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Seungkwan has been weird lately.
Not bad kind of weird, don't get Chan wrong! Just… something off, maybe? Being somewhat different from his usual self?
It's hard to put a finger on precisely.
His hyungs claim there is nothing out of sorts with him, but Chan knows there is. Knows like how he trusts his bladder to let him know when it is time to pee. Knows like the dance routines he has memorised years ago that he could teach the kids by heart.
As if summoned, carrying a smell of burnt caramel, Seungkwan enters the room where Chan is in the corner of, scowling in thought to himself. His slippers scrape the floor as he shuffles around, huffing and puffing as he seems to look for something. Sighing dramatically he swipes his bangs back and turns around, only to fix his gaze on Chan's hunched body and yell.
“You!”
Chan startles at being pointed at with crazed eyes and an accusing finger.
“What?!”
“What are you wearing?” Seungkwan whines, stomping his foot too for good measure. “I've been looking for that all afternoon!”
Chan looks down to see an old, paled, flocky sweater of his, which he thinks he has owned for more than a decade.
“Um,” he raises his head back unsurely, but Seungkwan and his cloud of burnt caramel are by his feet already. Chan watches in mild confusion as Seungkwan starts pulling and rotating and patting the jumper. “Uh- do you want it?”
Seungkwan ignores his question in favour of reaching his hands behind Chan's back. Chan bends to his right when his fingers touch the sensitive area that makes him tickle, while the caramel tickles his nose.
“Kwan-ah. What's up with you? What do you want, you want this sweater or not?”
Seungkwan sighs in annoyance and stops his aggressive petting, and begins to climb on Chan's lap. Chan tries to hold him lest he tumbles down the armrest.
“No. Keep it. I don't want it anymore,” Seungkwan grumbles while making himself comfortable on Chan.
“Okay?”
Seungkwan hums as he adjusts Chan's limbs to suit whatever position he aims to, and rubs his face on Chan's sternum like an overgrown cat when he finally begins to settle. Chan feels something akin to both fondness and exasperation inside him as he watches and accommodates Seungkwan’s whimsy attempts to make himself smaller on his lap. He feels his own scent bloom when he notices the burnt edge to Seungkwan’s has started to fade.
He brushes his fingers through Seungkwan’s dark locks, relaxing onto where he sits, as the boy lounging on him relaxes onto Chan's body too. He breathes in the way Seungkwan’s sweet citrus undertones let themselves out and mingle with Chan's own fresh ones. He drops his head on Seungkwan’s, cheek squished against the crown of his head.
“Kwan-ah,” he murmurs. “You're okay?”
Seungkwan’s answering hum resembles a purr. Chan can't help the soft smile settling on his face.
“You'd tell me if there was something wrong with you, right?”
Seungkwan's hum is drowned by his purrs this time as he properly lets himself go, still rubbing the flocky material of the sweater. Chan kisses his head where his cheek was previously leaning on, and slouches down a little more when he understands that his mate is about to fall asleep on him.
See, I told them there was something up, Chan thinks to himself, petting Seungkwan’s hair and arm as his breaths get deeper. Because the thing is… Chan loves Seungkwan, and knows that he is loved by him, too. But this, the cuddling and cocooning and purring kind of stuff outside of sexual intimacy, aren't usually for him- for them.
He is used to seeing Seungkwan nesting with Jeonghan, cosily sharing blankets with Seokmin, sneaking inside whatever hoodie Mingyu is wearing and latching on his back, aggressively scenting Hansol to clear any other person's scent on him. But Chan isn't one of the mates Seungkwan turns to when he seeks daily physical contact usually, not really.
Not that Chan has any complaints about the change in the air, of course. But he is sure there is something up. And he is going to find it, damn it!
At least that is what he thinks, until he loses the fight to unconsciousness under the relaxed and purring omega on top of him, Seungkwan's calming scent leaving his head hazy and his thoughts scattered, sweet orange intertwined with tangerines.
*
In hindsight, it all started three months ago.
*
The first thing Chan noticed was probably the irritability.
Well, Seungkwan is an irritable person by nature, as they all know, but the irritation that Chan noticed was on a different level from his usual self.
Because it usually takes some deliberate messing around from their side to get Seungkwan’s hackles up, or an especially shitty day to stick on his nerves. He usually gets worked up easily, but also calms down easily enough. It is usually not what Chan witnessed recently.
Chan punched in the code to their apartment one day, the beeping audible even behind the earphones that were blasting some pop music into his ears. He breathed in the mixed scents that created their home, feeling his body relax just with the sense of being back with his pack.
Bobbing his head to the rhythm still, he walked into the hyeongwan, threw his duffel bag inside the flat randomly, and sat down to untie his boots. He thought he heard some noise coming from the inside, but just shrugged the thought away when he didn't see anyone near him.
He dusted his butt off on his way to the kitchen, humming along to the song's chorus. With a frown, he wondered who and what was cooking in there when he distinguished a smell to signify something burnt.
His steps faltered when he entered the kitchen and saw exactly one pot on the stove, which definitely did not look or smell burnt, and one Soonyoung, gnawing on some uncooked kimchi directly out of its container.
Chan removed his earphones. Once the voices of Twice faded, other voices filled in his ears. Shouting ones.
“What the hell?” Chan asked out loud.
“Dunno, bro,” Soonyoung said through his munching. “But I ain't going out there.”
Chan passed through the kitchen to reach the living area, which seemed to hold the shouting battle that was currently going on.
“Oh, so now I'm being dramatic?” Seungkwan’s shriek reached him first.
“No one said you were dramatic,” Seungcheol's voice replied with the kind of measured patience that usually meant somebody in the apartment was about three seconds away from being strangled.
“You implied it!”
“I really didn’t.”
“You sighed like it!”
“Because you’ve been yelling at me for ten minutes!” Seungcheol’s patience, which was hanging on the thin rope, attempted to cut loose.
Trying to take the scene in, Chan's eyes catched onto Jisoo who was calmly beading a bracelet on the couch, eyes switching between his hands and the TV as if two of his mates weren't at each other's throats right next to him.
He then noticed that the burnt smell in the house wasn't from any failed attempt on dinner, but from his mates. It smelled as if Seungkwan’s oranges were thrown into Seungcheol’s fire, burning along with thymes and sugar.
“I haven't been yelling at you,” Seungkwan gritted out through his teeth, to which Seungcheol just clicked his tongue in return.
Chan physically felt Seungkwan’s temper flickering hotter, and decided that it was his time to intervene, since their resident beta seemed more engrossed in his handmade jewelry right now.
“Um, guys?” Chan let himself be known, walking closer with caution. “What's going on?”
Seungkwan flounced towards him upon his voice, and to Chan's utmost horror, there were actual tears glistening in his eyes.
“Chan-ah! Tell Hyung he's being unfair!”
“How am I being unf- you are being unfair, you-!”
“Cheol-ah,” Jisoo muttered quietly, eyes still on the TV. Seungcheol looked at him with despair openly painted on his face.
Chan looked back at Seungkwan as he took two more steps towards him, now honestly worried for his mate for the distress he saw in his eyes. He reached out towards him, and Seungkwan took Chan's hands in his automatically.
“Why? What did hyung do?” he asked, squeezing the hands in his.
“I didn't do any-”
“He was breathing too loud!”
“He… what?”
Seungcheol sighed as Seungkwan started a full on complaint about their pack leader's breathing habits.
“I was reading a book, and Shua hyung was beading bracelets for us, and we were comfy and relaxed and- and Cheol hyung came in and sat down right next to me when there are tons of empty spaces in the room and started to breathe like a fucking dragon and-”
Jisoo snorted while Seungcheol made another sound of protest. Chan was struggling to get his head around what he was hearing.
“-and then I asked hyung to please breathe more quietly-”
“You told me to tape my mouth if that was what I needed to part from a hippopotamus, you brat!”
“I couldn't even hear my own thoughts because of your breathing!” Seungkwan turned around again to yell back at him.
“I have sinusitis!” Seungcheol exclaimed with his hands thrown up in the air.
“Then go see a doctor!”
“I will!”
“Good!”
“Okay!”
For a few moments, there was nothing in the room aside from the smell of rotten oranges thrown in an uncontrollably ignited firewood, Seungkwan's laboured breathing, and Seungcheol’s audible difficulty in breathing. Wow, he really should see a doctor, Chan thought, before he mentally shook his head.
Unconsciously releasing his own sweet tangerines in the equation to neutralise their mood, he spoke again.
“Okay, uh, maybe you can read your book on my bed, Kwannie? And we’ll make an appointment at the doctor’s with Cheol-hyung now, so that he can find a solution to breathe easy as soon as possible.”
Seungcheol adopted an expression not far from a kicked dog’s, and Seungkwan just rolled his eyes. Chan tried to control his brows’ twitching as he continued.
“And maybe you can be kinder in warning hyung when-”
“Tch. Whatever,” Seungkwan shrugged his hands away from Chan's before he stomped his way out of the room.
They looked after him as rotten oranges left their essences on his way out. Seungcheol rubbed his face with both hands.
Then there was a sound of something hitting an object, and then something being thrown to hit something else, which were followed by Seungkwan’s shrieking.
“Lee Chan! I told you not to leave your bags around! One more time and I swear to God-”
Chan looked back at his hyungs in horror as Seungkwan's roars gradually got distant. Seungcheol shrugged his shoulders noncommittally.
Jisoo raised his handiwork in triumph. “Done! This one is yours, Cheollie!” he announced happily.
“Thanks, Shua-ya,” Seungcheol accepted with a tired voice, dropping himself next to Jisoo on the couch he was perched on.
Jisoo smiled at him softly. His soft lilies were mixing into clean linen, now that Chan noticed. Maybe his hyung had been trying to reach out with calming pheromones all along but Seungkwan's were simply too strong for them to be effective.
Jisoo patted Seungcheol's thigh. “He's just stressed, don't mind him. Are you okay, though? Why didn't you tell us your sinusitis was this bad?”
“Ugh, dunno,” Seungcheol groaned, visibly relaxing under Jisoo's hand on his thigh and calming scent. “Today it's particularly bad, I came home early to rest actually. Gives me a headache.”
“Okay, then let's get you checked up soon,” Jisoo said, pulling Seungcheol's head towards his shoulder so that he could rest his face on his neck.
Chan watched them, smiling now that he saw Jisoo taking care of his tired hyung, but he still couldn't help but worry at Seungkwan's out of proportion outburst and rotten smell. He'd better go check on him, too, he thought.
Chan's own scent probably gave away his train of thoughts,, since Jisoo now turned his eyes towards him.
“The next one will be for you, maknae-yah,” he told Chan with a sweet voice and a sweet smile on his lips, showing him the bracelet he beaded for Seungcheol. “Also, welcome back, baby. Dinner's ready if you're hungry, Wonwoo’s in the shower, Jihoonie's on his way home, Youngie in the kitchen already. Also, Seokminnie is probably in preheat, he was hunting for clothes earlier, might have raided your stuff, too.”
“Thanks, Shua-hyung,” Chan smiled back, leaning down to press a kiss to his cheek, patted Seungcheol's head, and trotted towards the bathroom where Wonwoo's humming was getting more audible with each step, to wash away the day's worries with hot water.
Another time Chan came face to face with Seungkwan’s unprompted wrath was on a random Sunday morning, a couple of days after the incident with Seungcheol.
Stirring by the sounds coming outside the room, Chan tried to peel his eyes open. He felt disoriented and confused as the last thing he remembered was cocooning Seungkwan inside his arms with Hansol doing the same on his other side, and going to sleep with sweet scents of caramel and vanilla mixing with his cinnamon.
Upon cracking his eyes up, he noticed Hansol looking around with a similar confusion on his face and a bird's nest on his head. He checked his watch to see it was only 7 in the morning, which meant whatever catastrophe currently unfolding outside had actually no business unfolding yet.
“Wha’s happ’nin’?” Hansol croaked beside him.
Before Chan could answer, Seungkwan’s voice pierced through the apartment.
“Why would you even touch them!?”
Hansol blinked slowly, and an “aah” was muttered out of his mouth as he flopped back on the mattress.
Chan pushed himself upright with a groan, untangling himself from blankets and sleeping limbs. The warm scent of vanilla and coffee lingered heavy in the room where Hansol still looked halfway dead, but outside the bedroom Seungkwan’s distressed caramel was already spreading through the dorm in thick waves.
