Into the Tiger’s Den

“Cough, cough. Ack. Cough.”

I almost accidentally swallowed the mouthwash I had in my mouth.

I started coughing so hard my eyes watered, and Woo Jaeyoung patted my back a few times.

“What’s wrong?”

“You look like you just heard something shocking.”

He looked way too calm.

Flustered, I quickly replayed the conversation we’d just had.

I admitted I was scared of thunder and lightning.

And he asked if I wanted to sleep together.

More specifically, he’d asked, “Want to sleep with hyung?”

But unlike his casual tone, his eyes had…

‘Wait.’

Was I the weird one for taking it that way?

Sleeping meant sleeping. Literally sleeping.

Yeah.

Maybe I was the only one being trashy here.

I hurriedly rinsed my mouth and laughed awkwardly.

“Ahaha, I thought it was something serious.”

“You mean because I’m scared?”

“Hyung, sometimes… you say things in a way people can misunderstand.”

“Misunderstand?”

Woo Jaeyoung stared at me with dark eyes before grinning.

“The meaning you’re thinking of is right too, baby.”

“……”

“I keep forgetting.”

“We were close enough to stick together and even have a kid.”

I don’t know.

I know nothing.

That wasn’t me in the first place!

The contents got swapped! You’ve got the wrong person!

Rumble.

Thunder crashed again.

The guest room had two outside walls, and only a thin curtain covered the windows, so you could see everything outside.

The moment I visibly stiffened, Woo Jaeyoung gently brushed my cheek.

“It’s going to keep going until tomorrow.”

“How are you supposed to sleep like this?”

“Hyung will put you to sleep, little one.”

He looked absurdly delighted, like I was adorable.

‘I’m being serious here!’

I stared up at him.

“Stop treating me like a kid.”

“Should I?”

His smile suddenly became meaningful.

His eyes narrowed slightly, and a sweet rose scent drifted over me.

If scents had temperatures, it felt warm enough to make my insides stir.

“Then…”

“Should hyung do what adults do?”

“……”

“I guarantee you won’t even notice whatever’s happening outside.”

Tension wrapped around my whole body.

My mouth had gone dry.

I could only stare at him helplessly under that heated, persistent gaze.

After a long moment, I stammered:

“I-I think I’ll be okay.”

“I’ll sleep here.”

“Really?”

“Really…”

Silence fell briefly.

Woo Jaeyoung stared at me as if checking something, and the longer it went on, the stronger his scent seemed to become.

Alpha pheromones were strange.

They relaxed your body without you realizing it, while creating an entirely different kind of tension at the same time.

The sensation of something invisible from another person seeping across my skin felt unfamiliar… but not bad.

…No.

Don’t weaken.

I shook my head hard and looked at him clearly again.

Woo Jaeyoung let out a short laugh.

“I poured this much on you and you still didn’t budge.”

“You really haven’t fully recovered.”

So that’s why he’d gone quiet.

He’d been drowning me in pheromones and waiting for a reaction.

“Don’t think you can casually seduce me, hyung.”

“Even if you use pheromones and that face…”

“We’re sleeping separately today.”

I was scared of thunder and lightning.

Being together sounded nice.

But if Woo Jaeyoung seriously decided to seduce me, I wasn’t confident I could resist.

I’d rather deal with it alone somehow.

I hardened my expression.

He raised an eyebrow crookedly and grinned mischievously.

“Oh?”

“So you know what seducing is?”

“Our baby’s all grown up.”

“Guess it’s time to get married.”

“Stop teasing me!”

“You’re really not falling for it?”

“Our Sowon’s defenses are strong.”

“Go already!”

“Why?”

“I’m not leaving yet.”

“I’ll go upstairs after I watch you fall asleep.”

Woo Jaeyoung kissed my face repeatedly before laying me down in bed.

He tucked the blanket around me carefully and dimmed the light before sitting in a chair beside me and brushing my bangs back gently.

“How was today?”

“It sucked.”

“You saw dinner earlier.”

He laughed quietly.

“Upset because I didn’t eat your food?”

“…No.”

“I didn’t throw it away.”

“I’m heating it up tomorrow morning.”

I immediately sat up before he pushed me back down.

“Don’t move around so suddenly.”

“Your body’s weak enough already.”

“No, that’s not important right now.”

“You didn’t throw it away?”

“I saw you cleaning up!”

“I put it away in the fridge.”

“I was planning to eat it all myself.”

