Even in a state where it was hard to wait for the elevator, a self-deprecating laugh escaped as he moved his steps to the emergency staircase. While climbing the empty stairs with no one around, Dowon could feel the tense atmosphere from Min Jeongryul following behind him. Even though he was a beta, it was naturally hard to endure being beside an alpha who had just entered rut.
“It was quite a dangerous situation. Once you enter the room, I’ll also guard that person’s room.”
“Mm……”
He withheld an answer to Min Jeongryul’s words, asking for Dowon’s opinion while organizing in his head the tasks that needed to be handled. Rather than matters requiring judgment, there was a more urgent matter right now.
He finally entered the room. As soon as Dowon sat in the chair visible in front, the sleeve of his left arm was rolled up by Min Jeongryul moving his hands quickly. The protruding blood vessels and wriggling muscles, more so than usual, were indicating it wasn’t a very good situation. Dowon’s face was already completely soaked with cold sweat.
A familiar case was taken out from Min Jeongryul’s possession, who could no longer delay. What came out from inside was a syringe containing suppressants. Min Jeongryul, who located with his eyes where to insert the needle, removed the protective cap as is and pushed it in while holding the forearm, his touch skillful. The medication in the cylinder entering through the needle gradually decreased.
“Fortunate it’s not late.”
“Is that so……”
“Is something uncomfortable……”
“……No. I feel a bit better now.”
A thin bandage was attached over the skin where the needle had been withdrawn. As he organized the case along with the syringe, Dowon shook his head and answered Min Jeongryul’s words. Only then realizing he hadn’t even taken off his jacket, he moved only his upper body while sitting and removed the jacket. Only after handing the removed clothes to Min Jeongryul who approached could he loosen the knot of the tie that had been strangling his neck and the vest buttons as well.
“Will you go once?”
“Ah, yes. Since Dr. Kim said he’ll arrive soon, I’ll check before that.”
“Alright. Go and come back. Send Dr. Kim up here first.”
“Yes, then……”
Only after confirming Min Jeongryul’s figure bowing and leaving had disappeared did Dowon slowly turn his head and relax his tensed body. After the medication was administered, it seemed he would have to wait for a while. Though the excitement like just before entering the room had disappeared since the injection contained suppressant components strong enough to immediately calm the rut, Dowon couldn’t shake off the stuffiness as if forcibly wearing clothes that didn’t fit.
With both hands placed on the armrests, he repeatedly clenched and unclenched his fists, waiting for the medication inside his body to spread even a little faster. Though they say both rut and heat make one lose reason, he could tell that his current symptoms were subsiding more slowly than Muyoung’s appearance of quickly regaining reason after suppressant administration despite clearly being in a heat cycle. Even looking at just the strength of the suppressants, the medication Min Jeongryul had should have been much stronger.
He couldn’t tell right now whether it was the difference between recessive and dominant or the difference between alpha and omega. It seemed better to confirm that later as well. There was no law saying something like today wouldn’t happen again.
The intense impulse he’d encountered after quite a long time was still vivid.
In the case of trait individuals frequently found in social problems, they were all a kind of unexpected accident caused by pheromones. Though they say one can control it to some degree, even that varied from person to person, and in the case of cycles, impulses to the point where daily life was impossible without relying on medication would dominate the body. The reason that could be moderately controlled would completely break down during that period. Materials educated by institutions used rather euphemistic language to scare people, saying memory breaks off or it’s an uncontrollable state, but Dowon didn’t think so.
An alpha in cycle was no different from a beast. It was no exaggeration to say they were a beast borrowing only a human shell. They just didn’t transform with sharp claws popping out or fur covering their body, but the physical reaction of pressuring a partner and erecting genitals solely to resolve breeding desire was difficult to call human.
In that regard, there was no difference whether alpha or omega. If there had been no suppressants, by now, not knowing his body was breaking down, he and Muyoung would have been stuck together.
The moment he felt the pheromones spreading in the elevator with Muyoung, he knew. That something was seriously wrong.
Even from the corridor where he’d been with that man, Muyoung hadn’t looked very well. Muyoung had said he was fine, and the atmosphere was strange, so he’d just watched. Then when he collapsed and the moment he brought his body into the elevator, the pheromones filling the enclosed space and the heat felt from the body in his arms were unusual.
Even while listening to Muyoung’s story and preparing in his own way, separate from that mindset, when the situation struck, just holding onto reason was overwhelming. He tried not to be affected as much as possible by controlling his pheromones, and as soon as he noticed Muyoung’s state, he instructed Min Jeongryul to prepare, but after moving him to the room, even he himself became precarious.
