Woosung Alpha’s Sour Grapes

Chapter 31

“Mmph!”

A terrible feeling of disgust welled up. He struggled violently, but it was useless. With his airway blocked by the rough palm, even his consciousness was becoming hazy.

As Hyeon-woo’s resistance, which had been as violent as a fish thrown out of water, visibly weakened, the assailant lifted his top and buried his face in his exposed bare chest. Just as he was about to grope Hyeon-woo’s lower body while mouthing the nipple he had found, there was a sound like a watermelon bursting from somewhere.

Thud- Thwack!

Tae-geon kicked the assailant’s head several times.

Thud-!

Items spilled out of the fallen plastic bag and rolled messily on the asphalt. Tae-geon continued to kick the bloodied body without stopping.

Hyeon-woo, who had barely regained consciousness, approached on his knees and tried to stop Tae-geon.

“…Stop. Stop…”

It seemed like one more hit would really kill him.

Tae-geon’s thigh, which had been tensed with strength, instantly relaxed, as if afraid of hurting Hyeon-woo who was clinging to him. Nevertheless, his shoulders heaved as he breathed heavily, seemingly unable to contain his anger. Suddenly, Tae-geon’s eyes caught sight of something sticking out of the assailant’s old jacket pocket.

Tae-geon pulled out the object that oddly grated on his nerves. At this, the assailant, who had been lying quietly under Tae-geon’s feet in a half-dazed state, began to struggle desperately.

“Give it back! Give it back!! It’s mine!!! It was given to me!!! I did what I was told! Give it back!!!”

“…What you were told…?”

Tae-geon frowned at the assailant’s incomprehensible shouts. He carefully examined the large check in his hand. On the back was an elegant signature that he couldn’t read.

As Tae-geon’s eyebrows twitched, feeling an inexplicable sense of discomfort from the item that didn’t match the assailant’s worn-out appearance at all, the warmth clinging to his back transmitted an unsettling tremor. Hyeon-woo’s body, holding onto him, was shaking like an aspen leaf. Tae-geon hurriedly turned around.

“…Han Hyeon-woo…?”

There was something strange about Hyeon-woo’s pale state.

“Hyeon-woo, are you okay?”

Taking advantage of Tae-geon’s distraction, the assailant quickly snatched back the check and ran away, but there was no time to worry about that.

“Snap out of it!! Han Hyeon-woo!!!”

Tae-geon shouted, shaking Hyeon-woo’s shoulders, and then pulled him into a tight embrace.

“…It’s okay.”

“……”

“Hyeon-woo, it’s okay.”

“……”

“It’s nothing. It wasn’t anything serious. Everything will be fine after you sleep. It’s all okay.”

Even in Tae-geon’s arms, gently comforting him, Hyeon-woo couldn’t calm down easily. The assailant’s voice, shouting like a madman at Tae-geon, reminded him of the chilling memory of the hot breath pouring into his ear earlier.

‘…Haa, delicious smell.’

Smell.

He had definitely said smell.

He had smelled it, the pheromones emanating from him. He had recognized the scent of an omega approaching heat.

His vision swirled dizzily. He felt as if all the blood in his body was draining to his feet.

There was no way Tae-geon didn’t know. If even such a lowly alpha had noticed, Tae-geon, an extreme alpha, would have detected his condition much earlier.

…When…?

When exactly had he realized?

The moment in the library when Tae-geon discovered the suppressants flashed in his mind. Tae-geon’s nonchalant face, in contrast to his own heart plummeting.

His head spun.

Could it be that he knew everything?

Did he already know I was an omega even then?

Hyeon-woo’s fist, gripping Tae-geon’s clothes, trembled. His vision turned white.

He had been found out. It was certain he had been discovered.

The fact that he was an omega.

Tae-geon had discovered everything.

*

With a severe cold just before the start of the semester, Hyeon-woo rummaged through the medicine cabinet, sniffling from the morning. Of course, the medicine he was looking for was nowhere to be seen.

As he put on a mint-colored cardigan to go to the pharmacy and headed for the entrance, Tae-geon followed and stopped him.

“I’ll go buy it.”

“Huh? Ah, it’s okay. I wanted to get some fresh air too…”

“Stay home.”

Tae-geon firmly ordered, then suddenly reached out and placed his hand on Hyeon-woo’s forehead.

“…No fever. Headache?”

“My head doesn’t hurt. It’s just a cold, I think.”

“Don’t move and wait at home. I’ll be back.”

Intimidated by the forceful tone, Hyeon-woo eventually retreated. As he heard the front door close, Hyeon-woo took off the cardigan he had put on and sat on the sofa.

