AOA 18
by BIBIIt was a wish filled with the desire to avoid what was coming. And that feeling hadn’t changed, even as I got older.
*
The first time I opened my eyes in bed, I just felt dazed. Seeing the ocean outside the window tinged red, I momentarily lost track of time.
I almost fell back asleep, but then I remembered what had happened last night and jolted upright. But my waist and groin throbbed so badly it felt like they were about to split in two, and I groaned as I collapsed back onto the bed.
I was so flustered and dumbfounded that my brain refused to function. I raised my trembling arms and rubbed my face roughly with both hands, trying to calm myself.
I’d had sex with Baek Mugyeong. It had happened because I manifested as an omega years earlier than in the previous timeline.
I wanted to go back and beat up the past me who had confidently assumed it would take over a year to manifest, even if I avoided the drug side effects. I’d been way too complacent. I thought there would be no problem since I’d even gotten neutralizers.
Because of that, the plan I had to divorce in a year by claiming I hadn’t manifested fell apart.
“Haah.”
Still lying in bed, I let out a long sigh and rubbed my face again. I didn’t believe in God, but at times like this, I wanted to grab fate by the collar and shake it.
I was furious and felt deeply wronged, but I wasn’t despairing. What had happened couldn’t be undone. Since things had turned out this way, I had no choice but to come up with a new plan.
I wasn’t worried about how things would be between me and Baek Mugyeong. Before the regression, we’d only met a handful of times after that unintended night. We both tried our hardest to pretend nothing had happened.
It would probably be the same this time. I could easily endure the silence that would hang in the air on the flight back to Korea.
Still, I was mortified. That was why I lay in bed, wishing the world would end. A wish I could make only because I knew it wouldn’t actually happen.
Before the regression, I had been more shocked by the fact that I had sex with a man than by manifesting as an omega. But back then, I hadn’t been in my right mind, so I laughed it off.
Unfortunately, I was completely lucid now. This was only the second time I’d had sex with Baek Mugyeong, yet the embarrassment and shame were even worse.
His thing had gone into me.
Just thinking about how my waist and there both hurt made my ears burn.
“Uh…?”
As I groaned and squirmed, unable to even kick the covers properly because everything ached, I noticed something had changed in the air. And I instinctively knew it was because of Baek Mugyeong.
Sure enough, the bedroom door opened and Baek Mugyeong entered. Startled, I forced myself to sit up despite the throbbing pain in my waist.
“You’re awake?”
“Ah, yes. I-I’m awake, cough.”
My voice was a mess. As I coughed and looked around, I spotted several bottles of water on the bedside table and quickly grabbed one.
After drinking, I felt a little clearer. I began to wonder why Baek Mugyeong had come. Before the regression, he’d vanished completely and only showed up three days later.
His expression as he stood at the foot of the bed was as stoic as ever, impossible to read.
“Mr. Jeong Minchae.”
“Yes.”
“You’ve manifested as an omega. Your pheromone regulation isn’t functioning properly yet, so you need to take your medication.”
“I know.”
Most basic information about secondary gender traits is taught in school. I’d received extra pamphlets on the subject since my omega manifestation probability was relatively high. Under my mother’s lead, our whole family had studied it together.
Both omegas and alphas have trouble controlling their pheromones immediately after manifestation. That’s why you need to take strong pheromone suppressants at regular intervals.
As far as I knew, omega pheromones had a scent that enticed alphas. Emitting that scent everywhere was basically a signal that you were ready to have sex. I didn’t want to seem like someone who was sex-crazed.
After manifesting, omegas could sense others with more than just smell. All five senses heightened to detect them.
After I manifested, I could tell that Baek Mugyeong had a cool and fresh scent. But more than that, his pheromones felt like soft fabric flowing over my skin, which made me feel strange.
“The suppressant is next to the water bottles. Take it in two hours. And this is a contraceptive.”
“Uh…?”
“A newly manifested omega has a very high chance of getting pregnant. You need to take this right away, Mr. Jeong Minchae.”
Baek Mugyeong stepped closer and placed two small white pills in my hand. He radiated the clear intention that if I didn’t take them immediately, he’d shove them into my mouth himself.
