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If You Think The Coffee Sucks, Wait Until You Meet the Owner Any feedback or questions? Send them to zyhperini@yahoo.com Hyunjin’s bold declaration got surprise, but neither hostility nor denial out of Jeongin’s alpha. That was a good sign, at least. Alphas could get really nasty about betas impregnating their omegas without permission and this one being chill about it boded well for Hyunjin getting to be in his child’s life. It also knocked the possibility that Bang Chan was part of that anti-beta cult down several notches on Hyunjin’s “What Happened to Yang Jeongin” list, which was even better. Those people where terrifyingly persuasive and Jeongin had almost been snatched up by them once before. (So had Hyunjin, for that matter, a few months earlier. It was one of the things they had bonded over when they’d started talking after mass. “Why would an anti-beta cult try to snatch a beta?” one might ask. Turned out that they didn’t hate betas so much as they believed betas were fundamentally unsuited to pack life and would be happiest in beta-only monasteries where they only interacted with other dynamics during breeding cycles. The pair that flagged him down outside of university hadn’t led with that, of course. Instead, they’d asked him if he’d ever been in a pack courtship and felt like there was something wrong about it, like it wasn’t what he was meant to be doing. Since he’d spent the entire previous night lying awake, second-guessing his agreement to move forward with the courtship offer from Jinseok’s pack, it’d felt like they’d looked directly into his soul. He’d unloaded all his doubts on them and they’d been friendly, gentle, sweetly parental while they assured him it was natural to feel that way, particularly for a beta. Nothing about their phrasing had set off any alarm bells until they were guiding him to a car to take him to a group therapy session for other betas who were struggling with pack life. That, at last, made him uncomfortable, so he lied about forgetting his wallet in class and they’d let him slip off with the promise to meet up later. He told his horrified friends about the experience afterwards and they’d explained exactly who the nicely-dressed duo with the poster board promising a better life were. He’d avoided that side of campus ever since.) Jeongin’s alpha accepted Hyunjin’s hand after a momentary hesitation. “Bang Chan,” he said dutifully and matched Hyunjin’s bow over their joined hands, “97 liner. We just – have so much talking to do.” He was older, but not enough to make things uncomfortably formal; employed, if not in the most prestigious of career paths. Nicely broad shoulders, prominent nose, sensitive mouth. Not the tallest, but Hyunjin wasn’t picky on that front. Kind manners, super charming laugh, protective of Jeongin. Probably not in a cult. I can work with this, Hyunjin thought, trying not to let it show on his face how much he wanted to open his mouth and scream for an hour straight. I can totally co-parent with this alpha. Co-parent. Parent. Ooh, he was going to be a father. That hadn’t been anywhere on his list of possibilities. Yang Jeongin had never, ever smelled like an alpha. Not before that wonderful, perfect, terrible evening together, and not any time in the weeks that followed. He hadn’t smelled of pregnancy either, though that did take a while to show though and now that Hyunjin thought of it, Jeongin had been oddly lacking in scent the last time they met up. It hadn’t been for anything major; Hyunjin asked for company while he went grocery shopping, since he’d been trying and failing to find dedicated time to spend with Jeongin for nearly three weeks, and an errand-hang was better than nothing. Jeongin had shown up despite the two months of awkwardness between them and for an hour, they’d talked like they used to. As if Jeongin hadn’t unwittingly and unknowingly crushed his heart. The alpha was tilting his head and Hyunjin realized he’d taken a second too long to respond. “I’m an ‘00,” he said. Bang Chan brightened at that, like they were meeting as new potential friends and not co-fathers. It made Hyunjin want to scream even more, so at least one of them was expressing the degree of emotion this situation warranted. “Oh, so is my omega. You know.” Chan made a sort of chopping motion, like he was indicating someone further down a line. “My other one.” He sucked in a breath. “I have to call him.” Right, so that had been a second omega’s claim mark he picked up through Jeongin’s overpowering one. Maybe that was one of the reasons Jeongin was into this alpha aside from smoking hot looks and friendly personality; he had an omega to vouch for him. Hyunjin’s ex-ecourting alpha had also omegas – two of them, between him and his alpha mate – but they’d had no reason to talk Hyunjin up to another omega. For one, they explicitly