The week rolled faster than Minjoo realized without having Hitomi around. Initially she thought that not having some sort of excitement around (being Hitomi) meant boring days, but it was somehow not.

Maybe she had her gigs and college classes to blame, and sometimes her part-time work on her uncle’s place that she only did out of her sheer goodness of her heart. He was an toward Hitomi, but he was still a good man and didn't go wholly evil against Hitomi. While she couldn’t deny that she was still awkward around him, she couldn’t bring herself to hate him too much.

On her first gig of the week, Chaewon introduced her to her new manager. Yena, the woman that she saw.

Their first meeting was… awkward, to say the least—and now, Minjoo could truy catch a whiff of an Omega’s pheromones coming from her. It was faint—barely there, scent. If Minjoo wasn’t so focused in trying to catch a hint, she wouldn’t notice.

But it was there. Fleeting around her, as if building a thin barrier around her body.

Minjoo wondered if Chaewon knew about it. She was too scared to ask, even if Yena did tell her to just ask anything.

—

“‘Tis a small world,” Yena began, when she picked Minjoo up from her last class to the last gig before weekend rolls around. “I never expected that I’ll meet you again—with me as the worker, and you’re my client.”

“Technically speaking, we are more of co-workers,” Minjoo replied, her gaze still not leaving Yena’s steel grip around the wheel. “Yena-sshi, are you uncomfortable?”

“...I’m not.”

“You’re gripping the steering wheel as if your life depended on it.” Immediately, the supposed-Omega loosened her grip. “See.”

“It wasn’t intentional,” Yena sighed, sounding suspiciously shaky when she shrugged her shoulders. “I’m just excited starting my job as a manager that directly manage an artist. Usually, I work behind the desk.”

“I’m not quite an artist, though?”

“Online shop’s model, then,” Yena corrected, beaming a smile. “Chaewon is very interested in signing you permanently as a professional model, though.”

“I’ve heard,” Minjoo sighed, her hand immediately coming up, running through her dark locks. “But I don’t think it’s beneficial yet for me. Maybe I’ll consider after I graduate.”

“Fantastic!” The supposed-Omega joyfully said, looking back with a broader smile on her lips. “By the way, I see that you don’t have that wolf spirit thing looming around you anymore.”

Minjoo’s heart skipped a beat. Right, Yena could see things that weren’t supposed to be there. “Y-Yeah. He was… sort of exorcised from me?”

Yena gasped. “Did he do something bad?”

“No,” Minjoo shook her head. “He was there to somewhat compensate something that was lost within me. Now that it has returned, he went away.”

There was a slight pain pricking her head when her eyes caught Yena’s own through the mirror. Her eyes went blur for a split second, and it seemed like she was not herself when she felt something was bubbling within her.

There was... something.

“Minjoo-sshi?”

A scent that reminded her of the chewy candy she liked to eat when she was a kid.

“Minjoo-sshi!”

Pain in . . Throbbing teeth. Red cloud swimming in her eyes.

Hunger. Primal, uncontrollable hunger.

“Minjoo-sshi!”

Minjoo snapped her head up, barely registering that they had stopped right in front of the studio. She was shaking from her head to toes, cold sweat breaking through her skin. There was a numbness hanging off her head.

“What—” Minjoo paused, her hand coming up to massage her head. It was numb, still feeling the after effect of the sharp pain that came over her so suddenly without any prior warning. “What happened?”

Yena didn’t look like she wanted to say anything. The supposed-Omega was gritting her teeth, her troubled eyes looking away.

“Yena-sshi.”

When Yena’s eyes went back to her, Minjoo could only swallow.

“You knew.”

—

“You alright? You don’t seem all that focused on our shoot.”

Minjoo awkwardly shrugged her shoulders, not wanting to ruin the lipstick the make-up artist of the team had put on. She just stared at Hyewon for a long moment, until the older woman released a frustrated sigh and gave up.

“Alright,” Hyewon let out, throwing her hand’s up when Minjoo just sat there, unmoving and silent. “I’ll grill it out from you later.” She turned to face the woman putting on Minjoo’s lipstick. “Take your time, Gaeul-sshi. Minjoo and I can talk whenever.”

Well, it was a little mercy on her part. She wasn’t sure how to bring it up to her girlfriend’s sister that she might almost went feral at another Omega’s pheromones. It was purely unintentional, but considering how Hyewon acted on their first meeting, she knew she should never be so confident that the Beta would let this slide this easily.

