Heavy Rain Chapter 64

The moment he recalled the pheromones, he realized another strange thing. Lyle’s pheromones were clearly thick enough to fill the room to the bursting point, yet somehow, they had no effect on Haejin at all. Pheromones during a rut period were not supposed to be like this.

Something was wrong.

Come to think of it, Lyle was strangely silent. His hands, which were braced on either side of Haejin, maintained a subtle distance and did not come any closer. That inexplicable sense of space finally allowed him to breathe.

Managing to pull himself together, he moved his body cautiously. His legs trembled violently as he slipped out of the embrace. He felt as if those large hands might snatch him back at any moment. Just like that night when his heat cycle had come.

Haejin, unable to hide his pheromones filled with fear, barely moved his body with a face that looked ready to cry. Until he had completely escaped, Lyle did not grab him.

The moment he turned around with a sense of bizarre relief, he caught his breath again. This was because Lyle, who had now straightened his posture, was staring at him intently.

“…Mr. Vermouth.”

A trembling voice slipped out like a sigh. Even so, Lyle only tilted his head slightly and did not answer. He was even more terrified by the clear abnormal reaction. Because he happened to be standing by the door, Haejin rolled his eyes here and there, unable to go anywhere.

He could not control his pheromones, which were deeply stained with fear. Haejin had never been skilled at managing his pheromones to begin with. In a situation he couldn’t understand like this, it was even harder.

Then, suddenly, the color of Lyle’s pheromones inside the drawing room changed.

“What is… this…”

Because the feeling of the pheromones changed so rapidly and absurdly, Haejin had to let his mouth hang open unwittingly. It was because his pheromones contained one very direct emotion.

It was affection.

It was a sensation he never thought he would be able to feel from Lyle. In the first place, Haejin had never encountered such primary pheromones in his life. That direct and instinctive language confused him to that extent.

He felt that if he were to express the warmth of his mother, who had been a Beta, through pheromones, it would feel like this. Of course, it contained a slightly more erotic meaning than such familial love, but Haejin could think of nothing else similar.

It seemed that when one experiences something too bewildering, fear vanishes easily. His breath, which had been only ragged, gradually returned to normal. Wanting to ask what on earth he was thinking, he finally looked straight into Lyle’s eyes.

His gaze was directed at Haejin the entire time, but it was vacant somewhere. Only then did he realize that something had truly gone wrong.

“Mr. Vermouth?”

“…”

When he cautiously approached the door, Lyle remained motionless and merely followed Haejin’s movements with his eyes. It was the same even when he moved in the opposite direction. Occasionally, he would cast his gaze into the air as if he could see Haejin’s pheromones.

That was when blood dripping from Lyle’s wrist caught his eye. It was the wrist where the IV had been inserted.

“The wound is…”

Haejin, suddenly becoming frightened, decided that he really must call Mark or the doctor. He cautiously headed toward the door, but Lyle still did not budge, merely moving his vacant gaze.

After agonizing over it, he gritted his teeth and this time moved his steps toward the bedroom little by little. Once he was about two steps away from him, Lyle finally moved.

Biting his lip, he clumsily released his pheromones. His mind was too confused to contain a proper will. An emotion of something that lumped together his urgent feelings flowed toward Lyle.

As if by magic, he began to approach a little faster. Haejin, limping hard, threw the bedroom door wide open. Because it felt like he was using himself as bait, he became hurried as well.

The moment he approached nearby, Haejin gave his back a shove toward the bedroom. Surprisingly, Lyle disappeared inside obediently.

“Urgh.”

Quickly slamming the bedroom door shut, Haejin rushed outside. Because of his leg, his speed was by no means fast, but he was not pursued until he escaped into the hallway. He also did not hear the sound of the bedroom door opening again.

Soon encountering a servant in the hallway, Haejin was barely able to inform them that Lyle was injured. A startled Mark and others ran toward the place where Lyle was. A few remained to take care of him, who didn’t even have his crutches. Watching them blankly, Haejin blushed belatedly.

He was truly glad that they, being Betas, could not smell pheromones. It was because he felt ashamed himself when he recalled Lyle’s affection-laden pheromones that would be left all over his body and throughout that room.

It was truly a confusing night.

‘How could you do that!’

‘Stop it.’

His mother, who had discovered his father’s infidelity for the first time, threw a fit as if she would tear down the entire mansion. His father, who usually had a stoic expression, also could not restrain his angry voice on that day alone.

The twelve-year-old Lyle watched their fight and pondered with a blank expression. Was that something worth fighting over like that?

Their marriage had already collapsed long ago, even in young Lyle’s eyes. In the first place, had they not competed with relatives as if producing superior traits was their ultimate mission? At any rate, there were no other dominant types among the other relatives. Therefore, Lyle, the most outstanding Alpha among them, was certainly a ‘success’.

So, what did it matter who slept with whom?

His father, unable to continue the argument, eventually left the room first. This was because his mother, out of anger, had begun to pressure his father with her pheromones. She didn’t seem to realize that by always pressing his father down with her pride as a dominant type, she was driving him further away.

Surprisingly, the one Lyle understood less was his mother. His father, who acted shamelessly despite having an affair, was not within the realm of understanding from the start. That was clearly a stupid thing to do.

Therefore, a question kept arising. Why was his mother doing this?

‘…If only I could imprint on you, you would look back at me too, wouldn’t you?’

If it had just ended with her being angry, such a question wouldn’t have arisen. A person who imprinted was essentially subordinate to the other forever. Things like mutual imprinting were just fantasy stories that appeared in movies. On the contrary, if she had wished for his father to imprint on his mother, it would have been easier to understand.

Thus, Lyle could not understand his mother’s heart at all, as she obsessively craved for him to imprint on his father.

It is blinding.

Lyle, who had been floating through a dream, slowly opened his eyes. Even though he had slept for so long, he was very tired. It was as if he had swallowed sleeping pills yet had never been able to sleep deeply. Through his blinking vision, he saw a window with bright sunlight coming in.

And in the middle of the light, he saw Haejin’s face looking at him.

“…”

As if he had never been tired, he sat up as if possessed. It was merely a reflexive action. Because the fellow in front of him was shining so brightly.

Because he looked so faint, as if he might disappear soon after shining.

When he stood up, Haejin soon reached both arms forward. Then, with an expression that could not hide his wonder, he lightly pressed his nose toward the pheromone gland on his own wrist before repeating the action of reaching forward again. It was certainly strange behavior.

Whether he was sending pheromones toward him, a body scent resembling rain wafted over to Lyle along the trajectory of his arms. Being a recessive type, it was surely composed of a very light weight. Yet, strangely, Haejin’s pheromones scattered his dominant pheromones, which filled the room, as if they were nothing.

Lyle just stared blankly at that behavior. As he remained motionless and followed Haejin’s arms with his gaze, the fellow looked down and seemed to be pondering something.

His pheromones were a strange shape, a mix of a very clumsy lullaby, a faint sense of stability, and a great deal of trouble. As if something was not going as intended, Haejin, who had been expressionless the whole time, slightly furrowed his brow.

At that moment, his heart plummeted and his sleep vanished instantly.

“Haejin.”

“Uh…”

Reflexively, he opened his mouth and called Haejin. Only now did his mind gradually wake up. He had certainly fallen asleep as if hijacking the fellow’s bedroom and…

Why is Haejin here?