* * *
Feigning calm, Seunghyun sat in the consultation room, staring straight at the doctor seated across from him.
Han Kangwoo’s visit had already been declined.
Climbing the mountain called “Rejecting Han Kangwoo” was a success, but the bigger problem remained.
If he wanted to get his original body back, he needed to get out of this hospital.
Seunghyun looked the doctor in the eye and repeated clearly:
“Please discharge me.”
“No.”
“But the new pheromone suppressants are working fine. More than anything, it’s suffocating in here. I want to leave.”
The doctor removed his glasses and rubbed his face in frustration as Seunghyun kept repeating the same request like a broken record.
He sat quietly, waiting for permission.
“Mr. Joo Seunghyun.”
Finally, the doctor raised his head, took a deep breath, and shouted:
“You’re a patient! A patient! You’re even classified by the government as a severe case! Just a few days ago, you were doing better, and then you suddenly run off—what’s gotten into you? If your body were fine just from one suppressant working, you’d have been discharged already!”
Seunghyun tried to cut in, but the doctor was too fired up.
His temples throbbed with bulging veins.
“You seem to have forgotten, so let me remind you. People like you who manifested as Omegas late in life—barely any make it past thirty. And most of them only survive because they bond with an Alpha and suppress their pheromones that way! How many times have I told you this? You have to always be prepared.”
Unlike Alphas, whose bodies grew stronger through transformation, late-manifesting Omegas often couldn’t handle the hormonal chaos that came with it.
If pheromones activated in a fully developed body, the hormonal imbalance could wreck it.
He had once thought it might have been better if he’d been born an Omega rather than an Alpha, but after seeing everything Joo Seunghyun went through, that thought felt absurd.
Still, since Seunghyun already knew how to regulate his pheromones, many steps could be skipped from now on—like injections or complicated pheromone dialysis.
Seunghyun lowered his eyes and tried to look as pitiful as possible.
“It’s just that… I feel trapped here. And if I’m going to die anyway, like you said, I’d rather be somewhere comfortable when it happens.”
“…Sigh.”
“Please?”
The doctor let out another long sigh.
“I’m sorry for raising my voice, but please don’t say things like that. Even if the chances are slim, as long as there’s a possibility, you must not give up.”
“Yes. I haven’t given up. It’s just—”
“Anyway, the pheromone regulation has stabilized, so your physical condition has improved significantly. It’s rare to see something like this. It’s very good news.”
The doctor added, tapping the chart he was holding.
“We’ll have to monitor a bit more, but if your condition keeps improving like this, we can remove the injector.”
Seunghyun reached up and gently touched the thin tube inserted between his shoulder and neck.
The area around his nape, where the pheromone gland was located, had been uncomfortably covered with medical tape.
It must’ve been an emergency injector used when things were critical.
The doctor pointed to the brightly glowing monitor screen.
“Your inflammation levels are almost back to normal. And here—see? The fluid in your lungs has nearly cleared up. How’s your breathing?”
“It’s okay.”
“Good. At this rate, we can move you to the general ward soon. Any other questions?”
“Ah, then when do you think I can be discharged…?”
“……”
The doctor paused for a moment, then burst out in another loud shout.
“I said no!”
‘…….’
Seunghyun lowered his gaze to his phone.
One of the things he learned while searching up videos of Joo Seunghyun was that music shows these days don’t just upload a single edited performance.
They also upload ‘fancam’ videos focusing on each individual member.
After getting scolded by the doctor, Seunghyun had returned to his room and was reading a letter when a strange feeling came over him.
It was just a small piece of paper, barely palm-sized, and yet—
Why had Joo Seunghyun yearned for love so desperately?
The letter was filled with tightly packed writing, as if trying to press every ounce of emotion into it—so much so that Seunghyun couldn’t even begin to guess the full weight of those feelings.
‘Can I dare to love someone like you… a 24-year-old idol? Just the thought of wanting to see someone made my day feel so alive. I didn’t even know that was possible.’
‘I hope that because we shared the same moment, my happiness can also become yours. At first, I was drawn to your shine, but now… I love you—not your shine, but you.’
What had he been thinking when he wrote this?
Seunghyun had no idea.
These emotions were completely foreign to him—impossible to understand.
“……”
The Joo Seunghyun he knew was only the version he’d seen through his own eyes—frantically trying to prove himself, terrified of losing his fans.
Seunghyun knew nothing of what went on in his heart.
But it seemed the fans saw a different side.
Eventually, breaking the doctor’s warning not to go online, Seunghyun searched for Joo Seunghyun on WeTube.
The thumbnails alone drew his attention.
The views on the videos were staggering.
The fancam playing vertically on his phone screen showed Joo Seunghyun dancing on stage with dazzling clarity.
“Haa…”
On stage, Joo Seunghyun shone brilliantly.
Below the video, the flood of fan comments seemed endless.
▶ WeTube
South Korea is surrounded by three seas, right? The East Sea, West Sea, South Sea… and I love Seunghyun sea 😭💘
Reading the fans’ messages for Joo Seunghyun made Seunghyun’s face flush even more.
Even if he tried to think of it as someone else, the truth was, it was now his face.
All those wild, affectionate comments were now technically directed at him.
There were endless crying emojis, heartfelt comments in broken Korean clearly run through translation apps, and—
What embarrassed him most were the domestic fans’ comments—written with such dedication and creativity that he thought even a newborn baby deer wouldn’t get praised this much.
…It must just be the stage videos.
Even Seunghyun, a fellow man, had to admit that Joo Seunghyun looked incredible on stage.
Trying to ignore the deluge of cringe, he clicked on a different video—this one a fan edit compiling clips from various content.
“What is this now…”
And this time, Seunghyun was truly left speechless.
Because the moment he opened the comments, even more outlandish fan posts came flooding in.
▶ WeTube
– Since my baby fox is in Korea, everyone please pick up at least 3 pieces of trash off the street 😭
– Is it okay for a baby video to smell like men’s cologne? Mom?
The phone slipped out of his hand with a soft thud.
‘Absolutely not. I can’t do this.’
For a brief moment, he’d thought about following in Joo Seunghyun’s footsteps and becoming an idol, thinking it might fulfill a final wish of the deceased.
But that idea had completely crumbled.
He couldn’t even bring himself to pick the phone back up.
Eyes shut tightly, he sat there, overwhelmed.
Joo Seunghyun really was an incredibly good-looking man—but still, calling a grown adult man things like “baby fox” or “gakgi” (baby + cutie hybrid nickname)? That was crossing a line.
‘Isn’t that just way too much for a grown man?’
He rubbed his forehead with the back of his hand, trying to calm the growing wave of secondhand embarrassment.
‘Creak.’
A slow sound of the door opening reached his ears.
A chill ran down his spine.
* * *
