The Price of Choice

「Yes, Mother.」

『Have you been well?』

「Yes. I’ve been busy lately, so I couldn’t greet you properly.」

『That’s fine. I know how busy you are. Besides, it seems you took out some trash that didn’t even need you to deal with it.』

Chairman Park’s matter was handled in secrecy, but it seemed she already knew.

Then again, the amount of “trash” cleaned up was too much, and that kind of work would require several people to move.

No matter how careful one tried to be, news was bound to leak.

Especially when it came to Director Ji, whose ears could be anywhere, listening to anything.

「There’s nothing for you to worry about.」

『I know. I just hope you don’t get hurt… If it feels like too much, cut off the tail.』

「Yes.」

『I didn’t call today to talk about heavy matters. Jaekyung isn’t answering his phone…』

Her voice trailed off, carrying layers of meaning.

What she wanted to ask, and what she wanted to hear.

She was pressing for both at once.

Taeseok sat down, briefly considering what he should do.

As he tapped his fingers against the desk and closed his eyes, the image of a man foaming at the mouth as he collapsed flashed through his mind.

And the injections, and the herbal medicine… all of it had come from his mother’s hand.

No matter how he thought about it, telling the truth about the current situation didn’t seem good for anyone.

「Please refrain from contacting him for the time being.」

『What… do you mean by that?』

「I overworked him, and he came down with a fever. He probably won’t be able to manage anything this week.」

『…Oh my. Is that true?』

「Yes.」

『All right. Tell Jaekyung to rest well. He doesn’t need to come out until next week.』

「Understood.」

Han Taeseok ended the call and placed his phone face down.

Secretary Oh approached him with a face full of concern.

「Will that be all right?」

「What will?」

「If you put it that way, she’ll definitely think you’ve imprinted. Director Ji… won’t just let it go without confirming.」

That was true.

Perhaps he had pushed Park Jaekyung into an even deeper swamp.

Still, for now, that answer seemed necessary.

As for worrying about later… well.

Wouldn’t things only be resolved once Jaekyung woke up?

If he didn’t wake up at all, then there would be no choice but to tell Director Ji the truth.

At that point, things could head in the worst possible direction, or become even more complicated.

The worst.

The worst, huh.

What could be worse than this—divorce?

Han Taeseok pondered quietly.

He always calculated every situation assuming the worst-case scenario.

That way, he could prepare for sudden crises.

But when it came to his own life, his private matters, that formula didn’t work.

From the very beginning, it felt like he was blocked by a towering wall, and the feeling was deeply unpleasant.

「Did the test results come out today?」

「Yes.」

「He’s still unconscious?」

「It seems so. Executive Director.」

Secretary Oh hesitated for a long moment before speaking carefully.

Taeseok already knew what he wanted to say.

「I think it would be best if you went to the hospital once. The test results are out today as well.」

「……」

「Executive Director.」

When Taeseok didn’t answer easily, Secretary Oh urged him again.

Taeseok clicked his tongue and said he understood.

Of course, all of his movements were calculated.

There was something tangled behind what had happened to Park Jaekyung, and if he misstepped, it could lead to significant losses.

Han Taeseok stood up and put on his jacket.

Three in the afternoon.

All urgent matters had already been handled, so stopping by the hospital briefly seemed possible.

As Taeseok moved, Secretary Oh hurriedly called the driver and followed closely behind him toward the elevator.

◆

Since the day he was born, Han Taeseok had never once walked a path he had freely chosen.

No—he hadn’t even been able to choose.

There had been a path decided long before he was born.

It wouldn’t be entirely true to say his own will had no part in it.

There were things he did because he wanted to.

But because there was only one path, those wants became the best possible choices within inevitability.

His father’s gaze, his mother’s expectations, and society’s standards had straightened Han Taeseok’s back from a young age.

The road he walked was always smooth and easy.

Though he couldn’t choose, he always did his best with what was given, and people recognized him for it, pushing him further down that single path.

It was a comfortable road.

A road where he could walk forward confidently, without worrying about anyone’s eyes.

「You’ve arrived.」

The moment Han Taeseok stepped out at the hospital, the hospital director and management executives—whether notified in advance or not—were waiting and bowed deeply to him.

