By Zephyria 
#. Prologue
Should I run away?
Seo Yi-kyung paced around the room, biting his lower lip hard.
He had been chewing on his lip so intensely while racking his brain that it felt as if blood was about to burst forth, yet the nervousness and anxiety filling his chest would not subside.
He glanced at the closed door. A navy-colored door that felt full of dissonance, its curved handle polished to a platinum sheen. Seo Yi-kyung was focusing all his senses on that door.
He felt like he could escape right now. But if he left this house, where on earth would he go? Perhaps because his nerves were frayed, he flinched at a small sound coming from outside the window.
The sound had come from the direction of the terrace. A table for a couple was placed there. Seo Yi-kyung watched a bird land briefly on it before flying away.
‘I’m on the second floor, so maybe I could jump?’
Once I get out, there might be a way. Just as his chaotic thoughts reached a peak—
Click. The sound of the door opening echoed.
Startled, Seo Yi-kyung flopped down onto the bed. Simultaneously, the metallic scent of blood filled his mouth. It seemed the lower lip he had been biting all along had finally split.
Ugh… Frowning slightly, Seo Yi-kyung pressed his lips together to swallow a groan. Then, pretending to be nonchalant, he slowly closed his eyelids.
“Is Director Han here? He hasn’t eaten anything all day. He hasn’t even come outside.”
The troubled voice of a helper seeped through the narrow gap of the door.
“I’ll do it. Give it to me.”
With his eyes squeezed shut, Seo Yi-kyung’s fingers instinctively curled. Though it was only a low voice, his heart tightened sharply.
Click, the door closed. Han Seung-jae, a tall silhouette, turned around.
Holding the tray he had received from the helper in one hand, he approached the bed. Then, extending his long arm, he placed the tray on the nightstand in front of the lamp. Inside the covered porcelain bowl, there was likely porridge.
“…….”
Han Seung-jae looked down at him silently.
With no color in his face, Seo Yi-kyung looked like a sick patient. On top of that, he was wearing the same pajamas he had been in since the morning before he left for work. If there was one thing that was irritating, it was the fact that he was asleep every time he was seen.
Was that merely a coincidence?
Suddenly, Han Seung-jae’s gaze lingered on Seo Yi-kyung’s lips, which had turned red and were bleeding. He watched the sleeping Seo Yi-kyung quietly before reaching out.
A large hand descended over Seo Yi-kyung’s face. The slender brown eyebrows, the delicate nose and lips were soon hidden within his grasp.
A long fingertip touched Seo Yi-kyung’s lower lip. The red drop of blood smeared along the fingertip. Likewise, the lip that had been bitten red all day was crushed. At the unexpected sensation, Seo Yi-kyung’s slightly parted lower lip trembled.
Han Seung-jae spoke.
“Are you going to keep avoiding me?”
The low, gloomy voice shattered the silence of the room. It was as if his patience had reached its limit. At the same time, Seo Yi-kyung felt as if he were suffocating, as if something had pierced his lungs. Was he caught? The hair on his neck stood on end. The fingertips gripping the blanket curled even tighter.
Seo Yi-kyung gripped the blanket until his knuckles turned white.
‘I don’t want to die.’
He had possessed a novel.
And specifically, as Seo Yi-kyung, who met a miserable end after being abandoned by the man he loved, Han Seung-jae.
* * *
Seo Yi-kyung struggled to lift his eyelids. It was becoming too difficult to keep pretending to be asleep. The pounding pulse that had been raging for a while was already beyond his control. He hoped his voice wouldn’t tremble as it leaked out, but when he locked eyes with Han Seung-jae, who was looking down at him, he was suddenly seized with fear.
“……Y-you’re here?”
Why is he glaring like that? Could it be that he noticed I’m a different person? As that thought occurred to him, his already pale complexion turned as white as if he had been dusted with flour.
