Chapter Text
“Skipping class.” He took an elongated drag of his cigarette. “Bold fucking move, the week before quiz week.”
Jihoon considered making an obnoxious wave of his hand at the smoke, and then re-considered. “Sorry. Didn’t realize anybody was here.” He turned on his heel.
“You’re the stag, right?”
He froze and turned back immediately. “What?”
The man put up both of his hands. “Jeez, sensitive much?”
“You don’t get to call me a slur and then complain I’m too sensitive.”
“Shit, so I called you a stag. It’s not really a slur. You are though, aren’t you? The stag.”
Jihoon looked around for a moment; behind the cafeteria back doors there was just the street and the slightly stinky bins, not another human in sight. He gave the man a somewhat sneering look. “You don’t have to say it like that.”
“Like what?”
“Like you’re being a magnanimous deity in your condescension to talk to me. Like my solitude makes me dirty and beneath you.” He paused. “Or like I’m the only one on Earth. Just because I’m uncovenanted doesn’t mean anything. Lots of people are uncovenanted.”
“Sheesh. An uncovenanted omega. At your age.”
His jaw set angrily, and his arms automatically folded. “I don’t see you giving shit to other alphas about being uncovenanted.”
“That’s alphas. We can afford to be picky. How old are you?”
“That’s none of your business.” He looked around again. “Mind you – real nice to give me crap for skipping class when, forgive me if I’m wrong, but you’re not exactly in the benches right now either. You’re sitting on top of a dumpster. King of the trash.”
The man’s lips curled around his cigarette before he pulled it out. “I don’t need to be in the benches.”
He rolled his eyes. It was such typical alpha behavior, this kind of nonsense. It didn’t help that he really did have that typical alpha look, with the black leather coat and the eyebrow piercing. He had the alpha eyes, the ones that kind of bored right through his flesh, dark and unwavering in their intensity.
Fucking alpha.
It wasn’t that Jihoon generally had a problem with alphas. He’d known a few good eggs in his time. It was that the alphas that typically bullied him just seemed to be the very worst kinds.
“What class are you skipping?”
“What’s it to you?”
“Sheesh, feisty. It was just a question. I’ll cover for you if anybody asks.”
Well, now, that was a tempting offer. Jihoon dug his hands deep into his pockets. “Sun Hyekim’s python 104 class.”
The man groaned, making a face. “Sun Hyekim could turn sneeze into a five-hour lecture. I retract all my previous judgement. You’re free to hang out as long as you like.”
“Thank you.” Not that he needed some random alpha’s permission.
The alpha put out the butt of his cigarette and then pulled a new one from his breast pocket. “Want a smoke?”
“No thanks.” Jihoon perched himself on the pile of bricks by the wall. The bricks had been there since the end of last semester – there had been roadworks near-by, but the roadworks were all done now, and nobody had ever returned to reclaim their bricks.
He grinned broadly. “What a good omega, keeping your lungs clean.”
Jihoon automatically grimaced, but was careful to keep it in place so it wouldn’t show what that kind of language did to him. “Well, you’re a fucking weirdo.”
“So. Why are you uncovenanted?” He lit the new cigarette with a casual shrug. “What? I can’t be curious?”
“Are you allergic to silence?”
The alpha just smirked.
Jihoon sighed, staring out in front of him at nothing. “It just hasn’t come up yet.”
“Are you going to be uncovenanted for the rest of forever? You should join a pack.”
“Even if I joined a pack, it doesn’t mean I’d be covenanted – and even if I was covenanted, it doesn’t automatically mean I have to join a pack.” He crossed his legs for a moment. “It’s not something you should do just so that annoying alphas who sit on dumpsters don’t bully you. I’ll take a covenant when I’m good and ready.”
The alpha chuckled to himself, licking his lips, flicking the cigarette for a moment. “You’re one of the cute ones. How come I haven’t seen you on campus before? Even if you’re a freshman, I should have seen you over the last year.”
“I’m a junior.” When the alpha motions at him, he shrugs. “I don’t spend a lot of time on campus.”
“Why not?”
“Have you considered that maybe this kind of conversation is the reason why not?”
