Chapter Text
When Jeongin was pondering about renting a room in an apartment with two other omegas, it was advertised to him by his friends as a paradisiac kind of life.
“You’re going to nest together and comfort each other,” Felix had said when Jeongin was skeptically looking at the ad online, Jisung nodding along with his words.
First of all, the fact that he was looking on a Facebook group of all sorts, filled with strangers, wasn’t exactly the safest option. But Jeongin was in desperate need of a place where to live close to his work, so he would stop wasting two hours of his day to commute back and forth.
He had gotten called into the HR office more than once since he’s gotten his new job, being told in a very kind and elaborated way that he stinks.
‘Distress,’ Chan had called it before handing him a flyer for therapy in case Jeongin might need it. He had wondered if it was Changbin ratting him out and complaining about the burnt tinge of his typically sweet fresh baked goods scent, the man always scrunching his nose when Jeongin would pass by.
Well, not everybody can smell like a damned sickeningly saccharine cherry pie everyday no matter what.
Lee Minho had seemed trustworthy enough for a stranger originally met online. He had a full slideshow of pictures of the shared apartment, a true very much legal contract for renting the room Jeongin had blocked with a call after a whole week of pondering, and a list of facts about the two omegas that were going to move in the two other rooms.
Hyunjin and Seungmin were fine on paper and they had seemed to be so even during the first week of living together: two very busy omegas, just as much as Jeongin that lives a boring but very demanding office life. And probably it was barely ever being around each other that had made things work for a while.
Hyunjin rents the biggest room in the apartment, has three extremely messy cupboards in the kitchen, too many hair products in the shower, does his laundry late at night - Jeongin knows because his own room is right outside the laundry room - and is an artist.
Underneath the soft layer of the chemical scents of various kinds of paint and a perfume that’s probably too expensive for a broken artist, Hyunjin smells like a delicate bouquet of flowers, a fitting scent for such a pretty person.
Seungmin’s scent instead is a mixture of honey, the tick rich kind that drips slowly, and coffee. Jeongin isn’t sure if scents can be influenced by habits, but Seungmin drinks so much coffee in the morning that it could be.
He is a doctorate in a kind of chemistry that Jeongin forgot the title of in the span of three seconds after the complicated words mix had left Seungmin’s pouty mouth and he dresses stereotypically like anyone would imagine an academic: button up shirts, polos, soft cardigans, cute sweater vests - seeming sweet all over.
Jeongin wishes his looks matched his personality too.
“Hey.” Seungmin is resting one shoulder on the frame of Jeongin’s open bedroom door, right one step before entering.
Jeongin looks up from his Nintendo Switch, trying to not react at his character dying on screen after getting distracted and to not roll his eyes, because he knows that Seungmin is going to complain about something inane.
“Would you mind cleaning up the many takeout boxes that you have in the fridge?”
Here it is.
They have assigned shelves for a reason: so everyone can store whatever they like and know that it’s theirs. Why does Seungmin even care if Jeongin has one takeout box too many on his own shelf?
And the laundry machine keeps running, shaking, hitting the wall over and over , Hyunjin uncaring of the noise as he waits for it to be done. He’s busy folding some other laundry with headphones on, bopping his head to the rhythm of whatever song he’s listening to.
“Wow,” Seungmin sighs. Annoying, nose scrunching, eyebrows too. “You don’t have to react like that.”
Jeongin knows that his burned scent is spiking again, because after a month from moving in Chan called him once more in his office, concern evident on his face tinged also with awkwardness for having to tell him that someone - it has to be damned Changbin!! - had complained repeatedly about his scent distressing everybody else around his cubicle.
“Sorry,” Jeongin scoffs, going back to give all his attention to his Nintendo Switch console. Seungmin is too uptight, just like Changbin. “I can keep whatever I want on my shelf.”
He presses ‘reload file’ trying to not be bothered too much by the all caps red ‘ GAME OVER’ title at the centre of the screen.
“Your boxes cover the top light.”
Imitating Seungmin’s tone would be too childish and Jeongin is not , even though he wants to be so so badly.
“Let’s exchange shelves then, if you can do any better.”
Bitter coffee reaches his nostrils and he would’ve really liked not to notice with his peripheral view the way Hyunjin turns around slightly to peek at both of them.
“You’re impossible.”
“Am I?” Jeongin presses some buttons furiously, trying again to beat the boss on the screen.
Maybe he is being a bit… difficult . He has tried, really, but Seungmin is a fucking freak and Hyunjin is so oppositely messy that Jeongin is just left in the middle, probably the only normal functional being in the whole apartment.
“You can exchange with me,” Hyunjin suddenly proposes.
“No,” Seungmin and Jeongin both answer, not even turning to look at his insanely unnervingly beautiful face.
Hyunjin’s shelf in the fridge is, obviously , a mess. There’s a reason why they’ve both renounced to take the biggest one so that at least Hyunjin has enough space to shove in the fridge all the fruit that he impulsively buys without also hogging their space.
“‘Kay, keep making the house smell like a coffee shop on fire, then,” he mutters, annoyed.
They all are. All . The . Time .
Jeongin hasn’t moved out yet just because he hasn’t found anything better online and he’s sure it must be the same for his other two roommates too. Renting as an omega is a bit complicated, many still tend to think that they can’t provide for themselves fully if not mated with an alpha. Fucking dumbasses.
‘Try to think of something that calms you down.’
Chan’s words come to his mind.
Right.
Jeongin should relax.
🥞
“Jeonginnie, I don’t know how much more we could scent you,” Felix chuckles.
Bathing into the sweet sweet chocolate and nuts scent of one of his best friends, Jeongin just keeps nuzzling into the warm crook of Felix’s neck. A bit stiff and too many times bleached blonde hair tickle his cheeks as he rubs and rubs his scent gland in a desperate need to soothe himself.
“No, no, let him do his thing,” Jisung mumbles, scent drunk, back slumped on the sofa cushions after Jeongin also rubbed himself all over him earlier. “He’s never this cuddly…”
His voice trails off as Jeongin opens his eyes and sets his still upset gaze on him.
Felix arms wrap around his middle, secure, and scoot him with a little tug higher in his lap. “Ssh,” he whispers at the sudden wave of burned bread. “It’s okay, keep going. I’m sorry. We’re sorry.” He’s talking to him like he’s a wounded puppy. Jeongin does feel like one right now, his scent glands puffy and swollen with how much he has rubbed himself all over his friends. And he is still so upset .
“Date me,” he complains. “Take me in.”
“Jeonginnie,” Felix’s voice is condescending and sweet, careful. “You don’t like us like that.”
It’s true, he loves them but not the same way Jisung and Felix love each other.
“Oh, Yeni,” Jisung coos, still under Jeongin’s upset gaze, mind clearly still dazed in the way he looks at him back. “We’ll help you find a better place to stay, okay? C’me here.”
Felix laughs lightly as his hold on Jeongin thightens, keeping him close. “You’re about to pass out from overstimulation, stay where you are.”
Jisung whines at his boyfriend in a weak attempt to convince him. Jeongin whines too but out of frustration, as he is also overstimulated but not in the kind of way he hoped to be.
The weekend is almost over and Jeongin can’t keep sleeping on Felix and Jisung’s couch and bathing in their scent forever, so he begrudgingly turns back to his apartment and toes off his shoes at the entrance.
Hyunjin is bickering with Seungmin over something by the sofa, probably it has to do with the laundry or one of Hyunjin’s expensive cosmetics that he treasures but however leaves anywhere in the bathroom as usual. Jeongin has lost count of how many times he has knocked one of his bottles in the shower, things falling all on his feet.
The house smells rotten .
Rotten flowers, burned coffee and, under a thin layer of vanilla and sweet chocolate that’s slowly fading away, an overpowering scent of coal.
They both whip their heads to Jeongin, their yelling stopping, their eyes widening a little.
“Yes, I smell fucking terrible,” Jeongin grumbles, passing by them. He’s not really in the mood to join a match over who is worse. “Keep going, don’t mind me.”
He feels steps following him down the corridor, the soft patting of Hyunjin’s socks against the parquet, the slightly louder noise of Seungmin’s Pochacco themed slippers.
He ignores them as he starts unloading his bag, taking out his own clothes that he needs to wash after staying at Felix’s and Jisung’s over the weekend and also the hoodie and the shirt he has stolen from them. He slips his own sweater off, still giving his back to the door, and puts on Jisung’s shirt and Felix’s Zelda themed hoodie, not yet ready to let go of their scents even though he knows, sadly, that he’ll stink up these clothes very soon.
When he turns around, Seungmin and Hyunjin are still by his door, silent.
“What?” He asks, annoyed. He just wants to rest in bed until he’ll have to get up tomorrow morning and get ready for work.
Two pairs of deep brown eyes blink at him, as if surprised by the fact that they’re there staring at him.
“Nothing,” Seungmin mumbles, turning around and leaving.
Hyunjin lingers a bit more, just the time to look at Seungmin’s back as he heads to his room and then back at Jeongin.
There are instances when Hyunjin makes Jeongin think that maybe they could get along in another environment and after working a bit on their deep rooted issues that make them so much incompatible. Like right now, as Hyunjin’s eyes dance on him and his plump lips try to curve in a little smile.
“Goodnight.”
It sounds fake, forced, but at least he didn’t storm off like Seungmin.
🥞
Territorial . Hyunjin is being so terribly territorial that Jeongin for a moment thinks he might be the first ever omega in history to switch into an alpha in one night.
When he comes back home from work, the whole place smells of flowers, including Jeongin’s own room, and he wonders how is it even possible since he has left his door closed before leaving earlier in the morning. It’s not unpleasant per se if he ignores the hint of rage underneath the scent. It’s not hard, he’s used to it by now after fighting and bickering with Hyunjin for months, but it’s overwhelming.
He loosens his tie and looks around. The laundry machine is on, rattling against the wall as usual, Seungmin’s shoes are not at the entrance and Hyunjin’s scent has reached even inside their cupboards. If he closes his eyes he could as well be inside a flower shop with a very angsty vibe.
Seungmin finds him in the living room nose deep into a book that was on the book shelf close to the television. Even the pages smell of Hyunjin and his oddly sweet upsetting feelings.
Mine . That’s what is echoing all over the place. Back off .
Jeongin looks up at the strong slap that is Seungmin’s thick sticky honey scent, overpowering the usual coffee that characterizes him more daily.
“Why does…”
Seungmin stays grounded on the spot but looks around, searching for the source of the preponderant scent that has reached his nostrils right after entering. Honey starts mixing with it and their apartment has never smelled so sweet and yet so aggressive.
Jeongin closes the book and loses two buttons of his shirt, suddenly feeling like all the sweetness is getting stuck in his throat, making it hard to breathe. And then he notices that he’s starting to smell sickeningly sweet too, affected by Hyunjin’s territorial feelings dancing on his skin. It must be what is happening also to Seungmin.
“Should we check on him?” He asks, no need to utter Hyunjin’s name for Seungmin to understand.
The other takes off his coat and ditches his shoes for his ridiculously cute slippers. “No,” he says, easily. Jeongin is surprised there’s not a single hint of burning goods in the air around them triggered by Seungmin‘s disagreement. “Let him sleep over it.”
It sounds too cold even for him.
Jeongin starks to the entrance and for the first time lets his frustration fully take over. He watches Seungmin taking a step back, his eyes widening as Jeongin grabs the collar of his sweater vest and drags him closer, making him stumble forward.
“What is wrong with you!?”
“Wh—“
“Do you have a bit of a heart in there?”
Only when Seungmin puts a warm trembling hand on his chest to oppose him, burning fingers slipping inside the unbuttoned collar of his shirt, Jeongin realizes that he is snarling, showing his fangs to a man he can’t stand for another man that he can’t stand.
Maybe he should’ve asked that question to himself. What is wrong with him?
