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When Minho decided on IVF to get pregnant as a single omega, he was not planning to solve South Korea’s population decline.
He’d always wanted a little family of his own. He got married early, was financially secure, and his job and company were flexible enough for him to take time off to focus on the baby for a few years. But even after a 5-year marriage, it hadn’t happened, and his ex and his traditional af family had somehow decided that it was his fault instead of looking at other options. So, the eventual divorce 5 years into their marriage was not much of a surprise; his ex had been kind for most of it but Minho was pretty bummed by the way things ended, especially when his ex and his shitty family had cited Minho's ‘barennes’ as an excuse for divorce. Seungmin had sued them for everything they were worth and then some more, but even a year later, bumping into his ex and his new fiancée, Minho was a little pissed.
So when he went to the clinic and signed up for IVF, with the first halfway decent-looking donor from a catalog, spite was inevitably involved. But he was in his thirties, he did want a baby, and he did not feel like wasting another decade on another asshole, so despite all else, he was ready for a baby to come along; however, what he wasn’t ready for was triplets.
Turns out there was nothing wrong with Minho after all, and his ex was always the problem. If anything, Minho was too good at having babies by the expression of his amazed doctors.
So yes, the triplet situation meant that he was kind of well known among the hospital’s OBGYN unit, a bit of a favorite if the way nurse Felix always rushes out to greet him and make sure he has the comfiest pillow on his back whenever he comes in for his checkup and Dr. Dahyun only schedule him on days she doesn’t have too many patients. Turns out triplets weren't all that common for the hospital staff either.
So four months into his pregnancy, Minho knows most of the faces in the OBGYN unit, the tiny alpha doctor staring at him with big hamster eyes, however, is very new. He’d been discreetly staring at him when he was in the waiting room rethinking all his life choices once again, and hesitated for all of two seconds before stepping in with Felix into the ultrasound room.
“Uh, can I observe this case?” He blinks into human speech only after Felix gives him the kindest ‘WTF you doing here?’ face.
Minho’s not surprised, turns out pregnancy with triplets was a rare enough case, and it was a teaching hospital after all, he was very used to the med students and interns crowding into the room until Dr. Dahyun eventually kicked most of them out.
Until…“You are an orthopedic resident, Dr Han” Felix kindly reminds.
Orthopedic? That has something to do with bones, right? Do his babies have something wrong with their bones- do they even have bones yet?
Felix, the sweetheart that he is, instantly reads the tension in Minho’s face and is quick to assure him that everything is fine and that they haven’t even started the ultrasound yet for anything to be determined.
The hamster doctor panics a little as well. “I -I am just observing- it's been such a long time since I’ve been here- wow, like- wow things have changed so much around here, right?- I could barely even recognize this place! Haha- You know me, I am -I am just gaining some experience as an interdisciplinary doctor following the medical path of humantarinism and health and all the other good stuff, so- you know- I can be the best version of myself, my doctor self. Wait- that is only if it's okay with the pretty- the patient- I mean the patient! Oh god, I forgot to ask the patient’s consent! Can I- Maybe-?” He stutters through it at the speed of an idol rapper yet to make the debut team.
Minho is starting to doubt the capabilities of whoever made this man a doctor the more the man speaks.
“You rotated with the OBGYN department when you were an intern.” Fortunately, Felix intervenes before the man hyperventilates in front of a pregnant omega.
“That was ages ago,” he squints at felix with hamster cheeks puffed up.
“You only got promoted like two weeks ago,” Felix still sounds kind, even if his words are a bit pointed.
Nurse Felix did get very protective of him and the freeloaders in his belly.
“It's fine,” Minho interrupts, “More doctors the merrier, right?” At this point, he is used to it, besides if something is wrong with the tiny bean sacs Minho is carrying, he would rather know them early and be as prepared as possible.
Dr. Hamster- Han remains quiet through the rest of the procedure, barely even blinking his eyes as Felix begins. The only interruption occurs when Felix starts to rub the cooling gel on his tummy, which gets a very high-pitched squeak from doctor Han, for which he bows down 90 degrees in apology to Minho for almost a full minute.
