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Join the Server“Do you really have to do this?”
Joon-hee, who had followed him to the front door, asked, clutching his arm tightly. He slowly turned, gently easing Joon-hee’s hand away.
His heart ached, feeling as though it might tear, but he couldn’t let it show. He meticulously composed his features, feigning composure, before speaking.
“I’ll be back soon.”
“How soon?”
“Perhaps in three days?”
Reassuring Joon-hee that there was no need to worry, he put on his shoes and opened the heavy front door.
Their gazes remained locked until the very moment the door closed. Joon-hee’s face, on the verge of tears, was then obscured by the heavy door that separated them.
‘I have to go.’
Hesitation might shatter his resolve. Turning away with difficulty, he handed his bag to his secretary and immediately got into the car.
“Director, are you alright?”
“…Of course not.”
Leaning deeply into the seat, he opened the window, letting the breeze wash over him. His fever seemed to have risen even further.
His doctor had informed him that his rut cycle had begun. A severe heat, potentially lasting from three days to a full week.
Given Jung-ah’s unique constitution, suppressants proved futile. The only true alleviation for such an intense rut lay in intimacy with an Omega.
However, Joon-hee’s body was simply too delicate to withstand him in such a state. Coupled with the doctor’s stark warning about the extremely rare, yet possible, chance of conception during a rut, Jung-ah chose to endure it alone.
“But I had the surgery, isn’t that enough?”
“You never know. There have been cases of conception even after surgery, during a rut.”
“Those are isolated incidents. So just, with me…”
“Joon-hee Hyung, please, just this once, yield to me.”
Joon-hee tried to persuade him until the very end, but this was one thing Jung-ah could not concede.
Despite the passage of time, he harbored no desire to relive that traumatic week.
‘I have to endure this somehow.’
If the early stages were already this agonizing, he couldn’t imagine the pain once the rut fully set in.
The searing pain, as if his entire body was aflame, coupled with an overwhelming impulse that threatened to paralyze his very mind—he had to bear all of it, alone.
‘This will be a long one.’
It was the beginning of the second longest week of his life.
****
A day passed since Jung-ah left home.
As night fell, their child began looking for him, asking when their dad would return. Listening to their child’s mumbled “I miss him,” the words “Me too” swelled in his throat, yet he swallowed them back.
Perhaps sensing his forced attempts at cheerfulness, despite his own spirits constantly sinking, Seo-woo had been unusually quiet, trailing him throughout the day.
Leaving the child, who had fallen asleep early and without fussing, unlike usual, he returned to their bedroom.
Perhaps it was his absence, but the bed seemed uncommonly vast as he lay alone, blinking blankly into the quiet room.
‘He must be struggling immensely.’
Since suppressants were ineffective, and he had even refused his help, all Jung-ah could do was endure.
The doctor had described the torment as his entire body searing and his brain melting into a hazy fog, a relentless agony that would persist for a full week.
‘Even after the surgery…’
No matter how many times he emphasized that those were merely a handful of isolated cases among countless others, Jung-ah refused to listen.
Jung-ah still harbored a profound fear of that week after Seo-woo’s birth, when he had fallen into a deep, unresponsive sleep.
He understood the anxiety that if it happened again, Jung-ah might lose him completely.
But this time… the circumstances were different.
“Simply enduring isn’t the solution. Severe pain can lead to shock.”
The doctor’s warning echoed in his mind. Jung-ah had said he would be fine, but what if something went wrong while he endured it alone?
What if an irreversible situation arose because of it?
‘Why can’t he realize I’d be scared too?’
He choked back the sudden surge of emotion. He didn’t want to cry alone, but the profound worry for Jung-ah, who must be suffering, brought an uncontrollable flow of tears.
He buried his face in the pillow, weeping silently. His eyes stung from all the rubbing, likely swollen and red.
Turning onto his side, he looked at Jung-ah’s empty space. As he touched the cold sheets, a vibration echoed from afar.
‘Could it be…?’
He sprang up, grabbing his phone from the drawer. Seeing the name displayed on the screen, he pressed the call button faster than ever before.
“Hello?”
No sound came from the other end. It was definitely Jung-ah; he checked again, the number was correct.
“Jung-ah.”
– Joon-hee Hyung. Hyuuung…
Jung-ah’s deeply hoarse voice called his name, a desperate, endless plea. He longed to ask if the pain was too much, if he could bear it, but then the call abruptly disconnected.
