When Sophie told Ashley that Eugene agreed to the adaptation, she also told the producer about Eugene's worry regarding the risk it would pose to Hannah.
A middle-class single parent wouldn't have enough power to protect a child should something unwanted occur. Sophie requested legal protection for her friend, which was why she had to tell Ashley about Eugene's vulnerable position. Naturally, Eugene had agreed to it beforehand.
Unfortunately, Eugene had forgotten that Ashley knew more about him than the staff members who were present during the contract signing. As the producer wasn't around, Eugene had completely put her out of his calculations. They also weren't close enough for Eugene to text Ashley about such a matter.
Evidently, there hadn't been any case where Ashley was in need to divulge such information.
Until now, that is.
"He's...not?"
Arthur was stunned. This one piece of information essentially broke all the assumptions he had. All this time, he had been stressing about crushing on someone who had a partner. At first, he even stressed out about sleeping with his coworker's partner in the past.
But it turned out...there was no need for him to stress out?
No--but...Eugene did not correct him when he was asking about the omega's partner. Even asking if he knew what Gin looked like...Eugene was basically alluding to the fact that he had a partner, right?
What...what the hell? So, Eugene was lying to him?
Arthur was silent for a long time, eyes widened, and brows knitted as he tried hard to make sense of things. Ashley noticed the strange expression and misunderstood it as she raised her finger and wiggled it.
"No prejudice, okay?" she warned her cousin sternly. Even in this day and age, a lot of people still condemn an unmarried single parent. "Sophie told me he was in a difficult situation back then. He didn't want people who get angry at the story to attack his daughter, so you better not speak to anyone else about this, okay?"
Arthur could only nod silently with a blank look. He didn't even remember how he ran back to the house, basically moving automatically. He was so confused that he couldn't even digest his breakfast well, only eating half his usual portion.
Still worth two adult portions, but still...
"Uncle, are you sick?" Sammy asked, worry clear in her voice. Even the little girl recognized his abnormal condition.
"...no?"
"Grandpa is sad," Samantha sighed and shook her head like an old wiser. "He thought you didn't like the breakfast."
"No..." Arthur smiled wryly, quickly thinking of a reason. "I had a stomachache."
"Oh, that's good! I'll tell Grandpa--" the girl nodded before gasping and shaking her head. "No, no--that's no good! Do you need medicine, Uncle?"
"No," Arthur maintained his smile and ruffled the strawberry hair. "I'll be fine after a while."
"Hmm...alright," Samantha said after observing her uncle a bit more. "I'll go tell Grandpa his food is normal good."
Arthur laughed and scolded himself for making his family worry about him. His grandmother was already worried, so he certainly didn't want to add anything more to that. He stayed in the bathroom for a while to cool his head off while pretending to take care of his stomachache. Steeling his heart, he managed to appear normal and found his appetite during lunch before he returned to his own place.
There, he could finally think for himself, organizing his chaotic thoughts.
Eugene didn't have a partner. Eugene lied to him.
Was there a reason to lie to him? Did Eugene realize that Arthur developed a crush, and pretending to have a partner was the omega's way to safely 'reject' him?
Indeed, this made sense. There were a lot of cases where alphas who couldn't accept rejection well ended up physically harming the other person--even using their pheromones to incapacitate the person.
It was natural for an omega to be cautious, especially when they were a single parent. Eugene also looked like a highly cautious person, seeing how he didn't want people to know he had a daughter.
Arthur sighed. Alright, he could at least accept this point. He felt bitter about getting rejected without even confessing, but it was still understandable.
But this would mean that the partner definitely wasn't 'Gin', which brought him to another point of confusion: the scent--or rather, the perfume.
Was it really perfume? He wasn't in his right mind before, so he kind of forgot about it, but...didn't Eugene say he was spritzing perfume on his clothes? But now that Arthur recalled correctly, he was pretty sure he smelled them from Eugene's neck, not Eugene's clothes.
Yes, twice at that.
