DS 112

It was rather fortunate. Joo Tae-hyun wore a faint, uncharacteristic sneer. His gaze, tilted at an angle, was directed towards the hospital bedding, embroidered alternately with the Donghwa Hospital logo and the DH Group logo.

“I didn’t exactly have a concrete plan either. Though I’m saying this now.”

Even though he had raised his voice about having and raising the child, he hadn’t seriously prepared himself. Perhaps he had even wanted to defy Hyung a little.

“Well, I should’ve had the time to even worry about it in the first place.”

He didn’t seem to be deliberately testing him. Nor was he trying to express the hurt he had received. Joo Tae-hyun was simply, calmly, revealing what he had been thinking. It seemed to be the first time he was seeing his unrefined inner thoughts without any calculation or embellishment.

“…How do you feel? Dizzy, or still feeling the effects of the anesthesia? Anything like that?”

He knew it was an inappropriate question for the situation.

He wanted to tell Joo Tae-hyun not to talk like that, to stop it. But strangely, he felt like he shouldn’t treat him as usual. The current Joo Tae-hyun seemed as precarious as a sandcastle that would crumble with the slightest touch.

“I’m okay. But Hyung… did you see it?”

Joo Tae-hyun, who had been silently tracing the logo on the blanket with his eyes, opened his mouth hesitantly after a long silence.

“When, during the surgery…”

“During the surgery?”

“When they take it out, they, uh, show it to the guardian, right?”

Ah. Only then did he realize what he meant. Joo Tae-hyun had hesitated for a long time, not knowing what to call the small lump without eyes, nose, or mouth.

“…Yes, I confirmed it.”

As he gently took over his words and replied, Joo Tae-hyun simply nodded briefly.

That seemed to be all he had to say about the child.

He hadn’t wanted to see Joo Tae-hyun despondent. But he thought it would be better if he cried or got angry, rather than acting like someone who was broken.

“I’ll follow Doctor Woo’s advice unconditionally, so if Hyung thinks it’s necessary, please visit often while I’m staying in Seoul.”

“…Are you serious? Are you going to be okay?”

“What’s not okay? I need to recover physically first.”

The number indicating the imprinting status dropped sharply for a moment, then began to rise little by little.

It was only for a fleeting moment, but Seo Baek-han couldn’t control the inexplicable anxiety that surged within him, and he glared fiercely at the innocent panel.

The imprinting number fluctuating wasn’t a bad thing. If the imprinting broke naturally without medical intervention, it would actually be a good thing. But why was he so restless, as if he wanted Joo Tae-hyun’s imprinting to remain strong?

“It’s strange, but… imprinting is really fascinating.”

Seo Baek-han, who had been staring intently at the dancing graph, felt a dim gaze on his cheek and raised his head.

“Hm?”

“You don’t seem to care at all.”

Ah, he must have heard all the commotion in front of the hospital room.

“…Oh, I’m fine.”

He had even forgotten that he had been slapped in the face just before. It wasn’t something he was paying much attention to, but if Joo Tae-hyun was saying that, he must have already returned to normal to some extent.

“I can feel my body changing every moment.”

“Really? You’re getting better?”

“Yes.”

“If that’s the case, then that’s a relief.”

The tension that had been building while watching Joo Tae-hyun’s unstable numbers gradually subsided. Was it because he had confirmed that he wasn’t the only one being swayed by his cursed pheromone? The fact that his pheromone was still affecting Joo Tae-hyun brought a base sense of satisfaction.

However, Joo Tae-hyun closed his mouth as if he had nothing more to say. He might have been curious about why the medical equipment was making occasional annoying noises, but Joo Tae-hyun didn’t seem to care about his condition at all.

“Aren’t you thirsty? Should I get you some water?”

“……”

“Well, you can have rice gruel in a few hours. I’ll buy you some juice or something to perk up your appetite before that. You can’t drink it right away, but, like orange juice-.”

“Hyung.”

Joo Tae-hyun, who had been sweeping back his bangs with his eyes tightly shut, called out to Seo Baek-han in a tired voice.

“I can’t eat oranges.”

“Oranges? Why?”

“It’s not severe, but I have a mild allergic reaction.”

What? An allergy? This was truly the first time he was hearing about it.

That’s strange, even if he had been indifferent to Joo Tae-hyun, there was no way he wouldn’t remember something like an allergy. No matter how much he rummaged through the basic information about Joo Tae-hyun in his memory, there was no such information recorded.

“It’s not serious, it’s a minor level… It’s okay as long as I don’t eat them often or a lot.”

“Why are you telling me this now?”

