By Zephyria 
While hospitalized, Jeong-min thought of nothing else and focused solely on recovery. That was also the best way to ease the anxiety of Kim Ju-hwan, who remained by his side.
Kim Ju-hwan did not leave the hospital for a single moment while Jeong-min was there. Despite the various inconveniences, he continued to live at the hospital.
Jeong-min also refrained from nagging Kim Ju-hwan to go to work. He simply thought the man would handle things on his own, and above all, Jeong-min felt more at peace with Kim Ju-hwan present, so for the first time, he acted selfishly toward him.
After ten days of hospital life, he was discharged after confirming there were no abnormalities in his body. Since he couldn’t return to his family home, he went back to the house where he lived alone and spent about two more weeks recovering his strength. After regaining some energy, Jeong-min told Kim Ju-hwan that he wanted to meet Yu Shin-woo.
“I’ve been waiting for you to say that.”
Kim Ju-hwan accepted Jeong-min’s words naturally, as if he had truly been waiting for them.
“Because Sunbae is the kind of person who isn’t satisfied until he settles things himself. I don’t know whether to call it foolish or steadfast….”
He added a comment that was ambiguous as to whether it was an insult or not.
“Instead, I have a condition. I’ll only let you meet him if you agree to this.”
“What is it?”
“Meet him with me. I don’t want to see you and Yu Shin-woo alone together anymore.”
Seeing Kim Ju-hwan make such an open demand, Jeong-min blinked and then smiled.
“I was actually going to ask for that. I have no desire to be alone with Shin-woo hyung either. And don’t leave us alone. I might actually kill him.”
“Ah, I won’t stop you from that. Don’t worry and just kill him. I’ll handle the cleanup.”
At Kim Ju-hwan’s words, Jeong-min laughed and drank some orange juice, but suddenly felt his body stiffen. He felt that he probably wouldn’t be able to drink plain water anymore. He thought that if anything else tasted even slightly different, he might unconsciously vomit it all up.
Sensing what Jeong-min was thinking, Kim Ju-hwan took the orange juice from Jeong-min’s hand, took a sip, and then handed it back.
“What are you doing?”
“Being a royal food taster.”
“Don’t do it unless you’re going to do it for the rest of your life.”
“I will do it for the rest of my life. So don’t worry and drink it, Sunbae. Something like that will never happen again.”
Jeong-min pretended not to hear the word ‘lifetime,’ which contained both emphasis and coercion, but he knew he could no longer simply brush it off.
“Kim Ju-hwan.”
“Yes.”
You’re good at answering.
“I’ll settle things with Shin-woo hyung properly. So don’t be anxious.”
“…I’m not anxious. It’s just… that Sunbae is a person who can survive strongly even on his own.”
“I’m not that strong.”
“No. The Shin Jeong-min I know is stronger than anyone. I was the weak one.”
“Wow, I can’t agree with that.”
Jeong-min laughed, telling him not to say such nonsense, and finished the orange juice he had personally tasted before placing the empty cup on the table.
“But that might be because I don’t know you well. Slowly… let’s settle this matter first and then talk slowly.”
“Yes… I will wait.”
He wasn’t a puppy, yet the words ‘I will wait patiently’ sounded so mismatched for him…. However, Jeong-min felt a secret sense of relief, believing that he would truly stay silently by his side without budging until told to move.
Two days later, Jeong-min met Yu Shin-woo.
Yu Shin-woo was in a detention center. Absurdly, the reason he was there was because of drugs. Kim Ju-hwan had detained him under various charges, but he later found out that the police were investigating him on suspicion of drug use and cooperated with the investigation. After decisive evidence was found, Yu Shin-woo was confirmed as a drug offender.
Jeong-min could not hide his bewilderment at the news. He knew that Shin-woo had received treatment for drug use in the US, but to think he had touched them again in Korea. Since when? No, he wasn’t curious. In the end, it was a choice Yu Shin-woo made, and he was the one who had to take responsibility.
Jeong-min decided to ask only what he was truly curious about.
“It’s been a while.”
That was the first thing Yu Shin-woo said as soon as he saw Jeong-min. Jeong-min clenched his fists. To think that a person whose face he had loved just a few months ago could now be so hateful, resentful, and loathsome.
“Are you okay physically?”
“Isn’t it a bit funny for you to ask me that, hyung?”
“I suppose so.”
“Hyung, why on earth did you do that?”
Kim Ju-hwan had also asked several times. Why on earth did he do such things? Every time, he only replied, ‘I’ll tell Jeong-min.’ Each time, Kim Ju-hwan wanted to kill Yu Shin-woo but endured it. He believed that whether to kill him or let him live was Shin Jeong-min’s prerogative.
“No matter how much I think about it, I don’t understand. It could have been your child, so why did you do that? But you… you seemed to know it wasn’t your child.”
“That’s right. I knew. But the fact that you had a child and became an Omega was indeed what I had been waiting for. You don’t know how long I waited.”
