#47

“…The hospital?”

“I didn’t go because I was sick. I went to get a pheromone injection. Alpha pheromones.”

At the mention of pheromones, Shin Ho-jae instinctively furrowed his brow, prompting Kwon Jung-hyun to let out a short laugh and correct himself more clearly: ‘Alpha pheromones.’

“Maybe it’s because it’s a component my body doesn’t naturally have, but I always end up like this for about a day.”

A beat late, Ho-jae remembered the time Jung-hyun had requested pheromones to become an Alpha. He also recalled the uneasy feeling he had felt back then.

Had he been getting them consistently since then? …Even while his body suffered every single time?

For Shin Ho-jae, who prioritized physical condition above all else in any situation, it was something he could hardly understand.

“Is it… okay for your body?”

“Are you worried about me? I’m honored.”

Kwon Jung-hyun spoke lightly as he drank some water from the table. There was a premise in his tone that Shin Ho-jae would never actually worry about him, which left Ho-jae feeling strange.

Jung-hyun glanced at Shin Ho-jae’s face and then rolled up his shirt sleeve. A small bandage was attached to the inside of his left arm. It seemed he had put it there after the pheromone injection.

“What are pheromones actually like?”

He asked as he peeled off the bandage, then stopped as if remembering something. “Ah,” he started.

“Did you say asking things like this is rude? You don’t have to tell me if you don’t feel like it.”

Shin Ho-jae lowered his gaze slightly before looking back up and speaking. It wasn’t that he particularly didn’t want to.

“It’s hard to explain, but it’s a scent, yet I feel it with all five senses.”

“Hmm. So the way the media describes it isn’t entirely wrong. Then, Ho-jae, what does your pheromone smell like?”

“…Mine?”

“I know you didn’t tell me before. But I’m just curious.”

Shin Ho-jae remained silent for a moment.

Asking a trait-bearer about their pheromone scent was no different from asking about the size or shape of their genitals. That was why he had felt offended and refused when Jung-hyun first asked, but now that they had actually rubbed their genitals against each other, he wondered what the point of such modesty was.

“They said it smells like the ocean.”

“The ocean?”

Jung-hyun asked back with interest.

“To be precise, they said it’s like the ocean… with a cold, refreshing feeling, like metal.”

Trait-bearers perceive others’ pheromones much more strongly than their own. This is because pheromones are substances originally produced to encourage mating between trait-bearers.

Therefore, what he was saying now were words his parents had told him back when his pheromone control was still immature.

“A cold, refreshing ocean…”

Jung-hyun whispered the words slowly as if trying to imagine it, then looked at Ho-jae.

“Will the day come when I can feel it too?”

“…….”

Shin Ho-jae looked at Jung-hyun without a word. He probably hadn’t asked expecting an answer. The way he immediately wore a vacant, joking smile suggested as much.

“…Why do you keep getting them?”

It was then that a question he hadn’t intended to ask slipped out.

“Judging by the way you speak, it seems you don’t expect it to be effective.”

Previously, he had simply thought it was creepy that a man born with everything would try to obtain a trait as well.

But today, he suddenly felt there might be another reason. Perhaps it was because he heard a deep sense of resignation underlying Jung-hyun’s tone.

“There’s someone I want to meet the expectations of,” Jung-hyun said, meeting his eyes.

“Even if it’s not effective, if it’s something I can do, I want to do my best for them. It makes me feel more at peace, too.”

“…Even with the side effects?”

“Side effects? Ah, this? I just take some medicine and get some sleep, and I’m fine. If we’re talking about side effects, aren’t the suppressants that athletes take much stronger?”

Shin Ho-jae frowned slightly. In this context, the suppressants he was referring to were likely the heat suppressants that trait-bearers take.

The medication athletes took was a strong drug that suppressed their own heat as well as their sensitivity to others’ heat. Certainly, the side effects would be as severe as the effects compared to the suppressants general trait-bearers took, but Shin Ho-jae had never experienced them.

“As long as you follow the dosage, there aren’t really any side effects.”