The alpha couldn’t help the smile, staring at him, cigarette in hand but almost entirely forgotten. “You’re fun to talk to. Maybe you should consider that I’m not bullying you.”
“Isn’t that for me to decide?”
He looked away, still smiling, then back at Jihoon, utterly amused and enraptured. “Maybe I’m sniffing you out.”
“You’re not,” he deadpanned.
“How would you know? You’ve never been sniffed out before.”
“How would you know if I’ve been sniffed out before?”
“If you’re a junior in university you’ve gotta be, what, twenty? Twenty-one? A twenty-one year old uncovenanted omega hasn’t been sniffed out. If you had, you’d be covenanted by now.”
This was becoming infuriating. “Has it ever occurred to you that it’s entirely possible alphas have shown interest in me and I simply haven’t reciprocated?”
“No.”
He rolled his eyes again. “Lack of imagination.”
The alpha watched him for a moment, sitting in stubborn silence on his pile of bricks, fingers hidden deep inside sleeve paws. He was impossibly handsome, really, with ultra-smooth skin and very, very pink lips. He could imagine those lips doing all kinds of things. He could imagine watching those lips doing all kinds of things. He could practically feel the planes of this omega’s skin under his hands.
He wasn’t used to delayed gratification, but he did recognize this wasn’t going to be the easiest conquest.
“What if I am sniffing you out?”
“Then you’re doing a truly horrendous job.”
He came down from the dumpster with a single jump. “Isn’t it hard? Being a junior and uncovenanted?”
“What’s it to you?”
He sat next to him on the bricks, making sure to take his place just a little lower than the omega in an attempt not to drive him off. “Maybe you should try a mask for… a little… while…”
The omega looked at him. “Mask? Like… get a fuckbuddy and pretend to be covenanted?”
“What is that… is that… you?”
“You’re the one that came and sat next to me.” The omega shrugged further into his jacket for a moment as if to cover his skin.
“You smell fucking fantastic.” He leaned in, purely on instinct, to the scent. “Like a whole buffet. Hey! Where are you going?!”
“Away from weird alphas.”
“No, wait!” He scrambled off the bricks to follow him into the building again. “Seriously, sorry I just – I’m not used to omegas who don’t suppress. You could have warned me.”
Jihoon stopped in the middle of an abandoned back hallway again, arms folded. “I am suppressed, but if it’s too much for you, best we split, huh? See ya.”
“No.” It took him a moment, breathing hard despite himself. “Just – just. Come with me.” Before he even knew what he was doing, he’d grabbed the omega’s sleeve and was pulling him along through the halls.
“Dude, let go.”
He was acting mostly on instinct – a little intent, sure, but there was something stronger than just personality driving him, eyes flicking from side to side, trying to locate the closest bathroom. When he got there, he simply slammed the door shut and shoved his entire face in the omega’s neck, breathing deep.
“What the fuck?”
“Oh, God.” He took another deep breath, gripping him by his jacket. “What the fuck do you mean you’re suppressed? Shit. Fuck.” Another deep breath. “You smell fucking phenomenal.”
“Get. Off. Me.”
He held his breath for a moment, letting the blood rush to his head for a moment before he could finally bare to stand straight again. The omega was glaring, with the fury of a thousand suns.
Okay. Maybe he crossed a boundary.
“Uhm. Sorry.” He quickly let his jacket go. “Shit, no, I’m sorry. I just, uh…”
“Yeah, yeah.” He flicked down his jacket and righted it. “Whatever, you freak.”
“Well that isn’t very nice.” Everything in him begged to take another whiff, but he withheld. “Look, just – what’s your name?”
“Are you kidding, right now?”
“Please.”
“…will you get out of the doorway and let me go?”
He just nodded, chest starting to ache.
“Lee Jihoon. Now.”
He couldn’t help it – the lack of oxygen was too great – he inhaled, and the light, lingering smell of Lee Jihoon was so overwhelming, he almost fell over, back to the door. “Shit. Fuck.”
Jihoon folded his arms with a deep sigh. “Look, I’m sorry for you, really, I’m on the highest dose of suppressant I can possibly be on. If it’s too much for you, I’ll stay out of your way.”
A hand dug through his hair. “Holy fucking shit. No, God, please don’t. I need to smell this forever.”
