December

I felt shy after being confessed to by someone so I vaguely responded, but he persistently asked.

“So?”

“Hm? What?”

“…You were saying?”

“Will you hit him up?”

No, I shook my head. But when he glanced at my pockets, I blurted out an excuse unconsciously.

“It’s not that the person is a bad Alpha, but it seems impolite to throw the card right in front of him.”

But despite my excuses, he continued to stare at my pockets. I felt a chill so I stepped back a little bit. He turned his gaze away and ran his hand through his hair. He seemed to be breathing heavily, then he asked.

“How do you know he’s not a bad Alpha after a glance?”

Sixth sense. After spending time with a bad Alpha, I developed a standard of judging them. The person looked pure enough. The odds of the person putting up a facade seemed low. Several answers naturally came to mind, but strangely, I was unable to answer Kim Shin. I realized that my standard of screening Alphas didn’t quite work for the person standing in front of me.

Although I considered Kim Shin a decent Alpha by my standards. However, there was a part of me that still couldn’t trust him, even though I easily claimed that the person I saw briefly wasn’t a bad Alpha. But that was my problem and not his fault. I had a habit of guarding myself against other people and possessed a high sense of wariness. Suddenly I felt ashamed of myself.

“Not that he did anything wrong.”

Kim Shin must have misunderstood since I stood there blankly without answering. He turned his gaze to the side and added bluntly.

“But it’s better if you’re careful”

He looked very cute while being quite abashed about what he said. Kim Shin was 21, so it was only natural that he was cute, but I couldn’t understand why my heart skipped a beat. I lowered my head and shrugged to hide the thumping in my chest.

“It’s cold. Let’s go.”

Kim Shin followed me without saying a word. The cold wind of winter rushed down the boulevard like a racing car and hit us. As usual, I buried my face in the scarf, but I felt like I heard a small curse next to me.

“…Fuck you, business card.”

On this day, during the break, I didn’t spend it with Kim Shin.

‘Let’s go separately.’

At the order of the sous chef, I went out first and headed to the familiar convenience store. I wasn’t particularly hungry before I entered, but as soon as I opened the door, the smell of ramen greeted me. My appetite soared. However, seeing those two people having cup noodles while looking outside side by side, my appetite hardened.

It was the grandfather and the uncle. Our eyes met, and I had no choice but to greet them. The old man with the digestive medicine gestured to the uncle as if ordering him, and the uncle quickly came to me and held out an unopened cup of ramen. What is this? Before asking, he explained why.

“It’s 2+1, so there’s one left.”

“Oh, how much do I have to pay you?”

“No. Our Chairman wanted to give it to you.”

Chairman? Was that grandfather a chairman? As if I wasn’t the only one who was surprised, I heard the store manager’s small exclamation from behind.

“Anyone can be a Chairman. I am also the Chairman of a club.”

Fortunately, the man did not seem to have heard of the store manager’s active hobbies. He forced the cup of noodles into my hand and pushed my back against the water fountain.

“He’s just being thankful so feel comfortable to receive it.”

I felt uncomfortable with the way he spoke, which was out of line with his usual disposition, but the old man raised his chin high as he cleared his throat at the word thankful. He expressed pride on his face. I wondered how introverted his grandson was. I poured water into my ramen thinking that I would have to buy ramen for his grandson when I return to school next year. While waiting for ramen, I had no choice but to eavesdrop on the conversation of the two people next to me.

“Please stop arguing. Chairman, you can’t peek at your grandson from here.”

“Say it properly. I have never peeked at him.”

When the grandfather corrected himself, the uncle corrected himself, saying “Ah.”

“You haven’t seen your grandson yet so technically you didn’t peek.”

I hated how I was eavesdropping in their conversation but I couldn’t help but stare at the old man. He never saw his grandson once.

“Please make amends then. How long can you wait? Chairman, you should apologize first.”

Grandpa was angry but soon muttered as if pouting.

“I didn’t do anything wrong. Why should I apologize?”

“Yes, you didn’t do anything wrong. But please understand your grandson. He is saying he likes a recessive Omega so what can be done?”

I hesitated while opening the lid of the cup noodles.

“Who is saying that? It’s because he’s too desperate. Why in the world is he struggling to find a recessive omega? Is that recessive Omega that great?”

“It’s his first love, Chairman.”

