Seojin came out into the living room wearing a mask. Shin Seyoung, who had just been sending Euni into the bathroom, turned around with a worried expression.
“Hyung, you look really bad. Shouldn’t you rest more?”
“I’m going to keep an eye on it for now. Seyoung, I’m sorry, but could you take Euni to daycare today? I don’t think I should risk passing a cold to her.”
“Of course. Don’t worry.”
At Shin Seyoung’s answer, Seojin dragged his heavy body into the kitchen. He took out a bag of bread and put some slices in the toaster, then pulled three eggs and some vegetables from the refrigerator, made a salad, and fried the eggs as well.
While preparing the apple jam Euni liked and a glass of milk, he could feel hot breath pooling inside his mask. Not only that, his joints were throbbing and his vision was blurry.
“Daddyyy!”
After washing her face, Euni came running toward him with a delighted expression. Seojin instinctively took a step back, then, seeing the child look up at him with confusion in her eyes, cautiously opened his arms.
“Yes. Did Euni wash up nice and clean?”
“Yeees!”
“Then let’s eat breakfast. Daddy made yummy toast and salad today.”
“Yay!”
Seojin smiled with his eyes at Euni as she quickly dragged over a chair and sat down. Just as he was about to get the plates, Shin Seyoung, who had come over without him noticing, took out the dishes instead and asked cautiously.
“Hyung, you know… your cheeks are really red, and your eyes look unfocused. Aren’t those heat cycle symptoms? I think you should take suppressants.”
Seojin’s shoulders flinched and stiffened.
“I’m fine. It’s probably just a bad cold.”
There was a rough, metallic rasp mixed into his voice as he denied it. Seojin firmly shook his head again.
It really wasn’t that.
But why was it?
A glaring red warning light went off noisily inside his head.
He knew better than anyone that although he was classified as an omega, he had never properly manifested. Because of a pituitary hormone abnormality, his pheromone glands had failed to develop properly, and in the end, that had been the reason Seojin could no longer continue his previous life.
“Really? If that’s all it is, then that’s a relief, but…….”
Shin Seyoung still looked doubtful, but he backed off for the moment.
There was still no distinct pheromone scent coming from Seojin.
Seojin forced himself to act calm and chewed on his toast, but the inside of his throat was bone-dry, making it difficult to swallow.
After breakfast, Shin Seyoung even stepped in to help change Euni’s clothes and tie her hair, so Seojin was able to leave the house much more easily.
After putting Euni on the daycare bus, Shin Seyoung was just about to leave as well.
“Still, hyung, make sure you go to the hospital. If you stay sick for too long, Euni will worry.”
“Yeah. I will.”
Seojin answered obediently and hurried his steps.
The heat building inside his body continued to rise, and the chills and muscle aches were growing worse as well.
‘What if these really are warning signs of a heat cycle?’
The thought he had stubbornly ignored finally raised its head again when he stopped in front of a crosswalk.
‘What if this imbalance happened because I transmigrated into this body?’
Too many things had already changed.
From the incident involving Shin Seyoung to Yoon Haegang’s attitude.
If even his secondary gender began to manifest in the middle of all this, he could hardly imagine what kind of changes would happen from now on.
Maybe it was because he was carrying around such heavy worries.
After arriving at the office, Seojin’s condition worsened rapidly.
He tried to straighten his waist and maintain a proper posture somehow, but his body sagged with exhaustion. Beads of cold sweat gathered on his forehead, and inside the mask, nothing but hot breath kept spilling out.
“My god! Seojin, your face is completely white.”
Manager Kim, who had been practically burying his nose in the monitor as he worked, got up to refill his coffee and came over in alarm.
He immediately placed a hand on Seojin’s forehead and clicked his tongue.
“Look at this. You’re burning up. This won’t do. Seojin, go to the hospital right now.”
“But…….”
“But nothing! I’ll mark you as leaving early, so go now. If you’re this sick, you shouldn’t have come to work in the first place. You should’ve stayed home and rested properly!”
Manager Kim firmly grabbed Seojin and pulled him to his feet.
That little bit of force alone made his body sway as though all the strength had drained out of him.
“See? Look at you! You know it’ll be even more trouble for me if you collapse here, right?”
Scolding him as he gathered up Seojin’s bag and pushed him toward the door, Manager Kim eventually sent the staggering Seojin out of the office.
Seojin hesitated for a long time in front of a nearby internal medicine clinic, then eventually turned around.
The place he headed instead was a secondary-gender specialty hospital three blocks away from the office.
He lingered at the entrance a little longer, then bit down hard on his lower lip and stepped inside.
