“……”
“What are you doing? C’mon, open up. Just ‘cause it’s late at night doesn’t mean you can skip eating.”
When Ha-jin slowly opened his mouth to take a bite, Tae-seong raised an eyebrow. His patience in front of freshly fried chicken was wearing thin—and clearly, that annoyed him.
“Why do you look like that, Ha-jin?”
“Because you look… so relaxed, sir.”
“And what’s wrong with me looking relaxed?”
It wasn’t the kind of question one could ask while holding an oily drumstick. So instead of answering, Ha-jin quickly picked the meat clean from the bone and wiped the grease from his lips.
“If the stock dropped that much… how much money’s been lost?”
Every time the news reported how many percentage points Chunwoo’s stock had fallen, Ha-jin would pull out a calculator and plug in numbers based on what he’d once seen about Tae-seong’s net worth online. There were already dozens of analysis videos on YouTube—but they were too grim to watch through to the end.
“You don’t look at stocks like that. It’s not as directly tied to your daily living as you think. Just eat your chicken.”
“You’re not going to get fired, right?”
The bluntness of the question caught Tae-seong off guard, his lips slightly parting. He had been the one to light this fire, hadn’t he? There was no way everyone was happy about the sudden upheaval—especially those who had aligned themselves with Director Han Ki-taek.
There was no way to clean house all at once. In the end, it would become a prolonged power struggle. And the people who had stood on Tae-seong’s side, having taken a major hit, might very well turn their backs. Ha-jin didn’t know the intricacies of corporate politics, but life worked the same way everywhere.
“Well, I’ll figure something out.”
Tae-seong admitted the crisis for what it was with a chuckle and a shrug. Then he cracked open a beer. He handed Ha-jin a soft drink and wrinkled his nose apologetically.
His attitude seemed hopeless on the surface, yet strangely comforting. Ha-jin stared down at the can in his hands, wondering what this feeling was.
Was it just relief that Tae-seong could still smile and say it was no big deal? Maybe. Then again, just because people bicker and scrape their way through life doesn’t mean their problems magically solve themselves. If that were true, someone like Ha-jin—who had struggled more than anyone—should’ve been living a carefree life by now. Instead, he’d died and returned to do it all over again.
Trying to fix everything only made things worse…
As he watched Tae-seong drink, Ha-jin murmured, “What happened to Kang Sung-oh?”
“That bastard…”
Tae-seong added quietly, We’re looking for him, unable to hide his deflation. He quickly composed his expression before Ha-jin’s face could darken.
Kang Sung-oh was a slippery bastard. They had confirmed he was at the location where Lee Yushin was being held, but by the time the place was raided, he’d vanished without a trace. His instincts were razor sharp. Worse, somehow he’d even convinced Lim Han-soo to disappear with him, and now Kim Dae-hong was pulling his hair out trying to track them down.
In his past life, Kang Sung-oh had also fled while Ha-jin’s grandfather was distracted capturing him. They should have been more careful, but everything had moved too fast to react properly.
“He’s a small fry. Dae-hong will catch him. Don’t worry about it.”
Even so, Ha-jin’s anxiety didn’t ease.
“This isn’t over. I’m sure of it.”
His voice was firm. Tae-seong looked at him curiously, but Ha-jin made no effort to hide his thoughts this time. Even if Tae-seong looked at him like he was crazy, it didn’t matter.
Maybe he should just confess that he’d come back from the dead. He’d been wrestling with that question for the past week. But he still didn’t know how to say it in a way that Tae-seong would believe him—or whether he had the courage to bring it up at all.
Ha-jin furrowed his brows.
“How about the place in Gangwon-do where your grandfather and mother are? You should be cautious there too. Increase the security, and make sure it’s someone you really trust.”
“Yeah?”
“How’s your mother doing?”
“Well… you know…”
Tae-seong replied halfheartedly, then suddenly leaned in and kissed him. Caught off guard, Ha-jin flinched, and the kiss missed, landing beside his lips. Maybe irritated by the miss, Tae-seong yanked Ha-jin into his arms and started rubbing his face all over him.
“Ugh—hey, quit it.”
Somehow sensing Ha-jin’s gloom, Tae-seong had gone into puppy-mode. With all his weight pressed against him, he began planting kisses all over Ha-jin’s cheek and ear. And just as Ha-jin wobbled from the weight, Tae-seong pounced.
“Yushin’s upstairs…”
“Your brother can’t come downstairs ‘cause of the pheromones, remember?”
Before he even finished speaking, Tae-seong had already flooded the space with his pheromones. The heat was so thick and blatant that even a perfectly healthy person would blush and flee, let alone someone with a pheromone condition like Yushin.
