In Cheon Tae-seong’s world, extreme heat suppression Omegas might as well not have existed. Sure, most of the ones who approached him were dominant Omegas, but more than that, not a single heat-suppressed Omega had ever revealed themselves in front of him.
And now he was supposed to control his own body through one?
The reports and academic papers his aide had brought to persuade him showed that quite a few Alphas were indeed managing their ruts that way. He could understand it intellectually—but making the decision to apply it to himself was a whole different story.
Even he felt an instinctive aversion to the idea of managing his difficult rut with the help of a mere suppressed Omega.
He was an Alpha—he emitted pheromones because of that. It wasn’t the pheromones that defined him as an Alpha. If anything, he considered his pheromones one of his few remaining human flaws.
To fall in love, to open his heart, to imprint on someone—just because of pheromones? Was he really supposed to borrow the hand of a suppressed Omega out of fear of something like that?
Cheon Tae-seong had dismissed it all as bullshit.
“How is it, Tae-seong? Is it how you expected?”
After Ha-jin had practically fled, Cheon Tae-seong remained exactly where he was, seated on the sofa. Even when someone suddenly appeared through the staircase leading upstairs, he showed not a hint of surprise.
The “guest,” who had been invited from the very beginning, had silently observed every exchange between Tae-seong and Ha-jin.
“You managed to lure him into your house. So what now?”
“What do you think?”
Maybe he was joking about backing off. Leaning against the back of the sofa, Tae-seong kept his eyes closed. The table in front of him was cluttered with prescription bags, a half-empty glass of water, and a scattered file of documents.
“He looked pretty freaked out, bolted like hell.”
“He’ll come back.”
Lee Ha-jin needs the money. Tae-seong muttered with his eyes still shut.
“Seriously, Tae-seong. That’s not like you. Why are you playing games like this?”
The guest had been baffled ever since Tae-seong deliberately hadn’t authorized Ha-jin’s entry in advance. It had already been an entire season since Tae-seong started looking for that suppressed Omega named Lee Ha-jin.
When he finally tracked him down, his expression suggested he’d drag him straight to a hospital. But instead? He started playing some weird house game.
Calling him over and then hiding, telling the guest to watch from upstairs…
Tae-seong’s gaze shifted to the man standing at the bar table.
“Professor. What’s your impression from observing?”
“Exactly what was written in the report. Exactly what you said. An extreme suppressor, through and through. I couldn’t sense a damn thing.”
The man called Professor, Song Jae-hyun, filled his glass with whiskey and ice as he continued.
“At least from what I saw, there’s no sign of anything abnormal like you’re suspicious of. Not pheromones, not anything.”
Returning slowly, he handed Tae-seong a glass filled with cold water while keeping the thirty-year-old aged whiskey to himself. Sitting down across from him, he picked up the file on the table.
For a while, the soft clinking of ice and the rustling of pages filled the silence between them.
“Tae-seong. I’m telling you—this is all in your head.”
After rereading the file he’d already seen once, Song Jae-hyun fixed his gaze on Tae-seong.
“Even if the symptoms line up, that’s not how imprinting works. Let’s say Lee Ha-jin does have something unusual about him that’s not mentioned in the documents—if imprinting happened just from a single brush, like you say, the world would’ve fallen apart by now.”
“When did I say we brushed?”
“If it wasn’t brushing, then what? Did you sleep with him?”
“You’re the one who said imprinting doesn’t happen just from sex.”
Picking apart each other’s words wasn’t the way to have a productive conversation. Song Jae-hyun took another sip of whiskey. This bastard had always been a little unhinged, but now he was speaking full-on lunacy—it was getting hard to deal with him sober.
Since the start of the new year, he had stormed into Jae-hyun’s house out of nowhere, raving about unheard-of imprinting symptoms and wrecking his date. But when pressed, he’d just mumble evasively and never gave a straight answer.
As a doctor, there’s nothing worse than a patient hiding something. And when that patient is your friend? Even worse.
Claiming he might’ve “imprinted” on some suppressed Omega named Lee Ha-jin—and then asking for ways to reverse it without the guy ever knowing. When asked if he’d ever even dated the guy, all he could say was he only knew the guy’s name. That was four months ago.
And yet… back then, there had been something in Tae-seong’s eyes. Something secret. Something that looked like it had to be hidden.
“Tae-seong, unrequited love isn’t a crime. Even if you imprinted on someone without them knowing—it’s creepy, yeah, but it happens.”
“…….”
“And a mutual imprint is hard enough. You’re saying you had a one-sided imprint? That’s insane. And not to someone—but you imprinted? That’s why you need to take this seriously. If it’s a real imprint with no actual emotion involved, maybe there’s something wrong with your brain.”
