The two stayed locked together for a long while, without a sliver of space between them.
They held each other tight, as if they were a single body, until after a moment Baek Seol-heon slowly drew himself back.
“Pheromones... There's an easier way.”
Looking down at the dazed, slackened face, Baek Seol-heon asked.
“Want to?”
It wasn't a question meant to get an answer.
Baek Seol-heon immediately cupped Baek Geon-ho's face in his hands and sealed off the parted lips, as though swallowing them whole.
He pressed lightly on the jaw to make the mouth open wider, then pushed his tongue in deep.
The inside of Baek Geon-ho's mouth was narrower than expected. Baek Geon-ho's tongue, pinned beneath the one forcing its way in, couldn't even move properly. Baek Seol-heon pried into that gap and invaded deeper still.
Perhaps choking for breath, Baek Geon-ho twisted his face away in resistance for a moment. At that, Baek Seol-heon fixed the jaw firmly in place with his hand and deliberately released his pheromones into the mouth.
Like floodgates that had been shut suddenly thrown open, Baek Seol-heon's pheromones flowed roughly down along saliva and tongue, all the way into the back of Baek Geon-ho's throat.
“...!”
The strength drained from Baek Geon-ho's body, and he went limp.
After a moment, their lips parted, a long thread of saliva trailing between them.
Baek Seol-heon shifted his hold on him and spoke.
“...How was it.”
Looking down at him as he coughed and gasped for air, he went on.
“No comparison to using my hand, right?”
His voice was calm, as always, but Baek Seol-heon's lower half had gone hard enough that no amount of restraint could hide it.
Baek Seol-heon's center pressed down firmly against Baek Geon-ho's taut, swollen length.
“Haa...!”
Baek Geon-ho, who had been breathing raggedly, let out a sigh that sounded almost pleased, almost giddy.
Then he slowly lowered his head and looked down at Baek Seol-heon's groin.
He seemed to have instinctively sensed the spot where the pheromones were most heavily concentrated.
“...You want to taste it?”
Even as he asked, Baek Seol-heon let out a small, dry laugh.
Handling pheromones was far too easy for him. Hiding them so completely that he could be mistaken for a beta, and conversely opening only the narrowest crack to let them seep out when needed.
For a long time he had lived with his pheromones rigidly caged inside him. Unless he gave himself permission, not the slightest bit ever leaked out.
And yet now their scent was spreading shamelessly through his fluids and his center.
It was too obvious, too flimsy a seduction.
Which made it all the more laughable.
Deceiving an unconscious man like this was so childish it left him almost dumbfounded with himself.
“Sorry. Can't.”
Baek Seol-heon blocked Baek Geon-ho as he tried to lower his head toward his center, and spoke.
“It'd be too much of a shock if you found out later, hyung.”
Baek Seol-heon parted his lips again and swallowed Baek Geon-ho's mouth.
“So for now... let's take the easy way.”
Maybe because he'd already been through it once, this time the mouth accepted him without much refusal as he pushed his way in.
At the small tongue that now began to move on its own, Baek Seol-heon's eyes curved like crescent moons.
“...Haha.”
A laugh slipped out from between the teeth where their tongues tangled.
If Baek Geon-ho had been in his right mind, how would he have reacted?
He'd go pale, tracing his own lips, and torment himself with guilt for days on end.
The Baek Geon-ho he knew would surely do exactly that.
“Imprint...”
Baek Seol-heon eased his lips away slightly, caught his breath, and whispered softly.
“If you ever really struggle with it, I'll release it then...”
...Like this, slowly, little by little.
Until this rigid man softened.
“Until then. That's allowed, isn't it?”
Tap at him a bit at a time, widen the cracks, carve out a place of my own.
“Because I had it hard too...”
So that this timid, tender-hearted man wouldn't run away.
“A kind hyung can spare me that much pity, can't he.”
And then, to my heart's content,
let me indulge in all the affection I've put off for so long.
“Right? Geon-ho-hyung.”
Only up until the moment Baek Geon-ho refused.
“...?”
I opened my eyes.
The first thought that came to me was a single one.
“What the...?”
It was the best.
It was as if I'd gotten the best sleep of my life; I felt fresher and more energized than ever before.
The problem was that I had so much energy left over that my cock was still standing rigidly upright.
...When did I lose consciousness?
Once again, I had no memory of it. It was a carbon copy of the rut, of the moment my mind had gone blank in front of Lee Yeong-woo.
Only then, belatedly, did I think of Baek Seol-heon.
I looked around, but there was no one there.
Instead, the bed was damp.
When I flung back the blanket, a reality I wanted to deny lay bare before me.
“...”
The wetness wasn't just from water.
A whitish fluid had congealed all over my lower half, leaving it a mess. From however much I'd gone at it, a few drops had even splattered up onto my chest and shoulders and dried there.
“S-Seol-heon...!”
The moment I tried to open my mouth, a stinging pain shot through.
My lips were sore and my throat was raw.
What the, fuck! What did I even do...?!
In an instant my mood plummeted from the best to the worst.
I remembered up to Baek Seol-heon lifting my body and laying me down on the bed.
But after that was completely blank, like the film had been cut.
