FR | Chapter 1.2

For a moment, the energy in the man’s eyes was contempt. Suddenly, a wave of shame washed over Won.

He clenched his fist silently. The man, nodding slowly as if it were a habit, leaned in.

His arm trembled from clenching his fist tightly. The scales had reached his temples.

And as Won, anticipating the worst, squeezed his eyes shut, the man’s voice rained down on him.

“Put it on.”

What covered his head was the clothes Won had taken off earlier.

“What the… Hey, the door’s locked here.”

Someone outside rattled the locked door, as if the man had locked it. Won, fastening the buckle with wary eyes, felt the footsteps outside gradually fade away.

He pulled down his T-shirt to cover his protruding front. The man, watching quietly, draped a coat over Won’s head.

Won unconsciously pulled the coat tighter, covering not just his shoulders but his entire vision.

Even though he could have gone alone with the coat hiding his face, the man insisted on leading him to the parking lot.

As soon as they entered the parking lot, a car flashed its headlights. The owner of the car, waiting eagerly for them, was obvious. Won hesitated as the man gestured to the passenger seat. After a brief hesitation, he got into the man’s car.

The mention of a cat smell bothered him. That cat smell was undoubtedly the leopard’s pheromones, and there was no need to spread the leopard’s pheromones to other beastmen.

As Won sat in the passenger seat and fastened his seatbelt, the man settled into the driver’s seat. The car was filled with a subtle scent of cologne.

Won quietly looked out the window. He crossed his legs, suppressing the desire that wouldn’t easily subside.

“Don’t you have any suppressants or something?”

“Of course not.”

The man responded briefly, confirming it with a sidelong glance. The thirst was intense, and he felt a chill creeping in. Won’s voice cracked as he gave the man his address.

“If I’m not careful, I’ll get eaten by a reptile.”

“Keep dreaming.”

“Your pride. Do something about that nauseating smell.”

The man sneered, pointing out the fluid seeping through. The pheromones from the fluid couldn’t be blocked by any fabric, no matter how dense.

Instead of responding to the man’s words, Won pressed his nails into his palm. The act was filled with a wish to delay the progress of the heat cycle.

“What about your cat? You were alone like that?”

The man, rolling down the window about a third of the way, started driving. He wanted to go quietly. Won suppressed the irritation rising in his expression.

There were many things that made it hard to simply appreciate the man’s kindness.

First, the man was incredibly arrogant. Second, his overly insolent tone was extremely unpleasant. Lastly, the man was just plain unlucky.

Pheromones contained detailed information about the individual. Breed, size, and even age could be discerned if one was sensitive to pheromones.

But a cat? The man acted as if a leopard was nothing. Judging by his behavior, it was likely the man was at the top of the food chain.

It seemed wise to avoid provoking him as much as possible. Won took a slow breath and decided to correct only the part of the man’s words that bothered him.

“Not my cat, a leopard.”

“Leopard or cat, whatever.”

The man replied indifferently.

“Fine. Then your leopard.”

He had pointed out two issues, but the man only acknowledged the leopard. A curse rose in his throat. Won furrowed his brow.

Should he clarify that it wasn’t his leopard? Another round of contemplation followed.

He wanted to correct that part, but he decided to stop explaining. If the man found out he was marked without being in a relationship, he would surely mock him.

Sensing the displeased glare, the man chuckled. The smoothly rolling wheels came to a stop.

The man, with a cold gaze, watched Won. His hand slowly reached out.

“I hunt anything that comes my way. Wolves, bears, foxes. Even reptiles that seem like they’d yield no meat.”

The hand, slightly bent, touched Won’s neck. The cold fingers slid down from behind his ear, across his neck.

The fingers, sliding as if to cut his throat, felt particularly sharp. That sharpness unhesitatingly dug between the scales that had emerged due to the heat cycle.

It was a kind of warning. Not to provoke him further. Instinctively swallowing his fear, Won’s body trembled slightly. He swallowed heavily.

Goosebumps rose along his spine. Won, clenching his teeth, slapped the man’s hand away.

“……So what.”

The man, noticing the tremor from his cold touch, relaxed his cold expression. A lazy smile played on his lips.

“Be careful.”

The car, which had stopped at a signal, started moving again. The anger towards the leopard, momentarily forgotten, surged back.

For now, he had received the man’s help, but he couldn’t be at ease. The man posed an infinite threat to Won.

Unconsented marking among beastmen was akin to a crime. Even if the man hadn’t noticed, the fact that he had almost exposed a group’s existence by leaking pheromones was undeniable. He wouldn’t escape scrutiny.

He thought he had finally escaped the center’s surveillance. He might reach a point where he couldn’t stand alone anymore.

As his nails relentlessly pressed into his palm, the car arrived in Won’s neighborhood. As he unbuckled his seatbelt and unlocked the door to get out.

Click. The man locked the door again. Won’s head turned stiffly.

“What do you want?”

“Planning to keep your mouth shut like this?”

Won’s voice twisted with anger. He acted uninterested, but he seemed intent on extracting a price.

“Give me your number.”

