DASH-Chapter 137

If Jaekyoung had suddenly acted like this out of the blue one day, Jiheon would’ve been seriously surprised. He would’ve thought Jaekyoung finally fell out of love with him or started to hate him.

But now, he didn’t even have that suspicion. After Jaekyoung loudly declared he’d propose after the Olympics, it didn’t make sense for his heart to turn so cold overnight to the point where he hesitated to even touch Jiheon.

Moreover, if Jiheon looked closely, Jaekyoung avoided physical touch but still paid close attention to his every action. At mealtime, he’d open the bedroom door, peek in, and ask, “Hyung, aren’t you hungry? What do you want to eat?” Even if Jiheon just opened the bedroom door to get a drink, he’d ask, “What’s wrong, hyung, what are you trying to do? Do you want to drink water? Just lie down. I’ll get it for you.” He’d even bring water to the bedroom.

He did everything he could to the point of being so extreme, but to think that he even avoided any physical touch....... At this point, there was only one thing to point out.

“What’s the matter?”

Jaekyoung suddenly spoke up, and Jiheon muttered:

“Huh?”

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

Jaekyoung said indifferently as always. His slightly blunt tone was no different from usual. It’s just that his body was distant. Without him realizing it, Jaekyoung had edged away on the sofa.

“...It’s nothing.”

Jiheon answered briefly and turned his head. Pretending to watch the movie for a moment, he stood up, running his hand down his face as if he was tired.

“I can’t do it. I’m so sleepy.”

“Go to bed first.”

Jaekyoung said, eyes fixed on the TV screen. Despite speaking calmly, relief was evident on his face. Jiheon was about to ask where he’d sleep tonight but decided against it. Instead, he went into the bedroom, only telling Jaekyoung not to stay up too late.

As soon as he closed the door and sat on the bed, Jiheon picked up his cell phone and started browsing the internet. Searching for “Alpha ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) heat aftereffects” yielded a huge number of results, as expected.

Of course, Omega wasn’t the only one going through the aftereffects of their first heat. Among Alphas, many dealt with these aftereffects too. The causes were pretty similar. They were shocked to see changes in their appearance during their heat, and even afterward, they kept complaining about the mental pain. It wasn’t much different from Omega’s situation. The shock was more intense for people who generally had a delicate and gentle personality, were deeply considerate of others, or highly educated and prided themselves on being cool-headed and rational.

Up until now, Jiheon strongly felt Kwon Jaekyoung wasn’t the type to suffer from heat aftereffects, but... in any case, that was all he could figure out for now, so he kept searching.

Anyway, Jaekyoung was depressed and said he didn’t understand how he could do such a thing when Jiheon was suffering. Of course Jaekyoung himself had believed he was always in heat all year round, but when he finally realized it wasn’t even heat, he was even more shocked, but anyway.

Since the causes weren’t very different, the symptoms were pretty similar too. People complained about feeling depressed, losing their appetite, decreased sexual desire, and so on. From what Jiheon observed today, Jaekyoung didn’t seem particularly depressed. And judging by the fact that he ate three hearty meals a day, he hadn’t lost any appetite either.

As for loss of sexual desire... it was a bit ambiguous. Normally, it would’ve been expected not to think about doing anything for at least 15 days if they had done that during the heat. However, Kwon Jaekyoung once said, “When you like someone, isn’t it normal to want to do it every day?”

He was a guy who did everything he could even when losing stamina from training all day while preparing for the Olympics. And on off-training days, he could do it several times a day, of course.

In that case, Jaekyoung seemed rather too calm despite having extra stamina on vacation.... Should he say it was true that he had definitely withered? Besides, Jaekyoung must know that after this vacation, there would be almost no chance for the two of them to have time to be intimate until the Olympics.

Still unsure about the search results, Jiheon was suddenly shocked to find that Alpha males who complained of decreased sexual desire had a high probability of showing symptoms of erectile dysfunction, and he blurted out, “What? Seriously?!”

‘No, this is... This isn’t right.’

Jiheon was so flabbergasted that he unconsciously sat up from his half-lying position on the bed. This was inevitable because erectile dysfunction wasn’t just about physical issues but also came with a loss of confidence and behavioral decline.

If something like this were to happen to an athlete with less than half a year left until the Olympics, it would be an emergency. Moreover, most treatments for erectile dysfunction involved male hormones, and since they could lead to doping, immediate drug treatment wasn’t even possible.

Of course, Jaekyoung hadn’t shown symptoms yet, and Jiheon didn’t know if it was genuinely an aftereffect of heat or something else, but just thinking about it made him break into a cold sweat.