“But hyung, now it's all ruined!” came another whiny protest, probably as an answer to whoever was the unlucky soul to face Seungkwan right now – the sharp mint reaching Chan's nose indicated it was Minghao, though.
Chan stumbled down the indoor stairs, and found them in the living room. Or, more accurately, found the aftermath. Blankets were scattered across the couch and floor, hoodies that Chan vaguely recognized as belonging to at least four different people had been dumped in uneven piles, and Seungkwan stood in the middle of it all, with betrayal written across his entire body.
Minghao stood near the couch holding what appeared to be a folded blanket, looking deeply confused.
“I was cleaning,” he said carefully.
“You relocated it.”
“I didn’t, I just folded it.”
“You moved it!”
“It was on the floor.”
“But it was there on purpose!”
Chan watched Minghao visibly reconsider every life decision that had led him to this exact moment, as his cool mint and powder was trying to drift calmly through the room despite the accusation being hurled at him. In contrast, Seungkwan’s scent had curdled warm and sharp enough that Chan could practically taste burnt sugar on his tongue.
“I didn't notice they had any purpose,” Minghao tried again.
“How could you not!”
“They were just thrown, Kwan-ah-”
“Thrown in a system!”
Hansol silently walked past Chan towards the kitchen.
“Good luck,” he told Minghao sincerely.
“Thanks,” Minghao replied without taking his eyes off Seungkwan.
Chan frowned at the scene as Seungkwan snatched the blanket out of Minghao’s hands dramatically before dropping onto the couch with it clutched against his chest.
“It doesn’t smell right anymore,” he grumbled from where he sat, resembling a deflating balloon. “Nor does it look right.”
Minghao’s expression shifted almost imperceptibly, like something clicked in his head that Chan was missing entirely.
“You can just fix it again?” Chan tried to offer reasonably.
Seungkwan looked at him like he had personally suggested arson. “It wouldn't be the same!”
“Maybe you can-”
“Shut up, Chan. You don’t understand.”
“I mean,” Chan said cautiously, “yeah. I probably don't?”
“Ugh,” Seungkwan let out a long, guttural groan. “That was not the point!”
Then, as if suddenly exhausted by the entire interaction and completely deflated, he curled into himself on the couch and aggressively wrapped the previously snatched blanket around his body.
Minghao sighed quietly. Without a word, he sat down beside Seungkwan and began rubbing slow circles over his shoulder through his blanket cocoon. And to Chan's surprise, the change was almost immediate as Seungkwan’s scent softened first, then his shoulders, then the murderous expression that was still looming on his face.
“What just happened?” Chan asked honestly.
Because sure, it was obvious that Minghao had probably accidentally touched Seungkwan's nest from yesterday. And even if he did not comprehend what it brings to them, Chan knew that their nests are important for omegas. But from what Chan knew based on the years they spent together, aside from his heat, Seungkwan wasn't really someone to throw a tantrum over misplaced things or disturbed nests.
So, Chan was having a hard time wrapping his head around what he witnessed – even if his other beta mate did not look like it.
Minghao glanced at Chan and shrugged one shoulder, not stopping his ministrations over the blanket cocoon. “Guess he’s sensitive today.”
Sensitive to what, Chan wanted to ask, but Seungkwan had already leaned sideways until his head landed against Minghao’s shoulder, eyes drifting shut like the tantrum had never happened in the first place. So Chan left them to Minghao’s soft humming and fresh mint, and walked back up to at least get an early start to his day.
Following this, Chan noticed there was almost a new pattern of Seungkwan lashing out at anything and everything.
One day, for example, Chan thought he was just cold, when Mingyu opened the balcony door and Jeonghan plastered his cold feet to Seungkwan. Cold enough to be causing him to get irrationally upset to the point that he locked himself in his room.
Or he thought Seungkwan was just tired from work, when he snapped at an energetic Soonyoung one morning to stop moving his loud fucking limbs, and left without even finishing his breakfast with a loud bang from the front door.
Or he thought he was just overwhelmed by dealing with a loud and busy set environment all day, when Seungkwan stormed into Jihoon's studio one evening and rambled on about how the bass hurt his head and how the room was too small to make so much noise and how this melody he kept repeating just felt wrong. And Jihoon, without a complaint, closed all tabs he had been working on to cuddle with him on the studio's couch, where Chan had been lounging on and watching.
And when Chan saw him yelling at Seokmin for using Seungkwan’s mug instead of his own, not with anger but with genuine emotional devastation, and would not talk to him for a whole day even though Seokmin made him some tea and offered it in his own cup immediately, Chan was more than sure that there was something up with their youngest omega.
“Hyung,” he asked later that day to Seokmin. “Are you guys okay with Kwan?”
“Yeah?” Seokmin asked him, apparently surprised by the question. “Why wouldn’t we be?”
“Oh, I… dunno, you’re not mad he yelled at you?” he asked tentatively.
“Oh! No, no. That’s fine. We’re good.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah, Channie, don’t bother yourself with it!”
“But Kwan has been really prickly recently, hasn’t he?”
“Has he?” Seokmin thought out loud. “Hmm. Maybe he has been a little prickly.”
Chan tried to read through Seokmin's unbothered attitude as he scrolled through his social media, and decided that if Seokmin did not think of anything, Chan did not need to, either.
*
As the waves of irritability started to subside in Seungkwan, though, new ones started to show up from Chan's analysing point of view.
Extreme sensitivity towards smells and sounds, for example.
When Chan first noticed it, they were out to have dinner, celebrating Junhui's new casting in a long running TV series with a night out as a whole pack.
Seungkwan had been feeling under the weather for a couple of days already, affected by a stomach bug – one of the guests on his Tuesday's programme was apparently forced by her company to come in even though she was sick, hence Seungkwan following her steps not even a day after. Headaches, nausea, mild fever – he had to cancel all of his appearances, rearrange his schedules, postpone his plans for nearly a week.
The pack unitedly offered to postpone this outing too, but Seungkwan chastised them all and claimed that he was all better now thanks to his lovely caregivers at home.
Chan still kept an eye on him though, at home, on the way, in the restaurant. He saw the way Seungkwan winced when the dishes rattled too loudly, or when customers occupying the table next to them talked and laughed too loudly, also saw the way he turned his face away or backed up when a food was put close to him that was too aromatic, too spicy, or too oily.
He was trying to not let it be seen, Chan knows Seungkwan is like that when he thinks he shouldn't steal the light since it is someone else's time to shine, but Chan was only human too, to see one of his loved ones suffer silently.
So, he caught Seungkwan on his way back from the restroom after an hour of tolerating him trying to tolerate his discomfort.
“Kwannie. You ‘kay?”
“Mm,” Seungkwan affirmed, slowly walking back to their table. Chan slipped his arm around his back, and felt the way Seungkwan immediately leaned on him. His brows furrowed on their own.
“You sure? Did you throw up?”
“Um. Kinda. I'm good though.”
“How's that being good! Kwannie, tell me. Wanna leave? We can just leave.”
“No, of course not,” Seungkwan tutted, turning left to head to his seat. Chan saw at least three sets of eyes settling on them with quiet concern upon seeing them too, and felt better that he at least was not the only one to notice their mate’s obvious discomfort that he was trying so hard to hide.
“But-” Chan began, unconsciously moving to Seungkwan’s chair to pull it ready for him.
“I said I'm good, Channie-yah,” Seungkwan said as he sat with an eye roll, but still couldn't hide the grimace at the sound coming from the table right next to theirs.
“Kwan-ah,” Hansol called from his place at the end of the table, his back to the wall. “Come change seats with me.”
He was up before Seungkwan could even accept, and the next thing they knew, Seungkwan was sitting at the far end, as far as he could be from the loud table next to theirs, with Mingyu creating another wall to shield him.
“Seungkwan-ah,” Chan later heard Minghao call, after Seungkwan had pushed every single ingredient away from himself with a sickened face. “I ordered a ginseng chicken broth for you, it'll be good so drink that soup, okay?”
“M'kay,” Seungkwan mumbled from where his head was now buried in Jihoon's neck, who had switched seats with Mingyu now when Seungkwan complained about his moldy alpha smell, breathing in the calming basil coming from the beta's glands.
And as the night progressed, Seungkwan gradually looked less sick and less selfless, rather more cranky and more putty. Chan smiled to himself. Even if he was a little crankier than his usual self nowadays, he loved his mate the way he was. He wanted him to show them how he was feeling at all times.
Chan honestly did not think about how it was the smells and noises around him that had been specifically setting Seungkwan off all night, he just chalked it up to him still being sick. It was only when they were home and he was cuddling an already snoring Soonyoung that Chan thought to himself – while Seungkwan appeared to be a little sick still, none of them had caught the bug from Seungkwan all week, even though they all tried to take care of him in turns and shared beds with him.
Huh, Chan thought, that was weird. Maybe his immune system needed a boost.
However, another weird thing was added to the equation after that night: Seungkwan began to spend any and all of his free time plastered to the betas, claiming their scents calmed him, and especially away from the alphas, claiming they smelled horrendous.
Chan had snorted out loud when he saw Soonyoung checking up his armpits after Seungkwan first gagged and ran away from him.
But he literally had no idea why Seungkwan would be so sensitive to senses now. Their omega had always sought their most scented items out before or during his heats, loved inhaling in the scents of whichever mates he saw on his way out even on a typical day. For him to take so many extreme precautions just to avoid them now really confused Chan, and he was even a sought out beta right now!
“Eugh,” Seungkwan closed the door to Chan's face one day.
“What? What the hell!”
“You reek of Jun hyung! Get rid of the smell and then come back if you want!”
“Oh my god,” Chan mumbled incredulously, and came face to face with a freshly showered Jisoo when he turned to his right.
“Apparently I can't go near him after I ride Seungcheol's face,” Jisoo informed Chan lightly as he walked past him.
Chan sputtered.
“What- hyung – but I didn't even do anything, I just hugged Junnie goodbye!”
“And that's enough! Go away already!” came Seungkwan’s voice from the other side of the door.
Chan grumbled as he dragged his feet to the bathroom next to his room, swiping his sweater off his head as he walked, and praying to god that whatever was affecting Seungkwan passed soon already.
“Sollie,” Chan approached Hansol one night, at an hour that could be considered morning by some.
The alpha had just got out of an online meeting that had gone way past how long it should have lasted, and was currently trying to empty his brain by watching documentaries.
Chan's eyes catched on an antelope getting caught and bitten to its brutal death on the screen. He wondered if Hansol was imagining their partners in the States when he watched the poor soul – the ones that caused meetings at ass o'clock at night, thanks to the thirteen-hour time difference between them and their senseless demands, thus made his mate's life much harder.
“Hm?” Hansol answered him distractedly, empty eyes not leaving the screen.
Chan simply laid down next to him, and sensed the bitter coffee of Hansol gradually soften, letting the vanilla cut its edges off. The laptop still on his lap, Hansol accommodated his moves seamlessly until Chan was satisfied with their position.
“You're not with Kwannie?” Chan made his observation into a question.
Hansol tore his eyes away from the screen for the first time since Chan stepped in – just to look at him as if Chan were the one to have fried his brain at the meeting.
“Are you just asking it, or are you asking it,” he returned the question.
Chan blinked at him. “I don't follow.”
“Channie,” Hansol chuckled with a crooked smile. “Are you alright? You hit your head?”
“No? Hey, what! I just asked a question!”
“Well,” Hansol raised one eyebrow as if he could not decide whether Chan was acting or not. “I'm not with Seungkwan, ‘cuz as you know, he avoids our smell like the plague right now.”
“Even yours?!” Chan gasped, honestly shocked. “But you're his favourite!”
“Yeah, he said if he wanted to have coffee so much, he would go and make himself a fresh one,” Hansol shrugged.
Chan looked at him flabbergasted. “Holy shit,” he murmured with utter shock. “Hansol-ah. Hyung-ah. Is Seungkwan alright? Is he gonna die?”
Hansol snorted. “Nah, it'll pass.”
“But don't you think he's been weird lately?” Chan pressed, turning his body fully around, with genuine concern clouding his mind rapidly. “What if he's actually… sick?”
He could feel his own cinnamon undertones getting spicier, tangling with the tangerines and creating something that almost resembled the smell of forgotten tangerines on a grill. Hansol's nostrils flared with it, while his eyes softened even more.
“It's alright Channie, really, I think he’s just fine, and this is just a phase,” he assured Chan, grabbing one of his hands with both of his large ones. “But if he gets worse symptoms, we'll take him for a checkup, alright?”
