“I-I didn’t really do anything major. Chairwoman.”
I smiled awkwardly and showed modesty, but I knew it wouldn’t work. Baek Sahyun’s condition, which had noticeably improved these days. I couldn’t completely deny that the credit for that was mine.
Since the day we finished our first date, I had no choice but to stick with Baek Sahyun for about half of each day. It was because, along with the insistence that we had to date sweetly enough to make others jealous, one proposal—a command in the form of a proposal—came down.
“You know what, Woohyun-ah? To build the foundation of a faithful marital relationship, you have to hug at least once a day. Because you need to hear each other’s heartbeats.”
“…You didn’t make that up, did you?”
“If I made it up, I wouldn’t have stopped at just the level of hugging. There are so many ways to get you pregnant right away, so why would I bother progressing by the book?”
Baek Sahyun acted coquettishly while looking disgustingly at my abdomen. Even if he looked at it like that, all that was inside was the sandwich I left uneaten yesterday, but he was truly serious about playing house.
“…But, do we really need to do all that?”
I asked, suddenly feeling doubtful. If we started following everything the book told us to do exactly, I felt like we could compile a list of at least about 1,000 things. What to choose from among them and what to implement was entirely left to Baek Sahyun’s judgment. So I just didn’t want to do everything.
Baek Sahyun asked as if puzzled.
“Why? There’s nothing bad about following expert opinions.”
“That’s not it…, you said let’s try dating for 100 days. Then shouldn’t we just date normally first? That seems much better than being swayed by what others say while looking up books. If we do that, we’ll naturally be able to have a child like other couples. Let’s go by the book.”
Baek Sahyun, who was uncharacteristically listening to my story, let out a hmm, an annoyed sigh, and soon pulled my arm. While resisting by putting strength in my legs so as not to be dragged, I persuaded him.
“Think carefully. Wouldn’t it be better to go around on dates we decide ourselves, not what the book decided for us? Date at the theater like that time is good too. It’s much more romantic.”
Then Baek Sahyun showed signs of contemplation and answered.
“Then we’d have to make a baby right away.”
“…Stop talking nonsense.”
“Mm, I don’t know. I don’t know because I haven’t dated. Woohyun-ah, have you dated a lot?”
“Hmm, a bit?”
I deliberately lied. In fact, I had no experience even having a fling, let alone a girlfriend, but I felt like this way I could gain at least a little initiative.
But I had already confessed in front of Baek Sahyun that I was a virgin who had never dated once.
“You said you were too busy making a living to meet women. Don’t tell me you lied to me?”
The moment my spine went cold and I froze still, Baek Sahyun strangely handed over the decision-making power. When he whispered to tell him the method, I swallowed dry saliva and answered.
“Then first….”
“Yeah.”
“Stop taking your medicine.”
When I finished firmly, Baek Sahyun raised his eyebrows. I emphasized once more.
“Don’t take it. That medicine.”
The medicine referred to the pheromone stabilizer that Baek Sahyun took after meals every day.
When I was an outsider, I thought it was a vitamin or health supplement or something, but recently, after being together all day, I learned that it was pheromone medicine.
After hearing that he had taken the medicine every single day since childhood according to his attending physician’s prescription, I sent a picture of that medicine to Nam Heedo just in case.
Nam Heedo, who called a while later, explained.
[Pheromone stabilizers sold on the market may be called stabilizers, but in the end they’re suppressants. They confuse the cells and delay the pheromone cycle. Incidentally, they also make you less reactive to surrounding pheromones. Still, in fact, if you take them periodically, there’s bound to be negative effects.]
“……”
[The side effects are varied. Not only does it mess up the rut cycle, but depression, nervous breakdown, anger control disorder, lethargy, azoospermia, decreased libido….]
Suddenly I felt like my head was clearing up. Baek Sahyun’s behaviors of being on edge over trivial things, showing obsessive symptoms, getting angry and then suddenly becoming docile repeatedly. I couldn’t help but speculate that the stabilizer contributed to that capricious personality.
[It would be difficult to stop immediately, but you can gradually reduce the medicine. It would be good to find a lover or partner who can release the suppressed pheromones.]
“……”
[Of course, if the partner is an omega, they’ll die, but. A beta would be perfect. They could receive a dominant alpha’s pheromones without batting an eye.]
I decided to follow Nam Heedo’s advice. He would soon have to become a proper father, so if we treated the suppressant side effects from now on, wouldn’t it be good for everyone? Azoospermia and decreased libido were things that made men experience despair as men, but depression and nervous breakdown and such were things that made life really difficult not just in terms of masculine identity but as a human being.
So I had told Baek Sahyun.
“Actually, I asked Heedo hyung, and that medicine is dangerous. So stop taking it, and instead just do it with me.”
