Chapter 1

“Oh?! Dohwi, he… llo.”

Ari was on her way to the central library after finishing her major class.

Ari spotted Dohwi walking toward her from a distance and naturally broke into a bright smile, only to swallow her greeting almost immediately. Her small, pale hand, which had been raised in delight, dropped awkwardly.

She remembered his request to avoid acknowledging each other on campus if possible.

[Ari, let’s not acknowledge each other at school.]

[Why…?]

[People keep DMing me asking if you’re my girlfriend. It’d be awkward for you too if there are misunderstandings like that, right?]

Ari’s shoulders drooped as she recalled what he’d said to her not long ago.

Dohwi, exuding thick, cool pheromones true to his status as a extremely dominant alpha, was once again surrounded by unfamiliar faces today.

The moment she saw him with female students of striking appearance, who seemed to be dominant omegas at a glance, her chest ached with a stinging pain.

Dohwi’s short black hair, with its subtle waves, was perfectly styled as always, and the thin black coat that fell to his ankles suited his model-like tall frame.

The metal watch he always favored and a bold ring recently sponsored by a luxury brand beautifully highlighted his long, sturdy fingers.

Small, snug piercings adorned both ears—accessories that added an extra layer of charm to his cold impression.

As if his porcelain-white skin weren’t striking enough, he always stuck to jet-black hair and all-black outfits.

His lips, which never even touched lip balm, were red in contrast to his pale skin, and the area around his eyes also looked reddish, perhaps because of his deep-set eyes.

And then there were the dimples that appeared so prettily when he smiled, and the beauty mark beside his eye…

Dohwi was white, black, and red. The word “sexy” wasn’t enough to describe him. He possessed a unique, sensual aura that belonged to him alone.

In short, he was a walking peach blossom—a living symbol of irresistible allure.

His stunning appearance alone was enough to draw everyone’s attention, but on top of that, he was a extremely dominant alpha—one of only 0.1% of people in the world.

‘Huh?! I think he just looked at me.’

Just for a moment. A fleeting instant. Dohwi’s gaze flicked toward her, then away.

Ari stared blankly at Dohwi. Even though their eyes had met, he turned away and pretended not to notice her. Then, with a resigned expression, she headed toward the library.

‘Right. It’d be a problem for me too if some weird post went up on Eta… My goal is to graduate quietly without drawing attention. If rumors spread that I’m Dohwi’s girlfriend, it might cause me trouble too.’

It’s fine. It’s fine.

Ari tried to comfort herself like that, trying to lift her spirits even though she didn’t feel okay at all.

Beep—

She pulled out her small card wallet and tapped her student ID at the library reading room entrance.

Inside the wallet’s transparent photo sleeve, cherished, was Dohwi’s ID photo cut out from their graduation picture.

To her, Dohwi was a star that shone even brighter than any famous celebrity.

Moon Dohwi, her high school classmate and now college peer, was currently one of the most influential creators in South Korea.

Thanks to his handsome looks and trainee status since his teens, he’d been quite popular not just at Ari’s school but throughout the area. However, due to his agency’s strict control at the time, he wasn’t allowed to use social media, so despite his outstanding appearance, he never gained much fame online.

To make matters worse, every agency he signed with turned out to be exploitative, and Dohwi ended up wasting his entire teens—the golden years for aspiring entertainers.

Every company he’d been with looked impressive and reputable on the surface, but their internal operations were all equally haphazard. Despite always being included in debut lineups at whatever agency he joined, things would mysteriously fall apart right before debut, time and time again.

Everyone around Dohwi agreed that at this point, he must be cursed—that unless someone was actively sabotaging him, there was no way this could keep happening.

Yet no one dared pity Moon Dohwi for his failed entertainment debut. Everyone knew he was the maternal grandson of the owner of one of South Korea’s leading mid-sized companies.

Dohwi’s parents, as extremely dominant alphas, were smart and wanted their outstanding son to inherit the company, so they strongly opposed his pursuit of an entertainment career. Even as he suffered through his trainee years, they seemed to stand by and watch, hoping he’d give up on his dream.

But contrary to his parents’ wishes, Dohwi’s passion for music was genuine.

Despite repeated debut failures that should have made him give up on his dream of becoming a singer, he found other platforms to share his music and began promoting himself.

Maybe it was because he’d used up all his bad luck throughout his teens. The moment he turned twenty, his efforts began paying off at lightning speed.

After one of his covers of a historical drama OST went viral, his popularity skyrocketed.

Dohwi had always been a trainee with powerful vocals and an attractive low-to-mid-range tone, so in every debut group lineup, he was assigned the main vocalist position rather than the visual member role.

His cover videos gained popularity not just in Korea but across various countries, and he literally became a star overnight.

Recently, he’d been expanding his reach by releasing digital albums featuring his original songs and appearing on various broadcasts, so aside from not having appeared on TV, he was, for all intents and purposes, a celebrity among his peers.

Ari had never once been in the same class as Dohwi, but she secretly harbored a crush on Moon Dohwi for all three years. She happened to see him singing in the auditorium, and it was, quite literally, love at first sight.

Watching Dohwi play electric guitar and belt out powerful rock songs, young Ari thought he looked like a prince straight out of a romance comic.

The countless people in the auditorium looked like they were in black and white, while he alone sparkled and shone. Among all the people waving and cheering in slow motion, only Dohwi moved with vivid energy.

Even though it was just the small stage of the school auditorium, Dohwi’s performance was so amazing it felt like being at a rock festival.

Even the beads of sweat rolling down his face looked beautiful, as if the whole moment had been staged.

The whole time she watched that beautiful boy, Ari’s heart raced wildly. She could say for sure that she had never met anyone who shone as brightly as the sun.

And so began Ari’s one-sided crush—or rather, her fangirling.

Back in high school, Dohwi was so far out of reach that Ari couldn’t even dream of approaching him.

With her small, fair face and adorable eye-smile, Ari was consistently popular among her peers too, but there was an undeniable gap between her and Dohwi—a celebrity trainee and a extremely dominant alpha, no less.

She had no intention of ranking her friends by status, but the truth was that invisible hierarchies inevitably existed during school years.

[Ari, a recessive omega like you with no special traits should just focus on quietly graduating college and getting a job—that’s the smartest path. Don’t try to hang around dominant alphas or omegas. If possible, stick to making friends with betas. Birds of a feather flock together, after all.]

Ari’s overly pragmatic parents had drilled this message into her ears until she was sick of hearing it—ever since she’d been classified as a recessive omega, they’d told her to keep her head down and live quietly.

Living within her means, just as her parents had taught her, was Ari’s life motto, so she had never even dared to dream of dating someone like Dohwi.

She wasn’t born into abject poverty, but her family wasn’t well-off either. As the eldest daughter, she cared for her three younger siblings and had to take on the role of head of the household from a young age.

To Ari, Dohwi—an aspiring celebrity—was simply a distant object of admiration. He felt like someone from a completely different world.

In high school, she was too busy preparing for exams to think about much else, and secretly liking Dohwi during study breaks was one of her few joys. Honestly, it was less of a crush and more like being a fan of a celebrity.

Sometimes, slipping anonymous handwritten letters into his locker was the only way she could express her feelings.

Unlike her worry that he might just toss the letters in the trash, Dohwi never threw away gifts from fans and always took them with him, so writing letters to Dohwi became one of Ari’s little hobbies.

More than anything, Ari was the obsessive type who, once fixated on something, would focus on that one thing relentlessly, day and night.

When she found a ramen she liked, she’d cook only that ramen for years until she was sick of it, and when she got hooked on a drink or snack, she’d consume nothing but that day and night. Even the pens and notebooks she used were always the same brand.

However, once she’d consumed something to the point of exhaustion, her interest would cool completely as if it had never existed, and she’d turn her attention to something new without a shred of regret.

In any case, maybe because she was so loyal until her feelings faded—which always took a long time—Ari showed not the slightest interest in any of the guys who liked her. For all three years, she liked only Dohwi.

Her friends all found it strange that Ari, who was perfectly pretty and popular, didn’t date anyone, but Ari had no interest in wasting time on someone she didn’t even like.

More than anything, her feelings for Dohwi were closer to fangirling than romantic love, so being immersed in the feeling of “liking someone” was also pleasant and not at all bad.

And so three years passed in a flash, the line between unrequited love and fangirling blurred beyond recognition.

She’d heard the news that he’d enrolled in the same university as her, though in a different department, but unlike high school, running into him by chance on the sprawling campus would be nothing short of a miracle.

Even if they did happen to cross paths, there was no way Dohwi, who’d been a celebrity at school, would recognize her face.

One day during the first week of her freshman year, as she was putting her innocent first love behind her and starting anew.

[Choi Ari?]

[Huh? You know me?]

Ari ran right into him in a general education class, as if by fate.

[Of course I know you. How could I not? We went to the same school. Don’t you know me?]

[No, I do! I know you too… Moon Dohwi. I know you really well…]

That day she attended the required general education English class.

That day she saw Dohwi sitting there with his chin propped on his hand like a painting.

That day Dohwi was the first to greet her as if he knew her and gestured for her to sit next to him.

That day she saw up close the pretty smile with deep dimples she’d only ever glimpsed from afar.

And most of all, that day he knew her name and called out to her first.

That was when Ari’s fever-like, earnest unrequited love began.

He’d been someone from a distant world in high school, someone she couldn’t even dare to casually talk to, but now he sat beside her every week and met her eyes.

They chatted about trivial things like what they were having for lunch, and sometimes even walked side by side, if only for short distances.

She could hear stories about his broadcasting activities that felt like tales from a distant world, and learn about Dohwi’s serious concerns for the future.

The more she learned about him, the more her heart swelled uncontrollably, like a balloon, as if a fuse had been lit.

Even smelling his mysterious pheromones up close—pheromones she’d only ever caught from afar—was such an intense experience that it felt like a shock to her heart.

Through Dohwi, she understood for the first time what it meant that pheromones alone could captivate someone.

When she opened the classroom door, among the countless alpha pheromones that seemed colorless and odorless, only his felt special.

His pheromones, with their heavy musk scent, gave off a mysterious fragrance that was both dreamlike and sensual.

She’d heard before that extremely dominant alphas had pheromones with a much denser concentration than other alphas. Now that she was this close to him for the first time, she understood all too well why people constantly swarmed around him without fail.

‘If I get found out as an omega, it’ll be a disaster… I really have to make sure I always carry suppressants with me.’

Ari, who’d been diagnosed as a recessive omega in seventh grade, had been living her life disguised as a beta ever since.

Due to her family circumstances, she’d had no choice but to work part-time jobs starting in high school, which made hiding her designation inevitable. Most establishments didn’t prefer hiring omega minors as part-timers.

For a typical omega, living disguised as a beta would have been difficult, but she was a recessive omega.

Her heat cycles were always faint, and her pheromones were so weak that ordinary alphas couldn’t even detect them. At best, they could only sense them when her heat cycle started.

Her younger brother, who’d been diagnosed as an alpha, had described her pheromones as “it’s amazing—there’s absolutely no scent at all. I can only detect them a little during your heat cycle, and even then, they’re far weaker than a typical omega’s. They’re completely colorless and odorless pheromones that don’t excite alphas in the slightest.”

Her parents had also repeatedly advised her, “Since you’re practically no different from a beta anyway, there’s no need to go around advertising that you’re an omega.”

Perhaps it was because her pheromones were so weak. Even at the hospital, she’d been told that for all practical purposes, she was no different from a beta.

Her heat cycles were remarkably regular, and they only lasted about a day at most. She wasn’t even affected in the slightest when exposed to other alphas’ pheromones.

Because of this, she’d never once in her life felt instinctively drawn to an alpha’s pheromones.

That had definitely been the case—until Dohwi’s pheromones.

Whether it was because these were the pheromones of the man she’d been crushing on for so long, or because they were the pheromones of an extremely dominant alpha, whenever she caught his scent, a hazy, mirage-like sensation kept rising up within her.

Like sailors entranced by sirens, her gaze was drawn to him without her realizing it, and her body would turn toward him as if under a spell.

Ari had no choice but to start taking suppressants religiously on days when her classes overlapped with Dohwi’s.

She couldn’t risk her passionate feelings for him spiraling out of control and triggering changes to her heat cycle.

Having lived her entire life passing as a beta, being exposed as an omega now would create countless problems. The moment she was branded as an omega, the stable future she and her family had planned for would crumble like a sandcastle in an instant.

She was currently involved in extracurricular activities and volunteer work that only betas and alphas could participate in. These were crucial activities for building connections that would help with job hunting. On top of that, most of the companies she hoped to work for in the future preferred betas and alphas.

Although becoming personally acquainted with Dohwi, whom she’d been crushing on for so long, was almost overwhelmingly joyful, her immediate reality was even more important to her.

[Choi Ari, why aren’t you sitting by the window today?]

[Ah… the sunlight was too strong and it was hurting my eyes. I’m going to sit on the hallway side from now on.]

[Really? Move your bag so I can sit next to you.]

But every time she tried to force some distance between them, Dohwi would appear out of nowhere and claim the seat beside her.

He maintained a certain distance with other people, yet he approached her so casually every single time. Ari couldn’t help but let vain hopes rise within her.

But before long, she realized why he had been following her around like that.

[Ari, do you happen to know how to edit?]

[Editing? What kind of editing?]

[Video editing. I’ve been watching you every time you do project presentations, and I like how meticulous and responsible you are. I’d really appreciate it if you could help me out, Ari. You know how to edit, right?]

[Uh, well. I can probably do it… sort of?]

[Really? I knew it. Choi Ari, I knew you wouldn’t let me down.]

Under the gaze of those beautiful eyes staring right at her, she couldn’t bring herself to say she didn’t know how. Her instinct to impress the guy she liked overpowered her rational mind telling her to be honest and admit she didn’t know how to edit.

Even if he didn’t feel the same way about her, a greedy desire sprang up inside her—maybe the fact that he saw her in a positive light was a golden opportunity.

[Well, I’m not that good at it, but I pick up programs pretty quickly… So, how good do you want it to be?]

[Oh, it’s nothing difficult. Just do some basic cuts on the full live video and add a few captions here and there. Even a beginner can handle it.]

I knew all too well about his struggles since he started livestreaming—how he wanted to grow his YouTube channel in earnest.

He wanted to scale up his channel properly, but throughout the general education class we took together, Dohwi shared quite a few personal concerns in front of her: editors who were all irresponsible and never met deadlines, and how most of the omegas he hired based on portfolios he liked would then pester him, trying to get personally entangled with him.

Dohwi often said he wanted to find a compatible partner—someone who would work with him and stay by his side like family for a long time.

[Ari. I wish a responsible beta like you would help me out. Is that too much to ask?]

[No. I can do it.]

Maybe it was because she knew all about his gloomy past—how he’d spent his entire teens as a trainee, never getting a chance to shine.

She wanted to give him wings so he could soar even higher. Forgetting just how wealthy his family was, such daring feelings welled up inside her.

In front of Dohwi, who desperately needed her help, the resolve she’d made to keep her distance from him melted away in an instant like snow.

‘Right. As long as I keep taking my suppressants like I have been, it’ll be fine.’

Ari, who had never even installed an editing program before, started frantically teaching herself video editing software from that day forward, as if possessed. It was the price she paid for her lie.

It was the beginning of a slave’s life—one she had dug her own grave for.

***

Of course, the editing wasn’t too difficult at first, just as he’d said.

All she had to do was watch through his roughly two-hour live stream, do cut editing, and add subtitles here and there. As Dohwi had mentioned, it was editing even a beginner could handle.

She’d cut out scenes where Dohwi briefly left during the broadcast or chatted about random things, and for the song request segments, she’d trim everything except the first verse. Since the full live streams were only available to subscribed fans, there wasn’t much else to edit anyway.

Just listening to his captivating voice for two hours straight was enough to send her into raptures, but to edit those videos and get paid for it? What’s more, the amount Dohwi paid was far above the industry average, so Ari could easily cover her rent and living expenses with what she earned from him.

