Chapter Text
Chapter 1
Very Awkward, Potentially Life-Threatening First Meetings
“Why tonight of all nights?” he thought to himself as he rushed to turn off his laptop and stuff it into his bag. “Why? Why me?”
Mew Suppasit Jongcheveevat, 29, Head of Client Servicing, and currently very very late for a family dinner. His phone had been buzzing since 6pm, and now it was 8:30pm, and he knew, he just knew that he was going to get the scolding of his life when his mother saw him.
He had been promoted the year before, and his life had gotten so hectic that he barely knew what rest was anymore. But he loved his job. He loved being able to convince clients to buy into the eco projects, sea preservation fundraisers, and anti-pollution campaigns that his company ran. He loved it, but leading such a hectic work life meant that he had very little time for his personal life.
He grabbed his phone after stuffing the last of his notes into his bag and ran for the lift. Pressing the basement button, he glanced at his phone and saw 12 missed calls from his mother, and 6 from his sister. Wonderful.
Closing his eyes, he sighed, allowing the silence of the elevator to envelop him, letting his shoulders drop slightly, finally relaxing. He heard the elevator ding, but knew that there was no way he was at the basement already, so he kept his eyes shut, willing himself into a state where he could face the judgement of his family again.
And then it hit him. Not like a train, not even like a tuk-tuk, but it hit him.
The smell .
His eyes shot open as he looked around to see a man, slightly taller than him, but somehow so much smaller than him take a step to the wall of the elevator, not really looking at him, obviously… scared?
“Scared?” Mew thought to himself, as the man tried to make himself one with the wall.
“S-Sorry,” he said, “I ran out of the blockers. I’m sorry,” he said, and Mew realised in shock that the man was really truly afraid. And then he remembered the news he had seen this morning.
More Omegas were being attacked when they were alone. More Omegas were winding up dead, especially those who ventured out at night. More Omegas were ending up in hospitals because of violent attacks.
This man… was an Omega.
Mew didn’t know what to do, he wanted to tell the man that it was okay, that he wasn’t going to hurt him, but… had the man heard that before he had been hurt in the past? Had he been hurt in the past? Oh god, did someone hurt him?
Mew was thinking all these things when the elevator rang and the doors opened at the ground floor. The other man gulped and hurried out of the elevator, and before he could think, Mew was following him.
“Hey, hey stop,” Mew called out to the man, and the man responded by full body sprinting to the front door and yanking it open into the Bangkok night air. “Wait!” Mew shouted and ran after the man.
They ran, the man weaving his way through the few people left on the near empty business street, and Mew trying to keep up, wondering how on earth this man was able to so easily wind his way through the street.
Finally he caught the man, literally catching him when he slipped on an empty plastic bag on the ground, and Mew caught him, cradling his back. In the light of a bus stop that was next to them, Mew looked down and saw tear streaks crossing the man’s cheeks. The man tried to break away from his grasp, but didn’t have the strength that Mew possessed and Mew heard the quietest whisper saying, “I want to live.”
And Mew’s heart broke. He held the man close to him, wrapping his arms around him, apologising like mad.
“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry, I’m not going to hurt you, I’m here, I’m not going to hurt you, no one is going to hurt you,” Mew kept on repeating this as the man cried, and after about ten minutes, Mew felt like the man was calming down, so he very slowly, very gently reached down, brushing the man’s hair from his face. The man flinched a little, so Mew hastily retracted his hand, and very hesitantly let his grasp slacken so that the man could detach himself if he wanted to, and he did.
“Are you feeling a bit better?” Mew asked, putting his hands out a bit, dropping his shoulders so that the man would see that he’s not a threat. The man nodded after glancing at him, and he sat on the ground, leaning against a billboard.
“Why?” the man asked, and Mew guessed he was asking why Mew had gone after him. “I uh,” Mew began, looking away. Why had he? He wiped his face with his hand and then his nose picked up the reason why.
“You said you had finished your blockers, and it’s late at night. I was going to offer you a ride because it’s not safe,” Mew said, and he was honest about that.
“You don’t know me,” the man said, and this was true. Mew didn’t know the man, but… how is that possible? He knew almost everyone in the company.
“True, but...” Mew said, his voice trailing off.
“But?” the man enquired.
