Chapter Text
The rules are different for everyone, and that’s what makes it so unfair.
The omega who raised him differs from the one who birthed him; his omega nanny turned into general building manager later in life is someone that Seokjin once looked to with joy and happiness. Somewhere around the time he turned sixteen, after he presented at fifteen, he looked at her unmarked neck and wondered how it could be. “If you’re lucky,” she would say when he was little and he trailed after her in the garden, “you’ll always have a home as lovely as this.”
“If you’re lucky, you’ll have more than what you need,” she said when he was a little older, whining for things. “If you’re lucky, you will have someone who loves you.”
She told him this when he was a teenager, only more recently acquainted with how his mating and marriage varied from the general population. His best friend from childhood had presented as a beta only recently, someone whose life Seokjin always assumed was similar to his own by virtue of their upbringings, but the moment he presented as a beta and Seokjin as omega, their futures looked completely different.
Love and affection soured into jealousy. For his friend, for his nanny.
The omega who raised him learned to keep a gentle distance from him after that, especially when Seokjin entered his twenties. By the time he was twenty-five, she and her gentle smiles given so freely were a distant memory despite the fact that she’s still there, haunting the hallways of his childhood home.
He avoids going home now. Both his parents’ home but even his own home, the older he gets. Any day now, any evening, he could unlock his front door and they might be there to tell him to run. It’s time.
Per the societal expectations of his family, Seokjin does not work. He works out in the gym only minimally, only cardio. There are people who follow him occasionally to check up on what he’s eating, who he’s with. Not all families resort to such measures, but some are far more stringent than his. Some families require their unmated omegas to live at home indefinitely until the run. Kim Seokjin was at least given his “freedom” until the time. That was the word they used. Freedom.
“You can do whatever you want,” his omega parent said to him over a late breakfast when Seokjin was nineteen and done with school but didn’t see the point in seeking higher education. Omegas might be able to study whatever they like now, but not him. What use would it do someone like Seokjin?
“You could study something fun,” his alpha sibling remarks. It’s only because he has an alpha sibling that Seokjin is doomed. If there were only omegas or betas as offspring, things might look a different way for him. Less random, more arranged.
Of course, not every alpha is invited to participate in a run. A family gets to choose. The omega does not, but families arrange and line up their favorite potential suitors and invite those that are deemed worthiest. After that, once the run begins, it’s supposed to be whoever proves themselves out of the bunch. The fittest of the fit. The most well connected of the connected.
“Hey, baby,” one of the Choi alpha sons says to him at a coffee shop one day. He approaches as if they’re practicing, all ease but imposing, cornering Seokjin in the back between the restrooms and the station for creamer and water. “Aw, don’t be like that. No reason to be shy. This could be for real soon! Any day now, right, Seokjin?”
Sunghoon reaches out to pinch Seokjin’s cheek. Seokjin steps as hard as possible on the guy’s toes so he has to jerk backwards, enough room for him to slip by, but the guy follows him. He follows him from the coffee shop all the way down the block, then the next one. Seokjin makes a sharp turn down a short sidewalk into a park, then jogs off the path across the lawn. For a moment, he thinks he lost the guy, but then when he slows down, glancing over his shoulder, he sees him. Jogging after him across the green.
Instincts take over. After all, no matter how much he despises it, he is an omega, and omegas are born for the run - or so they say. Once upon a time, this is how all omegas were mated, and yet, it’s only the most well-to-do families who hold themselves above everyone else who still practice it, as is setting themselves apart somehow is more important than evolving from barbaric practices.
Seokjin doesn’t wait, no longer leisurely jogging - he all out sprints down the pavement. People see him, most of whom step to the side and pay him little mind. After all, no one would help him if he asked. This part of society may not be well observed by the everyday population, but it is well known enough that if Seokjin yelled out for help as an alpha snatched him off the street, no one would have anything for him, not even a pitying look. If anything, someone might watch only in delighted fascination.
A small cluster of alphas sneer at him as he runs by, their catcalls turning to cheers as Sunghoon must pass them next.
Seokjin runs back down a commercial block into a department store. Even here, people don’t react as he pushes past them, taking the stairs on the escalator two at a time until he runs to the emergency stairwell on the opposite side of the floor and sprints back down to the ground floor and out the back door.
Fifty minutes after he stopped for an iced coffee, Seokjin stops running, panting and out of breath.
He’s on the other side of the city, because he’s now on a subway car bustling away from where his day started.
When he crawls his way home, he can’t bring himself to unlock the door. He stands outside it, trembling with a sinking feeling that he can’t escape. That was nothing. That wasn’t real. But - with any given moment, it could become real, and Seokjin has nothing to his name but time, and limited time at that. He’s thirty now, and that’s older than most would wait to mate an omega, both on the ends of his parents who have to give him away, but it’s also older than most competing alphas would wish to wait. After all, his fertility drops a little every day now that he’s thirty, or so everyone loves to tell him.
He just doesn’t know how much time he has left. How long until the alpha in pursuit won’t give up? This was all for fun for that alpha. When it really begins, there will be no end. There will be no timeouts. There will only be running until someone catches him. Every day he wakes up and waits. Every night he tries to sleep and wonders. Will it be today? When will his running really matter?
