Liu moved to stand beside him, wrapping an arm around his shoulder as if to steady him. Ihyeon held onto the hem of his coat and followed wherever he led. Before they had walked more than a few steps, he stopped in front of a typical old apartment building in Paris. He entered a passcode on the keypad mounted beside the double doors, and the main entrance unlocked. They stepped into the cramped elevator—barely large enough for two or three people—and headed for the sixth floor.

Though their shoulders touched and their hands were clasped, they could only look straight ahead, unable to turn toward each other.

After getting off on the sixth floor, Liu took a key from his coat pocket and opened one of the three doors. From behind the neighboring door came the sound of laughter and music.

Once inside and after closing the door, Liu turned Ihyeon to face him. The tears had stopped, but as the reality of the person standing before him slowly sharpened, the emotion swelled even more fiercely than it had the first time they met. For now, all he wanted was to keep seeing, hearing, and touching—to continue confirming that he was really there.

Liu's blue eyes meticulously traced Ihyeon's face, as if measuring the distance a little over a year had carved between them. He moved his lips as if to speak, then bit his lower lip gently, unable to find the right words. Then, stepping closer, he draped his arm around Ihyeon's shoulders.

Ihyeon slipped his arms inside the opening of Liu's coat and wrapped them around his waist over his shirt. He pressed his nose and lips into Liu's shoulder, rubbing his face against his neck.

He realized he had never initiated physical contact with Liu this actively, except when they were making love. He had been foolish. Why had he held back?

They simply held each other for a long time. Nothing else seemed necessary. Leaning against the door, Liu occasionally lowered his head to press his lips against Ihyeon's hair, forehead, and temples.

Perhaps their neighbors were having an early Christmas party—muffled noise occasionally seeped through the walls.

Liu gently stroked Ihyeon's hair and tilted his head to look down at his face.

"Are you feeling calmer now?"

It was his voice.

"Tell me more…"

"…Hm?"

"Anything. I just want to hear your voice."

He pressed his face against Liu's neck as he spoke, with a slight, almost pleading insistence. He had always tried to appear composed in front of him before, but now—after passing through more than a year—he wanted a small reward for enduring that time.

Perhaps finding the request a little difficult, Liu stroked the edge of Ihyeon's shoulder, paused in thought for a moment, and then quietly began to sing.

It was the first time Ihyeon had ever heard him sing. He lifted himself from Liu's chest and looked up at him. Liu, who had been leaning his head against the door to look down, stopped singing.

"What song is that?"

"Um… it's called Fica Tudo Bem. I don't know much about the singer, only that it's a duet sung by a male and female artist from Brazil."

"In Portuguese?"

He nodded.

"It seems to mean something like, 'Everything will be alright.'"

"You can speak Portuguese too?"

This time, he shook his head and smiled. Every reaction he showed was new to Ihyeon, and he didn't want to miss a single one. The faint smile barely visible at the corner of his lips, the sharp gaze fixed on him—it was the look of a man facing a parting rather than a reunion.

Ihyeon knew the shadow lingering in his eyes couldn't be swept away in an instant just because they had reunited. The accumulation of time built up within him was the same. There was no need to rush.

He pressed his chest against Liu's again and rested his chin on his shoulder.

"Will you sing more?"

He loved the soft, whistle-like quality of Liu's low voice. When he hummed through the parts of the lyrics he didn't know, Ihyeon's eyes closed.

Even after the song ended, they leaned into each other in silence for a long while, like people afraid that moving too hastily might ruin something important.

"Is that… perfume I smell?"

"……"

At Liu's cautious question, Ihyeon pulled back and instinctively raised his arm to smell himself.

"At the department store earlier, a clerk… suggested I try spraying some on…"

He suddenly found it absurd that he was making excuses when he hadn't even done anything wrong, so he dropped his arm and let out a small laugh.

"Yes. It's the same one you use, Director… so I bought it."

In the darkness, lit only by streetlights and the glow spilling from the building across the way, Liu's eyes conveyed deep emotion. He pushed himself off the door and gently took hold of Ihyeon's fingertips. Ihyeon clasped his hand back with equal pressure, finally taking in his surroundings.

"But—where are we?"

At Ihyeon's question, Liu bit his lower lip, showing his unease. He wiped a hand over his face and opened his mouth with a heavy expression.

"A place I come to stay sometimes."

"…Here?"

Without needing to look closely, the studio revealed everything it had. The room was long and horizontal, with six windows facing forward that would let in plenty of light. Though cleanly organized, it was neither spacious nor comfortable.

To the right of the entrance stood a legless Zen-style bed, beside it a wardrobe with just three sections; to the left was a table that served as both desk and dining table. That was all the furniture. Beyond the table, a narrow hallway led to the kitchen and bathroom. It was only slightly larger than the room Ihyeon was using at The Hands.

He hadn't been with Liu long, nor did he know the specifics of his finances. But there was no way he had rented a studio in the 19th arrondissement, far from the city center, simply because Paris hotels were expensive.

"Since when…?"

Ihyeon asked while looking around at the traces of Liu scattered across the room—the unmade bed, the laptop and papers on the table, the jacket draped over a chair.

"I signed the lease around autumn this year. I'd been looking for something suitable nearby even before that, but a property in the location I wanted rarely came up…"

Liu hesitated for a moment before adding,

"From here… you can't see The Hands."

Ihyeon had assumed Liu had come because the painting arrived sooner than expected. But that didn't make sense. If that were the case, why would he have lingered in the alley instead of going straight to The Hands? If Liu was the handsome stranger Ben occasionally mentioned seeing at the canal café, then today wasn't the first time he had appeared in this area.

"Ah…"

Perhaps mistaking Ihyeon's small sound for something negative, Liu closed the distance between them and gripped both his arms tightly.

"I know, it was cheating. At first, I just really wanted to feel like you were nearby…"

Ihyeon shook his head. He didn't want to talk about whose fault it was or who bore more responsibility. Reminding someone who had already admitted their mistake and was sincerely regretting it that it was their fault seemed unnecessary.

Ihyeon placed a hand on Liu's shoulder, stroking his broad back as if to knead it.

"What matters is that we're meeting now."

The grip on his arms loosened. Liu tilted his head slightly and exhaled with careful deliberateness.

"For the first few months… I couldn't even go down to the basement."

"……"

"I even thought about moving to a hotel or another apartment."

His tone was flat. Not a complaint about how difficult things had been.

"And then, after those few months… I practically lived in the basement."

Ihyeon bit his lip. He moved the hand resting on Liu's shoulder to wrap around his neck.

"It's harder on the person who stays behind than the one who leaves… having to live in a place where all the memories remain, with people you knew from when you were together. Maybe that's harder than missing someone in a place where nothing reminds you of them."

He shook his head, as if to deny it. They already understood the significance of the time they had spent apart—that he hadn't been the only one enduring the pain.

"It must have been really hard…?"

He slowly closed and then opened his eyes, shaking his head more firmly this time.

"I'm staying in a room on the fourth floor, and there's a friend next door who's from Hong Kong."

"……"

"He's shown some interest in me…"

Watching Liu's eyes betray his anxiety with a visible tremor, Ihyeon continued.

"I told him I had a boyfriend. I felt like I needed to draw a line."

"……"

"Did I lie?"

From the moment they found each other, no explanation had seemed necessary. Yet the burning pain of facing the problem and the emptiness they had endured still lingered within their bodies, making them fearful of rejection and hurt.

Suppressing the emotions threatening to overwhelm him, Liu's face contorted with the effort as he shook his head.

His large hands suddenly cupped Ihyeon's cheeks, and he lunged forward to press their lips together. He kissed him fiercely, tilting and shifting the angle, then pulled back to rest his forehead against Ihyeon's, struggling to catch his breath. Then he followed with a softer kiss, their lips brushing lightly against each other.

Ihyeon moved his hands to Liu's shoulders, tracing down along the bent arm that framed his cheek. Liu's fingers gently tangled in his hair as he deepened the kiss further. The moment their wet inner lips touched, a groan escaped both their throats without thought.

They did not break eye contact. Just as it always was when they kissed.

What had begun as surface-level pressure, like the quiet exchange of whispers, deepened. Ihyeon welcomed the tongue pressing into his mouth, sucking against it with his palate and tongue, tightening his grip on Liu's arm.

After long abstinence, the one he loved was right before him. That alone was more than enough reason for his entire body to ignite in an instant. His young, healthy body could not be satisfied with simply looking at him and hearing his voice.

The time that had passed hadn't been filled with noble spiritual asceticism. Each day had simply been reality. The way he kissed, the weight pressing against his back and chest, the curves of his body that Ihyeon's hands had traced, the heavy swing and rigid heat of his erection, the sensation of being forced open inside as he pressed in, the throbbing contraction and expansion of the knot that made his whole body pulse as if holding a large heart within him—he had touched himself thinking of those things more than once.

He didn't consider that shameful. Feeling desire didn't mean wanting to rub himself against just anyone passing by.

He met the wet heat inside Liu's mouth with his own tongue, rubbing softly. Liu pulled his hands from Ihyeon's cheeks and helped push his coat outward. Ihyeon shrugged it off his shoulders, then reached for Liu's coat in turn. Liu leaned down, kissing in rapid succession as if about to settle in, forcing Ihyeon back a step.

Accepting the aggressive kiss, Ihyeon's hands fumbled urgently with shirt buttons. He worked from the top down while Liu, practically tearing them open from the bottom up, grabbed the back of his neck and waist and pulled him close. Their lips met deeply.

"Mmmph…"

A scent rose from between the parted edges of the shirt. It wasn't overwhelmingly strong, but what brushed past his nose was unmistakably that scent. It was no longer a hallucination.

The moment he became aware of it, he felt a tremor—an almost unnerving pulse—rise from the center of his body, urging him forward.

Liu's bare torso, coat and shirt shed onto the floor. All Ihyeon wanted was to press his own skin against it immediately. When he grabbed Liu's sweater and the undershirt beneath it and pulled them up at once, Liu helped with the undressing.

They moved their arms across each other's backs as if frantically searching for something, stroking everywhere their hands could reach.

