Instead, he burned with a fierce determination to pass no matter what. Just yesterday he’d gone into it with an attitude of whatever, I’ll fail anyway — but now that he’d actually made it through to the second round, he found himself genuinely wanting to secure this position.
It was his first time wanting something this badly, but the feeling wasn’t bad. The sweetness of the money he’d received for fare had also played a solid part in steeling his resolve.
Seohan had lived his whole life without any particular desire for things — but a terminal diagnosis had changed a remarkable number of things about him.
“Um, Colin.”
“Yes?”
“Will you be dropping me off on the way back too?”
“I’ll check with the Executive Director.”
“Ah, no, that’s not what I — “
Seohan trailed off and patted down his disheveled hair.
He’d been caught off guard when the Herald household had come to pick him up. Not just him — everyone passing by must have been surprised too.
Even proper cars rarely came through District 4. The best you’d get were trucks patched together with armor plating by scavengers from the wasteland. Trucks fitted with rusted wires, makeshift batteries, and manual cooling units — loud as anything and slow to match.
But even a heap of junk on the verge of falling apart was a rare sight in District 4. Children would often chase after passing trucks just to run behind them.
Into that setting, a black hover car had appeared — so of course every pair of eyes in the vicinity had snapped toward it. In a world where even public buses were rolling scrap metal, a sleek hover car was impossible to ignore. Even in the rain, quite a few people had been craning their necks out of windows to stare.
Seohan had been forced to climb into the car with his face buried in his hands out of sheer mortification. Judging by the murmuring around him, slipping back home quietly afterwards was out of the question.
“Is it possible for me to go back on my own?”
“Hmm, I’m not sure.”
Colin checked his notebook before answering.
He hadn’t been given any specific instructions regarding getting Seohan home — but then again, coming to pick him up today hadn’t been part of the plan either. It was because the Executive Director had abruptly issued an order early that morning, amid the downpour, to go and bring Yi Seohan personally.
It was Colin’s first time being sent to collect an omega in a hover car, so he couldn’t be certain of anything.
And just before he’d stepped out of the building, Ensha had called out after him with a prediction — that he’d be making this trip again later too.
Colin had already been losing ground in the bet on account of the Executive Director’s unexpected behavior. He couldn’t begin to describe how insufferable Ensha’s smug expression had been.
No explicit instructions had come yet, but the way things were going, the odds were high that he’d end up responsible for seeing Seohan home — just as she’d said. If a contract were finalized today, Colin would be eating dinner on Ensha’s terms and living penniless for the foreseeable future.
But that was a separate matter — Colin had a duty to carry out Cesare Herald’s orders.
“The rain is coming down heavily. Wouldn’t it be more comfortable for you to travel in ease?”
“I suppose so……”
“I’ll make sure you get home safely, so please don’t worry.”
“Alright……”
Seohan murmured back in a slightly deflated voice.
It wasn’t just the stares on the way home he was dreading — what he found truly painful was the thought of missing out on fare money. If they were going to send a driver and a secretary to see him back, they probably wouldn’t be handing him any travel money.
Clicking his tongue in disappointment, Seohan settled back into the leather seat. The high-end hover car, for all its unfamiliarity, was uncomfortable in one sense and drowsily comfortable in another.
The hover car’s capabilities were formidable. It took less than three hours to get from District 4 to District 2. And that wasn’t all — getting through the quarantine checkpoint on his own usually took several hours, but today the whole process was done in ten minutes.
Thanks to that, Seohan arrived at the Herald building without any delay.
Ding —
Even after the elevator’s arrival chime sounded, Seohan held on to the railing for another beat before letting go. The sensation of the floor seeming to drop out from under him still felt foreign. Colin had smiled and told him it was safe, but Seohan couldn’t fathom how this small room-like contraption was supposed to be trusted not to plummet straight to the ground.
Floor 10.
Today it had stopped at a higher floor than when he’d come the week before. It struck him all over again how nice it was to have money. Not only had they built a skyscraper like this, but they were using the entire building for themselves.
While some people had given up on treatment because they couldn’t afford it, here stood this. It was a staggeringly unfair world.
“Yi Seohan is here.”
“Oh — hello.”
Following Colin’s lead and walking inside, Seohan found himself in a space that exuded a different kind of luxury from before. It had a different feel from where he’d stepped foot last time. This appeared to be the space where Cesare Herald actually lived.
A stillness settled over the room, which held a slightly more personal quality to it. The ceiling, high enough to make breathing feel faintly difficult, and the full-length glass windows covering an entire wall were the same as the floor below — but there were more varied furnishings and decorative objects placed around.
Even that alone would have been more than enough space, but Cesare Herald seemed to be using both the tenth and eleventh floors together. The hall, open to double height, had a wall that was a structure in itself — and when you shifted your gaze inward, you could see the staircase and railing leading up to the second level.
