LCS | Chapter 1.1

Chaegong lowered his head. It was hard enough coping with the attention of passersby staring at the bruise on his cheek. His feet, wearing nothing but a single pair of slippers and not even socks, were laid bare before the winter wind. His hands were so cold he could not even spread his fingers, but still, it was better than home.

Home. Yes. His mother had left when Chaegong was very young, and from then on he had lived alone with his dad. There was no way to put it lightly, not even a little. His father, sunk into alcoholism, spent most of the week drunk and took out his temper on Chaegong. He would yank at Chaegong’s hair, saying he looked just like that woman, and sometimes he hit him hard enough to send the small body crashing into a corner.

And yet Chaegong had stubbornly clung to that place until he turned twenty. Because they were family, after all. Because they were family, he could be beaten without a moment’s hesitation, and because of that same family tie, he could not escape him.

He was afraid of being hit by his dad, but he was equally afraid that a father completely drunk on liquor might fall over by himself and be badly hurt.

One day, Chaegong’s dad came home drunk as usual, calling Chaegong’s name over and over with his tongue twisted by the alcohol. Afraid he would be hit again, Chaegong pretended to be asleep and pulled the blanket over his head. Soon after, there was a thud.

When Chaegong rushed out in panic, his dad was lying in the yard, where the cement had all cracked apart, curled up and groaning. Chaegong hurried to help him up, and blood was already seeping from the corner of his lips. It looked like he had bitten through his lip when he fell. Chaegong felt terribly sorry.

If only I had run out right away. Then he wouldn’t have gotten hurt. Chaegong could not even look at those swollen lips, which stayed puffed up for days without going down, and lowered his head. Then he was slapped for daring to disrespect someone so rudely, but even so, his guilt did not easily fade. Even though it had not been Chaegong’s fault.

Chaegong’s dad spent most of the week drunk, but on the days he was not, he did day labor at construction sites. With the day’s wages, he would buy cheap samgyeopsal and grill it for Chaegong. The hand that always threatened Chaegong could, on rare occasions, be gentle too.

That was why. Because he could not hate him completely, Chaegong could not run away. When his dad was sober, he would sometimes look sadly at Chaegong’s bruised body. A single shred of concern in that gaze was so sweet that Chaegong would end up thinking, at least he was being loved, as a child should be. Chaegong, who did not even know what real love was, thought that way.

Sometimes, in fact quite often, he thought he might die like this. But whenever that happened, he could simply spend time outside and go back later, so by now he did not even think it was that hard. The violence that had continued from the moment he was born and raised had dulled him.

Chaegong sniffled. It was a lie, really. Being hit always hurt, and it was always frightening. He had imagined shoving the man who screamed at him more than a few hundred times. But Chaegong could not bring himself to leave. Partly because of emotional shackles, and partly because there was nowhere else he could rely on.

Chaegong was an omega. A recessive omega. His dad was a beta, but his mother had been a recessive omega like him. Omega discrimination had faded a lot, but it had not vanished completely.

In his parents’ generation alone, omegas were treated like part of the household’s assets. The more dominant the omega, the more valuable they were considered, while recessives were treated as defective. Not only omegas, but among alphas too, dominants were certainly treated as precious, though recessive alphas were not discriminated against.

In any case, if an omega ran away and their heat cycle happened to hit, there was nothing they could do even if alphas raped them on the spot. There would be nowhere to file a protest.

Chaegong’s dad often shouted at him. He would get angry over trivial things, and even over things Chaegong had not done. You think you’ll laugh at me and leave too, don’t you? He said things like that.

He hated the fact that he was a beta. He hated it even though most people in the world were betas.

Chaegong’s dad, who had once been so intelligent and sturdy that he was famous in the neighborhood, had believed without a doubt that he would manifest as an alpha. His great-grandfather had been an alpha, and because that was a great source of pride for the family, everyone had doted on him and cherished him. But he had been a beta.

With that one fact, the villagers turned their backs on him. To be exact, they had not turned away so much as lost interest, but for a man who had lived his whole life bathed in attention and affection, it felt like people were ignoring him.

He had lived swallowing that fury, and by luck he married an omega and had a child. If the child turned out to be an alpha, he planned to go back to his family home with great swagger.

