"How is that possible, doctor?" Hyunsuk can clearly hear Dongwoo's voice. He's trying to open his eyes but somehow his eyelids feel heavy. So he just keeps his eyes shut while already gaining his consciousness. He couldn't remember what had happened earlier. The last thing he remembered is he walked away after the security took away the suspect of the heat terrorist. Everything that happened after that, it's somewhat cloudy. Did he faint? He knows that he's not at the company anymore. He's at the hospital considering the smell that greeted his nose as soon as he gained his consciousness. Hospital smell.
Talking about smell. He can smell something else. Something warm and comforting. It's probably the doctor giving him some medication for him, he didn't even know. Condition? Hyunsuk knows well that he's not sick today. But he couldn't remember what happened after he saw the suspect being taken away. If he fainted, he's probably sick or something. And now he just woke up but it's too hard to open his eyes. He just stays like that. Waiting for his body to gain more energy to move.
"Well. Looking at the record, it supposed not to happen. Like the one that Hyunsuk-nim got is one of the strongest ones. The amount of the drug being injected in his body is too little for him to get his heat induced by it," the doctor said. "For now. I can just make a conclusion that Hyunsuk-nim is probably stressed or under pressure. Is Hyunsuk-nim seeing anyone these days?”
“I-” Dongwoo didn’t continue his words. Hyunsuk wanted to look at what was actually happening right now but still. He couldn’t even open his eyes.
“Then. Will you come with me for a moment?” the doctor said. Hyunsuk can hear footsteps stepping away. The calming scent slowly gets lesser around him. It makes Hyunsuk hard to breathe. He just remembered where he smelled the scent. It's Park Jihoon's.
“Park Jihoon,” Hyunsuk opened his eyes. He tried to catch his breath. Didn’t he already wake up earlier? But why did he feel like he just woke up now and feel like he just had a nightmare or something.
“Oh? You’re finally awake,” Hyunsuk can hear Dongwoo’s voice. He turned to the door. They get him a private room, he sees. Dongwoo walked toward him and sat right next to him. “How’s your body?”
“What happened?” Hyunsuk asked.
“I feel like it should be me who asked that but well. It’s not like you can tell anyway,” Dongwoo said. “After you called me telling that you caught the suspect, you got your heat. You only calmed down after you got injected with the suppressant,”
“I did?” Hyunsuk asked.
“You told me that you’re fine. You didn’t know how worried I was when I got a call informing you that you got your heat. It will be bad if you suddenly paired with some random Alpha. It can be a big scandal, you know?” Dongwoo said.
“I was fine after I called you. But after they took the suspect away, I couldn’t remember a thing,” Hyunsuk said. But Dongwoo said that he got his heat. Hyunsuk quickly touched his nape.
“I’ve told you that it will be bad if you are suddenly paired with some random Alpha. Good thing that you didn’t pair with anyone and the one who was with you is not some random Alpha. So we can save our time to do some formalities thingy,” Dongwoo said.
“I was with an Alpha?” Hyunsuk asked.
“Yes. A very nice Alpha,” Dongwoo said. “At least, he tried his best not to get affected with your pheromones. You should thank him later,”
“Who’s he?” Hyunsuk asked. Suddenly someone knocked on the door.
“Who’s it?” Dongwoo asked.
“It’s me,” Hyunsuk’s eyes widened when he heard that voice. It’s Park Jihoon. And now he’s not in his best state. For some reason, he just wanted to hide somewhere. He didn’t want to present himself as some weak guy in front of Jihoon. He has his own pride. Dongwoo stood up.
“You better be nice to him,” Dongwoo said before he walked toward the door to open it. “I’ll be waiting outside,”
“Oh? I was about to leave too and- oh! You’ve awakened,” Jihoon just noticed that Hyunsuk was already awake.
“Just go inside and talk,” Dongwoo tapped Jihoon’s shoulder and walked outside. He pushed Jihoon inside and closed the door. Jihoon awkwardly walked toward Hyunsuk. He sat at the chair where Dongwoo was sitting earlier.
“How’s your body, hyung?” Jihoon asked while scratching his head. He didn’t even look at Hyunsuk. It’s very awkward and Hyunsuk can definitely tell.
