chapter 8

Shin Tae-oh, who had driven to the office alone, immediately headed to the office. The head of the secretary's office, who followed him, held a tablet and spoke calmly.

"I will brief you on today's schedule."

His eyes alternated between the tablet and Tae-oh, appearing distracted, but his voice remained composed. It was the result of years of accumulated experience in the corporate world. The head of the secretary's office forcibly suppressed the thought of wanting to know what had happened to their boss and continued the report.

Due to the nature of the tasks usually handled by Se-hyeon, Tae-oh struggled to adapt and simply nodded in response.

"Just bring the urgent approval documents that need immediate processing, and we can postpone the rest."

"Does that include the meeting as well?"

"Yes."

"Understood."

Until the head of the secretary's office bowed and left, Tae-oh maintained his usual indifferent expression. However, when he was alone, he lowered his head and supported his forehead with his clenched hand.

"I have a headache."

Even though it wasn't his rut time, his body trembled from recalling the scene emitting pheromones of se-hyeon.

He could feel the heat in his forehead, sensitively spreading to his fingertips. Normally, he was good at enduring such sensations, but today, someone kept coming to mind, and he couldn't ignore his body's response.

"Se-hyeon."

Tae-oh called out to the person he had formed a bond with.

"...Ahn Se-hyeon."

And unlike usual, he called out their name.

Tae-oh let out a deep sigh. Because... the moment he called out his name, his heart had stirred in a way that was different from usual.

"Was I such a pitiful existence?

Seeing others suffer from sudden heat cycles had shaken him. Tae-oh recalled the day he had spent with Se-hyeon, along with a sigh.

At the hotel suite

"There's only so much you can endure with cold water... If the pheromones are this strong during a cycle, it wouldn't be easy to resist the temptation of forming a bond with an alpha."

That's why he had no intention of bringing Se-hyeon back to the playroom again.

Shin Tae-oh unbuckle his belt and reach for his pants. When Se-hyeon rolled to the side to avoid him, shin Tae-oh sighed and turned his body.

"D.. Don't d..do this."

Even though se-hyeon muttered those words, Tae-oh silently lowered Se-hyeon's pants. However, he stopped before going any further.

"Just relax. Don't worry." Tae-oh's words reached Se-hyeon's ears, but they only added to Tae-oh's own torment, hearing the heavy breaths Se-hyeon took.

"The pheromones flowing with every breath... It's like the air is filled with them."

The air was so saturated with pheromones that it felt suffocating. Despite his murmurs that seemed dissatisfied, Tae-oh never stopped breathing.

"I want to take it all off, but if I do, it'll be difficult for you to play the role of a secretary later."

His swollen cock showed through his underwear. he ran his fingers lightly over it without startling se-hyeon.

Se-hyeon squirmed to the side. He was trying to avoid my hand but I moved my legs and he was trapped in it.

It wasn't my intention to press Se-hyeon's hand against mine, covering it completely.

"Secretary Ahn don't move, i will try to help you."

He licked his dry lips as if it wasn't his fault. From now on, there would be no playfulness.

Shin Tae-oh stroked Se-hyeon's hard cock. Then he slid his hand inside his underwear to give it a full squeeze. When he squeezed it, it immediately popped out, causing Se-hyeon to squeal.

Shin Tae-oh swallowed hard at the hot, soft feel. If he'd reacted to Se-hyeon's pheromones earlier, the fact that he was now touching his cock caused a different kind of excitement.

"I'll be alright"

Tae-oh swept his hand up Se-hyeon's shaft, teasing the glans between his fingers. As he scratched and flicked the tip with his thumb, Se-hyeon wetted his throat and let out a moan.

"That's right. Just follow a little more."

Tae-oh gradually increased the pressure, allowing Se-hyeon to feel it, and when he sensed the right moment, he released his pheromones. The alpha pheromones enticed and raised Sehyeon's arousal, soon prompting his release.

"Ah, ah!"

Until now, Tae-oh had only responded to Se-hyeon's pheromones to a certain extent, but intentionally releasing his own, Tae-oh caused Se-hyeon to let out muffled moans and to open his mouth.

While alpha pheromones responding to omega pheromones could enhance arousal, Tae-oh's pheromones were different.

He deliberately used the threshold of arousal to counteract some of Se-hyeon's omega pheromones.

In doing so, Tae-oh pressed him down heavily with his own pheromones, simultaneously keeping Se-hyeon's arousal in check without overwhelming his body.

However, when they heard a knock at the door, Tae-oh immediately stood up from his position as he was recalled that he asked for help.

When Tae-oh opened the door, the Chief of Staff, who was about to extend his bag, took a step back in surprise. It was his first time seeing Tae-oh in such a dishevelled state.

