Chapter Text
The leather steering wheel of the sports car felt ice-cold against Maki’s palms. The engine growled low as he navigated the narrow, winding streets leading toward Nicholas’s private luxury apartment complex near the river.
Maki was completely unsettled. The phantom scent of sweet, maternal yuzu from the hospital room was still clinging to the lining of his jacket, playing tricks on his mind. His inner alpha was pacing standard, frantic circles in his chest, entirely rejecting the logical reality his brain had constructed. He needed to see Nicholas. He needed to look his best friend in the eye and hear, one more time, that everything with Euijoo was under control—because his own instincts were violently clawing at the walls of his sanity.
As he slowed down near a quiet, high-end neighborhood grocery store three blocks away from the apartment complex, a familiar figure caught his eye.
Nicholas was walking down the sidewalk alone, a heavy canvas grocery bag slung over his shoulder. He was wearing a casual gray hoodie, his hands shoved into his pockets, his posture uncharacteristically relaxed compared to the high-alert tension he had been carrying on campus.
Maki didn't hesitate. He pulled the sports car sharply into an empty curb space, killed the engine, and stepped out into the humid evening air. The scent of crushed mint and smoky vetiver instantly trailed behind him as he closed the distance.
"Nicholas," Maki called out, his voice a low baritone that cut through the quiet neighborhood street.
Nicholas froze. His shoulders went completely rigid for a split second before he smoothly turned around, his dark eyes instantly sharpening into a guarded defense as he saw Maki walking toward him.
"Maki?" Nicholas raised an eyebrow, adjusting the heavy bag on his shoulder. "What are you doing out here? I thought you were locked in the library until finals ended."
"I was at the hospital," Maki said bluntly, stopping just a foot away. He didn't waste time with pleasantries; his alpha presence was too agitated, too demanding for small talk. "Card #0094 was swiped this afternoon at the Hirota wing. I received the alert. I went to Room Four."
Nicholas’s breath hitched slightly, a microscopic spike of defensive heat leaking into his scent before he forced his expression into a lazy, unbothered smirk. He had already received a panicked text from Euijoo twenty minutes ago warning him about the hospital close-call. He knew exactly what role he had to play.
"Yeah, I know," Nicholas said smoothly, turning on his heel to continue walking toward the grocery store entrance. "Euijoo told me you showed up. You scared him, Maki. He was so overwhelmed by your alpha presence he had to lock himself in the restroom until you left."
Maki fell into step beside him, his brow furrowing as they walked through the automatic sliding doors of the store. The bright, sterile lights illuminated the sharp, analytical lines of Maki's face.
"He wouldn't even look at me, Nicholas," Maki muttered, his voice laced with a strange, underlying frustration as he grabbed a small hand-basket from the stack, automatically joining his friend’s errand. "I offered him a private driver. I offered him everything. If he’s carrying your child, he shouldn't be hiding in a bathroom from me."
"He’s terrified of your family, Maki," Nicholas countered sharply, stopping in the fresh produce aisle to inspect a carton of organic strawberries. He threw them into his bag, keeping his voice low and absolute. "He knows how powerful the Hirotas are. He thinks if he accepts too much from you, your parents will find out. Just back off a little, alright? Let me take care of my mate."
Nicholas’s words were flawless. The narrative was perfectly aligned with the lie.
But as Nicholas reached for a bundle of fresh vegetables, Maki's eyes tracked the contents of the canvas bag on his friend's shoulder. Because Nicholas was shopping alone for his apartment, the items inside weren't meant to feed a standard, single alpha. The bag was packed with specific, high-nutrient items: fresh spinach, red meat, avocados, and a specific brand of low-sodium crackers.
Maki’s eyes narrowed. A sudden, glaring discrepancy splintered through his thoughts.
If Euijoo was living at the university dorms to keep the pregnancy hidden from the Wang elders—as Nicholas had explicitly claimed on the balcony—why was Nicholas shopping for a full, nutrient-heavy pregnancy diet at his own private apartment? Euijoo wasn't registered to live here.
More importantly, as Maki stood closer to Nicholas, his nostrils flared. Nicholas’s alpha scent carried the faint, sweet trace of Euijoo’s tangerine and honey—but it was a stale, regular scent. It didn't carry a single drop of the thick, heavy, nesting pheromones that Maki had smelled in Room Four at the hospital. An alpha whose mate was fourteen weeks pregnant should have been completely saturated in the thick, comforting oils of a nesting omega. Nicholas smelled completely standard.
The pieces didn't fit anymore. The timeline, the location, the scents—the entire structure of Nicholas’s lie was beginning to wobble under the weight of Maki’s awakening logic.
"Nicholas," Maki said slowly, his voice dropping into a dangerous, questioning whisper as he blocked the aisle, forcing his best friend to look at him. "If Euijoo is staying at the dorms... who is all this food for?"
Nicholas froze, his hand hovering over a display of citrus fruit as he realized he had just walked straight into a trap of his own making.