#70

“Now then, shall we eat?”

“Yes!”

“Wait.”

Just as he was about to sit at the low dining table, his mother called out to stop him. Jung-hyun straightened his half-bent knees and looked back at her. In that instant, he flinched, his body trembling.

His mother’s expression had changed. He instinctively realized something was wrong, though he didn’t know what. Jung-hyun approached her with anxious eyes. His mother snatched his hand away with a fierce grip.

Terrified, he tried to resist, but he was no match for an adult’s strength. Eventually, his wrist was twisted sharply, exposing his fingernails.

Without blinking, his mother inspected her son’s nails. There were reddish marks of biting on the middle finger of his right hand. Reflexively, Jung-hyun pulled back and shook his head.

“N-no, it’s not…”

“I believe I told you to fix the habit of biting your nails.”

Jung-hyun shook his head even more vigorously.

He had fixed it. He definitely had. He had worked so hard to never bite them again because she told him he would be scolded if his father found him with nails like that.

It was strange. When did it happen? Ah, did he unconsciously bite them yesterday while struggling with a math problem? Since that wasn’t intentional, it meant the habit was indeed fixed.

“No. I fixed the habit. This… it’s not. I didn’t do it…”

His head was whipped to the side. A searing pain followed. His knees buckled, and he hit the floor with a thud.

Jung-hyun cupped his stinging cheek with his small, fern-like hands and slowly lifted his head. Tears welled up, blurring his vision. Soon, the heavy tears splattered onto the floor.

His mother, her expression completely transformed, yelled at him. Her pitch was so high that he couldn’t properly hear what she was saying. Soon, her voice began to mix with sobbing. His mother was crying. He felt pity for her, as she claimed it was all his fault.

No. It’s not your fault, Mom. I lied. I was wrong. I’ll do better. I’ll become a son you can be prouder of, so Father won’t be ashamed…

“Mr. Jung-hyun. The pheromones have been fully administered.”

Jung-hyun snapped awake at the dry voice. His eyes moved busily to reconcile the gap between the dream and reality.

“I’ll remove the needle now.”

“Ah, yes.”

Right, he was at the pheromone center. To receive the Alpha pheromones he was injected with once a week.

Between his generally poor condition lately and the fact that he hadn’t fallen asleep until after 4 AM yesterday after Shin Ho-jae left, it seemed he had drifted off during the administration.

“Please don’t rub it too much.”

Jung-hyun, who had been unconsciously rubbing the injection site, stopped at the sound of her voice. As he discarded the cotton swab and pulled down his sleeve, the redness on the back of his hand caught his eye.

Stopping mid-button, Jung-hyun stared blankly at the back of his hand. Because the skin had peeled and healed over and over again, it was rough, like a callus, unlike other parts of his body.

Since it had been repeated for so long, there was no reason for it to hurt now, but he remembered someone’s voice speaking as if they were looking at a fresh wound.

‘Don’t bite the back of your hand from now on. It hurts.’

“…….”

Because Shin Ho-jae had said that, his subconscious seemed to have unearthed a childhood dream. Jung-hyun stroked the back of his hand, where that kindness lingered, and got up from the bed.

“Nurse. May I ask you something for a moment?”

He sought out the young female nurse who injected him every time. She blinked her expressionless eyes, questioning him with a look. No matter how many times he saw her, she was a truly blunt person. Not that he disliked that part.

“I always feel unwell after receiving the pheromones, but it seems to have gotten worse lately.”

“And?”

He wondered if it was just his imagination that she seemed particularly prickly today. Jung-hyun continued, maintaining his smile.

“Could I find out which Alpha pheromones I’m receiving? I was wondering if it’s different from usual.”

“…One moment.”

She left to check. In the meantime, Jung-hyun put on the jacket hanging on the rack and checked the mirror. The tie he had loosened before the injection caught his eye.

As he tightened the knot up to his neck while looking in the mirror, a suffocating feeling, as if he were being strangled, tightened around his body as always.

‘Loosen your tie too. It’s stifling.’

And naturally, a memory from yesterday followed like a tag. Jung-hyun let out a small sigh.

“Mr. Jung-hyun. About the pheromones you mentioned.”

“Ah, yes.”

The nurse who had stepped away returned just in time. In her hand was an empty plastic pack. Checking the label, he saw a ‘+’ denoting dominant following the Alpha mark.

It suddenly occurred to him that Shin Ho-jae had undergone pheromone extraction at this center. And that his mother had requested that all those pheromones be used for Jung-hyun.

