By Zephyria 
Woo-yеоn pressеd his solar рlехus, fееling аs if he might throw uр. Тhе spaсious study smellеd of hеavу Alрha рhеrоmones аnd woоdy notes. Аn Alpha whо fit perfeсtly intо thаt oppressive sрace sаt оn thе sоfа opрositе Wоo-yеоn.
“Tea?”
“……No, I’m finе.”
It was Sоо-hyang, whоm hе hаd sреnt four уеars withоut a single word of contаct. She wаs the mothеr he had lived with his еntire lifе, yet shе wаs a strangеr more thаn anуоne еlsе. Evеn Dо-hyun, whоm hе hаdn’t understoоd аt first, had bеgun tо rеvеal his inner thoughts after spending a few days together, but it felt as though Soo-hyang’s true heart would remain hidden even after several more years.
“Just tell me why you called.”
Having just received the call from Soo-hyang, Woo-yeon was incredibly tense, though he pretended not to be. As Do-hyun had warned, he wondered if something had happened. For example, an accident, an illness, or some other unavoidable danger. Of course, Soo-hyang, who was trailed by a line of bodyguards and had more than three personal physicians, would likely avoid even those.
“Right…… I suppose I should.”
Fortunately, Soo-hyang’s reason for calling wasn’t some bleak accident. She had simply asked about his schedule and told him to stop by the family home if he was available. He could have ignored her and pretended not to know her, but Do-hyun’s words held him back.
‘If you want to start anything over, you have to end it completely first. Just like the relationship between you and me, Woo-yeon.’
Why on earth did he have to use that as an example? Unable to offer any rebuttal, Woo-yeon had answered that he would meet Soo-hyang. It was a very reluctant answer, but that alone brought a look of relief to Do-hyun’s face.
“…….”
“…….”
Silence fell once again. It was a silence that had never disappeared since Woo-yeon entered the study. Even while they spoke, a stillness mixed with awkwardness constantly lingered in the room.
“……If you have nothing else to say, I’ll leave.”
Unable to bear the atmosphere, Woo-yeon stood up. He thought he had been polite enough, but Soo-hyang’s gaze immediately sharpened.
“Sit down. We aren’t finished talking.”
Her attitude was still overbearing. He had thought something might have changed since she was the one to call first. But he had known Soo-hyang for far too long to expect such a miracle. As soon as he realized this, a sneer escaped him.
“I thought you called me here to apologize.”
Knowing full well it wouldn’t happen, why had he harbored such vain hope? In Woo-yeon’s life, the fact that he had become lovers with Teacher was enough of an absurdity.
“I was stupid. You aren’t the type of person to do that, Mother.”
Woo-yeon spat the words out and grabbed the umbrella he had set aside. He wasn’t even disappointed anymore; he simply hoped fervently that it wouldn’t rain on his way home. Since it had been raining when he arrived at the family home, the chances of the evening rain stopping during the rainy season were very low.
“From now on, have Driver Yoon call me. If I see your number on my phone……”
“Woo-yeon.”
“…….”
Suddenly, Woo-yeon stopped in his tracks. The word that came from her mouth was incredibly unfamiliar. Not ‘Seon Woo-yeon,’ but ‘Woo-yeon.’ It felt stranger than when Kang Jun-seong had called his name.
“……Go ahead.”
Without realizing it, Woo-yeon gave Soo-hyang one more chance. It was better to hear clearly what she wanted to say than to just return home. Fortunately, Soo-hyang mentioned a reason he had already heard several times before.
“I wanted to protect you, at least.”
“……That wasn’t protection.”
Woo-yeon’s answer was also one he had given before. As if she had fully expected this, Soo-hyang brought up a completely unfamiliar name.
“Ha-yeon…”
Her voice was filled with all sorts of longing. Her gaze, which seemed as though it would never break, crumbled at the mere mention of a name. With deep wrinkles between her brows, Soo-hyang spoke in a suppressed voice.
“Your mother…… gave you the name Woo-yeon.”
This was the first time Woo-yeon had heard this. He had never once asked about the origin of his name. Seeing Woo-yeon sit back down as if possessed, Soo-hyang smiled bitterly.
“To be precise, it was a prenatal name.”
* * *
Seon Ha-yeon.
A name that had vanished into the far reaches of his memory because it had been so long since he’d heard it. A name he had barely heard a few times, and even when he did, he hadn’t thought it was something he needed to memorize.
Soo-hyang continued talking about Ha-yeon for quite a while. The order of the story was a mess, and she would suddenly jump back to the beginning in the middle of speaking. Woo-yeon kept every single word of the faded memories Soo-hyang laid out in his heart.
