Chapter 6

***

“Gi-hyeon, are you kidding me?”

“…”

Clutching his solar plexus and groaning in pain, Gi-hyeon couldn’t even muster a response. Having forcefully shoved down a tasteless dinner, he had inevitably triggered a severe bout of indigestion. While his ankle injury often left him feeling under the weather, he had always prided himself on having an ironclad stomach, yet lately he was suffering from an alarming increase in minor illnesses.

As Gi-hyeon squeezed his eyes shut, too dizzy from the severe indigestion to speak, Yeon-oh clicked his tongue. The Alpha was clearly bewildered that Gi-hyeon had suddenly fallen ill after seemingly eating fine just moments ago. Naturally, Gi-hyeon remained silent. He had absolutely no excuse to offer, and even he found his own fragile state utterly pathetic.

“Yes, Dr. Park. I apologize for the inconvenience. Manager Yoo will be there to pick you up shortly.”

Hearing the phone conversation through the dark, Gi-hyeon, who had been lying down with his forearm draped over his eyes, jolted halfway up in sheer panic. Yeon-oh had apparently summoned the family physician, but the glaring issue was that this particular doctor was the Deputy Director of the main Haeseong Hospital.

Gi-hyeon was merely a physical therapist employed at Haeseong Rehabilitation Centre Hospital, essentially a subordinate branch of the main facility. The Deputy Director was a man of an overwhelmingly high echelon, entirely inappropriate for a lowly employee to receive in his own bedroom in the dead of night, all over a simple bout of indigestion.

Furious at the sheer, arrogant audacity of the bastard who had casually summoned such a VIP, Gi-hyeon pinched his brow and spat out a rare, deeply irritated scolding.

“Are you out of your fucking mind, calling the Deputy Director at this hour?”

“You’re the sick bastard who caused this, so how is this my fault?” Yeon-oh countered without hesitation. “Gi-hyeon, the good doctor earned his degrees specifically to handle shit like this. I’m going out of my way to summon someone of his caliber just for you, so is ‘are you crazy’ really the right way to speak to your boyfriend?”

“Hah…”

Gi-hyeon was so flabbergasted he could only let out a hollow sigh. If rumors spread that a bottom-tier employee, already mocked as a nepotism hire, had summoned the main branch’s Deputy Director over a stomachache, the sheer headache would be catastrophic. His workplace life was grueling enough; anticipating the inevitable nightmare this would unleash made him wonder why Yeon-oh was so relentlessly oblivious.

Because Jo Yeon-oh cherished Gi-hyeon in his own uniquely domineering way, his protective measures frequently spawned immensely uncomfortable situations. Furthermore, there was the term boyfriend. The realization that Yeon-oh still actively considered himself as such elicited another heavy sigh.

…Even if the title was nothing more than an empty shell, Gi-hyeon was profoundly grateful to still occupy that space. Yet, where was he supposed to direct that gratitude? Toward the stubborn friendship of a man who had accomplished the monumental feat of remaining by his side all this time? Gi-hyeon found the answer utterly elusive.

“He’ll be here soon, so bear with the nausea,” Yeon-oh instructed. “If you throw up, you’ll just end up burning your esophagus.”

“…You should rest too. You must be exhausted,” Gi-hyeon murmured.

“Are you seriously worrying about me right now? Just sleep. I’ll wake you when Dr. Park arrives.”

Despite issuing the command to sleep, the heavy dip of the mattress signaled that Yeon-oh had casually perched himself on the edge of the bed out of sheer boredom. Glancing downward, Gi-hyeon yelped in alarm as the Alpha unceremoniously lifted his injured leg, resting it firmly across his own thigh.

“—What are you doing?”

“I noticed you were limping earlier. I’m going to massage your ankle.”

“I can handle it my—Ah!”

His leg was infinitely more sensitive than the rest of his body, making any unwarranted contact highly distressing. Utterly oblivious to Gi-hyeon’s internal turmoil, Yeon-oh routinely subjected him to these spontaneous ankle massages. The Alpha’s scorching palms wrapped around Gi-hyeon’s toes, which had turned ice-cold from the indigestion. As thick fingers applied deep, heavy pressure to his Achilles tendon, Gi-hyeon struggled to suppress a desperate moan. Already paralyzed by the suffocating pain in his solar plexus, he possessed absolutely zero strength to resist such a raw, simple stimulation.

Haa…

“You’re completely knotted up here,” Yeon-oh noted.

Unfazed, the Alpha continued to grip his ankle, systematically kneading the taut muscles of his calf with blisteringly hot hands. Desperate to cage the humiliating sound threatening to tear from his throat, Gi-hyeon buried his face securely in his palms. Completely blind to his lover’s agonizing arousal, Yeon-oh merely offered a teasing smirk.

“Does it hurt? Stop being such a baby.”

