On-Way Passage || ᴠᴍɪɴ

Chapter 21

Jimin sulked in front of the civil affairs bureau for a while before eventually turning back and leaving.

He was still wearing the clothes that Doshik had bought him the day before, and his pockets were empty save for his phone.

The city was vast; he had his own apartment on top of his nominal home here, but in that moment, he felt the kind of loss that arose from having nowhere to go.

In the end, Jimin returned to the apartment he shared with Taehyung, took a shower, changed his clothes, then sat cross-legged in front of his desk with a bottle of iced soda he’d purchased at the supermarket, and unscrewed the lid.

The iced soda fizzed, and the bubbles raced to the top. Jimin felt a little more at ease. He fired up his laptop and went online to look up Hyungjin.

His previous search had resulted in the unexpected discovery that Taehyung was the president of Hyungjin, which had diverted all of his attention. This time, after meeting Seokjin, his interest towards Hyungjin and those with the surname Kim had increased a great deal.

He discovered that the founder of Hyungjin was actually Seokjin, who had previously worked as a perfumer for a well-known luxury brand. He founded the perfume company Hyungjin over a decade ago. In the first year of its establishment, the omega perfume Summertime Snowfield won them the international perfume awards. Following that, they expanded their business by releasing scented candles, shower gels, and even clothing and cosmetics.

Hyungjin had been under Seokjin’s personal management for the past decade, and during that time, Hyungjin’s newer perfumes had not been well received. Their old perfumes remained their best-sellers, and thus Hyungjin’s name gradually faded into the background. The perfume market’s appeal towards the youth was also exceedingly limited.

This lasted until about a half-year ago, when Hyungjin launched a new line of pheromone perfume, Emotions. It was a huge success, and they managed to attain the international perfume award yet again with Tears of the Enemy, which immediately became the hottest product on the market.

There was a fairly detailed introduction to the Emotions line on the internet. As it was the first successful pheromone perfume on the market, it garnered countless people’s attention. The perfumer who developed this perfume line—Park Jimin—also rose to industry fame.

Jimin also learnt that he had been interviewed by a well-known fashion magazine. The article was titled “Tears of the Enemy: The Secrets of a Genius Beta Perfumer’s Emotions.”

Jimin couldn’t stop a flush from rising to his cheeks upon seeing the word ‘genius’ in the title. He carefully pored over the entire article and realised that he’d given frank, confident answers, appearing to have a wealth of knowledge about perfumes and the pheromones and emotions at the heart of  the perfume line. Throughout the article, however, there was no mention of his unique ability to perceive pheromones as a beta.

The writer was clearly curious about this matter, and one of the questions Jimin had been asked was: “As a beta, how were you able to discern and blend components that mimic those of pheromones?”

Jimin’s answer had been: “It was all due to our teamwork.”

“Were there omegas and alphas on the team?”

“That goes without saying.”

The writer had probably assumed that it was a trade secret, so they stopped pursuing this line of questioning.

As he read the article, Jimin felt very satisfied with his answers. He propped his face up and reflected: if he had been interviewed as his current self, he probably wouldn’t have been able to answer all those questions so easily.