By Zephyria 
Koi, frozen in place, continued to listen to Ash.
“Koi is rejecting me, but that can’t be. Koi loves me. Right? You only love me, don’t you?”
Ash smiled. Koi’s eyes stung at the sight of the boy’s face, smiling as purely as he always did.
“That’s not it.”
Koi barely held back the tears that threatened to spill.
“I’m not trying to reject you. You know my heart. You’ve been my everything. I’ve only ever loved you.”
A tear, brimming with emotion, finally fell. Koi blinked rapidly, trying to focus as he continued.
“The reason I didn’t emit pheromones was just because I was immature. Because I couldn’t control it. I didn’t even know when I was emitting them and when I wasn’t. Isn’t that obvious? I can’t smell.”
Koi wiped away the tears with his arm and added, as if lamenting,
“So how could I control my pheromones on purpose? I just hoped. I just hoped you wouldn’t hate me. Because you… you have seizures when you smell omega pheromones.”
Koi confessed, pressing his lips to Ash’s hand.
“You’re the only one I love. I’ve only ever loved you.”
I know, Ash smiled again.
“Father and Bernice are all wrong. See, you came. Koi would never abandon me. I’m all Koi has. Right?”
Just like me.
“Ash.”
Koi swallowed his sobs and called his name. But he couldn’t say anything more. What could he say? How could he soothe Ash’s deep wounds? How could he?
How could he do it?
Koi couldn’t hold back and hugged Ash tightly. How could he emit pheromones? He should have asked Angel about that, why was he so stupid to only ask how to hide them?
〈You have to hypnotize yourself.〉
Angel’s words suddenly came to mind. He had smiled as he called it a spell to hide pheromones. If that was the case, wouldn’t the opposite be possible?
Koi closed his eyes tightly with a desperate heart. Please, if I can really emit pheromones, no, I can. Please, come out.
Let my heart reach Ash.
Please.
“I love you, Ash.”
It was when he whispered desperately. Suddenly, a strange sensation was faintly felt. Koi paused at the strange feeling, like a tingling at his fingertips. It was the first time he had ever felt this. His heart pounded and his pulse raced. Koi’s eyes widened at the unfamiliar experience, as if everything in front of him was brightening.
*
The fog-like haze in his head gradually cleared. Ash lifted his head, feeling strange. The surroundings were still empty. He looked around the deserted station once, then checked beside him again. Koi was looking up at him. Relieved to see his face, Ash smiled and hugged him.
It’s okay, Koi is here.
By my side.
With a sense of pride and satisfaction, he slowly opened his eyes. Koi’s face, caught in his vision, felt somehow blurry. He blinked a few more times to focus, and then unconsciously frowned at the image that gradually became clearer. It was definitely Koi, but it didn’t feel like Koi. Koi’s tears, which had been welling up, fell onto his cheeks, and his vision became completely clear.
Koi is crying.
Ash blinked blankly. That’s strange, why is he suddenly crying? Besides, until just now, he was with Koi at the train station, but where he was now was a completely different place. He was surprised to be lying in a place that looked like a closet with his head on Koi’s lap, but what surprised him the most was his face. Seeing him so much more mature in such a short time, Ash was momentarily confused. But it didn’t take him long to realize what had happened to him.
“Ash!”
Koi shouted in panic. But Ash had already jumped up and moved away from him. Koi realized that Ash had completely come to his senses at his reaction, which was full of wariness. Soon, Koi’s eyes filled with tears again.
“Ash, are you okay?”
Koi hurriedly wiped away his tears with his arm and continued, delighted.
“Thank goodness, I was worried… Are you okay now? Are you really back? Huh?”
He kept asking, but Ash didn’t answer easily. Instead, he frowned and checked his surroundings, then turned away from Koi and asked back.
“What happened? Why are you here?”
Koi’s heart ached at the sharp tone, but he tried to act as if nothing was wrong and answered.
“Miss Bernice told me.”
He took a deep breath and confessed honestly.
“She said you’d be here, and that you’d tell me everything now.”
He tried not to cry, but his nose tingled again. Koi confessed in a trembling voice.
“I didn’t know you were still waiting for me there.”
Ash didn’t answer. He just swept his hair back with a complicated expression. It was strange. After having a seizure like that, his head was always more dazed than usual and his memories were jumbled, but that wasn’t the case now. On the contrary, he felt more refreshed and lighter than ever before. What on earth was going on?
When he thought that far, he paused. The scent he hadn’t noticed until later awakened Ash. A refreshing yet soft fragrance. The fragrance that filled the surroundings as if to comfort him.
It was an omega’s pheromone.
“……!”
Instantly, Ash reflexively covered his nose and mouth. His heart pounded and his pulse beat erratically. He braced himself for the nausea and pain that would soon come, tensing every nerve in his body, but nothing happened.
Of course. Because the owner of these pheromones was none other than the one Ash had longed for his entire life.
Ash slowly lowered his hand that had been covering his nose and mouth. Koi immediately understood the situation at Ash’s reaction, who was looking at him with an unbelievable expression.
“Ash.”
Koi called him, unable to hide the excitement in his trembling voice.
“Can you feel it? My pheromones? I did it?”
He couldn’t confirm it himself, but Ash’s reaction was more than certain. But Koi’s expression, overjoyed, and Ash’s expression were the complete opposite. There was no doubt what this scent was. Ash also acknowledged that it was an omega’s pheromone. But he also knew that Koi was an omega. And that he didn’t have seizures from Koi’s scent.
But the unexpected thing was something else. Ash couldn’t believe what was happening to him now. He looked down at his hands with trembling eyes. He looked up at the ceiling, then swept his hair back again. But nothing changed.
He knew this feeling. That refreshing feeling he had felt the day after he first held Koi. The feeling of that day, when his head was clearer than ever before, awakened him. At the time, he had thought it was just because he had slept well, but it wasn’t.
〈Koi is an extreme omega.〉
Ariel’s voice was revived, and Ash soon realized. He opened his mouth and closed it again, barely squeezing out a sound. His voice trembled wildly for a completely different reason than Koi’s.
“Did you, take my pheromones?”