He calls Jimin.
“Come here,” he says. “Come here and stay with me.”
His parents know all about Jimin, of course. Jimin is acceptable company as evidenced by the fact that there was no one to drive him away, there weren’t rumors spread about Seokjin at the same time of their burgeoning friendship nor was there an actual payout offer, something that his parents did in desperation a few years ago when Seokjin got a little too friendly with a beta that had a supposed reputation.
They would know to find him on Jimin’s doorstep if they needed to find him.
He goes anyway.
Jimin wraps him tightly in a blanket and makes him an iced americano like he wanted hours ago. Now it’s too late to drink caffeine but what does it matter? “What does any of this matter?” Seokjin laughs out loud. Above him, Jimin frowns.
“Hyung.”
Seokjin waves him off. “I’m fine, Jimin-ah.”
“I don’t like it when you talk like that.”
Seokjin shrugs. Jimin doesn’t get it. He gets it - he’s more sympathetic than most as a fellow omega - but he doesn’t get it. Jimin doesn’t come from a family like his.
He won’t ever have to run.
If or when Jimin chooses to marry, he will not only have the choice to, but he will have the choice of who it is. He could marry a beta or another omega if he likes. He doesn’t have to get bit or wear a collar if he doesn’t choose to, and almost no omegas outside of society choose to. Meanwhile Seokjin had a debutante ball when he presented and was given a chastity collar that he was required to wear during the rest of his schooling.
Jimin has a job. He has a degree. His apartment is in his own name which he pays for.
The only thing they have in common is heats.
Seokjin expected a knock on the door, a call for a separation several years into their friendship, when he asked Jimin to share a heat with him. It was a couple of years ago now, and nothing about it was romantic, but their heats lined up and it made sense to him - why go through it alone? Why not have someone to lie next to while their insides disintegrated? He worried though, about someone coming in and removing him from Jimin’s apartment midway through. They would be so cruel, but fortunately - whatever tail his family kept on him, they turned an eye the other way when his perfectly punctual heat came and he wasn’t at home, rather at a friend’s.
It was a strange experience, but he couldn’t help but wonder if it would be the only peaceful shared heat he would ever have. In the moments of lucidity, it was wonderful to open his eyes and turn his head to look at Jimin, curled in close to him. Not too close - both of them overheated and flushed - but they were always in arm’s reach of each other, and it meant something to be able to feel a kind touch on his aching muscles in between throbbing pain.
When he asked him to share his heat, Seokjin didn’t know of Jimin’s preferences for omegas. It wouldn’t have made a difference, but it is this other thing that forcefully reminds him of how different they are, and when Seokjin witnesses his best friend flirting with a lumbering omega that he couldn’t actually believe was an omega, he had to excuse himself from jealousy. Jimin gets the protection and ease of a perceived omega-alpha relationship just because Namjoon looks like an alpha, even smells like an alpha by virtue of being part of the population without a scent.
Seokjin sleeps in their nest that night, tucked between them. Namjoon’s body mass on one side and Jimin’s ferocious clinging on the other. “This could be it,” he whispers against Jimin in the dark. “This could be the last time.”
Jimin shushes him. “It will never be the last time, hyung.” He pushes his face into Seokjin’s neck, subconsciously sneaking out his scent there.
Seokjin was bred to have a scent.
That’s part of why his family remains in its circle.
“Sorry, sorry.” Jimin always apologizes when he catches himself doing it. Seokjin doesn’t reply anymore. He is past the point of caring if his best friend partially only likes him for his scent.
Behind him, Namjoon snores, but even he remains affected in his sleep. Namjoon isn’t a cuddly person, would not spoon up behind Seokjin if not unconsciously seeking his scent. Seokjin minds. Even his personal, most beloved relationships are tainted by the weight of what hangs over him, but he also doesn’t mind. It feels good to let them cuddle up with him. He doesn’t sleep easy, but he sleeps easier between them.
In the morning, he makes the couple an elaborate breakfast, because he has nothing but time for making meals, and he’s become quite the cook over the years. Jimin always insists he doesn’t need to do it, to the point that he sometimes refuses to eat whatever Seokjin makes for him, but Namjoon just softly smiles at the older omega in thanks. The two of them have bonded over time because Seokjin occasionally tries to help Namjoon learn to cook.
Namjoon has a high paying job at a book publisher.
Seokjin wonders if they knew he was an omega when they offered it to him.
“I’m going now.” Seokjin kisses Jimin’s cheek first, then exchanges a curt nod with Namjoon, cheeks full of rice. “Thank you for sheltering me last night.”
Jimin frowns. Namjoon steadfastly looks down into his bowl.
Seokjin has no doubt that Namjoon reads and publishes romance novels that might spin stories about his plight. How romantic, being chased and forever shackled to a possible stranger who very well may care nothing for you or your wellbeing.
He leaves. It isn’t like Seokjin has a schedule to keep. Without work, without school - what is there for him to do? He decides his impromptu run yesterday counts as his workout for the day, so he stumbles into a new coffee shop to bide his time over expensive pastries and a matcha latte paid for by his family estate on a sleek and shiny black card.
Any moment, Seokjin won’t even be able to use this card.
