Contract Marriage with Memory Loss on Top - Chapter 83

“Huh?”

Yeon-woo looked around Ki-won’s surroundings, but the medicine bottle had disappeared without a trace. It seemed that Ki-won had put it in the drawer while they were talking and Yeon-woo was distracted. Yeon-woo’s eyes narrowed. It definitely wasn’t the medicine he had received for his memory loss. 

“Hyung, are you sick somewhere?” 

His complexion looked fine and he didn’t seem to be in any pain, so it didn’t seem likely, but since Yeon-woo had seen him taking medicine, he casually threw out the question. However, as expected, Ki-won only gave an answer saying he wasn’t. Then what was the medicine bottle Yeon-woo had seen earlier?

“If not, what did you take just now? Is it something like vitamins…?”

“Yeah, vitamins.”

Humming, Yeon-woo bit his lower lip, still unable to erase the look of suspicion in his eyes. And for good reason. If they were vitamins, there would be no reason to hurriedly hide them. Maybe it was just the timing when Ki-won was about to put the medicine bottle away when Yeon-woo came in, or maybe Ki-won really did hide the bottle, but the suspicion that sprouted remained.

“I see…”

Drawing out the end of his words, Yeon-woo soon wiggled his eyebrows. A good way to solve his curiosity had come to mind. First, he needed to have a casual conversation to lower Ki-won’s guard.

“Hyung, I’m going to the hospital… Do you want to go with me?”

“I’d like to, but I have a video conference soon.”

“Oh no… Really? I didn’t disturb you when you needed to prepare, did I?”

“Of course not. There’s still some time before the meeting.”

When the startled Yeon-woo asked right away, Ki-won waved his hand dismissively. Anyway, it didn’t feel good that Ki-won had to work even after coming home. Wouldn’t this mean he was not only working in the morning? Yeon-woo wished Ki-won could rest a bit, but it seemed difficult for him to rest comfortably considering his high position.

“I guess it can’t be helped. Okay.”

Yeon-woo, who seemed to droop his shoulders in disappointment that he couldn’t go with Ki-won, waved his hand softly. In fact, this was part of Yeon-woo’s strategy. 

Yeon-woo pretended to say goodbye as he was about to leave, watching for the moment Ki-won let his guard down. And then, just as he turned his body to pretend to leave the room, Yeon-woo swiftly reached out his hand toward the drawer faster than anyone else. As soon as he opened the drawer, what caught his eyes was a large medicine bottle.

‘Was there something like this?’

At the same time, Yeon-woo’s eyes widened. It was a medicine bottle that he hadn’t found when he went to Ki-won’s study to look for a USB. Then it meant it appeared after that, but he had never seen Ki-won taking medicine before. If they were vitamins, he would have been taking them quite regularly.

“Wait a moment.” 

Yeon-woo stopped Ki-won, who was about to close the drawer if Yeon-woo was done looking. It was because of the letters written on the medicine bottle. No matter how he looked at it, this medicine was digestive medicine.

“What the… This is digestive medicine, right?”

It wasn’t vitamins. Yeon-woo’s mind began to spin rapidly. Why did he lie? It’s not like digestive medicine is some weird drug, so he could have just told the truth. Yeon-woo wanted to look inside Ki-won’s head, feeling suffocated by the rising frustration.

“Why did you lie?”

Yeon-woo’s eyes narrowed again. He tried to press Ki-won to tell him honestly, but Ki-won’s answer was surprisingly simple.

“I think my digestion hasn’t been good lately. The medicine makes it better right away, so there’s no need to show that I’m sick.”

“…Is that so.”

It was a strangely convincing statement. Yeon-woo kept asking Ki-won if it was true, and each time, Ki-won nodded. People say that working adults have chronic stress, so maybe that’s why he got indigestion. Yeon-woo didn’t know Ki-won had this kind of issue.

“Should I buy some porridge for you on my way back? There are a lot of porridge restaurants near the hospital.”

“It’s not to the point where I need to eat porridge. Thanks for your concern.”

Yeon-woo gently put down the medicine bottle he had been holding and examining. It couldn’t be some other medicine disguised as digestive medicine, right? After going through doubt after doubt, Yeon-woo soon burst into a small laugh. It seemed he had watched too many movies recently.

‘There’s no way there’s medicine he needs to hide by disguising it.’

Ki-won wasn’t the kind of person to do weird things, so Yeon-woo decided to trust him. Shrugging his shoulders, Yeon-woo glanced at the clock on the wall and spoke for the last time.

