Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

To be a part of these games AND to be an Omega weren’t exactly two things someone wanted to unite on oneself. It was self-explaining, to be honest - in here, you got no inhibitors, no medicine at all, no protection from Alpha players and the list went on and on.

Shortly said - you got nothing - and being an Omega sucked even more in here than everywhere else on this planet.

Well, that didn’t change the fact that there WERE some players whose secondary gender was just that - that of an Omega.

First, there was this old omega woman - she was way past her heat times, had a warm, welcoming smile and always smelt like good homemade food. She was kind and nurturing, but also harsh if she needed to - the perfect mother or grandmother.

She was never alone, always supported by her beta son and the rest of her team, 120, who was an alpha woman and 095, a small beta girl.

The second omega player was safer than the old woman, even though she was young and heavily pregnant. 222 had the luck of being part of the strongest team in here - with the scariest alpha you’ve ever seen, a very strong beta who played already for the second time and two betas who did go to the navy and were always ready to fight for her.

The third, and officially last, omega player was part of Thanos group, where a young female alpha didn’t leave his side at all and the others- Thanos as an alpha, and his two beta lackeys, one nice and polite, the other…kinda weird, also kept an eye on the shy omega boy.

These three were the only ones that lasted longer than the first game and also the only known omegas of the participants.

Well, there was indeed one more omega.

But…it was difficult. He wasn’t exactly allowed to tell anyone, in fact, he hasn’t told anybody his secondary gender since he presented as an omega in his pre teens.

His dad was against it - he saw it as a flaw, as some weakness, not only his own but also that of his family, including his father.

And that’s how Dae-ho never told anyone that he wasn’t really a beta that went to the navy and more an omega who spent his life being tucked away in his dad’s house, protected by his beta and alpha sisters.

He did go to the navy when he was 20, to harden him up - maybe his dad thought he would miraculously turn into a beta or, even better, an alpha as soon as he smelt the navy air.

Well, that wasn’t what happened. What happened was that he went into heat two weeks in (because one of his friends mistook his inhibitors for some sleeping pills and took all of em over the first days) and nearly got raped by some other soldiers there. He then was kicked out, blamed for everything and had to pay a high sum to the navy as an apology.

And that's how Dae-ho had landed here - his dad had also kicked him out after the navy wrote him a letter about what happened and Dae-ho still needed to pay them.

Now he was stuck in here, without any medicine or someone who knew about his second gender, pretending to be a chill, friendly beta guy and protecting other omegas who really didn’t need his help at all.

Normally, Dae-ho really wasn’t that complicated. He took what he could get, he got into some trouble but never too much and he respected his elders. He wasn’t a trouble maker and he also wasn’t a shy kid. A perfect beta.

But the games were only days before his heat and originally Dae-ho had planned to play a bit and then go home (to the worn down excuse of a flat he currently lived in, he didn’t want to stay with his sisters anymore) and somehow ride through his heat alone, like he always did.

That’s why he chose to stay, cause he thought they could leave after the second game.

Well…he was truly fucked now. Nobody wanted to leave, these greedy people never got their mouths full enough and, just like that, he couldn’t go home after the second game.

Maybe that was his karma - why didn’t he vote for X when he still had the chance to on the first day? Dae-ho has never been the brightest candle out there and that was okay, there had to be dumber ones, but right now he really wanted to slap himself. Hard.

His skin was burning since he woke up today and it truly was a wonder how he managed to play Gonggi perfectly. Maybe because he had managed to really burn all the moves into his mind when playing this over and over with his sisters when he was younger. It was more like a reflex than a game for him now.

His heat would surely not start before tomorrow evening, but right now he wanted to vomit or crawl out of his skin or just hide somewhere and sleep. He felt weird, somehow.

Normally, Dae-ho would have already taken his pills so that he didn’t have to feel any of the symptoms beforehand but since they guards took all of that when they were asleep - even though they seemed to accept Thanos drugs perfectly fine - he was fucked.

"God.”, Dae-ho groaned quietly and stared at himself in the bathroom mirror.

That was the first time he managed to sneak in here without Jung-bae trailing him like a mother hen. He loved the older beta from heart but it became kinda suffocating lately, especially when all Dae-ho wanted was to splash some cold water into his face and take a deep breath - without being stared at.

The men’s bathroom was nearly empty beside him and Player 333, who was calmly washing his hands while Dae-ho had some minor mental crisis next to him. The famous youtuber himself was a Beta, Dae-ho had watched some of his videos in the past and remembered him mentioning that.

He had been somewhat jealous of the way someone like MG Coin could just randomly say "Ah, btw, I’m a Beta” and he himself had to live in the shadows just because of that damn secondary gender.

And maybe or maybe not did he give this particular video a thumbs down.

Dae-ho was dumb, but not that dumb - he saw how MG Coin gave him a side eye when he started to talk to himself, looking into the mirror with a frown and a slight blush from the upcoming heat.

He had to look like a real weirdo there, but that was okay - as long as his friends didn’t see him like that. It wasn’t like 333 had someone he could tell, the former beta being a loner and all.

“Hey-”, the beta began, slightly frowning, but was soon interrupted by the door who was nearly sent flying when Thanos and his two lackeys stepped in.

“MG Coin, where is my fucking money?”, the former rapper shouted and grabbed the collar of 333’s shirt, eyeing the red cross on the uniform of the other man with anger and disbelief.

“And why the hell did you vote x, you loser?”

That was something Dae-ho had also wondered - the beta seemed really chill with the games and had a really high load of debt on his plate, so why the sudden change? First he had also voted for o, Dae-ho was sure about that.

333 looked absolutely pissed off and he slapped Thanos’ hand away as if it were an annoying fly.

“Get the hell away from me, you alpha scum.”, he spat and Thanos didn’t look too content about that, gritting his teeth in anger.

He raised his hand to punch 333 again and that was when Dae-ho decided to step in - he somehow had this weird ass complex where he needed to help everyone, even those who obviously didn’t want his help, like 333. Maybe it was his inner omega, who needed to nurture the people around him.

So Dae-ho grabbed Thanos’ raised arm with all the strength he still could muster and looked at him seriously.

“Hey, stop that, yeah?”

Thanos’ stare was now on him and what at first was pure annoyance soon turned into something different, something rather strange as Thanos looked Dae-ho up and down in such a slow manner that Dae-ho could feel goosebumps on his neck. He let Thanos’ arm go.

“Hey hey hey, who are YOU?”, the purple haired man asked in a sing-song voice and he rang his tattooed fingers through his hair so it stuck out into all directions even more than before.

He didn’t look away from Dae-ho for even one second, 333 next to him totally forgotten.

Dae-ho blinked slowly at this newly found interest in himself - he wasn’t sure what to think about that, not really liking the alpha in front of him. He had no respect towards his elders and was unnecessarily loud and aggressive, not Dae-ho’s style.

Nevertheless, he needed to set an example by showing politeness and respect, so Dae-ho stood straight and flashed the alpha a forced friendly smile.

“I’m Dae-ho, that means big tiger. Nice to meet you.”

For a second the bathroom was silent, then 333 muttered something like ,,fucking idiot” and turned away in second hand embarrassment while Thanos’ friend 124 snickered amused, the other one, 256, looked really surprised and Thanos only continued staring.

His stare was so intense that Dae-ho really didn’t know what he should do, he just cleared his throat and held out his hand for the other man to grab it.

Well, that he surely did - with such a force that Dae-ho’s eye twitched in surprise when Thanos squeezed his hand, smiling like a serial killer before he let him go.

“Aren’t you a pretty one, hm?”, Thanos hummed in happiness and Dae-ho would lie if he said he wasn’t surprised by this statement.

Pretty? Who was the alpha talking about? Couldn’t be him, Dae-ho got called a lot of names before but pretty wasn’t exactly one of them. More like…useless, big, strong, ugly, annoying, loud - the list was endless, to be honest.

Even for a Beta he was tall, had always been, towering over his older sisters and also over 333, 256 and 124. Only Thanos, who was the same height as him, didn’t need to look up to Dae-ho.

“Excuse me?”, he just asked and Thanos grinned smugly, reaching for Dae-ho. Dae-ho instinctively took a step back tho, so the other couldn’t reach him.

Normally, he wouldn’t have backed down so easily but his inner omega was kinda suspicious and in an alarm mode because of this weird alpha he was facing who obviously had some weird interest in him. This whole situation was weird, if he thought about it.

Thanos didn’t let himself be devastated by the obvious rejection he just got from Dae-ho and instead took a step near him, still smiling a bit too brightly and kinda…dumb. And if Dae-ho thought someone looked dumb, they really did.

333, who looked at the scene unfolding in front of him with two raised eyebrows and a really annoyed expression on, suddenly stepped between Dae-ho and Thanos.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing here?”, he asked Thanos and crossed his arms in defiance.

Thanos sighed loudly.

“What’s it to you, MG Coin? Scram, I’ll talk to you later.”

124 grinned at that and pushed 333 out of Thanos’ way, so that the alpha could look at the object of his desire again. 256 seemed a bit confused at everything suddenly going on and just stood next to 124, looking very lost.

“My beautiful big tiger, you are very tall - just perfect for the legend Thanos, he can get that all.”, Thanos rapped and took another step to Dae-ho, who stared at him like he lost his mind. Which he maybe did, Dae-ho wasn’t so sure about that, to be honest.

Was this guy…flirting with him? Thanos? With HIM?

Maybe that was the new bullying technique or it was like a… fight… for the rapper? Everything else didn’t make any sense at all.

Why would he want to flirt with some official beta like Dae-ho? Even though Thanos didn’t care for the secondary gender if he thought about it - the beta girl he was flirting with on day one and also the alpha girl on his team were walking evidence for that.

But both were…still girls. It didn’t seem like Thanos was interested in any man here.

Well, except 333, but only in a hateful way.

“You wanna fight?”, Dae-ho asked in surprise and Thanos looked at him like he was the funniest guy on earth.

“What? Fight? Hell nah, I wanna fu- uh, take you on a date, big tiger.”, Thanos mused and winked at him.

Now Dae-ho was absolutely stunned.

“What? Why?”, he asked at the same time as 333 groaned in frustration, struggling against 124, who held his arm.

“Thanos, that’s something between you and me, don’t bother any other players.”, 333 sighed and Thanos didn’t even look at his nemesis, instead he watched Dae-ho as if he was someone really fascinating.

“Nam-su, get this motherfucker outta here, he is disturbing my flirt.”

“It’s Nam-gyu.”, Nam-gyu said and rolled his eyes, but he did try to get 333 out of the bathroom. Try was the key word here, because 333 didn’t seem to want to leave Dae-ho with Thanos and bucked against Nam-gyu as hard as he could.

Did 333 think Dae-ho needed help with Thanos? He certainly didn’t, if there was one thing his dad did right, then it was training Dae-ho to fight like a pro. And he saw the technique of the alpha yesterday when he got beat by Young-il - nothing he had to worry about there.

Even in his pre-heat state Dae-ho could take the rapper, for sure.

