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Seungcheol is exhausted.
School has been wearing down on him for a few months now, pushing and pinching him to get what it wants out of him. He’s near the breaking point and honestly, he’s been close for a while, but when it feels like there’s no hope, Jihoon swoops in and pulls him up from that dark place.
Currently, Jihoon is walking beside him, looking angry and sullen, but Seungcheol’s known him for almost seven years and in that time, he’s realized Jihoon is actually just a marshmallow. He’s short and intimidating and on top of that, he’s an alpha, but he’d been there when Seungcheol presented as an omega in his senior year and helped him through his first heat.
(They don’t talk about how Seungcheol avoided him like the plague for a week after that, but to be fair, it’s not like Jihoon wanted to talk about feelings and fluttery shit like that anyway.)
Maybe at one point, Seungcheol might have been able to fall for Jihoon, but there’s always been something holding him back. And maybe it's the pressing of his dormant Bond on his chest that keeps him from extending his hand out towards his best friend and just getting everything over with or maybe it's him. Seungcheol doesn’t really have a clear answer for that in particular.
Sometimes, Seungcheol hates it. He hates how as an omega, his life is dictated by instincts and rules so much more than Jihoon’s life ever will be. He hates it, but he knows there’s no way around it either.
Seungcheol knows life isn’t all rainbows and fairy tales because he already realized that a long time ago.
“Did you fix up what I was telling you about last night?” Jihoon asks, tearing Seungcheol out of his thoughts and back to the present once more. “You know the song is due next week.”
Seungcheol rubs his eyes and nods, stepping even further into Jihoon’s protective circle when an alpha Seungcheol doesn’t recognize at first glance takes an exaggerated whiff at the air as they pass him by. Jihoon bares his teeth at him and presses his hand to the small of Seungcheol’s back as he continues to lead the way towards the library. Seungcheol only relaxes once they’ve reached the steps leading up towards the old building.
“Yeah, I worked on it after we got off the phone and a little bit this morning too,” Seungcheol responds then, smiling at his younger and much shorter best friend when they reach the door and Jihoon holds it open for him to go through first.
“Good. I don’t want you failing Music Comp-” Jihoon says as he steps in after Seungcheol, but it all fades away to the background.
Because as soon as Seungcheol had stepped past the threshold, his nose picked up a scent. A scent so important and vital, that the world around him quickly goes out of focus and whatever Jihoon was going on about is now going through one of Seungcheol’s ear and out the other. His instincts are taking over and Seungcheol is nothing but a slave to his inner wolf when it comes to moments like these.
He knows that Jihoon is staring open-mouthed after him when Seungcheol lets his nose guide him towards the back of the library without another thought. He passes by all the bookshelves and computers available to all those poor, unfortunate students who don’t own a laptop of their own then pauses by the hallway where all the new study rooms are in use for the moment. Seungcheol sniffs the air again and doesn’t bother to look back, Jihoon the farthest thing from his mind when the scent doesn’t end here.
The scent leads him past those rooms as well and past the door at the end of the hallway, pulling him down an old flight of stairs until he reaches a door clearly marked as the basement. The door is painted a bright yellow, but the paint is old and chipping away in long strips that run lopsided across the door. There’s a tiny windowpane that Seungcheol can’t really see through because of how much grime is covering it, but he can still smell. He sniffs again and almost whines when something like vanilla and sugar hits him in the gut.
As an omega, his sense of smell is weaker than any alpha’s, but it’s stronger than a beta’s, so much stronger it’s practically insane what Seungcheol can pick up with his nose and Wonwoo can’t sometimes. He can’t tell sub-genders apart like alphas, but he’s quickly figured out that most alphas have a wet, sweaty smell underlying their natural scents. He doesn't know how to tell omegas apart yet, but betas only have their natural scents and nothing more so anyone who has an additional smell to their natural scent that isn’t sweat is categorized as an omega in Seungcheol’s head. Right now, his nose is telling him that someone important is standing behind this door, alone.
The vanilla and sugar remind him of the ice cream tubs he ate in the aftermath of his first heat when he avoided Jihoon, of when he graduated and had to wait an entire year before his best friend joined him in uni. It reminds him of the time he thought he might have found a beta who would be there for him, would date him and make him feel special even when he wasn’t in heat only to have it blow up in his face. He remembers all the way back to when he was just a kid and his mother would let him have vanilla ice cream after a job well done and his dad would ruffle his hair and call him sport.
It reminds him of a lot of moments - happy, sad, and nostalgic - but it also drives him crazy too.
He can feel the slick he’s producing right now. It’ll probably get to the point where his pants will soon become too damp to go unnoticed, but Seungcheol knows that it can’t be just him whose affected either.