“Hm,” Chan accepted reluctantly. “Fine. If you say so.”
Hansol brought Chan's hand to his lips to press a light peck, and turned his eyes to the documentary again, hand still in his hold. Chan laid next to him until he finally fell asleep to the smell of ground coffee and the sound of the lowered voice of the English-speaking narrator with the first lights off the day.
*
While Chan waited for Seungkwan's sensitivity for smells to pass, another symptom appeared, to add to his dismay. A symptom he had never seen in Seungkwan before.
It was like a spell was suddenly casted upon Seungkwan. A spell that eliminated all sexual desires in him.
Chan opened the door to their study room and found Seungkwan working on his laptop. His blue light filtered glasses sitting on his perky nose, hair disheveled and cheeks rosy from being seated in a room with floor-heating on for an extended period of time, he was looking so cute that Chan barely held his coos in as he stopped and watched him for a moment.
But then Seungkwan’s tongue darted out to wet his already moistened lips, adding another shiny layer on his concentrated pout, and he stretched his arms up to rid of the tension accumulated on his back and shoulders, causing his shirt to slide up enough to show his back dimples – and Chan was suddenly distracted from any and all of his previous thoughts.
Deeming him having worked enough, Chan stepped into the room, his feet taking him directly to Seungkwan.
The omega sniffed the air as Chan walked.
“Mm, Chan-ah?” Seungkwan asked without turning to look at him, now stretching his neck left and right.
Chan hummed as he walked to him like a possessed man. His eyes were settled on the exposed side of his neck, and he could feel his scent deepening as their pack's visible mark on the omega's pale skin caused a sudden wave of possessiveness inside him.
“You look so biteable right now,” he murmured, finally touching the skin he had been staring at. He smoothed his hands down Seungkwan’s shoulders, bringing his face closer to the area instead. “Maybe I should add another bite there,” Chan spoke right on his neck, breath fanning the skin. “This one seems to be fading.”
“Aish,” Seungkwan swiped a hand at Chan's head and closed his eyes, a small smile on his pink, shiny lips. “As if it could fade.”
“You sure?” Chan grinned, inhaling in the sweet caramel mixed with oranges as he leaned fully down to press a kiss on Seungkwan’s neck, right next to his pack bite.
“Mm,” Seungkwan hummed simply, caressing Chan's head with the hand he previously swiped it with.
Chan continued to drop butterfly kisses until they began to feel somewhat heavier, and his hands that had been softly fondling Seungkwan’s arms and body turned somewhat more into groping.
But he was so lost in everything about his mate in front of him that he didn't even realize the normally familiar sweetening in Seungkwan's scent to cue him getting turned on was still not making its entrance on stage, he didn't realize his oranges were rapidly turning rotten instead.
Until Seungkwan cut right through the haze.
“Chan. Drop it.”
“Huh?” Chan still asked distractedly, his body almost fully draped over Seungkwan.
“You're stinking up the room all tangy. I'm not in the mood. Go away.”
Now that woke him up enough, alright.
Chan blinked a couple of times and pulled himself back a little, back enough to see Seungkwan’s face, and how his nose was wrinkled, and his brows were furrowed.
“Sorry, uh,” he mumbled as he tried to make sense of what was happening. “You're okay?”
“Yeah, I'm- fine, just – not into it. Not right now. Sorry.”
“What? Why're you sorry, that's alright.”
“Okay. Thanks.”
Not knowing where to put his hands now, or what to do, really, Chan hesitantly patted Seungkwan’s shoulders.
“You… want anything?” he asked, watching the way Seungkwan’s tensed features relaxing a bit as Chan pulled back. His scent turned noticeably fresher, too.
Wow, Chan thought with a grain of guilt, how deep was he into his head that he couldn't even smell the rotting oranges?
“Mm,” Seungkwan made a sound between a no and not sure, stretching his neck again. Chan's hand subconsciously moved there to knead the stiff muscle. “Ahh, yeah,” Seungkwan groaned then. “I wouldn't say no to a massage.”
“Sure!” Chan perked up at the opportunity to be good to him. “I can do a massage. I'll massage you for as long as you need!”
“Okay, mister masseur,” Seungkwan chuckled, but closed the lid of his laptop shut and dropped himself fully on the back of the chair. Chan directed his head to make him lean on his body too.
“I mean it!” he said with utmost devotion. “I'll even give you a foot massage!”
“Mm. Okay.”
“I'm serious!”
“Your tiny hands will tire soon anyway.”
“What! What tiny hands, these are tied to these arms, you know. I can even lift you up with one hand if I wanted-”
“Ppfft, I'm sure you can, honey.”
“Oi!” Chan exclaimed at the blatant taunting, and took two steps next to Seungkwan to put one arm under his knees, while the other supported his lower back.
“Chan!” Seungkwan shrieked. “What are you doing!”
“I'll show you how you can be carried by these tiny hands and given a full body massage!” Chan claimed, heaving himself up with a groan.
“Are you stupid!? You're gonna hurt your back, hey-!”
“Stop wiggling so I don't, then, Jesus-”
“You're such an idiot, oh my god,” Seungkwan giggled incredulously, but looped his arms around Chan's neck and let himself be carried like the princess he is. “Be careful, don't drop me, please.”
“I won't, just trust me, won't you?”
“Okay, my trustworthy, strong Channie,” Seungkwan chuckled.
Chan walked directly towards his own room, which was also the closest to the study Seungkwan had been cooped up in, and focused on safely delivering the giggly omega in his arms onto his bed.
He didn't think about Seungkwan’s previous mood again.
Until he did.
A week after that day, Chan came home to the obvious and undeniable smell of sex, detectable even though nearly every window in the common area was open. And judging by the mixture that reached his nose, at least three of his mates had been going at it while Chan was working his ass off. The audacity!
He pouted to no one, and trusted his senses to lead him to the correct room, aiming to sulk his way into getting some action himself too. It turned out to be Jeonghan and Seungkwan’s shared room, which they unofficially called the omegas’ room because Seokmin spent most of his time there anyway, too.
Jeonghan’s jasmine scent, honeyed by his arousal, still hung in the air, blooming even further as Chan headed near the crime scene. It was carrying Seungcheol's warm firewood as it usually does, and intertwined beautifully with Mingyu's petrichor. The scent made images pop inside Chan's head with just an inhale, images of his pretty hyung taking what he wanted, in a cabin warmed with a fireplace as it rained outside.
He opened the door unceremoniously, fully expecting to find at least one naked body and probably more in different states of clothed, to find – none.
“Huh?” Chan looked around confused. The strewn sheets and the heavier scent fully mingling with cum affirmed his previous thoughts, but this was an aftermath he wasn’t used to.
Willing away his horniness that had spiked up with interest upon entering the room, Chan stepped out again. He walked down the hall, checking in the rooms on his way. He found Jisoo’s empty, as well as Jun and Minghao’s. When he was about to reach the last room, his nose twitched with an odor out of place, just as his ears catched murmurs coming from Hansol’s room where the door was slightly ajar.
“Hyung?” Chan pushed it open, and came face to face with four sets of eyes – none of them belonging to the owner of the room.
“Oh, Chan-ah,” Wonwoo welcomed him, leaning against the wall next to the door, an arm reaching out on its own to call Chan to his side. Chan’s body also moved on its own as he walked under his hyung’s arm and faced up to receive his kiss.
“Hi?”
“Hi, darling,” Wonwoo smiled, hand snaking around his waist to pull him closer to his side.
Settling in where he was pulled, Chan looked away from Wonwoo’s smiling eyes and remembered suddenly why he was here in the first place when he faced the others again.
Jeonghan was lying on the bed, head cushioned by Mingyu’s thighs and hugging Hansol’s pillow, while Seungcheol was lying on his side on the ground, looking like a kicked dog.
“Why are you guys here?” Chan asked.
“Beats me,” Mingyu said. “Why are we here? I wanna go check on him.”
“On who?”
“Seungkwan,” Wonwoo answered him, while Jeonghan replied to Mingyu.
“You can't go check on him.”
“But whyyyy,” Mingyu whined.
Seungcheol echoed the noise.
“Aish, Seokmin's with him, isn't he? Are you guys some puppies on his tail, or what? Let him be,” Jeonghan chastised them, slapping Mingyu on the thigh lazily as he did so.
“Guys,” Chan intervened, drawing the others’ eyes back to himself. “Why are you here, in Sollie's room? And why is Seungkwan with Seokmin? I thought you guys were fucking,” he added like an afterthought, suddenly the change in the rooms making even less sense to him.
“We were,” Seungcheol confirmed.
“We did,” Jeonghan corrected.
“I wanna see him,” Mingyu whined again.
Chan looked up at Wonwoo as his last thread of hope.
“Apparently,” Wonwoo started with a sigh, “Seungkwan came in the middle of whatever they were doing, and unintentionally forced them to stop.”
“What?” Chan gaped. “Kwan did that? Instead of jumping on them? Why? And how!”
“He had a very peculiar way to do it, actually.” Jeonghan snorted. “He pretty much retched on us.”
“Huh?!”
“I was sucking Mingyu off and Cheol was fucking me from behind when Seungkwan burst in,” Jeonghan began to explain. “And then Mingyu got too excited at Seungkwan’s cameo and came on my face, and then Seungkwan got sick.”
Chan involuntarily swallowed thickly at the mental image, despite his concerns. Noticing the tension in the body under his arm, Wonwoo snickered behind his hand.
“Mingyu made our poor Kwannie sick,” Seungcheol added from where he was now starfishing on the floor.
“I didn't!” Mingyu sulkily objected. “It's- I- he's never – he must've had an upset stomach! Or just having one of the bad days of it! Y’know!”
Chan made a move to leave, but was held back by Wonwoo.
“No need to fret, he's fine,” Wonwoo comforted him. “These guys are just exiled because Seokmin told them off.”
“He told us to gather our hormones and pheromones and bodily fluids and leave the omegas’ room,” Jeonghan tutted. “As if I'm not the omega of the room. That brat.”
“You know he meant the smell, Jeonghannie,” Wonwoo rolled his eyes with a grin.
“Um,” Chan steps in, "It still stinks in there, though, I was just there. Why didn't you air out the room or something then?”
“Yah, Kim Mingyu! I told you to spray some neutraliser!” Seungcheol barks from the floor.
“I forgot! Why didn't you?!”
“You were supposed to do it, why would I-”
“Why were you there if it stank so bad, Channie?” Jeonghan asked with a knowing grin, disregarding the two alphas’ squabble to focus his laser eyes on Chan. “Were you mad that we didn't wait for you?”
Chan saw the glint in his hyung's eyes as their eyes met.
He thought about checking on Seungkwan for a second, then opted out since Seokmin was already with him. He urged on going back to the room to open its windows, but decided of all twelve hyungs he had, one of them could do it on his behalf.
“Mm,” he affirmed instead. “I still am.”
Jeonghan sat up from where he had been lying, a hand on Mingyu’s thigh still. His hair was thrown to one side, his smile like a hyena's. One of Chan's favourite looks.
“Now, that wouldn't do, would it, guys? Our maknae shouldn't be upset with us, huh?”
Wonwoo's hand tightened around Chan’s waist, musk overpowering the clean paper scent next to him.
“Nope,” Seungcheol nodded obediently, having already quitted his petty war with Mingyu upon noticing the shift in scents. “He shouldn't.”
“Nope,” Chan echoed in agreement. “I shouldn't.”
“C’mere, baby. Let's stink up Hansollie's room, then.”
Chan obeyed by pulling Wonwoo with him as he walked to the bed, and climbed on top of them without further ado.
“I'm fine,” Seungkwan was saying a couple of hours later, unaware of Chan who had strayed from his path to grab some water upon catching their voices. He was perched on the loveseat in the living room, a blanket (or two?) thrown over his shoulders and legs. Mingyu was sitting on the floor beside his feet, eyes and hands on the omega, looking every bit like the overgrown puppy he was.
“You sure?” the alpha asked, hand rubbing whichever part of milky legs he had his hands on.
“Yah! Mingyu-yah, how many times am I gonna have to say this!” Seungkwan complained impatiently.
“I dunno. ‘m just worried.”
Chan witnessed in real time the way Seungkwan’s eyes turned from annoyed to fond. His hand reached to pet Mingyu’s hair and cheek – like the overgrown puppy he was.
