Just like playing tag, Ahin kept missing Vivi.
One knight said she went up the central stairs, while a butler said she passed through the corridor on the opposite side. Until Everine led Ash and Bara in front of the bedroom, they did not run into each other.
While Ahin visited the indoor greenhouse, the employees had cleaned the bedroom thoroughly. They were so competent that, perhaps, they had even tidied Vivi away, for the Vivi who supposedly entered the bedroom was nowhere to be seen.
Quinn, perched on the terrace railing, pointed his wing at the desk.
Crrk, after closing the curtain to block Quinn, Ahin walked towards the desk. He saw a hem of a light purple dress peeking out below.
Just that alone washed away his impatience and anxiety like a tidal wave. Ahin knelt down.
“Vivi.”
Vivi’s face, hidden under the desk, was drenched with moisture.
She still did not cry out loud, whether as a rabbit or as a human. It was endearing how she tried to hold back her tears even now by pinching her nose.
The fact that he could confirm her intact expression made Ahin’s lips curve smoothly.
“I told you, doing that wouldn’t stop your tears.”
To Vivi, it looked as if Ahin fit snugly into a square frame.
Quietly releasing her nose, she bit her lower lip until blood rushed there. Still, she resented the tears filling her eyes.
She hated that she could not break the habit of hiding in corners when she felt scared or upset, even though she was no longer a rabbit.
Vivi’s lips swelled redder from the pressure of her teeth.
“Your lips would get hurt.”
Ahin’s hand, which had unconsciously stretched out, was slapped away by Vivi. Even after she slapped it, Vivi, who had opened her eyes wide in surprise, looked at her own hand.
Ahin also blankly stared at the back of his hand, blocked by that knife-like defense. It felt as if he were facing a rabbit cornered into a dead end, highly sensitive.
Had she also heard some unnecessary words from Lilion? Holding a shallow breath, he plopped down on the spot.
Thud, the forehead of the leaning Ahin touched the edge of the desk. Unlike Vivi, who had settled in cozily, his seated height made it impossible for him to fit under the desk.
“Did you hear something strange from my grandfather?”
As if his words had been a signal flare, tears welled up in Vivi’s eyes.
“Grandfather.”
All at once,
“Something strange.”
All at once.
Observing the silent signals, Ahin could easily find the cause of her tears.
‘So that was the correct guess.’
Guessing that she had heard something about Edith or the dominant-class pheromone, he furrowed his brow. He smelled a subtle scent of blood.
His red eyes, which roamed quickly, lingered on Vivi’s hand placed on her knee. It was a wound caused by her nails digging in from clenching her fist.
“What happened to your hand now.”
“…….”
“Vivi, give me an answer. I’m starting to get angry.”
What did you ever do right that you dare to get angry at me. Harboring such a thorny thought, Vivi slapped away Ahin’s hand, which approached her wound, once again. Facing his expression devoid of laughter and emotion, Vivi forced her closed lips to open.
“…Why did you not tell me.”
Ahin blinked several times and tilted his head sideways. Vivi’s face came into clearer view in his line of sight.
“It would have been nice if you explained the situation properly.”
Like a broken faucet, moisture rose endlessly in Vivi’s eyes.
Ahin, who suddenly burst into laughter at the wrong moment, lifted the corners of his lips.
Her nose was red. The braided hair, which clearly carried Lilion’s old-fashioned sentiment, was in a mess, undone.
He paused as he reached into his pocket to wipe her tears.
Realizing he had no handkerchief, Ahin took off his jacket and offered it. The rabbit, who had become even more ferocious, ruthlessly slapped that away as well.
“Wh-When…!”
Realizing that her pronunciation had broken down, Vivi abruptly stopped speaking.
With her head deeply lowered, she deliberately tugged at the inner corners of both her eyes. She felt that only if the tears stopped would she not be looked down upon and could question him.
‘If it was a healing-type pheromone, it might be able to prevent pheromone seizures.’
‘To put it bluntly, I needed your pheromone.’
Lilion expressed his wish for her to quickly handle the healing-type pheromone and become a talent of House Grace.
