It was a temperature that Saebyeok loved. Slightly higher than the average person’s body temperature, the kind where heat rises to the fingertips.
Freshly baked fish-shaped pastries, hand warmers, a child’s body temperature, and Gong Pyeonghwa.
Saebyeok felt shy looking at his husband for no particular reason and buried his face against the sleeping Iseul’s body.
“What’s that about.”
When one of the former classmates spoke in a mocking tone asking what that was about, another classmate who worked as a zookeeper retorted.
“Even animals offer food when courting. What business is it of yours about other people’s love lives?”
Perhaps because everyone was getting tipsy, a debate broke out between “Fish-shaped pastry romance is cost-effective” versus “No, it’s romantic youthful romance.” The drunk debaters had no logic but high decibels.
Regardless, Pyeonghwa took Saebyeok’s hand and interlocked their fingers. With a face redder than Saebyeok’s, Pyeonghwa said “It’s hot” while repeatedly fanning himself.
“I, didn’t, know, you, liked, me, since, then…”
Ah. Hadn’t he mentioned it? Saebyeok belatedly felt the heat rise.
They had known each other for 23 years, dated for 10 of those years, and even gotten married, yet this was the first time they’d talked about this. Come to think of it, it was true. It was embarrassing.
“Should we buy some fish-shaped pastries on our way home? Nice and warm.”
Pyeonghwa whispered to Saebyeok.
Saebyeok nodded slightly.
“Yes.”
While Pyeonghwa and Shin Saebyeok were lost in their own world, after intense debate, a conclusion was reached. What matters for fish-shaped pastries is the temperature, red bean filling represents pure love while custard filling represents affection, and Pyeonghwa is a food connoisseur.
“Don’t you guys know what a debate is?”
The former classmates, drunk and rambling according to their stream of consciousness, seemed to have taken a liking to debating and were searching like hyenas for new topics.
As they checked their phones or racked their brains, what they saw before them were Pyeonghwa and Shin Saebyeok.
Seeing the newlywed couple holding hands tightly and exchanging melodramatic gazes as if they were in a different world, they were reminded of the balance games that often appear in variety shows these days.
‘Can men and women just be friends?’
‘Can betas truly become lovers with alphas or omegas?’
‘Can friendship exist between alphas and omegas?’
The debate parrots, inspired by these good ideas, started arguing again with increased volume.
“But I am a bit curious too.”
“About what?”
One classmate who had been elegantly drinking alone spoke up.
“I believe male friends and female friends are both possible. But alphas and omegas have heat cycles, right? Even if they’re not interested in each other, I wonder if physical relationships would be different.”
Heat cycle and rut cycle.
Unlike betas, alphas and omegas experience heat periods according to their cycles. The heat periods of alphas and omegas are often raised as social issues.
Issues such as only getting fined despite committing crimes because of being in rut, or committing adultery because of being in heat, frequently appeared on the internet whenever people were bored.
“I don’t know about other things, but I’ve really been curious about that. In dramas, suppressants always seem to disappear when urgently needed. They’re always lost or forgotten—I wonder if it’s like that in real life.”
A former classmate who was a huge fan of alpha-omega themed dramas asked while reheating cold meat.
“Pharmacies are everywhere, and it’s not like others suffer—it’s the person themselves who suffers during the cycle. Unless they enjoy pain, how could such cases exist…”
They did exist.
“…”
Pyeonghwa just drank water with his lips tightly sealed.
◀◀◀
There was a time when Pyeonghwa had been absent.
For Pyeonghwa, who had lived without knowing what absence was, to suddenly be absent, and not just for one day, was unusual.
Though concerned as he couldn’t be reached, Saebyeok couldn’t ask others because they were pretending to be enemies.
There seemed to be a reason for being out of contact, as even Seonwoo Jeong didn’t know.
“Teacher, why isn’t Gong Pyeonghwa coming?”
“He said he can’t come because of his rut. Don’t worry too much and just study, you kids.”
Ah… rut.
A sigh of realization that Pyeonghwa was an alpha echoed throughout the classroom.
Probably no one except Saebyeok would understand Pyeonghwa’s hardship. Even Saebyeok couldn’t understand perfectly, being an omega rather than an alpha.
But having briefly experienced the heat cycle, Saebyeok could somewhat understand how lonely and painful Pyeonghwa must be right now.
Hoping for Pyeonghwa’s recovery(?), Saebyeok typed out a text message with firm presses.
The reply came exactly four days later.
ã… ã… Rut sucks ã… ã…
Pyeonghwa was absent for the entire week and only came to school on Monday. And he came slathered in excessive amounts of pheromone blockers.
Saebyeok took an extra dose of medicine just in case.
Pyeonghwa sat on the rooftop bench, repeatedly sniffling. He must have felt miserable.
“Rut fucking sucks. Fuck. Fuck. Fucking rut. How could this happen to me just because I forgot to take my medicine once?”
