𝐆𝐮𝐚𝐫𝐝𝐢𝐚́𝐧 || 𝐉𝐞𝐨𝐧𝐠𝐂𝐡𝐞𝐨𝐥

Chapter 14

Seungcheol drove into town early Saturday morning, leaving Jeonghan to sleep in. He woke to the alpha sitting down on the side of the bed.

“Got you those pills. The lady said to take one now, and one the same time tomorrow.”

Jeonghan scrubbed at his eyes and sat up, taking the pill and the offered glass of water. He swallowed it down then, realizing he was thirsty, chugged down the rest of the glass.

“Feel like some breakfast?” Seungcheol asked. “I think we should talk.”

He padded downstairs after the alpha, sitting at the kitchen table while Seungcheol made French toast again. He felt… different somehow. Content, satisfied, relaxed. Seungcheol set two plates down in front of them and a glass of orange juice each, taking a seat opposite him.

“There are a few things I need to say.”

A twinge of anxiety disrupted Jeonghan’s quiet contentment.

“What things?”

“Firstly, I wanted to thank you for letting me share your heat. It was pretty amazing, and I hope I made it good for you, too.”

“You did,” Jeonghan agreed quickly. “It was better than I ever thought it could be.”

“I’m glad to hear it. That said, I need you to know that this, you and me, it can’t go anywhere. The type of life I lead isn’t the kind where it’s right or fair to drag an omega around after me.”

Jeonghan didn’t understand. “But… this is your life.”

“This is my vacation. I’m tidying up a few loose ends before I pick up where I left off. And there’s no place for an omega there, no place for you. This was great, Jeonghan, and I’ll cherish the memories we’ve made together, but I don’t think it’s fair to get your hopes up that there might be more between us. It can’t happen.”

His daydreams were shattered in a matter of moments.

“I… I understand.”

He didn’t, not really, but he was trying to. It was his own fault for getting his hopes up. Seungcheol had tried to warn him, after all. More than once. But he’d had his head too deep in the clouds, imagining a life with the alpha, to actually heed Seungcheol’s words.

“I hoped you would. If you ever need something from me, Jeonghan, I’ll be there. And if I was another alpha, living a different life…”

Jeonghan didn’t need Seungcheol’s pity or his kind lies.

“It’s okay. I do understand, really.”

He was good enough to sleep with, sure. But he wasn’t the right kind of omega for someone like Seungcheol to mate.

Seungcheol could have any omega he chose, so why would he want Jeonghan?

“We should probably keep this between you and me, hey? I don’t think your brother would want to know the ins and outs.”

“If you think that’s best.”

Seungcheol was right. Junhui would not be happy to learn what had happened. Even if Jeonghan explained everything, made sure he understood that Seungcheol had been helping him, that Jeonghan had wanted him to, it still might cause a lot of tension between the alphas. Jeonghan might not have any kind of future with Seungcheol, but that didn’t mean he was in a rush to leave behind the life he had here. He saw it all in a different light now—he was still playing house, just like Junhui said. But he’d rather play for as long as he could before being forced back into the cold reality of life.

He didn’t have much of an appetite over breakfast and ended up just pushing the toast around on his plate.

Leaving the dishes piled up in the sink, he went upstairs to the bedroom they’d used. He stripped the sheets and opened the windows to air the room out. Carrying the bundle of laundry downstairs, he dumped it in the washing machine and started the cycle. While it was running, he jumped into the shower, determined to scrub every last trace of his heat, and the alpha, from his skin.

When Junhui arrived home, just in time for dinner, Jeonghan greeted him with a bright smile.

“Hey, you’re back. How was it?”

“Good. Busy. Muscles I didn’t even know I had are aching. Any news here?”

“Nothing much,” he said, trying to sound cheerful. “We found a chess set in the attic. Seungcheol’s been teaching me how to play.”

Junhui frowned for a moment, and Jeonghan thought he’d slipped up somehow. But then he was smiling again.

“Sounds riveting. I’m sorry to have missed that discovery. What’s for dinner?”

The moment passed, and Junhui didn’t seem to suspect a thing. With Seungcheol so determined to forget it as well, soon enough, the last few days would exist only in Jeonghan’s memories.

Everything settled back to normal after his heat. Well, almost everything. Junhui and Seungcheol resumed their work, with Jeonghan pitching in more now that the house was mostly put to rights. He and Seungcheol stopped going on their walks together, but Jeonghan found he was happier alone. It was easier than making awkward conversation. He put a halt to his driving practice too, seeing as it wasn’t likely he’d get a driver’s license anytime soon.

While mentally he was putting his heat behind him, physically his body seemed to be struggling. He was having a hard time getting up in the mornings. And there were throbbing headaches that came out of nowhere and disappeared just as quick. He was always hungry, but now and then, he’d throw up everything he just ate. It was weird and frustrating, but there was nothing he could quite put his finger on to explain it. Maybe it was just his body adjusting to having had a heat. All those hormones running riot didn’t just disappear into the ether once the heat was done. They might have to work their way out of his system somehow. But instead of getting better, the symptoms only got worse. He had to be very careful to hide the fact that he was throwing up, going for walks right after his meals so Seungcheol and Junhui wouldn’t notice.

He woke one morning, almost a month after his heat, the familiar feeling of exhaustion swamping him. It was a huge effort to drag himself out of bed and to the bathroom, locking the door as he turned on the shower and stripped.

He caught his reflection in the mirror and did a double take. It wasn’t the pallor of his skin or the bags under his eyes that caught his eye. It was his stomach. He’d never been one to get bloated, but there was no mistaking the subtle roundness that hadn’t been there a few weeks before. That made no sense. He was working harder than ever and eating less, since his stomach seemed to have decided that food wasn’t its friend. How could he be piling on the pounds?

Confused, and a little scared, he stepped into the shower and let the spray of water distract him. He might be sick.

Or maybe he was eating more than he realized? Or maybe…

Oh, no.

He let his hands splay over his stomach. It couldn’t be. He’d taken the pills Seungcheol had given him. There couldn’t be a baby. And even if the pills hadn’t worked, and he was pregnant, it had only been a few weeks. He remembered the classes they’d made the omegas sit through in high school. He wouldn’t start showing until twelve weeks or later. But all his symptoms fit: the nausea, the tiredness, the way his emotions seemed closer to the surface. If this was true, if it was really happening… Seungcheol was not going to be happy. What on earth was he going to do?