PAO 72

“No. Absolutely not.”

He hadn’t answered right away only because he was flustered; Seowon gave the answer that had been decided from the start.

He felt sorry for Lee Changho, but he didn’t have the confidence to take off his clothes and throw himself at him like he did with Junghoo. And that wasn’t all. He had accepted the arousal that surged every time he smelled Junghoo’s pheromones without suppressing it and had sex, but to do that with someone else…

“I can’t do it.”

Changho, I’m sorry. It’s not that I don’t like you, but I’ve just never thought of you as more than a friend.

“Yes. That’s how much you must cherish Junghoo.”

Han Soochul put down his now-empty cup.

“If you had been forced to agree to the treatment simply because Junghoo was in danger, I was planning to stop you. Since that’s not the case, I won’t say anything more. You’ve done well.”

“Uh… Yes.”

He couldn’t refute anything his father said. So as he nodded blankly, Han Soochul stood up, patted his shoulder, and went into his room.

“I approve.”

Before the door closed, at the abrupt permission given, Seowon stammered.

“Ah, Father. Wait a minute.”

He reached out a hand to try and stop him, but the door was already closed.

Lowering the hand he had stretched toward the door, Seowon recalled the conversation they had just had. It wasn’t a particularly fast-paced conversation, but it felt strangely like it had ended quickly. Or perhaps he felt that way because the intermediate steps had been skipped.

Left alone, Seowon gulped down his coffee and muttered to himself in a low voice.

“I guess I liked Junghoo a lot more than I thought.”

He mumbled as if he had newly discovered a fact he had already known.

While Junghoo was at the villa, Yoo Younghan had finished all the preparations for the examination. That meant he had moved the necessary equipment to the hospital where Yoo Taeha was, so that Junghoo wouldn’t have to go far.

Sung Hangyeol watched Junghoo’s examination with his arms crossed. Even though he could see the data being input in real time, Sung Hangyeol’s expression didn’t improve in the slightest.

He remained stiff the entire time, and in between, he would occasionally run a hand through his hair as if frustrated. Unable to watch any longer, Yoo Taeha approached him.

“Frowning like that won’t change anything, sunbae-nim.”

Since this was the hospital where Yoo Taeha worked, Sung Hangyeol could only observe.

“Taeha.”

“Yes.”

“I met Yoo Junghoo a little while ago.”

Yoo Taeha was about to say something like, ‘You’re looking at him right now,’ but missed the chance as he had to answer another doctor’s question. In the meantime, Sung Hangyeol’s expression didn’t change a bit, even as he looked at the confusing numbers on the monitor.

“It wasn’t even a meeting. My feet wouldn’t leave, so I kept staying below the villa.”

“Ah, yes. I saw you sometimes. Loitering on the street.”

Yoo Taeha replied calmly, as if it weren’t surprising at all. It bothered him that he had used the word ‘loitering’ to a sunbae he usually found difficult, without feeling anything, but Sung Hangyeol didn’t pick a fight.

“Then I ran into Junghoo. Not quite like fate, but someone connected us.”

Yoo Taeha, who immediately understood that ‘someone’ was Seowon, likewise looked at Junghoo, who was being tested. His condition, at least on the surface, was stable.

Even though his pheromones were increasing compared to before, he wasn’t in agony, and the amount of pheromones didn’t explode unexpectedly.

“Sitting side by side with Junghoo, wow, I thought, so this is a dominant alpha. Being with a dominant who has no problems, I felt a subtle pressure.”

At Sung Hangyeol’s words, recalling that time, Yoo Taeha took his eyes off Junghoo and looked back at him.

“Wasn’t there always a subtle pressure?”

That kid has the aura of a psycho, so just being with him is burdensome.

Yoo Taeha looked at him with a puzzled face, then belatedly realized why Sung Hangyeol hadn’t felt it. Come to think of it, Sung Hangyeol probably had never mentioned Seowon to Junghoo. So, dealing with a Yoo Junghoo without Han Seowon, he must have been conversing with a dazed kid. He was roughly understanding it as having eaten a steamed bun without filling and now finding it has filling, when Sung Hangyeol muttered with a serious face.

“Do you know what the biggest change is? It doesn’t end with just a warning.”

