Does Seonjae know Yeongjae hyung’s schedule inside out? Or is it just coincidence? Does Yeongjae hyung not go home? Or is this also an ability that dominant alphas have?
A world that a recessive like me, dominated by pheromones and dragged around, can’t understand.
“It hurts.”
“Where? You look fine to me.”
“No, not me, our Yeoul.”
“Right. Looks fine to me.”
When I greeted him with an awkward smile as soon as I saw Yeongjae hyung, hyung seemed to have roughly guessed the situation too. This wasn’t the first or second time this happened.
Among them, the only time I was really sick was when I manifested as an omega, just that one time. Of course, Yeongjae hyung was on emergency room duty then too.
“Hyung, don’t you have any sense of responsibility or duty as a doctor? You took the Hippocratic Oath, didn’t you?”
“What are you talking about now?”
“When a patient is brought in, you should examine them properly. What kind of situation is it to say they’re fine without even looking?”
Seonjae started openly arguing with Yeongjae hyung. Perhaps not wanting it to get noisy, Yeongjae hyung examined me lying on the bed where Seonjae had laid me, looked at this and that, then nodded.
Right. Well, there’s no way there’s a problem, and of course there’s nowhere that hurts.
“Yoo Seonjae. But did you hear or not hear what I told you the other day to stop by the Trait Medicine Department and get your suppressors?”
“Huh?”
“Even if hyung is a doctor at your university hospital, I can’t pick up your medicine for you. Don’t be complacent just because you’re dominant.”
“Ah! Ah, I got it! I can just go and come back.”
Seonjae grumbled and couldn’t take his eyes off me, then reluctantly moved his steps. Yeongjae hyung, who had been watching his retreating figure, turned his head to look down at me and sighed.
“Why are you two so loud?”
“I’m sorry, hyung.”
“No. Well, you have nothing to be sorry to me about, but are you still not eating breakfast these days?”
“Ah…”
Seonjae must have rattled off my eating habits to Yeongjae hyung. Whether to show off that he has a doctor hyung or something, he rattles off my lifestyle habits asking if this is okay, if that’s okay, to the point where I don’t know if I’m cohabiting with my boyfriend or cohabiting with my mom.
“Well…”
“Eat even simple things. You’ll collapse from anemia like this. You already have a weak body and you’re recessive on top of that.”
“…Yes.”
Recessive on top of that.
He probably said it without much thought, but it hurts a bit today. It’s not like I wanted to be born recessive either.
Actually, though Seonjae is a bit unusual, saying I have a weak body isn’t entirely wrong, so I just smiled at Yeongjae hyung’s words. Even so, it’s not like I have a chronic illness or anything. Just… my heat cycles come on a bit strong?
“Tell Seonjae to at least make you breakfast in the morning.”
“Haha, hyung. How can I ask Seonjae to do that? And you know I don’t eat well in the morning because my stomach feels upset.”
“Why can’t you tell Seonjae? That kid has five cooking licenses. He got all of them to feed you.”
At Yeongjae hyung’s words spoken with an indifferent face while inserting an IV needle into my arm, I had nothing to say. It was true. Seonjae has cooking skills in Korean, Chinese, Western, Japanese cuisine, and even baking to the point where he could be put to work in a restaurant right now—no, to the point where he could open a restaurant as an owner chef without any problem.
I also know that’s all because of me.
I’ve had a small appetite since childhood and don’t particularly like eating, but one time when I said “I’m not really interested in eating,” as a result of him making a fuss saying I’d lost one of life’s pleasures and he’d find my lost sense of taste.
And then he says I taste the best. So of course I’m incredulous.
“I’m grateful you’re living with Yoo Seonjae and his nasty temper, but tell him if it continues like this, I’ll be in trouble too, Yeoul.”
“Aw, hyung. What nasty temper does Seonjae have? Where else can you find a kid as nice as Seonjae?”
At my words spoken with a laugh, Yeongjae hyung sighed with his still expressionless face and pushed up the glasses he was wearing.
“I guess you two are soulmates. I put in a vitamin shot, so leave when you’re done. You don’t need to say goodbye.”
Though it was Yeongjae hyung’s retreating figure walking away trudgingly, his steps were fast enough not to be ignored. As if trying to leave before Seonjae returned.
…Though he’s always like that, Yeongjae hyung is even colder today.
Until we finished the vitamin shot and left, Seonjae didn’t say a single word about Yeongjae hyung. When we were young, the brothers didn’t seem to be this awkward with each other.
Actually, thanks to Seonjae drenching me with pheromones in front of Kim Yeonghyo that day, I wanted to “eat” him in the evening as he said, but because of Seonjae who was convinced I was sick somewhere, we slept in our own rooms.
Well… my body wasn’t particularly heated up, but I didn’t feel particularly good either.
I thought about knocking on Seonjae’s room first, but in his own way he was being considerate of me, so I didn’t want to hurt his feelings, so I gave up.
I just comforted myself a bit before sleeping with him as a side dish. Well, I thought that much was okay.
“Good morning, baby.”
Thanks to that, I was able to greet Seonjae with a refreshed face in the morning. He didn’t look particularly well though.
Seonjae’s complexion was so pale that I wondered if he was the one who was sick, not me.
“Seonjae, baby, what’s wrong with your face?”
“Ah… it’s nothing.”
“It’s not nothing. Your complexion is really bad.”
I placed my hand on his forehead. He doesn’t have a fever though…
Suddenly Seonjae pulled me into an embrace. His pheromones came rushing over me and I stopped breathing for a moment.
“S-Seonjae, why.”
“Just a moment… let’s just stay like this for a moment, Yeoul.”
Seonjae really didn’t do anything while holding me as he said. He just held me like that and stood still, inhaling my scent.
Come to think of it, he was always like that.
On days when I was busy with something in the morning, no matter how heated his body got, he didn’t hold me.
We knew each other well. Once the fire started, it didn’t matter whether it was morning or night. We had to hold each other again and again before it ended. So mornings were dangerous.
Sometimes I’m amazed at Seonjae’s patience. If it were me, I absolutely couldn’t endure that much. How is that possible? Can dominant alphas do that too?
It seems to be a world that a recessive like me, dominated by pheromones and dragged around, can’t understand.
Anyway, I had something important today too.
I never thought the day would come when I would have an ‘interview,’ so when I first said I was doing job hunting activities, Seonjae looked at me with a flustered face.
“Why bother?”
“What do you mean why? I have to work after graduating from university.”
“No, Yeoul. You’re going to marry me.”
“Yeah.”
“So why work?”
I was even more incredulous at Seonjae speaking to me with such an old-fashioned idea. No, do people not work just because they get married? Besides, I won’t have children anyway, so then what should I do all day at home without Seonjae?
I had even less interest in studying.
I thought that going all the way to university meant I’d studied enough. I really wanted to go out into ‘society’ and live rubbing shoulders with many people. Like Dad does.
Actually, if I said I’d work at Dad’s company or Seonjae’s company, they would accept me without a moment’s hesitation. But that’s not what I want. I really wanted to get ’employed’ on my own.
Besides, it’s a furniture company.
I wasn’t really interested in making and selling furniture. Seonjae would take care of that anyway, so I wanted to do something a bit different.
So what I chose was patent attorney.
It was far from creative work, but I liked looking into other people’s ideas, so it was a profession I chose, and the more I thought about it, it seemed like it would secretly suit my aptitude well.
Because it was said to be a difficult exam, I allowed a long exam period, but getting the certification didn’t take as long as I thought. I wanted to surprise Seonjae too, so I didn’t tell him until I got the certification.
