Archive of Our Own

𓆝 𓆟 𓆞

When Jisung got diagnosed, he was a few weeks away from blowing out eight candles on a chocolate cake. Seven years old with a word he didn’t really understand on his medical history, but to be fair, there are a lot of things Jisung didn’t understand back then.

The one thing that Jisung has known for a while, though, is that he can’t really sleep. 

Not like he’s supposed to, at least. Not like other children who were able to fall asleep when the world was dark and the clock struck nine. Other children, who got up at seven thirty in the morning, rested and are not so tired anymore.

When Jisung woke up on his eighth birthday, two weeks after school started again, he did so with dark circles under his eyes and only a few hours of sleep in his system.

The first treatment had started then. Phytotherapy, a bunch of plants liquified into medicine that he had to take every single night. Thirteen drops each day, either directly on his tongue or mixed with water when he couldn’t stand the taste on certain days. It had worked, but only for a few months.

After a while, Jisung and his mother learned that his body was wired in different ways than most. The doctors had said it was something called acquired tolerance. Jisung’s system got used to the medication, used to the thirteen drops, then the fifteen, and then the eighteen ones he had to take every night.

But Jisung was almost nine, he still couldn’t sleep, and he couldn’t take his medication anymore. Because even if they were plants, he would have had trouble following in class. Not that he paid attention anyway, he was always too tired. Too exhausted to lift his hand up to participate even if he knew the answer, even if Jisung had spent all night reading his school book to keep himself entertained.

There are a lot of things Jisung didn’t really understand. But it’s okay, he had plenty of imaginary worlds he allowed himself to get lost into when it got too much for his small body to carry. 

Turning eleven made him realize a few things.

Jisung still couldn't sleep, the bags under his eyes had dug a hole into his skin, the lack of rest made him sensible, on edge. Well that, and the constant thoughts running around in his head. Jisung thought a lot –he still does–, it’s in his character, he can’t help it even if he wanted to. 

Middle school was harsher than anything he’d ever been through. 

Jisung understood why he couldn't sleep. They had stopped medicating him, because he just kept acquiring tolerance to all the different pills they fed him, all the drops and all the powdered medicine. But it’s okay, or at least that’s what he told his mom when she looked at him with worry settled into her wrinkles.

As Jisung laid in bed with too much pressure on his shoulder especially for a twelve year old, he used to close his eyes and picture smiles, laughter and so much love. He read a lot, still tries to today, got lost into books that offered him the freedom he lacked at home, lines that he wished were written on the pages of his own story.

The same week he turned thirteen, Jisung was allowed on social media. A mistake, when he looks back on it, but it gave him another outlet, another way for him to create stories in his mind when sleep doesn’t show at his doorstep. He had made friends there, in lieu of making ones in the real world. Humans behind a screen that allowed Jisung the feeling of being appreciated, even from so far away. 

Sleep rarely ever came to him. It’s something he encountered vaguely some nights for a few hours, but more often than not, Jisung was kept awake until the sun rose outside. Sometimes he passed out because of exhaustion and turned under his covers for nine hours straight. He’s never rested. Never enough, never fully. 

At fifteen, his mother sat him down and explained to him what subgenders were. Alphas, betas and omegas. Jisung didn’t care what he would be. He’s too tired to care; too exhausted. His father said he’s too soft; too sensitive to be an alpha, his mother said there never was betas in the family, so there’s almost zero chance of him becoming one. 

He could have gone to get checked up at a clinic, get an ultrasound that could have helped narrow it down a little bit, but Jisung was too tired. He didn’t care, didn't want to know, and wished he would present as a beta to save him from the hassle of going through heats or ruts. 

Sixteen was harsh. Too harsh, too brutal for him. His grades fell, the few friends he had made in middle school had gotten accepted in a different high school. Jisung was alone in a world where nasty looks turned into his morning coffee and empty corners at recess became his best friend.

Four in the morning welcomed his giggles, six soaked up his tears, seven echoed his alarm. Jisung couldn’t sleep, but after years, his body and mind had grown used to it. The bags under his eyes had sunk deeper into his skin, Jisung knew, even back then, that he would never get rid of them. But it’s okay, he didn’t grimace when he looked at his reflection in the mirror anymore. 

Jisung started learning about the ocean during summer break right before he turned seventeen. The depth of it, the creatures it protects and feeds. He had always loved deep water bodies, the sea had listened to worries and thoughts more often than not. Jisung used to take walks along the shore early in the morning when he still hadn’t found slumber and let the waves absorb his tears. Jisung spent hours upon hours reading from blogs, pirating articles and movies to learn more about the deep blue waters making up seventy percent of the earth.

His grades flew up, headphones over his ears in the hallways of his school to block any noise out as a podcast about Great White Sharks played. Jisung found comfort in marine books and the pictures of harbor seals during sleepless nights. Maybe one day, he would get a chance at studying them.

Universities were hard to choose. Too many cities, too many buildings. Jisung applied for Gyeongsang because it’s far away, it’s close to the sea and the best college for Marine Biology there is in all of South Korea. It’s far enough for him to forget about his life back home. Jisung might get a chance at normalcy. 

He quickly realized that he prefers studying the ocean and the sea to any other type of water bodies. Which was ideal, because Jisung lived in Mokpo, and the Yellow Sea was less than a thirty minute bus ride away from his home. He didn’t have his license yet, didn’t really want to get it because he’s too scared of cars, of roads – and too tired. 

Jisung got into Gyeongsang National University with flying colors. Not a full scholarship, but still enough for him to live comfortably. Six hours away from home, at the very south of the country. 

Nineteen years old brought Jisung a best friend he had craved for his entire, lonely life. 

A mop of blonde, straight hair and freckles that Jisung had found gorgeous at first sight and similar bags under his eyes. The same look Jisung had harbored for all these years, a look that reflects back at him whenever he watches himself in a mirror or a clean window. 

Felix has a deep voice and comfortable arms that Jisung has sprawled into countless times when they had to go over their physiology course in order to pass their exams. Felix is an omega that smells like peach and vanilla.

Life has been better with Felix by his side. Insomnia – he knows what it is, now– is easier to deal with, when Felix rubs the scent gland on his wrist over Jisung’s odorless ones. Relaxing.

On the morning of his twenty-first birthday, Jisung’s alarm clock manifested itself with cramps twisting his insides and sweat running down his temples. 

“Baby– Jisung, wake up.” Felix had said, next to him with the back of his hand pressed to Jisung’s boiling hot forehead.

Jisung presented as an omega. And he smells sour. Too strong. Too deep. 

Felix called the secretary of their campus that day, warning them that they both would miss classes until further notice. The man on the phone was sweet and soft spoken, told Felix to take all the time they need and that their courses would be forwarded to their student’s inbox. 

All of that takes him to – now. 

Jisung is freshly twenty-three, in his second year for his master’s degree and in desperate need to find an additional course to finish everything off. He doesn’t know if he will go further and push for a doctorate, but for now, Jisung focuses on running through campus to find those freaking brochures.

He almost runs into someone already looking at the board filled to the brim with leaflets, personal numbers for tutoring – Jisung’s own is there, a few pieces of detachable paper ripped off already. He only put the ad up two days ago. 

“Shit, I’m sorry.” He breathes out when he comes to a halt and startles the other man standing there. Pretty nose he thinks, when he catches sight of the person’s face. Jisung bows politely, inhaling deeply to make up for the air that was punched out of his lungs as he ran. Class starts in twelve minutes. 

“It’s alright. Looking for anything in particular? I’ve been studying that board for the past ten minutes.” The man laughs, and Jisung mimics him in a polite manner. 

“Extra credits course! I’m desperate.” He half shouts the last bit, running a hand through his messy brown hair. Jisung doesn’t really care about appearances on campus. 

“Well, you’re in luck. They just put this one up,” the man points at a gray and blue flier, Jisung already knows the departments it’s for just based on the colors. “Marine biology and marine environment engineering students are welcomed to join this new extra course. It’s a project meant to mix the two courses together.” 

Jisung snaps a picture of the leaflet as he thanks the man standing next to him, before yelling out apologies when he starts running again. To class, this time. 

Felix makes fun of his hair and his heavy breathing when he makes it past the doors of the lecture hall, and Jisung slaps his arm as he sits down. 

Marine biology and environment engineering. 

Great mix, he thinks.

𓆝 𓆟 𓆞 

Felix and Jisung live in dorms on campus, trying to reduce the cost of living so far from home without any type of stable income. Jisung’s parents pay for a bunch of his expenses, but he still picks up shifts at a local convenience store every weekend.  

“Lixie!” Jisung exclaims through the bathroom door, water being the only sound resonating off the tiles. 

He hears a hum coming from inside the stall, so Jisung turns the handle and makes his way inside, taking a look in a mirror after wiping a bit of steam off of it. The usual dark circles greet him, along with the dullness of his dry skin. Jisung didn't sleep at all last night. 

“Do you know anything about marine engineering students? Master students especially.” He asks as he sits down on the floor, back against the door. 

Felix peaks his head out of the shower curtain, hair wet and sticking to the sides of his face. His skin is so red, Jisung thinks. But Felix tends to take scorching hot showers.

A laugh resonates through the walls, and Jisung finds it hard to mimic his best friend’s happiness. “What’s so funny about that question?”

“Remind me what my boyfriend teaches, Sung.” 

What Chan teaches? Well, Jisung forgot, to be quite honest. His usual great ability to remember these small details long forgotten when he hasn’t slept in forty eight hours now. 

Soon to be forty nine.

“I’m really tired, Lix. You know I can’t remember anything when I’m too tired.” He says, finding it hard to be honest with his best friend, but deciding against the pull at his heart telling him to not make him worry. 

The water stops, Felix steps out of the shower with water running down the length of his body and Jisung notices that the skin of his chest is a bright shade of pink. Jisung gets up from the floor and grabs a fresh towel from the drawer under the sink, handing it to him before sitting back down. 

“Hyung teaches marine engineering, baby. He’s teaching first years, so he can definitely ask the teacher who takes care of the masters. Why are you asking all of a sudden?”

Peach lingers in the air, Felix doesn’t care about trying to suppress his scent whenever they’re both at home, enveloping Jisung in a warm embrace, soothing the ache in his eyes and the migraine pounding at the front of his brain. 

“There’s this extra course I need to take since I didn’t sign up for one last year – do not give me that look. You know I don’t like whatever it is you’re doing in your chemistry class.” Jisung says when Felix looks at him with that knowing stare, pointing at him with an accusatory finger. 

“Anyway, let me finish!” Jisung huffs, smile digging into his smile lines when Felix closes his mouth right away. “I ran to the board yesterday and an older student told me about this joint biology and engineering class. It’s for second year master’s students.” 

Felix nods, emptying what is left of his toner on the palms of his hands before tapping it into skin gently. “Well, I know Channie hyung doesn’t teach it. I can ask him about it, though. He might have friends who are enrolling in it.” 

Jisung thinks about it for a second; bothering Chan about a class he doesn’t even know about. And then his brain almost shuts off, eyes heavy and heart rate slowing down from the lack of sleep. He’s so tired.

“Nah, don’t bother him for me. I’ll just apply, I’m sure the people are going to be nice there.” 

Felix dots moisturizer on his cheeks, reminding Jisung of the dryness of his face and especially the skin around his nose. But he’s too tired to dip his fingers into his own product, all he wants to do is collide into his mattress and hopefully get a few hours of sleep.

“Ji, it’s okay. I’m meeting with him tonight, I’ll ask him about it. You know hyung would do anything to make anyone’s life a little bit easier. Even if it’s telling you the people are nice.” 

He’s not up to argue. Sometimes, Jisung will contradict Felix just to see the wrinkles on his forehead form, messing with his best friend until he pouts and slaps Jisung on the shoulder for teasing him.

Felix crouches in front of him before kneeling on the tile, a knowing, gentle smile forming on his lips. Jisung feels like crying.

“Go lay down, baby. I’ll be there in a second to cuddle and scent you before I go, yeah? Would it help?”

Nodding, Jisung grabs Felix’s outstretched hands before him and lets himself get pulled up until he’s standing on shaky, heavy legs. His best friend had always known how to read him like an open book. One look towards Jisung and Felix knows what he needs. 

His mattress is cold, too hard and missing too many pillows, but Jisung still faceplants right into it and sighs heavily. Tired doesn’t even cover it. Jisung is exhausted.

And then, Jisung smells sweet peaches with that underlying pinch of vanilla Felix rarely secretes, only ever letting it flow into the air when needed or when he’s in heat. 

Felix puts a pair of boxers on and lies down next him, wrapping his arms around Jisung’s small frame and burying his nose into his hair. And then, a wave of pheromones envelops Jisung in a tight, warm embrace as Felix releases more of his scent. 

Quickly, the temperature of the room rises to a comfortable heat, Jisung’s eyelids grow heavier with each breath he takes of Felix’s scents. It wraps around him, settles in his hair and soon enough, Felix rubs the skin of Jisung's neck with the gland on his wrist before moving to his stomach and then, right over Jisung’s wrist glands as well. 

It’s not enough to have him falling into a deep slumber right away, nothing ever is, but Jisung feels comfortable now. Better, with his eyes closed and his head resting on top of Felix’s chest. 

“I have to go, Jisungie. Will you be okay? You know I can st–”

“Go, Lixie. I’ll be okay. I’ll probably fall asleep in a few.” Jisung doesn’t let him finish that sentence, he never does when Felix offers. He refuses to let his own issues trouble the people around him. 

The ringing in Jisung’s ears is amplified by the second, sleepless nights never fail to gift him a migraine. He closes his eyes to try and put some relief on them, but the dryness of his eye sockets burns all over, down to his bottom lash line. 

He feels a tap to his shoulder before he opens them again, Felix’s blonde hair coming into his blurry vision. 

“Here, baby.” Felix is holding his precious eye drops, and tuts as Jisung scrambles to sit right up to snatch the bottle. “No-uh. Lie down, I’ll put them in for you.”

Jisung would cry if it wasn’t for the dryness of his eyes, but he recalls how bad it burns when he lets himself feel the depth of his emotions. 

Legs straddle his lap and Jisung looks up at the ceiling, letting Felix’s small hand cup his cheek before holding his left eye open. One drop and Jisung blinks. Two drops, and he finally feels relief wash over the left side of his face. 

The right one is almost done in a hurry, not because Felix is in a rush himself, but because he would do anything to take some of the pain Jisung feels. 

“Thank you Lixie.” Jisung says, trying to open his eyes back up but a firm hand blocks any light from hitting his pupils. 

“Keep ‘em closed, Sungie. I’ll be back in the morning, okay?” Felix lays a kiss on Jisung’s forehead before his weight shifts to the left side of the bed and them most likely on the floor, because Jisung can’t feel him anymore.

He nods with his eyes still closed, getting under the covers of his bed and inhaling deeply. Jisung can hear the door opening and closing softly, the sound gentle to his ringing ears. 

Ten, fifteen, thirty minutes pass and Jisung finally feels the heaviness of sleep usually brings him wash over his eyelids. 

As he sleeps, Jisung lets the nightmares play out in his head. He turns and turns and turns until his body grows tired and stops fighting against them. He doesn’t sleep well.

Jisung never truly does.

𓆝 𓆟 𓆞 

twin

10:45pm

chan hyung asked one of his friends !!!! 

someone in his close circle 

has signed up for the course 

ull see him there!!

his name is lee minho

Jisung rubs his eyes and reads the text again, huffing as he looks over to the single bed next to his. Empty. Felix won’t come home until at least after his morning classes.

His clock reads 7:46, his alarm rang sixteen times since the clock turned 7:00 and Jisung has only just gotten the courage to open his heavy eyelids. 

There are about a hundred Lee Minho’s on campus, Jisung knows at least four but he is pretty sure he’s never met Chan’s Minho. He’s not the type to meddle with Felix’s friends, no matter how many times he was invited to do exactly that, Jisung prefers the marine animal shelter over crowded cafeteria tables. 

Of course, there is one located on campus. A place where Jisung has spent hours sitting on the floor of, admiring the different species of fish and marine animals that his school was allowed to keep. It’s open to the students on every day except for weekends and Monday’s, so Jisung always makes sure to book an entire slot there once a week.

He’s heading there right now, his first class only starting at 11 right in the lecture hall next to the shelter. Today, students who study marine biology have access to the private areas that usually only keepers are allowed in, and maybe that’s why Jisung’s favorite day of the week is always Thursday’s. 

Fortunately for him, only a handful of students are walking the same path as he is. At eight in the morning on a chilly September day, Jisung doesn’t expect anyone to be as dedicated as he is. There’s music playing in his headphones, canceling out all the noise from the outside world as he wipes his shoes on the gray entrance rug welcoming him as he walks past the door of the shelter.

There’s one employee cleaning the big, everything-proof glass of the first pond, smiling at him as Jisung bows his head. He knows all the fish species in that one, Jisung remembers in his first year when he first came here with a book he had borrowed from the library, The Encyclopaedia of Aquarium Fish.  

Jisung had memorized them all, and even gave some names. 

But today, he’s not here for the fish. His school has welcomed a new guest, a rescue from an aquatic park over in the east of the country. An animal Jisung has never seen up close, only watched videos to study them and learn about their species.

A freaking Beluga Whale.

Of course, his university isn’t keeping it. They don’t have the right climate, their ponds are too small to welcome the guest for more than a few weeks. Jisung would hate for it to feel uncomfortable over in the tiny space it will have to itself during its stay. But the beluga had to be homed for a few weeks until rescuers from a facility over in Canada can come and take him back. 

One door and then another, Jisung finally gets hit with the smell of raw fish tickling his nose. He’s used to it by now, no longer feeling the need to empty his guts on the floor below him. 

The lockers are to his right, so Jisung doesn’t waste a second and puts his belongings in there, snatching an ugly pair of those plastic overalls with boots attached at the end from the rack next to him. He hides his hair below a black cap, checking in the mirror to make sure he didn't miss a strand. 

As he walks, Jisung can’t help the smile that spreads across his lips when he hears distinct high-pitched sounds echoing through the walls. The animal is in an outside enclosure for now, getting accustomed to the employees and the climate of the pool it's in. 

Jisung pushes the doors open and is met with two keepers and a large, white beluga that turns its head when Jisung steps onto the concrete. Only three students are allowed access each day they’re open and Jisung made sure to sign up for today when they dropped the news they would home a beluga whale for a few weeks. 

But right now, Jisung is alone with the keepers, fatigue tugging at his skin and the smell of fresh, raw fish keeping him awake.

“Hi Jisung-ah!” One of the keepers says, handing him a bucket full of ice with a few pieces of fish left on top of it. “This is Milo. He’s three years old, he’s very talkative and super friendly.” 

Usually, no one is allowed to touch the bigger animals. They’re protected species, the type that would get attached to humans too deeply if they made contact, so they’re not authorized to touch or form any type of bond with the animals. 

“Since he was raised with humans constantly touching and petting him, you are allowed to touch him. It’s recommended even, to make him as comfortable as possible. Petting and talking to him makes him feel like he’s at home!”

The explanation makes sense, so Jisung crouches near the edge of the pond and reaches his hand for Milo to come near him. When his palm makes contact with the wetness of the animal’s head, Jisung can’t help but giggle at how soft it feels. 

“He’s so smooth!” He says, getting a handful of ice and tossing it into Milo’s open mouth. 

Jisung spends all morning taking care of the beluga, feeding him and taking care of his enclosure, making sure his environment is clean and comfortable for him.

“Make sure you’ll be here in December, Jisung-ah!” One of the keepers says as he skips down the hallway, a smile on her face as she waves at him.

Starting his fifth year on the same campus, Jisung has learned to make friends with people who can teach him valuable things for his future. Animal keepers are on the same scale as the professors in Jisung’s eyes, because as much as it is important to sit down and learn, Jisung knows learning in those enclosures, wearing ugly and uncomfortable plastic overalls is just as significant. 

However, he doesn’t know what happens in December apart from his first exams of the school year. As he takes the overalls off and puts his shoes back on, Jisung ponders on what could possibly happen for the keepers to tell him he should come by during that time.

It’s almost 11 now, his lecture starts in five minutes and he makes it just in time to snatch Felix’s wrist before he steps a foot inside the lecture hall.

“Hi, Sungie!” Felix says as he smiles, wrapping his arms around Jisung’s shoulders. “You smell like raw fish.” 

No one around them pays attention to his scent, everyone is used to smelling fish on each other. Jisung would try and mask it with his own, but his scent glands are blocked by patches and he would probably stink up the room with sourness and bitterness because of how tired he is.

Their lecture goes okay. Felix writes down what the professor is saying and Jisung makes sure to note whatever is shown on the screen. It works well like that. Felix is a way better note-taker than he ever will be.

At 12, the two best friends settle on cafeteria lunches and choose a table from all the commotion happening near the line to the lunch ladies. Felix talks about his date with Chan, a smile plastered to his face and a lovestruck look in his eyes.

“He’s so good to me, Sung. When I got to his place he had already ordered my favorite meal and made us a musical board game. He made it! From scratch!”

Felix and Chan have been dating for more than a year now. If it was up to Chan, Jisung knows they would have moved in together into his apartment by now. But Felix refuses to leave Jisung alone until they’re done with their Masters. Jisung has decided to never bring it up, because he knows Felix won’t budge.

“He did what? That must have taken so long, wow!”

The remaining hour is spent with Felix showing Jisung pictures and videos of the game Chan made just for Felix. 

And then, Jisung has a class of his own. Or rather, a new course. The first one is with no sign-ups, just a heads up to the teacher he’ll attend to make sure there's enough chairs for everyone.

Marine Biology mixed with Marine Engineering. He doesn’t really know how it can work, but Jisung is sure the teacher has enough knowledge about them both to teach a whole course for an entire year.

And this year, Jisung has to finish his research paper. With the help of this class, and the assignment he will have to give back at the end of the year. 

“Jisung-ssi!” The teacher exclaims as he steps inside the class, a cheerful smile on her face. “I am so glad you were able to join. I was truly hoping you did.”

Shyness spreads around his chest, even if Jisung knows Kang Yuna, the old teacher assistant for his marine biology course, has always had a liking for him. They always got along, Yuna always helped Jisung anytime he needed it.

He politely bows at her, a grin expending over his lips. “I couldn’t miss it! I can finally attend one of your classes!” Jisung hadn’t known right away that it would be her teaching it, but when he looked the class up after he got home yesterday. 

Jisung sits in the front but on the left side of the room, his back resting against the wall as he takes his notebook and pencil case out, preferring a pen and paper for classes. Students come pouring one after the other, taking seats and talking with each other. Jisung doesn’t really know anyone. There are some people from his other classes, students he says hello to as they walk past him, but no one he is really close to. 

Well, maybe because Jisung has around three friends on campus. And even with them, he spends most of his time with Felix anyway since Hyunjin and Seungmin are together in Naval Architecture. But they still meet up for lunch whenever they can and spend a few evenings together during the week. 

No one takes the seat next to him for now, and Jisung is kind of glad because he doesn’t know if he has it in himself to converse with a stranger right now. His eyes are burning him, he can feel the dryness of his skin tugging at the edges of his face and the knots in his back are more painful today. 

But he’s still looking forward to this class, and then lunch with just Felix today because Hyunjin and Seungmin are on a trip to Busan to visit a shipbuilding company. 

“Everyone seems to be here! Let’s start.” The teacher says, board pen in hand as she writes her name on the whiteboard. “I’m Kang Yuna, a bunch of you might have already seen me during Jung Wooseok-ssi’s lectures.”

A few students hum, Jisung starts noting down the name of the class on the first page of his notebook. 

“This class is a joint project between biology and environmental engineering as you must know. And today we will dis–” A knock on the door has her stopping her introduction. “Come in!”

The door creaks open gently, and Jisung recognizes the man he met at the board yesterday. “Hello. I’m so sorry for being late, the teacher held us up, but I do have a signed notice from him.” 

He hands the teacher a note, bowing to her slightly. Jisung watches a bead of sweat run down the slope of his nose and then right over his cupid’s bow before it falls to the floor.

“It’s okay, you can go sit down!” Yuna says, a smile on her face as she points to the class. 

Jisung looks down at his notebook, scribbling a small bunny on the side of the page. He’s startled, when someone clears their throat and he looks up to see an ocean of brown looking at him, his index finger pointing at the empty seat next to Jisung. 

“Can I?” He asks, voice light and hopeful. 

A few seconds pass and the man’s eyes flash over with a wave of worryness, so Jisung snaps out of his daze and nods. “Y-yeah! Yes, of course.” 

“Thank you.” 

The teacher resumes her introduction, writing down a few things on the white board that Jisung copies on the page of his notebook in black ink. He scribbles some more, a hamster joins the bunny on the left side of his page and Jisung starts drawing small hearts all around them. 

“Okay, since we have the basics down we can move to making the pairs!” 

Jisung’s head snaps up at this, ropes wrapping around each of his ribs before something pulls at the ends, tightening them around the width of his chest. Jisung hates group projects when he doesn’t know who he is sharing them with. Putting his trust in someone else is hard, but having to discuss and debate over something with someone he doesn’t know is worse. 

“Remember, it has to be between someone who studies biology and someone who studies engineering.” 

Looking back down at his page, Jisung tries to calm the rapid beating of his heart and tries to remind himself that he needs this in order to pass the year and finally move on to whatever he decides to do after getting his masters. Perhaps he’ll move forward and pursue research, or maybe he’ll find a facility that caters to the animals he has focused his studies on. 

“–are you from biology?” 

Jisung’s head snaps towards the voice traveling to his ears, meeting questioning brown eyes that are almost hidden under dark brown locks, the lack of styling probably making the man look younger than he is. He looks like a cat Jisung thinks, shaking his head to get back to the moment. 

“Uh? Sorry I was– sorry.” Jisung says, wondering if his cheeks are as red as they feel, embarrassment seeping into his muscles.

“It’s okay! I was just asking if you’re from biology. I’m from engineering and I don’t think I’ve ever seen you before.” The man says, running a hand through his hair. Pretty, Jisung thinks as he looks at him.

“Oh! Yeah, I am from biology.” 

Hands trembling, Jisung hides them under the table and tangles his fingers together, trying to ignore how moist and uncomfortable they feel. 

“Do you want to pair up together? I don’t really know anyone here and we’ve met twice already, so..” He trails off, running a hand through his hair again. Maybe he does it out of habit, or maybe when he’s nervous. Jisung doesn’t know but – Oh, the man remembers him.

Jisung thinks about it. And then, he realizes that he doesn’t know anyone either, and that he also would never ask someone himself. He’s kind of glad that the -handsome- stranger decided to turn to him. If he’s lucky, he’ll make a new friend. 

Nose twitching to take a small breath, he realizes that no scent comes from the body next to his besides the distinct smell of cologne. Jisung can’t know if he’s facing a fellow omega or if he’s about to accept pairing up with an alpha. He usually never does. 

Reminding himself he can’t really afford to care about that, Jisung slowly nods and wipes his hands over the fabric of his jeans. “Uh, I– I don’t know anybody as well, so um– sure. Let’s pair up together.” 

The man is about to speak again, but the teacher interrupts him. “I can see that all pairs have been made. You guys will have to combine your courses together and write a five page paper by the end of the year. There’s no precise subject, I’ll be reading them all and give you grades based on your reasoning and how you decide to plan it.” 

Jisung likes that. He’s always been better at writing when he doesn’t have to follow an exact trope. 

“I’ve planned a trip to Inmang in about two weeks. It’s a camping trip, but we will be staying at a place that provides tents and all you need to sleep during the night. It’s preferable that you stay with your partner, since we will be walking around a few places that may help you for your research paper!” 

The class ends after she speaks, and Jisung is already worrying about traveling and what it means for him and his terrible sleeping schedule. Because at the dorm, Felix's scent always calms his burning nerves and brings him comfort, so even if he doesn’t really sleep, at least he feels a bit at peace with his blanket and soft pillows. 

But Felix isn’t going on this trip. In fact, Jisung will have to share a tent with a man he doesn’t know, maybe even an alpha that could potentially reek of pheromones and sourness. Great. 

“I’m Minho, by the way. Lee Minho.” The man says, and Jisung wonders if that’s the Minho Felix has talked to him about. “I’m twenty-five.” 

What? Jisung doesn’t understand. If the man, Minho, is twenty-five, that must mean he either retook a few years or that he started university later on in life. 

“I took two years between highschool and college to figure out what I want to do with my life, that’s why I’m here.” Minho says, a soft smile spreading on his lips, almost as if he was able to read the question off Jisung’s forehead. 

“Oh,” Jisung says, trying to mimic the smile that’s spread over Minho’s face. When he’s exhausted, it’s hard for him to show any other emotion. “Okay, hyung then. I’m Jisung – Han Jisung, and I’m well– I’m twenty-two. Wait, no! I’m twenty-three.” 

Right. His birthday was a week ago. Jisung keeps forgetting about it, even if Felix and him had organized a big dinner at Seungmin’s place. Lucky bastard that he is for having his own apartment. 

“Alright, Jisung-ah. I have to go have lunch but I’m guessing we’ll see each other tomorrow?” Minho says as he gets up, shouldering his bag and grabbing the strap with both hands. 

“Sure! I mean, yes. I’ll be here.” Jisung almost facepalms right there and then, but he’s afraid the hit would ring between his ears and worsen the sharp ache at the front of his brain, settling down his sinuses and tugging at his eyes. 

Minho chuckles before bowing one last time and turning on his heels, back facing Jisung’s red face. He’s still sitting down. He hasn’t even started putting his stuff away into his bag. 

Great. 

Maybe if he’s lucky enough, Jisung didn’t just make a fool of himself in front of the person he’s about to share a year-long project with. 

And a tent. 

Soon, anyways. 

𓆝 𓆟 𓆞 

There’s something so soothing about letting water hit your eardrums as you shower, the droplets resonating between the thick walls of your skull as the music drowns out in the background. Jisung thinks he could stay there for hours, until the water runs cold and his skin shrivels up. 

Jisung wonders if he could fall asleep like this. In the confined space of his shower stall with soft tunes echoing off the tiles. But he shakes his head and starts scrubbing the day off his skin, lathering soap over his stomach, the length of his legs and cringing at how dry his skin feels. Maybe he should invest in an hydrating formula next time. 

The door opens and Jisung hears the lock turning in place, and then the thud of a bag before there's a knock at the door. 

“I’m home, Sungie! Can I come take my makeup off?” Felix says, hand probably already gripping the handle. 

Jisung nods before he realizes Felix can’t see him behind the wood. “Yeah you can, Lix.” 

Blonde hair comes into view and Jisung smiles at the sight of his best friend’s flushed cheeks. “Did you run here again?” 

“Listen! Chan hyung wanted to have coffee together and then I remembered it was our special weekly night. So yes, I ran here.” Felix smiles, reaching for his cleansing oil on the counter. 

Jisung rinses his hair before turning the water off, Felix already handing him a towel – their special fluffy ones that they only ever use when they feel down, or need the extra comfort. “Thank you.” He whispers out, wiping the water off his body before wrapping it around his waist. 

And then, Felix’s small fingers grab at the patches on his neck, two on each side and tears them off his skin gently, making sure to apply pressure after he’s done. Next comes the ones on his wrists, Jisung’s most sensitive and powerful glands lie there, right underneath his skin and he tries to pull them away from Felix’s tight grip. 

“Lix–” He tries. 

But Felix shushes him off, a warm smile on his face. “You need them off once in a while, Sung. It’s not good to keep them on for too long. It’ll turn your scent bitter and fade it away.”

“My scent’s already bitter,” he mumbles, letting Felix massage the red friction burns on the thin skin of his wrist. 

“It’s not, baby. It only is when you’re in your head. And right now, you’re with me. Come on, let me smell you. You know I love your scent.” Felix says, fingers running through Jisung’s brown locks.  

And he tries. Jisung has learned to block his scent from emanating from his body years ago, long before he learned about scent blockers. He mastered the art of it, even masking the burnt notes of it no matter how hard it was before. “I can’t – I can't, I'm sorry Lix. I tried–”

“Hey. It’s okay, Sungie. Sit down, I’ll blow dry your hair.” 

Felix does, and even goes as far as rubbing Jisung skincare into his skin, taking an extra second pinching his cheeks because it makes you look so cute, Sungie!

