SPW 44

He doesn’t expect me to play nanny here for the rest of my life, does he? The desire to book a ticket and rush to the scene right now welled up, but Allen held it back. The reason Florian kept Allen as a nanny, despite being on awkward terms with his own sponsor, was because of Kaia.

The conflict with Kaia, which had been dragging on for two years, was like a time bomb that could go off at any moment. That persistent old man, Matthew Kaia, would surely try to pay Florian back for the blow he had taken, and that pervert, Simon Kaia, had to possess any prey he set his sights on, even if the sky were to fall.

Allen, who was irritably running his hands through his hair, answered the phone.

“How’s the boss?”

He’s not up yet. What about the little kid?

“Shit, he’s got no omega and he hasn’t taken an inhibitor, but his heat has already arrived.”

He must have been affected by the boss.

“‘Must have been’? Are you taking it easy? Don’t you know the boss will lose his mind if anything happens to that kid’s safety?”

You have to solve it. Take this opportunity to earn your weekly pay.

Allen, who was about to hurl a string of curses at Miller for hanging up so abruptly without a goodbye, whipped his head around to look outside.

“Allen. It’s been a while.”

The owner of the presence that had been loitering near the entrance was the lawyer, Neil. Neil, who had opened the door and come in on his own, greeted him with an awkward face.

Ha, what a bunch of annoying people.

“What do you mean, ‘it’s been a while,’ got dementia? Don’t you even remember seeing me the day before yesterday?”

“Haha.”

Neil, who laughed good-naturedly in front of Allen’s irritated response due to a bad feeling, followed him toward Mansion Building 2.

☀️

It was a comfort he had not felt in a long time.

Florian, who had woken to the sound of the downpour turning to hail, stared up at the ceiling canopy for a long while. It was truly the first time in a long time that he had woken up without pain. When he turned his head, half of his face was buried in the pillow. A sweet vanilla scent came from the pillow. No, it was a scent that had seeped into Florian’s body, not the pillow.

“…”

Florian let out a sigh and rested the back of his arm on his forehead.

The bedroom had been cleaned and tidied up. He did not know how out of his mind he had been, but it seemed enough time had passed for the traces of his heat to be completely cleaned away.

Bailey. That man, who never hesitated at insubordination, must have acted on his own again this time.

And he must have swapped the inhibitor with a fake one, too.

And Sarang.

“…”

Persuading Sarang would have been no trouble for a seasoned fox like Bailey.

Florian felt calm rather than angry. He had thought he was managing his condition well, but he was not. His head, which had always felt heavy, had become light, and he could feel that his nerves, which had been on edge, had loosened.

「Rian, I Sarang you.」

The lonely confession written in the notebook left as Sarang’s memento came to mind.

Florian, now faced with the situation he most wanted to avoid, was lost in thought. He returned to the fundamental question of what the dream’s identity was. The common term, a premonition, was the closest. Florian, who had never even been interested in premonitions and thus had never considered whether he believed in them or not, pushed himself up into a sitting position.

Whenever his head was about to throb, the vanilla scent remaining on Florian’s body calmed him. It felt as if he were being warmly caressed at his bedside. Even though the owner of the vanilla scent himself had only cold fingertips.

Sitting up, the bedroom, which was clean to an excessive degree, came into better view. Even if the bedding was changed, his body was washed clean, and the windows were thrown wide open and purifiers sprayed everywhere, the pheromones of the alpha he had spent his heat with would remain on Florian’s body for a while.

It was not common. It was a phenomenon that only appeared in omegas with exceptionally superior traits, even among dominants. However, because it was a very rare characteristic, it was only covered briefly in advanced courses. On top of that, the higher the compatibility rate, the thicker the concentration of the pheromones left on the body, and the longer they lasted.

The only one who could sense it was Florian himself. About a day after the heat ended, others could neither feel nor smell the alpha’s pheromones remaining on Florian’s body. Seeing as it was not included in the curriculum or in any thesis, this too was not a universal phenomenon.

Florian did not tell anyone this information, which could be either his weakness or his advantage. Bailey, being a beta, would not know, and Sarang, who would have no experience spending a heat with an omega, would know even less. Until he began to experience problems with his pheromones, this trait had not been a problem for Florian either.

