Chapter 72

“…You’re making that up, you piece of shit.”

How could a medical necessity equate to a blatant sexual proposition?

He was absolutely certain Yeon-oh was exploiting his ignorance of Omega dynamics to manipulate him. Gi-hyeon knew better than anyone that Yeon-oh never missed a single opportunity to mock or terrorize him. This had to be another sadistic game.

He simply couldn’t comprehend the biological logic connecting a request for pheromones to a demand for sex. He desperately wanted to cross-reference this information with Beom-hee, but she was undoubtedly fast asleep in Seoul, completely oblivious to the catastrophic reality unfolding in this rural hospital.

Yeon-oh’s eyes narrowed into dark slits as he stared at Gi-hyeon, letting out a hollow, scoffing laugh.

“Have I ever, even once, joked about something like this with you?”

“…”

“Have I ever asked you what you use for spank bank material, or which hand you use to jerk off? Have I ever joked about it, or giggled over it with you?”

Yeon-oh was highlighting the absolute absence of any sexual banter or explicit jokes in their entire history. And he was right. Despite Yeon-oh possessing a mouth dirtier than a used mop, he had never once spoken to Gi-hyeon in a sexually explicit manner. Not once.

Because that was a boundary strictly forbidden to So Gi-hyeon, his lover of seven years.

Blinking his wide, blank eyes, Gi-hyeon muttered his response.

“…Then I can just ask Beom-hee… I’ll ask Beom-hee for a favor.”

Yeon-oh’s lips curled upward in a chilling, asymmetrical sneer, though the smile completely failed to reach his eyes.

“Do that, if you want to see Lee Beom-hee become a highly educated, permanently unemployed bitch.”

The threat instantly snapped Gi-hyeon out of his dazed panic. Processing the situation, he realized how utterly absurd the proposition was.

Even if he genuinely required an Alpha’s pheromones right now, why the hell did it have to be Jo Yeon-oh’s? He had chosen this miserable, exiled life specifically to permanently sever ties with the man he had broken up with. There was absolutely no reason to pathetically beg him for scraps now.

“Whether I get them from Lee Beom-hee or some other bastard, why the hell do you care? What exactly is our relationship supposed to be anyway?”

“…”

The mouth that had been incessantly spewing infuriating bullshit finally snapped shut. Gi-hyeon watched the veins throb violently across Yeon-oh’s forehead and down the nape of his flushed neck. Assuming the bastard was simply winding up to deliver another load of unhinged nonsense, Gi-hyeon waited. But Yeon-oh remained entirely silent, his gaze locked intensely onto Gi-hyeon.

The silence stretched, the unwavering, obsessive stare quickly wearing Gi-hyeon down.

“Stop bothering about me.”

The words scraped painfully against Gi-hyeon’s throat, betraying his reluctance to speak them. He couldn’t comprehend why he felt so thoroughly disgusting. Was it guilt over hiding the truth from the child’s biological father, or was there something darker festering beneath? He had fled to the countryside specifically to protect his own body, yet he suddenly felt overwhelmed by a bitter regret at having to endure this chaotic circus.

Encountering the junior officer, coupled with the glaring inconsistencies in Jo Yeon-shin’s rant, severely compounded his migraine. With a mountain of problems demanding his attention, his pregnant body was ruthlessly prioritizing its own survival over Gi-hyeon’s mental state. It was an exhausting, sigh-inducing reality.

While Gi-hyeon navigated this internal labyrinth, Yeon-oh simply continued to stare at him in total silence. Dropping his crossed arms, he gripped the metal frame of Gi-hyeon’s hospital bed. The veins on the back of his hand bulged grotesquely.

Just as Gi-hyeon opened his mouth to tell him to stop before he snapped the steel frame entirely, Yeon-oh spoke.

“…No.”

“What?”

“I said no. Stop arguing and take my pheromones.”

Gi-hyeon instinctively frowned at the command. Yeon-oh’s gaze locked onto the deep crease forming between Gi-hyeon’s brows. A sudden, dangerous spark flashed in his eyes, and he aggressively snatched Gi-hyeon’s wrist.

