The Sleepwalker’s Mansion Chapter 29

Because Doha had thrown away the suppressants, he was currently not taking any suppressants either. Yubin must have read his faint recessive omega pheromone. Or perhaps, Doha’s pheromone was wafting from him.

He showered for over an hour every day to remove the scent, but that level of effort might not erase the traces of the strong alpha pheromone ingrained in his body. Because he had sprayed seed water all over his entrails like territorial marking.

Doeon’s heart became anxious. He was an easy target to see through, and Jeong Yubin was a dominant omega above him, a superior predator.

‘If you’re not even dominant but recessive, do you know how much they’d look down on you? When they found out you manifested as a recessive omega in your father’s family, they would have stoned me to death, so I cut ties with that corner!’

If Dad or Yubin found out he was a recessive omega, forget inheritance, he might be chased out of the mansion right away. As Doha said, he might even be sold as a concubine to some old alpha.

Among the superior predators seated around the table, he was the weakest recessive omega. How could he protect the mansion and also send these people away at the same time? A situation surrounded on all sides. His vision darkened.

“Traits aren’t important. What’s important is that the family has gathered together.”

Taeoh raised his wine glass. Yubin politely clinked his wine glass against it and pulled up his refreshingly curved mouth corners.

“President. Am I included in the family too?”

“Soon, you will be.”

“I hope that day comes soon.”

Yubin answered without hiding his excited expression. Without even a chance to pull out the documents tucked at his waist, the situation was heading toward catastrophe. Doeon could tell. That he could never become family among them.

“Now that a new family member has come, how about having a welcome party?”

Taeoh set down his glass with about 1/3 of the wine left and threw out an unexpected remark.

“A welcome party?”

Doha furrowed his brow and reacted irritably. As if more and more annoying things were piling up, he propped his chin on his long hand and shook his head. On the other hand, Yubin responded with a refreshing laugh.

“A welcome party, I like it. President!”

Leaving Yubin, who looked like his tail would be wagging if he had one, Taeoh stared at Doeon.

“This is a good opportunity for Doeon to step into high society and make connections.”

“Me, me…?”

For a moment, it felt like his mind had gone into a vacuum state. Me making connections with high society people? He hated places with lots of people. He could picture himself not fitting in with anyone, like a sack of barley left in the corner, stuck there.

Moreover, with Jeong Yubin alone making his blood run cold, a welcome party held in the mansion—his headache surged in, making his temples throb. Unable to do this or that, with only a stiff face, Yubin added a word.

“Is it because you’re a beta? It’s a party inviting only dominant trait holders, but there are beta employees too, so don’t worry too much. Young master Doeon.”

It felt like he was pretending to be considerate, but the gaze looking down on him as a beta was evident. If he knew he wasn’t a beta but a recessive omega, he would surely be treated worse than a bug. He was only talking to him because he was a beta. Bile rose in his stomach.

“He’s Seo Taeoh’s seed. Is there any flaw in being a beta?”

Taeoh said while elegantly gripping the knife with a graceful gesture and slicing the lamb ribs steak. The forcefully cut flesh ached as if it were his own flesh.

“Ah, of course. If he’s the president’s son, he must have sufficient qualities.”

At Taeoh’s words, Yubin quickly switched attitudes and flattered him.

“Doeon would have no shortcomings in making connections in high society.”

Could there be no shortcomings? He was an unlucky recessive omega suffering from somnambulism and sleepwalking. Even sitting there pretending not to be shaken was grueling.

“Please spare me from this ridiculous village drama of welcome parties and high society.”

Doha, who had been silent opposite, set down his fork with a clack on his face that had completely lost its appetite. At the suddenly chilled atmosphere around, Doeon anxiously picked at his nail cuticles under the table.

“I’ll invite Director Kim’s son too. You need to be there, right?”

At Taeoh’s words, Doha visibly panicked and rolled his pupils. Wondering why he was like that, Doeon looked at Doha. The sunken gray pupils avoided Doeon’s gaze and eventually turned his head away completely.

“If you mean Director Kim’s family, it’s the one that has been betrothed to young master Doha since childhood, right?”

Yubin chattered with his plump lips as if something had come to mind.

“Director Kim’s family is rushing, but this guy keeps dragging his feet, that’s the problem.”

Shock pierced through the top of his head. Doha had someone promised in marriage too? Even with such a person, he did those things with me….

Hot saliva pooled inside his mouth, and his two hands trembled finely. Clasping his shivering hands together, he bowed his head and continuously swallowed saliva to hold back the tears from falling.

“He’s only twenty yet, and you’re telling him to mate and mark. Isn’t that too early?”

Doha raised his voice while looking at Doeon, who had his head bowed as if wronged. But nothing reached Doeon’s ears. The feeling of betrayal from the person he trusted went beyond that, making him feel like he had been deeply wounded.