Take out is ordered, Jisung is wrapped inside a blanket his mother gave to him when he moved to the south of the country. Eating next to Felix is always easy. Jisung thinks he could spend hours if not days sitting next to his best friend, watching stupid movies that bring laughter echoing between the walls of their dorm. 

Jisung feels at peace right here for a moment, slurping his noodles and drinking the barely spicy broth and letting it soothe his throat. Felix hums to the credits before letting his hand grip around the remote, skipping through the names written across the screen and clicking on another movie. 

Mouth opening to take another bite, Felix almost drops the chopsticks he’s holding as he lets out a noise of surprise. “Oh wow.” 

“Uh?” Jisung is confused, not really understanding what’s going on. He watches as Felix pauses the movie and turns his full attention towards him, nostrils flaring up. 

“It’s been so long, Sungie, I feel like I could cry.” There are actual tears lining up at Felix’s lashline when Jisung takes a good look at him, not moving an inch even when Felix gets closer to him. 

“What are you talking about?” Jisung says around a mouthful of noodles, swallowing before he frowns at Felix. 

The smile Felix breaks into is so – warm, full of love and something deeper, something that Jisung can’t quite pinpoint just yet. “Jisungie, you smell so good. I missed it so much.” 

He’s so confused. Jisung hasn’t released his scent around someone else in almost six months now, he’s always making sure his patches are changed in time, even going as far as not leaving them on for their prescribed seven days but changing them every five days.

And then –

He smells it. 

Sour and deep. But also sweet, somehow. Jisung has never liked his scent. It’s too strong, too rich, too sour and too – too deep for an omega. 

Which isn’t necessarily true, because his scent is registered under the ones omegas are usually presenting with. Jisung just wishes it wasn’t as strong as it is. 

The scent he presented with was one Jisung had never heard of before, one that he had never smelled off another omega in his twenty-one year of life. A very late presentation that Jisung had blamed on the mess that he considers his mind to be. 

Jisung smells sour most of the time, but right now, in the safety of his room with his best friend, all he can smell are blackberries with an underlying and very faint note of chocolate. 

Blackberries were usually scents alphas present with, at least that’s what Jisung had read online, but Felix had told him otherwise when he presented. He told him that yes, it wasn’t very usual for an omega to reek of blackberry, the fruit being one of those scents that can turn sour very quickly. But Felix had also said that it wasn’t that rare, and it did happen to a small percentage of omegas. Presenting with a scent usually associated with the other subgender. 

The chocolate scent had come later, when Jisung wasn’t locked into his head and overthinking about his heat out of all the things he could have thought about. Felix had told him how good he smelled – just like he is now. 

“Come here,’ Felix says, arms open for Jisung to sink into. 

It’s so comfortable, when he doesn’t focus on anything and lets his scent flow freely inside their dorm. Felix purrs underneath him, deep and so – pure. 

“Chan hyung’s going to be jealous if you reek of me when you go see him next.” Jisung jokes as Felix rubs his nose deep into the gland on Jisung’s right wrist. 

“He can try,” Felix whispers before wrapping his arms around Jisung tightly. “I’m so happy you trust me enough with this, Jisungie.” 

And Felix has always worn his heart on his sleeve for the world to grab and take, but Jisung thinks he will never get used to the love Felix carries for him. So pure, free of any judgment and unconditional. 

So before he starts crying, he decides to joke around and lift his head up to look at Felix with a joyful glint in his eyes. “You literally slept in the same bed as me when I was in heat and my slick got all over you. I think we’ve been through enough.” 

“True,” Felix runs a hand through Jisung’s hair, taking one last inhale before patting his butt and pushing at Jisung’s shoulder. “Let’s finish eating, Sungie. But we are sleeping in the same bed. Just so you know, I will cuddle you all night long.” 

“Wow, that sounds so terrible, Lixie. Poor me,” Jisung laughs, irony laced in his voice as he gets off Felix and sits back on the bed. 

That night, Jisung closes his eyes at one in the morning and lets Felix wrap his arms around his waist, wishing he could fall asleep as well. 

But it’s comfortable, at least. 

When his clock rings as it reaches 7:15 in the morning, he realizes that he fell asleep and got a few hours in. Felix is still snoring next to him, and Jisung’s face doesn’t feel as dry as it did before. 

Maybe today won’t be too bad. 

𓆝 𓆟 𓆞 

They leave tomorrow. Jisung feels like the world is just about to fall at his feet and that he won’t be able to pick it back up. 

He’s so nervous his chest feels tight. His bag is already packed, a bunch of hoodies taking up most of the space. They’re only leaving for a week, so Jisung didn’t bother with packing too many things.

Felix had made him promise to call at least once during the week, always curious about what Jisung is up to. Making sure he’s okay, as well. Jisung is grateful. 

Right now, though, as he sits down on Chan’s couch, Jisung doesn’t feel as grateful as he usually does.

He got dragged for a night out, or well, a night in Chan’s apartment with Hyunjin and Changbin. Seungmin was nowhere to be found, he had something around sorry guys, I’ll be too busy! Which is sometimes code for getting laid. Jisung doesn’t really want to know. 

(He’s totally getting laid.)

Chan hands him the drink Jisung had asked him for, smiling at him gently. Always smiling. “Thanks, hyung.”

“‘Course! Also, have you met Minho yet?” Chan says, a smirk tugging at the corner of his lips. 

After taking a sip of his drink, Jisung nods. “Yeah! We actually paired up together for the project since he sat next to me. He seems nice.”

Jisung’s brain itches to blurt out the question he’s been turning around in his head for days now, one that Chan most definitely has the answer to. 

He still doesn’t know if Minho is an alpha or an omega, but Jisung has gotten a peek of patches right over Minho’s scent glands a few times now. Matching the color of his skin, almost unnoticeable. Sometimes, even with patches, people’s scent can leak through if the patches are on the cheaper side. 

Minho must have the same brand as him, expensive, but able to mask a stronger scent for seven days straight. Jisung wishes they didn’t work as well as they do now, his curiosity itching away in his brain.

It’s not like he can just ask Minho. They don’t know each other that well, and there must be a reason why he wears scent blockers on a day to day basis. Just like Jisung. It’s personal, something he must want to keep to himself since he hasn’t brought it up. Just like Jisung.

But it’s okay. Because Jisung has learned that Minho is soft spoken, shy and quiet until you ask him about his cats back at his parents’ house. Minho blushes when you mention how smart he is but it shows on his face that he knows, and that he’s confident about it.

Minho has cuts on his arms from working out and a bruise on his hand from boxing and hitting the wrong way, but Minho laughs at Jisung’s stupid jokes. Sharing a table with him twice a week has been great, Jisung thinks.

They have yet to exchange phone numbers or social media, but Jisung likes that whenever they see each other in class, they get to catch up with each other and sneak in glances when the teacher isn’t looking. 

Minho is a good friend, and Jisung is looking forward to the trip even if he’s still as nervous as he was before.

“Did you pack?” Chan asks, arm wrapped tight around Felix’s shoulder, the blonde’s nose settled right over his scent gland. 

Chan smells good. He smells like lilies with an underlying note of vanilla, a perfect mix with Felix’s peachy scent. Jisung remembers when Chan scented him once because he was too nervous, too stressed and on the verge of an anxiety attack. 

“Yeah, just a few hoodies and like three pairs of pants. I don’t really plan on dressing well since we’re going to be in the woods and near the lakes and sea a lot.” 

Jisung made sure to take more scent blockers than necessary, a few pills as well in case his scent gets too strong somehow. But he’s ready. 

Felix slops against Chan, soothed by his scent and the heat radiating from his body. Jisung can tell he’s tired from the bags under his eyes. 

“I’ll leave you guys be, I still have a few things to pack.” Jisung says, looking at Felix who’s a little lost, eyes gazed and cheeks flushed. 

He’s in pre-heat, Jisung can tell very much. “I’ll pack you a bag for him and his nest, and leave it on his bed so you can come pick it up.” Jisung smiles softly, getting up and making his way towards Felix. “Take care of him, please.” 

Jisung knows that there is nothing else Chan will be doing for the next week. But a part of him tugs at the strings attached to his heart, hating the fact that he’ll be far away from Felix during his heat. 

Chan just smiles at him gently, nodding. “I will, Sungie. I’ll text you when I can to let you know how he’s holding up.” 

Nodding, Jisung bends down and lays a kiss on Felix’s forehead. “Love you, Lixie. I’ll see you when I’m back!” 

A hand grabs at his sweater, short fingers wrapping around his wrist. “Don’t go,” Felix says, a pout forming on his lips. 

“You have a big, strong alpha here to take care of you. I love you, don’t bite him too much!” Jisung laughs, bending down furthermore to wrap his arms around his best friend, “I’ll scent some of my hoodies and pack them for you so I can be here in a way.”

When he gets home, Jisung toes off his shoes just as he walks past the front door and grabs the hem of his sweater, peeling it off his chest. The bathroom is warm when he steps inside, taking a minute before he looks at his reflection in the mirror. 

With a sigh, Jisung grabs the left side of his face and picks at his skin, stretching the thin layer of it under his eyes to get a better look at the purple painted there, his veins more visible. His skin is dull, dry to the touch and rough over his forehead when he swipes the pad of his fingers right under his hairline. 

He’s so tired, his muscles ache and his legs feel like jelly underneath his weight. He can’t help but touch all over his face, squeezing his own skin until his skin reddens and he sighs again, hating how fatigue has marked him all over. 

You could tell from a mile away that Jisung is exhausted. His eyes are lifeless and there’s a tremble in his hands that he can’t seem to put to a halt no matter how hard he tries. 

His eyes travel down to his neck, staring at the scent blockers stuck right over his scent glands. With his index finger, Jisung starts to scratch at its edge, pinching it between his thumb and middle finger when it lifts a little bit, tearing it off his skin. It hurts, but Jisung just peels until one is completely off.

Admiring the red patch for a second and then, he moves on to the one on the other side of his neck, giving it the same treatment until it’s off as well and the red marks match. He takes off the ones that are glued to his wrists, putting pressure on the sore, red spots over his skin with his thumb. 

His scent doesn’t come right away. Jisung pops the button of his jeans open and slides his zipper down before pushing his jeans down, kicking them right next to the laundry bin. His boxers are off next and Jisung turns the shower on before washing his hands in the sink. 

The water warms up quickly, steam forming on the mirror. Jisung takes a new towel out and lays it over the sink for when he’s done and only then does he step inside the shower, the hot water steam comforting him. 

As the spray lands on his chest, Jisung lets out a heavy sigh before letting his head fall under the shower head, wetting his hair. He turns then, relishing in the warmth dripping down his back and the skin of his legs. He doesn’t start washing right away, for once not caring about the water bill and spending a few minutes lost in his thoughts. 

His skin is probably burning red from how hot the stream is, but Jisung just grabs his shampoo and rubs into the roots of his hair, letting his nails scratch at his scalp and making sure all of his head is clean. 

Rinsing his hair right away, Jisung grabs his bar of soap next and the silicone brush he uses to scrub his body clean, making sure the lather is thick enough on the bristles before he starts rubbing his arms. 

It feels nice, the warm water rinsing down his body after he’s done scrubbing his skin clean. So nice, when he rubs at hand over his chest and he realizes his nipples have hardened without him even noticing. He toys with them, rubs the brown nubs until a sigh falls from his lips and his head falls against the tile of his shower. 

Jisung doesn’t indulge in this a lot, playing with himself, letting his body slump against the wall and using both hands to pinch at both of his nipples at the same time and letting a moan echo off his vocal chords. The last time Jisung jerked off was months ago, on his heat and he doesn’t really remember any of it. But he decides to caress down his torso, over his stomach and his pubic bone until the tips of his fingers touch the base of his length. 

Hissing, Jisung wraps a loose hand around his hardening cock, his other hand still playing with his left nipple. He thumbs at the head of his length, digging his nail into the slit already beading with precum as he grows to full hardness. He feels a shiver run down his back as he strokes himself slowly, eyes closing and lips parting for his ragged breath to hit the tiles. 

The more his fist moves, the louder his breathing is getting. Jisung feels himself leak between his legs, slick mixing with the warm water as his hand closes tighter around himself. It doesn’t take him very long before he feels his orgasm building at the pit of his stomach, almost dull and far from what his last one had felt like. Probably because his last orgasm had been when he was in heat.

Jisung doesn’t indulge in this often, because pleasure to him doesn’t come easy. He’s too tired most of the time to even think about getting hard, let alone jerking off until he comes. The clean up is always too annoying, his slick too sticky and he hates having to wipe cum off his own skin. 

But he fastens the movement of his fist, letting his other hand trail behind himself until a single finger circles his rim and pushes in inside gently. Jisung only thrusts in and out of himself a few times before a loud moan rips past his lips and his climax hits.

Blackberry invades his senses, so much of it and Jisung can’t help but scrunch his nose slightly, not a fan of his scent. It’s not too bad for once, but there’s still that bitterness lingering in the air whenever he inhales. But he shakes his head and decides on letting the water wash away the remains of his orgasm. 

As he gets out of the shower, Jisung wraps the towel around his waist and slaps some moisturizer on his dry skin and brushes his teeth. The bathroom is warm around him, but Jisung slowly feels the dizziness as his own scent invades all of his senses. 

It’s so strong, the sour berry mixing with the hint of chocolate he can almost taste on his tongue. 

He’s out in a minute, flopping down on his bed before he remembers he has to pack Felix a heat essentials bag and scent a few of his shirts and hoodies. Jisung will sleep with them next to him so his scent can soak into the fabric better. 

Packing a bag is fast, practiced as he gathers Felix’s belongings and a change of clothes. Jisung chooses two hoodies and two shirts, one he slides over his head so his scent can seep into it deeper. He puts the other articles of clothing on his bed before laying down, trying as hard as he can to let his scent do its thing. 

Of course, he rubs the fabric over his wrists and neck multiple times, making sure all the pieces smell just like him and then, Jisung closes his eyes and pictures long brown hair falling over equally brown, deep eyes. 

He hopes the trip will go well. 

𓆝 𓆟 𓆞 

It’s so cold. Jisung walks towards the parking lot near the main building on campus, already seeing the bus from afar. He hasn’t slept a lot, eyes heavy and dry as the wind slaps across his face in gusts the more he walks. 

His bag is heavy on his shoulder, but Jisung knows it’s from the lack of sleep and not the actual weight of it. His headphones are snug tight on his ears, music spilling from them and silencing the world around him. 

Jisung doesn’t really see anyone he actually knows yet, only familiar faces he had seen once or twice in class. So he just nods towards them as he gets to the bus, walking up to the open luggage compartments and carefully putting his bag in a corner.  

As he takes the three steps up to the bus, Jisung notes how warm it is inside. A bunch of scents are mixing together, putting an emphasis on his already sharp headache pulsing at the front of his brain. 

He chooses to sit in the middle on the row on the left, not really caring where he sits since it’s still pitch black outside. Jisung leans on the window right away, letting the cold glass soothe the permanent ache pounding against his forehead. There’s a song playing in his headphones, blocking the sound from the world as his classmates exchange with one another, probably discussing classes or the trip itself.

Fatigue engulfs him, weighs on his shoulders as he sits in his own definition of silence. Jisung scratches at the patch on his neck, stuck to his skin to mask his scent before slapping his own hand away. The air around him suffocates him slowly, too many scents tangling together as more people sit down around him. 

His head is throbbing by now, the lack of sleep obvious across his face as he rubs the palms of his hands hard over his eyes. They hurt as well, but Jisung knows it’s only because he hasn’t slept enough. They’re too dry, too heavy, as if an invisible rope is tugging at his lids and forcing them open. Jisung knows he will fall asleep on the bus.

Jisung always falls asleep whenever he’s in a moving vehicle. Bus, cars, trains — even aircrafts. He doesn’t know what it is about them, but if he’s stuck in a car for more than an hour, his eyes close on their own and he snores away softly as his neck twists in painful ways. 

So he plays the waiting game. He doesn’t mind anyone that walks past him on the bus, until it seems as if everyone is finally on. The teacher opens her mouth right as Jisung looks at her, so he presses pause on his phone and moves his headphones off his left ear to hear her better.

She is about to speak when a weirdly familiar frame runs up the steps, breathing heavily as he swipes his hair off his forehead.

Minho is awfully not punctual for someone who has been in university for almost five years now. 

He’s not late but he’s right on time, and seeing the state of his face, if he hadn’t ran to the bus, he would have been. 

“S-sorry! I had to run here, my car wouldn’t start.” Minho says, ears bright red and neck looking like it’s on fire. 

Jisung feels bad. Not too bad, but he would have hated to be in Minho’s position, so he relates a little bit. He watches as Minho eyes all of the rows, their eyes meeting once as he squints to search for an empty seat. Jisung is sure there are one or two left besides the one next to him.

There’s a soft smile forming on Minho’s face as he walks down the aisle of the bus, and then passes Jisung to check the back. Jisung focuses back on the parking lot through the window, listening as his teacher lists a bunch of things they’ll be doing during the trip. His heart swells when she tells them they are going to three different lakes and also a shelter that specializes in rehabilitating wounded sea otters. 

He’s seen a bunch up close, remembers when he had to take care of one last year during his last semester because the shelter on campus was short of a keeper. Of course, Jisung had not done any health related work. He only fed the animal and cleaned its pond, but he had the chance to sit for hours with it and talk to it as if it could understand him. 

A small tap on his shoulder tears him out of his thoughts, twisting his neck until Minho’s face comes into view.

“Hi– sorry, but there are no seats left so..” he trails off, scratching at the back of his neck. “Can I sit next to you?”

This seems particularly similar to their second meeting in class. No more empty seats, giving Minho the only available option left. Sitting next to Jisung. 

“Of course, but I might fall asleep at some point. I’m not the best company.” Jisung says, mimicking the gentle smile Minho had sent his way. 

The other sits down, knees touching the back of the seat in front of him. “That’s okay. It’s a long ride! I’ll just watch movies on my phone.”

Jisung’s eyebrows furrow, mouth slightly opening. “You’re not going to sleep?”

“Nah, I can’t really fall asleep on the road. But don’t worry about it, I downloaded a bunch of things to keep me busy.” 

There’s nothing he can really reply to this, so Jisung settles for a nod before putting his headphones back on, the slow melody of a ballad soothing the blinding pain of his headache. His eyes close on their own accord, feeling his lids drag across his dry eyeballs. It hurts, but Jisung chooses to ignore it because he’s too lazy to grab his eye drops.

Minho doesn’t say anything else, but Jisung can feel him move next to him, their thighs brushing as he probably digs his hand into his pocket. 

Jisung doesn’t remember falling asleep, he never usually does. Sleep comes to him abruptly, as if he was passing out, his body too tired to even let him enjoy the feeling of dozing off – knowing you’re finally going to get what you’ve been craving for. 

His dreams are odd. Bizarre in a way that if Jisung were to experience it awake, he’d get too creeped out and run. Slumber doesn’t embrace him tight and warm, but it rather sends chills down his spine as he tries to change the course of his dream. 

He doesn’t know where he is– but it feels unfamiliar, a place Jisung had never stepped a foot inside. 

Felix is there, too, running in front of Jisung after tricking him into this – place. He knows he’s stuck there. Jisung has been running in circles for what seems like ages, with Felix always tricking him, again and again. As if he was stuck in a loop. 

There are aisles, too many for Jisung to count and Felix is near him again, sticking in hands out at Jisung and–

“Jisung?”  

He can feel his shoulder shaking, a warm, strong hand squeezing his right arm. It definitely feels too real, Jisung can slowly feel himself getting pulled out of his dream, eyes opening and blinking as he tries to adjust to the bright light that’s now pooling into the bus.  

“Jisung? You okay?” The hand on his arm squeezes again, and Jisung realizes that the music from his phone had stopped, only the ruckus from the bus meeting his eardrums. His headphones still blur some of the noise from all around him, and Minho’s voice is somehow distant. 

Jisung’s neck feels stiff, but he can also tell his face is resting on a hard surface, the right side of his face. The right side of his body, stuck to Minho’s own. Does that mean –

“Oh, shit. I’m sorry.” His head lifts from Minho’s shoulder, already missing the warmth it brought him. It’s so bright outside, burning his irritated irises. “I didn’t mean to fall on you.” 

Minho chuckles, head shaking as he looks at Jisung. “That’s okay. I’m sorry for waking you up, you looked really distressed and you kept wiggling around.” 

Oh. 

Embarrassing. Not only did he fall asleep on Minho’s shoulder, but he also moved around in his sleep. 

“I’m sorry, I didn’t realize it was that bad.” Jisung says, eyes looking down at his lap. “Do you know how long we have left?” 

Minho looks at the phone in his hand, screen paused on an episode from an anime Jisung doesn’t recognize. “There’s three hours left, I think. We’re stopping in a few minutes for a break.” 

Jisung nods, and closes his eyes again. This time, he lets his head rest on a self-made pillow he had made with a hoodie, resting between the window and the edge of his seat. He sees Minho pressing play again, and Jisung mimics him as he turns his music back on, the sound blurring out the rest of the world. 

When he rises again, Jisung yawns as he looks out the window before turning to glance at Minho, who is still immersed into the animation playing out on his phone. Jisung decides to let him be and grabs his own, opening social media and getting his daily updates on a few seals he had taken a liking to. 

The bus soon comes to a halt, and Jisung feels it as confusion settles all over the crevices of his face. Minho taps his shoulder, phone locked and bag on his knees. “We’re here, Jisung-ah.” 

The drive flew by, and Jisung knows it’s because he slept for most of it. His neck hurts and he can feel the top of his spine crack under the weight of his head as he turns it from side to side. 

All of the students start getting up, leaving one by one. Soon enough, it’s Minho and Jisung’s turn to finally exit the bus, and Jisung relishes in the fresh air filling up his lungs as he takes a deep breath. 

They’re surrounded by tall trees, the wind gusting through the branches and the already orange leaves. Busan is always a step ahead when it comes to fall. Jisung sees only a few birds, but before he can take the time to look around, his teacher starts handing them keys and telling them the number of the tents they’ll be sharing. 

Minho leads the way as Jisung looks around, eyes crinkling when he notices a squirrel hiking up a tree. The tent is big as they approach it, white with a few fairy lights hanging off of it and metal rods going through lifting it off the ground. The tents are tall, way taller than Jisung is.  

As Minho turns the key into the padlock, Jisung balances off one foot and onto the other, eyes settling on the big tree right behind their tent. Minho walks in and unzips the bug net, throwing his bag onto the bed on the right side of the room before looking back at Jisung and smiling. 

“Are you okay with the left bed?” He asks, pulling a cap out of his bag and throwing it on his head. 

Jisung doesn’t really care about what bed he gets. It’s not like he’s going to sleep a lot anyways. “Yeah, I don’t mind.” 

The first day goes by in a blur. 

They don’t do much besides sitting down for lunch and discussing the plans for the five days they will get to spend here, trying to figure out what’s better to pack on the same days. Then, the class takes a small walk through a path in the forest that leads right to a small river. 

It’s not that big, but Jisung already wants to dip his toes in the water and crouch down until he sees all the small fish swimming around. The water is clear, the different types of algae coloring the bottom of it in a beautiful shade. Jisung wants to dip his hands in it only to identify exactly what type it is, but he forgot to bring a cloth to wipe his skin after. 

There’s a part of the stream that Jisung can see from where he’s standing, where it isn’t as deep and a few rocks are lining the shore. So Jisung skips to it, too excited to go look at the few rocks and maybe find a creature or two living under them. 

Just as he arrives near the rocks, Jisung takes off his shoes and socks, grabbing the fabric of his pants around his thighs and hiking them up so they don’t touch the floor. He steps on the rocks, careful as he moves his feet further, not wanting to slip and hit his head. Jisung crouches on one of the rocks, letting his pants go in order to dip his hand in the water and lifting a smaller, gray stone eaten away by erosion. 

There’s nothing underneath, so Jisung grabs another one before putting it back down when he doesn’t find what he’s looking for. 

He doesn’t hear it, when someone steps behind him on the shore. Until a familiar voice rings between his ears. Soft, gentle. Shy of a whisper, as if almost scared to break Jisung’s bubble. 

“What are you looking for, Jisung-ah?” Minho asks, hands in the pockets of his checkered jacket. “Anything in particular?” 

Jisung turns his head towards Minho before getting up, hoping on another rock and forgetting about his pants and letting the hem of them drag against the wet surface of the rocks. “Crayfish! I thought I could find some, but it looks like they’re hiding away.” 

“I think it’s not shallow enough, maybe we’ll find some when we go to the lake tomorrow!” Minho says, crouching down as well, next to Jisung. 

Jisung dips his hand in again, shivering when the water rises up to his elbow. His fingers move around and Jisung lets out a small celebratory yell when the tips of them touch a hard shell. 

“Look, hyung!” Jisung exclaims, bringing his hand out and shaking the droplets off his skin. “A conch! It’s so big.” 

Minho gets closer to him, looking at the conch in Jisung’s hand. 

They both get up at the same time, Jisung drops the mollusk back into the stream and goes to put his socks and shoes back on. It’s almost night, he can tell just as much as he looks at the sun setting in the distance, hues of orange painting the sky. 

After dinner and a few drinks with the class and the teacher, Minho and Jisung walk back to their tent, silence enveloping them as well as the chill air October brings. The fairy lights are on now and Minho opens the tent, taking a step inside and holding the makeshift door for Jisung to also get inside. 

“I probably won’t sleep now and watch a movie on my phone, is that okay with you?” Minho says, tearing his jacket off. “I’ll go shower first, though. Do you wanna come with me so you don’t have to walk back alone?” 

Jisung is afraid of the dark, very much so. He thinks that he would have rather gone to bed without a very needed shower  than to have to walk all the way to the showers alone, and then back to his tent. Sure, the lights from the tents would have lighted up the path a little bit, but he knows he would have still gotten scared. 

“Oh absolutely.” He says, grabbing his shower bag and a change of clothes. He makes sure he has a few scent blockers inside as well, needed to change his own, especially the ones on his neck. He’s had them for a few days now. 

So, as he showers and lets the warm water flush away the sweat that was stuck to his skin and the dirt on his feet, Jisung grabs at the patches on his neck and tears them off before scrubbing away the sticky layer they’ve left behind. 

He sticks new ones right as he’s done drying his skin, making sure his scent is kept hidden before stepping out of his big stall and finding Minho already there, similar skin-like patches right over his scent glands. Just like Jisung, on each side of his neck and both the insides of his wrists. 

Jisung doesn’t comment on it. He takes his toothbrush out of his back and makes sure his teeth are clean and his breath smells good before spreading moisturizer on his face.

They walk back to the tent again, both yawning and letting their feet drag on the floor. Jisung is so tired. 

Minho puts his movie in as soon as they both get into their respective beds, the light from his screen reflecting on the ceiling of the tent lightly. If Jisung turns, he wouldn’t even be able to see it. 

“Goodnight, Jisung-ah.”

“Goodnight, Minho-hyung.”

𓆝 𓆟 𓆞 

Jisung hasn’t slept more than seven hours, all days combined, ever since they arrived here. He’s so tired, the bags under his eyes have been pulling at his skin and tightening over the pores of his face. He’s looking at the lake now, sunlight reflecting off the surface and right into Jisung’s eyes. 

Minho and him have started their research paper, they’ve both found a common ground to start on. During the trip, they’ve decided to focus on the biology aspect of the project, since there’s nothing to really help them on the engineering part of it all here. They’re surrounded by trees and lakes, a river or two that they’ve already inspected. 

Right now, Jisung is alone. Minho left to fetch them some drinks because Jisung coughed twice. He starts walking towards the trees, letting the slow drag of his feet get him closer to the oak bark illuminated by the sky. 

Nature has always been Jisung’s first love. He’s always felt protected in the depth of the forest or when his feet are lined perfectly by the shore of the sea. Jisung loves all of it – the fresh earthy smell, the animals living between the trees and in the vastness of the sea. Jisung even likes the insects running around in the dirt underneath his feet, spotting a few ants and beetles here and there. 

But as he looks down, Jisung sees a small, brown rodent running up to the trunk of the tree before it puts his body on his hind legs and looks at Jisung. “Hi buddy.” 

Of course, the squirrel doesn’t reply. But Jisung crouches down, and to his luck, there are a few acorns laying on the leaves right by the trunk, so Jisung picks them up and offers them to the rodent, the three nuts right in the center of his palm. 

“Come, I know you like these.” Jisung gets a bit closer to the squirrel, hand almost touching the animal’s fur. They must be used to humans close in proximity, because Jisung knows that if it were wild squirrels, there is no way they’d let themselves be approached this close. 

When it doesn’t come closer, Jisung just leaves the acorns at its feet, watching as the squirrel picks one up and stuffs it into his cheeks, doing the same thing with another and then the last. 

“So cute.” He says before the rodent springs up the tree and hides between the branches, leaving Jisung with a memory he’ll cherish forever.

As he gets up, Jisung winces at the pain in his lower back. It happens mostly when he’s really exhausted, when fatigue settles in his bones and even the ligaments holding some of them together.

He jumps, when he turns around and his eyes settle on Minho’s frame, hands clasped around two cans of chilsung cider. “Made a new friend?”

Jisung puts a hand over his racing heart, pounding against his ribcage as he looks at Minho. “Holy shit, you scared me.” He says, walking toward his project partner, enveloped in a checkered jacket. “He left, I think he didn’t like me much.” 

“Sorry, Jisungie.” Minho hands Jisung his can, letting their fingers touch for a second. “Nah, he loved you. Did you see how long he stayed just looking at you? It knows you’re one of his own.” 

“What?” Jisung doesn’t understand. But he opens his drink and welcomes the icy feeling down his throat, soothing the ache that was there earlier. 

Minho laughs, his own drink left in the pocket of his jacket. Probably keeping it for later. “C’mon, don’t tell me no one has ever told you you look like a squirrel with those eyes and cheeks?”

Well. Jisung doesn’t recall anyone ever saying that to him, but his memory isn’t the best anyway. 

“No?” He takes another sip, letting one of his hands rest on the swell of his right cheek. He does have chubbier cheeks, Jisung knows they get bigger when he stuffs his mouth full of food. Especially the brownies Felix makes. 

“Now you do! Wanna go back to the tent? It’s getting colder.” 

Back to the tent they go, Jisung trailing right behind as he finishes his beverage and throwing it in the first trash can he encounters. 

It’s warm inside, the heater slowly bringing Jisung the warmth he was missing from the outside world. This is the only thing Jisung has a hard time with when it comes to nature, he’s sensitive to the cold by nature, the fatigue riddling his body never making it easier for him. So as he settles on his bed, Jisung takes his jacket off and places his hands inside the pockets of his hoodie. 

Minho does the same before patting the empty stop right next to him, welcoming Jisung to sit by him. “Wanna go over today’s notes? I can make us ramen with what we have here, it wouldn’t take long.” 

Nodding, Jisung gets up and gathers his notebook with a pen and highlighter before taking his shoes off and sitting down on Minho’s bed near the foot of it. Minho gets up then, grabbing four packets of instant ramen and using the hot water machine in the corner of the room. 

It smells good in the room, Jisung notes. Minho mixes the noodles up with the boiling water and the flavoring packets before bringing two bowls to the bed and settling them on the small table separating their two beds. 

“So, what did you note down Jisungie?” 

Jisung took a lot of notes. He always does.

The two of them dig in. Both in their ramen, but also in Jisung’s opened notebook laying on the bed, the second page staring back at them. Jisung tells Minho about what he had noted down, explains to him that yes , the pink and green highlighter were needed and that they both have different meanings. 

Green for anything related to biology. Pink for anything related to engineering. 

For now, the pages of Jisung’s notebook shine more with a pretty shade of sage than it does dusty pink. 

When Jisung smells it for the first time, he doesn’t really pay attention to it. 

It hits nostrils continuously, a steady flow of a rich flavor Jisung had smelled probably twice in his life before. Only emanating from the scent glands of older alphas. Leathery and woody, with a tinge of sweetness that slides up Jisung’s sinuses and down his throat as he takes another big inhale. 

He doesn’t really know where it comes from, maybe an alpha from their class had walked by, scent so strong it reached behind the closed entrance of their tent. But Jisung knows, feels when it embraces him, hugs his body tight and pushes down on his eyelids. They’re heavy with the weight of his missing hours of sleep, heavy with the fatigue flooding his bones and every single of his muscles. 