“Soo…”, Thanos leaned right into Dae-ho, invading his personal space, and grabbing the sink behind him, so that Dae-ho was caged between the arms of the purple haired man.

They both ignored the fit 333 threw in the background, still struggling against a now really annoyed Nam-gyu.

“Me, you, date after these games?”, Thanos asked with a confident grin and Dae-ho was stunned.

“I-”, he began, shaking his head in disbelief.

Thanos chuckled and held his index finger on Dae-ho’s lips.

“Shush, my pretty boy, don’t say anything you’ll regret later. I’ll give you some time to think about it - do you wanna be with the legend Thanos himself or do you…not?”, he mused and shook his head slowly as if the pure thought of rejecting him was ridiculous.

“Don’t fucking bother him!”, 333 shouted in the background and Nam-gyu seemed a bit frustrated that he couldn’t overpower the other beta.

“Ugh.”, Thanos said and didn’t look away from Dae-ho.

“Just ignore this screaming Beta there, darling, and keep thinking about my offer. You could be welcomed to the Thanos world, you know?”, he asked in a surprisingly calm and smooth manner, with shiny eyes that never left Dae-ho’s face.

“The Thanos world?”, Dae-ho asked, a bit confused and Thanos chuckled at that.

“Yeah, the Thanos world. Ask Nam-su here, it’s great there.”

“Nam-gyu.”, Nam-gyu sighed behind them while trying to get a grip on 333.

“Whatever. So, my big tiger-”, Thanos grinned at him.

“How old are ya?”

Dae-ho blinked a few times, kinda thrown back by this sudden topic change and by the fact that Thanos didn’t move an inch and still cornered him against the sink. He could smell the alpha’s pheromones at this rate and he wasn’t sure if that was okay or not, being in pre-heat.

“26.”, he answered him in a flat tone and Thanos’ eyes lit up at that. He came even closer, taking a deep breath as if he could smell Dae-ho’s pheromones between them.

“So I’m your hyung then.”, he mused.

“Uh…seems like it.”, Dae-ho muttered and leaned a bit back. Should he kindly ask the alpha to back down a bit? He wasn’t aggressive towards Dae-ho tho, maybe he shouldn’t risk it and keep being friendly.

“Call me hyung, big tiger.”, Thanos grinned and 333 scoffed.

“Don’t do this shit, 388.”, he groaned and Dae-ho shot him a surprised look.

He had nearly forgotten that the Youtuber was still in here, as weird as this situation was. Now that he got reminded of that, he suddenly became a bit flustered. Thanos stood way too close to him.

“Hey, could you move a bit, pal?”, he asked and smiled at Thanos, who looked not so content with that.

“MG Coin…”, the alpha muttered, really annoyed, as he did move back from Dae-ho.

“You really need to learn how to not stick your nose into others affairs.”

“You need to learn how to not be a horny ass.”, 333 answered flatly and Dae-ho looked from 333 to Thanos and back again to 333 as they stared each other down with so much hatred and annoyance that sparks seemed to fly.

“Uhm, maybe we should all just leave the bathroom now. Or at least me and 333, cause we are done here.”, Dae-ho tried to prevent another fight between the two men and Thanos’ gaze found its way back on him.

“Sure, sure. You two can go back now - and big tiger…think about my offer. I’ll give you a very, very warm welcome to Thanos’ world.”, he winked and did some sort of gang signs or stuff, Dae-ho wasn’t so sure about that.

The alpha seemed to be high as a kite with the way he was handling himself.

But hey, Dae-ho had been able to prevent another beat up of 333 and he himself hadn’t been in a fight either - that was a win, in his eyes.

Nam-gyu scoffed and let 333 finally go, who snatched his arm back so fast that Nam-gyu stared at him in annoyance as he stumbled back from the force.

“Motherfucker…”, Nam-gyu mumbled and 333 grabbed Dae-ho’s arm, as if he was the one who needed protection.

“Come on.”

Dae-ho was literally dragged out of the bathroom by the Youtuber and he could feel the intense stare of Thanos in his back and on his neck when they left through the door.

Suddenly, his neck, especially the area around his scent gland, felt a bit tingly and he sped up his pace next to 333 as they went back to the big hall.

Whatever just happened in this bathroom - it seemed like the omega in him was kind of…interested in Thanos. And Dae-ho wasn’t sure what to think about this.

Chapter Text

Park Jung-bae was a 50-years old Beta who had seen a lot in life - more than most of these young fellas in here, anyway.

Before he drowned in debt after this whole dumb pub idea (which was btw the idea of his ex wife, not his, just saying) and the chicken shop idea with Gi-hun (which also wasn’t his fault and more that of his best friend) went wrong and also before he lost his job at Dragon Motors - there was a time where Jung-bae was something.

He was in the Navys for about six years back then, it was one hell of a good time, serving alongside other good men who were proud of their job and their doings.

Looking back, that really was his prime time.

And he would never forget the moral principles they learned there: protect the weak. Especially the women, kids, old people and all kinds of omegas.

That was something he had in his heart by now, still, after all these years.

It went as far as a really special feeling that he got whenever an omega was near him - he felt them way before any other beta could detect them and just wanted one thing: make them feel safe.

It was in his blood - his ex wife had laughed everytime Jung-bae had said something like this, but it was the truth. What could he say? It was a part of him, stuck from Navy times.

So, Jung-bae was proud to say he had detected any omega in here by the first day. There weren’t a lot, to be honest, and most of them died in Red light, Green light. But a handful survived and one of these omegas sat in his group now.

Jun-hee looked so small and fragile, despite being in her ninth month of pregnancy, that Jung-bae didn’t wonder for one second if she was an omega or not.

They chose to protect her and take her into their small group and now they were here - together, on the floor, sitting and eating their lunch.

His group was great, Jung-bae had to admit that full heartedly.

Next to his old friend Gi-hun, who had changed quite a bit but was still his buddy of course, they had one mature alpha and also another ex Navy beta with them. A strong group that could perhaps make it to the end.

He liked every single one of them, but Dae-ho, the ex Navy, had a special place in Jung-bae’s heart, if he was honest. He was like a son to him.

Sometimes Jung-bae thought about his daughter, which he lost custody of two years ago, and thought that maybe he would have fought more for her if she was a son. Whenever his thoughts spiraled that way, he cringed and shook his head.

That wasn’t true, these were just some unnecessary ways of punishing himself mentally for not fighting like he should have. His ex wife was a monster and he was highly afraid of her but damn, he was a fucking Navy soldier!

But still, some of these thoughts lingered a bit in his mind and they always ended with him thinking about Dae-ho as his son. Which was kinda weird, he had to admit that.

He couldn’t stop himself tho - after hearing that Dae-ho’s father sent him, his only son, to the Navy, just to make him more manly… that was kind of fucked up. Which type of father did something like that?

The way Dae-ho had changed the topic after mentioning this also led Jung-bae to the thought of him not being on good terms with his father.

That’s where Jung-bae could step in tho - if they really survived these games, he would definitely reach out to the younger beta and keep in touch with him, maybe taking him to some football games or stuff like that.

He was sure Dae-ho would like that. He was a ball of energy, always hyped up, well-mannered and friendly. Yeah, like a perfect son.

And still, something wasn’t quite right with him.

Jung-bae couldn’t really put a finger on it, he just had this weird…feeling…since the game today. When they walked to the different mini stations, he suddenly got this urge to go a bit slower because it seemed like Dae-ho had trouble keeping up.

Which was really weird cause the beta seemed in good shape and looked really healthy as well.

And normally, Jung-bae wouldn’t have even thought about going slower, hell, their lives had been on the line. But today it was different - he nearly got the same feeling as when he saw an omega who needed protection.

Dumb, he knew that.

If there was one Beta in here who never could be an Omega, it was his young friend Dae-ho.

He was tall, quite muscular as well, even though he seemed to be on the leaner side, and, most importantly, he had served in the Navy.

The Navy wasn’t a place for omegas. If you were an omega, you weren’t allowed to serve there.

But Jung-bae couldn’t shake this lingering feeling of uneasiness that kept creeping up on him whenever he took a look at Dae-ho the next hours.

After the games the young beta was definitely calmer than before. That made sense in a way, thinking about how they nearly died just minutes ago, but Jung-bae didn’t think it would have such an impact on Dae-ho.

He was rather simple-minded, which Jung-bae could totally relate to.

Even now, as they all ate together, the loud and energetic beta could only bring himself to smile a few times when Jung-bae made some jokes to lighten up the mood.

There was something wrong with him and it sure as hell had to do something with this rather protective feeling he had gotten in the games.

When Gi-hun talked to Young-il about potential following games, Jung-bae couldn’t resist looking at Dae-ho unobtrusively and he saw how Jun-hee next to him did the same.

Her big eyes were nearly glued to Dae-ho, she seemed to be in deep thoughts while holding her belly with one hand.

So she also thought something was going on with the young beta.

But what could that possibly be?

At this moment Gi-hun asked Jung-bae something and the thoughts about Dae-ho flew away– for now, at least. Maybe he would have to talk to him later, but that could wait.

Somehow Dae-ho had managed to sneak away from the constant worried looks that Jung-bae had shot him over the past hours - he surely went to the toilet, Jung-bae guessed as he looked around and couldn’t find his so- uh, his friend anywhere.

“Why did he go alone? I need to pee too.”, Jung-bae mumbled, a bit indignant.

The others of the group looked at him and Gi-hun smiled kind of amused.

“You are trailing him like that since we woke up today.”, he said, a grin plastered on his face, and Jung-bae sighed uncomfortably.

“I know, I know…but it’s something like my instinct, you know? We get this in the Navy.”

Gi-hun shot him a look that said he wasn’t so sure about this and before Jung-bae could throw a fit at that (Gi-hun was so cheeky nowadays), Young-il nodded.

“I get what you mean, I also have a feeling of rather…protection, I would say. It’s normal, wanting to protect the two youngest of our group.”, he mused and Jung-bae looked at him in relief.

“Thanks, Young-il, at least one of you gets how I feel!”, he sighed and Gi-hun shook his head, still smiling.

Young-il looked at Jung-bae in a weird way and smiled.

“But it honestly is a surprise that you also feel it - I only know alphas who feel this way, who want to protect even betas.”

At that, Jung-bae proudly sat straight and showed his chest a bit more.

“I was in the Navy, where we protect at all costs!”, he shouted and Gi-hun sighed.

“Now the Navy talk…thanks, Young-il.”

Young-il shot him another look that Jung-bae couldn’t really get a grip on and then snickered lowly.

“He can be proud of serving our country, though.”, he smiled and somehow that gave Jung-bae the shivers. There was also something going on with Young-il, but that was even more mysterious than this whole Dae-ho thing for him - so he would ignore it for now.

Meanwhile, Jun-hee hadn’t said anything to this whole topic, instead she just sat there, legs up close to her chest, her arms around them.

“Is everything okay?”, Jung-bae asked her in a friendly tone and she looked at him with shiny eyes and nodded.

