Chapter 29

“Hey, it’s not like I’ve got some weird motive. As you know, my manifestation has been dragging on for an entire year. Just think of it as saving a dying man… and give me a pheromone shower, all right?” Taeju coaxed.

“No, I can’t. I’m sorry, but I’ve never done anything like that,” Rian refused firmly.

“Haa, it’s not about whether you’ve done it before… Just do what you usually do. Show me your bottom and release a heavy burst of pheromones,” Taeju pressed, exasperated.

“…I’m sorry,” Rian repeated quietly.

“Phew, playing damn hard to get… It’s not like you’ve got something between your legs that shouldn’t be there,” Taeju grumbled under his breath.

Though Rian flinched inward at the thoughtless remark, he fought to keep his expression blank. The mere concept was utterly horrifying. To imagine Kim Taeju laying eyes on his lower anatomy.

Rian could not fathom what on earth he had done wrong for Kim Taeju to treat him like this.

“There are plenty of other Omegas out there!” Rian shouted in frustration.

Rian’s outburst brimmed with shrill irritability. Yet watching this pint-sized guy snap back with such defiant spirit only made Taeju’s groin throb with heavy, mounting arousal rather than annoyance.

Without a doubt, Kwon Rian’s every subtle expression and gesture stimulated Taeju. That included the stubborn defiance refusing to break, despite Rian’s gentle, docile appearance.

Taeju shrugged with nonchalant arrogance. “Fine, whatever. It’s no fun if it’s too easy.”

“What… are you talking about?” Rian asked warily.

“I’m saying,” Taeju drawled with a lazy smirk, “if you won’t give permission, there’s nothing I can do.”

“…Haa. Thank you for understanding,” Rian murmured with a breath of relief.

Taeju reasoned that he could hardly force the issue inside this house anyway. Stepping back for now was the wisest move. It was disappointing, but it could not be helped. He grumbled internally that showing a glimpse between his legs was hardly that big of a deal.

Only then did Kim Taeju finally step back from Rian. Heading over to the sink, Taeju washed his hands. In the mirror’s reflection, Taeju caught sight of Kwon Rian letting out a long breath of relief, prompting Taeju to scoff derisively.

Right, that’s better than acting like a slut. In Taeju’s mind, visions of the near future danced vividly—stripping the Omega Kwon Rian completely naked and fucking him senseless, while Rian clung to Taeju, begging him to thrust deeper… pleading to be drenched in Taeju’s pheromones. When that day came, Taeju intended to douse Rian’s hole in copious amounts of pheromones to make up for all this restraint, pounding him until his passage was thoroughly wrecked.

Framing it that way settled Taeju’s impatient agitation. He could afford to wait. Granted, there was one person who grated on his nerves in a bizarre way… but if Taeju simply chalked it up to an overbearing, eccentric family looking out for their own, he could let it slide.

Through the mirror, Kwon Rian was stealing cautious sideways glances at Taeju.

Only after Taeju finished washing his hands and dried them on a towel did he reach out and turn the restroom doorknob.

Click—

Intending to walk out without a second thought, Taeju suddenly froze in his tracks the instant the door opened. As a result, Rian, who had been following close behind, bumped his forehead lightly against Taeju’s back.

“Ah! Why did you—?” Rian began.

Rubbing his forehead, Rian peeked his head out from behind Taeju’s shoulder. There, standing directly in front of the doorway and staring at the two of them, was Yu-gyeom.

“Hyung?” Rian called out softly.

How long had he been standing there? An uncomfortable, stiff smile spread across Kim Taeju’s face.

“What were the two of you doing in there?” Yu-gyeom asked.

Asking point-blank, Yu-gyeom wore an expression that was thoroughly frozen in cold severity.

Rian wrung his hands, stammering falteringly, “Hyung-ah, the thing is…”

“Rian, would you go wait in your room?” Yu-gyeom said.

Rian gasped in shock, blurting out, “…Huh?!”

Yu-gyeom spoke with the weight of an absolute command. Intimidated by the overwhelming pressure in Yu-gyeom’s tone and glare, Rian shrank back, standing frozen in place. Yet seeing Rian linger there looked as though he was using Kim Taeju as a human shield to hide behind, which twisted Yu-gyeom’s temper all the more.

Kwon Rian’s slight frame was almost completely hidden from view. Irritation flared from every angle. Yet the moment Yu-gyeom realized how severe his expression had become, he swiftly rearranged his features.

