Bodam Animal Hospital, located in central Seoul, had a good reputation thanks to its bright, warm-spirited staff. Job satisfaction was at its peak here, where people who loved animals all gathered together, and on this Friday afternoon, just before closing time, an unexpected big surprise erupted.
“Are you serious? Is that even possible? I'm not dreaming?”
“Shh. Don't let it show. The people outside will go nuts.”
It was an event huge enough to make even a nurse on her day off come dashing to the hospital. To think that the famous... Sawoo Guild had come to this place, an ordinary animal hospital that was simply large in scale.
“No way. They keep animals too?”
“Right? I've never once seen an article about them having pets.”
“Shhh. Lower your voices, doctors. Don't you see the people outside?”
Word must have already spread, because onlookers had swarmed in from the building next door, to the point that crowd control was necessary. An excited review from one pet owner who claimed to have seen Sawoo Guild's Ryu Tae-ha in person had reached people's ears.
“It's here, right? They're inside, right?”
“Did they really come? Do they keep animals?”
“No, Sawoo Guild isn't here. If you're not here for an appointment, please go home.”
The reception staff, who had touched up their makeup in a flash, came out and blocked the people trying to enter the hospital.
“I heard somebody saw him. Said his face was absolutely dazzling. The word's all over the place now!”
“I'll just get a quick peek at his face and leave. Okay?”
“I'm telling you, they're really not here. Only the pet owners may come in.”
“I have a dog. He's at home, doing fine.”
The growing crowd of onlookers began, one by one, to brag about the animals they kept. They were also pet owners, after all, so couldn't they go in? As they kept insisting, the reception staff's stress mounted.
“They're really not here! They're just not here! Not here!”
The staff member who had been shouting that she'd call the police if they kept this up suddenly let out a gasp and stepped backward. And not just her, everyone present reacted the same way.
“They're inside.”
Two huge, strapping men had abruptly appeared in front of the empty information desk.
“It-it's Go Yeo-ul the Esper...”
Someone who recognized Sawoo Guild's Yeo-ul, who had materialized out of thin air alongside a teleportation Esper, mumbled.
Though not to the same degree as Ryu Tae-ha, Yeo-ul was fairly well known too. Because he did absolutely no broadcast work like his leader did, plenty of people didn't know his face, but his physique, easily twice that of an ordinary man, was the stuff of widespread rumor.
The sound of someone gulping dryly came from somewhere. They'd heard Sawoo Guild's youngest was that ripped... seeing him in person, the rumors hadn't even done him justice.
“Not here?”
“Y-yes?”
“I'm asking if Da-woon isn't inside.”
The dumbstruck staff, overwhelmed by Yeo-ul's intimidating presence, could only move their lips wordlessly. Yeo-ul, fresh off work and still wearing his pitch-black field gear, gave off an even more menacing aura.
Just then, the quick-witted teleportation Esper subtly stepped in front of Yeo-ul, shielding him.
“Haha, sorry for dropping by so suddenly. They're inside, right? May we go in?”
He smoothly defused the mood with practiced ease and contacted the Center to call for crowd-control personnel as well.
“Sorry for causing a commotion.”
“No, n-no need to apologize! Follow me!”
A nurse who wasn't even scheduled to work promptly led them down the corridor to the exam rooms.
Dozens of eyes were riveted on Yeo-ul's back as he appeared in an instant and vanished just as quickly.
“Wow...”
The people who had been making such a racket trying to get into the hospital fell silent in a flash.
“Oh...”
“Wow...”
“Whoa...”
Only admiration remained in the spot Yeo-ul had left.
Not a single person was put off by Yeo-ul's cold demeanor. On the contrary, they lavished nothing but praise, marveling at how someone so young could have such tremendous charisma.
Someone once said it: when you're famous, people applaud whatever you drop.
“They're in the owners' waiting room in the back.”
The nurse announced the room in a flushed voice. Yeo-ul, who had been striding swiftly ahead, flung the waiting room door open himself.
Through the gap of the roughly opening door, he saw a familiar back of a head.
Yeo-ul's gaze reflexively latched onto the back of Da-woon's head, which was as neatly rounded as a prettily peeled chestnut. And at the same time, a stranger pressed right up against Da-woon came into view as well.
A doctor in medical scrubs stood pressed close to Da-woon, leaning his face in. As if to kiss him.
What's more, the doctor's hand was holding Da-woon's face. To be precise, it was no more than fingertips resting against it, but to Yeo-ul's eyes that's how it looked.
“Wow, is that maybe...!”
The doctor, who had just been gushing with admiration upon recognizing Sawoo Guild's Yeo-ul, was abruptly shoved by Da-woon and fell to the floor. Had it been even a moment later, Yeo-ul's fist would have slammed straight into the doctor's face.
“Go Yeo-ul! Have you lost your mind?!”
Wondering if he'd already gone mad, Da-woon's heart sank. He grabbed Yeo-ul, who had lunged at the doctor without warning, and shoved him hard toward the door. The teleportation Esper who had come in with them also helped Da-woon restrain Yeo-ul.
“Move. Hyung, I've got business with that fucking bastard.”
“Why are you cursing at the doctor?! Have you lost it?!”
Why has he lost it already?! By the novel's plot, Yeo-ul's sanity was supposed to still be intact. The time for him to go mad came much later.
“Hyung, that bastard's an Alpha.”
Yeo-ul, his eyes glinting like he'd pounce on the doctor any second, looked down at Da-woon. Da-woon, who had been blocking Yeo-ul in a posture that left him practically wrapped in the man's arms, wore an utterly dumbfounded expression.