“Ah, that’s right. I heard he was going to meet a lawyer…”

As Yoo Taeha replied nonchalantly, Sung Hangyeol let out a deep sigh. When he was kicked out of the villa, he had only received a warning, but when they met later, it wasn’t a simple warning.

“He told me not to talk to him when he’s with Seowon. He said that to him, every single minute and second with Seowon is precious. I got what I deserved for ignoring that.”

“Ah…”

It was such an incredibly, crazily unsurprising statement that Yoo Taeha couldn’t react at all. And here I thought he was going to say something really amazing. In the first place, if it hadn’t been related to Seowon, he wouldn’t have even called a lawyer. Knowing that, he didn’t even feel sorry for Sung Hangyeol.

“Sunbae-nim, Junghoo likes Seowon a lot.”

“I know.”

He probably wasn’t completely unaware of Seowon’s existence. As expected, Sung Hangyeol nodded, so Yoo Taeha added a little more explanation.

“How much does he like Seowon? When Seowon eats cheesecake, he melts it, and when he eats strawberry cake, he adjusts the ratio of strawberry, cream, and bread to a certain combination…”

Sung Hangyeol frowned. He was probably wondering, what’s with the cake in this situation.

“Junghoo talks about it so much that both I and my uncle know.”

It meant he liked Seowon so much that we all shared Seowon’s preferences.

“So, uh… unless you’re like a shadow when you’re with Seowon, Junghoo won’t like it.”

“A shadow?”

“Or being a cook or a chauffeur is fine too.”

Then he wouldn’t express his displeasure about being together.

“I think I kind of know that feeling.”

Sung Hangyeol, feeling like he’d experienced something like that once, murmured, “The sea…”

“Well, anyway, I hope you resolve it well.”

That was all Yoo Taeha could say to Sung Hangyeol.

Junghoo was somewhere between consciousness and unconsciousness. Even as that line blurred, the one who appeared clearly was Seowon.

It was something his fantasy had created, but it didn’t matter. He reached out and cupped his cheek, and Seowon closed his eyes and tilted his head, leaning against his hand.

<Your hand feels good.>

At the words spoken with a sweet breath, Junghoo’s heart grew hot. He could touch him to his heart’s content. Now he didn’t have to just think about wanting to see him. He didn’t have to just miss him.

<I love you.>

So he offered the confession that surged up in him.

<What. Is that all you have to say?>

He was speaking bluntly as usual, but he was smiling. He was secretly pleased with his confession.

<I love you. You’re my sky. I really like you. I like you.>

There was so much to say. They were words he had suppressed and suppressed, barely managing to swallow them down, every time he saw Seowon. He liked Seowon that much, and being with him made his heart burn.

It was hot.

Just confessing to Seowon the things he couldn’t say made everything so hot that his brain felt like it would melt.

<I really like you. I love you, Seowon.>

The last thing to be engraved on his melting brain was Seowon.

Beep-beep, an unnatural mechanical sound rang out. Not only Yoo Taeha but also Sung Hangyeol did not miss the small sound.

“What. What’s going on. Why are the numbers suddenly spiking.”

As soon as Sung Hangyeol discovered the graph had risen noticeably, he went to the computer and grabbed the mouse. Yoo Taeha stuck to the window and watched Junghoo. His whole body was trembling intermittently.

“Yoo Junghoo.”

Seeing that, Yoo Taeha rushed into the examination room, then quickly covered his nose and mouth with his arm and stepped back.

“The pheromones…”

Yoo Taeha muttered with bewildered eyes, feeling the pheromones explosively increasing from Junghoo’s body.

It was just like before. The pheromones that had been raging before being suppressed by injections were now attacking not only Yoo Taeha but also Junghoo.

“What on earth happened.”

‘If I were healthy, I would have confessed to Seowon countless times.’

Junghoo’s words, that he couldn’t date Seowon because he couldn’t be sure of his own condition, suddenly came to mind.

He woke his dazed mind with coffee.

His father had gone to work, and he couldn’t get used to the quiet atmosphere of the house, so he killed time by drinking coffee. The mere fact of being alone and not with someone made this time of doing nothing feel unfamiliar.