LMI Side Story 1

In the Closet

A sweet scent filled the room. As soon as Bernice entered the front door, she frowned deeply at the pheromone scent that washed over her and covered her nose with her sleeve.

Having confirmed that all the air purification systems in the house were turned on as she had told the management office in advance, she immediately took large strides and ran up to the second floor. Her destination was set. She had been through this situation several times already, so there was no reason to wander around.

Bernice threw open the closet door with a bang, inadvertently sighed, and then realized that she was still covering her nose with her sleeve. She was already quite old and unlikely to transform, but it couldn’t hurt to be careful.

As she carefully lowered her arm, the strong, sweet scent immediately made her head spin. She listened to the faint mechanical sound of the air purifier whirring overhead and looked down. There, her former boss and his spitting image of a son were lying unconscious.

Here again.

She thought to herself and bent down. Her current boss, who had been an ice hockey player in high school, was accordingly huge. His height of over 2 meters, as well as the amount of muscle that filled his entire body, was surprisingly large, so pulling him out was not an easy task, but she had no choice.

As she forcibly grabbed and pulled his arm with a groan, the doll he had been holding fell to the floor. The large body twitched as if a part of his consciousness had returned due to the small vibration. Bernice stopped moving, and she saw him slowly open his eyes.

“Mr. Miller, get a grip and come out.”

She called him in a colder and sharper tone than usual, but Ashley Miller slowly blinked his half-open eyes and then closed them again. Bernice sighed and forcibly pulled him down, grabbing his arm, but Ashley suddenly shook it off violently. Bernice, who thought he had lost consciousness again, was momentarily surprised, but soon frowned at Ashley’s words that followed.

“No, I have to wait for Koi… I’m not going…”

His pronunciation was slurred as if he were drunk, but it was pheromones that had intoxicated him. Of course. Extreme Alphas never get drunk.

Bernice quietly opened her mouth at the sight of Ashley hugging the doll again and curling up his large body.

“He’s not coming.”

This was already a repeated conversation. When trapped in the closet, Ashley always repeated the same words and actions.

Ashley, still intoxicated by pheromones, slowly muttered as if he had heard Bernice’s words.

“He’s not coming…?”

The question, whispered as if to himself rather than to Bernice, made him blink his eyes, which were barely half open, and ask.

“Koi, is not coming…?”

“He’s not coming.”

Bernice said again. Firmly, in an utterly cold voice.

“He’s not coming. He abandoned you.”

Ashley didn’t react for a moment. As if he were repeating Bernice’s words to himself, he slowly opened his mouth.

“Abandoned… me…? Koi…?”

“Yes. So get a grip now.”

How many times has this been already? Bernice felt frustrated. Ashley had been showing these symptoms not long after graduating from college. To be exact, this symptom started when he experienced his first rut, right after breaking up with the person he was about to marry.

I thought it was going well.

Bernice had recalled the situation at the time several times, but she still couldn’t understand it. No one thought that the marriage proposal would be broken. Ashley seemed to like her quite a bit, and even ordered her to buy a ring herself.

But the result is this. For some reason, Ashley unilaterally broke off the engagement, and after that, whenever he went into rut, he would go into the closet like this. And he says the same thing every time. I have to wait for Koi. Even though he knows better than anyone that he’s not coming.

“That can’t be.”

Even while his consciousness was still fluctuating, Ashley denied her words in a fairly clear pronunciation.

“Koi would never abandon me. Koi will come… He will… definitely…”

With the words, I have to wait, he lost consciousness again. Bernice stared down at him for a while, then picked up her cell phone and called the bodyguards who were waiting downstairs. She instructed them to go upstairs and move Ashley to the bed, and the doctor who was with them immediately gave him an injection to remove the pheromones. After everything was over, Bernice checked Ashley’s condition one more time and came out.

“Yes, Mr. Miller. Junior is asleep now. Yes, yes.”

Sitting in the back seat of the car, she reported to Dominic, paused for a moment, and then opened her mouth.

“I’m sorry, as you said, it’s not rut season right now.”

But he caused a pheromone shock. This was the first time this had happened. After saying that she would have Ashley undergo a thorough examination once he regained consciousness, Bernice hung up the phone.

She closed her mouth and looked out the window. The car was moving slowly due to traffic congestion, and Bernice’s heart felt as stuffy as the road.

I guess he couldn’t hold on any longer.

Since his manifestation, Ashley had never had a relationship with anyone. For this reason, Dominic had been even more eager to rush his marriage, but at this point, it seemed almost impossible for Ashley to marry anyone. Fortunately, Dominic knew that Ashley was removing pheromones at the party. Of course, this was because Bernice had not reported the truth.

Ashley goes to the party. But he doesn’t have sex to remove pheromones. Bernice was aware of the fact that he just went to the party and came back to deceive Dominic, but she was condoning it.

Bernice had been removing Ashley’s pheromones with injections whenever he lost consciousness due to rut, but the side effects were significant, and it was only a temporary measure, so it was impossible to completely prevent the accumulation of pheromones.

If Dominic finds out, he might lock Ashley up and buy an Omega to rape him. The reason Bernice was hiding this fact was because she had no idea what Dominic would do.

If that happens, Junior will really go crazy.

Bernice, who had thought that far, suddenly remembered. Either way, if she doesn’t keep removing pheromones like this, that’s what will happen, so wouldn’t it just be a matter of time?

Unusually, she couldn’t come to a conclusion and agonized. In the first place, this was not a problem she should have gotten involved in. It was just her boss’s private life, and she was just supposed to clean up the mess from time to time according to his instructions.

How did it come to this?

She asked herself, but she knew the answer. Her biggest mistake was not separating herself from them. If she had known that it was just a childish game and that it would naturally cool down over time, she wouldn’t have needed to get so deeply involved.

I didn’t have to tell them the reality.

She crossed her arms and reflected on her slight disillusionment with herself. It was time to admit that she, too, was human and swayed by personal feelings.

It was excessive in many ways to say things that were close to verbal abuse to children who were still young. She had expected that this would happen in the end, but on the other hand, why couldn’t she just watch it happen since it was going to happen anyway?

Not reporting it to Mr. Miller might be her own way of apologizing.

After organizing her complicated feelings in that way, she then thought. What is Junior thinking? He knows better than anyone what kind of impact it will have on him if pheromones accumulate to that extent.

…Could it be.

She frowned at the sudden thought, but soon relaxed her expression.

There’s no way, he’s trying to destroy his own brain. That’s too much of a leap.

Above all, what is the benefit of doing that? It would be too great a sacrifice just to rebel against Dominic.

Bernice went back to her original thought. Ashley is just heartbroken. She could only think that he had given up and let go of himself. The day will come when he will recover. That’s how everyone is. As time goes by, the pain will fade and they will somehow live in reality.

…It’ll take longer than I thought, though.

That being said, there was nothing she could do, and even if there was, she wouldn’t step in. She had already crossed the line excessively once. Now she will just watch. Leaving all judgment to each of them.

That is her role as a secretary.

Just in time, the signal changed and the car started to speed up. Bernice opened her cell phone, checked her schedule, and soon focused on her work.