By Zephyria 
[Secretary Kim, hi. It’s Executive Director Kwon Young-ho. How about a drink together if you have time?]
“Crazy bastard.”
Hui-won muttered, seeing the text message that had suddenly arrived. Deeming him unworthy of a response, he cleanly deleted the message.
He hurried to get ready to go out. Im Jaegyu had already arrived ten minutes earlier and was urging him to come out quickly. Hui-won roughly dried his wet hair and rushed to the front door. All he took with him were his wallet and phone. His attire was as simple as someone going for a stroll.
The May night air was balmy. The breeze touching his skin was warm, and the subtle scent of flowers enriched his mood in the spring weather. Hui-won put his hands in his pants pockets and walked down the hill. The only convenience store in this neighborhood was a three-minute walk away.
In front of the convenience store were a few small, shabby tables. It was a space created for simple eating or drinking, but in reality, very few residents in this neighborhood ate or drank something while sitting on the street.
Im Jaegyu, who had taken over this place, saw Hui-won walking leisurely and crushed the beer can in his hand.
“I’m so pissed off, seriously.”
“Why are you swearing as soon as you see me? Office workers are always so angry.”
“You must be happy, lazing around? Your face looks so radiant.”
Hui-won smirked, raising the corners of his mouth. The plump flesh on his eyelids folded, creating an eye smile that was like a special move. Im Jaegyu sighed in disbelief. “Ha, geez! You’ve become a total Omega, seriously.” He continued to mutter to himself.
While Hui-won pulled out a plastic chair to sit down, Im Jaegyu slammed a soju bottle and a bottle of beer on the table in front of him. He tossed a black plastic bag in the middle with a nonchalant, “I picked this up on the way.” Hui-won wondered what it was and took out what was inside. The packaging contained round, dumpling-like rice cakes.
“What’s this?”
“Daegu honey rice cakes.”
“Ah, I’ve seen them on social media.”
“I heard you should give one more rice cake to someone you hate, so I stood in line to buy them.”
Although he spoke gruffly, Im Jaegyu was quite a caring person, and affection was evident in every action. Even now, he was peeling off the packaging himself and sticking in a small wooden fork to make it easy to pick up and eat. Hui-won put a rice cake in his mouth as if to show off. The chewy glutinous rice cake was coated with plenty of brown sugar syrup, giving it a pleasant sweetness.
“It’s good.”
“Eat a lot, you bastard.”
“I said I’d buy you something expensive. Why are we drinking at a convenience store?”
“I’m being considerate of you! You haven’t even been an Omega for very long, how can I let you go to a bar swarming with Alpha bastards? You don’t know how scary the world is!”
“Jaegyu, you’re… surprisingly conservative.”
Hui-won laughed emptily. Im Jaegyu seemed to regard him as some newly hatched chick.
Of course, there was some truth to his words, but Hui-won had already perfectly mastered pheromone control. Besides, he was a Dominant Alpha. He wasn’t so weak that his legs would give way and he’d lose his reason just from smelling an Alpha’s pheromones. Unless someone intentionally poured out their pheromones with malicious intent. But surely there wouldn’t be an Alpha crazy enough to do such a thing.
Im Jaegyu twisted open the soju bottle. He poured a full paper cup of alcohol for the first shot, but his suspicious gaze continued.
“Is it… okay for you to drink?”
“Just do what you always do. It’s weirder if you treat me like an Omega.”
Hui-won nonchalantly picked up the paper cup. He lightly clinked glasses and downed it in one shot. “Kuh,” his brow furrowed involuntarily. He rinsed his mouth with beer.
Watching him, Im Jaegyu also drank. His distrustful gaze was still there, but he seemed to have relaxed a little more than before.
“Hey, isn’t the company turned upside down?”
“Still? Shouldn’t it be calming down by now?”
“There’s a post on Behind, too. ‘A secretary who served a Dominant Alpha developed into an Omega,’ it’s anonymous but the targeting is no joke. The views are exploding.”
“I can imagine what kind of comments there are.”
Hui-won clicked his tongue bitterly. He knew that most of it would be nonsense, and there would be plenty of obscene comments. That’s just how anonymous sites are.
“Who cares what others say?”
“You’re too calm, it takes the fun out of it. But that’s like you, I guess.”
“The hard part is all over. Now I’m too busy taking care of myself.”
Hui-won filled his empty glass with alcohol. Because he was drinking so fast, the soju in the bottle was quickly disappearing. Im Jaegyu instinctively clinked glasses with him.
“So, what are you going to do for a living from now on?”
“I don’t know, is there anything I can do from home?”
“Don’t do crypto, I’m telling you clearly.”
