COAC 32

Thud. Once the noise created by the closing door faded, the room was submerged in a suffocating silence. This space, provided by his grandfather, was impersonal and chilly like a model home. The smell of new furniture whose owner had yet to be determined, and freshly painted wallpaper.

Kim Chayeon stood tall in the middle of the room and slowly looked around. This place, perfectly furnished with everything, was not a home but a prison. He did not put down his bag, as if refusing to become a part of this room.

However, it wasn’t completely quiet. A very faint presence could be felt through the wall. The sound of someone moving around, probably unpacking, the sound of them catching their breath, even a low sigh. All of it grated sharply on Kim Chayeon’s nerves.

Kim Chayeon roughly swept a hand through his hair. There was no escape. He had to live in this small space, enduring that presence from now on. All misfortune always began with this kind of unwanted entanglement. Just as it had been for his parents.

It was a childhood he didn’t even want to remember. To his parents, who each loved someone else, Kim Chayeon was as good as a nonexistent child. The mansion, hundreds of square meters in size, was just a vast, empty space without any warmth. The days he spent sitting alone at the dinner table, staring down at the cooling food.

Kim Chayeon was nothing more than a label proving his parents’ unwanted “mistake.” After all, even before he had started kindergarten, he had heard the words, “If only you hadn’t been born,” spoken without hesitation.

In those dark times, the only light had been Seo Jeong. A child who smiled without asking for anything in return, who shared his warmth as if it were the most natural thing in the world. In Seo Jeong’s home—small and noisy, but always filled with the smell of soybean paste stew and human warmth—Kim Chayeon learned about family for the first time. So there is a place this warm in the world. He had thrown his first tantrum at his parents, begging them to send him to the same school because he wanted to play with Seo Jeong.

It took only an instant to realize he should not have done that.

A narrow alley on the way home from school at dusk. When the men sent by one of his father’s many omega lovers surrounded him, it was Seo Jeong who stood in front of him. His friend, who had wrapped his small body around him, comforted him by saying it was okay, even while bleeding from a gash on his forehead from something sharp.

The faint scar left on Seo Jeong’s forehead became a lifelong debt Kim Chayeon had to repay and a world he had to protect. The terrible guilt that his own misfortune had spread to his precious friend. At that moment, Kim Chayeon made a resolution. No matter what happened, I have to protect Seo Jeong.

Do Hyeonjun was a foreign object that had abruptly appeared in that solid world. At first, he disliked him for taking up the space next to Seo Jeong. It was a primal wariness towards a being that had invaded his territory. But Do Hyeonjun was different. He wasn’t intimidated by him, and at times, he confronted him head-on.

‘If anyone’s getting out, it should be you.’

He still couldn’t forget the face that had uttered those audacious words. When he had thrown the medical report with his secondary gender written on it at his face, he had even felt a sense of triumph. Laughter would burst out when he saw him staring with his chilly eyes wide with intensity. It was an equal gaze, completely different from the disgusting desire of other omegas toward him.

Perhaps, for a very brief moment, he might have hoped. That in this damn world, he might become another source of warmth. Because the time he spent with Do Hyeonjun had been quite enjoyable. When the expressionless guy laughed at his jokes, it felt strangely good.

It’s okay if it’s Do Hyeonjun. I can trust him.

That was why the sense of betrayal was even greater.

Omega regulators. The shock of the moment he saw that red medicine box choked him once again. The cold sensation, like a sturdy tower collapsing, resembled betrayal. In the end, Do Hyeonjun was the same. He used Seo Jeong to get close to him and asserted his instincts in the way he loathed most.

His stomach churned at the thought that everything he had shown might have been a lie. He didn’t know where it had all gone wrong, or if it had been his own delusion from the start.

What remained at the end of the betrayal was the horrifying result of “imprinting.” He recalled the feeling he had when he first heard those words in the doctor’s office. A sensation he had never experienced in his life surged from the tips of his toes to the top of his head. A strange sensation that made the hairs on his back stand up and his fingertips tingle. Perhaps it was disgust? The rut they spent together without his consent, the one-sided imprinting—it all started with Do Hyeonjun. Disgust or displeasure. It could be nothing else.