Seungmin blinks his puppy eyes, his glasses askew on the bridge of his nose, his lips slowly moving to part.
“We’re triggering each other’s heats…” he mutters quietly in horror.
Jeongin lets go of Seungmin as if he burned him, his hand pulsating from how strong he was holding his vest. It’s all crumpled up where he was digging his fingers in the fabric, on top of Seungmin’s heaving chest.
He staggers back, one, two steps, just like Seungmin that stumbles and rests his back against the door.
“ Hyunjin’s scent .”
“That’s impossible,” Jeongin whispers. “It’s— We’re all omegas, it’s—“
“I don’t know,” Seungmin runs a hand through his short hair as he speaks, black strands messily sticking up everywhere. He would be cute if Jeongin didn’t know how terribly annoying he can be. “But we are. You smell good for once.”
A scoff travels up Jeongin’s throat - of course . “Even now you can’t be nice?” He asks incredulous. He loosens his tie a bit more, suddenly his clothes feel like a sensory nightmare.
“No, I…” Seungmin shakes his head, taking back whatever word he was about to utter and taking a step forward instead. “Give me a second, then we’ll check on Hyunjin.”
Honey passes by, caressing Jeongin’s senses like a warm embrace that’s hard to let go of, when Seungmin walks over to his room. Just as he’s closing the door behind himself, Jeongin sees the reason why Seungmin might need a second: a dark wet spot on the light wash of his jeans, right between his asscheeks.
It’s a punch straight to Jeongin’s tummy, making it churn, making him sigh. Warmth washes all over his body once more and he can’t even breathe in without inhaling the scents that are making him grow dizzy.
Felix or Jisung’s scents have never had this affect on him, just like Chan’s hadn’t when five months ago he had stumbled out of the office after holding back and try to work until the last moment he could before taking a heat leave, or Changbin’s hadn’t last year when Jeongin had found him in the bathroom of their company, embarrassed because his cycle was messed up after a one night stand.
This is new, this is different.
Seungmin comes out of his room still in his long sleeved t-shirt and sweater vest, but now wearing a pair of loose sweatpants. His eyes fall on Jeongin, his pupils wide, eating up most of his already dark irises.
Jeongin feels the heat wave Seungmin goes through as if he had crawled and nestled inside his skin to experience it first hand. Honey melts, drips, sticks to his throat and travels down leaving a trail and Jeongin is just breathing .
“We…” Seungmin mumbles, looking away. “Hyunjin. Let’s check.”
“Yes,” Jeongin agrees, his voice shaky.
They reach his door in the corridor with careful steps and the scent coming off the room suddenly spikes in intensity, as if sensing Seungmin and Jeongin both inside the apartment and wanting to reach them - begging for attention but also screaming to be left alone, contradicting.
Jeongin knocks on the wood of the door twice, biting on his bottom lip in wait. “Hyunjin hyung,” he tries, even though he has never called Hyunjin ‘hyung’ before. He feels like he has to approach him carefully. “Can we come in?”
A grunt echoes behind the door, a muffled “I’m sorry, I’ll empty the washing machine soon,” following right after.
“No, it’s not… that.” Seungmin struggles to speak, his skin is starting to blush, his temples are a little sweaty.
“Ah, the heating is burning up,” Hyunjin laments, slightly annoyed. “Can you turn it down?”
Jeongin’s and Seungmin’s eyes meet again in a fleeting puzzled look. The heating is off , Jeongin and Seungmin had yelled at each other about it just the other day, Seungmin pointing out that it was Jeongin’s turn to pay for it and that he had forgotten to do it. Honestly, Jeongin had been so swamped with work that it could have easily been the case, but he was so pissed off by the way Seungmin had approached him that afternoon that he had started to antagonize him immediately.
“Hyunjin-a,” Seungmin tries to call him again.
Heavy footsteps, bothered, annoyed, grow closer and closer until the door opens and Hyunjin, slightly taller, hovers over them.
His long hair is hastily tied in a high bun that doesn’t do much to keep all of his hair out of his flushed face, strands sticking to his sweaty temples. He is beautiful, he is warm, he is glowing and he is livid .
“How are you still smelling like that?” He complains, his dark eyes boring into Jeongin.
Mine. Mine. Back off .
“Like…”
Hyunjin scrunches his nose in distain, a strong wave of flowery scent hitting them in the face, making both Seungmin and Jeongin gasp lightly.
“Did you shower this morning?”
“Of course,” Jeongin answers, a bit petulant. So it is about him, somehow?
His eyes fall on the room behind Hyunjin, at his bed being a mess of rumpled up blankets and throw pillows.
“Well, shower again.” Hyunjin’s eyebrows are knitted tightly when Jeongin looks back at him.
At his lack of answer and obedience, the omega seems to only grow more frustrated, his jaw clenching, his head tilting slightly in annoyance. Jeongin has never seen him so riled up, when fighting usually Hyunjin is more whiny, pouty. But now he is one step close to biting their heads off.
“You’re so…” His fingers wrap around the tie loosely hanging from Jeongin’s neck and drag him closer, making him stumble right against his burning hot chest as Hyunjin dives his nose straight on his scent gland on the side of his neck and then gags . “Shower. Go.” He orders, his fangs on show as he almost growls.
Jeongin stumbles back when Hyunjin lets him go, hitting Seungmin’s shoulder and, oh , he has just leaked in his underwear. It’s terrible.
“What the hell are you talking about?” Jeongin mutters, in a dangerous line between offended and turned on. Seungmin’s hand is holding him steadily on his hip even though he doesn’t need it anymore and Jeongin feels every inch of his palm even through his suit jacket. His hand is so hot he feels like it could burn right through him, make a hole in his guts.
“Vanilla. Chocolate,” Hyunjin barks back. “You stink.”
Mine . Mine . Mine .
Seungmin’s nose also inches closer to Jeongin’s neck, almost close enough to touch but not diving in aggressively like Hyunjin just did. And maybe Seungmin might be a bit distracted by smelling him, but Jeongin notices clearly the way a breath travels up Hyunjin’s chest and he exhales at the sight.
“You…” Seungmin whispers. “You don’t like that he smells like somebody else?”
Hyunjin startles at the question. His eyes previously hypnotized over where Seungmin was breathing Jeongin in, suddenly look a bit higher, probably to meet his gaze.
“He doesn’t smell,” he contradicts him. “He’s fucking scented, it stinks .”
Jeongin is so overwhelmed, Hyunjin’s scent radiating off him violently, Seungmin’s honey sticking to his throat like he downed a whole bottle of it, and he’s slicking, he’s getting light headed, he’s—
“Just scent me,” he proposes. He still feels the ghost touch of Hyunjin on his neck and in some twisted way he wants for it to happen again. It’s stronger than his heat creeping up his back, probably ready to hit late at night by how quickly he’s starting to burn up. It’s even more visceral than that. “Take it off me, if you hate it so much.”
‘ I want to feel the softness of roses and honey on my skin ,’ he doesn’t say but thinks.
Hyunjin’s eyes widen as if he hasn’t been the one bringing up the problem in the first place, all his anger changing into surprise. “Scent you ?!”
Seungmin instead seems to find it reasonable, for once agreeing with Jeongin, the tip of his nose finally - finally? - resting on the scent gland on the side of his neck. “Am I okay?” he asks to the both of them, his voice a bit hoarse. His breath hits Jeongin’s warm skin like an oven set on the highest temperature.
Jeongin presents his neck to him, tilting his head to the side as he melts slowly in a silent answer. Hyunjin doesn’t seem to be able to speak too, swallowing and nodding faintly.
Honey mixes with baked goods, filling up Jeongin’s scent with enriching notes, making him sigh and his eyelids flutter. Seungmin’s skin is so soft, his lips too, the tip of his nose, the brush of his eyelashes, everything delicate like Jeongin had never expected he could be.
The scent of flowers is still strong but switches slightly, from a violent wave to an embrace.
Ours .
“Fuck I—“ Hyunjin blinks, looking disoriented. He’s so flushed all over, blushing neck and cheeks. “I think I’m getting my heat.”
Seungmin keeps rubbing all over the side of Jeongin’s neck, his cheek, his nose, his lips, scenting now overdone, but none of them wants to step away. “No shit,” he mumbles, making Jeongin whine at the vibration against his throat. “You’re a whole plant nursery.”
“It’s okay,” Jeongin sighs. Seungmin wraps an arm around him as he starts losing the ability to stand straight and it feels comforting. Absurd. He’s loving it. “We all are.”
A whine erupts from Hyunjin’s chest, pained. He hastily fixes the strands of hair framing his face and changes stance, now a lot less menacing than he looked just two minutes before.
“You… Why aren’t you stopping?” He asks, bothered, cute pout on his lips, conflicted.
Seungmin presses his nose exactly on Jeongin’s scent gland, where he now feels bruised and sensitive, making him inhale a choked breath. “Should I?” He whispers.
Jeongin moans and it’s a sound so guttural that it wakes him up a little from his daze. A part of him wants to say no but “Yes,” he sighs. “I need a minute.”
Hyunjin stands still by his door as Seungmin leans away but stays behind Jeongin to keep him up straight, waiting for him to gain a bit more clarity. This is the kind of comfort Jeongin had hoped to get from spending the whole weekend scenting himself on his best friends desperately, and it’s coming from the exact source of his annoyance. It’s confusing but there must be a connection somehow between them, between what is going on to them, he’s just too inebriated to try to connect the dots.
“I’m so sorry for grabbing you like that,” Hyunjin apologizes, his shoulders sagging, his eyebrows furrowing.
“It’s okay,” Jeongin says earnestly. Hyunjin had no idea, none of them had, and probably Jeongin coming back to the apartment smelling so strongly of someone else so close to his heat must’ve upset him severely.
He lulls his head back on Seungmin’s shoulder, neck still bared for him, for Hyunjin too.
“Here,” he sighs, his hand weakly trying to reach for Hyunjin. Seungmin is the one that successfully brushes his fingers on Hyunjin’s forearm and pulls him closer gently. “Scent me too. Take it off me.”
Hyunjin licks his lips but seems to hesitate, eyes dancing all over Jeongin’s neck, dark with want, with the need to inject his scent into Jeongin and Seungmin’s sweet mix.
“I… Are you sure?”
Jeongin cards a hand through the ends of his hair that are sticking out of his bun. “Yes, c’mon,” he slurs, offering himself again. He’s not growing restless in the wait only because Seungmin’s hand is still flat on his tummy, the tip of a finger sneaking in the space between two buttons of his white dress shirt.
Compared to how timidly Hyunjin leans in, his touch is possessive and strong. He rubs a scalding hot cheek on his scent gland and then presses his nose against it and travels a bit up so he can also press his whole tongue flat on it. It feels rough, all his past frustration still somewhere inside of him and now showing in the way he drags his fangs over Jeongin’s skin making him shiver.
“Fuck, okay,” he breathes out, his forehead resting against Jeongin’s shoulder. “I need to get ready before it hits. I have to… go.”
Seungmin chuckles lightly and Jeongin finds the energy to huff a laugh too even though he feels like he has just been twisted inside out.
Hyunjin retreats to his room with another apology and Jeongin has to be dragged by Seungmin to his room and dropped on his bed. Seungmin towers over him after not so gently laying him down, cheeks flushed, glasses askew again, hair a bit matted on his forehead.
“You’re not so bad after all,” he comments.
And Jeongin laughs at the absurdity of it all. “We’ll see again after this heat,” he mumbles, starting to snuggle against one of the pillows on his bed, still in his suit, head a bit cloudy and sedated.
He blinks up at Seungmin and smirks at the way he shivers at the eye contact.
Jeongin wakes up a couple of hours later, no light coming in from his window anymore and a blanket that smells of roses and daisies covering him. When he turns around in bed, he’s faced with a box on top of his nightstand along with a bottle of water.
