Chapter 69

Yesterday evening, Yeon-oh had received the intelligence regarding Gi-hyeon’s whereabouts not from Manager Yoo, but from another operative. Technically, they hadn’t found Gi-hyeon; they had found Yang Jisu.

When he first heard the name Yang Jisu, he had struggled to place it, only recalling after wracking his brain that it belonged to some captain or whatever who had visited Gi-hyeon’s hospital room years ago.

Since they had graduated high school together, Yeon-oh knew the names of all their mutual alumni and had even memorized those of Gi-hyeon’s physical therapy classmates, but he had heard the name Yang Jisu for the first time that day in the hospital.

Knowing Gi-hyeon was obsessed with soft peaches and rarely touched other fruit, Jisu had arrived bearing an armful of them. His hands dripping with peach juice from meticulously peeling the fruit with his short fingernails to avoid bruising the flesh, Yeon-oh had offered a hand in greeting.

Unbothered by the sticky mess, Jisu had grasped it firmly with a bright smile. “Nice to meet you.”

Yeon-oh had felt a vein throb in his forehead. There was no logical reason for the intense irritation; he simply sensed something fundamentally different about Jisu compared to the other orbiters who usually buzzed around Gi-hyeon. Even as an Alpha, he carried a subtle, entirely different scent than someone like Lee Beom-hee.

Therefore, watching Gi-hyeon beam brightly at Jisu, his face slightly swollen from the barrage of painkillers and anti-inflammatories, had deeply displeased him.

However, Jisu had quickly excused himself, claiming he was busy, and offered a perfectly standard farewell before leaving the room.

“Call me if it gets too hard to endure.”

To Yeon-oh, however, the phrasing felt dangerously intimate. Hard to endure? The So Gi-hyeon that Yeon-oh knew never displayed weakness, regardless of how unbearable the pain became. When faced with a crisis, he was like a wild animal that simply chewed it up, swallowed it raw, and slept until he had fully digested the misery.

Consequently, Yeon-oh had spent his entire life hopelessly hovering outside Gi-hyeon’s cave, an entrance Gi-hyeon had never once opened to invite him inside.

Yet Jisu’s tone implied he possessed VIP access to that cave. Driven by pure paranoia, Yeon-oh had followed the captain into the hallway, where the two Alphas faced off, both sporting hands sticky with the juice of the fruit destined for someone else’s mouth.

“I heard you were Gi-hyeon’s senior.”

Despite Yeon-oh deliberately cutting off the first half of the conversation to assert dominance, Jisu had merely offered a placid smile. “Yes. His face looked quite swollen, but I’m glad he has a friend looking after him.”

And then, before Yeon-oh could formulate a response, Jisu had turned and walked away. The only lingering residue was the sickening, sticky sensation coating his hand. That had been his first and last impression of Yang Jisu, making it profoundly jarring to hear the name resurface years later.

The realization that Gi-hyeon had maintained steady contact with the man this entire time felt absurd. When the hell did they even talk? As far as Yeon-oh knew, Gi-hyeon spent all his free time with him. He even tracked exactly how Gi-hyeon spent his working hours at the hospital. The fact that a loophole this massive had existed despite his obsessive surveillance was infuriating.

“Mr. Yang Jisu has not made contact with the target recently. He was in another region for a while but appears to have recently returned to operate an illegal greenhouse gambling den in OO Town. We managed to trace the target’s movements to that location.”

The operative’s report was concise and flawless. Ditching Manager Yoo entirely, Yeon-oh had slammed on the accelerator, driving straight for the provided address. And the spectacle waiting for him was this absolute shitshow.

Yeon-oh loosened his tie, aggressively scrubbing the blood splatter from his cheek, feeling unspeakably filthy.

“This bastard just told me there was a specific reason your ankle ended up like that.”

“…”

Gi-hyeon said nothing. Yeon-oh hadn’t genuinely expected a quick confession anyway. It was always like this; So Gi-hyeon never volunteered the whole truth and would gladly take his secrets to the grave unless aggressively interrogated.