“…”

He wasn’t exaggerating the pain; he was being ruthlessly tortured by the suffocating wave of carnal heat flooding his veins. Gi-hyeon desperately attempted to redirect his thoughts, but once his sensory focus hyper-fixated on that precise area, shaking off the arousal became an absolute impossibility. It quickly escalated to the point where he frantically yanked the duvet upward, desperate to conceal his lower half. The exact second his fingers locked onto the fabric, Yeon-oh’s massaging hands abruptly halted.

“…”

“…”

A radically different, suffocatingly heavy silence crushed the room. Peeling his eyes open and tracking the Alpha’s gaze, Gi-hyeon realized Yeon-oh was staring directly at his crotch.

…Ah, fuck. Swallowing the violent curse, Gi-hyeon hastily dragged the blanket over his lap to hide the damning evidence. Just as Yeon-oh parted his lips, clearly poised to address the situation, the intercom shrilled.

The Alpha immediately rose and vanished into the living room to answer the call. Abruptly abandoned, Gi-hyeon was left to endure a brutal, unannounced wave of humiliating self-awareness. An indiscriminate amount of time bled away before the doorbell chimed a second time, followed by the metallic click of Yeon-oh granting entry. Hearing the muffled, heavy cadence of their conversation bleeding through the wall, Gi-hyeon’s overheated blood instantly ran ice-cold.

Would it be too extreme to hope for permanent erectile dysfunction?

Since he had never known anyone but Jo Yeon-oh, Gi-hyeon frequently theorized that he would likely remain cursed to love the man for the rest of his natural life. Operating under that miserable assumption, his lower half was functionally obsolete. The prospect of Jo Yeon-oh ever fully accepting him physically remained a distant impossibility, rendering these lingering carnal urges utterly useless and incredibly frustrating.

Just as those morbid thoughts crystallized, the distinct presence of two men breached the bedroom. Startled, Gi-hyeon scrambled to sit up, but Yeon-oh, trailing behind an elderly gentleman, silently pressed his palm downward, signaling him to lie back down. The Deputy Director, whom Yeon-oh respectfully referred to as Dr. Park, mirrored the gesture. Wearing an incredibly genial smile, the older man moved to soothe Gi-hyeon’s nerves.

“You can stay lying down. I was informed you haven’t vomited, so a simple IV drip should suffice. Is the nausea severe?” the Deputy Director asked in a hushed, gentle tone, treating him like a fragile pediatric patient.

Gi-hyeon had no idea what the VIP actually thought of this absurd house call, but deeply embarrassed, he concluded that minimizing the man’s workload so he could clock out immediately was the best course of action.

“I haven’t vomited. I was slightly dizzy a moment ago, but that has passed,” Gi-hyeon reported cleanly.

“I see. I’ll hook up the IV then.”

Approaching the bedside, the Deputy Director secured the IV bag onto a makeshift hanger. He then calmly removed a framed picture from the wall, utilizing the exposed nail to suspend the fluid.

Even while the Deputy Director was personally dismantling the room’s decor, Yeon-oh merely stood in the background, his hands lazily shoved into his trouser pockets without lifting a single finger to help. When Gi-hyeon shot him a desperate, urging glare, the Alpha simply shrugged, offering a blank look that clearly asked, What?

His deeply ingrained, spoiled-rich-kid tendencies always surfaced in moments like this. As the elderly doctor pierced his vein with the needle, Gi-hyeon struggled immensely to swallow his exasperated sigh.

“Try to catch some sleep until the drip finishes,” Dr. Park instructed gently.

Viewing the simplistic treatment as woefully inadequate, Jo Yeon-oh’s demeanor instantly sharpened. “Is that really all it takes?”

“For now, yes. The indigestion isn’t particularly severe…” Dr. Park replied mildly.

“Not severe? Doctor, look at his face. He looks like a fucking corpse.”

In truth, Gi-hyeon’s complexion had deteriorated entirely from the sheer, suffocating horror of forcing an executive-level superior to play nursemaid. Flustered at being coddled like a sickly child at thirty years old, Gi-hyeon hastily intervened.

“I’m fine. I think I’ll feel much better after the IV and some sleep. …Thank you, Dr. Park.”

Unsure of the proper etiquette, he had mirrored Yeon-oh’s form of address, but the elder gentleman’s perpetually warm expression stiffened marginally. It became glaringly obvious that Jo Yeon-oh was the only person in the room privileged enough to utilize such an informal title.

Catching the subtle shift, Gi-hyeon clamped his mouth shut, desperately praying the man would just exit the premises immediately.

Though palpably dissatisfied, Yeon-oh miraculously held his tongue, at least until Gi-hyeon shot him a pointed look demanding he see the doctor out. As the Deputy Director stepped out of the bedroom, Yeon-oh threw Gi-hyeon a warning glare that explicitly screamed You owe me for letting this go, before trailing after the older man to see him to the door.

