Chapter Text
Taeyong believed he must have hit rock bottom to actually rely on his little brother opinion but you know what they say: Desperate times call for desperate measures.
“Mark.” He called solemnly, only seriousness dripping through his tone.
Mark, the little brother in question, lazily let his head fall back on the backseat of his chair and looked at his brother standing at the door of his bedroom.
“What?”
“You are an Alpha, right?”
Mark’s eyebrows creased in confusion. Where was he going with that question?
“yea…? At least last time I checked I still was but who knows I will check again tomorrow.”
Taeyong rolled his eyes at the sarcastic tone and leaned on the doorframe, arms crossed.
“Am I ugly?”
Mark blinked in confusion taken by surprise by the unexpected question.
“What do you mean…”
Taeyong sighed. “I mean, as an alpha do you think I’m an attractive… well… omega.”
Mark straightened up on his chair. “First of all, ew. I would never see you that way. And second of all… you were literally crowned the most wanted Omega at school.”
“Exactly!” Taeyong deadpanned “So how come no one ever asked me out? How can I be the most wanted yet no one approaches me?? It doesn’t make sense!”
Mark looked away as he thought to himself ‘I have an idea why’
“And that is why I’m going to find a boyfriend before the semester end.” Taeyong solemnly announced.
Mark didn’t think that was a good idea. But on the other hand, it might help his brother understand why everyone wanted him but avoided him.
“Good luck.” He gave him a thumb up with his fakest smile. He rarely enjoyed messes but, this one, he didn’t want to miss it.
“MIIIIIIINHYUNGIEEEE!”
A loud voice shouted from downstairs, startling both of the brothers.
“Your boo is here.” Taeyong snickered.
“Shut the fuck up, he is not my boo.” Mark cursed as he jumped off his chair to push his brother outside and lock his door. “Get out before he gets h—”
“MINHYUNGIE!”
Too late. He was already there.
Mark reflexively caught Haechan in his arms as the boy carelessly lunged himself at him. After making sure he was alright, he exhale as he dropped him on the floor, Haechan falling flat on his buttocks.
“Ouch!?!”
Mark rolled his eyes, trying to keep his calm as best as possible. He heard chuckling coming from the door and glared at his brother before he slammed the door on his face.
“Are you not gonna stand up?”
“No.” Haechan pouted. Arms crossed as he sat on the floor sulking. “I visited you right after coming back but this is how you treat me?” the younger asked offended “Worst husband ever.”
“I’m not your damn husband.”
“Not yet of course. I’m too young to get married.”
“Oh, my god.” Mark rolled his eyes exasperated and walked to his desk to find his headphones. He will need them.
He sat on his bed, back leaning on the wall and facing his front door as he put his music on and got busy on his iPad.
After fifteen minutes, he glanced at Haechan who was still seated on the floor, mopping and calling him all typed of names.
He ignored him and turned his volume louder. After another fifteen minutes, he found himself unable to focus. He sighed and climbed down his bed. Put his headphones on his desk as he walked to the younger and reached out a hand to him.
“Come on.”
Haechan refused to look at him, tearful and muttering words like ‘heartless’, ‘idiot’, ‘inconsiderate bastard’ until Mark had no other choice but to crouch down, pass a hand on his back and another one under his knees and carry him up. Haechan immediately leaned in his arms smiley and held onto him.
Mark took in a deep breath. There goes another day testing his patience.
—
Taeyong dropped the bomb on his friends during lunch break.
“I’m ready to date.”
As soon as those words left him, he anticipated his friends reactions but was only met with a pregnant silence then everyone turning to look at Jaehyun seated at the other end of the table.
Taeyong followed their gaze confused.
“What?” he innocently asked but no one wanted to start the conversation until Doyoung, his beta best friend, broke the silence.
“Does it mean… you found a boyfriend?”
“Not yet.” Taeyong shook his head “But I’m searching. That’s why I need your opinions.”
“Our opinion on…?” Yuta, the other alpha of the group risked asking.
Taeyong nodded while munching on his food. “What do you think of Johnny Seo? The alpha from Class C?”
Tension immediately filled in the air. Taeil, the other beta of the group, pretended he didn’t hear anything and was too busy eating. Yuta and Doyoung exchanged a ‘who is going to tell him’ awkward glance.
Taeyong suspiciously stared at his friends and their unusual silence. “What? He is tall and quite good looking...”
“Is he your type?” Jaehyun finally spoke.
It looked like except for Taeyong everyone else was pretty scared of where this conversation would lead.
Taeyong slightly blushed and the air became colder. Everyone was wondering if he wasn’t feeling that blizzard taking over their table. How could one be this unaware of his surroundings? Was it because he was the only Omega in their friend group?
“I just find him cute.” Taeyong muttered embarrassed.
“What about him is cute?” Jaehyun continued.
“Well, he is a bit clumsy.”
“You like clumsy guys?”
“Whatever, just tell me what you think guys!” Taeyong looked for support from Doyoung who regretted their eyes meeting. Why did it have to be him.
“Well, He is… okay I guess.” Doyoung coughed, elbowing Taeil sitting next to him for support. The beta sent him a quick glare before answering.
“He is the basketball team captain, he is funny, rich and I think he has a crush on you.” Taeil blurted nervously. He felt eyes burning holes into his skin and quickly got up.
“Sorry I gotta go, haha, I have my next class starting soon.”
