Chapter 14: The First Sting of Heartbreak and a Button-Fly Predicament

Jia scooped a generous spoonful of bibimbap, her gaze lingering on Do-ha’s drastically shortened bangs. He usually favored an ‘as-perm’ style, his hair always artfully obscuring his eyes.

“So, that jerk didn’t say a single word?”

“He didn’t give me time to speak. He just said what he had to say and left.”

Declaring that a commotion was just a commotion, and a gloomy mood could only be banished by food, Jia urged him on. Do-ha picked up one of the boneless chicken feet placed before him.

“But did you really say everything you wanted to?”

It was an unusual combination: bibimbap piled high with fried eggs, scavenged from the fridge, paired with spicy delivery chicken feet and beer. Yet, neither Jia nor Do-ha had any complaints.

“No. Ugh, how spicy did you make this?”

Though Do-ha typically enjoyed spicy food, the moment it hit his tongue, his mouth felt as if it had caught fire. He mumbled a complaint, his brows furrowed in discomfort.

“Four stars. Five is even too much for me. *Hiss*. What couldn’t you say?”

Following Do-ha’s lead, Jia took a bite of chicken foot. She gasped, quickly grabbing the beer beside her and chugging it down.

“I couldn’t curse him out. That infuriating bastard who plays mind games with people.”

“Right, right. Your *noona* will listen to everything, so drink up, drink up.”

As Do-ha devoured the chicken feet with a fierce intensity, occasionally chewing on rice balls and sipping cider, Jia watched him with a bittersweet expression.

At twenty-four, one might be considered young, yet also old enough to understand the world. However, Do-ha was quite different from most people his age.

He hailed from a long line of doctors, boasting an Alpha father who was the director of a prominent hospital—one of the top few in the nation—and an Omega mother overflowing with love.

His eldest Alpha brother, who had become a doctor to continue the family legacy, now roamed the world, performing medical volunteer work. His second Alpha brother was steadily progressing through his medical studies.

In stark contrast to his eldest brother, who was eleven years his senior, and his second brother, four years older, Do-ha was born a small Omega boy, weighing only 2.6 kilograms. From the moment he entered the world, he was showered with unconditional love.

Unlike his brothers, Seo Min-wook and Seo Jin-wook, Do-ha’s name, Seo Do-ha, did not follow the family’s traditional naming convention. It was a name born from a mistake: an obstetrician had misidentified him as a girl during a prenatal check-up.

Had his gender been revealed sooner, his name might have changed. However, even after realizing Do-ha was a boy at birth, the name had already been chosen, and so it remained.

From the very moment of his birth, Do-ha, who had brought such delightful confusion, was prone to frequent illnesses and shed many tears.

Consequently, he was raised with doting affection, constantly shielded from fear of catching a cold in the wind or getting hurt if he fell. His parents’ mantra was, “No need for studies or anything else. Just grow up healthy.” As a result, Do-ha had never experienced emotional hardship or pain.

He was a young man shaped by a somewhat misguided, excessive love: his parents paid for his university education despite his poor academic performance, and they leveraged their connections to secure an internship when he expressed a desire for a professional career.

“Are you hurting?”

Jia’s blunt question, observing Do-ha’s slowing pace of eating, seemed to ignite something within him. His hand, which had been hesitantly reaching for another chicken foot, froze.

“It’s normal to hurt, right?”

“Whether you broke up with them or they broke up with you, if your feelings haven’t completely cooled, then of course it hurts. You’ll be okay once the pain matches the depth of your affection.”

Do-ha’s head was bowed so low that his eyes were hidden, and his shoulders trembled almost imperceptibly.

“What if it keeps hurting?”

Perhaps it was because this was Do-ha’s first true heartache, having lived a life unburdened by worry or doubt. It must have been incredibly difficult for him to control his emotions, especially after experiencing love for the first time.

He might have been overwhelmed by feelings that grew unexpectedly day by day, or perhaps every insignificant action and casual word from the other person now pierced his heart.

