Story and cover art created by Kyren_Rayne on AsianFanfics.

Permission has not been given to post elsewhere.

Slight trigger warning in the second section of this chapter.

When Yoojung had told her that Heehyun had gotten them pot, Lua didn’t realize that she meant that Heehyun was going to be smoking it with them.

She had been hoping that it was just going to be another night of them hanging out alone.

However, when Yoojung had opened the door to her dorm room, they were greeted by the elder girl sitting in the chair at Yoojung’s desk.

“Hey, Lua,” Heehyun raised her hand, waiting expectantly for the younger girl to high-five her, “What’s up? I haven’t seen you since we took that Psych class together last semester.”

Lua gave the darker-haired girl’s palm an unmotivated slap as she entered the suite behind Yoojung.

“Uh, nothing really.”

“Ah, that ,” she pulled out a small, metal tin of pre-ground weed and began rolling herself a joint, “A girl like you should be having the time of her life out here. People at this university would love a baby Beta like yourself.”

Lua clenched her fists, hating the term baby Beta.

All she had ever wanted was to be an Alpha, so insinuating that she was barely even a Beta really got under her skin.

“Yeah, well, sorry that I prefer not to sleep around with the entire campus, Heehyun.”

She hadn’t meant to snap, but sometimes Heehyun just rubbed her the wrong way.

The two of them had never really gotten along with each other.

Well, that wasn’t exactly true.

Lua never really got along with Heehyun.

Not that Lua ever really got along with anyone.

Heehyun, on the other hand, didn’t have a problem with Lua.

In all honesty, she was probably oblivious to the fact that Lua didn’t like her.

“Woah,” Yoojung finally intercepted as she hung up her Beta suit jacket, “I don’t know what’s going on here, but I just wanted to have a chill evening. You know, preferably one where you two don’t rip each other’s heads off.”

She was right.

Lua shouldn’t have been so upset.

Heehyun hadn’t done anything wrong.

“My bad, Lua. Here, have the first toke,” Heehyun passed a blunt to Lua, “We’re all friends. I didn’t mean to piss you off.”

As she took a drag, Lua couldn’t help but notice that the paper used by the eldest girl was bland compared to the kind Yoojung generally used.

It tasted, well, like paper.

Lua still enjoyed the way that it burned and clouded her mind, though she did find herself missing the sweet hint of grape, cherry, or whatever sugary flavor Yoojung would’ve decided to use that day.

As she released a cloud of smoke from , she noticed that Heehyun, still sitting, had her arm wrapped around Yoojung’s waist as they conversed.

“That ceremony was so exhausting,” Yoojung rolled her neck, “No matter how many you go to, you never get used to how long they last.”

“Mm,” Heehyun hummed, “You shouldn’t stress yourself out with school stuff like that. I think you’re allowed to skip a meeting or two.”

Yoojung chuckled before casually leaning down to press a kiss to the taller girl’s lips.

At this, Lua couldn’t hide the look of shock that rose to her face.

Since when had Yoojung and Heehyun been a thing?

Lua and Yoojung were pretty much best friends, so why would Yoojung keep something like this from her?

Not knowing what else to do, Lua pressed down on the end of the joint to extinguish the small flame on its end, ignoring the slight burn against her fingers.

She stood, quickly setting it down on Yoojung’s desk and heading for the door.

“Hey,” Yoojung slipped from Heehyun’s grasp, “Where’re you going?” She took hold of Lua’s wrist, “I thought we were going to dye our hair together…”

Lua her bottom lip into , chewing on it anxiously.

“Ah, well, I just remembered I have an Econ paper due in a couple of days that I really need to start working on,” she tried to force a small laugh as she pulled away from Yoojung, “I’ll see you around.”

With that, Lua left, closing the door before Yoojung had a chance to say anything else.

She knew if she waited any longer, she’d just let herself be roped back in by Yoojung like usual.

Lua hurried down the stairs from the top floor to the second floor where her room resided.

She didn’t trust herself to be able to hold back her tears at this point.

