Oh for fuck’s sake. Never mind.
Siyeon pretended not to have heard him and climbed the rest of the way into the SUV. A bright, lush fragrance hit him the moment he was inside. Not an artificial perfume — something more like the cool, open scent of a forest in full bloom. It was Chae Yuno’s pheromones, which he’d caught once before.
“Did you buckle up?”
Chae Yuno, already in the seat beside him, glanced his way.
“Want me to do it for you?”
“No, I’m fine. We’re both men — don’t be weird about it.”
Siyeon refused flat out, and Chae Yuno tapped the steering wheel as if genuinely surprised to be turned down.
“You really are something else. Are you doing this on purpose… trying to get my attention?”
“What exactly… did I do?”
“You act like a beta. For an omega.”
What does acting like a beta even mean? Siyeon sat there with a look that said he didn’t follow, and Chae Yuno didn’t push it further — just started the car.
“Well, it’s fine. I happen to like that about you.”
He smiled like it was nothing and pulled out. As the SUV started moving down the road, sunlight filtered through the window and stretched long across his knees.
Siyeon turned his gaze outside. The tinting was as heavy as a VIP escort vehicle, but the sky was clear enough that the scenery still came through.
Come to think of it — when they’d brought him to this mansion, he’d been made to wear a blindfold. Even with Chae Yuno beside him, was it really alright to be moving around this freely? The thought struck him suddenly.
“Does the director have other plans today?”
“He was rushing out this morning saying he was busy. Lucky for you — if hyung were home, he’d have grilled you about where you were going and what you planned to do.”
As Chae Yuno said, Beom Yisu was an alpha with an unusually strong controlling streak. In the original, it was Beom Yisu who had monitored the protagonist’s every move — his meals, his sleep, even his bodily functions — and eventually locked him away in the mansion for good.
Of course, the reason That Alpha’s Trap had earned its tags of #melodrama and #broken wasn’t solely Beom Yisu’s doing. Even if Chae Yuno was all smiles right now, he was every bit as terrible in his own way.
If Beom Yisu had suppressed the protagonist’s freedom and hollowed him out mentally, it was Chae Yuno who had, for the most part, applied the physical pressure.
He was a big part of why Siyeon had skimmed past the explicit scenes without reading them properly.
When his latent sadistic tendencies were provoked, he became extremely rough in bed — so perverse and relentless that Beom Yisu, who was closer to dominance-mounting behavior, actually came off as restrained by comparison.
On top of that, his approach to their relationship was vastly different from Beom Yisu’s. As the protagonist continued to refuse giving him his heart, Beom Yisu grew increasingly cold and cruel — but Chae Yuno had a sudden, catastrophic breakdown in the later chapters.
“You don’t know what I’ve given up. You wouldn’t. Because you never spared a single thought for someone like me. That’s why you dare to — me. You’re thinking of leaving. Should we die together instead? Hm? That would solve it, wouldn’t it, babe?”
He’d ended up turning to pills and alcohol. He’d even resorted to self-harm to threaten the pregnant protagonist. A genuine piece of trash.
…Maybe I’ve been too relaxed.
Had he let his guard slip a little — caught off-balance by Chae Yuno’s easy friendliness compared to Beom Yisu’s blank expression? It was getting harder to maintain the quiet, melancholy concept of “Hong Siyeon” from the original.
Even if he was all smiles right now, Siyeon hoped Chae Yuno wasn’t silently holding a grudge about the outburst from earlier. He was the kind of person you couldn’t predict — better to stay careful.
Belatedly catching himself with an oh no, Siyeon began stealing glances at Chae Yuno through the rearview mirror as he drove. Chae Yuno seemed to notice immediately and spoke up.
“How come you never ask me.”
“…Ask you what?”
“You didn’t ask if I had other plans.”
Because you’re right here with me right now — why would I need to ask? His natural instinct would’ve been to fire that back without a second thought, but getting hung up on something this trivial wasn’t worth it.
What’s the point in matching the energy of someone acting childish? Siyeon made up his mind to go along with what he wanted, within reason.
“Do you have any other plans today?”
“I had a profile shoot scheduled, but I pushed it back so I could go on a date with you.”
Was he fishing for a compliment? Or just wanted to feel acknowledged? There was no way to know — but Siyeon felt like he was starting to get a read on how to handle Chae Yuno.
“I’m glad you’re coming with me to the hospital.”
“Really?”
“Yes. And I’m looking forward to the date, too.”
When Siyeon offered his thanks without resistance, the corner of Chae Yuno’s mouth twitched slightly. The lingering grievance seemed to dissolve entirely, and the black SUV quietly picked up speed.
They passed through a busy district and turned into a quieter alley with fewer traffic lights and fewer people. Just as Siyeon was beginning to wonder if they’d come to a semi-suburban area, a sleek, upscale building — something like an aesthetics clinic — came into view.
“Alright, we’re here.”
