‘!’ Seungcheol turned his body to let himself fall to the floor before rushing towards the bathroom and splash his face with the warm water. Throwing his clothes around, he grabbed a pair of fresh ones and wore it. A quick search for his bag and ensuring his notebook and utensils were inside, he ran towards his department building. He might be late for a few minutes, or more, but hopefully the attendance sheet would still be passed around the back. Perfect attendance meant a free pass, he couldn’t screw this.

…, better asked his friends to write his name for him.

Argh!! He forgot his phone!! He should run faster!

Slowly making his way towards the person currently writing their names, the sheet almost back to the front, he quickly sat before the professor turned her head. He gestured towards the person to pass the attendance towards him, thankful that he made it seconds before he was out. Owh, how he hates morning classes.

Finally done jotting his name, Seungcheol sighed, relieved. He must have forgotten to set his alarm last night. Even though he would usually open his eyes early enough without the help of the clock due to the brightness of summer, he did sleep pretty late last night. Worrying. And feeling offended and hurt.

Another long breath and the student decided to focus on the complicated subject taught in front of him instead of wallowing in despair. He needed to be able to answer the question if he was chosen today anyways. And focusing might help him move on from that matter.

*****

Seungcheol stared on the road in front of him, choosing to walk alone instead of mingling with his classmates towards the next class. He could go with his usual group of friends but got a feeling that something was a bit odd today.  Everyone was looking at him like before, back when the rumor of his dating first broke out, but unlike back then, now they seemed so eager to say something to him. Their stares were obvious, but the hesitance in their expression when their eyes interlocked instead of the usual avoidance somehow worried the young alpha. And that made him want to avoid interaction all together, not wanting to know, concerned that it would be bad news.

How he wished he brought his phone so he could pretend to be busy and ignore these people.

Hopefully they keep their mouths shut until he got back to his room.

*****

Finally.

Alone on his bed, no disturbing stares or mutterings. So relaxing.

Seungcheol squiggled towards the top of his bed, too lazy to move properly. Turning his body around, he was about to grab his forgotten phone before a knock on the door stole his attention. The voice sounded familiar so he invited the man in, giving him a friendly smile while he adjusted himself to sit properly. It had been a while since he last talked to Taeyong, his sudden visit was really curious.

He was about to ask about the man’s intention but the latter’s concerned face stopped him. Giving the man a few moments, he proceeded to take his phone on the bedside table and pull the charger out. ‘You okay man?’

‘Hrmm?’ Seungcheol hummed, confused at the sudden question. Was he supposed to be hurt? Was it the rumor spreading around which he has yet to know? Guess it was a bit serious, now he really didn’t want to know. ‘I’m good? Why?’

‘That- I thought…’ Taeyong stopped mid-sentence before his eyes widened, seemingly out of a sudden realization. ‘No man. I didn’t know you two broke up. Just, nothing.’

Broke up? Did this have anything to do with Jeonghan? Seungcheol hurriedly unlocked his phone to find loads of messages in all his social media platforms. Stopping his old friend from leaving, to summarize the situation, he clicked on one of the messages out of curiousity.

They were all asking the same thing as Taeyong. And asking if Jeonghan was okay.

‘Something happened?’ Seungcheol finally turned towards the other, feeling blood leaving his face every moment the man took to arrange his words. Something bad happened to Jeonghan. He could just feel it. ‘At the club last night…’ Taeyong continued, but his voice slow, filled with doubt. ‘That was Jeonghan, right? It looked like him…’

. What the hell happened at the club? There was a high possibility it was Jeonghan, releasing his stress just based on how he acted last night. He did expect Jeonghan to do something to vent his anger, but he didn’t expect the man to get himself in trouble. He thought the omega knew better than that. What in the world got into him?

‘You didn’t know…’

‘I don’t.’ He dragged his words, feeling a bit light-headed. He didn’t know what happened yet, but it must have been serious if everyone talked about it. Serious enough to receive messages of concern from his friends. Asking if he was okay. And if Jeonghan was too.

‘I thought you were with him… guess he went there without telling you.’ Seungcheol turned his head up to look at the other alpha. Taeyong had a disappointed expression, his mouth was twitching to open and say something but the man held himself. Seungcheol could only guess something along the line of ‘I told you so’. The man then noticed the stare, the confused face and answered, ‘He was attacked. You weren’t in the video so I thought something happened to you as well… Urm… Good to know you’re well.’

Attacked…?

