This felt very awkward for him. Sitting in the barbecue place with two male omegas joking about something he couldn’t really understand, Seungcheol stared at the other customers. They were all close friends from the look of it, unlike his weird trio. Honestly, it was as if he was here to be the omegas’ babysitter instead of as their friend.

‘Thanks.’ He finally spoke to the staff who brought them their side dishes and drinks. He could see the other two’s eyes brightened from the volume of the dishes as they started to feast. ‘Gosh I’m hungry.’ The soft-looking omega, Joshua if he was not mistaken, claimed.

‘I need a drink.’

‘Yah,’ he took the bottle from Jeonghan before the man could pour himself one in the beer glass. The action earned him a whine and a glare to which he ignored. Putting a small shot glass in front of the other, he started to pour. ‘This is how you drink soju. Ap-‘ again, he stopped the omega from taking another one glass, ‘and you never pour for yourself.’

‘Such complication.’ Jeonghan stared at him before smiling, taking the bottle to pour a glass and handed it to him. Replying the gesture with his own smile, Seungcheol took a sip before Joshua stopped him. ‘I thought you were supposed to let the oldest drink first?’

‘I thought we’re the same age?’ He looked at the omega in confusion. They talked with each other informally, and he swore Jeonghan told him they were born in the same year. ‘I’m actually your seonbae.’

‘He is.’ Jeonghan agreed, and he swore both the omegas gave each other a look with little smiles before looking back at him, ‘So, he should drink first? Owh,’ Jeonghan took out his phone and typed in something, reading it out loud, ‘we should drink facing away from him?’

Seungcheol bit his tongue, not knowing what to answer. They are the same age so the answer should be obvious but now that it seemed like Joshua wanted to exert his seniority, he felt like he should abide to that, out of politeness. ‘That-‘

‘But he’s the youngest.’ Jeonghan added, ‘unless you’re born December 31st… so?’

‘Uh….’ Seungcheol looked back at the two omegas back and forth, trying to figure out how to not answer that question.  He would really love for all three of them to ignore that tradition and just drink like friends should. He thought he was here to teach them how to do fun Korean stuff, not the complicated ones.

Click. The alpha’s eyes widened as he realized Jeonghan had just taken a picture of him before both the omegas burst into laughter. Speechless at what had just happened to him, he could only scoffed in dissatisfaction. ‘Heol. Yah!’

‘You’re kinda naïve for an alpha.’

‘You’re kinda mischievous for omegas.’ He retorted, drinking his soju, feeling a bit embarrassed at what just happened.

*****

The meat were already cooked to perfection courtesy of Joshua who, surprisingly, was really good at it. At least, after spending the first half an hour reading an instruction on the internet and experimenting. Honestly, the other two didn’t even care about how juicy the meat was – Seungcheol kept eating, Jeonghan drinking.

‘I’m just wondering,’ Jeonghan suddenly started, ‘What if you drink in a bar? Or a club? Should you face away from the bartender? And everyone around you? Wait, should you hide your face?’

‘I think he’s almost drunk.’ The other omega pointed, softly laughing at his friend who gave him an eye before taking his glass and almost slammed it in front of Seungcheol. He just gave the alpha the signal to pour him another. Ignoring the request, Seungcheol made himself a cute little wrap and filled it with pieces of meat. The moment Jeonghan opened his mouth to whine, he shoved the whole thing into the man’s mouth. ‘Nhh!’

Laughing at the reaction, he felt something hit his arms. It was garlic. Without even looking at the other omega, he saw the man trying to do something really stupid. Indeed, Joshua tried to make himself a wrap by putting the lettuce first on his mouth followed by the other stuff slowly, balancing them.

Sighing in surrender, the alpha asked, ‘Why are you guys like this?’

Jeonghan munched on the wrap the alpha fed him, feeling a bit weird but enjoyable at the same time. He swore he bit the man’s finger a bit, which, should feel disgusting but it didn’t. Amidst the commotion caused by his foreign friend, Jeonghan decided to do the same and make a wrap himself. Honestly, it didn’t taste any better than eating the meat and rice, but this felt better. Just putting the meat in the leaf made the whole experience a lot better.

