CH 45

Side Story IF: If Joo-hyuk was an Alpha

Translated by Springlila

Edited by Prius

I’m Kim Joo-hyuk. I’m an Alpha.

This world is said to be full of Betas, but strangely, everyone around me is an Alpha. It’s because I go to a specialized boarding school where only Alphas go. It’s difficult to see Beta’s or Omega’s faces. That’s why I didn’t want to attend an Alpha Boarding School. Alpha pheromones are everywhere you go.

Alphas who have reached adolescence use pheromones to show their superiority. It makes no difference how harshly the teacher scolds them. Teachers also use pheromones to control us. The smell of pheromones is far more potent than the smell of sweat. I can’t concentrate in class because of pheromones. It’s a terrible place to live.

A good student like me is good at sensing pheromones. I don’t want to fight with pheromones. We’d end up like street cats fighting over territory, and that’s not good.

At the start of the new semester, I moved my luggage and sat on the bed in the dormitory. The new wallpaper is clean and white. When my new roommate arrives, I should be friendly.

Actually, anything is difficult the first time. Supposedly, we would greet each other awkwardly and explore each other’s pheromones, which were emitted weakly. I hate this process the most. It’s animalistic. I have to say, pheromones and this process of showing off how superior I am are embarrassing.

I think it would be more economical to run around in the middle of Myeong-dong carrying a sign that says, ‘I have strong sperm’.

The door to the dorm room was opened and someone poked their head in. Oh, is that my new roommate?

“Oh, hello?”

It’s an Omega. I don’t know why an Omega is here, but it’s really an Omega. The sweet smell that pierced my nose drove me crazy. I wasn’t immune to Omegas. In normal dramas, an Alpha who meets an Omega blush and then falls in love with him. There are also crazy people who suddenly go crazy and want to rape them. Reality is a little different. For me, it’s just embarrassing as hell.

As I was walking down the street, a vendor turned around and held an adult magazine under my nose and said, ‘Buy! Buy it! It’s an adult magazine!’ It’s very frustrating and sometimes scary.

In any case, at my age, I was not good at controlling pheromones. Surprised, I spit out pheromones like formic acid.

“Ahh! Who are you?!”

“I’m your roommate?”

“You are an Omega!”

“I, I am an Alpha!”

“No, you aren’t, you crazy punk!”

It’s clear he is crazy. Did an Omega get lost in the school? An Alpha-only school? The sweet smell of an Omega whirled in my head. I got up quickly and closed the door. The source of the pheromone was far away, so it was worth living a little.

The kid knocked on the door.

“Can I come in?”

“You can just go back.”

“I, I am Alpha.”

“Shit, no…”

After arguing for a while, the Omega entered the room. Looking at his face, he was definitely an Omega. He is absolutely an Omega. There is such a thing. An Omega looks like an Omega. You can recognize them just by looking. Light-colored hair, white skin with veins reflected, and round eyes. It was the epitome of an Omega.

“What the hell is an Omega doing here?”

“I have to stay here for reasons I can’t tell. I’m sorry!”

“I’m sorry. I think you should go back.”

I tried to open the door again, but the Omega held it firmly shut.

“I will not disturb you.”

His existence is a hindrance.

“The exit is this way.”

“Joo-hyuk!”

“I’m not Kim Joo-hyuk.”

“My name is Won. Ha Won!”

“Goodbye, Won-ssi.”

“We are in the same class!”

Public education seems to have collapsed. It was the first moment when my dream of becoming a teacher was shattered.

***

“Joo-hyuk, that’s… The new transfer student may be unfamiliar, but that kind of bullying is not like you.”

The homeroom teacher looked at me with regret. After a while on a spaceship and photographing the moon, it landed on the top of my head, I’m dumbfounded.

“Our president and teachers were very surprised. I can’t believe Joo-hyuk said that. Ha Won is an Alpha, and there is no reason to be teased for being an Omega for being a little short.”

I pursed my lips, but no words came out. I wanted to shake the teacher’s shoulder and ask if he could feel Ha Won’s Omega pheromones. The Korean language teacher patted my back.

“Kim Joo-hyuk! You didn’t see this like that, but you’re discriminating against your friend’s appearance! You can’t go around like that just because you’re handsome, you punk.”

It’s unfair. It’s really unfair. There’s something wrong with this.

When I left the office, Ha Won was waiting for me. The top of Ha Won’s head came up to my shoulder. He is small. I think Kim Joo-young will be as big as him.

“Hey.”

“Come with me, Joo-hyuk.”

“Hey, what the hell are you…”

As Ha Won and I went back to the classroom, I ran into many friends. Friends? No. They are stone heads. The sweet smell from Ha Won is crazy, but they don’t notice.

“Why is that Alpha so small? Kim Joo-hyuk, feed him some food.”

“A transfer student? Nice to meet you!”

“Kim Joo-hyuk, aren’t you playing soccer later? Is the guy next to you your acquaintance?”

“Hey, damn that bastard lost the ball to the head of a school. You have to go and get it.”

