Pink Flavor Omega

#38

The answer is ambiguous. He wonders if he shouldn’t have asked. Sleep, which wasn’t coming anyway, now completely eludes him. Eunhong just rolls his eyes in the darkness.

Wondering why Sunhong is taking so long, he keeps glancing towards the door when it suddenly bursts open without warning. Knowing Eunhong is still awake, Sunhong speaks without lowering his voice.

“Bro, bro. I’m heading out. You two sleep. Is that okay? I’ll be back before Mom wakes up. Might be later, ah shit. Even if Mom finds out, it’s not a big deal.”

“Huh? Where are you going?”

“My girl suddenly came to the house saying she misses me. As a man, I can’t just send her away.”

“Oh, you crazy bastard.”

Despite the curse, Sunhong just smiles brightly. Without hesitation, he grabs his clothes and dashes out. So much for suddenly coming – seeing the clothes already prepared in this room, it’s clear he had planned this all along.

With one person gone from the room, there’s more space, but somehow the air feels more stifling. Just then, Jaeha suddenly sits up and crosses his arms to pull off his top. Eunhong’s eyes widen.

“Why, why are you taking it off?”

“The room is hot.”

It seems Mom had turned up the heating generously because guests had come. Eunhong had been feeling hot too.

Eyes accustomed to the darkness easily take in Jaeha’s bare body. Befitting an extreme alpha, his well-proportioned body shines even more due to its owner’s efforts. The well-sculpted muscles are like a powerful predator. Every time Jaeha moves, a seductive scent seeps out from under his elastic and firm skin.

Eunhong hurriedly pulls the blanket up to his neck. He has a feeling that right now, his pheromones might be acting up foolishly against his will. He tells himself that the strange feelings he’s having about his friend’s body are because of that weird dream. He recites a Buddhist chant he had memorized from overhearing it as a child. As he squeezes his eyes shut and recites the Heart Sutra, Jaeha’s voice comes from above his head.

“Bunhong, aren’t you hot? Why are you all wrapped up in the blanket like a cocoon?”

“N-no, I’m not hot. Not hot.”

Afraid Jaeha might try to lift his blanket, Eunhong answers firmly and turns his back. He thought it would be better not to look. He desperately wishes he could fall asleep like this, but his ears perk up even more. Every rustling sound from behind forms a texture and shape in his mind.

“Good night, Eunhong.”

“Mm-hmm.”

Mom shouldn’t have said anything about whether it’s okay for us to sleep together or not…. This time, Eunhong blames his lack of composure on his mom. He’s even too conscious of the sound of Jaeha’s low sigh. He wonders why he’s like this when they’ve slept in the same room countless times before.

Can breathing sounds really have such a strong presence? Eunhong tries to hold his breath, thinking he should at least reduce his own sounds. The floor is sizzling hot and the blanket is suffocating. It’s stifling, but he can’t bring himself to loosen the blanket.

As sleep continues to elude him, he suddenly becomes aware of Jaeha’s scent. Eunhong blinks slowly. The subtle, comforting scent spreading makes his tense shoulders relax.

Somehow it felt familiar. Maybe because he had often smelled it before manifesting. He feels a tickle in his chest and a fluttering in his stomach. It becomes increasingly difficult to breathe.

“Bunhong, you need to breathe.”

Eunhong whips his head around. Jaeha had somehow moved closer behind him. He buries his nose in Eunhong’s shoulder and wraps his arms around him, blanket and all. Eunhong couldn’t move an inch.

“Aren’t you hot? Should I remove the blanket?”

“…No, it’s fine.”

“Are you sure it’s okay?”

Jaeha leans his weight in, pressing close against Eunhong’s back. Feeling the breath on the nape of his neck, Eunhong hunches his shoulders. Not knowing how to respond, he stays still, which only makes Jaeha bury his face even deeper. Eunhong squirms, completely enveloped in the embrace.

“Why are you making it uncomfortable?”

“Your pheromones… feel good.”

“I thought… you were hot.”

Wasn’t there a time when he said omega pheromones were unpleasant? It’s impossible to understand his standards.

“Mmm…”

Jaeha’s voice becomes muffled in response to Eunhong’s words. Is he falling asleep? Like a puppy snuggling into its mother, Jaeha rests his head on the nape of Eunhong’s neck and nuzzles. His arms wrapped around Eunhong tighten with a heavy weight.

Eunhong wriggles his head into the blanket like a snail retreating into its shell. After staying like that for a while, when it becomes unbearably stifling, he carefully moves to lift the blanket.

The room is quiet.

It’s so quiet that the ticking of the clock’s second hand sounds loud. Listening closely, he can hear the now-steady breathing. Jaeha’s pheromones, too, have settled down like those of a sleeping person, lingering in the surroundings.

Eunhong carefully shifts his body. Jaeha’s relaxed arm falls away. He manages to spread out the tightly rolled blanket and extract himself from the embrace. As he stretches out his uncomfortably cramped body, he pushes Jaeha away.

