While washing his hands, Hyowoo stared at his own face in the mirror.
‘Did I really gain some weight?’
He lightly shook off the water from his hands and pressed his cheeks firmly with his fingertips.
‘It feels like the softness has improved compared to before, but maybe not.’
The reason he was suddenly checking the state of his cheeks in the university hospital bathroom was because he’d heard from three people just today alone that his face looked better.
It started with his mother.
When he woke up late and was blankly spreading strawberry jam on toast, his mother, who was drinking coffee across from him, stared at his face intently. When he asked if he had something on his face, she said no and smiled brightly.
“Today especially, my son’s face is white and pretty like a full moon.”
“What?”
“Your expression has brightened too, and you look more lively. You really look good these days.”
He was a bit dazed by the sudden comment, but thinking his mother was simply in a good mood, he brushed it off as nothing. However, he heard the same thing at the university hospital where he went for his regular checkup in the afternoon.
Unlike Alphas or Betas, Omegas had to regularly undergo hormone tests in addition to health checkups.
It was generally common to receive them once every one to two years, but Hyowoo, who had a Peculiar Constitution, received them at six-month intervals.
The doctor in charge of his health checkups was a family medicine specialist who was his father’s junior from university. He was someone who knew about Hyowoo’s peculiar constitution and past incident.
Meeting him for the first time in half a year since receiving a checkup in January this year, he told Hyowoo as soon as he saw his face that his complexion had improved.
“Even at a glance, it’s obvious that you’ve become healthier. Your weight has also increased compared to last time.”
He was very pleased to see with his own eyes that his physical condition, which had only been worsening until now, had improved.
Lastly, the person who said his face looked better was his psychiatrist.
Hyowoo was still continuing treatment for PTSD and depression. Now it was about once a month, but until last year, he visited the hospital almost every week.
At one time, not only himself but his entire family received psychiatric treatment.
After that incident, his father, older sister, and Gyeonwoo had to receive counseling treatment for about two years. He knew that his mother still took sleeping pills and occasionally received counseling.
“Oh my, Student Hyowoo, your face looks much better.”
During the five and a half years he’d been receiving treatment, today was the first time he’d heard such words from his psychiatrist.
“Your expression has brightened a lot too. Did something good happen?”
At the words that there must have been some positive change, Hyowoo just smiled as if he didn’t know.
‘Did I really change that much? No matter how much I look, I can’t tell…’
No matter how much he looked, to his own eyes it was just the same face he always saw. He didn’t feel any change at all.
‘Even if I don’t know about my face, at least my physical condition has improved.’
The first change that occurred was ‘appetite.’
After manifesting as an Omega, Hyowoo had continuously taken strong suppressants, and it had been a long time since he’d lost his appetite due to the side effects.
It got worse after that incident. Skipping meals for a day or two was routine, and he only consumed the minimum nutrition necessary to preserve his life.
Even when he was hungry, his daily routine was to roughly satisfy his hunger with chocolate or coffee, but these days, even when he wasn’t hungry, he suddenly craved something.
Next, the number of times he had nightmares decreased.
There were many days when he slept soundly without waking up in the middle. The terrible memories of the past that suddenly came to mind, flashbacks or panic attacks, had hardly occurred in the past few months.
‘Did I start getting better like this… after meeting that person?’
Thanks to his family’s devoted care and long treatment, Hyowoo had recovered enough to barely continue with daily life, but he couldn’t return to when he was in full health.
His physical condition, which he thought wouldn’t improve anymore. His body and mind, broken beyond repair, were gradually healing as he met Seohee.
He wiped off the remaining moisture with a hand towel and left the bathroom.
With this, all of today’s long examinations and tests were finished. As he left the hospital’s main entrance, stinging hot sunlight poured down on his skin. He really felt that summer had finally arrived.
On the way to the subway station, a large electronic billboard caught his eye.
An advertisement video for L Company’s smartphone featuring Seohee as the advertising model was playing.
Three weeks ago, FCC set a record of five titles in a season along with achieving the Treble. Seohee, who displayed the best performance throughout the season and scored the winning goal in the final match, won his second ‘PFA Player of the Year Award’ in his life.
After the season ended, all of Korea’s attention and spotlight was focused on him.
All the media gave major coverage about him, who had set a new record in European football history beyond England, and dozens of requests for broadcast appearances poured in.
However, he still declined broadcast appearances or direct interviews, and only responded to written interviews.
Having finished all his season schedules, he was currently resting at his London residence. Thanks to Hyowoo also finishing his second exam and entering summer vacation, the two of them were in contact almost every day.
Now he was scheduled to enter Korea in two days, and they had even made an appointment to meet this weekend.
