Pink Flavor Omega

#28

Unless the emergency exit was used, there was only one path from the top floor penthouse to the hotel lobby. The question was where Eunhong went from the lobby.

While waiting for the CCTV footage to be checked, Jaeha thoroughly searched all exit directions. Unfortunately, it was a holiday period, so there were too many people, and the responses from those who claimed to have seen him were all different.

Not knowing what Eunhong was thinking when he disappeared, Jaeha felt like he was choking with unbearable anxiety. Grasping at straws, he turned and ran to the art hall. It was a vague thought that Eunhong might have gone back to where he first lost consciousness. While searching inside the art hall, his phone rang.

“Yes, tell me.”

– Sir, we’ve spotted someone who looks like Eunhong on the CCTV near the hotel’s back door, walking out to the main street.

For a moment, Jaeha’s legs went weak. He grabbed the railing to stand.

“And then?”

– We confirmed that he took a taxi, and we even got the license plate number and contacted the driver… He said Eunhong gave his home address as the destination. But shortly after, he asked to be let out, saying he wasn’t feeling well.

“Damn it…”

– I’ll send the location the taxi driver provided to your phone, sir.

“Alright. Keep tracking.”

– Understood.

The location Secretary Kim provided wasn’t far. It was typical of Eunhong’s personality.

“You fool… If you’re not feeling well, you should ask for help. Why get out on the street in this cold?”

Just imagining the reason for Eunhong’s actions made Jaeha’s blood run cold. Did he push too hard…? Was he too caught up in his own emotions, misinterpreting Eunhong’s signals?

“Why did you leave me…”

Jaeha’s expression darkened as he started his car to search for Eunhong. A vague sense of anxiety reared its head.

“…Shit.”

He chewed on his lips. This time, Eunhong might really have come to dislike him. He might be somewhere, curled up and resenting Jaeha.

It’s all his fault. Jaeha cursed as he stepped hard on the accelerator. His thoughts spiraled, painfully digging into his consciousness. He had no strength to stop the memories that surfaced, darkly obscuring his vision.

While rejection is unpleasant for anyone, for young Jaeha, it led to a rejection of his very existence.

‘I’m sick of this.’

It was something his mother had been saying habitually at some point. That life was unbearably tedious, begging to be let go. To please remove these shackles.

It started when Jaeha was old enough to understand adult conversations. Even though he didn’t know the exact meaning, the nuance in her tone was enough to make the young heart bleed. And with each passing year, he began to understand the meaning he hadn’t known more and more clearly.

His father offered no explanation. He just repeated like an idiot that if she left him, she would die.

To which his mother retorted that dying right away would be better than staying here.

His mother was confined in the vast house. There were no bars or guards, but the enormous mansion of the wealthy family served as an excellent prison.

‘Just let me die. What does it matter to you now! I hate this!’

‘Be quiet! The child is listening!’

‘That’s not my problem! Do you think that’s important right now?’

‘You’re the child’s mother, you should raise him!’

Amidst the shouting, Jaeha calmly played with his toys, built blocks, and studied. Some days, he watched cartoons while hearing screams and sounds of physical altercations. At those times, he even deliberately left his room door slightly open.

One day, he overheard the servants gathered in a corner of the kitchen, whispering:

‘Blood is scary. The child hasn’t even manifested yet, but he seems to have inherited his father’s strong trait. That kid is no ordinary stubborn child.’

‘I know. My kids cry at the slightest loud noise. This child is unusual.’

‘He doesn’t even hide. And the house is so big.’

Jaeha, who had been quietly listening, pushed over a porcelain vase decorating one side of the living room. Crash! The priceless vase made a tremendous noise as it shattered into pieces, scattering everywhere in an instant. He calmly looked down at it.

The panicked servants rushed over, asking if he was hurt, moving him away from the fragments, and making a fuss pretending to be concerned.

‘Are you done gossiping? The noise of you talking without knowing anything… was hard to bear.’

‘…Jaeha, the aunties didn’t mean…’

‘No matter how big the house is, no matter how much you hide… there are sounds that can always be heard. And it’s better to hear them clearly. Because if you can’t hear, you start to imagine.’

Thinking back, Jaeha realized he had learned rejection from the beginning.

