#121
“Come here, teddy bear.”
The distance between the two gradually closed.
Idam trembled and stepped back. At that moment, something touched his back. As he felt around, something grabbed his hand. Focused on subduing Taemin right in front of him, Idam impulsively threw it.
“Ugh!”
Taemin groaned as what Idam threw hit him square in the face. Simultaneously, red petals fell like snow. It was a rose bouquet.
“Gasp…”
A flustered Idam turned around. There was a flower shop there. As it turned out, he had thrown a sample flower that was displayed in front of the store.
“Who the hell did this!”
The owner rushed out hurriedly.
“I’m, I’m sorry. I’ll compensate you later!”
Idam apologized, quickly bowing. He wanted to pay right away, but escaping Taemin was the priority, so he ran away quickly.
“What the hell! Who’s that teddy bear! That one.”
The owner was frowning and getting angry. Witnessing this scene, Taemin took out his wallet from his back pocket. He then handed a few checks to the owner.
“My wife is very shy, that’s why.”
“What?”
The owner looked dumbfounded at Taemin’s nonsense, but after seeing the amount, he quickly accepted it. Taemin then picked up the rose bouquet from the ground. His cheeks were already flushed red.
“I have something to do right now, so could you please keep this for me?”
“Yes… Yes… Understood.”
The owner, who had suddenly become polite, received the bouquet with both hands. Taemin immediately chased after Idam.
* * *
“What? That teddy bear isn’t Yeo Idam?”
Secretary Kang, who had remained in the sedan, was shocked as he received a call from an employee.
[Yes. We caught the teddy bear and took off the costume, but it’s a girl inside?]
“Wow, the CEO is really amazing…”
From his perspective, it looked exactly like the same teddy bear. But Taemin had found Idam at a glance. He couldn’t help but admire Taemin’s discerning eye. He also thought that this was typical of an alpha obsessed with Idam.
[What should we do?]
“Where are you now? I’ll come to handle it.”
* * *
“Aaaah!”
The market was in an uproar with the appearance of teddy bear Idam and Taemin chasing him. Some people were even filming.
Amidst the chaos, Idam ran well. This was despite wearing a heavy mascot costume and uncomfortable clothes. This made Taemin even more frustrated. According to the obstetrician they had visited yesterday, Idam should be starting to show a bit now. He had expected Idam to be slower than before, but that was a complete miscalculation.
But he wouldn’t let him escape now. An aggressive fire lit up in Taemin’s blue eyes.
When Taemin first saw Idam, he felt a strange emotion he had never experienced before. It was as if a fairy from an unknown world had appeared before him. His heart fluttered, and the world looked different. Along with the sweet pheromones he encountered for the first time, the soft sensation of embracing that delicate body with his arms. It was shocking enough to turn his life upside down.
But at that time, he didn’t realize that this sensation was the beginning of love.
He had been building a wall in his heart since the moment he developed an aversion.
Everyone seemed to naturally meet omegas, fall in love, and feel happiness. But for Taemin, that itself was impossible. His heart was always desolate and barren. He tried to suppress it by substituting with alphas, but the emptiness in his heart couldn’t be filled.
So he decided that if he couldn’t have a normal love, he would eliminate that expectation itself. Gradually, living like a dry desert became familiar and he thought it was natural.
Thinking that love was just an illusion for him, he found it trivial and lived advocating for staying single. He thought he could never love or embrace someone for his entire life.
That’s why he couldn’t read the unfamiliar emotion that flared up like a flame when he faced Idam.
His grandfather also claimed that extreme omegas were just tools, and he was also under the influence of those words.
Also, he didn’t see Idam properly because of his young age.
So when Idam confessed under the night sky where fireworks were bursting, he felt a strange joy. That became a destructive emotion, and he wanted to see Idam broken. Because he felt intense pleasure when that white face cried in bed.
‘What should I do? I don’t like Idam. We’re just in a contract relationship, aren’t we?’
That’s why he ended up making such a foolish statement.
All of this was because it was the first time.
He was inexperienced because he had never given his heart to anyone in his life until now.
So now, he ended up creating this result. Now, he wanted to convey his honest feelings to Idam. He wanted to completely confine Idam as his own.
Before he knew it, Idam had reached the road. There was a crosswalk right in front, and the green light was about to end. But Idam didn’t stop and ran faster than lightning. Taemin tried to catch up, but the light had already turned red and cars started speeding by. The teddy bear gradually moved farther away.
“Ah. Damn it.”
Taemin felt frustrated but soon his expression became relaxed. Although Idam’s pheromones were currently suppressed due to pregnancy, there was a way to detect him. That’s why he easily found out who Idam was among the two teddy bears earlier, and when Idam was hiding in a cave on Jihwado last time. This was something that couldn’t be controlled like pheromones, making it easy to track.