The steady flow of words leaving past the seam of his lips comes to a halt, but Jisung doesn’t even realize it. His limbs settle deep into the mattress of Minho’s bed, legs tingling underneath him as he lets the world wash over him, brain fuzzy as he looks at Minho, still talking to him, his own eyes stuck to the notebook. 

When it gets stronger, nose tingling with the milky scent floating around the room, woody on its edges, it reminds Jisung of the first time he had stepped into a perfume store, right by the aisle that was catering to alpha-like smells.

He sees, then, the old and torn patches on Minho’s neck. He notices that they should have been changed a day or two ago and that they probably aren’t working anymore, because all the water from showering and sweat coming off Minho’s pores have interfered with their scent blocking properties. 

Jisung doesn’t even hear himself talking right after his head hits the soft plush of Minho’s pillow. Eyes closing as soon as comfort envelops all his senses and the scent soothes all the aches pulsing inside his body. 

Comfort and something else. Warm and ambery. 

Sandalwood. 

“Smells’ good, hyung.” And Jisung is out like a light. 

As Jisung stirs awake, sun pooling into the center of their tent and that warm, woody scent almost faint now, he realizes that his head isn’t hurting. His back isn’t either, when he sits up and stretches his arms above his head. A yawn tears itself out of his mouth when the palms of his hands come down to rub at his eyes before he opens them again to take in surroundings. 

And – Jisung’s on the right side of the room. When he looks straight ahead, Jisung sees the small fridge instead of the chair he usually gets greeted with. There’s only one pillow on the bed instead of his usual two. The blanket over his legs is a dark shade of brown, but the one Jisung was given is supposed to be a light gray. 

When he looks to his left, Jisung sees Minho’s sleeping form on his bed. Clothes still tight around him, and –

He’s sleeping over the covers. Right on Jisung’s assigned gray blanket. With nothing over himself to protect himself from the cold air Busan brings in October because even if the heater is still on, the thin lining of the tent doesn’t do much to keep them warm. Jisung looks at his phone next, charging on Minho’s charger right next to his pillow. 

7:26.

For the first time in what feels like months, Jisung has just slept for seven hours straight. No waking up from nightmares, no turning until his body grew too tired to fight it, no looking at the ceiling and wishing for the time to pass quicker. 

He sees Minho stirring then, legs and arms trembling as he stretches as well, cat-like with his hands curling on themselves and feet touching the very foot of the bed frame. Jisung misses the warmth of the scent already, that leathery aroma that had him drowsy and helped him fall asleep in minutes. 

Sandalwood. Sweet and woody. 

Minho is an alpha.

It does make sense, Jisung thinks. 

When Minho turns to look at him, cheeks puffy with sleep and the marks of Jisung’s pillowcase wrinkling his skin, he just smiles before speaking. “What time is it?” 

Jisung blinks, once, twice, before taking the blanket off his legs and realizing just how cold it is inside the tent. “It’s 7:30. Please get under the covers, it’s so cold!” 

Minho chuckles, sitting up as well and letting his legs dangle off the bed as he stretches again. “I didn’t know if you’d mind me stinking up your bed. I hope the smell is gone now.” 

“Stinking up? You smelled so good I fell asleep, hyung. For seven hours. This hasn’t happened to me in the last three weeks, maybe?” Jisung says, eyes wide as gets up, stretching furthermore before grabbing water from the fridge. 

However, he doesn’t miss the blush painting Minho’s cheeks, traveling down to the skin of his neck and the sliver of skin Jisung is able to see from his chest before the red tint disappears under his jacket. 

He doesn’t understand why Minho wears scent blockers. His scent is warm. Homely, sweet and so soothing that Jisung had fallen asleep when the first woody notes had hit his nose. If Jisung had the chance to carry such a soft, sweet smell around himself, he wouldn’t ever hide from himself – let alone from the world. 

“Well. Thank you?” Minho sounds questioning as he scratches the back of his neck, getting up to turn the coffee machine on. “I stuck new ones on when I noticed yesterday, it won’t get stronger but it might linger until we leave.” 

“You don’t have to, hyung. You smell good.” He says, eyeing the new patches on all of Minho’s scent glands. Even his wrists. “Alpha, uh?” Jisung teases, putting his shoes on so the warmth of his feet aren’t swallowed by the cold floor of the tent. 

Minho giggles, handing Jisung a warm cup of black coffee before making one for himself as well. “Omega, I guess?” 

Right. 

Jisung is still wearing his own scent blockers, not letting anyone get as much as a hint of his scent. “Yuuup.” He takes a sip of the hot beverage, letting it run down his throat and settle in his empty stomach. “Probably why you soothed me so quickly. Not that your scent is comforting or anything.” 

“You fell asleep in literally less than ten minutes. Slept for seven. That’s literally the amount you got in all three nights we’ve spent here. Combined.” Minho raises an eyebrow at him, blowing the steam off the surface of his coffee. He usually takes it iced, but he must need the warmth since he spent the night shivering. 

Wait.

“You noticed?” Jisung isn’t really the type to blush easily. But he knows that being acknowledged always warms his heart. No matter how small of a gesture it is. Whether it’s because his laces are untied or – 

Because his project partner had noticed that Jisung doesn’t sleep a lot. Or not at all. 

“Of course I did, Jisungie. You turn a lot, you know? Is it nightmares?” Minho asks, genuine willingness to understand laced in his voice. 

Jisung shakes his head, sitting down on his own bed. Minho’s scent is still strong here, lingering on the material of his sheets and his blanket. “Not always.” 

He’s spoken about this to around five people. Felix, Chan, Hyunjin, Seungmin and Changbin. His only friends, really. Who cared enough to notice the deep purple tainting the skin under his eyes and the tiredness that settled on his face. But Minho seems genuine. 

His eyes are stuck to Jisung’s face, eyes blinking several times per minute. Jisung noticed that habit of his the first day they met. When Minho had looked at him with questioning eyes – just like he is now. 

“It’s insomnia. I’ve had it since I was seven, probably even before then.” He says, taking another sip of his coffee and letting the bitter taste run on his taste buds, not boiling anymore but still hot enough to warm him up. “Your scent did help, though. I won’t lie.” 

Minho laughs then, high pitched as he shakes his head before he gets up, gesturing for Jisung to follow him so they can leave their tent and get their day started. 

The lake offers them a great view and an earthy smell as they sit by to work on their project. Minho tries to find more connections between engineering and biology, using his own notebook to try things down as well as Jisung opens his browser to search up definitions, websites that will help them narrow everything down and make it easier for them to write out their combined, end-of-the-year essay. They still have six months to go, anyway. 

Minho still wears his scent blockers, and Jisung already misses the sandalwood that eased his pain away for a few hours. Perhaps, the aromas will still be lingering on the sheets of his bed and the fabric of his pillowcase, so he can bury his nose in it and maybe get a few hours of sleep before they board the bus back to their campus. 

𓆝 𓆟 𓆞 

The bus is warm as Jisung steps inside it, Minho following right behind him with a bag thrown over his shoulder. Jisung is tired. He did sleep a few hours thanks to Minho’s lingering scent, but it was too faint for it to engulf him and lull him to sleep right away.

As he sits down on the left side of the bus, right next to the window, Jisung looks out and tries to remember every single detail of the forest that had welcomed him for the week. He truly had a good time, spending every day with Minho stuck to his side as they discussed both of their majors but also let each other in on their personal life. 

Jisung knows that Minho has a very good relationship with his parents and his little brother, Jeongin, who is also studying in the same university as they are, but he’s following an Aquatic Life Medicine course. Jisung remembers it being held in the same building as Hyunjin and Seungmin’s main classes. 

Jisung also knows that Minho adopted a cat earlier in March. An almost five year old tabby cat named Dori that Minho fell in love with on an abandoned cat website, and that he rescued right when he saw him. He also has two other cats at home, living with his parents back in Gimpo. 

Minho takes the seat right next to him, taking his earphones out of his bag before leaving it on the floor by his legs. It’s so early, the sun is barely out and glowing over the pine trees but Jisung knows he’ll sleep for a few hours before they reach their campus. 

“We should be leaving soon! We’ll be taking a break in two hours and a half for anyone who wants coffee and breakfast.” The teacher says before sitting down at the very front of the bus. 

Jisung just puts his headphones right over his ears, not playing any music as he looks to his right, eyeing the bridge of Minho’s nose and the plush of his top lip. Pretty. 

“I might fall asleep again, hyung.” 

Minho nods, a soft smile tugging at the corner of his lips. “Okay, Jisungie.”

When Jisung’s eyes close, he rests his head on the seat behind him, hoping he won’t fall on Minho’s shoulder again. He can feel Minho lifting his arm up next to him and probably scratch at his neck because his patches are itchy. But then, right as the bus starts, Jisung smells it. 

Sandalwood, thick and sweet. It hits his nostrils and probably the students behind them, but Jisung can’t begin to focus on that, because his eyes open again and he looks right at Minho’s face or rather, his neck. 

The spot where his scent blocker had been stuck to is bright red, torn off his skin way too soon and too fast, with not enough water to help it glide easily. Jisung just stares, eyes wide as Minho’s head bops to the music coming from the anime he’s watching. 

Jisung taps his thigh, getting Minho’s attention back to him and watching him take one of his ear buds out. “Hyung, your–” He cuts himself off, pointing to his own neck and hoping Minho gets what he’s trying to say. 

The alpha just smiles, ears reddening as well as the skin of his cheeks. Jisung finds it cute, the way Minho blushes so easily. “Oh. Yeah, I just – I want you to get some rest, you didn’t sleep a lot last night.” 

The thought could make Jisung cry, if he wasn’t so spent. Minho, tearing his scent blocker off in the middle of the bus when he’s usually so adamant on no one being able to smell him, just so Jisung can get a few hours of sleep in.

“You didn’t have to,” he says, shy of a whisper as he takes a big whiff of the air surrounding him. His eyes close again under the heavy weight of his lids, comforted by Minho’s scent and the warmth of his body. “Thank you, hyung.” 

Another wave of pheromones pushes Jisung further into his seat, makes him grab at his jacket and hug it tighter around his waist. Seeking more warmth. 

Minho smells so good. Earthy and sweet, rich aroma enveloping the both of them in a bubble of comfort. Jisung wants to bottle it up and spray it on his own bed sheets just so he can sleep better at night. 

Realistically speaking, Jisung knows it’s only a temporary fix before his body gets accustomed to Minho’s scent. It’s what always happens anytime he finds something that helps with his insomnia. He gets a few weeks – a few months, if he’s lucky – of rest and then it comes to bite him back in the ass. 

“Sleep, Jisungie.” 

So he does. Jisung lets himself fall into slumber without looking back, eyes so heavy they would hurt if he wasn’t so used to it. 

Jisung doesn’t have nightmares. Instead, he meets his best friends in his dreams, Felix is there but so is Hyunjin, all three of them having fun in the vast space of Jisung’s mind. He dreams about having fun and in his dreams Jisung isn’t weighted down by insomnia or the pain in his lower back from the lack of sleep. 

In his dream, Jisung finds Minho as well. In the distance, with Chan, probably talking about something Jisung has no idea about. It’s such a normal dream that when Jisung wakes up, groggy with sleep tugging at his wrinkles, he blinks his eyes open in confusion. He hasn't had a dream this .. peaceful in months. Even when Chan had scented him once. 

For the second time this week, Jisung feels that his head is resting on a hard, warm surface covered in fabric. Minho’s shoulder, slightly shaking underneath him. “Oh shit, I’m sorry hyung.”

When he tears his face off Minho’s shoulder, he can see that all of him is shaking. Especially his legs, both of them bouncing on the floor. 

“It’s alright, Jisungie.” And then, Minho springs off his seat and runs to the toilets inside of the bus, hurried with a tremble in his hands. 

As Jisung checks the time, he realizes that it’s close to noon which means that he slept during the whole ride. On Minho’s shoulder, who just ran to the restroom. 

When the alpha sits back down, Jisung sends him a look. “Why didn’t you wake me up, hyung?” 

Minho puts his seatbelt back on before looking at Jisung and blinking his usual three blinks whenever he glances in Jisung’s way. 

“You looked so peaceful and comfy, I didn’t want to stir you awake by moving.” 

Jisung was about to speak when the bus came to a halt, and right as he looks outside, he can spot the familiar outline of their campus’ parking lot, full of cars already with raindrops splattering against windshields and creating puddles on the floor. 

Rain.

Jisung has always loved it. Getting caught in a rainstorm, letting the water seep into his clothes as he lays in the middle of a deserted road with his eyes closed. Jisung loves nature and what it offers, rain has always been his favorite along with the sea and the ocean. 

Right now, though, Jisung remembers that he has to walk through the parking lot and then through campus, to reach the other side of it so he can climb up the stairs to his dorm where Felix is waiting. So he gets up reluctantly and follows Minho out of the bus and gets his bag out of the luggage compartment while rain is soaking through the fabric of his hoodie.

“Will you be okay from here?” Minho asks, bag on his shoulder and car keys in hand. 

The rain isn’t heavy, but Jisung still feels his hair getting wetter by the second, rain dripping from his forehead and into his eyes as he nods. “Yeah, don’t worry about me. It’s only a ten minute walk and the rain isn’t that bad.” 

Minho is about to speak again when Jisung hears a familiar voice ring behind him, deep but filled with so much excitement. “Sungie!” 

When he turns around, Jisung sees Felix standing under an umbrella, a big smile on his face and safe from the water. 

Chan is standing right next to him, holding the umbrella with an equally blinding smile stretching over his lips. “Hey Min!” 

As he turns back to Minho, he chuckles when the alpha’s eyes go wide, squinting just to make sure he’s seeing correctly. “You know Chan hyung?” He asks, leading them to the two lovers. 

“He’s my best friend’s boyfriend!” 

“Your best friend is Felix?” Minho seems confused for a second before he lets Chan hug him and pats him on the back when he’s had enough, looking at him with confusion written all over his face. 

Jisung hugs Felix then, letting himself slump against his chest and inhaling in his peachy scent, burnt vanilla hitting his nose as well. “Wait – Lix, your heat, it can’t be done yet?” 

“Last day, so I’m okay. I wasn’t about to let you walk in the rain.” Felix kisses Jisung’s forehead, smelling his hair and scrunching his nose right as he does so. “Sandalwood?” 

Minho blushes next to them, scratching at the side of his neck that’s missing a patch, skin still a bright red where he had torn it off earlier. His skin must be sensitive. Jisung laughs and turns back to Felix before looking at Chan, who’s spotting a knowing look on his face. 

“Minho hyung helped me sleep in the bus because I was tired, that’s his scent, Lixie.” Jisung explains. 

Felix just nods, eyes glassy and face warm when Jisung puts the back of his hand to his forehead. “Okay, okay! You’re warming up, let’s go back home, Lixie.” 

As much as Jisung knows, Felix and Chan don’t do anything during the last day of Felix’s heat. It’s a day he usually spends cuddled in bed with his boyfriend as the alpha scents him and Felix always comes back smelling of lilies and strong, rich vanilla compared to Felix usually sweet, sugary peachy and vanilla scent.

“Wanna hang out?” Chan asks Minho, still holding Felix’s hand and releasing more pheromones before enveloping him in a hug, scenting him one last time. “Take it easy, okay?” He says to Felix then, kissing his forehead and then his lips, soft and gentle. Jisung can tell Felix is melting into it. 

Turning to Minho one last time, he sends him a grin, tightening his grip on the strap of his heavy bag. “I’ll text you? I don’t think I’ll be free this weekend but next week definitely works.”

“Perfect for me, Jisungie. Enjoy your rest.” 

Felix and him walk back to their dorm, Felix’s legs still a little bit wobbly from his heat. Jisung holds him tighter, taking the umbrella from him when they reach the doors of their building. 

The minute they step past their front door, Felix launches himself on his bed and opens his arms for Jisung to settle into, right after he got rid of his wet clothes. “You need to tell me everything. How come you smell like him, Jisungie? You’ve never let anyone scent you besides .. me and Chan hyung. And that ex of yours.” 

“He didn’t really scent me. The first time–”

“First time? This happened multiple times?” Felix sounds so excited. Jittering in his skin as Jisung speaks. 

“Just twice! First time was an accident. He just forgot to change his scent blockers patches and his scent pushed through them. He smells so good Lixie. I fell asleep right away.” He says, enjoying the circles Felix is drawing on the small of his back. 

“And then I woke up in his bed, he was sleeping on mine over the blanket because he didn’t want his scent to seep into my bed sheets.” 

The more Jisung talks, the more enthusiastic Felix seems. His last heat day probably isn’t helping, Jisung can feel him warming up against him as they talk. When he tells Felix about the bus this morning, Felix coos. 

“That’s so cute. I knew hyung was nice but that’s just – Chan told me that Minho hyung hates when his scent isn’t hidden.” 

“Do you know why?” 

Felix shakes his head, peach emanating from the scent glands over his body. “Chan didn't say. But I’m sure Minho hyung has his reasons, though. Just like you do.”  

Jisung can only nod, letting his eyes close for a second time today. 

“Is your project going well?” 

Nodding, Jisung starts rambling about the assignment. He tells Felix about the lakes and rivers they visited, but also the fact that they couldn’t really focus on the engineering part of it as much as they did biology. Jisung smiles, when he talks about the forest and the squirrel friend he made there, recalling its big cheeks expanding around the three acorns Jisung had offered. 

“Minho hyung said I look like one.” 

“He is so right. You have big cheeks and big eyes, just like squirrels do.” 

Jisung laughs when he hears exactly what Minho had said back when they were surrounded by tall trees and small rodents. His heart feels warm, when he remembers how long the squirrel had stayed with him but also when Minho handed him a drink. 

“He said the same thing. And then we just .. talked, y’know? About a lot of things. He’s nice to be around, I’m glad I paired up with him.”

Felix nods, wrapping his arms tighter around Jisung’s waist. “I’m glad he was able to help you sleep, Sungie.” 

The rest of the day goes by like this. The two of them tangled together as they talk about their week, about Felix’s heat and how it went, about their upcoming presentation that is in less than two weeks. Jisung is stressed, but he knows he studied enough. And that he’ll keep doing it until the day comes.

It’s only one presentation. If Jisung manages to sleep a little between them, he’s sure it’ll go just fine. 

𓆝 𓆟 𓆞 

The next time Minho and Jisung meet, it’s the Wednesday right after the trip. Minho had texted him in the morning, asking if was free soon and Jisung had said that the same afternoon worked for him if Minho didn’t have any classes. 

So here he is, right in front of Minho’s front door after a forty-five minute bus drive because Jisung had said he didn’t like the library very much because it was too loud. Especially on Wednesday afternoons. 

He needs to knock, he’s been standing there for five minutes now just looking at the steel of Minho’s door and lock pad near the handle. 

When his knuckles hit the metal, the door opened only a few seconds after, as if Minho had also been waiting right by the door for Jisung. 

“Hi!” The alpha says, opening the door with a smile on his face. 

As soon as he does, Jisung gets hit with the now familiar scent of sandalwood. It engulfs him right away, nose tingling as the leathery scent wraps around Jisung and settles in his hair. “Hi hyung!”

“Sorry about the smell, Jisungie. I put patches on but my place still smells.. like me.” 

Minho blinks, looking at Jisung and welcoming him inside. As he looks around Jisung sees how homely it is, comfort settling around his shoulder when he realizes just how warm it is inside. Minho’s kitchen smells like coffee and stew, his living room is tidied up but there’s a blanket thrown over the back of it and a carpet that seems to have gotten attacked by claws and pointy teeth of the fibers coming off it are anything to go by. 

Jisung remembers then that Minho told him he has a cat. A tabby haired little creature that likes to jump on Minho’s face early in the morning when he’s hungry. Dori is nowhere to be, at least not in the living room as Jisung looks around. But he can see his toys laying here and there, scattered on the floor. His food bowls are lined to the bar separating Minho’s kitchen from the living room. Both are half full already.

Minho did mention that Dori was a hungry little minx.

“Don’t apologize, hyung. It smells good in here, you don’t have to hide your scent in your own home for my sake.” Jisung says, taking his shoes off. 

“Do you want coffee? I also have water and juice and uh – soda as well.” He 

“Coffee is great, thank you!” Jisung says, taking in more of Minho’s place. He sets his bag down near the couch, guessing it’ll be where they’re going to work on their project. “Where’s your little kitty?” 

Minho smiles from where he’s standing at his kitchen counter, fixing Jisung a cup of black coffee with only one sugar in it. Exactly how Jisung takes it. “He’s hiding in my bedroom, he’s very shy so he ran the second you rang the doorbell. There you go.” 

Coffee in hand, the two of them sit down on Minho’s couch and sip quietly at their drinks before Minho decides to speak up, resting his mug on his coffee table. 

“You sure you're okay to work on this today, Jisungie?” He asks, worry settling in his eyes. “You know we have time, right? I’m sure we can reschedule if you need to.” 

Jisung likes that Minho cares. 

In the past, his project partner had always accused him of faking his tiredness to get out of doing a joint project, which was far from being true, because in the end Jisung used to do most of the work at night anyway. 

But Minho’s different. He’s just worried about Jisung, about the deep and purple circles around his eyes that probably tells right away that he hasn’t been sleeping. At all. Maybe two hours at night if he’s lucky. 

He’s not even nervous about his presentation, because he knows he’ll do well on it. He’s just been studying all night, taking breaks to scroll on social media to look at videos of cute seals that he knows of the names of now. 

Sleep is just distant. Slumber doesn’t come to him unless Jisung passes out in his bed and Felix has to wake him two hours after for class because he wasn’t budging from his alarm. 

“I’m okay, hyung.” He says, hoping his smile isn’t too lopsided. “I promise if there’s ever a day where I’m not feeling great to meet up, I’ll tell you.” 

So when Minho nods, Jisung sets his own mugs next to his and takes his notebook out of his bag along with his highlighters and his laptop. Minho gets his own things as well, and just like that, the two of them get started. 

First, Jisung and Minho go over everything they noted down during their trip. Minho also gets his own main course’s notes, trying to find a link between the two subjects that could help narrow down the main aspect of their assignment. 

Half an hour in, Jisung’s nose picks up the aromas lingering around the room again. Sandalwood envelops all of his senses, eases the pain in his lower back and the headache pounding at the front of his brain. When he looks at Minho again, the patches on his neck are still plastered over his skin, but he’s missing the one on his right wrist.

Comfort wraps around him and settles in the lining of his muscles, the tissue of his bones. He’s so drowsy, Jisung feels like drifting off and curling around himself to hopefully catch up on his missing hours of sleep, but he has to work, he has to talk with Minho and–

“Sleep, Jisungie. I’ll work on this, okay? It’s my field. You rest for a bit.” Minho sends him a soft smile before gesturing to the length of his couch. 

When Jisung lays down and finally closes his eyes, he feels a warm, furry body sliding in the free space between his back and the couch. Dori starts purring then, his head rubbing against the fabric of Jisung’s body. The warmth from the cat soothes the pain in his muscles, helps him fall faster, deeper as he hears the purring and feels it vibrate against his skin. 

No nightmares. Only uninterrupted hours of slumber that heals a part of Jisung. As he sleeps, Jisung finds himself in a beautiful, green forest inhabiting all kinds of animals that Jisung can only hope of seeing with his own two eyes one day. A deer. A bear. A fox so beautiful Jisung followed it between the trees and up until a small creek with a stream so clear Jisung dips his feet into it. 

Oak trees that were turned into homes for the rodents of the forest, ginkgo trees with their already yellowing leaves protect him from the powerful rays of the sun above.

Jisung is so peaceful there, so when he feels himself slipping away from his dreams, he wants to fight only to be able to sit in the forest for a bit longer.  

Waking up is not that easy, even if he’s greeted with Minho’s ever so soft facial features and that gentle smile he’s always carrying around Jisung. The cat is still fast asleep in the makeshift hole between his legs and the couch, belly rising with each breath it takes and the cutest, small sounds escaping from its mouth. 

“Jisungie?” Minho says, petting his cat as he waits for Jisung to rise from his slumber. 

“Hm?” 

“It’s almost 8:00. I was about to make dinner, do you want to stay?” Minho asks, eyes fitting over Jisung’s sleep-riddled ones. 

Minho’s eyes are so – expressive. Shining under the dimmed light of his living room with a glint to them that makes Jisung want to look at him for hours, even days. He wants to count the moles he can already see on Minho’s face, trace the faded scars over his cheeks and follow the bridge of his nose. 

Jisung finds him beautiful, especially like this. With glasses resting over his nose, a slight shine to his skin from the warmth of the apartment. Warmth from the heating of Minho’s place but also from the alpha himself, pheromones still pumping from the gland on his wrist and perfuming the room they’re in. 

Wait. 

“Holy shit, did you say almost eight?” Jisung all but jumps from the couch, waking up the sleepy cat right next to him. “I’m so sorry, hyung. I didn’t mean to, oh my god.” 

He takes it all in – the two notebooks wide open on the coffee table, Minho’s own laptop resting over his thighs as he types away. The books on engineering but also biology are colored with highlighter all over as well as sticky tabs marking some pages down for later.

“I worked on engineering while you slept, but I’m starting to get hungry. Do you want some?” He asks, again, not even mentioning the fact that Jisung has been sleeping on his couch for almost seven hours now. While he did all the work. 

And now, he’s even offering Jisung dinner. 

“I don’t want to bother you even more, hyung. I can catch the bus.” Dori is still right next to him, curled up against Jisung’s thigh and purring again. 

“You’re not bothering me. Do you like kimchi stew?” 

“Y-yeah? I mean, yes! Why?” Jisung rubs at his eyes with the balls of his hands, then stretches his arms over his head with a yawn. Very polite. 

“Perfect, I made too much yesterday.” 

With that, Minho springs up to his kitchen with both of their empty mugs, the sound of them hitting the sink as Minho disposes of them inside of it. Then, Jisung hears the stove being turned on, a pot sliding over it and a drawer opening as well. 

It doesn’t take long for Minho to warm the stew up. He’s humming as he takes two plates out of his cabinet and Jisung watches him as he pours them both enough to be full until the next day. But before he comes back into the living room, Minho bends and picks up Dori’s bowls, rinsing the water out before pouring fresh, cold water back inside for the kitty to enjoy. Then, he fills his food bowl to the brim and puts it back down. 

Jisung watches, as Minho takes another recipient in the shape of a cat’s head and opens another cabinet, getting a can of wet food and platting half of it before crushing it down with a fork. The cat is meowing the entire time by Minho’s feet and jumping on his hind legs to claw at Minho’s shin. 

“Here you go, baby.” He says as he places the plate in front of Dori, who doesn’t even waste a second before he digs into his own meal.

As he brings it to the coffee table, Minho sits the plates down before reaching for the television remote on the couch next to him, turning the screen on and turning to Jisung. “What do you usually watch?” 

“Uh?” Jisung sits tight, legs crossed under himself as he looks at the stew waiting for him. He doesn’t even remember the last time he had a homemade meal. It was probably back in March, when he last saw his mother for her birthday the day he traveled back home the last time. “Thank you for the meal, hyung. It smells amazing.” 

“Anytime, Jisungie. Is there anything you like watching when you eat?” He asks, swiping channels on his television. 

“I’m more of an anime guy while I eat, but it’s okay if you don’t like it! We can watch anything!” 

“I was hoping you’d say that, actually. Have you watched the first season of Oshi no Ko? The second one just came out!” And Minho sounds so excited, with stars in his eyes as talks, that Jisung can only nod. 

“I’ve been waiting to watch it too!” 

Minho clicks on the first episode, and Jisung digs in. 

The stew’s aromas explode over his taste buds with the first bite. Jisung hasn’t tasted anything as amazing as this in months. The spiciness of the soup barely burning his throat helps to enjoy this even more, because usually, kimchi stew is a lot more spicy than this. 

“This is so fucking good, Minho hyung. Holy shit.” 

Minho laughs, almost choking on his food before blushing a pretty shade of red. “Thanks, Jisungie.” 

They watch the rest of the episode, laughing and commenting on every single scene happening on Minho’s flat screen. Jisung chokes a few times, the lump in his throat worsening when a cold hand rubs soothing circles on the small of his back to ease the stew down his throat. 

Jisung sets his plate down when he's finished, licking his lips to make sure he’s eaten every single drop of the meal he just devoured. “Now that was amazing.” 

Minho finishes his own plate right after, setting right over Jisung’s before getting up again to discard them too, right next to the mugs in the sink. “I’m glad you liked it!”

It’s close to 9:00 now when Jisung checks the time on his phone, seeing the missed texts he had gotten from Felix. 

twin

7:25pm

i hope

studying is

going well sungie!!

m going to chan’s

see you 

tmr!<3

The next bus is in twenty minutes when Jisung checks the timetables, and it’s a seven minutes walk to the bus stop, five if he skips down the first street he has to walk down. So, Jisung closes his notebook and gathers his highlighters before throwing them into his bag. 

Minho comes back then, a hand running through his hair and letting even more of his pheromones fill up the room. Jisung could stay here all night long if he could, letting the woody and sugary smell of Minho’s scent soothe him back to sleep for another seven hours. 

“My next bus is in fifteen minutes, so I should get going and get out of your hair.” Jisung says, putting his notebook and laptop away inside his bag as well. “Thank you.. for today. For letting me sleep and doing all the work and also dinner, god you–”

Jisung breathes out, listing everything that Minho has done for him only today brings a flush to his cheeks. “You really did a lot. Thank you, hyung.” 

“Don’t even mention it, Jisungie. I remember all too well the dorm dinners I used to have.” Minho starts, taking his glasses off his nose and settling them down on his coffee table next to his own laptop. “How long is the bus ride?”

“It’s forty-five minutes! But I have a long list of things to keep me busy.” He chuckles, making sure his headphones are still in his backpack where he had put them earlier. 

Minho thinks for a minute, and then he gets up from his couch before looking at Jisung again. Beautiful. “I’ll drive you home, if you want. It’s only a fifteen minute ride from here. That’s why I chose this apartment when I got my license. The bus makes you go all the way around.”

Dori meows then, right at Minho’s feet as he rubs his little head on the alpha’s shin. 

Jisung finds it all too endearing, eyes looking up Minho’s frame and taking him all in. 

His broad shoulders, his thick, smooth arms and his small, red hands. Jisung looks, he really looks at Minho for the first time, he thinks. His mesmerizing eyes and high cheekbones but also his pink lips shining over with Minho’s saliva as he runs his tongue over them. 

Minho is handsome. Not too tall, soft around the edge with biceps the size of Jisung’s fucking head. And then he looks at his legs. Thighs straining against the material of his black sweatpants and that would probably crush Jisung’s bones if Minho were to squeeze him between them. 

Jisung’s gaze follows the three patches on Minho’s body, one on his wrist and two on each side of his neck, and Jisung can’t help but wonder what he actually smells like without the properties of his scent blockers. 

“You did so much already hyung, I can take the bus I promise.” 

“Okay, Jisungie. But next time we can meet in a coffee shop close to you or even your dorm, I wouldn’t mind driving there, ever. I do it everyday for classes already.” 

Nodding, Jisung rests his bag tight over his shoulder right before taking his headphones out of it. “Absolutely. As long as you don’t mind messy omega dorms, you’re free to come by!” 

Jisung puts his shoes on, making sure he hasn’t left anything behind before waving to the cat currently looking at him from where it’s perched on the back of Minho’s couch. And then back to its owner, smiling in Jisung’s direction already before blinking a few times. 

“Text me when you’re home, okay? Be safe on your way back, Jisungie.” Minho says, balancing from one foot to another as he waits for Jisung to go catch his bus. He has ten minutes left before it leaves, so Jisung does the best thing he can think of. 

He leans in and kisses Minho on the cheek, noticing how warm his skin is. “Thank you, hyung.” 

Jisung slams the door on his way out. Blush high on his face and burning him all over as he realizes what he had just done. 

He kissed Minho. On the cheek, yes. But his lips touched his face.

Jisung catches his bus just in time, headphones tight over his ears with music spilling from them as he sits in the back where no one is. But soon enough, the bus fills up and leaves Jisung in his corner with his music turned down, hyper aware of everything around him.  

As soon as he steps past his front door, Jisung all but face plants into his bed as he lets out a groan, smelling the peach lingering in the air. 

