Chapter 1: Prologue

If scents had colors, the area around him would look as if it were filled with floating pink clouds.

As the densely colored air enveloped Noah’s body, the headache that had tormented him for days vanished in an instant, and his mind grew distant.

Thump.

‘Where am I?’

His vision was blurry, as if a hazy film covered his eyelids.

He was sure he had been working just a moment ago, yes, at the hotel.

Today was his day to work part-time as a server in the banquet hall.

‘But why am I sitting in a place like this?’

His dazed mind couldn’t form a proper thought.

To make up for his hazy vision, he flailed his arm around.

His fingertips clanked against something—it was a toilet paper holder.

A bathroom.

He grabbed the holder and managed to stand up, only to perch on the toilet seat.

His legs had no strength; he nearly collapsed back to the floor after taking just two steps.

Giving up on leaving, he simply sat down.

Just sitting wasn’t comfortable either.

A scorching heat emanated from his entire body, followed by a ticklish sensation originating from his stomach, a feeling he had never experienced before.

“Haaa…”

Just as he raised a trembling hand to undo about three buttons of the shirt that was constricting his neck, a loud bang came from outside, and a man’s voice, seemingly cursing, brushed past his ears.

The sound didn’t quite reach the ears of the person sitting in the innermost stall.

Instead, his sense of smell and the sensation on his skin welcomed the unfamiliar scent of the intruder.

“Hhup.”

What he unknowingly inhaled was like the scent of a deep forest, or perhaps a rich floral fragrance.

Upon sensing the faint yet distinct, refreshing and sweet scent, his body instinctively demanded more of it.

“Help me…”

“…”

“Please…”

As he pleaded in a sorrowful voice, the one who carried the scent drew closer.

He could tell the distance not by footsteps or presence, but by the increasing density of the scent.

“Open the door.”

It was a deep, resonant, low-pitched voice.

His body, realizing that someone who could help was outside the door, was already staggering to its feet, struggling to get out.

This d*mn door was ridiculously large and heavy.

With fingers that trembled and wouldn’t move properly, he battled with the doorknob.

Drip, drip.

Beads of sweat fell from his forehead.

Click.

The lock on the doorknob released, and as the door opened outwards, his body, which had been leaning against it, collapsed forward helplessly.

In his barely raised line of sight were sleek suit trousers and well-polished shoes.

He reached out and grabbed the man’s leg.

“Please, you have to do something.”

The man said something as if he were angry, but Noah couldn’t understand him, so he could only reply with things like, “Yes,” and “It’s okay.”

His body was lifted into the air, bringing him closer to the source of the scent.

Instinctively, he burrowed into the embrace where the scent originated.

Thinking he could smell a scent like this for the rest of his life, he sniffed and licked where his face touched.

For a moment, the large body staggered, causing his face to pull away, but he clung on with all his might and buried his nose again.

Veins stood out on the neck of the one he embraced.

Slam.

The sound of a door slamming echoed once more, and his body was mercilessly thrown onto something.

“Hagh.”

The surface he landed on was quite soft, but his carelessly tossed body screamed in protest.

As he whimpered in pain, a scent of incomparable density washed over his entire body.

“You brought this upon yourself.”

The man’s angry voice was the last thing he heard clearly before his consciousness, which he had been barely holding onto, blacked out.

It was early spring, the day Noah, who had lived his life as a Beta, presented.

“I became an Omega.”

Noah said in a listless voice, running a hand through his already messy curly hair again.

A sigh of ‘Hoo…’ escaped him, and his slumped shoulders looked pitiful.

“Oh, really.”

“Hey. Eat this and cheer up.”

His friend Minho carelessly picked up a piece of meat with tongs and placed it on Noah’s plate.

To think he called these guys friends, who treated his once-in-a-lifetime confession as if it were ‘I lost my phone’ or ‘I’m enlisting in the army.’

No, if he had actually said he’d lost his phone or was enlisting, wouldn’t he have gotten a more enthusiastic reaction?

Noah quickly pondered whether he had been living his short twenty years of life all wrong.

“These guys!”

“…”

“…”

The meat that had been piled like a mountain on the grill moments ago had vanished, leaving only the slow-cooking bones behind.

Even the grilled garlic that Noah loved was almost all gone.

Noah’s eyes narrowed as he glanced back and forth between the desolate grill and the faces of his friends, their mouths too full to speak.

“Here, here. Drink this.”