“Taeju, you may go back to your meal,” Yu-gyeom said pleasantly.

“Why are you giving me orders?” Taeju retorted.

“Did that sound like an order?”

Taeju scoffed, his gaze unyielding. “Yes. Your tone is rather offensive.”

“That’s the first time anyone has ever told me my tone was offensive…” Yu-gyeom murmured softly.

Kim Taeju offered a leisurely, mocking sneer. His intention was to bait Yu-gyeom, stripping away the polite mask to drag his true nature into the open. Yet Yu-gyeom merely pressed a hand against his own forehead, lifted his head, and let out a faint chuckle.

Yu-gyeom offered a placid, seamless smile. “I’m often told how tender and sweet I am, but if Taeju took offense, then as Rian’s hyung, I apologize.”

Noticing how subtly the crux of the issue had been twisted, Kim Taeju knitted his brow.

“Rian, I told you to go upstairs to your room,” Yu-gyeom said, turning to him.

Rian hesitated, mumbling in a small voice, “Hyung, but… my friends are still eating, and I’m hungry too…”

“Rian,” Yu-gyeom called, his voice dropping low.

Looking down at Rian with eyes that silently demanded How dare you, Yu-gyeom was utterly resolute. Within his lowered gaze swirled an icy, menacing chill.

Taeju smirked sarcastically. “And here you were bragging about how sweet you are…”

“Student Taeju,” Yu-gyeom addressed him coldly.

Yu-gyeom could restrain himself no longer. That icy severity pivoted squarely toward Kim Taeju. In truth, Yu-gyeom had found Taeju’s half-baked, unrefined pheromones disgusting from the very beginning. Ever since Rian’s friends had arrived, there was no way Yu-gyeom could have failed to detect the foreign impurity tainting the air alongside his own and Rian’s pheromones.

Yu-gyeom had identified the scent precisely as the pheromones of another Alpha. The brazen audacity of Kim Taeju continuously spraying pheromones toward Rian was utterly infuriating, yet Yu-gyeom had endured it with utmost patience until now.

How dare he touch Rian.

Yu-gyeom ground his molars together. Rage surged violently through his veins. The overwhelming urge to snap the punk’s neck right this instant hammered against his chest. Thump, thump, thump.

Yet Yu-gyeom swiftly recovered a composed facade and stepped toward Taeju. An unbearable aura and suffocating pressure radiated from Yu-gyeom as he closed in. Because Yu-gyeom was taller and more broadly built, Taeju was forced to tilt his head slightly upward to meet Yu-gyeom’s eyes.

“Wh-What is it?” Taeju stammered.

Kim Taeju, who had behaved with such insolent arrogance until now, unconsciously took a step backward. Rian still stood behind him.

Stepping right into Taeju’s personal space, Yu-gyeom looked past Taeju’s shoulder directly at Kwon Rian while whispering into Taeju’s ear. Yu-gyeom’s gaze was as vicious as a viper’s, and his voice moved past chilly into something downright sinister.

Leaning right past his ear with a vicious, venomous gaze, Yu-gyeom whispered, “Student Taeju, stop reeking with your filthy stench and go home.”

“…Wh-What?!” Taeju spluttered in disbelief.

“You’re an anomaly, and you disgust me. I can’t stomach it any longer,” Yu-gyeom stated venomously.

“Are you—are you insane?!” Taeju shouted.

Taeju cried out, a sudden wash of acute shame flooding his face. An anomaly… How could he possibly know I’m an anomaly?

Feeling as though his deepest vulnerability had been ruthlessly laid bare, Taeju gritted his teeth audibly. This guy is an absolute lunatic.

The corners of Yu-gyeom’s lips curled upward. He had merely recalled snippets of conversation the friends had traded among themselves earlier about Taeju. Yu-gyeom had never expected Kim Taeju to unravel in such panic, as if his deepest secret had been seized.

Watching from behind, Rian clapped a trembling hand over his mouth in shock. A terrifying sense of dissonance emanated from his brother’s expression and tone. What sent an even deeper chill down Rian’s spine was the fact that Yu-gyeom—who had just been threatening Taeju with venomous menace—turned to meet Rian’s eyes and instantly beamed with radiant, affectionate warmth, as if nothing had happened at all.

[END of VOLUME 1]