After scanning Sangho for a moment, Kyungoh frowned and asked. Sangho didn’t have the strength to answer, so he waved his hand dismissively and tried to leave through the front door.
“Ugh…”
At that moment, whirl, with dizziness, Sangho collapsed to the floor. Startled, Kyungoh quickly lifted Sangho into his arms and checked his condition.
“Are you okay?!”
Through his hazy vision, Han Kyungoh’s urgent face came into view. Sangho felt his lower body tingling and getting soaking wet. As a warm and gentle sunlight scent spread into his nose, Sangho felt a strong urge to smell more of that scent. His whole body hurt as if twisting, but when he smelled that fragrance, it seemed to ease a bit.
“…Hyung?”
“Haah…”
When Sangho in his arms wriggled and burrowed into his chest, Kyungoh let out a flustered voice. Sniff, as Sangho buried his nose in his armpit and smelled it, Kyungoh gulped and asked.
“…Do you want to smell it more?”
“Ngh…”
“Should I release my pheromones?”
When Kyungoh subtly released his pheromones, Sangho’s expression, which had been frowning and groaning, gradually became relaxed. Sangho still couldn’t come to his senses and burrowed further into Kyungoh’s embrace, taking deep breaths.
Kyungoh gulped while fixing his gaze on the nape of Sangho’s neck, who was letting out ragged breaths. His earlobes were already so red they seemed about to burst, and he moistened his parched lips before whispering.
“Sangho.”
“…”
“Should we go to my bed?”
“…”
At Sangho’s lack of response, Kyungoh barely endured the impulse, the muscles from his nape to his cheeks bulging. He wanted to strip the Sangho in his grasp right now and lick him all over.
Whether Sangho knew Kyungoh’s feelings or not, he was still burying his nose in his embrace, inhaling the pheromone scent. Even so, Sangho wasn’t releasing his own pheromones or whining for more.
‘Something’s strange. It doesn’t seem like a heat cycle. He’s been exposed to alpha pheromones this much and he’s just staying still?’
With a deeply flushed face, Kyungoh barely calmed his lower half and carried Sangho toward the sofa. In his own way, Kyungoh had been drawing a ‘line’ between the living room and his own room in his behavior. The moment Sangho crossed the threshold of his room, Kyungoh knew well that he wouldn’t be able to hold back.
“Ha…”
Was it worth increasing the rut suppressants? Kyungoh sat on the sofa holding Sangho and carefully hugged the small body tightly. From Sangho’s nape came a rather lewd scent wafting out. Certainly, the omega scent seemed thicker than last time, but it wasn’t an amount that any alpha would notice.
‘The pheromones are strangely too weak. Why?’
In that moment, Kyungoh stiffened his expression at a thought that crossed his mind. With trembling hands stroking Sangho’s cheek, Kyungoh fumbled with his fingers along the back of Sangho’s thin nape. When he felt the soft and smooth skin, Kyungoh frowned even more as if unable to understand.
“Lee Sangho. What happened to you?”
***
The next morning before dawn, Sangho woke up on the sofa with a start. Kyungoh had his massive body curled up below the sofa, dozing off with his head bobbing. A cold wet towel fell from his head with a thud.
‘Ah. I must have fainted from the fever. Did Kyungoh take care of me?’
He didn’t remember much after collapsing weakly in front of the entrance. It seemed like he had hurt terribly, but after sleeping soundly, his body felt much lighter. It still seemed like his face was slightly feverish, but it didn’t ache all over like the day before.
Sangho stared at Kyungoh’s sleeping face for a moment, then carefully stood up. He resented how selfishly he had acted these past few days, but still, giving up his home and taking care of him when he was sick was something to be grateful for. With somewhat complicated feelings, Sangho thought he should say thank you for the last time when he came back after finishing today’s work. Anyway, once the weekend passed, Kyungoh would return to the dorm. Then everything will return to its original place.
After quietly covering Kyungoh with the blanket he had been using, Sangho silently went out the front door.