“Oh, there they are-” Felix grins widely before turning over the monitor to his perview and Minho sees the causes of his sudden dislike towards his favorite pudding on the screen.
He’d seen them before on his prior ultrasound, but now they are starting to take a human shape, and Minho is suddenly hit with the reality of his situation.
He has come to accept his situation long ago; sure, he is going to be a single parent, but he won’t entirely be doing it alone. His parents are already preparing to move closer to him, and he’s got his friends who are somehow more excited than him. These days Hyunjin sneaks into his house the moment he is done with work to work on the baby's room, Chan’s reading parenting books and looking very concerned at any mildly sharp object in his house, and he’s basically raised Jeongin by himself since middle school, so he even has experience.
The pregnancy could be risky, but he knows he’s got the best doctors in the country, and he’s doing everything he can to make sure all three make it out of him and into the world.
But still- seeing them like that, all tiny and twitchy- Minho loses his breath for a moment.
The moment, however, does not last for long before it is interrupted by what can only be categorized as a loud wail.
When Minho turns away from the monitor, the first thing he notices is that there are water droplets dripping onto the floor from Dr. Han’s face. He is crying, not tearing up, but full on sobbing as he looks at the monitor.
Despite all the tears, Minho can also see the man’s eyes shining with wonder.
“What’s wrong?” Minho is surprised to hear himself sound worried despite the fact that he has known this man for a total of 5 minutes, and a second agohe was just overwhelmed looking at the potential babies that would rearrange his organs in the coming months.
“It’s so beautiful,” He says amidst his tears and snot, and Minho is baffled notice that for once he does not feel like retching despite the obvious grossness, “and there are three of them! Three!” he exclaims like Minho is not the one whose belly is being rented out.
“Thanks,” Minho finds himself smiling, “I made them all by myself.” he even feels a sense of pride amidst the awkwardness of situations.
Dr. Han nods vigorously at that, his tears flying off a little. Minho finds himself giggling at the action, and now Felix is giving the WTF face to both of them.
Must be his stupid pregnancy brain.
Dr. Dahyun eventually comes in and seems equally surprised to see a crying Dr. Han. This time around Dr. Han can’t even answer when she has the same enquire as Felix, but Minho assures him that its okay for the tiny doctor guy to be there, Somehow having someone else panicking and making mess of themselves reassures Minho strangely enough, He is all sadistic like that, and considering what he is about to go through he is allowed to be a little crazy as well.
The babies are fine, all three are developing well despite sharing his cramped uterus and having their own mini hunger games for resources. Dr. Dahyun changes out some of his prenatal medicines, prescribes more vitamins, and tells him to eat well, and assures him that there is nothing to worry about.
Dr. Han stays throughout the process despite both Felix and Dr. Dahyun giving him pointed looks.
“Shouldn’t you be on duty?” Dr. Dahyun asks him just as they wrap up.
“Just got off my shift, I am off for the next two days,” he seems to finally have his tear ducts in order as well, because it’s the first sentence Minho’s hearing in a while that is not at the edge of a broken sob.
“And you are still here because?”
“I am dedicated to my job?” Even he sounds unsure. He blinks and just happens to catch Minho’s own questioning eyes. Minho watches in real time as his face slowly turns red as if the events of the past twenty minutes are just hitting him.
Dr. Han opens his mouth, closes it, opens it again. Minho gets the feeling Dr. Han has a disease of losing all logical comprehension when facing him. He feels pretty smug about, huh, he is 30, pregnant with three babies, and can still make alphas blush and stutter,
“I-uh-I am Jisung, it's nice to meet you- I- actually I was just—there’s this—thing I have to do” he gestures vaguely to absolutely nothing, and then halfway through whatever excuse was supposed to make, he bows down again- all 90 degrees- and slowly backs out of the room, almost tripping over a wire before he makes it out.
Minho blinks.
“I thought the mental breakdowns usually happened in the internship year,” Felix breaks the silence.
“There are always exceptions. Damn, I had my bets on the guy at least making it to third year. I liked him when he did his rounds here.” Dr. Dahyun sounds almost sad. “It's fine, even if our doctors are a little crazy, we do provide the best care” Dr. Dahyun assures him.
