CHAPTER 52: KIET, FACE WET WITH TEARS I.

Le An yawned widely; after days of absence, his suspension had been lifted and he had returned to his duties.

That morning, when the institute he would be visiting was announced, the press and citizens gathered in front of the gates welcomed his return with enthusiasm.

Now, on this day when everything seemed to have gone back to normal but people were still whispering about him and constantly asking if he was alright, offering their well wishes, Le An silently and calmly guided the espers one by one.

"You look sleepy," said the Tracker, smiling.

Since Tracker had been assigned to Le An, in truth, not much had changed in his life, except that one more person had joined the group of those watching him.

Le An also smiled. Tracker sat right beside him, and although he didn’t appear to be observing Le An’s interaction with the espers, he accompanied him nonetheless. Le An was truly sleepy; he had waited for Taras again the night before.

When Theo entered the room, Le An lifted his head as if sensing his arrival and noticed from his expression that something was wrong.

Then Theo came to Le An’s side. The esper guard who had been protecting Le An closely until now stepped aside and left.

Theo glanced at the esper Le An was guiding, then sat beside Le An and tapped a finger against his watch. Because the hearing of other espers was also sharp, they couldn’t even whisper.

While holding the esper’s hand with one hand, Le An looked at his watch on the other and read Theo’s message.

’GAC reported that the experiment process will be expedited. You’ll be attending dinner with the sponsors tonight, because the acceleration was their request and they want to offer their well wishes to you in person.’

Le An lifted his head. "What kind of acceleration?" he asked Theo.

Theo shook his head. "I don’t know."

"Alright." Le An turned back to the esper, withdrew his hand, and smiled. The esper gently held the fingers of Le An’s hand as he pulled it back. "God has spared you for us, Treasure," he said.

Le An, once again, just smiled, just like he had done for days while the country and his own mind were in turmoil.

There was nothing else he could do. Or rather, he was just another one swept away by the flow of events.

And yet, something within him a spark, kept pricking at him, burning him with a kind of restlessness, as if there was something he should be doing, some way he should be moving.

When the screen of his watch lit up with another notification, Le An leaned over to check it, and a tense expression crossed his face at the message he saw.

Tracker and Theo leaned over at almost the same time to look at his watch, and Le An glanced at the two curious heads and allowed them to read it.

Even though these days were beyond extreme, it seemed that sponsors still found enough free time to get bored.

"We have a surprise for you, dear Treasure. See you tonight!’

That’s what the message said.

The thought of what kind of "surprise" the same men who had once drenched him in their pheromones could possibly have prepared now was, of course, a string of dreadful possibilities that tensed Le An even at the mere thought.

The sender of the message was one of the sponsors, Mr. Huimin.

Theo, his eyes fixed on the screen with irritation, muttered, "Who even shared your personal number with him?"

"I don’t know," said Le An, withdrawing his arm from the table and turning off the screen of his watch. Since they had already shared the fact that he was an omega with them, sharing his personal number was just another trivial boundary crossed, almost laughable at this point.

"It’s been a while... since we did it," Theo said, the compassion in his eyes becoming increasingly apparent, referring to the pheromone exposure training. "Will you be alright?"

Le An held the next esper’s hand as they approached the table and nodded a habitual greeting. "However, I managed last time... I’ll manage again."

"May I ask what you’re talking about?" Tracker interjected.

Le An turned his head toward him. "You’ll see when we get there."

Tracker slowly shook his head, unable to link the troubled expression on Le An’s face with the message he had read.

---

The long corridor divided into private rooms was, just as he remembered, like a dark labyrinth he had unwillingly been pulled into.

And walking down that corridor on his own two feet, with a smile, as if he were there by choice, felt like torture.

An hour before dinner, Mr. Qui had sent Le An another message, a subtle warning wrapped in polite phrasing.

’I believe you’ll be pleased with the experiment’s acceleration, dear. As for the dinner... enjoy it.’

As a staff member stopped them in front of the same private room they had visited last time, Le An cleared his throat and stepped in with Theo and Tracker by his side.

"Treasure!"

The layout of the room had been redesigned since their last visit. Two separate seating areas were now placed at each end of the room. Thankfully, the suffocating stench of alcohol and smoke that had previously made the room unbearable under the guise of celebration hadn’t yet taken hold.

Le An looked at all the faces in the room, smiled, and bowed slightly before heading toward the corner where the men had gathered.

