Flower Fiancé Chapter 95

Ji Yeonwoo stared at his trembling hands with bewildered eyes. For some reason, he couldn’t put any strength into them. Strange, he thought, and suddenly chills and dizziness rushed over him. His legs gave way. Staggering, Ji Yeonwoo urgently reached out and grabbed the table. But because he couldn’t put strength into his hands, he couldn’t support his body and slid down, collapsing onto the floor. Everything happened in an instant.

“Why all of a sudden…”

Even as he barely managed to speak in a trembling voice, the dizziness grew worse. The floor seemed to undulate like waves, so he squeezed his eyes shut. Later, his body burned and a fever rose as well.

He needed to contact someone—Choi Moohyuk or Park Jincheol—but his phone wasn’t nearby. And he didn’t think he could even move to the room in this state.

‘What’s wrong with me? Did I eat something bad?’

He didn’t remember eating enough to have indigestion. Would he be okay if he just stayed still like this? Fear washing over him, Ji Yeonwoo hugged his body with both arms and curled up. He thought that if the symptoms worsened, he would have to ask someone—anyone—for help.

Fortunately, after a short while, the symptoms subsided. It was as if nothing had happened—beyond a complete recovery, he even felt more refreshed than usual.

Ji Yeonwoo himself was bewildered by his own clearly abnormal physical state. He tried to find a cause but simply couldn’t figure it out. Standing dazedly in place, lost in thought, a recent event suddenly flashed through his mind.

“Wait….”

A sense of déjà vu struck him. He wasn’t sure if it was just his imagination, but the symptoms that day in the elevator when the heat had hit him and the symptoms now were strikingly similar. The loss of strength in his body, the chills and fever. The one difference was that back then, Choi Moohyuk had been beside him, supporting him, but now he was entirely alone.

Biting his lip hard, Ji Yeonwoo looked around with flustered, shaking eyes.

One by one, scattered puzzle pieces found their places. Things that had been invisible until now, and things he hadn’t been able to perceive, began to come into view.

“Surely, like that day, pheromones are flowing again?”

∞ ∞ ∞

A clicking sound in his sleep made him open his eyes. Right beside him, Choi Moohyuk, dressed casually, was leaning back against the headboard, working on his tablet. His unstyled hair, as if he had just showered, fell down and covered his forehead, and he smelled of a pleasant body wash.

With eyes that wouldn’t quite open, Ji Yeonwoo picked up his phone. It was already past 9 PM. He thought he had just closed his eyes for a moment, but had he slept the whole day like this? Startled, he stared at the time on the screen when he felt a gentle hand touch his forehead.

“You’re awake?”

Choi Moohyuk had set down the tablet and was looking down at him. Ji Yeonwoo rubbed his eyes with the back of his hand and smiled languidly. It was hard to shake off the drowsy feeling.

“You slept quite a bit.”

“I guess so. It seems I’m getting lazy from not working.”

“It’s okay to rest a bit. If I had my way, I’d open a flower shop for you, but that’s not the priority right now.”

“Yeah. I know what you mean. I understand.”

Choi Moohyuk, as if finding it endearing, brushed Ji Yeonwoo’s bangs back as he answered obediently. After lightly touching his hair with his fingers, he sank his fingers deeper and swept it back. A gentle smile lingered at the corners of his mouth.

Ji Yeonwoo reached out first toward Choi Moohyuk, who was sitting leaning against the headboard. Chuckling at his childlike, coddling manner, Choi Moohyuk pretended to give in and leaned down.

Pulling his neck within range into an embrace, Ji Yeonwoo carefully drew him in. Choi Moohyuk, yielding to the touch, descended onto Ji Yeonwoo’s lips.

As warm, soft kisses were exchanged, Ji Yeonwoo recalled what had happened that morning. Should he tell him? He had thought about it for a moment, but decided to keep it to himself for now.

