The next day, Eunbi arrived at school on time. Choi Yuna and Hwang Eunbi were by the gates waiting for her and looking like kicked puppies—or at least, Yuna did. Ddin just looked bored. Eunbi approached them and allowed them to awkwardly apologize for a moment, before waving them off and saying she wasn’t angry at them. After making sure they had stopped blaming themselves for the previous day, Eunbi and the other two went to their respective classes. Eunbi wasn’t sure how to speak to them again, so it was a pleasant surprise to have her friends come to her before the class started. Now, she just had one thing to worry about.

In her defense, the omega had tried to not feel anxious at the thought of seeing Kim Sojung again. She’s just a classmate, Jung Eunbi, nothing to be overthinking, you already did that enough, she repeated to herself as they walked towards her classroom. Stop thinking about her, because she had indeed thought quite a lot about the alpha when she got home, especially after realizing some of the other’s scent had aded her clothes.

The omega let out a long sigh, entering the classroom with Ddin. The smell wasn’t there anymore as Eunbi had returned those clothes to the school and she was somewhat thankful. Even though Eunbi admitted to herself that Sojung’s scent was quite good, it was very… distracting.

She was happy no one at her house had noticed it, otherwise such a feminine scent screaming alpha would’ve sent her family crazy. Her parents weren’t exactly close-minded, but they were easily impressionable by the media and its stories. Eunbi was afraid the couple would try to do something about it in case they had noticed and had found out that a female alpha was her classmate. And she sure hoped no one’s parents would do anything about it either.

“Aren’t you going to sit?” Ddin asked, looking at Eunbi just standing by the window, hands resting on top of her backpack.

“Yeah,” she answered absentmindedly.

If someone had told their parents about a female alpha at school, would it turn out bad for Sojung? They studied at a private school in which parents often had a stronger say on school matters. It was ridiculous, but things were undeniably like that. Eunbi caught her lower lip between her teeth, suddenly worrying about her classmates and their hypothetical big mouths. Maybe if a powerful person didn’t like her presence there—maybe they could get her out? No, she thought, shaking her head, they wouldn’t do that. There are s around here, but… but hopefully they won’t try anything so outrageous.

“Yah, Jung Eunbi!”

Eunbi felt a finger poke her belly and she let out a startled squeal, taking a step back. The omega frowned at her friend who looked unimpressed by her angry expression. “Why did you do that for?” She asked, holding back a pout.

The other rolled her eyes, “you looked like you were in another dimension. Sit down for once. The teacher’s arriving.”

Eunbi begrudgingly sat down. She started taking her books out of the hamburger backpack, letting her mind freely wander around the possible scenarios Kim Sojung’s presence could trigger.

“Morning, class.”

Students scurried to their seats and their History teacher entered the classroom closing the door behind her. Eunbi’s brow furrowed as she couldn’t catch Sojung’s scent anywhere. Her short hair shifted backwards as she whipped her head to look at the back of the class and be sure of something she already knew. Eyes catching Ddin’s, she mouthed a question that only got a shrug as an answer. Of course, the other wouldn’t know where Sojung was.

Eunbi looked forward, squirming on her chair. Don’t overthink it, Eunbi, she must have had something else to do and—Eunbi’s scrambled thoughts only came to a halt when that citrus scent slowly crawled into the room, making her head swirl towards the now closed door. She swallowed dryly, expectation quickly increasing on her heart; it wasn’t a surprise to her—or to anyone inside the class—when soft knocks resonated. Nevertheless, the omega slightly jolted when Sojung appeared, a paper in her hand being promptly handed to the teacher. Eunbi watched as the woman read it and told Sojung to sit down.

She wasn’t hoping to be acknowledged, she really wasn’t. But when Kim Sojung just walked towards her desk without sparing her a glance, Eunbi deflated a little. A turmoil of thoughts swirled in her head. Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath and willed her heart to calm down. That didn’t prove itself as a good idea, though, as the omega inhaled that citric yet sweet scent. Her eyes burst open and the teacher’s voice was no more than a white noise when she looked over her shoulder to see the alpha looking at her.

