Chapter 2: Rumors and Revelations

Around that time, Noah’s school held a festival.

Noah’s class planned to draw caricatures, donate the proceeds to a local orphanage, and then do volunteer work there.

Noah was quite talented at drawing, so he decided to draw the caricatures himself, and thanks to his unwilling celebrity status, the classroom was swamped with customers.

The problem occurred on the second day of the two-day festival, which was open to the public.

Not only were there far more people than in previous years, but a group of students from an Alpha school, quite a distance from Noah’s neighborhood, showed up and caused a disturbance.

That was the first time Noah had seen an Alpha in person, aside from celebrities on TV.

They were all incredibly tall and well-built.

Even if they weren’t as handsome as celebrities, their average appearance was superior to the Betas at his school.

Also, without exception, none of them seemed to have pleasant personalities.

The menacing Alphas pushed past the Betas lining up at Noah’s class and got in line to have their caricatures drawn.

A physical fight naturally broke out between the Alphas who had brazenly cut in line and the Betas.

When the students and teachers couldn’t get the situation under control, the police were called, and only then did things calm down.

Noah had just been diligently drawing, but he became a key witness and went to a police station for the first time in his life.

While sitting at the police station waiting for his mother, the piercing stares of the dozen or so Alpha students involved in the incident were fixed on him.

As a normal, heterosexual Beta, Noah got goosebumps.

His dream was to get a pretty girlfriend now that he had grown taller in high school, but these guys, even bigger than Lee Moonchul from the judo club, were looking at him the way one would look at a girl they liked, muttering strange things whenever their eyes met.

The summary of the incident, which he learned at the police station, was this:

The photo of Noah that Lee Moonchul had posted on social media had become a hot topic in a private Alpha community under the title “A Dominant Omega at a Beta School?”, and they had come to see him in person.

Out of more than 300 high schools in Seoul, only about ten were specialized schools for Alphas or Omegas, and among them, Dominant Omegas or Dominant Alphas were extremely rare.

The prevailing rumor was that they were mostly children of chaebol families who studied abroad, which made sense because having a Dominant Omega attend the same school was something you only saw in TV dramas.

In reality, people were starting to wonder if they were nearly extinct.

Despite the rumor of a Dominant Omega being at a Beta school being absurd, a few who saw Noah’s picture started to spread serious, long-winded comments, citing overseas cases and statistics as “proof” that he might be a Dominant, which led to this whole mess.

That day, Noah shouted “I’m not an Omega!” at the Alphas who were staring at him with fire in their eyes, only to be scolded by a detective for making a scene before going home with his mother.

‘Mom, I’m not an Omega, right?’

His mother, who had left her evening restaurant business to her sisters and rushed over, scoffed, asking how an Omega could possibly come from a family of Betas.

She said it was likely the same for his father’s side, who had passed away early.

The next day at school, Moonchul apologized to Noah and said he had deleted the picture.

The sudden influx of people to his account, along with the flood of malicious comments and messages, had become too much for an ordinary student like him to handle.

He had only wanted to boast about having a pretty, handsome friend in his class, but the price was too high.

Noah accepted his apology in exchange for ten free treats from the school store.

But even after that, Noah’s life was no longer as quiet as it used to be.

After school, male students who were clearly Alphas began waiting for him in front of the school.

Some seemed to have just come to get a glimpse of his face, but others were more proactive and would talk to him.

To the bold Alphas who would abruptly ask him out or for his number, Noah always had the same response.

‘I’m not gay, you know?’

It didn’t matter to Noah whether the guys hitting on him were Alphas or Betas.

In his eyes, they were nothing more than disgustingly large, d*ck-having male b*stards.

‘Ugh… so repulsive.’

The Alphas were persistent, living up to the social stereotype of being selfish and aggressive.

Following his friends’ advice, he would ignore most of them or politely refuse, and 90 percent of them would leave peacefully, but the rest were the problem.

No matter how many times he refused, they would show up every day as if they had nothing better to do, and Noah found it hard to endure.

Sometimes, when he was on the verge of cursing them out during an argument, some of them would lose their temper.

Whenever that happened, Dongseok and Minho, who always walked home with him, would step in, calm Noah down before he could recklessly charge at them, and they would run away.