When she made it to the entrance to her room, she began digging in her pockets in search of her key card.

After a second of fumbling with her wallet, still struggling to find her room pass, the dorm door opened in front of her.

“Forget your key again?”

It was her roommate, Yena Choi.

Lua looked up towards her elder, her eyes already damp and bloodshot.

“Oh ,” the smile immediately fell from Yena’s face as she gestured for Lua to enter the room, “What’s wrong?”

Lua slipped inside, instantly crumpling down onto her bed.

Yena locked up the door before taking a seat next to Lua.

“Lua, hey, what’s wrong? Do I need to go kick someone’s ?”

“I don’t know,” Lua mumbled against her pillow, the words barely audible to Yena.

“Well, what happened? You’ve got to at least know that if you’re crying about it.”

The younger girl rolled over, clutching her pillow tightly to her chest.

“Yoojung kissed Heehyun. Right in front of me.”

Yena’s eyebrows furrowed, “And?”

“And I don’t know!” Lua sat up quickly and threw her pillow frustratedly at the ground, “I don’t know why it bothered me so much!”

A smirk quickly replaced the look of confusion on Yena’s face.

“Well,” she poked Lua in the side, “Have you ever considered that maybe you like Yoojung? Like more than a friend? And maybe,” she now bumped Lua’s shoulder with her own, “Just maybe, you’re upset now because you’re jealous that she kissed Heehyun?”

Lua’s entire face filled with heat as she shoved Yena away from her.

“Leave me alone, you idiot,” she grumbled, laying back down.

Yena stood and walked to her own bed, laying down as well before clicking off the lamp on her nightstand.

“I’m just saying.”

Lua stared up at the dark ceiling, despite not being able to see it through the darkness.

“Yena?”

The elder Beta rolled over to face Lua’s bed which was across the room.

“Yeah?”

There was a moment of silence as Lua hesitated to continue, unsure of how to say what she was thinking.

“I…I don’t like Yoojung like that. It’s just,” she sighed, “I don’t know.”

A soft chuckle escaped Yena’s lips.

“You’re not used to being close with people and you really like Yoojung- as a friend- so now you’re scared that Heehyun is going to take her away from you?”

The words sounded like a question though Yena knew that she was right.

She didn’t really need to ask.

Lua sighed once more.

“Exactly.”

Lua could hear Yena shifting in her bed before she continued.

“Then tell that to Yoojung. I’m sure she’d understand. Then she’d be able to reassure you that she’s not going to stop being your friend just because she has a girlfriend now.”

“Thanks, Yena…”

With that, silence filled the room, however, the same could not be said about Lua’s mind.

Her thoughts were going crazy.

She didn’t want to date Yoojung.

Really.

But maybe Yena was right.

Of course she was right.

Maybe Lua was scared to lose Yoojung because she was one of the only people that she let herself get close to.

Maybe she was jealous of Heehyun because she could easily steal Yoojung from her, though she didn’t belong to Lua in the first place.

Maybe that’s why she purposely tried not to be friends with Heehyun.

And maybe she had just ruined the best friendship she ever had all because she was a jealous jerk.

Lua squeezed her eyes shut, deciding to try to get some sleep for the party tomorrow.

She’d probably need to go make amends with Yoojung, if her elder would even want to hear her out.

-

Elly gripped Rina’s hips, tugging their bodies closer together as she hungrily kissed the younger girl.

“Elly,” Rina squeaked as she pressed her hand to Elly’s chest and pushed them gently apart.

Rina could see the flame in Elly’s eyes.

Every Alpha had it.

And in situations like this, ones where they were frustrated, it seemed larger, brighter, scarier than ever.

“We’re in public,” she reminded, her eyes motioning to the campus coffee shop that they were standing in front of.

Not that Rina found Elly scary.

Truthfully, she was one of the only Alphas that Rina didn’t find intimidating.

It wasn’t because Elly wasn’t tough and stubborn like other Alphas.

They all were, there was no getting around that.