‘What do we do now?’

Jiheon instantly got serious.

‘If this really happens, forget the Olympics, Jaekyoung’s life as a man will be ruined. If he truly becomes impotent... I’m the one responsible for this, right? It happens because of me. No, I will take responsibility even if he isn’t disabled, but yeah, of course I will.’

Jiheon suddenly got antsy and started looking into erectile dysfunction. As soon as he found that the main cause of psychogenic erectile dysfunction was a lack of confidence and self-esteem as a man, he instantly calmed down. This was because it had never been the case with Kwon Jaekyoung.

Jiheon regained his composure in an instant and became sure that Jaekyoung couldn’t suffer from the aftereffects of heat. Besides, Kwon Jaekyoung wasn’t such a delicate and fragile enough soul to suffer from that. Of course, it was a bit odd for someone like him to spend his last vacation so carefully..., but people could have days like that too, right? So Jiheon decided to just brush it off.

And there were still six days left before the vacation ended anyway. Perhaps, when he woke up, he would be lying next to Jaekyoung again the next morning. No, not perhaps; he definitely would. It had been quiet all day, and Jaekyoung had been sucking his fingers alone for three days, thinking about the fact Jiheon had slept for two days. Kwon Jaekyoung’s patience must be running thin.

Jaekyoung claimed he hadn’t even thought about doing anything in the past two days because he was so busy looking for pool villas in the Maldives and checking out coral reef experience packages. But he could barely wait until tomorrow. Even if Jiheon pushed him away, saying it couldn’t happen now, he’d definitely insist, “I’m not going to do anything, I’m just going to hold you.” But it was clear he planned to bite, suck, touch, and stroke Jiheon while holding him.

Having reached the conclusion that he wanted, Jiheon lay down on the bed. Truth be told, he was sleepy and ended up finishing it half-heartedly, but he couldn’t help it. His brain was already half asleep.

It wasn’t like there was anything wrong; he just felt strangely sleepy for the past two days. People said the more you slept, the better you felt, but Jiheon was still very sleepy no matter how much rest he got. And he seemed to spend more time sleeping than with his eyes open.

‘No matter how much I overworked myself during the heat, it wasn’t enough for my body to become weak like this... but am I losing stamina now? Is this how people will become once they turn 30? But will Jaekyoung still insist on marrying me? If that’s the case, he might have to take care of me for the rest of his life. I feel sorry for him. He somehow got stuck with a guy six years older than him.......’

As he pondered, his thoughts naturally drifted toward marriage. He chuckled to himself, thinking, ‘What? Why am I thinking about marriage again?’, but he couldn’t help it. It was a very unexpected proposal. He figured it would probably linger in his thoughts for a while.

In the end, Jiheon fell asleep while imagining his married life with Jaekyoung for two nights in a row. Even when he woke up during those times, he desperately wished Jaekyoung would be next to him, but—

Regrettably, when Jiheon opened his eyes the next day, Jaekyoung was still on the living room sofa. The same thing happened the day after. Now, he even slept on the living room sofa. He went out to the living room with the same excuse he always used—hyung, you’re still not feeling well, so sleep comfortably on your own—but Jiheon shook his head and asserted that he was fine now. However, that didn’t seem to convince Jaekyoung at all.

With the situation reaching this point, Jiheon eventually had no choice but to face the truth. Jaekyoung was suffering from severe aftereffects of heat. Otherwise, there was no other way to explain this.

Getting worried belatedly, Jiheon spent the entire day on his cell phone searching for a solution to the aftereffects of heat for Alphas. However, while there was an abundance of information about causes and symptoms, there was nothing detailed about solutions. Most were advertisements for consulting hospitals, and the advice from self-proclaimed experts in forums was nothing special: time would heal, surround yourself with love and faith. The person involved might feel more burdened and blame themselves, especially if their lover or spouse shows too much concern, so don’t mention it and suggest counseling if there’s no improvement over time.

So, for now, Jiheon just observed quietly without saying anything, as the expert suggested. Fortunately, Jaekyoung didn’t seem much different from usual, except for the absence of physical touch. His appetite was normal, and he didn’t seem particularly depressed. In fact, he seemed to be getting better as the days passed. He was in good shape and dedicated most of his day in the living room to various strength exercises with the medicine ball Coach Yoo had brought him.

Oh, and out of the blue, he started meditating. But that was... not all that strange. Speed sports athletes usually did a lot of meditation. They claimed it really helped improve concentration, and group meditation was even part of the training during the national team sessions.