The implied meaning in his words was, in the end, essentially telling Vivi to stay by Ahin’s side and ensure his well-being.
‘What is your relationship with my grandson, you brat.’
She was not unaware that he intended to use her own feelings for him as a means. The myriad emotions rushing in at once shook Vivi’s mind into confusion.
She became angry yet understood, she felt good that they needed her, yet it seemed that in the end it all came down to using her.
And, she hated Ahin so much that all these things became trivial.
Gritting her teeth, Vivi jerked her head up.
“Since when was it?”
At Vivi’s sudden movement during her silent meditation, Ahin’s pupils trembled slightly.
“…What?”
“I asked you since when the pheromone seizures started happening.”
Despite her efforts to remain calm, Vivi’s voice gradually grew more intense.
“They said the reason Ahin’s father passed away was because of a pheromone seizure. Yet, Grandfather seemed completely unaware that you also had occasional seizures. Why did you not tell him?”
At her interrogation, which did not deviate from his expectations, Ahin let out a low sigh and rubbed his face with dry hands.
Thinking that his behavior seemed like resigned surrender, Vivi clenched her fist tightly.
Ahin’s red eyes followed her sudden movement. Her nails dug in once again above the already bothersome wound.
“Hand.”
“Is this the time to be concerned about that? Fine, let’s say it was difficult to talk about. But I knew, right? At the very least, you should have told me, that’s the ma…!”
Vivi, who had been speaking like a rapid-fire gun, abruptly stopped her movements.
“Ju-!”
“Ju?”
Ahin asked back in a flat voice without any intonation. Her purple pupils shook enough to be visible to the naked eye.
“To death….”
Realizing that she had been overly agitated, she put her half-raised buttocks back on the floor.
“That it might lead to death.”
Vivi’s lips, which barely managed to continue speaking, trembled slightly.
“Why didn’t you tell me….”
Drip, the falling tears deeply stained her light-colored dress.
Only the sound of her rough breathing echoed in the quiet bedroom. The rims of her eyes, which she rubbed with the back of her hand to stop crying, had turned red.
Ahin quietly stared at Vivi, who was forcing back her tears.
Vivi pretended to wipe her tears away quite well, yet when she actually cried, she cried as if she did not know how to cry out loud. Did she know that this made the viewer feel on edge?
“Why…!”
Vivi expressed her unresolved frustration by thumping the floor.
Ahin, who looked down at that trivial gesture, smiled faintly.
The tears dripping down because of him were not bad. Her flushed, feverish face, and the hair clinging from the moisture. Her swollen lower lip from biting it repeatedly to stop crying.
As he thought that it might be nice to just watch her cry like this, Ahin felt a heavy tightening in his lower abdomen.
His half-lowered gaze lingered on Vivi’s hand.
The faint smell of blood seeping from her wounded hand filled the space under the desk. The scent of Vivi’s emotions, scattered in her agitation, was mixed in as well.
It was a dangerous scent. Stimulated by that vivid and familiar smell, he unconsciously held a languid breath.
Meanwhile, when Vivi looked up at Ahin, who had his back to the light, her fine hairs stood on end. Red pupils took on a darker hue in the dimness.
The sensation, as if facing a hungry beast right before her eyes, gnawed at her reason.
Her vision, blurred by tears, quickly regained focus. Groping, Vivi’s hand wandered along the desk wall.
Only then could she realize the contradiction. Under the desk, she was safe from the outside, but there was nowhere to run.
She was blocked on all sides, and the only exit was blocked by an Ahin who was subtly different from usual.
“If I told you, what could you do, Vivi.”
As Ahin’s lips parted, revealing his fangs, Vivi’s instincts were stirred. She could not take her eyes off that sharp part which could easily pierce skin.
Run away. It sounded as if someone whispered it right into her ear.
As her gaze, which had been fixed on the sharp fangs, gradually climbed upward and settled on his faded eyes, she felt her heart drop to the floor.
She had to run away. As Vivi backed away with a stomp, her back hit the desk wall with a thud.
“…Vivi?”
“……!”
Vivi unwittingly flinched as if to protect her body. It was a movement driven by a primitive instinct.
