Chapter 1

What are the chances of a person falling into an open manhole while walking down the street?

What are the odds of being swept away by a rip current while swimming in the sea? Or being struck by lightning on a rainy day while holding an umbrella?

Such events might be difficult to experience even once in a lifetime. But now, Sunwoo was facing an equally absurd situation.

* * *

“Congratulations, Mr. Choi Sunwoo. You’re pregnant.”

“What? Pregnant?”

Sunwoo blinked.

“Yes. We’ll need to do an ultrasound for details, but it seems to be about 6 weeks along.”

Sunwoo stared at the doctor standing beside the bed with a dumbfounded expression. The doctor smiled kindly at Sunwoo, genuinely congratulating him.

“That’s impossible…”

But Sunwoo couldn’t understand the current situation. Pregnant? But I’m a man?

Above all, Sunwoo was single. He hadn’t even dated properly until now at the age of thirty-one.

How could he possibly be pregnant?

Sunwoo tried to think about what had happened before he fell asleep.

It didn’t take long to recall.

Late at night, or more precisely, in the early morning.

Sunwoo had dragged his exhausted body home. After two weeks of overtime and all-nighters.

Even the bed that smelled of stale dust was welcome.

Sunwoo fell asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow, and when he woke up, he was in the hospital. That’s when he started to think something was strange.

Who brought me, living alone, to the hospital? And this hospital room, it’s too luxurious.

Sunwoo’s gaze swept around. The private room looked like it could be from a drama or movie, with an atmosphere like a hotel suite.

But there was something even more bizarre than that.

“Now, take good care of your health for the baby. You’ve been overworking and not eating properly, so your nutritional state is a mess.”

The doctor had been confusing Sunwoo since earlier.

“We’ve given you some nutrients through IV. Make sure you finish that before you’re discharged, okay?”

The doctor’s gaze moved to the IV bag on the pole, then back to Sunwoo.

“Really, I’m pregnant?”

Sunwoo asked with a face that showed he still couldn’t understand, despite the kind explanation.

“Yes.”

The doctor’s expression changed. He finally realized that Sunwoo wasn’t particularly happy about it.

“Is there perhaps a problem…?”

The doctor asked cautiously. Sunwoo opened his mouth but couldn’t answer. A problem? There was, a very big one.

“Is it possible for a man?”

Sunwoo asked what he was most curious about. The doctor answered with a face that suggested this was an obvious question.

“Of course. You’re an Omega, even if you’re a recessive one.”

“An Omega?”

“Yes. Even recessive Omegas can get pregnant. It’s more difficult than for regular or dominant ones, of course.”

Sunwoo’s expression became even more blank. Recessive Omega. It wasn’t an unfamiliar term.

The culprit that had driven Sunwoo into a murderous schedule for two weeks. It was a term from female-oriented web novels.

A strange world view that divides human traits into Alpha, Omega, and Beta. The one called Omegaverse.

‘Am I dreaming right now?’

Sunwoo’s suspicion was justified. The schedule of the past two weeks had been grueling even for Sunwoo.

Sunwoo was a 5-year veteran PD in charge of web novels. He had gotten a job at a publishing company right after graduating from college and had worked passionately since then.

At first, he made mistakes and struggled to learn the job, but now he was a veteran.

Whether it was work or people, he was confident in handling everything in his own way. But even Sunwoo found this time a bit difficult.

Just before the launch, the author suddenly decided they weren’t satisfied with the content and dropped a bomb by saying they would revise all the previous chapters.

‘Thanks to that, I had two weeks of hell.’

It was difficult to flatly refuse when an author wanted to do that to their own writing.

Although the schedule was pressingly tight, Sunwoo worked hard for a successful launch.

When the author said they were running low on energy, he brought them food. When they hit a story block, he brainstormed with them. When they needed resources, he helped find them, and he edited the manuscript as it came in.

Working through the night, he prayed earnestly every day with both hands clasped that the launch would go smoothly.

After all that struggle, they finally opened successfully, and he returned home and fell asleep.

So this must be a nightmare he’s having.

“Mr. Choi Sunwoo, do you perhaps not remember?”

The doctor asked carefully.

“What?”

“I was wondering if you don’t remember your relationship with the Alpha partner.”

“Ah…”

For a moment, Sunwoo’s eyes wavered. Seeing this, the doctor also let out a soft “Ah.”

Omegas, especially recessive Omegas, had many weaknesses in various aspects.

The fact that their heat cycles were irregular. The fact that symptoms were unpredictable when they missed taking suppressants.

But among the countless side effects that appear during heat cycles, the symptom that recessive Omegas most want to avoid is the possibility of partially losing memory due to excessive arousal.

Recessive Omegas often find themselves in trouble because they forget who they had relations with or whose child they’re pregnant with during their heat.

So the doctor thought that Sunwoo, being a recessive Omega, had an unwanted pregnancy due to such heat cycle side effects and couldn’t remember it.

“For now, rest and think carefully about what you want to do.”

The doctor left with a sympathetic expression. Left alone, Sunwoo rubbed his face dry.

Then, hoping to wake up soon from this nightmare, he pinched his cheek hard.

“Ow!”

It really hurts!

