Kiyonari slowly opened his eyes. His vision was blurred at first, he blinked repeatedly, trying to adjust but all he saw was darkness.
Huh? Where am I? Why is it pitch black in here?
He tried to move his arms, yet they wouldn't stretch. He tried to straighten his legs... they were folded tightly against his chest. Kiyonari found himself stuck in a cowering position, shoulders hunched, knees pressed painfully against metal walls.
... Hm?
Then it hit him. The faint scent of gasoline, and the subtle vibration beneath him.
There's no doubt about it...
He was inside a car trunk. His breathing quickened. It was suffocatingly dark, and no light nor air circulation. Each breath felt thinner than the last as if the oxygen itself was slowly fading.
Damn it!
He kicked his legs upward, trying to force the backseat down or at least make enough noise to break something.
Thud! Thud!
The metal didn't budge. After several attempts, he stopped—chest rising and falling heavily.
Calm down. Let's just think this through.
Panicking would only waste oxygen. He shut his eyes and forced his breathing to slow despite the tightness in his lungs. He felt it the car was moving, the engine's vibration grew clearer beneath him.
Kiyonari stayed still after that, conserving strength... patiently waiting for the right timing to attack.
Minutes passed and the car finally slowed into a stop as the engine died. A door opened outside. Kiyonari tensed feeling the vibration as the door thudded so heavily. He shifted slightly, preparing himself in the cramped space, muscles coiling despite the discomfort. Then, the trunk latch clicked. Light pierced through the darkness as the lid slowly lifted. Without hesitation, he thrust his legs upward.
Bang!
His heel slammed hard into someone's abdomen.
"Ghk—!" The person staggered backward.
Kiyonari immediately pushed himself up and climbed out of the trunk in one swift motion. As his feet hit the ground, his eyes locked onto the man clutching his stomach.
Dongchan.
He was coughing, bent over slightly.
"You... bastard..."
Kiyonari's brows furrowed deeply. "Where are we?" He demanded sharply. "What are we doing here?"
Dongchan let out a low chuckle despite the pain. "You keep yapping since earlier. I seriously just want to smash that mouth of yours with my fist."
"Who sent you?!" Kiyonari pressed, voice firm and controlled though anger simmered beneath.
Dongchan rolled his shoulders and sneered.
"Shut up. Why do you keep asking annoying questions?"
He straightened slowly. "You could've just walked away earlier. But no, you just had to threaten me with your bullshit."
His expression darkened. "Now you leave me no choice but to really kill you."
He pulled out a gun.
The matllic click echoed loudly in the quiet area. Kiyonari froze as the barrel was pointed directly at his face. "You're insane," he spat, "you'd rather kill someone than to tell Director Je's whereabouts?"
Dongchan tilted his head.
"Why?" He said lazily. "What would you get from all this? You think you'll find that Omega if I tell you one thing or two?"
"What?" Kiyonari's eyes sharpened.
Dongchan sighed dramatically. "You wanna know where he is? Fine." A cruel smirk spread across his lips. "He's somewhere being sold off to some rich bastard."
[!!]
Kiyonari's eyes widened.
"By now," Dongchan continued casually, "someone probably already bought him."
His smirk twisted. "And he's probably screaming for help while being ravished by savage Alphas. And you'll never be able to save him. Poor pretty little thing, being broken like that."
"Well, serves him right." His tone mocking, "he was kind of getting annoying, acting all tough like some hot shot. He's an Omega and he should act like one... those bastards are teaching him a good lesson, no?"
He burst into hysterical laughter.
"HAHAHAHAHA"
The sound echoed disturbingly in the empty lot. Kiyonari didn't move but, the silence around him shifted. His fists clenched so tightly his knuckles turned white—veins bulged visibly along his temple and forearms. The image of Soo-hyun possibly struggling and suffering made his blood boiled.
The air around them grew heavier and darker. Like the stillness before a predator pounces... Dongchan's laughter slowly died down. Something felt wrong. The atmosphere had changed as the air felt suffocating, but not because of lack of oxygen... it felt oppressive and cold.
The man's breathing hitched. W-What's happening?...
He tried to inhale but his lungs felt constricted, like invisible hands were squeezing them. A chilling pressure crawled down his spine, forcing him instinctively step back. Then he looked up.
Kiyonari was slowly walking toward him. Each step deliberate, and atmosphere suddenly shifted into something dark and heavy.
