TRIPLE 34

The moment I muttered the unfamiliar name, something in the back of my mind felt strangely caught. It felt like I had grasped a key clue, but because the connections weren’t forming, I felt frustrated to the point where my mouth went dry and my palms started to sweat.

Siyeon immediately turned to the next page. But… for some reason, two pages in the middle were missing.

“What the…”

Siyeon checked the numbers at the ends of the pages just in case. Seeing that the numbering skipped, it was clear that the pages hadn’t been missing from the start. Someone had torn them out on purpose.

Seong Wonjin. Nagwon-dong. And the two missing documents. Siyeon stared silently at the empty space.

‘What was written there?’

Who exactly was it, and what kind of information were they trying to hide?

It was time to find that out. Or so I had thought….

“Ah, I don’t know!”

But no matter how much I racked my brain and spent time on it, I didn’t find anything else. It felt like I had grabbed something similar to a clue within the documents, but it was difficult to figure out their identity with just those fragments. If only I could search freely….

Well, today isn’t the only day, so I chose to wrap it up for now.

∞ ∞ ∞

“It’s hot. No, am I cold?”

It had been ever since I came out after being holed up in the archive for a long time. My physical condition, which had been stabilized for a while thanks to the Alpha’s pheromones, was in a strange state.

At first, I thought it was simple fatigue. It could have been because I had been going in and out of the archive for days and getting covered in dust, or it could have been the result of days of not being able to sleep deeply piling up.

But because my condition plummeted in a single moment, I had no choice but to admit that there was a problem. Not only was I running a fever, but my nerves were frayed by the slightest friction of fabric brushing against me, and every time I inhaled, more scents than necessary flooded in.

All my senses were hyper-sensitive, yet at the same time, blurred by the heat. You ask what kind of nonsense that is? There was no way to explain it precisely. The back of my throat was parched from the complex sensations that were that difficult to express.

“…Haa.”

Exhaling a short breath, Siyeon slumped onto the sofa as if leaning his body against it. On one side of the table lay the chocolate milk pack I’d been drinking earlier and a half-torn bag of jelly.

For a few days now, the blanket that Siyeon had dragged down to the sofa in the living room had been left draped over it casually.

At this point, it didn’t feel like a mansion, but as if I were secretly squatting in someone else’s living room. Siyeon chewed on the remaining jelly and narrowed his brows.

‘This is really strange.’

Even though I’d received even denser pheromones from Beom Yisu than usual today, my condition was actually worse. It wasn’t like a full-blown heat where my fever went out of control, but my insides kept churning even when I rested.

Siyeon looked down at his wrist out of habit.

“What the?”

The band was dead, glowing with a gray light.

Even the light that had been faintly flickering until just a moment ago was completely off. Siyeon tapped the sensor with his fingertip a few times. There was still no particular reaction.

“Did the battery die, by any chance?”

Siyeon took the band off and connected it to the charger. A moment later, with a beep, the screen flickered and regained its light.

It makes people nervous for no reason. I felt relieved, but at the same time, I strangely felt my energy drain away. I felt like I had been sensitive all on my own for no reason. Siyeon pressed his heated cheeks with his palms.

There was still nearly a week left until Chae Yoonoh returned. That meant I couldn’t go to the hospital with peace of mind until then.

It wasn’t that there was no way to solve this physical state at all. As for the simplest method, there was a high possibility it would subside much faster than now if I received a checkup from Beomyeong’s private doctor or received a “pheromone shower” from Beom Yisu.

The problem was….

‘I hate it to death to be the one to ask first.’

Siyeon swallowed a low curse. I hated showing weakness to that man even more. Even if we had a contractual relationship, I felt like if I started relying on Beom Yisu continuously, it would become natural at some point.

It would be comfortable right now, but what was I going to do later? For instance, when the moment came to leave this mansion and become truly free, I didn’t want to be tamed by Alpha pheromones.

Tap-tap.

Just as Siyeon was pondering while gauging his own physical state, careful footsteps stopped at the entrance of the living room.

I thought it might be Mrs. Park, but it wasn’t. It was the young servant who had broken a glass bottle in the kitchen the other day. Jeong-hee, was it? I had no way of knowing how long she had been there. I wondered if I should ask how her cut hand was, but I didn’t think a very good reaction would come back.

Siyeon just rolled his eyes while draped half-limply over the sofa. As soon as the servant discovered Siyeon, she flinched slightly. The way she bowed her head deeply made her look like someone who had committed a crime.

