By Zephyria 
The sickeningly ripe peach scent that Joo Tae-hyun claimed he could no longer feel fiercely enveloped the two men.
Only Joo Tae-hyun remained unaware of its vivid trajectory, so clear it was almost tangible.
The Joo Tae-hyun who had willingly embraced his pheromones, perhaps even his entire being, was gone. The lush tree that had seemed destined to stand in the same spot forever no longer looked at Seo Baek-han.
* * *
“How is His Highness?”
“If you’re asking about His Highness’s mood regarding this situation, he’s fine. He even seems to be enjoying it.”
However, despite the word “fine,” Chief Eunuch Jeong could only sigh deeply.
“It’s just that he’s been summoned to Seoul so often, he’s been separated from the Queen Consort, so he’s often getting, ah, sorry, irritable.”
“Haha, he hasn’t changed.”
As they headed toward the residence where Second Prince Lee was staying, Chief Eunuch Jeong grumbled and vented his frustrations about him as if he had been waiting for the opportunity. However, Seo Baek-han knew that even that was affection for his superior, so he simply smiled and accepted it.
“Come to think of it, Director Seo, isn’t this your first time visiting the inner grounds of Changgyeong Palace?”
“To enter such private quarters, yes. It is my first time.”
Changgyeong Palace.
It was here that he had first met Joo Tae-hyun.
“It’s not as good as Lotus Flower Palace, but it’s a scenic place, so take your time to look around.”
He didn’t have the leisure to leisurely tour the palace, but he responded with a polite nod.
“Seo Baek-han, Director of the Royal Hospital, is here to see you.”
With Chief Eunuch Jeong’s booming voice, the sensor-equipped paper doors opened in succession.
Each time a door opened and closed, the elegantly decorated interior was revealed. Perhaps because the palace itself was so extravagant, instead of flowers, there were scrolls and white porcelain sparsely placed along the path, which seemed to reflect Prince Lee’s taste.
Could it be that he had this done because his visits to Seoul have become more frequent lately? It was possible. He was someone who insisted on staying at a different palace each time he visited Seoul, saying that Gyeongbok Palace lacked charm.
“You came quickly.”
Second Prince Lee, Lee Rok, who was chewing on a jelly instead of a smoking pipe, lightly raised his hand to greet Seo Baek-han.
He appreciated the consideration to prevent the atmosphere from becoming stiff, but Seo Baek-han stood before him with more formality than ever.
“Your Highness, Second Prince Lee.”
“Ah, Director Seo. Please. Let’s skip the ‘I deserve to die’ and ‘I’m sorry’ stuff. Please.”
When Seo Baek-han, who was unusually stiff, showed signs of bowing and apologizing, Prince Lee waved his chin in alarm. Telling him to sit down quickly.
“But—”
“Ah, I hate it. It’s uncomfortable and annoying. More than anything, the object of your apology is wrong. You didn’t do anything wrong to me, did you? You did it to Tae-hyun.”
Second Prince Lee stretched languidly, as if bored. Still, when Seo Baek-han remained standing with his facial muscles frozen, he clicked his tongue, saying, “He’s still got a long way to go.”
“I heard that Hyung almost foamed at the mouth and collapsed after seeing the news. Did you hear about it?”
“Yes. I took matters into my own hands. I am sorry.”
“I was surprised, but… it was definitely a bold act that only someone of Director Seo’s age could pull off. Besides, it was the first time something like that had happened to a member of the royal family, right? The shock must have been great everywhere.”
In other words, lawsuits or accusations against members of the royal family would not have such a great effect in the future. He had wasted a card that could have been used for something bigger in a moment of emotional impulse.
There were often cases of civic groups stepping forward for show, but it was the first time that someone as important as the Director of the Royal Hospital had clung to a member of the royal family for a purely personal matter.
“But you don’t regret it, do you? Mentioning Hyung before the cameras back then.”
