It hadn’t been long since he’d let go of the doctor’s collar — and yet his hand was already gripping Kang Jaeho’s shirt again. A strong scent radiated off the crumpled fabric.
“Ha. This scent again.”
With his expression just as crumpled as the man’s shirt, he brought his nose to the nape of the man’s neck — the spot he himself had just been gnawing on — and sniffed. It was because his sense of smell, which had registered nothing until moments ago, had just been hit with a sudden jolt of stimulation. And it matched perfectly with the scent he had spent an entire month searching for.
“Can you smell it?”
“Yes. Quite clearly, I can!”
Even though this was the very scent he’d been hunting so desperately, finding it on this man again put him in a foul mood.
“Can you describe what kind of scent it is?”
He brought his nose close enough to nearly brush against the man’s shoulder and inhaled several more times. Then he said, without any filter whatsoever:
“The kind of scent that says I’m incredibly sexy, let’s sleep together just once…… Whoever wears this perfume is probably shameless through and through.”
He wanted to tear the scent down with the worst words possible — to dismiss it and call it nothing. But even saying the most cutting thing he could manage, it stopped right there — because, annoyingly, it was an outrageously seductive and good scent. Sensual to the point where just breathing it in was enough to make things stir down there.
“What’s wrong. You told me to describe it.”
The man, who had shown no reaction up until then, broke into laughter at his words.
“Why are you laughing!”
Did I say something wrong?
“I’m not joking, you know? Hey — stop laughing!”
The man bent his broad upper body forward and pressed his forehead to his shoulder, and at some point stopped holding back and laughed openly. Couldn’t hold it back would have been the more accurate way to put it. He tried to lift the man’s face, but the man had his arms wrapped tightly around his waist and wouldn’t budge an inch.
“Haha — it smelled like that to you?”
“Could you elaborate further?”
One side was laughing; the other was dead serious. What was he supposed to keep up with here?
“I said it smells shameless…… What more is there to say.”
“Ah…… ahem. What kind of feeling or impression do you get when you smell it?”
“……Not great.”
Not wanting to answer any further, he clamped his mouth shut. The man, apparently done laughing, loosened the arm wrapped around his waist and switched sides, joining the doctor in pressing him.
“You have to tell the doctor everything honestly, otherwise you won’t get better. Right?”
He didn’t want to say it. Ah, he really, genuinely didn’t want to…… but getting better again was a hundred times more important than his pride.
“Fine! Okay, it’s good! Yes, I said it smells good! Good enough to drive me out of my mind! Happy now?!”
It wasn’t as if he would have been living with those clothes delivered to the office every day if it hadn’t smelled good. He admitted it — the scent was incredible. But having said it out loud, the blow to his pride was unavoidable. It was because the owner of that scent had come to mind.
“Yes. That’ll do.”
“Pardon?”
The doctor, quickly writing something down on the chart in his hand, wore a notably more relaxed expression.
“What you were smelling isn’t something like a perfume — it’s an alpha’s pheromones. It’s not a simple scent but something closer to an entirely different sense that only secondary gender types can perceive. I’m relieved you’re able to detect the pheromones at all, even slightly.”
“It’s not a perfume?”
This scent isn’t a perfume — it’s Kang Jaeho’s pheromones? There was no way he, as a beta, could have detected pheromones……
Oh god. He really had become an omega, hadn’t he…… Since when……?
“Your secondary gender is currently in an unstable expression state, so detecting pheromones may be difficult at times. The reason you can perceive them intermittently at all is precisely because they’re the pheromones of an extreme dominant alpha. That’s something that will improve gradually, so there’s no need to worry.”
The scent he had searched for so desperately and yet kept denying all along. The scent he’d been unable to keep at a distance because it was too addictive. The fact that it had been this man’s pheromones all along hit him like a blow to the back of the head, leaving him stunned.
“This can’t be right……”
The scent that had been his clearest proof of this man’s infidelity had actually been the man’s own pheromones. In the end, he had simply stumbled backwards into discovering the existence of the omega fiancée. Though, now that he thought about it — what were the odds that an omega would wear perfume in the first place? It had been a misunderstanding born from the fact that he, as a beta, had never once considered he might be able to detect pheromones. No wonder no one else could smell it but him……
In that moment, what flashed through his mind wasn’t the memory of the scene he’d caused in the dressing room, convinced he was gathering evidence of an affair and smashing perfume bottles — nor was it the memory of lining his subordinates up in a row to sniff it.
What stung him most, more than the embarrassment swelling like a snowball rolling downhill, was the image of Bulgom walking into the office with an armful of shopping bags, exhausted face and all, saying he’d run all over the country for a single perfume — and the sound of Mangchi’s voice, on the verge of tears, saying his sense of smell felt completely numb from all the testing — and the image of Gamja clutching the sole of his foot, saying he’d developed a corn from being on his feet all day.