“Okay, no need to be dramatic. Get out of the way. Seriously, it’ll be better for both of us.” He was starting to get nervous, fingers rubbing against the hems of his jacket sleeves. “Let me leave.”
His eyes scrunched closed for a moment of total insanity. The instinct to pull him close was overwhelming, every cell in his body aching to get as much of this maddening scent as physically possible. “I can’t. Please. Please let me smell it. I promise I’ll – I won’t even touch you – I just. Please.”
Jihoon cringed.
“I’m not used to begging. I just want to smell it.”
“Okay, fine, if that’ll get you off my damned back.”
His fists were shaking as he forced himself to move very slowly, pinning both arms behind his back as he leaned in.
This was stupid. He was an alpha. And not any fucking alpha, he was a great alpha. He was in control of every situation. Some random omega skipping his classes shouldn’t have this effect on him. He leaned down, and took a deep breath.
He exhaled through his mouth, practically trembling. The smell was intoxicating, overwhelming – blueberries and sunshine and vetiver, emanating from this small omega’s skin, the glands in his neck, the spot at his jaw. It was like silver sunlight, overwhelming, almost burning in his nose and yet light and delicate and cool and warm and bright and dark all at the same time, a dazzling array of sensations.
“More,” he whispered. “I want to smell more.”
“Dude.”
“Use me as a mask.” He inhaled again, letting the shudders run down his back. “Use me as a mask, Lee Jihoon.”
“Are you well?” For a moment, the omega truly looked concerned. “Do I need to call an ambulance?”
His hands gripped the jacket again, holding him close. “Use me as your mask,” he half-demanded, getting as close to the skin as he could without touching it.
There was a long silence.
“Isn’t that usually uncomfortable for the alpha involved?”
“I don’t fucking care.” He ignored how his voice broke. “I’ll step aside for any alpha you want as long as I can have it until then. Don’t leave me here like this or I really will need an ambulance.”
There was something strong in his voice. “Your physical desires are not my responsibility. I don’t have to do anything just because you got a whiff of something you didn’t like.”
His entire face scrunched up. “No, it’s not, no, you don’t. I don’t – I’m pressuring you, aren’t I?”
“Kind of.”
It was hard to think through the haze of hormones and the overwhelming scent of this man in front of him. “I’m – I’m sorry. I don’t want to coerce you. I really, really don’t. I just – I’ve. Holy shit. Is this what it’s like? Fuck you omegas. Damn it.”
“You know.” His voice was alarmingly cool and collected. “Us omegas have to deal with alpha stench all day every day, and none of you even think of taking suppressants.”
His mind couldn’t quite work its way around that. “I – if you – I. No. Wait. I can talk. Hold on.”
The omega in front of him was as still as a statue.
He took a breath through his mouth, diluting the effect of the smell slightly. “At least give me your number so I can – so I can convince you later. If you leave me like this, it’s fine, just – just let me text you. Maybe you can use me as a mask some other time.” Even this wasn’t making sense to him – his head was swirling and twirling with desire.
When he finally looked up, the omega was looking at him like he was crazy. “Dude, I can’t leave you like this – you look like you’re dying. You’re sweating, for God’s sake.”
For a moment, he stood there, truly pathetic, sweating and panting hard.
“…I’d be a great mask,” he breathed hard. “I’ve got four betas and a gamma, I’m a senior, I’m loaded and from a good family. Nobody would question it. Nobody would suspect. You’d bag a covenant so easily. I’ll take you to all the parties, if you want me to introduce you to alphas I will. I’d be the best fucking mask.”
Jihoon stared at him for a few moments, uncomfortable. “This is… a lot. Just because I smell good?”
“Take – take a whiff of me, I know I smell good, I’ve been told so before.”
“I’m not going to start sniffing you out like a dog.”
He put a hand on his black t-shirt, stretching the neckline. “Go on. I dare you to smell it. If you smell this good to me, I’ve got to smell good to you.”
The reality was that Jihoon had smelled him the moment he’d stepped out the door to the dumpster earlier: one of the more intense alphas, utterly ignorant to his own stench, creamy and inviting.
