Flower Fiancé Chapter 111

Just as the auntie was about to speak, Ji Yeonwoo’s phone, which had been placed on the dining table, vibrated.

It was a call from his friend Seo Eungyeom.

∞ ∞ ∞

Ji Yeonwoo, dressed in a short-sleeved T-shirt and jeans, opened the door and walked into the café. He spotted Seo Eungyeom sitting by a window in the corner, waving his hand.

“What’s up at this hour? Work?”

Ji Yeonwoo pulled out a chair and sat down, asking as if wondering why he was here at this time. He wasn’t even in the suit he wore to work. He was dressed casually in a comfortable T-shirt and cotton pants, as if he had come straight from home.

“Aren’t you thirsty? Let’s have something to drink and talk.”

Seo Eungyeom got up from his seat and walked over to the counter.

“What do you want to drink?”

“I’ll have iced tea. You?”

“Same. We’ll have two iced teas, please. We’ll be drinking here.”

Ji Yeonwoo watched Seo Eungyeom, who naturally paid the bill, with puzzled eyes. No matter how many months it had been since they last met, he knew that one’s taste in drinks didn’t change easily. Ji Yeonwoo rarely drank coffee, and when he did, it was a latte, but Seo Eungyeom could almost be called a coffee addict.

‘A person who downs several cups of iced Americano a day is ordering iced tea?’

Even after sitting down, Ji Yeonwoo kept staring at Seo Eungyeom as if something were off. Seo Eungyeom, in turn, just smiled meaningfully at Ji Yeonwoo.

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Be honest. What’s going on?”

“What do you mean?”

“I’ve known you for over ten years, but this is the first time I’ve seen you order a caffeine-free drink at a café. And work? Are you on annual leave?”

“No. I took a leave of absence from work.”

“What? Why?”

“Just, it’s nothing else…”

Startled, Ji Yeonwoo asked back, and Seo Eungyeom, after taking a sip of his iced tea, glanced around.

“Actually, Yeonwoo.”

Then he crooked his index finger, motioning for Ji Yeonwoo to come closer. As Ji Yeonwoo leaned in as if drawn, Seo Eungyeom whispered softly into his ear.

“…!”

Sitting back upright, Ji Yeonwoo was so surprised that he couldn’t easily find his words. Seo Eungyeom looked at him and smiled.

“Twelve weeks, they said.”

“What? Really?”

At the confirming question, Seo Eungyeom nodded with a smile.

“Foods I normally ate well didn’t agree with me, and instead, I craved things I never used to touch. I know symptoms vary from person to person, but I heard most people with morning sickness can’t eat well and throw up a lot. But I was eating so well I didn’t even notice. Then Mister watched me closely and made a phone call somewhere.”

“And then?”

“Mister told me to go to the hospital where he works, so I followed him, and it turned out to be the obstetrics and gynecology department.”

“Oh, so he asked a friendly doctor for a favor. Suspecting it might be pregnancy. Right?”

Seo Eungyeom nodded his head.

“I was already preparing for marriage anyway. We’d finished the formal meeting between both families, and we just needed to set a date… But the baby came first.”

Even as he spoke, Seo Eungyeom scratched his hair, looking embarrassed. Only then did Ji Yeonwoo notice an unfamiliar ring on the fourth finger of Seo Eungyeom’s left hand.

Ji Yeonwoo and Seo Eungyeom, meeting after a long time, talked for quite a while at the café. They thought about eating something, but Seo Eungyeom’s stomach kept feeling upset, so it seemed difficult to eat anything.

Ji Yeonwoo sincerely congratulated Seo Eungyeom on his pregnancy and marriage. In fact, considering just the number of years they’d been dating, they had been together longer than Ji Yeonwoo and Choi Moohyuk, so he’d thought they would get married sooner. It was also curious how he ended up getting married before Seo Eungyeom’s couple.

When Ji Yeonwoo returned home, the auntie had already left after work. The empty house was so quiet that not even the sound of a clock could be heard.

Standing in the middle of the living room and looking around, Ji Yeonwoo’s gaze stopped at the clock. Just past 6 o’clock. It was Choi Moohyuk’s quitting time.

He absentmindedly started to walk into the kitchen but halted. His stomach, which had only felt bloated and uncomfortable, suddenly felt like it was turning over.

‘Huh? Why suddenly…’

It was starting again. Symptoms similar to what he’d felt at the flower shop where he’d worked part-time were recurring. He tried to endure it, but this time the intensity was too strong to handle.

