Hee-won tilted his head several times before a thought suddenly struck him and he broke into a run.
“Team leader!”
Wait — I don’t have pheromones.
At the sudden sound of someone calling his name while sprinting toward him, Ha-geon turned around. The urge to snap what do you want evaporated at the sheer force of Hee-won’s approach.
Hee-won had run up looking like he was about to throw a punch, and now bent slightly at the waist to catch his breath. Ha-geon watched him with a flustered expression but waited in silence.
I’m grateful he didn’t just leave, but if he’d brought up whatever was bothering him or upsetting him from the start, it wouldn’t have come to this. Hee-won straightened up and looked at Ha-geon.
“I think there’s been a misunderstanding.”
“And you know what I’m thinking, do you.”
“I don’t — but for now, this rose scent…….”
“An alpha, I take it.”
Don’t cut me off out of nowhere. Hee-won forcefully pushed down the surge of irritation rising in his chest. This person is an alpha, a superior, a parachute hire. I cannot have my desk cleared out as early as tomorrow.
If not for the survival instinct that had surfaced without him realizing, he might have shot Ha-geon an outright hostile look on the spot. In the first place, Hee-won couldn’t even figure out why he owed it to anyone to clear up this misunderstanding with everything he had.
Whether he rolled around with an alpha, had a wild night with an omega, or married a beta — what reason did Ha-geon have to react like this, to misread the situation, to get riled up? Do you have feelings for me or something?
“It is an alpha — but it’s my sister.”
“Sorry?”
The shift in Ha-geon’s eyes — thrown off, unsettled — told Hee-won his guess had been right. He hadn’t known it was family. Why would not being family make him angry? Do you like me? Was it love at first sight or something?
Alphas might just be a species that feels possessiveness over everything in their orbit. Like if a mosquito bit them in summer, they’d probably catch it and keep it as a pet.
While Hee-won was mentally cursing him with that non-curse of a curse, Ha-geon was lost in thought, eyes moving around. It hadn’t been Hee-won’s intention to throw him off, but now that it had happened, Hee-won felt oddly embarrassed instead. Trying to clear up a misunderstanding and ended up making him flustered.
Still, if the situation was going to end with him getting grief no matter what, he’d rather take the grief for something he actually did. Getting misjudged and blamed for something he hadn’t done was too unjust.
“She’s my biological older sister. In our house, only my father and I are betas. My mother’s scent is apparently coffee……. You probably weren’t curious, but I figured if I accidentally came in with my mother’s pheromone on me someday, I didn’t want you to be confused.”
“Oh, that…… right, understood.”
“Then I’ll gratefully accept the sandwich. I’ll head back to work now.”
Ha-geon, too, had probably been at a loss for words. Hee-won decided to make a smart exit. It was obvious Ha-geon needed him gone before he could be properly embarrassed in peace. I’m impressed by my own thoughtfulness.
He didn’t know why this man was fixated on him — but if it was something like romantic feelings or something resembling possessiveness, it was on him to cut it off. Nothing good came from getting entangled with an alpha.
Besides, wasn’t this person heir to a conglomerate? Not even for a one-night fling would he ever want to get involved. At thirty, it was about time to start thinking about meeting someone seriously rather than playing with fire.
Just find a beta who’s on my level, someone I can hold a decent conversation with, build an ordinary life together, have kids if things work out…… And what if, against all odds, the child was born an alpha or omega?
A person whose future is murky no matter how hard they work. Betas were clearly the physical embodiment of injustice. Hee-won hung his head and sighed as he returned to his seat.
That day’s lunch was handled roughly with the sandwich Ha-geon had bought. It had gotten a bit battered from rolling around in the bag, but it still tasted good. He poured himself a cup of water from the dispenser and soothed his parched insides.
In a company full of alphas and omegas, there was no one to eat lunch with Hee-won. On top of that, a beta walking around with a dominant alpha’s scent clinging to them — yesterday mint, today rose — would be even more of a person to avoid.
It wasn’t actually the case, but Hee-won suspected a rumor along the lines of brazen new beta hire cycling through alphas had probably already spread. Whatever. This place was for earning money, not socializing.
In the afternoon, Yeong-min picked at him over something trivial and made him redo work that needed doing once, and right before clocking out, Yeo-jin — apparently feeling sorry for how worn out he looked — gave him a book as a gift.
For the Beta with Alpha and Omega Children
She said it was the only book that covered how betas could deal with alphas and omegas. It was Yeo-jin who had pulled the prank of dousing him in her pheromone on his very first day — but Hee-won was genuinely moved to tears of gratitude.
“Alright, let’s call it a day.”
It was exactly six o’clock. Ha-geon stood up from his desk and announced it in a voice loud enough for everyone to hear. In a scene not unlike a bell signaling the end of a mandatory study period in high school, everyone packed up at once and filed out of the marketing office.
Is it always like this — everyone leaving right on the dot? This was his first full-time job, so he didn’t really know. But a new hire bolting out the door the moment the clock struck six didn’t seem like a good look, so Hee-won dragged his feet and took his time packing up. He planned to leave after everyone else had gone.