didn’t want a third omega in their pack and for two, they didn’t care that much about him. His mother told him it so sounded dramatic when he put it like that, but he didn’t know how else to frame it. They were lovely to him. They were curious about his interests and his career and his goals for the future. Spending time with them was like sitting down to a pleasant lunch with co-workers. Unromantic. Dispassionate. If they’d been courting another beta who wasn’t Hwang Hyunjin, he was sure their attitudes wouldn’t have change a bit. And that thought tormented him. Jeongin’s alpha stepped to the side and held out on arm to urge Hyunjin to walk with him. Seriously, Hyunjin wished he would be more of asshole. It’d give Hyunjin an excuse to be mad at someone other than Yang Jeongin. The walk to the back made him uncomfortably aware of how many people were – and had been – watching them. He could only imagine what all they were thinking. The possibilities made his hand twist around the strap of his bag. The employee at the counter accosted them on their way through the Employees Only door, trying to get a timeline on how long Manager Bang intended to leave her alone. Bang Chan promised a vague “not long, not long” and all but propelled Hyunjin through the door into a dimly lit store room. Alarmingly rickety looking racks rose up to either side and at the far end stood a partially open doorway, light blazing through the crack. Hyunjin almost turned around to leave. Now that the adrenaline from earlier had faded, it hit him in the face how much his life was about to change. And this wasn’t going to be like his ill-fated courtship, which he’d finally grit his teeth and called an end to. No one had been happy with him, including his otherwise supportive birth-pack, and he’d had to shell out a lot of apologies for wasting everyone’s time and effort, but it’d still ended cleanly for all that. Once he committed to this situation – to Jeongin, to his baby, to the alpha and the pack Jeongin had run away from university for - there’d be no clean exit for Hwang Hyunjin. But walking away from all this wasn’t an option either. Not a real one. Yang Jeongin would still be out there, now carrying two pieces of Hyunjin around with him, and Hyunjin didn’t spend the last few weeks out of his mind with fear and worry just to let the omega go now. He deserved an explanation if nothing else. Bang Chan the pack alpha was being held up by his employee, so Hyunjin steeled himself for what felt like the fifth time that day and crossed the remaining distance to the door. He shouldered it aside. Yang Jeongin sat on a sagging, ratty couch, wrapped up in an obnoxiously orange blanket. The head of a stuffed white rabbit stuck out between the folds. That other beta sat hunched over on a stool, scowling like a hunky, brooding stormcloud with one hand resting on Jeongin’s covered shoulder. Hyunjin wasn’t entirely sure what that guy’s place in all this was. He had to be close to Bang Chan and by extension, Jeongin,, with the way he stuck his nose into the situation and how Bang Chan trusted him to look after Jeongin. Maybe they were courting. It would make sense. Hyunjin kind of hoped they weren’t, because he looked grouchy and hard to get along with. Jeongin stared up at Hyunjin from his sad huddle, managing to look apologetic and nauseated at the same time. Every breath Hyunjin took was saturated with the scent of distressed breeding omega. The feelings from earlier washed back and forth through him. Anger, relief, shock, hurt, confusion. He wanted to hug Jeongin and smother him with a pillow and never let him go and tell him to get fucked. He wanted to drench Jeongin in his scent and chant “mine, mine, mine” at the outsider beta touching the omega he’d bred. Except Hwang Hyunjin was the outsider here. “Yang Jeongin,” he said on a long, forceful exhale, not even knowing where to start. Jeongin flinched, which hurt more. Guilt was more than deserved, but he had no reason to be afraid. Hyunjin would rather die than harm him, frustrated impulses aside. “I’m sorry, hyung. I didn’t mean for this to happen.” “Innie, I’ve been so worried,” Hyunjin burst out. He reached up to squeeze at the back of his own neck, the stress of the last weeks welling up in his chest. “Why didn’t you just tell me?” Jeongin gaze slid to the floor. “It was better that you didn’t know.” “Better?! How is any of this better?!” “Hey,” interjected the yet-to-be-introduced beta at the sign of things getting loud again, “Please sit down, Hyunjin-ssi.” He shifted off the stool and pushed it in Hyunjin’s direction, settling himself onto the couch instead. “You have every reason to be upset,” the beta went on, “But I won’t tolerate harsh words. Think about what you want to say and share your feelings properly,” he added, making sure to include Jeongin in the command. Wow, who died and made this guy