Chapter 33

For a moment, the very density of the air seemed to shift.

Shocked to the core, Yi-seon forgot to breathe and simply looked blankly up at Mugyeol. His mind went entirely blank, unable to produce a single excuse. He could not fathom why Mugyeol was here, nor how much he had overheard.

Though Mugyeol was asking what was going on, the look in his eyes seemed like that of someone who had already pieced everything together.

The strength abruptly drained from Ham Su-ah’s hand resting against Yi-seon’s cheek. Mugyeol’s gaze slowly shifted back and forth between Ham Su-ah’s hand and Yi-seon’s cheek, then asked in a flat tone, “Why is this vibe so fucking foul?”

“…”

Grasping the situation faster than a panicking Yi-seon, Ham Su-ah rose from her seat and stepped toward Mugyeol.

“Mugyeol-ah. Yi-seon didn’t do anything wrong.”

As Ham Su-ah stepped between the two of them in Yi-seon’s defense, even the lingering traces of emotion on Mugyeol’s face vanished completely.

“I’m not here to figure out who’s at fault.”

Mugyeol gently pulled down Su-ah’s hand where it gripped his forearm.

“It just pisses me off that the two of you are talking behind my back and treating me like an idiot.”

“…”

“Ryu Yi-seon. Does it feel good making a clown out of me behind my back?”

Asking with a blank face, Mugyeol looked like someone whose emotions had been entirely erased. Yet the slight tremor in his uneven breaths, his tightly clenched jaw, and the flicker of flames burning deep within his icy pupils laid bare the violent turmoil he was fighting to suppress.

“Don’t talk to Yi-seon like that, Mugyeol-ah. It’s a misunderstanding.”

Ham Su-ah mediated once more on behalf of Yi-seon, who could not even bring himself to respond. Mugyeol’s chilly gaze shifted back to Ham Su-ah.

“Yi-seon and I aren’t like that. It was just a joke.”

“…”

“Talk to me. If you’re curious, don’t hassle Yi-seon—ask me. I’ll tell you everything.”

Staring fixedly at Ham Su-ah, Mugyeol stepped closer and draped an arm over her shoulder. Guiding her by the shoulder, he turned around and began leading her away from the bench.

Yi-seon stood awkwardly with lost, unfocused eyes, watching their retreating figures. Just as Ham Su-ah had said, it looked as though the two of them were heading off to resolve ‘their problem’.

“…”

A cold gust of wind brushed past Yi-seon. The lingering warmth on his cheek vanished, leaving his face frozen numb. It was difficult to maintain an unbothered expression. The strength slowly slipped from his tightly clenched fists.

Should he feel relieved that Mugyeol was no longer angry with him?

In truth, that was the proper picture. He was an outsider after all; this was merely an issue between Mugyeol, who liked the noona, and the noona, who could not return Mugyeol’s feelings.

He heard the sound of something collapsing inside his heart. Standing in place like a forgotten prop on an empty stage after the main characters had departed, Yi-seon slowly lowered his head. His past anxiety over Mugyeol discovering what happened with Ham Su-ah now felt utterly pathetic.

Who am I to matter?

While his mind traced the transparent dynamics between the three of them, a dark shadow fell over him once more. Yi-seon stared at the shadow overlapping his own, then slowly lifted his head. Yeon Mugyeol, who had vanished around the corner of the apartment building with Ham Su-ah, stood right before his eyes.

“…Yeon Mugyeol?”

“Yeah, Yeon Mugyeol.”

“Where’s Su-ah noona?”

At the question regarding Ham Su-ah’s whereabouts, Mugyeol’s jaw tightened. “I sent her away.”

“You sent noona home first?”

Mugyeol grabbed Yi-seon by the wrist and pulled him up.

“It was annoying how she kept butting in. By the way… could you stop fucking asking about noona, noona, like a damn parrot?”

Because Yi-seon’s hands were as cold as ice, the contact with Mugyeol’s burning grip stung his skin.

“Where are we going?”

“Your place. We need to finish our conversation.”

