#91
“Something could suddenly happen if you’re defenseless. You don’t even know your heat cycle pattern yet.”
Jaeha remembered the moment yesterday when Eunhong’s face had contorted, responding sensitively to his pheromones. His sensitivity certainly wasn’t diminished. Rather, true to his extreme dominance, his sensitivity to pheromones was as keen as Jaeha’s own.
But how should he interpret the fact that Eunhong couldn’t feel anything from other alphas’ pheromones? Of course, Eunhong responding so sensitively only to him was lovely and pleasing. Jaeha was clearly quite mad to be afraid of manifestation symptoms while simultaneously finding satisfaction in them.
“Ban Eunhong, you have no idea how anxious you make me…”
Eunhong pouted. That tone of voice was unfair. It made him lose the strength to argue further.
“What’s there to be anxious about? I’m not going to run away.”
Jaeha turned and approached right up to Eunhong, who was sitting in a chair. Their knees touched.
Eunhong unconsciously tensed at the increasingly intense pheromones. Unlike his body casting a large shadow, Jaeha’s face was blurred like a whining child’s. He lightly embraced Eunhong and gently rubbed his shoulders as if telling him to relax. His pheromone scent became so sweet that Eunhong could taste it in his mouth.
Eunhong loosely wrapped his arms around Jaeha’s waist. Hiding his disarmed face in that embrace, he whispered:
“Then you should just follow me around.”
“…I will.”
“If you’re anxious, you can take me with you wherever you go.”
“Yes, I’ll try harder.”
“I’ll be more careful too…”
Jaeha couldn’t help but smile at the coaxing, soothing voice.
“You’re trying to smooth everything over with aegyo.”
“…Ae-what?”
Eunhong blinked, wondering if he’d heard correctly, but he had. His face instantly turned red at the word—he was as unaccustomed to it as he was to the word “date.”
He had barely managed to say those clearly clingy words despite his embarrassment. It was unbearably awkward to reveal his sticky feelings demanding that Jaeha share everything with him. Yet strangely, when Jaeha readily understood those feelings and said he would try harder, Eunhong’s anxiety subsided, and he found the patience to wait for someone who wanted to hide things from him.
Hiding his flushed face in Jaeha’s embrace, Eunhong resolved to wait as magnanimously as possible.
***
A party.
Eunhong often felt an unfamiliar distance from Jaeha at times like this.
The living room of the suite became crowded with strangers. They barged in before Eunhong had even digested the ramen he’d eaten for breakfast.
The people who appeared carrying heavy garment racks and several large wheeled bags were from a tailor shop that Jaeha had called, he said. They unpacked their luggage and set up in the suite’s living room with practiced movements. Eunhong was led to the living room by one of them.
Among them was someone with a distinctive character, whom Eunhong was certain was the head designer. His clothes and accessories were extraordinary. He complained to Jaeha with a drawling tone.
“You know this time you made an unreasonable request with a very tight schedule, right?”
“I know. I asked you because you’re the only one who can make it within that timeframe.”
“Ayu. When you say that, I have nothing to say. Normally I never work like this. You know? Someone who just sends measurements and insists on bringing clothes… there’s no one else like you in the world.”
The designer’s speech was already difficult to understand, and his pronunciation was so buttery that it became even more incomprehensible. Jaeha pressed his thumb firmly on Eunhong’s increasingly furrowed brow to smooth it out.
“I told you earlier. If a prince is going to a party, he needs to wear a suit.”
“…Why am I a prince?”
“Then you be the prince. Either way, you need to wear nice clothes, so let’s take off those pajamas.”
Eunhong stood in front of the mirror, led by Jaeha’s hand. An employee approached and held a suit jacket against Eunhong’s body. Awkwardly smiling at the unfamiliar feeling, Eunhong was somewhat reassured by Jaeha’s satisfied smile reflected in the mirror.
It felt completely different from the formal wear he had worn for job interviews or formal occasions. It was no exaggeration to say he had never worn clothes like this before in his life. The shirt that revealed his body line and embraced his waist, along with the glossy fabric of the suit, was intimidating even to touch. Eunhong surrendered his body to the busy staff like a dressing doll.
Among the suits the designer showed in sequence, Eunhong saw a pink one and narrowed his eyes at Jaeha, but surprisingly, Jaeha declined the pink suit. He said it looked like it would suit him, but it didn’t once he tried it on.
“This one is the prettiest!”