‘She was someone so frail that she couldn’t even travel far.’
She said Ha-yeon was a person with pale skin and was so thin she looked as if she might break. Her family wasn’t poor, but the family fortune declined while treating her illness. Just as she was on the verge of bankruptcy and about to give up on life, she met Soo-hyang by chance.
‘There was strong opposition at home, but at the time, I couldn’t see anything else.’
The connection that began at the young age of seventeen continued until they were over twenty. First as friends, then as lovers, and finally as spouses who promised a future together.
‘I only brought Ha-yeon home after you were conceived.’
Until then, Soo-hyang said she believed everything would work out. They had already registered their marriage, and she thought Ha-yeon’s chronic illness could simply be cured by spending hundreds of millions. What Soo-hyang overlooked was the fundamental difference in the environments she and Ha-yeon had grown up in.
‘I was foolish. At the time, I thought the only best option was to inherit the company as quickly as possible. I was so preoccupied with securing the future that I couldn’t see the present right in front of me.’
Amidst Soo-hyang’s indifference, Ha-yeon withered under excessive media attention. Unable to endure a life where every single move was monitored, she gradually hid herself away inside the house.
‘It wasn’t me who locked Ha-yeon away.’
By the time Soo-hyang realized there was no improvement in the illness, it was already too late. Since Ha-yeon herself had no will to recover, no matter how much money was spent, it had no effect. As the birth month drew closer, Ha-yeon only continued to waste away.
‘Perhaps she would have lived happily if she had never met me.’
The end of the connection she had thought was destiny was irreversibly cruel. Ha-yeon breathed her last before giving birth to Woo-yeon, and skilled doctors saved Woo-yeon. Even after giving him the surname ‘Seon,’ Soo-hyang could not face the face that looked exactly like Ha-yeon’s.
‘Except for bringing the dead back to life, there is nothing in this world that money cannot do.’
Having lost the person she loved, Soo-hyang did not want to lose the child as well. Despite not having been able to hold the child properly, she feared someone else might covet him, so she decided to hide him. Erasing Ha-yeon’s traces and making Woo-yeon a non-existent person was not a difficult task for Soo-hyang.
‘I couldn’t protect that person, so I just wanted to protect you, at least.’
Soo-hyang said she loved Ha-yeon sincerely. Not ‘I loved her,’ but ‘I love her.’ Woo-yeon could not dare to guess the magnitude of that feeling. Nor did he hastily define how that affection, having lost its object, had been expressed in a twisted manner.
‘I suppose…… I should apologize to you.’
Soo-hyang had likely never bowed to anyone in her life. For someone so arrogant, overbearing, and typical of a chaebol, saying “I’m sorry” must have been harder than anything. Such a person spoke with an incredibly awkward expression.
‘I’m sorry.’
Naturally, Woo-yeon did not tell her it was okay. It was unavoidable since it was absolutely not okay. He had no intention of making her feel at ease, even with a lie.
‘I don’t know why you’re apologizing.’
It was a natural question for Woo-yeon. It was a rift of emotion built over twenty years. Wasn’t it too sudden to end it in the time it took for a rainy season to pass?
‘……I got a call. From that child.’
It was obvious who ‘that child’ was. There was only one person in this world who would dare call Soo-hyang to demand answers about Woo-yeon.
‘I wasn’t the only one who lost family, but I realized that fact too late. And I never imagined I would hear it from someone other than family.’
She looked truly sorry. Soo-hyang, who seemed like she wouldn’t bleed a drop even if pricked with a needle, smiled bitterly, unlike herself.
‘Now it’s just you and me…… if I ask you to come home, would you?’
It was a brazen question if there ever was one. Naturally, Woo-yeon let out a hollow laugh and shook his head. Even if Soo-hyang wasn’t the one who locked Ha-yeon away, she was the one who had locked Woo-yeon away.
“So, are you coming to live at my house?”
Do-hyun, who was lying beside him, gently stroked Woo-yeon’s hair. After rummaging through the ticklish strands, he covered the pale nape of his neck with his palm. Woo-yeon shrunk his neck and shook his head.
“No, I decided to move out again once the second semester starts. I want to live somewhere close to school and actually attend university properly.”
“Won’t it be dangerous?”
“I think the number of bodyguards will increase.”
After finishing the conversation, Woo-yeon returned to Do-hyun in Driver Yoon’s car. Despite witnessing everything that happened that day, Driver Yoon didn’t say a single word about it. Well, that’s probably why he’s stayed by Soo-hyang’s side for so long.
“She says she’s sorry, but people don’t change easily. If that were enough for forgiveness, Hyung and I wouldn’t have fought.”