“Cry. You’re allowed to cry as much as you need to. Whenever, wherever, if tears come, let them fall. Just don’t you dare cry in front of that bastard. That’s your last shred of dignity.”

Noticing the gray tracksuit pants Do-ha was wearing darken in spots, Jia gently removed the plastic gloves from his hands.

“Ugh, what a pathetic mess. Having your first heartbreak so melodramatically at twenty-four? Kids these days get over that in elementary school. Hey, go to your room and just sleep. Eating and sleeping are the best cures.”

To lighten the suddenly heavy atmosphere, Jia stood up to clear away their meal, nudging Do-ha with her foot.

****

“Oh, Do-ha. You look so handsome today.”

With no way to salvage his burnt bangs, Jia had hastily slicked his hair back with pomade that morning. Immediately upon arriving at work, it drew everyone’s attention.

Every observant female colleague offered a comment whenever their paths crossed, making him wish he could just hide in a corner for the entire day.

After eating and crying excessively before falling asleep last night, his eyes were swollen like a goldfish’s, and his face resembled a puffy steamed bun. The absence of his bangs, which usually provided a slight, comforting veil over his vision, had stripped away what little confidence he had left.

Jia’s voice, urging him to take sick leave or anything to just rest at home that morning, still echoed in his ears. Do-ha rubbed his face roughly with one hand as he headed to the pantry.

The silver lining was that Tae-jun had been preoccupied with meetings and executive conferences all morning due to a contract issue from the previous day.

Relieved that their paths wouldn’t cross, Do-ha found himself brewing a cup of brewed coffee, a drink he rarely enjoyed.

Still feeling dazed and engulfed by melancholy, he didn’t want to make any mistakes at work. As Jia had advised the previous day, he wanted to perform even better, projecting an image that declared, ‘Someone like you has no effect on me.’

“Do-ha, the item on that desk isn’t quite the right size. Could you cut it to specification, either with scissors or a utility knife?”

The moment Do-ha emerged with his warm brewed coffee, sweetened with a touch of syrup, he was given a task. He managed a faint smile, knowing that at least while he had work to do, he could focus without other thoughts intruding.

Holding a 30cm ruler and a utility knife, Do-ha took a deep breath. Amusingly, his childhood fear of knives began to creep up on him.

He had never actually been injured by a knife, yet he refused to even touch plastic toy versions.

He found it absurd to recall that he had once fainted in late elementary school after watching a movie scene where characters fought with long blades.

Humans are creatures of adaptation, it seemed. Despite his intense aversion to knives, the only ones Do-ha could tolerate holding and using himself were basic utility knives and small paring knives. Consequently, he had never learned to cook, making fried eggs and ramen his culinary masterpieces.

When he was alone, he couldn’t eat fruits that required peeling with a knife. So, if asked about his favorite fruit, Do-ha would always say tangerines, even though pineapples were his true preference.

As a child, merely seeing someone hold a knife to cook would send him into a fit of panic and tears, making the kitchen a forbidden zone for him. Even now, the sight of someone holding a knife still evoked a strong sense of unease.

Do-ha adjusted the utility knife blade to a usable length, his grip tightening. His hands moved with an unprecedented carefulness as he cut the material to the desired size.

*CRASH!*

Until a loud noise erupted.

“Do-ha, are you alright?”

It wasn’t until someone called his name and shook his shoulder that Do-ha realized he had been holding his breath, and finally exhaled.

“Go to the infirmary right away. Oh no.”

The loud crash had been caused by files scattered on the communal table, which had become entangled and then tumbled to the floor. Startled by the sound, Do-ha’s hand had slipped, resulting in the accident.

While a nearby colleague frantically tied a handkerchief around his hand, Do-ha stared blankly at the crimson blood splattered across the table.

In the moonlit darkness, obscured by clouds, a dark mass tangled and fell. Amidst them, a single figure stood, swaying precariously.

“Stop!”

