The man’s house always maintained a constant temperature. Whether it was because of the homeowner’s picky nerves, or whether he was being mindful of a terminally ill patient and a young child, he didn’t know.
In any case, the important point was that at least some conditions indoors were perfectly managed. Regardless of whether cold winds blew or sweltering heat struck.
In such an environment, suddenly having sweat streaming down his spine was strange. At least that’s how it seemed to think with a half-asleep head that had just woken up.
‘That said, I can’t exactly hold back the sweat either.’
Even if other things could be done with stubbornness and momentum, he couldn’t help physical reactions. Then how could he break through this situation?
Forcibly turning his dazed head, Saehyeon started by ruminating on a few hours ago.
The parenting book he’d boldly picked up was by no means easy. The pretty pastel tones and round fonts were undoubtedly eye candy to hook the opponent. To cut to the chase and put it simply.
“What the hell does this even mean?”
Really, it was saying it was hellishly difficult. Saehyeon’s eyebrows, who had put the child to sleep with his own hands and sat on the sofa next to him, wriggled. Precisely at every moment the page turned. His stiff head also bounced off concepts and words with a ping ping.
Even if his mind was twenty years old, his body seemed to show off that it was stepping on the far end of the same line. Or it could be a stamina issue due to his worsened body.
No matter how much he glared at it, reading the blocks of text that were no different from an alien language made drowsiness naturally come—it was an inevitable progression. The determination to study day and night, taking advantage of the gap when the child fell asleep, melted away like cotton candy touching water.
Without even having time to be hurt in his pride at his blinking closing eyes, Saehyeon fell asleep as if fainting.
And when he came to his senses, this was his state. Being moved to the bed like a bundle.
‘What is he staring at so intently? Did he smear honey somewhere?’
Right. Up to being moved, he could roughly attach a reason. Because what was in his path was bothersome, because he might catch a cold and then groan again later. Well, there were various things.
But doing this to a sleeping person in the dead of night was a bit… wasn’t it? Gloomy and pathetic. Various other words came to mind too, but one thing was certain. This was absolutely not behavior that suited Gil Taeseo.
His dry, rough cheek seemed to sting. No, actually the part where he felt pain was a different area. It was his fingertips that had grown cold with tension. The extremities with originally sensitive sensations felt as if they were being thinly sliced.
‘Is this… pheromones?’
It took just a brief moment to realize its identity. It was because he’d forgotten and lived without it for a while.
Pheromone glands originally respond to the other person’s pheromones and draw out intense physical reactions. If they’re normal, that is.
Because Saehyeon’s were broken, at most they only wriggled when stepped on. It was already an insignificant reaction to begin with, and the acts that accompanied when pheromones were scattered always reached the point of overworking his body.
When his insides were being stirred up and it felt like his stomach skin would tear, there was no way he’d have the capacity to pay attention elsewhere. Though it was frustrating, there was also the fact that he was overwhelmed gasping in pleasure. But after a long time of being exposed only to pheromones without messy acts, that feeling came across more vividly and intensely.
“……”
With his confused head, a belated situational assessment formed. Right now, Gil Taeseo had not only secretly snuck into the bedroom in the dead of night, but was also pouring out pheromones.
It was the moment when a stone was thrown again into the tension that had loosened considerably since he’d been holed up during the day.
Saehyeon suppressed his breathing. He devoted all his strength to breathing naturally, not rapidly. It was instinctive behavior. For some reason, he had a strong intuition that he shouldn’t wake up right now.
‘Still, if I get dragged away… it can’t be helped.’
At least he wouldn’t do things in the bedroom where the child was lying. But places to lay one’s body were scattered throughout this house. If he just opened the door and went out, there was the living room sofa, and when he looked earlier, there was also a leather single-person chair brazenly existing in the study. He’d had experience using just such a chair at Gil Taeseo’s downtown office before. Sitting on the man’s lap, that is.
Saehyeon unknowingly pursed his lips. A surging rebelliousness rose up but also quickly subsided.
The fierce face looking at himself rolling on the ground, the arms that had firmly embraced his staggering body. When he recalled the heat and moisture felt from the body he’d leaned on, his heart strangely weakened.
‘Right. I did do something shitty.’
If something comes, something should go, and debts and grudges needed clear procedures for repayment. That was how human relationships originally were.
If Gil Taeseo lifted him up again like this and pulled him outside. Saehyeon resolved that he wouldn’t strike the top of his head with the corner of a book.
