Hero Hunter is on Parental Leave C43

Chapter 43

“You’ll need a little time. In everyday life, it would be best to build trust with the child. But don’t despair too much. To be honest, this is the first Broken Child I’ve ever seen with such a healthy sense of self. That must surely be thanks to Mister Yeong’s love.”

As Bertrand spoke gently, Doctor Richmond added his own thoughts while eating ice cream.

“I’ll second that. And let me add one thing, yeah?”

Not content with having devoured all the refreshments, the doctor had helped himself—without permission—to the ice cream from the reception room refrigerator and was already halfway through a tub.

“That nullification ability—pretty sure the hero’s desperate wish to protect his kid had a hand in shaping it.”

Licking the ice cream cleanly off his spoon, Richmond continued in an unusually serious voice.

“So what I’m saying is this: you’re already a damn good parent.”

But Yeongung didn’t hear the comfort offered by either the doctor or Bertrand.

Lee Chahyeon, sensing the mood, took Jaehee from his friend’s arms and escorted the guests out of the reception room, giving Yeongung space to be alone with his thoughts.

Click.

Thanks to Chahyeon’s consideration, only Yeongung and Won Iheun remained. With his head bowed low, Yeongung’s back trembled faintly.

Silence settled over the room.

Won Iheun quietly lifted Yeongung and seated him on his thigh. Without a word, he enclosed him in his arms, patting his back. The restrained trembling soon turned into violent shudders, and the tears Yeongung had been holding back—so he wouldn’t cry in front of his child—finally spilled over.

“This isn’t your fault.”

It was a single, simple sentence—far shorter than the long reassurances given by Bertrand and Doctor Richmond. Yet that one line brought greater comfort than anything else.

“Hhng…”

Iheun’s shirt soaked up Yeongung’s tears.

“I just… I’m raising him alone, so when I’m working I can’t see Jaehee. And then I see how much he’s grown while I wasn’t looking, and I get greedy—I don’t want to miss anything, so… hic….”

“I know. Shh… it’s okay.”

Iheun gently pulled Yeongung’s hand away from his mouth.

“Don’t hold it in. Cry.”

At last, Yeongung broke down completely, hiccupping as he sobbed out loud. Without any prompting, he wrapped both arms around the Alpha’s neck.

“Your pheromones… release them…”

“Gladly.”

Unlike when he had threatened Richmond, Iheun’s pheromones were soft and soothing as they enveloped the Omega. The line between sexual tension and emotional stabilization through pheromones is thin—this delicate control was something only an extreme Alpha could achieve.

As his nerves calmed like someone injected with a sedative, Yeongung unconsciously sought more of Iheun’s scent, rubbing the bridge of his nose against the man’s collarbone. There was no sexual intent on Yeongung’s part, but for Iheun, it was almost unbearable stimulation. He clenched one fist tightly and gently stroked the back of Yeongung’s head with the other.

“Now that we know the real cause, isn’t today a good day? So stop crying.”

Iheun wiped Yeongung’s tear- and mucus-smeared face with his bare hand, without the slightest hesitation.

“…Isn’t that gross?”

“It came from your body, Hunter Yeongung. How could it be disgusting? I’d probably accept other fluids too.”

“Damn it, stop talking—!”

Flustered by the obscene remark, Yeongung slapped both hands over Iheun’s mouth, worried someone might hear—even though everyone else had already left. Iheun flicked his tongue over the hollow of Yeongung’s palm and murmured,

“You have no idea how much I’m holding back.”

“….”

Yeongung pulled away from the man’s embrace, his tears instantly drying up. With Won Iheun, letting his guard down always meant being swept into a dangerous atmosphere.

“And stop blaming yourself. If the child finds out later, he’ll be sad.”

Those words reminded Yeongung of what Munjeong—the girl he had saved from the monster’s core—had said. That time was too precious to waste on self-blame and sorrow.

“I’m sorry.”

Startled by the sudden apology, Yeongung looked up at him.

“I’m sorry I made you find out first—that Jaehee is my son.”

“No. I thought you would… deny him. I heard the conversation you had with Lee Rubin in Python two years ago. That’s why I ran.”

Iheun’s brow furrowed at the unexpected name.

“Wait. Lee Rubin?”