“What do you mean?”
“I thought that if you became pregnant, I would kill the child, and if you became an Omega, I would force you to imprint with another Alpha… so that you could live in the same pain as I do for the rest of your life.”
His heart… sank. As Kim Ju-hwan abruptly stood up, Jeong-min held him back.
“Why?”
“You still don’t get it? Jeong-min, I hate you. I’ve hated you for a long time. How could I like you, the one who made me like this? Think about it. I went to America because of you, I broke up with Yeong-min because of you, I did drugs because of you and came back with a ruined body. All because of you. So how could I like you? Even if you could cure this disease, I would never have imprinted with you. That is how much I loathe and hate you, Shin Jeong-min. I am sick and disgusted by you liking me.”
“Sunbae, let’s get up.”
This time, Kim Ju-hwan held Jeong-min. As he tried to pull him up as if telling him not to listen any further, Jeong-min stopped him once more.
“I’m okay.”
“Sunbae.”
“Kim Ju-hwan, I’m fine. I need to know.”
Jeong-min took a deep breath and let it out. His heart and mind were still. He wasn’t even angry. He felt that the creature before him was not an object worthy of anger.
“So? Since everything is my fault. Did you want revenge on me?”
“As expected, you’re smart, Jeong-min. You understand ten things when told one. But why didn’t you know that you and I could never be together? Why didn’t you know that I hated you?”
“Is that why you dated me?”
“That’s right.”
Now he understood. The reason Yu Shin-woo turned cold as soon as they started dating, the reason he slept with other Omegas, the lack of any physical affection… it was all a kind of sign, and he was the one who had ignored it. Like a fool.
“That’s because you’re pathetic, hyung. Why blame me? Why is the problem with Yeong-min my fault?”
“I would have killed that bastard Yeong-min eventually too.”
What a pathetic person he was… why did I ever…
“You twins made me like this.”
“…Hyung, stop pretending to be the victim. Do you remember the university MT? You raped me. But I covered it up with love. You shouldn’t be saying things like this.”
It was a relief that he wasn’t allowed to bring in any small belongings. If he had been holding even a ballpoint pen, he felt he might have stabbed this man.
“What are you talking about? You wanted to sleep with me. That’s why you seduced me, drenched in Yeong-min’s pheromones. Disgustingly. It’s because of you, Shin Jeong-min. Because of you, I!! Got such a disease!! If only you weren’t here… if only you brothers weren’t here, I wouldn’t have become like this. If only Shin Yeong-min, that bastard, had just married me!! Things would have been different.”
He began to speak in strange, contradictory nonsense. He bit his nails anxiously and shook his legs incessantly. It was clearly drug withdrawal symptoms. The investigating officers, judging the situation to be dangerous, entered the interrogation room. Jeong-min stood up.
“Let’s go. I don’t want to be here any longer.”
At Jeong-min’s words, Kim Ju-hwan also stood up.
“Jeong-min.”
Yu Shin-woo’s gentle voice was heard from behind. But Jeong-min did not look back.
“Don’t leave me. Stay with me. You love your hyung. To the point of throwing away your trait! You love hyung. Right?”
No, hyung. The hyung I loved doesn’t exist.
I think he never existed in the world to begin with. I was just blinded by rose-colored glasses and couldn’t see clearly. He never existed.
“Hey!! Where are you going!! You should be here too!! You can’t leave me like this!! Shin Jeong-min!!”
He left the police station without looking back. The voice ringing out behind him was so loud it felt like his ears were tearing. He tried not to cry, but tears fell.
It couldn’t be helped. It wasn’t because he pitied Yu Shin-woo, nor because they had broken up, nor because he would never see him again. Nor did he want to pity himself or feel sorry for himself. It was simply that the long stretch of time felt like a waste.
“Jeong-min sunbae.”
Kim Ju-hwan grabbed Jeong-min’s arm. Then, he held out his handkerchief.
“It’s okay to cry.”
Jeong-min looked down at the handkerchief. Did he deserve to receive this? Because he was a fool. He had even lost this man’s child… did he have such a right?
“I just hope you don’t blame yourself, Sunbae. The time that passed and the heart you poured into it, all of it… while it’s infuriating, it wasn’t wrong. The one who made it futile was that human, so resent and curse that human instead. Don’t curse yourself.”
Jeong-min took the handkerchief.
“Thanks to you, my tears have vanished. But I’ll take it.”
Clutching the handkerchief tightly, Jeong-min smiled.
“You should have hit him once. I could have handled that for you.”
“He wasn’t a person worth that. I don’t want to spend energy on such things. Phew… I’m hungry.”
At Jeong-min’s words, Kim Ju-hwan’s face brightened. He no longer had to worry.
“I’ll buy you something delicious.”
Jeong-min nodded. As Kim Ju-hwan opened the car door, Jeong-min sat in the passenger seat and closed his eyes. Fortunately, he… did not look back at the past.