Thump, thump, as time passed, her heart, which had been beating without rhythm, gradually found its pace.
When she lowered the arm that covered her vision, Ahin’s harmless face, no different from usual, came into view.
Tap, the vivid fear that had churned inside her until a moment ago scattered like a dream. Slowly lowering her arm, Vivi just breathed heavily without moving.
It was a fear she had not consciously recognized at some point.
If one got to know them, there was not much difference, so why did herbivore-type beastfolk and carnivore-type beastfolk not get closer than a certain distance? She had been thinking about that often lately.
Even the knights, who she had once been so afraid of, turned out to be quite easygoing when she actually dealt with them, and the butler or the head maid, who gave a stiff impression, were just people who kept rules and principles. Their build was only slightly bigger, and they were beastfolk just like Professor Jisnana or Russell.
That kind of complacency had grown larger and larger, and ever since she returned from the rabbit territory, she had been under the illusion that she herself might really be from the black panther tribe.
If other herbivore-type beastfolk also felt this sense from time to time, then she understood the invisible line between the carnivore-type and herbivore-type tribes.
“Vivi, you look pale.”
At Ahin’s low voice, Vivi finally came to her senses with a start.
“Uh…, where were, where were we?”
“I said, if I told you about pheromone seizures, what could you do?”
“What could I….”
Unable to properly fix her gaze, she babbled incoherently.
“Ah….”
In that brief time, Vivi, whose mind had gone blank, pressed her forehead.
Ahin, who had been leaning his forehead against the corner, lifted it as he watched her drop her gaze to the floor.
His silver hair, which he had carelessly swept aside, fluttered down onto his forehead.
“Were you afraid of me?”
There was no way that such a sudden, awkward action would not seem strange. Vivi’s shoulders, which trembled slightly, served as the answer to his question.
“Because I had fangs?”
Ahin, who had always been at the top of the food chain wherever he went, had never experienced such fear.
In the future, for the rest of his life, he would never experience it, so it was impossible for him to understand fear from the start.
However, he knew that Vivi’s reaction was different from simply being frightened and shaking her head.
Her skin that had turned white, her trembling gaze, and her hunched body were of a familiar kind. They were reactions commonly seen in those right before being killed.
When he gauged that the emotion Vivi momentarily felt toward him was just that level of fear, Ahin felt bitter.
“I would have said it later.”
Rather than provoking her further, he decided that it would be better to put some distance between them and pressed his hand against the floor. As he moved to leave, Vivi reached out an arm and grabbed Ahin’s sleeve firmly.
“…Where are you going? We didn’t finish talking yet.”
“Is it possible?”
“What?”
“Talking with me right now. It would have been impossible.”
Ahin, who sat down with his knees bent, looked down at Vivi. Faced with his figure, which felt even larger, Vivi’s hand holding onto his sleeve tightened its grip.
“You haven’t heard my answer yet.”
“What answer?”
“…The answer to what you asked, about what I could do even if I heard about your pheromone seizures.”
Even when he first brought it up, Ahin had not expected much. Now that he read Vivi’s fear, he felt even more skeptical.
Ahin, who had not said anything, raised the corners of his mouth. Realizing that it was a sneer, Vivi’s gaze sharpened.
“…You’re asking because you don’t know? Maybe you didn’t realize it when you went back to being a black panther, but when you had a pheromone seizure in the rabbit territory, you clearly calmed down with healing-type pheromones. Isn’t that true?”
“Yes, it was.”
“Then why talk like that? It’s a problem I could help with…,”
“Don’t be conceited.”
Ahin’s voice, which had always been relaxed, suddenly turned sharp. Vivi, who stiffened with surprise, gripped his sleeve even tighter, worried he might shake her off.
“You, who hadn’t even undergone humanization, planned to overuse your abilities to cure my seizures?”
“…….”
“You thought you would never have a seizure of your own again? It seemed like it hadn’t even been half a year since you had a seizure in Endellus.”
Ahin loosened each of Vivi’s fingers, which had curled around his clothes enough to wrinkle them.
“And you were so scared of me that you forgot to breathe for a moment. What could you possibly do in that state?”
“That’s…!”
