PAO 45

Stepping into the entryway, Seowon set down the Boston bag and looked around inside.

“Not a single thing has changed.”

Not only was the fireplace, which had been as big as my own body when I was little, still there, but so was the rug that Junghoo and I used to roll around on the most. The leather sofa the adults often sat on looked as if someone might lay their weary body down on it at any moment. It was as if time had stopped only in this place; not a single thing deviated from my memory.

After looking around a little more, I felt a tightness in my chest and rubbed it in a circular motion.

“Are you okay?”

At Junghoo’s worried question as he came up beside me, Seowon took a deep breath and then held it. Turning his head away so Junghoo wouldn’t notice anything was wrong, Seowon exhaled and forced a casual tone as he spoke.

“I’m thirsty.”

“I’ll get you some water.”

“I don’t want water, I want coffee. A shot and a half, iced, but with little ice. But it shouldn’t be all melted. A cup with a handle, please.”

Only after Seowon laid out his strict conditions did Junghoo seem to believe he was okay, and he went into the kitchen without a word of complaint.

Left alone, Seowon checked to see if Junghoo was coming out or not, then hurriedly opened the floor-to-ceiling window and released his pheromones. He was letting out his own pheromones, which were surging in response to Junghoo’s.

“I was fine just a moment ago, but I let my guard down for a second.”

‘I’m an omega. An omega who doesn’t feel repulsed by an alpha’s pheromones. On top of that, I’m a dominant, so this level of pheromones is just… like a faintly noticeable perfume.’

He had said it to reassure Junghoo, but in truth, that wasn’t the case. It wasn’t that his pheromones had a negative effect on me. Since I was an omega, I didn’t dislike an alpha’s pheromones. The problem, however, was the arousal that inevitably followed. Just when I’d let my guard down, thinking I had it under control, Junghoo approached, and I ended up inhaling a lungful of his pheromones.

“At this rate, I’m going to get caught one of these days, aren’t I?”

Seowon muttered, looking down between his legs.

Junghoo, who had entered the kitchen, glared at Yoo Taeha, who was already there. Yoo Taeha, who was in the middle of brewing coffee, spoke without even looking at Junghoo.

“You’re going to stare a hole through someone’s face.”

“What happened.”

As soon as he was away from Seowon, he revealed his true nature without hesitation.

“Shouldn’t you start by saying thank you for driving all the way here?”

“If we hadn’t come here in the first place, you wouldn’t have had to go to the trouble.”

“You’ve got a point. That would have been nice…”

Yoo Taeha muttered, looking at the coffee. He swallowed his cynical feeling of ‘why am I going through all this trouble?’ along with his coffee.

“Putting me aside, why are you asking what happened? I thought Seowon explained everything earlier. Have your pheromones already eaten your brain or something?”

Yoo Taeha looked at Junghoo’s forehead, tilted his head, and then frowned. Covering his nose and mouth, Yoo Taeha backed away and spoke, aghast.

“Why are you releasing so many pheromones.”

“Maybe my brain’s been eaten, so I can’t control them.”

Judging by the way Junghoo scoffed as he spoke, it was clear he was releasing his pheromones on purpose. The dominant alpha’s pheromones pressed down on Yoo Taeha’s shoulders. Since a fellow alpha’s pheromones signaled caution and threat, Yoo Taeha surrendered.

“Seowon contacted me. He said he had to go to the vacation house and asked me to drive.”

Contrary to the resentful way he looked at his cousin, Yoo Taeha explained the situation obediently.

“He also informed me that he’d already gotten permission for the vacation house from my uncle over the phone, so we could leave right away.”

The fact that permission had been granted meant that the owner of the vacation house, Yoo Younghan, had told him to do so, which made Yoo Taeha stare intently at Junghoo.

“While Seowon was getting permission from your father, what were you doing?”

In response to the subtle rebuke asking why he, the son, knew nothing, Junghoo increased the concentration of his pheromones. Because of that, Yoo Taeha, repulsed, covered his nose and spat out a complaint in a nasal voice.

“You’ve been dying to lock them up all this time, so why do you keep letting them out?”

“Because it’s just you, hyung.”

And he muttered the extremely simple reason that Yoo Taeha hated it whenever he released his pheromones.

“I’m the easiest one to pick on.”

Yoo Taeha clicked his tongue and glared at Junghoo. He took out the cup Seowon would drink from, wiped it meticulously, and brewed the coffee. Watching him even pick out only the pretty ice cubes without any cracked ones was truly…

“Be honest with me.”

Unable to watch any longer, Yoo Taeha spoke up.

“Do you think Seowon will accept you if you obsess like that?”

Frankly, in his eyes, his cousin was not normal. The blind affection for Seowon was an obsession that a normal human being could not possibly have.

“When Seowon is in front of my eyes, I don’t have the luxury to judge things like that.”

“And when he’s not in front of your eyes?”

“I don’t have time to think about anything else because I’m thinking about him.”

“Fine, you’re so great.”

There was nothing more to say to someone who claimed his obsession wasn’t calculated. Yoo Taeha turned halfway away from him and continued to drink his coffee.

“Did Seowon say how long he’s staying?”

“He didn’t say anything like that. And I also got the call this morning and hurriedly handed over my hospital duties and came here.”

“You’re no different from a well-behaved dog.”