He sits up, his back cracking after the unprompted nap, and reaches for the take out box. On top of it there’s a scribbled message in an handwriting so clear and elegant that it could only belong to Seungmin.
‘ Don’t forget to eat .’
Simple, a bit bossy, perfectly in line with him.
Jeongin shakes off his jacket from his shoulders and uncuffs the wrists of his dress shirt to raise the sleeves up his forearms. He’s starting to grow hot again, but he still feels comfortable, sedated, his room a pleasurable mix of scents.
He slides down on his bed again and looks for his phone, sure that it must’ve fallen off his slacks pocket at some point while sleeping. He finds it and goes back to hug his pillow, digging his nose in the blanket that Hyunjin took off his nest to cover him while he was sleeping.
Jeongin is still in his work clothes, his underwear uncomfortably sticky from dried slick and is growing warmer by the seconds but he has to call off work first.
Chan picks up immediately, probably still at the office working overtime. “Jeongin-a?”
“Mh,” Jeongin hums affirmatively, his mouth feeling full even though it’s empty. “I need a heat leave.”
“Oh,” Chan exhales. He stops typing on his keyboard and then there’s some clicking around. “Sure you… you can have that, but aren’t you… sorry if I ask, early ?”
He’s probably checking their shared schedule and office calendar, everyone’s health status also written down to divide work the best they can.
“Yes, I am,” Jeongin sighs. His pillow feels comfortable, the blanket too. “It’s my stupid roommates and their scents.”
Chan hums and types down something, his printer starts making noises in the background. “I didn’t know you were living with alphas,” he says, conversationally.
“I don’t.” Jeongin turns a bit, dives his nose deep again in Hyunjin’s blanket and inhales, warmth pooling down at the pit of his belly. “We’re all entering our heats,” he tries to explain even though he knows it doesn’t make much sense. Usually, only Alphas can trigger an Omega’s heat.
The scent of roses and daisies fills his lungs, clouds his head and makes him shiver.
“You are?” Chan asks, confused. He has been living with a bunch of omegas too, he was also one of the few people that had recommended this kind of lifestyle to Jeongin when he was looking for a new place to stay. “That’s… new .”
“I know,” Jeongin hums, the last syllable getting caught in a gasp. “Sorry, sorry, sorry,” he cries out of embarrassment.
Chan chuckles at him, fondly. “It’s okay, you're not the first employer calling me on pre-heat,” he reassures him, only making Jeongin blush more. “It's also part of my job. I’ve printed your request, I’ll bring it to the manager's office immediately.”
“‘Kay, thank you hyung, I’m sorry,” Jeongin apologizes in shame. He’s starting to lose slick and he can’t find in himself the strength to get up, he just wants to sink into Hyunjin’s sweet scent and find something, anything, to breathe in Seungmin’s scent just as strongly as he is breathing in Hyunjin on the soft wool of the blanket.
“I’ve said it’s okay.” Chan huffs a laugh. “I’ll see you in a week, ‘kay?”
“Yes,” Jeongin sighs before closing the phone call. He doesn’t even bother about where he leaves his phone on his bed as he brings the blanket again closer to his nose and languidly grinds down on the pillow.
It feels good but not enough, Jeongin needs more and for once it’s not a knot. He barely realizes that he’s crying in between moans as he humps the pillow over and over until he comes in a drowned out sigh and Seungmin’s name dangerously sitting on his tongue.
A kimbap roll, another apology text and an ultimate little sniff of the blanket later, Jeongin decides that it’s time to try to take a shower before he starts being hit by the first waves of his heat and he’s still in his bed in distress with no nest and dirty underwear.
He pushes himself out of the blanket and plugs his phone to charge just to be sure he won’t miss Chan’s answer.
The rest of the apartment smells heavenly, Jeongin grows dizzy again in just a couple of steps down the corridor and takes a peek inside the kitchen. Hyunjin is in a loose pair of boxers and a rock band t-shirt that barely reaches his hips. His hair is damp from a recent shower, untied and loosely resting on his shoulders as he is cutting up fruit slowly, dicing peaches.
He lifts his gaze up as soon as Jeongin almost stumbles over the kitchen door.
Hyunjin’s laugh is chirp and sweet and Jeongin is learning so after months of living together. His eyes dance all over Jeongin, taking him in, making him feel like he’s getting kissed all over by his gaze.
'It’s the heat ,’ Jeongin reminds himself in a moment of clarity.
“Want a taste?” Hyunjin asks, a piece of peach in between his thumb and index finger.
Jeongin must smell strongly of slick, cum, stale subway air and paperwork, but Hyunjin scrunches his nose a little bit and pretends like he doesn’t stink of sex and misery.
“Thanks for the blanket,” Jeongin says, stepping closer to the kitchen counter.
Hyunjin’s lips raise in a tender smile. “It was the least I could do to thank you,” he says softly. “I was awful to you.”
His fingers raise the piece of peach closer to Jeongin and, like he was trained to do so, Jeongin parts his lips and lets Hyunjin push the piece of fruit through them with a little hum. If his fingers linger longer than they should on him, none of them points it out.
“A bit,” Jeongin dares to agree. Surprisingly, it makes Hyunjin’s scent bloom and reach right deep into Jeongin.
“You’re all disheveled,” the other omega comments, his hands fixing strands of Jeongin’s hair, grazing his damp temples, feeling his sweaty scalp. “You should wash up before it hits fully.”
Jeongin would rather let Hyunjin run his hands through his hair for hours than do anything else. He grunts and sighs and Hyunjin laughs in a way that sounds fond.
“Go,” he whispers.
“Mh, take me,” Jeongin laments. He feels pathetic in the best way possible, shivers pleasurably running down his body, his heart humming along his shaky breaths and whines.
“I’ll kick you in the bathroom if you’d like.” Seungmin enters the kitchen and walks past them, snatching a piece of fruit from the cutting board and biting into it. He’s wearing his stupid checkered blue and white pajamas and he smells clean but also of rich honey, coffee, and baked muffins, Jeongin’s scent lingering on him just like it’s lingering on Hyunjin.
“You’re so annoy—“ Another piece of fruit gets pushed through Jeongin’s lips, this time by Seungmin’s fingers that also slightly smell of toothpaste.
“How was the kimbap?” He asks, the back of his hand checking the temperature of Jeongin’s forehead. What he is supposed to check when he’s also burning hot, Jeongin isn’t sure.
He glares up at the hand, just to make him know silently that he’s doing something useless, maybe a bit too condescending, and “Good,” he answers.
“‘Kay, go wash yourself or you’ll regret it later.”
When Jeongin looks at Hyunjin, he’s met with a nod. It’s so rare to see them agree over something so easily.
🥞
It lasts six grueling long drawn out days. Six days when their apartment is so overwhelmingly sweet that Jeongin can barely breathe in before he finds himself whimpering because of overstimulation.
It’s not the first time he spends a heat alone whilst also having roommates, he knows how to behave, how to take care of himself silently, when to take breaks to eat or drink or get washed up without bothering anyone. But his mind seems to forget all his years of accumulated knowledge whenever he hears Seungmin’s sighs coming from down the corridor or Hyunjin moaning and biting down on his pillow and his noises suddenly become difficult to hold back.
He doesn't even need an item from Seungmin anymore to have his scent lingering in his lungs, even a bit of coffee now nestling inside of him.
Once Jeongin wakes up on the sixth day, limbs hurting, skin cold, mind clearer and stomach rumbling, he knows that it is over.
He puts on a random pair of sweats and a ratty old t-shirt and starts cleaning up even though he’s tired. Somehow this time around he had felt less lonely, maybe knowing that they were all going through the same thing and the pleasurable way their scents mixed when not upset, soothed him enough.
When he opens his bedroom door, bedsheets and various clothes in his hands and hugged to his chest, he’s welcomed with the sight of Hyunjin sitting on top of the washing machine. He’s wearing headphones over his tied up matted hair and is sketching on a notebook, his body covered only by a pair of black boxers and the cropped shirt from five days before.
His lips look puffy and his skin is still blushed but calming down from the heat - Jeongin wants to feel it under his fingertips despite the fact that they both haven’t showered for sure for a couple of days.
Seungmin stumbles into the corridor at the same time, a pile of neat folded clothes on his arms even though they were clearly used for nesting and are probably dirty all over. For once Jeongin finds himself feeling fond at Seungmin’s neat freak behavior.
“Hey,” he greets them, a bit timid.
Hyunjin pushes his headphones down to let them rest on his shoulders and offers them both an awkward smile. “I swear I’m almost done.”
The laundry machine used to be one of the focal points of their fights, but now Jeongin doesn’t feel like caring at all about it. Hyunjin has the right to wash his clothes at any time he needs, even if the sound of them thumbling inside over and over is unnerving so early in the morning or too late into the night.
He drops his clothes and sheets on the floor and walks closer to him. “How are you?”
Hyunjin’s smile brightens up, soft, sweet. “I’m doing better. You?” He answers, swinging his legs a little.
“I’m okay,” Jeongin hums. Their heats are over, so why does he still want to kiss Hyunjin? Why does he want Seungmin to come closer instead of standing still in the corridor?
“Seungmin-a,” Hyunjin addresses him, his eyes leaving Jeongin for a second. “What about you?”
The other omega looks like he has just been caught stealing, watching them interact behind his pile of used clothes. “I’m fine,” he utters, his cheeks blushing a little. “Knock on my room once you’re both done.”
Instead of leaving the clothes on the floor outside the laundry room like Jeongin, he brings them back with him, a sock falling to the floor without him noticing.
“How dare he being shy now,” Hyunjin says incredulously but bursting into an amused laugh at the end. He shakes his head and goes back to sketching on the paper, music still coming out from his headphones resting around his neck.
Seungmin was the loudest among them. He was moaning and whimpering over and over, so much that Jeongin had to restrain himself from crossing the space between their rooms and begging him to accept some medicine.
“I’m still sorry for the way I shoved you around,” Hyunjin apologizes again, eyes trained on his sketch of some kind of street, a shop with a big window door at the corner.
Jeongin leans his hip on the vibrating washing machine, the temperature radiating off Hyunjin warming him up. “I shoved Seungmin around too,” he confesses. “We were all a bit off, it’s okay.”
Hyunjin glances up at him. “Have you apologized?” He asks, curious.
“No, I was right,” Jeongin shrugs his shoulders. Seungmin was being an asshole, probably it was the heat spiking up out of nowhere making him more insufferable than usual, but how did he not want to check on Hyunjin? Distress was painted all over their apartment in blaring red.
“You are both headstrong,” Hyunjin says lightly, shaking his head and sketching some other lines on the paper. “Jeonginnie.”
His name sounds so sweet coming out of Hyunjin’s lips like so, it draws every bit of Jeongin’s attention in an instant.
“Will you apologize to him?” Hyunjin lets go of his pencil to reach for Jeongin’s hand on top of the washing machine. “Please, it would be nice to get along.” His fingers slot with Jeongin’s easily, making Jeongin feel like he has just been electrocuted, energy reaching down deep in his core and lighting up a fire.
Jeongin looks down at where Hyunjin is playing with one of his rings, flowers blooming in the winter.
“I’ll try.”
He’s not sure how to approach Seungmin, though.
🥞
Jeongin is back in one of his suits, in his cubicle, cup of coffee on his desk, a flower that he picked randomly while walking to his office at ass o'clock in the morning and a pastry filled with honey resting on top of a napkin. He ordered it without noticing what he was saying, the word honey slipping past his lips easily.
He still hasn’t taken a bite of it, nor drank his coffee or smelled the white daisy that contrasts starkly with his black mahogany desk.
He types on a memo mindlessly. ‘ Seungmin-ssi, I’m sorry for shoving you around. You were being an ass but you also smell so good let me bite into… ’
“Are you eating that?”
