The sweet note from Baek Kanghyeon had always been extremely faint. So faint you might think it had rubbed off from some other Omega, yet its presence was inexpressibly intense.
Mixed into the pouring Alpha pheromones, Kanghyeon’s sweet note was spreading that scent even richer. Even so, “rich” meant only a Dominant Alpha with keen pheromone sensitivity could catch it.
The corners of Haeil’s eyes fluttered. The face where cold sweat had begun to bead jerked visibly, and his Adam’s apple moved as he swallowed dry.
Are you insane—seriously….
Breathing rough, Kwon Haeil felt his whole body chill in a different way.
A powerful sweet note hidden inside the thick Alpha pheromones.
A rare, special pheromone that only he could tell apart.
It felt like stepping into a forbidden realm he wasn’t supposed to know.
Haeil felt a tingle deep inside his body. A strange sensation that no tumble with any Omega had ever given him goaded him without end.
By the time the hand gripping Kanghyeon by the throat of his shirt fell away, limp—
—the waterfall of pheromones cut off.
“—hk. Ha… ha….”
The moment Kanghyeon’s pheromones stopped, Haeil expelled the breath that had been trapped. His shoulders, which had only been twitching, heaved large in time with his rough breathing.
“Are you all right?”
Kanghyeon’s voice was still unperturbed. In one hand, though, he was holding his phone as if to call an ambulance.
With a slackening hand, Haeil covered Kanghyeon’s phone.
“I’m fine… probably.”
That was how he answered, but his body wasn’t fully recovered.
Even if the outpouring had stopped, the amount he’d taken until then was substantial. A body steeped through in another man’s Alpha pheromones wasn’t going to clear up in an instant.
His whole body still prickled as if a weak current were running through it. The throbbing ache felt like he’d been beaten soundly on top of that. His face, slick with cold sweat, was pale enough that it wouldn’t be strange if he blacked out at any moment, and his pulse was abnormally fast. At least a few minutes of absolute rest would be needed to be as functional as usual.
Retrieving his phone, Kanghyeon got off Haeil and stood.
“You should stay home as you are today. If you go out, everyone will look at you strangely.”
A Dominant Alpha drenched in someone else’s Alpha pheromones.
It was ridiculous enough to make you snort.
Smoothing the wrinkles where he’d been grabbed, Kanghyeon straightened the shape of his shirt. He rebuttoned what he’d undone and tidied his disordered outer coat. Haeil watched that from the sofa, dazed.
As Kanghyeon turned his body without even a farewell, Haeil asked,
“Do you know too, Baek Kanghyeon?”
Kanghyeon’s leg stopped mid-step in the direction of the entryway.
“Know what?”
“What scent your own pheromones have.”
Following Haeil’s languid voice, Kanghyeon looked back.
“I do.”
“What is it?”
No matter what scent he named, Kwon Haeil—as a fellow Alpha—couldn’t distinguish it. People of the same trait could perceive each other’s pheromones, but not feel the scent.
“What good is knowing a scent you can’t even smell?”
“You said you wanted to know why I asked for a pheromone shower. If you want to hear it, tell me.”
Haeil was still stubborn. Kanghyeon couldn’t make sense of that stubbornness at all.
Like Omegas, Alphas also had a distinct scent to their pheromones.
Omega pheromones typically carried a sweet note like flowers or fruit. Alpha pheromones had an earthy, woody, herbal smell—as if they were the very source of those scents.
Like all traited people, Kanghyeon couldn’t smell his own pheromones. If not for the single-note perfume Baek Heeu, an Omega, had once sent with the words “I bought it because it’s exactly your scent,” he still wouldn’t know.
Thanks to that, he knew what his scent was, but he had never told anyone directly.
“It’s thyme.”
It was the name of an herb he had never actually seen.
They said it was named because its scent could carry for miles, and that it had a fresh yet intense smell. The refreshing, steady feeling—like walking deep in the mountains—was said to suit him well.
