SATURDAY 4

Truly, we were just walking together under an umbrella.

Because it was a small umbrella, both Inha’s and my shoulders were wet. It was about 50m to where the car was parked. Inha was holding the umbrella, and while walking, our bodies suddenly bumped into each other.

How did we bump into each other….

The memories in between have vanished as if they evaporated. And as if stitched together, it leads to the next scene. Inha was.

Ah.

Inha was falling onto the roadway as if pushed. At that moment, he grabbed my sleeve, and a sleeve button flew off. I saw that small button rolling into a manhole where rainwater was flowing with strange clarity.

Other than that, I still remember nothing.

“Tae, Mr. Taeseon.”

“….”

I spoke desperately.

“It’s me, Inyoung.”

Mr. Taeseon, who was lighting a cigarette—I don’t know how many he’s had already—stared at me intently.

“…Everyone is calling me Inha…. Please help me, something is strang…”

“It seems something has gone wrong with your head. Haha, Yoon Inha being out of his mind. Then again, you were never quite sane.”

“….”

I shut my mouth.

“However….”

With the cigarette in his mouth, he approached slowly and blew smoke at me.

“You’re not, right?”

A cough surged up. To me, as I hacked, he spoke in a cold voice.

“Yoon Inha, I didn’t think you would actually carry out that crazy plan. You said it with your own mouth, that you were going to kill Inyoung. Who knew you were actually serious….”

The detectives stayed quiet, as if they had already heard the testimony. Inha tried to kill me? And then did he die instead? Or, did I really die, and something went wrong so that I took over Inha’s body?

“I’ve already handed all the recording files over to the detectives. It’s a pity. By the way… why are you saying such crazy things in front of me?”

He came closer. Perhaps because he hadn’t managed to restrain them, his pheromones were thicker than before. I thought Mr. Taeseon’s large hand was suddenly reaching out, but then he grabbed my throat as if to strangle me. The bruise extending from my face to my neck was pressed down, hurting terribly.

In the past, even if he had strangled me like that, I wouldn’t have thought anything of it because there was no way he would harm me. But now was different. Now… a clear murderous intent could be felt from Mr. Taeseon. It was unfamiliar. Everything about him was unfamiliar.

Mr. Taeseon does not threaten me. He does not do things that harm me. He absolutely does not hate me. This was the certainty Mr. Taeseon had planted in me over several years. But why.

“Gahk….”

“Director.”

The detectives, unable to watch any longer, came and stopped Mr. Taeseon. Mr. Taeseon, still holding my neck, threw me aside just like that. I rolled helplessly and fell into the rain. My vision was obscured by the rainwater so I couldn’t see well, and my clothes were soaked in an instant. My feet felt so cold they felt like they were going to fall off.

“It was a mistake not to put someone on you.”

“….”

“I should have considered more seriously the fact that you aren’t even human.”

Under the umbrella held by his secretary, he approached me. The pungent smell of cigarettes reached me before his pheromones did, only to disappear into the smell of pouring rain hitting the ground. The wavering pheromones were full of anger, quite different from the scent I was usually familiar with.

“You’re even trying to pretend to be Inyoung in front of me?”

I saw the tip of his foot twitch. He wanted to kick me. To be kicked by Mr. Taeseon… it was something I had never even imagined.

The rain fell too heavily.

My vision turned pitch black.

∞ ∞ ∞

Whether by luck or misfortune, I woke up on the morning of the funeral procession. My physical condition was at its worst, so there was a scuffle with my parents and relatives about whether I should go to the crematorium or not, but in the end, I went along.

Once there, I regretted it a little. In a gloomy yet calm atmosphere, my coffin went inside the sturdy iron doors and, with a single button, began to burn as it was engulfed in flames. It took longer than expected for a single person to burn completely.

My life had come to a complete end.

People with ritually somber faces, as if fixed there, brought back the bones finely ground and placed in an urn. The name Yoon Inyoung carved on the urn. And the day I was born and the day I died.

Just as Mom had received the urn, someone entered from the entrance. I thought it was a late mourner, but the one who appeared was Mr. Taeseon, dressed in a black funeral suit.

“I will take the urn.”

Everyone was stirred by the words he blurted out without any other greeting. Especially Mom and Father, who looked at each other with flustered expressions.

“What do you mean by that all of a sudden?”

“Aren’t you just going to leave it with a caretaker anyway? I couldn’t be there for his final moments, and I couldn’t properly stay at the funeral. Let me at least take the remains.”

