Inside, it was cool thanks to the air conditioning, but one step outside the door was the hot and humid Hong Kong summer.
The taut tension between Yeehyeon and Liu back when they weren’t yet lovers, and their gazes that crossed, missed, and viscously tangled as they remained conscious of each other. Jealousy and relief, suspense and thrill, craving and adoration. And finally, the falling in love that he had no choice but to admit.
And the shock.
The shock of encountering a partner who had no control over his own knotting and changing.
In the mere few days he had stayed in Hong Kong, the being known as Seo Yeehyeon had completely shaken him. It was to the point that it could almost be called destruction.
Even now, he could vividly recall the twenty-two-year-old Yeehyeon, growing hazy from the first cigarette he’d ever smoked on a street in Soho.
「Mr. Rabbit.」
That was also the moment Yeehyeon had first called him Mr. Rabbit.
Because it was such a special city for the two of them, he was all the more disappointed that Yeehyeon couldn’t accompany him on this trip to Hong Kong. Though they didn’t show it, his parents also seemed quite sad that they wouldn’t be able to see Yeehyeon. After all, they dote on Yeehyeon more than they do on me. With that thought, Liu gave a light shrug of his shoulders and chuckled to himself.
But there was another reason why he found it particularly difficult to be apart from Yeehyeon.
Since that sudden heat last month, Yeehyeon had shown no other particular symptoms. They had even visited a clinic in nearby Singapore for a check-up, but as expected, they found nothing wrong with ‘Diamond Dust.’ According to the diagnosis, Yeehyeon was a 100% stable omega.
Even so, Liu couldn’t be completely at ease.
It wasn’t just because of the sweet sentiment of not wanting to be separated from his partner while they were in the throes of their honeymoon. He still hadn’t been able to completely shake off the memory of that incident, or the anxiety it had caused.
Liu’s gray-blue eyes, which had been fixed on the distant runway, flickered to the right. Yuni’s reflection appeared in the window as she approached from behind. Coming to a stop beside him, Yuni lowered her voice and asked.
“CEO, what’s wrong?”
“What do you mean, what’s wrong? What about?”
“You’ve been quiet this whole time, and you were keeping to yourself in the lounge, too. Is there a problem with your pair? If it’s something I should know…”
“Ah… um… no.”
Shaking his head with a bitter smile, Liu added awkwardly.
“It’s because of Yeehyeon.”
“Ah, I was worried for a second.”
Only then did Yuni’s expression relax with a look of relief.
“If there’s one person in this world you don’t have to worry about, it’s Seo Yeehyeon. You know he’s good at taking care of himself. Don’t worry so much.”
“No, it’s not that usual overprotective stuff.”
“Then what is it?”
After a moment’s hesitation, Liu decided it was something he didn’t need to hide from Yuni and brought it up.
“Have you ever heard of… Reversion?”
“I’ve heard of it.”
“You have?”
He had thought it was something betas wouldn’t know much about, so Yuni’s immediate nod was unexpected.
“Movies and dramas with that as a theme were super popular at one point. I think Yoon Juho even filmed a drama like that once…”
She narrowed her eyes, trying to recall the title, but soon gave up and shrugged.
“Anyway, I hear that even married couples don’t really use pheromones on each other these days. Because if Reversion happens and they end up getting a divorce later, it’d be a huge… pro… blem.”
“……”
Yuni, who had been speaking casually until then, slowly grew serious. As if worried someone might overhear, she lowered her voice further and whispered.
“Are you anxious because you’re away from Yeehyeon? Because of that Reversion thing?”
“I’m not sure, but I think that might be it.”
Otherwise, this intense and unusual anxiety was inexplicable. It was different from simple worry. No matter the trauma, Liu himself was the one who knew best that, just as Yuni said, Yeehyeon was a capable person who didn’t need to be worried about.
“Wow… that was actually possible in real life?”
“It’s a very rare occurrence in this day and age.”
“In Hollywood movies, when they’re separated from their omega, they get superhuman strength, tear through iron bars, and escape.”
“That’s just cinematic exaggeration.”