It’s the only card he has, but his stacks of cash are distributed in different bags in different locations, ready to go.
He knows some omegas don’t really try. They use whatever electronics they want, they use their regular bank card. Some of them have the luxury because they know which alpha comes for them. Some of them just don’t care.
Seokjin’s going to run as long as he can.
He has plans.
The bags full of cash and clothing, everyday essentials. He knows the routes he can take out of the city that will allow him onboard without swiping a passport. He has a fake, of course, but the further he can get without using it the better, and fake omega passports are never reliable, even if not every omega needs a fake for the kind of thing he needs to do.
His plans don’t include Sunghoon, and they don’t include Min Yoongi, one of the alphas that his parents have kept around all his life. If his parents really want Min Yoongi in the family, Seokjin will have no choice. In the Kim family, they don’t allow traditional arranged marriages for the omegas - they have to be mated through a run - but that doesn’t mean there aren’t plenty of ways they could guarantee an outcome they prefer.
But most of all - his future will not include Cha Jaehyun. If Min Yoongi was his parents’ choice, then Cha Jaehyun was the rival declared by no one but himself, although his parents never have done anything to discourage him. To them, he’s a perfectly acceptable choice, which is why Seokjin has doubts about their intentions for Min Yoongi. For years, Jaehyun has regularly appeared in Seokjin’s selective life in the city, but also for almost any function or casual visit he has at home with his family.
The alpha has inserted himself and made every intention known. “When we’re mated,” he’ll say, slyly taking Seokjin’s arm when they’re in the company of too many important people for him to make a scene. “When you’re my omega,” he’ll say, pressed up to Seokjin’s back when he corners him in the kitchen that is off limits to visits.
For years, Jaehyun watches him, hands not afraid of reproach. His omega parent sees it happen, he says nothing. At society picnics, Jaehyun grabs him and pulls him down into his lap to jeering laughter and no one says a thing. At charity galas when Seokjin has to dress up and force a smile, his alpha parent doesn’t comment on Jaehyun’s hand on his ass.
When the time comes, Seokjin knows Jaehyun will be invited to chase. Jaehyun makes sure to mention his private jet, his robust portfolios with endless cash options, all the means that he has to track him down. If he were any more garish about it, he might file his canines in front of him. And what did Min Yoongi, the supposed choice of his parents, do in front of the asshole?
Nothing. He did nothing.
Oddly, it gives him comfort.
Min Yoongi watches it all happen, oddly hawk eyed with sharply feline eyes. The alpha hardly ever emotes. His eyes never tighten in smile or grimace, his mouth never moves other than to utter short and only expressly needed answers to direct questions. This is his parents’ chosen alpha, and he clearly has no interest in Seokjin.
So, Seokjin can forgive him for being a bystander if it means he is one less thing he has to worry about.
On a Tuesday morning when the sun has risen but no one can tell, thick fog in the middle of all the grey buildings, Seokjin bides his time. He spends a fair amount of his days walking around, because he doesn’t like to be at home, and his friends work real jobs. He’s been to the gym. He’s been to the library. He is allowed little else.
He appears to him in between one street and the next, Seokjin crossing the road at a busy intersection so he isn’t paying too much attention to faces, but then he senses the way someone who was passing him sharply pivots.
To follow him, he immediately knows.
A faint sweat breaks out on the back of his neck as he walks faster, hands still stuffed in his pockets, but now clenched in fists. He can’t do this again, not right after that last asshole - panic makes it hard for him to hear. “-jin! Kim Seokjin!”
The hand that touches his elbow is so gentle he can’t feel it at first. It seeps into consciousness. Seokjin jerks out of the hold to whip around, hands poised in front of him.
“...Jeongguk?”
Jeon Jeongguk was his cousin Taehyung’s best friend. Or - is his best friend? He's unsure because of his lack of communication with Taehyung in the past few years. Growing up, Taehyung was around enough that Seokjin became well acquainted with Jeongguk, his cousin’s permanent shadow. The two of them were inseparable, and if not for Jeongguk’s lack of family name, Seokjin is sure that they would have been gossiped about as a potential future pair. But - Taehyung presented as an alpha, despite most predictions, and Jeongguk is -
“You're an alpha?” Seokjin asks. He doesn’t mean to sound so incredulous, after all, they all assumed omega for Taehyung and he popped a knot uncommonly early. Jeongguk doesn’t look offended though.
“Sorry, hyung.” He removes his hands from Seokjin’s side where he gently steered him to the corner, out of the street. “I didn’t mean to - to touch you like that.”
He stumbles, so Jeongguk has to put his hands back on him to keep him up. His scent - oh god. “Why can I smell you?” he asks. This time the incredulousness has to be apparent to him.
“Ah, I’m one of the lucky ones, turns out.” Jeongguk smiles at him softly, eyes crinkling in a way that is just like the little kid he knew and yet so wholly different because he’s got long dark hair now with a peek of undercut, dangerous looking and attractive with many silver hoops in his ears. He looks like an alpha, so even if no one could scent him, even if he didn’t have the gene for it - anyone would be likely to guess correctly.
When he shifts, Seokjin’s eyes go to his arms. Under the stiffness of his leather jacket, Seokjin sees the swell of muscle.
