Chapter Text
Taeyong had been living in Tokyo for twelve years. It was not the plan he had for himself originally. When he was twenty-one, he promised his parents that he would return to South Korea and find a job at a decent company after graduation. But just as he was entering his final year of school, he was allowed to intern at a Japanese company and when he celebrated his graduation, he was offered an official position within the finance department.
He would’ve been a fool not to take it. Even though he was fresh out of university, the company was willing to pay him generously for a basic starting analyst position. Besides the executives had hinted that Taeyong could receive a promotion within the first two or three years if he met the company’s standards. He knew they were trying to get him to stay in Japan. He had mentioned his plans to one of his seniors a few months before his graduation, told him he was preparing job applications for South Korean companies.
“Ah, someone as good as you must look nice to all those companies,” he had said to Taeyong. “As expected from someone that’s graduating from Sodai in three months!”
He was offered his job three months later.
He didn’t hate it. He worked diligently and had been promoted to a directorial position in almost half the time it normally took. He stayed behind often to review the work of the groups he oversaw before going home, hours after everyone else on the floor. He’d always been someone that paid attention to the minute details in things and fixed them to perfection. His work ethic was admired by his peers, new and old, and even if some gave him backhanded compliments, Taeyong’s confidence in his work never wavered.
He knew that he was challenging the hierarchy that had been in place within the corporate warrior industry for decades and that pleased him greatly. Taeyong didn’t care that many of his male alpha-assigned colleagues looked at him with pure envy. It only drove Taeyong to work harder. Now, he was not only a foreigner, but also an omega-assigned male, and he was thriving in the Japanese white-collar world. Taeyong’s co-workers could take their fragile salarymen masculinities and use it to light a fire under their asses. Maybe then they would be able to catch up to him.
But the truth was that no one could catch up to Taeyong. He was in first place, and truthfully, first place was rather lonely. The co-workers he had entered the company had grown with him but then they remained in their comfortable cubicles; Taeyong had wanted more than a cozy cube to call his own. Many of those co-workers had naturally drifted away from him, letting Taeyong go above and beyond by himself. It was only a couple of years before two new co-workers entered the company and stuck themselves to Taeyong, and they were still there beside him because they had made themselves at home in his personal life as his friends.
“We need to take care of you, Taeyong,” Johnny always told him.
Johnny had always been one of Taeyong’s dearest friends and he was the only one that didn’t need to shimmy his way into Taeyong’s affections. They had met during their first year of university. It was common for everyone to stick to people they shared similarities with, and when Taeyong ran across Johnny, he felt blessed to have someone that could speak the same language as him and who had grown up in a household similar to his. Even though Johnny’s American tendencies popped up now and then, there was no doubt that he was Korean through and through. They had graduated from Sodai together and had even lived together for a year while they got their bearings together.
It was only after they moved into their respective places and didn’t have to see each other every day that Taeyong realized how much of a necessity Johnny had been. It was true that Taeyong needed taking care of sometimes. He liked to take care of everyone around him, tending to the needs of his friends and family, and he left himself out. And it was Johnny that used to take care of him. He provided constant, reliable support and love that reminded Taeyong of his father.
Johnny always had a fathering instinct. It was something Taeyong realized right before they graduated university. He was putting it to good use these days. Johnny had easily transitioned from just being a husband to father over the last two years with the arrival of his twin girls. Moving away from each other had torn Johnny away from Taeyong, but Johnny’s marriage and now his children cut the rope completely on most days.
This was were Johnny’s we came in. We consisted of Johnny and the two co-workers that Taeyong couldn’t seem to shake from his shoulders. They were beloved juniors. They had entered the company around the time Taeyong had been promoted to a mid-level manager. Doyoung came first. He had graduated from Sodai as well and had been planning on going back to South Korea like Taeyong until the company offered him a job he couldn’t refuse.
Whereas Johnny had a fathering instinct, Doyoung had a mothering instinct. He was careful and precise in his work, as a true professional should be. But outside of work, Doyoung was gentle and kind, more in his actions than in his words, though his words were still mostly nice. Doyoung got into the habit of stopping by to drag Taeyong away from the work he brought home and made sure he did the things he needed to do. He nagged incessantly, in only a way Doyoung could, and Taeyong gave in to Doyoung more often than not, much to his chagrin.
But like Johnny, Doyoung was slipping away from Taeyong’s grip fast. Doyoung’s habit was hard to break but he had begun to lessen the number of times he visited over the last couple of years. Doyoung’s fiancée didn’t mind that Doyoung checked up on Taeyong often but if it continued into their married life, there could be some issues.
And Taeyong understood that. He wasn’t a child. He was a grown man. He took care of himself when he needed to. He wasn’t completely useless and helpless when it came to self-care. He didn’t need Johnny or Doyoung to hold his hand through everything. Over the years he had learned how to stop and leave work for the office. It was only when he was focused on a goal that he overworked himself for months. But he did fall into those quite often.
Since Doyoung had begun to gradually leave Taeyong to his own devices, Doyoung had begun sending Jaehyun to check on him. Jaehyun had entered the company after Doyoung, a graduate from a university in the United States. The sound of Doyoung and Taeyong’s names was almost enough to make Jaehyun burst into tears. He had spent years away from South Korea. He had taken a job in Japan, thinking it was the closest he would ever get of coming back home. To have two Korean co-workers was enough reason for Jaehyun to force the three of them to be friends.
