Dawoon, having lost consciousness, fell into sleep just like that. The fatigue that had been accumulating rushed in as if it had been waiting, pulling him into unconsciousness.
After breathing evenly in his sleep for several hours, he suddenly reached his arm out into empty air. Dawoon flailed his arms repeatedly as if trying to grasp something.
“Huu…”
A suppressed moan leaked from his tightly clenched lips, as if he were having a nightmare.
Opening his eyes in the dream, Dawoon found himself trapped in scorching flames hot enough to tear his flesh. Everywhere his gaze reached, all he could see were soaring flames, yet he immediately realized where this was.
The old sofa burning fiercely and his younger siblings’ picture books. Even the small simple dining table that had lost its form.
This was home. The shabby yet precious home filled with memories of his beloved family.
A sharp burnt smell pierced Dawoon’s nostrils. Dawoon blinked his hazy eyes and stared at the master bedroom as if entranced. The master bedroom with its collapsed ceiling was so engulfed in flames that it was impossible to even approach.
Mom was sleeping inside there. Together with his youngest sibling.
‘Hyung…! Hyuuung…!’
At his second younger sibling’s crying voice, Dawoon flinched and moved his frozen body. He barely managed to raise his panic-stricken body and swiftly lifted up the young sibling clinging to him.
‘It’s okay. It’s okay….’
Dawoon belatedly soothed his terrified sibling. Taking in with his eyes the flames of the master bedroom that had devoured Mom and the youngest, he vowed that he would absolutely protect at least the second child.
‘Hyung is here… It’s okay.’
However, contrary to his comforting words, he couldn’t move at all. Both legs didn’t budge an inch, like corpses that had already turned to ash.
He needed to get out of here quickly. Even the entrance, the only exit, was already blocked by flames. He didn’t even have the courage to jump out the window where the fire had spread less.
Dawoon listened to his sibling’s dry coughing sounds and helplessly repeated that it would be okay. His stiff body and mind couldn’t think of anything else he should do.
He too was young. Young and weak.
Dawoon, who had been murmuring that it was okay, soon bit his lower lip and burst into tears. He covered his frightened sibling’s eyes and ears, pouring out tears until his whole face was soaked.
Though he had been a reliable older brother who looked after his siblings in place of their father who had only fooled around before ultimately abandoning the family, Dawoon was still just a young student after all.
Even if he was taller than his peers and good at sports, he couldn’t face the inferno that had swallowed the old apartment. He couldn’t even dare attempt to confront it.
‘S-save us please….’
He ended up crying his eyes out while holding his sibling who had gone limp in his arms. He wailed at the top of his lungs for someone, anyone to come. He screamed until his throat was raw, begging them to save his sibling who didn’t move even as fire caught on their toes.
Bang! Crash! Boom!
After some time, rough explosive sounds continued from beyond the front door, then the door broke. Someone had come after hearing the screams.
A firefighter in thick fire-resistant clothing appeared through the black smoke and shouted something loudly. Then without giving him time to answer, he broke through the door, strode over, and embraced Dawoon. And gave Dawoon the words he needed most.
It’s okay now. Everything will be okay.
“Cough…”
Dawoon tossed and turned, bursting into a coughing fit as he woke from sleep.
His frightened brown eyes busily surveyed his surroundings. Even after confirming he was in the safe bedroom, his whole body trembled finely.
“Haah…”
A deep sigh burst out between his rapid breaths. Along with the relief of having escaped the nightmare, a bitter feeling spread.
This was the second time that day’s events had appeared in his dreams since entering the novel. No, was it the third time?
As he mulled over the hazy memory, he swept his face, thinking what did it matter which time it was. When hyperventilation symptoms came, he’d get tired, so he closed his eyes and fully calmed his breathing.
“Oh, right.”
Dawoon, who had been exhaling calmly, suddenly opened his eyes.
“The cat.”
Dawoon looked around for the kitten that had been sitting on his chest. Come to think of it, he had definitely been lying in the living room, but he’d been moved to his room after being changed into loungewear.
Who had changed his clothes? Ryu Taeha? Or the youngest?
It had to be one of the two. As his thoughts reached that point, Dawoon’s hand slid smoothly down to his lower abdomen.
He couldn’t properly remember whether he’d taken a suppressant right before passing out. It seemed like the medicine wasn’t working, so he’d taken out one more pill and put it in his mouth, but…
Did I swallow it?
Dawoon’s brow furrowed deeply as he tilted his head. If he had been lying sprawled in the living room with his arousal not subsided… and if Ryu Taeha had seen that state…
“Oh, please.”
That pervert bastard Ryu Taeha wasn’t the type to nicely carry an Omega in heat to their room. He would have gleefully stripped off his shirt and pounced.
Would he have only stripped off his shirt? As a dizzying thought occurred to him, he bit his lip and checked his body.
First, his physical condition was relatively fine. Nothing hurt and his fever had gone down. However, the most important thing was the situation of his lower body.
Dawoon let out a sigh, rubbed his forehead vigorously, and carefully clenched his buttocks. This was the only way to check if there were any other unfamiliar sensations in his lower body.
