To the point where I couldn’t tell which part of the world I knew was real and which part was fake.
Dad lightly said to me, ‘Isn’t that not really a big problem?’ Since we loved each other anyway and had even promised to marry, what was the problem with me going around covered in Yoo Seonjae’s pheromones?
No, shouldn’t I rather be grateful to Yoo Seonjae? Since he drenched me in plenty of alpha pheromones in this harsh world, wasn’t that why I could walk around safely at night?
…Does Dad not know because he’s an alpha too? No. This wasn’t an alpha and omega issue.
I didn’t know.
I, the person involved, didn’t know that this wasn’t a normal situation.
“Explain.”
That day, seeing me speak with a stiff face at home after work, Yoo Seonjae said with tears welling up in his eyes.
“I was worried Yeoul would be in danger.”
I don’t understand why he thinks me going out alone would be dangerous when we’re the same age, not like he’s one or two years old. Because I’m an omega?
Just as not all alphas in the world are rapists, not all omegas in the world are idiots or morons either. Of course, that goes for me too.
“Yoo Seonjae. Do you even see me as an equal person to you?”
That day, we fought for the first time since we were born. Or rather, would it be more accurate to say I unilaterally got angry? It was the first time. Yelling at Yoo Seonjae so loudly and crying like that.
Yoo Seonjae just looked at me with surprised eyes but maintained the attitude that he had done nothing wrong. I couldn’t understand it. How could he deceive me when he said he liked me?
“I didn’t deceive you, Yeoul.”
“What?”
“I just put a lot of my pheromones on you because I like you so much—is that really such a wrong thing?”
“Yoo Seonjae!”
“You knew too. My pheromones vibrating from your body, you knew too.”
“Well—”
“So how is that deceiving you?”
I had nothing to say. My head hurt from the endless sophistry.
“I don’t understand why you and I have to raise our voices because of other people.”
“Other people?”
No, it wasn’t because of other people, it was because of Yoo Seonjae. Because Yoo Seonjae drenched me in pheromones when I didn’t even know the meaning of the act. But how does that become ‘because of other people’?
“When it was just you and me together, it wasn’t a problem at all.”
“Ha! Are you seriously calling that—”
“So. That’s such an obvious thing, and now you’re being unreasonable about it, Han Yeoul.”
Further conversation was meaningless. I went straight into my room and didn’t come out a single step except when going to work.
Even during that time, Yoo Seonjae tried to drench me in his pheromones every time I went to work, and I hysterically screamed and refused. After doing that for a month, as Yoo Seonjae’s pheromones gradually faded, my pheromones started to be felt little by little.
It’s true that my pheromone scent is faint. Still, I thought it was strange that it was faint to the point of being almost like a beta, and it turned out that was all because of Yoo Seonjae’s pheromones. I felt deflated.
I had quite a lot of worries during that time.
The pheromone scent that maximizes an omega’s charm is ultimately for having a baby. Even if the scent is faint, there are recessive pheromones, and cases of complete inability to get pregnant were rare. And I was one of those recessive omegas too.
But because the pheromone scent from me was so faint, I had wondered if I was a failure as an omega. Despite that, perhaps because my partner was an extreme dominant alpha, during heat cycles my pheromones became insanely intense and the whole house vibrated with my pheromone smell, which was horrible.
I didn’t realize it when I was clinging to Yoo Seonjae in the heat of the moment, but after the heat cycle ended, I thought the lingering scent throughout the house and the marks I had bitten and chewed on Yoo Seonjae’s body were exactly like a leech.
Defective product.
That’s what I thought I was. I was grateful to Yoo Seonjae who called me pretty and said he liked me every day despite that.
But I could have just lived as an ordinary recessive omega like any other? How am I supposed to understand that?
When a month and a half had passed in that state, Yoo Seonjae finally got on his knees before me. He still didn’t think his actions were wrong, but Yoo Seonjae begged for my forgiveness, saying he was a hundred times wrong for hurting me because of it.
Love is so soft and unable to be harsh that when I saw Yoo Seonjae on his knees, tears came to my eyes first.
I shouldn’t have gone this far. Did I even have the right to push him when I also hadn’t properly studied how trait-holders behave between lovers? I didn’t mean to torment Yoo Seonjae this much.
Our first fight in life ended like that.
It was painful. Enough that I never wanted to fight with him again. I think Yoo Seonjae probably felt the same way.
That day, our conversation led to physical conversation, and I took sick leave for the first time since joining the company. The illness was ‘heat cycle’.
Being recessive with irregular heat cycles, I suffered quite long and hard that time.
I learned then that it was because Yoo Seonjae’s pheromones that had been suppressing my pheromones had almost disappeared.
After that day, we made one promise.
‘We will not give pheromone showers or marking without each other’s consent.’
Yoo Seonjae wasn’t pleased, but when he realized I had no intention of compromising, he brought a contract. A contract starting with Party A Han Yeoul, Party B Yoo Seonjae.
Even though he had decided on a career path as a furniture designer, befitting someone who had received business education since childhood, the contract he brought saying ‘a promise is a promise’ had the contents clearly specified without excess. After confirming all the clauses, we stamped it, sealed it, and each took a copy.
According to the contract contents, we could get consent from the other person once a day and do marking. I didn’t intend to block even that. After all, I’m Yoo Seonjae’s anyway.
However, I decline having that be ‘before going to work’.
“Later, after I get off work, do it for me. So all my fatigue disappears.”
“Yeoul…”
It’s no use looking at me with those puppy dog eyes. Society is a cold place.
“I’ll be back, honey.”
*
Considering how much fuss Yoo Seonjae made, my company life was smooth. Dad said that since I joined a fairly large-scale patent firm, if I built up a few years of experience, he’d set up an office for me, but I declined Dad’s proposal, saying company life seemed to suit me better.
Going to work was more fun than I thought.
The work suited my aptitude, and I got along well with people. The people who hadn’t approached me at first when I was covered in Yoo Seonjae’s pheromones were now closer colleagues than anyone.
Among them were alphas and betas too.
It was the first time since my school days. Being in an environment not surrounded only by omegas.
Even in my school days, it was a time when everyone was busy manifesting little by little, and even then my world was all about Yoo Seonjae, so I don’t really remember what the kids of other traits were like.
So, in a way, it was my first time. Mingling with people like this, working, and living together.
Moreover, I was surprisingly strong at sales. I didn’t know patent attorneys had to do sales too, but work doesn’t just roll in from sitting still, so I sometimes did sales. As a newcomer, I wasn’t in a position to be picky about this and that either.
My worry that I might bring shame to the company by going out when I was shy was brief—I became a diligent worker ant who somehow brought back work whenever I went out. I didn’t know I’d be this good at sales either. When I went out for sales mainly following seniors who handled small-to-medium enterprises or large corporations, the senior would introduce our company, and I would have practical discussions with the company’s representatives.
When I explained various things about what we would do if they worked with us, before I knew it, the other party was signing the contract. And nine out of ten would say this:
“Han Yeoul-ssi, how about we meet outside often too?”
There was no reason not to. Well, we could have business meetings outside. It would be annoying to keep going back and forth to the office every time.
“Yes, let’s do that.”
