It felt like déjà vu from Christmas. Remembering how I’d played until I was completely drained back then, I walked over to him. The omega friends sitting around the table greeted me. Among them were the two omegas I’d hung out with before.
Like the true social butterfly of this era, Kim Bo-jin was occupying the center of the table. Thankfully, everyone kindly shifted a bit to make room. I sat down next to him, tugged on his ear, and said,
“Be honest. How many drinks have you had?”
“Not that many.”
“Bo-jin. My friend. I don’t want to lose you so early in life. Confess now before I snitch to your mother.”
Just then, while I was talking to Kim Bo-jin, someone nudged me from the side. I turned my head to see an incredibly pretty female omega. Even though she was clearly an omega, she was so pretty that my eyes kept drifting back to her.
“Hi. You’re Yuri, right?”
“Uh, yeah.”
“I’ve heard a lot about you from Bo-jin. Nice to meet you. I’m Kwon Mir.”
“Nice to meet you too.”
“For the record, Bo-jin said he hates soju and vodka, so he only had one 500cc beer.”
500cc? And he’s already this wasted from that? I looked at Kim Bo-jin with disdain.
“Bo-jin, are you a lightweight?”
“Shut up.”
“Alright, alright. Hyung’s sorry. You’re not supposed to call an idiot an idiot.”
Ignoring Kim Bo-jin’s flailing beside me, I glanced around—and only then did I realize that all the omegas at our table were staring at me.
“Uh… hi?”
I awkwardly raised a hand in greeting, carefully controlling my emotions so my lightly diffused rose scent wouldn’t betray my awkwardness. When I greeted them, the omegas began responding one by one.
“You’re Yuri, right? I heard you’re a dominant omega!”
“Yeah, that’s right.”
“Wow… that’s so cool. I’ve never seen a dominant omega before!”
“Me neither!”
“Really?”
Kim Bo-jin was the type who didn’t judge people by their traits or family background. From the way they talked, it didn’t seem like he’d met these guys at school.
While I was chatting happily with the new people, a problem arose.
“Uh…? Are you Yeon Yuri?”
I’d run into someone who knew Yeon Yuri. Like a rusty robot, I stiffly turned my head and looked at the alpha passing by our table.
“Your face, your pheromones. Yeah. It’s Yeon Yuri.”
A cold sweat trickled down my back. At school, the people who were close to Yeon Yuri were limited—Kim Bo-jin and a few others. And since everyone at school knew about Yeon Yuri’s personality, I could usually get by smoothly without memorizing every name. I hadn’t even been attending school regularly.
But this was different. An alpha.
I had no idea. Was he Yeon Yuri’s ex? Just a friend? Someone who had a crush on him?
Fuck, Yeon Yuri’s past was one hell of karmic baggage. I was the one picking up the pieces of the mess he’d generously dumped everywhere.
While I stood frozen, the guy sent his alpha friends ahead and turned back to me.
“Long time no see. You never answered my calls after that. And now we run into each other here. Guess fate’s still fate.”
With a cringeworthy smile like butter-grilled squid, he braced a hand on our table. A savory avocado scent pierced through my dulled sense of smell.
The five or six omegas at our table had all fallen silent, watching the standoff between me and the alpha.
When I kept silent, he ran a hand through his hair and smirked.
“Figures. Yeon Yuri. You don’t remember me, do you?”
I flinched at that. Does he know I lost my memory? I quickly reined in the flicker of agitation in my pheromones. Thankfully, no one seemed to notice.
“Still got that rotten personality, I see.”
Then, so only I could hear, he muttered:
“You filthy slut.”
It took me a few seconds to process it. Slut? Yeon Yuri?
Ah. This bastard slept with Yeon Yuri.
The moment that realization hit, anger surged up. I didn’t know whether it was Yeon Yuri’s anger or mine, but a piercing rose scent lashed out at him. He was probably feeling like his whole body was being pricked by rose thorns.
“Hey. If we rolled around together, does that make me the only trash? You’re trash too.”
He clung to the table, barely managing to stay upright.
I grabbed him by the collar and murmured into his ear.