Holding Ihyeon's lower lip between his teeth and rolling it gently in his mouth, Liu looked up at him from beneath wet, heavy-lidded eyes.

"Hah, ngh."

The sharp sensation of being deeply drawn in for a moment rocked Ihyeon. He pictured the red spreading from his lips, accompanied by a faint, stinging ache.

Every time he had reached beneath his own underwear in bed, biting his lip between his fingers, it had never been enough to replicate this kind of painful excitement.

"Ugh, mmm. Nnnh…"

He tightened his hold around Liu's neck, rising onto his toes to meet the kiss with full intent. He ran his fingers through the man's hair, rubbed against his earlobe, and clutched at the firm nape of his neck and the open expanse of his chest—both taut with arousal—as if scratching them with his fingertips.

His deepening scent loosened the fog in Ihyeon's mind while simultaneously drawing every part of his body tighter. This was not the kind of perfume anyone could purchase at a department store counter and place on their own wrists and neck.

This was the scent that had liberated him from ingrained preconceptions—the ones that made him flinch from sex and believe active desire was something vulgar—and drawn out a side of himself he hadn't known existed. That was the truth of his pheromones.

He couldn't deny the satisfaction, the greed, the longing, the intense arousal that emanated from it.

His promise that no one else would ever know this scent.

If what others couldn't know was simply fairness, then this was possessiveness—a childish sense of superiority. It was neither noble nor sacred. It didn't matter.

Ihyeon cupped Liu's cheek, pressed him back slightly, and looked into his eyes before giving him a light kiss on the lips.

"How is it?"

"……"

"Are you… still smelling my pheromones right now?"

His eyes, which had been fixed on Ihyeon's lips as if pleading for the kiss to continue, moved up to meet his gaze. His brow furrowed, and his expression sharpened.

"…What… what are you talking about…"

He couldn't finish the sentence. He couldn't close his mouth.

"You can smell my pheromones, can't you, Director?"

Liu twisted his shoulder and turned away, pressing one hand to his hip while rubbing the lower half of his face as if squeezing something out. The arousal heightened by the kiss hadn't subsided at all; his bare chest rose and fell in rapid swells.

"Is it Choi Inwu? Or… Shushu?"

Ihyeon shook his head.

"I saw it too. The diary."

"……"

Liu turned around wearing an expression more stunned than if he had heard it from Choi Inwu or Shushu.

Realizing what had happened, he lowered his gaze and walked toward the table. He downed the small amount of whiskey remaining in the glass beside the laptop in one swallow. He grimaced at the harsh burn, then approached and gripped both of Ihyeon's arms. When he stood before him again, his gaze was firm.

"You have absolutely no responsibility for the Changing."

Ihyeon knew what Liu was worried about.

"Unless you had continued to consent to sex even after knowing everything about the pheromones between a Ghost and Diamond Dust… you didn't know anything about any of it."

He also understood why Liu had kept silent about the diary. About Diamond Dust.

"The Changing was entirely my fault."

"I know."

"……"

Awi, who had believed Ihyeon had followed him without knowing about Diamond Dust or the pheromones, felt confused. But Ihyeon had no reason to waver. He didn't want to waver anymore.

"Haven't we thought about it enough for over a year? Do we really need to talk about it… again?"

Liu's hands, which had been gripping Ihyeon's arms, hesitated and withdrew.

If he hadn't come after seeing the painting, he wouldn't have expected a meeting like this today.

In him—still filled with the shock of reunion, still grateful that Ihyeon had embraced him rather than coldly turning away—traces of pain were beginning to surface.

"But you still haven't received… a sufficient apology. Or adequate compensation."

Ihyeon let out a soft laugh. Not to mock the words.

"Do you think I wanted something like that?"

He stepped closer, placed a hand on Liu's shoulder, and gave him a light shake. Over the past year, he had opened every drawer of the past and turned it over, weighed every possibility. The conclusion had already been reached. Contrary to Liu's worry, the diary hadn't changed that conclusion.

"For my father, who lost his partner, and for me… life insurance or a settlement can never be sufficient compensation. Even if the driver who caused the accident kneeled down and apologized in tears, it wouldn't be enough. No, even if that person took their own life, it would mean nothing to my father and me."

Ihyeon shook his head and bit his lower lip. Then he let his hand slide from Liu's shoulder and gently took both of Liu's hands in his own.

"That would only be belated damage control after the fact. Since we can't turn back time, there's no such thing as a sufficient apology or compensation for something like this anyway."

Looking down at Liu's hands, where the veins stood out more than usual from hanging loose, Ihyeon revealed a fraction of the time he had spent.

"I thought about it for a long time. I had two paths before me: I could live consumed by the despair of being betrayed and victimized, demanding all the 'apology' and 'compensation' I wanted as payment for it… or I could accept your regret, Director, and once again place hope in the deep comfort and understanding we gave each other—and that we can still give each other in the future."

Liu's hand gripped Ihyeon's once, then released. His arm stroked upward, brushing over the shoulder, encircling the neck, covering the ear, and gently tilting his head.

"Just as the fact that you changed me is true, so is the fact that Awi is the one who enabled me to redraw myself. I am here… not for anything else, but for my own happiness."

Ihyeon's eyes, as he spoke with seeming composure, were welling up. Liu moved closer and held him. He knew that even if he offered every apology in the world and every form of compensation imaginable, those words would be meaningless right here, right now.

"I told you back then. Even if you didn't accept it, I had no choice but to give myself to you."

"……"

Pressed against his chest, feeling the beat of his heart and the warmth of his breath against his ear, Ihyeon wrapped his arms around Liu's back.

"Whether you forgive me or not, or even if I committed no sin against you by Changing you… I belong to you."

When he closed his eyes, tears streamed down and wet Liu's shoulder. They simply held each other tight, comforting each other for the time they had endured apart. They kissed each other's shoulders and necks.

"So… what about my pheromones? Do they smell good?"

Ihyeon pulled back, wiping his tears carelessly, and smiled. Liu, whose hands cradled the back of Ihyeon's head, bit his lower lip hard and nodded with a deeply furrowed expression.

"Like a May rose?"

Liu smiled, releasing his lower lip as Ihyeon quoted the diary's description of Erich's pheromones. Then he lowered his head, pressed their lips together, and kissed him several times in quick succession.

"If smelling roses makes you want to do this, isn't that strange?"

Ihyeon smiled and cupped Liu's cheek. Their lips met again, more deeply, pressed together with passion.

"It's an absolute fragrance that strips away the control you've built up with your Golden defenses—renders you completely open, like a regular person with no barriers."

A little embarrassed by the rather grand explanation, Ihyeon chuckled, let go of Liu's cheek, and looked away. But his gaze, which had dropped toward Liu's chest, immediately returned to his eyes. He remembered hearing something similar once before.

"So… that's what you meant."

"……"

This time, Liu added a wry smile over his complicated expression as he stroked Ihyeon's bare shoulder.

In Chicago. That time when Liu had asked him to marry him, and he had answered by saying he loved him.

Pressed flush against Ihyeon's back, his face fully aroused as he worked his fingers inside and stimulated him, Liu had said something similar then.

It hadn't been about body odor.

It was the Diamond Dust pheromone—the one only Ghosts could sense and react to.

He knew what kind of reaction Liu's scent produced in him. A sweet, intense temptation that reached the most primal instincts sealed deep inside—instincts that had never been touched by any form of stimulation—coaxing him into words and actions that stepped beyond the boundaries of his usual self.

The thought that Liu, too, would feel such a pull from his pheromone made his mouth dry. Imagination and anticipation disrupted his breathing in an instant.

He moved closer to Liu, who was stroking his shoulder, and placed his hands around his waist. He rubbed his nose against the nape of his neck and kissed along his jawline. Dipping his head slightly, he buried his lips near Liu's ear while Liu's hand stroked down his side, and whispered.

"What do I have to do… to make you lose control?"

Perhaps the question was unexpected—his hands paused for a moment. Then he pulled Ihyeon closer by the waist and whispered back, almost like a sigh.

"Just breathing is enough."

Even saying that, he was clearly being careful. Their bodies were pressed together and his arousal was already hard against him, yet Liu couldn't bring himself to grip his hips, keeping his hands only on his upper body.

"Now that I know about pheromones, we won't be able to lie to each other about our desires."

"……"

"Right now, Awi's… it's really strong."

Liu flinched, going still for a moment. Then, as if collapsing, he buried his forehead against Ihyeon's shoulder and let out a soft, low laugh.

"You're right. Now everyone will know just how often I feel desire for Seo Ihyeon. This is bad."

At the end of his laugh, which carried a tinge of embarrassment, Liu turned his head and bit down gently on the nape of Ihyeon's neck.

"Ah."

He sucked hard on the thin skin as if branding it, then ran the hand wrapped around Ihyeon's waist up his back before slipping it inside his jeans.

"Ugh… mm."

Ihyeon's chin lifted from the grip Liu had on the flesh of his hips. Liu, who had moved up to lick his tautly stretched neck, kissed his parted lips before sliding his tongue inside.

Kissing Liu's tongue—hot and wet against his own—Ihyeon found himself, without realizing it, rubbing his chest against Liu's chest and his hardness against Liu's.

Liu slid his hand between their lower bodies. With a movement both urgent and precise, he undid the buckle and pulled down the zipper. Using his other hand, which had been kneading Ihyeon's hips, he pushed down both the jeans and underwear at once. His scent intensified at the sight of Ihyeon exposed before him. His breathing grew uneven, his shoulders rising as if he were angry.

Even at a glance, his cock was noticeably swollen, pushing hard against the front of Liu's pants. Ihyeon's hand trembled as it reached for his belt. As if frustrated by the slow movement, Liu placed his hand over Ihyeon's and began undoing it himself.

Above, he kept kissing Ihyeon in a different direction; below, he swiftly worked the belt and buckle, slid down the zipper, and freed himself.

"Ugh… ah."

