If You Want Me - Episode 33
<Episode 33>
While Seo-won couldn’t come up with any significant methods, the car came to a stop. Blankly looking out the window, he realized they had already arrived in front of his house.
Next time… Let’s think about it next time. It didn’t seem like a good method would come to mind right away.
“Thank you for the ride.”
“Yoon Seo-won.”
As Seo-won unfastened his seat belt and grabbed the door handle, Do-gyeom stopped him with his words.
What now? When Seo-won turned to look at Do-gyeom, he hesitated, mumbling his lips. Seo-won tilted his head slightly at the strange sight, unlike his usual self, and Do-gyeom slowly opened his mouth.
“…I’ll come next weekend. At the usual time.”
“…”
He was hesitating and nervous to say something… Now that Seo-won thought about it, it seemed Do-gyeom was trying to at least inform him in advance since Seo-won had said it was uncomfortable for him to come over as he pleased.
While it felt like a huge development, on the other hand, Seo-won wondered if he could even refuse.
He could argue that this wasn’t a promise but a notice, but… he just wanted to call it a day. Since getting pregnant, Seo-won felt his stamina had significantly dropped, and he had spent all his energy from the morning at the arcade and karaoke trying to avoid Do-gyeom. He was tired.
Rather than arguing and engaging in a verbal battle, Seo-won nodded his head weakly as if resigning.
“I understand. Then… you should go now. It’s late.”
“Yeah. Go in.”
Do-gyeom looked relieved as if he had been hesitating just to say those words. One might think he had solved a huge problem if they saw him.
Seo-won got out of the car, thinking there was a surprisingly trivial side to Do-gyeom, and as he searched for the keys in his bag, he heard the sound of the car window opening behind him with a whirring noise. Soon, Do-gyeom’s voice came from behind as if he had suddenly remembered something.
“Right. I put macarons in the fridge.”
“…Macarons? Where did you get those?”
“I bought them for you to eat since you seemed to have lost weight. You used to eat them well before.”
“…?”
It was true that Seo-won had lost weight due to severe morning sickness. But what macarons did he used to eat well? He usually ate any type of macaron well…
While Seo-won couldn’t understand what Do-gyeom specifically bought, Do-gyeom rolled up the car window as if he had finished saying everything he wanted to say and disappeared, turning the car around.
Curious, Seo-won opened the fridge as soon as he entered the house. Then, a white box caught his eye in the middle.
“When did he put this here…?”
Clearly, when Seo-won entered the house earlier, Do-gyeom wasn’t holding anything…
Looking at the macaron box, Seo-won seemed to know where Do-gyeom had bought them from. It was something Do-gyeom used to bring him often when he was young, and even after becoming partners, he would occasionally give them to Seo-won, saying he received many macarons because he was a collaborator.
Thinking it had been a long time, Seo-won opened the box and found two rows of six colorful macarons inside. It had been a while since his appetite returned, and he had just eaten a full meal of trout sashimi, but seeing the macarons made his mouth water again.
Seo-won was usually the type who couldn’t eat more no matter how delicious the food was once he was full. However, after getting pregnant, there were times when his appetite would hit rock bottom and then become obsessed with a particular food. This was one of those times.
…One should be fine.
Rationalizing, Seo-won carefully picked up a chocolate-colored macaron and took a bite.
“…It’s delicious.”
Seo-won muttered a small exclamation while munching like a hamster. He knew it would be delicious since it was a food he originally liked, but it felt even more delicious as it had been a long time. The cookie was chewy, and the filling inside was pleasantly sweet and tasty.
It would be really delicious if he had it with coffee. That was a bit of a shame, but the macaron was so delicious that Seo-won could only put it back in the fridge after eating one more.
* * *
After a weekend of complicated feelings passed, Seo-won took a bus to Seoul.
He wasn’t trying to leave his rural life and return already. Today, he had something he had to do in Seoul.
How many hours had passed? Through the bus window, the familiar Seoul Station came into view. As Seo-won got off the bus and stretched his stiff back, a familiar and welcoming voice was heard nearby.
“Seo-won-ah.”
“Ah, Mom. Were you waiting? The bus was stuck in traffic, so I’m a bit late…”
“No, I just got here. We’ll be late for the appointment. Let’s hurry.”
As Seo-won tried to apologize for making her wait, she hurriedly grabbed Seo-won’s hand, saying there was no time to even have such trivial conversations.
After getting off the bus to Seoul and taking a taxi, the place they arrived at was none other than the obstetrics and gynecology clinic.
After confirming their appointment at the reception, the two completed a simple examination and sat in the waiting room chairs, waiting for their turn. Seo-won fidgeted with his hands on his lap and spoke in an apologetic voice.
“I’m sorry for asking you to do this.”
“No, I told you I would help.”
Ji-hee shook her head, telling Seo-won not to worry about what he said with drooping eyebrows.
Although the place Seo-won had moved to was a rural area in the middle of nowhere, there were obstetrics and gynecology clinics if he went out a little. However, the reason he came all the way to Seoul today was to go together with his mother.
On the day Seo-won told his mother that he was pregnant, she asked if there was anything she could help with. Seo-won intended to bear all the things that happened after the pregnancy on his own, but his mother seemed eager to help, even if it was something very small.
So the one thing he asked was for her to go to the obstetrics and gynecology clinic together with him.
As a fervent omega, Seo-won had a significantly higher risk of miscarriage compared to others. Although he didn’t want to think about it, if that day ever came… He felt like it would be really hard to endure, so he asked for someone to hold onto him.
