#48
As Eunhong put in a capsule and brewed his coffee, he naturally thought of Lee Jaeha’s pheromones. The first impression of the cool, forest-like refreshing pheromones strangely felt cozy when you got close. How could one explain the feeling of temperature in a scent? Sometimes there was a sweet smell that made his insides feel warm, even causing his mouth to water.
It felt strange that he hadn’t known this during his long years as a beta. It was odd that he could have been unaware of something so intense. Other omegas who had smelled Jaeha’s pheromones must have felt the same way.
“Ugh…”
His thoughts wandered unbidden to the alpha’s rut. Jaeha’s pheromones when he reached his limit and could no longer hold back would probably be violent. If they redefined their relationship as alpha and omega, would they end up rolling around like that too…?
Beep- Beep beep beep.
A red heart appeared on the smartwatch. Eunhong noticed his face had flushed. His pheromones were trying to seep out without him realizing.
Oh no, this is bad. It can’t happen. No. No.
He remembered Professor Choi saying it was best not to take the emergency medication if possible. Eunhong mixed cold water and ice into his coffee and gulped it down. After hastily drinking the icy beverage until his head felt numb, the pheromone alert turned off.
He might die of a heart attack before reaching stability. As he was rubbing his chest, someone tapped his shoulder timidly.
“Um… Eunhong-ssi.”
Worried that his pheromones might have been detected, Eunhong turned around tensely. Fortunately, it was Choi Han-sung, a beta. He hadn’t noticed him approach due to his unusually cautious manner. Choi Han-sung held out a donut-shaped cushion with a hole in the middle to Eunhong.
“I thought you might need this, Eunhong-ssi.”
“What’s this?”
As Eunhong casually touched the cushion, Choi Han-sung’s face turned pale. He looked around furtively and whispered in a low, careful voice.
“I know because I’ve been through it. Hemorrhoids, they can really kill you. You need to take good care of yourself after surgery to avoid suffering later.”
“Hemor… rhoids?”
“Yeah, didn’t you take leave for hemorrhoid surgery? Only our team knows, so don’t be embarrassed and use this.”
Ah…
Eunhong quickly grasped the situation. So that’s why everyone had been so sympathetic and comforting. Then that chocolate too…
Clutching the donut cushion that Choi Han-sung had hastily passed to him, Eunhong hesitantly returned to his seat. From a distance, Shim AD looked at Eunhong and gave an exaggerated wink with a thumbs up. Eunhong felt a sudden urge to snap that upraised thumb.
Why of all things… If they were going to lie, couldn’t it have been appendix surgery or something? Out of all the surgeries, why…
Eunhong, who had suddenly become a hemorrhoid patient, gingerly sat down on the donut cushion at his desk.
***
Lee Jaeha stared at his phone screen. The usually calm red graph was slightly spiking. What reason would there be for pheromones to spike at work? His smooth forehead creased deeply. He kept swiping the graph with his thumb, but it was frustrating that no information other than numbers appeared.
“I told you, didn’t I? You should have installed wiretapping or recording devices too.”
The sound of a door opening and closing was heard, followed by the gruff voice of an old man over his shoulder. There’s nothing wrong with listening to your elders, he says. Jaeha turned off his phone screen, his eyebrows twitching.
Professor Choi was a person who tended to interfere unnecessarily, and was very direct and outspoken. His way of speaking was sometimes even risky, but thanks to his grandfather liking it, their relationship hadn’t been cut off long ago. After spending a long time together, it seemed the sense of crisis had disappeared completely, and now he acted like Jaeha’s own grandfather.
Whether aware of Jaeha’s inner thoughts or not, Professor Choi handed over the test results he had brought, smiling faintly.
“Look at these numbers. In just one time, well, strictly speaking, it wasn’t just once… I’ve never seen numbers stabilize this quickly in all my years as a doctor.”
Jaeha’s eyebrows rose slightly. The numbers on the test results he received were various measurements affected by pheromones, and almost all items were marked as entering the stable range. Especially the pheromone imbalance that had started to affect even immune function had stabilized surprisingly well.
“You’re saying this is thanks to Eunhong?”
“Indeed, it’s extreme dominance. At times like this, I can understand why some people are so obsessed with phenotypes.”
“It’s that severe. The extreme dominant omega phenotype…”
The mention of extreme dominant omega reflexively made Jaeha think of his dead mother. She, who had possessed a beautiful and brilliant scent, eventually died consumed by her own pheromones due to an unwanted imprinting by his father. Jaeha’s eyes darkened.
