SPW 37

An unexpected person was standing outside the door.

“Bailey?”

It was the first time Sarang had seen Bailey since moving out of Florian’s mansion, and he looked the same as ever. Brown hair combed back perfectly, glasses, a neat suit. Even though it had been two years, it felt like they had just met yesterday.

“Kim, could I have a moment of your time?”

Showing up without notice and coming to see Sarang personally were both very unlike Bailey. Naturally, Sarang’s thoughts turned to Florian. Did something happen? No. I just saw a perfectly fine Florian on the news this morning.

“Please come in, Bailey.”

Sarang stepped aside and let Bailey inside. Bailey nodded in thanks and stepped in, hanging his coat, which he’d taken off at the entrance. Then, after changing his shoes for slippers, he followed Sarang. Despite not having lived in his home country for even half a year, Sarang had naturally learned and adopted several of its customs into his life. The slippers were in the same context.

“Would you like some black tea?”

“Warm tea would be even better.”

Sarang gestured for him to sit on the left side of the sofa, and inwardly smiled at Bailey’s characteristic reply as he headed to the kitchen. He had been living in the mansion Florian had gotten for him three years ago, when Sarang was seventeen. The staff living in Mansion Building 2 were still the same, and the fact that they looked after Sarang’s daily life was also the same. The only change, if any, was that an uninvited guest had barged in and taken up residence on the third floor.

“It was raining outside. You should have worn warmer clothes.”

The weather in Canton City in October was fickle, swinging wildly between late autumn and the dead of winter.

“I apologize for visiting without notice, Kim.”

“It’s okay. I was resting.”

In fact, after finishing all of his daily routines, Sarang had been lounging around on the sofa. Rest was as important as training, and Sarang had now completely settled into that lifestyle. He had been planning to go to bed in an hour, but Bailey had arrived at just the right time. It probably wasn’t a coincidence. Bailey was well aware of Sarang’s routine, which he had followed regularly since childhood.

“I want to ask for your help, Kim.”

Bailey spoke before Sarang, who had set down the warm tea, could even sit down. It was an urgent matter, and he had neither the thought nor the time to waste with British-style rhetoric. It hadn’t been an easy decision for Bailey to come here. Sarang, who was still staring at Bailey with his dark, clear eyes, nodded.

“Yes, please speak, Bailey.”

“It’s about the boss.”

“…”

Sarang’s face hardened noticeably as his guess proved correct. But instead of making a fuss or pressing him by asking what was wrong, Sarang waited for Bailey’s next words.

“The boss’s heat will start soon. No, it might start.”

“…What does that mean? Lahn’s cycle should be regular.”

The conversation flowed a bit more smoothly, speaking with someone who knew Florian personally even a little.

“The boss has had fourteen heats this year.”

That meant he had a heat once or twice every two months. For a moment, Sarang felt his heart drop. It was normal for a trait-holder to have a heat twice a year. It was still early October, but having had fourteen heats this year alone meant there was a problem with Florian’s pheromones.

“Yes, Kim. The boss is suffering from a serious pheromone problem.”

“…Florian looked very healthy.”

“He works very hard to appear that way.”

Florian, who frequently graced the business section of the news, looked a little tired but was as handsome as ever.

Bailey, who hadn’t touched his tea, took a tablet out of his bag. What he displayed was a non-disclosure agreement.

“This is an oath to keep secret what you learn after meeting me today, until the day you die. It has already been legally notarized. All you have to do is sign, Kim.”

It also sounded like a threat, that he wouldn’t say anything more about Florian if Sarang didn’t sign. Sarang felt a surge of anger, but he didn’t show it. This wasn’t a threat; it was the way of life for Bailey, and for Florian, whom he served as his boss. Sarang signed without even reading the document.

“Now, please tell me everything.”

Not expecting things to proceed this quickly, Bailey took a deep breath for a moment. No one knew about this except for the Doctor, Miller, and Bailey.

“The boss cannot remember anything that happens during his heat.”

A heat was a period when one’s reason became clouded by the instinct of reproductive desire, so having spotty or hazy memories was a phenomenon that happened to most trait-holders.

