Chapter 61: An Unexpected Reunion

Unexpectedly, Yeon-chae smiled faintly and nodded. A calm voice flowed effortlessly from his well-formed lips.

“Yes, I decided to greet Yoonwoo’s parents first, and then visit them.”

‘Oh, really?’ Yoonwoo, who had heard nothing of the sort, felt a wave of relief wash over his awkward face. As if sensing his slight tremor, Yeon-chae turned to Yoonwoo and beamed. Yoonwoo’s tension melted away with that sweet, almost dissolving smile. It seemed there would be no need to reenact a scene from the dramatic soap opera Seowoo had endured.

Seowoo’s primary concern seemed to be Yeon-chae’s parents. After Yeon-chae’s easy answer, the tension in the air quickly dissipated. Seowoo’s gaze, which had been fixed on Yoonwoo, also softened considerably.

“I’m worried because Yoonwoo’s omega traits are weak, making his condition unstable. Make sure to take good care of him so that nothing like last time happens again.”

“Yes, I’ll be careful. I apologize for what happened last time.”

“You don’t need to apologize to me… As long as you two have made up, that’s what matters.”

Unaware that Yoonwoo had collapsed because he had unilaterally avoided Yeon-chae for two weeks, Seowoo continued, making assumptions. Yeon-chae merely smiled innocently and nodded, feigning ignorance.

However, there was one more truth Seowoo remained oblivious to.

The baby was conceived from a one-night mistake, and Yoonwoo and Yeon-chae were not the kind of couple who engaged in minor quarrels and reconciliations like ordinary lovers.

The sole reason for their impending marriage was the baby. They would never become a loving couple, bound by a strong affection like Sihyung and Seowoo. They were merely roommates, committed to sharing a future where they would raise a child who carried half of each of their genes. That was the extent of Yoonwoo and Yeon-chae’s marriage. Nothing more.

Yoonwoo forcibly suppressed the discomfort seeping into his heart. Regardless, he had made his decision. Now, only the responsibility of that decision remained.

As he considered this, a new wave of worries followed, one after another. Yoonwoo’s face fell once more.

“What am I going to tell Mom?”

“You haven’t told her yet?”

“No…”

He had initially intended to deal with Seowoo first, as that was the immediate concern, and then gradually figure out the rest. However, once Seowoo’s situation was resolved, the thought of telling his parents filled him with dread.

Seowoo, however, merely shrugged, his expression nonchalant as if it were nothing significant.

“It’ll be fine. Mom’s a sucker for a pretty face, you know.”

His tone was laced with certainty. Beside him, Sihyung nodded in agreement.

A few days later, Yoonwoo traveled to Tongyeong with Yeon-chae. For hours, as the bus rumbled along, his heart hammered wildly in his chest. Yeon-chae, sitting beside him, gently took Yoonwoo’s trembling hand.

Upon arriving, Yoonwoo first entered the house alone. Only after kneeling, enduring a scolding that included a few smacks on his back, and pleading with clasped hands could he finally appease his mother’s fury. He had begged for so long that his palms were red and warm.

The moment his mother’s permission came—a grudging “Since things have come to this, bring that Alpha fellow over sometime”—he texted Yeon-chae. Yeon-chae, who had been waiting outside the main gate with his arms full of gift bundles, promptly entered, surprising Yoonwoo’s parents. While both parents seemed to have already noticed Yeon-chae waiting outside, his father appeared stunned by the sheer size of the bundles in Yeon-chae’s hands, and his mother, by Yeon-chae’s face.

What followed was exactly as Seowoo had predicted.

His mother bustled about, preparing dinner. Soon, the four of them were seated around a table laden with galbi-jjim and japchae. An impromptu dinner commenced.

“Oh, my children certainly know how to pick a good face, don’t they?” his mother remarked, almost as if introducing herself.

Yoonwoo, diligently tearing at a piece of galbi-jjim that Yeon-chae had placed on his plate, bone and all, swallowed the words, ‘It’s because they take after Mom,’ along with the meat. Yeon-chae, who had been listening quietly, offered a shy, gentle smile.

During his overnight stay at his childhood home, several arrangements were ironed out. The most pressing issue was the twins’ living situation, as they still had about a semester left until high school graduation. Yoonwoo thought they could postpone the wedding until after his siblings graduated, but his parents vehemently opposed it, concluding that the ceremony should take place during the summer vacation. It seemed Yeon-chae, with his gentle smiles and constant presence beside his mother, had been subtly pulling strings. After Yoonwoo moved into Yeon-chae’s officetel, his parents decided to sell their Tongyeong home and move to Seoul.

“Finally, we’ll get to live with our twins again.”

His mother clapped her hands, her face beaming with delight.

Wedding preparations proceeded at an astonishing pace. First, a date for the formal family meeting was set.

“This is ridiculous. A family meeting, already?”

Standing before a traditional Korean restaurant he had never once visited, Yoonwoo stared blankly at its entrance. Through the transparent glass doors, waitstaff in hanbok quietly went about their duties.

“Why is everything happening so fast?”

