Yudam had said it would take about thirty minutes, but he arrived in twenty.
When Yudam called to say he was outside the hospital, Ian went down to meet him—and froze at the sight of what he had brought.
“You… What is that…?”
A large suitcase stood beside him.
“Let’s run away.”
Yudam spoke before Ian could ask anything else. He grabbed Ian by the arm and glanced around warily, as though checking to see if anyone had followed him.
It was three-thirty in the morning. Not a soul was passing in front of the hospital. Only the emergency room farther down the road was brightly lit.
“Even just for a month. Let’s go overseas. Or if we can’t, Jeju, Gangwon, anywhere. I don’t care where. Just come with me. Please?”
Yudam pleaded in a frantic jumble.
Ian swallowed a sigh, gently removed Yudam’s hand from his arm, and patted the back of it.
“Calm down first.”
He led Yudam over to a bench, sat him down, and bought a warm canned drink from the vending machine. Ian even opened it before handing it over, but Yudam showed no interest in drinking. He just kept looking around.
“They might catch me if we stay here. The second they realize I’m gone, this is the first place they’ll come looking. So hurry…”
“Yudam.”
Ian’s quiet voice made him stop and look up.
“Where exactly are we supposed to go? And after we run away? What happens then?”
It was easy to say, but it wasn’t realistic.
Ian himself had lived comfortably, but Yudam had been born into an affluent family and raised without hardship. He had never had to struggle for anything.
“You have to get prescriptions for your heat suppressants every time too.”
And Yudam was an omega.
He needed regular hospital visits to have his heat suppressants prescribed. No matter where they ran, it would be easy to find him by tracing his medical records.
And if Yudam disappeared with Ian, there was no chance his parents would simply sit back and do nothing.
“Then I just won’t go to a hospital.”
Yudam stubbornly proposed something absurd.
“Don’t be ridiculous—”
“Bond with me. Then I won’t need suppressants. During my next heat… we can form the bond then.”
Ian’s expression hardened at the mention of bonding.
They had been together for nearly ten years, but Ian had never slept with Yudam. Naturally, he had never seriously considered forming a bond either.
He had always intended to take those steps properly, one by one, after they were married.
“No.”
Only a month ago, if Yudam had pestered him about bonding, Ian would have told him they should have a proper wedding first.
But things were different now.
Ian had nothing he could offer Yudam.
All he had left was his mother lying in a hospital bed, her medical bills, and the debts his father had left behind. He could not ask Yudam to shoulder that burden with him.
He couldn’t even promise Yudam happiness, much less take responsibility for him.
“You know what my situation is.”
It wasn’t as though Ian intended to break up with him.
Once this chaos settled down and his circumstances improved a little, he still meant to marry Yudam properly.
But everything around him seemed determined not to give him that time.
“I don’t care about any of that!”
Yudam’s voice rose.
“If I just sit around doing nothing, they’re going to drag me to an engagement ceremony whether I want it or not. Are you seriously fine with me getting engaged to Kang Yunhui? With me marrying him?”
Ian fell silent, unable to answer.
Maybe it was because he had just dreamed about their high-school days.
For a moment, Ian even found himself thinking that perhaps it would have been better if Yudam had chosen Yunhui back then instead of him.
“Seo Ian!”
When Ian failed to answer immediately, Yudam called his name in growing desperation.
“Do you even love me?”
Ian couldn’t answer that either.
Given the situation he was in now, saying I love you felt almost shameless.
“You seriously…”
Yudam trailed off, his eyes reddening.
“I always thought it was fine that you never said things like ‘I love you.’ I knew I mattered to you. But not being able to answer even now… that’s too much.”
At Yudam’s reproach, Ian lowered his gaze.
It’s because of the situation we’re in that I can’t say it.
The words hovered on the tip of his tongue, but anything he said would only sound like an excuse.
“You said you weren’t going to break up with me! My mom came to see you, didn’t she? What did she say? Are you actually going to give me up just because of that? Is that really all I mean to you?”
Yudam bombarded him with questions.
Ian drew a long breath before answering slowly.
“I’ve never met your mother. And even if she came to me herself and said something, I wouldn’t break up with you because of that.”
Yudam’s mother had drawn a clear line through her secretary when she informed Ian about the engagement talks, but Ian could understand why.
His father’s reputation had been destroyed. Naturally, she would want to keep her family from being dragged into the fallout.
