Chapter 13: Losing Control

He felt exceptionally good today.

No, Chaewoo had always liked these kinds of gatherings.

Though he pretended otherwise, he had missed laughing and chatting among people without a care.

How long had it been since he had idled away the time so mindlessly?

It felt just like being back in his freshman year.

With his spirits high and the alcohol kicking in, he couldn’t stop giggling.

Perhaps because it was an unfamiliar sight, more and more people began to steal glances at him.

Unbothered, Chaewoo spent quite a while mingling before eventually standing up to go to the restroom.

As he headed toward the exit marked for the restroom, snippets of conversation from another table drifted toward him.

“I’ve been wondering what he looks like…”

“Those pheromones are insane. He must be a dominant Omega, right?”

“Hey, look over there.”

“Shh! Shut up.”

The group of Alphas he didn’t recognize sitting at the table near the entrance went silent as

Chaewoo passed by.

Passing them without a thought, Chaewoo opened the door and stepped out of the pub.

The bustling noise from inside gradually faded from his ears.

He had only had a few beers, but since it had been so long, his mind felt hazy.

“Oh.”

Chaewoo, who was about to enter the restroom in the building’s hallway, frowned at the sight of the old, communal facility.

It wasn’t divided by Alpha, Omega, or Beta, and it was even unisex.

The smell typical of old restrooms was unpleasant enough, but countless pheromones were also tangled together inside.

After Chaewoo presented as a dominant Omega, his parents had urged him to avoid communal restrooms as much as possible.

Especially in pubs.

Having never gone against his parents’ wishes in his life, Chaewoo had diligently put that advice into practice.

It had become such a habit that he was subconsciously reluctant to enter old restrooms in commercial buildings.

‘But I need to go…’

Chaewoo sighed and slumped down onto the stairs.

His vision wobbled, making him feel nauseous.

He knew he hadn’t been drinking lately, but he hadn’t expected his tolerance to drop this much.

“I should stop drinking.”
Chaewoo muttered, burying his head in his knees.

‘I’ll go back inside, say my goodbyes, and head home.’

‘Will I be able to make it back to my studio in one piece?’

The moment he recognized he was drunk, all the strength drained from his body, and he didn’t want to move a muscle.

“Get up.”

A heavy voice reached Chaewoo’s ears as he lay there defenselessly.

It was a voice somewhere between a tenor and a baritone, sounding strangely cold.

When he lifted his head from his knees, a pair of white sneakers appeared before his eyes.

Following the view upward, he saw Beom Euigeon.

He was looking down at him with expressionless eyes.

Clearly, just moments ago, he had been laughing and playing with the Harvard-educated ‘Kwang-gi’ and the other opera singers.

Chaewoo blinked slowly.

“What is it?”

“Senior. Are you determined to charm every Alpha passing by?”

“Charm who…?”

Chaewoo narrowed his eyes and shot back, finding the remark absurd.

“Don’t you go around charming innocent Omegas. You’re covered in Omega pheromones yourself…”

“You’re drunk. You can’t even distinguish your own pheromones.”
Euigeon clicked his tongue.

Then, he grabbed Chaewoo’s arm and pulled him up.

“Come on. I’ll take you home.”

“Wait, I have to go to the bathroom… Ah!”

As he tried to stand, the strength left his legs.

Chaewoo’s body tilted forward abruptly.

He closed his eyes, expecting to take a tumble, but a firm arm caught him by the shoulder.

Given the fall down the stairs, he must have been quite heavy, but Euigeon didn’t budge as he supported his drunken body.

He grabbed Chaewoo by the waist and set him upright.

When Chaewoo tried to pull away in surprise, the hand wrapped around his abdomen tightened.

“I don’t need it, let go.”

“I can touch you a little, can’t I? My child is going to be conceived in here anyway.”

Those words snapped him back to his senses.

Terrified someone might have heard, Chaewoo scanned the surroundings.

Fortunately, no one was there, but his face grew hot.

Euigeon, on the other hand, looked perfectly fine after blurting out such an embarrassing thing in public.