“I can only apologize, and I am sorry to say this as well… Yes, that is correct.”
He did not regret mentioning the Crown Prince at the time.
His father, a special advisor, was causing a fuss, and pro-Crown Prince figures were also attacking him as if they wanted to kill him, but there had been more success than expected to the point where he could ignore them.
First of all, in the past few days, negative public opinion about Joo Tae-hyun had disappeared from the media. There was some mention of him, but even that was limited to explaining what Kim Seung-jun had done and the suspicions surrounding the Crown Prince.
The anti-Crown Prince faction, as if they had been waiting for this, began to subtly leak the data they had to the media, and some of them were issues that Seo Baek-han had not yet grasped. For example, slush funds with unclear routes, minor privileges, and corruption.
The fact that Kim Seung-jun was hanging out with drug dealers and trying to kill one of them was receiving even greater attention in the foreign press. It had not yet been reported that the person Kim Seung-jun had commissioned the murder of was the drug dealer from whom Joo Tae-hyun had purchased the dirty switch. It seemed that rumors were already circulating, but it was decided to release this information in line with Second Prince Lee’s statement in two days.
In any case, the transgression he had committed for the first time in his life was going smoothly, as if sailing with the wind.
‘Now that I can’t even feel Hyung’s pheromones, it’s strange to stay with Hyung under the pretext of recovery.’
Except for one thing, his relationship with Joo Tae-hyun.
“It’s unlike Director Seo to cause such a big accident, but it seems like things are working out well, so why the long face?”
…A long face? Was he doing that?
Seo Baek-han roughly ran his hand over his rough face and smiled faintly.
“I am just sorry in many ways. I have placed a heavy burden on Your Highness, Second Prince Lee, with my personal affairs.”
“Yeah, it’s a bit annoying that the issue of deposing the Crown Prince is causing a stir here and there. My dream is to live happily with my darling in Pyongyang and close our eyes on the same day.”
There had been talk of deposing the Crown Prince several times, but never had the fire been so great as this time. As a result, Second Prince Lee was also being summoned to Gyeongbok Palace more often. The announcement in two days would also be a time for Second Prince Lee to express his feelings regarding the matter.
“But the matter with Hyung… no, the Crown Prince, is something I have to resolve. This was my responsibility from the start.”
It was just that the moment to shake off the accumulated grime had come, Second Prince Lee continued.
“So you don’t have to feel sorry for me.”
From Second Prince Lee, who spoke calmly, he could see a deep-rooted confidence that he would not allow anyone to shake him.
He had heard that he had caused quite a few accidents when he was in his prime. From just over twenty years old, he fought against the media that was hostile to shifters, showed his face here and there regardless of his position, and gathered his people. Above all, after bringing in the Second Prince Consort, every day was like a war.
Second Prince Lee was only twenty-three when he held the royal wedding. Or was it twenty-four? Moreover, the other party, the Second Prince Consort, was an experimental subject of a pharmaceutical company, and they had secretly brought her into the palace to deceive the royal family.
“Hmm? Director Seo, what’s wrong?”
Seo Baek-han stared at Second Prince Lee, knowing it was rude. He was newly amazed by him, who had bet everything on love and climbed to this point when he was still a young man.
How could he have been so sure? That his feelings and the other person’s feelings were definitely love.
“Your Highness, Second Prince Lee.”
“Uh-huh, speak comfortably.”
“Tae-hyun had a miscarriage.”
Was that why? Seo Baek-han blurted out the words without realizing it.
This was also an act committed impulsively, without any plan.
But if it was Second Prince Lee.
If it was him, who had overcome all the storms because he wanted to be with the person he loved, if it was this person he wanted to emulate. He wondered if he could give an answer to him, who was so lost.
“Huh, a, a miscarriage? When?”
Second Prince Lee’s voice, which had been maintaining a somewhat solemn tone, suddenly became greatly disturbed.