As Sunwoo was rubbing his mercilessly pinched cheek, he suddenly felt a gaze.

Turning his head in the direction of the gaze he felt watching him, he saw a man standing at the door of the hospital room. Sculpture-like features and a very tall height. He looked to be in his early thirties at most.

He was a handsome man who looked like he could have stepped out of a TV show, with his perfectly fitting suit.

The man who made eye contact with Sunwoo entered the room as if he had been waiting. His legs were so long that he crossed the spacious hospital room in just a few steps and stopped abruptly in front of Sunwoo.

Up close, the man’s unrealistically handsome features were even more prominent.

“Secretary Choi, I told you to stop your tricks.”

Suddenly, the man spoke coldly.

“What?”

“I told you to know your place clearly.”

“What?”

At Sunwoo’s confused reaction, the man’s expression hardened completely.

“I heard you collapsed, but did you become an idiot?”

“No, well, you see…”

Sunwoo couldn’t finish his sentence. The man cut him off sharply.

“Don’t think unnecessary thoughts and behave properly from now on.”

The man said his piece and turned abruptly. He then strode out of the hospital room with long steps.

What unnecessary thoughts? What did he mean by behave properly?

More importantly, who was that man?

Left alone, Sunwoo stared at the door the man had left through with a dumbfounded expression. Even after thinking about it again, it was an unfamiliar face. With looks like that, it wouldn’t be easy to forget. Then suddenly, Sunwoo recalled what the man had said.

“Secretary Choi?”

He had been called Mr. Sunwoo, PD, manager, team leader by authors, colleagues, and superiors.

But Secretary Choi was a first. It was strange no matter how he thought about it.

Just then, a ‘ding, ding’ notification sounded from somewhere.

Sunwoo looked around, trying to find the source of the sound. There was a bag on a chair next to the bed.

The sound was coming from inside the bag. Thinking he might find some clue about the current situation, he reached out to grab the bag, but it was a bit far from the bed and he couldn’t reach it. Finally, Sunwoo sighed, turned his body, and awkwardly got off the bed.

At that moment, another ‘ding, ding, ding’ sounded cheerfully from the bag. Judging by the short, repetitive sound, it seemed to be messages rather than a call.

This dream is incredibly detailed.

Even then, Sunwoo still thought everything happening to him was a dream.

[Hey, Choi Sunwoo! What happened? I heard you collapsed?]

[It’s because of Director Kang Jinwook, right? I told you. You should quit right away. I said I’d support you instead.]

The continuous notifications were due to incoming messages. All from the same person.

[Yeoltaeng]

The problem was that both the sender’s name and the content were completely unfamiliar.

‘Who are you?’

Just then, another ‘ding, ding’ notification sounded.

[Let me give you some advice as a friend. Staying by his side will only make you suffer.]

[Honestly, it’s amazing that you’ve been his secretary for almost 3 years.]

Again with the secretary. Since earlier, both that man and this Yeoltaeng person keep mentioning a secretary.

After reading the incomprehensible messages from an unknown sender, Sunwoo put down the phone.

No matter how he thought about it, the current situation was strange. An uneasy feeling crept in that this might not be a dream after all.

Sunwoo stood up completely. But before he could take a few steps, he felt a stinging pain on the back of his hand.

“Ah.”

He belatedly realized he was receiving an IV drip. Sunwoo hesitated, then pushed the IV pole along. There was a small door near the entrance of the room.

‘Must be the bathroom.’

When he opened the door, it was as he expected. Sunwoo slowly walked to stand in front of the mirror. But the face reflected in the mirror wasn’t his own, but an unfamiliar one.

“Who is this?”

A slightly oval face with single eyelids, a small nose, pink lips. Skin so pale it was almost white.

The delicate and neat face was not Sunwoo’s no matter how he looked at it.

“Mr. Choi Sunwoo! What are you doing there?”

A sharp voice rang out. Sunwoo turned his head quickly. This time, a woman was standing there, clicking her tongue. She was another stranger.

But Sunwoo had something more curious than the woman’s identity.

“Did you say that person is Choi Sunwoo?”

Sunwoo asked, pointing at the mirror.

“Huh? Why are you suddenly acting like this?”

He doesn’t seem crazy, so why is he behaving this way? The woman’s expression conveyed this meaning as she asked.

“Don’t you remember being brought to the hospital earlier?”

“I was brought to the hospital earlier? Me?”

“Yes. You collapsed while talking with the director.”

“I did?”

At Sunwoo’s repeated “I did?”, the woman’s expression turned irritated.

“Mr. Sunwoo, pretending not to know won’t make the director overlook your mistake. You know that, right? So snap out of it.”

The woman snapped at him and then disappeared briskly. Left alone again, Sunwoo stared at the man in the mirror.

The unfamiliar face was still reflected in the mirror. Choi Sunwoo. It was his name, but…

Sunwoo pinched his cheek hard.

“Ow!”

It hurt again. The pinched area had turned red. It seems this really isn’t a dream.

“No matter how I think about this…”

That’s right. That’s it. He thought it was a dream, but it seems it’s not.

Only then did Sunwoo realize his situation.

It’s unbelievable, but…

He woke up to find himself possessing someone else’s body.

As a recessive Omega.

And pregnant, at that.@@novelbin@@