By Zephyria 
It was an afternoon where the cicadas were crying loudly.
Though it wasn’t yet the height of summer, the blazing sun was quite strong. Despite that, he stood endlessly in a place without a single shred of shade until the lunch break ended. Watching a man exercising vigorously with eyes full of love.
‘Sunbae, are you an outcast?’
That couldn’t be. He knew very well how popular the man was at school. Yet, he asked casually, as if just throwing the question out there. No matter what he asked, the man did not answer.
As if he had no interest in the very existence of others, his gaze was fixed on only one person. It seemed as if only Yu Shin-woo existed in Shin Jeong-min’s world. That’s why he wanted to break it.
‘Sunbae, what will you do if you don’t become an Omega?’
Only then did the man turn his gaze to include him. Right. To this person, that would be a problem more important than anything else in the world. Because he had to become that man’s Omega.
‘Will you give up if you become an Alpha?’
Yes, keep reacting like that and look at me. Stop looking at that man. That Alpha has no interest in you.
Kim Ju-hwan brushed off his pants, stood up, and approached Jeong-min. His face was heavily distorted. Beads of sweat rolled down from his forehead and gathered on his chin.
‘Why can’t you answer?’
‘Do I have to answer?’
‘Ah, you’re not confident.’
He lacked the certainty that things would be better if he became an Alpha.
‘The possibility of becoming an Alpha… I don’t think about it.’
‘Hmm… well, they say words have power, so I think it might not be bad to keep thinking that way.’
He tried standing slightly beside him. A person slightly shorter than himself, who had manifested as an Extreme Alpha. No matter how you looked at it, he was someone who suited being an Alpha more than an Omega, but he rejected God’s choice.
‘But Sunbae, come to think of it. If you become an Alpha… wouldn’t your feelings of love for Yu Shin-woo Sunbae disappear? There’s no way an Alpha would love another Alpha. Just smelling the pheromones makes you nauseous.’
‘…No, even if I become an Alpha, I will love Shin-woo hyung.’
A drop of sweat clinging to his chin fell and shattered as soon as it hit the ground. Simultaneously, Kim Ju-hwan’s world shattered, and darkness descended. After blinking a couple of times in a world where nothing was visible, he found himself standing in his room at the main house, with a slightly larger body.
Hearing a rustling sound, he turned around to see Shin Jeong-min stumbling while putting on clothes.
Ah, is this from back then?
It was the last day he had come to him and clung to him before manifesting, to learn how to ‘correct.’ Kim Ju-hwan breathed in and out at the Alpha pheromones emanating from his body.
It’s strange. Just by smelling it, it’s an Alpha’s pheromone. But why aren’t your pheromones disgusting? He thought it was strange even then.
After that, every time he faced him, he took in the pheromones deeply, but not a single rejection reaction occurred.
He silently watched him stumble out of the room after finishing dressing. That day’s Shin Jeong-min… looked as if he were about to die at any moment. Just because he became an Alpha, his entire world had ended.
That would be so. Yu Shin-woo would never accept an Alpha Shin Jeong-min. There might be the reason that he loved Shin Jeong-min’s twin brother, but an Alpha cannot like another Alpha. It was instinct, and since genes were made that way, it was an irresistible force.
Especially if it was the Yu Shin-woo Kim Ju-hwan had seen so far… it was a relief that he wasn’t being rejected. Perhaps Shin Jeong-min vaguely knew that too. That’s why he acted as if he had lived his whole life.
He looked pathetic no matter when he saw him. Kim Ju-hwan thought as he watched Shin Jeong-min leave in the car.
He shifted his gaze to the bed where Shin Jeong-min had been lying. Seeing the remaining traces of bodily fluids and the strong, lingering pheromones, Kim Ju-hwan sat on the edge of the bed and stroked the blanket with his hand.
This is not an action happening ‘now.’ It was a ‘memory.’ The moment he traced the remaining marks and felt Shin Jeong-min’s lingering pheromones that day, a natural rut occurred.
The confusion and bewilderment of that time. He never let go of the sheets where Shin Jeong-min had lain until the rut ended.
‘It would be better to call an Omega.’
He didn’t know that enduring a rut was so painful. The primary physician cautiously suggested it to his parents, and his parents approved, but Kim Ju-hwan himself did not accept. No matter what Omega came, he rejected them and locked himself in the isolation room, enduring the pain.
The only thing that became a comfort to him…
‘Haha.’
In a state where his ‘now’ and ‘memories’ were mixed, Kim Ju-hwan saw the thing he tried to protect so that no one could take it away. It was the sheet where Jeong-min had lain. He was enduring the terrible rut while smelling the remaining pheromones of Shin Jeong-min on that sheet.
