* * *
Thinking about Taehyun brought back the memory of the wriggling body that had been in his arms just a moment ago.
The feel of the well-maintained, firm muscles was even better than he had imagined.
The hips, narrower than they looked, below the well-defined abs, and the firm buttocks, too solid to grab with one hand, with a naughty hole between them that kept twitching, dripping with clear liquid.
Was this really okay?
Did his brother really allow this?
As he held the erotically clinging body in his arms and spread its folds, he was about to insert his finger when everything was ruined by the stupid spurt of fresh blood.
“……”
Sejin felt an impulse to punch himself a few times as he threw himself onto the bed.
The last time he measured, he was around 188.4 cm tall.
Though he weighed less for his height, his body was tall, with lean muscles, no fat, so the bed inevitably bounced.
‘… What a fool.’
Sejin grabbed his fully erect penis and moved it quickly. Just the touch of the skin, which had felt so delightful to touch with his hand, made him wonder how much better it would feel to put his own in there.
Just imagining it made the tip of his urethra wet in an instant.
Though his foolish actions had ruined everything this time, it wouldn’t happen again. If he took it out a few times beforehand, he wouldn’t make the same mistake again.
As he rubbed the erect penis in his hand, he recalled Taehyun’s pheromone scent.
A fresh, sunlit scent, like a dry summer day. It was a scent befitting Taehyun.
“Ha…”
He wanted to smell it more.
He had always emitted the same scent, but thinking that he hadn’t noticed it before made him feel more urgent.
The thought that others could also smell his pheromones bothered him.
He wanted it to be only his. But he knew he couldn’t rush things.
Resolving to stay calm, Sejin went to the sink to wash off the traces of what he had just released in his hand.
What could his brother be thinking right now?
How was he processing what happened today?
Sejin was curious about how Taehyun was coming to terms with things, but now was the time to hold his breath.
Since the disaster at the hotel, Taehyun had been in deep conflict.
It was clear that contact with Sejin effectively reduced the concentration of his pheromones.
So the only thing left to do was try a practical test before the team’s scheduled training ahead of their trip to the host city to see how much his pheromone levels would drop.
But what’s the point of confirming that?
Taehyun fell into agony again.
If it works… he could stop taking the inhibitors for the next three months and prepare for the Olympics without them.
But it wasn’t that simple.
The issue was Joo Sejin.
No matter why Sejin needed a mating partner, Taehyun wasn’t keen on the idea of getting involved in such things with someone he had known since he was underage.
He would rather do it with a stranger.
Of course, considering his unusually large circle of acquaintances, finding someone he didn’t know at all would be challenging.
Still, a suitable, distant third party—someone he knew but wasn’t close to—was clearly different from Joo Sejin.
Besides, Sejin was a junior whom his agency had specifically asked him to look after four years ago.
Even so, Taehyun wasn’t Sejin’s guardian or teacher, nor was he in a position to take on that kind of responsibility.
He was just a well-respected player among his juniors and other athletes, with plenty of free time due to an unexpected injury that forced him to halt training.
Thus, ethical concerns like “How could I do this with someone I was supposed to guide or protect!” didn’t really apply.
‘But still….’
Still, he wasn’t comfortable with the idea of regularly engaging with someone he had met when he was already an adult and the other was still a minor.
“Ha…”
The more he thought about it, the more he sighed.
To clear his head, Taehyun increased the treadmill’s speed and ran with all his might to stop thinking.
Only when he was too exhausted to maintain a steady pace did he slow down, and his eyes fell on the missed call notification on his phone.
‘Who could it be?’
Could it be Sejin?
Since that incident at the hotel, Taehyun had been avoiding his agency for a few days, unsure of what to tell them.
He was anxious, expecting Sejin to contact him first.
Had the time finally come?
Realizing he couldn’t avoid it forever, Taehyun braced himself and picked up his phone.
However, the missed call wasn’t from Sejin.
Missed Call
Mom 010-XXXX-XXXX
The moment Taehyun saw the familiar number displayed at the top of the screen, his heart felt like it sank.
He quickly turned off the machine, came down, and wiped the sweat off with a towel draped over the handle.
Grabbing only his phone, he hurriedly walked to find an empty meeting room.
Shared spaces like bathrooms or locker rooms wouldn’t do.
As he quickly exited the training center and opened the door to an empty, relatively soundproof meeting room, his heart began to race again.
“Don’t jump to the worst conclusions,” he thought. If it were a real emergency, the phone wouldn’t just have one missed call; it would have kept ringing until he answered.
It might have been a mistake; perhaps the caller hung up quickly before realizing.
Trying to calm himself, Taehyun pressed the dial button.
The familiar ringing tone was soon followed by a familiar voice answering the call.
“Hey, son. Were you in the middle of training? I’m sorry if I’m interrupting.”
Thankfully, the voice was calm. With a sigh of relief, Taehyun replied, “No, I just finished some cardio and came down. Nothing’s wrong, right?”
From the tone alone, it didn’t seem like anything serious.
His father wasn’t the kind of person to be so composed if something had happened.
Taehyun, barely managing to keep his legs from giving out, waited for a reply.
The voice on the other end hesitated for a moment before continuing.
“Well, it’s nothing really. Earlier, I thought I saw someone who looked like your father passing by the academy window. But luckily, it wasn’t him. I guess I got too anxious and called you before I realized it. It was a mistake. There’s nothing to worry about.”
Hearing those words made Taehyun feel his heart tighten again.
“Father.”
For some, that word might evoke feelings of longing or strength, but for Taehyun, it always felt like a scar.
Taehyun’s father was a violent man.
From as early as Taehyun could remember, his father was either drinking at home or not coming home for long periods, acting irresponsibly.
When he did come home, his mother always cried, and his father would often demand money or hit her, complaining about the noise.
His mother, who supported them by giving piano lessons, would plead with him to at least avoid hitting her face since she had to go out for lessons.
His father would comply in exchange for money from her living expenses and then leave.
By the time Taehyun started his career as an athlete, his mother had established herself enough to open her own academy and moved to a different area, but somehow his father tracked them down and persistently harassed her.
This torment continued even after their marriage finally ended in divorce.
“Maybe I should move back in? If you’re feeling anxious, it might be better for us to live together. It’s not like I have to live separately,” Taehyun cautiously suggested.
“Move back in? What are you talking about?”
His mother immediately dismissed the idea.
“You need to live on your own if you want to meet someone nice and settle down. How long do you think I can keep my grown son at home?”
Hearing her scold him, Taehyun thought, “Well, I guess there’s no need to worry for now,” and let out a sigh of relief.
“I was just worried because you haven’t mentioned that Alpha you showed me last time. Are you still seeing her?”
That girl?
Taehyun tried to recall who she might be talking about.
It was over six years ago when, under her constant pressure about whether he was dating anyone, he reluctantly showed her a photo of a girlfriend from his early twenties.
He let out a sigh.
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