TYS Ch 16

“Even if it tickles, bear with it. I called someone who’s kind of like a doctor.”

The man, who had insisted on rolling up his sleeves completely, spoke. With his armpit exposed, it felt like even his slightly raised chest muscles might be visible. Seungwan wanted to lower his arm, but the man didn’t let go. Holding an ice pack in one hand, he wedged it under Seungwan’s armpit.

“Hhng—!”

“It’s going to be cold.”

Shouldn’t you have given that warning before shoving it in? The unspoken complaint hovered on Seungwan’s lips before fading away. But the man didn’t stop there. Climbing fully onto the bed, where he had previously only rested one leg, he knelt beside Seungwan’s other arm. Then, with that same careless touch, he lifted the arm straight up.

“Ugh….”

Just when Seungwan thought he had adjusted to the cold, the ice pack shifted slightly, sending a sharp chill seeping into his chest and forcing a groan from his lips. As a child, he had endured pain so well that doctors and school nurses used to scold him for waiting until things got this bad. But now, for some reason, this was harder to bear.

Just as he was struggling to hold back the urge to whine about how cold and miserable he felt, the man briskly pushed up his sleeve and said, “What’s this, some kind of heat cycle? I thought you’d stay a baby forever.”

“……”

Even the way he sounded dumbfounded was absurd—like someone hearing that a toddler who had just learned to say “mama” and “dada” was getting married. In reality, Seungwan himself couldn’t even remember when he had first met this man. Whether the man didn’t notice the irritation and bewilderment on Seungwan’s face or simply didn’t care, he kept talking.

“You seriously don’t remember? When you were tiny, you used to chase after me, going ‘hyuuung, hyuuung’ all the time.”

“……”

Of course, he didn’t remember. It didn’t seem worth responding to, so he stayed silent. As the man’s hand brushed against his forearm while rolling up his sleeve, Seungwan had to suppress a strangely ticklish sensation. He felt as if blood kept rushing to his chest. It was strange—almost like the stiff feeling that came with the cold. After fully rolling up the sleeve, the man let out a short sigh. Then, pressing his thumb against Seungwan’s armpit, he caught him so off guard that Seungwan couldn’t even make a sound.

“You don’t even have any hair. Still just a baby, huh?”

Like someone absentmindedly rubbing a cup in their hand, the man’s thumb swept over Seungwan’s armpit. His body jolted involuntarily. A sudden sense of danger struck him, as if that thumb might slip under his sleeve and graze his chest, making his heat-flushed body jerk.

“Hhng, ngh….”

Startled by the sudden spasm, Seungwan clamped a hand over his mouth. He barely managed to suppress the moan that had nearly escaped, but he couldn’t completely stifle the small noise that slipped out through his nose. The man’s hand stopped abruptly. For a brief moment, it felt as though the entire bedroom was being crushed under the weight of the silence. Could he really be the only one hearing his heart pounding so violently? He could only hope so.

Still covering his mouth, Seungwan widened his eyes, trying to read the man’s expression. But it was too dark to see. No—would he even be able to read his emotions, his thoughts, even under bright light? The man seemed experienced in everything, while Seungwan fumbled through it all. He felt like the day when he could understand him at a glance would never come.

“Um… Sorry, I teased you too much.”

The heavy silence lifted as the man offered a sincere apology and pressed the ice pack back under Seungwan’s armpit. This time, the almost painful cold felt welcome. He wished the ice pack could somehow calm his racing heart. As he barely managed to suppress his wavering expression, the man clicked his tongue and tousled Seungwan’s hair.

“Get some rest. I’ll wake you up when the so-called doctor gets here.”

“……”

Seungwan couldn’t respond, and the man left the room. With a sharp click, the light was cut off, leaving the bedroom in complete darkness. Left alone, Seungwan blinked repeatedly. His lower body was stiff. He couldn’t believe he was hard. The heat sweeping through his body was something he couldn’t resist.

It wasn’t unusual for him to get slightly stiff when his bladder was full in the morning or when he was cold, but this was the first time it had happened while someone else was in the same space. Feeling flustered, he lowered his hand, and just as his fingers brushed the waistband of his sweatpants, he flinched in shock at himself.

Once he became aware of his lower body, it only hardened at an alarming rate. Shutting his eyes tightly, Seungwan started counting to ten. Even after reaching ten, nothing changed, so he tried to think of anything else. One of the things that came to mind was the disposable coffee cup Chief Chae had left behind after a meal. A dirty cup with cigarette ashes floating on top.

But such thoughts were useless. The lingering traces left behind by the man were far stronger than those meaningless distractions. Without realizing it, Seungwan took a deep breath. The scent that had been hanging in the room now eagerly clung to the inside of his nose. It poured over his face like a wave of Alpha pheromone molecules, similar to aromatic compounds. Even in such a tiny amount, it was overwhelming. Was this what they called a pheromone shower?

The term suddenly resurfaced from an Omega community he had stumbled upon in high school out of curiosity. One day, while working on a school assignment, he had come across an advertisement email for the community. It was an Omega-exclusive forum that required a referral code for registration. Curious about how many Omegas were living as undifferentiated Betas, Seungwan entered the invitation code attached to the email and completed the registration process.

Those who received an invitation code could sign up easily by submitting a copy of their genetic classification document just once, regardless of whether their assessment had been done in childhood or through a recent test. However, once he actually joined, he realized that finding cases similar to his own wasn’t so simple.

No matter how much he thought about it or tried different search terms, all he could find were posts with titles like “Is it weird for a Beta to be attracted to an Omega?” or “Even if manifestation is late, as long as you eat well, you’re fine~” or even “Unpresent Betas are jealous of Omegas—this is a scientific fact^^.” It didn’t take long for him to realize that the information he was looking for wasn’t there.

The forum itself had seemed strange from the start. There were too many unfamiliar slang terms, and most of the posts were stories from Omegas who dated not only Alphas but also Betas. In the end, Seungwan found nothing useful.

For a while, he neither logged in nor deleted his account. But every time he did check in, his inbox was flooded with bizarre messages, making him wonder if he had been hacked. Eventually, he changed his password and stopped visiting altogether. Over time, he forgot about the site entirely. Still, he had spent enough time browsing the forum that certain terms stuck with him, including “pheromone shower.” From what he recalled, it referred to an Omega sensing an Alpha’s pheromones. If that was the case, then did recognizing the man’s lingering scent in the room also count as a pheromone shower?

Blinking blankly, Seungwan reached for his phone. He wanted to know the precise definition of pheromone shower. Since he didn’t have any Omega acquaintances, his knowledge on the subject was nonexistent. During school health checkups, he hadn’t emitted any pheromones and had been classified as a Beta, so he had received the standard Beta-oriented sex education. At the time, he hadn’t thought much of it.

Regardless of the definition, he should have at least learned about the physical changes Omegas could go through before something like today’s incident happened.

However, when Seungwan tried to sit up, the ice pack wedged under his armpit shifted roughly, making him uncomfortable. Just as he hesitated, noise came from the living room. He could hear the murmur of voices.

“And you called me for this? You know better than anyone that I’m a veterinarian.”

“Then what else was I supposed to do? I don’t know anything about Omegas.”

The voices belonged to a woman. Seungwan quietly blinked and looked toward the door. Who had come? …Judging by the way she spoke so casually, she must have some kind of relationship with the man.

And a veterinarian? He had no idea what that was supposed to mean. Was the so-called doctor the man had mentioned actually a veterinarian? If that was the case, she would be coming into the room soon to check on his condition. But right now, Seungwan was in no state to receive visitors.