the pre-school teacher? No wonder his students got so sulky when he made them “use their words” to resolve conflicts. Hyunjin huffed and dropped himself onto the stool hard enough to jolt his spine. He squawked in pain. “Careful!” the hunky beta said at the same time Jeongin went “Hyung,” in that familiar exhausted, slightly scolding tone. Hyunjin had missed it more than he realized. For a heartbeat, everything was the same as it had been. And then the voice of Jeongin’s secret alpha was drifting in from the storeroom and the beta was watching Hyunjin with that darkly serious expression and Jeongin was still huddled up in the orange blanket, an arm’s lengths and several emotional kilometers away from him. “At first I thought you blocked my phone because you hated me,” Hyunjin said, trying to follow the same advice he gave his kids, “But then no one else could get through to you, either. We asked around your neighbors and none of them had seen you in days, but all your stuff was still there. I was so afraid you’d been injured or killed or kidnapped by that cult again, I didn’t sleep for three days!” “Cult?” the other beta exclaimed in alarm, “Again?!” “They didn’t kidnap me,” Jeongin insisted, “They offered me a ride to a meeting, but I was the only other person there and it was really uncomfortable. I slipped out the back when they let me go to the bathroom.” “They offered you – did you know these people?” Jeongin shook his head. “No, but it seemed normal at the time. It was the start of the year and I was getting a lot of invites to stuff.” “They’re so convincing, it’s really terrible,” Hyunjin said, starting to feel bad that he’d put Jeongin on the spot. It was a subject they both felt kind of stupid over. “But you just got in a car with -” The beta cut himself off and rubbed at his brows. “No actually, that explains a lot.” Bang Chan barged into the room before either of them could question that. “Sorry I took so long, I needed to let Jisung know what was going on. He’s on his way over.” “Did you know he almost got kidnapped?” the hunky beta demanded, pointing at Jeongin. “Today?!” Bang Chan went wide-eyed and frantic. “Are you okay?” He went to touch Jeongin’s face with his free hand, tilting it up as if checking for signs of damage. “No, no, it was back at university,” Jeongin said, getting flustered now. He batted the alpha’s hand away. “Literally what the fuck is going on?” a breathless voice shouted from Bang Chan’s phone. "Nevermind, nevermind," the other beta said, waving his hand. "It's not important." As if he wasn't the one who'd made a big deal out of it in the first place. Bang Chan let out a long breath and perched awkwardly on the arm of the couch. He kept his phone held out to the room at large, the occasional muffled mutter coming through the speaker. Alpha, omega, and beta, all lined up together, with another packmate on the way. The other half of Jeongin's life that Hyunjin had been completely excluded from. Something flared in Hyunjin's gut. "Excuse me," he said to the other beta, overriding whatever Bang Chan had just been about to say, "Who are you?" The man sat up and opened his mouth. "Me?" said the voice on the phone. "He's talking to Binnie," Chan said into the mic. "How was I supposed to know that?!" "Seo Changbin," the beta said over top the other two. He rose from his seat to bow properly and Hyunjin compulsively did the same, somehow managing not to knock heads in the small space. When Changbin sat down again, his hand settled on Jeongin’s thigh. "Nice to meet you." "Hwang Hyunjin." Hyunjin's gaze lingered on that hand. "And you're the... ?" He trailed off, leaving the rest of the question unvoiced. Courtship applicant? Outside lover? Relative? Friend? Person who doesn't actually belong in a serious talk about parenthood and the pack's future? Seo Changbin looked struck and it was satisfying for all of a second. "Changbin's a good friend," Bang Chan said, the edge to his words showing he'd picked up Hyunjin's unspoken implication. Changbin scratched at the back of his neck. "... yeah." Jeongin scowled and those were his 'now you've stepped in it, hyung' eyebrows. "Changbin-hyung took care of me today. He even defended you earlier." "Ah," Changbin started, motioning like he wanted Jeongin to quiet down. Hyunjin's shoulders went up and his stomach writhed unpleasantly. How was he supposed to know that? "I'm just trying to understand who everyone is here." "Don't you dare fight until I get there!" said the phone. "No one is fighting," Bang Chan and Seo Changbin said together. They looked at each other, but Changbin dropped the contact immediately. "It's okay, I can leave," Changbin said, "I don't want to interfere in anything private." The feeling in Hyunjin's stomach got worse. He had spent the last two hours preparing to hold his ground against a hostile, unwelcoming pack that either didn't