But the problem started after his subscriber count exploded thanks to the algorithm’s blessing, dramatically increasing the amount of editing work.

When several videos went viral in succession, his subscriber count—which had started at 100,000—hit 800,000 within a few months. As his fanbase grew, so did the constant stream of comments pointing out issues with the editing.

Worried that her clumsy skills might somehow harm Dohwi, Ari’s sense of burden doubled.

On top of that, Dohwi’s subscribers began demanding content beyond just the live streams.

They wanted edited versions of his talk broadcasts in addition to the live stream edits, and they were curious about his daily life through vlogs and such.

While simple cut editing and subtitles were manageable through self-study, Dohwi increasingly expected more sophisticated editing as if it were a given. In the end, not wanting to disappoint him, Ari even had to get one-on-one tutoring from a friend who did part-time editing professionally.

But the problems didn’t stop there. As the volume and intensity of editing work continued to increase, juggling her studies and the editing job became increasingly difficult.

When she came to her senses, she realized she was averaging only about four hours of sleep a day. Even when she stayed up all night editing videos and sent them over, Dohwi no longer seemed grateful like he used to be.

He’d definitely been very pleased with the cut edits she’d done for him at first, saying how happy he was to work with her…

[Hmm. Something feels off about this video.]

[If you tell me specifically what’s off, I can fix it.]

[Hmm. I guess it’s a matter of sense.]

[Sense…?]

[Yeah. Aesthetic sense.]

At some point, Dohwi had started being less than satisfied with the work she handed in. He’d begun wanting increasingly higher-quality edits.

She’d pushed herself to take on this editing work because she wanted to help him, but instead of gratitude, she was met with lukewarm responses. Ari grew more and more depressed.

Rather than being helpful to the guy she liked, she felt like she was only causing him trouble, and she found herself repeatedly questioning whether it was even right to keep doing this.

When he even told her not to acknowledge him on campus because people might get the wrong idea if they were seen together, she felt utterly deflated, wondering what she’d been working so hard for all this time.

Bzzt—

Ari, who’d been studying at a desk in the reading room, glanced at her vibrating phone. As expected, it was a message from Dohwi.

[Choi Ari, I watched the video you sent. I’ve deposited the payment.]

She’d at least expected him to mention that he’d coincidentally spotted her near the main library just now. She thought he might offer some perfunctory apology about wanting to say hi but not being able to approach her because of the situation… But the message contained only business-related content, and Ari let out a soft sigh.

‘Ugh… there are so many revisions…’

When she tapped “See More” to reveal the lengthy feedback, Ari’s breath caught in her throat.

Going through his feedback point by point, it looked like the revisions alone would take a full day.

“God, is this even worth it?”

Ari stared blankly at the deposited amount.

The per-video editing fee she was getting from him was no longer considered high pay for her.

Every time she put in the effort to raise the quality, looked up editing tutorials and studied on her own, made revisions based on his feedback, checked the comments section one by one to see what subscribers found disappointing… No matter how she calculated it, it didn’t even come out to minimum wage.

On top of that, midterms for the second semester were right around the corner.

In her current situation where she was already swamped with group projects and assignments to the point where she could count on one hand the days she got even four hours of sleep, Dohwi’s editing commissions—which demanded higher quality and quantity than before—felt like too much to handle.

‘He’s got plenty of subscribers now. Couldn’t he find a better editor than before…?’

Ari opened his channel on her phone. He was just shy of 900,000 subscribers now.

Right now, Dohwi was signed to a major agency that represented famous creators, so if push came to shove, he could get support from the company.

‘I’d probably be less stressed just tutoring instead.’

She stared blankly at Dohwi’s face filling the screen.

Her phone’s wallpaper showed him performing at a festival he’d been invited to earlier this spring. The way he sang with such intensity, veins bulging and sweat pouring, looked like a still from a music film.

Ari opened her phone’s photo album and slowly scrolled through the collection of candid shots she’d taken of him.

‘…Have my feelings really cooled off that much?’

There was definitely a time when just looking at him made her happy and content.

A time when just sitting next to him made her heart race so wildly she thought she’d lose her mind, when hearing his voice on the phone kept her up all night.

But now, even looking at his face didn’t make her heart pound like it used to.

Ari smiled bitterly as she slipped her phone back into her pocket.

‘Ah. As expected, I guess I’m a bit tired.’

***

The next morning, Ari breathed a sigh of relief when Dohwi messaged to say the video she’d stayed up all night revising and sending had passed.

But the moment she saw the new assignment that immediately followed, that suffocating tightness squeezed her chest again.

The new raw footage was a whopping four hours long.

‘I’m already drowning in coursework. Can I really juggle editing on top of that…?’

Ari pulled out her planner and weighed today’s group meeting against the mountain of assignments she had to finish. After a long hesitation, she sent Dohwi a message.

[Dohwi, I’m really sorry, but would it be okay to push this week’s edit back by one week? I have so much coursework, and I need to study for exams too…]

Ding—

[We made a promise to the subscribers—how can we just skip a whole week? If you thought you couldn’t handle it during exam season, you should’ve told me at least a month in advance so we could adjust. You can’t just do whatever you want like this is some group project. This isn’t kids playing around. This is paid work.]

Dohwi, who usually never responded right away, had replied surprisingly fast—and as expected, every sentence was razor-sharp.

Ari had always grabbed her group members by the collar and led them when necessary during group projects—never acting selfishly. Now, she felt a surge of indignation.

But she knew Moon Dohwi’s personality well. If she dragged this conversation out, all she’d get back was the word “disappointed.”

[Sorry. Just pretend I didn’t say that. I’ll send it by the deadline.]

After she replied, there wasn’t even the usual “okay” in response. Left on read again.

More than feeling hurt by his attitude, she was disappointed in herself for having such terrible judgment about people.

If she’d known he was this cold-hearted—if she’d known he was the type to sweet-talk you when he needed something, only to turn cold as if nothing had happened—she never would have spent all those years rooting for him. She wouldn’t have even dared to think, not for a second, about wanting to give him wings.

‘Maybe it was better when I just watched him from afar…’

During those three years of high school, secretly liking him had been nothing but happiness and joy. But ever since she’d gotten personally involved with him, it seemed like the hard times outnumbered the good ones.

Ari already knew full well that her feelings weren’t the same as they used to be.

Was it from that day when she’d stayed up all night editing, hoping to hear his praise, only to receive nothing but criticism? Or maybe from the day when his attitude suddenly changed—when he stopped approaching her warmly and pretending to be close—and she’d spent the whole day agonizing over whether she’d done something wrong? Or perhaps from the day she started feeling hurt by his increasingly shorter text messages…

She’d thought she could do anything he asked. She really had. But her once-solid feelings had long since crumbled like a sandcastle in the face of Dohwi’s repeated coldness.

She didn’t want to force herself to hold onto feelings that weren’t the same as before, or foolishly help him out of lingering attachment.

But if she stopped doing freelance work for Dohwi, she’d need to find a new gig.

For the first time, Ari signed up for a freelance job site and scrolled through the listings. It seemed a waste to let her editing skills go unused, and she figured she could use Dohwi’s videos as her portfolio.

“Looking for a vlog editor. I don’t have many subscribers yet, so I can’t pay much, but I’m looking for someone to grow with me. Pay is 10,000 won per minute… 10,000 won per minute?! If you’re going to pay such a measly amount, why even bother hiring an editor?”

Ari was appalled by the pathetic rates. There were countless job postings offering just 50,000 won for a completed 5-minute video.

She hadn’t realized it until she tried it herself, but video editing took much more effort than she’d imagined.

Just then.

RRRRRRRRRRR-

The moment she saw [Nayeon♡] flash on her phone screen, a smile spread across Ari’s tired face.

It was a call from Nayeon, her high school classmate and closest friend.

“Hey, Nayeon.”

– Choi Ari! What are you doing next week? Let’s hang out!

When Ari moved just before starting high school, she enrolled in a school in an area where not a single person knew her. Thanks to that, no one at her new school knew that her original trait was recessive Omega.

For Ari, Nayeon, who had been her best friend since freshman year, was the only high school classmate who knew she was an Omega.

Of course, she was also the only person who knew that Ari had harbored an unrequited crush on Dohwi throughout all three years of high school, feelings that had followed her into college.

“When next week?”

– Saturday! Your exams will be over. Come hang out with me.

“Ah… I’ll probably have to edit Dohwi’s video on Saturday…”

– Ugh, seriously. Can’t you quit that? The pay is way too low.

Nayeon, a dominant Omega, was strikingly beautiful and worked as a beauty model.

Thanks to her striking features, she was especially popular in China, and the amount she earned from a single overseas trip was apparently astronomical. On top of that, she said the advertising fees she received from SNS sponsorships alone were quite lucrative.

From her perspective, it made sense that the pay Ari received looked like peanuts. But Ari let out a deep sigh, recalling the absurd rates she’d just seen on the freelance site.

“I just checked the freelance site, and Dohwi actually pays really well.”

– Hmm. Want me to ask around and see if anyone I know is looking for an editor?

“Really?”

– Yeah. I know a lot of people who do YouTube, so I’ll ask around.

“I’d really appreciate that!”

– But in return, keep next Saturday open. There’s a new club opening, and a lot of people I know will be there—there will definitely be someone looking for an editor. You can get introduced while we’re at it. Sound good?

“I’ve never been to places like that, so I probably won’t know how to have fun…”

– Hey. If you don’t go now, when will you ever get the chance? Just trust your girl.

Ari pulled out her planner and quickly started thinking. According to next week’s schedule, she’d have to spend at least half a day on Saturday editing Dohwi’s video.

‘If I split up the work and do a little each day during the week, going out for a bit at night should be fine… right?’

She was already feeling down, so spending time drinking and having fun with Nayeon after so long might be just the refresher she needed.

Nayeon was like a vitamin—bubbly and bright—the kind of friend whose energy was contagious just by being around her.

And honestly, she was a little curious about clubs. She’d never been to one since becoming an adult.

– Choi Ari, are you still hesitating? Is it because of Moon Dohwi?

“Huh? No, it’s not that. I was just checking my schedule.”

– I feel like you can’t let go of him, so let me tell you something interesting. Moon Dohwi apparently has a weird fetish.

“A fetish?”

– I heard this secondhand, but apparently he can’t get turned on unless it’s a specific pheromone? Isn’t that wild? So no matter how pretty someone is, if he doesn’t like their pheromone, he won’t even flirt with them.

“…What kind of pheromone does he like?”

– I’m not totally sure about that… but most alphas go crazy for sweet scents. So maybe he’s the same? All the alphas around me love peach-scented pheromones.

At Nayeon’s words, Ari smiled bitterly.

‘If his ideal type is a woman with attractive pheromones, then he really never saw me in a good light, not even for a moment…’

Her pheromone was so faint that ordinary alphas couldn’t detect it at all. And since she took suppressants every time she met Dohwi, there was no way he could have ever smelled her pheromones.

Even if she hadn’t hidden being an omega, her subtle pheromone—like the scent of wildflowers—couldn’t have been attractive to him.

No—even if she laid everything bare and told him the truth, her utterly ordinary pheromone could never have attracted him.

‘See? It was never meant to be from the start.’

After more than three years of one-sided love, all she had left was a heart in tatters.

No matter how much her feelings had changed, the fragments of emotions not yet fully sorted through still tore at her tender heart.

If only she could have maintained a good relationship with him, even if they couldn’t be lovers, she wouldn’t feel so empty.

But he didn’t even try to greet her at school anymore and kept demanding unreasonable revisions without showing the slightest hint of remorse. Continuing any further relationship with him would only deepen her wounds.

After agonizing over it for a while, Ari picked up her phone and sent another message to Dohwi.

[Dohwi, I’m really sorry, but due to personal reasons, I don’t think I can continue as your editor. I’ll post a notice on the community today to find a replacement. Once we find someone, I’ll need to step down. I won’t miss any deadlines until then, including this video, so you don’t need to worry about that.]

What if Dohwi got angry again? Or what if he tried to stop her?

Given his fiery temper, he might suddenly call. What if hearing his voice made her waver?

She was so weak when it came to his voice…

No. She made up her mind. She absolutely couldn’t let herself be swayed.

Countless voices of her heart disturbed her mind.

Unable to predict how Dohwi would react, Ari’s heart pounded frantically with tension.

Ding—

[K]

But when she saw the careless reply on her phone screen, a hollow feeling washed over her, as if all the moisture had drained from her body.

Right. In the end, that’s all she ever was to Dohwi.

A fish already caught—not worth even the slightest effort.

She knew that, yet she had been floundering in his fish tank all this time. She didn’t want to keep swimming around in his tank like a fool.

It seemed like it was time to bring this long unrequited love to an end.

***

A week later, Ari completely bombed her midterms for the second semester.

She’d pulled all-nighters editing Dohwi’s videos, working on assignments, and studying for exams, and her poor condition finally caught up with her—she ended up puking in the bathroom on a day when she had three exams scheduled.

Even though finals were still ahead, her full scholarship had long since slipped away.

To make matters worse, she got sick for two straight days right after exams ended, and the hospital bill, including the IV drip, came out to 100,000 won.

Of course, Dohwi hadn’t reached out at all. He didn’t even send feedback on the video edits Ari had submitted—just deposited the payment and nothing more.

Ari wondered if maybe he was upset about her quitting, but that didn’t seem likely—right after the job posting went up, several skilled applicants had already applied.

A bittersweet feeling, a touch of guilt, and a sense of disillusionment that this was how things ended with someone she’d liked for so long—a tangle of complicated emotions churned in Ari’s chest.

On top of that, the realistic problem of needing to quickly find a new job made her anxiety about the future pile up layer by layer.

“Ari, over here!”

Saturday night. When Ari arrived at the meeting spot, she smiled brightly when she saw Nayeon waving cheerfully at her.

In front of a newly opened club in the basement of a hotel in Gangnam, a sea of young men and women were already lined up waiting to get in.

“Wow, that’s quite a line.”

“We can just go right in. Oppa! I brought the friend I told you about.”

Nayeon led Ari, who was glancing at the people in line. She cheerfully greeted a tall man standing at the club entrance.

“Oh, your friend’s pretty too. Does she do the same work as you?”

“No, we went to high school together. She does YouTube video editing.”

“Editing? Wow, you’re so young and already so talented.”

“Haha. Not really… I’m not that good at it.”

Feeling awkward, Ari followed Nayeon and the tall man as they naturally made their way into the club.

Because it was late at night, a cool breeze slipped through the light, sheer fabric of her see-through blouse.

Between the form-fitting H-line skirt she rarely wore and the slightly heeled boots, each step still felt awkward.

The outfit she wore today was one she had Nayeon check several times before putting it on.

It felt daring by her standards, but looking around, her outfit was practically modest. Most of the women there were showing off various body parts—chest, back, waist—in bold, revealing outfits.

After a staff member at the entrance fastened a white wristband on her wrist, Ari went down into the noisy basement. She glanced at the green wristbands on other people’s wrists and asked Nayeon, “Nayeon, why are our wristbands a different color from theirs?”

“Oh. This is a VIP wristband. You need it to access the other floors.”

The club she was visiting for the first time was a whole new world.

The pounding sound hammering at her eardrums was so intense that she could barely hear anyone speaking, and a strange scent—a mix of alpha and omega pheromones—filled the air everywhere.

On top of that, everyone was casually smoking wherever they pleased, as if it were the most natural thing in the world. Ari felt like she’d entered a den of raccoons.

***

The club was divided into a main stage area and a VIP Zone accessible only by climbing a set of stairs.

A guard stood at the foot of the stairs leading to the VIP Zone, seemingly barring entry to anyone not wearing a white wristband like Ari and Nayeon’s.

“Nayeon, thanks for coming tonight. Text me if anything comes up.”

“Don’t mention it! Thanks to you, I’m having a blast!”

Ari and Nayeon settled into the table a tall man had shown them to.

