Chapter Text
Jisung was one breath away from death by painful gluttony. It had been a while since he had binged on greasy Chinese food and eaten to the point of a potential heart attack. And despite gorging his stomach, there were still many MANY leftovers since there was twice the amount of food they usually ordered. Yuna insisted he take the leftovers because-
“-I bought them for you…” She had a pretty blush on her face as she stubbornly nudged the wrapped containers toward him.
He ended up conceding to her (he always did), taking the bags of leftovers from her hands with a bright smile even though the thought of eating anything more made him want to hurl.
He escorted her to the lobby with heavy gait, both of their steps sluggish as they grudgingly trudged along the floor. Jisung, because he didn’t want to go back to practice after eating such a dense meal. And Yuna, because she didn’t want to go home.
“I want to stay…” She pouted, eyes flickering unhappily to where Yeji was waiting for her. “… Stay?”
She looked at him with a pleading expression and he couldn’t help but chuckle at her unchanged pout throughout the years. Even after he had bid her (and Yeji) good-bye, he found himself thinking about that pleading expression.
Stay.
Yuna was his “stay” – his FIRST “stay”. The first person to hold onto him (literally); the first person to plead for him; the first person he chose to remain for.
And while Jisung now had countless “Stay’s” he was living for, Yuna would always have a sweet spot in his heart. She was so precious, cute and dainty like a fairy. She was endearing, always good and considerate, kind and sweet. In fact, she was so sweet that Jisung sometimes felt guilty…
Being the sole recipient of her undeserved affection.
He mused as he walked back into the Stray Kids practice room.
They had all agreed to finish dinner within 30 minutes so they could rehearse for music stages this week, yet Jisung spent about an hour with Yuna. But he didn’t stress… Because he was one of the first people back from dinner (as he expected).
He was the fourth person in the room, and that was only because the other three members already there didn’t eat at all. Chan was going over music with his headphones, his eyes and mouth set in a serious posture. Such was their alpha, always dedicated to bringing the best in music, performance, and life (even to detriment of his health). Felix was playing games on his phone with such a voracious speed, Jisung was sure he could be a professional gamer should he ever chose to change career paths.
But it was the last individual in the room that Jisung focused on, the person who was leaning against the wall upright, eyes closed as his chest rumbled in gentle breathing; sleeping.
Jisung grinned and swiftly (but quietly) made his way next to that person, silently setting down the bags of jjajangmyun and other side dishes.
One… Two… THREE!
He glomped on the person with all his body weight, laughing as he heard a groan coming from beneath him.
“Hyung! Hyung, wake up!” Jisung leaned against him even more obnoxiously.
“… Why-” Minho rasped out, blinking back the sleep from his eyes.
“Get up! I have jjajangmyun for you.”
Minho’s eyes shot open as he honed an ambiguous expression on the younger boy.
“… Jjajangmyun.” The older boy repeated.
“Yeah!” Jisung grinned even brighter, arms around Minho becoming tighter. “Jjajangmyun!”
“… Why?”
Jisung made a conspicuous effort of looking around dramatically before coming close to whisper-
“-It’s from her.”
It was funny. Jisung didn’t even have to say her name; the way Minho stiffened gave him all the indication that the older boy knew EXACTLY who he was referring to.
“… Why don’t you eat it?” Minho raised an eyebrow, feigning a bored expression on his face. “She got it for you.”
“I’m too full, Hyung!” Jisung chuckled, absolutely content to cuddle with his favorite member. “The food you got us was enough.”
Before Minho could deny it, Jisung quickly cut him off.
“Who would’ve known you’d be our sugar daddy?” Jisung quickly let go of Minho to dodge the lazy fist that swung his way.
“You have a sugar daddy?” Felix let out a high-pitched laugh, revealing his selective hearing.
“More like a sugar alpha!” Jisung cheered, rolling back to lay down on the floor, resting his head against Minho’s thighs.
Minho scoffed, but didn’t push him away or make any move to refute his statement.
“But Hyung! Seriously, thank you! The food was delicious!” Jisung winked at him. “I didn’t realize you’d been sponsoring us all these years… I gotta give back my services somehow!”
“I don’t need your services, nor do I want them.”
Minho’s dry voice set off Felix and Jisung again, both laughing so hard they were wheezing and gasping for air.
