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“I’m fine.”
Junhee once again declined as he tried to walk past Ki Taeryu’s car.
Honk!
“Really, I’m fine. I can go on my own.”
The car followed his steps, but Junhee stubbornly ignored it.
He needed time to sort out his thoughts alone and wanted to walk in the fresh air.
Despite his repeated refusals, the car persistently trailed beside him.
Junhee focused on walking straight ahead, trying not to pay attention to the wheels rolling next to him.
‘I’m not getting in.’
This time was different from the last, when he had no choice but to get in.
No one was chasing him now, and it wasn’t like he didn’t have the money for a cab.
He patted his pocket, feeling reassured when he touched his wallet.
The large road was just ahead.
Once he crossed it, not even Taeryu could ignore the flow of traffic…
Honk!
Junhee quickened his steps, resisting the urge to cover his ears.
But when the horn blared again, he couldn’t help but stop.
“The bread?”
“…What?”
“There’s a bunch of bread in the trunk. Guess I’ll have to throw it all away.”
As the half-open window slid up, Junhee caught sight of his dazed reflection in the glass.
The bread he had packed all the way from Daejeon.
It was being held hostage.
Taeryu’s car, which had passed the dumbstruck Junhee, gradually picked up speed.
Junhee’s pace quickened in response.
“Wait a second!”
He had held out for so long, but in the end, he crumbled.
Junhee hurriedly chased after the car, but it didn’t stop until it hit a red light far ahead.
He knocked on the window in protest, and only then was the lock released.
He climbed in, trying to steady his breath.
“You said you’d go alone.”
“…Just for today, please.”
Unable to admit that it was all because of the bread, Junhee seethed silently as Taeryu glanced at his sulking profile, lips twitching into a subtle smile.
If only the bread weren’t so perishable… Or if his wrist were at least in better shape, he might have saved some pride by just taking the bread from the trunk.
But that wasn’t the case.
Despite his frustration, in the end, Junhee knew it was all his own fault.
It had been his fault for clumsily falling from the chair, for extending his hand without thinking.
Who else could he blame?
As Junhee stared out the window, lost in his thoughts, Taeryu broke the silence.
“I didn’t expect you to stop it.”
“…I didn’t expect you to actually throw it.”
“Well, at least thanks to you, no one ended up with a cracked skull.”
Junhee chewed on his lip before finally blurting out the question he had been holding back.
“Director… that day… at the event. Did you… did you hit that guy, Kang Heesung, because of me?”
It was one of the things that had been weighing on his mind.
‘Who are you to say anything? Who’s the one who split someone’s head open?’
The main house of Taesan, Hyunwol Hall.
Though the time he had spent there was short, for Junhee, it felt like an eternity.
The words he had heard there kept swirling in his head, like a tangled mess of threads he didn’t know how to unravel.
“Don’t worry. Nothing will happen to you because of it.”
“There was no need to do that because of me.”
There’s no such thing as a favor without strings attached.
Especially when it came to Ki Taeryu, Junhee hadn’t expected any favors at all.
Screech. The car abruptly halted as they entered Junhee’s neighborhood.
“I just did it because that bastard pisses me off. Don’t overthink it.”
Taeryu’s face, swallowed by shadows, looked even more menacing.
It would have been easier if I had never known, at least my mind would be at peace.
But now, because of that incident, Taeryu might be facing disapproving looks from his grandfather, his uncle, or perhaps even more people.
“From now on… you don’t have to do that anymore. No, please don’t.”
Junhee spoke in a polite but firm tone. Even if it sounded more like a demand than a request, it had to be said.
“Alright. I won’t.”
Just as he was about to sigh in relief from the unexpectedly easy agreement—
“Next time, whether Assistant Yoo Junhee rolls around with a bunch of guys at Kang Heesung’s party or if that video spreads, I’ll just cheer you on.”
“What are you… even saying…?”
Junhee’s mind flashed with a scene, like a bolt of lightning.
After swallowing the strong liquor Kang Heesung had given him, he had offered something to eat, saying it was a snack.
He remembered shaking his head at the dangerous smell emanating from the dessert, but Kang Heesung had forced him to eat it.
Something was wrong, but he couldn’t quite grasp what it was, like a lead slipping out of reach.
“Instead, if you want to stay by my side as a partner, handle yourself properly. Don’t make me get lumped in and treated the same.”
Partner, handle, treated the same.
As soon as he swallowed those venomous words, his chest grew cold.
“If you stick with that orphan brat, people will treat you like a loser too.”
