Minding Their Own 1

Still no new message from Gyuri.

Although a bit disappointed, Sangcheol does not feel as bad as he felt a few weeks ago. It is obvious their break is real, and Gyuri does not have any plans to stay in contact with each other. After all they went through together as a couple, the omega did not even give them the honour of staying as friends…

Sangcheol is still hurt by it. But he is trying to move on.

Sure, he still has hopes of reconciliation; they were together for almost six years, a month is not enough to erase their memories together. And truth be told, he still cannot accept it completely but at least he does not feel as obsessed over her any more. Apart from the checking her Instagram and Twitter updates every hour, he finally lets himself enjoy his new life as a college student. Their parting is not perfect, with lots of unanswered questions, but the alpha learned to let go bit by bit. He realized how pathetic he is becoming once he saw how Taeyong kept obsessing over Haneul since that night. Fortunately for him, Gyuri made her cut clean, and so, unlike his friend who thought he shared something special with the male omega, it is easier for Sangcheol to move on.

Baby steps.

"He finally talked to me!" Taeyong punches him on the shoulder before taking his place against the door. The owner of the room, Sangcheol, will be leaving for his part-time job in a few minutes so the man knows well enough not to make himself comfortable on the bed. Turning his head towards his friend, Sangcheol decides to entertain himself with the details. Despite how pathetic he is being, the obsession Taeyong has for this omega is intriguing. It makes him wonder what the man wrote in his book, or what people know about the author that makes them thirsty for more.

"He's the ideal omega man! You know, I thought he'd never even look at people like us but," Taeyong smirks, pointing at himself, "I got him."

"Really? Is he a young master or something?" Sangcheol decides to ignore the sudden confidence from the other. Albeit his own wonderful background and good looks, his friend is one of the most down-to-earth person he ever knows which is why, this is amusing to hear. Upon hearing that question, the guest, befuddled, stands up straight and stares at him, "Seriously? You didn't even Google him? Ryuu! I told you he's a famous author!"

"I… don't read?"

"Abuse, man! He's been looking for an alpha since," Sangcheol can feel all the blood leaving his body as soon as he heard the first word.

He read about a few of those cases in the paper and internet, but he never actually met someone in real life who has actually been through abuse. This has always been one of those things that he knows is real, but feels as like a myth; like kidnapping or, winning a lottery. Until it happens nearby or to people he knows, he basically find it difficult to empathize with it at all. But right now, not only did it does happen, it happened to someone he knows, a man he almost slept with even! All the feeling he should have felt came flooding in – fear, disbelief, sympathy, everything. His brain just suddenly became empty.

"He's weak and helpless and needs protection. He just awakens the alpha in me. He's perfect…" Taeyong goes on about his adoration towards the author which now, knowing the man's story, sounds creepy. Because his friend is not admiring the man's survival or strength, he is obsessed with him sexually, romantically.

"Heh," Sangcheol tries to laugh it off, hoping his pale face is not too obvious. "You're messed up man."

"Yah! I'm not! I don't mean it in a weird way Ryuu! All I'm saying is, I found someone I wanna protect so badly. That don't happen very often 'kay?" Taeyong places his hands on both side of his head, showing his distress from the weird implications coming from his friend, who only shrugs his shoulders as he laughs to reveal his gums.

Looking at his wall clock, Sangcheol almost curses as he turns to get his bag from the bed. If he doesn't go now, he will be late for his job. 'Tae, let's continue later. Need to go now."

#####

The clock ticks slowly as Sangcheol washes the cups, finding himself almost bored with the chore. His hands are aching to take out his phone and check out if there are any updates from his ex-lover but doing so will defeat all the purpose of him getting jobs and busying himself with club activities in the first place. He shouldn't start slacking off or that will become his new habit. Looking for something to distract himself instead, he chooses to ponder about the omega his friend is obsessed over.

