* * *
‘To think that a guy like this was following me around… it gives me the creeps.’
In the basement reeking of a musty smell, Yoo Joohwan, who was sitting in a chair, twisted his lips toward Seo Siho.
His eyes, filled with killing intent, were sharp enough to cut down the person in front of him at any moment.
‘You knew, right? That this bastard was following us.’
‘Yeah.’
‘That’s chilling. Why didn’t you tell me even though you knew?’
‘It was arrogance. I thought a fool wouldn’t pose a threat.’
Moon Dowon replied indifferently, instantly twisting Seo Siho’s arm, which was lying broken beside him.
Seo Siho’s face was contorted with pain, and drool trailed from his parted lips.
‘Will just one arm be enough? He’s a Beta, you said. Since pheromones don’t work on him, just send him to Kang Taeyun.’
Yoo Joohwan nudged Seo Siho’s body with his foot, asking if there was any need to dirty their own hands.
Considering Kim Seunghyun, who had been slapped, it seemed he didn’t want to let him go easily.
‘The more I think about it, the more furious I get.’
Yoo Joohwan let out an abnormal laugh and strongly stomped on Seo Siho’s knee.
The act of crushing it, as if crushing a flower, looked like it would break the bone immediately.
‘S-stop, please… hic.’
‘It hurts? With just this much?’
He lightly hit Seo Siho’s head, asking if he hadn’t thought about this level of pain when he hit Kim Seunghyun.
It was a gesture that showed no mercy would be given when thinking of the person he loved.
‘Don’t worry, I’ll make sure you can walk. That way, there will be something left for Taeyun to deal with. But first, you have to pay back what Seunghyun got.’
Yoo Joohwan raised his hand and forcefully slapped Seo Siho’s cheek.
Following the turn of his head, Seo Siho weakly collapsed and hit his head on the floor.
‘My part is done here. Let’s not meet again.’
Yoo Joohwan coolly looked down with a cold stare and replied in a dark tone, implying that next time, he might actually kill him.
Moon Dowon, who had been silently watching, threw down several photos he was holding.
‘Don’t even think about reporting this.
Considering all the stalking you did, this is self-defense.’
Moon Dowon turned and walked away with Yoo Joohwan, telling Seo Siho to be grateful for being dealt with only this much as a criminal.
Seo Siho, whose vision had blurred, closed his eyes for a moment, then stood up with a determined face.
The clothes he had worn to look good for someone were covered in dust, and his fair, smooth cheek was red and swollen.
When he gathered spit in his sore mouth and spat it out, a loose tooth fell out onto the floor due to the pressure.
‘…Shit.’
It was a shitty world.
Resenting a life that didn’t even give him a chance, he headed home when he saw a car.
He raised his arm to shield his eyes from the strong headlight glare, and someone who had gotten out of the car was already standing in front of him.
‘Seo Siho?’
Kang Taeyun, with a face as gentle as his kind voice, softly asked.
His friendliness, extending his hand with a faint smile, appeared angelic to Seo Siho.
‘Y-yes. I’m Seo Siho. Why?’
The sound he barely managed to utter was mixed with ragged breaths, making it precarious.
He reached out and managed to overlap his hand with Taeyun’s, but Taeyun’s gentle face suddenly turned cold as he firmly gripped his hand.
‘…Ugh!’
A strong pain, unimaginable, permeated his hand. It was an agony so intense it could be compared to having his hand crushed by machinery, not a person’s hand.
He gasped, feeling as if his bones were being broken and shattered, but Kang Taeyun in front of him remained serene.
He looked unperturbed, like someone accustomed to such acts.
‘Don’t feel too wronged about what I’m about to do. Everything is cause and effect.’
At his calm voice, which didn’t fit the atmosphere, the men waiting behind him came forward and covered Seo Siho’s mouth.
Seo Siho, who was forced into the car, never appeared again after that, thus disappearing from the novel.
However, everything changed one day when he woke up in the body of Seo Siho, whom he had only known as text.
He didn’t know why he was transmigrated into the body of the stalker who was brutally murdered, but to survive, he worked hard to twist that ending.
To live, he quit stalking and stayed close to the submissive Kim Seunghyun, not out of envy for the submissive, but as a friend by his side.
But why, in the world, is it turning out like this?!
“Siho. Why aren’t you following me anymore?”
“…Am I supposed to follow you?”
“Of course, you are. You’re my stalker.”
Kang Taeyun, who playfully poked his cheek, gently curved his eyes into soft half-moons.
At his chillingly eerie appearance, Siho took a step back and subtly rolled his eyes.
“That… I quit doing that.”
“So, why?”
“Do I need a reason?”
“Yes.”
Kang Taeyun insisted on a reply in a soft tone, constantly maintaining his charming eye-smile.
In contrast to his tone, his gaze was fierce, ready to devour him.
