‘’ the walled screamed at the group in red- bright,angry and disappointed. Taemin steeled his face and locked his jaw. The recipient of the message was clear, like the melancholy that had emerged from Taemin's face. The words, red like his hurting heart, mocked his very presence. As the sole omega in a now four member group, it was obvious who the message was intended to wound.

Jinki knew this as well, their group had been through so much pain and suffering these past few months, trying to stay together when they were falling apart at the seams. This was too much weight added to their shoulders, too disrespectful to push off as a simple sasaeng misadventure. Onew bit his plump lips, geering up for an emotional break down from at least one of s, but he’ll be damned if he failed as a leader yet again. He was determined to be a shoulder for his team to lean on, for an elder hyung to talk to.

He needed to make sure Taemin was okay first.

“We never know who it’s... directed… to…” Jinki began, trying to break the silence that had shocked everyone into submission. This wasn’t the first time that someone in the group had been a victim of a sasaeng attack, and certainly not the first to have fans invade their apartment, but it certainly didn’t make the situation any easier.

“It’s me.” A whisper few from the youngest’s mouth, a forbidding tone of acceptance as his brown eyes finally met the wall defaced by a slur. The red reared its ugly head once more, goading the young male into a fight of will, ready to kill.

“Taemin, you never know-” Kibum began, turning to comfort the maknae, but Taemin move out of his hold and moved towards the other side of the living room.

He was carrying too much- stress, anger, dejection- that this was bound to be his breaking point.

“Don’t you guys get it? It can only be me! In case it slipped your minds, I’m the only omega in the group,” Taemin began to yell, furious at the world for letting this happen to him- to them after it had the gall to take away one of his closest friends. The universe was a , especially to those at the bottom of the social scale.

The only and only performance king? That title meant nothing when taking into account that this wonderous dancer was nothing more than a mere weak minded omega. That sole fact superseded all his work as an artist; all the fame and reputation he gained meant nothing if all fan could talk about is how they wanted to get him alone and have their way with those luxurious curves. So many times he had seen the comments made on his dances, about how if he wasn’t so strong willed that they would have ed him from New Years to next Christmas- Taemin was disgusted and the lewd replies to such comments did naught but leave a bitter aftertaste in his mouth.

So, considering that, the message had to be for him.

“It can only be me. No one else is gonna get targeted like this- it’s only ever me,” Taemin spat, the venom in his words stemming from hurt rather than anger. Only he could provoke such distaste in the alpha community for his solo endeavors. He was an omega going off on his own in an alpha's world- what more could I have expected? Taemin thought.

“Taemin,” Jinki began to speak, his voice a near quiet utterance of the younger brunette across the room. Strings of hurt wrapped around his heart, beginning to hurt into the working organ as he tired to calm Taemin down.

“Don’t!” Taemin shouted, his voice growing in volume, ready to argue. “None of you will ever understand that this-” he flung his arm in the direction of the offending wall. “This is normal for me! I get subjected to this bull about how I’m a and a and how anyone would be lucky to have my body or be dating my body!”

“Lee Taemin-” Kibum warned, crossing his arms. Unbenounced to Taemin, Key had also gotten similar comments- he appeared so submissive in stature to those ‘macho, muscular’ alphas that seemed to roam in their fan base. After all, toxic masculinity stems from the lack of consideration. Did those alphas consider him human? No, he’s property to them. Beta or not, he looks enough like an omega for those distasteful men to get it on.

“No, I’m not done yet! I have never cheated on anyone in my life. Hell the only person I’ve been with is Minho, and we all know how that happened right?” Taemin snarled, moving backwards towards the direction of his room, his sanctuary. There he could properly be angry; a place, a saben haven, where he could throw objects and cry and curse the universe yet again for making him a ing omega. the universe.

“I didn’t even get to date anyone else because I presented and suddenly I’m property of a man I never met in my life. I was fourteen- fourteen! For god’s sake I wasn’t even legal and yet here I was, basically married because I have a submissive scent and he has a dominant one.”

“Taemin!” Minho bellowed, surprised at the admission.

He and the younger had been practically tied at the hip ever since Taemin reached the age of eighteen. They have spent so many wonderful, unforgettable moments together- cuddling on their bed when the nights grew unforgiving, quiet not-dates where they hid somewhere and just chatted in between innocent kisses. Those memories were branded into the forefront of Minho’s mind, and he treasures them like nothing else in his life, second only to Taemin. Did his younger lover not enjoy those moments? Minho took special care to make sure that Taemin felt like he could rely on him, maybe even live with him in the future.