know about him or had conspired to exclude him, and now everyone was being so careful and reasonable, he didn't know what to do with himself. “You don’t – I mean, if you’re not comfortable -” Bang Chan began. “It’s not that, this is your packs’ business, I shouldn’t -” Changbin broke in. “Almost there,” panted the phone, “Ugh, I’m dying.” “Hyunjin-hyung,” Jeongin said, raising his voice and quieting all of them, “I really am sorry. I was so panicked when I found I was pregnant, I ran away without considering how much I’d worry everyone. I regret it and wish I handled it differently. As for this -” He indicated his middle. “- it doesn’t have to trouble you. I’ll take care of everything and it won’t interrupt your life.” Changbin clicked his tongue, but Hyunjin hardly noticed, all of his attention focused on Jeongin. There was a line between the omegas brows and a sheen to his eyes, belying his otherwise resolute expression. Hyunjin looked down at Jeongin’s stomach, where the baby they’d made was nestled, and back up at his face. “Trouble me?” he said, “Why would being a father with you trouble me, Jeongin-ah?” It’s not exactly a fair question. Movies, TV Dramas, and news reports told endless tales of sires who’d reacted horribly to news of unplanned, out-of-pack pregnancies, so it wasn’t like Jeongin didn’t have lots of reasons for why he should be wary. But they weren’t just any unmated omega and beta. They were Innie and his Hyunjinnie-hyung. “Your job, your pack – this would ruin all of that. I was the one who caused everything.” Jeongin curled a hand toward his chest. “I am the one who should deal with the consequences.” Hyunjin asked, softly, “What made you think any of those things mattered to me more than you?” Jeongin’s lips parted but no sound came out. He looked stricken. Hyunjin felt stricken, too, cut through to the core that Jeongin should have reason to doubt his worth in anyone’s life, and especially Hwang Hyunjin’s. “Innie, I’m not happy I didn’t know about these people,” Hyunjin said, gesturing at Bang Chan and his wheezing phone, “But no matter what happens, I’m on your side. I love you.” He’d said it before, more than once, and they’d both treated it as cringey, overly-sentimental teasing and moved on, but Hyunjin meant it from the bottom of his heart. “That’s more important than anything else.” He swept his whole arm around, indicating the entire room, his position at the preschool, everything, and nearly smacked Seo Changbin in the process. “Beside, I already broke up with that pack.” Jeongin blinked and the water that had been brimming in his eyes dropped down his cheeks in two fat tears. “What?” “Yeah, a week before you left. It was a huge mess.” “What,” Jeongin said more forcefully, “But you were really into them.” “I was so miserable,” Hyunjin said, waving away the very thought, “It was a mistake from the beginning.” “Why didn’t you tell me?” Jeongin demanded, his voice pitching up. Hyunjin opened his mouth and pointed silently at Bang Chan. That got him a purse-lipped, ‘I’ve got something to say but I’m not gonna say it’ sort of look from the alpha. “I wasn’t with Channie-hyung back then,” Jeongin said, flooring Hyunjin. “What?!” The back door swung open with a bang. Hyunjin nearly jumped out of his skin. A figure staggered in two steps and immediately doubled-over, gasping for air. The other three were all staring at the newcomer, but weren’t freaking out so this had to be Chan’s other omega. Hyunjin put his hand to his hammering heart. “Oh my god,” he muttered. He’d almost died. The newly arrived omega started to straighten up, took in a labored breath, and bent back down again, one finger raised in plea to wait. “Take it easy,” Bang Chan said, sliding off the couch arm to go him. “Don’t rush it,” Changbin said. Jeongin blew out breath and scrubbed his face with both hands. “Channie-hyung isn’t the alpha sire,” he said, apparently undeterred by his packmate’s situation, “I only joined his pack after I left university.” Hyunjin’s head was spinning. “There’s another -” He pushed his hands into his hair, pulling at. His heart could not take all this. “There’s another alpha?!” Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Seo Changbin make a ‘so-so’ gesture. What the fuck even was going on here? “Where is he?” yelled the newcomer. Hyunjin looked over at him, hair still gripped in both fists. They eyed each other. The omega was small and seemed on the scrawny side, from what Hyunjin could see through the massively baggy t-shirt and ripped skinny jeans. Small mouth, pretty eyes, round cheeks, softly rounded jaw and chin. Glasses, messy short hair damp with sweat at the ends, dangling earrings. Cute, but not the type Hyunjin imagined Jeongin going for. Not like Bang Chan. Jisung pointed at him. “You?” Hyunjin pointed at himself. “Me.” Jisung turned to Bang Chan. “Holy shit,” he mouthed so dramatically