A gloomy murmur escaped through his teeth, saying how are pheromones that end up killing even oneself any different from a genetic disease? Professor Choi gazed steadily at Jaeha over his glasses. Being familiar with the Han family’s affairs, he couldn’t easily add words. He just gave a moment before continuing with the diagnosis.
“After a few more intimate encounters, you’ll return completely to the normal range. Then you won’t need injections anymore, and I expect your physical condition will keep improving.”
“A few more encounters? Why do you talk as if you’re mating animals?”
Jaeha crumpled the results sheet violently, made it into a ball, and threw it in the trash. He rose nimbly, adjusted his jacket, and turned around without hesitation. Talking with Professor Choi made him feel like he was becoming more and more of an animal in a cage.
Towards Jaeha’s turned back, Professor Choi threw out words mixed with a soft sigh.
“Maybe it’s because I’m old, but I find it hard to understand. What’s so complicated? I know how you feel, CEO Lee, and it seems Eunhong-ssi has feelings for you too.”
“…”
“During the manifestation accident, was Eunhong-ssi perhaps unaware that you were his partner? Is that why you’re so afraid?”
Jaeha’s steps came to an abrupt halt. His gaze, which had been looking ahead, shifted back to Professor Choi. Though his gaze was cold, his face couldn’t hide the bewilderment at having been hit right on the mark. Professor Choi seemed used to receiving Jaeha’s gaze and just looked back calmly. He too had lived a lifetime as an alpha.
Jaeha stood there stupidly for a while, as if he had been hit somewhere, and then chewed over Professor Choi’s words. That’s right. Eunhong had definitely reached out to him first. He even called his name. But…
“You’re not certain, are you?”
Just then, a notification popped up on his phone saying Eunhong’s pheromone graph had returned to a stable state. Professor Choi saw Jaeha’s brow furrow slightly and then smooth out. His expression looked too anxious to pretend not to notice.
“Let me…”
As he was about to add one more word, Jaeha walked out even faster. The door slammed shut.
“…try to find out?”
The question lingered in the air with no one to hear it. Professor Choi clicked his tongue. It seemed unlikely that he would see a baby within this year, which was disappointing.
***
The sushi restaurant where a lunch set cost 38,000 won was quiet despite it being lunchtime. Eunhong, who couldn’t eat wasabi, gritted his teeth inwardly as he faced a 15,000 won udon bowl. In contrast, Woohyun sitting across from him was enthusiastically inhaling his food. Even though Woohyun wasn’t particularly large, he ate so well that it made one wonder where it all went. Perhaps he just ate well when someone else was paying.
Eunhong had these idle thoughts as he turned his gaze to the large TV hanging on the wall. The TV was showing a rerun of a weekend drama that was currently enjoying sky-high ratings. Eunhong didn’t usually keep up with dramas, so he didn’t know how great the show was. He just noticed the title displayed in the corner of the screen.
< The Alpha's Last Love Rides the Spring Rain >
“Ugh, what is that…?”
The writer really lacks sense. As Eunhong muttered with a frown, Woohyun glanced at him.
“You don’t know that drama?”
Eunhong shook his head. The drama was so full of clichés that he could tell the whole story after watching just 10 minutes. The protagonist, a chaebol dominant alpha, suffers from being unable to forget his first love from childhood despite the family pressure to continue the lineage. After reuniting with the first love he had hurt and parted from, one day they end up in bed due to an accident…
“Your boyfriend called.”
When Eunhong turned around with a ‘what are you talking about’ face, Woohyun gestured indifferently with his chin. Eunhong’s phone placed on the table was flashing. He had forgotten to turn off the silent mode set in the office. Eunhong flipped the phone over without answering.
“It’s not like that.”
“You are dating, aren’t you? Did you fight? Why aren’t you answering the phone?”
Woohyun chewed on an octopus piece and laughed. With eyes full of certainty.
“You don’t watch that drama? The alpha there acts exactly like Lee Jaeha. The way alphas take care of their mates, their obsession, what’s shown in the drama isn’t a lie. It exists in reality too. Right next to you.”
“What obsession are you talking about?”
“Honestly, who would call that friendship? The way he looks at you, he just wants to sleep with you.”
Eunhong put down the chopsticks he was holding. Woohyun’s way of speaking really irritated him. Always going on about sleeping together. Is this guy possessed by a ghost that died from not being able to have sex?
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