The VIP Zone featured open tables along the railing and VVIP-only rooms against the wall. Their table was perfectly positioned, offering a clear view of the main stage through the railing.

“Since it’s the grand opening, a lot of models are here. The crowd’s going to be amazing tonight. We can just chill here.”

“Nayeon, aren’t tables like this really expensive?”

“That guy earlier has a club MD*. We got this table as part of the service.”

[*T/N: club member discount]

“Really?”

“Yeah. We’re getting to party for free, but we’re also helping raise the average spending, right?”

Nayeon casually mixed drinks and juice from the table into a small glass and handed it to Ari with a wink.

Ari gazed at Nayeon, who seemed perfectly at home in this setting, with admiration. She took a sip of the drink Nayeon offered.

Contrary to her expectations of a harsh, potent liquor, the amber-colored drink Nayeon had given her was surprisingly sweet, almost like an energy drink. It wasn’t bad at all.

“This is actually pretty good!”

“Right? Let’s drink until the end tonight! The hotel’s right upstairs, so we can just stay over after partying. Don’t worry about the bill—this unnie is treating!”

Ari raised her glass, laughing heartily as she watched Nayeon move with effortless grace.

True to her high school dance club roots, Nayeon captivated everyone’s attention with just a few fluid movements to the music.

Just as men from other tables began to approach their table, a man with the elegant lines of a ballet dancer and platinum-blonde hair strode forward.

“Park Nayeon!”

“Huh? Kitae Oppa!”

“Looks like I’m running into everyone I know tonight. Is this your friend?”

“Yeah, isn’t she pretty? We went to high school together.”

“Hello. I apologize for the forwardness, but you’re exactly my type. Ever thought about getting your hair done?”

“Seriously, stop trying to solicit clients here.”

Nayeon chuckled heartily and scooted over, making room for Kitae to sit.

Kitae was strikingly handsome and charismatic, an extrovert through and through—the kind of person who would score 100% E on an MBTI test. He greeted Ari, whom he’d just met, without hesitation, grabbing her small hand and shaking it enthusiastically.

‘His pheromones are so sweet and intoxicating,’ Ari thought, glancing at Kitae as he danced with Nayeon, swaying and raising his glass with infectious energy. He smelled intensely of sweet peaches. As she’d suspected, Kitae was a Dominant Omega, his dazzling looks perfectly matching his status.

“Moon Dohwi apparently has a weird fetish. Apparently he can’t get turned on unless it’s a specific pheromone.”

“No matter how pretty someone is, if he doesn’t like their pheromone, he won’t even flirt with them.”

Even just standing still, Kitae’s fragrant pheromones drew bees and butterflies like a sweet nectar. Ari unconsciously recalled Nayeon’s words.

‘Right. Even if I were an Alpha, I’d be more drawn to an Omega with sweet pheromones like Kitae’s than to someone with bland pheromones like mine.’

She thought she had already given up on Dohwi, having never even considered living as an Omega. Yet every time she was reminded that she didn’t fit Dohwi’s ideal type in the slightest, a sharp ache pierced her chest.

‘I’ll only feel down until today. Then I’ll graduate with excellent grades, get a job at my dream company, and live a life that’s not extravagant but comfortable. I’ll meet a kind, ordinary Beta man and have a peaceful romance. By then, I’ll have completely forgotten about Dohwi, as if he never existed.’

Ari patted herself reassuringly, sipping the drink Nayeon had made for her.

“But Ari, don’t you have a boyfriend? You seem really popular.”

“Don’t even get me started. She’s been hopelessly in love with someone for over three years now.”

Nayeon waved her hand dismissively and sighed.

“Three years of unrequited love? So you have a separate sex partner?”

“S-sex partner?!” Ari choked on her drink at the word “partner,” coughing violently. Nayeon pulled the startled Ari into a tight hug, her brow furrowed.

“Kitae Oppa, Ari’s a Beta! No weird talk! Our Ari is genuinely pure!”

“Really? I just assumed Ari was an Omega. I thought she was taking suppressants to mask her pheromones. As a Dominant, my hormones sometimes drive my libido crazy. If I don’t have a partner, I need at least a sex partner.”

“Ah, yes. Ha ha ha.”

Kitae’s fiery personality matched his bold style. Ari, who had never discussed such intimate topics even with her closest friend Nayeon, felt her face flush crimson at Kitae’s explicit remarks. At the same time, she felt strangely old-fashioned for still feeling embarrassed about such matters, despite being an adult.

“Well, extremely dominant alphas are probably even worse than omegas like me. They say that if extremely dominant alphas don’t have regular sexual release, toxins build up in their bodies.”

“Toxins build up?”

“Yeah. It’s not from my own experience… but my friend’s boyfriend was an extremely dominant alpha. She said that if he didn’t get sex on time, his headaches would become so severe that he’d turn into a complete maniac.”

“Turn into a maniac?”

“This is where they start to lose it,” Kitae muttered, tapping his temple with his slender, pale fingers and frowning. He looked like someone who had been burned by an extremely dominant alpha before.

“What happens when they lose it?”

“Ugh, don’t even ask. They fuck like complete maniacs. Just thinking about how I ended up in the hospital after dealing with one… Ah, I mean, this is my friend’s story, not mine. That bastard couldn’t control his lust and couldn’t be satisfied with just one partner. Honestly, what Omega could fully handle that overflowing desire? So he couldn’t stick to one person and ended up juggling multiple affairs—up to ten at once. Hah, the more I think about it, the angrier I get. Ah, of course, this is still about my friend.”

“Ah, yes… But then, do extremely dominant alphas have partners just for that kind of thing, even if they don’t have a proper lover?”

“A hundred percent. Their pheromones are so overwhelming that omegas practically flock to them just by being in their presence. If any omega I know starts dating an extremely dominant alpha, I’d grab their pant leg and beg them to reconsider.”

Though Ari didn’t know the full story, it was clear Kitae had some bad memories involving extremely dominant alphas. As she listened to Kitae rant about them with such fervor, she couldn’t help but think that maybe it was for the best she hadn’t gotten too deeply involved with Dohwi.

“Oh, by the way, this is my business card.”

“Whoa! I know this hair salon!”

“Really? Have you been there before?”

Ari’s eyes widened as soon as she took the card from Kitae.

“Ah, I’ve never been there in person… I saw it on Reels recently. It was the place I inquired about prices for a wave perm because it looked so pretty.”

“Really? Then that must have been my video. I guess it showed up on Ari’s feed too.”

“It must have! Wow, this is so cool. I even saved the video because the hairstyle was so gorgeous.”

Kitae, whom Ari had initially mistaken for someone famous like Dohwi or Nayeon, turned out to be a hair stylist at a renowned brand salon.

Of course, the price he quoted for a combined treatment and perm was nearly equivalent to her monthly rent, so she had coolly given up on it without a second thought. Still, she had saved the video, thinking she might show it to a stylist someday if she ever got her hair done. And now, to discover that the designer behind that hairstyle was Kitae himself? It felt like meeting a celebrity.

“Perfect! I’m looking for a hair model. Would you be willing to do it sometime? Hair models with puppy-like features like yours always get the most views. I’ll even do your makeup for free.”

“Really? Are you sure I can?”

“If you do it, I’d be so grateful. Your face is so small and delicate, I think any hairstyle would suit you perfectly.”

With a free haircut and makeup on offer, there was no reason to refuse. Especially since Kitae’s salon was one Ari had even considered contacting before.

Ari nodded happily and exchanged numbers with Kitae.

“It’s so great making a new friend! I’ll buy the next round.”

Kitae, now in high spirits, ordered more drinks and snacks. The server brought over a complimentary set of handheld sparklers.

Ari watched the beautifully burning sparklers, taking frequent sips of her drink.

As she gazed at the flames that blazed brightly before fading into ash, Ari recalled her past infatuation with Dohwi—a feverish obsession that had once consumed her.

‘Yes, let’s think of it as a beautiful fragment of childhood memories,’ she thought. ‘Just like these sparklers that shine briefly before disappearing, this feeling too will completely fade away, as if it never existed.’

Ari stared at the extinguished sparkler and slowly surveyed her surroundings.

The air was thick with a strange mix of pheromones and cigarette smoke. The noise and flashing lights were overwhelming, but contrary to her expectations, she saw surprisingly few people behaving overtly.

In the corners, couples embraced or kissed, but she never saw anyone engaging in the kind of explicit behavior she’d seen in novels or dramas.

Even the people who occasionally approached her, claiming to be Nayeon’s friends, were all stunningly beautiful men and women. Among them were a few alphas who asked Ari for her number.

Feeling it would be disrespectful to meet someone while still harboring unrequited feelings, she politely declined. But she couldn’t help thinking that coming here with Nayeon occasionally wouldn’t be so bad.

It was just then, after rejecting another alpha who asked for her number and taking a sip of her drink, that it happened.

From somewhere nearby, Ari detected a thick, heavy, and familiar pheromone.

Even with her sense of smell dulled by alcohol, the sensual pheromone pierced her senses like a magnet, drawing her head toward its source.

At the end of her gaze stood Moon Dohwi, his eyes fixed on her with a crooked stare.

Dohwi smirked, as if utterly incredulous that Ari was here, and slowly approached her.

Was it because she hadn’t taken her suppressants? With each step he took, his distinctive, heavy musk scent grew stronger.

The moment he appeared, all the women in the vicinity turned their attention to him. Even Kitae, who had been gleefully ranting about extremely dominant alphas just moments ago, now glanced at Dohwi as if mesmerized.

“Ari.”

“…Oh. Dohwi.”

Ari swallowed nervously, looking up at the man who was staring down at her with a sardonic gaze. She had expected him to ignore her as he usually did at school, but he had spoken to her first, which was unexpected.

Unlike his usual casual look, his hair was slicked back with pomade, and the jet-black leather jacket accentuated his massive frame, giving him a strikingly sexy appearance.

“You’re wearing makeup?”

“Ah, yeah.”

“And the outfit…”

Dohwi’s cold gaze traced down her neck, over her chest, waist, and legs with a blatant sweep.

“It’s practically naked.”

There was an undercurrent of barbed resentment in his tone.

‘I feel like I’m the most covered up person here,’ Ari thought, her shoulders hunching involuntarily as she stood before her former crush, who seemed visibly displeased.

After all, she had unilaterally declared she couldn’t continue editing for him, which was essentially the same as quitting. Meeting him again so soon felt awkward.

“Long time no see, Moon Dohwi? You’ve been doing so well lately. Thanks to our Ari’s hard work on the editing, your subscriber count has skyrocketed by 700,000, hasn’t it? I hope you’re giving her a proper bonus. Ha ha.”

Nayeon, sensing the awkward tension between the two, quickly struck up a conversation with Dohwi. But Dohwi didn’t even glance at Nayeon, instead crossing his arms and giving Ari a sidelong, appraising look.

“Choi Ari, you never come to places like this.”

“I thought I’d try it out. Turns out it’s kind of fun.”

Ari forced herself to ignore the chilly gaze fixed on her, downing her drink. She was already quite tipsy, but she couldn’t bear to endure this awkward atmosphere sober.

“Have you found a new part-time job yet?”

“No, not yet.”

“What are you planning to do after you quit freelancing?”

“Tutoring, maybe…”

“Tutoring? Ari, how are you going to find tutoring jobs?”

“…What?”

Ari frowned and glared up at Dohwi, her irritation rising at his mocking tone. She felt a surge of anger at his dismissive attitude toward her abilities.

“Why wouldn’t I be able to find tutoring jobs?”

“Well, why are you asking me? You should ask yourself.”

Despite bombing her midterm exams this semester, Ari had always been a diligent and high-achieving student since high school.

In a school dominated by alphas, she had earned straight A+ grades last semester. Dohwi knew this perfectly well.

“Ari, are you sulking because I made you do so much editing? Is this your way of protesting?”

“…Protesting?”

“If you needed money, you should have just said so. I’ll give you a raise. Just tell me how much you want.”

Standing before the ever-arrogant Dohwi, Ari felt as if she had been doused with cold water, sobering her up instantly.

To be so utterly rude until the very end… How could I have wasted over three years liking and dedicating myself to such a piece of trash? My anger at my own poor judgment felt like it could extinguish even a millennium’s worth of love.

“Dohwi, we already agreed I’m not helping you with your work anymore. You even posted the editor job listing, and I heard you’ve gotten quite a few responses.”

“I changed my mind.”

“…What?”

Dohwi replied dismissively, as if Ari’s opinion didn’t matter at all.

“Just like you suddenly decided you didn’t want to work with me after agreeing to it, I suddenly changed my mind too. When I thought about it, hiring someone else and training them from scratch would take up so much time and money. It’d be better to just give you a raise instead.”

Ari was speechless, utterly stunned by Dohwi’s brazen words. Nayeon, who had been watching from the side, couldn’t contain herself any longer and jumped into the conversation.

“Moon Dohwi, I’m introducing Ari to a new client. She won’t be working with you anymore.”

“Park Nayeon, shut up. I’m talking to Ari right now.”

Dohwi’s irritated response made Nayeon leap to her feet. She glared up at him, who stood a head taller than her, and raised her voice.

“Wow, you’re still such a jerk. Don’t you realize your personality is why your debut keeps getting canceled? Even if I were the CEO, I’d never keep a ticking time bomb like you around.”

“Ari, you’re my fan, right? You always said I was your ultimate bias.”

“Hey, Moon Dohwi! Can’t you see you’re ruining the mood at our table? Just get lost already!”

“Ari, there’s your favorite franchise cafe across from the club. I’ll buy you an iced chocolate with extra whipped cream. Let’s talk for a bit. That’s your usual order, isn’t it?”

Whether Nayeon stood up and threw a fit or not, Dohwi treated her like she was invisible, focusing solely on Ari. His gaze seemed to reproach her, as if asking how someone’s feelings could change so drastically in just one day.

“Huh? Ari, this place doesn’t suit you. Let’s get out of here.”

His voice was as sweet and gentle as cotton candy, the tone he only used when he needed something. Under his persistent, urging gaze, Ari slowly shook her head.

Once, she had been fooled by his feigned kindness, acting as if she would give him her heart and soul. But now, she refused to be a pushover any longer.

“I’m not your fan anymore, Dohwi.”

“What?”

Dohwi stared at Ari, genuinely puzzled by her answer.

“Ari, you used to memorize my routes at school and pretend to bump into me by chance. Even our KakaoTalk conversations—you’d keep them going by asking unnecessary questions. I found it cute and played along.”

So why aren’t you my fan anymore?

Dohwi smirked, watching Ari’s pitch-black pupils tremble violently.

His dismissive attitude, even while asking her for a favor, made Ari feel like the last shred of affection she had for him had been completely stripped away.

“Yeah, I’ve liked you for over three years. I guess that’s just another weapon for you to use against me, huh? Enough to publicly humiliate me like this.”

Was it the alcohol talking? Or had even the last shred of affection for the rude Dohwi finally vanished, making this possible?

I never imagined confessing like this—in this place, so unglamorously. But like a dam bursting, all the pent-up resentment came flooding out.

“There was definitely a time when just thinking about you made my heart flutter. I don’t know anymore. Now, even if you got hit by a car, I don’t think I’d feel sad. Maybe love isn’t such a big deal after all.”

“…What?”

“Didn’t you hear me? Even if you died, I wouldn’t feel the slightest bit sad. You know what they say: a former fan is always scarier than an anti.”

Standing before the man who had treated her like a fool until the very end, Ari spat out harsh words she didn’t even mean.

“Hey, Choi Ari.”

“Don’t talk to me anymore. You’ve turned all the time I spent liking you into garbage. I’m starting to hate you.”

“What? What did you say?”

“I said I hate you. You, Moon Dohwi.”

Ari’s voice, laced with tears, cut through the air as she snapped at Dohwi, who was growling at her like a cornered beast.

Ari, who normally found even arguing with others uncomfortable, struggled to cope with this emotionally charged confrontation.

Perhaps that’s why, despite wanting to appear tougher and more confident in front of him, her entire body trembled uncontrollably, and her breath caught in her throat.