“Hey, doesn’t everyone have a first love? It’s a one-time thing. Since he’s young, he’s probably only thinking of them. He wants to be with that person for the rest of his life. Well, I admit…if that person is good enough, he should be with them. If he likes that Omega that much, he can imprint him and live with him. When it comes to ruts, he needs a recessive Omega anyway. However, he should marry someone decent and give birth to a dominant Alpha like himself. All dominant Alphas have to do this anyway? It’s good to imprint on a recessive Omega that he likes and spends his life with, but he can also have a child with someone dominant, can’t he? Since he’s a dominant alpha, he can do whatever he wants without paying attention to others. How good would that be?”

“Still, Chairman, days have changed so there have been a lot fewer people living with recessive Omegas and keeping them as a side piece. So if he imprints someone and marries another person, he will be ostracized by the public. Even recessive Omegas don’t seek for Alphas like before.”

“No. A recessive omega goes insane like an animal if they are in front of an Alpha. How can they beat pheromones, huh? They can’t have children, are weak to Alpha pheromones, and were born for dominant Alphas. Ask any recessive Omega. Even if it’s a hundred Alphas, they will be desperate for every one of them. Isn’t that so?”

The last question he asked for understanding was directed at me. I was just slurping my ramen, and I raised my eyes to watch him. Watching the two wait for my answer, I bit off the noodles and slurped them down my throat. Hot!

“It’s not true. There are recessive omegas who don’t like being imprinted on by a dominant Alpha.”

The old man frowned at my answer.

“If there is someone like that, bring at least one of them in front of me.”

“Oh, me.”

An awkward silence passed. It had been quite a while. They were so taken aback that I was worried that I should apologize. The two of them looked at me as if they were stiff, and then the man glanced at the old man in chagrin. The old man swallowed a gulp and stared into space with a clear cough.

“Hm, would you like another ramen?”

It’s okay but before I could answer, the old man cleared his throat again and turned around.

“Ah, it’s late. Time to hit the hay.”

After abruptly announcing his bedtime, he disappeared as if he were running outside with his uncle. At the same time, I heard a “Thump!”  What happened? After staring at the door for a while, I moved my chopsticks again.

However, I couldn’t bring it to his mouth and just stirred the noodles around in my cup.  A recessive omega goes insane like an animal if they are in front of an Alpha. It wasn’t that I was hurt by the old man’s prejudice. I knew that most of the older generation had perceptions like this of recessive Omegas.

Perhaps, he was rather embarrassed bashing recessive Omegas after I revealed that I was one of them. I didn’t want to eat more of the half-devoured noodles. However, if I wasted food, I might be reprimanded but after pondering on it for a while, I discarded the noodles and left the store.

When I entered from the back door of the kitchen, there was about 5 minutes left from my break. It was only 5 minutes and it was useless to attend my work, so I headed to the warehouse. Until I opened the door, I let slip the delusion that had dominated me all night. However, there was someone inside with the lights on. Kim Shin leaned against the wall and looked at his phone, then raised his eyes.

It was a place without heating, so I always crouched down because it was cold. Kim Shin was wearing the staff’s uniform which was a white tee and had his sleeves rolled up. The moment I saw his muscular arm, which looked toned even at a glance, my stomach weakly rumbled. I remembered how that arm in my imagination held me. The place was this narrow warehouse. For a moment, guilt, shame, and shame rushed in together.

“Yeonwoo Sunbae.”

Kim Shin walked over to me and called. When I quickly stepped back, the approaching man also hesitated. I quickly tried to hide my shame, so I couldn’t see him properly and muttered excuses.

“Oh, I’ll have to go after my break ends.”

I closed the door, turned around, and took a few quick steps. My face heated up. Just when I thought I needed to dash out of sight, a large hand suddenly grabbed my arm from behind and yanked me around. I looked up in surprise at Shin’s hand holding my arm, but it seemed that I wasn’t the only one who was taken by surprise. As soon as his eyes met mine, I removed his hand and immediately took a step back. He looked aside and asked briefly.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah. I’m fine.”

“But…”

He uttered a word and pressed his lips together sheepishly before looking straight down at me.

“Senior, there’s a smell coming from you.”

Smell? In an instant, I blushed as I thought of my pheromones. I was really self-conscious and tried to smell myself, but I couldn’t understand how I smelled any different. He asked cautiously.

“Are you in your heat cycle by any chance?”