The traffic light changed again. Taemin crossed the crosswalk. His destination was clear, as if he was walking while looking at a map.
* * *
“Haa… Haa…”
Idam ran, gasping for breath. He had completely left the market and was running wherever his feet took him. But his stamina was gradually decreasing, and he needed a place to rest for a moment. That’s when a five-story commercial building caught his eye. Moreover, it was covered with rental banners and no one was in sight.
Judging it to be a suitable place to rest for a while, Idam quickly entered and closed the glass door. But feeling uneasy to leave it as is, he tried to turn the doorknob to lock it. However, it was stiff and didn’t turn easily, so he had to use force to finally lock it. At that moment, he felt a stinging sensation on his fingertip.
“Ouch…”
Idam took off the brown gloves he was wearing to check. The band-aid he had put on a cut from chopping onions in the morning had come off. Moreover, the wound had reopened and was bleeding. He was momentarily perplexed, but this was not the time to dawdle.
First, he reapplied the band-aid and put the glove back on before climbing the stairs. His body was tired and he wanted to enter any place to rest, but parts of the corridor were blocked with wire mesh and locked with padlocks, so he had no choice but to keep going up.
Soon, the door to the rooftop came into view. He was worried it might be locked, but fortunately, it was open. Idam stepped onto the rooftop. He tried to lock the rooftop door as well just in case, but the handle seemed to be broken and the lock didn’t move properly.
“Ha…”
He thought it couldn’t be helped since it was a rundown building. Still, he tried not to worry too much since he had locked the entrance door on the first floor. Idam sat on the ground, taking a deep breath. He also took off the teddy bear costume and the bulky clothes he was wearing. Underneath, he was wearing a short-sleeved shirt and shorts, which made him feel much cooler.
“How… did he find me…”
He had lived carefully for three months to avoid facing this kind of situation. And in the process, he naturally tried to let go of his feelings for Taemin. But when he heard the news of Taemin’s marriage, he was so sad, and when he saw Taemin’s thinner appearance earlier, his heart ached. He had looked so glamorous and beautiful on TV.
Did he not eat properly? Or was he busy preparing for the wedding? Or was he very sick somewhere?
Feeling this anxiety made him feel really stupid and foolish. Why doesn’t this feeling of love erase? It felt like an imprint that could never be erased for a lifetime. He really hated himself for being so bear-like, full of lingering attachment.
Wake up, Yeo Idam. You’ll die if you get caught now.
He had to survive somehow, if only for the baby in his belly. He couldn’t become weak now. Idam clenched his jaw as he wrapped his arms around his stomach.
But then he heard a commotion from below. There was a tension in the air as if something had happened. At the same time, Idam felt a scent that seemed to constrict his body. With a chilling feeling, he looked back. Someone’s hand was visible over the rooftop railing.
“Gasp.”
Startled, Idam moved his body backward. At that moment, a large figure leaped over the railing and landed on the rooftop floor.
“So you were hiding here.”
The protagonist who appeared like a flash of light was Taemin.
“H-How… did you come up?”
Idam was terrified, never having imagined that he would appear before him like this.
“I climbed up the building wall from the first floor.”
His suit had various scrape marks, and his hands were covered in powder.
“Without… any safety equipment?”
It was a five-story height of at least 16 meters. If he had fallen while climbing, he couldn’t have avoided a major disaster. Thinking about it that way, Taemin seemed even more out of his mind.
“Don’t you remember what I said when we first met?”
“What?”
“I told you that free solo climbing was my hobby.”
“Ah!”
That’s right, he did say that. He said his hobby was climbing mountains without safety equipment. He realized that the screams he heard from below earlier were from people who were shocked to see Taemin climbing the building wall with his bare hands.
Above all…
“How did you know I was here?”
They had clearly gotten separated when crossing the crosswalk. Or had one of his other employees been tailing him? Everything was confusing in this ghost-like situation. Gradually, Taemin’s gaze fixed on Idam’s right hand.
“Blood.”
“What?”
“I smelled your blood.”
Idam couldn’t understand what this abnormal answer meant. All he could do was blink his round eyes. In the meantime, Taemin approached Idam and held his hand. The powder that was on his hands until just now had mysteriously disappeared, leaving them clean.
“Your blood has the second most delicious scent after your pheromones.”
Eventually, Taemin forcefully removed the glove Idam was wearing. The band-aid that had been clumsily wrapped earlier was revealed. It was already quite loose, having lost much of its adhesiveness.
Taemin raised the corners of his mouth, then removed the rest of the band-aid and sucked on Idam’s finger.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
