When Baek Woojin pointed it out, I closed my mouth in embarrassment.
“I am in rut, but I took medication this morning. You don’t need to worry. However, since it’s the first day, it’s difficult to hide the faint scent.”
“Ah… That can be detected by smell?”
“Yes, it releases something called pheromones.”
‘Omega heat pheromone perfume’
Only then did I realize how shameless what Yoon Mina had done was. Still, it was more my fault than hers. I should have familiarized myself with this world’s setting beforehand… I was too complacent.
Even in the original novel, there were explanations about what traits alphas and omegas had and what scents they gave off, but being unfamiliar with the terms, I didn’t look closely. I just thought, oh, male omegas can get pregnant. That was all…
“I didn’t even know that… I’m really sorry about earlier.”
“There’s nothing for Chae Seungyeon-ssi to be sorry about, but…”
Baek Woojin muttered quietly at my apology and took a step closer to me.
“Then shall we decide on this too?”
“What…?”
“If you’re sorry, hold my hand.”
“…”
‘Tch, that fly… again.’
I felt like I could hear Hyeol’s voice as a hallucination. If Hyeol had been nearby, he probably would have sighed deeply enough to make the ground cave in or glared with the intensity to cut off Baek Woojin’s hand entirely.
*
“Hyeol, Kkotsu, look this way.”
Click.
Early in the morning, I pressed the shutter aimed at Hyeol and Kkotsu, both wearing identical kindergarten uniforms. The photo came out beautifully, but the unique clothes made the subjects look even better.
The navy sailor collar, checkered bread hat, and beetle-like bag looked very stylish. At the kindergarten Hyeol originally attended, there were only drab black ties and gray jackets, but wearing this made him look much brighter.
“I think it looks too tacky…”
But Hyeol didn’t seem to like the clothes. He took off the hat I had put on him and fiddled with the collar attached to his shoulders. I quickly put the bread hat back on Hyeol’s head.
“It’s pretty. Right now Hyeol is the prettiest in the world.”
“…”
At my words, Hyeol silently adjusted his bread hat and put on his kindergarten bag. Kkotsu beside him still hadn’t properly put on his hat.
“Hm? Kkotsu, aren’t you going to wear your hat? It’ll be warm if you wear it.”
Despite my words, Kkotsu was putting the hat on the head of a rabbit doll with a hole in the back of its head.
“St-stu-ffy… it is…”
“Stuffy?”
Looking at Kkotsu nodding, I touched his hair and found his scalp was slightly damp.
“Kkotsu, are you sick somewhere?”
“N-no…”
He said that, but when I felt Kkotsu’s forehead with the back of my hand, he seemed to have a slight fever.
“Should we not go to kindergarten today and rest?”
“N-noo…!”
Kkotsu suddenly raised his voice. I was startled. Does he have a bit of a hot-tempered nature…? Come to think of it, Kkotsu seemed to have quite a temper too.
“Fr-friend is co-coming, th-they said…”
Kkotsu muttered with a red face, seemingly embarrassed about raising his voice.
Ah, is this about the friend with a cold he mentioned before? It seems like they’re finally returning to kindergarten today.
“Then I’ll let the kindergarten teacher know. If it gets hard, you must tell the teacher, okay?”
“Yess…”
Kkotsu answered and then quickly ran toward the front door.
“I-I’ll be g-going now…!”
“Kkotsu, teacher is coming with you too.”
I couldn’t help but smile seeing Kkotsu bow to me in greeting.
“A-are w-we… a-also ta-taking daddy…?”
At Kkotsu’s question, I shook my head.
“No, Kkotsu’s daddy has work so he left for the office early.”
As I said, Baek Woojin had a seminar today so he left the house from dawn. He said there was a kindergarten school bus so I didn’t need to personally take them to school, but still, it’s Hyeol’s first day at kindergarten… I decided to take Hyeol along with Kkotsu.
“Take your phone.”
I was also putting on my coat following the children and about to leave. Hyeol brought me my phone.
“Thanks Hyeol, shall we hold hands and go with daddy?”
When I reached out my hand to Hyeol, he shook his head.
“I’m fine, just grab that one. Really… he can’t stay still like a chicken.”
Hyeol sighed while looking at Kkotsu, who was hanging on the door handle at the front door with a bright smile. Actually, for a six-year-old boy, acting like that is pretty normal, but does Hyeol not know that he himself is the unusual one…
I smiled bitterly and left the house with the children.
*
After leaving the house, I immediately caught a taxi and headed to Sunshine Kindergarten. When the taxi stopped near the kindergarten, I could see children arriving for school one by one. There were kids huddled together wearing checkered bread hats, and children holding friends’ hands while running.
Yes, this is it… This is what a real kindergarten looks like.
With a satisfied heart, I got out of the taxi and held Hyeol and Kkotsu’s hands on both sides. Just as I was about to turn around and head to the kindergarten entrance, the loud sound of footsteps crunching on gravel echoed from somewhere.
“S-Seungyeon-ssi…?”
And along with it came the sound of someone calling my name. When I turned around in surprise, a man with a familiar face was standing there.
“Oh…”
It was that lawyer I met at the pharmacy.
“This is really… fate, no… coincidence… no, fate…!”
Suddenly, the man grabbed my hand, his face turning bright red. While I was bewildered by the sudden physical contact, Hyeol took off his bread hat and tapped the man’s hand.
“I don’t want to wear the hat.”
“Huh? Oh… okay.”
When I took Hyeol’s bread hat, the sticky touch fell away.
“Seungyeon-ssi, how have you been all this time?”
“What? Me?”
“After we parted like that… I can’t tell you how sorry I felt… I really made so many mistakes back then, didn’t I? I only showed you embarrassing things… Sigh, I shouldn’t have done that to someone I was meeting for the first time… I’m not usually like that, you know? Was it because I was intoxicated by medicine, or was it because of allergies… Ah… I’m really sorry, Seungyeon-ssi…!”
The man rambled on like last time. Hyeol beside me made an expression like he had a headache and folded his fingers one by one.
“Dad. How many people is this exactly? This time it’s a big fly…”
Leaving behind Hyeol who sighed deeply, I decided to treat the man as politely as possible.
“…Hello, fancy meeting you here.”
“Yes, really fancy meeting you here… Are you dropping off your nephews at school, Seungyeon-ssi?”
“What?”
Even though I had two children on both sides of me, the man seemed to think I was single.
“Oh right! I didn’t give you my business card last time, did I? I brought one today.”
The man said only what he wanted to say and pulled out a business card from his suit pocket.
[Divorce Specialist Lawyer. Da Eunseong]
A divorce specialist lawyer… I thought it was unusual that his surname was “Da,” and his profession seemed unusual too.
“You can just call me Da-byeon or Eunseong-ssi comfortably, Seungyeon-ssi. Oh, by any chance, how old…”
“Jeonghana!”
That’s when it happened. Kkotsu, who had been quietly staying by my side, raised his voice.
Jeonghana…? It’s a name I’ve heard somewhere…
“Dad, what are you doing over there? Oh? Kkotsu.”
“Jeonghanaaa…!”
Kkotsu ran to his friend and hugged him with both arms spread wide. Thump, the child who caught Kkotsu with his whole body lost his balance and fell on his bottom. It looked like it would hurt quite a bit, but the friend didn’t cry or frown, instead embracing Kkotsu back with a gentle smile.
“Kkotsu, did you miss me a lot?”
“Yes, yes! I, I missed you…”
“Me too.”
“J-Jeonghan, d-does it… not hurt anymore…?”
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
