PIA 14

When the doctor put the stethoscope on his ear, Ji-an quickly pulled up his clothes intending to resolve it quickly and leave. He opened his white chest wide and exposed his belly like a puppy.

“Hmm… You don’t have to go this far, but let me check first.”

He didn’t notice the doctor’s flustered expression, but Ji-an’s face flushed when he saw Jeong Hee-seo standing nearby, clearing his throat and chuckling. He had no idea because it had been so long since he had used a stethoscope.

Thump-thump, even though he knew it wasn’t a gynecologist, his heart pounded fiercely. Surely, he wouldn’t hear the sound of a baby in the stomach with a stethoscope. He had strange imaginations.

“The sound is fine. The heart rhythm is clear. Take a deep breath. Good. Breathe out… Breathe in again…”

“…”

Ji-an squinted and stared at Jeong Hee-seo after hearing the diagnosis of no abnormalities. Even with a face that said, “My words were right,” Jeong Hee-seo remained unaffected.

“When I heard about it over the phone, the symptoms seemed serious, but now, as you can see, he’s perfectly fine. His complexion is also normal.”

“I’ve told you many times that I’m fine.”

“I think you’re stressed out.”

“I’m telling you, doctor. This person is stressing me out right now.”

Ji-an spoke triumphantly, as if he had recruited reinforcements. He exhaled a sigh of relief as if he had escaped from a trap. He felt as if he had achieved victory and could safely return home.

Ji-an laughed slyly, momentarily forgetting that Jeong Hee-seo was another villain in the drama who was obsessed with Seo Ji-an. Watching Ji-an with a hint of amusement, Jeong Hee-seo spoke to the doctor.

“Are you sure?”

“Huh?”

“A perfectly normal person begs for pheromones, then vomits while eating and then faints?”

“Uh…”

“If I were going to hear such a cliche story about stress, Han-seok, why would I have called you in while you were resting?”

The doctor, who looked troubled, scratched his brows as if lost in thought before looking at Ji-an. Ji-an felt an intense uneasiness in his troubled gaze.

No way… a dramatic twist even here… This couldn’t be happening.

It was the compelling force that directed the plot towards Jeong Hee-seo inevitably discovering the pregnancy.

Snap out of it! You’re a thoracic surgeon!

Ji-an cried out with his whole body and looked at the doctor. The doctor scratched his cheek and muttered as if he had been controlled by something.

“If it’s related to pheromones, it could be a sign of being pregnant…-”

“He… Ugh.”

Ji-an gripped his chest as if suffering a heart attack. Now, it seemed like he needed a cardiologist… He turned to Jeong Hee-seo with fear in his eyes.

“…”

Surprisingly, Jeong Hee-seo didn’t say anything and just looked at Ji-an. There was a heavy silence in the treatment room. Ji-an felt guilty for some reason and didn’t know where to look. Unbeknownst to him, his expression was giving Jeong Hee-seo even more certainty.

The doctor added his words as if to drive a wedge between them.

“For an accurate diagnosis, it would be best for the couple to visit the obstetrics and gynecology department together.”

“Crazy, what did you just call me, mister?”

Ji-an shouted in excitement without even realizing it.

“A couple!”

Jeong Hee-seo’s eyebrows twitched.

When confronted with a daunting problem, people either plan for and confront it, or they act as if it was someone else’s problem. Pretending not to know and avoiding it, Ji-an was clearly in the latter category.

“Ahh…”

Even though he received morning sickness medication and pain relievers for pregnant people from the hospital and took them, the headache continued. Ji-an was ripping his hair out on the bed. He was so enraged that he punched the air and kicked the blanket, but he covered his mouth to avoid making any noise.

Yes, Ji-an is now at his officetel. The house next door to Jeong Han-joo.

If you ask why he ended up here…

He ran away from the hospital, accusing the perfectly fine doctor of being a quack, and ran through the hospital grounds like a race at night, with Jeong Hee-seo pursuing him and offering him a ride. Jeong Hee-seo, who had been relentlessly pursuing him like a predator, finally gave up after witnessing Ji-an almost getting hit by a car.

He then wandered aimlessly for a while before hailing a taxi. He was about to give the driver his home address when he realized that his grandmother might be the mastermind behind all of this, so he reluctantly gave the driver his officetel address.

“It would have been more comfortable if I had stayed in a hotel…”

The fact that he hadn’t thought of going to a hotel was purely his own fault. The poor soul of Ji-an, who was inside the body of ‘Villain Seo Ji-an’, didn’t even consider staying in a hotel. The situation was too urgent for him to think about it.