His relationship with Doha was something that shouldn’t have existed from the beginning. The fact that he had loaded emotions onto such a relationship and even thought something had been taken from him was absurd. If he wasn’t crazy, it must be because he had sex with him so much that he was exposed to Doha’s pheromones, clouding his reason. Otherwise, this emotion couldn’t be explained.

“Too early? I regret not meeting the president even earlier.”

Yubin furrowed his thick eyebrows and complained. Doeon found it absurd. Even earlier? Because he met him too early, Mom gave birth to him and Doha in her teens and even went through a divorce. Dad was about to remarry soon, but Mom had fought illness until just recently and ultimately lost her life.

It hadn’t even been two weeks since Mom had become a handful of ashes from the crematorium and been placed in the columbarium, and here he was, what was he doing now? Thinking of Mom, his eye rims heated up again. Hold it in. He had to hold it in. Doeon barely steadied his breathing.

“Young master Doeon finding a mate at the welcome party wouldn’t be bad either? There are often alphas or omegas whose taste is betas.”

“…….”

Yubin’s thoughtless talk felt unrealistic. Even if he met a mate while lying about being a beta, which would be found out someday, he would immediately be discovered as a recessive omega with illnesses and get divorced and chased out right away. As Mom said, he might even be stoned by Taeoh for shaming the family.

“Lawyer. Isn’t this your own welcome party? You don’t need to worry about our hyung.”

Doha blocked Yubin’s attention. He was grateful that Doha seemed to be taking his side more today, but after hearing about the fiancée, everything he said grated on him. He felt like an impurity caught between this family.

“Ah, young master Doha. Are you taking care of me? Thank you.”

“Delusions are free.”

Even at the cold tone, Yubin didn’t lose his consistent smile. He wasn’t an ordinary man. This man was also coveting his mansion. While thinking of remodeling the mansion’s garden into his own golf practice range.

“Our hyung….”

At that moment, Taeoh raised his eyebrows while mulling over Doha’s words. He placed his elbows on the table and interlaced his ten fingers, making his upper arms pull taut as if about to burst, wrinkling his shirt. As he leaned his upper body slightly forward, Taeoh’s facial contours revealed themselves even more delicately. It was a sculpted impression that one couldn’t help but look at as if mesmerized.

“Leaving you two alone for a week, I think that was the right decision.”

Leaving you two alone was right? During that week, every day had been hell for Doeon. Dreaming nightmares every night, waking up in unknown places, confronting Mom’s ghost as a spider monster. But Doha dismissed that week lightly.

“It was fun. For once.”

“Get along well from now on too.”

Doha snickered and stared straight at Doeon.

“You heard Dad, hyung?”

“Uh? Uh….”

An unavoidable answer bounced out of his throat. Unease crept up from his spine. How could he eliminate this anxiety? Doeon didn’t know the answer.

Preparations for the welcome party began steadily from the very next day. First, Yubin hired a party planner. He consulted with the party planner on how to decorate the 200-pyeong mansion interior, and they measured the approximate size of the living room space to be used as the main stage.

“Here’s the guest list.”

“About 50 people. I’ll prepare a detailed party plan and report back.”

“Don’t make it too flashy. Dignified yet luxurious. The president doesn’t like noise. Soft lighting would be good.”

“Yes. Understood.”

Yubin, directing the party planner and his entourage, looked like the lady of the house. Watching that from the second floor, Doeon felt suffocated as if his chest was clogged.

What are you doing in my house? Get out right now. He wanted to shout, but he feared the aftermath that would follow. He couldn’t afford to mess up the welcome party when he needed to win Dad’s favor somehow. He had to faithfully perform his role in this ridiculous village drama.

Pacing the second floor restlessly like a beast that had failed in territorial marking, Doeon waited for the party planner’s group and Yubin to exit through the entrance door and then went down to the first floor.

The original quiet atmosphere that had returned to the mansion, now momentarily silent, enveloped Doeon’s body. As if waiting for its original owner. Doeon quietly swallowed his breath and quickened his steps as if entranced.

He opened the arched wooden door located at the innermost part of the first floor. As it creaked open, the scent of dried roses seeped into his nose. Mom’s pheromone still lingered in the room even though its owner had left.

Moisture welled up in his eyes at the nostalgic scent. He wanted to keep Mom’s room undisturbed without a single change. Doeon approached the queen-size bed and carefully lay down on the mattress sunken deep as if to the depth of Mom’s height, covering it with his body.

Faint sunlight streamed in like shattered pieces, revealing the terrace outside the window. Beyond the terrace, he could see the party planner taking photos of the garden and consulting with Yubin. Once again, his solar plexus tightened oppressively.

“Mom… how can… I protect the mansion…. Please tell me the way….”

