TIN 91

I dreamed of floating endlessly across gentle ripples. I closed my eyes quietly, letting my body drift on the undulating surface, not knowing where I was heading. The floating sensation felt as comfortable as lying in a cozy cradle.

I realized it was the sea when its distinctive salty scent brushed my nose. The subtly humid air cleared my cluttered mind. The sticky yet cool breeze was something I missed more than anything else.

The scene gradually changed. At some point, I found myself sitting on the beach, appreciating that scenery. As I watched the waves going “swoosh,” suddenly something touched my shoulder.

‘…’

When I turned my head, I saw a small head leaning on my shoulder. Perhaps bored from sitting still for so long, the child blinked drowsily. Under the pretty eyelashes that fluttered like butterfly wings, golden-tinged eyes appeared and disappeared repeatedly.

It was such a beautiful sight that I momentarily lost focus. Despite the sea before me, I couldn’t break free from my enchantment of those tiny movements.

The child soon noticed my entranced gaze.

‘What?’

The child looked up at me with this question in their eyes. Their fair forehead had turned slightly pink from the long exposure to sunlight. After staring at me intently, the child tilted their head to one side and asked again.

‘Are my eyes interesting?’

I was staring because they were pretty. Though “interesting” wasn’t wrong either. So when I nodded silently, the child readily offered, ‘Want them?’

‘…?’

I couldn’t respond to such a sudden remark. Give me what? I just stared blankly at the child, wondering what they meant. The child slowly straightened up and turned to face me.

‘Or do you want to touch them?’

At first, I was horrified, thinking they meant touching their eyeballs, but fortunately, the child just closed their eyes quietly. With an incredibly gentle face, they added generously, as if allowing me to touch as much as I wanted, ‘I’ll let only you touch them. I’m granting you special permission.’

‘…’

Just because they were pretty didn’t mean I wanted to have them. I hadn’t particularly wanted to touch them with my hands either. Yet I reached out because my heart was moved as soon as I heard the child’s words.

Too scared to touch the eyes directly, I first caressed their soft cheek. I stroked the protruding cheekbone with my fingertips, then gently touched the delicate eyelashes. When I lightly placed my hand on the thin eyelid, I could feel the child slowly rolling their eyes beneath.

It was a part of the body rarely touched or meant to be touched. It was delicate as it was weak, and cautious as it was delicate.

‘…Are you done touching?’

Only after I slightly withdrew my hand did the child slowly lift their eyelids. The moment those clear eyes were revealed was as mysterious as the seaside at sunset.

‘I want to touch your face too.’

I suspected this might have been their true intention all along. Seeing how they reached out without waiting for an answer, it seemed they had anticipated that I wouldn’t refuse.

The child spent quite a while touching my face with their tiny hands. Eyes, nose, mouth, and finally ears and hair. I remember letting them touch my face for a long time, as their kneading touches weren’t unpleasant.

‘Your eyes are more interesting than mine.’

‘…’

‘They’re so black.’

But I disliked their blackness. Once, I childishly wished they were a different color. Without even knowing what that meant.

The child’s eyes, which I thought were vivid back then, were, thinking about it now, those of an alpha not yet fully grown. The golden color that deepened day by day probably reached completion only after I left the mansion. As their body grew, their immature pheromones would have grown with it.

I wanted to stay asleep like this forever, but reality was crueler than dreams. When the sunlight through the window began to tickle the inside of my eyes, I could no longer pretend I hadn’t woken up.

“…”

I slowly lifted my eyelids. Blink, blink. With each opening and closing of my eyes, the surrounding scenery became clearer. The familiar ceiling, tightly closed windows, half-open curtains, and the now-empty bed.

“…Ah.”

It was morning. That realization was accompanied by a brief deliberation. The events of last night flashed through my mind like a panorama.

‘Ah…! Euung, heuht, Do-hwa-ya…’

‘Hah, talk to me…Euht.’

‘Eung, eu, there, more, heu-eut…!’

Yesterday, Joo Do-hwa held me until late at night. Until foam formed in my hole, which was swollen beyond repair, and my unnaturally bent waist screamed.

