Chapter 19

Judged rationally, the right thing to do was to turn around and leave immediately.

A dominant alpha staying near an omega in heat was practically an act of violence. If he slipped and lost control, he might do something irreversible. Even Kwon Heeseong’s own instincts were screaming that warning at him.

But his feet refused to move. It irritated him to leave without even delivering the medicine and food he had brought all the way out here. More than that, he would rather die than be driven away by that insolent Yoon Mujin.

In the end, Kwon Heeseong put the shopping bags down and plopped himself in front of the gate, maintaining a reasonable distance from Yoon Mujin.

“What do you think you’re doing?”

At the low growl, Kwon Heeseong answered shamelessly.

“Come to think of it, there’s no reason for me to leave. You’re planning to guard this gate all by yourself? Don’t make me laugh. You’re the same kind of animal as me. How am I supposed to leave when you might lose control and do God knows what?”

“…You think I’m the same as you?”

“Of course we’re the same. You think we’re different? Let’s just keep an eye on each other. I’ll keep both eyes wide open so you can’t try anything.”

Absurd as his bluster was, Yoon Mujin didn’t try to drive him away again. In fact, he wasn’t entirely wrong.

Their reason might be holding their instincts in check, but when it came to controlling alpha instincts that could break loose at any moment, the tense hostility between two men keeping watch over each other could prove useful.

And so began the bizarre gate-front sentry duty of two dominant alphas.

Meanwhile, inside the tightly shut main room—

“Hnn… Ugh… Haah.”

Jeong Iwon writhed in the throes of heat, clutching the sweat-soaked quilt as though his life depended on it.

He had taken the suppressants he’d kept prepared, but they were barely having any effect. The blood coursing through his body seemed to boil, and he wanted to run outside right that instant, grab anyone at all, and beg. A dizzying thirst crashed over him, threatening to swallow his reason whole.

Why isn’t this medicine working?!

The reason was obvious. The original Jeong Iwon had spent his days recklessly taking unlicensed drugs of unknown origin.

His hormonal system and immune system had been thoroughly wrecked, making ordinary suppressants incapable of suppressing the brutal heat of his cycle.

You should have stopped. Why the hell did you do that, you lunatic?

Curling up his trembling body, soaked in heat and pleasure, Jeong Iwon silently cursed his former self. His lower abdomen cramped tightly, and the animalistic urge to throw open the door and beg for an alpha’s pheromones rose hundreds of times stronger.

But he bit his lip hard enough to draw blood and forced himself to endure.

He had no intention of giving in to anyone—least of all those two men outside.

“Seriously, they’re relentless.”

He had told them clearly not to come anywhere near him, yet neither of them was listening.

Just you wait.

He would make them pay for this later.

Wave after wave of brutal pain and heat washed over his entire body, making his breath hitch as he endured the miserable night.

And outside, an entirely different kind of desperate battle was unfolding.

As time passed and the night deepened, the pheromones leaking through the gaps around the bedroom door grew frighteningly thick. The sticky, sweet scent of peaches reached all the way beyond the gate, stabbing at their noses.

It was a lethal fragrance, more than enough to paralyze a dominant alpha’s reason.

“This is unbearable… Seriously.”

Kwon Heeseong’s eyes grew hazy and unfocused. As though hypnotized, he stood and staggered toward the gate. His mind contained nothing but the instinct to break down the door and claim the owner of that sweet scent.

At that moment, Yoon Mujin’s thick hand seized him roughly by the scruff of his neck.

“Pull yourself together, you crazy bastard!”

Yoon Mujin slammed him to the ground and growled.

Only then did Kwon Heeseong drag in ragged breaths and barely manage to regain control of himself.

But several hours later, Yoon Mujin’s breathing grew ragged instead.

Letting out a low, animalistic growl, he took a step toward the main room. His black eyes glistened, his reason gone.

Thwack!

Kwon Heeseong kicked him hard in the shin with his dress shoe.

“Where the hell do you think you’re going?! What if you lose control?! Sit down!”

Kwon Heeseong shouted as he pressed down on Yoon Mujin’s shoulder. The pain in his shin snapped Yoon Mujin back to his senses, and he clenched his teeth and stepped away.

Whenever Kwon Heeseong’s reason began to crack, Yoon Mujin grabbed him by the collar. Whenever Yoon Mujin began to lose control, Kwon Heeseong did the same, even kicking at each other to stop the other from running wild.