Typing the omega’s name and the keyword which had just been thrown to him, Seungcheol quickly googled the news. Nothing came up. He then proceeded to dial the man’s number, but it was out of reach. His heart beating violently, anxious, he gripped his phone tightly, feeling his whole body shaking out of fear.

‘…guess I’ll leave yo-‘

‘What happened? When? Who?’ He interrupted the pardon, standing up to grab the man’s hand in desperate attempt to prevent his leave. He needed to know what exactly happened right now, and Taeyong was the only one who could help him. It was clear the man was reluctant, thinking he was meddling into other people’s problem but Seungcheol made sure to tell him he wasn’t. With a sigh, the other alpha brought out his own phone and clicked on a link posted in a group chat. The link lead to an article, with embed video. Unfortunately, the video was no longer accessible.

Seungcheol furrowed his brows. Just based on the title of the article, he didn’t see any mention of Jeonghan. He couldn’t see where this was going. Not interrupting, he continued observing as Taeyong typed in two names, clicking on the few gossip articles that popped up, but yet again, the videos were seemingly removed, ‘That’s fast.’

No longer able to keep still, Seungcheol took the phone from the other’s hands and proceeded reading the article.

Model O and actor J fought over Y.

He stared at Taeyong in confusion, expecting an explanation. To which the man gave, ‘It’s been removed but Y looked like Jeonghan. Long brown hair, and his high voice… That model was dragging him before the other guy hit the model.’

Dragged.

, his heart hurt so bad he almost has trouble breathing. Searching for the model, he realized he seen the guy before. The alpha grabbing Jeonghan at the café before. . This was bad. The man was no good. He seemed violent.

He obviously was.

.

Why the hell was Jeonghan with him? Was he out of his mind??

Sighing, feeling like he wanted to just lay down and clear his head, he returned the phone to the owner, ‘Is… he okay?’

‘I dunno. He didn’t look okay.’ Was the short answer. Seungcheol nodded and thanked the other, allowing him to leave. Staring at his own phone, he clicked on all the messages, wishing someone posted another link or video so he could confirm by himself whether the rumor was indeed true. With Jeonghan still not reachable no matter how many times he tried calling, he could only wish everyone was mistaken.

Looking at the clock, he tried to recall Jeonghan’s class today. If the man still had his class, he could wait outside to talk to him directly. Unfortunately, Jeonghan had one class and it was already over.

, how could he talk to Jeonghan?

*****

Jeonghan rested his head on the table, letting the ticking of the clock guide his heartbeat. Lecture was already over, and he knew nobody would use the hall at least until the next period. He didn’t feel like walking among other people, knowing fully well they were spreading rumors about him.

Someone posted the video from last night. He thought Sehun’s agency would be swift in taking down the videos but some still managed to escape. It was the email from his publisher, asking if the man in the grainy 2-minute video, getting dragged, was him, which informed him of the matter. Thankfully the dark lighting made sure none of the faces were clear enough to be identified, but that didn’t mean nobody would talk. Most of the focus was towards the two alpha fighting so he was almost not mentioned.

Keyword, almost.

He was written as the ‘infamous omega writer, J’.

It didn’t take a genius to figure out it was him. The only young omega writer infamous for frequenting clubs was him. Might as well write his full name so he can sue the website and make a big deal out of this as a revenge towards the bastard model.

Jeonghan closed his eyes, too tired to do anything. Too tired to respond to the questions. He could ignore the ones coming to his email, but the immense messages flooding his phone caused him to throw it somewhere in his room.

Life was tiring. He had no energy left.

No energy to care nor the energy to pretend he didn’t.

He just wanted to be left alone.

He just wanted to be normal.

*****

‘Josh!’ Seungcheol answered the phone once he noticed the caller ID. The wait was killing him he was glad it was over. He just wanted to know what was happening as soon as possible, ‘So? You went there?’

‘Yeah. An-‘

‘You met him? Jeonghan?’ He interjected, apologizing once he realized it. He could feel his heart beating loudly while waiting for the other to notify him about the other omega’s wellbeing. For the past two days, the man’s phone had been unreachable, and he wasn’t attending his lectures either, judging from his absence when his other classmates left their departments. Seungcheol had no other way of contacting him except asking Joshua to look for him as the man had more flexible schedule.

‘Yeah. Met him before his class today. He said he’s fine but…’

‘Yeah…’ Seungcheol agreed softly, understanding what was implied. They both knew what Jeonghan was going through, and what his usual reaction would be – pretending everything was fine. They both acknowledge there was a problem in that, but they als