Just then. The moment the elevator Gu Jongyeol was in began sliding shut, the Young Master’s friend murmured with the corners of his mouth curled up.
“It’s just that you smell really good, hyung.”
Gu Jongyeol went still.
“Jongyeol hyung.”
Thud — the guy shoved the elevator door back open and looked down at Gu Jongyeol as he asked:
“Hyung. You’re really sure you’re not an omega?”
Am I in a bit of danger here?
01. SCREW YOU
1.
“Aaah~ why is our Jongyeol a beta! Why does he have to be a beta~ Jongyeol! Why are you a betaaa~”
This was when Gu Jongyeol was eighteen.
One year since the man in the white hat had taken him in.
Living day by day in his home, looking after a four-year-old child, Gu Jongyeol came to understand why the man in the white hat had been so busy.
The man in the white hat’s name was Kang Hojun, and he was the head of Ganghopa — an organization that controlled the criminal underworld of northern Seoul.
This organization called Ganghopa was made up of alphas, from the lowest-ranking members all the way to the top. And on top of that, this strange collective was every bit as arrogant and haughty as their secondary gender suggested — every time they saw Gu Jongyeol, a beta, they would heave exaggerated sighs, and the reason for it was genuinely appalling.
“If our Jongyeol had been an omega, I would’ve had him ages ago!”
Lunatics.
They were the type who lived like moths drawn to a flame, so every last one of them was about as far from decent behavior as you could get. Vulgar talk was a constant on their lips, and they swung their dicks around without a care.
The omegas of the criminal underworld that fell under their territory got caught up in this unhinged group and couldn’t break free — pinned beneath the organization’s members, letting out breathless moans.
One day, Gu Jongyeol had followed his employer Kang Hojun to a villa, and stood there for a good while watching as Ganghopa members ran a group orgy with the omegas they’d reeled in, before a thought crossed his mind.
Good thing I’m not an omega.
If he actually had been an omega, they would have opened him up long ago, just like they always said. That day, for the first time in his life, Gu Jongyeol was grateful for his sex and his secondary gender. Long live betas.
In this world, in addition to the two sexes — male and female — there exists something called secondary gender.
Alpha, omega, and beta — that’s what it comes down to.
Unlike betas, who made up the majority of the population and were considered ordinary, the special secondary genders of alpha and omega were extraordinarily rare.
Perhaps because of that.
This difference in secondary gender had given rise to a kind of privileged class — alphas in particular had developed superior physical and mental capabilities, and had become the dominant tier that ruled over everyone else.
Sure, if it stopped there, alphas might simply be perceived as enviable beings blessed with a rare and special secondary gender.
But the problem was that these goddamn alphas, the moment they encountered an omega’s pheromones, became slaves to their dicks and completely lost their minds.
Why is that a problem, you ask?
Because I’ve seen it firsthand.
For over a decade now, Gu Jongyeol had watched with wide-open eyes as his alpha colleagues, the moment they laid eyes on an omega, showered them with every sweet word imaginable and devoured them in an instant.
A bystander.
That word probably suited him best in this situation.
You’d think he might push back against this savage behavior and the colleagues who felt no moral responsibility for it — but Gu Jongyeol had no particular desire to stop them.
As long as the convenient excuse called pheromones existed, alpha-omega entanglements had become a legally permitted and commonplace occurrence, and it was far more common for the person who tried to stop it to end up being the one who got hurt instead.
And then there were omegas.
Just like alphas, omegas — also extraordinarily rare — had once been a prized secondary gender, receiving special treatment wherever they went, same as alphas. Their numbers had been comparable to alphas at one point, but there’s a story that thirty-three years ago, a tragedy that unfolded between alphas and omegas threw the scales into imbalance. As a result, their numbers dropped so sharply that now each individual omega receives care from government institutions —
And yet, despite how scarce omegas supposedly were, there were somehow a staggering number of them packed around Ganghopa like sardines.
Then there are betas — the term for ordinary people who exist apart from the alpha and omega class.
Betas live lives that are removed from the world of alphas and omegas, who inhabit their own separate sphere. They were comparatively free from pheromones, and got by through showing a reasonable degree of deference to the alphas who made up society’s privileged class.
Living by loosely keeping alphas appeased, and cleaning up after the omegas they got entangled with — that was the beta’s life. Which was, in other words, exactly what Gu Jongyeol had been doing up until now.
“Fuck.”
Yeah.
Up until a few weeks ago, Gu Jongyeol had been a thoroughly ordinary beta — far removed from the filthy, tangled web of alpha-omega secondary gender dynamics.
“Fuck!!!”
Then why the hell do I have to become an omega!!
Gu Jongyeol wiped the droplets dripping from the tip of his chin and ground his teeth hard.
[Due to the effects of environmental hormones, patient Gu Jongyeol……]
Why did those damned environmental hormones have to target me of all people? What did I do wrong?
Well — okay. He had grabbed the Young Master by the head a few times, kicked him in the back a few times, taken a few trips on the Young Master’s money and bought some clothes and gone out to eat good food. And whenever word came in, he’d rush over and peel the Young Master off some omega or another a few times.
Honestly, where else in this world would you find a beta as hardworking as me!
Gu Jongyeol glared at the mirror in front of him with resentful eyes.
His clean-cut face looked more vulnerable than usual today.
Of course, even if Gu Jongyeol did suddenly become an omega, things probably wouldn’t change drastically.
Fifteen years ago, the government had carried out a special organized crime management policy nicknamed “Trash Sorting,” and Ganghopa — having taken considerable damage from that crackdown — had restructured and was reborn as a proper corporation called KK Corporation.
His colleagues, who used to walk around with tools and blades terrorizing northern Seoul, had been scared straight by that brutal sweep and were now respectable office workers at a legitimate company.
Especially the people who had been through eighteen years of hardship together with him — even if Gu Jongyeol were to suddenly manifest as an omega overnight, they surely wouldn’t do anything as horrific as pinning him down and opening him up……
[You’re really lucky, Jongyeol. Honestly, at first I thought you were an omega and I had my eye on you. But the moment you said you were a beta, my interest just completely dropped off.]
[Did that go for you too, Beom? Me too! Jongyeol’s ass should’ve been a little more available.]
[Personally, I’d actually thought the Chairman had brought home a new omega sister-in-law. That just goes to show how attractive our Jongyeol is. Hahaha!]
……Yeah right. Fuck that.
“Maybe I really should quit.”
In an organization where he had been safe precisely because he was a beta, he could no longer guarantee the safety of his own backside.
— Rrrr. Rrrr.
Having calmed himself down, Gu Jongyeol looked expressionlessly at the phone sitting on the edge of the sink. A number starting with 070 came into view. He pressed the answer button, and his cool, flat voice came out.
“If this is a scam call, I’ll kill you.”
— P-patient Gu Jongyeol? It’s me! Me — Kim Juwon, from Hwangseo Hospital!
Who is that…… oh.
“Is there something more you needed, Doctor?”
Gu Jongyeol asked, not bothering to hide his irritation. His doctor, startled by the cold reception, said in a voice that was almost tearful:
— An omega manifestation in your thirties is really such an uncommon occurrence…… I-if you’re not too busy, would you be able to come by our hospital just one more time? Please. I’m asking you one last time, truly. Yes? If you come in, I’ll even give you a fee. Yes?!
Gu Jongyeol’s face twisted.
