Romantic Gangster

#80

The pharmacist, who smiled looking at Ji-woo sitting in the back restlessly listening to Hyun-joon’s absurd omega rambling, held up a bottle of medicine and handed it to Hyun-joon.

“It hasn’t been 72 hours since the knotting, right?”

“72 hours? Uh… Ah, yes.”

“You can take two pills right away. You may feel a bit lethargic or nauseous, but if the degree is severe, it’s best to visit the nearest designated center, wherever is fine.”

“Ah, yes. Thank you.”

Hyun-joon, who quickly paid for the medicine, turned around and looked at Ji-woo. For some reason, Ji-woo’s ears were red. Was he embarrassed to come to the pharmacy to buy birth control pills? Hyun-joon crept closer, took Ji-woo to the water dispenser placed on one side of the pharmacy, and made lukewarm water by pouring cold and hot water into a paper cup in turn.

“You can take two of these. It says you may feel a bit of an upset stomach after taking them. Should we just say you’ll rest one more day and go home to rest?”

“No, it’s okay. If my stomach really hurts, I’ll leave work early then.”

“Okay. Uh, can I take that together too?”

At Hyun-joon’s question, Ji-woo tilted his head as if he didn’t understand at once.

“…What? This… medicine?”

“Yeah… The medicine must be toxic. I mean, they said there could be side effects like feeling nauseous and losing strength. It’ll be bad for your body, so I don’t like you taking it alone.”

“Even so, how can you think of taking it together? I understand how you feel, but you can’t. What if something bad happens after taking it? Look here, it says consumption is prohibited for physiques other than omegas.”

Seeing the warning written in red on the box, Hyun-joon sighed. It was written not to take it, and Ji-woo seemed like he definitely wouldn’t allow it, so he couldn’t take it, but the feeling of being sorry to Ji-woo and the worry didn’t easily go away.

“Wait a moment.”

Hyun-joon, who had been watching Ji-woo swallow the medicine with water, approached the pharmacist again.

“Um… What should I do to avoid taking such a morning-after pill after the cycle is over? It’s not good for the body to keep taking such medicine, right?”

“Well, it’s not good to take it often. To prevent pregnancy, you must use condoms, and if the alpha takes a rut suppressant and knots when the rut has fully started, the probability of pregnancy drops below 10%. Rut suppressants are also very strong drugs, so they’re not very good for the body either.”

“That’s fine. I’ll take it. Rut suppressants… Yes, thank you.”

Hyun-joon, who lightly bowed his head in greeting, quickly returned to Ji-woo, took the water cup he was holding, threw it away, and hugged his shoulder.

“Call me right away if you feel even a bit strange, okay?”

“Yeah. I will.”

“Can you work standing up? Is down there… okay?”

“Yeah, it’s fine. I thought I would suffer a lot later when doing it, but it doesn’t hurt much and it’s not very tiring. My condition is good and I feel good too. You saw I ate lunch really well, right?”

“Still, be careful just in case. Okay?”

“Yeah, I got it. Hyun-joon, wait a moment.”

Ji-woo, who had been looking up at the kind face with lingering worry, gestured for him to come down. At that, Hyun-joon immediately bent his body and lowered his face next to Ji-woo’s. The moment their eyes met where their gazes met, warmth touched his lips and then fell.

“Thank you.”

“…What are you thankful for? I’m not even doing anything well for you.”

“What do you mean you’re not? You always think of me first and worry about me first if anything happens. Even now, you keep worrying and looking after me in case I’m sick.”

“That’s not something to be thankful for, it’s a given. You’re really too kind, that’s the problem. Why do you keep being thankful for something natural? You should tell me to do more.”

“Okay, then is it okay to say I love you instead of thank you?”

Ji-woo’s face looking up and smiling seemed to sparkle more than usual today. Hyun-joon nodded with a reddened back of his neck. It was because he knew too well how sweet the words “I love you” from Ji-woo were.

“I love you.”

“…Me too.”

“Your ears are red.”

“…It’s because it’s hot.”

“Oh, your neck is red too.”

“It’s because of you.”

“Yeah, it’s because of me. It’s because I like you too much.”

Hyun-joon, who smiled following Ji-woo who was brightly smiling, stopped in front of the convenience store that had arrived before he knew it. Then, he bent his body and checked carefully again if his waist didn’t hurt, if it really wasn’t uncomfortable between his legs, and if his stomach wasn’t feeling queasy after taking the medicine, and only after kissing him more than twenty times did he let Ji-woo go inside.

Ji-woo, who went inside, turned around and waved his hand slightly, smiling again. That was so pretty that he seriously considered breaking into the convenience store, but he barely calmed down and turned his steps towards the chicken cafe.

“Ah…”

How the fuck, do I miss him as soon as I turn around? I should have been the one going into Seo Ji-woo’s stomach instead of the medicine. I kept making Ji-woo feel good without any side effects… I can keep doing that.

“……”

Ah, crazy. I’m getting aroused again.

Hyun-joon, who shook his head at his body that was tingling just from thinking about it, slapped his cheeks hard enough to sting with both hands to come to his senses.

The stinging sensation spread out across his face. Still, Ji-woo’s pretty face smiling and waving his hand didn’t disappear from his mind at all. Not even a little bit.

* * *

“No, I really thought you suffered because of your rut, but how is your face like this?”

“Boss, doesn’t Hyun-joon’s face really glow? With that level, isn’t he a rut physique?”

No, fuck. What the hell is a rut physique, you beta.

