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There weren’t many things Hao got mad at
Quite frankly, he’d like to say that he was a very chill person. He’d probably let most of his friends do many things without saying anything for a long time. Of course, that doesn’t mean he’s afraid to speak his mind. The opposite, in fact; he was blunt to the point of it being almost rude every now and then. He usually – or mostly – doesn’t mean to be rude, even if his sharp tongue and the icy look would suggest otherwise.
But the sharpness of his tongue was meant to sound professional and the icy look was supposed to be considered matter-of-factly.
There may or may not be one or two people on this planet though who could easily rile him up. One being that one professor of his, who always insists on him playing his pieces less emotional and more like Mozart or whoever intended it to sound. Something about that man really pissed him off and the fact that he was an entitled alpha made the disapproval worse, Hao wasn’t going to lie on that one.
But the first place would definitely go to the one person on this planet who could make his blood boil with her mere presence. Literally, merely remembering her scent was enough.
Especially when he picked up on the attempted neutral floral spikes it held when Hao rounded the corner and stepped into the spacious living room.
His mother was seated on the broad, dark-brown leather couch; as always with her back straight, slim body dressed in a cream-colored, elegant dress that reached her knees, hair and make-up done, golden jewelry sparkling in the afternoon sun lightning up the room and a royal smile on her face.
The weren’t royal but with the amount of money their family had, the assumption of them being anywhere close to royalty wasn’t that far off.
Zhang Hao hated the house his mother bought recently; mostly because it looked like the one prior and the one before that and the one he had grown up in and he knew the only reason she even bothered to buy new ones and abandon the old ones was because she had nothing better to do with all the money she earned.
It was stupid because she always kept the furniture, arranged it the same way she had done since Hao remembered walking around their house on steady feet for the first time. The layout in itself may always change because the houses were similar, but not identical; but the ugly carpet their grandmother had sent over from China was always placed with its corners under the feet of the couch, the weird sculpture some artist from Malaysia had gifted her a few years ago always stood on the same weird column she had had ever since the world came into existence and the books in the white bookshelf were always placed in the exact same order, on the exact same shelves with the exact same uselessness because they were collectibles and his mother didn’t read them anyways.
Who would randomly think of reading a bunch of encyclopedias anyways. His mother had ordered them from Germany, collectibles of some old publisher, because they were pretty; made with real leather and the pages framed with real gold. His mother couldn’t even speak German, let alone read it, so he had no idea why she thought buying these stupid books for 20’000€ was a stupid investment. But then again, 20’000€ really didn’t hurt her – she probably didn’t even realize because the money had probably been earned again within a mere day.
Whenever Hao saw his mother, he understood why everyone hated rich people. She had a way of making you feel like you were the mere dirt on her shoes and just because he knew she did it on purpose, he always made sure to mirror her behavior.
Hao usually wasn’t one to act all royally and high and mighty but he always made sure to put on an extra load of snob when he was around her, just to piss her off. She wasn’t exactly bothered by the fact that he pretended to be better than her; she was bothered by the fact that he actually knew he was better than her.
His mother smiled her very practiced, distant ‘Mona-Lisa’-smile, as people would call it, and merely held out her cheek to let him kiss it.
He may be snobby around her but he wasn’t disrespectful; not without reason, that is. So he walked over and leaned down to kiss her cheek gently. Her scent was spiked with something similar to nervousness for just a moment and that was enough to insist on standing when she made a gesture for him to sit down.
Masking her annoyance with a tight-lipped smile, his mother let him stand around in the living room, apparently not up for discussion. Which was weird on its own; the woman usually always wanted to discuss things with him. Whenever she let Hao do stuff like that it was either because she did something that would bother him or because she knew that the things she wanted to say would cause a discussion anyways.
Hao was only here because she had ordered him to, as always sending her butler to relay the message because he never answered her calls or looked at her messages. He felt slightly bad for it whenever he saw the butler in front of his apartment’s door but then again, the butler did sign up for the job. And seeing as he had been working for his mother for years, his conditions must not be as bad.
When she sent the butler, it usually meant that whatever it was she wanted him to know, it was important. Very much so.
At least for her, usually.
“I’m sure you’ve heard about the incident in Itaewon a few days ago”, his mother said, as always not talking around the bush. At least not directly. Hao knew now that whatever it was she wanted him to know was about the incident in Itaewon. Which was weird on its own because his mother usually didn’t really care about parts of Seoul that weren’t exactly known for harboring luxurious brands.
He decided to play along for now, if only because the incident had been pretty recent and, quite frankly, it wasn’t a bad thing to talk about it with someone. Small talk, some might even say, “…Yes, of course I did. One of my friends from university knows the victim.”
His mother huffed, “Ah, right…I forgot that you have friends from…other circles” – Hao raised a skeptical eyebrow, daring her to continue the discussion, but his mother didn’t seem to want to talk about his socializing choices today – “either way, it’s horrible. An alpha, attacking an omega; in broad daylight, at that! With an aphrodisiac! Outrageous, what age are we in? The middle ages?”
Hao nodded along passively, not really interested in her unnecessary blabbering. He glanced at the grandfather clock in-between the window and an old portrait of his grand-grandmother; convinced he’d be in and out within fifteen minutes, he had promised Ricky to meet up with him in the café on campus because apparently, the younger had tea to spill and Gunwook wouldn’t listen to him. He still had around half an hour until then, his mother would probably insist on her driver to take Hao back to his campus anyways.
With a sigh, his mother shook her head and repositioned herself on the couch, “You know that your safety is always on my mind – my spiritual guide told me my wrinkles come from all the worrying I do over you.”
“I’m sure of that, mother”, Hao added scrutinizingly.
His mother sent him a look but otherwise didn’t say anything regarding his comment, “…Imagine something like that would happen to you! The heir of the Zhang household! In Seoul, at that; a political disaster!”
Hao really had to fight all of his automatic responses programmed to the possible nonsense his mother could go on and on about for hours, if not days, barely managing not to blatantly roll his eyes at her. There she went again, with the name of their family, his role in it and what that meant politically.
The Zhangs were a very rich family. They owned more than just a few hotels all over Asia and his mother was the owner and founder of Zhang Interior Design; furniture. Which was ironic, considering her house always looked the exact same.
When Hao had announced that he’d study classical music and the violin in Seoul, his mother had tried very hard to change his mind.
There were, quote, “More than enough exceptionally well universities in China with good music programs”, and, another quote, “He’d have to leave behind his friends in Quanzhou, wasn’t that a shame!”
But really, along with the fact that Hao simply liked the offer of the Seoul University better, he also wanted to get away from his crazy family (namely his overbearing, noisy mother). He had been 19 years old when he had boarded the plane and hugged his one favorite cousin, Chang Xiao, goodbye (really, the only person he really missed in Quanzhou).
It absolutely had not surprised him though when barely two months into his studies, he had opened his apartment’s door and stumbled into his mother casually sitting on his coach as if she owned the place (which she didn’t, since Hao had received the rights to his grandfather’s heritage as soon as he was an adult).
“I decided to open a new headquarters in Seoul”, his mother had said around a tight smile, very obviously not telling him that so that Hao could believe her, but because she wanted him to know that his opinion on the matter wasn’t something she was interested in.
Hao knew that she really only wanted to keep an eye on him because she was an alpha. In her eyes, there was nothing as careless as letting an omega walk around on their own.
Or, well; Hao specifically.
He doubted that she really cared about most other omegas unless they were part of their family. Not like she wasn’t outraged by what had happened in Itaewon – definitely not, his mother may be a stuck-up rich CEO from China, but she wasn’t an asshole.
Her very conservative views on second genders and omegas specifically were mostly tied to Hao and his cousins, if even.
He sighed, “Well, it wasn’t me. And it likely won’t be me either; I’d have to actually go out for that.”
His mother eyes him with a very skeptical look and it needed a few seconds for her to apparently push herself to answer: “Well, you came here. So you were outside.”
“Your butler picked me up, as usual”, he replied smoothly.
His father was a prosecutor in Quanzhou. If there was one thing Zhang Hao had learned from him, it was how to debate with people and win an argument.
Considering his mother is the one who married his father, it was obvious that she was just as good at arguing with people.
Namely her only child.
She changed her seating position again, now fully facing Hao, the perfect symmetry of her face now on full display as she added with a sharp undertone: “And afterwards? You were probably about to meet up with your-...friends.”
Hao clicked his tongue in annoyance at the way she had said the word, “I’m meeting up with Ricky.”
“Ah, I like that one.”
“Yes, because his family may even be more loaded than ours”, Hao said, rolling his eyes, “My other friends, with no undertone, are just as likeable.”
His mother smiled and let go of an actually amused chuckle, “Oh, don’t be ridiculous Hao; I wouldn’t like Ricky if I wouldn’t know about his family’s riches being less than ours.”
Sometimes, she was every bit as superficial as Hao imagined her to seem to anyone else who didn’t know her on a personal level.
Then again, she also had that tendency to him and Hao was definitely one of the people who knew most about her – except for his father, probably.
He shouldered his bag – a tote bag he had received from Taerae for his birthday – groaning softly at his tense muscles. He’d spent the entire last evening practicing a piece for his upcoming evaluation and his shoulder had been aching for hours. “Mother, what is it that you want from me? Because I have somewhere to be and even if I didn’t, I have better things to do than stand around in your living room-…"
“What happened to that omega in Itaewon could very well also happen to you”, his mother interrupted and all of her at least up until now slightly easygoing demeanor was now replaced with a very obvious seriousness, “You could leave my house, meet up with Ricky and the next thing I know is I have to identify your dead body in a morgue.”
Hao sighed, “Mother, I can take care of myself. Millions of people live in Seoul and I rarely leave campus so-…”
“You don’t listen to me, so telling you to take online courses and stay here until this whole thing is dealt with really won’t do anything”, she interrupted him once again, very clearly done with her friendly act.
She stood up and nodded her head at her butler, who promptly turned around and left the living room through one of the doors on the side.
Oh god, what has he done now? She only really sent him out if what she was about to say was either very personal or something she didn’t need him to hear. And even then, especially regarding Hao, she usually didn’t bother sending him out; the butler more or less saw Hao grow up.
So he either did something really stupid or his mother was in a particularly bad mood.
Hao eyed her and noticed now that she was wearing her high heels – in her living room. Which was weird on its own, but even weirder considering the circumstances.
She never wore her shoes in the house, much less when Hao was the only guest, unless she invited someone over-…
The side door opened and his mother’s butler walked back in, holding the door open for someone else; a man dressed in all black, also still wearing his shoes. He was tall – from what Hao could see probably about the same height as him – and had just as black, shiny hair.
It wasn’t until the man stood a good two meters away from Hao that he got to have a good look at his face and decided that he was probably the most attractive man he’s ever seen in his life so far.
Slim, almost cat-like eyes, sharp jawline, a very gentle slope over his pillowy lips, clear skin and high cheekbones. The compression shirt he was wearing exaggerated all his defined muscles and despite now obviously being smaller than Hao by not even an inch, it was clear that this man spent a lot of his free time in the gym.
His mother smiled at the man and it was then that Hao realized the stranger was the reason for his own presence here. The smile she sent his way was a special one; reserved for her business partners and people she made a successful deal with. And, very special about the smile; it was a satisfied one, with her lips curled up slightly and an actual softness behind the icy look in her eyes.
Hao considered himself flabbergasted; she actually seemed to like this man.
With a gentle gesture that spoke of all the elegance she was taught as a child, she held her hand out for the man to shake and said: “Ah, just in time!” - how stupid, as if she probably didn’t let the man wait in the dining room long enough for her to start the conversation with Hao in the first place - “I hope you still remembered how to get here?”
The man’s lips spread into a polite smile, no less business than the one he had received from his mother, but nonetheless a beautiful one. Hao doubted this man could ever look anything but dazzling though so that’s that.
He shook his mother’s hand and answered: “Good afternoon, Mrs. Zhang. I’ve found your house well enough, thank you.”
Hao was just about to announce that he’d leave now, seeing as his mother had found a new victim to do some small talk with about the Itaewon-incident, when the universe had to destroy that plan once again.
Because of course it did.
His mother, almost as if she had some seventh sense that told her about her son’s plans to disappear now, turned to look at him and said: “Zhang Hao, meet Sung Hanbin. He’s your bodyguard.”
Hao blinked.
And he stared.
He felt his phone vibrating in his tote bag; probably a message from Ricky about how he was late again.
He turned to look at the man – Sung Hanbin – and suddenly hated all his beauty with a burning passion.
Nope.
Nah-uh.
Poking the inside of his cheek with his tongue, Hao turned to look at his mother again with one of his own signature stares – the one that had people freeze with how icy it was, the one he did when he was pissed-off and didn’t feel like talking about whatever it was that made him mad anymore. For any other person, that stare was enough for most other people to turn around and leave.
If Hao had that kind of look on his face when he walked down the hallway in the music building, even the professors made sure to get out of his way.
Taerae liked to call it ‘the Death Sentence’.
Hao knew that his scent spiked with disapproval and anger when he shouldered his bag again, let go of a very deep sigh and said, “Goodbye, mother.”
His mother, unfortunately one of the few people who could read him like a book, had probably seen that coming and moved to stand in his way in three very long, fast and effective steps, her heals making dull sounds on the ugly carpet she walked on. “He is your bodyguard.”
“I don’t need a babysitter-”
“Bodyguard”, his mother corrected.
Hao ignored her, “who holds my hand while I walk down the stairs and gets paid to live as my shadow.”
His mother narrowed her eyes at him, and Hao immediately felt all his instincts force him to zip his mouth shut and stand still.
The pack alpha could make sure that his fellow pack members listened to them and even though Hao wasn’t particularly part of her pack anymore, she was his mother – she'd probably always have some sort of power over him for that reason, at least until Hao had his own pack or a family of his own.
Seeing as he didn’t have either of these things, his mother’s golden eyes and her spreading pheromones had him submit almost instantly.
Hao hated it when she did that and his mother was well aware of it. But it seemed like today, she didn’t care about his discomfort as she said: “You will listen to me on this one, Zhang Hao. The omega that got attacked is one of four within the past month and I will not sit by and watch you idle around cluelessly without proper protection. If you don’t want me to lock you up here, I will assign a bodyguard to you. I don’t care about how independent you think you are or about how inconvenient that may be for you. You listen to him when he tells you to do or not do things because I told you so. Are we clear?”
It took a lot for Hao to get himself to answer, not only because of her strong pheromones. She had asked him a closed question; one that he was not about to answer. And going against that with something else entirely went against all his inner omega’s instincts as he pried his lips open and replied: “Do I have no say in this?”
“No”, his mother said and ended the discussion with that.
Zhang Hao felt like a child all over again and he really wanted to throw a tantrum because of it. But instead, he looked away from his mother and said lowly: “Stop pushing your alpha pheromones onto me, I'm not a child anymore.”
His mother scoffed, “You’re my child though, no matter how old you are” - the look in her eyes turned soft and from the way she moved, Hao could tell she wanted to reach out and touch his face; but at the very least, she knew better than to do that after using her alpha pheromones on him - “You know I only do that for your safety, honey.”
Hao wanted to scoff, but instead, he just abruptly moved out of her way, looking over at Hanbin with a deadpanned stare and said: “...I meet up with a friend of mine. I suppose you’re told to follow me everywhere I go so you’ll just have to deal with that now.”
Hanbin nodded and followed him out of the living room, a very respectful distance between them. They walked down the hallway and around the corner where Hao skillfully avoided walking straight into the commode because, as mentioned, he knew where his mother liked to place all her furniture. To his surprise Hanbin also avoided it, either out of experience from the first time he had been here or because he was attentive enough not to walk into stuff.
Once outside, Hao wanted to walk down the street and towards the next bus station; but Hanbin cleared his voice and stopped him, “...Zhang Hao-nim, I can take you there by car.”
“...Can I say no?”, he said with a scrutinizing raised eyebrow, already walking towards the car because he knew the answer.
Hanbin had a stressed smile on his face now – it was still beautiful, but Hao would much rather prefer a real one on his delicate face.
The car was a dark green Ford, modern and shiny. Hanbin unlocked the car and seemed to fight with himself about whether he should open the passenger seat door for Hao or not; but he seemed to decide that he was a bodyguard, not a butler, and therefore wouldn’t do that for him. “Well, you could’ve said no. But then I'd have to leave the car here and ask Mrs. Zhang’s butler to please bring it to me and that seems a little bit over the top.”
Hao found himself snorting at the sarcasm and irony, even though he wasn’t too sure about whether Hanbin even meant to be funny at all. But he was pretty sure that short snort sounded more like a pissed-off huff, and he therefore just opened his own door and got inside the car. He had considered sitting in the back out of spite but treating Hanbin like a butler when he wasn’t one wouldn’t make this whole thing more bearable either.
Hanbin started the car and changed gears, skillfully driving out of the parking spot in front of his mother’s house and steering it out of the neighborhood. Hao refused to admit to himself that the bodyguard looked insanely handsome with one hand on the gearshift and the other steering the car. Instead, he said: “...I have to get back to my campus.”
“Okay. Where do you study?”, Hanbin asked softly.
Hao looked at him with an unimpressed stare, “You mean to tell me my mother hired you to hold my hand when I'm on the toilet and didn’t give you a file full of every possible thing you need to know about me?”
For some reason, that seemed to make Hanbin somewhat embarrassed. He smiled softly, cheeks the tiniest hint of red on them as he said: “...Yes but I only read your basic information because it felt rude to know all of that without your explicit consent. I know what you study and that you’re highly allergic to hazelnuts. But...nothing personal. Not unless you want me to know, Zhang Hao-nim.”
He hated that Hanbin was anything but an asshole. Hating him would’ve been easier if Hanbin would’ve just read his whole file and known everything about Hao because it was his job. And even then, it would’ve been hardly justified to hate him; because it was his job.
Hao sighed, “Central University of Seoul. I meet up with a friend of mine in the café we have on campus.”
They fell into a very awkward silence after that. Hanbin steered his car through Seoul with calm steadiness, no rush behind anything – every now and then scoffing at some other driver when they seemed to do something that got on his nerves. It was interesting to watch what pissed him off and what didn’t.
Not that Hao was keeping records.
Eventually, Hanbin cleared his voice again and said: “...I didn’t know. That Mrs. Zhang didn’t tell you about me being your bodyguard. I thought...you were informed. And agreed on it. I don’t think I can get the burden of a bodyguard off your chest but if I could, I would. I’m sorry...for being an inconvenience to you.”
Hao really had a hard time hating him right now because, really, this man gave him no reason to hate him at all so far. Maybe that would change really fast but as of right now, Hao felt like the biggest dick on the planet for trying (and failing) to hate his guts.
But admitting to himself that Hanbin didn’t seem like a bad person also meant caving to his mother and while he had done that earlier for biology and instinctual reasons, that doesn’t mean he was about to do it when he wasn’t being manipulated into submitting to his former pack alpha and mother.
And so, he decided to sigh because even if Hanbin wasn’t at fault for any of this, Hao still didn’t like the situation in itself, “...Well, as long as you let me sleep in peace and don’t bother me when I'm practicing, I don’t really care about what you do.”
The deafening silence that followed had Hao turn to look at the bodyguard with narrowed eyes and another one of his famous looks. Taerae liked to call this one ‘the OG Blank Stare’. It was obviously enough to make Hanbin slightly nervous, and it was now that Hao started to wonder what his second gender was; he didn’t smell anything on him but then again, he could very well be wearing scent blockers.
But Hao didn’t need to smell his scent or pick up on his pheromones to know that his stare made the bodyguard uncomfortable. “...What?”
“Well...it makes sense that you wouldn’t know about that considering you weren’t informed of me becoming your bodyguard in the first place, but I was told to live...at your place...for the time being”, Hanbin said and his hands tightened on the steering wheel as if he braced himself for an impact.
Now that Hanbin mentioned it though, Hao remembered a very weird call he had received from his landlord this morning while he had been in class, telling him about some workers and whether it was okay for him to let them inside his apartment. Hao had complained about his heater not working properly and therefore assumed those workers to be the specialists his landlord had called for him.
But very obviously so, that was not the case.
Hao was a rich kid – he didn’t like to admit that, but he did have his spoiled tendencies. One of which being that he had a very luxurious apartment not too far away from the campus. It was a five-minute walk down the street and when he had gotten the apartment roughly four years ago, the landlord probably dropped all other applications upon reading Hao’s surname and googling him to make sure he really was the one and only heir to the Zhang family.
That being said, his apartment was spacious and big enough for probably more than just two people to live in it. He had a guest room, an office to work in, even a small room with a grand piano and enough space for him to learn the violin. Whenever they celebrated something or just wanted to throw a party for the heck of it, his apartment was one of two options (the other one obviously being Ricky’s apartment, seeing as he was also rich).
Hao took a deep breath to calm his nerves before answering Hanbin: “...If I come home this evening and my grand piano isn’t there anymore, I will force you to get it back in there by yourself.”
He watched as Hanbin visibly relaxed and answered: “Of course, Zhang Hao-nim. But I asked them not to mess with your things, so I suppose other than my suitcase and bag now blocking some hallway of yours, I don’t think anything changed.”
~
Ricky was a spoiled brat.
Hao had taken it upon himself to keep an eye on the kid when he started university, mainly because he was from China as well and Hao somehow felt like he was responsible for him.
Apart from the fact that Ricky looked like he invented the word luxury, he also acted like it more often than not. Though his parents weren’t as overbearing as Hao’s noisy and controlling mother, they weren’t exactly the winners of the best parent award either. Hao had sworn to himself to punch them if he ever had to meet them for the sole reason that most of Ricky’s spoiled tendencies came from the pure neglect he had had to endure.
Ricky came to Seoul when he had just turned 21 years old. He was an engineering student and extremely good at what he was doing even though no one believed it when he told them he was top of his class. Not only did his parents not care when one day Ricky boarded the plane and enrolled into a university in a whole different country; they also never cared to visit him. The only times they called were for Christmas or Ricky’s birthday.
The first time Hao introduced Ricky to Taerae and Gunwook, they had both merely stared at Hao afterwards and asked: “Who the fuck is this guy?”
Because Ricky wasn’t rude – or even snobby, for that matter. But with all his genius, he was extremely bad at socializing like a normal person, and he lacked common sense in a way that was embarrassing, to say the least.
Somehow, it was almost cute, really – but only to Hao because he thought almost everything Ricky did was somehow laced with cuteness, even if the younger hated it when he said that. Ricky was cringe in the most unhinged and genuinely confident way. Hao never met a person who would unironically stare at you with a look labelled as sexy and confidently tell you that he thought he was the most attractive person in the room.
And worst of all was that Ricky was mostly right about it; he was handsome and attractive.
It made him seem kind of arrogant at first, but Taerae and Gunwook quickly grew fond of Ricky; because even with all his cringeness, he was still an amazing friend and a warmhearted person (though he rarely wanted people to know, let alone acknowledge that).
One of the first times Gunwook had actively questioned Ricky’s smartness had been when the youngest complained about rent being due and Ricky merely stared at him and said, “Rent? Is that a Korean word for buying?”
Gunwook had spent the following twenty minutes explaining the concept of capitalism and rent to Ricky, who had stared at him in utter disbelief and nodded along in wonder at that new word in his vocabulary called, ‘rent’.
The cuteness of all that had quickly been forgotten as he had summarized Gunwook’s award-worthy speech about capitalism with the phrase: “So it’s just a way of living for poor people.”
Needless to say, Gunwook had refused to talk to him again for the entire rest of the evening.
Hao wasn’t exactly surprised to see Ricky sitting in the café looking like he just jumped right out of a fashion magazine. He was wearing his Chanel sunglasses; the sun wasn’t even shining today – it was late October – and even if it did, he wouldn’t have needed them because the weather had been gloomy all day.
Ricky was mildly to not at all interested in Hanbin’s presence close by, getting up to hug him as if he couldn’t care any less about the stranger randomly standing around next to their table now.
“…You don’t want to know who that is?”, Hao said and watched as the younger merely shrugged, now back to his laid-back seating position in the booth.
He slid the sunglasses down the bridge of his nose with an elegant move, eyeing Hanbin with disinterest before pushing them back up just as smoothly and answering: “Nah. I suppose your mother had him tail you, with all of the things happening right now.”
Sometimes, even though everything about Ricky screamed richness, Hao forgot that the younger actually grew up spoiled shitless. Maybe it was because Ricky could and would turn into a complete and utter chaotic mess if he wanted to or was drunk enough. Maybe because he certainly didn’t seem rich when there was no one around to impress.
Hao sighed, “You look excited. Do you want him?”
“…I’m not some object you can just toss around, Zhang Hao-nim”, Hanbin said and raised a scrutinizing eyebrow at him.
They both ignored Hanbin. “I’d kill to have a bodyguard assigned to me. At least that’d mean my parents cared enough about me to pay for someone to protect me.”
Ouch. Hao knew that Ricky often used sarcasm to deal with his trauma and problems – it was his coping mechanism and it worked for him. He also knew that 9/10 times, Ricky didn’t say those things to provoke a sympathetic, pitying look or a comforting smile. It still always left a very bitter taste in Hao’s mouth and he couldn’t help but let a little bit more warmth into his smile and eyes as he looked at him.
If Ricky would’ve received this look from anyone but Hao, he probably would’ve kicked their shin under the table.
But Hao had a special place in Ricky’s heart and the younger therefore merely rolled his eyes and changed the topic without commenting on it: “What’s your name?”
Hanbin seemed a little perplex to be addressed, obviously not used to getting involved in any conversation between his client and their friends. But he masked the flabbergasted look on his face with a shy smile and answered politely: “Sung Hanbin. You are Shen Ricky-ssi, right? One of Zhang Hao-nim’s Dongsaengs and an engineering student.”
It made sense for Hanbin to be aware of Hao’s social circle and the people he talked to almost on a daily basis. Considering it was Hanbin’s job to keep him safe, Hao’s mother probably also gave him information about his professors, his classmates and the people who lived next to him, if not the whole apartment complex.
Ricky was unimpressed, “You better not show off how much you know about any of Hao’s other friends, I’m not surprised by it because I know that enough money solves every problem but Taerae and Gunwook would probably lose their shit.”
“Mind your language, kid”, Hao hissed and glared at Ricky with no real bite in his gaze. He uncrossed his legs, scooted over in the booth, and cleared his voice, “and Hanbin, stop standing around like you’re waiting for someone to kick you out. You’re being weird.”
While Ricky rolled his eyes again at Hao for the chastising, Hanbin seemed hesitant.
He twitched as if he wanted to sit down but something stopped him, “...Zhang Hao-nim, that is very kind of you, but I am on duty. I was told to not get too close to you.”
Hao huffed, “Well, you’re supposed to protect me, right? Isn’t being close the whole point of that?”
“…I cannot sit down next to you, Zhang Hao-nim”, Hanbin insisted, still very obviously torn between agreeing and following the rules he got from Hao’s mother.
More persistently, Hao petted the free space next to him where he had been sitting on just a few seconds ago, looking at Hanbin intensely, “I know my mother probably gave you a whole bunch of instructions but it’s weird for you to just stand there doing nothing. So sit down, I’ll order you a drink or something to eat and at least look normal – it’s already weird enough that I have to explain your presence to all of my professors. Take it as an order of mine then.”
Hanbin still didn’t seem thrilled but he finally sighed and sat down upon viewing the option as an order and not a choice. He didn’t say anything though, merely mumbled something about wanting a green tea, which Hao ordered easily along with his own beverage.
Ricky slurped his iced americano and eyed the bodyguard through his dark tinted sunglasses, obviously checking him out. It was interesting to watch because Ricky didn’t seem as young as he was, especially not with the leopard shirt he was wearing and the styled, blonde hair.
The younger always had the tendency to grill every person who got closer to Hao than necessary (in his eyes). It was something Gunwook also did, but Gunwook was an alpha; it was in his nature to protect, even more so omegas. And Hao wasn’t just some omega he might react to on the streets – he was like a brother to Gunwook, someone who took care of him. To some extent, Gunwook had even admitted to view Hao almost like a part of his pack.