“And if you don’t want to die, watch your fucking mouth. What are you gonna do if I get pissed and start mocking what’s going on down there? Do I look like the only one who’d go down?”
Back at the restaurant, I hadn’t targeted just one person with my pheromones. But this was different. A dominant omega could select a specific target and release scent only at that person. And I was making full use of that advantage.
“Yeon Yuri. Tone it down. At this rate he’s gonna get hard.”
Kim Bo-jin whispered in my ear.
“The fuck, what?”
I stared at the alpha in front of me like someone who’d just eaten curry that tasted like shit. Glancing downward, I saw Kim Bo-jin was right. A damp, unpleasant scent was rising from below.
This insane world had all kinds of tastes, and I’d always prided myself on being understanding about them… but when the bastard who’d just spat insults in my face reacted like that, fuck understanding. I just wanted to kick him in the crotch.
“You fucking psycho….”
I let go of his collar. Despite being an alpha, he staggered and collapsed onto the floor. I pressed the call button under the table. Soon a waiter approached, and I explained the situation. In the end, the alpha was escorted out of the club by the guards.
“Yuri… are you okay?”
“Seriously. You must’ve been so startled. An alpha suddenly coming up to you like that.”
Once he was gone, the omega friends comforted me. They clearly saw me as a pitiful omega who’d been harassed by an alpha. It seemed Yeon Yuri’s rumors hadn’t reached this far.
My body trembled slightly. I swallowed dryly and looked at them.
“No. I think I just ruined the mood because of me. Sorry.”
They waved their hands, saying it was fine, not to worry. Their omega pheromones wrapped around me warmly. This wasn’t bad either. My noona had said that a bonded alpha’s pheromones gave an omega a sense of stability. But even other omegas’ pheromones felt steadying and nice.
***
Under their comfort, I forced myself to act cheerful and ordered more drinks. At Kim Bo-jin’s incredulous look, I signaled him to shut his mouth. Since he owed me, he wisely kept quiet.
“Alright, should we start drinking again?”
“Yeah!”
The table regained its energy. I exchanged contact information with the omegas sitting there. With each drink that went down, my mood lifted. Before we knew it, we were having fun as if we’d completely forgotten about the psycho bastard from earlier.
“I like strawberries! I like strawberries!”
“Yoon-ji~ likes~ random game!”
“Oh, this is fun, this is exciting. The Game of Death! Seventeen!”
The drinking games were ridiculously fun. Even though it was all omegas, maybe because of memories from my previous world, just being surrounded by girls made it enjoyable.
“Finally, it’s Yuri!”
We’d ordered three bottles of alcohol so far, and I’d only had one shot.
Partly because I was good at drinking games—but that’s just how they go. It’s an unchanging law that once someone gets picked at the start, they keep getting picked. It’s practically impossible for a drunk idiot who’s bad at the game to beat someone sober and skilled.
I was supposed to shout “Carrot, carrot,” but I just blankly stood there, so as punishment I had to drink. The sharp soju slid down my throat.
“One more round!”
“Yeah! Yuri~ likes~ random game!”
After who knows how many rounds, when the six of us had downed seventeen bottles of soju, we were completely plastered. Everyone except Kim Bo-jin. That bastard must’ve cheated somehow. How the hell do you play nearly a hundred rounds of drinking games and not get picked once?
“Ugh… Mir… the world’s spinnin’….”
I babbled nonsense like someone drowning in alcohol.
“Yurini? Yuri? Where are you? I can’t smell your pheromones… sob…”
“As long as the East Sea and Mount Baekdu dry and wear away….”
There were all kinds of drunk habits. Some passed out, some cried, some started singing.
In the end, cleanup duty fell to the only sober one—Kim Bo-jin. He unlocked each person’s phone and contacted their respective guardians.
“Yeon Yuri. Should I call Yu-jeong noona?”
“No, Bo-jin-ah… don’t abandon me… she’ll chase me out with a broom and I’ll freeze to death like a statue in the winter wind….”
“Fuck. I don’t know. You’re the one who said no to your noona.”
I sobbed loudly, slumped over the table as if fused with it, then suddenly wrapped my arms tightly around Mir beside me.
