At twenty-four years old, Yeonjun celebrates his second wedding anniversary. Three days later, he meets Soobin.
Original source- published by overflow on ao3
Yeonjun was meant to be an alpha. His ambition and competitiveness slotted him neatly into that subgender, and Yeonjun was glad. Alphas had an easier time. He sometimes felt bad for omegas, but it had to be this way. The alphas that harassed and abused omegas disgusted him, and he didn't agree with the idea that omegas shouldn't be allowed to work — what were they to do if they couldn't find an alpha, or if their alpha died? But he knew alphas and omegas naturally had different strengths, and he followed his parents' advice to nurture his alpha traits.
He couldn't understand his older brother's constant rebellion, and he didn't want to. Jimin tortured himself and ran away, when he could have just been a good omega.
Yeonjun presented the summer before college, and he doesn't remember it very well. What he can recall is the aftermath: empty smiles, meaningless platitudes. His parents sitting him down and explaining to him how his priorities must change. How he had grown up expecting to be one thing, but he turned out to be another, and now he — all of them — needed to adjust.
"It's not too late," they said. "We'll help you make the changes you need."
He knew they must be devastated to have two omega sons, but they were kind enough not to say anything. It's not like he could do anything about it.
He spent the summer learning from his mother how to be a proper omega. He decided he'd be perfect, like he always was. He had spent his high school years earning straight As, performing solos in choir, working on his school's newspaper and winning all the youth writing contests he entered. He had received a near perfect score on the Suneung. Surely, after all that, he could learn to cook and clean and be quiet.
Although he tried his best not to resist, not to rebel uselessly, it wasn't easy to change everything about himself in three months. It wasn't easy to let go of his old dreams and adopt his new ones. To accept that he could never be everything he wanted, that he had to live such a strict life now.
His mother picked up on this, and she explained everything to him. In these restrictions lay freedom. It wasn't that he couldn't get a job, it was that he didn't need to. It wasn't that he was becoming less ambitious; he was putting less pressure on himself. He could be happy with a cozy and warm life at home in a way alphas never could. He wouldn't need to work himself to the bone the way alphas would. As long as he found a good alpha, he would live leisurely. Cooking, cleaning, being kind and acquiescent — these requirements were so easy in comparison to the tasks he had wanted to take on a few months ago. He just had to do a few small things perfectly.
Besides, there wasn't all that much he was giving up. His parents weren't backwards — they still wanted him to get his degree. So he spent his four years at SNU with his mouth and legs shut. Here was a good place to find the best alpha, the type that Yeonjun had been expected to become.
Sophomore year, he found Juwon. He was from a small town similar to Yeonjun's and had recently returned to graduate school after completing his military service — another thing Yeonjun no longer had to do, thank God. Sweet, handsome, and bound for professional success, Juwon courted Yeonjun traditionally. They mated Yeonjun's junior year, and married shortly after his graduation. Although Juwon's family was slightly put-off by his mating an omega that looked so much like an alpha — a little too tall, a little too broad — Juwon assured him that he was perfect, perfect, perfect, and his family came to love Yeonjun.
Once, Yeonjun came home from grocery shopping and overheard Juwon chatting on speakerphone with his mother. "You wouldn't be pressuring him," she said. "He's probably hurt that you're not concerned enough about this. He might even think you don't want to have a baby with him."
"Of course I want a baby with him," Juwon said.
"I know that, but does he? You should be going to doctors appointments with him. You know, it can be hard for omegas to admit that they might have some problems with their fertility — you might have to make the appointment for him."
"There's no rush. He's young, we have plenty of time. I'm not going to stress him out about getting pregnant immediately."
"Listen to what I'm telling you. Yeonjun's a good boy, of course he wants a baby. It'll only get harder as you get older."
"Most people in Seoul don't have babies in their mid-twenties, Mom," Juwon said.
Yeonjun opened the front door again and closed it loudly. Juwon closed the door and greeted him. Yeonjun buried his face into Juwon's shoulder as the words Yeonjun's a good boy, of course wants a baby, settled like a stone in his stomach.
Outside, he was good. Inside, he was rotten.
He set to work on excavating whatever was spoiled inside his soul. But he wasn't an alpha; he wasn't strong enough.
