By Zephyria 
“Kim Ju-hwan… you mentioned… something called correction before, right?”
However, Ju-hwan couldn’t ask. The next words Jeong-min uttered were far too unexpected.
“…I did.”
“If it’s not too late… I want… correction.”
“What?”
“You said it before. That there is something called correction! I think you said if you sleep with an Alpha, you can become an Omega. Yes, that’s right! I have to sleep with an Alpha? I’ll do it. I don’t care if I have to do it with several people. As long as I become an Omega.”
Suddenly, a fire flared up inside him. Ju-hwan clenched his fists. He felt an unknown rage gradually dominating him, yet he couldn’t stop himself.
“Are you… in your right mind right now?”
“I am.”
“You’re insane.”
“Yeah, even I think I’m crazy right now.”
“Just what is Yu Shin-woo to you that you’d go this far? That man doesn’t care whether you’re an Alpha or an Omega. He has absolutely no intention of accepting you.”
“I know.”
“No, you don’t know.”
“I know!”
As Jeong-min shouted, Ju-hwan grabbed him by the collar and yanked him forward. It was intended to intimidate him, but Jeong-min did not yield; instead, he glared back at Ju-hwan with even more defiance.
Right. This was Shin Jeong-min. He was a man who got angrier and was more sensitive to insults directed at Yu Shin-woo than at himself. It was an emotion Kim Ju-hwan could never understand.
“Do you think Yu Shin-woo would understand someone like you?”
“I don’t expect him to.”
He doesn’t expect understanding, but he wants to be loved by that Alpha. How contradictory. Truly, it was incomprehensible.
“But I can at least try for a chance. If I become an Omega, maybe…”
If he’s an Alpha, he’s stripped of that chance from the start. He wouldn’t even be able to try. That… was unbearable.
“I have to become an Omega… I want to have Hyung, Yu Shin-woo. That man is my Alpha.”
My Alpha.
The moment he heard those words, he grit his teeth. A deep sense of unpleasantness rose from within him at Shin Jeong-min’s incomprehensible emotions and actions. That unpleasantness began to eat away at him, suppressing his reason.
“This is driving me crazy. Haha.”
“I want to be an Omega. I have to be an Omega. I can’t be an Alpha. Omega… I must be an Omega.”
Jeong-min muttered as if praying, as if casting a spell. It seemed as though nothing remained in his world except the necessity of becoming an Omega. An Alpha could also love another Alpha. But for Jeong-min, that option was as good as non-existent.
“There’s no time for this. So let me ask. Kim Ju-hwan, what do I have to do?”
Jeong-min looked at him. Eyes filled with desperate longing, and at the same time, eyes that were prepared for any resolution. Not a single trace of hesitation could be felt.
“You’ll need to find an Alpha to perform the correction, right?”
An Alpha.
With wet eyes and flushed with fever, he was wishing for a hole to be opened, desiring sex with an Alpha. How typical of an Omega.
But it seemed God had chosen him to be an Alpha.
God wanted to make him an Alpha, the greatest blessing of this world, but the creation rejected God’s wish. Then what would God do with that creation? Discard it? Or grant its wish? Or perhaps force it to obey?
“Since you don’t seem to be in your right mind due to the fever, please just go back to sleep.”
Ju-hwan decided to ignore Jeong-min’s words. He felt that if he stayed any longer, he might resort to violence against Shin Jeong-min’s nonsense, so he prepared to leave the room.
As soon as he turned around, there was a commotion behind him. Shin Jeong-min roughly yanked out the IV needle from the back of his hand. In the process, the IV pole fell over, and Jeong-min pushed back the blanket, staggering as he slowly stood up.
Unable to tell what he was trying to do, Ju-hwan watched him. Despite having no strength to even steady himself, Jeong-min barely managed to find his balance, brushed past Ju-hwan, grabbed the doorknob, and opened the door. He was trying to escape Ju-hwan’s perimeter, leaning heavily against the wall.
The moment he realized this, Ju-hwan walked toward him. The stride of a sick patient was quickly caught by an enraged Alpha. Ju-hwan grabbed Jeong-min’s wrist.
“Where do you think you’re going in that condition!”
“Get lost. Fuck… why the hell did I come to see you… fuck…!”
His pride was wounded. Jeong-min thought it was a mistake to have come to a guy like this. His whole body trembled. If possible, he would have sold his body even to God right now. That was how desperate and urgent he was. Why on earth did he come here during such a precious golden time!
“I told you to let go.”
“If you tell me your destination, I’ll take you there.”
“I don’t need your help.”
