The rustling sound of Pyeonghwa’s school uniform shirt and his pheromones subtly scraped against Saebyeok’s nerves and ears.
“Hey. You’re a beta, right?”
“…Yes!”
“I envy you…”
For once, Saebyeok hated Pyeonghwa.
Carelessly releasing pheromones while not being an omega, but an alpha.
“I wish I could be a beta too.”
“Why? Being an alpha is good.”
Saebyeok unknowingly spoke with a sharp tone. His heart sank momentarily, thinking he had reacted too sensitively, but Pyeonghwa answered casually.
“Being an alpha is kinda tough. Groups are divided into alphas, betas, and omegas, and the alpha hyungs try to isolate omegas with them. Parents also try to match me up with someone whenever an omega presents.”
Does he dislike omegas? After contemplating, Saebyeok asked.
“…Do you dislike omegas?”
“Huh? No? Isn’t it ridiculous to categorize people by traits? I just prefer jamanchu… Hey, do you know what jamanchu is?”
What’s jamanchu? The internet addict Pyeonghwa occasionally brought up terms Saebyeok had never heard, and always asked if he understood them.
How his pride was hurt each time he had to say he didn’t know.
“…Of course I know. Jamanchu.”
It was definitely some kind of abbreviation.
“What is it then?”
“Recommended online lectures for perfect scores in natural sciences?”
“Keep dreaming. Sure.”
Damn… Saebyeok internally calmed his anger at Pyeonghwa’s condescending expression.
“It’s just, you know. How is it different from matching AB blood types with O types because they’re supposedly compatible? Isn’t that super weird? It just feels like my existence is being consumed by my alpha trait.”
Saebyeok could understand what Pyeonghwa was saying.
Saebyeok, who had been a proud son for 16 years, became a pitiful son overnight, all because of the omega trait.
“A trait is just a trait, and I am me.”
“Yeah.”
“But after presenting, it’s like, I don’t know? I feel like an outsider.”
A minority of alphas and omegas existing among the vast majority of betas.
Why can alphas and omegas sense and share pheromones that betas can’t, and imprint on each other?
Perhaps the reason is for alphas and omegas to survive while being marginalized in the beta world.
Maybe because only outsiders can understand each other’s loneliness.
“I guess so.”
Alphas and omegas might be each other’s only true understanding companions.
Saebyeok began to see his trait—which had seemed only like a curse—differently.
He thought that perhaps alphas and omegas exist for each other.
“That would make sense.”
“Right? This might sound like a privileged complaint, but it feels like I became a mutant. It’s just, you know.”
It did sound privileged.
“Still, being an alpha is better than being an omega.”
“Well, that’s true.”
Saebyeok’s chest ached.
“Male omegas are, you know? Dis-disgusting, and, and weird, right? A man getting pregnant is disgusting. It’s strange.”
With each word, it felt like his flesh was being stabbed. Yet he couldn’t stop the self-deprecation.
“Well… if we’re talking about that, a middle-aged man with a big belly is stranger. His belly is big without even being pregnant.”
“Simply being fat and being pregnant are different things.”
“Hey. Could you still say that if your mother was a male omega?”
Saebyeok couldn’t answer.
His mother was a beta and a woman. Saebyeok’s mother could never be a male omega like him.
“Tsk, you’re more narrow-minded than you look.”
The narrow-minded omega Saebyeok momentarily lost his words. Before he could retort, Pyeonghwa spoke.
“Male seahorses get pregnant too.”
“That’s a special case…”
“Isn’t that super manly? Damn. That’s so cool. Getting pregnant for the woman you love. A truly otherworldly cool guy. A romantic guy. The epitome of romance and manliness.”
The romantic Pyeonghwa, enchanted by the coolness of seahorses, continued to exclaim “Whoa—” in admiration.
“Giving birth looks… incredibly painful.”
Pyeonghwa, who had completed mandatory sex education about alphas and omegas, looked a bit pale.
“If I marry someone I love in the future, I wish I could get pregnant and have the baby instead. It looks so painful. What if she dies giving birth? That’s crazy.”
▶▶▶
“Maybe that’s why I said those things back then.”
Pyeonghwa gently caressed the chubby cheeks of Iseul, the precious fruit of his love, speaking with a distant look.
“I had all the morning sickness. I thought I was dying. I lost 12kg.”
Still, he had no regrets. Pyeonghwa was an otherworldly romantic who couldn’t bear the thought of Shin Saebyeok losing even 1g.
“I didn’t as—”
Seonwoo Jeong wondered if saying “I didn’t ask” might trigger something.
While pondering what to say, the baby sleeping peacefully in Pyeonghwa’s arms yawned, opening its tiny mouth.
“Oh! Our! I! Seul! Waking up? Are you waking up?”
Iseul smiled like an angel.
