This was the second time he woke up tonight while the sun was still nowhere to be seen. It was getting a bit lighter though, the sky started to turn lighter navy, indicating dusk. Whining to himself, Soonyoung took out his phone, put it down again when he thought about the blinding screen light, and turned to his left to reach for the alarm clock. Still five o’clock. Another 5 hours before his first class of the semester…

Turning to his back, Soonyoung stared at the ceiling. He couldn’t sleep. He kept thinking about what he saw, and it had been bothering him last night. He didn’t want to pay attention to it because he knew he was halfway through forgetting the man, but his heart had a mind of its own it seems.

Soonyoung sat up and stretched around. Since he couldn’t sleep, he might as well do something to distract him from whatever. Honestly, there was really nothing to do. It was still the beginning of the new semester so he had no homework or projects to work on, and Youtube? He watched everything he wanted back at home during the break. He really needed the sleep, because he was bored.

Staring outside the window, he contemplated on whether he should go for a jog. It looked cold. Turning around to look at his running shoes, then to the clock, he decided to go with it.

When he returned about two and a half hour later, he saw the new students already outside, listening to their facilitators. It was the first day of the week, they were having their ice-breaking session in a few minutes. Getting straight to his room, to the shower, Soonyoung laid on his stomach on the bed, playing around with his phone, trying to kill time before class.

Maybe he should go to some cafe or the cafeteria instead and have some fancy drink. Yeah, that seemed like a great idea. He needed the caffeine to make up for his lack of sleep anyway. Putting on his large shirt over a long-sleeved inner, he took out his coat and prepared to go out.

Before that, he needed to do something. Just out of curiousity. Peeking outside the window towards the freshmen in the lawn, he gave them a quick one-through. Indeed, there was no one who looked even the least bit similar to Wonwoo. Disappointed, but relief at the same time, he made his way down to the first floor before double checking his watch.

‘Urgh.’ Now that he thought about it, the cafes wouldn’t open until 9. Sitting at the bench near the vending machine, Soonyoung googled the list of shops in the campus, filtering over to look at someplace nearby where he can spend his free time. And while doing so, his eyes caught some movement opposite him, where the east exit was. It seemed, they were doing the orientation in both yards. He completely forgot about it since he always use the main exit and never hang out outside the dorm.

. Now he felt like checking. It was annoying, how this feeling kept appearing whenever he thought he was through with it. Exhaling deeply, still nervous, Soonyoung made his way towards the exit, praying that he wouldn’t see anything so he can finally close this chapter of his life. If he do not see Wonwoo here, then that means he wasn’t here. End of story.

Peeking out of the glass door, Soonyoung scanned the place, from the group at the very end, to the ones near the gate. Nobody looked like his ex-lover. Smiling to himself, Soonyoung laughed to himself. He was so silly to think that a beta would be here. He must have been out of his mind.

…god. Wonwoo should already be a third year student so he wouldn’t be joining the orientation anyway. But even if he was a third year, he wouldn’t suddenly just turned into an omega.

Okay, now he was convinced he was getting mad. All this stress was really taking a toll on him. He should meet Seokmin to release everything.

Good idea! He should ask the alpha if he was already awake. Maybe they can spend some time together before the first period.

Walking to the gate, humming to himself while messaging his trial lover, Soonyoung froze.

He heard it. Wonwoo’s voice. It was weaker, and less energetic than usual, but it was his. There were only so many people with a voice that deep.

Turning around to search for the owner, he frowned. Wonwoo was not there.

Soonyoung decided to leave this place as soon as possible. This was very disturbing.

*****

The first day ended with third period, his fourth starting the following week. Again, left with nothing to do, Soonyoung first wanted to walk around campus, not really having the courage to return to the dorm but upon seeing the new students being guided around campus, he rushed back. He didn’t know why he was so scared. He wanted to talk at first, which was why he wanted to find Wonwoo, but now, he just want everything to stay as it is - Wonwoo not appearing, and him working on his relationship with Seokmin.

Lying on his bed, he sighed. He was really bored.

Looking at the clock, Soonyoung tried to recall what time he got back on the first day of orientation. He couldn’t remember the exact time, but it was after dinner, maybe. Which meant he would have time to walk around the dorm’s vicinity before he would stumble upon the new members.

…but as long as he remained on his floor, it shouldn’t matter because he DO remember seeing Wonwoo disappearing on the first floor which meant that his room was there. They wouldn’t see each other. If, Wonwoo was really here that is.

Good.

Now that that was settled, he could now go to the lounge to watch some shows on the television. Gag Concert was showing, it’s been a while seen he last saw it. Sitting down at the furthest end of the couch, Soonyoung laid back and watched. His favourite comedian was in a weird costume again. This should be fun.

Spamming the medic student with the jokes from the show, Soonyoung didn’t realize two new faces entering the room and sat on the other end. When he finally looked up, they both bowed to him, indicating that they were first years.

Awkward, Soonyoung looked at the time. It was still early so these girls were skipping orientation. Not that he minded. They were excitedly waiting for the next show to play, which is Immortal Song. As the commercial kept showing, they got bored and started chatting softly. Though the oldest pretended to be busy with his phone, he was actually quite curious about what they were talking about since they were whispering.

