Chapter Text
All in all, sub-genders didn’t affect Jun’s daily life much. When he’d first moved to South Korea as a trainee, his parents’ biggest worry would be how dangerous a non-suppressed country would be for him. In China, tax-exemption incentives and the media led to a heavily publicized 98% beta population while South Korea let sub-genders express naturally, imitating western trends. Jun didn't care either way that much as long as it didn't affect him personally.
Especially while they were all unpresented trainees, Jun rarely crossed any alphas or omegas. All he needed to know was “work harder” and “be better”.
With this unified mentality it was easy to grow close to the Seventeen members, even with their large and diverse personalities. Jisoo could empathize when he was homesick, and Jeonghan and Seungcheol always looked out for him, patiently speaking slower when it was needed. Everyone poured their entirety in their shared dream, drilling out of dances until early into the morning spending almost every waking hour together. It would have been impossible not to grow close.
If Dino was too lazy to climb up to the top of his bunk, Jun would roll over and pat the open space next to him. If Seungkwan needed help with his math homework, Jun was the first to volunteer, patiently writing each step as many times as was needed, communicating with symbols and numbers. When the younger kids struggled to wake up in time for school, he made them breakfast so they’d at least be able to eat something in the morning.
Seventeen was more than just a team to him. They were Jun’s family. Even if the people wanted to call that a pack and have sub-genders thrown in there, to Jun they were first and foremost a family, in spite of any language barriers.
Of course, when Minghao joined, late into their trainee period, b-boy extraordinaire, Jun felt like the missing puzzle piece of their family was complete. Who else could he speak to in his native language when he needed a break? Who else could empathize when he mispronounced Korean words which earned him endless teasing? And who else would have put up with him after Jun accidentally spat into his mouth right after meeting him?
Although Minghao was younger, he’d often acted like the more mature one between them. He’d always be the one pushing Jun to get ready in time for dance practice, and make sure they took breaks to eat lunch. He wouldn’t have made it through the trainee days without him, and even after debuting Minghao's side remained a special place for Jun. Not that he'd admit outloud if anyone asked.
They'd received the anouncement that they were finally debuting with "Adore U" after dance practice. After all of the excitement in the members had died down, Jun had pulled Minghao aside to sneak out for Chinese takeout.
“I can’t believe we’re finally going to debut.” Minghao in a rare moment for him was freaking out on their walk to the restaurant. “After all this time.” His voice was watery with emotion.
“Aww let it out, Haohao.” Jun gave him a teasing smile, wrapping his arms around the smaller boy.
“Don’t call me that.” Minghao sniffed, and Jun felt the wetness of his tears soak into his shirt.
“Xiao Hao. Little Hao. You’ve worked so hard for it. You’ve earned this. The wait is over.” Jun rambled thoughtlessly, hoping something in there would distract the other boy from his distress.
“I don’t like Xiao Hao either.” The bundle in his arms complained, but he didn’t pull away, so Jun kept rubbing his back. “We’re in it together, right Junnie?”
“Of course.” Jun said easily. "Who else would go out to eat Chinese food with me?"
Minghao pushed him away with a huff. "I'm trying to have a moment here." The other boy walked ahead of him, sleeve furious wiping his face before Jun can get a good look at it.
Jun couldn't stop himself from laughing, but caught up to him quickly. "Okay I'm sorry I'm sorry. I'm here with you."
Minghao rolls his eyes, face finally dry of tears. “We’ll always be together.” Minghao declared. Jun just hummed in agreement.
Jun had endless confidence that they would rock the world. And success or fail, Seventeen would always be home.
Outside of China, much of the world didn’t agree with Jun’s opinion that sub-genders were inconvenient. They were romanticized and people adored love at first scent stories. Wedding rings didn’t compare to life bonds marked into the skin even if they weren’t only animalistic bites–some opting for intricate tattoos instead. Especially when it came to idol groups, the fascination over alpha and omega idols fostered a stronger international reach so it was even played up a bit.
Jun didn't see the draw personally. He’d grown up hearing stories in the news about omegas in heat behaving outrageously in public or alphas causing property damage in major cities, and the idea of taking days off of work to deal with a rut cycle sounded awful. If modern medicine was capable of removing the inconvenience entirely, however, why wouldn’t everyone want to just take advantage of that?