“…S-sorry!”

Why is she apologizing? Siyeon frowned for a moment. I hadn’t even spoken to her. Since I was used to being treated like a ghost, I didn’t give any particular response, so the servant disappeared to the end of the hallway immediately. But it was strange.

Right before the servant passed by, it seemed her gaze had lingered on me very briefly, as if checking something. In that moment.

Zzzzt—

The ceiling light flickered briefly.

“…What’s that?”

Siyeon lifted his head reflexively.

It was only for a split second, but the entire living room light had darkened. A power outage? Or did a problem arise with the electrical side?

Just as I was thinking it was unexpected since a grand mansion like this should have thorough maintenance, the lights came back on, fortunately as if it were nothing.

However, since I was more concerned about my physical condition, I quickly cast the interest aside.

As I brushed it off as nothing and looked toward the direction where the servant had disappeared, I discovered a large bouquet of flowers sitting on the table in a spot that had clearly been empty until earlier.

“What’s that again?”

Did that servant leave it behind?

Siyeon slowly raised his body and went in front of the bouquet as if possessed. The raw scent of the watery stems and the unique green smell of freshly snapped leaves.

The bouquet, unbefitting the mansion, was composed of various modest flowers in a simple style. It was rugged, as if they had been picked and gathered from a field just as they were.

However, it was difficult to erase the feeling that even that naturalness was thoroughly calculated. Like a cafe interior with exposed concrete walls, it showed a sloppiness that was deliberately decorated.

But then, while looking at the bouquet, a scene from the original work that had been buried somewhere in my head suddenly popped up.

‘…No way, this.’

There was an episode where Chae Yoonoh had started sending flowers to Hong Siyeon. Unlike the consistently indifferent Beom Yisu, wasn’t he the type who was boiling over with whims? If his mood struck, he would come on strong, and he was always in the habit of pushing forward while ignoring the other person’s wishes.

Flowers were one of those things.

Whenever Chae Yoonoh wanted to play the role of a sweet Alpha, he would bestow expensive and lovely things. If you only looked at the surface, it wasn’t bad behavior. The problem was that every standard for it was thoroughly tailored to himself.

It didn’t matter what the other person liked. He just gave what he wanted to give. And if the desired reaction didn’t come back, he would go on a rampage for days, disguised as a tantrum.

Was that why? As the story went on toward the latter half, the things Chae Yoonoh sent began to pile up inside Hong Siyeon’s room, unopened.

Watches. Clothes. Accessories. Perfumes. And even flowers. You could just leave items stuffed away, but don’t flowers wither? They weren’t cleaned up and filled the room until the sweet scent turned into the smell of rot.

Because of that, the only thing Hong Siyeon accepted was the bouquets. Perhaps Chae Yoonoh had realized that fact later on, because one day, he had filled the entire room with flowers.

Trapped without a single gap to escape among the heaps of flowers. The protagonist had to take in Chae Yoonoh’s rut. I remembered skipping over it because the sex part happened to be quite coercive.

“…Haa.”

Siyeon rubbed his forehead. Perhaps because of my physical condition today, my stomach churned just by recalling that scene. The floral scent felt excessively dense.

“Damn… why send something like this.”

Siyeon swallowed a low curse.

Even though the original is just the original, my nerves were frayed for no reason. I didn’t even know who had brought it or when. Even that fact felt strangely unpleasant.

As I reached out with the intention of throwing it away, the damp, wet petals touched my fingertips. It was a cold, chilly sensation, as if they had just been picked.

Buzz-buzz—

At that moment, as if it had been waiting, a vibration rang out. Siyeon picked up his phone almost reflexively.

As expected, the culprit was Chae Yoonoh. Siyeon looked at his message and the bouquet alternately. How is the timing so good? Is there really a surveillance camera inside the house?

Perhaps he was looking at his phone screen too, for the reply arrived almost immediately.

At his usual oily, joking comment, Siyeon swallowed a hollow laugh as if the situation were absurd. While I was muttering and looking down at the phone screen, another message popped up.

Ah. Right. That was linked, too. Siyeon thought of the band he had taken off for a moment because the battery had died.

Actually, the band battery isn’t the problem right now….

After a brief pause, Siyeon poured out what he had been agonizing over all by himself.

“But I’ve been locked in this house ever since that Chae Yoonoh guy left… what am I supposed to do about that?”