Just around that corner, the bank would appear. Thinking of hurrying to the hospital afterward to see his parents’ faces warmed his heart. The hospital bill payment was a day late, but it should be processed without issue.
He had just managed to drag his heavy legs into the downtown area when luxury vehicles lined up around him. It was so sudden that passersby turned to stare.
Assuming it had nothing to do with him, Haejin continued walking briskly—until a bodyguard stepped out of one of the cars and called to him.
“Mr. Bright.”
“……”
Haejin turned quietly toward the one who had called him. For some reason, he had a bad feeling. Of all the many days he needed to visit the hospital, why did it have to be today?
“Mr. Vermouth is looking for you.”
“May I stop by the hospital first?”
“No.”
Before he could even finish speaking, the bodyguards had already surrounded him—as if they had never intended to listen to him in the first place.
Among the men, each a head taller than he was, Haejin felt small and utterly powerless. His lips parted several times, but in the end his arm was seized roughly, and he was dragged toward the car.
Through the door that shut with a solid thud, he could still see the overcast sky. Haejin had no choice but to swallow his sigh.
***
“Not yet?”
“They say they’ve found him.”
The headache that had begun abruptly after he arrived at work continued to linger. By lunchtime, it had become nearly unbearable.
A sign of rut.
While hastily wrapping up his work, Lyle coolly assessed his condition. This was why phenotype was inconvenient. He could not understand why, from the beginning, Alphas and Omegas had been designed as a pair—such an irrational bodily structure. Sometimes it felt as though this genetic trait demanded more than simply thrusting into the loathsome cavity of an Omega. The thought alone filled him with irritation to the very tips of his hair.
He had returned to the estate in haste, only to find that Haejin was not in his place. The one who had contracted to be there whenever needed.
The moment he naturally recalled Haejin’s black hair, the headache surged again. In the past five years, Haejin had never once failed to be present when Lyle required him. The boy must have known the rut was near—so how could he recklessly leave without a word at a time like this?
Just then, the car he had sent entered the garden. Haejin was pulled out from inside, his arms gripped by bodyguards. It looked as though he were being dragged somewhere against his will.
Without realizing it, Lyle stepped toward them. The sight displeased him on multiple levels.
“……”
Looking down at Haejin, now standing before him, Lyle unconsciously struck away the bodyguard’s hand gripping his arm. The man quickly bowed and stepped back, but Haejin’s head remained lowered.
That irritated him strangely.
“Our contract states that you are to be there whenever I require you.”
“The contract—!”
It was that face again. The deeply sorrowful expression he had shown that night.
His head began throbbing madly once more. For a brief moment, the surroundings seemed to slow, and Haejin’s face pressed itself into his vision like a carved image. It seemed the rut was finally beginning. They said pheromones preceded by half a beat—perhaps the heightened sensitivity of the past few days had been the rut arriving ahead of its usual cycle.
“There are many watching. Let us go inside first, Master.”
The butler swiftly interjected. Haejin, who had been about to say more, was silenced. Instead, his resentful gaze shifted toward the butler.
Was he reacting like that because his words had been ignored? Dumbfounded, Lyle grabbed Haejin by the collar and pulled him into the estate. He could not suppress the impulse. An irrational compulsion seized him—he had to return Haejin to where he belonged.
Haejin struggled slightly as he was dragged along. The way he seemed to deliberately drag one leg irritated Lyle further.
At the sudden commotion, the servants along their path vanished. The butler followed briefly, saying he would prepare Haejin, but retreated after reading the atmosphere. Haejin, who had always felt uneasy under the butler’s unpleasant gaze whenever he was bound naked, thought it might be for the best.
Still, seeing Lyle’s ominous expression as he clutched his collar made his body tremble involuntarily. Oppressive pheromones poured over him.
“I—I have to go to the hospital. The payment—”
At the words he forced out, Lyle halted abruptly. Perhaps only then did he realize how roughly he had been dragging Haejin; he released his grip. Alone in the now-empty corridor, his senses returned.