To think I have to do something like this. Sitting on the bed clenching his buttocks made the heat that had finally subsided threaten to rise again from embarrassment.
Fortunately, that place was maintaining its position as if nothing had happened, as usual. It didn’t seem like he’d been subjected to any violent acts.
If that thing the size of a forearm described in the novel had penetrated inside him, there should definitely have been aftereffects. In fact, there had even been descriptions that Jeong Dawoon, who had a weak body, would lie sick all day after spending a night with Ryu Taeha.
Still… just in case. Dawoon gulped and slipped his hand inside his pants.
If they really had done it, he intended to snap at Ryu Taeha to never touch his body again without his consent. If something like this happened again, he should just give him strong suppressants instead. Now they weren’t even sex partners or anything anymore.
“I can’t tell even by touching…”
Dawoon’s head tilted to the side as he gently spread his knees.
He directly touched the wrinkled area, but he didn’t particularly feel any special abnormalities. Moreover, since it wasn’t an area his hands reached as often as his chest or stomach, he couldn’t really tell what difference there was from usual.
It seems… kind of swollen maybe.
Uncertain, he grabbed his pants and underwear and pulled them down below his thighs. Just touching wasn’t giving him a clear sense, so he tried to check with his eyes directly.
Just as he lowered his head like that, the tightly closed bedroom door opened.
Through the door gap that opened cautiously without even a knock, a familiar face appeared. It was Go Yeoul.
“Wow, ah… Hyung. Sorry. I thought you were still sleeping.”
His blue eyes that had let out an exclamation without warning swept precisely between Dawoon’s thighs. Flustered, Dawoon froze for 0.1 seconds before hastily pulling up his pants.
“You, you should knock!”
Dawoon’s voice, which was usually calm in handling things, grew loud. It wasn’t just that he’d been pulling down his underwear—heat rushed to his face because he’d been seen touching an embarrassing area.
“I’m sorry. I came to check because I was worried about hyung. I was just going to look. Really.”
Yeoul hid behind the door while repeating his apology. However, he didn’t close the door all the way, showing he had no intention of leaving. Dawoon, who had gotten under the covers, glanced at Yeoul hiding behind the door. He couldn’t be so cold-hearted as to tell someone who came because they were worried about him to leave.
“Is your body okay?”
When Dawoon nodded, Yeoul, who had been reading the room, crept into the room. Dawoon only let out a brief sigh and didn’t stop him from approaching the bed.
“Are you really okay? Hyung, you were even bleeding.”
Yeoul drooped his eyebrows, saying did he know how surprised he was. He was grateful for the concern, but it wasn’t a serious situation at all. He’d just been gang-beaten by a flock of crows.
His eyes, which had been in the worst condition, he’d fortunately healed himself before passing out. What remained on his body were only lightly scratched wounds.
“Got into a bit of a fight and got hurt. It’s nothing serious.”
“How is it nothing serious? Hyung got hurt.”
Yeoul, who had sat close to Dawoon despite having plenty of space, made a cold expression. The atmosphere was completely different from when he’d muttered his apology.
“If your heat broke out, you should have gone straight to the lodging or contacted us. Why did you fight in that condition?”
He seemed to think Dawoon had been injured fighting a Monster. Dawoon didn’t bother to say he’d been attacked by crows, not Monsters. Because it was embarrassing.
“I dealt with some on the way to the lodging. I handled them all.”
Dawoon shrugged and deliberately spoke even more nonchalantly. Even if he was showing pointless pride, it couldn’t be helped. Everyone has the instinct to not want to look weak in front of someone younger than themselves.
“But where’s the cat?”
Putting the embarrassment aside, he first took care of the cat. Since he himself had bled, the young kitten must have been seriously injured too.
“What cat?”
“A kitten. A small white one.”
Dawoon spread his hands to roughly show the cat’s size. Though it was heavy, looking at its small body, it was definitely a kitten.
“It should have been on my stomach. Didn’t you see it?”
“There was nothing like that. Hyung, didn’t you dream it?”
Yeoul said with a puzzled face that he hadn’t seen any cat. When he and the leader returned to the lodging, only Dawoon was sprawled in the living room covered in blood.
“I was alone?”
“Yes.”
Yeoul answered while gently pressing with his fingertips the bandage attached to Dawoon’s neck. He had treated Dawoon’s wounds together with the leader. He’d desperately insisted when the leader said he’d do it alone, so they ended up doing it together.
They’d tried to change his clothes together too, but that damn leader didn’t allow them to go that far. He even used his ability to bind the youngest in the living room while he alone changed Dawoon’s clothes.
His teeth ground again just thinking about it. Who the hell did he think he was? Acting like Dawoon was his hyung when he wasn’t anything to him.
“No, the cat was definitely… there…”
Dawoon repeatedly tilted his head and scratched the back of his neck. Where could that tiny thing have gone by itself? As he was thinking, Yeoul suddenly grabbed his chin.
“Hyung.”
“Ah, you startled me. Why are you grabbing my chin?”
“Did you cry?”
He yanked up the chin he’d grabbed. Dawoon’s upper body was lifted as if his collar had been grabbed. Yeoul didn’t stop there and even thrust his face toward Dawoon.
“You cried. You did, didn’t you?”
