Chapter Text
Nicholas didn't let the panic reach his eyes. He slowly retracted his hand from the citrus display, turned around, and faced Maki with an expression of pure, unbothered annoyance. Inside, however, his pulse was racing. He had spent his entire life watching corporate players blink first; he knew that a single second of hesitation right now would destroy everything.
"Are you auditing my grocery list now, Maki?" Nicholas asked, his tone dripping with lazy sarcasm. He casually patted the heavy canvas bag on his shoulder. "If you must know, Euijoo is staying at my place for the weekend. The dorms are too noisy with everyone cramming for finals, and he’s been having terrible morning sickness. I’m bringing him here so I can actually cook for him and make sure he rests."
Maki stared at him, his dark eyes searching Nicholas’s face for any crack in the armor. The explanation was flawless. It accounted for the high-nutrient groceries, the privacy, and the timeline.
Yet, Maki's inner alpha was still scratching at his chest, raw and entirely unappeased. The ghost of that sweet, maternal yuzu scent from Room Four was still burned into his sensory memory, and it absolutely did not match the stale trace of tangerine clinging to Nicholas’s hoodie.
"If he's at your place, I'm coming with you," Maki stated, his voice flat, absolute, and entirely devoid of room for negotiation. "I want to see him. I want to make sure the hospital didn't miss anything, and I want to see how he's handling the clearance card."
Nicholas's jaw tightened. He was officially cornered. If he refused, Maki’s suspicions would boil over into an obsession, and he’d start digging into the hospital logs or the private bank transfers. If he accepted, Maki would walk into an empty luxury apartment and realize the entire pregnancy was a fabrication.
He had exactly one card left to play: a high-stakes, frantic scramble.
"Fine," Nicholas sighed heavily, rolling his eyes as he pulled out his phone, pretending to be thoroughly irritated by his best friend's persistence. "Come over. But let me text him first so he can put some clothes on and isn't blindsided by a dominant alpha walking into his sanctuary. He’s already stressed enough because of you today."
Nicholas unlocked his phone, his thumbs flying across the screen with aggressive speed as they walked toward the self-checkout lane. He kept his posture relaxed, but the text he was typing under the counter was a literal code red.
[TO: EUIJOO] Maki is with me. He thinks you're at my apartment right now hiding the pregnancy. You need to get to my place BEFORE we get there. Use the emergency key in the fire box. DO NOT LET HIM SEE YOU ARRIVE.
Nicholas hit send, paid for the groceries with a swift tap of his card, and grabbed the bags. He looked up at Maki, forcing a smooth, arrogant smirk. "He's putting a sweater on. Let's go. You can drive us."
On the other side of the neighborhood, inside Taki’s tiny, cramped kitchen, the sharp, frantic chime of a phone shattered the silence.
Euijoo snatched his device off the counter, his eyes scanning Nicholas’s text. In an instant, the color drained entirely from his face, his sweet tangerine and honey scent turning violently sour with pure, unadulterated panic.
"What is it, Hyung?" Taki asked, stepping forward from the stove, his hands instinctively dropping to cradle his three-month bump through his loose cream sweater. "Is it Nicholas?"
"Maki knows someone was at the hospital," Euijoo breathed, his hands shaking so badly he nearly dropped the phone. "He followed Nicholas to the grocery store. Nicholas lied and told him I'm staying at his apartment to rest. Taki... Maki is driving Nicholas to the apartment right now to confront me. If I'm not there, the whole lie falls apart."
Taki’s heart dropped into his stomach. The static of his anxiety buzzed loudly in his ears, his vision blurring for a fraction of a second. "You have to go. Right now. Take a taxi, Hyung! If Maki gets there first—"
"I'm going," Euijoo said, grabbing his jacket and his keys. He looked at Taki, his eyes fierce with a protective, older-brother loyalty. "Stay here. Lock the door. Do not answer for anyone. Nicholas and I are going to hold the line."
Euijoo bolted out of the apartment, slamming the door behind him.
Taki stood alone in the quiet kitchen, the silence suddenly feeling heavier, more suffocating than ever before. He sank slowly into a plastic chair, his fingers digging into the soft wool of his sweater, pressing tightly against his stomach.
Maki was moving closer and closer to the center of the web. He was driving toward an apartment, chasing a phantom mate and a fake child, entirely unaware that the real omega he was searching for was shivering alone in a cheap kitchen, praying that the fabric of the lie would hold for just one more day.