Startled, Gi-hyeon cried out reflexively.

“Let go of me, ah…”

A breathless moan slipped past his lips. Just as he attempted to yank his arm free, a strange sensation bled through the point of contact. No, it felt as though an invisible, suffocating weight was clinging to areas far beyond where their skin touched.

Ugh…

He couldn’t suppress the involuntary groan. Shocked by his own feverish, pained voice, Gi-hyeon slapped his free hand over his mouth. The suffocating knot that had been anchored in his chest for days miraculously unspooled, instantly soothing his frayed, screaming nerves.

It felt exactly like being slowly submerged into a pool of water crushed with every beautiful, intoxicating fragrance imaginable. Deeper and deeper. He was drowning in an inescapable swamp of pure, concentrated stability.

Observing Gi-hyeon’s rapid descent into a compliant daze, Yeon-oh stated, his face an emotionless mask.

“You have no idea. You don’t know what I am capable of giving you.”

“…”

Rapidly succumbing to the overwhelming pacification, Gi-hyeon could do nothing but blink his hazy, unfocused eyes. He desperately wanted to demand answers. What the hell is this? What are you doing to me? But his lips merely parted uselessly; no sound emerged.

Maintaining his chillingly blank expression, Yeon-oh stared down at Gi-hyeon, who was now sinking heavily into the pillow, with the cold detachment of a man examining an inanimate object. Positioned with his back to the ceiling lights, deep shadows masked Yeon-oh’s face. Gi-hyeon couldn’t decipher if the shadows were obscuring the emotion in Yeon-oh’s eyes, or if Yeon-oh was wearing an expression so fundamentally alien that Gi-hyeon simply couldn’t read his thoughts.

Paralyzed, Gi-hyeon couldn’t move a single finger. Without waiting for a response, Yeon-oh continued.

“Why can’t you understand that there is absolutely nothing I cannot give you.”

That was a blatant lie. What So Gi-hyeon truly desired was the one thing Jo Yeon-oh was fundamentally incapable of providing. Having dared to crave it exactly once, only to spend the ensuing years trapped in agonizing silence without ever asking for it again, Gi-hyeon desperately wanted to scream a rebuttal. Yet he remained entirely mute. His body, thoroughly saturated in Yeon-oh’s pheromones, had triggered a massive parasympathetic nervous system response, forcibly plunging him into a semi-comatose state of hyper-relaxation.

“You take it so well. Hm, Gi-hyeon? Answer me.”

“…”

Evidently relieved by the silence, Yeon-oh closely monitored Gi-hyeon’s dilated, unfocused pupils. He gently stroked Gi-hyeon’s smooth forehead, feeling the lukewarm body temperature beneath his palm.

To reclaim this simple, mundane warmth, Yeon-oh had deliberately plunged himself into a living hell over the past few days. Having finally found him, if Gi-hyeon genuinely believed Yeon-oh would retreat over a few harsh words, then So Gi-hyeon was still vastly underestimating him.

Gi-hyeon’s eyes remained glazed over. Beneath the artificially relaxed expression, Yeon-oh could read the subtle currents of profound anxiety. Given his sharp intuition, Gi-hyeon likely realized that this overwhelming physical pacification wasn’t exactly a natural or benign phenomenon.

Gi-hyeon was completely ignorant of the fact that an Alpha’s pheromones could trigger this specific physiological response. He had no idea that this was the most extreme, involuntary reflex a dominant Alpha executed when claiming their chosen mate. And, true to form, Jo Yeon-oh thoroughly welcomed So Gi-hyeon’s ignorance.

“There might be plenty of Alphas who can give you pheromones.”

“…”

“But the specific pheromones your body truly craves belong to someone else entirely.”

His explanation was clinically focused on the pheromones themselves. When a top-tier dominant Alpha coated their chosen mate in pheromones, that mark could only be overwritten by an Alpha of even higher dominance. It was a terrifyingly potent marking mechanism driven purely by an insatiable, possessive obsession with claiming the target. While slightly less permanent than a formal biological imprint, it possessed its own devastating efficacy, rapidly paralyzing Gi-hyeon’s body into complete submission.

