Chapter 95: The Kiss That Answered Everything

“Then they didn’t tell you to get divorced, right?”

“How did you know?”

Go Ha-jin found Chae Woo-seok oddly amusing.

‘No, maybe even a little cute.’

His voice had been deliberately low and serious when he asked the question, but his face had betrayed him completely. The corners of his mouth kept twitching upward. He looked nothing like someone discussing divorce.

Well, considering Woo-seok’s personality, it wouldn’t have been surprising if he had smiled while asking for a divorce.

“I don’t know. Call it mind-reading? So what did they say?”

In an instant, Woo-seok’s mood soured.

Was it really that difficult a question? Couldn’t he just answer it?

The warmth that had been lingering in his chest cooled all at once. It annoyed him how Ha-jin had casually steered the conversation somewhere else.

“They told me to divorce you.”

“Oh, stop joking.”

Ha-jin let out a small laugh and didn’t even pretend to take the words seriously. He dismissed them outright as nonsense.

But as Woo-seok continued staring at him silently, his expression sharp and unreadable, the smile gradually disappeared from Ha-jin’s face.

“…Y-you’re serious? They really told you to divorce me? No, why? How?”

Ah.

So this was the answer to the question Woo-seok had asked earlier.

Ha-jin shot upright in bed.

His face was filled with confusion.

That reaction was answer enough.

He looked exactly like someone who absolutely did not want a divorce.

Woo-seok finally felt a little better.

If Ha-jin had answered like that from the beginning, he would have told him the rest of the story much sooner.

“Sit down first. I’m not finished.”

He took Ha-jin’s hand and gently pulled him back onto the bed. In the meantime, Ha-jin had somehow managed to spiral into the worst possible scenario, and he looked on the verge of tears.

“It wasn’t exactly unexpected. The only reason my father left you alone after learning your identity was because of the pregnancy.”

“…I know, but… how can they tell us to divorce the moment I miscarried?”

The pregnancy had been fabricated to survive.

They had believed it would become the strongest shield in the worst possible situation, and it had worked.

So once that shield disappeared, getting hit by everything that followed had always been a possibility.

Still, Ha-jin had thought the chances of this happening were less than half.

There was too much for the family to lose.

“People already know, don’t they? If we get divorced now, their image will get even worse.”

News of Ha-jin’s pregnancy had already spread among people close to the family.

Lee Ah-seong had practically bragged about it to everyone.

If news of the miscarriage and the divorce came out together, what would people think?

That SHS had abandoned their omega son-in-law after he lost the baby.

That they had no compassion whatsoever.

The carefully polished image of the company would collapse.

“Yeah. I said the same thing.”

Woo-seok watched Ha-jin absentmindedly trace circles across his palm with a fingertip.

His hand kept drifting there because the sensation was strangely pleasant.

People said petting an animal’s paw pads was addictive.

Maybe this was the same thing.

“But my father said they could just pin everything on you. They also said they couldn’t admit they got scammed because it would be too embarrassing? What kind of chaebol gets conned?”

Ha-jin grabbed Woo-seok’s hand tightly.

His voice was almost desperate.

For a fleeting moment, he regretted letting Woo-seok face them alone.

Woo-seok always became strangely passive around his fathers.

Had he failed to say everything he wanted to say again?

“I did. I told them admitting they’d been scammed would be even more humiliating.”

If he had gone that far, then Woo-seok had done everything he could.

Even if Ha-jin had been there, he wouldn’t have been able to say much more.

In fact, hearing it from Woo-seok, rather than the direct target of the accusation, might have sounded more objective.

“And then?”

“My father still insisted on divorce.”

“…Still?”

“At first.”

“At first?”

Woo-seok lazily drew another line across Ha-jin’s palm with his index finger.

The warmth of his skin was comforting.

“Chairman Il-joo suggested we wait and see.”

So Chae Il-joo and Lee Ah-seong had not been on the same side after all.

Ha-jin let out a long breath.

“Seriously… you should have started with that! You scared me to death.”

“But…”

Woo-seok frowned slightly.

“There’s something that bothers me.”

“What?”

