There’s thirteen of them and statistically speaking they were bound to have at least one other omega in the group, Jihoon just wished it wasn’t Soonyoung.

It’s stupid, but when Seokmin drags Soonyoung out of the practice room after he collapses suddenly, the first thing Jihoon thinks is that at least he knows he’s gay now.

Then he’s swallowed by the creeping blackness of pure panic as he realizes that his bandmate, friend, crush, whatever, just went into heat in the middle of the dance practice.

Jeonghan waits for a few minutes, breathing heavily through his mouth, before leaving the room, Jun following after him.

Jihoon can’t tell exactly what Soonyoung smelled like, but he can tell that it smells good.

Fruity.

Seungkwan coughs and it snaps Jihoon out of his thoughts, “.” He says aloud.

Hansol chuckles nervously. Nobody else makes a sound.

It’s almost three days later before management tells them anything; Soonyoung is fine, he’s in a hotel, they’ll talk when his heat is over.

Seungcheol sits them all down the night before he’s supposed to come home and has everyone voice any concerns they may have.

This is their first time dealing with a presentation since they became Seventeen. Unless you counted Seokmin, Jihoon went to four years of health class and he still isn’t sure if a beta’s coming of age counts as presenting or not.

“We won’t let this affect us, nothing has really changed.” Seungcheol said, trying to look confident.

Jihoon feels uncomfortable throughout the whole meeting, everyone keeps shooting him nervous glances. He knows it’s stupid, but he feels like they’ve all figured him out, they all know that he’s got a stupid crush on his stupid omega best friend.

“Can you stop.” He finally snaps at Wonwoo, who happens to have the unfortunate luck of choosing to look his way the second Jihoon gets fed up. “You all keep looking at me like you want something.”

“You haven’t said anything.” Jeonghan points out, bluntly.

Seungcheol quickly comes to his defense, “He doesn’t have to say anything, we’re all processing.”

“Just ‘cause I’m the other omega doesn’t mean I’m affected any differently than the rest of you.” Jihoon knows it sounds defensive.

“Maybe if you would open up and talk to use, we would know that. All we know is that you’re the only other omega this pack has ever had and you’ve been even quieter than normal since this happened.” Jihoon knows Jeonghan doesn’t mean it badly, but he feels his annoyance rise.

He scoffs, “I presented barely a year ago, how did you react when Jun presented?” He doesn’t let Jeonghan answer, “I thought we all agreed that we wouldn’t have any of that hierarchy bull, Soonyoung is still Soonyoung, just like I was still Jihoon and you were still Jeonghan when we presented.”

The room goes quiet, Jihoon picks at his jeans. He doesn’t want to be here anymore, he knows everyone is definitely staring at him now.

The tea pot goes off in the kitchen. Seungkwan jumps up, looking grateful for the interruption, “Who want’s a cup?” He smiles.

A few hands are raised and Hansol gets up to help out.

“I’m going to get some air.” Jihoon says, stretching as he stands.

Seungcheol chews his lip, “Okay, be back soon, we have practice early tomorrow.” He relents.

Jihoon thanks him quietly, appreciating the way he doesn't push or ask questions.

He slips into his sneakers and pulls on a sweatshirt to combat whatever chill the night may bring before heading out.

Their building isn’t super tall, but it has enough stories for the roof to have a nice view of the surrounding suburbs.

Jihoon wishes he knew about the constellations, it would give him something to think about that wasn’t Soonyoung. Though his stupid brain would probably bring him up anyways. He allows himself a few minutes to wallow, remembering Soonyoung’s surprised face and the small noise he made when he realized what was happening.

Then it gets depressing again as his cynical realistic side starts to kick in reminding him that his dumb infatuation with his bandmate was one-sided and weird.

Then Jeonghan steps out onto the roof with two cups of steaming liquid, one in each hand.

“You know I didn’t mean anything.” Jeonghan sits next to him, putting a warm mug of something that smells good on the concrete. The steam floats up and dissipates in the brisk air.

“Yeah.” Jihoon agrees. He knows Jeonghan is honest to the point of abrasiveness. He also knows that he had a point when he said that Jihoon was being closed-off and pouty. “Sorry about being a brat, this is hard on all of us, I know.”

Jeonghan frowned, “You don’t have to apologize, I was out of line and pushed too hard, you just called me out on it.” He takes a sip of the tea, “But you know, it’s okay to have emotion sometimes, I know you’re a robot and all but we’ll listen to you if you need to let it out.”

Jihoon ignores the robot comment, “I know,” he hesitates, “I’m just processing everything.”

“Take your time, I’m always open to talk if you need to.” Jeonghan stands up, offering him a hand but Jihoon shakes him off, now he feels like his heart is made of mush. He doesn’t know how he deserved such good friends, but he’s happy he has them.

Jeonghan shrugs, “It’s cold as out here, I’m going back inside.”