It was endearing, mostly – until Gunwook got into situations that could end with bloodshed because of him.
But Ricky was an omega, just like Hao, and he definitely would not be of any help if anyone attacked him. It was a weird thing for Ricky to be so overprotective of Hao.
Hao guessed it had less to do with their second gender and everything to do with Ricky’s personality in general. He just was protective, he just cared; that’s who he is.
So when Ricky finally seemed to finish his analyzing, he slammed his plastic cup onto the table and said: “You’re a sight for sore eyes, Sung Hanbin.”
The bodyguard very clearly expected everything but that.
He seemed flustered all of a sudden, but the embarrassment was endearing on him. It was something Hao had noticed in the car before already; Hanbin wore his emotions like an accessory and it looked utterly and ridiculously good on him. The way his cheeks moved to accommodate for the dazzling smile that took over on his stupidly handsome face – he was charming.
So charming that it almost seemed too good to be true. But all of his handsomeness, adorableness and hotness seemed to just harmonize even though none of these things should be used in one sentence and make sense. It did with Hanbin though; he was charming, that was it.
If he were to be in a K-Pop group, Hanbin would be the kind of guy everyone would like, no matter their type. He was your bias, even if he wasn’t.
Hanbin was either used to being called handsome – which could very much be the case – or he just knew how to sweettalk people – also a very realistic assumption – but when he answered, Ricky’s skeptic look immediately vanished from his face: “Thank you. I’m sure you’re aware of it but you look fabulous as well, Ricky-ssi.”
“Call me Ricky”, the younger said and pulled off his sunglasses elegantly, placing them on top of his perfectly styled hair neatly, “You’ve sweettalked your way into my heart.”
Hao rolled his eyes, otherwise didn’t comment on it though.
Instead, he asked: “You told me you have an emergency. What happened this time?”
Immediately, Ricky’s focus shifted and he suddenly looked like the kid that he was; less like the perfect depiction of luxury and more like a hopeless college student who had to deal with life while trying to get through all of his courses without starving or dying of sleep-deprivation.
He let go of a whine, low enough for no alpha around them to hear it but loud enough for Hao to pick up on it, “I did something stupid!”
That was to be expected. Hao smiled at the waitress when she brought over their drinks – he got himself a strawberry cheesecake tea – adding some sugar to the brew while humming along passively.
He knew that talking wasn’t necessary just yet; Ricky needed to vent first, otherwise he’d just zip his mouth shut and keep it to himself.
The younger omega ranted: “I went to this party two days ago, you know; Kevin’s frat party. Gunwook was also there but as usual, Mister Popular got dragged away by a bunch of frat boys and people I didn’t even know existed on this campus and that left me alone with Taerae, who got shitfaced within, like, ninety minutes!”
“…”, Hao nodded wordlessly, stirring the sugar in his cup with the silver spoon in his hand.
Hanbin took a sip of his tea.
“While I was busy stopping Taerae from doing a lap dance for some guy who was way too keen on it, some random alpha suddenly offered a glass of water for Taerae to drink and suggested to me taking him outside to get some fresh air and – he smelled so good!”, Ricky continued to rant, “So he helped me with Taerae and when I finally got him into a taxi and managed to find Gunwook to get him out of there as well, it was like close to midnight. The next day, I realized that I forgot my jacket at the party so I planned on getting it back – or at least trying to, I liked that one. But when I got out of my classroom, that guy who helped me with Taerae just stood there and gave it to me with a smile and he walked off again before I could even open my mouth!”
Hao took a sip of his own tea now as well, “…And why exactly is that story worth calling our meeting an emergency?”
“Because I didn’t wash the jacket yet!”, Ricky said and Hao blinked at the sudden redness on his cheeks; that was new, “I usually wash my clothes after parties, because they always reek of smoke and cheap alcohol! But not my jacket; it smells like him! And I fell asleep to it yesterday, like it lulled me into a slumber!”
“…Wash it then, what’s the big deal”, Hao said and he almost choked on his next sip when Ricky slammed his hands onto the surface of their table.
He groaned dramatically, “You don’t understand! He smells like a dream – like, like-…I don’t even know, he just smells good. And I can’t bring myself to wash it because I don’t know who he is and god forbid I lose his scent and never see him again!”
Hao glanced at Hanbin, who didn’t look like he was interested or even listening – his poker face was remarkably well practiced. He regarded Ricky with a chastising look, “Maybe you’ve found your true mate?”
For the first time today, Ricky glared at Hao with his signature deadpanned rich child glare and scoffed lowly, “Yeah, sure; because that stupid fairy tale they told us when we were kids is true. Do you know anyone who came close to their supposed true mate?”
Hao had said it as a joke but found himself sort of offended; the snippy undertone Ricky carried did not sit right with him. He huffed, “Well, no; but that doesn’t mean you can’t stumble upon your true mate. Who said it’s just a stupid fairy tale? There are stories of people who said they found their perfect match.”
Ricky’s eyes sparkled with that very apparent spark of intelligence and it was then that Hao knew he was in for a ride, “There are currently 8.68 billion people on our planet, with roughly five being born every second all over the globe and approximately two dying within the same second. Roughly 4.7 billion of those 8.68 billion people live in Asia. 51.7 million people live in South Korea. Do you know how odd the chances are that out of these 51.7 million people, compared to the other roughly 8.67 billion people, I would find my true mate at a stupid frat party? If true mates exist at all, that is.”
“Well, if you put it that way, it sounds stupid!”, Hao said and huffed, continuing before Ricky could finish taking his next breath, “But it’s you who said that you can’t wash his scent off! Something must be special about him then!”
Ricky crossed his arms in front of himself, “Or maybe, I just like his scent because that’s how favoritism works.”
Hao narrowed his eyes, “You never said what he smells like. Tell me.”
And he hit the nail dead-on because Ricky’s perfect front of nonchalance immediately faltered, instead making room for red cheeks and a slight hitch in his unbothered act. He cleared his voice, “…I-…lemons…and ginger…”
“I knew it!”, Hao exclaimed and smirked, “You hate ginger! And lemon wouldn’t get anywhere close to you!”
As expected, Ricky merely sniffed, “That doesn’t prove anything! He’s an alpha and my heat is around the corner; I might as well just react to his pheromones because it’s literally part of my biology to do so!”
“Ah, really? Does that mean you never wash the shirts Gunwook lends you every now and then? You know, because he’s also an alpha and he smells like chocolate and freshly baked goods! That’s a lot more like something you would feel comfortable with!”, he argued.
Ricky opened his mouth and closed it again – but what eventually left him was a very arrogant huff as he downed the rest of his americano, stood up and said: “That doesn’t proof anything! Who knows, maybe I’ll ask Gunwook to spend my heat with me!”
“You wouldn’t!”, Hao stood up as well, watching Ricky as he walked off towards the entrance of the café.
His voice echoed through the room as he yelled back: “I would, out of spite!”
And then, he was gone.
That little brat-…
~
Hao figured that they had to come up with some rules. Not only because of the fact that Hanbin would be living with him for God knows how long; also because he had no idea how to explain this whole thing to his friends, let alone his professors or classmates.
As they walked into his flat that evening, Hao started boiling some water to prepare himself and his unfortunate guest a package of instant ramen. Hanbin had frowned upon witnessing it but obviously refrained from commenting.
They stood around in silence for about a minute or so until Hao finally said: “Knowing my mother, she probably arranged things – apart from you apparently living here with me. By the way, is that all you have?” – he pointedly stared at the admittedly big suitcase and the one sports bag next to it – “are you sure you won’t need more?”
Hanbin hummed lowly, crossing his arms as he leaned against the counter. He stood diagonally in front of Hao and let his gaze shift over to the boiling pot behind him every now and then as if he were afraid of Hao forgetting about the ramen and being the reason for his kitchen to explode.
He may not be a Michelin-worthy chef but he had survived in this apartment for long enough without blowing it up just fine, okay? Besides, Hanbin didn’t need to know that Hao could barely cook himself scrambled eggs.
“Mrs. Zhang told me to not worry about your professors since she dealt with them. As mentioned, she gave me the file about your…life. I read about the basic information I needed to make sure you stay safe and otherwise didn’t look at it though. And yes; these are all of the things I need”, he sighed and took the second egg from Hao after witnessing how he attempted breaking it open and adding one to the boiling water, effortlessly cracking it with one hand and steering the ramen with the other.
Tch – show off.
“I can still grab my things and get an apartment close-by, Zhang Hao-nim”, Hanbin said.
Hao could tell though that he was not happy about that arrangement.
Somehow, the fact that he offered it despite probably getting the order not to indulge Hao’s pettiness warmed his heart. He decided to shove those thoughts back into the corner they came from and stepped aside fully for Hanbin to take care of the ramen. He tasted the soup a few times and added some spices to it every now and then. Hao would like to think that the spices were unnecessary but he won’t comment on it.
Instead, he answered: “…My mother will probably trail you to see how long it takes for you to break and cave under my pressure – you know, so she can fire you and get someone else to listen to her properly if she has to”, he didn’t miss the skeptical side-eye Hanbin threw him, opted to ignore it though, “so no, if you want to keep the job, you better stay here. Besides, where and how would you find an apartment close to mine within a few days? What is it that you know about me?”
Hanbin tested their soup and turned to stove off, apparently satisfied with how he seasoned it. Hao grabbed two bowls for them and slid them over to the bodyguard with a soup ladle. Somehow, even the way he filled their bowls with ramen looked satisfying.
“Well, as I’ve said, you’re allergic to hazelnuts. I also read about your cycle, only to know when your next heat should hit because the whole reason I’m here is because of things happening regarding omegas and their heats; I apologize for that. I know about your relationship with your parents, read basic information regarding all of your friends and the people you are currently working with for course purposes. I know stuff about your professors and I’m aware of your schedule”, he said and walked off with their two bowls, placing them onto the white table Hao had next to his open kitchen.
He sat down in front of Hanbin and dipped his spoon into the soup to taste it, pleasantly surprised by the richness of the kimchi and how well seasoned it was.
Out of spite, he wasn’t going to comment on it though – Hanbin smirked either way.
“…I can’t say I’m happy about the fact that you read details about my heat cycle but I guess I can see where you’re coming from”, he said and slurped a little bit of his ramen, “I agree with Ricky though; don’t go dropping personal information about my other friends in front of them, let alone tell them you know their names. They’d be creeped out and I don’t need Gunwook getting all protective over me again.”
Hanbin nodded softly and they ate in silence for a few minutes.
Eventually, Hao said: “…Tell me some stuff about you. It’s only fair considering you own a file about the story of my life.”
The bodyguard laughed heartily but eventually said: “…Well. You know my name – I’m 25 years old. I’ve worked for the government in a special task force for the past four years. I have two dogs and as a child I wanted to be a choreographer.”
“That is as vague as it can be. How about your second gender?”, Hao said, mostly because he was curious.
Hanbin tilted his head softly and then seemed to have an epiphany as he said: “Ah, right; I’m wearing scent blockers. Mrs. Zhang told me to wear them because she didn’t want you to freak out, although I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t have cared. I can leave them on though?”
It was wise of his mother to make that assumption because now there was no doubt that Hanbin was an alpha. Hao was actually surprised by the fact that his mother even arranged another alpha living with him for the purpose of protection. Then again, she probably had her butler look into Hanbin’s private life often enough to know that he hopefully wouldn’t do anything. She may be a pain in the ass sometimes but Hao would never think of labeling her as lazy or not thorough. The fact that she is an overbearing and overprotective mother speaks for itself in this matter.
With a sigh, Hao shook his head and said: “…I’ll eventually have to get used to it if you want to live here. And besides, it wouldn’t be the stupidest thing for me to know what your scent’s like. Not that I believe there to be any reason for your protection but at least I know that the alpha scent in my apartment belongs to someone I know.”
Hanbin nodded and moved to get rid of the scent blockers on his wrists and the juncture of his neck. It took a few moments for the scent to spread, probably because Hanbin felt pretty neutral right now and therefore, his pheromones were calm and his scent very even.
Hao was used to getting whiplash from Gunwook’s sometimes out-of-control, sweet and rich chocolate and bread. Not like Gunwook’s scent was pungent or something he didn’t like; but he usually connected it to a child he wanted to protect (even though Gunwook was far from a child and perfectly capable of taking care of himself). Call it omega instincts.
It wasn’t like Hao never smelled all kinds of alpha scents – wearing scent blockers wasn’t mandatory on their campus, let alone the city, and it was normal to pick up on the different scents every now and then, omegas and alphas alike.
But for some reason, when Hanbin’s scent finally seemed to spread a little further around them, Hao physically felt his whole body relax. It was soothing, almost tender – very unlike the usual alpha scent he was used to.
Gunwook’s chocolate was rich and harsh, like a dark chocolate bar you accidentally left in the fridge for too long.
Hanbin’s scent was a pleasant mixture of jasmine and something fruity – maybe apples? Or-…
“Pears”, the alpha suddenly said and startled Hao out of his stupor, “The scent you’re probably trying to identify. Pears. Everyone always wonders so I just kind of guessed your confused look would also be related to that.”
Pears – yes. Sweet but not overbearing. There, but not persistent.
Pleasant.
Hao inhaled his scent a little more and found himself shocked at the hints of roses in the air, mixing with the jasmine and pear – he hadn’t realized his own scent spread as intensely as that!
Clearing his voice, he tried to force his own scent to back off a little and continued eating, “…Perfect. Now I know what to look out for in the unlikely case of me getting poisoned with a dangerous aphrodisiac.”
~
It came to absolutely no one’s surprise that both, Gunwook and Taerae, absolutely loved Hanbin. He played it cool as a lowkey, new student who just so happened to have known Hao for a little bit over six months and now lived with him until he, quote, “Found something better”.
Hao felt slightly bad for lying to them but the only reason Ricky knew about Hanbin’s real profession was because he was too smart for his own good. He had still blinked in astonishment upon witnessing Hanbin glaring the younger omega down and threatening him to not have a single word about his job as a bodyguard leave his lips.
It could, another quote, “Jeopardize the mission.”
Surprisingly, Ricky actually listened with a quiet nod.
Anyways, Hanbin was now a piano major and attended Hao’s courses as if he had always done so. He charmed his way into his friend’s hearts easily and if it weren’t for the fact that he was only there to play his part as the bodyguard, Hao might actually like him.
It’s been a month by now, their schedules well aligned and by now Hao even got to see Hanbin’s piano skills (which he had doubted, not going to lie). It had taken him a long evening full of practice to have Hanbin stop calling him ‘Zhang Hao-nim’ and merely address him as, ‘Hao-hyung’.
“There’s this party”, Hao said and he already knew what Hanbin was about to say. During the month they had been living together, they learned quite a lot about each other.
For example that Hanbin was cautious about almost literally every possible thing getting close to Hao in any way. When he had said that he took his job as a bodyguard very seriously, he had not been kidding.
Ricky once asked him what kind of special task force he had been part of before – Hanbin had merely raised an eyebrow at him and proceeded to say that quote, “that was undisclosed information and he’d unfortunately have to get rid of Ricky if he were to find out.”
Shen Ricky was not easy to scare but that had been good enough, even for him.
In any way, Hao had had more than one discussion about where and when Hanbin would follow him like a shadow. He’d constantly tail him, no matter where he went, to the point of it being extremely weird. One of his classmates in music theory asked him once if Hanbin had a crush on him. When Hao had told Hanbin to cut it out with the constant following around, they had had a two hour fight about why it looked suspicious to every normal person if they were always seen together, no matter which hour, no matter where.
“It just sends a weird message when I walk to the toilet and you follow me into the toilet as if it’s your purpose in life!”, Hao had argued, as always already ready for the next argument (thanks to his father).
Hanbin had huffed back a very frustrated: “That’s because it is my purpose; that’s what your mother pays me for!”
“Yeah, but they don’t know that!”, Hao had said, earning himself a very tired glare from the bodyguard.
They eventually came to an agreement that Hao would go to the toilet (and some other things) on his own from now on, so people would stop looking at them weirdly.
So when Hao started the topic on a house party, he already knew that Hanbin would not be thrilled about it. They were seated on the couch, both lazing around after an actually good dinner (Hanbin had made it a point that Hao’s previous state of living could not be a standard and that he couldn’t understand how Hao survived for this long without proper cooking and no symptoms of a heart attack). Hanbin had been busy reading a book, his scent lingering around warmly.
Up until Hao mentioned the party and almost instantly, Hanbin’s scent spiked with displeasure. Hao was pretty sure he only noticed the change in his scent because they’ve spent the last month basically living on top of each other.
He clicked his tongue and changed the page of his book while answering with a slight strain to his jaw: “No.”
Hao let a whine slip past his lips, “Ah, come on! I haven’t been to a party in forever! Because of you, by the way! And I’ve been listening to Beethoven for literally two weeks for my evaluation – I’m done with it! I need something different; I need fun and cheap alcohol and loud music and idiotic students! Namely Gunwook, Taerae and Ricky!”
Hanbin remained unimpressed, “They are always welcome to come over and drink here. Both you and Ricky have more than enough money to buy alcohol that’s actually good.”
He scoffed, “That’s hardly the same and you know it.”
“Sounds like a You-problem”, the bodyguard said.
No matter the amount of whining Hao did, Hanbin remained stubborn on it. When offered to just join in as well, Hanbin had argued that quote, “Protecting someone is a lot harder with a bunch of horny, drunk students around”.
Which, okay; fair enough.
But Hao still believed that protecting him in particular was stupid anyways and it’s been a whole month since the last incident without anything happening. Hanbin had argued that considering there had been around five incidents all close to each other in timing, the sudden lack of action on the perpetrators part was suspicious, to say the least.
If there was one thing Hao would not let anyone do though, it was bossing him around. His mother should’ve been aware of that when she decided to hire a bodyguard without asking him first. And Hanbin should’ve done the math by now as well – Hao would do what he wanted, regardless of whether anyone wanted him to do so or not.
And so, he texted Ricky to think of a very good excuse for his late arrival at the party so Taerae and Gunwook wouldn’t ask questions, telling him to expect him by Midnight.
It was a party; Midnight was still very early for that.
Hanbin was a light sleeper – but Hao made sure to talk with him, whine some more about wanting to go and that he couldn’t be locked up in his own apartment forever (just to make it seem like he really was upset about not going when he, in fact, would go, no matter what Hanbin said) and eventually bid Hanbin goodnight.
It took at least an hour for him to silently get ready and listen in on the bodyguard to make sure he would not only go to bed as well, but also not suspect a thing.
Around a quarter to Midnight, Hao grabbed his phone, slid it into his back pockets and successfully managed to sneak out of his apartment, pulling the entrance door shut silently behind himself.
Luckily, the beeping of his door locking wasn’t that loud.
And even if Hanbin heard that; Hao sprinted ahead and would long since be gone by the time his bodyguard realized that his subject had snuck himself out of the apartment.
The house party was a 10 minute uber drive away and when he arrived at the house in question, the driver looked at him as if he wanted to suggest driving him back home for free.
But Hao merely smiled, tipped him generously and wished him a very good night.
Unexpectedly, the one waiting for him by the door, typing away on his phone, was not Ricky – it was Taerae. The beta had a very healthy redness on his cheeks, telling Hao all he needed to know about the younger’s alcohol consummation this evening – despite that, he was still standing steady though and smiled widely as soon as he caught Hao’s gaze.
“Hao-hyung!”, Taerae said and threw his arms around him, head tilted back so he could look at his face properly, “You made it! Ricky-ah said that you’d come late because you wanted to practice your piece some more; have you perfected it?”
Smart excuse, thank God Ricky was a genius.
Hao nodded softly and playfully pinched Taerae’s cheeks, chuckling at his resounding giggle: “Yes, I’ve practiced a lot. I eventually stopped to eat something and get ready – also, I think Hanbin-ah was about to strangle me for playing the same piece over and over again.”
Not entirely the truth but not a lie either; Hanbin probably felt like strangling him if he woke up to an empty apartment any time soon.
Taerae waved it off, pulling on Hao’s arm softly to direct them both towards the entrance of the house. It was big and very modern – if Hao remembered correctly, the house belonged to a guy Ricky vaguely knew from his course.
He leaned down to make sure Taerae heard him over the music when they stepped inside to ask: “Ricky usually doesn’t say yes to random people in his courses inviting him to parties! What’s up with this one?”
The beta had a very smug grin on his face, “I assume he told you about jacket-guy?” – Hao nodded as an answer – “well, this guy here, as Ricky said, had jacket-guy’s scent on him! So he decided to take the invite and go to his party and you wouldn’t believe it; jacket-guy is actually here! But Ricky’s been too shy to go over to him and Gunwook’s currently tailing his ass so he doesn’t do anything stupid!”
Gunwook tailed Ricky to prevent him from doing something stupid.
Now that was a first.
The one time Hao can’t attend a party like he usually would, he misses all the interesting things.
Because of course he did.
After some mindless walking around, with Taerae bumping into random people he somehow knew from campus and Hao having to brush off about three people who tried flirting with him, they finally found Ricky and Gunwook on the first floor.
They walked straight into a very heated situation and the only reason Hao knew that they had found them to begin with was because of Ricky’s sour strawberry scent and the pungent smell of Gunwook’s totally pissed-off pheromones in the air.
With that, there was also a very heavy note of lemons in the air, but it stung in his nose and lacked the usual sweetness Hao liked about the fruit.
He somehow knew that the scent belonged to the mysterious jacket-guy.
Him and Taerae squeezed through a bunch of noisy students until they managed to get to the people in the middle of the room; Ricky stood behind Gunwook with wide eyes, all of his long limbs and tall frame seemingly shrunk into a tiny box of panic. Not far ahead of Gunwook stood a guy who was even taller than him, broad shoulders, gaze intense, nostrils flared and eyes reflecting the lights in their golden hue – that was one pissed-off alpha and judging by the lemons in the air, Hao had a feeling he knew what this was about.
“Man, Gyuvin”, the guy in front of them said, a cocky smirk on his lips, “Who would’ve thought the rich princess over there is someone you would get all worked up over.”
Gyuvin – so his name, apparently – narrowed his eyes at the other guy, “It doesn’t matter who he is – when someone tells you to stop, you stop. That should be common sense.”
Hao stepped closer to Ricky and gently tugged him into his side, all of his own senses attuned to the younger omega in obvious distress. Even Taerae seemed to feel that the air in here was stuffy, obviously not capable of really smelling it like they did, but beta’s weren’t numb to pheromones or scents – just couldn’t pick up on them as well as omegas or alphas.
Ricky immediately settled against him, burying his nose into Hao’s neck and rubbing their scent glands together. There was nothing calming about that though; Ricky was slipping and his need to find comfort in a scent he recognized was concerning, to say the least.
Gunwook seemed to snap out of his own anger when Ricky’s whine seemed a little louder than intended, turning around instantly. The two of them had had some sort of weird thing going for about a few months, very early into their friendship; Hao knew that it was more of a, ‘you scratch my back, I scratch yours’-thing though. It didn’t surprise him though that Ricky immediately leaned into Gunwook’s touch and nuzzled closer to him, leaving space for Hao to let his own anger seep through, mindful not to cause more distress for Ricky though.
Gyuvin’s scent was weirdly bearable, even with all of the anger in his pheromones – that might very well be the nature of his scent, Hao guessed though that he also had an incredible amount of self-control. Either way, when Hao stepped next to him and narrowed his eyes at the other alpha in front of them, he seemed to visibly calm down at least a little bit, “Listen, I don’t care who you are or what exactly it is you did, but if I see you anywhere close to Ricky ever again, you will wish you could turn back time.”
The alpha scoffed, “Ah, I know you”, he said and suddenly, he looked smug, “the rich, entitled omega everyone always swoons over. I know everyone says you’re easy on the eyes but no one ever went into the details of how pretty you really are – a shame that you’re a stuck-up, rich good-for-nothing though.”
Hao was no alpha and therefore didn’t really have any overly easily targeted pride. Considering he grew up rich, he also couldn’t care any less about what people said about him. There had been a time in his life in which he cared about stuff like that a lot – what people thought, what people said, what people viewed him as. But he’s been in South Korea for seven years now, has done his bachelor’s in music and a diploma for teaching, worked as a violin teacher for a couple of years and then went back to studying, starting his Master with 26 years old. If there was one thing he couldn’t care any less about, it was what some stupid engineering student thought of him.
He scoffed, grabbed Gyuvin’s wrist carefully and let his pheromones engulf the younger alpha to get him out of his anger for good, directing him back towards Ricky. He could feel that Ricky actually longed for him, if anything, and considering this kid got mad enough at some other alpha for his eyes to turn golden, Hao officially declared him good enough.
Gyuvin went easily, almost like a puppet on strings, throwing one last glare towards the other alpha before walking to where Gunwook was gently tapping Ricky’s back. Taerae made a movement with his hand, directing the three to get out of this house already, while Hao looked back over at the alpha again and said: “We’re leaving. You better remember my threat, because this stuck-up, rich, good-for-nothing can and will ruin your life if you piss him off enough.”
Taerae nodded along in proud agreement, ready to leave with Hao, when suddenly, a hand grabbed his wrist and Hao got whiplash from how fast he got twirled around and pressed against a desk. Several students gasped around him but none of them seemed brave enough to do anything. The grip that alpha had on Hao was bruising – but Hao grew up rich and his father had always empathized that it was important for him to be capable of defending himself.
Smoothly twisting the alpha’s wrist, he kicked his knee into his stomach, stepped around him and easily shoved the man forward into the table with practiced ease.
The alpha grunted and was about to take a full step towards him when finally, another alpha – presumably one of his friends? – held him off, saying something about it not being worth it.
Hao clicked his tongue, unable to stop his snarky tongue from leaving one last humiliating comment before turning around as well: “You’re one great alpha; attacking someone when they already turned their back on you.”
He placated Taerae’s insistent questions about whether he was okay or not with numerous nods, walking them back out of the house towards the garden in the front, where Gunwook was standing with his arms crossed, a good meter away from where Ricky was clinging onto Gyuvin with a death grip.
Apparently, Gunwook had already called an uber, couldn’t find one where all of them fit in though.
Hao pushed Taerae towards Gunwook, smelling no alcohol on the alpha, “Take him home, please” – he looked at Ricky, stepping closer – “Quanrui, are you comfortable with Gyuvin taking care of you?”
He made sure to ask the question in Chinese, not wanting the others to understand and knowing that Ricky felt a very warm sense of safety whenever Hao addressed him with his Chinese name in their native language.
The younger omega nodded and moved forwards on shaky knees, nuzzling his nose against Hao’s scent gland once again, probably as a gesture of comfort, answering in Chinese. “Yes, I’m fine. Gyuvin will take care of me.”
Hao directed his gaze onto Gyuvin, who looked back at him as if he knew what he was trusted with right now: “I don’t think you need to hear it but I’ll still say it; if I wake up tomorrow and something happened to Ricky again, I will make you wish for death.”
“I promise, he’s perfectly fine with me”, Gyuvin answered, holding Hao’s gaze with unwavering honesty.
The uber arrived and though Taerae argued that he didn’t want to leave Hao behind, Gunwook was quick to pull him into the car with him – though not without making Hao promise to text him when he arrived home.
Once their uber left, Hao let go of a very tired sigh.
That was…one party.
The music had started to play a few minutes ago already, outside where Hao was standing barely noticeable as a consistent bass-sound. He considered calling himself an uber as well – but walking back home took him about thirty minutes if he took his time and after all of that, he really needed some air.
He turned on the sidewalk and started walking back towards his apartment, sorting his thoughts and watching his own steps on the ground. It was cold – of course it was, they’ve reached nearly the end of November.
By the time he got close to the main station close to his campus and therefore ten minutes away from his home, he felt frozen to the bones.
The main station was always buzzing with people, Hao avoided going near there at ungodly hours quite like these usually. Not necessarily because he feared something might happen; but because he just didn’t like walking through it when he was alone at night. Especially as an omega. He could and would defend himself just fine, as proven today – but that doesn’t mean he was keen on having to do it.
