Chapter 27: The Fragile Foundation of Affection

A tree rooted in affection does not easily break, no matter the crisis or hardship. Yunhwan believed that the reason he was able to live as he did now was thanks to his grandmother. Even though she had been bedridden in a hospital for nearly two years, her legacy of love remained.

He wondered if Seonghye’s irritability and wildly fluctuating emotions stemmed from a lack of people by his side. Yunhwan worried that an ever-amplifying anxiety, born from the absence of affection, was pushing Seonghye toward a steep cliff. The way the younger man had pointedly demanded love earlier weighed heavily on his mind.

Yunhwan finally stood up when the lights of the neighboring houses began to flicker out one by one.

As he entered the house with a heavy heart, the living room was already dark, but a faint light leaked from Seonghye’s room. Seeing that Seonghye was still awake past 10:00 PM, Yunhwan felt his feet moving toward the bedroom, sensing that Seonghye’s mind was as complicated as his own.

He knocked softly. He felt a presence inside, but there was no answer.

“…….”

Just as Yunhwan was about to step back, he heard a sound.

He stood still and listened. It was a cough. It didn’t stop at one; a string of hacking coughs followed. When Yunhwan hurriedly turned the doorknob, a metallic, fishy scent immediately hit him from the closed room.

As if it had been waiting, the thick smell of blood that had clung to every corner of the room washed mercilessly over him.

Startled, Yunhwan reflexively looked toward the sound.

“Cough, hack—!”

In the corner, he saw Seonghye clutching his mouth with one hand, desperately trying to stifle his coughs. Seeing Seonghye in a state that was clearly not normal, Yunhwan’s voice broke with shock.

“Seonghye!”

“I’m… cough… fine, so go—”

Seonghye held up a hand to stop the approaching Yunhwan, gasping for breath. Blood began to splatter between his fingers, dripping onto the floor.

Meanwhile, at the District Hospital.

Junseong, the only man left in the hospital after everyone else had clocked out, was meticulously examining Seonghye’s pheromone level reports.

“Hmm…”

Junseong looked a mess, having practically lived at the hospital for the past few days. His skin was dull, and the night duty room smelled musty. Despite this, there was a reason he was more devoted to Seonghye’s treatment than ever.

The pheromone treatment, which had shown little progress initially, was finally starting to work. The graphs, which had been flat through the second session, had begun a downward curve starting from the fourth session.

This was encouraging news for everyone. If the “imprint release” proceeded smoothly, they could finally begin the in-depth counseling and psychological therapy Seonghye truly needed.

As he was excitedly drafting a treatment plan, a conversation from a previous session crossed his mind.

‘If my pheromones stabilize… will Hyung be able to feel me too?’

‘That’s impossible. Yunhwan is a Beta; he doesn’t have the biological traits for that.’

‘It’s not impossible.’

Even as a doctor, Junseong had been momentarily speechless at Seonghye’s calm tone and chillingly indifferent expression.

‘I heard you can create traits. Acquired traits.’

Junseong never imagined that Seonghye would mention trait conversion—a procedure considered taboo by doctors and society alike. Moreover, when Seonghye spoke, his eyes held the conviction of someone who already knew the truth.

‘The reason people avoid this topic is that if a non-trait person undergoes conversion, there’s a high probability they’ll manifest as an Omega, or…’

‘Min Seonghye, do you have any idea what you’re saying right now?’

‘…or it’s because the trait-conversion drugs released by Seoil Pharmaceuticals in the past caused numerous deaths.’

Recalling that session, Junseong’s brow crumpled like scrap paper. He hadn’t realized Seonghye knew about that incident.

“…Why would he suddenly bring that up?”

Furthermore, it had been over ten years since the incident, and it was a forbidden topic within the Seoil family. How did Seonghye know?

“There’s no way Manager Park would have told him unless he’s lost his mind.”

Junseong put down the reports and stood up, stretching his stiff neck. After checking the blinds one last time, he walked out into the hospital lobby. The atmosphere was desolate. His sneakers made a dull thud, thud sound against the polished floor.

