DASH-Chapter 27Vol 2. : Side Story -

The pain that had knocked Jiheon out on the day of surgery felt like a lie—he was already up and walking by the very next day. By the day after that, he was even going up and down stairs with ease, and visited the newborn nursery himself to see Jini. He wanted to stay there all day, but visiting hours were strictly limited to twice a day.

Haunting the hospital halls like a ghost to speed up his recovery got old fast. And besides, Jaekyung was so restless and kept trying to follow him around, so Jiheon gave up and just brought him back into the room to sit and watch TV together.

It had only been a month since the Olympics ended, so no matter what channel they turned to, athletes were everywhere. Thanks to Team Korea doing even better than expected this year, the networks were in a frenzy, throwing together all kinds of special coverage.

In particular, the men’s freestyle relay team had been buried in appearance requests even before the closing ceremony. It was Korea’s first ever medal in a swimming team event, they were a perfectly photogenic group of four, all tall and good-looking—it was a no-brainer for every network to go all-in.

Thanks to that, Jiheon got to see some familiar faces on TV several times a day. Just now, he’d been flipping channels and spotted the relay team making a surprise guest appearance on a famous variety show.

"They’re busier now than they were during the Olympics."

Jaekyung, sitting beside the bed, didn’t even look up. He was too focused on peeling yellow peaches that had been brought as a gift.

No one could argue—Kwon Jaekyung was the brightest star of the Brisbane Olympics. A five-time gold medalist, back-to-back champion, and now Korea’s first team relay medalist—he’d stood on the podium after every event he entered. Not just Korea, but the entire world had gone wild. Even international sports channels were doing Kwon Jaekyung specials, replaying every one of his past races. Of course, Korean networks had started fighting over exclusive appearances before the Olympics were even over.

But Jaekyung turned all of them down. Flat out. So firmly, no one even dared to follow up.

For broadcasters who’d been secretly hoping Jaekyung would ride his post-Olympic momentum back into commercials and variety shows—especially after dipping a toe into both last year—it was a massive letdown. But this time, no one dared call him arrogant or accuse him of snubbing the public. Because the reason for his refusal was, well, bulletproof.

“Unfortunately, Kwon Jaekyung couldn’t join us today. But there’s a good reason, right? Jo Junho?”

“Yes. Our sunbae’s about to become a father. I heard he’s staying with his family right now.”

“Well, that’s more exciting than a gold medal, isn’t it? Of course he has to stay by his husband’s side!”

That’s right. With all the pride in the world, he’d said: My husband’s about to give birth. How could I not be there? I’m not a monster. He made a whole speech about how he’d already missed enough during the pregnancy because of Olympic training, and there was no way he was going to miss the birth too. That wouldn’t be right. He was going to stay right there—no matter what. And not just through the delivery. After the baby came, he’d be even busier, taking care of the baby. He’d already turned down postnatal appearance requests months ago.

So aside from a formal state dinner at the Blue House, Jaekyung hadn’t shown up anywhere since returning to Korea. And even at the dinner, he barely showed his face. He spent the entire time brushing back his hair with his ringed left hand, covering his mouth with it, rubbing his forehead—between all that, his face was barely visible during the 20-minute live broadcast.

The video’s comment section was no different.

“I tuned in to see Kwon Jaekyung but only saw his ring like 34 times.” “Looks like he couldn’t come, so his wedding ring showed up instead.” “Kwon Jaekyung’s ring is ridiculously good-looking.” “Ring, hope you ate well and had a good time.”

“By the time this airs,” the MC said warmly, “Kwon Jaekyung might already be a dad!”

Right on cue, the screen cut to a full-panel photo on a massive 52-inch display—a familiar one. The official SPOIN social media post from just a few days ago:

“September 20th—Jini is finally here ♥ Leave your messages of support for Kwon Jaekyung, who’s just become a dad!”

It was a photo Jiheon had taken and cropped himself, showing Jini’s tiny hand wrapped tightly around Jaekyung’s index finger. He’d even written the caption himself before uploading it to the company’s Instagram. Jaekyung had grumbled that it sounded like it was posted by a staffer—but it was posted by a staffer, so tough luck.

The banner congratulating Jaekyung on becoming a father flashed onscreen with sparkly effects, then faded out. As the program cut back to the studio, Jaekyung said,

"Hyung."

"Hm?"

Jiheon turned—just as a sweet, juicy bite of peach slipped into his mouth.