All that was solely because Taemin was forced to be with him? Minho was wounded by this- and the fact that the recent ‘I love you’s from Taemin might have been a lie

“Don’t you dare yell at me! You have no right!” Taemin screamed back, angry that Minho had the courage to stop his rampage. This was his time to spew his feelings out, and not one person was going to take that away from him and if someone gets hurt in the process, it consequentialism has always been Taemin’s philosophy.

“They why the hell do you have the right to yell at us, huh?” Minho retorted, ire beginning to rise at how Taemin had forgotten all respect for his elders. It was one thing to hate being in a relationship, it was a completely different one all together to forget that those older than you deserve respect.

“Minho!” Key yell indignantly. The situation in the room was beginning to get too dangerous of a topic to bicker about. Key would be damned if he bore witness to the falling out of his dongsaengs- or if the worst comes to play, the end of what he perceived was a loving healthy relationship.

“He’s forgetting his respect!”

Taemin stomped his way over to stand in front of his boyfriend- the ing infuriating, tall male that he had been stuck with. It’s been six goddamn years that they’ve been official, but SM had been forcing him with this male long before that, believing that Taemin looked like an omega, therefore he would present as an omega. He kept all these harmful thoughts in his mind for years, not having enough of a tipping point to reveal his irritation at his situation.

“Oh, I don’t think I am. What you’re implying is that I’m forgetting my place right?”

A gasp sounded through the room as Key covered his mouth. Never had Taemin been this blunt with his perceptions- be it wrong or right. Taemin typically tried to talk around a topic. Even so, SHINee tried to keep the stereotypes out of the inner workings of the group- yes they were respectively alphas, betas and an omega, but they didn’t want the two maknaes subjected to the bitter reality of society.

Taemin seemed to think otherwise as society just busted into their group with its goddamn precious stereotypes- with how closely they’re embedded, you’d think it’s a confederate slave owner advocating that actual people are property because it helps the economy.

“And where is this so called ‘place’ you think I believe you belong?” Minho spat, his anger getting dangerously out of control as Taemin waves his disrespect in front of his face like a perfumes handkerchief. You can be angry, but disrespecting your hyungs in the way Taemin currently was doing was drawing the line for Minho.

“Underneath you.”

Onew and Key shared a horrified look. Was that what Taemin truly thought about himself or was it just a spur of the moment blurb?

“Are you kidding me?” Minho sounded exasperated as he stared at Taemin, hands on his hips as he tried to make sense of what his lover was saying.

“The only one kidding is you, do you really think that I don’t know what you think when I do something that’s not omegan like of me? That you think I’m acting above my position- my goddamn place beneath all of you.” Taemin pointed to s, his thoughts finally having exploded into a jumbled incohesive mess that he had begun to pick pieces off of to force out of his mouth.

“Taemin that’s enough. You’ve ranted and screamed about what you need to scream, but it’s time to stop. Go to your room and calm down,” Jinki’s firm voice commanded the room, every bit the leader he was meant to be, as he held the forcibly maknae’s relationship together.

“See! There it is again! You think I’m crazy! I’m not. I’ve been in the music industry for as long as all three of you and yet I’m the one who gets these threats. You think that anyone has meaningfully called Minho or Onew a ? Hell no, they’re alphas, they don’t have to face all the that I do-and Key hyung gets it even better! You’re a damn beta, you’re not expected to do anything!”

Oh Taeminnie, if you could see how wrong you are, Key mused, staring at the poor wounded male in front of him. They all faced stereotypes for the status they held. How many times had Jinki or Minho broken down in his presence and spent hours upon hours describing how they couldn’t live up to the alpha standard they had to meet from their seniors. How many times had Junghyun described being a beta as an unsatisfying middle to two disappointments? Taemin wasn’t the only one struggling.

“Taemin, that’s more than enough,” Minho warned. It is about time to wrap this up and have a civilized, adult conversation.

“I have no reason to listen to you, I didn’t even want to date you in the first place!”

The room was silent, the very breath held still as they awaited a response. Minho’s eyes glossed over as he pursed his lips in anger.

“Is that what you really think?” He whispered, the fight slowly leaving his body. It was no use at this point- Taemin didn’t love him did he?

“Yes, why wouldn’t I! In case you’ve forgotten, you’re the only alpha I’ve been with the past six ing years!”

That had been the nail in the coffin.

