“Mondays fucking suck. I can’t live like this.”
“Every day sucks.”
“We should kill Monday first, then Thursday. That bastard always pretends to be Friday.”
The three therapists sat in a row in front of their computers, complaining with such perfect timing that it sounded rehearsed. Gi-hyeon found it mildly amusing. Despite all the dramatic whining, every one of them had still shown up exactly on time.
Rather than pointing that out and getting himself attacked, he quietly set a drink carrier full of coffees on the desk.
“Drink while you work.”
“What the hell? Dr. So, are you secretly rich or something? Why’d you buy all this coffee?”
He definitely wasn’t rich, but since an actual chaebol had driven him nearly to the hospital entrance that morning, he’d had enough time to stop by a café first. And the card he’d used belonged entirely to Jo Yeon-oh.
Gi-hyeon used it occasionally without much thought. If he didn’t spend enough money with it, Yeon-oh would inevitably corner him and lecture him about it for an hour. Avoiding that conversation was easier.
After placing the final cup on Team Leader Lim’s desk—even though the man still hadn’t shown up despite it being almost nine—Gi-hyeon unwrapped his straw, pushed it into his iced coffee, and sat down to organize his patient charts.
“By the way, Dr. So, did something good happen this weekend? You look great today.”
“I just slept well.”
“Seriously? That explains your skin.”
Watching Chang-won enthusiastically give him a thumbs-up, Gi-hyeon nodded slowly.
Yesterday—Sunday—Jo Yeon-oh had been occupied with a golf appointment for once. After seeing him off early in the morning and feeding the goldfish, Gi-hyeon had gone straight back to sleep.
At some point during the day, Manager Yoo had called.
“The Chairman specifically asked me to make sure you eat your meals.”
Gi-hyeon had mumbled that he understood, hung up, and immediately fallen back asleep.
Thanks to that absurd amount of uninterrupted rest, the dryness and exhaustion that had been clinging to his skin for days had disappeared completely. After waking up refreshed, he drank a protein shake, worked out, showered, and went back to sleep again.
Honestly, it had been the best weekend he’d had in a long time.
By the time Jo Yeon-oh finally returned home after golf and some company dinner, Gi-hyeon had already been dead asleep. As a result, he’d managed to sleep late into Monday morning too.
—How can one person sleep that much?
This morning, Yeon-oh had stared at him in disbelief while saying that, but Gi-hyeon hadn’t even felt irritated.
The effects of proper sleep were incredible.
He’d gotten up in a surprisingly good mood, washed up, and even made breakfast for the Alpha. While he didn’t have any specialty dishes, his cooking was decent enough.
He made a simple egg drop soup with black pepper and set it on the table. Jo Yeon-oh immediately lowered his head over the bowl, drank half the broth in one go, then pushed the empty bowl forward asking for more.
Yeon-oh normally had excellent table manners and never started eating before the other person sat down, so the sight had been unusual.
Only afterward did Gi-hyeon find out the Alpha had been drinking heavily the night before.
—For someone with terrible alcohol tolerance, you’ve been drinking a lot lately.
—Yeah. I feel like I’m dying.
After breakfast, the two of them crawled through rush-hour traffic together. Manager Yoo hadn’t come that morning for some reason, leaving Yeon-oh to drive himself.
When Gi-hyeon got out near the hospital, the Alpha already looked exhausted, and the role reversal amused him slightly.
Unfortunately, the pleasant start to the day didn’t last long.
Not long after arriving at work, an uncomfortable heat spread through his body. Gi-hyeon tilted his head slightly in confusion.
He usually ran cold, but today his body felt strangely hot. Heat prickled across his cheeks, and his whole body felt heavy.
Still, hospitals weren’t places where personal discomfort mattered much. Ignoring it, Gi-hyeon focused on work.
A youth soccer club had scheduled a large group screening first thing Monday morning, and the clinic quickly descended into chaos. The waiting area filled with noisy children under thirteen, and conducting strength assessments for that many athletes required an enormous amount of manpower.
Meanwhile, Team Leader Lim had disappeared outside with Dr. Park for a smoke break.
Apparently, the team director and coaches had followed them under the excuse of “discussing the athletes,” leaving the remaining staff to deal with the disaster alone.
As a result, Gi-hyeon ended up handling the children while simultaneously monitoring rehabilitation exercises for his regular patients. By noon, he already felt exhausted.
When Seung-hee passed by and saw the state he was in, she lied to her department about going to the restroom and slipped over to help him with a few of the strength tests. It helped tremendously, but there was still too much work.
In order to finish the assessments on schedule and send the athletes downstairs for diagnostics, Gi-hyeon ended up sacrificing his lunch break entirely.
That was when the chills started.
