Snake Venom Ch 35

Chapter 35

All Cheon Wooshin could do was hold the phone to his ear. As he panted heavily, a flustered voice burst out in a jumble, no less shaken than Lee Yeonwoo’s.

– I’ll come now. Just—just give yourself the shot first and wait. Don’t lose consciousness. You’ll feel weak, but do not close your eyes.

Cheon Wooshin exhaled slowly before he opened his mouth. His voice, now significantly lower, flowed out with a faint breath.

“If your drug doesn’t work, what happens then?”

The silence was brief, but heavy. The voice that followed trembled.

– That can’t happen… You’ve only been three months in.

The fact that she started with denial meant it was that serious. Cheon Wooshin lowered his gaze. The empty syringe lay discarded on the floor, as if mocking him.

“Haa…”

By now, there should’ve been some kind of effect, however slight, but his consciousness despairingly kept dipping and surging. Any semblance of composure was completely gone as he fluctuated from one extreme to another.

“It’s not working.”

The shouting voice that echoed in his ear did nothing but tell him to wait. Cheon Wooshin was overwhelmed by an unbearable sense of revulsion. He thought he had already let go of many things. How far must he fall to reach the bottom?

The suffocating, grotesque foreign sensation shattered the reason he had managed to barely hold onto. He inhaled deeply, then exhaled. Something nauseatingly uncomfortable throbbed inside him without end—he had to breathe deeply just to keep it at bay.

The moment his vision suddenly blacked out, his upper body swayed. Lee Yeonwoo, who had caught him, came startlingly close. His scent enveloped him. Yeonwoo’s voice, calling out to him again and again, faded into a distance and then pounded against his ears in waves. Whether it was the phone or Yeonwoo, both were shouting his name to a painful degree. Cheon Wooshin clicked his tongue and parted his lips.

“Shut…”

He wanted to clamp a hand over their mouths and tell them to shut up, yet at the same time, he felt drawn in by their voice, wanting to cling to it. Realizing this sudden impulse, Cheon Wooshin blinked.

Cling to him?

“……”

Yeonwoo’s pale, slender nape shimmered before his hazy eyes. Cheon Wooshin, who had been unconsciously staring at it, suddenly clenched his teeth. This wasn’t the feeling of the drug taking effect. Something unknown was swelling up, trying to seize hold of his consciousness.

There was no way Seolkyung had given him just plain water, so how could it not work this badly? Cheon Wooshin stubbornly kept his eyes fixed on the floor, trying not to look at Yeonwoo.

But the migraine that had momentarily subsided now surged back with a vengeance. It felt like his skull was being crushed open. Nausea welled up.

He had felt this before. This was a distinctly familiar kind of discomfort. He searched his memory. As he pinpointed the exact moment, a coarse despair filled Cheon Wooshin’s gaze.

‘Ha… damn it.’

As if welcoming his awakening, a violent shiver spread through him. The chill wrapping around his entire body reminded him of the time he had first been poisoned. The desolate pain of standing alone in a wilderness whipped by icy wind. The numbing sensation that had spread from the injection site revived with terrifying clarity. The feeling he had never wanted to experience again began to torment him.

The sedative he had used as a last resort wasn’t working. He was rampaging.

Then, this was the end.

He grabbed Yeonwoo’s forearm. As his forehead drooped weakly, it brushed against Yeonwoo’s nape. It was warm.

Unconsciously, Cheon Wooshin almost clung to him in a tight embrace, but only ended up clenching his fists. He desperately resisted the bizarre impulse to sink his teeth into that sweet-smelling nape.

Nothing else mattered. He just wanted to crush this body in a tight embrace. Once awakened, the urge grew uncontrollably. He wanted to consume the source of that warmth, bones and all.

His bloodshot eyes suddenly dropped downward. As he found the source of the pounding noise in his ears, Cheon Wooshin’s eyes flickered sharply.

Beneath Yeonwoo’s chest, a vividly throbbing red mass seemed almost visible. Suddenly, his fangs ached and saliva pooled in his mouth.

“Team Leader, you look like you’re in a lot of pain. If there’s anything I can do—”

This is… dangerous. Truly dangerous.

“No.”

Cheon Wooshin barely held onto the fraying thread of his sanity.