As his confidence had been steadily declining after trying on six or seven suits, Jaeha clapped his hands together with a bright smile. He whistled softly as Eunhong awkwardly turned around. With a satisfied smile spread across his face, he stepped back to take in Eunhong’s full appearance.
“Really?”
“I’ll wear the one that matches this set, no need to try anything else.”
“You’re deciding without even trying it on?”
Eunhong felt stiff and couldn’t tell what looked better. Wearing the kind of clothes he’d only seen in reference photos, his usual aesthetic sense and artistic standards disappeared instantly—like a Haetae’s eyes, he had no idea what looked good. Jaeha patted Eunhong’s shoulder and smiled brightly.
“Everything suits me well, so don’t worry.”
After kissing Eunhong’s frowning cheek with an audible smack, Jaeha took his own clothes and went inside. Eunhong stroked his reddened face and looked at himself in the mirror again. Hmm… he still couldn’t tell.
When they went out dressed, a long limousine—not the car Jaeha had been using for the past few days—was waiting for Eunhong at the hotel entrance. It was an intimidatingly large car with a shiny silver eagle emblem sitting on the grille. With some exaggeration, it looked like a bus to Eunhong. And the abnormally handsome alpha standing beside him added to this awkward situation.
Eunhong carefully fiddled with the unfamiliar fastenings of his suit as he got into the limousine. The designer had flattered him, saying it was among the top five best-fitting suits he’d ever seen, but it didn’t register with Eunhong at the moment.
The limousine left the city center and headed toward the outskirts. After driving for some time along a road with hills spreading to the left and right, they arrived at an isolated village where red stone houses surrounded a large ancient castle on top of a low mountain.
Looking up at the castle walls decorated with twinkling yellow lights, Eunhong gasped.
“What is this, the home of someone like a noble?”
“Don’t be intimidated. The party itself is small. It’s just… the place where our host lives happens to be spacious.”
Eunhong, who had expected to enter a restaurant somewhere in the quiet village, had been uneasy since the limousine started climbing the winding spiral road to the top. When the engine finally stopped, Eunhong rolled down the window and was greeted by castle walls that looked hundreds of years old and the mansion within them.
“Get out.”
Jaeha urged Eunhong, who was uncomfortably craning his neck to look outside while remaining seated.
Hesitantly, Eunhong stepped one foot out of the car. As he looked around, craning his neck and staggering, Jaeha firmly grasped his hand and pulled him. Eunhong’s body followed and bumped into Jaeha’s chest. Jaeha’s heavy pheromones wrapped around Eunhong amid the strong scent of shower cologne.
The gentle grip of his hand and warm body temperature simultaneously reassured Eunhong and made his face flush with embarrassment.
“Thank you.”
Eunhong once again felt like a child. Jaeha looked like a male protagonist who had just stepped out of a fashion spread, perfectly fitting in this place. The matching suit he wore made him look abnormally beautiful. The ancient castle behind him made him look even more like a nobleman from an old fairy tale.
As they passed through the high arched castle gate guarded by security personnel, the surroundings became quiet as if by magic. Perhaps it really was a “small party” as Jaeha had said.
As they climbed the stone stairs to enter the central hall, Jaeha suddenly brought his face close to Eunhong’s nape and whispered. At the same time, intense pheromones enveloped him.
“How do I look? Am I okay today?”
“…”
His foot, which should have been stepping on the stairs, flailed in the air. Jaeha skillfully caught Eunhong’s arm as he stumbled with his steps tangled.
“…W-what do you mean, how?”
“Am I handsome? You’ve been staring blankly at me for a while now.”
Lifting Eunhong’s hand and kissing the tips of his fingers seemed playful. Feeling the corners of Jaeha’s mouth lift into a smile against his fingers, Eunhong hunched his shoulders. In this space where time seemed to stop, if Jaeha with his picture-perfect smile was a nobleman or prince from a fairy tale, then Eunhong was probably just a shy frog.
Eunhong found himself stammering without realizing it. With rising heat and his tongue getting tied, he truly acted like he had become a frog.
“…You’re, you’re handsome. Really… really a lot.”
Jaeha opened his eyes wide at the frank answer, then quickly curved them into crescent moons.
“Success. All my tricks today.”
“…!”
Eunhong’s next response dissolved in midair because Jaeha pulled him in for a kiss. The two mixed their breaths, hiding in the dark shadows beside the uneven stone stairs. Their quickly heated, rough breathing was adequately masked by the faint music coming from inside the central hall, so there was nothing to worry about.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