He’d spent the entire morning burning up, only to suddenly start shivering. It felt exactly like the onset of a bad cold. He hurriedly made an appointment with Family Medicine for the afternoon, but the moment lunch hour ended, the clinic became chaotic again, and he lost any chance to leave.
By the time his shift finally ended, cold sweat clung unpleasantly to his body.
“Seriously, you worked so hard today, Dr. So.”
“I’m really sorry, Dr. So… I honestly didn’t want to leave either…”
Chang-won looked genuinely guilty as he apologized, but Gi-hyeon simply shook his head. Team Leader Lim abusing his authority was practically routine at this point.
At least the hospital doors officially closed at six.
That was the only comforting thought he had left.
The mandatory wrap-up meeting pushed them past closing time, but Gi-hyeon decided to shower before going home anyway. Strength testing wasn’t passive work. Therapists spent the entire day shouting instructions, physically supporting athletes, and hauling equipment around. By the end of the shift, his uniform was soaked through.
And after spending the day alternating between fever and chills, the cold sweat on his skin felt disgusting.
Just as he turned toward the shower room, his phone vibrated. Assuming it was Jo Yeon-oh, he answered without checking the screen.
“Doc!”
The voice blasting through the speaker was far brighter and younger than expected. Pulling the phone away, Gi-hyeon checked the caller ID before bringing it back to his ear.
“Yeah, Cheol-jin.”
It was Park Cheol-jin, the swimmer.
Even though it wasn’t competition season yet, spring training was brutal, and Gi-hyeon immediately worried the athlete’s shoulder might be hurting again.
Instead, Cheol-jin sounded excited.
“I’m near the hospital right now! Want to grab dinner together?”
“Today?”
Gi-hyeon glanced at the clock. It was almost seven.
Jo Yeon-oh hadn’t said anything about his schedule today. Around this time, the Alpha was usually trapped in meetings with Seok-chan anyway, so Gi-hyeon figured he could message Manager Yoo later if necessary.
Standing in front of his locker, he pulled off his scrub top.
“Come to the hospital. We’ll go together.”
“I’ll run there right now!”
The call ended abruptly.
It really must be nice to have that much energy.
Chuckling quietly to himself, Gi-hyeon stripped down and headed into the showers. The moment he stepped under the water, he turned it as cold as possible.
After the chills earlier, his fever had returned again. His body felt wrong in a way he couldn’t ignore anymore.
Tomorrow, he definitely needed to get checked properly.
Family Medicine on the third floor was usually quiet. He decided he’d call the nurse first thing in the morning and head down the moment there was an opening.
After enduring the freezing water, Gi-hyeon stepped back into the locker room. He had barely finished pulling on his pants when the door swung open.
“Gi-hyeon-ssaem!”
…Why does someone always walk in while I’m changing lately?
Suppressing the strange sense of déjà vu, Gi-hyeon sighed and waved him away.
“I’m getting dressed. Wait outside.”
“Ah— yes! Sorry!”
Cheol-jin nearly stumbled over himself backing out of the room.
The sight was oddly funny. Despite being built like a wall and nearly as large as Jo Yeon-oh, the twenty-one-year-old still reacted with ridiculous innocence.
Sure, he was an Alpha, but Gi-hyeon was a Beta man. There was no reason for him to look that mortified.
Watching the back of the boy’s neck turn bright red as he fled, Gi-hyeon couldn’t help laughing quietly.
Knowing Cheol-jin was waiting outside, he dressed quickly and stepped into the hallway.
“Sorry. Let’s go.”
“No, it’s fine… I just didn’t realize you were changing…”
“Then take responsibility for it. My marriage prospects are ruined now.”
Gi-hyeon said it completely deadpan as he started walking.
Cheol-jin hurried after him, looking horrified.
At 179 centimeters, Gi-hyeon wasn’t short by any means, but both Cheol-jin and Jo Yeon-oh were so absurdly large that they always ended up lowering their heads to talk to him. He found it irritating every time.
He knew Alphas naturally tended to be bigger, but moments like this still made him wonder whether he should have tried harder to grow taller when he was younger.
There was still no message from Jo Yeon-oh.
After briefly considering whether to contact Manager Yoo, Gi-hyeon simply sent Yeon-oh a text saying he was having dinner before heading home.
Standing in front of the elevator, he rolled his stiff shoulders.
“What do you want to eat?”
“…Whatever you want, Doc.”
Cheol-jin’s ears were still bright red.
Honestly, you’d think he’d seen me naked.
“You’re still embarrassed? Or are you trying not to throw up because my body looks terrible?”
“N-No! Your body looked really good—I mean…”
Cheol-jin abruptly cut himself off and bit down on his lower lip, looking deeply conflicted.