Now though, he had to walk through the station to get to the other side. There was the option of walking across the street – but the road was busy, even at close to 1am in the morning, and he wasn’t suicidal enough to run across a busy street in the middle of Seoul.
As expected, there were people distantly yelling or listening to music in some corner of the underground station as he walked down. He also passed a homeless guy sitting on a bench and gave him a little bit of money, smiling when the man thanked him about three times.
In hindsight, that might’ve not really been his smartest move.
Because when he rounded the corner to get to the stairs that would lead him back up on the other side of the station, two guys suddenly stood in his way. He could smell the faintest hints of alcohol and weed on them – a deadly combination that he had had the displeasure of stumbling upon various amounts of times.
The two guys weren’t much taller than him but they looked stronger.
But Hao decided to play it cool, narrowly avoiding running straight into one of them and smiling politely as he said, “Ah-…I’m sorry, I didn’t hear you coming.”
He tried to brush past them after that – but one of the two guys stepped into his way, blocking his fastest route towards the staircase he wanted to reach so desperately. “Now, now – what do we have here? If that ain’t one pretty, rich omega.”
Hao huffed. He wasn’t really wearing anything that told about his social status but he guessed if they watched him giving money to the homeless guy, they assumed him to be rich. Then again, as said, they smelled of alcohol and weed; their abilities to really analyze things was questionable.
“I’m not rich. And I really want to get home, it’s cold; could you please get out of my way?”, he said as calmly as possible.
He didn’t like admitting it but the whole ordeal with Ricky earlier at the party left his omega in distress and dire need to surround himself with something he was familiar with; ideally his bed and the comfort of his apartment. Now being cornered by two men he didn’t know, at a place he couldn’t stand to begin with, after having to deal with one overly confident alpha already, he really felt his nerves straining to remain calm and collected.
The other guy who didn’t move into his way, laughed, “Well, if you’re not rich, then you’re just very generous. We also need some money, why don’t you share some with us as well?”
Hao narrowed his eyes, “Because, as I’ve said, I’m not rich. And you would probably use the money to buy more booze while the man back there didn’t smell like a minibar.”
“Sharp tongue”, he said and licked his lips – a motion Hao definitely did not like and all of his alarm bells went off instantly when a way too familiar glint appeared in his eyes, “I like that.”
He should really learn to control his temper in situations like these.
Realizing too late that he forgot to keep tabs on the other guy, he stumbled right into him when Hao attempted taking a step back, flinching upon feeling his breath on his neck.
The guy inhaled deeply, nose buried into his neck and holding onto his wrists easily, “Woah, what a rich smell; you should take a whiff of it yourself, who needs money when we could have this?”
Hao wiggled around when the other guy stepped closer as well, using his scent as an advantage to daze them properly. He – once again this night, what the hell – kicked his knee up, slammed his elbow back into the other’s stomach behind him and bolted away, up the stairs.
The two guys both groaned but – seeing as they were alphas – quickly regained their strength.
It was always a stupid idea of an omega to run away from an alpha, let alone two, because alphas were predators in their core and an omega running was nothing but prey trying to get away. He reached the top and was just about to grab the handle and use his momentum to swing around the corner towards the campus grounds (because it had security, thank god), when one of the alphas caught up to him and grabbed the wrist that had already been grabbed and bruised once before this night.
Hao winced and let go of a whine – another mistake on his part but he couldn’t help it when the pain shot through his arm.
The alpha panted and pushed him back against the wall framing the staircase leading to the underground station. “God, you really are one feisty thing”, he panted and moved closer, rubbing his nose against Hao’s neck again.
He was about to open his mouth and yell when suddenly, the pressure and weight against him was gone. Instead, he heard dull thuds, several shouts, more thuds and finally painful groans. As he pushed himself off the wall, he just so witnessed the last bits of the guy who had caught up to him being knocked-out with one, clean, powerful punch.
The guy who had saved him straightened up, panting and shaking his wrist upon apparently feeling the pain of the blow he had delivered to the druggie’s nose. A very burned scent of jasmine invaded Hao’s senses and he tensed when Hanbin turned around to look at him with the first real anger he ever got to see in the alpha’s eyes. But Hanbin seemed to swallow his anger for now, his voice dangerously calm as he said, “…Are you alright?”
Hao swallowed and nodded, not protesting when Hanbin clicked his tongue, dragged him over to the car that he must’ve speeded right over here with and opened the passenger door for him without saying a single word.
The entire drive back to their apartment was dead silent, just like the walk from the parking lot in the basement to the elevator and their ride up towards Hao’s apartment.
Only when the door clicked shut behind them with a resounding beep, indicating that the door was locked now, did Hao finally dare break the silence, “I-…well…I was almost home-…”
“Are you out of God-damn mind?!”, Hanbin interrupted.
It was the first time that Hao actually heard something like anger in his voice and it had him zip his mouth shut immediately. He didn’t dare speak up again, for several reasons he lacked the energy to dive into right now.
Not like Hanbin would’ve listened to him right now, even if he would’ve had the guts to argue or say anything at all: “I told you to not go to that fucking party for a fucking reason! Do you know how worried I was when I realized you weren’t here anymore?! How much worse it was when I tried reaching you, then Ricky, then Taerae and finally Gunwook, but none of you thought of answering your stupid phones?!”
Hao swallowed the urge to make himself even smaller, feeling the need to explain himself to Hanbin at least regarding the unanswered calls, “…T-There was a situation with Ricky at the party-…”
“I know!”, Hanbin interrupted him once again, “After calling Gunwook for the nth time, he finally answered the phone and told me that he was on his way home with literally everyone except for you, who apparently told them to not worry about you! Do you know how long it took for me to figure out that if you didn’t get an uber, for whatever stupid reason ever, you probably walked home?!”
“I-…I’m-…”
“Me being there earlier in time to beat up these two guys and save your ass was luck!”, Hanbin continued, pacing back and forth in front of Hao, “Luck because I knew you like walking when you’re stressed, luck because I knew thanks to Gunwook where you were, luck because I know Seoul like the back of my hand and knew you’d have to walk through the main station! If I wouldn’t have called, let alone noticed that you were gone, God-knows could’ve happened to you!”
Hao was not your stereotypical, damsel in distress, helpless omega.
He knew how to defend himself in basic situations. He was logical and realistic. He knew his rights, his strengths and his weaknesses. And, yes; he also knew that walking through that main station and being as cocky as he had down there had been entirely his own fault. Provoking not one, not even two, but three alphas in one night alone had also, really been a stupid idea of him.
But especially because he knew that Hanbin was right and because he felt bad about sneaking out, about lying to him, making him worry and for not checking his phone even once, he felt even worse. Hao’s omega was completely overwhelmed with the whole night.
He had been busy worrying over Ricky, asserting dominance to an alpha, making sure all of his younger friends were fine and walking home in the cold. And by the time he had calmed down enough for it to not be so bad anymore, he had to walk into two new alphas, provoked them as well, got chased and caught and-…
They touched him.
Not only did they touch him; they rubbed their scent onto him.
And it wasn’t until he had finally thought through the whole night so far that the fact caught up to him. He didn’t even realize he was shaking and whimpering softly until he smelled his own scent burned and sour and all of Hanbin’s angry pheromones seemed to immediately evaporate into thin air.
He suddenly felt dirty and overstimulated with all the scents and sensations still crawling over his skin, haunted by the phantom-hands that touched him just a mere ten minutes ago.
It was annoying, really – but as much as he liked to pretend he wasn’t sometimes, at the end of the day, he was still an omega.
An omega who worried over his friends and an omega who had to protect himself against three different people today, on his own.
Hao expected himself to flinch away from Hanbin, but instead, he immediately melted against the alpha when he stepped close and wrapped his arms around him, moving his head into the bodyguard’s neck and inhaling his comforting combination of jasmine and pear as if his life depended on it. He was by no means smaller than Hanbin, but he never actually managed to feel so small next to someone else.
The only person who ever gave him a feeling close to this was Gunwook, because he was an alpha and often scented Hao when he realized that he was a little overwhelmed. It didn’t happen frequently, especially considering they were five years apart in age and despite everyone knowing Hao treated him like a younger brother, some people still liked to make assumptions for the heck of it.
But this was different. Hanbin wasn’t five years younger, he wasn’t just that alpha Hao felt almost mother-like protectiveness for. Hanbin was around his age, a perfectly stable alpha who knew when and how to control his pheromones and scent, hired by his mother to protect him from the people who walked around and injected omegas with aphrodisiacs
He was the man who came running for Hao in absolute horror and panic, afraid something happened to him, angry at the fact that he snuck out without saying anything, probably disappointed in Hao for not believing him when he said that he should not take this whole situation as easily as he did.
“…Of course you’re not fine, how could I just assume you are”, Hanbin said softly, gentle hands gliding through Hao’s hair and his voice a deep rumbling, “I’m sorry for screaming at you. You must’ve been restless and agitated. You did so well, protecting Ricky, handling the situation, protecting yourself against the guys who wanted to hurt you.”
It was odd.
All of those things that Hanbin whispered into his hair now were things that Hao usually whispered to Ricky when he had a moment, or to Gunwook when he needed to calm down. It was things he was used to saying to other people.
Hao rarely needed to hear those things, rarely had anyone to indulge that craving anyways.
But Hanbin just seemed to know without needing him to even say anything.
He cradled Hao, moved them towards Hao’s bedroom, lied down in his bed with him. And Hao, despite not ever being this close to Hanbin at all, inhaled his scent, relished in the warmth and enjoyed the proximity. His inner omega was twisting and turning in comfort and bliss and he felt his eyes slip shut in absolute peace, enough for his vocal cords to work and do something he knows he’s only ever done once before – when he had been a child and his father had calmed him down after he got scared because of something.
He started purring.
Omegas could purr – less than the sound a cat would make, more like a very low, gentle rumbling. It was odd to explain. Odd was also the fact that Hao started doing it.
An omega purring because they felt comfortable and safe wasn’t weird. Weird was that Hao felt dizzy with jasmine, overwhelmed with the amount of warmth seeping into his body, and yet content with the lack of self-control.
Hanbin’s fingers stopped moving, along with Hao’s purrs as soon as he couldn’t feel his hand combing through his hair anymore, a soft whimper leaving him when the younger leaned away softly.
Hao instinctively moved closer again, trying to close the distance, getting nose back to the source of his comfort, rubbing his cheek against the scent gland and mewling contently when their scent started mingling again.
“…Oh Hao-ge. Are you dropping?”, he said softly and somehow, having him say it out loud had something inside of Hao panic again.
His scent must’ve soured because Hanbin immediately spread more of his scent, jasmine strong in the air around them as he shushed him with a deep voice and said: “Shh, it’s okay, I’m here for you. You’re safe with me – I won’t let anyone ever hurt you again.”
And Hao really tried to stay awake, but his mind was hazy and his omega took over, having him relax completely against the sturdy surface of Hanbin’s chest as he let his eyes fully slip shut and his consciousness drift away from him…
~
Hao had had a few walk of shames.
Not many, he wasn’t really one for shenanigans and quickies, much less meaningless one night stands. Gunwook had once asked him why; he had not known what to say. Quite frankly, he didn’t know why; just that he just wasn’t really a fan of it.
Point is; he knew what it should feel like to tiptoe around someone after a weird night.
Oddly enough, though he woke up with his nose buried in Hanbin’s scent gland and pretty much drooling over his neck, it was anything but weird between them.
Hao had tensed immediately upon opening his eyes, realizing the position they were in. Hanbin had noticed seconds later, either because he had a very light sleep or because he had picked up on the gentle shift in Hao’s scent.
Either way, he had doted on him almost tenderly. Brushing his hair out of his forehead, keeping him close without asking about the whys and hows what-nows.
They stayed in their bed until at least 11am, which was around the time Hao’s phone rang with an incoming call and he had never detested someone more for calling him than in the moment he had to untangle his sleepy self from Hanbin’s comforting warmth and reach over to grab his phone.
The petty anger quickly made way for a wave of worry though as he saw who it was that called him and answered it immediately.
To his surprise (and slight disappointment), the person on the other end of the line talking wasn’t Ricky though. Gyuvin sounded nervous over the call and that made Hao nervous – until he realized it was probably due to the fact that Gyuvin was scared he’d disappoint or anger him.
“Gunwook-ah texted me earlier and said your roommate called because you weren’t home. Are you okay? I didn’t tell Ricky because I don’t want to worry him”, Gyuvin said and he actually sounded genuinely worried about Hao’s well-being.
Hao felt his heart warm up with all kinds of fond feelings and answered: “…Yes, my roommate took…good care of me. I’m fine, don’t worry about me. How is he?”
Gyuvin sounded tired all of a sudden, but there was a very faint undertone of affection in his voice when he replied: “It took a long time for me to calm him down – I wanted him to take a bath but he refused and eventually, he more or less had to carry him to the bathroom. Before you ask, I did not stay with him while he was in the bathtub. He talked to me about some stuff and thanked for giving him back his jacket profusely.”
Hao chuckled, “He went crazy trying to find you. Please stay with him some more?”
The young alpha agreed and said his goodbyes, promising Hao to tell Ricky he should call him as soon as he felt good enough for it.
If only to tell Hao what exactly happened at that party in the first place.
When he turned back around, Hanbin was scrolling through his phone with his body propped up sideways, seemingly waiting for…something.
Hao swallowed, sat up on his bed and started fiddling around with his fingers. His nervousness must’ve been apparent for various reasons, because Hanbin immediately dropped his phone and mirrored his position on the bed with a slightly worried look on his face.
Eventually, Hao brought himself to pry his lips apart and say: “…Thank you. For handling me so well when I dropped…and for…saving me. And I’m sorry for…for sneaking out. I know you’re mad about that and you have every right to be-…”
“I’m not mad at you” – Hanbin interrupted him with a sigh, his eyes sparking with honest disappointment and worry – “you’re a grown man, older than me at that, Hao – if you want to go out and party, who am I to stop you? It was foolish of me to believe that I could order you around like that. But…I’m disappointed. That you thought sneaking out on me is the better option. And also confused as to why exactly you thought walking home after Midnight would be a good idea. You’re capable of handling yourself, I know that – but you’re still an omega. And while handling one arrogant alpha student may not be special or difficult, defending yourself against two drunk, high and probably criminal alphas in the middle of the night in an unsupervised area definitely isn’t. You could’ve been seriously hurt – kidnapped, maybe even worse. I don’t want to know what would’ve happened if I wouldn’t have thought of where you might be. You could’ve been-…”
The bodyguard paused, apparently too worked up to finish his sentence.
He didn’t need to; Hao knew what he was going to say.
“…You are a strong and independent omega male. But know your limits, Hao-ge”, Hanbin concluded, “And please don’t ever sneak out behind my back again. I know I forbade you from leaving but if I don’t know where you are, I can’t protect you. And that I found you yesterday was very lucky.”
Hao moved closer to Hanbin and let his forehead lean against his shoulder softly, inhaling his scent. It was interesting, how his scent changed – when he was worried, the pears got stronger and kind of overshadowed the jasmine. It was both, intense and soft, at the same time. He nodded gently and said: “Yes, Hanbin. I won’t sneak out again, I’m sorry.”
They lazed around on Hao’s bed for the rest of the day, getting up once to cook something for a very late Lunch.
For some reason, despite their dynamics being way too off for it to make sense, Hao did not feel any urge to do a walk of shame or feel weird around Hanbin.
On the contrary; when Hanbin excused himself to his own bedroom and bid him goodnight, Hao had an odd feeling in his chest.
It felt void of anything and he did not like it.
But he fell asleep to the remnants of jasmine on the pillow Hanbin must’ve used last night…
~
Something shifted in the way Hao and Hanbin interacted after that.
It wasn’t really something he noticed himself though – weirdly enough, it was Gyuvin who pointed it out over at a very much attempted productive study session in Taerae’s apartment.
And he had only really noticed it in the first place because, much like Ricky, he was way too smart for his own damn good.
Upon Gunwook pointing out that Hanbin joined the music program late because he had distantly known Hao and moved in with him temporarily, Gyuvin had said: “They’re awfully close considering they’re barely colleagues, as you guys like to call it.”
And-…yes.
Hao, upon actively watching himself and Hanbin and their interactions, had to admit that Gyuvin was completely right. They didn’t seem like mere colleagues anymore; they seemed like friends, almost best friends.
They had insiders to laugh about, waited for each other after courses, met up to do stuff. Whenever someone invited one of them, everyone knew that the other would be there as well; whether you liked that or not.
A package-deal is what one of Hao’s professors had even called them.
But not only did their overall imagine to everyone else change; they also treated each other differently.
Hanbin stopped being so persistent with his protection. Although he very clearly still kept a very watchful eye on Hao whenever they weren’t on campus or in their apartment, he allowed Hao to at least go to parties every now and then and go shopping with his friends.
Hao, likewise, tried not to get himself into any stupid situations again with his snarky mouth.
It was a Wednesday when it happened – Taerae pretty much bolted into the café they frequently met up in, running over to their table with deep breaths and holding himself up on the surface, very much ignoring Ricky’s dissatisfied scowl when the jostling almost had his Cappuccino fall over.
They all raised a brow at him, Hao halting in his movement to explain an equation to a very lost Gunwook, waiting for the beta to catch his breath and say what he wanted to say.
He raised his right arm – the one that wasn’t busy supporting his weight against their table – showing off the display of his phone with worriedly pulled together brows, “Look!”
Everyone kind of stared at his phone, not knowing what to say, until Gyuvin finally cleared his voice, seemingly feeling too bad for Taerae to not say anything as he said: “...You really sucked in sociology, maybe Hanbin-hyung should help you with the course for your next test...”
Taerae straightened up and flipped his phone around to stare at the display in utter confusion before gasping, swiping once and saying: “What? Oh-...shit, no! Fuck my grades, here!”
This time, when they looked at his display, it was a screenshot from an article. Hao narrowed his eyes to read the letters, a little too far away to fully see all it said. Thankfully, Gyuvin was till closest and kind enough to read it out loud: “Breaking News: Citizens are fearful again after recent aphrodisiac-attack in Dongjak-gu. Just minutes ago, the emergency hotline received a call from a helpful citizen about an omega, once again, induced with an aphrodisiac in the middle of busy Dongjak-gu. People on the streets state having seen the incident happen, yet the perpetrator is still a mystery to everyone. According to the reports made over a month ago already, the offender was wearing a mask, a black jacket, a hat and was around 180cms tall. The victim, a young man, is now on his way to the hospital, there are no further information about his well-being yet.”
Hao tensed upon picking up on Gunwook’s burnt chocolate scent and lightly nudged him with his elbow. But the young alpha merely scoffed, “Again? I thought this thing was over!”
“Who would do something like that?”, Taerae gasped and let himself fall onto the seat next to Gyuvin with a very tired sigh, “I mean, what good does it do to the culprit to induce random omegas on the streets with aphrodisiacs! And dangerous ones at that; no one died of it yet but all of them were pretty damn close to it!”
That was the million-dollar-question, wasn’t it?
Hao felt Hanbin tensing even though the bodyguard sat in front of him. They shared a very unsuspicious look but otherwise didn’t say anything.
Meanwhile, Ricky chimed into the conversation: “Was there really nothing connecting the victims? You knew one of them, didn’t you, Gunwook-ie?”
The alpha’s scent soured now, probably upon remembering, and answered darkly, “Yes, I share a few courses with her. She’s fine physically but I don’t think she gathered the courage to leave her apartment ever since. None of us has seen her since she’s been discharged, and our professor informed us about her probably dropping out for personal reasons. I text her regularly to ask if there’s anything she needs but she either ignores my messages or flat out refuses to see anyone, me included. She’s terrified to leave her home.”
Hao frowned.
He’s obviously never been through a forced heat and therefore couldn’t judge how bad it would be, but he couldn’t imagine being so traumatized that he wouldn’t dare leave his house anymore. Then again, after the incident in the underground station, he had to admit to himself that he also didn’t go down there again on his own. Not even in the daytime. If he needed to get to the other side of the street, he usually walked all around it or just asked Hanbin to drive him wherever he needed to be.
To some extent, that behavior was similar to how Gunwook’s friend was acting. Hao avoided the main station, and he would likely not stop until he absolutely had to go through there again for some reason.
Looking at Gyuvin, who studied medicine, as they had all found out eventually, Hao asked: “What risks can an aphrodisiac bear exactly? I don’t even know, to be honest.”
The younger tilted his head in deep thought: “That very much depends on what was used. There are dozens of different aphrodisiacs used as medicine for omegas who, for example, don’t get their heat or other medical problems. Some of them are stronger than others” - he looked at Taerae - “if I remember correctly, the five victims before this one all had traces of different aphrodisiacs in their system, right?”
Taerae nodded and did some quick search before frowning and apparnetly trying to find out how to say the complex names of these drugs before just tossing his phone over to the alpha, who smoothly read aloud: “Lysorenol, Symxone, Minonide, Panrenone and Pazodryl. These are all different aphrodisiacs with very varying ingredients and even more varying dosages. Lysorenol is mostly used as an agent in specific pills for omegas to have evened-out heat cycles. Symxone and Panrenone though are very strong examples for an agent used in very difficult to obtain medicine designed to for example induce a heat on someone who hasn’t had one in years.”
All these medical and pharmaceutical terms had Hao’s head spinning.
“What about the other ones? Paz...something and Minnesota or whatever”, Taerae asked and squinted his eyes at his display to read the drug again as soon as Gyuvin gave him his phone back.
In vain, apparently, as the medicine student clearly had to bite his tongue not to laugh out loud and said: “Pazodryl and Minonide? Those confuse me the most, to be honest. They’re not even really...aphrodisiacs. They’re actually agents used in medicine to trigger labor in pregnant omegas. I think you’d have to ask a pharmaceutics student if you really want to know the details but if I remember correctly, Pazodryl and Minonide don’t really have anything to do with heats or inducing those. At least not directly.”
“Well, either way”, Hanbin said, speaking up for the first time since Taerae came here. Hao could hear in his voice that he was tense but nothing about him – neither his face nor his scent – spoke of any of that, “It’s concerning that something like this happened again. Let’s all hope this poor omega will be alright and be careful on the streets.”
That poor omega, as they all found out a few days later, was not fine.
The news was full of the reports, actually; breaking news about the recent victim and the first death in this particular series of crimes. Apparently, the male omega was in heat for six whole days and passed away on the last day because his body couldn’t handle the strain anymore.
Hearing about the news had everyone in Seoul walk around on eggshells. No one trusted anyone anymore. More than just a few false alarms were made within the past week alone, people who were paranoid about every single person walking past them on the streets.
Hao wasn’t particularly bothered by any of that directly. He did notice though that Ricky and Taerae were nervous as well and that made him nervous. His inner omega longed for harmony and was in distress over his close friends being so scared. Even Gunwook and Gyuvin were tense and it made his inner omega tense up as well.
And so, while headed to a very specific store for Taerae in the mall, Hao couldn’t help but fuss over all of his friends. He held onto Ricky’s arm in a death grip as to not lose him in any way (which was ridiculous on its own because Ricky was taller than every person in here), he constantly counted their total number in his head and made sure to keep an extra attentive eye on Gunwook simply because he was the youngest.
But if anyone dared calling him out for his clinginess, he’d call Hanbin out next.
Because the alpha refused to leave Hao’s side for even just a mere second. When he wasn’t next to him, he was behind or in front of him. Hanbin tailed his every move and watched all of them just as attentively, if not worse.
For some reason, it helped calming Hao’s nerves though. He wasn’t annoyed by Hanbin’s hovering and lingering; the opposite, in fact. It was reassuring and his inner omega preened every time the alpha moved in-between Hao and someone who got too close for comfort, every time he gently guided Taerae back to the group with a hand when he drifted too far off, every time he nodded his head softly as Gunwook asked something for the nth time.
Like a pack alpha, like he should; protecting their pack, taking care of them all and-
Hao felt his steps falter and almost tripped over his own two feet in the process, immediately stabilized by Hanbin.
What the actual hell? He swallowed and waved Hanbin’s worried frown off with a laugh, probably convincing enough for everyone but said alpha, but that wasn’t important right now.
Important was that he shoved those thoughts back into the corner they came from. He mentally hissed at his inner omega and told his instincts to shut the fuck up before tuning back into reality when Taerae exclaimed loudly: “Finally! I found the store!”
They’ve been walking around trying to find that stupid store for at least twenty minutes, with Ricky and Gyuvin making bets about whether it even was in this mall or not.
Taerae tugged on Gunwook’s hand insistently, “Come on, I just need a few things!”
Hanbin raised an eyebrow when Gunwook looked at him with a sigh, “Please come along, Taerae-hyung doesn’t listen to me and I don’t want to be inside of that store for an hour!”
Almost as if he needed reassurance or the permission, Hanbin turned around to look at Hao with a skeptical look.
Hao tilted his head and pointed at himself, Ricky and Gyuvin, “We’ll be fine. I’m kind of thirsty anyways so I think I’ll get myself a water over there” – he made sure to point at the small food stall close to them – “Don’t take too long though, my feet hurt and I should go home and do some practicing.”
Hanbin stepped closer and for a moment, Hao thought he wanted to tell him something. But it wasn’t until he felt the alpha nuzzle against his cheek that he realized what he was doing and it instantly had heat rush through his whole body because; what. The fuck.
His head felt light upon being surrounded by Hanbin’s strong jasmine and it somehow smelled different than usually – way more potent, way more insistent, almost as if he wanted to drench Hao in it.
It was then that he realized what Hanbin was doing and by the time the younger alpha pulled away from him, he had to physically restrain himself from whining at the immediate loss of warmth and safety.
“We won’t take long”, Hanbin whispered softly and turned around to follow a hyper Taerae and Gunwook into the store.
Meanwhile, Hao needed a few seconds to gather himself, starstruck where Hanbin left him.
At least until a snicker pulled him out of his stupor and he turned around to look at Gyuvin and Ricky, who both had shit-eating and satisfied smirks on their faces.
Hao willed the redness on his cheeks to not spread and made way to walk to that stupid food stall on quick feet, “W-What?!”, he hissed.
Ricky sounded way too smug when he said. “Ah, nothing; you and Hanbin are just very close, is all.”
“…We live together, it’s natural”, he argued and ordered a water from the woman at the stand. She smiled sweetly but a very weird look took over on her face when she seemed to breathe in.
Hao smelled the jasmine on himself and could only imagine what it must be like for everyone else who was unfortunate enough to be around him right now.
He thanked her after paying and immediately started taking sips from his water, somehow, his throat felt dry.
Ricky was obviously still not done with being smug: “You acting like our mom really isn’t that much of a shocker to anyone anymore, but Hanbin playing into that role as if he’s our dad? That’s special. It’s almost as if he marked you with his scent because he had to leave his wife behind for a few minutes.”
Now that.
That was uncalled for.
Hao was about to give Ricky a very nasty glare and tell him to stop when his senses picked up on something else entirely; even stronger than Hanbin’s jasmine scent lingering on Hao. He didn’t know what it was that bothered him but the scent triggered all of his instincts and his eyes zeroed in on a boy, probably barely 18 years old. He stood in front of another man and had a very distressed look on his face. His scent was strong; an omega but a young one and a scared one, at that.
All of Hao’s instincts were on high alert and before Gyuvin – who must’ve noticed the change of behavior in Hao – could stop him from doing something stupid like walking off on his own, Hao was across the hall and next to the boy.
He looked at the man in front of the boy and narrowed his eyes, “Is there a problem?”
Both, the man and the boy seemed confused for a moment.
The boy though recovered faster and immediately shuffled closer, more or less hiding behind Hao’s tall frame without saying anything.
The man smiled once out of his stupor, “Ah, no – we were just having a little talk. Right, Yujin-ah?”
Yujin, so the boy’s name apparently, shuffled even closer to Hao and by now even gripped the back of his shirt with shaky hands. It was odd for an omega who he didn’t even know but it made sense.
This man had an unsettling aura and Hao could smell the faint but very prominent traces of a very heavy alpha scent in the air.
It made his omega bristle angrily, knowing that this alpha probably tried influencing this boy with unsuspicious pheromones that would sneak up on any omega as unexperienced as him.
