Chapter 23

He must have accidentally dozed off on the sofa.

After commuting home, inhaling a fast-food burger with a beer, and attempting to assuage his guilt by doing some light ankle exercises with a Theraband, he had simply passed out. The silver resistance band was still draped lazily across his stomach. Tossing it aside, Gi-hyeon sluggishly dragged his heavy body toward the bathroom.

A faint, distinct scent of chemical bleach had caught his attention.

Yawning widely, Gi-hyeon leaned heavily against the bathroom doorframe. Crossing his arms, he idly rubbed the underside of his chin with one hand and asked, “Did you meet your mother?”

“…”

The Alpha offered absolutely zero response.

The only sound echoing through the bathroom was the violent, aggressive scrubbing of a harsh bristle brush against the tile floor. The absolute psychotic spectacle of a man scrubbing a bathtub while wearing a fully tailored luxury suit was glaring, undeniable proof that he had just returned from a disastrous meeting with his mother.

Because he was aggressively squatting while wearing tailored suit trousers, his massive thigh muscles were violently expanding, threatening to completely shred the expensive fabric at any second.

Since the vast majority of Jo Yeon-oh’s suits were spun from pure, high-grade silk, the trousers were undeniably ruined. An entire, exorbitantly expensive Italian designer suit from their exclusive Homme line had just met a tragic, entirely avoidable demise.

The scrubbing was neither frantically erratic nor painfully slow.

If it weren’t for the fact that the expensive dress shirt was stretched so agonizingly tight across his shoulder blades that it looked ready to snap with every flex of his massive latissimus dorsi, one might assume he was simply doing routine bathroom chores.

Gi-hyeon stood in absolute silence, watching the rhythmic flex of the Alpha’s back for a long time before finally speaking.

“Take me with you next time. I miss seeing your mother.”

“Then you be her fucking son.”

“…Your mouth is absolutely filthy again today. Wrap it up and take a shower. I’ll actually dry your hair for you tonight.”

Leaving the Alpha to his psychotic coping mechanism, Gi-hyeon retreated to the living room. He neatly coiled the Theraband, tossed the empty beer can into the recycling, and wiped down the table. If he left even a speck of dust behind, the maniac would undoubtedly start aggressively vacuuming the entire living room in the dead of night, and Gi-hyeon desperately wanted to spare the downstairs neighbors from that nightmare.

After finishing the quick cleanup, Gi-hyeon retreated to the master bedroom. Shortly after, Jo Yeon-oh emerged from the bathroom, radiating an absolute, freezing chill from his rapid shower.

He did the exact same thing in the dead of night yesterday… is taking freezing cold showers his new psychotic hobby?

Summer hadn’t even officially arrived yet; the sheer, monstrous vitality of the perfectly healthy Alpha was honestly terrifying.

However, Gi-hyeon kept his thoughts to himself, silently accepting the hairdryer Yeon-oh practically shoved into his hands.

With a towel completely draped over his head, effectively hiding his expression entirely, Jo Yeon-oh aggressively yanked the extension cord adapter out from under the bedroom nightstand and aggressively jammed the hairdryer plug into the socket. Then, he abruptly plopped down on the floor right beside the bed, yanked the towel off his head, and waited in absolute, obedient silence.

Letting out a massive yawn that threatened to unhinge his jaw, Gi-hyeon shifted to sit directly behind Yeon-oh. He flicked the hairdryer on, setting it to a low, gentle heat. The soft, mechanical whir instantly filled the quiet room.

As Gi-hyeon buried his fingers deep into the damp, thick strands, gently shaking the dryer back and forth to evenly distribute the heat, Yeon-oh completely surrendered. Tilting his head entirely backward, he let the heavy weight of his skull drop directly onto Gi-hyeon’s knee.

“Don’t move.”

“…”

The absolute, stony silence confirmed he was genuinely, deeply furious today.

Still, the fallout from meeting his mother was significantly milder than the apocalyptic rage triggered by his father. Encounters with his father—a man Yeon-oh fundamentally refused to even acknowledge as a human being—always culminated in absolute, catastrophic disasters.

Rumor had it that during a brief encounter at a holiday gathering, Yeon-oh had completely lost his mind and violently lunged at his father with explicitly murderous intent, requiring the entire armada of estate bodyguards to physically dogpile and restrain him.

During the violent scuffle, his finger had been snapped completely backward, requiring Beom-hee to personally set the bone and apply a cast. Thanks to his monstrous, practically mutant healing factor, the torn ligaments had miraculously completely regenerated in just over a week.

As a direct consequence of that psychotic outburst, Yeon-oh’s grandfather had imposed a strict and mandatory house arrest on him for an extended period. Terrified that the grandfather was plotting to revoke the substantial inheritance of corporate shares he had legally promised to Yeon-oh, Yeongwon—who had strictly refrained from entering the Seongbuk-dong estate since her divorce—urgently rushed over to plead for leniency. The fact that she felt compelled to intervene perfectly encapsulated the sheer magnitude of the rage of Yeon-oh’s grandfather—a man who placed the absolute supremacy of the eldest son above all else.

Regardless, his relationship with his mother wasn’t nearly as toxic, yet the deep, aggressive trench carved between his brows indicated she had either demanded he do something he violently despised, or strictly forbidden him from doing something he desperately wanted. It was entirely possible she had done both.

“Did you throw another massive temper tantrum at your mother?”

With his head still resting heavily on Gi-hyeon’s knee, Yeon-oh kept his eyes firmly shut and delivered a deeply unimpressed, deadpan response.

“Take my side. Or what, have older women always been your exact type?”

“Your mother is incredibly beautiful, so why not?”

