“I got a bit hurt… trying to keep you from getting hurt……”
Hearing that he was hurt, Hyowoo collapsed in despair.
“H-hurt? Where… h-how badly?”
“Just… my arm a bit……”
He had decided to tell the truth, but the words wouldn’t come out.
While Hyowoo, whose fever was still burning even after receiving the suppressant injection, was being moved to the hospital, Lee Seohee was also transported to another large general hospital with his manager and underwent emergency surgery.
‘How can I tell someone who just barely regained consciousness that the person endured by biting into his own flesh……’
Lee Seohee had also called Gyeonwoo before leaving for London and earnestly asked him not to tell his hyung.
“Don’t tell hyung about my arm.”
“Even if I wanted to, it’s already chaos with news of player Lee Seohee’s injury. It’ll be exposed immediately just by searching. I can’t hide it even if I want to.”
Less than an hour after he arrived at the emergency room, news of Lee Seohee’s surgery spread around the world through domestic and international media in an instant.
In the end, he forced his departure less than half a day after completing the surgery. It was a choice to prevent the injury news from being distorted or the media from digging into this matter and causing harm to Hyowoo.
Despite the medical staff’s dissuasion that he should rest in the hospital for at least two days, Lee Seohee was secretly discharged. Thanks to heading straight to the airport, he was able to shake off most of the reporters.
After that, only a short official statement was delivered to each media outlet: ‘Due to an unexpected accident, his departure was moved up, and he will focus on recovering his condition while undergoing treatment and rehabilitation in England.’ There was no mention of the circumstances or condition of the injury at all.
“The articles and news didn’t say where or how I was injured, so it should be okay. Even if he finds out later… for now, please keep it a secret. I’m asking you.”
Gyeonwoo felt uncomfortable hiding such a big matter from Hyowoo, but he answered that he would do so.
Because it was better to hide it than to shock his hyung.
“How is hyung doing? Is he still unconscious?”
“Yes, still……”
“…I’m sorry. To you too, Gyeonwoo-ssi, and to your parents… I’m so sorry, I don’t know what to say……”
Deep guilt was embedded in the sigh heard through the phone.
“But… the hospital said he’ll be okay once the fever goes down. He’s receiving fever reducers too, so he’ll wake up soon.”
If it were the usual Gyeonwoo, he wouldn’t have done something like comforting an alpha when his hyung was unconscious.
He would have had plenty to curse at him, saying ‘This disaster happened because a Dominant Alpha like you was nearby,’ yet he couldn’t resent Lee Seohee.
‘Even though I’m on Hyowoo’s side… how can I resent someone who endured while ruining his own arm like that.’
Gyeonwoo, who had been silently listening to his repeated apologies, opened his mouth.
“Player Lee Seohee… seems like a really amazing person.”
“Me?”
“I’m an alpha too, so I know well. How difficult it is to reject the temptation of an omega in heat.”
It was close to force majeure for an alpha exposed to pheromones to restrain their sexual desire. Moreover, with an omega like Hyowoo who emitted abnormally strong pheromones, overcoming that temptation would have been beyond endurance, close to torture.
After his hyung went through that terrible incident, even Gyeonwoo, who took alpha suppressants, sometimes felt dizzy when exposed to pheromones.
Yet Lee Seohee bit into his own flesh to avoid losing his reason.
He suppressed his instincts with that extreme pain.
“In that situation, there’s probably no alpha anywhere in the world who would protect an omega by injuring their own body, right? Anyway, in this damn Republic of Korea, it would have just been covered up as a small ‘mistake.'”
Even when an alpha raped an omega, society was always on the alpha’s side.
‘Secondary victimization’ that protected the perpetrator and dug up the victim’s flaws was repeated like a daily routine.
It’s the omega’s fault for not controlling their pheromones in time, the one who actually suffered harm is the alpha.
If they had been well-behaved and properly educated at home, this wouldn’t have happened.
Such absurd remarks were common in reality.
When that incident happened, the perpetrator’s parents barged into Hyowoo’s hospital room.
They hurled unspeakable curses and abuse at Hyowoo, who couldn’t even control his body from the brutal assault, saying ‘You ruined our son’s life,’ and even slapped him.
To his parents, they spewed harsh words like ‘If your child is an omega, you should have raised them properly. Where did you let them go around carelessly leaking pheromones?’
This was the painfully ugly face of society.