He feels a little lightheaded. Cute, sweet, baby Jeon Jeongguk - all grown up into the very visage of modern alpha. When he steps forward, Seokjin steps back. Jeongguk’s smile falters. Does it fall, or does it sharpen? He takes another step, then another, until Seokjin is pressed back into the wall of an unknown building.
Jeongguk slides both of his hands up the wall on either side of him.
Seokjin is cornered.
He is caught.
His instinct is not to run like it was with Sunghoon.
When he swallows, Jeongguk’s eyes dilate. “I remember the first time I could smell you,” he says. “The summer after you presented, and Taehyung wanted nothing more than to swim in your pool or go ride the horses. It didn’t matter where I was, or where you were. I could smell you.”
Seokjin is scared to breathe. Around them, rationally, there are people - other people, but Seokjin can’t focus. Jeon Jeongguk?
The young alpha gently holds Seokjin’s earlobe between two fingers. “And now, you get to scent me. Serendipitous, perhaps.”
“Is that - is that a tattoo?”
Jeongguk grins. “Yeah. They’re much easier to get internationally, as you know.”
“Is that where you’ve been all these years? Last I heard from Tae, you left the continent without telling anyone.” Seokjin remembers the hurt in Taehyung’s voice when he told him, by then already several months since. Jeongguk didn’t have a family like theirs; in fact, he had almost no family to speak of, both parents passed away.
It was part of the reason why Taehyung’s parents let the kid follow their precious son around. He was just a poor orphan, after all.
But Jeongguk no longer looks the part of poor little orphan boy - not only is he grown, tall and wide, but from his leather boots and jacket to the glimmer of jewelry and sharp scent - everything about him broadcasts money. New money, certainly, not just that it was recently acquired but also that only someone as young as Jeongguk with money could get away with tattoos and as many piercings.
“Is this what you were doing aboard all that time?” Seokjin just barely touches the collar of the jacket. Buttery smooth. “How long has it been?”
“Almost six years,” Jeongguk answers. “I came back to visit once or twice - surely Tae told you. I didn’t - I wasn’t going to stay away forever. That was never part of the plan.”
Seokjin nods. Or is he dragging his nose closer to Jeongguk’s throat? “You smell good,” he mumbles. When he sways, Jeongguk braces him against the wall.
“I think - I think you might be scent drunk, hyung.”
Seokjin shakes his head. Despite not knowing many people with pronounced scents, he does come into contact with them (just hardly outside of his own family). Even alpha ones. Jeongguk smells good, sure - he smells faintly spicy, but also sweet. Cinnamon. Seokjin loves the smell of cinnamon.
The scuffling of squeaky soles on the pavement echoes distinctly in his ears. “Hyung?” The hands on him become arms - the arms are holding him up, then picking him up. “Hyung, can you hear me?”
Here, Seokjin lays his head on his shoulder. What’s happening to him? He can’t control himself, his hand reaching up to cup Jeongguk’s chest. He thinks he hears Jeongguk say, “I’ve always wondered if you’d like it.”
Only when he comes out of it can Seokjin identify his previous existence as floaty. The next thing he realizes is that he’s lost time.
He’s in the dark, Jeongguk on his right. An alpha. Seokjin blinks rapidly, sitting up and glancing around. Oh. They’re in a movie theater - whatever is playing, it clearly isn’t the beginning. There are others around them, but it’s the scent of buttery popcorn or the soft huffs of laughter that bring him out of it.
“W-what-”
“Shhhhh.” Jeongguk puts a hand over his. Seokjin relaxes, then tenses when he realizes that he relaxed. “If you think you can stand on your own, we’ll leave.”
They do. Outside the auditorium, Jeongguk explains that he didn’t know where to take him, so he took him to the movies. It was public, somewhere Seokjin could come out of it on his own. Seokjin should be grateful, but instead he’s furious and scared.
“You can’t just do that!” he yells. “You can’t just, just take me wherever you feel like! We’re basically strangers!”
Jeongguk winces. “Hyung, that’s not true. Please, I-”
“Don’t touch me!” Seokjin’s sharp cry causes at least one person to look. Just the one. “You really are an alpha, aren’t you?”
“Hyung, don’t-”
Seokjin takes a step back. This time, Jeongguk stays where he is, hands up. “You’re all the same, or maybe you’re worse? You used our familiarity, the fact that I felt comfortable around you-”
Jeongguk’s scent still does something to him. It tugs, tight in his tummy. Seokjin feels ill. “Hey, whoa, hyung. I really thought this would be the safest and most comfortable way to help. I’m sorry.”
There are tears in his eyes. How ridiculous. Wrapping his arms around himself, Seokjin turns so Jeongguk won’t be able to see them. There is logic to the alpha’s thinking, and it isn’t exactly his fault that he reacted so strongly to his scent - he won’t be able to give Jimin or Namjoon shit ever again.
“Jin hyung,” Jeongguk calls to him. His voice sounds warm, as warm as his scent that does things to him. “I missed you. I’m really sorry - this isn’t how I thought this would go.”
