Not long after we decided on marriage, Jeong Dawon told me. That she was actually not a dominant omega.
“My pheromones are faint, you know. Couldn’t you guess? I’m recessive.”
“Not all dominants go around armed with pheromones.”
“I know that. But…… people around here would have heard a lot of rumors. That I’m a recessive omega. Well, it’s not a rumor but a fact, but officially I’m a dominant omega.”
“Deceiving your manifestation type is a crime.”
“To be precise, I didn’t deceive my manifestation type. First of all, I am an omega. Whether I’m dominant or recessive is the next question. There hasn’t been a ruling yet that that’s illegal, I don’t even know if anyone has ever sued about it. This is just a moral issue. Though for me it was a matter of my life being at stake.”
And it’s not like I lied because I wanted to. Jeong Dawon sighed. After getting engaged, Jeong Dawon stopped forcing herself to smile at me.
“My grandfather is a bit old-fashioned, so he worships alphas. The reason he has a favorable impression of you is also because you’re a dominant alpha. My grandfather, who is closer to a beta compared to you, was unexpectedly overjoyed when his first grandson from his youngest son was born as a dominant alpha. I’m talking about my oppa.”
“……”
“But the next one born, me, was a recessive omega. What could I do when my grandfather, who reigns over the family, didn’t like me? It’s obvious as day how I grew up. My oppa was like a gold nameplate to hang on the main gate for Grandfather, and I was an ugly nail stuck in the nameplate. I disguised recessive as dominant to try to hide the nail a bit, but what use is that?”
“When you say I’m your escape route, does that mean you want to leave the family?”
“If it were just that, even though it’s detestable, I could have endured it. I had breathing room thanks to my oppa who was born smart and kind under such a grandfather, and who even felt guilty toward me. But a few years ago, I met Haeun.”
Lee Haeun. It was the name of Jeong Dawon’s lover.
“You know what? Haeun is a beta.”
“……!”
“That’s right, you can guess what my grandfather’s reaction was, right? If it weren’t for my oppa, I would have been beaten to death that day.”
“Then……”
“If I say I’ll marry you and buy time, my oppa will prepare a way out. Then I’ll divorce you and run away with Haeun on that path. I want to go somewhere my grandfather will never find us and become a family. With Haeun.”
“I don’t think your grandfather will just sit back and watch us divorce.”
“He will end up just sitting back and watching.”
“You have something prepared.”
“It’s something that should have been done a long time ago. Until then, my oppa will raise you up. There will be a lot of talk behind your back, but you’ll be able to grow the fastest and most surely, so endure it. Because Grandfather worshiped dominant alphas so much, even though my oppa isn’t the eldest son of the family, he received successor training from around age eight when he manifested. There will be a lot to learn.”
While listening to Jeong Dawon’s story, I thought of Chiwon. Chiwon, who spent a hellish middle school period because he was an omega.
“Do you hate alphas, or feel inferior…… doesn’t that happen?”
“Why? I’m not inferior. Well, I do hate Grandfather though. Isn’t that natural?”
Saying that, Jeong Dawon drank her coffee. Even after acknowledging that being an omega was part of him, Chiwon would sometimes look at me with distant eyes. What should I have done?
How could I get Chiwon to stand by my side? The pain I had grown accustomed to resonated inside my chest.
Dawon-ssi’s oppa, Dabin hyung was quite a talkative and cheerful person. He was completely different from the cynical Dawon-ssi, but the two got along quite well. The only time Dabin hyung was quiet was the first and last time we met at the cafe.
After marriage, I spent more time with Dabin hyung than with Dawon-ssi. Because it only took half a year from engagement to marriage, everyone was shocked when Dabin hyung suddenly sat me down in the seat next to him, but given his personality and the fact that he originally brought people from here and there suddenly, and since I was his brother-in-law, everyone made faces like “that figures.” Gossip behind my back, hazing, checking, all kinds of glares poured down, but all I could do was endure.
Dawon-ssi’s words that hyung was smart were true. Hyung knew exactly how much a person could take on, and made me pour everything except sleeping time into work. When I felt like I had gotten the hang of things a bit, he’d pile on new work, and when I’d barely finish it all, he’d throw new work at me again. It was hard, but this was an opportunity. So I clung to it desperately. To me like that, hyung laughed saying I was the second toughest bastard he’d seen in his life.
