# 1
It was a pitch-black night.
Jin-ha couldn’t fall asleep and was gazing at the sky beyond the window. The sky that had been full of twinkling stars until yesterday was now devoured by dark clouds, without a single sparkle.
The sound of fierce wind and raindrops hitting the window revealed a storm had come.
With the weather this bad, why hadn’t he returned yet? Even though Jin-ha knew it was pointless to worry about that man, it was difficult to stop thinking about him.
Just as Jin-ha was glaring resentfully at the dark clouds before turning to lie on his side—
Boom! Lightning struck nearby. A sharp flash of light spread, followed by a sound like something collapsing that rang in his ears.
Jin-ha, who had risen in surprise, was about to lie back down when he suddenly realized there was a commotion outside.
“What’s going on?”
He opened the door still in his pajamas. As soon as the door cracked open, he could tell what the commotion downstairs was about.
“You mustn’t, Master!”
“Give it to me.”
“You’ve already taken one pill! If you take more, who knows what might happen to your body…!”
“I said give it to me.”
The person arguing with Riyekan, the Master of Noon Moon Tower, was Legas, his loyal secretary and follower. Legas was a man who served Riyekan like his own lord, and under normal circumstances, a fight between the two would be unthinkable.
Jin-ha felt an ominous sensation and hurriedly headed for the first floor.
At the bottom of the lavish staircase—decorated with white marble and gold-painted railings, adorned with lapis lazuli—stood Riyekan. The man buried in the sofa was exhausted and feverish, breathing heavily while struggling to rise from the sofa.
When he stretched his hand into the air and clenched it, the medicine bottle in Legas’s hand flew straight to Riyekan.
“Master!”
Despite Legas’s protests, Riyekan tore off the bottle cap.
At that moment, Jin-ha instinctively realized what the contents were.
“Riyekan, don’t—Ah!”
Rushing to run down the stairs, Jin-ha misstepped and closed his eyes tightly.
But the expected pain didn’t come. Instead, a deep woody fragrance, an intoxicating scent like burning aromatic wood, brushed his nostrils.
When he looked up, he realized he was in Riyekan’s arms.
Everything around them was completely silent, and Riyekan’s deep blue eyes glowed hot like high-temperature flames. Jin-ha remained captivated by those eyes, gasping for breath.
BOOM!
The strange silence in the hall, where only the sound of rain, wind, and held breaths persisted, was broken by thunder. Startled, Jin-ha twisted his body, causing Riyekan to lose his grip.
“Ugh…”
Sprawled on the floor, Jin-ha saw the remnants of a pill and reflexively knocked it away.
This medicine was what an alpha in rut took to endure that time alone. Originally, the pheromones should be released through intercourse, but this medicine could also solve the problem. However, it was said that each dose shortened one’s lifespan by about half a year.
According to Legas, he had already taken one pill, but he wanted to take more of such dangerous medicine?
Jin-ha looked up at Riyekan with indignation but flinched.
Riyekan was staring at him with gleaming eyes. Pierced by that peculiar gaze—something like ecstasy or joy—Jin-ha unconsciously backed away a little.
As Riyekan rose from his seat, Jin-ha also reflexively stood up. A tension like facing a lion or tiger was chilling his back and nape.
The strange standoff, where Jin-ha retreated one step for every step Riyekan took forward, didn’t last long.
Because Jin-ha’s back hit the wall. Even when he stopped, Riyekan didn’t stop approaching. Jin-ha couldn’t understand what was happening. But his instinct was pounding at his heart, telling him he shouldn’t be caught.
Just as Jin-ha tried to escape sideways—bang! Riyekan’s arm blocked his way.
“…”
“No more running away. I won’t allow it.”
“Allow…what?”
“I’ve let you run away several times already. But not today.”
Riyekan stared at Jin-ha without blinking. His face, ears, neck, and the lines extending downward. Meeting that gaze, Jin-ha somehow felt his body shrink with embarrassment.
Jin-ha knew the nature of this gaze. He couldn’t mistake this sticky, penetrating stare.
“Help me, Lee Jin-ha. Please?”
The arrogant voice pretended to plead pitifully. Jin-ha flinched but remained vigilant, his body stiffening.
“Why, why did this suddenly happen? Is a rut supposed to come this suddenly…?”
“Lee Jin-ha, please.”