Seokjin frowns. Did he think about running into him again? Maybe at a family function. He is, after all, still friends with Taehyung, it sounds like. He thinks back to all of those years, Jeongguk such a small kid that followed him around while he was a teenager and Jeongguk’s nose was still too big for his face and his eyes somehow even bigger. Back then, Seokjin felt a nurturing tug towards him and Taehyung both. The two of them often got into rowdy trouble - perhaps indicative of their true alphadom after all - and more than once Seokjin had to mix up salve to press to bee stings, rashes, bruises from where a horse kicked them for messing around too close. He remembers Jeongguk as the less tearful of the two, often still smiling sweetly even in pain. Seokjin would soothe their wounds and make them lunch. He even recalls one of the first overnight stays that the boys had with Seokjin; they hiked out further in the woods than they planned to and Seokjin had the boys take turns riding on his back as they walked home.
Now, there is no feeling of safety that he could provide Jeongguk.
“No, it’s - I’m sorry, Jeongguk. Gguk.” Seokjin smiles feebly. Jeongguk is right - out of the options available to him, this really wasn’t a bad way to try and keep him comfortable (and safe). He didn’t drag him somewhere private, he couldn’t exactly take Seokjin home - this was a perfectly acceptable way to deal with a scent drunk omega other than taking them to a hospital or police station, both terrible options for all sorts of reasons.
“Hyung is sorry. I didn’t mean to snap at you.” Seokjin curls up on himself, trembling at the bottom of a high.
Jeongguk slips his jacket over his shoulders. “This might be ill advised, but I can’t stand to see you shaking.”
Seokjin will risk the possibility of foggy thoughts to have the delicious warmth of his jacket. Just for now. He slips his arms through and marvels at how big the jacket feels on him when it didn’t look that big on Jeongguk. He glances over - oh god. The alpha wears a black tank top, the kind that hangs down in the front and on the sides. Seokjin can see all of his pectoral muscles and that is far worse to his mental state than the scented jacket.
“It would also make me feel better if I saw you eat something,” he adds, hovering a little closer, fingers jittery on his thigh. Seokjin watches them.
“It would?”
Jeongguk smiles. “A lot better.”
Wordlessly, Seokjin follows Jeongguk out of the theater and down the street to a casual looking cafe where he orders them iced coffee and two different kinds of sandwiches which Seokjin never thought of as food to hand feed someone, but every time he takes a bite out of Jeongguk’s hand, the alpha’s smile grows larger.
“God, you’re so fucking cute,” he says. Out loud. To him!
“Me?” Seokjin asks, dumbfounded.
Jeongguk laughs. Seokjin’s shoulders relax, the turning in his stomach settles. “Yeah, you. You were always cute, though. Back then, I thought hyung was so gorgeous. You’re even more gorgeous now.”
How easily he can say such things while Seokjin feels his entire body redden. It’s so strange to hear Jeongguk flirt with him - he’s pretty sure it’s flirting - both in that flirting from most alphas would send him literally running, but also it’s Jeongguk. He met the kid when he was gangly and still growing, Seokjin already presented. Back then, he spent a lot of time with his little cousin and younger friend, and especially that first year when it was right after his own presentation, everyone had a chuckle because they assumed Taehyung and Jeongguk’s natural affinity for him came from an assumption that they too would be omegas.
Just three omegas, spending part of their childhood together.
Except, it was just Seokjin. Taehyung and Jeongguk grew up, and they’re both alphas now.
Taehyung’s parents were not prepared for him to be their oldest alpha. They’re still looking through his options, because he has the choice of a traditional arranged marriage, and if he has to guess, his aunt and uncle will even allow some condersideration for whom Taehyung might prefer from their list of candidates.
“Why are you here? What brought you back?” he asks softly. Jeongguk hears him perfectly well, he knows.
It takes a long time for him to answer, his gaze never ending appraisal of him. He holds Seokjin’s face in one hand, his thumb pressed to the corner of his lips until it slides down to cradle his jaw. “Everything I did, it was in preparation for this.”
“Hm?” Seokjin blinks. Did he accept a big fancy job here? He went away to study and start a career internationally where he would have more opportunities without a family name, no doubt. Why would he come back though? Surely someone like Jeongguk would prefer to stay where he can be exactly who he is. Currently, the occasional cafe patron side eyes the visible tattoos and the number of glittering piercings.
Seokjin stays warm in the alpha’s jacket though, and he definitely feels more clear headed despite it with food and a sugary dessert in his stomach. “Aw, hyung, you’re too thin!” Jeongguk had commented when Seokjin refused the slice of cake at first, but Jeongguk seems to remember his extreme fondness for anything strawberry flavored, so he relented.
Now, he’s eaten most of two sandwiches and all of the cake on his own.
“Are you back for good?”
Jeongguk shrugs. “Just kinda depends.”
What’s that mean?
“I have a feeling I won’t be staying put for long,” he adds. The way he says it sounds odd even to Seokjin. They have a history, but they haven’t seen each other for years. He can’t say if Jeongguk sounds sad, forlorn, or perhaps just resolute.
“I’m so glad I got to see you before though, like this.” Jeongguk smiles. It’s a full bunny smile, nose crinkling upward. It was disarming then and it’s disarming now.
