You like me, don't you?

Ji Chi's brow arched, as though he were delivering an accusation from on high. His certain, mocking tone bristled like thorns. "You like me, don't you?"

Huo Jin rubbed his fingertips together lightly. Looking at Ji Chi before him, he thought he had prepared himself.

He said gently, "I won't deny it."

Ji Chi's chest heaved, his hands clenched into fists.

"You must be feeling pretty pleased with yourself right now, Huo Jin."

"I'm not." Huo Jin smiled bitterly. His pain could only be greater than Ji Chi's. He had to bear his own share, Ji Chi's share, and the share Ji Chi inflicted on him.

"You'd better not be."

Ji Chi breathed out long and heavily through his nose, his eyes blazing. "Don't take what happened these past few days seriously. Nine parts lust, zero parts genuine feeling."

Huo Jin pressed his lips into a straight line. Even the smoke in the air seemed to keep him from seeing Ji Chi clearly. "I know."

The anger on Ji Chi's face turned into a harsh scoff.

"We're both adults. We had sex, so what? We both enjoyed it, anyway. I'm not an Omega. There's no need to take it so seriously."

Huo Jin's gaze flickered. "Mm."

"Our compatibility is very high. The doctor said it's infinitely close to 100%," Ji Chi said suddenly.

Huo Jin didn't know what Ji Chi meant by that, so he didn't answer.

Instead, he asked, "So?"

Ji Chi continued disdainfully, "That means we can both still find partners we're 100% compatible with."

"I provoked you. All this misery is what I deserve."

"But let me make this clear right now."

Ji Chi looked straight into Huo Jin's unruffled eyes. "I could never like you."

"Even if I came to you a hundred times, that wouldn't change."

No emotion showed on Huo Jin's face. Everything had sunk deep inside, where no one could see.

He looked calmly at Ji Chi, his reply very soft. "Would you like breakfast?"

Ji Chi didn't answer.

He pulled Huo Jin's phone out of Huo Jin's pocket.

Ji Chi took all his anger out on Huo Jin's phone.

The photos on it were far too explicit.

He couldn't let Huo Jin keep them.

Absolutely not.

Ji Chi hurled the phone hard against the floor's rigid ceramic tiles.

Bang!

The tremendous crash mingled with the sound of the phone screen shattering.

After smashing the phone, Ji Chi stared at the debris scattered across the floor. The suffocating ache inside him seemed to find a little release, a chance to breathe. He warned Huo Jin again, every look stabbing like a dull, rusty knife.

"You were right. We've been provoking each other."

"So neither of us gets to have it easy."

His cruel words echoed through the room.

Ji Chi said something else afterward, but Huo Jin didn't catch it.

There was a constant buzzing in his head.

His words are cruel. Don't listen too closely.

When Huo Jin didn't respond, Ji Chi fled his home.

Like a trapped beast, he loathed this place, this cage of thorns.

After Ji Chi left, only the broken phone remained in the corner of Huo Jin's vision. He had clenched his hands so hard that his palms were red, and somewhere inside him, something hurt as though it were tearing apart.

He walked over, crouched down, and picked up the phone.

He pressed the power button. Most of the screen no longer worked.

Flickering red and blue lines covered the lock-screen photo. The Alpha's face was no longer discernible; he could only vaguely make out the overall color of the image.

A milky mint green.

It was still beautiful.

None of this belonged to him.

Huo Jin held the phone, his deep eyes still and lifeless.

What he had gained could so easily be taken away.

A frozen lake could not ripple. Someone in too much pain became numb, too.

Huo Jin's expression was blank as he turned off the stove.

He blinked his deep eyes very slowly.

After staring at the doorway for a long time,

Huo Jin took the phone into his study.

Whenever Huo Jin wanted to quiet his mind, the only thing he did was practice calligraphy.

Paper and a pen were always on the desk. Huo Jin sat down and began writing like a robot. He sat perfectly straight, rigid and numb.

Every horizontal stroke, leftward sweep, vertical line, and rightward flourish dragged across the page with frightening force.

He wrote page after page. If his mind wouldn't settle, he would keep writing and writing.

The sharp tip of the pen tore through the thin paper.

His restless heart remained suspended, dangling, lashed by a long whip.

This twisted beginning.

Would eventually meet a twisted end.

Intense cool sandalwood scent pheromones poured out like a raging blaze. Though this type of pheromone was supposed to be icy cold, it now burned through the entire room, making it as searing as molten lava.

Any Alpha who entered now would be scorched by the immense surge of pheromones, frightened until his legs went weak.

Huo Jin sat in that tiny space for a long time.

An oppressive weight filled the entire room.