Reasonable Loss - 43

Eunsu asked again.

“Medicine. You could call it hormones, or an aphrodisiac.”

At that, Eunsu froze mid-button.

“Here. See the line graph? That’s your pheromone levels from every checkup at the clinic so far.”

The doctor turned the computer monitor toward Eunsu. He finished buttoning and sat beside her. It was a steady line graph. Just faint ripples, no big changes. Then the doctor slid the graph aside.

“And this is today’s.”

“….”

The graph shot straight up like a rocket. As dramatic as a stock jumping sixty percent in a day. Eunsu lost his words at the bizarre graph for a moment. Then he stammered.

“Heat, heat cycle came, so of course the pheromone levels go up, right?”

“The human body doesn’t change this drastically, this fast. You know from experience with heat cycles, but usually you feel changes three or four days before. Pheromone levels rise bit by bit from then. Enough for the alpha you’re with to notice.”

“Yes, that’s right.”

Eunsu nodded. Just as she said, usually three or four days before, his muscles started tingling. He’d take three suppressants a day normally, but then at least five, up to eight.

The old Dokwon had buried his nose in Eunsu’s nape and asked if heat was coming soon.

“So a spike like this can only be drugs.”

“Drugs…. you say….”

“Do you remember how you took it? Injection, inhaler, pill, powder maybe.”

“Uh…. I, I don’t know. I don’t remember anything like that….”

Eunsu rolled his eyes in confusion. Drugs. He had no memory at all. Had that man drugged him. But when he entered the restaurant room, Eunsu was already in heat, rolling on the floor. When exactly.

His head throbbed and his stomach churned. He felt like an idiot for not noticing even if he’d been dosed.

Seeing Eunsu’s troubled face, the doctor added gently.

“These drugs usually have narcotics mixed in. Hallucinations, auditory, tactile—they all hit at once. Memories get jumbled. You won’t recall the before and after clearly, or even who you were with or what you did. Unless you took it yourself, you usually don’t know when or how.”

“Ah….”

Eunsu rubbed his dry face roughly. Then he winced briefly as his belly hurt, then relaxed.

“So my body’s hurting because of the drugs?”

“It’s pheromone shock.”

“Pheromone…. shock? There’s something like that? Is it a disease?”

“Yes. Like acute alcohol poisoning or acute drug overdose.”

“….”

Pheromone shock. Eunsu mouthed the unfamiliar term silently. He didn’t know what it was, but lined up with alcohol and drug poisoning, its severity hit home.

“If it was just the drugs, the levels would be sky-high, but your heat cycle was…. two days away? Combined with that, that’s why it’s this high.”

The doctor said as she flipped through Eunsu’s records.

“Ah….”

Eunsu sighed with a dumb look. Too much information at once; his head wouldn’t turn. The words “pheromone shock” buzzed in his mind like a mosquito.

“We’ll give you an injection for now, but it won’t have a big effect. It’s not a level that drops all at once.”

“Yes….”

“First, we need to bring down the high pheromone levels.”

“Yes….”

“Continuous contact with an alpha is key. But no deep pheromone sharing like s3x—just holding hands or hugging.”

“Ah…. Yes.”

“Pheromone shock strains the body. You have to keep processing pheromones, so calorie burn is huge, and you’re in high tension. That cuts nutrients to the fetus. The body prioritizes surviving, so the fetus gets pushed aside.”

“Pushed…. aside….”

“Then the body might treat the fetus like another pathogen to eliminate.”

“Ah…. I, I see….”

Eunsu nodded weakly. He should listen carefully to the doctor. But the words wouldn’t go in his ears.

The sudden events still didn’t feel real. It seemed like someone else’s story, like something from TV, like the usual Kim or Park case on the news.

As Eunsu sat there dazed, unable to focus, the doctor tapped her pen on the desk. Eunsu jerked his head up.

“Does the father’s side know?”

The doctor asked.

“Not…. yet….”

Eunsu mumbled in a dying voice. The doctor gazed at him steadily. Under that gaze, Eunsu’s head kept drooping lower.

Then the doctor pressed her lips tight, then released.

“Well…. That’s not something I can tell you to do this or that.”

Eunsu let out a heavy sigh. To have regular contact with an alpha’s pheromones—Dokwon’s pheromones—he’d have to tell him the truth. How should he do it. His chest already felt stuffy.

At Eunsu’s darkening face by the minute, the doctor hummed in her throat. Then she suddenly stood and poured warm water from the coffee pot. She set it down in front of Eunsu.

“One thing I can tell you: it’s not your fault, Mr. Yoo.”

“…Pardon?”

“These days…. It’s not just bank accounts or phone numbers that get leaked. Some alphas track omegas by hacking clinic records for heat cycles.”

“….”

“You seem to have run into one of those. You need to report it and get a proper investigation.”

“….”

“The fault is his, not yours.”

At those words, Eunsu nearly let tears stream down. But crying at thirty seemed pathetic, so he held it back.

“Eat well. If your body’s off, come straight to the clinic.”

“Yes.”

Eunsu forced a smile. His belly felt a bit less painful.

* * *

As soon as Eunsu returned to the company, he threw himself into work frantically. He’d been away suddenly that morning, so there was more than one or two things to handle. He had to test runs with the app development team, rearrange awkward motions, icons that were too subtle or too flashy.

Before he knew it, quitting time neared without lunch. His body ached, his sprained wrist throbbed, his belly pulled, nausea churned from morning sickness—it was utter hell.

But soon he’d see Dokwon, and being held in his arms and eating anything would make it better. He endured thinking only of that.

And as he sent the last email, quitting time hit. Eunsu shot up like he’d been waiting and greeted the team.

“I’ll head out first. See you tomorrow.”

Taking half a day off and leaving first was sure to get him flak. But the team lead dipping out early wasn’t all bad for the team, so Eunsu decided to think of it that way.

Eunsu headed straight to the executive floor. He saw Secretary Jeong. Eunsu greeted him warmly.

“Secretary Jeong.”

“Uh…. Team Lead Yoo?”

Secretary Jeong looked surprised to spot him. After blinking a few times, he frowned slightly.

“Team Lead Yoo, aren’t you with the executive director?”

“Me? No. Why? Something happen?”

Eunsu asked as he switched his jacket to the other arm.

“Uh…. That’s not good. The executive director’s unreachable.”

“…Pardon?”

At the completely unexpected words, Eunsu’s jaw dropped. Secretary Jeong showed his phone with the battery flashing red and sighed.

“From yesterday till now, no contact. Calls, messages—nothing. I assumed you were with him….”

“With…. me?”

“Yes. Your heat cycle…. wasn’t far off, right. Usually around then, he’s out of touch for two days, so I thought….”

At the awkward topic, Secretary Jeong cleared his throat. Red crept into Eunsu’s cheeks.

“Ah…. No. I came up because I can’t reach him either…. Uh, did he collapse somewhere? Another headache?”

“No idea. Since you’re not with him…. Should we report to the police? Missing, kidnapping? But reporting a company exec missing—the press won’t stay quiet. They’ll spin all kinds of rumors.”

“Ah….”