I'll take responsibility for you

The oppressive tension had reached its breaking point, ready to ignite at a touch. The young master was no criminal; he could not actually bring himself to kill anyone. At this point, he hated himself, but he hated the sanctimonious fraud before him even more.

He had slapped the man, but that changed nothing. What good had it done?

Three days of strain had already left Ji Chi's voice hoarse. Desperate to sever all ties, he said, "Don't ever let me see you again."

"I can give you more money than you could earn in your entire life."

Young Master Ji warned him darkly, "Sign it, and get out of my sight forever."

Ji Chi glared furiously at the agreement before him, his cold eyes bristling with sharp barbs, each drawing blood. Naturally, such a self-serving contract benefited him alone.

Whenever he thought of how he had lost control, Ji Chi did not know whom to blame.

Ultimately, he had been the one to seek the man out.

Everything here was something he neither wanted nor intended to acknowledge, a stain that had to be erased from his life.

He was an Alpha. He had been born one.

The man opposite him lowered his eyes, his husky voice gentle and composed:

"To be precise, you were the one begging for my pheromones."

"Using me and then throwing me away like this amounts to loving me and leaving me."

Ji Chi straightened and stared at him, fists clenched. "Are you fucking sick in the head? Do you seriously not know which one of us got the raw deal?"

He was sick in the head.

What kind of Omega could suppress an Alpha just by releasing his pheromones?

The past few days had passed in a haze for Ji Chi. All he remembered was how good it had felt. Fuck.

What he remembered most clearly was the moment the man released his pheromones. Even an S-class Alpha like him had felt suppressed.

And not just a little.

Normally, an Omega's pheromones were sweet and nonaggressive, primarily serving to attract Alphas.

They were born weak.

Suppression existed only between Alphas.

Ji Chi shot the man a vicious glare as an explosive thought struck him.

Could he be an Alpha?

But how was that possible? Alphas' pheromones repelled one another, as though they were natural enemies. Wouldn't having sex kill them?

Besides, he could not detect even the slightest trace of an Alpha's scent on this man.

At least, when the man did not deliberately release his pheromones, he seemed entirely ordinary.

An Alpha marking another Alpha would be like two male lions tearing into each other in a fight to the death.

Their inherently dominant pheromones would never yield.

The only possible outcome was one dead and one injured.

Or two coffins.

So when the doctor told Ji Chi he had been marked, he instinctively assumed the other man was an Omega.

Even if that was still absurd.

At least it was clearly more likely than the man being an Alpha.

At least their pheromones had not repelled each other at all.

Nor had they torn each other apart and left both sides wounded.

"I'll take responsibility for you." That deep voice sounded again, its quiet words carrying more weight and conviction than a promise.

Ji Chi's fluttering lashes stilled. His half-lidded eyes went blank, as though he had just heard the joke of the century.

Take responsibility?

Had this man lost his mind?

He was an Alpha, and someone was offering to take responsibility for him?

Ji Chi's already gloomy eyes darkened further. He exhaled slowly, suppressing the urge to stab the man, his expression cold and contemptuous. "Was I not clear enough just now?"

"Perfectly clear," Huo Jin said evenly. "But I should take responsibility for you."

Responsibility, my ass.

The bulging veins on Ji Chi's forehead throbbed. He closed his eyes, then opened them again.

"I told you, we have nothing to do with each other from now on. These past few days were a mistake because I failed to keep my own conscious impulses under control. I don't like you, and I don't want anything more to do with you."

"I came here myself. You could say I provoked you a month ago, too. Although I want to kill you right now, that wouldn't be fair to you. I'll take the loss."

"Once I walk out that door, if we ever run into each other anywhere, you have to pretend you don't know me. If you see me somewhere and come up to me, I will kill you."

Ji Chi braced both hands on the table and tapped the contract, issuing orders just as he always did at the negotiating table. "Sign it. Then we're even."

Huo Jin picked up the agreement and skimmed it. His stern face betrayed not the slightest discernible emotion, revealing nothing.

"These are coercive terms. You're banishing me, not discussing it with me."

Huo Jin fixed his deep eyes on Ji Chi. A single look seemed to take the distance between them from one step apart to less than nothing, plunging them back into those three reckless days, their naked bodies entwined. Obscene did not begin to describe it.

Ji Chi felt starved of oxygen and was about to turn away.

Suddenly, the contract patted lightly against his cheek like a caress, carrying a clinging intimacy they both could feel. The faint breeze stirred by the paper came with the crisp scent of pheromones. "Do you want to cut ties with me that badly?"

Ji Chi glared at him viciously. "Of course."

"The fact that you're still alive is already the concession I'm offering you."

He had originally thought the man was an Omega. Even if he did not like him, he would give him some money, perhaps even buy him a car or a house, whatever he wanted. After all, Ji Chi had been the one to take advantage of him, so he had to leave him something to fall back on. Even if the man demanded that Ji Chi take responsibility, marrying him would have been fine.