Florian had to carry the alpha’s pheromones, which most omegas could shake off in a day, for as long as five days. Through several heat cycles, Florian found out a few things.

The higher the compatibility rate, the longer the concentration and duration. However, the pheromones of a recessive alpha could not leave any trace on Florian, regardless of the compatibility rate. This was the reason he had been able to maintain a long partnership with a recessive alpha with whom he had a 97% compatibility rate.

Anything below 60% disappeared in two days. That much was within the range Florian could control. Moreover, it was difficult to find an alpha with a compatibility rate of over 60%. But, from the moment he started having problems with his pheromones, everything changed. Regardless of his compatibility rate with the alphas he spent his heat with, their pheromones lingered on Florian for a long time. The sickening and oppressive pheromones would try to press down on Florian for as long as a week.

Every alpha he had spent his heat with for the past two years had been like that.

“…”

Florian tried to understand this phenomenon.

A preceding dream. A similar situation that somehow occurs in reality. Even in an unsettling situation, Florian did his best to create a good outcome. Unlike the Florian in the dream, he took care of Sarang safely and tried to give him just a guardian’s amount of affection, and tried to receive only that much in return. Just enough for an adult dealing with a child.

As if to mock Florian’s complacency, that day at the end of spring arrived.

The eighteen-year-old Kim Sarang, who had hesitated for a long while, breathing shallowly in front of him. Florian opened his eyes before the trembling kiss of Kim Sarang, who had just turned eighteen, could reach him. Even while looking clearly into Sarang’s pitch-black eyes, which were slowly being hurt by the clear rejection, Florian gave him no room for hope.

‘Rian.’

‘Yes, Sarang.’

‘I’m an adult now.’

‘Congratulations, Sarang.’

‘I want to move out.’

‘Alright, Sarang.’

Those feelings did not disappear just by keeping a distance. Florian piled up, piece by piece, in Sarang’s heart. While Florian did not know, while Florian was taking his time drawing a line, Sarang was steadily accumulating small, precious feelings in his heart. Until, in the end, they snowballed.

Even that was just like Sarang. Florian, with a bitter smile, started to get out of bed but then froze. His body, which he had glanced down at without thinking, was clean. The body that must have been rolling around with an alpha for a fortnight was smooth, without a single bruise. It was a sign of being cherished and handled with care.

Florian must have come on to him fiercely after entering his heat. It was a trace of Sarang not wanting to leave even the slightest scratch. The image of Sarang, who must have healed the minor wounds by kissing his unconscious body all over and releasing his pheromones, was automatically drawn in his mind. The reason why the vanilla scent remained particularly strong.

“…”

Florian, who had been silently looking down at his body, leaned his head against the wall just like that.

If Sarang did not Sarang Florian, the tragedy in the dream would not happen. What a one-dimensional thought that was. Sarang not loving Florian. It was not just for Sarang’s sake. Florian did not want to feel that sadness again, the pain of sorrow and regret that had gently pierced his mind and heart, which he had felt before waking from the dream.

Did Sarang cry on that last day of spring?

“…”

His pitch-black eyes, wet with moisture, had glistened like jewels.

Florian blinked, pretending not to see. Even in that moment, he did not avoid Sarang’s eyes and quietly conveyed his rejection, feigning ignorance of his feelings.

Should I turn my head away now, pretending not to see? When Sarang has already come to Sarang me.

「Rian, I Sarang you.」

Perhaps it was meant to be this way in the end.

His eyelids drooped, and his golden lashes cast a shadow below the corners of his eyes.

He looked back on the minor incidents of the past two years.

After Sarang moved out, Florian tried not to be directly involved with Sarang. When he completely entrusted legal representation to Neil, Sarang suffered a finger fracture during training. When he delegated following up on news about Sarang to Bailey instead of doing it himself, Sarang suffered bruises all over his body in a minor fender bender.

Until then, he had dismissed it as a coincidence. But as similar things happened several times, Florian had no choice but to admit it. Every time Florian tried to sever a connection with Sarang, Sarang got hurt. And, as if in punishment for it, Florian’s pheromones began to become unstable.