The air thickened as if an invisible weight had been dropped over the entire area. It pressed down on Dongchan's shoulders, crept into his lungs, and coiled around his throat. Even the faint sounds of the night seemed to disappear swallowed by a suffocating silence.
A primal tension spread outward from Kiyonari, slow and deliberate as if a wild predator lowering its body before a lethal pounce. The space between them felt charged, dangerous and one wrong breath could trigger something irreversible. The air itself trembled with restrained violence, heavy with the promise of blood and broken bones. And the terrifying calm before a monster decides to attack its prey.
His eyes burned with something fierce and sharp enough to slice through flesh.
"W-W-What...?" Dongchan stammered, stumbling backward until he fell and began crawling away. "What are you?..."
He couldn't breathe properly. His body trembled violently under the invisible weight pressing down on him.
Unbeknownst to him, Kiyonari's pheromones had been triggered and released as though he erupted because of rage. Flooding the air mercilessly.
"You—!" Dongchan's face drained of color. His pupils shook in horror, voice cracked mid-breath. His lips quivering uncontrollably while his eyes widened to the point of looking almost bloodshot.
Cold sweat beaded down his temples, sliding past his jaw, unable to focus. His earlier arrogance vanished without a trace, replaced by raw, animalistic fear. His mouth hung slightly open while he struggled to breathe, chest heaving in shallow gasps as if the very presence before him had already decided his fate.
Realization crushed him, but it was already too late. "Y-You're... an Alpha?!" He screamed, voice cracking in terror.
Kiyonari inhaled deeply. And if there was anyone who should regret triggering the switch of a dormant predator, it would be Dongchan.
*****
Kiyonari's hand tightened slowly at his side, the tendons along his wrist standing out sharply as his fingers curled into a fist. For a brief second, there was an unnatural stillness between them. A silence so taut it felt as though the air itself might snap. Then, without a warning, he moved. His arm drove forward in a swift, merciless arc, and his knuckles crashed into Dongchan's cheek with a sickening crack.
The force of it whipped Dongchan's head violently to the side, a sharp burst of pain exploding across his face as something hard shifted in his mouth. A small object clattered faintly against the floor beneath them, a tooth, dislodged by the sheer impact.
Donchang staggered, barely able to keep his balance, his ears ringing as though a bomb had detonated beside him. His lungs struggled to draw air, chest heaving in broken, shallow breaths while warmth began spilling down over his lips. He instinctively reached up, fingers brushing under his nose, and froze when they came away slick and dark. Blood streamed steadily from his nostrils, thick and bright against his trembling skin. His eyes widened in horror at the sight of it, heart pounding violently in his chest as panic surged through him.
Across from him, Kiyonark remained frighteningly composed. There was no wild fury on his face, reckless rage and only a cold, calculating that seemed to pierce straight through Dongchan's trembling form. He stepped forward with measured calm, the soles of his shoes scraping faintly against the floor. Before the man could retreat, Kiyonari's hand shot out and seized his collar in a brutal grip, twisting the fabric tight enough to cut into his throat.
He yanked him forward, forcing Dongchan onto his toes, their faces now inches apart. Kiyonari's other fist rose slowly, hovering beside Dongchan's battered face like a silent executioner waiting for command.
"I warned you before, didn't I?" He said, his voice low and steady, far more terrifying than a shout. "That if something bad happens to Director Je, you won't step back into any bar alive."
The words were not spoken in anger but in certainty as though he were merely reminding Dongchan of his warning.
The man's body trembled violently, his hands lifting weakly in surrender as he stuttered, "W-Wait... I didn't—?!" But the plea dissolved into incoherent gasps.
"One more thing," Kiyonari added, his eyes darkening further. "My punches are really sloppy." The warning ended there. His fist slammed forward again, smashing into Dongchan's face with even greater force than before. The second blow snapped his head backward, blood spraying in a brief arc before splattering onto the floor. Kiyonari did not stop, his knuckles struck again and again... cheek, nose, and brow—each impact landing with crushing precision despite his claim of sloppiness.
The church of cartilage and the dull thud of flesh echoed through the room as Dongchan's features rapidly distorted under the assault. One eye began swelling shut; his lips split open, spilling more red down his chin. His arms flailed weakly in a desperate attempt to shield himself, but Kiyonari's grip on his collar held upright, forcing him to endure every blow without escape.
It wasn't frenzy, rather controlled, and deliberate brutality. Kiyonari's breathing remained even, his expression almost detached though something primal flickered behind his gaze. A predator demonstrating his dark side.
