Tiger Lilies in the Snow

21 - Needs, fears and worries

Taehyung like almost every day of the week sat at the bus stop after his last class. This day had been the most bizarre that he had ever experienced. He had received so many needy text messages from Jungkook, or was it Kookie, asking him for nudes. It was completely out of question that he would have done so. He had sent his mate a selfie of his face whenever he could instead. The praises for his handsome features that his sly alpha threaded into his messages as bait to get anything more with the next picture were nice to read. No doubt about that but he would still not comply to his mate's request. Over those day the messages got more and more explicit so that for the last one and a half hours he had received some of the kind that would be either account as sexual harassment or sexting. It depended on the perspective you took. But of course, Taehyung knew why Jungkook did this. Or at least that was how he explained his mate's behaviour to himself. Still, this was a dangerous thing. If anyone had seen them, he would have been taken as an easy omega and surely been harassed after class.

At the end of the day his resume was mixed with highs and lows like always. Though he finally had started to fully understand this God damn computer programme for his graphic design class, which he counted as a win on his side, and survived another nerve wrecking business lecture he had enjoyed the lecture on the history of portrait. It was one of the theoretical topics that he had to do but instead of other who only called it dry and boring he enjoyed it. There was so much to learn that he could use for his practical classes as inspiration to push his own expression of topics to another level. But what was the worst of the week was his practical class on wood crafting. It did not come unexpectedly but still it was disappointing. The classes all turned out to be a rough ride on the waves of prejudice about an omega. Even though he was a male he still was heavily frowned upon wanting to participate on such a physically exhausting subject as they were to work on big projects made out of tall and thick logs of wood. He always heard how others, especially alphas, were whispering behind his back about his unomegaish behaviour. But he took pride in them being affronted as he did really well and finally their professor started warming up with him as he had to admit that his only omega student made the best progress of them all and showed a high level of skill.

And still nobody stopped other participants from using exactly the tools that he needed most even though they would not fit their own progress well. Also, oftentimes somebody painfully bumped into him, and it was not on rare occasions that they expected him to apologize for it even though he did not even do anything. But if he did not do so, they would start making provocative remarks about him feeling too special and above them because he was the Whispering Willow Pack's Alpha's youngest. So that was a fact that all these boors did not forget to realize. But he also heard murmured comments about him just being a cheeky omega that should be tamed by a bite, that he soon would have a big belly anyways, that his alpha should breed him well so he would learn his place, that if they could, they would teach him his place which was definitely not at this workshop but in a bed. Of course he was meant to overhear all of this. But that was nothing new to him. He had heard it on a daily basis ever since he had entered university and gained attention for being a top student. But what really had shook him for a moment was when an especially rude alpha 'accidentally' dumped a pot of wood stain on his project, a wooden vase that was supposed to be about half a meter high. For about ten minutes he had stood there thunderstruck fighting tears of rage while a group of five other alphas congratulated this idiot to his good deed on alphahood.

But he had shown them all how childish they were and why he had earned himself his professors' attention and respect. Even though this attack on his project came as a shock he almost immediately had started to recalculate and replan his vase. He knew that he would never get this wood stain out again and he would not allow those bulky brainless fleabags the victory over him so starting all over was out of the question. The only way to live with it would be to let it dry in and work with it. But Taehyung would not be the highly gifted artist that he was if he had not taken another colour of wood stain and dumped it over his half-finished project too letting it even soak in the stain completely at some parts. When his professor asked him what he did, expecting the affronted omega to throw a tantrum, Taehyung had just answered that he saw this 'accident' as a chance because who would dare to apply such an uncontrollable element into their already planned piece. Would it not be the real art to add a certain amount of unpredictability to something that was supposed to follow well calculated processing to reach a certain outcome? Would it not be highly interesting to let the wood stain lead him while he would cut out his vase and be limited to chance instead of a plan up to a certain amount? Consequently, he had to dump his sketches and go after what he found within the wood but to his professor's surprise, and a bit to his own, this led to something that promised to become even more beautiful than the original plan. Again, he would outshine the others and that filled him with grim satisfaction.