They would be missed at dinner again. Ji-young and Nakyung would note their absence, and Nakyung would send plates up that would never reach them, and then she would torture them with innuendos and oblique intimations when she next saw them again at breakfast.
But Jaemin couldn't find it in him to care about any of that, not when Do-hyun's mouth was on his, tasting him with a hunger that mirrored his own, arms wrapped around one another to pull each other close as cherry blossoms intertwined with cedar.
It had been so long, too long, since they'd been able to touch each other like this. Since before Choi Seungcheol had invaded the orchestra rehearsal, and tried to Command Jaemin to him. Since they had stood in Do-hyun's kitchen on a quiet, golden morning before their last performance, the city still asleep outside, Do-hyun's forehead pressed to his with the effort of stepping back from something he wanted so badly that his hands had been shaking.
Tomorrow night, they had promised each other. No more waiting.
And then opening night had come, and with it the headlines, the three days of silence, the crosswalk in the rain, and three Commands spoken in a car that had taken them all the way here to a mountain estate, to a music room, to a piano bench at dusk… Far too long before the distance between that promise and this room could finally begin to close.
No more waiting.
This wasn't the right time for that, not yet. The reconciliation was still fresh, his forgiveness only just beginning to flower. But Jaemin wanted to know, needed to know, that after whatever he had to reveal in that conversation tomorrow, Do-hyun would still be there at the end of it.
It was only when they were already on the bed, Do-hyun's light jacket long discarded and Jaemin's fingers working at the buttons of his shirt with focused determination, that Do-hyun drew back slightly, brow creased.
"Sure about this?" he asked in a low voice. "You wanted to have the consultation with my mother tomorrow…"
Jaemin paused and looked up at him. At the furrow etched between the alpha's eyebrows, the careful quality of his question, carried on a ragged breath: Do-hyun putting all of Jaemin's needs first, even now.
"That's exactly why I need you right now," he answered quietly. "Because tomorrow, I'll have to say things that I've never been able to tell anyone… and I need something that's just mine, first."
He reached up, arms curling around Do-hyun's neck, and pulled him gently back down.
"Please."
As if his alpha could ever deny him anything, even without him asking.
When Do-hyun next kissed him, it was no longer cautious with restraint, but with a slow, thorough reverence, one hand sliding lightly along Jaemin's jaw to cup his face and tilt it up towards himself, thumb gently stroking the omega's cheek, as if relearning the shape of something he had been craving, but had never expected to hold again.
I've got you, his kiss said. I have you. I'm here. I'm yours.
Jaemin tipped his head back, parting his lips to let him in deeper, and felt a responding shift in Do-hyun's composure. A low sound in the alpha's throat, barely audible, but which traveled through Jaemin's entire being anyway.
Then Do-hyun's hands were moving, and the time for waiting was finally over.
They undressed each other with the ease of two people who had memorized each other's bodies by heart, and were returning now to something known; Jaemin working the remaining buttons on Do-hyun's shirt while Do-hyun's hands found the hem of his, undoing the layers between them without sight, both loathe to pull away from their kiss, neither particularly interested in efficiency.
Eventually, Do-hyun's shirt fell somewhere behind him. His trousers, together with Jaemin's clothes, followed shortly after. When Do-hyun's hands finally settled against the bare skin of Jaemin's waist, they both went still for a beat—just that, just the contact, the warmth of it, the simple fact of it after everything that had stood between them.
"You're perfect, jagi," Do-hyun said quietly, almost to himself, his thumbs tracing slow arcs against Jaemin's skin.
Embarrassed, Jaemin averted his gaze. "You don't have to say that."
The corners of Do-hyun's mouth crooked up in mild amusement. "You question my integrity? I'm wounded. I may have an issue of avoiding problems sometimes, but I am always honest."
The words were playful, self-deprecating, but his eyes held an ocean of tenderness as he gazed at Jaemin. He leaned down for another kiss, whispering, "And I'm going to keep saying it until you believe it too."
And then he began, methodically and with great care, to make Jaemin feel wanted in every register he had access to—the brush of lips at the curve of his jaw, the slow pressure of warm palms mapping the lines of his arms, his ribs, his legs—until Jaemin was gasping with want into Do-hyun's shoulder.
He had been bracing for something, he realised distantly, had been afraid that his body would reject Do-hyun again, the way it had after Choi Seungcheol's pheromonal attack. But enough time had passed since his exposure to the other alpha, and no phantom scent of black tea and bergamot rose to stop them.