Ahin, who had completely shaken off her hand, looked down at Vivi with arrogant eyes.
“Instead of trying to help others, take care of your own safety first.”
Each word struck Vivi like a dagger.
Facing her wavering expression, Ahin closed his mouth. He turned his eyes away from the face that weakened his resolve, thinking she would back down by now.
“Today,”
As Ahin tried to think of something appropriate to change the subject, he failed to notice Vivi’s purple pupils flashing.
“How did you end up in human form…,”
Whoosh, in a moment of carelessness, Ahin’s collar was grabbed and he was dragged under the desk.
Because of his physique, Ahin’s body was forced into a cramped space and his head hit the back wall of the desk with a thud. The unexpected attack, which he could not even defend against, brought more pain than he had imagined.
When he let out a groan and regained his vision, a fierce herbivore blazing in the darkness was right in front of his nose.
Had he hit his head too hard? For a moment, Ahin could not face reality and twisted his body. Yet, the cramped space reduced that movement to a feeble struggle.
Leaning diagonally against the desk wall, Ahin looked up at the beast that had pounced on him.
Vivi not only settled herself between his legs, but almost pinned him down.
Creak— She even tightened her grip on Ahin’s collar so he could not escape. Her purple pupils glittered as if they sparked blue flames.
Right before his eyes, a walnut-like wrinkle formed on her chin. Wrinkles that clearly revealed her fury. His intention for her to back down had instead provoked Vivi, causing the opposite effect.
Realizing that he had stepped into the territory of a dangerous herbivore, Ahin stiffened his expression.
The overly close distance constricted his breath. At that moment, the scent emanating from Vivi stirred his instincts.
‘…Vivi, please.’
He forcibly swallowed his irritated breath and remembered Vivi from just before.
Her pallid complexion, her frightened eyes, and the fear that came from the heart.
Each one lingered as an afterimage.
Ahin, who held onto his thinning reason by recalling them, jerked his head sharply. However, Vivi, whose eyes had flipped, grabbed both of his cheeks and snapped them back to face forward.
As Ahin felt a maddening thirst for the scent of blood and pheromones lingering on the hand that had drawn closer, he parted his lips.
“What on earth are you doing,”
“You asked me how I had turned into a human, right.”
Vivi, whose tears had completely stopped, spoke each word clearly.
“I changed completely by my own power. By raising my pheromones myself.”
“…You did?”
Ahin asked back as if he could not believe it. Then his pupils cooled down. The method of raising unrefined pheromones was no different from having writhed in pain until she became human.
“You!”
Slap, Vivi did not allow Ahin’s mouth to spit out any reproach.
“Yes, as you said, I still had not achieved humanization yet.”
He, who had even suffered the ordeal of having his mouth covered, looked up at her blankly.
“But as of today, I had managed to control at least turning into a human and returning to a rabbit. As for pheromone seizures, unless I used more pheromones than necessary or swallowed a drug like ashen powder, they never happened.”
Vivi, who had paused for a moment to catch her breath, spoke again.
“But what about you, Ahin? If you had been able to control it like I did, you wouldn’t have had such seizures. Because they happened without warning, you collapsed in the rabbit territory as well, right? It was certainly true that your pain subsided because of my pheromones back then.”
“…..”
“You can’t even control it, so you take care of your own business first!”
She threw his own words back at him and panted heavily. Ahin still remained dazed.
As she waited for an answer that did not come, Vivi’s reason, which had been blurred by anger, gradually returned.
Only then did she properly see Ahin’s face, which had seemed like a mere piece of wood. Whether it was feigned or sincere, his expression, which had always been relaxed, had now stiffened with numbness.
As Vivi’s mouth gradually opened into a lozenge shape, she lowered her gaze with her hand. The spot where she had grabbed his collar was so wrinkled that it would not have been strange if his shirt buttons had torn off.
‘I’m crazy…!’
Vivi quickly let go and backed away, but soon she was blocked by the desk wall.
“Divine beast, please give me courage.” With her back pressed firmly against it, Vivi sought out the beast deity she rarely ever turned to.
“So, in conclusion,”
Borrowing the power of a god like that, she barely managed to open her mouth.