“Since they are dominant pheromones, I think the side effects are appearing more strongly.”

“Ah… yes, that would make sense.”

Jung-hyun nodded obediently.

Since he had always suffered from mild cold-like symptoms even with regular Alpha pheromones, it was understandable that dominant pheromones would cause stronger side effects.

Wait, then conversely, is there no possibility that this slight fever and cold-like feeling is manifestation fever?

If he had been pouring in dominant pheromones—which he usually never even saw—for several weeks, wouldn’t the possibility be non-zero? Seeing as he was curious about this, it seemed he hadn’t completely given up his lingering desire to be an Alpha.

“Nurse, could I get a pheromone level test?”

The nurse stood still with an expressionless face before answering a bit late.

“…Yes. You mean the Alpha pheromone levels?”

“Yes.”

Jung-hyun nodded.

The test results revealed that Jung-hyun’s Alpha pheromone levels had actually dropped by one more stage. Upon confirming the result, he let out a hollow laugh.

Right, if pouring in pheromones at the age of thirty really caused manifestation, everyone in the world would be an Alpha. He felt embarrassed for mistaking a lingering cold for manifestation.

Jung-hyun thanked the nurse and left the center. It took a bit longer than expected because of the unplanned level test.

Today was the day he was supposed to go to an exhibition in Samseong-dong with his mother. It was an exhibition by a rising artist his mother was interested in. Jung-hyun sent a message to his mother saying he might be a little late.

After starting the engine, while waiting for it to warm up, Jung-hyun looked at the back seat through the rearview mirror. It was the place where he had been entangled with Shin Ho-jae just a few hours ago.

His throat felt dry for no reason. Jung-hyun opened the console box and took out a Tylenol. Painkillers had practically become a staple medicine for him lately. He swallowed the white pill without water. He could feel the shape of the pill sliding down his esophagus. His throat hurt, and his eyes closed instinctively.

‘What I just said was a lie. There’s nothing between me and that announcer.’

‘…Can’t you just not go?’

“…….”

Jung-hyun slowly opened his eyes.

Even if he tried to shake it off, the kindness he had touched did not seem to fade easily.

A small vibration rang. It was a message from his mother telling him to come as quickly as possible. Jung-hyun shifted the gear from P and drove out of the center’s parking lot.

Glancing at the navigation, it would take about 30 minutes to reach the Samseong-dong exhibition hall. An exhibition hall…

Just as he wasted money buying cars or clothes he didn’t even use, his mother loved collecting artworks. It seemed this was hereditary. Or perhaps he had unconsciously learned it from watching her.

Whenever his father was busy or away for a long time on overseas business trips, his mother would easily fall into depression. Since she was a person who had devoted her entire life to someone else, Jung-hyun thought she became like a lost child when that object of devotion disappeared from her side.

Whenever that happened, his mother needed Jung-hyun. He was a substitute for his father. Shopping, visiting exhibitions, or dining were not difficult at all, but the part that required sensitive attention was always monitoring his mother’s mood.

To ensure his mother didn’t feel alone, and to make her feel she always had a reliable ally, he poured all his attention into every minor action and manner of speaking.

Because he wanted her to return to that mansion with at least a smiling face after spending the day with him.

However, there was something slightly different this time. His mother’s voice on the phone had been different from usual. It wasn’t a sunken voice, but rather one that sounded somewhat excited.

Well, if his mother was in a good mood, that would be a welcome thing in its own right.

Jung-hyun thought lightly of it and stepped on the accelerator.

The exhibition hall in Samseong-dong was very large and clean, perhaps because it had recently opened. In the lobby where he entered after handing over the car for valet parking, celebratory potted plants and bouquets for the opening were particularly prominent.

Perhaps because Christmas was approaching, a Christmas tree as tall as a person was also installed in the lobby.

Come to think of it, there were plenty of Christmas objects at the warehouse store yesterday too. Just as Jung-hyun’s face softened as he remembered yesterday…

“Jung-hyun.”

Looking up, he saw his mother dressed in a calm-colored two-piece suit. As he had guessed from the phone, her face was bright. Jung-hyun stepped forward with a smile on his face.

“I told you on the phone, right? Today is the solo exhibition of artist Kyung Seung-hee.”

At that moment, the face of the man standing behind his mother came into view.

He saw a man wearing a V-neck knit smiling toward him. With his light brown hair covering the nape of his neck, he was a man with a flashy appearance, looking exactly like an actor or a model.

71 – Puck Drop