“It probably tastes awful…”

Especially that steamed egg loaded with pollock roe.

It was basically a sodium bomb.

“Next time let’s cook together.”

“I’ll help.”

“You’re always busy.”

He laughed again.

A feather-light kiss landed on my forehead.

“I’ll make time.”

The kiss slid from my forehead to my nose, cheek, jaw, and finally my neck.

He leaned down, inhaled slowly, then murmured:

“What a shame.”

“It smelled nice.”

“My pheromones?”

I could finally recognize Woo Jaeyoung’s pheromones now, but only his.

Even after testing it, I still couldn’t smell other Alphas like Gamja, and my own pheromones still weren’t coming out at all.

He buried his face into my neck again.

“Not that.”

“That’ll come back eventually.”

His voice was way too close.

I unconsciously clenched the blanket tighter.

“Whenever you wash up, you always smell like soap.”

“But when pheromones cover it, it’s hard to smell.”

He lifted his head and smiled down at me.

“Seriously.”

“You’re not a baby.”

“But you smell all soft and clean.”

Tomorrow morning I was snapping that guest bathroom soap bar in half and throwing it away.

Then I suddenly remembered something.

“Actually…”

“Today wasn’t completely terrible.”

I sat up slightly.

“Can you hand me that sketchbook?”

I flipped through it slowly.

I’d brought it from the studio so I wouldn’t get bored.

Whenever something came to mind, I’d draw or jot things down.

Sometimes sudden memories would surface too.

“My doctor told me not to let memories slip away.”

“He said I should write them down.”

I showed Woo Jaeyoung the slanted handwriting.

“Gong Chanhyuk uses people like parts and throws them away.”

“Hwang Seowoong was supposed to inherit ??”

“Woo Jaeyoung was born from the ???? of hell…”

“Jang Hanseon was a traitor from the beginning.”

“It’s not exact, but this is what the original story felt like.”

“There were some parts in your first-person perspective too.”

“And maybe things about me…”

“But whenever I try remembering in detail, my head really hurts.”

Woo Jaeyoung looked at the words seriously.

“Are you mad?” I asked carefully.

“No.”

“Not at all.”

“Your face looks scary.”

“Sorry.”

“I’ve got a lot to think about.”

Later, after taking the sketchbook and standing up, he asked one last time:

“Yoo Sowon.”

“You’re really not sleeping in hyung’s room?”

“Stop asking.”

“I’m trying really hard not to weaken.”

“You’re so stubborn.”

“Go already.”

“Don’t you have work tomorrow?”

“Nothing’s more important than you being scared.”

Lightning flashed outside again.

Maybe he really had only been worried about me.

I couldn’t say there were no selfish motives mixed in there… but that probably wasn’t his real purpose.

I smiled and sent him upstairs.

Then I buried myself under the blankets and waited for sleep to swallow me whole.

One minute passed.

Ten minutes passed.

Maybe thirty more after that.

‘Shit. I can’t sleep…’

I could hide from lightning by shutting my eyes.

But thunder was impossible.

Every sudden crash made my body jolt.

This wasn’t going to work.

Eventually I admitted defeat before the forces of nature.

I quietly opened the broken door and tiptoed upstairs.

The second floor was dark enough that I could barely see anything.

The master bedroom door was slightly open.

‘What’s the point of having such a huge bed? Share a little.’

Woo Jaeyoung was sleeping on the left side.

I crept closer toward the empty space beside him—

“…Ah.”

The instant my knee touched the mattress, a hand shot out from the darkness and grabbed my arm.

He yanked me forward like prey being caught.

By the time I regained my senses—

“Yoo Sowon.”

Woo Jaeyoung’s low voice came from above me.

“Who told you to sneak in like some stray cat?”

“B-but…”

“You said we should sleep together.”

“You said no.”

“I changed my mind.”

“So you walked into the tiger’s den yourself?”

“……”

“Sometimes, you know…”

“When I look at you…”

The back of his warm hand brushed my cheek.

“I start wondering if you came here just to show me where my bottom really is.”

“……”

“I know the thing you need most right now is a safe, reliable guardian.”

He repeated the words I know that quietly.

“But…”

“I want to do whatever I want with you.”

“…Jaeyoung hyung.”

“What am I supposed to do, Yoo Sowon?”

The darkness felt thick enough to swallow me whole.

“If you crawl right into a beast’s arms…”

“You’ve got to pay the price.”