Being in heat was nothing like what the books described. What desire? What restlessness? Luo Zhiyu felt none of that. The only thing he felt right now was dizziness. It took Xiao Yan mentioning the suppressant several times before he gradually remembered what exactly a suppressant was.
“In the inner pocket of my backpack.”
Luo Zhiyu forced himself to sit upright on the sofa. He took an orange from the fruit platter and pressed it against his slightly warm cheek.
“They’re the medicines we got at the hospital together on the last day of summer vacation. I’ve always carried them with me.”
Xiao Yan: “……”
He remembered that when Luo Zhiyu came upstairs, he had only brought an unfinished test paper. His backpack was still sitting on the sofa in the banquet hall downstairs. He hadn’t brought it with him.
“I’ll have someone bring it up.”
Xiao Yan picked up his phone and made a call.
“Rest for a while. Don’t move around. Save your energy.”
He moved closer to the door, trying to avoid the omega pheromones filling the air.
“Get back here.”
Luo Zhiyu tapped his toes against the floor.
“Do you think I’m some kind of pervert? Why are you standing so far away from me?”
The fever had left his cheeks slightly flushed, with a faint glimmer of tears in his eyes. He stubbornly sat in the corner of the sofa, looking both haughty and pitiful.
“Let me get some of that orange scent. We’re schoolmates, so don’t be so stingy.”
Luo Zhiyu threw the orange in his hand at Xiao Yan.
“You smell better than it does.”
Xiao Yan was practically pressed against the wall. The entire lounge was filled with Luo Zhiyu’s peach scent. Even when the little troublemaker felt sick, he was still fierce. His pheromones kept teasing Xiao Yan again and again, forcing him into a corner.
He should leave, but he didn’t feel comfortable leaving Luo Zhiyu here alone, and he didn’t want to.
Unable to make Xiao Yan come back, Luo Zhiyu could only continue searching on his phone.
“Ways to deal with heat. The first answer says to go to the hospital for an injection. The second says to find an alpha for a temporary mark. The second answer has more likes. The third says to bind yourself to an alpha for a permanent solution, and netizens voted the third one the best answer.”
Luo Zhiyu looked up.
“Hey, should I just find an alpha and bind myself to one?”
“Don’t read the search results.”
Xiao Yan was completely at a loss.
“And don’t look at what the netizens have liked, either. Most importantly, don’t get any dangerous ideas.”
He already had feelings for Luo Zhiyu that he shouldn’t have had. Now there were pheromones with a 0.001% match rate messing things up, making his own pheromones unstable as well.
In a way, he was saying those words to himself, too.
Reminding himself not to cross the line.
“Okay.”
Luo Zhiyu exited the search page.
“It just feels awful. No wonder you said I didn’t look like I was pretending when I took that leave.”
To keep both of them clearheaded, Xiao Yan came up with an idea. He handed Luo Zhiyu his math test paper.
“The last question is pretty difficult. Want to work it out together? I know three ways to solve it. Want to hear them?”
Luo Zhiyu hit him.
Luo Zhiyu’s backpack was brought upstairs by the security staff. Xiao Yan, covered in omega pheromones, attracted quite a few curious looks and pointing fingers from passersby when he went outside to retrieve it.
Xiao Yan had already started wondering how he was going to explain to his parents tonight that he wasn’t some scummy alpha.
Fortunately, although Luo Zhiyu was unreliable, he had at least remembered to bring his suppressants. Xiao Yan took the box of suppressants from the inner pocket of his backpack and held it out to Luo Zhiyu.
“Do you know how to use it?”
Before he could finish speaking, the flush on Luo Zhiyu’s face from his heat instantly drained away, leaving him pale.
Luo Zhiyu examined the box over and over before asking seriously,
“Excuse me, can I take it orally?”
Xiao Yan: “……”
Fuck. He’d forgotten that this person was afraid of both blood and needles.
Luo Zhiyu’s blood phobia wasn’t severe, but it did cause slight physical trembling. Combined with his current condition, there was no way he could inject the suppressant himself. Going to the hospital wasn’t very realistic right now, which left only Xiao Yan to help him.
“It has to be injected. Close your eyes. I’ll give it to you.”
Xiao Yan pressed Luo Zhiyu back down onto the sofa and composed himself.
