Following his pounding heart, his toes wriggled under the blanket. After hanging up, there was nothing to do. He looked around the hospital room, which seemed especially spacious today, then turned on the TV.
Various programs appeared. But he couldn’t stop at any one of them and kept pressing buttons to change the screen. Among them, he chose the noisiest program.
It was a program where famous comedians came out and performed skits. Watching the people on screen laughing “haha hoho,” Ian hugged both his legs.
He tried to force the corners of his mouth up, but they quickly sank as if a heavy weight was attached.
Would he be able to smile brightly again? At the thought that suddenly arose, he sank into a sigh. It might take a very long time. Even when he tried not to think about it, the terrible things he’d experienced because of Hongdo kept appearing in his mind like afterimages.
After burying his head between his knees, finding it too dark, he brightened the hospital room lights even more. Darkness was falling outside the window.
The time without Ganghyuk was too lonely and cold.
ლ
“Baby.”
Opening the door and entering, Ganghyuk stopped walking for a moment upon seeing the pile of blankets rounded up on the bed.
In his last phone call with Ian, he’d said it would take about two hours, but he hadn’t kept his promise. Checking his wristwatch, it was already close to midnight.
If he were to make excuses, work had been too busy. Hongdo’s forces were spread throughout the country. Since he’d killed such a person, of course there was chaos.
So he’d chosen one of those who had been under Hongdo, waiting for a chance to overthrow him, and made a deal. He was the person Hongdo cherished second most after his right-hand man.
Even though he’d been entrusted with four businesses, the bastard had decided to betray Hongdo. As it turned out, Hongdo had apparently killed his wife in the past.
To stop him from meeting someone he loved and leaving the organization, he’d had someone kill her, and about a year ago when he realized Hongdo was the one behind it, Jaehyun had discovered he’d been harboring a knife in his chest.
Thanks to that, things on Hongdo’s side were being wrapped up quickly, but the problem was Minjae. Minjae was currently in a coma.
After locking him in a small room and letting him freely take drugs, he’d ended his own life. Currently, he was barely breathing. His condition was so serious that if the oxygen respirator was removed, he’d immediately be declared brain dead.
Nayeon was pressuring Ganghyuk using this as leverage. The fact that Minjae had touched Ganghyuk first wasn’t in her consideration.
To show she wasn’t involved, she quickly disposed of evidence and witnesses, then pinned all the blame on Minjae and attacked both Minjae and Ganghyuk simultaneously.
He was late because he met with Minsu to discuss this matter. Knowing he could rise to the chairman’s position thanks to Ganghyuk’s power, Minsu held back his words, but he didn’t hide his agitated emotions regarding the matter of dealing with Minjae.
Though they didn’t get along well, saying he was his brother and belatedly looking after him seemed laughable rather than touching, but it was true that it had become a headache.
When he approached the bed, the blanket shifted slightly. A faint smile hung on the tip of Ganghyuk’s lips.
Thinking he was sleeping and wouldn’t answer, but realizing that wasn’t the case, the day’s fatigue melted away like snow.
“Since you seem to be sleeping, should I go now?”
Though he muttered as if to himself, knowing Ian was listening, his voice was quite loud. Sure enough, one corner of the blanket lifted and Ian’s face showed a little.
“……I’m not sleeping.”
“Then why were you hiding in a cave? When you’re afraid of the dark.”
Though the hospital room was as bright as midday, he felt bad thinking Ian might have been curled up like this the whole time, which would have been stifling.
Ganghyuk sat on the edge of the bed. When he patted Ian’s crown over the blanket, Ian wriggled and pulled the blanket down.
His hair was disheveled and his face was red. Wondering if he’d cried, he looked closely, but his eyes were only slightly swollen with no moisture.
As he stared intently, Ian rolled his large eyes around, avoiding his gaze. Ganghyuk stretched out his arm. Ian pulled his body back in surprise, but his fingertips didn’t stop and removed the hair stuck to his cheek.
“Are you protesting because I’m late?”
