Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

In society divided into sub-gender roles such as alpha, beta and omega with predefined social standings, breaking out from this circle was almost impossible. Even though the world was developing, machines taking over jobs that before were done manually, the norms in which the people were operating with, didn’t change even one bit. Humans that didn’t abide by those norms were frowned upon and often casted off by their families and communities. But not everything is black and white, and like in many cases, a gray scale is often present.

From as long as he could remember his dream was to travel the world while helping sick children in poverty stricken countries. He studied well, taking all the needed classes in high school, volunteering in elderly houses and in orphanage. Doctors without borders. That was his dream and his goal in life. His family fully supported him in his dream, not caring with the societal expectations.


But the reality of those predestined roles had stricken quite sharply when the dream had been almost in his grasp. At the age of 18, as everyone else in this world, he presented into one of the sub-gender roles. As a biological male he had about 30 % chances to present as an alpha – the most dominant sub-gender. A 68 % chances of presenting as an male beta, and only 2 % chances of presenting as the most rare sub-gender – omega. With biological women the chances were drawn quite similarly, with the one exception of presenting as a female omega, having the chances of 5 %. With those roles, came quite the expectations.

Alphas as the most dominant are expected to be the leaders, good at everything, sure of themselves, strong physically with a sturdy build. Betas often were portrayed as the mediators, that mellowed the alpha’s dominancy, but in their own rights they could take charge when needed. As for the omegas – well here it was quite simple. Obedient, submissive, caring, nurturing. As the one sub-gender that was specifically designed to bore and nurture young pups, there weren’t many opportunities for omegas outside staying at home and taking care of their family.

Taehyung was almost certain that he would present as a beta. Not quite the most ideal outcome, but his disposition wasn’t quite domineering as was that of alphas, but a quite a few times he stood up to older, already presented young alphas that were teasing his fellow unpresented friends. He wasn’t an omega material at all. Already at nearly 18 his frame stood tall, almost as tall as any average alpha’s height, his build while wasn’t quite muscular was lean and strong. As he always thought perfect beta material. But at the morning of his 18th birthday his beliefs has been brought to naught.

7 years later

“Please bring the syringes and testing tubes, I need to draw blood and run some tests” he said to the small omega girl that was his assisting nurse this morning.

“Yes Doctor Kim, immediately” she said as she ran out of the exam room.

The patient he was examining was a small, about 5 year old girl that was found wondering the streets at night by the police patrol.
She was so scared, wailing, big fat tears when they brought her into the hospital that they had to sedate her before continuing with the examination. She had scrapped knees and elbows, hair mated with sweat, blood and grime. Poor thing was abandoned by her parents probably, because as the police officers said, none of the missing child reports didn’t match with the small girl. His heart squeezed with sorrow, while he patched up this poor little thing. He heard the doors to the room being pushed open as the nurse walked in rolling the table with tubes and syringes.

“Thank you Ana” he said quietly taking the syringes and quickly drawing blood from his little patient.

“What test do you want carried out?” she asked taking the pad and a pen.

“Firstly I need her basic blood test run as quickly as possible, she is malnourished and I am quite sure her immune system is going high wire with infection, so all the basic tests need to be carried out” he said quietly, caressing the girls forehead.

“She has a fever of almost 39 degrees so we will need to administer a fluid drip first, and after the results came out we will give her much needed medication. Please send for Nurse Jung from the pediatric ward, he will take care of her for the time being” he looked at his assisting nurse while she was scribbling on the pad and gave it to him for his signature.

He quietly took the pen and signed his name at the bottom, looking once more at his patient and going outside the examining room. Sighing quiet loudly he rubbed his temples, his eyes bloodshot after being awake for almost 30 hours. His shift at the ER was drawing to its end, but with a new patient at the pediatric ward where he worked, his working day will get extended by a few hours at least.

Taehyung felt his cellphone buzz in his pocket.

“Hello, Dr. Kim speaking” he said to the receiver.

“Good morning Dr. Kim, this is Ms Bae Chaeyon speaking. I am calling you on behalf of the HR team of our hospital. Do you have a minute?” a young woman’s voice filled his ears.

'HR team? What do they want from me?' he thought, getting a little bit nervous.

“Yes, I can talk with you” he said trying to remain calm.