“Is that so? I guess being dominant means you’re dominant in things like this too. People around me struggle quite a bit.”

“…….”

“What?”

“…No. You said ‘around you.’ Usually, people don’t talk about those things with Betas.”

“Well, even if they don’t say it, there are things you can see. How about you, Ho-jae? During your rut.”

Ho-jae lifted his eyes and met his gaze. Strangely, his mouth felt dry.

“I just get through it with medication. Like everyone else.”

“Not everyone does. There are Alphas who believe suppressing a rut with medication goes against the laws of nature.”

“…….”

“Well, to a Beta, it probably just looks like they want to have heat sex.”

Ho-jae suddenly felt his mood sink. He didn’t need to search for a reason why.

“Why did you suddenly stop talking?”

“…….”

Everything Kwon Jung-hyun said was unpleasant.

The natural way he spoke of ruts, the familiar attitude as if he had a whole ‘circle’ of such people. It meant he had dealt with many Alphas in rut.

A light and vulgar man.

There were more than enough reasons to dislike him.

Every fiber of his rationality was screaming NO.

“Want to do it?”

The voice came abruptly. When he looked up, Jung-hyun had reached out from where he sat and was slowly stroking up from Shin Ho-jae’s knee to his inner thigh.

His gaze was captured by the hand. The back of the hand, slightly redder than last time, the long fingers. In an instant, his lower abdomen tightened, and a dull pressure built up further down.

“I came here to do that anyway; the useless chatter went on too long.”

Shin Ho-jae let out a slow, low breath.

His rationality blurred at just those words. Ho-jae squeezed his eyes shut and then opened them. Now, all that remained before him was vivid desire.

“Haa, hu. There, a little more at the tip.”

“…….”

“Ah…!”

Kwon Jung-hyun’s face gradually flushed red. He brought the back of his hand to his mouth as if trying to suppress a moan. Holding back the sound seemed to be his habit.

Because of that, the sound was barely audible, but it couldn’t hide the signs of arousal blooming around his eyes. Shin Ho-jae instinctively curled the corners of his mouth.

The fact that the mouth that always spat out irritating words was changing color because of him fueled a light sense of possessiveness. Shin Ho-jae watched his face intently and increased the speed of his right hand.

Whenever they met at Kwon Jung-hyun’s house, he always ended up relieving the other man’s desire. As if there were no other reason to meet.

“Wait, too fas… hng, ugh.”

“…….”

“Ah…. hng, ugh…!”

The penis enveloped in his right hand trembled violently, and a cloudy liquid spurted from the tip. A pained sound escaped Kwon Jung-hyun’s lips.

The lukewarm liquid on his hand cooled quickly in the air. Unlike that, the heat inside Ho-jae did not cool easily. Ho-jae breathed in short gasps, following Kwon Jung-hyun’s lead as if trying to expel the heat.

Shin Ho-jae moved back slightly on his knees. The sight of the man’s naked body sprawled on the dark bed captured his attention. Every time Jung-hyun gasped for air, the semen pooled on his stomach shifted toward his indented navel.

Ho-jae now quite familiarly pulled a tissue from the nightstand and wiped the semen from his hand. With a fresh tissue, he carefully wiped Kwon Jung-hyun’s stomach.

Lying there, Jung-hyun watched Ho-jae silently with a languid expression. After wiping the white fluid from the navel and pulling his hand away, Ho-jae noticed some had also smeared on the man’s inner thigh. It seemed some had dripped from his hand.

Shin Ho-jae instinctively reached out to wipe it. He felt the skin, slightly damp with sweat, wrapping around his hand coolly and softly.

Ho-jae unconsciously cast his gaze further inside. The round scrotum, the reddish perineum, and the deeper place hidden by the buttocks…

As if possessed, Ho-jae slid his thumb slightly in that direction. Strangely, there was no repulsion. Perhaps it was because he had touched it once before.

Ho-jae remembered the secret parts of him he had fumbled with in the small hotel room. A very small hole that had twitched while tightly closed. Far from being promiscuous, it had seemed as if he had never harbored anyone’s member.

