NAME 11

At 10 PM, Seowon remained in the office alone. An end was finally in sight for the work that felt like it would go on forever. It seemed the report would be finished within an hour. The problem was that Baek Kanghyun, who needed to review it, wasn’t there. If he was going to tell me to stay until it was done today, he should have stuck around, but he just left for the day on his own, that bad bastard…

Seowon glared as he faced the writing of the final chapter. I really just have to do this much more… just this! That’s how work usually is. It’s always harder when you’re almost there, when the goal is right before your eyes. They say even marathon runners find the last 100m the most difficult. That was exactly how Seowon felt right now.

“Ugh…”

The concentration he had maintained throughout the overtime collapsed in an instant. As Seowon tried to pull himself together and stretched his body out, his vision suddenly spun. His head throbbed as if needles were being driven into his temples, and heat flared up starting from his lower back and rising to the nape of his neck. Letting out a short groan, Seowon urgently pulled out a thermometer and put it in his mouth.

Right, the thermometer is broken.

But he could tell even without checking. Pheromones were spraying out like a fountain through the gaps in his disheveled shirt.

“I knew this would happen…”

Muttering softly, Seowon pressed his body as close to the chair as possible. Was it a relief that this happened while he was alone? He pulled out pheromone deodorizer and suppressants, then put them back. Since he was alone anyway, there was no need to worry about things like pheromones.

Scraping together his depleted concentration, he placed his hands on the keyboard. Even if he was burning with fever and leaking pheromones, he had to finish the report first. Once he was done, he could just send a KakaoTalk message to Baek Kanghyun or something.

“It’s really toughhh.”

He even added rhythm and pitch to his grumbling. His fingers had lost all strength, causing constant typos. The work was slow because he kept repeating the process of deleting and rewriting. His feverish head felt dizzy, and a slight nausea rose up. Even his vision was wavering significantly. His physical condition was deteriorating rapidly.

“Done.”

By the time he typed the last character and even pressed the save shortcut, Seowon was nearly out of his mind. As his fever rose sharply and his pheromones exploded, he became dazed like a drunken person.

Even while the whole world was spinning, Seowon utilized his instincts as a Korean office worker and succeeded in transmitting the ‘Final_MarketingReport.doc’ file to Baek Kanghyun. Having exhausted all his energy on clicking the send button, Seowon slumped into his chair and closed his eyes.

I have to go home, I can’t sleep at the office…

However, the instinct to return home could not overcome the desire to sleep. His head knew he had to leave the office before the security company person arrived, but his limbs wouldn’t budge. His breathing became increasingly labored with a wheezing sound, and a sweet scent continuously poured out from his slumped, thin body.

“Heuu…”

It was useless no matter what he tried, so he just closed his eyes. He hoped that if he slept for maybe 10 minutes, or even 20, he might gain enough strength to at least go home. His body, limp like jelly, sank into the chair.

“…”

He was barely breathing when he suddenly sensed a presence. In the midst of a confusion that felt like someone had opened his skull and stirred it with a whisk, Seowon half-opened his eyes. Entering his field of vision, which he couldn’t distinguish as a dream or reality, was the son of a bitch who had tormented him terribly today, Baek Kanghyun.

“Team Leader…”

“What are you doing right now?”

His agitated voice echoed. Wearing a deep frown, he stood glaring down at Seowon.

Is this a dream? Can a dream be this vivid? Seowon tried to rub his eyes but tumbled from the chair and collapsed onto the floor. Thanks to that, he regained some senses, but Seowon couldn’t move easily and squirmed like a slug caught in a spiderweb.

“Assistant Manager Jeong, are you protesting right now…?”

It was a voice full of anger. Was there a need to be that angry? What did I do so wrong? No matter how much he thought about it, today’s work was nothing more than Baek Kanghyun picking on him. His attitude, acting as if he was just waiting for Seowon to make a mistake, was resentful. It wasn’t even such an important task… no matter if I’m not his type. You bastard, you really are a bastard, Baek Kanghyun, he muttered.

Though to Baek Kanghyun, it only sounded like a groan.

“Uuu…”

His body was hauled upright. Seowon stayed still, harboring the crazy thought that he just wanted to lie down and sleep like this. His swaying body was caught firmly by someone. His entire body was limp like a mollusk. When he finally managed to lift his drooping eyelids, he saw Baek Kanghyun’s face right in front of him. Seowon barely managed to speak in broken syllables.

“I. Am. Done.”