Korea University at dawn was still peaceful. The chattering college students, professors with solemn expressions, and graduate students who looked tired somewhere were the protagonists of this space. Cleaning laborers like Sangho were just background, sweeping, wiping, and tidying up the space so these people wouldn’t notice. That was the kind of life Sangho had hoped for. A life of complete ‘indifference’ where he wouldn’t stand out to anyone and wouldn’t be encroached upon by anyone.
He had felt the warmth of human touch after meeting Wonha, but walking through the dawn campus, Sangho steeled his heart that such things were a luxury for him. Moreover, the ‘Sangho’ that Wonha remembered wasn’t him. That stalker was an omega, and he was a beta. So the kindness Wonha had shown wasn’t his.
“…”
Thinking about it, the reason Wonha got so angry was because the omega ‘Sangho’ was at the alpha Han Kyungoh’s house. If he thought of him as a friend, it was something to worry about. If he told Wonha the results of the trait re-examination and said he’d leave Kyungoh’s house, the hostility he showed toward Kyungoh should ease a bit.
After that, the two could become close again. Then Nam Dohyun would also be more concerned about Han Kyungoh hovering around Wonha than a scrawny janitor.
‘Still, the two of them… I should make them reconcile. Kyungoh just seems to need an exercise mate, so maybe I’ll suggest they exercise together.’
It seemed like a pretty good idea. Sangho thought he should quickly finish today’s work and make the proposal to Kyungoh.
“Haah…”
Just when his body seemed to have improved a bit, once he started working, he felt heat rising in his face again. His lower body was tingling too, and his butt seemed itchy. Sangho barely finished cleaning the gymnasium, repeating to himself that if he just endured today, it would be the weekend.
‘This happens when I leave the house. I was fine until morning.’
After washing his face with cold water in the bathroom for a moment, Sangho covered both his flushed red cheeks. I’ll just say goodbye to Kyungoh and go to the hospital today.
Even on the bus ride home, a subtle heat kept rising. Sangho had to hold back faint moans every time the bus jolted. By the time he entered Kyungoh’s apartment, he was almost staggering.
When he barely opened the front door, he saw Kyungoh making a phone call somewhere with an anxious face, then suddenly startled.
“Where have you been?”
“Huh? I was at work…”
“Work? In that condition? Why didn’t you answer your phone?”
Only then did Sangho take out his phone that he had roughly stuffed in his pocket and confirmed the battery was dead.
“Oh. I guess I slept without charging it yesterday.”
“…Haah. Come in for now. Are you feeling okay?”
Kyungoh sighed while dry-washing his face. When Sangho entered the house with a bewildered expression, Kyungoh held out a medicine box.
“At least take this urgently for now.”
“Huh? Omega suppressants? Why this…”
“…Sorry for asking something so personal. By any chance, have you ever been imprinted?”
Imprinted?
Sangho looked up at Kyungoh with a dumbfounded expression. Was he talking about that imprinting where alphas and omegas mate? They said if you got imprinted like that, you’d live subordinate to the other person’s pheromones for life.
“I told you I’m a beta.”
With an absurd expression, Sangho quickly took out the trait re-examination paper from his bag and held it out to Kyungoh. Kyungoh looked at the hospital examination paper and flipped it back and forth several times as if unable to understand, then frowned.
“…You’re really a beta?”
“Yes. I checked yesterday.”
“That can’t be.”
Now Sangho was getting a bit annoyed. What am I supposed to do if he doesn’t even believe the hospital test?
“It’s true, I said. I told you I don’t get heats and can’t feel pheromones.”
“…”
“Anyway… I came to say thank you for the last time today.”
“Last time? You’re leaving when your body is like that?”
“Yes. You have to train now and I can’t impose on you any longer…”
“N-no.”
“Huh?”
“Stay longer. I talked to the coach. I’m going to focus on individual training until the competition. You said you’d help me exercise.”
Kyungoh spoke with an urgent face. He had heard that the wrestling team’s group life was strict, but individual training? Maybe his shoulder hasn’t fully recovered yet. But no matter how much he thought about it, Sangho felt like he was closer to interfering with Kyungoh’s exercise rather than helping.
“You said you’d take responsibility.”
“Th-then… why don’t you have Wonha as your exercise mate?”
At Sangho’s words, Kyungoh’s expression hardened even more.
“Why are you bringing up that person now?”
