TAT | MW [✔]

01. Mingyu

Of all the things I could have done with a long weekend right at the beginning of summer, attending the Yoon & Jeon Emergency Support Alpha training program was not at the top of my list.

My mood had been off in a weird way from the moment I made the turn off the highway and started up the winding mountain road to the Institute, the headquarters for the discreet, highly-regarded service. I couldn't make any sense of it as I parked in the lot down the hill from the collection of beautiful buildings that housed the program's classrooms and dormitories. It wasn't at all like me to go into an experience feeling...feeling... I wasn't even sure what I was feeling. That was the odd part.

I was an alpha. I was usually confident and in control of my emotions. Maybe it was a little cliché, but I was always on top of things, always calm and in control. My job as a teacher at Seongsan High School demanded that I project an air of kind, fair authority at all times. Students needed that sort of guidance.

So why I felt like one of my own students, irritated and restless, as I shut my car door with a little too much force, clicked the keychain fob to lock it, then started along the pretty, landscaped path from the parking lot of the Institute to the classroom building that was the centerpiece of the facility, I had no idea. If I didn't know better, I would have said it was a rush of adolescent hormones. But I was approaching thirty, for Christ's sake. I wasn't some kid.

My job as a high school teacher was, paradoxically, why I'd ended up being sent to the Y&J training course to begin with. Seongsan High School was one of the finest secondary schools in Daegu, and we had a reputation for encouraging excellence in our omega students—something not every school could claim—and since I was the newest member of the teaching staff, Principal Park had encouraged me to take the training course so that I might better understand our omega students.

Although why Park thought it would be a good idea for me to learn all about how to service omegas in heat when the only ones I would normally be around were underage, years from their first heat, and definitely, definitely off-limits, was a mystery to me.

I hoisted my weekend bag over my shoulder, grumbling internally about wasting a perfectly good summer weekend taking classes I would never use when I could have been down by the beach, checking out omegas I might have a chance with. It wasn't the best attitude to have going into the experience, I knew, but it had been six months since things had ended between me and Soonyoung, and I was finally ready to get back out there again.

More than that, the itch to find an omega to settle down with had been nagging me for a while. Again, it was cliché, but now that I was settled in life with a solid job I loved, enough money in the bank to go looking for a house, and bright prospects for a future in education, marriage, and family seemed like the next logical step.

I took the path from the parking lot to the classroom building with long strides, forcing myself not to scowl, not really interested in striking up a conversation with the other alphas heading into the building. My students always told me that, at over six feet and built like a tank, I looked intimidating as hell when I scowled, and I didn't want to take away from the training experience for my fellow classmates.

It was hard, though. Especially when I reached the door of the building, grabbed the handle to pull it open for a beta, and then took one last look across the incredible vista from the mountain to the sparkling, blue water in the distance. Sunshine and sand would have to wait for another day.

My weirdly bad attitude took a hit the moment I stepped into the building. It was like entering another world. The entire Institute was beautifully designed, with glass buildings that blended with the rugged mountain landscape and let in a ton of light. The walls of the classroom building were filled with beautiful abstract art and soothing colors. It was hard not to be in a good mood when faced with so much careful design and tranquility, but it almost felt like my emotions were being manipulated by the place.