In the other corner were two unfamiliar men, young and media-popular, from what Le An recalled.

Le An glanced at that corner and met the eyes of two men who were staring at him as if they wanted to make eye contact. They looked like... alphas.

Just then, Mr. Huimin hooked his arm around Le An’s.

"Le An, welcome. It’s so wonderful to see you healthy among us. Haha, come now," Mr. Huimin said with his usual exaggerated friendliness before turning his gaze to Theo and Tracker with a smile.

"Gentlemen, hello. Ah, you must be Le An’s tracker."

"Yes," Tracker said, placing a respectful hand on his chest. "I was assigned to dear Treasure-"

Mr. Huimin cut him off with a flash of irritation in his smile.

"We did tell Mr. Qui how unnecessary it would be for you to be in this room, but he insisted; he’s quite meticulous, hah... Even though we were the last people to have any connection to the attack, after the treatment we’ve received, I can barely look you in the face. I hope you won’t be offended."

For a moment, Tracker was stunned by Mr. Huimin’s veiled aggression, but he recovered, nodded without a smile, and said, "It’s okay. I understand, sir."

Everyone chuckled as if satisfied by his composure, and Le An was finally drawn toward the table.

As he took his seat, eyes immediately turned to his face and neck, especially to the bruises there.

Although Director Vey was the one who stared longest at the bruise on Le An’s neck, he was also the first to speak, snapping the other sponsors out of their daze.

"Treasure, we’re so sorry you were injured in such a terrible attack. Once again, our deepest sympathies."

"Thank you," said Le An, instinctively lifting a hand to cover the bruise on his neck.

"Though I’m grateful to be alive... I’m deeply saddened for our losses," he said, perhaps the first and last honest sentence he would say at this table.

"Ah, yes, of course."

"Rest assured, the security forces will track down the cowards behind this attack and make sure they get what they deserve as soon as possible."

"Truly heartbreaking."

All the men nodded vaguely, murmuring a few memorized words of grief as if suddenly reminded of the deceased.

From the corner where the two younger men sat, a burst of laughter contrasted sharply with the gravity of the moment.

Le An looked over. They were laughing and chatting boldly, glancing this way without restraint.

Director Vey reached for the empty glass in front of Le An and poured him a rose wine, continuing his speech gently.

"You look a little tired, I won’t lie. I wondered if perhaps we chose the wrong day to meet."

Shaking his head, Le An gave his second honest remark in this insincere gathering.

"Even if you had called me on another day, I probably would’ve looked the same, Director."

He knew very well that he looked as worn down as someone afflicted with a devastating illness.

The men laughed. One of them shook his head in disbelief and added, "Although I must say... you look stunning in any condition."

Le An instantly realized the man was drunk.

Propping his chin on his hand, the man grinned even more lewdly and pointed to his own chin, clearly referring to the wound on Le An’s. "Only an omega like you could still look this strong and dazzling after such an attack."

The scent of the man’s pheromones reached Le An’s nose, adding to the perverted look in his eyes. Le An flinched for a moment. After a heat cycle, omegas tended to be more sensitive to pheromones.

Before he could respond, another man picked up the conversation while eyeing the drunk sponsor. "A scrape would only suit his delicate face, right? We must increase the number of meetings to see him more often, haha!"

And then another one nudged the person beside him while staring at Le An’s body. "Hey, don’t you think he lost some weight? Anyway... Plump or skinny, he’s a beauty indeed."

"I like plump, but you know..."

As they continued talking about his body as if he weren’t even there, different pheromone scents began filling the air, as if their thoughts were heating up the room.

Le An felt sweat trickling down the back of his neck. His body was heating up, ready to respond to at least one of the pheromones, eager to give the reaction that was being coaxed from him.

"But a weak, helpless, and tender look suits omegas more. I personally prefer that. But... this state is quite nice too."

As sweat now clung to Le An’s skin from the layered pheromones, Theo stepped into view from the far end of the table, catching his eye. Le An blinked once, calmly, as if saying it’s fine, and waited for the increasingly ugly conversation to end.

Then Mr. Huimin, seated closest to him, reached out and touched one of the strands of hair on the back of Le An’s neck.

"Your hair’s grown longer, dear Le An," he said, slowly enclosing his sweat-dampened finger in a fist.