“Yes, thank you.”

She seemed like she wanted to say something else, something that lay on her heart, but then she closed her mouth again, looking into the direction of the doors to the bathrooms instead.

“You need to, uh, use the bathrooms? I’m sure the old lady can go with you.”, he said and Jun-hee shook her head.

“No, I’m fine. It’s just that Dae-ho has been in there for quite some time now…”, she mumbled and Jung-bae’s eyebrows raised at that.

Seemed like Jun-hee also worried about Dae-ho, or else she wouldn’t say something like this. He was a young beta that didn’t really have any enemies in here, so why should him being on the toilet for a bit longer than usual be worrisome at all?

Right when Jung-bae decided to look for his friend and stood up, said friend came back into the hall, next to 333, who had grabbed him by the arm and didn’t let go when they entered the room.

“Huh.”, Jung-bae blinked a few times at this rather odd duo that now came their way.

333 looked really pissed, but not at Dae-ho and more at the air or something they all couldn’t see, with his wrinkled nose and the furrowed eyebrows.

Dae-ho let himself be dragged along by 333, looking not so good at all, with a flushed and thoughtful face. Dae-ho nearly never looked thoughtful, there was something going on.

The others stood up now too, Jung-bae noticed - even Jun-hee.

As soon as the duo came to a halt in front of them, 333 let Dae-ho’s jacket go and threw a short look at Jun-hee before he looked at everyone else.

“Be a bit more cautious with him.”, he scolded all of them, but especially Young-il, who glared at the younger player now.

Dae-ho himself only scratched his neck with an awkward smile and stood next to Jung-bae, who patted his shoulder and shot him a confused look.

What did 333 mean with that? Did something happen in the bathroom? Did Dae-ho pick a fight with some circles?

“Are you alright, man?”, Jung-bae asked Dae-ho and his friend nodded hastily, even though his face was still a bit flushed and he didn’t look him in the eyes.

333 scoffed, hands in his trouser’s pockets.

“That could have went not so well, you know? Why do you let him go to the bathroom alone anyway when he’s like tha-”

“I’m fine, Thanos was just trying to pick a fight with 333 and I tried to calm the situation down.”, Dae-ho interrupted the Youtuber and 333 looked at him in annoyance but kept quiet.

“Oh, this rapper guy? He is really getting on my nerves, not an ounce of respect in this body.”, Jung-bae sighed and shook his head. Then he looked at Dae-ho, who was nodding.

“Good work, that’s what the Navy does! Preventing fights is great!”, he shouted and slapped Dae-ho hard on his back, so that the beta flinched a bit but smiled brightly.

“Thanks, sir!”, he shouted back, standing straight, and the others grinned at that - except 333, who seemed really annoyed at everything, and Jun-hee, who looked at Dae-ho pensively.

“Whatever. I’m going back to my bed, keep an eye on your friend.”, 333 sighed and after one last look at Jun-hee, he turned around and went away.

“So weird, this guy.”, Jung-bae spoke out loud what everybody else thought and Gi-hun nodded, a thoughtful expression on his face.

“Yes, but what exactly did he mean by that, Dae-ho? Are you in trouble because of this Thanos guy?”, he asked the young beta and Dae-ho cleared his throat and put on a big smile.

“Nah, I don’t know what he meant by that. Seems like MG Coin is just a bit protective…of others.”, he shrugged and Jung-bae raised an eyebrow.

Another player that got protective of Dae-ho, who didn’t really look like he needed protection in the first place, being a strong, young beta.

It was weird. Especially because this 333 player didn’t seem like the typical protective kind of guy, in Jung-bae’s opinion at least.

When they sat down again, everybody of their group sending Dae-ho irritated or worrisome looks, the door flew open again and Jung-bae looked up to see Thanos and his friends entering the hall.

The young alpha did stick out with his purple hair and the snarky and annoying attitude, he was a menace since day one and Jung-bae was really glad that Young-il teached him a lesson yesterday - if the older alpha wouldn’t have done that, Jung-bae would have.

Now, Thanos looked around in the hall, as if he was searching for something special, and then his eyes set down on Dae-ho, who sat with crossed legs and had his back turned to the alpha.

Jung-bae couldn’t see the look in the face of Thanos, he was too far away, but he would bet that it wasn’t something he’d like to see.

He glared at the young alpha, who didn’t move an inch from his place in the middle of the hall and instead kept staring at Dae-ho’s back.

What was his problem?

Did he think about bullying the beta now that he stood between him and his previous victim 333?

“HEY, BIG TIGER!”, Thanos suddenly screamed through the hall and most of the players looked at him, including Jung-bae and the others.

Dae-ho looked a bit pale as he turned around, now facing the young, purple haired alpha, who stood there with his legs apart and a smug grin on his face.

“Why does he know your name?”, Jung-bae asked Dae-ho surprised and Dae-ho scratched his neck again - something he didn’t do before up till now.

“I told him…he asked me.”, he answered lightly and Jung-bae sighed.

“You are too nice, don’t talk to creeps like him, they just scream danger.”

“But in the Nav-”

“That doesn’t matter.”, Jung-bae interrupted him, while Thanos still stared at Dae-ho like he wanted…to eat him or something like that.

“Wow, that you would say something from the Navy doesn’t matter.”, Gi-hun laughed and Jung-bae rolled his eyes at that. His friend could be a real pain in the ass.

Of course the Navy did matter, but not if it meant that his so- uh, his young friend brought himself into dangerous situations with alpha freaks like this Thanos guy because of it.

“KEEP THINKING ABOUT MY OFFER WITH THAT PRETTY LITTLE HEAD OF YOURS!”, Thanos yelled and then he showed Dae-ho a finger-heart.

“What the fuck does he want?”, Jung-bae muttered angrily and before he could ask Thanos exactly this, the alpha had already turned around and walked away with his friends, to the beds they had occupied on the circle side of the hall.

Now Dae-ho couldn’t escape the looks from his team mates and he sighed, a bit flustered at all the stares he got.

“Okay, maybe Thanos asked me if I want to…go…on a date with him.”, he mumbles, ears in a dark shade of red.

Jung-bae’s eyes went wide.

“WHAT?!”, he screamed from the top of his lungs, in utter shock and disbelief.

Dae-ho looked around nervously and shushed him down.

“Not so loud!”, he whispered and this was the first time Jung-bae heard him actually not speaking normally or screaming. It was hella weird.

Gi-hun and Young-il looked like some worried parents as both of them shook their head in unisono and Jun-hee also stared at Dae-ho, with her mouth wide open.

“Thanos. This weird rapper guy, an alpha…wants to date you?”, Jung-bae finally asked, as soon as he calmed himself a bit down and Dae-ho shrank under the shocked looks of his group.

“I mean, I also don’t understand it but it seems so.”, he said and shrugged again.

“This guy is a danger, you have to stay away from him.”, Young-il said, now also sounding like a strict father.

Gi-hun nodded eagerly at that.

“Exactly, you can’t get yourself involved with people like him. Stick with us and ignore this alpha guy.”, he ordered and Dae-ho sat straight.

“I will!”, he affirmed and Jung-bae sighed in relief at that.

For a moment he had been afraid his beta teammate would want to be rather friendly than smart and continue talking to weird alphas like Thanos.

But as dumb as Dae-ho sometimes looked, he seemed to be logical enough to not do this.

“He does seem to be naturally interested in Dae-ho though…”, Jun-hee spoke up and the others looked at her in disbelief.

“Do you mean he should give it a try?”, Jung-bae asked shocked and Jun-hee shrugged, her eyes on Dae-ho, who seemed really uncomfortable with this whole topic.

“I don’t know, maybe we should just talk about something else…”, she muttered and Dae-ho’s face lit up.

“That’s right, let’s talk about what the next game could be, guys!”

He looked enthusiastically into the round and Jung-bae couldn’t shake the feeling that there still was something he didn’t tell the others.

Why would someone like Thanos suddenly develop an interest in some friendly beta guy like Dae-ho?

What did their friend withhold from them?

And why the hell did the urge to protect the beta pup across him become so strong since he came back from the bathroom?
While talking to the others about nothing in particular, Jung-bae couldn’t stop himself from looking at Dae-ho, who tried his best to act like yesterday, still a slight flush on his cheeks that never really went away.

He wasn’t sure what exactly was going on with him but Jung-bae would do anything to get behind that new mystery and help his friend as best as he could.

That’s what fellow betas did for each other.

Chapter Text

Being a Beta was probably the best thing that could happen to you in these games. Omegas had to struggle with a potential upcoming heat, Alpas with the possibility of a surprising rut, if they were triggered by some omega pheromones.

Betas were just the chill guys out of the three possible secondary genders and Myung-gi was more than glad to be one of them.

Well, except this one little thing that annoyed the hell out of him - with being just a Beta, he wasn’t able to protect the omegas in his life as much as he would like to do.

It was hard, taking care of Jun-hee when she was in pre-heat and they went out together and had to deal with some pheromone-drunken Alpha bastards that thought assaulting an omega was okay when they were in heat or shortly before that.

Hell, he couldn’t count the times he had to call the cops or at least threaten to do this, most days after he tried to fight them and lost.

It had always been draining to see how helpless he was in a dangerous situation with just being a Beta and not that good of a fighter as well. How he couldn’t protect what meant the most to him in this fucked up world, just cause of his secondary gender.

And while Jun-hee didn’t seem to care that her boyfriend was just a scrawny, short Beta, Myung-gi cared. Well, not enough to really go to the gym more often or learn a fighting sport or stuff like that, but enough for getting pissed at every Alpha near them cause he found it unfair.

He started to become angry with the world, even more after Jun-hee told him she was pregnant with his child. What if their child became an omega too? He would love it, of course, but that would be another person he couldn’t protect.

So he was okay when Jun-hee wanted to get an abortion. They were still young, and both really broke, it wasn’t like they could give the baby a good life either way. Perhaps it was for the best to just…end that matter before it really started.

Then these fucking loan sharks and crazy anti-fans of him, who thought it was his fault that they were dumb enough to try to invest everything they owned in his coins, began coming by his flat, camping in front of it.

It was annoying as hell, having to deal with these dumbasses all the time, but it was okay.

Most of the time he just called the cops.

But then the cops started to look for him too, saying something about financial crimes and stuff and that he needed to pay his followers back.

One time, one of his ex fans, a real pain in the ass Alpha, had waited for hours in front of Myung-gi’s home, just so he could run up to him, throwing a punch into his face and threatening not only Myung-gi but also Jun-hee.

He had seen them together the evening before and said something about raping her when Myung-gi would bring her home next time.

That was common alpha trash-talk, Myung-gi knew that - theoretically, at least. Because the pure thought of this happening to Jun-hee had made him so angry that he started a fist fight with this Alpha guy which he obviously lost.

Then he began avoiding Jun-hee, in fear of her getting hurt because of his shit life choices.

He knew her, if he answered her calls or text messages she would try to call the cops to help him or come to his home to have a talk with this crazy anti-fan, but that would make it even worse.

