SYNO Chapter 32

‘How many minutes has it been already?’

It felt like his gaze could bore a hole through him, a ridiculous thought. Maintaining eye contact was strangely difficult. Ssangryeong averted his gaze, inhaling the cigarette smoke.

“I’ve never seen a heavier smoker than you. You’re going to die of lung cancer…”

Ssangryeong casually turned his head back abruptly, startled. Pienne, who had risen from his chair, was standing incredibly close, a cigarette dangling from his lips.

He was at least a head taller. Ssangryeong raised his eyes, gleaming. Oddly enough, a pleasant scent emanated from the man despite the cigarette in his mouth.

With rough hands, the man pulled Ssangryeong’s t-shirt up to his shoulder, carefully examining his wounds. Even seeing the partially inflamed wounds, poorly treated, Pienne didn’t even frown.

“You treated it yourself, I see.”

He felt pressure around his shoulder as the sleeve of his t-shirt crumpled. But what he felt more distinctly was the Commander’s hand loosely gripping his arm. The calloused hand felt rough.

Since he had entered the Home Nation’s top university despite being a commoner, he must have spent a considerable amount of his childhood studying. That would have caused calluses from holding a pen, and later, he would have developed new calluses from handling guns and weapons.

Even imagining it briefly, it was a life completely different from his own.

‘This bastard…is my destined partner?’

After facing the unexpected truth, he had met him again. A strange feeling gripped Ssangryeong entirely. It felt like his insides were coated with slippery oil, making him nauseous.

Whether it was to erase their weaknesses or for other reasons, people harbored fantasies about their destined partners. They were even called heaven-sent partners.

Ssangryeong was no different. He hadn’t held high expectations, but he had been deeply curious about who his destined partner was. Since the name hadn’t appeared even after searching the entire Dependent Nation, he had been wondering if his damn destined partner might be a noble from the Home Nation. He had been making that assumption for a while.

‘Are you Tail Venos?’

Ssangryeong stared blankly at the Commander’s face. A straight, sharp nose and deeply shadowed eye sockets. No matter how closely he looked, his handsome face was flawless.

‘How… How could you be my partner?’

Ssangryeong still couldn’t comprehend it. A man who was the complete opposite of himself, someone who grew up uneducated and lived by stealing.

The more he observed, the tighter his heart squeezed, like he was sinking into a swamp. Ssangryeong roughly brushed off Pienne’s hand.

“Who was it that shot me?”

Ssangryeong pushed down the crumpled sleeve of his t-shirt with his chin and took a step back.

“Thanks to you, I almost died, Commander. And you had to shoot my arm, of all places, when I was about to die.”

Ssangryeong sat down on a nearby chair and relaxed his body. Leaning against the soft backrest, he felt a little better. As he closed his eyes for a moment, the man’s low voice gently tickled his ears.

“I regretted it a little.”

“…….”

“I should have aimed for your head.”

“…….”

“At the time, I could only see your arm.”

There was a hint of amusement in his voice. Ssangryeong slowly opened his eyelids.

‘He could only see my arm?’

It was a statement he couldn’t understand.

Ssangryeong furrowed his brow slightly. Even though the criminal he’d been searching for had returned of his own volition, Pienne wasn’t questioning him, expressing suspicion, or interrogating him. He was just leisurely smoking.

‘I can’t erase my weakness unless it’s through you.’

The fact that he was willing to risk being dragged back to the Home Nation by returning to the government building himself wasn’t solely due to his weakness. Back then, he was cornered.

Being relentlessly pursued for a long time, far beyond his imagination, had drained him. He no longer had the strength to endure. The daily routine of not being able to sleep or eat properly, biting his nails from the stress while the enclosing net tightened, was utterly unbearable.

‘It’s different from being chased by those who don’t know my face.’

With almost no hideouts left, he’d decided that it was better to meet the Commander in person and attempt a negotiation rather than suffer from extreme stress.

‘But what is this bastard thinking…?’

Letting out a short sigh, Ssangryeong straightened his back. A thirsty man must dig the well. Until yesterday, Pienne, the pursuer, might have been the desperate one, but today, Ssangryeong was in a slightly more precarious position.

“Commander, what do you want from me?”

As he asked bluntly, Pienne, stubbing out his cigarette, smoothly raised an eyebrow.

The man stared intently at Ssangryeong for a few seconds, as if trying to decipher his intentions. Ssangryeong tilted his chin up.

