TCBW C43

Chapter 43

Even now, Suhoe’s mind was utterly blank, but his body, as though it had not forgotten its role, moved with practiced familiarity to set the ritual table and perform the deep ceremonial bow.

During the month he had spent in the city after the wedding, he had neglected to hold ancestral rites, yet it seemed that his body had not so easily forgotten.

Thus, for a long while, he busied himself with motions—pouring liquor, clearing offerings, moving silently—indifferent to whether gods unseen would come to witness him or not.

Contract fulfillment.

That was the justification under which Dowoon had intended, just yesterday in his office, to embrace Suhoe.

He did not have the habit of laying hands on someone outside of private space, but given that Suhoe had disobeyed orders to stay indoors, he had no other chance but then to check his condition.

Unexpectedly, however, Sara’s appearance had ruined every one of those plans, and having lost the hours he had meant to spend on Suhoe, Dowoon was only able to step into his home in Balhwa-dong after finishing work at dawn.

But the moment he entered, the scent of grass-filled pheromones stabbed piercingly at the tip of his nose.

This was not the usual faint, tranquil fragrance, but one overflowing, uncontrolled, and so thickly pervading the entire house that it felt suffocating.

Knowing at once whose scent it was, Dowoon hurried into the living room, only to find himself halting at a sight far more surreal and uncanny than he had anticipated.

Inside an old porcelain vessel, the liquor surged as if alive, and nearby glasses trembled precariously—an unreal scene—in the midst of which Suhoe lay collapsed.

His face was flushed scarlet, and his breath came in ragged gasps.

Hae-eon, who entered a little later with Dowoon’s luggage in hand, froze and stumbled back in shock when he saw the scene.

“President, where should I put your bags…? Ah… what in the world is this…?”

There were too many things demanding attention at once. In the midst of this chaos, Dowoon decided to begin with the matters he could control.

“Call Professor Eun.”

Delivering the concise order to Hae-eon, he at once grasped Suhoe’s arm firmly and pulled him up.

“Get ahold of yourself.”

Pulled by that force, Suhoe fell against Dowoon’s chest and, trembling, struggled to pry open his heavy eyelids. Through blurred vision, he realized the one before him was Dowoon.

“Dowoon… ssi?”

Dowoon studied him—his crimson face, the pheromones spinning out of control, the fever that had lingered since the day before.

Though not certain, all signs suggested it was a problem of his constitution, perhaps linked to his secondary characteristics.

“Professor Eun says she can arrive in thirty minutes.”

“Secretary Choi… nim? Uh…”

Physical conditions in omegas were often alleviated—or even resolved—through an alpha’s pheromones. Remembering this fact, Dowoon did not hesitate a moment longer; he pressed his lips against Suhoe’s.

Behind him, Hae-eon’s presence no longer entered consideration as Dowoon engaged in what was known as an emergency measure, a “pheromone shower.”¹

The only thing that mattered now was stabilizing Suhoe.

Into the hot, tangled torrent of Suhoe’s body, Dowoon carefully yet steadily poured his own balanced alpha pheromones.

“…Se–Secretary Choi, you…”

And fortunately—as Dowoon had expected—before long Suhoe’s consciousness sharpened enough for him to recognize Hae-eon’s presence.

“I–I don’t want this.”

When at last Suhoe not only recognized Hae-eon but even feebly resisted, Dowoon lifted him bodily into his arms and strode away.

Carrying him into the bedroom, he lay Suhoe down, then covered his body with his own, intent on removing any chance of distraction or resistance.

Yet once their bodies met upon the bed, Dowoon sensed Suhoe’s grassy pheromone thickening once again.

When soon the bedroom was saturated with it, he raised his head to examine Suhoe’s state.

His cheeks were still red, but his condition seemed somewhat improved, though he still panted heavily.

As Dowoon tried to discern the cause more closely, Suhoe suddenly spoke—pronunciation clearer now than before.

“Ah… uhn. Outside… outside, Hae-eon-ssi…”

Even in such a state, to think he fretted more for Hae-eon outside the room than for his own body.

Dowoon was dumbfounded. In irritation, he bit down hard at the side of Suhoe’s neck.

“Ah!”

The bite, intentionally painful, was punishment of a kind.

What followed were continued kisses.

And yet, the more his mind cleared, the deeper Suhoe’s confusion grew.

Where ordinarily he would have been overwhelmed into near-unconsciousness by Dowoon’s kisses, this time the intimate contact instead erased his body’s pain.

