Chapter 71

Gi-hyeon scowled furiously and grabbed Yeon-oh’s wrist with both hands, desperately trying to pry the hand away, but it felt like trying to move a steel beam. His furious protests were reduced to muffled, pathetic grunts.

“So you think getting knocked up the exact second you turn into an Omega is an achievement? I didn’t know you spread your legs so easily. What a fucking surprise, Gi-hyeon.”

His eyes burning red, Yeon-oh casually yanked the blanket off Gi-hyeon’s lower half and aggressively shoved his hand between Gi-hyeon’s legs. Shocked by the violation, Gi-hyeon thrashed violently against him.

Despite being in an ER, the ambient noise of the hospital combined with the drawn privacy curtains meant no one noticed the violent struggle happening on the bed. A terrifying realization paralyzed Gi-hyeon: his strength was evaporating. Yeon-oh’s pheromones were moving like a living entity, wrapping around Gi-hyeon and physically crushing the resistance out of him.

The Alpha’s hand, still guided by eyes swirling with an indecipherable darkness, finally rested flat against Gi-hyeon’s lower abdomen. As the palm pressed down, a massive, suffocating wave of pheromones violently spiked.

Terrified, Gi-hyeon shook his head frantically. Operating entirely on the limited instincts of a newly manifested Omega, he felt an acute, primal terror that something catastrophic was about to happen. A razor-sharp premonition stabbed at the base of his skull, warning him that if he stayed in this position, he was in mortal danger.

“…Why? Do you think I’m going to kill your bastard kid?”

Gi-hyeon’s eyes blew wide in sheer terror, his pupils trembling uncontrollably. Even his violent thrashing ceased entirely. It was the heaviest, most suffocating fear he had ever experienced in his entire life.

No.

His muffled lips desperately tried to form the word against the hand crushing his mouth. Narrowing his eyes, Yeon-oh watched the pathetic, involuntary plea play out across Gi-hyeon’s face.

Letting out a hollow scoff, Yeon-oh abruptly removed his hands. Finally able to breathe, Gi-hyeon gasped desperately for air, his lungs burning. Cold sweat slicked his spine, plastering his shirt to his back.

A chillingly calm voice drifted down over his head.

“I explicitly told you to only sleep with the guys I vetted for you. I told you to stick to Omegas. Why couldn’t you just fucking listen instead of spreading your legs for the first bastard you met? Do I seriously need to dictate a schedule for when you’re allowed to open your legs, too?”

Gi-hyeon couldn’t endure another second of it. Releasing his grip on Yeon-oh’s wrist, he swung his arm in a vicious arc, slapping Yeon-oh squarely across the cheek. A heavy, meaty thud echoed in the small space. The impact snapped Yeon-oh’s head to the side, and with the physical threat finally removed, Gi-hyeon greedily sucked in oxygen, his chest heaving.

“…”

“…”

Even as Gi-hyeon struggled to regulate his ragged breathing, Yeon-oh’s gaze remained unyieldingly locked onto him. The intensity of that stare was impossible to articulate.

The exact same terrifying pheromone pressure he had felt radiating from the palm against his stomach now descended heavily upon his shoulders. The suppression was so absolute that Gi-hyeon genuinely entertained the horrifying thought that Yeon-oh might actually murder him right here in a hospital meant for saving lives.

Ugh, ha…

“…”

As Gi-hyeon gasped under the crushing weight, the pheromones that had hooked into him like iron claws vanished instantly. Taking several massive, shuddering breaths, his chest heaving wildly, Gi-hyeon slowly began to stabilize. Throughout the entire ordeal, Yeon-oh hadn’t uttered a single word.

While the acute physical distress faded quickly, Gi-hyeon needed several long moments to regulate his breathing. Examining the face of the man who was currently enforcing this suffocating silence would have to wait.

Once he finally collected himself, Gi-hyeon slowly raised his head to look at Yeon-oh, not even bothering to wipe away the tears of sheer physiological stress welling in his eyes. He instantly froze, his eyes widening in profound shock.

“…What is wrong with you?” he whispered, thoroughly bewildered.

Both of Yeon-oh’s cheeks were absolutely drenched in sticky, wet tears. The violently explosive emotions he had just been vomiting into the air had vanished without a trace, replaced by impossibly blank, dead eyes that were silently, continuously weeping. Gi-hyeon stared blankly as Yeon-oh’s long eyelashes grew heavy and clumped together with tears.

It was a completely unprecedented expression.

The last time Yeon-oh had stared at him with such profound resentment was during Gi-hyeon’s commissioning ceremony. Yet classifying this as the exact same look felt inaccurate. Unable to decipher the complex meaning layered within the tears, Gi-hyeon deepened his frown and let out a heavy sigh.

