Snake Venom Ch 41

Chapter 41

 

“He was quite different from how he usually is, and his behavior was rough, but when I told him to stop, he did stop.”

 

Though he did leave behind a terrifying threat. I recalled the blood-stained lips that had pronounced “cock” without a flicker in his eye. That crooked smile where dread and lust coexisted.

 

“……”

 

Seolkyung was silent for a moment.

 

“That doesn’t make sense. Once it starts, he never backs down—it’s his nature. He’s not someone who would even register the words ‘stop’…”

 

Trailing off, she sank into thought with a dazed expression.

 

“Can you describe in detail what he was like at that time?”

 

Though he hesitated out of embarrassment, Lee Yeonwoo nodded with an expression that said this was inevitable.

 

“Yes.”

 

It was something that had to be done.

 

—

 

A white ceiling filled his vision. Cheon Wooshin blinked against the dry stiffness of his eyelids as he stared at the pale surface.

 

It wasn’t the ceiling he had grown sick of seeing every time he opened his eyes. Was this what the ceiling of hell looked like? Or had he woken up in some godforsaken lab while unconscious? Either way, it didn’t matter. His thoughts, like his expression, were dry and brittle as fallen leaves.

 

However, the place Cheon Wooshin was in was neither hell nor a lab. He belatedly realized he was lying on the bed in the room he had lent to Lee Yeonwoo.

 

How did I end up here? Slowly retracing his memories, Cheon Wooshin glanced toward the guards standing at the doorway.

 

Only then did he feel the pressure on his wrists. He moved one arm. Because it was bound together with the other, both arms lifted slightly. Cheon Wooshin raised his hands toward the ceiling.

 

Handcuffs—those he could understand. With a bored gaze, he stared at the shower towel wound around his wrists. Who had tied this pathetic knot? The thought struck him as ridiculous, but since it served its purpose, he quickly dismissed it.

 

In the meantime, one of the guards confirmed that Cheon Wooshin was awake and contacted someone. The other had not only cocked his gun but was aiming it straight at him, ready to blow his head off at any moment. Cheon Wooshin was unbothered. He had been treated like a monster before and fully understood why it had to be this way. Killing a civilian without memory would be far worse than getting his own head blown off.

 

Despite the tense situation, it seemed he had been lying down for a long time. He clenched and unclenched his fist. His fingers tingled, as if he had been given an overdose of suppressants. He rolled his tongue around his mouth, irritated by the gritty, foreign sensation inside his cheek.

 

Suddenly, his tongue stung. Feeling along the flesh, Cheon Wooshin furrowed his brow. The tang of blood hit his palate as he felt the ragged flesh. Had he bitten himself in his sleep?

 

“Tsk.”

 

Clicking his tongue, he rubbed his cheek. It throbbed as though someone had punched him. What the hell had he done while unconscious?

 

Though the place hadn’t changed—still a house—the fact that guards were stationed, ready to subdue him at any moment, meant something had definitely gone down. Lethargy clung to every breath like a leech, but he had to piece together his memories.

 

He started with the clearest ones. The shootout with those wearing someone else’s skin, the stench of blood. The pureblood in heat who had lost all reason, and Lee Yeonwoo. The pounding headache and nausea that surged during dinner. Even Seolkyung’s injection hadn’t helped. From some point on, it was a relentless stream of infuriating scenes. The pain, like the first time he was poisoned, overlapped with his memories, and the area around his fangs began to itch. That was when it hit him.

 

‘Team Leader!’

 

Lee Yeonwoo’s voice had suddenly risen up. So had the warmth of the arms that wrapped around him.

 

‘B-being on the same team means—’

 

That moment, where Lee Yeonwoo chose him first without knowing anything about the situation, shimmered in his memory.

 

‘Confidentiality is the baseline, you know.’

 

“……”

 

A faint light began to flicker in Cheon Wooshin’s eyes, which until then had held nothing but pessimism and ennui.

 

Outside the window, dawn had broken. For some reason, ever since he had recalled Lee Yeonwoo’s voice, the ashes in his mind had begun to clump together again. After taking a deep breath, Cheon Wooshin sat up.

 

Only then did he realize someone was beside him. His quiet gaze dropped diagonally downward. The person sleeping with his head buried on the edge of the bed was Lee Yeonwoo. Just like the day they first met, he was sleeping so soundly, baring the pale nape of his neck without a care in the world.