Even if Hyewon basically already treated her as if she was her little sister.

“A little tea spilling wouldn’t hurt,” Gaeul the make-up artist suddenly said, throwing a smile at the photographer, as she put her tools away. She winked at Minjoo. “It’s done, anyway. Maybe a little touch-up after the talk is needed?”

Minjoo shot the Omega a betrayed look.

Gaeul’s smile widened, throwing another wink her way as she took a step back. “Oh don’t use that look on me, Minjoo-sshi. Teas are great.”

“Sometimes I wonder how Hitomi found you guys,” Minjoo expelled a harsh sigh, her hand on her forehead and eyes narrowing as they looked back to back accusingly at both women standing before her. “You all seemed to function with one same cell.”

Both Gaeul and Hyewon beamed her the same smile.

Minjoo's frown deepened.

—

"Spill."

Minjoo scowled. "I'll happily throw a coffee on you."

"Not even married yet but now you got Hitomi's crankiness rubbing on to you." The photographer lamented, shaking her head with a forlorn look on her face. "The woe. I was looking forward to seeing how Hitomi will mellow down for a bit, and not the other way around."

"Not sorry."

"See what I mean?" Hyewon exhaled, glancing at her imaginary audience. "Though, I admit Hitomi's getting a bit soft since I know you."

Minjoo opened , but refrained from saying anything. She settled on releasing a short, if not confused, "huh".

Hyewon smirked. "So! About your unprofessional mannerism today." Minjoo inwardly groaned. "What happened? Is this because of Yena?"

Minjoo was never a good liar. She didn't even try since her family pointed out that fact.

"Sort of," the Alpha answered, rubbing her nape. She glossed away how the photographer seemed to be familiar with her manager. "It's kinda…" Minjoo trailed off at the end, unsure on how to put it into words.

"What happened?" Hyewon quietly enquired, eyes glancing at the direction where Yena sat earlier. The manager left the room earlier at the make-up artist team leader's urging. "What did she do? Did she do something weird?"

"No." Minjoo quickly shook her head. "Rather… I was the one who became weird suddenly."

"Can you tell me?" Hyewon urged on, both of her eyebrows raising up with interest.

“I just went all,” she gestured, hands motioning claws, “feral-like? I suddenly caught a whiff of my favorite candy and I became hungry." Minjoo's ears went pink. "Yes. Hungry. But please don't laugh at me, unnie."

Hyewon coughed, barely hiding a smile behind her fist. "I'm sorry," she said, sounding anything but. "Favorite candy and you went feral, huh? Alphas are cute."

"I'm not cute!" Minjoo hissed, her blush turning several shades darker. She could imagine Hitomi vehemently rejecting her denial if she was here.

"Tone down your pheromones, you're suffocating me." Hyewon laughed, getting up from the chair, her hand waving around to fend off the pheromones wafting off Minjoo’s body. "Nah, it's just that Chaewon used to say the same thing."

"Chaewon unnie too?" Her cheeks went warm again. "Does that mean…?"

"She already knew," Hyewon nodded. "Yena and Chaewon are my friends. She told us already, but it's only because Chaewon got a pretty good nose back then before Hitomi punched her on the nose."

Minjoo blinked. She opened again to ask about why the hell did Hitomi punch her cousin—but shrugged it off, figuring that she should ask Hitomi directly for that. "So it's just her scent?" She settled to ask instead, one eyebrow raising, unsure.

Hyewon made a face first, but nodded either way. "Yeah. Her scent is similar to a classic candy scent, but it’s really weak, I really wonder how you can detect it." Hyewon rubbed her chin, her eyes warily looking at the Alpha up and down. “Her scent isn’t potent at all.”

“But why am I…?” Minjoo let her sentence trail off, suddenly feeling weak. Hyewon gave her slumped figure a pitiful look, lips peeling back to form a grimace. “Maybe I should go to a doctor about this.”

“Yep.” Hyewon readily agreed, nodding her head. She glanced to look at her watch. “Break time is over. Let’s go back to work.”

—

"Minjoo?"

That was a surprise.

Hitomi and Minjoo barely talk over the phone, always preferring to meet face to face to talk. Mostly it was due to Minjoo preferring texts over calls, and Hitomi was happy to oblige. Another reason for that was due to them meeting each other almost daily and thus, calls were mostly unnecessary.

