Eventually, nearly everyone in his entire department had gotten so distracted with news of Minseok’s courtship that he had to have everyone sent home for the day—himself included. It wasn’t like he’d been the most outstanding, focused person throughout the day either. The temptation to reread the article about Jongdae’s engagement poked away at the back of his mind— the desire to find out his boyfriend’s fiancée’s name so he could stalk whoever it was online like the freak he was so close to being. He’d managed to stave off the temptation for a while, mostly distracted by a couple of reports due at noon and by all of his coworkers pestering him to see his courtship bracelet. By the time lunch came around, however, boredom and curiosity etched away at him as he ate, so when Seungwan brought in a newspaper with a headline for Jongdae’s engagement story printed bold on the front page, he was practically clawing at it—much to the bemusement of his secretary.

            His excitement meant nothing by the end, though, because after thoroughly reading and rereading the story, he discovered the title was little more than a print version of clickbait. It did mention Jongdae’s engagement, sure, but only in the context of Kim Industries’ newest merge with a large music production chain out in Incheon. Apparently, Jongdae’s fiancée ran the whole chain, so the article just fell into a discussion about the politics of Kim Industries ‘hidden child’ marrying the head of a business partner. If it was anyone else, sure, Minseok may have been interested in the discussion, but seeing as there was no way in hell he was letting Jongdae get married off, he couldn’t find it in himself to care what some underpaid journalists thought about it.

            The rest of the day after that was hellish, his mind constantly wandering to his phone, to thoughts of ‘if I could just check that one article Lu sent me,’ as though that would make it any better. Soon enough, he simply gave up, getting all the time-sensitive and necessary work finished before calling it a day and sending his staff off on his way. He didn’t turn on his phone again though, deciding to wait and brave it out through the painstakingly long ride home.

            Of course, things weren’t that simple, because before he could even think about his phone, he was distracted by the figure at this doorstep.

            “Lu?”

            The Chinese boy’s head snapped up at the call, and Minseok immediately found himself concerned. Lu Han looked worried, scared, almost guilty, and if there was one thing Lu Han never felt, it was guilty. No, he ed up and messed with people as much as he wanted to and he didn’t give a damn about it—so why now?

            “What’s going on? You know my passcode, you could have just gone in yourself,” Minseok continued, entering his code into the keypad on his door lock to unlock it and let both Lu Han and himself in. His best friend followed in hesitantly, only worrying Minseok more.

            “W-wasn’t sure you’d, uh, appreciate it after… everything,” Luhan responded, forcing his tone to be light but stammering instead—and somehow, Minseok figured that wasn’t from the cold.

            “Everything?” Minseok probed, setting his things down and shutting the door behind them.

            “I mean, you… you read the article, right? The one I sent you?”

            “Ah, about Jongdae? Yeah, but I only kinda skimmed it—didn’t have time for much else. Why?” He looked back to see Lu Han gaping at him. He raised an eyebrow at him, his curiosity only piquing as Lu Han shook his head to himself, suddenly patting away at his pockets to find something. Soon, he was pulling out his phone, quickly unlocking it and typing away to pull something up. After a minute of that, he brought his eyes up to meet Minseok’s, with something akin to regret flashing in his eyes.

            “If I can have one request, it’s that you don’t punch me in the face—I have a photoshoot tomorrow,” Lu Han joked lightly as he handed Minseok the phone, but his voice was curt, his tone choppy. Minseok took it and his eyes widened at what he saw.

            Lu Han? Who was that? The only person he saw in front of him was an .

            “You ing ,” Minseok snarled out, barely thinking as he grabbed onto Lu Han’s collar immediately, letting the phone fall to the ground between them. To his credit, Lu Han didn’t seem to care about the phone, only keeping his eyes down and posture slouched in apologetic surrender.

            “I’m sorry, I di—”

            “Can it.” Minseok could feel his mind clouding, vision glazing over as he threw the first punch. In the back of his mind, he knew so many things. He knew that there was probably a better reason behind this, that the way Lu Han was acting meant something more than he was willing to see right now. He knew that this was his best friend who, despite being kind of -ish sometimes, would never betray him like this, would never try to marry Jongdae, knowing what he meant to Minseok. He knew that he needed to stop and think about this, but he also knew that his rationale had no part of this conversation anymore—instincts had taken over, and while Minseok the friend wanted to talk things out, Minseok the Alpha wanted to rip this lying, cheating, disgrace of a Beta to ing shreds.

