Their session had ended early because Sungmin was unable to share any further. When his crying had finally died down, Soohyang had left to check for his alpha, only to return to say that Kyuhyun was still talking to Kihwan. He had found it weird that the alphas had been talking for so long, but there was hardly any energy left in him to dwell on such things. Instead, he waited, falling into a daze, grateful that Soohyang didn't attempt any further conversation with him except offering him more tea and a book. Minutes after Soohyang had returned to her worktable and delved into her work, Sungmin had grown comfortable enough to fall asleep, but he knew he couldn't. If he fell asleep here, anything might happen without him knowing, including his alpha leaving without him. Fighting against the sleepiness, he buried his face into his raised knees, closing his eyes as he tried to conjure a recipe for dinner.

His eyes shot open at the knock on the door.

Seeing Kihwan’s head pop in, he nervously put down his legs, fumbling to wear his shoes properly. The alpha scared him, and those critical eyes always seem to be assessing him and basing his behavior on how well his alpha taught him. He didn't want to embarrass his alpha, thus he had bitten the bullet and came into the session alone though he had more than wanted his alpha's company and support.

And when Kihwan moved aside to let his alpha in, he almost couldn't hold in the relieved whimper at seeing his alpha again. He needed his alpha, and as though reading his thoughts, his alpha strode over, enveloping him in a hug. The overwhelming relief almost caused the tears to start again, but he didn't want to cry in front of others, not in front of Kihwan, whose aura rose unpleasantly. Sungmin pushed his face into his alpha's shirt, taking a deep sniff of the refreshing mint that calmed his nerves along with the caresses on his head.

“Everything okay?” His alpha asked softly.

Sungmin nodded; he could only nod if he didn’t want to risk his alpha being upset. More than anything, he didn't want his alpha to think that he was even more broken than his alpha had expected, and that Soohyang might not be able to fix him.

“Dr. Song?” Sungmin tensed at his alpha's questioning call, almost unable to hold himself still when his alpha pulled away gently and sat down beside him.

“Calling me Soohyang is fine, Kyuhyun-ssi,” Soohyang said, waving for her alpha to move in to sit on the sofa.

Sungmin shifted unsettlingly as Kihwan sat down opposite him, the pair of cold, assessing eyes landing on his figure.

“Soohyang-ssi, how is it?” His alpha's big hand wrapped over his. “Did the talking work out?”

Though his alpha's hand was comforting, Sungmin found his heart racing away. What if Soohyang gave him a negative assessment? He couldn’t even deny if the beta had chosen to reveal that he was rather uncooperative; he had cried through more than half of the session, and no matter how hard he tried to stop himself, the emotions just kept running wild. Even at the times when he wasn’t crying, he couldn’t answer Soohyang’s questions much – he didn’t know how to answer them.

“Sungmin did well for his first session.” His anxious gaze transformed into one of surprise at Soohyang, but the beta only smiled encouragingly in return. “The session gave me something to start with.”

He couldn't believe that the beta was choosing to hide the truth and even praised him, but he would never expose the lie. There was no way he would voluntarily let his alpha find out that he didn't behave and cooperate like he should. There was no way he could… but when did he turn into such a dishonest liar?

“So how is Sungmin’s condition?” His alpha squeezed his fingers reassuringly, as though telling him that he would be there regardless of how bad the news were. Despite his alpha’s hold on him, he felt the urge to run, to escape from whatever was coming. He didn’t want to hear it; he didn’t want to hear that he was a broken good, a defective property that his alpha would find too troublesome—

“Stop right there, Sungmin.” His back straightened at the stern, commanding voice of Kihwan. “Stop your thoughts right there.”

He couldn’t defy the voice full of alpha authority, even if it didn’t belong to his alpha. Instead of pretending that he didn’t know what Kihwan was talking about or pondering over how the alpha had known his mind was running wild, he bowed his head like an obedient omega, complying with the order and answering with a soft whisper, “Yes, Sonsaengnim*.”

“Sungmin?” His alpha tugged at his fingers, looking at him with concern.

