Gong Pyeonghwa was always playing but still chased after Shin Saebyeok relentlessly, which scared and annoyed him.
Shin Saebyeok’s days were extremely short. After school came academy, after academy came another academy, after that came private tutoring, and after tutoring came homework, review, and preview.
Every day he studied until he was exhausted, sleeping only 2-4 hours. That’s how he maintained his position as the top student in the school. But unfairly, Gong Pyeonghwa always passed notes during class and played chicken fights during breaks, yet still managed to stay within the top 5 students.
It couldn’t have been more annoying.
Being with Gong Pyeonghwa always felt like playing tag. Pyeonghwa was always “it,” and Saebyeok always felt like he was being chased.
Though he tried hard to run away, he seemed to be the only one feeling anxious.
Whether it was from lack of sleep and accumulated fatigue, or from studying too much, or perhaps both, Shin Saebyeok had become more sensitive lately.
Then came the final exam of the second semester of middle school third year.
“Wow, shit. Hey. I absolutely crushed it.”
Gong Pyeonghwa scattered his self-graded exam papers into the air.
Pyeonghwa and his merry pranksters gathered his papers like women gleaning wheat and exclaimed:
“Whoa. Did Pyeonghwa get all perfect scores?”
“All perfect?”
“Why did Pyeonghwa get all perfect scores?”
What? Gong Pyeonghwa got all perfect scores? Shin Saebyeok’s hands trembled.
“This is the cl-aaaaass difference between you and me. Got it?”
And his trembling hand drew a slash mark on the last problem.
Just one problem difference, just one.
For the first time, he lost to Gong Pyeonghwa. He had never, at least in academics, ever lost before.
‘After all my effort.’
He felt his vision blurring. No, it actually did blur a little.
‘All the time I’ve poured in.’
Despite all that, he lost. How much more effort would he need to put in from now on? How much more? What else should he do here? Thoughts whirled like a typhoon.
‘What am I going to say when I get home?’
The last problem began to smudge.
Unaware of Saebyeok’s state, his desk mate merely tapped his arm curiously and asked:
“Hey, what was the answer to the last question? It was too noisy with those guys, I couldn’t hear.”
Only then did Shin Saebyeok realize he was crying, and he hurriedly hid his test paper and said:
“Number 3. Number 3.”
“Oh… Thanks.”
After homeroom ended, Shin Saebyeok walked weakly, staggering, unable to believe the reality.
Depressed, and more depressed, it was devastating. Gong Pyeonghwa’s laughter was particularly unbearable today.
‘Yeah, you must be happy.’
The sight of him gathering kids, suggesting they go to PC cafes or play board games, was especially irritating today.
‘I lost to someone who plays around like that…’
On the historic day of his first defeat, Shin Saebyeok went home and cried all night.
First silently, then sobbing loudly, he developed a fever throughout the night.
And that day, Shin Saebyeok presented as an omega.
It was the worst day of Shin Saebyeok’s life.
▶▶▶
“That’s when I started enjoying studying. I thought I was going to die spending the whole vacation on advanced learning.”
“I don’t care, I want to go home now.”
“Hey, listen. The reason I’m giving you our Iseul’s first birthday party invitation has a long way to go in the story.”
“I said I don’t care.”
Even though Seonwoo Jeong complained that he was just giving out invitations because it’s time for the first birthday party and there was no need to go back ten years, Gong Pyeonghwa, true to his reputation as an icon of one-way communication, kept saying what he wanted to say.
“Haaa… Because of you, I forgot where I was in the story. Jeong. For the sake of our friendship, I’ll let it slide.”
Seonwoo Jeong wanted to happily destroy his friendship with Pyeonghwa and leave.
“I’ll have to start from the beginning again.”
“Are you psycho?”
“So, how we first made an emotional connection… I need to tell you about our first year of high school.”
“It’s not too late. Let’s end our friendship.”
Despite Jeong’s declaration to end their friendship, Gong Pyeonghwa kept chattering without hesitation.
Seonwoo Jeong felt wronged. He hadn’t even pretended to open Pandora’s box, yet it opened on its own and released calamities.
“I presented as an alpha around that time.”
◀◀◀
Gong Pyeonghwa believed without doubt that he would be a beta.
After all, his father was a beta, and his mother was a beta. His older brother and younger sibling were betas too.
So naturally, he should have been a beta as well.
But?
