By Zephyria 
In times like these, all one can do is drink. I stood there, taking a glass of champagne from the tray every time a waiter passed by, when suddenly someone spoke.
“Oh, this is one of my favorite songs.”
At her words, the husband beside her naturally wrapped his arm around his wife’s waist. The two of them began to dance, moving their bodies slowly to the music. I watched as several couples danced the blues to the rhythm, sipping my drink. For some reason, the music sounded as if it were coming from very far away. Perhaps it was because I was drunk. Thinking that, I handed my empty glass to the waiter and accepted a new one. It must have been an expensive vintage, yet strangely, I couldn’t taste a thing. How curious. I thought only that, blinking my hazy eyes.
As I tilted the glass again, it suddenly felt incredibly light. Looking inside, it was already empty. Just as I let out a short, hollow sigh—
Someone suddenly held out a glass of champagne. After blinking a couple of times, I looked up to find a man with a familiar face standing there. Who was he again? I frowned, searching my memory for a moment, but soon gave up and accepted the glass.
“Thank you.”
“Don’t mention it.”
The man spoke with a smile and lightly clinked his glass against mine. As he raised his glass slightly as if in a toast, making a small clink sound, I silently brought the drink to my lips.
“Aren’t you dancing?”
The man asked, as if he had been waiting for me to take the glass away from my mouth. After swallowing the alcohol down my throat, I spoke.
“Watching is enough for me.”
My tone was indifferent, devoid of any enthusiasm, but the man didn’t seem to mind. Stepping slightly closer, he leaned toward me as he spoke.
“As I thought, coming to a place like this alone is lonely. To be in a position where one can only watch.”
I didn’t feel much pity for myself, and this man seemed far removed from such emotions as well. If so, there could only be one reason for this play. As I sipped the champagne again, the jazz music played by the band reached my ears. Watching a few couples sway like seaweed waving underwater, I felt a sense of intoxication rising within me.
As I stared blankly, the man leaned in closer. I hesitated at the unnatural closeness of his body, but I didn’t push him away and remained as I was. It was simply that the alcohol had clouded my judgment, making me miss the timing to act immediately, but he seemed to gain confidence from that and stealthily placed his free hand on my waist. Pressing his body against mine explicitly, the man whispered in my ear.
“Isn’t it better to be two than one, after all?”
When I looked up at him with only my eyes, the man gave me a meaningful smile. The hand gripping my waist secretly caressed the surrounding area. This time, it was an undeniable and clear temptation. To pull such a stunt in a place like this—a faint warning bell seemed to ring in my dizzy, drunken head. Very few people knew that I was gay. Most Betas found it curious or strange that someone would be attracted to the same sex. My adoptive mother considered such people oddities and went as far as to find them loathsome, so I had lived my life hiding that fact as much as possible.
However, this was not ordinary society. Their own world, their own secrets. Everything that happened within these walls would be buried in secrecy. That was likely why this man could tempt me so explicitly. It must be an implicit rule.
But I wasn’t in the mood for that right now. Just as I was about to refuse him with a short sigh, I froze.
Beyond the people moving slowly, as if submerged in water, a man’s face suddenly came into view. Despite the distance, I could tell for certain that the man was looking at me. I blinked a few times, but nothing changed. Those deep purple eyes remained nailed to my face, not moving an inch.
Suddenly, an intensely sweet scent hit the tip of my nose. Of course, it was a hallucination. There was no way that I, a Beta, could smell that man’s pheromones from such a distance.
And yet, my throat suddenly went dry. I slowly tilted the glass and swallowed the champagne, but even then, my gaze remained fixed on the man’s face. Across the dreamy swaying of the people dancing in the hall, Nathaniel Miller and I simply stared at one another. Neither of us looked away first. We just stood there. As if time had stopped for the two of us alone.
Suddenly, I felt a breath against my ear. Only then did I belatedly realize the presence of the man beside me. The man’s aroused member pressed against me below my waist. His intention was obvious. As I slowly turned my head, the distance between us vanished instantly. He tilted his head as if he knew everything. Despite being drunk, I felt it acutely—that this entire scene was being captured, unfiltered, in Nathaniel Miller’s purple eyes.
I felt the excited breath of the man, whose name I couldn’t even properly remember, against my lips. Perhaps I wasn’t drunk at all back then. Because in that moment, I knew exactly what I was about to do.
“Mmm…”
The man let out a pleasant moan. Closing my eyes, I gazed down at the flushed man with hooded eyes and slowly licked his lips. It was, naturally, a calculated provocation. Not just for this man, but for the man with the purple eyes watching from afar.
With my eyelids closed, I lightly used my teeth to bite his lower lip, and the man, seemingly craving more, opened his mouth wide and covered my lips with his. His thick tongue hastily stirred inside my mouth. I deliberately leaned my body against him as our lips pressed together. The member that had been brushing against me swelled explicitly. Rubbing his lower body against mine, the man panted as he tugged at my shirt and caressed the exposed skin. It felt as if he might ejaculate from just the kiss if this continued a bit longer. It wasn’t a difficult feat.
However, just as his hasty hand tried to enter my trousers, I grabbed his shoulder, pushed him away, and stepped back. At the sudden loss of contact, the man looked at me with glazed eyes.
“…Huh?”
Looking at him panting with both cheeks flushed red, he reminded me of a dog in heat. I looked at the man with half-closed eyes and whispered.
“How about we continue this somewhere else?”
The man seemed not to understand for a moment, but fortunately, he didn’t take long. As if belatedly realizing where he was, he snapped back to his senses after a short silence. Fortunately, the focus in his eyes returned, but the glistening desire remained.