“Alphas who want to go to the PC room, come with me! Kim Joo-hyuk, Seol Ki-do, and the one next to Joo-hyuk, would you like to come with me?”

I’m not that sensitive to pheromones. Could this be a hidden camera? I put my face near Ha Won’s nape. When I sniffed it, it really smelled like an Omega. I couldn’t find any Alpha scent. This is my first time seeing an Omega up close. It was a little tight down there. I’m pissed off.

“You, get away from me.”

***

Nothing was going my way. Ha Won became my deskmate. Throughout math class, I focused on the blackboard. I wanted to romantically look out the window, but my seat was dedicated to studying. 2nd row of 3 divisions. Even the Omega is sitting next to me. If there is a hell, this is what it feels like.

Looking back at Ha Won, even his handwriting was cute. I feel like I’m going crazy. At an Alpha boys’ school, he’s giving off a sweet scent, and no one cares.

Still, I hoped that the math teacher would be a little different. The math teacher is a young male, who had just been hired. I can’t remember his name. To be honest, not many kids in my class remember the teacher’s name. The problem is that I’m the class president, and I knew that he was Mr. Lee but acted ignorantly.

“Kim Joo-hyuk, who is staring off into space, let’s have you come up and solve this problem.”

“Yes.”

I kept looking back while solving problems in front of the blackboard. Ha Won smiled brightly. Cute. I was really annoyed. No, in the midst of distant Alphas, that little Omega is sitting alone, do you guys have the mind to fly paper airplanes, you stone-headed bastards?

I wrote the numbers so hard that the chalk crumbled and the math teacher grabbed my shoulder.

“Class president, what’s wrong?”

The math teacher looked at me. The math teacher was the most prosperous among Alphas. He was tall, cool, nice, handsome, smart, and so on. I forgot his name, but whatever. I also wanted to become a math teacher after looking at this teacher.

“Joo-hyuk you…”

The math teacher glanced at the blackboard and smiled, showing off his handsome dimples.

“You should stay for supplementary lessons today.”

Nothing happens in my favor in the real world.

***

My misfortune peaked when I left school.

“I’ve been in love with you all this time!”

He’s an Alpha.

“You are an Alpha.”

“Yes.”

“I’m also an Alpha.”

“Hyung…!”

“I don’t know why you call me hyung when we’ve never met each other before.”

It happened often. It’s an Alpha boys school, but there were kids who confessed to me. He said he really liked me, and there were times when someone tried to kiss me. Some idiots tried to subdue me with pheromones. Just like him.

It didn’t look like I was going to pass easily, so I let out pheromones. It wasn’t threatening. I am not sensitive to pheromones. It was also because I was strong.

I released an overbearing pheromone. The boy who was about to confess to me gasped in vain and backed away.

“Hey, confess again.”

When I get close, he backs away. With this in mind, I wonder what he will do next.

‘Do it again, bastard.’

I thought while releasing pheromones. It seems I have turned into a human bomb dung beetle. A skunk or something like that. I really hate pheromone play. I really hate pheromones. When my second gender was not yet decided, Kim Joo-young once said this while plucking my hair,

‘TV, uh, oppa, uh, in the house, there’s a farting bug.’

I cried alone in my room that day. It happened when I was 12 years old and Kim Joo-young was 3 years old. It was a time when I was very sensitive. Among us in elementary school, rumors circulated that when we became an Alpha or an Omega, we had to be separated from our family and isolated. This is because you never know when a dangerous substance called a pheromone will explode. I believed that real bodies would explode. I also had nightmares for a long time. It was such a dream that I, who manifested as an Alpha, became a dung beetle or something and conquered the world. I was so embarrassed that I couldn’t even tell my mother.

It was probably talking about the rut and heat cycle that the pheromone exploded.

I chased away the Alpha who confessed to me like a dung beetle, and when I turned around, there was Ha Won. I stopped my pheromones in an instant. It was a disaster. Ha Won’s legs were trembling.

“Hey, hey, Ha Won…”

Ha Won just ran away. He staggered across the garden. The trails were insanely long because this damn school blew its taxes on the garden. I also know a little bit about pheromones. I was afraid of the state of an Omega, who was hit directly with Alpha pheromones.

Ha Won may get hurt. This place is full of Alphas. My eyes are in a panic. I was already heading off to the police station in my mind. Ha Won was crying profusely, and I was in handcuffs.

‘Student Kim Joo-hyuk can’t control his pheromones, so student Ha Won gets hit immediately!’

‘Does everyone believe that he is an Omega now?’

‘Come on, Kim Joo-hyuk gets in the prison cell!’

‘Hey, you tax thieves!’

After running for a while, I ran out of breath. I ran to the gym warehouse installed in the corner of the playground. A familiar person stood in front of the gym.

“Hey, Seol Ki-do!”

“Let’s go to an internet cafe!”

“You– Omega, haven’t you seen an Omega?”

“What kind of bullshit are you talking about?”

I grabbed Seol Ki-do by the neck and shook him off.