The arousal rolling off his mate like waves is intermingling with the sugar and vanilla around him and Seungcheol can hear them moving around beyond the door, but they haven’t opened it yet. If Seungcheol wants to meet his mate, if he wants to plunge himself into this, he’ll need to take the first step and he doesn’t know why he came to that conclusion really, but his inner wolf is itching to turn the doorknob and walk in already, to bare his neck and let his mate Claim him.
It’s a little creepy to just walk in on someone who obviously wanted to be left alone in a secluded place like this though, but Seungcheol can’t really help it either. The seclusion is only egging him on further, making him produce even more slick at an alarming rate as he wraps his hand around the doorknob that feels too small with his thick fingers wrapped around it.
His mate is standing behind this door and he wants to turn the doorknob and find out who it may be. He knows he wants to, that it isn’t just his inner wolf demanding this, that it’s coming from his own desire too. He knows this, but he’s scared as well.
He holds onto the doorknob and breathes in, almost gasping when the scent intensifies as his mate steps towards the bright yellow door separating them. Seungcheol can barely see a humanoid shape through the glass, but it’s warped and maybe Seungcheol’s eyesight is going a little fuzzy at the edges too.
Seungcheol’s just really glad Jihoon didn’t follow him down here because it would be embarrassing to explain why he’s secreting enough slick to wet his pants while trembling, afraid to open a simple door. It’s ridiculous, Seungcheol thinks, too ridiculous to be true, but there’s no faking this feeling.
This scent is making him go crazy and people finding their mates, their true mates isn’t unheard of. Seungcheol’s parents are true mates and Seungcheol knows that Jihoon has met his too but won’t say anything about it. He doesn’t know why Jihoon’s so secretive exactly, but he does have a few ideas that are all more absurd than the next.
(Seungcheol thinks the most probable reason is that Jihoon is holding out on his true mate in case Seungcheol extends his hand and grabs hold of him. Jihoon is no idiot and he must’ve known that the reason Seungcheol chose him as his first heat partner wasn’t just because they were best friends, but because he was an alpha Seungcheol could trust. Of course, it brought up too much for Seungcheol’s frayed nerves and exhausted emotions to handle so he distanced himself and it slowly stopped feeling like his heart was jumping into his throat whenever Jihoon was around. Seungcheol’s pretty sure that Jihoon doesn’t like him in a romantic way, but Jihoon is tight-lipped when it comes to emotions so he could never be more the wiser really. Either way, Seungcheol really hopes that his best friend’s true mate doesn’t end up resenting him for this in the future when they finally meet.)
True mates are common and there’s nothing really substantial about them in the textbooks, but this is real life, and right now, Seungcheol’s preparing himself to open the door.
Seungcheol sets his shoulders and his jaw, breathing out slowly as he timidly twists the doorknob, gulping as the sweet scent engulfs him completely when the door slowly swings open. He freezes when he meets the chocolate brown eyes of his mate.
His mate stands only a few inches away, blinking up at him, and he looks as sweet as he smells Seungcheol’s almost jealous.
Is it really fair that Seungcheol’s mate has to look like some kind of famous supermodel when Seungcheol himself is pretty average-looking? Wouldn’t the universe have been kinder as to give him a true mate that isn’t prettier than the stars in the sky and shines brighter than the moon at night? Won’t his mate find Seungcheol too plain for his tastes and reject him right here and now?
Seungcheol’s mate is shorter than him with black hair that reaches his shoulders and big, brown eyes. His mouth is heart-shaped with a defined cupid’s bow and Seungcheol can just barely make out two moles above his upper lip that makes Seungcheol’s inner wolf hum with content.
He’s so pretty. There’s really no other word to describe him as. Pretty and sweet, something so striking against Seungcheol’s heavy set brows and eyes that take up most of his face. Seungcheol’s eyes are so big that he’s pretty sure his other features pale in comparison no matter what Wonwoo and Jihoon always tell him about being too hard on himself when it comes to his looks. Seungcheol knows it’s true and he’s never had a problem with it before. At least until he looked upon the pretty face of his mate.
Without realizing it, Seungcheol has stepped into the basement and let the door shut behind him as his eyes sweep the room for a short moment before he returns his gaze back to his mate. The room is bare, only an old humming refrigerator in the back corner, a few lockers in the other back corner with a large wobbly table taking up the center. There aren’t many chairs surrounding the table either and they all appear to be mismatched as well. It looks like a break room of sorts actually and maybe this is where all the library’s student helpers relax for a short moment before they climb the stairs back to the real world again?