“What I mean is, once his heat starts and he loses his reason, he cannot remember anything at all until the final day.”

However, such a symptom was not common.

“It started two winters ago. He had already gone through all the heats he was supposed to have that year, but one day in December, a third heat suddenly began.”

It happened during a charity party where influential figures from all walks of life had gathered to celebrate Christmas. Florian, complaining of dizziness and feeling hot, had first asked Bailey to take him to the car.

Bailey, finally noticing Florian’s abnormal symptoms, led him to the parking lot as naturally as possible. Miller, who was sitting in the driver’s seat sucking on a candy and listening to old music, quickly noticed Florian’s condition.

“His heat began as soon as I got him into the back seat. I had to urgently find a partner, so I had to contact the second Alpha from that year again.”

It was the Alpha who had flaunted his kiss with Florian through the crack in the door, as if to mock Sarang.

“The heat lasted for fifteen days. Yes, that is a long time, Kim.”

A heat normally lasted for a week to ten days. If a heat continued for more than ten days for no reason, it meant there was a problem with the pheromones.

“The boss did not spend his heat with an Alpha in rut, nor did he overdose on suppressants.”

When an Alpha and an Omega whose cycles were aligned spent the night together, pregnancy was possible. An Alpha, being the very incarnation of reproductive desire, would not let an Omega go for fifteen days, let alone a month, and the Omega also could not escape the heat. Furthermore, it was common knowledge that overdosing on suppressants had a negative effect on one’s heat cycle and pheromones.

“And the boss,”

Bailey’s pale face showed his agitation as he struggled to continue. He soon regained his composure and spoke again.

“did not use his heat to enjoy a promiscuous sex life.”

There was no shortage of trait-holders who spent their heat with multiple partners instead of just one. But Florian had only ever spent his heat with one person since becoming an adult, and he didn’t change partners frequently. In fact, now that his pheromones had become unstable, the frequency of changing partners had increased. No, he was changing partners for almost every heat.

Now, nearly two years since the abnormal symptoms began, it had become difficult to even find new partners. As the number of heat partners increased, it also became harder to keep them quiet, and unsavory rumors were slowly starting to circulate. But for Bailey, those were issues to be dealt with later. Florian’s safety was his priority.

“Last summer, and again in April of this year, the boss took two long vacations.”

Sarang knew, as he had seen it on the news. When the news broke that the workaholic was taking consecutive long vacations, sweet rumors of a romance had begun to blossom. Sarang’s existence, which was maintained only in formality since he left Florian’s residence and was now practically a stranger to him, had long been excluded from Florian’s list of potential romantic partners.

“The boss spent both of his long vacations at the foundation’s hospital.”

“The hospital?”

Bailey’s nuance was strange. It sounded as if it wasn’t an admission due to a trait-holder characteristic like pheromones. Bailey, who had been biting his lip at Sarang’s pressing gaze, answered.

“Yes, he sustained injuries requiring more than four weeks of treatment both times.”

“Physically?”

“Yes, Kim.”

“You’re saying he was injured seriously enough to need more than four weeks of treatment?”

“Kim.”

Sarang’s eyes were fierce as he raised his voice in agitation. But he didn’t immediately lunge at Bailey or anything. Sarang had matured enough to control his emotions. Suddenly, Sarang’s gaze turned icy cold. As if affirming that intuition, Bailey opened his mouth.

“He was attacked by the partner Alpha during his heat.”

Thump—! A large fist slammed down on the table, and the glass cracked. Bailey didn’t bat an eye, but his expression and posture betrayed his anguish.

“It seems a rumor got out that the boss doesn’t remember what happens during his heat.”

“…”

“I failed to properly screen out an Alpha who snuck into the candidate pool to take advantage of that.”

During a heat, only Florian and his partner used the bedroom. The bedroom was stocked with food and water that could be consumed during the heat, and no one was allowed to intrude upon that space.

So, the Alpha who took advantage of that loophole not only treated Florian like a male prostitute throughout the heat but also subjected him to violence.