The realization that what those guys had been chasing all this time was not a perfume but Kang Jaeho’s pheromones stung him sharply. No, I mean — if these idiots had just figured out from the beginning who Director Kang’s fiancée was, what kind of omega she was, where she lived — they wouldn’t have had to run themselves ragged like that! The misplaced guilt turned, irrationally, into frustration.
Whatever the case, he absolutely could not let this fact come to light — not to those guys, and not to the world. In this lifetime, and the next, and even in death — he would never speak the truth. He made that firm, unwavering vow to himself.
That was all. Even knowing the truth about the scent, nothing about his relationship with this man had changed. The fact that the man had deceived and lied to him, and the fact that there was an omega fiancée — those remained unchanged.
Just then, a wounded voice sounded from near his chest.
“Do you dislike my pheromones because they smell shameless?”
‘The kind of scent that says I’m incredibly sexy, let’s sleep together just once…… Whoever wears this perfume is probably shameless through and through.’
‘I said it smells shameless…… What more is there to say.’
In an instant, the sound of his own clipped, irritable voice played back in his head.
“Ah — no, that’s not what I meant——”
He could admit he’d gone too far with his words. He hadn’t had the slightest idea it was pheromones! He’d naturally assumed it was perfume worn by the person the man was cheating with!
Even if no one else could tell, he could. This man was genuinely, deeply hurt right now.
“You have to hear a sentence all the way to the end. I said I l-liked it. You heard me say that just now, didn’t you?”
“Pardon? Yes. I heard.”
He cupped the man’s slightly sullen-looking cheeks in both hands and appealed to the doctor for backup, who nodded and provided it. Saying it smelled good hadn’t been empty words. If anything, he felt a quiet sense of relief at the thought that he could now enjoy this scent without bruising his pride over it. Of course, it was still irritating that he found his ex’s pheromones appealing — but wasn’t it still better than the smell of an affair partner’s perfume?
“I’m glad. So I can give Gang a pheromone shower every day then?”
A familiar word — the first one he recognized since entering this room.
“You’ll do what?”
But pheromone shower, of all things. It was a phrase that should not have been coming out of this man’s mouth. He recalled how emphatically the guys back at the office had talked over each other explaining pheromone showers.
‘It’s a marking behavior that alphas don’t commonly do even to their bonded omegas — and yet Director Kang did it to you, who is a beta, of all people.’
‘What kind of insane alpha goes and does a pheromone shower on a beta?!’
And they had definitely said that a pheromone shower without consent was illegal.
“I don’t want——”
“Then that’s even better.”
“What did you say?”
“As I said before, it’s important for the patient to receive as much of the extreme dominant alpha’s pheromones as possible. If pheromone showers are conducted regularly, stabilization could be achieved faster than the projected six months.”
His thoughts ground to a halt at the doctor’s words, actively recommending pheromone showers and saying a faster recovery was possible.
“For today, it would be best for you to rest and recover here at the hospital.”
The conversation was heading toward its conclusion with his opinion — as the person this was all about — being entirely ignored.
The prescription was just…… an alpha’s pheromone shower?
“That’s it? What about medication……? Is there no way to go back to being a beta?”
If he could have, he would have paid any amount to return to the days when he couldn’t detect these pheromones at all. Better to live in ignorance than to have something you can never have.
“Ah…… if you didn’t have a partner, I would have prescribed medication — but that would only temporarily alleviate the symptoms, not address the root cause. And as for returning to being a beta……”
He mirrored the doctor’s expression, the man furrowing his brow and stroking his chin gravely, and scrunched up his own face to match, waiting in hope for some encouraging news.
“Since a pheromone gland has developed, however minimally, that would likely be impossible. It’s difficult enough for something that wasn’t there to come into existence — but something disappearing once it’s there is even harder.”
But rather than hope, it was a statement that extinguished even the faint, flickering ember of expectation that had been teetering on the edge.
A pheromone gland had developed inside him……? It’s easier for something to appear than to disappear?
After hearing the doctor’s words, his thoughts lurched off in yet another direction.
“Then possibly……”
He lowered his head and pressed a hand to his lower abdomen, flustered — and the doctor, looking even more flustered than him, spoke.
“The uterus is a far more complex organ than the pheromone gland, so pregnancy would be difficult——”
“Well.”
Before he could hear the rest, the man suddenly covered his hand where it rested on his flat lower abdomen with his own, wrapping around it gently. As if there were already a child growing inside.
“Couldn’t it be possible?”
