Confined Pheromone

[One Year Ago]

The hallway was quite noisy. Just moments ago, class had ended, and students were pouring out of the classroom, making the corridor bustling. Siwoo was smiling and greeting the juniors who were cheerfully acknowledging him.

“Ah…!”

As he turned back after greeting a junior, someone bumped into Siwoo’s shoulder and brushed past him. His classmate Seunghyun, who was standing next to Siwoo, frowned and raised his voice as he recognized the person who had pushed Siwoo.

“Hey, are you not even opening your eyes?”

The male student who had just pushed Siwoo turned around to look at Seunghyun. He had a pale face and jet-black hair. With a blank expression, he nodded slightly as if to apologize to Seunghyun.

“Don’t apologize to me, do it to him. That was so careless.”

Seunghyun scolded the boy with a fierce expression, an attitude that was uncharacteristic of his usual cheerful demeanor, as he generally got along well with juniors. Siwoo frowned slightly.

“Seunghyun, I’m okay—”

“I’m sorry.”

The boy bowed his head towards Siwoo. His expression was colorless, devoid of any emotion. Seunghyun seemed about to say something more, but the boy quickly left as if he had finished his business. Siwoo squinted at Seunghyun.

“Why are you acting like this? It’s crowded, so it’s possible to bump into someone by mistake.”

As Siwoo faced him, Seunghyun’s furrowed brow gradually relaxed. However, a faint disgust still lingered on Seunghyun’s face.

“Siwoo, don’t you know him?”

Siwoo turned around. The boy had disappeared among the crowd of students. Siwoo shook his head lightly. Seunghyun sighed and spoke again.

“Well, you might not know. You didn’t come to school much last semester because of your father’s company.”

“Really?”

“He’s quite a famous guy. His name is Sanho.”

Famous? He looked like an ordinary boy, with delicate and pretty features, but nothing particularly special. Well, maybe he wasn’t ordinary. Siwoo tilted his head in confusion, and Seunghyun sighed deeply again.

“Well, it’s not like knowing him would be beneficial. He’s rumored to be making money by selling his body to men.”

Siwoo’s eyes narrowed again at the crude accusation. Seunghyun shook his head and continued.

“I don’t know, it’s just a rumor… but he definitely has a certain vibe.”

“Seunghyun, don’t believe strange rumors.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

Seunghyun shrugged and nodded. What could he say to someone as virtuous as Siwoo?

“There are also rumors that he’s an omega…”

Siwoo raised an eyebrow, and Seunghyun waved his hand dismissively. Fine, he got it. He didn’t believe such things. At Seunghyun’s reaction, Siwoo cleared his throat and turned back again. An omega…? The boy was still nowhere to be seen.

As Seunghyun said, it had been quite a while since Siwoo had come to school. He had to go to his father’s company, making it difficult to find time. Siwoo’s desire was to graduate like an ordinary student, but his father’s will was stubborn.

Seunghyun left to attend a liberal arts class. Siwoo’s next class was about an hour later. He walked around the campus aimlessly. Lost in thought, he found himself at a pond tucked away in a corner. The neatly arranged pond was a place Siwoo often visited. It was a good spot to spend some time. As he walked toward the bench he usually sat on, he noticed someone was already sitting there.

“……”

The figure sitting there looked somewhat familiar. It was the boy who had bumped into him earlier. Should he go somewhere else? Siwoo abruptly stopped walking. There were rumors about him being an omega… Seunghyun’s words echoed in his mind. Siwoo stared at the boy’s back for a moment. Omega. It was a word he was well acquainted with.

Since coming to college, Siwoo had never talked about being an alpha. There was no need to announce it. If it became known, he would become an object of curiosity and envy, and among them would be many hostile gazes. Even now, attention was often directed toward him. There was no reason to add to it.

“……”

The prejudiced gazes were like shadows for those with traits, but they were harsher for omegas than for alphas. Perhaps it was because there were fewer omegas, but the very nature of being an omega had long been subjected to prejudice.

They say that when an omega goes into heat, they’ll grab anyone and spread their legs. They say omegas will spread their legs for a dog if it has a dick. It was true that omegas went through the harsh cycle of heat. However, the public’s perception was inflated like a balloon. Perhaps because of that, the prejudice against male omegas from non-trait individuals was even more severe. Maybe that’s why a bit of curiosity arose about that boy, who might be an omega and had likely faced harsh gazes regardless of the truth.

“Hello.”

Siwoo slowly approached the bench. The boy flinched slightly as he sensed Siwoo’s presence but soon looked up at Siwoo with a clear face. Siwoo smiled gently, his eyes crinkling.

“……”

However, his brow soon furrowed slightly. The boy’s lips were swollen red, as if someone had bitten them. He didn’t seem to have such injuries just moments ago in the hallway.

“Can I sit?”

Siwoo was already sitting next to him. The boy stared at Siwoo, who asked a meaningless question, then turned his gaze back to the front without saying a word. The pond’s scenery was reflected in the boy’s dark pupils.

“Did you get hurt?”

“……”

“Your lips.”

The boy slightly furrowed his brows and looked back at Siwoo. It seemed he was quite wary of the senior who was speaking to him. Siwoo smiled brightly.

“Earlier in the hallway, you didn’t have that—”

“Senior Jin Siwoo.”

The boy cut off Siwoo’s words. Siwoo continued to look at him with a gentle smile.

“I know you.”

“You’re famous, Senior.”

