#97

“You’re pregnant. You’ve just entered your sixth week.”

“……What?”

“Normally, you know that trait-bearers are required to receive pheromone control education and suppressant prescriptions immediately upon registration of their manifestation, right? However, Jung-hyun, you don’t need a suppressant prescription right now. When you’re pregnant, pheromones aren’t produced during that period, and therefore, your heat cycle won’t occur.”

“…….”

“This is one of the things pregnant Omegas always ask: have you heard that an imprinted Alpha can sense the pheromones of a pregnant Omega? That is strictly a story from the movies. You know that imprinting hasn’t been medically proven, right?”

None of the doctor’s words were properly registering in his head. Jung-hyun simply stared blankly past the doctor toward the monitor. She brought up several images on the screen.

“This small dot you see here is the gestational sac. It’s about 0.6cm.”

The black-and-white images slowly formed on his retinas. To Jung-hyun’s eyes, the photo looked like nothing more than a small, sideways teardrop.

Even seeing it right in front of him, it didn’t feel real. It was hard enough to accept that he was an Omega, but now, out of nowhere, he was pregnant.

It went without saying, but he had spent his entire life worrying that he might get someone else pregnant; he had never once imagined that he himself would be the one pregnant. Jung-hyun let out a hollow laugh at the absurdity of it.

He felt that receiving a diagnosis of an incurable disease would have been easier to accept. An indescribable tightness pressed down hard on his chest.

“Can you come with your partner next time? Pregnancies in recessive Omegas, especially male Omegas, are tricky and require a lot of caution.”

“…….”

Partner.

At that unfamiliar word, the face of one person came to mind.

It must have been that night. It was Shin Ho-jae’s rut, and they had slept together so many times it was hard to count. He remembered the youthful face looking flustered because the condoms didn’t fit. Even then, Ho-jae had kept searching for more. Jung-hyun was the one who told him it wasn’t necessary.

He had no intention of blaming him in the first place, but his resolve became even firmer.

Shin Ho-jae had to be completely unrelated to this pregnancy. Who would have expected this after spending a night with a Beta male?

There was no need to hold him responsible or even inform him. He was merely a victim.

Jung-hyun consciously pushed all thoughts of Shin Ho-jae out of his mind. There were more important matters piled up.

Things shouldn’t have turned out like this. He had things to wrap up as Myeong-jeong’s Beta. But now, a manifestation—and an Omega at that.

If he had manifested as an Alpha, it would have been somewhat understandable. He had been poured over with dominant pheromones to the point of severe side effects… Yes, dominant pheromones.

“…I had my pheromone levels tested last winter. I thought it was strange because my fever was worse than usual.”

Jung-hyun spoke slowly.

“At that time, my Alpha pheromone levels came back lower than usual. Is that also related to the manifestation?”

“It is. But did that hospital not mention that your Omega levels were high?”

The doctor asked, her eyes widening.

“I don’t know which hospital you went to, but when testing pheromones, only one value doesn’t appear. If your Alpha pheromones were low enough to be noticeable, there must have been a change in your Omega pheromones as well… Why didn’t they tell you both?”

As soon as Jung-hyun left the hospital, he got into his car. He turned on the navigation’s voice recognition and entered the Seoul Pheromone Center. It was the place where he had his pheromone levels tested last winter.

Even without the doctor’s words, there were parts that were too unsettling to ignore. The way the nurse had hesitated for a moment when he said he wanted to check the type of pheromones, and the voice re-confirming if he wanted to see the ‘Alpha’ pheromone levels.

His intuition was telling him it wasn’t a coincidence.

Jung-hyun drove frantically and arrived at the center. As he opened the automatic doors and entered, he saw the interior of the center, which was quiet as it approached closing time. The employee sitting at the reception desk looked at Jung-hyun with a face mixed with pleasure and curiosity.

Skipping the greetings, Jung-hyun immediately stated that he wanted to meet the employee who had administered his pheromones.

“That person quit a while ago.”

“They quit?”

“Yes. About a month ago… They started making frequent mistakes and then just vanished. The director processed it as a firing.”

“Then, could I see the records of the Alpha pheromones I received during that time?”

“Of course. Just a moment.”

The employee smiled brightly and went inside.

How much time had passed? Jung-hyun checked his wristwatch anxiously. It was already nearly 7 PM, well past the 6 PM closing time.

It should have been a simple matter of finding a few pieces of paper, just like last time. A strong feeling that something was wrong began to take hold. Jung-hyun stopped sitting and waiting and stood up.

Without hesitation, he flung open the curtain toward where the employee had disappeared. The gathered staff jumped in surprise and looked at Jung-hyun. Jung-hyun clearly saw one or two of them quickly hiding something. Jung-hyun strode toward them and asked.