Kim Sojung smiled.

“Now! I will tell you who are your pairs.”

Suddenly, the collective groaning from her classmates shook her out of her entrance. Eunbi’s eyes darted to the blackboard that read about an assignment due in two weeks. It was in pairs and there were several different topics that were going to be sorted. However, the thing that got Eunbi frowning in discontent was the sentence right in the middle, written in yellow chalk: Pairs will be arranged by the teacher.

“Stop complaining. We all know you guys will just pair up with your besties or whatever and don’t get anything done,” she exclaimed, unfolding a couple of paper sheets. “Silence, now! I’ll read the pairings and I’m not going to repeat myself.”

Ddin’s grunted a few impolite words behind her that got a smile out of Eunbi. She absolutely hated this kind of situation and it was the same for the other omega. They worked just fine together—sure, maybe they procrastinated a lot, but they got things done in time. Working with people they knew nothing about, though, was like the doomed path to hell. She slumped against her seat’s rest and leaned her head backwards to glance quickly at Ddin. She looked beyond annoyed.

“Hwang Eunbi and Im Changkyun.”

Eunbi couldn’t help but to snicker at that, which earned her a light punch on the shoulder. Im Changkyun was one of the shiest alphas she had ever met and maybe not working with Ddin would be terrible, but it’d be funny enough to see her interact with that boy. The teacher kept announcing names and the complaining started to grow on volume; Eunbi could barely listen to her voice.

“…and Kim Sojung.”

But at the name of the alpha, everyone quieted down. Eunbi blinked confusedly, turning to whisper to Ddin, “who is paired with Sojung-ssi?”

The other omega shrugged, not having listened to it as well. “Excuse me, teacher,” she asked, raising her hand. “But we couldn’t listen. Who is paired up with Kim Sojung?”

Eunbi looked at the woman who heavily sighed. “I said, Hwang, that Lee Jiho and Kim Sojung are paired.”

“What?” They turned to look at the beta sitting near the door. The girl, black hair tied up in a high pony-tail, hazel eyes blown wide, looked like she just had been insulted. Lee Jiho shaked her head immediately and petulantly voiced, “I don’t want to do it with her.”

The teacher visibly paled and glanced at Sojung, “Jiho-ssi, I don’t think I ever gave the—”

“I don’t care, teacher, you can’t make me work together with her,” the beta growled.

“And can I know why, Jiho?”

Believe her, Eunbi wasn’t planning on saying anything at all. It wasn’t like her to say anything ever. But she couldn’t help the way her blood boiled, and her body warmed in anger. The omega knew the change in her scent was noticeable when Ddin’s hand was suddenly on her shoulder; her friend mumbled something, but she couldn’t listen to her. Eunbi was too busy glaring at Lee Jiho.

“You know why, Jung Eunbi,” her classmate hissed.

“Oh, I sure don’t,” Eunbi scoffed. “Nobody here gets to decide their pair. I don’t know why you are so adamant on choosing yours.”

“Are you really that dumb? It’s obvious! I am not going to work with a—"

“Girls!” The teacher harshly interrupted them, placing the papers on the table with a loud thump. “Stop right now, you are too old for these stupid quarrels.”

“Whatever you say, teach,” Jiho shrugged, “but I won’t be doing anything with Kim Sojung.”

“Kim Jiho—”

“And I think Jung Eunbi should be the one doing it, since she’s so… engaged on the subject.”

Jiho’s tone was full of mockery as if she just had pushed Eunbi off a cliff.

The omega could feel all the eyes on her and her heart sped up inside her chest. She didn’t like being the center of attentions, especially in cases like this. Often, Eunbi liked to keep it to herself. The omega’s throat dried and Ddin probably called her, but she wasn’t sure. She was slightly panicking. I need to say something, she told herself, but before she could force something out, a strong, beautiful voice resounded.

