By Zephyria 
“I heard you went to the detention center.”
Joo Tae-hyun was in a perfect suit, not at all like a patient hospitalized with a gunshot wound.
Tae-hyun realized the cause of this déjà vu a little late. Wasn’t it the same as when he had collapsed from a rut before? Only the location had changed from a hotel to a hospital room…
Hotel, hospital, bedroom.
Looking back, those were the only places he had memories with Seo Baek-han. He had visited all sorts of famous places with him throughout their married life due to official schedules, but the only places where they had spent time just for the two of them… he couldn’t think of any others.
“Why did you bother coming to see such a mess?”
Beyond his shoulder, as he habitually straightened his cuffs, was a mountain of clothes that hadn’t been cleaned up yet. A knitted sweater balled up like a ball, shirts scattered around it, and even a comfortable sweatshirt. All of them belonged to Joo Tae-hyun himself.
It was inevitable that he would look for Joo Tae-hyun’s clothes since he needed the pheromone of his imprinting partner, but it was somewhat unexpected that even his clothes were scattered here and there, unlike the usually neat Seo Baek-han.
“Ah, this.”
Seo Baek-han smiled sheepishly, as if he had noticed where Joo Tae-hyun’s gaze was directed.
“I like your pheromone.”
He no longer sneered like before. He doesn’t ask ambiguous questions to make Joo Tae-hyun guess the answer, and he reveals his feelings without embellishment. Not ‘need,’ but ‘like.’
“No, I’m……”
He also understood the desire to hold an object with the pheromone of his imprinting partner. However, Joo Tae-hyun was just curious why Seo Baek-han had even spread all of his clothes on the bed. It made him feel like someone who had worried for a long time about what to wear after hearing that he was coming.
“Um, I have a question.”
Joo Tae-hyun swallowed his question and sat down heavily on the bed. He wanted to avoid his gaze as much as possible because he felt like he wouldn’t be able to hide his agitation no matter what answer he heard from Seo Baek-han.
“…To me?”
“Yes.”
Seo Baek-han, who had been busy organizing the clothes that were woven together like a bird building a nest, stopped all his actions and stared straight at Joo Tae-hyun. He was trying to look nonchalant and only looking ahead, but his side profile felt like it was burning up from his gaze, which was pouring down on him despite his efforts to avoid it.
Judging by the throbbing of the pheromone scavenger, it seemed like pheromones were pouring out of Seo Baek-han, but thankfully, his body didn’t show any reaction at all. He couldn’t smell Seo Baek-han’s unique scent, and his back wasn’t wet with arousal like before…
“Before, you said that Hyung embarrassed Kim Seung-jun at the Crown Prince Scholarship Foundation inauguration.”
“Mmm.”
Pheromone scavengers commonly used in the United States made a sound like water bubbling when a certain level was reached. Listening to the sound, which felt like a white noise that made him feel comfortable for some reason, Joo Tae-hyun opened his mouth without any order.
“Did Hyung continue to harass Kim Seung-jun after that?”
“Why? Did Kim Seung-jun say that?”
Even if he couldn’t perceive Seo Baek-han’s pheromones, he could feel his body temperature right next to him. Also the sense of mass as the bed sank moderately with the added weight.
Joo Tae-hyun tried hard to maintain a nonchalant face, but he couldn’t be sure since it had been a long time since he had worn such a mask. He didn’t want to show that he was agitated just by him sitting next to him.
“Tae-hyun, as you know, there wasn’t much I could do back then. Putting pressure on the Crown Prince to pass policies that were favorable to us… all of that was Second Prince’s job. PJ, which was Poongjin Corporation back then? DH Group took charge of isolating Poongjin Corporation.”
Seo Baek-han shrugged, saying that he hadn’t done much, and even if he had, it wasn’t that decisive.
“So, what were those insignificant things?”
His gaze fixed on him was so persistent that he seemed like he wouldn’t miss even the twitching of his Adam’s apple as he swallowed.
Perhaps Seo Baek-han’s actions were the cause. Even though he was asking a trivial question, he was so nervous.
“…Really, they were so minor that I can’t think of anything that stands out.”
After a while of no movement, Joo Tae-hyun plucked up the courage to glance sideways. Seo Baek-han, who was seriously retracing his memories, even felt a bit solemn as he stroked his chin.
Come to think of it, how long has it been since he saw Seo Baek-han this close? He had definitely lost weight. Well, it was natural… wasn’t it? He had spent months alone without smelling his imprinting partner’s pheromones, and even after coming to the United States, he had been working all the time and had even been seriously injured.
“Ah, I ruined the private school recommendation that Kim Seung-jun received.”
“……Pardon?”
Joo Tae-hyun, who had been quietly contemplating his sharp jawline as if it could cut, momentarily asked back in a voice that faltered at the end. Fortunately, his voice itself wasn’t that high, so it wasn’t in such an unsightly state.