“Hey, haven’t you seen an Omega here?”

“Are you crazy? This is an Alpha school.”

“Yeah, I’m crazy. I’m the only one who’s crazy. This world is going crazy!”

“What’s wrong? Who else has confessed to you?”

“Uh, but what Omega… Ha, I really don’t want to live.”

Seol Ki-do paused and put his hand on my shoulder.

“Do you hate it that much?”

“Then, do you want the Alpha to come close to you while releasing pheromones?”

Seol Ki-do sighed. I grabbed Seol Ki-do’s cheeks and shouted loudly.

“To be honest, I really liked it!”

Seol Ki-do grabbed my hand.

“Kim Joo-hyuk?”

“You won’t believe me anyway, so I’m going to look for that Omega.”

I listened to the closed door of the gym, then ran again. Ha Won must be protected.

After running like I was in a marathon, I returned to our class.

Ha Won was sitting in his seat. He slumped over his desk.

“Hey, I’ve been looking for you for a long time.”

Ha Won’s shoulders shook.

“Hey, Ha Won, hey, I’m sorry.”

“That’s enough.”

“Hey, damn. I’m sorry.”

“You’re sorry, but why are you cursing? Are you crazy?”

Ha Won jumped up. I was a little surprised that a small thing popped up like a rocket. I paused back. My feet kept getting stuck in the chair.

“Hey, were you releasing your pheromones at someone?”

“Huh? No, he…”

“He likes you, so did you like showing off your pheromones too?”

“What? No. I’m not.”

Ha Won came up to me. With nowhere to escape, my body began to shrink. Ha Won grabbed my tie and pulled it.

“Bastard, were you happy to receive a confession?”

“No, no. Not at all. I’m sorry.”

Ha Won grabbed my shoulder. Sweet— no, a super sharp pheromone pierced my nose. Ugh, I’m dizzy.

“Hey, Won-ah, Won-ah, wait a minute…”

I was out of breath. Something was strange. I was out of breath. And, then, the circle appeared as several people and then gathered together. My vision is blurry, and I have to breathe through my mouth all the time…

Ha Won put his finger in my mouth. It’s blurry.

“How far have you been?”

What? Actually today, I decided to play a game with prayer, dungeons, new dungeons… Cash, cash item…

“Ki, Seol Ki-do…”

“Ah, you’re so relaxed, saying another guy’s name.”

Ha Won came closer to the nape of my neck. I took a breath. Won’s body scent is so, so sweet, I don’t want to miss any of it. It’s scary and weird.

“You’re fine.”

What bullshit, who’s fine, you bastard. You, only you are fine.

Ha Won supported my back and laid me down slowly. It was messy. I thought that Won’s smile suddenly resembled someone. It’s very strange. He looks like the math teacher. His eyes are also similar.

“You…”

“Ha-won, stop.”

The classroom door swung open. It was the math teacher’s voice. I continued to breathe through my mouth, almost hyperventilating.

“Si-hyun hyung.”

The math teacher made me feel better. It’s weird, it’s weird. Tears streamed down my eyes. That’s strange.

“Joo-hyuk, can you get up?”

It’s weird, it’s weird, it’s really weird. Tears just flowed down my chin. I can’t breathe, it’s so hard to breathe.

“Hyung, put your hand away now.”

I heard footsteps, and I heard Seol Ki-do’s voice. And the surroundings were very noisy. Seriously, it’s so loud that I feel like my ears are going to break.

“Hey, Kim Joo-hyuk!”

“Joo-hyuk!”

“Teacher! Lee Hyun-jae and Seo Hee-tae are fighting again!”

“Damn it! There’s a fight!”

“I will become the pirate king!”

“Don’t run, you Omega bastard!”

“The kids in class 4 threw up while fighting!”

“Give me my bag, you idiots!”

My stomach feels nauseous. It was really nauseous. Down there was just, stuffy, really, my head hurt, and I felt like throwing up. I rested my head on the math teacher’s chest. Seol Ki-do just grabbed my hand. Ha Won kept pushing his face at me.

“Seriously…”

It was really annoying. Summoning all the strength in my body, I said,

“Get the hell out of here, you bastards…”

I cried one more time.

“Get lost!”

I really hate it. I don’t want to be an Alpha. Seriously, I’m not going to be an Alpha. Shit, being an Alpha, I’m not doing it!

“Get out of here, damn it!”

***

“Were you sleep-talking?”

I got up abruptly. My neck was sore. When I turned around, I saw a handsome face smiling brightly.

“What are you smiling at?”

He opens his arms without a word. I lay quietly again. Anxiety came over me because of the dream. I was upset when I saw his handsome face. I pushed his face away with my hands and turned around.

“Did you have a bad dream?”

“Nightmare, a real nightmare…”

I felt the warmth surrounding my back and went back to sleep. It was a really ridiculous dream. It was a really ridiculous dream, a ridiculous dream that I wouldn’t remember when I woke up again. Really, a ridiculous dream, shit.