“Me? I’m fine. It’s my friend — ah, him — the alpha friend I mentioned earlier. He’s not feeling too well. I’ll treat you again next time.”
Doyun’s apartment was tucked in a corner of an alley with a fairly steep incline, so by the time they arrived, he was slightly out of breath. If Eunho hadn’t been inside, he might have rested for a bit or at least offered Suhyeon a glass of water, but there was no room for that. The apartment was so small there was no way to fit two large-built alphas inside, and on top of that, Eunho had been on the verge of retching. So he couldn’t invite Suhyeon in — and more than anything, he was worried about Eunho.
When Suhyeok and Minjun teased him about an alpha getting his number or said things like that alpha is clearly interested in you, he hadn’t thought much of it. But seeing Eunho overreact about the chocolates and let slip a subtle wariness toward a male alpha, Doyun found it hard to stay completely unfazed himself. Even with a closed door between them, it felt like Eunho was right there watching.
“Hyung.”
“What?”
Suhyeon, notes in hand, stopped in his tracks and called out to Doyun just as he was about to go back inside.
“Never mind. That person in there — is he just a friend?”
“Him?”
“Yes. His name is Sa…, Sa Eunho, right?”
When Eunho’s name came out of Suhyeon’s mouth, Doyun’s expression shifted to one of surprise. Even after hearing Suhyeon’s name, Eunho had consistently referred to him as nothing more than that alpha — and yet Suhyeon knew Eunho’s name, despite never having been properly introduced.
“Wait, how do you know Eunho?”
“I’ve just heard his name around — apparently he’s not just a dominant alpha, but an extreme dominant. I’ve seen him at a few gatherings before, too. He always just makes an appearance and disappears, so I never had a chance to actually talk to him.”
“Ah, so secondary types really do all know each other. That’s kind of wild.”
He already knew that Eunho was a secondary type and a dominant alpha — a rare one at that. But hearing about Eunho’s traits and sides of him he didn’t know, through someone else’s words, felt strangely surreal.
“Hyung.”
“Yeah. What?”
Suhyeon called out to him again as Doyun stood fiddling with the door handle. The conversation kept going without a break and Doyun was starting to feel a little impatient. He was still worried about Eunho — alone inside, face drained white.
“Really — are you and that person genuinely just friends?”
“…Yeah. We are. I’m a beta, after all.”
At the question of whether they were just friends, Doyun pulled his gaze away from the door handle and looked at Suhyeon. Just friends…. He was curious what Suhyeon meant by that. He wanted to ask what they looked like to him if not just friends, but he didn’t have the courage to ask. Whatever the answer might be, he didn’t want to deal with it. It wasn’t as though staring into Suhyeon’s eyes would give him the answer, but Doyun stared at him anyway.
“Hyung…. I’m just saying this so there’s no misunderstanding.”
“Misunderstanding? What misunderstanding would I have?”
“Not you — him.”
Suhyeon said with a small smile.
“Eunho?”
“I didn’t release any pheromones. I was close to you earlier so a little rubbed off, but that’s it…. Please tell him I didn’t do anything worth misunderstanding. He’s probably more sensitive to other alphas’ pheromones.”
At that, Doyun let out a small “oh!” of realization. Suhyeon’s comment about Eunho being sensitive to other alphas’ pheromones brought back the memory of how Eunho had acted like he’d caught a revolting smell.
“He was saying something along those lines himself. Maybe hanging around betas like us all the time made him more sensitive to the smell?”
“Pheromones feel less like a smell and more like a frequency with a scent woven into it…. Did he say anything to you separately? About your secondary type?”
“No, nothing. Why — did a lot of his pheromones rub off on me from being with him yesterday?”
Doyun grabbed at his t-shirt and brought it up to his nose to check. He couldn’t detect any trace of the particular scent that had occasionally come from Eunho, or anything resembling his natural body scent at all. Doyun tilted his head slightly and looked at Suhyeon. Their eyes met, and Suhyeon shook his head to signal that nothing seemed off.
“There is someone who has marked you with their pheromones…. but I don’t think it’s my place to say. I’ll be heading off then.”
