ATGRA 55

I felt carsick the whole taxi ride. Jung Pureum kept stroking my back next to me, asking if I was okay.

The taxi driver, perhaps worried I might throw up in the car, rolled down his window. The air, full of fine dust, actually made me feel a little less dizzy.

“Maybe it’s because my stomach is empty…”

“Should we drop off the luggage and go get something to eat?”

“No, I just want to rest today.”

Originally, my plan was to take Jung Pureum out and buy him something to eat. Although Jung Pureum was the one who offered to pick me up, it would have been impossible for me to get home safely with all this luggage on my own without him.

So, I was planning to treat him to an expensive meal. I was thinking of taking him to a fancy restaurant that would make him wonder, “Why does the hyung next door only give me plain rice…”

But now, I had no appetite at all. The reason was obvious. Accumulated fatigue and the unfamiliar scent of Jung Pureum’s perfume. There were no other unusual factors besides these.

“Why the sudden perfume?”

I finally leaned my body against the car seat and spoke slowly. I should just let people wear what they want, but I couldn’t help but ask since the perfume was making me carsick.

“Is the scent that bad?”

“The scent is fine, but… it feels like something is subtly mixed in.”

“A mixed feeling?”

“Yeah. It’s hard to explain in words. Like someone else’s pheromones, maybe…”

At my words, “like someone else’s pheromones,” Jung Pureum was momentarily flustered. It was a fleeting change in expression, but since I had been looking at him the whole time, I caught that moment without difficulty.

How could unstable pheromones stabilize in just four days? I hadn’t thought much about it until just before, but that question slowly began to arise. I started to imagine how Jung Pureum had managed to control his pheromones.

The most likely possibility was that he had managed it on his own, but it was also possible that another alpha or omega had helped him. It was impossible for me, being a recessive omega, but dominant omegas could release their pheromones to forcibly stimulate or, conversely, calm down alphas.

Of course, it was unlikely a dominant omega had helped, as I couldn’t smell any other omega pheromones on Jung Pureum. There was only the scent of perfume that made me dizzy, as if he had used a deodorizer.

“Hyung will buy you a meal later.”

Jung Pureum, perhaps worried about me looking so listless, carried my luggage all the way into my house. As soon as I got home, I just washed up and collapsed onto the bed.

“You can go now.”

Despite my order to leave, Jung Pureum sat on my living room sofa like a statue. Seeing him hovering around, saying he would go buy some porridge, made me feel even more sorry.

“Hyung.”

“Yeah.”

“Can I… use your bathroom?”

“…What? Why?”

“To wash up. I want to stay by your side a little longer.”

He followed up with a whimper, asking if I didn’t miss him even though we hadn’t seen each other in a while. I was a little taken aback. He was the one who would disappear for a week at a time for training camps.

Letting him use the bathroom wasn’t a problem, but I didn’t have any clothes that would fit Jung Pureum. When I made a troubled face and said no, Jung Pureum looked very dejected and left through the front door, saying he would wash up at his own house and come back.

As soon as Jung Pureum left, drowsiness washed over me. I think I fell asleep the moment I closed my eyes. Ah, I should at least dry my hair properly. If I sleep like this, the pillow will get ruined…

When I opened my eyes again, it was late at night.

I had a nightmare that something heavy was crushing me. Even after waking up from the dream, my body felt strangely heavy, and I found Jung Pureum lying next to me.

I was dumbfounded. Why was he sleeping here? His own house was right next door, so seeing him crawl into my bed to sleep was baffling.

On top of that, a dry towel was neatly laid out on my pillow. On closer inspection, it wasn’t even one of my towels. The spare clothes placed in front of the wardrobe also seemed to be newly brought by Jung Pureum.

He had even brought a new toothbrush and put it in the bathroom. I was so flabbergasted that my jaw dropped. What is all this? Did he, by any chance, run away from home to my place?

“Hey, Jung Pureum. Wake up.”

“Mmm…”

“Why are you sleeping here?”

I shook Jung Pureum, who was sleeping peacefully like an angel, awake. It was the vibration-shake skill I had learned from my mom.

At my merciless shaking, Jung Pureum slowly opened his eyes.

“Are you feeling a little better?”

Perhaps still sleepy, his husky voice sounded a little strange.

Startled, I slapped Jung Pureum’s back repeatedly. Jung Pureum winced in pain and curled up, but still fumbled to reach out and pull my waist into an embrace.

What is this, why this atmosphere? I freaked out and tried to pull back. However, with my shoddy reflexes, I couldn’t get Jung Pureum’s arm off me.

“I don’t smell like perfume anymore, right?”

It seemed he had really gone to his house to wash up, because Jung Pureum no longer had any scent. When I nodded, Jung Pureum hugged me even tighter.

“That’s a relief. I just wore it to look good for you, but I was worried because you seemed unwell because of it.”