“…….”

Shin Ho-jae said nothing and only swallowed hard.

This was the third time the two had met at Jung-hyun’s house since that day. However, Kwon Jung-hyun, who had unhesitatingly asked him to fuck him, never demanded anything more from Shin Ho-jae.

It was surprising, considering how he always actively kissed him and pulled Shin Ho-jae’s hand toward his groin.

Then again, it would look strange if he were the one to step forward and suggest doing more. Wouldn’t that make it seem as if he were the one craving sex with Kwon Jung-hyun?

Shin Ho-jae stood up abruptly. It was to throw the crumpled tissues in his hand into the trash can.

Kwon Jung-hyun’s bedroom, like most, had a clean floor and bed, but the drawers and nightstand were quite messy with piles of things.

Shin Ho-jae found a small trash can under the nightstand and threw the tissues away. And it was then, as he turned around.

“Want me to suck it for you?”

Jung-hyun, still lying on the bed, asked.

The tone was so plain that Ho-jae momentarily didn’t understand and furrowed his brow. Then, Kwon Jung-hyun gestured with his chin toward Shin Ho-jae’s lower body and repeated himself.

“It looks like it hurts, down there.”

“…….”

The lower part of Shin Ho-jae’s cheeks turned slightly red.

At Kwon Jung-hyun’s request, he was shirtless, but he was still wearing the training pants he had arrived in. Since he was wearing grey today instead of his usual black, his heavy erection must have been obvious.

If he had known this would happen, he wouldn’t have put all his black pants in the washing machine. It was too late for regrets now. Shin Ho-jae was about to say it wasn’t necessary.

He intended to, but Kwon Jung-hyun was faster, sitting up and guiding Shin Ho-jae to sit on the edge of the bed.

The man knelt between Shin Ho-jae’s legs without hesitation. Shin Ho-jae barely managed to grab his wrist.

“…I’m, fine.”

“I’m human too, so my conscience pricks me if I’m the only one having fun.”

As he spoke, Kwon Jung-hyun easily pulled down Shin Ho-jae’s pants and underwear. Shin Ho-jae couldn’t resist. Or rather, he didn’t.

Jung-hyun pulled out the thickly swollen penis and immediately brought his lips to it. Seeing the red lips touch and pull away with a wet sound, the strength in Shin Ho-jae’s hand naturally faded.

As the grip on his wrist weakened, Jung-hyun used that hand to grasp the base of Shin Ho-jae’s shaft.

The penis erect as if piercing the sky and Kwon Jung-hyun’s face. The visual shock of a combination he had never thought of together was immense. Shin Ho-jae unconsciously placed a hand on his shoulder.

But he only touched him lightly; his other hand wandered aimlessly between his knee and chest. Seeing this, Kwon Jung-hyun took Shin Ho-jae’s hand and made him hold the back of his head.

“You can hold my hair.”

The black hair, touched with wax, tangled in his fingers. Even though he wasn’t doing anything, his palms became drenched in sweat.

Kwon Jung-hyun stuck out his tongue and sucked on Ho-jae’s scrotum. The feeling of the high bridge of the nose touching the depths of his groin—the sensation of a part that had never been touched by anyone being sucked into a moist place—was chillingly novel.

“It’s a bit awkward to say this after I was the one asking to be fucked, but…”

Kwon Jung-hyun spoke, releasing the scrotum he had been rolling with his tongue and licking the base. Every time he did, the feeling of his breath hitting him was electric.

“I’ve never had something this big inside me, so honestly, I’m a little scared.”

Having said that, Jung-hyun swept his tongue up the shaft from the base. Then, he abruptly took the tip, glistening with clear fluid, into his mouth.

His jaw muscles tightened. He felt as if an unbelievable moan would burst out if he opened his mouth.

Kwon Jung-hyun’s head moved slowly up and down. It felt as if he were thrusting his penis into a hot, damp, narrow cave. Fuck. Shin Ho-jae tilted his chin up and chewed on a curse in his mind.

48 – Puck Drop