Jeongin hastily looks for the X sign on top of the little digital memo pad and closes it before Changbin can read more than a few words.
“I am,” he snarls defensively, tugging the napkin with the pastry on top closer to himself. “Don’t even think about it.”
Back off. Mine .
He blinks away the shock to his own reaction.
“Okay,” Changbin chuckles as he lifts both his hands. “It has been sitting there for like an hour, so…”
How embarrassing, showing his fangs to a senior for a stupid pastry. Or maybe what’s embarrassing him is the knowledge that the items on his desk are just a replacement for the scents that he has been wanting to have all over himself for the past week.
“Sorry,” he blurts out immediately. “Don’t tell Chan hyung.” He reaches for Changbin’s arm, stopping him from backing off to his desk with his chair.
Changbin raises an eyebrow at him, judging. Nothing new for Jeongin but today he feels deeply mortified instead of annoyed.
“Why would I tell Chan hyung?”
“You always tell Chan hyung.”
“That I do,” Changbin mutters, realizing out loud that he has sent Jeongin to the HR office a bit too many times just in the past couple of months. It’s written all over his face, it’s all over his scent too.
Jeongin holds himself from shoving him away. In the nicest way he can process the first impulse that his brain sends him: he doesn’t want Changbin’s scent to stick to his clothes.
“I won’t,” Changbin reassures him as he gently slips out of Jeongin’s grip. Jeongin thanks him mentally for doing that on his own instead of waiting for Jeongin, because he was really close to pushing the sole of his shoe on his chair and kicking it far away. “But if you want to reheat that, they’ve fixed the microwave while you weren’t here.”
Jeongin’s in the need of a break anyway, so he stands up and heads to the break room, coffee and pastry in his hands and daisy tucked in the front pocket of his suit.
He waits by the microwave as the empty room fills with the sweet scent of honey and reheated coffee. It must be the remains of his heat, he reasons, what made it difficult for him to leave the apartment and walk to the office earlier, or snarl at Changbin.
Or that makes him sigh as he finally bites into the pastry, his tensend shoulders melting.
“Is that good?”
Jeongin whips his head to Chan, waiting by the break room entrance. There’s a knowing look in his eyes, as if he knew that Jeongin is dangerously crossing a personal limit that he had dared not to cross right the other morning when he was padding around his room cleaning up the mess he had made during his heat, remembering every time he had whined either Seungmin’s or Hyunjin’s name under his breath.
He just has to wear off the remains of it off his shoulders, that’s it.
“Average,” he lies. It tastes like stardust and hot kisses, a nose pressed on his scent gland and pouty downturned shaped lips mouthing at his neck.
“Okay,” Chan chuckles, coming closer to make himself tea but moving around Jeongin carefully to not touch him. “You know you had another day of rest, right?”
Jeongin takes a sip of coffee and puts down the cup to feel a petal of the daisy with his index finger. “It’s okay, it’s better if I’m out of my apartment anyway.”
“Your roommates,” Chan remembers. Jeongin nods with a hum. “Did you really sync up?”
There’s curiosity in his tone, Jeongin understands him. Chan has been living with omegas for the past years and what Jeongin had explained to him over the phone still sounded new and unexpected to his ears.
“We triggered it,” he corrects him, because he can trust Chan - the sweet coworker that gave him the number of a therapy help line and the one of a doctor specialized in strong scents instead of reporting him to their manager. Chan who heard him moan over the line and still treats Jeongin like always.
He nods and hums and moves to fix himself his daily cup of tea, filling the kettle at the tab and turning it on. “All of you?” He asks, just to understand better.
“Yes,” Jeongin looks at the pastry and decides to keep on eating it later, in case he might sigh again at the next bite. “It was like… oddly possessive? Claiming?” He tries to find the words but fails. “Maybe it’s because we're always fighting.”
Chan looks at him with his typical understanding stare, like he can see more of Jeongin than Jeongin can, no matter how much self reflection he does. It’s like he has some kind of HR assistant superpower that allows him to read everyone like an open book, of course he’s at the head of the department.
“So you helped each other? If I can ask.”
“No,” Jeongin answers. “We just…” How does he explain Hyunjin losing his mind over Jeongin’s friends’ scents on him? “We kind of scented each other and stayed apart for the rest.”
He generalizes, omitting who scented who.
Chan nods, takes the information in, stays quiet as he pours the hot water from the kettle into his ‘ BEST WOLF IN TOWN ’ mug that Changbin had gifted him as a joke for his birthday and dips his herbal tea bag in it.
“You smell relaxed,” he says, before leaving.
Jeongin thinks about it all day, spinning the daisy in between his index finger and thumb, sipping on his coffee until the last drop and then getting some more, keeping the rest of the pastry aside because he doesn’t want to let go of the honey scent just yet. He feels a bit more relaxed if he focuses on the lack of tension on his shoulders, on the missing migraine that usually starts to poke at his brain at midday, on the way his leg is not nervously bouncing under his desk.
He thinks about it on his walk back to his shared apartment and at the missing annoyance when typing in the code in the keylock.
Getting in the apartment is like a breath of fresh air which is ridiculous because it’s a closed space, but it feels like so, the scents of honey, coffee and flowers dancing to him directly from the ones who are exuding them.
No cup of coffee, flower or pastry can compare.
Seungmin is sitting on the living room floor, glasses on, several books and notes open on the coffee table, teeth digging on his bottom lips as he scribbles something down. While Hyunjin is right above him sitting on the couch, headphones in as usual, music slightly buzzing out and a sketchbook as always propped on his legs.
They never use communal spaces like this, usually fleeing a room when one of them is around, but the coffee in Seungmin’s scent is just as sweet as the honey and Hyunjin’s one is calm, tamed and comfortably seeping of belonging.
The two men both look at Jeongin when he steps in, noticing him immediately. It’s impossible not to, even Jeongin can smell himself and the scent of warm baked-to-perfection goods. It’s bread, it’s muffins and cakes and cookies and loaves–
“Was work good?” Hyunjin asks.
Jeongin nods and finds himself beelining for the couch without even realizing, leaving his boring briefcase down the side of the sofa instead of putting it on top of the coffee table like his brain suggests him first. ‘Don’t upset Seungmin,’ it tells him second, unexpectedly.
Seungmin bends his head back a little to look at both of them, his short bangs uncovering a bit more of his eyebrows, his nose scrunching.
“You smell of somebody else again,” Hyunjin complains, this time his voice not offended, his fangs not bared. He quietly changes his sitting position to scoot closer and, inching towards Jeongin’s neck but not touching him, utters quietly: “ Can I? ”
Jeongin doesn’t even know why he should want to cover the bit of caramel that stuck on him when Chan helped him clean his jacket after he stained it on lunch break, they’re not on heat anymore and he’s not scented. Still, he bares his neck for Hyunjin and raises his arm to rest on the backrest of the sofa.
‘You’re mine,’ is what Hyunjin’s first brush against his gland says. ‘Why aren’t you smelling like me?’ asks the second. ‘How dare you?’ Screams the hot, open mouthed kiss placed on him.
Jeongin shudders and sighs, pleasure and comfort dancing all over his neck and reaching down to his chest and lungs.
He feels half full.
He grips on Hyunjin’s waist without noticing it, his arm draped around him as Hyunjin crosses the line of scenting and Jeongin’s heart sings because of it. It makes no sense and it doesn’t matter at all, not when it feels so right.
A book closes with an annoyed sigh and Jeongin cracks a closed eye open to look at Seungmin as he stands up. For a fraction of a second he thinks of rushing up to grab his wrist. ‘Don’t go.’
Against all his expectations, Seungmin turns to look at them and digs a knee in the small space between Jeongin’s legs, making him gasp. “You’re both stinking up the place again,” he reprimands them.
Hyunjin tilts his head slightly to look up at him, his cheek resting against the collar of Jeongin’s white shirt. “It’s nothing new,” he teases.
And technically he’s right, it’s not, only this time the scent that overwhelms them in the room is not bitter or burned or rotten, but comfortable.
Seungmin sighs and leans closer, his hand finding a spot on the headrest right by Jeongin’s head. “I fear Hyunjin won’t stop until you’ll become a pretty flower too,” he says, his other knee bracketing Jeongin’s leg. He sits down, his weight on Jeongin feeling reassuring. He didn’t leave in anger, burned bitter coffee trailing behind him, he is instead warm and soft as the honey that filled the pastry that Jeongin has defended all day - from who?
“Is it okay?” He asks, settling better up Jeongin’s thigh.
He’s wearing another of his nerdy university fit, loose t-shirt, pretty soft cardigan, his jeans screaming ‘ good guy ’. Do the people around Seungmin at uni know how annoying he can be? Do they even suspect it?
“You ask after seating,” Hyunjin points out.
“Shut up,” Seungmin says with no real bite, a slight blush creeping up his ears. “It was a question for Innie.”
Innie .
“Yes, it is okay,” Jeongin clears up immediately. It’s more than okay, he has been dreaming about getting scented again non stop since it had first happened.
”See?” Seungmin jabs at Hyunjin, leaning in, his nose trailing down Jeongin’s temple and jaw line until it reaches his other scent gland on his neck.
Scenting happens, deep intense brushes of skin, hot soft breaths and aggressive inhaling and Jeongin slowly melts onto the sofa through it all, his body relaxing just like the other night. As the minutes pass by, it morphs and stops, it becomes mouthing at his neck, kissing him up and down until he shudders and can’t find a way to keep his eyes open.
“Why don’t—,” he tries, his lips spreading in a sigh as Hyunjin drags his fangs again on his skin. “You too,” he ends up saying incoherently.
“Us?” Seungmin asks. He scoots closer and rubs his neck on Jeongin’s, scenting himself immediately, understanding Jeongin’s slurred words and obeying in a heartbeat.
“Ah, I… Wait.” Hyunjin hooks a leg over Jeongin’s free one to lift himself up a little and then he’s scenting himself too, groan vibrating within him.
Jeongin’s head lolls back and he’s sure he’s drunk - he’s drunk and turned on and whatever they’re doing is out of character, territorial, unusual, not roommates’ behavior at all but the logistic of it doesn’t matter. He could die happily on this sofa, finally fulfilled.
“I’m sorry,” he breathes out, eyelashes fluttering, his hand searching for Seungmin and finding his hip. “The other day I…”
“It’s okay,” the other mutters on his skin. “I was being unreas—” he suddenly stops talking, leaving his sentence unfinished. “Something’s burning. Are you okay?”
When he comes up from Jeongin’s neck he’s incredibly flushed, his hair fluffed up by all the brushing, his lips spit slicked, eyes a bit lost.
“‘S not him,” Hyunjin murmurs, back to kissing up Jeongin’s throat. He’s sloppy in the way he keeps mouthing at his skin as if he could suck all of Jeongin’s scent out of him and feed on it.
Jeongin cards a hand through his longer hair and his attempt to take in a breath gets choked up by Hyunjin’s hand reaching up to massage the side that Seungmin is not touching anymore. Seungmin slaps him away lightly.
“Don’t be greedy.”
His usual annoyed tone for once makes Jeongin snort and then he smells it: something’s burning .
“Wait,” he hurries, gently pulling Hyunjin off his lap, the man’s pupils blown out, his lips parted to breathe in.
Hyunjin immediately scrunches his nose as the smell reaches him too and scrambles up on his knees to climb up to Seungmin and dive in his neck to check if the awful burning scent is somehow his. He sighs but also clicks his tongue as he realizes that it is not, relief on his also slightly confused face.
Seungmin pushes him away with a hand flat on his forehead, turning his head towards the entrance of the corridor.
There’s smoke.
They all get up on wobbly legs and sway their way down the corridor and to the small laundry room where the washing machine is running more frenetically than usual and fuming .
