Unscented Trajectory - Chapter 31 - 31

Ordinary Omegas usually wore neck protectors to protect their necks from unwanted engravings. But now Yihyeon was not in a state where he could protect the nape of his neck like them. It was crazy because he didn’t have a pheromone scent, and it was like showing his biggest weakness openly.

Yihyeon had to somehow protect the nape of his neck.

“I told you to put your hands away.”

Joohyuk’s voice became even lower. Yihyeon lowered his shaking eyes and bit his lower lip.

Was he going to bite him?

Joohyuk said that he had a mate. If he was imprinted with that person, even if he bit him, it would only end with tooth marks for a short time, but he wasn’t someone’s alpha. To say that only the pheromone of the engraved mate could be felt, no rut cycle, and there was no reason to frown at the smell of other omegas.

If Joohyuk engraved him without knowing anything, it would be irreversible. Upon imprinting, he would know that he was an Omega, and will immediately attempt to expel him. No, that’s rather a relief.

In the case of engraving, the higher rank took the initiative. In other words, as long as Yihyeon, the dominant omega, was not the same rank as the dominant alpha, he would take the initiative no matter who he was engraved with. In that case, only Yihyeon could release the engraving.

And the forced release of the engraving destroys the brain of the person who did not take the initiative. It was not enough to erase the memory of the engraving itself, making him crazy.

When Joohyuk attempts an engraving, the initiative passes to Yihyeon. If that happens, Joohyuk will try to be free by killing Yihyeon, who can forcefully release the engraving.

No matter how much Joohyuk tries to kill him, it would be impossible. He didn’t intend to just die, and the people around him wouldn’t let it go. But because of that, who he is and what kind of person he was would be revealed.

When it is found out that Joohyuk will try to kill him, his older sister Sehyeon will also be a problem, but even his father will come forward. Even now, he is looking after him because he clung to it as it was his wish of a lifetime, but if such a story gets into his father’s ears, it will be the opposite of what he wanted, and Joohyuk will be in danger.

‘No, just knowing that I was engraved…’

If he was engraved, it would cause a stir by itself. His father and older sister thought that Joohyuk had ruined their lives, so they would rather pressure him to remove the engraving by force.

Joohyuk, not knowing Yihyeon’s complicated thoughts, grabbed Yihyeon’s hand and forcibly removed it. A faint scar was visible.

As Yihyeon hardened as he swallowed his breath, Joohyuk looked at his scar more blatantly.

“It looks like an old wound, do you really care about it?”

Even as he asked that question, Joohyuk realized that he was rather focused on the scar. It was a faint wound that he normally wouldn’t have cared about at all whether it was there or not, but I didn’t know why it kept attracting his attention today.

Joohyuk’s lips touched Yihyeon’s neck.

“… !”

The sensation of the cool lips on the back of his neck made Yihyeon’s body shake. Joohyuk pressed his lips to the nape of Yihyeon’s neck and licked with the tip of his tongue, following his faint scar. Yihyeon covered his mouth with one hand to stop the moan that was about to come out. A strange feeling and fear came all at once, as if the pheromone gland was being dissected and licked to the core.

Yihyeon’s old scars had a strange taste. It was a faint sweetness that was difficult to describe. His mind was surprisingly calm.

Every time he licked the scar and repainted it, he felt Yihyeon’s body tremble.

“Can I bite?”

Yihyeon’s shoulders shook greatly and his face turned pale in an instant.

“It doesn’t matter how many times I bite anyway.”

Seeing him completely frozen, Joohyuk raised one corner of his mouth.

“You’re a Beta.”

As Yihyeon couldn’t answer with his shaky eyes, Joohyuk, who had been waiting for him, pressed his lips firmly against the nape of his neck.

“I won’t bite, so relax.”

Yihyeon’s trembling stopped. His eyes quickly became calm. His heart, which was beating like crazy, settled down in an instant.

He won’t bite.

“Is it because you have a mate to engrave?”

He had asked about his partner before, but Joohyuk was very angry, so he hasn’t asked him since. He also comforted himself, saying that even if he asked, only he would be hurt.

But this time, he couldn’t stand it and brought up the story of his mate. He thought he would be sarcastic or angry.

However, Joohyuk was only looking away with his lips removed from Yihyeon’s neck. He was clearly vaguely thinking of someone.

“It’s just as Kwon Yihyeon said. I do not intend to imprint with anyone other than my partner.”

After saying that, Joohyuk made an ‘ah’ sound and looked at Yihyeon with a smirk.

“I used to think like that. If Kwon Yihyeon is an Omega, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to bite you and lock you in.”

“…Why?”

Yihyeon bowed his head and grabbed the blanket covering his legs with both hands.

For Joohyuk, he thought that engraving was such a small thing that anyone would do. But now he said that he has no intention of engraving anyone other than his mate, or that if he was an Omega, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to bite him and lock him up, but he couldn’t easily believe such contradictory statements.

Joohyuk grabbed Yihyeon’s chin. Yihyeon’s eyes were looking elsewhere, even though he raised his gaze.

