After feeling under the weather for several days, Jaekyung finally came down with a bad cold and flu. No wonder he had been feeling so chilled…
If he had gotten sick the night before, he could at least have told the store manager in advance. But he only became seriously ill around the time he was supposed to leave for work, so he hadn’t even been able to give them any warning.
Jaekyung crouched down inside the convenience store, his body trembling violently.
Even after wrapping himself in a blanket from the stockroom, perhaps because he was sitting so close to the door, he could still feel the cold seeping into his bones. He did everything he could to keep himself warm.
But no matter how much you warmed the body, there was a kind of cold inside that warmth could never reach.
Jaekyung had learned that all too painfully over the past five years.
At the sound of the door opening with a little jingle, Jaekyung shot to his feet.
A customer who was thoroughly drunk staggered over and pulled a card from his wallet.
“Welcome.”
Jaekyung greeted him politely with a smile, as though he had never been sick at all.
-“Two Hiltons!”
The moment he heard the brand of cigarettes, Jaekyung quickly took out two packs, scanned the barcodes, and rang up the purchase.
-“Hmm?”
The customer sniffed the air, then leaned his body toward Jaekyung.
Startled, Jaekyung recoiled.
The man’s behavior, as though he were trying to catch Jaekyung’s pheromones, was extremely rude. Under other circumstances, it could even have been reported as harassment of an Omega. But the man was drunk, and apparently too intoxicated to realize how inappropriate his behavior was.
More importantly, Jaekyung was currently imprinted, so no one except that person could detect his pheromones.
“Maybe not…?”
The man scratched his head, then staggered out with the card and cigarettes Jaekyung had handed him.
“Thank you. Please come again!”
Jaekyung gave him a bright, energetic farewell.
The moment the door closed, Jaekyung hurriedly wrapped himself back up in the blanket and smelled his own body.
There was no scent at all.
His heat cycle was approaching, and it hadn’t been long since he had taken his suppressants. There was no way his imprinting could have been broken without the Alpha’s consent, so the man’s behavior really was suspicious.
Then again, Jaekyung didn’t even know whether that man was an Alpha, Beta, or Omega.
The only pheromones Jaekyung himself could detect were that man’s—Han Taeseok’s.
“Hmm… Maybe he smelled sweat?”
Right. He had a cold, after all… He had been breaking out in a cold sweat for a while, too, so maybe that was what the man had noticed.
Jaekyung decided to think positively.
Still, he should go to the hospital tomorrow.
Before he got any sicker
***
He somehow managed to hold out until dawn and eventually made it home. After lying on the warm electric heating pad to heat himself up, he got up around two in the afternoon and headed to the hospital.
At first, he set out for a local internal medicine clinic, but there wasn’t one in the neighborhood. The internal medicine clinic near the intersection had closed because it was relocating, leaving Jaekyung at a loss.
He was already reaching his limit. He couldn’t afford to spend more time searching for another hospital and then wait to be seen. Even though he had slept well, his body still felt unbearably heavy, and his fever was raging.
With no other choice, Jaekyung headed to the hospital where his regular doctor worked.
After driving for about fifty minutes, he arrived at the university hospital. The moment he gave his name, he was connected with the professor who had been treating him since he was young.
However, the professor was apparently making his rounds, so a nurse told him he would have to wait about ten minutes. Jaekyung said that was fine and sat down in the waiting area.
His fever was so high that even his eyes felt as though they were going to pop out of their sockets.
This really doesn’t feel like my body anymore… Is this worse than a heat cycle?
Jaekyung compared the cold and flu to the heat cycle he couldn’t even remember the last time he had gone through, then laughed.
When you were sick, the strangest things could seem funny.
“…Park… Jaekyung?”
A familiar voice—a voice he never wanted to hear, and one he had never expected to hear here.
It was that sharp voice belonging to the very woman who had been the source of so much of his suffering.
Jaekyung instinctively sprang up from his hunched position and stood rigidly upright.
His vision was blurred from the fever, but the woman standing before him in a red suit was unmistakably clear.
“M-Mother…”
The woman looked exactly as she had the first time they met.
She was still young and beautiful, with the proud bearing of a queen.
The moment she confirmed that it was Jaekyung, she dismissed everyone around her.
He should have anticipated that something like this could happen…
-“Im not your mother anymore, You’re not even with NI anymore.”
“I’m sorry.”
-“I’m tired of hearing you apologize. But what brings you here? Are you sick?”
“Ah… I’m here because I’m coming down with the flu.”
-“The flu…?”
The woman’s expression remained unchanged, but her eyes glinted suspiciously. Jaekyung immediately understood what that look meant and shook his head.
“I’m not pregnant.”
-“…Are you sure?”
“Yes. There’s absolutely no way I could be pregnant.”
-“That’s a relief. It’s only been a little over a month since you two separated, so it wasn’t completely impossible. I was worried about it myself. If you were to become pregnant now, wouldn’t that put Director Han in a difficult position?”
“I know. So you don’t need to worry.”
-“I’ll take your word for it. And… you’re not going to meet or contact Director Han separately, are you?”
“No. Of course not.”
That had been the second condition of their divorce.
He was not to contact or meet with him first. If they were ever to meet or speak, it had to be because he contacted Jaekyung first.
Director Ji looked Jaekyung up and down with a doubtful expression before clicking her tongue.
It was understandable. Jaekyung was currently dressed in wrinkled sneakers, a black T-shirt, jeans, and a single windbreaker. It was a shabby appearance that would have been unimaginable while he was living in the NI household.
And it was exactly the kind of appearance Director Ji hated most.
