By Zephyria 
“Do you even have any common sense?”
As soon as they arrived at a secluded empty lot where no one was around, Dane released Grayson as if throwing him away. Grayson, who had been dragged along obediently by Dane, faltered but quickly regained his balance. Dane waited for him to stand upright before speaking. But the moment he was about to open his mouth, he frowned.
Grayson was looking down at him with a bright smile, his cheeks flushed a rosy red.
What are you thinking, you bastard?
Dane inwardly cursed as he spat out the words, and Grayson paused. The answer came out only after two or three seconds.
“What?”
It was just a single word, but Dane quickly poured out his thoughts.
“If someone is hanging on a wall, you have to rescue them, no matter the reason. No one in the world would say what you said. They might think it, but they shouldn’t say it out loud.”
He thought he had explained it as simply as possible, but what happened next was unexpected. He was preparing to retort, imagining he would receive words like, ‘Why?’ or ‘Who cares?’ But Grayson opened his mouth.
“Ah……”
The blush disappeared from his face, and the corners of his mouth turned down. Seeing the expression on his face, which clearly showed disappointment, Dane naturally frowned.
“What’s with that reaction?”
At the curt tone, Grayson drooped his shoulders and mumbled in a listless voice.
“Just for something like that……”
“Just?”
Dane stared at him, dumbfounded. As expected, he was dealing with someone who couldn’t understand him at all. It was his mistake to even try to have a conversation with this man in the first place. Dane readily accepted his error. Anyway, he had managed to handle the situation. He was satisfied just with having defused the situation before another troublesome event occurred, and he tried to leave.
“Wait a minute.”
Suddenly, Grayson called out to him from behind. Turning around with an unpleasant expression, he saw Grayson frowning and staring at him.
“Is that all?”
“Yeah.”
At the short reply, Grayson looked dumbfounded, as if he couldn’t believe it, but soon his brow furrowed.
“You dragged me all the way here just to say that? Just?”
He repeated the same word several times, raising and lowering his hands. Seeing that reaction, this time Dane was at a loss for words.
“What the hell were you expecting, you crazy bastard? What else would you and I be doing in a place like this?”
At the blunt rebuke, Grayson let out a short sigh. Seeing that reaction, something that had been lurking ominously in Dane’s mind suddenly took shape. Soon, he stood askew with his weight on one leg, looking at Grayson with a scowl.
“Don’t tell me, you thought I was going to do something… like that with you here?”
The corners of Grayson’s mouth lifted, and that damned blush returned. Shit, this crazy bastard! Dane clenched his fist tightly, trembled in the air, and then dropped it, saying,
“That’s not going to happen. As I said before, that was an accident, and it won’t happen again, so get it out of your head, got it?”
He then added sarcastically.
“Losing your memory is a characteristic of you Dominant Alphas, isn’t it? It’s weird for you anyway, so it’s definitely possible, right?”
Dane, who pointedly tapped his head with his second finger, regretted it as soon as he turned around. Was it really necessary to say that much? Because of a useless sliver of guilt, Dane glanced back and paused. Grayson was stroking his chin with one hand as if lost in thought, staring intently into the air.
“What are you doing?”
Feeling an ominous premonition, he asked without realizing it. As soon as Dane showed interest, Grayson’s eyes sparkled as if nothing had happened just now, and he replied.
“I was calculating how much more Pheromone I need to accumulate to lose my memory, since you need to have a certain amount.”
Dane was dumbfounded by that answer alone, but it didn’t end there. Regardless of Dane’s reaction, who was blinking in bewilderment, Grayson continued, this time pretending to be serious.
“You used up almost all of my Pheromone last time, so it seems like it will take quite a while to accumulate enough to lose my memory. What should I do? This is troublesome.”
“Ha.”
Following the short sigh, Dane immediately regretted it. What guilt was he feeling for a guy like that? He was the stupid one.
He turned around with a curse, but suddenly he wondered. Does this man really not know emotions at all, not even a little? Frowning, he turned back. As soon as his eyes met Grayson’s, who was still looking at him, Dane still grimacing, asked.
“Have you ever felt sad or happy, or anything like that?”
Grayson just blinked at Dane, as if asking what that was.
“I mean……”
Was this how Sullivan felt when she was trying to teach Helen Keller what water was?
Dane felt a sense of despair as he tried to explain the meaning of what he had said. How on earth had this guy interacted with other people? Thinking that far, he soon realized. All the Dominant Alphas were like this, so it wouldn’t have been difficult.
“You know what’s scary, right?”
When Dane pointed that out, Grayson tilted his head again. Dane felt his chest tighten again and asked.
“How did you feel when I fucked you?”
This time, he spoke with certainty, recalling how he had screamed in terror.
But this time too, Grayson showed a completely different reaction. With a sigh of excitement, Grayson’s face flushed again.
“It was good.”
Dane was so flustered that he gaped. For the first time, he was speechless. He shook his head violently and quickly regained his composure.
“No, before that. When you were running away.”
He desperately continued, trying to elicit the answer he was guiding him towards.
“You said you didn’t like being raped. Don’t you remember? Think carefully about what you felt then.”
Remember, remember. He repeated inwardly, now with a sense of mission.
“Ah.”
Had he finally realized it this time? Dane’s expression brightened, but of course, he was mistaken. Grayson still said with an excited face.
“I don’t remember, it was too good afterwards.”
“You fucking, goddamn!”
Dane ended up kicking the tree next to him with a bang. Was it a mistake to even try to teach this guy something in the first place? How on earth did this man’s parents raise this bastard? It became difficult to distinguish whether he should admire the greatness of his parents or curse them for raising their child like this and sending him out into the world, when Grayson opened his mouth.
“What I felt then, wasn’t it joy or happiness, something like that?”
Seeing his seriously furrowed brow, Dane suddenly felt a surge of anger. Recalling that even that anxious face was just a pretense, he felt as if he had encountered a huge wall.
“It’s different, you idiot. That’s just sexual pleasure. Or dopamine exploding from Pheromone release!”
Dane, who had spat out the words roughly, rubbed his throbbing forehead with one hand. What could he possibly use to make that guy understand? Thinking that far, he impulsively opened his mouth.
“You……”
He stopped, about to ask what it was like when he was trapped in the basement. He thought it was too cruel a question, even if he couldn’t know what Grayson Miller felt about that incident.
“Haa.”
Dane looked up at the sky and sighed deeply. Suddenly, everything felt futile. What was the point of all this?
“Okay, let’s stop.”
Dane mumbled in a voice that had lost all its energy and turned around. He shouldn’t do such futile things again. It was wrong from the start to waste his energy on someone else’s affairs like this.
“Dane……”
It was when Grayson called his name. He was about to say something, but he wasn’t given the time. Almost simultaneously, Dane’s cell phone rang, and Dane checked his cell phone without hearing Grayson’s voice.
ACT
5G 57%
no name
XXX-XXX-XXXX
Tilting his head at the unknown number, he soon pressed the call button.
“Hello.”
Thinking that he would hang up immediately if it was spam, he replied briefly, but silence returned from the other side. What? This is. Just as Dane, frowning, was about to hang up, the other party spoke just in the nick of time.
Um, hello…… Hello.
“Who is this?”
When Dane asked abruptly, she swallowed nervously as if she was nervous, and then asked in a trembling voice.
Um, last time…… um, you said you would go to the hospital with me…… right……?
Dane paused at the weak voice filled with anxiety. His slowing footsteps soon stopped in their tracks.