“Haah……”
Even after Muksirok had left the room, Yeonwoo sat frozen for a long while before finally looking down at where he was sitting. The snow-white bedding was creased exactly in the shape of him.
As though in a trance, Yeonwoo reached out and gripped the sheet. His fingertips sank in, and a soft sensation met them. When he pressed a little harder, the filling beneath the fabric slowly gave way — and the moment he released it, it smoothed back out as though nothing had happened at all.
It was a texture he had never felt in his life.
“Ah!”
After mindlessly gripping and releasing the bedding a few more times, Yeonwoo suddenly swallowed a sharp breath and scrambled to his feet. This was not a place he had any right to sit on carelessly. It was a bed he had never seen the likes of — not in his hyung’s room, nor even in his father’s.
The bedding that had been gently pressed down puffed back up as though it had never been touched. It was so plush it seemed to be inviting him to sink in. Yeonwoo stared blankly at the spot where he’d just been sitting — then snapped his head up.
Only now did it register that he was in a room. The space Muksirok had brought him to was neither a shed stacked with worn-out things, nor a bathroom reeking of foul smells. It was a real, proper room.
A space never once granted to him in his life — and it was excessively large and stately. A wide window took up one entire wall, and beyond it, the view of a garden spread out like a painting. Even without the lights on, sunlight filtering through the window lit the room through and through.
On top of that, there was even a bathroom with a bathtub attached. Even through the half-open door, it was plain at a glance that it was well-maintained without so much as a spot of water stain. Baffled that they had given a room like this to a mere surrogate, Yeonwoo stood there like a broken doll — and then let out a small sound.
“Oh!”
This isn’t my room.
It had to be a room meant for the man. If what his hyung had said was right, receiving seed ultimately meant mixing bodies. He likely wouldn’t want to bring Yeonwoo into his own space — but they couldn’t very well do it just anywhere either. A space for the act would have been necessary regardless. Somewhere clean, and befitting of appearances.
Arriving at that plausible conclusion, Yeonwoo’s expression brightened a little. Everything placed in the room finally made sense. Even so, he couldn’t bring himself to freely wander around it. Yeonwoo stayed exactly where he was, and turned over the words Muksirok had left behind.
[There will be an examination soon. When the schedule is confirmed, I’ll come to collect you.]
What kind of examination had the man meant?
[No, I mean — bringing in a kid who doesn’t even look fully grown, what on earth…… Do you actually have a womb? A proper one?]
[When I was growing up I could polish off a whole cow without breaking a sweat. So stop making excuses and eat.]
Going by what had been said today, they were clearly suspicious of him. Yeonwoo pressed a palm below his navel and muttered with a downcast look.
“I’m, I’m not still gr-growing……. I’m, I’m an adult, I g-get heat and everything, and my womb is p-perfectly f-fine……”
After all — it must have not come across properly because of the stuttering. Yet another misunderstanding stacked on top. Yeonwoo’s shoulders dropped under the weight of it. But after a short while, he raised his head again from where he’d been staring at his feet.
“L-let’s try s-saying it one more time. Without, without stuttering……”
Yeonwoo’s gaze went once to the plush bed, once to the large window beyond. Whatever the reason, these were men who had given a room like this to a surrogate. They hadn’t hit him. They had even let him eat warm, delicious food.
Right — he needed to be grateful for treatment more than he deserved.
He would try saying it one more time — that he was a proper adult who could receive seed. Even if they didn’t believe him, it was something the examination could prove. Take the examination, fulfill his duty as quickly as possible — even a day sooner.
He said he’d come to collect me, so I have to practice before then.
Yeonwoo set his expression with resolve and rehearsed what he needed to say — alongside the phrases his hyung had drilled into him. Words he’d been taught as ways to stir a man. He still didn’t know whose seed he’d be receiving — but thinking it through in advance meant he’d stutter at least a little less.
Yeonwoo quietly mouthed the words, trying out the sounds on his lips — and his eyes slowly began to flutter. Perhaps because the tension had eased — back in Cluster 9 this would have been the middle of his work hours, yet drowsiness was pouring over him. Or perhaps it was because his stomach was full. His hyung’s words had been right again: when you’re full and warm, you get lazy and undisciplined.
His lashes pressed down heavy as stones, and his head began to tilt under the same weight. He nodded off and startled awake several times, tried pinching his own thighs — but nothing helped. After deliberating, Yeonwoo finally lay himself down on the floor. The room was large, but he curled himself up small like a shrimp so as to take up as little space as possible.