The doctor had said it was “one-sided” imprinting. Kim Chayeon’s gaze turned cold. It meant the shackles were fastened only around that guy’s neck. If that was the case, then this wasn’t a tragedy, but merely a problem to be dealt with.

A problem that had intruded into his life without warning, a problem that had to be dealt with somehow.

Just then, the cell phone he was holding in his hand rang.

Seo Jeong
Library seats tomorrow kk
For me and Hyeonjun both
7:13 PM

“…”

In the end, everything returned to the same conclusion. He must not drag Seo Jeong into this dirty mud pit. Seo Jeong had to be completely safe—from his grandfather who used him like a chess piece, and from Do Hyeonjun who had now become a dangerous variable.

Kim Chayeon recalled the memory from a few days ago with his grandfather, who had ensnared him. That voice, threatening him by mentioning a family scandal and bringing up Seo Jeong’s name.

When he had finally admitted defeat and bit his lip, his grandfather had slid a thin paper envelope across the table as if he had been waiting.

‘The rules you two must follow are written in there.’

When he opened the envelope with a stiff face, several clauses printed in cold type were listed, as if to prove his surrender.

‘I’ll tell you the most important part. You will engage in physical contact for the stabilization of the imprint and record and report the details.’

‘Are you in your right mind?’

‘It would be quite a spectacle if rumors spread that my own bloodline turned a blind eye to an omega he one-sidedly imprinted.’

‘…’

‘If you have nothing more to say, you may leave.’

Rage boiled up inside him, but his grandfather didn’t even bat an eye. Emotionless contact. The dreadful words that had bound his parents their entire lives had appeared before him as a reality. Kim Chayeon barely suppressed the urge to crumple the document.

Right. This is an unavoidable choice to protect Seo Jeong. Kim Chayeon closed his eyes. That one reason was enough to endure this damn cohabitation. No, it had to be enough.

He would not give up even an inch of his heart. Do Hyeonjun was nothing more and nothing less than a relationship he was unavoidably entangled in. Whatever he wanted from him, he would get none of it.

Do Hyeonjun was currently at the hospital. It was his second visit to the clinic, a week after his first. Hoping the previous results were an error, he had gotten retested. Please, let it not be true.

『Do Hyeonjun (Ω) → Kim Chayeon (⍺) One-sided Imprint』

It was a confirmation kill.

“You’re still in the early stages of imprinting, so you’ll need the alpha’s pheromones periodically until you stabilize.”

“Can’t I substitute it with pheromone perfume? Wouldn’t it be effective if I use it with suppressants? Or if there’s another way, please tell me. Anything is fine.”

Do Hyeonjun forced a calm demeanor as he asked the doctor again. He clenched the fists resting on his knees, trying not to let the slight tremor in his voice be noticed. Pheromone perfume, like heat regulators, was a substitute for omegas or alphas who had lost their mates. If the situation was already irreversible, he wanted to receive only the bare minimum of help from Kim Chayeon.

“If you were a dominant omega, Mr. Do Hyeonjun, or if you had imprinted on a recessive alpha, it might have had some effect. But neither of those is the case right now. Pheromone stabilization through physical contact is the most realistic method. It’s important not to be separated by more than a certain distance, if possible.”

“…How long will it take to stabilize?”

His voice was almost a whisper. Do Hyeonjun couldn’t bring himself to lift his head, staring only at the back of his own hand.

“It varies from person to person, but you can think of it as a minimum of one to two months.”

A minimum of one month. Those words seemed to buzz in his ears. He felt like he wanted to just disappear.

“One month. That’s the last courtesy I can afford you.”

That was the first thing Kim Chayeon said after they left the hospital. He did not look at Do Hyeonjun. He spoke while staring straight ahead, his voice cooler than the cold winter air. His tightly clenched jawline clearly revealed his anger.

“Okay.”

Do Hyeonjun readily agreed. He had no right to refuse.

Even if you considered cycles an unavoidable biological occurrence, imprinting was different. Imprinting was purely in the domain of his own heart. He was surprised that Kim Chayeon, who had someone else he liked, would spare him a month. Honestly, he had expected him to draw a harsh line, saying, “It has nothing to do with me.”

Still, he couldn’t just rely on Kim Chayeon. In the time he had left, he had to find a way to break the imprint, somehow.