Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Yeonjun thinks the world is out to get him today. No, he is not crazy. (Okay, maybe he is. But! But, hear him out first!) 

First, when he woke up this morning, he lost his phone in the mess of boxes stuffed inside his new room— and okay, yes, maybe it’s a little bit of his fault he didn’t unpack anything last night but sue him, it was nearly midnight and he was tired from that long car ride to their new house— and really, how could he be expected to see anything beyond his bed, among the mess of brown cardboard boxes stacked up to the ceiling, and tumbling over each other. (God, he hoped he hadn’t broken any of his stuff with the rough handling from the night before.) His phone was missing. 

Next, his mother came to him with good news (well, good news for her, bad news for him). 

“We called your new school early this morning, and they said you can come in today and attend classes! They will have your uniform and schedule ready when you arrive today!” She smiled. “You gotta be there soon, so you got fifteen minutes to get ready, alright?”

Her soft lavendar scent was blooming with excitement— as if sending her son to a completely new school in the middle of the year was something to be excited about— and she blew him a kiss before disappearing back downstairs. 

Great. And his phone was still missing. 

So with a slightly bitter mood, he started getting ready for a school he wasn’t even remotely ready for, because he was going to be the only one fumbling around the school, not knowing what was where despite being a third-year technically and someone who should be graduating soon and therefore, know his way around the school, and he wouldn’t know a single person, which was just great for his introverted ass, if he had to talk to a bunch of strangers. Social situations and him were not compatible.  

The world seemed to hate him today; when he tried to look for his favorite hoodie, one that looked pretty decent, he was yet again annoyed at the fact that he didn’t know which of these hundred boxes had it. And did he have the time to dig around for it now? Nope! 

Hence, he was stuck in the only article of clothing he could find quickly: a boring grey sweatshirt and brown trousers— he looked like someone’s grandfather! He could only hope they had his uniform like his mom said, so he could change into it. Oh, but he’d already be walking through the halls to the office before he got them, which was mortifying to think about, looking like a grandfather— probably would become the weird new kid. 

Then, to make things even worse, when he went downstairs to get a car ride to school from his dad, like they usually did, he was dismayed to find out that his father no longer had the time in the morning to drop him off by car, and he would have to find a ride to his new school on his own. And would have to get a ride that wasn’t his dad’s car. 

Evidentally, his dad was already gone. 

“And don’t you think it’s about time you get a liscense?” His mom questioned. “You’re eighteen, Junnie. You can’t expect your father to drive you around everywhere like a little pup.” She clicked her tongue.

Yeonjun shrunk under her gaze. “I know, I know— it’s embarrassing.” 

His mother’s gaze softened. 

“I don’t mean it in a bad way. I just… I wish you could act like yourself— you always got bullied in school and… Yeonjun… I know school was hard for you at your old school, but seriously, just be yourself and everybody will like you! You’re so loud and you have a flashy personality at home. Why don’t you show that at school?” His mom clicks her tongue.

Yeonjun groans. He knows it— but it’s not something he can control. 

“It’s just— whenever I go outside the house and try to talk, my brain just shuts down. I become a totally different person— you know I can’t control it! I wish I could be outgoing in school too, really Mom, I do.” He sighs. 

His mom is silent for a moment. Then she wipes her hands on her apron front and walks up to him, cupping both of his cheeks. Yeonjun looks at her, at her weary face and soft brown eyes, at the sadness pooled inside them. 

“Well, I’m just worried, Yeonjun-ah. Alphas expected so much from the world, and I’m afraid that one day the pressure will be too much, and my little boy will burst.” She murmured. 

“Mom… I’m not your little boy!” Yeonjun squirmed, trying to escape her hold on his cheeks. “And I’m gonna be late!” 

“Fine,” she shakes her head, releasing her hold on him. “Go to school— try to have fun, and make friends. I know transferring in the middle of the year is hard, but I know you can do it. Having friends will help, I promise you.”

“Yeah, yeah,” he mumbled and shuffled out the door in his grandpa outfit and a worn-down black backpack. Things were not looking so great for him, not if he was stepping inside his new school looking like a total loser. Okay, so maybe he was kind of a loser. 

The sky is grey— maybe it was going to rain soon, which would be kinda hilarious, considering his own mood right now— and… he has no idea how to get to his new school. His mom had given him a brief summary; White Rose High, a regional school with students from all around the area, with a mix of social classes since rich people sent their students here, but so did the middle and lower class ones. 

Yeonjun glanced down the street where, at the dead end of the street, sat a towering mansion (it was, by no means, just an ordinary suburban house, especially compared to his own new one) with black tiles and white marble exterior walls (definitely some rich guy’s house). And coming out of it were two teenagers who looked like they were going to school too. Maybe Yeonjun could ask them if they knew where White Rose High was, or a way to get there…. depending on how ‘social’ his brain-to-mouth function felt like today. 

One of them wore a crisp school uniform— a dark blue blazer jacket and matching trousers, with a white undershirt and light blue necktie— and he didn’t look very approachable, not with the whole ‘son of a very wealthy person’ vibes with an extra, ‘Warning! Not to be messed with!’, aura. Fortunately for Yeonjun, the other boy, a little shorter than the first (or maybe Mr. Rich Guy’s Son was just very tall) wore a casual red hoodie under the blazer and he had a bright grin. 

Yeonjun hesitated for a moment, panicking when the two boys started walking towards their car, before his mouth made the ultimate decision as his voice called out a loud, “Hey, excuse me!” 

The two boys turned to him. 

Yeonjun opened his mouth, and then closed it. 

In the distance (okay, more like four houses down), the two boys exchanged glances, before they started jogging over to him. Oh shit. He wasn’t ready to talk to strangers. 

It seemed the universe didn’t care much for his opinion, nor whether or not he was ready to converse with other human beings that weren’t his parents, because the two boys drew closer and closer, and finally, they stopped in front of him. 

“Hey, sorry, I think you may have said something, but we weren’t able to hear it. What was that?” Mr. Rich Guy’s Son asks. “You were too far away and your voice got quieter.” 

Up close, it’s obvious he’s an alpha— tall and standing straightened up, a neat look with a calm expression, and the aura of a powerful alpha— though Yeonjun can’t seem to get any scent from him. Nor the other guy in the hoodie. 

“I… uhm…” Yeonjun says, very eloquently. 

The words always catch in his throat— he sounds so funny inside his head and like the popular alpha guy he wants to be, but what use is that when he can’t talk when it comes to real life social situations?!

“Um, I… uh…” He continues to stammer out to the two, very confused looking boys. Fuck— he wants to talk— it’s just his brain has shut down and he’s left standing like a fool, staring at the two boys who he had called out to first. 

“Yes?” Mr. Rich Guy’s Son blinks. 

Yeonjun swallows. He glances at the other guy— which, okay, whoa, up close is kinda stunning to look at, now that he’s closer up and now that Yeonjun’s finally turned his full attention on him. His brown hair goes down to his shoulders and there are, interestingly enough, golden streaks here and there. He too embodies the traits of a typical alpha— everything Yeonjun isn’t for some reason, even though he presented as an alpha too. 

Wait, he was trying to ask them how to get to White Rose High. 

“School,” he says and then wants to face palm. “I mean— uhm, I’m new here— this— to this neighborhood— and— school— my new school is White Rose High so…”

“Ohh!” Stunning Guy says. “Do you not know how to get there?” 

Yeonjun nods. 

“Well, lucky you, huh?” The guy grins. “Me and Soobin hyung go there too! See?” He points at his uniform, and on the left fold of his blazer, is a white rose patch with a golden outline. Oh. 

Well, maybe Yeonjun’s luck was improving! 

“I’m Choi Soobin,” Mr. Rich— Soobin— introduces. “And this is my younger brother, Beomgyu. And yes, we both go to White Rose High. In fact, we were actually about to drive over there, so would you like to come along?” 

Yeonjun nods, his heart blooming at their kindness. Okay yes, sure, he was kinda too soft— taking every little gesture as something huge, seeing everything small act of kindess as a saint’s gesture. Again, not alpha-like. Not alpha enough. 

“Yay!” Beomgyu says. “Oh my god— you’re gonna love our school. It’s the best— the lunches, the teachers, the curiculums. And get this! The school even allowed me and my friends to make a band, like a rock band type of thing— it’s called the Joker Cards— and we play during—” He stops mid-sentence. Then, “Oh shit! My baby!” He shrieks, before taking off in the direction of his house. 

“His electric guitar,” Soobin informs him, seeing Yeonjun’s startled expression. “He calls it his son. Absolutely cherishes it like crazy.” 

“Ah.” Yeonjun says. Again, very eloquently. 

“Now, we’re gonna be late, so why don’t we head over to my car?” Soobin suggests. Yeonjun happily agrees, and keeps his mouth shut as they walk over to Soobin’s car. He doesn’t want to say something weird— or let out a weird squeak of noise— and risk weirding out the guy. Like his mom had said: friends = survival. 

“By the way, do you have any scent patches?” Soobin asks. 

“Uh, no. Why?” Yeonjun asks, drawing his scent in self-consciously. Did Soobin hate his scent? Did he think it wasn’t alpha enough? Or was he already mistaking Yeonjun for an omega (as did most people who met him) and thought he should be putting on scent patches? 

“The school has a rule that all students have to have on scent patches on school grounds,” Soobin explains. “Me and Beomgyu are wearing them too right now, which is why you probably don’t smell our scents.” 

Huh. That wasm’t a thing at Yeonjun’s old school. 

“I have a few extra that you can use for the day, but I would recommend getting some to use for the rest of the school year.” Soobin says and a gentle smile stretches across his face. Suddenly, he doesn’t look as intimidating as Yeonjun had made him out to be. Sure, he still looked like an alpha without any doubt— he radiated that energy— but he looked more… friendlier. 

Soobin shrugs his backpack off— it’s brown, but there are fluffy bunny keychains dangling off of them— and digs around it for a moment, before plucking out a single scent patch wrapped in a thin, white paper sheet. 

“Here,” he says, handing it to Yeonjun.

“Th— thank you.” Yeonjun nods, wincing at the catch in his voice. God, why couldn’t he talk normal around other kids his age?

They reach Soobin’s car, and now that Yeonjun’s standing directly in front of the house, it really is as huge as he thought it seemed from afar. The windows are all tinted so that no one could see anything inside— great privacy, Yeonjun mused. 

The front door banged open and Beomgyu bounced outside, now with a large, dark red guitar case in hand, swinging as he hurried over to them. 

“You can sit in the back,” Soobin says, opening the back door as Yeonjun mumbles a ‘thank you’. 

In the backseat is a black backpack with a bunch of keychains— ranging from red, glass cherries, to guitar picks on wires, to fluffy animal minature stuffies— with the zipper still undone, the various papers looking like they had all been shoved inside without care. Next to that, is a huge brown box with a lid on it. 

Yeonjun stood there for a long second, trying to figure out how he could sit with everything in that way— and his selective introvertedness was not about to ask Soobin or Beomgyu if he was allowed to move anything aside.

Luckily, a savior arrives for him. 

“Sorry,” Beomgyu says sheepishly, moving to his side. “I’ll move my bag so you can sit there. Oh, you don’t mind if I stick my guitar in the back with you, right?” The alpha asks. 

Yeonjun shakes his head. After all, he’s the one intruding and this is their car— they should be able to do whatever they wished to do. 

Beomgyu grabs his backpack, and in the motion a few papers fly out, and Soobin grabs them out of the air, clicking his tongue in disapproval as he hands them back to a grinning Beomgyu.

“If I hear one more teacher say you lost your homework, I’m telling them this is why.” He sighs. “Please, for the millionth time— stop giving the excuse that your dog ate your homework. We don’t even have a dog, Gyu!” 

“Yeah, yeah, okay. C’mon, drive old man! We’re gonna be late. Oh wait, maybe we should. Then I can tell everyone it was all your fault.” Beomgyu grins slyly. “Breaking news! Student body prez makes his brother and new guy late, all because he was scolding them and was too slow to get going!” He teases, ducking inside the car before Soobin’s swat made contact with its target.

Yeonjun doesn’t think it’s appropriate to laugh at someone he just met, and bites down on his lip as he ducks inside the car, situating himself on the backseat in place of Beomgyu’s backpack. 

But it’s funny. Beomgyu’s kinda funny. 

—

Soobin drives very slowly, as Yeonjun finds out, but they arrive on time so Yeonjun can’t complain. The school is milling with students, and a bell rings overhead. 

“Don’t worry, it’s just the first warning bell. It means we have ten minutes to get inside, get things from our lockers, and head to class. We have a lot of spare time.” Beomgyu explains. “Where do you need to go right now?”

“I— uhm… main office, I think.” Yeonjun replies. 

“Well, I have some files to drop off (“Again, he’s student body prez,” Beomgyu pipes up, putting an emphasis on the words) so I have to leave you now, but I’m sure Beomgyu can walk you to the main office.” Soobin says. “Right, Gyu?” 

Beomgyu nods enthusiastically. “Mhm! ‘Course I can!” 

Soobin bids Yeonjun goodbye with a nod— and gives Beomgyu a special ruffle of the hair in lieu of a goodbye— before disappearing into the crowd of students. 

Beomgyu slungs the strap of his guitar case over one shoulder, and his backpack on the other, before turning back to Yeonjun. 

“Alright, good news is, I know where the main office is!” He says.

“I would hope so,” Yeonjun snorts and then freezes. “Sorry. I mean—”

Beomgyu just laughs at him. 

“Aw, you’re funny. And yeah, I’d hate to be stuck with a guy who said they knew where they were going, but actually didn’t.” He says.

I’m… funny? Yeonjun blinks. Wow. That’s a first. 

Chapter Text

Beomgyu leads him into the school and down a bunch of hallways that has Yeonjun blinking in confusion. If it weren’t for Beomgyu, he would’ve never found the office. On the way, a guy from the soccer team (seeing his blue soccer jersey) punches his arm as he walks by, and Beomgyu grins at him, effortlessly sliding into a handshake and a shoulder bump mid-walk.

Not even a second later, a group of girls giggled as they came up to him— Beomgyu paused, and so Yeonjun did too— and they handed Beomgyu colorful notes and heart-shaped chocolate boxes, before giggling again and running off. 

Yeonjun frowns.

So Beomgyu was kind of a… popular guy here? Girls always liked boys in bands, guitar and all. Yeah, he was probably popular, with his good looks and electric guitar and whole alpha vibe— someone who knew what they were doing and didn’t care about judgement, someone who led the group, was in the eyes of everyone, soaked up the attention without meaning to, was the center of everything. 

Beomgyu runs into a couple more people on the way— a guy with boxy glasses who thanked him for the textbook, a girl with cropped hair and a basketball jersey who gave him a high-five as her girlfriend politely nodded in greeting, a teacher even stopped him to talk about how well Beomgyu did on his latest assignment. 

Beomgyu, it seemed, really was a popular guy, maybe even the guy of the school. He might’ve talked with Yeonjun (somewhat, it wasn’t much of a conversation if it was mostly one-sided) before school, but he probably wouldn’t ever again. He probably wouldn’t notice Yeonjun ever again— because popular guys like him— popular alphas like him— didn’t give a single fuck about kids like Yeonjun, especially if he wasn’t much of an alpha. 

So Yeonjun should probably make the most out of his kindness right now. He really wants to get ot the main office, but Beomgyu keeps being stopped by various people— and Yeonjun doesn’t have the guts to ask Beomgyu if they could just get going— which would mean ignoring everyone, so okay, fine, that was kinda rude but Yeonjun kinda had to get going and get his uniform so he could stop looking like such a loser. Already, a few kids had laughed at him, jabbing their fingers at his clothes. 

Again, Beomgyu must be some kind of angel in disguise because he turns to Yeonjun and gives a sheepish smile.

“Sorry— I keep getting side tracked by everyone. Let’s keep going.” He says and Yeonjun nods gratefully. Sadly, there’s yet another interuption before they could walk any further. 

“Yo, Gyu!” 

Both Beomgyu and Yeonjun turn to the voice— a tall, dark-haired guy in a red, basketball jersey and a ball under one arm is walking over, along with an even taller guy with white-blond hair in a black skeleton hoodie. The basketball guy waves his hand over his head with a huge grin as he walks over. 

“Heeseung! Ni-ki!” Beomgyu calls out with a grin that matches the enthusiastic one from the basketball guy. 

The two tall guys take turns fist bumping with Beomgyu, who laughs. They exchange more hoots of greeting, loud and energetic, and Yeonjun is stuck standing awkwardly— essentially a ghost as they talk and laugh together. 

“Oh my goodness, you won’t believe what happened this morning!” Beomgyu suddenly says. “I almost forgot my baby.”

Basketball guy groans, shaking his head dramatically. 

“Beomgyu~! You’re such an irresponsible dad! And we have practice today after school— forgetting your guitar.” He says. “How could you almost forget?” He asks in a mock-offended tone. 

“Hey— at least I have it now!” Beomgyu holds up his guitar, still snug in its case.

“Don’t forget we also have basketball practice after that,” Blond guy interjects with a sigh. “Coach is still mad we skipped last week’s practice because we lost track of time playing songs.” 

Basketball guy groans once again, even longer than before. 

“Right— fuck. He even called home about it— like who does that?!”

Beomgyu suddenly turns back to Yeonjun as if just remembering about him— like always, popular guys get so caught up in each other, they always forget about everybody else. Especially quiet guys like Yeonjun. 

“Oh, right! Yeonjun, this is Heeseung. He’s our school’s star basketball player and he’s also our band’s bassist— you know, the Joker Cards band I said I was in? And this is Ni-ki, our drummer. Oh, he’s also on the basketball team.” Beomgyu introduces, pointing to the basketball guy, then to the white-blond one. “We also have another member, Taehyun— he plays the keyboard— but he’s on library assistant duty right now. I’ll introduce you to him later. Guys, this is Yeonjun, the new guy.”

Heeseung and Ni-ki nod at him.

“Nice to meet you. Hey, what’s with the grandpa look?” Heeseung asks with a teasing grin, and Ni-ki elbows him with a look. 

“Don’t be mean, Heeseungie hyung.” 

“I was just teasing, sheesh!”  

Yeonjun’s face burns, and he ducks his head. He knew it— he fucking knew it. He looked like a total loser, and clearly, popular boys were all the same— running their mouth and acting like everything was just jokes. It probably was to them. 

“Excuse me,” He mumbles, and pushes past a startled Beomgyu and rushes down the hall. 

He hears Beomgyu call after him, but he ignores the other alpha and his friends. 

—

Yeonjun is undoubtably lost.

It’s his own fault for leaving Beomgyu just because his feelings got a little hurt— and yes, he should’ve expected someone to tease him about his clothes but… still. And now, he was left all alone among the crowd of other students— all unfamilar faces in their blue-uniform glory— and had absolutely no idea where to go. Why weren’t there any signs, preferably pointing to the main office? The students zoom past him in their little friend pairs and groups— some don’t even notice him, too busy with their friends or on their phone— and others point and snicker at him. 