Jaehyun was like Taeyong’s little brother. He only had an older sister so he had always been the baby of the family. Jaehyun was an only child, however, and he gratefully accepted Doyoung and Taeyong as his older brother figures. After Taeyong introduced them to Johnny, Jaehyun had made his way into Johnny’s affections, spending more time with him than with Doyoung or Taeyong, mostly as a glorified babysitter.
As the remaining single of the group, Jaehyun had been the one that dragged Taeyong out after work on Fridays to hit up the clubs in years past. Jaehyun’s interests spanned over an entire spectrum, taking someone home on some nights out, regardless of who they were. As long as they seemed trustworthy and interesting after a few hours of talking, Jaehyun would take them home. But for Taeyong’s sake, Jaehyun always paid for their entry into the male-only bars and clubs in Ni-chome.
Going out to clubs and bars was fun for one night arrangements. Taeyong had been a little more adventurous in his early twenties, not caring much for what kind of man he slept with. But as he got older, he found himself getting pickier with the kind of man he spent the night with. It made the appeal of going out decrease drastically, and towards the end of their clubbing days, Jaehyun was the one that would leave with someone and Taeyong would just go home to his lonely apartment in Kichijoji.
It was fun when he was twenty-four. Going out with an inexperienced Jaehyun and showing him how to pick someone up within the first few hours had taken up many weekends in the past. Taeyong had been in Tokyo since he was eighteen; he had started going to clubs when he was twenty. He had many years of practice and experience under his belt. But he was past his thirtieth birthday now. While Taeyong still looked like he was a young twenty-four-year-old, he didn’t feel like one at all. Besides, the guys hitting up clubs were still kids, all of them in university and looking for a few hours of fun. Taeyong was an adult with a real job paying real bills who needed to be up early every morning. Jaehyun had come to the same realization now that he had turned twenty-eight.
These days, instead of going to clubs, Jaehyun dragged Taeyong out to go shopping in Daikanyama or to eat and drink in a private room at a nice restaurant in Ikebukuro, always paying for them without complaint. They talked over late-night snacks in the park by Taeyong’s apartment instead of getting blackout drunk in Ni-chome.
“What you need is not someone to spend the night with,” Jaehyun told him once as they ate konbini onigiri on a park bench. “You need someone to spend your life with now, hyung.”
Taeyong had only dated one girl in his life. When he was in high school, he went out with a girl from another class named Sojung. She was a pretty girl and extremely intelligent. They got together in their senior year but Taeyong broke up with her after a few months because he realized he would be leaving South Korea and he didn’t like her, as smart, nice, and cute as she was. He had quickly figured out that it was because she was a woman. He never told her the second reason though, leaving her to believe it was just because he was leaving for a few years.
Being in Japan had been liberating. Taeyong wasn’t under the watchful eye of his parents and no one knew him. He could be whoever he wanted to be in Japan. He had begun his road to self-acceptance and after his first year of university, he started going out with a guy named Fuma, who attended Keio. It was very much a “school rivals started dating” story but Taeyong truly felt right beside Fuma. He was devasted when Fuma ended their relationship after almost two years. It had been Johnny that picked up all the pieces of him and put him together again.
Since then, it had only been one night things. The breakup with Fuma had let a large fear of committed relationships. And when Taeyong hyped himself up enough to accept a date and start a relationship, it always ended a failure. When Taeyong went on real dates, his dates always found him intimidating. He was successful in life, which was great, but he was just a little too successful for their liking. He had gone out with alphas, betas, and omegas―they were all scared off by his successes. He was a pure omega, which was always Taeyong’s selling point, but he didn’t act the way omegas should act, according to his dates. Taeyong had a great job in a great company and lived in a great apartment in a great neighborhood. What kind of omega was he?
In Seoul, many people had thrown away the idea of stereotypical behaviors for one’s assignation. It was a face-paced city that was always modernizing itself, and the people of Seoul had greatly abandoned the idea of a hierarchy of assignations once the 21st-century began. Though still prevalent in more rural areas, many metropolitan cities were changing the way assignations were seen. Tokyo wasn’t much different.
It wasn’t uncommon to see omegas leading large teams of people within companies, like Taeyong did, or seeing alpha parents stay behind to do the child-rearing that had been seen as something the omega had to do, which was something Johnny had done when his girls were born. Those were things of the past in cities like Tokyo and Seoul.
Yet cities like Tokyo and Seoul could never shake those beliefs away completely. The stark traditional family values remained among the higher class families. The men that Taeyong liked most came from these families. They came from families that had been graduating from schools like Keio or Sodai for generations, families that had power and influence in various corporate industries, families that had strong alpha males with beautiful omega partners. Traditional courting practices and arranged marriages for alpha sons to an omega were still popular among these elite crowds. As long as these families were there, the stereotypes would never fade away.
Taeyong’s success was a clear indicator that he was not the omega for these great, big alpha sons. And truthfully, Taeyong would rather die than be forced to give up his job and live the life of someone waiting for their alpha husband at home every day, like a good, docile omega was thought to do.
Relationships between different assignations these days were more accepted. When Taeyong’s parents had been growing up, many relationships had been looked down upon. His parents were both betas so there had been no difficulty for them, but for other friends and family members, it had been hard.
The idea of alpha-omega relationships had reigned supreme for centuries, but this had led to higher alpha birth rates. As technology advanced, babies that were pre-screened and found to be omegas were often not given a chance at life, and when they were, they were often given away because they were undesirable children. Omega-omega relationships were seen as wrong, even being banned in some countries, and as the only type of relationship that could produce pure omegas, the birth rate of omegas from these partnerships had decreased. During that time, many of the omegas born came from beta-omega relationships and sometimes beta-beta relationships, both of which were common and accepted among society.
