Mom?
The one word Jaehyun said hangs heavy in the air as the man and I carry Jaehyun into the apartment. Together we focus on making sure he is carried properly, ignoring the way his blood stains both of our bodies.
I heave a sigh as I am the one carrying most of his weight. The man Jaehyun had called Mom seems eerily calm as we lay him down on the bed. As he tears off Jaehyun's shirt to look at the gunshot wound, I leave the room.
Quietly, I move closer to a corner, watching as the strange man steps out of the room. His steps are measured and deliberate, like someone who is well familiar with the space.
In awe, my eyes track his every movement as he goes to the refrigerator to put in an ice pack. He has an odd aura of beauty around him even though he is dressed in a plain blue nurse's scrub. The man's eyes are dark brown and his long hair is a light shade of brown, held back in a low ponytail behind his head with a clear elastic band.
I can hear him mumbling under his breath as he walks past me into the bathroom, and curiously I strain my ears to listen in but his voice is low and I am only able to catch bits of his little mutterings.
"This child never listens" he says out loud as he walks past me with the first aid box in his hand and a deep frown on his face. And nervously, I hold my breath till he disappears into Jaehyun's room.
Once I am left alone, I fall into the couch and sink the seats tiredly. My entire body aches from the rough week I have had, from being away from my home to carrying Jaehyun into the apartment.
"Mom?" I repeat to myself in the silence of the living area.
No matter how much I think of it, I can't make any sense of tonight. There is so much that has happened in this one night that I can't even begin to piece them together.
A man being called mom?
Could it be that the leader of the Hwang clan has eyes only for men?
Even if he does have eyes for men, it doesn't make any sense for Jaehyun to constantly use the word Mom…
"Have you eaten?" The man's voice snaps me out of my thought and I reflexively sit up straight, putting on the faux alpha-like confidence that I have gotten too used to wearing.
"I brought jajangmyeon for my son…I didn't know I would find him in…that state," the man says before going to the small kitchen to get a large container and two bowls with chopsticks.
"I am Hwang Yeon" he introduces himself while placing the meal on the table before taking his sit in front of me. "I am…Yujun" my voice breaks mid sentence as I speak. The man's eyes soften as he looks at me, as if he is very well aware of my nervousness.
"Choi Yujun, I have seen you enough on the news to know who you are" Yeon says and tilts his head, "baby, why are you so nervous?" he asks me in a motherly manner, using a time I haven't heard in a very long life.
His tone and expression makes it impossible to hold back the thought that has been burning inside of me for the past hour.
"Mom?" I blurt and a smile blooms on his face, "I am just like you Yujunnie" he says. "Just like me?" I echo, feeling like a child in front of the man.
"An omega" Yeon says without hesitation.
I open my mouth and close it, not sure what to ask or say. Sensing my state, the omega man pushes a dish of jajangmyeon to me with a warm smile still on his face, "Eat a lot" he says and picks up his own dish to eat.
"I have work in thirty minutes and I will be back by morning,you will stay won't you?" he asks after chewing and swallowing, and I nod like a dummy, I have never been this dumbfounded in my life.
It stuns me how Hwang Yeon, a male omega in a world where male omegas are considered a curse, yet he wears the identity like it is something to be proud of, like a badge of honor from the moon goddess herself.
It finally makes sense why Jaehyun is always so fierce when it comes to omegas.
"Eat, I made it myself" he says again before digging into his own dinner- his gesture reminds me of Jaehyun.
I pick up my chopsticks and dig into the meal slowly. This would be the first proper dinner I have had in days…a meal prepared by my enemy.
"When my Hyunnie wakes up, tease him that I took all his ramen" Yeon says and rolls his eyes, I look up at him 0with my mouth full, surprised by his playfulness.
I chuckle awkwardly, seeing where Jaehyun gets his playful nature from. His face and imposing height might have been from his father but his personality is from his male omega mother.
Yeon finishes up his meal and stands up, "I will be back later tomorrow, I have pack duties to attend to" he says to me like I am an acquaintance, and not the son of his clan's rival.
After yeon's departure, I sit still processing everything that has just taken place. There is a male omega in the Hwang clan?.
Tiredly, I lay on the couch to rest my eyes and the second I relax my body, I hear a strangled cry and I jerk up reflexively to run into Jaehyun's room. The Alpha is lying on his side with sweat beads running down his face and his face twisted in pain.
"Jaehyun-ah" I call his name. "Let me go!" he screams and fights against me with his eyes closed, his lips are blue as he cries out, and I realize that he might have been poisoned by the bullet- the poison laced bullet is a method my clan uses constantly.
"Jaehyun, open your eyes" I shout, shaking him to wake him up before the poison takes effect. The poison works by inducing nightmares that makes its victim till they drain their energy and fall into a deathly sleep.
"Jaehyun!" I say his name aggressively, "open your eyes" I slap his cheek in fear of losing him as the alpha trashes in my arms.
'Alpha needs us' my Omega says in me and without thinking, I yank off my scent patch. Holding him up, I press his face into my neck, pressing his nose into my scent gland and instantly his body relaxes.
"Jaehyun…?" I call his name but he doesn't respond, I shake him once more but his body is heavy in my arms. I have seen enough dead men to know one.
"Hwang Jaehyun!" I scream his name.