Father spoke while his troubled expression remained.

“I understand CEO Lee’s feelings. But for you to take Inyoung’s remains, if that happens, how could there be a fresh start? We need to discuss the marriage soon….”

“….”

In an instant, the atmosphere inside the crematorium became terrifyingly cold. My father, the head of the Jegang Group and an Alpha, was a man who had never been outdone in terms of charisma. But now, he was flinching and stepping back at Mr. Taeseon’s icy gaze.

Mr. Taeseon slowly looked around with a face that looked as if he could kill someone with his gaze alone. Before I knew it, the urn was held precious in his hands.

“I have already looked into a separate burial site. Inyoung would prefer it as well. No matter how ‘good the niche’ is, rather than being in a stuffy indoor area….”

A good niche. My parents intended to enshrine my urn in a decent spot in a columbarium. We have a family mountain and a family plot, but my place there was merely decorative. Even if I died, I wouldn’t be able to go in there anyway. It seems the shaman also said it was better to enshrine me elsewhere.

Because Mr. Taeseon knew this, placing my remains in an indoor columbarium, no matter how good the spot, seemed not to be to his liking.

“…Please consider it the last gift I give to Inyoung, Mother, Father.”

Whether those words “Mother, Father” moved the two of them, they eventually nodded. Mr. Taeseon bowed his head and left the crematorium, holding the urn preciously. During that time, he did not look my way even once.

We also decided to go to the new burial site. The burial site was quite far. A large forest in the East Sea with a view of the ocean. It was a place so well-landscaped that at a glance, one wouldn’t even know it was a memorial park.

Instead of the bus, I tried to sleep while going to the burial site in Father’s car, and my parents shared various conversations.

“Still, I’m glad it seems CEO Lee isn’t entirely skeptical about the marriage.”

“Yes, he seems like he’ll accept it one way or another, right?”

“….”

Hearing that in my sleep, I snapped my eyes open. Only now did I understand what the two of them were saying.

An era where Alphas and Omegas are precious. Even in our family, excluding us brothers, the only Alpha was Father and the only Omega was my uncle. Out of so many members, there were only two.

Alphas and Omegas were that rare. Furthermore, it was even harder to find cases where pheromone compatibility matched. However, from some point, it became common for siblings to be born as the same trait types.

Therefore, between families where a marriage proposal had once been exchanged, if the marriage became difficult to proceed with for any reason, the proposal was mostly continued with another Alpha or Omega sibling.

This is because if the trait-holders are siblings, their pheromones are similar, and it is extremely difficult to find a new partner in a family of equal status.

In that way, marrying a sibling out of necessity has now become a custom and a natural occurrence.

Therefore, “I” will end up marrying Mr. Taeseon. My parents were currently discussing that because it was a serious matter.

From the beginning, the marriage partner my parents had in mind for Mr. Taeseon was Inha. I had intervened there and ended up receiving a proposal after a relationship with Mr. Taeseon.

Inha had smiled and said congratulations, but after that…. I don’t really want to think about it. My only escape and sanctuary was Mr. Taeseon. Being able to get married and leave the house was my only hope.

My parents didn’t think well of my marriage. Is that not so? Alphas and Omegas were those for whom it was difficult to find a marriage match, to the point of risking marriage with a sibling if it wasn’t the original partner.

But I had snatched away an Alpha who lacked nothing, the man marked as Inha’s marriage partner, so the family’s disappointment was immense.

The shaman also clicked her tongue saying I should be left in the family, so my parents tried to push for the marriage of Mr. Taeseon and Inha instead of me.

However, Mr. Taeseon’s will was so adamant, and I also rarely went against the wishes of my parents and the shaman. It was the first time in over twenty years of my life. In that way, the engagement was somehow accomplished.

In exchange for what Mr. Taeseon gave to our family…. Mr. Taeseon only smiled and wouldn’t say, but it was clear he had accepted a significant loss.

The parents’ conversation continued.

“Actually… it’s a relief.”

“Honey.”

Father stopped Mom in a stern voice.

“It’s true. CEO Lee was originally Inha’s marriage partner…. I feel like things have returned to their proper place now.”

“…Yes, that’s right. Even so, today is Inyoung’s funeral procession. It doesn’t seem like a topic for a day like today.”

“….”

Mom’s words and the silence were driven into my chest like a blade.