“Why are you looking at me like that? Don’t you know how negotiations work? You know I wouldn’t have come back here of my own free will unless I was crazy. I’m here to bargain. Not to surrender.”

“A bargain, you say.”

Pienne let out a languid chuckle, as if he’d heard something amusing.

“And the item being traded is Ssangryeong himself?”

Ssangryeong pressed his lips into a thin line. The man had clearly understood his weakened position.

“That depends on the outcome of the negotiation. That’s why I asked. What do you want from me?”

Pienne crossed his arms, tilted his head slightly, and smiled faintly.

“Well, I have a rough idea.”

“What is it?”

“Before that…”

Pienne abruptly stopped speaking and swallowed. His soft lips parted.

“Why did Ssangryeong come back?”

“…….”

“The man who risked his life to escape.”

As the low voice continued, Ssangryeong’s facial muscles stiffened.

“It depends on your answer.”

“…….”

“What I will demand from you.”

The corners of the man’s eyes curved like crescents.

His words sounded like he would demand everything from him in exchange for this unusual deal.

Ssangryeong swallowed hard.

‘How should I put this?’

What I want right now is…

Your body.

There was a way to explain everything simply. Showing Pienne his Name Object. That way, he could easily explain that Pienne was his destined partner and that he wanted to erase the weakness engraved on it – his missing grandfather’s name.

But did he really have to do that?

Ssangryeong shook his head. There was no need to confess every reason so clearly. If he carelessly showed his Name Object, he might be putting his grandfather’s life at risk.

‘I just need to get the results I want. It doesn’t matter how I do it.’

Even if it meant becoming a lowly human blinded by lust.

“I couldn’t stand it anymore, thinking about it all the time. That magnificent cock of yours.”

Ssangryeong, his golden eyes gleaming intensely, grabbed his dirty shirt with one hand and pulled it off in one swift motion. His skinny, muscle-less body was fully exposed.

Pienne, his expression hardening, briefly glanced at Ssangryeong’s bony ribs.

“What are you trying to do?”

“What do you think?”

Ssangryeong grinned crookedly and then reached for his pants as if he was about to take them off, too. He was smiling confidently, but in reality, his heart was pounding.

The problem was that Pienne didn’t stop him at all and just watched him silently.

Ssangryeong was dumbfounded.

‘If I put on a show like this, shouldn’t he try to stop me?’

Ssangryeong seriously contemplated whether he actually had to take off his pants to convincingly act like a man consumed by lust.

As he hesitated and started to unzip his pants, Pienne, who had been silent for a while, softly asked,

“You want my body?”

It was a question that seemed to ask if this was truly the reason he had returned. Ssangryeong stared for a moment at the man’s lips, curled in a sneer.

That was true, but hearing those words directly from the Commander’s mouth was strangely disconcerting.

‘I have to convince him of my reason for returning.’

If he wanted to avoid mentioning the Name Object, he had to use lust as his excuse.

Ssangryeong’s hands started to sweat. He was worried that the sweat might stain his worn-out pants.

“Yeah, I fucking want it.”

He spoke resolutely, his eyes unwavering, but Ssangryeong couldn’t help but glance at Pienne’s reaction.

Truthfully, he had rarely been driven by lust in his life. Even now, taking off his clothes in front of the Commander felt awkward and nauseating.

Pienne was smiling.

Do people usually… smile in this kind of situation?

His statement could easily be perceived as sexual harassment, and it certainly wasn’t a conversation that should be happening between a criminal and his pursuer. It would have been normal for Pienne to grab him by the collar and demand his real motive instead of buying his ridiculous excuse about returning because of lust.

But Pienne simply smiled smoothly and asked,

“Is that so?”

“…….”

What the fuck.

Ssangryeong felt goosebumps rising on his skin. Why was he smiling after hearing such an outrageous statement from a criminal wanting his cock?

‘This bastard… What is he thinking?’

Could it be that this seemingly noble man was unexpectedly a pervert? Maybe he had a secret hobby, like having a strong interest in sex with a Class A wanted criminal? Or perhaps he was the type to get aroused by someone suddenly appearing and taking off their shirt?

Whatever it was, Pienne’s polished smile was a threat to Ssangryeong in every way.

Pienne took a large step closer. As the distance rapidly closed, Ssangryeong flinched slightly.

A distinct shadow fell across the man’s face. His blue eyes, similarly shadowed, looked down at him imposingly.

“Ssangryeong.”

A large, rough hand gently cupped the back of Ssangryeong’s neck.

Ssangryeong shuddered.