He lets out a breathy sigh, swallowing his nerves down. Time to be brave, or else he was going to get nowhere. 

“Uh—” He says, jumping in front of a group of girls with the school uniform skirts snipped a little too short (but maybe that’s just Yeonjun’s opinion) and their hair combed almost all identically.

“Can we help you?” One of them snorts, looking him up and down with an amused smile. “And what’s with that old guy outfit? Toooo~tally out of trend.” 

“I, um—” Yeonjun swallows again. 

The girls snicker, whispering to each other as they side-eye him. 

“Yes?” The same girl rolls her eyes. “Literally talk.” 

Another girl with black hair steps forward, lips curled in a smirk.

“Well?” she prompts. “Cat got your tongue, Grandpa?”

Another girl beside her snorts, one hand over her mouth.

“Maybe he’s from the past. Like a time traveler or something. That would explain the thrift store look.” She snickers, talking as if Yeonjun wasn’t standing in front of her. 

“I bet he doesn’t even go here,” the third adds, flipping her hair. “Lost little ghost.” She mocks. 

Yeonjun flinches. His throat is dry, and for a second, he thinks maybe it’s better to just bolt again— but no. No. He needs directions. He has to get to the office. He can’t just wander around all day. He steels himself, fists clenching at his sides.

“I just…” He forces his voice out. “I’m… I’m trying to find the main office.”

The first girl squints at him.

“So you do go here. Ugh.”

“Guess he’s the new kid,” another whispers loudly, like it’s scandalous information. “Beomgyu was walking with him earlier.”

“Beomgyu?” The ringleader’s tone changes slightly— something sharper now, maybe interest, maybe judgment— who knows, not Yeonjun that was for sure. “Wait, you know Beomgyu?”

Yeonjun hesitates.

“Uhm.. N— Not really. He was just… just um, helping me get to the office.”

All four girls exchange looks, and the ringleader gives a short, incredulous laugh.

“Okay, that makes way more sense. Beomgyu’s, like, nice to everyone,” she says, still smiling— but it’s sharp. There isn’t a hint of warmth in it. “Aww. Don’t read into it too much then, alright?”

The second girl points vaguely down the hall.

“It’s that way, then left. Try not to get lost again, Grandpa.”

Yeonjun nods stiffly.

“Um, thanks,” he mutters, trying to keep his voice steady as he ducks his head and walks in the direction she gestured.

He hears them laughing behind him before he even gets halfway down the hall.

“Poor thing looked like he was about to cry.”

“Maybe Beomgyu felt bad for him.”

“Oh my god, imagine Beomgyu hanging out with that. Eww.”

Yeonjun’s steps quicken. His ears are burning and his stomach twists, cold and tight. He should’ve just waited for Beomgyu. He shouldn’t have left. He shouldn't have thought— even for a second— that he mattered to someone like that, and he should’ve just waited for Beomgyu to get him to the office, and taken in what he could then.

He keeps walking, fists clenched, jaw tight.

He just needs to make it through today.

Just one day. One day and then he would be back home. 

—

Yeonjun finds the main office and the secretary greets him warmly, welcoming him to White Rose High and handing him a package uniform and a file with his schedule matrix; he had six classes a day with lunch in between, with classes rotating throughout the week.

“And since you just moved here— and we’re admitting you earlier than usual, it’s all just the general classes students take, plus a few art electives. It’s the only classes with empty slots right now, so I apologize,” The secretary says. “But! We do have a lot of interesting clubs and sports teams here that you can join. Let’s see… we have the basketball team, the soccer team, volleyball… and we have the photography club, art club, writer’s club… There’s a list by the bulletin board outside, and the club leader contacts should all be on there!” 

Yeonjun bows his head politely. 

“Thank you. I… is there somewhere I can change, uhm… in— into my uniform?” He asks softly. 

She nods. 

“There’s a boys bathroom just across the hall. It’s separated by second gender too, and male omegas are on the left.” She says warmly.

Yeonjun’s face burns once again. 

“I… I’m an alpha.” He mumbles out. 

The secretary’s eyes widen. “Oh! Oh my goodness, I’m so sorry dear! Just… with the scent patch and…” She trails off, but Yeonjun doesn’t need to hear the rest. He knows— he knows how un-alpha-like he is, and how he seems so much like some omega. And this wasn’t the first time he was mistaken for one but… 

Yeonjun ducks his head and excuses himself, before rushing out. The bulletin board is by the door, and sure enough, there’s a long list of clubs— after closer examination, some have red tapes on it saying, FULL, NO SPOTS AVALIABLE. And… among the other club advertizement posters, is a bright yellow poster with a rockstar silhouette with giant, bolded words:

JOKER CARDS (School Band)

We’re an official band outside of school, but we’re looking for anyone who plays an instrument that wants to play in our band school-wise!

-> Come talk to Beomgyu (Room 207)

Or 

-> DM @JOKERCARDS_BAND on Insta

(P.S. We have a few official albums out, so check them out!!!)

Yeonjun looks away. Again, Beomgyu— it’s like he’s everywhere. He shuffles into the bathroom and quickly changes into his uniform, shoving his schedule in his pocket. After a few long moment of hesitation, he works up the courage to ask the secretary where his classes were. She kindly showed him, apologized to him once again, and then he was on his way.

—

Yeonjun finally ends up in lunch period, and somehow, he manages to find the cafeteria. It’s a large circular area under a huge glass dome, letting the sunlight shine over all the tables. Students fill almost all the tables, and the murmur of chatter fills the air. It’s so different from his old school, where the cafeteria was too small for the number of kids, the peeling brown walls and the dim lighting that flickered every so often. This new school definitely got a lot of funding. 

He finds a good spot at a table in the far corner, and sets down his backpack, before shuffling into the lunch line. He keeps his head ducked, hoping he wouldn’t have to talk to any of the lunch staff— and thankfully, all he has to do is grab what he wants (Beomgyu was right; the school lunches are way better here than at his old school) and scan his lunch pay-card. 

Students seem to stare at him as he passes by, so he hurries over back to his seat, hoping they’d stop staring at him. (And embarrassingly enough, when he does finally look up, everyone’s busy doing their own thing; no one had been staring at all.) 

Yeonjun begins eating; a still-steaming tteokkbokki in a plastic bowl, white rice and some kimchi, and a bowl of eomuk broth with plenty of fish cakes in it. Beomgyu had not been kidding around when he said the school lunches were amazing. 

He’s in the middle of shoving another piece of tteokbokki in his mouth when he spots a familiar brown-haired boy with his guitar case slung over his shoulder. He’s standing a few tables away with the two band/basketball boys from earlier— Ni-ki and Heeseung, Yeonjun recalls— laughing as Heeseung nudges him. Then Heeseung’s whispering something into Ni-ki’s ear, and the latter bursts out laughing. Then he hits Heeseung’s shoulder playfully, and Beomgyu’s leaning forward. 

“Seung, Gyu, Ki!” 

Yeonjun glances over at the voice, as Beomgyu and his friends do too. 

A boy with dusty pink hair and round boba eyes walks over to the trio, and his eyes immediately narrow at Beomgyu. He quickens his pace and upon arrival, he flicks at Beomgyu’s forehead, though it’s too gentle to hurt. 

“Hey, that hoodie’s mine!” He huffs— loud enough that Yeonjun could hear him from where he was seated. 

Beomgyu glances down at it. 

“Huh. Is it?” He asks. “I found it on the floor in my room, and I thought it was mine.” 

“Wow, the absolute nerve,” Pink Hair says, but his lips curl upwards. “I guess I must’ve left it over at your house yesterday or something.”

Beomgyu hums. “Probably. Whatever— I promise I won’t spill anything on it, so just let me wear it for today. I don’t even have anything under it!”

Pink Hair wrinkles his nose. 

“Ugh— TMI, Beomgyu, TMI!” He complains. “Fine, fine. You really better not get anything on it! It’s my favorite one!” He pretends to throw a punch and Beomgyu lets out a peal of laughter as he dodges it. 

Yeonjun watches as Beomgyu and Pink Hair playfully bicker as they throw their bags (and guitar, in Beomgyu’s case) down at the table two down from Yeonjun’s. He ducks his head, hoping Beomgyu wouldn’t spot him and make things awkward— or well, it was Yeonjun’s fault really, for running away like that earlier. Beomgyu’s feelings probably got hurt. Or his pride, that too. 

He shoves in another fish cake, watching from the corner of his eye as Beomgyu and Pink Hair go to the lunch line, with Ni-ki and Heeseung trailing after, the two in their own little conversation behind the other two. 

Yeonjun looks down at his tray again, trying not to be the weird guy who stared at Beomgyu like he was a stalker or something. The next time he looks up (it’s on accident, really) Beomgyu and Pink Hair are seated at their table again, lunch trays in front of them. 

He watches as Beomgyu plucks a fry from Pink Hair’s tray, and as the latter rolls his eyes and slides over half of his lunch. 

“My god— stop stealing my fries!” Pink Hair complains.

Beomgyu grins cheekily. “Hey— sharing is caring, Taehyun! Husband rule number one!” 

Yeonjun blinks and looks back down at his lunch tray. 

“You got a crush on him?”

Yeonjun jerks his head at the voice. It’s a blond guy with slightly foreigner features and a giant smile on his face, who is suddenly sitting next to Yeonjun in the seat that previously, no one had been on. So where the heck did this kid come from?!

“Huh?” He says intelligently.

The guy laughs. 

“Everyone has a crush on him— Choi Beomgyu— at some point, whether they realize it or not. It’s like, tradition, for everyone at this school.” The guy says. “I’m Huening Kai. I’ve never seen you around before. Huh… You new here?” 

“Yeah. And I do not have a crush on him,” Yeonjun says, glancing at Beomgyu who was now throwing his head back in laughter at something Pink Hair said (what was even so funny?), “And besides, I’m also an alpha— and I’m uhm, not really… attracted to other alphas.” 

Kai blinks. “…You do realize Choi Beomgyu is an omega?” 

Yeonjun stares back at him. “What?!” 

“He’s an omega.” Kai repeats. “…You didn’t know?” Kai asks, sounding puzzled.

“No!” Yeonjun says, snapping his head back at Beomgyu. Sure he had soft features— but he didn’t give omega vibes, not that shy, soft, sweet vibe most omegas showcased. 

“Well… huh. If you didn’t know, guess you know now!” Kai grins again. 

Beomgyu swats at Pink Hair and then leans his head on the latter’s shoulder with a laughter-filled sigh. 

“…So, who’s that guy? In the pink hair? Is he… Beomgyu’s alpha or something?” Yeonjun asks a little bitterly. 

Kai bursts out laughing.

“What? No, that’s Kang Taehyun. He’s also an omega— and he’s Beomgyu’s best friend. They call each other ‘platonic husband’ and they’re real close. I think they were friends since birth. They live right next door to each other, I hear.” He explains. “My god, that’s the most hilarious thing I’ve heard all day!” He snorts. “Taehyun as Beomgyu’s alpha? Ha! Good one!” 

Yeonjun’s cheeks feel hot. 

Chapter Text

“Taehyun’s in our school’s rock band with Beomgyu— along with that white-blond guy and that dark-haired guy in the jersey. It’s called the Joker Cards— a four-member band, that’s an actual one outside of school, with their own gigs and albums on Dotify.” Kai says. “They started off as a little music club here— and bam! Now they’re an actual band, like it’s crazy! They still play for our school though, during festivals and whatnot.” 

He pauses for a moment. 

“Hey, I heard they’re looking to recruit new members— school-wise. I mean, they’re all tight, and I have the impression they don’t want anyone joining their band— but of course, Principal Wang insisted they get more people to join, and so they were all like, fine, and made a poster— and made it explicitly clear it’s just for during school and stuff, like they’re are not letting anyone join the real deal, you know? I wanted to join, but then I was like— I am not getting in the middle of anything, so like, bye!” He rambles. 

Yeonjun winces. Kai is a chatterbox— he had a lot to say about the band, didn’t he? 

“Anyways— what’s your name?” Kai asks, turning his wide eyes towards Yeonjun. 

“Yeonjun,” he mumbles. “Choi Yeonjun.”

“Aww, you have the surname as Beomgyu! Oh, and Soobin too.” Kai cooes. “That’s cute. So, Mister Totally Doesn’t Have A Crush On Beomgyu… why’re you sitting all alone? I heard rumors circling the new guy was with Beomgyu walking into school today.” 

Yeonjun sighs. 

“Beomgyu was just being nice. We’re not friends.”

“Ah, so that’s why you’re not sitting with them? Figures. I mean, even I’m a bit intimidated to ask to sit with them— those four are like The Plastics… except they’re all really nice, in and out.… the four of them are the it boys, you know?”

“Popular? Yeah, I can tell.” Yeonjun mumbles. “I get it.” 

Kai laughs. “Being popular isn’t like, a big thing, here. Only five people, really, are considered quote unquote popular. The Joker Cards members, them four— and Choi Soobin, Beomgyu’s older brother. Usually, no one likes the student body prez with all the rules he enforces and stuff, but this year, we got a good one. Everyone likes Choi Soobin because he’s so friendly and nice, and you know, he’s also got the looks. He could scream at you for something stupid, and you’d be awestruck by his godly visuals to care much,” Kai sighs dreamily. 

“Do you have a crush?” Yeonjun asks.

For once, socialization isn’t too hard! Probably because Kai was doing most of the talking but… hey! Maybe his social-stage-fright was disappearing! (Not likely, but one could hope.)

Kai snorts. 

“Pfft, no— not in a romantic way. It’s more of an idol crush. Like, he’s just so cool, you know?”

Yeonjun thinks back to the tall alpha he had met earlier. He was a bit… scary at first, but then he seemed friendly after he smiled and started playfully scolding with Beomgyu. Yeah, he could kinda see Soobin as the popular school prez. Obviously not popular in the way Beomgyu and his band was, but still popular with everyone. Something Yeonjun could only dream of being. 

Yeonjun hums. 

“I see…”

He goes back to eating his lunch. He doesn’t have forever after all. 

“So?” Kai grins. 

Yeonjun blinks. “So…?” 

The blond boy shakes his head with an amused expression.

“You gonna join their band? Like school-wise, obviously.”

Yeonjun is confused. Had he missed something?

“What? Why…?” He furrows his brows. “Why would I ever join their band?” 

Kai looks at him like he’s stupid. Maybe Yeonjun is— he certainly feels like it with how Kai’s looking at him. 

“So you can get closer to your not-crush? Duh!” He says.

Yeonjun gapes at Kai, and then shakes his head once it all processes into his muddled brain.

“I told you— I don’t have a crush,” He sighs. “Seriously. I don’t.” 

“Well… then, at least to befriend him? I mean, I can’t be your only bestie around here!” Kai says. 

“…Bestie?” Yeonjun echoes, not believing his ears.

“Yeah! I mean… unless you don’t wanna be friends?” Kai raises his eyebrows, as if challenging him to argue. 

“No, no! I do!” Yeonjun says quickly. “I just… I don’t know why you would be friends with me out of all people… and you just met me.” God, he sounds like such a loser. 

Kai shrugs. 

“So? Loners stick together, isn’t that the motto?”

Yeonjun stares at him.

“You… You’re a loner?” He finally chooses to ask. 

Kai’s face falls a little bit. 

“I… talk too much.” He says quietly. “Ramble off about stuff and… I guess most people don’t really like me. Plus, I don’t look very Korean, nor fully Asian so… yeah. Kinda a loner around here. White Rose is amazing until you get to know people.”

“Oh.” Yeonjun says, equally somber.

“I mean, there are a lot of good kids— genuinely nice,” Kai says. “But… there’s also the usual bullies and… the ones who aren’t mean, but they also aren’t very nice either.” He shrugs, trying to act like it didn’t bother him and he was all cool about it all. 

“Well… we can be friends,” Yeonjun shoots Kai a small smile. “Loser sticks together, right?” 

Kai grins. “Cool. Okay, see you soon! Maybe we can share a class or two if you’re lucky,” he winks. “I need to get a head start before the big rush so I can get to my locker and make it in time for Sociology.” 

“I’m done too. Lemme go with you.” Yeonjun stands up. 

Kai brightens up.

“Really? You don’t mind walking with me?”

Yeonjun shakes his head.

“Nope. Lead the way.” He says. 

Kai happily starts toward the hallway, pushing open the cafeteria doors.

“Sociology’s all the way in the West Wing, which is stupidly far from here. Honestly, I’m convinced the school was designed like a maze just to see how many students they could lose on the first day.”

Yeonjun lets out a surprised laugh, and Kai shoots him a pleased look.

“Oh hey— that laugh! You should do it more. I was starting to think you only knew how to frown.”

Yeonjun ducks his head but doesn’t deny it.

“…Maybe I’ll laugh more when you stop talking for two seconds.” He attempts at a joke— praying Kai didn’t take it the wrong way because he didn’t want to loose the first chance at a friend here. 

Kai gasps dramatically.

“Excuse me?! I am delightful.”

“You’re loud.” Yeonjun grins back, relieved Kai played along with his joking. 

“Loud and delightful,” Kai corrects with a smug grin. “Anyway, I’m glad you’re tagging along. I was getting tired of walking these halls alone every single day. Oof, so boring without friends, you know?”

They pass by a few students out of the lunch wave— some nod at Kai (classmates maybe), others glance curiously at Yeonjun, likely recognizing him as the “new guy” from this morning. Yeonjun keeps his head down, but Kai doesn’t seem fazed at all.

“Word of advice,” Kai says under his breath as they turn a corner. “If you do wanna be friends with Beomgyu— like real friends— just be chill. He’s nice, but... he’s a bit guarded too. Especially with new people. Like, he’s friendly— but he won’t open up too quick. And his bandmates are kinda, like, super protective. His older brother too.”

Yeonjun hums. “Alright. Thanks, I guess, for telling me.” 

“But,” Kai adds with a wink, “he did walk in with you this morning. That’s not nothing.”

Yeonjun feels his ears warm.

“That doesn’t mean anything.” He mumbles. 

Kai grins. “Sure. Totally.”

Yeonjun lightly shoves him and Kai laughs. 

They arrive at the lockers near what Yeonjun is told is the West Wing, and Kai starts fiddling with his combination.

“Okay, this is me. So! What class do you have next?”

Yeonjun pulls out his crumpled schedule from his pocket.

“Uh… Sociology. Room 207.”

Kai practically beams. “No way! We do have a class together. Fates have aligned!”

Yeonjun snorts, but… yeah, he’s kind of glad too.

Maybe today isn’t so bad after all.

—

Yeonjun should’ve expected it when he saw the grey clouds that morning— even if they had temporarily disappeared during lunch period. The clouds showered rain down heavily, and just Yeonjun’s luck, he had no umbrella. But who needs that when he has a car ride? Yeonjun texts his mom.