I blinked once, then said nothing. I simply threw the pills into my mouth and downed them with the rest of the water. One surprise pregnancy before the regression had been more than enough.
After swallowing, I looked up at Baek Mugyeong. Only then did he step back to the foot of the bed again.
“We postponed the return by a day. You’ll rest tomorrow, and we’ll go back to Korea on Saturday.”
“Uh, so… tomorrow is Friday?”
“Yes.”
“Not Thursday?”
I asked, confused. Our honeymoon was a six-day, five-night trip. We’d flown into Cebu on Sunday night and were supposed to return to Korea on Friday.
We’d had sex on the third night in Cebu, the night from Tuesday to Wednesday. So today should’ve been Wednesday, and tomorrow Thursday. But he said it was Friday.
“Today is Thursday, and tomorrow is Friday.”
“I… slept all day? No, did I sleep two whole days?”
Through the terrace window, I could see the sun setting over the red sea. I couldn’t believe it was Thursday evening. Before the regression, I hadn’t lost that much time after manifesting.
Baek Mugyeong’s brows furrowed slightly.
“You slept for about a day.”
“Then…”
“I— I went into rut.”
Baek Mugyeong said it like he was just casually mentioning his morning coffee. His left cheek, touched by the sunset, was tinged red, but he didn’t seem embarrassed. If anything, he looked a bit angry.
To put it bluntly, rut was like an alpha’s heat. Losing a day to it meant we’d had sex the entire time.
Reading between the lines, I was dumbfounded. I also found myself quietly impressed by his stamina. No wonder my waist and groin ached like I’d been beaten up, and my arms were cramping and my throat hoarse.
I barely held back the urge to ask if his c*ck wasn’t sore from doing it that much. He probably did it because he could.
As I tried to make peace with it all, a question suddenly arose. Had Baek Mugyeong gone into rut because I manifested as an omega?
It was a pretty reasonable assumption. If that was the cause of his quietly pissed-off expression, it would make sense.
But once again, I didn’t ask. There was no reason to bring up something Baek Mugyeong hadn’t mentioned himself.
“I see. Understood.”
When I nodded, he frowned slightly, then let it go.
“I’ll be going now.”
With a small nod of farewell, Baek Mugyeong left the room. Surprisingly, even after the door shut behind him, I could sense his presence fading.
“That’s basically a superpower.”
Now alone, I muttered to myself. It had been similar before the regression, but not this vividly. Maybe I was more sensitive because I’d just manifested.
I rubbed my face roughly, then slowly lay back down. The sex had been unintentional, but it was just an unfortunate accident, something we’d basically agreed to move past. So there was no real problem.
“At least I took the pill.”
I hadn’t even thought about contraceptives, so it was a relief that Baek Mugyeong had brought them. If I’d gotten pregnant again like before the regression, I’d have had a complete mental breakdown.
I told myself it was fine and tried to stay positive. Variables kept cropping up, but as long as things didn’t fall apart between me and Baek Mugyeong, I could manage. Most of all, I no longer had to worry about side effects from the suppressant. Knowing my biological father’s personality, he would’ve fed me whatever he could if my manifestation had been delayed.
“Alarm first…”
I wasn’t sleepy, probably because I’d slept nearly all day. Still, just in case, I decided to set an alarm for two hours later and looked around for my phone. It was sitting quietly on the bedside table, plugged into its charger.
Since all ties to my past were severed, most new messages were just advertisements. I checked Instagram next.
I usually contacted my younger sibling through DMs on Instagram rather than messages. Since our father also monitored social media, I’d hidden the app in the middle of the app drawer instead of on the home screen. I’d even changed the icon and app name, and turned off DM notifications. Unless you checked each app one by one, you couldn’t tell it was Instagram.
My feed was mostly food photos. It was a way to let my sibling and aunt know what I was eating.
After arriving in Cebu, I’d posted pictures of the bright blue sea and white clouds. My sibling had sent a DM saying the color of the ocean was beautiful.
In the two days I hadn’t checked Instagram, several DMs had come in from my sibling.
(〃´▽`) 💜💜💜
Minchae is so adorable. Yes sweetie, think of more plans! Nothing too serious has happened yet, and already he’s faced so many variables ahaha.