Dongchan's strength quickly drained, his legs trembling until they could barely support his weight. Each strike sent fresh waves of agony coursing through him, his thoughts splintering into fear and regret. He realized then that this wasnno drunken scuffle, but a message carved into bone and memory.
Kiyonari could have ended it in seconds. The way his hands moved, the strength behind each hit, made that terrifyingly clear. One precise twist, one decisive blow, and Dongchan would have been finished. But Kiyonari did not grant him that mercy. Instead, he let the pain linger, stretching the torment just long enough for understanding to sink deep into Dongchan's battered mind.
When Kiyonari finally stopped, his fist hovering midair before lowering at last, Dongchan sagged lifelessly in his grip, face soaked in blood and swelling rapidly.
The moment Kiyonari released him, he collapsed heap, couching and wheezing as crimson droplets continued to fall around him.
Kiyonari looked down at him with cold eyes, rolling his knuckles once as if the entire ordeal had been nothing more than routine.
Dongchan lay there shaking, very much alive... but fully aware that he had crossed the wrong guy man and that surviving tonight was the only mercy he would ever receive.
His body did not fall dramatically, it simply gave out. After the final strike, whatever strength had been keeping him upright vanished. A thin line of blood crept slowly across the floor beneath his cheek, pooling in a dark, spreading stain.
Kiyonari stood over him in silence.
Blood dripped steadily from his knuckles, pattering onto the floor in soft, rhythmic taps. His fists were scraped raw, skin split in places from repeated impact. A smear of red streaked across his cheekbone were stray droplets had splashed upward, stark against his otherwise composed face.
His expression was carved from something colder than anger, merciless, controlled, and deeply focused. There was no satisfaction in his gaze as he down at the unconscious man, only calculation.
His eyes glinted darkly under the dim light, reflecting neither regret nor hesitation.
He exhaled slowly, a heavy breath that seemed to release the last remnants of the violence from his body. Then, without another glance at Dongchan, he crouched.
Kiyonari began patting down Dongchan's pockets with brisk efficiency, fingers moving methodically. He checked the inner lining of the jacket, the back pockets of his jeans, and even the seams along the sleeves in case anything had been hidden. Only loose bills stranded faintly red. Nothing useful.
Then his fingers brushed against something solid inside the inner pocket of the jacket. He pulled it free. A phone. Dongchan's phone.
Kiyonari held it in his blood-streaked hand for a second before wiping his fingers against his shirt to avoid smearing the screen further. He tapped the side button with his thumb. The screen flickered to life, illuminating his face faintly in the darkened room.
Multiple notifications flooded the display. Including the missed calls from an unknown number.
One conversation in particular stood out, unsaved contact, but the preview text was explicit enough to draw his full attention. The name attached to it was labeled simply as...
[Trader]
Kiyonari's eyes narrowed as he opened the thread. Line of exchange scrolled into view, shipment confirmations, discussions of deliveries and quality of Omegas. As if the whole thing was a mere buying of product, people treated like objects.
Wait... are these... transactions?
His gaze sharpened, scanning more carefully now. The wording was barely disguised.
Human trafficking. The realization hit him like ice water down his spine. His thumb hovered above the screen as a newer message caught his attention, bold and crude.
[The Omega you brought was one heck of a stubborn bitch.]
Kiyonari's breath stilled.
His mind moved instantly to one person—Soo-hyun.
The room seemed to shrink around him as fury flared dangerously beneath his skin, but he forced it down. Being in rage would not help him find any clues.
Determination hardened his features. He scrolled upward through the messages, scanning for addresses, landmarks, anything that could narrow down where Soo-hyun bad been taken.
Then his thumb froze mid-motion. There, buried slightly higher in the thread, was a message that made his pulse spike.
[Grand Hill]
A hotel and a specific one. The name sat there plainly, but Kiyonari knew this was the location.
For a moment, everything inside him went still. Then something reignited.
The faint ember of hope he had been desperately trying to keep alive flared back into a steady flame. If the trader had suggested a location and Dongchan had responded around that time, then there was a strong chance Soo-hyun had been take there. Or could still be there.
Kiyonari rose slowly to his feet, gripping the phone tighter. He finally had a lead and would not waste it. "I'm coming, Director Je," he muttered under his breath, firm. "This time... I will save you."
His gaze dropped once more to Dongchan's unconscious form, sprawled uselessly on the floor. "You'd better pray he's still there."
Then he turned, already moving toward the car, and into the driver's seat.