“What is that you just hid?”

“U-um, Jung-hyun… The director is on his way here, so if you could just wait a little longer…”

The face of the receptionist standing in the middle was pale white. Seeing that expression, his heart turned cold before his mind could process it.

“Will the content change if I hear it from the director? Tell me what you know. I’ll listen now.”

“B-but…”

Jung-hyun let out a deep sigh.

“I’m not trying to assign blame. I just want to know the facts.”

The employees looked at each other with troubled faces. A meaningless standoff ensued. Then, a short employee standing at the very back interrupted in a calm voice.

“It was recorded in Jung-hyun’s chart that dominant Alpha pheromones were injected.”

“If that were the case, you wouldn’t have tried to hide it like this.”

The employee nodded slightly.

“Yes. To ensure there were no problems with the chart and the inventory ledger, you received pheromones with swapped labels.”

“Swapped labels…?”

“The dominant Alpha pheromones you received weren’t actually dominant Alpha pheromones.”

“…….”

“They were… dominant Omega pheromones.”

Jung-hyun let out a laugh that sounded like air escaping. It seemed that when a person is too bewildered, laughter comes before anger.

Now everything fit together. Why he had felt pain, as if something incompatible had been forced into his body, after receiving the pheromones; why his Alpha pheromone levels had dropped; why that nurse had been flustered when he suggested a level test.

……But why?

Wasn’t this too far to be dismissed as a mere prank? Had he done something wrong to her? No. If anything, he was the one who had shielded her from his mother’s threats of firing her.

Rage surged toward her, but regardless of his emotions, he couldn’t gather the spilled water. Jung-hyun just kept laughing like a madman.

“…Jung-hyun, we really didn’t know anything. It was the sole action of that nurse who resigned.”

The receptionist muttered, looking at Jung-hyun with anxious eyes.

Jung-hyun was too exhausted to say more, so he simply smirked and turned around.

When he reached the parking lot, someone called his name from a distance. Jung-hyun, who was opening the driver’s side door, looked up.

The short employee, who had been the only one to tell the truth while everyone else remained silent, was running toward him out of breath. After waiting a moment, she approached Jung-hyun, caught her breath, and handed him a note.

“This is her home address. I heard she’s working at an oriental clinic since she quit here. If you need the name of that clinic too, I’ll let you know.”

“…….”

“I don’t know what happened… but your expression kept bothering me.”

With that, she bowed her head in a quick greeting and ran back the way she came.

＊＊＊

Jung-hyun looked up at the narrow, steep stairs.

It was close to nighttime, but even considering that, it was incredibly dark. It was because there weren’t enough streetlights. It was a dilapidated area to the point where he wondered if such a place even existed in Seoul.

The address on the note pointed to the middle of these ascending stairs. Only after climbing for about ten minutes did he finally arrive in front of a small semi-basement house.

Jung-hyun stood in front of the house and stared blankly at the door, which was messily plastered with advertising stickers from Chinese restaurants, laundromats, and private loan companies. He soon looked away and searched for the doorbell.

It seemed the doorbell hadn’t been visible because a note from the landlord demanding overdue rent was stuck over it. With an expressionless face, Jung-hyun lifted the note and pressed the bell.

Since the lights were off, he wondered if it was empty, but soon he heard the pitter-patter of small footsteps running toward him. Then, the door swung open.

“Mom?!”

What popped out from inside the door was a little girl. Perhaps eight or nine years old.

Seeing Jung-hyun’s face, the child’s pupils shook rapidly; she seemed to have mistaken him for the landlord or someone similar who had come to collect the overdue rent. Well, that might not be entirely wrong.

Jung-hyun bent his waist to meet the little girl’s eye level. The child shrank back slightly. Looking closely, her features resembled that nurse.

“Is there an adult inside?”

“Uh… Mom told me not to talk to strangers.”

Compared to other children her age who had plump, rosy cheeks, her face was somewhat haggard and gloomy. It strangely reminded him of himself as a child. The image of waiting endlessly for his mother in a dark room. Naturally, Jung-hyun’s voice softened slightly.

“I came because I have something to talk about with your mother. Do you know when she’ll be back?”

“I-I don’t know…”

The girl kept pulling herself back inside, but as if it were difficult to interrupt an adult, she mumbled while fidgeting with the doorknob. What should he do? Just as Jung-hyun was contemplating and putting his hand in the gap of the door—

A voice like a scream sounded from behind her.

“Somang!”

“Mom!”

The girl quickly pushed the door open and rushed toward her mother. Following her, Jung-hyun slowly turned around.

“…….”

The face looking at him with anxious eyes was indeed the nurse who had administered the pheromones, Lee Hong-eun.

98 – Puck Drop