‘The fact that I presented as an alpha or omega… does that mean I’m… an adopted child…? They told me I was picked up from under mom’s legs… so it wasn’t a metaphor but foreshadowing? Damn. Who plants such foreshadowing throughout someone’s life? Who waits 17 years to reveal a foreshadowing?’
Realizing the shocking possibility that he might have a secret birth history upon presenting, Gong Pyeonghwa stopped eating and drinking.
‘No wonder my brother always… to me because I was adopted. Ah, I see… that bastard…’
Gong Pyeonghwa gave meaning to all his past experiences and suffered as if carrying all the world’s misfortunes.
In this world where the vast majority were betas, alphas held quite a high social status. They were objects of envy. Yet Pyeonghwa couldn’t be happy.
Even though the whole world congratulated Pyeonghwa on presenting as an alpha, he wasn’t in the mood for celebration.
“It’s good to have regular pheromone checkups. And also, alongside that, sex education about omegas…”
“Doctor.”
“Yes?”
“…Ha, never mind.”
The doctor doesn’t understand my feelings. Pyeonghwa couldn’t bring himself to ask about his secret birth history and just sighed.
‘Is it puberty? I heard the kid was immature, maybe he’s having a late case of middle school syndrome?’
The attending physician didn’t think much of it and diligently taught him about alphas and omegas, heat cycles and rut cycles, the correlation between pheromones and health, and so on.
Pyeonghwa half-listened to the doctor’s words while swallowing tears inwardly.
It was heartbreaking to have a different trait from his family members.
‘Sob! I guess I’ll be an eternal outsider now.’
Pyeonghwa’s sensitivity continued at the dinner table.
Though he didn’t actually shed tears, with eyes full of the world’s sorrow and sighs that seemed like they could pierce the ground, his family thought Pyeonghwa might have experienced a heartbreak.
They thought he would get better after a few days, but due to his continued depression, his older brother, Gong Jeong, finally asked as their representative:
“What’s wrong?”
“Haaaa… What could be wrong with me? Right? Just, well, I don’t have much appetite. Father, Mother, have you been keeping well? I have no appetite, so I’ll excuse myself first…”
When Pyeonghwa spoke sadly and bowed politely, his parents finally realized the seriousness of the situation.
The family, excluding Pyeonghwa, huddled together to discuss.
‘Look at that, they’re close without me… I really am an adopted child…’
The alienated alpha Pyeonghwa, feeling like an outsider, went to school glumly in a Rolls-Royce driven by a chauffeur.
The majority of betas looked so peaceful.
‘Peace is my name… and everyone except me seems peaceful…’
The sensitive boy Pyeonghwa kept sighing inwardly while looking at the back of Shin Saebyeok’s head.
‘Shin Saebyeok is probably a beta… If he were an alpha, it would have been mentioned in the group. So envious… If I were a beta, I wouldn’t have to feel this alienation.’
Pyeonghwa, who had never felt defeated despite always being crushed in grades, tasted bitterness toward Shin Saebyeok for the first time.
‘At least I’m glad I didn’t present as an omega.’
He had heard that very rarely, men could also present as omegas.
After all, alphas had a better social perception than omegas.
Moreover, after presenting as an alpha, Pyeonghwa never felt physical fatigue. He could stay up all night gaming for two days and still be fine.
‘So what? I’m still an adopted child.’
Now he might even lose his inheritance rights.
‘I was just a means to keep Shin Saebyeok in check. Sob.’
Completely forgetting that his grandparents had special traits, Pyeonghwa just felt his situation was hopeless.
‘Shin Saebyeok, you must be their biological child… I envy you…! Sniff.’
Not knowing that Shin Saebyeok had presented as an omega, Pyeonghwa just envied him.
***
Shin Saebyeok became an omega overnight.
Not an alpha, not a beta, but an omega.
A male omega.
His home became like a funeral house.
The fact that their only son, the son who was supposed to inherit the company, became an omega instead of an alpha made Saebyeok’s father clutch the back of his neck in shock while his mother’s eyes welled up with tears.
Saebyeok became a sinner overnight.
Though he hadn’t done anything wrong, he knelt down, apologizing profusely and repeatedly.
Seeing this, his mother finally burst into tears, and his young sibling embraced Saebyeok and wailed.
Saebyeok’s father, though looking complicated and sighing continuously, ultimately did not embrace him.
“It’s okay, Saebyeok, it’s okay, my son, my poor baby…”
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
