Chapter 103: With My Child

In an instant, his consciousness sharpened and sliced through the dark surface of sleep.

Eun-gyeol’s eyes flew open in panic, like someone who had been drowning for a long time.

“Eun-gyeol!”

But the voice that woke him was not Han-geon’s.

A scream-like cry from the manager exploded right in front of his face.

The moment Eun-gyeol met the manager’s worried expression, a clear sense of despair washed over him.

It was the crushing frustration of being somewhere he should never have been.

He should not have been lying here so comfortably like this.

His body should have been sitting on cold stone ground, and what should have been in front of his eyes was that goddamn gate to that bastard’s house.

And yet—

“Eun-gyeol, Cha Eun-gyeol!

You little shit!

What the hell is this?

How did this happen?

Why the hell were you all the way out there doing something like that?!”

The manager, his face pale as ash, grabbed Eun-gyeol’s hand tightly.

His loud voice made Eun-gyeol’s ears ring.

Where is Choi Han-geon?

Eun-gyeol tried to sit bolt upright and ask, but his tightly clogged throat only produced a harsh, metallic sound.

It felt as though someone were stabbing his throat with a knife.

A single dry cough burst out.

As Eun-gyeol groaned lowly with a frown, the manager hurriedly shook his head.

“Don’t talk, Eun-gyeol.

Don’t.

You’ve been lying like this for over three days now.

The attending doctor said you almost didn’t make it.

Seriously… what the hell happened?

And why did you go all the way out there?”

Even as he poured out his worries, the manager bustled around restlessly.

He adjusted the humidifier and checked whether the IV was flowing properly.

Then he brought over a cup of warm water and carefully helped Eun-gyeol sit up.

After Eun-gyeol barely managed to swallow a couple of mouthfuls, he finally forced his mouth open with great effort.

“…Choi Han-geon.”

His horribly cracked voice finally served its purpose.

The manager’s eyes, which had been darting around anxiously, dropped slightly.

“…That… I don’t know.”

Seeing the feral look in Eun-gyeol’s eyes, as if he might tear someone apart, the manager hurriedly added,

“Listen to me for a second.

We suddenly got a call from some unfamiliar place.

You, who never do anything like that, asked to have all your schedules cleared and then went completely off the grid.

I was even thinking of checking your place, when they said they had you with them.

How could I not go?

I freaked out and rushed over.

And then—hell—I almost passed out when I saw you collapsed there.”

The manager frowned thinly as he continued.

“But the guy there looked oddly familiar.

When I thought about it, I remembered seeing him a few times back when the company hired security teams.

I think he was one of those guys.

That’s when I wondered if he might be connected to Han-geon somehow.

So I asked if he was a bodyguard, or if he knew Han-geon, and then—”

He let out a hollow chuckle, looking faintly irritated.

“That man’s temper is something else.

He said it was none of my business and told me to hurry up and take you away.

I don’t know why he was being so hostile, but either way, you came first for me.

I didn’t ask anything else and just brought you back.

That place is technically a tourist area, but luckily the house was out on the outskirts, so there didn’t seem to be any paparazzi or fans hanging around.

I called your doctor right away and brought you back home.”

As the manager rattled on at a rapid pace, his expression grew increasingly grave.

“The first day was really dangerous.

Your fever was insane.

The doctor was shocked after running your bloodwork.

He said you looked like someone who hadn’t eaten or slept properly in a long time.

Like your body just couldn’t take the overwork anymore…”

“…I get it.”

Eun-gyeol cut him off with a frown, his face deathly pale.

As Eun-gyeol tried to shakily push himself up, the manager grabbed his wrist and stopped him.

“Eun-gyeol, what is going on with you lately?

You look like a walking corpse right now!

I swear, you’re burning my insides black with worry.”

There was nothing but concern in his pleading tone.

“Look, Eun-gyeol.

I think I have a rough idea of why you’re like this.

It’s because of Han-geon, right?

Even so, you can’t destroy yourself like this.

I don’t know the details of what happened, but no matter how heartbroken you are, you still have to take care of yourself.

Okay?”

“…My phone.

Give it to me.”

Eun-gyeol’s rough, broken voice cut through the manager’s ongoing words.

“Huh?

Oh.”

The manager naturally held out Eun-gyeol’s phone, but Eun-gyeol shook his head.

“Yours.

Give me your phone.

Now.”

Even with a stunned expression, the manager handed it over without protest.

Snatching the phone as if seizing it, Eun-gyeol scrolled through the call log from a few days ago.

As if just in case, a number had already been saved under the name “Tipster.”

He pressed the call button urgently.

The ringing tone repeated again and again, mocking him.

While waiting for the call to connect, Eun-gyeol clenched his fist until it turned white.

But no matter how long he waited, there was no answer.

Eun-gyeol took his own phone back, transferred the number, and dialed again.

Ignoring the manager’s attempts to stop him, he pressed on.

His composure crumbled rapidly, like a broken hourglass spilling sand.

Just as his thin patience hit its limit, the call finally connected with a click.

“…Hello?”

The wary voice on the other end unmistakably belonged to that bastard.

