Correction Chapter 69

“Ah, Dr. Jang.”

“Oh, I’m so sorry to interrupt. My apologies.”

The fellow doctor apologized to Shinwoo, saying it was a really urgent matter that he needed to call Jungmin for. Considering their profession, it wasn’t an incomprehensible situation, so Shinwoo smiled and said it was fine.

“Is there an emergency?”

“No, no. It’s not that… Do you happen to have any ‘Teton T’?”

‘Teton T’ was a powdered suppressant for alphas. Jungmin always carried some for emergencies, so before taking it out of his pocket and giving it to his colleague, he asked for confirmation.

“Ah, but didn’t you get a suppressant shot not too long ago?”

Doctors with alpha or omega traits were required to get 12-month or 6-month suppressant shots. This was not only to protect patients but also to protect the doctors themselves, who encounter and experience many different trait pheromones.

The suppressant came in injection form, and a single shot would prevent one from being affected by other traits for 12 months. Those who had imprinted with a mate were not affected by pheromones anyway, so they didn’t need the shots. If a rut or heat cycle was needed for plans to have a child, one could take a neutralizing agent in the middle of the period to time the cycle for about a week.

Well, getting a suppressant shot doesn’t reduce one’s sex drive, so you could still do everything you needed to do. That’s why Jungmin was able to have one-night stands, and why he could make the promise with Park Sungjin to align their rut and heat cycles.

“I did. But, I’ve been pulling all-nighters for the past few days, and maybe my immunity has dropped… I feel like my pheromones are constantly leaking. I’m not sure if it’s just a temporary thing.”

It’s true that a monk can’t shave his own head.

“That medication is known to be affected by one’s physical condition.”

And there is no perfect medicine in the world. Each person’s body is different and reacts differently depending on the situation, so a single drug cannot suit everyone.

“Yeah, so I’m going to take this as a temporary measure and if it’s still not okay, I’ll have to get it checked out.”

“After taking this, check your pheromone levels within two hours. If it’s still not okay, you need to go to the Alpha Department and get tested immediately.”

As Jungmin spoke firmly, his colleague laughed heartily.

“Yes, Dr. Shin.”

“I’m not joking. And it’s possible the medication isn’t right for you, so it’s best to report these symptoms.”

“Sheesh, alright, alright. You’re such a nag.”

The fellow doctor held out both hands as if to say, ‘That’s enough, now give me the medicine!’, and Jungmin handed it to him. After his colleague left the cafe, Jungmin turned back to Shinwoo.

“Hyung, sorry, that… hyung?”

But once again, he couldn’t finish his sentence. Shinwoo’s face had turned deathly pale.

“Hyung, are you sick somewhere?”

Shinwoo’s hands were trembling violently. He quickly took a mask out of his pocket and put it on, but as if that wasn’t enough, he covered his mouth with both hands and then shot up from his seat. However, after taking only a couple of steps, he collapsed. The entire sequence felt like a nightmare to Jungmin.

As if struck by lightning, his mind suddenly jolted awake. Blinking his wide-open eyes, Yoo Shinwoo looked around and sighed deeply at the familiar smell of a hospital.

“Why the long face….”

Then he saw Jungmin next to him, looking like he was at death’s door.

“Shinwoo hyung….”

“How long was I out?”

“About three hours now….”

“Ha….”

Yoo Shinwoo sighed and ran a hand through his hair. He wanted to get up, but his head was still foggy and dizzy, and his body wouldn’t move as he wished, so he had no choice but to remain lying down.

“Sorry for showing you such an unsightly side of me.”

“Hyung, what’s wrong with you? The professor you met earlier came by, but he just prescribed something and didn’t say anything. He said he couldn’t discuss a patient’s condition with anyone but the patient or their family. But….”

Jungmin looked at the IV drip. At his gaze, Yoo Shinwoo sighed. Of course, being a doctor, he would know the general situation just by seeing the type of IV and the medication in it.

“It’s pheromone hypersensitivity.”

“What?”

“It’s… sort of like a pheromone allergy, but more complex. If I’m exposed to even a tiny amount of an incompatible pheromone, the hypersensitivity is triggered immediately. The symptoms are similar to an allergy… it’s one of the rare diseases, so it’s not well-known.”

Jungmin’s hands trembled as he tried to process what he had just heard.

“What are you talking about? You never had anything like that, hyung.”