Now, the race for alphas of these elite families to find an omega partner to produce heirs was intense. Especially since omega-omega relationships had become widely accepted and supported by individuals and most organizations, and in Japan’s case, the government. Alphas no longer had competition in the form of betas and other alphas, but other omegas as well.
Pure omegas had once been the most undesirable kind of children, but the most desirable kind of partner. These days, pure omega children were held highly and grew up to be almost more respected than alphas had once been in the past. It was Taeyong’s selling point, being a pure omega.
Sojung had been an omega and last he heard, she was a highly praised editor at a magazine and was being flocked with proposals from every angle, but had recently accepted the proposal of her longterm partner, another omega. And Fuma had also been an omega. From what Taeyong knew, he had a great paying job and had married last year to an omega male.
“I was lucky to find Christie,” Johnny told Taeyong shortly after he got married. “Had she married her ex-boyfriend, she would’ve married another omega.”
Taeyong could never understand the struggle of an alpha. He tried his best to sympathize with Johnny, but he would never experience it. For many years before he had met Johnny, Taeyong thought that it was what alphas deserved. It was karma for the things alphas of the past had done. But after meeting someone like Johnny, Taeyong tried his best to sympathize. Alphas like Johnny were good. However, sometimes, Taeyong still thought that it was what they deserved. When he would sit across his perfect date, he would think about it.
He hated that he had become this picky.
Dating apps in Japan were nothing like they were elsewhere, especially in North America, where dating apps were more for hookups than for finding someone to be in a serious relationship with. The times he had signed up for a dating app, the questions had been very specific and Taeyong had answered honestly. He wanted someone with a job that paid as much as his, someone that lived in their own place, and someone that had a well-rounded education to match his own―he had no preference for assignation. And the men that he matched with were all these alphas from elite families that expected Taeyong to submit like his omega ancestors once would have. But Taeyong just wouldn’t.
He had tried. God, he tried. But after a month or two, it all became clear. Taeyong was just not the omega partner they were looking for. He was too hardworking, too powerful, too much of a leading type. He was not domestic enough, not helpless enough, not omega enough.
Jaehyun told Taeyong to just let loose, but Taeyong was too old to be letting loose. It was true. He didn’t need someone to spend the night with. Taeyong needed someone to spend his life with. He hadn’t thought of it before, not until Jaehyun mentioned it.
Everyone around him was growing up. Johnny married Christie at twenty-five and now that he was thirty, he had started his own little family. Doyoung had been with Mizu-chan since they were in university and after almost a decade, they were finally going to get married. The co-workers that Taeyong had entered the company with were almost all married with one or two children already. Even Jaehyun had begun to realize that he couldn’t keep bringing strangers home for one night and was focusing on his blossoming crush on Hori-san from HR.
“You’ll find someone,” Johnny said over drinks one night. “There is someone for everyone.”
Doyoung agreed with Johnny. “There are plenty of people for everyone. It’s just a matter of finding them. Tokyo is a big city.”
Johnny nodded confidently. “It’s just a matter of finding them and settling for one,” he said.
Taeyong scrunched his nose. He rang his finger around the rim of his glass. “‘Settling for one’,” he repeated. “That sounds terrible.”
He imagined it briefly. Having to settle for one partner out the small selection pool that expected him to be a well-behaved omega. He almost shuddered.
“Use a dating app,” Jaehyun said, from beside Johnny. “Sicheng used it and met a nice guy. They’ve been together for almost a few months and are talking about getting married already.”
“I have used a dating app.”
“No, but one made for marriage,” Jaehyun said. “He used one for dating with the intent to marry.”
“Sicheng did an omiai ?” Doyoung asked.
“It’s not an omiai,” Jaehyun huffed. “I think…”
“Matchmaking is a really good idea, though,” Johnny said. “It takes the guesswork out. Christie’s friend got married through a matchmaking agency. You should think it through. Or we can hit up some clubs next weekend for the first time in forever?”
Johnny had Christie send him the information to the matchmaking agency that her friend had used. Taeyong had researched it before applying.
It wasn’t too big, but they were big enough to have two locations: one in Tokyo and one in Kyoto. They had several matchmakers that worked for them. They claimed that 94% of couples they matched were married. They even promised that they could successfully match foreigners living in Japan, which seemed a little bold. The review page for the agency boasted four and a half stars, and many of the reviews wrote about how they had met their significant other through the agency.
Met my husband through here! We married after two months and are celebrating our second anniversary soon!
My wife and I found each other after applying. We got along really well. We got married after six months, and we’ve been together for almost four years.
Boyfriend and I are planning our wedding already! We met almost four months ago and fell in love almost immediately.
Taeyong scrolled through the reviews and even clicked through the photos that reviewers posted, most of them being selfies of them with their partner. The photos didn’t seem altered or staged.
He had applied online a few days after. The questions were personal, but he answered them honestly, knowing that it wouldn’t help his chances if he lied about himself, even if it was about his favorite color. The application also required him to send in several official documents, which he did after some hesitation. He was even more hesitant when he pulled out his card to pay for the service. It wasn’t out worldly expensive, but if this didn’t work, Taeyong wouldn’t get his money back.
Once he submitted his application, he had received a confirmation email that his profile had been successfully set up and then the next day, they had called him to set up a meeting. Taeyong scheduled it for Friday and had then called in to take the day off.
He had made his way across Tokyo to their office and entered, being greeted by a professional-looking waiting room. After telling the receptionist his name, he had been taken into an office, where his matchmaker was waiting patiently for him.
