MW 56

His rough breathing gradually became steady, and the sharp edge on Dohae’s face slowly softened.

Dohae fell into a slumber so quickly that he was completely unaware he was drifting off to sleep.

Upon hearing that all the cards he used had been suspended, Dohae handed all the cash he had to the taxi driver.

With only two blue bills and a 50-won coin left in his hand, he let out a small, derisive laugh with a rather dumbfounded expression.

“Right. As long as I can go back……”

There was still a chance. He was now a proper omega, and in the last test, his omega sample compatibility with Seo Yijae was over 90%, so if he just had the surgery, all his problems would be solved.

Dohae, with a face full of hope, stepped into the hospital. He held his neck stiff and moved his body as the staff members glanced at him.

“Where is Dr. Yang.”

“Just a moment, you can’t just barge in like this……”

“What, you don’t know who I am?”

Dohae grabbed the nurse’s hair and shouted, his bloodshot eyes gleaming. Kyaak, she screamed and fell to the floor from the force of Dohae’s push.

Dr. Yang, who opened the door due to the sudden commotion in the hallway, saw Dohae and narrowed his brow.

“Mr. Gu Dohae!”

Dohae, who had been shaking the nurse by her hair, turned his head towards Dr. Yang who had called him. As if he had never been angry, he stood up, a smile forming on his lips, and approached his doctor.

“Ah, Dr. Yang, I knew you were in here. I have something to tell you, do you have a moment? I’m in a bit of a hurry.”

Dr. Yang looked at Dohae, who was clearly in a bad state, and sighed inwardly. He had thought something was strange a few days ago when he received a call from the Sejin Group headquarters to stop all future treatments and discard all research data up to that point, but he didn’t know he would be this broken.

He might not be the biological son, but for the second son of the Sejin Group, wouldn’t life be fine even if he wasn’t a dominant omega?

“Hoo…… let’s go inside first.”

Anyone who smelled Dohae’s pheromones in the air could tell his condition was unstable. Who knows how he had been managing it, but the nape of his neck, where the pheromone gland was, was grotesquely swollen as if it had a lump.

Frowning, Dr. Yang signaled with his eyes to the approaching nurses not to come closer, and then entered the consultation room with Dohae.

“Have you been taking your medication well?”

“Medication? Ah, that. I’ve been taking it well……”

“You must be honest.”

“I just forgot a little! I’ll start taking it properly now.”

Dohae, avoiding Dr. Yang’s gaze as if he’d been hit where it hurts, noticed the empty bookshelf and the boxes neatly stacked on the floor. Feeling a sudden wave of anxiety, Dohae shot his head up and urgently asked him.

“What’s this…… Dr. Yang, are you going somewhere? What are all those?”

“Did you not hear from your mother? As of last week, all procedures have been terminated. The scheduled surgery was also canceled.”

“N-no way. Then what about me! What about me!”

As the last hope he had believed in vanished, Dohae shouted so hard that a vein popped on his forehead. He couldn’t just give up like this. He had only just now become able to get the surgery, so who was to say it would stop here on their own terms?

Dr. Yang looked at Dohae, who was gripping his hand tightly, then slowly pried his fingers off, opened a drawer, handed him a medicine bottle, and said.

“This is the last thing I can give you, Mr. Gu Dohae.”

“What do you mean, the last……”

“Since the treatment has been stopped, your lifespan as an omega will now rapidly diminish. The treatment method we’ve been using so far wasn’t to solve the fundamental problem, but to adapt your body to Mr. Seo Yijae’s pheromone fluid for the pheromone gland transplant.”

“Dr. Yang!”

Dr. Yang thought that perhaps it was for the better that things turned out this way. He recalled the guilt he felt every time he saw Yijae and the days he suffered from violating his duty as a doctor.

“Mr. Gu Dohae, we will probably go to hell.”

“I can’t just stop like this! I’ll give you as much money as you want. Do the surgery, now. Now!”

“No, we will go to hell, for sure.”

He wiped his tired face and let out a long breath. For what reason had he made one person so miserable for over five years? From the moment he opened the document envelope that arrived at his lab last month, Dr. Yang had regretted every single day of the past.

“The research you supported was discontinued as of yesterday. I was just on my way back from submitting my resignation as well.”

“Resignation? Who gave you permission to resign! You, Dr. Yang……”

“I hope I do not have to meet you again, Mr. Gu Dohae.”

He planned to accept his punishment willingly. But before that, if he could just ask for forgiveness from that person, Seo Yijae, even a little, he was prepared to do anything.

Looking at Dohae before him with emotionless eyes, Dr. Yang picked up his bag and left the room, leaving him behind.

After taking pictures, Yijae and Jaeha came down and stopped by a nearby supermarket. There were no restaurants or supermarkets near the villa, so they had to buy what they needed in advance.

“I told them ahead of time that we were going to the villa, but I wasn’t sure what else you might need, Yijae.”

Since there weren’t many family members, the villa was usually empty. So, before visiting, Jaeha had contacted Manager Kim, who managed the villa, and asked him to prepare the necessary things.

Fortunately, their schedule didn’t overlap with other family members, and he had also told the staff to be away, so by now, only the necessary items would have been stocked, and Manager Kim would have left as well.

“Ah, I have to buy this.”

Jaeha, who was pushing the cart while taking in the sight of Yijae busy looking around here and there, reached out and picked up a bag of marshmallows.

“What’s this?”

Yijae, who still found many things novel, looked at the soft things inside the transparent bag and grinned with amusement.

“We’ll grill these during the barbecue.”

“You grill these too?”

Since Yijae liked chocolate and sweet things so much, he thought he would eat s’mores well if he made them.

Lately, Jaeha’s interest was focused on fattening Yijae up. His cheeks, which still had some baby fat, were soft, but besides that, his body still showed signs of being thin.

“You put this and chocolate inside a cracker and melt it. It’ll be delicious, right?”

Seeing Yijae bobbing his head back and forth at his words, Jaeha silently put another bag of marshmallows into the cart. It was better to have leftovers than not enough.

“Oh my, you young men are both so handsome. Are you actors? Or that, what is it these days, i-, i-……”

“Are you perhaps thinking of ‘idols’?”

Yijae, who peeked his head out towards the lady who was holding onto Jaeha and talking to him, said with a gentle smile. Idol, that must have been the word the lady was trying to say.

“Yes, idols! Just looking at you, you’re all shiny and pretty.”

“Thank you. But we’re not idols. We’re students.”

Yijae, holding Jaeha’s hand, replied with a bright smile, looking pleased nonetheless. Unlike in the past when he would just avoid eye contact without confidence, he now smiled well and had gotten quite good at talking with strangers. Jaeha smiled contentedly at the sight of Yijae gradually changing over time.