He straightened up and glared at the man, “I believe your little talk to be over then.”
Now that seemed to really not be something this man wanted to allow. The smile on his face dropped and made way for a very void look – he didn’t look angry but there was something very unsettling about him.
Hao knew that a few people stopped walking or glanced over at them; probably thanks to the alpha’s scent suddenly flaring out and if not for Hanbin’s overwhelming jasmine lingering around Hao, he would’ve probably gotten whiplash from it.
Or at least, he probably would’ve whimpered like Yujin did behind him.
Instead, he let his own pheromones break though slightly, a very lowkey warning not to provoke him. It was a very stupid thing to do as an omega but he somehow couldn’t help his instincts upon hearing Yujin whimpering behind him.
The alpha was obviously fueled by the provocation and took one full step towards Hao with a growl, “You don’t want to mess with me, Omega”, he spat and glared harder.
Hao stood his ground, “I advise you to turn around and leave while you still can, Sir.”
He should’ve really seen it coming but for some reason, he didn’t. When the man tried reaching behind him and grabbed Yujin by his arm, Hao’s reflexes kicked in and he moved to stand in front of the younger omega in a heartbeat, knocking the alpha’s hand off of the boy with one jab to his wrist.
The alpha growled lowly and Hao felt all of his muscles tense up when he detected his scent and realized the man tried using his alpha pheromones on him. It had him think back to all the times his mother did that on him and he was suddenly overrun by a very primal need to grab Yujin and run.
But instead, he smelled jasmine and it smelled burnt and raw and-
angry.
Hao whipped his head around just in time to witness Hanbin pretty much turning into a brick wall between Hao and the strange alpha.
His eyes had a slight, golden ring around his irises and Hao felt himself sighing in relief upon seeing him, turning around to pull Yujin into his side carefully.
The boy snuggled closer immediately and started pushing his head towards Hao’s scent gland; which, again, was a very weird thing to do for an omega who didn’t know him. But he let him, making sure to subtly spread a bit of his scent to calm the boy down.
Behind him, Hanbin’s voice disrupted the silence: “And what do you think you’re doing?”
The alpha scoffed, now obviously not so sure about himself anymore. Hao would’ve never thought that Hanbin’s alpha was dominating enough to scare other alphas – angry ones at that.
But he was steady and looked ready to pounce if he had to, eyes narrowed and body posture suggesting that if that other alpha did one wrong move, he’d rip his head off.
“Tch – have it your way then, Yujin”, the man said and turned around, scent souring, “Don’t come running back to me again for anything, you pathetic little insect.”
Hao felt his lips twitch with the urge to defend Yujin but he remained silent when Hanbin turned around and looked at him pointedly, very obviously telling him not to provoke that man more than necessary.
So instead of giving the stranger a piece of his mind, he let his undivided attention drop to Yujin and looked at him with as much warmth in his eyes as he had, “Hey, Yujin-ah? It’s okay, he’s gone.”
But Yujin barely even said anything, merely stepping even closer and nuzzling into Hao’s neck more insistently. It weird because Hao was pretty sure the kid was taller than him by an inch or so, but somehow, he seemed so small right now.
Hao chanced a look towards Hanbin, who seemed to have many questions. But the alpha merely sighed and wisely did not step any closer to the young omega as to not distress him further probably, raising his voice just enough for them to hear: “Taerae has everything he needs. I told Gyuvin to take the others all back outside. We should leave as well.”
“What about him?”, Hao said and felt his grip around Yujin’s shoulders tense slightly. No way in any dimension would he think of leaving the boy here.
Judging by how Yujin immediately tensed upon being mentioned like this, he guessed that the younger was afraid of that as well.
But to Hao’s surprise, Hanbin’s voice sounded very soft when he said: “We’ll take him along, of course. Or else that guy from earlier thinks of trying stuff again.”
Their journey out of the mall was flagged with people staring at them and by the time they reached their friends, they only knew they did because Ricky was having a very heated argument with a visibly overwhelmed security guard.
Hao, Hanbin and Yujin stepped up next to them just as Ricky said lowly: “Once my lawyers are done with you, this whole place can say goodbye to its luxury and good name!”
“Ricky-ah, I think that’s enough”, Hao tried to placate gently.
The younger scoffed, “An alpha literally used his pheromones on a minor and then on another omega as well, in the middle of a freaking mall, at times like these! Watch me-…”
“Ricky”, Hanbin said and it somehow was sharp enough for the omega to zip his mouth shut immediately. He was obviously not in the mood for this and Hao knew it was because Hanbin wanted to get them all out of here already, not comfortable with the attention they had, “Let it go. We will just not come here again.”
Ricky grumbled something and threw a very nasty glare at the security guard, who seemed dumbstruck at best, before sniffing and turning around, letting himself get pulled along by a very tired looking Gyuvin.
Their drive back towards campus was mostly spent with Taerae apologizing for wanting to go to that store profusely, Gyuvin doing similar to Hanbin about not taking good enough care about Hao and Gunwook trying (and failing) to somehow rule his pheromones in.
Hao had to reach over and pull the younger alpha into his other side gently to have him calm down at least a little bit, which surprisingly didn’t seem to bother Yujin at all.
When it was finally time for them to part ways, Hao fussed over all of them for at least ten minutes until Hanbin gently tugged on his wrist and made every single one of them promise to call Hao sometime this evening to placate him.
Once they finally stepped into their apartment with Yujin, Hao took the liberty to fully pay attention to the younger, gently prying him off from his neck, telling him to take a shower, to feel at home, if there was anything he wanted to eat.
Yujin remained silent through all of it and only very reluctantly stepped into Hao’s bathroom to take a shower that barely lasted five minutes before he came back outside dressed in some of Hao’s clothes and timidly lingering around the kitchen island.
Hao smiled gently at the boy.
And then he finally opened his mouth and said in a surprisingly deep but very timid voice: “…I like chicken…”
Hanbin got to work fairly quickly (for once, his habit of always making sure their fridge was filled with all kinds of things didn’t seem like such a bad idea), moving around the kitchen to prepare what Hao recognized as a simple rice, chicken, kimchi menu.
While the alpha was busy scurrying around and doing his thing, Hao sat down at the dining table and motioned for Yujin to sit down as well with a gentle hand movement, “Come on, don’t be shy; I’m Zhang Hao, our cook over there is Sung Hanbin. Who are you?”
Yujin needed a few seconds to fully get himself to move but once he did, he seemed to set on the chair right next to Hao and sat down on it carefully. His teeth worked on his bottom lip before he pried his mouth open and replied softly: “Han Yujin…and uhm-…thank you. For helping me and…uh…making me food and all. I’m sorry for intruding and for…pushing myself onto you, I don’t know why I did that, I’ve never done this before-…”
Hao waved it off, “Don’t be silly, it’s natural; you’re a young omega, I imagine you’ve done that with your parents a lot as well.”
The mentioning of the boy’s parents was supposed to be a comfortable topic to talk about (and a way of figuring out where to drop this kid off once he felt good enough), but instead, Yujin tensed up and let his gaze drift off towards every possible direction that wasn’t Hao.
He seemed unsure of what to say for a moment before answering: “U-Uhm…well, I wouldn’t know, actually…my parents kind of…left me when I presented so-…yes.”
Hao felt something inside of him crack open and he couldn’t help but scootch closer with his chair, gently letting his hands glide through Yujin’s still wet hair and using the towel around his shoulders to dry them with careful motions. “…I’m sorry to hear that, Yujin-ah.”
He didn’t know how much he could verbally go on about how much he detested people like that; who abandoned their children based on their second gender, just like that. But he settled on doing it in his mind and instead focus some more on Yujin.
The other’s behavior made sense now as well; if he never had someone to protect him and take care of him like this ever since he presented, Yujin probably never learned how to act around omegas and alphas who wanted to help him. Hao’s urge to protect him probably triggered Yujin’s inner omega to trust him and let himself be helped by him.
“Do you have somewhere to stay…Yujin-ah?”, Hao asked softly.
Yujin bit his lip again and shrugged, “That guy…in the mall? Was kind of like one of my foster parents I guess. But-…I don’t like them. Not any of the people they sent me to within the last two years. They’re all just after the money or-…think I’m just some other omega to manipulate into doing stuff.”
People fucking sucked.
Hao couldn’t help but let go of a scoff – that guy in the mall was supposed to be a substitute for a father? Using his alpha pheromones on a young omega, then trying to do so on another omega, in public at that?
He had no idea what their dispute was about, quite frankly (unless Yujin wanted to tell him), Hao also didn’t care much.
Hao huffed out an annoyed breath and lowered his hands along with the towel, gently adjusting Yujin’s hair. He had such a youthful face; so obviously still too young to have experienced things quite as horrible as being left by your own parents.
“How did you do it, Hao-hyung?”, Yujin suddenly said and elaborated when he tilted his head in confusion, “You were scared when he used his alpha pheromones, I could smell it on you. But you pushed through it and made him believe otherwise. How did you do that? Can you teach me?”
Hao blinked – everything he knew about how to conceal his feelings were things his father had taught him quite early into his childhood.
“Alphas sometimes tend to think that they know better”, he used to say with a smile, “Which isn’t true. You know yourself better than anyone. Do not let any alpha – not your best friends, not your future partner, not your mother or grandfather – treat you like you’re incapable of taking care of yourself.”
Looking at Yujin now, he understood why. The reason as to why his father had taught him these things had had nothing to do with his second gender; in fact, his father had made it a point to Hao that he was his own person, regardless of his second gender.
“I can teach you a few things”, Hao said and smiled gently.
Yujin’s face lit up into a very shy but endearing grin.
~
Later that night, with Yujin now sleeping in Hao’s bed (he passed out almost as soon as his head hit the pillows after Hanbin’s delicious but simple dinner), Hao and Hanbin were sitting in Hanbin’s bedroom.
Hao barely stepped into the younger’s bedroom – for various reasons.
An alpha or an omega’s room was usually very private. It just wasn’t really proper etiquette to get into an alpha’s room as an omega or the other way around unless invited.
For some weird reason, it was very normal for them to chill around in Hao’s room – though, Hao never really spent time in Hanbin’s room, come to think of it.
Hanbin’s scent was even stronger in his room; obviously so. Hao wasn’t too sure how obvious it was that the intensity of jasmine and pears kind of had him starstruck for a few seconds until he noticed how nervous Hanbin seemed.
It was adorable.
But they needed a place to talk without waking Yujin and that was best done in the guest room, which was furthest away from Hao’s room.
It was obvious that Hanbin had wanted to pick a bone with Hao over the incident today ever since they looked at each other in the mall.
Just because he hoped it would at least help calm down the fire burning beneath Hanbin’s skin, Hao decided to start the conversation as soon as the door was closed behind them, “I know what you’re mad, I’m sorry. I didn’t plan to do something reckless again, really, I just-…I smelled Yujin and I acted before I even realized what I was doing and-…”
“Hao”, Hanbin interrupted and the calmness in his voice had him zip his mouth shut instantly. He wanted to argue more but suddenly, Hanbin was way too close.
It was already hard enough for Hao to keep his omega at bay with all the scents he was surrounded with in here – he was pretty sure someone less trained would’ve dropped instantly in here. Hanbin’s scent was deliciously potent in his room, lingering everywhere he stood and just enveloping him in the most mouth-watering way.
But with Hanbin this close, it was obviously even worse.
Or better.
Hanbin exhaled hard enough for his breath to brush against Hao’s skin and he found himself unable to move, stuck in that more than compromising position.
They stared at each other and for some reason, it seemed like Hanbin was looking for something in his eyes; an answer, maybe an epiphany?
But either way, Hao felt something inside of him itch and the next thing he knew was that he leaned his head back against the door and offered his neck to Hanbin.
It was completely uncalled for.
They were not close enough for this.
But when Hanbin let go of another shuddering breath and finally, tentatively, traced Hao’s skin on his neck towards his scent gland, it felt right.
Hao was dizzy with the scents around them; how his subtle rose-scent seemed to explode, mixing with fresh pears and sweet jasmine. He didn’t even realize that he was gasping out soft mewls until he felt Hanbin’s lips brush against his scent gland and he just knew that without the alpha’s arms around his waist, he would’ve tumbled down to the floor like a deadweight.
But what really had him fight the urge to just let his omega take over were the words that Hanbin whispered against his skin, quiet and hushed – almost as if he only wanted Hao to hear them, as if he were afraid of someone listening: “You smelled like that…guy. Now it’s better, now you smell like you should.”
Hao didn’t know what to say and therefore merely let Hanbin rub his scent onto him. He knew subconsciously at least that he would reek of him for at least two or three days after this. And he also knew that everyone would think very wrong things about them as soon as they smelled Hao.
Quite frankly, Hao had no idea why Hanbin scented him in the first place. He didn’t really care either way though; it felt nice.
“You’re not mad?”, he timidly pressed out and felt himself go cross-eyed when Hanbin leaned away to look at him from up closely. Their noses were brushing against each other for just a moment.
The alpha had a serious look on his face when he replied: “…Oh, you bet I am. But luckily, I was there in time to save you, again, from the stupid situations you get yourself into.”
Zhang Hao felt his face heat up with a flush, unable to reply anything, instead merely leaning back against the door – definitely not because his knees were weak for some reason.
He swallowed and replied: “...It was necessary though. You saw how scared Yujin-ah was, didn’t you? I couldn’t just not do anything-…”
“Yes, Gyuvin told me all about your instinct to help a young omega in need taking over”, Hanbin whispered softly, warmth swimming in his eyes, “I would’ve loved to see it.”
Hao had no idea what he should say to that.
He decided not to say anything.
~
Yujin was the sweetest, most precious boy existing.
At least in Hao’s eyes. That boy could literally not do anything wrong; in fact, he was convinced Yujin was an angel sent from heaven.
Hanbin and Ricky both begged to differ though.
“Listen”, Ricky said and pointed a very accusatory finger at the younger, “I’ve known Hao-ge for way longer, you are in no position to hog him like this!”
“You wish you were as cute as me”, Yujin answered and smiled sweetly.
Okay, maybe, Hanbin and Ricky were right.
Sometimes.
Hao gently petted Yujin’s head and felt his inner omega literally brighten up at the smile the younger sent his way, all his feisty thorns and unhinged comments replaced by a gentle look and calm voice, “Now, now. Ricky-ah is older than you; please respect him, Yujin-ie.”
“Yujin-ie?!”, Ricky exclaimed.
Yujin stuck his tongue out at Ricky, causing yet another small fight.
Hao’s phone vibrated on the table, forcing his attention to stray away from Ricky and Yujin and instead onto the reminder now furiously shown on the display. He blinked and stood up alarmingly fast, knocking over Gunwook’s drink in the process, “Oh shoot! I’m late for a lesson!”
“You need violin lessons?”, Taerae asked with a frown.
He started gathering his things and messily shoved them into his tote bag, “No, not me! I must give a lesson – in 15 minutes! I completely forgot about it!”
With hectic in his eyes, he turned around, expecting Hanbin to get up from his seat so that Hao could wiggle himself out of the booth and run towards the room he had rented for the private lessons. But the alpha stayed rooted, and he had a very displeased look on his face. Hao clicked his tongue, “Hanbin-ah, I really need to go.”
“...I have somewhere to be in a few”, Hanbin said and narrowed his eyes.
Hao knew where Hanbin had to be; his mother had told him to meet with her so that she could, quote, “Kindly check up on him”. Which actually translated to: “Make sure he’s still following my orders.”
If only she knew that half of the things, she told Hanbin to do had been dropped two days into their arrangement because Hao refused to let a spy live in his house. As far as she was concerned, Hanbin followed Hao like a shadow and nothing close to dangerous happened anywhere around them.
But Hanbin needing to be somewhere meant that Hao had to go alone. That lesson was supposed to be late in the evening, but his student’s mother had called with desperation in her voice that morning, begging for how to please move her son up into the afternoon because she had somewhere to be and couldn’t pick him up otherwise after the lesson. Hao had a free afternoon and since one of his other regular students had cancelled, he had had a free slot anyways.
The problem was that he had forgotten about the new time.
And consequently, forgot telling Hanbin about it.
Hao didn’t know how to convince Hanbin without exposing to all their friends that he wasn’t just some friend, but Hao’s paid and arranged bodyguard.
He insistently nudged his leg to somehow move him out of his way with a very pointed look, “Well, so do I.”
“...I cannot let you walk around alone”, Hanbin insisted further.
Ricky chimed in, as always, the genius that he was and subtly said: “...Hao’s lessons are on campus. Because he often gives them before or after his courses and moving around Seoul would take too much time – so his students are usually brought here by their parents.”
Hanbin wasn’t unreasonable. It was possible to talk to him about these things without upsetting anyone.
Which was why his stubborn glare was even more surprising as Hao tried nudging him out of the way again and the alpha still didn’t move an inch, “I do not feel comfortable letting you walk around campus on your own.”
Hao groaned, “Hanbin-ah, seriously, I need to go! You can be all protective over me the next time I walk home alone after a party, not in broad daylight on campus! There is security everywhere, I am well familiar with the campus, and I know how to take care of myself! Now get up and let me out of here or so God help me, I will do so by force!”
They engaged in a very heated stare competition that none of them wanted to win. Hao was the leading champion though and knew that he would win this one just like he would with any. Again, thanks to his father and the man’s profession.
Hanbin huffed and very begrudgingly stood up to let Hao out of the booth, eyeing him scrutinizingly though, “You will go back home immediately after the lesson, do you understand me.”
Hao rolled his eyes, “Yes, dad”, he said and hurried out of the café.
But really, Hao had decided then and there already that he wouldn’t go back home immediately out of spite.
-
Hao let go of a deep breath, closing his violin’s suitcase securely. That lesson took longer than planned, especially when the mother sent him a message about being stuck in traffic and then not being allowed to enter campus because she lost her badge and the security wouldn’t let her in; so Hao had to escort her son to the entrance. He huffed, finally pulling the door to the practice room closed behind himself and locking it.
It was close to half 6:30pm and considering it was the beginning of December, it already started getting darker outside. Hao dropped the key to the room off at his professor’s office, waving him goodbye for today with a smile.
Despite his plan to make Hanbin wait out of spite, Hao found himself unable to do so; he couldn’t really explain all that well why either. For some reason, he just didn’t feel like fighting again and much less like worrying an already agitated Sung Hanbin more than necessary.
And so, Hao made way to walk back home as soon as he stepped out of the music building.
Every breath he released formed a small cloud in front of him, the cold of the winter crawling up his skin and seeping through his body, into his bones insistently. Hao wasn’t all that fond of winter, for several reasons; first of all, it was way too dark way too quickly for his liking. And to top it all off, all the layers you had to wear to get out, even if it was just to walk down the street and get yourself a snack from the convenience store, was tiresome, to the say the least. But the most important reason for him specifically was way simpler; his birthday was in summer, not in winter.
And who didn’t like their birthday’s season the most?
With a sigh, Hao was about to turn the corner when he heard a shrill scream.
Almost immediately, all of his muscles tensed and he screeched to a halt, unmoving.
The scream had come from somewhere to his left and as he turned his head to look for its source, his eyes needed a few moments to recognize the two silhouettes a good hundred meters away from him. But once he did, all of his senses kicked in and he felt himself moving before he even realized that he was about to run for the distressed person’s help.
While walking over on quick feet, he made sure to send Hanbin a message – he wasn’t going to just run into a situation like this without informing him. Hanbin was probably at home by now and therefore would be on campus within a few minutes. Hao still made sure to send his location as well, just to make sure the bodyguard knew exactly where to find him.
Once he was in close proximity to the commotion, he started to realize what was happening and he wondered how he always managed to get close to such things lately.
From the scents in the air, Hao guessed that the two people currently fighting and discussing were an omega and a beta. Which was weird on its own; maybe he had misinterpreted it and the two were actually just a couple fighting?
But even if that were the case, their fight did not look like something he should just ignore.
It wasn’t until he was roughly ten meters away that he caught snippets of their conversation and his instincts told him to not get closer almost immediately. Instead, he forced his body to keep moving and as soon as his eyes caught sight of what seemed to be a syringe, he had grabbed the guy’s arm and pulled him back, narrowly saving him from getting injected by whatever it was that syringe was filled with.
The other person – a lot smaller than he had expected, smaller even than the guy he had just grabbed and pulled away, seemed taken-aback by the sudden addition to the fight. It was then that Hao smelled the scent of that omega and he was confused upon realizing that it came from the attacker. Before he could properly react though, the omega already turned around and sprinted off.
“Hey! You-…ugh”, he decided not to indulge, frowning at the weird feeling he got from this omega. It wasn’t until he turned around to look at the guy he still held the arm of that he realized what it was that bothered him; not only had the attacker been an omega – but also a woman.
For some odd reason, Hao found that hard to believe even though he had seen it happening with his own two eyes.
Pushing his confusion aside for now, he focused on the beta and tried it with a reassuring smile as he said: “…Are you alright? Did she hurt you?”
The beta seemed a little shocked but otherwise appeared to be fine. He nodded, a gentle smile taking over on his face, “I-…yes. Thank you-…uh…”
“Zhang Hao”, he answered softly.
“Seok Matthew”, the beta introduced himself.
Before Hao could open his mouth to say something else, his senses got flooded with worried jasmine and the next thing he knew, he got pulled back and whirled around, hands grasping his shoulders and eyes meeting Hanbin’s. He let go of a surprised sound but otherwise knew better than to bitch and moan about it – especially considering the message he had sent the alpha had admittedly been very cryptic and worrisome.
He tried it with a soft smile anyways, “I-…I’m fine, Hanbin-ah. We both are.”
“Bin-ie?!”, Matthew suddenly exclaimed behind them and Hao turned his head to blink at the beta with a confused frown.
Hanbin seemed just as confused for a moment before the confusion made way for honest joy. A smile spread on his lips as he carefully let go of Hao, attention now set on the smaller man in front of them and stepping forward to embrace the beta in a warm hug, “Matthew! What are you doing here?”
Matthew smiled and petted Hanbin’s back, mirroring the smile, “Studying of course, what the hell else? I thought you’re on a new mission?”
Hanbin blinked and narrowed his eyes at the beta, “What the-…why and how do you know about that and can you lower your freaking voice?!”
“Lower your own voice!”, the other yelled back.
Hao let his gaze drift back and forth between them like the banter that started happening for long enough until he finally stepped forward and decided to stop it: “Yes…well; are you done? Care to explain to me how you know each other?”
The alpha smiled, “Matthew is a very close friend of mine; we met in high school and were part of the same trainee program for like six months before I dropped out to pursue my career in security. I had no idea though that he studies here.”
While the two friends talked some more, Hao was left with his mouth hanging open, “You were a trainee?! As in to become an idol?!”
“…Ah-…yes. I think I told you before that I wanted to become a dancer when I was a child? As a teenager, I auditioned for a few entertainments and got accepted into the trainee program. But I figured while doing so that it might not be what I imagined it to be after all.”
Hao stared at Hanbin – although the alpha’s beauty was absolutely undeniable, he still never would’ve thought that the younger ever wanted to become an idol.
His thoughts were interrupted by Matthew when he said: “Yeah, it’s a shame that the label didn’t want you to continue with the program just because you presented early. I never understood why they made such a big deal out of it; we had other alphas in our team as well.”
The alpha smiled and shrugged, “Well, alphas who present early usually tend to be quite sensitive. I understand why they didn’t want to take that risk” – Matthew seemed all set on defending Hanbin’s long-gone teenage self, but he stopped as soon as he seemed to notice the alpha’s tight-lipped smile, Hanbin continuing – “now, how did you know about me having a new job?”
Matthew’s cheeks turned suspiciously red almost instantly and he glanced at the wristwatch he wasn’t wearing, “Ah, look at that – time for me to go-…”
“Seok. Woo. Hyun.”
“…Jiwoonie-hyung told me”, he answered and timidly shuffled around in front of them.
Again, before Hao could open his mouth to say anything, someone suddenly sauntered out of the by now dark surroundings and tried kicking Hanbin out of nowhere.
He merely held the ankle of the person and stepped out of the way after carefully letting the leg go back down onto the ground.
“I thought I told you not to tell on me, Hyung”, Hanbin said and fist-bumped the new person as soon as he stood back on his own two feet.
Hao wondered how the hell Hanbin never bothered to tell him about his very handsome and nice friends before.
Jiwoonie-hyung, as probably nicknamed by Matthew, was an insanely attractive man with skin as white as snow and lips as plush as clouds. He had a somewhat cold look to himself but as soon as a smile spread on his lips, Hao saw right through the tough exterior.
“I didn’t think my subject would go tell on me”, the man answered in a smooth voice.
“…And who is that?”, Hao wondered, a little irritated with the fact that these three all seemed to know each other.
Hanbin smiled once again and pointed at the new alpha: “This is Kim Jiwoong; he’s my coworker and also on a mission right now-…wait a second” – he stopped and looked at the two of them, who suddenly both looked like they got caught stealing sweets from the forbidden drawer without asking first – “Jiwoonie-hyung?! How close are you two exactly?! And what the hell, you didn’t tell me you had a bodyguard now! And you didn’t tell me that your subject is my best friend!”
Jiwoong smiled and on everyone else, the stretch of his lips and the revelation of his perfect white teeth would’ve probably been enough to dazzle them out of their anger. For good measure probably, the other alpha said: “…I couldn’t tell you about this, for the same reason you couldn’t tell me about your subject being Zhang Hao-nim himself.”
Hao suddenly felt like he should know Jiwoong.
The longer they shared eye-contact, the more familiar he seemed. And then, Hao remembered; a particularly uninteresting night in Seoul a good three years ago, when he had been dragged to one of his mother’s expensive and luxurious parties. He remembered seeing Jiwoong in all black clothes, positioned at one of the many corners of the hall, supervising the people and making sure that no one did anything stupid. “…You remember me from that one party? We never even talked!”
Jiwoong grinned, “Well, you also remember me, don’t you? It’s nice to know you’re being taken care of by our most trusty agent.”
Hanbin didn’t seem to like the tone used and scowled, otherwise didn’t say anything though.
He was acting weird anyways; Hao picked up on his scent and figured that he was weirdly stressed. By now, he should’ve understood that nothing happened.
Hao blinked and looked at Matthew, “Wait, that woman! What was she trying to do to you? She ran away before I could drop kick her, that bitch!”
Everyone seemed rather shocked at Hao’s verbal outburst, causing him to clear his voice with what he knew were burning red cheeks.
Matthew frowned and shuddered softly at the memory, “Honestly, I don’t know; not sure I want to know either. She called out to me with a question and the next thing I knew, that omega woman grabbed my wrist and tried pulling me along. When I didn’t let her, she pulled something out of her pockets and I don’t know what it was but it was spikey and I hate spikey things, so I started screaming. And that was when you stepped in – thank god. Thank you again, Hao-…hyung?”
He smiled gently and nodded, “Nothing to thank me for.”
“…Exactly”, Hanbin added and he looked angry again, “If anything, you should both stop smiling. God knows could’ve happened if that woman hadn’t been an omega.”
Hao and Matthew both looked away from Hanbin with sheepish looks and when their eyes met, they both turned their heads back around to prevent themselves from bursting out laughing.
Neither Hanbin nor Jiwoong seemed to be in the mood for their subject’s antics and started talking about the matter as if they were alone, “It’s weird though. I thought the campus was safe enough for them to walk around freely”, Jiwoong said and crossed his arms in front of his chest.
Hanbin scoffed, “Yeah, so did I. Seems like we’ll have to pay a visit to the security. Even without these things happening recently, the campus should be safe at all times.”
The two alphas nodded at each other and with that, it seemed clear that the two of them were ready to leave, turning around to look at Hao and Matthew – who were both still giggling amongst each other about the situation.
But Hao felt himself tensing up as soon as his eyes met Hanbin’s and his nose picked up on the alpha’s scent once again. It was instinctual, really, how he immediately stopped messing around and walked over to Hanbin obediently.