he may as well have yelled that too. Bang Chan gave him the world’s most exasperated look. “Han Jisung, this is Hwang Hyunjin. Jeongin’s Hyunjin.” Han Jisung blinked at him and turned bright red. “Oh, yeah, hi. Hello. It’s nice to meet you. Uh, ignore that, ignore me.” He cringed his way behind Bang Chan, who rolled his eyes to the ceiling. “Nice to meet you, too,” Hyunjin echoed back. Normally, he’d be annoyed, but there was just so much going on right now that this new guy’s antics hardly sparked more than a mild bafflement. He had way bigger fish to fry. Specifically a fish named Yang Jeongin. “What do you mean you were with another alpha?” Jeongin groaned. “Everything’s gotten all twisted up. Listen, there was an alpha I’d been with since I came to Seoul, okay? But the relationship had to be kept secret and I grew tired of the lying and hiding. I broke it off with them before I came on to you. I swear I wouldn’t have tried anything if I hadn’t been single.” That – did ease some of the sting. Not a lot, but some. Hyunjin exhaled out the tightness in his chest. Jeongin got a pained look. “Single as of that day.” Hyunjin closed his eyes and put up a hand. “Stop. I don’t need specifics.” He gestured at the two yahoos standing together near the still-open door. “So where… ?” “When I ran away, I hid in a hotel room until my money ran out,” Jeongin said, “I came here because it was the closest public place I could think to go. That’s where I met these hyungs. They took me in. They saved me.” Bang Chan and Han Jisung were watching him with matching warm expressions. He returned their regard. “I realized – I knew I belonged with them. They’re my pack now.” It seemed to Hyunjin that a line stretched between the three of them, a lattice-work of scent marks and instinct and emotion. It was everything Hyunjin kept failing to find with Jinseok’s pack. He wanted in on it so bad, his throat hurt with it. Beside him, Seo Changbin made a sound like he was going to speak and all at once, Hwang Hyunjin was done with trying to go the sensible route. “Then I belong here, too,” he announced. For nearly a year, he’d stuck with it, doing everything he could to fit in and find his place with the polite, accommodating, comfortably well-off pack his family arranged for him. A year of giving way on little things for the sake of making it work, of not wanting to be too intense, too dramatic, too demanding. Little things that piled up until it felt like he was in a mockery of the pack life he’d always craved. Already, his mother had recovered from the disappointment of his break-up and was lining up other packs and single alphas for him to meet with, and he was certain they’d also be good, sensible options. Instead of going through that all again, why not jump in the deep end? If it exploded in his face, then at least it would be because he went for what he wanted, not because he looked around one day and realized he had to get out before he forgot what ‘wanting’’ was. The trio blinked at him – omega, alpha, omega. To his side, Seo Changbin rubbed the back of his neck, head down so his shaggy bangs hid his eyes. The sourness of agitation colored his scent, barely detectable under Jeongin and the astringency of a scent masker. Lots of betas wore them, including Hyunjin when he was coming out of a surge and didn't want to risk any knot-dumb alphas claiming he was trying to trigger their rut. Guy was probably regretted sticking around for all this relationship drama. Hyunjin felt a passing flick of sympathy for his fellow beta, but he had other priorities. He pulled back his shoulders. “I want to look after Innie and help raise the baby,” Hyunjin said, adding to Jeongin, “Unless you really do hate me, that’s not negotiable. I know I don’t have to be in the pack to do that, but it’s what I want.” They all looked at each other, then back at him. “It would solve several problems,” Han Jisung said after a pause. He peered over Bang Chan’s shoulder at Hyunjin, dark irises perfectly round in his wide-eyed stare. Chan made a ‘so-so’ gesture with his mouth. “I better go,” Seo Changbin said, standing abruptly. “Now? I just got here,” Han Jisung said at the same time Bang Chan said, “If you’re sure...” and Jeongin said, “Hyung, wait.” “Thank you for letting me take you out, Innie-yah,” Seo Changbin said, sweetness coating his previously stern tone. He lightly pinched Jeongin’s cheek. “I’ll message you later.” Hyunjin scooted back on his stool to give the man room to slide out from between him and the couch. The sour flare in his scent was more distinctive now that he was standing. “Hey.” Chan caught Changbin’s arm. “Thank you. I’m sorry you got stuck in the middle of all this.” Changbin shrugged, pulling himself out the light hold. “It’s fine. I’m glad I could help. Really,” he insisted to Chan’s visible concern. His voice went quieter. “I just need to get