Reasonable Loss - 4

After calming his tense mind for a long while, Eunsu entered the hospital room. As expected, it was full of doctors. Kiho and Myunghee stood in between them. Dokwon was hidden by the crowd. Glimpses of his hand or waist appeared occasionally.

Feeling like an unwelcome intruder for no reason, Eunsu approached them cautiously. The first to notice Eunsu was Myunghee.

“Oh, baby! Come here!”

She waved her hands busily. Eunsu smiled widely and approached the bed as if he had been waiting. And finally, he could face Dokwon.

Dokwon had really opened his eyes. His characteristic sharp eyes and lips pressed into a straight line were truly him. He was a bit pale, but it was the Dokwon that Eunsu knew.

Eunsu bit his lower lip hard. Tears welled up pathetically. He had believed he would wake up, but it seemed the “what if” worry had been big. Seeing how relieved he felt now.

Eunsu was so happy that he could not express it all in words. Without adding any exaggeration, it seemed like the greatest joy since he was born. He had been really, really happy when Dokwon’s baby formed in his belly. But this was an even greater ecstasy.

“Dokwon-ssi……”

Eunsu stood in front of Dokwon with eyes full of tears. Dokwon looked at such an Eunsu quietly. Their meeting gazes were touching.

Unable to hold back the surging emotions, Eunsu threw himself into Dokwon’s arms. He thought that he was still a patient, but he could not control it.

Eunsu inhaled Dokwon’s scent deeply. The pheromones emanating vigorously, unlike when he was asleep, were welcome. The worries and deep-seated fatigue accumulated over that time evaporated in an instant.

It was when Eunsu opened his mouth to say that he missed him, that the baby was safe, and thank you for waking up. His body was suddenly pushed back. Pushed so forcefully. His body staggered. If Kiho had not grabbed him from behind, he might have rolled on the floor.

Eunsu, startled, opened his eyes wide, and

“Omega?”

Dokwon asked, wrinkling his nose as if he had smelled a foul odor.

The hospital room fell into a brief silence. Eunsu blinked his eyes quickly. He had not expected his first words to him to be “Omega?” so he was a bit flustered. It also contributed to the fluster that he had never once called him an omega.

“O, omega…… Yes.”

Eunsu affirmed in a dazed voice. He had not expected to introduce himself out of nowhere. But since he asked like that, he had no choice but to answer like this.

“……”

Dokwon stared at Eunsu blankly. It was like the gaze of looking at a monkey at the zoo, or like looking at trash rotting tangled indiscriminately. Anyway, it was not affectionate or tender.

“Why is an omega here?”

Dokwon asked in a voice overflowing with irritation.

“……Pardon?”

Eunsu asked back as if he had misheard. Why is an omega here. Did he mean me by omega? No, since he said it while looking at me, it was definitely to me. But he could not believe it.

The expression, nuance, and tone all seemed like he hoped I would disappear from here.

Unlike Eunsu, who froze not knowing what to do, Myunghee and Kiho’s faces turned pale blue. It was because it was the appearance of their son they were seeing after a long time. Not waking from a coma after a long time, but they were startled by the son’s appearance they had not seen since two years ago.

“Dokwon-ah. It’s Eunsu.”

Unable to bear it, Kiho properly introduced Eunsu. However, Dokwon’s furrowed brow did not smooth out.

“Eunsu? Is that the name of that omega? Is he a doctor? But why isn’t he wearing a gown, and hasn’t taken suppressants……”

Dokwon clicked his tongue in annoyance. Then, as if he could not endure it anymore, he rubbed his own nose.

“Ah, whatever. Tell him to get out. My head feels like it’s splitting because of the smell.”

With those words, Eunsu could finally realize that something was wrong. Dokwon, who not only called him an omega but even forgot his name. Dokwon, who told him to get out. Dokwon, who always called his scent sweet and delightful, now finding it repulsive.

Eunsu looked at Dokwon with a hollow expression.

Kiho and Myunghee looked at the doctor, and the doctor twisted his mouth and smiled awkwardly.

Everything was a complete mess except for the fact that Dokwon had opened his eyes.

* * *

Two years ago, Eunsu met Dokwon at the company. It had to be that way because Dokwon was a director at “Seongjin Group,” where Eunsu worked. Myunghee was the chairman of Seongjin.

Seongjin Group was one of the companies with a large presence even on Teheran-ro, and Eunsu was the team leader of the UI design team there.

