Reasonable Loss - 2

Their gazes met in the air. At the same time, the dark shadow of the dump truck covered the windshield. Dokwon unbuckled his seatbelt. And he embraced Eunsu with his whole body.

Boom!

A tremendous roar echoed. The car body shook violently, and their bodies jerked back sharply. The seatbelt pressing on shoulders and chest felt painfully like a saw blade.

Even in that moment, Eunsu felt the warmth of Dokwon’s body wrapping around him. He also felt his scent, with pheromones surging greatly. And after a few seconds, a very hot liquid wet his face.

Eunsu stared blankly at the dark red in front of his eyes. Nothing was visible. His whole body hurt as if it was breaking into small pieces, and it was so scary he couldn’t breathe.

Eunsu slowly closed his eyes.

I hadn’t given him any answer yet.

Yes.

I like it.

I was going to say that.

But it seemed I couldn’t for a while.

* * *

Eunsu slowly opened his eyes. Everything in front was hazy white. It was all so blurry that he couldn’t tell if he had woken up or was still in a dream.

His throat felt clogged. It was rough like he had swallowed a lot of bean powder, but the taste was disinfectant. His body felt heavy as lead. It felt like he had slept not just seven or eight hours, but for three whole days straight. It was also strangely familiar.

Eunsu kept blinking. To clear his foggy mind.

After a few minutes like that, Eunsu could finally make out objects. White ceiling, turned-off fluorescent light, IV bag hanging on a metal pole. Nothing looked familiar. Still, he instinctively knew this was a hospital.

Eunsu, who had only rolled his eyes around, now turned his head. To the left, then to the right. Just moving his neck brought a stiff pain. But he stubbornly checked the surroundings.

Just. It felt like he had to.

The hospital room was spacious. But no other patients were visible. Seeing things like a sofa hard to find in hospitals, a marble table, and a lamp giving off a soft light, it was probably a high-end room.

As he looked at that, Eunsu turned his gaze to the window. More precisely, to the other bed right next to him, under the window. There,

“….Dokwon?”

Dokwon was lying there.

Eunsu stared blankly at Dokwon. It wasn’t the first or second time seeing him sleep. After the first year of dating, days sleeping together outnumbered those not.

But seeing him lying like that was a first. Eyes tightly closed, lips even more tightly shut, posture without a twitch. Dokwon didn’t sleep much. He always went to bed later than me and woke up earlier.

But why was he on a ventilator. What was the bandage wrapped around his head. What were the machines hanging all over for.

Then, the last memory flashed back.

‘Eunsu. Shall we get married?’

Dokwon’s proposal. And the charging dump truck. The twisted car.

‘Eunsu.’

‘Dokwon.’

The brief eye contact, unbuckling his seatbelt, and the warmth of him wrapping around with his whole body.

Recalling everything, Eunsu took a deep breath. And another. The fear and pain from then poured in like a storm.

Eunsu’s body started to tremble. He felt suffocated as if his airway was tangled. It felt like cold water flowed in his veins instead of bl00d, and as his spine chilled, cold sweat dripped down.

At Eunsu’s seizure, the machine beeped in alarm. After a few minutes, several footsteps approached, and the door burst open. Among the doctors in white coats was a familiar face.

“Oh my, Eunsu! Baby!”

It was Dokwon’s mother.

Eunsu got a sedative and slept through the whole day. Only after that could he barely come to his senses. As soon as Eunsu opened his eyes, he asked about the baby’s condition. Fortunately, the baby was safe. There was impact, but no signs of miscarriage.

Eunsu let out a sigh of relief. But that didn’t last even a few minutes. Because Dokwon’s condition was serious.

Eunsu’s physical state wasn’t bad. Of course, compared to a normal person, he was a patient, but for an accident of that scale, getting away with bruises, fractures, and a mild concussion was really great luck. Thanks to that, no surgery was needed, and the baby could stay safe too.

The problem was Dokwon.

Dokwon had a serious head injury. Internal bleeding, right arm broken, left calf broken, and even ribs fractured, so recovery would take a long time.

