Prologue
8:17 AM.
Though there was still plenty of time left until the alarm he’d set, his eyes opened on their own.
‘I’m sleepy…… Should I sleep a bit more?’
After hesitating for a moment under the blanket, Hyowoo finally sat up. Perhaps because he hadn’t slept well the night before, his body felt as heavy as a bundle of cotton soaked in water.
Unable to even open his eyes properly, he sat hunched over on the bed and reached out to find his glasses first.
‘Now that I’m up, I should take my temperature first, and then……’
He listed out what he needed to do one by one in his head, but his body didn’t move at all. It was because he was extremely bad at waking up in the morning, and on top of that, he had low blood pressure, making it difficult to move right after getting up.
‘……Let’s snap out of it and get up now……’
Hyowoo finally managed to open his eyes and took out a thermometer to measure his temperature.
37.5 degrees. Slightly higher than last night. It was an expected reading since it had been almost 24 hours since he took his suppressant. This level of fever would go down once he took the suppressant, but this alone wasn’t enough to feel relieved that ‘that time’ wasn’t here.
Slowly getting out of bed, he opened the desk drawer and took out a small box and a blood collection device.
‘I might be overreacting, but it’s better to be sure.’
He opened the box and took out its contents one by one. A long plastic test kit wrapped in vinyl and two alcohol swabs.
With practiced movements, Hyowoo tore open the vinyl and took out the test kit. Carefully placing it on the desk to avoid touching the round groove, he thoroughly disinfected his left index finger with an alcohol swab.
‘One, two… three.’
After taking a light breath, he pricked his fingertip with the blood collection device. As blood beaded up with a click, Hyowoo bit his lip slightly. It was a familiar pain by now.
He pressed his fingertip and let about two drops fall into the round groove on the test kit, then wiped the blood on his fingertip with a new swab.
‘It’ll take about 15 minutes for the results, so I should wash up in the meantime.’
When he opened his firmly closed bedroom door, he could hear the TV from the living room.
‘Father must have already left for work, and Mom doesn’t usually watch TV at this hour……’
Was there some special broadcast? Hyowoo yawned deeply and entered the bathroom across the way.
After washing his face with cold water and running his hand through his disheveled hair, Hyowoo finished brushing his teeth cleanly and turned his steps toward the living room instead of his room.
“Did you sleep well?”
His mother, who had been sitting alone on the living room sofa drinking coffee and watching the news, looked at Hyowoo in surprise.
“Oh my, why are you up so early?”
For her sleepyhead son who never thought of waking up until late afternoon on days without classes, weekends, or during vacation to wake up this early. His mother put down her coffee cup and looked Hyowoo over as if something terrible had happened.
“Did you have a bad dream? Or are you sick somewhere?”
“No. My eyes just opened early.”
To his mother, who worried first at even a small change in her son, Hyowoo smiled briefly as if it was nothing. Then he turned his gaze to the TV screen.
“You’re watching the news?”
“Yeah. Your father left it on.”
It seemed she’d been watching the news that his father had left on without turning it off when he went to work. But she usually avoided the news, so it felt strangely awkward to see her watching it so casually.
“Should you eat breakfast? I bought some bread, should I make you toast? Or would you like rice?”
“Ah, it’s okay. I don’t have much of an appetite yet, I’ll grab something to eat later.”
After telling his mother, who was trying to prepare breakfast for her son who had woken up early for once, that it was okay, Hyowoo headed into the kitchen.
As his mother had said, on the dining table were bread and strawberry jam, and freshly brewed coffee beans were giving off a subtle aroma.
He wanted to drink coffee, but if he poured coffee into his empty stomach, it was obvious he’d suffer from heartburn all day like last time. Forcibly shaking off the temptation of coffee, he instead just filled a glass with water from the water purifier and went out to the living room.
“Mom, you don’t usually watch the news. Is there some interesting news?”
“They said they’re broadcasting live in real-time today.”
It was just as he was about to ask what kind of live broadcast it was. With the anchor’s words “We’ll connect to the scene,” the screen changed.
What appeared on screen was Incheon International Airport, packed so full of reporters and an enormous crowd that there seemed to be no room to step. Countless gazes and cameras were all pointed at the arrivals gate at once.
‘What’s going on? Why the airport all of a sudden?’
About 2-3 minutes passed with this strange tension in the air. The tightly closed gate opened, and someone walked out.
“Oh my, looks like he’s arrived.”
A handsome man in a white t-shirt and jeans with just a winter coat over them—despite the simple outfit, he exuded an incredibly sophisticated atmosphere. As soon as he appeared, the airport filled with cheers and flashes.
“Player Lee Seohee, currently active in the Premier League, is coming out of the arrivals gate at Incheon International Airport. For him to enter the country during the season is very unusual……”
Guided by airport security guards and bodyguards in front, behind, and on both sides, the man moved with quick steps. Even while walking hurriedly as if to quickly leave the airport, he smiled brightly toward the people who had come to see him and continuously waved his hand.
“He really looks like a picture. How can he be so handsome?”
As his mother admired the fine-looking man, Hyowoo spoke as if surprised.
“You like Lee Seohee too, Mom?”
“Like him? I’m just interested because your noona and Gyeonwoo are fans.”