“Let’s find a way together… that’s roughly what I was saying.”
“…Find a way?”
Vivi, who swallowed dryly, nodded.
“I meant a way to stop the seizures. I would also try hard to handle pheromones properly as soon as possible. So it would be nice if you told me what you know, like since when you had been going through them, or if there was any cycle.”
“…..”
“…please.”
Vivi, who had spoken as if persuading him, pressed her lips together tightly.
It was Ahin’s life that was on the line, yet why was she speaking as if pleading?
She still felt annoyed by his nasty tone that suggested he did not care about such things.
“Vivi.”
He asked, lifting the corners of his mouth gracefully.
“Have you never considered that possibility? That I might have been keeping you around to use your pheromones.”
At those words, Vivi, provoked, furrowed her brow.
“…If that had been your sole purpose, you wouldn’t have described me as a woman who moved your heart.”
“…..”
“Even if that had been your purpose, it doesn’t matter. It’s true that I survived because of it, and I got to help you, Ahin. In the first place, you also refrained from using healing-type pheromones because you worried I might think that way—,”
Realizing belatedly how bold her words sounded, she dragged out the end of her sentence.
“I-I thought so….”
Silence fell. Vivi, who felt those few seconds like hours, nervously gripped the hem of her dress. As she became aware of the close distance between them, she finally realized what kind of insane act she had just committed.
“If we can’t find one.”
At the sudden low voice, she jerked up her head, which she had been lowering.
“If I could not find a way, were you going to help me every time I had a seizure?”
“…If I had not intended to do that, I would not have brought it up.”
“For your entire life?”
“For your ent-,”
Vivi, who had unconsciously been repeating the words, felt her heart sink. She was afraid that if she answered as it was, her feelings would surface as they were.
Ahin, who had still been sitting askew, straightened his body. However, he still had to bend his waist, and the crown of his head touched the edge of the desk.
Without paying it any mind, he slowly lifted Vivi’s wrist.
“Even while trembling like this?”
Her hand, including her wrist, trembled as if in a spasm. Vivi, whose fingertips felt numb, squeezed her eyes shut and opened them again.
Ahin did not particularly stop her hand, which had begun to move slowly.
At last, the hand that reached his lips slightly lifted his upper lip.
The exposed canine tooth gleamed vividly even under the dim desk.
“…Look.”
Poking timidly at the sharp part with her thumb, Vivi squeezed out her voice.
“I… I’m not fainting anymore.”
How had it been until now? She fainted at just the mention of the word ‘emergency rations.’ She tried putting her front paw in his mouth and fainted. Faint, faint, faint. Had she not fainted countless times to the point that Ahin asked if fainting was her hobby?
“If I tried, later on, I would no longer be afraid of the canine tooth.”
This was a complete lie.
“…Probably.”
Vivi instinctively sensed that she would be afraid of the canine tooth until she died.
“As you know, I’m gradually getting better at controlling my pheromones. From now on, Grandfather also decided to help, so as time passed, it would become even easier to handle.”
Even Quinn and Everine were nothing more than a handful. For an instant, an arrogant confidence, surpassing pride, flashed across her pallid face.
“…I knew you deliberately spoke harshly, worried I might abuse my power. There was no need for that. Even if Ahin did not go that far, my life and safety were the most important things to me.”
Ahin’s red pupils trembled faintly.
From the flow of the conversation, he had expected that she would say that she wanted to help him even if it put her own safety at risk.
But Vivi’s statement, prioritizing the preciousness of her own life, made Ahin’s feelings quietly complicated.
“Even so, how could I just do nothing and pretend not to know? …Ahin, if I had a pheromone seizure, would you just stand by and watch?”
“Did I look like such trash?”
“Mmm-hmm.”
“…….”
“A little.”
Ahin decided to believe that she had become eloquent enough to make such wry jokes now. It was a miscalculation to overlook that even when Vivi had been a rabbit, she had fiercely kicked with her hind legs, and now as a human, she still had a temperament that demanded she spoke her mind.
“I am the same. If you had a seizure, I would use healing-type pheromones whenever, and even if Ahin did not tell me anything, I would find a method on my own, so do not try to stop me. No matter how you acted, I would never leave until the seizure stopped.”