            Lu Han, on the other hand, was the perfect example of pure submission. Save for the arms covering his face and neck, he took the brunt of all of Minseok’s hits head on, barely even grunting when they fell over to the floor. Internally, Minseok felt like sobbing, because what was he doing? He was supposed to fight back, at least protect himself, do something! He was supposed to explain himself, to stop Minseok, to stand his ground, yet here he was, letting Minseok do as he wanted because that was just the type of person Lu Han was.

            Lu Han, who never made things awkward even after their few one-night-stands turned friendship. Lu Han, who stood by him at every difficult time he had in life. Lu Han, who was constantly supporting and helping his relationship with Jongdae, whether it be by suggesting date locations or by kicking his when he was being too wishy-washy or whiney about ‘would Jongdae like this’ or ‘would Jongdae like that.’ Hell, Lu Han had even booked out an entire restaurant just for the two of them on their month-anniversary of dating. And then here Lu Han was, purposefully coming to his apartment knowing he’d get beat up, and just patiently and calmly letting it happen.

            But suddenly, even his guilt-laden subconscious was being distracted from Lu Han, as something immediately aded his senses. He froze, and from the way Lu Han did as well, he could tell it wasn’t just him that noticed something. Something guttural came through his throat, the sound reverberating in his mind as his instincts practically shrieked.

            Mate! Mate in danger!

            He was jumping off Lu Han quicker than should have been humanly possible and was dashing to the front door, only to see a panting, flushed Jongdae practically collapsing from exhaustion at his doorstep. He immediately looked up when the door opened, locking eyes with him directly as Minseok’s thoughts slowly cleared, the realization of everything he had just done dawning on him.

            “, I’m too late, aren’t I?” Jongdae cursed to himself as he looked over Minseok’s tousled look, and pushed past his shell-shocked boyfriend to force himself inside.

            Minseok gulped, shakily bringing his hands up to shut the door and lock it. Hesitantly, he turned around, using the door as a support as his legs suddenly felt like jelly. As he turned, he saw Jongdae on his knees, immediately pulling a first-aid kit out of the plastic bag he had brought and fussing over a wincing Lu Han. Another searing spike of rage shot through Minseok again, and he clamped his hand down harshly on the door handle to keep his possessive instincts in check.

            No, not again. I can’t do that again.

            “Make yourself useful and get me ice,” Jongdae snapped, and Minseok shakily nodded, not trusting himself to speak.    

            In what was probably 30 seconds flat, he had returned with ice, only to see Jongdae still fretting over Lu Han. Pain gripped at his heart, but this time, it wasn’t out of possessive instinct or jealous—it was out of guilt. Now that the fog had cleared from his mind, he could see properly what he had done and—, he should be locked up. Bruises were littered all over his arms as he used them to protect his face for a shoot, because of course Lu Han would. His clothes and hair were a mess, probably from all the falling and shoving. His left ankle looked a bit swollen beneath his pant leg, and Minseok recalled with a painful gulp that Lu Han had landed on it wrong when they both fell to the ground.

            “Give it here,” Jongdae called him over, and Minseok scrambled to obey. He had grabbed a few, and Jongdae used them all on different parts of Lu Han’s battered body while Minseok stood silently, guiltily. “I swear to God, are both of you guys idiots? Seriously, ‘instincts?’ What sort of bull is it that makes it so you don’t have a regular conversation. Ugh, sometimes I’m so glad I’m on suppressants.”

            “Sorry,” Lu Han mumbled.

            “What do you have to be sorry for?” Minseok snapped, probably harsher than he should have. “, this is all my fault, don’t even try to apologize—”

            “I should have told you myself though,” Lu Han interrupted, stubborn. “I’d had a suspicion that my parents were up to something like this, but I didn’t think to tell you—”

            “Just shut up, will you?” Grabbing the ice from Jongdae, he started treating Lu Han’s wounds himself, rambling as he did so. “Who gives a about suspicions or whatever? You didn’t know, and yet I… I ing did this. What sort of hole of a person do I have to be to beat the out of you, whether you knew or not? , I’m so sorry—”

            “Look, you two can have your pity party later,” Jongdae cut in, “but how about we explain what’s going on, first?” Lu Han swallowed heavily, but nodded.

            “What do you mean?” Minseok asked, watching as his boyfriend sighed.

            “Our parents made the deal,” Lu Han began hesitantly. “They’ve been moving the company more into Korea lately, and with my modelling career at its peak, they figured now’s as time as any to take the full leap. So, they were in talks for a business deal when the idea of me taking over the company flew into question. After all, who says an entertainment giant like Kim Industries couldn’t expand into modelling and high fashion? Next thing I hear, I’m set for a runway in New York the day before a marriage in Barcelona.”