“Nayeon, I’m sorry, but could I head home early today?”

Ari hurriedly stuffed her scattered belongings into her bag, saying to Nayeon, “Don’t apologize. Some trashy bastard suddenly showed up and ruined the whole weekend. Ugh, what bad luck. Ari, I’ll walk you to the entrance.”

Nayeon glared fiercely at Dohwi, who had shattered their rare cheerful mood, before getting up to follow Ari.

“No, don’t bother. I can just take a taxi. If you walk me all the way, I’ll feel even more guilty.”

“Hey, you drank a lot. Even if you feel okay now, what if you trip on the stairs? Let’s just walk to the entrance together.”

“I’m really fine. And I’ll call a taxi, so don’t worry too much.”

Ari forcibly sat Nayeon down, who kept insisting on only dropping her off in front of the club, and hurriedly slipped out of her seat.

Thankfully, Dohwi remained standing in the same spot, arms crossed, staring intently at her without approaching any further.

‘I thought I had already sorted out my feelings.’

Yet, tears threatened to spill from her eyes, driven by shame.

The glances and whispers of the surrounding people, their eyes darting between Dohwi and her, kept replaying in her mind, causing waves of sorrow to surge through her.

‘Ah… I feel so dizzy. Should I splash some cold water on my face before leaving?’

Perhaps it was because she had drunk far beyond her usual limit. The lingering alcohol made her head spin even more.

Ari stumbled to the bathroom, hoping a splash of cold water would clear her head.

‘What is this…’

But the club bathroom was a complete disaster.

The room was a chaotic scene, filled with people fixing their makeup in front of the mirrors and others lined up, chain-smoking.

Even the large, menacing “No Drugs” warning plastered on one wall made Ari decide it would be better to go home, shower, and sleep.

Still dizzy, she dragged herself across the VIP Zone hallway toward the stairs when a VVIP Room door swung open. A shirtless alpha leaned against the frame, lazily eyeing her.

“Pretty face. How old are you?”

The dark-skinned man, built like a boxer, was covered in colorful tattoos from neck to wrist, depicting scales that could have belonged to either a carp or a dragon. Below his bare upper body, a designer belt hung loosely, its logo prominently displayed. For some reason, his pants zipper was also half-undone.

Even a drunk doing a backflip could tell this man was trouble. Ari, sensing that further interaction would only lead to trouble, avoided eye contact and slowly backed away.

“Ha ha. Sorry, I’m with someone. Have fun…”

“Liar. What ‘someone’? You’re carrying a bag. It’s not even midnight yet—leaving already? Cinderella? Come play with oppa, baby.”

‘Oppa?’

The man before her looked at least a dozen years older than Ari at a glance. She immediately pegged him as a shameless, conscience-lacking creep.

“I really have something urgent to take care of. I’m sorry.”

“Come on, just one drink before you go.”

Wanting to end the conversation, Ari quickly turned to leave, but the man’s arm snaked around her waist in an instant.

His forceful attempt to drag her into the room startled Ari. She struggled against his grip, blurting out in a panic, “Wait, wait! I’m a beta. You won’t have any fun with me!”

But before she could resist further, the thick door of the VVIP room slammed shut.

And in that instant…

“Hngh…!”

Ari instinctively clamped her hand over her mouth, overwhelmed by the potent pheromones of the alphas assaulting her senses.

The cramped room was thick with an unidentified smoke and the nauseating pheromones of the alphas.

The bizarre, overpowering stench paralyzed Ari’s entire body in an instant.

“Princess, why are you lying?”

“…H-huh?”

“You’re an omega. I can smell your pheromones. Something like fresh grass.”

Ari, still clutching her nose with her small hand, glanced up at the man holding her. A strange noise behind her made her whip her head around.

Her eyes widened at the explicit scene of bare flesh writhing before her.

“Hah, ah, there, hngh…!”

“Fuck, you’re so tight. Relax a little.”

Through the hazy, unidentified smoke, everyone in the room was entangled in a chaotic orgy.

The omegas’ pupils were dilated as if they were intoxicated, while the alphas thrusted wildly like beasts driven mad.

In one corner of the sofa, two alphas were clinging to a single omega, forcing her to take their members into her mouth while they penetrated her from behind—a scene of perverse sexual acts.

‘I need to get out of here… now!’

Ari trembled violently as she struggled to push away the man who was holding her.

But the Alpha pheromones saturating the cramped space were so potent that she could barely move a finger.

“There are some like you,” the man said, his voice thick with lust. “Omegas with faint pheromones. But my nose doesn’t lie.”

“H-hey, stop it.”

The man tightened his grip on Ari, who was struggling weakly like a deflated balloon, and roughly buried his face in her neck. He inhaled deeply, sniffing her scent, and said, “And how can you pretend to be a beta and then pinch your nose when you smell alpha pheromones? Huh?”

Ari trembled like a small animal as she watched the man’s eyes turn crimson.

‘A extremely dominant alpha…’

She could clearly feel the pheromones pouring from the man’s massive, aroused body, even more intensely than before.

“Cute. I like girls who are this clueless.”

“H-hey, let go of me!”

“Princess, let’s play with your oppa.”

“Hmph, oppa my ass! I hate old men like you!”

“Argh!”

Ari bit down on the man’s forearm with all her might, her small teeth drawing blood that stained his skin.

“Ha, fuck,” the extremely dominant alpha cursed, his face cracking as he glared down at Ari, his red eyes burning with a feverish intensity. His twisted expression unleashed a torrent of pheromones, drenching her small, struggling body.

“Such a pretty face, yet such a foul mouth. Hmm? You need some proper training.”

“Help… please help me… sob…!”

The acrid, animalistic stench, like musty fur, paralyzed her senses. Ari gasped for breath, choking and coughing in agony.

“Hah… ah…”

Despite the nauseating pheromone, a ticklish, shimmering sensation kept rising within her.

It felt as if someone were tickling the inside of her thighs, a strange heat creeping up from her toes.

The man watched Ari, her body limp and moaning, before reaching out with his large hand to invade her bra.

“Oh, you’re surprisingly well-endowed for someone who looks so petite,” he said.

“Hngh, uh… no, hngh…”

“Princess, your breasts are quite large, aren’t they?”

The man marveled at the soft, full sensation in his hand. He twisted her nipple, his voice laced with amusement.

“But your pheromone is really weak. Are you recessive?”

“Hngh, ah, what does it matter if you know…?”

“It’s fine. Even recessive omegas usually lose their composure when exposed to an alpha’s pheromones. Princess will be wetting herself soon enough. I’ll make your cunt flood.”

The man spoke crudely, his hand groping Ari’s breast while his other hand reached under her skirt, rubbing her mercilessly.

“Hah, uh…!”

Ari jerked back as the thick hand gently scratched over her panties, but her resistance was feeble.

As his thick, calloused fingers squelched against the already damp fabric, liquid continued to seep out of her against her will.

For the first time in her life, Ari genuinely resented being born a recessive omega.

“Haa… Ugh… No… I don’t want to…!”

“Princess, are you still a virgin?”

Unpleasant breaths continued to fall near her ear.

Not only was her body paralyzed, but her voice wouldn’t come out properly, as if she were trapped in a nightmare.

Overwhelmed by helplessness, tears finally streamed down Ari’s large eyes.

If she completely lost her mind, the worst-case scenario would unfold: she would end up begging and clinging to a thug she had just met, her legs spread wide.

But even the words for help refused to escape her lips. She could feel her body betraying her reason, growing increasingly wet and slick.

“Shh, I’ll make you feel good. Relax, sweetheart.”

‘Ah. So this is how I lose my virginity—to this thug, right here, right now. If I’d known it would come to this, I should have just slept with any guy who liked me. At least then I wouldn’t feel so humiliated.’

Just as she bit her lip and squeezed her eyes shut,

BANG!

The VVIP Room door burst open with a crash of metal against metal.

In an instant, a cool, musky scent flooded the room, overpowering the nauseating mix of alpha pheromones.

Ari’s eyes widened as she stared in disbelief at the man who had appeared before her.

As the familiar pheromone gently enveloped her, an overwhelming sense of relief washed over her.

Though her vision blurred from the sudden rush of tears, she couldn’t possibly fail to recognize the pheromones of the man she had long admired.

“Dohwi!”

“Moon Dohwi?”

Both men blurted out Dohwi’s name simultaneously.

The man, who had been releasing a torrent of pheromones, abruptly reduced the flow, staring in stunned silence at Dohwi, who looked visibly angry.

“Hyung, I heard you recently lost another business venture. Guess you still have time to throw money around in places like this.”

“Dohwi, what are you doing here?”

Instead of answering, Dohwi abruptly pulled Ari, who had been sprawled in the man’s arms, into his own embrace.

The man, glancing back and forth between them, waved his hands dismissively, his voice rising with indignation.

“The princess is your omega, Dohwi?”

“…My omega?”

“Hey, if she’s your omega, you should’ve marked her with your pheromones! How can you just let her roam around without any trace of you? You—you absolutely can’t tell the Chairman I met you today. Understand?”

The man’s pathetic excuses dragged on, as if he were deeply wronged by the situation.

Isn’t this exactly why you come to clubs in the first place? An omega wandering around without Suppressants—isn’t that practically begging to be seduced? Worthless garbage poured from his mouth, none worthy of a response.

“Choi Ari, come with me.”

“Hng, uh…”

Dohwi completely ignored the man, grabbed Ari’s slender arm—she could barely walk straight—and strode down the hallway, pulling her along.

The man from earlier was a distant relative whom Dohwi rarely saw, perhaps only once a year at family gatherings.

Known for his crude behavior and poor character, he had been sternly warned by the Chairman. Yet, true to form, he was up to his old tricks again, indulging in another round of vulgar pranks.

Dohwi hurried home, vowing to contact the Chairman immediately and demand accountability for this incident.

“Hah… Dohwi, slow down…” Ari gasped, clinging to Dohwi like a keychain as he stormed ahead. She struggled to keep up with his rapid strides, her breath catching in her throat.

Even when she spoke to him in a desperate voice, Dohwi remained silent.

‘What should I do? Did he find out I’m an omega because of what just happened…?’

Ari glanced at his angry profile.

Dohwi continued to walk with tight-lipped, furious strides.

‘What if Dohwi starts spreading rumors about me being an omega to everyone…?’

She knew Dohwi rarely gossiped about others, but just minutes ago, she had hurled insults at him, saying she wouldn’t even be sad if he died and that he was disgusting.

Because she knew she was in the wrong, Ari’s mouth felt parched with anxiety.

This was the first time Ari had ever seen Dohwi so angry, and not knowing why he was so furious only made her frustration worse.

In that moment, she hesitated, wondering if she should confess to him that she was an omega.

Dohwi glared sharply at Ari, who was trembling with tension, and snapped, “Ari, damn it, control your fucking pheromones. Stop acting up.”

“I-I can’t, hic, it’s not working. It’s weird, earlier, hic, I got covered in that man’s pheromones…”

“Hah.”

Ari, her eyes brimming with tears, looked up at Dohwi, panting.

As soft moans escaped her plump lips, Dohwi’s pupils flickered wildly.

He felt Ari’s pheromones growing stronger and stronger, and he rubbed his face roughly with his hands.

Having been drenched in the pheromones of a extremely dominant alpha, it wouldn’t have been surprising if Ari’s heat cycle had triggered right there and then.

“Choi Ari, your pheromones are getting stronger.”

Dohwi swallowed hard, his gaze sweeping the surroundings as he took in Ari’s disheveled state.

As the scent of an omega in heat intensified around Ari, Dohwi could feel the nearby alphas casting blatant glances her way.

“I… hic… can barely walk. My legs… they’re shaking…”

Ari choked back a sob, her small hands gripping her trembling legs.

‘I’ve never experienced anything like this before. Why did it have to happen now, in front of Moon Dohwi of all people?’

A chaotic mix of conflicting emotions—shame, embarrassment, yet a strange relief at being discovered by him—overwhelmed her.

“Hngh… uh…”

Despite biting her lip tightly, an insistent, ticklish sensation kept rising, as if all her nerves had converged below her navel.

It felt as if someone were teasing the area around her vulva with their fingers, an itch deep inside that refused to subside.

She could distinctly feel a surge of fluid pooling within her inner walls.

Betraying her reason, her instincts relentlessly urged her to cling to Dohwi.

Clutching his firm arm, she desperately tried to suppress the moans that kept erupting. Yet, unable to contain herself, soft, whimpering sounds continued to escape her lips.

Dohwi swiftly noticed the water trickling down her pale legs. He exhaled roughly and said urgently, “Damn it, this won’t do. Choi Ari, wrap your arms around my neck.”

Lingering here any longer risked her heat cycle fully kicking in, which could escalate into a much bigger problem.

Her light-colored H-line skirt was already soaked in a circular patch at the front, as if she’d wet herself. Ari’s face, flushed with arousal, was the very image of an omega in heat.

Determined to get her out of there as quickly as possible, Dohwi scooped Ari up into his arms.

“Damn it. This is driving me crazy. Choi Ari, your pheromones…”

“Ugh…”

“Shit, this is like playing with fire.”

Dohwi was in agony, tormented by Ari’s pheromones emanating from his arms.

He had been certain he felt no romantic interest in Choi Ari, not even a flicker. Yet, her fragrant pheromones, wafting from his embrace, kept causing his lower body to swell uncontrollably. A strange thirst kept rising within him.

“Dohwi… hic… I… I feel so strange. Sniff…”

“Just hold on a little longer. Let’s get to the hotel first. I’ll get you a suppressant right away.”

As Ari’s condition worsened, Dohwi had no choice but to scoop her up and rush to the hotel above the club.

“Haa… hah…”

Barely making it to the hotel room, Dohwi swiped the card key and dragged her into the bathroom.

Ari, her body burning with fever and her reason half-gone, seemed barely aware of her surroundings.

Having never been exposed to such intense pheromones before, she had no idea how to resist the sudden, overwhelming sensations.

“Hngh… Dohwi, Dohwi… I… I feel so strange. Hngh…”

“Hey. Choi Ari.”

Her small hand weakly gripped Dohwi’s firm forearm, clinging to him. This defenselessness inexplicably infuriated him.

“I… hngh… please… do something… for me. Yeah?”

Just then, Ari bit her lip and began rubbing her lower body against his leg.

“Hah… It’s so… strange… Hngh… Oh..”

Ari knew she shouldn’t be doing this, but her body refused to obey her mind. Overwhelmed by the strange sensations washing over her, tears streamed down her large eyes.

“Ugh, Dohwi… Dohwi… hic…”

Dohwi’s dark eyebrows shot up at Ari’s instinctive actions—clinging to him and rubbing her breasts and vulva against his body. The last thread of his self-control snapped with an audible snap.

Dohwi ran a hand roughly over his face, then gripped her small face tightly, a bitter smile twisting his lips.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

“Hic… Please… do something… please…”

“Fuck… You’re the one who begged for this first, Choi Ari.”

“Hng, uh…”

“Now you owe me.”

Before the words had even finished leaving his lips, his large hand clamped down on her slender neck, pulling her close. Their lips crashed together in a rough, demanding kiss.

“Hng, uh, mmm…!”

Dohwi’s thick tongue thrust boldly into her parted lips, tangling with hers in a deep, intense kiss.

“Mmph, mmm…!”

Intoxicated by arousal, the alpha and omega clung to each other, their mouths devouring each other’s lips and exchanging saliva in a feverish exchange.

Dohwi’s raging arousal pressed relentlessly against Ari’s delicate body.

His swollen member was so hard and rigid it felt like a piece of wood heated to burning, creating a strange, searing sensation as it rubbed against her.

“Haa… mm…”

Each time Dohwi’s hot, thick tongue slid like a serpent against her delicate inner walls, his intensely potent alpha pheromones permeated her body with a tingling heat.

Ari cautiously opened her eyes to glance at him, but the fear in his crimson gaze—as if he wanted to devour her whole—forced her to squeeze her eyes shut again.