“W-what are you saying? Let go, I can walk on my own.”

“Is that so?”
At his bold claim, Euigeon immediately let go.

Chaewoo tried to support himself by grabbing the railing, but whether it was from tension or the alcohol, he slumped back down onto the stairs.

His limbs felt like waterlogged cotton, sinking lower and lower.

Just then, people entering the pub stared at Chaewoo as if he were strange.

“…Actually, I can’t walk.”

“Then follow me quietly.”
Chaewoo’s shoulders flinched.

The voice… that formless resonance felt like it was licking him all the way from the back of his ears to his neckline.

The fine hairs he usually never noticed stood up instantly.

‘Could I really be this wasted after just one beer?’

‘Impossible.’

Chaewoo thought as he was dragged unsteadily toward the parking lot.

With every step, his mind grew foggier.

As a side effect, his thoughts began to flow in a disjointed, rambling sequence.

‘Is it okay to just leave without saying goodbye to the professor?’

‘Beom Euigeon is only giving me a ride because of the contract, right?’

‘If he sees me like this and says it’s a breach of contract and demands the money back, what excuse should I make…’

‘Ah, speaking of which, when does my part-time pay come in? This month’s living expenses…’

Before he knew it, Chaewoo was in the passenger seat, buckling his seatbelt with clumsy hands.

Then, he looked at Euigeon in the driver’s seat and was startled.

“You… you drank.”

“Why would I drink when I brought my car?”
At that, Chaewoo’s eyes shot up.

‘Where does he get off lying like that!’

“Don’t give me that. You smell like alcohol.”

The inside of the car was reeking of the scent of alcohol.

“That would be the smell coming off you, Senior Seol.”

“…I wanted to go to the bathroom… and you wouldn’t even let me…”
Chaewoo grumbled quietly.

Euigeon thoroughly ignored his drunken rambling.

“Where is your house?”

“Why do you ask? That’s very rude.”

Asking a drunken Omega where his house is—he really was untrustworthy.

Chaewoo pointed it out while glaring at Euigeon with suspicious eyes.

“Then do you want to find your way home alone?”
Euigeon shrugged, taking his hand off the navigation system.

Chaewoo didn’t stop glaring, but after a moment, he obediently entered an address.

Just in case, he entered the address of his part-time job instead of his studio apartment.

But Euigeon didn’t start the car immediately; instead, he began rustling around suspiciously.

When Chaewoo turned his head, Euigeon was unbuckling the belt he had just struggled to fasten.

“What are you doing?”

“Senior Seol, you buckled the belt into my side.”

“Oh.”

“Just how much… did you drink? Don’t drink from now on.”

“I had one glass.”

Feeling a bit cowed, Chaewoo muttered.

Euigeon didn’t reply.

“You gave me permission earlier.”

‘That’s why I drank. I drank with permission.’
Euigeon shook his head at the endless stream of self-talk.

“I shouldn’t even permit one glass from now on.”
Hiccup!

A sudden hiccup escaped Chaewoo’s mouth.

“And Senior Seol. Can’t you do something about those pheromones?”

“Ah, oh. Was it that bad?”
Chaewoo fidgeted, his body shifting restlessly.

He had never made such a mistake even when drunk before.

Being called out made him realize he had been far too careless.

His pheromones were deeply saturating the small interior of the car. It was the perfect situation for a misunderstanding.

He tried to control them, but what used to be easy to manage was now leaking out as it pleased.

Like sweating involuntarily when it’s hot, they were creeping out unconsciously.
As if they were trying to seduce him.

When things didn’t go his way, Chaewoo tensed his entire body and trembled.

Even so, the pheromones wouldn’t settle.

“Ha… it’s not working.”
His breathing grew a bit ragged.

Chaewoo was inwardly anxious.

There was nothing good about an Omega exposing too many pheromones.

It might be fine if it were just enough to attract interest, but it was troublesome if he couldn’t control it like this.

Moreover, he was even more embarrassed because it was his first time exposing his Omega status to someone who wasn’t family.