Riyekan’s knee suddenly pushed between Jin-ha’s legs. Jin-ha stared at Riyekan with wide, startled eyes, but Riyekan only pretended to look docile and obedient while pushing his body closer.
“Wait…!”
Jin-ha urgently extended his hand. As usual, he slid his fingers into the hair at Riyekan’s temple and gently caressed it. Riyekan made a low growling sound like a sedated beast, tilting his head toward the touch and exhaling a hot breath. Yet, even while doing so, he never took his eyes off Jin-ha.
Jin-ha firmly stroked his cheek, forehead, and between his hair to keep the man from getting excited, while signaling with his eyes to Legas, who was fidgeting anxiously nearby. Legas spoke urgently:
“There was an issue with the herbalist’s hut where we briefly took shelter from the rain. For some reason, the dried herbs that stimulate pheromones were all ground to powder…”
The story was that inhaling them had caused this mess.
A memory from earlier in the day flashed through Jin-ha’s mind. The herbalist’s hut was the place he had visited two days ago while investigating the island. When he nearly tripped, the table he grabbed collapsed, crumbling the dried herbs. He had smelled a strange odor and felt dizzy and short of breath, so he left without cleaning up…
Just then, Riyekan grabbed his chin and turned it toward himself. The moment their eyes met, their lips collided.
“Mmph…!”
Not only were his eyes hot—his lips and tongue were scalding as well.
Jin-ha gasped under the persistent kisses, trying to turn his head away only to be captured again and again. Between briefly parted lips, sounds of unintelligible meaning escaped, only to be devoured again by Riyekan’s mouth.
“Wait, Ri-Riyekan!”
Jin-ha shouted like a scream and covered Riyekan’s mouth with his hand. This time, Riyekan didn’t act impatiently. He tilted his head slightly and used his tongue to penetrate between Jin-ha’s fingers. When Jin-ha trembled, he smiled leisurely with his eyes.
His attitude suggested he was already firmly convinced of his victory.
Jin-ha spoke urgently:
“I, I am not an appropriate partner to release your pheromones.”
“I said stop running away.”
“I’m not an omega, so…”
Riyekan heard those words and snorted.
It was true that an omega was the most appropriate partner for an alpha in rut to resolve pheromones. But for Riyekan, this was impossible.
“If you had been an omega in the first place, I wouldn’t be doing this. You know that, right?”
Because he was an alpha who despised omegas.
“But I’m not an alpha or a beta either. Even so…”
Riyekan snorted again. Jin-ha was not from this place but from another world called Earth. That’s why he was neither alpha, omega, nor beta.
“That doesn’t matter.”
As he tried to kiss again, Jin-ha twisted his head to avoid it.
“But I told you I don’t do this kind of thing unless it’s a serious relationship…”
Jin-ha couldn’t properly finish his sentence, and his face was filled with confusion, fear, and an indescribable trembling.
Riyekan frowned, fell into thought for a moment, then nodded.
“…Will that do?”
“Pardon?”
“If it’s a serious relationship, will that work?”
“But…”
You’re not the type to have that kind of relationship.
The rest of the words went unspoken, but in the subtle silence, such a conversation passed between them.
Riyekan roughly pushed the confused-eyed Jin-ha against the wall and kissed him. He propped up Jin-ha’s legs with his knee, subtly pressing down as he smiled crookedly. Strangely, the kiss tasted like blood.
Jin-ha had one arm pinned above his head, his chin painfully pressed, and his body firmly pressed against the wall. This was beyond being trapped between the wall and the man. A warm heat rose from between his legs, along with a tingling pleasure.
Jin-ha tried to push the man away with his free hand but ended up gripping his shoulder tightly.
After a sticky kiss that didn’t even allow for the sound of gasping breaths, Riyekan slowly separated his lips, exhaling hot breath. The breath on his lips was hot. But the heat in his eyes was even hotter.
Only then did Jin-ha notice that no one was left in the hall. Everyone had fled during that time.
“Let’s do it.”
“…But you…”
“No more talking. We’re in a serious relationship from now on.”
What nonsense is this…? As Jin-ha opened his lips to protest, Riyekan pushed his tongue inside again. The protest was swallowed into the other’s mouth.
Where does such unreasonableness exist?
Of course, Jin-ha had thought this might happen someday, but definitely not in this way.