Ihyeon pressed his mouth against Liu's lips as if crushing them, pressing their bodies flush so their cocks touched. The moment their flesh made contact, it felt like his body caught fire. He felt like he was going crazy. They had only just started, yet this desperate impatience—this craving to have him immediately—was something he had never recognized in himself before.

"Are you excited?"

"Hh, h-ah… gulp."

At his gentle, low whisper, Ihyeon bit his lip and slowly nodded.

"Me too."

Looking down, he saw Liu's cock, swollen even larger than before, trembling with a threatening intensity. A thick, fragrant fluid was already dripping from the head. It seemed to writhe—like a caged beast desperate to run free. The Alpha's body was fully ready, poised to plunge in and grind against him.

Liu lowered his hips, pressing his root against the base where Ihyeon's cock began, and rubbed upward from below. Ihyeon couldn't tear his eyes away from the fluid, deliberate hip movements that so directly suggested what was to come.

He felt suffocated, unsure how to release the explosive excitement he hadn't felt in so long. So Ihyeon began to move. With every sway forward and back, their flesh slapped together, the wet sounds making his breath and shoulders drop momentarily.

They wrapped their arms around each other, lower garments hooked over their thighs, twisting and rocking to press even closer. It was in no way elegant. It was the complete opposite of nobility or restraint.

Now he understood why he could speak obscene words he had never even clearly pictured in his own mind, and openly demand hidden desires without being led there. He wanted that liberation again—all the acts people spoke of as forbidden, wrong, or improper, yet couldn't stop being curious about, that some secretly indulged in their own bedrooms. He wanted all of those things with Liu. He wanted every last tremor of his muscles to be his alone.

"Mmm. Ah-hah. Mmm."

His hands, which had been kneading the flesh of his hips as if shaping dough, slipped between them. A single finger deliberately teased his entrance.

"Have you… touched yourself here while I was gone?"

When he nodded, Liu let out a sweet, hushed sigh near his ear—as if imagining Ihyeon reaching between his own legs and pleasuring himself.

The finger that had been tracing slow circles around the entrance as if massaging it pressed harder against the skin, threatening to push in at any moment. His body reacted to the stimulation on its own, tensing and drawing his hips tight. Ihyeon dug his fingertips into Liu's shoulder as if pinching him.

"Ihyeon…"

The voice sounded as if lost in a languid dream, or perhaps crushed under an unbearable ache.

"It's wet here…"

"Ugh."

The moment he heard those words, Ihyeon flinched as a small pulse seemed to rush out from inside him.

Fully aroused now, Liu was using his entire palm instead of just his fingers, stroking from back to front. Ihyeon couldn't control his breathing at all as Liu moved between his legs, rubbing the sensitive skin, seemingly unaware of what he was doing.

"What should I do…. I'm sorry…. Seo Ihyeon, you're so wet…."

He mumbled an apology that made no sense in context, as if he had accidentally knocked a cup off a table and soaked someone's clothes.

Every time he tensed as if about to lift Ihyeon's body, Ihyeon's heels came up off the floor. Their cocks brushed and rubbed and pressed against each other between their hips. The scent was so overwhelming it felt like there wasn't enough air. He couldn't keep his mouth closed and breathe at the same time.

Just as Liu had said it was wet, a viscous fluid squelched with every push and pull of his palm.

"It keeps flowing, it's slick…."

He bent his large body down, pressing kisses everywhere his lips could reach—the nape, the shoulder, the chest—biting the skin between his teeth and inhaling deeply. He seemed unable to contain the desire to pour out his building excitement somewhere.

"Ugh, ah… Wait… a moment…."

Pushed back by the force of his body, Ihyeon had to grip Liu's neck tightly to keep from losing balance. He looked up to find Liu pressing his nipple between his lips, squeezing, his pupils completely glazed over.

After pushing the hardened nipple out with his lips, Liu continued to toy with it using the tip of his tongue, then shaped his palm into a hollow and pressed it firmly between Ihyeon's legs.

"It can't leak out…. Should I keep doing this?"

When the words made Ihyeon bite his lower lip, Liu lunged forward and took his mouth. Unable to withstand that force, Ihyeon collapsed backward onto the bed behind him.

Ihyeon sank onto the mattress, and Liu's broad torso spread over him. Frenzied kisses rained down over his bare body. Liu pushed his knees under Ihyeon's thighs, driving him further toward the center of the mattress. Just as Ihyeon neared the middle of the bed, Liu released the nipple he had been sucking and bit down on it, tugging sharply before pulling back.

"Ah… oh…."

The moment Ihyeon arched his neck and groaned from the sharp pleasure, Liu released the nipple and began pulling off the lower garments still hanging awkwardly. Ihyeon pushed his jeans down toward his ankles as well.

Liu stripped himself bare in an instant. After pulling off Ihyeon's sneakers, he gripped the seat of his jeans and yanked them off. The inside-out jeans were tossed with the sneakers somewhere onto the floor.

Standing with his knees spread wide, he slowly slid between Ihyeon's legs. The muscles in his thighs were taut. With his back to the window, his front was in shadow, but the outline of his cock—nodding heavily with every movement—was unmistakable.

It wasn't only between Ihyeon's legs that was wet. The Alpha's copious pre-ejaculate, dripping down his length, had already left marks on the sheet.

Liu's gaze, heavy as it swept over Ihyeon's half-reclined body, was weighted. He grimaced several times, shaking his head as if suffering from a severe headache. Ihyeon knew now that this was an attempt to suppress the effect of the pheromones, even just a little.

Ihyeon pushed himself upright, grabbed Liu's waist, and rose onto his knees. Leaning on Liu's arm wrapped around his waist for balance, he pulled himself fully upright, then cupped Liu's balls in his palm and gently massaged them.

"Mmm—."

Ihyeon's cheeks flushed as he watched Liu's face, a low groan escaping through a furrowed brow.

Despite their substantial weight, his balls clung snugly just beneath his cock without any sag. Each time they were lightly tugged down and released, they swung heavily. The vibration, charged with suggestion, made Ihyeon's breath catch.

Feeling that, Liu lifted Ihyeon's chin and kissed him. The other hand, which had been wrapped around Ihyeon's waist, slid down to his hips, kneading them upward from underneath as if to lift his flesh.

They didn't need their entire bodies to draw the desired response from each other. Even the slightest movement was enough to send reason into crisis.

Holding his shoulder with one hand and stroking the tensed muscle, Ihyeon moved his other hand from the balls up to the shaft. He wrapped his fingers around the thickly erect cock—so large that his thumb and middle finger couldn't meet—and slowly stroked upward. The column, burning hot as if filled with boiling liquid inside, already seemed to have reached its limit, ready to spill everything it held.

Its shape was too distinct to simply call cylindrical—especially where the sinewy ridges rose and connected to the root, resembling the frenulum of a tongue—and it mirrored his sharply defined face. Yet unlike his face, which exuded a restrained sexuality beneath its intellectual and refined surface, his lower body was entirely explicit.

The sticky fluid slid messily between the veined, bumpy shaft and the thin skin of Ihyeon's palm, making him bite and release his lip like someone overwhelmed by urgent need. His shallow breaths fell into disorder.

He tilted the cock, which felt ready to spring out of his grip, toward his own and coated himself with the translucent pre-ejaculate dripping from the head. Just seeing that sight felt like it could tip him over the edge. The hand gripping his shoulder scraped across his skin as if urging him on.

"Awi's… completely soaked too. It keeps running… you look like you're in pain."

His curiosity about Liu's body was still just as strong as the day he had first seen Alienation hanging in the living room. Simply taking in his cock with his eyes—like a young man inexperienced with another person's bare body—still heightened his desire.

"It doesn't hurt… You know why it became like this. Stimulate me harder."

After pulling their lips apart, Liu pressed the tip of his tongue against the inside of Ihyeon's lower lip, then gently covered Ihyeon's hand around his cock with his own. His hand was as hot as his length.

"Stroke me harder until it really hurts. Your hand… feels so good…."

As soon as he finished speaking, he sharpened his tongue and pushed it into Ihyeon's mouth. Brushing it stiffly—held straight and slightly curved at the tip like an erect cock—against the roof of his mouth, the strange tickling sensation made the back of Ihyeon's neck tighten. It was a completely different sensation from being touched on the outside of the skin.

"Uungh… Hmph."

Moans escaped between breaths. As Liu increased the speed at Ihyeon's request, he too exhaled a deep, pent-up breath and swirled his tongue wildly inside Ihyeon's mouth.

His hand, which had been fondling Ihyeon's hips—gripping the flesh with fingers spread wide enough for his nails to dig in, kneading as if tearing at it—began to drag the edge of his hand between Ihyeon's cheeks.

Ihyeon looked down at the fluid welling again from the head, dripping over the back of his hand, and asked.

"Because of me… because of my pheromones, did this happen?"

Liu caressed the thin, delicate flesh between Ihyeon's legs, then tilted his head and rubbed his lips against his earlobe.

"Seo Ihyeon, completely naked, is right in front of me, and Seo Ihyeon is holding my cock in his hand… Wouldn't this have happened even without pheromones?"

At Ihyeon's touch—cupping his palm and beginning to rub the head—Liu grimaced as if in pain and twisted one shoulder.

Ihyeon thought his words were a lie. At least, a pleasing exaggeration mixed with some falsehood.

It was different from before, when he had known almost nothing about Alphas and Omegas. He now knew that in front of a Beta, Alpha and Omega pheromones were powerless, meaningless. No matter how sexually aroused they became and directed their pheromones toward a Beta, the other party received no stimulation whatsoever.

While Alphas and Omegas could certainly be sexually attracted to Betas and enjoy their time together, the pleasure derived from sex between an Alpha and an Omega—where pheromones actively played a role—was incomparable.

Of course, physical pleasure isn't the only measure of sexual satisfaction. Sex with a beloved partner involves a mental fulfillment that the chemical reactions triggered by pheromones cannot replace, which was why rare Beta-Alpha or Beta-Omega couples existed and maintained lasting relationships—like Morae and Yeehan, like Ellen and Marcus.

But Ihyeon wanted everything Liu could offer—the ultimate connection and the ultimate pleasure, all of it.

