The first rut was more powerful than what he had learned in theory. Even now, recalling Yeehyeon who had wanted him so ceaselessly he’d sobbed in agony, Liu felt a throbbing heat pool in his loins.
The pheromones he had loathed so much.
The rut he had wanted to avoid so badly, and had in fact avoided.
But the rut with his beloved mate wasn’t disgusting or animalistic, as Liu had feared.
It even felt like he and Yeehyeon had been reborn as a true married couple. As an Alpha and Omega couple, they had revealed, shared, and accepted from each other even the most primal parts of themselves—parts they didn’t want to show anyone, and shouldn’t show anyone.
However, there were still parts that didn’t make sense.
The probability of a heat occurring in an omega who had taken suppressants without missing a single day was close to zero. The suppressants Yeehyeon took weren’t cheap, either. He had also given him sharp suppressants that worked after a heat started, but those had been useless as well. The same went for the suppressants Liu himself had swallowed.
One more thing.
He had never heard of a rut, once started, ending in just one night like this.
Since waking up, Liu’s body felt no different than usual. The same went for Yeehyeon. He was just exhausted from the toll of sex, but his heat symptoms and pheromones had vanished completely.
What was it? What on earth was that last night?
Could you even call that a heat and a rut?
For now, it was a question with no clear answer. Liu, who had been lost in thought while gazing at the peaceful garden, turned and quickly descended the stairs.
Instead of going through the main gate, he passed by Yeehyeon’s atelier and entered the gallery through the back door. The front door was closed for lunch, and Yuni and Michelle were eating in the back lounge.
As soon as she spotted Liu entering the room, Yuni put down the bagel sandwich she was eating. Then she shot up from her seat and approached him with quick steps.
“What about Yeehyeon? How is he?”
“Still not well.”
“Is he really sick? He doesn’t even catch col… what, Director, what happened to your lip?”
Yuni’s face, which had been closing the distance to Liu, filled with shock. Liu touched his lip with his fingertips and turned away to avoid her.
“It’s nothing.”
“What do you mean, nothing! Your lip is all busted. Did you get in a fight or something? Michelle, look at this!”
“It’s fine. Keep eating, Michelle. She’s just surprised because she can’t stand the sight of me getting hurt.”
Liu spoke to Michelle in Korean. Her Korean skills had improved by leaps and bounds, making this level of communication entirely possible.
But despite Liu’s efforts to reassure her, Michelle eventually got up from her seat as well. Wiping her hands on a tissue, she approached and observed Liu from behind a fussing Yuni. Then she added a comment.
“But it really is noticeable.”
“Right? Director, did you really get into a fistfight with someone?”
“A fight? Who would I fight with? Am I the kind of person who uses his fists?”
“You’re more than capable of it if someone picks a fight with Yeehyeon.”
“……”
Liu couldn’t argue with that. He expressed his agreement by raising an eyebrow and shrugging. Then he went to the mirror on the wall and looked at his reflection.
“Is it that bad?”
“All I can see is your lip right now.”
“It looks worse because it’s swollen. It barely hurts.”
“How on earth did that happen to your lip?”
Glancing at Yuni over his shoulder through the mirror, Liu pushed the inside of his cheek with his tongue and answered.
“It was bitten.”
“By Yeehyeon?”
Yuni immediately asked back. As if it were far more natural for his mate, Yeehyeon, to have bitten it than for Liu to have bitten his own lip. Liu reflexively let out a chuckle. He liked that inference.
“That’s not entirely wrong. Let’s just go with that.”
Turning away from the mirror, Liu tried to head back to the bedroom where Yeehyeon was.
“Anyway, I’m taking the day off. There’s nothing special going on, right?”
“Is Yeehyeon that sick?”
Her worry for Yeehyeon, momentarily forgotten because of Liu’s lip, resurfaced in Yuni.
“It’s not that he’s sick in any particular way. But he has a bit of a fever and he’s not in good condition.”
Michelle took a small bottle of mango juice from the refrigerator and handed it to Liu. As Liu twisted the cap open, he had to listen to another of Yuni’s deductions.