“I don’t know,” Mew said, “I didn’t want anything to happen to you.”
“Why?” the man asked.
“Do I need to have a reason to want to protect people?” Mew asked, surprised.
The man seemed to be sizing Mew up, his brow furrowing. “Alphas hurt more than they heal,” he said. “At least the ones I’ve met.”
Ah… Right.
Mew looked down, that was true, there was no denying that. Alphas were aggressive at the best of times, and Omegas had suffered a lot at their hands. The Free Omegas movement, or Free-O had gained so much support over the last ten years that world governments amended their constitutions, giving Omegas the right to vote, to attend higher education institutions, hold jobs outside of home- and care-giving, and only in the last three years had they gotten the right to equal pay.
But many of the old prejudices and hatred remained. Which was always a mystery to Mew and many like him, considering how important Omegas were to society in general.
“May I leave?” the man asked and Mew was taken away from his thoughts. He realised that the man had been sitting there, warily watching Mew for his next move, still afraid but tired from the running.
“Please,” Mew asked slowly, “Can I please drop you home? I will not touch or hurt you in any way, I genuinely really don’t want you to get hurt.”
“Sir, we don’t know each other, how can I trust you?” the man said, and he was right. The Mew had an idea.
“I’m going to reach into my pocket and take out my phone, okay?” he said, and the man sat up a little straighter, looking like he would run for it if it was anything other than a handphone.
Mew reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone, hastily swiping away the missed call notifications. “Take my phone,” he said and the man looked at him, confused. “Why?” he asked.
“It doesn’t have a pincode, you can look through it, ask me anything about whatever is in there,” Mew said. The man took the phone and unlocked it, looking at the picture of Mew with his family. He gazed at it for a few seconds and turned back to Mew.
“What is your name?” he asked, and Mew told him. “Okay,” the man said, handing Mew back his phone. “I’m going to trust you, but I’m going to take a picture of you, your business card, and your car and send it to someone, okay?” the man said and Mew nodded, agreeing.
“Okay,” the man said and gestured to Mew to get up. As they stood, the man said, “My name is Gulf,” and Mew smiled at the man. “It’s nice to meet you, Gulf.”
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The walk back to the office building was a silent and awkward one, Mew always a couple of steps ahead, Gulf behind, a slight frown on his face as he watched the other man. Mew wanted to say something, but there were too many words and none at all at the same time, so he just kept silent.
As they entered the brightly lit foyer of the building, Gulf finally spoke.
“Sir, I would like to take your photo now,” he said and Mew turned stopped midstep, looking back. Gulf was holding up what looked like a very beat up phone, and was trying to look as serious as he could, which apparently, was a lot.
“Yes, of course, sorry,” Mew said, and stood up straight, making sure his features were as prominent as possible. Gulf took his photo, then moved around him, taking three more, two from his sides, and one from his back. Mew stood still while Gulf did this, then handed over his business card for Gulf to photograph.
Once he had done this, Gulf handed Mew back the card, but Mew put up a hand, stopping him. “Keep it,” he said, smiling a bit. Gulf looked down at the card and back at Mew, nodding as he pocketed it. “Would you like to send the photos to your friend first?” Mew asked and Gulf nodded, so he waited as Gulf typed on his phone and sent the photos.
“Alright,” Gulf said after he had gotten a reply from his friend, “We can go.”
Mew nodded and headed for the elevators to the basement. When the doors opened, he held his hand out for Gulf to exit first and Gulf bowed slightly, more of a nod as he exited. Mew led Gulf to his car, and stopped, waiting again as Gulf took photos of his car at multiple angles and sent it to his friend. Luckily the basement still had connection, so it was a quick process.
“Okay, I’m ready,” Gulf said, taking a deep breath, and Mew nodded.
Gulf got into Mew’s car, a beautiful BMW, and seemed curious about the interior of it, but didn’t say anything, just clicked the seatbelt into place and gave Mew a cautious smile. Mew smiled back his signature friendly smile and they took off into the night.
Once again, there was silence, pierced only by Gulf quietly telling Mew where to go, and Mew desperately trying to think of something to say.
