Chapter Text
“Seungmin wait! Don't avoid me!” Chan whined as he followed Seungmin through the house. He was trying to scent Seungmin. And Seungmin was trying to dodge him as usual. Unfortunately for Seungmin, Chan was the type of pack alpha who didn't feel at ease unless the whole pack smelled like him.
Seungmin was a Beta. Betas have a very faint scent, much less than alphas and omegas. So, whenever Chan scented him, he smelled completely like an alpha. It caused problems out in public when others mistook him for an alpha. Also, Seungmin just found it annoying to be surrounded by Chan’s scent all day. He couldn’t escape it!
Jisung, the omega of the group, always said that Chan needed a mate. If the pack had a luna, Jisung believed things would calm down with the scenting.
Seungmin asked Jisung to become pack omega everyday. And every day Jisung would smack Seungmin on the back of the head for even suggesting it.
Chan and Jisung had been together since the beginning. When Seungmin first became part of the pack, he thought the two were mated. Turns out they were just inseparable friends. Jisung believed in the fated mates idea so he wouldn't settle for anything less than an alpha that set his scent glands ablaze. And that wasn't Chan.
“Gotcha!” Chan exclaimed as he wrapped his arms around Seungmin's shoulders. Seungmin groaned but surrendered under Chan's nuzzling. He left the house smelling like whiskey and cedarwood, distinctly Chan.
Arriving at school, Seungmin sat as far back in class as he could. He was studying psychology but was currently in 18th century literature class, his least favorite. He pushed it to his junior year of college because he disliked it so much. Now he was wishing he had toughed it out earlier.
“Settle down everyone. I have an announcement.” The professor said. Everyone got into their seats and the room quieted. “This is our new TA, Felix.” The professor gestured toward an ethereal looking blonde guy. Seungmin assumed him to be an omega but his dulled beta senses couldn't tell from this far away.
“Felix will be a great help to all of you. He will offer advice for your final projects.” The professor announced amid groans from the class. He had been hyping up the final project since the first day of class, touting how hard it would be but not actually telling them details.
“Your end of year project will be a partnership between subgenders. Now I know this isnt subgender studies…” The professor paused and allowed for a ripple of soft laughter to go through the crowd. “But our subgenders are present in everything, especially the arts. You will each pair up with someone of another subgender and write a paper on how your two subgenders are represented in famous 18th century literature pieces.” A groan sounded from the room again. The subgenders tended to stick together at school. Most of Seungmin's friends were other betas. What the professor was suggesting meant that Seungmin would have to partner with someone he barely knew.
“Just to make sure it all works out. I will assign the partners now.” The professor ended his speech and began writing names on the board.
Seungmin should have known something like this would happen. On The first day of class they had to fill out a ‘get to know you’ questionnaire. The first question was *what is your subgender.* This wasn't something students were required to disclose to administration at school. But, they could all smell each other so no one's subgender was really a secret. Except for when Seungmin smelled particularly strong of Chan and someone mistook him for an alpha.
The partner list was complete and Seungmin scanned the list for his name. He found his name written next to another. His partner was Lee Minho. Seungmin wasn't familiar with that name. Subgenders were not written next to the names so Seungmin couldn't even try to sniff his partner out. He decided to talk to the TA for help. That was his job after all.
“Kim Seungmin!” The TA began to shout before Seungmin had even reached the front of the class. “Kim Seungmin please raise your hand! Your partner is looking for you!”
Seungmin raised his hand as he continued walking toward the TA.
“Ah and there he is.” Felix said as he gestured towards Seungmin. A dark haired guy with a fierce gaze turned to look at him. With that look he had to be an alpha.
As Seungmin stepped forward to talk with Minho, Felix made a face of confusion. He looked through a bunch of papers on his desk and made a grunt of frustration when he couldn't find what he was looking for. He then stepped forward and sniffed the air around Sengmin and Minho again.
“The professor must have made a mistake. Your group can't be 2 alphas.” Felix said.
“I'm a Beta.” Seungmin said flatly.
“Really?” Minho asked. He got close to seungmin and sniffed. “Wow. Your mate must be very possessive to scent you so heavily. I'll remember that for when we're working together.”
“He's not my mate.” Seungmin huffed.
“Just a boyfriend then. That explains why he scents you so. He wants others to know you aren't available even though you arent mated.” Minho said. Seungmin didn't have the energy to explain their pack situation.
