Hyedam’s face was full of peace as he woke up after lazily sleeping more, enjoying the delicious coffee scent Leo had left behind and the warmth inside the bed. They said alpha pheromones were absolutely necessary during pregnancy, and it seemed those words weren’t false.
Just sleeping beside Leo could make his condition this good… But how should he tell him about the baby?
“Do you need a dad? Am I not enough?”
Hyedam, who had finished showering in warm water and come out, muttered while touching his lower abdomen. His lower abdomen, which had been flat even until he came here, could now be felt when touched, and when viewed from the side, it was clearly visible that it had come out a bit.
As time passed it would come out more, and what could be seen and felt couldn’t be hidden or denied. If he spent time intimately with Leo, no, he might be found out within today.
It seemed revealing that he had a child should come before answering his proposal.
Clicking his tongue and standing in front of the mirror looking at his body, Hyedam put on comfortable and loose clothes and headed to the first floor.
Cough.
He hadn’t felt it well until coming out of his room, but a cough burst from Hyedam’s mouth as he was going down the stairs. The murky smoke and burnt smell filling the house. Although he didn’t particularly want to remember it, Hyedam, who had experienced something similar, quickened his steps.
“Ondal!”
“…Don’t come down… Ah-. Get out quickly.”
Leo’s hands and feet, which had come through the acrid smell and smoke, moved before his words. Held in his arms without time to stop or retort, Hyedam was already outside.
“You… What!”
“The gochujang… I didn’t know it would burn this fast, I opened all the windows and turned off the fire but… Why did you come down when I didn’t even call you! You should have kept sleeping.”
Looking at Leo, who put him down on the rocking chair at the rest area where he had wandered so much last night and was making excuses, Hyedam burst out laughing. Saying there was nothing to fault. So incredibly competent. Nothing he couldn’t do. Not flustered by most things, always calm and acting rationally.
“Why are you roasting gochujang when there’s no dried shredded squid to make something with?”
“I tore up semi-dried squid into small pieces.”
“The doenjang?”
“I boiled that.”
Boiled… He boiled it. Since it was just a matter of adding water according to the recipe, putting in all the ingredients inside, and boiling, it was impossible to fail at a doenjang-jjigae meal kit.
“Then, let’s eat with the doenjang. We can mix rice with the doenjang and eat it.”
It seemed they couldn’t enter the house while the smoke cleared out, and it seemed they could simply bring out something and eat a late brunch, so Hyedam, who was getting up from his seat, quietly looked at Leo’s flustered expression.
“You didn’t make rice?”
Hyedam was one of those people who enjoyed eating meal kits with instant rice. What food could be more convenient than that? But since coming here, he had been seeking natural foods for meals as much as possible. He tried to find slightly better ingredients and enjoy the original taste that the ingredients had. And such foods went down better than retort foods.
But just for today, retort foods seemed okay, but although there was a doenjang-jjigae meal kit, there was no instant rice. Because there was an electric rice cooker that could cook rice right away whenever he wanted to eat, even though he was alone. Even now, if prepared, the electric rice cooker would make delicious fluffy rice within 10 minutes.
Getting up slowly, Hyedam, whose usual smooth demeanor had gone somewhere, tapped Leo’s stiff forearm a couple times.
It’s okay. That’s just how life is.
“Just sit here for a moment.”
“Ondal-ah.”
“…….”
“Bring yogurt and cereal. In the vegetable drawer of the fridge, there are berries washed and packed in containers ready to eat, right? Bring those too. Then I’ll understand. Even if you can’t make rice, you can do this kind of errand well, right?”
Having taken a big bite of yogurt with berries and cereal, Hyedam looked at the sky where fluffy clouds were floating. Enjoying the gently blowing wind that disheveled his hair for a moment, unable to withstand Leo’s gaze that was staring only at him as if lasers were coming from his eyes, Hyedam slowly turned his head to look at him.
“Why.”
“Because you’re too ugly.”
“Really. Why are you trying to marry an ugly person? More than that, what were you going to do if something happened coming here in a storm?”
“You were alone.”
“I’ve been here for almost a month, you know? Why come looking now when you haven’t looked for me until now all this time after not looking all of a sudden? Besides, why would I be alone? I’m not alone.”