He is preoccupied with getting the ultrasound printed and sent to his email. He already has plans to spam Seungmin with the pictures of his now humanoid bean sacs twenty times a day at least for the next month. No thought of strange doctors on the verge of a mental breakdown comes to him amidst settling down the rest of his affairs at the hospital. If the air around him does feel strangely quieter, then he makes no mention of it. There is a reason he decided to come alone despite all of Changbin’s hovering and pleading.
By the time he walks out of the elevator and into the main gates of the hospital, he is already hungry and cursing out his children's terrible taste in food that he almost does not notice doctor Han pacing by the gateway.
He is still in his scrubs, still looking like he might either pass out or confess to a crime.
Logically, this is the part where his instincts should kick in. The whole ‘you are pregnant with three babies, you should be wary of strange men’ alarm should be ringing somewhere in his head.
Dr. Han doesn’t notice him at first.
“Hi. Dr. Han, looking for more pregnant omegas to ‘observe’?” Minho greets in a sing-song voice, because he is a little shit, and pregnancy won’t change that.
He is glad he is the one pregnant out of the two of them because Dr. Han starts so hard he nearly jumps.
“I—Hi—” he blurts, voice cracking halfway through, eyes wide like Minho just appeared out of thin air, which makes sense considering his eyes were on the floor as Minho walked up to him.
“Han Jisung,” he says in one breath, words tumbling over each other. “I was born in Malaysia, I am 27, I have two siblings, no pets, not because I don’t want to, but because I don’t have the time being in my residency and all- not that I won't have time for other things- I am very good at time- time mangement. Anyway, nice to meet you. And congratulations on your babies!”
“Lee Minho.” He answers simply
“I know,” Han says, and then immediately looks like he regrets existing.”Not that I read your file or anything, I heard Felix call you that. I wouldn’t breach your medical privacy like that- well, I did- but that was because- that was because you are beautiful- I mean, your pregnancy- the fetus is- That sounds so creepy!”
Minho huffs out something dangerously close to a laugh.
It takes Han Jisung another five minutes of rambling to deduce that yes, Minho is single. He even finds himself offering up the information that his babies were made with donor number X088, and there is no dad in the picture, which is strange for him because he has threatened to kill Sungmin multiple times for asking far less personal things. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that there is no judgment from Han Jisung, as if every word Minho says is perfectly normal despite his excitement. It also helps that Jisung significantly calms down, and they can have a normal conversation without Minho's insides being displayed for all the world to see.
A month later, Jisung is there for the next ultrasound as well.
Except this time, he is holding Minho’s hands as he tears up, and Minho has to wipe his tears with the ends of his shirt sleeves, self-assured in the fact that Jisung is not a stalker, nor does he have a pregnancy fetish, but he is his brand-new boyfriend.
This time, however, Felix does kick him out of the room when he asks too many pointless questions.
Jisung is there for every ultrasound after, and once Minho does manage to give birth, he tears up every time he looks at the girls' faces for a week straight. Minho’s parents give him very concerned looks, and he is sure they would have planned an intervention for the two of them hadn't he been lying all hollowed out post-pregnancy.
Minho’s not worried through, cause tears, dramatics, and vervous breakdown aside, Jisung looks at Minho and the girls with as much wonder as he did the first time he saw him. Unwilling to leave their side, even if he randomly tears up at the most inconvenient of times.
Minho couldn’t have asked for a better Alpha anyway.
*
The next time Jisung cries as much is at their wedding a couple of years later, when he sees Minho walk down the aisle with his parents.
He is crouched down, sobbing into the arms of thing 2 (“Jagi, you gave such beautiful names for them, why don’t you use them?”) that tears up along with Jisung, while thing 1 sympathetically pats her Alpha father's back and makes cooing noises. The eldest of his kids seems to have absorbed all of Jisung's behavior through pure osmosis over the years. Thing 3, aka the only one of his kids with a half-decent brain cell, glares at her emotional mess of a father into straightening up.
Minho can’t say he minds as much after all.
*
A few more years later, when the doctor announces he is carrying quadruplets, his first thought is that the South Korean government should really give him an award or something for single-handedly increasing their birth rate, and his second thought is that he should cut off his husband's dick and give him something serious to cry about for once.