Having had such a difficult time for nearly a week, Pyeonghwa looked more sensitive, having lost even more weight than before.
Just in case, Saebyeok discreetly handed him some caramels bought from the school store.
Sniffling, Pyeonghwa popped the caramels into his mouth all at once.
“Why did you skip your medicine anyway?”
“It tastes awful, and when I take it, I feel so weird. My head feels heavy, my body feels heavy, I get nauseous, irritable…”
“That’s an adverse reaction.”
Since presenting as an omega, Saebyeok had tried every suppressant available. From commercially available suppressants to new drugs under development and suppressants only sold abroad, he had tried almost all the suppressants that could be taken.
The dyslexia he developed at the beginning of the semester was a symptom of combined stress and adverse reactions.
Of course, now that he had changed medications, the sudden dyslexia had disappeared, but he still had headaches and often felt sleepy.
“I don’t know. Mom said not to make excuses and just take it. But how can I take such medicine when we have a soccer match against Class 4 right away!”
“Suppressants don’t count as doping.”
Besides, what significance would doping have in a preliminary soccer match for the sports festival? Saebyeok thought it was a strange competitive spirit.
“No, it makes my body heavy, and I can’t perform at my full capacity! Shit. There are a few alphas in Class 4. Those bastards are so disrespectful. I need to break their pride.”
Class 4, being an all-boys class, had notably more alphas. Though it was only three or four of them.
“I’m so pissed off right now. Should I just go in and smash their noses? Huh?”
“Calm down…”
Pyeonghwa must have had such a difficult time for nearly a week that he added curses with every word, his voice dripping with misery.
“I hate taking suppressants. When I take them, I feel like a complete idiot, but when I don’t, it’s incredibly painful. Being an alpha really sucks. Fuck. I want to be a beta.”
Pyeonghwa hunched over, sniffling, looking so pitiful that anyone would feel sorry for him.
Finding it pitiful and understanding those feelings, Saebyeok sat next to Pyeonghwa and naturally said:
“I, too, dislike it. I want to be a beta. I hate being an omega.”
As he found out later, Pyeonghwa wasn’t sniffling from feeling miserable that day. When he was absent due to the suffering from his rut, he had taken ice baths for three days and ended up catching a cold.
“I don’t want to be an omega. Suppressants give me headaches. I get so sleepy. My heart races, and the slight ringing in my ears is annoying when I’m not concentrating.”
Saebyeok poured out all the feelings he couldn’t tell anyone else.
“I also hate my parents being overprotective.”
He couldn’t tell his parents because he felt sorry for them and disliked making them feel guilty.
“It’s also hard to control my expression when alpha hyungs I was friendly with at gatherings speak badly about omegas.”
Just everything had been difficult for Saebyeok to accept since becoming an omega.
Like Pyeonghwa, Saebyeok sniffled and poured out his sorrow.
Sniffling, Pyeonghwa embraced Saebyeok tightly.
“Please just let us be betas.”
Looking back now, it was nothing short of a farce, but at that time, they were quite serious. They hugged each other on the rooftop, sniffling and cursing their respective traits.
“Hey. So you’re an omega?”
“…Yes.”
“It doesn’t show at all. You’re really good at hiding it.”
Saebyeok thought Pyeonghwa might change his attitude since he had revealed he was an omega, but Pyeonghwa remained Pyeonghwa.
“If it were me, I would have been exposed as an omega right away while fighting with those Class 4 bastards…”
Class 1 and Class 4 often got into fights because even their homeroom teachers were rivals.
“No matter what they say, I’m still the top student in school.”
“That’s so cool. So you’ve been taking that shitty medicine every day and still ranked first in school?”
Worried he might have sounded too arrogant, Saebyeok nodded slightly.
“That’s so fucking badass. Damn…”
Fortunately, he received praise of being badass instead of a rebuke.
Pyeonghwa seemed to see Shin Saebyeok the person rather than Shin Saebyeok the omega.
As the more experienced one, Saebyeok decided to give Pyeonghwa some tips.
“M Pharmaceuticals’ suppressants have too many side effects, so take R Pharmaceuticals’. They have the least side effects, at least for me. Though I don’t know how it is for alphas.”
“I’m already taking R’s, but it still makes me nauseous. I’ve been constantly consulting with my doctor, but they just say I might have a unique constitution, which is so frustrating. Being an alpha is already a unique constitution, what more do I need? But when I don’t take it, I feel like I’m dying during rut.”
“You need to take them in the right combination.”
Saebyeok took supplements to take with suppressants, and then vitamins to take with those supplements.
“Isn’t that too many pills? You might develop side effects that weren’t there before. Is your liver okay?”
“I don’t know… There wasn’t any mention of it during my health checkup, but pheromones still have many variables.”
Even with modern medicine, they still hadn’t found suitable solutions for baldness and pheromones.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