It wasn't enough to simply prevent him from sensing anyone else's pheromones. Even the mere awareness that someone else—others—might be able to reach the depths of him that he himself could never touch was enough to make him uncomfortable.

It didn't matter whether the source of this desire stemmed from his own inherent tendencies or from Didi's innate instinct toward Ghosts. As long as the object of his desire—Liu—did not refuse him, he wouldn't suppress it. He had decided that.

"It's stronger… Awi's pheromones…"

Feeling the sticky abundance of his pre-ejaculate and the intensifying concentration of pheromones, Ihyeon's voice was almost trembling.

"Because you make me feel good…"

His voice as he said that was languid, genuinely pleased. But it wasn't the relaxed ease of someone unwound. The tight, husky sound heating Ihyeon's ear and his damp breath kept forcing his chin up and his lips apart.

Ihyeon pulled his palm—completely slick with pre-ejaculate—away from the head. He traced back over the hard contours of Liu's abs and chest, which were rising and falling irregularly as he fought to hold himself back. Covering his nose and mouth with his hand, he stuck out his tongue in front of Liu's eyes and licked his fingers. With that rich scent on his tongue, it felt as if every pore on his body had sprung wide open.

"Fascinated?"

Liu's eyes, watching Ihyeon inhale his intimate scent, were burning. Even though he looked like he wanted to enter Ihyeon immediately and start moving, he was still suppressing himself against the immense pull of desire and pheromones.

Though he smiled down at Ihyeon, sweat beaded on the bridge of his nose and forehead, and the hand tracing the cleft of his hips was filled with longing for the narrow, hot passage within.

Ihyeon licked his middle finger, then wrapped his arms around Liu's waist, rubbing their cocks together. He reflexively moved his hips in a slow circle, creating friction below.

"Before, I didn't even know this was pheromones."

He understood now why his past self had licked the hand that had stroked him. He understood now why only Liu Weikun had identified him as an Omega from the very beginning.

The fact that only Liu—out of everyone—had sensed this part of him, a part he himself had never even been aware of, felt like something symbolic that extended beyond mere pheromones.

Aware that the scent surrounding him was not perfume but Liu's pheromones—restrained so that only he could savor them—Ihyeon met his eyes.

"It's fascinating… but more than that, it's erotic."

He spat a short curse through his teeth in that instant, unable to hold back any longer, and pressed his finger into Ihyeon's entrance. It felt like a surrender.

"Hnnngh!"

It was a deep entry that should have made a sound—yet the slick interior opened without resistance. Having held back for so long, he immediately began sweeping his middle finger frantically across the inner walls the moment he got inside, arm moving rapidly, his long finger bumping repeatedly against the opening, building heat with the friction.

The feeling was unbearably strange.

Ihyeon's hips jerked forward on their own. He twisted and gripped Liu's shoulders, raking his nails across his back where the muscles undulated as if dancing. Liu's fingertips, sliding rapidly through the wet interior, had already reached deeper than where Ihyeon had been touching with his own hand.

From Ihyeon's hips, between the locked pelvises where two cocks were pressed together, from lips to lips—the space between their bodies filled with slick sounds, and the scent hung thick in the air.

"I feel foolish for ever thinking this was perfume. Every time I touch—or when I clench inside, it reacts like this… like a living rhythm, drawing and releasing strength."

"It's only natural to go blind to something you believe is absolutely impossible."

He looked at Ihyeon with an almost rapt expression from beneath lowered lids as he spoke. Ihyeon cupped his cheeks in both hands.

"Am I like that too?"

"……"

"When Awi stimulates me inside, do my pheromones also go wild?"

He layered one finger over his middle finger and pushed in deeper, scraping his teeth lightly against Ihyeon's chin as Ihyeon looked up.

"Seo Ihyeon's pheromones… they're like a dizzying curve that rises without limit. That's why I… can't stand it. I come undone."

"I want you to not be able to stand it. I want you to come undone. Like before."

His fingers, now increased in number, thrust in and out rapidly as if to split him apart. The insertion—using the strength of his entire arm rather than just his fingers—threatened to lift Ihyeon off the mattress.

"With your Alpha… fill me up completely here… and rub inside until I'm begging you to knot me again, again and again, like before…"

Ihyeon nodded frantically. At the same moment, Liu pulled the backs of his thighs and threw off his balance, laying him down onto the mattress. As if collapsing into the scent, the pheromones flared up powerfully all at once.

Liu, kneeling between his legs, slowly pushed inside. Once positioned, he wrapped Ihyeon's cock—slick and gleaming with their mixed pre-ejaculate—firmly in his long, hot palm.

"Ugh… h-ah."

It had been so long since he'd felt the pressure of Liu's hand, not his own. His lower back lifted off the mattress on instinct. His lower body pressed tightly against Liu's. Ihyeon's entire body, drenched in pheromones, trembled with anticipation for the hot, relentless thrusting and destructive rocking that was about to come. He had no choice but to clutch the sheets.

Having worked Ihyeon's cock until it was harder, Liu slid his hands down along Ihyeon's legs, which were draped over his thighs, gripping his ankles and lifting them into the air. The ankles came together, and the overlapped legs were draped over his right shoulder.

"Ha. Hah, ah."

Ihyeon's breath came in short, broken bursts. The hands that had been gripping the sheets now twisted them as if wringing them out. Even as his entire body displayed its anticipation for what was about to be pressed inside him, Ihyeon couldn't feel ashamed.

Positioning himself with Ihyeon's thighs spread wider, supporting his hips, Liu bypassed aiming at the entrance and instead slid his cock between Ihyeon's thighs.

"……"

That friction was stimulating enough in its own way, and Liu's slow, undulating movements sent flutters deep inside, but it wasn't what Ihyeon had been expecting.

"What… are you doing?"

"Have you forgotten what this is?"

He gave Ihyeon's calf a light nip and grinned, his face glistening with sweat. He held Ihyeon's leg over his right chest and moved his waist—which looked lean at a glance but was solidly thick—back and forth.

His cock, fully rigid, slid between Ihyeon's thighs, signaling its limit. The throbbing pulse was palpable between his legs, and the pheromones were overwhelming, forcefully flooding nose and mouth. Yet he remained stubborn.

Ihyeon bent his knees and pressed gently against Liu's shoulders with his toes. Then he shook his head.

"Fill me inside."

"……"

He paused his hip movements for a moment, looked down at Ihyeon, then kissed his ankles and calves several times before sliding against his inner thighs again.

"It's been too long."

Even when he had first accepted Liu, his body had posed no problems. There was no way insertion would be difficult now, when he was this thoroughly soaked.

Feeling Ihyeon's body stiffen as if in refusal, Liu stopped again. He stroked his legs from ankle to hip, set them back down, and bent over to press his chest against Ihyeon's. He brushed the hair from his face and kissed his forehead, the bridge of his nose, and his lips.

"Next time… let's do it next time."

"I don't want to. You promised you'd fill me with your Alpha."

"Ihyeon…."

His voice, soothing and gentle, was sweet yet pained by the ongoing clash between reason and instinct.

Ihyeon traced Liu's face with his fingertips and whispered.

"You didn't want to be with me?"

"Where did that come from?"

One hand reached down and wrapped around his hardness. They desired each other so intensely that sparks seemed to fly from their skin just touching. Ihyeon's teeth grazed along Liu's jaw, while his other hand tightened around Liu's neck. Pressing his lips to his ear, he stroked the head, building the stimulation. As if unable to bear how much he was being drawn in, Liu supported his back and embraced him fully, pressing his lips into the top of Ihyeon's hair.

"You got this hard because you want to come inside me… so why are you holding back?"

He couldn't even remember the last time he had spoken to anyone like this, but with Liu there was no awkwardness—as if he had always been free to demand things of him.

Whether it was the effect of pheromones or simply that the distance between them had closed now that the secrets holding them apart had crumbled, he couldn't say. But even after a year apart, treating him with this kind of easy familiarity felt more natural than it had before.

From his tip, which was being directly stimulated, pre-ejaculate oozed out steadily. No matter what reason told him, his body was clearly in pain. Still fighting himself, dripping until not only Ihyeon's hand but even his stomach was slick, Liu collapsed against Ihyeon's shoulder and whispered in anguish, as if pleading.

"I love you… I really love you."

"The Seo Ihyeon you love wants this."

"……"

He raised his head and met Ihyeon's eyes. Exposed to pheromones he couldn't block and still resisting them, Ihyeon now understood—at least theoretically—just how immense and absolute the force Liu was fighting against truly was.

That he could resist this much against pheromones strong enough to shatter the near-perfect Golden defense could not be explained by anything other than love. Not every Alpha could endure this, even if they were in love.

Ihyeon cupped his face.

"Don't suppress it. In front of me, just be who you are. Whether you're an Alpha or a Ghost… I, Didi, am also a being outside the normal category people talk about."

His expression twisted with pain, as if Didi being Didi was somehow his own fault.

"Don't hide anything from me. I want all of you—even your dark, shabby, unappealing parts. If we are to start over… we have to embrace each other with that kind of resolve."

As Ihyeon rubbed his nose against his, Liu pressed their lips together firmly. Without using his tongue, he repeatedly pulled away and met Ihyeon's lips again, looking at him with eyes that were crashing blue and white, like waves breaking over stone.

"Show me everything. Show me how your eyes change—proof of what made me an Omega—and the loneliness you've endured until now… show me everything."

Swallowing the surging emotion, his eyes narrowed. He lowered his head and slowly kissed the nape of Ihyeon's neck, his ear, the hair clinging to his temples.

"It was shabby and unimpressive. I was terrified."

"……"

"I tried to take you, even at the cost of destroying myself—in some distorted way, by surrendering most miserably to the Alpha instinct I had kept refusing to accept. I don't think that speaks to the depth of love. And I won't hide behind pheromones as an excuse for it either."

The next moment, when he raised his head and looked at Ihyeon again, his eyes were not soft. Nor were they conflicted.

"I will spend the rest of my life repaying you."

He didn't say it as if it meant something dramatic. His whispered voice was like a light exhale. That was precisely why it felt sincere.

