Alpha Trauma Novel (Completed) - Chapter 77. Kim Dohyun (2)

My child.

Dohyun was surprised to hear that. He wanted to ask if she had a child, but he was too flustered for words to come out.

While Dohyun parted his lips, Soohyang added in a calm voice.

‘I sent them to middle school two years ago, but it seems they’re not adapting well to school life.’

‘…Not adapting? Are they being bullied?’

There was no answer. Instead, he only heard the sound of her clicking her tongue, her brows furrowed.

‘They insist there’s no need to be educated with such children…’

A strange emotion flickered in her unusually pale eyes. The emotion that surfaced was, even to Dohyun, ‘worry.’ He was momentarily flustered by that fact. Soohyang then shook her head slightly.

‘Anyway, I called because I thought you might be able to talk to them. At least they’ll be more comfortable with someone their age than with me. And since you went to a good university, you can easily do English tutoring, right?’

‘Tutoring…’

From earlier, it had been a continuous stream of surprising words. She said she had a child, that the child was being bullied, and now she was asking him to tutor English. The incomprehensible flow of the conversation was heading towards an even more baffling direction.

‘You won’t have trouble teaching. They already mastered most English when they were young, and I’m not expecting professional instruction from you.’

‘No, what on earth…’

Dohyun let out a hollow laugh, dragging out his words. He had no words for her, who was asking him to tutor English but openly stating that tutoring wasn’t the purpose.

‘What do you want?’

When he finally asked directly, Soohyang raised an eyebrow. Her expression seemed to ask if she really had to say it, but Dohyun deliberately acted brazen.

‘How would I know if you don’t say it?’

‘…While tutoring, talk about school, and report it back to me. Three times a week, two hours a day, for a total of six hours. I’ll pay you as much as you want.’

Should I just name an absurd amount? Dohyun thought about it but decided against it. With Soohyang, she would give as much as he asked but would expect as much in return.

‘It would be faster if Vice President… no, President just went to the school and bribed them a bit.’

‘It’s not that simple.’

Bribing wasn’t simple, but Soohyang seemed unfazed by it. Dohyun squinted his left eye, an expression of complete incomprehension.

‘Are they, like, a hidden child or something?’

‘No, if they were, I wouldn’t even be talking to you about it.’

He thought it was a pretty plausible guess, but it was wrong again. Soohyang glanced at the watch on her wrist and tapped the desk.

‘You don’t need to know the details. Just tell me if you’ll do it or not.’

Her tone was normal, but her eyes weren’t. Her slightly furrowed brows made her look like someone anxious. Dohyun lowered his gaze slightly and slowly replied.

‘I’ll do it.’

He had never imagined that the person he thought was perfect, Soohyang, whom he believed lacked nothing, would show such a side. The feeling of witnessing her desperation with his own eyes was indescribably thrilling.

‘Just give me the money as you see fit. It doesn’t really matter if you don’t give me any.’

Even the formidable Ji Soohyang gets anxious in front of her child. Whether it was affection, obsession, or something else entirely. Whichever it was, it was strange, and as strange as it was, it was also unsettling. The emotion stirring in a corner of his heart was too strongly unpleasant to be merely ‘strangeness.’

‘But they’re not an Omega, are they? That would be a bit difficult.’

‘Of course not, what would I trust you with?’

‘…Would I lay a hand on a child four years younger than me?’

Anyway, putting everything aside, Soohyang was a turning point in Dohyun’s life. Not a grand ‘savior,’ but at least a ‘Daddy Long Legs.’ He could certainly grant a small favor (though it was closer to a command).

‘What’s the child’s name?’

‘Seon Wooyeon.’

Seon Wooyeon, Seon Wooyeon. Dohyun repeated it a few times and nodded. She said it wasn’t a hidden child, but she hadn’t passed on her surname. Perhaps it was Omega’s surname, or she had changed it because she didn’t intend to reveal it.

‘That’s a pretty name.’

It was a habitual compliment, but Soohyang wore a subtle expression. A faint smile appeared, as if she was longing for something. Lowering her gaze bitterly, she murmured in a voice barely audible.

‘…Yes, it’s a pretty name.’

As soon as he heard those words, Dohyun couldn’t ask any more questions and fell silent. It was the first and last time he saw Soohyang’s sad face.

The tutoring they had agreed upon approached faster than expected. Soohyang set the date as a notification without even asking Dohyun’s opinion. Since Dohyun didn’t have any particular schedule, he didn’t refuse the date she set.

And on the long-awaited day of tutoring, Dohyun, unusually nervous, visited Soohyang’s house.

The grand neighborhood, which even taxis were reluctant to enter, had houses spaced so far apart that walking between them was impossible. He vowed three times that he wouldn’t refuse the car they sent next time, and only then did Dohyun stand in front of the main gate.

‘It’s almost like a prison.’

The towering walls were excessively large for mere security. Just as it was difficult to approach from the outside, it seemed difficult to get out from the inside. It felt like it would be no trouble at all to confine someone if they put their mind to it.

‘Please wait here for a moment.’