YJ-

Mom? Can you or dad pick me up today? 

The reply comes a few minutes later.

Mom-

Sorry Junnie, your dad’s still at work and I had to drive over to the next town. I won’t be back till late, and so will your dad. You think you can find a bus or something? Get home safely, love you, see you soon!

Well, just Yeonjun’s luck; he didn’t have a ride either. 

The gods above must be watching because guess who he sees? Choi Beomgyu strolling outside the school building, just a couple feet away from Yeonjun. And… well, he lived on the same street (ish, did the dead-end count as part of the street?) and… it was the ride he’d gotten on his way here so…

“Uhm—” Yeonjun says, jogging up to Beomgyu. “Hi.”

The al— no, omega— glances up at him and blinks.

“Oh, Yeonjun! Hey, I haven’t seen you all day.” He greets with the same smile he’d given Yeonjun when they’d first met. “What’s up?” 

Yeonjun swallows.  

“I… I was wondering if you could give me a ride home? I’m sorry, I just—” 

“Sure!” Beomgyu cuts him off with a grin. “Let me just grab the keys from Soobin hyung.”  

“He’s not coming?” Yeonjun asks, surprised. 

“Yeah, he has some meetings after school, so I’ll be driving! Don’t worry, I have my license!” Beomgyu winks. “Oh, and Taehyun’s coming over to my house, so he’s gonna ride with us. Hope you don’t mind!”

“I— I don’t.” Yeonjun manages to say. 

Beomgyu flashes him another smile before disappearing back into the school building.

Yeonjun exhales shakily.

Why was asking for a ride making his stomach do flips? He’d come to school today that way— and okay, it was a bit embarrassing admitting he didn’t have a ride home and that he didn’t know how to find a bus to get home either, and… 

It’s not a big deal. Just a ride. They live (sort of) on the same street. This wasn’t weird. This wasn’t weird at all.

…Right?

He’s still mentally debating that when the door swings open again, and Beomgyu walks out— now holding a jangly pair of keys and followed by someone shorter, dressed in all black, with earphones still in. The Pink Hair dude from lunch. 

“Oh, hey!” Beomgyu says. “Yeonjun, this is Taehyun. He’s our bassist and my husband— platonically.”

Taehyun raises an eyebrow, giving Yeonjun a brief up-down before offering a small nod.

“Hey.”

“Hi,” Yeonjun mumbles, trying not to sound weird. Or too breathy. Or like he was second-guessing every single word coming out of his mouth.

Taehyun seems a bit intimidating too now that he’s not laughing and jokingly annoyed with Beomgyu like he had been at lunch. But considering he wasn’t being mean either, so… that was good. 

The three of them head toward the student parking lot, rain soaking through their shoes. Beomgyu unlocks the car (Soobin’s car) with a beep and hops into the driver’s seat, with Taehyun getting in the passenger side like it’s second nature. Yeonjun hovers awkwardly for a second before opening the back door and sliding in behind them.

It’s warm in the car. And then— soft cherries bloom as Beomgyu peels off his scent patch with a small groan. It curls around the air and around Yeonjun, drawing him in. Now, it’s impossible to mistake Beomgyu for anything else than an omega— soft, sweet— cherries blending with sweetened whipped cream. 

Yeonjun tightens his grip on his backpack.

Beomgyu glances at him through the rearview mirror.

“You good back there? Oh shit— wait, I’m sorry, I should’ve asked if it was okay if I took the patch off.”

Yeonjun shakes his head. “No, it’s fine. And… um… thank you again. For the ride.”

“No problem,” Beomgyu hums, and then he’s adjusting the music as the car rumbles to life. A mellow alt-rock song plays— not too loud, just enough to fill the silence. “Hope you like DAY6. Taehyun has a playlist for every mood.”

“I do,” Taehyun says, not looking up from his phone. “This one’s called Rainy Days and Awkward Silences.”

Yeonjun chokes on a laugh, surprised. Taehyun smirks just barely.

Beomgyu grins.

“Tae, don’t bully my passengers.”

“I’m not. I’m entertaining them,” Taehyun replies, reclining in his seat. “There’s a big difference.”

Yeonjun lets himself smile a little, settling into the backseat.

Taehyun glances at him. 

“So… you an omega too?” He asks casually as he starts peeling off his scent patch. “We’re all omegas here?”

Yeonjun stiffens up. 

“Ah— I—

He’s about to say it. Alpha. That he’s not an omega. That Taehyun’s assumption is wrong. That he isn’t like them in that way.

But Taehyun’s already tugging off his scent patch and groaning about how itchy it is, cutting off any space for Yeonjun’s correction.

“My goodness, these scent patches are literally gonna kill me!” Taehyun sighs heavily. “They itch like crazy. Like, I get it— why we need scent patches during school, what with hormone-crazy alphas and omegas all packed into one building. But they itch.”

Yeonjun opens his mouth again, but Beomgyu’s already jumping in:

“I have some of that anti-itch cream in my room. I’ll give it to you when we get home.” Beomgyu says, his eyes on the road, voice light and easy. He’s surprisingly a good driver for someone who looks so… chaotic. In a good way, of course.

Yeonjun sinks back into the seat.

It’s not like he lied. He just didn’t correct them.

Still… the weight of it presses against his ribs.

He doesn’t want to be mistaken for something he’s not— but he also doesn’t want them to look at him differently. He doesn’t want Beomgyu to shift even a fraction away.

So instead, he says nothing.

For now.

Chapter Text

His gut is a bit twisted with that (kinda) lie, but Yeonjun can’t help a small smile at Beomgyu and Taehyun’s dynamic. It’s so natural— it’s the kind of comfort only longtime friends have. He feels like an outsider… but not completely. More like someone peeking into a window and being offered a place at the table, if he chooses to step inside. He wants to, he really does. 

A comfortable silence settles for a few minutes, the kind that comes with rainy drives and good music. Kudos to Taehyun for that. Maybe being part of a rock band made him have good music tastes too. 

“We’re almost there,” Beomgyu says, making a turn. “Yeonjun. Do you wanna be dropped off first, or do you wanna hang out for a bit?”

Yeonjun blinks. “Hang out…?”

“At my place. I mean, you don’t have to. But we’ve got snacks and dry clothes and games and stuff. Plus, I promised Tae anti-itch cream and he’ll probably forget to leave unless I kick him out, so we’re gonna have a lil party.”

“I don’t forget,” Taehyun mutters. “I ignore.”

Yeonjun hesitates. He should probably go home. But… the idea of not going back to an empty house just yet is suddenly kind of appealing. His parents wouldn’t be home till much later and… it’s not like he had to be home so soon. 

“…Okay,” he says, voice quiet. “If that’s okay with you.”

Beomgyu flashes him a grin in the mirror.

“Of course it is! You’re always welcome.”

—

The rain’s still coming down when they pull into the driveway of Beomgyu’s house, still as majestic as this morning— not too hard, but steady enough to blur the windshield until the wipers swipe it clean again.

Beomgyu parks and unbuckles with the same chaotic energy he seems to radiate everywhere else (the metal part hits the window with so much force Yeonjun fears it would break the glass), but he waits for both boys before bolting for the door.

“We run on three?”

“No,” Taehyun says, already climbing out.

“Yes,” Beomgyu insists, grabbing his backpack. “One— two— go!”

By the time Yeonjun catches up, they’re all half-drenched and laughing, stomping through the door and kicking off wet shoes as they tumble inside, into a long foyer with a glittery diamond chandelier-shaped lighting.

“Make yourselves at home!” Beomgyu calls, tossing his hoodie on a hook by the entrance. “Taehyun, go change before you whine more— you know where my room is. And Yeonjun— uh, the guest room’s got some of Soobin hyung’s old clothes. You’re taller than me, so those might fit better.”

Taehyun disappears down the hallway without much fanfare, already grumbling about itchy patches and damp socks. He seems to know his way around— probably came here a lot since he and Beomgyu were little. 

Yeonjun stands awkwardly in the foyer, unsure where to go.

Beomgyu notices right away.

“C’mon,” he says, gently tugging Yeonjun by the wrist. His fingers are cold, but Yeonjun’s skin warms at the touch. “I’ll show you.”

And just like that, Yeonjun follows— into the hallway, past framed photos and the low hum of classical music playing on a speaker in the living room.

The warmth of the house seeps into his bones, and does Beomgyu’s touch around his wrist.

—

Beomgyu’s room is exactly what Yeonjun expected… and yet, not at all.

The walls are painted black and so is the ceiling, though the door still remains the original wooden brown color; posters of rock bands and concert shots are taped all over the walls in a deliberate mess. Some corners are peeling, revealing bits of white wall beneath, but it makes the whole thing feel lived-in. The furniture— all of it— are made of dark wood, sleek and neat, but with scratches here and there, like they’ve been through years of chaos. The bedsheets are red— deep red, almost wine-colored— and there are cherry-themed decorations scattered everywhere. Cherry-printed pillows, a cherry-shaped lamp, even a little tray with cherry lip balm and cherry-scented hand cream. 

Yeonjun blinks. “You… really like cherries, huh?”

Beomgyu tosses a towel at him and laughs.

“Duh. They’re my favorite. Kind of obsessed. But like, classy obsessed. Not creepy.” He laughs, and Yeonjun looks down, smiling faintly. “It’s also my own scent— I loved cherries since forever, and I guess my scent wanted to match that!” 

The room fits him. Loud and soft all at once. A bit chaotic, a mix of rockstar and cherries— it’s just so… Choi Beomgyu. 

Taehyun is already sprawled on the floor with a snack bag open, towel draped around his neck like a cape.

“You can sit anywhere,” he says casually like he’s the room’s owner, mouth full of chips. Beomgyu nods for him to go ahead, so that gives him permission from the actual owner. 

Yeonjun settles on the edge of the bed, towel still clutched in his hands, careful not to disturb anything. Everything smells like faint cherries and fresh linen. It’s… He’s not used to all this, going over to someone’s house. He’s not sure what to do with himself.

“So…” Beomgyu says, flopping next to Taehyun on the floor and grabbing a controller. “If you were a band member, what would you play?”

“Huh?” Yeonjun blinks.

“Instruments,” Taehyun explains, licking salt off his fingers. “What’s your vibe?”

Yeonjun thinks about it for a second.

“Maybe… guitar? Rhythm, not the lead though.”

Beomgyu beams.

“Nice choice. Understated but essential. That’s definitely your vibe.” 

Yeonjun doesn’t know how to respond to that, so he just shrugs, the compliment sticking to his ribs like honey. It’s something he’s not very used to but… it’s also so welcoming. Beomgyu’s words wrap around him and his heart like a thin veil of warmth. 

They fall into casual conversation— half about music, half about their weirdest teachers (which Yeonjun don’t know himself)— and Yeonjun starts to laugh more freely, shoulders slowly un-knotting. Somewhere in the middle of Taehyun’s rant about gym class rules, Yeonjun leans back against Beomgyu’s wall (having moved to the floor to join the other two), eyes flicking around the posters as they talk. 

He almost forgets what’s been sitting heavy in his chest all day.

Keyword being, almost.

When Taehyun leaves to use the bathroom and Beomgyu’s fiddling with a new playlist, the quiet settles. It’s just the two of them for a minute.

Yeonjun swallows. His hands twist in the hem of his borrowed shirt.

“Hey, um…” he starts, voice low. “Earlier, in the car… you guys assumed I was an omega, but I’m actually—”

“Oh no,” Beomgyu says suddenly, glancing at his phone. “Taehyun’s texting me from the bathroom. He says the soap smells like artificial cherries and he’s gonna go a bit crazy because it’s giving him a headache.”

Yeonjun blinks. The moment slips through his fingers.

Beomgyu looks up again, grinning apologetically. “Sorry, what were you saying…?”

Yeonjun opens his mouth… then closes it.

“It’s nothing,” he murmurs.

Beomgyu just nods and throws a cherry-shaped pillow at his face.

“You’re weird, you know that?”

Yeonjun catches it with both hands and hugs it to his chest.

“Yeah,” he says softly. “I know.”

—

Before he knows it, Taehyun has to go home for dinner and that’s his cue to excuse himself too. 

“I better get going. Any chance you’ll drive me over?” Taehyun asks, looking a bit hopeful. 

Beomgyu laughs. “Not a chance! Just walk over— it’s literally next door, Tae! You’ll survive a bit of rain the way there.” 

Taehyun huffs. “Ugh. Rain. I hate it when I’m outside.” 

“Shoo— before it gets worse and you come complaining even more.” Beomgyu chuckles. “Oh, and I’ll give you back your hoodie tomorrow after I run it through the wash.” 

Taehyun nods.

“Love you, Gyu, see ya.” He says and swiftly leaves, his vanilla scent lingering faintly for a few moments. It pairs well with the cherry scent from Beomgyu, curling around everywhere in the room-- it was his room after all. 

“I, uhm… I have to go too. Thank you for today. It was— it was fun.” Yeonjun smiles. 

Beomgyu grins back at him. 

“Yeah? I’m glad. Oh, do you need a ride? Your house is farther away than Taehyun’s so if you need one, I can!” He offers. 

Yeonjun shakes his head. 

“It’s fine, I can walk.” He says.

“Okay Mr. Tough Guy,” Beomgyu teases. “Bye. See you around, Yeonjun. Wait, how old are you again?”

“Eighteen.”

“What, really?! Oh my god, I thought we were the same age, but you’re the same age as Soobin hyung? Ugh, I’m gonna have to call you hyung, huh? I’m seventeen.” Beomgyu pouts. “Bye then, Yeonjun hyung.” He puts an emphasis on the honorific. 

Yeonjun grins, heart warming at Beomgyu’s voice calling him ‘hyung’ and nods. 

“Bye… Beomgyu.” He says softly, and then he finally leaves. 

Beomgyu’s cherry scent lingers around him and in his nose even when he’s on the front steps of his (new) house. 

—

Yeonjun managed to do a little research over the evening and found a public bus that would drop him off just a block away from White Rose High. He took that bus for his second day, missing Soobin and Beomgyu’s morning bickering— even though it had only been one ride that he’d witnessed it. 

Yeonjun runs into Beomgyu too often— maybe the universe wanted them to interact as much as possible. When he enters the school, Beomgyu is leaning on the nearest wall and he’s talking with Heeseung. The boy is in his jersey again, but today, he has sweatpants on instead of the shorts from yesterday. 

“—and I thought you had practice this morning! Don’t you have to head over, Mister Star Player?” Beomgyu asks. “Or did Ms. Song finally convince your coach to get you attending her class in the mornings?” 

Heeseung snorts. “As if Coach would let her. Nah, I still have practice— but I was taking a stroll around ‘cause it doesn’t start till eight. Perks of being needed— I get to skip out on boring history class every morning!” 

“Lucky you,” Beomgyu rolls his eyes. “I still have that after first period.”

“Ohh, lemme guess. You have Mr. Jeong first? Algebra?” Heeseung tilts his head.

Beomgyu nods miserably. 

“Yeah. I would skip, but obviously, Soobin hyung will be after my head if I do… and I’m not the kind of kid who skips... What a tragedy.” He sighs. 

“Your mischevious ass would definitely be the type who skips,” Heeseung teases. “You just don’t.”

“I don’t,” Beomgyu agrees. “And I—”

“Excuse me?”

Yeonjun watches from a distance, busying himself in digging around his backpack (he was curious, okay?), as a tall guy with dirty blond hair and a black-white jeresy (soccer…?) comes up to Beomgyu and Heeseung, though his eyes are focused on Beomgyu.

“Hi,” Beomgyu smiles, pushing off the wall. “What’s up?”

The tall guy tilts his head.

“Choi Beomgyu, you’re insanely pretty— and you have a good body too. Why don’t you make good use of it and go out with me, yeah? Pretty omegas like you should have a good alpha— like me.” 

Beomgyu looks instantly uncomfortable. His smile drops, and his eyes widen in surprise. 

“Sorry Jaeseok, I’ll… politely decline.” He finally says with a shaky smile. 

The alpha rolls his eyes. 

“Oh, don’t be such a tease. Just go out with me, yeah?” He grunts.

Heeseung steps forward with narrowed eyes, the humor and laughter snapped right out of his expression. He suddenly looks so much taller as he towers over the alpha, and his face grows dark.

“Fuck off. He said he’s not interested.” He growls. 

The other alpha huffs. 

“Got an alpha knight, eh?” He sneers at Beomgyu. “Fine.” 

Then he’s strolling off again, scowling with his hands in his pockets. Clearly upset at the rejection that he fully deserved. Yeonjun wants to roll his eyes at him. He didn’t know such assholes still existed. 

“You know that guy?” Heeseung was saying to Beomgyu, bending a little to really meet Beomgyu’s eyes, face all softened up as he looked at his friend. 

Beomgyu nods. “Yeah. Gwon Jaeseok. He’s… He’s in the same French 2 class as me. I… It’s not a big deal. Let’s just go now.”

“Beomgyu, this isn’t just something to—” Heeseung starts but Beomgyu shakes his head. 

“This happens to all omegas, like it or not, Seungie. Just brush it off. I’m fine. I… I always forget I’m still an omega at the end of the day.” He smiles sadly. “I feel so powerful when everyone treats me like me— just guitarist Beomgyu— and then… something happens and I’m omega Beomgyu again.”

“Beomgyu…” 

“Just let it go. Thank you for helping me out— and I’m fine, really.” Beomgyu shakes his head once more. “Go— you have practice. Don’t make me text Ni-ki to drag you off.” 

Heeseung sighs, looking frustrated. 

“…Alright. You really sure you’re good?”

“Yeah,” Beomgyu says with a smile that’s almost too convincing.  

Chapter Text

Yeonjun continues digging around in his backpack, watching from the corner of his eye as Beomgyu shooes Heeseung off with a smile he probably thinks is convincing. The tall, doe-eyed alpha walks away reluctantly, throwing Beomgyu a worried glance before disappearing around the corner.

Beomgyu lets out a long sigh. His shoulders curl in, making him look smaller as he pulls out his phone; it has a black case with red guitar, black cats, and a mess of cherry stickers— definitely Choi Beomgyu’s phone case. He taps around on it for a few seconds. His brows furrow at the screen, and then he slowly starts down the hall, steps quiet. 

Yeonjun hesitates.

Should he go after him? Ask if he’s okay?

Well, clearly he wasn’t. Not really.

But… what was the right thing to do here?

Beomgyu looked upset, even if he was trying to hide it— and maybe he didn’t want to talk. But was it okay to just leave him like that? Should… Should Yeonjun go after him? 

But before Yeonjun could decide, Beomgyu was already gone.

Yeonjun lets out a breath and shuffles to class. Yeah. It was better not to have gone. 

