Chapter 96: Nothing Had Changed….?

At last, it felt like he could breathe.

Strangely enough, he had no desire to take him by force.

He simply wanted to confirm the boy’s existence, to be reassured by the fact that he was held in his arms.

As he breathed in Han-geon’s scent, listened to the sound of his heartbeat, and felt his body heat, the heart that had been pounding like it had gone mad slowly began to settle.

Startled by the sudden action, Han-geon tried to push him away.

The moment he reflexively put strength into his grip on Eun-gyeol’s wrist to pull free, the memory of how he had rejected him in the van yesterday flashed through Eun-gyeol’s mind.

A sharp ache throbbed in his chest.

Without weighing consequences, Eun-gyeol spat out his raw, unfiltered truth.

“Don’t push me away.

If you don’t want to see me really drop dead, just stay still.”

Foolishly kind Choi Han-geon flinched again at those words and stopped the hand that had been pushing him away.

Even after hearing something that humiliating from Eun-gyeol just yesterday, he couldn’t properly throw a single thing back at him.

Choi Han-geon was that soft when it came to Eun-gyeol.

The best time to hunt someone is when they’re already fatally wounded.

Yet even with Eun-gyeol laying bare this much anxiety, Han-geon couldn’t even think of exploiting that opening.

He only held him and soothed him.

Watching and feeling that loyal affection as he even cracked jokes to put him at ease, Eun-gyeol gradually calmed down.

Yes.

Nothing has changed.

Nothing at all……

Anxiety, anger—those were all illusions.

The only real things were the hot, pounding sound of Han-geon’s heart within his arms, his body’s scent, and the warmth heating Eun-gyeol’s own body.

The only thing with substance was that unchanging affection that held him as if nothing had happened, no matter how cruelly Eun-gyeol behaved……

However.

Eun-gyeol realized that Choi Han-geon was no longer someone who merely stirred gentle ripples within him.

The beautifully trembling surface of the water had been torn apart and scattered beyond repair.

It was upheaval unlike anything before.

And the one who so brazenly overturned it was Choi Han-geon himself.

That single fact was branded deep into his chest like a searing mark.

***

From some point on, Eun-gyeol developed a new habit.

Observing Han-geon.

Checking whether the weight of his feelings toward him was still properly there, whether any of that weight had lessened.

He found himself habitually watching Han-geon’s expressions and the tone of his voice.

From what Eun-gyeol could see, Choi Han-geon had been looking a little worn down lately.

Eun-gyeol had no intention of claiming he bore no responsibility for that.

After all, the only one who could physically exhaust him was Eun-gyeol himself.

And the harsh words he had heard after they slept together in the van probably had some effect as well.

Even knowing that, hearing Han-geon say he wanted to go back to his parents’ place and rest for a bit left Eun-gyeol in a foul mood.

His heart thudded unpleasantly.

Knowing that it was an attempt to escape somewhere Eun-gyeol wasn’t, to catch his breath, only made him want even less to let him go alone.

If he ended up dwelling on the wounds he’d taken by himself, and if that led him to—just thinking about it was f*cking disgusting—start having different thoughts about their relationship… then.

That was why Eun-gyeol put his foot down and said they’d go to his parents’ house together.

Until the weekend they were supposed to go down together arrived, he followed Han-geon around like a rabid dog in heat.

He didn’t want to give him even a moment alone.

Because Choi Han-geon liked his body heat.

Because he liked his scent.

Because just hugging him was enough to make him lose his head and melt…
Every night, he held him again and again so he wouldn’t have the space to think about anything else.

Watching Han-geon laugh and chatter freely with his parents, Eun-gyeol thought it had been the right decision to come here together after so long.

Even setting aside his original purpose, just seeing Han-geon smiling so comfortably put him in a good mood.

This place was also a space that no one else could dare intrude upon—a space belonging only to him and Han-geon.

And so, to Eun-gyeol as well, this time felt nothing but pleasant and cozy.

Hours-long family drinking sessions without formality, flipping through photo albums together, washing dishes side by side.

Who would dare intrude on a moment like this?

They went into Han-geon’s room in good spirits and lay down together on the bed, when something he hadn’t seen in a while caught Eun-gyeol’s eye.

He had known for a long time that Choi Han-geon had never once worn the sneakers Eun-gyeol had given him, only kept them stored away.

If he’d worn them even once, there was no way Eun-gyeol—who was always stuck to him—wouldn’t have known.

Every time he came into this room, the shoebox neatly placed on top of the bookshelf gave Eun-gyeol a sense of stability and satisfaction.

It was proof that the tower Han-geon had built was still standing firm.

There was blatant proof sitting right there on the bookshelf, yet that day, for some reason, he wanted to hear it from Han-geon’s own mouth as well.

In truth, he had never properly heard it in Choi Han-geon’s voice.

“I couldn’t bring myself to wear them.”

He wanted to hear Han-geon say that while looking him in the eye, ears reddened, gaze lowered.

“Eun-gyeol, I like you.”

