“Usually, they’re the one who contacts me first.”
“Let me see.”
“Sure.”
Do Jihoon readily handed me his phone. He was the kind of guy who really had no attachment to his phone at all.
Resting my head against his shoulder, I skimmed through the KakaoTalk messages that had come from Seo Hee-gyeom.
[Seo Hee-gyeom – Gye-myeong High School: What are you doing?]
[Seo Hee-gyeom – Gye-myeong High School: The weather’s really nice today ^ㅁ^]
[Seo Hee-gyeom – Gye-myeong High School: Hyung, are you with Yuri hyung?]
[Why are you asking?]
[Seo Hee-gyeom – Gye-myeong High School: Hyung hyung]
“……”
I had nothing to say. The conversations were so one-sided that it was almost embarrassing that I’d felt jealous over another alpha. Seo Hee-gyeom asked questions, and Do Jihoon left them on read. Out of every five messages, the guy got maybe one reply.
Even so… should I say the kid was bold? Or maybe like one of those roly-poly toys that always pops back up. In many ways, it looked like a clear case of suspected affection deprivation.
Anyway.
“You know… I’m really glad you’re my boyfriend.”
“……That’s a bit sudden.”
“It might sound kind of petty. But it makes me happy that you act this sweet only with me.”
“Really? That’s good, then.”
It was peaceful. When I was with Do Jihoon, even ordinary days felt special, like anniversaries. Sitting together leaning against each other in my apartment. Holding each other. Falling asleep side by side.
These kinds of days had long since become our routine. It was hard to even imagine a daily life without Do Jihoon in it.
“Yuri.”
In the warm atmosphere, Do Jihoon spoke to me in a soft voice.
“What is it, baby?”
“When are you going to start exercising?”
“……”
You mood-killing bastard.
The cozy atmosphere vanished in an instant. It was nothing less than throwing a rock into a perfectly calm lake.
He’d complained before that I ruined the mood. Turns out he wasn’t in any position to talk.
“Doji. I’m suddenly curious—what’s your big three total?”
“……Out of nowhere? Let’s see. I think it’s around 400.”
“……Are you a gym rat?”
“I’m tall. Compared to most people, I can lift pretty well.”
So that’s why when he wraps his arms around me, I can’t move at all. I finally understood.
“Then let’s do this. We’ll go to the hospital for our regular checkup, and if everything’s fine, let’s try going to the gym!”
“Sure. Let’s do that.”
About a month ago, Do Jihoon and I had gone on a trip to Busan together. We’d had a great time sightseeing—and also spent a very satisfying night.
But it hadn’t been purely enjoyable. We’d managed to wrap things up safely, but my heat cycle had come at the wrong time. It had nearly turned into a serious situation.
So as soon as we got back to Seoul, I told my family in the group chat. My parents and my older sister were so startled that they dragged me to a general hospital specialized for manifesters. Do Jihoon came along too, worried.
At the hospital, the doctor told us something rather shocking.
Apparently alpha and omega pheromones have natural compatibility—like personality chemistry between people. And because dominant alpha Do Jihoon and I got along extremely well and were together all the time, our pheromones had started influencing each other.
Sitting in front of the doctor while hearing that… I felt an oddly mixed emotion of embarrassment and pride.
As we got used to each other’s pheromones, our cycles were gradually shifting. The doctor said that if we endured it for a while, things would eventually return to a regular cycle again. Because of that, cycle suppressants and sleeping pills had long since become essential items in our backpacks.
And today was our scheduled pheromone checkup.
“Let’s hurry and get the exam done at the hospital, then go check out the gym. I want to learn how to work out.”
We got dressed and headed outside toward the parking lot.
“Did you bring your medication properly?”
“Of course. Setting the navigation to the hospital first, Driver Doji.”
“Alright.”
He smiled like a deflating balloon.
We arrived at the hospital quickly in Do Jihoon’s car. I stepped in and out of a noisy, tube-shaped device a few times, then lay down for a while with wide pads attached to my body. After that, they drew some blood, and the examination finished faster than expected. According to the attending doctor, fortunately there were no abnormalities compared to my last internal exam.
