“Hm? Ah, yes. Of course. It’s entirely possible. I…… if there’s anything that feels uncomfortable, please call me anytime, and with that, I’ll take my leave……”
At the man’s unruffled question, the doctor flipped his position without a second thought and turned to leave as if he couldn’t get out of there fast enough.
Pregnancy is possible……! There were still so many things he couldn’t wrap his head around, and the fact that he’d become an omega was something he couldn’t accept even more — but even so, there was one more thing he wanted to ask.
“Wait a moment!”
He stopped the doctor who was about to walk out, and asked a question he’d debated back and forth dozens of times in his head over whether to bring up.
“Is there any chance I could…… change to dominant instead?”
He’d worked up the nerve to say it, but everyone froze as if turned to stone and no one said a word. He endured the long silence and scratched his cheek awkwardly.
“I mean, they said I can’t undo becoming an omega — so since it’s come to this, I figured dominant would be better than recessive……”
At the added explanation, the man’s hunched shoulders shook as he buried his laughter in his chest, and the doctor could only sweat nervously with a troubled expression. Did I just ask an incredibly stupid question? Why is one laughing and the other one going serious?
“Since it’s a post-birth presentation, dominant is——”
“Yeah. Gangi can probably manage it.”
“Really?”
He couldn’t quite believe the man’s words as he rubbed his forearm reassuringly, so he turned to the doctor to ask again. The doctor’s expression then was far more pained than when he’d heard the original question.
“Ah…… well…… yes. Of course. We can’t say this is zero percent either.”
“What do I need to do? Take medication? Or injections? I don’t like pain…… it’s not surgery, is it?”
“Shh. That’s for later. For now, let’s focus on getting better first.”
“Yes. Please rest thoroughly for now. If needed, I can at least get you a vitamin IV drip.”
The suggestion to prioritize recovery made sense, so he gave a nod — but the man refused on his behalf.
“That’s alright.”
He couldn’t understand why the man was turning down something that was being offered. It wasn’t as though he was a child who was afraid of needles. Is it too expensive? Maybe now that his feelings have cooled, he no longer wants to open his wallet for me.
“It just doesn’t sit right with me, sticking a needle into the kid’s body. Unless it’s mine going in……”
His jaw dropped open as if it might unhinge. It was the kind of shock that felt like a bomb had gone off right above his head. He had to turn the words over in his mind several times to make sure he’d understood correctly.
He could only pray desperately that the doctor hadn’t understood what was meant by that. But perhaps an education that went on too long was to blame — one look at the doctor’s expression, already wrecked with shock, made it clear he had understood the man’s meaning perfectly.
He couldn’t bring himself to clap a hand over the man’s mouth right in front of the doctor, so instead he pulled the man’s head into his arms and buried his face against his own solar plexus. He was afraid of what might come out of that mouth next. He glared resentfully down at the man’s crown of hair, thinking that he had no idea what was going on inside his head——
Grumble——
Of all the times to send a signal! He’d have preferred no one heard it, but this was practically shouting into the man’s ear.
He tried to pretend the sound hadn’t happened, but one rumble wasn’t enough — it kept going, and in the end he had to let go of the man’s face. The face that met his again was full of amusement. That smile turned his face tomato-red.
“Our kid is pretty hungry right now. Food first.”
“Understood. Please try not to stress too much, and continue to receive the alpha’s pheromones as consistently as possible. That’s what will allow your cycle to settle into a stable rhythm. Well then.”
Face blazing red, he could only stare blankly as the doctor made a hasty exit from the hospital room.
“Is there anything Gangi wants to eat? Should we have braised short ribs?”
He was the only one who was perfectly composed.
“What did you just……”
“Braised short ribs?”
“Not that!”
What doesn’t sit right with you? What’s yours going in——?!
“Do you have a fever? Your face is red. Should I call the doctor back?”
The man, interpreting his flustered, full-body flush and huffing as a fever, moved to press the nurse call button again — and he had to stop him frantically.
“I’m fine! I’m not sick, so don’t call the doctor!”
Calling back the doctor who had just witnessed that scene was absolutely out of the question. He raised his voice in irritation, refusing to be put in another embarrassing situation — and the man’s broad shoulders drooped.
“Are you angry because you became an omega because of me?”
“It’s not that.”
He had no desire to blame and curse at him right now. He didn’t even have the mental space to decide whether becoming an omega was a good thing or a bad thing — and hadn’t the doctor just said it was a rare case? This was just something like an accident that had happened to him. Like no matter how defensively you drive, if someone crashes into you from behind, there’s no way to avoid it.
On top of that, he was the one who had chased after this Extreme Dominant Alpha, begging to be with him. And the presentation had happened after they’d already broken up…… so there was even less reason to place blame.
“Then is it because you’ve grown tired of my pheromones——”
“Ah, I told you, it’s not that!”
He’d wanted to quietly bury his slip of the tongue, but the man kept digging it up, and he shrank smaller with every pass.
“I said it felt good the whole time……”
“Hmm? You like my pheromones?”
“I’m telling you it does, how many times do I have to say it……”
He scolded the man in a voice that was fading to a murmur for asking again and again.
How many more times does he have to say it feels good before the man’s sulking goes away? This man’s pheromones genuinely made him feel like he was still in a dream. It was something like the feeling of his whole body floating and drifting on air just from the scent.
