Chapter Text
FOUR YEARS AGO...
As Madrid's summer sun beat down on the training pitches like a sledgehammer, the young talents who had finally finished their daily training rushed to find a shaded spot. It was only their fourth month at the academy, yet their numbers had already dwindled significantly. Dozens of kids who had arrived with dreams of becoming the best striker had either been eliminated or had pulled out of the program, unable to withstand the grueling training conditions.
Sae was walking toward the locker rooms, sipping his water. His jersey was glued to his back with sweat. Since he had poured half of the water over his head, his hair was soaking wet too. All he wanted was a freezing cold shower, followed by going straight to his room to get some proper rest. He hoped no one would be around. As if the stench of sweat wasn't enough, the alphas who had only recently presented were smelling awful with their unrefined pheromones. It was so bad that Sae sometimes wished he could put a peg on his nose.
When he reached the locker room, he took a deep breath. After tossing his empty water bottle into the trash, he sat down on one of the benches. His legs were throbbing. The training, which usually started at seven in the morning, hadn't finished until one in the afternoon because their last match had run long. Consequently, they had been thoroughly cooked by the midday sun. He reached for his locker and grabbed his bag. He was just getting ready to stand up again when a sudden scent filled his nose, instantly crushing all his spirits.
"Hey Itoshi! What on earth was that last pass? You were just like a midfielder, you literally read my mind!"
Sae could barely restrain himself from rolling his eyes as he looked at Bunny Iglesias, who stood before him, talking with immense enthusiasm. Bunny was a dominant alpha. Like the other boys, his pheromones hadn't fully matured yet. But because he was a dominant alpha, his scent was significantly more unbearable than the rest. Whenever he walked into a room, the place would smell like a mixture of rotten oranges and cheap candy. On top of that, he was completely drenched in sweat from the training. Sae tried his best to hold his breath as his nose stung from the intensity.
"You were truly magnificent, I hope we end up on the same team for the evening training again!" When Bunny placed his hand on Sae's shoulder to accompany his words, Sae knitted his brows and stepped aside as if dodging a toxic vine. His eyes locked onto Bunny's. He didn't know how he looked from the outside, but Bunny's vibrant grin instantly vanished, replaced by an expressionless poker face.
"Iglesias, how many times do I have to tell you not to invade my personal space? That disgusting scent of yours doesn't just ruin my play on the pitch, it completely blights my will to live. Besides, the pass I gave has nothing to do with playing midfield. I am simply a versatile person. Now go and take a shower in the furthest cabin until that wretched scent of yours washes off. You're making my nose sting."
Bunny paused for a moment, then smirked widely. "I think you're just overreacting because you're a beta, Itoshi. Leonardo smells way worse than me, but I haven't heard you complain about him even once. Are you perhaps jealous of me?" As he spoke, he leaned closer and closer into Sae's space. Sae pushed him away with his hand. "You are an infuriating person, Iglesias." Grabbing his bag, Sae started walking away without looking back. Behind him, he could hear Bunny chuckling and shouting,
"Thank you!"
Walking down the corridor alone, he pushed his hair back with his hand. Even though it was normal for the shower area to be crowded once he reached his destination, it still ruined his mood. As he walked toward the cabin furthest away from everyone, he could feel several piercing glares drilling into his back.
Most of them belonged to people he had fought with before. Since they were a bunch of teenage boys whose sub-genders were newly emerging, they would frequently gossip about omegas in the locker rooms or desperately try to guess the sub-genders of their peers who hadn't presented yet.
They all assumed Sae hadn't presented yet, whereas Sae had actually presented back when he was still in Japan. With his father being a dominant alpha, Sae presenting as a dominant omega just like his mother had been a massive disappointment to him. Sae didn't look down on omegas, but until the day he presented, he had genuinely believed he would be an alpha. Ever since he arrived in Spain, he had been using scent-suppressant pills.
The other players frequently tried to guess Sae's sub-gender.
They didn't even consider the possibility of him being a dominant alpha or a dominant omega. In fact, they didn't think he carried any strong pheromones at all. He lacked the commanding drive to dominate like an alpha, yet he was miles away from the docility of an omega. No one had ever caught a whiff of his scent. Consequently, everyone believed Sae was a beta, but nobody had ever found the courage to actually come up and ask him directly.