Right before he hops inside the shower to wash away the day off his skin and tear his blockers off his skin to replace them, he shoots Minho a text even if embarrassment still pulses through his veins and reddens the skin of his cheeks. 

me

10:25pm

I’m home!

Sleep well hyung, and thank you for today ~

A second later, Jisung’s phone rings twice where it’s laying on the counter of his bathroom sink. 

Minho hyung (project partner)

Sleep well, Jisungie

And anytime, really 

𓆝 𓆟 𓆞 

Jisung doesn't know how long it’s been since he had more than two hours of sleep at night. His eyes are so dry, the drops aren’t helping anymore and Felix’s scent has been lingering in their apartment for days without tugging Jisung in deep slumber. 

Well, to be honest, Jisung does have an idea on when was the last time he slept peacefully. 

It was last week, when he went to Minho’s apartment snores away on his couch for almost eight hours.

Even Chan had come over to scent him last night, letting lilies perfume the air as well as Jisung’s hair and the clothes he’s wearing when Chan wrapped his arms around him. Felix had been on the other side of the bed, head resting over Jisung’s chest as the three of them talked about everything and anything. 

They fell asleep before Jisung did. 

In fact, that same night they all shared a bed and their warmth, Jisung didn't get an ounce of sleep. Maybe a few minutes at best, before Felix’s alarm rang and woke them up for classes. 

And right after, all three of them came back to the boys’ dorm, cups of iced coffee freezing up their hands as Felix pushed Jisung inside. 

“Sung, you have to ask him. He’s the only one that helps you sleep and your presentation is tomorrow. You need it! You haven’t slept for days.” Felix sits on his bed after taking his shoes off and bringing his boyfriend down on the bed with him. 

“And say what? Hey hyung, please come spend the night with me because I can’t sleep? That’s just a crazy thing to ask, Lixie!” Jisung sighs, rubbing at his eyes with the heel of his palm. 

He’s so tired. He’s been having a hard time staying focused in class, head pounding against his forehead anytime his eyes settle over anything that was too bright. 

“Erm actually,” Chan starts, curls falling across his forehead and glasses resting over the bridge of his nose. “Knowing Minho, he’ll probably just agree. I’m sure cuddling you all night long will not bother him.” 

“Do you know something that we don’t?” Felix asks, curiosity flashing behind his irises as he looks over to Chan. 

“Minho’s my best friend. Of course I know things.” Chan shrugs, playing with the rings on his fingers before laying down on Felix’s bed. “Ask him, Hannie. Trust me.”

And Jisung feels as if he has no other choice. He can’t fucking sleep and the most important presentation he has yet to pass is tomorrow. So, he trusts Chan and takes his phone out before opening his messages with Minho. 

He types away, deletes everything, slams his fingers down again before using his thumb to erase all the small letters that were making up a sentence. And he types again, but before he can overthink his message, this time, Jisung presses send. 

me

5:26pm

Hi hyung!

I had something to ask you

Jisung brings his thumb to his mouth, but before his teeth can tear the skin off, Felix grabs his wrist and brings it back down. 

“Ji, it’s okay. Worst thing that can happen is him saying he’s busy.” Felix rubs soothing circles on the back of Jisung’s hand, pressing his thumb into the scent gland beneath of Jisung’s wrist, even if it’s hidden by a patch.

He was about to open his mouth when his phone buzzed in his other hand. “Oh god.” He says, before looking at the thread of messages between Minho and him.

Minho 🐱

5:28pm

Hey Jisungie 

Is everything okay?

I’m sorry we couldn’t meet for the project this weekend 

me

5:29pm

don’t apologize hyung, its okay 

its just.. 

“I can’t do it. I can’t! What if he says no? Actually, that’s okay. What if it freaks him out and he never looks at me ever again? I can't, guys.” Jisung sits on his bed, head between his hands after throwing his phone on his pillows. 

His phone vibrates again, Jisung scrambles to read the texts on his screen. A flush spreads over his body as his eyes settle over the three messages Minho had sent him.

Minho 🐱

5:30pm

Just what? 

Do you need me to come to you? 

What’s wrong, Jisungie? 

“Hello? What did he say?” Felix almost jumps in front of him on his own bed, as agitated as Jisung feels when he reads Minho’s messages over and over again.

Chan snorts, “My bet is on him asking if Jisung needs him.” 

“You know your best friend awfully well.” Jisung reads them again. Fingers ghosting over the letters because he knows that if he presses on them, the three little dots on Minho’s screen would appear and Jisung doesn’t want for him to get a glimpse of whatever is going on inside his brain. 

A few minutes go by before Jisung sighs, phone still in hand. 

“The guy’s going to start thinking you left him on read, Ji.” Which is true, but hearing Felix say it makes Jisung stress type on the keyboard on his screen.

me

5:36pm 

i haven’t been able to sleep at all

your scent is the only thing that helps lately

and i have an important thing tomorrow and i just

can we meet so you can.. 

scent me?

i promise ill find something else to help soon

The response is immediate. Jisung doesn’t even have the time to close his eyes before the four letters of Minho’s message appear on his screen, and then a second one. And a third. That one makes Jisung’s eyes go wide.

Minho 🐱

5:36pm

Don’t

I’ll be here whenever you need 

Send me your room number Jisungie, I’ll be here in an hour

“Shit. Shit, shit! ” Jisung all but yells, jumping off his bed and going straight to his closet to pick an outfit. To pick pajamas out of them all. “Felix. Help.” 

Chan giggles, he giggles and when Jisung looks over to his friends, Felix is holding his phone and probably reading his conversation with Minho. Great. At least they already know why panic has started to show across his face. 

“It’s okay, Ji. Go shower, I’ll tidy up before he gets here, okay? Now go!” Felix pushes him towards the bathroom, closing the door behind Jisung after giving him a change of clothes. That’s at least one less thing to think about.

“Wait, Lix! The room–”

“Sent already!” Felix yells from their shared room, already sounding like he’s picking things off the floor and closing their books on the desk. 

Jisung freezes when he gets a look at his reflection. 

He looks so exhausted. His face has paled, the darkness of his under-eye bags digging holes in his skin as well as the dryness around his lids and his nostrils. His skin is so dull, so dry that when Jisung itches at the flesh of his forehead, it falls in flakes over his eyebrows. 

Grabbing the hem of his hoodie, Jisung sighs at the air hitting his bare chest. The skin of his body isn’t doing much better. But he tears his eyes off his reflection before pushing his baggy jeans down his legs, trembling under his own weight because he doesn’t have any strength left. He’s too tired. Drained of his energy, down to the last drop. 

His underwear is next, a chill running down his spine when he stands there, naked, glaring at himself through the dirty mirror of his bathroom. Jisung has a hard time looking away from himself as he starts to list all the imperfections littering his body, but he does so in order to finally turn his shower on, water boiling already before he steps under the steady spray it offers him. 

Jisung sighs when he dips his head underneath the stream, relishing in the warmth that engulfs him before he reaches for the bottle of gentle face wash he keeps inside the shower before rubbing the foam onto his face. 

And Jisung tries to be gentle. His skin is already irritated, so Jisung takes his time and makes sure to not press too hard on his cheeks before he rinses his face. 

Shampoo is next. Jisung runs his fingers through the length of his hair, hissing when they get stuck in stubborn knots. The brown strands touch his skin when they’re wet, his permed curl pattern broken by the water as he washes the pollution away. 

He scrubs at his scalp and behind his ears, making sure to not get any of the shampoo into his already tired eyes. As he works on his hair, Jisung thinks he really needs to get a haircut. It’s so long now, and even if he likes the length, Jisung thinks he could still benefit from a little trim, especially since it keeps getting into his eyes. 

Time becomes a distant idea at the back of his mind as he lathers soap over his body. When he washes the skin of his arms, Jisung feels his scent blocker catching on the tip of his fingers. So carefully, he starts peeling it off and winces when it plucks a few of his hair off before it finally pulls off his skin completely. 

Jisung repeats the process three more times, making sure all his patches are off before scrubbing his body down again, getting the sticky layer off the spots where his blockers had been glued to. He stands underneath the water for some time, thinking about what’s going to happen tonight. 

He thinks and thinks and tries to find a good reason as to why he’s so nervous to spend the night with Minho, nervous to share a bed with him as the alpha purposefully wraps him into a thick layer of his scent. 

His eyes widen when he realizes. 

Realizes that anytime he thinks about Minho lately, a stupid smile pulls at the corners of his mouth. Jisung realizes that he feels better when he’s in Minho’s proximity or when he smells like him, the alpha’s scent lingering for days before it vanishes into thin air and Jisung wants nothing more than to run back to Minho’s place just so he can smell him again. 

Jisung has a stupid little crush. 

He turns the water off and grabs his towel, running it down his torso and his legs before wrapping it around his waist. He dries his hair with another one next, making sure it isn’t dripping down his skin anymore and grabs his toothbrush as well as his toothpaste, brushing his teeth twice to make sure he doesn’t smell like coffee anymore. 

And then, Jisung takes time rubbing toner on his irritated skin, soothing the dry patches pulling at the sides of his face with a hydrating serum before smearing moisturizer on his cheeks and then making sure it’s all rubbed into every single inch of his skin. It feels good. Better. 

Lotion is next, now that his skin is dry. Jisung tried applying it on wet skin once, but the sticky layer it had left was a nightmare, so now he does this last, right before he has to get dressed. He’s using a fragrance free one, because his skin likes it better than the almond one he had bought a few months ago. 

Someone knocks right when he lets the waistband of his boxers slap against his skin. 

Shit. 

Fuck, fuck, fu–

“Minho hyung!” Felix just about yells right behind the door. 

Jisung should have paid more attention to the time, he should have made sure to be done and ready before Minho got here, but now, he’s rushing to pull his sweats up his legs and his hoodie down his torso, making sure it sits nicely over his hips. 

Socks are next. A single spray of perfume. 

He looks at himself one last time and sighs before he turns towards the door, grabbing the handle with a shaky hand before he pushes it down. The door opens, and the first thing Jisung sees is Minho standing right next to Jisung’s desk, looking at the array of books he has stacked at the edge of it. 

Felix is pulling his jacket over his shoulders, a grin on his face as he looks at Jisung’s probably flushed face before he walks towards him. “Bye Sungie! I’ll see you tomorrow.” Felix pulls him into a quick hugs, looking at him one last time before grabbing Chan’s hand and opening their front door. “Bye hyung, please take care of him or I’ll beat you up!” 

“Bye guys!” Chan barely has the time to say before he’s pulled out of their shared room and the door closes right behind him. 

Minho looks at Jisung with a grin, taking in the gratuitous threat Felix had just thrown at him. “Well, I definitely wouldn’t want to get on his bad side.”

“Trust me, you don’t.” Jisung laughs, looking at the man in front of him. 

And Minho looks good. He always does. He’s only wearing sweatpants and a hoodie, but Jisung finds him as handsome as the first time he ever saw him, if not more. Because he knows where to look. He knows that Minho has a cute mole on his nose, knows that his ears are probably already red and so are his hands.  

“Hi, Jisungie.” Minho says, putting his bag on the desk and walking towards him. 

Because Jisung still hasn’t moved. He’s still standing right in front of his bathroom door, hair still damp and lips pulled into an awkward smile. “Hi, hyung.” 

Strong arms wrap around Jisung and he can’t do anything but freeze. They’ve never been so close . Minho has never hugged him before, the closest they had ever gotten was when Jisung had laid his head over the alpha’s shoulder by accident.

And then, Jisung breathes. 

Ambery, sweet sandalwood wraps around him and soothes the ache in his bones, relaxes the tension in his muscles that was pulling at his legs and threatening to make him fall over at any given time. 

He inhales again and again and Jisung feels like crying when he realizes just how comforted he feels when another wave hits him. Stronger this time. Warm and leathery. Jisung slumps against Minho’s body, letting him bear both of their weight as he wraps his arms around him. 

“Thank you,” he whispers, too tired to even up the volume of his voice, too exhausted to let any other word echo off his vocal chords. 

Minho tightens his hold around him, his arms circling Jisung’s waist. “Anytime, Jisungie. I meant it.” 

And of course he did. Because if Jisung had learned one thing about Minho, it’s that kindness always comes easy to him. Minho cares. Minho gives and Jisung wants to hold out his hands to finally be on the receiving hand, let himself fall into a sturdy chest and get caught between strong arms until he passes out. 

He’s so tired. He feels it dragging a blade inside his muscles, running the tip of a knife along his bones – fatigue does that to him. It shoots pain up every inch of his body until he’s too numb to focus on a specific part that hurts more than the others. 

“I ordered us food, it’ll be here in a few minutes. Think you can stay awake until we eat?” Minho is also whispering, as if he was afraid to shake Jisung’s body with the waves of his chest with each breath he takes. “Kimchi stew with eel. No spice.” 

Jisung nods, and for the first time in a while, he lets an alpha take his hand and drag him towards his bed. Felix even changed the sheets. Jisung makes a mental note to hug him extra tight when he sees him again. He also hopes Minho can’t smell the very faint hint of blackberry that’s lingering on his bed, because no matter how many times Jisung tries to get the scent out, some of it still sticks to the mattress. 

“Thank you, hyung. Really I–” He cuts himself off with a sigh, sitting down on his bed and inhaling another big whiff of air before he looks up at Minho. “I’m really grateful you’re here. I promise I’ll find another way.” 

“Don’t.” Minho sits next to him, rubbing a hand down Jisung’s back, soothing him. “Don’t find anyone – anything else. I’m a text away, alright? Ask for me whenever you need it.” 

Just as he was about to reply, Minho’s phone rings with a notification. “Food’s here, let me go grab it.” 

A nod, and Minho is off to the front door. Jisung faintly hears him behind him, thanking the delivery driver before closing the door and locking it before he makes his way back to the bed. 

Jisung feels it dip beside him, and then the smell of kimchi stew tears a rumble out of his stomach. He didn’t even realize he was hungry, too drained to focus on any other sensation going haywire inside his body. Besides the pain pulsing at the front of his forehead, as if he had a bar of steel going through his skull and pressing down on his brain. 

“Eat up, Jisungie. And then we can sleep, I promise.” 

So, Jisung listens and digs into the meal Minho had gently placed onto his thighs. It’s so warm. The soup cascades down his throat and the eel melts into his mouth at the first bite. It’s so good that Jisung could cry, let his emotion take the wheel and show Minho the depth of his desperation as he pushes a spoonful of stew into the cavity of his mouth. 

“It’s not as good as yours,” Jisung says around a piece of kimchi. He bites down on the cabbage and realizes that they really did turn the spice level down. It barely tingles his tongue, and Jisung closes his eyes as he swallows the last bit of eel he had on his plastic plate. 

“You flatter me too much.” Minho giggles, and Jisung thinks that it’s the most adorable sound he’s ever heard before in his life. “This is from the best restaurant in the city. I’m sure they’d disagree.” 

“No-uh. They can try me, I’d fight. Yours is way better.” Jisung takes the last sip of his stew before smacking his lips together and looking at Minho. His cheeks are so inviting like that, puffed around his food and smooth with a slight shine to it. 

One single kiss on the alpha’s cheek wouldn’t hurt anyone. So Jisung leans in before he whispers again, voice airy with fatigue laced into his words, almost slurring around them. “Thank you.” 

A broken record. But he can’t help it. Jisung wants to say it over and over again before falling asleep into Minho’s arms and getting ten hours of sleep into his system so he can ace his goddamn presentation. 

Minho puts their disposable dishes on Jisung’s desk and then, the alpha extends his hands towards Jisung's sleepy figure, always falling backwards because he’s too tired to even keep his back straight. 

“Come brush your teeth with me.” His ears are red. 

Minho’s ears are a bright shade of red. His neck, free of scent blockers, is blooming with the prettiest shade of pink Jisung had seen before. His pheromones are running free between the walls of Jisung’s room, and he wants nothing more than to bask into the smell of Minho and fall asleep. 

Getting up is a task that requires whatever is left of Jisung’s strength. But he does, because he refuses to go to sleep with his mouth still tasting of eel and the stew he devoured. So, Jisung walks them to the bathroom and grabs his toothbrush for the second time today and squeezes a pat of toothpaste on the bristles for the third time. 

He closes his eyes when he brushes his teeth, letting the tension in his muscle break and fall to the ground in a thousand pieces. Jisung is so tired he has little to no control over his body, he lets his shoulders slump, lets his head fall forward a bit too much when he spits the contents of his mouth out, Minho following right behind. 

Jisung all but drops his body on his bed, letting his face smash into his multiple pillows. Warmth slides next to him, sandalwood and something else. Something can’t quite pinpoint now. 

As he breathes, he realizes that this is the first time Jisung has been allowed to smell Minho’s full scent. None of his scent glands are hidden underneath patches that usually block the rich aromas emanating from his body. Nothing is in the way, Minho’s scent – his real scent engulfs Jisung in a tight hug. 

“You smell s’good.” He slurs around his words, flinching slightly when Minho wraps his arms back around his waist tugs until Jisung is stuck to his side with his head resting over the alpha’s chest.  

The air shifts around them, Minho smells – sweeter, softer. Another hint of something settles in the room, Jisung can’t name it, he’s never smelled it on an alpha before but it’s good, it’s fruity. 

Before he knows it, Minho is grabbing his wrist softly and rubbing his scent gland over Jisung’s own, properly letting his scent seep into Jisung’s skin. He gives the omega’s other wrist the same treatment and then, Jisung feels himself getting flustered as Minho even brushes his wrist gently right onto the scent gland on the left side of Jisung’s neck.

Minho is so much warmer next to him now, the beating of his heart increasing by the second right underneath Jisung’s ear. When he lifts his head up, Jisung notices that the alpha’s ears have turned a shade darker, tips of his so red Jisung wants to reach out and find out if they burn as much as they seem to. 

His neck is red too, the hoodie hides the view of his chest but if Jisung were to guess, he could bet it was the same shade as the rest of Minho’s body. “Are you okay, hyung? D’you want me to turn the heating down?” 

Jisung doesn’t even know if it’s on. He remembers Felix saying something about them probably having to turn it back on because it was starting to get cold, but Jisung doesn’t know if his best friend actually did. 

“N-no. It’s not hot, Jisungie.” Minho says, running his hand up and down Jisung’s side, caressing his ribs over his hoodie. 

Letting his head fall back down, Jisung notices that the beating of Minho’s heart has gotten even faster, but he decides to ignore it. Focusing on breathing in and out, letting Minho’s scent lull him to sleep as it usually does as he inhales again. 

It’s so strong, so rich. Something sweeter and fruitier is almost meddling in with Minho’s earthy and woody scent, but Jisung enjoys it just as much, likes the comfort it brings him. It pushes on his eyelids, tugs at his eyelashes until he closes his eyes and enjoys the darkness that greets him when he does. 

“It’s you.” Minho is whispering again, voice faint as if he didn’t even mean to speak. “I’ve never smelled anyone as good as you, Jisungie.” 

Jisung freezes. 

He freezes and he squeezes his eyelids shut. And then, Jisung focuses and inhales deeply. 

Blackberry. Chocolate. Sour and then sweet. 

Shit.

Bitter, and then syrupy.

Shit, shit, shit. 

Jisung scrambles to sit up, getting lightheaded from how fast he’s moving as his headache keeps pounding at the front of his brain. Jisung smells the air around him and picks up on the fruity notes of his blackberry scent and then the rich aromas of the chocolate. 

“Shit, hyung. I’m so - I’m so sorry.” He squeezes his eyes shut again, letting his heart rattle against his ribcage as his scent turns even more sour, burning the back of his throat. 

He tries to get up, but Minho’s arm is still tightly wrapped around his waist. 

“What? Jisungie, what’s wrong?” The alpha sounds so – worried. He sits up as well, Jisung feels him next to him. “Talk to hyung. What’s going on?” 

He attempts so hard to stop his scent from reeking up the whole room, but he can’t. He doesn’t have control, he’s too exhausted. 

“I’m sorry. I’ll – I’ll go put my patches back on but it might take a while before it evaporates.” He says, opening his eyes and looking at Minho again. 

Minho’s face is laced with worry, but the tips of his ears and the skin of his cheeks are still painted pink, eyes wide but blinking every few seconds as he tries to read Jisung’s face. “My scent. I’m sorry, I usually never – never forget my patches but I was so–”

A sigh pushes past Jisung’s lips as he speaks, wanting nothing more than to hide into his bathroom until his stupid, terrible scent stops stinking up the air around them. “I was so tired. I just – I forgot. I’m sorry it smells bad I’ll–”

“What?” Minho cuts him off, confusion flashing over his eyes. “Bad?” 

“God, you’re right it’s – it’s terrible. I’m sorry.” 

“Oh, Jisungie.” Minho whispers, one hand cupping the left side of Jisung’s face. He runs his thumb over his cheek, digging into his skin before rubbing soothing circles over the apples of Jisung’s cheek. “You smell amazing to me.” 

Leaning into the touch, Jisung can’t help closing his eyes again as he lets Minho’s scent wrap around him again. As if he released another wave of pheromones, and he probably has, because Jisung lets the words Minho had said travel to his ears. 

“What?” 

“You don’t smell bad, at all. Blackberry, right? One of my favorite fruits. So unique.” Minho scoots closer to him, bringing his other hand to the right side of Jisung’s face and holding him just like that, as he lets his scent do its job. “You smell wonderful, Jisungie.” 

Minho is so gentle. 

He cradles Jisung face softly, runs the pads of his fingers across the omega’s face the entire time, as if he was trying to calm him down. 

And it works. 

Jisung feels his breathing slowing to a steady rhythm, his heart doesn’t threaten to spill between his ribs anymore and Jisung opens his eyes again, and only then does he realize just how close Minho is. 

“But it’s so – bitter. Sour.”

Minho breathes in front of him and Jisung wants to lose himself into the sea of his eyes. Brown, with stars glimmering over their surface. So pretty. 

“It’s not. It wasn’t until you panicked.” The alpha takes a deep breath then, shifting closer. “When it reached me for the first time, I thought I was .. making it up. It’s so sweet, Jisungie. The perfect mix between blackberry and chocolate. You smell so soft, so sugary that if I could, I’d eat you up.” 

It tears a laugh out of Jisung’s mouth, eyes closing for a second before he looks at Minho again. Taking him in, his red ears, his red cheeks. The way his breathing is still quick, fast as it pushes past his nose. 

“As much as I’d enjoy being able to smell you all night, I understand if you want to put your scent blockers back on. But know that I like your scent, Jisungie. I really do.” Minho presses a kiss to Jisung’s forehead right after he finishes his sentence, tearing himself from Jisung. 

The room smells like him again. Sandalwood envelops all of Jisung’s senses, making his mind fuzzy with warmth, tugging at the strings of his heart. 

It’s not just a stupid little crush. 

Sandalwood and something else. 

Something that flares as Jisung smiles softly at Minho again, letting himself wonder what it would feel like if he closed the small distance between their lips and ran his tongue on the seam of Minho's mouth. 

His scent probably shifted, too, because Minho is giggling and laying another kiss on his forehead and looking at him. 

Their scents dance with each other, create a mix that Jisung wants to dive into, take the leap and fall face first in the sea that they create between the two of them. 

Jisung shakes his head before he gives Minho a reply, pushing him gently on the bed behind them and resting his head back onto the alpha’s chest.

His heart is still beating as fast as it was before. Jisung giggles, before wrapping his arm around Minho’s waist and using his legs to hike the blanket over both of their bodies. “I like yours too.”

“Yeah, I’ve noticed.” Minho chuckles, one of his hands coming up to Jisung’s face, fingers running into his long hair. “Let’s sleep, Jisungie.” 

It’s as if all the fatigue riddling his body manifests itself again, pulling at Jisung’s limbs, tightening the pores of his face until he fully relaxes into Minho’s hold and lets the alpha’s smell soothe the ache in his lower back. 

Sandalwood pulls him in, something else pushes him down and slumber finally catches him in its arms, and before he knows it, Jisung meets Minho again in his sweetest dreams. 

𓆝 𓆟 𓆞 

“Ya, Jisung!” Changbin yells in his ear where he’s seated next to the omega, currently waiting for Hyunjin and Seungmin in front of their building. 

Felix is already waiting for them back at the cafeteria, too lazy to walk to the building on the other side of campus. So right now, it’s just Changbin and Jisung, ten minutes early when the weather is especially cold today. Jisung is shivering, only wearing Minho’s hoodie over his simple usual white shirt and he curses himself for overlooking the weather warning that rang on his phone this morning. 

Right. 

Minho’s hoodie, because when he had left the day after he spent the night, he pulled the garment off his body and gave it to Jisung, telling him he could keep it until his scent had worn off, and then, he can come find Minho again, just so he could give scent him another one. 

Jisung has worn the hoodie three times since then. He hasn’t seen Minho since that night they spent tangled together, sharing their scents and letting them mingle in the air. 

The notification is still there when he looks at his phone screen. 

Weather forecast, October 24th. Temperatures dropping below 10°, gusts of wind up to 70km. 

Jisung is already cold when it hasn’t even hit below 10°, the little circle underneath the time on his screen telling him that it’s 13° now, and the wind isn’t even that strong. 

“Jisung?” Changbin says again, tapping his shoulder to try and get his attention. “Take my jacket, you’re freezing.” 

Changbin pushes the piece of clothing into Jisung’s hands, not giving him a choice but to accept the jacket and drape it over his shivering shoulders, sliding his arms into the holes and then, zipping it up so the air doesn’t get to him furthermore. 

“Thanks, hyung.” Jisung starts before sending a smile towards his friend. “Hope Hyune won’t be too jealous.” 

“You know damn well he’d beat my ass if I let you sit in the cold like this.” Which is awfully true. Hyunjin would have definitely scolded his boyfriend if he had let a fellow omega shiver in the cold when they both know Changbin isn’t. Not only is he wearing a sweatshirt, but his body heat is way higher than an omega’s on a daily basis. 

Alpha pheromones, or whatever google said when Jisung had searched up. 

Jisung spots his friends waddling over to them, talking with smiles on their faces before they reach them. Hyunjin all but jumps into Changbin's arms, letting his smaller boyfriend snuggle into his chest before bending his head down to lay a small kiss over Changbin’s lips. 

When he looks at them, Jisung, ever so romantic, can’t help but grin at them as he notices once more how in love the two are. Changbin and Hyunjin had been dating for four years, matching mating marks on the sides of their neck, scents faint as they linger in the air.

Jisung still remembers Hyunjin’s powerful apricot scent and Changbin’s rich orangy one. They’re still — here, somehow, but after the bites, a mated couple’s scents always grow duller, fainter as their instincts attach around one another.

Changbin’s jacket still smells like oranges, Jisung knows it’s probably because he’s been wearing it a lot lately, but he can also smell the apricot, melting into the fabric just as much as the orange. Because when a couple decide to mate, their scents mix together to create a beautiful harmony. Sometimes they change, but in Changbin and Hyunjin’s case, they just wrapped together to make the perfect aroma. 

“Can we make a new friendship rule that says you’re not allowed to suck faces in front of me? Thanks.” Seungmin rolls his eyes at the couple before looking at Jisung, blowing him a kiss. 

“Are you angsty because you can’t get laid?” Changbin has the guts to ask, knowing his shoulder would pillow Seungmin’s fist in three, two, one–

“Jeongin fucks me just fine, thanks for asking.” 

Jeongin? The name rings familiar in Jisung’s ears, as if he had heard it before but can’t quite pinpoint where and when he did.

“He’s joining us for lunch, by the way. One remark and we leave.” Seungmin threatens, and the three of them know damn well the omega is more than capable of getting his things and leaving the table behind if he ever feels like it. “He’s in the year below us. He’s studying Aquatic Life Medicine here too.” 

“Damn, you’re really serious about him aren’t you?” Hyunjin laughs, linking his arm with Changbin’s as they make their way towards the cafeteria. “Good for you, Seung.” 

If Jisung squints enough, he can see the slightest hint of pink painting Seugmin’s cheeks as he tries to hide his toothy smile. “He treats me well. But it’s very .. new. It’s only been a month.” 

The fact that Seungmin’s kept it to himself for a month doesn’t shock Jisung at all – Seungmin has always been a bit private when it came to his romantic life. He doesn’t trust anyone easily, let alone an alpha , but if he felt safe enough to trust whoever Jeongin is, then it means the guy is decently nice. 

As he looks in front of him, Jisung can see the cafeteria coming into view just as his phone buzzes into his pocket. At the same time everyone else’s devices does, so Felix must have sent them a group text message.

twin

12:06pm

can min hyung and chan 

join us

for lunch?  

“Guys, Felix is asking if Minho hyung and Chan hyung can join us for lunch?” He says, looking down at his phone and already typing the answer. He knows the guys will agree anyway. 

When the yeah, sure ’s ring between Jisung’s ears, he presses his thumb down on the screen of his phone and shoots Felix a text back before putting his phone in the pocket of his jeans. 

His hands find warmth in Changbin’s jacket, letting his body heat up with the added layer protecting him from the cold. “Are you sure you’re not cold, hyung?” 

“Nah, don’t worry Sung-ah.” 

The cafeteria is packed when they step in front of it, quickly finding Felix’s bright blonde hair amongst the crowd. Jisung hates when it’s full like this, when scents are gathering in the air and settling at the front of his brain, putting an emphasis on the headache already pounding against his skull. 

The last time Jisung had a nice night of sleep was when Minho was over. Of course, the alpha’s scent had sunk deep into his sheets and lingered in the air for days after he left. Jisung knows that if he tries hard enough as he pushes his nose into his pillowcase, he’d still be able to get a faint whiff of sandalwood. 

Felix is there, but so are Minho and Chan. 

And someone else, as tall as Minho, with a blinding smile stretching over his lips as he looks over to them, eyes settling right next to Jisung on Seungmin’s tall frame. 

“Hi, Innie.” Seungmin blushes and it takes everything in Jisung’s body to not snicker at his friend when he watches as the pair exchange a shy, soft kiss. 

“Wait, you guys already know Seungmin’s boyfriend?” Hyunjin asks, hands over his hips as he talks with a dramatic hint of betrayal lacing around his voice. 

“Hey hyungs,” Jisung greets them, having already seen Felix in the morning. He settles himself right next to Minho, taking a strong inhale as his eyes widen when he realizes that Minho isn’t wearing any patches. His neck is free of the blockers, but so are his wrists if the rich note of sandalwood hitting Jisung right in the face is anything to go by. 

“Well, considering I grew up with this old man, yeah. We know each other.” Jeongin points to Minho when he speaks, the alpha just nodding along to what Jeongin is saying. 

“Your little brother is Seungmin’s boyfriend?” Jisung almost gasps. 

When he remembers all the ways he is indirectly linked to Minho, Jisung feels like they were bound to meet no matter when, no matter how. His best friend is dating Minho’s best friend, one of his very close friends is dating Minho’s younger brother, they share the same passion and study in the same, small university at the very south of the country. 

“Apparently so. I had no idea we had multiple friends in common.” Minho says, and Jisung watches as his nose twitches, taking a sniff out of the air surrounding him. 

His scent changes the slightest bit, stronger, leaning on the woody notes of it instead of its usual sweetness. Maybe Minho doesn’t like being surrounded by so many people either, so Jisung just grabs his arm and turns around, gesturing for their friends to follow suit. 

It takes them ten minutes before they even reach the batches of food laid out for them. Jisung sighs when he sees fried rice but realizes that from the color of it, the spice level would absolutely burn the cavity of his mouth down to the very pit of his stomach. 

Jisung is the first to sit down at a table big enough to fit the eight of them, still engulfed into Changbin’s warm jacket. Minho sits right next to him, smiling softly at Jisung before his nose twitches again, and his scent turns slightly bitter. 

The rest of their friends join them, and the volume around the table quickly increases as Hyunjin and Seungmin fight over who is better at drawing commercial ships and who is better at drawing luxury ones. 

Minho is quiet next to him. Everyone is talking except him, scent leaning towards bitterness as he takes a spoonful of fried rice without any reaction. Jisung has never smelled him like this, Minho’s scent is usually rather sweet and ambery, but right now, wood and leather take over the sugary notes and envelop Jisung completely. 

Changbin is looking at them, sitting right in front of Jisung and next to his mate, and he’s spotting a knowing look in his eyes that Jisung can’t quite decipher for now. 