 

Cheon Wooshin briefly stared at the pronounced back of his neck, his hunched back, and the half-hidden profile. Then he reached out and grabbed his shoulder. Despite the firm impression, he could feel the bone.

 

To increase muscle mass, a certain amount of fat is necessary. He’d have to feed him more high-protein, high-calorie foods. Resolving this, Cheon Wooshin tightened his grip.

 

“Lee Yeonwoo.”

 

When he gently shook the shoulder, Lee Yeonwoo’s neat brows furrowed. He couldn’t wake easily and was about to fall back into sleep, so Cheon Wooshin shook him again. Only then did his eyelids flutter, and slowly open. Cheon Wooshin watched as Lee Yeonwoo came to consciousness. As soon as his half-lidded eyes found Cheon Wooshin, Lee Yeonwoo sprang up.

 

“You’re awake!”

 

“……”

 

His eyes sparkled with an intensity unbefitting someone who had just woken up. The kid had an incredible recovery rate.

 

Just then, Seolkyung entered through the open door. Even though she had obviously been informed beforehand, she froze the moment she saw Cheon Wooshin. In that instant, he read her fear. He could also read who she was overlaying onto him in her panicked expression. It wasn’t the first time he’d seen this kind of reaction, but this time, he perceived it all too clearly.

 

Beside him, Lee Yeonwoo shouted,

 

“He seems fine! He really is our team leader!”

 

What is he saying? Whether it was because his hearing was unusually sharp or because Lee Yeonwoo’s voice was especially loud, his ears rang. Cheon Wooshin’s gaze naturally drifted to Lee Yeonwoo’s lips.

 

‘They look a little swollen.’

 

As that thought crossed his mind, his gaze deepened unconsciously. A scab clung to the corner of Lee Yeonwoo’s lips. Since when had that been there? His string of questions was scattered by Seolkyung’s sudden question.

 

“What did Sejun give you as a talisman before your first deployment?”

 

Even though he understood the intention, Cheon Wooshin silently stared at her. Her face was stiff with tension. As the silence dragged on, a sharp voice cut through the room.

 

“Answer me.”

 

Though she often nagged, she wasn’t one to speak frivolously. Even so, a sigh escaped him. Cheon Wooshin leaned back against the bed’s headboard and replied.

 

“A coin minted the year I was born.”

 

“……”

 

At last, Seolkyung’s face crumpled.

 

“You… you’re the only one.”

 

Cheon Wooshin recalled the cursed sensations that had consumed him. The unbearable chill, the headache, the oscillating discomfort that had been exactly like the first time he was poisoned. The pain experienced by everyone afflicted by the side effects—the final sensations a human being could perceive. It was a rampage like a tidal wave, sweeping away reason and self alike.

 

But Cheon Wooshin had come back to himself.

 

“I know.”

 

He was the only one who had gone into a rampage and returned to sanity. Having gone through the symptoms to the very end, Cheon Wooshin understood them best.

 

“But nothing changes.”

 

Nothing had changed. Cheon Wooshin was still poisoned, and what he had to do remained the same. Seolkyung quickly wiped the tears welling in her eyes.

 

“Do you remember anything?”

 

About six hours had passed since his memory had cut off.

 

“No.”

 

The last thing he remembered was pushing Lee Yeonwoo away. He tried hard to recall more, but the cleanly severed memory offered nothing beyond its sharp edge.

 

Seolkyung signaled the men with her eyes. As they left the room, she sat down at Cheon Wooshin’s feet.

 

“I’ll get straight to the point.”

 

“……”

 

“I’m going to keep it secret.”

 

So far, Seolkyung was the only one who knew Cheon Wooshin’s secret. Or had the count gone up by one? Cheon Wooshin briefly glanced at Lee Yeonwoo. He was putting considerable effort into guessing how much she had told him. Seolkyung swallowed dryly before speaking again.

 

“Because now, you’re all we have left.”

 

The investigators in charge had either died or been poisoned one by one. As rumors spread, the next candidates refused the role in droves. Even the remaining talents backed off, creating a serious manpower shortage. Given how dangerous and difficult the work was, it was no surprise—and yet the situation only continued to deteriorate.

 

Cheon Wooshin, an investigator affiliated with the Global War Management Organization, was a former training instructor with extensive battlefield experience and exceptional crisis response skills. It was only natural that the job would eventually fall to him.