Kiss Me if You Can Novel Completed - Chapter 3

Emma answered with a still trembling voice, but her effort to regain composure was evident. Thinking how scared she must have been alone, he wanted to fly there immediately. But there was something he had to do first.

“What did the doctor say? Can she be discharged?”

[No, she’ll have to be hospitalized for a few days. They said they need to do a few more tests…]

Emma, who had barely let out a trembling breath, asked in a much calmer voice.

[What should we do, Josh?]

“Don’t worry.”

Josh answered firmly.

“I’ll figure something out. You’ve worked hard, did you get any sleep?”

No, Emma mumbled weakly. Suddenly, her heavy fatigue seemed to intensely waft through the phone. Josh deliberately spoke in a strong tone.

“Don’t worry and go rest now. I’ll call you later.”

Emma let out a deep sigh, ‘Haa,’ and answered in a very tired voice.

[…Okay, I should get some sleep. Then, Josh, please take care of it.]

“Don’t worry and go in. Drive carefully.”

After adding his admonition and hanging up, a sudden chilling silence descended. He sat blankly in the darkness, briefly organizing the conversation in his head, but the situation was clear.

He needed money.

“Haa.”

He ended up clutching his head and letting out a deep sigh. But this was no time to be lost in thought. Josh urgently recalled the money he currently had. All that came to mind were curses.

As he gloomily calculated how much money he needed, he faintly heard the child’s crying. He quickly moved to the other room.

“Daddy, Daddy.”

As soon as he saw Josh, the child burst into tears, and Josh quickly picked him up from the bed. Sometimes Pete would wake up crying like this. The child, as always, leaned his small body tightly against Josh.

“It’s okay, Pete. It’s okay.”

As he walked around the room comforting him, the sobbing child gradually quieted down and soon breathed deeply and evenly. Josh kissed Pete’s head with a ‘smack.’

The child’s warm body temperature always reassured him. Josh hoped it would again this time, and deeply inhaled the child’s scent. The child’s unique sweet smell seemed to somewhat soothe his anxiety. In the end, he sat on the sofa holding Pete and stayed up all night.

@Funhap

“Hello, Rose.”

Josh opened the office door after knocking and greeted her. Rose, who was sitting at her desk trimming her nails, was startled, then quickly showed a bright smile.

“Hi, Josh. You look very handsome today too.”

He simply smiled, letting the usual compliment pass. He felt bad about leaving Pete, who was still asleep.

Pete would probably cry quite a bit when he woke up and found me gone.

It happened every day, but it was still bitter. He wished he could stay with the child until he grew a little older, but reality didn’t allow it. Moreover, today was the part-timer’s day off. Because of that, he had left the child with Mrs. Robert next door before he even woke up, which added to his guilt.

Mrs. Robert, whose sole income was her pension, adored Pete in place of her grandchildren, whom she rarely saw. Mrs. Robert sometimes bought him toys or baked cookies, but he couldn’t leave the child with an elderly person for too long. He had to finish his business quickly and go back.

As he looked at Mark’s office door, Rose, with a faintly flushed face, got up from her seat and spoke.

“The boss isn’t in yet, you came early. Would you like some coffee?”

Josh hid his disappointment and smiled.

“Thank you.”

“Just a moment, please.”

Rose, looking excited, hurried into the pantry. Sitting alone on the office sofa, which had become quiet again, he felt somehow uneasy. Josh unnecessarily looked around, then turned his gaze to the newspaper on the table. He was idly looking at the face in the photo that covered the front page when Rose came out of the pantry and spoke.

“They say he’s the prosecutor in charge of the Davis case. He’s really handsome, isn’t he?”

She was referring to the murder case that occurred in New York. The accused was a wealthy Alpha, who, coincidentally, didn’t have a very good reputation. People with money and power easily make enemies. Even more so if the suspect is an arrogant Alpha and the victim is a powerless Omega.

But the biggest reason people were excited was the prosecutor in charge.

Rose let out a sigh of admiration and placed a cup in front of him. He briefly thanked her and brought the coffee to his lips, but Rose, still unable to take her eyes off the photo, said,

“Is this man an Alpha or an Omega?”

“Well…”

Alphas or Omegas who presented at the appropriate time around their teens, not those who mutated from Betas, had very outstanding appearances. Although there were occasional exceptions, most of the time, 99 out of 100 were handsome or beautiful enough to be recognized. Even just by looking at them, without pheromones, one could guess they were Alpha, or at least Omega.