There’s a black stain growing on the wall behind it and Hyunjin is the first one to move, grabbing the washing machine while Seungmin yells at him that moving it could be dangerous. But Hyunjin doesn’t listen, he pushes the machine away from the wall and the plug with a crackle comes off the now melted wall socket.
The wire is burning in the middle where it is slightly damaged and Seungmin takes it to himself to remove Hyunjin from the proximity of it, wrapping his arms around him and tugging him away even though he complains that it’s still burning.
A little spark of a fire pops, startling them all. A quick flash of light.
Jeongin removes his jacket hastily and throws it on it to put the flame out before it spreads more, smacking it until it dies. He stops only once that they’re safe.
“You have to be more careful,” Seungmin turns Hyunjin around in his arms, Hyunjin’s hands immediately come up to stop him as he whines in annoyance.
“So are we all supposed to intoxicate ourselves and catch on fire?” Hyunjin scoffs, incredulous. He starts smelling a bit rotten and upset, but Seungmin gently raises a hand to thumb at his scent gland on his neck to soothe him.
“You’re right, let’s get out of here.”
They both turn to look at Jeongin who for a second, instead, glances down at the gray jacket of his suit.
A hand grabs his - Hyunjin.
“It reeked of another man, it got what it deserved.”
Seungmin snorts even though he’s also clearly upset about the current situation and tugs at Hyunjin’s other hand to urge them both to start walking out of the now smoky corridor.
Lee Minho comes around eight in the morning the next day to check on the damage, apartment now copiously aired out but still smelling burnt, even more than when Jeongin and Seungmin used to yell at each other or, worse, were being passive aggressive.
He’s currently looking at the socket on the wall, plastic melted and a bit of the black material of the plug still stuck on it.
“You should’ve called me last night,” he scolds them, head shaking in disagreement. “How could you even sleep? That’s still a fire hazard.”
“Ah,” Hyunjin exhales, showing the surprise that instead Seungmin and Jeongin try to hide by escaping their landlord’s gaze when he turns towards them.
They slept fine , Jeongin could answer. Hyunjin’s bed is comfortable and big enough for three people if you slot your leg here and your arm there and maybe keep your nose dived in someone’s neck. However, it’s none of their landlord’s business if they spent the night sandwiching Hyunjin in their arms and comforting each other with tight hugs and a bit of scenting.
“I’m calling the electrician and—“ Minho stops to check his ringing phone. “The laundry machine guy is downstairs. I can stay if you have to go to work.”
Seungmin is already in his full ‘ I’m a good doctorate ’ fit, while Jeongin is in his boring nine to five office suit. Only Hyunjin is still in his pajamas, or Jeongin’s sweatpants and Seungmin’s old baseball shirt, to be precise. His hair is messy after rolling in bed in worry for a while in his sleep and he scratches his neck in a ‘ He’s obviously not talking about me ’ way.
It’s clear in his behavior that he is slightly uncomfortable, probably not wanting to stay at home under Minho’s judging stare after almost risking getting his apartment on fire.
“Do you want to come with me? You can paint in the break room,” Jeongin asks, leaning in his space. Jealousy swats off Seungmin in a thick wave of bitter coffee. “ What ?”
“Nothing,” Seungmin whips his head away. “Take him to your office, it’s cool.”
It obviously is not, but they haven’t talked about all of this yet: why they’re now scenting each other desperately, why they all got their heat in sync triggered by Hyunjin’s, why they’re now jealous .
“Come too if you can, around lunch,” Jeongin proposes, his fingers brushing against Seungmin’s. “The office has a canteen.”
Minho raises an eyebrow at them but doesn’t voice his suspicion at the change in their bond after having received until now several complaints by all of their neighbors about their stinking apartment and the constant fighting.
“I might have free lunch time,” Seungmin says, playing hard to get as if he's not suddenly dripping honey all over. It reaches Jeongin and Hyunjin both, flowers blooming right by Jeongin’s other side.
Hyunjin runs to the shower with a skip on his steps and Seungmin huffs a laugh and shakes his head, starting to head out. They don’t say goodbye or see you later, but Jeongin knows that they will.
As he waits for Hyunjin to get ready he scores a text to Chan about bringing in a guest because of a personal issue. It shouldn’t be the first time for sure, he remembers quite well many of his coworkers bringing in visiting parents or children with them.
Me:
hyung, our landlord is doing some work at home because of a fire
so my roommate will come with me to the office
i apologize
Chan Hyung - HR Boss:
A fire in your apartment?
Are you okay?
Me:
yes!! i am
Definitely not how Jeongin should text the head of the human relations’ department, or any of his seniors.
is it okay, hyung?
i swear hyunjin is armless and calm
Technically he should be, Jeongin hopes. He only knows the snarky irritated side of him and the new giggly, cute, slightly possessive one that has unfurled in the past week.
Lately he has learned that Seungmin is not all bite and orders and that Hyunjin is not all eye rolls and shrugs of shoulders.
How would Jeongin describe himself similarly if looking at himself from their perspective?
He’s so busy thinking and regretting all the fighting of the past months that he doesn’t notice the gentle flowery scent dancing close to him until the tip of a nose is poking at his nape.
“I’m ready,” Hyunjin hums, taking in a breath. Jeongin feels all his spine tensing at the tender arms that wrap around him.
“I can tell,” he laughs nervously as he turns and gently removes Hyunjin’s hands from under his jacket and puts them down his side. He takes a step back too for good measure when Hyunjin’s gaze falls down to his lips.
Jeongin cannot afford to ruin three suits in the span of not even two weeks, it’s too embarrassing even for himself. Also, Minho is just down the corridor talking with the guy that’s checking their laundry machine: an Alpha that smells strongly of cigarettes and that would catch Jeongin’s slicking embarrassingly in his underwear for Hyunjin in a heartbeat.
Hyunjin is wearing a simple white shirt and a fluffy black cardigan, his hair tied in a low bun, his face devoid of his usual grungy makeup. The necklace around his neck looks like a leash and Jeongin’s fingers hitch to grab it and tug.
Whatever happened that evening they rewired each other’s brain to a point of no return.
“Let’s go.”
As he had hoped and swore to Chan, Hyunjin is thankfully actually armless and calm. He chats with Chan in the break room when he arrives, a look in his eyes that tells Jeongin that he has immediately clocked him as the guy that made him rub all over Jeongin the evening prior, and then sits down on the communal table and just draws, rock music in his headphones and little low bun slowly coming undone as he hunches over the desk or bobs his head to the bass in his ears.
Jeongin glances at him every once in a while, in between a data analysis and another. Because he is a diligent worker and he didn’t have to pick a daisy on his way to work to have Hyunjin’s soothing scent on himself.
The sound of wheels on the linoleum floor catches his attention as he submits another file to another department and he immediately spots Changbin getting up and pushing his chair back. Jeongin pays him no mind, he has beef with Changbin and—
Wait, was he the problem since the start? Could he be the reason why they also were fighting so much?
He should ask Chan, he always knows best and he’s definitely more impartial than Jisung and Felix who have been his friends since high school.
He writes down on a post it ‘ Chan’s office after lunch ’ and sticks it on the bottom of his monitor for later along with other great ideas such as ‘ Get Hyunjin coffee ’ and ’ Get Nintendo Online membership with Lix. ’
Oh , he is a bit of a loser.
He stretches his arms before starting to work on a new report, something brainy that will make him feel less dumb, and throws another glance at Hyunjin.
In the break room, Hyunjin is slowly sipping on his tea, big brown eyes looking up at Changbin who’s leaning against the table, clearly flexing his arm in the way he’s resting his weight on it.
His report can wait.
Jeongin stands up and fixes his tie and jacket and heads to the break room in what he hopes is a controlled pace and not a possessive-omega-that-has-no-rights-to-be-possessive-but-still-is pace.
As he steps into the break room, Hyunjin’s eyes glance at the door as if trained to spot Jeongin by the millisecond.
“Oh, Innie, come here,” he seems eager to tell him something and Jeongin doesn’t care that he might appear like an obedient puppy, he rounds the table and puts a hand on the backrest of the chair he’s sitting on.
“Yeah?” He asks, looking down.
“Changbin-ssi was telling me that you do art auctions at your company’s parties sometimes,” he says, shining with wonder, an energy that Jeongin witnesses for the first time and hates to assimilate with so much bitterness in his chest because of Changbin’s name falling from Hyunjin’s lips. “Do you think there’s a way for me to join?”
Jeongin glances at Changbin, their eyes meeting. Back off .
“As an artist, a buyer or just a guest?” He asks Hyunjin, leveling his voice to a soft tone, holding back the ugly need to brush his scent all over his roommate.
“Any would be fine,” Hyunjin says, hope in his eyes, head still tilted to look up at Jeongin. “Even just talking with other guests as a guest would be a great opportunity.”
He blooms right in front of him, the cutest flower on the planet.
Jeongin is going to buy breakfast for Jaemin from the party plan committee until he will agree and get Hyunjin on the invite list by at least the Christmas party.
“Of course.”
Without them noticing, Changbin has slipped out of the room and Hyunjin barely glances at the side before looking up at Jeongin again - Jeongin doesn’t even look.
“You’re cute,” he utters, surprising him.
Jeongin feels warm and shy all over at the sudden comment. “Wh…”
“You’re scenting the whole room,” Hyunjin explains further, a smirk tugging at his lips. Jeongin is mortified but also not, a contradicting mix of emotions washing over him.
He wants to spray scent blockers all around the room and hide until clocking out, so he won't see the new HR notification in his emails or hear the other coworkers at his floor whispering instead of working.
‘Yang Jeongin, yeah, the clumsy young data analyst. He brought his roommate over and scented him like a whiny possessive omega.’
‘The one that smells like burned bread and distress all the time? I’ve heard they’re going to kick him out because he stinks.’
“Come here,” Hyunjin sighs with fondness latched in his voice. He tugs Jeongin down by his sleeve and looks around quickly before tugging even more, their faces so close that their noses almost brush. “I only like stupidly hot annoying losers that know how to fight me back, so don’t worry.”
Jeongin should step away before he breathes in Hyunjin’s scent so much that it fires his synapsis.
“So you’re still bratty,” he bites back instead.
“Kind of,” Hyunjin sports a flirty smile. “Moderately. Just for you.”
Jeongin stumbles back before the break room will irreparably smell like a bakery forever, the kind where only couples come in to order love shaped biscuits and hold their hands on the table or whatever couples do. He hasn’t dated much honestly, he’s overworked, and a nerd.
And Hyunjin likes him.
“Go back to work,” Hyunjin chuckles, waving a hand. “Lunch is close.”
When Jeongin sits back down on his desk chair, he feels dizzy. Hyunjin is not harmless at all, he just decides when to blow and he has just done it right on Jeongin’s guts.
Working on his last report of the morning right now would be risky, he’s not clear headed enough. So Jeongin opens his chats on the desktop and types quickly on his keyboard.
Me:
what are you doing rn?
Seungmin texts back in the span of a couple of seconds, impressive.
Kim Seungmin apt 143:
I’m grading molecular chemistry papers
I’m running out of red ink
What is it?
Stupidly hot annoying loser. He checks out every box too.
Me:
just wondering what you do all day at uni
i never asked before
i have to analyse data for another department and a report to do
it’s like the fifth of the morning
Kim Seungmin apt 143:
So you draw pie charts for work?
Nerd
How dare he.
Me:
graphs too
excel sheets
powerpoints
Kim Seungmin apt 143:
And then you come back home in your fancy suits and annoy the shit out of me like you’re not a boring office worker
You should like order
Smh
Me:
i have to balance my life somehow
Jeongin glances quickly to the side before writing another text.
hyunjinnie is drawing
he is pretty constant
Kim Seungmin apt 143:
Hyunjinnie?
Me
you can be seungminnie
if you’d like
Kim Seungmin apt 143:
I’d like it
Very much
See you soon?