Beomgyu wasn’t his friend. Probably didn’t want Yeonjun hovering around being weird and nosy. He didn’t even know him at all— and sure Beomgyu had been kind enough to let Yeonjun hang out with him yesterday, but he probably just felt sorry for him. 

Yeah. Better to leave him be.

Even if Yeonjun kind of… didn’t want to.

—

Yeonjun slides into his seat in the back corner of the classroom (it’s Economics), pulling out his notebook and trying to look like he’s paying attention as the teacher drones on about something he should probably be writing down. He taps his pen against the desk instead.

He shouldn’t care this much. Beomgyu was… well, he was cool, popular, had a band, had tons of friends. Beomgyu didn’t need him of all people. He had plenty of friends to worry about him— and like Kai offhandedly mentioned yesterday, Beomgyu had his band of friends to be protective over him. Clearly Heeseung was— and he’d drawn off the weird alpha earlier, and Beomgyu was okay. (Well, maybe.)

His mind keeps drifting back to that furrow in Beomgyu’s brow. The way his shoulders had slumped like he was trying to disappear. The way his fingers gripped his phone a little too tightly. The expression on his face. 

Yeonjun tells himself it’s not a big deal. 

But—

That look. That moment before Beomgyu walked away. He looked like he was trying not to cry, face scrunched up, all of his confidence and grins faded away, replaced with something that looked so… helpless, almost.

Yeonjun stares blankly at the notes on the board. They may as well be in a different language because he doesn’t understand any of it— and he should care more, but he just doesn’t. Not when his brain is packed with… other stuff. 

He doodles a little cherry in the corner of his page without thinking. Then stares at it.

Ugh. He was being weird. Too weird— what was wrong with him?!

He flips the page.

He’s not worried. Not really. It’s just… Beomgyu looked upset. That’s all. Anyone would notice that. Anyone would be mildly concerned like he was. 

Still.

—

Kai comes rushing in late during lunch, slidding down on the seat across from Yeonjun with a loud sigh, almost knocking Yeonjun’s lunch tray right off the table— and it would’ve gone tumbling to the ground if it weren’t for Yeonjun’s speedy reflexes. His hair is a rumpled mess and his tie isn’t done properly— he looked like he just woke up. Maybe he did.

“What happened to you? And—” Yeonjun blinks, cutting himself off.

Oh.

Spikes of lemon drift around the air— a little panicked, a little relieved, and a bit overwhelmed. It’s a little too strong, especially considering Yeonjun hadn’t really thought about Kai’s subgender before, Kai was just his new friend, bright and a total chatterbox. Yeonjun hadn’t really cared much about subgenders unless it was about himself. But it was obvious now, hard not to know— Kai was an alpha too. 

“Your— Your scent—” Yeonjun stammers out. It wasn’t strange for Kai to be an alpha, but… he hadn’t really given off the ‘alpha’ vibes that… okay, well being honest, the vibes from the alphas at Yeonjun’s old school… all of them who insisted they were what alphas were supposed to be like… stuck up alphas who bullied Yeonjun every chance they got. It was hard to let go of all that— it was hard to just let go of all the twisted ideas shoved into his brain for eight years, from middle to high school. Yeah sure, he could see it— Kai’s sporty look and big grins, but… also, not really. He really didn’t give any one subgender kind of feeling… just… a little, excited pup. 

Kai winces, and draws his scent back.

“Yeah, I know, sorry about that. I woke up really late today and forgot my scent patches. I literally just got here,” he explains. “Apparently, everyone thought I had already gone to school, so my older sister had a little panic attack when she found me still snoozing, underneath all my plushies. She also smacked me, so…” He grimaced. “Lovely morning alarm, am I right?” 

“I… I have a few extra patches.” Yeonjun offers. 

Kai brightens up. “Oh why thank you! Saves me a reprimanding from my teachers then!”

Yeonjun digs around his bag and pulls out a few scent patches, glad he remembered Soobin’s advice and grabbed a few from his parent’ bathroom (with a light heads up of course) before school. He would have to grab a pack later after school today, maybe at a convenience store… if he could find one. He had a phone after all. Not like he had the guts to actually go there though. 

Loud laughter carries over from the nearby table— and at the same table as yesterday, Taehyun is standing around and talking with Ni-ki, and the two of them burst into another fit of laughter when Heeseung jumps in and says something with a silly grin. Yeonjun’s eyes then fall on the dark-haired male seated at the table while his friends stand around laughing with each other. Beomgyu’s scrolling on his phone with an impassive expression— his grin still yet to return, at least, since the morning Yeonjun last saw him. 

Which reminds him again of his little not-lie and his gut twists up again. 

“…I fucked up,” he mutters. 

Kai blinks at him, in the middle of unwrapping his homemade sandwich. “Uh… Why? What did you do?”

“Taehyun and Beomgyu…” Yeonjun sighs. “They think I’m an omega.”

Kai stares at him with a puzzled look. 

“They just assumed, and I— I never corrected them.” Yeonjun elaborates. “I got a ride from Beomgyu last night, and in the car, Taehyun thought I was an omega… and then I never got a chance to correct him. And… it’s really making me guilty for lying… well sorta. I didn’t mean to, but— I— well…” 

The blond alpha hums. 

“Well, you can just correct them when you can. I don’t think it’s that big of a deal.” He shrugs. Then he pauses. 

“Wait— you got a ride home from Beomgyu?” Kai asks, a sly smile creeping up his face. 

Yeonjun groans. 

“It’s not like that! I just… didn’t have a ride and I was kinda panicking on what to do, and Beomgyu appeared, so I… I just… you know.”

“Mhm,” Kai grins. “I see.” 

“Kai.” 

“Alright, alright! I’ll stop teasing you! Sheesh.” 

Yeonjun lets his gaze wander, settling on Beomgyu and his gang of friends again. Every time— it’s always Beomgyu he’s looking for, whether it’s on purpose or not. Yeonjun’s gaze just… happens to gravitate towards the omega. He doesn’t have a crush— no, he really doesn’t— it’s just… kind of an interest. Beomgyu’s interesting to him. 

Heeseung suddenly leans down towards Beomgyu, a clear frown on his face as he gently nudges the latter. Beomgyu glances up from his phone and shoots Heeseung a smile that was probably meant to reassure his friend, but it only made Heeseung frown even more. 

Ni-ki and Taehyun’s attention turns to Beomgyu too, and then the three of them are all plopping down at the table, leaning towards Beomgyu in hushed voices— not that Yeonjun could hear their words in the first place. 

“Kai?” He says. “You know what their subgenders are?” He nods over at the table. 

The blond hums, swallowing his bite of food.

“Heeseung and Ni-ki are alphas, and like I said Beomgyu and Taehyun are omegas. Oh, and Soobin’s an alpha too, if you were wondering about that too.” He replies. “Why?”

“Nothing, just… My old school didn’t use scent patches, so we knew what everybody’s subgender was. I just… I’m not used to not knowing and it kinda bugged me.” Yeonjun answers truthfully. “Thank you— I just kinda wanted to know.” 

Kai studies him for a moment. 

“Well, yeah, of course. I mean… I don’t think you should be judging people just based on subgenders and like, the typical traits of one.” He says. 

“I’m not,” Yeonjun says quickly. “I was just curious.”

“Okay.” Kai says, turning back to his food. 

—

Yeonjun hadn’t meant to stare. Really. He hadn’t. 

He’d just been zoning out, that’s all— looking in that general direction, not specifically at Beomgyu, definitely not at the way he was still half-curled over his phone, his leg bouncing under the table like he was barely holding himself still, not touching his tray of food, nor the one Taehyun gently nudged towards him. Not at the way Taehyun leaned in and said something that made Beomgyu nod faintly without ever looking up.

But when Yeonjun blinks, his eyes flicking away guiltily, they land on Taehyun.

And Taehyun is looking right at him.

Yeonjun freezes.

Taehyun doesn’t smile. Doesn’t wave either.

He just… tilts his head a little, unreadable, and then says something to Ni-ki— too far to catch— before straightening up and walking toward him, towards Yeonjun.

Yeonjun stiffens as Taehyun slides into the empty seat beside him at the lunch table, setting down his drink like he belonged there. A second later, Ni-ki follows, flopping down across from them and resting his chin in his hand, gaze flicking between the two like he was watching a drama unfold. 

Kai looks between them, puzzled, halfway through chewing.

“So…” Taehyun starts, tone light, but his eyes sharp as they meet Yeonjun’s. “You and Gyu. What’s the deal?”

Yeonjun stares at him. “What— what do you mean?”

Taehyun shrugs like it’s nothing.

“You keep looking at him. Like, a lot.”

Yeonjun immediately flushes. “I wasn’t— I wasn’t looking at him like that!”

Ni-ki raises an eyebrow. “Like what?” He tilts his head. 

“I wasn’t looking at him at all, actually!” Yeonjun blurts, which— okay, was absolutely the worst defense because now he just sounds guilty and panicked. And he was kinda lying too— well not really, because he hadn’t meant to stare, or even look at Beomgyu. 

“…Right,” Taehyun says slowly. “So you weren’t looking at him… or you weren’t looking at him like that?”

Yeonjun opens his mouth. Closes it. Opens it again.

“There’s nothing going on. Seriously.”

Ni-ki hums, clearly amused now. “Oh yeah? You nothing going on, huh?”

Yeonjun nods nervously.

“You’re an omega, right?” Taehyun asks, squinting his eyes. 

This was the chance for him to fix the error, for him to tell Taehyun he was actually an alpha.

“Yeah,” his mouth says instead.

Fuck.

Taehyun hums.

“Alright then. You’re not from around here, right?” He then asks, and it doesn’t sound entirely casual anymore. “What school were you at before?” It sounds a bit like an interrogation. 

Yeonjun shifts in his seat, uncomfortable.

“Just a small public school… a few towns over. I transferred yesterday. Beomgyu, uhm, he tried to help me around and I…” ended up ditching him. “…I kinda had to leave, but he tried to help! So I’m very grateful towards him, that’s all.” 

Taehyun tilts his head again, studying Yeonjun for a long, unreadable moment. Then, finally, he says, “Gyu’s not usually nice to people he doesn’t like. I mean, he invited you to our hangout yesterday. He doesn’t do that with people he doesn’t know— so you’re a first.”

Yeonjun blinks. “Oh.”

“Just saying,” Taehyun murmurs, and his voice is gentler now—still cool, but less guarded. “He’s not great at talking when he’s upset. You probably noticed that already.”

Yeonjun nods slowly. “Yeah.”

There’s a moment of silence between them. Even Kai’s stopped chewing, watching with wide eyes, and his sandwich is a bit forgotten in his hands. 

Then Ni-ki finally pipes up: “So you do like him?”

“I—!” Yeonjun practically chokes. “No! I just— he looked upset this morning and I just… noticed. That’s all.”

Taehyun lifts his soda can to his lips. “Noticed, huh?”

Yeonjun stares down at his tray, cheeks burning. “I’m not weird,” he mutters.

“No one said you were,” Taehyun replies. “Just keep your heart in check, newbie.”

Yeonjun blinks, eyes darting up. “Why?”

Taehyun shrugs. “Beomgyu’s… complicated. And he’s been through a lot.” He nudges the drink can in a slow circle with one finger. “Just don’t get close unless you mean it.”

Yeonjun doesn’t respond.

Ni-ki sighs. 

“Well, Taehyun— he’s not a threat, so let’s go now.” He starts standing up, glancing at Taehyun.

The omega sighs. 

“Fine,” he mutters under his breath. Then, with a glance back at Yeonjun, he adds, “Hey. I’m Beomgyu’s number one protector— so don’t mess with him. I don’t let omegas off the hook either, just so we’re clear. Though,” he casts a look at Ni-ki, “it’s usually the alphas who cause trouble— no offense, Ni-ki, I know you’re not like those one-minded bastards.”

“None taken,” Ni-ki shrugs casually. “I agree. Some alphas are just disgusting.” 

“Well,” Taehyun shoots a smile towards Ni-ki, one that seems very different from the look he directed at Yeonjun. “Well. I’m lucky the two actually decent ones ended up as my best friends then.”

The white-blond boy chuckles, using the height difference over Taehyun to playfully ruffle the omega’s hair, before running away as Taehyun tries to throw a punch at him for messing up his hair.

Chapter Text

Yeonjun— miraculously— manages to search up a convenience store near school and, even more miraculously, actually goes. He never would’ve, not normally. But the thought of getting in trouble at his new school for not wearing scent patches was enough to push him past his comfort zone. That, and he really didn’t want to bug his parents about it. His dad hadn’t even responded to Yeonjun’s texts— he was always gone before Yeonjun woke up and only came home after Yeonjun had already fallen asleep.

So then, he’d thought about asking Kai to come with him— especially after they exchanged numbers during lunch— but a quick text revealed Kai had a dentist appointment and had to rush off right after school.

So, here he was. Alone.

The convenience store is small, squeezed between a barber shop and a beauty parlor, with dark green tiles and fogged-up glass windows. A bell chimes when he steps inside, and Yeonjun bows politely to the elderly man at the counter.

He winds his way through the aisles, scanning the shelves. One row is full of canned vegetables and beans— no luck. He heads to the next, which looks more promising with its shelves of toiletries and essentials. This might be it.

Then, raised voices catch his ear.

Yeonjun pauses, frowning. Some kind of argument? He hesitates, debating whether to just mind his business. It’s probably nothing. He really shouldn’t be meddling in other people’s lives and—

“—ay Beomgyu, so just go out with me, yeah?!”

Yeonjun goes still.

That voice. It’s the same one from earlier— that alpha in the soccer jersey. The one who’d thrown out disgusting advances towards Beomgyu. 

Without thinking, Yeonjun bolts toward the sound, but skids to a stop behind the aisle shelves. Yeah no, he isn’t that brave to just go rushing into possible danger— yes he’s a coward. He carefully peers around the corner.

Beomgyu is there— back pressed against a shelf of chips and gummy bears, his guitar case slung over one shoulder. And in front of him, looming far too close, is the same alpha from this morning. Jaeseok— still in his school uniform, still looking too smug, too entitled.

Yeonjun’s heart kicks up in his chest.

His breath catches in his throat.

“I mean, come on, Beomgyu,” Jaeseok is saying, voice low and slick with confidence that makes Yeonjun’s stomach churn. “You’re like… the perfect omega. Pretty face, pretty body— don’t act like you don’t know it. Every alpha in school has thought it at least once.”

Beomgyu doesn’t respond, face twisting up. 

Jaeseok laughs, stepping closer, his arm brushing the chip bags as he leans in.

“You’re just playing hard to get, right? That’s how omegas like you act. All innocent and cold until someone strong enough handles you—”

Yeonjun fists the fabric of his pants. His heart hammers violently against his ribs, and every nerve in his body screams go. Move. Do something. Say something. Stop him.

But his feet stay rooted.

His brain flashes with doubts— What if it backfires? What if Beomgyu doesn’t want you to get involved? What if it makes things worse? What if he hates you for it? You’re just the weird new kid— what are you even supposed to say?

Jaeseok’s hand darts out and grabs Beomgyu’s wrist.

Yeonjun’s breath stutters. He can see it now— Beomgyu jerking, wincing, trying to pull back, but Jaeseok is stronger and tightens his grip.

“Don’t touch me.” Beomgyu’s voice is quiet, strained— and it quivers.

“Come on,” Jaeseok says, his voice dropping into something more menacing, his grip tightening. “Stop pretending like you’re too good for anyone. You think you're better than the rest of us just because your little gang coddles you all the time?”

Angrily, he shoves Beomgyu backwards. Beomgyu’s elbow slams back into the shelf behind him and he stumbles. Pain flashes across his face, and his hand flies to his shoulder like he’s trying to hold it still. He nearly drops his guitar case in the process.

Yeonjun lurches forward, every instinct screaming, but—

A loud gasp rings out before he could move.

Three foil packets of chocolate bars hit the floor, along with several plastic bottles of soda.

“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” Heeseung’s voice thunders across the store like a gunshot.

Taehyun and Ni-ki are standing right behind him, all three of them frozen for a split second. Then they're moving. What Yeonjun failed to do. 

Heeseung is the first to step up, fury radiating off him in waves.

“Back away from him. Now.” He snarls. 

Jaeseok sneers. “Or what, Lee? You gonna hit me or what?” 

“Now.” Taehyun cuts in, his voice low and icy, and somehow even more terrifying than Heeseung’s. Yeah, omegas are just as scary. 

Ni-ki doesn’t say anything— just walks forward, expression stone-cold, until Jaeseok has to step back. Ni-ki’s height lets him tower over the other alpha, and Jaeseok suddenly looks afraid for once. His hands are up now, face drawn tight with fake innocence.

“I wasn’t doing anything. You guys are overreacting.”

Taehyun’s eyes narrow.

“Bullshit. Touch him again and we’ll make sure you regret it.” He hisses out. 

Jaeseok opens his mouth like he wants to argue— then thinks better of it. With a scoff and a bitter glare, he shoves past the three of them and storms out of the store.

The bell jingles as the door swings shut behind him.

Beomgyu sags instantly. He leans heavily against the shelf, wincing as his fingers curl around his arm. He’s hurt— he’s hurt because Yeonjun hadn’t moved faster, or at all for the matter. 

“Gyu!” Heeseung rushes forward, catching his arm before he can fall. “Shit— are you okay?!”

“I’m fine,” Beomgyu mutters, but his voice is strained, and the tremble in his hands gives him away. “I’m really o…” He trails off. 

Taehyun and Ni-ki are instantly at his side too, all of them checking him over, fussing with a carefulness born out of genuine concern. Heeseung picks up Beomgyu from the ground and holds him against his chest and Beomgyu leans on him, letting out a shaky sigh. 

Taehyun gently takes his injured arm and begins to examine it carefully, and Ni-ki gathers everything into a basket he pulled out of thin air, before plucking more gummies from the shelves, gently asking Beomgyu which ones he’d like more— this one, or this one? 

“What even happened?” Heeseung is asking softly. “We leave for one second— and that asshole comes back. Where’d he even come from?!”

“Wait. Comes back?” Taehyun repeats. 

Heeseung nods. 

“Yeah, this morning, he bugged Beomgyu about going out with him and wouldn’t leave even after Beomgyu said no. So I scared him off— at least, I thought I did. But, I guess not for good…” He sighs. 

Ni-ki lets out a snarl-like noise. 

“Fucker. I’m going to see if he really left.” He shoots up to his feet and storms off, basket clattering on the ground as he leaves it behind. 

“Beomgyu, where’d he come from?” Taehyun asks softly. “I thought it was only us four in here.” 

Beomgyu nods. 

“I… I thought so too. But then— I don’t know— he suddenly appeared behind me, smelling all— all horny— and asked where you guys were. When I said you guys went to get chocolate bars, he started asking me out again and— and saying that— that I had the perfect body for it and…” His voice cracks, and Heeseung hugs him tighter.