Occasionally, he would also be harassed by Omegas.

Compared to the Alphas, the Omegas were openly hostile.

There was even an Omega who grabbed him by the collar, tears streaming down his face, claiming that one of the Alphas who had been hitting on Noah was his boyfriend.

On the other hand, there were also Omegas built like Alphas who would hit on him, saying they were fine with Betas.

Among the Omegas, Noah had a reputation as “that audacious Beta who hits on Alphas despite not being an Omega.”

It was a complete mess.

“You ran around insisting you weren’t an Omega, and yet here we are. Hmm.”

Minho said, patting his full stomach.

His tone was gentle, but it held no comfort or empathy.

It was a tone befitting a guy whose mantra was that everything happens for a reason and that one should accept both pain and happiness with a reverent attitude.

Always acting like he was the only adult, even though they were all twenty.

“If you had become an Omega back then, we wouldn’t have been able to go to the same school. I would’ve hated that…”

Dongseok, the soft-hearted one, whined.

At least his response was to Noah’s liking.

Those with special secondary genders had to attend schools exclusively for their own kind.

He hated the thought of being separated from these guys he’d known since kindergarten, but after his experiences, he found Omegas to be a detestable bunch, and the thought of attending a school full of them was unimaginable.

Minho silently picked up the beer bottle and filled each of their glasses.

Noah’s glass was still the same as before.

“Here, let’s have a drink. You becoming an Omega changes nothing for us.”

“You must be shocked, so cheer up.”

The friends’ encouragement almost made him emotional for a moment, but then Noah’s brow furrowed as he looked down at his glass.

“Hey. There’s one more thing I haven’t told you.”

“…”

“What is it?”

Noah swallowed hard.

This was truly the confession of Yunoah’s lifetime.

“I’m pregnant.”

Dongseok and Minho, who prided themselves on having survived a rather turbulent adolescence, were no match for this confession.

A quiet silence flowed between them, separated by the scorched black grill.

“With who, for crying out loud…”

“Hey! We see each other every weekend. When did you have time to meet someone, date, and get pregnant…!”

A relationship…

Noah suddenly thought about that important process he had skipped.

He was right.

The fact that a man could get pregnant was so earth-shattering that he had completely forgotten about the natural order of things.

Meeting someone nice, dating, getting married, and starting a family.

These were things Noah should have had, things he could have enjoyed.

But the reality was…

“I can’t remember anything…”

As he was about to tear at his hair again, Minho simply pulled the hood of Noah’s hoodie over his head.

Thanks, buddy.

He pulled the drawstrings, his face scrunching up as his vision narrowed.

I wish I could just disappear like this.

As Noah vanished into his hoodie, his friends silently ordered soju.

On that fateful day, when Noah, who had lost consciousness, opened his eyes, the first thing he saw was the ceiling of an unfamiliar hotel room.

The light fixture on the ceiling was sparkling and quite pretty.

Other than that, it was a moderately sized, luxurious room equipped with a bed, an armchair, a desk, and a minibar.

Thankfully, he was alone in the bed.

‘What is this situation?’

Before he could even panic about his completely blank memory, Noah realized he was naked under the sheets, and a chill ran down his spine.

This was definitely a scene out of a drama.

As he became more alert, he heard the sound of running water from the bathroom.

It seemed someone was taking a shower.

Noah tried his best to concentrate and remember what had happened, but all he could recall were the words he had said while clinging to someone in the bathroom, begging for help, the man’s trousers and shoes, and the scent that had enveloped his entire body.

The hotel room was filled with the forest and flower scent he had smelled yesterday.

As he took a deep breath, he felt his whole body relax limply.

For a moment, Noah almost lost his senses again and burrowed into the blankets, but he snapped out of it with a start, slapped his own cheek, and quickly got up.

A quick glance revealed that his body was a mess.

His entire body was covered in bruises and contusions, though he had no idea where he had gotten them.

Fortunately, he saw his clothes neatly folded on a table.

He had to get out of here.

He didn’t have the courage to see the man’s face when he came out of the shower.

He had no memory of it, but he was certain he had had s*x with a man.

And he had been the one to cling to him.

He felt like he should apologize or thank the man who got caught up in his mess, but he was terrified of how the man would look at him.