Ihyeon gently stroked his face and smiled faintly.

"I don't want a relationship where we owe each other. I don't want you by my side out of obligation or guilt either. Our relationship from this point on… begins with my choice."

This time, Liu managed a smile over his deeply furrowed face—the kind of smile that seemed to say he would prove it across all the time to come, rather than trying to persuade Ihyeon with words right here and now.

Turning his head, he kissed the palm of Ihyeon's hand that was cupping his cheek, then pressed his lips to Ihyeon's mouth. Their soft flesh rubbed gently as their lips parted. Tongues met and intertwined through the space between their mouths. They exchanged their most intimate scent—their pheromones—along with their breath.

Below, his hips began to move again. He swept his hardness down against Ihyeon's stomach, then kissed his chest and scraped the head against his inner thigh.

"Hngh… ugh."

Ihyeon pulled his head closer and bit down on his lower lip. He bent his knees, spread his legs, and lifted onto his toes, feeling tension gather naturally in his feet. Liu enveloped his nipple with the soft inner warmth of his mouth and his tongue, sucking and nibbling broadly over the areola and surrounding skin.

"Ah…"

Ihyeon rubbed the back of his head against the sheet and lifted his chin. The slick head of Liu's cock was already pressing against his entrance.

Like a kiss, or perhaps hesitating, the head circled the entrance several times, repeatedly touching and withdrawing before finally pressing in with a steady, resolute force. Feeling the mass of pheromones entering directly into his body, Ihyeon groaned and slowly twisted his hips. He changed the angle of his face to look down at the one pressing against his chest, and gently stroked the sweat-dampened hair.

The part pressing inside—retreating slightly only to push deeper than before—felt as if it were expanding and then immediately filling him completely. He could feel Liu's pulse transferring into him.

"Alpha…"

The murmur escaped him without him even realizing it. Liu, who had been gently biting his nipple with only his lips, suddenly tugged it sharply and let go before lifting his head.

As he pressed his upper body tightly against Ihyeon's and brought his face closer, the insertion deepened in proportion to the closing distance.

"Haaah… hh!"

Ihyeon gripped Liu's shoulders and trembled violently. His breath hitched, and his legs flailed as if trying to escape. With his glistening blue eyes intently watching every reaction, Liu moved his hips shallowly but quickly, sending vibrations deep inside.

Since he wasn't fully inside yet, their groins didn't meet even when he thrust. Still, the constant wet, squelching sounds never ceased from their slick, fluid-drenched junction.

"Haa, ahh… oh…."

It felt like being pinned under a large, heavy beast, leaving him completely unable to move. Ihyeon panted, mouth agape, struggling to breathe. Liu's eyes, which had been scrutinizing every reaction, were now completely glazed over. With every stroke of friction, he was becoming more and more undone.

"Ihyeon… I missed you…."

Though he seemed to have countless things to say about the longing that had built up over the past year, he merely repeated, "I missed you," pulling Ihyeon tightly into his embrace and sliding his arm beneath his back.

"I wanted you."

"Nngh, ugh… Ah!"

"I wanted you so badly… I wanted to touch you naked, to kiss your lips, to press against anywhere on your body… There were nights I masturbated just thinking about you…. Was it the same for you?"

As Liu asked this, reaching down to grip and stroke his own root still outside Ihyeon's entrance, his scent spilled out. It was as if someone had wrung his body like a sponge, squeezing out the pure concentrate of his pheromones.

Ihyeon felt his own mind turning porous, riddled with holes, and sucked in breath desperately. No matter how wide he opened his mouth, all that entered his lungs was Liu's scent—the kind that paralyzed reason entirely.

Clinging to him and sucking on his full lower lip, Ihyeon confessed the nights that had been anything but noble—the nights he had thrashed alone in loneliness.

"I did…. Even when I hated you the most, the heat you planted in my body never faded… I resented Awi for it…."

"……"

Even while exchanging such disordered confessions, Awi looked at Ihyeon as if he had never heard a more pure declaration of love. Or perhaps it was an expression of self-reproach, deep in his bones, as if he were personally taking responsibility for every moment of loneliness Ihyeon had endured in this unfamiliar city.

Liu pressed his burning lips against Ihyeon's lips, the skin around them, and his cheeks.

"There hasn't been a single day I didn't imagine the pain or loneliness you might be feeling…. How could the one who hurt you turn out to be me…."

"Ugh, ah. Haa!"

Liu thrust his hips upward as if trying to climb fully onto Ihyeon's body, shaking his head with a contorted face. He had already stepped far beyond the realm of ordinary life and common sense.

"Even though we were so far apart, even though I lost you because of that, I… I kept going mad with the need to be inside you, to knot you. I'm sorry… I'm sorry, Ihyeon-ah…."

This time, it was a repetition of apologies. Like someone who had lost what was most precious and gone mad, he poured out words of sorry—almost wailing—yet he didn't stop the movements below that were rocking through Ihyeon.

He flattened his body, pressing his chest tightly against Ihyeon's, and moved only his hips—like a skilled rider. Every time his cock drove back into Ihyeon with the thrust of his swaying hips, the mattress rattled against the frame. Ihyeon's mind was already more than half scattered, and even that sound felt like part of the rhythm of their union.

"I'm sorry, I… I promise I'll do so much better…."

The voice was a collapsing whisper.

Both the apologies and the promises had been words Ihyeon had heard from him many times before, whenever they had been together like this. Now he finally understood exactly what Liu had always been so sorry for, even then, when he had treated him so well.

Ihyeon stroked his slick, sweat-drenched shoulders and wrapped his arms around his neck. Even as all this talking continued, he wrapped his legs around Liu's waist. When he crossed his ankles at the small of his back and squeezed his knees inward, Liu let out a deep, wounded groan from somewhere animal.

"Ihyeon… Seo Ihyeon… Seo I-hyeo-eon…."

Even though Ihyeon was right in front of him, inside him, he moved his hips calling Ihyeon's name like a man consumed by longing. His sweat-drenched face was contorted—it was impossible to tell whether he was trembling from pleasure or crying out in sorrow.

"I'm right here… Look at me."

Ihyeon pulled at his hair to force him to look. His glazed eyes blinked a few times, as if trying to focus. Even his thick eyelashes were glistening with moisture. As if trying to see his face more clearly, he gently brushed the strands of Ihyeon's hair away from his forehead.

"Ugh, ugh… hah…."

Ihyeon bit his lip and rubbed the back of his head against the sheet, feeling Liu's body press completely flush against his. Finally, all of him was inside.

The hips that had been driving in and out with forceful strokes began to trace a slow, rounded motion. He was deliberately rubbing the area around their connection with the coarse friction of his body, making it stickier. As he rotated slowly, carefully watching Ihyeon's every reaction, he seemed like a predator stalking an opportunity to capture his prey.

His thighs, which had been braced around the outside of Ihyeon's hips in a V-shape, shifted further inward, lifting Ihyeon's hips up.

"Nngh… hah."

As Ihyeon's hips lifted off the mattress, stimulation shot through their joined area. His entrance, stretched to its maximum, sent jolts of sensation with the slightest shift in angle. It was a part of his body he usually never even registered, yet in this moment it was functioning sexually with more sensitivity than anywhere else.

Liu seemed to capture and swallow every minute reaction from Ihyeon as if each one were something precious, holding it all within his gaze.

Bending over, he braced his hands on Ihyeon's shoulders while gathering him against him. Ihyeon wet his lips with his tongue and swallowed dryly.

Holding Ihyeon firmly so he couldn't be pushed away, he began to drive into him fiercely. The image of their combined fluids pooled deep inside, squelching with each thrust, rose vividly in Ihyeon's mind.

"H-haah, ugh! Ah!"

Ihyeon, torso completely pinned, writhed beneath him. Because Liu was pulling him down while thrusting up simultaneously, none of his force was wasted—every bit of it poured directly into Ihyeon. It felt like his insides were being mercilessly hammered by a piece of white-hot iron.

Though his thoroughly soaked interior offered no resistance at all, with every stroke it felt as if sparks flew from where Liu scraped against him, burning hot.

"Agh, Ku… Kun… ah!"

"What is it, Ihyeon? Are you struggling? Does it hurt?"

"Hah… haah, h-ah… ah…."

Ihyeon bit down hard on his lower lip and shook his head. What had seemed to weaken slightly now pounded into him with even greater force. Because his hips were propped up by Liu's thighs, his legs bent naturally at the knees and folded toward his chest, and every time the base of Liu's cock struck the entrance, his calves flailed uselessly.

Whenever Liu's sweaty hands started to slip, he kept adjusting his grip on Ihyeon's shoulders. There was no room to distribute the force anywhere. Ihyeon was already struggling just to breathe, yet his entrance seemed to deliberately writhe around him, gripping and releasing.

Liu let out a strange moan—like someone being choked—and pressed his forehead into Ihyeon's shoulder. Every muscle across his broad shoulders and back was taut and glistening.

As he slowly pulled back, the fluid that had filled Ihyeon streamed down. The scraping sensation as the ridged surface and prominent head dragged against the inner walls made it feel like his spine might give out. His thighs convulsed sharply.

"Ah! Ngh!"

After withdrawing until only the head remained, he used the strength of his entire body—not just his hips—to drive back in all the way. Ihyeon couldn't even make a sound; he simply held onto his back and gasped for breath.

Pulling out with a long slide, then plunging back in all at once—an impact that sent vibrations from fingertips to toes. He repeated the motion several times, pressed over Ihyeon's chest.

Haaah… haa…

He slowly blinked his eyelids open, lifted his head, and parted his lips. He groaned as if savoring the pleasure surrounding him, shaking his hips in small, slow movements.

"It feels like pressing into a narrow tube where your pheromones are boiling over…"

It seemed it wasn't only his cock that was burning hot.

Looking down at Ihyeon through the damp strands of hair plastered to his face, he crinkled his nose and smiled. In the backlighting's shadow, that flash of white during their frenzied union seemed almost alien.

"Seo Ihyeon-ssi."