“I’m sorry, teacher, but I’m sure I can do my assignment on my own.”

Eunbi whipped her head towards Sojung. The alpha sat with a perfect posture, a black pen between her fingers. She really looked like a queen, even wearing the school’s uniform and having her long, blonde hair tied up in a low pony-tail.

“Sojung-ssi, this assignment is not supposed to be done alone,” the teacher stated, forcing her voice to stay stable.

“I know, but I’m sure it’ll be better this way.”

No, it won’t, Eunbi clenched her jaw. She looked at the teacher and saw the uncertainty in her eyes. It was obvious that the assignment was way too big for someone to do it alone in such a short span of time, but would she take the risk of upsetting her students over this?

Eunbi saw in her expression that she wouldn’t.

moved on its own. “The pairs will be all messed up like this. Let me and—and Sojung-ssi do it together.”

Oh, Eunbi could already hear the whispers and surprised gasps. She could imagine the words that would run through the school when the classes were over. She definitely could see her nonexistent reputation being flushed down the drain by Lee Jiho and everyone else. However, she couldn’t bring herself to care as she looked straight into the teacher’s eyes, almost daring, in all her omega glory, the woman to refuse it.

“Well,” she swallowed, “are you—are you fine with it, Sojung-ssi?”

Eunbi couldn’t make herself look at the other when a long silent second preceded the other’s answer.

“Yes, teacher.”

“Then, it’s, uh, settled. Jiho-ssi, you’ll stay with Choi Gaeun. Now, who’s absent today…”

Eunbi remembers her friend shaking her shoulder, trying to get her to talk, but that’s pretty much it. The omega can’t remember how or if she replied, she only knows a strong mixture of worry, fear and anxiety crawled onto her mind and made her blank out for the rest of the class. Be that as it may, Eunbi knows, for a fact, that the bell rings and Ddin’s out of the classroom when she turns on her chair to look at her friend and she’s not there. Instead, an alpha stands by the desk, sharp eyes looking straight into hers.

Eunbi would be lying if she didn’t say her heart skipped a beat at that moment.

“Jung Eunbi-ssi.”

“Kim Sojung-ssi,” she said, quietly and almost too broken.

Sojung’s expression softened a little and she offered her a small smile. “Can I sit here?”

“Um, yeah, for sure.”

“Thanks,” the alpha sat on Ddin’s chair, back facing the window. She relaxed her shoulders, resting an arm over the table and the other on the chair. Sojung was silent for a moment and Eunbi decided to wait, not trusting her ability of speaking at the moment.

The omega wondered if she had angered Sojung. Surely, the other didn’t look angry, but maybe she was. Maybe Sojung wanted to do her assignment alone; maybe Eunbi would be a bother and she shouldn’t have in; maybe—maybe she had messed up big time. On top of it all, she had managed to pick up a fight with Lee Jiho, who wasn’t such an important figure in school, but was friends with a lot of the rich kids. But, again, I couldn’t just stay quiet, the omega thought, suddenly finding the hem of her black skirt really interesting.

“Eunbi-ssi?”

She flinched a little at the call, but was quick to recompose her posture, turning to look at Sojung and forcing her hands to stay still on her lap. “Yes?”

Sojung looked like she was measuring her up and Eunbi couldn’t know if she liked it or not—probably the later, but she quietly waited for the other to speak before she could comment on it.

“I just wanted to say that…” the alpha started and averted her eyes to the wall in front of her, “I just wanted to say that it was nice of you to, well, say all of those things. But…”

“But?”

Eunbi’s eyes were blown wide and Sojung clearly gulped at the sigh. Once, Ddin had told Eunbi that she looked like a bunny and it was so adorably fluffy that no one could deny her anything—the omega didn’t trust her words seeing how most of the times she didn’t get things her way, but now, as she observed Sojung hesitate at the sight of her expression, she wondered if that was true.

