“Is there an Alpha weaker than an Omega?”
I’d already lost count of how many it was today alone.
Too tired to explain anymore, I just lifted the corner of my mouth.
“I hope you meet someone much, much better than me.”
“G-Geonho sunbae!”
Luckily, that was enough. The Omega freshman froze on the spot, face red as a beet.
And I, catching a certain “weird smell” beginning to curl up in wisps, slapped the back of my hand over my nose and made a quick escape.
The moment I stepped into the corridor, I could feel everyone sneaking glances at me. One of them waved cheerfully and fell into step.
“Impressive, Geonho Baek. Got confessed to again?”
It was my long-time friend who’d ended up in the same class again this year, Jaeuk Kim.
“Pfft. And it was another Omega guy?”
“Don’t tease me.”
“Freshmen can’t possibly know your kink, so every year we get a wave of victims.”
“Don’t call it a kink. I’m an utterly normal guy who just happens to like Beta women.”
“Right. Which is exactly what makes it a kink.”
What? A guy liking women is a “kink”?
I’ve been living in Geonho Baek’s body for almost ten years now, and I still don’t get it. How does sex theory even work in this world?
“Why? Why am I only popular with Omega men?”
“Because you’re an alpha male.”
“Why did I have to become an Alpha?”
“Do I look like I’d know?”
“My biological parents were Beta, so how come…?”
“You scratched a winning ticket. I’m Beta; want to trade sexes with me?”
“Please do.”
“Can’t even joke with you.”
At my desperate voice and eyes, Jaeuk recoiled a couple of steps with a spooked look.
Three years ago. When I manifested as an Alpha, it was a circus—and it’s only gotten worse since.
Maybe it’s my well-off parents. Maybe it’s this annoyingly handsome face. Either way, Omegas started literally lining up.
Just earlier, a cluster of pretty freshmen were wriggling around trying to form a line near me; I got goosebumps and bolted. For the record, every single one was an Omega boy.
“With this face, the fact I have suspiciously zero contact with girls… Is it because I’m inside a BL novel world? Seriously?”
In this crazy world, can I even enjoy a proper relationship with a woman?
Granted, my true age is what it is—bright-green teenagers aren’t even within my boundary to begin with… Still, it’s a lot to swallow.
While I was clutching my head, Jaeuk let out a thin sigh.
“My dream is to hook up with an Omega at least once. You spoiled brat.”
“Don’t say stuff like that carelessly.”
He may be a hot-blooded ninth-grader, but talk that far over the line will get him hauled before the student tribunal for public morals violations.
And I’ll return the words to him as is.
“You have no idea what a huge blessing it is to be born Beta…”
“Anyway, entrance ceremony’s over—PC café run? The guys went ahead and are waiting.”
He’s heard me complain for years; he let it slide in one ear as usual.
I waved him off and started packing my bag.
“Next time. I’ve got something to do.”
“No way, without you the game comp falls apart! You become student council president and now you’re drawing lines with us? Forgotten the favor of my vote?!”
“I have to pick up my younger brother.”
“Huh? Still? Isn’t he already in third grade? Tell him to get home on his own.”
“Even so…”
I was about to say more to him when—
“Huh.”
“What?”
“My meds are gone.”
“What? Why are your meds gone?”
No matter how I rummaged through the bag, what should have been there wasn’t.
“You take that every day. Did you leave it in a bathroom or something?”
“No, the pill bottle always goes in the inside pocket of the bag…”
I was combing every inch of the lining when—
Rustle. A small piece of paper caught on my fingertips.
“…”
“What’s wrong?”
“You go ahead. I think I found the bottle.”
“Face and brains both perfect and somehow still a klutz. Try not to lose it.”
“Yeah. Thanks for worrying.”
“Log in tonight at least!”
“Got it—just go to the PC café.”
After I sent Jaeuk off,
I closed my hand around the paper and headed for the school’s annex building.
End of the annex hallway.
The instant I opened the supply room door, a certain “smell” stabbed up my nose and made my face scrunch on its own.
“G-Geonho. You came…”
In the dim, cramped space crammed with cabinet closets and supplies, a short male student stood there, fidgeting.
“Was it you? The one who stole my meds.”
“You read it. My letter.”
I flicked my eyes to the note I still held and read it again.
[Sorry, Geonho. I took your pill bottle.]
[I’ll be waiting in the annex supply room.]
The boy shook a brown bottle in his hand.
The tablets inside clinked against the glass.
“This is a pheromone suppressant, right?”
“…What are you talking about.”