At Liu's voice—playful and tightly controlled—Ihyeon took a brief breath, gently running his fingers through his hair.

"You're still very good at sex…"

The unexpected compliment was strange enough that Ihyeon let out a small laugh.

"Even so, I don't think that's quite it…"

"What's so special about being good at sex? If you drive the other person crazy… that's being good at it. Isn't that right?"

As soon as he finished speaking, he pressed a brief kiss to Ihyeon's ear and whispered, "I'm sorry."

"Haa, ah. Ah… Nnnh!"

Before Ihyeon could even process the sudden apology, just as the intensity seemed to ease for a moment, it felt as if someone had grabbed his neck with a rough hand and closed it.

"I think I'm… going crazy right now."

It wasn't just a symbolic expression—Liu's eyes were completely unfocused, as if a part of his mind had truly been shoved into an abnormal realm.

"So, Seo Ihyeon, you're very, very good at sex."

Unlike all the previous times, there was no warning this time.

The throbbing pulse inside him and the wave-like expansion of pheromones matching that pulse instantly stole the focus from Ihyeon's eyes as well.

During knotting, the repetitive motion of pushing in and pulling out was no longer necessary. The head had adhered completely to the inner walls as if sealed in place, making ordinary back-and-forth friction impossible.

The knot swelled and contracted rapidly on its own, stimulating the inner walls in a way entirely different from friction, pounding against them with each pulse. This was a pleasure only an Alpha could deliver.

He lifted Ihyeon's body while keeping him tightly embraced. Ihyeon ended up straddling his thighs as Liu knelt, their chests pressed flush together.

"Ugh, nnh, h-haah!"

The added pressure of his own body weight made Ihyeon thrash his limbs and tremble violently. Moisture gathered in his eyes, and his lips parted involuntarily.

"It feels like it's going to—burst… deep inside… hurry… no."

Liu stroked Ihyeon's face as he babbled in fear. As if prescribing a remedy for that fear, he pressed his tongue into Ihyeon's mouth, making him inhale his pheromones. The man who had been so reluctant to penetrate him had now been completely consumed. An Alpha who had come this far could never stop. This was also precisely why he had tried to avoid penetration in the first place.

"Is it because it's been so long… you forgot? Seo Ihyeon here can do this several times in one night…"

Since his arousal was completely wedged inside, preventing him from pulling out and thrusting, he shook his thighs instead, sending vibrations through Ihyeon's body where it perched above him.

"Ngh, h-ha, ah… ngh…"

Ihyeon's already ragged breaths began to tremble.

"We were both completely out of our minds… crawling all over the room, doing it again and again until morning…"

The pulsing knot deep inside him, beating against his core, was amplified by the tremor traveling through Liu's thighs. Ihyeon could barely process what Liu was saying. Without the arms wrapped across his back, he felt certain his waist would give out and he would collapse backward.

Each time Liu's cock and the knotted head expanded and thumped heavily against his inner walls, a shiver and a surging sensation—like cresting a wave—washed over his entire body. He felt his flushed pheromones racing through his bloodstream at a dangerous speed.

Ihyeon gasped, unable to close his lips, and shook his head.

"No, th-this… this is the first time for something like this…."

"The first time? What kind of first time?"

He licked up the sweat trailing from Ihyeon's temple along his jaw to his neck. He brought his lips close to Ihyeon's ear and lowered his voice as if whispering a secret.

"Is this the first time you've felt… like an Omega?"

"…Hngh!"

He couldn't stop himself from reacting to the word Omega. His inner walls convulsed powerfully, tightening around Liu against his will. The rising sensation of orgasm shot him upward.

Twisting Liu's shoulder, Ihyeon couldn't even make a sound—his mouth fell open and stayed there. The pleasure surging from inside was so overwhelming, repeated over and over, that he didn't even realize he was climaxing.

Liu looked up at Ihyeon's face at its peak as if drinking in every detail, and then he too came—his release shooting out with a pressure so intense it made the inner walls tingle.

The release following the knot was pure pheromone. A vibrating, lewd scent stung their noses. That scent—which never became unpleasant no matter how strong it grew—paralyzed every restraint that might make one hesitate before such a wanton act, making the moment of climax even more ecstatic.

Clutching Ihyeon tightly, Liu continued to move his hips until his long climax subsided. The pressure of his release stubbornly filling the space Ihyeon had thought was already packed completely full, and the sensation of fullness that stretched his insides taut, were even more obscene than he remembered. Every time Liu bucked his hips upward, the sensation of his entrance being rubbed, opened, and pulled felt different than before.

"I'm going to… I'm going to come again… Ah, ugh!"

He caught Ihyeon's tightly bitten lower lip. Alternating their lips, fitting together like puzzle pieces, they tried to swallow each other whole.

As the knotting subsided, a viscous fluid began to leak around the base of Liu's cock. The sheer eroticism of fluid seeping from a place other than his cock contorted Ihyeon's face.

"Ugh… Ah!"

Without even a moment to savor the sensation, Liu—gripping both of Ihyeon's hips—suddenly pulled out.

The friction upon withdrawal was immense, matching the incredible pressure that had been exerted inside. It felt as if he might actually fall apart. Ihyeon even struck Liu's shoulder with his fist in response to the shuddering pleasure.

Liu immediately grabbed Ihyeon's waist and pulled him upright. Ihyeon, braced on his knees, felt his thighs trembling. His entrance, which had been sealed tight by that merciless thickness only moments before, couldn't close completely and fluttered. Even without looking, he could distinctly feel the obscene contracting and relaxing.

"I can't stand… ugh, ah…"

"Hold me."

Liu placed Ihyeon's hands on his own shoulders and steadied his waist more firmly. Ihyeon couldn't move—he could only lean against him and gasp for breath at the unfamiliar sensation of fluid streaming down between his legs.

Liu could not tear his eyes away from the space between Ihyeon's thighs. He cursed in a hoarse voice choked with arousal. Ihyeon cautiously lowered his gaze, as if confirming something he was afraid to see.

The translucent fluid—a mix of their release and slick—wasn't just running down the insides of his thighs. It was dripping straight down from his parted entrance in distinct lines, pooling on the sheet below.

"Ugh, ah…"

Ihyeon curled his fingers around Liu's shoulders, digging his nails into the skin. Every time Ihyeon's thighs and hips twitched and convulsed, his body expelled the excess in a gush. Even through the haze of pheromones, Ihyeon—like Liu—could not look away from the lewd scene unfolding before them.

Liu's hand slowly trailed up the inside of his thigh, caressed the swollen flesh around the leaking entrance, then cupped to collect the fluid. He used it to stroke himself—rubbing the murky warmth that had spilled from Ihyeon's body over his own cock.

His deep crimson length, still throbbing from the lingering aftereffects of the knot, felt like his own heart pushed outside his body. Ihyeon felt the urge to sink it back inside. Just like Liu's cock, which showed no sign of flagging immediately after knotting, his own desire showed no sign of tiring either.

Ihyeon licked his dry mouth and forced himself to speak.

"If it all flows out like this… isn't that… not okay?"

Liu, whose attention had been fixed between Ihyeon's legs, tilted his head to look up at the question—with its ambiguous pronoun. Red veins were visible in the whites of his eyes. Still catching his breath, Ihyeon added carefully,

"Is it okay if everything comes out? Does that have… no bearing on things?"

"……"

Only then did Liu, realizing what Ihyeon was worried about, knit his brow fiercely. He planted his knees and lunged for Ihyeon's lips.

"Mmm, um. Mmph."

Like a beast burying his face in the fragrant flesh of his prey after extreme hunger, he took over Ihyeon's lips in every way. His hands, gripping the hips still slick with pheromone-drenched fluid, seemed intent on twisting them entirely to squeeze out every last drop.

"Is that what you're worried about?"

He let out a heavy sigh and buried his face in Ihyeon's shoulder. A pained voice followed.

"What am I going to do with you? Come away with me, Seo Ihyeon. Or I'll stay here forever. I don't need anything else. I'd rather just be the only fool you know. Stay with me. Huh?"

The pheromones, constantly washing over Ihyeon's senses like an incoming tide, combined with Liu's drunken, rambling murmur, were proof of how far beyond a certain point his arousal had climbed.

Liu quickly turned Ihyeon around. Standing close against his hips from behind, he wrapped his arms around his waist and pushed him forward almost off his feet. He took Ihyeon's wrists and guided them to the headboard where the pillow rested.

"Hold on tight."

Unlike the bed in his Seoul apartment, this one had a flimsy-looking thin plywood headboard. As Ihyeon fumbled to grip the edge, Liu positioned himself between his legs.

When Ihyeon glanced back, Liu met his eyes with only the movement of his pupils. Without changing expression, the hand that had been tracing the crease of his hips slid up his back and pressed down firmly. As Ihyeon awkwardly bent his upper body forward, his hips jutted back naturally. The thought that his entrance, his balls, and his cock hanging beneath him were completely visible to Liu made his shoulders and waist tense with a twist.

"Ugh… uh. Nngh."

The heavy length, led by its smooth head, slid effortlessly into the narrow opening still damp from the first knot. Easy entry didn't mean simple pressure. Moreover, unlike the first time, the inner walls were now exquisitely sensitive.

Even just the head pressing in and filling him snugly made Ihyeon tremble and grip the headboard harder.

"Ngh, ah!"

The shaft and swollen head scraped against the interior as it pulled back, pausing near the entrance before plunging all the way back in. The motion repeated rapidly. Even as Ihyeon braced his arms against the headboard, his body kept being pushed forward. As the pace quickened, his knees crumpled the sheets beneath them.

"Hah, haah, ngh… ngh."

Liu pressed his chest tightly against Ihyeon's back and peered over his shoulder, watching every reaction without missing a detail. When Ihyeon bit down on his lower lip to suppress his moans, Liu reached out, pulled it free, and pressed his own fingers between Ihyeon's lips instead.

"Ah, mm. Mm. Mmph!"

Each time Ihyeon closed his lips, two fingers rubbed fiercely against his tongue. Wet, rapid movement was happening above and below simultaneously.

