“Sungmin, are you awake?” The persistent knocking on the locked door disrupted the sleep Sungmin had finally managed to get into an hour ago. “Sungmin?”  

“What?” He groaned, the turn to bury his face into the soft pillow causing his alpha’s scent to drift from his shirt to his nose again.

“Wash up and change to your uniform, okay? Kyuhyun’s anger seemed to have died down already; I’ll ask him to let you out later,” Yoseob’s muffled voice sounded concerned through the door. “Sungmin, are you listening?”

He didn’t feel like moving, because it meant that he was one step closer to the completion of his plans. Inhaling his alpha’s faint scent still left on him, he allowed the comfort from the scent to relax his worn out body again.

“Sungmin?” Yoseob knocked on the door again. “I know you’re hungry. I prepared your favorites for breakfast, so go wash up, okay?”

He was way past hunger after being locked up for more than a day, but he didn’t have any appetite to think about food.

“Sungmin—”

“I’ll wash up…” Sungmin called back just loud enough for Yoseob so that the beta would stop nagging at him.

He ignored the responding acknowledgement, pulling his heavy body up from the bed. Trudging to the bathroom, he took one last sniff at his formal shirt filled with the remants of his alpha’s scent before shedding his clothes off.

Standing without a piece of clothing in the bathroom, Sungmin paused as his eyes met his reflection in the mirror. He was a mess; hair sticking everywhere, dark eyebags weighing down his blood-shot eyes, lips chapped against his pale face, skin under his omega collar still slightly red and marred even after a day. But he couldn’t be bothered to fix anything; the bath would wash whatever it could away. Sungmin the tap, rinsing his hands under the running water. Tears blurred his eyesight as his gaze landed on the bonding mark on the inner of his left wrist, knowing that it would disappear by the end of today.

Tonight. He promised himself, taking in a deep breath as his heart clenched at the thought.

Tonight.

~--~

True to Yoseob’s words, his alpha unlocked the room three minutes after he was clad in his uniform and sitting absently on the bed. The overwhelming scent and dominant aura made him want to bow his head, but Sungmin forced himself to watch his alpha walk in, stopping before him. His alpha’s arm lifted, hand reaching towards him.

“Slapping me again?” Sungmin muttered with a challenging gaze, causing his alpha’s hand to pause in the air.

Without a word or change in expression, his alpha continued reaching out, hand landing on his cheek surprisingly softly. The gentle of his alpha’s thumb across his cheekbone caused his shoulders to tense up, stirring the butterflies in his stomach. “Are you feeling fine?”

He didn’t answer his alpha, lowering his gaze not because of the submission, but because he couldn’t stand the concern in his alpha’s eyes. Not now; he couldn’t give in now.

“I…” His alpha’s voice faded, before there was an awkward clearing of throat. “I know I have never explained my relationship with Ryeowook to you before, but it’s because there’s absolutely nothing between us.”

Sungmin shut his eyes at the mention of that topic, wanting more than anything to run away so that he didn’t need to listen anymore.

“I admit I have feelings for him before I met you, but I didn’t see the need to tell you because Ryeowook and I were already distancing ourselves from each other.” His alpha cupped his face with the other hand, lightly pushing his face up. “Sungmin,” His alpha called, the gentle tone compelling him to open his eyes. “I apologise if I’ve been too insensitive in this matter. I’m telling you now, Ryeowook is only a friend, a brother to me.”

But you still love him more than a brother. He wanted to say, but he couldn’t find his voice anymore. Sungmin stared at his alpha’s soft gaze, feeling the tears coming again. Shaking his head, he let his alpha’s hands fall naturally from his face, dragging his hand across his eyes to wipe off the unshed tears.

“Sungmin,” His alpha’s fingers ran through his hair, leaving a tingling feeling on his scalp.

He swallowed, forcing out his soft voice. “Thank you,” For trying, “For telling me you preferred someone else as your omega to me.”

Sungmin stood up, escaping from the room quickly before the floodgates opened again.

His alpha didn’t try to stop him.

~--~

How could I have said such a thing?

Sungmin questioned himself repeatedly through the lessons, unable to believe how hurtful and rude he had been in the morning. His alpha had thrown away all pride to explain and apologise to him, yet he had destroyed it all with such an insensitive comment.

But was it not the truth? His alpha didn’t refute it anyway.

Still, deep down in his heart, Sungmin had believed in what his alpha said. He was grateful that his alpha had tried to patch things up between them, and he was unable to deny his trust in his alpha never cheating on him.  

But did that mean that his alpha didn’t prefer Ryeowook to him?

Whenever he found himself giving in to his alpha and wanting to give up on his plans, that was what Sungmin told himself. He knew there was nothing between his alpha and Ryeowook, but he fueled his own jealousy that way.

It didn’t matter that his alpha was trying to make up with him now; his alpha hated black omegas, and he was one. He didn’t want to get hurt when his alpha abandoned him upon knowing his true identity.