“So what, you idiot! A third of the population is Alpha!”
Dominant Alphas might be rare, but recessive ones were common. He'd heard that Alphas, Omegas, and Betas were fairly evenly distributed. The only rare ones were the dominants.
“Exactly. To watch out for all those many bastards, you've got to keep your wits about you.”
Da-woon opened and closed his lips, having lost his voice. Keep your wits about you. Hearing the very words he should have been saying come out of Yeo-ul's mouth, he was so flustered he couldn't get a word out.
“What did that bastard do to you, hyung?”
Yeo-ul abruptly rubbed Da-woon's lips with his fingertip. When Da-woon tried to dodge, he went so far as to grab the back of his neck, pinning him so he couldn't budge.
“I'm asking what kind of bullshit he pulled.”
“N-no! It's a misunderstanding!”
The doctor, springing up from the floor, waved both hands frantically.
“Da-woon the Esper got a nosebleed, so I just wiped it for him a little! There's a CCTV in our room too, so you can go back and watch it!”
The doctor pointed to the camera mounted in the waiting room and explained the situation in more detail.
While Da-woon had been sitting in the pet owners' waiting chair, he'd suddenly started bleeding from the nose, so the doctor had given him a tissue, and because the blood hadn't wiped off properly, he'd lightly touched the tip of his nose. That was all.
“I am an Alpha, yes, but how would I ever dare pull anything funny with a member of Sawoo Guild? Please believe me.”
The innocent doctor kept waving both hands, protesting his innocence. As he made to fetch the CCTV footage right away, Da-woon stopped him first, apologizing and saying there was no need.
“I'm sorry for startling you.”
Rubbing the back of his neck where Yeo-ul had grabbed it, Da-woon bowed his head deeply to the doctor.
“Yeo-ul... he just snaps sometimes, but he's a good kid...”
Unable to think of a proper defense, Da-woon mumbled something vague.
“I apologize for shoving you so suddenly too. If you're hurt anywhere-”
“No! Hurt, nothing. I'm perfectly fine. He did it to protect you, so of course I completely understand.”
The doctor, waving his hands even more vigorously, took hold of the shoulder of the bowing Da-woon and tried to raise him up. It was the kind of contact one might commonly make in everyday life, but Yeo-ul wouldn't permit even that light touch.
“Gah...!”
Water that Yeo-ul had conjured came pouring down over the doctor's head. Drenched from head to toe in an instant, the flustered doctor sank to the floor.
The teleportation Esper, who had been watching the situation, quickly steadied him, and Da-woon turned around to face Yeo-ul.
Having doused a doctor, an ordinary civilian and not even an Esper, with water, Yeo-ul met Da-woon's gaze shamelessly. But he must have known he was in the wrong, because he soon slid his eyes away.
“You. Outside.”
At Da-woon's low voice, Yeo-ul flinched and dipped his head slightly.
Da-woon grabbed his thick arm, forced him to bow his head to the doctor, and then hurried out of the waiting room. He had to get away fast, before Yeo-ul caused an even bigger incident.
The place Da-woon dragged Yeo-ul to was the rooftop of the hospital building.
The summer sky, the sun already setting, was darkening. Da-woon looked up at the sky tinged with sunset and drew in a long breath of the outside air.
“Hyung, are you hurt somewhere again? Why did you get a nosebleed?”
Yeo-ul stuck close to his side, stealing furtive, anxious glances.
“Hyung...”
When Da-woon turned his head away sharply so that Yeo-ul couldn't see his face at all, Yeo-ul fidgeted his lips, growing uneasy. The way he didn't know what to do with himself was exactly like a dog. A dog terrified of being abandoned by its owner.
“Go Yeo-ul.”
Putting strength into his core, Da-woon lowered his voice as much as he could. Hearing it, Yeo-ul's head drooped down as if it might drop to the ground.
He really is like a dog. Mountain-sized as he was, his behavior was just like a giant dog that couldn't be controlled.
Da-woon gathered saliva in his parched mouth and swallowed, letting out a sigh. A moment ago had really been... beyond flustering, his startled heart had nearly dropped right out of him.
Go Yeo-ul, this kid... he shouldn't be doing villain stuff already.
“Hyung... I thought he was harassing you.”
While Da-woon was just sorting out the words to sternly scold him, Yeo-ul, who spoke first, mumbled in a thoroughly dejected manner.
“I thought you were getting hurt by an Alpha again...”
“...”
“Don't be angry. I won't do it again...”
To Yeo-ul, who said he'd lunged in to protect him, Da-woon couldn't bring himself to spit out harsh words. Still, he had to get angry. For everyone's sake.
“Yeo-ul.”
“I'm sorry. I really, really won't do it again. I just got startled too.”
Da-woon's sunken voice must have been hard to bear, because Yeo-ul covered his ears and leaned his upper body in. He rested his forehead on Da-woon's shoulder and repeated his apologies.
“I'm sorry, hyung. I'm sorry.”
You should've been like this in front of the doctor.
Da-woon, in the end, couldn't push away Yeo-ul, who had shrunk in on himself excessively, as if some trauma had been triggered. Eventually he spread both arms wide and embraced Yeo-ul, who was leaning his shoulder against him.
“Don't ever do that again. If you use your ability on a civilian, you're in serious trouble.”
Once Da-woon granted him his embrace, Yeo-ul threw himself into it as if he'd been waiting for it.
“Okay. I won't.”
Through their deeply pressed-together chests, the sound of Yeo-ul's heart was transmitted to Da-woon exactly as it was. Sensing that pulse, Da-woon's face turned flustered.
“You... why is your heart beating so fast?”
