* * *

Compared to Taeshin, who was calmly catching his breath, the older brothers were panting as if they were about to die. Taeshin’s stamina had already been proven.

However, just when it seemed like they would stop, the older brothers were more persistent than expected.

Unable to accept the first day’s results, they called him out for stamina contests the next day, and the day after that.

No matter how many rematches they had, they couldn’t beat Taeshin, so I thought it would end soon, but I underestimated them.

They had no sense of sportsmanship to accept the results. Rubbing my aching stomach, I grumbled and went outside to find Taeshin.

“Taeshin….”

“Sunwoo.”

The boy in the living room grabbed me and sat me down on the sofa. Quickly noticing my condition, Taeshin gently rubbed my stomach with his pheromones, and I let out a groan of relief.

As Haeju grew, the pain became heavier and I got tired more easily than before.

Burying my face in Taeshin’s shoulder and receiving the pheromones and stomach rubs, the pain gradually subsided and the bloated feeling eased.

“Sorry. I thought I could handle it better.”

“No, why are you apologizing?”

The fault lay with the older brothers who had dragged him out without any consideration. They were now sitting at the living room table, setting up a chessboard. I had no idea why they were doing this instead of confirming his stamina. Anyway.

“If you keep calling Taeshin out while I’m sleeping, I won’t stand for it!”

I glared at the older brothers and huffed.

Fooled by their foxy words of wanting to know Taeshin better, my mom had allowed them to stay under the same roof with a single warning: Since an Alpha and a pregnant Omega were a pair, they shouldn’t do anything to make it hard for us.

Especially because an Omega without an Alpha suffered a lot and was in great pain, she said not to separate us. Thus, the older brothers couldn’t take Taeshin out without my permission.

Although she betrayed us, if I had to pick a side, Mom was on ours. After all, she had given birth to five children, so she knew better than anyone the pain of pregnancy. That’s why Taeshin came to our house in the first place.

But they didn’t know that. Mom had once criticized Dad, saying that Alphas had no idea about the pain Omegas went through, and she was right.

The older brothers weren’t Omegas and didn’t have to worry about getting pregnant, so they were thoughtless and careless.

“Taeshin, it hurts.”

“Does it hurt a lot? What should we do? Should we get some medicine?”

“Medicine? Should I go get it?”

“Where is it? No, I’ll find it myself!”

The older brothers, not knowing what was needed, scrambled off to find the medicine.

“I’m okay now.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. I pretended to be in pain to put them in a tough spot.”

Taeshin chuckled at my words.

“But what’s this? Weren’t you doing physical tests?”

“They said they’d tell us the results later, but I don’t really get it. They suddenly brought it up.”

“They’ll tell us later? Not now?”

How petty…! Anyone could see that the stamina test was a pass! Furious at the brothers who wouldn’t admit it despite losing multiple times, I patted the gentle Taeshin who accepted it.

“If you can’t do it anymore, let me know. I’ll flip the table.”

Though I wanted to lash out at the brothers right away, Taeshin was too earnest in wanting to do things properly, so I couldn’t stop him.

Besides, I was furious at the brothers who made him suffer and then withheld the results.

“Youngest! Is this what you need?”

“No, I’m fine now.”

I glared at the brothers who came back carrying the entire box of medicine and declined, saying I wasn’t in pain anymore.

Then I scolded them, saying they didn’t even know I couldn’t take medicine carelessly, while Taeshin knew and took care of me better.

“Why the sudden chess?”

“They say Taeshin is smart. We need to check.”

You can see how smart Taeshin is just by looking at his school report cards, right?

They won’t tell us the obvious stamina test results but want to check his smarts?

Though I wanted to retort, I held back seeing Taeshin trying to earn their recognition. Poor Taeshin…!

---

Of course, the older brothers’ real goal was never chess.

The pretense of checking Taeshin’s intelligence was just an excuse, and they were clearly intending to bother and annoy him.

Otherwise, there was no reason to call him out incessantly, just like they did with the stamina tests, and make him do this and that.

“Sunwoo, I’m going to see Geonwoo hyung.”

“Okay.”

“Sunwoo, Daewoo hyung called me.”

“Mm.”

“Sunwoo, I’ll be right back.”

“Again?”

Hearing his phone vibrate, Taeshin got up from the chair after checking the message. Even though he hadn’t slept well due to countless trivial errands, he gave a faint smile and nodded, saying he’d be back soon. Watching him leave, my anger boiled.

‘Why can’t the brothers do it themselves? Why send Taeshin on errands? It has nothing to do with chess!’

‘This is all for your sake. Soon, you’ll find it hard to move around, so we need to check if this kid can handle errands well.’

‘Taeshin always listens to me perfectly, though?’

‘Then we’ll find out soon enough.’

I glared at the third and fourth brothers who gave me those lame excuses, but they remained shameless. Because Taeshin said he had to do it, I couldn’t argue further.

“When will they stop? Giving him weird tasks.”