“But, uh, but you didn’t need to. I’m used to this kind of situation,” her lips curled up in a polite smile, “and you don’t need to put yourself through this. I’ll talk to the teacher and I’m sure she’ll understand and allow you to do the assignment with Hwang Eunbi.”

Tilting her head to the side, Eunbi asked, “what do you mean? You… want to do it alone?”

“It’s not like that,” Sojung sighed, “it’s just that… while I appreciate your words and everything, I know that it can be uncomfortable for someone to work with me and… and… why are you looking at me like that?”

With her lips pursed in a pout, Eunbi averted her eyes. “Sorry, I should’ve known it would be a bother to you. I’m really sorry for butting in like that—”

“Oh, no, Eunbi-ssi, really,” the alpha’s tone subtly raised and the cleared before continuing, “what I mean is that I don’t want you to force yourself to do anything.”

Clicking her tongue, Eunbi’s brow furrowed. “There you go again with the ‘forcing yourself’ thing. I already told you that I’m not forcing myself to do anything.” The omega knew her voice sounded pouty and even whiny, but she didn’t stop. “I’m capable of making choices on my own, Sojung-ssi.”

A short pause ensued and Eunbi raised her head to look at Sojung. The taller girl was looking at the wall, quietly munching on her lower lip. “I’m sure you are, Eunbi-ssi, it’s just that…”

“Look, I… I think I can understand why you are so hesitant, but…” the omega mumbled, “but you shouldn’t mistrust my intentions? Damn, this sounded pretty awkward, uh, what I mean is that I’m not being forced to anything and, to be honest,” Eunbi let out a nervous chuckle, “I don’t even know what I’m doing! But this isn’t fair and I’m sure we could… we could work well if we tried.”

In all honesty, Eunbi thought she’d crumble down to pieces when Sojung’s gaze fell on her. The alpha her lower lip and nodded. “Fine, let’s do this, Eunbi-ssi.”

Eunbi wasn’t sure she was about to jump in joy or start shaking. “Okay… but stop calling me that… it sounds too formal.”

For the first time that day, Sojung smiled properly and the omega tried to convince herself her heart pace didn’t spike up because of that. “Sure, princess.”

“Not that either! What’s wrong with you!”

Like when they were at the bus stop, Sojung threw her head back as she laughed. The girl looked at her with a huge grin painting her—pretty, so pretty—face. “Right, so, Eunbi, it is. You can call me eonni.”

Pink dust covered Eunbi’s cheeks as she ducked her head forward. “Okay… eonni.”

Maybe Sojung was just indulging her and Eunbi was being noisy, but maybe… maybe things would turn out better than the omega thought they would.

Eunbi gently on her straw as her friends lost their minds.

“Jung Eunbi! You did not do that,” Yuna gaped and her girlfriend, Yerin, shushed her, caressing her head as the puppy-like girl shaked her head in disbelief. “I thought you weren’t that affected by Kim Sojung, but to offer yourself as a tribute, I’m—”

The omega rolled her eyes and sat her empty glass of juice down. “Please, don’t talk about it like I’m at the Hunger Games or something. It’s literally just a History assignment. And, yes, I was affected by Sojung—she’s… she’s something else, definitely, but that does not mean I’m going to let people push her away because of her rank. Lee Jiho was downright rude and I—I just couldn’t take it.”

A waitress approached them, settled their food on the table and left. Ddin snickered loudly, hands closing around her sandwich. “I didn’t know you were such a fair person, Eunbi-yah.”

It was tiring her the way they started laughing again. Eunbi mumbled something and focused on the croissant in front of her. Her friends didn’t mean any bad, she knew that, but all of that teasing was starting to make her uncomfortable. She took a bite of the pastry and suddenly the subject had changed—making Eunbi let out a relieved sigh. Yerin told them about some friend of hers who was currently in town and she wanted them to meet her. Eunbi didn’t listen to much of it, though. The omega got her phone in hands and, unlocking the screen, pressed the LINE icon.