From the moment he started working until now, Hyun-joon shook his head at the words of admiration from the boss and the hyungs in the kitchen whenever they saw him. Although he and Ji-woo both looked good and had skin that was glowing as if they had slept deeply and rested well, considering they couldn’t sleep or eat well for days while doing it, it felt a bit strange to hear others point it out.

“……”

Amid the pouring of useless words, Hyun-joon thought of Ji-woo. Ji-woo’s face, which he saw first thing this morning when he woke up late, was really like a baby’s skin, true to the words.

He looked soft and fluffy like freshly steamed white rice cake, and when he touched it, it was so pretty that he didn’t know how many photos he took of his sleeping face. He also took photos face to face with Ji-woo, who woke up at the sound, and spent the morning constantly biting and sucking on that soft face.

Recalling the cheeks touching his lips and softly sucking on them, a subtly pleasant sensation pooled in his lower abdomen.

Honestly, he wanted to skip work and just suck and melt those cheeks, but he knew he had to endure and go to work to take Ji-woo to all the places he wanted to go and fill his mouth with delicious things.

He thought he had become a pretty decent human now. Seeing that he had gained a reasonable amount of patience and could envision the future while suppressing what he wanted to do.

“Ah, right. Hyun-joon. The drinks came in earlier, so organize them in the pantry.”

“Yes.”

At the boss’s words, as he moved his steps to the warehouse deep inside the store, he felt a vibration. Hyun-joon took out his cell phone and quietly looked at the notification window on the lock screen. An unbelievable notification was on the screen.

EveryONE Banking Deposit/Withdrawal Notification

[Deposit] Kind Loan Shark 50,000,000 won

Account 329-673392-02-*** Balance 56,287,550

He couldn’t figure out why Kind Loan Shark suddenly sent him 5 million won. It wasn’t like there was any settlement money he had to receive, and they couldn’t have wrongly sent this to him, so there was a high possibility that they deliberately sent it to make him who was staying still squirm.

Should I just fucking eat the 500 while pretending I don’t know, that fucking bastard keeps poking me.

Hyun-joon, who thought he should find 100 won coins and sprinkle them all over Kind Loan Shark’s floor, was about to put his cell phone in irritably, but felt something strange and looked down at the screen again.

“…What?”

EveryONE Banking Deposit/Withdrawal Notification

[Deposit] Kind Loan Shark 50,000,000 won

Account 329-673392-02-*** Balance 56,287,550

There were too many zeros for 5 million. One, ten, hundred, thousand, ten thousand… Hundred thousand, million… Ten million?

“…Ah, fuck.”

It was an amount he had never seen before in his life. Thinking what the hell this was, he couldn’t even curse anymore and checked several times if it was really 50 million won, and with another short vibration, a new notification appeared above the one he was looking at.

EveryONE Banking Deposit/Withdrawal Notification

[Deposit] Kind Loan Shark 50,000,000 won

Account 329-673392-02-*** Balance 106,287,550

Hyun-joon’s eyes widened as he confirmed that the account balance had exceeded 100 million won. It seemed they were going to call him in this way now.

It seemed he would have to go out for a bit after taking Ji-woo home today. To cut off the one and only reason that prevented him from becoming a good person.

* * *

After work, Hyun-joon headed home with Ji-woo as usual. He thought about what to say to Ji-woo all the way, but no clear answer came out.

Saying he was going to meet a friend for a moment and come back didn’t seem like Ji-woo would believe him because after he started liking Ji-woo, he cut off contact with all the guys he used to hang out with, so there was no one to meet.

It was also unreasonable to make an excuse about his part-time job. It was strange in itself to come all the way home after work and suddenly make an excuse about work and leave again.

“……”

He knew he shouldn’t hide anything from Ji-woo, but it wasn’t easy to say that the fucking thugs kept coming to him and bothering him. It was embarrassing for him, but more than that, he didn’t want to put needless worry on Ji-woo.

“Ji-woo.”

“Yeah?”

“I think I have to go somewhere for a bit because I have something to take care of, can you stay home alone?”

“Yeah, I can stay alone. But what’s going on?”

“There’s just something I need to resolve. It won’t be that late.”

“Is it something bad? It’s not… something dangerous, right?”

“It’s not like that. It’s not something dangerous, it’s something I’m doing so it won’t be dangerous, so don’t worry. If it gets resolved well, I’ll tell you everything.”

Hyun-joon grinned, looking at Ji-woo who looked at him quietly for a moment and then nodded. Ji-woo probably noticed to some extent too. The fact that he asked if it was something dangerous meant he had thought that far.

He must have many things he was curious about and wanted to ask, but he felt grateful and sorry at the same time, making his heart heavy, to Ji-woo who didn’t ask and only told him to be careful and come back safely.

“Lock the door well and stay inside. When you open the door later, make sure to check if it’s me.”

“Yeah, I got it. Come back safely.”

After kissing him with a smack for the last time, Hyun-joon watched Ji-woo go inside the house and only then left the rooftop. He felt uneasy the whole time because he had received 100 million won, an amount he never wanted. He wanted to return this money quickly and end the relationship. He was willing to ask Baek Ju-seung for a favor if necessary.

Walking through the dark alley and entering the familiar street, the building he thought he would never come to again came into view. Hyun-joon, who didn’t want to waste time, immediately climbed the stairs with no lights and knocked on the tightly closed door of Kind Loan Shark. Soon the door opened and Baek Ju-seung’s face appeared, smiling as if he had been waiting.