“Getting better. I guess?” Hyunsuk said. He noticed something on Jihoon's arm. "What's that?"
"This?" Jihoon pulled down his sleeve to cover the bandage on his arm. "I fell down earlier. That's why I'm here,"
"You are not telling me the truth, Park Jihoon," Hyunsuk said. He didn't even know why but Hyunsuk insisted to pulled Jihoon's arm to look at it closely. He probably pulled him too strong or just Jihoon being in his jelly mode, it made the Alpha almost fall from his seat. Hyunsuk looked at the bandage. Where did the Alpha fall that made him get a bandage like this? Hyunsuk is worried. He didn't even care to hide it. "How did you get this?"
"I bit myself," Jihoon answered, calculatively.
"Huh? Why?" Hyunsuk asked.
"Well. I'm trying to resist you.. You're in heat and keep asking me to bite you. But I know that you didn't even mean it. And I don't want you to hate me even more. So, to keep my consciousness, I bit myself hard. I didn't even expect it to bleed that much," Jihoon said. "Don't worry. The doctor already checked it and it's all fine,"
"So. It's really you," Hyunsuk said.
"You're disappointed, right? You hoped for someone else," Jihoon said. "I'm sorry that I was the one around that time,"
"What do you mean by that?" Hyunsuk asked.
"No. It's just. Nothing," Jihoon said. "I'm sorry,"
"Why are you apologizing?" Hyunsuk asked.
"Sorry,"
"Park Jihoon!"
"What should I say then?" Jihoon asked. "The incident earlier is most probably caused by me. How can I not feel guilty?"
"What? Are you a terrorist? Or are you hiring that terrorist?" Hyunsuk asked.
"No. But Hyung. Listen. Your inhibitor injection is the strongest in the market. It should be no problem if that little amount of heat inducer drug is injected into your body. Your body should be able to filter that out with no problem," Jihoon said. "The doctor took me to do some tests earlier. They said that it's probably my pheromone that weakened the inhibitor. And it would be fine if we decided to pair or something. The inhibitor will work just fine. But with me just showering you with pheromones like how I always did, it affected the effectiveness of the inhibitor. Instead of taking one shot for 3 months, you should take one shot every 2 weeks to maintain the effectiveness if you still decided to keep me around, purposely showering you with my pheromone,"
Hyunsuk blinked a few times. Trying to process what he just heard. So, his inhibitor is not working as effectively as it should because of Jihoon. And Jihoon feels guilty about it.
"Are you giving up on me?" Hyunsuk asked.
"Huh?"
"You didn't even contacted me for a week,"
"Ah.. About that. I was actually sulking because I saw you and Yedam last week. I feel like he suits you more than me and you probably prefer him way more than me," Jihoon said. Hyunsuk jerked his eyebrows at that statement. "I know I shouldn't act like a kid. You want a mature partner. I've reflected on it, okay?"
"And now after you hear that. Are you going to give up on me?" Hyunsuk asked.
"Well. You said to me yourself that you're not planning to even give me a chance. And for me to keep being around you, will harm you like that again, I'll try to keep my distance," Jihoon said. "I want to protect you,"
"You should just bite my nape that time. So you won't be worried about this," Hyunsuk said.
"But you are not even in your right mind. I don't want you to regret it later. It will be a big deal for an Omega. Not the Alpha," Jihoon said.
"Why do you care about it so much? Didn't you want me to date you?" Hyunsuk asked.
"It doesn't mean you're going to accept me if I pair with you without you actually consented to it. Well, if I'm lucky enough, you might someday accept me. But if not, it will just make you suffer. I care about you a lot. And seeing you suffer will hurt me as well," Jihoon said. "I want you to accept me first and it's you who decides if we're going to pair or not,"
"That's a way to make you look good, huh?" Hyunsuk scoffed.
"Huh?"
"Get the main award this year and we'll have a trial dating period for 7 months," Hyunsuk said.
"Wait! What?"
"I said, if you win a main award this year as Park Jihoon, we will have a trial dating period for 7 months. It's not officially dating but we can act like one during that period of time," Hyunsuk said.
"But why?"
