Greyson sat on the locker room bench, irritably glaring at one side. The other guys had already finished showering and left. Except for Greyson and one other person.
Dane Striker.
Luckily, Greyson had found out that Dane had gone to receive treatment from a paramedic. And he hadn't appeared until now. Greyson could wait as long as needed. Time was something he had in abundance.
He was determined to hear what that expression meant. Greyson was resolved to wait for the door to open. But then.
At the faint sound of water, Greyson hesitated and turned his head. As he waited quietly, holding his breath, his ears that had detected the sound perked up.
Someone was in the shower room.
His hesitation lasted only 1 or 2 seconds. Soon he understood the situation. That damn Dane Striker had gone straight to the shower room. Naturally, Greyson headed to the shower room. As he walked quickly, almost running with large strides, the questions he had been thinking about continuously sprang up endlessly in his mind. Ten steps, five steps, one step.
Finally, as he flung open the door to the shower room, the sound of pouring water immediately struck his ears. In the shower room with empty stalls, the only stall with hot steam rising was the farthest one from the entrance.
Greyson glared at that stall with his arms crossed. Beyond the one-sided swing door that was only long enough to cover from chest to thigh, Dane Striker was washing his body. Greyson waited patiently. Until he finished washing his damn body and came out.
Infuriatingly, Dane took a long time to shower. Long enough to make Greyson suspect that he knew Greyson was waiting and was doing it on purpose.
He rubbed the provided shampoo in his hands until it foamed and then scrubbed his head for a long time, and after finishing washing his hair, he began to scrub his entire body. Greyson was so irritated that he checked his wristwatch several times. He wanted to fling open that ridiculous swing door and drag him out by the collar, but unfortunately, Dane was naked.
Since there was no collar to grab, should he grab his neck instead? Just as he was seriously considering this, as if sensing his thoughts, Dane turned off the faucet.
Greyson finally straightened his body, which had been leaning against the door at an angle, and watched him come out. Dane grabbed the top of the swing door, fitting for his tall height, and opened it. First, his long legs appeared, then his firm thighs, followed by his entire body. Thinking he was alone, he made no attempt to cover himself, and Greyson was watching all of Dane Striker as he turned around with his naked body fully exposed.
"You, what was that earlier..."
The moment he had been waiting for had finally come. Greyson opened his mouth to speak the words he had gathered in his mind. And then he froze right there.
Dane walked across the shower room floor with wet footsteps, brushing back his wet hair. Until he raised his head with a tired sigh, he hadn't noticed the presence of another person at all. And then he made eye contact with Greyson Miller, who had been waiting until then, while completely defenseless. Immediately, Dane's brow furrowed.
"What is this?"
To Dane, who blurted out exactly what he was thinking, Greyson's mouth opened and closed again. Dane waited with furrowed brows for what seemed like an attempt to say something. But Greyson couldn't continue speaking. His eyes were fixed on Dane's chest, unable to move.
Part 4
In the silence, only the sound of water droplets falling from the shower head echoed regularly with a drip, drip. Greyson stared intently at Dane's chest, lost in a trance without even blinking.
Had he ever seen such a perfect chest before?
The appropriately full flesh completely filled the chest space without any gaps. The pink nipples were attached in just the right size, and the small areolas also formed perfect circles. The chest, temptingly hanging above the abdominal muscles with a perfect six-pack, was enough to make one's mouth water just by looking at it. That such a beautiful and attractive chest existed.
Greyson rubbed his eyes with his arms and blinked several times. Still, it was there. Such a perfect chest.
Greyson's stomach boiled and his lower body hardened. He blinked blankly. The words he had been about to say simply evaporated, and only Dane's chest remained in his mind.
Such a perfect chest.
Meanwhile, Dane felt uncomfortable seeing Greyson just standing there with his head down, saying nothing. At any other time, he would have ignored him and walked away, thinking he wasn't even worth laughing at, but he couldn't do that now. The reason was clear. Because he had seen an unexpected side of Greyson.
It would be the same even if Greyson did something foolish again. He couldn't easily think of melting this guy's head with pheromones and running away like before. The reason was the same.
It was something he neither wanted nor thought about, but what had already happened couldn't be helped. Dane had found out, and because of that, he had no choice but to act accordingly.
Whew, Dane let out a long sigh. As he inhaled deeply and exhaled, his luscious chest rose and fell once. Greyson's eyes captured every moment of that wonderful sight without missing a single instant.
"If you have something to say, I'll listen anytime later, but for today, just go back. I'm too tired to wait today."