“… Hyung-“ Minho’s voice snapped Chan out of his working haze.
“Hmm?” Chan took off his headphones, a sheepish grin breaking upon his face.
“The guys are all running late. So why don’t you and Yongbokie help yourselves to some jjajangmyun?” Minho gestured to the bags.
“Hyung!” Jisung hissed, pinching his leg. “That’s for YOU!”
“I’ll text the other guys to come.” Minho ignored the annoying prick on his legs. “Eat up.”
“Oh… thanks.” Chan nodded.
“Food! Thanks Hyung!” Felix cheered, quickly moving to scatter the containers of food on the floor.
Jisung and Minho watched as they set up the food across the room and started eating. Once Jisung was certain the other two weren’t paying attention, he turned back to Minho.
“Why’d you do that Hyung? She got it for you.” He mumbled in a low voice.
“… I doubt it.” Minho smirked.
“Did you not want to eat jjajangmyun today? Is it because it’s Singles’ Day? Oh my gosh, Hyung! HYUNG! ARE YOU SEEING-“
Minho slapped his hand over Jisung’s mouth to silence the younger’s increasing noise levels.
“Quiet down.” He hissed. “No, I’m not seeing anyone. I already ate!”
“vwhem?” Jisung asked in a muffled voice, trying to pry Minho’s hand from his mouth.
“… You didn’t think I’d order food and not get anything for myself, did you?”
“Ohh…”
Minho sighed, shaking his head, but let go of his grip over Jisung’s mouth.
Honestly, the younger could sometimes be such a handful.
“… Why didn’t you eat with us, Hyung?”
“Have I ever?” Minho shot him an unimpressed look.
“You should! We eat together every April 14th! It’s tradition! You should join us!”
“No thanks. I’m fine with how things are.”
“You’re fine with being our sugar alpha?”
“… Please stop saying that.”
“But seriously Hyung! I feel bad!” Jisung sat up from his lap to sling his arm around Minho’s shoulders. “… You sure you don’t want to say anything? You don’t want to tell her? Ever? I feel guilty…”
“Guilty about what?” Minho deadpanned.
“… Taking all the credit.”
“Forget about it.” He rolled his eyes, causing Jisung to chuckle. “It’s not worth feeling guilty about.”
Yes, Jisung sometimes felt guilty being the sole recipient of Yuna’s undeserved affection. Because he wasn’t the only one involved in protecting her the day of her presentation.
Something Yuna had failed to notice or question was how Jisung, a beta with absolute ZERO sense of scents, had been able to rescue her in the scariest moment of her life. Had she actually put more thought into it, she would have realized that it was simply impossible for a beta to have saved an omega like herself. Only someone with an awareness of pheromones would have been able to find her, save her, comfort her. Had she been paying attention, she would have realized that the smoky undertones of vanilla and mint in the grey jacket were not artificial scents of cologne, but pheromones.
~~~~
Minho presented as an alpha long before Yuna’s presentation. His subgender status was the topic of much pride and joy to everyone around him. To say his parents were thrilled was an understatement; they threw an honorary banquet with his entire family clan to celebrate. His teachers, once strict and stern, were lenient and quick to display blatant favoritism. He was immediately surrounded by peers on all sides, front and back, left and right, fawning and pawing at him, as if he were some kind of prince. His presentation made everybody happy – everybody but him.
Because the day he became an alpha was the day he stopped being “Minho”. He was called “alpha” by everyone around him. No one called his name anymore. His accomplishments were no longer his own, belonging to his alpha.
Good grades? “As expected of an alpha!”
His dance career? “Alphas are so cool!”
His appearance? Not credited to his parents, but “alphas are so handsome!”
There were times Minho thought he’d forgotten his own name, dubbed “alpha” so many times. And that wasn’t even the worst of it. The worst was the unnecessary and unwanted attention he received. His ordinary life suddenly became a battlefield, where he was assaulted with nauseating waves of scents wherever he went. He went through hell and back, dealing with various experiences where people would weaponize their pheromones, trying to make him submit through force or seduction. High school was the absolute worst! He had his fair share of quietly escaping compromising situations at school or the bus stop, where another alpha wanted to fight or an omega tried to capture him. It was as if wherever he went, he would encounter individuals who would try to take advantage of him through their subgender.
