108
“Ji-ho. Ji-ho, you need to eat lunch. Eat and then sleep.”
Yeon Ji-ho opened his hazy eyes and barely rolled his pupils. His gaze met Seon-rok’s, who was looking at him with a worried face. Only then did he realize that another day had already passed.
Shortly after hearing that he had been imprinted, Yeon Ji-ho experienced difficulty breathing. The cause was stress and deteriorating health, and Yeon Ji-ho lost consciousness and collapsed, only waking up that night.
Seeing himself wearing an oxygen mask then, Yeon Ji-ho was surprised and called for Seon-rok. Seon-rok, who had just returned from the bathroom, hurriedly explained to Yeon Ji-ho.
‘Ji-ho, listen carefully. You’re in an imprinted state now, and as you know, everyone has different after-effects from imprinting, and it seems yours has led to anemia. That’s why you’re having difficulty breathing.’
‘…’
At the mention of anemia, Yeon Ji-ho looked at Seon-rok with worried eyes. Wasn’t anemia the most critical issue for pregnant people? Yeon Ji-ho unconsciously raised his dry hand to touch his belly. He never knew that the protruding belly would be such a relief.
‘The doctor said it’s better to wear the oxygen mask when sleeping just in case. Is it very uncomfortable? Now that you’re awake, should we take it off for a moment?’
Yeon Ji-ho shook his head. If this was what it took to get healthy, he wanted to do at least this much. It was then that Seon-rok, seeing Yeon Ji-ho’s shadowed eyes, unknowingly wiped away his own tears.
Seeing Seon-rok sad, Yeon Ji-ho told him from the next day that the nurses were taking good care of him, so he didn’t need to come, but Seon-rok still consistently visited every lunchtime, offering food made by Soo-cheol. Seeing this, Yeon Ji-ho couldn’t bring himself to push them away and was receiving the couple’s kindness.
If even these two weren’t by his side, what would have happened? Yeon Ji-ho tried not to sink into depressing thoughts. At such times, he habitually touched his belly.
“Ji-ho, this… Can you eat this?”
Yeon Ji-ho, barely sitting up against the raised bed, looked at the bedside table. There was a thermos of samgyetang (ginseng chicken soup) steaming inside.
Seon-rok opened the thermos lid and spooned out some meat pieces and a bit of broth, placing it in front of Yeon Ji-ho. Due to his morning sickness, which had recently flared up again, he had been barely surviving on IV drips, unable to eat almost anything. Seeing this, Soo-cheol had stepped in to cook this dish.
Yeon Ji-ho looked at the samgyetang, not even three spoonfuls, and barely swallowed down the bile that was rising.
“Let’s just eat this much today. Okay?”
Yeon Ji-ho nodded with difficulty and lifted his trembling hand to move the spoon. Recently, it had become difficult even to exert strength in his arms.
Just barely four months along.
Yeon Ji-ho worried if he could endure like this. No, it was a miracle that the child in his womb had endured for four months. The doctor said the baby was growing slower than average and urged him to eat diligently and a lot.
After painfully swallowing a spoonful of broth, Yeon Ji-ho slightly lowered his eyes to look at the phone placed beside him. It was to check if there was any contact from Set.
Recently, contact from Set had become infrequent. The reason was unknown.
“Ji-ho, let’s eat just one bite of meat too. Soo-cheol really boiled this for a long time, the meat should be super tender, right?”
Yeon Ji-ho’s appetite disappeared as he saw the empty notifications, making him feel hollow, but with Seon-rok’s urging, he reluctantly opened his mouth. Seon-rok then put a piece of meat into Yeon Ji-ho’s mouth with chopsticks, as if feeding a bird.
Finally, Yeon Ji-ho emptied the bowl that Seon-rok had portioned out for him. It was barely a quarter of what a normal person would eat, but it was amazing that he managed to eat it all somehow.
Soon, Seon-rok hurriedly began to clear the table. This was because if Yeon Ji-ho, who was vulnerable to food smells, vomited what he had just eaten, it would all be for nothing. While Seon-rok briefly left to clean up, Yeon Ji-ho looked down at his phone.
“…Is he very busy…”
Yeon Ji-ho idly touched the empty screen of his phone with his thumb. He thought, what’s the big deal about contact, he could be busy, but still, a wave of disappointment washed over him.
As he leaned back against the bed again, Yeon Ji-ho suddenly recalled the doctor’s words.
‘Pregnant patient Yeon Ji-ho, you are currently in an imprinted state.’
Yeon Ji-ho tightly closed his eyes in indescribable despair. Hadad, the man who had bitten the back of his neck a few nights ago, came to mind as well.
After being bitten on the neck, when he regained consciousness, Hadad had long disappeared.
However, even after seeing Hadad bite his neck, Yeon Ji-ho tried to act composed. He knew that imprinting doesn’t always happen just from being bitten on the neck.
