PAO 39

Lee Changho brought up a hypothesis he had pieced together.

“That whole thing about going to high school, don’t you think it could be a lie?”

Lee Changho’s words were the last puzzle piece that Seowon had been missing.

Seowon’s heart sank coldly. What if Yoo Junghoo had not graduated from high school abroad, come back to Korea, and then gotten sick, but had left his side from the very beginning because of that illness?

Having found the final puzzle piece, Seowon found a sense of composure.

“This is interesting.”

“What is?”

Seowon rested his chin on his hand and looked around. Come to think of it, the number of times he had gone to a bar with Junghoo in the past could be counted on one hand. Even when they drank, he thought it was usually at home.

“Before, I had no thoughts about it, but now that I’m actually determined, I’m seeing the parts I didn’t know.”

The conversations he had with Junghoo, why he had acted that way, and so on.

“I was so focused on my own situation that I failed to see him.”

He was so worried about being found out as an omega that he could not delve deeply into Junghoo’s circumstances. Junghoo had been scattering hints all over the floor, yet all Seowon had done was wonder what kind of illness he had.

“Speak so I can understand. Are we talking about Yoo Junghoo right now?”

“I guess so.”

“Alright. Anyway, let’s see Yoo Junghoo when we have time. I’ll ask him how he’s been.”

“Do you think he’ll tell you if you ask?”

Seowon shook his head, showing a skeptical reaction. He did not particularly feel like doing what Lee Changho wanted. It seemed like he would be busy enough meeting Junghoo by himself for now.

“If you say that, then I guess I… won’t be able to meet him.”

“Don’t tell me that, just contact him yourself.”

Seowon said it casually with a smirk. At his tone, Lee Changho tilted his head and asked.

“When I meet Junghoo, are you not going to come?”

“Is there really a need for that?”

Seowon brushed it off with a light laugh. It was in the past that he and Yoo Junghoo were like a needle and thread; not anymore.

“And I’m going to be busy for a while.”

He did not have time to join a drinking session where they would be happy to see each other after a long time. Now that he had pieced together the puzzle to a certain extent, he planned to go around and confirm things.

“Busy? Is it because it’s your graduating year?”

“There’s that, but I think I’ll have a lot of appointments.”

“Appointments?”

“Yeah. I’m planning to go around and meet the people who adore me.”

“…Are you drunk?”

While Lee Changho was talking, looking at Seowon’s face from various angles, Seowon coolly chugged his beer.

“Please make sure to take your medicine, and I’ll see you in three days.”

After the patient left, during a brief lull, Yoo Taeha picked up his phone to check his messages. Seeing nothing special, he was putting his phone back down just as the door opened.

“What brings you in today?”

Yoo Taeha, who was first checking the diagnosis on the chart before identifying the person, saw the name belatedly.

“Seowon.”

“Were you surprised? I didn’t come because I’m sick.”

Seowon shrugged his shoulders and sat down in front of him.

“What’s going on, coming without any notice?”

“I came because I have something to ask.”

Perhaps because they had never met at the hospital before, Yoo Taeha was momentarily awkward before looking at the chart again. And he frowned at Seowon’s personal information that he saw.

“You…”

“I’m an omega.”

Seowon, knowing what Yoo Taeha was about to say, cut him off. Since the previous version of himself had never been treated by Yoo Taeha, this would be the first time.

“Why are you suddenly telling me your trait?”

“Because everyone who needs to know already knows. No, wait, everyone knows except you, hyung.”

As Seowon spoke with a shrug, Yoo Taeha’s eyes filled with a complicated look.

“When… did you manifest?”

As if even the short time it took for him to ask and for Seowon to answer felt too long, Yoo Taeha scanned the monitor completely. In response to Yoo Taeha’s restless reaction, unable to keep his bottom firmly planted in his chair, Seowon replied calmly.

“I was originally an omega.”

“Oh, you’re right.”

Watching him fail to hide his inner sense of relief, Seowon poked at Yoo Taeha with a casual tone.

“What if I hadn’t been an omega?”

“What?”

Seowon spoke calmly.

“What would it have been like if I had manifested because of Junghoo?”

“Well, that didn’t happen, and it’s not easy to manifest under the influence of pheromones, so.”

Yoo Taeha quickly regained his composure and spoke, but Seowon did not let him be.

“With Junghoo, it could be entirely possible. He has so many pheromones.”

“…”

“He’s a dominant alpha and has SIPH, right? Then that’s more than enough to change a person’s trait.”

“…”

Yoo Taeha’s face stiffened as he realized why Seowon had come to see him.

“You’re Junghoo’s doctor, hyung, and you also know that I’m his housemate. Right?”

“I’m sorry for everything.”