With that, Jaeha’s thick upper body slides around, and his sleeping face turns slightly towards Eunhong. Steady breaths flow silently from his perfectly sculpted nose. The gently settling pheromones are fragrant.

“…”

Come to think of it, he had reason to be tired. He had driven non-stop since lunchtime. Even when Eunhong offered to take over, he had stubbornly refused. He said it would be dangerous if Eunhong drove. When Eunhong protested that he was insulting his driving skills, Jaeha had given the crazy answer that it was dangerous because Eunhong was too pretty.

“Pfft…”

Eunhong covered his mouth to stifle a sudden laugh.

He carefully examined Jaeha’s face. That moment when they first met as very young children, crossing the garden of a large mansion with wide stone steps, holding his mother’s hand. That face from back then was still there. The straight forehead, deep eyes under thick eyebrows. Even the slightly stubborn-looking lips…

Eunhong raised his hand to brush aside the hair that had fallen onto Jaeha’s forehead.

“Lee Jaeha.”

“…”

Deeply asleep, Jaeha was silent. His face, showing no emotion, was like a flawless sculpture.

Looking down at him, Eunhong impulsively brought his nose close to Jaeha’s chest. Although pheromones aren’t just perceived through smell, it was an action close to instinct. Breathing in close to the skin, he felt as if the scent took on a tangible form enveloping him.

“Mm…”

Unaware that Jaeha’s face was twitching, Eunhong continued to sense him like that for a long time.

If there was a person molded entirely to his taste, it might be Lee Jaeha. He didn’t know he had a preference for scents, but after manifesting, he realized that Jaeha’s scent was to his liking.

Could his feelings for Jaeha be more than friendship? Or was his changed body just confused, intoxicated by the pheromones? Eunhong sighed softly so as not to wake the sleeping person.

Maybe it was because of the darkness, because they were alone, because the other was asleep, that he felt brave. Perhaps it was curiosity, or wondering about his own feelings. What Eunhong needed was a kind of certainty. He strongly felt that if he could experience that sensation once more, he might understand.

Eunhong slowly leaned down and brought his lips to Jaeha’s.

As he gently pressed his dry lips against Jaeha’s, it felt as if a moist juice was seeping out. With their lips touching, he felt a strange thirst rising, making his Adam’s apple bob.

Timidly, he lightly bit the lip and tasted it with the tip of his tongue.

Just when he felt he might vaguely understand something, Eunhong struggled to pull himself away.

***

“Mom, aren’t you asking too much, as if you’ve been waiting for this?”

Eunhong straightened his bent back, throwing down the shovel. A groan escaped him involuntarily. Had the backyard always been this big? Looking up, he saw the still numerous jars of fermented food. They were supposed to bury all of that. He had forgotten that every kimchi-making season, his mom would undertake a massive project as if possessed by Jang Geum.

“I was wondering how Sunhong would manage this alone after making kimchi last week, but it’s such a relief you two came.”

“That bastard Sunhong, it was all planned. He knew and ran away.”

Despite Eunhong’s grumbling, Jaeha silently continued shoveling. For someone who hadn’t even been to the military, his shoveling skills were extraordinary. He just smiled brightly at Eunhong’s affectionate criticism asking what he couldn’t do.

They had a late lunch with the kimchi his mom had torn up for them and some boiled pork. After finishing the meal, Eunhong took out a bottle of soju from the refrigerator, making Jaeha’s eyes widen. “Are you drinking?” When Eunhong just jerked his chin without saying anything, Jaeha wiped his mouth and followed.

Opening the side door in one corner of the wall surrounding the backyard, they came out onto a rough path. They walked in silence for a while, the path gradually becoming more winding. As the trees grew taller and shadows darkened all around, Jaeha was about to turn his head to look around when Eunhong suddenly stopped.

With a click, Eunhong opened the soju bottle and poured it near a small tree. Looking closely, there was also a small nameplate hanging on the tree.

“Is your father here?”

Jaeha asked nervously, seeming careful of where he stepped. His face was stained with awkwardness, as if asking if he had stepped on something. Eunhong burst out laughing, finding it ridiculous.

“Are you stupid? That’s illegal.”

Even though Eunhong said no, Jaeha still fidgeted.

“It’s just, this is a tree my dad planted. When you went abroad to study and all our family moved down to Busan, that’s when Dad and I bought a sapling and planted it together.”

In Eunhong’s eyes, his father had been sick all his life. Even in his childhood, which he barely remembered, his father was always in hospital gowns. So there weren’t layers of affection or a painful longing, but the compassion and emptiness were intense.

“We planted it hoping Dad would live long, but somehow it ended up like this.”

Eunhong wrinkles his nose bridge. He touches a branch and stares at it for a long time. True to his nature, he only expresses what he wants to say with his eyes, not speaking it out loud. He finishes pouring the whole bottle of soju without hesitation and turns away without regret.

“Let’s go. That’s enough.”