But to have Minjoo calling her so suddenly, made the alarm on the back of her head go off wildly.

There was a sigh shortly after Hitomi called her name. They didn’t meet today, but even Hitomi (that won't deny that she had grown obsessed over Minjoo's entire being) thought that this was too dramatic for Minjoo to miss her this much.

Still, she felt happy that Minjoo did think about her.

“Minmin?” She repeated, with her nickname this time. “Are you okay?”

“...Maybe?” Minjoo sounded so unsure it worried Hitomi. The only thing that stopped Hitomi from going to Minjoo’s place was the fact that it was already dark outside and she was still in her heat—she was almost once and it was not a pleasant experience at all. “Can’t I call you? Are you busy?”

“Hardly,” Hitomi took a glance at her stack of paperworks, scattered all over the coffee table. She only needed to read it, but there were tons of it. But ah well, Minjoo comes first in Hitomi’s dictionary. She could always pull an all-nighter, especially now that the heat suppressant she took was in full swing now.

Anything for Minjoo, her whole being collectively agreed.

“You can call me whenever, darling,” she added, not even holding back a purr rumbling out .

Minjoo did snort and laugh at her reply, but soon, there was a rather tired sigh escaping her lips. Hitomi shifted uncomfortably at the couch, her posture straightened at another sigh that followed the first sigh. “If you sigh one more time, not even God can stop me from driving to where you are, Kim Minjoo. I mean it.”

The chuckle escaping Minjoo’s lips was weak, but sounded amused. “Tomi, I’m not yet home, though? How would you know where am I?”

“The classic answer is the Minjoo-tingles, but no. I installed a lover tracking app on your phone. You can’t run from me, unless you chuck that phone to the river.”

Minjoo blinked. At least, that was what Hitomi assumed. She knew her well enough to predict what kind of expression the Alpha was making.

“Assume that you really did install a tracking up in my phone,” Minjoo’s tone was weary, “where am I, then?”

Hitomi only needed a few taps. “Han River.”

“Damn, you really did.” Please, since when Hitomi joked about this. “Should I consider this as a breach of privacy?”

“Darling, I need to know where you are 24/7. Otherwise, how else can I save my damsel in distress?” Hitomi expelled a dramatic sigh, slumping against the back rest with her hand theatrically coming up to her nose, pinching it in fake frustration. “I still need to do you, you know?” she added, very flippantly

“...a favor?” Minjoo continued her words, sounding nervous as she did. “Please tell me you still need to do me a favor.”

“Whatever works well with you,” she winked to the air, knowing well her wink would still reach Minjoo. “So! Why is my woman sighing so often tonight? Do you miss me that much?”

“Whatever works well with you,” replied Minjoo almost immediately, making Hitomi stop in her track, narrowing her eyes. Minjoo learned quickly, she gave her that. “I just wanna ask you something, if that’s fine.” And she knew how to save her own .

“Shoot.”

“I’m going to meet Dr. Kwon tomorrow. Do you want to accompany me?”

The woe! As much as Hitomi wanted to see how small Minjoo was under Dr. Kwon's scrutinizing eyes, she couldn’t. Hitomi slammed the papers down, making sure she made noises loud enough for Minjoo to hear. “I’m so sorry, Min. I’m in heat, I can’t go outside until at least Tuesday or Wednesday.”

“Oh. Oh. That’s—That’s fine,” the Alpha let out, “I forgot Omegas go on lockdowns of some sort around their heat period.”

“Yes, so we won’t get ,” Hitomi deadpanned, her jaws tightening. “Oh, and don’t forget Sunday! Or Monday.”

She could sense that Minjoo was a little bit confused at the sudden change of topic, but she shrugged it off. “Yeah. I’ll be there on Sunday morning. If it arrives earlier, you can always call me.”

“Sure,” Hitomi couldn’t help but smile, once again setting the papers down at the image of Minjoo smiling in her mind, her eyes staring blankly at the ceilings. She definitely wouldn’t have any work done tonight. “Thanks, Minmin. Oh, why do you need to go to Eunbi unnie? Did something happen?”

“Uhh—Yeah. Just need to confirm things. She also told me to consult her if the time of my rut comes,” she paused for a bit, “which is around two days, if I'm not mistaken?”

Hitomi couldn’t deny that she was getting thrilled.

“Tomi, I can hear you squeal.”