“BIPHS (Biochemically Induced Pheromonal Hyperesthesia Syndrome), commonly known as ‘VIPS Syndrome.'”
No, it’s not even the name of a restaurant chain.
While I was bewildered by a disease name I’d never heard before in my life, the emergency physician adjusted his glasses and continued speaking.
“Your son has a constitution that’s unusually sensitive to pheromone scents. Normally, children in their growth period right after manifestation should be insensitive to pheromones, but…….”
“Th-then is Gunho okay?!”
“Well. His pheromone receptors are excessively sensitive to the point where his body is having a rejection reaction. It would be easy to understand if you think of it as similar to an acute allergic reaction.”
“Wh-what kind of alpha in the world has that! An alpha suffering from a pheromone allergy!”
Adoptive father Park Jaeseo spoke passionately, voicing exactly what I was feeling.
I too was so dumbfounded I could fly past the atmosphere into space.
Because as I recall, there was no such setting for ‘Baek Gunho’ in the novel.
“Gunho is a healthy alpha boy who just manifested yesterday! A child who never had any illnesses, why suddenly……!”
“Precisely, it’s not a disease. It’s a syndrome, or a type of constitution.”
“The child collapsed as soon as he went to school, how is this not a disease!”
“I-I’m also seeing a case showing such a strong reaction for the first time.”
The emergency physician broke out in a cold sweat at Park Jaeseo’s commotion and frantically flipped through a pile of papers.
“According to overseas academic journals, stress and psychological factors are considered likely causes, but…….”
Stress and psychological factors.
At first hearing, it sounds like an irresponsible and vague statement, but I immediately understood.
‘Honestly, I still can’t adapt to this crazy world.’
As my adoptive father said, I manifested as an alpha.
For the past three days or so, I groaned in bed complaining of high fever and muscle pain like a child suffering from growing pains, then sat up as if I’d never been sick. Then my adoptive parents pricked my finger with a medical needle and smeared the blood on a test panel.
Then they said “You’ve become an alpha! Congratulations, Gunho!” and set off firecrackers while bringing out a pre-ordered three-tier cake.
But I couldn’t be purely happy.
First of all, it was because of the shocking fact that I hadn’t become the ‘ordinary’ beta male I had so desperately hoped for.
Secondly, it was because of my concern that I too might become an incarnation of sexual desire like ‘Baek Gunho’ in the novel or that obsessive maniac.
And third…….
‘Wh-what is this smell!’
It was because of the foul stench coming from my adoptive parents.
At first, I wondered if these people had left food waste lying around, but this ultra-luxury apartment had cleaning services visit regularly and was spotlessly clean without a speck of dust.
As soon as I realized the source of the smell was my adoptive parents, I suspected they hadn’t washed their clothes or showered, but…… there was no way those neat two people would do that. Moreover, it absolutely wasn’t a level of smell that could come from just that.
So when I consulted with my adoptive parents.
“Hm? A smell? Well, I’m not really sure.”
“Did I do that when I manifested as an alpha? It was so long ago I don’t remember well…… but it was just nothing special?”
My adoptive parents recommended that if I had the same symptoms tomorrow, we should go to an otolaryngologist for a checkup.
Back then I was barely holding back my disgust, pinching my nose shut thinking ‘How am I supposed to sleep in this stench?’…….
“My room. Let’s go.”
Squeeze.
The small child holding my hand led me to the room.
While I was puzzled by the smell being much fainter than before, that small guy said this.
“If you’re sick, sleep with me.”
And so, as if enchanted, I barely got through the day smelling that refreshing yet cozy scent…….
The next day.
“Hey, Baek Gunho! You became an alpha? The rumor’s already spread throughout the whole school!”
Kim Jaewook, who had been playing soccer since early morning, approached while wiping his sweat.
“Face, grades, wealth, and now alpha too? You’re hogging everything, you greedy bastard.”
“What’s so good about being an alpha.”
“You’re handsome! You’ll make good money! You’re popular! You have it all!”
“I don’t have it all. Even if you’re an alpha…….”
To my eyes, they just seem like guys with dangerous lower halves.
Anyway, that’s not the problem.
Kim Jaewook reeked of that foul sweat smell characteristic of boys, but overpowering that smell…… some stench was instinctively felt creeping up from the school behind the playground.
“That girl in our class, Choi Yeonseo and Lee Yeongwoo are omegas too. And I heard there are two or three omegas in Class 3 and Class 8 too. Won’t they all end up liking you?”
“What nonsense. They have eyes too.”
“Why are you covering your nose? Do I smell that bad?”
“No, it’s not you but…….”
The intensifying stench cuts off my words.
The closer I got to the school, the harder it became to breathe. The private elementary school decorated with colorful flower beds felt like a giant garbage landfill.