But he prefers to focus on Minho and his scent, turning his head to look at the alpha and noticing how red his ears had gotten, but so has his neck. The flush spreads down to his chest, or well, Jisung guesses it did because Minho’s skin is hidden by his checkered jacket. 

“Hyung, are you okay?” He whispers, eyes gazing over the flush of the alpha’s ears once more before setting it over his eyes. 

Minho seems almost taken aback by the question, eyes widening before nodding and taking another bite of his precious food, teeth squishing the rice down before it travels down his throat. 

Jisung can’t help but follow the movement of it. 

Changbin speaks then, with a hint of a smile laced in his voice. “Jisungie, are you still cold?” 

Of course he is. There’s no heating of any type inside the cafeteria and Changbin knows it, he’s the first to comment on it when it reaches temperatures below zero in the depth of winter and they have to almost beg for their school to turn the heating on. 

“Uh, no. Why?” But Jisung understands that Changbin might be cold without his warm jacket and the reason why he’s asking Jisung. “Oh,” he says, grabbing the zipper of Changbin’s jacket between his fingers and pushing it down. “Here, hyung.”

Jisung feels the cold air hitting him right away. He shivers then, gripping his hot cup of coffee still steaming at the very top and taking a big gulp of it, letting it run down his throat and warm him up from the inside. 

“Uh, Changbin?” The full name means trouble as it falls from Hyunjin’s plump lips, but Changbin quickly shushes him off. Jisung just looks at them, confused. 

“Watch, baby.” Changbin whispers, but Jisung can still hear them from across the table. 

Minho turns to him then, eyes blinking slowly as he looks up and down the length of Jisung’s body that isn’t hidden by the table. His scent is still laced with a tinge of bitterness, Jisung can taste it at the back of his throat. 

Another shiver courses through Jisung’s veins, and he’s seconds away from excusing him from the table just so he can go back to his dorm and grab a jacket from his own closet. He closes his eyes, trying to breathe through the feeling when something drops on his shoulders and there’s so much sandalwood wrapping around him that he feels dizzy with it. 

“Here, Jisungie.” Minho whispers in his ear as he smooths his hand over Jisung’s shoulders, pressing him to slide his arms into the holes of it quicker, just so Jisung doesn’t suffer from the cold anymore. 

Minho is wearing a long sleeved back shirt, but Jisung can tell it’s thin. It wouldn’t be thick enough to block the air from freezing up the skin of his arms and the flush of his neck. He’s so red. Like this, Jisung is able to see a sliver of skin he wasn’t before, a hint of Minho’s chest near his collarbones, as red as the tips of his ears. 

The air smells sweeter. Bitterness faded to let the amberness of Minho’s scent linger in the air around the entire table. Jisung knows that all of his friends are able to smell Minho. It’s so strong like this, when his jacket doesn’t absorb most of it. 

“But you’ll get cold, hyung.” Jisung says, already hugging Minho’s jacket tights around him, leaning his head down to take a deep breath in and letting the alpha’s scent cloud his senses. He’s so tired, it’s like his drowsiness has resurfaced now that Minho’s scent embraces him and pulls at his eyelashes until Jisung closes his eyes. 

“Oh wow. You were not kidding when you said his scent puts him to sleep like, right away.” Hyunjin says as he looks at Jisung, mouth agape as he takes in the sight in front of him. 

“Told you, Jinnie.” Felix replies, running his hand up and down Jisung’s back to soothe him furthermore, bringing him to a point of no return where sleepiness has already settled deep into his bones and the lining of his muscles. 

Jisung only focuses on Minho. On his red skin, on the mole at the very tip of his nose and how long his eyelashes actually are, almost touching the skin under his eyes anytime he blinks – and Minho blinks a lot.

It’s a habit of his that Jisung had noticed the third time they met. Minho blinks when he’s happy, when he’s upset and even more when he’s sleepy. Jisung finds it cute. 

He’s so tired. Jisung feels fatigue tugging him down until his head is resting over Minho’s shoulder and his nose is centimeters away from the scent gland beneath Minho’s skin. His scent is the strongest here, pheromones pulsing from the alpha’s pores as he breathes out and twitches when the air that Jisung exhales hits the skin of neck. 

Sandalwood and something else again. Jisung still can’t quite grasp what it is, but it’s rich now. Fruitiness of it slides up his sinuses and soothes his headache and wraps around his shoulder until he lets all of his weight rest against Minho’s side. He doesn’t even register himself doing so, because he feels so – safe here. Calm, as his friends talk around him and cover the buzzing of the cafeteria. Protected, when Minho wraps an arm around his waist and tugs him even closer to him. 

Jisung breathes, and tries to not fall asleep because he still has half a mind to remember that he’s in the cafeteria. Minho shakes him a little then, until Jisung looks up at him under his eyelashes and hums. 

“Let’s go, Jisungie. We can take a nap and then work on our project.” Minho says, waiting until Jisung had taken his head off his shoulder before getting up. 

Right. 

They did agree to work on their project at Minho’s place this same afternoon, finally finding a slot in their schedules that lined up. 

Minho disposes of both of their empty trays of food, waving everyone goodbye before linking arms with Jisung and tugging him outside of the cafeteria. 

The temperature dropped a little, or maybe Jisung is too sensitive to the cold. He shivers again, hugging Minho’s jacket even closer to him to seek its warmth but also Minho’s scent, taking another big inhale before looking straight ahead. 

His body falls into the passenger seat of Minho’s car minutes after, clicking his seatbelt on before looking over to the alpha again. 

Minho had rolled up the sleeves of his shirt, gripping the steering wheel in one hand and his gear stick in the other as he reversed out of his parking spot. Hot.

Shaking his head, Jisung’s eyes gaze down to the alpha’s forearms, admiring the veins running down the length of them and building when they go past his wrist and right into his hands. Jisung watches, as Minho puts his car in drive and finally drives out of the parking lot and into the road. 

Maybe Jisung had underestimated his little crush. 

He’s never had a thing for anyone driving in his life, but watching Minho so focused, yet taking the time to turn his head and check up on Jisung at every stop sign and every red light has the pit of his stomach burning. 

Minho takes a turn, with only one hand and Jisung swallows a glob of spit down his throat when the veins on Minho’s hand bulged under the grip he has around his steering wheel. 

Jisung blinks, and then the car is parked into a reserved spot and Minho has already taken the key out of its ignition. He’s got his phone in one hand, grabbing the handle with the other before he turns to Jisung again. “We’re here, Jisungie.”

Jisung blinks again, and Minho is getting out of the car to open the door for Jisung, because he's too – slow. His mind is still focused on the alpha’s forearms that he had gotten a glimpse of, and Jisung flushes when the door opens on his side and Minho is extending both of his hands towards Jisung. 

He’s not so sleepy anymore. 

But, he shakes his head and grabs the other’s hands and lets himself get pulled out of the car and up on the tarmac beneath his feet. He grabs his backpack before closing the passenger door, turning to Minho and smiling as the other locks the vehicle without even looking before walking Jisung to the front of his apartment complex. 

The scent is still there as they step inside the elevator, stronger and – sweeter, that note of something else very much present now, almost overpowering the sandalwood Jisung had grown used to by now. 

His own, bitter scent is hidden with the help of his usual four patches on the scent glands over his skin. Jisung follows Minho down the hallway and into his apartment, getting slapped in the face with the warmth of Minho’s scent the second he steps inside, concentrated between the walls of his place. 

Jisung shivers when he takes his shoes off, but his eyes widen when gray, fluffy hair rubs the fabric of his jeans and purrs. Jisung crouches in an instant, fingers running the coat of Dori’s fur and letting the cat snuggle its face into Jisung’s open palm. 

“Hi kitty.” Jisung squeals, scratching underneath the tabby’s chin and giggling when Dori gets even closer to him and settles right under his knees. “Oh, does your owner not cuddle you enough? What a mean, mean man that he is.” 

Minho snorts from where he’s leaning on the kitchen bar behind him, a soft smile stretching over his lips as he looks at Jisung and Dori. “As if he doesn’t sleep stuck to me every single night. This little demon even bites my nose when I sleep in too late.” 

Getting up, Jisung grabs the zipper of the jacket still draped over his shoulder and takes it off, hanging it next to the other ones on the wall right by Minho’s front door. “Are you sure you’re okay with a nap? We don’t have to, hyung.”

Minho grabs his hand again and this time, they both walk past the green couch in his living room and make their way towards the door Jisung had never peeked behind. Minho’s bedroom, where his scent is most likely the strongest, where the sandalwood had settled into the walls and the mattress of the alpha’s bed, so no matter how many patches Minho wears, his scent would always linger in here. 

It’s different at home, because Jisung rarely lets his scent stink up the room. The only time he ever does have been when he was on heat, unable to control his scent glands anyway and too out of it to care . But Jisung always makes sure, after the week has passed, that his scent was mostly gone from the sheets and the fabric of his mattress with whatever he bought from the store.

The door opens as Minho presses down on the handle. It hits Jisung in the face right away, thick and creamy around him as he breathes it all in. He relaxes right away, even more than he had before and almost throws himself right onto Minho’s queen sized bed. The sheets are black and ironed, welcoming Jisung in, pushing him to just lay down and close his eyes. 

“Go lay down, Jisungie. I’ll close the curtains.” Minho says, turning over to his window and pulling the curtains together until almost no light pools inside his room. 

Jisung sits on the mattress and sighs at how comfortable it feels just under his butt, the thick material of it pillowing his weight. He lays down next, head falling over one of Minho’s pillows. 

Strong arms tug him close, closer until Jisung is pressed right into Minho’s warm body as the alpha pulls the blanket over their tangled limbs. Jisung relaxes against him, but he wants to feel Minho closer, tighter around him. So he turns around, lets his back meet the sturdiness of Minho’s chest and sighs happily and the other’s arms tighten even more around him. 

He rocks back into the touch, eyes closing as he feels the warmth of Minho’s flesh heat up his own skin. Sandalwood faint, something else overpowering it as Jisung shuffles back closer.

Jisung lets his mind wander around as he takes a big inhale of Minho’s strong scent, and feels his cheeks flush.

He keeps wiggling around, wanting to get closer, feel all of Minho stuck to the back of his body, feel each rise of his chest when he breathes. One of the alpha’s legs sneaks between his, and like that, they feel even closer, Minho flattens his palm over Jisung’s hoodie right on his stomach and stops him from moving again.

“You need to stop moving, Jisungie.” Minho whispers right behind him, lips shy of touching Jisung’s warm one.

“Uh? Oh. Sorry.” 

Jisung wiggles one last time before deciding he was comfortable enough and–

He feels it, then.

Something warm and hard pressing right against his clothed ass.

Oh.

Oh.

He giggles.

Jisung presses back again and giggles, smelling the shift in Minho’s scent and realizing that all this time, his scent has been moving with what was happening inside of his body as well. 

He thinks. Jisung lets his thoughts mingle at the front of his brain and wonders if it would be a bad idea to turn into Minho’s arms and press his lips against the other’s welcoming ones.

There’s obvious attraction between the two of them, Jisung can feel it pressing against his ass, pushing on his jeans as Minho breathes heavily in the crook of his ear. But this — whatever is happening, would change so much.

Jisung hasn’t been intimate with anyone in over a year, his ex-boyfriend having moved away when he graduated right after he broke Jisung’s heart. He doesn’t like meaningless hookups, so Jisung just doesn’t. Felix hugs him during his heat and brushes kisses on his forehead and it’s proven to be enough for now, Jisung doesn’t need more. He’s never shared his heat with his ex partners, because he was too self conscious, and it hurt too much. And Jisung was so tired that his scent turned bitter each time.

He can’t lie and say he hasn’t missed it, though. Connecting to another human being, letting them run his fingers through his hair, touching him places that makes Jisung keen and press into the touch. 

Of course he’s missed it. 

The last time he had kissed anyone was months ago, during a party he had been dragged to. Jisung doesn’t even remember their name, because he left before their tongue even touched his lips. 

He decides then, that turning into Minho’s arms wouldn’t hurt. 

So he does, comes face to face with the alpha’s flushed skin and presses a kiss to his nose. “Hi.”

Minho grips him tighter, stronger. He grips until they’re touching everywhere. Jisung leans into it, letting his body react to the other’s touch.

 “I’m sorry.” Minho whispers again, lips not even an inch away from Jisung’s hungry ones. “I didn’t mean to get – it’ll go down. In a few minutes.” 

“Don’t apologize, hyung.” Jisung whispers too, inching closer to him. 

He thinks both of them decide to close the distance between their lips. Jisung sighs into the alpha’s mouth when finally, finally their lips crash together and Jisung doesn’t even think about holding his breath.

He wants this to last. So he breathes and leans into the hand cupping his jaw. Minho slightly angles his head, deepening the push and pull of their lips as he swipes his tongue over the seam of Jisung’s lips. 

And of course, Jisung grants him access. He opens his mouth slightly, shivering when the tip of Minho’s tongue runs across the rows of his teeth before tangling with his own. Dancing together, pushing a whine from the confines of Jisung’s throat as he feels the extent of Minho’s attraction against him, rubbing right over his crotch. 

The kiss breaks when Jisung moans, low into Minho’s mouth but high enough for the alpha to pull back, letting a thin string of saliva connect their lips as they both catch their breath. Jisung laughs, eyes closed as Minho rests his forehead against his. 

Jisung moves again, rocks his hips into Minho’s, and feels his hard-on rubbing against his. 

Scent blockers do have their limits. 

During a day to day basis, Jisung’s usual scent is hidden away by the patches, not a single hint of blackberry lingers in the air around him. But when he gets aroused, when he’s turned on, there’s only so much they can block out. The sweetness of his scent starts tangling with Minho’s own, blackberry colliding with sandalwood, chocolate dipping into something else . 

It’s Minho who circles his hips into Jisung’s next, using the grip he has around the omega’s waist to make sure they touch harder, deeper. 

The room smells like – Jisung doesn’t know. There’s so many different aromas mixing, but his headache is faint now and there’s small, airy whimpers resonating into the cavity of his mouth the more Minho rubs, the harder he gets. And Jisung gets wet, too.

It’s easy, he feels it slowly running down his skin and sink right into his boxers as his length rubs against Minho’s hard cock through the material of their clothes. Jisung wants nothing more than to stay like this, let himself be held, let Minho take care of him. 

“Is this okay?” Minho asks, eyes wide open and blinking as he looks at Jisung. His skin is red from what he can see, the tips of his ears look like they burn, and for the first time since they’ve met, Jisung brings his hand up and finally lets the tip of his fingers rub along the ridge of Minho’s ear. 

“They always get so red.” He says, pressing a kiss into Minho’s open mouth. “More than okay.”

“God, you smell so fucking good, Jisungie.” Minho sighs into the kiss, speaking the words right over Jisung’s lips as if he isn’t allowing himself to pull away even for just a second, lips bruising where they smash over Jisung’s red ones. 

Minho moves again, presses into Jisung deeper and makes the both of them moan before he rolls on top of Jisung and finally brings his hips down.

The friction is so much better like this, using his weight to rub their crotches together, bringing them closer to their high. Jisung leaks into his underwear as he wraps his legs around Minho’s waist, slick sticking to his skin as white-hot pleasure courses through his veins, so safe here with Minho looking down at him before running a hand through his hair.

“Have I ever told you how pretty you are?” Minho says, kissing him again, and again, until all they can do is slot their lips together as they breathe heavily, already on the verge of hitting their climax. 

Jisung doesn’t get it. It usually takes him so long to cum, so much of his time has been spent with a hand shoved between his legs to try and take the edge off, but it always takes him ages to even reach his peak. 

And now, with Minho on top of him, whispering sweet words into the air around them as their scents mingle together to create the perfect harmony, Jisung feels seconds away from ruining his underwear completely. He’s so wet. His slick is pooling into the material of his boxers, spreading around his skin as Minho moves on top of him and he leaks so much he’s afraid it’s going to get on Minho’s bedsheets.

One particular roll of the alpha’s hips has him arching his back into him, moans rippling through the air as he bites down on his lip. Minho catches them with his mouth as he kisses him again, teeth nipping at Jisung’s bottom lip. 

“Hyung– hyung, I’m close. I–” Jisung lets his body speak for himself, scent so sweet and syrupy it sticks to the back of his throat. The blackberry is so faint, but the room smells like warm, saccharine chocolate spilling down over them as they move. 

Minho fastens the pace of his hips, letting Jisung feel how affected he is, how hard he has gotten in the confines of his jeans just from a little dry humping. Jisung is still leaking in his underwear, cock wet with precum as he reaches his high and slick sticking to him as his ass pushes into the bed with each of Minho’s thrusts. 

As he grips the material of the alpha’s hoodie, Jisung focuses on the way Minho smells, the way his body shakes on top of him, how his hips are stuttering, losing their rhythm. Jisung focuses on the aromas hitting his nose the second he leans his head up right in the crook of Minho’s neck, getting his scent from the very source of it. 

“Hyung,” Jisung moans when Minho presses down harder, and with one last roll of the alpha’s hips, Jisung buries his nose into Minho’s neck and tips over the edge. 

His orgasm is so intense that he sees the white dots dancing behind his closed lids, body slumping down on the bed as Minho slows his hips down.

“Don’t – don’t stop. Use me, please. Come for me.” Jisung presses his lips back against Minho’s red ones, sloppily toying with the alpha’s tongue as Minho grinds against him to reach his climax.

It doesn’t take much longer for him to finish, Jisung bites down on his lip and presses his heels into the small of Minho’s back, pushing them even closer together before whispering into his ear. “Please, hyung. Give it to me.”

Minho comes with a high pitched moan and his lips crash over Jisung’s one last time before his arms give out and he slumps down against him. 

Jisung has shared a handful of orgasms with people before. In many different ways. A lazy handjob, a rough fuck in the back of a car, a sloppy blowjob in the campus’ bathrooms, fingers thrusting into him as he whines on his bed. 

But he’s never ever come just from rubbing his dick with someone else’s. Over their clothes. Grinding until he made a mess of his boxers and was left hot and sticky because they’re both wearing hoodies and they’re still under the blanket. Minho’s body heat is no joke, especially when he’s aroused. The room gained a few degrees just from them grinding against each other. 

“That was .. so good.” Jisung breathes out, both arms wrapped around Minho’s shoulders and fingers playing with the ends of his air. 

Minho giggles. Right into Jisung’s ear, airy and high pitched and Jisung wants to kiss him again.

So he does.

Gentle this time, he takes a few seconds just to press his lips over Minho’s wet ones, enjoying how well they just fit together. Two puzzle pieces perfectly fitting together as he sighs against him. 

“You’re a great kisser, Han Jisung.” Minho teases, laying a small, faint kiss on the very tip of Jisung’s nose before he rolls off of him. “God, it’s a fucking furnace in here.” 

“Who knew alphas could produce this much body heat, uh?” Jisung says, sitting up to take his -Minho’s- hoodie off and laying back down. His white shirt is probably see through now because of how much he’s been sweating, his jeans are sticking to his legs even if they’re usually baggy, but he tries to ignore the feeling in order to relax next to Minho.

One of his hands comes up to his neck as Minho rids himself of his own sweatshirt, sporting a black long tee underneath, and Jisung itches around the patch that’s soaked with sweat and lifting off around the edges. 

He starts picking at it, not even realizing he started hissing as he tears it off his skin until Minho grabs his wrist to stop him.

“Wait,” he just says before getting up. Jisung watches him open the door of his bedroom and walk right into the room facing it. 

He hears the faint steady stream of the faucet for a few seconds before Minho comes back with a wet towel in his hand. “Here, press it on the patches so they peel better.”

Jisung takes the towel and does as instructed, pressing the warm towel on his neck before he moves to his wrist. There’s no point in keeping his scent blockers on, because the room stinks of him anyway. 

As he starts peeling the patches off, he fits his gaze over Minho’s back facing him as he rummages through an open drawer and comes back to the bed with two fresh pairs of sweatpants, shirts and boxers. 

“Here, Jisungie. I’ll go change in the bathroom. There’s wipes in the drawer if you need them, okay?” Minho leans down so he’s leveled with Jisung’s face and kisses him, soft, gentle, only for a second before he drops one piece of each on the bed right next to Jisung. 

And then he leaves to the bathroom, just as he said would. 

Jisung wipes his skin after taking his sticky boxers off, folding his very ruined clothes and putting Minho’s very own over the length of his body. Just as he ties the string of the sweatpants tight around his waist, gray fur peeks into the bedroom and jumps on the bed. He sits down next to the cat, already smiling.

“Hi Dori,” Jisung says, scratching his fingers under the cat’s chin and cooing at him when he extends his neck furthermore into Jisung’s palm. “Do you think your dad likes me?”

Dori meows then, looking right into Jisung’s eyes before blinking a handful of times. 

“Don’t tell him I said that, but I think I like him too.” He giggles at his own silliness, speaking to Minho’s cat and petting his soft, smooth fur. “I hope you like me too.”

“He does.” Minho startles him as he speaks, and when Jisung looks over to him, he sees that Minho’s leaning on the frame of the door, watching them with a smile on his face. 

“Let’s sleep, Jisungie.” Minho says for the second time today, turning the lights off and hiking up the bed next to Jisung. “He’ll probably sleep at our feet.” 

Laying down, Jisung doesn’t give Minho a chance to turn away from him before he slots his chest right against Minho’s sturdy one and rests his head in the crook of his neck. He inhales deeply, letting the alpha’s leathery scent wash over him and tug at his eyelids until they close under their own weight.

Jisung remembers how tired he was when he first stepped inside Minho’s bedroom. It all comes back to hit him, fatigue settling into his organs and right in the crevices of his bones before he sighs heavily. 

“Hey, Jisungie?” Minho whispers, one of his hands playing with the omega’s hair and lulling him further into slumber.

Humming, Jisung smiles when he feels Dori laying down right against him, in the crook of his slightly bent legs. He’s comfortable here. Safe. Wrapped into Minho’s strong arms, warmth and sandalwood enveloping his senses and turning his brain into nothing but mush as he finally lets himself fall. 

“Dori likes you more than he likes me, I think.” 

Jisung laughs, slapping over Minho’s back weakly and grabbing onto his shirt, making sure they’re pressed together as close as they could ever be. 

“Idiot.”

𓆝 𓆟 𓆞

me

12:45pm

HYUNG

WHY DIDNT YOU TELL ME YESTERDAY 

Minho🐱

12:46pm

??

What are you talking about ?

me 

12:51pm

oh my god

you idiot

HAPPY BIRTHDAY !!!!  

old, mean alpha 

Have a good one, hyungie♥️

Here’s your gift

[Attachment: 1 image]

Minho🐱

12:52pm

Holy fucking shit

Come back here

Jisung what the fuck

You’re so fucking pretty

me 

12:53pm

😘

Happy birthday~

[Attachments: 2 images]

Minho🐱 

12:53pm

?????!!!??!!?

Jesus fucking Christ 

Sorry.

You’re.. 

gorgeous, wow 

So gorgeous, Jisungie.

𓆝 𓆟 𓆞

Jisung woke up next to Felix, the other omega wrapped around him as he drooled his chest, snoring away. Jisung got a few hours of sleep in, thanks to the hoodie draped over his shoulders and embracing him in a tight, sandalwood laced hug. 

When he had woken up next to Minho two days ago, in the alpha’s clothes and in the alpha’s bed, Jisung had looked outside and realized it was not only dark, but that there was rain splattering on the windows. So he stayed the night, and when he left for class in the morning, he stole -Minho gave them to him- two of Minho’s hoodies and also kept the clothes he was wearing. 

There hasn’t been a single night where Jisung didn’t press his nose into the fabric, letting Minho’s thick and rich scent wrap around him and tugging at his limbs. 

Jisung still hasn’t told Felix. 

He doesn’t know how to bring it up, how to casually tell his best friend that he not only kissed Minho but also they humped each other until they made a mess inside their pants. 

The minute they sit down in the booth of the coffee shop they settled on, Felix lays his palms flat on the table and talks. “Okay. You need to tell me what’s going on, right now.”

Jisung sighs, eyes looking down at his iced coffee before rubbing the heel of his palms against his eyes. Felix is patient. He probably knew something had changed the second Jisung had stepped back into their room. “You’ve been smelling like him for three days now. Ever since you came back from his place you’ve been smiling a lot more. You actually look rested, Ji.”

And he’s right. Felix is awfully right. Jisung has been trying his best to let Minho’s scent linger on him, rubbing the alpha’s hoodie over himself, not washing his hair because it was the strongest here and actually wearing the hoodies everywhere he goes, so everyone around him knows that he smells like someone else. He does feel lighter. His head isn’t hurting anywhere as much as it usually does, because for the first time in a while, Jisung has not had a sleepless night in a week. 

Even if it’s a few hours, he’s snored away every single night for the past seven days. 

“We kissed,” he whispers, but it’s loud enough for Felix to hear and make him gasp. “And uh–”

“Oh my god, did you guys fuck?” The omega is almost yelling now, and Jisung is so grateful that there’s no one but them and the baristas inside the shop. 

“Keep your voice down!” Jisung looks towards the counter, and judging from how red the woman is by the coffee machine, she definitely heard them. “We didn’t have sex but–”

Felix laughs, grabbing one of Jisung’s hands and rubbing circles on the top of it, then down to his hidden scent gland, right over his scent blocker. “Did you come? Did he?” 

“It was the best orgasm of my fucking life, and all we did was get other off through our jeans, Lixie. He’s so– so great.” Jisung lets his head bang on the table, sighing through his nose when Felix’s hand lands in his hair and plays with the long strands of curls. 

“That’s a good thing, baby.”

A sharp pain pierces through Jisung’s stomach for only a second, and as he looks down at his coffee, he realizes that maybe he should have gotten a matcha instead. He’s never been good at digesting caffeine, even if he consumes it every single day. 

“I don’t know why I trust him so easily. You know, when we woke up together again he just kissed me and left to make dinner and told me to go choose something to watch.” Jisung breathes out, smiling at the memory of Minho’s meal. “He made me fried rice without spice because he saw I was upset I couldn’t eat any at lunch.” 

“Oh I know that made you horny. Making you food without spice? He wants you so bad.” Felix laughs, peach traveling up to Jisung’s nose as he takes a deep breath. “It’s good that you trust him, Sungie. Don’t worry too much, okay?”

Jisung nods, that sharp pain stabbing his guts again and – okay, he gets it. He really shouldn’t have gotten that drink, but Jisung can’t say no to caffeine. He’s been relying on it since he was sixteen and his mother was tired of him asking and asking if he could start drinking coffee in the morning now. She’d say yes, and Jisung got addicted to the rush of it through his veins. 

Now, it doesn’t do much for him anymore, but he still loves the taste. 

“You okay?” Felix asks, pressing over Jisung’s wrist again. 

“Yeah, just probably shouldn't have drank coffee.” Jisung takes the last sip of his drink before stretching his arms over his head, enjoying the whiff of sandalwood he gets when he does. “Let’s go before we’re late!” 

Off to the shelter they go, and as they walk, Jisung can’t help but talk about Minho again. He tells Felix about his scent, how comforted he is whenever he’s around Minho. Jisung talks, and rambles about the moles on the alpha’s face but also the muscles in his arms, caging Jisung in whenever Minho wraps his arms around him. 

“He’s so strong, Lix. I need him to fucking crush me with his thighs or something.”  He sighs when he thinks about the glimpse he got of Minho’s thighs straining against his jeans, wanting nothing more than to see them without any–

Another cramp in his intestines and Jisung is really starting to regret the drink he downed earlier. It’s twisting in his guts as it travels down to his bladder. It hurts. But Jisung ignores it in order to tell Felix about Minho’s small, cute and red hands. 

As he pushes the door of the shelter open, Jisung holds his belly as another cramp twists inside of him. Maybe he shouldn’t have had milk either, because even if he isn’t intolerant, there are days where his stomach decides that lactose and him are not friends. 

They see Milo when they’re all changed and ready, in his enclosure and waiting for his lunch that the two best friends are going to feed him. He’s talking to a keeper, noises high pitched as the keeper pets the top of his head. 

“Oh my god, he’s so cute!” Felix squeals, skipping down to the pool where the beluga is currently floating on its back and showing the keeper how well he can turn in the water. “Hey Milo.” 

Jisung lets Felix have a go first, watching as his best friend grabs a handful of fish and throws it into the animal’s open mouth. Felix gives him ice next before he turns to Jisung and lets him feed Milo as well. 

He doesn’t know how long they spend here, in the enclosure with the beluga as it just speaks to them. This is what Jisung likes the most about his degree, getting to meet the animals he’s been studying for years up close, being able and allowed to touch them, feed them and speak to their keepers. 

“Man, I wish they’d also be in charge of seals.” Jisung says as he feeds Milo again, giving in a pat on the head when he swallows his food. “I want to see them, you know? I know I could fly to one of the shelters in Japan and get a note from the school but I wish we’d have them here.” 

Despite choosing seals as his main research subject, Jisung has never been able to see one up close. He’s been studying them for five years now, his master’s main course is specialization on them and their species. 

Another cramp tears a groan out of Jisung’s throat feeling the coffee swishing around in his stomach. The beluga whistles in front of them, and Jisung focuses on the little clicking sounds he makes, asking for more food. Felix throws another handful of fish in his mouth, giggling before doing the same with ice. 

The sun is starting to set around them, Milo has been swimming around his pool for close to an hour now, and Jisung can’t help but take notes on his phone regarding the whale’s form as it swims, and how long he stays underwater. 

12 minutes and 13 seconds. 

“Ouch,” he whines when his guts twist again. “Lixie? Can we head home?” 

Felix nods, getting up from his crouched position before extending his hand towards Jisung. “Let’s go.” 

Jisung gets three cramps on the way home, each more painful than the previous one. Felix holds his hand as they walk, rushing them so Jisung can jump into the shower first and then finally lay down on his sacred bed. 

“Are you sure it’s just the coffee, Sung?” Felix asks as he calls for the elevator, leading Jisung inside the second it’s here. 

“Yeah, you know sometimes I can’t digest it well.” He sighs, wishing for the elevator to come faster. 

The moment Jisung steps inside his and Felix’s room, he toes his shoes off and rushes to the shower. He tears his clothes off but makes sure to be careful with Minho’s hoodie, leaving it on the edge of the counter for later. Jisung turned the shower on when walked inside the bathroom, so as he gets under the spray, the water is already warm and massaging the knots in his shoulder. 

No matter how relaxed he feels, another sharp peak of pain shoots in his lower belly and he almost doubles over from the sheer force of it. He rushes washing the grease out of his hair and the sweat that had created a thin layer over his body in under five minutes, making sure to not scrub too hard on the patches covering his scent glands. They’re still good for another day or two. 

He makes quick work of drying himself, skin so warm Jisung wonders just what temperature did Felix turn the heating on. He knows that his best friend is more sensitive to the cold than Jisung is, but he’s already sweating and he’s just gotten out of the shower.

Opening the door, Jisung looks right at Felix, laying on his bed with a cardigan over his shoulder and a small blanket thrown over his legs. “Lix, it’s too freaking hot in here I’m sweating already.” 

Felix turns around then, eyes wide as he takes in the sight of his roommate. “Hot? I’m literally shivering. Maybe if you didn’t take boiling showers!” 

Jisung sighs, running a hand through his wet, wavy hair before he walks towards his dresser. “What temp did you put the heating on? I swear I’m melting.” 

“Ji, I haven’t even turned it on yet because we haven’t been here a lot.” 

Well then, Jisung is definitely coming down with something because his stomach turns again and a shiver runs down his spine as heat spreads around his body. His forehead is throbbing and all he wants to do is spill his guts on the floor below him. 

“You okay?” Felix asks, sitting up on his bed to look at Jisung. “You look very pale, Ji.” 

Jisung doesn’t throw up, but he sits on his bed right after pulling a shirt over his head and boxers up his soft legs. “I’ll sleep it off, my stomach really isn’t liking that stupid drink I got.” 

His blanket is comfortable over his legs, light as he digs his nose into his pillow case. Jisung doesn’t even register himself reaching under said pillow, fingers gripping around soft fabric before he pulls it out from underneath his head. Jisung buries his nose right into the hoodie, sandalwood wrapping around him as he hugs it tight to his chest. 

Another cramp has him biting into the fabric, teeth digging into Minho’s hoodie as he tries to ignore the pain piercing his guts. Maybe Jisung did turn lactose intolerant after all, he’s heard about some people who stopped being able to consume dairy in their adulthood all of a sudden. 

