By Zephyria He blinked his large eyes, then realized he had no time to spare and moved quickly. He postponed tidying the garden until tomorrow and took out the suppressants and birth control pills from his bag.
As he dropped them one by one into his palm, he suddenly felt like he smelled strange. Was he just hot? Seo Jeong-won turned his head and inhaled, wrinkling his nose at the peculiar scent.
He tossed the pills into his mouth and swallowed them with water. He rubbed his wet lips and inhaled again.
A fishy smell mingled with the damp, earthy scent unique to the garden. He felt like he needed to wash.
Just as he was about to contact Kwon Tae-hee to ask about his arrival time, the vinyl door creaked open. Seo Jeong-won’s head naturally turned towards the sound.
“Shall we go?”
“Oh, how…”
“I was on my way. To Seo Jeong-won.”
Kwon Tae-hee reached out to Seo Jeong-won, who seemed surprised and remained still. At the quiet invitation to come, Seo Jeong-won took a step.
Kwon Tae-hee didn’t like the way he awkwardly zipped up his bag and approached hesitantly. He felt a little resentful that Seo Jeong-won didn’t realize he was devoting attention and time to him, even during such a busy and important period.
“Looks like I made time for nothing.”
Kwon Tae-hee embraced Seo Jeong-won, who had finally reached him. As he familiarly tried to bury his face in his neck, Seo Jeong-won, startled, pushed against his chest and stepped back.
“What are you doing?”
“Huh? No, it’s not that… it’s just that I sweated a lot working today. And I got a lot of dust on me… I was going to wash, but you came early.”
Kwon Tae-hee’s expression didn’t soften at the rambling excuse. Seo Jeong-won pushed back his wet bangs and moved closer, closing the distance he had created.
“Really. I thought I smelled, so that’s why.”
“I didn’t smell anything.”
“Then… that’s a relief.”
“Let’s go.”
Throughout the drive to the hospital, Kwon Tae-hee was either on the phone, checking something, calling again, or giving Chief Jung in the passenger seat instructions in incomprehensible words. Seo Jeong-won heard unfamiliar terms from Kwon Tae-hee’s mouth.
They were… building an apartment? All he could gather from eavesdropping was that they were planning to build an apartment in a redevelopment zone.
Seo Jeong-won fidgeted with his fingers on his lap and then looked out the window. He watched the rapidly passing scenery, confirming that the hospital was getting closer.
His heart was beating a little faster. He felt feverish. He rubbed his cheek with the back of his hand, feeling hot, and then the strange smell brushed past his nose again.
He startled so violently that he caught Kwon Tae-hee’s attention. He didn’t ask why, but just stared.
Seo Jeong-won swallowed hard. He kept his eyes on the rapidly passing scenery outside the window, pretending not to notice, and Kwon Tae-hee didn’t press him, turning his attention back to his tablet.
He stifled his breathing and inhaled the surrounding scent. An unpleasant smell, indefinable, lingered.
As he realized it was coming from his own body, he broke out in a cold sweat. He couldn’t even move, afraid that Kwon Tae-hee would smell it too.
“Jeong-won.”
“…”
“Seo Jeong-won.”
“…Yes?”
Kwon Tae-hee put down the tablet he was holding and turned his body. He reached out and casually touched Seo Jeong-won’s cheek, then naturally brushed his forehead.
“Are you a little hot?”
“No, I’m okay… I think I’m a little hot.”
Seo Jeong-won answered, being extremely careful even as he nodded. Whether it was because his temperature was rising or because he was sweating, the smell became a little stronger. His stiff expression crumpled. Kwon Tae-hee’s eyes became intense as he frowned.
“Are you uncomfortable?”
“No, it’s not that…”
“Jeong-won is just doing something for Hyung, but you’re acting like you’re committing a crime.”
Seo Jeong-won couldn’t answer the words spoken with a soft smile, and his lips moved slightly. It wasn’t wrong, he was doing something for Hyung, just as he said…
“You’re not going to love me, are you?”
Kwon Tae-hee whispered sweetly, as if to a lover.
“Then it’s not really a bad thing, is it? Isn’t it okay?”
Seo Jeong-won’s heart dropped at the words that flowed in. Resentment welled up.
Hyung loved you. You deceived me. So… it became a really bad thing.
But could he ask why now? He was just a parasite clinging to his help, so did he have the right to argue? The realistic question of whether he could undo it silenced him.
Seo Jeong-won lowered his eyes, avoiding Kwon Tae-hee’s gaze.
Kwon Tae-hee took the hand that had been fidgeting all along and gently rubbed the back of it with his thumb.
His cool, chilled hand and calloused palm were touched by soft fingertips like tender leaves. Kwon Tae-hee kindly asked Seo Jeong-won if he was nervous, and tickled his sweaty palm.
