#56
The heat cycle erupted without warning. Eunsol had been having his tea time as usual, gazing out the large window. He was absently admiring the beauty of the large snowflakes falling and turning the sky pure white.
Then suddenly his vision swirled, and his breath instantly became hot.
The teacup Eunsol dropped shattered into pieces as it hit the floor with a clang. Eunsol barely managed to throw himself onto the sofa rather than onto the broken glass fragments.
“Mmm…”
Perhaps it was the effect of not having experienced a heat cycle for so long.
His body’s reaction was alarmingly intense, as severe as when his heat cycle had been triggered by Han Hyunyong.
Eunsol curled his body into a ball. Cold sweat that had formed at his temples mixed with tears, dotting the sofa. The knuckles on his tightly clenched hands protruded in a stark white color.
“It hurts…”
Although omega pheromones were spreading throughout the surroundings, it felt as if they remained inside his body, tormenting him. Like a child throwing a tantrum for being denied something they wanted, the pheromones raged violently.
For a while, Eunsol’s pheromone levels had been so low that he sometimes forgot about their existence except when intertwining bodies with Hyun-oh. Now, those once-low pheromones were running wild, gradually driving Eunsol into a corner.
His breathing fluttered like a fish caught in a net, refusing to calm down. The amount of air he exhaled decreased, but when inhaling, he took in too much at once, causing his chest to throb.
To make matters worse, his temperature was rising, making his vision dizzy whether his eyes were open or closed. Eunsol shook his head, trying to regain his senses.
“Hyun-oh…”
But his hazy mind desperately sought the one he needed at this moment. For an omega, a heat cycle stemmed from the reproductive desire to be embraced by an alpha.
His breath, panting like an animal’s, spread widely around the sofa.
“Ugh…”
It was when Eunsol could no longer endure and got up from the sofa, putting his feet on the floor. Even in his disoriented state, he felt the sharp sensation rising from the soles of his feet.
The pain soon transformed into a strange sensation.
Eunsol limped forward, heading toward the space in the house most filled with alpha pheromones. Behind him, bloody footprints dotted the floor.
“Ah…”
Just getting from the living room to the bedroom had depleted all his energy. The moment Eunsol’s knees touched the edge of the bed, he collapsed onto it.
Blood from his still-bleeding foot stained the white sheets. But Eunsol couldn’t even properly register that, pulling Hyun-oh’s pillow close and hugging it to his chest.
“Hmmm…”
He buried his face in the pillow and inhaled deeply. While the pillowcase was changed and washed daily, the stuffing inside was used for a longer period before being replaced.
Thanks to this, among the objects in the bedroom, it carried Hyun-oh’s scent relatively strongly.
“Medicine, I need medicine…”
But the faintly permeated alpha scent alone wasn’t enough to suppress the heat cycle. Eunsol tried to calm his increasingly chaotic mind and recalled where the suppressants might be.
Being married to Hyun-oh, there shouldn’t be a need for suppressants even during a heat cycle, but he had kept some just in case.
Since it had been a while since he last had a heat cycle, it took him quite some time to recall.
By the time he remembered that he had stocked suppressants in the room he used as his hideaway, the focus had almost completely disappeared from Eunsol’s eyes.
“I need to take suppressants…”
Today, it was uncertain when Hyun-oh would return.
Recently, he had been coming home regularly, but his arrival time was inconsistent. Eunsol felt like his mind would break if he tried to endure until Hyun-oh came home.
The intense heat felt as if it was burning even the blood flowing through his veins.
“…It’s hot.”
Eunsol moved his trembling hands to remove the clothes covering his body. The crumpled clothes bunched together and were pushed to the edge of the bed.
Left with only his underwear, Eunsol crawled across the bed on all fours.
“Argh.”
Of all things, the foot he placed on the ground was the injured one. The sharp pain caused Eunsol to collapse straight to the floor. Fortunately, since he had hunched his upper body, his head wasn’t injured, but instead, his protruding kneecap directly hit the floor.