Hyeonwoo-noona, seven years older and living in Europe, was a huge soccer fan, and her favorite player was none other than Lee Seohee, who had just arrived. Gyeonwoo, his twin brother who loved soccer just as much as their noona, had watching Lee Seohee’s game in England in person as one of his bucket list items.
“He’s really tall too. He looks like he’s a head taller than the bodyguards next to him. If you’re that tall, you’d stand out and it must be hard to guard you.”
“I heard he’s over 190cm.”
“Then he’s taller than you—no, even taller than Gyeonwoo?”
It was no wonder his mother was surprised. Hyowoo’s height was 181cm, and his younger brother Gyeonwoo was 186cm. Both were quite tall compared to the average height of Korean men, but Lee Seohee was much taller than that.
“Is it because he’s an athlete? Or because he grew up abroad? The food and lifestyle patterns must be very different from Koreans, right?”
Even for a Dominant Alpha, how could he be that tall—at his mother’s serious expression, Hyowoo just smiled softly.
“Why are you seriously worrying about something like that again?”
At her son’s teasing reproach, his mother quickly smiled bashfully.
“Right. Gyeonwoo said he’s coming for dinner tonight, you’ll be home too, right Hyowoo?”
His younger brother, who lived alone near school, stopped by the house almost every weekend to have dinner with the family.
“Ah… I’ll be here for dinner.”
“What about lunch? You’re not eating at home?”
“No, I have lunch plans……”
At the words that her homebody son, who rarely went out except for school, had plans, she made an expression like it was something special, but his mother gently patted Hyowoo’s back.
“Good. It’s vacation, so don’t just study, you should meet friends outside too. If you just stay home all the time, stress builds up.”
Seeing his mother happy that her son was going out after a long time, he felt unnecessarily sorry.
It was true he had plans, but he wasn’t meeting a friend. Among the three children, his mother especially worried about Hyowoo, so if he told her the truth about who he was meeting, she’d obviously be restless all day.
“Do you have money? Should Mom give you some?”
“No. I still have a lot of this month’s allowance left.”
Hyowoo had never worked a part-time job even once. No, to be precise, working itself was impossible for him, so he was still receiving allowance from his parents even now.
“Where are you meeting your friend? What are you going to eat?”
“Ah… well… we haven’t decided yet……”
In fact, the restaurant for lunch had already been decided, but like the person he was meeting, the meeting place was also difficult to tell his mother about.
At the words not to just eat and come back, but to go somewhere fun and play before coming home slowly, Hyowoo could only smile ambiguously.
‘It’s not like I’m meeting someone I can have fun and play with……’
When he turned his eyes back to the TV screen, he could see Lee Seohee’s back as he passed through the airport exit.
Even though he no longer turned around or waved, people still continuously set off flashes toward him and shouted in excitement.
Watching that scene, a sigh naturally escaped from Hyowoo’s lips.
* * *
Returning to his room with a cup half-filled with water, Hyowoo checked the test kit on his desk. Fortunately, only one distinct red line appeared. In other words, it wasn’t a ‘heat cycle.’
While relieved, a sigh of disappointment also leaked out. If it had been a heat cycle, he would have had an excuse to cancel today’s appointment, but now he couldn’t refuse anymore.
‘I shouldn’t have made this kind of appointment in the first place……’
Wrapped up in complicated feelings, Hyowoo tossed the test kit into the trash can. It was pointless venting.
He took out one suppressant that he always kept in the same place and popped it into his mouth. He briefly considered whether it would be better to take one more, but remembering suffering from nausea for several days due to overdose aftereffects last time, he decided against it.
He opened the nightstand drawer to put the remaining medicine back in its place. Seeing twenty boxes of suppressants that hadn’t even been opened yet, severe depression washed over him.
‘If I were a normal omega, about 1/10th of this amount would be enough to keep on hand……’
But as an ‘abnormal’ omega who wasn’t normal, he had to stockpile medicine like this.
He drank the remaining water in one gulp and sat in his desk chair.
To shake off his gloomy mood, he searched for ‘Lee Seohee’ on his cell phone. Though not even 15 minutes had passed since his arrival, the internet was already plastered with articles, photos, and all kinds of news about him.
When he clicked on the first article that had been posted, a photo showing the scene he’d seen on the news earlier came into view along with the headline.
A refreshing face without a hair out of place despite riding on a plane for over ten hours. His wonderful smile that made even the viewer feel good was dazzling. And above all, he was an incredibly handsome person.
‘Why would someone like this?’
If you were to pick the most famous and popular person in South Korea right now, first place would undoubtedly be Lee Seohee.
Appearance, physique, talent and ability, even down to his family background. A perfect man who was lacking in nothing. At this level, he was literally a cheat character that would only appear in games or anime.
‘Why on earth?’
He was the reason Hyowoo couldn’t sleep at night, and the culprit who made him unnecessarily draw blood from the morning and worry about whether to take more suppressants. He was the protagonist of the unwanted appointment.
‘Does he want to meet me?’
Ji Hyowoo.
Third-year university student majoring in accounting.
An omega with a strange, peculiar constitution.
And in four hours, Hyowoo was scheduled to go on a blind date with this amazing Lee Seohee.