Jiwoong raised a skeptic eyebrow but otherwise didn’t say anything; at least not verbally. It seemed like him and Hanbin had some sort of silent conversation with each other. It ended with Hanbin merely staring at the elder with a pointed look and insistently but gently tugging on Hao’s wrist to get them moving already.
Hao knew he was in for a ride as soon as his apartment’s door clicked shut behind him.
Hanbin was awfully silent but the anger brimming beneath the surface was as obvious as it could be. He was obviously about to burst out with all the things he wanted to say ever since he probably reached Hao earlier.
Again, before Hao could even take in a proper breath to try and say something, Hanbin beat him to it and said: “I told you today to get back as soon as you’re done. You promised. And to be clear, I was against you leaving my side to begin with!”
Hao lowered his gaze and nodded sheepishly – but he couldn’t help himself when he said: “…Nothing happened…and I chased the woman away before she could hit Matthew with the syringe-…”
Oh.
Oh no.
Hao realized his mistake in the same moment he finished his sentence; because Matthew had had no idea about whether that had been a syringe or a knife. Not like a knife would’ve been less dangerous but the fact that the woman had had a syringe confirmed all of Hanbin’s worries. And not only that; it meant that whoever did this now also had people do those things on campus.
Hanbin’s gaze sharpened, his eyes rimmed with gold at the intensity of his protectiveness and his pheromones so strong in the air, Hao could barely stop himself from releasing a whine.
And it was then that he finally understood.
They’ve known each other for soon three months; he had no idea about Hanbin’s cycle but it wasn’t stupid to assume his mother had called him after it ended.
His constant nagging, the hogging, how he refused to leave Hao’s side. The closeness, the weird stares he gave every possible alpha walking past them. It was odd, to say the least.
But not if you knew what this was about.
Hao swallowed, jasmine sticking around and pears drowning the air with their richness. His scent was sweet; a weird thing for an alpha but not unwelcome. It fit Hanbin; it made sense for him to smell like this.
“…Hanbin-ah”, Hao said and made sure to breathe through his open mouth, “Are you in pre-rut?”
It was funny to watch realization dawn on the alpha.
At first, he looked confused, then dumbstruck; as if he thought the possibility of that was ridiculous. But then, his gaze zeroed in on Hao and for a few seconds, he just stared and stood and did seemingly nothing.
Seemingly.
Hao needed a few seconds to realize what Hanbin was doing – his scent gland tingled and he let go of a whimper that resounded way too loudly in the silence of the flat. It startled him and Hanbin out of whatever staring contest they had.
Almost immediately, Hanbin moved himself across the flat to the table, a loud thumb echoing through the quiet as his leg seemed to hit the table. His breathing was heavy and Hao knew it was because his own scent reacted to the alpha.
He had to physically force himself to stay put and not whine again, his inner omega bristling at the thought of the alpha being in pain and especially; so far away from them.
“…Hao-hyung”, Hanbin’s voice cut through the silence icily, “I need you to get into your room and lock the door. Slowly.”
For a moment, the request sounded weird in Hao’s head. But then he remembered that they were predators and prey and that Hao running to his room or even seeming like he rushed there would trigger Hanbin’s alpha to pounce. He knew that Hanbin had a tight grip on his instincts but these things were only bound to theory when faced with a rut. Sure, Hanbin wasn’t in full rut yet; but if the strong scent of his pheromones were any indication, he either didn’t notice he was in pre-rut for way too long or just had very intense ruts and a very headstrong, inner alpha.
The fact that he had used his pheromones on Hao earlier was reason enough for him to believe that Hanbin’s rationality wasn’t something to bet on when he was in rut. Many alphas as calm and collected as him suffered through horribly painful and aggressive ruts.
Hao swallowed, “…D-Do you…need anything? I could bring you water later? Food? You’d have to settle for ramen though, you know I can’t really cook-…”
“Hao”, Hanbin’s voice carried an impatient and freezing finality, “Go to your room. Now.”
He felt his feet moving tentatively before he even consciously decided to follow the order. Because that was what this had been; an order – not a suggestion or a question.
Hanbin told him to go to his room and so he did.
Simple math.
With careful steps, Hao walked towards his room and flinched when Hanbin suddenly let go of a deep growl. The alpha’s scent spiked with something Hao had never smelled on him before; at least not consciously, not as directly as this, not as obviously intended for him. He had smelled it before; in the quiet of the night, when they both had been under the impression of the other being asleep. When the flat was silent and there was no one around to listen, the streets even quiet and the clock ticking with every minute passing by.
It wasn’t like Hao deliberately stayed awake to listen in or notice – quite frankly, in the beginning, it had been a coincidence.
They also never spoke of it even though Hao was pretty sure Hanbin had heard and smelled the same thing from him before. For several reasons; they were adults, they both had a certain drive, they were singles, they were alpha and omega living under the same roof.
Hao recognized what spiked Hanbin’s jasmine scent; it was obvious and rich with want, rich with everything that taunted him. It was what had his toes curl in the middle of the night just thinking about all the things that they could do, all the things Hanbin could do to him.
It was primal, it was vulgar and raw – arousal.
Hanbin’s voice was deeper than usual when he said: “Don’t you dare look away from me, I’m trying really hard here, Hao.”
The drop of honorifics would usually annoy Hao but right now, it caused his gut stir and his scent to rise with similar emotions. He turned to look at Hanbin, walking carefully towards his room in slow backward steps.
They held eye-contact through all of it – at least tried to. Hao caught his gaze dropping down to the strain of Hanbin’s jaw, the tenseness of his muscles, how his biceps twitched with the struggle to hold himself up on the table, hands gripping the edge of it shakily as he very visibly tried not to do something stupid.
It shouldn’t be this intense.
They barely knew each other; Hao had been around alpha’s in pre-rut before. Gunwook was an example; the younger was a whiny baby if anything, complaining about the heat simmering beneath his skin and whining about how horny he was – usually placated by Taerae or even Ricky when he felt nice enough (which he always did, he just couldn’t show that without being a bitch about it).
But somehow, Hanbin was different.
Every step that Hao took further away from Hanbin and closer to his room, he felt something inside of him trying to stop him. His omega was whining pitifully and he wasn’t all that sure for what until he focused his gaze on Hanbin’s eyes again and his scent glands were itching again.
His feet tripped over themselves and he had to catch himself with clumsy movements, a short whine leaving his lips that sounded way too desperate considering he merely tripped.
But it had been enough for the air to feel stiff.
He swallowed and looked back over at Hanbin, his back almost at his bedroom’s door. But his feet refused to move further, his mind hazy with jasmine and pears.
Hao parted his lips, “…I can…help you. If you need anything at all-…”
His back hit the door.
Hanbin’s scent was even more intense up close. Hao knew that he should push him off – but quite frankly, his senses were flooded with jasmine and rich pears, with the raw want in the alpha’s pheromones.
And it wasn’t the worst feeling; being wanted like this, for sweet and patient Hanbin to lose his temper and push him against the door with all of his well-balanced muscles.
His voice was deep when he whispered into the limited space between their faces: “You can’t say such things when I’m-…Hao, I’m trying not to do anything stupid here. Stop talking, stop looking at me like this, stop being so-…” – the alpha closed his eyes and took a deep breath, a visible shudder going through his body – “…fuck. You smell so-…good.”
Hao felt his body trembling with the need to submit.
It wasn’t something he was used to feeling.
Hao knew that his mother had had many intentions when she said he’d have someone to look after him from now on. Probably intentions that had nothing to do with being a caring mother and many to do with keeping an eye on her son. Especially considering he rarely called her or showed up to any of her family gatherings or luxurious parties.
Either way, he was sure that thirsting after the man she had ordered to tail after him wasn’t one of her intentions.
But how could he resist – when Hanbin looked like this, with his arms propped up against the door around Hao’s head, his eyes glowing in gold, his scent spiking so deliciously. How could he resist when his won rose-scent mingled so perfectly with the heavy odor of Hanbin’s pre-rut. He couldn’t help it; all of his senses were attuned to him, his inner omega already salivating and rolling around in bliss at the prospect of getting even close, of having a taste.
He wanted to help; he wanted to ease the alpha’s pain and make his rut bearable, wanted to wrap Hanbin in his scent and be wrapped up in the other’s scent as well. Hao’s legs were wobbly as he let his head hit the door behind him with a dull thud, eyes hazily staring back into the alpha’s. He had to pry his lips apart to answer, every word feeling like cotton in his mouth as he said: “…L-Let me. Please, please, I’ll be good, I’ll be so good-…”
Hanbin interrupted him with a growl from deep within his throat, a biological thing that they could do if they were in rut or heat or felt strong enough for it. Hao felt his chords vibrating and before he could stop it, he was mirroring the growl with a submissive purr.
The alpha’s hands formed into fists next to his head, “Fuck. Yeah? I don’t doubt that. You’re perfect; you’ll do as I say right? Perfect and pretty just for me?”
If there was a God, he or she definitely meant well with Hao.
He whined and nodded, hands coming up to grasp at Hanbin’s shoulders to hold himself up. The movement caused his legs to part and almost as if they always did that, Hanbin’s knee moved in-between them. Hao was pretty sure his rationality logged off as soon as he felt the sturdiness of Hanbin’s thigh muscles between his legs and he couldn’t help the instincts, a moan tumbling out of his mouth as he grinded against it. It was then that he noticed how wet he was, the roses in the air heavy and rich with sweetness as pleasure started spreading beneath the surface of his skin. His omega whined at the sudden release of pheromones, Hanbin’s body curling in slightly with what seemed to be the first wave of cramps.
That won’t do.
Hao whined and leaned forward, rubbing his nose against Hanbin’s scent gland, rutting against his thigh and letting go of more purrs with his special chords. He felt the tension leaving Hanbin’s muscles a little bit, his inner omega satisfied as they realized; they were helping. “Wanna”, he had to move away slightly to say what he wanted to say, movements of his hips not letting up though as he stared back into Hanbin’s eyes hazily, “…wanna be good. Wanna help you, wanna cook for you, wanna care for you, wanna make you f-feel good.”
Hanbin grit his teeth, “You do? Want to be good for me, want to be my pretty omega, Hao-ge?”
Hao had noticed before that Hanbin tended to call him with Chinese honorifics when he was in a certain mindset. He didn’t know why but the way he had said his name with the honorific had something stir in his gut and before he could stop it, he let his head drop to the side, roses thick in the air as he gasped and whined: “A-Alpha-…! Please!”
Something about the action must’ve triggered Hanbin because one moment, the alpha seemed close to biting him and dragging him to his bedroom to do unspeakable things to Hao – and in the next, he had opened Hao’s door, pushed him inside, locked it from outside and the spell between them was gone.
Hao knew that he reeked of Hanbin, if only because he was now in his room and could smell the lingering jasmine and pears on himself. He was breathing heavily and needed a few moments to gather his thoughts, the past few minutes catching up to him.
Before he could even say anything, Hanbin’s deep voice beat him to it, “Hyung? I need you to come to my location and get Hao out of here.”
Hao realized that the alpha wasn’t talking to him but to someone on the phone. He seemed close to tearing this door down, a growl leaving his lips as the other person seemed unwilling to do as ordered: “Hyung, I’m about to have my rut and I cannot have him here or else I’ll do something stupid. So get your ass over here right now.”
A whine left Hao’s lips when he noticed shifting on the other side of the door and he immediately slapped his hand onto his traitorous mouth – stupid omega instincts.
“I-…a-are you going to be okay?”, he said and huffed at the uncomfortable feeling of slick and precum in his pants. He would not let anyone pick him up while he sported a hard-on and leaked rose-scented slick all over the place.
He needed to get rid of the arousal waiting to be released and really, it wasn’t like Hanbin hadn’t heard this before.
With some struggles, Hao managed to shuffle out of his pants and the drenched underwear, pitifully sinking down on three of his fingers immediately – he was so wet that he probably wouldn’t need any preparation for any of his knotted dildos right now. His mind changed to Hanbin and he wondered if he would be loose enough for him; he shook his head to prevent his thoughts from drifting further off, a moan leaving his lips.
He smelled and somehow felt Hanbin through the door, knew the exact moment the alpha caught onto the fact that Hao was touching himself.
“Jesus, Hao-…”, Hanbin hissed and it needed a few seconds for Hao to hear the grunts, to smell the precum, to pick up on the slick sounds of skin rubbing over skin, “…You can’t just-…fuck…”
“T-This is…your fault”, he said and moaned, unsatisfied with his fingers and how they couldn’t reach inside of him as well. He knew, he just knew that Hanbin could hit all of his soft spots, would be able to pleasure him for hours on hours, make him writhe and tremble and wait and scream, make him come over and over again, “Y-You and your-…your stupid, amazing scent, ugh-…”
“Hao”, Hanbin said but it sounded more like a moan and seeing as nothing followed, Hao guessed the younger alpha either forgot what he was going to say or really just needed to say something.
“Th-…that’s Hyung for you”, Hao gasped and let go of a high-pitched moan when his fingers finally brushed against that bundle of nerves.
He was conflicted between getting his dildo and fucking himself on his fingers; but really, there was only one thing he wanted. Letting his head drop against the door, he made sure to whine as pitifully and tempting as he could, “Hanbin, Bini, please. Please open the door, please, I need you, I-…is not enough, please-…”
“I-…I can’t”, Hanbin said through gritted teeth, a thud being heard from his side of the door as well, “You don’t know what you’re saying and-…neither am I. Jiwoong will-…he will pick you up in a few…”
Hao hated that Hanbin was so rational and controlled. Hated that they both knew the alpha was right for calling Jiwoong. Hated that he himself knew that Hanbin could not open that door for both of their sakes.
But God forbid he would be picked up with blue balls, nah-uh.
“Please-…please, at least-…your scent? Please, anything, I need-…”
Hanbin seemed hesitant for a moment but Hao knew he had won when a new wave of rich and heavy jasmine and pear managed to get to him through the cracks of his door. Hao moaned, his fingers jabbing against his prostate and his legs quivering with an impending orgasm. He was close, he was so, so close, he just needed-…
“You are doing so well, Hao-ge”, Hanbin all but growled against the door, “Perfect for me, perfect, beautiful princess.”
Hao had had no idea that feminization was his thing.
Up until now.
He had had sex many times before, got himself off even more times, but none of these would ever compare to the orgasm that wrecked his body as soon as his mind caught up to the fact that Hanbin had just called him a princess. His back arched and his hips moved and before he knew it, he was coming all over himself, whining high in his throat, babbles in Chinese and Korean leaving his lips as he simultaneously tried to get away from the pleasure and get more of it.
When his orgasm finally ebbed away, all of his pulled-taught muscles relaxed and he slumped against the door with a heavy exhale, nose picking up on Hanbin’s desperation and ears unmistakably hearing the slick sound of him jerking himself off.
He was tired and spent but his lips were moving before he could stop himself: “Yes, Bini; you’re doing so good, you made me feel so amazing…come for me? Please, Bini, please-…”
This moment would haunt Hao.
The moment he heard, smelled, felt Hanbin reaching his orgasm, the slick sound of his hand against his dick, the way he gasped and growled and moaned, his free hand and forehead thumping against the door and his scent; his godforsaken, heavenly rich scent.
Hao would always be haunted by the fact that he had heard, smelled and felt all of that; but was robbed the luxury of seeing it.
His hazy mind needed a few moments to catch up. He could hear the steady, heavy breathing of Hanbin and the rhythmic drip-drop of what probably was Hanbin’s cum staining his door now.
Thinking of it, Hao definitely needed to get up and change into new clothes. Showering was not an option right now because Hanbin literally locked him up in his room but Jiwoong would just have to deal with that.
He just hoped Hanbin had enough strength left to get up and clean the mess in front of the door before Jiwoong arrived.
While Hao gathered fresh clothes on shaky knees, nose filled with an amazing mixture of roses and jasmine, he couldn’t help but think back to how good that had felt – and he knew that he was utterly, devastatingly, royally fucked.
Thank God Yujin had been at Taerae’s for the night.
~
Matthew’s apartment was nice.
An attic-styled flat in an old building, maybe a ten minute drive away from the university. It was rustic and a little bit old but other than that very charming and homey.
Everything in Matthew’s flat looked like something you’d expect him to own. Hao had no idea how he could tell seeing as he didn’t know the younger.
But somehow, everything in the apartment just made sense.
Matthew – despite being a beta – definitely picked up on the lingering scents on Hao’s body as Jiwoong directed him into the flat. But even then, he didn’t let it bother him and merely held a towel up to Hao’s nose, smiling softly as he pointed at the bathroom down the hallway.
Getting Hao out of his own apartment had been…difficult, to say the least. While Hanbin had cleaned up the mess in front of his bedroom door, his pheromones had gotten worse and worse with every second – so much so that by the time Jiwoong waltzed into the apartment (apparently having the code from Hanbin), Hanbin’s scent was everywhere.
Maybe, it would’ve been smarter to ask Matthew to come pick Hao up or at least get him out of the flat because obviously, Hanbin’s pre-rut brain did not react well to another alpha close to not only his den, but also the omega who triggered his rut, apparently.
Luckily, Jiwoong was as strong as he looked and while he had held up Hanbin, Hao slipped out of his apartment with fast steps – although, he would admit, that he had hesitated upon seeing the alpha. But, again, he forced his inner omega to back off into the corner it belonged and kept walking until he was out of his apartment complex.
Jiwoong followed him a few minutes afterwards, dangling the keys to his car in his hands. He didn’t comment on anything that obviously occurred even though he – even more so as an alpha – definitely picked up on the lingering scents, the pheromones and the arousal spiking the air.
Hao really should’ve known though that Jiwoong would not just let that slide without asking any questions.
Which is how he ended up seated on Matthew’s couch, towel-drying his hair and silently wallowing in the fact that he had washed off most of Hanbin’s scent with what seemed to be a very intentionally placed neutralizing shower gel.
Judging by Matthew’s confused frown, that was very much tied to Jiwoong.
The alpha had his arms crossed and stood in front of Hao with a very scrutinizing glare – almost as if he wasn’t too sure about what he wanted to say or if he wanted to say the things he had on his mind in the first place.
Eventually, he clicked his tongue and said, “Seriously, Hao. I thought you’re smarter than this. How could you have missed Hanbin’s rut approaching? It was all over his face!”
Hao bit his lip and scoffed, “Pardon me for not knowing him well enough yet to read the signs of his rut approaching!”
“Well, apparently, you know each other well enough to rub your scents onto each other and have sex”, Jiwoong bluntly stated.
It caused Hao’s cheeks to turn red almost instantly and he spluttered in an attempt to save not only his dignity, but also his pride, “I-…we did not have sex! I just-…he-…”
“You know what”, Jiwoong interrupted, rubbing his temples and taking a seat on the armchair in front of them, “I really don’t want to know. Quite frankly, I don’t think it’s any of my business. But you could’ve gotten hurt, or done something very stupid. Hanbin’s ruts are incredibly unpleasant. His alpha has a very aggressive nature in that state and the slightest movement of yours could’ve triggered him to try and claim you. He wasn’t even in rut yet when I came to pick you up and he already seemed close to killing me for trying to go near you.”
Hao didn’t know what to say, for various reasons.
Admittedly, it was stupid of them to never talk about the heat and rut thing – considering they were inevitable and would happen, no matter what. Then again; Hanbin was aware of Hao’s cycle. Maybe not for the same reasons but he knew about it.
And yes; even without talking about it, Hao should’ve known that Hanbin’s rut was set to be due any time soon. Not only because of the telltale signs like his clinginess or overprotectiveness; also because of the time that had passed. Alphas and omegas were subject to their ruts and heats once every four months; they’ve known each other for a little bit over three months now. Hao should’ve counted two and two together and thought about the fact that Hanbin would go into rut soon.
He figured if anything, he owed Jiwoong a big thank you for getting him out of there; and an apology for being so goddamn dense.
With his head hanging low, Hao turned towards the elder alpha and said: “I’m sorry, Jiwoong-hyung. You’re right; I should’ve known and it was irresponsible of me not to talk to him about the rut. If I had known, you wouldn’t have had to come pretty much rescue me. And thank you; for helping me and taking care of Hanbin.”
Jiwoong seemed dumbfounded for a moment but quickly regained his composure. He sighed and nodded, “Don’t worry about it – it’s not exactly common for people to talk about their cycles just like that.”
“Well, we did”, Matthew added and smiled, “Talk about your rut, I mean.”
The alpha suddenly looked utterly embarrassed and if it weren’t for the thin ice Hao was already treading, he would’ve definitely made fun of the elder for that.
For now, he just kept that information in mind and instead decided to ask: “How come you have a bodyguard as well, Matthew?”
The beta rolled his eyes, “My dad – he’s convinced I’m unable to take care of myself and therefore paid Jiwoong’s agency to take care of me. Well, at first, he wanted Hanbin to do the job; but seeing as we’ve known each other for a long time and are best friends, Hanbin wasn’t allowed to take the job – you know, to prevent personal feelings from interfering with the mission. Hanbin-hyung then introduced me to Jiwoong; apparently, they were on a very special secret mission together and trust each other blindly.”
Jiwoong sent the beta a very pointed glare, “Stop talking about confidential information. You only know that because of Hanbin.”
Hao grew fond of Matthew and Jiwoong quite quickly; the two of them were excellent company and he understood why they were two of Hanbin’s closest friends. With Matthew’s bubbly happy-virus persona and Jiwoong’s soft-spoken, sometimes adorably shy and yet headstrong personality, the two of them made a weirdly compatible pair.
After dinner, Hao asked if it was okay for him to practice the violin a little bit – he had to perfect the soli he was supposed to perform for his next evaluation. Luckily, Matthew didn’t mind at all – on the contrary, he seemed incredibly interested and watched as Hao prepared his violin as if it were the best thing he’d seen today.
He kept asking about what Hao was doing – “I’m preparing the strings” – “I’m tuning the violin” – “This is to prepare the bow” – “This is a shoulder rest, it’s easier to hold the violin like that” – but as soon as Hao seemed reading to play his piece, Matthew shut up.
Almost; before Hao’s bow touched the strings, he asked: “What’s the piece called?”
“…It’s called ‘Der Erlkönig – Grand Caprise, Opus 26’ from Heinrich Wilhelm Ernst and Franz Schubert”, he answered and snorted at the confused look on the younger’s face.
Hao finally started playing and let his mind wander off, focusing on the piece and frowning in dissatisfaction every time he messed up a little bit. He played the piece a few times before deciding to switch to something he knew how to play perfectly, just to get rid of his annoyance.
When he was done, Matthew and Jiwoong both clapped in excitement.
He lowed his bow and smiled timidly, gently placing the violin on the coffee table.
“That was so amazing!”, Matthew said, “For how long have you been playing?”
“…Ever since I know how to hold stuff without dropping it, I think”, he replied while cleaning his bow carefully and loosening the strong hold of strings, “My mother wanted me to learn an instrument and since my cousin chose the piano, I had to take the violin.”
Jiwoong seemed impressed, “You seem to actually be passionate about it though.”
“Oh yes”, Hao smiled and let his fingers graze against the expensive and perfectly carved out wood of his violin, gently following its lines and edges, “the violin is my best friend. She listens to me when I need someone to just…be there. She responds to me without judging, she’s always there without letting me wait, she never disappoints me. She’s both, my light and my shadow, my mirror and another version of me.”
“She?”, Matthew chirped softly, “Your violin is a woman?”
Hao sniffed, “Yes and she has a name; Opium.”
Jiwoong looked utterly confused, while Matthew started laughing heartily, “Opium? Like the drug? That is so amazing!”
For convenience reasons, Jiwoong allowed Hao to stay with Ricky for as long as it took for Hanbin’s rut to be over. For once because Hao quite frankly felt more comfortable with Ricky, but also because Matthew’s flat was a little small for three people and Hao didn’t want to intrude any more than necessary.
Jiwoong had made it a point that he was not happy about dropping him off somewhere without Hanbin knowing and made Hao promise to not go out by himself or call him when he needed to go somewhere, seeing as Hanbin was out of the picture right now.
To avoid getting asked questions, Hao didn’t tell Ricky about any of the details that had occurred in his apartment – mostly because he just knew Ricky would smirk knowingly and make fun of him for it. No thank you.
When Hao’s head finally hit the surface of Ricky’s big bed in the guest room, he thought he’d fall asleep easily – seeing as this had been a very long day. But instead, he lied awake long into the night. Even long after Ricky also finally went to bad around Midnight, he was still wide awake.
He scrolled on TikTok and Twitter for a little while, watched a C-Drama he wasn’t interested in, even tried studying for his music theory class. But nothing helped and so, he eventually just sat on his bed cluelessly.
With a huff, he let himself fall back against the soft cushions and stared up towards the ceiling.
His head was weirdly empty of anything even though he felt restless. It was weird.
His skin was crawling and his leg wouldn’t stop twitching. Sighing, Hao turned around and frowned at the Hoodie peaking out from his sports bag – he realized it wasn’t even his, but Hanbin’s.
It happened that they mixed up their clothes after washing. He must’ve packed it without even realizing. Hao knew he shouldn’t do it; for several reasons.
For once, it wasn’t even that cold; Ricky’s apartment was luxurious and expensive – it wasn’t cold whatsoever in here, even in winter. And second of all; it was weird. Hao didn’t need to wear that Hoodie.
But somehow, he found himself reaching for it before he could stop it and the next thing he knew, he was wearing the darn Hoodie. It never occurred to him because he quite frankly never had to think about it, but Hanbin was ridiculously broad in comparison to him. It was odd, even more so because Hao had a good inch on the younger. But Hanbin spent a lot of time working out. He went jogging before courses, he made sure to stay fit, was good at martial arts. All things he had to do for his job alone but even if not, the whole being broad thing wasn’t something Hao ever really noticed.
Hanbin was soft – he had a soft face, a soft voice, behaved softly, treated everyone softly. Unless he had to, none of his inhuman strength showed. If Hao wouldn’t know any better, he would’ve assumed Hanbin to be a very sports-loving omega. His scent, his personality, his demeanor; all of that was so unlike any alpha that it was ridiculous.
But now that Hao was wearing his Hoodie and inhaled the younger’s scent, lying on his bed, he started wondering how he could’ve ever doubted that Hanbin was anything but an alpha. His scent was perfect for him. He wasn’t buff – but he obviously had muscles and would use them if needed. He was soft but only if he wanted to. He was beautiful; but when he wasn’t smiling at a cat on the street or a child pointing at him in admiration, he looked otherworldly handsome – royal, even.
Hao whined quietly and he didn’t even realize that it had left his lips until he heard it himself, slapping his hand against his mouth immediately. The last thing he needed right now was Ricky hearing him whine over an alpha he wasn’t even in any relationship with.
His senses were flooded with Hanbin’s jasmine-scent lingering on the article of clothing and before he knew it, his eyes were fluttering closed and all of his restlessness made way for a sudden exhaustion that took him by storm…
-
Hao rarely dreamed – or at least, he rarely remembered them. For some reason though, as he blinked his eyes open, he wasn’t only aware of the fact that he was dreaming; he also knew that he’d remember this one very vividly once he’d wake up.
He needed a few moments to gather where he was and once he finally realized that he was lying on his silky sheets. And stupidly enough, he needed even longer to catch up to the fact that he wasn’t wearing anything except for a hoodie. The sudden touch on his naked ankle should’ve really startled him a lot more than it did.
But for some reason, he knew who that touch belonged to and he immediately relaxed, letting that hand trail the expanse of his long leg up, fingers grazing against his knee and gently moving further up, up; up along the sensitive skin of his inner thighs. He wanted to close his legs as the touch got closer and closer to his fluttering hole, but stopped by a low voice, “Don’t; you look perfect like this.”
Hao immediately caved and relaxed again, swallowing softly as the hand disappeared beneath the way too big hoodie. He bit his lip to prevent a long moan from slipping as he felt careful fingers graze against his hole. The scent of his own slick was heavy in the air and he threw his head back as that hand moved further up, slicked up with his wetness and engulfing his dick in one smooth movement, having his lips drop open in a desperate whine, “Ngh-…p-please…”
“How greedy”, he answered, hand moving up and down slowly, “Shouldn’t this be about me? Is it not me who should be needy and asking for someone to touch me?”