If that’s the case, he could go to a hotel now, so why can’t he?

– What on earth did you do to make people call you a guy who sells his body?

‘A guy who sells his body. Did that Alpha say that?’

– This old lady may speak harshly. But I heard you showed up with another man and put on a show. Is that true?

‘Whether I did something or not, people shouldn’t say such things, Grandma. Even if I took off my clothes and danced in a restaurant, you shouldn’t say that.’

– Did you dance without your clothes?

‘No, that’s not it. I wouldn’t have done that!’

– Because of you, this old lady can no longer hold her head up. You ruined the matchmaker reputation. You have no idea how hard your grandma worked to set up a meeting with that house’s grandson.

It was when Ji-an was covering his mouth, smiling in response to the statement that the matchmaker’s reputation was falling apart. His grandmother expressed extreme disappointment, yelling that she needed to cut off his financial support to make him reflect, and then hung up the phone ruthlessly.

That was what happened after spending a night in the officetel and waking up the next day, and then finding out at the hospital that his credit card was frozen.

So now, he had only a few tens of thousands of won left in his pocket.

He didn’t want to go to the house where his grandma was staying. He couldn’t send an SOS to his mother because he felt sorry for her given that she was going to be scolded by her mother-in-law. He couldn’t survive without medicine and he didn’t have any money.

In short, Ji-an was currently in a dire situation.

“…”

From a while ago, there had been noise coming from the adjacent apartment where Jeong Han-joo lived, which also made Ji-an unhappy. It was only yesterday that he turned down Jeong Han-joo’s phone call asking him to meet later, but Ji-an was afraid that if Han-joo found out that he was here, he would knock on the door right away. After being thoroughly exposed to Jeong Hee-seo, meeting the Jeong brothers seemed terrifying.

To make matters worse, it appeared as if the pheromones were gradually fading from Jeong Hee-seo’s jacket. Ji-an huddled on the bed, desperately covered himself with the jacket, tears welling up as he wondered why his fate had turned out this way.

―I know. You can just get married.

“…”

Ji-an was lost in his thoughts when a voice suddenly intruded into his mind.

―Got married, had a miscarriage, tore apart the enemy-like couple Seo Ji-hyuk, and even had a pseudo-relationship with the man you had a crush on.

“…”

―What a fruitful year it would be! I don’t understand why you would refuse and suffer in this twisted plot. I simply can’t comprehend it.

Ji-an stopped sobbing and sat up.

“Hey…”

―What.

“I’ll be in this world for a year and then return. Will you be the Seo Ji-an who returns to this world then? Is it you?”

―…

“Answer me. It’s an important question.”

Since the voice didn’t respond, he asked again as he was feeling uneasy.

As the drama progressed, the characters went through a range of emotions after ‘Seo Ji-an’ suffered a miscarriage. Jeong Han-joo began to doubt his lover and went through a painful breakup. After the breakup, Seo Ji-hyuk suffered and then discovered the secret of his birth, leading him on a path of revenge.

The person who fell the most into the abyss was an unexpected person—Jeong Hee-seo.

Due to Seo Ji-an’s miscarriage, Jeong Hee-seo realized the love he had for him, and when he saw Seo Ji-an having an affair with Jeong Han-joo, he awakened as a hidden villain and the final boss of the drama.

In the end, he chose to commit suicide together with Seo Ji-an, so the suicide ending was more accurately a murder ending.

Therefore, whether or not the psychopath Seo Ji-an would return to this world was a very important question.

Ji-an had considered it simply. Since he wouldn’t have profound affection or lingering emotions for the baby, he believed that if he gave birth and then left, the mother in this world or Jeong Hee-seo would take care of the baby.

However, he was concerned about Jeong Hee-seo’s attitude toward him. It suggested that he wasn’t just a character moved by affection due to the miscarriage or betrayal. Jeong Hee-seo was behaving as if he had already developed emotions for ‘Seo Ji-an.’

Furthermore, even if he made all of these sacrifices to save the baby before returning, the return of the psychopath Seo Ji-an would result in yet another tragedy. That ‘Seo Ji-an’ would use the baby to trap Seo Ji-hyuk again and continue to be a dangerous person.

―No. The original Seo Ji-an on that side is dead.

“What?”

―Just before you go there #$^&@#$&@#$^…