It seemed he had no intention of letting him go until he offered an excuse.
“Should I say… I realized my place?”
“Your place. What is that?”
“I’m a Beta. A sub-gender that can’t mix with people like you. So I’m going to meet a normal Beta person, date, go on dates, and live like that.”
It was the best choice for living a life different from the original story.
Kang Taeyun didn’t seem pleased with the answer, letting out a short laugh and slowly running his hand through his hair.
“Dating, huh.”
At the quiet voice that felt suffocating, Siho nervously swallowed dryly.
He nervously rolled his eyes, looking for an escape route, but Kang Taeyun, who had been softly murmuring, lightly grasped his wrist.
“Dating is good. Do it, date.”
“…Huh?”
“Instead, that dating. Do it with me.”
“…”
“Kiss me, too. Have sex with me, too. Everything about you, you’ll do it with me.”
Kang Taeyun grazed his index finger over the tender skin of the wrist he held.
The soft rubbing motion felt oddly subtle.
Disturbed by the strangely seductive emotion that felt like a whispered confession, Siho pulled his wrist away.
“Why would I date you? I want to live normally—”
“If you wanted to live normally, you shouldn’t have stalked me in the first place.”
At Kang Taeyun’s voice, which sounded like a beast’s growl, a sense of unfairness welled up in Siho.
The one who stalked him was the pre-transmigrated Seo Siho, not him.
Unable to speak easily, Siho only gnawed at his lips, and Kang Taeyun narrowed the distance by a step.
“Siho, Seo Siho.”
“…Yes.”
“Let’s do it, us.”
“…”
“Let’s do it. Date.”
If he hadn’t clarified his last word, Siho might have interpreted it as an invitation to have sex.
Confused, Siho recalled the original Kang Taeyun.
Just as his sub-gender was superior, his family was also wealthy, and he regarded everyone who wasn’t on his level as worthless beneath his feet.
His true nature, hidden behind his smiling face, was cold, and he thoroughly disliked Seo Siho, who stalked him.
A sudden confession from a guy like that?
It was nothing but baffling.
As he furtively checked the situation, the warehouse door opened, and Moon Dowon and Yoo Joohwan appeared.
“We’re a step too late.”
Yoo Joohwan, with his beautiful eyes, whistled lightly and gently tousled his curly bangs.
His hair, which had been set in a heart shape, naturally fell, lightly concealing Yoo Joohwan’s eyebrows.
“You’ve crossed a line, Kang Taeyun.”
“How so?”
“Seo Siho didn’t just stalk you. Seo Siho liked all three of us, so shouldn’t at least one of us get a chance?”
Yoo Joohwan smiled brightly, sending a pressurizing gaze toward Kang Taeyun.
Behind Yoo Joohwan, Moon Dowon, who had remained silent, tightly gripped the door as if he would break it.
Although he maintained a poker face, his impression looked especially sharp due to his slanted eyes.
As Siho looked up at Kang Taeyun, chilled by the cold intent, Taeyun calmly retorted, looking completely unfazed.
“What chance? He’s an Alpha.”
“If we were friends, at least you would have discussed it with us.”
Moon Dowon countered, striding toward Siho with Yoo Joohwan.
The atmosphere suggested a fight was imminent.
“The dating Kang Taeyun asked you for. Do it with me.”
“Oh, come on. That’s not right.”
Yoo Joohwan cut Moon Dowon off with a rebellious face after his sudden confession.
Moon Dowon’s eyebrow shot up, clearly annoyed.
“The three of us are like brothers. We were the kind of friends who promised to do everything together.”
“And so?”
“Seo Siho, who even stalked us, wouldn’t be unaware of that. Isn’t it too cruel to ask the guy who chased after us because he wanted all three of us to choose just one?”
Yoo Joohwan wore a look of sadness and regret, even though he wasn’t sad at all.
He was a person whose exterior and interior were as different as Kang Taeyun’s.
With not one but two people like that, he urgently needed to settle this situation.
“Wait. You guys seem to have forgotten something… I quit stalking. I don’t like you guys…”
He wanted to utter the words, ‘I don’t like you,’ but the moment he was about to speak the denying word, the expressions of the three men froze chillingly.
He felt like he would be swallowed whole right then and there if he uttered a word of rejection.
“Honestly, I don’t know. Why are you guys doing this to me? Didn’t you hate me?”
No, they should have hated him.
The original Seo Siho existed as a villain meant to be despised.
As Siho showed a frustrated expression in his misery, Kang Taeyun, who had been standing quietly, turned his body and looked at him.
“I did hate you. Until a few days after you quit stalking.”
“…”
“After that, I started to feel bothered. Wondering what that small head of yours was thinking that kept making you run away.”
“…”
“So, I’m going to keep you close. To see if the feeling I’m experiencing is merely curiosity, or just simple interest.”
* * *