Imprinting, which is influenced by pheromones, requires not only the act of biting the neck but also the mutual feelings of those involved. So Yeon Ji-ho didn’t worry about it. Even if Hadad did that, imprinting was impossible if he didn’t want it.
But the very next day, he was diagnosed with imprinting by the doctor. Along with the notification that the partner was unknown.
‘First, I must tell you that an accurate imprinting test requires the presence of the alpha partner. Currently, all we can determine is your imprinted state…’
The doctor also scratched his cheek with a rather troubled voice. Yeon Ji-ho nodded with difficulty after hearing the explanation.
Had he really been imprinted with Hadad?
He wanted to call Hadad immediately to confirm it, but he was too anxious and scared to do so. What if he and Hadad really were imprinted?
One day he would comfort himself that it couldn’t be, but another day he would feel frustrated thinking how could he have been imprinted with Set who had never even bitten his neck. So Yeon Ji-ho clung even more to contact with Set. But Set’s responses became increasingly rare.
“…”
The last reply he received from Set was nine hours ago. It was after receiving a ‘sleep well’ message from Set. Just before going to sleep, Yeon Ji-ho, with the oxygen mask attached to his face, unable to even toss and turn his uncomfortable body, had just fiddled with his phone and sent an emoticon.
Set, are you very bus│
Yeon Ji-ho, who was about to urge a reply, suddenly stopped moving. He shouldn’t think this way, but bad thoughts kept invading his mind.
Maybe Set had given up too?
He thought it might be possible. His love affair with Set had lasted barely three months, and Set might have found it burdensome to cross over to this world to meet him.
‘Gliese too, well, wouldn’t she come to love Set as time passes?’
Maybe, as Hadad said, he had fallen in love with Gliese following the fate of the novel. That might be better than himself, who was difficult to meet…
A dull pain rose from Yeon Ji-ho’s heart. At the same time, the thought that Set might have given up on him made it hard to breathe. Just as Yeon Ji-ho started gasping for air, Seon-rok returned.
“Ji-ho!”
The startled Seon-rok hurriedly brought the oxygen mask he had set aside and placed it on Yeon Ji-ho’s mouth. As he was able to breathe again, Yeon Ji-ho’s mind went blank and then returned.
What if…
What if he really had given up on me and the baby?
As the thought crossed his mind, Yeon Ji-ho looked down at his belly. Come to think of it, he hadn’t even given the baby a prenatal name yet. What an indifferent parent he was, he was unworthy of being a parent.
Bad thoughts kept piling up one after another. This was all because Set’s replies were delayed.
Actually, if he were to be really honest about his feelings…
“I want to stop now…”
Yeon Ji-ho’s moist voice echoed inside the oxygen mask. A long teardrop fell from the corner of his eye as he lay back on the bed.
“J-Ji-ho? Ji-ho?! Nurse! Please come here, over here!”
“Pregnant patient Yeon Ji-ho! Please stay conscious!”
Yeon Ji-ho’s consciousness kept fading in and out. The sound of Seon-rok calling for a nurse, the distant sound of a doctor running, the noisy conversations of people all became distant as if in another space. At that moment, Yeon Ji-ho thought he never wanted to open his eyes again.
“It’s alpha pheromone deficiency symptoms! Guardian, don’t you know where the partner alpha is right now?”
“Ah, no, that’s… Hah.”
“Even if he can’t come, please ask for any belongings with his pheromones on them. For now, even that would…”
Seon-rok also clutched his head with a frustrated face. If there was someone he could beg, he would have gone to beg. However, Yeon Ji-ho’s partner was in a place where he couldn’t even beg.
Just as Yeon Ji-ho’s hospital room was in chaos with medical staff rushing in as he was losing consciousness, the room door opened gently.
“…!”
“…”
Yeon Ji-ho, wearing the oxygen mask, didn’t turn his gaze to the door, thinking another nurse had entered. The strange thing was, the room that had been so noisy suddenly became quiet. Just as Yeon Ji-ho was thinking he could finally sleep, closing his eyes quietly:
“…Ji-ho.”
At that low call, Yeon Ji-ho’s eyes slowly opened. It was the voice he had been so desperate to hear, one he could barely hear even in his dreams.
However, Yeon Ji-ho couldn’t bring himself to turn his head towards the direction of the voice. He was afraid, afraid that all this might be a dream. With his fingers trembling as they gripped the blanket, Yeon Ji-ho deliberately kept staring at the ceiling.
Then he heard footsteps approaching him. Thud, thud. The heavy and solemn footsteps belonged to someone Yeon Ji-ho knew.
Warm fingers intertwined with Yeon Ji-ho’s bony hand. Only then did Yeon Ji-ho raise his head. Familiar heterochromatic eyes filled Yeon Ji-ho’s vision.
“I’m late.”
“…Hng…”
“You waited for a long time.”
Yeon Ji-ho began to cry out loud in the man’s arms. Countless words of reproach flowed out, saying he had missed him, asking why he came only now. It was a reproach he had never made on the small screen of his phone.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
F*cking finally!!!! Ahhh…
