The Sleepwalker’s Mansion Chapter 55

Taeoh first examined his son’s pupils. They looked a bit tired, but there was no hazy shadow, and instead, the somewhat settled brown pupils were gazing at him.

“Is your mind a bit clearer?”

“Wh, where is this….”

Doeon looked around in a daze. It was the face of a small animal thrown into an unfamiliar place, full of bewilderment.

“Why am I… here?”

He tilted his head as if he truly did not know, and Doeon furrowed his brows. The light pupils contained pure doubt. Taeoh felt a strange sense of déjà vu. The day after he had mistaken Doeon for Yubin and committed adultery, Doeon did not remember that night.

No way, today too….

Doeon continued slowly, as if rummaging through memories in his hazy mind.

“I got in the car to go meet the prospective fiancé… but why am I in my room…?”

“You really don’t remember at all?”

Doeon slowly nodded his head. The surprise kiss in the car, climbing onto his thighs without any hesitation, clinging to his nape and begging to use his back pussy—all of it. It had become something absent from his memories.

He does not remember upon waking from sleep. Taeoh could not choose whether to be glad or sad about this error in memory. However, one thing he could tell. The fact that his son’s condition had reached a level worth worrying about.

Taeoh patted the slender shoulders kindly and said.

“It’s alright. Sleep a bit more.”

Perhaps the medicine packet in his pocket could become the key to unraveling this enigmatic phenomenon.

Kang General Clinic.

It was not as much as the hospital that had signed a partnership agreement with Taeoh’s company, but as an established hospital, many people with traits trusted and visited it. As if to prove that, the hospital’s history was hung on the waiting room wall as a large signboard.

Entering the examination room accompanied by Jeong Taeseok, Taeoh was able to hear an explanation from Dr. Kang about Doeon’s memory error symptoms, in the capacity of Doeon’s legal guardian.

“Your son was suffering from narcolepsy and sleepwalking, accompanied by symptoms.”

“Narcolepsy and… sleepwalking accompanied symptoms?”

“Narcolepsy is characterized by irresistible drowsiness coming over, and sleepwalking is a type of sleep disorder where one acts as if awake during sleep. In your son’s case, he has been suffering from these two symptoms since he manifested as a recessive omega at the age of fifteen.”

Since the age of fifteen?

Taeoh could not help but be surprised to hear that Doeon’s illness had started from the age of fifteen. Had the symptoms, suppressed with medication until then, burst out all at once like a dam breaking.

If acting as if awake is a characteristic symptom, then were Doeon’s actions, which seemed like a completely different person, symptoms of sleepwalking. If falling asleep and waking up suddenly in the car was an area Doeon could not control, then was seducing him also not Doeon’s will.

Various doubts deeply furrowed Taeoh’s brows. He lowered his voice and asked cautiously.

“If acting as if awake… could it mean acting like a completely different person?”

“It is not impossible. Depending on the situation in the dream, aggressive actions such as kicking, punching, shouting, cursing, and so on can manifest outwardly.”

In Doeon’s case, the problem was that it manifested not as aggressive actions but as sexual actions. But he could not bring himself to mention that symptom.

“Is there no way to wake him during abnormal… actions in sleep?”

If Doeon were to exhibit sexual actions again while being consumed by sleepwalking, was there no way to wake him.

“Waking him unconditionally is not always the best method. The awakened patient may not understand why they are there or what has happened. Such confusion can cause additional anxiety and stress, so it is better to gently guide them back to bed and to sleep.”

It meant that just waking him arbitrarily was not a method. Impatience leaked from Taeoh’s lips, which opened immediately.

“Cannot the abnormal actions appearing during sleep be cured?”

Dr. Kang glanced over the chart. From the age of fifteen, along with heat cycle suppressants, the nervous system medications Doeon had been taking were listed.

“Excessive stress can interfere with sleep and cause sleepwalking symptoms, so appropriately managing stress, along with medication treatment, and creating a safe environment for your son will be helpful.”

“…….”

A safe environment.

As soon as Taeoh returned home, he first dismissed the personnel guarding in front of Doeon’s door. Could the stress have intensified because he had deprived him of his freedom, like caging a bird in a cage, and thus the sleepwalking symptoms had worsened because of that.

A father like him, who, without knowing it was a sleepwalking symptom, had succumbed to his son’s temptations swimming in a hazy dream and mingled bodies.

Spilled water cannot be gathered back, but a broken glass can be filled with new water. If he could dilute the muddy memories soiled like turbid water by pouring clean water into them.

Standing in front of Doeon’s door, he carefully knocked.

“Doeon, it’s Daddy. I’m coming in.”

Opening the door and entering, he saw Doeon sitting on the bed. With the face still bearing traces of sleep as if he had just woken up, he was staring blankly at Taeoh.

The brown pupils gazing at him trembled pitifully. Suddenly, Taeoh first checked Doeon’s pupils. The boundaries were not blurred, and the focus was clear. He seemed to have vaguely woken up, but it did not feel like he was in a dream. Exhaling a breath of relief, he looked down at Doeon.

“I was on my way back from meeting Dr. Kang.”