His vividly glowing red eyes seemed to betray the full extent of his arousal.

They continued their frantic kiss, bodies pressed tightly together, lower halves grinding against each other.

“Haa… haa…”

Soon, a strand of saliva, its origin unclear, arced downward and dripped.

“Haa… I thought you were just a half-baked omega. But now that your pheromones are intensifying, you’re actually pretty damn tempting.”

Dohwi, his eyes narrowed, stroked Ari’s lips, still slightly swollen from their recent kiss, and said, “And of course, I’ve known all along that you’re an omega.”

“What?” Ari, her reason clouded by arousal, frowned at Dohwi’s words.

As Ari instinctively tensed, shrinking her small frame, Dohwi’s large hand clamped down hard on her full breast.

“Hngh…!”

He kneaded both breasts like dough with his hands, a smirk playing on his lips.

“Why did I pretend not to know? Hmm… Let’s just say it was… amusing to watch you so convinced you were hiding it so well.”

“Hah… Dohwi, wait, hngh…!”

After fondling her breasts for a while, his large hand now gripped her wet vulva tightly.

“Why didn’t you take your suppressants today? You’re usually so diligent about it.”

“Haa, Dohwi, th-there…”

“You were fine with those lowlifes earlier, but you’re acting like you hate my pheromones?”

“Ugh, that’s not it…”

“Ari, hah, your pussy is so plump.”

Ari shook her head violently at his crude laughter. With each possessive squeeze of her vulva, she could feel herself growing wetter below.

The aftereffects of being drenched in his dominant pheromones had made Ari’s body twice as sensitive as usual.

Ari, whose heat cycles usually passed quietly and who, as a recessive omega, had virtually no sex drive, found the strange, wave-like sensations overwhelming and frightening.

Ever since entering the hotel, the pheromones filling the enclosed space had made her body feel completely alien.

A primal urge to have something hot and large thrust relentlessly inside her was the only sensation that dominated her.

As this unfamiliar lust repeatedly surged through her body, Ari, terrified, clung to Dohwi’s arm, desperately pleading with the last shred of her rationality.

“Hngh, Dohwi… please, hngh, reduce your pheromones… I… I feel strange. It’s too much, hngh…”

“Strange? Where?”

“Down there… down there, hngh… It’s too much, it hurts. So please, just reduce your pheromones…”

“Down there? Your pussy hurts?”

“Hngh… uh…”

“Choi Ari, answer me straight. Is your pussy hurting?”

“Mmm, y-yes… My pussy, my pussy hurts.”

Driven by a desperate desire for even a second of relief from his pheromones, Ari’s plump lips mumbled the words Dohwi demanded.

“How cute. Just moments ago, you were saying you hated me… and now you’re begging me to touch your pussy.”

“Hng, please…”

Tear-like pearls finally spilled from her large, glistening eyes.

As the tears streamed down Ari’s pale cheeks, Dohwi’s lips curled into a smirk as he stared intently at her, his excitement palpable.

“Ari, should I take a look at your pussy?”

“Hng, it feels strange… uh…”

“Hurry up and say it. ‘Please check my hole.’ What if that bastard messed something up earlier?”

“Hngh… hole… look… please look at it. Please…”

“Heh, you’re so cute.”

As Ari gasped for breath, completely losing herself, Dohwi’s large hand stroked her vagina as if praising it.

Each time his thick fingers rubbed against her wet underwear, a moan escaped Ari’s lips.

He tormented her through her panties for a long while. Then, a pheromone far more potent than before began to emanate from within her underwear.

The intensely fragrant pheromone, potent enough to paralyze her entire body, stung Dohwi’s nostrils. He scowled fiercely, his thick eyebrows furrowing as he glared at Ari.

“Ha, Choi Ari. Looks like your heat cycle has started.”

“Heat… hngh… it’s not supposed to… there’s still time left in my cycle…”

Dohwi, brimming with excitement, slapped Ari’s fidgeting hand away from her vulva and sneered, “You’re like this because you got drenched in extremely dominant alpha pheromones at the club. What did you even learn in sex education?”

“Hngh… I… I can’t take it anymore… Dohwi… hngh…”

As Ari, unable to contain her arousal, reached for her vulva again, Dohwi seized her slender wrists, pinning them down with a growl.

“Hands off. I never gave you permission to touch yourself.”

With her hands restrained, Ari twisted her thighs and writhed her hips, the mounting sexual tension driving her to the brink of madness.

“Hmph, Dohwi, I hate this…”

“Choi Ari, who slept through sex education class. It’s time for your punishment.”

“No, hic, no… it’s not true…”

“What’s not true?”

“*Hic*, I… I didn’t sleep. I didn’t…”

Ari shook her small face violently from side to side, her expression one of injustice.

Of course, she knew that the pheromones of an extremely dominant alphas were dangerous. It was one of the most crucial lessons taught to all omegas as part of their basic education.

But in her ordinary life, encounters with extremely dominant alphas were exceedingly rare. Even if she did happen to meet one by chance, the idea of being overwhelmed by their pheromones seemed like something that only happened in dramas or novels.

Ari had never imagined that something like this would ever happen in her perfectly ordinary life.

“You didn’t take your suppressants and crawled into a club on your own two feet? Do you even know what kind of bastards frequent places like that? You need to be taught a lesson, Ari.”

Dohwi restrained both of Ari’s wrists with one hand while roughly turning on the shower with the other.

“Hng, hng, no, hng…!”

A torrent of cold water immediately cascaded over Ari with a whoosh*

Ari thrashed violently, struggling to escape his grip as the icy water poured over her.

“Hng, why the water…!”

“You smell like another alpha. It’s disgusting.”

As the narrow bathroom filled with the pheromones of an omega in heat, Dohwi’s rationality began to crumble.

This was the first time he had ever seen an omega so completely overwhelmed by their heat cycle, so utterly lost to reason. He had never allowed such a situation to arise before.

An omega in heat was far more stimulating than he had ever imagined.

Now he understood why alphas lost their minds around omegas in heat.

He felt arrogant for ever believing he could control his pheromones.

Most of all, the intensely concentrated pheromones emanating from Ari’s vaginal fluids were unbearably stimulating. The piercingly fragrant pheromones made Dohwi’s cock throb painfully, as if it were about to burst.

Uncharacteristically for him, a dark, possessive desire to conquer the omega before him surged within him.

“Where did that bastard touch you earlier?”

He roughly tore open her sheer blouse and yanked down her bra, which had already slipped halfway off her shoulders.

The moment the bra was removed, her full, rounded breasts sprang into view, as if they had been waiting to be released.

“Ha. Fuck. Fucking beautiful.”

Dohwi let out a gasp of admiration as he gazed at a woman’s breasts for the first time in his life.

The pale, rounded breasts featured delicate, light-colored nipples perfectly positioned.

Just hours ago, these breasts had surely never been touched by anyone. The thought that some other bastard had touched them before him filled him with an inexplicable rage. Yet he couldn’t understand why he was so furious.

“Answer me. Did that bastard touch your breasts or not?”

“Hng, Dohwi…”

“Don’t give me that shit. Answer properly.”

“He… he touched them. Hng, stop. It’s cold, Dohwi, hng…!”

Dohwi roughly rubbed the showerhead against her breasts. Ari whimpered in distress under the harsh spray.

“That bastard probably saw and touched you, didn’t he? Am I right?”

The showerhead, which had been aimed at her breasts, now targeted the inside of her thigh.

The forceful stream of water stimulated her already hypersensitive vagina, causing another moan to escape Ari’s lips.

“Haa… Dohwi, Dohwi.”

“Hah. Are you rubbing your thighs together because of the showerhead? Are you feeling it?”

As Ari twisted her thighs, he growled, his large hand gripping her vagina tightly.

“Choi Ari, you’re still a virgin, right?”

“Hmph, what?”

“Is this your first time?”

At his crude question, Ari nodded.

“Good. I absolutely hate sharing what’s mine with anyone else.”

“Hngh…!”

Without giving her a chance to protest that she wasn’t his, Dohwi gripped her vagina tightly again.

“I can’t stand using things others have used. That’s why I never wear vintage clothes.”

She didn’t even have the rationality left to ask what kind of bullshit he was spouting.

All that mattered was how unbearably good it felt to have Dohwi kneading her vagina so thoroughly. Each time his long, firm fingers enveloped her entire vulva, molding it like clay, a strange, ticklish pleasure bloomed deep within her.

“Hah… uhn… more, Dohwi, more… It’s too much… hngh…!”

Already consumed by pleasure, Ari clutched Dohwi’s solid forearm, pressing her lower body even closer to his hand. She began moving her hips rhythmically, grinding her vagina against his palm.

Only by doing this could she hope to escape the unknown heat swirling violently below her navel.

“Dohwi, hngh, yes, mmh…”

“Ha. You’re rubbing your pussy against my hand?”

“Yes, Dohwi, hngh…!”

“Haa, bitch. You’re really letting yourself go.”

Dohwi, breathing heavily, yanked down Ari’s already soaked skirt and panties in one swift motion. With his large hands, he forcefully spread her pale thighs wide.

“Ha, crazy. Fucking beautiful.”

Ari’s pussy was as much a work of art as her beautiful breasts.

From the small, pink hole, as tempting as a ripe fruit, honey-like fluid flowed continuously.

Dohwi watched the stream of fragrant pheromone-laden fluid, his long, firm fingers rubbing between her legs. The wet, smacking sounds of his fingers sliding against her flesh echoed sensually.

“Hngh… right there… more. Do more.”

Ari gripped Dohwi’s strong wrist as he probed her depths, her hips moving rhythmically on their own. Her urgent movements, urging him on, made Dohwi look at her, suppressing a burst of laughter.

“Choi Ari, did you know you’re way more of a horndog than you look?”

‘You look like a baby, yet you have such a wildly sensual body.’

Dohwi exhaled roughly, sucking greedily on her luscious breasts.

The moment Dohwi’s tongue gently teased her nipple, the pale areola hardened into an adorable peak.

“Actually, when I first saw you at university, I thought you were the omega I’d been looking for. I was so excited… but then I realized you weren’t, and I was pissed.”

“Ugh, what… what are you talking about?”

“But now, it doesn’t matter. If I can’t fuck you right now, I think I’ll go crazy.”

Dohwi murmured lazily, rubbing his swollen bulge against her vulva.

“Ari. Do you like me that much? Enough to drip like this?”

“Hng, no, not anymore… ugh…”

Even in this state, she still had the presence of mind to answer properly. Dohwi chuckled, amused by her unwavering politeness.

“Liar. You’re my fan. Don’t think I didn’t notice you secretly staring at me all three years of high school. You even carry my picture in your wallet, don’t you? Creepy.”

“The photo… hic… I was about to take it out… Ah, ahng…!”

Dohwi rubbed her vagina with even more rhythmic strokes than before, his voice dripping with smugness. The wet, slapping sounds that accompanied each movement of his hand stoked an unbearable excitement.

“How does it feel? To be touched by the man you’ve been pining after for over three years?”

“Dohwi… haah… uh… S-slow down…”

“What’s the point of asking? You must be fucking honored. Stupid question, huh?”

A gush of fluid poured from her tight opening, cascading down Dohwi’s fingers and dripping to his forearm.

Praising her remarkably responsive vagina for leaking at every touch, Dohwi pinched her clitoris lightly with his fingers.

“N-no, uh, sob, ah, ahng!”

“If it feels this good, huff, what? You think you wouldn’t be sad if I died?”

“Haaah… there, mmm…!”

Dohwi massaged Ari’s clitoris with his index finger, causing her small body to tremble violently as if struck by lightning.

Finding her reaction adorable, he moved his finger even faster, rubbing the sensitive spot relentlessly.

“Hng, uh, Dohwi, there, g-good, sob…!”

In that instant, an unfamiliar pleasure washed over Ari’s entire body—a sensation she had never experienced before.

Her mind went blank as a strange, swirling sensation bloomed from her toes to the crown of her head.

“Does it feel good here?”

As she twisted her hips with a piercing moan, Dohwi’s firm fingers stimulated her clitoris with increasing speed.

“Ah, hah, ah, ahng, ah!”

Moments later, a clear stream of water erupted from her tight opening like a fountain.

Riding the cascading water, Ari’s pheromones intensified, assaulting Dohwi’s nostrils.

Dohwi gazed at her hand, now drenched, and showered her neck, collarbone, and breasts with relentless kisses.

“Heh heh. Ari, did you just cum from finger play? Hmm?”

“Hngh, uh…”

His eyes burned crimson as he stared at Ari, still panting as if the afterglow hadn’t faded.

“Does it feel good?”

“U-uh. Hngh…”

“Does it feel good, Choi Ari?”

“Y-yes, Dohwi. Hngh…”

“See? You still like me, right?”

Dohwi propped the limp Ari on the edge of the bathtub, buried his face between her thighs, and began to savor her intoxicating scent in earnest.

“Ugh, Dohwi, there… ugh…!”

Ari whimpered, her legs thrashing as his hair tickled the inside of her thighs. But it was futile.

Dohwi, utterly aroused by her pheromones, remained as still as a rock, pressing his face against her vulva and beginning to rub against it.

“Haah. Your pheromones are driving me crazy. How can they be this good? Hmm?”

Her vulva, which had been dripping moments ago, now emitted an even more potent pheromone than when they first entered the hotel.

Dohwi wore an expression of pure bliss, as if he were gazing upon the most delectable dish imaginable. He showered her wet vulva with kisses, making soft, wet smack sounds.

Then, with his thick tongue, he licked between her labia before sweeping it across her entire vulva in a broad, upward stroke.

“Haaah, there, hngh, ah, ahngh!”

This time, he sharpened his tongue to a point and gently tickled between her folds, causing another cascade of liquid to spill forth.

With each drop of her arousal fluid, her pheromones intensified, threatening to overwhelm Dohwi’s senses.

He knew theoretically that the groin was the most concentrated source of pheromones, but the reality was far more potent than any textbook could convey.

Dohwi licked her vulva with abandon, a lewd thought seizing his mind: he could spend all day with his tongue buried in that sweet crevice, licking, sucking, and teasing, and still not get enough.

“Ha, Choi Ari. I’m really at my limit now,” Dohwi said, showing her his throbbing bulge. His cock, swollen to bursting, throbbed with a numb ache.

He straddled the bathtub, scooped up the disheveled Ari, and strode to the bed, tossing her down roughly.

“Hah, Ari. Let’s get you undressed.”

He completely stripped off the bra and panties clinging precariously to her naked body, then buried his face between her legs, licking her vulva like a dog.

“Hngh, Dohwi, hngh…!”

“Your pheromones are driving me fucking insane. Bitch…”

His crimson eyes burned with savage lust, glowing even more fiercely.

He had never been this aroused before, not even during a rut.

Every nerve in his body seemed to be consumed by Choi Ari’s pheromones.

Dohwi’s reason was paralyzed by her scent, making him feel as if they were the only two beings in the vast universe.

“Hah, Choi Ari. Don’t close your legs. Spread them properly.”

“Hngh, uh…”

“Wider. So I can see your hole clearly.”

Dohwi slid one thick-boned finger into her slick, wet opening.

The inner walls of the omega, already drenched in heat, easily accommodated his firm, elongated finger.

He slowly increased the number of fingers while unzipping his pants.

“Hah… I want to be gentle since it’s your first time… but I’m, hng, too impatient.”

With a metallic rasp, Dohwi yanked down his pants and pitch-black briefs in one swift motion.

Beneath his well-defined abs, a dark crimson erection sprang upward. His member, clearly weapon-like at a glance, was marked by thick veins that bulged vividly across its shaft.

From the coarse pubic hair to the glistening tip slick with arousal fluid, the rigidly curved shaft, and the heavy, pendulous testicles below… his member resembled a living serpent.

Dohwi gripped his cock and rubbed it against Ari’s wet pussy.

The mere friction against her slick, red flesh made his member swell with renewed vigor.

Reaching his limit, Dohwi forced his thick glans into her tight opening.