Dawon-ssi and I became people who only greeted each other morning and evening and talked very occasionally. When one of us went into heat, the other would leave, and when I used overtime as an excuse to stay at the company, Lee Haeun-ssi would secretly come to the house, and during my rut, Dawon-ssi would go out saying she was traveling. My ruts came very rarely, so there was no suspicion from the family that she was traveling too often. When I was stuck at home during rut pouring out pheromones, I thought of Chiwon. They said that even with imaginary imprinting, because the pheromones really feel like you’ve imprinted, the heat cycle also comes to match the other person. Then right now Chiwon must be experiencing heat.
Would he be okay? Would there be any dangerous situations? When Chiwon attended Haebam High School, there was a time he took two days off. I vaguely knew it was because of heat. When Chiwon returned to school, he somehow looked very exhausted.
Might it be like that now too? He must have become much more of an adult, but if he’s still bound by the fact that he’s an omega and hurting.
Even as my heart gradually cooled, my body endlessly heated up. My tear ducts that had become noticeably looser unfailingly poured out tears.
Thanks to working like crazy under Dabin hyung, enough money accumulated to use as independence funds later even after making donations. So I steadily sent a portion to orphanages as I had always done. To Haebam Orphanage, and also to other orphanages. When I looked at the children, I thought of Chiwon and couldn’t bear it.
And about half a year after getting married, I met a baby.
They said it was a baby who had been abandoned right after birth and brought to the orphanage. I knew there were quite a few children like this, but it was the first time I actually saw one. If the orphanage hadn’t called me saying there was something to discuss regarding donation funds, I would never have seen him.
“This is one of the children I mentioned. Our orphanage has a very young age range. The sponsor said to use it as support funds for children leaving the facility, but if it’s okay, for newborn babies too…… Sponsor-nim?”
“……This child, did someone come and leave him?”
“They didn’t exactly leave him, but it’s similar. One morning when we went outside, he was in a basket. Together with a note that only had his name and birthday written on it.”
“……”
He was left there. Together with a note that only had his name and age written on it.
It was inevitable that I would think of Chiwon.
I couldn’t change Chiwon’s life now that we’re here…… but this child was still only one year old. Couldn’t someone have saved Chiwon like this too? The baby had the sweet milk scent that came from Chiwon.
You could call it compensatory psychology. The very next moment, papers with adoption procedures written on them were in my hands.
Adopting a child wasn’t in our plan. Dawon-ssi, who didn’t want to leave any connection to the marriage, naturally got angry. But I couldn’t back down either. My heart pounded.
“The family is pressuring you right now, you know. Asking if there’s no news of a child.”
“……”
“If you need to buy time anyway, this will be a good excuse to block the successor pressure on you too.”
“You’re saying to bring a child using him as an excuse? Such an irresponsible-.”
“You said you were ready to willingly use another person’s life.”
“……”
“Use us. Me and the child both. If you wanted to be a bad person, don’t act half-heartedly. I’ll take the child after the divorce, so you don’t need to worry.”
After hearing my words, Dawon-ssi, who had been silent for a while, covered her face and cried.
“To you, I’m a bad person.”
I didn’t say anything. And Dawon-ssi didn’t ask me anything after that either. Not the reason I suddenly decided to bring a child, nor the reason I named the child ‘Jiwon,’ nothing.
The Chairman heard that we had decided to adopt and got furiously angry. But when I didn’t back down, he changed direction and tied together child sponsorship business and Woosung Corporation’s image to make big news. In an interview I don’t know when he did, there was also my past story. ‘He probably wanted to lighten the burden he carried in the past, even a little.’ Seeing those words, Dawon-ssi and Dabin hyung were furious saying it was rude and thoughtless, but I felt no emotion. Because it was true.
That’s how I got a son.
Dawon-ssi was uncomfortable with the child. Because the child was my responsibility, I didn’t say anything even when Dawon-ssi kept her distance from the child. I took parental leave and began learning how to live with the child. But for me, who had never had a young child nearby, I was far from adequate. When I didn’t know what to do for the crying child, I learned for the first time that my vision goes dark and the ground caves in beneath my feet. After desperately realizing I needed someone to teach me and asking Dabin hyung to find a trustworthy babysitter, I could finally breathe a little.
I stretched out my parental leave for nearly a year, and even after returning to the company, I brought work home to handle as much as possible. Days passed hectically. Dabin hyung rather than Dawon-ssi liked Jiwon more, and even though he was a person who lived dividing time by the minute, he would come to our house whenever he had a moment and look at Jiwon before leaving. On the day Jiwon first walked, hyung cried and opened his precious wine.
Divorce preparations proceeded step by step. While the family’s attention was focused on Jiwon, Dawon-ssi and Dabin hyung accelerated preparations to carry out the divorce announcement, divorce, and escape abroad without delay. And three years after getting married, when the time came for me to stand alone, we set things in motion as if we had been waiting.
