Chapter 59

After finishing Time Booth, Gyeol returned to the lodging and immediately collapsed onto the bed with an exhausted body.

Yoonsoo was nowhere to be seen—apparently he had gone off somewhere to talk. Honestly, that was for the best. Gyeol’s thoughts were such a mess right now that he did not think he could hold a smooth conversation with him.

“Haa...”

Pulling the blanket higher, Gyeol covered half his face.

He simply did not want his exhausted expression caught on camera.

For the cast’s comfort and dignity, the cameras inside the bedrooms were installed only on the wall opposite the beds, near the foot side. From this angle, his face probably would not be visible.

Closing his eyes, Gyeol replayed what had happened inside the Time Booth.

‘...Thank you, Sun.’

It had taken him a long time to steady his emotions.

Sun’s pheromones—warm and comforting as if medicine had dissolved into the air itself—had left Gyeol even more defenseless and melancholy.

Once he somehow managed to collect himself and pull away from Sun’s embrace, the atmosphere afterward became awkward.

Feeling embarrassed, Gyeol first bowed his head apologetically.

Sun hurriedly waved his hands and insisted it was fine—only to suddenly choke on his own breath. When Gyeol looked up in surprise, Sun’s entire face was bright red.

Well, of course it was.

He had been exposed to Omega pheromones while holding the owner of those pheromones in his arms for an extended time.

That realization only made Gyeol feel guiltier.

‘...If you don’t mind, I think I’ll sit over here on the bed.’

‘Will you be alright?’

‘I meditate often, so I’ll be fine. I can just sit properly and focus.’

Understanding perfectly well why Sun had fled toward the bed to create some distance, Gyeol obediently agreed.

And so—

Sun sat upright on the bed in meditative posture while Gyeol curled up at the edge of the sofa hugging his knees, the two of them fumbling awkwardly through conversation in a room thick with pheromones.

What kind of absurd picture even was that?

This really was a completely new variety of insanity.

Favorite foods. Hobbies. Places they had traveled.

They kept desperately gathering random conversation topics until—

Beep.

A notification sound rang out, followed by the lock disengaging.

Time Booth was over.

When they stepped outside, the clear skies from earlier had completely vanished beneath heavy storm clouds.

The room had become so overheated from the dense pheromones that the wind brushing against Gyeol’s cheeks felt cold.

As both of them absentmindedly touched their heated necks and foreheads, Gyeol decided he needed to properly express himself and bowed apologetically toward Sun again.

There was no subject attached to the apology.

He could not narrow it down to just one thing, nor could he possibly explain everything weighing on his heart.

And yet Sun answered as though he fully understood anyway.

‘Don’t apologize.’

Remembering Sun’s firm voice, Gyeol pressed the back of his hand against his eyes.

‘There’s nothing for you to apologize for, Gyeol. Everything that happened today was something I wanted. And... I truly enjoyed spending time with you.’

Those words were both comforting and painful.

“...Why would someone like you come on a show like this?”

Even when he tried making excuses out of resentment, all he felt was heavier guilt.

“This place is seriously messed up. Watching people gradually lose their minds in previous seasons felt fascinating back then... but now I’m in no position to talk.”

At first, he had entered the island with a fairly light heart despite all his determination.

Who could have imagined that by only Day 6, his emotions would become this tangled?

“This won’t do.”

Taking a sharp breath, Gyeol abruptly sat upright.

He needed to move around or something.

If he stayed lying there, he felt like he would just keep sinking deeper.

***

After leaving the lodging, Gyeol hesitated briefly before heading toward the forest instead of the beach.

He wanted to take a quiet walk alone and clear his head, but the beach almost certainly had at least one group deep in conversation.

With no sun overhead and cool wind blowing through the air, the weather was perfect for walking.

A camera followed behind him once he stepped out alone, but by now he barely even noticed that anymore.

Just as he reached the end of the neatly maintained grass and started up the uphill path winding through the dense forest—

“Ah—!”

The road curved sharply there, preventing Gyeol from seeing the person approaching from the opposite direction.

Their shoulders bumped together.

“I’m sorry. Are you alright?”

“I’m... I’m fine. I wasn’t watching where I was going either.”

It was Jaekyung Park.

Not only had they never really spoken alone before, but lately Gyeol had developed a strangely uneasy feeling about him.

Gyeol was about to simply exchange greetings and move on—

when something suddenly felt off.

Jaekyung’s face was unnaturally red.

His breathing seemed heated.

His clothes were slightly disheveled.

Huh?

Without thinking, Gyeol glanced toward the carelessly parted collar of Jaekyung’s shirt.

And there—

on the side of his neck—

was a mark impossible to overlook.

A bruise roughly the size of a fingernail.

Gyeol immediately recognized what it was.

A hickey.