From a clinical standpoint, it was the most logical explanation. But that didn’t mean it was accepted. Tae-seong’s eyes silently cursed him as a lunatic.
“You’re the one who said it wasn’t imprinting.”
“Yeah, based on theory, there’s no way you and Lee Ha-jin could’ve imprinted. Absolutely none.”
“Absolutely?”
“But you’re the one claiming it. You say you have symptoms. That it’s tormenting you. You’re so desperate and serious you literally had me hide upstairs to spy on the guy. That’s not nothing, Tae-seong.”
To claim you’d imprinted on a suppressed Omega you barely even knew? If true, it would be enough to shake the entire academic world.
Song Jae-hyun exhaled a long sigh after his rapid-fire rant.
“Anyway. What exactly is it that you want?”
“I need to know. Why I turned out like this. What Lee Ha-jin did to me.”
Tae-seong looked utterly exhausted. He straightened up and ran a hand over his face. The way his eyes focused, it was clear he was recalling something very specific.
He began speaking slowly.
“About two years…”
“Hmm?”
“We lived together. For around two years.”
“Two years? How? With no feelings at all?”
“Yeah.”
Tae-seong’s voice was firm. But his eyes told a different story.
From what Jae-hyun had seen upstairs, they looked like they’d just entered into a contract-type arrangement. But now he was saying two years?
Suspicious, Jae-hyun narrowed his eyes. Tae-seong broke the stare with a short laugh—his expression amused, yet complicated.
“So, Professor Song’s conclusion is ‘who the hell knows,’ huh?”
“Hey, don’t make it sound like I didn’t try. You think I’m some medical god who can see everything from a distance?”
Fed up, Jae-hyun downed the rest of his whiskey in one shot, then got up.
“This isn’t how I operate. And it’s not how you operate either. You say you want answers? Then be honest and bring Lee Ha-jin to the hospital. You need a detailed examination. Even you don’t trust your own body right now. You’re not gonna know anything until we run some tests.”
“Fuckin’ embarrassing.”
“Our little Tae-seong’s pride is officially in the gutter, huh?”
“Drag him to the hospital out of nowhere? Like hell he’d agree if I told him I imprinted on him.”
“Anyway, stop doing dumb shit.”
Jae-hyun snapped. Told him not to call about this kind of crap anymore. He wasn’t wrong—who else would take on a job this ridiculous? He only came because they were friends.
Lee Ha-jin’s file was clean—like it had been prepared for someone to inspect. Jae-hyun had even gone so far as to read the damn property registry, and now he felt deeply unsettled.
He’d learned things about Ha-jin’s background he hadn’t wanted to know. And he resented Tae-seong for making him dig into it.
Tae-seong suspected Ha-jin might have some hidden condition—possibly related to the rare pheromone illness his younger brother suffered from. Maybe there was something unusual in Ha-jin’s body.
But seriously, if an ability existed that could force a dominant Alpha like Tae-seong to imprint—then he would’ve already known about it.
Still ranting, Jae-hyun was shoved all the way to the front door. Despite both being dominant Alphas, he hated that he was always a bit shorter and slimmer in build—it meant Tae-seong could always physically edge him out.
Before he was completely pushed out, he gripped the door and fired off a barrage of words.
“You need to tell him and get him tested. Suppressed Omegas like Lee Ha-jin? No matter how much pheromone you pour into them, they leak like a goddamn bucket full of holes. If you can imprint on him, who’s to say it couldn’t happen with a Beta? You might imprint on a rock on the street next. Get the damn tests—”
SLAM!
The door nearly broke from the force.
From the annoyed muttering beyond the door, it sounded like all his fingers were still intact.
Tae-seong waited until he heard the elevator chime before heading back to the living room. A low curse slipped through his clenched teeth.
“If anyone finds out I imprinted on someone who’s already dead, they’ll flip their shit.”
Amid the mess of documents scattered on the coffee table, a glimpse of Ha-jin’s face caught his eye.
It was Ha-jin’s employee ID, something the secretary’s office had picked up for him. The image of him wearing it around his neck for the past two years flashed vividly in his mind.
His hand clenched around it, hard enough to crumple the card if he wasn’t careful. Slowly, he placed the badge back on the table and stared at it.
“……”
The photo showed Ha-jin with the faintest trace of a smile.
Lee Ha-jin. An extreme suppressor Omega, used for managing ruts. An Omega with quite the talent for betrayal.
Tch. Tae-seong clicked his tongue. Staring at the photo wasn’t going to give him answers.
He pulled out his phone, angled the badge for a clear shot, and snapped a photo. Then, he opened his messaging app.