Eunsu liked the work he did, did it well, and was satisfied with the company. The salary was high, and he even liked the company cafeteria, so it was natural. If possible, it was a company he wanted to stay at until retirement.

But from some day, the director started coming and going to the 14th floor, which was the exclusive floor for the design team.

Anyone who works at a company of a certain size would know. The so-called executives, like managing directors, executive directors, and directors, are people you rarely run into. It’s more comfortable not to run into them.

Moreover, Eunsu, despite being a team leader at a young age, did not have much ambition.

He was too satisfied with his current position, and even if he went higher, he had no confidence to endure it. So, whenever some superior came, far from being glad, it was only uncomfortable. For a director he had no acquaintance with, that discomfort doubled and doubled again.

But this tactless director, that is, Dokwon, really came every other day.

At first, he came with his secretaries and just took a big lap around the 14th floor without any particular words and left. Executives visiting other floors occasionally happened, but the design department was not a place they visited often. It might be different for R&D, management support, or marketing departments.

The employees, startled by the unannounced visit, could neither stand nor sit and greeted him in awkward postures. Eunsu had barely lifted his hips when his eyes met Dokwon’s.

It was a coincidence.

Eunsu thought so.

At that time, Eunsu saw Dokwon in person for the first time. Still, as a team leader, he had grasped the faces and basic information of executives. But he really only knew him from documents.

The “document Dokwon” that Eunsu knew was a man with specs that inevitably came with rumors: a dominant alpha, the chairman’s son, handsome appearance.

And as soon as Eunsu saw him in person, he had to let out a short “ah” of admiration.

Because he was really a man just like in the documents. Tall height, broad shoulders, wide back, small face, distinct facial features, and even the aura unique to a dominant alpha that he was hiding with courtesy but could not completely conceal.

Eunsu found himself staring piercingly at Dokwon without realizing. Whether it was because of Dokwon’s tremendous appearance or because he was looking at him as if shooting him, he did not know.

Anyway, he kept looking at him until Dokwon disappeared.

But that was all. The director is really handsome. The rumors were true. No, the rumors were understated. Such an appearance is a waste in the company, and so on. The team members gossiped among themselves, but Eunsu just laughed it off.

It was the first time seeing the director in his fifth year at the company. He might have to wait another five years to see him again. Later, he would remember him as a handsome alpha with a strong halo, but someone with no connection to him, not even as much as a fingernail.

But two days later, Dokwon appeared again. This time, it was not just skimming; he looked around each team thoroughly. He stayed especially long in Eunsu’s team. He was doing all kinds of tension, but he did not particularly probe for anything important.

He just glanced coldly at the team members’ monitors while they were working with his characteristic cold impression and left.

The team members whispered again.

“Why does he keep coming?”

“Right? Thanks to that, my eyes are burning but my heart is freezing, making me want to die a little.”

“Has something gone wrong with the company? Is he planning to disband some teams?”

“No way. This is Seongjin, suddenly? The stock hasn’t fluctuated much yesterday or today?”

“Team leader, have you heard anything?”

Eunsu shook his head. The team members let out various sighs and returned to their seats.

And the next day, Dokwon appeared again. The next day too, and the next week too. When his visits filled up all five fingers, he really wondered if something big had exploded at the company.

Then, on the seventh or eighth visit, he came with a reason that was completely unexpected.

The water purifier in the director’s office was broken. So, he came to drink water. To this place, which was a difference of eight floors, he came to drink water.

It was an excessively strange and bizarre reason. The director’s office has many visitors. Even if the water purifier broke, the refrigerator would be full of high-end bottled water and drinks. Even if the refrigerator was empty, there were more than one or two secretaries serving the director. With one word, he could have swept up all the bottled water from the nearby convenience store.

From then on, the gossip flowed in a different direction.

“Is the director…… a bit lacking somewhere?”

“Probably because he’s the chairman’s son. Maybe he could sit in the director position even though his abilities are lacking?”

“In the world, with that face, to be lacking. This is God not being fair, it’s too much.”

“Right. If you’re going to create him like that anyway, why not set him up perfectly from the start. Why did he do that.”

To those words, Eunsu said something. He probably laughed. And perhaps he thought it might really be so. Like that, the entire design team was adapting, or rather not adapting, to Dokwon’s visits.

Then, on the day Dokwon’s visits exactly filled a month. As soon as Dokwon entered the 14th floor, he strode straight to the UI design team, exactly to Eunsu, the team leader of the UI team. His face was very determined. At a glance, it also looked like an angry face.