Kwon Haeil raised the Blue Margarita to his lips. The cool, fresh, sweet blue cocktail that slipped between his lips filled his mouth with a chill.
Following Haeil, Kanghyeon also held the red Negroni in his mouth.
A deep bitterness and a faint sweetness stained his mouth with a restless hue. The faint brightness of orange that spread through the aftertaste was fairly luscious, too.
Maybe it was because they were in the thick of the club’s gaudy lights and inescapable heat.
If he finished this sweet yet bitter drink as it was, he felt he’d get drunk fast. That’s how good it tasted.
"Baek Kanghyeon."
So much so that he readily offered his name to someone so troublesome and annoying he’d normally never want to get involved with.
"My name."
Caught by the unexpected timing of Kanghyeon giving his name, Haeil paused and fixed his gaze on him.
"I’m…"
A beat late, just as Kwon Haeil was about to say his own name, Baek Kanghyeon’s red lips moved.
"If it’s your name, I’ve heard it nonstop in here."
Kwon Haeil. Mr. Haeil. Haeil-ah. Haeil hyung. Haeil oppa.
The many forms of address that made up his name weren’t something one could forget easily.
A neat, graceful curve bent at Kanghyeon’s lips. The voice that flowed through it reached Haeil very clearly and intensely.
"Mr. Kwon Haeil."
The Blue Margarita in Haeil’s hand shook wide, like waves on a vast sea. As if on cue, his pupils also trembled without filter.
Thud— thud— thud— thud—
It wasn’t a forced beat from fast EDM. A strange thrum welling from inside skewed Kwon Haeil’s senses.
The nape of his neck prickled cold and his fingertips tingled. The noisy music and cheers seemed to recede. The exotic fruit scent and strong alcohol smell of the Blue Margarita in his hand thinned away.
It felt like all his senses were devolving, or like he was floating, drunk.
But why did that man’s voice and the faint sweet note only come on stronger?
This is cheating.
As if answering him, Haeil curved his eyes. Unlike the light eye-smiles up to now, a soft, distinct arc faced Kanghyeon.
The lasers’ lavish lights cut ceaselessly between them.
Stepping on that light, Haeil took one step closer to Kanghyeon. The lasers that had seemed to divide them were now nothing more than powerless lights brushing past at their sides.
Facing the nearness of Haeil, Kanghyeon let out a small, unwitting breath.
Ah.
As they’d circled the club, not only Omegas but even Betas and Alphas had clung to this man. Every one of them had been busy throwing out flirtations, wanting to trade even a few more words. If Haeil so much as acknowledged them and spoke a name, their faces would, without fail, light up.
Seeing this face now, he could guess a little why they were so taken with the man named Kwon Haeil.
Kanghyeon’s hand on the railing and Haeil’s hand drew close enough to almost touch.
"Can I ask you one favor?" Enjoying the story? Read on at g.com.
Even though Haeil’s voice was small, like a whisper, it was oddly clear.
Kanghyeon nodded easily.
"Go ahead. I can’t stand owing debts anyway, so I was thinking I’d repay you somehow."
Haeil had said he was guiding him through the club as a thank-you for the housewarming rice cakes, but for Kanghyeon the math didn’t add up.
Housewarming rice cakes—if not for Baek Heeu, he wouldn’t even have bothered to prepare them.
And over some half-thrown gift, he’d gotten more than an hour of club guiding.
If it was a return gesture, the cocktail in his hand could have squared it, too.
Besides, this was the VIP lounge—somewhere he wouldn’t have even gotten in without Kwon Haeil.
Of course, Baek Kanghyeon had money to spare. His background was absolute; if he wanted, he could’ve been a VVIP right away. In that case, though, his identity would’ve been exposed and even just purely looking around the club would’ve been hard.
In any case, because he’d happened to meet Kwon Haeil, things had gone well. True to being a VVIP club rat, he knew quite a bit about the club’s various events and internal operating policies. Thanks to that, he felt he could refine the collaboration proposal with club WAVE more meticulously.
At this point, apart from all the calculations, Kanghyeon found himself a little curious what kind of person Kwon Haeil was.