“Ah, hyung is glad too.” Seokjin smiles. This time, it’s easy. Jeongguk may be an alpha, but he’s no threat to him. He’s kind and genuinely just wants to catch up. It’s unsettling to see him in his final form, which is unbearably attractive, unfortunately for him to admit, but still. It’s Jeongguk. Jeongguk was a good kid. He’s a good alpha.
Jeongguk inhales sharply. “You smell different, you know.”
Seokjin shrugs. “You know how it is. Your scent when you present isn’t necessarily the same at the height of - maturity.” He almost said sexual maturity, but he doesn’t need to in front of his dongsaeng. Whatever Jeongguk remembers Seokjin smelling like from his childhood-
“No, I meant now. This afternoon, versus this morning.” Jeongguk’s smile is sharper this time. “You smell much sweeter now.”
“Ah.” Seokjin can’t really detect subtle changes of his own scent, so he’s unsure.
“It’s nice, to be with someone who also has a scent,” Jeongguk comments, idly sipping at his coffee. Even the way he sits, he is alpha, sprawled back with his legs wide and his one arm draped across the back of Seokjin’s chair.
“You think?”
Jeongguk hums. “You know all those people out there who think those with the gene for expressed scents should only mate each other?”
Seokjin is well aware there are plenty of supporters for it, yes, his family being one of them. Everyone in the world is well aware that some people feel that way. “Is that something you want, Jeongguk-ah?”
It’s then that Seokjin smells it - the shift in Jeongguk’s scent. Subtle. Extremely subtle, but the way Jeongguk’s eyes flash also gives it away. “There’s only one thing I want.”
“O-oh?” Seokjin shivers. Even the lushness of Jeongguk’s jacket won’t keep it away.
Jeongguk licks his lips. Was there something there? “Hmmm. I’d do a lot to get it, too.”
The distant haze to this day returns, not in quite the same way as before, but in a weariness that comes from confusion. “Jeongguk-ah, hyung is tired. I’ve had a big meal, and I think I need to go home now.” He’s had enough of cryptic alpha talk.
“Of course, hyung. Can I walk you home?”
It’s a simple request. There’s nothing wrong with it, and yet - Jeongguk is an alpha, his brain reminds him. “Sure, Gguk-ah,” he says, because he genuinely is happy to see him again after so long, and he’s doing so well.
He even takes Jeongguk’s arm when it’s offered. It doesn’t feel weird or uncomfortable to him, and if his omega parent were here he might tell him that it’s instinctual, that no one will ever be able to offer him comfort the way an alpha can.
Seokjin stops himself from thinking anymore about that.
He knows it’s stupid. He isn’t governed by his instincts, Jeongguk is more than just an alpha, and relationships are successful regardless of the dynamics within them. He can let himself enjoy this. He can let himself enjoy the company of an alpha. Jeongguk can be a friend to him even, potentially, if he’s sticking around. Seokjin need not worry about intentions with him - Jeongguk isn’t an alpha who he will have nightmares about chasing him down the street, quite simply because he is not an alpha who would qualify to be invited to chase him.
It doesn’t matter if he knows where Seokjin lives. “Thank you for spending the day with me,” he says as he hands Jeongguk his jacket back. He takes it, even if he eyes Seokjin’s shivering with a heavy look.
“It was my pleasure, rest assured.” He does this little bow, a mockery in its own way, and they both laugh.
“Maybe I’ll see you again? If you plan to be around for a while, at least.”
Jeongguk’s smile is tight out of one side of his mouth. “I think you’ll probably see me again.”
Seokjin gives him a genuine smile. “Good night, Jeongguk-ah.”
It feels strange standing there, like this. Like there was too much space in between them when in fact there have been oceans in between them for a long time. It feels like they should be touching. It feels like a moment in which an alpha might lean down and kiss him.
“Good night, hyung.” Jeongguk reaches for him slowly. It’s Seokjin’s hand that he brings to his lips and kisses. “See you soon.”
When he strolls down the street to disappear into the crowd of pedestrians, he does so with an easy swagger, hand flinging his jacket over one shoulder. Seokjin watches him go.
It is, of course, this night. The night.
It is a night in which Seokjin looks forward to returning home, lulled to safety and complacency by such an easy day. He does not hesitate to punch in the code to his door, he does not remove his shoes with dread. He simply shuffles in with a smile still on his face, lost in a haze of thought around an alpha kissing his hand, flips on the lights, then freezes when he sees them there, standing in the middle of his living room.
His furniture is all gone.
“No!” Seokjin stumbles backwards into the door with a bang. His parents step forward in unison.
“Seokjin.” When he imagined this day, he always thought his omega parent might look the softer of the two. He does not, in fact.
“Please.” He’s already shaking so hard he can’t pick his shoes back up. He tries to, but they slip right through his fingers. There is no feeling left in his hand. His bag - his bag is there, ready to go next to the door. He has shoes in it.
“You know how it works. We’ll put out the call for those invited. You’ll have a twelve hour head start,” his omega parents says.
“Next we see you, we’ll celebrate,” alpha parent adds. He smiles. “We can’t wait to meet your alpha.”
Seokjin’s knees buckle and he drops to the floor. “I won’t do it. I refuse. Please. Give me some dignity. Just - whoever it is, just send them here,” he cries, and for a moment, he really means it. For a moment, his dreams of running away and starting over are gone.