Hearing that made me feel a little sorry. I gave up trying to push Jung Pureum away and let myself be held quietly in his arms.

“Why are you so good to me?”

“Because I like you, hyung.”

“…”

“I tell you I like you every day, but you ask me every day.”

For some reason, the words “I like you” that Jung Pureum said sounded different.

This was all because I had been watching romance dramas too intently with my mom for the past few days. I think there was a scene like this around the 7th episode of that common, run-of-the-mill romance drama I was watching with my mom.

Suddenly, my heart felt unsettled. It was because the “I like you” that Jung Pureum said sounded like a confession. If I hadn’t heard those words countless times, I would have misunderstood like a conceited person.

“Pureum, do you know the PD of <I Want to Know Everything>? Not the current PD, the one who resigned.”

To avoid strange thoughts, I quickly changed the subject. I was afraid the atmosphere would get strange again if I didn’t switch topics.

I shouldn’t be doing this with a kid whose pheromones have just barely stabilized. Jung Pureum, as if he wasn’t concerned about his own body, held me tight like a bamboo wife in summer.

“A PD? Why a PD all of a sudden?”

“Well, that PD said something strange.”

“…I don’t really know him. I know he caused you trouble by planning the broadcast badly, though.”

“That’s what I thought, right?”

Why on earth did Producer Kim have to say something strange and make me feel unsettled for no reason?

The assumption that Jung Pureum, an ordinary physical education student, would threaten Producer Kim was ridiculous in itself. It was more plausible that my grandfather had bought off the broadcast station with money.

“But… why did you contact Producer Kim?”

“Huh? It’s nothing big. I just had to contact a drama PD, so I asked him to connect me.”

It wasn’t clearly visible because the room was dark, but Jung Pureum’s expression was strange. It seemed he was worried that I had contacted Producer Kim again.

I patted Jung Pureum’s back reassuringly. He was pretty much kicked off all the programs he was in charge of, so what was there to be afraid of?

“I just needed to confirm something with the team of a drama that’s coming out soon on KBC.”

To reassure Jung Pureum, I brought up the story of <You’re Too Much, My Alpha Who Used to Be a Beta!>. The drama’s team probably used the Gongjindan That Turns You Into an Alpha without a second thought, but for me, who had gone through all sorts of hardships because of the broadcast, it was an issue I couldn’t help but care about.

“You said Producer Kim said something strange.”

As I was gritting my teeth, thinking I should at least get some free product placement out of this, Jung Pureum asked about Producer Kim again.

Something was suspicious. Apart from my belief that Jung Pureum would never threaten anyone, his excessive wariness of Producer Kim was suspicious no matter how I looked at it.

Then again, he was a person worth being wary of. Unlike Baek Wonhee, he hadn’t been brought to justice, so there was no telling when or how he might make a comeback.

“It wasn’t a big deal. He just told me to stop threatening him by conspiring with a kid.”

“…”

“It’s a really strange thing to say, right? I have no memory of threatening that guy.”

After a moment of silence, Jung Pureum finally agreed with me. Hearing him say it was indeed a strange thing to say, the suspicion that had been rising subsided.

Right. Whether it’s the words “I like you” or “conspiring with a kid,” there’s too much room for misunderstanding. It would be beneficial for everyone if they didn’t say things with unknown meanings…

I thought about the pointlessness of ambiguous speech and closed my eyes again.

The next day, I went to work at the clinic, dragging the suitcase of medicinal herbs my grandfather had packed for me.

“It finally feels like I’m home.”

“Why did the person who went to recuperate come back looking even more gaunt…”

Nam Jungyoon, who looked several times more gaunt than I did, greeted me. As the deputy director, he must have had a hard time handling more than double the workload while I was away.

“Don’t even talk about it. You can’t recuperate comfortably at your family home. Seoul is better.”

“Isn’t the air good there?”

“The air is good. If I heard less about marriage, it would be a complete resort.”

“Marriage?”

“My family is conservative, so they’re already nagging me about marriage.”

“Ah… that must be tiring.”

Nam Jungyoon plopped down on the floor of the dispensary and began sorting the medicinal herbs. I sat next to him and looked through the work log to see how the clinic had been running for the past two days.

Thanks to Ms. Kim Miyoung being such a veteran, it seemed that no unexpected situations like I had hoped for had occurred. It was a relief, but also a little disappointing. At this rate, wouldn’t the staff not feel the director’s absence?

“Nothing really special happened while I was gone, huh?”

“There shouldn’t be anything special. Oh, right. A regular patient did come looking for you, Director.”

So my thought that a regular patient might be looking for me was reasonable! I excitedly flipped through the work log.

Just yesterday, it was written in the log that Lee Seolwoo had come looking for me. It seemed he had wanted to see the director, but had to leave because I wasn’t there.

I thought he had switched to a different clinic altogether after Baek Wonhee attacked our clinic. I smiled with satisfaction and circled Lee Seolwoo’s name.