He nodded but was unable to formulate an answer as the hand slowed its movement with an upstroke, thumb teasing his slit.
“How would you like it? If I used you just like this? For my own pleasure? Make you wait for hours?”
Hao arched his back, “I-…Everything…for you…”
“Really? Everything?”, he answered with amusement in his voice, “You are so adorable. So precious, so generous; just for me, right?”
He knew that an answer wasn’t needed, much less when he whined some more, wiggling around fruitlessly. His mouth dropped open: “H-Hanbin-ie! Please, I’ll be so good, please-…let me help you, let me be good for you-…”
Hanbin moved up until he was leaning over Hao, his eyes again glowing in that beautiful gold. There was something dangerous and primal swimming in his eyes, something raw and unfiltered. His voice was deep and laced with a growl as he said, “Didn’t I tell you not to recklessly say such things around me? How am I supposed to keep myself in check like this?”
“Then-…d-don’t”, Hao gasped, moving his legs up to wrap them around the alpha’s waist, grinding against him, trying and failing to get some friction from it. He whined pitifully, the sound obviously going straight to Hanbin’s dick. It was now that he realized Hanbin was still dressed in most of his clothes; the tight, black shirt hugging his muscled torso, the fitting black jeans not hiding any of his arousal.
The alpha scoffed but seemed to comply, straightening up to pull the shirt off of himself by the neck – which was such a ridiculously hot thing to do. Hao let go of a groan and watched as the younger unbuckled his jeans, stepping out of them, the underwear following.
Hao knew that he was drooling but that didn’t seem to bother either of them.
Hanbin crawled towards him on the bed until he caged him in, lips grazing against his collarbones and hands skillfully moving up until he had Hao’s hands grasped with his own, pinning them onto the bed above his head by his wrists. Hao whined when he felt the top of Hanbin’s cock brush against his hole and he wiggled around impatiently.
“Now, now”, Hanbin tutted softly, breath ghosting against his skin hotly, “Be patient, princess. You’re so wet, I could slide in right away, hm? It’s almost as if you were made for me…”
“Yes”, Hao gasped and clenched around nothing, moving around some more until he finally managed to have the very tip slip inside. He moaned loudly, “Please, Hanbin-ie, please-…”
“If you ask nicely, I will give you what you want…”, Hanbin stalled with a smirk.
Hao didn’t know what possessed him when he opened his mouth again but the reaction it caused was totally worth it as he said: “Please, please, please; Bini, Sir, please-…”
Something flashed in Hanbin’s eyes, his teeth catching on Hao’s collarbones, fingers tightening their hold around his waist and leaving behind bruises and finally, finally, he felt his walls accommodate for the sheer size of him and-…
-
Hao startled awake.
He was drenched in sweat, in drool and…slick, as he realized, grimacing at the spot it had left behind in his pants; again. Luckily, he didn’t stain Ricky’s sheets yet. On shaky knees, he got up, grabbed his change of clothes (the ones he was supposed to wear tomorrow, thank you very much) and walked into the adjacent bathroom to clean himself up.
When he looked at himself in the mirror, he had to blink himself out of his stupor; he looked like he had literally just been fucked into the mattress, his hair an utter mess, his chin messy with dried spit and when he pulled the hoodie off of himself, he also realized that he had apparently come all over himself without even realizing.
When the ever-flying-fuck did he pull off his pants and underwear?
His eyes moved back towards the mirror, hand halting in its movement to look for Ricky’s special, neutralizing shower gel in the cabinet when his gaze set on something on his collarbones. He leaned closer to inspect it, fingers grazing against it and he flinched when it stinged slightly – it was a bruise, a rather fresh one at that. There even were indents of teeth visible through the darkness.
He let his gaze drop down and wasn’t sure if he should scream or not when he saw the bruises on his hips, shaped as if someone had gripped him tight to keep him in place while-…
Hao was pretty sure he never took a shower and got dressed as fast as that, storming out of the bathroom and the bedroom towards Ricky’s room in record speed once he was done.
The omega obviously didn’t expect to be awoken at…what was it? 4am? But Hao needed to vent and Ricky was the unfortunate one because; what the actual fuck.
Ricky screamed, sitting up in his bed with his sleeping mask still on his face and looking around cluelessly, until he realized that he obviously couldn’t see with that thing still on.
He pushed it up into his messy hair and squinted his eyes with an annoyed hiss upon getting blinded by the light Hao had switched on, “What in the-…Hyung, seriously, what the actual fuck-…”
“I had a wet dream”, Hao blurted out and it caused Ricky to zip his mouth shut.
The younger dragged his hands across his face and finally seemed to just accept his fate, throwing his hands into the air with a groan, “…Congrats, Hyung. You’ve reached peak-single-life. Now why is that important enough to wake me up?”
“No, you don’t understand!”, Hao huffed and started walking up and down in Ricky’s room like a tiger in its cage, “It was a dream! I know it was, but it felt so real! It should’ve been nothing but a dream! Did I sleepwalk…? No way, no…but-…how can I-…how-…”
“Hyung”, Ricky’s voice cut through his panicked rambling and he sounded actually pissed-off now, “Unless you’re going to tell me what the actual hell you want from me, you have no business being in my room at 4am. Spit it out already.”
“I have bruises!”, Hao said and pulled the edge of the hoodie down to show them to Ricky. Yes, he had put the hoodie back on, to his big disappointment. With another movement, he pulled the edge up and showed the ones on his hips as well, “Bruises!”
Ricky blinked, apparently still not understanding the problem at hand, “…Again; congrats, Hyung. Your single-life may not be as bad anyways. You could’ve waited to tell me about your recent fuck until it’s a decent time-…”
“I didn’t fuck anyone!”, Hao exclaimed, “I didn’t fuck anyone, I had a dream! Okay, before it could get to the fucking, Hanbin locked me into my room and Jiwoong had to come pick me up! And then I came here because of Hanbin’s rut, I told you that! But I didn’t fuck anyone, we didn’t fuck, I had a wet dream!”
The younger omega looked somewhere in-between concerned, confused and angry now. He huffed, “Hanbin’s in rut. I gathered that much when the hot alpha dropped you off here. Jiwoong was his name? Great, okay. You didn’t fuck, although it seems like you were close to that if your vague explanation just now is anything to go by. So what, maybe Hanbin bruised you while you did whatever the hell you were doing before he locked you up-…”
“No, no, no”, Hao stopped pacing and walked up to Ricky, squeezing his cheeks in his hands and shaking him back and forth, “You’re not listening! I was dreaming! I had a wet dream, then I woke up, I looked in the mirror, and then I had bruises!”
Ricky blinked, the annoyance from earlier gone and instead replaced with honest confusion. He wasn’t any less petty though when he pushed Hao’s hands away from his face and said, “…You had a wet dream about Hanbin, is what I’m gathering here. And when you woke up…you had these bruises. You do realized how stupid that sounds, right?”
Hao wasn’t too sure how crazy he looked but apparently, it must’ve been enough for Ricky to retreat and say: “Okay. Listen, how about this; you go back to sleep. So will I. And when we wake up, at a reasonable hour, I call Gyuvin and ask him about this. He’s a medicine major, if there’s something weird happening, he’ll know. Sounds alright?”
And yes; it actually did. Hao swallowed and calmed down, stepping back from Ricky’s bed with an embarrassed smile. “Uh…yes…sorry…”
“Yeah, yeah, get the hell out now”, Ricky said and pulled down his sleeping mask again with an angry huff, cuddling into his pillows aggressively, “and close the fucking door behind yourself.”
~
Gyuvin either was a medicine student who had all of his life perfectly handled or he never did anything for his studies whatsoever – you’d think a medicine major was way too busy to just come running when someone called. Well, apparently, he had enough time on his hands to drop by at Ricky’s whenever he pleased.
Or maybe, he just made time for Ricky because he was Ricky.
Either way, it worked in Hao’s favor for now.
Gyuvin looked at him as if he tried finding some sort of obvious symptom on him.
He would make an excellent doctor.
“…How about you tell me again…what happened. From the beginning on. Hanbin-hyung was acting weird all day, we’ve gathered as much. You had your violin lesson and then what…?”, Gyuvin said and prepared himself to write down whatever Hao was about to say.
It was way too professional considering the circumstances but Hao still complied and revised everything that happened yesterday. How he stumbled upon Matthew almost getting attacked by that omega woman, how they met Jiwoong. He told them about what happened once they entered the apartment, about how Hanbin started going into the last stages of his pre-rut once he had told him about the syringe, the…whatever it was they did against Hao’s bedroom door, the aftermath of that when they were on two different sides of that door. About his weird restlessness the rest of the night, how he couldn’t fall asleep until he wore that stupid hoodie (he was still wearing it) and how he had woken up after that wet dream with bruises littering his skin.
Ricky added that Hao was completely mental for waking him up at 4am because of some bruises that he, quote, “Probably got while making out with Hanbin-hyung yesterday”.
But to both of their surprises, Gyuvin didn’t indulge in any of their words and merely scribbled down some more notes, asking nonchalantly, “What were you dreaming about?”
“What?”, Hao spluttered, cheeks red, “I will not tell you that, you’re a child-…”
“I’m not a child, neither is Ricky”, Gyuvin interrupted and looked at him through intelligent eyes, “I need you to tell me what you two were doing in your dream.”
Hao swallowed the lump in his throat and forced himself to comply: “…I was on my bed. In my apartment. Naked. And Hanbin was there. He-…touched me.”
“Mhm…what do you remember. Apart from his touch, what was he like?”, Gyuvin asked.
He wondered why that was important right now but decided not to question the younger for now, summoning the memory of that dream as he replied: “…Intense. His scent was everywhere. His voice was enough to make me do and say whatever he wanted. I think he could’ve asked me to kill someone and I would’ve done it.”
Gyuvin hummed along, pen moving fast against the paper. Hao wondered what the younger was writing down but when he tried catching a glimpse, the alpha changed his position, successfully hiding the surface of his paper from him. “So he was in rut in your dream. Did you ever spend a rut with someone, Hyung?”
Hao rolled his eyes, “What kind of question is that, of course I did. I’m not a nun, I usually look for an alpha in rut during my heat because I hate spending them alone. It’s a thing, isn’t it?”
Gyuvin nodded along softly, “Yes, I know, I just didn’t want to assume, Hyung”, he said and scribbled some more, “Would you say that – while spending a rut with any other alpha – you were quite like you were in your wet dream?”
Now that question had Hao thinking.
He frowned and tried thinking back to all the times he’d spent a rut with any alpha. Of course, his memories were a little hazy, considering he never spent a rut with someone without being in heat as well. But still; Hao was a rather…dominant omega.
He usually wouldn’t just let anyone do whatever and it had caused many of his previous partners to leave him for it. The alphas he had known for the quick fuck or just to relieve the stress of being in heat usually didn’t care all that much – they were one-time-things, just a simple an eye for an eye. His previous relationships though suffered from that attitude of his after some time.
Hao wasn’t easy to handle in a relationship because most alphas felt like they had to take care of their omegas, like they had to put boundaries for them and decide for them. Considering he had grown up with his alpha mother breathing down his neck, he had a complex regarding stuff like that. Hao would go out of his way to prove that he was independent and didn’t need anyone looking after him.
It was astonishing, really, that he let Hanbin dote on him so much. But somehow, Hanbin had always been different for him.
And now that he thought about it, he had acted completely unlike himself in his wet dream and when Hanbin had crowded him against his bedroom door yesterday. It was odd for Hao to let an alpha take control like that, odd for him to feel so…protective and worried over an alpha in rut.
No other alpha in rut had ever made him want to take care of them. Not even when his heat wasn’t due for another day but he had already spent a few hours with them.
Hao answered to Gyuvin’s question: “…Actually…no. With Hanbin, I’m acting differently.”
“How so?”, the younger asked again.
He frowned and tried to find the right words, “…Just-…I’ve said this before but I think Hanbin could ask anything of me and I’d do it. He-…makes me want to…”
“Submit?”, Gyuvin suggested and it had Hao nod dumbly.
The younger nodded and closed his notebook, letting it drop onto the table softly, “I think I know what’s happening. But I need to clarify something first” – Gyuvin held his hand out to Hao – “Give me your phone, I need to call that Jiwoong guy.”
Hao hesitated but dialed the number for the younger alpha, watching as he stood up and walked away. He shared a very confused look with Ricky, who merely shrugged cluelessly and decided to snoop around in Gyuvin’s notes. As soon as he opened them though, his face twisted to one of utter confusion and he turned the page around to show Hao a bunch of terminology in what seemed to be Greek and Latin.
Ricky huffed, “I cannot believe he talked to you about this, thought about it and wrote down Greek and Latin words at the same time!”
Neither could Hao, but he’d established before that Gyuvin was just as smart as Ricky, if not smarter.
Gyuvin came back to the dining room after a good twenty minutes, a very neutral look on his face.
As he sat down in front of Hao again, seeing his notebook open, he smiled sheepishly, “…What? I need to know all of the face’s bones in Greek, Latin and Korean by the end of the week.”
“…What is it? Is Hao okay? Is he dying?!”, Ricky asked, hands coming up to grab at Gyuvin’s shoulders and shaking him in panic.
The younger seemed a little dizzy for a moment, but gently pried Ricky’s hands off himself, keeping one of them in his own hands to play with the omega’s fingers as he said: “…Hao is perfectly fine. It just-…well. This is just an assumption based on what you just told me. And what Jiwoong told me just now. I’m not a doctor, much less a specialist for omega or alpha biology. So, really, maybe you should go see your doctor and-…”
“Gyuvin, spit it out”, Hao hissed.
“I think Hanbin imprinted himself onto you. As in, his alpha chose your omega and your omega accepted. So the way he reacted yesterday? He wasn’t due for his rut that soon but once you mentioned the syringe, his alpha snapped and it caused him to go into rut earlier. You leaving Matthew’s house? An instinct, really; your omega did not want to be around another alpha, knowing your…well…real alpha is alone and suffering through his rut. And when you couldn’t sleep at Ricky’s until you wore Hanbin’s hoodie? Which, by the way, I think you packed on purpose without realizing. You fell asleep upon smelling his pheromones. And that dream of yours? Not a dream, it was a mind-link. Your mind connected with Hanbin’s and what you saw in that…dream. Happened. Well, at least kind of. He touched you; he bit you; he left those bruises on your skin”, Gyuvin said.
Once he was done, he took a deep breath and waited for a few moments before adding: “…And uhm-…well, not only do I think he imprinted himself onto you. I also think he’s your True Mate. Because…that mind-link thing shouldn’t be something you can do unless you’re mated. Which you’re not. So-…”
Hao blinked.
Imprinted.
He blinked again, suddenly feeling dizzy.
True Mates.
No. Way.
He didn’t know what to say and therefore, as his first reaction, just felt like laughing. And so, he did and he knew that he looked utterly crazy while doing so, “You are. Hilarious. Haha, True Mates. Good joke.”
“…Not a joke, Hyung”, Gyuvin said and his seriousness was scary, “You should take this seriously. If I’m right, your inner omega will try to get to his alpha. And if you refuse your inner omega, you will suffer the consequences of it.”
“Pff”, Hao scoffed, “Like what? An itch?”
Gyuvin’s eyes narrowed and by now it was crystal that he was not joking around whatsoever, “No, like an out-of-cycle heat that could kill you. Or a massive drop that could psychologically force you into submission and depression. Your omega could force you to stay at home and starve yourself out of pure sadness. And knowing you, Hyung, you will avoid Hanbin like the plague now. So go to your doctor, tell them what you told me, then what I told you and don’t run away from this.”
Hao swallowed the urge to scream then and there.
Instead, he just scoffed; when he said he wasn’t going to let any alpha tell him what to do, he meant it like that.
He didn’t need help; he didn’t need to see his doctor and he especially didn’t need to listen to his Dongsaeng who was studying medicine.
Him and Hanbin were okay as they were; they were not True Mates and much less did Hanbin imprint on his omega.
Watch him.
°°°
Something was off about Hao.
Hanbin wasn’t too sure what it was – quite frankly, for the longest time, he didn’t really want to know. Mostly because Hao was a grown man and didn’t need someone doting over him all the time. He had gathered by now that the elder hated that and accepted the fact that Hao simply didn’t like being pampered and babied as if he were incapable of doing things on his own.
But lately, Hao seemed to push that agenda to the extreme.
He refused to let Hanbin do anything for him – the simplest things were immediately hissed or glared at. Whenever Hanbin wanted to cook for them both (because he would rather die than live off of instant ramen), Hao would refuse to eat the food he had made and would either make himself some shitty instant food in the microwave or he’d just huff and go to bed without saying anything else (or eating, for that matter).
Every little gesture that was rewarded with gentle smiles of gratitude before, was now commented on with an angry hiss or a very pissed-off stare.
Hanbin figured that his heat was due soon; but somehow, that didn’t hit.
Which was weird on its own but even weirder was that Hao’s behavior got worse.
He avoided Hanbin like the plague, that much was obvious. Which turned out to be a hard thing to do, considering it was Hanbin’s job to tail him. But even when Hanbin walked behind or sat down close to him, Hao refused to look at him, refused to talk to him, refused to acknowledge him.
In the beginning, Hanbin had tried to tickle the answer out of Hao; to find out what he had done wrong. But no matter what he said, Hao remained stubborn and wouldn’t give him the time of day.
By now, Hanbin had more or less accepted that Hao’s behavior was probably rooted in what had happened between them during his pre-rut and he simply did not feel like trying to talk to someone anymore who so clearly didn’t want to be talked to.
Their dynamics had gotten so out-of-tune that Yujin obviously suffered through it.
So much so that today, he just seemed to have had enough of it. It’s been almost three weeks since Hao started acting like this and apparently, that was more than enough time for Yujin to be utterly done with it.
“Yujin-ie, stop being ridiculous-…”, Hao tried to placate the younger.
Yujin huffed and yanked his suitcase out of Hao’s hand, “No! You stop being ridiculous! I’ve seen enough! You two seriously need to get your shit together, everyone is walking on eggshells around you! Me included! So as long as it takes for you to stop being like this to each other, I will stay with Taerae-hyung!”
Hao clicked his tongue, “There’s nothing for us to talk about-…”
The glare Yujin sent Hao’s way was so icy that even Hanbin felt frozen to the core and he knew that the utter coldness of it must’ve hurt Hao – considering he kind of seemed to have mentally adopted the younger omega.
Yujin’s glare softened a little bit, probably upon seeing Hao’s hurt look, but he didn’t change his mind, shouldering his bag and opening the front door, “Talk. Please, for the sake of all of us.”
And then, he was gone.
But even with Yujin now living with Taerae and also avoiding them like the plague, Hao did not talk to Hanbin.
He still avoided him, he still refused to talk to him, he still didn’t want to even look at him.
But something in his behavior changed anyways.
Where there had been anger and wrath before, Hanbin could now see a weird sadness. Hao didn’t acknowledge him, that much didn’t change, but he seemed to…deflate. When he had laughed heartily at Gunwook’s jokes before, he barely even smiled anymore. Ricky’s rants about some expensive designer bag were merely commented on with an absentminded hum. He didn’t react to any of Taerae’s hearty smiles. All of his usual energy whenever he saw Yujin was replaced by a dull smile.
He seemed like the life was drained out of him.
Hanbin witnessed Gyuvin and Ricky once talking to him about something, very adamantly so; but it had ended with Hao more or less lashing out at them and the only thing that probably all of the cafeteria had heard was a very clear, “Mind you own, damn business and stay out of mine!”
It was uncommon for Hao to lash out like that; even more so at Ricky.
From then on, Hao even avoided their friends.
Which consequently meant Hanbin had to avoid them as well. He at least waved at them from afar, smiled when Taerae joined them for a walk and made sure to text every single one of them as often as he could. But Hao started ignoring them as well.
It was weird.
And worrisome, to say the least.
Hanbin couldn’t help but feel like he was missing something.
Something crucial. He had to ask someone but Hao was not an option.
And so, when Hao had once again locked himself into his room, he dialed Ricky’s number. It took a couple moments for the younger to answer but once he did, it was clear that the younger already knew what this was about.
“Listen, Hyung”, Ricky said and he sounded like he was in pain, “I know what you want to know but I-…I can’t tell you. Okay, I just can’t. You have to ask Hao himself.”
Hanbin scoffed, “I did. More than once. I tried; more than I can count. He doesn’t want to talk to me. Ricky, he doesn’t even look at me anymore. I’m sure he told you about what happened during my rut. But that can’t be all of it and I know you know more than I do.”
“…I can’t, I’m sorry Hyung”, Ricky said and ended the call.
The next morning, Hanbin woke up to the quiet of the dorm. There was no shuffling around, no coffee machine disturbing the silence, no cupboards slamming closed. He heard absolutely nothing. As he entered the living room, Hanbin realized the quiet came from Hao literally being nowhere to be seen.
But his scent was still fresh and he therefore assumed that the elder was still in his room.
He knocked on Hao’s door, knowing that he had locked it from the inside, “Hyung? Your late for your course…”
No answer.
Hanbin sighed and let him be. Lingering around the apartment for an hour or so.
Hao didn’t leave his room.
Not today.
Not the day after that.
Or the one that followed.
If Hanbin had been worried before, he sure as hell was now.
With a lot more force behind it now, he knocked on Hao’s bedroom door again on the third day, his voice carrying a lot more authority as he said, “Listen, Hyung. You can have all kinds of problems with me, I don’t care. But shutting the others out without telling them why is really shitty. And locking yourself up in your room like this doesn’t help anyone. You need to eat; I know you have snacks and water in there but that is not enough to survive. You’re going to starve yourself in there-…”
He had no idea what it was about his speech that managed to startle Hao out of it but the door slammed open almost immediately. Hao looked as horrible as his scent was sour.
Hanbin scrunched his nose and wondered what managed to make his rose scent sour as much as it did. But before he could even open his mouth to ask, Hao had grabbed his coat, slipped on his shoes and stormed out of the apartment silently.
Hanbin knew that he should run after him – but for some reason, his feet just wouldn’t move.
And so, he just remained where he was, staring into the mess of Hao’s room and trying to get the sour remnants of the elder’s scent out of his nose.
In vain.
°°°
Hao’s doctor was a very nice woman.
Dr. Lim.
She was patient and kind and one of the few doctors in Seoul who didn’t try to drain him of money as soon as she found out about his family name.
So when Zhang Hao pretty much stormed into her office, past the front desk, ignoring the assistant’s calls about how he had to wait for his turn, he felt a little bit bad for it.
Dr. Lim luckily was not consulting any patient right now, apparently busy wrapping up one though as she was in the middle of typing on her computer when Hao all but slammed the door to her office open. She was obviously shocked for a moment, startling at his sudden appearance, eyes wide open as she stared back at him, “Zhang Hao-ssi? What-…”
“How is it that my stupid omega just-…chooses someone? How is that possible?!”, he interrupted her.
Dr. Lim blinked and held her hand up when one of her assistants walked in behind Hao, apparently about to drag him out of the office. She hesitated for a moment before making a gentle hand movement towards the chairs in front of her desk, “…Why don’t you sit down for a moment?”
The assistant seemed dissatisfied with her boss’ decision to let Hao in, probably because it meant her real, next patient would have to wait longer, but the door got closed with the assistant leaving the office.
Hao felt way too restless and stressed to sit down though.
His inner omega was going crazy inside of him, his skin felt like it was about to shed and he wasn’t too sure about the last time he had had a proper night’s sleep or a real meal.
He started pacing in her office, “I didn’t choose him. Okay, I didn’t say yes to that. I don’t need an alpha in my life, that is not how this works. I spent years accepting the fact that sometimes, my biology just has to be the one in control, but not over matters like this. This isn’t just being horny or having cramps because I’m in heat. No, this is lifechanging. This is-…True Mates?! Imprinting?! Who gave that-…that alpha the right to do that?!”
Dr. Lim, thank god, seemed to know exactly what this was about.
And given the fact that she had been his doctor for years, she knew Hao well enough to know what this was really about.
She leaned back in her chair, legs crossed and eyes narrowed – Hao had told her once not to sugarcoat things for him because that, quote, “Doesn’t do shit for either of us”. And so, ever since, she didn’t.
Neither did she now: “Zhang Hao-ssi, an alpha cannot imprint on your omega unless it’s mutual.”
“I don’t want to be dependent on him though!”
“Who says that you have to be dependent on anyone because of that?”, she asked back.
Hao gritted his teeth, “Because that’s how it works! That’s how our world is, that’s what always happens! Us omegas, we meet someone, we fall in love, we believe them when they say that, oh, they’re different, and, no, they would never hurt us! And then we marry them and get limited to do whatever it is they say because they’re an alpha and we’re omegas and we just have to do as they say! Then we have a child and we fight over how we should raise them because; what if they’re an alpha? What if they’re an omega? And that child then grows up and has to learn how to be their own person because all their parents ever did was fight over who has more power! And that child learns that no matter what, the omega just always has to fight its way through the world alone, no one will let him do anything because he’s just a stupid omega-…”
“Zhang Hao-ssi”, Dr. Lim interrupted him again and Hao halted in his movement, breathing heavily, staring over at her through glossy eyes, “You are not your father.”
He sniffled and opened his mouth to say something but what left his lips wasn’t anything he wanted to say; he sobbed.
He sobbed and sank down to the floor with his face buried in his hands.
Dr. Lim was quick to react, getting up and petting him his shoulders as if he were a small child to console. But it just came crashing down on him and with it, everything else as well.
For a moment, her soothing scent and calm voice helped him; but it quickly irritated him and instead, Hao flinched away from her touch. “I-…I know that. My father got a divorce for a reason, he’s not-…he’s not some good for nothing omega. He’s a successful prosecutor in China and he-…he left my mother because he’s aware of that. Even if I were my father, I wouldn’t be ashamed of that.”
The doctor hummed softly but didn’t try to touch him again. Her voice was kind but there was a touch of authority in it when she said: “Zhang Hao-ssi, I think you need to get to that alpha of yours. Talk to him.”
Hao sniffled, “I-…I can’t. I can’t do that. I’m not ready for this-…”
“But you are”, Dr. Lim said and smiled warmly when Hao looked up at her through still glossy eyes, tears falling down his cheeks, “your omega chose him. The only one who hasn’t yet accepted that is you.”
“I barely even know him”, Hao said, “I-…he’s a good friend but I don’t-…”
“Then let him court you”, the doctor said, “Or at least talk to him about this. Does he know? Or did you just push him away and hide from the world?”
He sniffled some more, not answering; but the doctor understood anyways and stood up. “Zhang Hao-ssi, you need to talk to him.”
Getting up on shaky knees, he wiped at his face and excepted the tissue his doctor handed him. While doing so, he said: “…I think I have other things to be worried about, Dr. Lim. My heat is late. Like a whole week late.”
Dr. Lim frowned at him and sat down at her desk again before saying with more pressure on her words: “Talk to that alpha of yours, Zhang Hao-ssi. It is long overdue.”
-
Call him overdramatic but he did not talk to Hanbin.
He also didn’t talk to Ricky, although the younger tried reaching him about ten times. Neither did he react to Yujin’s texts or Gunwook and Taerae’s worried calls. He didn’t talk to anyone, much like the weeks before.
In fact, his behavior got even worse.
He locked himself up in his room and refused to see anyone. Hanbin didn’t try to talk to him again – he didn’t know if that was because he didn’t care anymore or because Hao finally managed to push him away enough.
In any way, it worked in his favor.
For all but another week – until Hanbin knocked on his door again. He didn’t wait for Hao to answer, not like he would’ve done so anyways: “Zhang Hao. I know you don’t want to see me – and I know that you don’t want to talk. That’s fine, you don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do. But…I’m worried about you. We all are. Ricky’s been trying to get you to talk for weeks. And Gunwook and Taerae told me that Yujin wouldn’t stop feeling bad for leaving you. He thinks half of this is his fault; I tried to tell him that was not it. If anything, I think it’s my fault…”
Hao sniffled into his pillow but didn’t open his mouth to say anything.
