God. Fuck her pheromones. Fuck. He had swallowed, feeling the skin on his cheeks heat up further. Help him. His body had trembled at the scent, his heart bursting in its cage threatening to escape. His semi-hard cock growing with his need and pushing painfully in his jeans, soaking in the disgusting residue of his slimy precum.
He'd tasted a lot of pussy, sucked some cocks. Ezra was no shitty lover and he had a kink for oral sex. He had partaken in many, many people and he knew exactly how arousal should smell like on a woman.
Salt, seafood, and sometimes a little like blood. But this one...
He almost, almost went fucking crazy when he took another stronger whiff of her scent. That soft natural floral sweetness was strongest here, tangy and fragrant. Too fucking sweet.
How the fuck could she smell so sweet?
Ezra's brows furrowed at the thought. His eyes were trembling as he swallowed thickly. His mind tried to draw back to science. There was no other explanation except that her genetics must be exactly what his body needed. Her heritable immune coverage must be the exact opposite to his.
His body was basically signalling to him that he should be with her. That he should have children with her and create babies that were immune to a greater number of things. His brows furrowed.
Were non-soulmates supposed to be so physically compatible?
No, but that was beside the point. The reason why Ezra was here standing in the cold ass kitchen instead of sleeping in his soft, comfy bed was that he was worried. Worried for the young woman currently bunking in his spare apartment, the woman who was not back even though it was three in the morning. It could be his fault, Ezra didn't know.
He'd been an impolite bastard to her, the kind of guy with a damn stick lodged up his arse. He felt bad about it and at odd hours in the morning, he visited the apartment just to check on her. Not just because he wanted to stare at her face, it was also because he was worried and he worried for her safety.
She was not here tonight and it could be his fault.
He stared at his phone, keying her number into the search bar. The profile photo flashed before him and her adorable smile winked teasingly at him. His mind reacted before he could stop it. Cute, adorable. His fingers brushed against the picture, running across her eyes. Beautiful. He could call her, ask her where she was, but that might just mean waking her up—
His phone buzzed and he jumped, nearly dropping it. Who? He squinted in the darkness, glaring a little in annoyance at the name. He sighed, flicking it open and running his thumb over the screen.
"Ezra?" The guy called out from his phone, his voice loud and ringing in his ears in the silence of his apartment.
"What?" He snapped again feeling pissed, blatantly expressing his anger at the caller.
"You're so rude!" Hikaru clucked his tongue through the receiver. Ezra sighed, dropping back into his seat. He shouldn't. Shouldn't take his anger out on his best friends. No. He needed to keep calm.
This obsession would pass and all Ezra would be left with was the people who loved him. Those people were the people he should keep close to his heart.
Not the woman who drove him and his cock goddamn crazy.
"Sorry bro, was working on something," Ezra replied gruffly, rubbing his nose. "Sorry." He tossed in another word of apology for good measure just to appease the elder. "What do you want?"
"You're not at the dorm?" Hikaru's voice sounded surprised, rising in pitch.
"No. I'm at my condominium," Ezra answered. He cocked his head to the side, confused. If his best friend was asking this question, then... "You're not at home?"
"Yeah!" His best friend chirped, sounding a little too excited for three in the morning. "I was going to tell you about my whereabouts. That's why I'm calling," Hikaru replied. "Wanted to ask you to tell Sieon that I can't teach him tomorrow as well."
"Ask JieMi? He'll definitely be waking up early for school, get him to tell Sieon," Ezra pointed out. JieMi was the only dumb fuck in the group's students who bothered taking morning classes in order to match his schedule with his girlfriend.
"I tried. He's at Ha-Eun's place," Hikaru sighed. Ezra snorted, shaking his head in disapproval.
JieMi was probably fucking Ha-Eun again. Ezra grimaced at the thought.
He loved that kid but hated him so much sometimes. JieMi had always been one of the luckiest as the youngest of the group. The most talented, the most recognized, the most loved by fans. Conveniently the only one in the group who had 'met' his soulmate, but had the audacity to not want her.
Ezra could practically taste the problems that would ensue in the near future. He was not even sure if it were even physically and mentally possible to just toss one's soulmate to the side.
Of course, the stupid youngest member wanted to push his damn limits, sticking to a girl that Ezra was sure didn't love JieMi as much as he thought she did. He'd confronted him about it in an attempt to lecture the younger guy. But the stubborn kid had refused to budge or even give his soulmate a chance. Oliver almost slapped the kid when he admitted to eating those damn pills.
Stupid, unbelievably stubborn and stupid.
Blinded by a love that Ezra did not support. Ha-Eun, while amicable, had seemed a little too fake for him. Her love for JieMi was not as genuine or as strong as JieMi's for her. And while JieMi had harped on over his own 'love' for her, the look in his eyes was nothing like those of two soulmates. Then again, maybe it was their fault.
Their fault that from JieMi's youth he had seen Hikaru crying over his soulmate, seen Oliver experience screaming nightmares of being alone. He had seen Ezra writing song after song to drown out feelings and MinJae break into pieces.
Maybe, it was all their fault. Ezra shook his head. If he was losing Amber because of someone as stupid as that little shit, he would steal her back in a heartbeat. Damn it, the conversation had been momentarily successful in drawing his attention away from her. But now his mind was back in depression land.
"What are you teaching him?" Ezra asked in an attempt to distract his lonely brain.
"Baking," Hikaru replied. Ezra's eyes widened.
"Baking? Sieon? You're kidding right? The kid is exceptionally horrible at anything related to the kitchen."
Ezra raised a brow, tapping his fingers on the table. He never knew it was possible to melt kitchen equipment until he met Kim Sieon. The number of times the guy had created a bonfire out of their would-be dinners was one too many to count.
"We banned him from the kitchen, remember?"
"As if I could forget," his best friend scoffed through the phone and Ezra could almost see him shaking his head. "He said this time, he's serious. Wanted to cook for his girl."
"His girl? He said that?" Ezra raised a brow, he chafed. An amused exhale of air from his nostrils. Was the entire IDOL team going crazy these days? "Not a casual fuck?"
"Casual fuck? You're talking about our little virgin boy." Hikaru laughed, the sounds of his cheery high pitched squeaky giggles exceptionally squeaky through the phone. Ezra snorted. Hikaru was one to talk, the guy hadn't had sex yet either.
"Maybe you should think about your own virgin status, Karu," Ezra snapped back.
He waited, used to the usual angry 'screw you' from the elder boy and the 'unlike you, I'm not interested in getting STDs or random babies from strangers.' This jibe had been their inside joke for the longest of times, an odd sign of friendship between the two. But this time, his best friend was quiet. Silent. Ezra blinked...No way. No fucking way.
"You fucked someone?" He gasped into his phone and Hikaru's reply was almost immediate.
"NO! NO! NO!" His friend squawked back and Ezra could almost see the panicky guy blushing madly at his words, practically dropping his phone on the floor.
The older boy was cute like that, always panicking and blushing at sexual content. However, he was professional about it when it came to singing explicit lyrics. Thank God. Ezra would have gone on a rampage if he had to deal with a stupid blushing mess of a singer.
"Then?" Ezra pressed, curiosity nibbling at his heart. "Where the hell are you?"