“Even if you misunderstood, that’s still no excuse — you had to confirm it that way? Honestly, you’re so weird….”
Minjun, dead drunk by now, was speaking without any filter.
“That thing you do — testing people all the time — that’s genuinely terrible, you know that? You hear me? I’m only letting it slide because it’s you… That’s seriously something you shouldn’t do.”
“Yes, I understand.”
Gangha answered in a voice that carried little sincerity. Testing Minjun was one of Gangha’s long-standing habits. He could only feel at peace when he confirmed with his own eyes whether Minjun still considered him his first priority — whether Minjun would drop everything and come running at his call.
Gangha, who had been watching Minjun sip from his glass, reached for the bouquet of roses. The pale pink roses gave off a fresh, clean floral scent.
“Are you angry?”
“Obviously.”
“I’m sorry. I won’t do it again next time.”
“…Did you just apologize to me?”
“Yes.”
“…Alright. I’ll let it go just this once, then.”
When Gangha offered an easy apology, Minjun softened just as quickly. It was a bit absurd, but hearing the reason behind it made it somewhat understandable. So he was jealous because of Sowon.
Having grown up with Gangha and his strange behavior from such a young age, Minjun had naturally built up an immunity to this sort of thing. By now, even when Baek Gangha did something outrageous, it only warranted a there he goes again and a sigh.
Gangha lifted the perfume he’d received as a gift and peered into the glass bottle. Without realizing it, a smile had crept onto the corners of his lips.
“Thank you for the gift, hyung.”
“…Do you like it? Were you touched?”
Minjun asked in a self-satisfied voice, blinking slowly.
“Yes. I was touched.”
Minjun liked being acknowledged whenever he did something generous. Even if he’d been grumbling about being put through trouble, a single word of thanks was enough to smooth everything over.
“If you’re touched, then treat me better from now on and stop ignoring me. Got it?”
“Yes, I understand.”
“Good, good.”
Minjun laughed, pleased, and slung an arm around Gangha’s shoulder. Under normal circumstances, he would never have done that — he knew Gangha couldn’t stand being touched — but with his reason swept away by alcohol, Minjun was shameless.
Whether it was fortunate or not, Gangha — who would ordinarily have shoved Minjun away without hesitation — simply watched him in silence. Gangha, too, had let the alcohol creep up on him a little.
The lamplight bathed Minjun’s cheek in a soft, warm glow. His skin was flushed with heat, and his reddened lips hung slightly parted. Gangha’s brown eyes, darker and heavier than usual, fixed themselves on Minjun.
“…….”
From some point earlier, Gangha’s gaze had been anchored to Minjun’s lips.
The pheromones that faintly seeped from Minjun were, incongruously, fresh and clean. As the scent of clean soap grazed the tip of his nose, Gangha’s expression slowly shifted.
“Hyung.”
“…Mm.”
Minjun seemed to have already forgotten that the person beside him was Gangha. Half-unconscious, he was leaning the full weight of his body against him. The warm body heat made Gangha’s skin gradually rise in temperature as well. The desire that had been hazily surfacing took on a more definite shape and began to prod at him.
“Besides the roses and the perfume, I want something else from hyung.”
“Sure, what is it? I’ll give you anything. Just trust me.”
Minjun made grand promises without even being able to keep his eyes open properly. Gangha curved the corner of his mouth upward and quietly slipped a hand around Minjun’s waist.
“…A ki—”
“What?”
“I want to try kissing you.”
“A kiss…?”
“Yes. A kiss is supposed to be part of an coming-of-age gift anyway.”
“Huh, why…? Isn’t kissing gross because of all the saliva?”
Minjun, who Gangha had expected to simply nod along drunkenly, came back with a surprisingly reasonable question.
“It probably is gross.”
“Then why?”
“I don’t know.”
When Gangha answered carelessly, Minjun tilted his head and opened his mouth.
“Then should I introduce you to someone decent later? Oh, but — everyone I know is older than you, so if that’s still okay with you….”
“Not later.”
Gangha’s head slowly dipped downward, and before long, the tips of their noses were touching.
“Not later…?”
“I want to do it now.”
Two pairs of eyes, holding entirely different temperatures, looked at each other.
“Can I?”
A deep shadow fell across Minjun’s face. As they drew so close their faces were nearly pressed together, he could make out even the faint, delicate patterns spreading across the irises.
“Uh….”
Peck. Their lips met.