            “And they just didn’t tell you?” Minseok tried to keep his voice calm, but he was livid—not at Lu Han, not anymore, but at his parents. On one hand, he could understand the business aspect of it all and how beneficial to them it would be. On the other hand, to just toss their kid into the deep end like that…

            “They initially wanted it to be my cousin—you remember Yi Fan, right?” Minseok nodded. “Yeah, they were planning on roping him in, since he’s planning on retiring from modelling soon to go into acting, but, well, uhm…” Lu Han trailed off, suddenly awkward, and Jongdae scoffed at the sight of that.

            “They want my genes to be stronger,” he explained, rolling his eyes when Minseok just looked even more confused. “For our kids.” Oh. “If I even just had a couple kids with him, the likelihood that we’d end up with another Omega would be way higher if I mated with a Beta than if I mated with an Alpha like Yi Fan. Not to mention, Lu Han’s already here a lot for work, so it would seem a lot more believable than anything else.”

            “You told me they planned this months ago too,” Minseok started, eyebrows furrowed as he thought. “Why announce it now?”

            “Because they know about us,” Jongdae said, just as Lu Han said: “Because they know about me.”

            “Wait, what?” Jongdae turned over to look at Lu Han, who looked just as surprised.

            “Wait, they know about you guys?” the Chinese boy exclaimed.

            “I mean, I’m pretty sure Sehun and Jongin—my ‘bodyguards,’ as my parents like to call them—ratted us out, but what did you do?”

            “Wait…” Minseok started, jaw dropping. “You’re with someone?!”

            Minseok knew that later, Lu Han would attribute his flushed face to the exhaustion from their fight, but he knew that wasn’t true. , if Lu Han wasn’t blushing like an embarrassed fourteen year old talking to their crush, then Minseok wasn’t a ing Alpha.

            “I-I mean, not exactly, but lik—”

            “Since when?” Minseok cut in enthusiastically, because if Lu Han found someone that turned him into this much of a goopy mess, then it had to be some sort of miracle.

            “Can you chill oh my god you’re gonna hit my ankle,” the boy snarked, but his voice didn’t have any bite to it as he kept his eyes down. “You remember, the composer from Changsha? The one with the really loud speakers who lives above me?”

            “The Zhang kid,” Minseok recalled, almost in awe. “Wait, you got him to go out with you? He’s like, lightyears above your league. Didn’t he say he was part of a garden club with the local grandmothers as a pastime? How the hell did you manage to tap that what the .”

            “Well, we’re not entirely together but it wasn’t like he declined my courting gift or anything so...”

            “Wait, do you mean Zhang Yixing?” Jongdae asked suddenly. “He’s like, my childhood bestie, like holy . Okay, uh, you guys chill here, I’m gonna get popcorn and champagne and then you’re filling me in because holy I could totally hook you up with everything you need to woo him.”

            “Can the ground swallow me whole now,” Lu Han groaned, bringing his knees up to his chest so he could bury his face in them. Minseok gently placed a consoling hand on his shoulder, relieved when his friend didn’t flinch.

            “Afraid not, buddy, but at least you may get laid by the end of this?” he comforted weakly.

            He had to admit, he still felt awful. He still beat the out of his best friend, he still disappointed his boyfriend, he still didn’t know what the was going on. The call of ‘mate’ still clung to his subconscious—what was with that? He hadn’t mated with Jongdae yet, that couldn’t even be possible, and yet instinctually, it was like he was already there. But before he could even try to figure out where his relationship, both physically and emotionally, stood with Jongdae, he had to figure out what they were going to do about this engagement situation. Everything was falling to pieces, and he had to find a way to scramble around to fix it.

            But sitting here now, laughing at an embarrassed Lu Han and cooing over a determined Jongdae, his heart warmed. Things were bad, but never so bad they couldn’t enjoy the simpler things. They weren’t going to let things like this get to them, and they’d do everything in their power to set things straight. At the very least, they weren’t going down without a fight or a hundred. Things were going to be okay—they were going to be okay—because they were going to find a way to fix this.

            …As soon as Minseok found out just how much access Jongdae actually had to his apartment, because he swore he never bought popcorn.

HI SORRY THIS IS KINDA SHORT AND TOOK SO LONG I WAS LOWKEY DYING FROM SCHOOL BUT IM TRYING I SWEAR
in the mean time have this drama turned crack bc i can't do apology scenes very well and i'm too tired to make anyone cry right now