But Ha-geon was dawdling every bit as much as Hee-won was. A strange, silent standoff unfolded between them. It was now too late to leave first and too awkward to leave last. Which comes first, the head or the tail?
“Um…….”
“Go ahead and leave. I have things left to do at the office.”
Having already changed into his shoes and packed his bag, the excuse rang somewhat hollow. Even so, Hee-won chose to graciously accept Ha-geon’s thinly stretched pretext.
He gave a brief bow as if to say I’ll be going then and turned to leave the marketing office. He only regretted not having said even a token thanks for the sandwich by the time he was already in the elevator.
Throughout that whole process of taking the elevator down and walking out of the building, people were sneaking glances at him. Apparently being a beta is enough to get recognized even without your face or name being known. It felt like receiving a lifetime’s worth of attention all at once.
After finding a seat on the subway, Hee-won pulled out the book. Reading this, people are going to think I’m a dad. People were already peeking at him sideways.
“Fine, yes, I’m a dad…….”
Nobody could have heard his murmur. He skipped past the childcare sections and opened to the part about the traits of alphas and omegas. He already knew the rut and heat cycle sections, so he skipped past those too……
“……Dominant alphas and dominant omegas make up roughly thirty percent of the thirty percent minority within the total population — meaning approximately one in ten people has the potential to be dominant. Beyond that, regular alphas and omegas account for sixty percent, and recessives account for roughly ten percent. Some variation in individual ranges does of course apply. This is determined during the first heat cycle or rut, so please be patient and wait.”
“The longer the first rut or heat cycle, the lower the trait classification: a duration of under one day indicates dominant, one to three days indicates regular, and anything beyond that indicates recessive. Rut and heat cycle durations can shift as one grows, but as this is a result of control developed over time and not a matter of trait classification, trait assessments are not revisited on these grounds.”
“If you reading this book right now are a beta with an alpha or omega spouse, you’ll likely already know this — but sexual intercourse during your spouse’s heat or rut cycle is not recommended. It will place significant strain on your body.”
“In the case of dominant alphas, rut periods tend to be far more regular than those of other alphas. If your child is a dominant alpha, please educate them to carry suppressants during specific periods. In the event that a rut occurs without suppressants available, block access from other alphas and omegas and obtain suppressants as quickly as possible. In such cases, a beta is best suited for any unavoidable close contact.”
……More or less, that was the gist of it. Hee-won had been skimming through with half-lidded eyes and let out a sigh. It’s all rut, rut, rut in the end. What use is knowing about Kim Ha-geon’s rut cycle to me? Even Chae-won could tell me this much.
Of course, the only thing Chae-won had ever taught Hee-won was “Alphas and betas must never share secrets that only they know!”
— The next stop is……
He’d been deep in self-pity and nearly missed his stop. He grabbed the book and barely made it off. With the subchapters included, there were over thirty topics — reading one a day would take more than a month.
Thinking of Yeo-jin, who had gone out of her way to put this book in his hands, it felt downright discourteous to toss it on a shelf and forget about it. And the information wasn’t entirely useless either. He consoled himself on the walk home.
If I manage to read this entire book, it means I’ve survived a full month at the company. He set that as his goal for now — reading this book all the way through. He thought briefly of Ha-geon’s face, with his relentless fixation on pheromones.
If I told you that being under contract with the company on top of a contract with you counts as a double contract, let’s end it — you’d definitely push back. He wanted to wring his own neck for the self he’d been just days ago, the one who’d said yes with “it’s for safety!” as justification.
He got home and it was empty, as expected. His parents would be out on their walk by now, and Chae-won would be working. He ate something roughly, washed up, and threw himself onto the bed. He glanced at his phone and closed his eyes.
Did Kim Ha-geon actually end up drinking both those mint chocos?
His body must have been exhausted, because he slept straight through until morning without waking once. It was quite a refreshing morning — except for the dream he’d had, where Ha-geon had gone into rut. The fact that it wasn’t entirely implausible made it worse.
The whole commute felt off somehow. Ha-geon’s expression in the dream, the absence of a message from Ha-geon today. For some reason he felt like he ought to buy coffee. But Ha-geon hadn’t given him money, and Hee-won’s wallet was too light to buy something for someone else unprompted.
In the end, he just bought himself a single vanilla latte on the way in. If Ha-geon asked why there was nothing for him, he’d decided to act oblivious and unapologetic and say you didn’t ask me to.
He didn’t run into Hyung-woo today and took the elevator straight up. Should have gotten his number. He’d been fairly certain he’d be the earliest in today, but Ha-geon was already at his desk in the same position as the day before yesterday, glasses on, working.
And on top of Hee-won’s desk sat the same sandwich as the one he’d eaten yesterday. No note, no sticker — but Hee-won had a feeling he knew exactly who had left it. Wasn’t it obviously the person over there currently trying their utmost not to look at him?
“Team leader.”
Hee-won had only ever thought about catching crumbs others dropped — he’d never expected to be looked after like this. Getting too much attention from an alpha was guaranteed to end up making only himself miserable.
And on top of that, this person was his team leader. A beta receiving special treatment from an alpha team leader. Perfectly positioned to be torn apart. Maybe the whole contract situation was a mistake.