Every time the man moved his body, the mattress deeply dented. Naturally, Saehyeon’s body lying right next to him also tilted in that direction. No matter how expensive and firm the mattress was, it seemed overwhelmed by the heavy Alpha’s body.
At the thought that Gil Taeseo, lying in wait with such a clear presence, might extend his hand at any time, his body seemed to stiffen stiff on its own.
“…Fuck.”
But Gil Taeseo was a creature who always moved in the exact opposite of Saehyeon’s expectations. After muttering various curses, he soon got up. After briefly pacing around the bedside as if enduring something.
Again with quiet footsteps, the door opened and then closed. Gil Taeseo had left the bedroom again. Without starting anything at all.
“What?”
Saehyeon, whose eyes flew wide open just like that, looked around. If everything was a trap and the Alpha was still standing at the door, passing out on the spot would also have been possible. But the room was truly empty.
What remained was only absurdity, himself gasping for breath from the belatedly melted tension, and Taesol sleeping soundly next to him, oblivious to the world.
Ah, there were a few more things. The pheromones that must still be heavily pressing down on the bedroom air, and the body scent Gil Taeseo had left. Wherever he’d wandered around, there was also a faint dawn scent mixed in.
If it had only been that, it would have been really nice.
“Th-this crazy.”
Saehyeon, who had lowered his head at the sense of incongruity, was horrified. His lower half was tactlessly standing up under his pants, revealing its presence.
Being directly caressed was also embarrassing, but to become like this without even being touched, just because of pheromones. There had been a similar incident on the first day of their reunion, but it seemed the degree was increasing more and more. Look. The strangely ticklish and whining feeling remained like residual heat in his waist…
‘This damn fucking trait.’
Saehyeon tried to shake off the terrible sensation and thoughts. He buried his face in the pillow and curled his body sideways, rolling up like a shrimp. Precisely facing the opposite direction from where Taesol was lying.
No matter how much it was said to be an unavoidable physical reaction, it was next to the child. He couldn’t look straight at that cute face huffing and puffing.
Even though he wasn’t particularly patriotic, how many times recently had he been searching for the national anthem?
At least the fortunate thing was that if he just calmed this down, he could spend a peaceful night. At least he didn’t have to be dragged out and put on a debt repayment one-man show.
But at the same time, he also had this thought.
“Something’s a bit strange…”
Gil Taeseo had been someone who grabbed and pulled him in as soon as his hand reached, trying to knock him down by any means. It was clearly strange to refuse the meal laid out for anyone to see, the appropriate setup and pretext, and only coat him with pheromones before leaving.
Even if that very day could be overlooked since there was the child and all three were exhausted. He never thought it would have an influence even after that.
Saehyeon pulled out the hand that had been inside the blanket. His palm, damp with tension, clenched and opened as if following the child’s patty-cake. It was that very hand that had been swatted away like a cockroach by Gil Taeseo at dawn on the day he’d carried out the runaway.
‘Ah, I don’t know. Is it any of my business?’
These were overwhelming thoughts for a head and stamina that couldn’t even conquer a single parenting book. Saehyeon shook his head vigorously and decided to try to sleep along with his lower half that had subsided at some point.
The problem here was that when your head was complicated, no matter how much you closed your eyes, sleep wouldn’t come.
Also the point that Gil Taeseo’s such bizarre behavior didn’t end as a one-time thing.
‘It’s not like he’s a drunk ex-boyfriend.’
Holing up during the day while at night being full of lingering attachment… Right. The word choice was really fucking awful. But intermittently committing acts like an ex-boyfriend made him feel like he’d really go crazy.
Of course, it was a situation where Saehyeon had nothing to lose. How flustered and difficult had it been when he’d extended his hand at all times, pawing and making a mess of things? Now that the other person was taking his hands off and keeping distance on his own, there was no need for him to be anxious alone.
His physical condition was the same. It must be true that he’d definitely entered a somewhat stable phase—he was only receiving pheromones without sex, but he didn’t feel like his body had gotten significantly worse. Perhaps because the concentration wasn’t as strong as intercourse, the only regret was that there were no incidents of memories returning.
Like eating the pheasant and the egg, like digging a ditch and catching a crayfish. He just had to stick close to the child and enjoy this current leisure.
“…Why does this piss me off so much?”
It was not long after that point that resentment and indignation began to mix into his confused heart.
