Chapter 35

“Yi-seon-ah, you still can’t eat proper meals?”

Ryu Yi-jeong visited the hospital room with both hands full of food. Even though it was vacation, he was busy with winter semester courses, self-study, and tutoring, yet this was already his second visit. Behind Ryu Yi-jeong, Yeon Hangyeol trailed hesitantly. It seemed he intended to stick close to Ryu Yi-jeong, who was in Seoul.

“I can force it down, but my stomach’s so nauseous I can’t swallow. Still, I ate the oranges and chestnut cookies.”

Sitting on the sofa by the window reading a book, Yi-seon shook his head. The administration of control suppressants had ended yesterday, and his physical condition had improved.

His condition stabilized more easily because Mugyeol hadn’t visited. Because Mugyeol kept showing up at all hours to pester him, Yi-seon had asked his attending physician to bar Mugyeol from visiting, and the doctor had handled it immediately. In many ways, he was a truly thoughtful physician.

“Are you feeling a bit better? Want hyung to peel an apple for you?”

“I’m fine. Did you eat, hyung?”

“Of course I did, you punk. Don’t worry about your hyung.”

While the brothers chatted affectionately, Yeon Hangyeol sprawled lazily onto the sofa opposite them. His posture was brazen to a fault. Taking up space as if he were in his own master bedroom and casually helping himself to fruit was so reminiscent of Yeon Mugyeol that it was uncanny.

Look at that shamelessness. As if anyone could doubt they’re brothers…

Right now, Yi-seon couldn’t even stand the sight of Yeon Hangyeol, who shared Mugyeol’s features. As Yi-seon peeled a mandarin and stared at him sourly, Yeon Hangyeol asked in bewilderment, “What are you looking at?”

“I’m not looking.”

“You were. Narrowing your eyes like this.”

“No, I wasn’t. And your eyes are narrower than mine, hyung.”

“This little shit…”

“I’m not your little shit, hyung.”

“What?”

It was all because Yeon Hangyeol resembled Yeon Mugyeol. Taken aback by Yi-seon’s uncharacteristic reaction, Yeon Hangyeol blinked and scrunched his face before murmuring gravely, “He must really be sick…”

“I’m not sick. I’m almost completely better.”

“…Whatever. Thanks to you, I got to watch Yeon Mugyeol get chewed out like crazy by Grandfather, so I’ll let it slide for a sick guy.”

Yeon Hangyeol’s reaction was gentler than expected. Apparently, he figured Yi-seon had lost his mind a little from suffering through the shock of his first heat for days. At Yeon Hangyeol’s considerate words toward an invalid, Yi-seon leaned forward in surprise.

“Yeon Mugyeol got in trouble?”

“Of course he did. He dumped all his pheromones on you, made you pass out, and even changed your secondary gender.”

“That was just an accident.”

“Just an accident?”

At the word ‘accident,’ Yeon Hangyeol burst into an incredulous laugh.

“Do you have any idea what happens when a rut erupts without preparation? I’m an Alpha myself so I know—it’s a complete disaster. Ugh… Yeon Mugyeol enduring it by stabbing his own flesh with glass makes him one crazy bastard. But is that even possible? Sometimes he really seems insane.”

The instant those words finished, Ryu Yi-jeong shot up and smacked Yeon Hangyeol on the head with considerable force.

“Calling your younger brother insane? And our Yi-seon suffered so much from that incident his face has halved in size—how can you speak so carelessly?”

“Right… It was a very tragic accident…”

A deflated Yeon Hangyeol sat up straight and fell silent. Yi-seon prompted him, “And then? What happened to Yeon Mugyeol?”

Yeon Hangyeol glanced warily at Ryu Yi-jeong, and only after Ryu Yi-jeong, arms crossed opposite him, gave a nod of permission did he continue.

“After that happened, the second he was discharged, he spent the entire day kneeling in the study. The aftermath of the incident hadn’t cleared, so it must have strained his body, but Grandfather showed no mercy. Looked like he got hit with a golf club too. Anyway, that was the first time I’ve ever seen Grandfather get that furious with him.”

“…”

Come to think of it, Yeon Mugyeol had been discharged earlier and only came to visit after some time had passed. It must have been because he was being disciplined by his grandfather. His lip was split and there seemed to be bruising around his eyes; to think that hadn’t come from tumbling in the entryway that day, but from being struck by his grandfather.

Yi-seon anxiously picked at his fingernails.

This incident—were it not for Mugyeol enduring the rut by stabbing himself with glass—could easily have escalated into an unspeakable disaster.

Additionally, Yi-seon knew that Mugyeol’s grandfather, Chairman Yeon, was quite fond of Yi-seon himself. He figured that affection stemmed from Chairman Yeon’s friendship with his maternal grandfather, Grandfather Ryu Sanho. It was certainly a mixture of such complex factors that fueled the elder’s rage.

“You could hear him yelling at Yeon Mugyeol all the way outside the study. He was raging, asking what Mugyeol would have done if the boy had gotten pregnant right off the bat. Demanding what on earth he intended to do to a kid who just turned twenty.”

Cough, hack, cough!

At the word pregnancy, Yi-seon suddenly broke into a frantic fit of coughing. Because it was a word that could never exist between Mugyeol and himself, he fell into a state of acute shock.

As his trembling hand fumbled across the table searching for water, Ryu Yi-jeong hastily poured him a glass.

