* * *

I don’t.

How would I know that?

I clenched my shaking fists and took a breath.

Suddenly, a cool ocean scent began to spread like watercolor.

Blue paint spreading on white paper, slowly blurring the edges around me.

The scent blending with mine made me dizzy.

I threw whatever was in my reach.

It felt like the endless patience I’d maintained for so long was finally worn away, exposing my raw self.

This isn’t the life I fought to hold on to, and things kept spiraling out of control.

The sound of papers scattering filled the air.

It happened to be the contract I’d thrown.

Gayun accepted the flying documents with a quiet smile.

“Well done, Seonyul. But I didn’t take that contract.”

“Then… who did that? Who?”

My furious shout was met with Gayun calmly gathering the papers, unruffled.

“Han Doha.”

“…What?”

“That’s right. He’s the one.”

Doha?

Why would he?

“He did it without telling you, but you found out anyway.”

“But… why?”

“Why? You’ll have to ask him. Moving that kind of personal money around gets complicated, takes time. Honestly, if he’d been less careful, you’d have noticed first. You should have been more observant.”

Doha’s finances weren’t something I needed to know in detail, but if Gayun was telling the truth, then he must have hidden it carefully.

If he’d been obvious, I would’ve heard of it.

But I hadn’t heard anything, meaning he’d concealed it entirely.

Gayun glanced at me, then tidied the scattered documents, stuffing them into the envelope and leaving it on the table.

“By the way, Seonyul, your scent is a little unusual for an Omega. Not too sweet… almost like an Alpha.”

“I… don’t know my own scent.”

“Then who else’s would fill this room with the smell of the sea? Pheromones are different, even for twins. Even if you’re used to it, you should know when it’s this thick. Although, I guess it’s easy to mistake it if you’re around it all the time. Doha’s always drenching himself in pheromone cologne. I’ve almost mistaken it for his real scent myself.”

Gayun laughed playfully.

Then she lifted me from the floor with ease, setting me back on the sofa, placing the envelope on my lap.

“That guy’s naturally shady. All Alphas are like that.”

“Did he actually wear that trashy perfume? An Alpha, of all people? What a piece of work.”

Hong Yookyung’s words overlapped in my mind: perfume, Alpha, despicable.

I hadn’t understood them back then, but now I knew.

Had he intentionally sprayed pheromone perfume? Why?

“Take a break and go home.”

Whether Jang Gayun was saying it for my sake or just wanted to get out of this pheromone-filled office, she quickly stepped out.

Left alone, I blankly looked at the documents on my lap and let out a bitter laugh.

“Damn it…”

My patience had finally run dry.

---

Sitting alone in the darkened living room, I stared quietly at the documents scattered across the table.

It was hard to see in the dark, but I’d gone over them so many times I practically knew them by heart.

Han Doha, Han Doha.

He knew I was an Omega and knew about the debt.

Just how much did he know?

“Damn it… How far did he think he could play me…”

If he recognized my scent, he’d know I was both his lover and a model.

Had he been watching me with amusement, or what exactly had he thought?

For Alphas and Omegas, pheromones are as unique as fingerprints.

Even twins born together have different scents, so it makes no sense that he didn’t recognize mine.

Scent.

Thinking about it brought back memories of that night in the hotel.

I recalled that paper from England claiming pheromones weren’t recognizable in certain contexts, but I’d always had doubts because of the small sample size.

I had tried to believe it out of fear, afraid of the truths I might discover.

But I never wanted it to end up like this.

My thoughts spiraled forward, building on themselves, until they suddenly stopped.

I was too exhausted, my patience too worn thin to come to any real conclusion.

Covering my face with my hands, I slouched forward.

Faintly, I could smell the ocean.

“Ah… damn it…”

How much lower can I sink?

How much more do I have to endure?

My questions circled endlessly back to the same place.

My fingertips trembled as the weight on my chest tightened around my throat.