The man, smirking crookedly at Won, took out his phone. Won, gripping the car’s interior handle tightly, recited his number slowly.

The man called, confirming the ringtone from Won’s phone, and then unlocked the door.

“A promise is a promise.”

Won glared at the man waving the phone in his hand, then hurriedly got out of the car. He slammed the door harder than necessary in response, and only after confirming the man’s car disappeared from view did he turn to leave.

He hurriedly unlocked the door and entered his home. He threw the man’s coat, which he had inadvertently brought in, onto the floor.

Feeling the scales spreading across his face, he rummaged through a drawer. Won found the suppressants with rough hands and put two pills in his mouth.

He didn’t even have time to drink water. Chewing the suppressants as if grinding them with his teeth, he burrowed into his blanket. He curled up his trembling body tightly.

His member, taut from the heat cycle, stood erect despite the lack of stimulation.

Every time the car went over a speed bump, heat surged below. If the man had noticed him suppressing his moans, he might have bitten his tongue right there.

“……Damn bastard.”

The anger didn’t easily subside, and he cursed through clenched teeth. He knew he had to quell the heat cycle before finding and tearing apart the cause of this mess, but the anger wouldn’t fade.

He rarely returned to his true form, but given the situation, there was no need to stubbornly maintain his human appearance. In the blink of an eye, Won returned to his true form, coiling his long, black body.

Despite maintaining a consistent humidity and temperature, he couldn’t calm down. Won had to work hard to regain his composure.

.☘︎ ݁˖.☘︎ ݁˖.☘︎ ݁˖

The heat cycle, which should have subsided quickly, dragged on.

When the womb opened due to marking, if it didn’t receive someone’s seed, it led to muscle pain accompanied by high fever. Won, who had never considered marking in his life, had no medicine to relieve the muscle pain.

As a result, he suffered for four days. During that time, there was no contact from the one who had caused this damn pain. They must have known that the unconsented marking would put him in a difficult position.

Of course, it was no different for the man who had taken his number. He thought he’d hear from him in two days, but by the fourth day, there was still no word.

Should he just delete it? Staring at the number saved as ‘Crazy,’ he pondered endlessly.

It felt like holding a ticking time bomb. He was anxious about when it might explode, yet he couldn’t let go of the bomb in his hand. The reason was clear. He had received help from the man, after all. Even magpies repay kindness.

Worrying day and night gave him a throbbing headache. Returning to school after a long time, Won rubbed his temples, aware of his surroundings.

Since he had first met the man at school, he was likely a student there, and since they met in the business building, it was possible they were in the same department.

There were many lecture halls, and the building was large, so the chances of running into him were slim, but the anxiety remained.

Should he avoid him as much as possible? Pretend not to know him if they met? But Won knew that none of those options were very effective.

Taking a leave of absence to avoid the man was also impossible. As a fourth-year student who had already used up all his leave, it was just a dream.

He had a feeling he might run into that man soon.

“……Ominous.”

With the persistent headache hanging over him, he opened the lecture hall door.

“Sunbae, are you feeling better? I put the bag you left last time in the cabinet. Did you check your messages?”

Kyungheon, the club president, approached, seemingly worried about Won, who had disappeared without a word and missed several classes. Nodding roughly, Won sat down, only to almost bite his tongue when he saw the male student looking at him.

“Looks like you’re finally feeling better, sunbae.”

The student, who had boldly acknowledged Won, who had few acquaintances in the department, was the man. The man saved as ‘Crazy’ in Won’s phone, treated like a ticking time bomb.

“Most people get over it by the third day. Is it different because you’re a reptile?”

Looking at the man who gathered a smile at the corners of his mouth, Won genuinely regretted not biting his tongue by mistake.

“Oh, Woojae, you got close to sunbae already. But why suddenly mention reptiles? Wasn’t sunbae absent because he was unwell?”

Was it because there were few people in the lecture hall, or because it was unusually quiet? Kyungheon, who referred to the man as Woojae, curiously asked.

Won, frozen at the sight of Woojae, finally came to his senses. The stone-like saliva slid down his throat and settled deep inside.

Woojae stared intently at the tense and stiff Won. It felt like one side of his face might crumble.

A faint smile lingered on his lips. The gaze directed at him was meaningful. Unable to bear watching his slowly parting lips, Won hurriedly stood up.

“You didn’t know? Sunbae keeps reptiles.”

A nonchalant voice followed. It felt like half his life had withered away. The laughter that burst out like a cough mixed perfectly with Woojae’s voice.

“A black snake, right? Isn’t that right, sunbae?”

“……Let’s talk outside.”

His fingertips trembled. Won, gripping the desk tightly to hide it, lowered his voice.

Startled by the sudden rise, Kyungheon was left behind as Won hurriedly stepped out. It was as if he was being chased, and in the blink of an eye, he left the lecture hall.

Woojae, who had been lightly tapping Won’s desk with his index finger, leisurely stood up.

“Sensitive. What’s the big deal about keeping a snake, right?”

“Uh, right……”

Kyungheon, puzzled by the direction Won had left, nodded absentmindedly.