“I am killing that asshole—” Taehyun grits his teeth, but Heeseung tugs him back down. 

“Don’t.” He warns. 

Taehyun huffs. 

“He’s gone,” Ni-ki says, returning. “But I’m gonna talk to my dad and tell him about it.”

“Does the city police deal with school related stuff like this?” Heeseung wonders. “Wait, no, I guess technically this is outside of school… so like, sexual harrassment? Yeah, definitely get Chief Nishimura involved. I trust he’ll get something done about this.” He nods.  

“Shit—wait, I’m not hurting you, am I?” Heeseung says, adjusting how he’s holding Beomgyu.

The omega shakes his head. “No— just, my shoulder’s kinda— yeah— ow, okay— yeah, this is fine.”

Heeseung pats Beomgyu’s head and Ni-ki squats down to eye-level.

“Beomgyu hyung, if that asshole comes back— we’re definitely going straight to my dad, school or not.” He says quietly.

Beomgyu laughs, but he looks a little pained.

“Sure. Such a responsible baby duck,” he says, wincing as he shifts his arm in the process. 

Yeonjun watches all this from behind the shelf, stomach twisted into knots.

Coward.

That’s all his brain keeps repeating.

Coward.

Coward.

Fool.

Coward.

He’d seen it happen. He could’ve stepped in first. He should have. But he didn’t. He hesitated.

And now Beomgyu was hurt. He was hurt. All because of Yeonjun. 

Yeonjun grips the edge of the shelf until his knuckles go white, face burning— not just with guilt, but with shame. He lets himself stare one more moment as Beomgyu leans into Heeseung’s side, still cradling his arm, while Taehyun and Ni-ki pick up the dropped chocolate and gently ask if he can walk.

Yeonjun turns away.

He hurries to grab the first scent patch pack, checks out, and nearly runs out of the store. 

And hates himself the entire walk back home.

—

When he gets home, he curls up under the covers like the sad mess he is and screams at himself. How could he just leave Beomgyu like that?! And even after Jaeseok left, how could he just stand there and watch while the others comforted him?! How could he just leave?!

Yeonjun hits his head, before letting his fingers curl around hsi hair and tug. Hard. 

He deserves it a little— why was he so stupid? Why was he such a coward? Why did he hesitate so much? How could he call himself an alpha if he couldn’t protect an omega in distress? And… how could he leave a Beomgyu with teary eyes, a Beomgyu that was so unlike the one he’d seen that first day with big grins and laughter? How could he just leave?! 

A rumble from outside has him glancing out the window— down the street, in front of Beomgyu’s house, an unfamiliar red car pulls up to the driveway. Then, Heeseung gets out of the driver side, with Taehyun and Ni-ki tumbling out from the back, Beomgyu in between them. The four of them make their way up the driveway to the front door, and one of them must ring the doorbell because it swings open, with someone Yeonjun thinks is Soobin. 

The four of them rush inside, and the door closes again. A few moments later, three figures come back out. One of them— Taehyun, it looked like— walks over to the house next door, a dark red bricked one with brown roof tiles, a little smaller than Beomgyu’s. Ni-ki and Heeseung get into the red car again, and the car drives off. 

Yeonjun has no idea why he’s standing at his window, watching like a creep— he doesn’t even know why— oh wait, no, he does, he’s concerned about Beomgyu, despite having ran away with his tail between his legs in shame. He did nothing, and all he could was stand and watch others do what he should’ve done— should be doing for Beomgyu.

Yeonjun’s fingers tighten around his shirt hem as the red car disappears down the road.

He doesn’t move from the window, barely even breathes, as his eyes remain fixed on the now-quiet street. The only trace left of the earlier chaos is the faint outline of Beomgyu’s front door, closed once more. He imagines what it must be like inside— maybe Soobin’s helping him ice his shoulder. Maybe he’s being coaxed into eating gummies with a blanket over his legs. Maybe Taehyun is lecturing him gently through texts. Maybe Heeseung and Ni-ki are already plotting their next move, of checking camera footage or drafting texts to the police chief, as they drive off. 

Yeonjun swallows hard.

He should’ve been there. He was there. Just not enough.

His legs finally move, sluggish as he stumbles back toward his bed. He collapses into it face-first, his face buried in the pillow. It smells like detergent and his own shampoo— bland, ordinary, useless.

He rolls over, arm flung across his eyes. And for a long, long time, he just lies there, letting the shame sink deeper into his bones. The word still echoes over and over inside his skull.

Coward.

And yet.

Underneath the self-loathing, another emotion starts to curl up in his chest. Something bitter. Something fierce. Anger. Not just at himself, but at Jaeseok. At every smug, disgusting thing he’d said. At the fact that Beomgyu had to go through that— in public, cornered and alone, forced to pretend he wasn’t scared, like he wasn’t in pain, like he was fine, again.

Yeonjun clenches his fists. He’s felt this kind of anger before, he thinks— years ago, when he watched someone in his old school get cornered by seniors and couldn’t do a damn thing because he was a scrawny, scared little alpha boy. He thought he’d grown past that.

Apparently not.

Chapter Text

🧸

Beomgyu curls up in the back of Heeseung’s car, trying not to cry— and really, he shouldn’t be so emotional. It’s what all omegas dealt with from time to time, getting hit on alphas who had such big egos that they couldn’t handle rejection. He shouldn’t be crying over something so tiny. His eyes stung though, even though his brain told them not to.

Heeseung drives— though he keeps glancing at him from the rearview mirror in worry. Ni-ki and Taehyun had taken their positions in the back, sandwiching Beomgyu in between them gently, like his personal barriers against the whole entire world. Taehyun lets out soothing pheromones for him, and Ni-ki does the same— combined, the vanilla from Taehyun and the rose from Ni-ki make the car smell… well like home, like the comfort of his friends, practically family. 

“Wait, are you crying?” 

Beomgyu startles at Ni-ki’s voice, and— his vision’s a bit blurry, so he blinks— the blond boy is looking at him with widened eyes. Then… Gentle fingers start brushing over his eyes, wiping away his tears with their thumbs. Beomgyu leans into the touch, trying to hold back the tears he didn’t even realize he was letting out. 

“Hyung, if you cry, I cry,” Ni-ki says gently, wiping another tear from Beomgyu’s eyelashes and then leans back again, drawing his hands back upon seeing the tears were all wiped off.  

“Like you ever do,” Beomgyu says with a watery voice. “…I’m sorry, I don’t know why I’m crying like this.” He really shouldn’t be crying like this— it’s pathetic. Why was he crying?

“Stop that,” Taehyun says from his other side. “You have every right to after what that asshole did to you.” 

“It’s embarrassing though,” Beomgyu whines, rubbing at his eyes. The tears keep coming. He wants them to stop— oh, and now his breath is hitching along with his tears. 

“Oh shush, we’ve known you since we were babies— it’s not embarrassing!” Ni-ki reassures him. “We see Heeseungie hyung cry all the time over his burnt toast and assignments every day, and we’re not at all fazed, are we?” 

“Hey!” Heeseung protests from the front. “I don’t cry every day!”

“Yes you do!”

“Do not!” 

Beomgyu chuckles, albeit sounding watery, and leans back, letting the quiet bickering fill the car. Taehyun gently guides Beomgyu’s head over to his shoulder and Beomgyu leans on the other omega, closing his eyes for a moment. Ni-ki and Heeseung continue arguing over the fact that Heeseung cried over almost everything in his life, with a teasing Ni-ki and a mock-offended Heeseung. Beomgyu lets the familiar sound of his friends’ voices fill the air and lets out a shaky sigh. 

When he opens his eyes again, they’re in the driveway of his house. 

Heeseung gets out first, and then Ni-ki gets out, tugging Beomgyu along with him, with Taehyun right behind, clutching Beomgyu’s hand in silent comfort. The four of them walk over to the front door and Heeseung rings the doorbell. A couple seconds later, it swings open with a Soobin clad in fuzzy pajama bottoms and a plain white t-shirt, holding a book in one hand, bookmarked with his thumb in between the pages. 

“Oh, you’re all over today?” He sounds confused. 

“Hey Soobin hyung,” Heeseung says quickly. “Beomgyu’s hurt— we’ll explain after we get inside first.” 

Soobin’s brows shoot up, but he steps aside, letting them enter. Ni-ki and Taehyun help Beomgyu over to a nearby stool for him to sit down, and Soobin glances at him with worried eyes, before turning back to Heeseung. 

“What’s going on?” he asks. 

Heeseung sighs.

“An asshole— he tried to ask Beomgyu out and wouldn’t leave even after he said no— and I thought I scared him off, but he returned and harrassed Beomgyu at the convenience store just now. And he hurt Beomgyu’s arm.” Heeseung explains. “We got him home— I thought it would be best.” 

Soobin’s eyes are narrowed.

“Does this alpha go to our school?”

Taehyun nods. 

“Jaeseok. Gwon Jaeseok— he’s in my Economics class.” He responds. 

“And Beomgyu’s french class too,” Heeseung pipes up, glancing at Beomgyu for confirmation, to which he nods. “Yeah, his french class.” 

Soobin’s fuming. 

“Well— let’s see what messing with the student body president’s brother will do to you.” He mutters. 

“I’m telling my dad about it too,” Ni-ki says. “It’s technically verbal sexual harrassment— and it happened outside of school, so he should be able to do something about it. I can stop by the station right now.” 

Soobin nods. 

“Good. Thank you, Ni-ki. Gwon Jaeseok, you said…? I’ll look into his file at school. Maybe add it onto his official record,” he grins. “You mess with Beomgyu, you mess with the whole gang.” 

Heeseung nods. “Fuck yeah.” He laughs. 

“Hey Beomgyu?” He then turns to said mentioned boy. “We’ll get going now— unless you want us to stay a little longer?” 

Beomgyu shakes his head. 

“You… You guys should go. I’ve wasted too much of your time. Thank you for coming with me to the store— and for helping me.” Beomgyu mumbles. 

It’s true— all he wanted was for his friends to come along with him to the convenience store for some snacks, even though Ni-ki and Heeseung had a lot of homework to catch up on after being in strict practice for the past few weeks. And Taehyun was probably busy too. 

“Stop that, would you?” Taehyun rolls his eyes. “As your platonic husband, I am telling you right now you didn’t waste anyone’s time, okay? And if you want us to stay, just ask.”

Beomgyu smiles sadly. 

“…Thanks. But it’s fine. I’m home now, and I’m fine. Seriously guys. Please leave,” he tries to sound playful and light, tries to joke around— but it comes out a bit too watery and choked out. His friends stare at him and he avoids their eyes. 

“Yeah. See you tomorrow then,” Heeseung says softly. “Text us if you need something.” 

Beomgyu nods.

“If that asshole comes back— we’ll punch him or something.” Taehyun promises. “Ni-ki’s dad will bail us out of jail if we get charged.” 

Ni-ki gives Taehyun a long look which the latter pointedly avoids. Heeseung rolls his eyes, throwing an arm around Taehyun’s shoulder. 

“No— we are not doing anything that’s gonna get us in jail,” he says. “Let’s be mature seventeen year olds— well, sixteen, in our maknae’s case,” he ruffles Ni-ki’s hair and the blond groans in fake annoyance. 

Then Taehyun, Ni-ki, and Heeseung leave, making Beomgyu promise he’d text the group chat soon before they do. Then they’re really gone, the door clicking shut behind them, and Beomgyu’s left sitting on the stool in the foyer with Soobin frowning at him. 

“…How about a hot shower, Gyu? And then a nice, long nap— and I’ll even reheat a slice of cherry pie— just this once, alright, because I’m feeling bad for you.” Soobin says.

“Such a caring older brother,” Beomgyu says softly, trying to smile. Soobin looks even more worried at that. He crosses his arms, book under one arm as he comes over to Beomgyu. His apple scent turns a little sour. 

“C’mon, Beomgyu. Once Dad comes home, we can make dinner— anything you’re craving?” he asks. 

Beomgyu shakes his head. 

“No… just… Yeah, I’m gonna go take a shower.” He mumbles.

“After you do, I’ll swing by your room with an ice pack for your arm. How bad does it hurt?” Soobin questions. “Do we need to go to the doctor?” 

Beomgyu shakes his head. “No, it’s just a little bruise. It doesn’t hurt as bad as before.” 

Soobin doesn’t look convinced, but shooes Beomgyu off. He clambers up the stairs slowly, and throws off his clothes, hating how Jaeseok’s rotten charcoal scent stuck onto his uniform. His movements feel all too sluggish as he steps into the shower— and he lets the warm water cascade down, over his face, over everything, and he lets his bones soak in the warmth. 

🐹

Heeseung drove, glancing up at the sky that was starting to turn grey. Maybe it was going to rain. It was raining a lot these days. Ni-ki sat in the passenger seat next to him, glancing down at his phone and ocassionally tapping on it. The radio hummed with the volume turned down really low, but he could tell it was a song. He usually didn’t like complete silences like this, preferring to turn on the radio up loud as background noise, but Ni-ki looked thoughtful— and he didn’t want to break the younger’s concentration. 

After they’d dropped off Beomgyu at his house, they were driving— and honestly, Heeseung didn’t really have a destination in mind, and just continued stepping on the pedal. 

“Want me to drop you off at the station right now or your house?” Heeseung asks, figuring he could use a destination right about now, after aimlessly going around the neighborhood. 

“Yeah, thanks.” Ni-ki murmurs, glancing up from his phone. “…Hyung.”

“Hm?” 

“What do you think about that Yeonjun guy?” Ni-ki suddenly asked.

Heeseung frowns. 

“That shy guy we met a few days ago, when Beomgyu introduced him to us?”. 

“Yeah. That guy.” Ni-ki nods. 

Heeseung thinks back to the black haired guy, hovering behind Beomgyu that day he first met him— avoiding everyone’s eyes and fiddling with his hands as he glanced at the back of Beomgyu’s head while he chatted with Heeseung and Ni-ki. 

“…I can’t tell if he’s really just shy, or he’s pretending,” Heeseung finally responds. “Like… he doesn’t seem like the type to be shy, but he is? I know that makes no sense— but it’s just… I don’t know if he’s interested in Beomgyu in the way he wants to be friends, or if he has bad intentions.”

Ni-ki hums. 

“Taehyun hyung caught him staring at Beomgyu during lunch today. He said he and Beomgyu hyung and Yeonjun had a little hang out at Beomgyu hyung’s yesterday, but he wasn’t sure what Yeonjun’s whole deal or if he had any bad intentions. So me and Taehyun hyung went over (“So that’s where you guys disappeared to!”) — I think Yeonjun’s an omega— and he… well, he seemed interested in Beomgyu hyung. I can’t tell if he has bad or good intentions either.” He sighs. 

“Well, we can always intervene if things go south. For now— Beomgyu can take care of himself. You know he hates when he coddle him,” Heeseung jokes. 

“Yeah. Yeonjun seems like a decent guy. And you know… he’s not an alpha.” Ni-ki exhales. “I know there are good alphas like us, but there are also a lot of bad ones— like Jaeseok.” 

“Omegas can be mean too, you know. Hey— you remember that girl from middle school?” Heeseung glances at the blond, before settling his eyes back on the road again. 

Ni-ki lets out a choked laugh. 

“Ugh, Jeong Mina? Yeah— I remember. She tried to screw Beomgyu hyung over because she was jealous he was prettier than her and all the alphas went to him, not her— as if she deserved their attention in the first place.” He shakes his head. “Bullied him relentlessly— she even tried flirting with me to make him jealous— but of course, it was just funny to us. She was the worst.” 

“Ew. She didn’t even have any flirting skills whatsoever. You're lucky you're kinda cute, or I wouldn't even look at you.” He imitated. “Like, uh, excuse me? She called that flirting?”

“Don’t remind me, hyung,” Ni-ki groans. “Anyways… I’m sure Yeonjun’s a decent guy. For now, I think our main problem is Gwon Jaeseok.” 

Heeseung rolls his eyes.

“It seems every single year there’s at least one alpha bothering Gyu.” They turn the corner and the police station stands proudly on the street. “Okay, we’re here.” He announces. 

Ni-ki smiles. “Thanks for the ride. See you later!” he calls, hopping out and jogging over to the station. He waves and then he disappears into the building. 

Heeseung starts the engine and starts his drive back home. 

Chapter Text

Yeonjun sits in class, but he doesn’t hear a single word the teacher says (which is bad, considering it’s only his third day here— he really should be focusing— he might potentially fail this entire school year at this rate).

The worksheet in front of him is half-filled, the rest blank, his handwriting trailing off mid-sentence like his brain forgot how to function. He keeps tapping his pencil against the desk, then stopping when it gets too loud. Then starting again. His leg’s bouncing under the table and he knows it's annoying but he can’t stop. No one seems to notice anyway. So he doesn’t stop. 

The thought— the image of Beomgyu grimacing as Jaeseok advanced onto him— yesterday—

It gnaws at him constantly.

He should’ve done something.

He can still see it— Beomgyu's wide eyes, the way he stiffened, the way that guy— Jaeseok— got too close, the way Yeonjun just… froze. Like a coward. Like the pathetic, scared thing he always promised himself he wouldn't be. But… he had been in the end. 

And now Beomgyu’s hurt.

He gulps. His throat feels dry.

What kind of alpha was he? A pathetic coward— yeah, that’s it. 

The teacher calls on someone and the class laughs, but Yeonjun just stares at his paper, throat tight. He should’ve said something yesterday. He should’ve stood between them. Should’ve grabbed Beomgyu’s arm, or called for help, or done literally anything but back away like some helpless little thing— like he wasn’t an alpha. (What did that even mean, anymore, being an alpha?) 

He curls his fingers into fists. His nails dig into his palm, and for once, he doesn’t care if they leave marks. He’s just so angry— at himself, at the world, at Jaeseok, everything. 

He should find Beomgyu. Apologize or something. But… if Beomgyu found out Yeonjun had been there but hadn’t done anything, what would he think of Yeonjun? He’d probably be disgusted. And besides— the right words won’t come to mind. Everything he tries to say (in his fake scenario, inside his head) sounds fake, or selfish, or like he’s trying to make it about him when Beomgyu was the one who got hurt. So he ends up not having anything to say if he went to Beomgyu and said sorry. 

He really can’t believe himself. 

—

“Did you know there’s a big school festival next week?” Kai asks, munching on a baby carrot during lunch. His homework is sprawled across the table in front of him, but he makes no attempt at doing anything with it.

Yeonjun hums. “No.” He responds. 

“It’s the Spring Carnival— every club sets up booths, games, food stalls, that kind of thing. No classes the whole day.” Kai grins. “The Joker Cards are gonna play. You going?”

Yeonjun shrugs. 

“I don’t know… I don’t really do… school events, you know?” He says in response.

“Loser,” Kai teases. “I’ll be there too— let’s go together, okay? Don’t ditch me!” 

