“Hyung… Haa…”
The body holding Lee Tae-rim tightly was growing hotter by the second. Seon Juho inhaled deeply, trying to restrain the fierce desire rising within him as he buried his nose in Tae-rim’s scent. It felt so good, he thought he might go insane.
“Hyung… Hyyung…”
He instinctively began grinding his lower body against Tae-rim’s. The clothes between them were driving him mad—he wanted to tear them off and press their bare skin together. But he held himself back. If even this thin layer disappeared, he really might lose control and do something irreversible.
Each time he gently bit the side of Tae-rim’s neck, the man let out faint, unconscious moans in his sleep. Every sound made Seon Juho’s cock grow even harder. Tae-rim was just too tempting—he couldn’t take it. Juho’s breath turned ragged as he exhaled hotly against Tae-rim’s skin.
As his pheromones surged, Tae-rim’s began to respond, mingling faintly in the air. Still clinging to him, Seon Juho slowly thrust his hips upward, inhaling the scent at Tae-rim’s neck. The moment his hardened cock rubbed against Tae-rim’s clothed body, he nearly lost it. He wanted to rip these stifling clothes to shreds.
But he couldn’t cross that line. Not yet. He hadn’t even reached the point where Tae-rim was fully conscious of him. He couldn’t ruin everything now. Letting out a strangled moan, Seon Juho clung even tighter to him, as if desperate to contain the desire threatening to burst out.
For a long while, he stayed like that—panting, grinding softly, buried in Tae-rim’s scent—before finally forcing himself to pull away and leave the bedroom. There was a bathroom inside, but Seon Juho always used the one in the living room during the early hours of the morning.
He needed distance—just enough to stop himself from pouncing on Tae-rim. He didn’t want to expose himself in a place where opening the door would immediately put him in Tae-rim’s line of sight. If he did, this wretched bundle of instinct might really go off the rails.
As he had so many times before, Seon Juho habitually wrapped tissue around the head of his cock. Then, gripping the shaft with his other hand, he started stroking.
Tae-rim’s scent still lingered at the tip of his nose. His body had fit so perfectly in Juho’s arms, it felt like he’d left a mark on him. Seon Juho’s breathing grew increasingly rough.
Thanks to his workouts, Tae-rim had a lean, athletic build. He wasn’t as muscular as Juho, but his body was tightly packed with defined, wiry muscle. Just running his hands over that frame—even through clothes—was enough to make Juho lose his mind.
He wanted to rip the clothes off. He wanted to feel that skin, touch him with his bare hands. He wanted to taste the small nipples on his chest—he couldn’t stop wondering what they would feel like, what they would taste like on his tongue.
“Hhngh…”
Gripping himself roughly, Seon Juho let out a choked moan as he came into the tissue. He sucked in a deep breath.
Lately, he’d noticed his pheromones had grown stronger. That was why he was being careful not to touch his own semen—he didn’t want the scent to linger.
Just a few months ago, his cum had only the faintest trace of pheromones. A quick wash would take care of it. But now, he couldn’t risk even that. The thick, masculine scent might cling to his hands—and if Tae-rim picked up on it, Juho wouldn’t be able to explain it away. He wasn’t ready for that. Not yet.
“Haa… Hyung…”
Even after ejaculating, he was still fully erect. Seon Juho recognized that this wasn’t normal.
He’d learned that most men gradually lose their erection after climax. But instead of going soft, he felt even harder. The thing throbbing in his hand wasn’t just his—it felt like a separate creature, pulsing with its own will, desperate to touch Tae-rim.
Veins bulging along its length, Seon Juho resumed stroking. If he kept thinking about Tae-rim, he felt like he could keep going all night. Breathing in Tae-rim’s scent, still clinging faintly to his skin, Juho felt his body race toward another peak. His head was swimming, overwhelmed by pleasure and pheromones.
Only after cumming multiple times did Seon Juho finally manage to cool the heat in his body and return to the bedroom. Truthfully, he still wasn’t satisfied—but he missed Tae-rim too much to stay away any longer. So he forced down the rest of his desire and left the bathroom.
When he got back, Tae-rim was still fast asleep. The room was thick with pheromones, helping him stay in a deep, restful slumber.
Juho went straight to the bed and slipped back under the covers, pulling Tae-rim into his arms. As soon as he held him, that sweet scent flowed into his lungs, rich and intoxicating. Arousal surged again—but he held it back. Now was the time to savor Tae-rim’s pheromones.