If he lost his mind, there was no telling how he would change. He had seen too many tragic cases before and after taking on this investigation. There was no known way to resolve the fatal side effects of the suppressant. No matter what he thought of, it all led to ruin. If he had begun to rampage, then the human part of Cheon Wooshin ended here.

He grabbed Yeonwoo by the collar and forced eye contact. Those large eyes, helpless and unsure, were filled only with him.

“This is an order.”

His voice barely came out.

“Go outside immediately and get help.”

He had chosen this bastard so carefully. He planned to use him well and then put him back in place. Now he was about to sink his teeth into the flesh of something he had only just managed to tame.

Even now, the fact that he felt regret proved this guy had gotten under his skin more than he’d realized. With a hollow smile, Cheon Wooshin tightened his grip. The fabric creaked in his grasp.

Despite knowing he needed to create distance, his body moved of its own accord. He had already entered a state beyond control.

Mustering all his remaining strength, Cheon Wooshin roughly shoved Yeonwoo away. Haa, he panted heavily. He was at his limit.

“Run.”

With that single word, his vision flickered into darkness. Like a puppet with its strings cut, Cheon Wooshin collapsed with a crash.

“Team Leader!”

Startled, Yeonwoo rushed to support him. He kept calling his name.

“Team Leader! Team Leader!”

He shook him hard and raised his voice, but Cheon Wooshin remained still. His pale face was eerily calm, as though dead. His limp body felt unnaturally cold. Yeonwoo, in panic, brushed his face and quickly checked for breathing. A faint breath leaked out. Beneath his chest, the heart was beating relatively fast.

Relieved that he was alive, Yeonwoo gasped as tension broke. He frantically looked around. His eyes, full of confusion, trembled violently.

Wait, what did he say again? So much had happened in such a short time, his mind couldn’t keep up.

He shook his head sharply. This wasn’t the time for that.

But he was at a loss. Yeonwoo didn’t know exactly what symptoms someone poisoned might show. Whether this was frequent or the first time, how severe it was—none of it. Though, one thing was clear: it was dire. The fact that a man who had asked him to keep it a secret was now telling him to just run meant it was no ordinary situation.

What happened to those poisoned by snake venom? They either died or mutated. Even with suppressants, the fatal side effects couldn’t be prevented with current technology.

Would Cheon Wooshin transform as well? But right now, he looked far too defenseless and in pain.

And yet he told Yeonwoo to run, leaving him like this? Yeonwoo stared blankly at Cheon Wooshin.

His phone vibrated again. The flood of thoughts briefly stopped. The name “Seolkyung” flashed on the screen.

Seolkyung. Judging by the previous call, it was clear that she was the only person besides Cheon Wooshin who could explain this situation. Carefully cradling him, Yeonwoo reached for the phone.

“Just a moment. Let me just answer the call.”

Cheon Wooshin’s body flinched. At that jolt, Yeonwoo’s eyes shifted back to him.

“Team Leader?”

Yeonwoo tilted his head. Cheon Wooshin was blinking. Beneath his long lashes, his dark eyes were slowly focusing. Light gradually returned to his clouded pupils.

It was hard to tell just by his expression what was happening to him.

“Um… are you coming to your senses?”

Yeonwoo cautiously leaned closer to his face. At that moment, a strong pressure gripped the back of his neck and his vision spun violently.

Thud.

His previously propped upper body slammed back against the floor with a heavy jolt. Before he could even register what was happening, his windpipe was being forcefully compressed.

“Khuk.”

What is this…? In the blink of an eye, Yeonwoo had been pinned to the floor. He coughed and looked up.

A massive figure, backlit, loomed over him, pinning him down.

“……”

“……”

It was Cheon Wooshin’s eerie movement that broke the frozen silence. Tilting his head back, he inhaled with a hiss.

His chest swelled thickly, his shirt pulled taut. He then slowly faced forward, gazing at Yeonwoo from an angle. But it wasn’t his eyes—it was somewhere around the nape of his neck.

“Am I supposed to eat it?”

His voice dropped, dark and ominous.

Yeonwoo stared at the man holding him down, stunned. He was at a loss for words in the face of such an alien presence.

There was no time for hesitation. Cheon Wooshin twisted his collar. Without using much strength, he hoisted Yeonwoo up and slammed him back down with a thud. Then, suddenly lowering his upper body, he muttered right in front of Yeonwoo’s nose.

“I asked you. Are you something to be eaten?”