Minho clenched his jaw in anger, grinding his teeth to keep his toxic words quiet lest he permanently ruin their relationship- not like Taemin hadn’t done that already.

“You don’t want to be with me then fine.”

Minho brushed past Taemin in order to get to their shared room. He had to get rid of it, it was too mocking to him, too boastful of a broken relationship. He reached into his personal dresser, pulling out the small palm sized box he had hid previously. It was useless to him now.

Promptly, he returned to the living room, the whole journey having taken less than a minute. As he stepped foot into the carpeted floor, he flung the small box at Taemin before speaking again.

“ing sell that , because if you don’t want to be with me, then I don’t want to be with you.”

Taemin’s eyes widened as he opened the box to find a beautiful ring. As Taemin took the ring out of the box, he admired the simple silver band with a singular rose carved into the side. The top of the box had an embroidered note, reading: A rose for the beauty in my life.

“You were going to propose?” he whispered, the true weight of the worlds he had so mindlessly screamed being visible. He was tearing into their relationship with those words, and now he has to sew up the cuts in this rose fabric of love, if the piece was even salvageable at this point.

“Not anymore. I’m going to EXO’s dorm, no one ing call me.”

Minho had thrown in the towel in this argument, and in their relationship it seemed like too.

“No, wait,” Taemin hastedly said, placing the ring where it belonged, on his ring finger. As he ran towards the tallest man in the room, he bemoaned the fact that it had not been Minho’s long fingers sliding the ring into place.

He reached the man, placing his hands on his chest to prevent him from leaving. If he left now, would he leave Taemin for certain?

“Taemin let go.”

Minho moved Taemin’s hands off of him, the touch blazing through his soul in a dangerous, painful manner.

“Hyung, please don’t go.”

The hands returned to Minho’s chest, their presence bringing light to the fire in his soul yet again.

“Huh, you’ve relearned honorifics.”

“Hyung please.”

“Let go Taemin.”

Pushing the dainty hands off his chest, Minho resumed his trek to the door, only to be stopped by a hand on his wrist. He glanced down at it, ready to remove the limb from his when he froze at the sight of the ring he was planning to give Taemin to ask for his hand. It didn’t give him the feeling of joy he expected to be flooded with when he first had bought it; it only deepened the hole in his chest cavity.

“Take off the ring, Taemin.”

“No, Hyung.” This ring would have to be pried from his dead body, Taemin decided, even then, he would come back from the dead to keep it. He wasn’t going to take it off.

“Don’t pretend like you like wearing Taemin. No one’s forcing you to wear it this time round, you can give up the loving boyfriend act now.”

Bitter, hurtful words were beginning to spew from Minho’s mouth, words he would never say under any other circumstance, but his patience and his heart had been tried, and he lost at protecting them.

Taemin felt tears brewing in his eyes. He couldn’t let Minho leave angry with him, not today, not after what they both had said. He did the only thing he could think of- he grabbed Minho’s face with both his hands and kissed him, try to channel the passion that they had in their relationship. Minho should have broken and wrapped the shorter man in his arms, whisper apologies between soft, remorseful kisses as they made up.

But Minho didn’t kiss back and Taemin felt his entire heart drop out of his body. Minho had never done that before.

“Please no.” He whispered, looking at the dull chocolate eyes of his lover. Those eyes were always filled with love whenever they looked at Taemin. Even the most dense person on this earth could tell that Minho loves Taemin with all his heart.

“I’ll be back before noon tomorrow.”

The door closed silently, without the slam of anger to accompany it. It was rather a soft close of defeat, of hurt.

Taemin collapsed on the ground, tears spilling from his eyes as he held his left hand close to his chest. Key unfroze from his shock and managed to get the younger to cry into his chest, heartbroken sobs filling the room with a horrible symphony. Jinki just continued to stare as the fall of a relationship finished before him, silent.

“Come back, please hyung.”

(“Come here,” Minho whispered, his eyes glossy as he looked at Taemin. The younger didn’t move from his spot, staring down at the ground with a blank expression.

“Taemin-” Minho started again before the dancer crashed into his chest and hid himself in his neck. The taller of the two stood still for a moment before embracing his lover. There was something wrong with Taemin, Minho could feel it, and it most likely had something to do with words a few fans had thrown at Taemin during a recent fan meet.

“They think I’m a , soloing by myself you know.”

“Taemin…” Minho began, his chest seizing from pain at the words. He had seen the way Taemin’s face had fallen post the meeting.

“It’s always good to talk things out.”

“Thank you.” )