In any case, it was the first time he had spoken the name of his scent aloud to someone else.
Even with Kanghyeon finally revealing his scent, Haeil’s face was somehow dissatisfied.
“That’s it?”
“What else would there be?”
From one person’s pheromones, there was only ever one scent. There couldn’t be something besides the native scent.
But Kwon Haeil didn’t seem to think so.
Staggering, Haeil rose from the sofa.
“You don’t know.”
Muttering like to himself, Haeil strode up to Kanghyeon.
“Why do you think I asked for a pheromone shower even though I’m an Alpha too?”
With a long, strained breath, Haeil slung an arm over Kanghyeon’s shoulder. His face drew close to the nape of Kanghyeon’s neck.
“Because it’s the best way to catch a scent, second only to sex.”
Burying his nose in the nape of Kanghyeon’s neck, Haeil drew in a deep breath. At the act you’d expect from an Omega, Kanghyeon frowned and shoved him off at once.
“Why are you doing this again—”
“You have a sweet note.”
Kanghyeon’s body flinched visibly.
Haeil caught the hand pushing him away and tugged. From the white nape close again, he drew breath once more.
“A scent so fucking sweet it’s driving me insane.”
At those words, Kanghyeon froze with his eyes thrown wide.
Only for a moment.
In a hard voice, he muttered, as if biting the words off:
“…Nonsense.”
“—kh!”
They were aggressive pheromones that had nothing in mind but to pin the other. And, fitting a Dominant, they were brutal in scale.
Haeil still had the aftereffects of the pheromone shower in his system.
His condition was so poor he could barely even draw out pheromones to defend himself. There was no way he could properly counter Kanghyeon’s aggressive pheromones.
Under the pressure of pheromones slamming down from above, Haeil’s knees hit the floor. Even so, his hands clamped hard around Kanghyeon’s arm.
“Sh—… you’re merciless, seriously….”
Dragging in jagged breaths, Haeil forced himself to look up at Kanghyeon.
“I’m practically a patient right… now….”
The voice that had been looking up at Kanghyeon faded and stopped.
Baek Kanghyeon’s face from below was still expressionless; there was no reading his emotions. With the chandelier’s soft light at his back, a chill shadow lay over him.
Looking down at Haeil, cold, Kanghyeon knocked away the hand on his arm without mercy. He struck so hard the sound was sharp enough to hurt.
Kanghyeon said nothing to Haeil, who was collapsed on the floor. He even withdrew the cold gaze he’d driven down and turned silently toward the entry.
Before long, there was the mechanical tone of the door lock and the sound of a door closing.
Even then, Haeil stayed sunk on the floor.
Only after the lingering trace of Kanghyeon’s pheromones dissipated, after he had gone—
—did Haeil finally sway as if the tension let go. Bracing himself on both hands, he panted for breath.
“Ha… ha….”
With each inhale, a sweet note rose from Baek Kanghyeon’s pheromones wrapped around his body. Maybe because he’d really meant to pour it on, it felt fairly strong.
“Ha… what a ridiculous sight.”
Haeil gave a self-mocking chuckle.
Even allowing that his body was a wreck from the pheromone shower’s impact, this was the first time in his life he’d dropped to his knees under another man’s Alpha pheromones. He could almost understand the humiliation of the other Alphas he’d crushed with pheromones.
But he wasn’t angry. If anything, a variety of urges bubbled up so pleasantly it tickled somewhere inside.
It had been a while since he’d taken this strong an interest in someone.
Isn’t it fascinating.
A Dominant Alpha with a sweet note like an Omega.
An unheard-of mutation.
What’s more, the sweet note he’d felt through the pheromone shower was, frankly, strong enough to bring any Alpha to heel.
Having had a taste of it, there was no way his interest would stop.
Staring at the closed entry, Haeil called up the last look on Kanghyeon’s face. That cold face, like he’d deliberately hidden his feelings, stuck under his skin.
Had Baek Kanghyeon, in truth, known all along?
That a scent that should never come from him was flowing out.