Pig Government Official

-69-

“…”

At Junjae’s casual remark, Heejin’s body momentarily froze due to a certain memory. The biggest incident she remembered happened 23 years ago in winter. When she heard that her mother was hospitalized, Heejin visited the hospital with young Junjae, where he manifested from recessive to dominant alpha. If the child hadn’t manifested as dominant then, she could confidently say he wouldn’t be living with a sound mind now. Even after becoming dominant, the child had lived a difficult life.

Her husband, who had mercilessly divorced his first wife for bearing a recessive alpha and remarried her, was furious that their second son was also recessive. Despite researchers saying the problem was with him, he blamed everything on the child, as if unable to accept it. And he made the child take responsibility. To live as a dominant. To pretend to be dominant. He made him work hundreds of times harder than others. He didn’t let the child live like a child. Even until now.

She, unable to give up her honor and reputation, had turned a blind eye to the child for the sake of her own face. She had stood by even knowing the child was gradually breaking down. But seeing the child now with life in his eyes, she could only lament what she had done. She felt sorry for even having the right to mention that child, just because she was his mother.

“Mother.”

At Junjae calling her as if asking what was wrong, Heejin relaxed her momentarily stiffened body. For a moment, a memory from the past surfaced, and she briefly had a thought. That day, even as Junjae lost consciousness and collapsed in the elevator, he said it smelled like bread. Even after waking up having manifested as dominant, he kept saying it smelled like bread for a while, sniffing around.

Back then, she vaguely thought he was just being childish because he couldn’t eat the sweet foods her husband forbade, but she flinched as she recalled the researcher in charge jokingly saying, “Could it have been someone’s pheromones that smelled like bread?” Everyone said Junjae became a dominant alpha influenced by Heejin being a dominant omega, but she always felt something was off. What if, at that time, it really wasn’t her…

“…No. I should go now.”

…It couldn’t be.

Meanwhile, Jeonggwan, the icon of ‘what if’, had a problem. His work uniform pants got caught between his belly rolls when he was changing after arriving at work. Usually, while it wouldn’t slide up smoothly, he could put them on without much trouble, but this morning he had to bite his lower lip and exert force to put them on.

“This won’t do…”

His belly fat had increased. Perhaps because he had been eating out too much lately, overwhelmed with happiness, he felt like he had exceeded the maximum limit he had set for himself. Compared to other areas, his belly hadn’t protruded much forward, just bulging slightly at the sides like a cream bun, but now the pants refused to fasten once. Oh no, this won’t do. He might have to show his belly this weekend… This can’t happen…!

Moreover, knowing Jeonggwan found happiness in eating, the doctor had set a limit and told him not to exceed this maximum. Otherwise, his health would deteriorate. So Jeonggwan had always maintained himself at the edge of that line, but now he had definitely crossed it.

“Gwan Jihoon… Do I still have a gym membership…?”

“Yeah, why? Are you going to lose weight…?”

“…Yeah. I’m going to lose a little. It’s getting hard to breathe.”

You, voluntarily? Leaving behind Jihoon’s shocked face, Jeonggwan entered the changing room, deciding to start going to the gym from today. Somehow, when they were walking in the park yesterday and Junjae lifted him down from a high curb, the “…hup” sound he made seemed a bit strained. Even if he couldn’t be lifted as lightly as a feather, at least he shouldn’t make that “hup…!” sound! For the sake of his boyfriend’s precious waist and arms… Jeonggwan clenched his fist and thrust it skyward, determined to burn up the gym today.

* * *

“Hello, pig.”

“…Eh.”

However, two people who had “burned up” the gym in a different sense before encountered each other here again. It was Kyung Juhwan, who had captivated Jeonggwan’s attention with his still gorgeous appearance and physique, who had charged at Jeonggwan and fallen on his own, cracking his tailbone, who had collapsed after receiving Jeonggwan’s ddong-chim, and who had appeared as Junjae’s blind date partner.

“…I thought you said you didn’t like it here, but you seem to come often.”

“Well. It’s my choice.”

Despite saying something about a neighborhood gym, Kyung Juhwan seemed to come here often, as he comfortably stood on the treadmill next to Jeonggwan. Despite their bad relationship and the ddong-chim Jeonggwan had given him recently with a light poke of his finger, Juhwan seemed unfazed. According to Junjae, when Juhwan came for the blind date, he had a very new? expression on his face, as if he had experienced ddong-chim for the first time. Fate is really strange… Of all people, for Juhwan to be Junjae’s blind date partner. It didn’t seem like an ordinary connection.

