NOT 43

Cha Jeong-won stopped walking and looked to the side. If he went up the main staircase, it would coincide with the time when people would be pouring out, and the emergency staircase side was quiet. Haon’s gaze was peculiar, as if he knew there was no way Jeong-won wouldn’t be aware of that fact.

Haon was the first to turn his steps toward the side path.

The space at the bottom of the emergency staircase was only faintly lit by light from the office windows, with not a single human shadow in sight. As they stopped in the shade beneath the stairs, his heart, which had been perfectly fine just moments before, began to beat rapidly again.

If he lifted his head, he could see the underside of the stairs directly above, and in front of him was Cha Jeong-won.

“Why did you come all the way here?”

Even as he said that, he leaned his back against the wall and stood his ground. As if to say he wouldn’t retreat any further.

“Should we meet here often?”

Cha Jeong-won looked around and then nodded.

“Not bad.”

“Then…….”

“That doesn’t mean it’s good.”

He really was someone you couldn’t let your guard down around until the very end.

“Why do we have to sneak around?”

Cha Jeong-won threw out the question, but his reaction wasn’t one demanding an answer.

It was just him expressing the impression of the day in a single sentence.

“Why? It’s all for our sake…….”

“I’m going ahead.”

Cha Jeong-won turned away without even hearing Haon’s answer.

Before he could get far, Haon quickly grabbed him and pursed his lips.

“I’ll let you go if you kiss me.”

Even after saying it himself, he felt awkward, and his voice cracked slightly.

“Make it deep.”

Cha Jeong-won’s face wrinkled slightly. It probably wasn’t because he disliked kissing.

Haon pulled on the front of his shirt, drawing his body a little closer. He felt himself wedging between the wall and the person, and as their toes settled almost touching, their breaths overlapped.

The scents from their bodies mixed first. The familiar scent of an Alpha melted in.

‘This is bad.’

As soon as that thought flowed, his pheromones reacted first. A hot sensation slowly rose from below his chest, filling up to his throat, and he felt his breath shortening.

“Yoon Haon.”

At the sound of his name being called, his heart sank once more with a thud.

“What.”

Before he could even finish his answer, their lips met.

At the moment of first contact, there was a brief moment where they both caught their breath. Then, as if something suspended in the air had suddenly fallen, their lips overlapped and the movement continued smoothly.

It wasn’t a kiss that ended after just one touch of the lips.

After touching and parting once, they immediately sought each other out again. They pushed lightly, then pulled, and unable to bear the space where their breaths mingled, they overlapped again.

Haon tightened his grip on his collar with his hand.

Even though he knew there was nowhere further to retreat with the wall right behind him, his body kept pushing forward. As Cha Jeong-won wrapped one arm around his waist and pulled, the gap between them almost disappeared.

‘Ah, this scent.’

He could feel the sweet-tinged pheromones spreading from his own body filling the narrow space.

At first, it was just slightly sweet, but as the kiss continued, the concentration gradually thickened. It felt like a hot air was enveloping the surroundings, as if a liquid was slowly coming to a boil.

“Haon.”

A breathy sound escaped in the brief moment their lips parted. His face was right in front, his pupils hazy.

“……Yes.”

As he tried to answer, a tongue tip pushed between his lips.

The wet sensation slowly swept the inside of his lips, then found his tongue tip. It wasn’t a careless poke, nor was it rushed.

It felt like slowly, yet without hesitation, finding its own place and entering.

The moment their tongue tips collided, his body jolted as if an electric current had passed.

His lower abdomen grew hot.

His waist felt like it would collapse forward. He wanted to be sucked in deeper.

‘No, this is school.’

One part of his mind was screaming that, but his body was saying something entirely different.

He wanted to inhale the Alpha scent deep into his lungs. Haon pressed his mouth against Cha Jeong-won’s, feeling less like breathing and more like stealing each other’s breath.

They parted once, then attached again, and again.

They sucked as if swallowing each other’s lips, then released, and in between, saliva connected and broke in a very thin film. Breathing heavily, his chest heaving, Haon raised his hands and wrapped them around his neck.

The closer he pulled him, the thicker the pheromones became. It felt like the air enveloping the space between them, like an invisible mist, was growing heavier by the moment.

Without a moment’s rest.

It was a kiss where, with each breath drawn in, they immediately shared that breath.