“Shall we get started on our project?” Seungmin asked. Minho nodded in agreement.
---
The two sat at a small stone table outside of the Arts building. Minho had his textbook open and he was scouring the pages. Seungmin placed his fist under his chin and leaned on it lazily.
“You can pick whatever piece you want. Betas are basically just background characters in any work of literature written more than 50 years ago. We can at least choose one with an alpha representation you like.” Seungmin said. Minho's head snapped up.
“No. I want both of our subgenders to be well represented. So it's fair.” Minho said.
“Alphas can be so stubborn.” Seungmin said.
“Are you talking about me or your boyfriend?” Minho asked with a chuckle.
“He's not…”
“Seungmin?” A timid voice came from behind Seungmin. He recognized the voice and the smell. It was Jeongin, the youngest of their pack and also an alpha.
“What's wrong? Why aren't you in biology class?” Seungmin turned to look at the young alpha.
“Chan hyung told me to find you. It's an emergency.” Jeongin whispered as He looked nervously in Minho's direction as if he were afraid of the stranger hearing. Seungmin looked warily at Minho as well.
“I'll go grab coffee…” Minho got up from the table and headed for a nearby coffee cart. As soon as Minho was gone, Jeongin flopped into his seat. He had a grave look on his face.
“Jisung hyung is in heat.” Jeongin said grimly.
“What!? Are you sure?” Seungmin asked. He didn't doubt Jeungin's ability to detect a heat cycle. But, Jisung so rarely went through a heat cycle that Seungmin couldn’t believe it. Jisung took suppressants religiously. He hated his heat. He did everything he could to stop it. Nature always found a way however. So, once or twice a year it happened no matter what. Because Jisung fought against it with all his might, it always came sporadically.
“Where is Chan hyung?” Seungmin asked.
“At home with Jisung hyung.” Jeongin said. Seungmin suppressed a curse as he stood from the table.
“I'll go relieve him. You stay here. Do not go back to the house no matter what, ok? Sleep at the spa.” Seungmin said. Jeongin nodded. He had a sad look on his face but didn't argue.
In his haste to get home, Seungmin didnt notice that Minho was returning with his iced coffee. They collided. Luckily, Minho had good balance and only some of the coffee spilled on his shirt.
“Why the rush?” Minho asked as he rubbed at the coffee stain with a napkin.
“There’s a bit of an emergency at home. Can you do me a favor?” Seungmin asked. He hated to request things of Minho when they had just started to get to know each other, but these were extenuating circumstances. None of his Beta friends would be able to handle this.
“I can do my best.” Minho said.
“Have you heard of Bang Wellness?” Seungmin asked.
“The therapy place?” Asked Minho.
“It's more than just therapy but yes that place. Can you take my friend there? His name is Jeongin. I need you to take him to Bang Wellness and keep him there until a guy named Chan comes to pick him up. Keep him there no matter what. Do you understand?” Seungmin was rattling off his words nonstop but Minho nodded that he understood. “Thank you! I owe you one!” Seungmin shouted as he ran off.
---
Chan was pacing back and forth in the living room when Seungmin got home. He was holding a bowl of soup and mumbling to himself about something. Seungmin walked up to him and grabbed the soup from his hands.
“Hey. How are you doing?” Seungmin asked. Chan looked at him with glazed over eyes. The smell of omega in heat was so thick that even Seungmin was feeling a little lightheaded.
“I made soup for omega.” Chan said. His words were staggered as if he didn't know what the words were or why he was saying them.
“I see that. You did a good job. Jisungie will be happy. Did you go into the cycle room?” Seungmin asked as he cautiously took the soup from Chan's hands.
“I didn't go. Omega doesn't want.” Chan paused his words as he looked toward the cycle room door. Distress showed on Chan's face as he spoke about Jisung not wanting him. It was dangerous when Jisung went into heat for this reason. Jisung believed in fated mates. He didn't want other alphas to help him with his heat. But when the heat hit, his pheromones would get stronger/sweeter and he would beg for an alpha to help him. The pheromones would cloud the mind of any alpha around. That's why Chan sent Jeongin away. And that's why Seungmin needed to get Chan out of the house now.
“Jeongin needs you at the spa.” Seungmin said. This got through to Chan. He always responded to a pack member in need. “I'll take care of Jisung here.”
Chan nodded. His eyes cleared up some and he headed for the door.