He finally found some reprieve once he became a trainee at JYP, as it was mandatory for all trainees to take scent blockers (or SOMETHING) to neutralize scents. One of the biggest blessings of being under a large company was the accessibility to resources so he began taking pheromone inhibiters religiously. After two months of daily usage, his scent had become practically undetectable and his status, long forgotten in the face of the everchanging competitive environment of life as a kpop trainee. Minho’s quiet personality also helped, as with scent blockers, he was easily passable as a beta. Without a whiff of his pheromones, nobody would have guessed that not only was he an alpha, but a DOMINANT alpha at that – which resulted in another problem. Because while scent blockers neutralized his scent, they couldn’t completely neutralize his sense of SMELL, thanks to his “dominant” nature. As a dominant alpha, he was sensitive to all kinds of scents and pheromones and could easily detect them, scent blockers or not.
Thank goodness, most of the Stray Kids members were betas. He could barely stand Hyunjin’s scent, so pungent and biting whenever the omega was in a bad mood or going into pre-heat.
Jisung made a stupid joke about it once.
“You don’t wanna jump his bones, Hyung?” Jisung asked with a cheeky grin.
“I’d rather jump YOURS, and not in the way you’re thinking either.” He flicked Jisung’s forehead with an unimpressed look in his face, ignoring the younger boy’s howls of pain while keeping one hand locked over his nose to repress the scent as best he could.
He couldn’t be in the same room as Chan whenever one of them was going into pre-rut – too many pheromones and hormones flaring up at the same time. It didn’t matter that neither he nor Chan were violent by nature – just having two dominant alphas in the same room was a recipe for disaster that he wasn’t willing to cook. In fact, the only reason their group worked well despite having two alphas was because Minho had one specific characteristic that Chan didn’t have – laxness.
Minho was neither passive nor idle, but he was lax, almost borderline lazy – not in his work ethic but in emotional-regulation. He’d rather walk away than pick a fight, shut his mouth than growl in rebellion, lay in bed than hit the gym. And it was because of his ability to relax that he had high compatibility with Chan, despite both being dominant alphas. There was no doubt that Chan was the leader of their group, of their pack. But Minho was his greatest ally, commanding respect through his silent support. So he had accepted and made do with dealing with pheromones and dynamics within Stray Kids.
But everywhere else, he absolutely detested it – pheromones, scents, situations – all of it! And due to his detestation, spent most of his time closed off to himself. Thus, Minho avoided anything troublesome, strived from the opposite of inconvenience. In all honesty, his greatest desire was to live a trouble-free life. Work, eat, and sleep – that was all he lived for…
Until April 14th that fateful day.
Minho was just a few weeks short of debuting when he was hit with the mouth-watering scent of his dreams –enticing strawberry, milky sweet, creamy decadence.
Sweet… what is that? Sweet-
It was like he was spellbound, completely entranced as his body moved on its own, feet following the scent.
Sweet… soft… Mine… Sweet scent…
With every step he took, the aroma grew stronger as did the enchantment over him. The foreign pheromones wrapped around him with senses of nostalgia and longing, reminders of childhood innocence and faint happiness.
Sweet scent… Soft… Mine… Sweet… soft… Mine… Sweet scent… OMEGA-
He was hypnotized and it wasn’t until he caught glimpse of her on the ground that he came to his senses.
A CHILD was crying and writhing on the floor in pain as her body trembled with fear. A CHILD was letting out pheromones of distress, fear, and terror that screamed for salvation. A CHILD – the same CHILD that Minho used to see every week during their evaluations and team-building activities. The CHILD… her name was Yuna.
Rationality and his moral compass kicked in and his blood turned cold, horror washing over him like a cold sweat as the haze cleared from his eyes and head.
What am I doing?!
Minho was many things. He was stubborn, quiet, lax, male, dominant, alpha. But he would be damned if his instincts, the very ones he hated as natural as they were, turned him into a monster.
He immediately covered his nose with his jacket as best he could to call for help.
“… -Hyung?”
Jisung always answered his phone right away.
“Upstairs 6th floor. Hurry! Make sure no one follows you!” He urged, choking out a groan as another wave of sweetness crashed over him.