Chae Yuno got out of the car with a hat and mask on as a basic disguise. Being a public figure, this kind of inconvenience must come with the territory, Siyeon thought, as he carefully stepped out after him.
The lobby of the building they entered was quiet, and the elevator doors opened the moment the button was pressed. The reflection of the two of them in the interior mirror overlapped at an awkward angle.
The height difference is bigger than I expected.
He’d known Chae Yuno was tall, but standing side by side, there was nearly a full head between them. Something about it — starting from the bone structure — felt like an entirely different species.
Better not to think about picking a fight with him physically, he was just concluding when — ding — a clear chime rang as they reached the top floor, and a dedicated nurse stepped forward to greet them.
“I’ll show you to the examination room we’ve prepared.”
It seemed they had a reservation — no check-in process was needed. Chae Yuno leaned toward Siyeon and whispered. Just low enough for only Siyeon to hear.
“Don’t worry — this is a hospital belonging to a friend of mine.”
Whether it was genuinely to keep Beom Yisu from finding out or simply to go somewhere out of Beomyeong’s reach, it seemed that’s exactly what this was. The examination room they were led into was less like a clinic and more like a small hotel suite.
Soft lighting instead of harsh fluorescents. A faint aromatherapy scent in place of antiseptic. Siyeon sat down in the chair he was directed to. A cardiac monitoring patch was applied to the inside of his arm, and a blood pressure cuff slowly tightened around it. Numbers flickered on the monitor.
“The dosage was excessive.”
After a brief examination, the doctor — with a thick, somewhat scruffy beard — flipped through the chart and added:
“We’ll need follow-up check-ups to be sure, but in a worst-case scenario, it could cause permanent damage.”
“Permanent damage?”
He’d just taken too many pills one time — what on earth was this bombshell? The prognosis was far harsher than he’d anticipated, and Siyeon’s eyes wavered.
“Unheat has a higher potency than standard suppressants. It temporarily suppresses heat, but the side effects are just as significant.”
The tip of the pen tapped the bottom of the chart. The doctor showed him the warning note that read: in cases of overdose, pheromone cycles may become irregular. Below that was a chart with a gradual, uneven curve.
“Fortunately, today’s numbers show no acute abnormalities but… do you have any plans to become pregnant?”
At the mention of pregnancy, Chae Yuno answered before Siyeon could.
“What if there are? Is that a problem?”
“Who told you to answer? Stay out of it.”
He seemed to know the doctor personally, given they were at a friend’s hospital. The doctor waved him off with an irritated flick of the hand and turned back to Siyeon.
“If pregnancy is the plan, it would be best to put that off for now.”
“For how long?”
“Allow at least three months for the remaining components to fully clear your system. Rushing into implantation could lower the probability of maintaining an early pregnancy.”
In plain terms — the Unheat, a powerful hormonal agent, might still be lingering in his body. Which meant the risk of miscarriage was significant.
Three months.
Siyeon kept his head down and said nothing. Strangely, relief and anxiety hit him at the same time. Ironically, being told to delay the pregnancy felt like a brief loosening of the grip around his throat. Meanwhile the doctor continued.
“And given the overdose history, I’d recommend follow-up examinations for about three months as well. Pheromone concentration checks every two weeks, and especially…”
He paused, studying Siyeon for a moment, and drew out a long hmm before continuing.
“Your heat cycle could become disrupted. There’s a possibility it could manifest unexpectedly, so please be cautious.”
“What? Is there no way to prevent it?”
“Chae Yuno — what is it with you, keep butting in like this. Do you want to get thrown out?”
The doctor looked like he had plenty more to say, but seemed to be holding himself back with Siyeon — the patient — sitting right there. Who is this doctor? There couldn’t be many people who spoke to Chae Yuno this casually.
Oh — could this be the attending physician who treated the protagonist while he was confined in the mansion? No. Thinking back, that one had definitely been from Beomyeong’s side. And it was an older woman.
Then who is this.
While Siyeon turned that over in his mind, the doctor finished his brief standoff with Chae Yuno and picked back up where he left off.
“Stress, changes in body temperature — or stimulation from a specific alpha’s pheromones. Heat triggers are varied. You may find it difficult to predict yourself, so when going out, please try to have your spouse accompany you.”
“My spouse?”
“A sudden heat onset would be quite a problem, wouldn’t it? Since I can’t prescribe suppressants in your current condition, the best option right now is to manage it through alpha pheromones.”
“Pheromones…”
“And your spouse — they are aware of your condition, correct?”
Siyeon glanced sideways at Chae Yuno for just a moment. He wasn’t sure why — only that he was supposed to carry this couple’s child, and Chae Yuno happened to be beside him.
But whatever the doctor read into that, a small, devastated sound — something like oh dear lord — escaped him.
“Yuno — no. Tell me it’s not.”
“Now what.”
“What exactly is your relationship with this patient? Don’t tell me you…”
