Correction Chapter 74

“Hah, I’m dead.”

After finishing his shower, Jungmin collapsed onto the sofa. Seeing him, Shinwoo chuckled and handed him a glass of coald water.

“Drink.”

“Thanks, hyung. By the way, is it really your first time working out in a while?”

“It is. I’ve been a bit lazy.”

He was too good to have been lazy. Jungmin grumbled as he drank the water. Just then, the food they had ordered in advance arrived, and the two of them ate a hearty dinner, talking as if they had never been apart for a single day. Jungmin felt so comfortable it was as if this were his normal daily life.

“Want to sleep over?”

Shinwoo asked Jungmin, who was clearing the plates and wiping the table. When he looked at the clock, it was already past 11 PM. He had to work the morning shift tomorrow, so honestly, it would be better to sleep here, but… was it okay to do this on his first visit to the house?

“There’s a guest room. You can say no if you’re uncomfortable.”

“No, I’m not uncomfortable. In fact, it’s great, but… won’t you be uncomfortable, hyung?”

“I’m asking because I won’t be.”

“Uh… then I’ll impose on you. Just for tonight.”

“You can keep imposing on me.”

He really is the same hyung. Kind and considerate… and that’s why….

Jungmin smiled softly at Shinwoo, then snapped back to his senses. Feeling his heart beat heavily, he shook his head. No. Never.

“Want a drink?”

For someone just asking, he already had beer cans in both hands, and there were dry snacks on the table.

“Ah, what’s this. So this is why you told me to sleep over?”

“Haha. Please understand. I came back to Korea after a long time and have no one to hang out with.”

“What would you have done without me, hyung?”

“I know, right. If it weren’t for Jungmin, I would have been very bored.”

Shinwoo said as he placed a can of beer in front of Jungmin.

It’s like the old days. Like those younger days. We’ve just grown up a little. Of course, Shinwoo now has the huge problem of his illness, but they say there’s a way. I’m sure… it will work out. We’ll be able to find an omega who’s a match for Shinwoo hyung.

As Jungmin lifted his can, Shinwoo toasted with a smile. It was a smile that made all worries disappear.

✽✽✽

“Ugh-! Uuugh!!”

Jungmin woke up to the sound of someone in extreme agony. At first, he thought he had misheard and just lay in bed blinking, but then he was startled by the sound of something falling with a thud and shot up.

The digital clock that came into view was showing 2:30 AM in white. And hearing the suspicious sound once more, Jungmin got out of bed and opened the door.

“Hyung!!”

Shinwoo was lying on the floor, hitting his chest as if in pain. On top of that, the immense pheromones from Yoo Shinwoo were so strong his body stung. Other than that one day, this was the first time he had been hit so directly by an alpha’s pheromones.

But right now, it didn’t matter if his own body was struggling or not. Shinwoo’s condition was serious. He couldn’t control his pheromones and seemed to be unable to even breathe properly. Furthermore, dark red spots had broken out all over his body, and his fingernails were torn and bleeding. Looking at the floor, he could see scratch marks he had made. These were all symptoms even he, a doctor, had never seen before.

Jungmin fought to calm his pounding heart from anxiety and quickly called 119. Watching him being carried away, Jungmin felt as if the peace from earlier had been a dream. Yes. That was a dream. This is reality.

✽✽✽

The place Yoo Shinwoo was taken to was the newly established Kall Front research institute next to the hospital. As soon as they heard his identity, the ambulance immediately changed direction, and the medical team in charge of Yoo Shinwoo was waiting for him. They urgently took Yoo Shinwoo in to take action and tried to determine the cause. Amidst their frantic activity, Jungmin could do nothing. He just sat helplessly on a bench in the hallway, staring at his trembling hands.

“It seems he’s developed a tolerance to the medicine.”

Jungmin looked up at the sound of Kim Joohwan’s voice. Despite the late hour of the morning, he was looking down at Jungmin with a neat appearance, one hand in his pocket.

“How….”

“I happened to be here. A new hypersensitivity patient was discovered in Korea today. I was about to leave after checking on that person, but….”

“Ah… right. But… you’re saying hyung has developed a tolerance to the medicine he’s taking?”

Jungmin asked, his voice drained of all energy.