“I would like to make an appointment with you, at the hospital’s administrative office, as our hospital vice-president would like to talk with you, when do you finish your shift today?” he tightened his grip on the phone.

'Don’t assume things, remain calm' he tried to persuade himself, but his body was doing its own thing, starting to tremble from the nerves.

“I will be finished in about two hours. May I ask, what the topic of this appointment with the vice-president is?” he asked while looking out the window.

“I was not informed about the subject of vice-president enquire. The only thing I was told was to get your documents ready for the appointment” the lady said with a non-nonsense tone.
“So please be at the administrative department at 10 o’clock, the secretary there will take you to your appointment” she said ending the call, not even waiting for Taehyung’s confirmation.

He pocketed his phone as he went for the staircase. He was running towards the pediatric ward, cold sweat was mating his hair to his scalp.

'God please, not now. They can’t know' his mind was jumbled with lost thoughts running through his head.
His well-kept secret was probably compromised and his mind was going high-wire trying to think when he was careless enough to expose himself.

But his mind came out with nothing.
Nothing.

He was always very careful with his medication, always working his schedule around his cycle.
He was save.

He was save.


So what would they want from him?

Chapter Text

Chapter 2 – Subtle enough

This was his dream.

Be a doctor that helps people that had abandoned any hope of ever receiving help.

But to become a doctor he had to sacrifice so much, only his parents knew how much. When he was 18 years old he presented as an omega, thus ending his dream of becoming a doctor that travels the world helping those in need. To say he was devastated was an understatement. All his hard work, the efforts he put into achieving his dream were brought to naught. All because of his biology. As a male omega his destiny was to find an alpha or beta mate and have as many children as possible. He always wanted a big family in the future, but not with the cost of his dreams and hard work. People could call him selfish but for him this matter was of the utmost importance, he wanted to help people in need so why just because of his rank he couldn’t?

But help did come in form of his parents. His two dads one a beta and the other an omega knew how much his dream was important to him, so they made it possible for him to continue with it. With a help of a family friend that was a pharmacologist, the acquired special medicine – a suppressant that muted his distinct omegan smell. As he himself could not smell himself, only other people could, especially other alphas could smell his sweet citrusy scent that identified him as a male omega. With an utmost care he took the medicine every day for the next 7 years, always planning before his heats.

To say he was careful was an understatement. Apart from his parents and their one friend that helped them nobody knew, that he a male omega was pretending to be a beta. If the truth ever was exposed he would lose everything he worked for.

****

“Mr. Kim I wanted to talk about your future, here in this hospital.” said the vice-president.

Taehyung really wanted to remain calm but he couldn’t be too sure of himself, he could have made a small mistake along the road. God only knows.

“In your cover letter you mentioned that your dream, apart from being a doctor, was to join The Doctors Without Borders organization. Isn’t it?” the vice-president continued.

His eyes rose to the size of saucers. He didn’t expect for this conversation to end up in this direction. He looked up to look at the man that was awaiting his answer and slowly nodded his head.
“Yes that’s right.” He affirmed.

The vice-president smiled making his wrinkled face look much less intimidating. “That’s great to hear. So if I told you that our government is sending young, outstanding doctors for a UN affiliated mission in South-East Asia, you would be interested?” to said he was dumbstruck was an understatement. His brain cells decided that the most sophisticated way to say yes would be to nod his head like a madman. He could feel his lips stretching in his signature box-shaped smile, because that wasn’t quite what he expected.

***

“Are you kidding me?! They recommended you?! As the one of the leading pediatricians?! “ lean, red haired beta male in pink scrubs whisper-screamed at Taehyung. Jung Hoseok - nurse in the pediatric ward. “That’s like your biggest dream ever!”

“Yes Hoseok, but they need a doctor – nurse team, so that’s why I am talking to you, because I want to recommend your sorry ass” Taehyung chuckled at Hoseok’s gaping mouth. But in an instant he drew a blank face.

“Ok.” Said the red haired man. “If I will still work with you, going to another country is not a problem. You know Tae, we are the dream – team.” He added with a soft smile.