"I'm giving you a chance, okay?" Hyunsuk said. Hyunsuk frowned when Jihoon didn't even respond but just closed his eyes. "What are you doing?"
"I'm trying to contain my excitement," Jihoon said.
"What the hell? That's so not you," Hyunsuk chuckled.
"I'll work hard. I'll work very hard to make sure that I can get an award as Park Jihoon as an individual. I'll work hard to make everyone acknowledge me. I'll work hard to be someone that you can be proud of," Jihoon said.
"Thank you for caring about me," Hyunsuk said.
"I feel like I should be the one who thank you, hyung," Jihoon said.
"Why? Because I'm going to give you a chance?" Hyunsuk asked.
"No. Thank you for existing. For me, meeting you is a miraculous moment. It might sound exaggerated to other people but it is like that for me. You said yourself that surviving in this industry is hard. I know because I feel it myself," Jihoon said.
"T5 is doing fine. What do you mean?" Hyunsuk asked.
"T5 indeed is doing well. But not me, hyung. At some point, I feel like what I'm doing is just a waste of time. I couldn't see what I'm trying to achieve anymore. That night, when we first met, I probably will make a decision to take a break from the entertainment world after my schedule the next day," Jihoon said.
Hyunsuk just silently listens to Jihoon. He usually tried so hard to push the Alpha away. He feels like Jihoon is just some immature kid who tried to date him because he's a well-known name in this industry. That's why he gave him the condition for Jihoon to get the award. To see if Jihoon really serious about it and nit just because Hyunsuk's status.
Even after seeing Jihoon's eagerness and the Alpha unexpectedly excel in everything he tried after that, make Hyunsuk wonders why Jihoon didn't even try to be like that from the start. Hyunsuk started to feel like Jihoon is not consistent and still immature. But with what had happened earlier, when Hyunsuk suddenly got his heat by the drug induced, Hyunsuk's view of Jihoon changed a bit.
That's why he wants to try to listen to the Alpha. He wants to know more about Jihoon and his story.
"But meeting you, and falling for you at that very moment, makes me want to try to be someone that you can at least look at. Sure, the viral clip is also the turning point of my career but the viral clip won't even exist if I didn't meet you that night. While trying to fulfill the condition you set for me to be able to get a consideration from you on dating me, I started to find the spark again," Jihoon said. "Junkyu told me to have at least someone I wanted to be proud of me. Even though there's a lot of people in my life even before I met you that night, I couldn't point out who I wanted to make them proud of me. I just lost. Then, you came. That's why I keep trying hard to make you to look at me even though you already said that you didn't even plan to give me a chance,"
"Are you a fool?"
"I guess so?" Jihoon grinned.
"Come closer," Hyunsuk said.
"Why?"
"Just do it,"
Jihoon stood up and moved a little closer to Hyunsuk. He's expecting Hyunsuk to whisper to him or something but he's wrong. Hyunsuk cupped his cheeks and kissed him on his lips fast. It surprised Jihoon. Still cupping the Alpha's cheeks, Hyunsuk stares at Jihoon's face. Jihoon is still trying to process what is currently happening. When he saw Jihoon was about to say something, Hyunsuk covered his lips with his.
Hyunsuk can feel that Jihoon is holding his breath. Maybe because of the unexpected kiss? Hyunsuk started to move his lips on Jihoon's. Jihoon didn't respond to his kiss for the first few seconds but gradually started to move along Hyunsuk's pace. Hyunsuk pushed his tongue inside Jihoon's mouth. He started massaging the Alpha's tongue with his.
"I bring you-"
Hyunsuk pulled out from kissing Jihoon and turned at the door when he heard Dongwoo's voice.
"Did you guys finally decide to date for real?" Dongwoo asked.
"No," Hyunsuk said. He pushed Jihoon away before wiping his lips.
"I'll take a leave now," Jihoon said.
"Eh? So fast?" Dongwoo asked. "Stay for a little bit more if you don't have any schedule after this,"
"Just let him go. He's busy," Hyunsuk said.
"Yeah. See you later," Jihoon said before he walked out of that room. As soon as Jihoon closed the door, Dongwoo turned to Hyunsuk. He gave the Omega an expression demanding explanation.
"What? You told me to be nice, didn't you?" Hyunsuk asked.