Prologue.
“Hmm, you’re pregnant.”
“…Excuse me?”
But this was a scenario that hadn’t existed in any of the many hypotheticals Hae-yul had ever considered. Unable to believe what he was hearing, Hae-yul asked again, his face drained of all color, his expression blank with shock.
“You’re pregnant. It’s still early so I can’t say for certain, but it looks to be around four to five weeks along. For the exact week count, you’ll need an ultrasound to confirm——”
“P-, pregnant?”
“Yes.”
“So… I, I’m pregnant? Me?”
Hae-yul pointed at himself with his index finger and asked again.
“Yes, that’s correct. Now, for the time being, it’s important that you get plenty of rest. Eating well is equally important. For more details, you can refer to this pamphlet here. As for basic supplements——”
“Wait, wait a moment.”
At Hae-yul’s urgent voice, the doctor’s mouth — which had been rattling off the usual spiel he gave to expectant mothers — snapped shut.
“So to summarize… I’m pregnant——. Uh, meaning it’s been about a month since I… got pregnant… right?”
“Yes, that’s correct.”
“What… what is this——”
What kind of bolt from the blue was this? It felt as if all the blood in his body had turned ice cold. I’m pregnant? Me?
He’d only assumed there was something wrong with his pheromones — pregnancy had never crossed his mind. He hadn’t expected to be hearing news like this here, and his mind went completely blank. This can’t be right……. There’s no way I’m actually pregnant…….
Desperately grasping for one last shred of hope, Hae-yul asked again.
“Um, I’m only asking just in case — is there any possibility this is a misdiagnosis?”
Dr. Kim had said the doctor was highly skilled, but that didn’t mean mistakes were impossible. Or perhaps there had been an error with the testing equipment.
Hae-yul was so desperate that he found himself clinging to even such far-fetched possibilities.
“Pardon?”
At Hae-yul’s question, the doctor furrowed his brow, then calmly pushed his glasses up and answered.
“The possibility of misdiagnosis is very low, but I can’t say it’s zero.”
“Then… it could still be a misdiagnosis?”
“Yes. Well……. However, this test is known to have a 99% accuracy rate, so practically speaking, the probability of misdiagnosis is extremely low. If you’re truly worried, I can arrange for a retest.”
“…This can’t be real.”
Hae-yul lowered his gaze, touching his stomach — still flat for now. The thread-thin life he’d been living had finally reached a massive turning point. He’d been seized by the scruff of the neck by the very fate he had tried so hard to avoid.
The truth was, Hae-yul had never originally belonged here. Where he used to live, things like Alpha, Omega, and Beta designations didn’t exist. So when he’d first arrived here, he had been utterly bewildered.
But whether it was fortunate or unfortunate, Hae-yul had possessed the body of a fifteen-year-old and had been able to receive education on designations. He’d found it impossible to believe that there was a second system of classification beyond biological sex, but seven years had passed, and by now, he was used to it.
Even so…
Is there really a child in here……?
…No way. It felt like a lie. Something this absurd couldn’t possibly be happening to him.
“Pregnant…….”
He’d never actually thought he would end up pregnant. He’d thought that was something that only happened to the people here — to the people inside the novel.
Hae-yul sat there with a hollow, dazed expression, then squeezed his eyes shut. The hand that had been resting on his stomach dropped limply onto his thigh.
I’m really, truly… fucked. What am I supposed to do…….
Who could have known that the cost of going through a heat cycle and doing something he’d never done before would cut this deep? Hae-yul gripped his kneecaps tightly in his fists and let his mind drift back to the memory of that day.
- Forewarning
Hae-yul had not been in his right mind that day.
“Ugh……. W-, wait a moment——”
Through a vision blurred by the tears welling up in his eyes, Hae-yul caught sight of the man pushing into his mouth and tried to push him away. But his touch carried no strength at all, and the man simply gave a quiet laugh, as if it only tickled.
“You don’t have to rush me. You’ll feel better soon.”
And he was reading the situation completely wrong, on top of everything.
The aftermath of a heat cycle catching him completely off guard had been overwhelming. Every time the man’s tongue moved through his mouth, Hae-yul’s head pounded. Reason had vanished without a trace under the heat cycle, and in its place, a formless craving and pure instinct kept pushing Hae-yul forward.
Before he knew it, he had stopped trying to push the man away and instead wrapped his arms around the man’s firm neck, clinging to him. His vision blurred along with their tangled breaths. With each kiss the man pressed upon him, the fever that had been pounding in his skull seemed to slowly lower.
Hae-yul quietly asked the man whose name he still didn’t know.
“Your name… what is it?”
The man gave a quiet laugh at Hae-yul’s question, then whispered something.
And that was his last memory.
* * *
“Ugh…….”
When Hae-yul let out a low groan and struggled to pry his eyelids open, morning sunlight was already flooding the room. Strangely enough, his body felt unusually heavy today, and every muscle ached. It was as if every single muscle in his body was not merely screaming but outright wailing.
His dreams had been absolutely vile, too. Dreaming about tangling up in bed with some man — it was utterly horrifying.
“Goddamn heat cycle.”
Hae-yul muttered to himself in a hoarse voice and buried his face in the blanket. Then he took a deep breath.
“…What the—”
But something was off.
“Huh?”
The smell coming from the blanket was different from usual. It was a scent he had never encountered before in his life — so unfamiliar that it snapped his half-closed, sleep-defeated eyes wide open. On top of that, the blanket itself was far too soft and plush and heavy, wasn’t it?
