Dirty Switch

“I’m sorry. The vehicle bore a Yeonhwagung emblem, so we couldn’t block its entry.”
“Yeonhwagung? It looks pretty ordinary.”

Royal family vehicles had differently colored license plates. Sometimes they even flew flags bearing the national emblem or symbols of the palace. But the car that had just barged in didn’t seem to have any such distinguishing features.
“There was definitely an emblem on the front windshield.”
The bodyguard quickly defended himself. He was trying so hard not to provoke Joo Gukwon, who was visibly on edge, that even onlookers would feel sorry for the effort he was putting in.

“…Hyung, I think I know who it is.”
Joo Taehyun gently calmed Gukwon, who had one arm around his shoulder and a shielding hand above his eyes, and stepped forward. When the troubled bodyguard visibly sighed in relief, Taehyun accidentally let out a small laugh, forgetting the seriousness of the moment.
“Don’t tell me it’s Seo Baekhan?”

Gukwon seemed to have caught on and asked. Taehyun hesitated briefly, then nodded. Honestly, who else could it be? Who else did Taehyun know that had ties to Yeonhwagung? It would be weirder if Gukwon hadn’t figured it out.
“Move the car.”
Before Taehyun could fully lift his nodding head, Gukwon gave a cold order to the bodyguards. As if he didn’t care how or why Baekhan had come here, or what brought him.
“Hyung, wait.”

“Taehyun.”
“I didn’t say a word to Baekhan hyung before the press conference. We didn’t talk about it, obviously. I was the one who announced the divorce on my own. So…”
Avoiding him here wouldn't change anything. Even after the divorce, Baekhan would still be Baekhan, and Taehyun would still be Taehyun. They were bound to run into each other. He couldn’t keep hiding behind his brother every time.

“I’ll handle it. I know it’s ridiculous to say that after asking you for help and then suddenly stepping forward like this, but—”
Gukwon finally slumped his shoulders and shook his head.
“Baby, don’t talk like that.”

At that exact moment, the engine cut off. Both Gukwon and Taehyun turned toward the sound at the same time.
Click. The sound of the car door opening echoed in the air. He probably hadn’t planned it that way, but Seo Baekhan always had good timing. He had a knack for showing up right when all eyes would be on him—and this time was no exception.
“Hyung-nim.”

Seo Baekhan gave a faint smile and bowed politely.
“It’s been a while.”
His voice was calm, as if the stabbing incident and the press conference had never even happened.

“…Yeah. It’s been a while.”
Gukwon replied with a lukewarm smile. His tone was also gentle, almost too much so. But Taehyun knew all too well what that meant. He was only being polite because he didn’t want to give an inch to someone he disliked. Compared to the old days—when he’d shower Baekhan with praise, saying how much he expected of him—this was ice cold.

After greeting Gukwon again with a nod, Baekhan turned to Taehyun. Even that small shift in posture stirred up the air with a mixture of fruit-like sweetness.
It was as if he’d spilled an entire bottle of cologne—his pheromones came pouring toward Taehyun, and bizarrely, it made him feel like he could breathe again. At least he wasn’t reacting like he was going into heat, front and back soaked with desire. But that in itself was a bad sign too—it meant the baby inside him still needed Baekhan’s pheromones.
“Hyung, I’ll head inside first.”

Gukwon left those words behind—as if to say, don’t worry about me, take your time—and stepped toward the car. With a subtle signal from him, the formation of the bodyguards shifted in an instant. Now, they were positioned to overpower and pin Baekhan down at a moment’s notice.
“Are you feeling okay?”
Seo Baekhan didn’t seem the least bit fazed by the razor-sharp hostility around him. As if none of it mattered. As if his only concern in the world was Taehyun.
“I heard you’re pregnant.”

“…There’s something more important than that—”
“My legal spouse is carrying my child. What could possibly be more important than that?”
Baekhan stepped in closer. As the hem of his overcoat fluttered, the scent of peaches spread in every direction. Taehyun’s whole body tingled. Unconsciously, he rubbed at his arms several times. His pheromones were so vivid and overwhelming that they felt less like scent and more like beams of blinding light.

