Strategic Mating Partner Chapter 38

“I didn’t throw the first punch.” Taehyun pondered the out-of-the-blue confession, wondering if it was some new slang. Then he suddenly remembered that Sejin had been excluded from group training because of a violent incident with a senior.

“Ah!”

Taehyun unconsciously let out an exclamation and then covered his mouth, realizing his mistake. Sejin, when he looked up again, seemed quite serious. His face looked indignant and frustrated. Taehyun forced down the corners of his mouth that were subtly trying to lift into a smile and replied,

“I see. You must have felt wronged. If that guy hadn’t hit you first, none of this would have happened.”

Taehyun started by saying what Sejin likely wanted to hear. Sejin flinched, his expression still deeply furrowed, and said,

“Just saying.”

Then he abruptly turned back to the machine, lay down in his usual position, and adjusted his posture. Well, it was natural to a certain extent, since he’s an athlete. Taehyun blankly watched him lift a weight that most adult men couldn’t handle, despite his relatively slender physique for an athlete. He really wanted to say that, huh? Taehyun turned his head away, feeling a smile creeping up again. After watching Sejin train for a while longer, Taehyun got up, dusting off his pants. Then, pointing to the table, he said to Sejin,

“Don’t forget to take this when you go home. I bought them for you.”

Then, without lingering, he left the individual training room. As soon as the door closed with a click, Sejin’s gaze shifted to the table.

“…….”

Sejin stared at the pastries on the table for a moment, then set down the barbell he was lifting and walked towards the table. Inside a separately packaged small box was a rectangular piece of cake. It was an opera cake. It was the cake the elderly sponsor used to buy him when they occasionally visited the patisserie near the fencing club.

‘Someday, you too will come to appreciate this bittersweet taste.’

It had already been several years since his last meal with the old man. Had his taste changed in the meantime? Sejin took a large bite of the cake with the enclosed fork.

‘…Sweet.’

It wasn’t bitter at all; it was so sweet that his tongue ached. He didn’t know if it was a problem with the recipe or if his taste had changed as he grew older.

Twenty-two, twenty-eight, late spring, 24℃

Finishing his brief reminiscence, Taehyun let out another long sigh. That rude kid had come a long way, at least looking somewhat presentable now. Shouldn’t he get some kind of compensation for character education? He wouldn’t actually accept it even if offered, but just saying. When they first met, Sejin was such a rebellious kid, it was hard to even approach him.

‘Thinking back then, I should be grateful for how much he’s improved now.’

Back then, he was really like, wow, how is he going to live in this world? No matter how talented he is, if he keeps acting like that, he won’t have anyone around him. Taehyun had been worried about him to that extent. At least now, even if he wasn’t particularly affectionate, he seemed to be getting along with his teammates without any major conflicts. Yeah, that’s enough. Taehyun patted his chest as if he had just heard that someone else’s child had gotten into college, then realized that the current situation wasn’t exactly positive for him.

He ended up doing that with the kid he helped become a decent person, and now he was supposed to be happy about it? Taehyun rubbed his face with his hands. No matter how much he rubbed his face, the reality Taehyun wanted to deny wouldn’t change.

“Ha….”

With these feelings, even if he exercised, his mind would wander, which easily led to injuries. Taehyun wiped the sweat off his body with a sports towel, picked up his phone, and hesitated for a moment. He wanted to go home. But there was no time to waste. Just before texting his coach that he wasn’t feeling well and wouldn’t be able to do his training today, Taehyun managed to pull himself together.

No, get a grip. With so little time left until the qualifiers, what kind of ridiculous tricks was he trying to pull? Taehyun got up and stretched his stiff muscles, from his toes to his lower calves, then his inner thighs and hamstrings, and up past his hips to his lower back, rolling them with a foam roller for flexibility. He suddenly remembered what had happened last night and blushed crimson. The unexpected memory of the feeling of Sejin gripping his waist and thighs, pulling him closer, made his cheeks burn.

Am I crazy? Taehyun slapped his own cheeks in alarm. Thankfully, there weren’t many people in the shared fitness room today. If other athletes, especially Ahn Jimin and those who showed excessive interest in him, had been around, they would have definitely come over and asked him what was wrong.

Get a grip, Sung Taehyun. You have to separate public and private matters. However, strictly speaking, the mating partner contract with Sejin wasn’t private, it was public. Sejin wasn’t his lover. They were in a relationship where they exchanged pheromones for mutual benefit. It just so happened that the most optimized way to do that was through sex.

“…….”

Defining it that way made him feel like dying again, so he shook his head. Just focus. Taehyun barely managed to compose his troubled mind, finished his pre-workout, and headed to his individual training room. He needed to immerse himself in punching, kicking, or something that would keep him from thinking about anything else so he could forget this unpleasant guilt.

A while later, after finishing his training, it was evening. Taehyun followed his usual routine, stopped by the cafeteria for a salad, went down to the parking lot, and started his car. As he rummaged through his Boston bag for his phone, which he had shoved inside before leaving, his fingertips brushed against his portable pheromone kit.

‘Hmm….’

Since he had been concerned about it, Taehyun shifted the gear back into park and took out the kit. He also took out the disposable alcohol swab he had kept in his bag pocket, wiped his fingertip, dropped a drop of blood onto the thread, and inserted it into the kit. Soon, a two-digit number appeared on the screen.

[10]

It was slightly higher than the morning measurement. How many days would this last? He hoped it would hold for at least three days. Even though Taehyun was confident in his stamina, having sex every other day was too much. Moreover, with the high-intensity training, sex with Sejin was quite taxing.

‘It’s not like I’ve ever done it like that before….’

Taehyun had never known he could cum so much in one go. The same was true when he was the one topping. He had never had such intense sex before. Even when he did his best to please his partner, three times was his maximum. He wasn’t particularly sexually driven, so even if he had the stamina, he didn’t want to go on for that long.

Sex was fundamentally tiring. The mental fatigue was more difficult to bear than the physical fatigue. His body moved by physiological response only until the first orgasm. After that, a deep sense of doubt washed over him. He would keep going to accommodate his partner, but he would wonder why he was doing this filthy, bothersome thing and want to just stop and sleep. Would he feel differently when he went into heat? He was curious, but he had no intention of finding out. Firstly, Taekwondo itself was a sport with major competitions spread evenly throughout the year, so to maintain his ranking, he participated in every competition he could, leaving him with virtually no off-season. More importantly, he was honestly afraid of what he might do if he went into heat.

‘I heard there was chaos earlier because an omega went into heat near the student center. Even the paramedics came; it was serious.’

In an era where methods to control pheromones, from medication to implantable contraceptives, were readily available, there were hardly any cases of unintentional heats or ruts. Even if there were, it was merely an accident, like the implant being misplaced or forgetting to take medication for several days. Most people with secondary genders lived their daily lives with their pheromones almost perfectly controlled, and Taehyun, who had started his athletic career at a young age, had never experienced a pheromone level above 50 in his life.

So, even his first time with an alpha wasn’t particularly memorable. He had always suppressed his levels with medication to prevent going into heat, so he assumed that was normal. However, through his relationship with Sejin, Taehyun realized how absurdly mistaken he had been.