“I really am fine. I’m more upset that I busted your fun,” Seungkwan said with a pout on his lips.
Judging by the expression on Mingyu’s face, Chan feared the alpha would burst into flames in a couple of seconds. And just as expected, it took merely a second for his hyung to throw himself on Seungkwan’s cooped up figure explosively.
“Kwannie! What are you even saying-!”
“Oi! Careful, careful,” Seungkwan tried to put some miniscule distance between their bodies. Still, he wrapped the arm that had been petting Mingyu, now around his shoulders.
“Sorry,” Mingyu mumbled as he inserted himself on the loveseat as best as he could without crushing their mate. Chan thanked the heavens and Minghao for his choices of furniture as he watched them try and barely fit in the large chair.
“It’s fine. Stop worrying so much. I feel bad for causing worry.”
“I worry ‘cause it’s you.”
“Mm.”
“... So you’re really fi-”
“Stop it!”
“But-”
“I just- the sex stuff is turning my stomach around recently. I can’t handle the smell. Nor the thought.”
“Sorry-”
“Stop being sorry and just have your fun outside of my room for some time.”
“Alright… Can I sleep with you tonight?”
“Yeah, let’s sleep together tonight,” Seungkwan told him with a chuckle as Mingyu started to rub his face all over Seungkwan’s neck to scent him – absolutely like the overgrown puppy he was.
Chan watched them with a smile on his face, leaning against the door. He loved seeing his mates be affectionate, though not a fan of being the recipient of that affection all the time. Still, the content faces and scents tickled a side of Chan’s brain and heart whenever he watched them.
Now that Chan noticed, though, Mingyu had been extra jumpy around Seungkwan lately. Looming around him, almost all senses focused on him, always checking in with his condition…
Chan suddenly remembered Mingyu suggesting earlier that Seungkwan was having one of the bad days of… something.
Huh.
Bad day of what? Was Seungkwan having a bad day?
Chan narrowed his eyes as he watched the omega receive pecks all over his face and neck by their overgrown puppy, adorning a contented expression on his face. It did not look like having a bad day to Chan. He did not recognise any type of discomfort on his face right now, and the warm caramel spreading around him did not raise any warning either.
Leaving Mingyu and Seungkwan in their caramel and petrichor smelling cocoon, and forgetting about his initial thirst altogether, Chan turned around and headed where Jeonghan was putting on a face mask with a surrendered Jihoon.
Jeonghan wordlessly handed one to Chan too, and Chan sat down without questioning to apply it too.
“Did you notice something wrong with Seungkwan recently?” he asked them, a minute of silent facial care later.
“No?” Jeonghan answered, patting in the excess gel left after the mask he just removed.
“No?” Chan repeated, eyes shifting between his two hyungs.
Jihoon shrugged noncommittally.
“Nah,” Jeonghan said again. “Not really. Seems pretty normal to me.”
“Normal? Really?”
“Well, if Hannie says it’s normal…” Jihoon offered.
To be frank, it was not that Chan thought there was something wrong with Seungkwan before asking this. It was just Mingyu’s words being just stuck in his head, so he wanted to get another opinion – or in their pack’s case, an expert’s opinion.
But Jeonghan saying it was Seungkwan’s normal self rubbed something in Chan’s mind the wrong way. Because yes, while he did not think something was wrong per se, Chan had been noticing things somewhat being very much out of normal for the past few weeks.
“Are you plotting murder there or what?”
Chan was thrown out of his stupor with the flick on his forehead.
“Hey!”
“You shouldn’t be frowning when you have a mask on,” Jeonghan said, unfazed.
“Aish. You shouldn’t hit someone with a mask on either, then,” Chan grumbled.
“Can I go now?” Jihoon asked, also having removed his mask after Jeonghan.
“Yes, you can,” the omega tells him. “You’re bright and shiny as a doll. Gimme a kiss.”
Jihoon threw a flying kiss to Jeonghan, much to his whiny protests, then ruffled Chan’s hair, much to his silent protests, and exited the room, probably to go work in his studio again.
After spending some more time with Jeonghan, and then rushing to share his sudden burst of inspiration for a new choreo with Soonyoung, Chan did not have any more time to delve into his previous thoughts.
But from then on, his investigation on Seungkwan was officially launched.
The first step needed the analysis of past events to detect the answer of the question: Was there something wrong with Seungkwan?
*
Seungkwan’s repulsion from sex went on for some time before eventually leaving its place to simple indifference towards it. He did not physically or mentally recoil from it anymore, but neither did he favour any physical contact aside from daily acts of showing love and comfort. (Which was another item on Chan's mental ‘Unordinary Things About Seungkwan’ list. Because the Seungkwan that he knew had never once been indifferent towards sex.)
And along with the indifference, Chan also noticed Seungkwan was looking more fatigued and more uncomfortable in his own body each passing day, seeking even more comfort than he normally did, and remaining insatiated until he found whatever it was he needed to sate his bodily needs.
Chan had been finding him napping and nesting in the most random places of their home the past couple of weeks, for example.
Once, they found him in Junhui’s wardrobe, sleeping peacefully inside the clothes he had haphazardly put together to practically resemble a nest. Seungkwan just stated that Jun’s smell threw him back to the woods in Jeju and calmed his omega inside.
It triggered such a protective aggression in Jun that the normally nonterritorial alpha refused to let Seungkwan go anywhere out of his sight all day, even calling in sick to skip work, and when he had to leave, scented him heavy enough that Seungkwan’s own scent was drowned out by the strong smell of a practically alive forest and fresh rosemary. The photo Jun took upon finding Seungkwan there remained as his wallpaper for more than a month.
Another time found Chan stumbling on something as he entered the large bathroom with the double bathtub. Just as he was swearing while switching the lights on froze him on the spot, because right before him was all of their hampers thrown all around the bathroom haphazardly.
Chan honestly thought a robber with a dirty clothes kink has broken into their home. But upon taking two careful steps inside of the bathroom instead of dramatically screaming his lungs out, he saw that right in the middle of the tub was Seungkwan, curled around himself and napping on the cold tiles, objectively uncomfortable but somehow looking peaceful.
And the thing is, their omegas are not known for their nesting habits and tendencies. And even if the whole pack likes to nap from time to time, it is not to the point that they see each other dozed off more often than not.
So when Chan saw Seungkwan nesting in four different states and napping in a dozen different places during irregular times of the day, he decided to take it to their resident omega expert. But since their omega expert had already discarded his worries, Chan found himself bugging the next best suitable member for the role.
“Is it normal for omegas to nest and nap multiple times a day?”
What Chan expected was concern. Or any inside information on omegas he has somehow missed. Maybe even a ‘loving’ lecture about overworking or burnout.
“First of all, sexist to pin napping to being an omega,” was what Seokmin said instead. “Secondly, why are you asking me?”
Chan took no offense at the accusation, having more important bottomlines to reach, and directly answered the second question. “You are the omega expert in our pack.”
Seokmin threw Chan a doubtful glance as he kept rocking on the floor he was lying sideways and massaging his sides on the foam roller.
“Jeonghan is the omega expert in our pack. He is the head omega of our pack.”
“Well,” Chan stalled. “You are the most insightful person to me.”
Seokmin stopped rolling on the roller.
“Chan. Spit it,” he cut to the chase.
Chan threw himself next to him on the floor exasperatedly.
“I'm not asking him ‘cuz hyung thinks nothing's wrong. But – did you also notice? Seungkwan's been camping on any surface he finds recently, hell, it doesn't even have to be a flat surface per se, it's like he's dead tired and in a fucking cabin with no beds in sight-”
“Hmm?” Seokmin said as he grabbed the roller to put it under his other arm, continuing his warm-ups. Or cool-downs. Chan did not even know what he was doing.
“Yeah! Like, you already know he was in Junnie's wardrobe the other day, right?”
“Yeah?”
“And then I saw him sleeping in the bathtub.”
“Mhm? Well, Kwannie likes long hot baths.”
“But he was in without water in it.”
“Hmm.”
“Then saw him in the laundry room-”
“Mhm?”
“Said the towels were warm or something.”
Seokmin hummed again, rolling on the roller, as if Chan was not indeed listing anything bizarre to him.
“That makes sense.”
“Wh-” Chan cut himself and shook his head. “And then in the kitchen!”
“Soonyoung always sleeps in the kitchen.”
“I don't remember Soonyoung ever nesting in the middle of the kitchen cupboard!”
“Hmm,” Seokmin hummed again nonchalantly. Chan felt his eye twitch involuntarily. “Which cupboard?”
“What difference does it-” Chan cuts himself again to inhale a lungful. “The one under the sink. With the cooking oils and stuff.”
“Mhm.”
“Said they smelled good.”
“Aah,” Seokmin nodded, as if that itself was the answer to each and every question in the world.
“Oh my fucking god, you're really no help at all,” Chan jumped up to his feet again.
Seokmin cackled and came to a sitting position again, reaching for Chan's hand. Chan let himself be pulled down again, albeit grumpily.
“Calm down, Channie. He's probably tired and looking for new ways to unwind,” Seokmin said, planting a wet smooch on his cheek.
“But isn't it even a little, just even a tiny bit weird?” he still asked defeatedly. “And why would he be so tired all the damn time, and why the change in behaviour?”
Seokmin did not give an answer aside from patting his head.
“Seriously, hyung. I can't help but worry.”
“Everyone does weird things sometimes, Chan-ah. I don't think it's something to worry about, though. Take it from an omega expert.”
Chan deems this the least helpful conversation.
“Hyung,” Chan muttered to Wonwoo later that night, watching the way Seungkwan is basically sleeping inside Mingyu, with the way he was invisible in the sweatshirt the alpha still was wearing, the only visible part being his perky butt situated on his lap and his legs dangling on the sides.
A few of them had been watching a movie Chan had already lost the plot to, when Seungkwan decided that just having them and their scents all around him was not enough to satisfy his needs, and decided to climb inside Mingyu’s clothes and lie there the rest of the evening.
“Hmm?” Wonwoo hummed back at Chan, nibbling on the side of his lips, obviously still able to track and be interested in the plot of the movie.
“Do you tend to many sick omegas on your shifts?”
“What?”
Chan peeked up at him unsurely, finding Wonwoo trying to keep up with the happenings on the screen and checking on Chan’s face.
“I just- everyone keeps suggesting otherwise but I- I think Kwan’s sick, hyung. Did you also notice anything?”
Wonwoo turned his body towards Chan now. Chan felt only a little bad for distracting his hyung from the movie.
“Why do you think so?”
Chan glanced at the cocoon Seungkwan had created on Mingyu with his face completely buried inside the alpha’s sweatshirt, glanced at Mingyu’s focused expression and the mindless petting his hand is doing on Seungkwan’s butt, glanced at Soonyoung and Jisoo loudly reacting to a scene transpiring on the screen, and looked back up at Wonwoo to finally quietly whisper out all of his latest concerns about their youngest omega, who listened patiently.
“And you’re a nurse, hyung,” Chan reminded him as he finished his spiel. “Do you think he should go see someone?”
“Well, I’m an emergency nurse,” Wonwoo said with half a smile. Chan pretended to not be distracted by how charming his half-smile is. “And I don’t think there’s an emergency here, Chan-ah. It’s completely normal.”
Chan wanted to smash his head on a wall, to finally cause an emergency and take Seungkwan with him while he was at it, so that he could push him to another medical team, too.
Wonwoo grabbed his chin to lift his face and make his eyes focus on him again.
“Really, Chan-ah. Stop thinking funny business,” Wonwoo said with amusement in his voice and love in his eyes. As if he could read Chan’s mind. “It’s normal progress. I keep an eye on him too, so don’t worry, okay?”
Chan let him seal the reassurance with a soft peck on his lips and curled back under Wonwoo’s arm as his hyung tried to get back into the movie, although Chan’s own eyes kept watching Mingyu’s sweatshirt move with the deep breaths Seungkwan was taking under it.
It was not until he was awakened with Jisoo’s kicks later that night that Chan suddenly remembered the other beta’s exact words.
“What the fuck is a normal progress?” he spoke out loud. “A progress of what?”
“J’tcu sai-?” Jisoo mumbled unintelligibly.
“Go back to sleep, hyung,” Chan patted his head before scurrying out of the bed.
It was time that his mental list became a real list existing in the material world of theirs.
*
Which brings Chan to now.
*
UNORDINARY THINGS ABOUT SEUNGKWAN
- Irritable, short-tempered, prickly (More than usual!)