Hormone suppressants were the easy solution.
Within Seventeen, he was pretty sure he was the only one who took suppressants. Even with Minghao, they’d spoken about it a singular one time ever while they were still trainees, and the awkwardness that followed made Jun vow to never ever bring it up with any member ever again.
Jun had thoughtlessly brought it up during a rare moment where there were only two of them in the dorm while the rest of Seventeen was eating Korean cold noodles neither Jun nor Minghao had acquired a taste for yet.
“I’m heading to the pharmacy. Do you want me to pick up any prescriptions for you?” Jun had mentioned while clumsily putting on his shoes. Minghao glanced up from where he was splayed over the couch.
“Prescriptions? Why would I have one?”
Jun paused, confused. “Hormone suppressants?” Shocked, even more when the boy in front of him snorted.
“We’re not in China anymore, Junnie. We don’t have to take those here.” He grinned. The sharpness in the smile threw Jun off-balance.
“Oh.” Of course, free-spirited Minghao who delighted in breaking societal standards would stop taking them as soon as he could. “Of course. I’ll probably stop taking them soon too.” He awkwardly bit out before running out the door.
He did not, of course, stop taking them. It was simpler, Jun would tell himself. Less complicated. Growing up in China, the peaceful beta lifestyle where no one’s work was interrupted by random needs for sex marathons was idealized. Why does he need to stop just because he can?
Even when the members started presenting and turning Seventeen into a real pack, Jun held onto his suppressants even tighter. Less than a year after debut, the three eldest members presented within days of one another. Jisoo was a beta, which worked well between Alpha Seungcheol and Omega Jeonghan. It was awkward when the three disappeared for a few days and everyone knew they were having disgusting amounts of raunchy sex, but it wasn’t strange when they came back because Jeonghan and Jisoo had already been together prior to this and the whole thruple was fairly flirty by default.
This set a tone for the dynamics of the pack. Whenever there was an squabble, such as when Seungkwan took real offense at Soonyoung’s teasing or Wonwoo snapped at members being too loud, all of them gravitated towards the alpha couple, Seungcheol and Jeonghan to settle it. Jun never personally needed any of it, invested in being the anti-thesis of conflict. The most real argument Jun had ever witnessed was surprisingly between Woozi and Hoshi.
On that particular day Jun, Jisoo and Minghao had come home late after Korean lessons that the others were exempt in. “I don’t see what’s wrong with us just communicating in Chinese when none of the other members are here.” Minghao griped.
“It’s good practice.” Jisoo reasoned, always on the side of the teachers.
“Well, just for now at least.” Jun also disagreed with the Korean teacher who said he and Minghao should stop using Chinese while at the dorms. “After we’re fluent, we can go back to using Mandarin. It’s weird to talk to you in Korean.” Finally they’d reached the dorms, and Jun pulled out his keys.
Minghao didn't seem convinced while Jisoo laughed. “I can see that. Talking to Vernon in English is the only thing keeping me from forgetting everything sometimes.” Jun pulled the door open to loud voices.
Their dorm was no stranger to noise, and the yelling wouldn’t normally be that surprising either. Especially from Hoshi. However the tone of the yelling was quite different than normal.
“-can’t stand it when he’s like this.” Soonyoung’s voice sounded close to breaking into tears.
Jeonghan, Seungcheol and Soonyoung all looked up from the couch as the door startled them.
“Is Woozi with you?” Soonyoung asked, hopefully.
“Unfortunately, no.” Jisoo responded. Closing the door behind them, Jisoo curled up next to Jeonghan with a sigh while Minghao and Jun stood there awkwardly.
“Is something wrong?” Jun clarified, sensing Minghao was as lost as he was.
Jeonghan gave a tight smile while Soonyoung sulked between Seungcheol and his embrace on the couch. “Woozi has just been working long hours at his studio and has missed dinner with everyone all week.”
“Am I being dramatic?” Hoshi whined. “I’m sor-”
Jeonghan interrupted. “There is nothing to be sorry about. We’re a pack. We should all be together for meals when we can.”
“Well, I’m sure everyone would agree with Woozi that work for Seventeen comes first. Seventeen is for the pack.” Seungcheol, ever the contrarian, added, earning him a glare from his omega.