Hanbin continued talking: “…which is why I called your mother and told her to break our contract.”
He halted, eyes widening and heart seemingly stopping. The alpha kept going, “I’ve tried…I really did. But I can’t…watch you do that to yourself anymore. Not because of something I did. I’m not sure if it’s really just because of what happened during my pre-rut. But know that…I’m sorry, Hyung. For pushing myself onto you. And for…everything. I’m sorry. You don’t have to see me again. I told Ricky about this already…”
Hao straightened up, his arms feeling like jelly.
“…and I told the others that I’d be continuing my studies in Busan…”
He couldn’t get up. His muscles just wouldn’t move, wouldn’t listen to him. It was frustrating but not matter how hard Hao tried, it just didn’t work.
“…they’re sad but I can’t take away your friends as well. They’re…kind of like your family, after all.”
No.
No, he had to move. He had to get up, now.
Hao fought against the scream of his body, fought against the weakness in his limbs. He tried to say something but all that left him was a silent whimper.
“I just want you to know that…I liked living with you”, Hanbin said and his voice sounded heavy now; sad, even, “I liked…waking up to the sound of your voice in the kitchen. I liked your burned scrambled eggs. I liked the way you dote on the kids and how you always treated Yujin like he was your child…”
Our child, Hao’s omega whined in his head and for once, he didn’t try to fight it.
“…and if I could turn back time and change whatever it is I did. Stop myself from pouncing on you like I did…I would...”
Don’t-…
“…I hope that your new bodyguard treats you better-…”
…please, don’t-…
“…and that you’ll finish your studies. I’m sure you’ll become an awesome violinist, Hyung.”
Hao finally managed to push himself up and crawled towards the end of his bed, his legs shaking with the effort to keep him upright as he pushed himself off the mattress and started walking towards the door.
But Hanbin’s voice already sounded far away when he said, “…Farewell, Hao-ge.”
And when Hao opened his door, he was alone.
His knees buckled as he slid to the floor, tears pricking his eyes. Something inside of him seemed to crack as he rolled himself together into a ball on the floor, unbothered by the cold and his eyes fixes onto what once used to be Hanbin’s bedroom – now open and left behind like it had been before the alpha came into his life. Empty, unpersonal.
The air smelled slightly of Hanbin’s scent – worry, sadness, guilt. Not a pleasant scent but Hao still found himself clinging to it as he mumbled softly, “Don’t leave me…”
But there was no one left to hear him.
°°°
Hanbin sighed, shaking his head at Matthew’s bad punch, “Matt, you punch like a girl.”
“And you-…you-…suck!”, Matthew yelled back, quickly getting reprimanded by Jiwoong’s gentle slap.
Tch – he would’ve never slapped Hanbin as lightly as that.
It’s been two weeks since Hanbin handed in his notice. Mrs. Zhang had been disappointed, to say the least, and tried to figure out the reason. But Hanbin simply couldn’t tell her; for various reasons. For once, he didn’t think that his personal life was any of her business. And secondly, more importantly, he didn’t need her to hate him too.
Hao may not haunt him on purpose, but his mother definitely would. And given the power she held in Seoul, Hanbin would rather not bet his life on it.
Jiwoong looked at him like he had for the past two weeks whenever Hanbin was over at Matthew’s (their?) flat; like he wanted to say something but barely stopped himself from doing so every time.
It was upsetting, to say the least; especially because Hanbin knew Jiwoong was somehow mad at him.
With a huff, he got rid of his gloves, telling Matthew to punch the bag instead, “What do you want, Hyung? Spit it out already.”
The elder alpha sighed, “…You just left Hao without talking to him about what happened between the two of you?”
“…It’s not like I didn’t try. You know I tried, Hyung”, Hanbin said and mirrored his sigh, crossing his arms in front of his chest as he leaned against the wall. Matthew’s punches were even worse on the punching bag but none of the two tried stopping him, “He wouldn’t come out of his room anymore. I couldn’t let that happen any longer.”
Jiwoong clicked his tongue, apparently out of arguments, “Yeah, I guess you’re right. I know you tried, I’m sorry. It’s just-…you didn’t see Hao when he was here. He was…jittery. Almost as if staying away from you hurt him.”
Hanbin highly doubted that but didn’t comment on it.
Suddenly, the elder straightened up and turned to look at him, “Hold on, I just remembered something. A day after I dropped Hao off at that kid’s-…Ricky? Another kid called Gyuvin called me with Hao’s phone and asked me a bunch of very questions about you.”
“Was that why you called me and asked me about any weird dreams?”, Hanbin wondered and decided to walk over to Matthew to stop his punching when the younger managed to hit his face with the punching bag.
The other alpha nodded, “I called Gyuvin after that and told him what you told me; because he had asked me to. It was weird; when I told him about your dreams, he got all weird about it and told me to, quote, ‘not tell anyone about this’. Whatever ‘this’ was; I have no idea what the kid gathered from me telling him about your horny dreams.”
Hanbin shrugged, “Gyuvin is very smart; he might’ve just assumed you understand because he did. Whatever it is that he understood.”
Jiwoong dragged Matthew away from the punching bag to instead hand the beta a bottle of water. Meanwhile, Matthew added to the conversation: “What about the scratches?”
They both turned their heads to look at the beta, who was busy taking greedy sips of the water offered to him.
The elder alpha huffed, “I told him about that as well, of course. And he got weird after that.”
Hanbin felt all of his muscles stop.
It can’t be-…
He grabbed his phone and jacket and stormed out of the gym.
Jiwoong called after him, “What the-…Hanbin?! Where are you going?!”
But he had no time to answer that question; he had somewhere to be.
Finding Ricky and Gyuvin was hard, even considering he knew where to look for them. To his surprise, although he had steeled himself otherwise on his entire way to the university (and getting inside had been hard, considering he wasn’t a student anymore), Hao was not at their usual table.
Yujin was the first to notice him, almost jumping up from his seat and all but bouncing around the table to hug Hanbin heartily, “Oh my god, Hanbin-hyung! What are you doing here, I thought you’ve gone to Busan!”
Oh shoot – right, he had lied about that to them because he had assumed to get a new mission. Which wasn’t a wrong assumption, his agency just needed a few weeks to gather new intel for his next job. Clearing his voice, he gently let his hands card through the young omega’s hair and he tried not to let a purr slip when he noticed Yujin still smelled the same; like sea salt and baby powder. A pleasant scent that always mingled so nicely with Hao-…
Off-topic.
He needed to ask Ricky and Gyuvin what that call had been about and he did not have the time and liberty to do so in secret.
It wasn’t like there was any mission to jeopardize anymore anyways.
Which is why he just replied: “…I’m not a student and I don’t go to Busan. I was Hao’s secretly hired bodyguard until I decided to quit because…something happened between us.”
Everyone but Ricky and Gyuvin seemed rather shocked for a moment.
He wasn’t too sure if Gyuvin had just assumed that Hanbin wasn’t some normal student or if Ricky told him; not like it really mattered anymore anyways.
Before anyone could even gather their thoughts to say something, he turned to look at Gyuvin and Ricky, “You know what happened to Hao. You know why he started acting the way he did. I need you to tell me right now.”
Ricky avoided his gaze.
Gyuvin’s stare was hard as ice, “We can’t do that, Hyung.”
And really, he didn’t know what came over him when he narrowed his eyes and let his pheromones roam free, but when it provoked the reaction he wanted, he couldn’t really care all that much either. Ricky made himself smaller almost instantly and Gyuvin bowed his head in respect.
“I didn’t ask”, he said, not feeling like repeating himself.
It was Ricky who spoke up, although with a little shake to his voice, “…The morning after Jiwoong dropped Hao-hyung off at my place, he freaked out over a dream he had. So I called Gyuvin to maybe help. Honestly, I didn’t think he’d even be able to diagnose anything. Hao told him about what happened between you two and about how restless he was after leaving you behind like that. And then he talked about these bruises he got after that the dream. Gyuvin told him to talk to you about it but Hao-hyung can be…incredibly stubborn if he wants to be.”
Hanbin paled.
He knew he did.
He felt dizzy all of a sudden – he had hoped and prayed that his assumptions were not true.
But from what Ricky just admitted to him, his assumptions definitely were right.
Swallowing hardly, he stuttered: “…W-Why was he so scared of talking to me?”
Ricky seemed even more reluctant to talk now.
To their surprise, it was Gunwook who spoke up, “Hao-hyung’s father got a divorce because his mother was too controlling. He grew up hearing them fight over how to raise him. Though he grew into a pretty independent omega, that just really…branded him. Hao never really managed to stay in any relationship because almost all of his partners felt he was too controlling and too dominating.”
Ricky sighed, “…Yeah, Hao-hyung is traumatized by his mother’s controlling and aggressive alpha-nature. He’s terrified of submitting to other people, even more so to alphas. I think when Gyuvin told him that your alpha must’ve imprinted on him…he just freaked out.”
“I told him to go see his doctor to confirm that because…I’m not a specialist”, Gyuvin added with a frown, “But I should’ve known that he wouldn’t listen to me. Or anyone for that matter. Hao-hyung does things out of spite.”
Hanbin’s brain short-circuited, remembering the day Hao had suddenly stormed out of the house; he had come back home with red eyes and his scent sour. They never talked but now that he thought about it, Hanbin was pretty sure he ran off to his doctor that day.
Because after that, Hao refused seeing their friends as well. Started locking himself up in his room. Stopped eating, stopped talking, stopped caring-…
Hanbin felt his blood go cold.
“We sent Taerae-hyung to go check up on him today – since he hasn’t been to any of his courses lately”, Yujin said around a pout, “We’re really worried about him. He hasn’t been himself lately.”
They all startled when Gunwook’s phone started ringing. He smiled apologetically and answered the call, a soft smile on his face – which got quickly replaced by a very serious stare. Hanbin’s hearing was good enough to pick up on Taerae’s very panicking voice.
The younger alpha ended the call and stood up, “Taerae just called. He said that something happened to Hao-hyung and that we need to come over right away.”
-
Hanbin would’ve known that they reached Hao’s apartment without even seeing it. Not because of the familiarity of the steps, not because of the known feeling of the carpet beneath his feet; but because of the scent.
Hao’s rose scent was strong and it was sour and heavy in the air as they approached the door.
All of Hanbin’s senses told him to get moving, to kick everything and everyone out of his way. But he forced himself to remain as calm as he could and followed the other’s into the apartment. The scent was even worse in here.
Taerae was handling the door with force, in complete vain as it seemed, one of Hao’s neighbors standing next to him with a box of tools and biting her lips. She looked nervous but seemed to calm down upon seeing Hanbin, “Thank God, you’re here! I’ve been worried sick about Hao-ssi! He’s been doing weird things in his apartment ever since you left but today, when I got ready to leave for work and left my apartment, I could smell his distress through the cracks of his door!”
The beta stopped his attempts at opening the door and turned around to rummage through the box of tools hastily, “I tried opening it but-…it won’t! I guess I’ll have to get rid of the lock-…”
“Spare your breath”, Hanbin said dryly and cracked his neck, kicking against the door’s handle with one hard, precise kick, causing the door to fly open instantly.
They all probably would’ve remained staring in shock if it weren’t for the sight they were greeted with.
Hanbin felt his muscles freeze.
Taerae and Ricky walked inside with their scent flying around the room in worry. Hao was lying on the floor of his room, hugging something close to his body and his shoulders shaking softly. He seemed to be alive, at the very least.
A high-pitched whine startled Hanbin out of his stupor – Hao flinched away from the two younger’s touch, whining and crying highly, trying to crawl away from them as if their mere presence hurt him.
He dropped.
And apparently, has been doing so for the better half of the past two weeks. There were some plates and empty snack-bar packages lying around the room, so he at least knew to eat. But he obviously barely survived on his own.
Hanbin couldn’t help but feel angry; at himself, mostly. Knowing now what he knew, this was his fault. He had left Hao behind like this.
When the elder had needed him the most, he had just…left him.
Jiwoong was right; he should’ve talked to him.
He should’ve tried harder.
Tuning back into his surroundings, Hanbin turned around to gently push Gunwook and Gyuvin away from the door – the two alphas visibly tried to restrain themselves. Hao’s scent soured even more, his whines heartbreaking and painful to their ears. He petted Yujin’s back, “Take these two outside, please? I’ll take it from here.”
Yujin nodded and took the two elder alpha’s hands, dragging them along. Hao’s neighbor nodded thankfully and excused herself as well, asking Hanbin to update her on Hao’s state later today.
He turned back around towards the room and stepped inside, gently pulling Taerae and Ricky away. The two seemed very reluctant, but stepped away as Hanbin crouched down behind Hao’s rolled-together body. He made sure to put as much calmness into his voice as he could, spreading his pheromones carefully, “Hao-ge. It’s okay, I’m here. You’re not alone.”
Hao tensed – almost as if someone paused his life. He stopped whining and whimpering, weak arms pushing him up into a somewhat seated position as he turned his head to look at Hanbin. His eyes were bloodshot with tears, cheeks pale and sunken in. But even like this, he still looked ethereal. Hanbin doubted there would ever be a moment in which the elder didn’t look beautiful.
The omega stared at him as if he expected Hanbin to disappear, as if he didn’t trust his own eyes. Hanbin had heard stories of omegas dropping; he knew that hallucinations certainly weren’t an uncommon thing then.
For good measure, he spread his scent some more and gently reached out to tuck a lost hair strand behind the elder’s ear. Hao immediately leaned into his touch, tears gathering in his eyes again.
With a heartbroken wail, Hao all but let himself fall against Hanbin, arms and legs immediately wrapping around his body like a koala, his grip tight despite the weakness of his body. He cried and cried, his voice rough and the words leaving his lips between hiccups broken as he said: “I-…’m sorry! When you left I-…I tried to stop you but I-…I was too-…weak! I couldn’t move, I couldn’t t-talk! ‘m sorry, please, alpha, please don’t leave me again-…”
Hanbin felt his jaw set into place trying to swallow the anger he felt for himself in that moment. But he shoved it away to instead hug Hao even closer, “I won’t leave you again. I’m sorry that I left you behind like this, I didn’t mean to hurt you like this.”
Hao whimpered and cried, shoving his face into the crook of his neck and attaching his lips to his scent gland. It stung but he didn’t break skin – so Hanbin let him, tilting his head to the side carefully. It wasn’t like they could mate each other anyways without both being in heat and rut.
With a sigh, Hanbin stood up, still carrying Hao and supporting his weight by holding onto his thighs. He looked at Ricky and Taerae, then at the apartment, and frowned. Somehow, staying here made him feel all kinds of icky.
“…Taerae, would you drive us to my flat? It’s not too far away from here but I can’t stay here”, he said and frowned softly.
The beta nodded gently, “Of course, Hyung. Do we need to pack something for Hao?”
Hanbin shook his head; he was pretty sure that Hao would want to wear his clothes, anyway, considering he was clutching a hoodie of his that had gone missing a good month ago or so.
~
By the time Hao calmed down enough to talk, they’ve been sleeping in Hanbin’s bedroom for a few hours. It had taken him a good amount of time to convince Ricky and Gunwook to go home because they couldn’t do anything for Hao at the moment anyways.
Eventually, it was Gyuvin who managed to coax them away from Hanbin’s flat.
As soon as Hanbin dropped onto his own bed in his flat, he found himself falling asleep with Hao in his arms. He had been awoken every now and then by Hao shuffling around and whining quietly in his sleep – other than that, he remained calm though.
Hanbin helped him take a bath when they first woke up, scrubbing his back and shoulders gently and offering him some of his clothes. Just as expected, the elder omega walked out of the bathroom with his face buried in the fabric and with a whine leaving his lips, falling back into his arms.
He cuddled Hao close, letting him nuzzle against his scent gland some more.
Eventually, the elder spoke up: “…I’m sorry.”
“You don’t have to apologize. I should be the one who apologizes; I left you behind even though it was so clear you were close to dropping”, Hanbin said softly.
But Hao shook his head, “You-…tried to talk. So many times. You were worried about me, even after I treated you like dirt for a whole month or so. I should’ve spoken about this with you…just like Gyuvin told me to. So no; I should apologize. I’m sorry, Hanbin-ah. It didn’t have to…escalate like this. But it did because of my own mistakes and that wasn’t fair to you.”
Hanbin thought back to what Gunwook and Ricky had told him.
“…Did I ever…make you feel like you’re nothing but a low omega? Because if I did, that wasn’t my intention”, he said softly.
Hao blinked up at him and chuckled softly, “I see the others told you about my wrecked childhood?”
He smiled sheepishly, “Yes…don’t be mad at them, I might’ve gone a little crazy trying to find out what happened to you and used my alpha voice on them.”
The elder looked a little taken-aback but other than that didn’t comment on it.
He shook his head, “No worries – I’m not mad, I’m glad they told you. In whichever way that was. And to answer your question; no. No, you didn’t; Gods, no. You’re anything but a stereotypical alpha. If anything I’d say you’re the complete opposite of my mother and every good thing she lacks. I just-…when I realized what our dreaming experience meant…I freaked out. I realized that I may like you more than just…as a friend. And I realized that my omega does too; in fact, I’m sure my omega has liked you since the first time I’ve seen you. It scared me and I started overthinking. That had nothing to do with you.”
Hanbin hummed lowly, “…I didn’t mean to imprint on you. I mean-…not like I had any real control over it. And I also don’t regret it I guess. But…man, that wasn’t how I was planning on telling you about my crush on you.”
Hao giggled, “That’s okay. My doctor told me it wouldn’t have worked if my omega would’ve rejected your alpha. So I guess we’re both guilty.”
They stared at each other for a moment before bursting out laughing, leaning their foreheads against each other. The laughter died and instead, they just stared into the other’s eyes. Hanbin let his gaze drop down for a moment.
To his surprise, it was Hao who broke the silence: “What are you waiting for?”
Hanbin blinked in confusion, “Excuse me?”
“You’re excuse”, Hao deadpanned and let their noses brush against each other, “I’m a hot, pretty omega in the room of a very hot, very handsome alpha. And what a coincidence; there’s only one bed. We’re both single. Kiss me already, you idiot.”
He stared back into Hao’s eyes for a moment before laughing again. When Hao whined some more, petulantly kicking his feet and pouting, Hanbin used his strength to fully hover over the omega, pushing him into the mattress.
Hao’s pout made way for a surprised, wide-eyed stare. He got impatient quickly though, “God damn, you really are just a tease-…”
Hanbin shut him up.
No one usually managed to do that but Hanbin guessed that he would be the first at that. And the only one as well.
Because no way in hell would he let anyone else kiss Hao.
Their lips molded against each other perfectly, moving in tandem as if that’s all they’ve been doing ever since they first started breathing. It felt incredible. You know how in the movies, there were always fireworks going off in the background? How the music got intense and the world just seemed to pause for the main characters.
Well, Hanbin didn’t know if time stopped or not or if there were fireworks going off. But he sure knew that kissing Hao felt like that and way more; like stars exploding, like meteorites hitting the surface, like thunder crashing, like waves hitting shores and black holes finally meeting white holes (Hanbin had no idea if that last one was even physically possible, considering the existence of both were mere theories).
Hao arched against him from underneath, his lips parting to let go of a moan and Hanbin ruthlessly used that opportunity to lick into his mouth, their tongues meeting somewhere in the middle.
Now that Hao was calm and satisfied, his scent was pleasantly sweet. Hanbin licked further into his mouth, savoring the taste of the omega and pushing their bodies further together. Hao gasped, hands shooting up to grasp at Hanbin’s arms and digging into his flesh as they got carried away.
He smirked, remembering the dream he had had and leaned away slightly.
Hao chased after his lips, a thread of saliva breaking off when Hanbin said: “Want to leave marks again? I was quite shocked when I gained consciousness again and found these claw marks on my back.”
The elder scoffed, “You bruised me – I think a few claw marks are a fair trade.”
They kissed again, Hao pushing against him and changing their positions easily. He huffed out a breath when their cocks brushed against each other, hips stuttering as a moan left him.
Hanbin narrowed his eyes at him, “As tempting as that may be, I think we’re going a little fast.”
To his surprise, Hao let go of a very high whine, hips moving against Hanbin’s thigh in retaliation – as if his mind told him to go for that instead because he had been forbidden to do so with Hanbin’s hard-on. “Y-You can court me later for however long you want. But right now, I need you.”
Hanbin opened his mouth to say something, taking a deep breath; and that was when it hit him. Roses and cinnamon, weirdly enough. It was an odd scent combination, even weirder because Hanbin had never smelled the cinnamon on him before. It was intense, drowning his whole bedroom with it.
And as he inhaled it further, he finally caught up to it. He remembered Hao’s cycle and realized that it was long since overdue; his heat.
He cooed softly, hands coming up to direct Hao’s movements by his hips, “Oh, poor Hao-ge. Are you in heat?”
“P-Pre-heat, you little shit”, Hao hissed.
He was feisty when desperate, okay then.
Hanbin chuckled and tightened his grip on the elder’s hips, stopping his movements. Hao whined highly, throatily, trying and failing to move his hips again, “H-Hanbin-…”
“Ask nicely.”
It was a reference.
He knew that Hao remembered the dream just as vividly as he did.
The red now adorning the elder’s cheeks was all the answer he needed, but he also wanted him to say it.
Hao swallowed, his hands tightening into fists above Hanbin’s shirt, grasping the material tightly as he seemed to fight with himself. He bit his lip and avoided eye-contact for a brief moment before connecting their gaze again and mumbling shyly: “…P-Please, Sir? C-Can I come on your thigh?”
He immediately let his hands loosen up and Hao took that as a sign, moving against him almost instantly. Hanbin would’ve probably yielded eventually anyways, considering how absolutely dazzling the elder looked like this; on top of him, his thigh in-between the elder’s legs, humping the muscles, head thrown back, eyebrows furrowed, hair sticking to his forehead and broken moans leaving his lips.
Art wasn’t a good enough word to describe the beauty Hanbin was witnessing.
And Gods, feeling him, seeing him, hearing him like this was way better than any dream, no matter how vivid.
Hanbin watched Hao intently, memorized all his noises and the way his face changed with the rhythm of his hips, how his voice got louder and his scent intensified upon getting closer and closer to the edge.
If he weren’t in heat, Hanbin would’ve loved to see the broken expression on his face upon being denied the pleasure of reaching the edge. But Hanbin wasn’t that heartless and they didn’t talk about their kinks yet – so he decided to just let him do as he pleased.
For now.
And really, it was worth it. Because if there was one thing prettier than Hao getting himself off on Hanbin’s though, it was Hao coming on Hanbin’s thigh.
The slick all but poured out of him, making the drag against his thigh slick. Hao tensed and writhed, hips stuttering to an overwhelmed stutter as cum stained the sweatpants he was wearing.
His scent got even stronger and Hanbin felt dizzy with the sweetness of cinnamon and roses in the air. While Hao started peeling the sweatpants off himself (leaving the hoodie again, just like in that dream of theirs), Hanbin said: “What’s up with the cinnamon?”
Hao blinked, unceremoniously throwing the drenched pants and underwear somewhere behind himself and starting to work on Hanbin’s pants next, tugging on his waistband eagerly. He sounded every bit as distracted as he was when he replied: “I always had that scent – it’s just very subtle. Usually doesn’t show unless I’m very pissed-off or very horny. I don’t think any of our friends ever smelled it on me, except for maybe Ricky.”
Hanbin decided that he wanted to keep it that way; else other people might want a bite out of Hao for smelling so goddamn amazing.
He hissed when the elder managed to get rid of his pants, his dick springing free, hard and red, slapping against his stomach. The sudden coldness was quickly replaced by heat as Hao grasped it by the base and seemed ready to all but devour him.
But Hanbin narrowed his eyes and sat up on his elbows to stare at him blankly. The omega pouted, not even needing any words to have his eyes sparkle adorably and beg: “Please, Sir? Can I please suck you off, please? Wanna taste you…”
God, he was so impatient.
So insatiable.
Hanbin scoffed, “If that’s what you want. You won’t get another free wish tonight, princess.”
For now apparently not caring about the consequences, Hao licked a stripe up from the base to the tip, his tongue following a vein and swirling around the head. He suckled on it at first, eyes gazing up at Hanbin with mirth.
That little minx.
He grabbed Hao’s hair and narrowed his eyes again, causing the elder to immediately yield and lower himself on his dick. He managed to swallow a little bit more than half before stopping, tears springing to his eyes as he gagged softly.
Hanbin dragged him back up by his hair carefully, letting him catch his breath. Hao leaned into his touch while suckling on the tip, gazing up at him through pleading eyes, “Hm? What do you want?”
“…-can take it. Please, Sir…?”
Hanbin chuckled and made way to let go of his hair – only to be stopped by Hao, who placed his hand back into the mop of his brown strands and started swallowing his length again without saying anything. He took that as an invitation and helped Hao by pushing his head down, dragging him back up again, dictating the rhythm for him.
Hao let him, moaning and swallowing when the tip reached the back of his throat to accommodate for it and work against his gag reflex. It took a while, but when he finally managed to swallow all of Hanbin’s cock, he started purring in delight – a sound and feeling that made the whole thing even better.
With a groan, Hanbin pulled Hao off again, leaning forward to connect their lips in a kiss before the elder could complain about the loss. While kissing, he quickly got rid of his shirt and gently pushed the omega into the mattress, letting his lips trail down towards Hao’s collarbones. He nibbled on the skin there, reveling in the noises that left Hao’s lips as he marked up the skin around his neck, pulling on the edges of his hoodie.
As he leaned back to admire his work, he needed a few moments to just take Hao in.
Naked, save for the hoodie, covering most of his body except for his long, pale legs and the better half of his collarbones because the article of clothing was way too big on him. Hanbin let his gaze settle on a mole he found on Hao’s inner left thigh, grabbing the omega’s leg to nibble on the skin there and follow the trail of moles leading towards his real goal.
Hao writhed and moaned beneath him, hands grasping at the edge of the hoodie to pull it out of the way for Hanbin. The roses and cinnamon got even stronger, Hao leaking slick so much that it probably stained through his sheets onto the mattress.
But really, those were logistics he couldn’t care about right now.
No, Hanbin had greater things to be worried about.
He used both of his hands to push Hao’s legs apart, letting them rest against his shoulders. The elder whined and keened for him to hurry up but Hanbin ignored him to instead let one of his fingers graze against his hole.
It twitched and clenched around nothing, more slick immediately gushing out and he saw Hao’s dick twitch in interest. He cooed softly, massaging the tight ring of muscle gently and teasingly, “My poor princess; so impatient for me, right?”
“S-Stop teasing me! I’ve been so good for you-…ngh!”
Hanbin slapped his thigh, not hard, but strong enough for it to resound in the room. And apparently hard enough for Hao to tense up and arch off the mattress a little bit.
Oh?
With another slap, Hanbin said: “I told you earlier; that wish was your last free wish tonight. You have to earn your rewards, princess.”
“W-What? B-But-…ngh-…please, Sir, I-…”
“You’ve been so greedy and pushy all night. I think you need a lesson or two in patience now”, he said and pushed his first digit into Hao’s waiting hole.
The elder immediately stopped whining, instead arching off the bed to get more of him inside, moaning loudly.
Hanbin let him for now, moving slowly and with no force.
As if he had all the time in the world.
It definitely didn’t sit right with Hao though as he kicked his leg out and huffed: “H-Hanbin-…ugh…”
He slapped his thigh again, this time a little harder, eyeing him through narrowed eyes and seizing all of his movement. Hao swallowed and corrected himself immediately, “S-Sir. Please, Sir, another one-…”
“Hm? One isn’t enough? Greedy little princess…”, he tutted but complied, unable to really refuse Hao anything.
The second finger fit perfectly with no struggle. He was pretty sure that Hao didn’t really need any prepping in the first place; he was so wet and loose, probably because of his heat, that Hanbin probably could’ve just fucked him.
But where was the fun in that?
He scissored his fingers, opening him up further and missing Hao’s prostate on purpose. Which, again, did not sit right with the elder whatsoever.