Suddenly, the sound of the door opening made me look up, and a chill ran through me.

Finally, I’d found the courage to confront the truth.

Yes, I had to ask.

“You’re home. Yul-ah, why are all the lights off?”

He came in, flipping on lights from the hallway, and his eyes met mine as I sat on the sofa.

He looked worn out, like he’d come straight from the airport, yet Doha approached me with a bright smile.

He bent down toward me, and I asked quietly.

“Do you know who your partner is?”

There was no answer for a long while.

Taking a deep breath, I asked again, as if I needed someone to take on the anger and bitterness building up inside me.

“I’ll rephrase the question.”

“…”

“Did you know it was me?”

“…”

No answer came, but that silence was an answer in itself.

As I started to rise, his hand gripped me tightly, holding me back.

I pulled my wrist free and looked down at him, emotions churning.

“Did you enjoy yourself?”

“…Who would enjoy something like that? Just listen to me first—”

“Seeing me struggle to survive, was that fun? Knowing I was an Omega, watching me panic about being found out… Was it some kind of amusement for you? Maybe a brief thrill, but for me, every moment, every second felt like I was suffocating!”

“Hold on, Yul-ah, just listen to me… please…”

“Was it fun playing with me like that?!”

My voice burst out, raw and loud.

I shook him off, throwing everything within reach—the pen, cushions, books, contracts, even the flowers in the vase.

Breathing heavily, I stepped back, covering my face with one hand as I mumbled.

“You must have enjoyed watching me struggle.”

“Just listen, let’s talk this out. If we actually speak, then—”

“What difference would it make?”

“Maybe nothing. But at least you’d understand why I did it.”

His words were sharp, almost bitter, but they didn’t fully register.

I gasped for breath, shouting back at him.

“So what? That I was your partner, a model, that I did everything to hide it, that I was exposed as an Omega—that’s all going to change if you tell me why? No, it won’t. No, it won’t!”

We both knew the answer.

No matter what he said, the fact that I’d tried to hide it, that he’d known, wasn’t going to change.

It all circled back to the same place.

From the start, this was wrong.

I should never have let things get this close.

We should have just been boss and subordinate, nothing more.

If that were the case, even if he’d discovered everything, it wouldn’t have felt so devastating.

Every moment, every second spent with Doha wouldn’t have been so painfully warm, wouldn’t have left me holding on to memories, dreading the future.

I wouldn’t have found myself dreaming of a future together, only to discover it was just an illusion.

It was too late. And that knowledge made me feel utterly miserable.

My vision flickered between black and white.

Clenching my hand over my face, I backed away, feeling the cold edge of the sofa at my fingertips.

“Right… I thought it was strange that someone who only liked Betas was suddenly interested in me. You must’ve hated being around an Omega. How did you endure it? The disgusting scent, the very one you wanted to rip out… How did you endure it?”

“…”

“Just how did you stand it? Did you think an eight-year secretary was worth enduring that stench, that despicable pheromone, for? Did you actually need a secretary so badly you were willing to put up with it? You could’ve just thrown money at me or threatened me—then at least I wouldn’t have to feel like… like…”

I wouldn’t have to feel this worthless.

How much had he laughed, watching me struggle and tear myself apart?

Seeing a secretary with nothing, no real place by his side, trying so desperately—it must’ve been amusing.

All this time, he must have laughed at me whenever he saw my jealousy.

Watching a worthless secretary with nothing to his name struggle next to him must’ve been such entertaining amusement.

The more I thought about it, the more an endless, bitter humiliation filled my mind.

“Knowing everything, you pretended not to. That must’ve been so much fun. Damn, I bet you never had a day without a laugh! Just having me beside you was probably amusing enough. I was your plaything, this pathetic little omega clowning around for your amusement. You knew that if you threw money at me, I’d bow my head like some damn slave, making it easy to look down on me, didn’t you?”

* * *