Because he was the type to be easily embarrassed, he would say it in a trembling voice, unable to meet his eyes properly.

Just imagining that scene sent shivers across his skin and made a dull ache stir lower down.

But Choi Han-geon didn’t say it so readily.

Instead, he got angry and told Eun-gyeol not to toy with his feelings.

Watching him turn his back and try to sleep, an uncontrollable desire suddenly boiled up inside Eun-gyeol.

It was a sinister, twisted mix of lust, the urge to dominate, and anger.

Before he could even question why his emotional control had been so off lately, Eun-gyeol already had Han-geon pinned beneath him, glaring down.

He wanted to hear it.

He had to hear it.

From Choi Han-geon’s mouth, the words that he liked him.

Toward a Han-geon who stubbornly refused to say it, he did things he normally wouldn’t.

He roughly shoved his tongue into Han-geon’s mouth.

They had s*x, so what was the problem with kissing?

It wasn’t disgusting.

To be honest, it felt good.

So good it nearly made him lose his mind.

He usually hated kissing and rarely did it, yet he even experienced the strange sensation of another man’s saliva tasting sweet.

Like a lunatic, he sucked on Han-geon’s tongue and thrust his own stiffened tongue deep into his mouth.

Even as he kept holding him down and thrusting into him, he found himself regretting that he’d never once thought to try this before.

Just like when they first slept together, he thought again that this, too, was something he should have done long ago.

“You play with my feelings like this…

Mock me…

It’s already… hard enough.”

Instead of saying he liked him, that was what Choi Han-geon said.

Even after being kissed, he looked genuinely hurt.

For reasons Eun-gyeol couldn’t understand, the final word—“hard”—hit him with shocking force in that moment.

Hard.

Hearing a tone that sounded like it might crumble any second, like a bone-dry fallen leaf, fear suddenly seized him.

Impatience surged up and disrupted any rational thought.

Han-geon felt like a doll made of soap.

To Eun-gyeol’s eyes, it looked as if Han-geon were trying to slip out of the tightly clenched grip of his hand.

He couldn’t stand it.

He could never let him go, so he had to hold on.

If he slipped from his grasp, then he’d just grab him again and squeeze harder.

That was why he tried to hold the boy down by force.

But unlike the first day, when he’d hesitated again and again, Choi Han-geon didn’t seem willing to just take it this time.

He tried to resist, looking up at him with defiant eyes.

Seeing the look in Han-geon’s eyes as he truly tried to push him away, Eun-gyeol instinctively did what he always did.

Like a snake constricting its prey’s throat, he released his pheromones thickly, tightening them around him.

It was at that moment.

“Cha—Eun-gyeol…

My body… suddenly feels… strange.”

The Choi Han-geon who had been resisting so fiercely stopped all movement and began to tremble violently.

Seeing Han-geon speak in such desperation, Eun-gyeol’s eyes widened.

‘…What the hell is happening right now?’

In the darkness, Eun-gyeol let out ragged breaths as he tried to make sense of the situation.

Releasing pheromones was meant to satisfy his own desire, not to physically suppress Han-geon.

Han-geon wasn’t supposed to react to pheromones.

Yet right now, Choi Han-geon was clearly responding to his.

A hypothesis flashed through his mind.

But was that… really something that could happen?

He had never suspected it because trait changes themselves were extremely rare.

It was said that only dominant alphas could undergo a trait change, but not every dominant alpha could do so.

The pieces in his head began to fall into place one by one.

Then all those times Han-geon had complained of chills and flu-like symptoms, and the fact that he was now clearly reacting to Eun-gyeol’s pheromones……

“Ugh… ngh.”

It was clear.

Whenever they started having s*x, Han-geon always struggled to take him in.

But as he thrust his s*x inside, he could tell immediately.

A fluid that eased penetration was slowly being secreted from below.

And amid the pheromones he was pouring out with all his strength, there was a response—no bigger than a single strand of hair.

Extremely faint, but unmistakably omega pheromones.

Choi Han-geon had become an omega.

The shock that struck his head lasted only a moment.

Looking down at Han-geon beneath him, frightened and desperately trying to grasp the situation, Eun-gyeol felt an indescribably dark desire boil up inside him.

It wasn’t ordinary lust.

It was more sinister and dangerous than when he was in rut.

It was a lightning-flash realization that he could finally possess him completely.

And the thrill that the one who had made Han-geon like this… was none other than himself.

My omega.

Made by my own hands.

In the darkness, eyes that had let go of the reins of reason glinted dangerously.

Without hesitation, he bit into the back of Han-geon’s neck and marked him.

Since he had made him this way, it was only natural that he take responsibility for it.

Han-geon as an omega should belong to him as well.

The thought of Choi Han-geon being marked by him even before fully blooming as an omega was so intoxicating it nearly drove him mad.

As he exchanged sweet kisses with Han-geon lying dazed beneath him, soaked in the pheromones he poured over him, those thoughts filled his mind.

That he could no longer be satisfied with just being friends and manager.

That they needed to become something more than mere s*x partners.