She took a look at the newly added contact.

Kim Sojung said it would be convenient to be in touch and Eunbi didn’t think twice before accepting the alpha’s suggestion. They hadn’t talked about anything yet, chat completely clean. Irrationally anxious, Eunbi’s fingers hovered over the screen, aching to send something and break that virtual silence. However, at the same time she craved for that, she apparently couldn’t bring herself to type anything out.

The omega hadn’t even realized how she was munching on her lower lip when the faint taste of blood spread on her tongue.

“Eunbi-yah? You okay?”

Eunbi raised her head to look at Ddin. Both her and Yuna had frowns, attentively looking at her. Ddin continued, “you’re almost ripping your lip off.”

“Uh? I’m okay,” the omega stuttered.

“That’s not convincing at all,” her friend muttered and was ready to add something else when Yerin’s sweet voice made itself noticeable.

“Are you worried about doing the assignment with that alpha, Eunbi-yah?” The beta asked with a gentle tone, sounding quite different from before.

Eunbi opened but closed it a second later. Her eyes fell to her cellphone’s screen.

The truth was that she didn’t know what she was feeling. Her heart seemed to be erratic, her mind unquiet, but Eunbi wasn’t sure if she could classify that as worry. To be honest, she had never felt that way before. Always the calm and cute omega, Eunbi hadn’t experienced many situations in which her comfort zone was affected; now… something… something as new as Kim Sojung was shaking Eunbi’s world and she didn’t know how to deal with it.

“Eunbi-yah?” Yuna called her, but she didn’t answer.

Taking another bite from her croissant, Eunbi stayed silent.

“You know, it’s okay to be worried,” Yerin started, “and nervous too, after all, Kim Sojung is gorgeous as hell. Even I would be a little nervous around her.” Eunbi’s lips curled up at the sound of Yuna’s scoff. “But I’m sure things will turn out fine. If that alpha didn’t like what you did or something like that, I’m sure she wouldn’t have agreed to it. Besides… even if I haven’t talked to her yet, I have a feeling that she is a good person and you don’t have to be anxious about anything.”

Slowly, Eunbi looked at the oldest of them. Jung Yerin was a really funny girl and Eunbi always thought that her flirty personality fit just fine with Yuna’s quirky one. The couple of betas definitely weren’t the most normal, but they completed each other just fine. However, as much as they were glued to each other, Eunbi hadn’t spent that much time with Yerin, only seeing her lovey-dovey and handsy self. But now… the beta looked slightly different, with a caring smile playing on her lips. For the first time, Eunbi felt like she was truly reliable and that she could trust on what Yerin was saying.

“So, don’t overthink things, okay? Everything you did until now was achieved by your bravery, your wish to making things right. And I’m sure that even though these two will be teasing the life out of you for the next century, they also think like me. You have all support forever, Eunbi-yah, so don’t stop yourself for the fear of messing something up,” Yerin softly said, “I’m sure it’ll turn well if you just let things happen.”

Silence ensued on the table until it was broken by Ddin’s low whisper.

“Well, leave it to Yerin-eonni to be that deep out of nowhere.”

“Maybe I’m wet,” Yuna whispered, looking at Yerin in pure awe, and Eunbi couldn’t help but join Ddin in letting out a disgusted groan.

“Please, I didn’t need to know that.”

“Ew, get a room, you two.”

The betas laughed and both Eunbis rolled their eyes.

Between bites and chuckles, they changed the subject, and none brought the alpha up again. Eunbi finished her croissant feeling lighter even if her heart still hadn’t decided what to do. Glancing at her friends’ smiles, the omega heaved a short sigh. They were weird and sometimes noisy, but they were the best friends she could ever ask for.