Han Seung-jae’s tall stature and body, forged by years of exercise, were hidden beneath his black suit. However, his cold features were not hidden. Leaning his upper body over to look down at Seo Yi-kyung, he was impeccably clean. Han Seung-jae’s face, devoid of emotion, was nearly expressionless. Because of this, his cold gaze was emphasized.
The moment Han Seung-jae’s eyebrow twitched slightly, Seo Yi-kyung made a horrified expression and intentionally rubbed his eyelids as if avoiding eye contact. Unlike his plummeting heart, he tried to act nonchalant on the outside, making an excuse with a disheveled face as if he had just woken up.
“I didn’t know because I was sleeping so deeply.”
He particularly emphasized the word ‘deeply,’ as if offering a plausible reason. However, Seo Yi-kyung’s excuse didn’t seem to work very well. Perhaps he just didn’t care. Judging by the fact that those long fingers were still touching his lower lip.
That alone made Seo Yi-kyung’s spine tingle. So, eventually, he instinctively turned his head to escape the finger.
“What time is it? Did you just get off work?”
He felt like he should have just jumped off the terrace earlier. He felt resentful of the time he wasted just agonizing over it. In the meantime, Han Seung-jae’s finger, which had slid from his lip to his chin, was withdrawn.
“Get up.”
He seemed to look down at his hand, which was slightly stained with blood, then raised his cold eyes to meet his.
“I’ll have them bring a change of clothes, so go to the hospital first.”
“…….”
His voice had a low resonance and power. That alone made Seo Yi-kyung feel a somewhat heightened sense of intimidation. He hurriedly pushed himself up with both arms.
“No. I’m just tired; it’s not to the point where I need to go to the hospital. Ah! Did you bring this for me to eat?”
Seo Yi-kyung busily grabbed the tray and placed it on his thighs. Han Seung-jae stared down at him as he desperately tried to change the subject.
“Ah, hot!”
In his haste to open the porcelain bowl’s lid, he dropped it. Clatter. As Seo Yi-kyung opened the lid again, white steam rose in curls. Even while he used the concave spoon placed beside it to stir the porridge—made of finely chopped beef and vegetables—to cool it down, his cheeks felt not just stinging, but as if they were being pierced. He could feel Han Seung-jae’s gaze too vividly.
‘He suspects me.’
A red warning light went off in Seo Yi-kyung’s head as he repeated the words to himself as if he had been burned. However, on the outside, he calmly poured out sweet words.
“It looks delicious. I’ll enjoy it.”
Seo Yi-kyung pursed his dry lips and blew on the food. His mouth tasted bitter. Being stared at like that made him lose his appetite. Nevertheless, he skillfully shoved a small spoonful of porridge into his mouth. Isn’t he leaving? Does he intend to stay until I finish all of this?
As the porridge lingered in his parched mouth, Seo Yi-kyung glanced sideways, met Han Seung-jae’s eyes, and his Adam’s apple twitched. Eventually, he choked. Covering his mouth and dropping his head, Seo Yi-kyung’s upper body heaved. Coughs leaked out continuously. Cough, cough…
Watching this, Han Seung-jae moved his arm and pulled a phone from the inner pocket of his black suit. Then, after looking down at the screen that vibrated repeatedly, he turned around.
Cough. Seo Yi-kyung watched Han Seung-jae’s long legs moving away from the corner of his eye. Once he left his sight and the door opened and closed, the coughing subsided. If there was a silver lining, this was it. He didn’t know who it was, but it felt like a savior had appeared. Seo Yi-kyung dropped the spoon onto the tray. Then, letting all the strength leave his body, he leaned his back against the headboard of the bed. He let out several deep sighs in succession.
“This method won’t work anymore either.”
In truth, simply continuing to avoid him wasn’t going to solve anything. Seo Yi-kyung looked around. The spacious room was on a different level from where he used to live.
A landscape painting hung on the wall. The ornaments on the shelves and display cases were high-priced items even at a glance. No matter how many times he looked around, the sight never became familiar.
At first, he thought he would wake up from this bizarre dream soon.
As a 21-year-old college student, he had an older brother who was an Alpha. His brother, a study addict, often acted selfishly, relying on their father.
