“You dumb bastard.”

“……”

“I’m telling you not to read my face, you idiot. If your body really has changed, then Jung Inhyuk’s guard will get even tighter, and I’ll keep going to and from his office.”

“So what?”

“Then you’ll be uncomfortable because you’re watching my face all the time, and Jung Inhyuk will use that as leverage to push you… so just act like strangers. Don’t even glance at me like I’m your friend.”

I turned my head, glanced at Park Suwon for a moment, then kept walking.

“Hey, Lee Shinjae.”

“……”

“If you run away, I’ll pretend not to know just once.”

I didn’t look back and kept walking down the hallway. Park Suwon wasn’t wrong. Being his friend had often made things difficult for me. Every time I had to crawl under Jung Inhyuk’s desk in front of him, I truly wanted to bite my tongue and die.

He was also the one who brought me meals when I was locked in a room. I had often thought it would have been less humiliating if Park Suwon weren’t my friend. But when I actually thought of him as not a friend, it felt strange.

I gave a bitter smile and opened the waiting-room door. I took off the filming outfit and hung it to the side, then changed into the shirt and pants I’d worn in. I wasn’t so bad that I was losing consciousness, but I did feel a mild, lukewarm heat. I sprayed the deodorizer Park Suwon had given me all over my body.

I tossed the half-used deodorizer into the trash without hesitation and fixed my hair. Not long after, I heard a knock, and Changseok soon came into the waiting room.

“We decided to reschedule the shoot and do it again later.”

“Yes, understood.”

Then there was another knock. Changseok tilted his head and opened the door. Standing outside was Park Suwon with a stiff face.

“Who have you been, anyway?”

“I’m the executive director’s secretary. Don’t mind me.”

I quickly answered Changseok’s curiosity. Only then did Changseok relax and nod slightly. After tidying the messy waiting room and packing up his things, Changseok called out to me.

“Hyung.”

“Yes?”

“I’ll drive you home.”

“No, it’s okay. I have something personal to take care of.”

At the words personal matter, Changseok was dividing up the things he was carrying when he looked up at me. When I turned to glance at Park Suwon standing by the door, he asked in a quiet voice, “Are you sure you’re okay, with your body in this condition?”

“Yes. Please go in and rest, Changseok. You worked hard today.”

Changseok still didn’t seem at ease and kept checking on my condition. His shirt was soaked with sweat, but he didn’t say that outright. He pulled at his sleeve, secretly wiping the sweat from his forehead, and gave a weak smile.

He took the padded jacket off the hanger and draped it over his shoulders, then carried Jung Inhyuk’s coat over his arm. I deliberately smiled and waved him off.

“You should go first.”

“If anything happens, call me without hesitation.”

Changseok left the waiting room first. Once the door closed, I sat in a chair for a moment and caught my breath. I could feel my condition getting worse by the minute. Taking a deep breath, I got to my feet and left the waiting room. Park Suwon followed behind me at a slight distance.

As soon as I stepped outside the studio, a fierce wind swept the heat away. Park Suwon, who had been following close behind, nearly jogged past me and opened the rear passenger door.

I intentionally didn’t even look at him as I got into the car. The car was filled with the pheromones Jung Inhyuk had released. My body instinctively reacted, and I inhaled deeply. A fresh peppermint scent rose deep in my lungs.

“Secretary Park, wait outside for a moment.”

“Yes, Executive Director.”

The rear door shut. At the same time, Jung Inhyuk immediately grabbed my collar and shoved me against the window. The back of my head struck the glass. Then his other hand pressed down on my abdomen. Just the touch of his hand made the inside of my body tingle.

“Ugh.”

“Cut the bullshit about not expecting your heat cycle.”

“……”

“If you’re in this condition, shouldn’t you postpone the schedule?”

“…Really, ugh, Team Leader Yu called me personally, and I thought, uh, he’d approved it.”

I scratched and pinched the back of his hand to get him to remove it from my abdomen. Heat pooled in my lower stomach. Feeling as if pheromones were leaking out, I tried to control them the way I’d learned, but instead of controlling anything, I ended up swallowing his pheromones down into my mouth.

The invisible pheromones scraped and ravaged my throat. The sensation of my throat burning made me grab Jung Inhyuk’s forearm. Heat rose through my body, my pulse quickened, and my breathing turned shallow.

Jung Inhyuk pulled me down below the seat and made me sit between his legs, then cracked the window open a little.

“Drive.”

Soon Park Suwon got into the car and took the wheel. As the car slowly started moving, Jung Inhyuk picked up the remote and raised the partition that blocked the front and back seats. The sound of the latch clicking into place sent a chill down my spine.

