Chapter 47

If Gi-hyeon remembered correctly, the injury hadn’t been severe enough to require actual physical therapy, so the athlete had only received a basic consultation before leaving. Sure enough, the man rushing over to check on him clearly had absolutely no memory of Gi-hyeon.

“Are you okay? I’m still not used to driving a left-hand drive car…”

Gi-hyeon let out a low sigh. Had he heard the man’s father was British, but the athlete had recently naturalized as a Korean citizen? Accepting the hand the man offered, Gi-hyeon stood up, letting out a short, pained groan. Because he had thrown himself out of the way so violently, a sharp, stinging pain flared in his ruined ankle.

“It seems you’re injured. First, let’s go to the hospital.”

“Ah, it’s really not that serious.”

“If I let you go like this, I know it’s considered a ‘ban-ssoni’?”

He was clearly trying to say ‘hit-and-run’ (ppaeng-soni). His Korean pronunciation was flawless, but his clumsy attempt at using slang instantly lightened Gi-hyeon’s mood.

Knowing the tennis season was likely approaching, Gi-hyeon figured it would be better to at least pretend to go to the hospital rather than leaving the athlete drowning in guilt. But the man immediately threw open the passenger door of his car.

“I will escort you.”

“…I thought you just said you were terrible at driving.”

Gi-hyeon asked, genuinely baffled. The idea of being escorted by a man who had literally just subjected him to sudden unintended acceleration seconds ago was utterly absurd. Hearing that, the man looked deeply embarrassed and hastily opened the driver’s side door instead.

“Ah… Then… Excuse me, but could you possibly drive us to the nearest hospital.”

The request was so profoundly ridiculous that a laugh actually burst from Gi-hyeon’s lips, but the man merely stared at him with earnest intensity. It was blindingly obvious the athlete had absolutely no intention of letting Gi-hyeon walk away. Muttering to himself that athletes were notoriously, infuriatingly stubborn, Gi-hyeon shook his head in defeat.

“Then please take care of throwing this away for me first. The recycling area is right over there, make sure you sort everything into the correct bins. I’ll pull the car out while you do that.”

Because it was an older apartment complex with exclusively above-ground parking, navigating the tight spaces looked incredibly difficult for a beginner. Guessing that the man had probably panicked when the car wouldn’t maneuver the way he wanted and accidentally slammed the accelerator instead of the brake, Gi-hyeon limped toward the driver’s seat. Seeing this, the man frantically scooped up the bags Gi-hyeon had dropped and sprinted toward the recycling bins.

Tennis players were notoriously infamous for having absolute garbage tempers, making this uniquely docile man quite fascinating. Gi-hyeon slid into the driver’s seat, buckled his seatbelt, shifted the gear, and smoothly backed the car out.

Having apparently finished the chore at lightning speed, the man was already jogging back toward the car. While it was slightly annoying to be dragged to the hospital when he felt perfectly fine, the completely unexpected accident had actually managed to blow away a fraction of the heavy depression that had been suffocating Gi-hyeon all day.

“Are you sure you sorted everything correctly?”

“Yes, plastics in the plastics bin.”

The pronunciation of the loanword ‘plastic’ was exceptionally crisp. Glancing at the man offering a bright smile as he slid into the passenger seat, Gi-hyeon put the car in gear and headed for the nearest hospital. Deliberately avoiding Haeseong Hospital, he drove to a completely different facility.

And at the hospital they arrived at, what Gi-hyeon assumed would end with a simple X-ray violently escalated into something completely unimaginable.

“…It’s just a simple contusion, so why on earth do I need a blood test?”

“Well, on the patient intake form, you marked your gender as Beta Male, correct?”

Wondering why on earth the doctor was asking that, Gi-hyeon nodded.

Because the athlete had been so incredibly insistent, Gi-hyeon had reluctantly driven the man’s car to the hospital. Finding that standard outpatient registration was already closed, they had headed straight for the emergency room.

Since evening had just begun to fall, the ER was relatively quiet. When asked where it hurt, Gi-hyeon had briefly explained the accident and explicitly stated that he wasn’t in any actual pain. Pointing to the man standing awkwardly beside him, Gi-hyeon had clarified the situation.

—This gentleman is the driver at fault, but he was so insistent I get checked out that we just came to be safe. Nothing hurts. The car didn’t even actually hit me.

