* * *
In front of the closed door, Juwon stood blankly for a moment, as if he hadn’t even registered what had just happened.
Yoonwoo’s icy, scornful eyes he had just seen, the heartless hand that had pushed him away like an insect, and the heavy, resolute sound of the door—a sound that signaled the end of everything…
The realization that all of it was real struck him like a bolt of lightning, and he was instantly overwhelmed by an unbearable sense of fear and despair.
Snapping back to his senses, he began to frantically pound on the front door like a madman.
“Yoonwoo!! Yoonwoo, just a moment!! Open the door! Please, just listen to me. Please!”
Countless words surged up to his throat only to disperse, but in the end, all that burst from his lips was Yoonwoo’s desperate name.
It couldn’t end like this.
He knew he was the one who had ruined the relationship, but he had never imagined being abandoned so completely, without a shred of possibility left.
“Yoonwoo, please…”
His voice was increasingly choked with tears, and hot tears streamed uncontrollably down his cheeks as he frantically pounded the door and cried out for a long time.
“I… I… don’t want it to end… like this…”
Juwon whispered quietly, as if making an excuse.
He no longer had the strength to knock.
Leaning his back against the immovable door, he collapsed helplessly onto the floor.
‘I have to go back… but where?’
The thought of Jiwoon back at home brought on a terrible headache and a suffocating feeling.
Jiwoon’s pheromones were sweet, but they were no longer a comfort to him.
Yet, he couldn’t come back to this officetel either.
He had completely lost the last space he believed he could breathe in.
This absolute sense of loss struck him anew, bringing on a fresh wave of sorrow.
He buried his face between his drawn-up knees and once again burst into desolate, childlike sobs.
His weeping echoed lonely through the empty hallway.
*
From beyond the door, Yoonwoo could hear Juwon’s frantic voice and the sound of his knocking, but he shut his ears and ignored it.
The man’s cries and tears painfully pierced his heart, but he refused to waver any further.
Only after the sounds from beyond the door had completely subsided did the force with which he had just driven Juwon away vanish like a mirage.
The backlash of the intense emotional exhaustion and the accumulated tension he had been holding in came flooding in all at once.
Yoonwoo’s legs gave out, and he collapsed onto the floor.
He had tried to appear calm, but his heart was pounding as if it would burst, and his whole body was trembling like an aspen leaf.
His fingertips felt tingly from how much force he had been exerting.
He gasped for breath, his breathing so ragged he could barely draw air.
The sight of Juwon’s haggard and broken face still remained on his retina.
He looked even more sensitive and sharp, suggesting he had been going through a very hard time.
To Yoonwoo, who had only ever seen his neat and dashing appearance for eight years, this unfamiliar sight of him was shocking, yet also, ever so slightly, gratifying.
At the same time… a tiny bit of pity raised its head.
That must have been why.
Why he had almost reached out his hand unconsciously to ask if the other man was alright.
Because this was the lover who had stayed by his side for eight years, the man who was once his whole world, and seeing him struggle pricked at his heart.
‘This is exhausting… what is this ‘attachment’ thing?’
He almost cried, but he did not. Instead, he swept his trembling hand across his chest.
‘…You did well, Seo Yoonwoo.’
He comforted himself internally.
‘You didn’t waver. You endured well. You vowed never to be manipulated again. You held strong.’
His cold, hard expression was a mask.
Beneath that mask, past hurt, present anger, and the slightest, suppressed flicker of pity swirled like a storm.
He remained sitting on the floor, catching his strained breath for a long time.
*
Meanwhile, Juwon, who had collapsed helplessly in front of the door, had been staring blankly at the hallway floor, unaware of how much time had passed.
Yoonwoo’s final voice, his look of contempt, and the resolute hand that had pushed him away—none of it left his mind.
‘The End.’
The word struck at his very existence.
He managed to get up and stumbled down to the parking garage.
He couldn’t bring himself to grab the steering wheel right away, instead sinking deep into the driver’s seat.
He lit a cigarette with a trembling hand and inhaled deeply, but his mind remained a complete mess.
Unconsciously, he pulled out his cell phone.
And he opened the photo album he had grown accustomed to checking several times a day recently.
Inside, there was a folder dedicated solely to Yoonwoo’s pictures.
A photo of him sitting on a bench in front of the school, smiling shyly as he showed the camera the lunch box Juwon had packed; his profile, utterly absorbed and sincere in front of a design draft; the peaceful face resting asleep against Juwon’s chest; and… an extremely awkward couple photo taken a long time ago, in their fresh, youthful days.