She finally said it all. Relieved after pouring out her feelings, Vivi gently took her thumb away from his canine tooth.
She tried to completely withdraw even the hand that had been on his soft cheek, but she was blocked by Ahin, who gripped her wrist.
The wrist and palm where their skin touched felt hot.
Ahin moved his lips and lightly licked the wound on her palm. Vivi, who was so shocked that she almost slapped him, trembled her hand.
He, who had the fishy taste of blood on his tongue, asked in a husky voice.
“How should I have taken everything you said just now?”
“H-How? I meant it literally…”
“If that is the case, if the seizures never stopped forever, would that not mean Vivi had to stay by my side forever too?”
Hearing Ahin’s own interpretation, Vivi’s mouth opened again in a diamond shape.
Even though he might die because of the seizures. In this world, who would ask such a question at the risk of their own life?
Even while thinking about all sorts of things, her nerves were focused on the sensation of him licking the wound. Every time his soft tongue brushed against it, the wound stung sharply.
“Was I wrong?”
This bewitching black leopard was trying to bewitch her. Contrary to her determination never to succumb, Vivi was steadily being enchanted.
“…The bewitching one would be Vivi.”
Vivi’s pale violet pupils shook violently at having her inner thoughts read.
Ahin, who moved slowly, leaned his body toward Vivi. He supported his inclined body with his hand on the floor.
Unlike before, Vivi, who was now forced to look up at Ahin, involuntarily held her breath.
“Who would have known that I would crawl under the feet of a rabbit I picked up. Isn’t that right?”
Even in such a situation, he spouted such nonsense again. Vivi felt her stomach churn with indignation, but she could not say it aloud. Before long, their faces were so close that their breaths mingled, and even holding her breath felt difficult.
The eyelashes facing Ahin trembled delicately.
“…You never even crawled under my feet.”
“Did I?”
“No. Even just yesterday morning, you said you would toss me into a salad and—”
Ahin’s lips briefly touched and left the tip of her round nose.
Their gazes shifted through the air.
‘…He’s truly a wicked beast.’
Her cheeks flushed a faint red, and she opened her eyes in triangular shapes.
“Then I would just crawl from now on.”
Ahin let out a low chuckle and crinkled his eyes into half-moons.
By the time Vivi wondered whose heart was thumping so loudly, their lips met softly.
Ahin, who had lightly pressed his lips against hers, pulled his face away. Vivi, who had tensed up, straightened her spine stiffly.
Ahin looked down at her, who had tightly closed her eyes. Though she had her hands clasped in embarrassment, her plump lips were slightly protruding.
Moreover, faced with the sneaky rabbit who even craned her neck forward, Ahin quickly turned his head. It was too funny.
“……?”
Why was it so quiet? As the expected event did not occur, Vivi cautiously opened her eyes into a squint. She believed he would be facing her directly, but he had turned his head to the side, covering his mouth.
‘No way.’
As if coughing up blood, the tips of Ahin’s fingers trembled pale.
“No!”
Mistaking it momentarily for a pheromone seizure, Vivi jumped up.
Ahin, who had been laughing, hastily reached out and pressed down on the crown of her head. He barely prevented her from hitting her head, and then blinked in disbelief.
“What suddenly can’t you allow?”
“W-Wasn’t it a seizure?”
After examining Ahin, who looked entirely fine, Vivi soon wore an expression as if she had tasted sludge. He had been laughing.
‘…Right, what could I do with this beast.’
There was no one in the world who could rival the absurdity of this black leopard.
Herbivore-type beastfolk sometimes mocked carnivore-type beastfolk as barbarians faithful to their instincts and greed, but the current Ahin was complete nonsense.
“Move aside.”
Vivi snorted and tried to twist her body out from under the desk. Her attempt ended in failure because Ahin leaned his body further toward her.
“Where are you going?”
Vivi pressed her trembling chest firmly. His breathtakingly handsome face was terribly close.
“…I’m busy.”
“This was also something that kept me busy.”
