The fact that we’d known each other for over 20 years wasn’t just our story. Won Dogyeong’s family and mine had lived next door to each other the whole time, with our families being close.
Of course, even now our family homes were located on the same floor of the same apartment building. For our parents, it meant they could still meet with just one press of the doorbell.
“When will you tell them?”
“Me? Well, whenever you’re comfortable.”
Meaning I have to decide.
When I turned on my phone and scrolled down the window, I saw a text that had been neglected for hours. It was a message from Mom that came around when I was getting off work.
[Mom: Nothing going on these days?]
Even knowing it was a text sent without any particular meaning, my heart sank and I could only read it without being able to send a reply since something was indeed going on with me.
This was something I could wait to talk about until entering the stable period, but I didn’t want to face my parents’ messages with this uncomfortable feeling the whole time until then. The fact that I’d unintentionally have to keep lying also weighed on a corner of my heart.
I took a deep breath and unlocked my phone.
“Let’s do it now.”
“Now?”
“Yeah.”
“Hmm, okay. Then I’ll go in and call and come back.”
Won Dogyeong answered nonchalantly and disappeared into his room while touching his phone screen.
He doesn’t seem nervous at all. My palms are already full of sweat.
Whew, I exhaled and touched the contact to make the call. The ringtone started.
Pick up quickly.
No, don’t pick up.
…But still pick up.
Or not? Maybe don’t pick up after a—
Click.
Along with the sound of the call connecting, a familiar voice flowed from the other end of the receiver.
– Oh, son. Did you get off work?
“A while ago. Did you eat dinner?”
I fidgeted with my hands and pretended to be calm as I continued the conversation. Though my head was full of other thoughts.
– Ugh, your dad insisted he wanted to eat pizza, so we ordered pizza.
“You ate something delicious… haha.”
A weak laugh leaked out.
Ack! I’m nervous.
– Pizza tastes like pizza, what else. But is something going on with you?
…Why do I always get caught? This time it’s not even face-to-face, it’s a phone call.
I felt a small doubt in myself but swallowed my saliva and opened my mouth with a “um.”
“The thing is, ……..”
– …….
“I hope you won’t misunderstand too much when you hear this.”
– Okay.
“I, um……. I’m pregnant.”
For a moment, silence flowed from the other end of the receiver.
Was it a shock after all?
I could pride myself on having lived as a model student and member of society without ever causing a real incident. I’d consistently studied to some degree, never went astray, quietly attended and graduated from university, and immediately got a job and was working.
If I had to pick one thing, the event that shocked my family was manifesting late as an omega in a household where everyone was beta. That’s how smooth my life had been.
…Until now.
However, the words that broke through the silence were far from what I expected.
– ……I thought so.
“You thought so…?”
– I had a strange dream about a month ago.
“A dream?”
– A dragon appeared.
“A dragon…?”
– Yeah, a dragon. Suddenly this sparkling dragon surged up from underwater and rose to the sky.
“……”
– But strangely, I felt like that dragon was looking at me and smiling.
This is obviously…
– I thought it was a conception dream, so I called both Areum and Daun. When both said no, well, I figured someone else’s conception dream got lost on its way.
Noona aside, why would hyung when he’s not even married…
– I never imagined it would be you.
“Haha……”
I laughed awkwardly. The funny thing is that even in the midst of all this, I was secretly happy that the conception dream was a dragon. Thinking that it was a good omen.
And finally that question came.
– Whose baby is it? Have you been seeing someone lately?
“Uh…… well, ……..”
– Areum said it’s been a while since you dated. She wanted to introduce someone to you but you didn’t want to.
“It’s not that I didn’t want to… I was just busy.”
– So who did you meet and where? Is it because you haven’t been together long?
“……It’s someone Mom knows too.”
– I know them? That can’t be…….
Her words cut off as if she’d realized something.
Among the friends Mom knew, Won Dogyeong was the only alpha.
I wasn’t the type to spill every detail of my relationships to my parents, and I’d never introduced anyone I was seeing, so from “someone you know,” the answer was basically already given.
– ……Don’t tell me it’s Dogyeong?
“Mmm……”
Another eon-like silence flowed. I kept wiping my sweating hands on my pants and licked my dry lips.
Coincidentally, this time too it wasn’t quite the answer I’d gauged.