So Myung-gi abandoned her. He vanished from his previous life, leaving her behind. Cutting ties with everyone else wasn’t hard, Jun-hee had been his only important person for years.

But losing her, not texting her back and ignoring her calls (he couldn’t bring himself to block her) was the hardest thing he had ever done. Six months felt like an eternity.

And then he got her back, but in the worst way possible - Jun-hee was in these fucked up games too, still pregnant and in her last month of it as well.

They were together with at least ten to fifteen Alphas, a handful of other Omegas and a whole lot of Betas - but ten Alphas was ten Alphas too many, in his opinion.

To say it shortly: Myung-gi was stressed as fuck.

All he ever wanted was to protect his omega girlfriend from the fucked up Alphas out there and now they were in here, surrounded by alphas at the bottom of their lives, which was a dangerous combo, with no way out.

He had tried to get Jun-hee into his group before, but that didn’t go well, obviously. He understood that - she thought he just ghosted her because of nothing and left her alone with their unborn baby all by herself.

Which partly did happen, he had to admit.

Then Jun-hee became part of a group full of Betas and one Alpha and after Myung-gi had seen how good they treated her and how carefully they did every approach, joking around and having fun even though they were in here, he had felt some kind of peace for the first time in some months.

At first, he had been very suspicious of this one Alpha guy in her team, 001, who seemed a bit off at times with his intense stares at 456 and his calm but very formidable attitude. But then he watched him hyping Jun-hee up after the second games, smiling at her like a loving father would look at his daughter, and Myung-gi was sure she was in good hands.

Maybe she was even safer in this new group than in Myung-gi’s, cause, if he needed to be honest, he didn’t even like his team mates. They were all Betas (he wouldn’t go near an Alpha voluntarily) but they were just average and also boring as hell.

That’s why Myung-gi didn’t really have his own group, he strolled around lonely most of the time, just making sure that he didn’t run into this Thanos guy and his dumb ass friend. He hated these two for real, they were also some ex fans that didn’t want to admit their own faults and dumped everything on Myung-gi.

Hell, they even demanded some money from him - as if he would ever give them even one fucking Won. They were dumber than they looked, and this meant a lot, cause they looked like clowns.

Sadly, Thanos was an Alpha too and had managed to throw some punches into Myun-gi’s face before he himself was beaten up by this 001 - by the way another point why Myung-gi decided to trust this 001 around Jun-hee.

Everything went surprisingly well in here today - he had managed to avoid Thanos and 124, he also won the second game, as well as Jun-hee and her team and he had also seen how Jun-hee sat together with her group and smiled a bit.

The voting was a lost cause after the whole ass monologues from some players - Myung-gi knew that they wouldn’t get near a tie this time, cause he himself would have also voted O if Jun-hee wasn’t in here.

However, to see that his ex was sitting with her new friends was enough to make him go to the bathroom in something that wasn’t quite peace but anywhere near at least.

And then he was shocked for the second time in here - after using the urinal, when he was just washing his hands, this one Beta guy from Jun-hee’s team came in, going straight to the sink next to Myung-gi’s and started to splash some water into his face.

That alone was totally normal to do - but Myung-gi made the dumb mistake to shoot him a look (why the hell had he done that?) and saw the colour in 388’s cheeks.

He had seen Jun-hee in her pre-heat for years and knew exactly how people looked when they just got into this state. Like this 388 beta guy.

So that was when he found out the truth about 388.

And it was also the beginning of something very, very annoying.

Cause after this moment, especially when Thanos and 124 came into the bathroom and started to be really obnoxious, Thanos flirting with 388 and all, Myung-gi felt like he needed to protect this tall not-really-a-beta guy.

Why?

Why in hell did he feel like that? Hasn’t this guy been in the Navy? He could protect himself just fine, so why did Myung-gi get this urge to jump in front of 388 whenever Thanos awkwardly tried to flirt with him?

Maybe something happened with Myung-gi’s brain. Did they hit his head one time too often so that he got dumb? That was the only possible explanation for his feelings.

He had barely managed to stay relatively calm in the bathroom and to not throw a whole ass fit in there and after 388, Dae-ho, as he had called himself, left Thanos and co., Myung-gi had to take another deep breath.

Being together with Jun-hee, a pretty female omega, had been…difficult at times, cause she always got interested looks and often they fully ignored Myung-gi and went straight to Jun-hee to ask for her number or stuff like that.

She had been polite, but at the same time very clear that she wasn’t interested in these fucking Alphas that talked to her.

Standing next to 388, Dae-ho, and watching his carefree, naive and friendly attitude towards an Alpha that was obviously flirting with him and was also crazy as fuck, was way more nerve wrecking than any encounter Myung-gi ever had with Jun-hee before.

It made him physically sick to see this dumb tall omega acting like this to Thanos.

What did he think?? Did he think about anything at all? Or was it just some air in his head? Myung-gi wasn’t sure.

But he knew that being polite to some Alpha like Thanos was the worst thing someone could do. Now he would definitely never stop embracing the false Beta.

The funny thing was - Myung-gi didn’t know if Thanos even noticed that 388 was in fact not a Beta but an Omega.

It seemed like he was only in pre-heat, still not sending many pheromones out. And Thanos was constantly high as fuck. So there really was the possibility for him not to know the real secondary gender of 388.

But either way - Myung-gi didn’t like how he looked at the tall Omega. It was giving him the creeps, this intensity in the eyes of the Alpha.

And even though he hadn’t asked for help, he couldn’t forget that it kind of was his fault that Thanos got this hyperfixation on the poor Dae-ho. That all just happened cause the Omega decided to help him out.

That really sucked.

What sucked even more was that even Dae-ho’s team didn’t seem to know what was going on. Hell, why did this guy have to make such a mystery out of his secondary gender either way?

And when he wanted to tell them that they needed to protect not only Jun-hee but also this stupid tall Omega, he was cut off by just this omega, who seemed to be really stressed about the whole thing.

Fine, okay, Myung-gi didn’t need to stick his nose into someone else’s affairs. If 388 didn’t want the people around him to know, that was his thing.

Myung-gi had gone back to his bed, sitting down like a pouting child, and looked at the scene from afar, as Thanos came back into the hall and heavily flirted with Dae-ho again.

“What a fucking loser.”, Myung-gi sighed, watching everything unfold in front of him and leaning back against one metal rod of his bed.

Still, he needed to see the whole interaction, cause he just had to know when to step in. Just…in case. No other reason.

“Ugh, maybe I’m the real loser here.”, he mumbled to himself and hid his face in his hands.

The next hours weren’t better, if he was honest.

Since the whole bathroom encounter, he couldn’t set his eyes away from Player 388. It was like a jinx, like some sort of witchcraft, cause it really wasn’t a character trait of Myung-gi to be protective or shit like that.

If you’d tell someone, anyone, in his life that he got a protective personality, they would laugh at you.

That was okay - the only other human he ever cared about was Jun-hee.

Until now.

Cause everytime he looked at the group around Jun-hee (which was … an unhealthy amount of times, to be honest) and saw Dae-ho forcing a smile, a laugh or just scratching his neck in an awkward way, Myung-gi sat a bit straighter.

Gosh, this dumb team of 388 (excluding Jun-hee, he was sure his gir- ex girlfriend had already added 1 and 1 together and figured it out) really didn’t get it.

Okay, 001 had a great poker face, so he didn’t know how much the old Alpha knew or not knew, but the other Betas didn’t have a clue, as it seemed.

It made him annoyed, thinking about how hurt Dae-ho had to be right now, without his team knowing anything about it. His heat got nearer any second that passed in here.

Maybe…he should go up to him, ask if he needs anything.

What the hell was wrong with him?

Myung-gi mentally slapped himself. Where did this thought even come from? He really needed to get some fresh air…sadly, there was no way they would let him outside after the games.

Then, he saw how Jun-hee slid closer to Dae-ho and slowly patted his knee. Normally, if it had been another Beta or an Alpha, Myung-gi would have died from jealousy, but that was an Omega in pre-heat next to her, so it was okay.

Instead, he even was proud of the emotional intelligence of Jun-hee - she had always been an empath, in contrast to him.

Seeing these two together - both Omegas with a rather pretty face (he had to admit that even though he would never call 388 pretty, that was only cause…he seemed objectively somewhat attractive) - this urge to protect them got so strong that Myung-gi needed to take a walk.

He stood up, his hands in the pockets of his trousers, and started walking through the hall a bit, always behind the beds. Maybe that would help him calm down and get a grip on himself - he really needed that now.

These whole games messed with his mind, making him furious at the smallest thought of one of these ugly ass motherfuckers in here trying to get with either Jun-hee or Dae-ho.

While Jun-hee was always surrounded by either the guys of her team or this older omega woman and the strong one of her group, 120, Dae-ho kept wandering around alone because everybody thought he was a Beta.

But right now, in his pre-heat state, he just couldn’t do shit like this anymore. Why didn’t he get that?!

Myung-gi was so lost in his own thoughts that he only noticed where he was when it was already too late - he had wandered off to the circle side of the hall, still behind most of the beds and somewhat hidden because of that.

“Damn.”, he sighed to himself and was about to turn around and go back to his bed, when he heard some of the circles a few feet away from him talking about the team of 456.

Jun-hee’s team.

He stayed and hid some more into the shadows while he listened to what these bastards had to say about them.

“She is the only pretty omega left in here, for real.”, one random Beta said just now and Myung-gi clenched his hands to fists. Fuck this guy, he would love to beat him up - another Beta would be okay, he could do that.

“Yeah, a shame that so many of ‘em died in the first two games.”, another one laughed huskily.

“This omega guy from Thanos’ team is so ugly, just chubby cheeks and these sad eyes. I’d feel bad fucking him if he looks at me like that while we do it.”

They all laughed in such a disgusting way that Myung-gi really needed to take a deep, calming breath like he learned in one of Jun-hee’s yoga videos she had always watched on Youtube, to not start a fuss right here and now.

“What do you think about this beta though? The tall one who’s always with the fat ex Navy guy. Think he was also in the Navy.”, one guy scoffed and for a moment they all were silent.

“That tall one? 388? What’s with him?”, another one asked in an amused tone and Myung-gi got stressed. What did they want to say about him?

“Idk man, he always looks so cheerful, with his smile and stuff.”, the first one coughed.

“Makes me wanna do some things to him, not gonna lie.”

“The heck? He is so tall, man, he’s bigger than you.”, his friend laughed and now they all chuckled.

“But just imagine him being like, idk, chained somewhere. Nothing he can do then. Or, wait, imagine if he was actually not a Beta but an Omega. This tall guy, completely helpless cause of his pheromones.”

Myung-gi’s eyes went wide, then he felt really disgusted and then really, really angry. What the hell did this bastard just say about Dae-ho?

“Yo, you’re fucked up, man.”, someone of the group said, laughing, and the others agreed hastily - the tension was still there, though, and Myung-gi was sure they all had thought about it. Horny Motherfuckers. They honestly were at the same level with Thanos.