“Can’t you do something about your pheromones? What on earth is this…”

“I said I’m done…”

While he was murmuring, an alluring scent wafted from Baek Kanghyun. It was thick and familiar. Where had he smelled this before? It felt like something similar happened not too long ago…

<Release some pheromones…>

Those were words he had said. Was the Alpha who came to the emergency stairs really Baek Kanghyun? Oh my god, no way. He didn’t want to be indebted to Baek Kanghyun of all people, but his body kept leaning toward him. But the pheromones…

“Pheromones, please…”

“Now… what?”

Completely forgetting that the person who had almost pounced on him in the emergency stairs was him, Seowon, consumed by instinct, grabbed and pulled him with all his might as he spoke loudly.

“Release, some, pheromones…”

Seowon frantically pulled whatever he had caught in his hands toward himself. Feeling something touch his forehead, he buried his nose there and took deep breaths. The clearly felt Alpha pheromones tightened around his mind dizzily. Seowon pestered the other person, muttering for him to please release more.

“Assistant Manager Jeong, why are you acting so loose… Just like last time…”

Baek Kanghyun’s voice echoed. Like a broken radio, Seowon just repeated for him to shut up and release pheromones. It didn’t seem like his Heat had come, but pheromones were leaking uncontrollably as if something deep inside his body had broken.

“This is driving me crazy. First, to the hospital…”

“I’m going crazy too, you know?”

He countered slurringly and put strength into his hands. He was dying of frustration because of the Alpha pheromones that were coming out in teasing amounts. Seowon, having completely forgotten the person was Baek Kanghyun, clung to him even more desperately. He rubbed his face and flickered his lips, telling him to hurry up and release them.

“…”

He felt his body being lifted up. He had no way of knowing if it was just a feeling or if he was actually being carried. What was certain was that it was more comfortable than when he was sprawled on the floor. His head spun as his body shook violently.

“Ugh…”

Moaning thinly, Seowon trembled. A chill had set in his feverish body. Irritation flared up at the person who wouldn’t listen to his demand to release pheromones.

His body still felt dizzy as if floating in the air, and the pain heating his body remained. Aaaah, he let out a pained sound and curled his body. In an instant, the swaying of his body stopped and a familiar voice was heard.

“Is it perhaps Heat…?”

“No, it’s not.”

Seowon struggled to answer. A sneer saying that he sure answered well flowed into his ear.

After a whirring mechanical sound, a bell rang. And his body, floating in the air, swayed slowly.

Suddenly, the surrounding air changed completely. He smelled damp, muggy air. Did the office air conditioning turn off? Seowon half-opened his eyes and looked around.

‘Where… is this?’

No matter how he looked at it, it didn’t seem to be the office. The space with a pitch-black ceiling and dim lighting had an atmosphere similar to the emergency stairs.

Click, the sound of a lock opening was heard. Seowon realized that he had just moved from a dark place into an even darker one. Through his blurred vision, he saw Baek Kanghyun. When he pulled something, the surroundings were engulfed in pitch-black darkness. Just where on earth was this place where he could see almost nothing? Seowon tried to open his eyes but gave up.

“Uuu…”

He hugged his upper body with both arms and curled up. It was somewhat bearable earlier, but it suddenly became too cold. He shuddered because something touching his back was so cold. It was cold and hard just like a car seat, which was really…

A car… you say?

The moment he recognized that this might be inside a car, his eyes opened even just a little. In the center of his thin and long field of vision, Baek Kanghyun was getting closer and closer.

“First, to the hospital…?”

He was blathering something again. Seowon had no inkling as to why he was shoving his face toward him and just muttered pheromones, pheromones. Soon, hot air moved up and down over his face. He heard something about a hospital, but what Seowon needed right now wasn’t something like a hospital.

“Release, pheromones…”

After speaking with his last bit of strength, he felt something brush against his lips and hurriedly opened his mouth. And a moment later, a soft piece of flesh pushed into his parted lips.

“Uung…”

The soaking wet flesh was heavily steeped in pheromones. It was the Alpha pheromones Seowon had been craving so much. His mouth opened naturally and he stuck out his tongue. Seowon, whose body temperature had reached nearly 39°C, accepted the tongue that pushed into his mouth without hesitation.

Their mouths overlapped without a gap and even his nose was half-crushed, but instead of being suffocating, it was refreshing. The Alpha pheromones filling the car soaked into Seowon’s skin. His whole body prickled as if he had been doused in carbonated water, but it didn’t hurt. Feeling like he could finally live, he began to cling even more desperately to the source of the pheromones.

“Assistant Manager Jeong, you…”

Without even giving the man a gap to speak, Seowon thrust his tongue into the hot cave of the mouth on his own.