The cruel words that had once clawed at a young Junhee surfaced again, mixed with bitterness.
His lips pressed tightly together before parting again, and within Junhee’s brown eyes, anger boiled beneath the surface.
“I never said I wanted to be your partner, Director.”
“A promise made with your own mouth should be kept.”
A promise? What a joke.
“You should be the one handling yourself properly, Director.”
Though he hadn’t even had a sip of alcohol, his head spun as if it were burning hot.
Even as the Director’s cold eyes looked down at him, the heat didn’t cool.
The leisurely curve of his lips, as if daring him to speak, only made the fury inside Junhee rise further.
He had the urge to scratch that flawless surface, which no amount of beating seemed able to crack.
“Isn’t Chairman Ki’s ideal partner for you a Dominant omega?”
Finally, Junhee’s clumsy strike landed.
He didn’t miss the slight furrow in Ki Taeryu’s brow.
“No matter how much effort I put into finding the perfect partner for you, if the Chairman rejects them, it’s over, isn’t it?”
“Assistant Yoo Junhee.”
The low, sinister voice echoed in his ears, but Junhee didn’t stop.
“Does the Chairman even know that the partner you’re desperately searching for is an inferior omega? Wouldn’t that tear apart his pureblood vision for the future?”
Junhee’s jaw snapped shut.
To be precise, it was because Taeryu’s hand had clamped down on it, as if to crush him.
“Junhee.”
The damp voice slithered into his ear like a snake’s tongue.
“Are you threatening me right now?”
Taeryu’s pitch-black eyes flickered with a dark blue hue in the shadows.
Only then did Junhee realize he had crossed a line.
He had touched something he should never have touched, but there was no going back.
“You were the one who threatened me first, Director.”
The words tumbled out of Junhee’s trembling lips, his final desperate attempt, like a dying ember struggling to ignite.
“Did you know?”
That hand yanked Junhee’s chin up roughly.
As Taeryu leaned forward, his breath drew near.
In the dark pupils that blinked like black holes, Junhee saw himself, filled with fear.
“That night, our little Junhee gobbled up those tangerines and acted like a bitch in heat.”
Tangerines?
In heat…?
Junhee’s eyes widened like balloons as he chewed over Taeryu’s words.
The thing Kang Heesung had forced him to eat… could it have been something with tangerines…?
It felt like Taeryu’s pheromones were squeezing the air from his lungs, making it impossible to breathe.
His whole body trembled, as if laid bare under the vicious gaze that seemed to strip him down to the core.
“This is how you make a real threat.”
Taeryu twisted his lips into a smile.
“Shit… damn it.”
In the end, Junhee spent the entire night wide awake.
Every time he closed his eyes, Taeryu’s eerie gaze resurfaced.
Even the sound of the wind brushing past the window felt like Taeryu’s voice, ringing in his ears like tinnitus.
No matter how hard he scrubbed, it felt like Taeryu’s pheromones clung to his skin, thick and suffocating.
The remnants of Taeryu haunted Junhee, lingering like a ghost, refusing to disappear.
As he habitually rolled over, a groan escaped his lips.
His wrist throbbed with a sharp pain from being crushed.
With his unfamiliar left hand, he reached for the phone on his bedside table.
6:49 AM. Junhee stared at the screen with bloodshot eyes and turned off the alarm that was set to ring in a minute.
“That bastard. He knew all along…”
The search history from his frantic midnight research still remained on the portal site.
Recent Searches:
- Omega allergy
- Omega allergy in heat
- Omega allergy and heat cycle
- Beta vs. Omega allergy
What was publicly known was that beta allergies were easily treated with medication, but omega allergies were accompanied by the heat cycle.
According to an article Junhee found in a medical journal, omega allergies could lead to pheromone imbalances and pheromone shock.
However, a recent trend in research showed that sexual relations could help calm the pheromones, thereby alleviating the allergy.
Junhee, with his eyes wide open, continued his desperate search and finally found what he was looking for on an anonymous forum post.
Title: Hey guys, I’m curious about something
Post: I heard omega allergies can be cured if you have sex during the reaction. Is that true?
└ Yeah, it’s true. It works better than meds.
└ Really? How do you know?
└ Source: Me. Bye.
Junhee read the related posts beneath it as well.
Title: If you take suppressants when you have an allergy, will it suppress the allergy too?
└ You’ll still go through the heat, and the side effects are intense.
└ What kind of side effects?
└ Vomiting, memory loss, and splitting headaches.
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