“……!”

Doeon opened his round eyes wide, then soon took on a look of resignation.

“…You must have heard everything.”

“Most of it.”

It seemed as if the past days of suffering from two accompanied symptoms, narcolepsy and sleepwalking, since manifesting as a recessive omega at the age of fifteen, flashed by quickly, and Doeon was silent for a long while. After a long silence flowed, Doeon slowly parted his lips.

“…Mom said I was unlucky. Not only did I manifest as a recessive omega, but I even got sick.”

“…….”

“Do you think so too, Daddy?”

Whether it was out of genuine curiosity or just something he wanted to ask, Doeon, who threw the question, was smiling self-mockingly. That smile was sad. Taeoh felt a pang in one side of his chest and shook his head.

“No, I don’t think that way.”

“You think of me as trash that can’t even be recycled….”

At the word trash coming from Doeon’s mouth, Taeoh’s eyebrows twisted.

“Me?”

“Yes….”

“Don’t overthink it. And don’t demean yourself like that.”

Water quickly welled up in Doeon’s brown eyes.

“I can’t help it. Because I’m a recessive omega that you hate….”

He could not help but think that way. In fact, Taeoh was not the type to keep weak or unstable beings by his side. Recessive omegas were the same. But it was hard to answer Doeon that way. Why had it become like this. It was strange that he, who had always been decisive in tying and cutting, was yielding before Doeon. Could the guilt he had nurtured over long years like a sense of debt be preventing him from cutting him off. Now, an impatience arose that he had to give an answer before the watery eyes deepened with loss.

“I don’t hate you.”

“You hate me, that’s why you’re trying to find a fiancé for me as soon as possible, even for a day.”

Had he overheard a conversation he should not have in the meantime. Until just a while ago, he had been annoyed at Doeon for lying that he was a beta. Therefore, he had planned to send Doeon as his fiancé to President Baek, even thinking of resolving his funding lines. But after mingling bodies, such thoughts quickly crumbled.

Unlike when he had coldly sent Doha to America, he could not easily cut off Doeon.

“For the time being… I won’t send you.”

“For the time being….”

“Until you get better.”

At that, Doeon lowered his voice as if uncertain.

“What if… I never… get better…?”

“We’ll think about that when the time comes.”

“…….”

“In the meantime, take your medicine well, don’t get stressed, and rest properly.”

Dr. Kang had said that if he steadily took the prescribed medication and managed stress well, the abnormal actions during sleep would gradually improve. Since sleepwalking was a disease vulnerable to stress, it was important for Doeon not to get stressed. Taeoh planned to take care so that he could stay comfortably in the mansion.

“You can live freely in the mansion like before.”

“Is that okay…?”

“Of course. It’s your home.”

A faint color returned to the face that had sunk darkly. He even felt inwardly glad at the sight of the drooping corners of the mouth slowly rising.

At that moment, Doeon lifted his head toward Taeoh. Taeoh, who had been looking at him with satisfaction, and Doeon’s gazes met in the air. The pure, untainted brown pupils seemed to bind him. Taeoh cleared his throat falsely, ahem, once and turned his back.

“Rest comfortably.”

It felt as if the heat in his chest had spread to his face. Mad. Taeoh stroked his sharply defined jaw once and swallowed a bitter smile. At that moment, a voice grabbing him from behind came.

“Um… Daddy….”

“Yes?”

Turning his head, Doeon opened his lips with a face as if lost in thought.

“Have I ever… shown strange… behavior when I was asleep?”

How should he answer. If he told the truth, would he even believe it. Even he, who had experienced everything in his right mind, sometimes felt confused as if it were a bad dream. Taeoh could not bring himself to answer truthfully and slowly shook his head.

“No, never like that.”

“Really…?”

“Why. You don’t believe me?”

When Taeoh tilted his head to the side and narrowed his eyes slightly, Doeon quickly shook his head.

“No, I believe you….”

Doeon nodded with an expression as if a weight had been lifted from one side of his mind. It seemed he had also been worried inwardly about the sleepwalking symptoms. But he had no intention of telling him the truth. It was better for Doeon not to know about what had happened between them. Two mistakes. That matter could be buried as an eternal secret.

At least, that was what he thought at the time.

Step step.

Deep in the night, the sound of footsteps striding without hesitation down the pitch-dark corridor resonated through the vast mansion. Around the time the sticky echo of bare feet stepping on the old wooden floor would disturb the sleep of those soundly asleep, the two feet came to a halt squarely in front of the guest room door.

Click, creak—.

The door opened, and a figure cloaked in white moonlight strode into the guest room. The figure, entering the room with a secretive posture as if draped in the veil of night, stood at the foot of the guest room bed and quietly looked down at the two people sleeping soundly.

“…….”

The sharp gaze that had meticulously scanned the beautiful features of the handsome man, which shone even under the faint light of dawn, coldly touched the other man lying beside him like a foreign object. He was lying on his side, exhaling even, steady breaths. The white figure moved to the man’s side like smoke. He grabbed the wrist of the man exhaling steady breaths, lifted it into the air, and then released it all at once.