Chapter Text
Jeon Wonwoo and Kim Mingyu have always been a unit.
Not in a way that ever exceeded a friendship, but everyone who laid eyes on the duo once always came to the same conclusion that they are not to be separated. From the lanky teenagers in their early pre-debut days, to the fine young men they now are, debuting in the same group together and conquering the world together, Wonwoo and Mingyu have always been each others' safe place. Even their company understood this simple fact, which is why the two have always been each other's designated roommate since the beginning, which then evolved into them sharing their own apartment after the members moved into separate dorms. They called it their 'home' and decorated it like one. They kept tabs on each other throughout the day. They went on platonic dates together. You could never spot one without the other. Everyone thought that they would remain that way for many years to come.
Until one fateful day when Kim Mingyu presented as an alpha.
He was approaching twenty one, which was considered late for a presentation. Most early bloomers present at age sixteen, with eighteen being the average age of presentation and twenty being considered the highest. The managers were making note of this change, or lack thereof, but weren't too concerned about it considering Mingyu was fairly healthy and one of the other two 97 liners hadn't presented yet either. There was always the chance that he was a beta whose scent glands were a little behind in development. Wonwoo himself went through his own presentation as a beta right after debut at nineteen years old, identifiable from his scent which evolved one day into a mild aldehydic yet distinctively beta scent, without the event of a heat or a rut. Wonwoo wasn't particularly happy or sad
about it. Even though betas, especially male betas were considered to be not as desirable due to their usual subdued nature, inability of reproduction and not being able to participate in the biological sexual cycles of Alphas and Omegas. Betas were neither equipped to take an alpha in rut, nor could they properly satisfy an omega in heat.
Wonwoo found himself quite detached from all that, after all, he had Mingyu with him and that was all he needed. The younger man found his soapy scent soothing, which he always mumbled quietly to his hyung when his nose was buried in his neck as they were cuddling together on their couch on movie nights. Wonwoo was sure nothing could change the dynamic they had, and that they would continue on as they were.
Until one day, it happened.
The entire group was out together at a restaurant for dinner, celebrating a million sales on their latest album release. They had a bbq spot the members loved to gather at; the owner was a kind old lady who was now familiar enough with them to close down the shop every time they filed in for dinner, letting the boys enjoy an evening of good food, drinks and laughter away from prying eyes and entitled fans who believed that their idols owed every single second of their lives to them.
Mingyu had taken charge of the grill as always, foregoing the usual hierarchy of serving the eldest first and piling slices of cooked meat onto Wonwoo's plate before everyone else. Wonwoo was resting his chin on his hand, watching the taller man go through the familiar motions with finesse, sporting an adorably focused look on his face. The heat of the grill was apparently getting to him, golden tan skin glistening with the sweat dripping down his face in a way that was not exactly warranted by the cool evening weather. His breathing was the slightest bit faster, and his ears and neck were blooming red even though they were all only down a glass of beer each at most.
'Mingyu-ya, you're sweating a lot. Are you okay?" Seungcheol, their ever-observant leader and pack alpha asked half-jokingly. Mingyu flipped another slice of pork belly, wiping his forehead with the back of his hand holding the tongs. "I'm fine hyung, it's just the heat from the grill."
Wonwoo averts his eyes from the drops of sweat running down the man’s collarbones, and turns to look around the rest of their big table. Everyone was immersed in their own conversations, loud laughter booming over each other’s overlapping noises. Seokmin was manning the other grill and was trying to force feed a sizzling piece of meat to a Soonyoung who looked just about ready to cry. Jihoon was grumbling into his beer about not being able to have one dinner in peace. Seungkwan was taking selfies with Vernon and Chan. Wonwoo smiled. It is really rare for all thirteen of them to get together like this without the presence of cameras, simply existing together and basking in each other’s company. Wonwoo’s roaming gaze comes to a stop at the far end of the table, and he suddenly feels an unexplainable feeling of unease in his stomach. Jeonghan, the group's de facto omega and the second eldest member, was staring at Mingyu with an unreadable look, nostrils flared and lips drawn thin. He glanced around the restaurant and quietly stood up. "I'm going to make a call," he said before walking towards the washrooms. The rest of the table seemed blissfully unaware of anything out of the ordinary. Wonwoo turned back to the man in question and took notice of the small storm cloud of tension that had started to brew over his head, and he could admit that his best friend was looking a little out of sorts. Wonwoo wondered how he wasn’t able to notice it until now, his eyes having been on the taller male the entire evening. Mingyu pointedly ignored Wonwoo's and now Seungcheol's concerned glances and kept on grilling, aggressively poking at a piece of meat that was stuck to the grill. Wonwoo gently
put his hand on the younger's arm and tried to get him to move away from the heat. "Mingyu-ya, are you-" he was thrown back by Mingyu suddenly yanking his arm away with a loud growl and an exclamation. "I said I'm fucking fine!"
