Sniff-Sniff from the Break of Dawn

"Uuuugh... nnghhh..."

Somewhere around eight in the morning, Hong Ji-hyeon woke to a hangover and groaned like a zombie. He pressed a hand to his forehead and rolled over on the bed, again and again.

I'm never drinking soju again...

The thought dragged itself through his heavy head as he slowly opened his eyes and groped around for his phone.

What time is it?

He thumbed the screen on. 8:23.

At least I slept like the dead.

He rolled onto his back, killed the screen, and laid the phone on his chest. For a while he didn't move at all—just stretched, slow and idle, and stared up at the ceiling.

Don't know this ceiling...

Oh.

Only then did it hit him: he'd slept at Marcus's place. Ji-hyeon jolted upright as if he'd been launched off the mattress. Finding himself alone in the room, he opened the door and crept out.

Sunlight through the windows wiped the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠shadows off the short hallway the moment the door swung wide. From the right, where the living room and kitchen just barely showed, some sound was coming.

Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump.

A steady rhythm, like footsteps. Ji-hyeon's head turned toward it on its own, and he eased his way toward the room it was coming from.

Creak.

He cracked open the door of the mini gym he'd seen the night before. Through the narrow gap, Marcus's back came into view.

Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump.

Marcus was taking an easy morning run on the treadmill. In breezy shorts and a sleeveless shirt, that huge body moved light as anything, as if size had nothing to do with it. Thick, corded arms swung back and forth in the open air, and the tank top clung so close that the deep cuts of his back stood out in clean ridges.

Holy shit, that's insane!

One look at that back and the leftover drunk and the drowsiness both seemed to blow right out of Ji-hyeon's head.

His eyes slid a little lower down a back that simply had a different kind of presence. They landed on Marcus's lower half.

Whoa!

Calves, thighs—muscle with a mind of its own sat there, unmistakable. Nothing like any legs Ji-hyeon had ever known. Every stride stretched them long and snapped them short again. Above that, even under loose shorts, an ass you couldn't miss. Each time Marcus drove a leg out, the muscle clenched and shaped itself, and that shape was nothing like Ji-hyeon's own, which was only a lump of flesh—

This was a real stud's.

Are you kidding me? Muscle can get that big? That's a whole different species!

Even just looking, the scent of male poured off him so thick Ji-hyeon's heart started hammering. One of the biggest reasons was the sexy, sleek dark skin holding all that overwhelming muscle.

If everything's that big... then down there, too, it has to be...

Staring at Marcus's lower body, his thoughts went all the way there. Every time those knee-length shorts flapped, Ji-hyeon couldn't tear his eyes away, just in case something showed.

I'm losing it and it's barely morning! I wanna jerk off! I wanna lose on purpose and stroke it while I compare myself to that superior body!

Beep.

While Ji-hyeon burned alone inside his own chest, Marcus hit a button on the treadmill. The belt slowed, and the run wound down with it. At the sight of that, Ji-hyeon frantically tried to tame the bird's nest on his head.

He dropped the flailing hand from his hair in the exact instant Marcus turned around.

"G-Good morning~"

He smiled and greeted him as if nothing at all had happened.

"Good morning. Sleep well?"

"Ah, yes! Thank you so much for last night!"

"It's fine. It's what I was supposed to do."

"You were working out this morning, huh."

"I do it before I eat."

Marcus stepped off the treadmill. It had only been a light run, so he wasn't sweating much, but out of habit he dragged the towel beside him over his face and neck and started toward the door.

No. He can't come closer right now. He can't get close.

Ji-hyeon fought to keep that tangled voice off his face as Marcus swung the door wide and passed right by him.

In the instant the distance collapsed—

"Snff... snff..."

Quiet enough that Marcus couldn't hear it, and fervent all the same, Ji-hyeon breathed him in.

Haaaah♡ That's a real stud's smell♡

In that brief slip of a moment his nose gathered up nothing but Marcus's scent, drank it down ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠to the last, and rolled the information around in his brain.

Under a body-scent like wet, heavy, deep wood, a sweat-smell that pricked just a little and then curled in soft hit Ji-hyeon's ruined brain dead on.

This is tonight's material. No—the second I get home, this is it!

"Want breakfast?"

Marcus asked it of a Ji-hyeon who had, once again, wandered off into a world of his own.

"Ah, should we? Urgh."

The mere thought of food sent the hangover climbing back up his throat. Dopamine and adrenaline had only let him forget it for a minute. It hadn't actually gone anywhere.

