HWAMB — Chapter 59

Speaking casually, Hyun-woo took a bite from the apple he’d cut in half.

“About… what I said yesterday.”

“…Yeah.”

“I didn’t mean it to dismiss you.”

Hyun-woo clenched and unclenched his fists as if nervous.

“I’m sorry for saying it like that.”

The way he looked at me, like a guilty puppy, made my chest ache.

“Are you… worried?”

“About what?”

“About me hanging out with… other friends.”

“…Not all of them.”

Hyun-woo’s eyes narrowed slightly, as if lost in thought.

“There are a few.”

“…Who?”

“All the alphas.”

That wasn’t “a few”!

The crunch of him biting into the apple sounded especially loud as he muttered about how some had been irritating him for a while.

“But right now, I only have two alpha friends!”

“Heo Sang-soo’s fine. But not Do Jin-gyeong.”

“…Because you think he likes me?”

I sighed, and Hyun-woo glared.

“You really can’t tell from the way he looks at you? The way he oozes pheromones around you pisses me off.”

“He was giving off pheromones? I didn’t notice at all…”

“…I swear, we need to get your nose checked at a hospital.”

“No! I did smell it once before, but after that, never again—”

At that, his eyebrow twitched. I clamped my mouth shut. His crooked smile said it all.

“You smelled it…? Wow. I’d really, really like to know when that was, Eun-jae.”

“…Uh.”

With that bright smile and relentless questioning, I panicked and slapped my hand over his mouth.

“Wait! …Let me think about it.”

“Go ahead.”

Anyone could tell he meant, “I’ll give you time to make up an excuse,” but he nodded happily anyway.

“I’m good at waiting. I waited ten years to confess to you. Think I can’t wait a little longer?”

His muttering only made my head spin more.

“…You won’t get mad, right?”

“Not unless it’s something serious.”

I decided to water things down as much as possible. Not that it had even been that strange of a situation, but with Hyun-woo, you never knew what might set him off.

“Remember how I told you we practiced the three-legged race the day before the event?”

“Yeah.”

“Well… something happened then.”

“…Don’t you think you’re leaving out a lot, Eun-jae?”

His suspicious tone made me flounder.

“You know how you fall down a lot while practicing? We tripped once and ended up in… a weird position, just for a moment…”

“….”

“….”

“…Ha…”

Hyun-woo pressed his hand against his forehead and sighed deeply. I protested.

“No, it was an accident!”

“So that’s when he found out you’re an omega?”

“…Yeah.”

Another long silence. Hyun-woo muttered like he was losing his mind.

“…What am I going to do with this clueless idiot?”

“No, Hyun-woo, it’s fine.”

“Somehow I feel even less reassured when you say that.”

He rubbed his forehead, muttering about another stomach spasm coming on. I hurriedly rubbed his stomach in apology.

“Jin-gyeong likes someone else.”

His eyes narrowed, skeptical.

“He told me once—asked me for advice because things weren’t going well.”

Hyun-woo’s expression said, And when did you have that conversation? Before he could object, I cut him off.

“He said it’s someone in our class.”

“…You’re in that class too.”

“Think about it. Who vents about their crush to the person they actually like?”

His expression wavered, though doubt still lingered in his eyes.

I picked the prettiest slice of apple and slipped it into his mouth. He gave me a disgruntled look but still opened up obediently.

Chewing sulkily, he looked like a pouting child.

“Even if, by some chance, you’re right and he does like me—what’s there to worry about? I like you this much.”

“….”

“And I’ll keep my distance, set boundaries. Okay?”

I added that I still planned to go through with our promised meal, since I thought it was basic courtesy to someone who had helped me.

Hyun-woo insisted on sealing the deal like we had as kids—linking pinkies and stamping our thumbs together.

Seriously, I was doing all sorts of silly things because of him.

For now, the fight seemed mostly settled.

“When are you being discharged?”

“I could leave today, but my dad wants me to stay till tomorrow.”

I rubbed his stomach again. His muscles tensed hard beneath my hand.

“Want me to do healing hands?”

“Do it.”

I’d only been joking, but he answered seriously.

There was no real link between “healing hands” and the stomach, but I went along with it anyway, rubbing his abdomen gently.

Solid.

I envied it. I worked out regularly too, but muscles never showed much. Maybe it was because I was an omega.

Though Hyun-seo hyung was also an omega, and his body was amazing… Maybe I should ask him his secret someday.

“Hhngh…”

A startled moan slipped out, tickling my ear. I froze, jerking my head up. Hyun-woo clamped a hand over his mouth, looking shocked himself.

He couldn’t meet my eyes, turning his head aside.

Wow.

I stroked his stomach again. My hand moved soft and slow, making him shiver.

“Hey! Stop…”

“You asked for it.”

I kept rubbing, pretending not to hear, while his heart pounded. His flustered face made me weirdly happy.

“Enough.”

With a firm voice, he grabbed both my hands, pinning them together above me as if binding them. Then he kissed me.

It felt like being devoured by warmth. The only difference this time was how clumsy he was—rushed, unpracticed, like he was searching for something.

But that messy urgency made it all the more exciting.

Seeing him shaken because of me felt good.

‘Am I a pervert?’

Maybe. Strange urges to devour him whole bubbled up inside me.

He smelled good—sweet pheromones hit me like sugar crystals scattering through my nerves.

I gasped and tore my lips away. Hyun-woo looked at me breathless, his eyes a little hazy.

“You… didn’t take your suppressant, did you?”

Panting, he blinked slowly.

“…Guess not.”

His rut was starting. With everything that happened yesterday, he must have skipped his dose.

Suddenly, Hyun-woo pulled me into his arms.

“Ugh…”

No good. If this kept up, his pheromones would scramble my head too.

When he leaned in to kiss me again, I clapped a hand over his mouth.

He stared at my hand like it was an obstacle and, without hesitation, bit down.

“Ah…”

The sharp imprint of his teeth sent a shiver down my spine. It didn’t hurt, but it was embarrassing. His pheromones were rattling me—I could barely control my own.

Good thing it was a private room. If anyone else had been here… the thought alone was horrifying.

“Eun-jae, I like you… I love you.”

Hyun-woo kept confessing, burying himself against me. Sure, I had teased him first, but how was I supposed to know whether he’d taken his suppressant or not?

It took all my effort to pry him off, coax him, and get him to swallow an alpha rut suppressant I ran out to buy at the pharmacy.

Even then, for over an hour, I was overwhelmed by the flood of his pheromones.