Dragged along by Mugyeol’s strength, Yi-seon stepped into the apartment’s main entrance. In the stifling silence of the enclosed elevator with nowhere to run, Mugyeol finally released his light grip on Yi-seon’s wrist. Mugyeol’s gaze dropped to the tips of Yi-seon’s fingers as Yi-seon hung his head, rubbing his wrist.

Upon reaching their floor, Yi-seon stepped in front of his apartment door first. Throughout the entire time he punched in the passcode, his heart pounded so violently with anxiety that he could hardly bear it. If the word ‘cut ties’ were to come out of Mugyeol’s mouth, he planned to do whatever it took to persuade him.

The moment the door opened, Yi-seon was shoved inside as if dragged. Slam! The door slammed shut, and simultaneously, Yi-seon’s back crashed hard against the inner hallway wall. Ignoring the throbbing ache, he studied the expression of the boy standing before him. Mugyeol’s chilling eyes, unnervingly still, were fixed upon him.

“Make your excuse.”

“…”

“Spit it out.”

“I have no excuses. I’m not dating noona. Doing that with noona… had no deep meaning… …I’m just sorry.”

Behind the pupils staring at Yi-seon, a quiet flame flickered intensely.

“Hey. Are you kidding me?”

“…”

“If it had no deep meaning, why did you hide it?”

“That’s…”

“Is that why you acted like that yesterday? Talking about how you’ll get a girlfriend soon, telling me to get a cake from my own girlfriend? Because things are going great between you and noona? So you ended up feeling guilty toward me? Did I get in the way of the two of you?”

“That’s not it—”

“You’re the one who said it. You said going after the person your friend likes is betrayal! You promised you’d never do anything to put a crack in our friendship!”

Bang! Mugyeol’s massive fist slammed into the wall right beside Yi-seon’s head. As if unable to contain his barely suppressed rage any longer, Mugyeol breathed heavily, his chest heaving violently up and down.

Yi-seon recalled the words he had once said to Mugyeol, “Am I crazy? That would destroy our friendship! Being friends with you is the most important thing to me, Yeon Mugyeol! I’d never do anything that would drive a wedge between us!”

Despite having said that, the one who engaged in physical intimacy with Ham Su-ah and concealed it was Ryu Yi-seon himself. Though he had never intended it that way, to Mugyeol, the situation confronting him right now undoubtedly looked like pure betrayal.

Grinding his back molars, the muscles in Mugyeol’s jaw flexed tautly.

“Wouldn’t you be pissed if you were me? If I acted the exact same way, wouldn’t you feel betrayed?!”

“I…”

Swallowing his nervousness, Yi-seon gripped Mugyeol’s lapel with cold hands.

“I… I wouldn’t be angry. Because that’s your heart. It’s your business.”

“…”

“But I understand how you feel. That’s why I’m so sorry. I made a mistake.”

Clutching Mugyeol’s cold coat, Yi-seon took a step closer.

He wanted to express that no matter what happened, he would never resent Mugyeol. He could understand Mugyeol’s sense of betrayal, but he could not put himself in Mugyeol’s shoes as Mugyeol had suggested. To begin with, Yi-seon was someone who could only stay by Mugyeol’s side by deliberately ignoring Mugyeol’s romantic life.

Whether Mugyeol met someone through a family arrangement or continually confessed his feelings to Su-ah, their relationship could only be maintained if Yi-seon laughed it off nonchalantly.

“I thought it was a personal matter that we didn’t need to meddle in. That’s the only reason I didn’t say anything.”

Yi-seon kept his eyes fixed strictly on the hollow of Mugyeol’s throat. He could not bring himself to meet Mugyeol’s eyes. Barely breathing, he endured the dreadful silence. Then, at some point, he realized something strange. The surrounding noise had vanished entirely, plunging everything into deep stillness. Mugyeol’s rough breathing had quieted down, and his heavily heaving chest seemed to have regained its composure.

Only then did Yi-seon raise his head to look at Mugyeol. Mugyeol, the rims of his eyes flushed red, was staring back at him with an expressionless face. His eyes were so deep and clear that it was impossible to discern what he was thinking.