“Kwon Yihyeon is an exception.”

“… Is it because I am someone the Executive Director can ejaculate to?”

It seemed like the tone of his voice was strangely sharp today, but Joohyuk didn’t pay much attention to it because his voice was as calm as usual.

“It was. But now it is a little different.”

Yihyeon’s eyes then looked at Joohyuk. Joohyuk’s eyes met his and the corners of his eyes were slightly curved. Eyes resembling his mate drew his attention without any doubt.

“You are worth more than that.”

To him, who resembled his partner’s eyes…

Yihyeon’s eyes were dyed with doubt. He couldn’t figure out what ‘worth ‘he was talking about.

“What does that mean?”

“It is something that Kwon Yihyeon does not need to know. You just have to live as you are now.”

Yihyeon’s eyes twitched slightly. In the end, he couldn’t stand it and spit it out.

“If I were an Omega, would you really want to imprint? Even if you have a good mate?”

He heard that sex with an imprinted mate was several times more pleasant than having sex with others. He thought that it was in that context that Joohyuk talked about engraving to him. He would enjoy it as a moment’s play, and later he would remove it for selfish reasons, regardless of whether Yihyeon became crazy or not, in order to imprint it on his partner.

Joohyuk calmly replied to Yihyeon, even though he thought he was talking a lot today.

“If you’re imagining an omega who has been engraved and turned crazy after releasing, you’ve gone too far. Even if Kwon Yihyeon is engraved, there is no way I will remove it.”

Yihyeon’s eyes were a little startled at the unexpected answer. It was difficult to understand that the engraving would not have been removed even if there was a mate.

Joohyuk, who looked at Yihyeon’s suspicious eyes, lowered his eyes.

“My mate is in imprintable condition.”

Joohyuk’s eyes fluttered softly.

“He was sick… I can’t do that.”

He died so painfully because of him.

Yihyeon looked at Joohyuk’s eyes and felt his chest squeezed. At the same time, his stomach started to hurt.

There were people who he loved enough to make those eyes.

He knew it, though. He already made up his mind to close his heart. He decided not to bother anymore.

Nevertheless, it seems that he was infinitely foolish. Were there any more broken hearts left?

Yihyeon felt that his stomach was starting to hurt more and more, and he gripped the blanket he was holding in his hand even tighter. The pain in his left shoulder that had been shot was like being crushed, but it was nothing compared to the pain in his stomach.

At the same time, his mouth was fluttering.

“The mate… Who is it?”

Joohyuk would have been a riot if it had been in the past, but he thought that he could answer now for some reason. For someone who did not need to know, he was valuable.

Joohyuk tilted his head and looked at Yihyeon. His eyes were dimly lit, but he couldn’t see the details because they had fallen.

He didn’t like talking about his partner. Rather, it was closer to dislike.

It was okay to think of the child itself, but it was scary to recall the memories with him. There were holes in his memories, and every time he recognized them, he fell into a sense of wonder. At that time, the past, when he was half mad at the fact that his partner had died, came to him as if it was reality. That was why he only spread the rumor that he had a mate for the rest of his life, and didn’t want to go into detail about it.

But Yihyeon was different. Was it because he resembled the eyes of his dead mate? If not, was it because he clung to him, calling him ‘hyung’ like that child? He thought he could tell Yihyeon about the child.

“He is a very bright and kind person. He is the kind of person who puts me first, no matter how difficult it is.”

It wasn’t a very long explanation, but Yihyeon could not control his heart pounding with sadness.

Joohyuk’s eyes were showing very clear affection. A heartbreaking love that he had never shown to him.

His chest and stomach were throbbing at the same time. It was so painful that it was hard to even breathe.

“Perhaps Kwon Yihyeon will understand what I mean when he meets that person.”

“… I don’t think I’ll ever see him.”

He said, squeezing out the words. He took a deep breath and pulled out the Ringer from his wrist. A drop of Yihyeon’s blood fell on the duvet from the tip of the needle due to the careless movement. He felt pain in the back of his hand from which the needle was pulled, but his stomach hurt so much that he couldn’t even feel it.

He forcefully stopped the hand that was about to go to his stomach and put it on his left shoulder. The wounds that were exposed on the outside were covered by bandages, but not the wounds that burned inside.

“Thank you for taking a look. I can’t occupy the executive director’s bedroom forever, so I’ll go back to my previous room.”

Yihyeon tried to get off the bed. Joohyuk frowned, blocked him, and habitually tried to look into his eyes. He couldn’t see because Yihyeon had his head down slightly and his eyes were down.

“You need to relax, so just lie down.”

“My room is comfortable.”

At least, he thought that his narrow and desolate space would be comfortable. Above all else, he didn’t want to let him know about the strangely strong pain above.

Joohyuk grabbed his face and made him look at him. Then their eyes meet

Again. It was the eyes again

The eyes that didn’t shine on anything, no, they didn’t want to shine, so instead it was a blurry eyes that seemed to struggle. Joohyuk did not understand his sudden change.

