’s face clouded with worry.

Then what should I do? I need it right now…

“Want me to get it for you?”

At the sudden offer, Heeseong looked up.

The man was leaning against the wall, watching him.

There was a spark of interest in his smiling eyes.

Seeing that look, Heeseong forced an awkward smile.

“I-it’s fine. Thank you.”

The man wasn’t safe either.

When Heeseong declined, the man simply nodded without hesitation and turned away.

As Heeseong cautiously watched him, he felt relieved that at least his identity as an omega hadn’t been exposed.

Just as the man stepped toward the counter, Heeseong realized something and quickly grabbed him again.

“Wait!”

The man glanced back at him.

Heeseong opened his mouth carefully.

“Could I… maybe borrow a phone?”

“What for.”

“So I can at least look something up.”

Stiff with nervousness, Heeseong stole a glance at the man’s expression.

Surprisingly, the man handed his phone over without resistance.

Hesitating, Heeseong accepted it and opened the map app.

It showed a random part of Seoul, as though location services were off.

Turning it on without permission felt wrong, so Heeseong glanced at the man again, then decided to just search manually.

He brought up the search bar, but froze.

He didn’t know the address of this place.

“Um… what’s the address here?”

The man looked at him in disbelief, then told him.

Heeseong bowed his head and began searching for nearby pharmacies.

The map app searched for a bit, then zoomed out suddenly.

“….”

The nearest pharmacy was an hour and fifty minutes away by car.

Heeseong was speechless.

Why is it that far?

This place must be the middle of absolute nowhere.

He smacked his lips in resignation and handed the phone back.

“Find anything?”

“Yes… but I don’t have money for the bus or anything…”

Thinking about it, he didn’t have money for the medicine either.

The cash he had was only enough to cover the first two days of lodging.

He had to leave tomorrow—what was he supposed to do then?

The reality hit him again, and his vision darkened.

Suppressants were expensive.

Cheaper ones always came with side effects.

But Heeseong didn’t even have enough for the cheap kind right now.

Was there any way to get money fast?

He bit nervously at his lip.

The man, Pyo Daesik, stared quietly at the anxious Yoon Heeseong.

He had already figured out that the medicine was a suppressant.

He also knew that Heeseong had intentionally come here without any suppressants.

And he knew that Heeseong had used that as a pretext to approach him in the first place.