He had once placed his trust so blindly in his parents when he was young and unable to protect himself, unsuspecting till the abandonment crashed on him so hard like a truck knocking and throwing him miles away. At that young age then, he could only believe in his parents. But now that he had grown up, he had a choice, and this time, he didn’t want to get hurt so badly.

It was easier and less hurting to abandon someone than get abandoned.

“Here,” Jongwoon set the plate of food he had bought in front of Ryeowook, receiving a wide beam from his omega. The alpha took the seat beside his alpha, gesturing at the food on the table. “You all didn’t have to wait, just eat.”

His alpha nodded silently, throwing a glance at the adjacent table of bodyguards before picking up the utensils. Sungmin stared, tracing his alpha’s features and committing them to memory over and over again, knowing all he would be left with by the end of tonight would be these memories.

“Kyu! You don’t want the carrots, right?” Ryeowook reached out across the table to his alpha’s plate. “Give them to me!”

The omega cleared his alpha’s plate of carrots before his alpha could say anything. When Sungmin caught his alpha looking over at him to check his reaction, a plan quickly formed in his mind.

He deliberately threw a smirk at his alpha, before turning to the omega sitting beside him. “How do you know that my alpha doesn’t like carrots?”

“He never liked them since young,” Ryeowook answered, his mouth stuffed with food.

“How about your alpha?”

“Hyung?” Ryeowook’s eyes twinkled with affection as he met his alpha’s gaze. “He eats everything I feed him.”

“That’s why I’m getting fat,” Jongwoon joked, eliciting giggles from his omega.

“Do you know my alpha better or your alpha better?” Sungmin questioned, ignoring the following hiss of his name from his alpha.

“What?” Ryeowook’s giggles died down, the beam on his face replaced with confusion.

“Let me rephrase.” Sungmin placed his utensils down, the loud clinking against the porcelain plate garnering the attention of the bodyguards as well. “Do you like my alpha better or your alpha better?”

“Sungmin, enough,” His alpha warned.

He pressed on at the lack of reply from Ryeowook. “I should tell you something so that you can choose better.”

“Not another word from you—”

“Your Kyu admitted to me this morning that he has feelings for you.” Sungmin continued, deftly avoiding his alpha’s hand reaching out for him. “Feelings more than a brother and a friend should have.”

“What…?” Ryeowook muttered in disbelief, a crease forming between his eyebrows as he glanced at Jongwoon helplessly.

“Shut up, Sungmin.” A sardonic smile crept onto his face at his alpha’s crude choice of words. “I already explained—”

“You mean you didn’t know?” Sungmin questioned, turning to his alpha whose expression darkened by the second. “My poor master, your heart must be really broken when you found out that Jongwoon-ssi snatched your love.”

“Sungmin-ssi—” He cut the interjection from Jongwoon by throwing his entire plate of food towards the alpha’s direction. The alpha jumped up from his seat quick enough to avoid the flying plate, but the food landed on his chest, dirtying his uniform shirt as the sauces trickled down the white clothing.

“That’s how you shut someone up—” An unrestrained slap from his alpha cut his words off, but it didn’t stop him. “A slap doesn’t shut someone up, Master.”

“Sungmin,” Ryeowook called softly from the side, prompting him to take the final step of his tantrum.

Sungmin yanked the omega over by the arm, silencing the yelp by crashing his lips against Ryeowook’s. He held the struggling omega in place by the nape, kissing the thin pair of lips roughly. The forceful kiss however, was ended in less than two seconds when his alpha tugged him back using his collar, the lacerating force causing an uncontrollable series of hacking coughs as he tried to catch his breath.

A sudden pull on his shirt collar brought him face to face with his alpha, the slipping control of his alpha evident in the unrelenting glare.

“Lee Sungmin,” The cold, domineering calling of his full name caused a hitch in his breath as his submissive nature fought to surface. “What are you doing again?”

Sungmin swallowed, taking in a deep breath to push his submissive side back down. “Showing you how to shut someone up. Oh, but it was you who taught me this on Saturday night when you tried to me, Mas—”

Another slap on his other cheek sent his entire face burning, and Sungmin could no longer figure if it was because of the pain, the anxiety, or the anger.

But the following words from his alpha clamped his chest so hard he knew it was the pain from his shattering heart.

“Why did I even bother trying?” His alpha muttered in an angry, defeated tone.

Sungmin smiled, letting the pain engulf him again as he closed his eyes to avert the upcoming tears. Yes, why did you bother? You didn’t have to.

His senses were drowned in a sea of affliction as he lost all strength to fight back against his alpha’s tugs on his collar. He barely noticed the bodyguards and others attempting to stop his alpha dragging his slumped body across the cafeteria to the entrance, hooking the leash onto his collar.

Sungmin thought his alpha was going to drag him home as usual, but when a shocking burning encircled