“Hello? Jung-ah?”
He tried calling back, but all calls went to voicemail. Surely, Jung-ah hadn’t collapsed. Unable to bear it any longer, he resolved to go to him.
While changing his clothes, he contacted his mother. When he asked if she could look after Seo-woo for a few days due to an unforeseen circumstance, his mother readily agreed.
He gave her the front door code, as she would be arriving soon. Meanwhile, having finished his preparations, he hailed a taxi through an app. His destination was the hotel where Jung-ah was staying.
Perhaps due to the late hour, a taxi wasn’t immediately available. He paced anxiously, his heart pounding, but fortunately, a taxi just ten minutes away was already en route.
‘…This should be enough.’
Before leaving the room, he took out birth control pills from the drawer. He usually avoided intimacy if condoms weren’t available, so he rarely needed the pills, but today would be different.
He tore open the package and swallowed a single pill. Since he would need to take them consistently for several days, he carefully placed the remaining pills in his pocket. He doubted, however, if he’d even be coherent enough to remember them once he arrived.
“Seo-woo, Daddy’s going out for a bit.”
Before leaving the house, he visited the child one last time to say goodbye. He knew Seo-woo would look for him often upon waking, but he could only hope they would be patient for a few days.
Quietly, he slipped out of the child’s room and descended the stairs, just as an alert signaled the taxi’s arrival. As he settled into the car, the navigation system, synced with his app, guided him to the pre-set destination.
Leaning back into the seat, he fidgeted with his silent phone. He prayed desperately that nothing was amiss, that the disconnected call was merely an accident. In this state of fervent hope, the taxi finally pulled up to the hotel.
As soon as he opened the door and stepped out, he sprinted towards the lobby. He boarded the elevator that had just arrived, pressing the button for Jung-ah’s floor with a determined finger.
– The doors are closing.
The doors closed, and the elevator, carrying only him, ascended rapidly. His leg bounced with anxiety as he focused on the quickly changing numbers on the display.
– Twelfth floor, doors opening.
The elevator doors opened upon reaching the floor. He hurried down the corridor, recalling the room number he had memorized.
‘It was room 1215.’
Jung-ah’s room was the very last one down the hall. Standing before the firmly closed door, he pressed the doorbell without hesitation.
Yet, no matter how long he waited, the door remained shut. Pressing the bell again yielded the same result. Jung-ah couldn’t possibly have missed the loud sound; he seemed intent on ignoring him.
“Jung-ah, it’s me. Open the door.”
He knocked on the door instead of ringing the bell, calling out to Jung-ah. If this also proved futile, he planned to go down to the lobby and ask a staff member to open it.
“Jung-ah, please open the—”
Fortunately, after a short moment, the closed door slowly creaked open. Jung-ah, seeing him through the narrow gap, hesitated and stepped back.
“Joon-hee Hyung, why are you…”
As Jung-ah tried to close the door again, he quickly slipped his hand into the gap, forcing it wide open. He pushed the door open completely and stepped inside, standing before Jung-ah.
‘The pheromones…’
He had expected it, but the room was utterly saturated with Jung-ah’s pheromones. The scent, overwhelming with every breath, was difficult to bear, yet he tried not to show it.
“Why are you here?”
“You called me.”
“…I did?”
Jung-ah’s eyes widened, completely failing to comprehend what he was saying. It seemed he had called him while not in his right mind.
‘How much pain was he in?’
In just a day, Jung-ah’s face had grown gaunt. His body was drenched in sweat, and his hastily donned pants, with their zipper undone, were covered in various stains.
Perhaps unwilling to show himself in such a disheveled state, Jung-ah reached out, blocking his view, and spoke.
“Please, just leave. You can’t stay here.”
“No.”
He pushed Jung-ah’s hand away, meeting his gaze once more. Jung-ah, having momentarily regained some clarity, avoided his persistent stare.
“Joon-hee Hyung, please…”
As he took a step forward, Jung-ah stumbled backward. Normally, he would be the one fleeing and Jung-ah the one pursuing, but now the roles were reversed.
Given the room’s modest size, their impromptu chase quickly concluded. He completely blocked Jung-ah, who was now trapped against the wall, unable to retreat further.
“I’m going to spend this rut with you.”
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