It was a scent that felt familiar — like déjà vu. Straddling the man, Gang kept drawing in breath after breath, searching for its source. Whether it was only him catching it or not, the man kept the same expression as always and neatly, precisely straightened the robe that had fallen open around Gang.
It definitely seemed like something he’d smelled before, yet the scent was so faint that the memory hovered just at the edge of his mind — almost there, but not quite. Frustrated, Gang grabbed the man by the collar, bent down, and buried his nose in his nape.
“That tickles, Gang.”
Despite the amused laugh that accompanied the words, the man’s left hand slid into Gang’s hair and gently combed through it, while his right hand came around and pressed warmly against his waist.
It seemed too specific to just be the smell of skin — how many days had they been sharing a bed together? This was a scent he had never once smelled on the man before. That said, it wasn’t an unpleasant one. If anything, it was such a good scent that it made Gang’s brow furrow. This unfamiliar, foreign fragrance was alluring — even sensual.
“Did you switch body wash?”
“It’s the same one as Gang’s…….”
He pulled his face out of the man’s nape and looked up sharply to ask — and the man tilted his head to the side as if Gang had asked something strange. Gang grabbed the man’s arm, which had been making its way from his thigh up toward his rear beneath the robe, brought it to his nose, and sniffed — amid the unfamiliar scent, the man’s own body odor and the body wash came through. It didn’t seem like a lie. Gang stared at him for a moment, then straightened up and climbed off the bed.
“Where are you going?”
What had fully cleared his head — not the teeth-brushing, not the honey water, not the sex — was this strange scent.
He walked out of the room without answering, chewing on his lower lip. The apartment felt unusually wide today, and the sense of urgency grew. He went from walking quickly to outright jogging. He arrived straight at the dressing room and stood before the table where their perfumes were gathered, looking down at the array of elaborate, beautiful bottles.
Of the roughly twenty perfumes here, all but two were his. He hadn’t bought a single one himself — every last one had been gifted to him by the man. The reasons for the gifts varied. The moment I smelled this, I thought of you. I want you to smell this and think of me. I thought it would become an even better scent mixed with yours. Anyone receiving an expensive perfume alongside lines like that would inevitably end up red-faced.
Among them, he looked at the blue perfume bottle on the far left, and the dark red diamond-shaped bottle right next to it. Those were the perfumes he had gifted Jaeho — the entirety of what Jaeho owned. Compared to his own collection, there were only a handful of them, and the levels had barely gone down.
Of course. What kind of self-respecting alpha would cover up his precious pheromones with something as artificial as perfume? That had been him — the oblivious idiot who didn’t even know that basic fact, spending a whole month agonizing over what to give back in return before landing on perfume. Of course, once he’d learned the truth, he’d stopped making that screw-loose mistake of gifting Jaeho perfume.
“Hasn’t been used…….”
But he couldn’t help feeling a little hurt. It showed even more starkly against his own bottles, most of which had dropped well below the halfway mark.
“Damn…… even if you’re an alpha, you could’ve just worn it anyway.”
Pushing down the wave of hurt, he picked up the square blue bottle and took off the cap. Click — and the scent that bloomed at the tip of his nose was cool and refreshing, opening up his chest, but it was a far cry from the scent he’d caught just now.
He set it down and picked up the one beside it, popping the cap off the same way. He gave it a spritz into the air.
“Haah — no, this isn’t it either…….”
The sensual quality of it seemed vaguely similar, but this wasn’t the right kind of artificial scent — it was, how to put it, a scent that stirred desire more naturally.
As he went back and forth between the two bottles, that unfamiliar fragrance — the one that prodded at something inside him — drifted past his nose again, cutting right through the smell of the perfumes in front of him.
“Gang, what are you doing?”
At the sudden voice, he startled and spun around — the man was leaning against the doorframe with his arms crossed, watching him. Gang’s gaze snagged on his face, which gleamed even more brilliantly than the perfume bottles he’d been looking at — incomparably so.
His drowsy, half-lidded eyes carried the heaviness of the late hour, and yet they seemed to be luring Gang in. Shadow fell across his features, making his high, straight nose stand out in even more elegant relief. The man, whose frame nearly filled the doorway, received Gang’s slow, raking gaze and still stood there, unmoved.
