“…Are you feeling unwell somewhere?”
“…I’ll go… home. I think I need to take digestive medicine.”
Sangho, who had turned pale, barely answered through pain that felt like his solar plexus was being squeezed. With a somewhat flustered face, Kyungoh supported Sangho and took him to his studio apartment. Having returned to his studio apartment almost carried by Kyungoh, Sangho staggered and tried to thank Kyungoh and close the door.
Thud.
But just like that, Kyungoh stuck his foot between the door gap to block the closing door.
I’m dying of pain, why is he like this?
Sangho looked up at Kyungoh with an irritated face, then paused when he saw Kyungoh’s expression. He was making some kind of terrifying expression.
“Wh-what’s wrong?”
“…”
When Sangho, who had shrunk for no reason, asked in a crawling voice, Kyungoh stepped into Sangho’s studio apartment without a word. For a moment, the way he twitched his nose seemed like he was smelling something. I ventilated enough yesterday, but is there still a moldy smell? When Sangho looked at Kyungoh with a strange expression, Kyungoh asked.
“Do you live alone?”
“Yes. Why?”
“…”
Kyungoh’s face hardened rigidly and one muscle bulged up between his cheeks. It was an extremely angry expression.
“Sleep at my place tonight.”
“What?”
“Because you’re sick.”
Kyungoh slowly looked around the room as if searching, then just rolled his eyes down to look at Sangho. Though his expression didn’t change much, a silent pressure was felt. Wh-what? Does he think I’ll be scared if he looks at me like that?
“Yeeess…”
Right. I’m scared.
Anyway, so Sangho had to cross the main road back to Kyungoh’s house, almost being carried again. Kyungoh, who stopped by a pharmacy on the way and bought a bunch of digestive medicine, later just carried Sangho on his back completely and returned. Sangho was a bit embarrassed that a fully grown adult was being carried, but from earlier all the strength had drained from his body and he felt dizzy, so he had no choice but to entrust his body.
Having barely laid down in the living room, Sangho groaned and barely swallowed the digestive medicine and closed his eyes.
That dawn was complete hell. His whole body trembled with chills as if shaking like an aspen tree, and his stomach hurt every few minutes as if someone was squeezing it. His head ached as if it would split and he drooped limply, drained of energy. Kyungoh fidgeted restlessly the entire time, fiddling with Sangho’s hands as he groaned in pain.
“Should we go to the hospital?”
Though he was the one who brought him home in the first place, Kyungoh fussed about in confusion, massaging Sangho’s limbs and searching for emergency first aid for indigestion. Sangho shook his head with difficulty. A hospital? Does he know how expensive the emergency room is?
“It’s just… indigestion. I’ll be fine after a bit.”
When the pain squeezed his stomach again and Sangho curled up tightly and groaned, Kyungoh’s face became even more anxious.
“I, I didn’t know. I’ve never had indigestion before. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have forced you to eat…”
“It’s not… urgh!”
I was the one who ate excitedly. As Kyungoh apologized and Sangho waved his hands in denial, nausea suddenly rose from his stomach. It seemed the undigested food was trying to come back up. Kyungoh quickly supported Sangho and took him to the bathroom, but before they reached the toilet, vomit poured from Sangho’s mouth.
“Urgh…! Ugh… S-sorry, urk!”
“It’s okay. It’s okay.”
Vomit splattered on the floor and Kyungoh’s clothes, making a mess, and Sangho finally grabbed the toilet and started vomiting. Kyungoh patted Sangho’s back repeatedly with his thick hands, telling him it was okay. From the refluxing stomach acid, a sour and burning pain was felt in his throat and even inside his nose.
Even after that, Sangho vomited throughout the dawn. Kyungoh wiped up the vomit spilled all over the floor, and they both removed their dirty clothes and wore only underwear. Kyungoh’s clothes were also a mess, so he simply wore only underwear as well. After vomiting everything inside like that, Sangho lay back down on the bedding with his body turned to mush.
“Do you think more will come out?”
“…No.”
Taking deep breaths, Sangho barely answered. Still, after vomiting several times, his stomach seemed to be calming down bit by bit. When he made a groaning sound, Kyungoh gently placed his hand on his forehead. A pleasant warmth spread from the hot hand. It would be perfect if he rubbed my bubbling stomach with this hand.
“My stomach, rub my stomach…”
He thought he’d only thought it in his head, but at the words that slipped out of his mouth, Sangho thought ‘oops.’ But without time to correct himself, Kyungoh quickly put his hand under the blanket and started gently massaging his stomach.