Soft tones wrapped the floors, walls, and the whole space — yet it still gave a cold impression. It might have been the furniture, clean and stripped of anything superfluous, but more than anything it seemed to be because of the man sitting far off in the distance.
Decorative objects that served no practical purpose, placed purely for aesthetic effect, caught his eye. Seohan found himself thinking, somewhat unexpectedly, that this space suited Cesare Herald remarkably well.
“You’re late.”
“Oh — really? I thought I arrived early……”
“If I say you’re late, you’re late.”
Before Seohan even had the chance to thank him for sending the hover car, Cesare — having spotted him — was already crossing the room in long strides, making full use of those long legs. Seohan had thought they were quite a distance apart, but the gap closed in an instant.
Cesare came right up in front of him and, without a word of preamble, took hold of his neck.
“Ah……!”
Seohan flinched, pulling his neck in sharply at the sudden action and the cold characteristic of the leather gloves. Whether Seohan flinched or not, Cesare bowed his head and brought his face to the slender nape.
There was a sound — a long, slow inhale. The man’s chest, visible right in front of him, was rising and falling in deep, unhurried movements. It seemed like he was checking for pheromones again, just as before.
“……Hh.”
Cesare’s long exhale scattered across Seohan’s nape, and the fine hairs there stood on end.
He must be sighing because he couldn’t detect any pheromones from him. Seohan clenched his small fist tight and tried to open his pheromones. But it was the same as before. Not knowing the very concept of what it meant to open them, it simply wouldn’t work.
The book he’d borrowed from Eddie in a rush the night before had said to focus on the flow of your pheromones and think about opening them. But Seohan couldn’t even perceive the pheromones flowing inside his own body, so the very first step was a wall.
“Um — excuse me……”
Seohan twisted his body and tucked his neck in like a tortoise retreating into its shell. No matter how long Cesare kept at it, he wouldn’t be able to sense anything from him. And yet Cesare kept at it as though determined to find something — it was embarrassing.
“……”
Cesare let go of Seohan’s neck, his displeasure obvious, though he released it all the same. He let go so carelessly — practically dropped it — that Seohan’s body swayed for a moment. He’d been the one to release it so roughly, and yet Cesare’s brow furrowed deeply.
“Did you apply without even knowing what the job involves?”
“No. I know, it’s just……”
“You know, and you’re making a fuss over contact this minor?”
At the cold rebuke, Seohan’s face burned with embarrassment.
Right. Seohan had come here to offer himself to Cesare. He’d gone through STI screenings and secondary gender testing for this very purpose.
It didn’t seem likely — but if the contract went through without a hitch, this was someone he’d soon be sharing a bed with. Pulling away over a little touch to the nape was absurd. If Cesare wanted it, offering whatever part of his body was asked of him was his position here.
It was mortifying to think he’d misread the situation and overreacted.
Having never so much as properly dated someone, let alone shared a bed, Seohan had no immunity to physical contact. He’d had brief flirtations and light skinship with the transient people who’d passed through his life — but that was the extent of it. So he felt all the more deflated for no good reason.
However much he disliked omegas, the man in front of him was surely well-versed in this kind of thing. There would be no shortage of betas or omegas who wanted him.
It was embarrassing to have shown such inexperience in front of someone so experienced. He was scratching the corner of his eye in awkward mortification when Cesare gave a jerk of his chin and added one more thing.
“Checking an omega’s pheromones is non-negotiable.”
“I’m sorry.”
Seohan pressed his hands together in front of him and lowered his head deeply. He’d always been the type to wilt easily under even mild criticism — and Cesare’s reprimand hit harder than most.
This won’t do.
Seohan steeled himself almost immediately.
He already had pathetically weak pheromones — he couldn’t afford to be passive in his actions on top of that. If this led to Cesare deciding right now to find a different omega, that would be a disaster.
This was someone who’d even generously sent him home with travel money. Once a contract was signed, there’d be more money — he had to be worth it.
With that firm resolve, Seohan neatly pushed up the long sleeves of his knit that had slipped down over his hands. Then he took hold of his own neckline.
“Ce — Cesare.”
He called out to him in a small voice and stretched his neck forward. Afraid his nape might not be clearly exposed enough, he pulled the V-neck of his knit down to below his collarbone.
“……What are you doing right now.”
Cesare looked visibly flustered, his expression caught somewhere between confusion and disbelief.
Was that wrong? The muscles around his eyes twitched slightly — it looked almost like he was angry. But hadn’t he just shown displeasure a moment ago when Seohan pulled away?
Seohan tilted his head, unsure which cue to follow, but stepped in one more pace anyway.
“So it’s easier for you to check……”
Those round, dark brown eyes darted around helplessly — to the floor, to Colin, and back to Cesare — in rapid, flustered succession. The less of a reaction he got from Cesare, the more Seohan shuffled his feet in agitation.