But this time, he seemed to know better than to complain or be bratty about it. Instead, Hao just whined high in his throat, a purr escaping him while doing so. He let Hanbin do as he pleased, fingers grasping the sheets beneath him and eyes looking at him pleadingly.
“Now that’s a good princess”, Hanbin said and finally added a third finger, immediately crooking them up to reach Hao’s prostate. The omega tensed, instantly throwing his head back and a very high keen leaving his lips.
He was pulled taut like a bow but seemed hesitant to let go.
Hanbin smiled and let his lips graze against Hao’s dick, licking along it gently as he said: “You can come, princess. You’ve been patient, hm?”
And almost as if that had been all he needed, Hao’s hole clenched around Hanbin’s fingers, his back arching even more if that was possible and a very loud moan escaping him as he came, hips twitching as Hanbin swallowed his cock down in the same moment, tasting his release and swallowing all of it.
Hao seemed unsure of whether he wanted to pull away or keep going – not like he could escape the please, seeing as he got stimulated on both sides.
Hanbin licked his way back up, cleaning up the elder’s cock and only letting up once he was sure there was no more left for him to lick up. Once he was done, he moved up, using his free hand to gently tap against Hao’s bottom lip.
The elder let his lips drop open instantly, their eyes connecting as Hanbin let his saliva and the remnants of Hao’s sweet release, slick and precum drip into onto his tongue. Hao closed his mouth when he was done, opening it again when he swallowed it all, eyes sparkling with unshed tears.
Hanbin leaned down to connect their lips in a bruising kiss, finally easing his fingers out of the elder to wrap them around his length instead, using Hao’s slick to prepare himself.
Hao didn’t seem to mind the loss of fingers, too busy kissing Hanbin back – until he felt the tip of his member brush against his rim and he immediately started whining, moving his hips in circles and desperately grasping at Hanbin’s shoulders.
“You’ve been so good for me, princess. You earned yourself a wish”, he whispered against Hao’s ear.
The elder whined and pushed Hanbin off. For a moment, Hanbin was utterly confused – that is until Hao turned around and bent over, his ass up and body propped up with his hands as he looked back at him with pleading eyes. His scent was the sweetest it has been up until now, clouding Hanbin’s senses and drowning them both in raw admiration, pleasure and want. His voice, just like his pheromones, was alluring and heavy when he said: “P-Please, Hanbin-ie, Sir, please. Fuck me, make me come on your cock, breed me-…”
Hanbin had all kinds of tight reins on his alpha but definitely not when the love of his life (dramatic much, he knows okay) begged him to fuck and breed him, looking like this; wearing his hoodie, ass cheeks and thighs glistening with the slick that kept flowing out of him, cock dripping with precum and twitching, an adorable angry red with how aroused he was, the oversized hoodie sliding up his body and showing off all of Hao’s perfect, slim waist, the moles scattered across his back and his arms covered by sweater paws.
He looked like a dream.
But this time, when Hanbin lined himself up with the elder and pushed in, he didn’t startle out of a dream. He didn’t wake up and didn’t have to reach for his overused fleshlight to get himself off to the thought of fucking Hao.
No, this time, he could actually push into the elder and savor every single moment.
Hao was snug and tight around him despite dripping slick all over the place for what felt like an eternity. He keened loudly, a sound that very quickly turned into an overwhelmed moan and then a very satisfied purr. His legs shook as soon as Hanbin bottomed out and it wasn’t until he felt more slick pour out around him and the wetness beneath him that he realized Hao just came again, just from Hanbin pushing his cock into him.
He leaned forward, hand grasping the omega’s waist and marveling at the way he could easily wrap his hands around it, that’s how thin it was. As he pulled back until only the tip was in, he said: “My princess; I didn’t even fuck you yet. Are you sure you can handle me?”
Hao whined and nodded, purrs mixing with his voice as he babbled, “Yes, yes; please, Sir, I can take it, please fuck me-…ngh!”
Hanbin abruptly slammed back inside, immediately setting an unforgiving pace to make up for the lost time because he knew for a fact that Hao needed it like this right now; fast, hard, relentless.
Much like everything with Hao, it felt amazing.
The elder moaned loudly, his arms giving out on him on a particularly hard thrust. Hanbin’s eyes zeroed in on the way his hands tried to grasp for the mattress through the paws of the hoodie he was wearing. He leaned forward to let his hands grasp the omega’s, pushing them into the mattress and holding him in place while he kept his rhythm going, angling his hips just to where he knew was Hao’s prostate.
Hao moaned so loudly, Hanbin was pretty sure he would receive a noise-complaint tomorrow morning for that.
But right now, he couldn’t care about that; much less when he felt Hao’s body tense once again and the moans he let out stutter brokenly as he came again.
How many times was that now? Hanbin lost track; quite frankly, it didn’t really matter right now. Hao was in heat and if there was one thing he could handle then, it was multiple orgasms. If anything, it was Hanbin who probably needed a couple breaks, seeing as he wasn’t in rut himself and therefore had a lower stamina than Hao.
He decided that he needed to see Hao – all of him.
Which is why he pulled out and skillfully turned the omega around, making him lie down on his back. Hao gazed up at him through hazy, tearful eyes. It was a truly devastatingly beautiful sight – with the hoodie bunched up against his chest and his hear surrounding his head like a halo. He looked like the angel he was, even more so when Hanbin pushed his member back into him, picking up where he left.
His pace didn’t falter, still mercilessly pounding into him. He flipped the hoodie further up, letting his finger graze against Hao’s erect nipples and eventually leaning forward to flick his tongue against one of them, pulling it into his mouth and biting carefully.
Hao whined, arching against him and trembling beneath him.
Hanbin chuckled softly at the thought he suddenly had, letting the nipple go with a soft pop and leaning towards his ear to mumble softly, “Isn’t that ironic? I can play you like you play your instruments. I know exactly which strings to push” – with skillful movements, he let his fingers graze against both of his nipples and pressed down teasingly – “know how hard I need to push down to produce the most beautiful of sounds” – he pulled back and hit Hao’s prostate on the next thrust in dead-on, causing him to moan loudly and brokenly – “I’m a master at my instrument…”
When he thrusted back in again, watching Hao’s writhing body, he needed a few moments to really comprehend what he was seeing. But once he did, he let go of a low growl and grabbed one of Hao’s free hands, pushing it against his flat stomach. The omega seemed confused at the sudden stop of movements. But once Hanbin pushed back in again, he seemed to realize it as well and his eyes widened comically.
Hanbin growled again, letting his hand rest over Hao’s and having them both feel the bulge forming in the elder’s lower stomach. The sight should’ve scared them, if anything; then again, Hanbin was big – he was an alpha after all – and it further fueled the fire.
He used his other hand as leverage, grasping Hao’s second hand and pushing it into the mattress by his wrist to prevent him from moving up the mattress while he fucked into him harder.
“Do you feel that princess? Is that what you wanted?”, he huffed out between his thrusts.
Hao whined highly in his throat, apparently unable to formulate any real sentences. Instead, what left him were garbled and thrown together words in English, Chinese and Korean.
And what happened next caused Hanbin to stutter, blinking his eyes at Hao to make sure he had really heard that correctly. The moan that had just left him had been more than just another moan, more than just another noise.
No, that one had been laced with desperation and trust. With want and raw, primal need.
It had been a whine, high and airy, only meant to be heard by Hanbin, by his alpha and no one else. It was a whine of submission, the ultimate sign of trust an omega could give an alpha. Hanbin felt his inner alpha growl in possessiveness and satisfaction, leaning forward to let his nose brush against the offered and exposed column of Hao’s neck.
Because that was really it, huh? Hao had bared his neck.
He had whined, in submission, and bared his neck.
For Hanbin.
It took him a lot to not just give into his desires, forcing his alpha to stay put, even with his eyes flashing gold for a moment.
Hao may have trusted them with this but he wasn’t going to destroy that trust on their first night together; which had only occurred in the first place because Hao was in heat.
And that was the clue, wasn’t it?
Hao was in heat and currently hurtling towards his fifth? Or sixth…? One of many orgasms.
He was in no mind to make such decisions and Hanbin was rational enough to know that as much as Hao’s omega and his own alpha would hate him for that, he had to stay strong. He couldn’t give in and bite Hao – because that bite would take and it would mean something.
They liked each other, they were meant for each other; so much was clear.
But they didn’t know each other well or long enough yet to make that step, to do this.
And so, Hanbin forced his face away from Hao’s neck. He was distracted by a very tight feeling anyways and it was then that he realized his knot was forming.
An odd thing considering he wasn’t in rut. This wasn’t something he could pull of often for Hao while the elder was in heat, but it was good that he seemed to be aroused enough for him to do it at least once. His knot would satiate Hao for longer.
He upped his pace, his bedframe slamming against his wall with loud thuds and by now he knew for a fact that he would receive a noise-complaint by tomorrow.
But if it didn’t bother him before, it definitely didn’t bother him any more now.
He nuzzled against Hao’s cheek and looked into his teary eyes, cooing softly and kissing the tears away from his skin when they escaped. “Aww, my pretty princess – am I fucking you so well that you’re crying?”
Hao nodded, another one of those special whines leaving him.
Hanbin kissed him on the lips for good measure before squeezing the hand on Hao’s stomach, his knot by now fully formed and Hao finally realized it as well.
He started wiggling around, whining even louder and more desperate than before.
Hanbin chuckled, “You want it? Hm? Want to feel my knot? Want me to push it in, to ruin you for anyone else and fill you up with my pups? Want me to breed you?”
Hao stuttered out a broken moan and actually managed to say something, a very thrown together mess of Chinese and Korean that Hanbin only understood because of Ricky, “Yes, yes! Please, alpha, please breed me, want your pups, please!”
Apparently, Hanbin had even more of a thing for it when Hao called him Alpha.
He gritted his teeth and slowed his thrusts, kissing along Hao’s collarbones and listening to his broken moans. He sped up slowly, eyes zeroing in on the spot on the elder’s throat as he bared his neck once again.
When his knot finally made way and pushed inside, Hao let go of a scream so loud that it seemed to leave behind a ringing in Hanbin’s ears. But he couldn’t care about it, much less when he felt his knot expanding more and finally, while Hao came dry for the last time, arching his back, hands grasping at his shoulders and neck desperately bared, released inside of him with a low growl and letting his teeth sink into his collarbone.
It was close enough to the spot where Hao really wanted him to bite down without having any consequences, enough for Hao to come again, as it seemed, shaking like a leaf and tears spilling from his eyes.
He was beautiful like this.
It took several minutes for his orgasm to ebb down, his cum seemingly never-ending as it kept filling Hao up.
Hao twitched around him, otherwise didn’t do much though.
Once Hanbin was done, he moved them around so that they could both lie down comfortably. Hao shuddered softly, grasping at Hanbin’s shoulder for stability until they finally settled down, with Hanbin on his back and the elder propped up on him, still connected by his knot.
The knot must’ve cleared most of Hao’s deliriousness for now, as he leaned up to leave a chaste and sweet kiss against Hanbin’s lips and said with a broken voice, “…That…was amazing. Thank you.”
Hanbin snorted under his breath, “Everything for you, Hao-ge.”
“Oh?”, the elder yawned, “Not your princess anymore, Sir?”
“Don’t push it”, Hanbin warned around a low growl, delighted at the shiver that went through the omega’s body, “Sleep. I’m sure that wasn’t the last of your waves and I have a few long days ahead of me with you in your heat.”
Hao scoffed but it held a warmth in it as he said: “Are you saying I’m difficult to handle?”
“I’m saying, my dick will probably fall off once we broke your heat”, Hanbin said and rolled his eyes lovingly, “Which is why I need sleep, and so do you.”
Needless to say, Hanbin woke up a good hour later with Hao grinding against him, whining pitifully to be filled up again.
°°°
Ricky had a way of looking at people when he wanted you to feel uncomfortable.
It wasn’t exactly news to neither of them; and yet, still it was enough for even Hao to feel the impact of the younger’s stare.
He cleared his voice and sat down on Ricky’s couch, pulling Hanbin along. His heat broke about a day ago but even then, he craved the alpha’s touch and proximity. He had always thought that omegas were ridiculous for being all over their partner after spending several days fucking them. But now that he was one of those omegas who got fucked good for four straight days in a row, he understood.
Because right now, he couldn’t even imagine surviving a single day without Hanbin.
Or an hour.
A second.
Ricky continued staring at them with his signature resting bitch-face, sunglasses propped up on his nose and lips formed into a dissatisfied curl.
Well, two could play that game. Hao grew up in a rich household with an entitled alpha mother and a tired-of-this-bullshit omega father. If there was one thing he knew how to do, it was making other people feel bad.
And as much as Ricky liked to pretend otherwise, the younger was absolutely no exception.
Hao huffed, turned his head towards Hanbin and made sure to look every bit as dissatisfied as Ricky did.
It was Gyuvin who finally pinched Ricky’s thigh, causing him to squeak embarrassingly high. He pulled his sunglasses off and glared at his boyfriend, “What the hell, Gyuvin?!”
“Stop it. You’ve been worried sick about Hao, now he’s here and you treat him like this?”
Ricky sniffed, “Yeah, well, if I would’ve known that he gets fucked sideways on Hanbin-hyung’s mattress, I wouldn’t have wasted my time being worried!”
Hao smirked, “Oh trust me, Ricky” – he leaned forward and watched in satisfaction as the younger let that intimidate him – “not just sideways. And definitely not limited to the mattress.”
Yujin groaned, “I did not need to know that.”
“Me neither”, Gunwook said, “Remind me to never sit down anywhere in Hanbin’s flat.”
Hanbin smiled sheepishly, “…Oh well, I got kicked out of the flat after that so I guess…it doesn’t really matter.”
Now that rendered everyone speechless for a few very long seconds.
It was Matthew who broke the silence, comfortably seated on Jiwoong’s lap as if it were his God-given right, “Just how hard did you fuck him?”
While Hanbin’s red cheeks were adorable, if anything, and Hao would’ve loved to smooch his face for that alone, he knew that his friends definitely would not appreciate the sentiment and therefore merely answered for the alpha, “Why? Jealous that Jiwoong couldn’t fuck you hard enough to get you kicked out of your flat yet?”
Jiwoong definitely didn’t seem like the type of guy but he spluttered and his face turned even redder than Hanbin’s, hiding behind Matthew shoulders. The younger was shocked for all but two seconds before pointing an accusing finger at Hao and saying: “Rude! I bet Jiwoong can fuck me better than Hanbin could ever fuck you!”
“I bet he can’t”, Hao chirped back, immediately humbled by Hanbin though when he gently petted his hand.
Hanbin smiled but it was a way too friendly smile given the circumstances and if his sudden grip on Hao’s waist was any indication, it was anything but meant to be taken lightly, “I think that’s enough of you two.”
Hao and Matthew both scoffed but remained silent otherwise.
The atmosphere got a little calmer and Hao decided to be more serious now.
With his head hung low, he cleared his voice and said, “…I’m sorry. To all of you…for what I did. I pushed you away when I shouldn’t have. Gyuvin-ah, you were right; I should’ve gone to see my doctor and then talk this all out with Hanbin. Instead, I did what you were afraid of me doing all along and worse than that, let it escalate to have me drop. I could’ve…died in my bedroom, crying and whining for Hanbin to come save me if it weren’t for you guys. I’m sorry for doing this to you and…thank you, for taking such good care of me.”
He looked up and searched for Yujin’s eyes, warmth seeping into his gaze when he caught it, “And Yujin-ah, Hanbin told me…before he left, that you thought my state of mind was your fault. I was hurt by what you said but-…not because of you. It was because of me and because I knew you were right. I’m sorry, for hurting you like this sweetheart.”
Yujin, who had shuffled around awkwardly behind Gunwook up until now, all but launched himself into Hao’s arms and nuzzled against his neck, frowning softly upon probably picking up on Hanbin’s scent as well. He didn’t comment on it though, apparently not bothered by it – if anything, he looked even calmer now. “It’s okay, Hyung. I’m not mad at you.”
Hao cooed and rubbed his cheek against Yujin’s endearingly, purring softly when the younger giggled in his hold and let him do as he pleased.
Ricky scoffed, “This little minx turns all goody two shoes around Hao-hyung when he’s nothing but an unhinged demon at best.”
Yujin immediately soured at that, throwing a nasty glare at Ricky, “Rich coming from you!”
“Excuse me?!”
“You’re excused-…”
“Kids, stop it”, Hanbin interrupted and they both immediately zipped their mouths shut. Hao chuckled softly and continued doting on Yujin, scenting him and drowning the younger in his scent.
His excessive caring-routine was interrupted by Taerae as he said: “By the way, when did it happen? Like how…does an alpha imprint on an omega?”
Hanbin and Hao both looked at each other cluelessly; they had no idea.
Luckily, they had a whole Gyuvin for that.
He cleared his voice and explained: “The actual moment will be a mystery to even the two of you until you get mated. This is only a rumor since the whole concept of True Mates isn’t exactly proven science anyways, but they say that when you bite each other to close the bond, True Mates will see the moment their omega and alpha chose each other. And by the way-…”
The smirk on Gyuvin’s lips absolutely did not sit right with Hao whatsoever, “I did some research. And apparently, if an alpha imprints on an omega, it would’ve triggered an immediate heat. But instead, you had a dream-link. Which apparently means the omega imprinted on the alpha. So, Hao-hyung, Hanbin was the one who accepted you; not the other way around.”
Hao felt like smacking that kid for being a smartass but somehow, except for the way Gyuvin had said it, the information in itself didn’t bother him.
He turned to look at Hanbin and smiled softly – it made sense.
He wouldn’t want it any other way anyways.
“By the way”, Jiwoong spoke up, now apparently all normal again that no one talked about his very much confirmed sex-life with Matthew, “I’ve noticed this before but…are you all a pack?”
Hao blinked at the eldest, “What? No, why would you think that?”
“Because”, he pointed at Yujin who was purring quietly against Hao’s scent gland, then at Hanbin, who got caught throwing Gunwook a warning look for trying (and failing) to sneakily steal a few of Ricky’s favorite snacks and finally made an all-round hand-movement to include everyone, even Matthew, “literally every single person in here seems to follow your words. Your scent and presence manages to calm down everyone. And whenever a situation needs a firm hand, Hanbin can control every single one of you with a simple look or one word.”
He had never looked at it like that.
But now that Jiwoong mentioned it…Hao saw what he meant.
For months now, everyone kind of…followed their lead. Hao was the one who offered the shoulder to cry on and calm them down; Hanbin was there to stop them if needed and reassure them to feel safe. Their dynamics were like the ones of a pack – they just never labelled themselves as such.
Hao shrugged, “Well, we never called ourselves a pack. But might as well do so. I got tired of my apartment anyways.”
“What are you saying?”, Taerae asked with wide eyes, “Are you suggesting that we form a pack and move into a house together? Who would pay for that?!”
Ricky threw a very pointed look at the beta, who immediately seemed to realize his mistake, “Oh. Right. The two of you are like superrich or something.”
“Oh, oh!”, Matthew exclaimed, bouncing on Jiwoong’s lip excitedly (which seemed to hurt him just a little bit but the alpha didn’t try to stop him), “Jiwoonie-hyung also has tons of money! He used to be an actor-…ouch!”
“I’ve had it with your loose mouth today!”, Jiwoong hissed, pinching Matthew again for good measure as it seemed.
Ricky immediately started grinning gleefully, “Oh? An actor? For what? A movie? A drama? Tell me, I’ll find out either way…”
“Suck my dick”, Jiwoong snapped back, apparently very much unwilling to talk about it.
The omega shrugged, “No thanks, I have Gyuvin for that.”
Gyuvin groaned, didn’t say anything though.
Instead, Hanbin did, and again, everyone zipped their mouths shut immediately, “Please, stop it already.”
It was silent for a few seconds until Gunwook spoke up, “…I think Hanbin-hyung just proved that we already function like a real pack. We just need to make it official now.”
“And move in together!”, Taerae exclaimed with an excited smile.
“And while we’re at it, I think we can all agree on Hao and Hanbin being the pack alpha and omega”, Gyuvin said with a satisfied nod.
While everyone just nodded along, Hao frowned worriedly at Jiwoong, “Doesn’t that bother you though? You’re older than Hanbin-ie.”
Jiwoong merely yawned and shrugged, “I don’t care. Hanbin is a great leader – better him than me. Besides it’s more fun to cause problems than solving them.”
“Great, thanks Hyung”, Hanbin deadpanned with a glare.
Hao chuckled and placated Hanbin with gentle pets on his arm.
Yujin, who had been more or less dozing off on his shoulder up until now, stirred awake and moved over to squeeze himself in-between Hao and Hanbin.
Hao knew his scent soured upon not feeling the alpha close to him anymore, causing Yujin to tense up almost immediately. Hanbin reacted calmly, pulling the young omega towards himself and onto the other side so that he was squished in-between the two, “Don’t take it personally, Yujin-ie. Hao-ge is just a little sensitive because he just had his heat.”
With a sigh, Hao nodded and nuzzled closer to Hanbin again, “Yes, sorry sweetie.”
Yujin shrugged, now visibly relaxed again, “It’s okay. Can I call you two mom and dad now?”
Ricky snorted, “I wonder who the mom would be…”
“S-Shut up!”, Hao hissed and threw one of the pillows at the younger.
Unexpectedly, Ricky did not like that – he glared over at Hao, stood up and threw the pillow right back, hitting him square in the face. Hao let go of a very embarrassing whine as he tipped back onto the cushion of the couch with the impact.
Now that called for drastic measures.
Hao stood up as well, grabbed a second pillow and threw them both at Ricky, who ducked and…well, they hit Matthew and Jiwoong instead.
“Guys-…”
“This. Means. War”, Matthew said, ignoring Hanbin’s attempt to talk. He grabbed a pillow, shoved the other into Jiwoong’s hand and they both aimed at Hao, who dodged them as well – just for the pillows to hit Hanbin instead.
The alpha closed his eyes and exhaled deeply, the pillows both dropping to the floor with dull thuds.
He smiled again when he looked up but this time, it was clear to everyone that he did not mean that smile to look nice at all. His voice was deep, bordering on a growl as he said: “I told you to stop it. Two times already. Now’s the third. Don’t tempt me to say it again.”
Everyone bit their lips and nodded along stiffly.
Everyone but Yujin, who merely giggled and leaned into Hanbin’s side to nuzzle his neck and inhale his scent softly.
Hanbin let him.
And Hao caught himself thinking about whether he would be like that with their children as well.
~
“By the way”, Gyuvin said, slapping Gunwook’s hand away from the muffins cooling off on the trays in the kitchen for the nth time, “Have you guys heard about the omega-heat-incidents?”
Hao, who was leaning against Hanbin on the couch, tuning his violin while the alpha was reading a book. He didn’t look like he was being attentive but Hao knew that he had a very watchful eye on Yujin as he took out the last batch of muffins from the oven.
“Nope, what about it? It’s been quiet for quite some time after that…unfortunate incident”, Taerae said, referring to the male omega who had died.
Gyuvin slapped Gunwook’s hand again while answering: “Well, thanks to Hao-hyung and Matthew-hyung’s tip about the subject possibly being a woman, the police changed their profile and actually found out about several complaints made referring to an omega woman acting suspicious. They trailed her and found out that she was part of a group of four omegas, all woman except for one, who tried provoking heats from omegas because they were curious about the effects.”
Ricky scoffed, wrapping an arm around Gyuvin’s waist, “Ridiculous. I hope they rot in hell.”
“They’ve been charged with plenty, I think they’ll at least rot in jail, honey”, Gyuvin said gently petted his boyfriend’s head.
Hao stood up, done with tuning his violin, getting ready to play his piece, “Perfect! All’s well that ends well!” – he frowned at Hanbin and the alpha looked up with a tilt of his head – “I’m sorry, good Sir, but I’m afraid I don’t need your protection anymore.”
Hanbin raised an eyebrow at him silently. Before Hao could even react properly, the alpha had dropped his book, grabbed Hao’s wrist and pulled him down onto his lap, mindful of the violin still in his hand, “Now that’s a shame. Our completely professional relationship will end here then, I assume, Zhang Hao-nim?”
Hao rolled his eyes and pressed a kiss to Hanbin’s lips, pouting when Hanbin pulled away and finally said, without even having to look: “Gunwook, stop trying to snack on the muffins, they’re for Yujin’s class!”
“Okay, dad!”, Gunwook whined.
“Ha! Told you it was obvious who the mom is!”, Ricky said and Hao could see his annoying smirk from where he was seated on Hanbin’s lap.
He narrowed his eyes, “I swear to fucking God, if I wouldn’t be sitting on my favorite place on earth right now, I’d come whack your stupid head with my violin!”
Ricky scoffed, “No you wouldn’t.”
“You’re right”, Hao said pouted, letting his finger graze against the edges of his precious violin, “I’m so sorry, Opium; how dare me threating Ricky with you? He’s not worth getting hit by you…”
“Am I worth it, Hao-hyung?”, Yujin chirped and walked over to them with two muffins that had cooled off already.
Hao let Hanbin nuzzle against his scent gland and smiled at Yujin, taking the muffin telling him to give the other one to Jiwoong, who was dozing off on the armchair. He parted the muffin in the middle and fed Hanbin with it, “No, Yujin-ah – I wouldn’t dare hurt you, you’re my favorite baby after all.”
Yujin all but beamed at that, hopping over to wake Jiwoong up and offer him the muffin.
Gunwook started complaining almost instantly, “Why do they get to eat some and I don’t?!”
“Don’t make me start to count”, Hanbin dared after swallowing his bite.
Everyone immediately followed.
Hao chuckled and stood up again after giving Hanbin one last kiss, mouth full with his half of the muffin as he prepared to practice his violin.
While playing, he let his gaze drop towards Hanbin, who was looking at him as if he had hung the stars.
It was stupid – to think that this all started with the alpha being nothing but his bodyguard.
But he wouldn’t want it any other way.
“By the way, Hyung”, Matthew interrupted his thoughts. Hao kept playing but looked over at the younger to indicate he was listening, “You owe me money.”
He stopped playing and raised an eyebrow, “I’m sorry what? Why?”
“Because I got us a noise-complaint and you didn’t”, the younger said and smirked.
Hao blinked for all but a second – before ushering Yujin over, “Sweetie, be a dear and properly take care of my Opium for me?”
“Of course, Hyung, but where are you going?”, Yujin said and carefully started loosening the strings, just like Hao had taught him.
He was such a sweet angel, really.
Meanwhile, Hao grabbed Hanbin’s wrist and pulled him up. The alpha whined in complaint; his book forgotten on the couch as he dragged the elder towards the stairs. While doing so he threw a very taunting smirk towards Matthew, “Noise-complaint? I will have our neighbors go red every time they us, watch me!”
“W-What? Right now?!”, Hanbin said, but he didn’t wiggle out of Hao’s grip, “I was doing something, Hyung!”
“Not anymore. The only thing you’ll be doing for the next few hours is me and I want you to do it as if your life depends on it”, he stated.
Hanbin sighed but didn’t object.
Matthew yelled something back, all while Gyuvin tried to be the voice of reason and said, “Please don’t make any of our neighbors call the police because your on-going sex-life – again!”
But Hao decided to ignore that, pushing Hanbin into his door when they were in their bedroom, kissing him desperately.
Hanbin frowned and pulled away, tilting his head to the side gently to let Hao roam free on his skin there, “Hyung, really; is that necessary?”
“Yes, my honor is at stakes here”, Hao replied and kissed his lips, pulling on Hanbin’s belt teasingly as he took a step back and walked towards their bed, “Besides, I’m wearing brand new lingerie – red. Your favorite color. But I’m hearing you’re not interested-…”
He giggled when Hanbin all but tackled him to the bed, kissing along his neck and making him squirm as his hands trailed down towards Hao’s waist, playing with the hem of his shirt, “You’re a menace, princess.”
“Mhm, just for you, my prince”, Hao whispered and pulled him in for a kiss.
And when Gunwook tried waving at their neighbor the next day and all he received was a very awkward smile, red cheeks and a quick, “Bye!”, Hao merely extended his hand for Matthew to drop the money into his hand.