XI

Baekhyun and Jonghyun entered the luxurious bar and sat down in a table. These kind of bars were always Jonghyun’s first choice. He said there were less probabilities of having trouble in one of them.

“What can I bring you?” the waiter asked them.

“I want an orange juice,” Baekhyun said.

“A what? Baekhyun, don’t be ridiculous,” Jonghyun looked up. “A bottle of rum,” he said firmly and handled the menu back to the waiter.

“No! Chanyeol doesn’t like it if I drink without him around!” Baekhyun tried to call the waiter back, but he was already in another table.

“If you don’t drink with me I’m out of here,” his friend replied flatly.

“...Ugh, fine, just one then.”

“Chanyeol likes this, Chanyeol doesn’t like this,” the blonde mocked. “I never, ever, thought I’d see you like that,” he shook his head as if he was a lost cause.

“Like what? It’s not a big deal!” Baekhyun shot back, exasperated. “Chanyeol is great, and he loves me. He deserves that I at least try to respect his instincts and... Stop looking at me like that!”

“The Baekhyun I knew back then would have killed himself if I had told him he’d end up like this.”

“Look, I was a little radical, I hated alphas, I hated omegas who conformed. You were there when I had that huge fight with Kyungsoo when Kai made him leave college. But I met Chanyeol, and I'm trying to change... For him."

Jonghyun didn’t seem impressed. “So Chanyeol can't deal with the fact that you're free to live your own life? Somehow you were hurting him?”

Baekhyun lowered his eyes. “He’s an alpha, he needs to be dominant,” he replied, although he wasn't so sure of his answer. "It's not like he can help it."

“Oh, so what Hyunseok did to me wasn’t his fault! Poor thing, didn’t mean it!”

Baekhyun fell silent after that. He watched as the waiter came with the bottle and filled their glasses. He took a long sip before looking back at Jonghyun.

“It’s... It’s different. Hyunseok was sick.”

“He didn’t seem so when we met, believe me! He was 'caring' and 'protective'. Oh, and what about Changmin when I was in high school? Surely his instinct made him do that with his disgusting friends! And Professor Lee, how could I not see she couldn’t help it? I’m so judgmental,” he said sarcastically.

Baekhyun pursed his lips, unsure of what to say.

Nobody could really blame Jonghyun for his deep hatred of alphas. His mother, an alpha, had abandoned his father, a beta, for someone else when Jonghyun was only five years old, and he had never heard from her again. His father