Yihyeon removed Joohyuk’s hand with difficulty, wrapped his left shoulder with his hand, and bowed his head. Then, without hesitation, he opened the door and walked out. Joohyuk was staring at the closed door quietly.

He went through the living room to his room. He felt someone approaching closer. A bodyguard saw him coming out of Joohyuk’s room and followed him as if it were natural.

Yihyeon looked at him with an indifferent expression and went into his room and closed the door. The bodyguard was standing still in front of his room.

There was darkness in the narrow and gloomy room. It was then that he realized that it was night. Joohyuk’s room, living room, and penthouse were all bright, but strangely, only his room was dark.

He didn’t even have the strength to turn on the light. He moved forward, relying on the dim light coming through the small window.

He got off the door and went to the far corner of the room. It was at the foot of the bed, and it was a cold place where light did not come in properly. The location, which was not a big space, was Yihyeon’s favorite place recently.

As he got closer to the corner, Yihyeon’s hand on his shoulder went down. By the time he reached the corner and sat down with his back against the wall, his hand was on his stomach.

“Ugh…”

Finally, an unbearable moan came out. He crouched down with his knees bent and pressed his hand to his chest. Pain several times more severe than the pain in his shoulder tormented him. He clenched his teeth from the intense pain that he couldn’t breathe properly.

He took a deep breath and closed his eyes. Joohyuk’s affectionate face kept flashing in front of his eyes, and his words floated through his mind.

“He is a very bright and kind person. He is the kind of person who puts me first, no matter how difficult it is.”

There was no way he didn’t see Joohyuk’s face. It was the face he showed when he was young and hugged him and whispered kind words. A face that overflowed with love and could not be known by the other party.

Too long a time had passed. Now, his face was directed at someone other than him, and despite the years he had waited for him, he casually forgot about him.

He thought he was in so much pain now, but he guessed he still had regrets.

He wanted to stop hurting.

Tonight, the pain in his stomach did not seem to go away.

* * *

Arriving at an ossuary in Paju, Gyeonggi-do, Joohyuk ordered the four bodyguards who followed him to stay outside the building. They bowed deeply and lined up near the building.

It was early in the morning on a weekday, so there were hardly any people. Joohyuk walked inside the quiet ossuary and entered the VIP-only private memorial in the innermost part.

There was only one ossuary, unlike the general mortuary, which was filled with numerous people’s fingerprints. Around the ossuary placed in the middle of the mortuary, there were various items in the cupboards around it, starting with flowers and dolls, and expensive items such as expensive necklaces and watches.

There were old clothes piled up in only one cupboard, amidst all the things that were in like-new condition. A bloody white shirt and black pants that looked like a child’s, a black jacket messed up by dirt, and old sneakers.

Joohyuk looked at the cupboard containing the item with pitying eyes, and turned his gaze to the ashes in front of him. No inscriptions were engraved on the ossuary resembling a white urn. But Joohyuk knew very well who was inside.

“I missed you, hyung.”

It was as if he could hear the voice of a child he had not forgotten for a long time.

“… me too.”

As if responding to an auditory tickling in his ear, Joohyuk answered with a small smile on his face. It was only when he was here that he could return to his past self.

Joohyuk looked at the nameless ashes without saying a word. It seemed that a faint figure of a child could be seen above it.

It was when he was half-mad, mentally exhausted from the fact that his young mate had died while trying to save him. One day, more than a month after the incident, the door to a small dark room that was locked up as usual was opened.

The thought of running out and looking for a break came obsessively. He had to go out and go into the forest to find his mate. There was no way he was dead, he must be alive, so he had to find him. Filled with only those thoughts, he stumbled out of bed and got down.

A black envelope was thrown in front of Joohyuk. His eyes met with his father, who threw those things and looked at him indifferently. For some reason, he was afraid to open the envelope.

There was a faint, very faint sweet smell.

“He’s the guy you were looking for.”

His whole body cooled as if ice water had been poured over it.

“The decapitated body has already been disposed of. I’ve brought some clothes so you can believe he’s dead, so take a look.”

Now… What was he talking about?

As he stared blankly with a face of ignorance, his father made a dissatisfied face. He pointed to the black envelope he had thrown on the floor and told the guard outside the room to open it. Soon, the envelope was opened by his hand, and the clothes inside fell to the floor.

A faint sweet smell instantly entered his nose. He stopped breathing and trembled, then fell to the floor.

It was the scent of his partner whom he longed for. A sweet, unforgettable scent began to disperse powerlessly into the room.

Blood-stained clothes and worn-out sneakers were scattered horribly on the floor. The day he broke up with my partner, he couldn’t believe it easily, even though the clothes he had vaguely remembered were clear. If only the unforgettable scent had not lingered on the clothes.

A trembling hand turned towards the little shirt stained with red blood. He trembled and struggled to pick up the shirt. He was startled by the feel of the ice-cold clothing, but he closed his lips and grabbed it and brought it closer to his face.