“Yeah, take care.”
Suhyeon readjusted his grip on the notes and said his goodbyes. It had been a brief exchange, but thinking about Eunho inside made him feel restless. He wanted to get in quickly. Doyun raised a hand to wave and turned around. Suhyeon was walking away as Doyun punched in the door code. Just as the door opened and Doyun was about to step inside, Suhyeon — now at the far end of the hallway — called out to him.
“Hyung — I was wrong about the pheromones, but.”
“……?”
“I’m a dominant too.”
***
He’d assumed Eunho, who had looked unwell, would naturally be lying down on the mattress — but the room was empty. Doyun had been standing guard at the door, so he couldn’t have gone out, and the room was too small to hide anywhere. The only place left was the bathroom, so Doyun walked over and knocked.
The moment he knocked, the bathroom door swung open and he was yanked inside. And what followed was a drenching. All of this happened in an instant.
“Hey! Are you insane?”
The cold water made his lower lip tremble on its own. Looking down at his t-shirt, completely soaked from the water that had poured down from the top of his head, he felt a flash of absurdity — followed immediately by a surge of heat rising from his gut.
“Are you out of your mind? Why are you suddenly throwing water at me! Wasn’t yesterday’s splashing around enough for you?”
Doyun gathered the front of his soaked t-shirt and wrung it out, then wiped the water from his face as he looked at Eunho. His breathing was getting rougher, and his expression was hardening. The showerhead Eunho was holding was still running cold water. The water was soaking the hem of Eunho’s pants, but Eunho didn’t seem to care in the slightest.
“Wash it off. Right here in front of me — wash it all off.”
Eunho held out the showerhead he’d been gripping to Doyun. He turned the faucet handle so that warm water was now flowing out. Doyun took it since it was being handed to him, but a heavy sigh broke out of him.
“Ha — you were making a whole fuss about feeling like you’d throw up, and now you’re giving me grief again. Hey, I literally just talked to Suhyeon about this — apparently you’re crazy sensitive to pheromones. Is that why?”
At Doyun’s question, Eunho looked away and let out a low, disbelieving laugh.
“…He said that? That I’m sensitive to pheromones?”
“Yeah.”
Eunho pointed at the showerhead in Doyun’s hand and raised an eyebrow. It was his version of pushing him along. The skull-print t-shirt was already soaked, but he couldn’t exactly shower like this. When Doyun took a small step back, Eunho stepped even closer.
The bathroom was far more spacious than the room — which already felt cramped on its own and even more so with all the stuff and furniture crammed in — but it was still nowhere near enough room for two adult men to be standing in together. Despite being drenched in cold water, with Eunho’s body heat so close, or perhaps because of the tension Eunho was creating, his mouth was going dry.
“In a way, he’s right — and in another way, he’s completely wrong…. It’s not something he needs to concern himself with, or bother knowing.”
“Suhyeon said he knows you. Said he’s seen you at a few gatherings. That you always disappear quickly so he never got a chance to talk to you. Don’t alphas usually get close with other alphas?”
Watching Doyun refer to the junior alpha as Suhyeon with such familiarity, Eunho’s brow furrowed. And then, as if that weren’t enough, when the word gathering came out, a low, strained curse slipped from Eunho’s lips.
“Son of a…. Did he tell you what kind of gathering it is, too?”
“No. What kind of gathering is it…?”
“Alphas and omegas from families that know each other well get together when their rut or heat cycles come around. Then after some formalities — asking how the families are doing and all that — they strip down and roll around together. In one word: an orgy gathering.”
The shocking content came out of Eunho’s mouth in a flat, even tone. Whenever Eunho talked about secondary type matters — which he rarely did — it always felt strangely foreign, and now was no different. Doyun took another step back and felt the cool wall against his back.
“You….”
“I never do anything like that.”
“…I’ll wash up and come out.”
Doyun reached out and pushed Eunho away. Eunho simply nodded and left without putting up a fight. As Doyun peeled off the wet t-shirt and rinsed himself off under lukewarm water, he bit down hard on his lower lip.