So that’s why he kept his mouth shut until today, until I had to find out from this fucking piece of shit. A bitter, twisted smirk broke across Yeon-oh’s face as the pieces clicked together.

“Lee Beom-hee helped you, didn’t she?”

Gi-hyeon’s complexion paled slightly at the accusation.

What the fuck do I do with that bitch? Yeon-oh seethed. He had literally handed Beom-hee a blank check to open her own clinic, mistakenly believing the woman was supporting Gi-hyeon, when in reality, Beom-hee had been actively financing and orchestrating Gi-hyeon’s escape.

The second I get back to Seoul, I’m going to slaughter her, Yeon-oh vowed silently.

Perhaps sensing the murderous intent radiating from him, Gi-hyeon frowned slightly before releasing a heavy sigh. “That happened a long time ago.”

But Gi-hyeon, that ‘long time ago’ is your entire life, Yeon-oh desperately wanted to scream. He forcefully swallowed the words, burying them deep in his chest where they rotted without ever seeing the light. Instead, a vicious sneer tore from his lips.

“You’re really full of shit, aren’t you?”

Yeon-shin was bawling pathetically. Sobbing uncontrollably, he cried out for their grandfather, mixing his pathetic pleas with slurred, mangled curses vowing revenge against Yeon-oh. Without breaking eye contact with Gi-hyeon, Yeon-oh casually stepped forward and slammed his foot down squarely onto Yeon-shin’s ankle.

Aaaargh—!

“Jo Yeon-oh!”

Gi-hyeon jumped in shock, his own ankle instinctively twitching in sympathetic phantom pain, a fraction of a second too late, just as it always was. Just as Gi-hyeon had said, it was an injury that had happened a long time ago.

The blood vessels in Yeon-oh’s eyes throbbed agonizingly. He wanted nothing more than to lunge forward and tear someone to shreds, but he restrained himself for one singular reason. With the magnanimity of a saint granting a final pardon, he demanded, “Tell me the rest of it.”

“…”

“What the fuck is this bullshit about you being an Omega?”

When Gi-hyeon remained stubbornly silent, Yeon-oh treated Yeon-shin like a hostage, viciously grinding the heel of his dress shoe into the man’s ankle. The oak-colored calfskin wingtips lacked a sharp stiletto heel, but they were more than lethal enough to crush the dense network of bones and ligaments. Yeon-shin’s agonizing shriek tore through the alley, evaporating into the rural night sky.

“…My secondary gender manifested.”

Gi-hyeon’s quiet, defeated confession instantly triggered a catastrophic structural collapse inside Yeon-oh’s mind. Beneath his shoe, Yeon-shin writhed and unleashed another blood-curdling scream. This time, Yeon-oh hadn’t intended to apply more pressure; he had simply lost control of his muscles, the revelation having entirely blown his mind.

Misinterpreting the sudden pressure as another threat, Gi-hyeon reluctantly continued his confession, as if the words were being physically dragged from his throat.

“I’m pregnant. That’s why I came down here.”

What the fuck are you talking about? A deafening roar filled Yeon-oh’s ears. He went to pull his foot off Yeon-shin’s ankle but stumbled violently. He managed to correct his balance instantly, but his thoughts had already derailed, unleashing a catastrophic hurricane inside his skull.

He had heard the exact same accusation from Yeon-shin earlier but hadn’t believed a word of it; it was scientifically impossible. But… it’s true? The sheer absurdity of the situation threatened to rip a hysterical laugh from his throat, the corners of his mouth twitching upward uncontrollably. Yet his eyes remained devoid of any amusement, burning with a terrifying, frozen light.

“Gi-hyeon, did you run all the way down to the countryside to prepare for a comedian audition? Stop spouting bullshit and tell me again. You did what?”

Despite his mocking words, Yeon-oh’s voice trembled pathetically, betraying the complete collapse of his composure as the forced smirk finally surrendered and his lips flattened into a grim line.

Gi-hyeon stared at him with profound heaviness.