He was tired. Ju-hwan was reaching the limit of suppressing the Alpha instincts churning inside him. Originally, Dominant Alphas struggled with anger management and had great emotional volatility. There was even a saying used to mock them: “A Dominant Alpha is a walking time bomb.”
Their possessiveness, temper, and stubbornness were all at the peak—and the worst.
Because Dominant Alphas were the ones who stood above other Alphas, it was difficult to stand above those arrogant Alphas without possessing that level of temperament. It was that kind of a dog-eat-dog world.
“Sunbae, no. Shin Jeong-min…”
Ju-hwan sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose.
“Where are you going? I said I’ll take you if you tell me. Who said I was going to keep you? So answer me. Where are you going?”
Kim Ju-hwan spoke calmly, emphasizing every single syllable. However, Kim Ju-hwan himself did not realize that the air was gradually becoming heavy.
“I don’t need it. If you let go, I’ll go on my own.”
Jeong-min forcibly twisted his wrist to break free from Ju-hwan’s grip. With the strength he had barely recovered, he tried to run desperately, but Ju-hwan grabbed him by the scruff of his neck and pulled him back. Being caught again made Jeong-min feel utterly miserable.
“Fuck, let go!! Let go!! I don’t have time!! I don’t want to be an Alpha. An Alpha, fuck… fuck…”
“So what? You’re saying you’ll go to any Alpha right now? To ask for correction?”
“And if I am?”
Without a moment’s hesitation, Jeong-min looked at Ju-hwan and spoke. Their eyes met. Seeing those eyes, Ju-hwan’s Alpha instinct overturned his reason. He was angry. Everything about Shin Jeong-min touched the deepest part of his inner Alpha.
It had been like that ever since he met him. The only reason he hadn’t exploded in anger was that everything about him had been clumsy. He thought of him as an incomplete human being. Though he was a year older, he felt he should be indulged because he was still unfinished.
As Kim Ju-hwan, not as an Alpha? It was just funny how he barked and shouted. It was pathetic to see him pursue a one-sided love that seemed impossible. Yet, his haughtiness was amusing.
He thought Jeong-min would continue to entertain him. But he was wrong.
He was a tedious human. It was laughable that he was willing to throw the rest of his life into the gutter for a clumsy first love. Was he always this stupid? Right. Going to the gutter, huh. Then I’ll be the one to drag you down.
As the grip on Ju-hwan’s arm tightened, Jeong-min’s breath hitched as he was pulled by the scruff of his neck. Snatching the waist of the struggling Jeong-min, Ju-hwan sighed and kissed Jeong-min’s white nape.
The scent of an Alpha slowly wafted up.
Yes, he was the one who gave him the information about correction. It had been a kind of prank, meant to mock him, but in conclusion, it wasn’t a made-up story. It was simply a story that circulated like an urban legend.
“What are you…”
Jeong-min asked while trying to push Ju-hwan away.
“Why look far for an Alpha? There’s an Extreme Alpha right in front of you.”
“What…”
Realizing the meaning of Ju-hwan’s words, Jeong-min’s eyes widened and he stepped back.
“N-no. I don’t want to do it with you. Not you. I didn’t come to ask you for that…”
Jeong-min truly hadn’t intended that. He had come to Ju-hwan to learn more about correction. That’s why he couldn’t accept what Ju-hwan was saying. He felt a sense of repulsion.
On the other hand, Ju-hwan rolled up his dress shirt sleeves and took one step at a time toward the retreating Jeong-min. He was releasing his pheromones. If an Alpha let a target he had decided to ’embrace’ escape, he wouldn’t be an Alpha.
Whether Alpha or Omega, anyone hit directly by a dominant pheromone would struggle. Omegas go into heat, and Alphas fall to their knees.
Jeong-min’s legs began to tremble as if the strength were leaving them, and he soon collapsed onto the floor.
“Young Master. What is happening?”
The butler came upstairs, hearing the commotion. Ju-hwan carefully pulled the collapsed Jeong-min into his arms and spoke to the butler.
“From now on, no matter what sounds you hear from upstairs, do not come up. I will call you if I need anything. And if anyone comes looking for me, reject them all. Whether it’s my mother, father, or even God.”
“Pardon? Ah, yes… I understand.”
No matter how wet an Omega’s back becomes, the first time is always painful; how much more painful would it be if an Alpha were breached? He would likely let out a terrible scream.
Thinking this, Ju-hwan looked down at Jeong-min, who was slumped on the floor, rejecting him with his whole body. Seeing that sight, a smirk flickered across his lips for a moment before his expression hardened. He grabbed Jeong-min by the collar, dragged him into the room, and shut the door.
Click—
The sound of the door locking echoed through the hallway.