Lasted more than a few weeks.
- Sensitive to smell and sound. (Like. HYPERsensitive.)
Don’t even know how long it lasted.
- Nausea :(
Again don’t know but ended almost the same time with the smells stuff.
- Alpha aversion? (Made Soonyoung cry)
Relatively short but maybe for a couple of weeks again?
- SEX AVERSION.
Definitely lasted more than what I’d call normal!!!
- Sleeping and nesting EVERYWHERE. (Fatigued? Scent drunk?)
Still going on! Kinda. Dunno how to describe it.
- And ALSO (especially alpha) scent seeker now! And more physically attached.
Lives inside Mingyu’s chest
& practically forbade Hansol from leaving the house for two consecutive days
& made Cheol scent the whole apartment
& screamed at me for wearing my oldest jumper and then slept on me
Chan looks down at the recently added article of the list – that he actually keeps with an actual paper and pen rather than on his notes app like any other human being living in the era they live in.
He looks at the very last addition he just made under that article, then looks down at the mentioned jumper he was accused of wearing, which he still is wearing.
He sighs as he closes his small notebook, and switches the bedside lamp off, thinking about what the next day will unveil for them.
Chan's beta nose, which is considered fairly perceptive compared to other betas’, can no longer smell even himself nowadays, with how heavy Seungkwan is scenting all of them. He cannot remember a day he has been able to leave the house without being perfumed on Seungkwan’s omega pheromones. It has been particularly harder on the alphas of their pack, though, because Seungkwan seems to want to doze them in his own scent, but also seems to want to be able to smell their own scents clearly from a hundred meter radius too. (Their alphas seem to hold no complaints, though. Especially Soonyoung, seeing the way he enthusiastically receives and returns the scenting each day.)
So Chan does not even bother startling anymore when he sees Jisoo being pulled by the arm into a random room, Seungcheol being used as a carrier around the house for an omega practically leeching off him, Minghao being held hostage for an undeterminable amount of time once he is in radar.
Just like how he is not startled when Seungkwan appears out of nowhere and starts manhandling him the next morning.
Chan has learned, over the past however-many days (or weeks?), that to just go loose and pliant as soon as he feels hands on his shoulders is easier, because fighting it or reacting to it only makes it take longer, and also upsets Seungkwan.
“Down,” Seungkwan orders, tugging at Chan's collar.
Chan obediently folds himself down onto the floor cushion, letting the omega climb onto his lap and situate himself with the kind of serious, methodical focus usually reserved for work. Slender fingers push Chan's jaw to one side, then the other, and then a nose is pressed into the join of his neck and shoulder and just stays there, breathing him in like measuring the compounds of his scent.
Chan uses this opportunity to properly hold his mate and breathe in Seungkwan's sweet caramel too.
Maybe a little too sweet, now that he thinks about it. A little sticky, even.
He can also make out the coffee embedded through it, signalling Hansol has been thoroughly marked before Chan as well.
It almost smells like a freshly made caffe caramel latte. Huh.
Chan sniffs into the smell again, trying to define the milky tones tickling his senses. Maybe Hansol’s own vanilla smells like it to Chan’s already overused nose.
“You smell like Wonwoo hyung,” Seungkwan mumbles then, sounding somehow personally offended by the fact.
“I slept next to him?” Chan offers. He is also noticing even more scents that belong to their pack, the longer Seungkwan stays on top of him.
Yet his simple answer is not an acceptable one, apparently, judging by the way Seungkwan immediately sets to work, nuzzling along Chan's throat, dragging his cheek across his collarbone, unhurried but certain. Chan sits and lets him, watching the crown of his head.
He feels more like a piece of furniture than a mate being scented in ways he is used to. He finds that he does not mind it one bit, though. He finds he actually likes being doted on without a heatedness behind it just fine.
He sees Seungcheol pass by, bleary eyes on their way to work, and waves to him. Seungcheol waves back, without a second thought or comment about their position.
“There,” Seungkwan says finally, sitting back with a small, satisfied noise.
“Do I smell to your liking now?”
“Better,” Seungkwan nods.
“Do I smell like you?” Chan asks, an amusement and adoration bubbling up inside his chest so full that he thinks he might be purring were he an omega.
“Obviously,” Seungkwan says.
Keeping his eyes on his mate, Chan raises his wrist to his nose out of curiosity, wondering how much has changed – considering he was already smelling like oranges instead of tangerines at this point already, his own citrus drowned out by Seungkwan’s with the frequency of being painted with it.
And this time too he smells the same tangerines, maybe a little more dipped in caramel, covering anything and everything else.
Seungkwan has a pleased, small smile on his face and flushed cheeks as he watches him. Chan tugs him back down against his chest, feeling the way he melts into it immediately, soft and warm.
“Did this to everyone?” he asks lightly.
“M-hm,” Seungkwan disagrees. “Jus’ whoever smells like someone else for too long.”
Chan frowns.
“What's that mean?” he asks, but Seungkwan does not bother with an answer.
Chan sniffs himself again, unsure of what to make of the comment.
So is that why Seungkwan has been ambushing him multiple times a day lately? But he cannot even smell himself now, how could he be smelling like someone else?
Checking the time and seeing it is almost time for him to leave, Chan takes another mental note to ask his hyungs about their scenting rates. He would feel better if he knew whether it was just him or the whole pack.
*
Among Seungkwan’s aggravated scenting mania towards the pack, Chan is also forced to add another article to the small list of his: Aggravated Appetite.
At first, Chan thought some of their mates’ scents which already have upper and under tones of various kinds of food triggered a hunger inside Seungkwan, when he found him raiding their kitchen, looking for freaking fresh thymes to add to vanilla whipped cream.
Chan managed to hold his disgust well within himself -as well as the kind suggestion of maybe all Seungkwan needed was Seungcheol and Hansol eating him out, instead of mixing their scents together and eating those- and helped him to the cupboard with herbs, praying for the health of his mate’s poor stomach.
“But that's dried!” Seungkwan objected to the package Chan was holding then. “They don't have the right essence for it!”
The desperation came off a couple of hours later, but Jihoon still came home with a fresh pot of rhymes that night, lest they(Seungkwan) needed them again.
And then a few days later, Chan saw tears running down the omega’s misty eyes upon finding their freezer out of mint ice cream.
“Hey, hey – it's okay, alright, Kwan-ah? I'll buy some for you,” Chan flapped around him uselessly, to which Seungkwan just sniffed to.
“It's the middle of the night!”
“I'll find an open place!”
“You won't! Just go to sleep,” Seungkwan wailed obnoxiously.
Chan looked at him in despair. “Kwannie, you have a shooting in a few hours, you'll hate yourself if you don't sleep now. Just tell me which kind it was and-”
“The swirled one. Not the chipped. No chip bits.”
“Got it, nothing chipped,” Chan said, while thinking hard to remember if they ever had swirled minted ice cream at home.
Shaking his head and placing Seungkwan on an armchair, Chan again held the ridiculous suggestion of maybe just licking Minghao's glands or something would work for now, and ran out to find the ice cream Seungkwan was crying over in the middle of their kitchen at ass o'clock.
When he came back with three tubs of ice cream and one cone for good measure after making three convenience store stops to find the one he needs, Chan found Seungkwan where he had left him, but eyes closed and mouth open with deep sleep. He saw a bag of sourdough bread next to him, the seemingly unexpected alternative to the mint. Chan sighed and placed the melting ice cream inside the freezer, before going back to lift Seungkwan to the couch and draping the blanket over him after making sure his alarm is set for tomorrow.
And now, Chan watches the scene before him unfold with slitted eyes, as Seungkwan dips his spoon inside the container with cold rice, then picks some uncooked kimchi out of the jar Soonyoung’s mother has sent them with his bare fingers, and swipes another spoonful of peanut butter on them, before forcing the spoon inside his mouth.
The spoon he uses is a wooden cooking spoon. Chan tries to ignore the temptation to put his palm under Seungkwan’s chin, because there is no way his small mouth is going to fully let that thing in.
Seungkwan hums with obvious satisfaction, chewing his mouthful.
“You're eating well, Seungkwan-ah,” Jisoo observes as he walks past them.
“Fangs, ‘yung,” Seungkwan mumbles out his thanks to him.
Not able to hold his disapproval in anymore, Chan points to the next spoon Seungkwan prepares across him at the table.
“Is that really tasty?”
“Yep.”
“Like, I know they're all tasty,” Chan tries to convince, himself or Seungkwan, he is not sure. “But like, all together?”
“Yes? Don't judge before you try,” Seungkwan shrugs. Then pulls the containers to himself as if Chan would actually go with his word and try the monstrosity he is feasting on.
“Not judging, just…” Chan is distracted for a moment as he eyes the next spoon being prepared and inhaled with gusto, feeling a mixture of horror and fascination. “Just yesterday you wouldn't let Soonyoung hyung near you because he had kimchi, let alone breathing near the kimchi. Now you're mixing it with honeyed peanut butter before going to bed.”
“People change, Chan-ah.”
“By day?”
Seungkwan stops his next shovel of food to glare at Chan, and Chan decides not to comment on his food choices anymore.
A few minutes later, Seungkwan is finished with the whole container of cold leftover rice, and has a smile on his face as he pets his belly, although his eyes still look around to search for something. They land on the banana Chan has started to munch on at some point. Chan realizes with dread that this was the last banana in their kitchen.
Chan hurriedly gulps down the bit in his mouth, and without a second thought, offers the rest of the banana to Seungkwan before the omega could even form a sentence. Seeing his face light up as if being offered a set of diamonds instead of half a banana, Chan thinks cutting his night snack short is worth it.
“You're the best,” Seungkwan says as he grabs it from Chan's hand, leaning to press a garlic-and-peanut tasting kiss to his cheek.
Chan smiles at him, and leaves the table to scurry to his room and add the new article to The List.
- Weird-ass appetite
Mixes peanut butter with kimchi. Seeks out certain food with certain smells at the crack of dawn.
“But it smells weird!”
“But I cooked it the way I always do?” Seokmin checks the pot where jjajangmyeon enough for at least five people sits wetly.
“I didn't say you changed it, I said it smells weird!” Seungkwan counters.
“What's going on?” Chan whispers to Jun, who is munching on sliced carrots probably left from Seokmin's miscalculated ingredient prep.
Copying his position against the doorframe, Chan steals some from the cup Jun is holding.
“Minnie cooked for Seungkwannie, but now Kwan swears he can't eat any,” Jun informs him hushedly. Which, yeah, from the scene unfolding in front of him, Chan could have caught the gist of.
“Huh,” Seokmin is frowning innocently. “You asked for it, though. And yesterday, too, you ate two bowls of it. Kwan-ah, you literally just said an hour ago it was the only thing that sounded good!”
“Well, now it doesn't,” Seungkwan crosses his arms, looking away from the pot with a wrinkled nose, as if the dinner personally betrayed him. Then he takes a quick glance at the creator of the food in the pot, and his shoulders sag visibly. “Sorry Seokminnie,” he adds. “I just can't.”
Seokmin, although not having shown any signs of frustration in the first place, softens even more at that.
“It's okay, jagi. Whatever you want, ‘kay?”
“Can I just have some crackers?”
“Mm. The buckwheat ones?” Seokmin asks, already turning around in a familiar manner to retrieve them.
“Yeah. And yoghurt.”
“Fruit ones?”
“No no, salted.”
“Got it.”
Chan turns to catch Jun's expression, to see if he is as horrified as Chan feels, only to see him as unbothered as he usually is.
Chan hates the bitterness of buckwheat crackers. And he knows Seungkwan is not fond of them either. Or ‘was’ might be the righter choice of tense now, since the pile Seokmin reveals shows at least ten more packages of it in their snacks rack, specifically in the part where Seungkwan's preferred goodies are stored.
“You'll just be snacking with crackers for dinner?” Chan can't help but butt in.
Seungkwan turns towards him as if just noticing his existence, but not really thankful for it.
“And yoghurt. So what?”
“But Seokmin hyung-”
“It's alright, Chan-ah. We could come up with something else later if Kwannie craves for anything else,” Seokmin says before Chan could finish his sentence, eyes shining with honest sympathy and affection.
Chan is honestly taken aback.
“Can I have some of the jjajangmyeon then, Min-ah?” Jun asks.
‘Drastic change in taste for snacks.
Also yesterday's fav food becomes today's enemy.
Hyungs are pretty encouraging ab it?’ becomes the next update to the last addition in Chan's list.