Taeyong’s profile was amazing. The matchmaker told him this when she read it over the first time. She had given him a curious look as if asking why such an amazing, well-accomplished omega was seeking the agency’s services in the first place. As she went through it the second time, she asked him some questions, providing information about herself to make Taeyong feel more at ease through the meeting. It would only take an hour or two, and then she would go and do her matchmaking magic.
She was an older woman that introduced herself as Boa. She had given a brief introduction about herself. She was thirty-eight years old and was happily married to her husband, Yunho. They had married in 2006 in their native South Korea, and they had recently celebrated nineteen years of marriage. She had been kind enough to show Taeyong pictures of her and her husband, along with their three children. Their oldest was ten years old, only a year older than Taeyong’s nephew back home.
They looked like a happy family. It also helped Taeyong become a little more comfortable around her. It made her more human in a way, and he felt less intimidated.
Instead, Taeyong began to feel comforted that he had Boa as his matchmaker. She spoke in Korean once she read that he had been born and raised there.
“It’s always nice to have someone that is Korean,” she said with a smile. “You wrote that you’ve been in Tokyo since 2013?”
“I have been,” Taeyong confirmed. “I came here for school and decided to stay after I graduated. I applied for permanent residence right before I started my job and received my citizenship a bit after.”
“Yunho and I moved here in 2012, so we’ve been here only a little longer than you have,” she said. “Do you miss South Korea?”
“Sometimes,” he replied. “It’s mostly my family I miss.”
Boa smiled at him sweetly. “You must be close to your family then.”
Taeyong hummed. “I’ve always been close to my sister. She’s seven years older than me, but it’s never felt like that. And I’m close to my parents as well.”
“They know that you like men?”
It was an unexpected question and Taeyong hesitated.
He had told his family about Fuma. It had been a serious relationship, after all. But Taeyong never properly ‘came out’ to them. He never had the opportunity to sit face-to-face with his parents and his sister to tell them that he was interested in men. But when he told them about Fuma, they had never asked for clarification or seemed to want it. They didn’t have a problem with Fuma being a man, so he figured it was fine. They knew; they understood.
“I told them about my last serious ex-boyfriend,” Taeyong answered, not knowing how to explain.
Boa was reading his profile once more. She didn’t ask more about his family and if they knew he was gay. “You graduated from Waseda University?”
“Economics,” Taeyong replied. “Nearly top of the class.”
“That’s impressive. I didn’t go to college, but Yunho did. He went twice actually, once for his bachelor’s and then for his masters,” she said with a soft laugh. “He graduated from Myongji and Chungwoon.”
“That’s amazing,” he said.
The meeting went on like that.
Boa was a kind woman and wasn’t judgemental at all at the things Taeyong had written in his profile. She confirmed all of his information and then asked him questions about some things, mostly to get his thoughts and opinions on them. There were some normal question and a few odd questions, but he replied to them all without much hesitation. She took note of his answers on her computer, nicely manicured nails tapping away quickly, and occasionally, she wrote them his answers right on the printed version of his profile with a bright red pen.
Taeyong supposed it would help her understand him a little bit more so he tried to be as honest as he could. As terrifying as it was to bare his heart and soul to anyone, Boa seemed trustworthy so Taeyong felt a little more comfortable.
“Well, Taeyong,” she sighed after almost two hours, “I’m afraid that’s all the time we have today. Once we have a match for you, I’ll give you a call and we can begin preparing to set up the first meeting.”
Taeyong was meeting with one of the accounts managers when the call came through two weeks later. He let it go to voicemail and focused on the reports that the teams had come up with. The sight of Boa’s name across his screen was almost enough for him to delete the voicemail and forget about it altogether, but when Taeyong caught sight of Doyoung at his desk after his meeting, he knew he had to listen to the voicemail. His friends were waiting for good news.
Since it had been two weeks, Taeyong had lost hope. Perhaps, he thought, Boa wasn’t able to find a match for him. The reviews of the agency said that they received matches within the first few days, but it had been two weeks. It was a good reason to lose hope.
Johnny had been optimistic. He had been the one that recommended the agency after asking Christie about it. Christie herself had called Taeyong and boasted about how her friend had gotten married after being matched there. Another one of her friends was engaged to someone they met there. It worked, she promised.
Jaehyun had also been optimistic. Sicheng, one of Jaehyun’s closest friends and his connection to Hori-san from HR, had been matched through a matchmaking app, so a real-life matchmaking agency would work for Taeyong and his unrealistic, high expectations.
Only Doyoung had been a little suspicious about it. Taeyong had paid money to use their services and it was non-refundable money. He was afraid that Taeyong had been robbed, scammed by the sweet Boa and her colleagues. If it turned out to be true, Doyoung promised that Mizu-chan knew a few guys he could meet.
“Don’t listen to Doyoung. Just give it time,” is what Taeyong’s sister had said.
He had called her after his meeting with Boa. He made her promise not to tell their parents, which she hadn’t. Since then, she had been sending him messages and calling him, asking him for updates.
“I’m sure there is someone,” she said one night. “There has to be someone, right?”
Taeyong knew his sister was nervous.
Their parents had given birth to a beta daughter. She had grown up, gotten married at the prime age of twenty-five, and had her two kids before the age of thirty. If she wanted another child, there was no issue. Taeyong’s sister would be able to have children until she reached her mid-forties. It would be dangerous and she probably wouldn’t, but it could happen if she wanted it to.
It was the omega son that their parents were worried about. It wouldn’t be a problem if Taeyong married a woman but because he liked men, any children that came from his relationship would be coming from him, and male omegas had more fertility issues later in life compared to a female omega. Taeyong would need to have children before he reached his mid-thirties or he would struggle to have children of his own.