The whole table went quiet at once. Even the store owner stopped what she was doing and looked over. Wonwoo felt like his ears were filled with cotton. He was too busy internally panicking to be hurt or mad because this isn't Mingyu. The younger, in all his six feet two glory, was but a puppy in a giant's body. He wouldn't hurt a fly, let alone cuss at his friend's face. The whole room was frozen in shock and nobody dared move a muscle.
The trance was broken by Seungkwan who leaned in a little, eyes the size of dinner plates and voice slightly shaking. “Mingyu hyung…?”
Seungcheol instantly burst into action, standing over Mingyu protectively yet with a quiet threat as to not go any further. The two were at a standstill with the younger looking more and more restless by the second, shaking with the sheer effort of holding himself down. They could tell that he was just about to break when Jeonghan slipped back into his seat and cleared his throat. The whole table turned to their omega in sync. "I called the manager, he'll be here in five minutes.” He ignored the others and looked straight at their leader. They did the thing they usually do where they communicated telepathically through only a gaze and it took Seungcheol just two seconds to realise what was going on. “Cheol, you go with Mingyu, I'll take the others back to the dorms." He finished calmly, giving Mingyu a sympathetic look. Seungcheol solemnly nodded.
"Go where? Where are they taking me?" Mingyu asked in a croaky voice, who looked a lot like a spooked animal now.
Jeonghan smiled. "Mingyu-ya, you're going into your first rut, our little alpha."
*****
If Jeon Wonwoo was to look back and pinpoint exactly where life as he had known it started crumbling down, he would point to that precise moment. He remembers it like a fever dream; distorted visuals and garbled noise. He remembers being ushered back into their dorms, after being reassured multiple times by a sympathetic Jeonghan that their leader and manager were taking Mingyu to a heat hotel and that he will be fine, everything will be okay. He remembers the dreadful quiet that blanketed their home that night, and the few nights that followed, the silence unbearably loud compared to the usual quiet when only one of them was home, the other being gone for schedules or to visit family. He remembers lying awake staring at the ceiling, wondering if things will change for them now, if he will lose his lifelong companion to a pretty omega who would come along with the promise of providing Mingyu with things Wonwoo himself cannot.
Wonwoo has always loved his Mingyu, his roommate, and his best friend. It's always been the two of them, they were all they needed. But when it mattered the most, he can’t give him what he needs.
Because Jeon Wonwoo is unfortunately not an omega.
Their group of thirteen consisted of one more beta, Joshua, who was lovingly nicknamed gentleshua by their female fans who took a particular liking to the man’s gentle and caring nature, and neverending supply of easy smiles and dad puns. The rest of the members were all alphas, sans Wonwoo, Jeonghan and Minghao who was their only other unpresented member. In the majority of cases with late bloomers, they most often presented as betas, even though exceptions to this condition such as Mingyu existed. Many would argue that banding a pack with nine adolescent alphas together in an environment as stressful as an idol group reaching their prime could lead to conflict and unrest, but they have managed to maintain a careful equilibrium between group harmony and individual expression with painstaking effort under the guidance of their pack alpha. It certainly helps all of them being quite easygoing individuals regardless of their secondary genders, and also having developed a familial bond early in their formative years, way before they were divided by their individual presentations. Overall, even though they were a tight knit group, the members for the most part stayed out of each other’s business.
This of course didn't apply to Wonwoo and Mingyu. The two had always been in their own bubble since the beginning, which no one dared to pop them out of. Wonwoo himself was a quiet and subdued character, only speaking up when he was addressed or if he had something absolutely necessary to say. He matched well with Mingyu's chattiness, and his habit of yapping on about the topics he loves, his adorable lisp coming out unknowingly. There was nothing that Mingyu could do that would piss off Wonwoo for more than a couple hours, and no amount of messiness from the older wasn’t enough to deter Mingyu from asking the managers to be his roommate whenever they were on tour or moving into new accommodations. They went right back to their normal routine after Mingyu got back from the heat hotel a week later looking worse for wear, and they even had a good laugh about the way Mingyu snapped at him at dinner for which the taller male apologised profusely.
For the first two weeks, things were completely normal. Long enough for Wonwoo to convince himself that nothing has to change, that he will be Mingyu's and Mingyu will be his as they always were, and that life would go on as normal. Except it wouldn't.
