“I still don’t get it, you know? Why would someone like Minseok say yes to someone like you?”

The two alphas, Baekhyun and Jongdae,  were leaning their backs against the wall beside their classroom door as they stare at the commotion happening inside the room. Baekhyun felt like he was in a warzone. A bunch of cut-out hearts and fat babies with arrows are posted everywhere, white and red balloons are covering almost half of the ceiling, and the students are talking and shouting all at once that he couldn’t even hear Jongdae’s snarky reply on his comment about his love life.

Students are everywhere too; inside the room and even in the hallways. The girls started pulling at each other’s hair and some of the boys are engaged on a fist fight. Baekhyun’s pretty sure they’re all fighting over a person.

It’s Valentine’s Day, after all.

Right, Baekhyun realizes, it’s Valentine’s; that single word that sums up all this mess because today is a great time to find a partner for next week’s graduation ball.

It’s only a week away and Baekhyun mentally slaps himself for forgetting that he doesn’t have a partner yet.

“Well, the grad ball’s only a week away,” Jongdae speaks his thoughts out loud for him. “You should be courting your partner by now.”

Baekhyun closes his eyes with a sigh.

The thing is, he isn’t the type to actually exert effort over these things. Or to even care at all. Baekhyun never attended their annual college night because he’s not interested (and lazy), and he wouldn’t even attend next week’s ball if it wasn’t just mandatory because he’s really not interested (and really lazy). And now, Jongdae is telling him to what? Court someone? Just because of one event?

He opens his eyes and faces his best friend with a pout. “Can’t you just dump Minseok for me and be my date?”

“No way!” Jongdae was fast to reply which made Baekhyun glare at him. “I finally found my mate and you, mister, will not ruin it for me.”

Baekhyun blinks at him. “Mate…?”

The pink sitting on Jongdae’s cheeks is disgusting, he decides.

“Well—yeah, he—he presented last week as an omega and—yeah, turns out, my long time crush is my mate.”

“Huh,” Baekhyun clicks his tongue, acting uninterested, yet to no avail as he asks another question. “How do you know if someone is your mate, though?”

Jongdae laughs at him like he asked a stupid question.

“They aren’t called mates for nothing, Baek.” He pats the mentioned alpha on the shoulder. “You will feel the connection the moment you look straight at each other’s eyes.”

“Now that’s just bull—“

He was cut off mid-sentence as the door beside him suddenly blasts open, revealing a lanky man who took large strides towards the seat near the window. It was that guy who he’s never spoken to even after months of being in the same section.

The guy buries his face in his palms and some of their classmates neared towards him.

“Aw, got no date for the ball, Chanyeol?” Baekhyun hears one of their classmates say. “That’s because you don’t man up and court one.”

The guy, Chanyeol, raises his head.

“That's not for me to do.”

Another guy laughs. “You still think you should be the one courted?” The others laughed as well. “Keep telling yourself that.”

Baekhyun was furious. He’s had enough of what he heard and walks towards them, the group of men bullying Chanyeol quickly leaving the latter as they saw the mad alpha.

“Hey Park, don’t mind them.” Baekhyun attempts to comfort his classmate whose head is now hung low. “I know it’s the first time we’ve talked but I also don’t have a date yet. Let’s go together instead?”

When Chanyeol lifts his head to meet his eyes, Baekhyun felt his heart stop.

An omega.

His omega.

“M-mate—“ Chanyeol looks scared. “I-I’m sorry!” He stands up from his seat and bows his head before running away to leave the classroom again.

“Park! Wait!”

Baekhyun is left staring at the door with newfound crush and a smile on his face.

He finally found his partner for the graduation ball.

*

Baekhyun has never really taken an interest in other people before, and so now that he started courting an omega—his actual mate—that is very much avoiding him since their last interaction, he finds himself with different gifts at hand every day to offer the omega.

It’s his fifth day of courting today, he hopes to get Chanyeol’s answer before this day ends.

Preferably a yes, of course.

“Good morning, my prince!”