Whoa, that was close. He’d almost let his guard down and taken a hit from that devastating face.
Either way — it wasn’t the perfume. At least not the ones he’d gifted.
Gang strode up to the man and pulled at his shirt as if he were about to tear it off. He buried his face in the t-shirt and sniffed.
“What’s our baby up to?”
Sure enough, that scent was faintly there.
It’s not a perfume he sprayed directly — it’s a scent that’s soaked into his clothes!
He followed the scent as it hovered around him, seeming like it might disappear but never quite doing so, and went to where the man’s clothes were hanging. He tugged down sleeves to check, buried his face in ties. He went through everything — tailored suit jackets, shirts, short-sleeved tees, belts, and eventually even socks. That scent was on every single piece of clothing, always just on the edge of being caught. It’s definitely coming from here, but…….
He’d sniffed so much his nose was starting to ache. He wondered briefly if it might be a diffuser, but that wasn’t it either.
“Ugh, seriously, where is it — ow!”
Is something wrong with my nose?! He was stomping around in irritation when he completely missed the laundry basket sitting to one side and went down hard, tripping over it spectacularly.
“Lee Gang!”
Crash— The laundry basket, sent flying by his foot, defied gravity for a moment before hitting the floor with a loud clatter. As luck would have it, it landed right on top of the perfume bottles — the sound of shattering glass rang out across the floor. Meanwhile, the clothes that had been inside the basket fluttered down and draped themselves over Gang’s face, as if to mock him. He slid and landed face-down, and at the sharp ow that escaped him, forced himself to endure the pain radiating from his knee, shin, and elbow.
“Ugh…….”
The man, startled by the undignified crash, came running over, pulling Gang’s upper body into his arms and asking if he was okay. Then he cleared away the clothes covering Gang’s face and checked him over. Gang barely even registered the firm thigh that came to rest against the back of his head.
“Does it hurt a lot? Let me see.”
“Ahaha— haha.”
“Gang……?”
Found it…… I found it……!
Gang took the shirt the man had moved aside and pulled it back over his face. He breathed in deep —
“Haah—”
And as he exhaled, everything became clear. It was the scent he’d caught in passing at the hospital. The scent that had been hovering faintly around him until just a moment ago.
He lifted the shirt and confirmed it with his eyes — this was unmistakably the man’s. He pushed himself upright, gathered the clothes strewn every which way into his arms, and brought them up to his face. Sniff, sniff — at this point, he didn’t care if the man thought he was a pervert.
Because the clothes Jaeho had worn — the ones that hadn’t been washed yet — were where that scent was coming from.
The scent was sensual, and it tickled something low in his belly in a peculiar way, yet no matter how much he inhaled, instead of giving him a headache, it actually left him feeling calm. In other words, this smell had the strange ability to arouse him and then soothe him right back down. He had no idea which perfumer had crafted this scent, but whoever it was — they’d really outdone themselves. He’d give them that.
But what the hell is this scent doing here……!
It rippled from the shirt collar and the hem of the trousers the man had worn when he’d come to pick Gang up from Gamja’s place.
“There are glass shards everywhere — don’t move, stay still.”
Apparently worried about the shattered perfume bottle debris scattered around Gang, the man moved to pick him up — and Gang shoved against his chest with everything he had. Caught off balance, the man ended up half-kneeling as he lowered his head to read Gang’s expression.
Despicable. Gang finally understood why this man had felt no remorse about his lies. Ah, of course he wasn’t sorry. He must’ve been too wrapped up in meeting some beta who wore these clothes and doused himself in a scent this obscene to even think about me. I didn’t even cross his mind.
Come to think of it — while Gang had been at Gamja’s place, Kang Jaeho had had more than enough time to meet someone else. And the fact that he’d gone out of his way to come pick Gang up? Isn’t there a saying that alphas who cheat always come home and act even more devoted? That’s all this is. Who knows — maybe he’d gone and met someone else right before coming to get Gang.
“Ahh! I really can’t take this!”
“Gang, are you in that much pain?”
That look on his face — like he has no idea! Does he really think I’m that stupid?!
“We need to br— hk, ahem. Break up!”
He’d meant to shout it, but his voice cracked at the worst moment — thankfully, he managed to hold onto the fierce expression on his face.
It was the first breakup he’d ever been through, after his first relationship ever.