Taehyung felt relieved. That was right, they really were the best doctor – nurse team in this hospital alone, and they’ve worked together only for two years. Choosing someone else than Hoseok wasn’t even an option. Jung Hoseok was the most competent and trustworthy coworker of Taehyung’s. There were few times when he wanted to tell him his secret, but at the last moment he always backed out.

Alas, that was another thing to reconsider. Will he be able to keep his secret a secret, when away from home?

***

For the mid-August the weather was kind enough, a slight wind unmade his hair as he walked the stairs to the meeting place. Today they were supposed to meet other counterparts of their Korean team, as they were leaving in two-week’s time for their mission. Hoseok already texted him that he was inside the building waiting with the others teammates. The building was inconspicuous for a military base, but he guessed that’s how it’s supposed to be.

When he opened the doors he was assaulted with a heavy atmosphere, where he clearly could see the division between the medical staff and the soldiers that were supposedly going with them for safety reasons.

“Nice of you to finally join us” Taehyung’s head whipped towards the tallest man in the room. He could tell what an uptight alpha male looked like, and he was one for sure.

“Had a last minute operation” He spoke. Then when the soldier scoffed he turned towards the medical staff and Hoseok and winked. “Not that your uptight ass would understand” He murmured under his nose. The nurse shot him a bright smile when they stood next to each other.

There were five other people which were to be a part of their medical team. Apart from Hoseok and himself, there was one other man and four women.

“Let me introduce myself” The booming voice of the alpha male made everyone whip their heads towards him. “Kim Namjoon, Captain of the Team S in Division 37. I’ll be the head of the team that’ll secure your medical team on this 3-month mission” His eyes betrayed no emotion, face almost as emotionless as his voice. This man commanded an authority without any orders. Taehyung swallowed loudly, he could already tell that this man is all work and no fun. “Along with me there will be two lieutenants and the rest of my squad. We are highly-trained, high-risk team dealing with missions of the utmost importance for the country. We will be securing your wellbeing while on the mission, so I highly recommend that none of you will ever question our decisions.” He finished with a deep look into Taehyung’s eyes. He already had an uneasy feeling about this whole mission. Even more about their security detail. “Who is the captain of your medical team?” He asked looking at the other people standing near Hoseok and Taehyung.

The other man spoke. “Our captain is from Europe and will be joining us at the campsite, as she is already there” His clear voice echoed in the room.

‘Another alpha, I see’ Thought Taehyung.

“My name is Kim Seokjin and I’m a neurosurgeon from SNU hospital, head of the neurology department. Nice to meet you all”. He finished with a cute smile which made Hoseok blush a little. Taehyung smirked under his nose, he could already see that his beta-friend liked what he saw. Seokjin was broad-shouldered tall man, with a face sculpted by gods themselves. He was utterly beautiful.

“Hello Seokjin and others” said the woman that stood the tallest among the other females. “My name is Kim Yongsun and I am an gynecologist and obstetrician. I specialize in a pregnancy pathology. From the SNU hospital as well” She finished with a no-nonsense smile. The rest of the girls were a part of her team. With two nurses Moon Byulyi and Jung Wheein, and another obstetrician and surgeon Ahn Hyejin.

Now it was Taehyung’s time to shine.

“Hello all! My name is Kim Taehyung and I am a pediatrician and neonatologist from Deawoon University hospital. Nice to meet you” He finished with a bright smile towards his future colleagues. Just as he finished Hoseok quickly introduced himself shooting Seokjin glances every other second.

He hoped that apart from the soldiers going with them for the mission the rest of the team will get along.
***

And along they got. After the brief meeting with the Team S captain they decided to get to know each other’s a little bit more and went for the trusty Korean BBQ and soju. They’ve got drunk while playing games. The girls were hilarious – a tight knit group of four betas, which knew each other since their medical school. Seokjin thought he was funny, but was anything but that. His dad-jokes were at most slightly funny but he had a time of his life. Taehyung could see that Hoseok was getting disappointed with the man.

“Pretty face is not everything I guees” The nurse said to himself, but as he sat next to Taehyung he heard his friend, and almost choked with the shot of soju that he was drinking at this time.

Later when he laid in his bed, belly full and a slight buzz in his head Taehyung thought that apart from their security detail, everybody where a delight to be around. There couldn’t be any more obnoxious soldiers that one Kim Namjoon.

‘What else could go wrong, right?’



Famous last words.