VDN Ch 144

Se-han burst into tears. The child opened his mouth wide and cried with his face bright red.

“Wooni Hyung, where did you go… Waahh…!”

Seo-oh, who heard the sound of his sobbing, hurriedly came over and carefully held Se-han in his arms. However, Se-han kicked wildly and cried even louder.

“Bring Wooni Hyung back! Huu… Hyung, hurry and get Wooni Hyung back! Waaah…!”

“I’m sorry, Se-han.”

Seo-oh buried his face in his small shoulders.

“It’s all my fault…I couldn’t do better for Wooni Hyung….”

“Ugh, sob…why does Hyung always bully Wooni Hyung!? What if Wooni Hyung hates Hyung and me! What if he doesn’t want to see us anymore? sob, wwaah…!”

“…I’m sorry.”

At Se-han’s mournful voice, a single tear fell from Seo-oh’s eyes, which he had been trying to hold back. Seeing his brother’s crying face, Se-han’s eyes widened. The child clung to Seo-oh’s neck and pitifully apologized.

“Sniff, Hyung… don’t cry. I’m sorry for getting mad… I’m sorry….”

“……”

“Ugh, but Hyung… now, Sniff we can’t hear Wooni Hyung’s voice or see his face…What are we going to do?… Hyung, let’s go find Wooni Hyung, okay? Quickly…”

“I’ll look for him tomorrow.”

“Let’s go find him together… waaaah!”

Seo-oh continuously patted Se-han, who was crying so hard that he felt like the yard was going to burst, as they sat down on the dirt floor. Meanwhile, his own face was also stained with tears.

“Oh my. What’s going on!”

The child’s cries were so loud and heartbreaking that Auntie Soon-i from next door came running out at the continuous commotion.

Auntie Soon-i quickly approached Se-han and gently wiped his tear-streaked cheeks with her hand.

“Seo-oh, what happened?”

Auntie Soon-i’s voice froze when she saw Seo-oh biting his lips tightly while tears streamed down his face. Nam-nam Grandpa also looked at Seo-oh, who was quietly crying, with a complicated expression. Other than when his dad disappeared, he had never seen him cry before.

He looked over the low wall, looking down the deserted road and whispered to himself, 

“Nam-woon, where did you go, leaving these precious kids behind? Come back quickly…”

All the adults left behind could do was stay by the side of the sobbing children and gently pat their backs. 

***

“Goodbye.”

The door slammed shut. Nam-woon trudged out. He was holding a small box in his hand. He looked down at it and thought back to what the pharmacist had just said.

“Knotting is only possible during an alpha’s rut. The commonly known probability of pregnancy is as follows. When both the alpha and omega are in heat, it is 60%. When only one is in heat, it is below 30%. However, if both are in heat and there is knotting, the probability sharply increases to 90%.”

The pharmacist added at the end.

“If their traits are dominant, whether alpha or omega, you can consider the probability even higher.”

Kwon Seo-oh is a dominant alpha. He even went as far as knotting while in rut. Nam-woon, who learned everything from the pharmacist’s explanation, lowered his head. He had never imagined being in such a situation.

He wandered the streets for a while, trying to escape from reality, but the problematic situation wouldn’t leave his mind. In the end, he stopped walking around when the sun was setting and thought.

Well, there’s nothing I can do about this.

It was already spilled milk, and it was not something that could be changed no matter how hard he tried. At this point, he didn’t know if he should leave his fate up to the heavens.

Nam-woon checked the box he had shoved deep into his pocket and looked around.

“Where should I go now?”

Since he had left Seo-oh’s house, he obviously had nowhere to go, and he didn’t have any money at the moment. Should I call Yong-deuk? Is there a public phone nearby?…

As I stood on the street pondering my next move, a familiar notification sound rang out.

[Congratulations! Your experience points have increased due to the addition of keywords!]

[Short-term escape +25]

Nam-woon frowned.

“Hey, escape? It’s not like I wanted to escape…”

However, the system quickly displayed the next line without listening to Nam-woon.

[There are pending keywords. Would you like to check them?

▶Yes]

It was presented as an option, but in reality, the only choice he had was ‘Yes.’ Nam-woon quickly pressed the button.

[Error! You do not have permission yet.]

This damn thing is doing it again. If that’s the case, don’t even ask.

Nam-woon glared at the system with his eyes wide open and then suddenly thought it was his chance and asked a question.

“Hey, do you know what time my heat was yesterday?”

He used his inner thoughts to avoid being heard. The system immediately displayed a message.

