“Heu……”
Muyoung’s vision, which had been struggling, brightened white before starting to turn black again. He could barely hear Dowon’s voice. Even in the midst of this, Muyoung tried to stay conscious. But it wouldn’t work as he wanted.
A tremendous pain he had never experienced even once traveled from his lower abdomen up his back, then struck the back of his neck and came back down. As strength left his entire body, he suddenly felt chills. Though heat seemed to be surging inside, he was so cold it was hard to endure.
He had no choice but to lean into the hands firmly holding his body. The elevator’s up and down movement was vivid enough to make him nauseous, but his other senses were jagged as if carelessly crushed.
“Breath, I can’t breathe well……”
“It’s okay. Slowly breathe in and out. It’s okay. You’re doing well, right now.”
It was really just a moment. He thought it would be okay if he just calmed down his insides, which were being pushed around by the conversation with Jinho. He felt sorry to Dowon who was waiting at the lounge, so he planned to talk more after moving to another place. When he tried to come to his senses, he felt his insides sinking. The moment was dizzying. The terrible pain came after that.
As soon as they entered the space left with just the two of them, after the dizziness intensified, it became even harder to recognize the situation. Seeing as he could hear Dowon’s voice, he seemed to be breathing, but with his hazy mind he couldn’t properly understand what he was saying.
Still, because the body he was leaning on was so solid, because the Dowon he breathed in felt sweet, he could avoid panicking. His fingertips moved with difficulty and touched Dowon’s collar. Even though he grabbed it, pulling with force, it seemed insufficient as his hand just slipped over the fabric and trembled.
“……seems like it, so prepare a room. One, no… two.”
The voice of Dowon making contact somewhere while holding him kept getting farther and closer on its own. Even in the midst of this, he alternated between worrying whether he was making Dowon uncomfortable and not wanting to be separated from him even a little. He thought he was being selfish, but the sounds and vision breaking off in pieces were interfering with even that thought.
The breath he slowly exhaled felt hot. He needed something cold. He felt like he had to drink something right away. Feeling like he was burning up, he raised his hand and scratched his neck wildly.
“Stop, you’ll hurt yourself. Grab me instead.”
“No, I don’t want… I don’t want to.”
Dissatisfaction suddenly welled up at Dowon’s action of grabbing his hand and placing it over his clothes. Along with that, his thirst grew deeper and deeper. Just when his panting breath seemed to intensify, Muyoung’s lips fumbled to find Dowon and entered. At the gesture close to survival, Dowon’s lips, which yielded themselves to him, interlocked. When their distinctly different body temperatures touched, it was even cool. And the breath that spread inside instantly through the parted lips was so, so sweet.
The closer they got, the stranger his body reacted. Either becoming hazy or having heat rise and fall. That said, he didn’t completely lose consciousness either. The moment they entered the elevator, his solar plexus hurt so much he couldn’t move at all. Even the act of breathing slowly as Dowon told him was difficult to the point where his throat was burning up and between his ribs felt constricted.
But he couldn’t stop clinging to him. Even though he knew someone might suddenly enter the elevator, he didn’t want to be separated from this person. He couldn’t let go of the hand holding Dowon. When their lips touched, even breathing was sweet. It would have been okay if he hadn’t known at all, but now that he knew the fleeting sweetness, it seemed like he couldn’t be separated even for a moment.
“Heuk… CEO, CEO-nim……”
“Wait just a bit. We’re going to the room.”
He heard a rattling sound and Muyoung’s body was lifted. Even while his consciousness was coming and going, he could tell that murmuring and silence were repeatedly visiting. At some point, a jacket was draped over Muyoung’s head. Even in his incomplete state, he tried to open his eyes but dropped his head back into Dowon’s embrace from dizziness. He couldn’t gauge what kind of situation this was at all. He just knew he was being carried in Dowon’s two arms and moving as he swayed.
“……ssi, Muyoung-ssi. Can you hear me? You seem to be in heat right now, do you have suppressants?”
“That can’t, that can’t be……”
“No, you’re in heat right now.”
“No, it can’t be…… CEO-nim, dangerous……”
A heat cycle when he was constantly taking pheromone suppressants? Even with his hazy mind, he shook his head. If Dowon was right about the heat, he should separate from him right away. He could at least judge that to handle the situation well when he couldn’t come to his senses properly, he needed to be alone.
Moreover, he couldn’t have relations to calm the suddenly arrived heat either. He absolutely refused to involve another person like he did with Jinho.
He felt disgusted with himself for leaning on him just because everything was sweet and comfortable. With his face scrunched up, he pushed Dowon’s chest. The solid body that didn’t budge even slightly pulled Muyoung in even more. With each step, he wasn’t even sure if what was ringing was his head or his heart. Even a piece of paper floating, caught in a typhoon, wouldn’t be this powerless. Physiological tears flowed down his face, which became contorted from the heat.
Even while moving, as his body, which couldn’t properly muster strength, struggled in his embrace, Dowon’s large hand gently soothed Muyoung’s body.