“You know better than anyone how protective my father is of our family. He wouldn’t normally accept you this easily.”

As he remembered his father’s expression during their conversation, the feeling of unease returned.

Something was wrong.

He couldn’t explain it.

He simply had the strong impression that Chae Il-joo was hiding something.

“That’s still good news, isn’t it?”

The thoughts that had begun to spiral scattered when Ha-jin squeezed his fingers tightly.

Ha-jin was smiling brightly again.

Like a child.

There wasn’t a trace of darkness on his face.

He looked so openly relieved that it should have been ridiculous.

Instead, Woo-seok found it impossible to dislike him.

“They also said something else.”

“What?”

“That since you’d gotten pregnant once, you could probably get pregnant again soon. They said even dominant omegas sometimes have trouble conceiving if they’re not compatible with their alpha.”

“…Ah.”

There it was.

Exactly the reaction he had expected.

Ha-jin unconsciously wet his lips with his tongue.

His grip on Woo-seok’s hand tightened.

To be fair, they weren’t entirely wrong.

Lee Ah-seong had been trying to convince himself.

He needed a reason to accept Ha-jin.

He had wanted that grandchild desperately.

Desperately enough to faint after hearing about the miscarriage.

He needed to believe another pregnancy was possible.

“So I guess we’ll have to work a little harder.”

“W-work harder? Wait-wait a second!”

Without warning, Woo-seok lunged forward and pulled Ha-jin into his arms before toppling them both onto the bed.

He wrapped both arms tightly around him.

The warmth filling his embrace was overwhelming.

It made him realize, all over again, that Ha-jin was alive.

That he had protected him.

That he hadn’t lost this warmth.

“I’m sorry.”

“…For what now?”

The sudden seriousness in his voice made Ha-jin stop struggling.

“For dragging you into this marriage. For making you go through all of that because of me.”

When Woo-seok had been searching desperately for Ha-jin, he had blamed himself relentlessly.

For everything.

For the decision that had started it all.

No matter how much he had resented the situation, he should never have forced a marriage on someone who didn’t want it.

The fear of losing Ha-jin because of his own selfish choice had made it difficult even to breathe.

He had hated himself with exactly that intensity.

“Ah…”

Only then did Ha-jin understand what all those repeated apologies had really meant.

He had assumed Woo-seok was apologizing for arriving late.

For leaving him alone.

He had never imagined his thoughts had gone this far.

“That’s ridiculous. If we’re going to blame someone, then my parents should apologize for giving birth to me in the first place.”

“That’s a huge stretch.”

For a second, he considered teasing him.

‘Then learn your lesson and treat me better. Or, Took you long enough to figure that out.’

But Woo-seok’s expression was too earnest.

Ha-jin couldn’t joke about it.

He had always been weak against people who showed him genuine vulnerability.

He knew how to fight back against people who hurt him.

He never knew what to do when someone entrusted him with their softer side.

“…”

“I’m really okay. Thanks to you, I’m alive.”

Even after those words, Woo-seok remained silent.

Ha-jin awkwardly wrapped his arms around him and gently patted his back.

It was clumsy.

Almost childlike.

But it was the only comfort he could think of.

For a long time, Woo-seok said nothing.

“Are you really okay?”

He loosened his embrace slightly and propped himself up on one elbow, looking down at Ha-jin.

Their faces were close.

Too close.

Their chests were pressed together.

His entire face barely fit within Ha-jin’s field of vision.

It felt as if his heart was beating inside both of their bodies.

Whenever Ha-jin’s heartbeat accelerated, Woo-seok’s seemed to answer it.

The rhythm grew louder.

Faster.

What should he say?

Once he became aware of that frantic pounding, his already unreliable brain went completely blank.

So instead of searching for the perfect words, he chose something simpler.

He lifted his head slightly and pressed a gentle kiss to Woo-seok’s lips.

He wanted him to know that he was okay.

No, more than that.

He wanted him to know what he had realized because of that nightmare.

The feeling that had overwhelmed him when the man who had existed only in desperate hope had actually appeared.

The man who had turned absolute despair into hope simply by arriving.

He hoped that feeling would reach him.

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