“He hasn’t come out to the atelier yet, either. Then he must be really sick. He’s not the type to skip work just for not feeling well, as you… well know…”
Once again, Yuni’s words trailed off. Then, with half-lidded eyes and an unreadable smile, she looked at Liu and nodded.
“Ah…”
“What’s with that ‘ah’? I sense a nuance of accusation in it.”
“It’s not an accusation. It’s more like, I get it.”
“Get what.”
“Why Yeehyeon is ‘not feeling well’ today.”
With a look that said she had worried for nothing, Yuni went back to the lunch table and sat on the sofa. In the meantime, Liu had downed half the mango juice.
“If Yeehyeon is so sick he can’t even come to the atelier, there’s no way you’d be more nonchalant about it than me, Director. I’m not usually like this, but I was a bit slow on the uptake.”
“It would be even better if you sometimes had the sense to just let things slide.”
“Why? I’m doing it on purpose to tease you. It’s fun.”
Yuni said cheerfully as she picked up the bagel sandwich she had tossed on her plate.
“I’m going to tease Seo Yeehyeon tomorrow, too.”
Liu thought he could see two small horns on top of her head.
“Don’t.”
“That’s being overprotective. You know that, right?”
“If you keep teasing him about things like that, Yeehyeon will just become more withdrawn in bed.”
After saying that, he brought the juice bottle to his lips.
Scowling, Yuni threw the sandwich back onto the plate again. Then she covered her ears with both hands and shook her head.
“Aaargh! Don’t say things like that! To me, Seo Yeehyeon is still just a little honeybee. Don’t tarnish him!”
Then she suddenly stopped shaking her head and looked up at Liu with an incredulous expression.
“But, Yeehyeon’s the one who’s exhausted, so why are you taking the day off too, Director? Didn’t you see my message?”
“I have to be by his side.”
“Then at least be here when Mr. Cati comes. He doesn’t show much interest in the paintings if you’re not here, Director.”
“We don’t need to sell to him that badly. All of our artists’ works will be recognized soon enough, and then he’ll resent his own judgment.”
“Yes, well. If that’s your management policy, Director. Then I’ll be haughty with my clients, too.”
Yuni was naturally competitive and had been strongly driven by sales since her Seoul Phantom days. But it seemed she had changed a lot after her time at the non-profit, ‘The Hands.’ Her long association with painters who valued a serious approach to the work itself over fame must have had an influence.
Watching Yuni readily give up on sales, Liu smiled silently. He then placed the now-empty glass bottle on the table.
“Can I go now, then? I’ll keep my phone on, so call me if it’s really urgent.”
“Ah, Director! The hat samples arrived.”
“Already? They said it would take a few more days.”
Liu, who had been about to leave the lounge, turned around. Michelle came out of the office next door with a cap.
It was a hat produced to give as gifts to the friends who helped the gallery and to its affiliated artists, and also to be used for promotion at the Hong Kong Art Fair they were participating in next month.
“It came out better than we worried. Take it and show it to Yeehyeon. He’ll be curious.”
“I will.”
As he took the hat from Michelle, Yuni approached and held out a small paper box.
“And this.”
Visible through the clear plastic on top of the box was a carrot cake from Omia.
“I bought the bagel sandwiches from Omia. Since I was there… Yeehyeon likes it, you know.”
“Thanks. He’ll love it.”
“Although the way you say that, like ‘I’ll thank you on behalf of my husband. We are one body,’ makes you seem a little obnoxious, Director.”
The ever-cynical Baek Yuni and the dependable Michelle, who had now completely become a team. Leaving the gallery to the two of them, Liu turned and left the lounge.
His steps toward home kept quickening. He was anxious that some other symptom might have appeared in Yeehyeon while he was alone. It seemed the trauma had formed in Liu himself, not Yeehyeon.
As soon as he entered the front door, he headed straight for the bedroom.
Yeehyeon, who had finished drying his hair and changed into pajamas, was just crawling under the covers. Liu, standing with his hand on the doorknob, let out a sigh of relief, careful not to let Yeehyeon hear.
“Noona was worried, wasn’t she?”
“She was worried that if you weren’t even coming to the atelier, you must be really sick.”
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