“Weak.” Jihoon jeered.

“Smart.” Jeonghan corrected.

Jihoon waited until he was half-way through the door, “Thank you.” it’s quiet, barely audible over the wind, but Jeonghan shoots him a thumbs-up.

Jihoon wishes he could be in love with Jeonghan. At one point in his life, right after his first heat, he had thought about it. What being with an alpha would be like, it still makes him cringe. He had justified it before as him being so head-over-heels for Soonyoung that not even the alphas musky scent could stir arousal.

But now that he lets himself, he can see the attractiveness in omegas. He likes the softness of them, how they smell lighter than alphas.

He watches music programs with the rest of group, looking out for any omegas in the bands that perform. Even with Soonyoung sitting below him, he still finds other omega idols hot.

It was strange to finally accept what he had spent most of his adolescents denying, but it was freeing in a sense.

Yeah, he liked omegas, and yeah, he was an omega.

As Jihoon lays in bed that night, he let’s mind wander.

He wonders what would have happened if Soonyoung had presented as a beta like everyone thought he would.

But thinking about Soonyoung eventually leads him to strange places, and he isn’t so devoid of morals that he would be willing to in his bed with Mingyu sleeping less than a foot away.

So he just lies there, trying to compose songs and write lyrics, which normally helps him doze off. It works well enough, when he jolts awake five hours later to the unmistakeable sound of the doorbell ringing.

Seungcheol groggily shifts out of bed, rubbing his eyes lethargically, “What the .”

Mingyu groans and Jeonghan pushes onto the floor, “That’s probably Soonyoung.”

It’s like a jolt of energy suddenly hits the room, Seungcheol grabs a pair of pants that Jihoon is pretty sure are Wonwoo’s and pulls his hood up to cover his bed head.

The four of them stumble out of their bedroom.

Seokmin is already by the door and Jun and Minghao are on the couch. Seungcheol sends everyone a reassuring smile before fixing his hair one last time and opening the door.

“Good morning.” He smiles politely as a few of their managers pile into the living room, followed by Soonyoung.

Soonyoung smells like cherries.

After four days of wondering what that smell was Jihoon finally knows.

He can see it in the way Jeonghan tenses his shoulders and Jun’s immediate fidgeting that he isn’t the only one to notice the scent.

Soonyoung looks embarrassed, won’t meet anyone’s eyes and seems to shrink under Seokmin’s comforting hand on his shoulder.

The managers talk for a bit as the rest of the group shuffles into the room. A meeting is scheduled for tomorrow to discuss things, and they all have the day off.

Once they leave, it’s quiet for a while, which is eerie. The dorm was never quite, even moments when you would expect silence were filled with noise, between Seungkwan’s phone calls to his parents and Hansol’s too loud music coming from his ty headphone that he never seemed to turn off.

It was part of their charm.

“Welcome back.” Minghao unexpectedly breaks the silence, he pulls Soonyoung into a hug that he doesn't flinch away from.

“Thanks.” Soonyoung says, his voice is scratchy like he’s been screaming. Jihoon supposes he has, but if he starts thinking about Soonyoung in heat it’s going to make him very uncomfortable which would be incredibly inappropriate at the current moment.

“Jun bought food, are you hungry?” Seungcheol frets, his beta instincts kicking in, “Do you want to sleep?” He’s used to Jihoon’s heats, which he comes out from exhausted and begging for peace and quiet.

“Nah,” Soonyoung smiles and Jihoon’s heart pulls against his chest, “Food sounds good though.”

So they all move out of the hall and into the living room together like a school of fish. Soonyoung sits in the middle of the couch as Minghao and Wonwoo quickly grab the seats next to him.

It moves fast from there, Seungkwan brings out a carton of convenience store ramen and someone turns on the tv to a music show. They make fun of their friends when they show up and sing-a-long to new releases.

It’s normal and jarring. Jihoon feels lost. He wants to go up to Soonyoung, to be comfortable around him like he was before this, but something holds him back.

Eventually he heads into the kitchen, mumbling something about getting a glass of water.

Soonyoung follows him in.

“We’re still cool right?” Soonyoung asks, biting his lips and playing with the frayed ends of his sweatshirt.

“Yeah of course.” Jihoon replies, relieved that Soonyoung started the conversation so he didn’t have too.

Soonyoung breaks out into a blindingly bright smile that makes Jihoon want to clutch at his heart, “We’re gonna’ be omega bros.” He laughs.

“Yeah.” Jihoon half-smiles half-grimaces, Soonyoung doesn’t notice “‘Bros’ for life, I guess.”

He lets Soonyoung drag his arm and lead him back into the noisy living room.

“You almost missed SHINee.” Seungkwan yelled.

Jihoon liked SHINee, they were one of the many bands that inspired him, but he couldn’t focus on their performance. Instead he tried to be discrete as he stared at Soonyoung.