The fever clouding his head, the pressing weight that had sat on his chest since yesterday—all vanished.

To speak the truth, it felt good.

So good, in fact, it frightened him—afraid he might lose even the memory of Hae-eon beyond those walls and give himself wholly to this pleasure.

In the end, strangled by that fear, Suhoe pushed weakly at Dowoon’s chest.

“I… I’m fine now.”

Though thin and broken, his voice was nonetheless firm—a declaration of restraint.

At that, Dowoon glanced down at him, then, remembering that Eun would soon arrive, reluctantly withdrew.

Had he not summoned her here, it would not have ended with a mere kiss, of that he was sure.

Still, he found satisfaction in knowing that the emergency measure had worked—Suhoe’s consciousness had returned and his pheromones had settled.

But then Dowoon’s gaze fell again on Suhoe, limp upon the bed as his strength unraveled.

His eyes were burning, but reason told him he should stop here.

Even so, his hands lifted Suhoe’s skirt. With a wholly dispassionate expression, as though erasing desire, he removed the undergarments, then pressed a dry towel—prepared at the bedside—between Suhoe’s legs.

“Ugh!”

Startled by the unexpected gesture, Suhoe tried to rise, but Dowoon held him down firmly by the shoulder as, with strong hands, he wiped the fluids from his aroused body.

“You’re not planning to go out like this, are you.”

When the translucent secretions were cleared away, he even set about neatening Suhoe’s swollen front, his hand reaching there.

“N–No, please… I’ll do it.”

“You’re too weak to even change clothes properly.”

“T–That much… I can at least do on my own.”

But Suhoe’s resistance was ignored.

Dowoon, with his own hands, cleansed and dressed him anew, then lifted him up to carry him out.

Not long after, Professor Eun arrived in the Balhwa-dong residence as called.

She barely had time to take comfort in Suhoe’s condition not being worse than she feared, before, in obedience to Dowoon’s request, she rushed to conduct every possible test.

The procedures did not take long, and Suhoe was already familiar with them, but today—even to him—the already-familiar processes dragged unbearably.

And with good reason: from start to finish, Dowoon had not once stepped away, remaining at Suhoe’s side throughout.

“Could you tell me more specifically under what circumstances your body worsened?”

Suhoe, who had wanted to ask Professor Eun why he felt so suffocated, could not bring himself to answer honestly—not with Dowoon listening in.

“I… I don’t really remember clearly.”

Professor Eun, aware that he was far more unsettled than usual, felt it herself but could not possibly ask Dowoon, his husband, to leave the room. Thus, awkwardly, the examination was carried out to the end.

Once she removed the nitrile medical gloves and tidied the sterilized instruments, she turned slowly toward Dowoon.

“That concludes every test I can administer here. Sometimes heat symptoms arise from dysfunction in pheromone immunity or reproductive organs. I checked every likely item….”

Dowoon finally turned his gaze from Suhoe to her as she reported.

“There were no abnormal findings. For certainty, however, he would need more detailed examinations in a hospital.”

Dowoon listened silently, then approached Suhoe, who was fumbling to straighten his disheveled clothes.

“Then it’s best he goes to the hospital right away for further tests.”

And without effort, he lifted him up again.

“A–Ah no, that’s not necessary! I feel completely fine now anyway.”

Flustered in his arms, Suhoe struggled to object, unable to remember how dire his condition had truly been just earlier.

But Dowoon flatly ignored his protests and carried him out.

Thus, at Dowoon’s insistence, Suhoe underwent a full-body medical examination at the hospital, not returning home until late into the night.

Exhausted—from performing ancestral rites in the morning, to collapsing in illness, to being subjected to testing until night—he fell straight into slumber upon arrival.

At some unknown hour past, in the dim of early dawn, Suhoe stirred awake. Reaching absentmindedly for what he assumed to be an empty space at his side, his fingertips brushed against unexpected warmth. Startled, he rose.

There, beside him, sat Dowoon, reclining with documents spread before him.

“Dowoon ssi? Why are you here?”

Only for Dowoon’s hand to gently push at his forehead, guiding him back against the pillow.

¹ Pheromone Shower: In many Omegaverse settings, this is a trope where an Alpha deliberately releases concentrated pheromones to stabilize or heal an Omega experiencing physical/psychological imbalance. It functions as an emergency first-aid measure in the context of this fictional world, rather than mere intimacy.