“Haa…”
A contented sigh escaped his lips. The simple fact that Tae-rim was here, in his arms, filled him with indescribable satisfaction.
Lately, the higher-ups had been quietly asking when he planned to move out—transparent attempts to separate him from Tae-rim. It was obvious why: they didn’t like that he only accepted Guiding from Tae-rim. That was probably the root of it. So Seon Juho just ignored them. Let the damn dogs bark.
He had no intention of leaving Tae-rim. Independence? Screw that. He wasn’t going anywhere.
Tae-rim was too soft. If Juho even cried a little, he’d never be able to kick him out. And even if that meant Tae-rim kept treating him like a clingy kid for the rest of his life—Juho didn’t care. He’d never leave. He couldn’t live without him.
But that didn’t mean he planned to stay a child forever. He wasn’t going to move out—but he would grow out of that babyish role. He would melt Tae-rim down, little by little, until he belonged to Juho completely.
“Don’t make me wait too long, Hyung.”
He pressed a kiss to Tae-rim’s softly parted lips, which fluttered with each breath. The sweetness made his mouth water. Holding him closer, Juho silently wished for the day to come soon.
The day Tae-rim would look at him with warm eyes, lean in first, and kiss him.
Just imagining it made his chest feel full. Wrapped up in that blissful vision, Seon Juho clung to Tae-rim even more tightly.
“I love you, Hyung.”
The way he whispered those words was unbearably sweet. And as if he’d heard them in his dreams, Tae-rim smiled faintly in his sleep, like he was having the best dream in the world. Juho kissed his lips again. As always, Tae-rim tasted like pure sweetness.
***
“This is seriously terrifying.”
“Tell me about it.”
Once again, the three of them were gathered in Lee Tae-rim’s personal Guiding room, huddled close together, each staring intently at their smartphones. Their expressions were grave. So was Tae-rim’s. Every major news outlet was saturated with coverage of a single event—and for good reason. A hole had opened in the sky above District 6.
“I thought Gates couldn’t open in the sky…”
Gates were only supposed to appear at certain altitudes. No one knew the exact parameters, but it was common knowledge that they’d never opened higher than human-inhabited zones. That was why the protective barrier had been designed to extend well above that range.
But this morning, a Gate had literally torn open in the sky—as if someone had ripped a hole in the heavens—and monsters had poured out of it. Thankfully, the shield had held, but from the ground, seeing monsters swarming above you had to be the stuff of nightmares. For civilians, it must’ve been sheer panic.
The Gate’s danger level had just barely qualified as A-rank. If the numbers had been just a little higher, it would’ve been marked as S-rank. Because of that, two S-rank monsters had almost fallen straight onto the city. Luckily, that worst-case scenario was avoided. Espers from other districts had been dispatched immediately, and the S-rank monsters were taken down the moment they emerged. A miracle, really.
“The barrier still can’t fully block S-rank monsters, right?”
“I don’t think so.”
“God, that’s a terrifying thought.”
Only one Gate had opened, and the situation had been handled swiftly—but the change in Gate behavior sent a wave of fear through everyone. If Gates really did start appearing in the sky regularly, the damage would be catastrophic. Only S-rank monsters could breach the barrier, and if that became the norm, it would be the absolute worst-case scenario imaginable.
“I really hope this was just some random fluke. Gates opening in the sky? That’s cheating. It’s basically telling us to die.”
“If even planes become unusable, we’ll be completely cut off. No exaggeration—we’re already halfway isolated as it is.”
“Why does it always have to be our country?”
“Seriously. Why us, of all places…”
At those words—why us—a memory flickered through Tae-rim’s mind. That machine Seon Juho had discovered. The one Central had seized. He remembered how the Center Director had lost his mind over it, dragging Choi Jiwoon and Tae-rim in while raving like a lunatic.
The Director had shouted that District 1’s research team would’ve been more than capable of studying the machine’s impact on Gates—if only they hadn’t lost it. “You two let it get taken,” he’d yelled, veins bulging in his neck. “Do you even understand how important that thing is?”
At the time, Tae-rim had just brushed it off. The Director wasn’t in a rational state anymore. He’d chalked it up to a full-on breakdown, let the words go in one ear and out the other. The man had been treating them like idiots, but Tae-rim hadn’t taken it personally.
Of course, that didn’t mean he hadn’t understood what was being said. He had. And that’s why the memory was resurfacing now.
