The cage, crafted enthusiastically by Nam Soohyun, was made for no one but the white-haired old man. Through the wide iron bars, Director Yeon poured something in. Some of it got caught between the bars and didn’t fall, so he gave it a gentle nudge with his foot to help it drop.
When something landed on his back, Jung Younggil flinched and hurriedly raised his upper body. His blurry eyes fell on a pill bottle rolling across the floor.
“What…?”
There were no buildings nearby. Thanks to that, Director Yeon could clearly hear the frail voice. His lips parted slowly.
“Painkillers.”
“P-painkillers…?”
They weren’t close enough to have a harmonious conversation. Director Yeon didn’t answer what it was until Jung Younggil strained his neck all the way back to look at him.
“You’ll be in a lot of pain going forward, so think of it as my final gift.”
Deep wrinkles formed between the old alpha’s gray eyebrows. He looked like he didn’t understand.
“Did you really think I was the only one who knew about this place?”
His voice was calm, with a light laugh.
“Nam Soohyun, Lee Haejin… Ah, but you probably wouldn’t recognize their names.”
Jung Younggil struggled to commit the unfamiliar names to memory. No way… But unknowingly dulled by drug addiction, his brain simply wouldn’t function properly, no matter how hard he tried.
“It’d be a shame if I were the only one who got to see you like this.”
The man’s tone, which almost sounded innocent as if he were watching something amusing, was clearly mocking. Only then did Jung Younggil’s gaze land on the pill bottles hanging from the iron bars of the cage floor. A few looked like they might tumble through the gaps at any moment and hit the dirt below. The precarious balancing act lasted only seconds.
“This… this isn’t right…”
The old man stretched out his barely functioning arms, trying to snatch up the pills. The sudden movement made the cage rattle, and several of the pill bottles fell to the ground in an instant.
“Ah!”
He frantically shoved his hand between the bars, but they were too narrow for a human hand to fit through.
“As if you only made one enemy, Chairman.”
Director Yeon recalled all the familiar faces. There were more than a few alphas and omegas rushing toward this place for their own personal vengeance.
The hutch that Nam Soohyun had prepared only had an opening in the ceiling. The door was designed to open solely from above, far out of reach for Jung Younggil. It wasn’t placed above ground either. It had been buried, making it impossible for any passerby to discover.
The man had bought the large plot of land just for today. A desolate field with not a single building in sight. A tall fence surrounded it, and a sign had been posted clearly stating it was private property. With all that, there was virtually no chance of the old alpha trapped in the pit hutch being discovered by accident. Especially not here, where even cell phone signals barely reached.
“I-I can’t keep staying alive like this….”
At some point, Jung Younggil had frantically picked up a bottle of pills, now cradled in his hand, and murmured hollowly. His mind was slowly, sluggishly coming back to him. This clearly wasn’t something that had been planned in just a day or two. The old man instinctively knew that his remaining days wouldn’t go easily.
“I’d rather you not think about suicide. Well, you regard your life way too important to go that far, I suppose.”
Though it sounded like nothing more than an old man’s muttering, someone above the hutch picked up on it and replied. Jung Younggil instinctively felt his life was in danger. His chest was heaving, and he looked up toward the voice.
Only then did the aged alpha see the figures of dogs watching him from above the hutch.
Director Yeon’s shadow blocked out the sunlight from overhead. Jung Younggil wanted to flee from that overwhelming darkness, but he couldn’t move an inch. If he’d been on solid ground, he might’ve shifted easily, but now his aging body was supported only by the steel-meshed cage. Even the smallest movement was severely limited.
“Do you see that?”
Jung Younggil turned his head in the direction of Director Yeon’s chin. A creaking sound, like bones grinding, seemed to echo through his body.
Bzzzz.
A surveillance camera twisted its neck to follow the movements of the old man. Its gaze was locked in like a fighting dog’s, never letting go until it sank its teeth into its prey.
“It’s a hassle to monitor a useless old man like you, but money solves everything, doesn’t it?”
“Y-You bastard…!”
“There are so many people with a grudge against you, Chairman, it wasn’t even hard to find someone willing to help.”
Jung Younggil turned away from the rising corner of Director Yeon’s lips. But the moment he averted his gaze, he saw someone else. The omega of his own kin, nestled in the arms of the younger alpha. The boy was wearing a coat similar to Director Yeon’s, black and heavy.
The pale face looking down at him held an unreadable expression. Jung Younggil’s cracked lips, now beginning to bleed, moved faintly.
“Jung…”
He had never once properly said that name. It didn’t come to mind immediately. Desperately, the old man searched through his memory, dragging out the name Director Yeon had once whispered so gently.
“Hee… Heeyeon!”
The call he didn’t want to hear made Jung Heeyeon’s cheek muscles tighten. He could feel Director Yeon’s arms, wrapped around his waist from behind, tightening ever so slightly.
“P-Please spare me!”
Jung Heeyeon said nothing, only stared down at the old man.
“I-I’m not asking to be let go! Just turn me over to the police, please! There are laws in this country, aren’t there?!”
Hearing the man speak his name and words like ‘law’ sounded strange and distant to Jung Heeyeon. He hadn’t even realized that being locked up for most of his life was illegal until he met the man standing behind him.
“This can’t happen! Don’t you know what that bastard Yeon Woobeom will do to me if you let this go on?!”
Even with the man’s desperate howls, Jung Heeyeon remained silent. Whether it was Director Yeon, Chief Nam Soohyun, or even Haejin hyung—he didn’t care what they would do to Chairman Jung. The old man was merely getting back what he had done.