Ji Yeonwoo frowned abruptly and hurried into the bathroom.

In the end, he clutched the toilet bowl and threw up everything he had eaten. Not that it was much—just a small amount of rice and dessert—but he vomited it all out without leaving a single bit.

“Yeonwoo.”

Just then, he heard a voice calling from outside the door. It seemed Choi Moohyuk had come home from work. Ji Yeonwoo, who had flushed the toilet, turned around but staggered and slumped down onto the tiled floor.

“Are you in the bathroom?”

His vision was spinning and his stomach was churning. He had exerted so much effort that he had no energy left. Cold sweat was beading on his forehead.

“…Haah, Mr. Moohyuk.”

Afraid that if he stayed quiet, Choi Moohyuk would worry and come looking, Ji Yeonwoo called out to him while looking at the door. His throat felt raw, and his cracked voice had no strength in it.

“…Hyung.”

He didn’t know about anything else, but he could clearly tell that his body wasn’t normal. He thought he needed to ask for help quickly. He barely squeezed out his failing voice to call out, and at the same moment, the door opened.

“…!”

Choi Moohyuk, who had been about to step inside, was startled to see Ji Yeonwoo slumped on the floor, covered in cold sweat. His eyes wide open, he tossed aside the briefcase and phone he was holding carelessly and rushed to his side in an instant.

Ji Yeonwoo tried to stand up, bracing himself against the sink, but his legs gave way again. As he was about to slump down, Choi Moohyuk urgently caught him in his arms. Breathing in small, shallow gasps, Ji Yeonwoo looked up and saw Choi Moohyuk staring back at him with a shocked and flustered expression. Ji Yeonwoo, clinging to Choi Moohyuk’s firm arms that held him steady, leaned his head against him.

“I barely ate anything, but my stomach is so—ugh.”

He couldn’t even manage a short conversation. In the end, unable to finish his sentence, Ji Yeonwoo paused and covered his mouth with the back of his hand.

Choi Moohyuk, holding the distressed Ji Yeonwoo, gently patted his back. The pheromones emanating from him enveloped Ji Yeonwoo’s body. Ji Yeonwoo took shallow breaths, feeling his pheromones push deep into his lungs with every inhale. Miraculously, the nausea was gradually subsiding.

Ji Yeonwoo slowly raised his head and looked at him. Eyes full of worry were scanning every part of his face.

“…Let’s go to the hospital first.”

He didn’t have the energy to answer. His face was pale with worry. He wanted to tell him that it was okay, that he would be fine, but his eyelids kept drooping.

“We’ll be there soon. Just hold on a little longer.”

Choi Moohyuk, looking at him with a grave expression, lifted Ji Yeonwoo in his arms and stood up.

Choi Moohyuk took Ji Yeonwoo straight to Sunwoo General Hospital. Outside of consultation hours, they would have had to go to the emergency room, but Choi Moohyuk, a VIP who ran the foundation, had Ji Yeonwoo admitted directly to a private ward.

The hospital was put on alert due to the sudden visit of a VIP. Even the hospital director and vice-director, who had already left work, returned. After a brief meeting upon hearing the symptoms, the medical staff conducted simple tests including blood work and an ultrasound.

While waiting for the results, Choi Moohyuk stayed by Ji Yeonwoo’s side. Although it was a hospital, the private ward reserved for VIPs, even among private wards, boasted an interior so luxurious it could almost be considered a studio apartment.

Ji Yeonwoo lay on the plush bed, receiving an IV drip and sleeping. To call it sleeping was generous; it wouldn’t be strange to say he had passed out from exhaustion.

Pulling a chair up next to the bed and sitting down, Choi Moohyuk held Ji Yeonwoo’s limp hand, lost in thought.

‘What on earth is the problem?’

Sometime after returning from their honeymoon, Ji Yeonwoo had suddenly started sleeping much more and constantly complained of an upset stomach. He’d even stopped eating foods he usually enjoyed, which had been a great concern, and then this incident happened today.

‘Surely it’s not another pheromone abnormality?’

No matter how much he’d been told he was fully cured, he’d also heard that once you’ve had pheromone deficiency, it could relapse at any time. Since the cure had been achieved through natural recovery rather than medication, they said the probability could be as high as 50%, higher than for other pheromone deficiency patients.

That thought nagged at his mind, and Choi Moohyuk brought Ji Yeonwoo’s pale, thin hand up to his forehead, holding it in both of his hands.