“To me, suppress… suppressants……”
He heard the sound of molars grinding as if holding back something, a distant feeling. It was the sound from Dowon’s jaw. He was clearly being affected, interlocked with Muyoung’s heat. Even while knowing his body was held in firmly gripping hands, reason that said he should escape and instinct that wanted to burrow into his embrace and deeply breathe in his scent were desperately clashing.
“Hold on a bit. I’ll endure until we get to the room too.”
While he couldn’t even properly recognize his slightly noisy surroundings, silence soon filled the space. Even though his heated head still couldn’t continue proper thoughts, Muyoung could tell the location had changed. Even in the midst of confusion, it was because his body instinctively knew they had arrived at a comfortable place.
At the same time, his back touched somewhere soft. It was on the bed. His panting breath grew louder and he tried rubbing his cheek against the sheets to somehow calm his body’s heat, but it was useless.
‘……Your pheromones might run wild unexpectedly and a heat cycle could hit. Just in case, I’ll prescribe emergency suppressants you can keep on hand, so be especially careful.’
Only then did Muyoung, remembering the precautions he heard from Lim Hyunsu, scrunch his face even more. It might have been better if he had experienced it before. But Muyoung had no experience, and moreover, there was a problem with his trait. With just the expression “unexpectedly,” it was impossible to predict such an urgent situation could come. That said, now that Dowon was caught up in it wouldn’t make it as if it never happened……
Muyoung learned for the first time that his reason could be this insignificant. A heat he had never properly experienced even once since manifestation. In a state where he had an imprinted relationship, he could get through heat without much pain with just suppressants. Rather, Jinho, who was an alpha, would become sensitive before and after relations. Because they could only feel each other’s pheromones, they weren’t affected by others’. He couldn’t even imagine it would be like this, like this.
Meanwhile, Dowon’s hands, which had been searching every corner of Muyoung’s clothes, snatched something from his pocket.
“Hold on a bit.”
The needle of the cylinder containing the suppressant pierced Muyoung’s forearm, revealed by Dowon’s hand. The sensation of acutely feeling the drug entering under his skin and spreading through his body was letting him know his current body state wasn’t normal. It took more time until the heat that had risen to its limit and the pain tormenting his entire body from the trait abnormality gradually subsided.
Clatter. The sound of the cylinder that had contained the suppressant being tossed somewhere was heard, and one side of the bed where Muyoung was lying tilted. A gentle hand touched his cheek where the heat hadn’t yet subsided. Unconsciously tilting his head in the same direction, he quietly buried his face in it.
The hand that had been wrapping and caressing him like that for a while stopped briefly. Soon Dowon’s thumb swept down Muyoung’s eye area, and then lips touched there. Those lips were hotter than ever.
“Are you a bit better now?”
“……CEO-nim.”
It took quite a while until his vision, which had been blurring and returning repeatedly, brightened a bit and he could survey his surroundings. Muyoung’s eyelids, which had been moving slowly, rose and his pupils found focus.
After being in pain for a while, he briefly thought he was fortunate the person he saw was this person, but Dowon’s face, different from usual, looked unusual. Setting aside his disheveled clothes, he could tell Dowon’s state was strange from his reddened cheeks and rough breathing.
“Right now……”
“I don’t think I can stay with you until morning. I’m going into rut too.”
“……!”
“……Muyoung-ssi’s pheromones are no joke.”
Hah, he realized in an instant how precarious Dowon, who laughed while exhaling, was. It was because Dowon’s breath touching Muyoung’s skin was hot. Detecting the abnormality, he tried to get up urgently but instead swayed from dizziness. When Muyoung couldn’t properly manage his body, Dowon, who would be more troubled now, firmly gripped his shoulder to support him. His face scrunched up briefly at the grip strength more unusual than usual, but he didn’t care. Right now, Dowon, whose rut was progressing to the point of not being able to control even momentary strength, took priority over himself.
But Muyoung didn’t know what he should do in this situation. Muyoung’s body, with the suppressants working, was even powerless.
“What, what should I……”
While he was flustered, pushed by Dowon’s strength instead, Muyoung was laid properly back on the bed. He had no choice but to quietly receive even the touch that pulled the blanket to cover him, as he was actually becoming increasingly limp.
“Don’t worry. I can at least prepare suppressants too. After I leave, a doctor might come…… Will you be okay alone?”
At Dowon’s words, Muyoung’s face contorted again. Wasn’t it Dowon himself who should be worrying right now, not him? Even though he was ignorant about traits and cycles, he at least knew that a rut that had to be endured alone was a painful time. Moreover, he also knew that a rut that arrived this suddenly was quite difficult to rely on medication without having relations.
Yet even in such a moment, the fact that Dowon was worrying about Muyoung rather than himself meant it was ultimately because of his unstable trait condition. He also knew that conversation had taken place this very evening. He couldn’t tell where things went wrong. But he couldn’t delay his answer now. Until he answered, Dowon seemed determined not to go receive treatment.
Even with reddened eyes from his wavering body state due to trait abnormality, he endured and nodded. Dowon, confirming Muyoung’s face was gradually improving, finally smiled a little even with furrowed brows. It was an expression that showed him struggling to suppress the trait urging inside his body. Perhaps in just a little while, Dowon too would experience the pain he had just gone through.