At Junghoo’s remark, Yoo Taeha froze, still holding his coffee. Do I want to be like this? It was all because he’d wronged Seowon thanks to Yoo Junghoo and was now compromised. It was upsetting enough to be in a position where he had to come when called and go when told, but to have it compared to being a dog was the most unfair thing in the world.

“Junghoo, is the coffee not ready yet?”

“It’s ready.”

At Seowon’s loud voice coming from the living room, Junghoo hurriedly took the coffee and went out.

“Aren’t you the well-behaved dog?”

Left alone, Yoo Taeha let out a deep sigh. How did he end up being treated like this?

‘To create a place for Junghoo to release his pheromones.’

Recalling the reason Seowon wanted to go to the vacation house, Yoo Taeha picked up his coffee, in which the ice had completely melted.

“Fine, I’ll do it all.”

As a driver, a personal physician, and a messenger…

The dreamlike atmosphere of Seowon gazing outside through the floor-to-ceiling window made Junghoo stop walking automatically. It was the raw Han Seowon, not disgusted or wary of my antics. As if he wasn’t dealing with anyone, but was alone in the world, Seowon looked outside with a blank expression.

And now, Seowon’s face as he looked at the sky was transiently tasteless. Because it was an expression not often seen, Junghoo couldn’t take his eyes off Seowon.

Sensing Junghoo’s presence, Seowon turned his head and met his eyes. He had been like that in the car earlier, too. Even while sensing the pheromones I couldn’t control and was emitting, he didn’t avoid my gaze. Instead, he tried to meet my eyes even more.

He had said that he wouldn’t avoid them because of the pheromones and had made me aware that he was an omega. Thanks to his efforts to reassure me like that, my anxious heart calmed down a little.

Since I was caught looking at Seowon, I stopped just watching and approached him. And as I was about to give him the coffee, my whole body froze as I sensed an omega’s pheromones.

It was the scent I had smelled before. The sweet pheromones I had smelled in Seowon’s hair and that had clung to his body made my fingertips twitch. The pheromones that I had berated myself for getting excited over, thinking they belonged to someone else…

“How are my pheromones?”

They were coming from Seowon.

“This…”

“Haven’t you smelled it a few times, so you should know?”

Seowon took the coffee and sat on the bare floor. He sat cross-legged and drank his coffee, but he didn’t retract his pheromones.

“I can’t keep them completely locked up either. So when you asked me to live with you…”

Recalling the day he moved into Junghoo’s house, Seowon shook his head. It seemed the tension from that time was still vivid in his mind.

“I thought you might find out I was an omega.”

“I thought you were trying to avoid me because you hated me.”

I just figured he was being wary because I had suddenly come on so strong. Seeing Junghoo’s bitter smile, Seowon looked up at him with eyes full of mischief.

“Do you have any idea how much I freaked out every time you smelled my pheromones?”

Saying he could finally talk about it, Seowon’s body shook with laughter as he held his coffee.

“The first day, when I came out after showering, you asked me if I used a sweet-scented shampoo. I was so anxious then, thinking you’d find out.”

Junghoo smelled the pheromones clinging to Seowon’s soft, fluttering hair. It had been this sweet back then, too, when he came out of the shower.

“Come sit here.”

As Seowon muttered, looking outside again, Junghoo also sat down next to him with a much softer expression. The chill rising from the bare floor cooled the summer heat.

“Look over there.”

When Junghoo obediently turned his head and looked ahead, a clear sky and a green forest greeted him.

“It’s hard to come to the vacation house even once, but once you’re here, it’s really nice.”

It was a magnificent view that made the complaint about it being built in a remote place completely disappear. After gazing at the forest for a while, Seowon turned his head halfway and rested his face on his knees.

“When was the other time I mentioned my pheromones.”

The conversation about pheromones started again… it was a peaceful time.

The red sunlight coming through the window covered Junghoo’s body. Summer in the mountains is ever-changing. If the summer in the city is a monotonous rise in heat, in the mountains, when the sun sets, the heat retreats with it.

Seowon covered the body of Junghoo, who had fallen asleep while they were talking, with a blanket. He was patting his shoulder a couple of times and looking at his tightly closed eyelids.

“Is Junghoo asleep?”

At the words of Yoo Taeha, who was coming down from the second floor and had spotted Junghoo, Seowon put a finger to his lips. He checked Junghoo’s face to see if he had woken up, then let out a faint sigh.

“He must have been tired. At some point, he stopped talking and fell asleep.”

Seowon and Yoo Taeha were the ones who had been moving since dawn, but the one who shouldn’t overexert himself was Junghoo. He had acted as if nothing was wrong until now, but it seemed he couldn’t fight off the overwhelming sleepiness.

Yoo Taeha came down, sat on a nearby sofa, and looked down at his cousin.

“He’s sleeping well.”

“I know, right?”

Seowon brushed away the hair that had fallen onto Junghoo’s forehead. Junghoo, when sleeping at home, often frowned. But now, his face was more peaceful than ever.

“Your pheromones must be putting Junghoo at ease.”

At Yoo Taeha’s words, spoken after sensing the pheromones floating in the air, Seowon did not deny it. Now that there was no need to hide that I was an omega, I let them out openly. When I did, Junghoo’s face gradually relaxed, and he fell asleep.

“Your pheromones might work for now, but I’m worried about the future. Calming him down once or twice like this won’t…”

“It hasn’t been just once or twice.”