Chapter 30: The Unforeseen Diagnosis

Instead of a simple visit to a local internal medicine clinic, Yeon-chae had, of all places, brought him to a general hospital. It was located about thirty minutes away from campus by car.

Yoonwoo stared up at the sprawling complex before him, his expression utterly bewildered. He gaped, speechless.

“Why did you bring me here?”

Yeon-chae replied with a serious face.

“Since we’re at a hospital, we should get a proper check-up and diagnosis. What if it’s something serious?”

“It’s not serious…”

He protested weakly, his voice devoid of energy. Yet Yeon-chae offered no reply, simply waiting patiently for Yoonwoo to exit the car.

Strictly speaking, this was Yoonwoo’s own fault for succumbing to sleep in that brief interim.

Yoonwoo clicked his tongue, blaming himself.

He had intended to simply get some headache medication prescribed at a suitable internal medicine clinic near the school. For a proper diagnosis, he needed to visit an obstetrics and gynecology clinic, not an internal medicine one.

However, he couldn’t possibly go to an OB/GYN with Yeon-chae, of all people. He hadn’t even decided whether to tell Yeon-chae, so being exposed like this was out of the question.

Yoonwoo desperately wanted to buy himself some time. But now, they had arrived at a general hospital.

The chill of early spring had initially frozen his body, but the warm seat and gentle heater breeze slowly melted it away. That was how Yeon-chae had managed to drive him here while he was asleep.

He had slept so deeply that his headache was completely gone, and his entire body felt not just light, but refreshed. ‘Or perhaps it was thanks to contact with the Alpha, the baby’s father?’

Yoonwoo pondered this seriously.

Misinterpreting Yoonwoo’s furrowed brow and contemplative expression, Yeon-chae’s own face grew serious.

“Sunbae. Can’t you move? Should I carry you?”

“What? No! I can get out!”

Yeon-chae, who had stubbornly brought Yoonwoo all the way to this general hospital, seemed perfectly capable of carrying him inside right then and there. He had absolutely no desire to be carried on Yeon-chae’s back and wheeled into a consultation room like a critical patient.

Yoonwoo recoiled, hastily exiting the car.

They had only just arrived at the hospital parking lot, yet a wave of exhaustion already washed over him. ‘What if they really make me undergo every single test?’

Layers of worry piled up in his chest.

Fortunately, Yeon-chae did not follow him into the consultation room. He had attempted to enter, but was stopped by a nurse with sharp eyes.

“Are you the guardian?”

“Yes.”

…

When the nurse asked if he was the guardian and Yeon-chae replied ‘Yes,’ Yoonwoo missed his chance to deny it. Yeon-chae’s confident demeanor made Yoonwoo wonder if the nurse had somehow heard him internally referring to Yeon-chae as ‘the baby’s father.’

However, Yeon-chae crumbled helplessly under the nurse’s second question.

“Are you the spouse?”

It was obvious at a glance that Yeon-chae, who looked barely twenty, could not possibly be Yoonwoo’s spouse. Yeon-chae’s expression turned awkward.

“No.”

“Then, are you their sibling?”

“Yes.”

“A biological sibling?”

“…No.”

Yoonwoo had the distinct impression that the broad shoulders before him sagged slightly. Yeon-chae’s plump lower lip trembled slightly before he hesitantly uttered a brief reply.

“They’re my junior… A close one.”

The nurse replied in a stern voice.

“Then please wait outside the consultation room.”

…

He felt sorry for the dejected Yeon-chae, but was relieved to have the consultation alone. If the doctor suggested an X-ray, he would be forced to reveal his pregnancy.

He couldn’t be dragged to the X-ray room without having made any decisions yet. With a somewhat relieved expression, Yoonwoo offered Yeon-chae some comfort.

“Just wait here for a bit. I’ll be out soon, really.”

Still, Yeon-chae had brought him all this way, and seeing his downcast face made Yoonwoo feel unnecessarily guilty. As Yoonwoo soothingly placed a hand on his shoulder, Yeon-chae reluctantly nodded.

He seemed to agree obediently, saying ‘Yes,’ but then, with a worried expression, he added a few words of caution.

“Take all the recommended tests. Don’t refuse them just because you think they’re unnecessary.”

“I’ll do them all. Of course, I will. Why wouldn’t I?”

“You’re just going to skip them to save money, aren’t you?”

“Huh? No, I’m not. I’ll do everything.”

Yoonwoo, caught off guard, vehemently denied it. However, Yeon-chae’s eyes were filled with suspicion.

Having been intertwined for various reasons over the past year, Yeon-chae understood Yoonwoo more keenly than expected. Yeon-chae gazed down at Yoonwoo for a moment before furrowing his brow.

“You really must do everything. Sometimes, what you dismiss as nothing turns out to be a serious illness. Suddenly getting dizzy like you did earlier isn’t a common occurrence.”

“Hey, ‘dizzy’? I was just a little lightheaded.”

“Anyway.”

“Alright, alright. My turn’s going to pass if we keep talking…”

Yoonwoo finally managed to pry Yeon-chae away and entered the consultation room, taking a seat. He kept glancing at the closed door, wondering if it was soundproof, and if their conversation might be audible in the waiting room outside.

His anxiety made it impossible to concentrate on the doctor’s questions. After Yoonwoo gave vague answers to a few questions, the doctor stated, “It seems like a bad cold,” and prescribed painkillers and fever reducers.

“I’ll prescribe three days’ worth. If you still don’t feel well after that, please come back.”

