He didn’t know in what state of mind he arrived at the hotel.

Jaeha got out of the driver's seat as if jumping out, then had to grab the car body, dizzy, and catch his breath.

"Sir, are you alright?"

A valet approached and asked. Jaeha covered his mouth as if carsick, then barely managed to answer.

"I'm... alright."

That was all Jaeha could utter. After that, he put all his strength into each step to avoid staggering.

Each time his shoe heels touched the marble floor, it resonated up to the crown of his head. It felt like someone was striking a thick, house sized bell right next to both ears.

Frowning from the high pitched, ringing tinnitus, Jaeha walked.

The room in question was a suite with a private elevator.

Even though he didn't have the key card to the room, one of the hoteliers recognized Jaeha's face and, perhaps having been informed beforehand, opened the elevator door and pressed the floor for him directly.

Jaeha even forgot to nod in greeting to him. It was behavior unbefitting of Lee Jaeha of Yushin, who lived by basic manners.

As soon as the door of the elevator he boarded closed, Jaeha bent forward, feeling nauseous. Barely maintaining his rationality was the limit.

His stomach churned violently. The elevator's gravity, usually barely noticeable, seemed to churn his insides.

He thought that was all, but it wasn't.

"Ah..."

A pale hand grabbed the elevator wall. It wasn't exactly nausea, but something oddly...

"Ugh..."

It felt like his lower abdomen was hardening into a tight knot. Jaeha thought he didn't know whose jasmine scent was filling the elevator.

He couldn't understand why he smelled like this. His pheromones usually smelled like dry ash tree branches.

Even during rut, it didn't change drastically. Sometimes it smelled like the damp base of an ash tree after rain, but that was it.

The scent being that of an ash tree hadn't changed, so why such a strong jasmine scent?

It was the dense scent of a single drop of oil made by directly pressing the flower, more potent than fresh blossoms.

Jaeha barely managed to pull a handkerchief from his suit jacket pocket and cover his nose.

It was different from the scent he could perceive in his relationship with Taegun. The elevator was the private one for the suite Taegun had mentioned, so the only person riding it was himself; therefore, this scent must undoubtedly be Lee Jaeha's, his own pheromone.

He felt nauseous at this undeniable fact. He couldn't believe that he, an Alpha, emitted such a scent.

If even he, the source, could smell his own pheromone this strongly, other Alphas would smell it even more. For the first time in his life, Jaeha felt shame and a sense of crisis as if he were naked in the middle of the street.

Yes. It was a sense of crisis. An absolutely first time experience in the life of Lee Jaeha, who had always lived as a predator from the top.

'...Why did I come here again?

Jaeha rested his head against the elevator wall and closed his eyes.

By this point, he couldn't help but wonder. Because he couldn't understand why he was here.

After meeting Yujin and receiving evidence of some of Lee Ikhyeong's numerous misdeeds, he had tried to get into his car to go home. That's when he felt someone watching. And then...

Jaeha's thoughts flickered like a faulty tungsten light bulb. He had thought his lower abdomen felt heavy, but an area he usually didn't even feel was strangely itchy.

Unconsciously, Jaeha groaned and pulled open his suit jacket to look down at his chest.

"Why is this..."

Following his usual manner of not wearing an undershirt beneath his shirt, the tips of his chest were fully exposed.

Because the protruding points pushed against the shirt fabric, the cloth in that area was taut. Jaeha was bewildered.

Because the part asserting itself, as if standing stiff in the cold, felt unfamiliar today.

After all the dizzying sensations passed, what was encroaching upon Jaeha were indescribably subtle feelings.

A place he couldn't name felt itchy, or he felt as if veins were bulging along the abdominal muscles leading to his groin.

"......"

It felt like his whole body was being rubbed with very soft microfibers. Each time his clothes brushed against him, the sensations only grew sharper.

Suppressing the moan threatening to burst out, Jaeha looked up at the elevator's indicator panel.

The red triangle on the panel blinked, indicating ascent. With a clear ding, the elevator door opened.

"......"

"......"

With feverish eyes, Jaeha looked at Jang Taegun leaning against the wall near the elevator entrance, wearing a thin turtleneck knit and suit pants.

Standing alone in the corridor connecting directly to the suite, Jang Taegun was barefoot, wearing nothing on his feet.

Jaeha stared intently at his feet. Because he wondered if he had been waiting for him.

But that silence was brief. Jang Taegun approached without hesitation, grabbed Jaeha's wrist, and pulled him out of the elevator.

The handkerchief covering his nose fell to the floor and was crushed under a shoe, but it was forgotten as easily as its light weight.

Because compared to the mountainous presence of the one holding his wrist, it was too insignificant.

"...Manager Jang,"

"I had a feeling it would be around today."

"......"

"But it's really true. The subject that never strays from my expectations."

Jang Taegun pulled Jaeha close, embracing him tightly against his side.

Unconsciously, Jaeha's knees almost buckled from something surging within him. He couldn't even gasp for breath.

The moment his legs gave way and he was about to slump, Taegun's palm pressed against Jaeha's chest. From that spot, heat surged madly.

"Ah..."

"Mr. Lee Jaeha, you said we should live as strangers."

With dazed eyes, Jaeha looked up at the man calling him.

It was a voice he felt he had heard in a dream. The dense scent of roses surged and descended upon Jaeha's skin. He almost regretted wearing clothes.

He wanted to receive Jang Taegun's pheromones. He wanted their lip mucosa to collide, to exchange saliva, for the pillar of his tongue to probe his mouth.

He wanted that seemingly dry, rough palm to thoroughly touch all the rigidly protruding places.

He wanted his leg to come between his own two legs and cling. He wanted to thoroughly explore with his fingertips the broad back, where scars had hardened into bumpy ridges, and imprint him within himself.

Where did all these desires and yearnings come from? With his feverish head, Jaeha thought for a long time, but no conclusion came.

He could only hope the man before him would do something to him.

Nevertheless, he couldn't voice that feeling. Because it was Lee Jaeha who left Jang Taegun.

But enduring the present moment was difficult. His lower body felt heavy, and the space between his legs felt slick and wet, slipping with each step.

Jaeha opened and closed his dizzy eyes. He wished this were a dream, but from the moment Jang Taegun's pheromones mixed in the air and clung to his nasal passages, desire shook his insides like a wildfire.

It was a thirst that seemed to ring in his ears. Jaeha felt that if he opened his mouth, only pleas would escape, so he kept it shut.

As if knowing him, Jang Taegun only gave a stifled laugh.

His sneer descended upon the crown of Jaeha's head. Taegun's palm was still pressed against Jaeha's chest. He must feel the pounding heartbeat too.

Jaeha tightly closed and opened his eyes once more. He had to escape this situation.