The moment their eyes met, the corners of Mugyeol’s eyes curved slowly, taking on a faint smile.

“So… what you’re saying is… this is your personal business, so I should stay out of it?”

“…What?”

Mugyeol knocked away Yi-seon’s hand that had been gripping his coat, then laced his own fingers tightly between Yi-seon’s. In an instant, he drove Yi-seon back against the wall.

“You’re always like this. You draw lines as you please and get defensive out of fear that I’ll cross them. Because to you, that’s all I amount to.”

“…Mugyeol-ah.”

“Telling me you’re leaving for Jeju, telling me to make other friends, telling me not to come to your classroom. Always without warning, entirely on your terms. Whatever you want.”

Yi-seon’s back was crushed against the wall. As Mugyeol’s large frame pressed in on him, the breath was instantly knocked from his lungs.

Mugyeol’s neatly composed face had warped into a chilling scowl. Within the dark pupils, darker than usual, an emotion closer to raw instinct than reason was honed to a razor edge.

Yi-seon gasped for air. His labored breathing was not just his imagination. The moment he parted his lips to inhale the trapped air, his entire body began to burn as though engulfed in flames. A dense, sharp pheromone, heavily concentrated, overtook his entire body in an instant.

“You said it yourself, Yi-seon-ah. You said our friendship was precious. You said there was never a moment you didn’t cherish it.”

“Mu, Mugyeol… ah…”

“Saying I’m the only one, saying I’m the most precious… That was all bullshit.”

The low voice, muttered through clenched teeth, was far more terrifying than a savage roar.

With crumbling hands, Yi-seon barely managed to hold onto Mugyeol’s collar. The strength had drained from his legs, making it difficult to support his own weight. Mugyeol’s voice was growing distant. Danger alarms clanged violently inside his head. Every cell in his body screamed that he had to run away right now.

Yet he could not move a single step. The pressure bearing down upon his entire body grew heavier by the second. His limbs refused to obey.

“Haah…”

“I had no idea. To Ryu Yi-seon, I’m really not worth a fucking thing.”

With those final words, Mugyeol’s thick pheromones, having snapped all restraint, began to crash down upon Yi-seon’s body like a tidal wave.

“Mugyeol…”

Clinging to Mugyeol’s forearm, Yi-seon collapsed. He panted raggedly in an effort to regain his senses, but what filled his lungs was nothing but Yeon Mugyeol’s feral pheromones. Soaked not in oxygen but in pheromones, he was utterly dominated.

Mugyeol’s arm slid beneath Yi-seon’s, supporting his body, while his thigh wedged between Yi-seon’s legs, pinning him against the wall. Barely hanging on to Mugyeol, Yi-seon instinctively reached out his arms. Embracing his shoulders, he leaned his weight against him, his body thrown into an unfamiliar frenzy of arousal.

“Like an idiot, I get fooled every single time…”

Mugyeol’s quiet mutter sounded entirely out of control. His dark, sunken eyes glinted with a sinister, predatory sheen, as if all sanity and reason had eroded away.

“While you play with people however you like…”

Mugyeol pressed down on Yi-seon with a voice thick with barely suppressed rage and untamed instinct. Panting hot breaths, he bore down heavily. Their chests pressed against each other until bruised, and their legs tangled together.

Ah…

Trapped between the wall and Mugyeol, Yi-seon struggled desperately to stay conscious. His heart hammered like mad, and the blood vessels along his neck throbbed violently.

Against the pale skin of his neck where blue veins showed, Mugyeol’s lips made contact. Dry, scorching lips moved slowly along his pulsing vein.

“Leaving without a care… And then…”

The low voice echoed in his ear like an auditory hallucination. Held captive by Mugyeol’s pheromones, Yi-seon’s body reacted with sharp tingles just from hearing that quiet voice. As if swept into a deep, scalding torrent, he simmered with helpless yet fervent heat. With every breath that filled his lungs with pheromones, holding on to his sanity proved near impossible.