He wonders what happened with Haneul which made Taeyong want to protect him so much. Based on what he saw that night, despite knowing the man's dark past, he found the omega far from weak and helpless. Haneul definitely knows what he wants. In fact, Sangcheol thought the omega is a bit… scary actually. Obviously he didn't tell his friend about their 'little' make-out session before the omega stormed off and ended up sleeping with Taeyong, but he is definitely not the innocent type who needs protection from all those 'bad alphas'. Unlike his Gyuri who-

"Ryuu, we need you at the machine." His senior's voice breaks his trail of thoughts and Sangcheol quickly closes the tap before taking his position behind the counter. Already waiting in a line are the customers waiting for their take-outs. Nodding his head as an acknowledgement to his colleague, he makes way for the girl to move pass him to the back, seemingly to answer a very important call.

A few minutes of mending the espresso machine, making sweet beverages, the girl comes back to apologize and announces her sudden leave. He replies with another nod and a smile. Sangcheol really doesn't mind taking over, the job requires him to focus instead of having his thoughts astray which is what he wanted in the first place.

Reading the new order on the tablet placed in front of him, the alpha finds himself momentarily frozen as he catches a familiar scent on one of the customers. Realizing it is actually only a lingering scent on an alpha, he lets out a soft sigh of relief.

Of course it wouldn't be his ex-lover. She won't be too stupid to visit him here. She knows he works here; she wouldn't entice him like this. She is too good for that. "Caramel macchiato and-"

Sangcheol's heart drops.

He wasn't mistaken. It is Gyuri's scent after all. It is her lingering scent.

He knows the customer. The guy is from the same university as her. She uploaded pictures with him a few times with captions signifying 'normal friends'. Sangcheol stalked him once, the alpha has a hot, model girlfriend.

But Sangcheol is also positive he isn't mistaken about this.

They slept together. Gyuri and the guy.

They only know each other for less than a month and already-

"Hey man?" Sangcheol jumps a bit at the call, bowing slightly for his mistake before passing the drink to the alpha and his friends. Staring at the back of the modelling school student, he lets his head fall, laughing slightly at his pathetic realization.

How quickly she moved on from him… With a modelling student who actually has another girlfriend. And to think that he actually still…

Not letting his miseries get the best of him, Sangcheol continues reading the orders. He can feel his eyes warms up as he recalls all the times he encountered similar situations like this the past years but brushed it off thinking he was just being paranoid…

He wasn't. She had been sleeping around. Which explained why she refused to see him on weekends her parents weren't home despite his eager attempts to spend the night together. Now that he thought about it, the time he caught her with that alpha when they broke up was probably not the first time she did that to him…

"Fuck Sangcheol, focus." He whispers to himself as he turns away from the customers to prepare their orders. They are busy and short of staffs; he needs to stop being a pathetic shit and man up. Stop caring about the worthless omega and start making some fucking good coffe-

"-cheol? Hey," for the umpteenth time today, the freshman finds himself being pulled back from his wandering thoughts. Passing the beverages towards the customer and excusing himself, he makes his way to his senior who is mending the register. She has an apologetic look on her face. That is when a loud smacking sound of the table sends the whole café silent.

"I'm sorry, but can you take care of that? I'll make the drink." Sangcheol takes a peek at the source of the commotion - a man who is soaked gets up and following him is his partner, a lady who doesn't seem afraid of him. Cursing his rotten luck, the young alpha sighs and makes his way towards the angry couple.

This kind of scene, although rare, apparently happens enough times at the café that they wrote about how to handle the situation in the manual book.

Remembering not to intensify his own pheromone and to talk calmly without touching the customer if not needed, he gets beside the couple. As he expected, the irritated male tries to fight him but as soon as he realizes his pushes does not budge the bulky student who still keeps his calm, smiling face and threatening to call the authority, both the couple leaves the café dramatically. Now that everything is settled, he turns around and apologizes to the other customers before making his way back behind the counter.

'Thanks Cheol. Just let Dongho clean up the mess." Again, he puts up his charming smile, pretending to be calm. Truth be told, has it not been because of the job, he can imagine himself punching that damned customer. Out of all the time and place they can fight, they chose to do it here on the day he is especially irritated.

Today is not going well.