Yeonjun sighs. 

“Kai…”

“Uh-uh, no Kai-ing me. You’re going.” The blond alpha grins. 

A sudden ripple of loud screams and whispers has Yeonjun glancing over at the commotion.

Whoa. 

Heeseung’s hair is bright red, kinda like a tomato in the middle of the cafeteria, and Yeonjun finds himself following all the other students and gawking at the basketball player. What happened to him? Yeonjun saw him yesterday after school— his hair was brown when he drove off from Beomgyu’s house. 

“—got bored last night,” Heeseung is saying to the incredulous Taehyun. “I wanted to dye my hair since last year, and I had the dye, so I just kinda spontaneously did it.” 

“Tomato hyung,” Yeonjun hears Ni-ki tease. “It’s so bright— what dye even is it?” 

Heeseung shrugs, and says something that Yeonjun can’t hear what. Then Ni-ki elbows Heeseung who chuckles and says something. The white-blond alpha scrunches his brow, tugging at a lock of his hair, and then Heeseung’s leaning into him again and saying something that has Ni-ki yelling a loud, “Fuck no!”, with Heeseung collapsing into a fit of laughter and Taehyun shaking his head exasperatedly. 

“Heeseung dyed his hair?” Kai raised an eyebrow, glancing over too. “That’s sudden. Doesn’t he have a game tonight?” 

“He does?” Yeonjun asks, surprised. 

Kai nods. 

“Against Foxwood High, from the town next door. I hear those players are real mean— but good at basketball, but I don’t know if it’s just ‘cause they cheat.” He says. “Once, one of the Foxwood players broke a White Rose player’s wrist while playing. Brutal.” He blows out a breath. 

Yeonjun glances over at the Joker Cards members at their table— and then is surprised to see Beomgyu is missing. He frowns.

Where was he? Why didn’t he show up for lunch? Did something happen? Did he come to school at all today? Was it because of what happened yesterday? 

His heart clenches.

Maybe it was his fault Beomgyu wasn’t here— for not stopping up sooner. For not stopping Jaeseok before Beomgyu got hurt. 

Why didn’t I do anything— 

He closed his eyes.

Enough of feeling angry for himself and just muttering about by himself. He should do something. He should find out where Beomgyu was— and why he was skipping out on lunch. Even if he really didn’t feel like talking with other people much; Kai was easy, others… not so much. 

And then… without his permission, his feet brought him over to the table where Taehyun, Ni-ki, and Heeseung sat at. They glanced up at him mid-conversation and Taehyun raised an eyebrow at him, setting down his carton of milk.

“Yeon..jun?” He blinks. “Why are you here?” 

Yeonjun froze. 

“Ah— I—” 

Now that he was actually over here… he was not ready to converse with Beomgyu’s friends. He’d seen how protective they could be— especially for Beomgyu— so he was a bit scared of them, admittedly. They meant business when it came to their friend. 

“Uh… I just… Is Beomgyu out sick today?” he asks out, willing his voice not to shake because he didn’t want them to think he was a loser anymore than they already thought. 

Taehyun shoots him a narrowed glance, while Heeseung just blinks at him. Yeonjun sweats, face growing hot as they all just stare at him and he’s left standing at their table like an idiot. He considers just leaving if they don’t answer in the next few seconds. 

“…Yeah, he took the day off.” Ni-ki finally answers, halting Yeonjun as he tries to shuffle away, squinting at Yeonjun as if wondering why he wanted to know about Beomgyu. 

“Why are you so interested about Beomgyu?” Taehyun wrinkles his nose. 

“I just…” Yeonjun swallows. Truthfully— he didn’t know. Why was he so interested about Beomgyu? The dark haired boy with the huge grin that first day— swinging his guitar around and bickering with Soobin with that cheeky smile, offering to help Yeonjun and telling him that he was funny— funny— and… those dark brown eyes that shone when he grinned. 

“I just… want to be friends with him. He’s cool.” He finally mumbles.

“Aw!” 

Yeonjun whirls around and finds Beomgyu standing behind him with a smile that makes his eyes crinkle up at the corners. He’s wearing a black hoodie, with a jagged red heart print on the center, underneath his school blazer and his hair is tousled like he just came after running around in the wind. 

“Beomgyu?!” Heeseung says. He and Ni-ki bolt to their feet, and Taehyun’s eyes are widened from where he’s still perched on the seat. Apparently, they didn’t expect Beomgyu to be here either. 

Beomgyu nods over at them, his smile lighting up the room around them. 

“Hi guys! Bet you all thought I was skipping out on today, right?” He laughs.

Ni-ki nods. “Yeah. You… I mean, that’s what you said this morning in the group chat… and you weren’t in music theory earlier.”

Beomgyu nods. “Okay well, I was gonna skip the entire day, but then I got bored sitting around— and I got a ride to school. I am so glad I got here during lunch period ‘cause it would’ve been so sad if I got here and I didn’t even steal Tae’s fries today.” 

With that, he plucks a fry from Taehyun’s tray. Taehyun doesn’t even pretend to be annoyed this time, too shocked at the fact that Beomgyu was here unexpectedly.

Beomgyu turns to Yeonjun again, who stiffens with widening eyes as Beomgyu looks right into his eyes and his grin grows bigger. 

“So, you wanted to be friends with me, is that it?” He asked, amusement laced into his voice. God— why was he cute like this, looking at Yeonjun with sparkling eyes and saying that?

Yeonjun nods, unable to get his tongue moving again. 

“I… yeah. I did. I do— I— yeah.” 

Beomgyu tilts his head. 

“Well new guy… if you wanna be friends, we can be friends! Us omegas against the world, am I right?” He winks, bumping Yeonjun’s shoulder with his own. Guilt floods Yeonjun, but luckily, Beomgyu gets distracted by his friends to notice the flinch Yeonjun made. 

“Beomgyu, are you really okay? After… After yesterday?” Heeseung frowns. 

Something crosses over Beomgyu’s eyes, the shine going out, but it disappears just as quickly as it came and his eyes grow sparkling again. Like the sun coming out behind the cloud after a rainy day all day. 

“Ey~ Choi Beomgyu doesn’t get down so easily!” He says, puffing his chest out. “If I let jerks like Jaeseok get me all sad, life would be too grey all the time! And you know my life needs to be bright yellow!”

Yeonjun’s honestly a little awed at Beomgyu. He had been harrassed by Jaeseok just yesterday, he had been hurt— and now it was like nothing had ever happened. Beomgyu smiled even brighter than that first day Yeonjun met him, his eyes shone and… a white-yellow halo seemed to surround him. He was just… so happy. So bright. So cheerful. 

“Holy shit— Heeseung, what happened to your hair?!” Beomgyu suddenly gasps. 

“You notice now?” Heeseung gapes at him. 

“I was distracted!” The former whines. 

Beomgyu then turns to Yeonjun.  

“I’m sorry, I keep talking to them in the middle of our conversations. That was why you ran off the other day, right? I was being so rude.” He chuckles awkwardly. 

Yeonjun’s eyes widened, shaking his hands in front of him in denial. 

“What?! No, no, of course not! No, I just—” got embarrassed and got upset because Heeseung was just lightly teasing me and was too sensitive. “—thought you might want to talk to your friends, and I was in the way, so that’s why I left. It wasn’t your fault— by any means! Really!” He insisted.

(Add another person to his list of people words-just-tumble-out-of-to.)

Beomgyu looks relieved. 

“Oh. Oh, okay.” He says. “And you weren’t— I shouldn’t have been talking with them for so long either, so I’m still sorry. I was supposed to help you to the office— I promised, and then I didn’t.” 

“It’s okay. I found it in the end, that’s what matters.” Yeonjun smiles back.

“To make it up with you,” Beomgyu starts, and slung an arm around Yeonjun to which he stiffens at how close the omega has gotten to him, “I’ll buy you ice cream after school. We can hang out— if you’re not busy of course. You seem like the studious type. You know, like the kind of guy who finishes all his homework and assignments two weeks ahead of the due date?” 

Yeonjun sputters. 

“I— no— I mean, not always—”

Beomgyu giggles. 

“Not always? So you do, sometimes?” 

Yeonjun hesitates.

“…Maybe?” 

Beomgyu giggles again. 

“Oof, I’m gonna have to learn from you! I procrasinate a lot— and then I somehow end up losing my papers so I have to claim they got eaten by the dog I do not have. I fear the only thing I have to keep them from failing me is my genius personality!” He tilts his head, forming a ‘V’ with his thumb and index to tuck under his chin with a wink. 

“You’re like an animated character, I swear,” Taehyun shakes his head. “Can I divorce you?”

Beomgyu gasps dramatically. 

“What? Of course not! I leave for half a school day and this is what happens to me?! You don’t love me anymore, Taehyun?!” 

Taehyun sighs. 

Chapter Text

After the final bell rings, Yeonjun considers just walking straight home instead of taking the bus. For once since he’s come to this town, it’s not raining, and it looked like the sun might come out from all the grey. But he’s barely made it two steps outside the school gates when—

“Yeonjun!”

He freezes.

Beomgyu jogs up beside him, grinning. His hoodie’s still on under his blazer, and now the sleeves are pushed up to his elbows. His hair’s even messier than before, like he’s been running fingers through it all day. The sight sends a weird flutter through Yeonjun’s chest.

“Thought you were ditching me,” Beomgyu says, mock-pouting.

“I— no, I wasn’t,” Yeonjun insists quickly. “I just… I’m sorry, I forgot.”

Beomgyu chuckles. “Forgot we were gonna get ice cream? How could you?” He says playfully-mad.

Yeonjun flushes. “I didn’t forget! I just… okay. I might’ve been nervous.”

Beomgyu pauses mid-step.

“Nervous? Why?” He frowns. 

Because you’re cool, and popular, and you talk to everyone like it’s nothing. Because I have no idea what I’m doing and I still don’t know why you’re being so nice to me, Yeonjun wants to say. 

“…I just don’t usually do stuff like this,” Yeonjun says instead.

Beomgyu tilts his head, considering.

“Okay. Well. First time for everything, right?” He spins his keys around his finger. “Come on. I got dropped off today, so I stole Soobin hyung’s car. We’ve got wheels.”

“Stole?”

“Borrowed.” Beomgyu winks. “I mean… his car keys were just there, you know?” 

—

The drive is… quiet at first.

Yeonjun sits stiffly in the passenger seat, hands clasped in his lap, only sneaking glances at Beomgyu when he’s sure the omega’s not looking. The car smells like cherries and whatever hair product Beomgyu uses.

Beomgyu hums along to a song on the radio. He even drums his fingers on the wheel. Like driving and hanging out and being liked comes effortlessly to him. (It probably does.)

Yeonjun fiddles with the zipper of his jacket.

“So, um… what kind of ice cream do you like?”

Beomgyu glances at him, smiling. “Ooh, we’re doing small talk now?”

Yeonjun blinks. “I—”

“I’m kidding,” Beomgyu laughs, his expression growing softer and less teasing. “I like anything with chocolate chips in it. Cookie dough’s top tier. Or mint choco, but that one’s controversial.”

“…I like cookie dough too.”

“That’s it,” Beomgyu says, face lighting up again. “We’re officially besties. You have good taste.”

Yeonjun blinks.

Besties?

And then he smiles down at his hands. 

Besties. Yeah… he liked the sound of that. 

—

They end up at a tiny ice cream place a few streets away from school. There’s barely anyone else inside. Beomgyu orders a double scoop of cookie dough and immediately takes a huge bite.

“Brain freeze!” he yells through a mouthful, clutching his forehead.

Yeonjun can’t help it— he laughs. Beomgyu’s scrunched up nose is adorable, and he pouts at Beomgyu when he laughs. 

“My misery is funny, is that it?” He squints.

Yeonjun stops laughing. 

“No, of course not—” He panics.

“Relax, Yeonjun hyung. I’m kidding.” Beomgyu says. “Wait, what did you get again?” 

Yeonjun holds up his strawberry ice cream on the waffle cone. 

“Strawberry. They ran out of cookie dough.” He says.

Beomgyu frowns. 

“Oof— sorry, I think I was the one who took it all. You want some of mine?” He offers, holding the cone out in front of Yeonjun.

With the cookie dough ice cream. That he took a bit out of already. 

“I—“ Yeonjun malfunctions. 

Beomgyu just laughs again and pulls out his phone.

“I’m kidding, hyung. I mean, if you want it, I can but I don’t think you do. Okay… Here,” he says, thrusting his phone toward Yeonjun. “Number?”

Yeonjun’s heart stutters.

“Oh. Uh— yeah. Sure.”

His fingers are embarrassingly sweaty as he types in his number. Beomgyu immediately sends him a text— “💛🍦”— and Yeonjun catches a glimpse of his contact name saved as Yeonjun hyung.

Yeonjun stares at the text on his phone. 

“Don’t delete it,” Beomgyu warns, still grinning. “You’re stuck with me now.”

“I wouldn’t,” Yeonjun says, softly, and fiddles around to change the Unknown Number to Beomgyu. 

It’s a bit hard to believe that loner him had suddenly gained the attention of popular Beomgyu— and was out here eating ice cream with him and that he was friends with him now. And he got Beomgyu’s number (well… Beomgyu got his number, really). 

Beomgyu suddenly perks up. “Hey! The school basketball game’s tonight! Wanna go?”

Yeonjun blinks.

“You mean like… with people?” He asks— sounding pathetic to himself. He wishes he could take those embarrassing words back. 

Beomgyu squints at him. “…That’s generally how school sports work, yes.”

Yeonjun panics. He’s never been to a school game before. Crowds? People screaming? Stuffed gyms and flashing lights and social expectations? He’s a loner— been one since practically forever— no, no, he doesn’t do all that, going and hanging out with school classmates. 

But Beomgyu is looking at him with those hopeful, wide eyes.

I can’t say no, Yeonjun thinks grimly. I literally don’t have the capacity to say no to this boy. Fuck. 

“…Sure,” he says weakly.

Beomgyu fist-pumps. “Nice! Let’s go now then, we can’t be late to Heeseung and Ni-ki’s game, right?”

—

The gym is total chaos.

Kids cram into bleachers, some wearing school colors, some waving signs with glittery paint, others just screaming because it’s Friday and it’s their school’s sports game and this is what school spirit is supposed to look like.

Yeonjun stands frozen just inside the entrance, eyes wide.

Beomgyu grabs his wrist.

“Come on! Don’t just stand there, newbie hyung.”

Yeonjun lets himself get dragged. Beomgyu waves at half a dozen people on the way in— students, teachers, someone’s mom— and even high-fives the guy manning the popcorn machine. He really is the popular— maybe not just with the whole school, but the whole town. 

“How do you know so many people?” Yeonjun mutters as they finally sit.

Beomgyu shrugs, flashing a grin.

“I’m really extroverted. Plus, I grew up here and these are all people I’ve seen around— they know me and I know them.”

Yeonjun’s pretty sure that much is obvious.

On the court, White Rose’s team is doing drills. Heeseung jogs across the court, hsi new bright red hair tied back with a sweatband, while Ni-ki chucks basketballs at the wall with great force. There’s a rhythm to it— squeak of shoes, thud of bouncing, whistles and cheers. It’s… actually pretty fun to watch them. 

And Yeonjun would be more focused on watching, if not for the body pressed against his side (the gym was too packed for personal space anymore), Beomgyu’s warmth seeping into Yeonjun’s side and his laugh practically rumbling into Yeonjun’s ear. He’s so… close. For a fleeting second, Yeonjun wonders what would happen if he— no. He shouldn’t. He can’t. 

Then Foxwood’s team enters— and the vibe of the gym changes immediately.

Their uniforms are darker. They look more aggressive, more matured, more angry. One of them shoulders past Ni-ki unnecessarily hard and the white-blond stumbles, with tomato-hair Heeseung steadying him while glaring at the Foxwood player. 

Beomgyu huffs.

“Ugh. Foxwood. Watch— those guys always cheat.”

Sure enough, by the second quarter, Yeonjun watches one of the Foxwood forwards very obviously elbow a White Rose player in the ribs when the ref isn’t looking, and gets the ball again. 

“See?” Beomgyu says, arms crossed. “That was foul. That was so a foul.”

Another play later, and Ni-ki gets tripped on a rebound— but the ref waves it off again.

“They’re letting everything slide,” Beomgyu mutters. “Typical. That ref’s probably from Foxwood or something.”

Yeonjun glances at him. His brows are furrowed, but there’s a spark in his eye, too— a fire of loyalty, of passion. It burns brightly in his eyes, his happy sparkle replaced with sheer burn. 

It’s kind of… adorable like this too. 

Yeonjun looks back at the court, where Heeseung is lining up at the three-point line, breathing hard. His red hair sticks to his sweat-covered forehead and he looks very out of breath, and a little mad. 

“C’mon…” Beomgyu whispers under his breath, but he’s so close that it’s like he’s saying it right into Yeonjun’s ear. 

Yeonjun finds himself whispering it too, despite not really knowing what was going on— other than the fact that Foxwood was cheating and White Rose’s chances of winning were slim.

“C’mon.”

The gym pulses. The buzzer sounds. And the ball sails—

Straight into the net.

The crowd erupts.

Beomgyu jumps to his feet, cheering wildly, and Yeonjun stares up at him, dazed.

Beomgyu turns, and grabs Yeonjun’s sleeve.

“Oh my god! That was so cool, right?!”

Yeonjun nods dumbly, breathless and half-smiling. His ears are ringing from the cheers, but somehow Beomgyu’s voice cuts right through the noise, clear and bright and shining. Beomgyu’s eyes are still sparkling. He doesn’t let go of Yeonjun’s sleeve, even when he drops back down into his seat with a bounce, tugging Yeonjun along beside him.

“So, that wasn’t so bad, was it?” Beomgyu asks, tilting his head and grinning like he knows the answer already.

Yeonjun shakes his head.

“No,” he murmurs, voice soft but sure. “It… it wasn’t. Thank you for bringing me along.”

Beomgyu beams, as if Yeonjun just told him he won a Grammy award or something.

“Of course! What kind of bestie would I be if I didn’t force you into social situations at least once a week? My new goal, by the way,” He nudges Yeonjun’s side. “You gotta let the rest of the school fall in love with you too, you know. Can’t keep you all to myself, right?”

Yeonjun’s heart does a weird flip at that, and he stares down at his knees because what was he supposed to say to that?!

“I… I don’t think anyone’s gonna fall in love with me,” he says awkwardly.

Beomgyu hums thoughtfully. “You’d be surprised.”

Yeonjun looks up, startled, but Beomgyu’s already twisting around again to wave at someone a few rows up— someone from the drama club, maybe, judging by her shirt, who gives him a double thumbs-up.

“Oh my gosh!” Beomgyu turns toward him suddenly, practically bouncing in his seat. “I almost forgot— next week, we have our Spring Carnival—i t’s like our school’s annual spring festival— and my band is performing! It would be literally so awesome if you came to watch us.”