He should have become an Omega. If he had, he would have imprinted immediately and made him pregnant right away. He is a person with deep affection, so he would have given birth to the child of an Alpha he hated. And then he would have prepared to leave. Then he would have held onto him and made him pregnant again. Doing that, wouldn’t he have eventually become accustomed to being ‘Kim Ju-hwan’s Omega’? More than anyone, he wanted it most. For Shin Jeong-min to become an Omega… But he became an Alpha, and it was only right that his interest in him should drop. He didn’t feel cheated. Surely he too would lose interest in Yu Shin-woo, and Yu Shin-woo would not look at Shin Jeong-min. Then what kind of face would Shin Jeong-min make? Would he struggle? With his personality, he probably would. If so…
‘Ah…’
The sheet in his hand crumbled like a withering petal. Simultaneously, a small room was visible in the distance. Through the gap in the door, Shin Jeong-min was being held by someone. In an instant, an unbearable anger rose. A rage greater than the rampage of a rut boiled up, and he wanted to kill Shin Jeong-min and the man holding him right now. He ran straight and opened the door.
The man who had entered his body and was diligently moving his hips was Yu Shin-woo. Shin Jeong-min was crying as if in pain.
‘Ah, is this from then? During the MT…’
Seeing that, the anger vanished and he laughed.
‘See, this man doesn’t love you. He’s definitely holding you instead of Shin Yeong-min.’
It must be painful. It must be hard. So he reached out his hand. He arrogantly reached out his hand, saying he would pull him out of there, but Shin Jeong-min brushed that hand away.
‘Don’t interfere.’
The memory and.
‘Kim Ju-hwan, what are you doing here?’
Are different.
At first, Shin Jeong-min said that, and the second time, Yu Shin-woo said that. At that time, Yu Shin-woo couldn’t properly steady his body. Hadn’t he sent the unconscious Yu Shin-woo away as if clearing him out? However, the current Yu Shin-woo was looking back at him in a perfectly fine state. The sight of the lower part connected to Jeong-min, visible as he slightly lifted his body, was irritating. Whether it was a dream or a memory, he wished he could just cut that off first.
‘Sunbae, you still haven’t come to your senses?’
‘What?’
‘Yu Shin-woo Sunbae is mistaking you for Yeong-min Sunbae right now.’
‘What are you talking about. Sunbae and I are dating.’
‘…What are you talking about, Sunbae? That’s impossible.’
Jeong-min sighed, pulled Yu Shin-woo’s face toward him, and gave him a deep kiss. Despite having matched their bellies so many times, he had never kissed him like that once.
‘Shin-woo hyung, we are dating, right?’
‘Yes.’
That’s impossible. With these pheromones, he is still an Alpha. There’s no way Yu Shin-woo would love an Alpha like you. Kim Ju-hwan pushed Yu Shin-woo’s body away and grabbed Jeong-min’s hair, pulling him. There was no despair on Jeong-min’s face. There was no sadness or agony.
‘Sunbae, you’re an Alpha. And yet Yu Shin-woo loves you?’
‘It’s possible.’
‘Possible? No, that’s impossible.’
‘It was possible… right?’
Jeong-min smiled and looked elsewhere. Ji Su-han was standing there. Jeong-min, who had slipped out of his hand before he knew it, was holding Ji Su-han’s hand. At the sight of the two of them walking side by side somewhere, Kim Ju-hwan hurriedly ran and grabbed Jeong-min’s hand.
‘Where are you going?’
‘He’s someone who loves me even though I’m an Alpha.’
‘No. This man is ultimately someone who embraced an Omega. Do you think he’ll love you? No, in the end, he’ll go back to an Omega again.’
Then, tears flowed down Jeong-min’s cheek. A single tear fell with a plop, and the world turned dark again. Neither Ji Su-han nor Yu Shin-woo were around. In this darkness, there were only two people. Jeong-min sat on the floor, blankly shedding tears.
Only then did Kim Ju-hwan feel relieved and sat opposite him. Before he knew it, he had returned to being a high school student.
‘Then… will I never be loved forever? Because I’m an Alpha?’
That can’t be.
‘I want to be loved too… and I want to love. I didn’t know it was such a great greed.’
Your standards are just too low. Who are you blaming?
Kim Ju-hwan smiled and this time, he caught Jeong-min’s falling tears. He smiled, kissing the tears that fell onto his palm. And carefully embracing the foolish Alpha, he buried his nose in the nape of his neck and inhaled the pheromones. Disgusting Alpha pheromones… But they are the sweetest in the world. He had known from the beginning. He had only just realized it. Only now.
It couldn’t be helped. This foolish man might harbor vain hopes for another Alpha, so he decided he simply had to hold onto him. With that thought, he hugged him tighter, but the man soon turned into smoke and vanished. In the end, he was left alone in that black world.