Chapter 65: The Scent of an Alpha

I switched on my phone, which had been off for a week. As the screen lit up, calls from my family, along with missed calls and messages from Jae-hyun, instantly flooded in.

I exhaled deeply, then began sifting through the messages. I swiftly deleted unnecessary advertisements without even glancing at them, keeping only what was important.

To my mother’s message, filled with worry and an invitation to return home anytime, I replied that I was fine and she shouldn’t worry.

To Yoo Hae-jung’s message, which informed me that my mother’s worries had grown daily since I left, I simply replied, ‘Understood.’

Jae-hyun’s last message was brimming with questions, so I postponed replying. I was simply too exhausted to answer them all right now.

After checking the messages, I turned off my phone without waiting for replies. I gazed at my reflection in the now-dark screen, then let my hand drop weakly.

‘I’m sleepy again.’

My body had started to feel heavy and sluggish ever since my hospital visit a few days ago. The doctor had said it was a natural lethargy in early pregnancy, but today, it felt worse than usual.

I hadn’t stayed up late last night, yet I didn’t wake until almost noon. I politely declined the ladies’ offer to prepare a Korean meal, instead filling my stomach with a simple salad.

‘It’s not morning sickness, though.’

I wasn’t sure if a lack of appetite was part of morning sickness, but my food intake had certainly decreased significantly these past few days.

I knew I needed to eat for the baby, but even finishing the salad before me felt like an insurmountable task.

After painstakingly emptying the bowl, I had originally planned to take a stroll in the garden to aid digestion.

However, the sun was too intense, so I wandered around the living room instead of the garden, eventually sinking onto the sofa. Before long, I couldn’t resist lying down completely.

‘Should I just sleep a little more?’

My gaze naturally drifted towards the staircase leading to the second floor. After a brief internal debate, I quietly rose and ascended the stairs, as if no one were watching.

As I was about to enter my own bedroom, which was the first one I saw, a pleasant scent wafted past my nose. I paused with my hand on the doorknob, turning my head to locate the source of the fragrance.

‘That’s…’

Following the scent, I found myself before Han Jung-woo’s bedroom. The alluring fragrance, I realized, was likely his pheromones.

Indeed, ever since our trip to the villa, I had been deliberately avoiding Han Jung-woo. He, in turn, aware of my avoidance, hadn’t made any effort to seek me out.

Thus, despite living in the same house, we hadn’t seen each other for over three days. It was only possible because the house was so spacious.

‘I need to rest quickly.’

Contrary to my thoughts, my body began to move in the opposite direction. The strength drained from the hand gripping the doorknob, and my body turned fully towards Han Jung-woo’s room.

Once I took that first step, the rest was effortless. Before I knew it, I was standing conspicuously inside his vacant room, its owner absent.

The doctor had explained that omegas, during pregnancy, require an alpha’s pheromones more intensely than before. Yet, I had been confident I could manage without them.

‘Get a grip.’

It had only been a few days; we lived in the same house, merely avoiding eye contact. Still, the moment I caught his pheromones, I lost control and walked into his empty room.

Sighing deeply in self-reproach, I turned towards the open door. I tried to rationalize it, telling myself it was just fatigue, intending to leave, when a thought suddenly struck me.

‘He won’t be back for ages.’

It had just passed two o’clock, meaning Han Jung-woo still had over five hours before he would return home from work.

In that case, staying here for a very short while to replenish the pheromones I’d been lacking for days didn’t seem like a bad plan.

After all, a bedroom was a space that didn’t need to be meticulously tidied for others, so it was undoubtedly saturated with dense pheromones.

‘Just for a moment will be fine.’

I fully closed the slightly ajar door, then turned and walked towards the neatly made bed. I perched myself on its edge.

As I inhaled deeply, the familiar scent filled my lungs. It was definitely a fragrance I had encountered before, but my memory was hazy.

‘Where have I smelled that before?’