It started with Mingyu's constant complaints of headaches. They both thought it was a migraine at first, but it kept on getting worse until Mingyu was in so much pain that left him lying on the bed in fetal position, clutching his head and whimpering pitifully. A visit to the doctor and multiple blood tests later revealed the cause as a hormone imbalance, and that Mingyu's glands were producing an excessive amount of alpha hormones due to his late presentation, his body having a hard time keeping up with it. The only solution was to treat the symptoms until the body regulates the issue by itself, which could take anywhere from a few months to a few years. He was sent home with strong painkillers which seemed to work for the moment, but then came the second symptom; he was getting increasingly aggressive.
Although it never got to the point of violence thanks to Mingyu not being an inherently violent person, but that didn’t stop him from huffing and growling at the other alphas at the slightest provocation, with the exception of Seungcheol whose command Mingyu obeyed
without question. The managers let the members handle it on their own, believing in the pack alpha's capability of keeping things under control.
Seungcheol instructed all the members to give Mingyu his space, including Wonwoo who begrudgingly agreed but not without complaint. He stayed with Mingyu during his windows of clarity and tried to soothe him the best he could with his familiar beta scent. The group was still maintaining their public image of a tightly bonded group on camera, being the professionals they were, but as soon as the lights were out, Mingyu would go back to his irritable self, keeping his distance from everyone. Nothing seemed to be helping. Jeonghan even tried scenting him once, as the scent of a familiar omega is usually soothing on an alpha's instincts, but the underlying pheromones of Seungcheol on Jeonghan’s scent was doing more harm than good, making Mingyu's alpha even more irritable.
Wonwoo's scent used to help in the beginning, until that effect quickly faded too, proving that the only comfort it gave was the feeling of familiarity, when the pull of biology was beyond both of their control. Wonwoo hated it. He hated feeling helpless, watching his best friend suffer like this and not being able to help, to provide any relief to the immense amount of pain the young alpha was constantly under. The symptoms kept on getting worse for the next few months with no end in sight.
And it all came to a head the day Xu Minghao presented as an omega.
*****
It was late October, nearing the date for the Melon Music Awards at the end of November. Seventeen had been scheduled for a full fifteen-minute performance, consisting of an intro, two group songs and a leader's unit performance. The group was as busy as it had
ever been that year, this one performance being a key indicator in determining how their next album release in the new year would go. The members were thrown into back-to-back rehearsals, fittings, gym sessions, beauty treatments and filming of teasers. Everyone was
simply exhausted by the end of the day’s schedules, crawling into bed dreading the thought of doing it all again tomorrow.
This only worked to further reduce whatever time Mingyu and Wonwoo could spend together, sometimes going without speaking to each other for as long as a week. As much as the older liked to blame it on how busy they were, he knew that wasn't all. Mingyu's hormones seemed nowhere close to settling, the scent of his alpha pheromones growing stronger by the day to the point even Wonwoo's muted beta senses could detect them. He commends the other alphas of the group for understanding his situation and respectfully ignoring it, even though their own alpha instincts must be roaring due to their sensitivity to the hostile alpha scent. It was a huge relief to all of them that their only omega was mated already and thus remains unaffected by the pheromones which otherwise would've sent him reeling to the floor.
As a way of coping, Mingyu had taken to the habit of attaching himself to Minghao, the only unpresented member in their group. They grew close pretty quickly, and soon would be seen together at all times, sometimes the younger even spending the night at their dorm when Mingyu was especially having trouble falling asleep. If the others noticed the shift in their dynamic, going from Mingyu and Wonwoo being attached at the hip, to the former growing closer to Minghao instead, no one commented on it.
Wonwoo himself felt like he was watching it all unfold through a glass wall. There was nothing he could do without compromising Mingyu's comfort and the group's harmony. All he could do was watch the taller male cling to Minghao's much smaller frame, with a relieved smile that was seen so rarely on his face these days. He kept his eyes on the duo as the alpha hugged the smaller male from behind and pushed his nose into the other's slender neck, sniffing and nuzzling and sometimes even biting, which the younger accepted without much protest. Minghao himself was a man of few words, but he did not look at all uncomfortable by the new alpha's sudden attention, and even seemed to quietly welcome it at times, so the others let them be. The only person who was concerned for Minghao's wellbeing was the other Chinese member, Junhui, who was somewhat appeased but only barely by the eldest duo who reassured him that Mingyu has never and won't ever be violent, and that Minghao is an adult and can defend himself if he needs to. They all left the two to their own, averting their eyes out of respect even when sometimes their behavior got a little too close to the line of closed-door activities. It was a small price to pay to have Mingyu in control and present with them, not balled up in pain snapping at anyone who came near, and besides, when there are thirteen of you cramped into a room it's pretty easy to ignore the goings-on in a single corner.