Suppressing my seething anger, I checked the laptop. The brothers had told me to complete this strange assignment about ten years of global warming by tomorrow. Global warming, my foot. They were more interested in the temperature of the soup bowl on the table than the Earth’s rising temperature.

It was clear they wanted to criticize Taeshin if he didn’t finish the task on time because of all the errands.

“Why do you look like that, Sunwoo?”

Back from the errand hell, Taeshin’s eyes widened seeing my face. The more I saw him being pushed around by the brothers without complaint, the angrier I got.

“I’m sleepy.”

“Sleepy? Want me to put you to bed?”

“…Yeah.”

Taeshin gently held me and smiled warmly. His kind smile and voice soothed my anger, and I lay down with him on the bed.

Glancing at Taeshin fiddling with his phone for a moment, I quickly sent a message to the brothers.

[Me> I’m going to sleep, so don’t take Taeshin away.]

To avoid being called out by his brothers, Taeshin tossed his phone aside with the excuse of sleeping. If they tried to ask him for favors again, he’d just threaten to tattle to their mom.

“Here, Sunwoo.”

“…I’m fine. You should sleep. You didn’t get much rest.”

I grabbed his hand that was patting me and reversed the gesture, patting Taeshin instead.

“Sunwoo, aren’t you sleepy?”

Sleepy, my foot. I was too furious to sleep, my mind wide awake. I lied to get you to rest, you fool.

“I’m fully awake. You go to sleep.”

“I’m fine.”

“I’m not fine, okay?”

This ‘I’m fine’ robot spouted his usual nonsense. I covered his eyes with my hand, smiling as he stubbornly looked at me.

“Sleep, quickly.”

“Will you stay with me?”

“Yeah. I’ll stay until you wake up, so sleep.”

“Goodnight, honey.”

“I told you not to call me that!”

Embarrassed, I pinched his side, making him yelp. Soon, he drifted off, and I removed my hand from his eyes. His peacefully sleeping face had become noticeably gaunt in the past few days.

Geez, his handsome face is half gone. Just wait until our brothers get married; I’ll make them pay for this.

I hugged Taeshin tightly, feeling a pang of affection for all he was doing for me. Even in his sleep, he unconsciously held me close and patted my back. Then I heard a clicking sound and lifted my head.

“Huh?”

Did I hear wrong? I looked around but saw nothing that could have made the sound. As I lay back down, Taeshin stirred and I resumed patting his back until he fell asleep. I must have dozed off too.

Bzzz, bzzz, bzzz, bzzz.

In my dream, I was shaking my brothers by their collars, telling them to stop bothering Taeshin. Even as a giant, I slammed my fist down at them, and the phone’s vibration felt like it shook them. Without opening my eyes, I fumbled for my phone and answered it.

“Honey… yeah…”

• Did you really sign the marriage registration with Taeshin?

“No… I signed it…”

• You idiot, that’s the same thing! Are you crazy? Why did you sign it?

“…I don’t know, we’re married now… so stop bothering my guy…”

• You call that an excuse…!

“Mmm…”

It was Moon Jinwoo, who hadn’t shown his face lately because of overtime, calling while I was asleep. His loud yelling and the noisy background sounds annoyed me. I hung up on him and tried to go back to sleep… wait.

“Moon Jinwoo?!”

I shot up, wide awake, and checked my phone.

[Moon Jinwoo]

Bzzz, bzzz, bzzz.

The phone buzzed again. Crap, I’m dead! Half-asleep, I had answered and hung up on Jinwoo’s call. Panicking, I clutched my phone, and Taeshin, waking up, asked what was wrong.

“Hey, I’m doomed! I need to run!”

“Wait, Sunwoo.”

I imagined Jinwoo, dropping everything at work to come here and kill me, and tried to escape, but Taeshin held me close.

“Jinwoo can’t come now.”

“What? How do you know?”

“I heard a few days ago that he went overseas. Something about work…”

“…Really?”

“Yeah. Even if he comes, it won’t be today; maybe tomorrow.”

Relaxing at Taeshin’s uncertain but comforting words, I realized I was worried for nothing. If Jinwoo was abroad, I could just say the call dropped due to bad reception.

Feeling relieved, I lay back down, and Taeshin, with his pheromones, warmed my stomach. As he smiled at a message, I peeked at his phone.

“What’s funny?”

“Geonwoo and Daewoo’s request is resolved.”

“Request?”

Not another chore disguised as a favor, right? I waited for his reply, and Taeshin nodded.

“There was a hard-to-find item, but I managed to get it. They’re bringing it now.”

“Really? Finding a rare item grants a pass?”

“Maybe. I hope so.”

Taeshin, who was uncertain due to a pending physical test result, made me grind my teeth at my brothers and pat him again.

“After all the errands and finding this difficult item, they better pass you. If they don’t, they’re not human; they’re demons.”

“Thanks, Sunwoo.”

Thanks? I should be the one thanking you. You’ve taken the thorny path to avoid straining my relationship with them. I held Taeshin’s hand, grateful for him being by my side.

I’ll take care of you forever. I smiled at him, and he smiled back.

* * *