From head to toe, he was drenched and his appearance was a mess. What Tae-oh had asked for was suppressants. Omega suppressants, to be precise.

The Chief of Staff quickly reported while extending the bag, "The attending physician will be here within thirty minutes."

"Thank you."

As soon as Tae-oh received the bag from the Chief of Staff, he swiftly closed the door and returned to Se-hyeon. He tossed the bag beside the bed and opened it to see its contents.

Inside was a suppressant injection to calm down the cycle. It would be useless once the Heat cycle was fully underway, but Tae-oh had managed to suppress Se-hyeon's arousal a little while ago.

"This needs to be taken."

Otherwise, there would only be one way to dampen the Heat.

Fortunately, Se-hyeon received the suppressants and fell asleep, and the pheromones surrounding him subsided. Although the cycle was not yet over and needed further observation, they had overcome the biggest hurdle.

Tae-oh looked at Se-hyeon, who was completely dishevelled. There was no trace of his usual neatness as his entire body flushed red. He now understood how the red hue spreading over his fair skin could drive someone crazy.

With half-lowered eyelashes, wet eyes, rosy cheeks, and lips that had turned red like flower petals, and even the occasional glimpse of his tongue, Se-hyeon was completely different from the Se-hyeon Tae-oh knew... Truly different.

He stubbornly resisted the impulse to ask for an embrace. And that stubbornness shook Tae-oh's heart, which had never been able to take his eyes off Se-hyeon

.

"I'm glad I don't indulge in one-night stands."

It was a relief to hear that he didn't engage in such activities. If it were otherwise, Tae-oh would have been shaken as well. But there was still some unknown dissatisfion.

Before the attending physician arrived, Tae-oh hastily helped Se-hyeon change into neater clothes and Tae-oh didn't leave the hotel room until Se-hyeon opened his eyes.

Thinking back to how he had escaped from Se-hyeon's disoriented gaze, Tae-oh realized how much he desired him.

"I must have really strange preferences, Secretary Ahn."

To have his heart flutter for someone he not even liked for so long, and not because of any provocative appearance, but because of his resilient spirit, made his heart race.

"...Am I possessed by something?"

Tae-oh's muttering gave him a vague sense that his emotions had completely tilted towards Se-hyeon. If Yoo Jin-ha saw him like this, he might find it pitiful and ridicule him for it. It would be ironic to have claimed to like Jin-ha all this time and end up like this.

However, Tae-oh also pondered a lot while Se-hyeon was asleep.

The fact that I liked Jin-ha stemmed from small moments. Jin-ha was someone who would be a good match for me, so marriage seemed effortless. I enjoyed preparing gifts while thinking about Jin-ha, and it satisfied my parents, who believed that any action I took meant I hadn't given up on marriage.

Jin-ha broke up with their previous partner and waited for me....

Unexpectedly, another person entered the picture. He accepted everything I said, even eat king crab meat for me, and... He were someone I felt comfortable with.

But now I questioned whether my feelings were truly falling for him, and I was unsure about the future.

Until now, Tae-oh had never hidden his preferences. That's why he expressed his feelings to Jin-ha without hesitation.

"I want to be honest about my state of mind."

He didn't realize that it might be because he was the person who had been listening to everything he had to say. He thought it would be best to tell Se-hyeon what he was thinking and hear his opinion. He was often more mature and capable of objectively assessing situations than he was, so he might be able to pinpoint the cause.

***

When Se-hyeon returned home, he couldn't stay still on the bed and rolled around restlessly.

Even wrapping his face tightly with a pillow and kicking into the air didn't ease his unease. It was understandable since this was the first time something like this had happened to him, and it was a very bewildering experience.

Se-hyeon, who abruptly got up from the bed, murmured.

"Why did it suddenly happen?"

Until now, he had never deviated from the expected timing. He hadn't done anything in particular, making it even harder to understand the cause.

The Heat cycle that he believed could be perfectly controlled slipped out of his grasp.

"This shouldn't be happening again... Where did things go wrong?"

I tried to rewind time in my mind, trying to figure out what was different this time. We went to the hotel and had wine. And then...

"I don't know. It's just a mess."

I've been working as if I were a beta... I thought my life had improved by catering to Tae-oh's preferences, but now everything has gone awry.

"I've been holding onto the hope that things could work out with Jin-ha, but now he's asking me to resign."

It's clear that Tae-oh will misunderstand.

"I don't want to go to work."

Se-hyeon was already scared of what would come out of Tae-oh's mouth.

Next morning ..

"I think I've fallen for you, Ahn Se-hyeon. What do you think?"

Are you out of your mind?