Owh. He just got a really brilliant idea of how he was going to stop being paranoid about Wonwoo. He could just ask these two. Whatever the answer was, he would finally be able to move on.

But how the hell should he start asking? He really didn’t want to pretend to be friendly, what if they thought he really wanted to be friends and start to hang around him. That would be hell.

However, if he didn’t ask them about it, he would spend his time worrying over the guy. Then he would start to get obsessed; wondering if the beta was really here, avoiding him when he wasn’t even here in the first place. That would be another hell. That would be worse than hell.

Urgh. Whatever. ‘Are you guys new?’

That was awkward. He knew his communicating skills but that was really awkward. Are they new? Duh. They were talking about orientation! Dammit. He really wanted to throw himself out of the window right now.

They smiled at him. Owh. Okay. They are really sweet. Good.

Now they were introducing themselves. Good. He already forgot their name. He was really not interested. Now they were expecting him to do the same. Alright then. But he wouldn’t want to use his real name. No. What if they stalk him on Facebook or something. Not good.

He opted on using Hoshi so they wouldn’t be able to find him later. And since he always return back at night, they won’t stumble into him anytime soon. Owh, he is such a genius.

Enough dilly-dallying. He should go straight to the point, before the show starts and they lose interest. ‘There’s quite a few interesting people this year. My batch was boring.’ He tried to seem confident, mentioning something about generation gap.

The girls were laughing at his joke and he continued to bring up a few interesting faces he met yesterday, to push them to talk about their batch. He hoped they would mention Wonwoo because for him, that man is one of the memorable ones but instead, they kept on talking about people he was not interested in. They really didn’t know how to quit once they start to talk though, he noticed. He couldn’t even interrupt to give them some hints.

‘Isn’t there a guy with very deep voice?’ He was finally able to stop their yapping by speaking a little louder.

‘A few…’

‘The tall, white guy that looks like a model.’

‘Aaahh.’ Soonyoung felt his heart jumped as the girls showed some sort of recognition. That was enough to let him know that he was not imagining things. Wonwoo was indeed, here. But something about their expression worried the oldest. They were looking at each other with a distasteful expression. One of them even dragged her word, ‘Him…’

‘What?’

They seemed reluctant to speak but Soonyoung could feel that they were itching to spill it. He could always tell those kind of people, having the look like the ahjummas back home. Which meant that they wanted to badmouth him. And though he didn’t really want to hear it, he was curious. Curious about the man who left him without a word.

‘I heard he’s running away from his mate.’

Mate? Wonwoo can’t have a mate. He’s a be- he’s an omega now…

‘Uh-uh. Someone from his team told us he left his child with his mate.’

Child? Bull. Impossible. Nonsense. He wasn’t an omega yet when he last met him which was less than nine months ago. Wait, he did smell like an omega back then too... Unless he was already carrying… No. He was still a beta back then. He was sure of it. So that means what they were saying wasn’t true. Unless… premature…

‘He does look kinda weird don’t you think?’ the girl on the left asked her friend who nodded. ‘He seemed very dark.’

Soonyoung looked at them, ‘Really?’

They must be talking about someone else. This must be a misunderstanding on his part. Thank god. Wonwoo is not depressing. He is sweet, a bit awkward but funny. Nothing about him even hinted on being ‘dark’, except when he had his resting face on, which looked like he is sleepy. Now he can rest easy knowing that everything was just in his mind.

‘Never thought I’d meet someone like that. He’s two years older than us.’

‘Someone said he dropped his first college because he got pregnant. Without bonding.’

‘Omo really? But his mate?’

‘Not the father.’

Soonyoung went pale. Two years older. That had to be a coincidence right? There was now way…

He heard the nonsense they were talking. He knew the part about dropping out was not true but pregnant? And a mate? Surely they won’t lie about the mate right? Because a mate’s scent couldn’t be faked…

. He felt lightheaded.

He could hear ringing in his ears.

He didn’t want to be here. He needed to lay down.

Water.

Getting up, Soonyoung rushed to his room, not caring about the gossiping omegas anymore. He just wanted to be alone. He didn’t feel good.

That night. The last night they were together. He remembered smelling an omega on Wonwoo. He thought the man was cheating on him. And then, Wonwoo ignored him. He thought it was because he knew about Seokmin and him.

Jeonghan told him to give up… was it really because Wonwoo had changed? He thought Jeonghan meant a change of heart or anything else but he… to an omega?

No, maybe he did have a change of heart. Since he got himself a mate and pregnant. So he was cheating.

Okay. Maybe he didn’t get pregnant. That was impossible. Maybe that was a mere rumour. But a mate? He actually bonded with someone?? They had been dating for a year but Wonwoo never even dared to touch him. A few months presented and already mated?

ing hypocrite. After all that talk about not sleeping around. And here he thought he was the bad one for not be able to resist temptation. Turns out he was the better one for keeping up with Wonwoo’s bull.

What a hypocrite!!

Breathing heavily, furious at his thoughts, Soonyoung realized something even worse.

The fact that Wonwoo is an omega. Just like him.

He had been dating an omega.

Just like his mom and his uncle.

It made him sick to the stomach.

Running to the toilet, Soonyoung gripped on the side of the sink as he spilled his guts out.

This was not happening.

To be continued...

This is short, I know ^^ I'm splitting the chapter into two parts that's why!