Why had it felt so indecent and damp for something that was just a fragrance. Why it had kept stoking a burning heat inside his body — those questions dissolved the moment he learned it was this man’s pheromones.
If there was anything Kang Jaeho had that didn’t make him feel flustered, the honest answer was: nothing. The striking face and superior physique, the pleasant voice, the hands that stroked him so gently, the steady gaze. He even liked the creases in this man’s clothes — that said it all. So there was no way he could resist the pheromones this alpha carried.
“Earlier was a slip of the tongue on my part. I’d always been curious about pheromones…… it seems to be even better than I imagined.”
No matter how much he’d tried to guess at the man’s scent, it had always been limited to experiences he’d already had. The perfume he’d received as a gift from him had been the entirety of his frame of reference. And sure enough, this man’s pheromones had cleared every scent he’d ever imagined or anticipated by a mile. No — they were on a different plane entirely.
If this had been just a few months ago, he would have been jumping for joy at this situation. He’d finally come to know the man’s pheromones, and he’d now acquired a secondary characteristic that suited him. He might have even dared to dream of a future with him. But right now, the fact that he’d become an omega brought him no joy whatsoever.
If only he’d presented as an omega just a little earlier. Then he could have gotten drunk on this man’s pheromones to his heart’s content and asked for what he wanted without any shame. More pheromones, more affection, constant attention, deep physical closeness — things like that.
“I’m glad Gangi likes it.”
Lost in pointless hypotheticals, he found himself already cradled in the man’s lap like a baby. He’d definitely been standing on his own two feet just a moment ago — but when exactly had this……?
The moment he registered the seamlessly shifted position, the tips of his ears went hot again. He wiggled his hips trying to pull himself free of the embarrassing position, but of course the man wasn’t about to let him go easily.
It was like a trap. The more he tensed and pushed to get free, the more firmly the encircling arms locked around him — and the moment he went limp in resignation, they eased back into a gentle hold as though nothing had happened. And on top of all that, the man was raining kisses on the side of his head, saying he was glad — which rattled him even further. It was because of himself, unable to shake him off firmly enough.
He didn’t want to blame the man, but this was all the fault of his pheromones being so irritatingly good! But what is he supposed to do about liking it? He couldn’t go crawling pathetically to an ex-boyfriend begging for just one hit of pheromones. Demanding pheromones felt too much like some kind of perverted loan shark. He’d briefly thought about trying to track down a similar pheromone somewhere — but even after all that chaos, he couldn’t find a scent that came even close, let alone matched it……
He was lost in thoughts like these, and before he knew it, intoxicated on the pheromones, he was about to wrap his arms around the man’s neck and gently rest his head on that wide chest. And then — a voice suddenly came crashing into his head like a baseball smashing through glass.
‘Pheromones are entirely unique — no two people in the world carry the same scent.’
At the same time, an image of himself surfaced — listening to top-lecturer Mangchi’s voice and writing pheromones…… are…… unique…… on the paper, circling it, and even adding a star.
The arm that had been about to wrap around the man’s neck instantly changed course and grabbed him by the collar instead. Even as creases formed in the shirt, the man only seemed curious about what was going to come out of his mouth.
“Pheromones are different for every person. No two are the same.”
“Oh, does our Gangi know about that sort of thing?”
The man stroked the back of his head fondly and rubbed his own forehead against his.
“Of course I know something like that.”
He’d only just found out recently — but knowing was knowing regardless. He’d been preening with the smugness of a child who’d received a gold star sticker, but then he snapped back to his senses, grabbed the man who had closed the distance so abruptly by the collar, and pushed him back.
“Anyway. So that means there’s no perfume with the exact same scent as this, right?”
He sniffed and inhaled this again, and fixed the man with a sharp, expectant look as he waited for an answer.
“Hmm…… probably, yes?”
“And it would be impossible for someone to secretly replicate this and have it made into a perfume — something like that?”
Anyone who had caught a whiff of this would certainly want to steal it. It was precisely that desirable a scent.
“Even if a perfumer with an exceptional level of secondary characteristic ability worked hard at it, it would be difficult to produce the same scent.”
The man matched his serious tone and gave him a serious answer.
He’d certainly been exposed to every expensive and renowned perfume out there, and none of them had come close to this man’s pheromones. Which means……
“So the one who’s been sending me clothes this whole time was you — I mean, was it you?”
“Yeah. Did you receive them alright?”
Once again composed on his own, the man denied nothing. He simply rocked him gently, patting him as though soothing a child.
He’d lost count of how many times today he’d been blindsided.
“Did I receive them alright……! You clearly said a friend gave them…… that he was off traveling the world right now……”
Of course he hadn’t actually believed such a shoddy lie. But right now, in this moment, he desperately wanted to believe it was the truth.
“Didn’t Deputy Han tell you? I’m upset you didn’t know. I picked every single one out thinking of Gangi.”
Deputy Han. Last name Han. First name Jinwoo. Title, deputy. This unfamiliar yet utterly ordinary name belonged to someone he knew all too well. The one who had come trudging in every day hauling heavy shopping bags. The one whose close friend had apparently gone off to travel the world. The son of a bitch who had lied about Director Kang being just an ordinary office worker.
“That Bulgom bastard……”