“Fuck, Ari, hnnngh…”

Her inner walls were narrow, warm, and clingy.

As her slick juices enveloped his cock, an overwhelming wave of lust surged through him like a tidal wave.

Fueled by mounting excitement, Dohwi’s body released thick pheromones in repeated bursts.

“Ah, inside you… fuck, it feels so good. It’s driving me crazy.”

Dohwi growled low like a mating male, gripping Ari’s slender waist tightly.

“Haa, Dohwi, ah, aah!”

“Ha, Ari. Ari.”

Soon after, frantic thrusting began, each stroke echoing with a sharp thwack, thwack.

Dohwi moved his hips wildly, like a man possessed, his eyes fixed on the small, helpless body trembling beneath him.

“Is… is sex… supposed to feel this good?”

“I… I don’t… know… hngh, ah, ahngh!”

Was sex supposed to feel this good?

How could it possibly feel this good?

Dohwi panted heavily, his thrusts growing more violent, each stroke echoing with a sharp thwack, thwack.

The sensation was beyond anything he’d ever experienced during masturbation. An overwhelming pleasure surged through his groin, each wave more intense than the last.

The sheer intensity of this newfound pleasure was intoxicating, like being struck by lightning over and over again.

But above all, the sight of Choi Ari panting, her lower mouth clamped around his cock as if she might sever it, was unbearably erotic.

Her parted lips revealed her ragged breaths, and her tear-soaked, wide eyes gazed up at him, glistening with unshed tears.

The way her small, childlike hands gripped his forearm with feeble strength, the way she whimpered like a kitten—it was all unbearably adorable.

Her full breasts, swaying rhythmically up and down, were a breathtaking sight.

Dohwi kneaded her breasts like soft rice cakes before taking a large bite of one.

With her supple breast in his mouth, he suckled greedily, like a baby nursing at its mother’s breast.

As if regretting neglecting the other breast that bobbed up and down, he repeatedly kneaded the one he couldn’t suck with his large hand.

After a long while of licking her breast, Dohwi’s hot tongue now tickled her smooth armpit.

“Ah… why there? Hngh…!”

“Your pheromone scent is strong here too.”

“Disgusting… I hate it… Ugh…”

As he licked upward along her armpit, Ari, unable to bear the ticklish sensation, squirmed and tightened her inner walls. A rough, metallic groan naturally escaped Dohwi’s lips.

He massaged both of Ari’s breasts with his large hands, licking away the tears that stained her clear face.

“Why is even your pubic hair so soft?”

“Ah… Ugh…!”

“Hah… You’re so soft all over, Ari.”

He fondled her neatly trimmed pubic hair, slick with an unknown fluid, and thoroughly explored Ari’s narrow inner walls.

With each rapid thrust of his dark red member, a squelching sound echoed from her crimson vulva.

“Hah… Dohwi, slow down…”

“Sweet, Ari, why are you so sweet all over? Hmm?”

Overwhelmed with arousal, Dohwi gripped Ari’s thighs and spread her legs even wider.

Under the bright hotel room lights, their joined bodies were laid bare.

Dohwi stared at the glistening junction, mesmerized by the unknown fluid seeping from their union, like a man lost in ecstasy.

The water carried a constant stream of potent pheromones, ensnaring him in a spell so intoxicating and irresistible that he found himself helplessly drawn to this petite woman.

“Ah… Dohwi, there… hngh…!”

“Hah, right here?”

“Mmm… uhn… ah…!”

“Does it feel good here, Ari?”

“Yes… so… good… so good…!”

Dohwi frantically increased his pace, thrusting relentlessly into the spot that drove Ari wild.

With each increasingly violent thrust, Ari’s small body flailed helplessly.

Remembering her recent climax, he used his long, firm fingers to part her wet pubic hair, rubbing the swollen flesh beneath from side to side.

“Hah, Ari, you really like it here, don’t you?”

“Ah… yes, Dohwi…! Slow… hngh…!”

The moment of penetration sent a violent orgasm crashing through Ari’s body as her clitoris was relentlessly stimulated.

Her mind flashed white, and she felt an overwhelming urge to urinate, as if she were about to wet herself. The rough pleasure surged through her, causing her small, pale toes to twitch and curl inward.

“Haa, ah, ah, ah!”

Ari’s slender body trembled violently, as if convulsing, before a fountain of vaginal fluid erupted from her tight opening.

“Haa, ha…”

Feeling the warm, urine-like liquid gush beneath her, Ari collapsed limply. The lingering aftershocks of the orgasm left her utterly drained, too weak to even twitch a finger.

“Hah, Ari.”

Dohwi, still buried deep inside her, gazed down at the sprawled omega, his eyes raking over her glistening, naked form with a predatory gaze.

He slowly withdrew his cock, gripped it firmly, and splattered a map of lust across her body.

Semen splattered across her pale skin, covering her neck, collarbone, breasts, navel, and pubic mound. Dohwi then massaged his semen into her skin, spreading it like lotion.

“Choi Ari. Can you feel our pheromones mixing?”

“Hng, uhn…”

“Fuck, you’re so fucking hot, seriously.”

Dohwi pulled her small, pheromone-drenched body into his arms and showered her with relentless kisses.

He kissed her rounded forehead, her glistening eyelids, her dainty, upturned nose, her plump, rosy cheeks, her full lips… no part of her was spared his saliva.

“I love smelling my pheromones on you, huff.”

‘Is this what sex between alphas and omegas is like? Is this why everyone craves to be paired and have their pheromones bound together?’

Dohwi stared at his still-throbbing member, its heat refusing to subside even after climaxing moments ago. The stubborn thing remained erect, showing no signs of relenting.

As he adjusted Ari’s position for a second penetration, he noticed she had grown unnervingly still. Her shallow breaths from moments ago had vanished.

“Choi Ari… are you asleep?”

“……”

Looking down at the omega who had fainted in his arms, Dohwi let out a sigh tinged with frustration.

‘Just one session, and she’s already passed out?’

Was it the alcohol, the sudden heat, or the intensity of their first time? Whatever the reason, Ari remained unconscious.

“Ha… This is driving me crazy.”

Dohwi stared down at his stubbornly erect cock, as if in disbelief.

Seeing his cock throbbing with desire to plunge into Ari’s tight hole, he felt a growing sense of frustration.

‘It’s not nearly enough. We’ve only just begun.’

He resented her for getting him so worked up only to fall asleep first.

Dohwi buried his nose in her swollen pussy, still slightly inflamed from their recent lovemaking, and inhaled deeply.

As Ari’s pheromones flooded his senses, his mind strangely cleared.

He pressed the tip of his nose into her tight hole, savoring her pheromones again and again. Then, as her juices began to flow, he licked them all up with the broad surface of his tongue, as if not wanting to waste a single drop.

This intimate area was the most potent source of pheromones on Ari’s body.

Perhaps because of this, his arousal responded frankly to her pheromones, his member stiffening once more, its veins bulging crimson.

“Haa… All day, I’ve wanted nothing more than to suck your pussy. I think I could.”

Dohwi firmly spread her legs into an M-shape and pinned them in place before settling in to savor her vulva.

He inhaled the scent of her intimate area nestled between her pale thighs, gently caressed its contours with his hands, and tasted the flowing arousal fluid.

‘Soon, I’ll bring a vial to collect the fluid from this adorable pussy,’ he thought as he rubbed his briefs, discarded on the bed, against her vulva for a long moment.

It was an unspoken instinct, a desire to preserve and carry away even this trace of her pheromones.

As her vaginal fluids soaked his pitch-black briefs, Dohwi’s lips curled into a satisfied smirk.

“Ah, Ari… huff…”

After thoroughly saturating the underwear with her fluids, Dohwi pressed his rock-hard erection against her vulva, grinding against her with frantic intensity.

But the sleeping Ari didn’t let out those adorable moans from earlier, nor did she gaze up at him with tear-filled, glistening eyes.

“Haah… I’m going crazy.”

As he relentlessly rubbed his cock between her plump labia, his member swelled with savage urgency. The mere friction was clearly not enough.

With his large hand, he began kneading her breasts with a slow, deliberate rhythm.

The way her breasts stiffened into erect peaks at the gentle touch of his thumb and forefinger was unbearably cute.

“Damn it. I can’t just fuck someone who’s asleep.”

Unable to resist the urge, Dohwi began sucking and licking every inch of Ari’s pheromone-rich areas: her neck, armpits, breasts, inner thighs, fingers, and toes.

As he stroked his own rock-hard cock, savoring her intoxicating pheromones, the urge to ejaculate surged through him.

“Ah, Ari… hngh…!”

He ended up coating her body in a thick, milky white fluid once again, yet his arousal persisted, his member throbbing relentlessly.

Even he couldn’t explain why he was so intensely aroused, but one thing was certain:

He couldn’t allow Choi Ari to roam freely like this any longer.

Now that they had shared intimacy, she was his omega, and he couldn’t let her alluring pheromones attract the attention of other alphas.

“After all, Choi Ari already likes me.”

Though she had glared at him like a cat and spouted nonsense about not caring if he died, Dohwi didn’t believe it was her true feelings.

The memory of her clinging to him, rubbing against him, and begging him to do something for her was still vivid. There was no way she could truly hate him.

Moreover, after succumbing to her heat pheromones and sharing intimacy, Dohwi found her strangely adorable and lovable. He saw her as beautiful, just like a teenage boy smitten with his first love.

Even he, who had never felt particularly strongly about Ari, was experiencing this. She must feel the same way, if not more intensely, given how long she’d been his fan.

Though she might have felt a momentary pang of disappointment over a trivial matter stemming from their hierarchical relationship, he had no doubt that she would return to her old self, Choi Ari, as soon as she opened her eyes.

“So this is why everyone urges you to find an omega to marry quickly…”

Dohwi struggled to calm his still-aroused member as he pulled the limp, small omega into a tight embrace.

After sharing his body with Choi Ari, the fog that had always clouded his mind cleared with astonishing clarity.

He could clearly feel the toxins gradually being purged from his body.

His family had repeatedly advised him to find a suitable omega, form a bond, and start a family as soon as possible, seeing him suffer from the increasingly accumulating toxins in his system.

His physician, Gi, and even his cousin had both warned him that the only way to manage the toxins building up in his body was to bond with an omega without delay.

As a extremely dominant alpha, Dohwi’s body naturally accumulated toxins frequently. Compounding this, he only became aroused by specific pheromones, making even self-stimulation difficult. His only recourse was to take alpha hormone-regulating medication daily.

At first, the medication had worked well, but over time, Dohwi developed a tolerance, requiring him to increase the dosage. Recently, he had even resorted to intravenous drips and other treatments to manage his condition.

“So, just having sex with an omega can clear my head like this?”

Dohwi, still struggling to control his aroused state, gently pulled Ari, who was sprawled across the bed, into his arms.

In that moment, he finally understood why the extremely dominant alphas around him were so obsessed with omegas and relentlessly pursued sexual encounters.

He gazed quietly at the sleeping Choi Ari, a satisfied expression spreading across his face before he closed his eyes.

For the first time since manifesting as an extremely dominant alpha, Dohwi drifted into a deep, migraine-free sleep.

***

The next morning.

“Ugh…”

Ari blinked her heavy eyelids, her body feeling as heavy as a soaked cotton ball.

Beyond the fully drawn curtains, an excessively bright and dazzling sunlight streamed in.

‘In this light, you could probably see every single thing in detail,’ she thought, turning her head. Her gaze fell upon a massive figure with its face buried between her legs, even at this early hour.

“Gasp! W-what is this…!”

As her mind slowly cleared, the first sensation she registered was a strange feeling below her navel.

Struggling to lift her heavy body, Ari tried to see what was happening beneath her legs.

“You’re awake now?”

She froze, speechless, as she saw Dohwi beneath her, greeting her with an unnervingly composed expression.

Unlike yesterday, Dohwi looked remarkably refreshed. He was buried his face between her legs, sniffing her intimately like a dog savoring a scent.

“Y-you, you, what are you doing?!”

“It’s so small… how did I even fit? Seriously, amazing.”

His voice was unusually gentle, as if he were in an exceptionally good mood.

“Hah… there, why…!”

“Because it’s so cute. I just want to keep kissing it.”

“What?!”

He rubbed his hair against her vulva, showering it with kisses as if it were something precious.

Ari couldn’t help but be stunned by the way he treated her vulva, caressing it like a small, adorable creature.

“Hmph, Moon Dohwi, stop that right now!”

“Ha, Ari. Your pheromones are seriously insane.”

Despite his gentle voice, his crimson-purple cock stood rigidly erect, like a menacing weapon.

As Ari sensed the potent alpha pheromones emanating from the tip of his cock, she finally realized that her own body was vibrating with Dohwi’s pheromones.

Her fair, naked skin was splattered with thick, milky-white fluid—covering her breasts, navel, and pubic area.

Judging by the sheer volume of the viscous liquid, she knew he had come on her repeatedly.

“Ari, let me suck your sweet little pussy.”

“S-sweet little pussy?”

“Yeah. Choi Ari’s pussy.”

Ignoring her horrified reaction to his crude, perverted nickname for her genitals, Dohwi’s thick tongue slithered over her narrow opening like a snake, teasing her.

“Haaah…!”

“Ari, have you ever heard that your pheromones are… captivating?”

“N-no, I haven’t, hngh…”

Ari twisted her waist with difficulty, her legs flailing.

‘Why is he suddenly so obsessed with pheromones since yesterday?’

Ari wanted to understand why the usually aloof Moon Dohwi had undergone such a drastic change in attitude overnight.

Her pheromones weren’t like those of other omegas—no sweet peach scent or dazzling floral fragrance. They were merely subtle, like common wildflowers blooming in a vast field.

How could such a humble pheromone, tinged with the scent of grass, arouse him so intensely? No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t make sense of her current predicament.

“Hngh… Stop it…!”

Ari gripped Dohwi’s hair as he buried his face in her vulva, licking her like a dog.

Before she could even marvel at the surprising density of his hair, so thick that his scalp was barely visible, Dohwi looked up, licking his lips glistening with her arousal fluid.

“My birth chart is all fire. They said I’d do well with a woman with earth energy… I think that’s you.”

“Ugh, what?”

“Your pheromones. They smell like wildflowers. That’s probably why my subscribers skyrocketed after you started helping with the editing… I never believed in this stuff before and always ignored my grandmother’s advice. But it seems like she was right.”

“What does that have to do with… hic… with… anything?”

“With our sexual chemistry being this perfect, it would be stranger if we weren’t destined for each other.”

Ari struggled to push Dohwi away, who kept spouting nonsense about fate. But despite her whimpering efforts, his rock-solid body didn’t budge.

Of course, she knew from a silly online fortune reading she had done at the beginning of the year that her astrological chart was overflowing with earth energy. But seeing Dohwi’s eyes gleaming like he’d just taken a clarity-enhancing tonic as he frantically licked another person’s genitals made him seem utterly out of his mind.

Wait, if it smelled like grass, shouldn’t it be wood, not earth? Or was that wrong? Can’t she call it wood? Was it earth after all? But grass blades were green, and trees are green too. So shouldn’t it be wood?

Why was her pheromone’s very identity so ambiguous? Why did Moon Dohwi get so worked up over such a bland, utterly unremarkable pheromone? The moment that thought crossed her mind—

“Choi Ari. What are you thinking about, staring off into space like that?”

Dohwi began teasing her narrow opening with the tip of his tongue.

“Hng, not down there, hng…!”

“Do omegas always get this wet? If you’re this wet normally, aren’t your panties always damp? Doesn’t that bother you?”

Still gripping her hair, Dohwi continued to kiss her luscious pussy, his lips smacking wetly.

“How could our Ari have kept such a sexy body hidden away for so long?”

Ari shivered at his tone, which sounded like he was soothing a child. It was as if he were shaking a rattle and putting on a show in front of her pussy.

“Cute. So cute. Choi Ari, you’re really cute.”