“While I was in university in the States, I participated in some clinical trials for a drug being developed in a lab.”

“What kind of drug?”

At Jungmin’s question, Shinwoo smiled. Now that he thought about it, that was right. He had said… he was going to America to cure his ‘illness.’ Jungmin’s hands trembled.

“I told you. I told you it’s not an illness. It’s just something unavoidable, like force majeure! I told you!!”

Jungmin shot up from his seat. The chair, knocked over by the impact, rolled across the floor.

“I know…. But I still wanted to fix it.”

“Why!”

“Because I wanted to give the person I loved what they wanted.”

At Shinwoo’s words, Jungmin was left speechless.

“But I couldn’t give him that. That was the most painful part.”

He knew that feeling better than anyone. He had wanted to be an omega. So he could make him happy, but he couldn’t.

“Though I failed spectacularly.”

“Hyung….”

Jungmin clenched his fists and stared at Shinwoo, then lowered his head.

“I couldn’t handle the failure… I acted weakly. I even turned to drugs. Thanks to that, I couldn’t even become a doctor.”

Yoo Shinwoo slowly raised his hand. It was trembling ceaselessly.

“I have to take medicine three times a day, and if I miss a dose, this happens.”

“Shinwoo hyung. What on earth… hyung!”

Jungmin collapsed to the floor and tightly gripped Shinwoo’s trembling hand. He prayed for the trembling to stop. Please… for him to not be in pain anymore.

“I didn’t want to show you this side of me. Because in your memory, I’m surely a cool person. I hoped I could remain that way… but even that was just my own greed. I’m sorry, Jungmin.”

Don’t say that. Jungmin wanted to say it. But he couldn’t. Only tears came out.

After finishing his IV drip, Yoo Shinwoo was discharged, and Jungmin sat alone at a bar, drinking. Should he have stopped him from leaving back then? Should he have said that I would go to America instead, so you should stay here? Belated regrets washed over him in endless waves. If only he could change the past, he felt he would do anything. Why was he so weak that he couldn’t save this one man, the man he had loved so dearly? Why….

✽✽✽

“Oh my goodness, Junghyun.”

A guest had come to the house. It was Yoo Shinwoo’s mother. And behind her was Yoo Shinwoo. He looked at Jungmin and smiled bitterly. And thankfully, Youngmin was not home.

Jungmin’s mother cried upon seeing her old friend after so long, and as it seemed the two had much to talk about, Jungmin and Yoo Shinwoo went upstairs to Jungmin’s room on the second floor.

“It’s been a while, in here. It’s still the same.”

Yoo Shinwoo said with a smile. He never thought the day would come when he would see him in his room again. The way he slowly looked around the room was just like old times… and just like those old times, Jungmin watched him.

“How’s Youngmin?”

Still the same. Asking about Youngmin. A small laugh escaped Jungmin. It felt like they had gone back to high school.

“He went on a trip. A trip to Europe.”

He probably went with some alpha whose name he didn’t know, but he didn’t mention that part.

“That kid is still the same, I see.”

Yoo Shinwoo sat in the chair he always used to sit in whenever he entered this room.

“Pretty much.”

“I heard he got divorced.”

Jungmin nodded and sat in the chair opposite him. Shinwoo smiled, reached out, and stroked Jungmin’s hair. Truly, everything was the same as in the old days. As if he had regressed in time.

“Don’t make that face. I don’t have any feelings for Youngmin anymore.”

Only then did Jungmin meet Yoo Shinwoo’s eyes. Shinwoo began to speak seriously.

“I got tired after clashing and breaking so many times. And on top of that, with my body ending up like this… I came to my senses, thinking that I was ruining myself and the people around me because of my greed. It was hard, but… now, I feel nothing. That’s why I was able to come back to Korea.”

“…Is your body… okay?”

Only then was Jungmin able to ask about Shinwoo’s well-being. That day, after what happened at the hospital, Jungmin hadn’t been able to contact Shinwoo. Everything was just too sad, too difficult… and too frightening. He couldn’t help but feel powerless at his inability to do anything, which made his heart ache terribly.

From the next day on, clutching his head that felt like it would split from a hangover, he gathered all the information he could find on pheromone hypersensitivity. And after several days of research, all he found was ‘despair.’ It was an extremely rare case, and as long as one had the trait, pheromone hypersensitivity was as good as a death sentence.