I didn’t know what to say. I needed time to accept this situation.
Why, of all people, me? To someone like me, a half-wit recessive omega with neither a proper scent nor heat cycle… I couldn’t understand.
“But… how could you imprint on me? Honestly, this is sudden, and I don’t really understand what this even means.”
When there was no particular response from Kwon Yujin even after a long while, I had no choice but to ramble and ask again from my side.
“I don’t know the exact reason either.”
Kwon Yujin roughly swept back his hair that had fallen down, as if frustrated.
When he tilted his head slightly, his firm jawline and thick Adam’s apple were revealed without filter. He looked very sturdy. The simply young and small child who occupied most of my memories of Kwon Yujin no longer existed.
I was a little happy about that fact, yet still flustered and puzzled by this situation.
“You and I haven’t met since then.”
Imprinting refers to a phenomenon of reacting only to one person’s pheromones. For that to happen, there needed to be some degree of contact. That way you become familiar with the other person’s pheromones and imprinting becomes possible. I pointed out exactly that.
“It’s not like there was none at all.”
“Well, that’s…”
After the child escaped from the semi-basement room, our meetings weren’t completely nonexistent.
Long after Kwon Yujin left our house, I happened to come across an article about him becoming a high school division swimming athlete. After that, I kept looking for news through articles, and at some point, I boldly started going to watch matches in person.
But most of the time I just sat quietly in the audience seats, watched the match, and left, and going to watch matches was only an occasional thing. Since Kwon Yujin was popular even as a youth athlete, someone like me who watched matches with their face covered wouldn’t stand out.
However, even those secret match viewings ended three years ago. Because I got caught by Kwon Yujin. If the imprinting really happened, that was the only timing it could have been.
It was clear that we had a relationship difficult to explain in words. Because to ten-year-old young Kwon Yujin, I was both a perpetrator, a friend, and a guardian.
Of course, all those messy relationships were settled as soon as Father was arrested by the police.
Did something that ended 14 years ago go wrong belatedly? To think imprinting happened from a meeting of barely 5 minutes three years ago. I’d never heard or seen such a case.
So in one way, it seemed suspicious somewhere. What was the reason for suddenly coming to find me like this? Wasn’t there another purpose? To get revenge? Father did the kidnapping, but it was hard to see me as entirely innocent either.
“It’s a lie after all, isn’t it?”
“Hey.”
This time, as soon as my words ended, Kwon Yujin furrowed his brow. It was an immediate reaction.
“Do I look that free to you?”
At the same time, an angry voice dug into my ears. My shoulders flinched without me knowing.
“Fuck, who the hell are you that I’d come all the way here to bullshit about imprinting with lies.”
“……”
He wasn’t wrong. There was no reason for him to allocate time to me and lie. If he wanted revenge, he would have swung his fist as soon as I opened the door.
When he was young, his build was much smaller than mine, but now the difference was so great that I had to look up at him.
Moreover, Kwon Yujin was a national team swimming athlete. As a joke, people said he swept up gold medals whenever he went to the Olympics, so he was already far ahead of me in physique and strength.
As I was thinking such thoughts, content from a recent article related to Kwon Yujin suddenly came to mind.
[Kwon Yujin ahead of World Aquatics Championships, records not as good as before… Concerns raised about condition]
“The drop in your records is because of this?”
After swallowing dry saliva, I immediately continued speaking.
“And that’s why you didn’t go to the Asian Games either?”
A media outlet that mainly covers sports-related news had mentioned the possibility that Kwon Yujin had fallen into a slump.
Using as evidence that the most recently revealed national team selection records were worse than before, albeit by a small margin, and that he didn’t participate in the last Asian Games.
Looking back, it seemed to roughly match up with the current situation. If the imprinting was true, he might have endured the poor condition caused by it and eventually it started affecting his records.
“Anyway. You’re willing to cooperate, right?”
“Yeah. Of course. Then, what should I do? Can it be treated?”
Kwon Yujin, who had been quietly looking down at me as I urged anxiously, nodded his head after a moment.
“How. Explain in detail…”
“Would you even understand if I explained?”
“……”
Naturally, even if he explained, there was a high possibility I wouldn’t understand. Since I barely graduated middle school and it took me a full three attempts to pass the qualification exam.
Kwon Yujin deeply inhaled the cigarette he’d been holding between his fingers the whole time once more. Then he ground it out on the glass table surface.
I captured all of his movements in my eyes without missing any. It meant he’d only smoked exactly two puffs of the cigarette. Fortunately, it seemed he didn’t smoke as much as regular smokers.