*
Chan notices that he has been disregarding something very apparent, when he witnesses yet another interaction between Mingyu and Seungkwan.
Or two things, to be exact.
Chan finds them in the kitchen – a very common place to find people in a pack as large as theirs, and especially to find Seungkwan recently.
There is nothing remarkable at first glance.
Seungkwan is stirring something on the stove, humming along to the song resounding from the speakers of his phone propped against the counter next to him, probably blasting his favourite DAY6 playlist again. And Mingyu is planted directly behind him, chin hooked over Seungkwan’s shoulder, arms winding all the way around his middle.
“You'll make me burn this,” Seungkwan complains for show, spatula still moving and no trace of botheredness in his voice.
“I told you I could just make it for you.”
“Wanted to do it myself.”
“Then don't burn it,” Mingyu hums lazily.
Seungkwan rolls his eyes and steps on Mingyu's foot on purpose.
“Then don't breathe on my neck.”
“Five more minutes, please.”
Seungkwan huffs, for show again, tipping his head to the side to give Mingyu better access. Mingyu makes a small, pleased sound against his skin, as if he won something he thought he could not.
Chan sees his hands stay flat and wide against Seungkwan's stomach as he happily and deliberately scents him, unmoving aside from his thumbs which were tracing slow half circles there. Seungkwan leans back almost fully on Mingyu's body with relaxation.
It reminds Chan of the night where they were piled on the floor of Jeonghan and Seungkwan’s room to watch a movie recently dropped, and Jeonghan’s hand was on Seungkwan’s belly – or at the hem of the ridden up shirt initially, absently playing with it as he often does with any of them, but then lied flat there, still and warm, with occasional movement of his thumb, back and forth, stroking light and careful. Chan remembers the small, content smile on Jeonghan’s lips. Nothing like the sly smile before getting ready to tickle. Seungkwan had leaned down on Jeonghan’s shoulder back then, too.
Blinking back into the moment, Chan steps in and leans against the kitchen island as he watches.
Again, nothing unusual, exactly. Mingyu has always been a limpet, all of them have grown used to the way he was always attached to somebody anywhere at any given hour, and especially to Seungkwan.
But now that Chan thinks of it, there is something… different in the quality of it, recently. Less playful climbing, less puppyish tackling, less beating around with cackles, and more quiet, more carefulness, more softness at the way Mingyu curved himself around Seungkwan. Like a wall of protection, with love and adoration for bricks.
And Seungkwan, so used to it already, is not even looking away from the pan before him.
“You're staring,” he addresses the Chan in the room after a while.
“You guys are cute,” Chan simply states, smiling as if he was not startled at being talked to and ripped out of his thoughts all of a sudden.
“Mm, you jealous, Channie?”
“Not jealous at all of burning food,” Chan quips back immediately.
“Not burning food,” Seungkwan presses.
“Nor being a koala for that matter,” Chan goes on.
“‘m not a koala,” Mingyu says, muffled into Seungkwan’s neck. “Koalas don't cook.”
“Well, you aren't cooking right now, are you?”
“‘m supervising.”
Seungkwan snorts and elbows him halfheartedly, to which Mingyu just tightens his arms in response. Seungkwan gives up the fight after a few tries to be let loose.
Chan watches the way any sign of tension bleeds out of them the longer Mingyu stays wrapped around Seungkwan, petrichor and lavender folding thick and warm into caramel and orange, until Chan is unable to smell the sizzling sauces, unable to sort their scents from each other. His insides warming, Chan feels his own tangerines reach out to them, and leaves the kitchen with a smile on his face, but racing thoughts in his head.
Okay, Chan thinks, heading out to meet Seungcheol and Jihoon at the gym they frequent. So until today, he has not noticed Mingyu getting even more clingier.
Chan travels through his memories to determine if the increase in clinginess is towards all of them, or just Seungkwan. Images of Mingyu gluing himself to Minghao, Seokmin, Jihoon or even him pop inside Chan's mind as he thinks.
But none of them seem to hold the specific gentleness Chan has just seen on Mingyu.
Huh, Chan thinks, as he watches the way Jihoon's abdominal muscles tense under the thin shirt he had worn to the gym. He holds his hand out, to absentmindedly touch and feel the tight muscles under his palm and fingers as Jihoon continues his workout. He adores his small hyung's body. After a few pats, though, Chan's previously racing thoughts resurface.
He remembers Mingyu's large hands on Seungkwan's stomach, his thumbs circling it above his sweater. Seungkwan has been getting… softer and fuller around the edges, recently, hasn't he? He had been opting for wearing comfortable clothes – sweatpants, sweaters, pullovers. Chan even remembers seeing a new, larger size jean that belonged to no one while doing laundry, which was later claimed by Seungkwan. His cheeks have been a little fuller, too.
Chan remembers accidentally brushing his knuckles against Seungkwan's stomach once, a couple of weeks ago. He remembers Seungkwan being startled by it, and how it was softer to touch compared to what Chan remembered. He thought it was Seungkwan being self-conscious about some belly fat – nothing that hadn't happened before.
It must be because of how random he has been eating recently, is what Chan concludes. He needs to take better care of himself!
At least he has been taking supplements diligently, Chan remembers then, having seen them spread on the counter and be replenished for more than a couple of months now. Maybe Chan could trick him into going to the gym with them, too.
But what confuses Chan the most about this is: Seungkwan is generally known for being sensitive about his body. He normally does not even look at salt after a certain hour at night, for example, let alone snacking in the middle of it like there is no tomorrow, because he hates being bloated, or feeling bloated, or looking bloated. He loves being thin and lean – in a chic and healthy way, of course (thank god).
Regularly interacting with idols, actors and actresses and being on screen with them gets to Seungkwan’s head easily, but he overcomes it with the help of his pack. He just has to complain a little about adding weight or ‘looking like a blowfish’ first.
Recently, though, Chan cannot recall any dietary issues or limitations that Seungkwan has caused himself like he usually would, even though he actually did gain weight.
Huh.
Chan gets up from the bench he was still occupying and goes to Seungcheol, who is now dropping the ridiculous amount of weight he has been lifting.
“Seungkwan has gained weight lately, hasn't he?”
Their pack leader looks at him owlishly. Chan blinks back at him.
“Uh… duh?”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“I mean… he did? I guess? But it’s healthy weight, y’know?” Seungcheol says. “Doc’s said so.”
“Doc?” Chan asks back. “Is he really sick?! Why didn’t you tell me, I’ve been trying to get to you for months about how he’s-”
“No no, Channie, hold on, he’s not sick what the hell?” Seungcheol cuts him, eyes now widened along with Chan’s rapidly settling panic. “I just told you doc said he was fine, didn’t I?”
“But why didn’t you tell me you went to the doctor in the first place?” Chan whines childishly. Jihoon also appears next to his elbow at that point.
“Oh. You wanted to go with him too?” Seungcheol asks cluelessly.
“Hyung, with all due respect, what the fuck?” Chan exclaims in a whisper-shout, remembering they are in a public space. “Of course I wanted to go with him, but- more importantly, just inform me about- about – situations, okay?”
“Sorry, Chan-ah,” Jihoon steps in, then. “Let's write the next appointment on the fridge, okay? So everyone will be aware.”
Chan is feeling so frustrated with his pack that he does not even notice the notion of another appointment on the horizon.
“Or just fucking write it on the group chat!”
“Oh, right. We could do that.
Chan groans with impatience.
“And just because I’m the maknae does not mean I’m a child, so don’t act like I’m one,” he grumbles, suddenly feeling so mad that he turns around to collect his stuff, skipping off the cooling downs and shower to head directly home.
He ignores his hyungs for the rest of the night, but remembers to add another entry to the list the next morning.
- Weight gain
But healthy gain,or whatever the fuck the fucking doctor said
Hyungs touch him, and he isn’t mad at being bloated nor the hyungs touching him. Is seungkwan finally growing up is it what this is
*
Chan forgets half of his concerns when Seungkwan suddenly sets into an era of energy almost like he is in the beginning of his twenties again. As if someone casted a spell on him overnight. As if they fast-forwarded to the next scene of their lives, just like in the movie Click.
The first shock comes when Chan wakes up at 7 in the morning, half-dead on his feet from working on a choreography with Soonyoung well into the night, and now being forced to go and teach it to some kids (his competition pupils whom Chan holds dearly), and sees Seungkwan already coming in through the door, in his running gear, sweaty with a red face.
The first thing Chan notices is the big smile on Seungkwan’s face, shining vividly through the darkness of a chilly early-spring morning.
“Good morning, Channie!” Seungkwan greets him.
Chan blinks at him in return. Seungkwan snorts and steps inside, putting his cap and small water tube aside, ruffles Chan's hair and leaves a wet smooch on his cheek.
“You went… running?” Chan asks the obvious. His hands are placed on Seungkwan’s waist automatically. He squeezes the soft flesh once, and Seungkwan steps even closer.
“Mmh!” Seungkwan confirms, the big smile still on his face. He starts to smooth Chan's bangs down as they talk. “Not too hard on the tempo, though, lightly jogged or walked mostly.”
“I see,” Chan mumbles, searching Seungkwan's face for… anything. “You're better? You feel fine?”
“Yep! Doc's said I would be feeling better around now, didn't really believe then, but I really am! Incredible, they really know their stuff, huh?”
“The doc?” Chan echoes. Right. The one Seungkwan didn't think of even mentioning to Chan's anxious ass. He loosens the hold on the omega’s waist.
“Yeah! She was the one to suggest doing some medium level physical activity once I felt ready for it, actually. Glad I listened to her.”
“I see,” Chan repeats, for the lack of more of a reaction to Seungkwan's sudden bubbliness.
“So, I'll go shower now. Good luck at work today, Chan-ah!” Seungkwan pats his cheek and the crown of his head, and skips towards the stairs to occupy the large bathroom.
Another one comes when Chan comes home to find it… unrecognisable.
Not a bad kind of unrecognisable, but it looks as if an ahjumma has entered their place and decided to do the spring cleaning herself. One that is worth twenty cleanings.
The first thing to notice is the shoe rack being properly tidied, hyeongwan free of any thrown footwear. The living room area shows the couch cushions airing out, lined up in their small balcony. The smell of some lemonish cleaner is fighting the collective smell of pack members -and thirteen men living in the same house, for that matter-, and their usual mess lying around every available furniture is nowhere to be seen. Chan turns to his right to see the kitchen gleaming on every surface, and has no doubt that even inside the cupboards are organised.
Chan follows the blasting music coming from somewhere upstairs, turned up enough to make the baseline vibrate through the walls, and finds the source of the mania sitting in the middle of three mountains of laundry, folding towels to the rhythm of the music.
Seungkwan looks up in confusion when the volume of the speaker downs a tad, but offers a bright smile when his eyes catch on Chan's.
“Channie! You're home!”
“Um, yeah. What're you doing here?” Chan asks, glancing at the work Seungkwan has performed like a squirrel on three cups of espresso.
“Just cleaning,” Seungkwan says, snapping a towel straight with a resounding crack. “And organising. Did you know we had 14 unmatched socks around? I found them in the dryer. Didn't want to sneak into everyone's drawers, but they're all ready to be matched, in the laundry room. Please go check out.”
“Uh, I'll do,” Chan agrees. “Why are you not in the laundry room with these?” he asks then, noticing the surrounding laundry around them.
“No place for me there,” Seungkwan says nonchalantly. “Also too hot with all the machines. Here's better.”
“Right. Great choice then.”
“Mm. I also organised the spice rack,” Seungkwan says, confirming Chan's previous assumption. “As well as the fridge. Why would we have not one, but two spoiled milks in there? Unbelievable. We'll have a talk tonight.”
“How long have you been working on these?”
“Um,” Seungkwan looks around to find his phone, and gives a whistle when he sees the time. “Almost four hours, oh my god.”
“Are you feeling okay?” Chan asks, crouching next to him.
Noticing the way his hands have been supporting his back, Chan presses his hand on Seungkwan’s lower back to massage it.
The answering groan Seungkwan lets out does not send any signals for Chan's blood to race south. Chan just had a sudden need to straighten his posture and clean his throat.
“You worked hard on your day off,” he says to Seungkwan’s closed eyes and lowered hands, hand still massaging his back softly. “You're tired?”
“Mm. Kinda.”
