Huo Jin, hold me

Song Lin glanced back at Ji Chi through the mirror. "You never used to thank me."

"There's no need to be so distant with me."

"We're still friends, right?" Song Lin unconsciously pressed harder with his fingertips.

Ji Chi's lips moved slightly. "Of course. You've always been my friend."

Ji Chi placed particular emphasis on the word "friend."

If they could put everything else aside, Ji Chi truly didn't want to lose Song Lin as a friend.

"Mm," Song Lin answered softly.

Ji Chi pressed a towel against Lin Jun's injured forehead. He had no strength left to speak.

Ji Chi only wished Song Lin would drive faster, faster still. Anywhere he could still sense Ji Shengming's presence filled him with revulsion.

After they reached the hospital, Song Lin registered for emergency care.

As luck would have it, the doctor on duty in Jiang City Hospital's emergency department that day was Gu Baizhou. He left the consultation room as soon as he received Song Lin's call.

Gu Baizhou was a little surprised to see Ji Chi.

This was the patient who wouldn't come in even when he begged him.

Someone who had been marked by an enigma.

Gu Baizhou kept a separate record of every one of Ji Chi's reactions.

"Let's get him stabilized in the emergency department first." In the hospital lobby, Gu Baizhou had a nurse bring over a gurney.

Lin Jun was hurriedly wheeled into the stabilization room.

Ji Chi and Song Lin waited outside.

Throughout that time, Ji Chi didn't say a word.

Whenever he was in a bad mood, he couldn't stop himself from smoking. After confirming that Lin Jun was safe, Ji Chi lingered numbly for a long time before going to the smoking area in the corridor.

Ji Chi lit a cigarette. The hand holding it kept trembling almost imperceptibly.

Smoke swirled before him. He stood there as though his soul had been hollowed out, no longer knowing where he was, while suffocating scenes from childhood to adulthood circled through his mind.

Ji Chi couldn't understand the two of them.

As far as he remembered, Lin Jun had never said no to Ji Shengming.

He thought Lin Jun loved Ji Shengming.

That was why he had been able to swallow so much pain and hurt over all those years.

Ji Chi had once asked Lin Jun a question.

He had asked whether Lin Jun had stayed in the Ji Family because of him.

Lin Jun had said no.

He had said he didn't see a child as shackles binding him.

Then it must be love. Mist clouded Ji Chi's vision.

Loving someone so much that even bloodshed couldn't make you leave.

He loved Ji Shengming, so he was willing to stay for him.

Even covered in wounds, he would stay.

Only when the cigarette butt burned his fingertips did Ji Chi realize he had finished it. He instinctively lit another.

He had only taken one drag when a tall, dark silhouette blocked the words "Inpatient building" beyond the corridor.

A gentle presence enveloped him.

Ji Chi hadn't even had time to look up.

The other man took the cigarette from his hand, stubbed it out, and tossed it into the bin.

All in one smooth motion.

In this world, the people who would put out my cigarettes...

Only Lin Jun and Huo Jin.

Lin Jun is in the stabilization room right now.

So it can only be Huo Jin.

The faint scent of cold purple sandalwood pheromones wrapped around him like warm hands.

It was as though he had fallen into a cloud of cotton, all the turmoil briefly shut out, soft and comfortable.

You waited there for flowers to bloom, and as though the flowers before you sensed it, they opened for you, one by one.

Ji Chi didn't look up.

He gave a quiet, inward scoff.

Huo Jin...

He's so much more useful than these damn cigarettes.

I want to cry a little.

I want to hold Huo Jin a little.

Ji Shengming had said alphas couldn't cry.

S-class alphas were even less allowed to cry.

But Lin Jun had said they could. "Of course you should cry when you're sad. Alphas can cry too."

Lin Jun's gentle, delicate voice drifted through his mind.

The pheromones he needed were right beside him. Perhaps Ji Chi's nerves had been stretched too tight, too fiercely.

They suddenly snapped.

"Heh..." The quiet sound escaped him as he turned his face slightly aside to spare himself the embarrassment.

And tears rolled from his eyes, scalding enough to startle.

A few strands of Ji Chi's slightly overgrown hair covered his eyelids.

The bloodshot redness had yet to fade from his icy eyes.

The moment Ji Chi felt the tears, he swiftly raised a hand to wipe them away.

Almost the very instant he turned his head.

He didn't want to show weakness in front of Huo Jin.

Yet he had cried in front of him anyway.

It was precisely because Huo Jin had come that he could no longer hold back his tears.

If I wipe them away fast enough, he won't see.

He had lost too much. To Ji Chi, tears were like his naked soul, something only his mother could see.

Bitterness crossed Ji Chi's face. He looked beyond the corridor, his eyes shimmering so much that he couldn't see clearly at all.

He wanted to leave. He didn't want Huo Jin to see him in such a wretched state.

Ji Chi shifted his feet, trying to run, but before he could take even one step,

he fell into a warm embrace.

The cold purple sandalwood pheromones grew stronger.

They seeped into his skin, his glands, and every part of his body.