“Coco, what scents can you smell right now?”
Though it was a riddle-like question, Siwoo slowly took a deep breath. Evan’s pheromones that always seemed to hover around him were mixed with the sweet plum scent.
As Yechan had said, he could feel Evan’s emotions through his pheromones. Right now, the stable and ordinary peppermint scent that didn’t carry any particular color dominated, and the ripe plum scent wandered beside it.
This time, he breathed in again while being conscious of the plum scent.
The plum scent also didn’t particularly have any feeling. It just seemed like cool peppermint candy and sweet plums were together.
After searching for other scents for a while, Siwoo’s expression hardened at a thought that suddenly occurred. This is a disaster. There were no alphas or omegas who couldn’t control their pheromones. Yechan had certainly said so too. That everyone naturally controls them. That hiding pheromones was etiquette toward each other unless in a truly intimate relationship. That’s why everyone hid their pheromones and used deodorants out of worry.
Perplexity spread across Siwoo’s face. How do I hide this? At Siwoo’s expression, his eyes widening in confusion, Evan’s lips curved up slightly. The peppermint scent had disappeared in an instant. Now all that remained was the plum scent.
“Fayden……”
That night, in the car, Fayden who had been drawing his blood had clearly said. That only Evan’s pheromones were in the car. And today too, while talking about his pheromone levels, he’d added that there seemed to be something wrong with the scent emission part. That omegas and alphas all have different pheromone scents.
That there was no scent, that it might be unscented but that was impossible. Everyone has a body scent. Even betas who aren’t alphas or omegas each have their own unique body scent.
But there’s no scent? No. Then how do I explain this plum scent now?
“So how many alphas do you think you met today?”
Still not understanding the meaning in Evan’s question, Siwoo blinked slowly.
“Fayden, the doctor doing the abdominal ultrasound, one of the people we passed in the VIP ward, the butler who was in this space with us until just now.”
Siwoo’s head tilted slightly to the side watching Evan who asked the question and then answered it all himself.
“Only I know.”
Evan’s hand, who had been sitting on the floor, touched Siwoo’s calf.
“What scent you have, how sweet it is. So I want to devour you like crazy. Do you know how much of a blessing it feels that only I know that?”
At the whispered words while holding his ankle with one hand and gently rubbing his calf with the other, Siwoo’s hand trembled slightly. Siwoo, who put strength in both hands lest he spill the drink he was holding, glanced away from his gaze and put his lips to the mug.
He held the warm mulled wine in his mouth and slowly swallowed. Only Evan knows my scent? Is that possible?
Everything raised questions, one after another.
“Do you remember what it was like when I first saw you?”
Trying hard to ignore those hands heavily rubbing his calf, Siwoo, who had been drinking only the mulled wine for no reason, blinked instead of answering. It wasn’t a situation where he, whose throat hurt, needed to say much. And Evan was the one leading the current conversation.
He, whom he’d met on the plane, smiled brightly as soon as he saw him. He readily extended his hand and asked to shake hands. He’d truly welcomed him, a stranger seeing him for the first time.
But he couldn’t answer this question. Because he didn’t know how they’d met in this timeline.
“There’s not much information about golden alphas. Because there aren’t many. And most don’t openly reveal it like me. For me too, speculative articles pour out, but I’ve never said with my own mouth that I’m a golden alpha.”
As if not really expecting his answer, Evan continued slowly. An alpha who can’t smell omegas’ scents. But at the romantic confession that he entered his life the moment he met him, Siwoo’s lips trembled slightly.
But to him who had received a beta diagnosis even medically, he wouldn’t have been able to tell the truth. Well, even if he had said it, he wouldn’t have believed it. He himself had continued to doubt even while knowing he could feel his pheromones. He’d regarded him referring to himself with the word ‘pair’ as just a pet name-like thing given to someone he liked.
The day the heat cycle broke out was none other than precisely his twentieth birthday. It could have been fully misunderstood as late manifestation. Since premonitory symptoms had already appeared at the music awards, he probably couldn’t control his pheromones at all.
But even Chan and Yechan who were close by seemed to think he was just sick with a cold. The image of Evan, who had been strangely far away from his side, overlapped with their images.
“Herbal medicine……”
Evan had been thorough only about taking the herbal medicine while giving in to everything else and turning a blind eye appropriately. As soon as he woke up, he personally brought it and checked every day that he took it in front of his eyes. Even in the frantically busy schedule, he made sure of that. It would have been fine to skip it once, but there wasn’t even a day like that.
“They say you can take suppressants as herbal medicine too. But there was no way to explain and make you understand, so I did that on my own too, so I should apologize. Come to think of it, I’m really selfish. Right?”
Evan’s hand that had been releasing one calf grabbed the other ankle.
Hidden omega and golden alpha.