“About a week… a little over a week ago, I think.”
“Oh, dear.”
Instead of offering hasty condolences, Second Prince Lee trailed off.
“It’s still confidential, right? That… I shouldn’t act like I know Tae-hyun, right?”
“Yes, not yet. But… I think I made a mistake with Tae-hyun regarding that matter.”
“A mistake? What on earth did you do…”
As soon as he heard the word “miscarriage,” Lee Rok’s face, which had been full of worry, turned sullen like a suspicious cat.
“Don’t tell me you said something like, ‘You can have another child,’ or ‘You’ll get pregnant soon,’ or something like that?”
Seo Baek-han shook his head briefly and conveyed the words that Joo Tae-hyun had expressed to him.
“…So I said that I was sorry about the child—”
“What? Sorry?”
Second Prince Lee, who had been sighing and repeating “Oh, dear” as if he had heard something he shouldn’t have, waved his hand. As if there was nothing more to hear.
“Director Seo. Go and apologize right now.”
“Yes?”
“Beg Tae-hyun for forgiveness, even do a Seokjeon Daeje.”
Of course, that wouldn’t be enough. Second Prince Lee opened a snack box and crunched on a nut. The jelly from earlier and every snack he took out had a somewhat clumsy appearance, as if they were snacks that the Second Prince Consort had prepared herself.
“No, Director Seo. Even if you wrote the Tripitaka Koreana with the word ‘sorry,’ it wouldn’t be enough, but why did you say ‘sorry’ in that situation?”
“Of course, I also feel sorry for Tae-hyun. But I judged that the expression ‘sorry’ was more appropriate than saying ‘I’m sorry’ in that situation—”
“…Oh, yeah. Just keep acting the way Director Seo wants. That’s why Tae-hyun held a press conference saying he was getting a divorce.”
“Your Highness!”
Second Prince Lee slammed the table as if frustrated.
“Seriously, if you’re sorry, say you’re sorry. If you’ve done something wrong, say you’ve done something wrong. Don’t be proud for no reason and tell the other person how you feel honestly. That’s the appropriate language between a couple.”
“But—”
He wanted to argue out of frustration, but there was no word that came to mind, so Seo Baek-han bit his lip tightly. It seemed that the bad habit that Joo Tae-hyun had urged him to refrain from so much had rubbed off on him.
“But, what.”
“…Isn’t that too irresponsible?”
“What is? Being honest with my feelings?”
“Yes. Just saying ‘I’m sorry’ as soon as it comes to mind, impulsively… It feels irresponsible to me.”
He just wanted to handle things in the most polite way he knew, in a rational way.
“I tried to show as much sincerity as I could in my own way. I also… wanted to protect Tae-hyun at the cost of a lot. Because I was really sorry.”
He was sincere.
He was sorry for everything, and he regretted everything.
He had suspected Joo Tae-hyun’s pregnancy and used it as an excuse to drive him into a corner. Then, without considering the feelings of someone who had even lost a child, he babbled in front of the camera as he pleased.
“I wanted to express my feelings in the most polite language I knew, and I wanted to patch things up as best as I could. I thought that Tae-hyun, of all people, would know that.”
But Joo Tae-hyun was now even pushing away his pheromones. He understood that he must have been angry and upset in the process, but he never expected that he would even develop pheromone rejection.
Should he call it fortunate? The imprinting was still maintained, albeit weakly, but that was all. Even after getting several more injections, Joo Tae-hyun was only unable to sense Seo Baek-han’s pheromones.
“No, Director Seo. Putting everything else aside, you like Tae-hyun, right? Don’t you?”
“…I don’t even know that.”
“What? What don’t you know?”
“I don’t even know how I feel about Tae-hyun, to be honest.”
“Oh…”
Second Prince Lee narrowed his eyes and stared at Seo Baek-han. It was a cold, indifferent gaze, as if he were looking at a complete idiot.