That statement rang out like an absolute declaration, as if it were swallowing the very smell of the disinfectant and the faint groans of the emergency room.
Jiwon froze.
His brain seemed unable to process the situation, as if he couldn’t quite grasp what he had just heard.
All expression vanished from his face; he sat there for a long time with a vacant look, his lips only trembling slightly, as if all sound in the world had been cut off.
His pupils, trembling with fear and bewilderment, were losing focus.
“…W-what… what are you talking about, Hyung…?”
Jiwon managed to ask, stammering. His voice came out severely cracked, and his gaze, struggling to appear nonchalant, flickered with desperation.
“Our baby… why would you say there’s no baby…? Hyung, are you… are you in your right mind right now?”
Just as Jiwon, engulfed in the terrifying sensation of the ground crumbling beneath his feet, reached out to grab Joowon’s arm—
Joowon squeezed his eyes shut, a pained expression on his face, as if he could no longer bear to watch Jiwon’s desperate struggle.
With a deep sigh, his shoulders slumped heavily.
When he opened his eyes again, there was no trace of agitation or pity left.
There was only a cold, chilling recognition of reality.
“I know everything now.”
Joowon said it quietly, but clearly.
“No, maybe I’ve had a vague suspicion for a long time. That there was no child between us. I was waiting to see when you would tell me the truth… but I can’t stand it anymore.”
His calm, steady voice delivered a greater sense of despair to Jiwon than any amount of vitriol could.
Joowon’s gaze was fixed on somewhere in the air, as if he were retracing the memories of the past.
In recent times, Han Jiwon had been noticeably busy.
He had claimed it was because of the C Company proposal presentation, but he went out somewhere late almost every night after work, and he often made excuses to go out on weekends as well.
At first, Joowon thought he was just that passionate about the C Company project, so he tried not to pay much attention.
But the uncomfortable suspicion in a corner of his heart wouldn’t fade.
Then one weekend afternoon, after Jiwon had left, dressed to the nines for a “meeting,” Joowon decided to tidy up his room.
Recently, Jiwon had been extremely sensitive about Joowon touching his belongings, and Joowon had respected that, but today, he felt an urge to check his space.
When he organized the clothes and opened the dresser drawer, an unfamiliar medicine box caught his eye.
[Omega Block].
Unfamiliar with the name, Joowon searched for it online.
It was a very powerful heat cycle suppressant—one that was not available without a prescription and was produced by Jiwon’s father’s company.
Inside the box was a medicine bottle that looked recently opened.
Joowon frowned for a moment.
Why would a pregnant Omega, who no longer had heat cycles, need a heat cycle suppressant?
He kept the name of the medicine clearly in his mind.
A few days later, Joowon visited Dr. Lee Sunyoung for a regular check-up. Near the end of the consultation, he casually threw a question at the doctor.
“Doctor, do you happen to know about a drug called ‘Omega Block’ from H Pharmaceuticals?”
He stated the exact name he had seen in Jiwon’s room. Dr. Lee tilted his head for a moment before explaining, as if he remembered.
“Ah, that drug? It was a high-intensity heat cycle suppressant released a while ago… it was effective, but it was discontinued recently because of severe side effects. Especially since it can be fatal to uterine health, it’s rarely prescribed these days. Why do you ask?”
Joowon felt his heart turn cold and sink. A discontinued drug. Fatal to uterine health. Ominous puzzle pieces began to fit together in his mind.
A pregnant Omega naturally stops having heat cycles and strongly craves the pheromones of the Alpha who is the father of the child in the womb.
But what about Jiwon?
Even if the lack of heat cycles was due to pregnancy, he never showed any signs of specifically craving or wanting Joowon’s pheromones.
In fact, he sometimes even seemed to cleverly avoid Joowon’s advances.
That evening, Joowon asked Jiwon as casually as possible.
“Jiwon, come to think of it, which OB-GYN have you been going to lately? You’re getting your regular check-ups, right?”
Jiwon blinked rapidly, appearing flustered for a moment, but soon replied with a nonchalant expression.
“Hm? Oh, yes. I’m just going to the OB-GYN in front of the house. The doctor is kind, and it’s been fine.”
“Really? By any chance… are you talking about J OB-GYN?”
When Joowon mentioned the specific name of the clinic, Jiwon’s face stiffened slightly, but he soon nodded.
“Hm? Yes, that’s it! Hyung, how did you know that?”
“It’s just the closest OB-GYN to the house. As long as you’re going, that’s fine.”
