Yeong-min stared at Hee-won’s face for a long moment. He had a youthful face that was clearly the same age as Hee-won or younger, and yet he was calling him “beta” right from their first meeting. His name is right there on the employee ID. Their job titles looked the same too.
“I don’t.”
But Hee-won didn’t have the courage to match his tone. Everyone here except him was an alpha or omega. If he talked back carelessly, it was obvious he wouldn’t come out of it in one piece.
Yeong-min, who had been glaring at Hee-won’s politely composed face with clear displeasure, tilted his head several times. His expression was that of someone who knew Hee-won was lying.
So that’s the type he is. Someone who proudly perpetuates the unspoken class hierarchy. Someone who openly looks down on betas. Hee-won barely managed to hold back a sigh full of exasperation.
On top of that, he’d received suspicious looks for reasons he didn’t even understand. If something was bothering you, you could just say so — but alphas and omegas always did this to betas. Asking what everyone already knew in the most oblivious way possible.
“And here you are saying that, with alpha scent smeared all over you. Your body, your desk — it doesn’t matter where — mint has been reeking from you since earlier.”
“Mint scent, you say…….”
Hee-won glanced sideways at Ha-geon, who was serenely working at the far end of the room. Regardless of whose gaze landed on him, his eyes were fixed to his laptop — he was deeply focused.
And he was wearing glasses Hee-won hadn’t seen before. Wire-framed glasses that could have looked outdated, but they suited him remarkably well. Truly, a genuinely handsome person makes a photoshoot out of whatever they put on.
He’d forgotten he was in a crisis and gotten briefly distracted by the handsome face. Yeong-min, who had no idea why Hee-won’s attention had shifted away from him, looked displeased. A beta, ignoring what he just said?
Yeong-min clenched his fist. Hee-won noticed and sent him a baffled look. Why is this person suddenly so angry at me? He’d done nothing but sit beside him and work quietly.
Of course, betas had a way of irritating alphas and omegas for no reason quite often. The prime reason was the absence of pheromones. Watching Yeong-min try to sniff something out, it seemed like this was one of those times.
“I have an exceptional nose for pheromones.”
Betas gave him nothing to sense, so he’d always disliked them. That was what Yeong-min said. That at best, the only things they gave off were unpleasant things like body odor.
So there’s not a single alpha or omega whose pheromones smell like sweat or something like that? So much I don’t know. Hee-won frowned slightly. There are billions of people in this world, nearly two billion alphas and omegas.
Yeong-min, who had been eyeing Hee-won’s expression with dissatisfaction, finally gave his shoulder a poke.
“Beta.”
“Oh, I’m sorry. What were you saying?”
“I don’t know what recessive you’ve got wrapped around your finger, but workplace romance is prohibited here. Keep it under control. Only a nobody can’t hide their pheromones.”
“……This is a bit out of nowhere, but can I ask you one thing?”
Hee-won blinked, then tilted his head with a curious look. One thing Yeong-min had said was nagging at him. A beta daring to cut him off was obviously going to be uncomfortable for Yeong-min — but it couldn’t be helped.
If I avoid a moment of discomfort now and put the question off, a bigger discomfort is going to find me later. And wasn’t having a superior there so you could ask questions when you didn’t understand something?
Of course, that only held true between people of the same rank.
Stopped mid-sentence by Hee-won’s sudden interjection, Yeong-min narrowed his eyes. Someone sitting nearby turned to glance at Yeong-min slightly. It seemed some pheromone or other was leaking out.
“Go ahead.”
“……Is it something you can hide — pheromones? They don’t just naturally drift out when someone’s nearby?”
“You really don’t know anything.”
Yeong-min’s look was edging toward something almost pitying now. You don’t know anything about betas either, so I don’t know what gives you the right to talk like that. Though of course, not knowing about betas didn’t pose any great inconvenience to daily life.
If Hee-won hadn’t ended up at this company, he might never have needed to make any real effort to understand alphas and omegas in any detail either. And he wouldn’t be receiving this pitying look from a man who seemed younger than him.
Is being born a beta a crime? Every time he endured a space shared with alphas and omegas, Hee-won thought that.
“Alphas and omegas — unless they’re recessive — can intentionally hide their pheromones. It’s only a bit harder for recessives. Regular alphas and omegas lose control of it when emotions run high…… but dominants can manage it even then.”
“I see……. Thank you for telling me.”
“So tell that mint-scented partner or owner of yours to keep it in check. Smelling it this strongly, they’re probably recessive. And honestly, I mean…….”
Yeong-min let the sentence trail off. But Hee-won could fill in the rest perfectly well. Someone fooling around with a beta is either nobody important, or just looking for a plaything. That was probably it. Not surprising, and not novel enough to be genuinely offensive. How do you know he’s recessive? That question made it all the way to the tip of his tongue before he swallowed it.
Having apparently gotten his fill of picking at Hee-won, Yeong-min returned to his own work. In truth, it was obvious he had little actual interest in Hee-won’s love life. He’d just spotted a beta and felt like throwing his weight around once.
