Still no new message from Woo Ri. Although a bit disappointed, Seungcheol did not feel as bad as he felt a few weeks ago. It was obvious their break was real, and Woo Ri did not have any plans to stay in contact with each other. After all they went through together as a couple, the omega did not even give them the honour of staying as friends…

Seungcheol was still hurt by it. But he was trying to move on. Sure, he still have hopes of reconciliation, they were together for almost six years. A month was not enough to erase their memories together. And truth be told, he still couldn’t accept it completely but at least he did not feel as obsessed over her any more. Apart from the checking her Instagram and Twitter updates every hour, he finally let himself enjoy his new life as a college student. Their parting was not perfect, with lots of unanswered questions, but the alpha learned to let go bit by bit. He realized how pathetic he was becoming once he saw how Taeyong kept obsessing over Jeonghan since that night. Fortunately for him, Woo Ri made her cut clean, and so, unlike his friend who thought he shared something special with the male omega, it was easier for Seungcheol to move on.

Baby steps.

‘He finally talked to me!’ Taeyong punched him on the shoulder before taking his place on against the door. The owner of the room would be leaving for his part-time job in a few minutes so the man knew well enough not to make himself comfortable on the bed. Turning his head towards his friend, Seungcheol decided to entertain himself with the details. Despite how pathetic he was being, the obsession Taeyong had for this omega was intriguing.  It made him wonder what the man wrote in his book, or what people know about the author that made them thirsty for more.

‘He’s the ideal omega man! You know, I thought he’d never even look at people like us but,’ Taeyong smirked, pointing at himself, ‘I got him.’

‘Really? Is he a young master or something?’ Seungcheol decided to ignore the sudden confidence from the other. Albeit his own wonderful background and good looks, his friend is one of the most down-to-earth person he ever knew which was why, this was amusing to hear. Upon hearing that question, the guest, befuddled, stood up straight and stared at him, ‘Seriously? You didn’t even Google him? Coups! I told you he’s a famous author!’

‘I… don’t read?’

‘Abuse, man! He’s been looking for an alpha since,’ Seungcheol could feel all the blood leaving his body as soon as he heard the first word. He read about a few of those cases in the paper and internet, but he never actually met someone in real life who had actually been through abuse. This had always been one of those things that he knew was real, but felt as like a myth; like kidnapping or, winning a lottery. Until it happens nearby or to people he knew, he basically found it difficult to empathize with it at all. But right now, not only did it did happen, it happened to someone he knew, a man he almost slept with even! All the feeling he should have felt came flooding in – fear, disbelief, sympathy, everything. His brain just suddenly became empty.

‘He’s weak and helpless and needs protection. He just awakens the alpha in me. He’s perfect…’

‘Heh,’ he tried to laugh it off, hoping his pale face was not too obvious. ‘You’re messed up man.’

‘Yah! I’m not! I don’t mean it in a weird way Coups! All I’m saying is, I found someone I wanna protect so badly. That don’t happen very often ‘kay?’ Taeyong placed his hands on both side of his head, showing his distress from the weird implications coming from his friend, who only shrugged his shoulders as he laughed to reveal his gums.

Looking at his wall clock, Seungcheol almost cursed as he turned to get his bag from the bed. If he didn’t go now, he would be late for his job. ‘Tae, let’s continue later. Need to go now.’

*****

The clock ticked slowly as Seungcheol washed the cups, finding himself almost bored with the chore. His hands were aching to take out his phone and check out if there was any updates from his ex-lover but doing so would defeat all the purpose of him getting jobs and busying himself with club activities in the first place. He shouldn’t start slacking off or that would become his new habit. Looking for something to distract himself instead, he chose to ponder about the omega his friend was obsessed over.

He wondered what happened with Jeonghan which made Taeyong want to protect him so much. Based on what he saw that night, despite knowing the man’s dark past, he found the omega far from weak and helpless. Jeonghan definitely knew what he wanted. In fact, Seungcheol thought the omega was a bit… scary actually. Obviously he didn’t tell his friend about their ‘little’ make-out session before the omega stormed off and ended up sleeping with Taeyong, but he was definitely not the innocent type who needs protection from all those ‘bad alphas’.  Unlike his Woo Ri who-

‘Coups, we need you at the machine.’ His senior’s voice broke his trail of thoughts and Seungcheol quickly closed the tap before taking his position behind the counter. Already waiting in a line were the customers waiting for their take-outs. Nodding his head as an acknowledgement to his colleague, he made way for the girl to move past him to the back, seemingly to answer a very important call. A few minutes of mending the espresso machine, making sweet beverages, the girl came back to apologize and announce her sudden leave. He replied with another nod and a smile. Seungcheol really didn’t mind taking over, the job requires him to focus instead of having his thoughts astray which was what he wanted in the first place.