“My hard-working Boo,” Chan smiles softly, the adoration for his mate spreading all through his chest again. The rewarding purr vibrating under his hand makes him want to grab and push Seungkwan inside it, right into the place the omega has carved for himself under Chan's ribcage.
“I still have too much energy, though,” Seungkwan says, his eyes opened wide again. “I wanna go somewhere. Can we go somewhere?”
Forgetting about his own exhaustion, Chan finds himself nodding already. “Sure. Whatchu want?”
“Dunno. Can't exactly go clubbing,” Seungkwan snorts to himself. “Let's have a meal somewhere, and maybe check the movies out?”
“Sure,” Chan agrees easily.
“Or maybe we can go for a walk around the park with the swans? I'd really like to see some swans. Heard one of them gave birth. I wanna see the new babies!”
“Sure, let's see the baby swans,” Chan agrees again with a chuckle. He checks his phone to see that it was not even 4 in the afternoon yet. Then a notification suddenly reminds him of something. “Ah! There's a new sushi place opened near the studio, we tried it last week with the other teachers. It's also close to that park you wanna go to, and I've been meaning to-”
“Ah, no, no Channie,” Seungkwan cuts him off with a sympathetic smile on his face. “No raw stuff for me. Let's try it another time, though, okay? Was it good?”
“Yeah, it's pretty good, actually,” Chan pouts. Seungkwan squishes his thigh apologetically. “But yeah, okay, another time. Let's get something boiling inside your stomach today.”
“Okay, then let me first finish these and-”
“Aish, c’mon! Someone else can do it, there's eleven more of us for God's sake,” Chan jumps up and pulls Seungkwan up by wrists with him.
“Fine,” Seungkwan giggles, then his face brightens with a new thought visibly popping inside his mind. “Oh! Oh, oh, can we go karaoke? Last week one of the new idol groups came as a guest for the radio and I realised I really, really missed singing. Can we go? Please-”
“Sure, Kwannie, let's go sing to your heart's content,” Chan once again agrees without a fight, and can't help the giggles he lets out at the happy dance he receives at that. “Do you wanna let the others know so they can join-?”
“Nope! I wanna be just with you, Channie-yah,” Seungkwan grabs and kisses Chan's forehead before heading to his room to get ready. “I missed spending time with my darling maknae-yah.”
“Shut up,” Chan says, but it holds absolutely no force through the grin he sports. He lightly slaps Seungkwan’s wiggling ass, before also going to change into something better than rustling trashbag sweatpants for their impromptu date.
They end up going to a traditional Korean restaurant they both love, then going for a walk in the large park and feeding the swans, or Chan taking pictures of Seungkwan to send to their group chat while Seungkwan feeds them, and finally skipping karaoke to go to the cinema, only for Seungkwan to fall asleep on Chan's shoulder ten minutes into the movie.
Chan lowers down the armrest between them for him to sleep more comfortably, and watches the movie thinking about how Seungkwan will whine and complain when he finally wakes and notices Chan has let him miss the whole thing.
Chan smiles to himself, the happy smell of sweet oranges filling his nostrils and lungs, and promptly forgets about his list for an indefinite period of time.
*
Seokmin is in preheat.
And Seungkwan acts like he is in heat.
Right. Another thing that came back with Seungkwan's energy is his sex drive. Not only came back, but even exceeded his previous self.
As a touchy-feely mate, Seungkwan has always loved physical affection, touches, kisses, loved being both on the giving and receiving part of it, loved sex and trying new things as well as keeping things soft and smooth. This energised and renewed Seungkwan however… is something else.
It took a while for Chan to catch up with the changes in behaviour at first, because to be honest, it was something that none of them was complaining about.
Seungkwan visiting him in the studio and jumping him in his director’s chair? Not something to complain for Chan, really. Or claiming Soonyoung’s rut to himself, letting himself be used any way he likes, and laying with him even if it is currently someone else satisfying the alpha’s needs? One of Soonyoung’s wet dreams coming to life. Waking Minghao up by sucking him as a daily routine? Chan has never seen his beta hyung gleaming this much in the mornings before. Basically sitting himself on Hansol’s cock and going to sleep on his lap as the alpha works? Well. Nothing he has not been doing before.
So Chan just chalks it up to Seungkwan being sexually deprived after the… pause he has given in the last months. It is only recently that Chan realizes maybe it has been pushing the limits, when Mingyu came to his room to steal another lip balm to soothe himself. Or when Jisoo got scolded at work for the hickeys he was parading.
But anyways, Chan shakes his head to refocus on the reason he is standing in front of the fridge with his boxer shorts – Seokmin is in preheat. Or maybe already in heat now. Again.
Chan follows the calendar with his finger to check the orange ticked boxes. There should be more of the colour by this point, he realizes. At least one set more, to catch up with the purple and yellow ones.
With a pack as large as theirs, with three healthy and young (even if Chan likes to tease them by suggesting otherwise) omegas and five alphas in it, it is a literal requirement for everyone to keep track of their heats and ruts properly. One too many misses, and Wonwoo was putting a physical calendar on the coffee table with multiple markers of different colours, and highlighting the dates that fell onto their ‘instinctual days’ as Seokmin likes to name it.
And why they still keep track on paper instead of a joint digital calendar is a simple result of his hyungs being old fashioned hags, Chan would like to tell his same-aged friends, although he is the one to restock the highlighter pens regularly.
Chan frowns at the relatively colourless calendar. Seungkwan should have had his heat a month or two ago according to it, right between Jeonghan’s and Seokmin’s. But the purple checks and the single yellow dot suggesting Seokmin’s preheat of yesterday has a long, empty whiteness between them.
Chan remembers Seungkwan’s heat pattern being extremely irregular in the past – sometimes once a year instead of three, sometimes lasting two days while the last one lasted ten, sometimes passing mildly where the other made him crawl his insides out of agony. Remembers crying with him because of the pain he lived through, caring for him when he could not even lift a finger anymore from exhaustion, going to his lectures or dealing with his work when a surprise heat suddenly hit him, and especially remembers being frightened to hell that one of his dearests was doomed to suffer for the rest of his life like this.
But then Wonwoo and Jeonghan found a specialist, and Seungkwan got some treatment that lasted for nearly two years, and then he was suddenly… okay. Never skipped a heat again, lived through mostly standard, stable, and even enjoyable heats. Reconciled with his omega, whom he has been cursing for making him live through something like that.
So Chan frowns now, looking at the absence of colour, and worries his lower lip.
Is Seungkwan’s old pattern back? Could he be turning back to how it was? Was that actually why he went to the doctor? Were all the things Chan noticed signs of a worsening health situation? What was even written on the list?
The list.
Chan turns around in a hurry and almost stumbles into the kitchen island, and speedwalks past the stairs to reach his room. Until the open door of Seokmin’s right across his own distracts him enough of his mission.
“Kwannie, c’mere, no, come up, please, y’should be more careful with-”
“Sshhh,” Seungkwan shushes the fidgety omega.
Chan is about to head there to question Seungkwan about his findings on the calendar when he suddenly stops in his place. Judging by the scents that reach him, the chocolate making the whole hall smelling like a pastry oven, he understands that Seokmin has slipped into his heat already.
“Here, here, please,” Seokmin whines again, and Chan looks into the room to see Seungkwan climbing up and around Seokmin’s body.
“I’m here Seokminnie, I’m here, okay? Just relax,” Seungkwan tries to soothe him.
He directs Seokmin’s face right onto the scent glands under his jaw. Seokmin melts into him in an instant, hands wrapping around him completely, face buried in his neck.
“You wanna take care of me, huh?” Seungkwan asks, caressing Seokmin’s head gently. “Is that what you want right now, hyungie?”
“Mmm. You’n d’p,” Seokmin mumbles into Seungkwan’s skin unintelligibly – although Seungkwan chuckles as if he understands.
“Yeah? You wanna take care of us?”
“Mm.”
Seungkwan drops a long, adoring kiss on Seokmin’s head, and Chan sees the way Seokmin’s breaths turn into long, deep ones, indicating he has fallen asleep like that.
Seungkwan looks around then, and sees Chan still standing and observing next to the door.
“Channie. Can you bring us water and some snacks? I don’t think I’ll be able to get up from here soon.”
Chan gazes at the way Seungkwan’s large T-shirt is nearly invisible by Seokmin’s full -naked- body, and nods.
“You need anything else? Condoms-?”
“No, no, I don’t think we’ll need them for now. Seokminnie is in the headspace of the caregiving side of an omega right now, I think. But maybe give me that comforter first,” Seungkwan adds.
Chan does as he is told, albeit confused.
He knows, theoretically, that not every heat is about sex, although he has not seen an example from any of his horny hyungs. He has heard it was mostly seen in omegas with little pups, some evolutional need to provide and care for them making itself known when the instincts take over.
Huh. Maybe Seokmin has been having an emotional phase recently.
Chan finally goes to his room after bringing the omegas food and water, tucking them in properly, and messaging the group chat to let them know Seokmin’s heat has started and he was in need of no dicks -hah!-, and opens his small notebook.
Cocking his head to one side, he tries to remember when was the exact time he has last made an entry to it, and what else should he add aside from the missing heat.
- Too much energy
I dunno what else to say to that, he’s been a hyperball
- Too much sexual activity (?)
Not that I’m complaining about it lol
But some of the hyungs were a little bit too careful with him during? Haven’t noticed before. Weird.
- A SKIPPED HEAT IN THE CALENDAR!!!
Chan swings the pen in his hand as he thinks, and decides to fill under the last one later, when he has more information about it. He will corner one of the pack members even if he cannot reach Seungkwan currently.
He remembers seeing the next doctor’s appointment is three weeks from now. He notes it down on his phone too to make sure he is there for it.
*
Chan, unfortunately, is not there for the next doctor's appointment, because he is in freaking Busan with the competition teams he trains.
He basically throws a tantrum like a small child when he notices the overlapping schedules, much to the pack's amusement, and is sent off with a pout by his hyungs, and a promise to be kept updated.
But Chan has every reason to be upset, because he had to be there! With his list!
Because he has even more items on the list now!
Like the dizziness Chan has noticed Seungkwan appeared to have occasionally. Unnoticeable, mundane moments for most, but a jump scare for eyes to see.
Many people get dizzy spells from time to time, blood pressure is a hard thing to keep at a certain level all the time. Even Chan himself remembers seeing stars when he gets up too suddenly, and being ridiculed by some students.
But it seems Seungkwan gets them out of nowhere, recently.
One second he is walking past them to reach the balcony and water the plants he has put there a few weeks ago, and the next second he has let the pitcher go with a splash, and gripping the backrest of an armchair so tight his knuckles turn white. Chan feels his stomach drop with the sound of the fallen item and the almost fallen omega right before him, and rushes to help him sit on where he has been gripping.
“It's fine,” Seungkwan tells him, “I just got up too quickly.”
“You weren't even sitting!” Chan says, only to receive a simple shrug in return.
Or one second Seungkwan is laughing at some stupid thing Soonyoung spewed, and the next he is barely hanging on Seungcheol's arm, face pale as a sheet. Then at least three mates are spawned around him at lightning speed, checking on him, carrying him to a stool, bringing him water. They work so fast and efficiently that Chan does not even have the time to panic this time.
“I'm fine,” Seungkwan says again, “I must be hungry, it's been hours since I've last eaten.”
“We had lunch together just an hour ago,” Jlsoo says, “so stop pretending and push your head down.”
“‘m not gonna faint,” Seungkwan mumbles, but still his head follows the way Jisoo’s hand gently directs him.
One second they are walking down the staircase because the lift is broken again, which sets Hansol off so bad he flies down to chew on the management of the building with an uncharacteristically stormy face, and the next Seungkwan is missing a step and Mingyu barely reaches out to him before he falls down.
“Oh, fuck ‘em, we're moving out of this place,” Jihoon storms down after he deems Mingyu's arms secure enough for Seungkwan.
Chan is baffled at his honest fury, and also the way he is already ready to find another place that holds as many rooms as theirs do and as affordable as theirs, just because of one slip and an unattended lift.
“Sure,” Mingyu agrees with him without missing a moment, “the indoor stairs will be a problem soon either way.”
“Why?” Chan asks.
Mingyu looks at him like he asked what his own name is.
“It wouldn't be safe, Chan-ah, would it? Also would be very tiresome for Kwannie.”
Chan does not ask why again, because Seungkwan mumbles something into Mingyu’s shoulder where he has been resting, without claiming he was fine or shooting excuses this time, attracting both of their attention on himself instantly.