If he doesn’t meet a golden alpha, he’s an existence who can live as a beta for his entire life without knowing he’s an omega. But since he’d already met him, at the explanation that these things would have happened, Siwoo gulped down the mulled wine he’d been holding in his mouth.
“How far have you thought? What do you know?”
Siwoo put the mug on the table next to him and then overlapped his hands on Evan’s hand touching his calf. Evan, who was explaining about hidden omegas and golden alphas while talking about himself, wasn’t looking at Siwoo’s face.
Only then did he face him. At that indifferent expression, Siwoo pursed his lips.
It seemed like he knew all the timelines where he alone was wandering around in circles. Emptiness and sadness, loneliness, frustration and hope, dreams, wounds. Repeating those, at some point he became numb.
There was no happy event and no sad event, and even endlessly seeking new things, nothing remained.
There was nothing he could take with him when regressing. The only thing he could share was the memories remaining in his head. Things like the small yellow bird he couldn’t give to him also remained only in memory.
The photos seen on the plane when only the two returned after the ‘Journey’ filming also existed only in memory. As many timelines overlapped, those photos also gradually became blurry. Only one, the photo of himself dancing while bathed in sunset, came to mind clearly.
Even then, Evan had been looking at him. A star who could never be with him, a star in the sky, someone he thought was just kind to everyone. Then did you really like me even then? He was someone who worried and regretted, pushed and pushed away, and while acknowledging the feelings he had for him at the last moment, only thought of running away to the military.
Evan who suddenly pressed his nose against his while riding a taxi together after arriving at the filming location. Did you smell my pheromones even then? Even in the moment you told me not to hate you, was it this kind of feeling?
No, it’s not. It’s from before that.
Evan proudly said he was his fan. While doing a live broadcast, he recited information about him in a stream and even mentioned the two moles behind his waist.
Unlike the indifferent Evan, sadness seeped into Siwoo’s face. No matter how much he bit his lower lip, he couldn’t stop it from trembling. Even if he opened his eyes wide and took deep breaths, he couldn’t stop his eyes from getting wet.
“What’s so sad? Is there something else to apologize for besides that? It seems like you’ll forgive everything now. I should say it all.”
On his face looking at himself tearing up, a faint smile bloomed instead.
“Plums……”
Siwoo, who pressed down hard on the flowing tears, barely let out one word. Why did you seduce me with plums? How tantalizing it was when you gave me one at a time. But why did you give me plums now too? Why are you so consistent, making the two people keep overlapping?
“So you’d notice a bit. Because I wanted you to recognize it.”
Siwoo, who had been sitting on the sofa, slid down and burrowed into Evan’s embrace. As he tightly embraced his neck with both arms, he also didn’t hesitate and tightly embraced Siwoo as if not allowing any space between them.
“If you abandon me, I’ll kill you.”
He doesn’t know how to say romantic words like Evan. He doesn’t know how to say sweet words that seem to melt away softly like cotton candy.
“I’ll die as much as you want by your hands.”
“No. If by any chance you start liking someone else, you really have to tell me then. I’m dense. Even if I know, I’ll pretend not to. So you have to tell me clearly.”
“You know that won’t happen. But I can’t let you go. Even if you say you like someone else, I don’t think I can do that. I’ll apologize in advance.”
As Evan, who had been tightly embracing him until just now, grabbed his waist and created distance between them, Siwoo quickly lowered his head. He couldn’t be caught crying stupidly.
“You always apologize.”
Words that would make Evan feel good, pleasant words to hear. Unlike the desire to say such words, blunt words came out of his mouth again.
“Will you accept the apology?”
He tried to bury his face in his shoulder, but soon at the hand grabbing his chin, Siwoo, who raised his face, shook his head slightly.
Evan’s warm lips lightly touched Siwoo’s lips. It wasn’t pressing firmly, roughly coveting, nor was it a playful kiss.
“Then I’ll apologize again. This is an apology for what I’m about to do from now on.”
As Evan whispered, Siwoo’s lips moved along with it. Siwoo’s eyes widened as he was thinking about the meaning of Evan’s words, which were particularly riddle-like today.
“Hey…… this……”
The conversation wasn’t all finished yet, but sticky pheromones from head to toe suddenly clung on. At the action of so naturally putting one hand inside his t-shirt and putting the other hand inside his pants to grab his buttocks, Siwoo tried to yell out loud.
But even that was devoured by his lips pouncing on his lips as if eating sweet chocolate.
“You…… is there something else you’re hiding?”
Everything happened in an instant. At some point, the clothes he’d been wearing disappeared and Siwoo, who had fallen into the cruelly strong pleasure he created, hastily grabbed his hair.
“……The members know, about our relationship.”
“What?”
The moment Evan, who had been hesitating, spoke, Siwoo’s eyes snapped open.
“The manager too.”
Not just the members but the manager knows too? He wanted to press him, asking how they know, whether he told them. But as soon as he finished speaking, Evan bowed his head and took his into his mouth, so after that he couldn’t say any words.