For a moment, Gi-hyeon wondered if the boy’s shoulder had suddenly started hurting again, but before he could ask, the elevator doors opened.
“Let’s try that new place across the street. They make good steamed sea bream.”
“Yes, sir…”
Listening to Cheol-jin’s awkward stammering, Gi-hyeon smiled faintly.
Despite the exhausting day, having a discharged patient come back personally to tell him they’d achieved a new record was genuinely rewarding.
Cheol-jin was strictly controlling his diet, so alcohol was obviously out of the question for him, but Gi-hyeon fully intended to reward himself with beer.
The restaurant wasn’t far away. He’d worried there might not be any tables because of the dinner rush, but they managed to get seated without much trouble.
After ordering the steamed sea bream, Gi-hyeon wiped his hands with a warm towel while Cheol-jin—who had clearly been hesitating the entire walk—finally spoke.
“…Don’t you have a date tonight, Doc?”
“A date?”
The cynical response escaped before he could stop it.
Had he ever actually gone on anything that could truly be called a date with Jo Yeon-oh?
After reluctantly accepting Gi-hyeon’s confession years ago, Yeon-oh had disappeared from his life for quite a while.
Ironically, Gi-hyeon hadn’t even been surprised.
The moment the Alpha physically recoiled after hearing the confession, Gi-hyeon had already expected rejection.
To this day, he believed Jo Yeon-oh only accepted because he couldn’t stand the idea of losing what they already had.
That stubborn attachment had shown itself since childhood.
When they were ten, Yeon-oh had looked at him like a traitor simply because Gi-hyeon’s father planned to move away.
In high school, Yeon-oh had ignored him for months, convincing Gi-hyeon their friendship was over, only to suddenly corner him in a fit of jealousy because he’d gotten close to Lee Beom-hee.
Jo Yeon-oh had recognized immediately what Gi-hyeon’s confession meant.
It wasn’t just a confession.
It was a declaration that Gi-hyeon was prepared to walk away completely if he was rejected.
So Yeon-oh accepted him, then disappeared because he couldn’t handle the reality of dating a Beta man.
And when he finally came back, he’d exploded in anger.
—Are you some kind of pervert? Do you enjoy looking at someone who thinks of you like family that way? What the hell is wrong with you? Did you seriously think I’d just accept this?
How could Jo Yeon-oh ever be a joke to him?
If Gi-hyeon had been capable of treating him lightly, he never would have confessed at all.
He would have buried those feelings immediately and stayed the lifelong friend of a man who thought anything beyond friendship was disgusting.
That would have been much easier.
But because of all that, the concept of a “date” had never naturally existed between them.
Even after their relationship shifted into something ambiguous—neither lovers nor simply friends anymore—their routines barely changed.
They still watched football together at dawn.
Yeon-oh still showed up at Gi-hyeon’s apartment on weekends, complained constantly, and cooked for him.
What part of that counted as dating?
They’d traveled together exactly once years ago, but after Gi-hyeon injured his ankle during military service, vacations had quietly disappeared from their lives. And once Yeon-oh took over the Foundation’s affairs, his schedule became so packed that he never suggested trips unless they were work-related.
Their relationship remained trapped behind that invisible line.
Honestly, if Jo Yeon-oh didn’t insist on staying at his apartment, there would be almost no visible sign that they were even together.
Sometimes Gi-hyeon wondered whether he should just step aside already.
Wouldn’t someone like the Omega he’d seen at the hotel suit Jo Yeon-oh far better?
“Gi-hyeon-ssaem, what are you thinking about?”
“…I was trying to decide whether one beer would be too little and two would be too much. You’re still dieting, right? Then I’ll just order one.”
“Yes, please do.”
Cheol-jin’s voice pulled him back to reality.
Forcing a faint smile, Gi-hyeon called over a waiter and ordered a specific beer brand along with a glass.
Thankfully, the steamed sea bream arrived soon afterward.
Apologizing for zoning out, Gi-hyeon explained that work had completely drained him today. Cheol-jin nodded vigorously, cheeks slightly red.
The enthusiasm radiating from someone that huge reminded Gi-hyeon of an oversized golden retriever.
“Eat a lot. You need protein.”
“It’s been forever since I ate something seasoned properly.”
“Why are they controlling your diet so strictly this time?”
“Coach said I looked sluggish in the water lately…”
As they talked about the upcoming competition season, the first bottle of beer disappeared quickly.
Gi-hyeon was debating whether ordering another would make him look pathetic when Cheol-jin immediately noticed and called a waiter over first.
Embarrassed at having his thoughts exposed by someone younger than him, Gi-hyeon awkwardly muttered something about being thirsty, causing Cheol-jin to grin.
Then, after hesitating for a while, the swimmer carefully asked:
“By the way, Doc… did you change your perfume?”