There was no way the blanket he’d picked out — the cheapest one available at a store with a ‘GOING OUT OF BUSINESS’ banner — could be this heavy and this soft. Just a slight shift of his legs usually let in a chill that cut right to the skin.
Eyes wide with alarm, Hae-yul scrambled upright. It was quick, like a spring that had been stretched long, snapping rapidly back into place.
“Uh…….”
Hae-yul’s eyelashes fluttered as he looked frantically around.
“What the hell——”
Everything was completely unfamiliar. There wasn’t a single recognizable object.
“…Where in the world am I?”
This was not Hae-yul’s rented room. It was a space that was incomparably larger and more comfortable than his cramped goshiwon room, filled entirely with things that looked expensive. Realizing this belatedly, the color drained from Hae-yul’s face.
Could this possibly be a kidnapping?
“…Why would anyone kidnap a broke nobody like me? Who the hell would do that? This kidnapper has seriously got to be one deranged, out-of-their-mind lunatic.”
Hae-yul muttered in a tone of utter disbelief. Why on earth would someone who lived in a place like this kidnap him? The whole thing sounded absurd — yet the thought that he could never have set foot somewhere like this on his own was more dominant, and he couldn’t come up with any other explanation.
“‘Deranged, out-of-their-mind lunatic’ — a little harsh on the kidnapper, don’t you think?”
“Ack!”
Lost in his thoughts, Hae-yul let out a shriek and physically jumped where he sat at the sudden voice.
“I didn’t expect to see acrobatics before we’d even properly exchanged names. You really don’t look the type, but you’re surprisingly nimble, Ju Hae-yul.”
The corners of Hae-yul’s mouth trembled as he spotted the man leaning against the doorframe, watching him. It seemed like he was cracking some kind of joke, but Hae-yul had been too startled to catch any of it.
The man swept his cool gaze over the frightened Hae-yul, then tugged the corners of his mouth into a gentle smile. It softened his cold features somewhat. But that was beside the point. What did it matter if a kidnapper looked approachable? He’d just be an approachable-looking kidnapper.
Gripping the phone he’d felt around for under the pillow, Hae-yul watched the man warily. If it came to it, his plan was to dial emergency services and call the police. There was virtually no chance a kidnapper would give him that kind of opening — but with just a small window of opportunity, it wasn’t entirely impossible.
“Are you the kidnapper? How do you know my name? And why am I here?”
Hae-yul’s eyes were sharp as he stared the man down.
“Ju Hae-yul.”
Instead of an answer, Hae-yul’s name was called, and his brow furrowed.
“Let’s eat breakfast first, then talk.”
“…Excuse me?”
“I tend to get irritable when I miss a meal.”
“And why are you telling me that?”
Hae-yul tilted his head, unable to figure out the man’s intentions, and the man shrugged and replied.
“I’m a kidnapper, aren’t I? So if I get in a bad mood from not eating, wouldn’t that make things difficult for you — the kidnapped Ju Hae-yul?”
“What kind of threat is——”
Hae-yul made a baffled face at the man’s words, but his eyes were already calculating. It wasn’t entirely wrong, either. Based on every movie, drama, and novel he’d ever consumed, getting on a kidnapper’s bad side was never a good idea.
This is a strategic retreat in order to advance one step further.
Having reached that conclusion without much difficulty, Hae-yul sprang to his feet.
“…Ugh.”
But before he could take a single proper step, a sharp pain shot through his lower back and he pitched forward, crumpling to the floor. He landed with a soft thud right in front of the bed, and overwhelmed by the embarrassment that washed over him, Hae-yul said nothing — just silently glared a hole through the floor.
“……”
“……”
Silence fell. Hae-yul fiddled with the luxurious robe that had been put on him, swallowing hard with tension, while the man looked at him and his broad shoulders began to tremble slightly.
“…Pfft.”
…Because he was holding back laughter that was threatening to burst out.
The man’s shoulders shook for quite a while. He even went so far as to cover his mouth with one large hand. Hae-yul looked up at him, noticing something was off, and still the man was entirely preoccupied with swallowing his laughter.
“……”
Only when Hae-yul pressed his lips into a flat line and stared at him in silence did the man finally lower his hand and make some attempt at composing his expression.
“Ah, sorry about that.”
Though it was already far, far too late for that.
Shamelessly, the man apologized with a friendly smile on his face as he approached Hae-yul. Hae-yul narrowed his eyes at this warily.
“You should get up first.”
Pretending not to notice Hae-yul’s wariness, the man extended a hand as if to help him up. Hae-yul stared at the hand stretched out before him, then raised his eyes.
A pair of pitch-black irises — cold enough to feel chilling — were looking back at him. Hae-yul quietly studied the eyes that held his reflection and then abruptly turned his head away.
“I can get up on my own.”
I’m not a child. Just because I have this strange backache doesn’t mean I can’t stand up by myself.
Hiding his prickly feelings, Hae-yul let out a strained grunt and slowly pulled himself up. His legs trembled like those of a newborn calf, but at least he didn’t topple over in the undignified way he had a moment ago.
He patted at his still-stiff lower back, then realized that not only his back but also the space between his legs ached — like it had been overworked through excessive exertion. Standing still, even his backside seemed to hurt a little.
…What was it. What on earth had happened to leave his body in this state. Hae-yul decided he would find the answer in the man.
Could it be… that I was hit?