Eun-gyeol’s heart began to pound violently.

“Where is Choi Han-geon.”

“…What?

Are you Cha Eun-gyeol?”

“Where the f*ck is Choi Han-geon?!”

A beastlike roar boiled up from his throat.

It did not sound like the voice of someone who had been bedridden for days.

The man fell silent in apparent shock, then growled harshly.

“Haah… f*ck.

Hey, will you calm that fucked-up temper of yours already?

You act like that, and he’s suffering his heart out because of it.

He’s not even alone right now—”

The torrent of words stopped abruptly.

A sharp intake of breath cut through the silence.

For a moment, neither the man nor Eun-gyeol could say anything.

Eun-gyeol stood frozen, phone in hand, like a statue.

“…Just now.”

The murmured voice that broke the eternity-long silence was drained white.

“…Just now… what did you say.”

“…I… must’ve… heard that wrong…”

The broken words could not form a proper sentence.

If he had been standing, his legs would have given out and he would have collapsed on the spot.

Eun-gyeol questioned his own ears and his own cognition over and over.

The man on the other end also failed to continue, repeating only sighs and low curses.

“Ha… f*ck, this is insane…”

“…So right now… what you’re saying is…”

The voice that had been yelling so fiercely moments ago now fumbled along, stupid and lost.

He was barely holding himself together, but it felt as though his mind would shatter into pieces at any moment.

From the other side of the line, the man spoke again in a voice heavy with distress.

“…No.

Forget it.

I just lost my temper and misspoke, so you should—”

“Don’t say bullshit, f*ck—answer me properly.

Tell me.”

“……”

“Is Choi Han-geon… pregnant?”

Eun-gyeol’s lips twitched like a fish flung onto dry land.

The word he had just uttered should never have come out of his mouth, not when he knew nothing about the situation.

He almost wished the man would mock him viciously right now.

Tell him he had misunderstood something, that he was talking nonsense.

But the man let out a deep sigh and finally passed down a sentence like an execution order.

“Yeah.

Since it’s come to this, f*ck it, I’ll just say it.

Han-geon is pregnant.

He became an omega because of you, and he got pregnant because of you.”

“…..”

“Don’t ask where he went.

I don’t know either.

So don’t contact us again.

I’m hanging up.”

With those words, the call ended.

The phone slipped from Eun-gyeol’s hand and fell to the floor with a dull thud.

Eun-gyeol froze in place.

Like someone who had forgotten how to speak, how to breathe, how to exist.

Beside him, the manager trembled, his face stricken with horror.

“…Cha Eun-gyeol.

Just now—what I heard—”

“…..”

“…No, right?

I heard wrong, didn’t I?

Ha… Han-geon is pregnant?

What the hell does that even mean…?”

At that moment, a thunderous crash erupted.

The IV stand toppled over, and the humidifier flew into the wall and shattered.

As Eun-gyeol stood up and ripped the needle out of his arm, bright red blood sprayed everywhere.

He screamed in agony like a wounded beast.

“Eun-gyeol!

Cha Eun-gyeol!

Calm down!

You can’t do this the moment you wake up, you idiot!”

The manager’s frantic voice, trying to grab hold of him, shattered before it could even reach his ears.

Only the man’s words replayed endlessly inside Eun-gyeol’s head.

He could hear nothing else.

Not his own despairing screams, not the manager’s pleas.

Furniture and appliances, large and small, were reduced to fragments scattered across the floor.

Every time he flailed his arms like an enraged demon, blood splattered in all directions.

Yet no matter how much he smashed things or screamed, the single, clear truth he had just heard refused to fade in the slightest.

Not even a little.

“Hhk… hhk… huff…”

At last, Eun-gyeol’s frenzied movements came to a halt, his body drenched in blood.

Since when had it been like this?

Realization always came one step too late, like a cruel joke.

Instead of wasting time like this, he should be running out right now to find Choi Han-geon.

Eun-gyeol staggered toward the doorway.

The manager, who had been cowering in a corner to avoid the chaos, gasped and rushed over to grab him.

“Cha Eun-gyeol, where do you think you’re going?

You’re in no condition to be doing this right now!”

“Choi Han-geon…”

The voice that spilled out, wandering and unfocused, had already lost all reason.

“I have to… find Choi Han-geon.”

“Hey!

I get how you feel, but this is really not it!

If you go out like this, you’ll collapse again!

Look at you—your whole body is shaking even now!”

“He’s… right now…”

Bright red blood seeped clearly through his teeth as he bit down on his lower lip.

His trembling gaze drifted aimlessly through the air.

“…He’s pregnant.

With my child.”

Choi Han-geon was pregnant with his child.

And yet, no one knew where he had gone.

The two facts could not coexist.

The thought of Choi Han-geon carrying his child and disappearing to some unknown place made it impossible for Eun-gyeol to breathe.

He painfully raised a hand and clutched his chest.

Even his heavily pounding heart seemed to be cursing and condemning him.

With nowhere else to flee, his gaze wandered miserably around the wrecked room before stopping abruptly on something.

Eun-gyeol’s shaking eyes landed on the box of herbal medicine Han-geon had once given him.