“The hospital said it’s good to meet with you, even briefly, during the treatment period. Anyway, your pheromones are.”
Kwon Yujin, who paused his sentence for a moment, wrapped up his emotions and continued speaking again.
“…needed.”
“How often?”
“Well. Once a week?”
“Once a week…”
I muttered like that and chewed over the words I’d just heard. Kwon Yujin frowned as if he hadn’t heard my words.
Kwon Yujin really imprinted on me? Even though the person himself directly explained and acknowledged it, I had difficulty escaping from the shock.
“Can you do it?”
“……”
I didn’t know in detail about imprinting, but it was common knowledge that staying near one’s imprinted partner was good. But to Kwon Yujin, I was still nothing but a criminal. Was it really okay for someone like me to meet with the child? Was the child, was Kwon Yujin really okay with this situation?
I really shouldn’t have gone to watch the swimming matches. It was all because of me.
“Hyun Taeyoung.”
“…Ah, yeah. I’ll do it. Anything.”
Kwon Yujin’s call pulled me out of my thoughts. I nodded my head several times. After doing so, I became aware that he and I were standing confrontationally in the middle of the living room.
“Ah, should I give you something to drink?”
At the thought that I hadn’t even given Kwon Yujin a glass of water until now, I hurriedly threw out the question. Even if it wasn’t a scheduled visit, I couldn’t keep leaving him standing in the living room.
“It’s fine.”
Without even listening to Kwon Yujin’s answer, I headed to the kitchen. Just in case, I opened the refrigerator and found only a half-drunk soju bottle and a few side dish containers with a musty smell. There didn’t seem to be anything worth giving to Kwon Yujin.
Having no choice, I filled a cup with tap water and went back to the living room. In the meantime, Kwon Yujin was checking his phone with a somewhat tired expression.
I stopped for a moment and carefully examined the joints connecting his hands and wrists. The injuries from being hit by Father in the old days didn’t remain at all. Even the area around his wrists, which used to have rope marks deeply soaked in from always being tied up, was now clean. That made me feel very proud.
“Drink this.”
“I said it’s fine.”
When I held the cup out in front of Kwon Yujin, an irritable hand immediately came back to swat it away. Because of the force pushing my arm, I ended up dropping the cup I was holding.
“Ah…”
In the end, the water spilled on the floor. Fortunately, the cup was plastic, so it didn’t break and was fine.
Kwon Yujin paused for a moment at the situation of the spilled water, but soon turned his body without caring.
“I’ll come pick you up next week, so you can hear the detailed explanation when we go to the hospital then.”
“Ah, wait a moment.”
I hurriedly brought a rag and wiped the floor. Perhaps because it was a house that had experienced water leakage several times, mold would quickly form when the flooring got wet. I had to wipe it quickly before that.
“Saturday.”
“Yeah.”
When I answered while vigorously rubbing the floor with the rag, I heard a sigh from above my head.
“Wait just a moment. Tea…, I also have tea bags.”
Moving quickly, I thought hard in my head about what there was in the house worth serving to a guest. I don’t usually bring anyone to my house, but still, surely there must be something to give.
When I finished mopping and stood up, I saw Kwon Yujin already at the entrance.
“You’re leaving already?”
Worried he might really just leave like that, I unconsciously grabbed the hem of his clothes and asked. Then Kwon Yujin looked back at me with a grimacing expression.
His gaze went from my face to the hand grabbing his coat, and then back to my face again.
“Uh, uh, sorry.”
Only then did I recall that my hand had been holding a rag until just now and hastily let go of the coat.
My body stiffened because I could feel a cold gaze touching my face. Even though there was no way Kwon Yujin could see my face, I felt ashamed for no reason.
I checked several times whether I was wearing my mask properly while fumbling over my face. Then the moisture from the rag soaked the mask directly.
“Ah.”
Kwon Yujin, who had been watching all of my foolish actions, twisted his lips.
“Can’t you take off that fucking mask? I can’t hear a single thing you’re mumbling from earlier.”
“This is…”
“Take it off.”
“I can’t.”
I shook my head and stepped back. For some reason, Kwon Yujin seemed to find my reaction laughable. Seeing how he completely turned away from heading toward the entrance and approached my side.
“I clearly know what state your face is in, so what difference does covering it make?”
“…Still, I won’t take it off. Why are you doing this, all of a sudden.”
Kwon Yujin reached out his hand and stubbornly grabbed my face.