Suddenly, loud footsteps echoed from outside. The firmly locked entrance began to rattle violently.

Junseong flinched, his shoulders tensed. “W-what? A burglar?”

A burglar in this rural village? Panicked, he fumbled for his phone to call the police, but then a loud shout erupted from outside.

“Kim Junseong! O-open the door! Open it now!”

Whoosh—!

It was raining. A heavy downpour signaling the end of July beat incessantly against the hospital windows.

While Seonghye was being treated in the ward, Yunhwan stood alone in the middle of the lobby, where there wasn’t even a single chair.

This was the first seizure he had witnessed since he started living with Seonghye again. It was far more serious and urgent than the nosebleed Seonghye had in the car on the day of his return. If Yunhwan hadn’t remembered that Junseong was staying at the district hospital, he might have made things worse by panicking on his own.

“Ah…”

A pained groan escaped Yunhwan’s lips.

He had seen people get hurt and collapse countless times in his past, but this was different. He had resolved to help Seonghye find his rightful place, so why was this happening?

Between Seonghye’s strange behavior at the farm today and the unfamiliar look in his eyes, Yunhwan felt as though he had stumbled upon something he was never meant to know.

When the sound of the rain outside finally began to dampen, footsteps echoed down the quiet hallway.

“Yunhwan-san, are you okay?”

It was Junseong, who had just come out of the ward after checking on the sleeping Seonghye. The hospital had regained its silence, but to Junseong, Yunhwan looked like a wreck. Between the blood on his clothes and hands and his trembling pupils, it was clear Yunhwan was still trapped in the trauma of the moment.

Seeing the blood-stained T-shirt, Junseong grabbed some wet wipes from a desk drawer.

“Use these for now. Oh, wait a moment.”

He disappeared into the consultation room and returned with a cup of warm tea.

“Seonghye is fine. He just fell asleep, and fortunately, we didn’t find any other abnormalities in his body.”

Feeling the warmth of the cup and hearing that Seonghye was safe, Yunhwan finally let out a breath of relief.

“…I thought something terrible had happened because he suddenly coughed up blood.”

“Seonghye vomiting blood is mostly a physical reaction caused by extreme anxiety and sensitivity triggered by you, Yunhwan. As I told you before, that’s why I warned you to maintain your distance.”

Yunhwan bit his lip at the calm explanation and lowered his head.

“Of course, I don’t think you would have broken that rule… I suspect Seonghye was the problem.”

“…….”

“I know it’s hard, but can you explain what happened?” Junseong asked gently.

Junseong knelt down to match Yunhwan’s eye level. Seeing the genuine concern in the doctor’s eyes, Yunhwan hesitated before speaking.

“…Today, I went with him to help a close neighbor.”

“A neighbor?”

“Yes, a younger brother who lives in the village. He said he was short-handed and asked for help.”

“Did you go alone, Yunhwan?”

Yunhwan shook his head quickly. “No. I went with Seonghye. It sounds like an excuse, but he insisted on coming.”

Junseong nodded, listening intently. Yunhwan swallowed hard and began to explain everything—what happened at the farm, what Seonghye had said, and what he had witnessed in the bedroom.

“Seonghye… he’ll be okay, right?” Yunhwan looked at Junseong, opening and closing his stiff, nervous hands.

“So, he was more sensitive to you than usual, and a seizure occurred even though you were right there…”

“I… I think… maybe he was just under a lot of stress in that moment…”

Junseong nodded at the cautious guess. “Well, that’s part of it, but…”

He trailed off and looked at the calendar on the wall.

“Since Seonghye’s Rut is coming up soon, it seems like multiple factors collided at once.”

“…Rut?”

At the mention of the word, an instinctive sense of repulsion clouded Yunhwan’s eyes. He froze, his face hardening at the mention of a word he never thought would concern him.

He wasn’t so ignorant of that world that he didn’t know what an Alpha’s Rut implied.