“Little?” 

He glances away from the road while they’re still tucked within the safety of the university campus to take a better look. Stark white stands out against pale skin, barely hiding the tiny bits of ugly scabbing. 

“I’m good as new already,” Jaejoong hums, but the light tone sounds fake, almost. 

It hardly seems like the boy’s mind is fully present and Yunho’s hand moves of its own accord. His fingertips carefully brush blonde locks out of the way as he looks over the marks better, scabbing aside he can see the faint darkening of the skin where whatever cosmetic Jaejoong applied couldn’t fully cover the bruising, it probably looks horrendous, but there is no flinching as he checks. 

That perhaps, has less to do with a lack of pain and perhaps more to do with the way the omega looks slightly traumatized. He is still vibrating and thrumming with agitation, and he knows his pheromones are flooding the car because of it, and yet the omega doesn’t seem to flinch or react at all. 

He had thought Changmin was full of , admittedly. Save for family members, alphas and omegas could always sense pheromones, and then if they were strong enough betas could tell they were there with little to no sway.  

The seizure, he wants to press, wants to ask if they’ve happened before or since, but he isn’t supposed to know about that. 

“Those boys, are they always like that?” he hadn’t wanted to ask, to pry that deeply in the matter, but he can still hear the words swirling around in his head. And if he is still perturbed... 

“They’re only teasing,” the words come out immediately and after a moment he leans his head away from Yunho’s touch. 

“Oh? You have a sugar daddy that everyone knows about?” 

“Yep,” the way the blonde pops the p at the end of the word aggravates him, “Loads of ‘em.” 

The lie is a bold faced one, Jaejoong’s hands are fists resting against his thigh and he supposes it is about time to take the hint to drop the conversation where it lays. It is all a bit unfortunate, his curiosity isn’t satisfied at all. 

Those kids would be tripping over themselves if they knew who the blonde was, but he wonders how much it would help if anything. Fake friends were some of the most dangerous enemies, but he probably shouldn’t have been thinking about it so deeply. His university days are far, far behind him. 

“Rude of me, over stepping that way.” 

The commentary on his tongue was harsher, more condescendingly teasing words that he bit back. Perhaps he shouldn’t have, Jaejoong with the front he put on probably would have preferred to be treated the way anyone else was. 

Probably not. 

Yunho was not a social, or even particularly friendly man.  

There was a reason he was a force in the world of business, it was because his heart didn’t really factor into the choices he made. He had important people, a very few of them, and anybody else? Pawns, sort of, chess pieces to shift around so that he could manipulate his way through the field until he could walk away the victor. There were casual acquaintances, usually still within his world, shallow relationships that looked good, that left people with the impression that they had a good standing. 

He has Changmin as his rule exception from the business world of sorts, they met in high school and had hit it off ever since. Kim Jaejoong was exactly the sort of person he should have pushed away, far onto a shelf unless he ever needed an in with the boy’s family.  He actually already had that in though, and if anything he had a suspicion that he was on better terms with the Kim conglomerate than Jaejoong himself.  

Studying in England... yet the boy was right there in Seoul and the high-profile family had no worries about the youngest being stalked or preyed on by the paparazzi that followed his sisters.  The girls had security, his parents used the same one during events for Jihye, but Jaejoong was by himself. 

“Really you shouldn’t have come,” it certainly was not the ‘it’s okay’ to soothe his apology that he expected, “I guess you should be fine, you didn’t get out of the car, Jihye really is in some of my classes though, I don’t want to cause trouble if you stop to see her.” 

Yunho however, wasn’t following at all, but he could taste the anxiety spiking in Jaejoong’s tone. 

“Why can’t I pick up my baby sister if I’ve been seen picking you up, exactly?” 

“Everyone knows who she is, knows who you are too,” that wasn’t much of a surprise, she was hardly the only student from a high-class background, hell if anything she and Jaejoong should have been in the same position by all logic, “But don’t worry she is lovely. Anyway, I’m not exactly uh- forthcoming about my family, so I’m just like... the scholarship kid that can’t really afford to be here as far as anyone cares. You know what Seoul is like....” 

He does know, and because he knows he winces which causes the blonde to grin weakly. Still, none of his confusion has been cleared up at all, it feels worse, somehow. 

“Why are you on a scholarship?” 

At that, he does get a laugh, like he’s just told a brilliant joke, “I’m an art major, my parents promised to cut me off if I so much as touched a cent of their hard-earned money to pursue such a disappointing major. I do take business classes as well, too little too late, I suppose.” 

It isn’t until after Jaejoong finishes speaking that the boy seems to snap out of it, like he’s suddenly woken up from a dream, or he only just suddenly remember who was in his company. Like he’s just told some dark secret to his mortal enemy, but he hasn’t and Yunho’s not... even if he can feel that deep seated disgust settling like dust in his chest when he thinks of the matriarch and patriarch of the Kim’s brood. 

“It’s a joke of course,” Jaejoong amends before he can so much breathe another word, “tough love and all, but I’m stubborn and took it as a challenge... so I applied for some scholarships in high school and got them.” 

The blonde is babbling, nervously, and he wonders if he just waits, if he keeps quiet what else the boy might unwittingly out about himself as he tries to stumble through his anxiety before it becomes a full-blown attack. That feels like a dirty, rotten fight though. 

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