Chapter Text
“New semester, new me,” the boy promised his reflection as he tied his tie incorrectly for the fifth time. “This shit ain’t fair,” he then muttered.
“I’ll do it.”
“Thanks, Seokmin.” The boy turned to his dormmate, hands clasped behind his back as his best friend did up his tie. “You’re the best.”
“Guess what?!”
“Oh Dear God in Heaven if You can hear my Prayer Please Kill Me, Your Humble Servant Jihoon, Right this Minute-”
“Shut up and listen!” Seungkwan bounced into the dorm, his face all a-gleam. The boy had been up and rearing to go since 6AM this morning. How he and Jihoon survived in the same dormitory was still a mystery. “The hallways are flooded with new students!”
“Yes, I know, a new batch of freshmen who are short enough to make me feel at home,” Jihoon grumped. “What about it?”
“No, no, no – not freshmen!”
Jeonghan finally swung out of his bunkbed, tresses of his long hair falling over. “What?” he asked sleepily.
“The Great School For Academic Alphas and Betas in Seoul closed down because their principle embezzled all the money! All their students are here – all of them!”
The young gentlemen of dorm 105B stared at the boy in the hallway.
“Alphas?” The word was like magic: suddenly his long hair was shiny and in place, and he was awake; Jeonghan quickly grabbed a pair of pants from the end of his bed and hopped down off the top bunk. “Here?”
“It’s not like we don’t have alphas,” Seokmin grumped, letting Jihoon’s tie loose.
The boys became a flurry of questions for their Diva Boo, but the boy just happily sauntered into the dorm and sat down on a chair. “The best way to learn what’s up is to get ourselves down to orientation.”
For the first time in the three years that the boys of dorm 105 had been together, Yoon Jeonghan was washed, clothed, and actually awake for orientation.
Throughout all the turmoil, Jihoon stayed quiet: when his dormmates noticed, they didn’t ask. When it finally occurred to Seokmin how hard this would be for the boy, he put his arm around Jihoon’s shoulders as they walked from the dormitories to the school halls.
Jihoon didn’t speak, even though he appreciated the gesture.
The halls were rank with the scent of alphas – musk, spice, sweat, honey, tea and wood tones seemed to be everywhere. And then there was the scent of betas, too: what they called a silent scent. It was the way water tasted: it definitely smelled, but nobody could place it.
Seungkwan – an omega in literally every aspect – walked up front, his gleamingly happy face brightening with every pace. The four were a sight that caught the attention of many a new eye.
It was rare for omegas to travel in packs unaccompanied by alphas, for sure: but for such good-looking omegas? The new alphas and betas stopped and stared.
Seungkwan, with his happy demeanour, bright disposition and gratingly loud voice was a stand-out figure for sure; Seokmin’s sunny smile was an attractive thing, never mind that he’d already been spoken for by an alpha. Jeonghan was the real show-stopper: his delicate features paired with beautiful long hair that he tended to flick over would make anybody stop and stare. He was without a doubt the most beautiful creature an alpha could lay eyes on. Even the omega girls accepted that.
Orientation only happened – God Bless – a couple of times a year. It was when the great auditorium in the South Wing was prepped with a billion chairs and Principle Kim stood on the podium, looking abnormally small on the huge stage, and gave the students their first boring lecture on working together and Alphas, Betas and Omegas together and Please don’t have another egg salad cafeteria food fight this year again.
But of course today, Orientation was far fuller than it usually was, hot and a little claustrophobic.
It made sense for the New School Of ABO to take in the students: it was a school built for a hundred thousand students, but only a couple thousand attended. Most of the great halls were empty and always had been.
Principle Kim – more like a fond older brother of fifty than an actual principle – had his regular speech about welcoming students and blablabla, when it happened.
“As most of you well know, this year we have plenty of new arrivals from the Great Academy. I welcome you all to New of ABO and I truly hope you will find it to your liking.”
Seungkwan leaned over to Jeonghan. “Listen… try not to have half the school in the dorm, okay?”
“Shut up,” Jeonghan muttered.
“…assign you to classes. When you get to homeroom this morning you will be assigned to dormitories according to your type. Please listen carefully.”
Seungkwan gripped Jihoon’s arm – painfully, but the older boy didn’t mind so much. School pictures flashed on the huge screen behind Principle Kim as he read out classrooms and then names.
“Class 12A.”
Jeonghan’s hand rested on Woozi’s. It was their class.
“Choi Seungcheol, Alpha. Wen Junhui, Alpha. Hong Joshua, Beta. Kim Mingyu, Omega. Jeon Wonwoo, Beta.”
A ripple went through the students. Great Academy only had twelve omegas in it – omegas who were emitted due a need to be with their alphas, or who were unclaimed younger brothers of alphas or betas and needed constant protection.
“See anything you like?”
“I see a lot of things I like,” Jeonghan grinned a little.
“You dirty.”
Jeonghan winked once.
There wasn’t much else to do than wait – Seungkwan and Seokmin went to their own respective homeroom classes and Jeonghan and Jihoon walked together.
“It’ll be fine,” Jeonghan sighed.
“We only have one alpha in our class,” Jihoon mumbled. “It’s just uncomfortable.”
“I know. It’s okay, really.”
“Yeah. Thanks.”
Jeonghan’s desk was all the way at the front of class – Jihoon’s was at the back, near the window. He made a point of it not to look anywhere besides the teacher, his desk and the window.
“Class, these are your new classmates. This is Seungcheol, Joshua, Mingyu, Junhui and Wonwoo.” It took him a moment. “Oh right, your dorms. Seungcheol, Jun and Wonwoo, you’re in 265A. Mingyu, you’re in 192B. Joshua I’m afraid you’re placed with omegas in 105B. That’s with Jeonghan and Jihoon.”
Jeonghan perked up happily, insisting Joshua sit next to him: the others were assigned random seats in class.
Now that there were new students in class, homeroom was a tedious affair. Usually it was a “get to class if you are late and work on homework” hour to start off the day but oh no, now everybody had to introduce themselves. They could say whatever they liked, as long as the basics were there.
Jihoon was not a vocal person. He didn’t speak. In fact he barely even spoke to his best friends, never mind to the whole class out loud.
“I’m Jihoon. I’m seventeen. I like music.” He sat back down again.
It wasn’t strange that he didn’t name his type – many omegas were embarrassed about their status – but his voice was so soft, it was too obvious.
Mingyu, the new omega, was quite focused on: when he stood, he seemed to almost reach the roof he was so tall. And… kind of built, too. He had a dark, mature look on his handsome face.
“I’m Mingyu, I’m seventeen, and I’m an omega. Seungcheol is my older brother. I like going out with friends, picnics, and food – lots of food. My favourite colour is blue. Oh! And my father is the president of the Samsil Group.”
There was a moment of silence as that was processed.
The Samsil Group practically owned Alphas, Betas and Omegas. They were made up of ambassadors, ministers and doctors for ABOs – what they produced were products, medicine and technologies especially for ABOs.
Mingyu sat down again with a happy-innocent-puppy look on his face.
Well, if this wasn’t an interesting first day of school.