The entire process was carried out very quietly and calmly. Enough that even Saehyeon held his breath still.
“Doesn’t seem dislocated…”
Gil Taeseo, who had quickly wrapped a bandage around the ankle where only bone could be felt, slowly lowered his hand so the toes touched the floor. When the warm skin fell away and the cold floor’s temperature touched his bare feet, Saehyeon jerked his body that had been sliding.
“Ah, no… if you’re talking about shoes, you should say that clearly.”
Saehyeon, who pulled his foot out and hugged it toward his body, grumbled. He also rubbed the toes that seemed to have a lingering aftereffect vigorously with his hands.
“Ah, now that’s my fault too? Bullshit.”
Gil Taeseo, who had been staring down at the grip from which the foot had slipped out, said as he straightened his body. When he unfolded his crouching body, his shadow grew much longer.
Saehyeon shifted his body slightly to the side as if retreating from that shadow.
“I told you earlier. I only blabber to people who understand.”
“It’s not like I’m really a son of a bitch…”
Saehyeon, who had been grumbling, rolled his eyes and read the mood. Until earlier, he’d been too out of it so he’d been carried around carelessly, and after that, though it was close to delusion, the emotions he’d forgotten while being tense feeling a threat to his chastity raised their heads again.
Even if he was his enemy, it was the first time Saehyeon with memories of being 20 years old had met someone he knew. So perhaps that’s why he felt a strange sense of gladness.
It was just that negative emotions like unfamiliarity, awkwardness, and uncomfortable feelings of not knowing what to do far surpassed that.
‘What should I talk about?’
He thought if they met, he’d have a lot to say. But with the person actually in front of him, the thoughts that had been squirming in his head were swept away and disappeared like sandcastles on a beach in one wave.
Whether his body was loosening from tension or if his damn body’s stamina had run out. Saehyeon felt a sense of exhaustion. In his empty head, only the thought of wanting to go home suddenly surged up.
From waking up with memories of being 20 years old until now, it had been a home full of only uncomfortable things and shock.
Nevertheless, seeing that he wanted to return, it seemed he’d come to accept even that as home. When only a few months had passed.
‘Still, there… the kid is waiting.’
Right. Lee Taesol was there. The child that he and Gil Taeseo had supposedly given birth to.
Saehyeon moved his mouth as if he should bring it up for a moment, but soon decided against it.
He didn’t want to talk about something from a time he couldn’t remember in such a submissive manner. Everything in the world was already set up to be difficult for Saehyeon to handle.
A well-off and strong alpha who gave off a gangster-like feeling but wore expensive clothes and lived commanding people.
And a poor and inferior omega who had fallen out with him and lived raising a child alone.
What keywords should be added to this picture?
‘Saehyeon. You must never lose. Especially… when it comes to that.’
A voice whispering in his ear added conviction to such thoughts.
Gil Taeseo, who had been quietly watching Saehyeon just rolling his eyes like that, suddenly spoke up.
“Why don’t you go wash up first.”
His hand pointed to another door behind the sofa. It looked like it was only an office, but it seemed a bathroom was attached as well.
“…Why wash again. I’m going home now. Move.”
“Looking like such a beggar?”
“…What’s wrong with how I look!”
The body he looked down at after speaking indignantly was a mess. It was full of dirt as if he’d really been rolling around somewhere. Even if he’d rolled in a desert, it would probably be cleaner than this.
‘…The sofa looks fucking expensive.’
The sofa he glanced back at also seemed slightly grayish only where he’d been rubbing against it. Saehyeon deliberately turned his head and decided to ignore it.
“I-I’m perfectly fine, you keep picking fights.”
“Perfectly fine? Are you saying that after looking at yourself?”
The moment Saehyeon suddenly inhaled, a voice was heard. It was right next to his ear.
“All messed up.”
When he looked up with a start, he saw a smooth jawline. Hands were placed on both sides of his head, and in an instant he was trapped within arms.
Though it was dim backlighting, perhaps because he was much closer, it seemed Gil Taeseo’s face could be seen better.
“Covered in this fucking disgusting smell of another alpha. Where are you trying to disappear to again.”
Eyes of deep ash gray that sparkled like metal too.
His fingertips slowly began to tingle, and Saehyeon unconsciously curled his hand into a fist.