It was a fear that Taeyong always had but as an adult, it was even more terrifying. He wanted to give his parents grandchildren before it was too late. He didn’t want his sister to be the only one to give them grandchildren. And more than that, Taeyong wanted to have his children, made of him and his partner.
He needed good news from Boa.
Taeyong sat in his office, the door closed and locked. He unlocked his phone and then opened up the voicemail. He put his phone up to his ear.
“Hello, Taeyong,” the voicemail started. It was Boa’s gentle voice, and so far there was no indication that something was wrong. “I have good news for you―” A sigh a relief escaped Taeyong’s lips, “―I’m very pleased to inform you that we have found two matches for you. Before the initial meetings, we must review the profiles and then you can decide if you want to proceed with the meetings. You can schedule a meeting with me at any time. Thank you so much for using Be the One. I look forward to hearing from you.”
The voicemail ended with a click and Taeyong all but melted in his seat. He dropped back into the seat, hand dropping into his lap. Not one, but two matches for him. His great, big selection pool of people to spend his life with was comprised of two people.
Taeyong put his phone on his desk and stood to unlock his office door. He went back to his desk and opened a new tab in his browser. He typed in the URL of the agency and clicked on the ‘Login’ button.
An automatic online profile had been created when he signed up. It had most of his information on it, only the real personal information was omitted. It was mostly for his viewing since one could not view other profiles on the website. There was a ‘Schedule a Meeting’ button and it brought him to another page with a form to fill out.
Boa was automatically assigned as his matchmaker. He simply filled out the date and time of when he wanted the meeting to be. He submitted it and then both his computer and his phone pinged with the email confirmation of his meeting.
He signed out of the website, cleared his browser for safety, and then got up from his desk.
He had good news to deliver to his friends.
Jaehyun was pleased to hear the news and even Doyoung, as suspicious as he had been, congratulated Taeyong.
“I’m not getting married yet,” Taeyong sniffed. He took a bite of his onigiri. “I still have to see if I want to meet the guys.”
“But it’s exciting!” Doyoung exclaimed, giving Taeyong a light punch on the shoulder. “I thought you were scammed for sure, but it seems legitimate now. Besides, the point of this matchmaking agency is to get married. Four months from now, we’ll be attending your wedding to one of these guys. You’re going to be married before Mizuho and me.”
“Do you think you’ll marry one of the two?” Jaehyun asked.
Taeyong sighed. “I don’t know,” he said dejectedly. “That’s the hope, isn’t it? Unless the guy I choose turns out to be an asshole, I don’t care if we’re a perfect match, then no, I’m not marrying him.”
“Four months,” Doyoung repeated. “It will be four months from now.”
“I say one year,” Jaehyun countered. “Taeyong-hyung is someone that needs to get to know someone. He didn’t even let me eat lunch with him until I had been here for nine months and even then, he didn’t consider us friends! He needs much more time if he wants this guy to be his husband.”
Doyoung and Jaehyun continued to wager on how long it would take for Taeyong to decide if he would marry one of his matches.
Taeyong didn’t offer his guess, but he felt like it would be more than four months but less than a year. He didn’t know why. He just felt it.
“Natsuki-chan!” Taeyong exclaimed, tickling the sides of the small infant in front of him. She giggled cutely, making Taeyong smile wide. “Natsuki-chan!”
“I truly hope that you like one of these guys,” Johnny was saying to him. “But if the agency matched you, then you must be compatible enough that you’ll like each one at least a little, right?”
Taeyong brought the infant up into his arms, cradling her against his chest. Opposite him, Johnny did the same with an infant identical to the one in Taeyong’s arms. While Natsuki was calm in Taeyong’s arms, Kahi seemed to be set on causing a ruckus for her dad.
Johnny cooed at her, bringing the tip of the bottle to her lips. It took a moment, but once Kahi latched on, she seemed content. Taeyong picked up the second bottle and brought it to Natsuki’s lips. The baby girl began eating earnestly, trying to hold the bottle by herself.
They both sat on the sofa. It had been a new sofa three years ago, when Johnny and Christie first moved in, but it had quickly taken the toll of newborn twin girls that didn’t know they couldn’t poop, pee, and throw up on the couch. The stains had been mostly cleaned out and there were only a few suspicious stains nowadays.
Johnny sighed. “I do hope you find someone you like, Taeyong,” he said.
He peered down at Kahi in his arms. Johnny always had a soft love-stricken look when he looked at one of the twins. He didn’t even look at Christie that way―she received a different love-stricken look, but it just couldn’t match the way Johnny looked at his daughters. Natsuki and Kahi were his pride and joy, even though they couldn’t do much yet at ten months-old. Johnny boasted about the oddest things that the girls managed to do, and maybe Taeyong didn’t understand it now, but he hoped he would be able to in a few years. He hoped he could have something close to what his best friend had.
“I hope I do,” Taeyong replied, answering both Johnny and the small voice in his mind.
The meeting was tomorrow. It was a Friday and already after seven, so he had left work. He had left his unfinished reports in his office for the night. They could wait until Monday, even if Taeyong did feel a little antsy about not having them finished yet.
He had contemplated going back tonight to get them but Johnny had called him before he could decide. Christie was having a girls’ night out with her friends after work and Johnny needed the company of another adult to keep him from boredom after the twins went to sleep. Jaehyun was unavailable so Taeyong had been Johnny’s second choice.