“If the university didn’t want impromptu make-out sessions going on all around campus,” she sighed, “Then they shouldn’t have barred classes from going to each other’s dorms.”

It was because Elly was generally pretty good at directing her anger towards those who deserved it.

That was actually how they had met.

“How about we finish grabbing breakfast, then I’ll take you by the art room before Lucy’s party and show you a preview of my pieces for Damien’s gallery?”

“Okay, babygirl,” Elly placed a gentle peck to Rina’s cheek, the fire in her eyes burning out, “Sounds good to me.”

Rina had been new to the school, and being the small, attractive Omega that she was, of course Alphas immediately flocked to her.

Few seemed to actually be interested in her, the majority simply looking to take advantage of that semester’s fresh meat.

One night when she was walking to her dorm after a particularly long lab, a freshman Alpha had started walking alongside her, bombarding her with pick-up line after pick-up line.

Jaemin Na.

After declining his offers multiple times, he had grabbed Rina’s wrist and began yelling at her out of frustration.

Thank goodness Elly had been out with Suyeon that night.

When she had seen what was going on, she quickly intervened.

To Elly, ‘intervene’ actually meant ‘punch Jaemin so hard in the cheek that he out and then wait around for him to come to so that she could berate him for harassing Rina’.

Suyeon offered to grab them boba to help calm Rina down, telling Elly she’d meet them outside of the Omega dorms.

On their walk there, Elly was so caring towards Rina, that the younger girl was shocked to find out that she was actually an Alpha.

“So, um, was that guy your boyfriend? I don’t mean to sound like I’m preaching, but maybe he shouldn’t be after pulling a stunt like that.”

Rina had explained the situation, and once Suyeon had arrived, the three of them sat on the steps in front of the dorms, just talking for a couple of hours.

At some point during the conversation, Elly and Suyeon had both given Rina their numbers in case anything like that ever happened again.

After that night, Elly began meeting up with Rina occasionally to make sure that she was still doing alright and that she felt safe.

This eventually led to Elly suggesting that she be Rina’s ‘full-time bodyguard,’ or in other words, her girlfriend.

It always made Rina laugh at how macho Elly acted towards everyone except for her.

Despite being an Alpha, Elly was always so gentle and caring with the younger girl.

And Jaemin wasn’t really a bad guy either.

Rina most definitely wasn’t excusing his actions, but he’d grown up a lot since then.

He had actually joined the A.B.O. relations club to try to deter any other new Alphas from making the same mistakes he had.

He had even approached Rina on his own accord in order to apologize for his behavior, and offer his protection if she ever needed it.

They weren’t friends per se, but he was really trying his best to make up for what he’d done, and that went a long way in Rina’s eyes.

Elly smiled and took Rina’s hand in hers, leading her into the coffee shop.

Up to this point, Rina had never had a need to call Jaemin.

She always felt safe with Elly.

-

Suyeon had come to Lucy’s house early that morning, per the younger Alpha’s request.

As soon as her parents had left for their trip, Lucy was overwhelmed with excitement for her party and asked Suyeon if they could start getting ready for it.

“Now,” Suyeon said as she put down a plastic tablecloth on the family’s dining table, “We should probably move any important pictures or knick-knacks into one of the rooms where no one will be tonight that way they don’t accidentally get broken. Maybe your parents’ bedroom?” she turned to face Lucy, “Your parents trusted you enough to leave you alone this weekend, so we want to show them that their trust wasn’t misplaced.”

Lucy gave a playful salute and immediately headed off to begin her task of moving things.

A few minutes passed of Suyeon decorating and Lucy cleaning up before the doorbell began ringing incessantly.

“I’ll get it!” Lucy screamed to Suyeon, wherever she was within the house, and bolted towards the front door.

Without a moment of hesitation, Lucy flung the door open.

“Doyeon!”

Lucy quickly pulled the Beta in for a hug.

“What’s up, Lucy?” they parted, “We came to help out with party preparations.”

We?

Lucy motioned for Doyeon to come in.

As she did, Lucy noticed the other girl who would indeed make Doyeon a ‘we’.