But in the present circumstances, all Ji Chi wanted was to cut ties with him.

This was too terrifying.

Being around him was worse than hell. He could destroy Ji Chi.

"What if I don't move?" the man asked mildly.

Ji Chi narrowed his eyes dangerously. "I'll buy this land and turn it into a cemetery. You don't get a choice."

The man pressed his lips together slightly, as though he had anticipated Ji Chi's ruthlessness.

"Afraid you won't be able to stop yourself from coming to me next time, either?"

"Don't flatter yourself." Enraged, Ji Chi spoke viciously, his expression incredulous. "I'd sooner die than come to you."

The pain accompanying his rut meant he could not have the mark removed while it lasted.

But that did not mean he could not do it now.

"I'll go to the hospital to have the mark removed."

"But it'll take a few months for it to be completely removed and healed, so you have to move away."

"I don't want anything else happening during that time."

Ji Chi raised his eyes, his expression icy. Pale after his outburst, his face looked even more forbidding. "Have I made myself clear enough?"

Every word Young Master Ji spoke came from a position of absolute authority. He left the man no escape, not even any room to negotiate. That was how he always operated: sharp, ruthless, aloof, merciless when necessary, never dragging things out, accepting only choices that benefited him one hundred percent.

If he did not want things becoming messy and complicated again, he had to force them to a dead end from the outset.

He could not give the other man the right to choose, either.

"Perfectly clear." The man nodded slightly.

He did not pursue the subject or look at the contract again. What he said next was entirely unrelated.

"My name is Huo Jin."

Ji Chi was briefly bewildered by this introduction out of nowhere. "I'm not interested in your name, and I don't want to know it."

That was why he had not even wanted to ask.

Yet this man had actually started introducing himself.

Did he want to remember his name?

He wanted to kill him!

Ji Chi was about to say something when he noticed that Huo Jin seemed about to move closer.

Perhaps still shaken, Ji Chi felt his heels tingle and retreated another half step.

When he realized what he had done, Ji Chi wanted to slap himself twice.

What was wrong with him?

Dodging him like that made it look as though he was afraid of him!

At that thought, Ji Chi lifted his chin and straightened, even moving forward a little.

As if an Alpha like him would be afraid of this man.

That movement brought them within inches of each other in an instant, warm breaths mingling with faint plum wine pheromones.

Cold, domineering, barbed.

They emanated from Ji Chi.

S1-type warning pheromones.

These pheromones were wild and brazen, like a hunter warning others away from his hunting grounds: no trespassing, keep your distance.

Had another Alpha caught such intense pheromones, he would have willingly given Ji Chi a wide berth to avoid trouble.

But clearly,

they did not work on Huo Jin.

He did not step back. His expression remained entirely unchanged, watching with casual amusement, like an ordinary Beta unaffected by pheromones.

Frustration washed over Ji Chi. Gritting his teeth, he was about to raise a hand to push the man away when Huo Jin caught his wrist.

A faint tickle of tingling sensation immediately spread across his palm.

Ji Chi tugged at his hand, but the man only tightened his grip.

He looked down and discovered that Huo Jin was writing on his palm with a pen.

"Let go of me!"

Huo Jin remained unmoved. "Hold still."

That coaxing tone left Ji Chi stunned for several seconds. By the time he came to his senses, Huo Jin had already released his hand.

"This is my number," Huo Jin said.

Ji Chi looked at the neat string of digits on his palm, written with exceptional clarity, his brow furrowing deeper and deeper.

He had an excellent memory. This was the first time Ji Chi had ever hated it.

Because he had memorized the number at a glance.

Fuck!

Ji Chi felt inexplicably furious.

"Who wants your number?"

Ji Chi angrily rubbed at the writing on his palm. "Huo Jin, right?"

He grabbed the man by the front of his shirt and warned, "Listen to me. Don't even think about using what happened these past few days as leverage to threaten me."

"Or you'll die a very ugly death!"

With that, Ji Chi angrily released Huo Jin. He did not want to waste another moment here.

"What I mean is, if you want to see me, you can call me." Huo Jin gazed at Ji Chi before him, not the least bit annoyed.

Countless unreadable thoughts filled the man's deep eyes, with a boundless abyss lurking beneath them.

Ji Chi scrubbed the number off his hand, then raised his palm to show Huo Jin the faint smudge of ink left behind. "Rest assured, that day will never come."

Having said that, Ji Chi walked past Huo Jin. At the door, he turned his head slightly.

"You don't get a choice about any of the terms in that agreement. Otherwise, I'll completely destroy the rest of your life."

It was all too easy for someone in power to destroy a person. The Boshen Group was a capitalist enterprise with interests across every industry.

Ji Chi was not joking in the slightest.

After Ji Chi left, Huo Jin watched his retreating figure, a faint flicker passing through his dark, narrow eyes.

Plum wine really was intoxicating.

But your pheromones only make me want to tear you apart.