The surgery went well, and as a sturdy alpha, his life wasn’t in danger, but they couldn’t be sure when he would wake up.

“….Dokwon.”

Eunsu, sitting on a simple chair, carefully held Dokwon’s hand. His chest ached at the hand full of small wounds. Eunsu pressed his lips firmly to that hand and let go. At the faint pheromone scent unlike usual, his eyes stung.

It was drunk driving.

The dump truck driver who hit Eunsu and Dokwon had been heavily drinking during the day. The driver of the car in front of them died on the spot. The car was so crushed that they had trouble recovering the body.

The driver crushed Eunsu and Dokwon’s car in a secondary collision, then hit a utility pole in the third lane, bounced out of the car from the impact, broke his neck, and died instantly.

Because of that, Eunsu lost the person to resent, the person to curse at. All that was left was his poor lover, full of wounds, in a coma, not knowing when he would wake.

Eunsu roughly wiped the tears that had welled up with the back of his hand. As he moped like that for a while, a footstep approached.

“Baby. Eat first.”

It was Myunghee, Dokwon’s mother. She pointed to the food filling the table.

Myunghee and I had met several times for various reasons since the early days of dating Dokwon, so we were quite close. She had been very happy to learn that Dokwon, who had no interest in women or omegas, had an omega.

After that, she treated me very well, and after hearing about the pregnancy, she nagged Dokwon so much that she said she would take me in and care for me completely.

“….I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking.”

Eunsu slowly shook his head. Then Myunghee gently stroked Eunsu’s shoulder.

“The baby in your belly must be hungry. You have to eat something.”

“Ah….”

Eunsu let out a dumb exclamation. I kept forgetting. That I wasn’t alone anymore. It had been less than a month, so it was understandable.

Regretfully letting go of Dokwon’s hand, Eunsu sat at the table. The table was piled with all sorts of delicacies. From salmon salad to braised short ribs, mackerel seaweed soup, and three-way porridge with various side dishes.

Eunsu opened his eyes wide and looked at Myunghee.

“Did you make this, Mother?”

“No. I bought it.”

At her nonchalant words, Eunsu laughed quietly. For some reason, Dokwon’s voice overlapped in his ears.

“Thank you. I’ll eat well.”

“Yeah. Dig in.”

Eunsu moved his spoon slowly but steadily. His palate felt rough, but as Myunghee said, he had to eat for the baby.

Myunghee put various side dishes on top of Eunsu’s spoon.

“If you want something, tell me right away. Okay?”

“Yes.”

Eunsu nodded with a smile as thin as if it would crumble.

Too much had changed since meeting Dokwon. Of course, having a kind, devoted, capable lover, but also having an ‘adult’ who thought of me like this.

Long ago. Eunsu had graduated high school and attended a design university in Europe. My parents were both capable, so I could do whatever I wanted. Until the house caught fire and they suddenly passed away.

After that, it took a long time to pull myself together and regain daily life. Somehow I graduated university and got a job, but loneliness was unavoidable.

Then I met Dokwon. Him, who always poured overflowing love. And his family, who loved me just as much. Eunsu’s barren life became full again.

And now I had gotten used to that fullness. And this happened.

If I thought it might go back to before, if I thought Dokwon might disappear, everything went dark.

As Eunsu blankly stirred the porridge, Myunghee clicked her tongue as if pitying him.

“Don’t worry too much, baby. Dokwon is excessively healthy. He’ll wake up soon.”

“….Yes. I hope so.”

Eunsu smiled with his eyes folded. And he forced the now-cold porridge into his mouth.

* * *

A week passed. Dokwon, true to being a dominant alpha born with all the good traits, showed tremendous recovery day by day. But his eyes, only his eyes didn’t open. Even though I could see the wounds healing moment by moment. As such, Eunsu’s complexion got worse and worse.

His body was fine, but he couldn’t regain consciousness. It was definitely strange. Something unexpected by the doctors must have happened.

Eunsu, who was discharged on the fourth day of hospitalization, took leave from work. And he came to see Dokwon every day.