...What kind of disgraceful scene did I make this time?
I was sitting there with my head bowed, both hands gripping my hair so hard I didn't care if I went bald, when it happened.
“You up?”
“Aaaaaaagh!”
A scream burst out of me before I even realized it at the voice that suddenly came.
At some point Baek Seol-heon had come to stand in the doorway.
“S-Seol-heon... I...”
“Drink this first.”
“Uh, yeah.”
Baek Seol-heon held out a mug with an unbothered look on his face, and I took it without thinking.
It was lemon tea with ice cubes bobbing in it. I had no idea when he'd made it, but just looking at it sent a surge of thirst through me, and I brought it straight to my lips.
Sipping at the mug, I stole a glance at Baek Seol-heon.
Here I was, naked and a mess, while he alone was perfectly clean.
His hair and skin looked dry, as if he'd just showered, and he was fully dressed in a black T-shirt and trousers, even wearing his house slippers. He looked exactly like the Baek Seol-heon I saw every weekend.
And yet, somehow, the air about him was different.
His usual expressionless face, the one that always made him seem somehow cold...
Has it gotten... a little brighter?
It had softened in a strangely gentle way.
“How much do you remember?”
Flinch.
My body trembled at the question thrown out of nowhere.
“N-Not really...”
Just then, my eyes went to Baek Seol-heon's lips.
Baek Seol-heon was a flawless, all-around handsome man, but the sharp impression and thin lips were what especially stood out about him.
Those lips looked just a touch fuller than usual today. The corners of his eyes were faintly red, too.
It was a subtle difference, but having looked at that face for so long, I could tell for certain.
Looking closer, the hand that had just passed me the cup bore reddish, mottled marks as well. As if he'd been burned.
Of course, it wasn't a burn.
“...Don't tell me.”
Please let it not be.
Inwardly begging and pleading, while outwardly forcing a mask of composure, I asked.
“Did I... do something awful to you?”
“You did.”
Ah.
“You forced yourself on me, laid me down, and licked me.”
“...”
“While jerking off.”
“...Seol-heon.”
“What?”
“Kill me.”
It was a short life.
“Hold on. Hyung.”
The instant I shot up, letting out a soundless cry of anguish, Baek Seol-heon grabbed my arm and sat me back down on the bed, continuing.
“I was already prepared for this.”
“...”
“It's just a physiological thing.”
Baek Seol-heon's expression was as indifferent as ever.
“I don't think anything of it. So don't you take it to heart either, hyung.”
From that expression I felt an oddly strong sense of consideration and reassurance.
Seol-heon's magnanimity, vast as the seas, nearly brought me to tears.
“Haa... I'm really, truly sorry...”
“Let's take your temperature.”
I'd finally managed to force out an apology, but Baek Seol-heon brushed it aside and pulled out a thermometer first.
The electronic thermometer slipped into my ear for a moment, then came back out.
“It's high. Maybe because only half a day's passed. Seems like there's still some rut left in you.”
Then he asked me.
“How long did it usually last?”
“...At the hospital they gave me shots for about three days. Plus two more days admitted.”
“Then we'll have to keep at it at least one more day.”
“K-Keep at what?”
“Either you take in mine, or you let yours out.”
For a second I nearly dropped the mug.
Baek Seol-heon smoothly took the cup from me and set it on the side table.
“You can ejaculate to drain off your pheromones. Or take in and swallow mine.”
Then he hooked a knee up onto my bed and climbed on.
“The latter would be a bit easier, actually. Uses up less stamina.”
He settled himself lightly over my lower half and, looking me straight in the eye, said.
“Open your mouth.”
My mouth?
Why?
“The rut. You want to end it fast, don't you.”
“W-W-W-Wait a second!”
I immediately shoved Baek Seol-heon back and threw up a palm to stop him.
“Th-This! Isn't this... kind of weird?”
The position is weird.
No, the whole situation was weird.
“We're both men... and alphas...”
We're brothers.
Swallowing the bitter word again, I waved my hand.
“It's just, my body feels fine now, so...”
“Don't tell me, hyung. You aren't reading some private meaning into a treatment, are you?”
“H-Huh?”
Baek Seol-heon went on out of nowhere in a composed voice.
“Have you heard of pheromone abnormal-response care? It's a service for looking after patients who've developed pheromone-related conditions for various reasons. The process sometimes involves physical contact. You've never received it directly because of your unusual constitution, hyung, but it's not a rare method.”
“...Th-There's something like that?”
“I'm only trying to help, strictly for treatment purposes, and if you take it that way it's both rude to me and disrespectful to the actual practitioners in the field.”
“S-Sorry...?”
“It's a problem if you take contact meant to ease symptoms as personal favor or emotional exchange. That's just basic common sense.”
“Sorry...”
“If you get this finicky over every little thing, when are you ever going to break the imprint?”
“I said I'm sorry...”
Having poured out his explanation at a suffocating pace, Baek Seol-heon let out a deep sigh.
“For the sake of how sincerely I'm trying to help you, hyung, just adjust to it already.”
The moment those words left his mouth, something touched my lips.
“...?”
There wasn't even time to react.
Baek Seol-heon's tongue pried its way between my lips and pushed in.