“Anyway, I have no clue why Yeon Mugyeol’s rut suddenly exploded. He’s an extreme dominant, so his hormone levels spike dangerously, which is why he has a dedicated physician managing him systematically. Ryu Yi-seon, do you know? Why did Yeon Mugyeol suddenly go into shock? I heard it erupted in the school infirmary last time too—what’s his deal lately? Late-blooming puberty?”

“Well…”

“Whatever. Then again, how would an Omega like you know about Alpha business? Anyway, ever since that business with Mom and Dad, Grandfather got super strict about that kind of… Ah, fuck. What the hell am I saying!”

Yeon Hangyeol, who had been rambling mindlessly and spilling unnecessary details, suddenly snapped at himself and clamped his mouth shut. He had belatedly realized that the matter concerning their mother and father, which touched on Grandfather’s sore spot, was also his own affair and the family’s unspoken disgrace.

Yi-seon sank into thought with a grave expression.

“Looked like he got hit with a golf club too. Anyway, that was the first time I’ve ever seen Grandfather get that furious with him.”

To be disciplined by Chairman Yeon to that extent…

Mugyeol’s standing in the Yeon family was peculiar. A grandson shunned by his father, yet favored by his grandfather, the true power of the household. Mugyeol had grown up under the aegis of his grandfather’s devotion, so Yi-seon worried what would happen if things went awry for him because of this.

While he resented Mugyeol’s rampage, it was true that he worried because Mugyeol was the person he had feelings for. To him, Mugyeol had always been a sore spot. Mugyeol had nowhere in his family to place his affection; if he were abandoned even by his grandfather…

Just thinking about it made his chest tighten.

If he had wanted to spin the situation to his own advantage, he could have done so easily.

When Mugyeol came to visit, he hadn’t shown the slightest hint of it. He never mentioned that Grandfather was incensed, nor that his position in the household had become precarious.

Though he had reproached Yi-seon for betraying their friendship, in front of others he had taken all the blame upon himself as his own sole blunder. All while coming to visit, peeling oranges, and feeding him chestnut cookies.

Yi-seon picked up the phone beside him and unconsciously checked the messages he had read earlier. They were from Mugyeol.

— Mugyeol-ie: Hey, why did you ban me from visiting? [5:28 PM]

— Mugyeol-ie: Are you not gonna see me? [5:29 PM]

— Mugyeol-ie: I practiced peeling oranges like crazy watching StarTube, though.. [5:49 PM]

— Mugyeol-ie: (Photo attached) [5:49 PM]

After scanning the photo of the neatly sectioned orange segments—tops and bottoms sliced off with side incisions cleanly separating the fruit—Yi-seon turned off the screen.

Imagining Mugyeol practicing how to peel oranges with a bruised face and injured hand left him feeling thoroughly unsettled all over again.

Haa. This guy really knows how to weigh on someone’s mind…

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Two days later, Yi-seon put on his school uniform with a noticeably clearer expression. After spending all day fretting following his discharge, his thoughts had settled somewhat.

Let’s just live pretending that never happened.

He was already well aware that secondary-gender individuals occasionally hooked up out of their minds in the throes of heat or rut. Fortunately, the two of them hadn’t gone that far. In the end, they hadn’t hooked up, and nothing had actually happened, so it seemed best to move on as if it were nothing.

Having his secondary gender altered was a monumental issue, but since it had already occurred, he didn’t want to grieve over the past any longer. Getting angry or holding a grudge wouldn’t change anything, so it was far better to spend that time considering what compensation to receive.

Maybe I should ask him to get me a job at his family’s company later… A cushy position, high salary, and the condition that I can never be fired for life… Or maybe I should ask for a lump sum of cash… Since I planned on moving out after graduating high school, maybe some deposit money…

Just as he was entertaining all sorts of materialistic fantasies like someone who had won the lottery, his mother peeked through his bedroom door and stepped in. “Are you done dressing in your uniform? Want Mom to give you a ride?”

Yi-seon shook his head, saying it was fine. “You’re coming to watch the graduation ceremony today anyway. See you later.”

“All right. High school graduation already—time really flies.”

Today was graduation day at Soram High School. Because the ceremony took place in early January, if his recovery had been even slightly slower, he would have missed it. Straightening his stiff necktie, Yi-seon slipped his phone into his pocket. Going to school without a backpack felt a bit strange.

“Oh, right. Yi-seon-ah. The compatibility results with Mugyeol came out yesterday. They said it was forty-eight percent.”

“What does that mean?”

Checking his appearance in the mirror, Yi-seon turned around in confusion.

Compatibility judgment?

Forty-eight percent? That’s really ambiguous. But why Yeon Mugyeol and me? It was a baffling train of conversation. Toward Yi-seon, who couldn’t read the situation and wondered what was happening, his mother continued, “Didn’t Mom tell you? We submitted a compatibility test for you and Mugyeol. The result came out yesterday.”

“…”

“Honestly, the number is a bit low, but still, talk it over well with Mugyeol later and—”

“No, what on earth does that mean? I don’t understand. Why did we suddenly do a compatibility test, and what am I supposed to talk over with Yeon Mugyeol later?”

“Mugyeol said that since it was an accident he caused, he would resolve it himself, you know.”

“…”

Resolve? Resolve what?

What correlation could there possibly be between resolving this and a compatibility test?

Yi-seon’s mind bleached stark white.

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