XX | Chapter 1.9

“Since the symptoms appeared so suddenly, there are parts we need to pay attention to, but as long as you’re careful for a while, you’ll be fine. Fortunately, the pheromone response and emission levels are still weak, so the progression seems slow, but this is something we need to monitor while you continue taking medication.”

“Huh?”

Symptoms? Pheromone response? Emission levels? Medication?

Sooha tilted his head at the string of unfamiliar words. He couldn’t grasp the context of Jaewon’s words.

“Oh, you know the heat cycle occurs every three months, right? You need to calculate the dates carefully…”

“Wait, wait.”

“……”

“What are you talking about? Pheromones, medication, and why are you bringing up the heat cycle?”

Jaewon, who had been speaking smoothly until now, fell silent. His face, which had looked troubled, became even more so as he looked down at him.

“…Cheon Sooha.”

“What is it? Why are you lowering your voice like that? You’re making me anxious.”

“I’ll say it just once, so listen carefully.”

“Ah, what is it? Stop being so dramatic and just say it. It’s scary.”

“You collapsed at the event.”

“Yeah.”

“That was due to excessive pheromone exposure.”

“Huh?”

“Your heat cycle started, you know.”

“…Huh?”

…Huh?

✮⋆˙

They say disasters strike without warning. Sooha was turned upside down by the sudden calamity that had befallen his life.

“Damn, my heat cycle? Me?”

According to Jaewon, the situation was roughly like this: Sooha collapsed at the event due to a sudden heat cycle triggered by excessive pheromone exposure. For someone like him, who had been living with pheromone insensitivity and couldn’t perceive pheromones, it could be even more dangerous.

The problem was that he couldn’t feel pheromones, so even if he was excessively exposed, he remained unaware. Although he had pheromone insensitivity, he wasn’t excluded from being a target for pheromone attacks like a beta.

Living his whole life like a beta, suddenly reacting to pheromones and having a heat cycle? How does that make sense!

Sooha’s tantrum, reminiscent of an angry monkey, was met with Jaewon’s rebuttal. Ultra-dominant omegas typically have a higher response to alpha pheromones than regular omegas, and this effect is amplified when there’s more than just simple contact.

“And that contact wasn’t just simple contact, was it?” Jaewon’s pointed remark made Sooha quickly back down.

“Well, that’s… true, but…”

But still, how could this happen after just one time? Sooha, still unconvinced, argued with a desperate heart as if the world was collapsing.

Jaewon looked at his cousin with a sympathetic gaze. He somewhat agreed with Sooha’s logic. For a body that had never reacted to any pheromones to have a heat cycle after one encounter? It’s not impossible, but it’s closer to being improbable. The likelihood was about 0.1%.

However, there was one fact that both Jaewon and Sooha overlooked…

“If the other party is an ultra-dominant alpha, the story changes.”

That was the fact that Gongjun was an ultra-dominant alpha. If the person he had contact with wasn’t just an alpha but an ultra-dominant alpha, and they had even slept together, then the story changed significantly.

In other words, even for Cheon Sooha, who had never reacted to any pheromones, the pheromones of Baek Gongjun, an ultra-dominant alpha, worked.

“This is… insane…” Is this even possible?

Sooha looked at Gongjun with disbelief. Gongjun, who had been silently watching their exchange with a smile, asked Jaewon:

“So, what are the results?”

Results? What results?

At the unexpected mention of results, Sooha frowned and looked at Jaewon.

“Ah, well…” Jaewon sighed, seeing Sooha’s sensitive reaction, knowing it was related to him, and calmly informed Gongjun of the results.

“You’re not pregnant.”

Whether that was fortunate or not, Jaewon bit his lip to prevent himself from unconsciously blurting out the rest.

“…What?”

Sooha turned to him with a confused look, and the person who had asked the question spoke cheerfully, displaying a radiant beauty.

“I told you, there might be more responsibilities to take.”

At those words, Sooha could only clutch the back of his neck.

“Hey, what are you?”

Past midnight. On the rooftop, where not even a rat could be seen, Sooha grabbed Gongjun by the collar and pushed him against the wall.

With a loud bang, Gongjun’s back hit the rooftop door, but he didn’t seem fazed at all.

“What did you say to Nam Jaewon that made him believe we’re lovers? And didn’t I tell you not to show up in front of me again?!”

The issue between Sooha and Gongjun didn’t end with the heat cycle incident. After fainting and waking up, not only had his constitution changed, but that sly and cunning Baek Gongjun had somehow convinced his cousin that they were the protagonists of a secret love affair, hidden from the world.

The ultra-dominant omega Cheon Sooha, who couldn’t perceive pheromones, only reacted to the pheromones of the ultra-dominant alpha Baek Gongjun.

It sounded like a fateful story, but for Sooha, it was anything but. How could you believe that! Sooha had shouted in frustration, but Jaewon had questioned if it wasn’t true.

The look in his eyes, believing it with one hundred percent certainty, made him even angrier. After all the years they’d known each other, how could he not know him at all?