What bothered Ian far more was Yunhui coming to the hospital personally to warn him.
“Then that’s enough.”
Yudam wiped the tears gathering at the corners of his eyes with the back of his hand and stood.
“You don’t want to break up with me, right?”
He sought confirmation again.
Ian nodded.
“Then run away with me. I’m not asking us to disappear forever. Three months. No, one month. If that’s too much, even two weeks. That should be long enough for my parents to give up.”
Yudam explained that his parents were trying to force the engagement through immediately, so he just needed time to avoid it.
If he disappeared with Ian, his parents would have no choice but to back down.
And, Yudam added, what could they possibly do if the two of them got lucky and he ended up pregnant in the meantime?
A child?
Ian couldn’t do something that irresponsible before they were even married.
Whether it was bonding or pregnancy, those were things Ian could not consider before marriage.
Especially because it was Yudam.
He wasn’t some omega Ian had met casually. He was someone Ian had treasured for nearly his entire life.
That was precisely why Ian couldn’t treat any of it lightly.
Besides…
“Seo Ian!”
When Ian continued to stand there without giving him an answer, Yudam urged him again, visibly anxious.
“I’m sorry. I can’t.”
Yudam’s face crumpled at the refusal.
“Why? You just said you don’t want to break up with me!”
“I don’t. But… I can’t leave this place right now.”
Ian looked back toward the hospital.
His mother was lying inside.
Without immediate treatment, her condition could become dangerous. Ian hadn’t even found a way to pay for that treatment, yet he was supposed to abandon her and run away with Yudam?
It was impossible.
“I’ll hire people to stay with your mother. I’ll make sure she gets proper treatment, I swear…”
Yudam tried to persuade him, but Ian shook his head.
No matter how much Yudam promised to take care of everything, it would mean nothing if his parents stepped in to stop him.
The hospital belonged to Yudam’s family. Naturally, its doctors would listen to his parents, not to Yudam.
“You should go somewhere and lie low.”
Ian understood why Yudam didn’t want to go home.
Whether the prospective partner was Yunhui or anyone else, Ian didn’t want Yudam being forced into a marriage he didn’t want.
“By myself? What’s the point if you’re not there?”
Yudam dug in his heels.
No matter what happened, he insisted that Ian had to come with him.
Ian was torn.
He didn’t like the idea of sending Yudam away alone, but he couldn’t abandon his mother either.
“If it’s because of your mother, I told you I’ll take responsibility for her! Just one month. You can have someone else look after her for one month.”
Yudam pleaded through tears.
The more desperate he became, the harder it was for Ian to stand firm, but simply running away still felt wrong.
He couldn’t leave his mother alone in the middle of this disaster.
And although he had practically been driven out, there were still matters at the company that had not been fully resolved. If Ian disappeared now, all the fallout would inevitably land on his mother.
“I’m sorry.”
Ian gently removed Yudam’s hands from his arm.
The moment his hands fell away, Yudam looked devastated.
“So I wasn’t the most important person to you after all.”
His voice was barely audible.
“That’s not…”
“It’s not? You really mean that?”
Tears flooded Yudam’s eyes in an instant.
Faced with that expression, Ian felt as though a huge stone had lodged in his throat, choking off every word.
“I don’t need anything else. As long as I have you…”
The tears that had pooled in Yudam’s eyes finally spilled down his cheeks.
Watching him cry made Ian’s heart constrict.
He hadn’t meant to make him cry.
He felt terrible knowing that, in one way or another, he seemed to have done nothing but hurt Yudam.
“I feel the same. It’s just…”
Ian reached out to wipe the tears from Yudam’s cheek—
A hand shot between them and clamped around Ian’s wrist.
Ian turned, eyes widening.
He hadn’t sensed anyone approaching, yet Kang Yunhui was already standing there, glaring at him with an icy expression.
“I warned you.”
His voice was cold enough to frost the air.
“Don’t meet with Han Yudam.”
Yudam’s eyes had gone wide in shock, but the words immediately set him off.
“Who the hell are you to tell Ian whether he can see me or not?”
Yudam tried to pry Yunhui’s hand away from Ian’s wrist.
Yunhui clicked his tongue and shoved Yudam away with his other hand.
Yudam staggered backward and fell to the ground.
“Han Yudam!”
Ian tried to rush over and help him up, but with Yunhui still gripping his wrist, he couldn’t move an inch.