By Zephyria 
Son, it’s Mom.
The sudden intrusion of an unexpected voice caused In-ho’s grip on the steering wheel to slacken. He frowned, double-checking Haon’s number.
“I told you not to come to the house.”
I’ll wait until you get home, so take your time.
The affectionate voice continued with a relaxed tone. In-ho dragged his hand down his face and swallowed a curse. He held it back only because he was worried Haon, sitting beside him, might hear.
“Don’t talk to the person at the house.”
His voice flowed out low, suppressing his anger.
“Don’t say a single word.”
In-ho left a stern warning before hanging up. He had let his guard down because she hadn’t visited the house in a while. He should have been more careful, especially since he had brought Haon into the home.
In-ho took a pill bottle out of the console box and tried to open the lid while still holding the wheel. In the process, he dropped the small bottle, and the contents spilled out.
“Ha….”
When shitty situations piled up one after another, he didn’t even feel angry anymore.
Letting out a hollow laugh, In-ho popped the pills that had fallen onto his lap into his mouth and chewed them. As the bitter taste spread through his mouth, his mind grew quiet.
When the light changed, he accelerated and swallowed one more pill. He didn’t want to appear agitated in front of Haon. He wanted to remain calm and composed.
Because when he said he liked Haon, he meant it.
* * *
Though he was much better now, In-ho had suffered from a deep psychological illness during his childhood.
Signs had appeared around the time he entered elementary school, but his family only found out when he was about to graduate. For six long years, young In-ho had withered away alone in deep depression.
A body far smaller and thinner than his peers, and a slow mind. His vacant eyes, which betrayed no thought, and his lips, which remained perpetually closed, only moved when he was at home.
However, no matter how much noise he made in the palace-like mansion, all that returned was the indifference of his family and the businesslike responses of the secretaries.
It was only natural, as In-ho had been an unwelcome existence even before he was born.
Jang Eun-young, the third wife of the Chairman of Hansung Group, had to rely solely on her decent looks after her father’s business went bankrupt. The only thing she could trust was to give birth to the Dominant Alpha the Chairman had long desired, thereby securing her position within the family.
The Chairman of Hansung Group, who was pathologically obsessed with traits, had three children, but none of them met his expectations. He intended to appoint only a Dominant Alpha, like himself, as his successor.
Consequently, Jang Eun-young’s greed grew uncontrollably. Being a Dominant Omega herself, she was certain she could produce the child the Chairman wanted.
However, her expectations were driven into a pit of despair the moment In-ho was born.
Born small and frail, In-ho hovered between life and death immediately after birth and grew up in an incubator. Although it was not yet time for his traits to manifest, he was a child who showed no sign of being a Dominant Alpha.
Young In-ho was slow to learn and exceptionally small. There was a stark difference between him and the Chairman or his brothers, who had been called prodigies since childhood. Because his appearance resembled only Jang Eun-young, nasty rumors spread with every passing year.
Rumors that he was the product of Jang Eun-young’s affair.
The gossip, which had circulated only in private settings, eventually reached the Chairman’s ears, and Jang Eun-young reached the point of being banished to the annex along with her young son.
Even after seeing the paternity test results, the Chairman refused to acknowledge In-ho as his child. That was how insignificant In-ho was.
His existence was denied by his father, and he received no love from his mother. Jang Eun-young only strove to obtain a new child and made no effort to care for her deficient son. On days when she was dead drunk, she would even grab In-ho and rave that he wasn’t her child.
In-ho grew up in such an environment. He always had to hide his thin body under expensive, high-quality clothes, and to increase his size, he ate and ate until he vomited.
Whenever he occasionally met his much older siblings, he was compared before he was even greeted. You’re still small. What’s your rank at school? Why don’t you just study abroad? I feel sorry for the mother who gave birth to you.
Whenever he heard words attacking him, In-ho responded with silence. However, he did not avoid the other’s gaze. He would simply stare intently at them with the beautiful eyes he inherited from Jang Eun-young, wearing a void expression.
He was truly a peculiar child, the young Seo In-ho.
Around the age of ten, Jang Eun-young had another child. As if they had been waiting, In-ho was sent to the United States, where he became alone once again in a boarding school where he didn’t even speak the language.
Even though the environment changed, In-ho’s life did not. Rather, a greater loneliness gnawed at him, and eventually, it led him to let go of his empty life.