I pulled my head back and slowly shook it. At the very least, I had no intention of using my mouth to fondle Jung Inhyuk’s cock in a moving car. Especially not with Park Suwon driving. As I barely managed to hold onto my foggy consciousness and resist, Jung Inhyuk tapped my cheek as if telling me to pull myself together.

“Lee Shinjae, listen carefully. Whatever the chairman says, keep your mouth shut and sit still.”

“…Huh?”

My mood kept going hazy, and my thoughts broke off in pieces. Only after chewing over his words several times for a long time did I finally understand what he meant.

“We’re going to meet the chairman now?”

Jung Inhyuk gently stroked my cheek and slipped a hand into my padded jacket to run it along my spine. My shirt was damp from the heat pouring out of my body and the car’s temperature, leaving me sticky and uncomfortable.

“Dr. Kim came by, but the chairman still doesn’t believe you’ve mutated into an omega. What good is a piece of paper, he said. So what else can we do? You’ll have to prove it to him yourself.”

“…What does that even mean?”

“The surest way seemed to be showing him your pre-heat signs, so I made time for this. Don’t ruin it and behave yourself.”

It was obvious that something had gone wrong with Jung Inhyuk’s head. Chairman Jung thought poorly of me. He believed I was clinging to Jung Inhyuk like a leech and ruining his life, so if he heard I had mutated into an omega, his reaction was painfully predictable.

“…Why me?”

“Because he said he’d let us marry.”

The car jolted at that exact moment because Park Suwon had tapped the brakes briefly. Jung Inhyuk lightly rapped the partition to warn him, then sank deeper into the seat.

I looked up at Jung Inhyuk with a stupid expression. Even though I knew he was only saying it to get through the situation, my heart still thudded for no reason.

“When we get there, go shower in the lower house and change clothes before coming out.”

I held onto my wavering consciousness and snapped,

“I-I can’t.”

“You don’t have anything to say and nothing to do anyway. You just need to stand there quietly.”

“……”

“Unless you want to be stripped naked and dragged around in front of the chairman, listen to me. If you’re gasping because you’re obsessed with my cock, the chairman will collapse.”

Jung Inhyuk took a purple pill from a transparent pill case. As my vision kept blurring, I shook my head and tried to clear my mind. But even while I sat still, my breathing was shallow and the area below my navel throbbed.

“Open your mouth.”

Jung Inhyuk rubbed beneath my chin, then abruptly seized my jaw and used force. Under the tremendous grip, my mouth opened on its own.

“Mmph!”

“Shinjae, look at me.”

Like a robot receiving a command, I obediently moved my eyes and met Jung Inhyuk’s gaze. He pushed the pill into my mouth. I instinctively tried to move my tongue and push his fingers away, but he ignored me and stimulated my salivary glands by touching the inside of my mouth. The pill resting on my tongue gradually dissolved and turned bitter.

“Swallow it.”

Jung Inhyuk pushed the pill toward the back of my throat and withdrew his fingers. Unable to bear the bitterness, I quickly swallowed the pill with my saliva. Watching my Adam’s apple bob heavily, he inserted his fingers into my mouth once more to make sure I had swallowed the medicine.

Jung Inhyuk dragged me out of the car and practically hauled me into the main house. My legs had no strength, and my knees buckled several times, hitting the dirt floor. He naturally entered the lower house, punched in the door code, opened it, and shoved me inside.

“Lie down until the medicine takes effect, then shower and come to the main house.”

I lay sprawled in front of the entrance until the front door closed and the outside went quiet. I had no strength to move even a finger. I was physically weaker than Jung Inhyuk thought, and with the heat cycle’s warning signs on top of that, I was almost in a half-dead state.

I clenched my fists and thumped my chest hard. The pill seemed stuck in my esophagus, making my chest tight. I had swallowed it with nothing but saliva, no water at all.

Crawling on all fours, I made my way to the kitchen. I didn’t even have enough strength to stand, so I barely managed to reach out, get water from the purifier, and gulp it down in a panic.

I set the cup down carelessly on the floor and sat against the cabinet under the sink. The air rushing out through my nose and mouth was far too hot. Judging by the symptoms alone, it felt like my heat cycle might come as soon as tonight.

They said alphas and omegas were beings who could rule people with just a handful of pheromones, and until recently that had only been other people’s business. I never expected it to become mine. No matter how much I thought about it, it was absurd. I moved my eyes along the pattern on the ceiling and let time pass helplessly.

Whether because of the medicine or because I’d rested for a while, the fever seemed to be gradually going down. Part of me wanted to ignore Jung Inhyuk and walk straight out of this house right now, but I had no such strength.