By Zephyria To wash, he had to go to the bathroom, but since it was an old house built over 30 years ago, he had to leave the room and cross the floor to get to the bathroom. Ryu Jeong gathered the clothes to change into and peeked outside through the crack in the door. Lee Do-hyeon had said he would wait outside, but he was nowhere to be seen, as if he had gone out of the gate altogether.
Taking advantage of the gap, Ryu Jeong quickly ran into the bathroom. He would have had to heat water in the kitchen to wash with warm water, but there was no time for that now. Trembling, Ryu Jeong finished a quick shower and squeezed out a small amount of lotion, which he doesn’t usually apply, and applied it to his face. While doing so, he inadvertently looked in the mirror, and Ryu Jeong unknowingly gaped at his reflection.
“Huh…”
The small mirror, barely showing his face and neck, reflected a neck mottled with red marks. Ryu Jeong stopped applying lotion and groped his body. Looking around in a hurry, he couldn’t find a place without marks, not only on his neck but also on his chest, stomach, and thighs. Looking like he had been bitten by mosquitoes, Ryu Jeong was stunned for a moment, wondering what was going on, and then suddenly blushed.
All of them were places where Lee Do-hyeon’s lips had touched. As soon as he realized it, Ryu Jeong quickly averted his gaze from the mirror. He put his arms and legs into the clothes he had brought from the room, and roughly dried his wet hair just enough to remove the moisture. When he went to the room, put on his coat, and came out, Lee Do-hyeon, who had been pacing outside the gate, sensed his presence and came inside.
“Um, President, I’m all ready.”
“…Are you going like that?”
He didn’t seem to have left anything out, so why was he like this? As Ryu Jeong looked at him, puzzled, Lee Do-hyeon clicked his tongue.
“You’ll catch a cold.”
It wasn’t urgent, but Ryu Jeong wasn’t one to agree just because he said so. He knew that he would just say he was okay as he always had, so instead of telling him to go back and prepare properly, he pulled the hood on his coat and put it over his head.
“Let’s go now.”
“Ah, yes!”
Ryu Jeong followed Lee Do-hyeon, who went out first. He came out to the gate and belatedly realized that he had left the key behind, but Ryu Jeong was a little dazed by Lee Do-hyeon, who naturally took out the key and locked the door. Where did the key come from…? He could have asked, but he hesitated inwardly and missed the timing to ask, so it was glossed over.
Perhaps because his physical condition wasn’t very good, his pace was significantly slower than usual. Even though it was frustrating, Lee Do-hyeon slowly followed Ryu Jeong’s pace. He had offered to carry him on his back from the beginning, but Ryu Jeong refused in horror, so he couldn’t help it. Lee Do-hyeon kept watching Ryu Jeong as he walked down, worried that he might fall.
“Um, but President… aren’t you going to wash?”
A slightly awkward atmosphere lingered between the two. Only the sound of two footsteps, with similar speeds but different strides, could be heard in the alley. It was Ryu Jeong’s cautious question that broke the silence.
“I washed. While Ryu Jeong was sleeping.”
“Ah… the warm water… must have been uncomfortable since it doesn’t come out…”
“It was cool and nice, though. But does warm water not come out originally?”
“The plumbing is old…”
“Then how did Ryu Jeong wash?”
“Just… Ah, I usually boil it and mix it with cold water.”
Ryu Jeong trailed off. Lee Do-hyeon frowned slightly. He didn’t mind washing with cold water to wake himself up, but he didn’t feel good knowing that Ryu Jeong had washed with such icy water.
Should he just take him home? Lee Do-hyeon ground his teeth inwardly, unaware that he was planning a somewhat illegal act called kidnapping.
In the meantime, they came down the entire alley. The car was parked near the convenience store. Ryu Jeong, facing the convenience store, finally remembered that he had left the store unattended and didn’t know what to do. The Shop Owner would definitely be very angry.
Ryu Jeong anxiously glanced back at the convenience store as it moved further away. The Shop Owner would get angry at even minor mistakes, but he had left without locking up at night and had been absent without permission for two days, so this time he had a good reason to be fired.
“It’s legally okay for you not to go to work because of heat, so you don’t have to worry.”
“Ah…”
“First of all, Ryu Jeong should take care of your body. Your pheromones are still unstable, so tell me right away if you feel anything strange on the way. Got it?”
Lee Do-hyeon explained as if it were nothing, but it wasn’t reassuring at all. The Shop Owner didn’t know that he was an Omega, and even if he explained it well, he would say it was his problem and wouldn’t try to understand at all. He should run over there right now, kneel in front of the Shop Owner, and beg for forgiveness.
Even if he told Lee Do-hyeon, he wouldn’t turn the car around. What should he do…? While Ryu Jeong anxiously bit his lip, the car they were in drove out of the alley in Wolhyeon-dong. As the distance increased, the anxiety grew proportionally.
The place they arrived in Lee Do-hyeon’s car was a university hospital. Lee Do-hyeon skillfully crossed the site, which was divided into several buildings, and parked the car in the parking lot in front of one building.
Ryu Jeong, who got out following Lee Do-hyeon, looked up at the tall building and suddenly read the letters that seemed to be the name of the building in his mind. Trait Management Center. Ryu Jeong realized for the first time that such a place existed.
Contrary to his worries, his physical condition was fortunately good during the ride. However, it was like a time bomb that could explode at any moment, so not only Ryu Jeong but also Lee Do-hyeon couldn’t help but quicken their pace. Lee Do-hyeon led Ryu Jeong into the building and headed somewhere as if he had been there before, and stopped only when he reached a laboratory.