It was tempting. This kind of intense desire had never really been thrown at him before, and clearly, this alpha was for real: he looked like he was going to go insane rapidly, backed up against the bathroom door, sweating through his clothes, which just made the smell stronger. The idea that he wanted Jihoon – Jihoon of all people – this badly, was something he hadn’t expected.
“I’d be so good to you,” he promised, voice barely above a whisper. “God, I’d make you feel so good. Come on. Smell me. Please. If I smell bad to you, I’ll drop it.”
Against his better judgement, Jihoon leaned in to the alpha’s neck and breathed in.
He was creamy – a dark kind of creamy, like coffee, and magnolia, and something sour. A heady mix on a bad day.
Hands were on his waist, pulling him in further until the alpha’s nose was in his neck again. “Holy fuck,” he whispered there against his skin. “Mm, you’re – ah, ah, ah.”
Something warm shifted inside Jihoon – the sounds were tinged with eroticism, and his voice was low and deep and raspy enough to combine with the smell to create the perfect storm.
Well. Shit.
Before he could even think about backing away again, there was a prod – lips on his jugular, little kisses, each with a strong sniff.
Well. Shit.
“Jihoon,” he whispered, lapping up the scent. “Jihoon, Jihoon, Jihoon.”
A tingle started in his neck and slid all the way down his arms and legs. A tingle that promised something better on the horizon.
“If you make me regret this, I’ll kill you,” he warned.
“Ah.” It was all the encouragement the alpha needed: his hands slid into Jihoon’s jacket, pushing it off his arms in one fell swoop and letting it drop to the tiles, his entire face pressing against his neck, tongue moving as if it could lick the smell off his skin. “God, fuck, I’ll be so good to you.”
Jihoon had heard of love-bombing. He didn’t think it was quite like this. This desperate. This needy. This overwhelming. He could feel the heat in his body responding, feel his heart racing in response, feel his throat going dry. There were chemicals at play here, and hormones, and things that were stopping him from thinking clearly.
The alpha locked the door at his back easily with one hand.
The sound was a little daunting.
“Come here.” His arms were greedy, almost frantic, in their desire to get the omega closer to him: he pulled him in, chest to chest, mouth freely kissing a circle right around his neck. “Oh, God, you smell so good. How do you like it?”
It took Jihoon a moment to respond. “W-what?”
“I’ll make you finish, so how do you like it most?” The mouth moved up to his jaw, licking him there. “Oh, God, tell me quickly. Hands? Mouth? Don’t tell me your ass is cleaned out? Is there a kink thing? Tell me, I’ll make it happen.” His nose pressed against Jihoon’s cheek. “I’ll make you reek.”
“Wh-what? Right now?”
There were a few more pants, and then the alpha pulled back, putting his skull to the door again. “Okay. Okay, I can wait. Just – text me later. Okay? I won’t force you. I won’t. I’ll wait for you.”
Whatever part of Jihoon’s brain that was still on made him shake his head. “Are you kidding? Look at you. I can’t leave you like this.” There was a moment of silence between them. “I just… wasn’t really expecting this today. I’m… surprised.”
The alpha put both hands over his face, mortified for a moment. “You just smell… so good.”
“At least have the decency to kiss me on the lips.”
The alpha’s fingers spread to look at him with one eye.
“What? If you want to fuck, don’t make it feel any cheaper than doing it in a public bathroom.”
His hands moved forward, gripping Jihoon’s jaw in both hands, pulling him in closer. “What if – what if you taste good, too? What if I can’t stop?”
“Then you’d better make good on your promise and let me finish.”
Their lips locked.
Lee Jihoon tasted way, way better than he smelled.
It was all he could do to stay standing as his mouth opened, allowing the desperate alpha entrance; tongue hot and slick and perfect, all the sensations starting to overwhelm him. It was easy to get carried away in the heat of the moment – in the perfect, sublime heat, in the clamor for his body this alpha seemed to desire like nothing else.
Then the alpha gripped his shoulders and flipped him before pulling him in close: one arm was a bar of steel across Jihoon’s chest, and the other moved to slide down his casual, ripped jeans, over the growth there that made his fingers tremble.
“Sh-shit.” Jihoon took a deep breath, trying not to get too caught up in the smell of the man behind him. He was almost being held off his feet, now with a hand over his junk, and he could feel a sizable erection at his back, not to mention the lips in his hairline.