Reading the new order on the tablet placed in front of him, the alpha found himself momentarily frozen as he caught a familiar scent on one of the customer. Realizing it was actually only a lingering scent on an alpha, he let out a soft sigh of relief.

Of course it wouldn’t be his ex-lover. She wouldn’t be too stupid to visit him here. She knew he works here, she wouldn’t entice him like this. She was too good for that. ‘Caramel macchiato and-‘

Seungcheol’s heart dropped.

He wasn’t mistaken. It was Woo Ri’s scent after all. It was her lingering scent.

He knew the customer. The guy was from the same university as her. She uploaded pictures with him a few times with captions signifying ‘normal friends’. He stalked him once, the alpha had a hot, model girlfriend.

But Seungcheol was positive he wasn’t mistaken about this.

They slept together.

They knew each other for less than a month and already-

‘Hey man?’ Seungcheol jumped a bit at the call, bowing slightly for his mistake before passing the drink to the alpha and his friends. Staring at the back of the modelling school student, he let his head fall, laughing slightly at his pathetic realization.

How quickly she moved on from him… With a modelling student who actually had another girlfriend. And to think that he actually still…

Not letting his miseries get the best of him, Seungcheol continued reading the orders. He could feel his eyes warmed up as he recalled all the times he encountered similar situations like this the past year but brushed it off thinking he was just being paranoid… he wasn’t. She was sleeping around. Which explained why she refused to see him on weekends her parents weren’t home despite his eager attempts to spend the night together. Now that he thought about it, the time he caught her with that alpha when they broke up was probably not the first time she did that to him…

‘ Seungcheol, focus.’ He whispered to himself as he turned away from the customers to prepare their orders. They were busy and short of staff, he need to stop being a pathetic and man up. Stop caring about the worthless omega and start making some ing good coffe-

 ‘-cheol? Hey,’ for the umpteenth time today, the freshman found himself being pulled back from his wandering thoughts. Passing the beverages towards the customer and excusing himself, he made his way to his senior who was mending the register. She had an apologetic look on her face. That was when a loud smacking sound of the table sent the whole café silent. ‘I’m sorry, but can you take care of that? I’ll make the drink.’

Seungcheol took a peek at the source of the commotion, a man who was soaked got up and following him was his partner, a lady who didn’t seem afraid of him. Cursing his rotten luck, the young alpha sighed and made his way towards the angry couple. This kind of scene, although rare, apparently happened enough times at the café that they wrote about how to handle the situation in the manual book.

Remembering not to intensify his own pheromone and to talk calmly without touching the customer if not needed, he got beside the couple. As he expected, the irritated male tried to fight him but as soon as he realized his pushes did not budge the bulky student who still kept his calm, smiling face and threatening to call the authority, both the couple left the café dramatically. Now that everything was settled, he turned around and apologized to the other customers before making his way back behind the counter.

‘Thanks Cheol. Just let Dongho clean up the mess.’ Again, he put up his charming smile, pretending to be calm. Truth be told, had it not been because of the job, he could imagine himself punching that damned customer. Out of all the time and place they could fight, they chose to do it here on the day he was especially irritated.

Today was not going well.

*****

Sipping his hot coffee while looking over at the man in front of him, Jeonghan hummed lightly to get his attention. With such big hat covering almost all his face and the mask hiding the lower part, he really couldn’t see how the alpha was doing. All he knew was the man nervous, based on the fidgeting hands which was very unlike him. The guy always exert a confident aura, be it when he is relaxing, working, even during . Needless to say, this side of Sehun was very new.

‘Hannie,’ he frowned at the nickname. Jeonghan did not like to be called that, preferring his full name as it shows distance. The man knew it, they had been friends for almost three years with no private outing whatsoever. The only reason why he even agreed to meet up in the first place was because the model seemed nervous when he called last night, which could only mean one thing – their relationship was somehow exposed. He personally didn’t care about it but he knew it would affect the other greatly. ‘We’ve known each othe-‘

‘You !!!’ The sound of a man screaming shocked both males, causing them to turn towards the angry couple who were f