Among them, a man this handsome was rare, so much so that even Josh was momentarily captivated when he first saw him. If a newspaper article photo with terrible quality looked this good, how handsome would he be in person?

Thinking that far, he pondered for a moment. This man was so handsome he was beautiful, and so beautiful he was stunning. In any case, it was clear that he was an astonishingly handsome man just from the photo.

“He’s not a Beta, right? …Well, it’s not impossible, I guess.”

It seemed Josh wasn’t the only one who couldn’t make up his mind. Rose, who had turned her head to look at him, soon trailed off uncertainly. Very rarely, there were Betas with outstanding looks. Thanks to that, Josh had also narrowly kept his identity hidden. When he smiled ambiguously again this time, she quickly sat down next to him, her gaze fixed with excitement.

“I was so surprised that a handsome man like Josh was a Beta! I was sure you were an Alpha.”

She spoke with an attitude that was hard to tell if it was disappointment or not. Josh had heard such words countless times in his life. Things like, ‘You clearly look like an Alpha,’ or ‘I can’t believe there’s a Beta as handsome as you.’ Unfortunately, both were wrong.

Josh was an Omega, and one with a mark engraved on his ear.

If it weren’t for his job, there would be no particular reason to hide being an Omega. But unfortunately, no one hired Omegas as bodyguards. Therefore, Josh had been pretending to be a Beta ever since he started this job.

Hiding the fact that he was an Omega wasn’t difficult. For one, people often mistakenly assumed he was an Alpha just by looking at him, and his pheromone scent was weak. During his heat cycle, the scent inevitably intensified, so he had to take medication, but even that had lessened after he was marked.

He was confident he would never be found out in his entire life.

Josh casually brushed off the hand that almost touched his ear. It would be a disaster if the mark was discovered. While there was a way to pretend to be an Alpha, if he told a clumsy lie, he would have to make up another story about why he had been pretending to be a Beta all this time. In the end, everyone would know he was an Omega.

The only remaining option was to try his best to hide it. Because of that, even when he wasn’t working, he diligently hid his ear by wearing security earphones or using various other methods.

I might lose my job.

Josh felt a chill run down his spine and pretended to drink coffee, averting his gaze. Rose, who had no idea of his inner turmoil, looked at him with pity and said,

“How old is Pete this year? Isn’t it hard raising a child alone?”

“Well, it’s manageable.”

The people at the office thought the child’s mother had run away, leaving only the child behind. Since such cases were not uncommon in their profession, he didn’t need to make up a story. He just gave a wry smile, and everyone filled in the blanks themselves. Until recently, it was a fairly good excuse.

Rose’s pity for the ‘poor widower’ turned into interest a few months ago after her divorce. Of course, Josh was not at all pleased about it.

Rose ignored his gentle refusal and moved her face closer.

“But don’t children need a mother? Poor thing, he’s at an age where he must miss her dearly. …You haven’t heard from the child’s mother, have you?”

Josh faintly frowned. A casual one-night stand was one thing, but he couldn’t meet Rose’s expectations in the direction she wanted.

“Wait, Rose. You’re a little too close.”

He warned and restrained her, but it didn’t work. Rose leaned her lips even closer and closed her eyes. She was clearly trying to kiss him. Josh blocked her lips with his hand at a dangerously close distance, just as they were about to touch.

Rose, whose lips had touched Josh’s palm, opened her eyes wide. Josh smiled gently at Rose, who was staring at him right in front of his nose.

“Rose, I don’t want to see you fighting with her over me.”

Rose paused at his gentle voice, then narrowed her eyes.

“She’s not here, though.”

“Well, you never know. She might suddenly appear right before your eyes.”

“Are you teasing me now?”

Josh whispered, “Shh,” to Rose, who frowned.

“Listen, I hear footsteps getting closer. Could it be her?”

“What?!”

Rose, clearly disbelieving, still looked behind her. Just then, the door suddenly burst open.

“What? What are you doing this early in the morning?”

“Oh my!”

Rose was startled by the boss’s rough greeting and quickly got up. Josh pretended nothing happened, stood up, and greeted him back.

“Hello, Mark.”

“Were you waiting for me?”