‘…Haa, heu, good…’

Normally, I would have fainted halfway through, but even with my stamina depleted, my mind was clear. I helplessly swayed my body along with him, and then I couldn’t overcome the wildly rushing pleasure and begged him. Joo Do-hwa readily soothed me and didn’t even use vulgar language at the end.

‘Good, heu…euung…’

‘…Me too.’

He seemed to have said ‘good’ in passing. It was too quiet, and I was too out of it to be completely sure.

“…”

I slowly got up and looked around the room. I felt terrible muscle pain all over my body, but I couldn’t afford to lie down any longer. After what happened last night, I had to come to my senses as soon as possible.

“…Is this my room?”

My last memory was of the drawing room, but the place I woke up in now was the room I usually used. For once, the bed was fluffy, and even the clothes I was wearing had been changed into new ones. Judging by the fact that my skin, which should have been sticky, was clean, it seemed that I had been washed while still in an unconscious state.

Did he order Henry to do it?

There was no way Joo Do-hwa would have done it himself, so Henry must have been the victim again. I felt sorry for Henry, but I didn’t feel bad because my body was clean. As for showing my naked body, it didn’t matter since I was asleep anyway.

“…Looks like the party is…over.”

The outside of the window, which had been noisy all night, was now as quiet as usual. The guests who had filled the pool must have left the mansion around sunrise.

I stared blankly at the window and raised one hand to cover my stomach. My body was in excessively good condition, and even my overall condition was good. If it weren’t for the alpha pheromones left on my body, I might have thought last night was a dream.

But I knew. That all of this was a clear reality. That the future I had thought would come someday had finally arrived.

“…What do I do now?”

My fingertips kept trembling, so I deliberately clenched my fist tightly. Where was Joo Do-hwa? I didn’t want to see his face, but I wanted to at least gauge his reaction. I wanted to check how much he had noticed, and things like that.

‘What did you eat to be like this…?’

I hoped he would think it was all because of the drug. Because of the drug’s effects, that was why I clung to him. Logically, that made much more sense.

I tried to suppress my anxious feelings and slowly got out of bed. I thought they had cleaned my whole body, but as soon as I took a step, something gushed out from below. The liquid that flowed down my thighs must have been Joo Do-hwa’s semen from all night.

“…”

At this point, I even laughed. No, maybe it was a relief. Even if I was unconscious, it would have been uncomfortable for both of us if he had touched me this far. Maybe Henry couldn’t bring himself to do it either.

I dragged my heavy body to the bathroom. I was going to clean up, wash away Joo Do-hwa’s pheromones, and take a warm shower. It wouldn’t undo yesterday’s sex, but it would be better than doing nothing.

While washing my body with the water pouring from the showerhead, I was overcome with a sense of déjà vu and a terrible sense of futility. No matter how excited I was, no matter how irrational the situation was, no matter how irresistible it was, I couldn’t understand why I had clung to him.

‘I just don’t want hyung to be an omega.’

“…”

I turned off the water and lowered my head. Water droplets dripped from my wet hair. I habitually tried to cover my lower abdomen again, but even that felt futile, so I just clenched my fist tightly.

“…It’s okay.

“It has to be okay.”

The small words I repeated this time were of no use. Joo Do-hwa was a dominant alpha, and the situation was different now than before. Yes, now it was.

“Hah, shit…”

I covered my face with a frustrated feeling, then swept back my wet hair and sighed. No matter how deeply I thought about it, there was no answer, so the best thing to do might be to live as quietly as possible. After all, there wouldn’t be much of a change in appearance…

“…As long as I don’t get caught.”

I repeated to myself as if making a vow, then came out of the shower booth and wiped off the water. People were able to live on even when the sky seemed to be falling. So for now, for the time being, nothing would happen.

But the moment I stood in front of the sink and looked in the mirror, I froze, unable to say a word. It wasn’t because my eyes were red and swollen, or because my lips were chapped.

It was simply because something was off about the pupils reflecting in the mirror.

“…”

The scent of the sea filled the air. The humid yet refreshing fragrance slowly began to fill the space where Joo Do-hwa’s pheromones had been. And at the same time, a word I had said to him when I was younger flashed through my mind.

‘I wanted blue too.’

My eyes, which had always been black, were now hazy as if covered in fog. And floating above them was a pair of vividly shining, bright blue heterochromatic eyes.