“It hurts…”
Large teardrops flowed down his sorrowfully contorted eyes. His thoughts were processing one-dimensionally. Driven by the thought that he needed to inhale Hyun-oh’s pheromones immediately, he had headed for the bed, but then, judging that he needed suppressants, he moved his body out of the bedroom.
Now he felt pain and sorrow from the dull ache in his knee.
“Why… aren’t you by my side…”
His disorganized thoughts led to the absence of the person he most wanted to see at this moment.
Just last night, Hyun-oh had taken Eunsol fully. Lying beneath him, swaying, Eunsol could exist solely indulging in momentary pleasure.
At such times, he could push beyond pleasure all worries about his relationship with Hyun-oh, lingering attachments to the child they hadn’t conceived, and anxieties about a marriage life with no clear end.
The tickling sensation in his stomach grew worse as time passed. Eunsol’s toes curled inward from the sensation that he couldn’t resolve alone.
As a result, one of Eunsol’s feet continued to bleed without stopping. The stream of blood soaking his entire sole left distinct traces on the floor.
“I want to… contact him…”
Recently, Eunsol had been sending messages to Hyun-oh every day. Usually after he left for work, with heartfelt wishes for him to have a good day. But he had never once called him.
Messages could be checked at Hyun-oh’s convenience, but for a call, he would have to make time at the moment Eunsol called. The feeling of being a burden had made him hesitant.
But now, he wanted to call Hyun-oh and ask if he could come to him right away.
Eunsol headed back to the living room to find his phone. Each step was time-consuming; his knee stung from hitting the floor hard, and his sole ached.
“…Would it be okay to do this?”
But when he finally held the phone in his hand, Eunsol hesitated despite being in a state where reason had almost disappeared.
Calling others wasn’t this difficult. It was unclear why everything was so challenging only when it came to Hyun-oh.
“Ah…”
It happened in an instant—his finger, which had been hovering over Hyun-oh’s number on the screen, slipped and pressed the call button. Eunsol tightly closed his eyes at the dial tone coming from the phone.
The time he had just glimpsed on the phone swirled chaotically in his mind. Typically at this hour, Hyun-oh would be in the middle of work.
Sure enough, the prolonged dial tone switched to a woman’s voice.
His hand lost strength, and the slipping phone fell to the floor. There was a sound of something breaking, but Eunsol no longer had the energy to care about the phone. His clouded eyes disappeared between weakly closed eyelids. The resolve he had built up with difficulty crumbled like a sandcastle swept by waves.
What had made him believe that Hyun-oh would answer his call?
More than anyone else, Hyun-oh was the least likely person to ever answer Eunsol’s call.
“Suppressants… I need to take suppressants…”
Tears flowed continuously down his closed eyes. There was no one to help him. Suddenly, Eunsol realized that he was still alone, whether before or after marriage. Back then, just like now, he had searched for suppressants while sobbing from the painful pleasure invading his entire body.
He barely managed to get up and move. His underwear was soaked through, sticking to his skin with every movement.
Eunsol fell to the floor several times when his legs gave out while walking. Bruises that looked painful just by looking at them gradually increased on his white body.
“Huh, ah…”
Eunsol let out small cries like a dying animal caught in a trap. The moment he entered the room where the suppressants were kept, a terrible sensation enveloped his entire body, making his head pound.
Eunsol collapsed to the floor and curled up, not even making it a few steps past the doorway. Even the cool touch of the floor against his heated forehead made his mind strange.
Eunsol twisted his body and let out painful groans. He brought his forehead down like a hammer onto his hands that were folded on the floor.
His head throbbed more, but that was better. Without doing so, he wouldn’t be able to resist the urge to disturb his body violently.
“Someone… get me suppressants…”
Should he have kept someone always stationed at home? Not anticipating this situation, he had guarded the large house alone. Or he should have called someone other than Hyun-oh, like Song Do-ye or Kim Myungjun.
Now it was truly the limit. Eunsol’s heartbeat slowed.
His body, unable to endure the intense sensation, had become overloaded. His already blurry vision was now darkening from the edges.
“Lee Eunsol!”
The voice of the person he had been waiting for filled his ears.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
