Under Surveillance

“Young master? Young master Chanyeong?”

“Ugh… who is it… if it’s my sister, don’t wake me up. I wanna sleep more…”

I mumbled and tried to brush away the hand shaking me, but the voice grew more urgent.

“Young master! You have to wake up! Your temperature is 39 degrees right now. If you don’t take your medicine soon, your heat cycle will start today.”

Heat cycle?

That… the thing where a person turns into something less like a human and more like a beast?

‘That could happen to me?’

“No!”

My eyes snapped open.

I shot upright from the bed I had been sleeping so peacefully in.

As soon as I got up, my whole body felt hot.

There was a strange scent I’d never smelled before.

And there was this indescribable itching sensation all over my body.

Even in places that were… frankly embarrassing to mention.

‘Oh, f*ck this.’

That was as far as I got before I tearfully begged the housekeeper for medicine.

“P-please, give me the medicine. Quickly.”

“Here you go. I’ve poured some water too, so take it with this.”

A middle-aged woman I’d never seen before handed me a red pill and a glass of water.

I assumed she must be the housekeeper occasionally mentioned in the novel and immediately swallowed the pill.

It was honestly ridiculous.

Just before going to sleep, I’d been yelling “you take it yourself,” and now here I was taking it without hesitation.

‘But I seriously don’t want to experience a heat cycle!’

A heat cycle—basically a mating period—turns an omega into something driven purely by instinct.

Sure, it’s a setting designed to make pregnancy easier, but…

I’d lived my whole life as a completely normal heterosexual man.

And now suddenly the word “pregnancy” had entered my life.

It felt deeply disturbing.

Thankfully, in this novel, suppressants had been developed that could safely block the cycle.

No side effects, just take them regularly and you’re fine.

Honestly, that setting felt like a blessing.

‘Long live modern medicine.’

No, scratch that.

Long live novel medicine.

About 30 minutes after taking the pill, my fever gradually subsided.

My foggy mind cleared as well.

“Huuuh… I’m alive.”

I’d survived the crisis.

The fear of the heat cycle had been so intense that my legs gave out.

The housekeeper, who had been watching me quietly, asked,

“But why didn’t you take your suppressants this time?”

“Huh?”

“You usually take them as soon as your cycle approaches and pass through it safely. I was wondering why you didn’t this time.”

My stomach dropped.

Noticing my reaction, she quickly added, “I’m sorry if that was an inappropriate question.”

But cold sweat was already running down my back.

“Th-that’s…”

“Also… you were calling for your sister earlier. From what I know, you’re not usually close with your older sisters.”

Well, you see, it’s because I’m not actually Seong Chanyeong but a transmigrator.

‘Yeah, if I say that, I’ll get labeled insane and dragged to a psych ward.’

Calm down.

Right now, I am Seong Chanyeong.

A nasty personality with a foul temper.

I hypnotized myself and responded as coldly and arrogantly as possible.

“Why does that matter to you? Are you my family or something?”

‘I’m so sorry, ma’am!’

The Confucian boy inside me screamed.

How could I say something so rude to her?

I felt awful.

“That’s not the case, but…”

Seeing her face turn pale made my conscience stab at me even harder.

She even had that warm, kind look straight out of a weekend drama.

‘Get it together… I’m Seong Chanyeong right now.’

A complete bastard with zero manners and sky-high arrogance.

“No, you’re not, right? Then mind your own business. Just do your job well. Why are you worrying about unnecessary things? Did I tell you to?”

“…No. I’m sorry. I’ll correct myself.”

“Good. You should at least earn your pay.”

I’m sorry.

I’m really sorry.

Even as I apologized endlessly in my head, I kept up the act.

I was hit with instant regret, but I couldn’t stop.

At times like this, I wasn’t sure whether to thank my sister for drilling the entire novel into my brain.

“…I’m sorry.”

The housekeeper lowered her head deeply.

Her rough hands were clenched, veins bulging.

