When I glanced back, there were at least five or six men with nasty faces.

“fuck, seriously!”

I shouted into the air and ran at full speed.

At a glance, it was obvious what had happened. That bastard Joo Gwansik had definitely sold me off again.

Thirteen years ago, I was still a kid, so he probably made a decent amount by selling me to a place with somewhat humane treatment, but now I was twenty-nine, nearly thirty. To put it bluntly, the only places that would buy a fully grown Omega who had already lost his first experience a long time ago were dangerous, filthy places.

In other words, if I got caught, I was done for. I tore through the narrow, filthy alleys in a frenzy, muttering curses with my mouth the whole time.

“fuck this shit, huff……, damn it! I, huff, am I crazy, fuck! Why did I trust that bastard Joo Gwansik! Hah, if anything goes wrong, I’ll never let him go even after I die!”

I had let my guard down. Even knowing what kind of person he was, I must have trusted him just a little.

I had thought, at the very least, he wouldn’t sell off a son he had already sold once. But it was the opposite. He had already sold me once, so selling me a second time must have been even easier!

When I swung around a corner, the end of it turned out to be a dead end. It had been my first time here, so not knowing the area had done me in.

As I ran toward the blocked-off end of the road, rage surged up in me. I felt wronged. I suddenly stopped and spun around, and the rough men chasing me also stopped.

The man in front, with a scar on his face, took out a pocketknife and slowly approached.

“Fine. Don’t waste your energy, let’s go quietly. Hm?”

“Wait!”

For now, I threw out a palm to block the man’s approach. Then I immediately put a hand to my knee and caught my breath, which had risen all the way to my throat.

“Hah, huff, j, just let me catch my breath for a second…….”

Scarface crooked the eyebrow that was cut in half and sneered.

“What are you doing?”

“Huff, hah, no, no, fuck, how much money did Joo Gwansik borrow? Let’s at least know why you’re chasing me before I run.”

“Hm?”

The man, his eyes wide, exchanged glances with the guys behind him and burst into laughter. The laughter spread in a dry wave. I hated the sight of those variously ugly bastards snickering away.

“This is one funny bastard. We’re not doing this over our money.”

Scarface kept coming one step at a time, twirling the pocketknife over his palm. Cold sweat streamed down through the heat of my body.

“T, then why?”

“It’s a long story…… But you’re going to die soon anyway, do you really need to know?”

“fuck, are you insane?”

The curse burst out of me before I knew it. A hot surge of anger rose from my stomach.

“No, I’m already pissed enough that I got dragged into this after coming to collect money I lent. And you won’t even tell me why you’re doing this?!”

If I said I wasn’t scared, that would have been a lie. Rough men who would be hard to even encounter once in a lifetime were blocking the way and threatening me with knives, so of course I was scared. But even more than that, I felt betrayed and enraged.

That bastard father sold me off. Not once, but twice!

My face went red as I panted in fury, and Scarface scratched the top of his head with the end of the knife hilt.

“Ha……. He’s smiling at me like that and thinks I’m his friend.”

The smile vanished from Scarface’s face. He handed the knife to the underling beside him and turned away.

“Hey, clear it.”

“Yes!”

The men who took out long and short blades from their chests began to approach slowly.

My heart pounded all over my body and my limbs shook. Just standing still was hard, so I stumbled backward.

I didn’t know exactly what Joo Gwansik had sold me as to make them pull knives without even trying to negotiate, but I wasn’t about to die obediently. If it came to that, I would bite their hands off.

I gave up on shouting. Even if my father sold out his own child, there was no way a complete stranger would help someone they had never even seen.

Even if someone did decide to help, the moment they faced those faces they would obviously run. It would only hurt me if I caused pointless trouble and the flustered bastards decided to finish this even faster.

So I watched for the timing with my eyes wide, and then suddenly I heard neat footsteps in dress shoes from far away. For some reason, the sound drew my attention.

Those footsteps approached at neither a slow nor fast pace, then stopped at the mouth of the alley with a tap. I narrowed my eyes and tried to make him out, but all I could see was a black outfit, and with the slanting sunlight backlighting him as it slowly tilted down, it was hard to make out his features.

The shadow stretching out from the feet of the unidentified man passed over the various ugly bastards and stretched long all the way to my feet.

What was surprising was that I was not the only one whose attention had been stolen by the man’s sudden appearance. Everyone was staring at him with dumb faces.

Scarface, who had been examining the man with a hand shading his brow like me, widened his small eyes.

“Uh……?”

“Looks like you’re doing something interesting without me.”

I, I was saved!

He didn’t look like he had shown up to help, but thanks to him there was a gap. I slid my feet little by little while the thugs’ attention was turned toward him. I intended to press against the wall, wait for the chance, and then bolt at the right moment.

Scarface waved a hand at the man.

“Why are you here……. No, never mind. Go on your way.”

“I don’t want to.”

My hands were slick with cold sweat, and my dry saliva kept swallowing down my throat. I clung to the wall like a frog and moved my feet little by little while watching the man. Even then, I had only moved about one centimeter with each step.

Because the distance was far and I couldn’t see his face well, my ears perked up. Just from the voice, I could tell it was a fresh, low voice handsome enough to imagine his looks. It wasn’t too rugged, and not too thin either, just the right kind of nice voice.

But strangely, the voice felt familiar somehow. It wasn’t the kind of voice that was easy to forget once heard, so it didn’t seem like someone I had met recently…….

Anyway, that wasn’t important right now.

Scarface let out an irritated “Haaah!” toward the sky, as if frustrated. The rest of the ugly bastards all turned toward the man too.

“Hey, young ma……gehk!”

In an instant, the man suddenly threw a fist and slammed it into Scarface.

“hyung-nim!”

“Manager!”

Right now!

I kicked off the ground and started running with all my strength toward the outside of the alley.

The bastards, who had forgotten I was even there for a moment, spotted me darting out and shouted curses.

“That bastard!”

Scarface clutched his cheekbone, which had taken the hit, and pointed.

“Catch him! If you lose him, you’re dead!”

I ran with all my strength, without even a chance to look back. Even as I ran only forward, I could feel a large hand reaching at my back. I wanted to run faster, but my knees were shaking so badly that everything felt too slow.

It was only about ten meters, a short distance, but the end still felt far away even as it drew near. Heavy breathing came closer behind me.

No, I’m getting caught……!

The collar of my shirt was yanked hard. The moment I felt like my throat was being choked, a long arm shot out beside me.

“Don’t.”

“Uhk!”

The fist that brushed past my cheek like wind blew away the presence closing in behind me. The hand gripping my collar fell away, and a knife with a bright blue edge clattered to the ground.

“Hiiik……!”

When I thought I might really have died if I had been even a little later, the courage I had squeezed out of myself melted away without a trace.

A scent with no color approached and propped my frozen body against the wall. As he told me, I leaned my back against the wall and pressed my wildly pounding heart down hard with my palm.

The one who had just been sent flying by the man’s fist glared in grievance.

“No, you……ugh!”

Every time the thugs tried to say something, they were blocked and struck with fists, kicked by feet. Before I knew it, Scarface, whose both cheekbones had been turned blue, shouted toward the sky again, “Aaaaagh!”

“fuck, what the hell is this supposed to mean?”

“Yeah. I get it, so get lost.”

“You son of a bi—aaagh! fuck!”

Thud! A huge footprint was left on Scarface’s flashy floral shirt.

The man standing with his back to me brought his index finger to his mouth.

“Shh.”

By then, even my judgment, dulled by the strange situation, could see that something was off.