Minho’s scent, faint, but still there helps him forget about the pain as he takes another deep inhale. He grabs the others shirts he had stolen and makes sure they’re close to him, one under his head, another right with the hoodie he’s hugging tight so Minho’s scent is surrounding him everywhere.

And he dozes off like that, slumber pulling him in halfway and giving him a chance at sleeping tonight. Jisung closes his eyes and lets his headache pound at the front of his brain, knees coming up to his chest as he hugs Minho’s clothes tight between his arms. 

He’s curled into a ball on his bed, and when he wakes up two hours later, skin flaming hot and stomach lurching as he tries to stop the squirming of all of his limbs. 

He’s burning up, there’s sweat collecting on Minho’s shirt underneath his head because Jisung is dripping with it. He’s so tired, all of his muscles are sore and he can’t seem to find a comfortable position to settle himself in so he can fall back asleep. 

It’s so hot. So hot that he kicks the blanket away from his legs but the moment Jisung does that, he feels a shiver coursing through his entire body as fresh air collides with his damp skin. There’s a layer of sweat forming all over him, making his shirt stick to his skin and this weird, he usually doesn’t get sick like this. Stomach aches hurt him, but he doesn’t react to them like this. 

A warm hand settles over his shoulder and Jisung opens his eyes, blinking a few times before he looks at Felix’s blonde hair. “What’s up, Lix– ouch.”

Jisung tries so hard to focus on his best friend, but his lower belly hurts so bad he curls over himself furthermore, nose digging into Minho’s hoodie. Sweat has his hair sticking to his forehead in thick stripes, running down his back and soaking through his shirt. It hurts. It hurts so much. 

“Baby – Jisungie?” Felix runs his fingers through Jisung’s hair, despite how wet they are from his sweat and looks at him with a soft smile. 

“This isn’t fu-funny!” He sighs, then feels himself pout when another cramp twists his guts around and presses down his belly. Jisung wants to reach into his own body to press around the ache with his bare hands, just so it can stop for one fucking second.

A whimper slips past his lips, pain shooting down his lower back. When he wiggles around, Jisung freezes as he feels it. Slow. Steady. Wet. 

Slick leaks out of him as he breathes out and tries not to panic, but he still looks at Felix with wide eyes, nerve endings on fire as he tries to keep his breathing in control. 

“You’re in heat, Sungie.” 

𓆝 𓆟 𓆞

Time has been distant in Jisung’s mind as he clutches Minho’s hoodie closer to his nose, trying to smell what’s left of the faint scent lingering into the fabric. He’s in pain, slick has been dripping out of him and soaking through the towels Felix had laid out on the bed right beneath Jisung. 

He thinks this is the second day of his heat, Jisung’s lower belly always hurts more on the second day. 

It hurts, but Jisung also feels so .. empty. 

Usually, he spends his heat in pain with Felix by his side and sometimes, when his best friend evidently leaves to get Jisung some food, he wraps a loose fist around his length and gets himself off two times before he gets too tired to do anything else. 

That’s the most he ever does. Jisung doesn’t fuck himself on his toys, he doesn’t even let his fingers breach past his hole to try and give himself some relief because exhausted, fatigue takes over and forces him to focus on the pain instead. 

Right now, though, his body is begging him to do something. Anything to take the edge off, fingers, a toy – anything. 

“It hurts, Lix.” Jisung lets out a tear, it rolls down his cheek and over the bridge of his nose before sinking into the sheets below him. “Want – ngh.”

“I know baby, I know.” Felix is kneeling down on the floor right in front of Jisung’s face, running a thumb over his tear-streaked cheek and pressing a kiss to his sweaty forehead. “The wave should pass soon.” 

Jisung can’t – he can’t think straight. He’s empty, he doesn’t know what he’s craving but he’s craving it so much and it’s frustrating him to the point of latching his teeth around Minho’s hoodie and letting out a pained whimper. 

Sandalwood wraps around his nose again when he buries it into the fabric, slightly soothing the blazing hot pain tugging at his guts and twisting them around so he can feel it. “Want–”

He moans again, he doesn’t know whether it’s from pain or pleasure as another glob of slick runs down his ass and adds to the drenched towel underneath his hips. “Want hyung.” 

He’s rutting into the air, cock heavy and leaking inside his underwear but Jisung is so tired. So exhausted he doesn’t even have the strength to ask Felix to go get him food so he could get himself off, because he doesn’t want to move. Jisung whimpers as another cramp hits, a few more tears sliding down his skin. 

“What do you want, Jisungie? I didn’t catch it, I’m sorry.” Felix releases another wave of his scent, trying to calm Jisung’s pain down as he takes the omega’s wrist between his slim fingers, thumb massaging down on his scent gland. 

Felix had taken off all of his patches when they understood that Jisung was in heat, not only would they be useless, but it’s also not recommended to wear scent blockers when someone goes through their ruts or their heats. 

“Hyung,” he says, voice slightly above a whisper as he grips the sheets between his free fist. “Want hyung.” 

“Hyung? Which hyung, baby?” Felix sounds surprised, but Jisung doesn’t have it in himself to focus on the tone of his best friend's voice before he whispers again, slurring around the words that come out of his mouth. 

“Minho,” he starts, opening his eyes again and blinking away the few tears that were threatening to fall at his waterline. “Want Minho hyung, please.”

He cries and cries around the pleads that fall from his wet lips, begging Felix, anyone, to give him some relief as he leaks steadily on the sheets below him. “Please, Lixie. I- I need him.”

“Oh, baby,” Felix gets up then, grabbing another towel from the small pile he had put together on the floor by the foot of Jisung’s bed. “Let’s wait for the wave to pass, yeah? Then we’ll talk about it.” 

“Wan’ Minho,” He says again, turning into his bed the moment Felix climbs in it, snuggling into his best friend’s chest before closing his eyes again, stray tears wetting the fabric of Felix’s shirt. “Please Lixie, I want hyung.” 

Felix only holds him tighter as another rush of slick sticks to his skin, already seeping into the towel hFelix had just placed under him. Jisung shivers, but not from the cold, no, the heat radiating from his body was enough to warm up the room, but he shivers from how wet and sticky his skin has gotten. 

There’s slick up to his back and down to his knees from how badly he’s been leaking. Jisung doesn’t usually produce that much – there’s something else, now, there’s that intense, sharp empty feeling inside of him that keeps growing, that keeps pulsing and begging for him to do something, anything. 

“Let’s sleep a little, baby. Here, have a little bit of him while you try to nap, okay?” Felix pushes one of Minho’s shirts right under his nose, rubbing the fabric on Jisung’s skin as he wraps his arms around him again, holding him tight. 

It does help. Felix holding him always helps. The peach and vanilla lingering in the room does calm his nerves and Jisung knows it’s the only reason he has let that panic rise up into his chest like it’s been asking. But it’s not enough. 

When his eyes close, another rush of sticky wetness runs down his skin and Jisung lets out another pained sob, but he’s so tired. So exhausted that he drifts off as Felix pets his hair and the skin of his back that hasn’t been stained by his own slick. 

A few hours later, Jisung wakes up alone in his bed to the sound of a key turning into a lock, and pain shooting up his lower back. He’s not as hot as he was a few hours ago, and definitely not as drowsy and out of it. But it still hurts, it still tears a whimper out of his throat when he tries sitting up, so Jisung doesn’t fight against it and buries his nose into Minho’s hoodie, trying to smell what’s left of his scent. 

Felix is so quiet when he walks into their room, Jisung watches him with lidded eyes as he takes his shoes off and carefully sets a bag down on the floor. “Hi.” He whispers, making it known that he’s awake now. 

That second wave left him exhausted, tiredness gripping at his ribs and pushing him into the mattress until they formed one. His stomach rumbles, he doesn’t know whether it’s from hunger or because his heat has been growing inside of him. 

“Sungie! You’re awake.” Felix says, taking his jacket off and picking the bag back up. “I got you hot chocolate from the shop you like, baby.”

Jisung could cry – and he almost does when he smells the beverage from where he’s laying down on the bed. He’s so sticky everywhere. With slick, with sweat, with tears. His heat has been brewing for two days now, and Jisung still has gotten off a single time. He’s hard, has been for the last 48 hours and it hurts so much that he can’t help but rut down into the sheets of his bed. 

“What about a shower first, hm? I’ll walk you and leave you in here for a bit, yeah? It’ll make you feel better, Sungie.” Felix offers, walking towards Jisung and extending his hands towards him. 

It’s the perfect chance for him to actually get some of this wetness off of him, even if Jisung knows that in a matter of a few hours, he would be back into the same state as he is now. He takes Felix’s hands and the blonde pulls him, Jisung’s legs give out under his weight and he all but slumps into Felix’s arms. 

Luckily for him, Felix is able to hold onto him tight, preventing him from face planting right into the wooden floor of their dorm room. “I got you, Sungie.” 

Felix wraps an arm around his waist and takes him to the bathroom, helping him sit down on the toilet lid as the other omega turns the shower on so the water is already hot as Jisung steps into it. “Here, Sungie. Call me whenever you want to get out, okay?” 

Jisung nods, letting Felix help him up and guide him right into the shower. The warm spray hits him right away and Jisung pushes his underwear down the moment Felix closes the door behind him. He feels weak, but Jisung still holds himself up on one arm on the wall and reaches behind himself right away, rubbing two fingers over his hole before pushing them right in. 

It helps. Jisung lets a moan ripple from his throat and echo off the wall before picking up the pace of his wrist. But he’s so tired. He tries looking for that squishy bundle of nerves in vain, bones and muscles of his arm already sore when it’s not even been five minutes. But he still tries and pushes his head right onto the cold tile before he brings his other hand down and squeezes at his length so tight it hurts. 

His rhythm is all over the place, the fingers inside of him are too slow for his liking, not hitting where he needs them too but he’s too exhausted to even angle them properly. He closes his eyes then, hips thrusting back and forth into his closed fist as he slips a third finger inside of himself, stretching his rim until he sobs around a choked out moan. 

Fantasies flow behind his closed lids, Jisung tries his best to make himself reach his climax fast even if he knows it isn’t going to be satisfying. He doesn’t care. Jisung just wants his cock to go down even for a few minutes. 

A pair of small red hands flash behind his eyes, and Jisung grips his length even tighter. A sharp nose, sandalwood, beautiful feline eyes – bunny teeth. “Nghh– Minho-hyung.” 

Jisung thinks when Minho had him pinned down on his bed and rutted against him until he came. He thinks about Minho’s strong arms wrapped around the width of his small waist as he flattened his palm right over Jisung’s stomach and that was enough to stop him from moving. 

Jisung thinks and thinks about the alpha’s lips pressing down on his own wet ones, biting at his flesh until Jisung let his mouth open to make way for Minho’s tongue. Minho had been so hot that day, his body burning on top of Jisung as he rolled his hips to catch his high. Jisung uses his ever so realistic imagination to picture those same hands spreading him apart and gripping the skin of his ass until it bruises. He fantasizes about Minho’s sharp incisors sinking into the flesh of his neck and marking him as his for everyone to see. 

When he comes, Jisung imagines the alpha’s cock pushing inside of him, knot swollen already and stretching him until Jisung cries from how good it feels. From how full he knows he would be with Minho’s knot pushing past the tight rim of his hole. 

It takes him a few minutes to get down from his high, watching his cum slowly wash away from the tiles as slick runs down his thighs and splashes onto the floor. He makes an effort to wash his body and hair next, tearing up from how exhausted his muscles are before calling out for Felix the second he’s done. 

He’s still hard, but it doesn’t hurt as much as it used to. 

Felix wraps him in a fluffy towel when he walks past the door, drying his skin before helping inside a clean pair of underwear. Jisung only ever wears that when he’s on heat, hating the feeling of fabric sticking to his skin when he sweats until the clothes are see through. 

His bed sheets have been changed, and Felix is handing him the drink he’s bought for him the second Jisung sits back down. He doesn’t know how he would manage his heat if it wasn’t for Felix holding his hand through them, and the only time he had to go through one alone, Jisung remembers crying for the entirety of it. 

“Thank you,” he says, smiling at his best friend before taking a long, hot sip of the drink and letting it burn down the walls of his throat. 

Felix sits down next to him, hand coming up to play with Jisung’s hair as soon as he does. “Jisungie?” 

“Hm?” He takes another gulp of the drink and closes his eyes for a second, cringing when slick leaks through his freshly clean boxers and down onto the bed. 

“Do you remember what you said earlier, baby?” Felix asks, running his fingers through Jisung’s wet hair, coiling one strand around his index and letting it bounce back. 

Jisung tries to think, but his mind is fuzzy around the edges. The second wave of his heat is always the strongest, the hardest to go through as pain shoots up his stomach whenever he moves even just an inch. “Not really, I know I cried a lot but that’s it.” 

“Okay. You asked for someone, baby.” Felix looks at him as he talks, slowly, lips stretching into a gentle smile. “You never ask for anyone usually but Ji you – you begged for him to come here.” 

“Who?” Jisung thinks that deep down, he already knows who. The alpha has been all he can think about lately, it’s only normal for him to ask for him when he’s in the depth of his heat and while that empty feeling inside of him grows and expands until it’s all he can think about. 

“Minho hyung, Sungie. You kept asking for him.” Felix takes the finished drink from Jisung’s hands when he swallows the last sip of it, putting it on the floor right next to his bed. 

Jisung has never spent any of his heats with anyone other than Felix before. Let alone an alpha. He knows what it feels like to be knotted, but he’s never experienced what it feels like to have someone stretching him around their knot when his body begs for it the most. 

But as he thinks about it, and as another cramp tears through his lower belly and has him doubling over himself as he tries to put pressure on his stomach to stop the pain from pushing further. 

Felix rubs a hand up and down his naked back, not caring about the sweat that’s stuck to his skin. Another wave. Jisung feels it brewing inside of him, grabbing at his ribs and cracking them around until he sobs around a pained moan. 

He thinks and he knows. 

“Can you..” He starts, letting a flush rise to his already red face, deepening the heat blush painting his skin. “Please?”

“Call him?” Felix asks, a smile threatening to burst on his face. When Jisung nods, Felix springs to his feet to grab his phone laying on his own, abandoned bed. “On it!” 

Jisung faintly hears the beeping on the other line when Felix presses his call button. Three of them, before he hears a groggy “Hello?” coming from his phone’s speaker. 

“Hey hyung,” Felix says, a cheeky grin dancing on his lips as he talks. “Am I bothering you?”

A yawn, and Minho speaks up. “No you’re not, Yongbokkie. I was taking a nap but I needed to get up anyway. What’s up? Is Jisungie okay?” 

Hearing his name from the side of the line makes Jisung flush, letting the fact that Minho’s asking about him when Felix calls has him purring inside, stomach tingling and cheeks heating up. 

“He’s – fine,” Felix pauses, probably wondering how he can bring up the fact that Jisung has been asking for him. “Well, not really. He’s in heat, hyung.” 

“Oh,” Minho says, and for a second, he stays silent. “Does he .. have anyone to take care of him? Does he need food or anything?” 

“He has me, but he’s asking for someone else.” Felix explains, a grin deepening on his face. Jisung smiles, and another cramp twists inside of him. 

“Ah, I see.” Minho says, sighing. “Whose number do you need?” 

Felix chuckles, taking a deep breath.“Hyung?” 

“Yes?” 

“He wants you, idiot.” 

Minho hangs up. 

The three beeps ring loud in the room, and for a second, Jisung worries that maybe he got the signs wrong and Minho doesn’t – want him like that. 

But the pain wins over his thoughts, and as he doubles over again, Felix kneels right in front of him and holds his face between his small, soft hands. “Breathe, Jisungie.” 

He smells the air around him, the strong notes of peach hitting him right across the face and calming the pain a little bit. Felix soothes him as best as he can, but the feeling of emptiness keeps growing, keeps tearing barely audible whimpers out of Jisung’s mouth as he leaks on the bed and wets yet another towel. 

The third wave of his heat is slowly consuming his thoughts and ability to focus on anything other than the painful ache that’s tearing his insides apart and making him want to press even harder against his lower belly. 

Jisung can barely focus, but he hears them. 

The three, resonating knocks coming from their front door. Three times, harsh and loud as it echoes between his ears. Felix gets up, pressing a kiss to his hair before moving towards the door. Jisung puts his feet on the edge of the bed and brings his knees right to his chest, wrapping his arms around himself and hugging his legs tight against himself to try and dull some of the pain that’s spreading in his body. 

His ears are blocking any sound so he can concentrate on the pain in his stomach, so when strong arms wrap around his shoulders and sandalwood consumes all of his senses, Jisung opens his eyes back and blinks away the tears that had started to form by his waterline. 

“Minho hyung?” He whispers, and as his vision clears, Jisung makes up the familiar shape of Minho’s eyes, the bow of his lips and the sharpness of his nose. 

“Hi, Jisungie.” 

Jisung all but slumps into the alpha’s chest, burying his nose into his neck and getting his favorite scent right from the source as he takes a big inhale. “Hyung it – it hurts so bad.” 

A strong wave of pheromones wraps around him, and the ache in his lower belly subsides slightly when he breathes in, and then out. Minho is running his hands up and down his beck, chin resting on the top of Jisung’s head and he rocks them back and forth. 

“Jisungie?” Felix says, and Jisung makes an effort to open his eyes and look at his best friend. “I’ll go now, okay? I love you. I left you a bunch of shirts and hoodies if you want to add them to your nest, baby.” 

His nest. Jisung had barely made one. He has Minho’s shirts and the hoodie Felix had worn all day yesterday, but that’s about it. He didn’t know what to add to it, because there were only two scents that helped and he only had access to one when his heat had started. 

“And take care of him hyung, please? He’s never .. shared his heat with anyone.” Felix kisses Jisung’s forehead before he grabs his phone and puts his shoes on, waving at Jisung and Minho one last time. 

“I will, Lixie. You have my word.” Minho is still rocking them back and forth, drawing circles on the small of Jisung’s back as he speaks. 

The door closes, and Jisung holds his head up to look at the alpha right next to him. “You came.” 

He doesn’t give Minho a chance to speak before he crashes his lips against his, arms wrapping around Minho’s shoulder as he tumbles them backwards onto the bed. Even in his haze, Jisung makes sure to not climb onto the alpha’s legs to not smear the mess between his legs over his sweatpants. 

“Of course I did, baby. I said I’d come whenever you need me. I meant it. I still do.” Minho tries hugging him tighter, closer, but since Jisung is awkwardly laying on his side, he can’t really fully wrap both of his arms around Jisung's warm waist. “Come here, baby.” 

“Can’t, my .. mess will get all over your clothes.” He says, shying away from Minho’s face as he says it. He’s leaking so much he would have been worried by now if it wasn’t for the sandalwood soothing him down to the pain in his belly. 

The cramps have already subsided, leaving that emptiness still ever growing inside of him to take over his senses as he sighs, legs trembling slightly. 

Minho doesn’t reply, but instead, he detaches himself from Jisung’s body and the omega misses the warmth already. Like this, he could smell Minho the best, nose right into the scent gland on his neck as he inhaled again and again. But when he’s standing on his feet, Minho grips the hem of his hoodie and quickly hikes it up his chest until it falls down to the floor. 

Jisung gulps. Once, twice, until he blinks a few times as he takes in the sight in front of him. He’d never seen Minho shirtless before. He did see his arms as they bulged under the weight of a few books, Jisung had definitely noticed the swell of his chest and how it would prod against all of his shirts. But he had never seen the soft skin of Minho’s belly, or the white scar across his ribs. Jisung realizes that the skin of his chest is as red as the tips of his ears but also his neck, blooming red as he grabs the strings of his pants and unties the lazy knot that was holding them up.

When Minho pushes his sweatpants down his legs, Jisung gasps when smooth, soft skin floods his view as his eyes land on Minho’s naked thighs. He’s still wearing his underwear, the waistband of it digging slightly into his stomach and Jisung feels the need to bite into his skin the more he looks. 

So many adjectives and compliments run through his mind but all Jisung can do is gasp until Minho looks back at him, a giggle escaping his lips as he toes off his socks. “Like what you see?” 

“God, fuck. Yes. I do.” He doesn’t know where he finds the strength to speak, but another cramp ruins his fun and forces a pained moan out of his mouth. 

Minho climbs back onto the bed next to him and opens his arms for Jisung to settle into, chest rising with each breath he takes. “I don’t care about the mess, Jisungie. Come here.” 

Jisung all but jumps into Minho’s arms, laying right on top of him as he buries his nose yet again into the alpha’s neck. He can’t get enough. He breathes and inhales and every single time, the pain that was burning through his veins diminishes and he’s able to lift his head up. 

“‘M glad ‘m sharing it with you.” He whispers, whining when a gush of slick leaks right out of him and soaks into the material of Minho’s boxers. “Sorry.” 

“Oh, baby. So am I.” His hands go down Jisung’s back as he speaks, letting his fingers hold onto the waistband of his underwear. “Do you wanna take these off, Jisungie? They must be uncomfortable.”

Nodding as best as he can, Jisung let's Minho push the fabric down his thighs and uses his feet to make sure it’s off all the way. Jisung feels better right away, free of the soaked material that was sticking to his skin and making him squirm. He can tell he’s still hard, cock squished between both of their bodies and leaking on Minho’s stomach. His hips twitch weakly and a moan falls from his lips from the tinge of stimulation over the head of his length. 

“Go ahead, baby. Take what you need.” Minho says, holding Jisung tighter, using his strength to move his body up and down his own. “Hyung’s here for you.” 

They share a kiss when Jisung starts rutting down on Minho’s crotch, feeling the bulge in his boxers against his sensitive cock. The cramps don’t let up, but they’re not as painful as they were before he got here. Jisung still feels so empty. He can feel himself clenching the more he rocks his hips up and down, head of dick leaking even more right onto Minho’s skin. 

“Off – off, please.” He says, one hand sneaking between their bodies and pushing down the waistband of Minho’s boxers, but whining in frustration when he fails to get to them past the alpha’s bulge. “You’re so - so big.” 

Minho snorts, taking his boxers so they’re touching everywhere. “Better?” 

Jisung hums, pleased but it quickly turns into a whimper when he feels Minho’s cock against his skin. Big and warm, half-hard and rubbing right next to his as he grinds down again. 

“That’s it, baby. Doing so well.” Minho whispers in his ear, kissing the ridge of it before biting down on his earlobe and sucking his skin right into his mouth. The feeling of Minho’s teeth digging into his flesh has Jisung moaning, loud and deep before he makes an effort to turn his head to the side and smash his lips down onto Minho’s welcoming ones. 

His climax is building fast inside of him, slick leaking steadily from his rim before it slides down his skin and wets Minho’s own cock. He feels it when Minho’s hand sneaks down their chests and wraps around both of their girth, barely able to hold both of their lengths inside his half closed fist as he starts jerking them off, slowly, but his grip is so tight that Jisung moans right into his mouth. 

“Hyung,” he says, hips rutting down faster, slick gushing out from him in such a steady flow he knows he’s soaked through the towel by now. “Please – please.” 

Jisung doesn’t even know what he’s asking for, the pleads fall from his lips on their own accord but Minho is there to catch them with his teeth, incisors digging into the omega’s bottom lip before he sucks it right between his own. 

He reaches his peak quickly after, his release painting both their stomachs as Minho works him through it. Jisung sobs around a moan when he comes, but his teeth attach to Minho’s shoulder and he can’t help but bite down, tasting his salty skin right over his tongue. “Th-thank you.” 

Minho shoots white between them right after, warm and sticking to Jisung’s skin as it mixes with his own cum. Jisung doesn’t move. He doesn’t even want to. He closes his eyes and lets Minho’s scent lull him to sleep as he sucks a mark into the skin over the alpha’s scent gland, lazy and sloppy with spit running down his skin. 

“Sleepy?” Minho asks, arms tightening around Jisung’s waist once more before pressing a kiss to the omega’s forehead, and rolling them over on their sides, making sure they’re still touching everywhere as he slots one of his legs right between Jisung’s trembling ones. 

The room is warm around them, even more now that Minho’s body heat added itself to the warmth that was already flowing around. It smells – heavenly. Jisung gets lost into the feeling of both of their scents wrapping around each other, sandalwood mixing with the faint trace of blackberry left behind and that something else is dipping into the sweet, rich chocolate of his scent that is ever so present whenever Jisung is in heat. 

Something else. He’s craving to put a name on it, and it’s on the tip of his tongue, but Jisung can’t focus on anything other than the arms sticking to his skin and the strong thigh settled between his own, flexing and twitching as Minho breathes. 

“Hm,” he replies, drifting off. 

Jisung lets slumber tug him in, sleep washing over him as he concentrates on the steady, heavy rises of Minho’s chest each time he takes a breath. 

In his dreams, Jisung meets him again. Out in a coffee shop, presumably on a date as time goes by. Jisung dreams of Minho holding his hand, catching him in arms when his clumsiness shows itself and he stumbles over his own and almost falls over. As he sleeps, in his mind, Jisung pictures soft lips trailing down his body, sucking hues of purple and red into the flesh of his thighs and the thin skin over his lower belly. 

The Minho in his dreams turns him over on his stomach and presses deep inside of him without much resistance. Jisung moans loud and airy when he finally, finally gets what he’s been begging for this entire time, a thick length pulsing against his walls and reshaping his guts so Minho can fit perfectly. 

Jisung ruts against Minho in his mind, rocks back on the alpha’s length and lets him ruin him for anyone else Jisung will ever meet. His hips move on their own accord, cock leaking and rubbing over a warm and hard surface. 

When he opens his eyes and blinks away the blurriness of his vision an hour or two later, Jisung realizes that the warm and very much hard surface he was grinding down on is Minho’s flexed thigh, wet with his own precum and the slick that’s been leaking out of him. 

“Hi, baby.” 

“Hyung,” Jisung whines, snuggling into Minho’s chest as he tries to stop the twitch of his hips. A cramp manifests itself then, sharp pain twisting inside of him. “Hurts.” 

“I know, Jisungie. I’m sorry.” Minho says, fingers running through Jisung’s sweaty hair. 

Another whine, another roll of his hips and Jisung lifts his head up to slot his lips onto Minho’s smiling ones. They stay like this for a while, kissing and biting each other’s lips until Jisung’s orgasm hits and he spills between their bodies. 

It’s not enough. 

He cries in frustration when he realizes that he’s still as hard as he was when he woke up, hole clenching around nothing as he lets a few tears escape from his irritated eyes. “Hyung I need – I need you, please.”

Minho doesn’t reply just yet. Jisung is still grinding down his thigh, spreading his mess down the alpha’s skin and making the slide so slippery he fails to keep a steady rhythm. The frustration builds inside of Jisung, the emptiness taking over his senses and the dull ache in his belly. “Please, alpha, it hurts – please.” 

“Okay, baby. Hyung will take care of you.” Minho says, leaving a gentle kiss on Jisung’s lips before he gently pushes him down on the bed, back flat against the sheets. 

And just like in his dreams, Minho starts kissing his forehead, then his nose and presses his lips down Jisung’s welcoming ones for a few seconds before he moves to his neck. Jisung arches his back as the alpha sucks a mark into his scent gland, teeth nipping at his skin until it blooms and bruises a pretty shade of red for now. 

Minho continues his trail down Jisung’s body, kissing over his birth mark and stopping at the swell of his chest before letting his incisors dig into the skin underneath Jisung’s nipple. When Minho is done marking him there, he latches onto his brown nipple and sucks hard until Jisung lets a moan out, rippling through the air and echoing between his ears. 

“A-ah, feels good.” He manages to say, feeling his own wetness leak onto the bed and sticking to him. Minho’s free hand comes up to his other nipple, pinching it between his fingers and rubbing the pad of his thumb over it. 

Then, Minho’s mouth traces a path down his sternum, letting his teeth scrape along his skin and making sure to suck a bruise right next to the base of Jisung’s cock. “You’re so beautiful, baby. Pretty all over.” 

Jisung feels so warm. He’s hot everywhere, leaking and breathing heavily as Minho licks up the length of his hard cock before giving the tip of it a sloppy kiss. “Hyung, please. P-please.” 

“Don’t worry Jisungie, hyung is going to give you what you need.” The next thing Jisung feels is warmth and wetness sinking down his shaft until soft lips touch his groin. Minho takes all of him before coming back up and curling his tongue around his girth. 

“A-ah!” Jisung moans, fists grabbing the sheets tight between his fingers and hips fucking up into Minho’s mouth. When a strong arm holds him down, Jisung cries out again, letting Minho still his hips as he starts bobbing his head up and down, slurping around Jisung’s cock and lapping up the wetness that leaks from the slit of his dick. 

Jisung’s legs spread furthermore, feeling his slick pool down on the bed the more Minho works his mouth over his length, letting the tip hit the back of his throat. As he comes up for air, Minho grabs Jisung’s cock and tightens his fist around it, jerking him off lazily and kissing down his length. 

“Feeling okay?” He asks, sucking a mark into the sensitive skin of Jisung’s inner thigh, and then another, and a third one before his teeth sink into the omega’s skin and he bites down, hard enough for Jisung to feel and arch his back into the touch. 

A moan rips past the lumps in his throat, legs trembling when Minho’s teeth almost pierce his skin. 

“M-more. Need more, please. Hyung, please.” 

Fingers circle his rim then, the tips of them pushing down on his hole but never breaching past. Jisung looks down, right into Minho’s half lidded orbs and he watches as the alpha pulls his fingers back from in between his legs. 

Jisung watches, stares as Minho brings his fingers up to his face, wet with Jisung’s slick as it drips down the length of them, running down his wrist. Minho makes sure Jisung is watching when the tip of his tongue darts out to lap at the slick wetting his wrist, moaning before he swallows. 

“Taste so fucking good, baby.” He says, and Jisung can’t look away when Minho brings the tips of his fingers past the seam of his lips and sucks them down, tongue curling around his own knuckles. 

There’s a lot he wants to say, but Jisung only finds himself able to watch. When Minho wraps his arms around both of his thighs and pushes them up towards his chest, leaving his hole exposed to the air of the room and clenching around nothing, Jisung lets his face fall back down against his pillows. 

“O-oh my god,” he moans, eyes closing under the heavy stare Minho keeps on him, on his rim. He’s leaking so much. Jisung has always had strong heats, but he’s never leaked this badly before. 

Minho’s scent has gotten so much stronger, richer, notes of sandalwood barely there now as arousal builds inside of him. Jisung takes another inhale and feels it as the alpha’s pheromones wash over him and eases the pain that’s been building back up in his lower back. 

He feels it down to his core, when Minho’s lips press softly on his hole before he flattens his tongue down and licks a stripe up his taint. He doesn’t waste his time, the alpha licks again and again until he’s lapped up all the slick off Jisung’s skin before dipping his tongue past that ring of muscle and tasting him from inside. Minho pulls back to swallow him down, but he attaches his lips right back onto Jisung and presses inside again. 

“Hyung– hyung.” Jisung can’t say anything else as he feels his orgasm burning, boiling  and on the verge of exploding to make a mess on his stomach as Minho starts thrusting his tongue in and out of him, letting the very tip of it drag against his walls. 

He’s so close, begging for another release as he clenches tight around the alpha. Jisung lets his fingers almost tear through the fabric of his sheets from how much he’s tugging on them, back arching as Minho presses his tongue inside deeper. 

When the alpha uses the grip he has around Jisung’s thighs to tug him closer to him, Jisung fails to keep his moans at bay when he spills white over the wrinkled skin on his belly. He clenches around Minho’s tongue tight as he comes, enough for him to pull back, pressing one last kiss over his rim before he lets go of his thighs and kneels on the bed. 

“Could do this all day long, shit.” Minho says, using the back of his hand to wipe at his mouth before licking his lips. Jisung’s legs are still shaking on the bed, and he closes them together when he can feel Minho raking his eyes down his body. 

He’s still hard over his stomach, length twitching pathetically when Minho uses his hands to push his legs apart and spread them again. “Don’t hide from me, baby. Hyung wants to see all of you.” 

One finger presses down on his rim, but this time, Minho pushes past that ring of muscle until the last knuckle. “H-hyung.” 

Minho hums, letting his finger rock back and forth inside of Jisung. It’s too slow. The stretch isn’t enough but Jisung still moans as it fills him. 

