VIII

Baekhyun refused to say a word to Chanyeol. He simply followed his commands, such as "please help me unpack,” “organize this,” “come have dinner,” “bed time.” He didn't even look the alpha in the eye, though.

If Chanyeol didn’t try to talk to him, and he hadn’t, he was most certainly not going to.

He didn’t understand. He loved Chanyeol, why wasn't that enough? He enjoyed being with him, but he also was his own person, and he still didn’t fully know the alpha yet. Sometimes he didn't know what to expect, or what was the right thing to do to make him happy. Why did it have to be so complicated?

Baekhyun hadn't meant to defy Chanyeol personally, he simply believed many of society’s customs were beyond ridiculous, and he had assumed Chanyeol didn’t care that much about him not following them.

He didn’t think any of it was his fault, though. He hadn't done anything wrong. He hadn't disobeyed his mate or called him names or anything like that. He couldn't read Chanyeol's mind.

However, he was too afraid to say any of this now. Baekhyun didn’t want to feel as helpless as he had during their last confrontation again. If it hadn't happened in public, Baekhyun didn’t think it would have ended very well for him.

He considered running away, but that was illegal, and in fact he couldn’t even leave the country without his mate’s written authorization. Besides, leaving Chanyeol would hurt him badly. Their bond was still too new.

With all of this in mind, Baekhyun took a deep breath and closed his eyes, quickly falling asleep in Chanyeol’s arms.

*

Suho came out of his office with a folder in his hands. "Baekhyun, please store this before you go," he said, walking past Chanyeol, who was leaning against the divider.

"So, Suho, are you going out tonight?" Chanyeol asked him.

It was omega night tonight, a national holiday in which all single omegas within the mating age went to bars and clubs, in order to try their luck at finding a partner. Most places let them enter and drink for free, and held all sorts of events. The custom was for omegas to visit as many establishments as possible so as to be in contact with many alphas. Some hopeful betas also went out, either to admire the omegas, or to attempt hooking up at the end of the night with any of the ones that stayed single. Many couples were formed this way, but for most it was just the fun. After all, it was one of the very few situations in which omegas were expected to go out and flirt.

"Oh, I don't know. Last year I went by myself..." Suho started saying as he placed the folder on Baekhyun’s desk.

"And?"

"It was pretty depressing," he continued, and sighed. "I'm going to be twenty five in a few months," he made a grimace. Twenty five was the maximum age to mate naturally for an alpha. If he didn't feel the pull by then, he could still have a partner, but in the beta way. That meant he'd have to date and be bound to someone by choice. It happened, since omegas were a minority.

A sudden idea popped in Chanyeol’s mind. "You can go with Kris! He doesn't have anyone to go with either," he suggested cheerfully.

"Kris? Kris despises me."

"What? Kris doesn't despise anyone! Why are you all always saying those things about him?"

"Because he does?"

"No, you all misunderstand him. Look. There he goes,” he glanced towards the other alpha, who was exiting his office. “KRIS!”

"Chanyeol, please don't-"

"Hey, Kris!" Chanyeol waved at him.

"Oh, God."

"There he comes," he smiled, ignoring Suho’s pained expression. Kris approached them.  "Suho doesn't want to go out alone tonight. Do you want to go with him? Since you're both unmated and stuff,” Chanyeol told him.

Kris stared at Suho for a while. "...Okay?"

Suho's eyes went wide.

"See? He doesn't hate you. Baek, we should get going, are you done?" he asked and tapped on his omega’s desk.

Baekhyun nodded and rose from his chair immediately.

"Good luck, then!  Hopefully won't see you tomorrow!" Chanyeol said before pulling Baekhyun with him and disappearing.

"...Bye," Suho whispered and then cleared his throat. “Uhm, we don’t have to go anywhere, it was Chanyeol’s idea, I don’t really care.”

“It’s fine, I don’t have anything else to do,” Kris shrugged. “Do you have anything in mind?”

“...I usually go around to a few clubs.”

“If you want you can leave your car here and-”

“No, thank you, I’m taking my car,” Suho interrupted quickly. “In case... You know... Any of us gets lucky,” he added.

He wondered what he had gotten himself into.  Or what Chanyeol had gotten him into.

*

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