JADE 48

He didn’t even have the mental capacity to be puzzled by the sudden back hug. Just as he was seeing the River Jordan shimmer before his eyes, Kwon Joowan whispered.

“Instead, hold your breath, and then when your airway opens, cough.”

Only a wheezing sound, hweeeek, escaped. He was already suffocating to death, so how was he supposed to hold his breath even more? When he didn’t listen, Kwon Joowan hugged him a little tighter and explained calmly.

“If you try to breathe, your airway closes, and if you hold your breath, it opens. Just trust me.”

Even in his fear, he felt that it was difficult to go against Kwon Joowan’s words. Just like always.

As he did as he was told, Kwon Joowan timed his coughs, pressing on his torso and holding his waist to lower Jin Sejun’s head.

It was as if he was handling a choking child, but since they were two large adult men, the posture somehow ended up looking like doggy style. After coughing hard, the thing stuck in his airway came out, and Jin Sejun’s mind had returned enough for him to see his and Kwon Joowan’s predicament and have such a thought.

“Thanks for the advice, but what are you doing right now….”

“I was about to do the Heimlich maneuver… I’m glad it came out.”

It was still difficult to answer properly because he still had a lingering cough. Looking at Kwon Joowan, who remained calm throughout, Jin Sejun’s face grew hotter and hotter. Choking in front of Kwon Joowan was embarrassing enough, but the words he had been spouting before that were just humiliating.

“I, I made too much of a fuss.”

His voice was half gone from how hard he had been coughing. Regardless of how it looked, the thought that Kwon Joowan had saved him made his heart soften. Jin Sejun slipped out of Kwon Joowan’s embrace, washed his face, and rinsed his mouth. His eyes were teary from the urge to vomit, making for an unsightly appearance.

“But Mr. Sejun, do you have a cold? Your body temperature seems a bit high.”

Kwon Joowan, who was looking at Jin Sejun’s face through the mirror, asked in a slightly cracked voice, then added softly.

“You did say you were cold every time you slept.”

“Don’t tell me you were the one stacking towels for me every time?”

“I kept looking to see if there was a place to buy hot packs, but there wasn’t. We barely had any free time, either.”

“Ah….”

He had thought he’d brought them himself in his sleep since he was drunk every time he went to bed. And he’d thought he was a bit hot now because he’d been drinking.

Ah.

At the thought that suddenly struck him, Jin Sejun immediately spread his suitcase open next to the bed. He was in too much of a hurry to dwell on the fact that Kwon Joowan had been taking care of him every night.

Perhaps because they had talked and had physical contact the most during the trip, Kwon Joowan approached Jin Sejun instead of minding his own business as before.

“Wait, stay still. No, get away.”

Where were the suppressants? Something felt very strange. The closest thing he could compare it to was a foreign video where the water receded before a tsunami hit… yes, the calm before the storm.

He had thought his rut might hit in the middle of the trip, so he had been taking suppressants every day, but he didn’t think it would end with a mild, ticklish fever like before.

The moment his eyes met Kwon Joowan’s, who was standing his ground, he felt like he was looking at a huge wave that was already approaching.

The first thing that affects the rut cycle is another person’s pheromones. And one’s physical condition…. If those could affect the cycle, couldn’t they also affect the intensity? Pheromones were out of the question here, so it must be due to the environment where he had been consistently exposed to an unprecedented level of stress.

He had a strong premonition that the suppressants wouldn’t be of more than a certain degree of help. Realizing his own breath had become much hotter, Jin Sejun forcefully shoved Kwon Joowan.

“Get out, of here.”

But Kwon Joowan didn’t budge, as if his feet were nailed to the floor. Instead, he grabbed Jin Sejun’s arm as if to support him.

“There’s something you’ve misunderstood, Mr. Sejun.”

“What, no, let’s talk later….”

For the first time in his life, Jin Sejun thought that his patience and mental fortitude weren’t bad. After acting like such an expert on alphas, the beta bastard, who wouldn’t know another’s circumstances, tactlessly moved a little closer.

“I couldn’t say anything because I didn’t know which you would find more unpleasant… but the one Mr. Eun Garam is interested in isn’t me, it’s you, Mr. Sejun.”

“Why are you bringing up Eun Garam now? I don’t care if you two fuck or whatever, so get lost.”

“Mr. Garam was getting anxious because you didn’t seem interested. So it seems he tried to get close to me first, since I already knew you. Omegas like jealousy ploys and things like that, you know. So I thought if I suggested we do something like that, I might be able to keep Mr. Garam away from you….”

It was a long and rambling explanation, but he couldn’t understand it at all. While trying to pry Kwon Joowan’s fingers off his arm, Jin Sejun asked accusingly.

“What the hell are you talking about? Then why did you keep it a secret that you were going for drinks?”

“Just, because I didn’t want you to see him, Mr. Sejun.”

Kwon Joowan’s face was strangely close. His thoughts grew tangled and slow, similar to being drunk, yet very different.

So… it seemed he intended to keep Eun Garam away from an alpha who was panting, crazy for omegas. He had shown that he was in an incredibly bad mood when they were eating with An Saeha, too.

“Then you can just find an empty room with Eun Garam and spend the night together.”

“…Don’t make a slip of the tongue you’ll regret when you’re sober.”

“Ah fuck, seriously!”