In all those photos, Yoonwoo consistently sent him a warm, trusting gaze.
A person for whom Juwon was the entire world. Juwon slowly scrolled through the pictures, listlessly reminiscing about their happy times together.
Those countless days when they laughed, argued, comforted each other, and dreamed of the future. Everything felt vividly within reach.
Then, a kind of emotion he had never felt before surged up from deep within his chest.
It was not merely the sense of loss from having lost him, or a crushing yearning, but a sharp, agonizing pain that felt like it was tearing through his flesh.
It was regret.
The bitter realization that he had ruined everything with his foolish choices, his cowardly excuses, and his cruel words.
Yoonwoo’s unwavering trust, his quiet support, the irreplaceable sense of peace.
How much he had taken all of it for granted, and how foolishly he had trampled upon it.
The seed of the emotion called regret, an emotion he had never truly felt before, finally began to painfully stir in his parched heart.
‘I… I, with my own hands… destroyed everything.’
Tears dripped onto the screen of his phone.
His choked, low sobs echoed in the empty car.
“Huu… ugh… ack…”
He felt an intense pain, as if a sharp knife had stabbed his heart.
At the same time, the cry he couldn’t utter to Yoonwoo flowed from his lips.
“Yoonwoo… Yoonwoo… I’m sorry… It was all my fault… Don’t abandon me… Please come back…”
Tears streamed down his cheeks and dripped onto his thigh.
He sobbed, leaning his forehead against the steering wheel.
He didn’t want to lose Yoonwoo like this.
He wanted to feel the tranquility Yoonwoo had given him again.
He wanted to meet him again.
But he knew it was already too late.
He didn’t even have the right to ask for that anymore.
He felt cursed and full of regret for his own actions.
How much time had passed like this?
Once his emotions had somewhat settled, a terrible exhaustion weighed down his entire body.
He could no longer resist and closed his eyes, leaning against the cold car seat.
*
As morning dawned, he returned to the apartment where Jiwoon was waiting—a place that felt familiar, yet he wished he didn’t have to come back to.
As he quietly opened the front door and stepped inside, Jiwoon was sitting on the living room sofa.
It looked like he hadn’t slept all night, waiting for Juwon.
His eyes gleamed sharply in the darkness.
“You’re just getting back, Hyung?”
His voice was low and cold.
He didn’t miss Juwon’s haggard appearance and the look of instability about him.
“Where in the world were you all night? Were you drinking? Why didn’t you answer your phone?”
He fixed his cold, bright gaze on Juwon, interrogating him persistently.
Juwon had no strength to answer.
He tried to walk past Jiwoon and head for the bedroom.
“I’m tired. I just want to rest.”
But Jiwoon blocked Juwon’s path.
His eyes held suspicion, along with a kind of anger and possessiveness.
He stopped asking questions. Instead, he began to release his omega pheromones, which were suffocatingly sweet, yet somehow sticky and artificial, much stronger than before.
His pheromones penetrated Juwon’s mind like an anesthetic, or a highly addictive drug.
“Haa…”
Juwon’s reason blurred, and his head felt foggy.
It was a different kind of sensation from the throbbing headache, a feeling like being intoxicated by a drug.
He wanted to escape this artificial and forceful sensation, but at the same time, he was so weak that he wanted to lean into this anesthetic that made him forget all his pain and regret.
He gave up resistance.
His body seemed to have already become accustomed to these pheromones.
Jiwoon gently held Juwon’s chin, forcing him to meet his eyes.
His gaze was overwhelmingly sweet, but a cold obsession lurked beneath it.
“You’re having a very hard time, aren’t you, Hyung? Just forget everything. Hmm?”
He whispered seductively, softly exploring Juwon’s lips.
“Just… leave everything to me, and don’t think about anything, Hyung.”
His hand slipped under Juwon’s shirt, caressing his warm bare skin.
Regret, guilt, and the yearning for Yoonwoo all momentarily faded in this pheromone haze.
He finally gave in to the sensual pheromones, wrapping his arms around Jiwoon’s waist and burying his lips into Jiwoon’s neck.
Jiwoon smiled with satisfaction, embracing his neck in return.
With empty eyes, carrying no emotion, Juwon wrapped his arms around Jiwoon’s waist and headed for the bedroom.
His steps were heavy, but his will was already a slave to the pheromones.
* * *
This bastard has no excuse. Should just rot in hell.