Seungcheol isn’t very sure, but he is sure of the fact that he and his mate have been staring at each other for a while now and while he doesn’t really have a problem with the silence, his mate is starting to fidget in place so the feeling probably isn’t exactly mutual. Seungcheol can still feel the slick in his pants, but it’s in the back of his mind now while in the forefront a dozen questions about his mate keep popping up with every passing second to take up space.
He figures that the least he can do right now is give his mate his name and figure out if he’s interested or not though. So he holds his hand out in front of him and keeps his eyes locked on his mate to watch his reaction.
“Hi,” Seungcheol starts with, clearing his throat and furrowing his brow when he realizes that his voice cracked with that one word alone. “My name’s Choi Seungcheol. I’m your mate.”
Seungcheol’s mate blinks at him as if dumbfounded before he looks down at his hand and blinks again, biting his lip. A few seconds pass without his mate saying anything and Seungcheol’s beginning to think, this is it, this is where he tells me to get lost. Seungcheol’s about to open his mouth again, to apologize and then retract his hand before turning on the spot and seeking temporary solace in Jihoon’s arms, but his mate takes his hand and renders him breathless.
His palm is warm and soft, the beds of his nails well manicured and taken care of. His hand feels dainty compared to Seungcheol’s sausage fingers, but he gulps and beats that thought back. Thinking negatively about this encounter won’t help him in the future in case things don’t work out.
“Junhui. Wen Junhui,” his mate replies, his voice so soft and deeper than Seungcheol expected that he leaks more slick just from that alone, something that makes them both flush. “I mean, Moon Junhwi.”
Seungcheol smiles, his easy-going and comforting nature taking over in an instant once he realizes just how uncomfortable his mate is. “Two names?”
He doesn’t mean it to tease or anything, he’s just sincerely curious and wants to know which name his mate wants him to use. His mate flushes an even darker pink, biting his lip again before he speaks, a little quieter than before.
“I’ve found that Moon Junhwi is easier to pronounce for others while I’m here,” he says, letting his grip go slack enough in Seungcheol’s hold for Seungcheol to realize he should let go as well.
“While you’re here?”
“I’m a foreign exchange student from China,” Seungcheol’s mate replies, clasping his hands together in front of him. “My friend Minghao--uh, Myungho, told me to go by Moon Junhwi when others stumbled too much over my name.”
Seungcheol tilts his head and hopes that his smile is comforting instead of creepy as he lets go of his mate’s hand and lets it hang by his side again. “Okay, but what do you prefer to be called?”
His mate bites his lip, looking down at his hands again as he mulls it over in his head and Seungcheol watches him. He hunches into himself as he thinks, tugging on his lower lip enough that Seungcheol wants to reach out and tell him to stop, but that would be going a step too far.
They may be mates, but this is their first meeting and Seungcheol doesn’t want to ruin it by touching his mate without permission.
As he thinks though, Seungcheol inhales another lungful of sweet, sugary vanilla. He’s concluded that his mate isn’t an alpha, which isn’t a deal breaker for Seungcheol, but it’s a bit unexpected at least. He isn’t sure if the sugary scent is something added to his natural scent or not though because it very well could be since it isn’t as strong as the vanilla. With betas, Seungcheol’s noticed that the intensity of different scents are all the same. Betas are a mix of different of scents and flavors that blend together seamlessly, but with his own mate, Seungcheol’s slowly realizing that the vanilla is stronger.
The scent still reminds him of vanilla ice cream though, even with the sugar being the less prominent of the two smells, so Seungcheol breathes it all in together, licking his lips when his mate finally looks back up to meet his gaze again.
“Junhui,” Junhui murmurs, licking his lips as well when he notices the way Seungcheol’s watching his mouth. “Call me, Junhui.”
“Junhui,” Seungcheol says, simply to test out the name on his tongue, but he doesn’t miss the way a shiver rolls down Junhui’s spine as he does. “May I ask… Are you an omega?”
Junhui’s ears are now turning pink and Seungcheol can spot the color leeching down towards his mate’s throat as well, but Junhui swallows and tries for a smile as he nods confidently. “Yes, I am.”
“Oh.” Seungcheol’s lips pop open before they curl into a smile again. “Me too.”
“Is…” Junhui bites his lip and shakes his head, letting go of his lip once more soon after. “Is that okay?”
Seungcheol’s smile widens and he doesn’t have to think about the answer to that question because despite how many others obsess over it, the sub-gender of his mate has never mattered to Seungcheol. He doesn’t care if Junhui is an alpha, beta, or omega. As long as he’s Junhui, really and truly Junhui, Seungcheol doesn’t give a fuck.
“Of course, Junhui.”