He instinctively reached out, intending to wipe the tears from Yeon-oh’s cheek, but stopped himself mid-motion. The eyes staring back at him were saturated with an extreme, volatile emotion, like a man who had swallowed burning coals. The gaze leveled at him had been undeniably ominous for a while now. Realizing that maintaining the silence was only working against him, Gi-hyeon finally broke it.

“…What are you trying to accomplish here?”

While he was intensely curious about how the hell Yeon-oh had tracked him down, Yeon-oh’s current erratic reactions were infinitely more baffling.

Despite their long, complicated romantic history, they had spent the vast majority of their lives operating under the guise of an incredibly close, platonic friendship. Consequently, they had never actually exposed their crying faces to each other. Had they simply existed as a normal couple, they likely would have witnessed each other’s tears by now, but ironically, decades of profound friendship had erected a far thicker barrier against that kind of vulnerability.

Because of that rigid boundary, this was the absolute first time Gi-hyeon had ever seen Yeon-oh cry, and he couldn’t even begin to hypothesize the cause, leaving him entirely flustered.

Unlike Gi-hyeon, who experienced reflex tears when subjected to extreme physical pain, Yeon-oh was notoriously ruthless and practically never cried, even as a child. He was the quintessential embodiment of a man who could count the number of times he had cried in his entire life on one hand. Seeing that same man suddenly staring at him with tear-drenched cheeks completely robbed Gi-hyeon of his words.

Furthermore, his crying face was incredibly distracting. Gi-hyeon had always known Yeon-oh possessed unusually long eyelashes, but watching them clump together with moisture, separating slightly to reveal the boiling, volcanic intensity in his eyes, was deeply mesmerizing. When the shadows cast by those wet lashes temporarily obscured the furious, crimson glare, Gi-hyeon felt exactly like a man raising a poisoned chalice to his lips, fully aware it was lethal yet hopelessly captivated by the intoxicating aroma.

That was the terrifying extent to which Yeon-oh’s tears stimulated something deep within Gi-hyeon. Realizing his Adam’s apple was bobbing as he swallowed dryly, Gi-hyeon mentally cursed himself.

Perhaps he had never noticed it because of Yeon-oh’s massive, imposing physique, but So Gi-hyeon inherently possessed a devastating weakness for faces that triggered a protective instinct. He couldn’t tell if this preference had developed because he had loved Yeon-oh for so long, or if he loved Yeon-oh because he perfectly matched that preference, but the vulnerable underbelly hidden beneath Yeon-oh’s abrasive exterior was glaringly visible now.

It felt as though his absolute ideal type had materialized right in front of him.

Feeling a sudden, embarrassing flush of heat pool at the nape of his neck, Gi-hyeon let out a quiet groan. He had almost instinctively leaned in to comfort Yeon-oh, ready to ask him why he was crying. However, that fragile resolve instantly disintegrated into dust.

Yeon-oh’s next words completely obliterated his train of thought.

“You said you needed pheromones.”

The words were dragged across a throat that sounded shredded by glass.

“…What?” Gi-hyeon scowled. Rather than feeling the humiliation of having his medical crisis exposed, he was highly suspicious of Yeon-oh’s underlying intent.

Tears still clinging to his cheeks, Yeon-oh stared at Gi-hyeon. A bizarre, feverish heat swirled in his eyes.

“The doctor said so. He said you desperately needed pheromones. He said those fucking cheap supplements weren’t going to be enough to handle it.”

“…”

“I can’t trust a single thing about that rundown clinic that barely qualifies as a hospital, but they ran your bloodwork and said you tested positive for artificial pheromone stabilizers. Is it true?”

The instant he mentioned supplements, the medication he had been prescribed at the rural clinic flashed through Gi-hyeon’s mind. He failed to mask the momentary flicker of realization on his face.

And Jo Yeon-oh, a predator who had never once lost a target, instantly exploited that microscopic opening. The shift in his eyes was instantaneous. Knowing full well that every second of silence only solidified Yeon-oh’s suspicions, Gi-hyeon still couldn’t formulate a single lie, merely parting his lips uselessly.

Yeon-oh’s gaze bore into him, unrelenting.

“…The doctor mentioned that the pheromones of a dominant Alpha would be infinitely more effective than those supplements.”

“…”

Unable to offer a response, Gi-hyeon carefully analyzed Yeon-oh’s gaze. He had detected a deeply unsettling, ominous flicker in those eyes just a moment ago. Yet as he searched them now, he couldn’t find a single trace of that sinister energy.