‘Ouch!’ Seungcheol hissed as Jeonghan tried to shove the wrap into his mouth as revenge, missing the timing and hitting his teeth instead. Panicking in guilt, with his omega friend not helping by laughing at him, Jeonghan muttered, ‘Why are your teeth so huge??’

Ah. That was not what he wanted to say.

‘It’s normal size. You’re just drunk.’ Seungcheol calmly responded, causing the crazy omega to shut his mouth and sit down, bowing a bit before silently eating his vegetables. Now that he couldn’t find it in himself to touch the alcohol from the comment, Jeonghan started to feel bored. Really, really bored. ‘I drink cus we’re not talking.’ He stated, staring at the ceiling of the barbecue place, trying to showcase his boredom. Looking around, noticing the few couples around them, and remembering about the two men in front of him with their own relationships, he decided to pursue the topic. ‘Josh, tell us bout your girlfriend. It’ll help if you have a picture.’

The question caused the smallest male to simper, shaking his head in embarrassment. Seeing the reaction, the alpha too, leaned in, interested in the answer. With more poking from Jeonghan, Joshua finally brought out his phone to show a photo of his girlfriend, a pretty girl with long, straight hair. ‘She’s a noona. Working.’

‘Heol. Daebak.’ Seungcheol scrolled to the pictures without permission, swiping quickly at some he deemed too private. Jeonghan could only stare at the action, glancing at his other friend to note the expression but it seemed, Joshua didn’t care. Well, that could probably be because he had no dangerous pictures in his gallery because Jeonghan would never allow anyone to go through his. ‘Wait, is she? Woah, stewardess?’

Owh, just look at Joshua’s proud smile as he nodded his head. And at Seungcheol’s overreacting goofy smile as he fanboy over the photo. So, so awkward.

‘Obviously this alpha also like girls.’ Jeonghan suddenly mentioned, enjoying the sudden shyness that overcame the said man, ‘Hey, you guys have something in common!’

After a long pause, with Seungcheol continuing to eat and ignoring whatever he just said Jeonghan decided this was a sensitive topic to the man. Which meant, he should make him talk about it because, he just love seeing his stupid face panicking. Also, because he didn’t know what he should talk about with alphas, and opposite genders seemed to be the go-to for most alphas. And men. Which, the three of them were. Of course, sports too, but Joshua and he didn’t have even the slightest interest in it so that was out the door.

‘You have a girlfriend right?’ He started, recalling the girl he met a few years ago the first time he met Seungcheol. Honestly, he couldn’t remember a single thing about her except the fact that she had a pretty boyfriend. ‘Spill everything.’

‘I dunno… ‘

‘Wait, you dunno if you have a girlfriend? So is it uh, complicated…‘ Joshua continued, purposely dragging his words. It seemed he read Jeonghan’s mind and was going along with it. He just realized, despite the fact that the guy is a weird nerd, they really fit each other. Joshua is fun. ‘…modern-day relationship? Okay. No judging.’

‘Owh, you mean like the open-type?’ He added, sensing the tense in the alpha’s face.

‘Ex. I had a girlfriend.’ Seungcheol cut his teasing, his voice firm almost as if he was trying to calm his anger. It caught both the omegas off-guard, them thinking it was a crush-kind of relationship. Sensing the defensive tone, they decided to remain silent and hope the topic moved away naturally. ‘And no. We were serious, I mean, I was. She wasn’t. Apparently. We just, broke up.’

‘Owh…OWH…’ Jeonghan suddenly realized the fact that he met the alpha while the man was trying to get out of his job to go to a group date. Now that he thought about it, it made sense. And, also, since he was sure the man told him he had a girlfriend on orientation night, it could only mean it happened recently. Which meant, it was still fresh. The wound.

. How should he deal with this? Urgh so annoying.

‘I mean, there’s a lot of omegas around so…’

‘Yeah. I guess.’ Seungcheol reluctant