By Zephyria 
“Alright, Director. You might feel some pain, but it won’t last long.”
The faint pheromones of Joo Tae-hyun that had lingered in the room, the scent of a cool forest, were vanishing without a trace. The pheromone extractor, working furiously, seemed to have given up on digesting Seo Baek-han’s thick scent, and was instead selectively sucking up only Joo Tae-hyun’s fragrance, the spiteful thing.
As he struggled to grasp even a handful of Joo Tae-hyun’s remaining scent, Prince Lee’s blunt advice suddenly came to mind.
He had told him to beg Joo Tae-hyun unconditionally, to prostrate himself in repentance.
He felt like he could do it, if he had to. The problem was, he couldn’t guarantee that Joo Tae-hyun would even look back at him if he did.
Seo Baek-han felt a deep sense of helplessness for the first time.
What if he had realized his feelings before Joo Tae-hyun had to suffer so much? He had always looked down on people who wished they could turn back time, but he never thought he would be doing the same.
“Director, don’t move! Hold him properly!”
“Yes, Professor!”
In an instant, pain struck him from all sides, as if stars were bursting. He should come to his senses at this point. If he was in this state, was Joo Tae-hyun really alright? He should advise them to check on him first, but his eyes kept closing.
Seo Baek-han, coldly mocking himself for being so helpless, barely realized something important just before his consciousness faded. A huge realization, incomparable to the helplessness he had tasted for the first time or the denial of his contradictory emotions, pierced through Seo Baek-han’s heart.
That he was also experiencing, for the first time in his life, what it was like to genuinely like someone.
When Joo Tae-hyun had confessed that he was his first love in the past, he hadn’t felt a thing, but now that things had come to this, the truth was…
Joo Tae-hyun was also his first love.
“Fucking hell!”
Kim Seung-jun screamed and threw his phone to the floor. The drug addict foreigner next door complained about the noise, but he didn’t care about that right now.
The way things were turning out was ominous.
He was already going crazy because Joo Tae-hyun had announced that he was actually an Omega undergoing a transformation and that he was pregnant, but now that bastard Seo Baek-han had gone and caused an accident too.
“Talk about Joo Tae-hyun, you trash reporters!”
It was clear that they had dragged out the Young Master, since mentioning the son of a small-to-medium-sized company smaller than DH wouldn’t get them anywhere. On top of that, Kang Bu-nam, that ignorant old man, had blurted out his name in front of the cameras, so all the arrows that had been aimed at Joo Tae-hyun had turned towards him.
Kim Seung-jun felt wronged to the point of madness. His past photos, detailed history, and even his frequently used IDs were being thoroughly exposed, making him a laughingstock to the entire nation. Even at this moment, internet posts that he didn’t even remember writing were being dug up one after another.
To make matters worse, his father had announced that he had never had such a son and that they had been estranged for a long time, clearly drawing a line.
“Whether I collect watches or spend a lot of money, what’s so… Ah, right. This kind of article is better. Calls for the Crown Prince’s abdication.”
Now that things had come to this, Kim Seung-jun hoped that the Crown Prince would be dethroned.
Now, there wasn’t even any mention of Seo Baek-han being the first to sue the Crown Prince. All sorts of corruption that the Crown Prince had accumulated over a long period of time were being exposed one by one. In the midst of important national affairs, what did his fate as a commoner matter?
If his name was buried like this, then his father, even though he had spoken harshly, would take some responsibility. For the sake of his and the company’s future.
Well, as for that Thomas or whatever dying… who would even care about that? A sewer rat who secretly hid and sold drugs.
“Ha… but damn it, who am I supposed to hold responsible for my shitty mood?”
Kim Seung-jun frantically rummaged through his cigarette pack. But it was empty, without even a sail, and he didn’t have the money to buy new cigarettes. At this rate, he would have to go to Koreatown and do illegal part-time work.
“Joo Tae-hyun, if I could just run into him once…”
It wasn’t that he was going to directly harm him, like he had planted people at the academic conference. Apart from wanting to beat Joo Tae-hyun to death, he was thinking of ending things nicely through conversation.
Kim Seung-jun was confident that he could take full advantage of the fact that he was a U.S. citizen and bring in paparazzi who were even more vicious than the domestic media. It would also be good to contact a publisher and turn this into a book.
After all, it was true that Joo Tae-hyun had touched the dirty switch. Since he seemed to be the only one who knew the truth, he would be the only one to widely publicize Joo Tae-hyun’s disgusting deception to the whole country, no, the whole world.
But if they gave him a wad of cash as a gag order before things got that big… as a poor commoner suffering from financial difficulties, he was willing to keep his mouth shut for a while. If that happened, wouldn’t it be a happy ending for everyone?
“What the hell.”