The ER doctor had offered a knowing smirk, but then his brow had suddenly furrowed. Pulling the penlight clipped to his coat pocket, the doctor had stated he was going to run a quick test. After checking Gi-hyeon’s pupillary response, the doctor had abruptly ordered a blood test.

Wondering what the hell could possibly be wrong—it wasn’t like he had suffered a head injury severe enough to warrant a concussion, so why the sudden pupillary check?—Gi-hyeon had been utterly baffled as the nurses drew his blood. Returning with the test results, the doctor had tilted his head in profound confusion. And then, completely out of nowhere, he had brought up the ‘Beta Male’ checkbox.

“Is something wrong?”

The man, who had been standing as stiffly as an elementary schooler who had just shattered a window, asked the question on Gi-hyeon’s behalf. The doctor threw a brief glance at the man’s face before speaking.

“You aren’t his husband, correct? You mentioned earlier you were the driver involved in the accident.”

“Hus… what…?”

Gi-hyeon fired back, utterly bewildered. He could feel the sheer panic radiating from the man standing next to him as well. For the past few days, Gi-hyeon’s luck, or whatever cosmic force governed his life, had been undeniably, catastrophically garbage. If it wasn’t, how could such profoundly absurd, borderline psychotic events keep happening back-to-back?

Letting out a heavy sigh, Gi-hyeon firmly reiterated that they were not married. The ER doctor let out a low hum before opening his mouth again.

“…Hmm, well, this is actually the first time we’ve encountered a case like this, so it’s a bit difficult to explain. Do you happen to have a guardian we could contact?”

“Why do I need a guardian… I’m perfectly fine hearing it myself.”

The list of diagnoses that could be pulled from a rapid ER blood test was extremely limited. The fact that the doctor was desperately trying to drag a guardian into the room to deliver the news was incredibly bizarre, causing Gi-hyeon to instinctively furrow his brow. Staring at the doctor with an expression that clearly screamed, ‘If I’m not going to drop dead in the next five minutes, just spit it out,’ Gi-hyeon waited. Watching Gi-hyeon’s unyielding gaze, the doctor finally let out a heavy sigh and spoke.

“When I examined you earlier, there was absolutely no pupillary light reflex. Normally, when exposed to light and then the stimulus is removed, the pupils should constrict and dilate accordingly, but you showed zero reaction.”

“Does that mean there’s a problem with my brain…”

“No, it’s nothing like that. I ran the blood test just in case my suspicion was correct, but because you explicitly marked your gender as ‘Beta Male’ on the intake form, it caused quite a bit of confusion.”

Having absolutely no idea why the doctor kept aggressively circling back to his gender, Gi-hyeon simply waited for the inevitable conclusion. But the words that finally left the doctor’s mouth were entirely beyond the realm of Gi-hyeon’s comprehension.

“Mr. So Gi-hyeon, you are currently pregnant.”

“…I have no idea what condition you’re referring to… I am a male. Furthermore, I am a Beta male. It is biologically impossible for me to be pregnant.”

The tone of his voice naturally implied, ‘If you have eyes, fucking use them.’ A simultaneous, terrifying suspicion arose that the Minister of Health and Welfare was recklessly handing out medical licenses to absolute quacks. The doctor’s words simply did not compute.

Staring at Gi-hyeon’s profound disbelief, the doctor lightly tapped his own temple with the blunt end of his ballpoint pen before speaking again.

“Because it was a rapid blood test, the detailed metrics haven’t come back yet, but Mr. So Gi-hyeon, your biological gender is absolutely not a Beta male. You are an Omega, leaning heavily toward the recessive spectrum.”

“…Excuse me?”

Fully aware that he sounded like an absolute idiot, Gi-hyeon had no choice but to ask the doctor to repeat himself.

An Omega. Alpha and Omega traits are fundamentally encoded at birth. Just as a Beta male or female’s gender is cemented the moment they are born, Alphas and Omegas are bound by the exact same biological laws. Simply put, an Alpha is born with Alpha traits, an Omega with Omega traits, and when puberty hits, they fully present as their designated secondary gender.

Therefore, Gi-hyeon, who had been born a Beta, had absolutely no choice but to remain a Beta until the day he died. The reason was agonizingly simple. Because he had been born that way.

“…I don’t understand what you’re saying. I was born a Beta.”