"Um... how about ramyeon?"

At the suggestion Marcus hesitated, thrown. Ji-hyeon got thrown right along with him.

Creak...

He opened a kitchen shelf and found protein powder, supplements, and cans of prepped meals.

Click.

The fridge gave him vegetables, water, and sports drinks.

Click.

The freezer was stacked with chicken breast, sorted by flavor.

He turned his creaking neck and scanned the rest of the kitchen. Spices, and a bag of pasta. That was about it.

Is this place actually a gym?

Marcus hadn't been in Korea long, so the lack of ramyeon made sense—but Ji-hyeon's brain simply stopped in front of a kitchen unlike any he'd ever seen. Watching from behind, Marcus looked a little sheepish.

"Should we... order something? Delivery."

"Sounds good."

Ji-hyeon pulled up a delivery app and ordered ramen, then sat on the living-room sofa. Modern sofa, a wall-mounted TV, a low table in the middle—nothing else. A very simple room, and he was left in it all alone.

Marcus had gone in to shower.

I cannot relax...

Still restless, Ji-hyeon fidgeted with the sofa under him for no reason, and found a pillow on one armrest. The pillow he'd used last night. The one that belonged on the bed.

So Marcus slept out here. I'm the guest, and I got the bed.

At that kindness, Ji-hyeon's heart started pounding again—different, this time.

Ngh... something's... something's being something...

The strange feeling heated his cheeks.

Yeah. Honestly, it's for the best. If we'd slept side by side...

I might've jumped him!

Joking to himself in his own head, he waited on the delivery and on Marcus. Marcus had only just gone into the bathroom, and only now did the water come on.

What do I do while I wait?

The sound of the water pulled his eyes toward the bathroom, and an idea flicked through his head.

That room he was working out in. Should I go look?

The usual Hong Ji-hyeon could never have done something like that behind a host's back. But the usual Hong Ji-hyeon's ruined brain could be perfectly honest about this particular want.

It's only looking~ Just a quick look around~

"Heeheehum~"

Rationalizing as he went, he headed for the room at a little trot, humming before he even noticed. He opened the door without a sound and slipped inside.

All kinds of equipment filled the room. Not the huge, complicated machines—mostly simple pieces that fit a bedroom and could cover a lot of different work.

"Whoa, there isn't a single light plate. Figures. With muscle like that, my max probably wouldn't even tickle him. ...So cool♡"

Mindful of his feet, Ji-hyeon poked around. Then he found a small table and chair against the wall.

"Is this for resting? Hrk!"

What caught his eye next was the thing on the table. The towel Marcus had just wiped his sweat with.

Should I...?

The impulse swelled in his head in an instant, and inside his pants his dick swelled with it.

Think rationally, Hong Ji-hyeon. They had that saying in the army. If you're wondering 'should I?', don't. If you're wondering ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠'do I have to?', then do it...

...

"...Then from this moment on, I have to think of it as 'do I have to?'~"

The self-justification didn't take long. He picked the towel up.

"Itadakimasu~"

Giddy, he brought it straight to his nose.

"Snff..."

Ah, he barely used it. It still smells like detergent, fresh out of the wash. But... but... little by little, faint—no, a little funky—I can smell it. Marcus's sweat!

His nose twitched hard, hunting Marcus's scent out from among the others.

Aah, this is different! This deep, addictive smell... this has to be superior Black pheromones!

It wasn't. His brain accepted it anyway.

Online, everybody's always going on about how Westerners smell strong. Well, maybe they do.

But...

If you can't even enjoy this thick alpha-stud smell, that's your loss, aaaall of you♡

The nose that had successfully tracked Marcus's scent buried itself deep in the towel.

Ah, I want to take this home. Sniff this while I watch BBC porn and I could empty my head for half a day, easy.

God, thank you! Thank you for giving me this chance! Buddha, God, Allah—hail, all of you!

Creak.

A little later Marcus came out of the shower in comfortable clothes.

"You can shower, if you want."

"No, it's fine! I'll just eat and wash up when I get home!"

Ji-hyeon, back on the living-room sofa, turned the offer down one more time.

Before long the ramen arrived, and the two of them ate breakfast talking about last night's drinks and about games. Ji-hyeon had already forgotten the hangover entirely. The spicy broth put his stomach properly to rights.

That afternoon, after turning it over since the night before, Marcus finally called his older brother. A long stretch of ringing, and then his brother picked up.