“Yes, we had been changing his medication about once every three months recently, but… this time, did it last two months…. The cycle is getting shorter. He must have thought his own pheromones were fine, so he probably released them like crazy to cover it up…. Thanks to that, your body is now vibrating with Yoo Shinwoo’s pheromones, sunbae….”

That must be it. He was crushed by those pheromones….

“Did you sleep together?”

“What?”

Kim Joohwan’s single word fell on Jungmin’s head. For a moment, his voice felt excessively low and heavy. Stronger than the pheromones Yoo Shinwoo had poured out earlier.

“I’m sorry, sunbae. My brain is rotten, so when two humans with genitals are together at this hour, that’s the only thing that comes to mind.”

He was speaking with a sly smile, but his eyes weren’t smiling. What is this? This sense of pressure.

“Did you sleep together?”

He asks again. This time, more forcefully.

Jungmin clenched his fists tightly. Normally, he would have shot back, ‘Yeah, fucker, we slept together! What are you going to do about it?’, but he felt he shouldn’t do that now.

“You crazy bastard. Why would I sleep with hyung? I was hanging out at his place. Drinking….”

Kim Joohwan’s face suddenly came close. He sniffed at a distance where their lips were almost touching. It happened so fast that Jungmin couldn’t even avoid it.

“You smell like whiskey.”

At Kim Joohwan’s voice, accompanied by a slight smile, Jungmin snapped to his senses and pushed him away.

Shit, you scared me.-

“I told you so. Why are you checking? It’s creepy.”

“Given your track record, I can’t help but be suspicious.”

No, he was about to ask why he was being suspicious, when the door to the hospital room Yoo Shinwoo had entered opened. As the people in white coats and the professor who had recently been appointed came out, Jungmin shot up and ran to them.

Watching this, Kim Joohwan looked back and forth between Jungmin’s now-empty seat and Jungmin, who was talking to the doctors with a pale face, before slowly straightening his back.

“Ah… that’s a bit difficult, Dr. Shin.”

The professor who had been in charge of Yoo Shinwoo since his time in England was flustered and trying to stop Jungmin, while Jungmin was desperately asking them for something.

Kim Joohwan thought this was the trigger. So he was very curious about what kind of future would unfold from his actions now. And it was also a pity that he had to choose only one.

How will you break? How far will you abandon yourself?

“What’s the matter?”

As Kim Joohwan approached, Shin Jungmin looked at him with a serious expression. But he couldn’t bring himself to ask the favor and just turned his gaze towards the bed where Yoo Shinwoo was lying.

“Ah, Dr. Shin… wants to care for Mr. Shinwoo, but….”

They probably thought Jungmin didn’t know about Yoo Shinwoo’s illness, so they would be very cautious. Especially since Jungmin was an alpha.

“Then you’ll have to get an injection that temporarily paralyzes your pheromone glands. Are you okay with that?”

When Kim Joohwan asked for Jungmin’s opinion, he extended his arm without hesitation.

“Give it to me right now.”

Kim Joohwan smiled slightly and shrugged.

Right. That’s the kind of person you are.

“Not the arm.”

Kim Joohwan tapped the back of his own neck.

“It’s the back of the neck, sunbae.”

✽✽✽

As the drug entered the back of his neck, Jungmin flinched slightly. It was an unpleasant sensation. Like getting a numbing shot in the gums at the dentist’s office….

“It lasts for about a day. You probably won’t be able to smell pheromones during that time either, Dr. Shin. And once you get this anesthetic, you shouldn’t get it again for a month.”

“Yes, I understand.”

After listening to the doctor’s explanation, Jungmin put on the clothes provided by the hospital. It was a kind of patient gown, and since it was better to have as little body odor as possible, he readily changed into it.

As he stepped out of the hospital room door to drop off the clothes he had worn, Kim Joohwan was standing in front of the room.

“You’re not leaving?”

“Aah, after using me, you’re now coldly casting me aside because I’m no longer needed. You really are a heartless sunbae.”

“When did I.”

“It’s cold.”

Kim Joohwan draped a white cardigan over Jungmin. The tension in his body, which had been slightly cool from the dawn air, relaxed.

“It’s what the researchers wear, so you can go in with it on.”

“What’s with the kindness?”

“I don’t want to be blamed if you catch a cold. Go on in. I should be going now, too.”

Saying so, Kim Joohwan waved his hand as if he had no lingering attachments and left the spot.