At Im Jaegyu’s words, Hui-won laughed and leaned back. The hard plastic backrest had no elasticity at all and supported him as he leaned. Instead, the thin legs of the chair wobbled. Hui-won shook the chair playfully and said,
“I’m just going to relax and do nothing for a year. I’ve been living like crazy, working all this time.”
“I’ll give you that.”
Im Jaegyu tore open a bag of snacks and agreed. Although they were colleagues, Kim Hui-won was an amazing guy. How could he devote himself to the company so much, or was it to Executive Director Kwon?
Mulling over his thoughts, Im Jaegyu cautiously asked a question.
“Hey, you and Executive Director Kwon, there wasn’t really anything between you, was there?”
“Jaegyu, if you’re going to say things that ruin my appetite, go home.”
Hui-won frowned. His mouth was dry, and he instinctively reached for the alcohol.
“Really, there’s nothing between you?”
“The fact that you’re even assuming that is questionable to me.”
“Really, swear to God?”
“…….”
When he even mentioned God, Hui-won hesitated for a moment. He wasn’t religious anyway. He wouldn’t go to hell for telling a little lie, would he?
“Absolutely not.”
“Tch… why do I keep getting this weird feeling?”
Im Jaegyu shook his foot on the ground. The vibration traveled through the table and reached Hui-won. Feeling uneasy himself, Hui-won crossed his legs. Im Jaegyu had a pretty good intuition. It was urgent to divert his attention elsewhere.
“Jaegyu, have some more alcohol.”
“Huh? Oh.”
“I know what you’re thinking, but it’s not like that. Me developing into a Dominant Omega is just like a law of nature.”
“Dominant?”
Im Jaegyu sensed something strange. He asked again.
“You’re a Dominant Omega?”
“…Yeah.”
“Why?”
“Why what? What kind of question is that?”
Hui-won looked straight at Im Jaegyu. He had a face that said he didn’t understand at all. He blinked and scanned Hui-won up and down.
“No, all those Dominant Omegas are….”
“…….”
“When I see people on TV, they’re pretty and delicate. They’re small enough to fit in one’s arms, like dolls.”
“So what are you trying to say?”
“I wonder why our Hui-won didn’t receive those benefits….”
Kim Hui-won, sitting with his legs crossed in a swaggering manner, was far from the typical appearance of a Dominant Omega. Frankly speaking, there was no difference from when he was a Beta.
Of course, it wasn’t that Kim Hui-won was ugly. His smooth features, like carefully carved jade, had been famous since he joined the company. When people said, “That pretty and handsome one from the 35th class,” everyone thought of Kim Hui-won. But rather than being beautiful like a doll, he was more on the handsome side.
His physique was also slender and lean, but he was 179cm tall, taller than Im Jaegyu. So, to put it simply, Kim Hui-won was quite different from the prototype of a Dominant Omega that Im Jaegyu knew.
At that, Hui-won’s eyes narrowed slightly.
“Ah, you’re saying I don’t look like a Dominant Omega?”
“…Yeah.”
“Then what, do you want more cell division to happen here when I’m already fully grown?”
“Right? I guess that’s how it is.”
“Omega buffs aren’t that great. Just that my muscles are all gone?”
Hui-won stretched out his crossed legs as if to show him. Indeed, the long legs revealed under his shorts were more slender than before.
Im Jaegyu stared intently at Hui-won’s bare legs. His gaze lingered for quite a while, as if he found the smooth skin quite fascinating.
“Hey… what happened to your legs? There’s not a single hair? Did you shave them?”
“Ah, that’s right. My leg hair and armpit hair are all gone, too. I’m a completely hairless guy now.”
“Ugh, who asked?”
Hui-won burst out laughing at his disgusted reaction. Since it had come to this, he told him to smell his pheromones, grabbing Im Jaegyu’s head and pulling him towards him.
“I don’t want to! Come on, you must be curious, just smell it once.” It was then, as a childish squabble was unfolding.
A sedan entered the quiet alley. The sleek body boasted a presence that suggested a very important person was inside. The vehicle, which had been passing by at a slow speed, suddenly stopped in front of the convenience store, and the back door swung open.
From inside, a leg wrapped in a black suit stretched out. Kwon Young-je, who got out of the car, slowly walked towards the convenience store. The sound of his shoes clacking was unusually loud.
The first to notice his presence was Im Jaegyu. His eyes widened in surprise, and he waved his hands wildly. “Hey, hey, Kim Hui-won! Just a minute!” He diligently pounded on Hui-won’s arm, which was wrapped around him like a coil, but Hui-won still hadn’t grasped the situation and was engrossed in his playfulness.
Suddenly, Hui-won’s T-shirt was grabbed. It was such a strong force that even the chair he was sitting on was dragged sideways. “Daruruk,” the fragile plastic chair scraped against the floor, making an unpleasant friction sound, and a gap formed between Im Jaegyu and him as if an uncrossable river had appeared.