We lean in even closer.
Soft.
The press of Jaehyun's lips against mine feels beautifully soft and sweet. My first kiss.
I don't feel fireworks and magic like the movies Yunah sees portrays. Instead, around us, the atmosphere that had been charged with intense pheromones mellows out, softening to give in to a comfortable feel.
Jaehyun keeps his lips pressed against mine, not taking, not moving…just resting, like we are both testing out something new and dangerous.
Ring!
Suddenly the shrill ring of Jaehyun's phone forces both of us to separate our lips from each other. Our lips no longer touch but we still maintain the closeness.
I press my forehead to his and take deep breaths of his pheromones to feed my omega. I am fully aware of the dangerous waters I am treading but still, I am not willing to leave this comfortable bubble I am in.
I have never felt such an overwhelming need to be this close to someone else in my entire life.
I, Choi Yujun, the son of Choi Sanwoo who has been trained to stand alone. A false Alpha who should not give in to weakness, an Alpha who does not need anyone else…
I, Choi Yujun, the son of Choi Sanwoo who has been trained to fight alone. A Cursed Omega whose getting too close to someone else can lead to an exposure that would destroy the clan's legacy…
"Fuck" I cuss under my breath.
"I'm sorry" Jaehyun sighs deeply, "why do you keep apologizing?" I ask, tilting my head. "I am not that kind of person to take advantage of others" Jaehyun says and I lean away from him, enduring the way my body burns and aches, "you're not taking advantage of me, I am more than capable of defending myself" I say and he smiles faintly, "I know".
"You really know how to use those?" I nudge my chin towards the first aid box resting on the floor, "Yes, my mother is a nurse" Jaehyun murmurs before he opens the box.
I scrunch up my nose at the smell of antiseptic ruining the sweet mix of pheromones in the room. "I have never seen anything concerning your mother before" I say to him to distract myself, and instead of responding, Jaehyun keeps his focus on the first aid tools.
"Lift your face" he says quietly and I obey, tilting my head backward to let him see everything. Every scar, every bruise, every mark, every single ugly and raw injury on my face.
With my unswollen eye, I pay attention to his face as he cleans up my injuries gently. Jaehyun has a frown of worry on his face as he tends to me with his hand supporting my chin and his eyes flicker between red and brown, an obvious battle with his Alpha.
"Does it hurt?" he asks gently and I chuckle, "No".
"I have had worse" I add and he bows his head, taking and letting out deep breath to control himself.
"Why would…why would anyone…"Jaehyun says bitterly, unable to complete the sentence on his mind. "Cut the crap Jaehyun-ssi, we are both sons of the biggest mafia clans, we are not strangers to seeing injuries…not even stranger to death" I say coldly.
"I know, but my family never hurt clan members…not especially one so.." he says but I cut him off, "and that is why the Choi clan is superior" I say with a smirk.
"Superior in evil" Jaehyun growls, "I don't even know why I'm here" I sigh and move myself away from his touch.
"You are here because I want to help you" Jaehyun says and I burst into laughter so hard that I double over from pain, my lungs burn as I see Jaehyun's stoic face in reaction to my laughter.
I know I must look like a psychopath with blood and cuts on my face, one eye swollen shut and the other dead and void, a window to a broken soul.
"Is this how you deal with enemies?" I ask gasping, "You are not an enemy right now" Jaehyun says, "yah, get yourself together Jaehyun-ssi, I will come whenever you call, after all you own me, right?" I ask him.
Before he can respond, his phone rings again and he snatches it off the table to accept the call.
"What?" he snaps.
"Oh…" he says, his tone softer. "I'll be there", I take the conversation as a sign to leave but he turns to look at me as he adds, "In thirty minutes".
"Sit. I'm not done" Jaehyun commands and I growl at him in defiance. His eyes switches to the Jaehyun I had met at the hotel, "I own you, remember?" he says and I bare my teeth at him, "If my family gets…".
"You're broken and bleeding in a million places and all you care about it that pack of hyenas you call family" Jaehyun shuts me up.
Silenced, I sit and let him finish up the treatment of my face. Once done, I ask for a scent patch, put on my hoodie and slip out of his apartment without further interactions.
As I arrive at my family's mansion, the intense feeling of anxiety attached to this place returns and creeps up my throat, making Jaehyun's apartment feel like a haven.
The second I step into the house my mother runs to me with a smile on her face, the same face that didn't care if I was dead or alive for the past three days.
"Yujun-ah, where were you son?" She says with the excitement of a youth, I look up the stairs to see Yunah sitting at the top with an unreadable expression on her face.
"Do you see? We will become important now. The family that brings down the Hwang clan" she says with a dreamy look.
"Hwang Jaehyun has agreed to marry Yunah, do you see?" Mother says, unaware of how I have frozen right in her arms.