At the very least, he’d heard that to be a VVIP of a club like this, you had to be able to blow through tens of millions of won a day without blinking.
A VVIP of a club this glittering, a man of means living on the top floor of a soaring officetel in the heart of Gangnam.
Naturally, Kanghyeon couldn’t help but wonder about his identity.
But he couldn’t ask rashly.
If he asked what his identity was, what the source and background of that wealth were, the same question would inevitably come back.
That was not welcome.
If he said he was the Baekcheong Group chairman’s fourth son, anyone would immediately summon the epithet "the true successor of Baekcheong Group."
Biting the inside of his lip in secret, Kanghyeon thought of his three Omega brothers, heads bowed with dark faces.
Even so, outwardly he prodded Haeil along as if nothing showed.
"As long as it’s within reason, I’ll oblige. What’s the favor?"
Haeil held his gaze on Kanghyeon’s deep eyes, then brought his lips close to his ear. The Blue Margarita’s signature scent brushed his ear with a bright touch.
"Give me a pheromone shower."
The moment he heard it, Kanghyeon inevitably recalled the words he’d used to judge Haeil before.
Crazy psycho bastard.
He swallowed what nearly came out loud and showed his displeasure. Haeil made a face that said he’d expected as much.
"Knew you’d find it absolutely disgusting."
He knew, too, that what he’d said wasn’t something to toss off as a simple joke. For a joke, it was quite grotesque.
A pheromone shower meant not just getting someone’s pheromones on you, but dousing them to the hilt.
The one who took a pheromone shower ended up practically marinated in the other’s pheromones. That was why Alphas and Omegas who were lovers mainly did it.
To signal they belonged to each other and ward off useless approaches, or to bask in the snugness and satisfaction of being buried in the other’s pheromones.
As short as half a day, as long as a day.
Kwon Haeil was asking for that, now, as if it were nothing.
An Alpha giving an Alpha a pheromone shower was an absolutely rare thing. Unless someone was an utter eccentric, even Alpha lovers wouldn’t dare think of it.
An Alpha’s pheromones were, by nature, strongly aggressive.
If an Omega took a pheromone shower from another Omega, it might end at a brief wave of nausea, but an Alpha was markedly different.
Just meeting pheromones set your nerves crackling like you’d devour each other. If you actually dumped them on, the one taking it would be in considerable pain. Haeil himself, who had clashed pheromones before, would know that well.
Even so, Haeil grinned like it was fine.
"You said you’d do it if it wasn’t pushing yourself."
So it wasn’t a joke. There was no wavering in his eyes as he said it again.
"I’m the one taking it anyway. There’s nothing that could go wrong for you, Mr. Baek, when you’re the one spraying."
"That’s not the point."
With the hand holding the Negroni, Kanghyeon pushed at the chest right there before him. The solid muscle under the thin shirt seemed to stamp again that Kwon Haeil was, unmistakably, an Alpha.
"An Alpha giving an Alpha a pheromone shower will only be repulsive."
"I know."
"If you know, how can you say it so easily?"
"It’s not easy. I thought about it to death before saying it."
Where in that guileless face was any sign of deliberation.
Eyeing him suspiciously, Kanghyeon let out a short sigh.
"Why?"
He ran a hand up his fringe, asking like he was at a loss.
"No one in their right mind asks a strange Alpha for a pheromone shower."
"Guess I’m crazy."
"If you don’t say it straight, I won’t do it."
"If you do it, I’ll tell you, then."
Matching him retort for retort, Haeil flicked his eyes playfully.
"You’re the one who said you’d grant the favor, Mr. Baek. Don’t tell me you’re the type to go back on your word? Nah, no way."
There was no need to take the bait of a cheap provocation he’d tossed on purpose.
But as Haeil had guessed, Kanghyeon wasn’t the sort who shirked responsibility for his own words.
It had certainly been he who said he’d oblige as long as it wasn’t pushing himself.
And giving a pheromone shower to another Alpha was, indeed, within "not pushing himself."
In the end, it was Baek Kanghyeon who yielded a step.
"All right. I’ll do as you want."
Haeil’s face bloomed with satisfied brightness.