Luo Zhiyu’s pheromones were too intense. Xiao Yan was worried that, given their 0.001% match and the way the two of them were always at each other’s throats, it wouldn’t be long before his orange pheromones came out to fight the peach ones.
Luo Zhiyu closed his eyes and pulled down the zipper of his school uniform. When he started to take off his sweater, Xiao Yan raised a hand to stop him.
“Don’t. It’s winter. You’ll get cold. You don’t need to.”
An omega in heat couldn’t feel the cold as strongly, but it was winter, and Xiao Yan was worried that Luo Zhiyu would catch a chill.
“Then hurry up.”
Luo Zhiyu closed his eyes and pouted impatiently. His lightly trembling eyelashes betrayed his nervousness, making him look more vulnerable than usual.
“I really can’t deal with this myself.”
“Don’t be scared.”
Xiao Yan patted him in reassurance.
“It’ll only hurt a little.”
Luo Zhiyu fell silent. Xiao Yan knew he couldn’t delay any longer. He knelt on one knee on the sofa and gently pulled Luo Zhiyu’s collar aside, keeping his eyes fixed on the suppressant in his hand.
The instant the needle touched the skin of Luo Zhiyu’s arm, Luo Zhiyu trembled lightly and bit his lip.
Xiao Yan slowly pushed the liquid from the syringe into him, then used medical cotton to wipe away the tiny trace of blood that had appeared on his skin.
“Did it hurt?”
Xiao Yan helped Luo Zhiyu put his clothes back on.
“Don’t be scared. You’ll feel better soon.”
“It’s fine. You’re just taking forever.”
Luo Zhiyu had no idea that his appearance just now had already been completely seen by the other person.
“It was nothing.”
Xiao Yan: “……”
Five minutes later, Luo Zhiyu opened his eyes. His breathing was still a little quick. Realizing that something was wrong with his body, he said,
“Why do I still feel awful? Maybe I just don’t have any experience with my first heat.”
He thought for a moment.
“To put it in a not-so-accurate metaphor, Brother Yan… just now, maybe I only wanted to peel an orange. Now I kind of want to squeeze orange juice.”
Xiao Yan was momentarily stunned by his rather peculiar metaphor. He raised his hand and checked the temperature of Luo Zhiyu’s forehead.
The suppressant hadn’t helped relieve his symptoms.
Luo Zhiyu had developed a fever.
No matter how much trouble he usually caused, Luo Zhiyu was still a child who had been spoiled by his family. He was naturally a little pampered and willful. This was his first heat, and he couldn’t tolerate this unpleasant sensation very well.
For no apparent reason, Luo Zhiyu felt angry and wronged. Omegas could become emotionally volatile during this stage, and he didn’t even know what he was angry about. All that kept flashing through his mind was that scene in the room that day, when Xiao Yan had taught him what a temporary mark was.
Xiao Yan had gotten a perfect score in health class. He knew that, generally speaking, suppressants could suppress an omega’s heat. But in rare cases, if an omega’s heat was forcibly suppressed, they could develop a high fever, dizziness, and other symptoms.
That was because the omega had come into contact with an alpha whose pheromones were highly compatible with theirs when the heat first began.
In such a situation, the only ways to alleviate it were through a temporary mark—or by slowly enduring it until it passed.
An alpha with highly compatible pheromones.
Was it the person who had been bothering Luo Zhiyu earlier?
The thought left a distinctly unpleasant taste in Xiao Yan’s mouth.
Xiao Yan hesitated.
The pheromone compatibility between the two of them was close to zero. Even if he gave Luo Zhiyu a temporary mark, it probably wouldn’t have much of an effect on him. Instead, it could make Luo Zhiyu feel better.
But Xiao Yan had selfish feelings toward Luo Zhiyu.
For him, giving Luo Zhiyu a temporary mark wasn’t simply a matter of helping him out. It meant something else.
Perhaps the person who was thinking about their zero compatibility wasn’t the only one.
After all, at that moment, someone who was burning with fever and thoroughly muddled patted him on the shoulder.
“Calling Orange, calling Orange.”
Luo Zhiyu reached out and grabbed Xiao Yan by the collar, pulling him slightly forward.
“Bite me, okay? I know you can.”