“You’re right, hyung. I lied to you a lot.”
The words popped out—poorly timed, poorly phrased, unrefined.
There was no time to stall.

He didn’t want to look like he was thrilled by Baekhan’s pheromones. His carefully stacked lies had all come crumbling down, and now his pregnancy had been revealed, too.
It was all fine. It was always going to come out—because Baekhan had decided it would. The baby couldn’t be hidden anyway.
The only thing…

The only thing he desperately didn’t want Baekhan to know was that he had imprinted him—unilaterally.
“I don’t know how much you’ve figured out, but… I don’t have some kind of kink for sleeping with Alphas.”
His hands, the tips of his toes, all went numb.

Even when he said the word divorce in front of the world, he hadn’t flinched. But now it hit him.
There was no going back. This was really the end.
“When I heard you were thinking of meeting an Alpha, I lost it. But I lied because I thought I’d be the best hand you could play.”

Taehyun let out a short breath and continued slowly. His eyes dropped slightly, so he couldn’t see Baekhan’s expression—but he could feel that sharpened gaze slicing through him.
He was probably disappointed. Maybe even furious.
“And, um. The Dirty Switch—”

“Taehyun.”

“…”
“You pushed past even Gukwon hyung to tell me that?”
Standing with one leg cocked slightly, Baekhan looked almost bored.

As if to say, I didn’t come here to hear this kind of nonsense from you.
Taehyun let out a long breath through his nose without even realizing it.
Again… I have to guess what he wants to hear. Even now.
He’d never really felt it until now, but… maybe he really was exhausted. Trying to read Baekhan’s intentions, trying to say what would please him—it was suddenly suffocatingly painful.

He’d spent all this time bending and breaking himself to fit the mold of what Baekhan liked. Even if it wore him down to nothing, even if he disappeared as a person, he felt happy just to see Baekhan smile at him like he was proud.
Of course, it wasn’t Baekhan’s fault. He didn’t even want to blame him. Why would he? He was the one who fell for Baekhan without asking permission. He was the one who bent over backwards to match his tastes. It would be ridiculous to blame the other person for that.
“Hmm, are you curious about the pregnancy? I guess you would be… From your point of view, it must sound insane.”

He wasn’t asking Baekhan to understand how he felt.
Taehyun was just… tired.
“I… I haven’t really thought too deeply about the baby yet. I was caught off guard too. But I won’t ask you for anything unreasonable. I’ll take care of it myself. I won’t let it become your problem—”

“The baby… fine, let’s say it’s real.”
Let’s say it’s real?
Blinking in disbelief, Taehyun suddenly realized how lacking his explanation had been. Of course Baekhan would be confused from his point of view.

“Uh, I haven’t been to the hospital yet either, but… if it’s this early, it probably happened the first time we… you know—”
“You really do have it easy.”
He chuckled dryly, like nothing Taehyun said even mattered.

“So you say sorry because you lied, and now that you’ve done everything with me, you wanna divorce me and be done. Just dump all the aftermath on your family or me and walk away.”
“…Hyung.”
“You’ll take care of it? Take care of what? How?”

Seo Baekhan grabbed Taehyun’s chin, lifting it up, holding him in place with just his thumb and forefinger.
“If you really ◈ Nоvеlіgһт ◈ (Continue reading) are pregnant—and if it is my child—then you can’t divorce me.”
“Hyung.”

“You’ve already forgotten the state your body’s in? That pregnancy, caused by your pheromone disorder—how long do you think it’ll hold without me?”
Taehyun instinctively wrapped his arms around his lower stomach. The look in Baekhan’s eyes was full of so many dark, negative emotions that it felt like he might rip the baby apart on the spot.
“Whether you keep it or not—I don’t give a damn. And even if the pregnancy is a lie, you still need to stay with me. What, you wanna live the rest of your life with a broken body? Let’s at least keep you alive. Unless you want your precious, clingy family sobbing blood over your grave.”

“…”
“So I’ll take responsibility. As the man you love—I will.”