— Have you eaten?
In response to his usual, completely normal question, Junghyun also tried to continue the conversation as naturally as possible.
“I’m about to eat now. I remembered while putting on my coat to go out.”
— Are you busy with work?
“…A little. After having no work for a while, everything suddenly piled up, so I had to go straight into a meeting and couldn’t grab my phone.”
He was momentarily annoyed at his uncharacteristically awkward tone, but fortunately, Jaehyuk didn’t seem to notice yet.
— It’s good to be busy when working. What’s for lunch?
“Just… something quick.”
— Don’t just grab whatever from the convenience store saying you just need to fill your stomach. Eat properly.
After telling him during their first lunchtime call that he found eating bothersome and just had ramen and triangle kimbap from the convenience store, this had become a regular nagging point. Junghyun quickly changed the subject.
“Then, meat?”
— Meat for lunch?
“Uh… now that I say it, I really want it. Pork belly.”
— …At this hour?
“I eat grilled pork belly and drink soju even for breakfast.”
— …I have many things to say about that, but it’s better than ramen or triangle kimbap, so… fine. Just eat properly.
“I will. You need to eat lunch too, right?”
— Of course…
“Then, enjoy your lunch. I’m about to head down now.”
— …
When the conversation suddenly cut off, Junghyun called out to him, and Jaehyuk continued.
“Hello?”
— Sorry, I was just looking at some documents. By the way… if you haven’t eaten yet, should I come over?
Caught off guard by the unexpected suggestion, Junghyun paused.
Occasionally they would have lunch together when their schedules aligned, but only when they had planned it. He had never suddenly offered to come like this.
Hesitating over what to say in his confusion, he chose the most plausible answer.
“…I brought my car today.”
— Driving your own car at this time is a waste of time. Taxis exist for situations like this.
That meant he really intended to come.
Facing this unexpected situation, Junghyun quickly found another excuse to decline.
“It takes longer than you’d think to grill pork belly. Will your afternoon schedule be okay?”
Seemingly realizing this only now, Jaehyuk’s voice carried a sigh.
— That would be cutting it a bit close.
“I have time, so I’ll enjoy grilling it. I’ll try eating about four servings by myself.”
— Don’t just eat meat, have rice too.
“Don’t worry. I’ll have cold noodles too. For your lunch…”
As he was naturally trying to change the subject by asking what Jaehyuk would eat, he heard the sound of the front door opening. Then the door swung open and a booming voice echoed:
“Hey, are you still sleeping? Lunch…”
Junghyun put his index finger to his lips, signaling Yoonho, who had just entered the night duty room, to be quiet.
Surprised by the signal, Yoonho closed his mouth.
— Who’s that?
“It’s the company CEO. Looks like he came to ask about lunch.”
— And he said you were sleeping?
Just as he feared.
He had hoped Jaehyuk hadn’t heard, but with that kind of shouting, there was no way he hadn’t.
So Junghyun created the most plausible excuse he could.
“I dozed off a bit during the meeting.”
— …
“That’s why he’s making a fuss. He’s what you’d call a young curmudgeon.”
— It’s true you’ve been sleeping too much lately. I think you should see a doctor.
“The CEO lacks tact and went on about unnecessary things, so I dozed off. His tongue is unnecessarily long.”
Fortunately, Yoonho seemed to notice who Junghyun was talking to and didn’t speak further. However, clearly displeased by the disparaging remarks about himself, he just glared.
In response to that look, which suggested he had plenty to say, Junghyun raised his chin as if asking what the problem was.
— It seems like he wants to have lunch with you. Go ahead and eat. And make sure to keep your phone with you. I was worried when I couldn’t reach you.
“I thought you said I wouldn’t die easily?”
— I’m not worried about you dying. I’m worried you might kill someone.
Hearing those words that sounded so familiar, Junghyun finally relaxed and laughed.
“I’ve heard that so often that it doesn’t even feel strange.”
— That’s to be expected with you. Well then, go eat.
“Okay. Enjoy your meal too.”
After ending the call and putting his phone back in his pocket, Yoonho finally spoke with dissatisfaction.
“Whose tongue is long?”
“Yours. And you lack tact too.”
“How was I supposed to know who you were talking to?”
“Don’t you know that regardless of who someone is talking to, you should be quiet when they’re on the phone? And who bursts into the night duty room and shouts like that?”
Unable to refute this point, Yoonho kept his mouth firmly shut.
As Junghyun clicked his tongue as if to say “I knew it,” Yoonho irritably ran his hand through his hair and continued.
“Judging by your attitude, I see you’re completely fine now. Let’s go get lunch then.”