‘Even if, by some chance, it really was my child, it’d be the same.’

‘What do you mean? Even if it were really yours, you’d tell them to erase it?’

‘Of course.’

The memory played vividly, like a film reel—the image of Lee Rubin laughing as he spouted those senseless words.

“I heard it clearly. Rubin lied about being pregnant with your child, got caught—and you said that even if it were really yours, you would’ve told them to erase it.”

Iheun pressed his palm to his forehead, his expression hardening.

“That day, I smelled your pheromones in the club lounge. I thought I’d gone insane—you’re someone who wouldn’t even step foot into nightlife. But it really was you, Hunter Yeongung. If only I’d caught you that day… if only…”

Yeongung cut into his regret-filled voice.

“No. Whether you caught me or not that day isn’t the point. The point is what I heard with my own ears. You did have that conversation with Rubin, didn’t you?”

Despite the accusation, Iheun didn’t waver. He met Yeongung’s gaze steadily.

“The chance that Lee Rubin was pregnant with my child was zero.”

Even Yeongung, who was extremely fertile, found it hard to accept the Alpha’s firm claim that a dominant Omega like Rubin couldn’t have been impregnated by him.

“I never slept with Lee Rubin in the first place.”

That was another shock. Before becoming Yeongung’s partner, Iheun’s body had always carried the pheromone scent of other Omegas—strong enough that Yeongung could smell it, leaving him feeling nauseated and fiercely jealous. And now he was saying he had never slept with Rubin?

“Rubin might not be the sharpest, but how do you claim you’re pregnant with someone’s kid without even sleeping with them? That makes no sense.”

When Iheun tried to pull Yeongung back onto his thigh, Yeongung pushed him away.

“The person Rubin slept with was someone else. Seeing my face across from him, he was drugged enough to mistake it for me.”

Rejected, Iheun settled for holding Yeongung’s hand as he explained.

“Don’t misunderstand. That guy already had another partner while seeing me—I was just the decoy. Do you really think I’d sleep with trash like that?”

He sneered, as if discarding the very thought.

“Then why keep Rubin around?”

“With Rubin standing next to me, at least it kept the annoying pests away. That’s all. I used him officially. Most of my previous partners were the same—reasonably pretty, nothing more.”

“….”

“When they grew overly attached and it became troublesome to maintain a hollow relationship, I simply moved on to the next.”

Iheun kissed the back of Yeongung’s hand, anger burning at the realization that an unexpected variable had existed.

“Ha… So the reason you disappeared was because of Lee Rubin.”

“….”

“No—though it was a misunderstanding, the fact that you heard something so vile because of me is still my fault.”

Iheun’s apology loosened the tight knot that had been suffocating Yeongung all this time, though a faint unease still lingered.

“…Then how do you feel about Jaehee?”

“He’s so lovely I want to carry him everywhere so he’ll never have to walk on his own. He’s the fruit of you and me, Hunter Yeongung.”

Hesitating, Yeongung recalled Park Hyesu—the man who had harassed him at the hospital, Iheun’s biological father—and spoke.

“I thought you’d hate the idea of having a child, no matter who it was with.”

“Ah. It’s true I wanted to end my bloodline. That vulgar, filthy blood—I didn’t want to pass it on myself.”

A chill ran through Yeongung. Sensing his tension, Iheun gently stroked the back of his hand.

“But Jaehee is not just my child. He’s yours too.”

Sometimes affirmation grows so large that it completely eclipses negation. That was what Won Iheun was saying.

“And the child takes after you.”

“What…? Sometimes I feel cheated, like I carried him myself, because he looks so much like you.”

“His innate nature—his kindness, his loveliness—that’s all you.”

In the orphanage, Yeongung had competed with other children to be adopted, fought over scraps of bread and bowls of rice when adoptions failed or were revoked. After becoming a Hunter, he was surrounded only by adults who wanted to use his power—and when he refused, he was ostracized and left alone.

Back then, people cursed him for never crying, calling him heartless. The only person who ever said he was kind and lovable was Won Iheun.

Yeongung decided to keep that truth to himself. He wanted to remain kind and lovable—at least in this man’s eyes. Even if someone laughed at him for such a childish thought, he didn’t care.