“Oh. It’s Lee Yeongwoo. Hey, Lee Yeongwoo!”
Then Kim Jaewook, with a soccer ball tucked under his arm, called out to a boy.
It was Lee Yeongwoo, a pretty boy with light-colored hair and short stature.
“You’re that dominant or whatever super strong omega, right!”
“Kim Jaewook. If you’re going to talk nonsense, I’m leaving.”
“No, but he became an alpha, so how is it? Does he look more handsome than before? Verify it with omega eyes.”
“Ah, you idiot. You think omegas will like any alpha? If you said that shit to Choi Yeonseo, you’d already be beat…….”
Lee Yeongwoo was kicking and pushing Kim Jaewook when he finally saw me nearby and his eyes widened.
“Baek Gunho?”
Then, as if his rough treatment of Kim Jaewook never happened, he suddenly straightened his clothes and bangs and stammered.
“W-wow! A-a-an alpha! How did you, Gunho, become an alpha? C-congratulations, I guess?”
Lee Yeongwoo was one of the classmates who enjoyed playing soccer or games with Kim Jaewook.
Then by chance, while playing soccer, I learned that he had manifested early as an omega. And not just an ordinary omega, but a being called a ‘dominant omega’ with an unusually strong temperament…… I let this fact go in one ear and out the other.
Honestly, as long as he doesn’t pull down his pants, isn’t he just a normal human like me? I deliberately thought that way and stayed friendly with him.
However.
“Y-you know, right? That I’m an omega. But they say my pheromones are especially strong, so alphas might…… ha-have a hard time. So I practiced a lot to suppress my pheromones normally! Anyway……!”
Today Lee Yeongwoo looked very different. His face flushing, and his overly conscious attitude while stammering around me.
Most of all.
“Is my scent okay?”
The smell is fuck—
“Bweeeegh.”
“Gu-Gunho?!”
“Ahhh! Baek Gunho is dying!”
And so I lost consciousness hearing the ambulance siren,
And received a VIPS syndrome diagnosis from the emergency physician.
* * *
‘……After that, things became awkward between Lee Yeongwoo and me.’
Lee Yeongwoo must have decided not to approach me considering my constitution, but anyway, until I got the medicine, I had to move to an isolated class without alphas and omegas to attend lessons. Wearing two or three masks, and constantly keeping strong-scented breath mints in my mouth.
That appearance must have looked quite shocking to my classmates. Enough that rumors even spread that I had a terminal illness.
So despite repeated warnings from my adoptive parents and teachers, rumors about me and the medicine gradually spread.
‘That medicine is a pheromone suppressor, that’s right. But now it’s a suppressor that prevents me from smelling other people’s pheromones, not my own…….’
To think my adoptive parents’ medicine that they struggled to obtain from overseas was stolen. I resolved repeatedly that next time I should carry it on my body.
“You got brought in again…….”
I blinked my eyes and looked at the familiar white ceiling.
Judging by how quiet it was around me, it seemed to be the single-patient room I often relied on.
In other words, I was brought to the hospital again this time.
“Why is the sequence exactly the same as back then.”
To think I’d feel a rejection reaction equivalent to a dominant omega from an ordinary omega in heat cycle.
There hadn’t been zero omegas hitting on me all this time, but this was the first time one had stolen my medicine bottle and tried to covet my chastity, so it sent chills down my spine.
If I had been an ordinary alpha…… I might have really done it.
Moreover, the other party was not only male but also a teenager in their mid-teens. As an uncle with a mental age in his 30s, it was truly a dizzying moment.
Who would have thought I’d benefit from this strange constitution. Goosebumps rose as I shivered, when.
“You’re awake?”
Flip, the sound of a page turning broke my reverie.
I turned my head and there was a familiar face.
He was standing with his back to the setting sun through the window so I couldn’t see his face well, but I could tell who it was just from the voice.
“……How did you come?”
“Jaewook hyung told me.”
As he closed the book and turned his head, the sunset brushed across his face.
A young boy with jet-black hair and navy blue eyes was dyed red by the sunset.
“When I chased after you, they said you were collapsed alone in a wrecked storage room.”
“Haha. Kim Jaewook has good instincts.”
Maybe it’s because of the years we spent together. He could see through my lies right away.
He must have had a hard time cleaning up. I should buy him something to eat later.
“Mom and dad said to tell you they’ll be a little late because of work.”
“Really? They’ll worry again.”
“……Worry?”
Then his voice dropped low.
“Me too.”
The boy put down the book he was holding on the bedside table with a thud, then sat on the edge of the bed where I was lying.
“I worried too.”
Then he reached his hand toward me.
“Don’t get hurt.”
His small hand gently caressed my cheek.
“Hyung.”