Jeongin clicks on the settings of the chat, presses on the backspace, types with a bit of trepidation in his heart, and then answers.
Me:
yes
Seungminnie:
Don't scent Hyunjin without me
And don’t let that possessive freak scent you either
Me:
be nice
Seungminnie:
What do you mean
I’ve been very nice lately I think
Me:
that’s true
we’ve all been nice
Seungminnie:
Let’s keep the streak
I want to push my scent under your skin so badly that it killed all the bad in me
Jeongin dives his head in his hands and takes in a deep breath to exhale slowly. Seungmin keeps on writing, notifications popping up on the right side of the computer screen.
I‘m sorry for everything
So much
I’ve never wanted to claim someone before
It makes me lose my mind
Let me scent you again tonight
Please
Maybe it’s time Jeongin starts investing in scent blocking patches for work before they actually fire him.
Me:
fuck
of course you can scent me again
i always think about it
i’m at work i really have to close this
i’m losing my mind too i can’t lose also my job
seventh floor for lunch
i’m sorry too
for grabbing you
and everything else
Seungminnie:
Just let me grab you back once
Tonight
"Wow.”
It’s the first thing Jisung says once he opens the door to let Jeongin in. He is in a squirrel themed pajama, fluffy headband pushing his hair off his face and a pink mask smeared on his cheeks.
“I should be the one wowing,” Jeongin deadpans. “Did I get the time wrong?” He starts looking for his phone in the pockets of his jacket.
He stops midway when Felix sneaks behind Jisung and props his chin on his shoulder. “You’re scented,” he points out, his lips spreading in a dangerous smirk.
“What happened to greetings?”
“The timing is right,” Felix chirps, ignoring his new question in favor of the old one. “I hope you’re ready for some cute skincare during our game night.”
Jeongin finally steps in and toes off his sneakers, sliding in the house slippers that are now basically his even though this is not his place. “Sure,” he says, starting to also unwrap the scarf around his neck.
A gasp escapes Jisung as soon as Jeongin hangs the piece of garment on the coat racket.
“Did you get mauled?” Hands fly to his face to turn Jeongin how they please, his head getting twisted to the side to inspect the violent purple specks all over his neck.
Jeongin knew that it was going to happen but no mental preparation could’ve saved him still from flushing embarrassingly at his friends witnessing the artwork adorning his skin. He tried to put on something with a high neck but it was impossible, Hyunjin’s hasty hands lifting his sweater up his torso after noticing it. “Off. Off.”
Jeongin giggled at him, pretending to push his hands away but letting him still raise it. Seungmin didn’t even try to help him, instead nibbling at his neck again and leaving another little bruise just under his lobe. “He’s so possessive,” he chuckled as his hands were also tugging the sweater up, a mischievous glint in his eyes.
He sighed and melted against the side of the kitchen table leaving Seungmin and Hyunjin handling him however they liked, Hyunjin spreading his legs to find a permanent place there and Seungmin squeezing his thigh strongly by his side as he kept trying to ‘push his scent ’ under Jeongin’s skin, and loved all of it from the first brush of skin to the last bite.
The news that Jeongin was going to spend his Tuesday night at Jisung and Felix’s place wasn’t well welcomed by Hyunjin. Seungmin raised a brow at Jeongin at the first pungent sniff of withering flowers, a knowing look in his eyes. ‘What did you expect?’ After all, Jeongin’s scent mixed with theirs was what had started all of this.
“I'm not getting scented again,” Jeongin reassured him, running a hand through Hyunjin's dark locks.
“I know,” Seungmin said, chuckling right against Jeongin’s throat, like he was deeming the preventive scenting absurd. What a reaction for a man that was rubbing himself all over Jeongin marking the territory.
“Ugh,” Hyunjin groaned in disgust instead. “Change clothes before coming to bed.”
Casually. Because they will sleep in the same bed and it’s a given, a fact written in stone.
“My roommates,” Jeongin explains quickly, the best he can do while Jisung is squishing his face.
“And it has been going since...” Felix’s voice trails off hoping for Jeongin to fill them in with what has happened.
Between the heat, work, their laundry machine almost catching fire and panicking at his desk because he was… yeah , it’s better to gloss over Jeongin almost ruining his suit for a second time during the day - he barely had time to catch up with his friends.
“Not much,” he answers them. “We’ve been scenting each other.”
Jisung’s hand gets a companion as Felix starts to poke gently around the hickies and bruises. They don’t hurt even a bit as fingers prod around them to check.
“This is the closest thing to marking I’ve ever seen.”
It is. Jeongin bashes in the idea.
Game night gets turned more into talking, Felix applying a sheet mask on Jeongin’s blushy face as he keeps on updating them on all that has happened in the past days. Jisung asks question after question, trying to understand the psyche of the two men that are waiting for Jeongin at home after leaving on his skin and under a strong claim.
Ours .
Not just Hyunjin’s, not just Seungmin’s.
When he comes back home the lights are all off except for the one that turns on automatically at the entrance. The house is quiet, there’s still some chemical burning scent lingering around after their incident and no one in sight, except the singular cookie sitting on top of the table in the kitchen on a small plate.
Jeongin eyes it curiously and picks it up to smell it better, the scent of the sugar powder now a bit moist on top is sweet, but also makes him scrunch his nose a little. Just as he is putting it down he notices the post-it that was on the plate underneath it.
Dog themed, ‘Thought of you but don’t smile too wide’ written on it in a composed precise handwriting, under the line another one scribbled quickly and messily: ‘He’s so difficult, isn’t he?‘
It’s a small gesture but it is cute enough to make Jeongin smile and blush. He traps the cookie in between his lips and picks the post-it to fold it and put it quickly inside the cover of his cellphone to treasure it.
He munches on the sweet treat as he goes through his fridge shelf, suddenly inspired to clean up the mess he leaves in there at every dinner and quick half assed breakfast. He throws away food that’s too old and he would usually ending up forgetting of for a couple more days on the back of the fridge after it gets shoved by more boxes, and then puts the rest in the different tupperwares that he had bought in good faith before moving in, hoping that living closer to his office would help him have a more balanced life. Instead it turned into even more work, since Jeongin really struggles to oppose extra hours even though he could.
He brushes the crumbles of the cookie off his lips as he looks at his finished work and, well, Seungmin might have been right all along. Damned him.
Jeongin strips quickly in his room and sticks the post-it on his closet’s door before looking for clothes to wear to bed. He picks a random striped set and heads to Hyunjin’s room, tired but also with a hint of excitement in his bones.
He opens the door carefully and is immediately welcomed by the new but very appreciated scent of honey and flowers mixing. There’s also some hint of arousal in the air, Jeongin inhales it and a sensation of dizziness sits right next to his tiredness.
Hyunjin and Seungmin are sleeping at the centre of the bed, Seungmin lying on his back, lips slightly parted, Hyunjin on his side with his arm wrapped around him. It’s something Jeongin would’ve never bet his money on, thankfully he’s never been keen with gambling.
He climbs on the bed and, with the intent to annoy them just a little because bad habits are hard to lose, makes his way in between the two. Seungmin mumbles incoherent words as Jeongin lifts Hyunjin’s arm to sneak under it and place instead half of himself on top of him.
“You smell of cookies,” he sighs more clearly later, Jeongin already rubbing his cheek on his neck, inhaling the fresh mixes of scents on Seungmin.
“You left me one,” Jeongin smiles against his soft skin. “Thank you.”
The arm on top of Jeongin moves, a hand sneaking under his shirt to rest on his tummy, Hyunjin glueing himself impossibly even more to Jeongin’s back. For a moment Jeongin thinks Hyunjin might have done it unconsciously in his sleep, but then he feels him muttering some words on his shoulder.
“He’s a cutie,” he says.
A slap echoes in the room, Hyunjin whining, Seungmin snorting a laugh.
“What was that for?” Hyunjin complains, his hold tightening on Jeongin as if he wants to crawl under his skin. “You don’t deserve us.”
Before Jeongin can tell them to stop, he gets ripped away from Seungmin’s neck and pulled in Hyunjin’s lap. Manhandled easily, Hyunjin’s hands are big and strong on him. He chubs up a little.
“ Hi, ” he whispers to Jeongin, a little sleepy smile spreading on his lips in the darkness of the room, only the moonlight helping Jeongin in making up his face.
Hyunjin is so pretty it physically hurts, it has always been the case, but he looks even prettier when he looks at them like so, his brown eyes dancing on them with a feeling that’s something far different from the old annoyance Jeongin was used to.
“What did those two stinkers fed you for dinner?”
Jeongin rolls his eyes at the nickname but still feels a smile pulling at his lips. “We ordered pizza.”
“Nice.”
Hyunjin’s fingers find their way under Jeongin’s pajama shirt again, this time feeling up his spine and then down, stopping at the little dimples at the end of it.
“Ya,” Seungmin exhales with a little chuckle. He shifts on his side and wraps an arm around Hyunjin, his hand finds Jeongin’s own on the mattress and rests on top of it the best it can. “You can’t just take him away like this.”
Thumbs dig in the dimples of Jeongin’s back while another one looks for the small secondary scent gland on his wrist to slowly draw circles on it. Jeongin’s sweet scent erupts and fills the room too.
“Just did,” Hyunjin answers, tilting his head back, silently making room.
Seungmin groans but still scoots even closer right after and rubs his nose on Hyunjin. Jeongin joins him, melting his body on top of Hyunjin’s and aiming for the other side of his neck.
“I’m biting,” he warns him. He wants to leave just one mark to see it blossoming in the morning. Payback.
Hyunjin shivers lightly, one of his hands leaving Jeongin’s back to push him even more against his skin, the other going somewhere else, probably on Seungmin.
Jeongin sinks his teeth in his flesh but not enough to poke. He feels the small bundle of Hyunjin’s gland in between his teeth and toys with it for a second, making Hyunjin let out a whiny choked up noise, his hand digging in Jeongin’s hair and his body arching a little even though the weight on him.
“Fuck, what the f— “
Jeongin had no idea glands could be so easy to grab in between your teeth if you unhinged your jaw a little. He releases it only to relax his mouth after the strain and kisses it instead before sucking. ‘Just one mark’, he lies to himself, his mouth soon wandering to another spot and then another.
Seungmin’s no less, the sound of sloppy kissing echoing in the background as Hyunjin starts blabbering nonsense - strings of swearings and sleepy praises.
“Mh, I hate you,” Seungmin mumbles against Hyunjin’s skin. “He picked me before.”
“You weren’t being thankful enough,” Hyunjin fights back, hums and sighs escaping him in between words. It’s impossible for Jeongin not to notice the way he is growing harder underneath him, the feeling overwhelming and biting him right where it shouldn’t.
“You didn’t even give me time.”
The noise that comes out of Hyunjin makes Jeongin raise his head up, watching in the dimmed room Seungmin’s teeth bite into Hyunjin’s skin as if to scold him.
“You hog everything,” he reprimands him. “The laundry machine, the shower stall.” He raises higher, leaving a little bite at every element of his list. “You got the biggest room, the best shelf in the fridge.” He reaches his jawline, switching to just using his lips, not daring to touch Hyunjin’s face with his fangs. “Half of our bookshelves, Innie.”
Hyunjin turns to look at him at Jeongin’s name. “I don’t hog.”
Seungmin leans even closer, his nose brushing against Hyunjin’s, his lips just a breath away. Jeongin finds himself holding his own in his lungs, feelings swirling in his chest.
“You do.”
Hyunjin’s answer to Seungmin standing his ground until the end, is to shut him up with a kiss. A clash of lips that seem to still fight, just differently.
Jeongin doesn’t realize the breath he takes in until Hyunjin parts from Seungmin and Seungmin props a hand on the mattress to follow Hyunjin for another kiss and he exhales, heavy, his lungs full with want.
It’s visceral, strong, tugging at his insides and clawing at him with its sharp nails.