He greets the omega as the latter enters the school gate, a sigh leaving Chanyeol's lips as he sees Baekhyun waiting for him with a—what the is that—tape dispenser in his hand.

“Baekhyun—“ another sigh left Chanyeol’s lips. “This is really sweet and all, but I don’t think you’d actually want me to be your date—to be your mate.”

Baekhyun didn’t have the chance to answer as he speaks again.

“Look, I really appreciate the gifts, although I don’t know why you’d give me toothpaste, socks, scissors, a yoyo, and now a…” He eyes Baekhyun’s right hand. “…tape dispenser to court me. But—”

“It’s the socks, isn’t it?” Baekhyun cuts him off. “You didn’t like the patterns?”

Chanyeol gapes at him. “No—yes—no, that’s not the point!”

“Then why are you rejecting me? You feel it too, I’m your mate—”

“Look at me, Baek. I’m not your ideal omega. I’m too tall—I’m even taller than you, my voice is too deep, I’m not soft and elegant and I’m nothing like how an omega should be.” A drop of tear left Chanyeol’s left eye. “Hell! Everyone expects me to be an alpha even when they can clearly smell what I am.”

Baekhyun feels it in his chest too—the sting that comes with every drop of his mate’s tears and he hates everyone who had made his beautiful omega feel insecure about himself when he shouldn’t be because for Baekhyun, mate or not, Chanyeol is the prettiest like this with his twinkling almond eyes and cherry lips and tall built.

For Baekhyun, Chanyeol is the most beautiful person he has laid his eyes on.

The alpha approaches the crying omega and envelops him within his arms.

“You’re wrong.” Baekhyun kisses his shoulder as it’s the only thing he could reach. “You’re everything I wanted, Chanyeol. I wouldn’t want anyone if they aren’t you.”

Chanyeol sobs harder on his neck.

“Why? Y-you are the campus crush why—“ Baekhyun thinks Chanyeol’s hiccups is now one of his favorite things. “—why would you want someone like me?”

Baekhyun knows he shouldn’t laugh. He can still smell his mate’s sadness and insecurities but he couldn’t help but to coo at the cute omega.

“Aw, what do I do now? I only want my Chanyeollie.”

Racing heartbeats were ringing in Baekhyun’s ears and he wasn’t sure if it was his or Chanyeol’s, but he would very much like it to be Chanyeol’s too.

“Then…” Chanyeol lifts his head from Baekhyun’s neck, the tears in his eyes making him look too adorable for Baekhyun to handle. “You’ll really dance with me at the ball? In front of people?”

“Of course!” Baekhyun wipes his omega’s cheeks with his hand. “I want them to know that you’re mine.”

Chanyeol rolls his eyes. “Tsk, that should be more of my concern, mister famous. No one would take me away from you anyway.”

Baekhyun asks himself why he never noticed the beauty in front of him in class before when he couldn’t take his eyes off him now.

He’s grateful that he is not too late.

“I’ll claim you in front of them if anyone will dare to take you away from me.”

The air shifts and Baekhyun smells something that is very much different from sadness and insecurities.

“Oh,” The alpha’s lips curved up into a smirk. “someone liked that.”

The omega might have liked that, but what Baekhyun liked was the red tinting Chanyeol’s cheeks and the tip of his ears. The color suits him.

“Just shut up and hug me!”

Baekhyun was more than willing to comply. “As you wish, my prince.”

He hugs his omega tight until the latter complained. “That tape dispenser is hurting me.”

“Oh, sorry.” The alpha throws it on the trash bin that’s not far from them. “I’ll just buy you another one.”

He’d have to thank Jongdae later for not dumping Minseok for him to be his date instead. Baekhyun thinks that he wouldn’t have found his mate who’s been near him all along if his best friend agreed.

“I’ll go to the ball with you so you can stop courting me now, you at it.”

His omega’s tongue is sharp. Baekhyun thinks to himself that no one is born perfect after all.

“It’s the socks, isn’t it?”