Now that he no longer had to worry about her opinion, Jaekyung straightened his shoulders and stood a little more proudly.
Without even saying goodbye, she clicked her heels as she walked toward the elevator.
At once, the people who had been waiting behind her hurried out in a group to see her off.
The moment she disappeared from sight, Jaekyung felt like he was going to throw up. He rushed straight to the restroom and vomited up stomach acid.
It was the worst.
Even though a month had already passed, it still felt as though he was trapped by the atmosphere of that household.
That suffocating feeling.
That desperate urge to run away.
That time when he had been all alone.
-“Mr. Park Jaekyung!”
The nurse’s voice calling for him from outside snapped him back to reality.
Jaekyung quickly rinsed his mouth and stepped outside.
“Oh! Yes!”
As he entered the examination room, the witch was already gone.
Yes. Not anymore.
I’m free now. I sacrificed and gave up so much to get away from them, so it’s all right.
All that’s left now is for me to be happy.
**
“I’m curious how the two of you came to meet.”
At the press conference held at the hotel, only the questions that had been agreed upon with the media outlets beforehand were asked. Jaekyung and Han Taeseok recited their answers one after another, following the prepared script.
Their movements and answers were mechanical and passive, but no one in the room noticed anything strange.
Of course they didn’t.
They were all accomplices.
“We met at a family gathering when we were in high school.”
No. We had never met even once back then.
They needed to come up with a believable story about how they had met, and since there was absolutely no connection between them during their university years, they decided to mention an unofficial gathering when they were high school students.
Ordinary people didn’t even know that such gatherings existed.
Of course, there had never actually been such a gathering.
The reporters wrote their articles without a hint of suspicion—though the articles had probably already been completed beforehand anyway.
The two of them dutifully finished their thirty-minute performance and returned to the waiting room.
They sat on the sofa that had been prepared for them and waited for Han Taeseok’s lawyer and chief of staff to arrive.
About ten minutes later, they were informed that all the members of the press had entered the banquet hall.
-“Mr. Park, go to the banquet hall and mingle with them. These are people you’ll be relying on from now on.”
Was this his first official duty as part of NI?
They weren’t married yet, but for Jaekyung, this was his first official appearance as Han Taeseok’s partner.
“…Yes.”
The moment Han Taeseok heard his answer, he left the room with his people.
Jaekyung stood up and went over to the vanity, checking his hair and outfit one more time.
-“Mr. Jaekyung…”
Two women who appeared to be hotel staff entered carrying a suit, accompanied by a soft knock at the door.
-“ We were told to have you change into this.”
Who told them?
That would probably have been a foolish question.
Jaekyung didn’t even have to dress himself. Two coordinators, a man and a woman, came in and changed him into the suit. They adjusted the fit perfectly, secured everything with pins, and brought him cufflinks and a watch that matched exactly.
They touched up his hair, gave his makeup a slight adjustment, and finally had him put on the shoes they had selected for him.
The reflection in the mirror looked so unfamiliar.
Unlike his usual appearance, where there was always some small imperfection or hint of dishevelment, there wasn’t even the slightest gap in the person staring back at him now.
Is this the image NI wants?
He looked too rigid, too impersonal.
As though every trace of warmth had been carefully stripped away. As though he didn’t care about anyone in the world except himself.
Jaekyung almost felt repulsed by his own reflection.
But he composed himself and followed the hotel manager as he was escorted toward the banquet hall.
The enormous banquet hall was filled with all the key figures from the media outlets who had conducted the mechanical interview earlier—reporters, bureau chiefs, and other influential figures.
The moment Jaekyung entered, they all stopped their cheerful conversations and looked at him with the same cold, scrutinizing eyes Director Ji had given him.
At least a hundred pairs of eyes were fixed on him.
Jaekyung clenched his fists once, then relaxed them. He straightened his shoulders and looked back at them with a composed smile.
“Are you all enjoying yourselves?”
He met their piercing gazes head-on and stepped forward, walking right into the midst of them.
“I’m tired…”
That was the first thing Jaekyung said the moment he got into the car.
As always, the driver Seo, assigned to him by Han Taeseok, said nothing and simply continued driving in silence.
When Jaekyung checked his phone, there wasn’t a single missed call or text message.
At least, on KakaoTalk, some of his former teammates had sent him photos from the press conference, encouraging him. Jaekyung sent them a quick thank-you and was just about to put his phone back into his pocket when a text came in.
I heard everything went well. You worked hard.
The message was from the last person he had expected.
His exhausted body, which had been on the verge of collapsing from fatigue just moments ago, suddenly seemed to come back to life. Jaekyung blinked at the message, unable to believe what he was seeing.
Do I… need to reply?
I should, right? I can’t just ignore it.
Clutching his phone, Jaekyung agonized over his response for a while before cautiously typing a single sentence.
Thank you. You worked hard today as well, Director Han. Get some rest.
The moment he hit send, he regretted it.
I should have written a little more. There were better things I could have said!
He felt a pang of disappointment.
It wasn’t as though this would make him grow close to Han Taeseok, nor would his heart suddenly open up to him over something as trivial as this.
Still, Jaekyung thought it was only natural to return kindness with kindness when the other person had shown him a certain degree of consideration first.
He waited five minutes, wondering if perhaps a reply would come.
Nothing.
His strength rapidly drained away again. His body gradually slumped farther into the seat, but he continued staring at the message Han Taeseok had sent.
Maybe next time, I’ll be able to say something a little different.
Jaekyung found himself looking forward to it.
But as always, whenever it came to Han Taeseok, his expectations were crushed.
The next time he saw him was on their wedding day.