going. Let me know how everything goes later, all right?” Bang Chan deflated. “All right.” “Message me too, hyung,” Jisung interjected. “Yeah, yeah.” There was a split second hesitation before Seo Changbin reached out to ruffle Jisung’s messy hair, leaving spikes sticking out in all directions. Jisung leaned his head away, whining. “Gross, don’t touch it, it’s sweaty.” “You can go out this way, Bin.” Chan stepped aside, dragging Jisung with him, so Changbin could leave out the back door. Hyunjin had a final vision of him looking right and left, and then pausing there, watching something before the door closed with a solid ‘clunk’. Jeongin let out a wordless cry and thumped back on the couch. The orange blanket fell open and spilled the stuffed rabbit out onto his thighs, revealing the stuffed pig it'd been braced on top of in the process. “I don’t care what it’ll solve! I’m not going to be responsible for ruining your life, Hyunjin-hyung,” he said, “Don’t blow me off with sentiment about this. You know your students’ parents will be furious. You know it could threaten your job.” “If they find out about it, maybe,” Hyunjin said, shrugging, “But how come you’re the only one who’s allowed to ruin their life over a baby?” Jeongin went blank faced again. “It’s not the same.” “Why not? You have dreams, too, Innie. What’s so important about me that I can’t be inconvenienced, but you have to give up everything? No.” Hyunjin shook his head. “I hate that idea. I won’t accept it.” Jeongin chin wobbled. He covered his face without answering. “No one has to ruin their life,” Bang Chan cut in, "And no one has to decide on anything today, all right? Some of us have literally just met each other." He extracted Han Jisung from behind himself and nudged him to the couch, the omega shuffling along sideways like a reluctant crab. "For now, let's -" The door into the store room creaked open wider, a tentative "Manager-oppa?" floating through the crack. "Ah!" Chan yelled, then said in a normal voice, "Yes, what is it?" "... customer." "Be just a minute," Bang Chan said. The door clicked shut. “Let’s put a pause on this for now and meet up again tomorrow, okay?” he continued, “We know what’s on the table, now lets give all of us a chance to talk and think about what we really want. Yes?” Hwang Hyunjin knew Bang Chan was really saying ‘the pack needs to talk without the outsider around.’ He loathed being separated from Jeongin again so soon. He especially loathed it with how small and vulnerable the boy seemed right now, his eyes red-lined and mouth folding together with the effort to keep it from turning down. But Jeongin didn’t protest his alpha’s decision and Hyujin felt stripped down to his bones and not up for more emotional upheaval. He craved the quietness and security of his home. He nodded in agreement. “We’ll figure this out,” Bang Chan said. He locked eyes with each of them and Hyunjin was comforted by the thought that the ‘we’ included him, too. -- Bang Chan insisting on leading Hyunjin out to the front with him, which Hyunjin went along with only after getting everyone’s numbers and Jeongin’s promise to unblock him. It was full dark when the coffee shop exhaled him out onto the sidewalk. It felt like he’d been inside for a week or better. Hyunjin opened his chat app and scrolled up through his conversation with Kim Seungmin, looking for the moment he'd started screaming at his friend about smelling Jeongin's pregnancy-laced scent on the coffee shop manager. His scrolling halted when he reached the picture he'd snuck of Bang Chan and the bane of Hyunjin's existence, that bastard Chen Yeongsu. They were both huddled around the front register; Chen Yeongsu with one hand braced on the counter so the big ugly mark on his forearm was on full display, and Bang Chan with his head and pouted lips pointed at the touch pad, while his eyes slid sideways, giving the impression of immense suspicion. Undoubtedly deserved. Chen Yeongsu was the reason Hyunjin had come to the coffee shop in the first place. He was the alpha-sire of one of Hyunjin's students, a quiet little girl named Chen Sooha. During the early days of Hyunjin taking over the class, the weather went unexpectedly cold and damp. All his kids arrived looking twice their size in puffy jackets and scarves and adorable little beanies adorned in animal ears and knitted flowers. All except Chen Sooha, who was left shivering in a thin cardigan and no gloves. The teacher who trained him had warned Hyunjin this could happen. Their school was in a decent neighborhood and most of the students had packs equipped to care for them, but disaster could hit anyone. A sick packmate, a lost job, a break up, a new baby - any of these things left caretakers stressed and forgetful and this, unfortunately, could mean the pack's children didn't get properly dressed, fed, or washed. The school's procedure was to provide