And Jeonggwan felt a bit sorry and worried for Juhwan. When he saw Juhwan talking to Junjae through the window last time, he didn’t initially intend to do the ddong-chim. He just approached thinking he should separate the two, but when Juhwan started spewing harsh words about late-night boiled pork or something, he unconsciously lightly pressed his index finger on the upper part of Juhwan’s buttocks, which was very accentuated in his training leggings. But he didn’t know Juhwan would fall forward so dramatically, perhaps because he was startled by the sudden touch, and he was subconsciously worried if he had caused more injury.

“Your tailbone…”

So Jeonggwan cautiously broached the subject. Seeing him come to exercise like this, he wondered if it was okay now, but if it was still bad, he wanted to properly apologize for what happened then. Of course, Junjae had apparently used some influence to smooth over the situation at that time, but the fact that Kyung Juhwan didn’t seek compensation and agreed to settle with thirty pages of reflection seemed to indicate that he acknowledged his own mistake to some extent. So Jeonggwan also wanted to say that he was sorry when they met, even though it wasn’t intentional. In the end, it had been delayed after going round and round, but he was still worried.

“Ah, that was a lie.”

“…Hm?”

“Something else… hurt more for a while, I just said it was my tailbone.”

“…Something else hurt?”

The cracked tailbone was a lie, but something else hurt more for a while? But he just suddenly said his tailbone was cracked? Why did he lie like that? Could it be some pain he couldn’t talk about, ah…

“Could it be hemorrhoids?”

“…”

“…”

“…”

“…Sorry.”

Jeonggwan turned his head away from Juhwan and fixed his gaze on the monitor attached to the treadmill. Kyung Juhwan’s silence continued beside him, but he just pretended not to notice. Hemorrhoids… My second older brother had it bad in high school, he suffered a lot… Jeonggwan inwardly expressed his condolences to Kyung Juhwan.

“…But are you really dating Won Junjae?”

Juhwan, perhaps feeling awkward too, maintained an uncomfortable silence for a while before forcibly changing the subject, pretending nothing had happened. Jeonggwan felt a bit more sympathetic for a moment but responded brightly without showing it. “Yeah!”

“I had a blind date with Won Junjae. You know that?”

“Yeah. I heard.”

“Aren’t you furious? The guy who had a blind date with your man is right in front of you.”

“Nope. I’m not angry. He’s dating me now anyway.”

“Oh-. You’re cool?”

Jeonggwan thought that unnecessary jealousy and nitpicking about past events only trapped both parties and made them tired, so he neither asked nor questioned Junjae about past events. His biggest worry now was just…

‘Do you like animation?’

‘…I’ve only seen it once.’

‘What? Once in your life? Just once?’

‘Yes. When I was young… I was hospitalized once, and I remember a nurse playing it when no one else was around.’

‘Wow… Then you probably haven’t seen Ratatouille either.’

‘…’

‘Let’s watch it together this weekend! You have Netflix at home, right?’

‘…Home?’

Jeonggwan had purely suggested watching his favorite movie and animation with Junjae. Since they couldn’t watch it at his house with his brothers and parents around, it seemed natural to suggest watching it at Junjae’s place, who lived alone. So Jeonggwan casually threw out those words without any thought and went to the bathroom.

‘Please install Netflix on the TV too…’

But he seemed to return from the bathroom faster than expected, and he happened to overhear Junjae talking on the phone while sitting behind him,

‘And contraceptives… please.’

It seemed that for 32-year-old Junjae, he wasn’t thinking they would just purely watch an animation about a cooking rat. So Jeonggwan was now preparing his body and mind. Usually, he would have been excited thinking, “Finally…! My first experience!” without any other thoughts, but,

‘It’s strange how you don’t have much belly fat?’

‘The doctor told me to drink a lot of warm water because of visceral fat, so I drank it every day for two years and only my belly fat disappeared. Isn’t it strange?’

‘Good job. I don’t know about other places, but when the belly folds during sex, it cools down fast.’

Earlier, when his pants wouldn’t fasten, he remembered what Jihoon had said while watching Jeonggwan change clothes when fitting the cafe uniform. So now, instead of excitement, he was only worried. That’s why he had hurriedly come to the gym to try to return his belly fat to its original slightly protruding state. Gwan Jihoon’s expression had been extremely cold as he emphasized several times that if the belly folds during that, it cools down fast…

But in fact, Jeonggwan didn’t think Junjae would cool down even if he had belly fat, but Jihoon’s expression had been so fierce that he thought it must be quite important during sex. Since Jeonggwan was inexperienced, he decided to believe Jihoon’s words, who claimed to have been quite popular back in the day. Of course, he was also worried about visceral fat, the root of all diseases.