As usual, I couldn’t find the answer. If it still didn’t come to me after this much effort, perhaps it wasn’t such an important memory after all. I decided to think of it that way.

‘It’s not enough.’

I had expected it, but merely breathing wouldn’t be sufficient. The amount of pheromones diffused in the air wasn’t particularly strong, which only intensified my craving.

‘I can just tidy up and leave.’

After a brief moment of contemplation, I fully climbed onto the bed and embraced the pillow that Han Jung-woo must have slept on.

Burying my face in it, I inhaled deeply, and a rush of pheromones, incomparably richer than before, filled me.

‘This is better.’

This alone began to infuse my languid body with a subtle vitality. To think it was all due to a lack of an alpha’s pheromones; being an omega was truly strange and inconvenient.

If I had stuck to my original plan, left Han Jung-woo, and endured this period alone, my lethargy would have surely intensified. Would my mind have been more at peace, though? I no longer knew.

“What would have been better, Kkamjjak-ah?”

I placed a hand on my flat stomach and asked, but there was no reply from the baby. Or perhaps, was it ignoring me because it didn’t like the nickname ‘Kkamjjak’?

‘This is all Han Jung-woo’s fault.’

He had scoffed at the nickname I thought was perfect, which had left me with so much to ponder. But having already grown accustomed to ‘Kkamjjak,’ I decided to stick with it.

‘Anyway, Han Jung-woo won’t ever be calling the baby by its nickname.’

Han Jung-woo had wanted to schedule an appointment and accompany me to the obstetrician once things settled down, but I had refused all his offers.

Such places were for guardians to attend together. Not for two strangers like Han Jung-woo and me.

Of course, there was a child between us, born of a mistake, but we weren’t married, and we had even made a pact that I would leave after the birth.

I only wished Han Jung-woo wouldn’t forget that fact.

Lost in deep thought, I eventually drifted off to sleep. My flickering vision briefly blacked out, and I only realized I had fallen asleep when I opened my eyes again.

“Gasp!”

Startled, I shot upright and quickly scanned the room. The sun had set in the interim, plunging the surroundings into darkness, but contrary to my fears, I was still alone in the spacious room.

‘Thank goodness. He doesn’t seem to be back yet.’

Relieved, I clutched my chest, then stumbled out of bed, not yet fully awake. Next, I straightened the crumpled duvet and returned the pillow I had been hugging to its original spot.

Just as I had almost restored everything to its initial state and was about to turn, *click*, the doorknob turned. Then, a gap slowly opened, and light from beyond poured into the dark room.

“…”

“…”

Facing each other, we both fell silent for a moment. I, because I had been caught sneaking into an empty room, and Han Jung-woo, startled to find me brazenly in his room while he was away.

“What are you doing in here?”

It was Han Jung-woo who broke the long silence. Seeing his suspicious gaze fixed on me, standing awkwardly beside the bed, I frantically racked my brain for a plausible excuse.

“Th-that… I came into the wrong room.”

Among the countless excuses that came to mind, I chose the most innocuous one, but unfortunately, my fluster caused me to stammer.

Meanwhile, he felt along the wall, switched on the light, and stepped into the room. Having just returned from work, he was still in a perfect suit, only his constricting tie loosened.

I almost lost myself staring at his face, which perfectly carried off even slicked-back hair without a single strand out of place, but I quickly regained my composure and focused on the open door. That was my only exit.

“I’ll be going to rest now.”

Carefully sidestepping him as he approached, I quickly walked towards the wide-open door. Fortunately, the room wasn’t particularly large, so I reached the exit swiftly.

I only needed to step out, but a hand shot out from behind me, slamming the exit completely shut. *Bang!* My heart *thumped!* in my chest. The trembling from the shock lingered for quite some time.

“To say you came into the wrong room, haven’t you been here quite a while?”

He asked, having approached silently and now blocking my path from behind. Then, he bent down deeply, buried his nose in the nape of my neck, and with a smirk, he drew up the corner of his lips, as if to say, ‘See?’

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