Ahin, who had smiled languidly, overlapped his lips again as they were. Turning into stone once more, Vivi even forgot to close her eyes.
Tilting his head slightly, he lightly grazed her lips with his tongue. Still, Vivi’s tightly closed lips did not allow entry.
Half-lidding his eyes, Ahin saw her, still wide-eyed, unable to even blink.
Maintaining the distance, he slightly parted his lips and spoke.
“Did you dislike it?”
Within his languid voice, anxiety and impatience were evident.
Vivi answered with a fierce shake of her head.
After fanning the flames of desire, she could not leave it half-finished. Despite her stiff posture, her mindset was already that of a beast.
“Then open up.”
“Open… up?”
As soon as Vivi’s lips parted slightly, Ahin delved in deeply.
Their gazes met while their lips remained joined. Through half-opened red eyes, he glared fiercely like a beast starved for days.
Before long, a rough palm covered Vivi’s wandering eyes, which had lost their place. Naturally closing her eyes, she gripped Ahin’s lapel tightly.
From that point on, Ahin’s arm strongly pulled Vivi’s waist closer. The other hand, which pressed the back of her head, roughly tousled her white hair.
Unlike the slow beginning, now even urgency seeped into his movements. With their lips firmly intertwined, Ahin mercilessly ravaged her tender mouth.
“Huh,”
Whenever Vivi, whose breathing had grown labored, tried to pull away even slightly, he inexorably overlapped his lips as if to devour her.
Because of the arms binding her body, she could clearly feel each other’s heartbeats.
Vivi, who unconsciously thought that Ahin’s heartbeat seemed louder, flinched her shoulders.
The hand that had been pressing the back of her head slid down and touched the bite mark on her nape.
His rough thumb persistently rubbed against the scarred wound. Pressing and stroking it, the touch seemed as though it was confirming the mark.
Growing hazy, Vivi involuntarily let her pheromones slip out of control.
Ahin, who had been desperately trying not to release any sexual pheromones, swallowed a curse inwardly. Vivi alone was difficult enough to handle, and now her healing-type pheromones also shook his reason.
In the midst of his confusion, Ahin remembered that if she used pheromones, Vivi would revert to a rabbit, so he pushed his own pheromones into her.
More dense than usual, his pheromones filled the bedroom.
Feeling that this went beyond simply gasping for breath, that she might suffocate, Vivi tapped urgently on his chest.
Despite that, Ahin did not stop until her hand tightened hard on his cravat, forcing him to lift his lips away.
“…Why.”
His voice, unrefined and heated, spilled out. Vivi, who was panting intermittently, glared sharply.
“It’s too suffocating.”
“It’s supposed to be suffocating.”
As Ahin tried to approach again, she firmly pushed against his jaw and growled.
“…I just want a little break.”
She was a cunning rabbit who never said she wanted to stop completely.
Satisfied beyond measure by her cunning, he pulled the struggling Vivi closer. Her red lips, glossy with saliva, drew Ahin’s gaze.
“Do we really need to rest?”
Ahin, who had been behaving like a starving beast, now clung to her like a well-fed cat. When their foreheads touched, his revealed ear rims were flushed red.
Vivi, looking up into his puzzled red eyes, made a weary expression. Unlike herself, who still lacked breath, his breathing showed no signs of disturbance.
Ahin noticed the trembling furrow of her brow, provoked by sudden competitiveness, and let out a thick laugh.
“Seriously, why are you so funny-looking?”
Unable to resist the urge, he gently nibbled on Vivi’s lower lip.
Feeling the faint prickling sensation on her lips, Vivi vaguely wondered if they were his canine teeth.
Before long, Vivi, who had been in Ahin’s arms, went limp. Ahin, who stared blankly at the suddenly fainted Vivi, shook the arm around her waist.
“…Vivi?”
Vivi, who had already drifted off somewhere unknown, merely fluttered like a piece of paper. Her pale face faithfully conveyed fear and confusion.
“Ah.”
Only then did he recall the canine teeth protruding from his gums and touched his lips.
If she fainted this easily, how had she managed to kiss him at all, and how would she endure it in the future?
Ahin thought that he could never fully understand Vivi’s courage.
* * *
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