However, by forcefully administering such an overwhelmingly potent drug into a previously unstimulated system, Yeon-oh ensured Gi-hyeon’s body would never again be satisfied by the pheromones of any other dominant Alpha. This was precisely Yeon-oh’s calculated endgame.

Yeon-oh leaned down, whispering directly against Gi-hyeon’s earlobe. The mere thought that his breath was disturbing the fine hairs on So Gi-hyeon’s neck simultaneously triggered a wave of violent nausea and a heavy, throbbing ache in his groin.

“Since you love it here so much, I’ll happily rot in this miserable shithole with you, despite my incredibly busy schedule.”

“…”

“We’ll return to Seoul together. Understood?”

Gi-hyeon offered no response. Standing up, Yeon-oh flagged down a passing nurse. He casually requested they process the discharge paperwork, stating he would be administering a pheromone shower. Nodding in comprehension, the nurse quickly relayed the request to the ER physician.

“Are you his spouse?”

The physician approached, looking slightly perplexed. Yeon-oh had initially identified himself merely as a guardian, making the sudden declaration of administering a deeply intimate pheromone shower highly irregular. While the doctor asked the question, Yeon-oh’s gaze flicked back to Gi-hyeon.

Gi-hyeon stared back, his eyes slowly drooping shut as the heavy, narcotic daze dragged him under. Yet, having known So Gi-hyeon for most of his life, Yeon-oh effortlessly decoded the glare. That look was silently, vehemently cursing him to hell.

Easily reading the hostility, Yeon-oh let out a soft chuckle before turning back to the doctor.

“…We haven’t formally registered our marriage yet.”

I wonder what expression you’re making right now, Yeon-oh thought. Even melting into a puddle, you’re probably burning up the last of your energy just to be annoyed with me.

But his previous statement hadn’t been a joke. Because every single event that had transpired today felt like a grotesque, sick prank, Yeon-oh had resolved to stop joking around entirely until the child was born.

You, knocked up with another bastard’s kid. It was the most absurd, infuriating punchline imaginable. He was utterly exhausted by So Gi-hyeon’s garbage sense of humor, spouting that fucking nonsense as if it were a hilarious prank.

Flashing a brilliant smile, Yeon-oh added a request.

“More importantly, I need to transfer the patient’s medical records to Haeseong Hospital. How should we proceed? His primary care physician is located there.”

The rural doctor was visibly startled to learn that a pregnant patient arriving with a completely destabilized pheromone system already possessed a dedicated primary physician at the elite Haeseong Hospital. He quickly nodded and began issuing instructions to the nurse, explaining that they only required the patient’s signed consent.

At that, Yeon-oh glanced back at Gi-hyeon. Will you consent? I really hope you do. Because if Gi-hyeon refused, Yeon-oh honestly didn’t know what horrific extremes he would be forced to resort to.

Watching Gi-hyeon’s eyes flutter, fighting a losing battle against the heavy lids, Yeon-oh let out a low chuckle. Right. If you won’t consent, I’ll just have to put in the effort to make you consent. Just like always. Even knowing full well that all his desperate efforts were destined to be thrown straight into the fucking gutter.

Turning his back on the doctor processing the discharge, Yeon-oh gently stroked the forehead of Gi-hyeon, who was now barely managing to blink once every ten seconds.

“My hands are rough, aren’t they. I’m sorry. Some bastard decided to escape down a drainpipe, so I had to violently scrub the bathroom floor until the tiles practically wore away. I ended up with jubu seupjin.”

“…”

“Just sleep for today. When you wake up tomorrow, you can kiss it better for me, honey.”

The nurse, waiting behind him to explain the discharge protocols, only caught the tail end of the sentence. She offered a soft, amused laugh. “You two seem to have a wonderful relationship.”

Yeon-oh nodded easily. “Yes. We’re certainly putting in the effort to maintain a very good relationship.”

He flashed a picture-perfect, affable smile. Behind him, Gi-hyeon’s eyes had finally slipped completely shut.

Now, it was time to scoop up the sleeping So Gi-hyeon and inspect the absolute shithole he had been hiding in.