Beyond anxiety, he felt a sort of fear.

He was at a loss because he couldn’t tell if this was temporary, due to the alcohol, or because of

Euigeon sitting next to him.

Glancing at Euigeon’s profile as he drove, he saw no particular reaction.

He simply had an indifferent face as he rolled down all the car windows to let the pheromones out.

Having entered the road, the night wind of the city seeped strongly into the moving car.

Chaewoo curled up and offered a timid protest.

“If you open the windows, I’ll be cold.”

“…….”

“…So, can’t you close them?”

“But if I close the windows, I’ll get turned on.”

“…….”

Was he serious, or was he joking?

His expressionless face made it even harder to tell.

Actually, the night air was nothing, but he felt a chill today.

“I’m cold, what am I supposed to do then?”
When he sniffled, Euigeon’s eyes, which had been fixed on the front, turned toward Chaewoo.

“I can’t just leave you behind, either.”

“Right. Don’t do that.”

Fearing he might be kicked out into the middle of the road if he complained further, Chaewoo shut his mouth.

At some point, his senses gradually dulled.

Accordingly, the cold also disappeared.

The problem was that it became even harder to control his pheromones.

Instead of sobering up, he now had to focus all his attention just to keep his pheromones, which felt like they would run wild at any moment, at a reasonable level.

“Whew.”

As if he had never been cold, Chaewoo leaned toward the window to catch the breeze.

Euigeon’s Alpha pheromones felt exceptionally sensitive, making him want to sit as far away as possible.

Every scent and pheromone of his inside the car was pricking and stimulating Chaewoo.

‘Am I in my heat cycle?’
Even if that were the case, he had never reacted this sensitively before.

He felt as if he would end up begging Euigeon for something if they stayed in the same space.

Despite the dizziness, Chaewoo curled his toes and endured the inexplicable sensation.

His intuition warned him that if he didn’t firmly hold onto his fading rationality, the worst-case scenario would unfold.

The fact that it was Beom Euigeon, of all people, made it even more undesirable.

“…Ha.”
He had heard that it was rare, but sometimes individuals reacted more sensitively to specific pheromones.

Was Euigeon’s pheromones such a case?

Chaewoo reached his limit at some point.

He fumbled hurriedly and unbuckled the seatbelt that was tightening around him.
Since the car was slowly moving through an alleyway, he tried to get out recklessly.

However, the door was locked and wouldn’t open.

“Where are you trying to go all of a sudden?”

Euigeon, seemingly surprised, took his hand off the wheel and grabbed Chaewoo firmly by the shoulder.

“Nngh.”

At the touch that came without warning, Chaewoo let out a moan and leaned deep into the seat.

To anyone’s ears, it was a moan that carried a meaning other than pain.

Chaewoo covered his mouth, startled by his own sound.

But it was no use. Euigeon immediately sensed the abnormality.

“What was that just now?”

“…….”

“Were you turned on by me?”

“N-no. Just let go of this…”

Chaewoo tried to pull away the hand pressing on his shoulder in panic.

However, touching Euigeon’s arm made a bold desire to be touched more surface.

The feeling of skin against skin was too good.

Good enough to make him feel dazed.

But when those dark, half-lidded eyes stared intently at him, a tangled excuse came out.

“I mean, this is… because you’re so…”

“Because I’m so what?”
Chaewoo layered his hand over the arm pressing his shoulder.

For a moment, silence flowed along with a taut tension.

Neither spoke, but their thickened pheromones quickly became intertwined.

Like some invisible signal.

In place of reason, sensations he had never handled before seethed like crazy.

Chaewoo was helplessly swept away by that raw sensuality.

It was the moment he personally experienced both the drunken mistakes he used to say he understood the least and the unfortunate incidents caused by pheromones.

“Haah.”

The moment he let out a sigh that sounded like a moan, their lips collided.

So fast that it was impossible to tell who had pulled whom first.

Chaewoo opened his lips as if quenching a thirst and delved deep into Euigeon’s breath.