The air chilled and Jun swallowed uncomfortably, the two Chinese boys still stuck in the entranceway of the dorms.
Jisoo cleared his throat. “You know sometimes you work really long hours when you’re figuring out a new choreography too.” Jisoo nudged the pile of people next to him generally in Soonyoung’s direction. “Maybe Woozi thinks you don’t think it’s that important either because you miss dinner pretty frequently too.”
Soonyoung’s devastated expression changed to an introspective one as the furrow in his brow relaxed.
Jeonghan brightened. “Shua-ah you’re so right. I’m sure it’s something like that. Let’s all talk together after dance practice tomorrow and we’ll figure it out, Soonie.”
By this point, the calming pheromones were finally thick enough for Jun’s suppressed nose to breathe in and while pleasant made him sneeze. Everyone looked up at him. “Ah sorry. I’ll just go wash up then.” Jun ran off. Minghao trailed after him. He wasn’t really cut out for stuff like this, he assured himself. He resolved to mind his own business better.
Several days later pack dinners became a staple.
That was the extent of Jun’s daily interactions with the presented at Seventeen. Anything involving heats or ruts was kept pretty private from the rest of the members, Jeonghan citing “Don’t traumatize the kids, Cheolie.” whenever he went into too much detail about "Jeonghan's Angelic Ass". They rarely even kissed beyond a peck in the shared living spaces.
Of course, the management team loved the alpha thruple. Sometimes they had their own interviews when Pledis marketing wanted to hype up their dynamics even more. But that was fairly easy for Jun to completely ignore.
Jun only had to take his pill every morning, discreetly, before the rest of his roommates woke up. The hormone suppressants were easy to get prescribed the past couple of years as merely delaying presentation is still quite common in Korea. Especially when college entrance exams were valued so highly. When he was getting close to adulthood, Korean doctors had asked Jun a lot more questions when he requested them, so then swapped to getting them shipped from his parents in China. Of course he believed the doctors who advised him that continued suppressant use after the age of 20 could cause permanent damage to his sub-gender presentation, but that was fine. If it was good enough for his home country, it was good enough for him.
Soonyoung, on the other hand, was buzzing with excitement the day after his 20th birthday. “What do you think you’ll be, Wonwoo?” It was one of those rare days where Soonyoung’s emotional battery was filled to the brim, despite the hours he’d made the performance team drill their next unit dance, still running high from the success of “Highlight” months ago. Jun fiddled with his phone while alternately bites of DK and Mingyu’s soup noodle creation. It was some amalgamation of spices that disqualified it from being a real dish Mingyu argued, but still tasted delicious. Jun wasn’t a picky eater anyways.
“Wonwoo is an alpha for sure! Do you see the way he glares?” Mingyu piped up, receiving another characteristic glare from the man in question. He goes back to stuffing his face.
Soonyoung darts up into the air whining at Wonwoo to say something.
“Probably just a beta.” Wonwoo said between bites of food.
“Nah, Jun’s the beta.” Seokmin had adhered to the myth that only one person of each year would be a beta, which most of the other members vehemently disagreed with. Jun didn't have enough personal examples to draw from so he stayed out of it.
“There can be more than one beta, Seokmin!” Seungkwan announced from the other side of the table even though Jun was certain Dino, Vernon, and Seungkwan had just been talking about something else completely.
“Mind your own business, Kwanie!” Seokmin shouted back.
“Jun’s not a beta.” The room went quiet when it was Minghao that made the comment. Jun jerked his head up at the younger boy, several seats away, eyebrows shooting up. Minghao’s dark eyes twinkled back at him.
Jisoo, who was seated next to him, patted his thigh calmingly. “Let’s not speculate on these things. What happens happens. If any of you start feeling feverish, let one of hyungs know and we’ll help you get what you need.”
Jun relaxed as the conversation shifted to more benign things like which of the rookie groups debuting that year seemed promising. Regardless of whether or not he was genetically a sub-gender other than a beta, that was all he was going to be.
Minghao has just been watching too many of those ABO rom-coms, Jun decided.
When his head hit his pillow that night, however, it was hard to shake the memory of dark eyes staring back at him.