By Zephyria 
“Sunbae. Are you crying?”
He wanted to ask what he was talking about, to say why on earth he would be crying, but a single tear dropped from his eye, making it impossible to refute.
“Ha, don’t cry, sunbae.”
Kim Ju-hwan spoke as if it were absurd. But once the tears started, they fell incessantly.
“I said don’t cry!”
Kim Ju-hwan’s brow furrowed sharply. Then, tightening his grip on Jeong-min, he pulled him toward the corner and slammed him against the wall.
“It’s not like you’re imprinted. Why are you crying so sorrowfully? Are you an Omega? Did you lose your Alpha! It was just a one-sided love. You weren’t compatible physically, let alone emotionally. No, was it even love? Just a childish ‘delusion,’ that’s all. Isn’t it ridiculous to cry like this over something so trivial?”
“Hyung… Shin-woo hyung….”
Jeong-min couldn’t hear any of Kim Ju-hwan’s words. He was simply overwhelmed by the sorrow and sadness that everything was now over. Despite having no courage to ruin that engagement—no, despite having no right to do so.
“Shin-woo hyung….”
Jeong-min cried like a child. That sorrow and pain were so poignant that Kim Ju-hwan felt an impulse to choke him. A rage boiling from deep within seemed ready to consume him. He took a small piece of paper from his pocket, tore it open with his teeth, and emptied the contents into his palm. There were three pills.
Then, grabbing the sobbing Jeong-min by the collar, he pinned him against the wall with his arm.
“Eat.”
Ju-hwan popped the pills into Jeong-min’s mouth and covered it with his hand. The sharp sensation as they slid down his throat stopped Jeong-min’s sobbing. He struggled and tried to push Ju-hwan away, but Ju-hwan only pressed him down further.
“Mmph! Mmph!”
“Calm down, sunbae. It’s a birthday present. It’s a drug that rapidly promotes awakening. It’s a drug that has completed clinical trials abroad, and the effectiveness is 99%. It’s nearly impossible to get, but I procured it for you. Swallow.”
Jeong-min’s eyes widened at Ju-hwan’s words. Then he closed them tightly. One more tear flowed from the corner of his eye, and Jeong-min swallowed the pills.
“Good boy, Shin Jeong-min.”
Ju-hwan removed his hand from Jeong-min’s mouth and gently stroked his back.
Jeong-min looked at Ju-hwan silently.
“Don’t look at me like that. I told you it’s a birthday present. In my opinion, it’s a more valuable gift than the rings being exchanged over there.”
“What… are you thinking…?”
“Thinking?”
“Yes.”
At Jeong-min’s words, Kim Ju-hwan stroked his chin, pretending to think.
“Thinking, huh. Hmm. I like you quite a bit, sunbae.”
“Stop talking nonsense.”
“Well, you don’t have to believe me. That doesn’t mean my feelings will disappear.”
“So what does you liking me have to do with giving me an awakening drug?”
“I want you to become an Omega. I’m wishing for it purely, without any sexual greed.”
“Kim Ju-hwan.”
“Fifteen days from now, the awakening fever will begin. Prepare yourself in advance. Prepare to become an Omega. Or, if heaven is particularly mischievous, you might become an Alpha.”
Kim Ju-hwan waved his hand and walked back into the hall where the engagement ceremony was in full swing. As soon as he disappeared, Jeong-min collapsed to the floor. The tingling sensation in his esophagus persisted, and he clutched his throat.
Could it be… is that really possible…. But even if he awakened now… for whose sake would it be?
Jeong-min wiped away the flowing tears. He couldn’t stay here any longer today. His heart was too heavy…. Jeong-min stood up and headed home alone.
✽✽✽
A week had passed since he took the drug—the awakening promoter or whatever it was. There were still no changes in Jeong-min’s body. It might be because fifteen days hadn’t passed yet, as Kim Ju-hwan said, but he felt like some symptoms should have appeared by now. Jeong-min wondered if he had been tricked by Kim Ju-hwan.
Deciding that he would kill Kim Ju-hwan if there were still no changes by the fifteenth day, Jeong-min left the bathroom.
“Huh?”
He heard a loud noise from the first floor. Currently, only Jeong-min and three housekeepers were home. The reason was that Yu Shin-woo’s family and Jeong-min’s family had decided to have dinner together today since the engagement ceremony had ended successfully.
Jeong-min was supposed to attend, but since he didn’t have the confidence to sit there smiling, he had made an excuse that he wasn’t feeling well and skipped it. It had been about two hours since the family left…. It was still too early for them to return.