For that mercy, Jaemin was grateful.
"Please," he whispered. "I want you."
Do-hyun answered with a kiss, pressing his forehead to Jaemin's, shifting his weight to nestle between the omega's legs. As he finally breached the entrance of Jaemin's body, the omega arched under his touch with a sharp inhale, and the alpha went briefly still.
"Still okay?" His voice had gone hoarse, his pupils blown, his frame trembling above Jaemin with the effort of holding himself back from pushing in further. Yet Jaemin knew, deep in the marrow of his bones, that if he indicated otherwise, Do-hyun would stop immediately.
But that was the last thing he wanted right now.
"Y-yes," he responded, breath hitching. "Just, keep—keep going. I want you," he repeated. "All of you."
Do-hyun obeyed, but took his time, savouring every second as he slowly pushed himself home. By the time he was fully seated within, Jaemin's hands had wrung the pillow out of shape, his hips jerking as he sought friction.
Breathing hard, Do-hyun leaned back down to kiss him again. The cedar had deepened into something rough and heated around them both, no longer the careful, controlled thing it had been for days. Jaemin breathed it in, letting it settle into him. His own cherry blossom scent rose to meet it, open and unguarded… just the two of them, moving as one again, with nothing else in between.
They found their rhythm, shared pleasure coursing through them in long, unhurried waves as everything beyond them washed away. The undercurrents of the last few days, the tension of the past few months, even the terror of Vienna, all faded with every point of contact, each soft sound that fell between them that neither of them could quite suppress.
He had spent so much of his life learning how to be small, how to take up less space, ask for less, need less, want less. And now here was Do-hyun, gazing at him with tender, focused attention to his every sound and shift, his face filled with nothing but open adoration and awe—no dominance, no demand, no agenda except to give everything he had towards what Jaemin asked of him.
As the pleasure built toward a point where neither of them could hold back much longer, Jaemin's hand flew up to clasp the back of Do-hyun's neck. A low growl of approval rumbled in the alpha's chest, but then he looked at Jaemin, hesitation in his eyes. "Do… Do you want…?"
His knot. Jaemin could already feel it starting to swell, pressing against his inner walls. He held Do-hyun's gaze for a beat, then nodded.
In response, Do-hyun let out a low moan, but in the next moment his arm came around Jaemin's back to hold him as he carefully shifted them both, so that he was now the one lying on his back, Jaemin sitting on top of him.
When Jaemin made a sound of confusion, frustration lacing the cherry blossom scent, Do-hyun gave him a small, apologetic smile.
"Sorry." His hands settled back on Jaemin's hips, feather-light and ungrasping. "It's better like this, in case… in case you change your mind."
Jaemin understood then. It was a question, an offering, and a restraint all at once, Do-hyun relinquishing control and letting him take whatever he wanted.
A cautious, experimental roll of his hips sent a shudder running through the alpha beneath him, and then Jaemin was the one conducting the rhythm, once again chasing the crest of release.
Just before he tipped, his gaze found Do-hyun's and held it for one long moment—long enough for Do-hyun to recognize that he understood, that he was making the choice—before pressing himself down onto him, fully, and stayed.
The sound that ripped from Do-hyun's lips was involuntary and wrecked, his entire body arching as his knot swelled and locked them together, his grip tightening hard on Jaemin's hips as he came. Jaemin felt the fullness of it spread through him and closed his eyes as he let himself take flight, soaring high on the mingled scent of heated cedar and cherry blossoms.
This—this—was what it was supposed to feel like, always. Freely given. Fully chosen.
His.
For a long while afterward, neither of them moved. Do-hyun's hand came up slowly to comb sweat-damp hair from Jaemin's face, guiding him gently down to rest against his chest and cradling him there. His other arm came around to hold him, loosely, preciously.
Jaemin simply lay there, floating in the warmth of Do-hyun's cedar, listening to his alpha's breathing slow gradually in the deep blue of night.
Tomorrow. Tomorrow would come. Tomorrow, he would walk into Ji-young's study, and say out loud the things he had never been able to say to anyone, open up old wounds he had spent too long concealing.
But Do-hyun would be there, as he was now, giving his full support simply because Jaemin had chosen it.
"Get some sleep," Do-hyun murmured softly, fingers trailing lightly through the omega's hair. "I'll wake you in the morning."
Jaemin didn't answer. He simply closed his eyes, one hand resting open against his alpha's chest, and fell asleep to the sound of his mate's heartbeat.