While their lips were connected, his sense of time didn’t register well. His back against the wall seemed to grow hotter, and his fingertips tingled, but he had no thought of stopping.

‘I want more.’

A clear sentence surfaced in his mind.

He wanted to stay attached longer.

He wanted to touch more.

He wanted to feel more.

As those thoughts surged up simultaneously, his lips and tongue entangled more persistently.

He couldn’t be satisfied with just kissing. He felt himself gradually approaching that limit.

He wanted to slip his hand inside Cha Jeong-won’s shirt, he wanted to lay his back somewhere other than this wall, he wanted to entrust his entire body beyond just sharing breaths like this.

Cha Jeong-won applied a little more pressure with the hand wrapped around Haon’s waist.

As their bodies completely overlapped, it felt like the strength drained from his knees. Haon reflexively grabbed his shoulders.

“Senior……. Just a moment.”

He barely managed to part his lips and say that, but the breath flowing between his lips was so hot he wasn’t sure if his own words were correct.

“You don’t like it?”

“It’s not that I don’t like it.”

The answer jumped out immediately.

That single sentence seemed to expose all his desires, making his face flush even hotter.

“Your scent is intense.”

Cha Jeong-won said with a low laugh. The breath caught at the corner of his mouth trembled.

“I know. That’s why I said to stop.”

Even as he said to stop, his hands still couldn’t let go of his shirt hem.

Both of them knew that if they moved just a little further forward from this distance, they could kiss again.

Even during the brief moment of catching their breath, their pheromones didn’t easily settle.

The sweet scent still lingered between the two of them. It felt like it clung to each other’s skin, unwilling to fall away.

Haon lightly rested his forehead against his shoulder. They were so close he couldn’t tell if the heartbeat was his own or the other’s.

‘What if I really do more?’

That thought briefly surfaced in a corner of his mind before immediately subsiding.

Even Haon himself didn’t know what would happen if he crossed just one line here and now.

“You want more?”

Haon bit his lip briefly, then slowly nodded.

“Yes. A lot.”

The moment the word fell from his lips, something inside him burned hotter.

He couldn’t tell if it was shame or desire, but what was clear was that he didn’t want to separate from this person right now.

Cha Jeong-won let out a very short breath, then licked the corner of his mouth once.

And then slowly lowered his head.

This kiss was slower than the first one.

After their lips met once, unlike before, there was a sense of leisure. They slowly changed angles, burrowing deeper into each other. It was just as incessantly continuous, but there was a newfound ease in the movements.

Haon accepted that kiss with his entire body.

The pheromones thickened again, and their breathing grew rough again. Still, more consciously than before, he tried to maintain the line, slowly moving his fingers over his neck and shoulders.

While their lips were connected, only one thought became clear.

‘More, here…….’

It felt like desire and restraint were pulling at each other’s ends on a single tightrope.

In the secluded spot beneath the emergency staircase, their kiss lasted a little longer.

In a corner of the school building where anyone could appear.

＊ ＊ ＊

It was Haon who pulled his body away first.

Even the touch of Cha Jeong-won’s hand brushing his shoulder felt regrettable, but he couldn’t occupy the secluded corner under the emergency staircase for long.

Even as he separated and straightened his clothes, his heart beat wildly of its own accord. His back, which had been pressed against the wall, tingled faintly, and his lips seemed slightly swollen.

“Class…….”

As he spoke, he unconsciously ran his tongue over his lips. Cha Jeong-won shook his head.

“They won’t even look back at you, so you don’t have to say anything. Let’s just sit far apart.”

Haon looked at Cha Jeong-won’s face and finished what he was about to say.

“I should buy a drink before going. My lips are swollen, so I think I need to apply some ice or something.”

He said.

Instead of answering, Cha Jeong-won pressed his lips tightly together. His lips were no less swollen.

“Want to go buy it together?”

“……I’ll buy it, you go ahead.”

“Should I, then?”

No, he would buy it himself. It didn’t seem like the time for such words, so Haon hastily left the spot.

Alone, Haon flapped his collar and took a deep breath.

“Why is there such a lack of air. Is it because there are too many people?”

He unfairly blamed the people around him who were breathing just fine and passing by normally.

Then he let out a sigh and pulled up his own clothes to smell them.

“The pheromones…….”

They’re flying.