“…What?”
“Skinship and stuff. To stop the medicine, you need somewhere to release your pheromones first. Release them to me. Your pheromones.”
Since I could regularly covet Baek Sahyun’s lips, it was a deal with no loss for me either. Baek Sahyun laughed and refused, saying wasn’t I being too transparent, but when I suddenly headbutted him with my lips, he reversed his refusal.
“Woohyun-ah. From next time, kiss my cheek too.”
As a result, we had reached the present where we started kissing with a set daily quota.
Chairwoman Baek dug into the lengthened reverie.
“This all seems to be thanks to Heejae-gun.”
“No, I really….”
“I heard he even stopped taking the medicine? Right. But just in case, please don’t misunderstand that I forced him to take the medicine. I only recommended it according to the attending physician’s opinion, I never forced it. Rather, after he passed puberty, I was in a position of stopping him, but that guy Sahyun stubbornly sought it out and took it. There was no other way for me. Who could break that kid’s bull-headedness? So even now I don’t completely believe that Heejae-gun succeeded. I’m truly grateful from a mother’s standpoint, though.”
The Chairwoman continuously conveyed her gratitude. It was so burdensome I didn’t know what to do with myself. Although there was also the purpose of correcting Baek Sahyun, honestly it was also for my own pleasure, so I felt the praise was too excessive. It was while I was receiving the continuing shower of praise with mixed feelings.
“Come in.”
The Chairwoman snapped her fingers with a click-click sound. With a slide, the sliding door opened and a woman with a neat side-parted hairstyle walked in. That woman, presumed to be a secretary, placed a box down on the table with a thud.
I flinched and trembled when I saw the contents. It was a large quantity of injections.
“Since the foundation seems to be laid, we should properly implement the contract, right? Originally I was going to watch over you, but there’s no sign of any progress at all. I’ll intervene just this once.”
It was the moment the Chairwoman’s tone became businesslike.
“Did something good happen lately? Your fortune looks bright.”
“M-me? Are you talking to me?”
“When I said that, guess what Sahyun said?”
The Chairwoman, who started a conversation close to a monologue, gestured lightly toward the secretary. A syringe was immediately grasped in her hand.
“Does it show that much?”
“……”
“It’s because I’m dating, Mom. Because I found someone I like.”
“……”
“I don’t know how long it’s been since that kid called me Mom. Once, he got scolded for telling my spouse on the family register not to use the word Mom. Since then, he started calling even me Chairwoman, Chairwoman…, honestly I was a bit hurt. It felt like my son was turning his back on me.”
With a face full of mixed emotions, the Chairwoman stabbed the sharp needle deeply into the medicine vial.
In sync with that, a pounding pulse rang in my ears. Naturally, it was the sound coming from near my heart. If my prediction wasn’t wrong, that would definitely be an “omega manifestation drug.” The moment that needle pierces through a blood vessel, I would irreversibly enter the process of becoming a breeding stallion.
“So I couldn’t be happier these days. Because it seems that kid has finally gotten on a normal track.”
With a merciless touch that didn’t match her affectionate smile, the Chairwoman pulled the plunger. The transparent solution was absorbed inward while creating bubbles.
Soon her straight fingers tapped the syringe. The viscous solution flowed down drop by drop along the needle tip. The Chairwoman, who scanned that scene with satisfaction, shifted her gaze to me.
“But you know, Heejae-gun. It seems like there’s something Heejae-gun forgot. Want to guess?”
At that moment, I felt a sense of crisis as if standing facing the muzzle of a gun. I tried to rack my brain to avoid disaster, but in a state crushed by the Chairwoman’s force, I couldn’t reach any conclusion.
As I remained blank like a blank sheet of paper, the Chairwoman leaned back and straightened her waist.
“Playing house with Sahyun is good. It’s good for both of you to build memories of your youth.”
“……”
“But I hope it was a memory that would end in one season. You know, right? That Sahyun is in a position where he shouldn’t recklessly fool around.”
“……”
“You understood what I mean, right?”
The Chairwoman pressed me while slowly closing and opening her eyes. Her deep, dark eyes resembled someone exactly. Yes, I know. That guy needs to get a rabbit-like omega wife and play the role of the household pillar, doesn’t he? I knew I should answer like that, but my mouth wouldn’t readily open.
In the midst of all this, the sharp needle continued to pressure me.
“If you understand, at least nod your head, Heejae-gun.”
Forcibly pulling up my reason that had been eroded by fear, I straightened my posture. After clearing my throat loudly once, I looked at the Chairwoman’s face. The hesitation was brief.
“Chairwoman. I’m sorry, but it seems there was some misunderstanding.”
“Mm?”
“Sahyun and I…, are not dating.”
With both hands politely on my knees, I firmly drew a line.
