“Don’t you know?”
“What? Know what?”
“…Never mind. I’m not Lee Minseong, I’m Oh Yeonwoo.”
“Yes.”
“…Dr. Lee Minseong is on vacation for a month, so I came as a substitute. It was decided suddenly, so I haven’t been able to change the nameplate on the examination room yet. Please understand.”
“Ah, yes.”
The doctor looked at me intently as I answered, then sighed.
“Since when have you lost your memory?”
“Ah, a little less than a month.”
“You don’t remember anything at all?”
At the doctor’s expression, I momentarily couldn’t find words to reply and smiled awkwardly. Because even though I was the one who lost my memory, they were looking at me with a more end-of-the-world expression than I had.
“Really… nothing at all?”
“Um…, I somehow understand how the world works, but I can’t remember anything about myself. Like my name, people I was close to, family. Oh, my appearance too—I found out by looking in a mirror. If I didn’t have my ID in my wallet, I wouldn’t have even known who I was.”
The doctor turned their gaze to the monitor and was silent for a while. They seemed to be pondering something deeply, but as a patient, I was quite anxious about the doctor’s attitude. Could I be in a much worse state than I thought? But wait. Did I… mention that I lost my memory?
“Um, Professor.”
The doctor, who had been looking at the monitor, shifted their gaze to me.
“Did I mention that I lost my memory?”
The doctor just looked at me silently as I asked in confusion.
“Han Yeoul, you’re a hyper-heat omega, right?”
“Ah…”
I actually didn’t know. That I was a hyper-heat omega. The only information I had was that I was pregnant, my name was Han Yeoul, and the child’s father’s name was Yoo Seonjae. The gender on my ID was just marked as ‘Omega.’
“You don’t remember, I see.”
The doctor let out a light sigh.
“Han Yeoul, you’re a hyper-heat omega. Maintaining a pregnancy as a hyper-heat omega is an incredibly difficult thing. So usually the child is lost.”
“The child is… lost?”
“Yes. But it seems you’ve protected yours. Right now, you’ve just passed five months, and considering that an omega’s pregnancy period is eight months, there’s a high probability the child can be born without problems.”
Ah… is that so? Thank goodness. I’m not sure, but seeing how my eyes are getting hot, it seems I wanted to protect the child anyway.
“However, as I mentioned, the fact that a hyper-heat omega protects a child without miscarriage requires extreme physical stress, so side effects sometimes appear.”
“Side effects?”
“Yes. Various physical symptoms appear. Some people fall into deep sleep until the child is born, while others lose bodily functions one by one.”
“Then—”
“Yes. In Han Yeoul’s case, it seems short-term memory disorder is that symptom.”
“Ah…”
Even so, it’s strange. How did the doctor know my symptoms in advance without me saying anything?
“Ah, patients with this symptom have certain characteristics. So I asked because of that, so don’t think it’s too strange.”
“Ah, yes.”
At the doctor’s words, as if reading my thoughts, I gave up asking for a reason. I didn’t think it particularly mattered. It’s not like I’ll be personally involved with this person, I just need to receive good treatment.
“There won’t be any special prescription. You can’t use medicine right now because of the child in your belly anyway.”
“Ah, then what should I do?”
The doctor seemed to ponder for a moment, then continued.
“Is your home near here?”
“No.”
“Hmm… It would be good to come to the hospital often.”
Indeed, should I move?
I had thought about it when coming to the mainland. Since I recognized the abnormality in my body, wouldn’t it be better to live somewhere with well-equipped infrastructure that could quickly resolve things if something happened?
If I had stayed on the island for a long time, I would have thought about it more, but I heard I had only stayed there for about a month. Then there was no particular reason to feel attached.
“I’m planning to move.”
“Really?”
The doctor brightened up. I felt uncomfortable at the doctor’s smiling face, thinking Is my condition so bad that they’re this happy?
“Then, let’s make it so you come in at least twice a week.”
“What? Twice?”