“That’s right. If I hadn’t been an omega, something truly terrible might have happened. No, wait, wasn’t it more dangerous because I am an omega? I had no idea Junghoo’s pheromones would be that strong.”

In response to Yoo Taeha’s apology, Seowon smiled and pointed it out one more time. Having been dealt the final, confirming blow, Yoo Taeha swallowed a sigh. He felt a fear of being devoured by the boy who had always been so affectionate and cute that he had wanted to treat him like a real younger brother.

“What should I do? Should I get on my knees and beg?”

Now, all the initiative was in Seowon’s hands.

“Tell me about Junghoo’s condition.”

Seowon revealed the purpose of his direct visit to Yoo Taeha.

“Don’t you already know?”

“A simple diagnosis isn’t enough. Tell me everything—when it started, what Junghoo was like back then.”

At the matter-of-fact demand, as if he were asking for something he had left in another’s keeping, Yoo Taeha’s voice disappeared as if he had swallowed honey. So this is why he started with a threat. He had made it so that Yoo Taeha could not even bring up the fact that he could not carelessly reveal information about Junghoo to a third party.

“I may already be a fish caught in your net, but I can’t erase my worries.”

Yoo Taeha let out a sigh. Honestly, before being a doctor, as a cousin, he was inwardly pleased that Seowon was taking an interest in Junghoo. However, separate from that happy feeling, if he were to needlessly throw a spark when Junghoo did not want it… He was in a difficult position either way, so he could not easily speak.

“Why do you think Junghoo is hiding things from me?”

“What?”

Yoo Taeha responded to Seowon’s question with silence.

“Was it because he was afraid I wouldn’t be able to understand his condition?”

Yoo Taeha’s eyes showed surprise before he nodded heavily. That was indeed the case. Junghoo had experienced an incident where an omega collapsed due to his pheromones, which remained a trauma for him. That would be why he wanted to keep it a secret from Seowon even more. But Seowon’s thoughts were different.

“Is that all there is to it?”

“What more could there be?”

Yoo Taeha did not catch on right away. Since he was not one of the parties involved, he could not claim to know everything about the relationship between Junghoo and Seowon.

“Fear.”

“…”

“Junghoo is afraid that I will reach out my hand.”

Seowon brought out the true feelings that Yoo Junghoo had hidden away so carefully.

“Because he knows that even while hating Yoo Junghoo, I wouldn’t be able to leave him.”

Seowon let out a small laugh. Just as Yoo Junghoo knew him, he knew Yoo Junghoo well. He might say things like even if he manifested as an omega he couldn’t handle it on his own, pushing him away, but that was nothing more than running away on his behalf. To create distance for Seowon, who would not be able to leave him.

“Oh, and there’s this too.”

Seowon held out his phone so that Yoo Taeha could see it clearly. On the screen was a message from Junghoo’s father, Yoo Younghan.

“I got permission from the chairman too. Now, show me.”

The message did not say to show him anything. It merely suggested that he have a good talk with Yoo Taeha, yet Seowon interpreted it as he wished.

“Do you really want to know?”

“Yes.”

Seowon’s answer was very concise.

“Whether I untangle the knotted thread or cut it, I have to see it first, don’t I?”

At his response, which implied he would cut it if it did not seem right, Yoo Taeha opened Junghoo’s chart as if in resignation. Years of accumulated data on Junghoo appeared, packed tightly. He also brought out the files he had printed and bound for his own reference, containing everything from the medications prescribed to details about his changes.

“Since you asked to see it, I’ll show you, but do you even know how to read a chart?”

Since Seowon requested the chart, he was showing it to him, but he wondered if this was really okay.

“No. You have to explain it to me.”

However, at Seowon’s repeated demand, Yoo Taeha swallowed all the words he wanted to say and pointed to the monitor.

“The first time he manifested was when…”

After a lengthy explanation, Yoo Taeha stood up to give Seowon time to think. In any case, if he had any questions, he could just contact him anytime. While Yoo Taeha took off his gown and went out to meet a nurse, Seowon thought and thought.

He had brushed off Junghoo’s boasts about being a dominant alpha. He thought he was just saying that because Seowon could not feel pheromones.

Then, since when was it?

When the pheromones that were barely perceptible began to dominate the air… Though they were still only buds and had not bloomed, they emitted a scent that seemed like it would soon be in full blossom. Of course, that scent was emitted in an unrefined state, harming Junghoo.

The magnitude of the pain Junghoo must have suffered was not something he could measure. Thinking about how his body and mind must have been slowly worn down all this time made him feel sorry for getting angry and being upset.

“I should have only gotten a little angry.”

The words, ‘I shouldn’t have gotten angry at all,’ did not come out.