“Kiss me,” he manages to say without slurring the words out, eyes locked onto Minho’s face and feeling his insides twist when the alpha smiles at him. Minho is red everywhere. 

His face is wet with a mix of his own spit and Jisung’s slippery slick, his chest is rising up and down fast, skin red all the way up to his cheeks, tinting the tips of his ears. He leans down then, nodding before he does as asked and lets Jisung taste himself on his tongue. 

Their scents have fully combined in the air surrounding them, creating a beautiful harmony of aromas Jisung never thought would marry each other so – perfectly. 

Chocolate, sandalwood, blackberry and –

And jasmine. 

Jisung breathes and chokes around the spit that’s pooled into his mouth when he finally puts a name on it. Jasmine, fruity, sugary and wrapping around his ribs until he whimpers right into Minho’s mouth. 

“You – you smell so good.” He says, letting Minho nip at his bottom lip before the alpha tangles their tongue together and Jisung tastes the both of them on it. 

A second sneaks its way next to the other one lodged inside of him, making him breathe heavily into Minho’s mouth and breaking their kiss but still letting their lips touch. 

“So do you, baby. Can’t get enough. Shit,” Minho speaks against him, skin burning Jisung where they’re touching. 

Minho spreads his fingers inside of him, stretching him apart and kneeling back to watch as a rush of slick falls past his fingers and seeps into the towel. It’s useless now, soaked through so much Jisung knows there’ll be a wet spot waiting for him whenever he changes his sheets. But he doesn’t focus on that, no, Jisung concentrates on the feeling of Minho’s fingers reaching places of him, poking around and looking for that sweet bundle of nerves. 

Even if Jisung had just come, he feels another orgasm build inside his lower belly, pressing and pushing until something will make him burst over himself. He relishes into the feeling, chest rumbling as he sobs around another choked moan when Minho finally presses down on his prostate. 

“A-ah, right here! P-please, hyung. Please,” Jisung begs until Minho presses down again, rubbing the tips of his fingers on his sweet spot. There’s white dots dancing behind his closed lids and when Minho pulls his digits back only to push a third one, stretching him even more, Jisung arches off the bed and comes in ropes up his chest, some of it landing on his collarbones.

“Good job, baby. That’s it, make a mess for me.” Minho speaks filth into the air, fingers still pushing in and out of Jisung slowly as he spreads them again, trying to make way for his cock. 

Jisung still feels so empty. It’s eating him up from inside and out, creeping up his torso until it settles at the back of his throat and every single time he swallows, Jisung feels that emptiness growing, begging him to do something – anything. 

“Hyung,” he whines again. There’s sweat running down the sides of his face, falling right onto the fabric of his pillowcase. “N-need you. Inside.”

Minho is gentle when he takes his fingers out, soaked with Jisung’s slick as it drips down on the bed. Jisung babbles away, not even aware of the words spilling from his mouth or even the fact that he’s speaking all together until Minho’s fingers tap against his lips and he parts them on instinct. 

Those same wet fingers sink into Jisung’s warm mouth and push down on his tongue, one of them tracing the crown of his teeth and pressing right against his gums. Jisung opens his mouth further, jaw slack as he tastes himself. 

He tears up without even blinking, a few drops leaking past the corner of his eyes and getting trapped into his hair. Jisung is so hot. His body is burning up, heat coursing through his veins as another cramp rips through his pleasure. 

Looking right into Minho’s eyes, tears slowly running down his face until they form a steady flow with the alpha’s fingers still resting on his tongue, Jisung clenches and takes the digits further into his throat. 

As he takes them out, Minho bends down to give Jisung another kiss. It’s sloppy, Jisung feels spit leaking from the corners of his mouth as their teeth clash and their tongues touch. His thighs are shaking, his hole is clenching around nothing and there’s still slick dripping from him as he begs silently for Minho to give him what he’s been craving for. 

“Please, p-please alpha.” 

Minho groans into his mouth, voice low and teeth latching onto his bottom lip one last time before he pulls away to look at Jisung. “Yeah? You want me to give you my knot, baby?”

A whine, followed by another and Jisung begs like he never has before. “Please,” and then he sobs, chest shaking as he looks at the alpha on top of him. “Please alpha I– I need it. Need you.” 

Minho’s willingness to stay sane and calm slowly fades from his face, Jisung can tell as much. His hand dips between Jisung’s legs and collects his slick over his palm before wrapping that same hand around his length and stroking himself a few times. 

“Breathe, baby.” 

Jisung does, and Minho pushes in. 

All the way to the hilt, until the top of his thighs are flushed against Jisung’s ass. The omega cries out in pleasure as he’s finally, finally filled to the brim. “Thank - thank you. T-thank you.” 

It’s incoherent when he speaks, but Jisung can’t seem to keep his mouth shut as Minho stretches him around the girth of his cock. He’s so big. Jisung has never felt like this before, stretched to fit an alpha’s cock so wide and Minho hasn’t even knotted him yet. 

“S’big.” He slurs around his words, eyes closing. 

Minho groans on top of him again, slowly building a rhythm as he thrusts in and out of Jisung. He decides to kneel back, gathering Jisung’s thighs into his arms before pushing one of his legs on his shoulder. He presses deeper like this, reaching places Jisung didn’t even know he could reach. 

“O-oh,” Jisung says when Minho’s cock rubs past his sweet spot. “S-so deep.” 

“I'm not going to last if you keep gripping me so fucking tight, shit.” Minho doesn’t let up on the pace, rhythm building into a fast and punishing speed that makes Jisung rock up the bed. 

“‘S okay, want you to breed me,” and Jisung does. So much that he clenches even tighter around him, feeling the pulse of Minho’s cock against his walls. 

“Fuck, baby.” 

Something catches on his rim, tugging and stretching him even wider and Jisung realizes then that Minho’s knot is forming and trying to squeeze past that tight ring of muscle. “Y-yes. Please hyung, please.” 

The grip the alpha has on Jisung’s thigh is bruising, fingernails digging into his flesh and almost tearing the first layer skin as his hips slap against Jisung’s ass. 

The sounds are bordering on obscene. Jisung’s high moans and whines, the squelch of his own slick as it drips out of him the more Minho fucks into him, the wet slapping noises echoing through the walls and if Jisung focuses, he’s sure he can hear the headboard of his bed hitting the wall behind them with each of Minho’s thrusts. 

Minho’s knot keeps growing, Jisung feels it as Minho thrusts in again before he angles his hips, the tip of his cock nudging his prostate dead on. 

Jisung sobs louder, tears as steady as the slick dripping from him the more Minho’s knot catches on his rim. “R-right here, please.” He begs and begs and Minho doesn’t stop abusing that same spot, cock warm as it drags inside of Jisung, shaping him up to fit Minho inside. 

A warm hand wraps around one of his wrists, tugging at his arm until he feels his own chest under his palm. Minho drags his hand down his torso, letting Jisung’s fingers collide with all the cum and sweat drying on his skin before he pulls out until only the tip of his cock is inside of Jisung. 

“Press down, Jisungie.” Minho says, voice strained and higher than it usually is. 

Jisung obeys and lets his palm dig into his stomach, feeling the heat radiating off his body. Minho pushes back in slowly, hips angled and precise and Jisung wails when he feels it under his palm. The shape of Minho’s cock, prodding at his skin when he’s in to the hilt. 

“Feel that, baby? Shit, you’re even making space for me.” Minho thrusts again, harder, deeper and knot squeezing inside of the omega before doing it again and again. 

“C-can feel you in my throat, s’big.” Jisung slurs, tears a constant flow down his cheeks as opens his eyes to look right into Minho’s brown orbs again. 

Biceps bulging around Jisung’s thighs, chest red and jaw clenched tight, Minho looks straight out of Jisung’s nastiest dreams. One look at his stomach is enough to make Jisung throw his head back into the pillow, seeing with his own two eyes as the tip of Minho’s cock pushes against the skin of his lower belly. 

His back arches, he squeezes Minho in and the alpha presses in one last time before his knot slips past Jisung’s rim. 

Jisung smiles. And then he cums again, cock finally softening on his belly as it spurts pathetic ropes of white and adds to the fluids already drying on his skin. He smiles, and opens his eyes to look at the alpha on top of him again. 

Minho is rutting inside, chasing his own high as he grinds and pushes back until pressure squeezes his knot and has him moaning out in pleasure. 

“So tight. It’s like you were made for me, fuck.” Minho moans before looking at Jisung, eyes blinking when he takes in the state of the omega underneath him.

Jisung, covered in his own release, smiling dumbly at him as if a knot was all he needed to finally relax into the sheets. Jisung squeezes around him, clenches tight and whimpers when he feels Minho’s knot twitching inside of him, asking for release. 

“Want you – inside, please. Alpha – hyung, please.” He begs, pressing down on his stomach again. “Need you t-to breed me full. Give it to me please, please.”

It seems to push Minho over the edge. He grinds inside of Jisung one last time before his release hits him fast and hard, painting Jisung’s walls thick and white as he comes. It’s never ending. Jisung feels all of it, all the ropes of cum filling him up and he dares squeeze around Minho’s knot one more time, moaning when the alpha keeps going. 

He’s filled to the brim, a dumb smile dancing over his lips as his breathing finally evens out. Jisung feels safe and protected in the four walls that make up his dorm, with Minho pressing deep inside of him and letting his body mold around the shape of Minho’s length. 

And Jisung doesn’t feel empty anymore. He feels whole. Full, both literally and figuratively and when he looks deep into Minho’s eyes again, his heart misses a beat and he can feel his scent already turning sweeter, softer. 

“Hi baby.” Minho says, one of his hands cupping Jisung’s jaw. “How are you feeling?” 

Jisung leans into the touch, head pushing into Minho’s palm as if he was a cat asking for more pets. He feels good. Safe. Full. He can’t put a name on the feeling stirring inside of him but here, with Minho, Jisung feels as if he was meant to be right here, right now.

“Feels good. Amazing. Loved it, hyung.” He ends up saying. “‘M so full. You’re so big.” His cramps have subsided completely for now, making space inside his belly for Minho. For pleasure. 

Minho bends down, kissing Jisung softly and slowly, as if he had all the time in the world to do exactly that. He kisses and kisses until he has to pull back for air, but he doesn’t pull away just yet.

He presses his lips over Jisung forehead first before he whispers. “You,” another kiss lands on the tip of Jisung’s nose. “Did”, then right over both of his eyelids. “So, so,” a kiss on his left cheek, teeth scraping his skin gently. “Well.” One last kiss over Jisung’s right cheek before he leans back up to look at him. 

Jisung is blushing. He feels it spreading down his chest and burning his ears as he fully takes in the gesture. “Thank you, hyung.”

He breathes in again, letting his eyes open even if he’s still flustered. Minho deserves to be looked at. His chest rumbles when he takes in the beauty of the alpha in front of him, gentle purrs echoing between his ribcage. “Thank you for taking care of me.” 

His heat is far from being over, Jisung knows he has at least three days left before it leaves and stops tearing up his insides. But as he looks at Minho, he thinks he’s going to be okay. 

In pain, but okay.

Minho kisses him again before twisting their bodies around until they’re both laying on their side with Minho’s chest stuck to Jisung’s sweaty back and if the omega’s cock twitches pathetically, he doesn’t pay attention to it. 

The alpha’s knot is pulsing inside of him, a nice, constant pressure they Jisung is already used to, already craving for it when it hasn’t even left him yet. He squeezes around Minho again, chuckling when the other hisses behind him and grips the skin over his waist tight between his fingers.

“Sensitive, baby.” He simply says, lips peppering kisses over Jisung’s shoulder.

They’re still so wet. Everywhere. But Jisung doesn’t care, Minho doesn’t seem to care either as he just wraps his arm completely around Jisung’s waist and lays his palm flat against his lower belly. Not pressing down, but a comforting weight on his skin. 

“Sorry, hyungie. You feel so good inside.” Jisung closes his eyes, letting sandalwood tug at his eyelids and jasmine wrap around his muscles. 

“Let’s try and sleep for a few hours, yeah? When you wake up again we can order food and see how you’re doing.” Minho speaks softly into Jisung’s ear, pushing further into slumber as he purrs still. The rumbles low but definitely audible. 

He nods, not finding his voice the more he drifts off but he knows Minho understands him when he presses one last kiss into Jisung’s skin and nuzzles into the omega’s nape, near his neck. 

“You smell so amazing, god.” 

When Jisung falls asleep, he does so with the help of Minho’s hand drawing soothing circles into the skin of his lower belly and the alpha’s scent soothing any kind of pain that was lingering inside his body. 

Sandalwood, blackberry, chocolate and jasmine. 

Jisung thinks he can get used to it. 

𓆝 𓆟 𓆞

The rest of Jisung’s heat happened in a blur. He thinks he spent more time stretched around Minho’s knot than he did without the alpha pulsing inside of him. 

Minho took such good care of him. The alpha fed him when Jisung was too tired to even lift his hand up to his mouth, giving Jisung small bites until he finished his meal. It warmed his heart each time. 

They shared showers when the waves of his heat were down, taking advantage of the fact that Jisung’s cramps were laying low for a few hours. Minho scrubbed his skin and got rid of the fluids mixing over Jisung’s stomach and legs, making sure he was free of any stickiness before moving on to his own body. Jisung always made sure to watch as Minho cleaned himself, touching him somewhere, somehow. 

The food they ordered was always amazing, sometimes making Jisung cry as he let Minho push another bite past his lips. His body had been drained of energy, but Minho made sure to fill all the gaps.

Right now, Jisung is waiting for Felix at a coffee shop after Minho left their dorm. Jisung could tell the alpha didn’t want to leave him alone, asking over and over again if Jisung was okay, if he was sure his heat was over.

It was. It had been over for more than a day now, but Jisung still let Minho hold him through the aftermath of it all and let him sleep the day away in his arms.

And God, did Jisung sleep well. 

No matter how draining his heat has been, for the first time in his life, Jisung actually slept in between the waves. His scent never turned sour, because as Minho let his knot pulse inside of Jisung, he held him and let his pheromones run wild through the room until Jisung closed his eyes and fell deep into slumber. 

He’s still tired, but he’s not completely exhausted. Jisung hasn’t felt that relief in a while now. 

Felix walks into the coffee, smile dancing across his as he sits down right in front of Jisung. 

“Hi Lix–”

“None of that. I love you, I’m glad you’re okay. Now, I need to know everything.”

Jisung chuckles, low into his throat as he usually does, and tells Felix everything.

He tells him about the smell in the air, he makes sure to have a five minute rant on how well he was stretched around Minho’s knot and Felix gasps then, holding his hand.

“How was it?” Considerate, gentle Felix. Jisung still sees the smile threatening to break on his face.

He rolls his eyes, and tries to hide the blush that’s blooming on his cheeks. “It was amazing, Lixie. Mind blowing. I think he ruined me.” 

And Jisung goes on. He tells Felix about the marks, about the biting and how the ones around his nipples still hurt, but he also whispers out that he learned that maybe, Jisung has a thing for pain he didn’t know he had before.

They spend hours inside that coffee shop just talking. And Felix really does look happy for him, eyes gleaming under the light when Jisung tells him how he felt during the entire week. 

“I felt so safe, Lix. It’s not even just about the sex like .. yeah, of course that part was amazing but the way we just connected together is crazy.” Jisung tries to stop the rhythm of his heart from beating faster, pounding against his ribcage as he talks about his feelings. “I just – I like him so much. And the way he took care of me during the week just .. deepened that.”

“He likes you too, Jisungie.” Felix says, rubbing circles on the back of Jisung’s hand. “I can tell that he does. He came running to you the moment he knew you needed him and were in pain. He always comes to you when you ask, Jisungie.” 

And it’s true. 

The two times Jisung had asked Minho to come to him, the alpha showed up at his doorstep. 

Every single time they have met since the trip to Inmang, Minho made sure they had a nap before working on their project so Jisung could catch up on sleep.

“He stopped wearing scent blockers for you, Sungie. That’s .. a big deal. You know it is.” 

It downs on Jisung. The realization that Minho had stopped wearing the patches on his skin for some time now. He realizes that the last time he did was when Jisung first came over to work on their project. 

It is a big deal. Because Minho noticed. Because Minho cared. 

Jisung groans and lets his head fall down on the table with a thud. “He kept saying I was pretty.”

“You are, he’s right.”

“My eyes were bloodshot from all the crying and I had cum all over my stomach and my slick was literally drying and flaking on his thighs.” 

Felix rolls his eyes. Looks dead into Jisung’s eyes and sighs. “Good fucking reasoning, Sherlock. He likes you Jisung. You were in heat, of course he found you pretty even when you were like this. Because he likes you.” 

As much as it makes sense, Jisung still can’t really wrap his head around it. But he lets it go and finishes his drink before dragging Felix out of the coffee and down to the shelter just like the week before. 

Before he knows it, he’s back in his dorm and getting hit with the thick scent of Minho’s pheromones the moment he steps inside, and Felix gulps behind him.

“Holy fucking shit, his scent is so strong. I’m sure it’ll stick around for weeks. Wow.” Felix looks around their dorm room, eyes scanning everything until they land on Jisung’s bed. “What the fuck.”

Felix gets closer and scrutinizes all the articles of clothing laid out on Jisung’s bed, from sweaty shirts to hoodies to pairs of sweatpants. “Did he bring his fucking closet in here?”

“Actually, he made Jeonginnie drop off a bag full of his clothes when he noticed how needy I was whenever he got up to do something.”

His best friend stares at him, and smiles. “He made his brother bring you clothes for your nest? Oh, Ji. I hope you ask me to be your best man.” 

Jisung blushes when Felix puts it like that. He remembers when Minho had pulled clothes over his body and ran down the stairs to get the bag, only wearing socks, because shoes took too long. 

“Can we air it out a little? As much as I love you, I don’t think I can handle the smell if it’s that strong, Ji.” Felix asks, already walking towards the single window in their room.

“Go ahead, I get it.” He doesn’t. It smells like pure heaven for Jisung in here, Minho’s scent washing over him and soothing the butterflies still erupting inside his stomach anytime he inhales deeply. 

Jisung all but plops down onto his bed, face first into his pillows. Minho’s scent is so strong there, hugging Jisung tight until his eyes close. His best friend and him have spent the evening out, deciding to go get something to eat after spending the rest of their day at the shelter. Jisung thinks it’s around 10 at night now but he doesn’t really know. 

Felix is talking to him, but the sound is faint in his ears. He drifts off like this, head full of Minho, body aching from Minho’s mouth, nose inhaling whiffs full of Minho.

MinhoMinhoMinho.

𓆝 𓆟 𓆞

When he wakes up again, Jisung peeks outside the window and the sun is barely rising above the horizon. 

Felix is snoring peacefully on the bed next to him, arms clenched tight around a pillow between his arms. Jisung has class on his own this morning, so he makes an effort to get up from his bed to go take a quick shower. 

He checks his texts as he brushes his teeth, towel wrapped around his waist as drops of water soaks right into it. He has three missed messages from Minho. Seeing the alpha’s name on his screen this many times has his heart picking up behind his ribcage, pounding against his bones as he blinks before reading them.

Minho😽

7:31am

Hey Jisungie

Do you want to meet up for lunch today?

You told me your classes finish at 11:30 today. I can come pick you up in front of your building

Minho remembered. Jisung had told him vaguely about today’s classes when he was laying in his arms, waiting for Minho’s knot to go down so they could have dinner. 

Jisung briefly mentioned class, and Minho remembered. And asked for them to grab lunch together. 

me

7:55am

hi hyungie~

you remembered

i’ll be waiting for you patiently ♥️

the weather is nice today, too

Three little dots appear on Jisung’s screen right as he sends the texts, as if Minho had been waiting this entire time for him to reply. 

Minho😽

7:56am

Good, baby

I’ll be here to pick you up near the bench

And of course I remembered idiot

With a chuckle, Jisung grabs one of Minho’s hoodies laying on his bed and pulls it over his head. His nest hasn’t left his bed. Jisung can’t bring himself to take everything off and eventually give them back to Minho, because the alpha’s scent is still so strong here. Jisung is sleeping. At least three hours each night, only because his nose is buried into the fabric all night long. 

Jisung is out the door when the clock strikes 8:05 in the morning and walks down to the building his three hour long class is being held in. His teacher greets him and sends him a big, genuine smile and for the next three hours, Jisung’s focus is entirely on the seals that are being shown on the screen, each different breed explained in depth. 

When Jisung looks at them, he thinks that there’s no other animal he loves more than the little sea creatures. There aren’t a lot in South Korea, Jisung has never had the chance to go see one in person because the only shelters or rehabilitation centers that do home seals are too far away for him to travel to. 

So, Jisung concentrates all of his attention on the slides switching in front of him and his teacher’s voice echoing in the classroom. 

When she claps her hands to announce that their class is finished, Jisung makes quick work of packing his bag and throwing his jacket back over his shoulder, almost running out of the building so he can go find Minho outside. 

Fresh, cold air hits right across his face and Jisung stops for a moment to breathe and look around, scanning the people walking past him and anyone standing near the benches, hoping to find Minho anywhere around him. 

The moment his eyes catch onto Minho’s frame, Jisung smiles and starts skipping down the pavement until he realizes that Minho is talking to someone else. Until his eyes fit over the man standing right in front him, batting his eyelashes at the alpha as red paints his cheeks. 

Someone is flirting with him. Right in front of Jisung, and Minho looks like he hasn’t caught on the act. The guy bites his lip as Minho talks and grins widely as he looks at the other person’s face, eyes blinking and nodding. 

Jisung approaches them slowly, nose twitching as raspberry invades his nose so heavily it almost burns. He can’t blame the man for trying, Minho is incredibly hot and beautiful. Especially as he runs a hand through his hair and his veins slightly bulge through his skin. Jisung watches when the guy gets closer, and as he takes another step, he hears the last few words of the man’s sentence. 

“Ah, I also study engineering!” The guy then proceeds to take his phone out and inevitably shows Minho a picture of something. 

“Oh, good!” Minho says, still looking at the picture and failing to notice the wave of pheromones the omega in front of him has been constantly letting flow into the air. He doesn’t see the way the man’s eyes rake up and down his body, biting his lip again before looking at Minho’s face again. 

The omega in front of Minho’s nose twitches as he inhales deeply, eyes closing as he takes in Minho’s scent. 

Jisung feels it rumbling inside of him. 

Jealousy. 

“You smell good, Minho-ssi.” The man says, and Jisung feels his insides turning at the mention of his favorite scent. “What is it?”

Minho looks puzzled for a second before he looks back up. “Uh—”

“Hey, alpha.” Jisung makes sure everyone around them hears when he speaks, tone low as he stands right next to Minho, leaning up to kiss his cheek. He looks right into the other omega’s eyes when he speaks. “Missed you today.” 

Minho blushes. So red. He blinks a few times and his eyes darken for a split second before he grins. “Hey, baby.” Minho looks towards the man still standing in front of them. Jisung kind of wished he would have left already. 

“This is Seonghwa. We met today and have been talking for ..” Minho trails off, looking at the other omega. Jisung doesn’t like it. 

“Twenty minutes!” Seonghwa replies, blooming. 

“Nice. Can we go? I’m hungry, hyungie.” Jisung wraps an arm around Minho’s own and tugs, batting his eyelashes and making sure his bottom lip is jutting out more than it needs to be. 

Minho looks at him. Really looks at him and grins before looking back towards the other omega. “I have to go. Bye! Maybe I’ll see you around.” 

When Minho interlocks their fingers and starts walking back to the parking lot, Jisung follows right behind. “Alpha, uh?”

Jisung blushes, eyes looking down to the pavement. He’d never called Minho that in public, only in the safety of his bedroom when his mind was fuzzy as his heat took over his senses. 

They aren’t even together. Minho isn’t Jisung’s alpha. Jisung isn’t Minho’s omega. 

Minho smells sweet as they walk and Jisung can’t help being soothed by the pheromones wrapping around him, muscles relaxing and mind clearing. They get into Minho’s car a few minutes after and Jisung isn’t about to speak when Minho grabs the collar of his hoodie before smashing his lips over Jisung’s hard and bruising. 

“You’re cute when you’re jealous, baby.”  Minho whispers against his mouth, tongue darting out to lick across the seam of his lips before pushing in. 

It takes everything Jisung has to remain seated in his own seat and not climb over the console to push himself over Minho’s strong thighs, wanting to feel his muscles flexing underneath him. He whimpers into the other’s mouth, feeling his hand creeping up his back and settling at the hair on his nape, tugging ever so slightly.

Jisung pulls back to breathe, eyes closed as his forehead rests on Minho’s, trying to catch their breath. 

“‘M not jealous.” 

“I think you scared him off with your eyes only, baby.” Minho cards his fingers through Jisung’s hair, playing with the strands as he looks at him. 

“He sniffed you!” His right foot lands on the floor of Minho’s car with a thud, arms crossing over his chest before he turns in his seat. It’s not rational. Everyone is allowed to smell Minho, everyone is able to smell Minho from meters away because the alpha’s scent is especially strong. Not potent, but strong enough for heads to turn a few times when he walks past them.

“And only you are allowed to, right Jisungie?” Minho plays a nasty game. Trying to toy the words out of Jisung as he sprawls a hand on the omega’s thigh and squeezes. “No one else, right baby? Just you.” 

They’re not together. Jisung has to remind himself as he looks at Minho again. 

“Sorry hyung,” he says, dropping his arms and grabbing Minho's fingers on his thigh to play with them. “Wasn’t right for me to get worked up like this. You can do anything you want. He’s cute.”

“Oh Jisungie,” Minho starts, “hyung will show you.” 

The car starts and Minho backs out of his parking spot smoothly before driving towards the exit.

“Show me what?” Jisung asks, looking to the side and admiring how beautiful Minho’s side profile is, eyes following the slope of his nose and the bow of his lips before cascading down his neck and over his Adam’s apple. So gorgeous. Sometimes Jisung wonders if he’s real. 

Minho grabs his thigh again, fingers digging into his flesh as he squeezes again, harder this time. It makes Jisung tighten his muscle underneath his hand, a small gasp falling past his lips. 

“You’ll see, baby.” Minho leaves his hand over Jisung’s thigh during the entire ride. And Jisung tries to stop the shaking of his legs, but he’s still – worked up. 

Jisung has never been the jealous type before. He never truly cared when his ex-boyfriend got flirted with in the past, he understood. Not everyone was aware that they were dating. But with Minho, it’s different. 

They’re not dating, but Jisung can still smell the omega on Minho’s clothes and it bothers him, it irks him that his blockers are avoiding him from replacing that scent with his own. Jisung can smell the raspberry in the car and he doesn’t like it. Minho smells like someone else other than Jisung. 

And he was cute.  

When Minho parks, Jisung looks around and tries to take in his surroundings. He realizes that they’re in the parking lot of Minho’s apartment complex, in his usual spot. The alpha gets out, rushing to Jisung’s side to open the door for him and help him out of his seat. 

“Are we eating lunch at your place?” Jisung softens, grabbing onto Minho’s hands and letting himself get pulled out of the car. Minho kisses him again, tenderly before closing the door and locking his car. Lunch at Minho’s apartment means that they’re probably going to take a nap together after. 

Jisung takes a big inhale around them, and when he faintly smells a hint of raspberry, he huffs again. “You smell like him.” 

“We can have lunch here, yes.” Minho drags him towards the elevator, pushing the button down to open its doors. “I’m sorry I smell like someone other than you, Jisungie.” 

Jisung pushes Minho inside when they do open, huffing again before he turns his back to him. It’s not Minho’s fault, Jisung is fully aware of that. But the raspberry is so sweet, sweeter than anything Jisung’s ever smelt and it’s sticking to the alpha’s clothes, to his hair. To his skin. It should be his scent wrapping around Minho like that. 

“You’re so cute when you’re jealous. My baby. Come here,” Minho wraps an arm around Jisung’s waist as he talks, tugging him closer to his chest. 

My baby. Jisung’s breath itches when he’s pressed fully against Minho, feeling the rise of his torso each time he breathes deep right into the crook of Jisung’s ear. “Don’t worry, Jisungie. Alpha’s all yours.” 

The doors open again right as Jisung feels himself leak into his underwear, only a little bit, but enough for him to flush as it soaks into the fabric. Minho walks them towards his apartment, using his free hand to push the code of his door in. His scent is so strong here, it makes Jisung choke around it, trying to inhale as deep as he can just so he can melt into the sandalwood. 

As soon as the door is closed behind Minho, Jisung’s back meets the steel of it and teeth bite into his thick bottom lip. He arches into Minho’s touch, into the hands gripping at the sides of his waist. Minho doesn’t kiss him, but he sucks his lip right into his mouth for a split second before pulling back.

“Are you mad, Jisungie?” 

He isn’t. But he still brings his hand up and tears the scent blockers off his neck before moving to the ones on his wrist. He’s sweat them through, worked up to the point of letting his skin shine with a thin layer of sweat all over. Jisung isn’t mad. “No.” 

But he still presses his lips right over Minho’s awaiting ones, pushing hard enough to bruise both of them, letting his tongue sink past the seam of the alpha’s mouth. Jisung lets his scent reach around them, overpowering the faint notes of raspberry that was still clinging to Minho. 

It’s gone now. All of it as Jisung breathes in again, lips tingling from the bites and the force of the kiss they shared. “Better.” 

“Do I smell like you, baby? Is my little omega satisfied, now?” Minho smirks in front of him, tips of his ears burning as Jisung reaches up to his neck and pushes the pad of his thumb over Minho’s scent gland. He can feel it pulse underneath his finger. 

He kisses him again, pushing at his shoulders and making Minho walk backwards until they reach the alpha’s bedroom. Jisung peeks behind him and makes sure Dori is nowhere to be found before he closes the door behind himself.

“Off ,” he says, grabbing the hem of Minho’s sweatshirt and pushing it up his chest until he hears it fall to the ground with a thud. “Off, please.” 

He admires the marks he had left on Minho’s chest a few days prior, running the tip of his index against teeth shaped indents right underneath Minho’s collarbone. Jisung doesn’t even remember biting him, but seeing the reminder on Minho’s body is enough to make him whimper. 

Peperring kisses down the alpha’s chest, Jisung lets his tongue run over Minho’s skin, tasting him, wrapping his mouth around one of his brown nipples before sucking it between his teeth.

Minho hisses, a moan echoing in the cavity of his mouth when Jisung nibbles down, making sure Minho feels it. He moves to the other nipple when he deems this one swollen enough for his liking, and when he’s done giving it the same treatment, Jisung falls to his knees.

“Wanna – want to suck you off.” He says, fingers grabbing at the loop of Minho’s belt and tugging until it clatters on the floor. 

The palm of his hand comes up to press against the bulge in Minho’s pants, feeling how hard he already is. How much he wants Jisung. The omega’s underwear is sticking to his skin from how badly he’s been leaking, and Jisung wouldn’t even be surprised if it had pierced through his jeans as well. 

He snaps the button of Minho’s jeans open, pushing the waistband of it down until it reaches the middle of his thighs and bites back a moan when his eyes land on the wet spot darkening Minho’s gray underwear. 

“Hyung, ” he whines again, looking up between his eyelashes and meeting Minho’s dark gaze already staring him down. “Want it.” 

Their scents have already mixed together, wrapping their aromas with one another to create the perfect balance, the perfect harmony around them. “What do we say then, baby?”

Jisung bats his eyelashes, gathering the moisture in his eyes and hopes they look glassy enough for Minho to lose a bit of his composure. “Please, alpha?” 

With a groan, Minho tips his head back to look at the ceiling and breathes deeply before looking down, letting a smirk dance on his lips. “Go ahead, baby.” 

In less than a second, Jisung attaches his lips to where the tip of Minho’s cock prods against his boxers. He runs his tongue over it, his spit dampening the fabric the more he sucks it into mouth. Jisung dips his fingers past the waistband and pushes until Minho’s cock springs up and slaps over his soft belly with a wet sound. The tip is already an angry shade of red, precum leaking down the crown of the alpha’s cock. 

Jisung kisses down the skin of Minho’s length, letting the very point of his tongue trace the vein curving around his girth. When he wraps a hand around Minho, Jisung emphasizes the gasp that falls from his lips when his fingers barely touch around him. 

“You’re so much bigger than me, hyung. Look, it barely fits.” Jisung gazes up at the alpha only to find him clenching his fists by his side and lidded eyes focused on where they’re connected. 