This is bewildering. Do I really need to come to the hospital that often? In my bank account… how much is in there? I was planning to check my account balance while I was out, but I was anxious not knowing how much I had.
“The medical fee will only be the basic examination fee. There’s no prescription, so there won’t be any additional costs.”
“Ah.”
“I’m not making things up to run a hospital business.”
“Ah, I never thought that.”
I quickly waved my hands in excuse, feeling like I’d created a misunderstanding. The doctor just smiled brightly.
This is strange.
Clearly a person I’m seeing for the first time, so why does it feel so familiar?
“Um, Professor.”
“Yes.”
“By any chance… do we know each other?”
The doctor looked at me with a gentle smile as I asked. That smiling face made my heart comfortable naturally.
“I wonder.”
An answer that was neither affirmation nor denial. But I could tell. Whatever the answer, my thoughts about this doctor wouldn’t change. Because—
“Either way, the fact that I’m someone who will help Han Yeoul remains unchanged.”
I could instinctively tell there wasn’t a single lie in his words.
I moved my residence to the mainland.
I checked how much money I had in deposits using the bank card in my wallet. It seemed I was richer than I thought. Making a mockery of my worry about what to do if I didn’t have money to live on, my bank account balance was abundant enough to last a year even if I did nothing.
Since I had money, I got a new cell phone. It’s a world where you can’t live without a cell phone. But it seems I had been living without one. There was no cell phone among my belongings on the island.
I saved Kim Yeonghyo’s number in my cell phone and informed him I was moving to the mainland.
The day before moving, Kim Yeonghyo contacted me saying he would help with the move too. In the end, I had no choice but to tell Kim Yeonghyo the truth.
“Yeonghyo, I’m sorry. The truth is, I can’t stand alpha pheromones right now.”
—Huh?
“I think it’s because of the pregnancy… so it’s a bit hard when I meet you.”
—Ah. Really?
Bewilderment was evident in Kim Yeonghyo’s voice. I didn’t feel good about answering this way to words spoken with good intentions either. No matter how much it’s because of hormones, it wouldn’t be very pleasant since I basically said your pheromone smell is difficult for me.
Nevertheless, Kim Yeonghyo said he understood and hung up, then sent his beta younger sibling with daily necessities like detergent and rolls of toilet paper.
Life on the mainland was monotonous. Since I didn’t know how long I’d stay, it was a short-term rental house. I woke up in the morning, roughly cleaned the room, ate breakfast, then put on a mask and took a walk around the neighborhood. Since it was an unfamiliar neighborhood, I wanted to familiarize myself with the geography. They also said moderate exercise was good.
[As the fetus entered a stable period, physical symptoms probably manifested. That means before that, Han Yeoul must have endured tremendous pain. You probably had difficulty moving your body.]
When the doctor said this while looking at the fetal condition via ultrasound, I felt strange. So in the end, I had traded that pain for memories. Realizing that carrying a child and bringing it into the world was such a tremendous thing that it could shake a person’s entire life—it couldn’t help but feel strange.
Since I protected the child that way, shouldn’t I take even better care of it? So it can be born well.
“What was the… pet name?”
While walking and chattering various things to the child in my belly, I suddenly realized I didn’t know the pet name. There was no way I could remember, and even when I searched through my diary, there was no record of the child’s pet name anywhere.
“Didn’t I even give you a pet name?”
I rubbed my belly and thought hard, but still nothing came to mind.
“Choco.”
At the name that suddenly popped into my head, I unconsciously muttered that name several times.
“It must have been… Choco, baby.”
I felt faint movement in my belly. Did it move after hearing the name?
“Hello, Choco.”
Just calling one name made me happy as if I had the whole world. Is this the happiness a child gives? Something felt instinctively even without remembering.
“Han Yeoul, Yoo Seonjae, Choco.”
I tried saying my husband’s name I saw in the diary together with the child’s name. Both the diary and Kim Yeonghyo said my husband was Yoo Seonjae. That it couldn’t not be him.