It was obvious. Given Joo Tae-hyun’s personality, he would have chosen to be careful on his own rather than being picky. He was the type who wanted to accommodate him in even the smallest details.

Even so, why hadn’t he said anything about having an allergic reaction to food, of all things? As he scolded him as if rebuking him, Joo Tae-hyun finally lifted his closed eyelids and met Seo Baek-han’s gaze.

“Everyone else knew, even without me saying anything.”

There was no resentment or blame. Joo Tae-hyun’s face, from which even the lingering, age-old longing that had been faintly present every moment seemed to have completely evaporated, was, how should he put it? It even looked serenely as if he had no regrets in life.

“The people Assemblyman Seo, no, Father, assigned to me all knew. They might not have known I had an allergy, but they knew I didn’t touch oranges…”

Marriage preparations had taken two years, and the marriage itself had lasted four years. If Joo Tae-hyun hadn’t touched an orange even once during that not-so-short time, there was no way he wouldn’t remember. No matter how indifferent he had been, there was no way he would have missed such a unique detail.

That’s how he should argue… But somehow, he lacked confidence.

The servants in charge of trivial matters might not know, but people like Chief Hwang or Secretary Nam would all know, wouldn’t they? Was it really possible that he was the only one who hadn’t noticed until now?

“I’m not trying to blame Hyung now. I tried not to make it obvious at couple events. And it was me who didn’t tell Hyung.”

But it was true that Joo Tae-hyun, the person who was his spouse, didn’t have enough interest to notice what kind of food he didn’t like.

It was an indescribable feeling.

To Seo Baek-han, Joo Tae-hyun had always been like an old book that stayed in the same place. He could remember the location on the desk, as well as the precise angle, but he had never actually read it carefully, so the contents were hazy. He thought that simply checking to see if it was still in its place was enough to cherish it, something that was naturally his to keep by his side.

“Hyung.”

“……”

“I don’t want to drag things out with a lawsuit. Besides the items written in the prenuptial agreement, feel free to tell me anything else you, or Assemblyman Seo, want.”

From Joo Tae-hyun’s tone and expression, which indicated that he was willing to grant anything even if it meant disposing of all his shares, he felt an inexplicable sense of incongruity.

“Either way, Hyung will be at a disadvantage if the lawsuit drags on. Public opinion and image are paramount to politicians like Assemblyman Seo and public officials like Hyung, but that doesn’t apply to businessmen.”

Over Joo Tae-hyun’s indifferent face, the youthful image of him that he had pushed into the depths of his memory overlapped.

Choi Yeon-jun had once shown him a few photos that had spread on social media, saying they were updates on Joo Tae-hyun, who was studying abroad.

A cold and aloof face as if to say, ‘I have no interest in you, so don’t even talk to me.’ He had been secretly surprised to see that Joo Tae-hyun had such an expression in front of others.

Now, Joo Tae-hyun was facing him with the exact same face as in those photos.

As if Seo Baek-han was no longer a man of any particular significance to him.

“Whether I get stoned or egged by people for a privacy scandal, as long as I defend the stock price well, I can keep my position unless I’ve sold the country.”

Having said all he had to say, Joo Tae-hyun lay back down on the bed. He simply closed his eyes quietly, as if he no longer cared about pheromone exchanges or anything else about his existence.

He couldn’t even offer a lame excuse to Joo Tae-hyun’s question of what excuse he would use to prevent the divorce now that there were no children, or to the point that the servants had already known that he didn’t like oranges.

It wasn’t that Joo Tae-hyun’s jab was particularly sharp. He wasn’t so weak that he would be hurt by that level of sarcasm.

However, Joo Tae-hyun’s icy gaze, which treated him like a stranger, rendered Seo Baek-han powerless, ultimately preventing him from making any response.

* * *

“Ah, I fucking hate Joo Tae-hyun’s way of speaking. He’s avoiding all the key points and appealing to emotions right now.”

Joo Kyung-han, who had called Seo Baek-han to the lounge next to the VIP room where Joo Tae-hyun was hospitalized, recited several more impressive comments afterward.

“Assemblyman Seo sent them to me, saying we should extinguish even the embers, but well. We weren’t planning on catching even this kind of reaction on our side.”

“Hyung.”

“Either way, this kind of reaction is only a small part-.”

“I clearly said that I needed to see Father and Mother.”

Only then did Joo Kyung-han take his eyes off the laptop. Unlike his slick tone, his face had not a trace of warmth.

“Was there some kind of misunderstanding?”

“No, I heard about it. But you’re not Joo Tae-hyun’s husband anymore. Did you think the director of Royal Hospital, not even a minister, could summon the head of DH Group like he was calling a dog?”