Dirty Switch

“Hmm, fortunately, there are no abnormal reactions related to his secondary gender traits. It doesn’t appear to be a cold either. If I had to categorize it, I’d say it’s a mild fever caused by fatigue.”
Only after several experts in secondary gender physiology—including the family physician—had given consistent opinions did the family finally let out a sigh of relief.
“I really said I wasn’t sick…”

Joo Taehyun murmured with a cracked voice, and Joo Yoonwoo gave him a look—not harsh, but sharp enough to scold without scaring him.
“Sigh. If only you could actually say that when it mattered.”
“I’m sorry, Doctor Woo. I just panicked… He had a fever, and…”

“No need to apologize, ma’am. I would have reacted the same.”
“You did good, honey. You really did.”
Chairman Joo finally exhaled a breath he’d been holding. It couldn’t be helped. When the youngest is sick—especially with a fever—it’s like the sky collapses.

Just a single missed dose of suppressant, even when they had money overflowing, had almost cost them their child. No matter how much time passes, some scars never fade; if anything, they deepen. For this family, the memory of Taehyun’s collapse was exactly that kind of scar.
But even after that night, Taehyun had been ill for another week.
Though it was just a mild fever, it refused to go away, so today they had gone ahead with a full medical checkup. Thankfully, everything came back normal. In fact, his secondary gender trait readings had stabilized more than ever. The doctor even recommended that Taehyun become more active in public life from now on.

“His numbers improved?”
“Yes. Did he have contact with another Alpha during that event?”
Seo Baekhan’s name sprang to mind immediately. He had patted Taehyun’s head. But for some reason, he didn’t want to bring that up in front of his parents. Besides, Baekhan hadn’t been the only one he’d interacted with at the concert… And so, for the first time in his life, Joo Taehyun told a lie.

“Uh… not contact exactly, just a few brief greetings.”
“Ah, then that probably helped. To explain simply, a vaccine is essentially an injection of weakened virus strains. It teaches your body how to fight by giving it something safe to practice with. I think the young master could benefit from a similar process—regular exposure to people, including those with active secondary traits. Please continue engaging in events as you have been.”
“But… still…”

“You can trust me. The more active he becomes in public, the less frequently he’ll get sick like this. Comprehensive checkups aren’t exactly harmless, after all. You know how it is—CT scans, poking around the whole body. If you do that too often, it can actually raise fatigue levels.”
“Hmm… So what you’re saying is that helping our baby build up his immunity also includes things like that.”
“Exactly, Chairman. Oh, and young master—there’s some early movement in your wisdom teeth. Have they been bothering you at all?”
“My wisdom teeth…?”

The doctor said it wasn’t at a stage that required any intervention. If they grew in straight, there might never be a need for extraction.
“If they start hitting the nerves, or grow crooked and block other teeth, or decay, then of course they’d need to come out. But for now, we can leave them alone.”
In the panoramic dental x-ray the physician showed him, a tiny tooth could be seen peeking out at the very back of his otherwise neatly aligned teeth. It was so small, it looked tinier than a fingernail—that was the wisdom tooth.

Wisdom tooth.
An utterly useless thing that only grows when you become an adult.
When he asked his parents why something so painful had such a beautiful name, they told him that while the exact origin wasn’t certain, people said it started to grow around the time you learned what love felt like. Hence, the name “wisdom tooth.”

“Mine hurt like hell. It wasn’t even decayed, but it hurt just from pushing through the gums. People say the pain feels like heartache—like being lovesick.”
“…I see.”
“Why are you scaring the kid already? Everyone goes through it—it’s nothing to fear. In English, they call it a ‘wisdom tooth,’ too. So no matter the language, it probably has the same idea: a tooth that comes in just as your mind starts maturing.”

“Now that I think about it, why did it grow all of a sudden? Did someone at that concert catch your eye?”
And of course, the teasing came as a bonus.
Joo Taehyun quietly pressed on the lower left side of his jaw, where he didn’t feel a thing yet. Then, out of habit, he began fiddling with his phone.

He deleted “Seo Baekhan” from his search history and typed in “wisdom tooth.” One of the related searches was “lovesickness.”
A condition caused by intense yearning for someone one has feelings for. Not medically recognized. Often accompanied by mild fever and facial flushing similar to cold symptoms…
Whether it was wisdom teeth or lovesickness, they both felt too heavy for a twelve-year-old like him. Especially since he didn’t even have someone he liked. ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) Just worrying about how he was supposed to live his life was exhausting enough. …Or so he told himself.

Joo Taehyun leaned back against the seat and closed his eyes. Despite sitting between his parents, the spacious rear seat gave him plenty of room. Lately, he’d start dozing off the moment his head touched anything soft, and sure enough, he drifted off again.
In the rearview mirror, a faint flush of warmth still lingered on the pale face of the sleeping boy.
***

Age thirteen, early summer.
In March of this year, Joo Taehyun enrolled at a private middle school in Gwangjin District. “Private” didn’t do the place justice—its admission and tuition fees rivaled foreign universities. Families without significant wealth couldn’t even step through the gates.
Honestly, Taehyun had wanted to attend a regular public school. But he understood when his parents pointed out that his circumstances weren’t exactly “ordinary.” His siblings had also argued that, since he’d never experienced regular school life because of his manifestation fever, it would be better to attend a school where many students could understand his unique background.

And above all:
Ah, my friend went there too.
The curriculum’s solid, so stay active :)
1:13 AM
Even Seo Baekhan had said the school was decent, which gave him the courage he needed.

It wasn’t exactly close to the family home, but they had agreed he’d always be accompanied by a chauffeur for both drop-off and pick-up. So the distance wasn’t a big issue. Besides, there weren’t that many schools in Seoul that had gotten a unanimous thumbs-up from the family.
Chairman Joo grumbled the most, warning about how horrific Seoul traffic was during rush hour. He insisted it would be a disaster if “our baby” got carsick. But the fact that the school was close to both DH Group HQ and Director Yoo’s gallery made it a no-brainer. If anything happened, a family member could rush over instantly, and more importantly, several major hospitals capable of handling emergencies were within a twenty-minute radius. From the family’s perspective, no other option even came close.
Taehyun hadn’t gotten his way on every decision, but still—he was excited. He looked forward to his first real experience with classmates. He wondered what it would feel like to take classes alongside other kids. Even though he’d already learned most of the material and was warned that first-year classes might bore him, he still felt a flutter of excitement.

He was so nervous the night before that he barely slept.
Not in a bad way—it was a pleasant, anxious kind of excitement.
“Ohh. Joo Taehyun? I’ve never seen him before.”

“Right? He looks pretty good, too. I figured he must have some kind of issue since he never shows his face. Anyway, stick with us from now on. Don’t hang out with those nouveau riche losers and lower your status.”
But that excitement didn’t even last half a day. No—by the end of the entrance ceremony, it was completely gone.
Every time Taehyun tried to cautiously approach someone and make a friend, they’d shove a phone in his face first.

“Taehyun, here. Let’s take one… Uh, is it okay if I post this?”
These kids did seem to understand Taehyun’s unusual background. But it had nothing to do with the duty his family emphasized or the privilege Baekhan had warned about. It was about the chauffeur, the ever-present bodyguard, the expensive supplies that were a bit much for a middle schooler, the rare corporate credit card that normal workers couldn’t even apply for… those were what set him apart.