**Seohee**
**We’ll be seeing each other soon**
**Is there any place you especially want to go?**
**Think about what you want to eat too**
**I’m fine with anywhere**
**I eat anything well**
**Player Seohee, please decide**
**Seohee**
**Somehow that feels a bit burdensome?**
**I’ll be looking forward to you taking me to a good place**
**Seohee**
**ㅋㅋㅋ I’ll try to live up to your expectations!**
Boarding the subway, Hyowoo read the conversation he’d had with him yesterday over and over again.
While unable to hide his excited feelings that they could meet in just a few days, on the other hand, loneliness washed over him.
‘On the day this person’s vacation ends and he returns to England, I should tell him to break up…’
There wasn’t much time left to meet with him.
Thinking that made his heart feel heavy.
* * *
Arriving at the cafe on time for the appointment, Hyowoo looked around inside the shop.
Woosung and Gyeonwoo didn’t seem to have arrived yet, as he couldn’t see them no matter how much he looked around.
When he went outside and sent a message that he’d arrived, soon a reply came from his younger brother saying he’d be a little late. His friend either hadn’t seen the message or there was no response.
He put his cell phone in his pocket and leaned against the cafe wall, blankly watching the people passing by.
His head became complicated about what to say when he saw Woosung.
‘Woosung knows everything that happened to me… Will I even be able to speak properly…?’
He gradually became afraid of facing him itself. He resented his younger brother for being late on a day like this for no reason.
As various thoughts tangled, sweat flowed down the back of his neck. If he kept standing like this, his clothes would get completely soaked.
‘Let’s just go in and wait.’
Thinking it would be better to secure a seat before becoming drenched in sweat, it was just when he was about to head straight to the entrance.
“Ji Hyowoo.”
At the familiar voice heard from behind, he slowly turned his head.
“Did you come out unnecessarily early again?”
A man with neat facial features and a handsome face, but somehow a prickly impression, approached with large strides.
Coming right up to him, he slightly furrowed his brow.
“It’s hot, so you should wait inside. Why are you doing this outside? So frustrating.”
“…Woosung-ah.”
It was Lee Woosung, the childhood friend he’d so desperately wanted to see.
“It’s been a while. Have you been well?”
“Yeah. Have you been well too?”
Woosung responded casually as if they’d met yesterday.
“Do you think I’d be doing well when I’m attending graduate school, which is where college students go when they commit a sin? I’m doing terribly awful.”
The meeting after several years was anticlimactic. His blunt voice and crooked way of speaking were unchanged.
“Let’s talk inside. It’s hot as hell, damn it.”
When Woosung entered the cafe first, Hyowoo silently followed behind him.
The two people who received their ordered drinks at the self-service counter sat facing each other at a table next to the glass window where the outside was clearly visible.
“Where’s Gyeonwoo? Wasn’t he coming with you?”
“He said he’s stopping by somewhere and will be a little late.”
“That bastard, hasn’t he fixed his bad habit of not keeping appointment times? How old is he and still like that?”
Even though it was a way of speaking full of complaints and studded with thorns, no malice was felt at all. Perhaps because it was Woosung who had always bickered with Gyeonwoo since childhood, this fierce way of speaking was rather welcome.
“Was last weekend the second exam? Did it go well?”
“Yeah, so-so.”
“I never thought you’d major in accounting. Why did you change your career path?”
From before, Hyowoo had always talked about becoming a doctor following in his father’s footsteps. Even right before the college entrance exam in his senior year of high school, he’d aspired to pre-medicine. It wasn’t unreasonable for Woosung to be curious that such a Hyowoo had taken the CPA exam.
“Just, it happened that way.”
When his condition had barely stabilized and he prepared for college entrance late, it wasn’t that he hadn’t thought about pre-medicine at all. However, he didn’t have the confidence to endure the long journey of going through pre-medicine for six years, internship, residency, and the specialist course, in the space called medical school that was crawling with Alphas.
And most of all, he wanted to get a job as soon as possible to relieve his parents’ burden and worries.
‘We met after a long time, I don’t want to talk about such heavy things.’
Watching Hyowoo stammering his answer while smiling even more awkwardly, Woosung made a dissatisfied expression. Nevertheless, fortunately he didn’t ask more.
“Anyway. That bastard Gyeonwoo is attending law school? The Korean legal profession will run really well.”
“Hey, what’s wrong with Gyeonwoo?”
“What kind of law school for a guy who says laws exist to be broken? What’s he going to do? Lawyer?”
“No, prosecutor.”
“I’ll see the Prosecutor’s Office collapse within 10 years.”
At his unrestrained words, Hyowoo burst into a small laugh.
It was just when he was about to feel relieved at his friend who hadn’t changed at all. Woosung threw out the question he’d been holding back.
“Are you okay now, physically?”