* * *
From the hospital parking lot to the hospital room, only Kwon Tae-hee and Seo Jeong-won moved together.
While waiting for the elevator after passing through the main entrance, Kwon Tae-hee naturally put his arm around Seo Jeong-won’s shoulder. Every time he asked something, Seo Jeong-won lowered his head, making his sense of smell increasingly sensitive.
Now, he couldn’t stand the smell coming from him, even when he was still.
Seo Jeong-won, who was listening to Kwon Tae-hee’s words and answering appropriately, caught sight of a white coat.
His head, which had been lowered to concentrate on the smell coming from him, slowly turned upwards.
“Oh, are you Seo Gyu-won’s guardian?”
“Ah… hello.”
“I was thinking it would be good to have a conversation, but to meet you here like this.”
The doctor in charge of Seo Gyu-won’s treatment couldn’t hide his excited expression. He couldn’t contain his delight and turned his body completely to face Seo Jeong-won.
He couldn’t hide his overwhelming emotion and placed his right hand on his chest and opened his mouth.
“It’s not that, but I would like to get the guardian’s consent.”
“Consent? For what…”
“Currently, Seo Gyu-won’s bio-response has a very high possibility of becoming a new discovery in the field of neurology. It’s actually like magic. It’s medically inexplicable that a comatose patient is responding to Pheromone.”
Seo Jeong-won nodded with a dazed expression at the explanation that it was a miraculous event.
“Seo Gyu-won will definitely be a hope for comatose patients.”
“Ah…”
“So, I was wondering, could we use the patient’s treatment process as research data for developing treatment methods at our hospital? If you give us some time separately, I’ll explain that part in detail.”
The doctor’s eyes lit up as he offered a handshake. Seo Jeong-won, confused about whether to take it or not, turned his head as he was pulled by a force.
Kwon Tae-hee hid Seo Jeong-won behind him as if shielding him. Looking at the doctor’s passionately shining eyes, he thought he was putting a lot of effort into talking nonsense.
“We refuse.”
Seo Jeong-won’s eyes widened at the low voice. The attending physician was the same.
The moment he raised his head, demanding that it would only take a moment, he closed his mouth as soon as he recognized Kwon Tae-hee.
The businessman who donates the most to the hospital since its establishment.
Donations in his name, such as replacing outdated medical equipment, research funds, and support for low-income patients’ treatment costs, easily exceeded hundreds of millions of won per month.
“I was so excited to see the guardian that I didn’t even realize you were here. How have you been?”
The man who was Seo Gyu-won’s former guardian, although not now.
Rumors were rampant within the hospital about what his relationship was with the patient, but no one knew the details.
The hospital director and management thoroughly controlled the staff to prevent any talk among hospital staff from leaking out.
Because of this, Seo Gyu-won was treated as a VIP within the hospital. The medical staff imagined a sad and beautiful love story between a chaebol and an ordinary man, but the fantasy ended because Kwon Tae-hee stopped visiting after the guardian changed.
Along with this, the interest of those involved naturally faded away. When the guardian changed to a younger brother and hospital bills became overdue, the reality of the patient and his family, who had lost the chaebol’s interest and support, was no different from a gutter, and they were chewed on as gossip.
Then, when Kwon Tae-hee reappeared and paid all the overdue hospital bills, the fantasy spread like wildfire, as if it had been waiting.
Everyone agreed that it must be a common, trashy Cinderella story.
The younger guardian’s external appearance was enough to create such a ridiculous narrative.
The attending physician’s eyes sparkled with curiosity as he faced the two people who were the subject of the rumors.
“It will be helpful to many patients. If you reconsider—”
“Let’s go.”
The doctor decided to step back at the rejection conveyed with disregard. Since Seo Jeong-won was the guardian anyway, he intended to persuade him later when he was alone.
The attending physician looked at Seo Jeong-won with a regretful face and then bowed his head. He had no intention of following the tactless behavior of getting on the elevator with the man who was clearly displeased.
“Then I’ll see you again next time.”
Seo Jeong-won bowed his head at the polite greeting. The attending physician checked his phone with a smiling face. Then he turned around and walked away.
Seo Jeong-won tilted his head, thinking that he would ride the elevator together, but seeing him heading towards the exit.
“Seo Jeong-won.”
“Ah, yes!”
Seo Jeong-won, who had been standing still without realizing that Kwon Tae-hee had moved, hurried to move. The doors closed as soon as he got on the elevator.
Seo Jeong-won swallowed hard, checking the floor number that Kwon Tae-hee had pressed. It became more difficult to breathe as he got closer to Seo Gyu-won.
The doctor’s voice, which had expressed the reaction to Pheromone as a miraculous event, and the question of whether it was okay if he didn’t love him, which he had heard on the way here, mingled together and floated around in his head.
Seo Gyu-won, who had been dumped after falling in love, eventually chose to end his own life.