“Jihoon, you smell so good,” a whisper told him. “You smell like – God, you smell so good. Tell me you want this as much as I do. Tell me it’s this bad for you.”
It was starting to get there.
Jihoon turned his head to look back, and the alpha simply captured his lips, kissing him thickly for a moment.
“If you’re asking if I want to finish, now that you’ve got me interested, the answer is yes.”
“Hand?”
“Fine.”
His hand made quick work of the jeans, letting them drop to the floor too – by now, there was more than enough material to work with, and the length was heavy in his hand, the weight enough to make his wrist twist a little with the first jerk.
“Ah.” Automatically, Jihoon’s head lolled back, perfectly settling on the alpha’s shoulder, who simply kissed his temple as he began to slowly move his fist up and down, watching the body in front of him twinge and twist.
The smell was just getting worse and worse – like every pore in the omega’s body was open for business, simply pouring it out like his own, personal hell and heaven, the kind of scent that was going to send him into overdrive. He lapped it up, breathing harder and harder just to smell it more as his hand moved faster and faster, as if he couldn’t make him cum fast enough, as if it was a lifeline.
“Jihoon,” he whispered, denying himself the pleasure of sticking the now-slick hand in his own mouth to taste it. “Jihoon, you’re delicious.”
“G-God, fuck, I – ah!”
“Sinful,” the next whisper came. “Cum right here in my hand, I want to feel your orgasm-”
Before he could get any further, Jihoon let out the lowest whimper as his whole body jerked and he came, spurting white across the room, the smell infinitely intense for a few moments before it began to peter out again as Jihoon’s legs shook slightly.
Something about seeing it soothed him, it relaxed the intensity of his desire, and he slowly stopped rubbing so hard, stopped his wrist from twisting, until he finally let go entirely, his other arm slowly releasing the omega on his chest.
“Ah. Shit. Sorry.” Jihoon stood on shaky legs for a moment, blushing darkly. Then he turned. “Do you-”
Without another thought, he had himself in hand – and came immediately, finishing across his own black t-shirt, eyes rolling into the back of his head for a moment.
Jihoon looked away, awkward and embarrassed for a moment.
“Ah, shit.” He panted for a moment before shrugging off the door quickly to grab a roll of paper and gently clean Jihoon for a moment. “Shit. Sorry. I got carried away. Are you okay?”
Jihoon took the paper from him swiftly, already hiking his jeans back up. “Yeah.”
The blood was starting to cool, his senses were returning, and with the smell mellowed out, he was starting to think again. “I’m so sorry. This doesn’t usually happen to me.” He grabbed a bit of paper and began to try and clean off his own shirt. “I didn’t hurt you, did I?”
“No.”
“I – did I – I mean, I – it was – I was just – It’s.” He stood there for a moment, lost for words. A sourness began to seep into his mouth. “Did I… force you?”
“Believe me when I say, even as an omega, I would have fought you off before letting you do that against my will.”
Relief flooded him. “Thank God.”
Jihoon barely watched from the corner of his eye as he righted himself, gripping his jacket off the floor. “…were you serious? About being my mask?”
“Absolutely.”
“…a fuckbuddy pretending to be covenanted?”
“All the benefits, none of the long-term-commitment promises.” He cleaned his shirt as best he could, then buttoned his coat over it so the stain couldn’t be seen. “Scout’s honor.”
“Alright. It’s a deal.” Jihoon picked at his now sweat-stained shirt awkwardly. “I should go home and change before the next class.”
The alpha nodded quickly. He’d have nodded along to anything this man wanted. “Sure. Can – can you come over to my place tonight? At least let me buy you dinner for this.”
“I have classes running late.”
“So skip them.” He saw the look on Jihoon’s face and relented. “Okay, come over after. When is your last class?”
“I get out at… seven…” His eyes widened. “Shit, if I go – okay, if I go now I’ll be back in time for the guest lecture – gotta go!”
Before either of them could say another word, Jihoon burst out of the bathroom in a frantic hurry, absolutely sprinting through the halls.
He was home, under the shower head before he realized he had no idea who his brand new mask was. Or where he lived.
Oh well.