They say you can avoid feeling a smell if you block your nose, but pheromones were different. While wanting to breathe it in through every hole in his body, he simultaneously wanted to flee to a place where it didn’t exist at all. It was reason’s last warning, knowing that once the trigger inside his body was pulled, it would become irreversible.
Anyway, since he was safely handling the situation now, he could even have these thoughts. Dowon, who had been sitting in place for a while, moved after the bell rang. Even while getting up and going out to open the room door, he moved lightly to check if his condition was different from usual, but there seemed to be no abnormality. After confirming through the peephole the person standing outside pressing the bell, Dowon soon opened the door.
“It’s been a while, CEO Han.”
“You’re here. I’m sorry for the late hour.”
“What, this is how I pass the time. Your condition?”
“I received suppressants a little while ago. I think about 15 minutes have passed.”
Dowon, who moved his body aside inward to make space for Kim Youngseok to enter, continued speaking as he changed positions. The touch tossing the cumbersome tie and vest he’d been wearing until just now onto the chair he’d been sitting in was quite sharp. Whether familiar with Dowon’s appearance or simply not caring, Kim Youngseok opened the bag he brought and prepared by taking out various things.
“It would be better to simply check your current condition and watch the progress while receiving IV fluids.”
“It was a bit hard to endure earlier, but I’m fine now. I resolved it with the prescribed suppressants.”
“I know you always resolve it with suppressants, but CEO Han also knows that’s not good. No matter how much you have a partner.”
IV packs, IV lines, needles to connect, and several medications occupied the table messily by Kim Youngseok’s hands. Dowon, who had been only watching with his eyes, picked up a medicine bottle to check its contents, then put it back in place and sat carelessly on the chair where he’d hung his clothes. After unbuttoning one more button of the shirt that already had one undone, gripping the armrest and leaning his body against the backrest came next.
“That’s why I invited you here to properly look at that partner today.”
“……Are you serious?”
“I told you in advance, so how else should I explain, me?”
“Hmm, then I should take a look. The chairman made a request too. First, give me your hand.”
Kim Youngseok, who took Dowon’s obediently extended hand, gently rubbed above his thumb with an alcohol swab for blood collection. As soon as he felt the prickling needle tip digging in, the hand was released, pressing down on the minor wound with cotton.
“Did the chairman make a request?”
“Is he someone who mentions things directly? I just figure it out on my own.”
“Please convey it nicely. He’ll at least listen to Dr. Kim’s words more than mine.”
“Why? CEO Han, you’re not planning to say it yourself?”
“I’ve already said everything I can. If I add more, it’ll only make things worse.”
Well. The response attached like an interjection was an affirmation of Dowon’s words. Kim Youngseok, who put the thin straw with collected blood droplets into the medicine bottle and shook it briefly, nodded after checking the condition. Soon, connecting the IV pack and IV line and continuing the next preparations, he explained to Dowon.
“Though the cycle came suddenly, there’s no problem. After finishing the IV, there won’t be anything to worry about. If you’re not going to cause an accident right away, controlling it is right. You did well.”
“Please just confirm whether there will be any problem meeting tomorrow.”
“That person is recessive, right?”
“……Yes.”
Though he was hiding his expression pretending to be indifferent, Dowon’s true feelings weren’t so. It wasn’t once or twice that his father, the chairman, had made an issue of traits. A stubborn stereotype that periodically popped up since childhood about the obsession with uncontrollable nature, even though he himself was a trait individual. He’d tried to dismiss it as a kind of nagging that most of the older generation does, but when the frustration didn’t subside and he rebelled each time, the things he wanted to do were blocked instead, and he eventually acquiesced to power.
“Mm, if you received suppressants too, there should be no problem…… Got it. I’ll stop by again after going there.”
“Thank you.”
Only after administering even the IV did Kim Youngseok, who organized the messy area, immediately stand up and prepare to leave. While Dowon, who couldn’t see Kim Youngseok off, briefly exchanged greetings, Min Jeongryul entered the room. Seeing him bow toward both of them, Kim Youngseok turned back to look at Dowon.
“……Let me ask just in case.”
“Yes.”
“It was definitely an accident, right?”
“You know. That I’m uncomfortable when rut comes.”
“Right, you were. I said something unnecessary. See you later.”
Dowon, who had been looking at Min Jeongryul and Kim Youngseok going outside carrying the organized bag, soon looked at the IV he was receiving. Drip, drip. Following the pace of the IV fluid falling regularly, he organized inwardly the thoughts rising haphazardly. There were things to handle and facts to confirm, but right now they were all related to Muyoung.