At the same time, a disgusting pheromone scent faintly drifted into his nose.

Forest.

But not from the trees surrounding them.

Gyeol knew this scent.

It belonged to the Alpha whose pheromones had repulsed him from the very beginning.

Their eyes met briefly.

Jaekyung’s pupils shook violently with panic he had failed to hide in time.

Several explanations were possible.

Woo Seok Jung and Jaekyung Park had matched during pheromone matching. Maybe something happened during their Skinship Time and the hickey was simply the result.

On R-Connect, that kind of thing could happen anytime.

To someone like Gyeol, who had practically mastered previous seasons, it was not even especially shocking.

What was strange, however, was that Woo Seok’s Alpha pheromones were still clinging to Jaekyung.

That should have been impossible.

Since R-Connect heavily utilized pheromones according to each participant’s secondary gender, the production staff took pheromone removal extremely seriously in order to maintain fair competition and prevent spoilers.

The cast had been provided with industrial-strength pheromone removers before filming even began. In addition, advanced full-body sterilization systems had been installed at entrances to buildings like the Pheromone Booth and Time Booth.

Of course, those systems had not been perfect from the start.

Failure was the mother of improvement.

Past seasons had given R-Connect more than enough painful lessons.

Alpha contestants had literally gotten into vicious dogfights because lingering pheromones remained on Omegas. Participants had subconsciously identified each other’s pheromones in advance and ruined pheromone matching entirely. At one point, cast members had even fled the island one after another.

For the sake of the show’s survival, the staff had no choice but to obsess over pheromone removal.

Which meant—

at this moment, not even the faintest trace of Sun’s Alpha pheromones remained on Gyeol.

Even if the sterilization system had suddenly malfunctioned, there was no way the staff—who monitored everything obsessively before and after each schedule—would have allowed Jaekyung to walk around reeking this strongly of Woo Seok’s pheromones.

Which meant...

“Gyeol, then I’ll see you later during dinner...”

After a rapid storm of thoughts rushed through his mind, Jaekyung tried to leave.

Gyeol immediately stopped him.

“Jaekyung. Wait a second.”

Because of the camera following behind him at a distance.

“Huh? Why—”

The road curved here.

From this angle, Gyeol’s taller frame conveniently blocked part of Jaekyung’s neck from view.

But if Jaekyung took even one more step—

the story would change.

Once they moved farther down the path and closer to the camera, the hickey would inevitably be caught on lens.

Worse yet, if the cameraman happened to be a Beta who could detect pheromones properly, he would immediately realize Jaekyung was drenched in Woo Seok’s scent.

Gyeol was deeply familiar with hostility from others.

He had not missed the unsettling signs Jaekyung had shown toward him. The reactions during the drinking session favorability vote. The way he cut off Kang Hee Jun the moment Hee Jun tried talking to Gyeol.

Even if Gyeol could not define it clearly yet, there was undeniably something uncomfortable there.

Still—

he did not want Jaekyung to end up cornered like this.

Not for Jaekyung’s sake.

Simply because Go Gyeol’s nature would not allow it.

Reaching into his pocket, Gyeol pulled out a handkerchief and wrapped it around Jaekyung’s neck.

It was old-fashioned in this day and age, but he had developed the habit of carrying one around because of Yuli.

“The wind’s cold. I thought you might catch a cold.”

“Huh?”

Jaekyung narrowed his eyes in confusion—

then abruptly froze as though he finally understood.

Fortunately, the handkerchief fit perfectly around his neck.

After tying a small knot and pulling his hands away, Gyeol saw Jaekyung hesitate before quietly speaking.

“...Thank you.”

“It’s nothing.”

“See you later.”

After exchanging a brief nod, Jaekyung turned down the path to the right.

At least that route would keep him from directly crossing paths with Gyeol’s cameraman.

Apparently he understood Gyeol’s intentions.

Thankfully, Jaekyung was quick-witted.

After confirming once more that the camera was still following him, Gyeol slowly continued up the hill.

This was the most natural help he could offer.

The rest was up to Jaekyung.

Still... the forest scent really is Woo Seok’s, right?

If it somehow belonged to Tommy instead, that would be shocking in an entirely different way.

...If Tommy’s the one who did all that, I think I’d genuinely faint.

Thinking of Tommy almost like one of Yuli’s little friends, Gyeol laughed softly at the absurd thought.

There was no way.

Honestly, he hoped Woo Seok would just settle things properly with Jaekyung already.

Between the bizarre behavior yesterday and today’s unstable muttering, Woo Seok clearly had issues.

Jaekyung doesn’t seem completely uninterested either. If Woo Seok finally makes up his mind and the two of them actually work things out...

Still lost in thought as he walked slowly forward—

someone descending from the opposite direction called out to him.

“Go Gyeol?”