"Whoa. That’s sweet."

The intense flavor caught him off guard. Jaekyung beamed proudly.

"Told you, right?"

Why are you the one acting proud? Jiheon was laughing, until he saw Jaekyung’s hands—sticky and glistening, coated in peach juice. No wonder he was proud. He’d gone to war with the peaches to get this.

"You want a wet wipe?"

"Nah, I’m gonna wash up later anyway."

Jaekyung shrugged. Then, since his hands were already messy, he kept feeding Jiheon the rest of the peach by hand. Jiheon thought, You could just use a fork, but he didn’t say it out loud. For now, he’d decided to indulge Jaekyung’s desire to spoil him.

They kept chatting like that with the TV on, until the evening visitation slot arrived and they went to see Jini. Because of infection control, visitors could only view the babies through the glass. Other than during breastfeeding, parents weren’t allowed to hold their child at all during their hospital stay.

"You wanna go in?"

Jaekyung gestured toward the nursing room.

"Mmm... nah, I’ll pass."

Jiheon shook his head. He’d tried twice already with no results. No matter how eagerly Jini suckled, Jiheon’s body just wasn’t cooperating.

Most male Omegas produced very little breastmilk—some managed only a few drops of colostrum, and many didn’t produce any at all. Jiheon had figured he’d be in that latter group from the start.

"Let’s just stick with formula. It tastes better anyway."

"Who said that?"

"Me."

Oh, come on. Jiheon snorted.

"You’ve tasted it? Oh right, you have. You remember what it tastes like?"

"No, but it’s obvious, isn’t it? Homemade meals are healthy; store-bought meals are tasty. Same logic."

With this surprisingly convincing argument, Jaekyung reeled Jiheon in.

"And nowadays, they say formula might be even better from a nutritional standpoint. It’s designed to make up for what breastmilk lacks."

"Yeah, I mean—of course the experts know what they’re doing."

Then sure, if it’s good for him and tastes better, formula it is. Jiheon spoke like it was no big deal.

He didn’t attempt to breastfeed again the entire hospital stay. But on their first day at the postnatal care center, while holding Jini, he figured why not, and let him latch—and to his complete shock, a tiny, tiny bit of milk actually came out.

It wasn’t even the milk itself that got him. It was how insanely adorable Jini looked, latched on and sucking with his little mouth all squished against his chest. Jiheon nearly lost his mind.

Jaekyung, for the exact same reason, completely lost his mind too. They sat side by side, heads practically touching, whispering:

"He’s so cute..."

"He’s doing amazing..."

"Did you hear that? I think I heard him gulp. I definitely heard him gulp." (They didn’t.)

"He likes this even more than formula." (He absolutely did not.)

They fussed over him like fools.

"Oh no. He’s too cute. I don’t think I can send him back to the nursery."

"Then let’s just keep him here."

"...Should we?"

Right then and there, they called the admin office and requested 24-hour rooming-in. The staff member on the other end went, "Umm... 24-hour rooming... riiiight... well, if you insist, then of course...," clearly a bit reluctant, but brought in a bigger crib anyway.

But Jiheon and Jaekyung were still too high on how cute their baby was to notice. They kept saying, He’s gonna sleep with us anyway. Do we even need that thing? Probably not. Should we just tell them to take it back?

We’ll just use it for photos—it’ll look cute in pictures.

And five days later—

"Sorry... We’d like to request nursery separation."

Jiheon, sounding half-dead, called the office. The staffer chuckled, clearly unsurprised.

"It happens more often than you’d think. First-time parents get too attached and ask for 24-hour rooming, then end up calling it off after a few days."

Apparently five days was considered “a long time” to hold out. Still, even after making the request, Jiheon and Jaekyung worried that Jini might feel hurt—like they were abandoning him.

So after some discussion, they decided to keep the night feeding call option. But when Jaekyung’s mother Shim Yeo-sa overheard during a phone call, she firmly shut it down.

"Don’t be ridiculous. Tell them you’re not taking night calls. Once you go home, you’ll be stuck dealing with all-night wake-ups whether you like it or not. Why do you think people go to postnatal centers? To rest while you can!"

Eventually, they took her advice—and both of them would later thank her over and over again ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) for it. For the next two weeks, in a deluxe suite better than most five-star hotels, they rested up, ate well, and stored every last ounce of energy.

Of course, that carefully stored energy ran out within one week of returning home.