At twenty-four years old, Yeonjun celebrates his second wedding anniversary. Three days later, he meets Soobin.
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Here is Yeonjun's today, yesterday, and tomorrow:
7:45 AM: Wake up fifteen minutes before Juwon's alarm to make him a coffee with the french press. Start making Juwon's lunch box.
8:30 AM: Send his husband off to work with a kiss. Eat breakfast. Feed the cat.
8:45 AM to 1 PM: Clean while listening to audiobooks. Juwon likes things clean, and Yeonjun likes to do things perfectly. This is his full-time job now, after all.
1 PM: Lunch and free time. He used to spend this time writing, but these days, he doesn't have much to write about. Instead, he reads at a nearby cafe.
5 PM: Start working on dinner, in the unlikely case that Juwon gets home on time today. Keep dinner warm in the likely case that he doesn't.
Between 6 and 10 PM: Eat dinner with Juwon and clean up.
11 PM: Have sex with Juwon. Lie on his back for ten minutes afterwards to increase chances of conception.
12 AM: Take birth control.
It's on one of these every days — early August, late afternoon — when Yeonjun talks to another alpha. He sits at his usual cafe, where art lines the wall and jazz music drips from the speakers. He's brought Juwon here a few times, but he typically comes alone. A younger omega, Beomgyu, works there and occasionally brings free pastries to Yeonjun's table.
Physically, he's everything an omega should be: delicate wrists and doe-eyes, a tiny waist and elegant posture. Petite and so easily hurt: perfect. Maybe his appearance will make up for everything else.
When an unmated alpha walks in, he yells out his name — "Soobin!" — and bounds across the restaurant to hug him tightly. There's no respect, no distance, no recognition of the fact that alphas want to be treated with deference.
In Yeonjun's hometown, Beomgyu would never find a good mate, acting like that. But things are different in Seoul, and some omegas don't even want mates here. It's their choice, Yeonjun supposes. If they look back on it ten years from now, childless and lonely and undesirable, it's not Yeonjun's problem.
Yeonjun returns his attention to his book. He writes in the margins and takes notes and pretends his thoughts still matter. Ever since he graduated from college and got married, he rarely gets the chance to use his mind. He sometimes looks back his honors thesis and wonders how he could possibly be the same person who wrote it. He used to be so smart.
He wants to start writing again, but what could he write about? How he cried about overcooking chicken last Tuesday? How he threw a glass across the room when he spent hours on a new recipe, only for his husband to pull an all-nighter at the office? The white cat hair he can't get off of his husband's black suits no matter how many times he lint-rolls them? The fucking laundry?
At least he has his books and his cookies from the sweet, perfect-looking omega.
"Excuse me." Standing above Yeonjun is the alpha, Soobin: sweet eyes, lips like a bow. "This is the only other seat available," he says, tilting his head towards the other chair at Yeonjun's table.