Pheromones. Alpha smell. All of it was completely new to Saehyeon. But it wasn’t like he couldn’t guess what had happened.
The person he himself had neutralized on the spot was definitely a sexual harasser. Perhaps he might have even had something beyond sexual harassment as his goal.
The perpetrator was someone who showed disregard for omegas and superiority about his own manifestation from his usual words and actions. He’d often wielded pheromones too, so there was a high probability he’d mobilized pheromones at the decisive moment.
However, there was one thing the perpetrator had overlooked. That Saehyeon wasn’t a complete omega, but a half-finished omega. His pheromone glands weren’t intact, so he couldn’t properly feel even pheromones, let alone heat cycles.
Of course, this made things really fucking miserable. But thanks to that, he could counterattack spectacularly, so it was a day to be grateful for his half-finished omega nature once again.
‘Does that pheromone smell come from my body now?’
Ignoring such sensations was one thing, and having those impure pheromones clinging all over his body was a separate matter. Pheromones were often compared to perfume, but fundamentally their nature was different.
Not only could they contain specific implications, they also didn’t erase easily. To erase them, you had to use a pheromone-exclusive deodorant or cover them with other pheromones.
“…What does that have to do with you. Won’t you move right now?”
Even so, that had nothing to do with Gil Taeseo. Even if he was grateful… well, let’s say grateful for the help, that was that and this was this, wasn’t it.
From beginning to end, there was no reason why he had to create this kind of situation with Gil Taeseo.
At least, as far as Saehyeon could remember and think.
Saehyeon placed his hand on Gil Taeseo’s chest and pushed with force.
“Ha. What does it have to do with me, you ask.”
But the other party didn’t budge. If it weren’t for the body temperature and heartbeat that felt hot enough to burn through the fabric, he might have mistaken it for just a wall.
When he tried to push with force but failed, Saehyeon’s flustered fingers paused and curled slightly.
“Then where were you all this time? At least tell me that.”
“…”
Saehyeon firmly closed his mouth. There were no words he could answer with. That was something only his 28-year-old self before losing his memory could know.
“And what’s with that look like you’re about to die any moment.”
“…That’s.”
This time his mouth wouldn’t open for a different reason.
At the silence that settled heavily, Gil Taeseo gave a hollow laugh. Each time he spoke, his solid chest rumbled.
The rumbling felt through his tingling fingertips—whether they’d somehow gotten scratched and wounded earlier—came across more strangely than expected.
“Can’t do this, can’t do that…”
What happened next was instantaneous. Gil Taeseo had climbed halfway onto the sofa at some point and was looking down intently.
Even when seen from afar, even when encountered as a shadow, he’d felt he was big, but when he occupied and loomed directly above his body, that difference in physique hit him even more.
In the old days, he would have immediately thrown a punch saying it was disgusting. He would have screamed too. But somehow this time he couldn’t do that.
Like being suffocated, like pins being stuck in his limbs and being taxidermied in an instant. Everything right now made Saehyeon powerless.
It was on a different trajectory from what had happened in the alley with Mr. Gwak, who was now neutered. It definitely wasn’t such an unpleasant and dirty feeling. But there was something he couldn’t sharply define either.
“Yet having all these weird fucking fantasies.”
When Gil Taeseo tilted his head crookedly, soft hair flowed down his cheek like a wave. With light behind him, Gil Taeseo seemed to have light around the edges of his body.
The tips of his hair sparkling and shining, and his deep eyes that sparkled on their own despite being completely buried in darkness, naturally captured his gaze.
“Seeing how suspicious you are, it seems you’ve been playing around pretty promiscuously while I haven’t seen you.”
The large hand that had been resting beside his shoulder instantly closed the distance and gently wrapped around his neck. Under the tightened grip, he could feel the fluttering pulse and heaving Adam’s apple.
With his gaze fixed on the round eyes that had stopped resisting, Gil Taeseo smiled faintly. At least, he thought he smiled.
“Whatever you’re like, I can’t let you go like this.”
And at that moment. His entire body was strongly pressed down by something intangible. It felt like the air was gaining weight and crashing down.
His fingertips and toes tingled and curled, and with each gasp, something boldly burrowed into his open mouth and nostrils.
“So cooperate at least this much.”
Saehyeon didn’t know, but it was the first pheromone shower he’d experienced ‘within the range he remembered.’