Just imagining it made a bitter taste spread in his mouth. When Seo-won couldn’t hide his bitter expression, Ji-hee comforted him as if she understood his feelings.
“I also had a hard time going to the obstetrics and gynecology clinic alone without your father in the past. Everyone else came with their husbands, but only I came alone… It felt like the doctor looked at me with pity for no reason. I was self-conscious. Even though I hadn’t committed a sin.”
“…”
“So please ask me for more help. Don’t try to bear it all alone.”
“…I understand. Thank you.”
“And come home unless you absolutely have to. Or come to Seoul. It’s better to have a hospital nearby.”
“…Yes.”
Seo-won nodded hesitantly at the bitter advice stemming from experience.
He had no intention of going home right away. However, as more time passed, he would need to visit the obstetrics and gynecology clinic frequently for checkups. Seo-won, in particular, required special attention compared to others.
And Seo-won had gone to the countryside to avoid running into Do-gyeom even by chance, but now that he visited every week… He also thought it might be more comfortable for both his body and mind to return home.
Above all, if Do-gyeom kept visiting because of the deal, he would notice Seo-won’s pregnant state when he saw his full belly. Rather than that, it might be better to stay with his mother so that Do-gyeom couldn’t visit as he pleased.
“Yoon Seo-won-ssi. Please come in.”
As Seo-won was contemplating what to do in the future, he was called from the examination room.
Originally, he should have had a checkup early on, but he had been busy moving and hadn’t been able to get one. So he was nervous about whether something had happened during that time.
Seo-won entered the examination room with Ji-hee and straightened his back stiffly with tension. Perhaps it was because of the unique smell of medicine in the examination room, or because the doctor wearing a white gown was intimidating. Worried that he might be scolded for not taking proper care of himself, the doctor, who had calmly checked the chart, opened his mouth with a gentle expression.
“How have you been doing? You’ve lost some weight, have you already started having morning sickness?”
“Yes… It’s not severe, but I can’t eat as usual unless it’s specific foods.”
“That’s what I thought. It’s not at a problematic level yet, so you should be able to take good care of yourself from now on. Keep in mind that morning sickness is somewhat alleviated when you’re with an alpha.”
Seo-won nodded blankly. Come to think of it, a few days ago, when he ate trout sashimi and even macarons, he was with Do-gyeom… Was his morning sickness less severe because he was with him?
As he was thinking for a moment, the doctor continued.
“Fortunately, the baby is growing well without any issues. All the test results came back within the normal range.”
“Ah…”
Even though he had missed many checkup periods, fortunately, the baby seemed to be growing well.
Seo-won unconsciously stroked his flat belly and let out a sigh of relief. The doctor looked at the chart once more, saying “Hmm,” and then opened his mouth.
“Then shall we take a look with an ultrasound? Could you lie down over there?”
“Ah, yes.”
The difference from last time was that this time, an ultrasound examination was also being done.
As Seo-won lay down where the doctor told him to and slightly lifted his top, the doctor applied a transparent gel-like substance to the ultrasound machine. As soon as he brought it to Seo-won’s belly, the black screen crackled.
What was this? It only crackled like watching a broken video, so it was impossible to tell what he was supposed to look at.
As Seo-won slightly furrowed his brow with a clueless expression, the doctor pointed to one side and said,
“This is the uterus.”
Where the doctor pointed on the screen, there was something in black. It was a very small size that fit the description of being as small as a bean. It was unbelievable to think that this was somehow the uterus.
“It’s really small.”
“It’s a bit smaller than average, but it’s not to the extent that there’s a problem. The shape and position look good.”
“Ah…”
Seo-won nodded blankly. Shape and position. Honestly, he didn’t know what that meant, but it seemed to roughly mean that the baby was growing well.
He was worried, but it was fortunate that there were no issues. As Seo-won’s expression softened considerably, the doctor said with a grin,
“Would you like to hear the heartbeat too? I think we might be able to hear it today if we’re lucky.”
“The heartbeat? Yes. I’d like to hear it.”
At the doctor’s suggestion, Seo-won nodded as if entranced. It was hard to believe that something so small could have a heart, and it was even more unbelievable that he could hear the sound. He wanted to hear it.
Seo-won expected a typical throbbing heartbeat sound, but the sound the doctor played was slightly different. It sounded like the sound of the wind, and that sound was incredibly fast. Is this okay? Seo-won asked the doctor in a worried voice.
“Isn’t the heart rate too fast?”
“Babies originally have a faster heart rate than adults. It’s fine, at this level.”
“I see…”
There really… is something there.
The feeling was strange. He had heard from the doctor before that he was pregnant, and he had thought there was a baby in his body because of the various effects on his body.
But now that he could see and hear it with his own two eyes and ears, his heart felt turbulent and overwhelmed. If he had come alone without his mother, he would have surely cried his eyes out from the surge of emotions.
Seo-won managed to compose himself and finally left the examination room after hearing a few explanations. As he was talking with his mother about how fortunate it was that there were no major issues and how amazing the ultrasound and heartbeat were, he was called from the reception desk.
It seemed like they were telling him to make the payment, so he took out his card, but the nurse who had finished the calculation handed him a small booklet and said,
“Right. And please take this too.”
“What is this?”
“It’s a pregnancy omega booklet. You should have received it last time, but since the checkup was delayed… Inside, you can see the ultrasound image taken today.”
The nurse personally opened the booklet and showed Seo-won the contents. It was written whether there were any abnormalities, how many weeks along he was, and the ultrasound picture he had seen today was beautifully attached inside.