Both of them part and glance at Jeongin, still on top of Hyunjin, looking at the sight in front of him like one would look at a treat they want to devour. Because he does.
Seungmin is the first to move, probably still in conflict with Hyunjin, his hand grabbing the front of Jeongin’s shirt and dragging him closer. “C’me over here.”
Jeongin doesn’t let him repeat it twice, sliding off Hyunjin who lets out a noise of complaint quietly and does his best to still keep some kind of contact as Jeongin puts space between them again, his leg pushing between Seungmin’s own, his face inching closer.
“He does hog,” he whispers, waiting for Seungmin to move first because he is trying to contain himself. His sentence means only one thing: ‘I’m good, kiss me better, give me a reward.’
And Seungmin does. He pushes his lips on Jeongin’s own, soft, hot, tasting of thick rich honey, petunias and a little hint of minty toothpaste. He feels amazing, his lips parting slightly, his hand leaving his shirt to find place on Jeongin’s hip and pulling him closer flushed against him.
“Ah, wait.” Hyunjin lets out a hurried noise by their side, feeling Jeongin’s back not pressed anymore on his front.
But Seungmin has priorities and Jeongin is growing weak and overwhelmed, hard on rubbing against Seungmin’s hip, his thigh pushing where he is also growing hard, tongues finally touching. It feels heavenly.
“Okay, okay , I do hog,” Hyunjin crumbles easily, the room suddenly smelling like flowers and pathetically needy.
Jeongin parts from Seungmin and climbs fully on his lap so he can look at Hyunjin without craning his neck. Also to sit down on Seungmin’s erection but that’s totally secondary. Yeah.
“Ah—”
Seungmin gets ignored in favor of looking at Hyunjin. Jeongin hooks two fingers on the choker at the base of his neck and tugs - Hyunjin moves immediately, scrambling to sit up and leaning in as if his life depended on this kiss. Maybe it does, Jeongin kind of feels the same.
“Don’t be greedy.”
Hyunjin scoffs right on Jeongin’s lips. “Give me time to learn and adapt.”
As expected, Hyunjin is possessive. He kisses as if he wants to put a mark also on Jeongin’s lips and steal Seungmin’s taste off his tongue at the same time. Jeongin has to find balance to not melt on him and he finds it in the nape of his neck, fingers tangling in the long ends of Hyunjin’s hair.
Hyunjin moans at the pull and claims more, sucking on Jeongin’s tongue, hot and wet, and then, pokes.
One of his fangs pierces Jeongin by mistake, blood joining the mix of scents on their lips.
“Does it hurt?” Hyunjin parts, worried, eyebrows furrowed and his hand lingering close to Jeongin’s lips. “I’m sorry, I didn’t notice that—“
Jeongin gets rattled a little as Seungmin sits up the best he can and gently cups Jeongin’s cheek to make him look at him again. “It’s okay,” Jeongin sighs, blood filling his mouth a little. He swallows it, the pungent taste of iron covering the more welcomed ones on the back of his throat.
A kiss gets pressed on his cheek, Hyunjin whispering an apology on his skin and trying to exude a calming scent that however reeks of worry in its undertones. Seungmin, instead, aims for his lips, uncaring of the blood, and presses a peck on them, his lips curving a bit in a smirk. He doesn’t seem worried at all and Jeongin might suspect why.
“Why are you slicking all over my lap?”
Snitch.
Hyunjin, still lingering on his skin, tilts his lips up too. “You are?” The interest is thick in his voice. “Need help with that?”
‘Yes, yes, yes.’
“No,” Jeongin pushes him away just to tease him, just to hear Hyunjin whine and drip his flowery scent all over the room.
“You’re such a terrible liar,” Seungmin pokes at him immediately, culminating his teasing with another peck.
“Ahh,” Hyunjin grows closer again. “So now you lie?”
Jeongin can’t hold back the laugh bubbling inside of him, he chuckles and stops pushing against Hyunjin’s chest to instead bring him closer again. “And you bite.”
“I‘ve said I’m sorry.”
“He has,” Seungmin agrees, showing solidarity only when it comes to ganging up against one of them.
Jeongin huffs, rolls his eyes and then pulls Hyunjin into another kiss. “Help me?” He sighs, pretending to be annoyed.
He’s so losing his mind, offering himself to the wolves like this, and it feels perfect.
Hands grabbing, lips kissing, Jeongin feels overwhelmed and pleased, melting, the line between who belongs to who blurring when he feels fingers traveling down to the waist of his pajama shorts and can’t even tell who it is. They sneak past his underwear and aim exactly where Jeongin is wet and needy.
When he feels cold rings against his skin, that’s his calling to know that it is Hyunjin, combined with the way his lips tilt in a smile as Jeongin gasps, one finger passing past his rim easily up to a knuckle.
“Ah, the— you’re so good,” Seungmin sighs, his arms wrapped around Jeongin’s middle, still sitting up and hips bucking against Jeongin over and over. His lips are busy mouthing over the marks left earlier, only irritating them further. “Taking it well? Can you take me too?”
One of his hands trails down and bumps into Hyunjin’s to prod a fingertip right where Hyunjin is already stretching him.
“You’re hogging again.”
“You’re being annoying again.”
“Guys.”
Jeongin’s cry gets their attention.
”I’m sorry,” Hyunjin kisses him to apologize. “But how am I hogging? Look at that.”
When Jeongin glances down, Seungmin is looking up at him with pretend doe eyes, a glint of mischief in them. His arms are still keeping him caged and flushed to himself, his dick hard under the fabric of his pajamas and pressed right against Jeongin’s own. He feigns innocence but his fingertip taps on Jeongin’s rim twice, making him take in a shaky breath, the slick producing a little splashing sound.
“You’re impossible,” Jeongin reprimands them both, his hands running through Seungmin’s hair to push them off his forehead and then stopping at the back of his head.
Seungmin’s eyebrows raise a little, his lips twisting in mischief too. “It’s our charming point,” he says, his finger breaching inside Jeongin, slowly along with his words. “Feels good?”
The question is just to bother him as they all know, because Jeongin’s grip on his hair falters and his lips part in a moan.
"It does, fuck."
“I give up,” Hyunjin says in delight. “We have a more important matter to take care of.”
It ripples a laugh out of Jeongin, choked by another moan that gets pushed by Hyunjin dragging his finger out and then back inside along with Seungmin’s. They’re both so annoying and yet Jeongin has never wanted anyone so bad. No alpha in his life is comparable to what Hyunjin and Seungmin can give him, not even a knot can compare to the goosebumps on his skin, to the pressure of their hands and lips on him, to the scent of baked goods, honey, coffee and flowers sweetening and filling the room and his lungs.
He is putty in their hands to reshape, to change drastically for the rest of his life to a point of no return. Because Jeongin has never felt so wanted and taken care of before, and it’s coming from the least expected people ever, worshipping his body like faithful believers that have finally gotten blessed with a sacred gift.
He’s dripping almost as copiously as when he’s on his heat, high pitched moans dying inside Seungmin’s throat as he leans down to kiss him, vibrating against his chest and lips and tongue.
They make a messy work in fingering him but Jeongin can’t complain, not when he has so many hands and so much dedication on himself. He cries throughout the process of it, inpatient, needy. And Seungmin coos at him just like Hyunjin, who hums and whispers praises in his hair. Everything feels wet, squelches of slick getting pushed out and then fucked back in by fingers that seem to be on competition, as if they could determine a winner. The only thing Jeongin is sure of, is that he is losing.
In between a shared kiss and another, Hyunjin’s legs straddle the little space that’s left of Seungmin’s right thigh, his other hand sneaking between the two to add friction between them while his lips, when not busy forcing Seungmin to crane his neck to kiss him, keep mouthing and nibbling at Jeongin’s shoulder.
It’s frenetic, uncoordinated, perfect.
Jeongin cums along with Seungmin with a cry, his head lolling back to bump against Hyunjin that is biting on his shoulder to muffle a moan as he also cums right on the spot, pajama shirt saving them from another unfortunate bloody incident.
Jeongin searches for his chin and lifts his face up, Hyunjin’s lips immediately reaching for him. He parts his lips easily, licks into his mouth and exhales a little whine.
“Me too, me… ” Seungmin’s chest is heaving as he’s looking them up and Hyunjin climbs off of him to kneel back on the bed and leave a peck on his lips. Jeongin has no idea how he can manage to move when his own thighs are burning and feeling like jelly.
“Need help?” He seems to realize, looking at Jeongin.
All he needs is a cloudy hum and he’s getting Jeongin off Seungmin’s lap too and laying down with half of him now melting on top of himself. Seungmin lays down right next to them, his arm wrapping around Jeongin, his head trying to sneak close to peek at him under the bangs that have fallen over his eyes.
“Are you okay?”
Jeongin genuinely chuckles. “Yeah,” he exhales. Hyunjin’s hand is running through his hair, Seungmin’s own is feeling up his spine. “More than okay. You?”
“I need a shower.”
Hyunjin’s leg moves Jeongin’s own to kick Seungmin’s ankle.
“What? I have slick all over myself, I was just saying the trut— Stop!” He bursts into a laugh, his leg trying to reach for Hyunjin to kick him too.
Jeongin tries his best to pull himself up with a sigh and leans over Hyunjin’s sweaty body to reach for the light on the nightstand. It blinds them all for a second when it gets turned on, annoyed disturbed groans echoing in the room, but after a little of blinking Jeongin turns to look at Seungmin and sees it.
His lap is all wet and his leg is glistening too, but the cherry on top is the wet puddle where he was sitting earlier.
“You’re allowed to be annoying,” Jeongin concedes to him.
Now that they’re not in the dark and bothered anymore, he feels a bit timid in leaning closer, but he pushes through all of his shyness and slight embarrassment and pecks Seungmin’s lips. “Let’s go shower.”
“Us?” Seungmin mumbles in surprise, still trapped in the sweet kiss that tells very little about mutual attraction and more about growing affection.
Jeongin knows, because his heart is soaring in his chest even more than when he was reaching his high.
“So Hyunjin can explain to us what all those products are for.”
“Nice hair, soft skin, looking beautiful,” Hyunjin lists, his arms wrapping around Jeongin, his front flushed against his back. “Seungminnie might need them a little.”
He deserves the smack that hits him lightly on the arm.
“What?” He sighs, his lips caressing Jeongin’s over abused scent gland. “He bites back easily, it’s fun.”
“Ah, is that so?”
In an unexpected swirl, Jeongin and Hyunjin get both pushed flat on the mattress, Seungmin climbing over both of their laps to cage them down. It was just pure luck finding them both with their guard down, as Seungmin is severally weaker than them.
Jeongin has to twist his head to the side to see how Seungmin is punishing Hyunjin with two fingers pushing past his lips and feeling how deep they can reach. It’s sick and twisted how much it arouses him, but also how Hyunjin twitches in interest underneath him.
“Shower.”
“Mh?” Hyunjin tries his best to eye him but in their position it’s just absurd and impossible to do.
“Shower, now.” Jeongin squirms between them and out of Seungmin’s attack. “I have work tomorrow and so do you.”
Seungmin looks at him and then down at Hyunjin and sighs, retracting his fingers and starting to get up. “Alright, I’ll get my revenge tomorrow.”
At seeing them go, Hyunjin scrambles out of bed too, beelining past Seungmin to hug Jeongin from the back on their way to the bathroom.
His lips inch dangerously to Jeongin’s blushing ear. “You got hard too?”
Jeongin tries to elbow him on the side.
🥞
For the nth time Jeongin has to remember to not touch his neck while at work. He looks at the makeup under his nails after scratching himself and grabs a napkin to clean it off.
One thing was to show up at Jisung and Felix’s place with marks all over his neck, another is doing that at work.