Liu couldn’t help but laugh at the thoroughly beta-like fantasy about alphas and omegas.
Pat. Yuni placed a hand on Liu’s shoulder and said with a serious expression.
“And they become extremely violent, too. CEO, you can’t do that on a business trip. They’re all clients.”
“You’re being cheeky.”
Even as he chided her, Yuni’s joke helped Liu relax a little. As if that was her intention, she grinned and added a word of comfort.
“This is the first time you’ve been apart for a long time since getting married, right? Maybe that’s why.”
“Yeah, that’s probably it.”
Reversion was not a scientifically explained phenomenon. Just as many aspects related to pheromones remained a mystery. A significant number of papers had even been published arguing that Reversion was not a physical or chemical reaction, but merely a psychological phenomenon.
But what if it was Diamond Dust and Ghost?
Exceptions could exist anywhere. Like Yeehyeon’s inexplicable heat.
An announcement began to play, stating that boarding would begin with priority passengers, including business class passengers, the elderly, pregnant women, and those with disabilities. Liu and his group gathered their carry-on luggage and moved toward the gate.
Before takeoff, sitting in his seat, Liu had one last call with Yeehyeon. Hearing Yeehyeon’s voice telling him to have a safe flight and to call again when he arrived helped him feel a little more at ease.
With a somewhat lighter heart, he switched his phone to airplane mode.
Completely unaware of what news he would hear from Yeehyeon after a four-hour and forty-minute flight.
■ ■ ■
Yeehyeon stood frozen in place for a moment. He didn’t know what to do.
The slick that had poured out had not only soaked his underwear but was also running down his thighs inside his pants.
The very faint scent wafting from Liu’s shirt had made him miss his skin and body heat a little. He thought his lower abdomen and the space between his legs had throbbed a bit, too. But this amount of slick for this level of arousal…
Gush. Before he could even finish that self-justification, another gush of it poured out. It was more than when his heat had hit.
Could it be…?
In that instant, the possibility that flashed through Yeehyeon’s mind was pregnancy.
Yeehyeon had been consistently studying the bodies of alphas and omegas, especially omegas. Thanks to that, he had been able to recover from the panic relatively quickly when his first heat arrived.
But his current state was different from a heat. It wasn’t that sensation where his limbs trembled, arousal surged, and he came to want only Liu.
The frequent need to urinate, enough to wake him from sleep, and heightened nerves were common signs of pregnancy. Moreover, the sudden secretion of a large amount of slick despite not being in heat, leading to easier arousal than usual, was an early symptom of pregnancy in omegas.
But… how?
Kun and I were always so careful about taking our contraceptives.
Even though his head knew that pregnancy was impossible, his heart began to pound. His breathing quickened.
It was an undeniable sense of anticipation. The anticipation that he might be pregnant, that his and Liu’s baby might have arrived. Though he knew it was a foolish thought, Yeehyeon couldn’t shake the feeling.
It seemed he wouldn’t be able to calm down at all without finding out right away.
Yeehyeon first went to the bathroom to deal with the secreted slick. As he washed his body, he tried his best to think as calmly as possible.
The first person who came to mind was More.
Should I ask my noona if she can buy me a pregnancy test?
But what if he really was pregnant? The chances were almost nil, but if, by some one-in-a-million chance, he was?
Then he wanted to tell Liu first. He wanted Liu to be the very first person in the world to know even the fact that he had tested for a possible pregnancy.
By the time he finished his shower, Yeehyeon had made up his mind.
In case more slick came out, he folded a hand towel the size of a handkerchief and tucked it into his underwear. Even though it was a private ritual no one would know about, it stirred a considerable sense of sexual shame. A shame closer to embarrassment than discomfort. But there was no other way. It would be a disaster if it gushed out again while he was out.
The squall was still pouring down.
Yeehyeon, pulling a cap down low, drove one of the cars parked in the garage and left the house. Cold sweat trickled down his back and he felt a slight chill, but he was so filled with excitement and anticipation that he didn’t even notice.
He headed to a pharmacy about a twenty-minute drive away, where they wouldn’t know Liu Weikun and Seo Yeehyeon of Phantom Bali.
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