He couldn’t understand how some people out there thought of omegas and didn’t want to protect them. This was more than fucked up, this was something he wanted them to go to jail for.

Or…maybe they needed to die in these fricking games. That would be okay, too.

“I don’t care…I’d still hit.”, the first guy mumbled and Myung-gi took that as a signal to quietly sneak back to the cross area of the hall.

He had heard everything he needed to hear - and even more: stuff he really didn’t want to hear and that annoyed the hell out of him.

In summary - his walk didn’t help him one bit with all the protective and stressing thoughts and instead only made them worse. Whoever had said that walks were good for improving your mental health, was really, really wrong.

Chapter Text

Nam-gyu had always thought that he got really lucky by being just a Beta.

In school, he just disappeared into the crowd around him and could do what he wanted to do, like smoking behind the school, coming to classes while being totally stoned and stuff like that.

The teachers didn’t even care - the only students they actually cared about were Omegas and Alphas. Alphas were always praised by everyone, having it oh so easy to build a career, like Thanos, for example. (he fucked up anyways but that was his fault)

And Omegas were always disciplined, even if they didn’t do anything wrong. If they weren’t cute, shy top class students, they were a shame for the whole school.

Nam-gyu didn’t mind that at all back then, because it meant he was free to live his life without any teachers disturbing him.

Looking back now, he realized what a shit show that was and how fucked up his school acted.

Well, nothing he could do now anyway. The past was the past.

Even though he got one really handy strength out of his school days - because of the way Omegas were treated back then, there had been one girl, a school friend of his, that sometimes smoked with him and pretended to be a Beta.

She wasn’t - she was an Omega, but with the help of some strong inhibitors and other medicine that prevented her from going into heats and messed with her pheromones and hormones a lot, she had done it.

Sometimes, when she was near her heat and started to take her pills, she had a slight blush on her cheeks the days before - that’s why she told Nam-gyu her secret, so that he could warn her if it became too obvious.

So, because of that he learned how to notice any Omega in pre-heat at the spot.

And because of that he also realized that this tall Beta in the bathroom Thanos had a crush on, Dae-ho or how his name was, was an Omega as well.

He was also very, very sure that Thanos, in fact, did NOT know this. Nam-gyu was more than sure about that, to be exact.

Why?

‘Cause this dumbass who called himself his friend never stopped talking about his “big tiger” since he had set his eyes on him for the first time only half a day ago.

It was annoying as hell.

When they were eating this sad excuse of dinner, Thanos sighed so deeply that Nam-gyu had to roll his eyes.

His friend sat in a way that made it possible for him to stare at 388, who ate together with his group, grinning about something his chubby old beta friend had said.

“What’s wrong, Thanos?”, Gyeong-su asked, ofcourse. He needed to show Thanos how much he cared, as his number 1 fan.

Nam-gyu glared at him - he shouldn’t have asked, now they had to listen to another one of Thanos’ really dumb ideas on how to win 388’s heart. Again.

A short gaze at Se-mi, who hid her face behind her hands and got a confused look from Min-su for that, told him that she was thinking the same thing. This was probably the only time the two of them had the same opinion.

“Gyeong-su!”, Thanos sighed again.

“How would you ask someone out on a date who is guarded by a really weird alpha who once beat you up all the time?”

Gyeong-su looked a bit lost at this question and he cleared his throat.

“Uhhh…maybe ask if you can talk to him alone?”, he finally asked and Thanos grabbed his shoulders, looking really desperate.

“You think this 001 will allow that? Maybe…maybe I should do that!”

Nam-gyu raised his hand.

“That’s a bad idea, man. He will beat you up if you come near his friend again.”, he warned Thanos and shook his head lightly.

“Nam-su, what’s with that negative energy? I hate it!”, Thanos exclaimed, already standing up from his spot on the stairs.

“It’s Nam-gyu.”

“Whatever, Nam-gyu. I’ll go to them - why should 001 say no if I just want to talk to my big tiger? It’s not like he is an omega that needs to be protected!”

That was….exactly how it was, though.

First, Nam-gyu hadn’t told Thanos about his discovery because he had found it funny how clueless his friend was, even though he was the Alpha of them. Maybe Nam-gyu felt a bit…superior, as well, and wanted to thrive on this feeling.

Now, after Thanos had yapped about this 388 guy for an eternity and non-stop, he just thought it would be weird of him to randomly tell Thanos about the secondary gender of his crush.

And why should he tell him anyway? If Thanos was such a bad Alpha that he didn’t get the hints, he shouldn’t know. Hah.

Thanos stormed away and Nam-gyu scrambled to his feet - he needed to help this idiot when he would get his ass kicked.

“Save that moron from himself.”, Se-mi sighed as Nam-gyu hurried to follow his only friend in here.

To his surprise, Min-su also nodded, while leaning against Se-mi who had slung an arm around him.

“Wait, you two know?”, Nam-gyu asked, irritated.

Se-mi grinned and shrugged.

“I’m really shocked that Thanos doesn’t. As an alpha, I noticed the first time I stood near him. And I bet on my life that this 001 knows too.”

Nam-gyu sighed and ran his hand through his hair.

“Of course this creep knows…maybe it’s cause of the drugs that Thanos doesn’t. Damn.”

“Yeah, maybe you should stop with that crap.”

Nam-gyu shot her an annoyed glare. Before he could insult her though, Min-su pointed at something in the distance and Nam-gyu turned around to see Thanos stepping up to the group around his crush.

“Oh shit, I have to go.”, Nam-gyu mumbled and Gyeong-su stood up too.

“I’ll help you!”

When the two of them jogged to the scene of action, Nam-gyu looked at Gyeong-su with a raised eyebrow.

“Do you even know what’s going on?”

Gyeong-su smiled and shook his head.

“No, but I’m happy if I can spend time with you all.”

This guy was such a freak. With that, he fit right into their team, Nam-gyu had to admit.

Thanos had already said something when they arrived at the scene, standing there like he owned this place and winking at 388, who looked a bit pale.

All members of 388’s group, even the tiny female omega, had stood up and looked at Thanos, most of them with their arms crossed. 388 stood in their middle and seemed a bit embarrassed and very much confused.

“What did you just say?!”, 390, the chubby ex Navy, asked and looked at Thanos like he had just killed his whole family.

“I said: Let me talk to my big tiger 1 to 1.”, Thanos demanded, his head held high. All of him screamed young, arrogant Alpha and that was not good.

“Dae-ho isn’t YOUR big tiger, you freak!”

390 seemed really angry with Thanos right now and the ex rapper just didn’t really get it. He was a lost case.

“What do you want to talk about?”, 456 tried to calm the situation down, always the great leader.

Nam-gyu dared to get a short look at 001 (he was too afraid to take a proper one tho, after getting beat up by this man just a day ago) and saw how calm and dangerous he appeared, with his arms crossed and a perfect poker face.

He got chills and looked away. This scary motherfucker.

Thanos pouted and crossed his arms as well.

“I won’t tell you old men. That’s only something for the ears of my beautiful big tiger.”

Nam-gyu had to turn away because this was so cringe. That was the dumbest thing he could have answered, for real. Did Thanos’ flirts ever go the way he wanted them to?

His first flirt in here, this beta girl, got shot only minutes after talking to Thanos and his second try to flirt had been Se-mi, who was now obviously lovey dovey with Min-su.

And now this - why did he have to go for some secret Omega like 388, who was surrounded by ex soldiers and real scary guys? (…and 222.)

Hell, even this scammer asshole MG Coin seemed to have a soft spot for 388. Good, this was nothing worth to worry about because he was weak as fuck, but it did bother Nam-gyu.

Thanos really had to go for the most protected guy in here.

Great.

Why again had he thought that he needed to help Thanos out? Maybe he should just quietly leave him and let him fuck things up here.

On the other hand…if something happened to him, he would lose his only friend for years and that would really suck. Man, why did he have to befriend such an idiot Alpha guy?

“Uh, guys, maybe I should just go with him, we will talk a bit and-”, 388 began and soon got interrupted by 001, who grabbed his shoulder.

“You won’t go with this Alpha.”, he scowled and all of his friends shot him a surprised look.

“Young-il-”, 388 tried a second time, only to be shushed by 001 again.

“You are going to stay here and you-”, he looked at Thanos, “you can go back to where you came from, my friend.”

Nam-gyu blinked a few times. 001 sounded like some dad that wouldn’t let his daughter go on a date with some random guy from her class. What a nuisance.

Thanos seemed to think the same, because he literally growled at 001.

Oh God, they would actually die here.

Was it too late for a run? Maybe he could push Gyeong-su towards 001 and save himself.

“Okay, maybe we should all just calm down a bit now.”, 456 said, looking from 001 to Thanos and back at 001.

“Yeah, you’re scaring Jun-hee with your behaviour.”, 390 chipped in, staring at 001 and patting 222’s shoulder. She seemed totally unfazed but it was a good excuse for everyone to chill out a bit.

“Hey, what is happening?”

Out of nowhere, fucking MG Coin appeared and Nam-gyu had to really hold on to himself to not jump this guy right here and now.

Why did he have to get himself involved?!

“Nothing, now get lost, MG Coin.”, Thanos said through gritted teeth and the youtuber looked at him pissed.

“I won’t, but you will.”

Thanos’ eyebrow twitched and he grabbed MG Coin by the collar.

“Shut the fuck up and piss off! Why can’t I fucking talk to my big tiger?”, he yelled and let all the frustration from his previous flirts, that hadn’t gone well, out on his nemesis.

MG Coin struggled in his hold and started insulting him loudly, to which seemingly anyone near them stared at the group.

“Thanos, let 333 go.”, 390 demanded and Thanos only shook MG Coin even more, looking at 390 while doing so.

“Only if I can talk to my bi- Dae-ho.”, he pouted and 390 seemed like he wanted to fight the alpha right here and now.

“You are way too childish.”, 456 sighed and Thanos shrugged.

“I don’t care. WHY does everyone keep getting involved with this anyway?”, he cried out.

Nam-gyu decided to step in and tapped Thanos’s shoulder, to which Thanos shot him a confused look. He seemed to notice him only now.

“Let’s go back, Thanos. Maybe you can talk to him tomorrow.”, he mumbled, avoiding the gaze from 001. Gah, this guy was way too scary.

Gyeong-su nodded enthusiastically.

“Yeah, let’s go. Maybe you’ll meet him again in the bathroom.”

Nam-gyu froze as he heard Gyeong-su saying that - DAMN, why the hell did he say this? This fucking dumbass…

“He’ll never meet you in the bathroom again, EVER!”, MG Coin yelled angrily and Thanos stared at him like he wanted to really punch him.

Nam-gyu grabbed his friend’s arm, just to be safe.

“WHY can’t I meet him in the bathroom? What’s going on with all of you? Big tiger!”, Thanos exclaimed and made puppy eyes to his object of desire, 388, who stood a bit lost between his friends and seemed overwhelmed by everything going on.