Taeyong loved visiting Johnny in his large apartment. He lived in Hatsudai, a very family-friendly neighborhood, and even though Taeyong used to hate the amount of time it took him to travel from Kichijoji to Hatsudai, seeing not only Johnny and Christie but Natsuki and Kahi as well, made it all worth it.
In Japan, Johnny and his family were Taeyong’s family.
Both of them watched the variety show that was playing while the girls drank their bottles. They laughed at the comedian’s gags or commented on the topic at hand now and then, but said little else. It was calming and comfortable to sit without speaking to each other, which was something that was a result of years of being friends.
After about half an hour, the girls had both fallen asleep.
As Taeyong followed Johnny into the bedroom and put Natsuki in her portable bassinet beside Johnny and Christie’s bed, he wondered if he could have something like this himself one day. Johnny kissed both girls on their heads, made sure the baby monitor was on and dragged Taeyong back out to watch a movie.
“The girls will wake up in about two hours, so we might as well try to get as far as we can before they do!” he exclaimed as he began looking for a movie on Netflix.
In the past, Johnny had been a very nonchalant person. He had been the person that went with the flow. But Johnny now was always on a tight schedule at home with Christie, both of them trying to squeeze basic things like eating and showering in between diaper changing, feeding, and giving love and affection to two little girls. Johnny always made it look so easy. Fatherhood was a good look on him. Christie had joked once that seeing Johnny in Papa Mode would result in them having even more kids.
They all admired Papa Johnny. Jaehyun always said Johnny was amazing and that he would never be able to handle it himself. Doyoung said he wanted to have a life like Johnny’s.
Taeyong couldn’t help but look at his friend and think that he wanted a life like Johnny’s, too.
Johnny had met Christie, fallen in love with her, and married her after two years of dating. He had settled into the domestic marriage life and it just fit Johnny somehow. Johnny fit the coming home after work and cooking for his wife with an apron in the kitchen life, the planning home dates because they’ve gone on every date possible life, paying bills and planning for the future life. And after the twins were born, Johnny had only gotten better, making a smooth transition into the parent life with Christie by his side.
More than ever, Taeyong wanted something like that with someone at his side.
The initial meeting was scheduled for Saturday in the late morning. Through Boa, they had decided on meeting at a park that was halfway between where they lived. They would be able to decide what to do from there.
Taeyong had been a little apprehensive at first. When he met with Boa, he quickly realized that he had matched with the same kind of guys he always did.
The first guy was a 97% march, which Boa said was high. They had seen such numbers before, she reassured, but it was no too common and overall, really impressive. Even if it was impressive, Taeyong hadn’t bothered to remember his name. A quick look at his profile was enough for Taeyong to decline any meeting with him.
The second guy was an 82% match. Boa had said it was around the average percent for most couples. Taeyong had been unsure.
Nakamoto Yuta. He was the same age as Taeyong, just a few months younger. He was born and raised in Osaka to a good family that had some influence there. He had graduated from Kyoto University, meaning he beat Taeyong in terms of education, but he had chosen to become a junior high teacher. It was a high-ranking, private junior high school, but still, he was a teacher.
It wasn’t like Taeyong had anything against his occupation but Taeyong figured it was that bit that brought their compatibility down. As a teacher. Nakamoto-san made less than Taeyong did as a financial director for a big company. Had Nakamoto-san another job, especially in the white-collar industry, their compatibility would be higher.
Still, the man earned enough to match the rest of Taeyong’s expectations. Nakamoto-san lived in a good neighborhood by himself and was relatively successful in every aspect of his life.
From the intense health history Boa showed him, he seemed to be even healthier than Taeyong was. He was an active man, managing the school’s soccer teams as head coach and helping out with a small dance club. Nakamoto-san had been playing soccer since he was a child and had even been considered for the national team after playing all through university. He had taken up dance as a teenager, but he hadn’t done much with it except run the small club at his school now. It was astounding. Taeyong had been a dancer, but he had been forced to give it up. He suffered some minor back pains nowadays, a sign that he truly was getting older. His pains weren’t part of a condition, but it was still something to consider on his profile. Yet the fact that this man was able to do all that almost every day every week… Taeyong needed to get exercising once again.
Nakamoto-san was also handsome. A professional headshot was a requirement for the profile, and additional pictures were optional but strongly recommended. Taeyong had submitted the one that he used for his updated ID badge for work and a few other selfies that showcased his best angles. He thought he looked nice, but after seeing Nakamoto-san’s photos, Taeyong wondered if Nakamoto-san was perhaps too good looking for someone like him.
Nakamoto-san had long, black hair that framed his face nicely. It wasn’t too long, and Taeyong wondered how he managed to get away with it. If Taeyong ever dared have hair that long, he would get reprimanded by his superiors. It somehow suited Nakamoto-san though. Taeyong couldn’t see him with anything else.
The man also had a very pretty smile. He was smiling wide in one of his photos. His eyes turned into small crescents on his face and he had faint dimples on both of his cheeks. The smile lines around his mouth were prominent but they made him look even more charming.
Taeyong had almost lost his breath when he saw Nakamoto-san. He had been able to control himself, which he was thankful for because he was in front of Boa. He hadn’t done anything embarrassing but Taeyong had an inkling that Boa knew how attractive Taeyong thought Nakamoto-san was.
In his message to Taeyong, Nakamoto-san had been very kind, and Taeyong felt it was almost impossible to not want to get to know him.
Lee Taeyong-san, I look forward to meeting you! I’m very, very excited.
Taeyong was surprised with the rest of the message, but he was also intrigued by it. Boa knew that as well.