Despite the interrogation, the only thought paralyzing Gi-hyeon was, Why the hell is he standing there? Releasing a low, exhausted sigh, he replied.

“What does it matter to you?”

Hearing those words, Yeon-oh, whose eyes were still burning a violent crimson, let out a sharp, explosive bark of laughter. “Why wouldn’t it matter?”

A suffocating weight suddenly materialized in the air, pressing down on Gi-hyeon like a tangible manifestation of dominance. The scent was unmistakable. The aroma, resembling the rich, earthy bark of flowering trees, was Yeon-oh’s pheromones. Only then did the terrifying reality crash over Gi-hyeon: this was the legendary pheromonal suppression used to assert dominance in Alpha-Omega dynamics.

…I used to randomly think he lived in a completely different world than me, Gi-hyeon realized blankly, but it was actually true.

No wonder they had failed so spectacularly to understand each other and ended up in this catastrophic mess. If he had known the biological chasm between them was this vast from the beginning, he never would have bothered trying.

It wasn’t a regret over wasted time; he merely felt guilty for being such a persistent nuisance to Yeon-oh. He had poured too much time and far too much of his heart into an inherently doomed cause.

Glancing between the unconscious heap of Jo Yeon-shin and the junior officer clutching his mangled ankle and whimpering pathetically, Gi-hyeon released another deep, heavy sigh.

“Why did you come here?”

“Gi-hyeon, I asked you a question first.”

The sheer violence radiating from Yeon-oh was so intense it physically stung Gi-hyeon’s skin. Yet Gi-hyeon genuinely had no answer to offer. He couldn’t even begin to fathom why Yeon-oh had tracked him down. Yeon-oh had demanded a breakup, and Gi-hyeon had demanded a complete severing of ties. They had both witnessed the rotting, hollow core of a relationship they had miraculously kept on life support for over a decade finally collapse.

He couldn’t have come all this way just for me… Gi-hyeon deduced, his gaze flickering toward Yeon-shin.

Tracking the movement, Yeon-oh let out a hollow scoff before brutally kicking the unconscious cousin.

Ack—!

The steel toe of the dress shoe must have connected solidly with Yeon-shin’s jaw, because the Alpha rolled across the dirt, groaning in renewed agony. Rather than taking his frustration out on the greenhouse walls, Yeon-oh had apparently appointed his cousin as his personal punching bag.

Watching the violence exacerbated Gi-hyeon’s vertigo. He felt simultaneously anemic and violently seasick. Squeezing his eyes shut and reopening them, he saw Yeon-oh still standing firmly on Yeon-shin’s chest. He showed less hesitation than a man crushing a cockroach under his boot.

Finally ceasing his assault, Yeon-oh demanded, his breathing perfectly even, “…What else are you hiding from me? Your ankle, your secondary gender manifestation, this absolute bullshit about being pregnant. What else is there besides what I already heard from these fucking thugs?”

He had hidden a mountain of secrets. He could have confessed that their sexual encounter was the absolute genesis of this entire web of deceit, but he kept his mouth shut. He genuinely couldn’t comprehend why Yeon-oh was interrogating him.

They had broken up, multiple times. While Yeon-oh had previously refused to accept it, even stalking him to the Ilsan villa, Gi-hyeon had assumed his physical disappearance into the countryside had finalized the separation. Knowing Yeon-oh’s ruthlessly unforgiving nature, Gi-hyeon was certain the man wouldn’t grant him a second pardon like he had when they were children. Especially since, this time, Gi-hyeon had vanished without offering a single excuse.

When he fled, Gi-hyeon had believed their connection was permanently severed. Therefore, standing face-to-face with Yeon-oh in this utterly impossible location, the only emotion Gi-hyeon could muster was a vague, nauseating panic over his pregnancy being exposed.

Regardless of the circumstances, he had fully intended to keep the child a secret until birth, and ideally, forever.

It was, in his own twisted way, an act of consideration. The Yeon-oh that Gi-hyeon knew would suffer a catastrophic mental breakdown if he discovered he had impregnated his former Beta friend. Looking back from a distance, Gi-hyeon realized that throughout their seven-year charade, he was the only one who had genuinely viewed them as lovers; Yeon-oh had consistently treated him as a friend.