Thankfully Hyunjin knows a whole lot about color theory and loved brushing shades of makeup all over Jeongin’s neck in the morning for the past days while occasionally pecking his lips, the taste of the morning latte Seungmin makes for him before leaving for uni blessing each kiss.
Jeongin blushes a little at the memory and has to shake the feeling out of his head, opening a new work file to focus on something else.
He likes getting along, it’s refreshing, new.
They’re all trying their best: Hyunjin has bought a little shelf for the shower and uses the new laundry machine when no one is at home, Seungmin doesn’t nag, or at least levels his tone when doing so, and Jeongin does his best to not give him any reason to nag. He’s becoming a pro at not leaving his stuff around, in kissing Seungmin once arriving back home, in running his hands through Hyunjin’s hair before sleeping and making him melt and… his mind is derailing again. Where was he?
Yes. Order.
He is working on it, doing his best.
Work has been going better too, his scent severally calmer than before and not making his coworkers want to keep their distance - baked pastries filled with honey and bouquets of freshly picked flowers. He’s still working on getting along with Changbin but he knows deep down that he’s not that bad, they’ve just started on the wrong foot, Jeongin smelling like burnt toast and on edge because he wasn’t sleeping enough, then on edge again because of all the issues around the apartment.
“Coffee?”
Speaking of the devil.
Changbin is trying too, it’s obvious. Maybe spring comes with change.
Jeongin saves the file of his research and closes all the tabs on his computer. “Absolutely.”
In the past two weeks they’ve started to even chit chat, the presence of Chan in the break room or in the canteen at lunch helping the first couple of times.
“So, how is it going?” Changbin asks, picking two mugs while Jeongin reaches on the higher shelf to get the coffee capsules for the machine.
“I’m almost done,” he answers. “I think I’ll clock out after this one.”
There's no need to say anything but there’s a knowing look on Changbin’s eyes that he might know why Jeongin is so desperate to go back home for once.
For the past months, Jeongin had tried multiple times to find excuses to leave the office as late as possible. And how the tables have turned, because this evening Jeongin is dreading this overtime work.
He goes through the rest of it diligently but also as quickly as he can, ignoring against his will, and for the sake of finishing, all the texts on his phone or popping up on the right side of his screen. Only once he’s outside of his office he starts checking the notifications, and even though he would like to rush to the ones that he’s more excited to click on, he reads them in order, just to be fair.
Hanji!!!:
lameeeeee
come play with us more often
we miss you!!!
you might like them now and be corny with them but i hate your roommates even more than you used to!!! >:(
Lee Minho apt 143:
How’s the new laundry machine?
The electrician is available for another quick check on the weekend, let me know if any of you are at the apartment
I could come too if you’re all busy
Hyunjinnie 💗:
got a huge art commission!!! :)
texted seungminnie and he sent me a thumbs up he’s so mean i’ll bite him later
hope work is going good, i did your laundry too so you can go straight to bed
after eating of course
Seungminnie 💗:
Hyun got an important art commission
Are you free tomorrow afternoon or are you doing overtime again?
I want to clear a space in the living room so he doesn’t have to rent an art studio
Also I’m going to kick your boss who the hell makes a pie charter do overtime?
It’s sick
Jeongin stops by a building, leaning against the wall to type some answers so he won’t risk hitting a pole or trip or anything else his clumsy feet would do while his mind is distracted and his heart is singing in his chest.
To Hanji!!!:
you’re so dramatic
i’ll literally come over on the weekend!!!
you should be happy i get daily kisses now :P
To Lee Minho apt 143:
it works pretty well, thank you
i should be at home on saturday morning and all sunday
To Hyunjinnie 💗:
that’s great!!! <3
seungminnie probably wants to be bitten
actually i'm sure of it
thank you for the laundry :) i’m on my way back
have you already eaten?
To Seungminnie 💗:
i’m not doing overtime tomorrow
i’ll be home at six pm as usual
what about the spot close to the window?
we can move the sofa a bit and clear the library shelves
and the coffee table for him to use
also
a thumbs up?????
i hope you don’t get bitten at all!!!
shame on you
Biting does not occur, in fact it’s even worse. Jeongin could feel the sweetness coming from inside the apartment sneaking from under the door, not a good sign. Or maybe too good.
He toes off his shoes casually at the entrance, pretending that he does not care at all about the two men on his sofa, Hyunjin pinning Seungmin down and giggling while the other groans and complains. Seungmin is a good liar compared to Jeongin, the only thing betraying him is the saccharine scent of honey dripping off his every pore.
They don’t stop even as they hear Jeongin stepping closer to the sofa, but wait for him to crouch down to turn both of their heads to the side. Hyunjin smiles at him, sweet and pretty, Seungmin sighs, lips pouty in annoyance.
“We can stop counting good da… AH! ” He yelps as Hyunjin dives in his neck, nibbling at the skin there.
“You’re giving him exactly what he wants,” Jeongin tells Hyunjin, avoiding Seungmin’s dramatic complaint. He fixes the glasses on his nose with two fingers, pushing them up, and then leans to kiss a whine off his lips. “The electrician is coming over on the weekend,” he updates them both. “I’m mostly free so I can take care of it.”
A little smack of lips pops in the room along with Seungmin’s puzzled “Mostly?”
Hyunjin tilts his head to look at Jeongin from his comfortable spot over Seungmin. He doesn’t speak but he’s also waiting for an answer.
“Jisung and Felix wanted to—”
“Let us meet them.”
“Huh?” Jeongin gets caught off guard.
“Yeah,” Seungmin agrees with Hyunjin’s request. “It would be nice to know your friends, see if they’re as annoying as yo— Hwang Hyunjin.”
Hyunjin raises up a little to blink at him. He doesn’t even bother to remove the hand that has sneaked between them to pinch Seungmin’s right nipple over his clothes to reprimand him. “Ah, don’t call me that.”
“It’s your name.”
“I’m only Hyunjin for you.” He leans in, leaves a peck on Seungmin’s lips as if to assolve him and gives all his attention back to Jeongin. “I want to meet them. Friendly way, I will behave.”
Seungmin scoffs mockingly at the sentence and Jeongin this time sees clearly the way Hyunjin’s fingers twist over Seungmin’s cotton shirt making him groan.
“The means you will go through just to get manhandled and fondled.”
“Kiss my ass.” Seungmin bares his fangs as a play, his snarl quickly changing into a laugh when Hyunjin’s eyes widen a little.
Jeongin sighs, sitting on the ground to witness the little game happening in front of him more comfortably. According to what he has learned these past weeks, it’s going to take Hyunjin and Seungmin a couple of other exchanges to stop.
They’re cute, in the way they pretend to get on each other’s nerves just to end up cuddling into each other’s embrace at night, sometimes Jeongin squished in between, other times just flushed against one or the other’s back.
“I would gladly do so and you know it.” Hyunjin tilts his head a little, fun dancing all over his expression. “Ask again, but nicely.”
Seungmin arches into him. “You know I don’t ask.”
“Brat.”
“Says you.”
“You both are,” Jeongin points out.
He gets ignored, or at least he thinks so as Hyunjin doesn’t mind him a single glance and instead leans in to brush the slightly round tip of his nose on Seungmin’s sharper one. “Have you heard him?” He whispers. “Our cute pliant baby.”
“Hey!”
Jeongin is pliant. He likes to be in their arms, to be touched and kissed and to take in every brush on his skin. Still, he lets out a noise of complaint.
“Thank God we have him,” Seungmin teases. His hand reaches to the side and hooks in the fold of Jeongin’s jacket. “Right?”
We. Our. Home.
They’re words that have been repeated frequently around their place lately and they feel right every time. Jeongin doesn’t go back to his apartment, he goes back home. Seungmin doesn’t plan just for himself, he asks ‘What are we doing tonight?’ And Hyunjin doesn’t just call them only by their names, the adjective ‘our’ slipping from his lips more often than not when talking about one of them.
“A blessing in disguise,” Hyunjin mumbles on Seungmin’s lips. “I’m so sad I was so blind.”
Jeongin shivers on the spot as Seungmin’s fingers flinch on the fabric of his jacket, the kiss making him sigh a quiet moan and a little sound of agreement. It’s a simple push of lips but Jeongin’s heart starts pounding in his chest, his breath hitching in his throat.
With a quick gesture, Hyunjin grabs Seungmin’s cheeks with one hand, forcing him to look at Jeongin again. Puppy brown eyes and crooked glasses. “Apologize.”
Jeongin has lost count of the amount of times they have whispered apologies to each other: in between kisses, while shampooing each others’ hair in their cramped shower with the scent of Hyunjin’s hair products mixing with the sweetness of their own, while tangled in each other in Jeongin’s bed late at night - it’s the smallest one but Jeongin has a projector that Seungmin finds fascinating and loves watching baseball matches with. They do it while making each other’s coffee, lunch, breakfast, dinner and midnight snacks.
Yet Seungmin does not apologize this time, because it’s a good chance to tease, and instead tries to bite Hyunjin’s hand.
“Ya!”
“Don’t nettle the dog,” Jeongin reminds him, his tension dissipating in a small chuckle as he raises up only to grab Hyunjin’s shirt before he can pound on Seungmin.
The man yelps as he gets thrown around, falling on his ass in the small spot between Seungmin’s legs and the back cushion of the sofa, all wide eyes and cutely ‘o’ shaped lips. Seungmin retracts his legs as soon as Hyunjin’s own fall on his, opening up an opportunity for Jeongin to take a place on Hyunjin’s lap.
“How does it feel?” He pinches at his suit trousers that are suffocating his thighs and fixes his clothes. “Being the one thrown around for once?”
Hyunjin tilts his chin up, recovering from the surprise quickly as soon as Jeongin settles on top of him. His hands drag up Jeongin’s thighs and grab his hips under his jacket.
“Somehow you’re always the one on our laps. Curious, isn’t it?”
The smirk on his lips and the little spike in his scent speak clear for him. Gotcha.
“Promise you’ll be nice,” Jeongin says, ignoring his teasing. “No new marks, no aggressive scenting.”
He cares so much about this going well, he wants Jisung and Felix to like them just as much as he wants the feeling to be reciprocated by his mat— roommates.
“This whole place stinks of claiming all over anyway,” Seungmin comments, now sitting up with a knee drawn up. He rests his cheek on it, hugging the leg to his chest, pretty brown eyes looking at them in a way that before would’ve never happened.
He looks a bit dazed by the sight in front of himself. Fond. Enamoured.
Hyunjin sighs and it takes a couple of seconds for Jeongin to realize that he himself is exuding a sweet scent, strong and preponderant. It’s powdered sugar, a burning hot waffle just taken off the grid, honey poured all over it.
”I’ll be good,” Hyunjin breathes out. “I’ll be… Fuck.”
Jeongin doesn’t even know how to control himself, his chest heaving slightly in a deep breath, his mind getting clouded, and it’s again too early for a heat, he can’t have one just a couple of weeks after the other. No, it’s something bigger, something even more upsetting than having his heat two months in a row.
His feelings are growing, peaking out of the little space Jeongin had pushed them in.
Seungmin is no different, his sweetness glueing to Jeongin’s own, sticky honey, freshly brewed coffee lingering in the air. And Hyunjin inhales deeply again in a short pleased whine.
Hands travel up Jeongin’s sides, his ribs, dance on his chest and reach his neck. Soon they find a way to drag him closer and Jeongin lets himself be dragged down in the kiss that gets put on his lips with a press that tastes of surprise, confusion and feelings.
It makes his wolf cry to belong, it makes his heart swell, his lungs enlarge. How odd and new.
“How should I introduce you?” Jeongin asks, a whisper on the lips lingering close to his.
Hyunjin’s gaze flutters up. “Boyfriends?” He proposes, a bit of insecurity on his lips but not out of not being sure, but fearful that they might disagree.
On their side Seungmin answers clearly, with confidence.
“I like that.”