Instead of pulling away, Minjun just breathed in like an idiot. Beneath the sweep of his long lashes, light brown eyes blinked open. On the surface of those eyes, flickering with the lamplight, the reflection of a dazed Minjun stared back.
Their lips met again. The breath that passed between them carried the sweet scent of wine. Soft, soft. The lips touched and parted, again and again, as if savoring the plush sensation.
“…….”
At some point, Minjun was staring up at Gangha in a daze. Strange. Was Baek Gangha always this pretty? For some reason he looks unusually pretty today.
No, his face was always pretty, to begin with. But should we be doing this? He’s an alpha and I’m an alpha too. Why, when Sowon is right there, is he with me like this….
A red warning light blinked in the back of his mind, but it was far too late to reclaim his reason — Minjun’s head had long since been taken over by the alcohol. The thought that this was wrong was shoved mercilessly into a corner.
The heat that had settled in Gangha’s eyes began transferring, little by little, to Minjun as well. Minjun, frozen — unable to push away or pull closer — found his own hand resting on Gangha’s waist without even realizing it.
Pretty….
“Am I pretty?”
Ah, did I say that out loud? Too embarrassed to answer properly, Minjun gave only an awkward nod. Gangha glanced at the arm wrapped around his waist and laughed quietly.
“Your lips are so sweet it’s making me feel sick.”
“Really? That’s just the wine—”
“Can I put my tongue in too?”
“Just now, you said— mmph….”
You said you felt sick? Before Minjun could even finish asking, Gangha swallowed his lips whole.
Wet lips were pressed and ground together, and between them, a soft tongue pushed its way in.
“Hyung….”
“Hngh, hah….”
Slick, wet. As flesh tangled with flesh, slick sounds of friction began to leak from between their joined lips. Without anyone needing to show them how, when their noses bumped, both their heads tilted naturally to the side. Each time their lips barely parted, the entwined tongues became briefly visible.
“Hah, this is disgusting… shit….”
Gangha’s eyes pinched in irritation. And yet, he showed absolutely no intention of separating their locked lips.
“If it’s so disgusting, why do you keep — hmp—!”
The kiss deepened once more, and Minjun’s body tilted backward. Heat rushed to his head and his vision swam. His mind had gone blank, and as the world seemed to spin before his eyes, he couldn’t even tell what he was doing anymore. He could only be swept along by whatever instinct commanded.
By now, both their hardened arousals had pressed against each other. Wet, slick — the maddening sounds of friction continued without pause. Eyes lowered, Baek Gangha explored the inside of Minjun’s mouth, probing here and there and mapping out every sensitive spot. When he dragged across the roof of his mouth, Minjun’s hips jolted and a low moan escaped from the back of his throat.
The clumsy kiss was growing denser and more intoxicating with every passing moment. A fine crease formed between Gangha’s brows.
“…This is strange. I can’t stop.”
“Hah, hah….”
Minjun was already so flushed that his vision was swimming. He didn’t even register the hand that had traveled up from his waist and closed around his chest. All he could do was drag in ragged breaths — nothing else.
“It’s because of you, hyung. Because you were the one who first—”
As the aroused alpha’s pheromones began leaking out, the air around them grew progressively heavier. The dense, concentrated pheromones of a dominant alpha swallowed up the faint, hazy trace of pheromones that had been drifting from Minjun.
Gangha smelled of a damp forest after rain. The thick, clinging scent brought on a sensation like being pulled slowly, entirely, beneath the surface of a swamp.
“Hah, Gangha, wait — ngh….”
Enveloped in the damp pheromones, Minjun gasped for breath. The more Gangha’s pheromones thickened, the more Minjun’s arousal — which had swelled with excitement — began to slowly recede. Breathing was becoming increasingly difficult.
At some point, instinctive revulsion and fear had overtaken the arousal, consuming Minjun entirely.
And then, the moment his breath finally seized—
“Your pheromones — stop—”
Minjun’s body, pinned beneath an alpha stronger than himself, surrendered — and let go of consciousness as though declaring defeat. The eyelids that had been barely holding open fell shut without strength.
“…Hyung?”
The call came too late and scattered into the air, meaning nothing. A pair of brown eyes, still burning with heat, turned toward Minjun.
Unlike Gangha’s arousal, which was still swollen as though ready to burst, Minjun’s had gone completely flat — not a trace of excitement left.
The thick, clinging air fell, all at once, into silence.
