Chapter 48: More Than a One-Time Thing

“I’m hungry. Let’s eat quickly.”

“Yes… thank you for the meal…….”

Since the table was already set and he was sitting in front of it, declining would only feel more awkward.

Thinking it would be better to eat quickly and leave, Yooha first took a spoonful of soup.

The clear soup filled with tofu and eggs warmly settled his empty stomach and stimulated his appetite.

“Is it good?”

“Yes….”

“I’m glad. Eat a lot.”

Shin Joowon slid the side dishes toward Yooha, offering a bright eye-smile.

Yooha, who was about to pick up a side dish after a light nod, suddenly realized something and gasped as he stood up abruptly from his seat.

His face was clearly washed in panic.

“What’s wrong?”

“…I, I haven’t contacted the doctor… Ah, and I haven’t contacted my aunt either… Just a moment….”

Reality hit him all at once.

It only now occurred to him that not only had he skipped his library work-study and classes without a word, but he also hadn’t contacted his aunt, who was surely worrying.

He had completely forgotten about it because his mind had been in a total whirl from the sudden onset of his heat cycle until now.

As a flustered Yooha scrambled and looked around as if searching for something, Shin Joowon pressed down on his shoulders to seat him back down and headed to the living room.

Returning shortly, he handed Yooha his phone.

“When you were asleep, your brother called, so I answered instead. I told him to let the adults know too, so you don’t have to worry.”

“…To Woo Tae?”

“Yeah. I told him that you’d likely have to stay with me for a few days.”

Despite Shin Joowon’s words, Yooha’s face was filled with extreme restlessness, unable to find easy relief.

Checking the lock screen, it was already well past five in the afternoon, and a whole day had passed.

This meant he had skipped two classes yesterday and today, and had also been absent from work twice without notice.

Once he saw the missed calls from the librarian, his already pale face turned even more ghostly white.

Having never experienced such a massive deviation in his life, Yooha had no choice but to spiral into panic.

Since his brain had already ceased functioning, no solution came to mind no matter how hard he wracked his brain.

“Eat all your food first, and do the contacting later. I’ll give it to you when you’re done eating.”

Shin Joowon snatched the phone away with a beaming smile.

Then, he immediately stuffed it into his pants pocket and sat back down across from Yooha.

As Yooha, unable to say a word, simply hovered in hesitation, Shin Joowon, feeling needlessly mischievous at the sight, propped his chin up on his hand at an angle.

For some reason, he didn’t like how Yooha’s head was entirely filled with other worries while sitting right in front of him.

What topic should he use to redirect his attention? Shin Joowon fell into thought for a moment as he swallowed a sip of water.

If it was a topic that could turn Jin Yooha’s gaze, as expected, there seemed to be only one.

“Yooha, how was it doing it with me?”

At the sudden question, Yooha’s face flushed in an instant as he tightly pursed his lips.

Shin Joowon, calmly pushing the water cup in front of Yooha, spoke again with a bright smile.

“Did you like it?”

Although Joowon’s expression hadn’t changed in the slightest and his voice was utterly shameless, Yooha didn’t sense anything suspicious at all.

His head was merely spinning from his own share of embarrassment, leaving him unable to answer readily.

“…Was it bad?”

“Ah, no….”

“Then that means it was good?”

“…Yes…… i-it was good…….”

Although it was an extreme dichotomy, Yooha, who once again didn’t find anything strange, blurted out his true feelings in his daze.

After spitting out the words, his face burned hot, and his throat went dry in tandem.

Yooha picked up the cup in front of him, emptied it in one gulp, and let out a soft sigh.

Pouring the cold water down seemed to cool his feverish heat just a little.

Shin Joowon had quite a difficult time holding back the laughter that threatened to burst out at that sight.

Barely hiding his inner thoughts and letting out an outward sigh of relief, he chose his next words.

Since he had already started teasing him, he felt like taking it a step further.

Because watching the embarrassed Yooha was always amusing.

And lately, Yooha even looked a bit cute.

“To be honest, I was about to feel slightly disappointed. I thought you were trying to use me and toss me aside.”

“Pardon…? What did I… toss aside…? What does ‘use and toss aside’ mean…?”

Shin Joowon, drooping the corners of his eyes as much as possible to put on a hurt expression, picked at his rice grains with his chopsticks.

Jin Yooha, carefully asking because he didn’t even know what using and tossing aside meant, looked far more naive than others his age.

Shin Joowon, who had even bowed his head once because it was so hard to hold back his laughter, barely gathered himself before continuing.

“We even had s*x, and yet the moment you woke up and gathered your senses, the first thing you said was that you were going home. I wondered if you were discarding me now that my utility value had dropped. I didn’t feel very good, wondering if I was really that bad.”

As if to emphasize that he had received an unspeakable wound, Shin Joowon lowered his gaze, not even making eye contact with Yooha.