They both shake their heads. “You know the rules. You must run. They must catch. Seokjin.” His omega parent stoops down to cup his cheeks and kiss them.
“We gave you as long as we could. You’re thirty now. We can’t wait any longer.” He helps Seokjin put on his shoes. “It will be okay. Every alpha we handpicked for you will be a worthy choice. Now, it’s up to you. Run, until you see the right one, alright?”
“I can’t,” Seokjin sobs. “I can’t feel my legs.”
“That’s normal, sweetheart. It’s the adrenaline getting you ready for flight. Now, take your bag,” he pauses to put the handle into Seokjin’s hand, curling the fingers around it for him, “and run. Remember the rules. Your suitors will be marked. They must have the marking to claim you.”
They help him stand. They put a coat on him and make sure his laces are tied. “We stay. You go.”
They kiss him on the cheeks then step back. He has to open the front door.
Seokjin puts the backpack across his back. Inside the pockets of the long coat, one of them put some candies. This is it. Once he walks out that door, his life of independence, as little independence as he had, is over. Will it really be so different? He asks himself. He will go from living under his parents’ thumb to the thumb of an alpha. He can do it. He can survive it. He can -
He planned for this.
He’s going to go as far as money and time will take him. If he’s lucky - if he’s really, really lucky - maybe he will be able to fall off the grid completely. It’s rare, but it’s happened before, and if he runs away like this, his parents can’t come looking for him. It’s fair game. Maybe he can do it, especially if he grabs another one of his go-bags out of the train station nearby. He has enough cash in the bag on his back now to make it for awhile, but more cash is more cash, and it means long term that he wouldn’t have to stop and pick up odd jobs.
If he makes it that long.
“Good luck,” his alpha parent says. “Just remember - it isn’t the end of the world. Promise.”
It just feels like it is.
“They could be out there already,” Seokjin mumbles to himself. Invited alphas know a chase is about to begin, because invitations go out a week in advance. At the end of the week, the family hosting the run officially calls for the start, but now he wonders about Sunghoon chasing him the other day. Has he been staying close all week, just waiting?
Was he studying what Seokjin might do when he runs for it?
“You need to go. The clock starts now.” They gently push him. Seokjin stumbles back, hand on the doorknob.
When he opens the door and flies out of his apartment building, it’s from a back door for the employees and deliveries only. He jogs down the alley and out onto the road - the less busy of the two that his apartment opens onto, then heads east towards the train station with a coin locker that he paid an employee to break for him so it could be permanently his.
For the first ten minutes, his evening appears normal. There are plenty of people out and about, rubbing shoulders with him as he travels to his destination. He’s almost in sight of the entrance to the subway station when he notices a burly alpha that has the lumbering gait and weighted gaze of someone following him. Seokjin does not recognize him, but the alpha doesn’t hide the fact he’s following.
Quickly, Seokjin jumps down the stairs. It’s not ideal to have someone already on his tail, but they’re not allowed to touch him for twelve hours. Technically, closer to eleven hours now, so Seokjin won’t let one alpha keep him away from the bag. He’ll skip trying to grab a third stashed bag - the one at Jimin’s would be easiest - to lose his first tail, then it’s all bets off.
In between the time it takes to reach the locker, punch in the code, and quickly shove the contents of that bag into his other backpack which is larger by default, the alpha from the street saunters closer.
“Hey, pretty,” he leers, arms crossed and hip resting against a pillar. “Should I introduce you to your future-”
“Fuck off,” Seokjin barks at him as he stands, mace dispersed into the howling alpha’s face as he goes.
It is not against the rules to fight back against an alpha, as long as the actions taken are not intentionally lethal.
Even permanent bodily damage is something worn as a badge of honor amongst some alphas who won their mate in a chase.
Technically, Seokjin shouldn’t do something as public as macing a guy where there are so many cameras - in the common population, police won’t overlook something like this just because it’s part of the fucked-up elite’s mating call, but even if the guy presses charges later, it’s unlikely to stick. Police don’t like to get involved at all unless absolutely necessary.
Seokjin takes the stairs up two by two until he sees a figure at the top.
Jaehyun.
Seokjin barely falters. He holds the mace up as he walks up the stairs. Jaehyun doesn’t move, but he lets Seokjin slide around him, an arm’s length in between them. “You can’t touch me.”
“Yet,” Jaehyun agrees. His walk is much more leisurely and youthful, hands in his pockets.
It’s then that Seokjin sees it - the pin. The shiny pin of a simple red rose on the label of his blazer.
The alpha at the coin lockers wore something similar that he didn’t take time to study, but it’s obvious now. The marker for his suitors is as simple as they come.
How romantic.
“I know that I can outrun you,” Seokjin says, mentally calculating which route he wants to run from here. He’s frightened, but he has time to lose him. He has to believe in that.
“And just how do you know? Because you outrun other pathetic alphas?” Jaehyun asks. “That was just for fun. Now, run along, little omega. I want to tell our children one day about the little jaunt you took me on, and I don’t want to be disappointed.”