The blush on his cheeks had gotten stronger and Nam-gyu thought that it was really a wonder how not only Thanos but also so many others here didn’t notice how this tall Beta was, in fact, not a Beta at all.

Thanos shook MG Coin again, harder this time, and the Youtuber had seemingly enough, because he kicked Thanos’ stomach so that the alpha doubled down in pain and MG Coin could escape his hold.

“You really don’t know? What a great alpha, wow.”, MG Coin scoffed and Thanos got red from anger, his left eye twitched a bit.

Nam-gyu thought about punching the scammer to silence him but maybe that would make anything worse.

“What doesn’t he know?”, 390 asked now, brows furrowed in confusion, as he looked from MG Coin to 388, who avoided his friend’s eyes.

Ohhh, so even some of his friends didn’t know. That got so much better from second to second. Not. Thanos would throw an absolute tantrum if he got to know, Nam-gyu really couldn’t say what this idiot would do exactly.

“That doesn’t matter, MG Coin ist just talking shit again.”, Nam-gyu tried to save the situation (why did he even do this, maybe he should really just go and let everything fall down the drain), but nobody listened to him. Nice, really nice.

“MG COIN!”, Thanos sneered and made a step towards him.

“Tell me NOW, why can't I meet the love of my life in the bathroom anymore? Why? Why? Why?”

With every “why” he pushed his finger into MG Coin’s chest, who looked like he wanted to fight the Alpha.

“Yeah, Dae-ho, what is going on?”, 390 asked his friend and 388 scratched his neck in stress and gulped.

“Uhhhhh…”

He obviously didn’t want anyone to know, but that was dumb as hell - they all would know by tomorrow anyway, cause then his heat would definitely start, saying by how he looked right now.

Wouldn’t it be better for his little friends to know, so they could protect him from the first second on?

Hm, that wasn’t Nam-gyu’s problem, and it also shouldn’t be Thanos’- but, looking at his idiotic alpha buddy, it definitely was. And just like that, it was also Nam-gyu’s problem.

“Dae-ho…maybe you should just tell them.”, the girl, 222, broke the silence and 390 and 456 stared at her in total confusion.

“Jun-hee…you are also involved in this?”, 390 asked, looking like his eyes would fall out every second, and 222 smiled apologetically at him.

“Yes…but he didn’t tell me either, I just knew.”, she mumbled.

“Me too, because it’s kinda obvious!”, MG Coin sighed and Nam-gyu raised his hand.

“Oh, I also know.”

“WHAT?!”, nearly everybody shouted now and Thanos looked at Nam-gyu as if he had betrayed him. That was a bit funny, he had to admit.

“I still don’t really get what everybody is talking about…”, Gyeong-su mumbled and Nam-gyu had to hide his grin behind his hand.

“Guys…”, 388 finally said and scratched his neck again, something Nam-gyu’s school friend also often did when she felt stressed.

“So, it could be that I’m…uh, in pre-heat right now.”

Silence spread between all of them.

Finally, this dumb omega had said it. It was about time, or else something worse than Thanos’ awkward flirts could have happened.

“Dae-ho, Betas can’t go into pre-heat or heat.”, 390 said, slowly, shaking his head, while 456 seemed to get it and put a hand onto 390’s shoulder.

“Jung-bae…think about this again, my friend.”, he sighed and 390 froze.

Before he could say anything, though, Thanos pointed at 388, eyes wide and full of amaze.

“MY BIG TIGER IS AN OMEGA!”, he screamed and Nam-gyu flinched cause of the sudden volume increase next to him.

“Don’t say that, cringe…”, Nam-gyu mumbled and Thanos ignored him and instead jumped into the air like a total idiot.

“I’ll totally protect you, my beautiful big tiger!”, he said with a swollen chest and MG Coin looked at him in annoyance.

“Hell nah, we need to protect him from Alphas like YOU!”, he said.

Thanos seemed very offended by that, but the others all nodded, except 388 and 222.

“Hey, what about this scammer MG Coin then? You need to protect my big tiger from him too!”, Thanos pouted and MG Coin scoffed.

“I’m just a Beta, I won’t jump him or anything like that, you moron.”

“MG COIN! I would NEVER do anything to my big tiger! Never!”, Thanos yelled again and Nam-gyu sighed.

“It’s time for you to leave our side of the hall and go back to yours.”, 001 spoke a word of authority after staying calm for the last few minutes and Nam-gyu grabbed Thanos’ jacket.

“Sounds alright- come on, let them talk about everything in their own group.”

And, as a big surprise, Thanos really did listen to that and nodded, even though his teeth were gritted and he looked back many times when they went to their stairs, Gyeong-su in tow.

Thanos stayed silent for the rest of the time until the lights went out, Nam-gyu could see the gears turn in his head - he was thinking hard, maybe for the first time since they went here.

He also hadn’t taken any pills since the whole encounter with 388 before, to Nam-gyu’s misery, cause if Thanos didn’t take any, he also wasn’t allowed to. Being somewhat clean felt like shit, even if it was just for a few hours.

Seconds before Nam-gyu could fall asleep, Thanos suddenly spoke up again.

“Nam-gyu…”

It had to be something important, for him to even get Nam-gyu’s name right first try.

“Hmhm?”, he hummed, tired as fuck.

“Do you think my big tiger will accept me as his Alpha?”

…

This. This was his question that held him awake? Fuck this, Nam-gyu didn’t want to do this anymore. It felt like he was back in middle school and talked with his guy friends about all of their crushes.

“Thanos. I don’t fucking know.”, he groaned, sleepily.

“But…I really want him to be my omega. Or my beta. I don’t care, he is so pretty and so nice and he smells really good. Thought it was just his shampoo or stuff like this, but it’s his natural smell, Nam-gyu. He smells really good. And I like his smile and his laugh and-”

“YO, SHUT UP DOWN THERE!”, shouted some random circle guy from above them and Nam-gyu was really thankful for this interruption.

Hell, if 001 and the other teammates of 388 didn’t let Thanos speak with his crush, Nam-gyu would have to take matters into his own hands.

Otherwise, he would have to listen to this absolute bullshit for the rest of his life.

Chapter Text

Dae-ho’s night was a mix of exhaustion and being unable to sleep at the same time and it drove him crazy.

Never in his twenty-eight years of being an Omega had he ever despised a pre-heat or even experienced one like this. He had really thought he could just sleep through, because his mentality was strong enough.

Well, he had been wrong. Deeply wrong, to be exact.

Since this awkward encounter before with Thanos, his friends and 333 and the resulting exposal of his well kept secret for years infront of his group, the others had treated him…differently, to say at least.

It wasn’t quite bad, but really…weird.

If they were protective of him before all this, they had reached a new level by now. Especially Jung-bae, his best friend out of the team, if he had to choose. This man was like a cool uncle, or even a mentor, to him and now he treated Dae-ho like he was a porcelain doll.

In the span of an hour, Jung-bae had changed the pillows in Dae-ho’s bed about seven times, always rearranging them and asking if there were enough of them - looking at the five different pillows on top of each other, Dae-ho had just nodded each time.

To be honest, he was a bit overwhelmed by the sudden interest of everyone around him in his well-being and state. Sure, he liked being taken care of, but that was a bit too much.

It reminded him a bit of his older sisters when he lived with them, or, even worse, when they were at home. The oldest one of them was ten years older than Dae-ho and had always acted as some sort of mother towards him - making him food, doing his laundry, checking in on his homework (which was honestly annoying at times) and never letting any alpha towards him that wasn’t part of their family.

The last point had always weirded out any of Dae-ho’s previous school friends, because which Beta wasn’t allowed to be near Alphas? They just couldn’t add two and two together, much to Dae-ho’s relief.

And it was the same with his new friends, his group, in here. He had been sure to mask a nearly perfect Beta, his height being one thing that made it even easier for him to convince anyone.

But then Jun-hee had said that she knew for the whole time, which honestly insulted Dae-ho a little bit. Why didn’t she ask him or tried to talk to him about this in private? There were some moments where the two of them were alone, but she decided to just watch out for him in silence, as it seemed.

He wondered if she would have told the others if he hadn’t. Probably not.

And Young-il seemed to also know, because his behaviour towards Dae-ho didn’t change one single bit since his secret came out. He still smiled lightly at him whenever their eyes met and he didn’t say or ask anything related to this whole Omega thing, which Dae-ho was really thankful for.

But the other two - Gi-hun and Jung-bae, well, Dae-ho could see how flabbergasted they were with this change.

Gi-hun seemed stressed, having to watch out for not only one pregnant Omega on their team but also another one who was in pre-heat (Dae-ho was really embarrassed to be a burden to them, he tried his best to not cause any trouble).

And Jung-bae looked really betrayed at first and then, after he had thought about this whole thing for a minute, he became a mother hen. A lovable, but really annoying mother hen. And if Dae-ho thought someone was annoying, they definitely deserved this title.

“Dae-ho!”, Jung-bae whispered just now, in the middle of the night, and Dae-ho turned around to look into the bed next to his, where Jung-bae sat and watched over him.

It was originally Young-il’s turn to keep watch, but Jung-bae had told everyone that he would not sleep even for a second. Dae-ho was really afraid his friend had lost his mind.

Dae-ho couldn’t sleep either way though, he felt the heat creeping into his body, flushing his skin red and leaving his body parts on fire.

He also was a bit light-headed and dizzy but that was probably because he didn’t get enough to drink - being in heat meant you had to drink way more than usual and since they only got one bottle of water and some milk per day, that had been difficult.

It wasn’t that much of a problem, since he didn’t enter full heat by now, but once he had, this would be bad.

“Yes, Hyung?”, he mumbled, kind of tired, and Jung-bae’s eyes widened.

“Are you okay?”

“Yes, Hyung.”

It was nerve-wracking, having to answer this every few minutes. Dae-ho knew that his friend only meant the best for him and just couldn’t really handle the whole situation well, but that didn’t change the fact he got a bit worn-out from all of this.

“Good. Good. Anything new? Do you think you are entering your, uh, heat soon? What should we do if that happens? Oh boy…”, Jung-bae mumbled, stressed out, and Dae-ho forced a reassuring smile onto his face.

“I don’t think that’ll happen soon enough, so you can go to sleep, Jung-bae.”

“Nah, I wanna watch out. You do know that most players around us heard what you said before, right? Being an Omega and being in pre-heat is dangerous, there are Alphas around!”

Well, if Dae-ho thought about it, it wasn’t that the other players heard what HE said and more what Thanos had screamed. So thanks to this weird Alpha, he had to be on alert now. He really didn’t know what to think about him, if he was honest.

At first, he had been sure that the guy wanted to fight him - until he had asked him out, of course. Then, Dae-ho had been surprised and kind of…weirded out by this unusual behaviour.

Sure, he had been asked out before - but mostly by Beta or Omega girls, not by any guy, especially not an Alpha.

When Thanos had come up to them before, trying to talk to Dae-ho, he had wished that Jung-bae would have said yes. Because, even if he wasn’t sure about Thanos, his Omega was, as it seemed.

