“……”
Without realizing it, I focused my senses on Baek Seolheon.
The rising and falling chest I felt against my back.
The warm breath touching the left side of my neck.
The shallow breathing I heard in my ear.
The throbbing pulse.
Little by little, I learned its rhythm.
Following it wasn’t difficult.
Because Baek Seolheon waited leisurely for me.
Like a friend who kindly matches their stride to walk alongside you.
Like a parent who turns around at intervals to watch if you’re following well……
“You’re doing well.”
A blunt, low voice.
But the body temperature holding my body was warm.
I gradually felt my body temperature dropping. Following that, a chill attacked fierce enough to make my jaw tremble.
The more that happened, the more I could only cling to the body heat I felt from Baek Seolheon.
“I’m… cold……”
“Just a little more.”
Even at my weak voice, Baek Seolheon didn’t back away and supported my body.
Around when the water had filled up to my chest, only then did Baek Seolheon reach for the faucet.
Drip, drip. The sound of water droplets falling from the faucet echoed through the quiet bathroom.
I remained still for a long while, held in Baek Seolheon’s embrace.
Then, surprisingly, a change came.
As the cold water filling the bathtub brought down my fever, my pheromones melted away and disappeared as if contamination was being washed off.
Was it thanks to my stabilized breathing? The pheromones that had been raging from deep within my body also gradually lost their strength.
‘How is this even possible?’
I had seen a video from a medical expert of dubious credibility saying cold water showers were a cure-all…… but it actually worked? This?
“Haah……”
As peace gradually came to my body that had been full of pain, a deep moan naturally flowed out.
For some reason, the grip strength holding my shoulder became a bit stronger, but the pain from it was bearable compared to my earlier state.
Also, what was really fortunate was.
‘……It went down.’
Along with the pheromones, that embarrassing place had also calmed down.
‘I finished without showing something I couldn’t show……’
Really, really thank goodness.
At the very least, I hoped Seolheon didn’t see it when he carried me to the bathroom. Please.
My sense of smell, which had been paralyzed while intoxicated by pheromones, also recovered its function.
I felt the characteristically cold dampness of the bathroom.
A water smell different from what I felt in my pheromones. Who knew the fishy smell of chlorine-disinfected tap water could feel this welcome?
At this time, within that dampness……
I caught a different, heterogeneous scent.
‘This is……’
Not unfamiliar.
It was a nostalgic smell.
Both refreshing and.
Warm……
‘Hyung. Are you okay?’
The very small scent of a child.
When he was young, and even until now,
Continuously staying by my side……
‘If you’re sick, sleep with me.’
It was Baek Seolheon’s body scent.
‘……It’s been a long time.’
When I first manifested as an alpha and was addicted to pheromones, I was barely able to stabilize thanks to this smell.
Then at some point, no smell came from Baek Seolheon at all.
I didn’t know the reason. Perhaps it was around when I started taking medicine.
I just passed it off without much thought, thinking it was a temporary body scent that passes with time, like the powder smell or formula milk smell you feel from children.
But I could feel that smell again.
‘It’s like… a blanket.’
The feeling of being wrapped all over with a blanket that became fluffy after being washed with natural detergent and then dried thoroughly in warm sunlight on a sunny day.
How could one refuse the temptation of a soft and fluffy blanket?
I burrowed further into the addictive smell without burden.
“You can sleep.”
The blanket spoke.
Was it because my mind and body were exhausted from the aftermath of the pheromone rampage?
My eyes gradually closed with drowsiness, and my mind became hazy.
“Mm……”
I leaned my back comfortably and lay down.
In the cold bathtub, I fell into a dream of falling asleep surrounded by a white blanket.
Beside me was a small Baek Seolheon.
* * *
Thud, thud……
When he unbuttoned and took off his wet shirt, water pooled abundantly on the tile floor.
When he raised his head and looked straight ahead, a pale face in the mirror was looking at him.
“……”
Baek Seolheon, who had been glaring at it for a moment, shifted his gaze to the bed visible beyond the mirror.
A half-naked man was fast asleep on the bed.
Baek Seolheon picked up a new towel from the basket and headed to the bed.