Given Yeon-oh’s rigid demarcation between friendship and romance, Gi-hyeon feared the man would find the concept of impregnating him utterly repulsive.

He refused to subject his unborn child to that kind of disgust. The kid would grow up perfectly fine without Yeon-oh. While he felt a twinge of guilt for unilaterally depriving the child of one of its natural parents, Gi-hyeon was absolutely confident in his ability to raise it alone.

And fundamentally…

“I don’t understand why I’m obligated to tell you any of this.”

…What reason do I have to be honest with Jo Yeon-oh?

It had been seven grueling years. He knew Yeon-oh had tried in his own way. But simultaneously, Yeon-oh had essentially taken Gi-hyeon’s feelings hostage, punishing him for them.

Gi-hyeon didn’t claim absolute innocence, but he believed their mutual transgressions essentially cancelled each other out. That was precisely why he hadn’t vomited a litany of resentful curses at Yeon-oh when he fled.

If anything, Yeon-oh’s current attitude was baffling. He was acting like a man who had been viciously robbed, glaring at Gi-hyeon with profound, incomprehensible injustice. I thought we were equally terrible to each other, Gi-hyeon mused. Frowning, he reiterated his stance.

“You’re the one who said let’s break up.”

“…”

“We broke up. How many more times do I have to say it?”

He didn’t even care that he was airing their dirty laundry in front of Yeon-shin. In fact, if Jo Gyu-deok learned through Yeon-shin that their relationship was permanently terminated, it would actually work in his favor.

While Gi-hyeon processed these strategic advantages, Yeon-oh simply stared at him in blank, uncomprehending shock.

“…So, what you’re saying is… I don’t even have the right to ask you this basic fucking question?”

His voice was hollow, completely drained of life. That wasn’t exactly what Gi-hyeon meant, but the core sentiment was accurate enough. Gi-hyeon’s gaze traced the hollowed-out contours of Yeon-oh’s cheeks, noting the obvious weight loss, before dismissing the observation as entirely irrelevant.

“I made myself perfectly clear last time. I assumed that even if you ignored my words, you at least understood them. Was I wrong?”

As the cold, surgical dismissal hung in the air, Yeon-oh, who had been standing as rigid as a wooden totem pole, suddenly lunged forward. As he closed the distance, Gi-hyeon felt an involuntary, terrifying urge to reach out and grab him. The pheromones pouring from Yeon-oh were actively, physically reeling him in.

The alien compulsion isolated Gi-hyeon inside his own body. In a horrifying flash of clarity, he realized he hadn’t packed Yeon-oh’s pheromone-soaked items from the Seoul apartment out of pure necessity; he had taken them because his newly altered biology fundamentally craved the satisfaction they provided.

As if sensing that internal surrender, Yeon-oh reached out and clamped his hand around Gi-hyeon’s wrist. The second their skin connected, a blistering, euphoric high flooded Gi-hyeon’s nervous system.

He was horrifyingly aware that something deep inside his biology was screaming in sheer ecstasy. The realization was absolutely nauseating.

Urp—!

The psychological revulsion instantly triggered a violent physical rejection. Tearing his free hand up to cover his mouth, Gi-hyeon gagged. He wasn’t repulsed by Yeon-oh; he was terrified by how desperately his body wanted to be consumed by him, and he hated himself for it. The sensation was infinitely more unbearable than the initial panic he had felt when Yeon-oh first materialized out of the darkness.

“You…”

Yeon-oh muttered something under his breath. Because Gi-hyeon was bent double, he couldn’t see the expression on the other man’s face. Gi-hyeon felt his vision tunneling, the world spinning violently around him. Keeping one hand clamped over his mouth, he wrapped his other arm protectively around his stomach. He couldn’t stop his knees from buckling.

“Something… is wrong with me…”

That pathetic, breathless confession was the only thing Gi-hyeon could manage before the darkness swallowed him.

***