“You’re so… ugh… mean…”
“Is Ha-jin running a bit hot?”
His voice was gentle, but his hands weren’t. One of them covered Ha-jin’s entire chest, making it hard to breathe. It had to be a fever—but Tae-seong, acting like a brat, pretended not to notice and just indulged his desire. The sound of their bodies brushing made Ha-jin’s ears burn.
***
“Ha-jin, it’s been a while!”
Summoned by Tae-seong and appearing like a bullet in the dead of night, Song Jae-hyun clasped Ha-jin’s hand with a bright, friendly smile. Tae-seong’s expression darkened instantly, but Jae-hyun paid it no mind. He had come to perform Ha-jin’s tests, and he immediately began unpacking his bag on the sitting room table.
“I’ll do the blood draw myself, but you’ll need to apply your pheromones to the test strip on your own. Here’s the instructions. Just head to the bathroom and do it there.”
“Yes, understood.”
Calling Jae-hyun instead of Joo Yoon-seo had been Tae-seong’s choice. He’d clearly felt awkward after the conversation at that previous dinner and didn’t want her involved in Ha-jin’s care. Jae-hyun had to step in.
“I’m really sorry about this. I should’ve gone to the hospital…”
“Don’t be. They’re giving me a nice fat field visit bonus. Honestly, I wish you’d call me every day. I’d pay off my mortgage in no time.”
As he drew Ha-jin’s blood, Jae-hyun mumbled loud enough for all to hear, humming cheerfully while collecting two vials of vivid red blood.
Holding the pheromone test strip set in his hand, Ha-jin suddenly wondered—how much did Jae-hyun know? And more importantly, what exactly had Tae-seong told him?
As if reading his mind, Jae-hyun spoke up.
“You both know things aren’t certain right now, right? Too much time has passed since the rutting period, so even emergency contraceptives wouldn’t work at this point. But it’s also too early to tell if there’s a baby. Tae-seong’s a dominant Alpha, so the chances are high, but Ha-jin, you’re a recessive with a unique physiology.”
“Ah… yes, I know.”
“Good. So today’s tests are more about checking your condition after going through two consecutive cycles. Let’s just focus on that.”
For some reason, Ha-jin’s mouth felt dry. Being laid so bare made him feel tense, but Jae-hyun simply smiled kindly. Then he turned to Tae-seong and made a teasing expression, even baring his teeth playfully. Muttering that he was an annoying bastard, Tae-seong looked ready to fight, so Ha-jin dragged him off to the bathroom before Yushin upstairs woke up from the commotion.
Tae-seong looked just as stiff as Ha-jin.
“Why do you look more nervous than I am, sir?”
“You sure you’re okay, Ha-jin?”
Ha-jin smiled and gently pushed him away. “Wait here.” He spoke to him like one would to a clingy dog and stepped inside the bathroom to apply the pheromones to the test strip.
Because his scent was naturally faint, even filling the small paper strip was a struggle.
When he came out holding the sealed test, Tae-seong immediately pulled him into an embrace and buried his nose in Ha-jin’s neck. Through the large mirror in the powder room, Ha-jin could see him inhale deeply.
“Can you sense anything?”
“It’s insane. I’m already hard.”
He was sharp—he could tell the moment Ha-jin’s voice lost even a hint of energy. When Ha-jin looked skeptical, Tae-seong grabbed his hand and placed it over his groin. The thick pressure and searing heat were immediate, making Ha-jin recoil and swat at his shoulder.
“Ow.”
“I know it didn’t hurt.”
“What am I supposed to do when your pheromones are this freaking cute?”
At the ridiculous comment, Ha-jin couldn’t help but laugh in disbelief. Tae-seong snuggled even closer and whispered sweetly, telling him not to worry about his condition, his heat, or anything else. But the way his hands kept getting more and more explicit was starting to become a problem.
“The doctor’s right outside!”
“Want me to tell Jae-hyun to leave?”
“No!”
Laughing, they left the bathroom to find Song Jae-hyun wearing a knowing expression. He didn’t even try to hide his disgust as he gathered the test kit and blood samples. When Ha-jin offered him breakfast, he quickly declined, saying he needed to get the hell out of there.
While walking down the long corridor of the mansion toward the entrance with his bag and jacket, Jae-hyun continued rattling off nagging advice. It was mostly about Ha-jin’s condition—how, since his secondary gender had manifested late and he’d already been through rutting, he needed to take extra good care of his health.
Just as he reached the end of the hallway and was about to kick off the guest slippers, Jae-hyun turned back, as if he’d forgotten something.
“Oh, right. About you, Tae-seong… the imprinting…”