When she smiled, her plump cheeks rolled upward. To Seonwoo Jeong, that moment of the newborn smiling seemed to move in slow motion.
In that brief 0.75-second moment, Seonwoo Jeong fell in love.
‘I’ll definitely attend the first birthday party…’
What tore Seonwoo Jeong’s emotional moment was none other than the baby angel Iseul.
Iseul, the tiny angel who seemed to have been meticulously crafted by heaven, made a creature-like sound that didn’t match her face.
The angel, who started wailing as soon as she opened her eyes, threw punches with her tiny hands that looked small enough to fit in one’s mouth. Her temperament was terrible, just like one of her parents.
“Let’s go see our Iseul’s daddy. Da-ddy.”
“Da-ee.”
Her diction is better than I thought?
“Royal Father.”
She’s even using the highest honorific?
“I think our child is a genius, probably taking after Saebyeok.”
It must be a lucky coincidence. It’s easier to pronounce words without final consonants. Anyway, becoming a parent really does make you dote on your child.
The doting guardian Pyeonghwa patted Iseul’s bottom, soothing the crying child.
“Alright. Alright.”
What did she say? Seonwoo Jeong craned his neck to look at Iseul, but she had closed her mouth sullenly.
“Let’s go eat food. Food.”
“Foof.”
As Pyeonghwa said, her listening skills seemed good as Iseul smiled brightly again at the mention of food and gestured to Seonwoo Jeong.
Seonwoo Jeong followed Iseul as if entranced.
And thus, Seonwoo Jeong kicked away a golden opportunity to go home and walked straight into a talk hell of his own accord.
“Un-cuh.”
“Huh? Did this tiny thing just call me uncle?”
Crushed by the disaster he brought upon himself, Seonwoo Jeong interpreted the baby’s babble as he pleased and was moved.
While Iseul and Uncle Seonwoo were having their touching first meeting, Shin Saebyeok, Iseul’s other father, was busy receiving drinks, surrounded by former classmates.
Are you really an omega, a male omega, did you have a child, what’s your relationship with Pyeonghwa, how did you get married, so when you two are in bed who… Even when inappropriate questions came from all directions, Saebyeok countered with a friendly face.
“Jinyoung really crosses the line. I don’t think we were close enough to ask such things.”
There was a momentary hush at his comment, which drew a line despite his gentle gaze, but since the recent remark had indeed been rude and everyone was a bit drunk, they laughed it off.
“He probably didn’t mean any harm. It’s just, you know, too surprising and hard to believe. Pyeonghwa, who we thought had disappeared, showed up at the reunion after nearly 10 years with a baby.”
“And holding a man’s hand.”
“And that man being Shin Saebyeok—it’s surprising and curious enough to cross the line.”
Does curiosity justify crossing boundaries? Saebyeok wanted to ask, but decided to let it go.
He and his husband had planned to invite all of them to the first birthday party. Whether this was the right approach or not, they didn’t know, but since husband and wife are one body, they decided to try it together.
“Well, your relationship was… you know. To be honest, I once went to the teacher because Pyeonghwa was especially prickly towards you…”
Somehow, Pyeonghwa occasionally grumbled about being called to the teachers’ office. At those times, Pyeonghwa would look genuinely wronged, and Saebyeok had to hold back his laughter at his cute face.
“Pyeonghwa tried hard back then.”
◀◀◀
Gong Pyeonghwa and Shin Saebyeok decided to be friends.
Gong Pyeonghwa and Shin Saebyeok exchanged numbers for the first time in 12 years.
The playful Pyeonghwa tried to flirt with Shin Saebyeok.
He contacted him constantly, sending funny memes from the internet.
Sometimes, when something was too funny, Saebyeok couldn’t maintain his expression and would often chuckle even at home.
When their son, who usually had a stoic face and only studied, laughed like a typical teenager, his parents discreetly asked if something good had happened.
Saebyeok’s eyes began to tremble anxiously. He stuttered excessively:
“N-n-nothing, r-right? Just. S-suddenly remembered something funny…”
He told his first lie to his parents.
But his parents weren’t fools, and since they were already worried about their son presenting as an omega, they kept pressing Saebyeok.
Eventually, after sharing a bit about Pyeonghwa and saying that he didn’t seem like a bad kid and wanted to be friends with him, his parents firmly shook their heads.
Dispirited, Saebyeok didn’t talk to Pyeonghwa for a week, which pissed off Pyeonghwa who then grabbed Saebyeok by the collar and dragged him to the rooftop.
And so, a rumor spread throughout the school that Pyeonghwa and Shin Saebyeok had gotten into a fight.
Of course, no actual bloodshed occurred.
“Hey. Why are you ignoring me?”
“…My parents told me not to be friends with you.”
“That’s…”
Momentarily at a loss for words, Pyeonghwa just stood there with his mouth open, then spoke with a choked-up expression.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