The name of the person who seemed to be the owner of the laboratory was hung at the entrance. While Ryu Jeong took in the name of the person he didn’t know, Lee Do-hyeon knocked briefly on the door. A man’s voice came from inside, saying, “Yes.” When he opened the door wide and entered, the man who had just gotten up from his seat greeted him with a delighted expression.
“It’s been a while, Professor. How have you been?”
“I’m always the same. You look good, President.”
Professor Kim Geon-yeong, a professor at the medical school and head of the Trait Management Center, was Lee Do-hyeon’s long-time doctor. He was quite close to him, as he received regular checkups whenever he showed signs of rut, or even if it wasn’t specifically because of rut, and he also had frequent interviews.
The professor, who had received a call from Chief Yoon, shook hands with Lee Do-hyeon and then noticed Ryu Jeong standing hesitantly, and his eyes widened in surprise. His sparse white eyebrows, along with his graying hair, seemed to wrinkle a little, but he soon relaxed his expression as if he understood and nodded. As the head of the Trait Management Center, the professor was also an Alpha.
“I wondered what was going on since you contacted me when it wasn’t rut season, but it seems the problem was with that person over there.”
At those words, Lee Do-hyeon also turned to look at Ryu Jeong. Ryu Jeong looked at Lee Do-hyeon with a face that didn’t understand what was going on, holding his hands tightly and looking at him desperately.
“Well, come with me, both of you.”
He hadn’t heard anything, but the professor knew exactly what to do. He finished speaking and immediately turned his back, but Ryu Jeong couldn’t follow and looked at Lee Do-hyeon as if it were natural. The professor was a kind-looking person and seemed to know Lee Do-hyeon, but he was a stranger to Ryu Jeong, so he couldn’t bring himself to move.
“It’s okay.”
Lee Do-hyeon, who read the fear in Ryu Jeong’s eyes, put his arm around Ryu Jeong’s shoulder. The weight that heavily pressed down on his shoulder and the pheromones emanating from him slightly reduced the trembling.
Following the professor, he pushed open the door inside the laboratory, and a space that looked like a consultation room appeared. The professor guided Ryu Jeong to an empty hospital bed and told him to lie down comfortably, then headed to the opposite side. Ryu Jeong took off his shoes, glancing at the busy professor who was making clattering noises as if preparing something.
“Ryu Jeong may not know, but your pheromones are still unstable. Pheromones only settle down stably after heat or rut is completely over, but Ryu Jeong’s heat isn’t over yet. If we let it end naturally, it will be hard for Ryu Jeong, so I brought you here to quickly calm it down with suppressants.”
Lee Do-hyeon, who had pulled up a chair and sat down, explained the situation in a gentle voice. Ryu Jeong listened quietly to what Lee Do-hyeon was saying and nodded as if he understood. He was saying in a roundabout way that it would be difficult to keep doing lewd things until it subsided. His face flushed a little when he realized that, but the embarrassment didn’t last long thanks to the professor’s quick return.
The professor, who had brought something on a silver tray, gave several instructions, such as taking off his coat and rolling up his sleeves. Ryu Jeong obediently followed his instructions. Soon, a disinfectant cotton ball touched his arm. The professor chuckled lightly at his flinch at the coldness.
“It must have been hard to come all the way here.”
“Ah… yes…”
“Would you like to clench and unclench your fist? It’ll sting a little.”
At those words, Ryu Jeong turned his head to the other side with a nervous face. He was a little scared, perhaps because he hadn’t had many injections in his life, but the pain was more bearable than he thought, so he felt a little embarrassed.
The doctor, who quickly and skillfully inserted the needle, continued to explain as he hung the IV bag on the pole.
“This is a suppressant, and this is a nutritional IV. To get it all in… are you busy today?”
“I’m fine.”
“Then I’ll let it go in slowly, so take a nap and wake up. It’ll take about an hour.”
“Thank you, Professor.”
“Don’t mention it.”
Lee Do-hyeon, who answered everything on his behalf, bowed his head to the professor. Ryu Jeong, who was trying to raise his upper body following him, awkwardly lay back down at the professor’s dissuasion to get some sleep.
As the medicine flowed little by little through his blood vessels, he felt his strangely hazy mind becoming clearer. Ryu Jeong glanced up at the IV bag hanging high and tried to put the arm with the needle inserted on his stomach, but put it back in its original position. For some reason, it felt like the medicine wouldn’t go in well if he put it on his stomach.
Lee Do-hyeon, who had sat down by the bed again, stared intently at Ryu Jeong. Just as the awkwardness that they hadn’t felt when they were both excited and doing such things was starting to creep in, Lee Do-hyeon reached out and covered Ryu Jeong’s eyes. In an instant, his vision went dark, and Ryu Jeong, flustered by the warm body temperature felt on his eyelids, moved his lips.
“President…?”
“Take a nap as the professor said. You must be tired. You haven’t been sleeping well lately.”
Ryu Jeong rolled his eyes under his closed eyelids. He was tired, but he was filled with worry that Lee Do-hyeon might leave first if he fell asleep. He was a busy person, and he felt sorry for wasting his time because of him, so Ryu Jeong carefully opened his mouth with a lot of apologetic feelings. He was even more careful because he couldn’t see his face.
“What about you, President…?”
“I’m not going anywhere. I can’t just leave after bringing you all the way here. I won’t go, so don’t worry and sleep. After you’re done, let’s go eat something delicious.”
Something delicious… Come to think of it, he hadn’t eaten anything. Ryu Jeong swallowed hard at the hunger he had forgotten and obediently nodded. As he lay still with Lee Do-hyeon’s hand as an eye patch, he fell asleep in an instant.