Except for one issue.
“As I mentioned before, what you’re experiencing right now is a kind of side effect that appears while your pheromones are becoming accustomed to each other. And pheromones are influenced by whether pituitary hormones are expressed or not. Because of that, over time your chances of pregnancy may increase.”
“……”
“That effect varies from person to person, so we couldn’t define it clearly before. But based on what we confirmed today… I think we can say it definitively now.”
“…Say what…?”
“There’s been a change in your hormone levels. During your heat cycle, your probability of pregnancy has increased.”
“……”
This is insane.
I stared blankly at the doctor like someone whose soul had been sucked out by a Dementor. In this already harsh world where men can get pregnant, I genuinely couldn’t understand why science had decided to step in and throw even more disasters into people’s lives.
Do Jihoon, meanwhile, listened seriously as the doctor explained the precautions we needed to take. Of course, none of it reached my ears.
And so, after arriving at the hospital lightheartedly, we left carrying a heavy burden as we headed toward the gym.
While looking at Do Jihoon as he drove, I made a firm declaration.
“From now on we’re absolutely using condoms. I read somewhere that sperm can survive in the body for 72 hours.”
Screech—.
The car came to an abrupt stop the moment I finished speaking. I glanced over, and Do Jihoon’s expression had stiffened completely. He gave a hollow laugh like an enlightened monk and nodded.
Feeling very satisfied, I grabbed his right hand and planted a bunch of kisses all over the back of it.
***
And then we arrived at the gym Do Jihoon went to.
“Huff— huff—”
“Ugh, wait.”
“……”
I stared blankly at the scene of madness before me. It was truly a whole new world.
Men whose arms looked like they had rocks embedded in them, and women who seemed even more muscular than me, were working out all over the place. I’d worried that the mix of sweat and pheromones would smell terrible, but surprisingly there wasn’t any horrific odor. It seemed like they had ventilation systems or automatic pheromone neutralizers installed.
Still, I felt a little intimidated. Working out among these people felt embarrassing.
Do Jihoon smiled when he saw how tense I looked.
“Yuri. I have a routine I follow—want to try it as is?”
“…Won’t it be too hard?”
“Try it first. If it’s too hard, tell me. We can reduce the number of reps per set.”
“Okay!”
I trotted along behind Do Jihoon as he walked toward the machines in the center of the gym.
And that day—
I tasted hell.
***
“Ughhh… Doji… my whole body hurts……”
“I told you to say something if it was too hard.”
Do Jihoon looked at me with a pitiful expression. But I couldn’t help it.
At the gym, whenever I started with “Doji—,” he automatically responded like an answering machine: “Can’t do it? Then go rest.”
So every time I thought now’s my chance to go sit and rest, the muscular people around us would suddenly start glaring at me. Because of those sharp looks, I couldn’t even sit down anywhere.
Swallowing my tears, I had no choice but to keep following Do Jihoon and continue the act of tearing my muscles apart.
After that—without exaggeration—my legs were trembling so badly that I couldn’t even stand up. I sulked and glared at Do Jihoon for a long time. In the end, he hoisted my half-dead body onto his back and dutifully played the role of porter.
Draped over his back like a boneless mollusk, I flopped around all the way home.
And the result was exactly what you see now.
I lay sprawled on the bed, unable to move even a single step outside.
“Doji… I think this is the end for me.”
“Don’t say weird things. You’ll probably have body aches tomorrow. That’s going to be rough.”
“You take care of me then. Doji can feed me porridge, hug me, release some pheromones next to me… I feel like I’d get better right away. Yeah? Yeah?”
I shook my head exaggeratedly while acting cute toward him.
Then my shoulder suddenly cramped with a crack, and I groaned for quite a while.
Do Jihoon’s lips twitched as he tried to suppress his laughter. Then he lifted me up and sat me on the bed before starting to massage my shoulders.
Strangely enough, when he massaged them, the tightness in my muscles really did seem to ease a bit.
Letting out an impressed sound, I asked him,
“Wow, Doji. Do you have a sports massage license or something?”
“What are you talking about now?”
“No, it just feels amazing! This is nice. Massage somewhere else too.”