Hyedam brought up what he wanted to say while looking at Leo’s eyes full of greenness. If he realizes it, he’ll keep talking, and if he still doesn’t know even after this, it can’t be helped.
“I’m sorry I didn’t realize right away. I really thought it was an impossible thing, and I was careful, and even now I don’t feel pheromones…”
Hyedam saw Leo’s gaze turn toward his lower abdomen and slightly raised his hand to cover his abdomen.
“Not a beta.”
“Again… hidden?”
At Leo’s words flowing out with a deep sigh, the corners of Hyedam’s mouth slightly rose. He already knew his famous parents’ story, and Leo and himself weren’t alphas or omegas with normal pheromones either.
So our baby might be special too, but more than that…
“Because Alkong and Dalkong are together.”
Clearly there had been no fetal nickname until last night. But this morning while showering, what suddenly came to mind was Alkong and Dalkong. Isn’t a fetal nickname supposed to be given intuitively rather than grandly and magnificently? And when he voiced what came to mind out loud, it seemed to fit quite nicely somehow.
“Alkong-dalkong. No. Wait a moment… There, right now.”
Since yesterday, the expressions he saw most from Leo were bewilderment and surprise. Watching his green eyes shake unsteadily, Hyedam smiled brightly and slowly took off the ring that had been fitted well on his left hand until now.
“So if you want to back out, back out now. Think more carefully and agonize over it. I’m planning to live happily as three with our Alkong and Dalkong. You know that whether or not I let you in there is entirely up to my will, right?”
Holding the ring lightly between his thumb and index finger and holding it up to the sunlight, Hyedam silently watched Leo slowly getting up.
As Leo, who had been across from him with the table between them, got closer, the smile gradually faded from Hyedam’s face, which had been beaming until now.
As Leo knelt before him with a serious expression and matched his eye level, Hyedam swallowed the saliva pooled in his mouth and slowly held out the ring he was holding to him.
Not just one but two babies could be sufficiently burdensome for him who disliked children. He had no intention of blaming Leo for such things. They said whether the children in the womb were alphas, omegas, or betas wouldn’t be known until they grew a bit more. But even if they were alphas or omegas, he had also heard the explanation that unlike general alpha or omega fetuses, their pheromones couldn’t be known until they were born.
It was the survival method of twin alphas and omegas who inevitably influenced and were influenced by each other. If they were the same type, it was obvious they would clash, and if they were different types, it was clear they would be influenced by the stronger side…
As Leo’s two hands touched his knees, Hyedam flinched and pulled back without realizing it. Even while knowing that the alpha who had always seemed solid was burying his face on his thighs, Hyedam couldn’t move rashly.
“I’m sorry for forgetting. I’m sorry for not knowing. And for making you have to make such a decision again… for leaving you alone…”
At Leo’s choked voice, Hyedam put down the ring on the table and stroked his soft hair. He could feel his honest emotions without grand reasons or excuses added in. The difference in weight between a perfunctory sorry said out of formal courtesy and the sorry he brought out now was like heaven and earth.
“You were five years old and I was eight years old, so how could you remember that? And you at twenty were really going through a hard time, so you must have had reasons you had to forget me. As for Alkong and Dalkong, I didn’t tell you precisely either. Also, I’m the one who said I’d take a week’s vacation and didn’t return to work.”
As Leo’s hair passed between his fingers creating softness, Hyedam’s stiffly hardened expression softly relaxed. If they didn’t have a proper conversation, misunderstandings would pile up. Because each thinks by their own standards, but sometimes, very occasionally, a single small movement carried more meaning than tens of thousands of words.
“You didn’t do anything wrong. When I lost my parents, you cried more for me instead of me. You stayed by my side when grandmother passed away too. And I thought I would live alone and leave, but you made it so Alkong and Dalkong could be with me.”
Hyedam paused for a moment and looked at the black ring fitted on Leo’s left hand.
“So it’s okay. Don’t be sorry and you don’t have to have guilt or a sense of responsibility. But I don’t think I can return to the company. In this situation, I can’t just treat you as a direct superior like before. So take the ring and go back.”
Having heard his sincere apology, now it was time to relieve his burden.