There wasn’t another good explanation for the tingly feeling in his stomach and his neck whenever he thought about or saw Thanos.

And as much as it creeped him out, he also wanted to explore this whole thing with the Alpha- kind of, at least. Dae-ho had never been someone who just let opportunities drive away, he liked adventure and the unknown.

Until a few years ago, he hadn’t been able to do much, being locked up in his father’s home since his highschool graduation. But because he got kicked out, Dae-ho was free to do whatever he liked.

And he didn’t know if he would have liked Thanos, he seemed a bit rude and really disrespectful, and he also couldn’t take no as an answer, but maybe that would have changed in the future.

Well…now, this was a lost case anyway, cause the others knew about him being an Omega in pre-heat and they would NEVER let Thanos near him again. So Dae-ho should really just give up on this trail of thoughts and instead remember in which situation he was right now.

Because, unlike he had told Jun-bae some moments ago, he was really sure that he would be in heat by tomorrow evening.

He had never had many real heats in his life, thanks to his father’s endless stack of repressive medicine, but he could still remember his first heats and which symptoms showed up in which state of heat.

In other words: Even Dae-ho himself, being not the brightest contestant, had to acknowledge that he really needed to leave this place by tomorrow.

Otherwise…well, he didn’t even want to think about it. But he was sure that he wouldn’t be able to participate in any future games, being in heat. And what this meant, was clear.

He spent the rest of his night trying not to think about what would happen if they couldn’t vote themselves out next time, and also trying not to react to any of his heat symptoms because Jung-bae kept watching him like would be stolen away any second.

That didn’t happen, by the way. (Jung-bae said it only didn’t happen because he was keeping his eyes on him. Dae-ho was sure that this wasn’t true but he didn’t say anything.)

When the morning alarm woke the others up, Jung-bae seemed to be in some kind of delirium and a state of being half asleep because he blinked slowly and then rolled himself out of his bed, landing on the floor and staying there.

“Jung-bae….don’t tell me you were really awake for the whole night?”, Gi-hun asked, eyes wide and brows furrowed, as he stepped around his friend because the games would soon start.

“He was when I kept watch.”, Young-il answered for Jung-bae, already in front of the beds. Dae-ho wondered how quiet the man could walk, he hadn’t heard him at all.

“And also when I did.”, Gi-hun sighed, then he looked at Jun-hee, who had offered to help them with keeping watch because Dae-ho shouldn’t do something like that anymore.

She smiled and shrugged a bit.

“He was awake when it was my turn, too.”

“Oh my god.”, Gi-hun sighed and shook his head in shock while looking at Jung-bae, who was still on the ground, not moving at all. His eyes were open, but he kind of snored a bit.

“You need to be ready for the game today!”

Gi-hun kicked his friend lightly in the side and Jung-bae finally looked at him.

“I am. I am so ready.”, he mumbled and lifted himself off the ground, then his eyes went to Dae-ho.

“How are you?”, Jung-bae asked in a motherly tone and Dae-ho smiled apologetically at him. He felt bad - he was the reason why Jung-bae looked like some giant chewed him and spit him out after.

“I’m alright, thanks!”

That was the biggest lie ever and the looks of the others told Dae-ho that they knew just by watching him. Well, apparently he had to look like he felt - like shit.

The night had not only drained Jung-bae, but him as well. Dae-ho didn’t feel tired, he felt anxious and full of energy - the hormones, perhaps. Maybe that was how it felt to take drugs. He could imagine it like this, at least.

Dae-ho felt a deep restlessness in him and also the urge to just jump into an ice cold shower right now. Not only because of the heat that had spread over his whole body, leaving an itchy feeling, but also because his clothes felt so heavy that he wanted to just rip them off.

And then he felt Young-il’s thoughtful glance on him and an image of Young-il being butt ass naked flashed through his mind.

Dae-ho flinched and slapped himself. Hard.

What in the seven hells was that?! That was Young-il, he was like a strict father to him - he…WHY did this image cross his mind? He surpressed a weirded out shudder.

His friends looked at him with a mix of confusion (Young-il and Gi-hun), shock (Jung-bae) and pity (Jun-hee) and he just shook his head, intentionally avoiding another glance at Young-il, because he didn’t trust this dumb Omega in him anymore.

“Hey, wait for us!”, Jung-bae yelled when Dae-ho ran to the other contestants that were already standing in front of the guard and just tried to fit in without getting any unwanted attention.

That was harder than he thought, because everywhere he looked, the people around him were staring.

He normally didn’t lack any confidence but right now, being in pre-heat and knowing that most of them probably heard that as well, made him a bit stressed.
Dae-ho tried his best to avoid the gazes from the other players as his group finally catched up to him. Jun-he carefully grabbed his arm and looked up to him, a small smile on her face. Dae-ho smiled back, even though he still felt somewhat nervous.

Then Jung-bae, Gi-hun and Young-il lined up around him and Jun-hee like some sort of guards, all of them with crossed arms, and Dae-ho felt such a strong sense of security that he sighed in relief, squeezing Jun-hee’s hand on his arm a bit.

At least his friends didn’t take it to heart that he hadn’t told them about his secret before. Instead, they just protected him like they did with Jun-hee and Dae-ho was really glad that he had decided to speak to them after the first game.

That had been probably the best decision he had ever made.

Which wasn’t so hard, because he usually always made the wrong decisions.

When they went upstairs to today’s game, they formed a line - Gi-hun at top, then Jung-bae, Dae-ho, Jun-hee and at last Young-il, who stared at everyone that even thought about coming within a 10 feet radius of them.

While Dae-ho thought this was a tad too much, he was still glad for the way everyone else kept their distance.

-

The game itself was cruel and horrible, just like the two previous ones had been. Nothing new.

They had nearly lost the little Beta girl from the old omega’s team, but Thanos (who was the only one that didn’t seem to catch up on the “keep your distance” thing and kept going to Dae-ho, trying to talk to him) snatched her last second and saved her life.

After he had done that, he came proudly to Dae-ho, maybe to hear some praises from him, but was chased away by Young-il and Jung-bae instantly. Dae-ho felt a bit bad at that, seeing the puppy looks Thanos gave him over the heads of the others.

But he couldn’t just go to him when they were still in a life and death situation and he also needed to look at his feet, because he felt a bit wobbly since earlier.

When they had to build teams of two, Jung-bae snagged him (while Jun-hee was pulled away by this 333 who also kept close to their team and Young-il and Gi-hun ran away together too) and dragged him to one of the doors.

As they were running, Dae-ho suddenly felt such an itch on his neck that he lost balance and stumbled. Jung-bae’s reflexes were the only reason they made it to the door and out of this game alive and well.

But after the game, when they went back to the sleeping hall and the whole inner tension from the game started to break down, Dae-ho had to fan himself some air, because he literally felt like he’d burn alive otherwise.

Gosh, he really had to go. As soon as they would leave this place, he would crash in at one of his sister’s flats and stay there until after his heat, that much he knew.

“You seem to get into heat any second now…”, Jun-hee mumbled to him so that the others didn’t hear and Dae-ho cracked a smile.

“Yeah…that’s kinda the case, but don’t tell the others, yes? Jung-bae would probably faint.”

Jun-hee giggled at that and flashed him a warm smile.

“You’re very strong - I wanted to tell you this whole time, but Jung-bae keeps interrupting. Pretending to be a Beta must have been hard and you never told anyone, as it seems.”, she whispered, grabbing his hand as they walked into the hall.

Dae-ho felt his heart crack a bit at that. She seemed so sad about him having to lie because of his secondary gender, but it wasn’t that big of a deal. Honestly, he kind of grew into this whole Beta thing.

“That’s nothing - you are in here, pregnant and an omega and you didn’t even hide the second one.”, he whispered back and she shrugged.

“I never had to hide it, you know? I think I grew up privileged - even though I didn’t have any close family, I always had Myung-gi.”

Dae-ho looked at her in surprise. Until now, she hadn’t mentioned something like this at all - having no family and someone named Myung-gi. Maybe she finally felt safe enough with another omega around her or she just wanted to keep his thoughts away from his upcoming heat, which really worked.

“Myung-gi? Is that your boyfriend? Is he-”, he looked at her stomach sheepishly.

“Is he the father of your, uhm, child?”

Jun-hee smiled, but it didn’t quite reach her eyes.

“My ex. And yes, he is the father. And…you even know him.”

“HUH?”

Now, THAT was a surprise. He knew her ex boyfriend? Who? It could only be someone in these games, though, everything else didn’t make much sense, but -

Who….

“Wait!”, he exclaimed, looking at her with wide eyes. Then he stared at 333, who already had looked into their direction and seemed as if he was embarrassed to be caught.

“333?”

Jun-hee sighed like she was embarrassed as well and nodded then slowly. Dae-ho couldn’t believe it - his friend Jun-hee, the warm-hearted Omega, and 333, whose videos he had watched years ago?

Were they a thing back then too and he just didn’t show his girlfriend in his videos? Probably, that was the only smart thing to do.

He felt a bit dumb-founded at this information and couldn’t stop staring at MG Coin, who avoided his gaze by now and went away, his head ducked and his hands in his pockets, like he was a criminal who tried to not be seen by some cops.

“He was really sweet and funny back then…”, Jun-hee mumbled, sounding a bit defensive and Dae-ho had to laugh at that.

“Hey, I don’t judge you. I always liked his videos, to be honest.”

“Oh? You watched them?”

She did seem surprised at that and Dae-ho didn’t know if he should take this as an insult, because she eventually thought he was too dumb for finance videos, or if he just overreacted. These damn hormones kept messing with his head and he didn’t like it.

“Yeah..”, he mumbled, scratching his itchy neck again. That was something he also hated very much - his scent gland kept acting up, as if it was constantly trying to remind him about what would soon happen.

As if he didn’t know by now.

The others were waiting for them at the bunk beds they claimed on their second day here and Jung-bae instantly changed their positions so he could cover Dae-ho.

That didn’t really go well, because Dae-ho was at least half a head taller than Jung-bae, but he decided to say nothing and the others seemed to think the same. If Jung-bae wanted to be a good Marine and protect his young friend, they would let him do exactly that.

After a few minutes Dae-ho had to sit down on one of the beds and Jun-hee sat down next to him, leaning her head against his shoulder. Dae-ho couldn’t tell if she needed this or did it to calm him down - whatever reason it was, he was kind of glad for her proximity.

By now, he felt like his whole body was on fire and he was also sweating bucks. His shirt stuck to his upper body cause of the sweat and that didn’t help the fact that he felt itchy and uncomfortable all over.

At least he hadn’t had any other really weird image of Young-il since this morning - that had been a real shock, to see what his omega could produce just because he got a bit horny.

Speaking of being horny - Dae-ho felt a bit watched from all the Alphas in the room as soon as they were coming back into the hall. Surely he was releasing some pheromones right now, that was a natural thing for being in late pre-heat.