There were quite a lot of alphas and omegas like this in the world. He figured one of the orange or chocolate scents Ha-geon had mentioned yesterday was probably Yeong-min. The type who, upon spotting a beta, itched to leave their pheromone scent on them — and upon seeing someone associate with a beta, itched to tear them down. Regrettably, the one who left this scent is the team leader.
Kim Ha-geon and I have a closer relationship than you and Kim Ha-geon do. He wanted to yell that out. Of course, if he actually said something like that, he’d obviously be treated like a madman.
“Hee-won.”
“Yes?”
This time it was the woman on his other side who spoke to him. She’s probably the chocolate scent. Since she wasn’t wearing her employee ID, Hee-won had internally decided to call her Chocolate for now.
The fact that she called him by his name showed she was relatively courteous. Though she did have enough of a mischievous streak to go around leaving chocolate scent on a beta. Still, she doesn’t seem like a bad person.
Hee-won turned toward her. She dropped her voice to a low whisper.
“There’s no alpha or omega in our company who uses a mint scent — whose scent got on you?”
“There isn’t……?”
“Oh, there are people who do hide their scent. Our team leader, for one, and some of the board members, and a deputy director in another department. Are you by any chance dating the deputy director in finance? That one’s absolutely hopeless, so run while you can.”
“No, nothing like that……. But they’re all fairly high-ranking — why do they hide their scent?”
“People like that — the moment they sleep with someone or set their sights on a person, it becomes everyone’s business. So they do it on purpose.”
For safe private meetings and staying out of the press, then. Hee-won felt like he was beginning to understand why only dominants survived at the higher levels. The ones who weren’t would have been held back by their pheromones.
I thought being an alpha or omega would only be an advantage — apparently that’s not the case either. She leaned in again as if she had one more thing to share while she was at it.
“Apparently people who hide their scent have double the reaction during rut or heat cycles. At night they’re just absolutely…….”
“You don’t have to tell me that part……. And I genuinely am not seeing anyone.”
When Hee-won said it with full sincerity, she finally seemed to accept it and gave a small nod. Her expression said she still had questions, but she’d take his word for it for now. How generous.
I feel like I’ve been picking up a strangely large amount of useless information about dominants today. He was about to turn his head when he caught sight of the employee ID tossed carelessly on her desk. It read Lee Yeo-jin.
Yeo-jin glanced at the team leader once, then quickly returned to her work. It seemed she had more she wanted to say but was keeping an eye on him. Back to peace and quiet at last. Hee-won exhaled deeply.
And after a full day of working and observing, the conclusion he’d reached was this: by his second day at work, it seemed a baseless rumor had already spread that Hee-won was a beta dating a dominant alpha or omega with a mint pheromone scent.
That person is Team Leader Kim Ha-geon, sitting right in front of you all.
Hee-won spent the entire day suppressing the urge to shout that out. We’re not dating either. The one thing you got right is that a dominant alpha has a passing interest in playing with a beta for a while.
[Should we try mint choco tomorrow? Large for you, regular for me — and I’ll buy you a cookie too. That okay?]
The text that buzzed Hee-won’s phone nonchalantly as the end of the workday approached was from Ha-geon. He glanced up to look over at Ha-geon’s desk, and there he was — as if he hadn’t just sent that text at all — already back to working diligently.
You’ve had me suffering all day because of the mint scent you plastered all over me, and you have the nerve to sit there talking about trying mint choco.
I hope some wonderful omega or alpha appears soon and sweeps this man off his feet. So the whole world can know his pheromone scent is mint.
And now I’ve got mint choco to worry about tomorrow. Hee-won flipped his phone face-down and sighed.
2
Even though he was rushing out well ahead of the scheduled start time, Hee-won felt strangely pressed for time. Whether it was because of all the morning chaos, Chae-won had started making a scene too.
Putting on mismatched socks, crashing into each other coming out of the bathroom. It had been this kind of commotion since Chae-won graduated from university. It’s all Kim Ha-geon’s fault. Hee-won ground his teeth.
Sometime in the early hours while he was asleep, a message had come in — another points card attached — asking him to buy mint choco and, on top of that, a sandwich as well. Dying of busy.
“You’re not eating?”
“I’ve got the wrong boss, so I can’t. I need to go now. I’m heading out.”
Chae-won, who had been shoveling food into her cheeks at the dining table, craned her neck to watch Hee-won sprint for the door. Ha-geon or Hak-won or Geon or whatever — it sounds like he’s done something to my poor beta little brother again.
Honestly, insufferable person. Does he think he’s the only dominant alpha in the world? Does he think a beta’s siblings couldn’t possibly be an alpha or omega? Or does he just see an easy target?
Whichever it was, Chae-won had no intention of letting it go unchallenged. Oblivious to Chae-won’s gaze following him, Hee-won hurried out the door.
Even though he’d left a full hour early, the subway was already packed with the morning rush. Do these people not sleep before coming to work? I really need to just get a car. Looking around, betas made up more than half of the crowd.