“……I kept waiting.”
“I know. Come here.”
Seeing his eyes getting wet in an instant as if he’d been holding it in, Ganghyuk spread both arms. When Ian hesitated, he smiled so widely his eyes curved.
His face turning even redder, Ian walked over on his knees and straddled Ganghyuk’s thighs. When he leaned against him as if lying on his side, the anxiety that had been stirring his heart all day scattered like mist.
“Being alone, it felt like someone kept staring at me, so…… that’s why I was under the blanket.”
Ian rambled on, feeling needlessly guilty. Following Ganghyuk’s instructions, he’d scraped the bottom of the dinner tray clean and killed time watching TV.
When the promised time came but Ganghyuk didn’t arrive, while thinking about him, goosebumps suddenly rose all over his body. Though Ganghyuk’s subordinates were outside the door and he was alone in the hospital room, cold sweat trickled down.
His breathing quickened and his vision blurred. Though he considered calling Ganghyuk, he held back and instead hid under the blanket. Was it thanks to the thin curtain that settled over his body?
Breathing became much easier. Though it was hot from being curled up continuously, he just waited for time to pass quickly. He tried not to think about anything.
To forget the afterimages that occasionally surfaced, he sniffed like a puppy searching for Ganghyuk’s pheromones that remained very faintly on the blanket.
When the voice of Ganghyuk he’d been waiting for finally was heard, the reason he didn’t come out right away—even he didn’t know. In that moment, resentful feelings flooded in like a tide.
“I’m not scolding you. I’m apologizing for being sorry.”
Ganghyuk said while resting his chin on Ian’s crown. He interlaced his fingers with Ian’s and released his pheromones comfortably.
Then the body in his arms flinched and trembled, and soon as if responding, he released a subtle plum blossom scent as if he himself were a flower. They stayed like that for a while, just feeling each other’s warmth.
It would have continued if Ian hadn’t fidgeted his bottom like an uncomfortable person.
“Why. Do you want to lie down?”
Ganghyuk asked while hugging Ian’s body with both arms. His cheek was still resting on Ian’s crown. The way he fit snugly into his arms like a custom doll loosened the nerve strings that had been tightly pulled all day.
“It’s not that……”
“Mm.”
“……Your dick keeps poking my butt, Executive Director.”
Dick. At the word he hadn’t heard in a while, Ganghyuk burst into laughter while holding Ian. At the sensation of his body shaking, Ian raised his head and their eyes met.
At Ganghyuk’s brightly smiling face, Ian’s eyes went hazy. Though he’d thought Ganghyuk was the most handsome in the world even while talking with Soyeon and Okjeong, now it seemed like bright lights were only on around him.
“This can’t be helped. It’s a physiological reaction. Didn’t your dick get hard?”
Without touching, Ganghyuk stared intently between Ian’s legs. In fact, whenever he was in contact with Ian, his member always grew. A bodily reaction unrelated to psychology, one could say.
An alpha who didn’t react while holding his favorite omega in his arms was no different from a eunuch.
“I, I’m still soft…… If you keep staring, Executive Director, it feels like it’ll stand up.”
Flustered, Ian covered his crotch with both hands. At times like this, seeing him as nothing but a little kid, Ganghyuk smiled like a sigh and kissed Ian’s eyelids.
“What should I do? Since it’s my fault, how about I do it with my mouth?”
“What?”
Ian’s voice jumped high at the end. He couldn’t immediately understand what he’d just heard.
“Hm? You don’t want to?”
Ganghyuk smiled mischievously and pressed his lips to Ian’s temple with smacking sounds before naturally moving to his ear. As he kissed along the earlobe with its fluffy down, his body gradually heated up.
Both the fragrant pheromone and the baby-like scent of his skin drove him crazy. His member became even harder. Whether the kid also felt it, his earlobe turned red as if burning.
“It’s not that I don’t want to…”
Ian trailed off, flustered. Being touched by Ganghyuk always felt good. However, the place where the two of them currently were was a hospital.