His unusually harsh behavior made it clear that his body was not normal. This was why an Alpha’s body was inconvenient. Merely from pheromone congestion, rational behavior became difficult.
“You know that’s just a formality. Go after we’re done.”
“But—!”
Lyle’s temper, which had barely begun to steady, flared again. Haejin, who had always been docile, never adding an extra word, now stirred him like a spark jumping unexpectedly. As if the presence he had ignored for five years had suddenly unfolded all at once.
Pressing hard against the throbbing between his brows, Lyle forced himself to respond rationally.
“Is today the date specified in the contract?”
“No, but—”
“Then what’s the problem.”
His brief patience vanished like smoke. Just as fleeting as the day he had recalled Haejin’s face for no reason.
The rut began in earnest.
Lyle was normally meticulous about pheromone control. Though he despised Omegas, he also looked down on Alphas who strutted about relying solely on their phenotype. Thus, despite being a Dominant Alpha, he kept his pheromones so tightly contained that it was barely noticeable.
Yet now, violent pheromones raged around him. Because of his superior trait, he was forced into particularly rough rut periods against his will. Watching from the closest distance, Haejin’s face quickly turned pale.
So the rut came a little earlier than usual.
“…Please let me go to the hospital after it’s over.”
Haejin knew clearly what his role was. He swallowed his sorrow with effort. This was familiar.
I’ll go once it’s done. It may be delayed a few days, but this time I’ll speak directly to Lyle and make sure the hospital schedule in the contract is properly kept.
Though it was called an equal contract, in truth Haejin was merely the weaker party. He was accustomed to pressing down sorrow and dissatisfaction first.
“Do as you like.”
Unaware of what consideration Haejin had made within himself, Lyle irritably swept back his hair. From his perspective, Haejin was already visiting the hospital diligently every two weeks as stipulated. He could not understand this behavior. He seized Haejin’s wrist and strode forward without hesitation.
Today, the vast estate felt nothing but irritating. His body, swayed by pheromones, felt increasingly uncomfortable—yet it instinctively recalled Haejin’s scent.
They entered the room where they always coupled. Only upon reaching the neatly arranged interior did Haejin feel his vision darken.
Lyle’s pheromones now poured heavily into the room, oppressive. Unlike ordinary discharge, rut lasted for days. Thinking of having to endure that relentless force already exhausted him.
Suppressing the trembling of his body, Haejin slowly removed his clothes. Undressing under the butler’s dirty gaze had always been humiliating. But under Lyle’s blue eyes, he felt even more diminished. For some reason, Lyle had fallen unusually silent, simply staring at his body.
Squeezing his eyes shut, Haejin quickly put on the blindfold beside him. If he could see nothing at all as usual, perhaps it would be easier. Sitting on the soft bed, he felt his body sink into it.
After hesitating, he picked up the rope at his side and extended it toward where Lyle stood. He could not bind his own hands.
Large fingers took the rope, brushing against his. With his sight cut off, his other senses sharpened instead, thwarting his attempt to escape. It even felt vividly as though Lyle’s gaze were striking down on his bare body. Of course, that could not be the case. Lyle would have taken the rope with visible annoyance.
Reflexively, Haejin lay down and turned his arms behind him—then startled and quickly faced forward again. He must not provoke Lyle now, but honestly, he did not think he could endure being bound behind his back for days. After walking so long in the rain, his body was chilled. His injured ankle was nearly numb.
“In—in front.”
Lyle had never struck him before, but this time he might be slapped. He was suddenly grateful his eyes were covered.
Watching Haejin’s movements silently, Lyle lowered his gaze to the rope in his hand. The hands extended before him were trembling. And on those wrists, bruises that had not fully faded layered upon one another.
The accumulation of bruises, marking the passage of time, drew his gaze strangely. It was not guilt—Lyle believed he provided sufficient compensation.
At that moment, the congestion of pheromones triggered a splitting pain in his head. Pressing at his brow, he was about to coldly declare that binding would not be necessary this time—
When someone knocked urgently at the door.