for the child in question as much as possible and gently remind the parents of their obligations. If the problem persisted or the child's condition worsened, a report was to be issued to the youth guardianship services, but his sunbae assured him that rarely happened. Most parents just needed another adult to call them out and maybe let them vent about their struggles a little. With this in mind, Hyunjin got Sooha bundled into the extra clothes he kept on hand and made a note to talk with her caretaker when they came to pick her up. Chen Yeongsu arrived the latest of all the parents that day, sauntering into the room with a jaunty "where's my little angel?" Little Sooha had been thrilled to see him and looking back, that had been Hwang Hyunjin's downfall. He’d met the man who normally picked up Sooha before; a blunt and sharp voiced omega with a perpetual air of impatience. It’d been easy to imagine that person hustling Sooha out the door, too impatient to attend to her shivering. It was harder to imagine this charming, openly affectionate alpha doing the same. Hyunjin addressed his concerns about Sooha's lack of weather appropriate clothing and Chen Yeongsu listened seriously. The man hadn't smelled so bad then; very faintly like he'd been out at a bar, yes, but mostly of the vinegar and baking soda he'd used to scrub off the evidence. Once Hyunjin was done, Chen Yeongsu asked his daughter to go play by herself, and then launched into the terrible story of his pack’s current situation. Some of the details stretched believably in retrospect, but Hyunjin had been completely invested and painfully sympathetic. Chen Yeongsu hadn't even needed to ask him for donations; he'd volunteered his funds right away. Chen Yeongsu had been grateful and relieved, swearing on his life that he would pay him back. So very grateful and relieved was he, that he when came to get Sooha the next day, it turned out he was wrong about how much they needed to cover expenses, and maybe Teacher Hwang could spare a little bit more? Hyunjin only had so much left in his savings a that point, but it felt dishonest to refuse when he had the money and had been the one to offer at the start. So he handed over the rest. The day after that was the weekend, and the following Monday, the sharp-voiced omega was back to get Sooha, and brought with him a set of documents stating that Chen Yeongsu was no longer one of Sooha’s legal guardians. He had officially separated from the pack and was not allowed to interact with Sooha without supervision. It only took a few questions to reveal that most of what Chen Yeongsu had claimed about his pack was wildly exaggerated, if not an out-right lie. Hyunjin was mortified. He’d been completely taken for a ride. He’d been so embarrassed, he hadn’t told anyone about what happened. Not his friends, his birth-pack, his co-workers, no one. If Jeongin hadn’t gone missing, he would’ve taken the secret of his unspeakable stupidity to the grave. Instead, he had to swallow his pride and ask Sooha’s omega guardian for info on the whereabouts of Chen Yeongsu, because private detectives cost money and his life savings were in the hands of a manipulative asshole. Turned out he didn’t need that private detective at all. Fortune had smiled on him in the weirdest of ways. With one thumb, Hyunjin pushed the photo up his screen and brought Kim Seungmin’s responses back into view. [Seungmin] [Hyunjin] [Seungmin] [Hyunjin] Hyunjin had been too deep in his own distress to think much of it, but looking back, Seungmin’s reaction was unusually frantic. The alpha had a practical, no-nonsense attitude most of time, a perfect counterpart to Hyunjin’s state of near perpetual meltdown. He’d been Hyunjin’s one source of comfort ever since they’d run into each other at Yang Jeongin’s abandoned apartment. Kim Seungmin was one of Jeongin’s sunbaes at the medical university – a casual acquaintance, Hyunjin had thought, having briefly crossed paths with him at one of those painfully boring med student parties Jeongin sweet-talked him into attending. Apparently the two were closer than he thought, because Seungmin had Jeongin’s room code and was able to confirm that most of the omega’s stuff was still there. He also knew Jeongin’s various social media hang-outs and found a few incidents of Jeongin leaving comments or reactions after everyone’s phone messages stopped going through, which was the first sign they had that he was, at the very least, still alive and able to access the outside world. Hyunjin couldn’t image how much more miserable and in the dark he’d be about this situation if it weren’t for Kim Seungmin. He went back down to the most recent comment and tapped out a quick message, promising to give more detail on everything that happened later. For now, he was going to go home and spiral endlessly about his future in the comfort of his own bathtub. |