I spent two years in South Korea and studied Korean very intensely in university. Perhaps we can share some stories! I would love to hear from you and your childhood in such a lovely country. I know a very lovely restaurant the serves some of the best Korean food in Tokyo. Let me take you some time.
He hoped that Nakamoto-san would take him today.
Taeyong had gotten to the park a few minutes before the scheduled meeting time. He walked around the park, observing the people that were walking around. Parents with their children at the playground and couples walking down the dirt paths that crossed through the park. It was like any other day at the park.
It was a typical September day and the weather was fantastic for a date. It was cool enough that he could dress for fall. Taeyong hadn’t dressed up too much, but he had put some effort into his outfit. He had chosen some jeans he knew fit him fell and a new burgundy sweater he had purchased recently. Johnny and Doyoung had given him their approval even, though Taeyong probably would’ve worn it without their approval.
There weren’t many occasions where Taeyong dressed like this. His job required business attire and if he did anything before or after work, he would still be wearing his work clothes. On weekends, Taeyong stayed in his pajamas or something more comfortable. It had been a while since he planned a look to go out like this.
Taeyong sat on a small bench, pulling the sleeves of his sweater over his hands. He took in the several trees and plants that surrounded him. Summer was transitioning into fall now. It wouldn’t be long before the trees lost all their leaves and the flowers withered away.
He sighed, wondering if such a drastic transition would happen in his life.
Taeyong did want to get married, but he wondered if this was the way for him to do it. His friends were supportive and his sister also encouraged him, yet he felt like matchmaking was not the right decision. Perhaps he should’ve stuck to meeting people the traditional way.
His co-workers held group dates often. If he could just get in on them…
“Lee Taeyong-san?”
Taeyong almost jumped from the bench. He gathered himself quickly and looked at the man.
Nakamoto-san.
He was even more handsome in real life. He was dressed in jeans and a patterned shirt tucked into the front of his jeans. Despite the boldness of the shirt, it worked well and Taeyong felt himself at a loss for words.
“Yes,” he finally said. He stood up and bowed respectfully. “I’m Lee Taeyong. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
Nakamoto-san smiled, and Taeyong felt his heart stutter. “The pleasure is all mine. I’m Nakamoto Yuta.”
They stood there, looking at each other for a few seconds.
“Well, would you like to walk around the park? It’s still a little too early for lunch.”
Taeyong was flustered. “I, I would love that.”
Nakamoto-san motioned to the path and they both began walking, side by side. Taeyong was nervous, but he hoped Nakamoto-san couldn’t tell. The scents of the various plants around them and even the people would be enough to cover up anything Taeyong was giving off. He knew it would be enough because he couldn’t smell anything Nakamoto-san was giving off.
“So, you’re a director at a tech company?” Nakamoto-san asked after a few moments of silent walking. He held his hands behind his back. He looked at Taeyong for a moment but then looked around the park, gazing up at the tall trees. He returned his gaze to Taeyong. “How is that?”
“I’m in finance,” Taeyong said, embarrassed. Nakamoto-san already knew this information. It was part of Taeyong’s profile. “I don’t do anything with the actual products the company develops and sells.”
Nakamoto-san let out a laugh. Taeyong felt himself blush despite himself. The sound was soft, and Nakamoto-san threw his head back a little, eyes closing. “I could never be in such a job. My father is a chief at a company. High up and powerful… He said he could get me a job there, but I can’t do office work.”
“You’re a teacher.” It wasn’t a question.
“I’m a teacher,” Nakamoto-san repeated. “I teach ethics. It was my favorite subject when I was in school.”
“You also do a lot of stuff outside of teaching,” Taeyong said carefully.
“I do,” Nakamoto-san replied. He sent a smile Taeyong’s way. “I became the soccer coach during my first year. The dance club started later when a group of students approached me and asked me if I could be their advisor. You danced as well?”
“Until my third year of university,” Taeyong answered shyly. He could feel himself giving off all sorts of pheromones, and he hoped that Nakamoto-san, or anyone else around them for that matter, couldn’t smell them. “I began getting back pains so I had to stop.”
“That’s unfortunate,” Nakamoto-san said with a click of his tongue. “I was hoping I’d be able to see you dance one day.”
“What?” Taeyong gaped a little.
Nakamoto-san laughed again. “No, no, I mean…” He smiled and then looked at the ground, shaking his head. “Well, it was silly… nevermind that.”
“I’m sure it wasn’t silly, Nakamoto-san,” Taeyong said. His name sounded a little awkward coming from his mouth but saying it felt right. It rolled right off his tongue.
“Please,” Nakamoto-san said, holding up a hand. “There’s no need to be too formal. We’re the same age after all.”
Taeyong felt his cheeks warm. “No, it’s… Nakamoto-san, please allow me to…”
“Then what should I call you? Lee-san, or… Taeyong-san?”
Taeyong’s name sounded wonderful coming from Nakamoto-san’s mouth. Taeyong found himself liking it too much. “Taeyong,” he said dumbly. He cleared his throat and stood up a little straighter. “Taeyong is fine.”
“Well, then Taeyong-san, where would you like to go for lunch after our walk through the park?”
Nakamoto-san smelled wonderful.
Taeyong was able to finally get his scent once they were settled at their booth at a small ramen shop.
It was a spicy scent, something like cinnamon, with something woody, like pine, but it also had a certain sweetness to it that Taeyong really couldn’t pinpoint with just smelling. It was not what he expected Nakamoto-san to smell like, but somehow it suited him.
Taeyong wondered if Nakamoto-san had picked up on his scent. He had always been told that he had a light and fresh citrusy scent, something akin to grapefruit or tangerine, with something floral underneath. He was a summer child after all.