And yet, Wonwoo found himself unable to take his eyes off of them. It was not right, he knew that, but he was compelled by an almost perverted desire to keep on watching, the masochistic satisfaction of feeling his heart throb in pain and his body light up with shame. To his relief, nobody ever noticed his piercing gaze that was fixated with a depraved sort of morbid satisfaction on the duo who was nuzzling each other's necks in the corner of the room.
After a while, it was getting clear to everyone around that the bond between the Mingyu and Minghao was evolving into something more sensual. Minghao was also beginning to spend the nights in their dorm more often than not. Wonwoo keeps his ears peeled for any sort of noise coming from the room next door, but nothing ever seemed to happen more than conversation or muted laughter. He still can't figure out whether or not he is sad about losing his best friend little by little to a pretty omega just as he feared, but what he did know was that he wanted to see and hear every part of it. Maybe it was his own heart's way of convincing himself that the line was never crossed between them, sparing Wonwoo's own feelings. Or, maybe it was something more than that. Something arguably more depraved and masochistic. Jeon Wonwoo, who for most of his life had been clinically detached from any thoughts and conversations regarding sex, was here lying in the darkness of his mind dying to get a glimpse into someone else's sex life, and that too of his best friend, his roommate, lifelong companion. His first love.
He got all he asked for and more one evening, when half of the team was gathered in Mingyu and Wonwoo's dorm. It had become less of a home and more of a shelter by then, The occupants gone from blissful domesticity to occasional conversation to complete radio silence for whatever reason unfathomable to the older. Maybe Mingyu was feeling guilty for replacing him so easily, maybe he really had outgrown their companionship and found it repulsive somehow. Maybe things would have been different if Wonwoo himself had presented as an omega. He spent all his nights wondering when this weird stalemate they had come to would end, if it even would at all or if this was how they were supposed to go from here on.
The reason for their gathering that evening was because they were having a movie-night on a rare day-off in the middle of the absolute mad hatter circus their schedules had been recently, and Minghao, Seokmin, Vernon and Soonyoung had come over bearing fried chicken and beer. They were setting up the food and Mingyu was scrolling through the horror section of the Netflix menu just to fuck with Soonyoung. Wonwoo himself was in the kitchen with Minghao, washing glasses for beer and plating some side dishes from Mingyu’s mom that had been left untouched in their fridge for a couple of weeks. The younger man looked like the long days and nights were getting to him, dark circles pronounced under his eyes and fair skin looking paler than usual. Wonwoo felt sympathetic for the boy. He had always been one of the quickest out of them to burn out physically. He addressed the Minghao in a kind tone. “I’ll finish up here, go and help Mingyu pick a movie that Soonyoung can watch, we don’t want another noise complaint after the last time.” He said, taking the glass the younger was holding from his hands. He gave Wonwoo a grateful smile and turned to the living room with a quiet, “Okay hyung,” But just as he was reaching the sofa Mingyu was sprawled on, Minghao suddenly doubled over with a pained moan, catching the attention of the whole room who were on him in an instant.
“What is it? What happened? Are you—” Soonyoung reeled back with the same speed he jumped in, covering his nose when it was instantly clear to all of them what was happening. “Shit, he’s going into heat. Someone call Jeonghan now!” Wonwoo felt his stomach drop in dread. His eyes were on Mingyu, who had gone deadly silent but was looking at the newly presented omega with a look that had Wonwoo’s whole body going up in flames at the same time as his heart shattered into a million tiny pieces. In that moment, Mingyu looked like hunger personified.
He reached the younger in two steps and enveloped him inside his arms, shielding him from the rest of the room. “No need,” he growled at Seokmin who was frantically tapping on his phone, probably trying to find their leader or his mate’s number. Mingyu then lifted Minghao up by his thighs in one smooth motion, eliciting from the younger a sound between a whimper and a moan. “I’ll take care of him. Everybody leave.”
Nobody questioned him, nobody even said a single word. They all knew what was about to happen and they also knew that it was a long time coming. All they could do was leave the two to their own privacy and go inform their leader and manager about the presentation of the newest omega in their group.
As the alphas were stumbling outside in a hurry, Wonwoo was the last one to follow. He stalled, taking an extra few seconds to pull his shoes on even after the others were already out. The last thing he saw before he pulled the door closed was Mingyu pushing Minghao on the wall next to his bedroom door, ripping his shirt open and burying his nose in his neck with a growl, making the omega moan and clutch onto his shoulders. It was at that moment the reality of what had been happening hit Wonwoo for the first time. He and Mingyu won’t be the same ever again.