A kitten lick at the slit makes Minho swallow back a noise, but when Jisung wraps his lips around him and sucks him down, one of his hands cards through the mess of hair on top of Jisung’s head. He doesn’t tug, he doesn’t move. Minho just rests his hand there, a comforting pressure on Jisung. 

“You – you can’t just say that, shit.” Minho whispers, eyes not able to leave Jisung’s frame. 

Jisung tries to swallow him down, but he can’t even get more than half inside his mouth before he starts choking, wet gagging sounds echoing off the walls. Minho pulse on his tongue, getting harder as Jisung starts bobbing his head up and down. 

He lets his teeth rake down the slightest bit, enjoying when Minho’s hips twitch and the tip of his cock nudges down in Jisung’s throat, making him gag again. He pulls off, spit webbing between his lips and the angry red skin on the crown of Minho’s dick. 

“So big.” A smirk dances on Jisung’s lips when the fingers in his hair tighten, pulling and tugging with barely any strength. “Can’t wait to feel you inside, hyung.” 

“Up. Get up.” Minho rushes, thighs trembling under Jisung’s lip as he presses a kiss into his right one. 

Before he obeys, Jisung lets his teeth sink into the soft skin of Minho’s lower tummy, sucking the flesh into his mouth until it turns a beautiful shade of red, dark enough to tell Jisung it’ll be purple tomorrow. 

As soon as he stands up, Minho grabs his hoodie and almost tears it off him. He wraps his hands around Jisung’s waist right away, the coldness of them a stark contrast against the omega’s warm skin. “A-ah, so cold.” 

Jisung looks down at where Minho’s hands rest on his skin, where his waist dips below his ribs. “Oh, hyung, your hands look so big on me.” 

Realistically speaking, Jisung knows Minho’s hands aren’t big. The alpha has smaller hands than him, his fingers are shorter than Jisung’s own even if the sizes of their palms are rather similar. 

As he looks down, he sees the effect his words have on Minho. His cock twitches between them, his fingers tighten around him and Jisung’s skin spills from in between them. 

The jasmine of Minho’s scent is so strong as he smashes his lips on Jisung’s mouth, kissing him sloppy and hard, not caring of their teeth clashing together as he walks back towards the bed. 

Minho turns them around and pushes Jisung onto the mattress, his chest falling right over the sheets with a thud as Minho reaches under him to pop the button of his pants open before he drags them down his legs. 

His underwear are pulled right along with them, wet with the slick that’s been dripping out of him in gushes. “You’re so fucking wet for me, Jisungie. Just for me, right?” 

Jisung’s mouth stretches into a grin, making a show of pushing his naked ass back, hoping his legs are spread enough for Minho to see as another trail of slick trickles down his taint and the seam of his balls. 

“Maybe just for you, yeah.”

Those same cold hands slap down across both of his cheeks, gripping his flesh and letting it bounce underneath his palms. Minho grips tight, thumbs close to where Jisung is begging for him. 

“Maybe? ” Minho says as he spreads Jisung open, looking at where he’s the most vulnerable, staring at his wet rim clenching around nothing but thin air. “Who else, baby? Who else gets to see you spread open like this?” 

The air changes around them, sandalwood leathery and strong as Minho speaks. Jisung rocks back into his hands and pushes his weight onto his knees and elbows, making sure his back curves in a pretty arch. 

He’s presenting himself for Minho to grasp, for him to take. “I don’t know, orange suits me, right?” 

The grip on his flesh tightens, fingernails dig into his skin and Minho takes a deep breath behind him. Bingo. Jisung will make sure to thank Hyunjin for the tip. 

“Oh Jisung, you should have seen his face when he smelled Bin hyung on you. He was so jealous, it was written all over his face.” Hyunjin had said, cuddling his mate’s jacket closer to him. “Use it against him and thank me later.”

So Jisung did. And he feels the twitch of Minho’s hips behind him and moans when the pad of his thumb rubs right over his hole. “Nah, it doesn’t. But you know what does, baby?” 

Shaking his head, Jisung presses back into the touch, whining when Minho doesn’t move, and doesn't let his finger sink inside. “What?” 

“Me.” Minho breathes at the same time he takes his finger back, only to gather the slick that’s leaked down Jisung’s taint and then pushes it inside slowly, letting Jisung feel the drag of his digit inside of him. 

“More,” Jisung says, arching his back lower and letting his forehead fall onto the pillows. Jasmine wraps around Jisung, nostrils flaring as it hits his face and the rest of him. He thinks he could stay like this for the remainder of his life, with Minho close to him and his scent soothing all the aches inside of him, inside his mind. 

Another finger breaches past his rim, right next to his index and Minho wastes no time scissoring them, stretching Jisung around his knuckles as his other hand squishies his skin. 

The alpha’s digits prod around before he finds what he’s been looking for and rubs the tip of his fingers down on Jisung’s sweet spot, pressing deep and hard to make Jisung whimper into the sheets. 

“A-ah, right here,” Jisung moans, but whines when Minho takes his fingers off his prostate, only to thrust them in and out slowly at another angle, missing it entirely. 

Minho fastens the rhythm of his fingers, the squelching of Jisung’s slick being fucked out of him getting louder, and omega’s whimpers echoing between the walls of Minho’s bedroom. “Not yet, Jisungie.” 

Minho adds another finger along with the two already stretching Jisung wide and this time, Jisung fails to keep a moan from spluttering past his lips when Minho’s knuckles opens him up. He can feel the alpha’s stare on him, on where he’s stretched to fit his fingers inside, on the place they’re connected to. 

He wants it. He wants it so much he’s burning inside. Jisung is on the verge of breaking and begging for Minho to do something, for him to claim him as his and make him his. He wants them to stop dancing around each other and finally put a word on what they are, what they share. 

With another moan, Jisung clenches tight around Minho’s fingers hard enough to make the alpha hiss behind him, the pace of his fingers slowing down. “Please, hyung. Want – want you to fuck me, please.” 

Jisung knows it’s working when Minho falters behind him, the grip on his ass loosens and his fingers almost stop moving inside of him. So he goes on. Jisung looks past his shoulder after pushing his head off the pillow, eyes glassy as he looks right into Minho’s lidded ones. 

“Wanna be y-yours, alpha, please. I- I’ve been good.” 

“Shit,” Minho stops the movements of his fingers altogether, his scent spiking and getting richer, spicier as he takes in the filth Jisung is speaking to him. He takes his fingers out and Jisung watches his own slick dripping down the length of them and hitting his palm. 

He watches when Minho wraps that same, soaked hand around himself and uses Jisung’s wetness to slick up his length. Minho’s cock is so red, matching the shade of his ears and the skin of his chest up to his neck. His hands are red, too, just like the rest of his body. 

“I-I’m ready, hyung. Need you inside, please.” Jisung jiggles his ass and moans when Minho’s dick slides right between his cheeks. “Please.” 

There’s barely any resistance when Minho finally pushes inside of Jisung, stretching him around his girth and molding him around his length. He bottoms out slowly, letting Jisung feel all of it as he keeps pushing deeper until his hips are flushed against Jisung’s ass. 

“S-so big, hyung. You’re so big.” Jisung moans out, a dumb smile dancing on his lips when he’s rewarded with the thickness of Minho’s cock shaping its way in. “Thank you.” 

“Perfect, you’re perfect for me. So good Jisungie, you’re so fucking good.” There’s a strain in Minho’s voice already, thighs shaking as he pulls back only to slam back inside and wrapping both of his hands around Jisung’s waist. “My perfect little omega. Fuck.” 

“‘M yours, ‘m all yours.” Jisung rocks his body against Minho’s, wanting to feel him deeper, closer as the alpha picks up the pace and pulses inside of him. 

His knot is already forming, Jisung feels it catching at his rim any time Minho thrusts back inside hard and fast. Just like Jisung has been craving. 

“You’re right, baby. You’re mine.” Minho moves his hands down Jisung’s asscheeks, spreading him open and watching as his cock slides in and out. “So good to me, Jisungie. God, I like you so much.” 

If there’s one thing Jisung never truly expected, it was for Minho to confess as he pushes the swell of his knot past the tight ring of muscles of his rim and watches as it pops back out when he starts to pull out. 

“You – you like me?” Jisung asks, feeling Minho’s length pulsing inside of him. 

“Shit, Jisungie. Of course I do.” Minho wraps an arm around him and next thing he knows, Jisung’s back meets the sheets of the bed and his head hits the pillows. “So fucking much, baby.” 

Minho leans down and catches his lips into a kiss, pushing inside of him. Jisung moans high into his mouth, feeding it past the alpha’s mouth and clenching down around him. He feels so good like this, right now, with Minho on top of him, inside of him, kissing him and being all he can smell. 

Sandalwood and jasmine have taken over his senses, letting him melt against the bed as he wraps his legs around Minho’s waist and pushes his heels on the small of his back, begging for him to push deeper, closer. 

“I like – like you too, hyung. ‘wanna be yours, want you to be mine I-” A moan rippling through his throat cuts him off, back arching as his chest sticks to Minho’s own. “A-ah, I’m close.” 

Minho’s knot catches on his rim again, swollen and twitching the more Jisung clenches, the more he squeezes Minho in. 

“Me too, baby. Hyung’s close too.” Minho smiles when he stares into Jisung’s eyes, pressing a kiss onto the tip of his nose. “You’re perfect.” 

One of Jisung’s hands trails down his stomach, ignoring his pathetic dick leaking over his skin to press down hard, until he feels the tip of Minho’s cock under his palm. When Minho notices, he switches the angle of his hips until he hits right against Jisung’s prostate, abusing that sweet, sensitive bundle of nerves that has Jisung whining and tearing up under him. 

Jisung blinks, a few tears rolling down his cheeks as he moans, loud enough for the whole town to hear and Minho’s smile only gets bigger, bunny teeth peeking under his top lip. “Y-you’re so pretty.” 

Minho wraps a hand around Jisung’s cock, swiping this thumb on the slit of his dick and using the precum that’s been leaking steadily to make the slide easier, smoother. He jerks him off in rhythm with the pace of his hips, letting his knot stretch Jisung wide around him. 

“Come for me, baby. Hyung’s got you.”

One thrust, and Jisung arches off the bed again. Another one and he squeezes around Minho’s length, letting his body mold around the shape of his cock. With the next push of Minho’s hips, his knot pops inside of Jisung and it has the omega crying out in pleasure below him, tears wetting the skin of his cheeks as he finally reaches his high. 

Jisung comes in thick ropes between them when Minho locks them together, fist tightening around the omega’s length as he works him through his orgasm until Jisung trembles. 

“P-please, give it to me hyung. A-ah – want you to claim me as yours. Make me yours, hyung, please.” 

When Minho grinds one last time inside of him, he lets his teeth sink into the skin of Jisung’s chest, biting down to muffle his moans but it doesn’t work – Jisung can still hear all of it as Minho’s length pulses. He comes like this, warm and thick as he marks Jisung from the inside, letting his release coat the omega’s walls. 

Minho detaches his teeth from Jisung’s skin to bring his lips back to his mouth, kissing him gently as he carefully lays his weight down on him. 

They kiss, and kiss until Jisung is out of breath and turns his head slightly to the side, air filling his lungs back up. Minho looks at him, eyes glimmering under the sun pooling into his room. 

“Hi, baby.” He says, one his hands coming up to card through Jisung’s sweaty hair. “Feeling good?” 

With a chuckle, Jisung closes his eyes and tightens the hold he has on Minho’s waist with his legs. “More than good, hyung. You .. are so fucking great.” 

Minho giggles, hugging Jisung’s body against his as their breaths sync up, chests rising at the same rhythm, same pace. 

“Did you mean it?” Jisung asks, shyness laced in his voice as he blushes. Minho’s knot pulses inside of him when he clenches too tight. Jisung lays a kiss on his shoulder before he presses another one right under his scent gland. “Sorry.” 

“I do like you, Jisungie. So much. I have for a while now.” Minho is calm when he speaks, but his ears are redder than they’ve ever been, cheeks matching the shade over his chest. “I wanted to take you out and tell you but – you’re just so cute when you’re jealous, baby.” 

“Stop,” Jisung shies away from Minho’s teasing stare, hiding his face in the crook of the alpha’s neck. “He sniffed you. He sniffed you, hyung!”

“Hm, he did. But don’t worry, it’s all yours. I’m all yours, only yours.” 

A hand cups the left side of Jisung’s face, thumb rubbing circles over his irritated cheek as he looks right into his eyes. “Do you want to be my boyfriend, Jisungie?” 

Jisung nods, a blush high on his face as he bites his lip between his teeth, nibbling on it before breaking into a wide, blinding smile. “Your knot is still inside of me, you know.” Jisung laughs when Minho splutters above him, hips moving on instinct. 

“Yeah, I do hyung. I really, really do want to be your boyfriend.” 

After a very much needed shower that they shared after Minho’s knot came down, Jisung finds himself sitting on top of the counter of his boyfriend’s kitchen, Dori sleeping right by his feet. 

As Minho cooks, Jisung talks his ear off about the recent update he has just gotten on a seal he has been following for a few months now. 

“And he’s doing so well! He had a health scare back in august because of the heat wave, but now he’s doing much better and they’re finally almost ready to release in the wild again.” He says, eyes stuck to the screen of his phone as he scrolls down further. 

“That’s good, baby. I’m glad they were able to treat him.” Minho smiles where he’s standing, stirring the noodles around in the pan. Jisung can smell that he’s making japchae as the aromas mix through the kitchen. 

“Look, he’s so cute! And round.” He all but shoves the phone into Minho’s face, laughing when the other blinks a few times at the bright light. 

“Not as cute as you are, that’s for sure.” He presses a chaste kiss over Jisung’s lips after he speaks, smiling. 

Jisung huffs, blushing and crossing his arms over his chest. “Stop flirting with me!” 

“Oh never, baby. Neveeeer.” Minho winks at him, stirring the noodles one last time before taking them off the stove and turning it off. 

As he puts the pan to the side, Minho turns and settles his body between Jisung open legs, letting his palms run up his thighs and under his shirt, feeling the omega’s warm skin touching his own. “You smell heavenly right now, do you know that?” 

“Hm? I do?” 

“Yeah, Jisungie. Want you to rub your wrists all over me so I can smell like you and carry you everywhere with me.” Minho says, nosing at the scent gland on Jisung’s neck before pressing a light kiss on it. “But it’s okay, hyung’s ready to wait until you feel comfortable, baby.” 

Jisung thinks about it. If he does it, it means everyone will be able to smell him on Minho’s body. And people will be able to put it together when they see them attached to the hip, so it means the world will finally know what Jisung’s scent is. 

And when he thinks, Jisung looks deep into Minho’s eyes and realizes how much the alpha wants it, how badly he wants to wear Jisung’s scent and let it mix with his own. When Minho starts moving from in between his legs, he grabs the alpha’s arm and brings his wrist up to his nose, inhaling deeply to get one last whiff of his smell. 

After brushing his lips on Minho’s skin with a soft kiss, Jisung looks right into his eyes as he brings his own wrist up and lines it up with Minho’s. 

“You don’t hav–”

“I want to, hyung. Let me do this for you.” Jisung says, smiling. 

He presses his scent gland right over the alpha’s pulsing one, rubbing until he can smell their scents starting to mix in the air together. Not just wrapping around one another, but creating a brand new scent. 

Jisung gives Minho’s other arm the same treatment for a few minutes, scents mixing deeper, better. 

When he’s done with the alpha’s wrist, he brings his hand up to Minho’s neck and runs his thumb over the gland and digs the tip of it into his flesh. 

“A-ah, feels nice baby.” Minho says, relaxing into Jisung’s hold and tipping his head to the side to give Jisung more space.

The skin of Jisung’s wrist collides with Minho’s neck, rubbing until sandalwood is fainter, blending with blackberry perfectly. He looks right into Minho’s eyes as he scents him, his other hand coming to cup the other side of the alpha’s face and running his finger over the tip of his nose, the sharpness of his cheekbone and the slope of his lips. 

“You really are so pretty, Minho hyung. Most handsome person I’ve ever seen.” Jisung says, letting the pad of his thumb nudge between Minho’s lips, slightly opened. He pulls on his bottom and lets it jiggle back into place, admiring his teeth for the split second he was able to see them. “I like your teeth. And your eyes. And – I like everything about you, you know?”

He lets his thumb rest on Minho’s lip as he rubs on his scent gland, not letting him speak. “I like how red your ears get whenever you’re shy or flustered or jealous. I like your cold hands and how you use my skin to warm them up.” He gently tips Minho’s head on the opposite side, switching his hands up and rubbing his other wrist on Minho’s remaining scent gland. 

“I like how you always remember. I like how gently you hold me whenever you’re close to me. I like how we’re always touching, somewhere. Somehow.”

Minho is still looking at him, ears red as Jisung speaks. “I like how safe I feel when I’m with you, or when I can smell you. I love your scent, hyung. I love it so much.” 

Jisung cradles Minho’s face in both of his hands now, thumbs circling the alpha’s cheeks before he presses a soft kiss to his lips. “And you’re mine now, what a lucky guy I am.”

“Shut up,” Minho whispers. He’s red everywhere. His ears, his cheeks, his neck and down to his chest. Jisung had never seen him so flustered before. “If anything, I’m the lucky one here.” 

“You shut up.” Jisung kisses him again, deeper this time. “And also, no one’s ever fucked me as good as you do.” He chuckles when Minho’s eyes widen for a split second before he blinks a few times, one of his hands coming down to slap the skin of Jisung’s thigh lightly. 

“I’d hope so!” 

Minho plates the food he made them when Jisung reluctantly lets him go, jumping from the counter and helping him bring the meals to the coffee table as Minho grabs two glasses and water. They sit down, but not before Minho grabs a handful of Jisung’s ass and gives it a little slap, giggling when Jisung gasps. 

That same night, Jisung falls asleep hugging Minho tight between his arms, a smile never leaving his lips as Minho snore lightly.

𓆝 𓆟 𓆞

me

10:54am

hey hyune

jinnie

10:55am

hey hannie

what’s up?

me

10:56am

thank you for the tip, it worked 👨‍❤️‍💋‍👨

jinnie

10:57am

HECK YEAH!!

youre very welcome <3

𓆝 𓆟 𓆞

Jisung is neck deep into a marine biology book when his phone rings on the library table next to his laptop. 

It’s December now, his exams coming up have been taking all of his free time, studying has been at the front of his brain when he wakes and he goes to sleep. But Jisung is a lucky man, and he has been staying over at Minho’s place for a few consecutive days so the alpha’s scent lulls him to sleep every single night, their legs tangled together with Dori at their feet or creating a space between their bodies. 

Felix has also been staying with Chan for the exact same reason, so their dorm room has been vacant for now. 

He sighs when he tears his eyes off the lines that were slowly blurring below him, taking a hold of his phone and smiling when he notices who’s name is written across his screen. 

hyungie 🐱♥️

10:12am

Hai hai my love

I know you’re studying but i was wondering

Is it okay if you take today off and meet me in front of the shelter?

I’m sorry I didn’t ask before you left this morning, hyung forgot

Jisung chuckles when he reads the messages. When he got up at 7 o'clock sharp, Minho had whined and wrapped his arms around him tighter, asking him to stay a few more minutes with him in bed. Jisung did and snoozed his alarm for ten minutes later, and the exact same thing happened. But this time, he pressed a kiss on Minho’s pouted lips and got up to get dressed. 

He knows Minho woke up at 8, but that he probably forgot because he got started on his daily tasks right when he jumped out of bed. There’s a big chance that Minho just got out of the gym, Jisung realizes. 

me

10:15am

hey handsome

it’s okay baby

i can take today off definitely if i get to spend it with you 

i was already over it 

Not waiting for an answer, Jisung starts packing his bag up and putting away his stuff, groaning when one of his pens falls to the floor and the sound echoes through the walls of the library.  

When he bows to the receptionist as he makes his way out, Jisung doesn’t even bother putting his headphones on and happily skips down his campus towards the shelter, excited to see Minho again. Even if he saw him three hours ago. 

He checks his phone just in case, but Jisung would bet that Minho texted back to tell him he was already waiting by the doors. 

hyungie 🐱♥️

10:21am

good

I’m already waiting for you there 

[pig dancing sticker]

Jisung laughs at the sticker moving on his screen, sending one back before pocketing his phone again. With his exams coming up, he hasn’t taken the time to go back to the shelter. The last time he booked an entire day was two weeks ago, and Milo was gone, safe on a plane as it was taken back to Canada so he could have a good and enjoyable life. 

Of course, he still spent some time with the animals that lived here, feeding the sea otters and speaking to the rays waving at him from inside their pond. 

But Jisung loved when they homed special animals, when he gets the chance at seeing some of the little creatures he has been studying for almost five years now. 

He spots Minho right away when he gets there, running the few meters he has left before jumping into his boyfriend’s arms. “Hyung!”

“Hi, Jisungie.” Minho says, wrapping his own arms around Jisung’s waist and pressing a gentle kiss on his lips. He brings his hand up to Jisung’s neck, pressing on his skin right where his scent gland is – free of patches. Free of scent blockers. 

Jisung had stopped wearing them a week ago. 

He tries to embrace his scent, all of it. How sweet it is when he feels happy and safe. How chocolaty it turns when Minho looks at him with so much fondness in his eyes that Jisung feels himself blushing. 

Being with Minho had made the chocolate notes of his scent stronger, more powerful even in his day to day life and Jisung can’t complain.

Jisung had also learned how to appreciate the bitterness, the sourness of his scent when he was tired, when exhaustion pulled at his eyes and settled in his bones. Because even if Minho helps, there are still days where Jisung’s mind overpowers everything and he turns in his bed until the sun rises and his alarm rings inside the room. 

His skin has been free of patches for seven days, and Jisung never noticed when people looked. 

“How come you wanted to meet here? Is it for the project?” He asks, taking Minho’s hand in his own when they part. 

“Nope, it’s not. Come on, Jisungie.” Minho tugs at where their hands are touching, waddling down the pavement until he pushes the doors open and hurries Jisung outside. 

They walk down the hallway and soon enough, Jisung sees those familiar doors he usually walks through every week, the ones leading to the bigger, outdoor and indoor ponds that home the bigger species. 

“What are we doing here? I don’t think there are any animals here, do they need help for maintenance?” Jisung asks, opening an empty locker and pushing his coat and backpack inside the metal box before taking a pair of overalls from the wall behind him. 

“Uh, yeah! Someone is on holiday and they need some help with cleaning and stuff. Since we both don’t have class today, I volunteered for both of us.” Minho says, tips of his ears red as he pushes his sock clad feet into the rubbery boots attached at the end of the overalls. 

Jisung follows right behind, taking a beanie out of his bag and hiding his hair underneath so the smell of fish can at least spare his freshly washed hair. 

“Ah, that makes sense then. Have you ever been back here?” Jisung opens the other door for them, gesturing for Minho to go first before following right behind. The alpha slaps his left buttcheek lightly when Jisung stands right beside him, over the overalls and they both laugh when the sound of skin meeting rubber echoes around them. 

“Yup, engineering students come here a lot to study the machines and how they work, but also to maintain them and keep them running so our little friends always have a safe place to stay in.” 

As Minho speaks, Jisung realizes that even in their chosen career fields, the two of them are complementary.

Minho takes care of the machinery, Jisung takes care of the animals. Minho has cold, small hands, Jisung warms them up between his own bigger and warmer ones. Minho smells woody and leathery, Jisung smells rich and sweet. In every aspect of their life, Jisung is able to find something where they complement each other, like perfect pieces of a puzzle. 

“Close your eyes,” Minho gently says when they approach the door that leads to one of the outdoor pools. 

“Eh? Why?” Jisung asks, confusion flashing on his face. “Are you going to murder me in the shelter’s backrooms?” 

With a giggle, Minho shakes his head and looks at Jisung. “If I wanted to murder you, I wouldn’t do it in those clothes. Now, close your eyes, baby. Trust me.” 

Jisung does, eyelids dropping and blocking his vision as he blindly reaches around with his hands for Minho, wrapping an arm around Minho’s bicep when he finds him. “Alright, handsome. I trust you. Lead me to the slimy pools.”

He hears Minho taking a deep breath next to him and then, the sounds of the heavy door taking them to the outdoor pool echoes between his ears as the alpha opens it. Minho leads him past it, tugging on his arm and letting Jisung wait a minute before he hears it close behind him. 

The smell of fresh fish hits his nostrils, and Jisung makes a confused noise when it does. This pool is supposed to be closed, because there’s not supposed to be an animal living here, Jisung usually knows these kinds of things. 

He hears a noise then, deep and so familiar in his ears. He knows he’s heard it before, on his phone a hundred times, in class when they watched documentaries. Jisung gasps and holds onto Minho tighter when he realizes what it could be. 

“Hyung don’t tell me–”

Another noise. Jisung wants to wail. 

“Open your eyes, Jisungie.” 

As he peels his eyelids open, Jisung gasps even louder when his eyes land on the sea creature in front of him, plopping up and down on the concrete floors. Its fur is a very light shade of gray and there are black spots adorning its shape, down to its nose. Jisung has dreamed about this for so long. 

A harbor seal, barely a few months old from what Jisung can see. “Oh my fucking god.” 

He’s still holding onto Minho, but he lets go in order to crouch down and get a better look at it. The seal’s eyes are big and fully black, gleaming under the sun as it looks at Jisung. Its whiskers are long, already spiky enough to scratch skin if Jisung was to put his hand too close. It has claws too, sharp enough to break through fish. 

“Jisung-ah! Meet our new rescue!” Jisung looks up at the keeper, smiling down at him from where she’s standing. “She was brought in a few days ago, you’re the first to meet her.” 

When he looks to the side with tears in his eyes, Jisung finds Minho a few feet away, phone out as he records him. “Thank you,” he whispers, hoping Minho understands how much this means to him. 

“Hey pretty.” He says, inching closer to her. Jisung smiles, and smiles again when she moves towards him, unaware of the danger a human could cause. “How old is she?” 

“Our guess is approximately three months  but she might be older since there is a chance she is underweight right now, so we’ll guess again in a few weeks when she rounds up.” The keeper says, crouching down next to him. Minho joins them, and all three of them stare at the little creature, laughing when she opens her mouth to complain about it. 

“What’s her name?” He asks, looking behind him to where the animal’s name are usually spelled out on the door. There’s nothing yet, maybe the keepers didn’t have the time to put it up. 

“Well,” the keeper starts, getting up to fetch something from the chair near the door. “Our new guest here doesn’t have a name yet. And since you’re her first visitor, we were thinking you could choose it.” 

Jisung’s head snaps towards the keeper, eyes wide as his mouth rounds to form into an O. “Really? Are you kidding?” 

She shakes her head and hands Jisung the form, filled out already besides for the slot where the seal’s name should be written. “No, it’s yours to choose Jisung-ah!”

“Nabi,” he doesn’t even think as the name slips past his lips, taking the pen from the keeper’s hand and writing the letters down. When he’s done he hands it back to the keeper and as she walks inside the office attached to the outdoor pool, Jisung looks to the side and wraps his arms around Minho.

“Thank you –  thank you so much, baby. I don’t know how you managed this I–” He says, looking at his boyfriend with wet eyes and gratefulness bursting out of him. “This means so much to me.”

Minho hugs him back, pressing a kiss to his forehead even if it’s hidden under his beanie. “I know, baby. I know it does. We have all day with her, and you’re booked for every Friday until she eventually has to be moved to another facility.” Minho explains, rubbing a hand up and down Jisung’s back. 

And Jisung is so grateful. He had been waiting for this day for six years now, ever since that summer he stumbled upon a blog post with ten pictures of harbor seals. 

“I’m so happy,” he starts, looking back at the little animal that’s gone back into the water now, swimming around the pool peacefully. “She’s so pretty.”

“Your eyes are as big as hers, it’s very cute.” Minho looks at Nabi as well, getting up and walking towards the bucket of fresh fish sitting on the ground. 

He hands it to Jisung, gesturing for him to grab a handful of them so he can feed her. When she notices what Jisung is picking up from the bucket, she uses her rear flippers to get out of the pool and starts moving towards them, the little plops her belly makes as it touches the ground each time she itches closer. 

Jisung throws the first fish into her open mouth, watching as she swallows it right away. Minho does the same thing, and they finish the bucket in under ten minutes, letting her crawl back into the water. 

That’s how Jisung and Minho spend the rest of their day. Watching the seal swim in the pool before coming back up for air and sleeping on her side because she needed to digest her food. Jisung thinks he could spend hours here, looking at her enjoying the cold pool and the naps she takes in between her laps.

Minho snaps picture after picture. Of the seal, of Jisung, of them both as Jisung lays next to her and imitates her sleepy, drooly face. Minho takes pictures of everything and Jisung watches as he sets one as his lock screen right away. He’s so in love. Jisung is so in love. 

When 6 o’clock rings, Jisung and Minho say goodbye to Nabi and reluctantly walk back to the changing rooms. 

“Hyung?” Jisung says as soon as he’s done tying his laces. Minho hums next to him, putting his jacket back on and going over to the sink to wash his hands. “Thank you.” 

“Anything for you, Jisungie. I’m happy you’re happy.” Minho says, walking back towards him when he’s done drying his hands. Jisung had scrubbed his clean the moment he stepped inside the changing rooms, so he doesn’t waste anymore of his time and grabs Minho’s face before crashing his lips on the alpha’s cold ones. 

Cold hands, cold lips. But Jisung has never felt warmer here, with Minho, kissing him stupid in the changing rooms of his school’s marine animal shelter. 

“I am so, so in love with you. I love you so much it’s all I can feel from the moment I open my eyes in the morning and until I fall asleep.” Jisung looks at him, kisses him again before he wraps his arms around Minho’s shoulders. “I love you so much, Minho hyung. My handsome alpha. Thank you, for this. I’ll forever be grateful I got to share this moment with you.” 

First I love you’s are always special in a relationship with someone you love so dearly. Jisung has been craving to say it for a while now, but he wanted to wait for the right moment, the right occasion. Right now, Jisung wants to crack his ribs open and reach into his body so he can offer his heart out to Minho.

“I love you. I really do.” He says, letting his fingers melt into Minho’s longer hair. 

“Oh, baby.” Minho presses a kiss to his lips, soft, gentle. “My baby. I love you too, you know? So much, Jisungie. So much, you have no idea.” 

Another kiss, a few other I love you’s whispered into each other’s mouth because it feels too good to finally say. Minho grabs his hand and leads him out of the shelter, walking them towards his car. 

He presses Jisung against the passenger door, lips catching Jisung’s into a bruising push and pull before he leans back, cradling Jisung’s face between his hands and looking at him as if Jisung had hung the stars in the sky. As they make it back to Minho’s apartment, Jisung spends a few minutes petting the fur on Dori’s belly, laughing when the cat complains the moment he gets up.

Minho grabs his hand, leading them towards the bathroom before pushing Jisung inside. The omega’s hoodie falls to the floor a second after, sandalwood wraps around all of his senses and Jisung looks at Minho with a smile stretching over his lips. He’s so in love. 

When the both of them are fully stripped of their clothes, Minho guides them inside the shower, turning it on and letting the warmth of it wash away the day they spent together. 

Minho speaks softly as he holds Jisung under the water, trailing kisses down the skin of his neck before he sucks a mark right over his scent gland. “Hyung loves you so much, my baby. Let me show you how much, please.” 

(Later on that night, as they both settle into bed, Jisung finds that he can't fall asleep. 

It’s nothing too serious, Minho’s scent has peacefully wrapped around him and eased the stress that has been coursing through his veins, but Jisung still has a hard time closing his eyes. 

He’s talking to Minho about the differences between harbor seals and ribbon seals when he notices his boyfriend’s eyes closing under the weight of his drowsiness, his body fighting against itself as Minho forces his eyes back open. 

Jisung chuckles, endeared by the sight as Minho blinks multiple times. “You can sleep, baby. It’s okay.” 

Minho shakes his head, inching closer to him. “No-uh. Tell hyung more about them, I’m too interested.”

Ten minutes later, when Jisung tells Minho about how heartbreaking it is that when baby seals leave their mothers, they’re set to never see them again, he turns his head and realizes that Minho has drifted off. 

“Goodnight, baby.” He says.

That same night, Jisung discovers that Minho has three, perfectly aligned moles on his neck and that his nose scrunches in his sleep.)