“It’s good to get married quickly. We can go on our honeymoon sooner.”

“Hey, is a honeymoon really the issue right now?”

“Where would you like to go?”

“I want a private pool villa resort.”

Yeon-chae’s question about the location of such a villa was drowned out as Yoonwoo’s family members began to arrive. There were seven of them in total: Yoonwoo’s parents, Seowoo and his husband, their baby in a stroller, and Yoonwoo’s twin siblings. This formal family meeting was a first for Yoonwoo’s family as well, and everyone wore expressions of wonder.

The manager guided them to a private room. Informing them that Yeon-chae’s family had not yet arrived, the manager directed them to sit along one side of the table. Yeon-chae’s “family” consisted only of his mother. On their side, including Yoonwoo, eight people sat in a row, while on the opposite side, it would be just Yeon-chae and his mother.

“Do we really have to sit in a single line like this?”

Yoonwoo asked his mother, his face etched with discomfort. His mother, seemingly flustered, trailed off, “Well, it’s my first time at a family meeting, so…”

Suddenly, Sihyung’s expression turned guilty. This was because Sihyung’s family had strongly opposed his marriage to Seowoo, resulting in his parents not even attending the wedding, let alone a formal meeting. Just as his mother, realizing her belated blunder, spoke kindly to Sihyung, the sliding door opened, and a slender figure stepped inside. It was Yeon-chae’s mother.

“Hello, I apologize for being late.”

“Welcome. Not at all, it’s still quite early.”

Her voice was elegant and gentle. It sounded kind, even. Yoonwoo lifted his head, his face tense. A tall, slender middle-aged woman smiled beside Yeon-chae. She looked impossibly young for a woman with a college-aged son. Perhaps it was her refined features and radiant aura, so strikingly similar to Yeon-chae’s. Yoonwoo felt a strange sense of déjà vu, as if he had known her for a long time.

However, it seemed Yoonwoo wasn’t the only one experiencing this peculiar sensation.

After exchanging greetings, both mothers kept tilting their heads in bewilderment. After several glances passed between them, Yeon-chae’s mother, who had been hesitating, finally spoke.

“By any chance, did you used to live in D-dong?”

“What? Yes! I was just about to ask you the same thing. It was a long time ago, but… did you happen to live in W Apartments?”

“Oh my goodness, that’s right! Now that you mention it…”

His mother’s eyes, wide with surprise, landed on Yeon-chae. Yeon-chae, who had been sitting quietly, smiled faintly when their eyes met. It was a rather suspicious smile.

“Are you, by any chance, Yeon-i?”

With his mother’s exclaimed question, the small room instantly erupted into a commotion. Seowoo’s eyes widened as he looked between Yeon-chae and his mother.

“Yeon-i? That little Yeon-i who lived next door?”

Yeon-chae’s mother answered Seowoo’s flustered question.

“Yes, this is Yeon-i. And are you Seowoo, by any chance? I didn’t catch your name when you greeted us earlier.”

“Oh! Yes, I’m Seowoo! Are you the auntie from next door?”

“My goodness, you’ve grown so much!”

Only Sihyung, who hadn’t quite grasped the situation, and the baby nestled in his arms, blinked and looked around at the suddenly excited adults.

Faced with this unexpected turn of events, the formal family meeting lost its original purpose and transformed into a social gathering after approximately thirteen years. Beginning with lamentations about their young sons who had caused trouble, the two mothers found they had many common topics of conversation. Yeon-chae, perhaps hungry, simply focused on his meal without interjecting.

When Yoonwoo was around nine years old, his father’s business went bankrupt, forcing his family to hastily sell their apartment and move. The situation had been so urgent and chaotic that they didn’t even have time to say goodbye to their next-door neighbors, with whom they had been close for over two years. Afterward, his parents’ contact information changed multiple times, completely severing communication with the mother and son next door.

“So, you’re *that* Yoonwoo. I briefly thought of the Yoonwoo from next door because of the name, but I never imagined it would actually be you,” Yeon-chae’s mother added, looking at Yoonwoo with wonder.

“It must be fate. You two were always together as children, how did you end up dating?”

“Indeed. It seems it was meant to be.”

The two mothers, who had parted ways so unfortunately thirteen years prior, were busy catching up. Yeon-chae’s mother, in particular, was delighted by Yoonwoo’s parents’ plan to move to Seoul permanently.

Yoonwoo thought back to the little neighbor boy, whom he occasionally still remembered. That child, ‘Yeon-i,’ who lived in the apartment next door, where two front doors faced each other on a staircase landing, was five-year-old Yeon-chae. It was an incredibly wondrous coincidence.

The boy next door had followed Yoonwoo around every day, almost to the point of being a nuisance. Memories of his childhood, when he had to take tennis lessons for a whole year because the boy cried and pleaded, flashed before his eyes. Last year, Yeon-chae had shadowed him during every free moment, begging to go to the tennis courts, now overlapping with the image of that little neighbor boy. Looking back, now that he knew Yeon-chae was that child, he wondered how he hadn’t realized it sooner, given their many similarities.