The next room, where laughter had occasionally burst out, had fallen silent at some point. Perhaps the neighbors had noticed the source of the rattling, stopped their party, and were now focusing all their attention on this room. Even so, there was no way to stop.

Liu's fingers, which had prodded various tender spots inside his mouth, withdrew—leaving saliva pooling on the pillow and dripping from Ihyeon's jaw. There was no room to wipe it away.

The ragged breathing right beside his ear was not normal. Liu straightened up, wrapped his arm around Ihyeon's left thigh from the inside, and lifted the leg.

"Stay with me, Seo Ihyeon. Hm?"

With one leg raised, the angle of the cock inside shifted. And in that position, Liu suddenly swelled.

"Ah, ngh. Oh!"

The second knot struck into the inner walls—already rubbed raw, pounded through, and melted down into a heavy, yielding softness.

Ihyeon groaned as if begging and collapsed forward, still gripping the headboard, calling out his name. Even so, Liu didn't release his leg. He propped his own left leg under Ihyeon's thigh and pressed their joined bodies even closer. Ihyeon's grip on the headboard gave out; he slid down, struck the pillow, and clawed at it.

With his upper body bent forward, his hips thrust even higher, and the knot pulsed deep inside them. With one leg raised, his entrance was spread open toward the outside, and from it, pheromone-thick fluid dripped steadily.

He felt like he was going crazy. He buried his face in the pillow to muffle a sound that was completely unlike his usual moans—something closer to a wail, closer to sobbing.

"Answer me…."

Though he demanded a reply, Liu—holding Ihyeon's hips tightly so they couldn't sink down—seemed to hear nothing at all, completely lost in the pleasure of the knot.

"Only you… can break my control and bring color to a ghostlike life. If it isn't you, I'm…"

Before he could finish speaking, the second climax began.

With the burning sensation pounding inside his core, Ihyeon unknowingly rocked his hips and turned his head on the pillow. With half his face hidden by the soft white-covered pillow, he looked back at Liu. The expression looking down at him was so desperate—so at odds with the hips still slamming forward and back—that Ihyeon wanted to say anything at all. But with his body being shaken inside and out, it was impossible.

Just before surrendering completely to the deepening tide of pheromones, he managed only to whisper that he loved him. He couldn't be sure whether the words reached his ears.

· · · · ·

When he opened his eyes, he wasn't in his own room—the one with the sink across from the bed and the old desk placed before two windows at his feet.

Ihyeon blinked, taking in the scene before him. It took a moment to understand where he was and how he had ended up lying there.

It seemed to be fully daylight, but the sky visible through the long row of windows was still low and dark, just as it had been yesterday. It didn't look like it was snowing.

"Ah…"

His sluggish mind finally recalled the fact that he had reunited with him in the snow the night before. His heart immediately began to pound, as if he were pulled straight back into that moment. The events that followed surfaced one after another as well.

The studio apartment near The Hands, where Liu sometimes came to stay.

As his consciousness regained some function, the traces left on his body from last night drew out a low groan. His lower body felt heavy. The insides of his thighs, especially, throbbed as if bruised.

There was a faint burning sensation from how much he had been worked through and knotted, but despite holding something so thick and hard for so long—despite the extended intensity of it all—there wasn't a single tear or injury anywhere. He now understood that this was generally nearly impossible, and that it was due to the inexplicable interaction between a Ghost and a Didi.

As he scoffed quietly at how ignorant he'd once been about the differences between Alphas and Betas, and about the sex between them, he became aware of warmth pressed close against his back, and the steady rhythm of breathing.

Now that he thought about it, a heavy arm—completely slack—was draped around his side, loosely cradling his lower abdomen.

He really had come back. And before he'd even received the painting.

No—perhaps it was more accurate to say that Liu had been waiting in the same place all along, and now it was Ihyeon who had finally found his way back to where he belonged.

He lay there for a while, quietly feeling the weight of that arm and the calmness of his breathing. Somewhere nearby, a group of children ran through an alley, laughing and chattering with excited voices. The snow had stopped, but it must have piled up quite a bit overnight—they were probably roaming the neighborhood looking for untouched patches of fresh white.

Listening to those cheerful voices fade into the distance, Ihyeon carefully turned over. He wanted to see his face.

Liu had wrapped Ihyeon tightly in the sheet and fallen asleep holding him—yet Liu himself was naked. Heating with just a radiator had its limits. With the windows taking up nearly an entire wall, and the curtains left undrawn the night before, the air inside wasn't particularly warm. Even so, Liu didn't seem cold at all.

Ihyeon wanted to share the sheet with him, but worried that doing so might wake him from his deep sleep unnecessarily.

Despite the several pillows on the bed, they were sharing just one between them, tucked close together. He hadn't been drinking, yet parts of his memory were missing—he couldn't recall how they had settled into bed. His thighs and the insides of his legs weren't sticky, which meant either he had showered or Liu had wiped him down with a damp towel. The latter seemed more likely.

The last clear thing he remembered was lying completely limp in Liu's arms, barely able to move a finger, whimpering through what must have been the fourth or fifth time, far too spent to make it to the shower.

Lying on his side facing Ihyeon, with his arm bent to cradle his temple, Liu had his lips pressed tightly together and a crease between his brows. Perhaps that was why he looked so exhausted. A wide patch spanning his jawline, beneath his nose, and the upper part of his neck was tinged with a faint blue.

Ihyeon, who had been quietly looking up at him from where Liu's elbow barely brushed his bangs, finally worked one hand free from the sheet wrapped around him. He gently brushed his fingertips over the short stubble that had grown in overnight.

Liu didn't even flinch—he seemed to be sleeping deeply. Ihyeon played with the prickly texture for a while before subtly examining his expression. Unlike a moment ago, his thick, long eyelashes now fluttered faintly from time to time.

"You're not asleep, are you?"

He'd deliberately kept his voice small, but he couldn't hide how hoarse it sounded.

"……Was I that rough?"

Reflecting their long, intense night, Liu's voice was roughened as well.

At the seriousness of the question, Ihyeon smiled. Though his eyes remained closed, Liu smiled faintly too and pulled him closer into a tight embrace.

"Aren't you cold?"

Ihyeon asked carefully, Liu's nose resting against Ihyeon's neck as he settled back into him. Liu replied firmly, rubbing slow circles over his shoulder.

"Not at all. Thanks to someone keeping me warm all night."

"Then why won't you look at me?"

"I'm a little… scared."

"Of what?"

Finding it strange that someone like him would say that, Ihyeon lifted his face and looked up at him with a smile.

"……"

Ihyeon thought he understood what the man before him—possessing a strong, powerful body, more than enough financial and social weight to protect himself—was afraid of, given his reluctance to answer.

He was curling inward, hiding himself, terrified that if their eyes met, even a flicker of hesitation might cross Ihyeon's gaze at the sight of his changed eyes—or worse, that Ihyeon might see contempt or disgust, even for one unguarded moment.

Ihyeon rubbed his nose against Liu's chin and spoke.

"We agreed not to hide things anymore."

"……"

His thick eyelashes fluttered rapidly. After blinking a few times, he slowly lifted his eyelids. The eyes looking back at Ihyeon were still his.

"Your lips are swollen again. And your eyes are a little red, too."

His hand gently touched Ihyeon's lips and the corners of his eyes.

He used the word "again"—as if the days when they had been desperately tangled together almost every night were only a few days ago—erasing the long distance of time between them.

"You can see all that?"

He shook his shoulders with a low laugh, then pulled Ihyeon closer and buried his face against his shoulder again.

"Because we're this close."

Ihyeon knew the reason he was avoiding eye contact was because he didn't want to show his eyes, but still, he gently pushed against his chest, lifted his chin, and looked up at his face. He grasped the edge of his jaw and gently pulled it down.

Looking closely, the change wasn't in the pupils but in the irises. The pupils themselves—designed not to absorb light—remained black. But the irises, bleached white for some inexplicable reason, had expanded abnormally, almost entirely obscuring the black pupils.

Just as iris muscles cause pupils to constrict in bright light and dilate in darkness, his pupils were severely distorted by the expanded irises, growing slightly larger or smaller with each blink. But it was clearly not a normal state.

The irises, having almost entirely lost their usual blue tint, retained only a pale, near-white gray. Yet the unique patterns that differ from person to person remained intact, causing them to shimmer and sparkle as the angle changed—like a prism refracting light, or finely carved marble. It didn't look artificial, like a painted checker piece. It certainly wasn't eerie or ghostly.

Ihyeon cleared his throat a few times, trying to steady his cracking voice.

"I don't know what other people would say if they saw this. But to me… it's so beautiful."

"……"

"Don't hide it. It's pretty."

"……"

"It's like a snowball."

He remained silent. With a complex expression—as if affection, deep gratitude, and a quiet, sorrowful happiness had all lodged themselves in his throat at once—he simply looked back at Ihyeon.

Just as he had said he wasn't cold, his warm palm—radiating heat—covered Ihyeon's cheek. The large hand enveloped it entirely, brushed past his ear, and slowly combed through his hair.

"If you can see me that way, that's all that matters. Whether the world calls me a Ghost, or whether they've completely forgotten that someone like me even exists… I don't care anymore."

As if there was nothing dramatic about it, as if he had already made his peace long ago, Liu spoke in a calm tone. He swept Ihyeon's bangs back and pressed his lips to his forehead for a long, still moment. The gentle hand stroking his hair felt lazily soothing, and Ihyeon quietly closed his eyes.

"My hair has gotten long, hasn't it?"

"…Hm?"

"Yuni nuna cuts it for me sometimes, and I do go to the salon, but still, it's much longer than last year…."

Ihyeon paused mid-sentence, lifted his chin, and looked up at him.

"When was the last time you came here?"

This time, for a different reason, Liu couldn't meet his eyes—his gaze darted around. Then he let out a resigned sigh and confessed.

"Two weeks ago…?"

"If you saw me two weeks ago, you can't say my hair's grown that much."

Now he understood the vague, uneasy reaction Liu had shown earlier. Ihyeon let out a small dry laugh, lowered his head again, and offered his forehead to Liu's lips.