Yeon-oh had reverted so completely to his standard baseline that Gi-hyeon genuinely wondered if he had hallucinated the threat. This was the classic Jo Yeon-oh: slightly delinquent, arrogant, yet simultaneously harboring a frustrated, overbearing concern for So Gi-hyeon. Out of all the terrifying expressions he had witnessed since waking up in the ER, this was by far the most familiar.

Acting as if that terrifying, suffocating pressure or those tear-drenched eyes had merely been a fever dream, Yeon-oh sat perfectly still, wearing the mask of a friend deeply worried about his reckless companion.

“That piece of shit… no, the baby’s father. He’s really not here with you right now, is he?”

Despite phrasing it as a question, his tone reeked of absolute certainty. Gi-hyeon exhaled a heavy sigh. If Yeon-oh was asking questions like that, he definitely possessed far more intelligence on the situation than he was letting on.

It was almost a relief that Yeon-oh hadn’t deduced he was the actual father. When Gi-hyeon remained silently unresponsive, Yeon-oh studied him for a long moment before dropping his voice to a slow, deliberate whisper.

“I’m not leaving you here like this.”

“…And do what?”

“I said I’m not leaving you here.”

When Gi-hyeon frowned at the stubborn repetition, Yeon-oh, now completely devoid of any trace of tears, slipped flawlessly back into the familiar, arrogant persona of his best friend and crossed his arms.

“When I repeat myself, it means I’m emphasizing a non-negotiable fact. Do you understand me?”

“Understand what, you crazy bastard? Do you seriously think you’re in a position to lecture me right now?”

“The kid can hear you. Watch your mouth.”

Gi-hyeon almost snapped. You’ve completely lost your fucking mind. But he swallowed the insult, fully aware that his restraint wasn’t entirely unrelated to protecting the child. Feeling like he was being expertly manipulated into Yeon-oh’s pace, Gi-hyeon chewed on his anger and released a sharp exhale.

“So what the hell are you proposing?”

“I’ll give them to you. The pheromones.”

While he probably should have anticipated the offer, the words hit Gi-hyeon like a physical blow to the back of the head. Do you have any idea what kind of hell I crawled through to escape you? Why the fuck would I want to drag the very garbage I threw away back into my house? he desperately wanted to scream. However, he knew perfectly well that such an outburst would inflict zero damage on Yeon-oh; the bastard would simply shrug it off and relentlessly interrogate him about what exactly he meant by that.

“Why would you do that?”

Ultimately, that pathetic, defensive counter was the only response Gi-hyeon could muster. What was the point of throwing a complex insult at a man who was entirely impervious to emotional damage? Yeon-oh merely shot him a look usually reserved for the most profound idiot on the planet.

“The baby’s father fled, and you’re surviving on garbage-tier supplements that are actively poisoning you. What the fuck do you think I’m proposing, Gi-hyeon? Did your IQ plummet while you were hiding down here?” He spoke with the slow, deliberate cadence one might use when explaining basic addition to a toddler.

A violent spike of rage flared in Gi-hyeon at the sight of Yeon-oh looking down at him so pathetically with his arms crossed. Recognizing this was exactly how Yeon-oh manipulated conversations, he clamped his mouth shut.

Refusing to grant Gi-hyeon a single second to process, Yeon-oh aggressively pressed the attack.

“Or what, are you going to crawl to some random Alpha and beg them for pheromones? Do you have any fucking idea what it means when an Omega begs an unpredictable Alpha to release their pheromones on them?”

“…What does it mean?”

Yeon-oh looked at him as if he were asking a profoundly stupid question, but Gi-hyeon genuinely didn’t know. Was it a legal violation to ask a random Alpha for pheromonal assistance? The doctor had explicitly stated that for an Omega with highly unstable pheromone frequencies like him, an Alpha’s pheromones were the absolute premium prescription.

While Gi-hyeon, whose faith in the local clinic had been thoroughly shattered, frantically scrambled to recall the exact details of his consultation, a heavy, obsessive gaze slowly raked across his cheek. Feeling a deep, unsettling prickle of danger, he turned his head to confront the stare, only to find Yeon-oh still sitting with his arms crossed, his expression making it painfully clear he was thinking, What the fuck am I supposed to do with this complete idiot.

“Gi-hyeon, I’m only going to explain this once, so listen carefully.”

“Stop the bullshit and just say it. Or shut the fuck up forever, okay?”

Yeon-oh’s condescending attitude was so infuriating that Gi-hyeon openly glared at him. Completely unfazed by the hostility, Yeon-oh let out a mocking scoff.

“Begging an Alpha to release their pheromones on you is the exact same thing as screaming, ‘Please fuck me right now, please shove it inside me.’ Do you understand now?”