Dane, speaking in an uncharacteristically calm tone, smoothly moved his body and went outside. He didn't forget to lightly pat Greyson's arm encouragingly as he brushed past him. And from behind Greyson, who was still frozen in place, he bent down to snatch up the clothes he had left at the entrance and walked away.
The sound of wet footsteps gradually faded away. When Greyson belatedly turned his head, Dane had already disappeared. As he stood there blankly, recalling the chest that still lingered before his eyes, a forgotten fact suddenly came to his mind.
Yes, that perfect chest.
He had thought it then too. That he would never see such a wonderful chest again.
Then? When?
...Then.
Suddenly Greyson realized. That he had completely forgotten about the extreme Omega he had been searching for all this time. Surprisingly, what had filled his mind instead all this time was that man.
Dane Striker.
His heart was greatly shaken by this sudden realization. He became bewildered about how to accept this fact.
I forgot about the destined partner I've been searching for all my life? That was almost everything in my life, how could I completely forget about that existence? How could someone else occupy my mind? And so completely at that.
"Surely that can't be."
Greyson covered his face with one hand and rubbed it roughly, then muttered without confidence. There's no way Dane Striker could be an Omega. He was such a plausible Beta male. The idea that someone so overflowing with testosterone could be an Omega was nonsense. Clearly, something was wrong with his head. Yes, there was only one reason.
"...Pheromones."
He muttered under his hand.
"I need to release them."
After making the decision, action didn't take long. Greyson turned around without any further lingering and came outside. Even as he drove out onto the road in his parked car, he was convinced. That man definitely couldn't be the one.
ch17 NOVEL version
That bastard.
In the car returning to the fire station, Greyson's insides began to boil little by little. What the hell was that look? What was he thinking when he looked at me? Why?
It was the first time he had seen such an expression. He couldn't understand what it meant at all. He let out an irritated groan, "Ungh."
From a time long ago that he couldn't even remember, Greyson Miller had difficulty distinguishing people's expressions. Perhaps there had been a defect in his brain since birth. To his son, who struggled because he couldn't read emotions, unable to tell whether someone was smiling or angry, his father, Ashley Miller, suggested one method.
<Learn to read emotions.>
After that, famous teachers specializing in acting and psychology regularly visited the mansion to teach him cold reading. At first, it started simply with "corners of the mouth up means smiling, down means sad," and later he memorized everything one by one, even down to how the movement of a single finger revealed inner feelings.
The fortunate thing was that Greyson had an outstanding talent for cold reading. He absorbed everything he was taught like a sponge, and at a rapid pace, he went beyond understanding the other person's mind to even discerning what they wanted with just a glance.
Conversely, he was also excellent at using his knowledge to imitate the emotions that others might feel in the same situation and "pretend." Thanks to this, he perfectly created the image of himself that others wanted, using what he had read. To someone who didn't know about his innate defect and acquired effort, it was convincing enough to be completely fooled. The teacher who taught acting recognized his talent and seriously recommended it.
<Have you thought about pursuing this path? I'll talk to Mr. Miller, you definitely have talent! How wonderful would it be to stand on the red carpet with Chase? Hmm?>
The teacher was very sincere, but Greyson declined. Because he clearly knew his limitations.
He was only "imitating" after all. Because of this, he couldn't perform the deep, internal acting like his brother Chase Miller, who was counted among the top actors and recognized for his superior acting skills. In fact, even when watching movies featuring Chase, Greyson only watched with a feeling close to learning, thinking "so in such situations, one expresses oneself like that," and had never been impressed by the acting. Because the emotions didn't resonate with him. Though he could know through learning whether someone was crying, wailing, or laughing, he couldn't understand "why."
Above all, these cases of "acting" and adapting to others were exclusively limited to those he judged as his "destiny." He exerted his full effort, displaying more than 120 percent of what he had learned, and because of that, they, regardless of gender, fell deeply for Greyson. The problem was that he was also merciless when abandoning them.
Anyway, for that reason, Greyson Miller had never failed until now. Even if they initially avoided him or had negative feelings toward him, after giving expensive gifts and saying a few plausible words, they would pretend to give in and fall for him. Conversely, those who disliked him hated him terribly. A being who received both unconditional love and intense hatred, that was Greyson Miller.
Of course, all those reactions were merely amusing to him. In the end, whether they hated or loved, the fact that they couldn't endure his existence was the same. Because love and hate are one.
So until now, he had lived looking down on all people in the world.
What the hell does that expression mean?
He was dying of curiosity. Greyson had learned all the emotional expressions in the world and had perfectly acquired them. But this was the first time he couldn't understand such an expression.
He needed to know what it was.
Greyson even felt anxious. There should be no emotion he didn't know. He needed to know what it meant, even if he had to strangle Dane Striker. Right now.