It would be a fantasy to kick Jaehyun square in the chest so he fell back down those stairs, but Seokjin doesn’t. That kind of thing could accidentally kill someone, so he lunges forward at Jaehyun before faking to his right.
It doesn’t work, of course. He can hear the alpha running right behind him, and this time he’s close. Far closer than Sunghoon ever was that day from the park. Seokjin isn’t sure why Jaehyun wants to spend so much energy on this n0w - sure, there is a distinct advantage to knowing where he’s headed and stalking him out until the timer runs down, but he doesn’t need to be this close to him to do that. He doesn’t have to taunt Seokjin like this to get what he wants.
The bag on his back is heavy and bulky. It bounces and flings itself miserably up and down, throwing off his speed and coordination. It’s so distracting that Seokjin finds it hard to plan as he darts down major roads and into heavy traffic, hoping to lose him in a crowd. He also at least tries to avoid plowing over pedestrians unlike his pursuer, but in between one back alley and another, just as he begins to despair that he won’t be able to lose him before he loses his breath, a dark blur far faster than either of them rushes past Seokjin. He doesn’t see it, but he certainly hears it, the choked off yell of surprise and the crunch of bodyweight on pavement.
More shouting, and without breaking pace Seokjin has to glance over his shoulder. He has no idea what’s happening, how close Jaehyun might be -
“Run!” Jeongguk yells at him, waving at him from over Jaehyun’s pinned body. The alpha growls then spits in Jeongguk’s face. Seokjin almost lands face first as he watches Jeongguk’s face snap back and heave the guy off the ground with ease and push him up against a nearby wall. “Hyung! Go!”
Seokjin turns and sprints all out. Without someone directly pursuing him, he can make it to the ferry for the next boat. He can take this boat to the next boat. He can make it out of the country without scanning his passport once.
But what was Jeongguk doing there? They parted ways probably an hour ago. They aren’t that far from Seokjin’s apartment yet, he guesses. Did Jeongguk see him running and understand? Does he know that Seokjin’s life is about to change? The alpha did the kindest thing anyone could do for him at that moment - bide him some time. It’s more than what most do.
Still. Seokjin doesn’t want Jeongguk to see this. It’s more than just humiliating - it is the starkest reminder of how different they are, and the next time they see each other - if they see each other again - Seokjin will be someone else’s property. Jeongguk will be young, successful, whatever he wants to be with whoever he wants to be it with, and Seokjin will be a claimed omega.
And who knows if they’ll ever see each other again? If Seokjin has his way, he won’t see any of them again. He’s about to start over where no one knows his name or face. He’s going to live as a no name nobody as long as he can, and for so long he’s dreaded it because of how hard it would be. He did not dread it much because of the people he would leave behind, save Jimin and maybe Namjoon now, but the thought that he won’t see Jeongguk again sits like a pit in the bottom of his stomach. It doesn’t matter. Jeongguk means nothing to him. They aren’t even friends. It cannot bother him, or hold him back.
The ferry Seokjin picked out a long time ago as his preferred choice for getting out of the city runs every hour on the hour until midnight. He makes it to the docks with four minutes to spare, thrusting coins into the guy’s hands without stopping, hopping over his heavy boots onto the boat and rushing into the interior section where a small crowd of passengers sit. They all wearily eye him, heavily flushed and panting noisily.
The boat blares a horn, ready to depart. Seokjin presses himself against the wall close to the window overlooking where passengers board, but there’s no one. The workers ready to cast off, not a single sole boarding after him. On shaky legs, Seokjin creeps out the back exit to suck down the cooler air outside. He removes the bag from his back and puts it at his feet, bracing himself against the side as the boat putters out from the dock, just barely inching its way out. Outside, the engine is loud, the boat barely rocking back and forth yet.
Growing up, Seokjin hated boats, hated being on the open water. He liked fishing off the dock over the lake nearby, but the ocean terrified him. When he presented, suddenly he realized the ocean would need to be a companion to him. He asked for deep sea fishing expeditions as birthday gifts, hoping to grow out of some of the seasickness he’s always had. Tonight, he barely feels a thing. His legs already shake so much he cannot believe he stills stands, his arms strangely numb but fingers constantly reaching to check for his bag on their own.
The boat drifts, but he can still easily see everything on the dock. There are people walking around on a pier nearby, couples holding hands or young groups of kids bored and looking to entertain themselves. Not many stand alone, but there’s one figure that grabs his attention as the engine audibly shifts into a higher gear. The figure is striking, even in the near dark after dusk, even dressed in all black. It should make him blend in; instead, he stands out.
The figure walks slowly up to the railing above the water and leans over it, folding their hands. They’re looking straight out at the ferry.
If Seokjin hadn’t just seen him this day, then he would have never recognized Jeon Jeongguk. As is, all he can see is the reflections off the piercings in his ears and lip, the peek of dark smudges against his skin. Within a few more seconds, the boat pulls far enough away that Seokjin can’t make out that kind of detail anymore. All he can see is a person in black watching him.
But he knows who he saw.
And he knows what he saw.
Even from a distance, there was a glint on Jeongguk’s jacket that Seokjin will never be able to unsee or comprehend. It is as familiar to him as unfamiliar as the item itself is.
The pin.
Jeongguk wears the rose pin.