The moment they vanished, all remaining energy violently drained from Gi-hyeon’s body. He despised inviting strangers into his private sanctuary; having to endure the intrusion while battling illness was profoundly exhausting. As he lay there blinking sluggishly, Yeon-oh promptly returned. After inspecting the IV bag and expertly adjusting the flow regulator, the Alpha broke the silence.

“Enduring the pain isn’t always the right answer, Dr. So.”

“…”

You have absolutely no fucking idea what I’m truly enduring, Gi-hyeon thought bitterly. Choosing silence over a pointless argument, he stared blankly ahead. Throwing a brief, calculating glance down at the bed, Yeon-oh opened his mouth again.

“By the way… earlier…”

Since Yeon-oh rarely ever censored his own words, Gi-hyeon merely watched him in silent bewilderment. Clicking his tongue, the Alpha pressed forward, wearing the deeply inconvenienced expression of someone forcing themselves to complete a loathsome chore.

“I take specialized pheromone suppressants, but it made me wonder how Betas handle it.”

“…What?”

Gi-hyeon instantly turned to stone. While his brain violently struggled to process the sheer audacity of the statement, a nauseating wave of absolute revulsion crashed over him.

“Everything else is fine, but don’t do anything stupid,” Yeon-oh continued smoothly. “If you’re that desperate, just hook up with someone I’ve vetted.”

“…”

Incapable of producing a single syllable, Gi-hyeon simply stared, his blank eyes blinking mechanically. Apparently mistaking his catatonic shock for the sluggish reaction of a sick patient, Yeon-oh affectionately adjusted the duvet over Gi-hyeon’s chest.

“If you absolutely need to get off, do it that way.” Yeon-oh’s tone carried an infuriating certainty as he finalized his generous offer. “Don’t go causing trouble behind my back.”

Murderous sparks ignited in Gi-hyeon’s eyes. His mood rapidly plummeted into absolute, venomous rage.

“What did you say, you fucking bastard?”

“Gi-hyeon, don’t use such uncultured profanity.” Yeon-oh’s voice remained infuriatingly steady.

The sudden shock triggered a blinding migraine.

Squeezing his eyes shut before ripping them open, Gi-hyeon shoved himself halfway upright as he hurled the curse. Yet, Yeon-oh deflected the vitriol without a single tremor in his voice. Even amidst the explosive tension, the Alpha’s gaze remained obsessively locked onto Gi-hyeon’s wrist, his face lined with genuine terror that the sudden movement might cause the IV needle to tear through the vein.

That hyper-focused, protective care made the humiliation infinitely more devastating. Stripped of all remaining strength, Gi-hyeon could only manage a broken rasp.

“…Then what about you? Are you saying you’re going to get off with someone else too?”

At that accusation, the gaze hovering anxiously over his wrist snapped back up, locking onto Gi-hyeon’s eyes. Yeon-oh’s brow furrowed deeply, wearing the offended expression of a man who had just been spat upon. Gi-hyeon was on the verge of a hysterical laugh. Yeon-oh genuinely perceived the question as a profound, unforgivable insult.

“What kind of absolute bullshit is that? What am I to you?”

That was exactly what Gi-hyeon wanted to ask. Who the hell are you to me? What exactly am I to you?

“I’m your boyfriend,” Yeon-oh snapped. “Why would you even say something like that?”

The response aligned so perfectly with Gi-hyeon’s miserable expectations that it was utterly devastating. He squeezed his eyes shut and slowly opened them. Still vibrating with indignant disbelief, Yeon-oh pressed on.

“Ever since we ended up like this, I haven’t touched a single person. You know that.”

“But since I physically can’t help you with those biological urges, I’m telling you to take care of it using a method I know, strictly under my absolute control.” Yeon-oh delivered the words with a terrifyingly casual lightness.

“…”

Gi-hyeon was rendered completely speechless. He fundamentally could not comprehend the man’s logic. Since we ended up like this? What exactly did ‘like this’ mean? The precious, fragile relationship Gi-hyeon had sacrificed everything to protect was casually lumped into a vague, dismissive phrase.

Yet, what the hell was So Gi-hyeon supposed to say to the Alpha who blatantly admitted he was entirely incapable of fulfilling those desires? Staring down at Gi-hyeon’s catatonic frame, Yeon-oh’s voice dropped to a sickeningly gentle register.

“Just go to sleep for now. I’ll pull the needle out myself once the IV is done.”

That promise hardened the agonizing blockage in Gi-hyeon’s chest into solid stone. But was there a single word left for So Gi-hyeon to utter? He was the selfish thug who had forcefully shattered their golden friendship to begin with.

Perhaps, he thought bleakly, this is just the universe finally executing my punishment,