“Dohwi, please, stop… I’m really struggling, hng…”

“What’s so hard about it? Just lie still. I’ll take care of everything.”

“No, uh, it’s too intense… it’s overwhelming!”

As her most sensitive area was relentlessly stimulated by his hot, thick tongue, Ari’s small hands fell limply onto the bed.

Her body still ached all over from the previous night’s passionate encounter, and her voice was half-cracked, barely audible.

Yet seeing Dohwi, who looked not just energetic but even better than yesterday, Ari curled her small feet up in fear.

“Choi Ari, you really are dangerous.”

“What?! Why am I dangerous, uh…?!”

“Saying it’s too intense… Ari, you can’t just say things like that in front of an alpha. Fuck, it’s so damn hot.”

“S-Sorry. I take back what I just said. So…”

“You get me this hard and think saying sorry is enough?”

‘Wait, excuse me, sir! I didn’t even get you hard in the first place!’

Ari’s eyebrows arched in frusration as she faced the extremely dominant alpha who seemed determined to corner her at any cost.

“I should have just done this from the start. Ha. What an idiot I’ve been.”

Dohwi pinned her down, his slick, dripping cock grinding against her wet pussy.

“Dohwi, hngh, stop… It hurts there…!”

“Ari. We only did it once yesterday. I had to restrain myself so badly from fucking my little cutie. I just rubbed it against you all night, goddamn it. Don’t you feel sorry for my poor cock?”

“Not even a little bit… hic, ah!”

Whether she shook her head in protest or not, Dohwi gripped his cock and thrust it into her.

“Haa, hey!”

“Hmph, you started this. You were the one who rubbed your pussy against my hand… haa, begging for it.”

His forearm-thick member slid all the way in, burying itself to the root against her inner walls.

Ari gasped, the sudden pressure filling her abdomen stealing her breath.

“Ari, I never knew sex could feel this… huu, good.”

“Haa, Dohwi, it’s… hic, too much…!”

“Ha, it feels so good, Ari.”

The rhythmic thud, thud of his thrusts resumed, each stroke driving deeper.

Dohwi held Ari tightly, his hips moving relentlessly as he fucked her.

He bit down hard on her voluptuous breasts, which swayed up and down with each movement, sucking on them relentlessly like a baby nursing at its mother’s breast.

“Ari, your breasts are so cute.”

“Mmm… ah…!”

“I want to see milk flowing from them right here.”

Dohwi had heard that when omegas become pregnant, their nipples swell and darken.

Gazing at her breasts glistening with saliva, Dohwi could easily imagine her adorable nipples growing even larger, milk dripping down.

‘Would even her milk smell this good?’ he wondered. Every fluid flowing from her body reeked of erotic pheromones, so her milk would undoubtedly be intoxicatingly pleasurable.

“Ah… Dohwi, you’re going too deep… Please, ah!”

“Ari, your pheromones… they’re driving me crazy.”

“Hng, my… my pheromones? That can’t be right, uh…”

Dohwi tightened his grip on Ari, who was weakly struggling, and pressed his face against her neck.

“Hah… You’re the only one who doesn’t know. How special your pheromones are, hng…”

Dohwi recalled a day early in the semester when he had reunited with Ari, and thrust deeper into her.

It was the first week of classes after entering university. Dohwi frowned at the size of the lecture hall he had entered for a required general education course.

‘I thought the lecture hall would be huge since it’s a general education course shared with students from other departments, but it’s tiny?’

Dohwi sighed, overwhelmed by the cacophony of pheromones assaulting his senses.

As an extremely dominant alpha with an acute sensitivity to pheromones, he already disliked confined spaces. But this classroom, even smaller than his high school ones, was packed with students, their unfamiliar scents grating on his nerves.

‘Maybe I should wear a mask? Or open a window?’ He pressed his temples, trying to soothe the throbbing migraine that was intensifying.

Suddenly, a faint, pleasant fragrance wafted through the air.

‘…Huh?’

As if hypnotized, Dohwi turned to look at the back door.

A small, pale girl was cautiously entering through the back door, and from her emanated the pheromone he had been desperately searching for.

‘Choi Ari?’

The source of the fresh, grassy pheromone was none other than Choi Ari, the timid girl who had been glancing at him from afar for the past three years. Though they had never been in the same class, Dohwi knew her name well.

“Hey, Moon Dohwi, Choi Ari’s glancing at you from the end of the hallway again. Isn’t she cute? I’ve always liked girls who look like mochi.”

“I don’t know. She’s not really my type.”

“It’s a shame she’s a beta, though. If she were an omega, she’d be way more popular.”

“Does secondary gender really matter that much?”

“Hell yeah, it does. Sex with an omega is supposed to be on another level. Betas don’t even release pheromones, so they’re probably less arousing.”

Thanks to her pretty face, Choi Ari’s name was frequently mentioned among the boys as one of the most popular girls.

Usually, girls that popular would at least pretend not to notice and try to strike up a conversation. But whether it was due to her timid nature or lack of confidence, Choi Ari had spent the entire three years just glancing at him from afar.

One might expect them to accidentally brush past each other up close at least once, but Choi Ari seemed to have her own set of rules. She always watched him from the end of the hallway like a meerkat, never approaching within a certain distance. It was as if she wore an invisible, giant hula hoop, Ari always maintained a fan’s distance from him.

Whenever their paths happened to cross, creating an opportunity for them to get closer, Choi Ari would dart out of sight like a flying squirrel.

It was strange how she, clearly his fan, kept such a peculiar distance. But he simply thought of her as a quirky and amusing girl. That was the extent of his impression of Ari.

Back then, Dohwi was so consumed by his burning ambition to debut as a singer that he had no interest in romantic relationships. He had a truckload of girls chasing after him, and after years of trainee life, he’d grown weary of seeing exceptionally beautiful girls day in and day out. Even if Ari was popular among the boys, Dohwi had no reason to approach her first.

But when Dohwi realized that Choi Ari was emitting the exact same pheromone he had been desperately searching for, his heart finally stirred for her.

‘Could it be? Is Choi Ari the omega I’ve been looking for? I heard she was a beta. Was she actually an omega all along? Well, with such a faint pheromone, most alphas wouldn’t be able to detect it. It wouldn’t be too difficult for her to pass as a beta. So, I’m the only one who knows she’s an omega?

Dohwi stared intently at Choi Ari, who was looking around the lecture hall with a clear, innocent expression.

Then, acting completely out of character, he spoke to her first, gesturing for her to sit beside him.

“Choi Ari?”

“Huh? You… you know me?”

“Of course I do. Why wouldn’t I? We went to the same school. Don’t you know me?”

“No? I know you too… Moon Dohwi. I know you very well…”

Up close, Choi Ari was even more beautiful than he remembered.

Her delicate, porcelain-smooth skin, perfectly arranged features, and rabbit-like appearance instantly explained why his friends had mentioned her so often.

But the woman he was looking for wasn’t just any pretty girl. He had specifically enrolled at K University to find an omega with a particular pheromone signature.

“Choi Ari, is this your handwriting?”

“Huh? Yeah. I have terrible handwriting, don’t I?”

“You’re not wrong. It’s really bad.”

“Haha. It used to be even worse, but I’ve improved a lot.”

“This is your ‘improved’ handwriting? Compared to high school?”

“Yeah.”

After observing her for several days, Dohwi regretfully concluded that Choi Ari wasn’t the omega he was looking for.

Once this conviction solidified, Dohwi’s interest in Ari rapidly waned.

What’s more, since some point, she had been diligently taking suppressants, completely masking even the faint pheromone she had emitted when they first met.

He had initially been drawn to her because her pheromones resembled those of the omega he was searching for. Now that Choi Ari emitted no scent at all, there was no reason for him to find her attractive anymore.

‘Ha. What a waste of time.’

Just as he was regretting the time he’d spent trying to be nice to her—a personality so unlike his own—he began to appreciate her meticulous and responsible nature.

“Ari, do you know how to edit?”

“Edit? What kind of editing?”

“Video editing. I’ve been watching you during your project presentations, and I really like your meticulous and responsible personality. I’d love for you to help me out. You know how to edit, right?”

And so, Dohwi asked her to edit videos for his channel.

As expected, Ari excelled at her task.

However, Dohwi had no time to waste on socializing with his classmates or making memories at K University, which he had finally entered after so long.

He needed to find that omega—the one with the same pheromones as Choi Ari—as quickly as possible.

The thought that the only omega who had ever comforted him during his trainee days might be at K University filled him with urgency. He longed to discover her, his fated omega, and claim her as his mate.

The pheromones of extremely dominant alphas were toxic; if they didn’t engage in proper sexual activity with an omega, the toxins accumulate in their bodies. Having never been intimate with any omega, Dohwi suffered from severe daily migraines.

In truth, Dohwi had never experienced a truly satisfying climax during masturbation.

This was because, ever since he had fallen for an unnamed omega whose scent had been a great comfort to him during his trainee days, his body had developed an unusual sensitivity, becoming aroused only by specific pheromones.

Dohwi wasn’t alone in this; many alphas developed fetishes for particular pheromones. Typically, the scent of the first omega they had fallen for became imprinted on them like a brand, leading them to be drawn to omegas with similar pheromones.

However, in Dohwi’s case, the pheromone that had become imprinted on him was a rare blend of wildflower and grassy notes. Finding an omega with a similar scent proved to be an exceptionally difficult task.

He tried to find a similar perfume to satisfy his sexual urges, but such a rare pheromone was difficult to replicate as a fragrance.

No matter how much he masturbated, Dohwi couldn’t even properly ejaculate, causing toxins to accumulate in his body day after day.

Every minute felt urgent. He desperately wanted to find his fated omega, marry her as soon as possible, and build a stable life.

Dohwi never turned away the countless omegas who clung to him daily, sniffing their pheromones indiscriminately.

Some days, he inhaled so much pheromone that he felt nauseous, but he couldn’t afford to give up.

He needed that omega—the one whose scent was so similar to Choi Ari’s.

As he spent more time with her, rumors began to circulate that he and Choi Ari were dating.

Ari and Dohwi had become acquainted through her work as his YouTube editor, so he initially ignored the DMs. However, suspicions soon spread to the university’s online forum, Everytime.

Reluctantly, Dohwi began to distance himself from Ari.

He never knew when or where he might meet his fated omega. He was determined to maintain a pure body and mind, free from any taint, when that moment arrived.

In truth, the first time he’d caught a whiff of her pheromones, he’d repeatedly masturbated at home, inhaling the faint scent she’d left on his body.

Despite the guilt he felt for his past actions, Dohwi knew he had to cut ties with Ari.

‘It was unavoidable. I already had an omega, one chosen by fate itself.’

Then, she suddenly announced she was quitting her job as an editor.

Logically, he understood her decision perfectly. Anyone with a brain could see that Choi Ari liked him.

She’d been in love with him throughout high school and even after we got to college. It was only natural she’d be upset when he told her not to acknowledge him at school.

To make matters worse, none of the editors who contacted me for interviews met his standards. Dohwi regretted his past self, who had coolly dismissed her when she threatened to quit.

How could he coax this rabbit-like woman back into his life? Yet, making the first move felt like a blow to his pride. With these conflicting emotions swirling within him, he attended a club opening event where he unexpectedly ran into Choi Ari.

For some inexplicable reason, seeing her dressed up so beautifully and surrounded by unfamiliar alphas suddenly made him furious.

‘Why didn’t she take her suppressants before coming here?’

Unlike at school, Choi Ari’s pheromones exuded a fragrant, grassy scent—the very scent that had first captivated Dohwi.

Seeing her wearing meticulously applied makeup, a sheer blouse that revealed her jet-black bra, and grinning widely, he felt a growing sense of irritation.

It was as if impurities were clinging to the omega he had claimed. The feeling was utterly repulsive, like someone had dared to touch what was his.

Whenever Dohwi saw alphas trying to hit on Ari, alphas who couldn’t even detect her pheromones, he felt a strange, dark corruption seeping into his heart.

“Even if you got hit by a car, I don’t think I’d feel sad. A former fan is always scarier than an anti.”

“Don’t talk to me anymore. You’ve turned all the time I spent liking you into garbage. I’m starting to hate you.”

Oblivious to his inner turmoil, Choi Ari relentlessly spat out harsh words, acting as if his death wouldn’t matter and declaring her hatred for him.

How could her feelings flip so completely overnight? After lurking in the shadows, watching him for over three years?

Faced with Ari’s sudden, icy coldness, Dohwi felt his mind go numb.

His pride thoroughly wounded, Dohwi abruptly stood up, but made no attempt to stop her as she avoided him.

‘Ha, fuck. I should just go home. What the hell did I even come here for…?’

He’d never liked places like this, but he’d reluctantly shown his face only because some close creator friends were participating in the opening event.

After exchanging perfunctory greetings with the people he needed to see, he hurried toward the exit, intending to leave. But as he passed a room at the end of the corridor, Choi Ari’s pheromones leaked out.

‘…What’s this? Isn’t that Choi Ari’s pheromones? But why are they so strong? It’s like she’s in heat.’

Her pheromones, usually so faint they were barely detectable, now felt strangely intense.

The word “heat cycle” flashed through Dohwi’s mind, and he immediately sprinted toward the door, throwing it open with a violent shove.

‘Why does my gut feeling always hit the mark?’

The scene inside was a disaster.

Alphas and omegas were tangled together, and the room reeked of an extremely dominant alpha’s potent pheromones.

Dohwi’s neck prickled with cold dread. If he’d discovered this even a second later, who knew what might have happened?

‘Why did you come to a place like this? How irresistible is your pheromone? Pretending to be a beta doesn’t make you one. Why did you skip your suppressants today of all days, when you always took them religiously when you were with me?’

The voice of resentment kept surfacing in his mind, blaming her. He was furious with Ari for her carelessness.

Even though she hadn’t done anything wrong, he was seething with anger.

And when Ari’s heat cycle erupted, her pheromones overwhelmed him, making it truly impossible to resist having sex with her.

Her pheromones had always been more stimulating to Dohwi than those of any other omega. Standing before Choi Ari, who was panting and spreading her legs, turning away like a gentleman was simply out of the question.

The sex with Choi Ari was even better than he had imagined. It felt like being reborn, so much so that he wished he could stay inside her forever.

It was a blissful experience that divided his life into before and after holding her.

He had never slept with another omega, making comparison impossible, but he was certain that no woman could ever match the satisfaction she gave him.

Even the morning after their first night together, he was overwhelmed with emotion when he realized his chronic migraines had completely vanished.

Though he felt uneasy about sleeping with another woman while still searching for the omega he had longed for, he couldn’t bring himself to let Choi Ari go.

Being connected to her felt too good.

Even as he held her, he wanted to hold her tighter, to spend all day inhaling her pheromones and making love.

Her soft body, smooth skin, and adorable moans filled him with pleasure.

“Dohwi, there, hot, ah, ahng, ah!”

The rough thrusting continued for a long time, and both reached their climax simultaneously.

“Hah… Ari.”

But Dohwi didn’t withdraw his member. Instead, he resumed his rhythmic movements.

“W-wait, I just came…!”

“Let’s do it again. Hmm? It feels so good, Ari.”

“No, I’m tired… gasp… uh… ah!”

Before she could even savor the afterglow of her orgasm, her sensitive areas were relentlessly stimulated. Ari clung to his arm, panting as if she couldn’t breathe.

Unlike his initial clumsiness, Dohwi now remembered exactly where she liked to be touched. He skillfully massaged those spots with deliberate slowness, drawing out her pleasure.

Dohwi held Ari tightly as she sobbed, begging him to stop, and thrust deeply into her again and again.

***

“…Ah, I’m going to die.”

Ari stretched out on the bed, groaning as she stared at the orange-tinged sky through the large glass window. Her throat was completely hoarse, barely able to produce a sound.

Asking what time it was would have been pointless. The scenery outside the window had changed countless times while she was being tormented by Dohwi.

As an extremely dominant alpha, Dohwi possessed seemingly inexhaustible stamina, pounding into her relentlessly like a pubescent boy newly awakened to his sexuality.