Using their vicious mutual hostility as a shield, they barely managed to keep their instincts under control and stay awake throughout the night.

Only after several days did the storm of heat finally die down, almost unbelievably.

The hellish heat cycle had finally ended.

“Haah… I survived.”

Drenched in sweat, Jeong Iwon lay sprawled across the floor, utterly exhausted. His entire body throbbed as though he had been beaten, but the boiling heat and terrible thirst had disappeared without a trace.

Pulling himself together, he staggered upright, wiped himself down roughly with a damp towel, and changed his clothes.

He was about to go out for some water when he noticed a shadow flickering beyond the door.

What’s that?

Tensing, Jeong Iwon instinctively shrank back.

The wavering shadow soon disappeared.

Only then did he carefully slide the door open.

Several shopping bags had been neatly arranged on the wooden floor outside.

He opened them and found various medicines, warm abalone porridge, and a pile of sweet snacks.

It was obvious who had left them.

As he stared down at everything, he suddenly heard voices.

“Ah, move over! My leg’s gone numb, you brute!”

“You move. How long are you planning to camp here?”

“Is this your yard? And if it weren’t for the medicine and food I brought, you’d have starved to death too, you idiot!”

From beyond the firmly shut gate came the childish bickering of two men whose voices had become thoroughly hoarse.

Worn down to nothing after spending days and nights watching each other, neither had left the gate. Instead, they were still squabbling over the most trivial things.

A third-generation chaebol and a penniless boxer.

That two men who couldn’t have been more different had spent days sleeping rough in front of this shabby country house just to guard him was almost unbelievable.

“…Idiots.”

Jeong Iwon let out a tired sigh and pressed a hand against his forehead.

It was so absurd and ridiculous that the corners of his lips twitched.

Before he knew it, a small, gentle smile had settled on his face.

The brutal heat was gone, replaced by a strange warmth that quietly filled the empty space it had left behind.

At a top-tier private lounge in Gangnam, Seoul, an extravagant chandelier blazed overhead.

It was a gathering of the heirs of families who held the nation’s business world in their hands, along with their partners.

On the surface, the room was filled with elegant, cultured laughter.

Underneath, however, it was an entirely different story.

Secret information changed hands everywhere, and gossip flowed endlessly, turning the gathering into something resembling a battlefield.

Baek Hamin toyed with a champagne glass, wearing a forced smile.

Standing beside Kang Taeon, he tried to play the role of the perfect spouse, but after enduring severe stress over the past few weeks, his complexion was noticeably poor.

“Hamin, you look tired. Are you all right?”

A familiar face broke away from the crowd and approached him.

It was Seo Jiho, an acquaintance Baek Hamin had known since before he became involved with Kang Taeon. He was unusually well informed about rumors circulating in high society and was extremely well connected. In the past, he had helped Hamin in various ways.

“Jiho. Yeah, I’m just a little tired.”

“Ugh, Taeyeon-hyung isn’t letting you sleep, is he?”

At the teasing remark, Baek Hamin gave him a smile that looked almost painted on.

Realizing that something was wrong, Seo Jiho quickly changed the subject.

“Anyway, have you heard the rumor? Our circles are in an absolute uproar these days.”

Seo Jiho lowered his voice, his face practically glowing with interest.

“What rumor?”

“Kwon Heeseong of Ilseong. That famously arrogant and foul-tempered man apparently went down to the countryside out of nowhere a while back.”

Kwon Heeseong.

At the name of the man who had once hovered around him and gotten under Kang Taeon’s skin, Baek Hamin’s eyebrow twitched slightly.

“CEO Kwon? Why did he go there?”

“Apparently, the person he wants to marry is living out there.”

“In a place like that?”

He wasn’t exactly trying to look down on the countryside, but it seemed unlikely that an omega capable of catching the eye of Ilseong’s chairman would be living in such a remote place.

“That’s what they say. But you know what’s funny? He got completely rejected out there. Apparently, he was thrown out with a bright red handprint on his face.”

Seo Jiho’s eyes sparkled with excitement.

“I mean, what kind of omega slaps Kwon Heeseong and turns him down? Everyone’s dying to know who this mystery omega is.”

Baek Hamin nodded lightly.