He didn’t know when they’d come to collect him, so he needed to sleep quickly and be up and ready. With that thought as something close to a vow, he closed his eyes.
The sunlight pouring through the window was warm rather than harsh. No dust to make his face itch, no sneezing. No damp, mildewy smell to sting his nose. Instead, the sweet scent lingering in the room drifted in softly through his nostrils.
A scent that had constricted his breath earlier — now it had settled faintly, drifting like a lingering trace. Somewhere in between, a fleeting illusion of Kang Sihyeon’s pheromones seemed to brush past as well. That bittersweet, cool scent. It wasn’t long before the lids that had been trembling finely went slack and loose. Yeonwoo — who as a rule shivered in the cold and could only manage sleep with great effort — didn’t try to hold onto his consciousness.
The drowsiness that came for Yeonwoo this time was, unusually, without cruelty. Rather than dragging him under by the ankles, it came and tickled gently at his hair. His breathing evened out, and the body curled tightly began to loosen just a little.
It was a warm and soft afternoon nap — one that tasted of carrot porridge.
Knock knock.
Yeonwoo’s lids, sunken deep in sleep, fluttered faintly.
Knock knock knock.
What seeped into his ears before the sound of knocking was birdsong. The sweet chirping and the soft rustle of wings sweeping through leaves spread pleasantly. Even from sound alone, a garden drenched in sunlight seemed to take shape.
The signs coming through from beyond the window were clear and peaceful — not enough to bring even the faintest tension to his loosened consciousness. Just as awareness, having risen briefly to the surface, was about to naturally sink back down —
Knock knock. Knock knock knock.
The sound came again. Louder and longer than before. Only then did Yeonwoo’s eyes fly fully open.
“……”
The moment he opened them, the scenery that had been in his dream filled his vision whole. The wide window, the streaming sunlight, the green of the garden, and the small birds darting brightly between it all.
He blinked twice into the light flooding in — and only then could he piece things together. Where he was, why he had been lying in this room, and what he had been doing last.
“Ah!”
Yeonwoo shot up like a spring and scrambled to the door in a hurry. Without even a moment to think about who might be knocking, he flung it open.
Standing before the door was someone he had never seen before.
“Hello, it’s a pleasure to meet you for the first time. I am Muyeong, the personal secretary who will be attending to Yeonwoo from now on.”
“Oh, h-hello.”
Unlike Yeonwoo, whose bewilderment was plain on his face, the man dressed neatly in a monochrome suit dipped his head without the slightest disorder. Caught up in the crisp bow, Yeonwoo bent at the waist in return. Muyeong straightened first — and Yeonwoo followed half a beat behind.
“I apologize for disturbing your rest. I was given instructions to make health-related matters the foremost priority in my attendance, which is why I regrettably had to intrude.”
It was a tone without emotional inflection, flat and level. The precise, measured explanation called Muksirok to mind for some reason.
“A meal has been prepared. I will wait outside the door while you wash up.”
The way he didn’t ask for the other person’s wishes was the same too. The difference, if there was one, was that he maintained a set distance as he stood. But Yeonwoo felt no dissatisfaction with such a manner — not even a flicker of doubt. Because he hadn’t known from the start what was wrong with it.
Instead, Yeonwoo found himself caught on something else entirely.
A meal?
It was an unexpected thing to say.
He had just finished a meal and come back — and now a meal had been prepared again……
He turned it over in his mind for a moment, then thought of the two men. With builds like that, it wouldn’t be strange for there to be one more meal in their day. But more to the point — why had they called for him? He’d already eaten today, which meant his next meal shouldn’t come for another three or four nights.
Lost in thought, Yeonwoo’s mouth opened slightly as understanding seemed to dawn.
Oh — they want me to attend the meal.
But something about that snagged at him.
The man’s reaction had been distinctly different from his hyung’s, who received table service from a beastman attendant. Far from being pleased, the brow that had locked tight had looked closer to displeasure.
Had it not been that at all? Or…… Oh! Maybe he was giving him another chance.
Yeonwoo’s expression brightened as he arrived at what felt like the right answer.
“Oh, y-yes, I understand. I’ll w-wash up quickly and be right there.”
Yeonwoo bowed his head several times over, like someone who didn’t know what to do with their gratitude.
“……”
Muyeong said nothing, and simply looked at Yeonwoo.
It wasn’t that he felt the same warm, soft feeling the other staff did at the sight of Yeonwoo. It was simply that he understood in an instant. Why he had been assigned here.