“Huh? What’s happening Hyung?”
“… Omega-”
“-I had Seungmin and the other guys bar the elevators.” Jisung was there in less than 5 minutes, gasping and wheezing from running up 11 flights of stairs. “… And I told Chan Hyung. He’s calling someone… What do you want me to do Hyung?”
“Here-“ Minho ripped off his jacket and put it around Jisung in 10 seconds. “You need to wrap her with this and keep her in a cool place… The smallest practice room should work. Don’t let anyone through the door who isn’t a staff member we know!”
He nodded at Jisung and turned away.
“What about you, Hyung?” Jisung asked bewilderedly. “Where are you going?”
“… To guard the hallway.” Minho stood in front of the staircase door, taking a deep breath as his hands balled into fist.
For the first time ever since he joined JYP, he let his pheromones out, his emotions known – anger, possessiveness, rage, dominance – as a warning for everyone else.
Keep your distance. Stay away. Back off. BACK. OFF!
His pheromones practically screamed, so loud and clear while unspoken. A part of him found it ironic that he was doing the very thing he despised, but another part of him found clarity in his actions.
STAY BACK! MINE! Mine to protect. Mine to keep safe. My omega! STAY! BACK!
For the first time ever, he was thankful for his pheromones – nature’s tools to help him, not destroy or dominate, but protect; protect the things that were important to him, or rather WHO was important to him.
Thankfully, his dominant pheromones kept all other alphas away without any physical altercation. After all, he was a dominant alpha. No one could stand up to him. It didn’t take long for help to arrive – Chan, Jisung, and a few other trusted staff members escorting the unconscious omega out.
Minho, on the other hand, stayed back, sitting a while in the exact same spot Yuna and Jisung rested together, closing his eyes as he took in the lingering pheromones that remained in the walls, on the floor, in the air. And after he had his fill, he swore to himself that this would be the first and last time that he would allow himself to linger in the forbidden sweetness.
~~~~
Minho blinked and found himself face-to-face with Jisung, who was smiling at him with a confused expression.
“… You ok, Hyung? You zoned out on me for a sec.”
“… What were we talking about?”
“WOW! Did you just- you really just- You’re not even LISTENING to me!” Jisung sputtered, shoving Minho away with a betrayed look in his eyes.
“I’m listening!” Minho retorted. “That’s why I asked!”
“Forget it, Hyung! I’m gonna have CHAN Hyung be my new sugar alpha!” And with a huff, Jisung rolled over to where Chan was finishing up the bowl of jjajangmyun to drape himself over the pack alpha.
And with that, Jisung’s question remained forgotten and their conversation, completely passed over. In fact, Minho remained oblivious until the following week… when he ran into HER.
“-Oh! Excuse me-“
The wisp of milky strawberry in the air caused Minho to momentarily freeze, eyes not even blinking. Yuna stood before him now, bowing politely as an apology for colliding into him. He was so startled he didn’t bow back, Jisung’s unanswered question suddenly hitting him like a sucker punch.
“… You sure you don’t want to say anything? You don’t want to tell her? Ever? ”
Minho allowed himself to stare at Yuna thoughtfully. No longer a child, she had grown up to become a young lady. And yet, his heart and mind refused to let him forget the innocent child he saw traumatized on the hallway of the 12th floor. And that strengthened his resolve.
He would never tell her. Ever. It was for the best. Because revealing who he was would include recounting the day her life changed forever while altering his.
He was planning on passing by wordlessly, as he had done in all their other interactions when he recognized what she was wearing.
“… That jacket-” He spoke before he registered what he was saying.
“Oh…” Yuna blushed. “…I-it’s… It’s Jisung Oppa’s…” Her voice trailed off quietly as she looked down bashfully.
“It looks better on you-“ The words spilled from his lips unconsciously, before he could process what he was saying. But he didn’t regret his words, not when she looked up and displayed such a beautiful smile.
“Thank you!” She beamed.
He nodded at her and quickly turned so she wouldn’t see his own smile.
Minho was glad.
It was ok if she didn’t know he was her savior. It was fine if she remained oblivious to it for the rest of her life. Because some things in life were worth more than could be measured, like the simple joys of having black bean noodles on April 14th or the secret satisfaction of an omega wearing an alpha’s jacket.