The housekeeper seated Dohyun in the living room and disappeared upstairs. When she said she would call the young master, Dohyun finally realized that Soohyang’s child was a son. Come to think of it, he hadn’t heard anything about him except his name.

‘I wonder if he resembles the President…’

Dohyun looked around the spacious living room, vaguely imagining ‘Seon Wooyeon.’ Since he was Soohyang’s child, he would probably resemble her, and having grown up without want, his personality wouldn’t be entirely good. Such thoughts completely vanished the moment he saw the person who came out with the housekeeper.

‘…Hello.’

It was a child with a thin voice, who hadn’t even gone through puberty yet. His gaze was two spans lower, he was chubbier than expected, and his face was as white as if it smelled of baby formula. Even the eyes behind his high-prescription glasses didn’t resemble Soohyang at all.

‘I’m Seon Wooyeon.’

He didn’t know why that appearance overlapped with his own in the orphanage. Why those untainted, pure eyes remained in his heart. What was the reason why the childlike gaze was so disturbingly baffling?

‘Your name is… Seon Wooyeon?’

According to Dohyun’s thoughts, he should have been a naive child who received abundant love. He should have been a child who monopolized Soohyang’s affection, received everyone’s attention, acted arrogantly, and then was ostracized.

‘That’s a pretty name.’

Dohyun absolutely did not want the child to be embarrassed by a kind word. He didn’t want his ears to redden at his habitual smile, nor did he want his deep brown eyes to be innocently clear.

‘Nice to meet you, Yeon-ah.’

It felt as if sand was stuck in his throat. The way he touched his earlobe and bowed his head was like a stray cat unaccustomed to kindness. The child nodded and replied in a small voice.

‘Nice to meet you too. Um…’

‘Call me Teacher.’

That remark was a kind of defense mechanism. The sudden sense of crisis told him to keep his distance from the child. However, Dohyun impulsively added this remark.

‘When you go to university, I’ll let you call me Hyung.’

He was different from the children Dohyun usually saw around him. Unlike those full of mischief and liveliness, the child subtly showed a sense of deficiency somewhere. If Dohyun tried to open his heart with a gentle smile, he would show wariness and run away.

‘…Are you an Alpha, Teacher?’

That was why. He couldn’t easily answer ‘Alpha’ to the child’s question. Dohyun was quick-witted, and the look in the child’s eyes when he asked that question clearly hoped for a ‘no.’

‘Why, do I seem like an Alpha, Teacher?’

As soon as he asked back, various emotions flickered in the child’s eyes. He frowned, then lowered his eyes, and then carefully raised his gaze to meet Dohyun’s. His slowly blinking eyes suddenly touched Dohyun’s heart.

‘…No.’

The tension in his wary eyes disappeared. What resurfaced was a sense of calm he hadn’t seen before.

‘You don’t seem like an Alpha.’

Instinctively, he realized that the child’s wall had crumbled. Guilt arose, but it was only for a moment. The gaze filled solely with trust satisfied a thirst Dohyun had suppressed for a long time.

From that day on, Dohyun longed for tutoring time more than anyone else. Sitting side by side with the child and listening to his stories, a sense of satisfaction he had never felt before blossomed. The child would look at him with round eyes, and with reddened cheeks, he would bring out his deepest concerns.

‘So… it doesn’t seem like there’s any physical violence.’

On days when there was no tutoring, Soohyang would call Dohyun to hear about the child. When she was really busy, she would call, but usually, she seemed to make time to meet in person. Her persistent gaze, like an observer, contained worries about his school life and his relationship with Dohyun.

‘Come to think of it, you’ve been making quite obvious moves.’

‘Moves?’

‘You called him, Yeon-ah.’

Dohyun learned that the child’s name was ‘Seon Wooyeon’ around their second meeting. The housekeeper, hearing Dohyun call him ‘Yeon-ah,’ corrected him, saying the young master’s name was ‘Wooyeon.’ However, Dohyun had no intention of changing the honorific until Wooyeon told him directly.

‘Keep your boundaries. Don’t make him like you if you have no intention of taking responsibility.’

‘…’

‘Of course, I wouldn’t let you take responsibility either.’

Mixed emotions crossed his mind. Guilt, displeasure, and a slight sense of superiority. All of this coalesced into a base defiance that arose upon realizing it was ‘jealousy’ towards maternal love.

‘…As if that’s ever been up to me.’

Even Soohyang, who seemed incapable of bleeding a single drop if pricked, cared for her child. Even if it seemed like control and obsession, Dohyun had never received anything similar. The loneliness stemming from a fundamental deficiency always manifested itself in a distorted way.

‘If you’re so worried, go tell Yeon. Tell him his tutor was someone I put there.’

He pictured Wooyeon’s disappointed face in his mind. His throat stung, and his chest felt heavy as if pressed by a stone. Nevertheless, Dohyun stared at Soohyang, pretending to be unaffected.

‘And if you can’t do that, don’t threaten me. You know which one of us would be more disappointed if I quit, don’t you?’

Soohyang didn’t answer, and Dohyun left the office. He seemed indifferent, but his true feelings were otherwise. Dohyun himself couldn’t gauge who would truly be more disappointed.