Chapter 480: You’ll have everything you want

I was a mess. My skin was flushed a deep, feverish red, and my body was still acting out, the relentless ache between my legs throbbing with every jagged breath I took.

I was scared, paranoid, and unable to do anything about my condition.

When I opened the door, I found Min-Cheol first.

He still had that black mask on, his eyes darting to my face and then immediately to the floor, his shoulders shaking. Behind him came Ki-hoon, Seo-Jun, and finally Jin-Yeok.

They didn’t rush me despite the shock on their face as they watched me slowly crawl out on the floor.

"Jo-Pil," Ki-hoon called out, his voice dripping with worry, but he couldn’t bring himself to walk towards me.

He paused, not knowing what to do about the situation with me asking them to stay away.

How could they now? When they saw me in such a state.

They stood in a semi-circle, keeping a respectful distance, their own white suits wrinkled and ruined, some of them already losing their coats, their faces a map of agony.

"Hyung..." Min-Cheol’s voice was muffled by the mask, sounding small and broken.

"I’m sorry," I sobbed, the words bubbling up from a place so deep it felt like my ribs were cracking. "I didn’t mean it. I don’t want to be alone. Please... It’s so cold, but I’m so hot, and I’m just... I’m so scared."

I felt Jin-Yeok move first. He didn’t come to grab me. He knelt on the floor in front of me and stretched a fluffy white towel towards me.

I looked at the towel and then looked at him.

He held it out, waiting for me to take it, his eyes fixed on mine with a gravity that steadied my spinning world.

My Pheromones were leaking out a lot. I couldn’t sense them, but I was certain, given how they were trying hard not to come too close, and when they did, they tried not to look anywhere else but my eyes.

It was hard staying in control when an Omega in full heat was causing their world to spin and their judgment to thin. 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

"Are you... Leaving?" The words left my mouth, small but panicked, my heart hammering more relentlessly now.

"We aren’t going anywhere, Jo-Pil," he said, his enchanting voice low and soft. "We’re right here. We’ll always be right here."

I reached out, my trembling hand reaching up until I grabbed the towel. As I pulled it around my shoulders, the shield it provided suddenly gave me the strength to look at them properly.

Ki-hoon was biting his lip so hard it was bleeding, his eyes roaming over the bathroom through the open door and then back at me.

"We did this," he whispered, more to himself than to me, and I lifted my head to look at him. "We talked about freedom while we built a smaller cage."

It was a confession that made my breath hitch, and then he continued.

"We were so afraid of losing you that we forgot to let you breathe."

"I don’t want a cage," I whimpered. "I don’t want to be a ’treasure.’ I want to be with you. But I want to know I can leave and you’ll still be there when I come back."

"Hyung..." Min-Cheol mumbled again, and I could finally see how under his eyes were red. Did he cry? "What do you want to do?" He asked. "Where do you want to go? What do you want to have? If it’s true freedom... Not the kind that has you trapped in this house," he gripped his hand tight as he said. "We’ll definitely give it to you."

Seo-Jun stepped forward, his usual mask of arrogance completely shattered. He sat on the floor next to me, and I flinched, watching him as he ran a hand through his messy blond hair.

"Then you’ll have it." He said, and my lips parted, asking in a small voice.

"What?"

"Everything." He looked at me with warmth in his eyes. He was trying to act nonchalant and act like my Pheromones weren’t getting to him, but he was just as excited. Just trying to act cocky on top of it. "You want a house? I’ll buy you a place. Not a mansion with guards, but a real house. With a small garden and a door that only you have the key to. You can go there whenever this place feels too small. You can sleep there, eat there, hide there—and we won’t follow unless you invite us."

That...

"And a car," Ki-hoon added quickly, his voice gaining a desperate kind of resolve. "A fast one. A safe one. You won’t have to wait for a driver or ask for permission. You just go. You go wherever you want, Jo-Pil."

Min-Cheol finally pulled down his mask, showing the spot his tears had gathered in the line of the mask.

He did cry.

"And I’ll help you find something to do. If you want to work, or study, or just... find a hobby that isn’t us. You like reading, right? You can have your own library, just like Seo-Jun’s."

Ah, I believe this is the first time Min-Cheol is actually calling Seo-Jun by his name, or anyone for that matter.

"Hyung," he called softly, his eyes struck with grief and guilt. "I don’t want you sitting around, waiting for us to come home like we’re the only thing in your world. I want you to have your own world."

I looked at them, my heart swelling so fast it felt like it was going to burst through my chest. The trauma was still there—the memory of the chains and the screams still flickered in the back of my mind—but it was being drowned out by the sheer, overwhelming weight of their care.

There were four men who were terrified they had broken the most precious thing they had ever found.

"I..." I finally looked up and said. "I want to travel the world." A tear slid down my cheek and then another. "I want to travel with all of you."

"Then I’ll arrange it," Jin-Yeok answered without a moment of hesitation. His hand finally closed the distance to touch my damp hair and then caressed my face. "I’ll plan the trips, Jo-Pil. It’ll be a vacation just for us. We’ll see the world, all the places you only read about when you were trapped. We’ll show you that the world is big, and that you belong in every part of it."

I bit my lip, a heavy feeling rising from my chest, and I cried even harder then, but the bitterness was gone.

They were doing a lot. They were doing enough.