“The bastards I sold off will torture me!”
Even now, the old man hadn’t changed his arrogant way of speaking. The voice scraped like metal against metal, making Jung Heeyeon frown further.
“You think you can trust that alpga behind you? He’ll throw you away!”
“Ha.”
The alpha standing behind Jung Heeyeon let out a wry laugh.
“You know what kind of man Yeon Woobeom is?! He’s a fighting dog that once tore someone apart!”
At the name Yeon Woobeom, Jung Heeyeon finally opened his mouth.
“I don’t care what kind of person the Director was or is now.”
“W-What…?”
“I don’t care if the Director is a bad person.”
As if he had never let out a wry laugh, Director Yeon produced a slight smile and gently kissed the back of Jung Heeyeon’s neck. Jung Heeyeon quietly looked down into the hutch and recalled their conversation that morning.
‘Heeyeon.’
Director Yeon had called his name, brushing back his disheveled hair. His face looked a little sharp, like someone about to say something unpleasant.
‘Yes?’
‘I’m going to finish off Chairman Jung now. Do you want to come with me?’
‘Finish off?’
Jung Heeyeon had to stop to consider what exactly ‘finish of’ meant. Did that mean he was turning the old man over to the police? Then he remembered the surveillance cameras. The violent scene would have been captured in full.
‘Oh, Director. There’s a camera in the bedroom of the house I used to live in… I think it might’ve recorded the Chairman hitting me.’
The more he spoke, the harder the man’s face became. When Jung Heeyeon looked up, puzzled, Director Yeon slowly rubbed the cheek where the bruise had faded.
‘…Got it. I’ll check it.’
‘Yes. I think it would help when you finish off the Chairman. I’ve seen dramas where they submit that as evidence…’
‘What I meant by ‘finish off’ wasn’t something so gentle, but what to do now.’
‘Pardon? Then what do you mean by finishing off him?’
‘I’m not letting that bastard sleep soundly in a prison bed after what he did to you.’
Jung Heeyeon had looked at him for a while, then grasped the hand that was rubbing his cheek. If it wasn’t going to be handled in a gentle manner, that meant it would be illegal.
And that was alright too.
‘I want to go as well.’
‘I honestly hoped you wouldn’t.’
‘Director, as long as you’re with me, I’ll be fine.’
The large hand flinched as it cupped the smaller hand.
‘Chairman didn’t hit only me. He tormented you when you were young too.’
Jung Heeyeon carefully tried to persuade Director Yeon. No matter what kind of scene awaited them, it would be alright. There was nothing left that could frighten Jung Heeyeon anymore.
‘That’s why I want to come and see him with you. I hate that person who hurt you too.’
‘What if it ends up with me putting our Heeyeon off?’
‘Pardon? I won’t be put off by that.’
‘Okay. Let’s go together, then. You’re pretty brave, I guess you’re not a baby anymore.’
Director Yeon joked lightly, and Jung Heeyeon blinked at him in surprise.
’Yes? I was never a baby to begin with…? Even when we first met. You were just teasing me…’
‘Mhmm. And you didn’t like it?’
‘I don’t mind it when you say it, Director. But no one else can.’
A conversation that had been about to grow heavy returned to its usual, lighter mood. Jung Heeyeon had gotten into the car to come here, wrapped in that familiar atmosphere. Thanks to Director Yeon explaining the situation along the way, he had understood exactly what was happening.
The idea that the man who had told him everything from start to finish would now abandon him was absurd. The affection he had received from Director Yeon was far too overwhelming to be swayed by those words.
“Even if the Director kills the Chairman, I’m fine with it.”
Jung Heeyeon spoke each word clearly, his face had no emotion.
“That bastard isn’t your real blood. I am! That bastard behind you has no relation to you!”
“Chairman, you’re the one who told me that the moment I met another alpha, you’d be a stranger to me. You told me to listen to the new alpha because we’re not family anymore.”
The omega, who had never once felt love from his own blood, spoke with utter calmness.
Realizing that persuasion was impossible, Jung Younggil began to let out strange noises like a speechless beast. However, due to the damage done to his throat from the drugs, the old man’s miserable screams didn’t last long. A deflated, metallic rasp hung inside the cage for a moment before fading away.
“Heeyeon. What do you think we should do?”
Director Yeon whispered tenderly. Jung Heeyeon turned his head slightly to look at the man embracing him.
“What do you want to do, Director?”
“If you want him dead right now, I’ll kill him for you.”
Faced with that gentle offer, Jung Heeyeon fell into a quiet thought. If Director Yeon had said he wanted to kill him, he would’ve replied the same, but it was hard to read Director Yeon’s true intention this time.
He was seriously pondering what to do, and at that time.
“I told you to be greedy.”
The soft voice brushed across the small wish inside Jung Heeyeon’s heart.
“Honestly, I don’t really care about him…”
He began fidgeting, trying to intertwine his fingers with Director Yeon’s. The alpha standing behind him chuckled softly and linked their fingers together.
“But if I think about you, and the others…”
“Yeah.”
“I hope the Chairman doesn’t die and just stays in there for a very, very long time.”
Was there a punishment more merciful than death?
Unlike a moment ago, when he’d only slightly turned his head, Jung Heeyeon now twisted his entire body to face the alpha. Their eyes tangled like their fingers had just done.
“So I hope he suffers in that hutch for a very, very long time.”
His words were horrific, but his face remained just as gentle and lovely.
“Until your anger finally evaporates, Director.”
Given permission by his young lover, the man smiled freely without hesitation.
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