Is that so? Siwoo chuckled softly and shrugged. It wasn’t particularly surprising that this boy knew him. There were likely fewer people in the entire school who didn’t know Siwoo. In a way, it was a natural statement.

Jin Siwoo, the only son of the chairman of JR Group. JR Group had generally avoided exposure to the media and did not want to reveal their private matters to the outside world. Nevertheless, Siwoo’s face had been exposed in the media a few times because JR Group was one of the leading companies in South Korea.

“I like it here.”

Siwoo said as he followed the boy’s gaze to the pond.

“There aren’t many people, and I like spending time alone—”

“Senior.”

Once again, the boy coldly interrupted Siwoo.

“You don’t really know me. I don’t like you pretending to be friendly.”

His tone was indifferent. But Siwoo could tell. That indifference was merely a defense mechanism, like a hedgehog raising its quills. No, I don’t know you. Then I can get to know you. For some reason, I really want to do that. Just as Siwoo was about to speak, the boy stood up from the bench.

“……”

Before Siwoo could say anything, the boy abruptly left again.

Even among those with the same traits, it wasn’t easy to recognize each other unless one intentionally released pheromones or deliberately revealed their traits. Sometimes, pheromones were released for expression or to assert one’s presence, but that only happened in quite aggressive situations. Even sitting right next to the boy, if he didn’t want to, it was natural that Siwoo wouldn’t know if he was really an omega.

It was just after the last class of the day had ended. His classmate Seunghyun had left first, saying he had something to do, and Siwoo was also about to head home. It was an ordinary day, an ordinary conclusion. That’s how it was supposed to be.

He was on his way to the parking lot, holding his car keys. The parking lot behind the college was a place shaded by tall buildings, where sunlight hardly reached. Naturally, it was also sparsely populated. The benches lined up there were usually quite cool, so most of them were empty. As Siwoo casually walked toward his car, he noticed someone standing near the benches.

“Where have you been hiding?”

“…Let go.”

“Did you bite your lips and run away to hide here?”

There were two of them. The two standing close to the shadowy college building definitely did not have a friendly atmosphere. Were they fighting? Siwoo thoughtlessly opened his car door with the smart key, but soon frowned and looked back at the two shadows.

“Let go, you perverted bastard.”

The smaller of the two looked familiar. He hadn’t expected to see this boy again today.

“Fuck, who’s the pervert? You’re the pervert, you omega bastard.”

“Shut up—”

“Omegas spread their legs for anyone, right?”

Spread them for me too. I’m curious about what an omega hole tastes like. It was a filthy conversation that made Siwoo frown. The content was too disgusting to just walk past. Siwoo strode toward the building’s exterior.

“Disgusting.”

The man holding the boy’s collar shook it roughly. The boy’s shoulders trembled under the man’s grip. A fierce expression appeared on the boy’s pale face. He wasn’t very small, but the man was larger than average. As the man’s hand moved upward, Siwoo grabbed the man’s wrist.

“What are you doing?”

The man turned sharply to look at Siwoo, his annoyed expression momentarily startled. Jin Siwoo? Siwoo raised an eyebrow. This bastard knows me too. What a disgusting feeling.

“Do you know me?”

The man muttered something like, “Who doesn’t know you?” Siwoo released the man’s arm and gestured toward the outside.

“Leave. Don’t act dirty.”

“…What the fuck does it matter to you…!”

“Leave.”

Siwoo’s words were concise, but the man only twisted his face, unable to refute. He wasn’t someone who could overpower Siwoo with pheromones. He probably wasn’t even a trait individual. The man roughly shoved Siwoo’s shoulder as he left. Siwoo quietly watched the man’s back.

From the snippets of conversation he overheard, he could roughly guess the situation. There was no need to recall how deeply rooted the prejudice against omegas was. That man must have heard the rumors about the boy being an omega and thoughtlessly laid hands on him, harboring the vile notion that it was acceptable to do so to an omega.

“Are you okay…?”

As Siwoo turned his gaze and opened his mouth, the boy glared at him with eyes reddened from tears. The sudden appearance of Siwoo, who had come to help him, made the boy look at him with a hostile expression, as if Siwoo were the one who had attacked him. Siwoo slowly closed his mouth and lowered his hand. He probably hated any kind of attention. It must be exhausting. Siwoo also knew well how annoying unwanted attention could be. At that moment, he noticed a piece of gimbap scattered messily at his feet.

Instant gimbap sold at convenience stores. Seeing that the wrapper was torn and half-eaten, it seemed that the boy had been eating it. Ah, so… he was hiding here to avoid people… A situation that was so obvious it could be called contrived flashed through Siwoo’s mind. A bit of irritation bubbled up.

“Don’t interfere in my business.”

Seeing Siwoo looking down at the gimbap he had been eating, the boy spoke in a cold tone. His collar was crumpled as if it were just evidence of what had happened, yet his expression was fierce. That touched something in Siwoo’s heart. It felt similar to watching a baby kitten struggling in a ditch, hissing at someone who approaches to help. Siwoo lowered his eyes and slowly spoke.

“I don’t want to.”

Siwoo’s unexpected response made the boy’s eyes widen slightly.

“…What?”

Siwoo brushed off the boy’s crumpled collar with his hand. Although the wrinkles remained, it looked a bit tidier. Siwoo tilted his head as if assessing the boy’s outfit and smiled.

“I’m hungry right now.”

It was a very absurd statement. To say he was hungry in this situation. The boy’s expression furrowed again. Siwoo grabbed the boy’s arm. Not too tightly, but firmly.

“Let’s go eat together.”