“Yes…”

As he held the prescription, he found himself conflicted. It was because he felt compelled to ask a proper question, now that he was already at the hospital.

Yoonwoo hesitated for a moment, then cautiously spoke.

“Um, Doctor. I have something I’d like to ask.”

“Yes, go ahead.”

When it came time to actually speak, he didn’t know how to phrase it, so he paused for a long time. Yoonwoo fidgeted with his fingers for a while before finally posing the question that had been persistent in his mind.

“Can a Beta, um, get pregnant? A male Beta, I mean. I’ve heard there are occasional cases…”

‘It still might not be pregnancy, right?’ Yoonwoo desperately hoped for a definitive ‘impossible’ as he looked at the doctor.

“Excuse me?”

The doctor seemed quite surprised by the unexpected question. Indeed, it wasn’t the kind of topic one would typically bring up at an internal medicine clinic, let alone an OB/GYN.

Feeling awkward, Yoonwoo nervously rolled his eyes. The doctor quickly regained his composure. His voice was calm as he smiled and replied.

“While there are occasional cases, the probability is extremely low. You can consider it almost non-existent.”

“Is that so…?”

“Furthermore, even if pregnancy occurs, the mortality rate is high. In most cases, either the fetus or the pregnant individual is at risk.”

…

It was exactly as he had read online. However, hearing the direct explanation from the doctor had a different impact than when he’d heard it from Seowoo or read it on the internet.

Yoonwoo, who was in a situation where he was very likely to have ‘won’ that slim probability, felt his cheeks turn deathly pale. He genuinely did not want to die giving birth at the tender age of twenty-three, without even having told the baby’s father about the pregnancy.

A scream erupted inside him. ‘I didn’t make this baby alone, so why am I the only one in danger?!’

Seeing Yoonwoo turn ashen, the doctor tilted his head. He seemed to find the sudden question and Yoonwoo’s reaction unusual.

He observed Yoonwoo quietly for a moment before cautiously asking.

“Your designation is Beta, but did you perhaps come here due to a possibility of pregnancy?”

“Well, for a while now, I’ve been feeling sick whenever I smell food. At first, I thought it was just indigestion, but then I kept getting headaches and dizziness.”

Yoonwoo recounted his symptoms, recalling the past few days. After a slight hesitation, he quietly added.

“And I also used a test kit, and it kept showing two lines…”

“Hmm, I see.”

The doctor mused for a moment, then asked a few more questions. They were rather puzzling questions.

“When did you have your designation test?”

“My designation test? Well, I had it a few times when I was young, and the last time was when I entered university, I think… when I was twenty.”

“Were you consistently diagnosed as Beta then?”

“Yes, I was always a Beta.”

“Have you had any serious illnesses since turning twenty?”

“No, I’m quite healthy, I don’t even catch colds easily… Oh, wait.”

Since he rarely got sick, the memory of being gravely ill a few months ago stood out. It had been a simple flu, but staying bedridden for a week was something he hadn’t done since childhood.

Yoonwoo nodded, recalling around last Christmas.

“I was a bit sick last year-end. For about a week?”

The doctor’s expression grew a little more serious. His gaze was sharp as he inquired about the nature and location of the illness.

Yoonwoo, flustered, began to falteringly describe the situation at the time. He talked about having a high fever for several days and feeling so nauseous he couldn’t eat properly. Finally, the doctor asked.

“Why did you feel nauseous? Was it due to strong food smells?”

“Ah, yes. Food smells at the time, and other smells too…”

His voice trailed off, then abruptly stopped. Yoonwoo raised his head, his face blank.

The doctor pushed up his glasses and cleared his throat with a ‘hmm.’ They seemed to have arrived at the same conclusion simultaneously.

The color slowly drained from Yoonwoo’s face.

“That can’t be. I’m definitely a Beta…”

“It says you’re twenty-three, so you’d be twenty-one in international age, correct?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“Then it’s highly likely you weren’t a Beta, but rather an unpresented individual. That severe illness you had at the end of the year was probably…”

“Oh, no. It wasn’t as severe as a presentation. And aren’t presentations supposed to finish in your teens? My brother and siblings all presented in their mid to late teens.”

“Are your siblings dominant?”

“Huh? Oh, yes. All three of them are dominant.”

“In cases of recessive individuals, presentation can be delayed. If your illness at the end of the year was a presentation, it would have been relatively mild because you are recessive. Recessive Omegas have almost no pheromones and don’t strongly sense the scents of other presented individuals, so there isn’t much difference from a Beta. However, if they become pregnant, they become sensitive to pheromones.”

“Uh…”

Yoonwoo gaped, his face utterly blank. He had no idea what to say.

The doctor stared at Yoonwoo for a moment, then snapped the chart shut with a decisive sound.

“However, I’m not a specialist in designations or obstetrics and gynecology, and you haven’t been tested yet, so don’t worry too much. I’ll write you a referral, and you can get pregnancy and designation tests done at an OB/GYN.”

“Yes, yes…”

“Over-the-counter test kits are not accurate for male Betas. If you haven’t presented, there’s a high probability it’s not a pregnancy.”

“Really? They’re not accurate?”

Unexpected hope surged within him. Yoonwoo, who had been resigned to being pregnant because over ten pregnancy tests had consistently shown two lines, now asked with a rapidly brightening face.

At this, the doctor offered an awkward smile.

“Well, in cases where a male Beta takes a pregnancy test and it shows two lines…”

The end of his voice, which had been so calm throughout his explanation, trembled slightly.

“It could be a hormonal disorder, or… testicular cancer.”