…Feels… good.
At the gently stroking touch, Sangho’s eyes began to close drowsily. Chills still remained throughout his body, making him tremble. Unconsciously, Sangho pressed close to Kyungoh sitting in front of him and rubbed his face against his thigh. The warm body temperature felt good and he wanted to stick closer.
When Sangho clung to him, Kyungoh flinched slightly, then gradually started pressing his own body closer. While doing so, he sneakily lifted the blanket covering Sangho and carefully lay down next to him. When something warm entered under the blanket, Sangho sniffed, smelling the scent.
“Should I… rub more?”
Gulp, Kyungoh asked quietly in a tense voice. Sangho had nothing to say, having fallen asleep soundly. Slowly rubbing the soft stomach, Kyungoh carefully embraced Sangho’s small body. He’d hugged him before, but it really was a small body.
Kyungoh buried his nose in the crown of Sangho’s head as he was nestled in his arms. Between the curling wavy hair, there was a very, very faint sweet and fluffy castella scent. Holding back the desire to bury his nose and breathe right there, Kyungoh recalled the day he first met Sangho.
***
The first thing he felt was the scent.
Kyungoh, like the other students, had quite high expectations for the wrestling arena in the newly built indoor gymnasium. Having been annoyed by constantly moving here and there to borrow sand rings, to be able to do individual training inside the school.
Normally, he wouldn’t have felt much dissonance that the training ground, which always ended mixed with sand dust, was clean as new the next day. Because the training that day and the upcoming competitions were most important to Han Kyungoh. However, from one day on, whenever he entered the gymnasium, there was a fluffy and sweet scent. A very, very faint scent that quickly disappeared when the sun rose.
Kyungoh, who secretly liked that scent, realized that on days he came to the training ground a little earlier, he could smell that scent for longer.
And one night, after finishing individual training and coming out of the shower, Kyungoh smelled that scent again. A scent leaking from somewhere on the 4th floor, not the 1st floor during morning hours. Even then, Kyungoh hadn’t realized it was a faint pheromone scent. Because if it were an omega’s pheromones, he would feel it more clearly and it would affect his body.
When Kyungoh, who had been sniffing around, entered the athletic storage, he realized someone was curled up behind the vaulting horse. If a stranger had secretly entered the gym, I’d feel wary, but strangely it didn’t feel very threatening.
Approaching the vaulting horse while pretending to pick up trash, Kyungoh paused for a moment. Something very small and thin was trembling under a blanket. It seemed extremely afraid of him approaching. Feeling somehow like he’d become a hunter chasing and tormenting a small animal, Kyungoh just pretended not to notice and left the athletic storage. Well, if it had been someone threatening, I would have been attacked as soon as I entered the storage. That’s what he thought.
And the very next day, having come to the gym a bit early to smell that sweet scent as usual, Kyungoh ran into Sangho. When he embraced Sangho who fit right into his arms, Kyungoh knew immediately. So this person has been cleaning and that’s why there was that scent. But why was he doing that in the athletic storage yesterday?
He looks cute.
The glimpse of Sangho’s face he confirmed was quite cute. Though scrawny and trembling, at first glance he seemed to have no presence, but the eyes hidden under the drooping curly hair were large and sparkled darkly. Below that, the small button-like nose and slightly plump lips fidgeting as if scared also caught his eye.
Is it pheromones? Or just body odor… It’s confusing.
No matter how weak the pheromones, I should have definitely noticed. He was uncertain.
Once the janitor caught his eye, he kept bothering him. That the gym that became a mess every day transformed like new the next day, that he carried trash bags as big as his own body going back and forth on the 2nd floor—everything caught his eye one by one.
He seemed to be quite a diligent type, as he scurried around the gym without resting even once. Once he deliberately approached and carried the trash bag for him, but the janitor openly showed his discomfort. After that, whenever Kyungoh looked at him, the janitor was busy quickly hiding himself. The janitor who appeared intermittently during training was a subtle pleasure to follow with my eyes. Maybe he’s scared?
So Kyungoh decided to stop approaching Sangho obviously. Instead, unable to get the image of Sangho sleeping trembling in the athletic storage out of his head, he secretly brought the sleeping bag and electric heater he’d been using to the storage. After that, he occasionally stopped by the athletic storage to smell the sleeping bag, but the small janitor seemed dissatisfied with something—he didn’t use the sleeping bag and seemed to only use the electric heater. It’s somewhat disappointing.