When words failed, Sooha dragged Gongjun by the collar up to the hospital rooftop. And then, that snake-like Baek Gongjun, with a sly smile, gave him this kind of answer:

“Can’t we rightfully call ourselves lovers? We like each other, had sex, and almost had a child.”

“You crazy bastard…! Keep running your mouth like that if you want to die!”

Sooha, seething with anger, gripped Gongjun’s collar and fumed. Watching him selectively emphasize only the parts that were advantageous to him as if they were facts was both infuriating and absurd.

But Gongjun didn’t stop there.

“I’m innocent.” He claimed to be innocent with a face that was anything but.

Damn, what’s so innocent about him… His voice was so gentle that it grated on his nerves.

“You’re the one who seduced me that day, Sooha. I only followed you.”

“Followed me? That’s all you did? Who’s the one who breached a perfectly fine guy and triggered a heat cycle…!”

Breached… Breached… Breached… Triggered a heat cycle… Triggered a heat cycle… Triggered a heat cycle…

Sooha, who had been raising his voice in excitement, suddenly clamped his mouth shut. His voice echoed throughout the building forest in the quiet hours past midnight.

It was like chopping his own foot with an axe. Of all things, the echo was embarrassingly lewd, making him want to bite his tongue.

Hearing Gongjun’s soft laughter beside him, Sooha glared daggers at him.

“Hoo…”

Calm down.

Sooha closed his eyes for a moment and let out a sigh. He hadn’t checked his phone yet, but there was no doubt that an article about him collapsing at the event had been published.

Of course, his agency and manager would have handled it smoothly, and as long as the journalists wrote the article as it was, there wouldn’t be any issues.

But some journalists, who were determined to bring him down, would mix their delusions cleverly and plausibly or play word games with ambiguous statements.

It was a video he’d seen hundreds of times.

Those journalists were like cockroaches, and such articles wouldn’t shake Sooha’s position. However, among those delusions, there must never, ever, be a story about his heat cycle starting or his trait being omega.

Never, even if the sky split in two!

Sooha thought that his encounter with Gongjun had gone wrong from the start. He approached him because he was his type, but ended up being the one penetrated.

When he told him to keep quiet about it, the other party wasn’t someone who could be silenced with a few bucks.

Then, he triggered a heat cycle and claimed he was only guilty of being seduced.

“What do you want?”

The deal Sooha had initially proposed to Gongjun wasn’t worth it. If money wasn’t what he wanted, he’d give him whatever he desired.

Sooha wanted to get rid of this tiresome matter as soon as possible.

“Hmm… Your attention and love?”

“Answer properly. My patience has its limits.”

“If I tell you, will you grant it?”

“I need to hear it first to know if I can grant it or not.”

Gongjun seemed to ponder deeply, rolling his eyes slowly to the side and making a thoughtful sound. Then, he met Sooha’s intense gaze and spoke.

“Marriage with you, Sooha.”

“What…?” Sooha was at a loss for words.

“I told you, marriage with you, Sooha.”

The words, emphasized again with a smile, brought silence between them. It was like the sudden silence when a noisy TV was abruptly turned off.

On the other hand, Gongjun, as if to reinforce his words, spoke in an uncharacteristically gentle tone.

“Marry me, Sooha.”

Sooha, who had been staring blankly while holding Gongjun’s collar, soon let his hands drop.

Ha, I… He lowered his head and let out a dry laugh.

“That’s absurd…” Sooha muttered self-deprecatingly, running a hand over his face.

What kind of guy is this?

The eyes visible through Sooha’s splayed fingers were filled with anger, but his mouth kept smiling. It was beyond absurdity; it was just laughable.

Getting angry any further was meaningless and exhausting. He realized that normal conversation with this lunatic was impossible.

It took him three encounters with the guy in front of him to realize that.

Once his complicated thoughts reached a conclusion, Sooha lifted his head and spoke to Gongjun with a threatening gaze.

“Get lost.”

“……”

“I can’t stand this shit anymore. If you show up in front of me again, I’ll kill you, and if I hear any news linking us, you’re dead.”

And he was about to say it was disgusting to meet him and never to cross paths again when Gongjun interrupted with another proposal.

“Then what if I tell the journalists your secret, Sooha?”

“…What?”

“Cheon Sooha, known as a dominant alpha, is actually an ultra-dominant omega… What would happen if this got out to the public?”

“Ha, are you threatening me now?”

“Uh, threatening? That makes me sound like a bad person. I’m just asking out of curiosity.”

“That’s the same thing!”

Bang!

Sooha’s fist narrowly missed Gongjun’s face and slammed into the rooftop door. Despite the loud noise, Gongjun laughed.

Laughing…?

Even though it was meant to be a threatening act, Gongjun didn’t look scared. Instead, he seemed to be enjoying the situation even more.

“Then let me ask again.”

The lips, which had been holding a subtle smile, parted softly.

“If I promise not to tell the journalists about your trait, will you marry me, Sooha?”

“……”

Sooha looked into Gongjun’s eyes and realized.

Ah, I’ve really gotten involved with a crazy bastard.

Because Baek Gongjun, who had only shown a refreshing smile until now, was now grinning so lewdly that it was chilling.

And his cheeks were even blushing.