Chapter 22
Just like Shen Yu had said, it really was cold.
Jiang Li tightened his hold on the unfinished sketch resting against his chest as he walked through the university grounds. Without Shen Yu standing nearby, he finally allowed himself to smile openly at the drawing, all the feelings he had carefully hidden the previous night quietly surfacing now that he was alone.
Yesterday still felt unreal to him.
Falling asleep at Shen Yu's kitchen counter only to wake up tucked carefully into a guest bed—it almost felt too gentle to belong to his life. There had been no one else in the penthouse besides the two of them, which meant there was only one person who could have carried him upstairs.
Shen Yu.
The thought alone was enough to make warmth bloom uncontrollably in Jiang Li's chest.
He was so happy it felt embarrassing.
Happy enough that he wanted to greet every stranger who passed him.
The smile lingering on his face softened his entire expression, causing his honey-brown eyes to curve beautifully into crescents. Students passing by slowed unconsciously, their attention naturally drawn toward the omega walking quietly through campus.
At that moment, Jiang Li resembled a flower finally blooming beneath sunlight.
And to him, Shen Yu was that sunlight.
But happiness, Jiang Li had learned long ago, rarely lasted untouched.
The moment he stepped through the university gates, he smelled it.
The ocean.
Salted air mixed with warm wood drifted through the cold morning breeze, calm and steady enough to soothe anyone who inhaled it.
Except Jiang Li.
The omega froze instantly.
Slowly, he turned his head.
There, leaning casually against a sleek black BMW parked outside the gates, stood Kim Taehyun.
The dominant Alpha's dark eyes remained fixed on him with unsettling focus. Occasionally, Taehyun glanced down at his watch, as though waiting for someone specific to arrive.
No…
Surely not him.
A faint sense of panic crept into Jiang Li's chest. His mood had been too good this morning, too fragile, and the last thing he wanted was for Taehyun's presence to ruin it.
Instinctively, he turned slightly, intending to leave before being noticed.
But it was already too late.
The cool scent of roses touched by snow drifted lightly through the air, carried toward the Alpha before Jiang Li could suppress it.
Taehyun grinned immediately.
Even before lifting his head fully, the smile had already formed.
And the moment his eyes met Jiang Li's, the omega felt something sharp settle uncomfortably beneath his skin.
Taehyun looked at him the way a predator looked at prey.
The realization irritated him instantly.
No one had the right to stare at him like that—as though he were weak, vulnerable, something waiting to be cornered and claimed. The softness lingering on Jiang Li's face disappeared almost immediately, replaced by something colder.
Around them, attention had already begun gathering.
A handsome dominant Alpha dressed in an expensive suit while leaning against a luxury car was enough to attract curious stares on its own. But when that same Alpha pushed away from the vehicle and began walking directly toward a smaller omega, the surrounding whispers only grew louder.
Standing before Taehyun now, Jiang Li felt even smaller than usual.
The man was taller than Shen Yu.
That fact alone irritated him irrationally.
The growing attention pressing around them felt suffocating, every lingering stare sinking into Jiang Li's skin like needles.
"We meet again," Taehyun murmured once he stopped in front of him.
His voice was low, meant for Jiang Li alone.
Jiang Li stared up at him silently before speaking.
"Why are you here?" he asked coolly. "What do you want?"
Taehyun smiled.
But there was nothing warm about it.
The expression never reached his eyes. If anything, it only made the darkness within them seem deeper, more intimidating.
"I only wanted to ask you something," he replied calmly.
Jiang Li frowned slightly but remained quiet, waiting.
After several seconds of silence, he finally spoke again, turning his gaze away slightly because his neck had already begun aching from looking up at the taller man.
"What's the question?"
Taehyun studied him carefully before asking, almost casually,
"How did you manage to get someone like Shen Yu's attention?"
Jiang Li froze.
For a moment, he genuinely didn't know how to answer.
Because the truth… wasn't something he could reveal carelessly.
If Taehyun discovered the real reason, if he understood what had happened between him and Shen Yu, there was no telling what damage it could cause. Shen Yu's relationship with the Shen family was already fragile enough.
Jiang Li closed his eyes briefly and inhaled quietly before forcing himself to look back up.
His expression had already settled into calm neutrality again.
What he didn't realize, however, was that Taehyun had been watching him carefully from the very beginning.
Every hesitation.
Every shift in expression.
Every crack in composure.
"I'm an omega," Jiang Li answered at last. "Perhaps he liked my pheromones. Isn't that enough reason?" His tone remained even as he looked away once more. "Why are you asking something like that anyway?"
At his answer, Taehyun's faint smile disappeared completely.
A small frown replaced it instead.
"Why are you speaking as though Shen Yu is an Alpha?"
Jiang Li blinked.
Then froze.
The carefully maintained mask on his face cracked instantly, confusion flooding through his expression before he could stop it.
"Huh…?" His voice faltered. "What… do you mean?"
He understood the words perfectly.
That was the problem.
His mind simply refused to process them.
Seeing his reaction, Taehyun's expression slowly shifted into a full grin.
"Shen Yu is a beta," he said plainly. "So what exactly do you mean by saying he liked your pheromones?"
Jiang Li stepped back immediately, disbelief written clearly across his face.
He didn't know.
Interesting.
Taehyun watched the omega carefully as Jiang Li shook his head slowly, still trying to reject what he had heard.
Shen Yu had never lied about his secondary gender before. If anything, he despised the topic entirely.
After all, the reason his life had fallen apart in the first place was because he failed to manifest as the Alpha his family wanted.
He had been discarded because of it.
And since then, Taehyun knew better than anyone how deeply Shen Yu hated anything related to being compared to an Alpha.
Which only made this situation more fascinating.
So why did Jiang Li believe otherwise?
"You're lying," Jiang Li said suddenly, his voice trembling with restrained anger as he stared at Taehyun.
How could Shen Yu possibly be a beta?
Jiang Li had smelled his pheromones countless times.
The scent of whiskey and rosewood.
The only scent that had ever made him feel like a real omega.
"What are you talking about, Xiao Ze?" Taehyun said, amusement slipping easily into his tone. "You haven't even smelled his pheromones before." He chuckled softly. "What did you think he was? Some kind of ghost Alpha?"
But the moment Jiang Li answered, Taehyun's amusement disappeared completely.
"I have smelled them!"
The words came out louder than intended.
Taehyun froze.
His dark eyes widened slightly for the first time since arriving.
And when he spoke again, his voice had gone noticeably quieter.
"How did they smell?"
Jiang Li didn't notice the shift in tone, nor the sudden darkness settling into the Alpha's gaze.
All he could think about was proving Shen Yu wasn't what Taehyun claimed.
"They smelled like whiskey and rosewood."