The tears pooled in his eyes rolled down with a trickle along his temples. He was angry at his powerless self who could do nothing. Still, to not go against Dad’s mood, it would be right to safely finish the welcome party and then discuss the inheritance procedures afterward.

Just a little… let’s wait just a little more….

There will definitely be a time when I’m alone with Dad.

Doeon buried his face in the pillow soaked with Mom’s scent and took a deep breath. He wanted to let Mom’s scent permeate his body. So that he could erase Doha’s traces as if they had never existed from the beginning. So that he could return to the beginning where nothing had happened. If only that could be….

“Young master Doeon?”

“……?”

Turning his head at the voice calling him, Yubin had entered the room without him noticing when. To avoid being caught that he had just cried, he wiped his eye rims with the end of his sleeve and raised his upper body. He lowered his eyes to hide his bloodshot eyes. The hair covering his forehead fell down to near his eyelashes.

“Wh-why are you here….”

“This is the biggest room, right?”

“Yes? Yes….”

Yubin craned his neck and looked around Mom’s room once. The interior, decorated with antique furniture, was worn but had a profound elegance. Seeing Doeon lying in the room furnished with expensive solid wood furniture used since his grandfather’s time, Yubin fixed his gaze on the terrace and asked.

“Is this young master Doeon’s room?”

“No. It’s my mom’s room.”

“Ah… I see?”

There’s a terrace too. Murmuring to himself, Yubin sauntered to the window with the terrace and flung it wide open. Cool wind carrying moisture blew in through the window. What was he up to? Doeon shrugged his shoulders at Yubin’s excited back and fully stood up from the bed.

“The view is nice.”

It was an open landscape overlooking down to the small lake. Suddenly, he pictured Yubin hitting a bunker shot from the small lake.

“The railing is broken?”

“…….”

Yubin, seeing the right corner of the plaster railing reaching to the waist broken, asked. Doeon bit his lip with troubled eyes.

An accident he didn’t want to remember. Here, Mom had tried to come over in her wheelchair because she was worried about him swimming in the lake, and she fell. A momentary wrong judgment. It was the decisive accident that led to Mom’s passing.

“There was an accident….”

“This place needs repair. Right?”

Without asking what kind of accident, Yubin bent at the waist to look down at the railing and said what he wanted to say. Doeon expressionlessly stared only at Yubin’s back as he busily took photos of the broken railing without falling outside the terrace.

“It would be perfect to use as the master bedroom.”

Yubin muttered while sending a message somewhere. That was when cracks formed in Doeon’s expressionless face. Mom’s room was a sanctuary, and no one but Mom could use it. But to use it as the master bedroom? Him and Dad here? Imagining them using the master bedroom, when they were currently staying in the guest room, made his heart sink.

“This is my mom’s room…. It’s not a room that just anyone can use….”

“It was a room. But she’s not here now.”

The indifferent tone scratched at his nerves sharply. Unlike when he was with Taeoh, Yubin was acting coldly. He couldn’t think of what to say in response to the bold retort. Even though Mom was gone, Mom’s room had to remain as it was. Frustrated, Doeon rubbed his reddened eye rims vigorously.

“She’s not here now, but to me, to me, it has meaning….”

It was a room where all the past memories with Mom remained intact. Though the hardships of her illness were there too, Mom’s faint pheromone provided comfort that she was still by his side. At least it made him feel like he wasn’t alone.

“It’s regrettable that the deceased has passed, but the living have to live on. It’s a waste to leave a perfectly fine room empty.”

“It’s not e-empty…!”

It was a room filled with Mom’s traces. This room was the core and stronghold of the mansion. It was the foundation that he absolutely had to protect.

Even a little thing knows how to get angry. Murmuring to himself, Yubin coldly offered advice to Doeon, whose face was turning red and blue.

“If you keep doing that, even the deceased won’t be able to leave peacefully. Young master Doeon.”

“……!”

In that moment, the spider monster came to mind. The spider monster seated in the deepest abyss of his heart. The spider monster that appeared every time he committed immoral acts with Doha to condemn him. Was the spider monster also a wretched hallucination that appeared because he couldn’t let Mom go in his heart?

“…Mom… Mom… hasn’t left… not yet… she hasn’t left….”

Doeon muttered to himself in a small, low voice like a madman. Seeing Doeon recalling the hallucination of the spider monster, Yubin thought he was missing his late mother and said coldly.

“For your mother to rest in peace, it would be better if young master Doeon sorts it out soon.”

“……!”

Yubin drove a cruel wedge into Doeon, who had frozen like a statue, and left the room. Doeon couldn’t move from that spot.

Not only was the mansion being invaded, but now he had to give up the master bedroom too? How far did he intend to take it? The dry rose scent was gradually fading away.