[If you are asking about Seok Nam-woon’s heat time, it was from 3:23 PM to 1:23 AM.]

It was exactly ten hours, as if someone had adjusted it.

“Then what about Kwon Seo-oh’s rut time?”

[Loading….]

[Error! Unable to calculate the exact time due to residual rut pheromones currently in the body.]

“My heat ended around 1:30 AM…”

Nam-woon racked his brain. What time was it when that overwhelming knotting began, which felt like it was going to tear him apart? He remembered fainting for a moment and waking up with a bit clearer mind. Could it have been then that the heat ended? If the knotting happened after that, what would the probability be?

“Ugh… I don’t know.”

No matter how much he thought about it, the dice had already been cast. Nam-woon roughly ruffled his hair and slowly turned his body.

Since he was already here, he thought he should visit the place where he used to live. He was so tired physically and mentally that he desperately needed a place to rest, but he thought that seeing the house where he used to live would make him feel better.

Would it look exactly as he remembered it?

“Let me just take a quick look.”

Nam-woon forced his weary legs to move.

“Gasp. Gasp.”

Nam-woon gasped as he walked up the steep slope. Now that he looked at it, the slope up to his house seemed steeper than Seo-oh’s house. It was hard to climb even with a healthy body, but it seemed even more difficult to climb while his body was a mess. Every step was difficult.

“Hah….”

After taking twice the time it should have taken, Nam-woon finally arrived in front of the house, catching his breath and looking up. He quietly surveyed what had once been his home, which was now someone else’s home.

The short entrance door he had to bow his head to pass through, the loose doorknob that seemed on the verge of falling off, the old, worn gray walls caked with grime, and the pipes covered in moss and mold. At a glance, it looked like a ruin. This was my home.

This looks exactly the same as where I used to live.

Once again, he felt the reality of the situation. This place looked almost exactly like where he used to live. Of course, the people of this world were slightly different. Nam-woon looked at the shabby house with longing eyes.

The system said there was already a homeowner here…

He felt a pang of regret. No matter how small and uncomfortable the place had been, he wanted to go inside right away because he had lived there for a long time. He needed a place to rest alone after experiencing so many strange things. Nam-woon, who had been looking at the shabby house without thinking, put his hand in his pocket and took out what he had bought at the pharmacy. He heard a click and the front door opened and a soft voice leaked out through the crack in the door.

“Who are you? Why are you in front of someone else’s house…?”

“Oh, I’m sorry.”

Nam-woon apologized to the man who was sticking his head out and turned around. For a moment, he felt a strange feeling of familiarity. Big eyes, an anxious gaze, and a slender face. Where have I seen him before? Nam-woon tilted his head for a moment, then thought it was his imagination and began to walk away.

“Mr. Seok?”

Then he heard a voice that seemed to be calling him. The man who seemed to be the homeowner was already outside the door. He had a thin body, a white face, big eyes, and soft-looking hair. The delicate-faced man stared at Nam-woon with a shocked expression.

“How do you know my… my house? Why did you come here?”

“What?”

Nam-woon didn’t understand what was going on and almost asked, “Who are you?” but then thought it would be unwise to reveal any weaknesses to this stranger who seemed to know the original Seok Nam-woon. When he didn’t receive an answer, the man frowned and raised his voice.

“Did you follow me?”

His tone was sharp, as if Nam-woon had something bad. Nam-woon scratched his head and tried to explain.

“No, that’s not it, I was just passing by.”

“D-Do you think I would believe that? Don’t lie! You followed me, didn’t you?”

“No.”

“You must have planned this on purpose… Did you also plan this the last time you visited the convenience store too? You showed me a different side of yourself on purpose and acting all cool! I knew you’d follow me to my house someday!”

Before Nam-woon could respond, the man suddenly pulled out a red bucket from behind him. It was a bucket of water he must have filled up without Nam-woon noticing. Oh, damn it

Splash!

Lukewarm water poured down Nam-woon’s head and upper body. Nam-woon shut his eyes tightly. His cheeks stung as if he had been slapped. Drop, drop. He slowly wiped the water dripping down his chin with the back of his hand, but the man, who was surprised by his own actions, swallowed his breath and shouted loudly.

“Don’t ever come here again!”

A small hand shoved Nam-woon’s chest. Nam-woon was helplessly pushed as he was completely drained of strength. Then he grabbed the low wall behind him. Because of that, the object he was holding fell to the floor.

Thud. Both the man and Nam-woon’s eyes were drawn to the object that landed on the ground.

“A pregnancy test…?”