“I still can’t believe you’re a popular boy and you play in a band.” Yeonjuns says. “I heard it’s also an official band outside of school… and you have a lot of albums on Dotify.”

Beomgyu beams like the compliment just made his whole week.

“You’ll come, right?” he asks, voice slipping into something just a little more shy, like maybe it actually matters to him. “I mean… even if you don’t like festivals and crowds and stuff, it’s all outside and there’s a bunch of food and booths and dumb games. And you don’t have to talk to anyone but me, I promise.”

That last part is what does Yeonjun in.

He looks at Beomgyu— a ray of sunlight in a gym full of flickering artificial lights, someone who smiles like it’s muscle memory and grabs Yeonjun’s wrist without a second thought, the warmth seeping into Yeonjun’s skin— and there’s really only one thing he can say.

“…Yeah. I’ll come.”

Beomgyu’s grin splits wide. “Yes! You won’t regret it, hyung. I’ll make sure you win at least one plushie. Or three.”

Yeonjun chuckles under his breath. “You’re really confident.”

Beomgyu leans close, whispering conspiratorially.

“I may or may not have rigged the milk bottle toss game last year. Don’t tell.” He puts a finger to his lips in a ‘hush’ motion. 

“I won’t,” Yeonjun promises with a small laugh. 

—

Yeonjun lies on his stomach in bed, the hem of his hoodie bunched up under his ribs and his legs lazily swinging behind him. The blankets are kicked off and half the lights are still on, but he doesn’t care. His room is warmer now, somehow— less like a place he crashed into, more like one he’s settling into finally.

All the boxes that once packed the room are finally unpacked, broken down, tucked away where they belonged. His books are stacked neatly on the little shelf by the window. His desk isn’t perfect— papers still scattered and one drawer won’t close all the way (he suspects he broke it during the move)— but there’s no more clutter on the floor. There’s space now, which is great for him and his problem with not being able to find anything that had existed for a few days too many. 

He didn’t even realize how cramped it had felt until now, stretched out like this with the overhead fan whirring and no cardboard towers watching him from every corner.

His phone buzzes beside him.

Beomgyu

made it home! almost got in trouble for “stealing” soobin hyung’s car but i told him u were my accomplice so now we’re both wanted criminals. congrats 🤝

Yeonjun snorts, a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth.

He doesn’t hesitate to type back.

Yeonjun

it was a borrowed getaway vehicle. we’re innocent.

Beomgyu responds instantly.

Beomgyu

tell that to soobin hyung’s frowny face and hands on his hips pose 

Yeonjun huffs out a laugh, burying half his face in his pillow. He’s still smiling when the next message comes through.

Beomgyu

Hey

thanks for coming tonight

really. it was fun with u there.

Yeonjun stares at that one a little longer.

It’s simple. Not overthought. Probably sent without hesitation.

But it hits him square in the chest.

His thumbs hover over the keyboard before he finally types.

Yeonjun

thanks for inviting me

i had fun too. really.

He pauses. Then adds, before he can second-guess it.

you made it easy.

There’s a longer delay this time. Then:

😳 hyung stop i’m gonna cry

ur stuck with me forever now ok?

u don’t get a say btw.

Yeonjun bites back another grin. His chest feels full in a way he can’t name.

Yeonjun

…okay

i’ll keep the plushies you win me though. that’s non-negotiable.

Beomgyu

DEAL 🤝

Yeonjun finally sets the phone down beside him, lips stretched out in a big smile. It’s been a while since he smiled so hard like this. His eyes drifted closed. The room is quiet, the night is calm, and for the first time since moving here, he doesn’t feel like he’s missing something.

He has friends. (Okay well, no, he has one friend.) 

He has Beomgyu.

And right now, that feels like enough.

Chapter Text

Huening Kai ambushes him during lunch the next day.

“You went out with Choi Beomgyu?!” 

Yeonjun chokes on his own saliva.

“What?!”

Kai slams his tray down on the table with dramatic force, sending a few carrot sticks rolling. He jabs an accusatory finger in Yeonjun’s direction, eyes wide with betrayal and glee all at once.

“People are talking— the new guy sat right next to Beomgyu at the basketball game and they came in together too! Ha, I knew it, you do have a crush on him!” 

Yeonjun is pretty sure his soul exits his body for a full five seconds.

“I do not—” he hisses, face burning. “I don’t have a crush, we’re just— he invited me to ice cream, okay? And then the basketball game. And— and it wasn’t even like that.”

Kai raises a suspicious brow and shovels a spoonful of yogurt into his mouth without breaking eye contact.

“You got ice cream together?” He repeats. 

“It wasn’t a date,” Yeonjun mutters, feeling the need to express that, shoving his tray around uselessly. “It was just— he’s nice. He invited me. We’re friends now, I guess.”

Kai beams like he’s just been proven right in a court of law.

“Aw~! You’re smitten.”

“I’m not smitten.”

“You totally are~!” 

Yeonjun groans, smacking his forehead onto the table.

“I hate you.”

Kai pats his back sympathetically.

“It’s okay. Love hits the best of us.”

Yeonjun lifts his head just enough to glare at him. “We’re not in love. I barely know him.”

“But you want to know him.” Kai grins smugly. 

Yeonjun opens his mouth to argue— and stops.

He does.

He wants to know what Beomgyu’s favorite song is and if he always sings under his breath while driving. He wants to know why he’s always smiling and whether it ever cracks for real. He wants to know if the light in Beomgyu’s eyes ever goes out for more than a second, and if Yeonjun could help when it does. He wants to know the Choi Beomgyu behind his popular boy mask— behind all the smiles and the pretending-to-be-fines. 

He looks down at his tray, quietly.

“…I think I might,” he mutters.

Kai lets out a long, satisfied ooooohhh. He’s glowing with gossip power now.

Yeonjun braces himself for teasing— but it doesn’t come. Instead, Kai just shrugs and smiles.

“I mean, if you do, that’s cool. Beomgyu’s a good guy. Just… he’s had a rough time sometimes, okay? So be gentle with him. Even if he acts like nothing ever gets to him.”

Yeonjun glances up, surprised by the sudden shift in tone. “You know him that well?”

Kai nods, fiddling with the cap of his juice bottle.

“I… kinda? I’ve known Beomgyu since we were kids. I mean, me and my family moved during fifth grade, so we aren’t close now, but… before then, me and him were friends. He always made everything into a joke, but he’s got this… thing. Like, he always tries to be everyone’s light, you know? Even when he’s the one who needs it.”

Yeonjun doesn’t say anything. He just tucks that away in his chest like a fragile paper note. It’s something he definitely needs to keep in mind for later. 

Kai bumps his shoulder gently. “Anyway. If you do like him, don’t be weird about it. Just, like, ask him to hang out again or something.”

Yeonjun’s heart jumps into his throat. “What? Again?! I— I don’t even know what I’d say—”

“Literally just say, hey Beomgyu wanna hang out again and he’ll probably go sure hyung let’s go do something stupid and fun. You’ve already been out once. Just go again.”

Yeonjun fiddles with his fork. “You make it sound easy.”

Kai grins. “It is easy. Unless you overthink it. Which you will. But I believe in you, hyung.”

Yeonjun glares again, but it’s weaker this time. “You’re annoying.”

“And you’re in love~!”

“I AM NOT—”

“Hello~!” a voice singsongs from behind them—and Yeonjun nearly yelps when Beomgyu plops down into the seat right next to him, placing his juice down with a flourish and grinning like nothing in the world could ruin his mood.

Kai sends Yeonjun a look. Yeonjun silently mouths don’t you dare.

Kai smiles sweetly and turns to Beomgyu with a polite expression.

“Hi, Beomgyu hyung. Lovely weather today. Did you enjoy the basketball game last night?”

Beomgyu blinks, then smiles lazily.

“Yup, I did. Had good company.”

Yeonjun chokes on air.

Kai doesn’t even try to hide his smirk as he peels the lid off his yogurt (another one) and hums innocently. 

“I see, I see.” He nods, pretending to be all serious. 

Yeonjun slumps in his seat, praying for lightning to strike him on the spot. Or for Beomgyu to please stop looking at him like that. But Beomgyu just leans forward, propping his chin in his hand as he tilts his head to look over at Yeonjun.

“So,” he says. “What are you doing after school today?”

Yeonjun swallows hard.

Maybe Kai was right.

Maybe he is smitten.

“I uhm… I didn’t… I didn’t— I mean, I don’t have plans— and I, uhm— can we— could we— wanna hang out?” He squeaks out. 

“Well… We were all gonna crash at an arcade-cafe today— Soobin hyung wanted us to finish homework though, so we negotiated we’d do that at the cafe, and then play. Wanna come along?” Beomgyu says casually. 

Oh.

With everyone else? 

“Uhm, yeah, sure.” Yeonjun mumbles out. 

“Great, I’ll tell them you’re joining us. Anyways, I was just stopping by to say hi. I’ll leave you two be now— unless you guys want to sit over at our table?” Beomgyu nods over at his table where his bandmates are there. 

“Sure!” Kai smiles. “…If you don’t mind.” 

“Of course not, I offered, didn’t I?” Beomgyu grins. “And… it’s been a while, Kai.”

Kai’s eyes widened. 

“Huh? Oh… Yeah. It— it has.” 

Beomgyu lightly punches Kai’s shoulder.

“You never came to say hi, you know? After all those years? You left for four years, and then you come back to Korea, come to the same school as me, and then don’t even hang out with me? Friends for all of elementary meant nothing, Kai?” He teases. 

“I just… I wasn’t sure if you considered me your friend anymore and… you were already so popular here, with the town and with everyone… and you had your band and new friends.” Kai mumbles. 

Beomgyu’s face softened. 

“Of course we’re still friends.” 

“And— and—” Kai starts again. “I presented as an alpha… and I saw you were an omega and… and I heard rumors circling around about alphas having hurt you and so… I didn’t know if I was allowed to be your friend anymore.” 

“Oh Kai,” Beomgyu says. “Of course you can be! That doesn’t matter— friends are friends, regardless of subgenders and whatnot! Some alphas are assholes— but others are angels, like you— and Ni-ki and Heeseung and of course, Soobin hyung when he’s had his caffeine intake.” 

Kai lets out a small, breathy laugh.

“Oh hey, you wanna join us at the arcade later?” Beomgyu asks, eyes twinkling. 

Kai gapes at him— before nodding quickly.

“Yeah— that’d— that would be awesome!” He says enthusiastically. 

Beomgyu starts standing up.

“Let’s all be friendly, okay? And you guys are welcome to sit with us whenever,” he grins. 

“But… I thought no one else could sit there… where you guys sit.” Kai looks confused.

Beomgyu laughs. “I think Taehyun started scaring them off— and I guess people just prefer to watch than come over and ask if they could sit. But I’ll make sure he lets you two sit with us. We all really won’t mind— not if you guys are being genuine about being friends, and not, like, having bad intentions.” 

Kai nods quickly. 

“Of course!” 

“Cool,” Beomgyu grins. “C’mon. I gotta steal Tae’s fries. And if I’m lucky, maybe Ni-ki will let me steal his chocolate cookie.” He jokes. He glances at Yeonjun.

“You’re coming too, right?”

Yeonjun nods, heart fluttering at the way Beomgyu was including him… or maybe Yeonjun was reading too much into things. Yeah, he probably was— yet again. Bravo, way to go Choi Yeonjun. Really, yay. 

Beomgyu leads him and Kai over to the table where Ni-ki and Heeseung are arm wrestling each other and Taehyun is snorting about “jock alphas and their pride”. Soobin sits a little away from them while a pile of manila folders he was flipping through with a concentrating frown, ocassionally muttering something under his breath that suspiciously sounds a lot like “these fucking airheads”.  

“Yo guys— Kai and Yeonjun hyung are gonna sit with us. They’re also coming along for the arcade hang out— no objections, right?” Beomgyu asks, plopping down beside. Taehyun, just as Ni-ki slams Heeseung’s hand against the table. 

Heeseung lets out a frustrated huff, and then demands another round— face scrunched in a pout. Ni-ki shakes his head, sipping on his chocolate milk with a chuckle, and says: “Save your energy for basketball practice later, tomato hyung.” 

Heeseung then groans about his “baby duckling having grown up too fast and is now beating his father in all sorts of things” and then sits up right to nod at Beomgyu.

“Huh, yeah sure.” He says.

Beomgyu rolls his eyes with a mock-offended look, and then he’s turning to Kai, talking animatedly. Yeonjun could only stare at him. 

—

“Hey, I have a question— why do you never take off your scent patches outside of school?” Beomgyu asks. “I don’t think I’ve ever caught your scent before.” 

They’re in the arcade entrance, getting their wristbands and paying for their visit. Beomgyu is standing in the back along with Yeonjun, as Soobin talks with the staff and pays. 

Yeonjun shrugs. 

“I just uh… don’t want to?” He tries. 

Luckily, Beomgyu takes that as an answer and nods. 

“Okay,” he says with a shrug.  “…Isn’t it itchy though?” 

Yeonjun shakes his head.

“It isn’t,” he lies.

Beomgyu hums. 

—

“Soobin hyung, I love you, but I swear, if you correct me one more time—”

“You keep forgetting to distribute the negative!” Soobin huffs, nudging Ni-ki’s notebook back toward him. “It’s basic algebra!”

Ni-ki groans and flops dramatically over the table.

“Hyunggg! This is an arcade! We’re not supposed to suffer here!”

Across from them, Kai is chewing his pen cap as he squints at his worksheet.

“Sooo… Is this... preposition or conjunction?”

“Conjunction,” Beomgyu says, chin propped on his hand. “But also? Who cares. Let’s go play.”

“No,” Soobin snaps, not looking up from grading Heeseung’s history answers with a red pen he definitely brought himself. “Finish the page. Then freedom.”

Yeonjun sighs, slumping next to Beomgyu.

“This is literally the worst kind of thing to be doing in life.” He says with a groan, completely meaning it. 

Beomgyu snorts and tries to steal Kai’s cookie. Kai slaps his hand away without looking.

“I’m done!” Taehyun announces, sliding his paper across the table. “And I got every single answer right. Let’s go now.”

“You don’t even need to study,” Heeseung mutters. “You just do it to show off, asshole.”

Taehyun shrugs. “And yet here I am. Done. While you’re still trying to spell ‘revolution.’”

“I hate geniuses,” Yeonjun groans and Taehyun scoffs at him with a tiny smile.

Soobin finally lifts his head.

“Fine. Okay, ten more minutes. Then we can go lose at Dance Dance Revolution.”

“I never lose,” Beomgyu says, standing up.

“Lies,” Heeseung and Ni-ki say in unison, and Kai snorts with a beginning of a laugh. 

“Let’s goooo,” Beomgyu whoops, already heading toward the machines and Soobin simply sighs, shaking his head, but not stopping his brother. 

Books forgotten, laughter trailing behind them, the boys scatter— bright lights and loud music pulling them into chaos like gravity. Evidentally, they have finished doing homework for the day. 

Yeonjun is pulled along by Beomgyu to try out nearly everything in the arcade and— honestly, he doesn’t care that he’s losing nearly all of the games because Beomgyu’s smile was lighting up the entire place and alright so maybe Yeonjun was losing because he kept staring at Beomgyu but… it was like he had a magnet— like he was a magnet. 

And Yeonjun let himself get drawn into the shining light— so he was the moth?— and… no, this was not a crush. He just… they were friends. 

Chapter Text

Beomgyu, Heeseung, and Ni-ki have gone to the dance machine, while Soobin grabs something from the cafe after losing way too many rounds of everything (and unlike Yeonjun, he had his full focus so it really wasn’t a matter of being distracted, it was of skill, or the lack of, more like it). Yeonjun, a bit tired out too, is sitting by the abandonned, lights-off shooter game set, and Taehyun stands next to him. It’s a bit awkward— Yeonjun’s not really close with Taehyun, nor has he really talked with him that much, not at that hangout the other day (Beomgyu did most of the talking), nor really anywhere else. He didn’t mind it. Just… it kinda felt like Taehyun sorta disliked him? Mildly? 

Yeonjun glances over at the group of friends, where Beomgyu’s at the racing game with Kai, Ni-ki, and Heeseung, all crammed around the machines like it’s the most important competition of their lives. Kai’s yelling at Ni-ki to stop swerving, Heeseung’s steering like a maniac, and Beomgyu—

Beomgyu’s laughing.

Head thrown back, eyes crinkled, that bright grin lighting up his whole face.

He’s glowing in a way Yeonjun can’t look away from.

His hair falls into his eyes and he doesn’t bother brushing it back, just leans into the curve of the wheel again and yells something to Ni-ki, who responds with a dramatic gasp of betrayal. Beomgyu laughs harder, hands flying off the wheel for a second as he nearly crashes into Kai’s car on screen.

And Yeonjun just... watches.

Watches the way the lights bounce off Beomgyu’s skin, how his lips curve so easily when he smiles, how his whole body moves when he’s caught up in a game or a joke or just the moment. The way he carries himself with a confident bounce and the sparkle in his eyes almost all day, every day. 

He’s beautiful. 

Not in some big dramatic way. He’s not a movie star or a superhero or anything. 

He’s just… a guy that carries himself as if he might, just might, be king. A guy who doesn’t crave attention but gets it— deserves it, someone worthy of being loved. 

Just… in this small, quiet, golden way that makes Yeonjun forget to breathe for a second. Just another kid in another town, who fills up everything in warm gold. 

“You’re staring.”

“H—huh?” 

Yeonjun whirls around to face Taehyun, who is looking at him with a deadpan expresion, arms crossed. He doesn’t look very pleased, and he strolls over to stand right beside Yeonjun, leaning on the wall behind him. 

 Yeonjun scrambles for a response, heat rushing up his neck.

“I— I wasn’t! I was just— uh, looking at the game. You know. Intense race. Really suspenseful.”

Taehyun glances over at the racing game where Beomgyu is currently losing to Kai by several miles and making a dramatic scene about it.

“…Right,” Taehyun says flatly. “So suspenseful.”

Yeonjun opens his mouth, then closes it again. He tries not to look back at Beomgyu.

Fails.

Beomgyu’s laughing again, all bright and beautiful, and Yeonjun’s chest hurts in the stupidest, softest way. Oh dear, he’s a bit of a goner now, isn’t he? 

Taehyun huffs. 

“You know,” he says slowly, “if you’re gonna be this obvious, you might as well admit it.”

“Admit what?” Yeonjun squeaks, probably too quickly.

Taehyun just raises an eyebrow.

Yeonjun squirms. “I— ugh.”

There’s a beat of silence. The arcade hums around them.

Beomgyu lets out a loud giggle and Yeonjun’s heart skips a beat. 