He had told them countless times this wasn’t necessary, but they still tried to curry favor, wagging their tails eagerly.

The elevator was already waiting, doors open, ready for him.

As soon as he stepped inside, the doors closed and they bowed again in front of him.

It was a scene he had grown up seeing, so he felt nothing strange about it.

「Just in case, we cleared out the entire 13th floor. To ensure Jaekyung-nim’s comfort and prevent any outsiders from entering, we are monitoring it thoroughly, so please rest assured.」

「Thank you.」

「No need for thanks. It’s only our duty.」

Of course it is.

With the amount of money you take every year.

When the elevator doors opened, another cluster of doctors appeared.

They, too, bowed when they saw Han Taeseok.

Who are these people?

Aside from the attending physician and a few others, there was no need for so many.

They bent deeply at the waist in greeting.

「Who are they?」

「Ah, they’re the new residents who joined our hospital. Shouldn’t they greet you at least once?」

How bothersome.

Taeseok found the situation unpleasant.

He had come here for a different purpose, yet regardless of that, they were using this moment for their own unrelated gain.

As expected, regardless of Taeseok’s will, the residents began greeting him one by one.

Some of the omegas subtly released pheromones, clearly trying to catch his attention, and it irritated him.

「Director Kim, this is inappropriate.」

Unable to endure it any longer, Taeseok spoke as he watched the hospital director push residents forward one by one.

「Secretary Oh clearly asked you to maintain security.

Secretary Oh, you did relay that, didn’t you?」

「I did.」

「Then why have you gathered so many people here?」

As Taeseok expressed his displeasure openly in a low voice, Director Kim flinched and hurriedly dismissed the residents.

At that moment, a sharp, ominous beeping sound suddenly rang out from one of the hospital rooms.

A nurse burst out of the room, flung open the emergency door, and desperately waved at a middle-aged man running toward her.

「Doctor!! Please, hurry!!」

The middle-aged man in the white coat who rushed in was the attending physician for the NI head family.

And the only patient on this floor was Park Jaekyung.

Which meant the one triggering that dreadful alarm was none other than Park Jaekyung himself.

「Executive Director!」

Secretary Oh called out urgently.

Han Taeseok slowly pressed his foot against the floor and began walking forward at an unhurried pace.

How many steps had he taken?

The alarm stopped, but the room was chaos.

Jaekyung was having another seizure, his body twisting violently, eyes rolled back.

Foam and a whitish fluid spilled from his mouth.

The attending physician and doctors who had rushed in were doing everything they could, but it didn’t seem effective.

In the end, because even as an omega he was a fully grown man and couldn’t be restrained, they secured his body with restraints and administered sedatives.

Not long after, his body finally calmed.

The attending physician gave instructions to the others, wiped the sweat from his brow, then turned around and froze when he saw Han Taeseok.

With a long sigh, he stood before him.

「Let’s go to my office.」

Following the physician, Han Taeseok closed his eyes at the sharp smell of medicine stinging his nose.

◆

「The test results are out.」

The physician clicked the mouse and turned the monitor toward Han Taeseok, but Taeseok didn’t look at it.

He wanted the explanation instead.

「Due to side effects from the hormone treatments, his bodily balance was already unstable.

On top of that, he took a heat cycle stimulant and herbal medicine with similar components, which seems to have completely destroyed that balance.

His pheromone glands are blocked, and his uterus is extremely unstable.

Its size has shrunk by nearly half.

During a heat cycle, it should swell and secrete fluids, but at this point, you can consider its function essentially shut down.

We also spoke with him briefly during moments of regained consciousness, and his memory appears impaired.

However, we won’t know for sure until he regains full consciousness.」

「That hormone treatment—does it actually work?

I heard he’s been receiving it once every two months for nearly three years.

By that point, considering its effects, shouldn’t he already have become a dominant omega?」

「Ah, in terms of efficacy, it’s absolutely effective.

As you know, that hormone injection was researched and developed by NI Pharmaceuticals Canada, and it has completed clinical trials.」

「V-1, yes. And V-2 was developed in Korea, correct.」

At the single sentence Han Taeseok let out with a faint smile, the physician’s face went pale.