If it was really in his clothes, Eugene could have just taken off his sweater and pressed it over Arthur's nose. It wasn't like the omega only wore one layer of clothes back then. As an omega, it was always advisable to stay away from a sick alpha in case of a pheromone rampage. Knowing that, giving Arthur his clothes and then backing away to call for Ashley would be miles better than pulling Arthur to his neck.
Besides, using perfume that barely smelled was weird, right? It defeated the purpose, even for a neutralizer. Neutralizer was only needed for emergency measures anyway, so wouldn't it be weird to spray it every time?
Was it really a perfume? What if...what if it was actually Eugene's scent? The omega did look like he wore a scent blocker patch, but the patch looked like any ordinary medicine patch. It might as well be a large band-aid or a pain relief patch. Unless one looked closely to find the brand's small holographic logo, it could be easily fabricated.
Ugh--Arthur massaged his throbbing head. This felt even harder than breaking down classical symphonies for his finals.
He didn't like it. He didn't like doubting Eugene. It was hard for him to find someone he could call a friend, even while ignoring his feelings and desire for something more.
As he gradually felt more and more dizzy, Arthur reached out for a card he always tried to avoid using.
He contacted his mother.
Among all of the people he shared blood with, he was strangely more estranged from his mother than anybody else. When he stayed with her after his accident, he felt more like a patient under a researcher's observation than a son. He used to be estranged from his father, too, but after living as neighboor for six years, there was at least a degree of familiarity.
Well...perhaps that was why he decided to send an email rather than texting or calling her. You know, like an acquaintance.
His mother checked her email more than her messenger anyway.
He sent out a rather formal email asking about a neutralizer perfume. He had searched for such a thing and didn't find any online. He found several well-developed artificial pheromone perfumes--ones with better formulas that did not smell like an attack and a lesser aphrodisiac--but nothing on fusing perfume with a neutralizer.
Since his mother was a pheromone researcher, Arthur thought she might know something about it. Maybe a brand was researching it somewhere, and it hadn't reached the market yet. Perhaps Eugene knew someone from that brand and received the 'perfume' from them.
Of course, he also still retained his initial conjecture that it was Eugene's scent rather than a perfume. But if he wanted to point out a lie, he would need concrete evidence first.
Only then could he confront Eugene Kim.
Confront. Heh--Arthur chuckled bitterly. Could he really confront Eugene? Even if it was a lie, it wasn't a crime. It wasn't like Eugene Kim caused harm because of it.
Probably a harm to Arthur's heart, but it would hardly be the alpha's first time.
Unfortunately for Arthur, his mother did take her time to reply--if she would, at all. Before he knew it, the day of the party had come without him knowing the answer, and still wondering what he should do.
He hadn't texted Eugene once during that time, and it was fortunate that he also didn't have to meet the omega. His mind was still frazzled about Eugene, so seeing the man before he could straighten up would probably result in a mess.
Even without Eugene's presence, Arthur was already in a mess just by thinking about the man. Even in front of the unlimited barbecue buffet that Ashley prepared for the party, he only took some cocktails and isolated himself in the corner while drinking them.
He stared at his phone blankly, checking his email every five minutes. He found himself kept coming back to the trace of text and email exchange he had with Eugene, and the urge to down a whole bottle of liquor instead of some cocktails kept getting stronger.
In the end, he slipped away from the party--not like he had anyone to talk to anyway--and headed to the emergency stairs to smoke. Just as he took his first drag, he checked his phone again, and an email notification lit up.
Arthur coughed and opened the phone hurriedly. Indeed, it was from his mother. From the opening to the rest of the email's body, it was as formal as a report, but Arthur couldn't care less.
The important thing was the content!
[It is impossible to fuse perfume and neutralizer. Neutralizer is made to break down the chemical compound that forms pheromones, so it clashes with any attempt to create a scent. That's why all the neutralizers in distribution are scentless.
[It is possible for a certain pheromone to act as a neutralizer for others, but any attempt to turn natural pheromone into a separate liquid or aerosol component outside of medical use is strictly prohibited. Naturally, it is illegal to use bottled pheromone as perfume.
[Currently, there is no lab under the association with any project regarding fusing neutralizer agent with scented products of any kind]
At the end of the formal report from his mother, Arthur was left speechless.