“Maybe I do have a crush on him,” Yeonjun realized. And then clapped a hand over his mouth— he hadn’t meant to say that out loud. He prays Taehyun didn’t hear him but… he did. And for some weird reason, he looks even more angry— when it had been him trying to get Yeonjun to admit his crush on Beomgyu. 

“What?” Taehyun scoffs. “Wow, finally admitting that. And also— Beomgyu’s an omega, if you didn’t realize that. And you’re an omega too, right? Just a heads up.” 

“I— um, yeah. I know. And I just— I want to be friends with Beomgyu, really, that’s all it is. He seems really cool.” Yeonjun stammers out, a little flustered. “It’s not a crush— it isn’t— I swear—”

Taehyun looks at him, and then something changes in his expression. There’s a shift and— suddenly, all the anger melts out into something that Yeonjun can’t quite grasp the emotion of. Longing? Sadness? Confusion? 

“…A crush, huh?” 

“Uhm, yeah.” Yeonjun nods, blinking nervously at Taehyun.

Taehyun hums. 

“It all starts with a crush— well, the denial— and then you realize it is one. You think it’s just another stupid little thing, and it’ll fade as time passes. And then… it keeps spiraling— and spiraling— until you realize it’s not just a silly, stupid, little crush. It’s… everything.” He says.

Yeonjun swallows. 

“Yeah?” He says. 

“Mhm.”

Yeonjun and Taehyun are silent for a few, long moments. 

“He held onto my heart too, you know?” Taehyun says really quietly. “Just for a while… My heart was all his to keep.”

Yeonjun stares at him, wide eyed. 

What…?

“Like everyone says… There isn’t a single person who doesn’t fall in love with Choi Beomgyu,” Taehyun huffs, but his eyes are pooled with blue and grey. “He comes into your life with his sunny personality and his... his charms. He attracts everyone— and that… that included me. He came into my life and just… took my heart with him and… I thought I could let him, and he could let his heart become mine but I—” Taehyun lets out a shaky breath. “In the end I was a coward. I saw the way society viewed omega-omega relationships and alpha-alpha ones and I— I loved Beomgyu as a person and he loved me as one too but in the end…”

Taehyun glances over at Beomgyu, and then gazes back down at his hands clasped together in front of him. 

“In the end… I chose to just stay friends. I loved him for him— for being Choi Beomgyu— and yet in the end, I didn’t stay with him. I couldn’t— and… I guess what hurt is that he understood. So I... So now we’re just friends. Best friends— and I guess it’s for the best. And I guess I’m a little pathetic calling him my husband platonically even after I rejected our feelings and I— I told him it was better off this way and I just—” Taehyun lets out a shuddering laugh. “This sounds like some fucking tragic romance novel, the cliche ones about the whole Romeo, Juliet trope.”

Yeonjun is speechless and he’s left staring at the Taehyun— this side of Taehyun he never knew existed, never thought would come from the stony, blunt-tongued omega he’d met as Beomgyu’s friend, this raw version of him. 

“Just please… Make sure you don’t hurt him.” Taehyun whispers, looking straight into Yeonjun’s eyes. “You say this isn’t a crush— that you don’t like Beomgyu that way but— I can see the past me that fell in love with the same guy in you. So Yeonjun. I can’t convince you but… if you like Beomgyu for who he is… Then I hope you don’t let stupid subgenders and stereotypes and societal standards stop you. I… I guess that’s all I wanted you to hear. So— so get out of my fucking way now.” He huffs, shoving past Yeonjun as he stomps off.

“Hey… Taehyun?” 

The omega pauses, but doesn’t turn around.

“…Thank you.” 

Taehyun glances at Yeonjun. 

“Yeah, sure. Whatever.” He mutters, but the ends of his lips curl up. Just a little but… it’s a lot when it came from Kang Taehyun. “And… just know I do support omega-omega relationships, so… you can go ahead and win over my best friend. If you want or whatever,” he adds hastily. 

“I’m— I’m an alpha.” Yeonjun blurts out. 

Taehyun whirls around to finally face Yeonjun properly and his mouth is open. 

“I um—” Yeonjun swallows. “You assumed— and I never got a chance to correct you— I’m sorry, I—” 

Taehyun sighs. 

“Well, Beomgyu’s not much of the typical omega— not like the stereotypical one, I mean— so I suppose you don’t have to be the stereotypical alpha either.” He shrugs. “Fine. I don’t know what you want me to do with that info, but thanks I guess. Anyways, shoot your shot. If you’re an alpha, you have a better fucking chance than me I guess— not that I have any romantic feelings for Beomgyu anymore. I got over it.” His eyes tell a different story, but Yeonjun decides not to comment on it. 

Then Taehyun is walking over to Beomgyu who is currently crawling out of the racing game chair in despair, groaning and dramatically waving his arms around, claiming Kai cheated— the nerve— and Yeonjun watches as Taehyun lets Beomgyu lean on him and teases him with a snarky grin, and he starts to see it, what he hadn’t noticed before. The way Taehyun’s eyes linger a little too long on Beomgyu, how his lips curl up but his eyes look so sad as they gaze at Beomgyu, how he looks like… he’s regretting, but also longing.

Chapter Text

Yeonjun eventually has to go home— Soobin and Beomgyu offer to drop him off since he was on their street— and he shrugs off his backpack and toes off his shoes, entering the house. Today however, it’s not completely silent. There’s noises coming from the kitchen.

Oh. 

His dad is home for once, seated at the dining table with a large file he’s glancing over. His mother is humming by the stove, stirring something in the pot. It must be a special day— both his parents are at home. They’re never home— they’d been too busy once the family had moved to this town. 

Yeonjun furrows his brows.

“Hi… Mom, Dad.” He says slowly. 

His dad finally glances up from the file. “Yeonjun-ah,” he says, like he’s surprised to see him.

“It’s… been a while, Dad.” Yeonjun says softly. His father’s chin is covered in stubble and he looks much more older— though it had only been a little less than a week.

“I’m sorry, I know I’ve been far too busy lately— I didn’t mean to be distant, Jun-ah,” his father says. “I got a few hours off today, but I’m going to have to go back later. But I wanted to be present for dinner for once.” He says, then goes back to his files. 

Work. Work, work, work— too busy— work, work, Yeonjun thinks bitterly, but shoots his dad a small smile, before glancing at the stairs.

“I’ll go do my homework then,” he starts, but his dad stops him.

“Where were you? I thought your school ended at three.” 

Yeonjun clears his throat. “I… I was out— I was hanging out with some friends.”

“Friends?” His parents echo in sync.

Yeonjun stiffens. He hadn’t realized how much that word meant until they said it like that.

“Yeah,” he mumbles, voice smaller. “Friends.”

“You made friends?” His dad blinks. 

Yeonjun nods. 

“Well then,” His mother says. “Good for you, Jun-ah. I’m glad. Who are they?” 

“Choi Beomgyu, and his brother Soobin— and Beomgyu’s friends, Ni-ki and Heeseung and Taehyun. And Huening Kai— I met him at lunch and we became friends.” Yeonjun says a little proudly. 

“Choi Beomgyu?” His dad repeats, eyes widening. 

“Yeah, and Soobin too,” Yeonjun adds. “Something wrong, Dad…?”

His dad shakes his head. 

“No, no. It’s just… Their parents are very big figures— so much so that I hear about them from co-workers, just time to time. Their father runs a big agency that mine is actually under, and their mother… You know Minari, right?” 

Yeonjun nods. Mina Lee— better known as Minari— the fashion icon of the country, who owned the largest modeling agency in all of South Korea. Everyone knew of her— and of her clothing lines and how models rose to stardom under her guise and care. 

“She’s their mother— and I’ve been hearing a lot of rumors about her wanting to take back custody of her omega son and whatnot. I wouldn’t have thought of him as someone you’d befriend, that’s all.” 

Yeonjun bits down on his tongue.

“…I’m going to go do my homework now,” he mumbles, before trudging up the stairs.

Yeah… Beomgyu was a little out of his league. What was Yeonjun even doing?

—

Yeonjun

Beomgyu? 

Beomgyu

Hey!!! 👋 What’s up? 

Yeonjun

I just

I was wondering

Can I ask about your parents?

I heard something from my dad and just…

I guess I was curious

If you don’t mind ofc 

Beomgyu

oof depends on what you heard lol

my parents are divorced

Mom stays in the city

And me and Soobin hyung stay with appa 

In the house a few blocks from yours

Like duh 😂 but yeah

Does that answer your curiousity??

Yeonjun

My dad apparently works under your dad’s company, in a company under your dad’s

Beomgyu

Whattttt???? Omgggg that’s crazy 

Small world, huh? 

Yeonjun laughs at that. 

Beomgyu

Wanna come over?

You’ve met the son, now time to meet the dad 😂

Yeonjun stares at the message. His stomach flips.

Meet Beomgyu’s dad? Why? Was that normal? Was this a test? What was he even supposed to say to him?

—

Yeonjun rings the doorbell before he can chicken out.

He’s still not sure why Beomgyu wanted him to come over all of a sudden— especially if his dad was home. Yeonjun had changed outfits twice before leaving the house, then changed back because it felt like he was trying too hard. It wasn’t a date. Obviously. It was just a... casual hangout. With Beomgyu. And his CEO of a father.

The door swings open.

“Hey!” Beomgyu grins like it’s nothing. Like he didn’t just casually invite Yeonjun into the lion’s den. “You came fast,” he says, stepping aside to let Yeonjun in.

Yeonjun awkwardly toes off his sneakers and glances around. The inside of Beomgyu’s house is clean— it’s pristine, really. A few framed photos line the hallway as they go down the foyer— of Soobin as a baby, of Beomgyu with a bowl cut, of the two brothers at school events. And some that are clearly professionally taken: Minari, in heels and sunglasses, holding Beomgyu’s hand like a publicist would. There aren’t many of Minari though. 

“Appa!” Beomgyu calls out. “He’s here!” 

“Is that him?” a voice calls from the kitchen. “Is that the mysterious Yeonjun?”

Yeonjun freezes.

A man pokes his head out from around the corner— soft brown hair that flops a little over his forehead, dark eyes that look warm, a mug in one hand, and an apron that says in bright pink, ‘World’s Okayest Chef’ with a dark brown shirt and sweatpants underneath.

“There he is!” the man beams like they’ve met before. “Come in, come in— don’t be shy! We’ve heard so much about you. I was starting to think you were imaginary, ho ho!”

“Appa,” Beomgyu groans, dragging a hand down his face.

“What? I’m just excited to meet the kid you befriended so quickly! You don’t do that often, Bear.”

Yeonjun bows quickly. “It’s nice to meet you, sir— um, Mr. Choi?”

“Mr. Choi?” Beomgyu’s dad laughs, setting down his mug and wiping his hands on a dish towel. “Oh no, don’t make me sound like a landlord or something so boring. Call me Dad. Or Hyun. Or Beomgyu’s dad. Whatever feels right.”

Yeonjun’s so startled he almost bows again. “Uh— okay Mr— I mean— Hyun. Sir. Dad. Uh.”

Beomgyu cackles in the background.

“You want a cinnamon roll?” Hyun asks, already turning back toward the kitchen. “They’re homemade! Kind of. I mean, I bought the dough. But I shaped them with love. That counts, right?”

Yeonjun blinks. “Sure?”

“Beomgyu, my dear, grab plates, will you? Use the ones that don’t have weird cartoons on them, please.”

“No promises,” Beomgyu calls back with a grin.

Yeonjun trails into the kitchen.

“So,” Hyun says, placing a roll on a plate with almost exaggerated care, “my son says you’re ‘amazing’ and he rarely feels genuine friendship for someone so quickly. It took years for him to really befriend Taehyun and Ni-ki and Heeseung! Friends since they were babies, but it was only till middle school he started really trusting them, you know?”

Beomgyu shoves a plate into Yeonjun’s hands.

“Don’t let him scare you off. He’s harmless.”

Hyun gasps, hand to his chest. “I’m being slandered in my own home. After feeding you! My goodness!”

Beomgyu giggles, and then his father is shaking his head, but his hand rufffles his son’s hair. Yeonjun could only stare at the exchange. 

They all sit around the kitchen table, and somehow, the nerves in Yeonjun’s stomach ease just a little. Beomgyu’s dad isn’t what he expected. Not cold. Not intimidating. Just… warm. A little chaotic. Kind. The house had been so pristine and cold— but Beomgyu and his father warmed everything around them into something so cozy.

Nothing like his own.

He bites into the cinnamon roll and tries not to smile too hard.

Maybe this wasn’t so scary after all.

—

The cinnamon roll is warm and sticky, and Yeonjun tries not to inhale it too fast.

They’re sitting at the kitchen table, Beomgyu dunking his in milk like a child, Hyun complaining good-naturedly about the crumbs on the table. There’s music playing faintly from a speaker on the fridge— some indie band Yeonjun doesn’t recognize— and every so often, a breeze floats in through the open window, carrying the smell of rain from the street outside.

It’s… nice.

Too nice.

Yeonjun glances across the table. Beomgyu’s dad is laughing at something Beomgyu said— head thrown back, unguarded. He’s still got the apron on, still sipping from that stupid mug, still smiling like none of this is a performance.

It’s not fair.

Yeonjun swallows hard and looks down at his plate. He can feel the smile slipping from his face.

His dad never looked like that. Not even once.

In their house, the silence always came first— then the tired sighs, the curt questions, the clipped “not now, I’m working”s. Conversations were more like schedule updates. Even the rare dinners together felt stiff and formal, like he was dining with a company executive, not his father.

He doesn’t remember his dad ever cracking a joke just to make him laugh. Not unless it was at someone else’s expense. And even then, it was dry. Tired.

There were no cinnamon rolls in their kitchen. Just reheat meals (unless his mother felt like cooking). Just coffee mugs with company logos. Just cold light and silence and absence.

Yeonjun’s throat feels tight.

He shifts in his seat.

Beomgyu notices.

“You good?” he murmurs, nudging his knee under the table.

Yeonjun forces a smile. “Yeah. Sorry. Just spaced out.”

Beomgyu’s brow furrows, but he lets it go.

Hyun gets up to rinse the plates and hums as he does, flicking water at Beomgyu when he gets too close. The boy shrieks and tries to retaliate with a paper towel roll swat.

They’re ridiculous.

They’re perfect.

And Yeonjun doesn’t know what to do with the sudden ache curling in his chest.

No yelling. No tension. No eggshells to tiptoe on.

Just… love. In broad daylight (evening light…?), with laughter and soft music and cinnamon rolls.

It makes him feel warm and cold all at once.

He presses his palms to his thighs, grounding himself, but the thought creeps in anyway:

I wish my dad were like this.

And beneath that, even quieter:

I wish I’d had this.

Beomgyu’s dad turns to him.

“Ah, it’s nearly seven. Have you had dinner yet, Yeonjun?” He asks. 

Yeonjun shakes his head.

“No. My parents were having dinner— and I told them I wasn’t hungry, and that I was coming over here. I didn’t— I wasn’t planning on staying long, so…” He trails off.

“Well… if you don’t feel like going back yet, you’re more than welcome to join us for dinner!” Hyun smiles warmly. “We have plenty to eat!” 

Yeonjun’s heart warms. 

“I… If you don’t mind, thank you.” He says shyly. 

Beomgyu side-hugs Yeonjun, and he tries not to panic at how close the omega was, his unfiltered cherry scent wafting off of him in excited bursts of sweetened cream and ripe cherries. 

“Aw, we’d love to have you for dinner! Dad’s cooking is kinda mid (Hyun gasps in mock-outrage, a hand on his chest dramatically… so that’s where Beomgyu’s dramaticness came from) but it’s edible.” 

Hyun nods. 

“There’s samgyeopsal and a lot of rice if anyone needs an extra bowl— and pickled radishes and some honey rice cakes and… well, I think that’s it.” He says with a laugh. Then he glances up at the ceiling. 

“Soobin-ah! Soobin-ah!” Hyun calls out loudly. “Choi Soobin— dinner! Dinner’s ready! Come down now!” 

A few seconds later, footsteps thud down the steps and Soobin appears in the kitchen, clad in pajama bottoms and a baggy black t-shirt, with a towel over his head. His eyes widen when he sees Yeonjun and he immediately tugs the towel off his head.

“Oh. Didn’t realize we had company.” He says, water still dripping from his hair. 

Yeonjun manages a shy wave. 

“Hi,” he mumbles out. 

Soobin nods at Yeonjun with a small smile, then glances at Hyun.

“You didn’t tell me he was coming, Appa.”

“I didn’t know either!” Hyun chirps. “But I’m delighted. We always have room for one more.”

“Great,” Soobin says, though he sounds more amused than anything else. He grabs a bowl and starts scooping rice like it’s muscle memory.

They gather around the table again, this time with steaming platters of samgyeopsal in the center, the meat sizzling and glistening beside dishes of dipping sauces, kimchi, and the bright yellow of pickled radish. Yeonjun’s mouth waters almost instantly.

“Pass me the lettuce,” Beomgyu says, already stacking his rice bowl with garlic and pork.

“Nope,” Soobin replies, sliding it just out of reach.

Beomgyu huffs. “You’re such a villain, hyung!”

“I learned from the best,” Soobin says, nodding toward Hyun.

“Hey!” Hyun gasps, laughing. “What kind of father figure am I being slandered as today?”

Yeonjun finds himself smiling again before he can stop it. The bickering is gentle, easy. No one’s voice raises. No one sounds exasperated or tired or biting. It’s just teasing and closeness— so natural it makes Yeonjun ache.

He reaches for a slice of meat, hands careful, almost hesitant, like he’s afraid to disrupt the rhythm of their little world.

“You okay, Yeonjun-ah?” Hyun asks, leaning in a bit. His eyes are kind— not probing, just genuinely curious.

Yeonjun looks up, caught mid-thought. He nods quickly.

“Yes, thank you. This is… really good.”

Hyun grins. “Glad to hear it. You’re always welcome here, you know. Open door policy for Beomgyu’s friends— unless you’re secretly a spy. Are you a spy?”

Yeonjun blinks. “Um… no?”

“Hmm,” Hyun says with a playful squint. “That’s exactly what a spy would say.”

Beomgyu groans. “Appa, please.”

Yeonjun laughs softly, ducking his head.

It’s too much and just enough all at once. His chest swells with warmth and something quieter, deeper. A longing he can’t voice.

He glances toward the window, where the sun is setting in thin strips of pink and orange, the sky bleeding into evening. In the background, the soft murmur of the speaker plays something acoustic and sweet.

No emails. No phones buzzing with deadlines. No meetings hanging over anyone’s head. Just food, and comfort, and voices overlapping around a dinner table that feels full.

Yeonjun doesn’t remember the last time he had this.

Doesn’t remember the last time he was asked if he’d eaten— not because someone wanted to lecture him, but because someone genuinely cared.

He chews slowly. Savors.

Somewhere deep in his ribs, something softens.