Unable to admit to his alpha how unstable he was, Sungmin shook his head, filtering out the coming conversation as he tried to employ one of the calming down methods Soohyang had taught him. He closed his eyes, picturing a sea of calm waves that washed slowly up the shore, then pulling back as gently and dragging the sand with it.

“Open your eyes,” The relentless voice ordered, forbidding him from escaping. “You need to hear this.”

“Dr. Song—”

“You shouldn’t assume the worst before knowing anything, Sungmin,” Kihwan cut his alpha off, silencing him with a hand. “We are the professionals here. Listen to us, not the panic in your head and heart.”

His alpha freed his fingers, the arm snaking around his waist pulling him slightly to lean against his alpha’s frame. Taking in deep breaths, he nodded as steadily as he could, waiting for his death verdict to be announced by Soohyang.

“Aside from the panic disorder which is characterized by the panic attacks he experienced, Sungmin is likely to be suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder because of the events he had undergone till date.” Sungmin grasped his alpha’s shirt, forcefully swallowing the sudden lump in his throat. “We may discover other conditions with more sessions, but we’ll be tackling them as a whole instead of treating them separately. And like Kihwan said, you two shouldn’t assume the worst. This is definitely not the worst,” Soohyang stressed with her gaze, but Sungmin avoided it right away. “With time and treatment, Sungmin will recover well and become a bright person again.”

Time seemed to extend forever before his alpha responded with a simple nod. “How will the treatment be?”

“Cognitive behavioral therapy, also known as talk therapy. Through our talk sessions, I will help Sungmin understand and change how he thinks about the trauma, and identify how certain thoughts will cause stress and worsen his symptoms. We’ll also be looking into ways to help him cope with negative feelings and his panic attacks.”

“What about medication?”

“I’m not medically trained so I won’t be able to prescribe any drugs unlike Kihwan. Currently, I would like to observe Sungmin more before considering any drugs. I might make the recommendation to Kihwan eventually for him to assess Sungmin and prescribe medication, but if it comes to that, Sungmin’s records would be made known to him as well. That means whatever you’ve shared with me might become known to Kihwan. Will that be fine with you, Sungmin?”

Sungmin looked up when he heard his name, and it took a few seconds before he registered what Soohyang was asking. However, he didn’t know how to answer. Unexpectedly, it was Kihwan who saved him from needing to formulate an answer. “We will discuss this then if it actually becomes necessary. Will you two be attending school?”

His alpha naturally took the choice and consequences out of his hand. “Not for now. We will take at least another two weeks’ break from school.”

“Then you two will come in for three times a week now. When my assistant confirms both Soohyang’s and my schedule, she will inform you of the timing,” Kihwan stood up, offering a handshake to his alpha as a sign of dismissal. “I will see you in a day or so then, Kyuhyun-ssi.”

After bidding their farewells, the wearying morning had finally ended. Sungmin was more than ready to return home to rest, but his alpha had other thoughts. And as usual, he didn’t let any of his hesitation, much less objection to the plan show. He would do whatever his alpha wanted him to.  

~--~

“Do you not like the food?” Kyuhyun softened his tone, meeting his omega’s eyes slowly as he tried to hide the fact that he had been stealing glances every once and then at his distracted omega. He had attributed his omega’s discomfort to the weekend crowd at the mall initially, but it had dragged on even after thirty minutes of entering this relatively quiet restaurant. “I remember you ate the steak pretty well the previous time.”

His omega paused and blinked, shaking his head and sending a piece of cut meat into his mouth. Chewing and swallowing quickly, his omega assured, “I like it, Master.”

“Or… are you not hungry?” He asked, almost frowning at the hardly touched food. Even if his omega wasn’t hungry, he hoped Sungmin would eat more. His omega seemed to have lost quite some weight after the previous ordeal that kept them apart for more than two weeks.

“I…” Sungmin placed his glass of apple juice down, gaze flicking from one direction to another except onto him. “Can I go to the washroom, Master?”

“Sure,” He lifted the napkin from his lap, casually tossing it to the side of the table. “Let’s go.”