After speaking, Yoonho left the room first, and Junghyun followed, casually saying:
“I want to eat pork belly.”
“Pork belly for lunch? Why?”
“I suddenly want it.”
“Wow, they say pregnant people get random food cravings, is that what’s happening to you?”
Come to think of it, he had seen that in movies and dramas.
People craving totally random foods in the middle of the night.
“…Maybe?”
“At least you’re not having morning sickness. That would have been a dead giveaway.”
“…Morning sickness?”
As Junghyun repeated from behind Yoonho, who was opening the door first, Yoonho sighed as if he couldn’t believe Junghyun didn’t know this.
“That’s about the time, isn’t it? At three months, pregnancy symptoms start showing specifically. When I came by around 11 o’clock because you weren’t coming in, you were sound asleep. Your body is starting to react now. Morning sickness could begin soon too.”
“Oh…”
Hearing this, all the recent strange phenomena began to make sense.
Though he wasn’t usually sensitive to cold, he had been constantly feeling chills and unwilling to move. And while he had always slept well once lying down and had trouble getting up in the morning, his sleep time had dramatically increased.
He had thought it was due to the extreme fluctuations in this winter’s weather, but these were actually early pregnancy symptoms.
“Damn, this was completely unexpected…”
“That’s why I’m telling you to talk properly to Jaehyuk hyung. How long do you think you can hide this? Maybe until 8 weeks, but at three months it’s hard to hide. Anyone would be suspicious.”
“…”
“Don’t be stubborn, Chihuahua. Overthinking things is the quickest way to complicate matters. Live simply. Wasn’t your motto to ‘live casually’? If you keep piling lie upon lie, you’ll eventually be caught. There are no eternal secrets in this world.”
“I’ll think about it.”
“Stop thinking. You get complicated when you think. Don’t scheme unnecessarily; keep it simple.”
Hearing this advice from Yoonho, who in some ways knew him better than anyone else in the world, Junghyun said nothing more and walked toward the elevator.
Maybe Yoonho hyung was right—perhaps he should tell the truth to this person, at least.
But to reveal that truth, there were many things he would need to explain along the way. And inevitably, he would also have to talk about how he had deceived him.
While he had never said such things himself, he hadn’t corrected Jaehyuk’s assumptions either.
To some extent, that had been intentional.
He had been complacent, thinking it wouldn’t matter since there wouldn’t be any problems anyway. That complacency had created this situation.
So he needed to find a solution quickly.
There was no more time.
* * *
‘Generally, at this stage, symptoms may include morning sickness, abdominal pain, and headaches. From this point, the baby’s heartbeat can be heard, and the mother experiences extreme mood swings and becomes sensitive. The risk of miscarriage is high, so rest is advised.’
Sitting in the office looking at his phone, Junghyun anxiously bit his nails.
After finishing his backlog of work, with quitting time approaching, he had researched pregnancy symptoms and found that Yoonho hyung was right.
According to the description, it would be impossible to keep hiding it.
He had been lucky not to have morning sickness so far. But he didn’t know how long that luck would last.
So…
“Mr. Lee, aren’t you going home?”
Startled by the sudden greeting, Junghyun flipped his phone over and responded to the employee standing next to him.
“I’m planning to leave a bit later. You go ahead.”
“Then, I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Yes, see you tomorrow.”
After forcing a smile and finishing the greeting, he checked the time on his phone and saw it was already past 6 o’clock.
Recently, with less work, he had often been leaving on time. Having worked overtime extensively last month due to being extremely busy, this month he was just fulfilling his basic working hours since things were a bit more relaxed.
So he should head out soon.
Today they had agreed to have dinner together…
And he needed to make a decision before meeting him.
His head clearly knew he should tell the truth. But it wasn’t easy given what he had already done.
As a precaution, he had personally included a clause about unwanted pregnancy.
With such confidence, he had argued that if by any chance a child was conceived, the person who caused the problem would resolve it and take responsibility. In a way, that might have been a mechanism to control himself.
In case a situation like this arose.
Lost in thought for a moment, he suddenly lowered his gaze to look at his stomach.
Still couldn’t tell anything.
And honestly, it didn’t feel real.
The pregnancy test kit said he was pregnant, so he accepted it, but since there were no visible changes yet, he barely had any awareness of being pregnant.
No, actually, he was even skeptical.
Was he really pregnant…?
As he was touching his stomach with this strange feeling, he suddenly sensed something off.
Trying to identify the awkward sensation, he realized what it was.
The busy office at quitting time had suddenly fallen silent.
As if cold water had been thrown over everyone.
Wondering if everyone had left while he was distracted, he raised his head, and at that moment a soft voice echoed.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