He even recalled various positions he had studied in the past, attempting every conceivable pose. Ari suddenly felt like she had become a “various positions” pose model.

Dohwi constantly demanded embarrassing and humiliating positions, as if he were determined to try every possible sexual position between lovers. He insisted on positions like doggy style, one leg over the shoulder, and the 69 position, where they licked each other’s genitals.

Watching him count down on his fingers, grinning brightly as he declared they still had so many positions left to try, Ari nearly clenched her fist and threw a weak punch.

Soaked in sweat and too exhausted to move a finger, Ari was carried into the bathtub by Dohwi, who insisted on joining her. He fondled her again, claiming he was just washing her hair and body, before thrusting into her once more.

He promised to dry her hair, then rubbed his cock against her body, claiming he was turned on by the fluffy scent. Under the pretense of drying her wet pubic hair, he fondled Ari’s vulva with the hairdryer before burying his face between her legs and hungrily licking her tender flesh.

Perhaps it was because Dohwi had relentlessly tormented her lower body for two straight days, but Ari’s lower region was so swollen, sore, and painful that she could barely move.

Even when he wasn’t touching her, strange sensations kept washing over her body, as if she were constantly on the verge of orgasm. It felt like she had a vibrating egg sex toy pressed against her vulva, driving her to the brink of madness.

From Saturday night to Monday, they were locked in a frenzy of sex, their bodies entwined every time their eyes met.

Ari turned her head, gazing at the evening sunlight slanting across her body.

She saw Moon Dohwi, looking even brighter and more refreshed than usual.

‘What could possibly make him so happy and content?’

After days of exhausting himself, his inexplicably radiant appearance was almost absurd.

Unlike Ari, whose dark circles stretched down to her chin, Dohwi’s face glowed with a vitality she’d never seen before.

He looked like someone who’d just emerged from a luxurious hot spring, his skin smooth as a peeled egg. Ari narrowed her eyes and glared at him.

“…You seem to be in a good mood.”

“It feels like my brain has been reborn,” Dohwi replied. “Like they installed a new one. It’s been so long since I’ve felt this clear-headed, without a single headache.”

“Your brain was reborn? Shouldn’t that cause amnesia?”

“Now I get why we needed to have proper sex to flush out the toxins. Seriously, our little cutie is the best.”

“Cutie” was the embarrassing nickname Dohwi had given her for her vagina. Their conversation continued, each speaking only their own thoughts.

Ari clutched her aching lower back with her small hands, groaning softly as she slowly sat up.

As she rose to leave the bed, Dohwi frowned and abruptly grabbed her shoulder.

“Come here. Why are you always squirming around trying to leave?”

Over the past few days, Ari had noticed that Dohwi would cling to her annoyingly whenever she tried to move even slightly away from him, as if he couldn’t bear any separation.

Considering his past self, this situation was absurd. Ari couldn’t get used to his constant obsession with her.

“Why… why are you doing this? Again?”

His large hand caressed her delicate shoulder with a sticky, unspoken intensity, causing Ari to jump back like a startled fish, her heart pounding in terror.

“You… don’t tell me you’re going to do it again? If you do, you’re not even human anymore!”

“Heh, ‘not even human anymore’? Your expressions are like a kindergartener’s. Why are you so damn cute?”

Dohwi pulled her into a tight embrace, showering her with frantic, ticklish kisses that felt like something a lover would do.

“Ari, why do you keep trying to run away? Hmm?”

“I… hic… I get scared every time you call me so familiarly.”

Ari struggled, pushing Dohwi away with her sharp elbows.

But whether she pushed him away or not, Dohwi’s large hands began caressing her body again, massaging her as if she were a lump of clay.

“Haa, my Ari’s tits are so cute. What should I call this part?”

“Hngh, don’t talk like that. It’s… it’s creepy.”

“Such a fuss. Cute.”

Dohwi kneaded her breasts like rice cakes, his already erect member rubbing against her pubic hair.

The sensation of his cock against her soft pubic hair was pleasant, but he soon found himself wanting to shave it all off and savor her bare pussy. The thought alone made his cock stiffen and swell again.

“Your pheromones are unbelievably good. And of course, what’s inside you… hah. I think I’m getting hard again.”

“No, no, hold on.”

“But I’m already hard?”

Ari waved her hands in alarm, but Dohwi pressed kisses to her small hand, murmuring, “I’ve been struggling so much lately. The toxicity kept building up, so I had to take alpha hormone supplements. Even with them, my migraines were unbearable… but after having sex with you, my head doesn’t hurt anymore.”

“Hngh, I see… Okay, now back off a bit. Let me get dressed.”

“I’ve always lived with a constant, dull headache. Haa, that’s why this feeling of clarity is so amazing.”

Ari suddenly remembered something Kitae had told her at the club:

‘Extremely dominant alphas accumulate toxins in their bodies if they don’t have sex regularly.’

She never imagined it would require hormone supplements.

‘So, being an extremely dominant alpha isn’t all it’s cracked up to be…’

She suddenly understood, at least a little, why Dohwi was so on edge 24/7.

“I want to stay like this… for a week, no, maybe a month.”

“…What?!”

“How about living at a hotel for a while? No, actually, we could just move into my place. There’s only one bedroom, but that shouldn’t matter, right? I wouldn’t mind living with you.”

“Are you crazy? I have school to go to.”

“I’ll drive you. Why are you worrying about such trivial things?”

Ari couldn’t keep up with Dohwi’s relentless advances, which kept pushing forward without regard for her wishes. But the slightly crazed look in his eyes made it clear he wasn’t just spouting nonsense—he meant every word, which only made it more terrifying.

“I want to go home. I really need to go home today. I have class tomorrow.”

Ari summoned every ounce of strength she had and shoved Dohwi away, breaking free from his persistent embrace.

“What, you got a honey pot hidden at home or something?”

“Yeah, I do. I hid one.”

Dohwi chuckled slyly at her curt reply and continued, “So, you have my photo at home? Well, that’s only natural, I suppose.”

‘Ah, right! As soon as I get home, I need to list those goods on Lightning Market.’

The moment Ari saw his arrogant and obnoxious smirk, she remembered the Dohwi poster she had pinned to her wall.

Ignoring Dohwi’s intense gaze, Ari hastily began to dress. But she couldn’t bring herself to put on her panties, which were soaked with her arousal.

As she hesitated, holding the palm-sized panties, Dohwi snorted and snatched them from her hand.

“Give me those panties.”

“What? What are you going to do with them?”

“You’re asking the obvious.”

Dohwi met Ari’s hateful glare with amusement, his hand groping her bare thigh beneath her skirt.

“Hmph, hey…!”

“Being without panties is so fucking hot.”

“Hngh, stop it…!”

“You know it’s super dangerous to go out like this, right? This oppa will take you home, so just follow me quietly.”

Though his smirking annoyed her, Ari knew he was right. She couldn’t bring herself to take a taxi home with her lower half completely exposed.

In the end, Ari awkwardly followed him out of the hotel room, still without panties.

She never imagined she’d ever do something so embarrassing as going out without underwear. The cool air brushing against her bare skin under her skirt gave her an oddly sensual feeling, and she felt herself getting wet again. She couldn’t help but feel a pang of sadness, wondering how she’d ended up with such a wanton body.

Dohwi’s car was parked in the public lot next to the club.

He glanced sideways at Ari, who sat awkwardly in the passenger seat, and smirked. He could clearly see water trickling down her pale legs.

‘After Choi Ari gets out, I’ll bury my face in her seat and jerk off again,’ he thought, and his groin throbbed with renewed arousal.

Since it was a weekday afternoon, traffic was light, and they soon arrived in Ari’s neighborhood.

Dohwi parked in front of her run-down apartment building and said magnanimously, “I’ll keep your omega status a secret at school.”

“Ah, yeah. Thanks. It would be a problem if it got out, especially with my extracurriculars and volunteer work…”

“Right. It would make getting a job harder too. Omegas always have a tougher time finding work.”

“…Yeah. They say they’re doing blind tests and all, but the discrimination is still really bad… Even if you pass the document screening, you usually get rejected at the interview.”

Ari, who had already been worried about how to ask Dohwi for help without revealing she was an omega, felt awkward but grateful when he offered to keep her secret first.

“So, make sure you answer my calls promptly, okay?”

“Calls?”

“Yeah. You know how much I hate being left on read, right?”

Dohwi wasn’t one for long text conversations, and he found phone calls incredibly tedious.

Thinking he wouldn’t contact her much anyway, Ari nodded.

After days of being harassed by him, her fatigue had built up to the point where she felt like she was about to explode. All she wanted was to get home as quickly as possible and collapse into her own bed.

As she gripped the car door, ready to get out, Dohwi’s urgent voice called out from behind her.

“Hey, Choi Ari.”

Wondering if he had something else to say, she turned her head toward him. Suddenly, Dohwi’s large hand grabbed the back of her neck and pulled her close.

“Mmph, mm…!”

His thick tongue suddenly thrust into her mouth, forcing its way between her plump lips.

Ari’s small hands pounded against his hard chest as she struggled to push him away, but Dohwi remained as immovable as a rock, his tongue relentlessly exploring the tender recesses of her mouth.

For a long moment, he sucked and licked her mouth and tongue with the intensity of someone determined to savor every inch of her. Finally, with a hint of reluctance, he pressed a series of lingering kisses against her full lips before pulling away.

“I’ll call you.”

He cupped Ari’s chubby cheeks, as round as a baby’s, and pressed another loud kiss to her lips.

“Ha, so cute. Seriously.”

Dohwi chuckled softly, watching Ari, who looked completely drained. He gently stroked her silky hair and said tenderly, “Go inside. I’ll wait until you’re in.”

“Well… okay, then.”

Ari answered quickly, afraid that lingering any longer would lead to him thrusting into her right there in the car. The bulge straining against his fly was a clear warning.

She wasn’t wearing underwear, and in this situation, it wouldn’t have been surprising if he had his way with her.

Terrified that another round of sex might actually make her faint, Ari scrambled out of the car.

“Ugh, my whole body aches…”

As Ari stepped out of the car, another involuntary groan escaped her lips.

The lower part of her body, relentlessly tormented by him, still throbbed with a burning ache, while the gentle breeze sent waves of ticklish sensations through her.

But the most baffling thing was Moon Dohwi himself.

It was understandable that an alpha, overwhelmed by the pheromones of an omega in heat, might lose control. But his continued behavior afterward defied all logic.

‘Could this really be the same man who demanded unreasonable revisions, made rude remarks in public, and even hurt me by pretending not to know me at school?’ Ari wondered, her doubts growing.

‘What’s wrong with Moon Dohwi? He said his brain was reborn, but could there really be something wrong with his head…?’

Or perhaps… could he have damaged his brain from too much sex?!

Ari let out a silent scream, like Munch’s The Scream, and scurried back to her longed-for sanctuary.

For the time being, she never wanted to see even Moon Dohwi’s shadow again.

***

“Ugh, seriously! How embarrassing!”

As soon as Ari got home, she tore down all the Dohwi posters from her wall.

The posters were rare items she’d obtained through her editorial privileges, featuring Dohwi in cosmetic ads. But the sight of him smirking while holding makeup kept overlaying with the memory of his face as he stared at her vulva.

The thought that the man in the poster was the same one who had been licking her vulva like a dog just moments ago made it impossible for her to keep his face plastered on her wall any longer.

To have something like this happen with him right after she’d decided to quit being his fan…

And to have her heat cycle triggered earlier than expected because she’d been drenched in an extremely dominant alpha’s pheromones at the club…

Reality truly was stranger than fiction. The more Ari replayed the events in her mind, the more bewildered and incredulous she felt.

Ding!

[Did you get home safe?]

Speak of the devil. Just as she was glaring at Dohwi’s poster with a complicated expression, a message from him popped up on her phone.

[Yes]

Ari typed a quick three-letter response and sighed.

She couldn’t get used to Moon Dohwi’s sudden friendliness and found herself instinctively on guard.

Ding!

[Sending just one word? I hate that. Give me a proper reply.]

“As if he’s any better!”

Ari was speechless at his brazen attitude.

Feeling his message wasn’t worth replying to, she read and ignored it. Moments later, another notification pinged—another message from Dohwi.

[Hey. Why are you ignoring me?]

“Seriously, are you even hearing yourself?”

Though she found Dohwi’s strange obsession with her annoying and exhausting, she decided to offer a vague excuse. After all, he held the leverage of knowing she was pretending to be a beta, and she didn’t want to stir up trouble unnecessarily.

[Sorry. I’m just really tired and sleepy… I need to rest now.]

[I was being too pushy, huh? Heh. Okay. Text me when you wake up.]

‘Yeah. At least he knows he was being pushy.’

Ari squinted at her phone screen, about to type “k” before hitting the backspace button. She then typed a more thoughtful and sincere reply.

[Mm-hmm.]

Ding!

[Okay. Sleep well. I’ll text you later.]

“Why the sudden formality?” Ari muttered, shaking her head at the boyfriend-like tone. She glanced at her overflowing message inbox, which had been piling up for days.

As expected, dozens of messages from Nayeon had accumulated.

Moreover, two missed calls from Nayeon made Ari realize she had unintentionally caused her friend great worry. She quickly called her back.

[Ari! Are you okay? Why haven’t you been answering?]

Nayeon’s anxious voice poured out the moment Ari answered.

“Ah, sorry, sorry. I’ve been sleeping since then… I didn’t even realize my phone battery had died.”

[Good to hear everything’s okay. I was really worried. Oh, about the editing job—I’ve contacted everyone I know, and a few people seem interested. I’ll get back to you within a week!]

“Thanks, Nayeon.”

[Just rest up for now. I’ll text you later!]

As soon as she hung up, Ari took off the skirt she’d worn to the club. Truth be told, her skirt was also crumpled and creased from Dohwi’s rough handling.

Gazing at her exposed vulva as she removed the skirt, Ari let out a soft sigh.

“Going out without underwear… How scandalous.”

She hurriedly pulled out a pair of panties from her closet and put them on.

Suddenly, Ari wondered if the panties Dohwi had taken were still intact. But given their obvious purpose, she decided not to dwell on it further.

“My poor panties… I really liked that design.”

Ari sighed, her expression gloomy as she thought of the panties Dohwi had stolen. She offered a silent, heartfelt farewell to the garment, now likely lost beyond recovery.

She sniffed her own arm.

“Are my pheromones… really that alluring?”

The notion was entirely new to her, leaving her somewhat bewildered.

Her pheromones had always been harshly judged by her alpha brother, who was obsessed with her older sister-in-law. He’d described them as “colorless and odorless,” adding, “Even if you were a beta, no one would ever know. You don’t leave any scent at all.”

Even her parents had often told her, “If you were going to manifest as an omega anyway, it would have been better if your pheromones were more alluring and noticeable. It’s disappointing that they’re practically indistinguishable from a beta’s.”

The doctor had also confirmed that with such faint pheromones, most alphas wouldn’t even be able to detect them, making her practically no different from a beta.

Thanks to these barely perceptible pheromones, she had been able to live as if she were a beta all her life without needing to take suppressants.

But to think that her insignificant scent could be such a powerful aphrodisiac for someone…

To someone who had always believed her pheromones were utterly unremarkable, Dohwi’s almost obsessive behavior felt like a con.

‘It’s clear that he was out of his mind during the club night because of my heat cycle. He’s probably just acting like this now because he’s still riding the high from our sex. He’ll keep this up for a few days, then suddenly change his mind and act like nothing happened. I shouldn’t overthink it.’

Ari shook her head vigorously, trying to stop herself from dwelling on it.

His constant praise—calling her cute and adorable—his fervent gaze—it was all just nonsense spewed in the heat of passion, nothing more.

‘People don’t change that easily.’

Ari tried desperately to erase the current Dohwi from her mind, the one who seemed like a completely different person, as if there were no room for doubt.

She clung to the belief that this was just another one of his countless whims, just like all the others. She was absolutely certain of it.