However, Jiheon found Jaekyoung’s sudden change in attitude a bit puzzling. He’d always argued that meditation was pointless, saying, “I don’t get why I should do things like meditation. I’d rather take an extra lap around the pool.”

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Of course, being stuck at home without being able to swim might explain why he’d look for alternative training with the extra time...... but Jiheon couldn’t shake the feeling that the timing was off.

Based on what Jiheon had looked into for the past few days, counseling and meditation were often used before medication for psychogenic erectile dysfunction. After Jaekyoung finished meditating, he always headed to the bathroom, which raised Jiheon’s suspicions. He wondered if Jaekyoung was checking the effects of the meditation.

Of course, of course Jiheon knew. Even if Jaekyoung suffered from the aftereffects of heat, he would never go that far. Rather than knowing exactly, he just believed that to be the case. He was confident that if anyone in the world knew and trusted Kwon Jaekyoung’s abilities as an Alpha male the most, it would probably be him. (Because who else would know that...)

However, once his thoughts headed in that direction, everything started to seem suspicious. He wanted to straightforwardly ask Jaekyoung, “Hey, are you like THAT?” but hesitated because he feared it might be true. Didn’t many experts advise this? They said never to show obvious concern or worry, as it could make the person feel more pressured and blame themselves even more.

To avoid making the distressed guy more distressed, Jiheon refrained from touching him or saying much, maintaining a calm demeanor like a Buddha statue. Yet, as time passed, he couldn’t shake off his growing anxiety, especially considering his last vacation would end in just three days.

Jiheon also wasn’t in a rush to do anything right away. His inner walls were still swollen from Jaekyoung’s knotting, so doing anything was off the table for now. However, when it came to physical touch and sex, they were different matters. He might not have been this bothered if Jaekyoung had always been the type to steer clear of physical touch. But since Jaekyoung was usually very affectionate, this newfound distance felt strange to Jiheon.

Even when Jaekyoung was sitting on the living room floor or sofa, he would always want to hug Jiheon. If Jiheon asked him to loosen his grip because it was getting stuffy, Jaekyoung would act as if wrapping his arms around Jiheon’s waist was the only way to find relief.

However, it had been four days, and Jaekyoung hadn’t made any moves or even come close. Jiheon thought that even if he didn’t want to have sex, he would just hug Jiheon normally and touch him.

‘Maybe physical touch is part of a sexual relationship for him? ...Well, come to think of it, I guess I’m the same. Just because I hug him, it usually doesn’t stop at hugging. When we’re hugging each other, it naturally continues to touching, kissing, and eventually leads to sex. That’s the usual order.’

“Hyung.”

As Jiheon was lost in thought, he opened his eyes wide upon hearing Jaekyoung’s voice calling him.

“Yeah?”

“Why are you looking at me like that again?”

Jiheon wasn’t sure, but it seemed like he was staring at Jaekyoung again. It had been happening a lot lately. He would catch himself following Jaekyoung with his eyes without even realizing it.

Initially, he was searching for any signs of heat aftereffects in Jaekyoung’s demeanor, but now he was just staring at him with impatience.

Jiheon flinched inwardly, but he soon pretended not to know and asked back.

“Why? How did I look at you?”

“You just keep looking at me without saying anything. Do you have anything to say to me?”

Jaekyoung asked, looking at Jiheon sitting on the sofa. He had just finished meditating and was now sitting on the living room floor. Jiheon was on the verge of asking if the meditation had any effect, but he refrained, laying down on the spacious sofa.

“Am I not allowed to look at what’s mine? Do I have to pay?”

Jaekyoung couldn’t help but gape; it was the first time he heard this. Instead of saying ‘my lover’ or ‘my boyfriend,’ Jiheon simply said ‘mine.’

Though filled with joy, Jaekyoung didn’t want to show it off, so he just muttered, “What are you saying...,” while pouting. Yet, it was amusing to see him act coy despite his large stature. It was so adorable that it made Jiheon’s heart ache.

“Oh, well, I’m yours, so you don’t have to pay. That’s right, I’m yours anyway.”

He even repeated “I’m yours” twice with an indifferent expression, but he couldn’t even kiss Jiheon when he told him to come closer, so it was driving him crazy.

‘Hey, dude, if you’re not gonna do anything, don’t act so cute.’

Jiheon was about to turn around and lay down when Jaekyoung unexpectedly said:

“Give me this instead.”

At that moment, Jaekyoung moved to his knees, lowered his head, and planted a kiss on Jiheon’s lips.