“Even if he had raped hyung, no one would have cursed player Lee Seohee. No, rather, hyung would have been the one cursed. They would say it’s clear that a male omega trying to change his fortune deliberately went into heat in front of the L Group heir, a Dominant Alpha.”
Korean law was exceptionally lenient toward alphas.
Even when such sex crimes occurred, there were more reactions like ‘What’s the big deal about raping one omega?’
Under the logic that one ‘small mistake’ shouldn’t ruin the life of an alpha with a bright future, there were countless cases that ended with slap-on-the-wrist punishments, let alone detention.
Even if they were detained, they were quickly released after submitting just a few letters of apology to the judge, not to the victim.
Lee Seohee was a Dominant Alpha among alphas, one of the few in Korea. A world-class sports star and heir to a prestigious conglomerate family.
That such a precious person injured his own arm to avoid raping a mere ‘male omega.’ It was a story hard to believe for anyone who heard it.
“It was something he could have been easily absolved of. Yet the fact that he destroyed his own arm to protect hyung… I’m grateful, but honestly, I don’t understand. Plus, you like our hyung, don’t you? Didn’t you want to hold him using the pheromones as an excuse?”
To Gyeonwoo’s question about why he did that, Lee Seohee answered quietly.
“Wounds on the body… will heal someday if treated. But…… ugh.”
As if pain suddenly surged, he let out a small groan.
To Gyeonwoo asking if he was okay, he said it was nothing and continued speaking.
“If I had held Hyowoo-ssi that night, he would have been left with a wound that could never be erased for life. He’s already a person with so much pain, I couldn’t leave another wound because of me. Compared to that, an arm wound that can heal over time is light.”
It was a calm and unhesitating answer.
“I promised Hyowoo-ssi. That I wouldn’t scare him, that I wouldn’t hurt him. In the end, I made fancy promises but couldn’t keep either of them.”
His every word was heavy.
A suffering deeper than the wound on his arm could be felt. Before that sincerity, he couldn’t even dare to offer words of comfort.
Was that why?
Until he hung up with a final request to take good care of his hyung, Gyeonwoo couldn’t say what he really wanted to say in the end.
To please not break up with Hyowoo.
* * *
“Gyeonwoo-ya……”
At the feeling of his collar being pulled, Gyeonwoo, who had been lost in thought for a moment, came to his senses.
“Where’s… my cell phone……?”
Hyowoo grabbed Gyeonwoo’s hem with the hand that had an IV needle in it, desperately looking for his cell phone.
“Why do you need your phone?”
“To contact… Seohee-ssi… to see if he’s really okay……”
He must have no strength after being sick for nearly ten days.
Watching his hyung’s trembling hand, Gyeonwoo said bitterly.
“Your cell phone… Dad has it.”
“…What?”
“Dad knows about your relationship with player Lee Seohee too. He’s keeping it until you’re fully recovered, worried you might contact him when you wake up……”
Hyowoo’s eyes wavered as if he would cry any moment.
“And, what I said about player Lee Seohee being okay… that’s not a lie. He received treatment right away at the hospital that day, and when we talked before he left the country, he said he was okay.”
“B-but……”
“I’ll contact him for you to tell him you woke up.”
In fact, that was impossible.
Currently, Gyeonwoo was out of contact with Lee Seohee.
The day after Hyowoo was hospitalized, his father made him delete his contact information and messenger in front of him. So unless he contacted first, there was no way to convey news.
Moreover, when bringing Hyowoo out of the apartment, his father said firmly to him.
“I’d appreciate it if you didn’t contact our children from now on.”
Before the cold request, Lee Seohee bowed his head deeply in apology without a single word of excuse.
After that, the last contact was the call from the airport just before leaving for England.
Gyeonwoo didn’t know whether he would contact again or end it like this.
Nevertheless, for his hyung’s stability, Gyeonwoo had no choice but to choose to lie.
“If you contact him in this state, it’ll only make him worry more. So let’s contact him after you’ve recovered a bit more.”
But Hyowoo noticed his younger brother’s true feelings.
That now that their father knew, there was no longer a way to contact him.
As if resigned, Hyowoo let go of Gyeonwoo’s hem. Then, covering his eyes with his arm, he muttered softly.
“…Can you leave me alone… for a moment……”
Tears flowed down his temples.
Turning away from those tears, Gyeonwoo quietly left the hospital room.