He brought his fingertips to the man’s hair.
Moisture still remained.
“……Sleeping without a care in the world.”
The look in Baek Seolheon’s eyes as he looked down at the man was empty.
But to call it emotionless, it was intense.
Like a storm raging inside a small marble, that gaze was both calm and fierce.
In the darkness, his navy-blue eyes alone shone blue.
“Not knowing what might happen……”
Deep in his heart, a whirlpool was churning.
His own and others’ mixed together, a chaotic interior where nothing could maintain its original form anymore.
To avoid losing more of his own there, Baek Seolheon exhaled deeply.
Baek Seolheon wrapped his large hand around the back of Baek Gunho’s neck.
With one hand supporting his head, with the other hand holding the towel, he wiped away the moisture.
All actions were careful, covert, and meticulous, lest he wake from sleep.
The act even felt like a sacred ritual.
“……”
Realizing his own actions, a sneer formed at the corners of his mouth.
Then the bell rang.
It was his cell phone.
“What is it.”
—Let me ask you just one thing.
A low voice rang out from the receiver.
Baek Seolheon kept the phone fixed with his shoulder while continuing to move his hands, gently drying Baek Gunho’s hair.
—If you really know everything…… you also know why I have no choice but to do this.
“I wonder.”
—The moment I’m caught, it’s the end for me, but it won’t be good for you either.
“Then I won’t get caught.”
—You, really……
Even at the fed-up voice, Baek Seolheon continued speaking in an even, calm voice.
“Everything about Baek Gunho. All the materials you’ve sent so far. Hand them all over to me too.”
—……Are you trying to keep Baek Gunho in check?
Baek Seolheon’s touch stopped for a moment.
—If you want to eat up the group, find another way. Baek Gunho has no interest in fighting over the pie……
“You’re misunderstanding.”
Baek Seolheon dropped the towel to the floor.
Then with his empty hand, he grabbed Baek Gunho’s wrist and slowly lifted it.
The inside of his wrist—he spoke with his lips buried there.
“What I want to eat is something else.”
As he inhaled deeply, he could feel his scent.
A wet smell reminiscent of a lakeside at dawn.
As soon as he felt this, something rose from Baek Seolheon’s body.
At the late hour of night, something with an even deeper color than the darkness spread throughout the bedroom.
It climbed up from Baek Gunho’s fingertips, along his small muscles, following the veins that protruded blue…… up to his white cheeks.
Like a snake coiling around, Baek Gunho’s body was dominated by it.
“So think carefully.”
This sensation of trampling with muddy feet on a noble spring that no one had ever invaded……
The corners of Baek Seolheon’s mouth curved up gently in an arc.
“If you want to protect that meager daily life.”
* * *
“Huk.”
I bolted upright.
Not the bathtub but the bed.
Not a white blanket but a gray blanket.
My room, my bed.
When I looked outside the window, the sky was tinged with a subtle blue light, as if dawn was breaking.
When I looked at the clock, it was 5:21 AM.
“5 o’clock……?”
“You’re up?”
My memory of how I collapsed was hazy, but as soon as I saw Baek Seolheon’s face coming through the door, memories returned like lightning.
“I, I, that, yesterday……”
“How’s your body?”
Words didn’t come out properly in my bewilderment.
Baek Seolheon approached with an expression no different from usual and brought over a thermometer.
I couldn’t feel Baek Seolheon’s body scent that I smelled yesterday anymore.
“You’re fine.”
“……”
“There’s porridge, so eat it with your medicine.”
Baek Seolheon acted nonchalant as if nothing had happened, but……
My body was dressed in new pajamas. My hair was also dried fluffy without a drop of moisture. Even my underwear.
There was no need to specifically point out who had taken care of all that aftermath during that chaos.
Somehow my feelings became complicated and subtle.
“Baek Seolheon.”
At my call, Baek Seolheon looked at me silently.
There were many things I wanted to say.
Thank you for saving me.
Were you very worried?
It’s already dawn, have you rested at all?
Ah, what on earth happened to the smashed middle door……
Even among the countless things to ask about, I brought out what I was most curious about first.
“How did you calm it down? My pheromones.”