The exact second Gi-hyeon matched his deadpan, emotionless energy, Yeon-oh instantly snapped his head up, twisting around to glare at him with absolute, unadulterated fury.

“Are you out of your fucking mind? Lately, the second an Omega is even mentioned—. Hah, fuck.”

“What about Omegas?”

When Gi-hyeon tilted his head in genuine, total bewilderment, Yeon-oh violently whipped his head back around and clamped his mouth completely shut. Assuming the bastard would eventually spill the details once his psychotic temper cooled down, Gi-hyeon didn’t bother pressing the issue. Because the Alpha’s hair was incredibly fine and soft but staggeringly thick, thoroughly drying it was a massive, time-consuming chore.

However, once it was finally completely dry, the silky, incredibly soft texture was so intensely satisfying that Gi-hyeon couldn’t resist running his fingers through the strands a few extra times, coaxing a low, incredibly pleased groan from the Alpha. Deciding to be generous and offer a rare, premium service, Gi-hyeon patted the mattress, ordering the bastard up.

“Lie face down. I’ll give you a massage.”

“You literally worked on your feet all day. Forget it. I’m just going to sleep.”

“Lie face down, patient.”

When Gi-hyeon firmly patted his shoulder and repeated the command, Jo Yeon-oh let out a quiet chuckle and obediently flopped face-down onto the mattress.

“Hey, you know perfectly well that if you do this, you’re just going to cramp your own muscles, and then I’m going to have to be the one massaging you later.”

“Mm.”

Offering a non-committal hum that confirmed absolutely nothing, Gi-hyeon pressed his hands firmly against Jo Yeon-oh’s broad back. He began applying deep, sustained pressure to the trigger points in his trapezius muscles before transitioning into a deep-tissue Rolfing technique designed to aggressively release the fascia. Despite the brutal pressure, the Alpha didn’t let out a single whimper of pain.

When Gi-hyeon performed this exact technique on other athletes, they typically shrieked and writhed in absolute agony, yet Yeon-oh’s reaction was bizarrely, almost supernaturally dull, making Gi-hyeon wonder if the man possessed a genetically mutated pain tolerance.

“Does this not hurt at all?”

“It hurts.”

Even as Gi-hyeon timed his breathing to drive his thumbs aggressively into the rock-hard, severely knotted muscle tissue, the Alpha didn’t show a single flinch of discomfort, prompting the question. While the Alpha verbally claimed it hurt, his voice was entirely flat and unbothered. Assuming the bastard could easily handle significantly more pressure, Gi-hyeon unceremoniously climbed directly onto the prone Alpha’s lower back, straddling his hips. Since it was a completely standard, highly effective leverage technique he utilized daily on his athletes, Gi-hyeon thought absolutely nothing of it. Using his entire body weight, he drove both thumbs deeply along the spinal column, tracking all the way down until he applied massive, concentrated pressure directly near the tailbone.

“—Hey. Get off.”

“Why? Does it hurt here?”

When the Alpha suddenly spoke in a terrifyingly low, dangerously gravelly octave—a tone that was wildly out of character—Gi-hyeon intentionally pressed down harder, causing Yeon-oh’s entire body to violently jerk beneath him. The fact that the Alpha could effortlessly buck his hips while supporting the entire dead weight of a fully grown adult male straddling his lower back was genuinely terrifying.

“What are you doing? You’re going to injure your lower back. Just stay still for a second.”

“I said, get off.”

His voice had devolved into a raw, feral rasp. Completely bewildered by the psychotic reaction, Gi-hyeon was about to demand to know what the hell his problem was when Yeon-oh violently shoved himself upward. Completely losing his balance, Gi-hyeon was practically thrown off the Alpha’s back, tumbling awkwardly onto the mattress.

“What the hell is wrong with you? Did I actually hurt you?”

Despite Gi-hyeon demanding an explanation for the erratic, chaotic movement, Jo Yeon-oh didn’t say a single word. He simply stood up and marched straight out of the bedroom. Wondering where the hell he was going, Gi-hyeon jumped slightly when the bathroom door slammed shut with a deafening, echoing bang. Utterly flabbergasted, Gi-hyeon stared at the empty doorway for a long time. What the hell… why is he acting so psychotic? He seemed to be calming down while I was drying his hair, so why the hell is he suddenly furiously pissed off again?

While Yeon-oh’s relationship with his mother had been relatively stable recently, it seemed Yeongwon had delivered an exceptionally brutal, triggering lecture today.

After sitting frozen on the edge of the bed for a moment, Gi-hyeon simply flopped backward, staring blankly at the ceiling. His eyelids were growing incredibly heavy. Checking the clock, he noted the small hand was pointing exactly at 10 PM. As expected, aging corporate slaves are biologically programmed to power down before ten, he concluded lazily, refusing to fight the incoming tide of sleep.

He knew that the second Jo Yeon-oh finally returned to the bed, the disruption would inevitably violently shock him awake anyway. Plus, since he had only showered at the hospital, he still technically needed to wash his face and brush his teeth—tasks his profoundly lazy brain immediately decided could simply be handled whenever he was inevitably awoken in the dead of night.

However, Gi-hyeon miraculously remained in a deep, entirely uninterrupted coma until the sun came up. Jo Yeon-oh had never returned to the bedroom. In fact, it seemed the Alpha had fled the apartment entirely.

“…What the hell.”

Snapping awake at exactly 6 AM, Gi-hyeon stared down at his phone screen with absolute, profound bewilderment. There wasn’t a single text or missed call from the man who had completely vanished into the night.

Did a massive corporate emergency suddenly blow up at the company?

Shrugging off the mystery with that highly logical assumption, Gi-hyeon instantly deleted the anomaly from his mind.

He had significantly more pressing, urgent priorities to worry about. He had to get to work.

***