His feelings were strange beyond words. He felt relieved, yet unsettled. Since nothing changed immediately, he felt a lack of reality. Do-hyun gazed at Woo-yeon before pulling him into his embrace.
“Well…… they say the way to get close to family you have a bad relationship with is to live far apart.”
“Is that from experience?”
“Halfway.”
A faint pheromone lingered at the tip of his nose. Perhaps because he had just smelled Soo-hyang’s, he finally felt a sense of relief. How could pheromones be this good? Woo-yeon wrapped his arms around Do-hyun’s waist, thinking like a fool in love.
“I didn’t know you two were truly in love.”
Woo-yeon had heard the story of Ha-yeon from the employees. The gossip shared while moving through the house had been far too audible to young Woo-yeon’s ears.
That the Vice Chairman had brought in a poor Omega, that he was so obsessed that he eventually caused her death. The words that the young master of this house would eventually end up like that Omega were still vivid in his mind.
“I can’t imagine it. The Chairman actually liking someone.”
“Me neither.”
The lover of that Ji Soo-hyang. Even though she was his mother, he couldn’t imagine it at all. Even the expressions he had caught glimpses of were erased as if his brain rejected them.
“Teacher.”
“…….”
“Seonbae.”
“…….”
“Hyung.”
“Yeah, what is it?”
Woo-yeon let out a soft laugh and buried his face in Do-hyun’s chest. He used to mix ‘Teacher’ and ‘Teacher’ whenever he needed something, but now he only responded to ‘Hyung’ openly.
“Just…… because I’m grateful.”
“What’s there to be grateful for?”
There were many things that wouldn’t have changed if Do-hyun hadn’t been there. For instance, Woo-yeon’s middle school years, his way of thinking, and even his attitude toward Soo-hyang.
“This and that…… the fact that Mother apologized is actually thanks to Hyung contacting her.”
“……I thought I just provided a sanctuary for you.”
The nuance of the word ‘sanctuary’ wasn’t entirely positive. Do-hyun held Woo-yeon tightly and continued gently.
“I wondered if I had just added fuel to the fire by telling you to stay at my house.”
Do-hyun seemed to think he had provided the cause for this. He likely worried that he had magnified things that would have otherwise passed quietly.
“It’s not that I didn’t think that……”
Woo-yeon spoke slowly, choosing his words in his head. Of course, it would be a lie to say he hadn’t thought of Do-hyun’s house the day he left the family home. It was an undeniable fact that he had stepped away so readily because he had a place to flee to.
“It was just an excuse.”
But even if it hadn’t been Do-hyun, it was something that would have exploded eventually. The timing was just moved up; Woo-yeon had always wanted to escape that place.
Do-hyun slowly patted Woo-yeon’s back.
“The Chairman probably feels the same.”
“…….”
“Even if it wasn’t me, she would have apologized someday.”
His breathing was steady. The heartbeat audible in his ear was calm and gentle.
“So don’t think it’s all thanks to me.”
It was a statement that pierced through Woo-yeon’s thoughts exactly. He had considered all of this to be Do-hyun’s credit, and it seemed Do-hyun had noticed. As expected of the quick-witted Kim Do-hyun, he was incredibly delicate.
“……Shall we go on a trip?”
“A trip?”
Do-hyun was the first love Woo-yeon had never once forgotten. He was comfort, salvation, and now even a sanctuary.
“They say the rainy season ends today, so I think it would be nice to go play here and there.”
Four years ago, he had broken up with that Do-hyun before two seasons had changed. In the short moment between spring and summer. In a period where it hadn’t rained even ten times. In those moments, Woo-yeon had seeped into Do-hyun like his body was soaked by spring rain.
“Domestic is fine, or overseas is fine too……”
The connection that had ended before the rainy season even began now continued even after the rainy season ended. Perhaps, even when the seasons changed again, Do-hyun would be by Woo-yeon’s side.
“Anywhere is fine as long as I’m with Hyung.”
His heart fluttered warmly. Do-hyun let out a ticklish laugh and slowly nodded. The answer that anywhere was fine for him too was filled with deep affection for Woo-yeon.
“I love you too, Yeon-ah.”
It was an answer that didn’t quite match the question, but Woo-yeon didn’t point it out. Instead, he simply closed his eyes softly as Do-hyun kissed him.
Even after the rainy season stopped, Woo-yeon remained seeped into him. The dark clouds that had tormented his heart had now retreated without a trace. It was a night where it no longer rained, and he was not alone.
Alpha Trauma
―fin.
Chapter
Table of Contents
(14) Rain Shower (2)
(15) Bystander
(16) Rainy Season
Side Story 1. Guardian
Side Story 2. Outsider