“Yes, that certainly appears to have been the case. Your baseline pheromone levels are incredibly faint. That is exactly why I kept confirming it with you.”

Gi-hyeon furrowed his brow fiercely. Him, an Omega. There was absolutely no doubt that some catastrophic clerical error had occurred. As if perfectly anticipating Gi-hyeon’s absolute denial, the doctor explained kindly.

“Of course, it’s completely natural for you not to believe this. If it were me, I’d find it utterly absurd as well. But do you remember when I confirmed the loss of your pupillary reflex earlier and immediately ordered the blood test? That specific neurological lack of response only occurs in individuals who have recently undergone a sudden gender presentation mutation.”

“What does that…”

“When a sudden mutation from Beta to Omega occurs, a temporary loss of the pupillary reflex is a guaranteed physiological response. Now, this can vary slightly depending on the specific Alpha involved, but…”

Depending on the Alpha involved? The moment Gi-hyeon tried to interject, the doctor fired off another question.

“Recently, have you experienced an intense sensitivity to light, or felt as though your night blindness has suddenly become much worse?”

He hadn’t felt anything like that at all. Wearing an utterly blank expression, Gi-hyeon slowly shook his head.

“Why on earth would a gender mutation even happen…”

“To understand the exact cause, we would need to run detailed tests, but the most common catalyst is continuous physical contact with a highly dominant Alpha. However, in this specific scenario, what matters isn’t multiple dominant Alphas making simultaneous contact. Rather, the mutation depends entirely on how many years of sustained physical contact you’ve shared with a single, specific Alpha.”

“…”

Gi-hyeon couldn’t formulate a response. Continuous physical contact with a highly dominant Alpha. Those words pointed to exactly one person. The doctor seemed to notice the man standing awkwardly behind Gi-hyeon. Recognizing that this could be a deeply personal matter, the doctor clearly preferred to speak to Gi-hyeon privately, assuming the man wasn’t his guardian.

However, Gi-hyeon was in such a state of blinding panic that he completely failed to read the doctor’s cues. Sensing the heavy atmosphere, the athlete spoke up first.

“Excuse me… I’ll wait outside. I promised to take you home, so please come out to the parking lot when you’re finished.”

Had he nodded in response? His mind was so completely shattered that he barely even registered the man walking out toward the emergency room exit.

Watching the man’s retreating back, the doctor finally continued.

“While the detailed metrics haven’t confirmed whether you are dominant or recessive yet, Mr. So Gi-hyeon, you have currently mutated into an Omega. Furthermore, you are pregnant.”

“…Then, did the pregnancy trigger the mutation…”

“That is biologically impossible. The reproductive organs must fully develop before implantation can even occur. Your gender mutation must have been completely finalized at least a month or two ago.”

Unable to listen to another word, Gi-hyeon abruptly stood up. He immediately headed for the exit. Behind him, the doctor frantically called his name. Fearing Gi-hyeon was simply going to bolt, the doctor rushed forward to block his path.

“I strongly recommend you undergo a few more tests before you leave—.”

“No. I recently had a blood test done at another hospital. I will hear the detailed results there.”

“Ah, so you are already attending a specific clinic?”

The doctor looked visibly relieved. He clearly hoped the situation wasn’t entirely a sudden shock to Gi-hyeon. The doctor seemed to assume Gi-hyeon already had a dedicated internal medicine specialist managing his pheromones.

For a person born a Beta to spontaneously mutate into an Omega or an Alpha was an astronomically rare occurrence. Gi-hyeon knew this perfectly well from the physiology lectures he had taken during his undergraduate years.

The pheromones of a highly dominant Alpha contained trace amounts of neurotransmitters capable of mutating a partner into an Omega, regardless of whether the partner was a Beta male or female. However, the textbook probability of an actual Omega manifestation occurring was essentially one in ten thousand. Not only was it biologically absurd for an Alpha to successfully mutate a Beta into an Omega, but highly dominant Alphas were exceedingly rare to begin with, and the odds of one maintaining a deeply intimate, years-long physical relationship with a Beta male were practically zero.

Finding it bitterly hilarious that he was only now recalling that useless academic trivia, Gi-hyeon let out a hollow, devastated laugh as he stumbled out of the emergency room. A second later, his pace quickened into a frantic march.

There was something he desperately needed to confirm.