It was only natural that their father, who was generous only to the brother with excellent academic grades, trusted the brother’s words more than Seo Yi-kyung’s. Because the brother spoke while citing research papers he had never even heard of, Seo Yi-kyung was left speechless and unable to argue back.
And his mother, persuaded by the logically speaking brother, repeatedly urged him to apologize, saying, ‘As the younger brother, you were in the wrong.’ However, Seo Yi-kyung refused to apologize until the end. ‘What did I do wrong? Why is everyone like this only to me?’ He slammed his bedroom door shut. No one ever opened that firmly closed door or looked for him.
Seo Yi-kyung woke up early in the morning. Perhaps because he hadn’t eaten the day before, he felt hungry. Still, as if maintaining his pride, he prepared to go to school.
Suddenly, as he was stepping out the front door, he felt the premonitory symptoms of a heat cycle. Since submitting a medical certificate would count as an excused absence, he hurried back into his room. He took a suppressant and tried to sleep.
In the world, there are many Betas, a few Alphas, and Omegas. In particular, male Omegas were quite rare. It was even more so because they didn’t step forward. Because they were rare, there were many inconveniences, to the point where some people intentionally pretended to be Betas.
Seo Yi-kyung didn’t hide it, but he didn’t reveal it either. However, there was nothing he could do during a heat period. It would be a disaster if he wandered around and went into heat from an Alpha’s scent. If that happened, his brother, who knew nothing but studying, would surely mock him, saying he knew he’d be like that.
Waking up late, he couldn’t fall back asleep. He was hungry. Perhaps because he had taken strong suppressants on an empty stomach, he had a slight fever and his head felt exceptionally foggy.
Seo Yi-kyung lay on the mattress and fiddled with his phone. He followed cat and dog videos as suggested by YouTube. There were scenes that made his nose tingle slightly. Then, an advertisement for something called ‘Omega’s World’ happened to catch his eye.
The reason it caught his attention was likely because the character’s name was ‘Seo Yi-kyung,’ the same as his own.
Is he the protagonist?
In a daze from the medication, Seo Yi-kyung searched for and read the novel. He thought he would read a bit and then sleep, but before he knew it, a bluish light filtered through the window. Even so, Seo Yi-kyung couldn’t bring himself to put the phone down.
…There’s another person like my father here? Seeing the same name and the way he lived being pushed around by an Alpha brother, he became immersed in the story as if feeling pity.
In ‘Omega’s World,’ classes were strictly divided by genetics and pheromones. The more superior the trait of the Alpha, the more they monopolized power. Furthermore, the status of the Alpha they married determined the Omega’s position.
In the original work, ‘Seo Yi-kyung’ enters an arranged marriage at age 24 with Han Seung-jae, who is four years older. In the spring when cherry blossoms were in full bloom, the story began amidst the blessings and congratulations of countless people.
The marriage talk between ‘Seo Yi-kyung,’ an extreme dominant Omega, and Han Seung-jae, an extreme dominant Alpha, had been arranged by their families since they manifested at age seven.
Han Seung-jae of the Myeongjun Financial Group and ‘Seo Yi-kyung’ of Woorim Construction. The marriage of the two was essentially a political and economic necessity. It was also a result of the desire to possess and leave behind superior genes.
In reality, they had no points of contact until the marriage. There was no way love could exist between the two.
No, at least the ‘Seo Yi-kyung’ in the novel loved Han Seung-jae. With his flexible personality, he willingly accepted his parents’ wishes and held Han Seung-jae in his heart.
‘Seo Yi-kyung,’ who loved painting and had a deep knowledge of art, was a gentle and kind person. The reason their married life remained peaceful was all thanks to his efforts. It was because he adjusted himself completely to Han Seung-jae.
However, the cozy married life that ‘Seo Yi-kyung’ had tirelessly built did not last long.
[Have you been well? It’s been a long time.]
With the appearance of a new Omega, Min Ra-hyeon.