Sungmin looked at him hesitantly, muttering as the gaze filled with discomfort dropped. “I can go on my own, Master…”

Turning his head, Kyuhyun scanned the restaurant. Though the restaurant was fully seated at lunch hour, there weren’t many patrons due to the limited seating. It was deliberately arranged to create a quieter and more comfortable ambience – an upper class restaurant like this one could afford to have less customers in order to create the best dining environment for the willing payers of their highly priced food. Reckoning that his omega would be rather safe making one trip to the washroom a few metres away from their table, he relented with a nod. “Alright. I’ll wait for you here.”

“Yes, Master.”

Watching the slightly hunched back of his omega disappearing round the corner leading to the washroom, Kyuhyun sighed aloud to himself, poking his steak around like his omega had been doing a minute ago. He thought the meal would be able to cheer Sungmin up a little or at least give his omega some energy after the visibly draining session his omega had with Soohyang, but it didn’t seem to be producing the effect he had hoped for.

In contrast, his session with Kihwan had been rather enlightening; they did work out a few things with regards to Sungmin’s condition. He had explained his confusion and surprise to Kihwan about the ‘sudden’ change in his omega and how his omega had been so optimistic and bright during the first three days in the hospital, perhaps even more than the first month they had been together. However, when he had fetched Sungmin home, everything changed. And it came so suddenly it caught him entirely offhand, though he had to admit that maybe it was him who was too unobservant to notice that Sungmin was hiding his struggles with issues. He was adamant on the fact that he had failed Sungmin in that way, but Kihwan insisted the fault wasn’t entirely his.

Recalling back from the most recent events, they went through a thorough analysis of the events Sungmin had underwent. When Kyuhyun revealed their visit to the cemetery, Kihwan had suggested a reason for why Sungmin had always seemed afraid of Kyuhyun leaving – the past experience of being abandoned may have left a deep wound on the young pup then. Finding out that his parents and brother were dead might be another form of abandonment from Sungmin’s point of view, thus triggering his fears and causing him to act in that way. The advice was to constantly reassure, to tell Sungmin through words, that he wasn’t going to leave forever, and to promise a return period if he had no choice but to leave his omega’s side for some time. Thus, he had explicitly expressed that he was going to wait here for his omega’s return – something that he wouldn’t have even thought of doing in the past.  

Thinking about his omega’s return from the washroom, Kyuhyun glanced at his wristwatch, noting that almost eight minutes had past. As he contemplated on whether to head over to look for his omega, an all-too-familiar scream pierced the air.

Kyuhyun shot up from the chair, racing towards the small corridor that his omega had gone to. Rounding the corner, he froze, assessing the situation before him.

Sungmin was at the bottom of the staircase, curled up against the wall. Two steps below Kyuhyun, a dressed waitress was rushing down the stairs. An alpha male who had just reached Sungmin stretched out an arm towards the latter and—

“No! N-No!” Sungmin screamed, clambering backwards away from the alpha. The fear and panic in those round eyes drove Kyuhyun’s protective instincts to jump to the surface. He leaped off the staircase in a second, snatching the alpha’s shirt and slamming the man to the opposite wall.

“What the do you think you’re doing to my omega?!” He growled, glaring at the shocked face paling quickly, missing the whimper that escaped his omega a few steps away.

“P-Please, Sir!” The lady waitress dropped to her knees beside them, and Kyuhyun briefly noted the shaking submissive aura indicative of an omega class.

The alpha dressed in a fine grey suit looked towards the waitress, before finally calming down and grabbing Kyuhyun’s wrists in return. “I wasn’t doing anything wrong. I was just trying to help him up!”

A warning rumble tore from Kyuhyun’s throat.

“Really!” The alpha shouted, swearing his innocence. “I swear I didn’t hurt him intentionally! I lost my balance on the steps and accidentally bumped into him but he reacted so violently when I tried to steady him. Then he fell off the stairs himself!”

Kyuhyun narrowed his eyes at the alpha, finding no hints of deceit in the honest expression. “Is it true?” He turned to the kneeling waitress.

“Yes, S-Sir…” The waitress stammered, “I—I—was—down…coming down and saw-saw—”

“If you ever see my omega again, you walk right away in the opposite direction.” Kyuhyun slammed the alpha against the wall once more, using his icy glare to cut through the alpha’s resistance. “Understand?”

“Y-Yes,” the alpha nodded urgently, scrambling awa