‘How much I’m hated, how tedious I am, how horrible this living shackle gripping her ankle is. I end up creating even the things mom didn’t say out loud.’

Jaeha, speaking in a way beyond his years with a mix of lament, turned his back and left. As the servants were chilled by the young master’s demeanor, he didn’t forget to add one more thing.

‘You’re all fired.’

Because people were abundant. There was no need to endure. After all, the person he needed most was rejecting him…

Bang!

The sound alerting that the traffic light had changed woke Jaeha from his reverie. He had been searching thoroughly around the area where Eunhong was last seen for quite some time. He didn’t even know how much time had passed.

Feeling suffocated, he unbuttoned his shirt, but it was still hard to breathe.

“…Where are you, Eunhong?”

Feeling like he might cause an accident if he continued driving, he pulled over to the side of the road. As he rested his head on the steering wheel, Eunhong’s face kept flickering in his mind. Jaeha closed his eyes and rewound his memories countless times.

What did he do wrong…? He tried to find hints in Eunhong’s expressions from his memories, going over them again and again.

As his fingers tapping on the steering wheel became increasingly compulsive, his phone rang loudly. Jaeha’s eyes snapped open.

The car made a terrifying noise as it crashed up the slope at the hospital’s main entrance. A car slowly coming out from the right side slammed on its brakes, rolled down its window, and started shouting and cursing.

Jaeha parked haphazardly, slammed the car door shut hard enough to break it, and ran into the hospital building. According to Secretary Kim, Eunhong had just completed discharge procedures, so he should be at the administrative office or in the lobby.

The hospital lobby near the main entrance was crowded with people. Some looked with interest at the tall man running in breathlessly. The sound of his dress shoes hitting the marble floor was loud. After running around every corner of the lobby looking for Eunhong, Jaeha suddenly stopped in front of a stone pillar with a hospital map.

He suddenly recalled Eunhong’s scent. He had seen many omegas in his life, but never such pheromones. Jaeha ran his hand through his hair, considering the possibilities. Eunhong might have been moved to the trait ward. Jaeha’s hand pointed to somewhere on the map.

He passed through two or three buildings to reach the isolated trait ward. As he sprinted across the wide path, the frozen air felt like it was tearing into his lungs.

“Huff, huff…”

While breathing painfully, his eyes finally found Eunhong. He was crouched down, his long, slender body curled up tightly, face buried between his knees. Jaeha started to call out to Eunhong but decided to just approach him instead.

As the distance closed, Eunhong’s presence became palpable. The hospital must have given him a strong suppressant, as his pheromones had all subsided, but to Jaeha, Eunhong’s pheromones were visible and tangible like a hallucination.

Sensing someone’s presence, Eunhong looked up, blinking his large eyes. His face, which had been busy crying for days, was soaked again.

“Lee Jaeha!”

Jaeha swiftly lifted Eunhong and urgently held him in his arms. As he embraced Eunhong’s cold body, a shocking sensation shook Jaeha. Eunhong’s tears wetting his shoulder felt burning hot.

His heart, which had been constricted as if dead when he momentarily lost Eunhong, slowly began to beat again as if released from restraint. Hot blood circulated again, spreading warmth from his chest throughout his body. He squeezed his eyes shut at the painfully tingling sensation reaching to his fingertips.

Jaeha cupped Eunhong’s cheeks and met his gaze. The teary eyes looked back at him with the same light as before. Only then did his blocked airways open, and he inhaled the sweet air.

“You! Do you know how long I’ve been looking for you?”

Jaeha hugged Eunhong as if he might burst. Even hugging wasn’t enough to express his feelings. His mind, which had gone through heaven and hell in half a day, shrank with sudden fatigue. He wanted to hold Eunhong tightly, crawl into a place where no one would disturb them, and spend days and nights biting, sucking, and rolling around. Even that wouldn’t be enough.

“Ugh, Jaeha, what about me? I might be pregnant!”

“What?”

“But I can’t remember a damn thing! Waaah!”

However, Eunhong’s subsequent words about not remembering anything genuinely confused Jaeha. His serious concerns suddenly made him feel like a fool.

Are you kidding me? Ban Eunhong… You forgot everything after two days of that?

Suddenly, he had an intense craving for a cigarette.