Noah slammed his metal chopsticks down as if to show his anger, but his friends paid him no mind.

His friend Dongseok poured beer into the glass of the fuming Noah.

He poured it so quickly that the beer foam overflowed from the glass, but Noah just stared at it blankly, not chugging it down in a hurry as he usually would, complaining about the wasted foam.

Only then did Dongseok think something was off.

“Hey. What’s wrong? I already gave you your share of the meat. Don’t tell me it’s about the garlic?”

“…”

Dongseok guessed that Noah was in a bad mood because the meat was gone.

Noah was now chewing on his lip.

‘What’s with him…’

Dongseok shook his head as if he couldn’t understand Noah and ordered more food.

His other friend, Minho, was still happily stuffing his face.

“You pigs! Aren’t you even surprised that your friend became an Omega?”

To call these guys friends!

Noah was furious.

To think he couldn’t even bring himself to drink the beer overflowing right in front of him!

On top of that, it was deplorable that he had no appetite at all, even with his favorite king-sized ribs right there.

“Honestly, we all thought there was a 90% chance you’d become an Omega.”

Minho finally lifted his head from his plate and said calmly.

Dongseok, who had been watching from the side, nodded in agreement.

“It’s a bit late, though. I thought you would’ve presented in high school.”

“Sh-should I say congratulations? Haha.”

‘You thought I would present?’

Noah became a little confused after hearing his friends.

His agitation gradually subsided, and he listened to his friends while picking up and chewing on a raw cucumber, one of the basic side dishes.

“Frankly, I’m relieved you’ve presented, even if it’s late. Don’t you think?”

“Yeah. Considering the chaos during every festival when groups from the Alpha school would flock over to see Yunoah… well, yeah.”

“Back then, I couldn’t understand why those Alpha b*stards would come all the way to a Beta school and act like thugs instead of going to an Omega school.”

“But I get it now. After getting into college, I realized Yunoah’s looks beat most of the Omegas there.”

It was a standard story they brought up whenever they met, but for some reason, it felt more significant today.

Come to think of it, there had been more than a few occasions where he was mistaken for an Omega and got into trouble.

His high school homeroom teacher had even advised him to get his secondary gender tested again.

Was it because he ignored those words that he ended up in this mess?

A bitter taste filled Noah’s mouth.

When Noah was a first-year in high school, a rumor that he was an Omega had ruined the school festival.

It was all because of a single photo that a guy from his class named Lee Moonchul had posted on social media.

Unlike Noah, who was terrible at taking selfies and usually only posted pictures of landscapes or food, the photo Moonchul took looked amazing even to Noah’s eyes.

He had been pleased and given permission to post it, but he had no idea things would blow up like that.

The day after the photo was posted, as soon as Lee Moonchul arrived at school, he made a fuss, thrilled that his follower count had increased thanks to Noah’s picture.

He clamored to take just one more picture, and for a moment, Noah was tempted to agree.

‘How many followers could he possibly gain from one lousy photo?’ he thought, but when he opened his social media app for the first time in a while, he was horrified.

The last picture he had posted three months ago, a photo of a sea squirt, had over 200 likes and more than 100 comments.

There was also an enormous number of private messages, which he usually didn’t even know existed.

‘Just what did he post…?’ he wondered as he went to Moonchul’s social media page.

[ (Photo) ]

[ lmcswag: Our class’s official Dominant Omega, lol. @noahnoah0420 #handsomeguy …See more ]

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‘What do you mean, Dominant Omega?!’

Noah clenched his fists, ready to punish Moonchul for spouting such nonsense, and started to run.

His small fist cut through the air.

It was a fight he couldn’t win from the start; Lee Moonchul was in the judo club, and their weight classes were completely different.

Moonchul, who easily took one or two of the powerless punches, just grinned annoyingly as if to say, “What’s the big deal?”

He just seemed happy about his increased follower count.

Up to that point, no one could have predicted the repercussions of this incident would become so widespread.

It started small.

During every break, a few kids would come to Noah’s classroom and ask if there really was a Dominant Omega there.

At first, even his classmates, who had jokingly called out “Hey! Dominant Omega!” to him, started to actively deny the rumor together when the number of kids looking for Noah grew to an annoying extent.

However, no matter how much they denied it, explaining the truth to the entire student body of over 300 was impossible.

This was because some students who actually saw Noah came to believe he was a real Omega.