The next day, Joowon made the excuse of having an important external meeting and slipped out of the office secretly.
His car headed to ‘J OB-GYN,’ the place Jiwon had mentioned.
The appearance of a tall, handsome Dominant Alpha caused the young receptionists to murmur and blush.
Joowon approached the receptionist who looked the kindest and gave his softest smile.
“Hello. I’m Han Jiwon’s partner. Jiwon isn’t feeling well today, so I came in his stead. I need a pregnancy confirmation certificate for work—would it be possible to get one?”
The receptionist smiled kindly at his words and searched for Han Jiwon’s name on the computer.
A moment later, she tilted her head.
“Um… you mean patient Han Jiwon, right? But… a pregnancy confirmation certificate? This patient has only been coming to us for regular health check-ups… there are no pregnancy-related records at all.”
At that moment, Joowon heard something shatter inside his head.
The receptionist’s final words were the fatal blow that turned all his suspicions into certainty.
All the pieces he had struggled to ignore fell into place as one horrific picture.
A terrible sense of betrayal washed over him, along with all of Jiwon’s suspicious behavior—the exaggerated morning sickness, the repeated refusals to let Joowon accompany him to check-ups, his overly active behavior for someone in early pregnancy, and crucially, the powerful heat cycle suppressant found in his room.
Everything crashed down on him.
He realized that Jiwon had thoroughly deceived him, and that he had been played by those lies.
Along with the sense of futility that drained the strength from his body, an uncontrollable rage surged up.
Joowon spoke to Jiwon, who had turned deathly pale, in a flat tone that carried no emotion—only facts.
“Just because you deceived me, I won’t erase our engagement. Regardless, you are mine, and I have a duty to take responsibility for you until the end.”
“What does that….”
Jiwon strained to squeeze out the words like someone being strangled, but Joowon didn’t seem interested in listening.
“Whether you were pregnant or not, it’s a fact that you were caught up in my Rut, and you’ve been my responsibility ever since. And I’ve already finished talking with Studio Yeon. I’ve made sure your plagiarism case won’t be an issue anymore, so don’t worry.”
Joowon paused for a moment before adding.
“However… frankly, it’s hard to look at your face right now. Let’s live separately for a while. And the company… don’t come in anymore.”
Joowon’s voice as he said this was terribly exhausted.
“…What?”
Jiwon’s eyes widened in disbelief.
This was the moment all his plans, all his efforts to make Joowon perfectly his, were turning into bubbles.
“I plan to shut down the company. The company’s reputation has hit rock bottom due to the plagiarism scandal, and there’s no possibility of recovery. Who would hire a company that copies others’ work and frames other designers as plagiarists?”
Joowon said stoically.
“I’ll return all the investment money… to your father. In the end, it was all… my own greed.”
His words were like a bolt from the blue to Jiwon.
Shutting down the company?
Returning the investment?
It felt as if he could hear his plans and his future collapsing in an instant.
“W-what are you talking about, Hyung! Living separately and not coming to the company… how is that any different from breaking up! We’re engaged! Do you… do you really want to end things with me? Huh?”
Jiwon clung to Joowon’s arm, almost sobbing. His eyes were full of desperation.
Joowon looked down at Jiwon with a cold gaze.
“I’m not saying we’re breaking up. I’m saying we need some distance.”
He pushed Jiwon’s hands away and turned his body.
“I’m going to finish cleaning up the mess you made.”
With those final words, Joowon left the emergency room without a backward glance.
After leaving the hospital, Joowon got into his car and started the engine.
He headed toward the company blindly, but his mind was still full of chaotic confusion.
The blood-red sunset seemed to reflect his miserable state of mind.
He gripped the steering wheel tight.
He regretted, and regretted again, that he hadn’t been able to hold onto Yoonwoo because he had been deceived by Jiwon’s lies.
His warmth, his talent, and every moment they had shared flashed by like a panorama, tearing at Joowon’s heart. But the milk was already spilled.
In fact, when he first learned that Jiwon wasn’t pregnant, a tiny hope had stirred in his chest—a brief, fleeting thought that perhaps he could go back to Yoonwoo.
But immediately, recalling his own actions that had so terribly hurt him, Joowon sneered at himself, thinking he didn’t even deserve such a thought, and feeling disgusted at his own shamelessness.
Everything caused by his own stupidity and cowardice felt hideous.
Feeling the droplets of water falling down his cheeks and onto his thighs, he drove back to the company with hollow eyes.