The episode had subsided quickly, and he didn’t want to burden him with worry when he was already busy.

∞ ∞ ∞

Leaning his elbow on the window frame, Choi Moohyuk drove, lost in thought.

A day had passed since he returned to Seoul after finishing the Jeju business trip. Rather than feeling relieved that he had safely gotten through the suffocatingly busy schedule, something weighed on his mind.

It was because Ji Yeonwoo’s physical condition had been concerning ever since they returned from the Jeju trip. When he asked what was wrong, he didn’t really say anything. He wasn’t the type to hide things or keep quiet, but seeing him act as if he had something to say yet hold back was worrisome.

There were three days left until the scheduled medical appointment. If he noticed anything even slightly unusual in the meantime, he thought he would take him to another hospital.

Rubbing his lower lip with his finger as he drove, Choi Moohyuk soon stiffened his expression and gripped the steering wheel with both hands. As the car entered a familiar road, the large, ornate iron gate, which had been firmly shut, recognized the license plate and opened automatically.

Crossing the road lined with landscaping on both sides, the car stopped in front of a magnificent traditional Korean-style mansion. A middle-aged secretary hurried out from inside the entrance to greet Choi Moohyuk, who had just gotten out of the car.

“It’s been a while, Managing Director. How is it that you came without notice….”

The secretary bowed politely, but his eyes remained vigilant. Having served as Chairman Choi’s secretary for a long time, there was no way he was unaware of the recent events surrounding Choi Moohyuk.

He had thought of a solution as soon as he returned from the Jeju trip. This time, the situation had been so urgent that he had no choice but to bring Ji Yeonwoo along, but that wasn’t the best solution. He couldn’t keep avoiding things with a worried heart forever.

“I’ve come to see the Chairman. Is he in?”

He smiled as he watched the secretary glance around nervously.

If the Chairman kept hiding his true intentions and issuing threats, Choi Moohyuk decided to publicly reveal Ji Yeonwoo’s existence first.

As expected, there were no good exchanges with Chairman Choi. Just as voices were rising toward the end of a tedious conversation, it was his stepmother who stepped in to mediate between father and son.

She said she would talk on his behalf and gently coaxed Chairman Choi. Though his displeasure was palpable, it was clear that if he stayed, they would only fight, so Chairman Choi left the seat to her and rose.

A quiet silence fell over the space that had been filled with raised voices. Taking a sip of black tea to catch her breath, his stepmother spoke first.

“Even so, I never imagined you’d take that child along on a business trip.”

Choi Moohyuk, who had just taken a sip of black tea, looked up with his eyes. His stepmother shook her head as if to say he was quite something.

“He might have been harmed—I couldn’t just leave him be.”

“So, are you thinking of marrying that child?”

After beating around the bush, the true intention finally came out.

“Do I need to seek your permission for that as well, Stepmother?”

At the wary retort, his stepmother drew up the tips of her red-painted lips.

“Don’t misunderstand. It was none other than me who persuaded your hot-tempered father.”

Choi Moohyuk, listening, furrowed his brow.

“Do you know how much trouble I went through to stop him from following you all the way to Jeju in his anger?”

Hearing that, it sounded a bit strange. It came across as if she were boasting about how she had helped him.

“Has my memory been distorted? I recall that we are not on such close terms, Stepmother.”

When he asked in a wary tone, his stepmother chuckled.

“That’s right. We’re not close. But if we weigh our interests carefully, aren’t we in the same boat?”

“What do you mean by that?”

“That child. He’s from an ordinary middle-class family, a superior omega who was divorced as if cast out from the JT Group. And on top of that, he’s suffering from pheromone deficiency, isn’t he?”

Hearing Ji Yeonwoo’s personal information flow smoothly from his stepmother’s lips, Choi Moohyuk’s face twisted harshly.

“He’s covered in flaws, so if a superior alpha like you insists on marrying that worthless omega, it’s even better for me, isn’t it?”

“….”