Salt Society

So Gi-hyeon finally confessed his long-harbored, unrequited love to his childhood friend, Jo Yeon-oh—a man who absolutely despised the very thought of dating Betas.

The response he received was nothing but a vicious, agonizing rebuke.

“You crazy bastard. Fuck…” Yeon-oh spat, dry-heaving at the sheer audacity of the confession. “Did you completely forget that you’re a Beta?”

Gi-hyeon had been fully prepared to quietly bury his feelings and walk away, but Yeon-oh stubbornly refused to let his friend go.

“Fine. Let’s do it. Let’s date, you fucking selfish bastard.”

Despite the venom in his words, Yeon-oh’s eyes betrayed a deeply wounded expression. The confession left a bitter, stinging taste on the tongue—the miserable beginning of a thoroughly salt-rimmed relationship.

“Do you seriously have no memory of stumbling out completely naked and throwing your arms around me when you were drunk yesterday?”

Jo Yeon-oh slowly arched a single brow, his expression dripping with incredulity at the abrupt remark. He crossed his arms, silently challenging Gi-hyeon to continue. Since Yeon-oh had so graciously set the stage, Gi-hyeon found no reason to hold back, spitting the words out without a shred of hesitation.

“You seem to be operating under a massive misunderstanding. I’m the kind of person who could do absolutely anything with you, Yeon-oh. The only reason I haven’t laid a single finger on you until now is because you made it perfectly clear that you’d hate it—”

“Ah. I get it now. Is that what this is about?”

Slicing straight through Gi-hyeon’s explanation, Yeon-oh let out a low, mocking smirk. Gi-hyeon’s jaw slowly snapped shut. He desperately wanted to clamp a hand over the Alpha’s mouth, but paralyzed by the shifting atmosphere, he could only stand in silence and wait for the inevitable blow.

Yeon-oh’s lips curled into a knowing smile. “You’re pissed off because I acted like a couple of Betas dating yesterday, aren’t you?”

“…What?”

Gi-hyeon stared, entirely incapable of comprehending the sheer absurdity of the statement. Betas dating? As a Beta himself, the concept felt utterly alien to him. Unbothered by the profound confusion, Yeon-oh pressed on relentlessly.

“Look, I’m sorry if my actions gave you the wrong idea, but didn’t we already resolve this exact issue last time?”

What issue did we resolve? All the blood violently drained from Gi-hyeon’s body, leaving him as pale and deathly cold as a corpse. As he stood frozen in shock, Yeon-oh cleared his throat with a dismissive rumble.

“Why are you looking at me like you don’t remember? I already told you—if you’re so desperate and really can’t hold it in, I’ll find someone to service you.”

Gi-hyeon recoiled. He had absolutely no idea how that connected to their current argument, but the sheer humiliation of having those deeply insulting words hurled at him again struck like a physical blow. He violently clamped a palm over his own mouth. If he allowed even a single syllable to slip past his lips right now, it would be a curse so unimaginably vile that it would permanently sever their lifelong friendship.

Unfortunately, Jo Yeon-oh had absolutely no intention of letting him suffer in peace.

“But if you’re going to do it, try to stick to Omegas,” Yeon-oh advised smoothly. “I’ll make sure to fetch someone from that side of the tracks for you.”

“…What the fuck are you spouting, you motherfucker.”

“Watch your mouth,” Yeon-oh chastised gently. “Use pretty words.”