The stares were a bit overwhelming though - while Dae-ho himself was really creeped out by them and would love to shout at them if he didn’t feel so bad, he feared what his inner omega would do as soon as his heat would fully hit.

He didn’t want to find out - most of them weren’t even anywhere near pretty people. The only Alpha in here that was at least somewhat attractive to Dae-ho was Thanos, if he had to be honest. Even though the ex rapper’s hair was really funky looking and he seemed to be high 24/7, Dae-ho had to admit that he got a nice face and pretty hands-

Wait, since when has he ever found other guys’ hands pretty?

These had to be his damn hormones…

But Thanos’ hands were indeed pretty, being a bit veiny and probably as big as Dae-ho’s own.

He shook his head, inwardly cursing at himself. What was wrong with him?

“Okay, guys, we NEED to get out of here, right?”, Jung-bae sighed, looking at his team and also at the team of the old lady that had joined them and was sitting with them right now.

“Sure, I mean…388 here really needs to get some medicine.”, 007 exclaimed and pointed at Dae-ho, prompting all of the others to nod in agreement and Dae-ho to clear his throat in embarrassment.

“Yeah, and we can’t play another game. We nearly lost Young-mi.”, 120 mumbled and squeezed the hand of 095 next to her, who looked at her with adoring eyes.

“I’m also voting for cross, obviously.”, 333 said, appearing out of nowhere and Jung-bae screamed in shock.

“Where the hell did you come from?”, he asked as soon as he collected himself and crossed his arms. 333 shrugged.

“I got bored all by myself and I wanted to keep a better eye on Jun-hee and 388.”, he admitted dryly and Jun-hee sighed while looking at him, but she did raise her head from Dae-ho at that.

“Good, we need everyone we can get for the voting.”, Gi-hun nodded in earnesty and just like that, 333 stayed by them until the voting started, throwing glances at Jun-hee and Dae-ho from time to time.
Dae-ho also saw how Thanos stared at him the whole time, staying on the circle side though. He seemed to have learned his lesson from before but didn’t look happy at that.

Thanos’ friend, 124, had to hold him back one time when he suddenly stood up and probably wanted to rush to them. 124 struggled with keeping Thanos on the circle side, but eventually their other friend 256 stepped in and helped.

The voting started and Dae-ho felt more stressed and nervous than ever before when Gi-hun was the first to walk to the two buttons in different colours.

He had to be supported by Jun-hee and the older woman on each of his side (the others were mostly too flustered to come near him) so that he didn’t just fell down by now and Dae-ho wanted nothing more than to just lay down somewhere and have someone throw ice cold water onto him.

Even in the mass of people, the other players kept their distance to all of them - the circle voters anyway because they stood far from the crosses.

When it was Dae-ho’s turn to vote, the old woman and Jun-hee brought him to the buttons and he felt sick when he pressed cross. The voting board showed that they were one vote behind.

The two women helped him to the cross fraction, where Jung-bae and Gi-hun carefully took him into their arms and took over the job from the old woman and Jun-hee, who went back to the players that still needed to vote.

“You look really bad, man.”, Jung-bae mumbled as he looked at Dae-ho with fatherly worry.

“I also feel…kinda bad, to be honest.”, Dae-ho admitted for the first time and Gi-hun patted his head in an awkward but also kinda reassuring manner.

“We will get out of here today. I bet some players will change their mind after us losing so many people in the last game!”, he said, full of hope and determination, and Dae-ho nodded.

“That would be great.”

The vote went on and the voting results kept being close to each other, it was a real hard battle between the ones who wanted to leave and those who wanted the games to continue.

The Alpha girl of Thanos’ group voted for cross this time and when her eyes met Dae-ho’s, she winked at him, going to stand with some other cross players in front of them.

Dae-ho looked at Thanos to see his reaction but he couldn’t see his face because some tall Beta stood in front of him. He bet the Alpha was fuming with anger right now, always shouting about how he wanted to keep playing and making more money.

After some of his friends chose cross and stood with them, it was Thanos’ turn and, instead of running to the circle button like he previously did, Thanos walked to the front and turned around to face the people who still needed to vote.

“YO! Fellow circle voters!”, he yelled and Jung-bae next to Dae-ho sighed in annoyance.

“If you don’t change your vote for cross, I’ll kill all of you motherfuckers in the next game!”

Thanos formed a cross with his arms, then he turned around and slammed the cross button so hard that Dae-ho was afraid he broke it.

“Well…this is a surprise.”, Jung-bae mumbled and Dae-ho nodded while staring at Thanos who turned around again and started walking to them, hands interlaced between his head.

Their eyes met and he grinned at Dae-ho like he was a child that just won the reading competition in school and looked for approval from his mother.

Dae-ho smiled at him and Thanos suddenly looked a bit taken aback, stumbling over his own feet on the last metres. 333, who was standing somewhere behind Dae-ho, snickered at that.

Meanwhile, some other players had voted cross and some circle, they didn’t seem to take Thanos very seriously. Dae-ho could understand that - the Alpha wasn’t known for his reliability at all.

The omega from Thanos team that always hung out with the female Alpha also voted for cross and run hastily to the latter, who hugged him and smiled at him warmly. Dae-ho got a bit jealous at this - he wished he’d also have an Alpha so close to him.

He could feel the intense stares from Thanos, who stood in front of him somewhere but kept turning around.

It was still kinda shocking to Dae-ho that the purple haired guy did change his vote - he was glad, of course, but what could have possibly driven him to do that?

And not only Thanos but his whole team changed their minds, 256 stood already by them and now even 124, who had also been a circle lover, pressed cross and shuffled to their side, giving Thanos a high five.

He then looked at Dae-ho and sighed before looking away.

What did that mean now?

“This is getting better and better, guys.”, 007 exclaimed happily and the others also seemed to be more than glad with how everything turned out. With Thanos, 256 and 124 on their side, they really got an advantage they didn’t think they would get.

And, as if luck was on his side for the first time ever, they won the voting by four whole votes.
After Young-il had also pressed cross, their side went as silent as the circle players. Probably because even though they all hoped for it, nobody really fully believed they could go home for real.

But…that was the case. They won. They were free from these games.

“HELL YEAH!”, Thanos screamed and 124 started clapping slowly and this was the moment where everyone was coming out of their shocked state and the whole cross side cheered as if they won their lives back. Which they literally did.

Dae-ho ignored his dizziness and let himself be pulled in an enthusiastic group hug from his team, Young-il joining as soon as he arrived at their side. They did it. They really did it.

–

A week later, after they had been drugged again by the game makers and thrown somewhere on the streets of Seoul (he woke up next to Young-il and 124 and the two men had brought him safely to his sister’s flat before going home themselves), he finally was through the last pieces of his heat.

The previous days had been…quite a lot. For him, but also for his oldest sister, who had thrown a whole tantrum after some random Alpha and Beta guys had brought her brother, who had been in heat, to her door step and left right after.

Yesterday, when he was feeling better, they had sat down and he had told her everything that happened. He wasn’t sure if she fully believed him or thought he was just out partying and hooking up with Young-il and 124, but she said nothing like that, so he just hoped for the best.

Right now, his sister was at work and he lounged on her couch in the living room, wearing some comfortable joggers and a sweatshirt that she had bought for him while he was in her guest room, struggling with his heat.

Right when the Drama that was on finally got interesting, somebody rang the door.

At first, Dae-ho didn’t stand up. That was probably just the mailman and he wasn’t in the mood to talk to any strangers right now. Being in a heat was draining and Dae-ho only wanted to lay on this couch, watching stupid Dramas all day long.

But then the doorbell rang again and this wasn’t typical for a mailman at all.

Dae-ho huffed and went to the door. When he opened it, someone held a flower bouquet right under his nose and Dae-ho stumbled a step back, before he looked up again from the flowers and stared right at Thanos.

The Alpha stood there, in a Gucci tracksuit that seemed a bit fake but was probably not, because they did in fact get the promised money - or at least a money card.

He had gelled his hair back and wore some glasses, now a serious expression on as he still held the bouquet to Dae-ho like it was a weapon. Then he cleared his throat when Dae-ho didn’t say anything.

Honestly? He couldn’t, that was just too much of a surprise. How did he even know where Dae-ho lived right now?

“My big tiger…”, Thanos began and Dae-ho gulped.

“I know that it may seem a bit creepy, me appearing in front of your sister’s home, but Nam-gyu told me where she lives.”

Well, that did answer Dae-ho’s biggest question. Now question number two: what did Thanos want here?

Thanos cleared his throat again and shuffled his feet a bit awkwardly.

“Originally I wrote you a rap from the depths of my pure heart, but then I decided that I need to try something different with you because you are…special to me.”, he nodded and Dae-ho’s eyes went wider with each word.

“So I just wanna be…you know, like, honest with you. Listen.”, Thanos said.

“At first I thought that you were just a funny beta dude, but then you were so cute in this ugly bathroom and so friendly, even though I wanted to beat the shit out of MG Coin, this dumb - oh, wait, I have to focus. So, uh, You were friendly to me and Nam-gyu and Gyeong-su and also pretty and cute - wait, did I say cute twice? Well, just because it’s the truth…”

Thanos kind of stumbled over his own words, seeming a bit lost, with some blush on his cheeks.

“And then I kinda fell in love with you at first sight. And then you said you are an Omega and I mean, I would have liked you as a Beta too, because you are beautiful and I wanna make you mine, but don’t you think that us being an Alpha and an Omega is something like…fate?”

He looked at him with puppy eyes and still held the bouquet, which Dae-ho finally accepted, still being completely dumb-founded but also a bit…nervous. He felt something in his stomach tingle as he took the flowers from Thanos, who definitely seemed more nervous than Dae-ho.

“So…big tiger, Dae-ho, what do you say? Uh, like…do you wanna go on a date with me? I waited the whole week for your heat to finally go away so that you can answer in your right mind. Se-mi told me to do that and she is good at flirting cause she bagged Min-su and- wait, focus, damn.”, Thanos mumbled and stared at Dae-ho like his life was on line.

Dae-ho pressed the flowers (tulips in different colours) against his chest and looked at the alpha in front of him.

This guy had acted really weird at first, but he would lie if he said he wasn’t interested since their first encounter. Until now, Dae-ho has thought this just came from the pre-heat he had been into, but when he took a look at Thanos, who smiled awkwardly and thought about getting to know him better, it didn’t feel weird at all.

So he smiled back at him, feeling light-headed again but this time because of something other than heat.

“Sure, let’s go.”

“Wait….for real?!”, Thanos gasped and he suddenly grabbed Dae-ho’s hands that still held the bouquet.

“Really? You wanna go out with me? Hell yeah! When and where, big tiger? I’ll come in a brand new car and pick you up, for sure-”

“How about right now? I’m free, to be honest.”, Dae-ho interrupted him, grinning and Thanos seemed to be stunned with how he stared at Dae-ho. Then he knelt down and looked up at Dae-ho from behind his glasses.

“You are so perfect, big tiger. Will you marry me?”

“...Let’s go on a date first, yeah?”