However, the voices coming from below were far too familiar to be strangers. He heard Young-min’s voice, his mother’s and father’s voices, and Yu Shin-woo’s name was mentioned in the conversation. Jeong-min hurried to the first floor.
“This engagement is void!!”
“Young-min! Please calm down!”
“Do I look like I’m in a position to be calm right now?!”
Young-min was screaming at the top of his lungs. But the content was strange. Jeong-min quickly ran down the stairs and grabbed his restless mother.
“What’s going on?”
“Jeong-min… what should we do….”
His mother grabbed Jeong-min’s arm. Jeong-min looked at the situation in the living room. His father was sitting on the sofa, only sighing, and Young-min was shouting at Shin-woo. Shin-woo had his head bowed low like a sinner, unable to say a word. Moreover, the floor was getting wet. Yu Shin-woo was crying.
Why…?
“Hyung, this is a fraudulent marriage. Do you know that?”
“I never had such an intention. I didn’t know either. Please believe me.”
“How does it make sense that you didn’t know?!”
This time, Young-min even picked up a sofa cushion and threw it at Shin-woo. Jeong-min quickly stopped Young-min.
“Young-min. Calm down. What happened?”
“Ah, Jeong-min. Jeong-min. Listen to me. This hyung was a total fraud.”
Young-min spoke while pointing a finger at Shin-woo with a look of disbelief. Jeong-min looked at Shin-woo’s face once, then at Young-min.
“What are you talking about? What kind of nonsense is this?”
“You know me, right? That I want to have a baby. That I want to have an Alpha baby.”
I know. It’s not that you truly love children and want one. You just want to brag to people as the Omega who gave birth to that Alpha. Because you believe that is the highest glory for an Omega.
“But while dating hyung, we knotted several times. We even spent the heat cycle together. But I didn’t get pregnant. So hyung and I went to get tested together. The results came out today and… haha, hyung has azoospermia. Azoospermia!! He has no seed! He deceived me and tried to marry me!”
A… zoospermia…?
It was unbelievable. That Shin-woo had azoospermia…. Jeong-min looked at Shin-woo. Shin-woo also had a face of despair. A face that had lost everything in the world… it was only natural. Because he was an Alpha. He was an Alpha whose paternal instinct was as strong as maternal instinct, and whose desire to leave offspring was stronger than that of an Omega. For such an Alpha to have a body that cannot have children….
“Could the test results be wrong?”
Jeong-min asked in the calmest voice possible. He felt that if he also fell apart here, Shin-woo would be even more hurt.
“Did you get tested elsewhere? Test more. It could be a mistake.”
“Just in case, I got tested at three different places. But the results were all the same. Should I go abroad now?”
My god….
“Anyway. Shin-woo hyung. Let’s end it here. Let’s go back to being just brothers. I’m letting you off because of the affection we’ve had until now. Let’s act as if the engagement never happened.”
“Young-min, please listen to me. It’s not such a simple problem… no, I don’t want to end things with you like this.”
“Sorry, but I do want to end it like this. I want to have a child. This is a disqualifying factor for you, hyung. Make sure you handle this well so that strange rumors about me don’t spread. You know you have to do at least that much, right? That’s the basic decency of a human being.”
Young-min spoke firmly. Shin-woo could no longer hold onto Young-min. Instead, Jeong-min held Young-min, but he shook off Jeong-min’s arm and went up to the second floor.
His father sighed and entered the master bedroom, and his mother patted Jeong-min’s shoulder, whispering for him to comfort Shin-woo before she also entered the bedroom. Only the two of them remained in the living room. Shin Jeong-min and Yu Shin-woo.
Jeong-min approached Shin-woo.
“Shin-woo hyung… are you okay?”
“…Yeah, I’m okay. I showed you a pathetic side of myself. Jeong-min… to you….”
Liar…. Hyung, you were crying. You’re not okay…. You must have known how much Young-min wanted a child…. You probably wanted to give him a child more than Young-min did…. I know how much it must hurt you to be unable to do that… how can you be okay.
Jeong-min reached out and hugged Shin-woo tightly. He stroked his back and his hair.
“Hyung… it’s okay. Young-min is just in shock right now. He’ll come back to you in a little while. So just give him some time.”
As soon as Jeong-min finished speaking, Shin-woo hugged him back. Then, bowing his head on Jeong-min’s shoulder, he trembled and wept.
“Jeong-min… I’m so sorry to Young-min. I don’t know what to do. I should let him go, but I can’t let that kid go….”
I know that feeling of yours best of all….
For as long as I’ve watched you… you must have watched Young-min for just as long. That heart that cannot easily let go… I know it well. Hyung….
Jeong-min said nothing more. He just held him tightly, wishing this was all a dream.