The dizziness aside, Chan also has been catching expressions of pain on Seungkwan’s face occasionally.
The first time he noticed was thanks to the sharp inhale Seungkwan involuntarily took. Chan turned to find him pressing a hand on his lower right side. He was shooed away after hovering mindlessly around the omega for some time, but still decided to keep an eye on him to look for any sign that showed pain.
Sometimes it is his overly swelled and aching feet that make Seungkwan lie on the couch with a pout on his face. Sometimes it would be his back, sometimes headaches, sometimes heartburn. At least one member would always find their way to him then, providing massages, cold patches, herbal teas.
“Yeah,” Chan murmurs to himself, hunched over his legs with both elbows.
One of his legs is jumping with an anxious energy that probably looks like competition jitters to any onlookers. He keeps locking and unlocking his phone, the sound of the system click borderline exasperating after too many times of hearing it.
“That's right, they also noticed what I've noticed. They'll tell the doc about ‘em,” he continues his affirmations to himself. “Jeonghan hyung and Mingyu are with him. They're the best observers. Wouldn't let anything out.”
Clicking the screen on and off once again, Chan groans as he drops his upper body fully on his legs.
“Maybe I should've given them the list,” he huffs. “Should I make it digital and send it to them now?”
He straightens his back and exhales through his puckered lips slowly. His eyes make contact with a kid sitting across from him, looking at Chan weirdly.
“Never heard an adult speaking to themselves?” he asks the boy, who only averts his eyes and scurries away.
Chan snorts to himself and pockets his phone before getting up to go to his own flock of birds. They better come out of here with a medal or some ranking to make it worth it.
Chan misses the calls and the messages in the group chat, in the commotion on and behind the stage. He only has the time to check his phone again nearly four hours later, when they are done with the day and finally leaving the venue (with one second place and one best choreo mention, and fortunately the full number of students getting on the bus).
STOP CHANGING NAMES!!!👺👺
Evil twin 1
Hey when's everyone gonna be home today
Leader hyung
I'll pick our jihoon up
So around 8?
Evil twin 1
Alright
And others
Evil twin 2
We're shopping with minnie
His practice was cut short
Evil twin 1
Enough shopping then come home
Wonu hyung
My shift ends 9pm today:(
Kyeomie
Why jeonghan hyung what's up
Shua hyung call me minnie to my face too!!! Dont just write it here!!!!
Evil twin 2
What else you wanna be called
I'll call you anything ^^☺️🥵🥰
Sollie
im alrd home
Junnie
soonyoung is covering for chan’s classes today.
i'm helping him.
lemme ask when we'll close the studio.
Mingu
Right
Has abyone heard from chan
When he's gon be back
Can't reach him
Minghao
He's not supposed to b here until late i think
I was gonna meet up w some friends btw
What's up
Mingu
You cabtttt
Come home hao
Minghao
Ur supposed to b there too idiot
Did u forget
Mingu
Don't worry bout them
I'll text 97z chat later
Sollie
chans not picking up
whats up hyung
ur not even home yourselves yet
hows kwannie
whatd doc say
Evil twin 1
Our seungkwannie has an announcement to make and wants everyone under one roof for it
Seungkwannie
I'm perfectly fine sollie 💕💕💕
Doctor said everything looks fine
We're in the taxi we'll be there soon
But it's alright
Even if Channie's coming at dawn I'll tell you guys after dawn then
Kyeomie
Soonyoung might explode until then ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
Seungkwannie
He'll live
Chan checks the time to see it nearing seven already, while the timestamps show the conversation happened around four. With a quick calculation, he concludes it would be way past midnight for him to be home.
What is it that Seungkwan wants to share with them all? Would he stay up waiting for Chan, just to let him know at the same time with the rest of the pack?
Chan cannot help the smitten smile spreading on his face. He will bite Seungkwan’s cheeks once he gets home, for not wanting to leave Chan out of whatever it is.
Me
Hey guys I'm on my way back home
But we just left like twenty minutes ago or so
So I'll probably be midnight at best
Don't wait up I can learn what it is tomorrow
Love you kwannie
*
After one food break, one bathroom break, one compulsory additional bathroom break, and dropping off all the pups to their respective homes, Chan is finally dragging his feet to his own home.
He let the others know around midnight that he could be later than he expected, but even that estimated time of arrival was an hour ago. Now, it is nearing 2 a.m. and the fatigue of the day is finally pressing on all of his limbs and brain, and all Chan wants is to take a shower and fall on his bed.
He puts in the code and the door lock clicks open with a tiny confirmation jingle. The apartment is silent and dark, aside from the muted sound of low murmurs and a dim orange light seeping through the ajar living room door, signalling that the pack has already wound down for the night with some of them still chattling around.
Chan tries to be as quiet as possible to not wake the sleeping members of the household as he drops his belongings in the hyeongwan and steps inside. He nearly tiptoes his way towards the room, and pushes the door slowly to reveal all of his mates still present, squished into one room, some of them dozing off, some of them chatting, some passing time on their phones.
He sees Seungkwan first, sitting between Wonwoo’s legs, and practically glowing. One of Wonwoo’s hands is resting on Seungkwan’s stomach, as it often does nowadays, while the other is scrolling through his phone.
The opening door catches their attention towards Chan.
“You’re here!”
“Channie, finally.”
“Congratulations on the results, darling~”
“Come sit, Chan-ah, you look tired.”
Chan fails to distinguish whose voice said which, but he mumbles some thanks and stalks to the place Jeonghan is patting next to him, promptly falling on his open arms.
“Aww, is baby tired?”
“Mmh.”
“Whose baby is-”
“Hyunngg,” Chan whines, making some of them laugh.
He opens his eyes, without even knowing when he closed them, and his eyes catch on Seungkwan’s gleaming figure again.
“Kwannie has been glowing recently, don’t you think?” he wonders out loud, and revels in the way the omega’s cheeks turn a shade of pink.
Chan remembers his resolution to bite them when he read his texts. How could he even forget!
“Imma bite you, Kwannie,” he announces then. “You look like the apple Snow White has fallen to. Red and shiny. Delicious.”
“Oh my god, I love exhaustion-drunk Chan,” he hears Jisoo cackle. “He has no filter at all.”
“But he’s right,” Mingyu says. “Seungkwan really is glowing these days.”
“Well, it’s about time I get past the miserable and start looking good, isn’t it?” Seungkwan counters, although it is obvious he is preening under the compliments.
Then Wonwoo suddenly gasps, and Seungkwan’s eyes grow two times bigger.
“Hyung!” he looks back at the beta. “You felt that too?!”
“I did, honey,” Wonwoo says with a clogged voice, before leaning down to pepper Seungkwan’s skin with kisses.
“What! I wanna feel too,” Soonyoung whines with a pout.
“It was just a flutter, you’ll feel even more than that soon,” Seungkwan consoles him.
His head is tilted to one side to let Wonwoo scent him properly as he lets his own scent out too, the contented pheromones of omega covering the room like a blanket.
Chan does not clock anything off with their words with the fogged brain of his. But is his nose fogged, too?
He starts to sniff around as the others continue with their conversation, trying to catch where the unusual smell is coming from. He leans to the side and directs his nose to Hansol, because this… scent tickling his nose now is very similar to the one he smelled on a Hansol-perfumed-Seungkwan some weeks ago. He thought Hansol’s coffee and vanilla mixed with Seungkwan’s caramel and caused the milkish scent then. Did they scent each other today too?
“What are you doing?” Minghao asks him, amusement apparent in his voice.
“Nothing,” Chan says, blinking. “Just… there’s a scent. It’s nothing,” he shakes his head, just as Seungcheol clears his throat to have everyone’s attention on him. But when he looks up, Chan sees that their leader’s whole focus is solely on Seungkwan.
“Alright, now, Kwan-ah,” he starts. “Now we’re all here and awake and, gosh, I can’t wait anymore, baby. Tell us,” Seungcheol’s eyes are shining with anticipation and wonder.
Chan’s brows furrow while his head tilts to a side a little. He sees everyone sitting on the edge of their seats, even the ones lounging on the floors, and looking with the same kind of look at their still pink-cheeked, glowing omega. The excitement in the room is almost concrete enough to touch. But before Chan could ask anything-
“Doc said… it’s a girl,” Seungkwan says, his eyes filling to the brim with tears, and his smile trembles a little with the effort to keep it there. “Our pup will be a girl. We’ll have a baby girl.”
Seungkwan’s words evoke an endless commotion, then, everyone exclaiming their joy, or pointing at each other to say “I told you so!”, Seokmin and Jihoon bawling unashamedly, Jisoo planning the bracelets he would bead for her, Wonwoo opening his notes to show the ideas of pup names, Mingyu draping himself all over Seungkwan’s legs with his head on his stomach, and-
Chan stays there, shellshocked.
Seungkwan is… pregnant? They’ll have a pup?
Once Chan starts filling the empty spaces with this new information, everything suddenly starts to fall into place. The list – the nausea, the fatigue, the dizziness, the cravings, the libido all over the place, the pack all hovering around him and smothering him with care and attention-
Wait. So the pack knew it? Was Chan the only one out of the loop?
“Chan-ah? You okay?” Hansol nudges him.
Chan turns to look at him robotically, then turns again to look at Seungkwan, and promptly comes out of his stupor.
“You’re pregnant?!” he yells, causing everyone to drop whatever they were doing to look at him. “And you all knew it!?”
“What the fuck?!” was the first reaction coming out of a sputtering Soonyoung.
“Chan, what do you mean? You didn’t know?” Jeonghan asks, as if Chan’s face had any trace of having been known.
“How would I fucking know?!” Chan shrieks. “How do you know!?”
“Seungkwan told us when he went to the GP and came back with the blood results that showed h-”
“When?!” Chan cuts through Seungcheol’s explanations to his own question.
“Um. Like, four months ago or so?”
Chan stands there like a puppet cut loose of his ropes, mouth gaping, eyes unblinking.
“Oh, right. Chan was not here when Seungkwan told us.”
“But he wrote it in the group chat? Sent the paper even?”
“Wasn’t Chan’s phone broken back then?”
“Ah. Oh.”
Seungkwan’s eyes are wet with tears again, but this time his expression shows no joy like it did minutes ago. Chan feels like shit for erasing that joy and putting tears in his eyes. But he also feels like shit for… feeling like the butt of a joke. Like a complete fool.
He takes a few steps until he is right in front of the omega, shoves Mingyu aside, and crouches in his place. He sees one tear falling from the corner of Seungkwan’s eye. He reaches out to dry it with the back of his hand, and then puts the same hand on Seungkwan’s belly. The belly that had been gradually getting fuller.
All this time, Seungkwan’s body has been adjusting to the new life it was preparing to host until it was time for it to breathe on its own. Her own.
Chan suddenly feels all of his previous frustrations clearing out of his head.
“There’s a pup in here?” he asks in a whisper.
Seungkwan nods as he tries to blink the wetness in his eyes away. Chan feels his own eyes getting wetter. The smell of milk is now even stronger the closer he is to Seungkwan, closer to their baby girl making a home inside Seungkwan.
He straightens up to kiss Seungkwan’s lips, and then crouches down again to press a long kiss on his stomach.
“I love you Kwannie. I’m sorry for making you cry,” he says, head still low on his stomach.
“I’m sorry for not telling you,” Seungkwan sniffs. “I thought you knew, you were so attentive with me, always checking on me and bearing all of my whims and I honestly didn’t think-”
“It’s okay,” Chan says, and feels that it really is okay now.
There is no time to be sad when they have a baby on the way. Especially no time to make the bearer of said baby sad.
“Just please do tell me the next time one of you gets pregnant, alright?” he turns around to look at Seokmin and Jeonghan, a finger pointing at them both.
“Promise!” Seokmin cries out, one hand raised in a salute form. Jun snorts next to him.
Chan sighs and lies his head back on Seungkwan, feeling the other’s fingers combing through his hair.
“Do we know the biological father then? I at least hope that it was Hansol who put it in you. A girl version of Mingyu and Seungkwan is honestly unimaginable.”
The gentle hand in his hair slaps Chan’s head harshly at that comment while Mingyu shouts a “Hey!” in protest, and Chan grins along to the loud laughs and undefinable voices coming from the pack.
Chan rips the page that has his list out of his small notebook when he goes back to his room a couple of hours later. Not to dump it in the trash, though, just to keep it safe. So that he will be readier than anyone for a next time.