He wanted to beg Mugyeol.

Desiring a release from the impulses racing through his bloodstream, he wanted to become one with Mugyeol, whose face was buried in the crook of his neck. Every time Mugyeol’s pheromones coiled around him, reason blurred into disarray and his vision grew hazy.

Trapping Yi-seon within both arms, Mugyeol persistently pressed his body flush. The lips tracing up the side of his neck brushed his ear, then descended to his jaw. Scorching breaths hovered over his bare skin. Lifting Yi-seon’s chin, Mugyeol grazed his lips against his before pulling back, staring down at him with pitch-black eyes.

Between their close faces, their ragged breaths intertwined. The unmistakable hardness of Mugyeol’s swelling arousal pressed heavily against Yi-seon’s lower abdomen with dizzying force.

“Ryu Yi-seon, you always leave…”

Yi-seon’s body had thoroughly completed its preparations to receive an Alpha. His belly simmered dangerously with intense sensitivity, and his heat-slicked core grew scorchingly wet. At this dizzying sensation he had never experienced in his life, whimpers spilled past his lips involuntarily.

“Haah…”

“Always on your terms… Leaving me behind…”

The heavier their bodies collided, the sharper his senses flared, and his body, trapped within Mugyeol’s scent and heat, grew dazed and thoroughly drenched.

Each time Mugyeol pressed his heavy weight and ground against him, pinning him to the wall, Yi-seon let out a pitiful whimper within Mugyeol’s embrace. Most of his reason had crumbled. The moment Yi-seon, overtaken by primal instinct, moved to wrap his arms around Mugyeol’s neck—Crash! Yi-seon managed to shove Mugyeol away. It was the final shred of willpower squeezed out with every ounce of his strength.

Barely escaping Mugyeol’s embrace, Yi-seon stumbled aimlessly like someone intoxicated on narcotics before tangling with Mugyeol and falling straight to the floor. Under the violent collision, the large mirror shattered with a harsh roar.

Yi-seon collapsed onto his back on the entryway floor like a doll that had lost its will. Beneath the back of his head, Mugyeol’s palm was already cushioning him, and Mugyeol’s back, hovering over Yi-seon as if shielding him, protected him from the shower of broken glass shards.

Panting raggedly, Yi-seon looked up at Mugyeol. Beside Mugyeol’s shoulder, shards of broken glass rained down with a crisp clatter.

Mugyeol’s eyes were a chaotic blur of reason and instinct. His chest heaved violently with ragged breaths.

Gasp, pant…

Mugyeol’s damp gaze slowly raked over Yi-seon pinned beneath him: Yi-seon’s eyes, half-lidded and drenched in pheromones; his cheeks flushed crimson with arousal; his lips parting in ragged pants; and, contrary to his consumed instincts, the hand still struggling to push him away.

Yi-seon’s hand, which had been feebly pressing against Mugyeol’s chest, dropped limp to the floor before barely lifting once more. A hand devoid of any strength pushed uselessly against Mugyeol’s shoulder.

Over the scratch on Yi-seon’s cheek where a glass shard had grazed him, a small bead of blood welled up. Seeing that thin crimson line, a sudden gleam flashed in Mugyeol’s eyes.

Mugyeol clenched his fist around the shards of glass scattered beside him. Fresh crimson blood began to drip steadily from the hand sliced by the razor edges. At the sight of blood, the light in Mugyeol’s eyes sharpened with sudden clarity.

Soon, Yi-seon’s body was swept up into the air and carried away. Draped across Mugyeol’s arms, Yi-seon remained limp, unable to regain his senses. Then, Slam! With a loud crash, he was hurled somewhere, and as the pheromones dominating him disappeared, he finally planted his hands on the floor and slowly raised his head.

In his blurred vision, he saw a tightly shut bedroom door. Mugyeol had thrown Yi-seon into the room. Through his fading consciousness, he thought he heard Mugyeol’s voice telling him never to come out.

That was the last of his memories.

With Mugyeol’s harsh, grating voice as the final sound, Yi-seon lost consciousness.

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