"I couldn't see you every time I came."

His low, husky voice continued quietly.

"If I was lucky, I might catch a glimpse of you heading out or coming back. But there was a limit to how close I could get."

"You mean there were times you came all this way… and just went back?"

He laughed lightly, as if it were nothing, and pulled Ihyeon into a tight hug around the shoulders.

"Even if I couldn't see you, just knowing you were nearby was more than enough."

Ihyeon couldn't laugh. Not because the money and time Liu had invested were proof of his love—but because when he put himself in Liu's place, he could easily imagine those feelings, and he could empathize with them. And precisely because of that, he couldn't muster any particular reaction at all.

He slipped the arm he had kept tucked beneath the sheet around Liu's waist and pressed his lips steadily against the shoulder in front of him. Liu twisted closer, pressing their bodies together, and tightened the arm wrapped around his shoulders.

They stayed like that for quite a long time—still and quiet, as if savoring the reality that they had finally reunited at the end of such a long, intense night.

After a while, Liu finally pulled Ihyeon away from his chest.

"You must be hungry. I kept you too long without feeding you anything."

His voice was pitched deliberately higher, trying to hide the tremor beneath it.

"I'm fine…"

"I don't have much here since I don't really cook, but I can make something simple."

Ihyeon caught Liu's wrist as he moved to get up and looked up at him.

"Coffee instead, please. I'll have coffee."

Liu glanced down, clearly reluctant to give him only coffee, then nodded, gave Ihyeon's hand a firm squeeze, and let go. He took a fresh pair of underwear from the wardrobe beside the bed, pulled them on, and walked off the mattress toward the kitchen.

Black boxer briefs that came halfway down his solid thighs. Even his taste in underwear hadn't changed. Realizing through these small details that the person before him was truly Liu, Ihyeon's heart pounded all over again.

Whether it was love, pheromones, or the influence of both, refusing him now—after more than a year apart—was impossible. If Liu had come to him sooner and pleaded his case, Ihyeon was certain he would have surrendered to longing without having enough time to think it through.

He was glad they were meeting now. And that Liu was someone who could understand what he was feeling.

Soon, the room filled with the fresh scent of coffee. Just smelling it made his head feel a little clearer.

Watching Liu brew coffee in his underwear in the small kitchenette—no bigger than the makeshift one in his basement studio back in Seoul—Ihyeon gathered himself and leaned back against the pillow.

Perhaps it was just his imagination, but all of Liu's movements seemed slightly slower than usual. Still, within the familiar range of tasks he knew well, he appeared to have no difficulty.

Feeling somewhat relieved, Ihyeon shifted his gaze. The clothes they had torn off and scattered across the floor the night before were now neatly folded and arranged on the table.

Picturing Liu—barely able to see in the dim darkness—wiping his body down with a damp towel and quietly tidying his clothes while Ihyeon slept made his chest ache.

Come to think of it, it had been the same in Hong Kong. Even back then—when the first time had happened, when the first Changing had likely occurred, probably just as unexpectedly for Liu as it had for him—Liu had still neatly folded all their clothes before leaving the hotel while Ihyeon slept.

Why he'd had to disappear that morning. Why he'd been wearing sunglasses when he reappeared.

Tracing through the truths of that past he now finally understood, Ihyeon looked once more at Liu's back as he meticulously brewed drip coffee, as carefully as if he were decocting medicinal herbs.

"Um, when did I fall asleep?"

Liu set the kettle upright and turned around.

"Hmm… After the third knotting, I was stroking your back, and when I leaned up to kiss you, you were already out."

"Ah… I'm sorry."

He glanced back over his shoulder with a faint smile, set the kettle down fully on the shelf, and brought two mugs over. His eyes briefly passed over Ihyeon's bare upper body above the sheets.

"It had been a long time, and I pushed you too hard… I'm the one who should apologize."

Following his gaze, Ihyeon looked down. His chest, stomach, and sides were mottled with bite marks and bruises from sucking. As he took the mug Liu offered, Ihyeon pretended to shift position, pulling himself away from the pillow and drawing up one knee to cover himself.

Instead of tracing the marks left from the night before with mischief or replaying the heat of it, Liu simply sat near Ihyeon's feet, pretending not to notice, and drank his coffee.

It hadn't been the first time they had been together, not by any measure. They had intertwined countless times, had revealed themselves to each other with all barriers gone. And yet, there was a shyness and awkwardness between them that morning—like a couple waking up after their very first night together.

As if relieved to have something to hold, both of them focused on drinking their coffee for a while. Or at least, they pretended to.

Liu, who had been staring down at some spot on the wooden floor with a pensive expression, was the first to quietly break the silence.

"What you said last night…"

Sitting with his side turned toward Ihyeon, he slowly turned his head. The unfamiliar color of his eyes still made Ihyeon's chest tighten every time their gazes met—not from unease, but from how striking they were.

He drew in a slow, deep breath as if bracing himself to say something difficult, then exhaled carefully in short bursts.

"Can I take that to mean… you're taking me back?"

Liu, with one foot propped up on the low mattress frame and his arms resting loosely over his knees, looked relaxed at a glance. But the hand gripping the mug and his forearm were taut, muscles tight, veins visible.

Ihyeon set his mug on the sheet covering his raised knee and rubbed the surface absently, pressing his lower lip between his teeth. Then he looked straight into Liu's eyes—eyes that had turned pale, proof of the transformation he himself had brought about.

The heat of Liu's body, the sensation of being opened and filled, the flood that had seemed like it would never stop—it all still felt as though it lingered inside him. And the fact that the marks of their night together were just as clearly written on Liu's body—that thought quietly satisfied something deep and possessive in him.

When Ihyeon nodded carefully, the tension finally eased from Liu's shoulders and chest. But he didn't seem completely at ease yet.

If Liu hadn't come after seeing the painting sent to Seoul, their meeting last night would have been entirely unplanned, something he was completely unprepared for. And Liu still didn't know what process Ihyeon had gone through to arrive at today's decision.

Ihyeon had many questions of his own. But none of them were things that could be resolved in a few words, right here and now. They were wounds that would need time—long, patient time—to fade. Until then, a little unease, a little impatience, a little longing between them didn't necessarily mean their relationship was unstable.

Liu, loosely holding Ihyeon's ankle through the sheet, moved his lips several times before finally managing to speak.

"After we finish this, could we go out for a proper breakfast… and maybe stay together until evening?"

Ihyeon hesitated before answering.

"Ah… I'd like that too… but I really want to keep my regular work hours."

Liu smiled immediately and agreed, but the way he brought the coffee cup to his lips suggested he was working hard to hide his disappointment. Ihyeon knew it wasn't resentment at being deprioritized—it was simply regret over the time they couldn't spend together. Because he understood that, he didn't want to disappoint him further. And precisely for that reason, it seemed better to say it in advance.

"And tonight… I have a small party I was invited to."

As it happened, the early Christmas party hosted by Late Bloom was scheduled for that very evening.

"I'll probably need to stay until around ten."

The hazy irises, which had been contracting and expanding restlessly, slowly settled as Liu read the regret on Ihyeon's face. The hand holding his ankle shifted gently up to his calf, kneading it softly.

"In that case, shall I come pick you up when it's over?"

Ihyeon hesitated slightly before nodding. With the limited time they had, he wanted to spend as much of it together as possible. He hoped Liu wouldn't misunderstand.

"When are you heading back to Seoul?"

He was sipping coffee from the mug in his right hand while massaging Ihyeon's calf with his left, and he furrowed his brow, looking up at Ihyeon over the rim.

"I'm planning to stay here. Didn't we agree to that last night?"

"……"

He clearly remembered Liu murmuring something like that.

To stay together. To remain here.

But at the time, they had both been completely intoxicated by pheromones…

Ihyeon rolled his eyes in thought for a moment, then soon realized Liu was joking and let out a delayed chuckle. Some of his jokes were still hard to catch.

"You probably heard from Yuni, so you know… Phantom has started construction now. Manager Han gave me a week off, so I have some free time. I'm scheduled to return on the 27th."

That left only about five days.

"For Christmas… we can stay together."

"You're not changing your plans because of me, are you?"

Ihyeon shook his head, gently swirling his mug.

"At least on Christmas…"

He was expressing the desire to share time—letting his longing show, regretting every moment they couldn't spend together—but Liu seemed even more cautious than that. As if he were constantly asking himself whether he even had the right to request their time together.

Ihyeon felt sorry for him. But he also knew that the weight of the past—a burden that couldn't be easily lifted by a few words of forgiveness—was Liu's own to carry.

Then, at the sound of a faint laugh, Ihyeon looked up.

"It feels like a dream."

Liu was looking at him with an expression and voice that made it seem as though he truly believed it.

"Even making plans to meet like this… even waking up like this and starting the day with you after spending the night together… it all feels like a dream that someone might burst at any moment."

He set his mug down on the bed frame, leaned in, and buried his face against Ihyeon's raised knee.

Ihyeon gently stroked his hair. Slowly, Liu lifted his head and rested his chin on Ihyeon's knee, meeting his eyes.

Strangely, emotion came through clearly even in those irises so pale they looked almost bleached. His gaze reminded Ihyeon of a sunlit snowfield glittering with light.

"But no matter who it is, I won't let them burst it."

At the resolve in his voice, Ihyeon's mouth went dry. He half-covered his face with the back of his hand, avoiding his gaze. But Liu caught his wrist, pulled it down, and laced their fingers together with firm strength. When Ihyeon looked again, Liu was wearing a serious expression, his brow heavily furrowed.

He pressed their joined hands into the mattress and leaned his upper body forward over Ihyeon's raised knee. The kiss—pressing their lips together and lifting away, pressing again, without knowing what to do with his tongue—felt awkward, almost like a very first kiss.

Ihyeon tightened his grip on the mug, careful not to let the coffee spill, and thought.

Last night hadn't been their first time together. But it was their first morning after—the first morning they had woken up side by side. And somehow, he felt he would remember this morning for a very long time. Perhaps for the rest of his life.