– I knew you two would. So you finally decided to date?
“Uh… well…”
– No, wait. Then are you two getting married?
Setting aside the absurd statement of “I knew you two would,” ugh. There it is. I definitely thought the marriage talk would come up.
Knowing this would happen, I’d thought about how to gloss over it well, but if I glossed over it and things went wrong later, it would obviously be more troublesome. In that case, being troubled now is better.
“…It’s true we decided to see each other, but we’re not at the stage of talking about marriage yet. But we decided to raise the baby together.”
Strictly speaking, we didn’t decide to see each other but decided to consider seeing each other, but explaining the whole situation seemed like it would complicate things, so I summarized it that way. It was a done deal with Won Dogyeong.
– Hmm, really?
I kept getting anxious at the unreadable question.
Could Mom accept the story that we’re having the baby but aren’t sure about marriage yet?
I pressed my lips tightly together and kept breathing shallowly.
– Okay~ Not getting married isn’t a big deal these days, and Dogyeong isn’t the kind of kid to pretend not to know about it. Do as you’re comfortable~.
“Huh? U-uh.”
I bit my tongue, flustered by the unexpectedly compliant answer. It seemed Mom had definitely achieved some kind of enlightenment after watching hyung who had no interest in even the letter ‘M’ of marriage well into his mid-to-late thirties.
For me, who had been prepared to endure even a long war of words over marriage talk, this was extremely fortunate.
I want to express my gratitude to Yeo Daun, who steadfastly insists on being single well into his thirty-sixth year…
After that, small talk continued like telling me to contact her if I didn’t know something, or to let her know if I wanted something to eat because she’d send it.
– I’ll hang up now~ Ah, come by the house with Dogyeong soon. Let’s all have a celebration party~.
A celebration party—it was unexpectedly favorable, making my trembling worry seem pointless. My chest swelled for no reason, and I pressed my cheeks roughly with my hands to calm down.
“Okay. I’ll talk with Won Dogyeong and contact you again.”
Click. Because I’d been holding it for so long, my phone had heated up. I trudged to the sofa and lay down. I’m completely drained. If noona and hyung find out, I might have to go through this grueling contact two more times. I hope it passes quietly.
Still, I felt much more at ease now that something that had been stuck like a fishbone in my throat was resolved.
Come to think of it, when the baby is born, Mom will become a grandmother.
Noona got married a few years ago but didn’t plan to have children, so the baby in my belly was our family’s first grandchild. Looking at how Yeo Daun is, it might be the first and last grandchild.
I placed my hand on my belly and tapped it lightly.
You’re going to receive a lot of love.
Soon Won Dogyeong walked out of his room. He also looked a bit tired.
Won Dogyeong brushed his hair back and trudged over. He lifted my head and slid his legs underneath, leaning back on the sofa. Having suddenly become a lap pillow, I tilted my head up a bit and asked.
“What did he say?”
“We talked about various things but… my dad likes you. He said it’s good. What about you?”
“Similar. Didn’t your dad ask about marriage?”
“He did. Don’t worry, I said we’re not doing it.”
It was the right thing to say, but hearing it stated so flatly made me feel strange for some reason. I just rolled my eyeballs around.
Of course I don’t think we’re at a stage to be talking about whether or not to marry Won Dogyeong. Having a child doesn’t necessarily mean you have to get married.
But I thought it would be fine to live like this with Won Dogyeong for the rest of my life.
Marriage… what is marriage?
It’s fine to live together for life, the baby will be born in nine months, we’ve decided to try to make it work, so isn’t there no big problem with getting married?
No, but still. That’s not how you decide that.
In the first place, what’s the difference between living together for life and getting married?
I don’t know. I’ve thought about wanting to have a child before, but I’ve never thought about wanting to get married.
It was the same in the relationships I’d had until now. Even when hearing the usual talk that happens between lovers, like we absolutely have to share a bed if we get married, or how we want to decorate the house, I couldn’t relate and just laughed it off. In my head, thoughts like “do we really have to live together?” mainly circulated.
I knew it was nonsense. It’s just that I had those thoughts.
Because of that lukewarm attitude, I’d never dated anyone long enough to seriously discuss marriage.
What do other people use as criteria for thinking they should get married? I suddenly felt like the concepts I knew were getting mixed up all jumbled.