Since the incident that occurred while shopping a few days ago, Tae-geon had become noticeably more alert about Hyeon-woo’s outings.

Left alone at home, Hyeon-woo curled up on the sofa, hugging his knees.

Just like the day he had clung to Tae-geon’s waist to stop his kicking, his hands hugging his knees began to tremble uncontrollably.

Hyeon-woo’s eyes reddened as he gazed at the front door through which Tae-geon had disappeared.

Tae-geon.

Can you smell the omega scent from me?

If you know everything, why do you keep pretending not to know?

He had many questions but couldn’t ask any of them. He was afraid. Afraid that his recklessness might hasten some decision Tae-geon was wrestling with regarding their relationship. Afraid that he might not even be able to stay by his side like this anymore.

Hyeon-woo was careful not to upset Tae-geon. Even if he had to kill himself, even if he had to trample on these feelings, he wanted to stay by Tae-geon’s side somehow.

He raised his trembling arm and buried his nose in the back of his hand, wrist, and inside of his elbow, inhaling deeply. But as always, he couldn’t smell any scent.

After the semester started, the first thing Hyeon-woo did was to leave during a mandatory major class that he didn’t share with Tae-geon and head to the hospital.

He wanted to come earlier, but it wasn’t possible. Throughout the remaining vacation period, he couldn’t find time to move alone because Tae-geon was extremely wary of his outings.

If it hadn’t been for that incident, he might still not have realized that Tae-geon had discovered his trait. But now he knew. He even knew that for some reason, Tae-geon was pretending not to know about his manifestation.

If Tae-geon had decided to turn a blind eye to the truth, he was willing to go along with it. But separately from that, he felt frustrated.

It felt like he was the only one who didn’t know about the inexplicable changes continuing in his body even after his manifestation was over.

Sitting in the back seat of the bus, Hyeon-woo buried his nose in the inside of his wrist and sniffed. It was a strange habit he had developed after the incident. He still couldn’t detect anything particular.

With the increasingly shortening prodrome making it difficult to suppress his anxiety even with suppressants, Hyeon-woo had even changed the rules to arrive at the room first and wait for the alpha. Before the alpha appeared, a guard would first enter the room and blindfold him, and only then would the intimacy begin as usual.

The various changes that started appearing before and after his heat cycle felt somewhat inexplicable.

He deliberately chose a larger hospital than where he had received his first diagnosis. It was to get more precise tests.

After making a follow-up appointment for a week later when the results would be out, he left the hospital and headed back to school.

He arrived in front of the Business Administration building in time for Tae-geon’s class to end. He immediately spotted Tae-geon among the crowd pouring out. He felt like he could find Tae-geon instantly even among thousands, no, tens of thousands of people.

“Tae-geon, over here!”

Hyeon-woo raised his hand high and called Tae-geon’s name, waving his arm from side to side. Hyeon-woo’s heart beat helplessly as he saw Tae-geon’s eyes crinkle slightly and a faint smile appear on his lips upon spotting him.

Suppressing his wildly beating heart, Hyeon-woo walked alongside Tae-geon, matching his pace. When Tae-geon asked what he wanted for dinner, Hyeon-woo quickly shouted, “Pork belly!” They changed their course from heading home to the downtown area where the supermarket was located.

“Let’s grill onions and garlic too!”

“Okay.”

“And after we’re done, we have to fry rice with kimchi, sprinkled with seaweed! Oh, it’s going to be so delicious!”

“Are you a pig?”

“Oink oink. Whose fault is that?”

“Ha.”

Tae-geon’s laughter burst out suddenly, as if he found it ridiculous, and Hyeon-woo quickly turned his head away from Tae-geon.

As the pedestrian signal turned green, the waiting people crossed the crosswalk all at once. Mixed in with that crowd, Hyeon-woo cast his gaze on Tae-geon’s broad and straight back walking a step ahead of him.

He thought he understood why Tae-geon didn’t ask anything about him manifesting as an omega. Hyeon-woo’s vision blurred.

It seemed that Tae-geon also didn’t want to destroy this relationship that Hyeon-woo had tried to protect even by deceiving him. From Tae-geon’s behavior of treating him the same as before despite knowing the truth, it felt as if his desire to cover everything up as it was was being conveyed intact.

…But aren’t you curious?

Really, not at all?

How I spend my heat cycles, if I’m taking suppressants properly, if I’m meeting any alphas, how I’ve felt hiding from you that I’m an omega.

How I ended up becoming an omega.