Only after finishing his words did he subtly lift his eyes, catching sight of Jin Yooha busily rolling his pupils in distress.

Watching those lips that parted slightly as if about to speak, Shin Joowon unknowingly smacked his lips.

“Hyung, that’s… because I felt so sorry… that’s why I did that, not because I disliked doing it with you, Hyung….”

“…….”

“You helped me, Hyung, so how could I ever think like that…… Absolutely, absolutely not. I only did that because I thought you’d find it uncomfortable if I kept staying….”

Shin Joowon, realizing that all other secondary thoughts had finally vanished from Jin Yooha’s head and only he filled it, smiled genuinely.

It had been well worth the effort to deliberately sound him out with crude words, even though he knew Yooha was far too innocent to ever dare think of taking him and casting him aside.

Yooha, who had no idea what Shin Joowon was thinking right now, was in a complete tizzy out of fear that Joowon would keep misunderstanding him.

Somehow, seeing that look today felt a little pitiable, so Shin Joowon decided to take a step back for now.

“I liked doing it with you too.”

“…….”

“I’m glad if I was of help.”

The words he threw out without hesitation were sincere.

The s*x with Yooha had been quite satisfying, and though Yooha had fainted from being unable to bear his pheromones, his heat cycle seemed to have passed safely enough at this rate.

Aside from that, it was a bit of a shame that his heat cycle was short, perhaps because he was a recessive type.

What would have happened if he had gone straight home back then?

He had even boarded his car before heading to the smoking area because he craved a cigarette; if he had exercised useless patience and gone back home, he wouldn’t have run into Jin Yooha.

Recalling it now, it felt unsettling.

Although Jin Yooha had certainly said he took his suppressants back then, he had been leaking pheromones much thicker than usual.

It was a concentration that any Alpha born with a sensitive temperament like himself would have easily detected.

If Yooha had caught the eye of a malicious Alpha like Min Gihwan first, there was no telling what might have occurred.

Though Yooha had safely got through his heat cycle this time by running into him, it seemed necessary to keep him under tight control to make sure he behaved more carefully in the future.

“Um… you know, Hyung….”

“Yeah, what is it?”

Yooha, who had maintained silence while Shin Joowon was deep in thought, spoke cautiously.

Since it was extremely rare for Yooha to strike up a conversation first, Shin Joowon’s reaction was more immediate than ever.

Yooha kept his gaze fixed only on his rice bowl, unable to hide his ears which had turned bright red before he knew it.

Given the nature of what he was about to say, Yooha needed a great deal of courage.

Only after chewing over and over the thoughts in his head several times was he able to slowly open his mouth.

“I want to help you too later on, Hyung….”

“…….”

“I don’t know… if I’ll be of help… but if, if you’re fine with someone like me…….”

Yooha’s head slowly bowed, and his voice crawled even further down.

Shin Joowon, hearing words he had never even imagined, was at a loss for words and only stared intently at Yooha.

He hadn’t offered his help expecting something in return.

Yet, that didn’t mean he had stepped forward to help Jin Yooha with an entirely pure and clean heart either.

Since Jin Yooha’s pheromones had been coming to mind from time to time lately and making him hard, his motives were mixed with the impure desire to feel those pheromones when Yooha’s estrus arrived, when they would be far thicker and heavier than usual.

Jin Yooha surely had absolutely no idea.

Because if he had known, he wouldn’t have been able to make such a sweet proposal.

To sum it up, Jin Yooha was offering to become his s*x partner during Shin Joowon’s rut, if he was fine with a recessive Omega like himself.

Fearlessly, to a Dominant Alpha.

Should he call this laudable, or reckless?

When Yooha had been busy blacking out this time too, Joowon wondered if Yooha could truly endure his pheromones when they raged out of control during his rut.

Although he could control it to some extent this time because it wasn’t his own estrus, during his rut, he wouldn’t be able to manage it at all.

He had no idea what he might even do the moment his suppressed instincts exploded.

“Yes, make sure to help me.”

Although all sorts of complicated thoughts tangled in his head, Shin Joowon didn’t decline Yooha’s proposal, which had rolled right in on its own.

The future was for his future self and Jin Yooha to figure out.

Whether they fucked like beasts, wallowed in intoxication from pheromones, or if an unable-to-endure Jin Yooha fainted away—since it was an appealing proposal for now, there was no reason to reject it.

Shin Joowon reached that conclusion.

“Let’s eat quickly. The food is going to get cold.”

“Yes……”

Yooha, having absolutely no inkling of Shin Joowon’s scheme, felt only a sense of relief that Joowon hadn’t rejected his offer.

‘Maybe even I, a recessive Omega like myself, can be of at least some help to a Dominant Alpha.’

As he thought so, the expectation that slowly blossomed made Yooha’s heart flutter with excitement.

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