He cried out in anxious haste, but the blade, drawing a long line as it rose, and something unbelievable splattering everywhere, and the deep, metallic scent of blood permeated his lungs.

The person who had just stood in the center now fell, lifeless. He felt the rough gasps of others and the cold wind brushing his face, carrying the faint scent of plum blossoms.

Do-ha slowly blinked. Despite the momentary illusion of darkness and the vivid sensations that had overwhelmed his senses, this was, in fact, an office.

“Do-ha, would you prefer to go to the hospital instead of the infirmary?”

He slowly turned his head, meeting the worried gaze of his department head, who was seated some distance away.

“Huh, it seems he’s more hurt than I thought. Assistant Manager Choi, please take Do-ha to the hospital. If the injury is serious, send him straight home.”

Do-ha wanted to say, “I’m truly fine,” and he blinked, attempting to speak. Yet, despite his lips parting, no sound readily emerged.

Ultimately, Do-ha headed to the infirmary instead of the hospital.

“The cut isn’t deep, so it doesn’t seem like you’ll need stitches. However, it’s a long cut, which is why there’s a lot of blood. Try your best to keep it dry, and don’t forget to disinfect it.”

Do-ha sat on a chair in the infirmary, gazing down at his left hand, which was wrapped heavily in white bandages.

“But this is…”

His second, third, and fourth fingers on his left hand had all been bandaged together, leaving only his thumb and pinky free.

“Oh, come on. You got hurt at work. Just say you’re a bit injured and take it easy. Besides, wrapping each finger individually would be a bit much, wouldn’t it?”

‘Excuse me, infirmary staff, but isn’t this a bit excessive?’

What remained were his fingers, clumped and bound together.

As he was right-handed, injuring his left hand was inconvenient, but it didn’t significantly disrupt his daily life.

He found it awkward to ask them to unwrap and re-bandage his hand after they had just finished, so Do-ha bowed politely and left the infirmary.

He wasn’t sure if what he had just witnessed was a hallucination or something else entirely.

It wasn’t a dream, yet how could it have felt so incredibly vivid? In the darkness, illuminated only by moonlight, the substance splattered everywhere must have been blood.

The scent of blood had been so potent. In that recent vision, he hadn’t been the one getting stabbed, but rather an observer.

As he recalled the memory, a wave of discomfort, accompanied by a sharp pain in his chest, washed over him. Do-ha frowned as he exited the infirmary.

A considerable amount of blood must have flowed, leaving behind stains on his sleeve and a blood-stained handkerchief he’d hastily borrowed, whose owner he didn’t even know. A bitter taste lingered.

“Are you sure you don’t need to go to the emergency room?”

As he stepped into the office, a chorus of worried gazes immediately fixed on him, as if everyone had been waiting. Do-ha confidently raised his left hand.

“They said it was just a long cut that bled a lot, and I just need to be careful not to get it wet. Thank you all for your concern, and I apologize for causing trouble.”

Embarrassed, Do-ha bowed his head deeply in apology. He then promised the assistant manager who had lent him the handkerchief that he would return it laundered, before settling into his seat.

He had smiled and assured his department head, who had been excessively worried and even suggested he leave early, that he was fine. However, just an hour later, Do-ha was banging his head against the bathroom wall, regretting deeply that he hadn’t taken the offer.

“If you’re really this stupid, you should just die. Damn it, Seo Do-ha, you idiot…”

Already five minutes into his involuntary self-imprisonment in the bathroom, Do-ha tried moving his left hand a few more times.

That morning, when he’d put on these jeans for work, he had absolutely no inkling that such a predicament awaited him.

Although it was a large corporation, it wasn’t a company with a strict dress code. The problem was that a certain degree of comfortable attire was permitted.

Moreover, as an intern, Do-ha frequently wore jeans with a jacket. He never imagined that the button-fly jeans he wore today would lead to such a crisis.

His injured finger was one thing, but he had mindlessly come to the restroom to urinate. After somehow managing to relieve himself, Do-ha was now faced with the impossible task of buttoning up his jeans.