“But it’s free period until 5p—”
“Bye!” and Taeil was gone before Yuta could finish his sentence.
“Johnny has a crush on me?” Taeyong was more than elated. He glanced at the Alpha sitting 3 tables away from theirs and accidentally met his eyes. Taeyong felt a blush creeping on his face as the Alpha awkwardly smiled and waved at him which Taeyong replied with a shy wave before looking away.
“He was totally staring at me right now, oh my god.”
Yuta shared a glance with Doyoung and they nodded at each other. They needed to get out of there as fast as possible. But before they could put in a word Jaehyun got up and left.
“I have club activities.” He only said.
Yuta and Doyoung immediately relaxed after Jaehyun left. Don’t get it twisted, Jaehyun was an amazing friend. But when it came to anything Taeyong related, he could become very… scary.
They had known each other since they were toddler and before they presented as Alpha and Omega. Nothing really changed between them, except for the fact they became very conscious of the other sub-gender. Especially Jaehyun.
But he was unreadable. No one really knew his intentions. Was he just overprotective because Taeyong was his best friend? Or was there more? No one ever dared to ask since not even Taeyong had noticed his behavior.
“So…” Yuta trailed off, looking at Doyoung for support.
“Are you going to try? I mean with… Johnny.”
Taeyong smiled timidly and nodded. You will never know if you never tries, they say. Right?
—
Basketball practices were—intense to say the least. It looked more like a one on one game than a team practice and nobody really dared to come between two Alphas obviously enraged about something.
The whole team took a step back when the tension between Jaehyun and Johnny escalated.
“Are you interested in Taeyong?” Jaehyun calmy asked, bouncing and dribbling the ball from one hand to another.
Johnny shock quickly wore off and he smiled. He attacked and snatched the ball from Jaehyun and dunked. He bounced the ball as he walked back to Jaehyun with a cocky smile.
“Funny you ask, we have a date this weekend.”
Nobody understood what they were saying but they didn’t need to, the tension was self-explanatory.
“I bet $100 on Jaehyun.” Jaemin said, seated on the bleachers of the gymnasium. He was a Beta part, of the basketball team. Just like everyone he decided to step away when their senior became too intense.
“I’d bet on Johnny. He is pretty strong too.” Jeno, another Alpha member of the basketball team passed them bottles of water.
Mark took the bottle and silently drank, shaking his head at those two fools on the basketball court. Of course he knew what they were fighting about even without hearing it. The only thing that could make Jaehyun this worked up was his brother, Taeyong.
“Stupid.” He muttered.
“Oh, our Mark hyung, ever so serious~” Jaemin snickered. Jeno was about to join him in teasing their friends until his gaze caught something or rather—someone.
“Look who is there?”
Mark looked out of reflexes and immediately regretted it. He was about to stand up and leave but Jeno was faster than him and in no time record had climbed the bleachers to the gymnasium entrance.
“Hello, beautiful~.” He took Haechan’s hand in his ever so delicately and gave it a kiss.
Haechan snorted “Do you ever stop flirting?”
“Yes. When you are not around.” The alpha winked.
Renjun rolled his eyes in disgust. He already regretted accepting to accompany Haechan here.
“Did you miss me? Because you live in my mind rent free.”
Haechan felt amused by his friend. Too bad his Minhyung wasn’t this playful.
Mark was watching from afar, a little tingle of annoyance growing in him and showing on his face. Jaemin couldn’t help but point it out.
“Someone is pissed his Omega is being snatched away~”
“He’s not my—” Mark defensively stated
“I never said it was you though.” Jaemin faked innocence.
Mark rolled his eyes and picked his towel then left, not without throwing a last glance at Jeno and Haechan seemingly having the time of their lives with how loud they were laughing.
“Good.” He was tired of putting up with Haechan clinginess. Maybe he would leave him alone now.
Mark hoped so. He did…
When Haechan looked back to the court Mark was nowhere to be seen. He let a sad sigh. He came all the way to see him play but ended up missing him.
On the other hand, both Johnny and Jaehyun were still at it. It looked like Johnny said something that enraged Jaehyun because not only he brutally pushed him down, but he also broke the net.
Silence reigned over the gymnasium as Jaehyun golden pearls hovered over Johnny scotched on the ground by the immense intensity force of the other Alpha.
“I dare you. Please, go ahead.” Jaehyun lowly snarled, his fangs showing.
The silence remained even after Jaehyun had left the gym. Teammates came to help their captain up and asked if everything was okay. He had lost his cocky smile and tried very hard not to show how terrified he had been minutes ago.
“I’m fine.” He cut “Practices are over for today. You can go home.” Then he also left, but in the opposite direction than Jaehyun.
Renjun and Haechan shared a confused gaze. Jeno looked at them awkwardly and tried to change the topic.
“Rough day hehe. So… wanna grab ice cream on our way back Haechan?”
“I’m here too you know?” Renjun rolled his eyes.
“Yeah, you can come too.”
‘To thirdwheel? No thank you’ Renjun wanted to say, but he also wanted to ruin their moment so best believe he will tag along.
“I’ll ask Jaemin if he wants to join too. The more the merrier!”
Haechan agreed. “Yes do that.”
As Jeno left to go ask Jaemin, Haechan pulled out his phone and texted Mark where he was.
‘seen’ but no reply.
“I love when he plays hard to get.” Haechan sighed soundly.
Sick. Renjun was surrounded by sick people.