Even as a child, the kid had been fairly smart. Because of that, he had hopes, but a few months before graduating elementary school, the child manifested as an omega. There was no chance of having another child, either. That damned omega of his had run off long ago!

That was how Chaegong had lived. As a filthy, useless omega. If only he had been dominant, he might have been sold off somewhere, but a recessive one was truly worthless.

That day was no different from any other. Chaegong, always hunched in on himself, graduated from high school with no friends, and naturally, he could not go to university. He tried to look for part-time work, but the moment he mentioned that he was an omega, the bosses’ expressions changed.

Most looked down on him, and a few cast him looks full of desire. When the owner of an internet cafe touched his leg, Chaegong ran without even looking back. At home, his dad was drinking soju straight from the bottle. His red face asked whether he had found work. Chaegong told him what had happened earlier. They were family, after all. At least because he was his dad, Chaegong thought he would curse out that boss even if he did not comfort him.

“And what’s that worth that you ran away? If someone like you was willing to hire you, you should have said thank you and spread your legs for them!”

It was probably something said in a drunken haze. It must have been. But even knowing that, why did it hurt so badly? The eyes looking at Chaegong were painfully familiar. They were the very same look he had gotten when he had his heat cycle and was clutching his body, groaning, while being stared at with utter contempt. It hurt so much that Chaegong, unlike himself, opened his mouth.

“Then should I have sold my body there?”

What came next was the same as always. He swung his fist, asking how dare Chaegong talk back. Curling his body up and biting down on his lip, Chaegong watched the soju bottles rolling around on the floor. There were two of them. If his dad got completely drunk, he would just lie down and sleep, so that was fine, but when he was only half drunk, the violence was especially bad.

After being slapped over and over, Chaegong could feel his lip split open. At this rate, he felt as if his throat would soon be crushed too. His life was a filthy pit, but he still wanted to live. So Chaegong ran outside wearing only one slipper. In a few hours, his dad would probably be even drunker and asleep.

He was sitting at the mouth of an alley, sniffing at his frozen nose and wiggling his toes inside his slipper, when it happened.

“Excuse me, are you all right?”

The low voice carried a note of concern. Chaegong covered the corner of his mouth at that feeling, one he had not received in a very long time. It did no good, since the bruise on his cheek still showed clearly between his fingers, but Chaegong, not noticing that, simply nodded and said he was fine.

Usually, the people who came up to help Chaegong would hesitate and leave after he refused them a few times. But the man in front of him instead put one knee to the ground and leaned in close. At that moment, a heavy yet sharp scent, somehow different from the man’s atmosphere, brushed past the tip of his nose.

Most people were betas, and among the few alphas and omegas, dominants were even rarer. Chaegong had smelled alpha pheromones quite a few times. There were sometimes alphas at school who deliberately released their pheromones to bully him.

But this was the first time he had ever encountered a scent so intense and yet so clean. Chaegong’s face hardened. He did not know it then, but later the man would say that dominants were also far better at controlling their pheromones, to the point that they could suppress them so well that recessives could hardly smell them at all. In other words, he had deliberately let his pheromones out.

But that was a story for later. Chaegong, experiencing such an overwhelming pheromone for the first time, stared blankly at the man. The man had a face so handsome that it was enough to make Chaegong stiffen completely.

The slightly sharp line of his eyes held a soft concern, and a high bridge of his nose and slightly thin lips filled Chaegong’s view. Chaegong shrank his shoulders.

The man asked what was wrong. Chaegong did not want to answer. But his fingers were so cold. On the other hand, the man’s gaze was far too warm.

On the pavement at the mouth of the alley, Chaegong, for the first time in his life, told someone else his story. Even as the words came out haltingly, the man listened, frowning as if he truly felt sorry for him.

“Then would you like to stay at our place for a while?”

The man, after hearing Chaegong’s condensed little story, said that. It was the first time Chaegong had ever received such kindness, and he shook his head in surprise. But the man, with that easy, pleasant face, kept urging him on. He said he simply could not walk past and leave him there. If Chaegong would not come, then he had no choice but to report him for assault.

At the words that he would report his own father, Chaegong’s eyes went wide. Before he knew it, he let out a thin, startled breath and hesitated, then slowly shook his head. The man laughed at that refusal that sounded almost like agreement, and at that smile Chaegong’s heart fluttered. Whether it was because he was uneasy about the situation or for some other reason, even he himself could not tell.