For a moment, it felt like she might smack me like my own mother would.

I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, so I kept a blank expression.

Seong Chanyeong, you absolute bastard.

“That’s enough. You’ve ruined my mood, so leave for today. I want to be alone.”

“…Yes. Understood.”

She left without another word.

I stood there stiffly, not even looking at her as she left.

Only after I heard the door close did I collapse onto the floor.

“Ughhh… being a villain is not it…”

How do people with terrible personalities even live like this?

It was only for a moment, but my conscience hurt so bad I felt like I’d go insane.

‘She even looked about my mom’s age…’

She brought me medicine and even helped me avoid a heat cycle, and I treated her like that.

If she hadn’t been there, I wouldn’t even have known where the medicine was.

I would’ve gone straight into heat.

I didn’t even want to imagine what would happen after that.

Thanks to my sister’s extensive BL collection, I knew exactly what happens to omegas in heat.

‘Worst case… I might’ve contacted one of the male leads.’

And then it would spiral into complete disaster.

For me, that would basically be a one-way ticket to hell.

“Still… I can at least catch my breath for now, right?”

I sprawled on the floor like melted cheese, finally relaxing.

But only for a moment.

Boredom quickly crept in.

‘Maybe I should go outside for a walk.’

It might help me gather some information too.

So I got up again.

And I didn’t realize it at the time—

But that decision turned out to be an incredibly good one.

After enough time had passed for the housekeeper to leave, I was freely walking along the apartment’s trail.

‘What am I supposed to do from here…?’

It felt like my insides were rotting.

Forget gathering information—just dealing with the current situation was enough to fry my brain.

‘…The trail’s pretty, though.’

The path was carefully landscaped, filled with all kinds of flowers and trees.

It screamed money.

For a moment, it was nice to look at—

Until it reminded me that I had fully become Seong Chanyeong.

And just like that, my mood dropped again.

Then—

A familiar voice rang out nearby.

The housekeeper.

The one I thought had already gone home.

“Yes, young master Baek Dojun.”

‘Wait—Baek Dojun?’

No way… not that Baek Dojun, right?

But of course, reality never misses a chance to screw you over.

She continued speaking.

It sounded like she was on the phone with him.

“As you instructed, I am safely monitoring Seong Chanyeong. Just as you said, his personality is quite unpleasant.”

Holy shit.

Looks like my acting worked.

I quickly hid and eavesdropped.

Sure, I felt a bit guilty, but I justified it as necessary for gathering information.

‘So he was being monitored?’

Baek Dojun—Chanyeong’s fiancé in the novel.

I’d always wondered how he escaped Chanyeong’s confinement so easily.

Turns out there was something like this going on behind the scenes.

Thinking I’d just stumbled onto valuable information not in the original story, I pressed myself closer against a marble structure to stay hidden.

“He seems fine, so… it’s likely he was faking it again.”

Faking it?

Chanyeong?

After a pause—presumably Dojun speaking—

The housekeeper dropped something shocking.

“Attempted suicide? That’s ridiculous. Not Seong Chanyeong.”

‘What?’

Seong Chanyeong… tried to kill himself?

That was never mentioned in the original.

‘Is that… why I transmigrated into him?’

Because he died unexpectedly?

While I was still reeling from that,

The housekeeper continued her report.

Honestly, it was a bit rude to say, but it seemed her hearing wasn’t great.

She had the call on speaker.

Which made it incredibly easy for me to overhear everything.

‘Calling him on speaker this openly near Chanyeong’s house…’

That just meant she didn’t take him seriously at all.

Or maybe she assumed he wouldn’t come outside during his heat cycle.

Either way, it stung.

If I hadn’t gone out for this walk, I would’ve missed all of this.

“From what I’ve observed, he was probably trying to bother you again by pretending to be sick. Saying you should fulfill your duty as his fiancé.”

What an accurate character analysis, ma’am.

That bastard Chanyeong would absolutely do something like that.