“It wasn’t a huge trick. When I went to the gifted camp, there were people related to the boarding school that Kim Seung-jun had applied to. I just added a word.”
“Weren’t those boarding school officials originally wanting to take Hyung with them and even came to the camp?”
“That’s not it. I was planning to graduate early from science high school and go straight to university anyway.”
Seo Baek-han sighed briefly as if he was annoyed even thinking about it again.
“They kept begging me to do a project with their school students… but it was just a project in name only. They wanted me to write a small thesis together that their kids could use in their college application essays.”
“…How can Hyung saying just one word to those people be nothing?”
“The rumors aren’t very good, I really only said that. The officials would have done a background check on their own.”
Seo Baek-han told him the story of his petty revenge for a long time, as he remembered it.
To summarize his ‘childish revenge play of immature days’ in his own words:
Seo Baek-han later subtly spread rumors at the academic conference and ruined all of Kim Seung-jun’s study abroad plans, and when the adults were about to forget, he brought up the petty things he had done in the past again and blocked his marriage prospects.
After he grew up and gained real power, he also constantly interfered with the PJ Group, which was the first to be mentioned as a pro-Crown Prince faction. This wasn’t intentionally done with Kim Seung-jun in mind, but anyway, Seo Baek-han’s existence must have felt like a nightmare to that bastard.
“Why did you go so far… no, never mind.”
He had been acting flirtatious all the time these days as if he had made up his mind, so he thought he would just make some ridiculous confession, saying that he must have liked him back then.
Seo Baek-han just cleared his throat like someone who had something to say, but in the end, he remained silent. As if he wouldn’t say anything without Joo Tae-hyun’s permission.
“Um, anyway… yes, I understand. Then I-.”
“Are you leaving?”
“I should.”
If Kim Seung-jun hadn’t said anything that bothered him in the first place, he wouldn’t have come here so rashly.
The story that Seo Baek-han told him was quite unexpected. But it wasn’t like there was a great hidden side that Kim Seung-jun could sneer at… but he had satisfied his curiosity, so wouldn’t it be unsightly to keep sitting in his hospital room?
“Wait a minute, Tae-hyun.”
Just as he was about to get up from his seat and slightly lean his upper body, Seo Baek-han hurriedly grabbed him.
“Ah, sorry.”
Seo Baek-han’s large hand was carefully covering Joo Tae-hyun’s hand. He stared blankly at him, startled, and Seo Baek-han immediately took his hand away and awkwardly apologized. The way he slightly moved his body away from him, which had been in close contact, and the way he pronounced ‘sorry’ clearly and honestly… Yes, it was really an awkward apology that wasn’t like him at all.
“Um, can I ask you something too then?”
Instead of bringing up the matter first, he was asking for his permission first? Seo Baek-han? Did he hear that right? He couldn’t believe what he was hearing, so he turned his head without realizing it. Seo Baek-han seemed to have noticed Tae-hyun’s bewilderment and frowned slightly as if he was embarrassed.
“Um, that is.”
The sound of water boiling inside the hospital room was getting louder and louder. It meant that the level of pheromone emission had increased a little more, but he couldn’t guess the reason.
He was seriously considering calling a doctor now, but Seo Baek-han lightly blew air between his teeth and turned his body completely in the direction Joo Tae-hyun was sitting. As if he had finished a difficult decision.
“I heard you collapsed as soon as you arrived at the airport in the United States.”
“Me? When was that… ah, when I was young?”
“Um. In the early days of studying abroad.”
Seo Baek-han carefully asked if he could tell him why that happened back then.
Was he hesitating so much just to ask this? It was such a bland question that it was embarrassing how nervous he had been about what he was going to say. Joo Tae-hyun suppressed the laughter that was about to burst out and replied seriously, feeling both absurd and amused by the situation itself.
“It was just stress… and my rut was coming soon.”
“The stress was ultimately because of me, right?”
“I don’t know. Rather than because of Hyung… I was so pissed off at myself for ruining my relationship with Hyung that I felt like I was going crazy.”
He deliberately chose to spit out only violent and vulgar words that he had never used in front of Seo Baek-han, but he didn’t show any particular reaction. He just made a vague ‘mmm’ sound and stopped.
After that, it was all silence. The occasional sound of boiling water only told him that the amount of Seo Baek-han’s pheromones had increased rapidly.
“This won’t do, I’ll call a doctor.”
The sound, which had been as cheerful as bubbles bursting, had now become somewhat threatening. The water was boiling so fiercely that there was even a violent friction sound like a wave crashing against the surface of the water.
“Um? Why a doctor?”
“I think your condition isn’t good, Hyung. Your pheromones are going wild.”
“No, I’m okay.”
“What do you mean you’re okay? Postpone your discharge. I’ll bring you more of the clothes you were wearing-.”
“No, just now that was……”
Seo Baek-han raised his hand to cover his eyes and laughed briefly. As if he thought it was absurd even for himself.
“I think it’s because I thought you were a little, cute.”
My heart is beating too fast right now.