Young In-ho first tried to die at school in front of everyone. Next, he opened a window in front of the doctors and nurses who were devotedly caring for him, and finally, in front of Jang Eun-young, who hadn’t contacted him for three years.
He had meant it as a plea for her to look at him.
‘Do whatever you want.’
Jang Eun-young encouraged him to go peacefully if he was in such pain. All while she tenderly held her second child, who was plump and healthy, in her cozy embrace.
That day, too, In-ho failed to die. He ended up trapped in a hospital room again, with nothing but broken limbs. He spent his days wide awake in a room where no one visited except for the caregiver.
It was then that an unexpected manifestation pain came to In-ho.
In the dead of night, on a desolate hospital bed, young In-ho writhed in terrible pain. Thinking he might actually die this time, he swallowed the agony in silence without calling for anyone.
Contrary to In-ho’s wish, however, he became healthier than anyone else after regaining consciousness. Within six months, his height grew noticeably, and his frame changed even without exercising.
Even without seeing the test results, everyone looked at In-ho and agreed. It was clear he had manifested as a Dominant Alpha. And their prediction was correct.
Although only In-ho’s trait had changed, every environment and person surrounding him shifted 180 degrees. Everyone, including Jang Eun-young, welcomed In-ho, and even his father, who had never once called his name, now summoned him to the study every day.
All because a single trait had changed.
As a high school student, In-ho became a child who stood out more than anyone. With the combination of his looks resembling Jang Eun-young, the large stature of the Hansung Group Chairman, and his background, everyone looked up to him. Peers vied to be friends with In-ho, and relatives and adults showered him with gifts.
For In-ho, who had never once received a cake, the biggest parties were now held for his birthday. However, the protagonist of the party never attended.
The more attention In-ho received, the more deviant his behavior became. First, he broke things, and then he trashed his room. When his violence extended to people, it was eventually decided that he needed psychiatric treatment, and he was sent back to the United States.
Jang Eun-young, who had felt empowered by her son manifesting as a Dominant Alpha, became anxious once again. She followed him to the U.S. and poured the attention and affection she had failed to give him before, but it was useless.
In-ho was already broken. He sought out people and objects out of loneliness, but he grew bored of them easily. He only felt a sense of stability in environments surrounded by new things, and he couldn’t last a single day without alcohol and drugs.
After wasting his life like that, he regained his senses through a small catalyst and returned to Korea. In-ho did not live according to the wishes of the Chairman and Jang Eun-young, but nor did he throw his life away as he had in the past.
Thanks to a single, great goal that entered his life, which had previously just flowed along.
* * *
Arriving home, In-ho irritably flung open the front door. Before crossing the inner door, he checked the entryway floor and smoothed out his crumpled expression. Only Haon’s shoes were there.
“Haon-ssi.”
As he walked quickly down the entryway hallway, he ran into Haon, who happened to be walking out. Haon, who seemed to have been doing the dishes in the kitchen, hurried over while wiping moisture from his clothes.
“You’re here.”
In-ho immediately checked Haon’s expression. Haon was always smiling, but his gentle face couldn’t hide emotions well.
“Your mother already left.”
Haon brought up Jang Eun-young first. His face, wearing a moderately bright smile, was fortunately not very dark.
“What did she say? She didn’t say anything strange to you, did she?”
In-ho asked, stepping close to Haon. He had asked a similar question earlier.
“No, she just borrowed my phone for a moment.”
Haon’s gaze wavered slightly as he looked up at In-ho. It was because In-ho’s complexion looked a bit pale. Moreover, cold sweat had formed on his forehead.
“Did you run here…?”
Haon wore a worried expression, gently wiping away the beads of sweat.
“You’re not feeling unwell, are you?”
Now that he looked closer, In-ho’s face was excessively white. Because his lips were red, he hadn’t noticed the poor complexion, but seeing him up close, the area under his eyes looked a bit dark. As if he hadn’t slept.
“Is that really all?”
In-ho asked again, pulling down Haon’s hand that was touching his forehead. Other emotions began to seep into his tired face.
At that moment, Haon suddenly grabbed In-ho’s face. He cupped In-ho’s cheeks with both hands, not just one, and called his name in a trembling voice.
“I-In-ho-ssi….”
“Nosebleed, you have a nosebleed.” Muttering frantically, he covered the area under In-ho’s nose with his bare hand. The blood that poured out began to flow down Haon’s hand and drip onto the floor.