“I—I heard it. From someone who went to the same elementary school as you. Everyone knows the rumors about you.”
Damn it. I should’ve kept lids tighter back then.
“Geonho, you’re actually a prime Alpha, right? You take meds to push down the overflowing pheromones…”
“…”
I was at a loss for words.
Prime? As if becoming an Alpha wasn’t bad enough—now I’m prime?
I swallowed a curse and stared at him blankly.
“Why’d you steal it?”
“H-huh?”
“I asked why you stole it.”
“If I don’t do at least this, you’ll ignore my letters and messages. You block every call from unknown numbers…”
You know my habits down to that level? Have you been tracking my every move?
My skin crawled. I wanted to bolt out of the supply room that instant, but I couldn’t.
Judging by that “smell” getting stronger, the drug’s effect was running out. In this state, even getting home would be hard.
“Enough. Give the meds back. Before I get angry.”
“I—I have something I want to say to you…”
“If you don’t want this getting big, cut it out.”
This time I didn’t just keep a blank face—I pinched my brows tight and dropped my voice low.
Maybe the atmosphere had turned a lot harsher than before; the boy flinched and trembled.
“You stole my meds. That’s not something we can brush off as a prank.”
“Y-yeah. I’m sorry. I must’ve lost my head for a second… Here, take it.”
He quickly tucked tail and set the bottle on top of a cabinet.
As I moved to pass him, he sniffed at me, shameless as anything.
“Mmm, that’s good… this faint smell.”
“…”
“Other Alphas put on airs and flood the place with their scents… but you tie yours up tight and never let them out, right? And yet, the way it squeezes through a little at a time—that drives me even crazier, you know?”
“I don’t know. What do you mean—scary.”
I “tie up” my pheromones? And how exactly would I do that?
I don’t know.
Pheromone control—truth is, I don’t know the first thing about it.
It’s been years since I manifested as an Alpha, and I still can’t do it. No one knows this but my adoptive parents and my physician; it’s top secret.
I was just about to recall the day three years ago when I manifested when—
“Geonho, I can’t hold back either!”
[crash]
All of a sudden the boy yanked a storage cabinet hard and toppled it. The path to the exit was completely blocked.
How did that scrawny body pull off that kind of brute force…? No—looking closer, all the bottom screws and hinges were loosened. It was set up to fall easily.
“That bastard planned everything!”
“Just once. Just once! Please, Geonho!”
“P-please?”
“We graduate this year and then we’ll part ways. And seeing all those freshmen swarming around you—I got impatient… I really can’t take it anymore!”
With that, he flung off his jacket and shouted:
“Do it with me!”
“You little—”
I barely swallowed the string of curses clawing up my throat.
I’ve seen it a lot.
On the internet, on TV, in the news, and in real life over the last ten years.
Alphas and Omegas spewing pheromones.
Beasts drunk on it, with not a shred of reason left, moving on pure instinct.
Slaves to those horrible pheromones!
“Kh…!”
The “smell” suddenly spiked.
He’d clearly decided to go all in—he started blasting pheromones outright.
“I’m in heat… How about it?”
“H-heat?!”
Now it made sense—why a kid who looked so normal would pull this insane stunt!
One of the factors that turns even downy fifteen-year-olds into rutting animals is the “heat cycle” that Alphas and Omegas go through on a regular basis!
“Give me the meds! Now!”
“No. Why would I, when I finally got my chance? And don’t worry. At this hour, no teachers or students come this way…”
“That’s not the problem!”
I can’t accept this world’s “common sense,” but after an exhilarating little real-time lesson like this, maybe I have to.
“If I don’t take my meds, I can’t hold out…!”
This insane world is definitely real,
and in the end I’m just a slave to its pheromones too.
“So it really is a suppressant! You can’t press your pheromones down either, can you?! You’re going crazy wanting to do it with me, aren’t you?!”
“Move. Now. Or else…”
“O-or else what?”
In the end I couldn’t stay on my feet; I grabbed the boy’s shoulders hard.
His face flushed with feverish excitement.
“I might… do something I can’t take back!”
“Yeah! Do whatever you want, Geonho! Anything!”
“Then I’m really… going to do it…”
“Yeah, let it all out! Your pheromones!”
So I—
“U—”
“U—?”
[retch]
“Huh?”
—let loose a full rainbow arc, pheromones be damned,
and blacked out on the spot.
Three years ago, around sixth grade.
After they rushed me to the ER, the doctor delivered a diagnosis.
“It’s somatochemical sensory-overload pheromone response syndrome.”
“Excuse me?”