“At this rate, the hospital will close. Then I’ll go and get ready to leave.” 

“Don’t forget to call the driver.”

“Of course!”

It was the moment he wrapped up the conversation and crossed the threshold of the study. A question that came to mind late struck Yeon-woo’s head.

‘Wait…? But wasn’t the medicine bottle too light?’

The bottle was much larger in size than the large capacity commonly sold. That alone was strange enough, but what was really suspicious was the weight of the bottle. 

No matter how light the pills were, it was easy to infer that the inside was empty when he held it. If Ki-won had taken that much, Yeon-woo would have seen him taking the medicine several times, but he had never witnessed it except this one time.

‘Strange…’

Although his mind was filled with all sorts of question marks, he had no choice but to keep walking. What could he do when Ki-won said it was digestive medicine? Tilting his head, Yeon-woo scratched the back of his head with an uneasy feeling.

***

Yeon-woo, who arrived at the hospital, was able to receive treatment without any problems. He had lowered his expectations since he didn’t make an appointment, so it was fortunate. After having his blood drawn and waiting for about an hour, Yeon-woo was able to hear the results about his pheromone levels.

The director, who had been looking at the results for a while, took off his glasses and showed a kind smile. Although Yeon-woo hadn’t heard the details yet, he could feel relieved in advance by the director’s expression.

“Your levels have returned to normal perfectly.”

“Really?”

It was good news to hear. If the levels had stabilized, he no longer had to fear the heat cycle. However, unlike Yeon-woo, who was beaming, the doctor showed a dumbfounded expression from time to time.

“What’s wrong? Is something else not good?”

Now that one thing was resolved, did another problem arise? When Yeon-woo asked, having become quite serious, the doctor immediately replied, saying that wasn’t the case.

“It’s not that… It’s just that this is the first time I’ve seen someone’s levels stabilize in such a short period of time.”

“Could it be because of the medicine? I took it regularly as instructed…”

“Of course, the medicine does stabilize pheromone levels, but it’s unlikely to happen with short-term use.”

Yeon-woo, who was quietly listening to the doctor’s words, bit his round lips. So was it okay or not? It was ambiguous.

“By any chance, have you imprinted recently or met someone who was suspected to be your imprint target?”

“No…?”

Didn’t the doctor ask a similar question last time? He must have forgotten after seeing so many patients.

“This is really amazing.”

“Why? Do pheromone levels change stably when you imprint? Didn’t you say that the levels fluctuate wildly in the early stages of imprinting…?”

“That’s true for the early stages, but after that, they return to stable levels.”

“Ah…”

Yeon-woo kept nodding his head at the doctor’s additional explanations. That made sense, since he was very far from imprinting. Watching Yeon-woo’s reaction, the director laughed heartily and organized the test papers.

“It really doesn’t seem like you’ve imprinted.”

“Of course. If I imprinted, there would be symptoms, so there’s no way I wouldn’t know.”

“In very rare cases, unconscious one-sided imprinting can happen. That’s why I asked again just in case.”

One-sided imprinting without awareness, it was the first time Yeon-woo heard of such imprinting. Did it literally mean imprinting on the other person unconsciously? As Yeon-woo tilted his head, the director added an explanation.

“How should I explain it…?”

The director, who was tapping the tip of the pen he was lightly holding on the paper, opened his closed mouth.

“Typical imprinting is done mutually. But one-sided imprinting refers to the phenomenon of imprinting on the other person by oneself. It’s like what people commonly call one-sided love.”

“Isn’t that impossible…? In the first place, imprinting has to be done by two people at the same time.”

“That’s why it becomes a very rare case. That’s also why the word ‘unconscious’ is attached. The person who has one-sidedly imprinted doesn’t realize they have imprinted until the next rut or heat cycle comes.”

“Ah…”

A thin voice echoed inside the director’s office.

“This is also the reason I asked if you had an imprinting target. There are cases where patients whose pheromone levels were unstable due to unconscious one-sided imprinting achieve mutual imprinting and are cured. But… looking at your test results, it doesn’t seem like you’ve done one-sided imprinting.”

Then why did you ask when you knew? The absurd Yeon-woo just blinked his eyes instead of answering.

“Unconscious one-sided imprinting… That sounds like torture.”

When you go through normal imprinting, you only get sexually aroused by and can release your sexual desire with the person you’re paired with. On the contrary, a person who has one-sidedly imprinted may feel pain rather than pleasure when the mating season comes because there is no partner to help them. Just imagining it was terrible, and Yeon-woo shivered as goosebumps rose all over his body.