“Hmm… Mr. Noh Seojin, let’s run some tests first, then we’ll talk.”
The doctor glanced at him, then closed the chart after saying that.
Following the nurse’s instructions, Seojin underwent one test after another, starting with bloodwork, then hormone levels, an ultrasound, and even an MRI of his pituitary gland.
By this point, another anxiety began creeping up inside him.
When his long battle with illness had begun in his previous life, it had started in exactly the same way.
Endless tests.
The smell of disinfectant and the cold touch of medical equipment seemed to come back to life against his skin.
He repeatedly clenched and opened his fists, trying to suppress his anxiety, when he heard the nurse call him back into the consultation room.
Once Seojin sat down, the doctor began speaking with no trace of a smile on his face.
“For now, the cause appears to be a rapid fluctuation in the pheromone levels inside your body. That strongly stimulated the pituitary gland and hypothalamus, which disrupted your body’s temperature regulation and caused the high fever.”
As he spoke, the doctor pointed at the ultrasound image with a long pointer.
“You see this here? This is the pheromone gland. An organ that had remained dormant and unmanifested for a very long time has become active, affecting the surrounding nerves and the pituitary gland. That’s also what caused the muscle pain.”
“Then… are you saying I became an omega?”
At Seojin’s trembling question, the doctor answered as though wondering why he was asking something so obvious.
“You were already an omega. Your pheromone glands have simply begun functioning properly at a late stage. You can think of what you’re experiencing now as the result of late manifestation.”
“That can’t happen…… No, doctor. Isn’t there some kind of mistake? There’s no way I should be able to manifest.”
As though he understood Seojin’s confusion, the doctor nodded.
“Normally, this happens alongside secondary sexual development, but yours was delayed considerably, so I understand why you’re shocked.”
“No, that’s not what I mean. I’m not supposed to manifest.”
At what Seojin said next, the doctor spoke as though scolding an unreasonable child.
“Mr. Noh Seojin, you should be glad you manifested, even if it’s only happening now. If the pheromone glands remain immature, there are increasing numbers of cases where various side effects develop throughout the body. You’ve heard of pheromone immune deficiency, haven’t you? It’s the most dangerous consequence of failing to manifest.”
That was a disease Seojin knew very well because he had suffered from it in his previous life.
‘Still, why now of all times…….’
Unaware that Seojin’s insides were burning black with anxiety, the doctor continued explaining in an admonishing tone.
“You’ll probably have difficulty controlling your pheromones for a while. For the time being, you absolutely need to recuperate at home. I’ll prescribe suppressants and sedatives, so make sure you take them.”
The doctor continued explaining that he would need to return to the hospital regularly to stabilize his levels, but Seojin could barely hear any of it.
He stood there blankly for quite some time after receiving the prescribed medication.
“Haa…….”
Seojin slowly closed his eyes and opened them again.
He couldn’t tell whether this was something his older sister had arranged, or a distortion caused by his own interference with the story.
Either way, he had a feeling it would not remain merely a personal problem.
At the same time, several people flashed through his mind.
His precious daughter, Euni.
Shin Seyoung, who was staying at his home.
Kind Manager Kim, who had worried about him.
And at the end of that chain of thoughts, everything stopped at Yoon Haegang’s eyes, which always seemed as though they could see straight through him.
“Ah…….”
Seojin’s grip tightened sharply.
If it was him, he would notice the change in Seojin’s condition immediately.
Before that happened, Seojin had to decide what to do.
***
A few minutes after Seojin left the office, Yoon Haegang opened the door and walked inside.
“Oh? Boss, you’re here?”
Manager Kim looked up at the sound of someone entering and greeted him, but Yoon Haegang merely raised one eyebrow and looked only at Seojin’s empty desk.
Narrowing his eyes as though measuring something, he strode toward Seojin’s seat.
Manager Kim followed him with his eyes and hurriedly explained.
“Seojin looked really sick, so I sent him home early and told him to go to the hospital. Seems like he came down with a serious case of body aches.”
He said it because he thought Yoon Haegang might be displeased that Seojin was absent without contacting him, but Yoon Haegang continued to scan the empty seat with a sharp gaze.
Where was it coming from?
Yoon Haegang sharpened all his senses and pursued it persistently, like a predator searching for the presence of prey hidden in the undergrowth.
Then at last, his gaze fixed on the chair where Seojin had been sitting.
Slowly lowering his head, he caught a very faint, delicate scent.
A fresh fragrance like the one that might seep from an unripe apple.
And yet, beneath it was a sweetness that lightly teased the tip of the tongue.
The moment he realized what it was, a cool yet taut tension surged up Yoon Haegang’s spine.
‘Found it.’