𝙘𝙖𝙩𝙘𝙝 22 | chensung

9

Chenle was not expecting to meet Jisung on Saturday morning. It was when he was heading to the rendezvous with his roguish acquaintances, a black bag over his shoulder containing spray paint. It was early, too, around eight o'clock.

"You look irritated," the alpha noted. "What's in the bag?"

Chenle wanted to scowl but it would've been a dead giveaway. It wasn't as though Jisung couldn't already guess what he was up to, since the clink of the canisters in the bag gave it away. They were standing together at the traffic lights, waiting for the green man. "I'm..." What is something that he wouldn't pry about? "I'm actually buying some... stuff."

"Stuff?"

"Yeah. Like, suppressants and... stuff. Nothing that an alpha such as yourself needs to worry about. What has you up at this ungodly hour?"

"I was going for a jog." He was wearing a light hoodie and sweatpants. He also didn't appear to be getting back to the activity because when the lights changed, he walked across the road beside Chenle. "I'll go shopping with you. I need to buy some as well."

"You don't even use those ghastly pills." And to be honest, it wasn't something he thought Jisung overly needed to do at that, as Chenle considered the alpha's natural scent and pheromones to be rather nice compared to others. It was softer than the overwhelming ones at school. Even Mark needed to hide some of that stank. He was kinda sandalwoody and although a lot of omegas would find it attractive, Donghyuck often told Chenle how it didn't quite suit such a soft boy. R.I.P Mark, he prayed quietly.

"I won't be buying suppressants," he answered with a sneaky chuckle. "Just some... alpha stuff." He also needed to come up with something that would stop Chenle from questioning him, because even though he had been jogging up until he reached the traffic lights, he was now going to make sure that the omega didn't put the spray paint to use.

"Alpha things...; sketchy."

"Omega things are sketchy too."

"Whut? Not half as weird as whatever you're looking for." But internally, he was sweating about the rendezvous. It was twice now that this lanky dude had managed to catch him. He needed to slink away undetected. "Look over there!" He pointed at the nearing pharmacy and when the alpha fell for it, he legged it in the opposite direction. A soft 'oof' was knocked out of him when a hand wrapped around his wrist and dragged him back to where he had been standing.

"Look at what? Where?" Jisung's eyes were still ahead as he tried to spot whatever the omega has exclaimed about, but of course he was just, in a way, messing with Chenle because his 'great escape' was foreseen.

Chenle grumbled as he was pulled back and tried to shake his wrist out of the ever-gentling grip. Even though it was getting looser, it was no less impossible to pull away from than if it had been in a death clutch. "I was pointing at the pharmacy..."

Jisung was beginning to let go of his more guarded persona, little by little, with the Chinese boy. The quietness he displayed when other people were around was starting to be smoothed out, for he was becoming more comfortable around him in this oddly forced-yet-not-forced relationship that also was morphing... or more fittingly, warping, into a friendship. "I can see that." They entered the shop, still wrist-in-hand as the alpha wasn't going to take his chances.

"Oh no," Chenle flatly mumbled with a roll of his eyes, "they're out of omega supplies."

"Have a look at that collection behind the counter. They're labelled in bold lettering 'OMEGA SUPPRESSANTS'."

Chenle's lips curled into a tight smile and held the side of his face. "How did I miss them?"

The lady behind the counter was smiling at them as though they were the cutest thing. They had the energy of 'the seemingly uncaring boyfriend and his unaffectionate partner'. Although, both at first glance looked uncaring and unaffectionate. She wondered which was which. "Welcome! Alpha supplies are to the right and... omega or beta...?" She couldn't quite tell what Chenle was. His scent wasn't there.

The boy was busy death-glaring the hand around his wrist so Jisung answered for him. "Omega."

"They're behind me," she gestured, although they had spotted the section already. "And toiletries are variously displayed."

Jisung nudged Chenle towards the counter and watched him eye the brands of suppressants on the shelf. There were around four different brands in stock, each of them with different coloured labels. The orange labels, Chenle had learned, were more aimed towards omegas whose heats were fading with old age. The blue ones were regular but were easily overpowered by an extremely powerful heat, and those with irregular heat cycles tended to avoid them. And those who had particularly strong scents avoided the blue brand as well. Yellow simply helped the user prevent reactions to alpha pheromones. His eyes landed on the red label, which was rapidly decreasing in stock as it was so popular. "Can I get Red please?"

The brand Red was the one that fully covered scent. Chenle didn't even need to buy suppressants right now since he was stocked up, but he needed to purchase something as he had told Jisung his 'plans' to buy some.

Jisung let go of his wrist and wandered over to the alpha supplies, looking but not taking. There wasn't really anything he needed to buy.

After purchasing the tub of tablets, Chenle snuck up behind Jisung and poked the boy's back. "What happened to getting some 'alpha stuff'? Aren't you trying to cover up that you're following me to prevent my meet-up? At least make it believable."

"But you already knew, so why would I waste my money?"

Chenle, who had just wasted his money, bitterly clicked his tongue and waited for the alpha to leave the shop with him. He could've just made another run for it, but since Jisung had now made him fifteen minutes late, there wasn't much point in trying to evade. The alpha suppressants were in high stock as they weren't popularly bought. "If you're done then let's go."

They exited the shop, the lady waving the cute pair goodbye.

"You know, being an omega is so draining."

Jisung only hummed as they walked side-by-side, the canisters continuing to clink around Chenel's over-shoulder bag.

"Betas have it the best. If I could choose, I'd be born one of them." His whining might have appeared to be out-of-nowhere, but honestly, he was watching the people walking past, catching whiffs of strong alpha scents off more manly guys or alpha females, and then the sweet, cute scents off the passing omegas who used the brand 'Blue'. The betas didn't draw attention to themselves.

"But omegas have alphas wrapped around their finger."

"Only if they're attractive."

"I don't know if you knew this," Jisung mentioned, eyes looking ahead with his hands in his pockets, "but alphas don't find omegas unattractive. Ever."

Chenle shrugged. That was unfortunate, because it didn't work both ways. And he could vouch for that, because lots of omegas at school, including himself, didn't find those hollering, looming, intimidating chancers (in other words, their overzealous alpha classmates) attractive. He didn't tell this to Jisung though, because he didn't seem to be one of those triers. "By the way, doesn't this make it twice now that you've intercepted my meet-ups? I think you owe me, Park Jisung. You owe me for my troubles."

"How about we go to the café? I'll buy you a coffee." Really, the troubles were more on Jisung's part than Chenle's, but he thought to himself 'I doubt this guy would agree with me, so I might as well go along with it'.

"I'll be sure to choose the most expensive drink on the menu."

He did not. He chose hot chocolate. He didn't want to break Jisung's wallet once he saw how expensive some of those drinks were.