The screen of the phone that had been rolling on the floor was flashing, so he quickly looked at it, but it wasn’t a call from his father that he had been waiting for, but an article related to the keyword he had set up.
A third-rate internet media company that he had never heard of was talking about Joo Tae-hyun’s future.
“Ugh. Now everything is, uh…?”
Kim Seung-jun’s hand, which had been about to vent his anger on the innocent phone, stopped.
“Ha, haha! Yes! The heavens always side with the righteous!”
An article stating that Joo Tae-hyun was planning to stay in the United States for the time being for rest and treatment had been uploaded and quickly deleted.
The fact that there was no correction being issued meant that some clueless bastards had blabbed about a top-secret matter and gotten their asses kicked.
“So, that bastard Joo Tae-hyun is planning to run away to the United States soon…”
The drug addict next door was kicking the wall as if he couldn’t stand it anymore. He would have retaliated without backing down, but Kim Seung-jun decided to generously forgive the drug addict.
Because it was a good day to do so.
“H-hello…”
Cheon Seung-pil, who had shrunk his neck like a turtle, hesitantly entered the room. He shuddered at the sight of the multiple deodorizing machines, as if they were threatening him.
“H-how are you feeling? I heard you suddenly had a rut, no, it burst…”
“Not good. I got stabbed and had surgery, and then this happened.”
When he replied with a bright smile, Cheon Seung-pil’s chest swelled and then deflated. It seemed like he had swallowed a sigh. Judging by the fact that he had no intention or ability to hide it from the other person, Cheon Seung-pil was definitely a Young Master.
The thought of dealing with someone as frustrating and slow as Cheon Seung-pil after having Joo Tae-hyun, who had been fiercely contemplating what he needed to do to become a person worthy of the name DH, by his side, already made him feel like his chest was tightening.
“Where’s Tae-hyun?”
“Well… he’s quiet. He seems to be reading a book.”
“He didn’t say he was in pain? Or cry, or anything?”
Cheon Seung-pil nodded awkwardly, as if he was asking why he was asking all this.
“But Hyung, why did you call me? I thought all the misunderstandings caused by the strange articles had been cleared up… Tae-hyun and I really have nothing going on.”
“I know.”
“Then what’s-.”
“Bring me some of Joo Tae-hyun’s clothes.”
“Excuse me?”
Seo Baek-han, who had suddenly taken over the hotel room that Joo Tae-hyun was supposed to stay in, took action as soon as he came to his senses. He had been given an emergency suppressant yesterday, but the aftereffects of the rut hadn’t completely subsided. However, he had no intention of lying in bed and wasting precious time.
He still didn’t know what to do. So he decided to do whatever he could. Maybe he would find the answer that way.
“Tae-hyun’s clothes? Why?”
“I need Tae-hyun’s pheromones. No, I desperately need them. You may not know it, but being mutually imprinted is like that. And give my clothes to Tae-hyun too. He’ll need them.”
“Huh? But Tae-hyun is imprinted with Hyung…”
“The imprinting isn’t completely broken. It’s just that Tae-hyun’s body is exhausted from everything that’s happened, so he’s temporarily unable to recognize my pheromones.”
Uncharacteristically, Seo Baek-han explained the situation to Cheon Seung-pil in detail.
“Ah, so even though Tae-hyun can’t smell Hyung’s scent right now, he still needs Hyung’s pheromones? Because the imprinting isn’t broken?”
“Yeah.”
The only good thing in the midst of this despair was that Joo Tae-hyun was still staying at the Donghwa Hotel.
The youngest Young Master of the DH Group couldn’t possibly stay at a hotel owned by another company. And it would be difficult for him to abandon Doctor Woo and the medical staff and leave Seoul, so he was planning to make full use of this contact that he had for a while.
The best way would be to face him, take the time to slowly talk it out, but… it didn’t seem like that would work right now.
Should he try to shake things up again by using the Crown Prince and Prince Lee as bait? He had thought about it, but he decided to stop because it was obvious that his other brothers would step in instead of Joo Tae-hyun.
Well, he had to create an opportunity to meet him to prostrate himself or whatever.
While he was searching for a way, Secretary Nam told him that Cheon Seung-pil had appeared at the Donghwa Hotel, and he immediately asked him to be called to his room.
“By the way, Cheon Seung-pil, you’re a close friend of Tae-hyun’s, right? You even studied abroad together.”
“Well, I didn’t really study abroad, I just played around like a bum-.”
“That’s not important, what I’m curious about is.”
Seo Baek-han took a few sips of water from the table and glanced at Cheon Seung-pil. Cheon Seung-pil’s head drooped even more pathetically, as if he felt threatened by just that.
“Do you know what Tae-hyun likes?”
“Huh?”
“The information I know, the cards I have, don’t seem to be working on Tae-hyun right now, so I’m asking for your help. What would Joo Tae-hyun be interested in?”