* * *

Seunghyun managed to get into a taxi and sank into the back seat with a long sigh of relief.

No one noticed, right?

It wasn’t until the taxi passed the hospital entrance, where a conspicuous group of sasaengs had gathered, that he straightened his hunched back.

So that’s what sasaeng fans look like.

He’d snuck out of the hospital.

After a full night’s rest, he’d regained enough energy to pull it off.

He planned to visit his old home.

He wanted to find some kind of clue.

Staying in the hospital only allowed him to browse the internet, and that wasn’t getting him anywhere.

At first, he thought it was a dream.

But no matter how long he waited, he didn’t wake up.

On the contrary, the vivid sense of reality grew stronger, far too real to dismiss as a dream.

No one would believe him if he said he wasn’t Joo Seunghyun.

Bringing it up recklessly would only cause unnecessary misunderstandings.

Even Seunghyun himself struggled to grasp the situation.

If Joo Seunghyun’s body was here with him, then where was his original body?

“…Is it even somewhere out there?”

A grim thought flashed through his mind, but Seunghyun deliberately ignored it.

There was no point in jumping to conclusions.

He needed to take things one step at a time and focus on what he could do now.

No matter how many times he called his original number, the only response was a cold automated message saying the number was unreachable.

When he contacted the temp agency where he used to work, they only said he hadn’t shown up for the past week and they had no idea where he was.

His last confirmation was that his university portal ID was still active.

That was enough for him to decide to leave the hospital.

But the article that surfaced online this morning made his head throb.

“Joo Seunghyun really is terminally ill.”

The title kept echoing in his mind.

Why not just chant for me to die already?

Seunghyun grimaced as he reread the post on his phone in the taxi.

Calling delayed omega syndrome a terminal illness was ridiculous.

It was true that the excessive pheromone surges could cause complications and side effects, but Seunghyun was already stabilizing.

While it might be impossible to regain his original strength, he’d be able to live as an ordinary omega just fine.

Maybe this was a good excuse to quit being an idol or whatever…

“Student.”

“…?”

“Student!”

“Huh?”

Lost in thought, Seunghyun flinched at the taxi driver’s sudden question.

“Are you sick?”

The driver glanced at him with concern, noticing the hospital gown peeking out from under the long padded coat, the mask, the hat over his unkempt hair, and the overall sickly complexion.

“Oh, no. I’m fine.”

“You were so spaced out, we’ve been parked for a while now.”

Embarrassed, Seunghyun chuckled awkwardly, paid the fare, and got out of the taxi.

He quickly headed into the building to avoid being seen.

The apartment was old but tidy.

Seunghyun had lived here with his grandmother for twenty years.

The stairs leading to the second floor were still lined with the small potted plants his grandmother had cared for, and Seunghyun had tended to after her.

A faint smile crept onto his face.

The familiarity of the space was oddly comforting.

He punched in the door code and stepped inside.

Everything was just as it had been, except his original body was gone.

That thought gave him a small sense of relief.

Returning to this place three years in the past made the house feel strangely unfamiliar.

The scent of his grandmother still lingered, as this was shortly after her passing.

Seunghyun closed his eyes, taking a deep breath of the air she’d left behind.

The dark door frames, the yellow flooring, the mismatched dishes—every detail carried her memory.

As he quietly absorbed the traces of her presence, it felt as if she might slide open the door at any moment and speak to him.

“Grandma…”

When Seunghyun became a high school student, his grandmother gave him the large room with a hinged door that could be locked, while she moved into the smaller room with a translucent sliding door.

Seunghyun pressed down on his aching chest and slid open the door.

Immediately, the traces of his grandmother became even more vivid.

In one corner of the room, where the bedding was neatly arranged, Seunghyun curled up and lay down.

If he had to return anyway, couldn’t it have been just six months earlier?

After awakening as an Alpha at the age of twenty-six, Seunghyun’s life had crumbled entirely.

The one-month grace period for mandatory medical exams had barely ended before he was drafted for additional military service.

The company that had offered him a job withdrew the offer.

During his service, his elderly grandmother had passed away suddenly.

That had been six months ago, as of today.

His hand pressed against the blanket, his grip tightening until it wrinkled in his fist.

Seunghyun buried his face in the bedding.

“…….”

The blanket slowly grew damp.

Drip. Drop. Somewhere, the sound of water droplets echoed faintly.

“Grandma…….”

Seunghyun sobbed quietly for a long time.

---

Hoping that coming here might offer some clue about his body’s whereabouts, Seunghyun had found nothing to justify that hope.

Not a single lead.

As a final gesture, he visited his grandmother’s room and picked up a small photo frame.

Inside the frame was a photo of an adult Seunghyun and his grandmother, smiling happily as they stood close together.

The date, written in his grandmother’s handwriting, was inscribed in the corner.

The memory of that time surfaced, and a faint smile appeared on Seunghyun’s face.

It must have been during his final year of college.

His grandmother had suddenly expressed a wish to see flowers, so Seunghyun had taken her to see the cherry blossoms.

Back then, life still felt relatively happy.

He tucked the frame into his pocket and was about to leave when he heard footsteps beyond the front door.

The sound of shoes—sharp, out of place in the worn-down villa—stopped directly outside.

And then…

Beep, beep, beep-beep, beep.

The sound of a passcode being entered echoed, followed by the creak of the front door opening.

Seunghyun froze in place, forgetting even to breathe.

His grandmother had already passed away.

There shouldn’t be anyone else coming here.

Who was it?

Half-expecting some impossible twist in time that might bring his grandmother back to life, and half-dreading the intrusion of an unknown person, fear and fragile hope washed over him in equal measure.

Clunk.

A stranger stepped boldly inside.

Now, only the thin sliding door separated Seunghyun from the intruder.

“Hmm?”

The man made a curious sound, as though noticing something unusual, and stopped in the entryway.

Shoes!

Seunghyun gasped softly, sucking in his breath.

If this person frequented the house, they would have noticed the new shoes in the entryway.

Seunghyun clamped both hands over his mouth.

His wariness of the intruder surged.

Thud, thud.

The urgent footsteps came closer, seemingly ignoring proper etiquette, as the man didn’t even bother removing his shoes.

Thump, thump, thump.

As the footsteps approached, Seunghyun’s heart pounded in sync, growing louder and louder.

Then, with a force that threatened to break it, the old sliding door flew open.

A tall man stormed in, shouting Seunghyun’s name.

“Joo Seunghyun!”

“……!”

Seunghyun’s eyes widened in shock.

The man, disheveled and frantic, was calling out desperately in the empty house.

His face was one Seunghyun knew well.

Seunghyun whispered his name softly, almost in disbelief.

“…Han Kangwoo.”

* * *