As the gesture startled him, Le An lowered his hand and reached to scratch an indescribable itch that had suddenly appeared on his arm. He opened his mouth to respond.

"Yes..." After confirming, he let out a sigh, one he didn’t mean to.

The alpha men around the table leaned forward, instantly recognizing what it meant when an omega exhaled like that.

"Haha, Le An, you responded much faster this time than last!" Mr. Huimin said. Le An looked at him, not understanding what he meant, and Director Vey grinned as he took over.

"Before you arrived, we agreed among ourselves to test your pheromone resistance again. Seems you’re not as strong as before, Treasure."

Le An took a sip from the glass in front of him, smiled as if nothing was wrong, and saw the stunned face of Tracker from the corner of his eye before lowering his head.

"After the immune adaptation period... in the experiment... There may have been a drop in my pheromone resistance, sir," he said, pausing at times in his sentence.

"Exactly." Director Vey nodded and reached for a file left on the serving cart next to the table, placing it in front of Le An. "Speaking of the experiment, let’s get this done so we can eat."

The reason behind the acceleration, according to Director Vey, was the early completion of the laboratory setup, a simple procedural update.

But Le An knew that it was tied to the political shifts caused by the attack and the upheaval in the country.

Even though the government and GAC were the hunting side in this situation, in such a turbulent time, all eyes would be on them, and if news of this experiment leaked to the media earlier than expected, the consequences could be severe.

As Le An quickly signed at the bottom of the document, he paused while reading a section requiring his signature for consent.

Even though the experiment did not involve fatal or extremely dangerous procedures, it stated that in case of unpredictable side effects, he would not pursue any legal action.

Mr. Huimin touched Le An’s back again, startling him. "If you can’t read, I could read it for you, Le An. You’ve been stuck on this page a while."

Le An’s already furrowed brows drew even tighter. "Thank you for your concern, but a few pheromones have never made me unable to read, Mr. Huimin," he said, his voice carrying an underlying anger even he was wary of. "I’m more resilient than I look."

Mr. Huimin lifted his hands with an affected expression, and the sponsors chuckled and whispered among themselves.

Le An, his eyes now strained by the words on the page, suddenly felt an oppressive force in the room, someone’s dominance.

His body curled in slightly, as if trying to protect his internal organs. When he looked up, Director Vey met his gaze, no smile in his eyes, a look that commanded Le An to lower his head.

As Le An’s body trembled, he signed everything and handed the document back to Director Vey, then abruptly stood up.

"If you’ll excuse me, I won’t be staying for dinner," he said, drawing all eyes in surprise. He just... couldn’t take it anymore.

Mr. Huimin stood up, placing a hand on Le An’s shoulder. "Oh, please, Le An. We can’t let you leave without having dinner."

Another man -the drunk sponsor- pointed to the men in the back corner with a finger, slurring his words.

"There are even some gentlemen we wanted to introduce you to. My son Azakk, heir to BARON Technologies, and Mr... hic- Mr. Huimin’s son, dear Harun."

Mr. Huimin pressed down on Le An’s shoulder, trying to make him sit.

"Ah, yes, that was the surprise. Please! They were so eager to meet you. We thought... with all this pace, you haven’t had time to enjoy yourself. Maybe you could like-"

"Thank you," Just as he realized what kind of setup this was, pain shot through his head, and Le An looked toward the two alphas in the corner. "I’m honored, but I truly need to rest," he said, with a flat tone.

Even though dissatisfaction filled the room and tension thickened the air, Le An stepped further from his chair, freeing his shoulder from Mr. Huimin’s grip.

His pheromones were on the verge of spilling out.

As Tracker and Theo moved beside him, Le An muttered a hoarse "Good evening," and escaped the room. There was shock on Tracker’s face, and near-erupting fury on Theo’s.

Le An, gasping for breath, tugged at the collar of his blouse and wiped the sweat from his face.

Just then, one of the doors to the private rooms ahead swung open, and an omega stumbled out in panic.

When Le An locked eyes with the omega running toward him, the omega cried out, "T-Treasure!" and collapsed into his arms.

Right after him, a burly alpha stepped out slowly, first looking at the omega in Le An’s arms, then at Le An himself.

Le An, now holding this half-naked and battered omega, realized who it was.

It was the same omega who had approached and complimented him during his first visit here.

"...Kiet?"

Kiet, face wet with tears, buried it deeper into Le An’s chest and began to sob. "P-please, save me!"