It was the smaller girl that Doyeon had brought to her ceremony.

Lucy hadn’t really had the opportunity to talk with her that night due to the abundance of people trying to congratulate her, but now that she had a clear view of her…

Wow.

“Hey, I’m Lucy,” she outstretched her hand to Sei after closing the door, “I think I saw you at my ceremony yesterday, right?”

Sei looked down at her feet as she took Lucy’s hand in her own, “Um, yeah. I’m Sei. I hope it’s alright that Doyeon brought me- yesterday and today. She kind of just drags me along to everything without asking.”

“Don’t act like you don’t love it!” Doyeon shouted, already on her way to find Suyeon.

“No, uh,” Lucy dropped her hand back to her side, “Thanks for coming,” she shook her head before turning towards the direction Doyeon had gone, “We definitely appreciate the help.”

Lucy began walking, but quickly noticed that Sei wasn’t following her.

She turned and flashed a bright smile towards the other girl, her sharpened canines, which were still coming in, seeming friendly rather than menacing.

“You can follow me. I think those two are in the kitchen.”

When the pair finally made it to the kitchen, they were greeted by Suyeon trying to wrestle a bottle of alcohol from Doyeon’s grip.

“Will you put that down? It’s for the party! I swear to god, Doyeon, if you break that!”

Leaving Sei at the entryway, Lucy walked up behind Doyeon and casually slipped the bottle from her hands.

“Suyeon, you’re an Alpha. Just kick her Beta and call it a day,” she laughed out.

“Hey, hey, hey,” Doyeon turned and began searching for some other alcohol to steal a sip of, “Watch what you say about the factions. Sei here is an Omega.”

That makes perfect sense, Lucy thought to herself.

The other girl was petite and womanly.

It would have been almost impossible for her to have been anything besides an Omega.

Lucy handed the drink off to Suyeon before turning to attempt to apprehend Doyeon to prevent her from getting into any more mischief.

“I wasn’t saying anything bad about Betas, just Doyeon in particular. You’d still be an idiot even if you were an Alpha or an Omega.”

This earned a giggle from Sei.

“Hey!” Doyeon escaped from Lucy’s hold before running to stand behind Sei for safety, “You guys are obviously ganging up on me. This is no fair. I’m calling Lucy’s mom, so she can put an end to this.”

The other girls all turned to watch as the Beta pretended to dial a number on her hand and then pressed her palm to her ear.

“Yes, Mrs. Noh? Your daughter and her annoying other-mother are being rude to me. Do I have your permission to kick them out of your house and drink all of the alcohol they had for the party tonight? Oh really? Well, thank you, Mrs. Noh. I love you, too.”

Sei gave Doyeon a gentle shove, getting her to finally put her hand down.

“Stop being a bother and go help them,” Sei chastised, “What was the point of coming here if you aren’t going to actually do anything productive?”

Doyeon stuck her tongue out at Lucy, who quickly returned the favor.

Suyeon rolled her eyes at the pair’s childish behavior.

“I’m unfriending both of you, losers. Sei is my new best friend now.”

-

Rina pushed open the art room door, tugging Elly inside with her before quickly shutting it again.

Technically, Elly wasn’t supposed to be in the Beta art room, but Rina had really wanted to show off her new work.

“I know this may be a little difficult for you, but try to stay out of trouble while we’re in here please,” the younger girl laughed out as she began walking towards her work area.

Elly plopped down onto one of the tall, black-topped tables and leaned back on her palms.

“Excuse me, but when do I ever get into trouble?”

Rina paused what she was doing to turn back and look quizzically at Elly.

The Alpha was smiling playfully, knowing what she had just said was a lie.

Rina just shook her head before resuming her task of pulling out some of her new pieces.

While waiting, Elly let her eyes scan the classroom.

There were unfinished canvases, sculptures, sketches- you name it- scattered throughout.

The art classes must have been in the middle of projects or something.

Elly wouldn’t know.

She was an accounting major after all.

One particular project caught her eye though.

