After the chase and his clumsy attempt to run, the house Go Igyeol was dragged back to was dark from end to end.
The living room he was pushed into lay under only a faint wash of moonlight. The house was warm, but an inexplicable chill kept running through him, making him tremble again and again. He had dragged his feet because he did not want to go inside, and his slippers scraped noisily across the floor.
The sound rang through the silent house, announcing that Go Igyeol had returned. Even so, Seo Dohyeon stood in front of the window for a long time with his back turned.
Tonight, Seo Dohyeon’s frame looked even more imposing than usual. Go Igyeol swallowed dryly before he realized it. But that taut fear lasted only a moment. The pheromones Seo Dohyeon had left throughout the house loosened every nerve that had been pulled tight. Shamelessly, Go Igyeol became busy breathing in the pheromones he had craved so desperately.
He felt as though he might faint from fear, yet the alpha pheromones he drew deep into his lungs were unbearably sweet.
They were faint, but they settled his churning stomach and cleared his dizzy vision a little. Go Igyeol shuddered as the pheromones soaked sweetly into the body that had nearly fallen into preeclampsia. Just as red heat spread over his bluish-pale face, Seo Dohyeon, who had been staring outside all this time, turned toward him.
“I heard you’re pregnant.”
“…I can explain—”
“Is that why you ran?”
Seo Dohyeon’s expression, touched by the bluish moonlight, was cold.
“Because you were afraid I’d find out.”
His level voice made Go Igyeol’s body stiffen with tension. In all the time they had been married, he had never once seen Seo Dohyeon look so detached. Seo Dohyeon lifted the glass in his hand toward his mouth, then, as though he could no longer contain the anger rising in him, hurled it violently toward the spot where Go Igyeol stood.
Seo Dohyeon had never been a tender spouse, but he had never been violent toward Go Igyeol like this.
Crash!
Shatter—
The crystal glass struck the marble floor and burst into pieces. At the loud rupture of sound that rang through the empty space, Go Igyeol reflexively wrapped his arms around his stomach and curled in on himself.
Seo Dohyeon could no longer hold back. He strode toward Go Igyeol. He raised his hand, anger uncontrolled, only to let out a hollow laugh when he saw that painfully thin body. Then he grabbed his terrified omega and pulled him close.
“Answer me. The child in your belly—is it mine?”
“……”
“Ah. So that’s why you asked for a divorce? You asked me for a divorce, didn’t you, Go Igyeol? Once your belly started showing, I’d find out you were pregnant. Then I’d know it wasn’t mine. So you decided to get ahead of it, didn’t you?”
Seo Dohyeon poured the words out as if he had reached some profound realization. Go Igyeol, who had been unable to meet his eyes, snapped his head up. He looked as though he had been slapped across the face, though no one had touched him. His swollen lips moved as if he meant to defend himself, and the eyes lifted toward Seo Dohyeon quickly grew wet.
“What… what are you talking about…?”
It was a situation he had never imagined, not while he was away from Seo Dohyeon, and not while he was being brought back. These were not the words he had expected to hear.
While hiding from Seo Dohyeon, he had pictured countless ways their confrontation might go, but this scene had not been among them. A Seo Dohyeon who asked whether the child in his belly was really his had never existed in Go Igyeol’s imagination.
“I’m not the kind of person who makes mistakes.”
“…So right now, you’re saying…”
“If you were going to cheat, you should at least not have acted as if your body opened only for me.”
“The baby…”
The moisture brimming in his light brown eyes spilled over, falling drop after drop. Seo Dohyeon was convinced Go Igyeol had been unfaithful. He did not seem to have considered, not even for a moment, the possibility that the child might be his.
How could he?
Go Igyeol was bewildered. Endlessly sad. He did not want to believe in this Seo Dohyeon, who doubted him. He did not want to believe this moment was real.
“I…”
He had thought Seo Dohyeon would naturally be angry because he had left the house without a word. He had thought it was his fault for not telling him the truth as soon as he found out he was pregnant.
So the entire way back, he had meant to apologize.
He had resolved to confess honestly that he had been scared Seo Dohyeon would make him give up the baby. He had meant to say that something must have gone wrong with the contraception, that this was their child. And that he wanted to have this baby. So please, please let him raise it.
“The way you were alone, I assume the bastard who got you pregnant has no intention of taking responsibility.”
At the cold words, Go Igyeol could not answer. Tears simply fell from his eyes. Seo Dohyeon looked at that face, still beautiful despite how worn down it was, and smiled bitterly.
“But I have no intention of taking that child in either.”
Seo Dohyeon loosened the hand that had been gripping him and slowly let Go Igyeol go. With his usual languid, chilling expression, he drew Go Igyeol’s gaze back to him.
“Have the baby.”
“Hh, hng…”
He reached out with one large hand and covered Go Igyeol’s stomach, which had only just begun to swell, while dressing his voice in boundless tenderness.
“That way, you’ll lose it before you ever get to hold it. So give birth to it healthy. Our divorce comes after that.”
“Seo Dohyeon, the baby—”
“Don’t tell me you’re about to say it’s mine.”
As Seo Dohyeon started to pull away, Go Igyeol hurriedly grabbed him. His thin fingers clutched at Seo Dohyeon’s sleeve with pitiful strength and tugged. Seo Dohyeon looked down at the back of Go Igyeol’s hand, where fine blue veins showed through like tangled spiderwebs, then shook him off as though something filthy had touched him.
His cold face twisted sharply with disgust.
“You’re too dirty right now, Go Igyeol. But I’m desperate enough that I need to use you. So go wash. Thoroughly.”
“…No. It isn’t like that. That’s not… I…”
The tears gathered at his chin like glass beads pattered to the floor. Go Igyeol grabbed Seo Dohyeon’s arm again—the arm of the man who had called him dirty—and shook his head.
It isn’t like that. It isn’t someone else’s child. It’s true.
At the desperate excuses he offered, Seo Dohyeon gave a derisive snort and moved his hand. He wiped Go Igyeol’s soaked cheek and spoke indifferently.
“Those are the kinds of things you say before you run away, Go Igyeol. Not after you get caught and dragged back.”
“…No, no. Hh, no. It’s really—”
“Go Igyeol.”
His name was spoken like a sigh.
“I’m holding back a great deal. So don’t push it.”
Seo Dohyeon brushed away the moisture clinging to Go Igyeol’s lashes and turned away completely. At the sight of his retreating back, Go Igyeol’s body, which had barely been holding itself upright, collapsed.
He sank to the floor and sobbed.
He had thought Seo Dohyeon would be furious. If he put himself in Seo Dohyeon’s place, he had thought that was only natural. Even if Seo Dohyeon got angry, he had told himself not to feel hurt. It was his fault for running. It was his fault for leaving so recklessly, so he had to accept it humbly.
Every resolution he had made became useless.
“I hid it because I was scared… Hh, because you… because you wouldn’t want a child, so I was scared. But I want to… have the baby. And… hng, I want to raise it together. If you’re all right with that, Seo Dohyeon. Hup, ah… hhk.”
The clumsy but sincere confession he had prepared never reached Seo Dohyeon.
Because to a man who did not believe him, every word would only sound like a lie.
Seo Dohyeon’s voice as he asked whether the child was really his remained painfully clear, lodged deep in Go Igyeol’s chest.