Kwon Joowan’s words were strangely calm and sounded mature. If he had fought back like a child along with him, what Jin Sejun had been suppressing for about a week probably wouldn’t have burst out the moment he heard those words.

“If Eun Garam likes me, why are you stopping it? Why? Just why? It’s not our place to meddle in each other’s business, is it? You’ve been like this since Coach Hong, and I had no thoughts about Mr. An Saeha either, so why are you the only one making a fuss?”

It felt as if the latch that had been loosening ever since he realized something was wrong with his body had finally broken. The latch on the dam that upheld the lower limits of reason and decency.

“……”

The eyes he met up close were shimmering like a swamp with ink dissolved in it.

In any case, Kwon Joowan was a beta and had the ability to subdue Jin Sejun if he lost his mind, so nothing major would happen even if they were in the same room. As soon as Jin Sejun felt a degree of relief, he started spouting nonsense again as if he were drunk.

“No, I mean, I tried to become something, some kind of relationship, I kept, kept trying. But you kept pulling away, then you come close when you feel better on your own, then you push me away like a bastard all of a sudden. Are you determined to drive a person insane?”

“I’m sorry. I, I had my reasons, too. It’s a long story….”

Kwon Joowan, who had still been speaking calmly, stopped mid-sentence. The grip on his arm momentarily tightened, making Jin Sejun let out a short groan.

“Ugh.”

“Ah, no.”

No to what? As Jin Sejun questioned him internally, Kwon Joowan, whose face had turned pale, pushed away the arm he had been holding onto so tightly and staggered backward.

He wouldn’t leave when I told him to get lost, but now that he sees me whining and breaking down in this pathetic state, he’s just going to save himself? He said it was a long story, so is he running away again this time?

He had definitely tried to chase him out, but seeing him hem and haw for so long only to turn tail, he just didn’t want to let him go. When Jin Sejun threw himself at him to tackle him, Kwon Joowan, who had been reaching for the doorknob, collapsed with unbelievable weakness.

“Mr. Sejun… this.”

“What.”

The breath escaping from between Kwon Joowan’s lips was also heated. He really was handsomely-featured.

While on top of Kwon Joowan, Jin Sejun blankly watched his lips move, then, without realizing it, brought his own lips to them.

The moment he realized their sensitive flesh was pressing softly against each other, goosebumps rose on his back.

“Hut.”

The next moment, his whole body was constricted as if the air had grown heavy. Just as he thought Kwon Joowan’s eyes seemed to have sunken into pitch black, his collar was grabbed and he was flipped upside down.

A thick thigh entered between Jin Sejun’s legs as if to spread them, crushing his core, which had become half-hard without him even noticing.

“Ah, huck.”

It was a rough stimulation he had never felt before in his life. The moan that was about to escape was soon swallowed by Kwon Joowan’s lips. He was physically being pinned down, completely covered by Kwon Joowan’s body, but an unidentifiable pressure beyond that felt like it would drive him insane.

He was an alpha in heat, and since he had liked Kwon Joowan to begin with, he had initiated the kiss, but he couldn’t understand why Kwon Joowan was pouncing on him instead of throwing a punch or flinging him off.

To make matters worse, Kwon Joowan was vigorously grinding his own swollen lower body against Jin Sejun’s. Pinned between Kwon Joowan’s lower body and the floor, his body couldn’t move an inch as he felt the full process of their crushing genitals growing in volume and hardening.

Even considering that he had no real practical experience, Kwon Joowan’s kiss was quite rough. The moment he let out a gasp of, “Ah,” at the rubbing of their lips, a tongue pushed its way in with strong force. The tongue, which licked the inside of his mouth that had only ever enjoyed food and even swept over his teeth, had already made Jin Sejun lose his senses by the time it briefly pulled out.

“Hah, ah, crazy, hak.”

The urge to cum built up so steeply that it could no longer be stopped. While his whole body was hot, a chilling cold ran down his waist, making him want to run away. But as if he knew, whenever that happened, Kwon Joowan would use his entire body to press Jin Sejun down and pin him like a specimen.

Kwon Joowan didn’t stop at vigorously grinding their pressed genitals; he slid one hand into the space beneath Jin Sejun’s lower back. The large hand effortlessly grabbed and lifted Jin Sejun’s buttocks, then moved its hips as if to penetrate.

The thought that this was a rather strange thing for an alpha to be subjected to was swept away and disappeared in the rapids of pleasure. A low groan poured into his ear like a waterfall.

“Kwon… ah, haah. Fuck, ah.”

“Heok, heu… haah… euhp.”

Hearing the sound of other guests chatting as they passed by in the hallway, Jin Sejun, without a thought for his own groans, clapped a hand over Kwon Joowan’s mouth. Thwack.

The excitement that seemed to make even the roots of his hair tingle continued. Kwon Joowan, ignoring his tightly held jaw, stuck out his tongue as if it were the most natural thing in the world and licked Jin Sejun’s palm. It was a completely different, stickier movement from when Jin Sejun had licked his palm as a joke in the past.

Can the palm be an erogenous zone? He couldn’t endure any longer as it licked every corner of his palm, which had become damp with trapped hot breath, in a motion similar to how it had ravaged the inside of his mouth earlier. Removing his hand, Jin Sejun shuddered, rubbing his face hard against the nape of Kwon Joowan’s neck.