In a far corner, there was a canvas on an easel, a drop cloth hanging loosely on its corner in an attempt to cover it.

From the half of the painting that Elly could make out, it looked like a woman sitting in a throne, laughing with wide open and her eyes missing.

She didn’t really understand art, it wasn’t her thing, but there was something unsettling about the picture that pulled her in.

“Ya know,” Elly began, “You art kids really are on another level.”

Rina began approaching her girlfriend, a framed sketch in hand.

“What do you mean?” She questioned as she tilted her head.

Elly lifted her hands, gesturing vaguely towards their surroundings.

“I mean, I sure as hell couldn’t think of any of this stuff. I look at numbers, I immediately know what to do. I look at what you’re doing- drawing, painting, all that- I would have no idea where to even begin.”

Rina chuckled.

“It’s not about knowing what to do. It’s about feeling your way through something. Figuring out what you want to do as it happens,” Rina let her fingertips gently trail down Elly’s jawline, “Art is very soulful and impulsive because it’s personal. There is no right or wrong like with math.”

She dropped her hand back down and smiled.

Elly matched it then nodded towards the frame that the Omega was holding, “Now let me see what you’ve been working on, Sweets.”

“Well,” Rina’s eyes stayed glued to the tile beneath her feet as she began her explanation, “I’m really self-conscious of this one, but I wanted you to be the first to see it, that way if it’s no good, I won’t submit it for the exhibition. So I need you to be honest with me about whether you like it or not,” her words quickly turned into a rushed monologue, “It’s a really personal sketch I did a while back that I decided to try to watercolor over. It was something new, so it probably and I just know Damien is going to hate-”

Moving her hands to rest in her lap, Elly leaned forward and placed a soft kiss to her girlfriend’s lips.

“Why’re you putting yourself down, Babygirl? A well-known artist asked you to display your work in his gallery. That means you’re like proven talented. You have nothing to be stressing about.”

Without another moment of hesitation, the younger girl hurriedly flipped the frame around, so that Elly could see the drawing.

In the frame was a grey sketch of Elly, her hand curled near her chest, and a vine of various flowers trailing up her arm.

The only color on the image was a pink tint on her lips and cheeks, and an assortment of hues for the flora.

Rina still found it impossible to look towards Elly for her reaction and resorted to continuing to stare blankly at the floor.

“Are you embarrassed because it’s of me?”

The Alpha knew she was right because usually Rina loved showing off the art she was working on.

That's how she had managed to get a spot in Damien's gallery in the first place.

“I just… I wasn’t sure how to capture your beauty.”

“Well,” Elly stood off the table, letting her eyes trace the image in front of her once again, “I’d say you exceeded reality. It’s far prettier than the real thing.”

Rina just rolled her eyes.

“Seriously. You should be confident in this piece- just like you should be with all your other art. Hang it in Damien’s gallery and tell everyone that you made it. Have pride in your work. You earned it.”

“So,” Rina slipped past Elly to set her drawing on the table then turned to look up at her elder, “You don’t mind if I put you in my exhibit?”

Elly slipped her arms around the Beta’s waist before shaking her head, “Of course not.”

Letting herself be guided back against the table, Rina watched as the flame in Elly’s eyes returned.

This time it was softer though.

Her gaze more sincere.

And her touches unhurried.

-

A/N: I have a lot to say about this chapter, so buckle up lol.

First, I’m sorry that it took so long for an update. I changed this chapter so many times and I’m still not satisfied with the way it turned out, but I felt like I just needed to publish it to get myself out of this rut. The next chapter is going to be about Lucy’s party, so hopefully that’ll be a nice change of pace.

Second (a random side note) I made Elly an accounting major in this story because I’m an accounting major. Similarly, sorry for the poor representation of art students as the only art course I’ve taken is Art Appreciation lol.

Lastly, I’ve been busy with work and classes lately, so I’m not sure when the next update will be. Hopefully it won’t be that long though.

Anyway, thanks for being patient with me, and I hope you enjoyed this chapter!