On-Way Passage || ᴠᴍɪɴ

Chapter 52

When Jimin awoke the next day, he found himself in bed with Taehyung. He had been sleeping with his back turned to Taehyung, tightly wrapped up in his embrace.

In truth, he couldn'quite say that it was a comfortable position, but they had stayed like that from midnight until well after eleven o'clock the next morning.

Jimin's body ached all over, but the most painful part of his body was the wound on his nape.

He lifted a hand to touch his nape, but the moment he moved his arm, Taehyung hugged him even tighter from behind, his scorching breath grazing the top of Jimin's head.

Jimin struggled to put a little distance between them. When he managed to touch his nape with his palm, he could feel the unmistakable, deep cuts. Fortunately, the bleeding had already stopped.

Taehyung hauled him back into his arms, his palms glued to Jimin's chest.

Slightly distressed, Jimin asked, "You're not going to keep being in rut, are you?"

It took a moment before Taehyung rasped out, "No."

Jimin said, "Luckily, you're not like those omegas—once in heat, they'll never see the end of it."

"...Do you hate me?" His questioning tone was tinged with grievance.

"That's not it," said Jimin. "I just have more important things to do. I can't keep wasting time with you in bed." Afterwards, Jimin shrugged off Taehyung's hands, rolled over, and sat up.

When he moved his stiff neck, the movement pulled at the wound on his nape yet again, and couldn't help but say, "Why can't you be a little gentler."

Taehyung sounded calm as he replied,"I can't control it. I want to swallow you whole."

"What?" Jimin actually felt embarrassed when he heard Taehyung's words, but he stubbornly maintained his grudging expression. "You wouldn't be able to mark me even if you bit into my flesh and swallowed my neck."

Yet after uttering these words, Jimin became aware of Taehyung's silence, so he elbowed the man and added, "But so what? There are a lot of beta couples who can't ever mark each other, just like how there are a lot of AO couples who get marked, divorce, and then have to have the mark surgically removed. Won't that be a complete waste of time?"

Taehyung followed him and sat up. He stroked Jimin's hair before pressing head into his own shoulder and tightly hugging him. When he let go, he said, "Let's go report last night's car to the police."

"No," Jimin declined. "I have more important things to do."

"Hm?"

"From today onwards, I'll be working overtime at the company."

Despite it being so late in the day, Jimin insisted on returning to the company. He locked himself up in his laboratory and immersed himself in the realm of fragrances.

All kinds of scents existed in this world, and everyone had different preferences, but the overall perception of smell was uniform. Therefore, these natural or perhaps chemically synthesised raw ingredients with pleasant scents were called fragrances.

What emotion each fragrance portrayed was largely determined by people's subjective perceptions, and the complex fragrances contained in perfumes were interpreted in a variety of complex ways, as if each scent might illustrate a beautiful painting. However, everyone's perception of smell differed objectively, to the point that the majority of customers preferred a perfume for its scent alone, without expecting to sense any particular emotion from it.