To his defense, he tried several times, every time feeling more and more like a complete idiot, the last attempt being when they passed a Japanese buffet restaurant and Mew commenting that the food there was some of his favourite and Gulf smiling and nodding, followed by Mew asking “Have you been there too? It’s great right?” and Gulf saying quietly, “No, I haven’t, it’s very expensive. Many places don’t let Omegas in unaccompanied.”
Gulf wasn’t trying to be mean, Mew knew that. He didn’t know how he knew that, but he knew that Gulf was just stating it as it was, but it hurt.
Society was beginning to accept Omegas for more than just well… baby makers, but this change was happening way too slowly in Mew’s eyes. He had been friends with one of the three Omegas in university, but that person had dropped out after receiving multiple death threats and ended up moving to the outskirts of Bangkok.
He’d heard stories of children in school whose secondary gender had revealed them to be Omegas and they had been taken out of school by their families and tucked away in safe spaces, their families fearing for their children, and he’d head the flipside to that - families disowning their children who were Omegas.
He’d seen the news about the violence, he’d signed petitions to protect Omegas, and he’d helped in their activism, but Gulf didn’t know any of that, and right now, it had become Mew’s mission to leave Gulf feeling that at there was at least one Alpha in the world that was on his side. Or at least… there.
As they drove, Mew realised that they were heading for the districts far from the city, where many Omegas had been relegated to. A sign of where they stood in society: the outside.
“Gulf, how do you get to work every day? The train lines stopped a while ago,“ Mew said after a while, and Gulf looked at him, trying to see if there was any intention hidden behind the question.
Seeing none, he answered, “I walk from where I live to the station.”
“Isn’t it a long walk?” Mew asked, “Aren’t you tired after working the whole day?”
Gulf smiled a bit, looking out the windshield, “Slow down,” he said, and Mew slowed the car down. “Now look around.”
Mew looked around and what he saw made his heart sink.
There were people around, walking about on the dimly lit roads, many teenagers coming in and out of the ungated houses, and just… people. The houses were shabby, some of them completely abandoned, and there were many homes that looked like they didn’t have electricity.
“How can I feel tired when there’s so much life around me when I walk home?” Gulf said, and Mew looked at him. Gulf had a small smile on his face, making his eyebags more pronounced, but making his look curiously attractive. “I know that you see poverty and terrible living conditions. And it’s true, there is a lot of poverty and terrible living conditions where I live, but there’s also so much life, the want to survive, and community here.”
Mew looked out the windshield and kept on driving, slowly trying to look at his surroundings again in a different light.
“Turn right here, please,” Gulf said and Mew made the turning to a street that had six houses on it.
“The middle one, on the right,” Gulf said and Mew stopped the car by the curb.
Gulf unbuckled his seatbelt and looked at Mew, turning his entire body and that small smile that he had on his face grew a little more.
“Thank you for bringing me home safely, sir,” Gulf said, bowing to Mew.
“Mew,” Mew said, and Gulf looked up, slight confusion flitting on his face. “Please, don’t call me sir or Alpha, my name is Mew.”
Gulf stared at Mew. This was not done. Well, this was very rarely done. Omegas were to refer to Alphas as either Alpha, sir, or ma’am. That's one thing that most of the Omegas were fighting the hardest to abolish, but had been unsuccessful.
“I-” Gulf began but Mew shook his head. “I would like to be your friend, if you’d allow me to be,” Mew said and Gulf backed up against the door slowly, sinking into his seat.
For a second, Mew thought that Gulf had never been spoken to like this before by someone that was not an Omega.
“If you’re not comfortable with it, please be honest with me,” Mew continued, and Gulf shook his head.
“No no, it’s… no one has asked me that before,” he said and Mew nodded.
“Think about it, okay?” Mew asked, “You have my business card, you can call or text me whenever you like.” Please, God, text me.
Gulf nodded slowly and stuttered that he should get into the house, that he shouldn’t keep Mew for too long, and hastily exited the car, walking quickly to the door of the house and practically slamming it shut.
Mew sighed, letting his head loll against the headrest.
He looked at his phone and saw that he had indeed missed another family dinner, and he was going to pay for the next one in full. But he didn’t mind at all.
On the way back, he thought about the night that had just passed and all he could think of was the Omega named Gulf, whose scent lingered on the passenger seat, at least for now.
A mixture of chamomile and eucalyptus.