His friends had told him that his scent made him feel less intimidating. He was light and fresh, like his scent. It was comfortable and soothing, like a nice summer day. Taeyong never did anything to hide his scent because of this.
Nakamoto-san’s scent, and perhaps Taeyong’s as well, vanished when the server brought their ramen. Taeyong had never visited this restaurant, but the food looked great.
“It’s the best,” Nakamoto-san said as if he had read Taeyong’s mind. “This place is the best in this part of Tokyo.”
“I’m glad you brought me here,” Taeyong said. He brought some noodles to his mouth, blowing on them before he put them in his mouth. They were certainly some of the best noodles he’d had in a while. He spooned some broth up and took a small sip from his spoon. He let out a small sound of surprise. “This is delicious.”
Nakamoto-san smiled. “I’m very glad you like it. Maybe we can come here next time as well.”
“Next time?”
“If there is a next time?”
Taeyong let himself smile. “Of course.” He busied himself with spooning some more broth up to avoid looking at Nakamoto-san. “Next time.”
They ate quietly for a few moments, enjoying the ramen.
Despite the silence, Taeyong felt rather comfortable. It was unusual for him to feel so at ease around a new person. Perhaps it was the location and the time of day. He didn’t typically eat ramen in the middle of the day for a date. But then again, perhaps it was Nakamoto-san.
For the hour that they had been together already, Nakamoto-san had never once made Taeyong feel uncomfortable. He was respectful in his questions. He had been amazed by Taeyong’s achievements, congratulating him, and even telling him that he would be able to achieve even more.
Nakamoto-san was not frightened by Taeyong’s achievements. Unlike any other man, Taeyong had gone on a date with, Nakamoto-san was rather supportive of Taeyong’s work. They didn’t even know each other, but they knew the end goal of their meeting.
But it was too good to be true. Nakamoto-san seemed to check off every box on Taeyong’s list of expectations. It couldn’t be possible that they were only an 82% match.
It didn’t feel like an 82% match at all.
Taeyong wondered if Nakamoto-san felt that as well.
“Taeyong-san,” Nakamoto-san said, catching his attention. “You’re a pure omega, but your parents are both betas. How is that?”
No, Taeyong thought. And he was doing so well!
Taeyong cleared his throat. “Both of my parents are omega recessive,” he said simply. “I suppose I hit the lottery there, didn’t I?”
Nakamoto-san’s face fell. “Taeyong-san, I’m sorry,” he said quickly. “I apologize. That question was out of line. I shouldn’t have asked. Really, I’m sorry.”
“It’s all right,” Taeyong said. “It’s something interest. How do two betas have a pure omega? I get asked all the time.”
“I shouldn’t have asked, even if it’s a question you get frequently,” Nakamoto-san said. He looked apologetic. “I could’ve figured it out myself. I mean, I’m a pure alpha and my parents are both betas as well… It’s the same thing.”
Taeyong was surprised. He tried not to show it on his face.
Not only was Nakamoto-san’s mother was a beta, but his father was as well. It wasn’t rare for pure alphas to come from two betas, but it wasn’t all too common anymore. More often than not, betas carried an omega recessive gene. To have a beta carry an alpha recessive gene was less likely nowadays. And then for that beta to partner with another beta with an alpha recessive gene…
“I hit the lottery there, didn’t I?” Nakamoto-san asked with an embarrassed smile.
Taeyong couldn’t help but laugh. “I’m, I’m sorry, Nakamoto-san,” he said in between his chuckles. “It’s not―” Taeyong tried to compose himself, but was stuck stifling back his laughs, “―It’s not something to laugh at.”
“No, it’s funny. It is,” Nakamoto-san said, laughing along. “My parents never knew what to do with me growing up. It was chaos. Of course, their only son would be born pure alpha.”
“My parents were the same,” Taeyong confessed with a small smile. “Seven years of raising a beta daughter, and then… surprise, an omega son!”
Nakamoto-san laughed, and Taeyong felt something warm bloom in his chest at the sight across him.
Maybe it wasn’t the worst idea, having signed up for the matchmaking agency.
“I had a very lovely time, Taeyong-san,” Nakamoto-san said as they returned to the park they met at.
“I did, too,” Taeyong admitted. “Thank you again for offering to pay.”
“It was no problem,” Nakamoto-san said with a wave of his hand. “Next time, you can pick up the bill for us.”
“Next time,” Taeyong repeated.
“Should we plan it now?”
Taeyong smiled. “I have your contact,” he said. “I’ll check my schedule and then send you a message.”
Nakamoto-san smiled. “Of course.”
They stood there for a moment, just smiling at each other like fools.
“Well, I have to…” Nakamoto-san motioned to the park exit, “...if I want to catch the train back home.”
“No, of course,” Taeyong said with a silly smile. “I, I have to go, too.”
A pause. A smile on Nakamoto-san’s face. Taeyong could kiss him. He could kiss this man before him and he had only known him for three hours.
Taeyong took a deep breath.
And there it was. Nakamoto-san’s comforting scent. There was also something else there. Taeyong couldn’t pinpoint it, but apart from Nakamoto-san’s scent, there was another thing, buried deep underneath the spicy, woody scent.
“Well, I’ll wait for your message,” Nakamoto-san said finally after a long minute. He turned to walk away. He looked over his shoulder and waved. Taeyong waved back.
As he turned around to go through the other exit, he realized. He stopped in his tracks.
Taeyong had been smelling Nakamoto-san’s pheromones. Nakamoto-san was attracted to him.
He really should’ve kissed Nakamoto-san.