Jaemin called Ling's employer and apologized. It wasn't a direct apology, but still an apology. Renjun witnessed it, so the beta couldn't lie.
They forgot the incident after a few days. The beta was all sweet with the omega again, calling him "Junnie" and trying to talk to him. His energy got back, and Renjun could finally return to his chores.
The two were swamped up with the housework, and Jeno was nowhere to be seen as he was on a trip with business matters. Renjun felt better when the alpha wasn't at home, he didn't get in his way, and everything got done faster. However, even when the pureblood alpha wasn't there, the burden he caused was still weighing the omega's shoulders. Renjun kept remembering the signature that was missing and was very confused about his status—who was he, really? It concerned him as it was hard to talk to his parents and say that everything was so perfect in this house when, in fact, it wasn't.
Too bad, he was just an omega and couldn't ask about something so serious as the paperwork. So, he just kept his mouth shut, secretly praying that Lady Brixil wouldn't call them soon. Because things would get complicated. Either Jeno would be forced to sign or the worst—Jeno may openly refuse Renjun as his mate. Both of these were bad. Renjun wanted to be taken seriously, like an actual omega. He didn't want to leave this house. He liked it here and desired to be acknowledged.
That was the moment Renjun realized he had to go harder on everything. He had to put in more effort because, as that one article claimed, alphas were cold, and so was Jeno. The omega really needed to set his image, prove his worth, and cast the alpha's attention. That's what he worked on while Jeno wasn't home.
He got into a better relationship with Jaemin, which wasn't that hard. Mr. Na had already nurtured a better connection between them, so he was happy when Renjun started calling him by his name and appeared "more open to him", which wasn't even close to the truth. Then came the best part. Renjun could naturally request help, and the beta immediately agreed. Soon, the home economist went out to buy a sewing machine even when he appeared skeptical—he thought that whatever Renjun planned, their very own seamstress could do it instead. Then he ordered several fabrics that Renjun chose. Together with the beta, the omega measured Jeno's bed. Then, in the evenings and even at night, he sat down and sewed the alpha new beddings.
He slept less, and soon he felt sick. Jaemin was concerned, saying that the omega overworked himself and should take a few days off. Renjun refused—although no alpha was around, he knew he had to be strong and help Jaemin maintain the household.
Soon, he realized he wasn't just feeling bad. Of course, he felt unwell, but just because his body was preparing for a very important step. His heat. Renjun had headaches and mood swings, but he took those as a positive sign and actually started to believe in something. He recalled someone mentioning that alphas usually bonded with omegas after the sexual act. Maybe starting life with the alpha with his heat help wasn't that bad? Jeno had to learn that Renjun was better than Jaemin in terms of satisfying him. What if they mated and Jeno suddenly fell in love with him?
Renjun truly believed this could happen, and he felt confident when he read the article once again. He flushed his pills of heat suppressants down the toilet, feeling no guilt for doing this as after all, his alpha should take care of him. His heat wasn't only his problem. So, when he heard about Jeno's arrival soon, he was more than glad to wake up with a slight dizziness in his head and a little bit of warmth in the lower part of his stomach. He didn't say anything to Jaemin, and the beta had no clue about his condition, perhaps, thinking he was still unwell because of overworking himself. So, he remained worried.
Jeno's reaction was way different when he sat in the dining room, waiting for lunch and accidentally getting a whiff of Renjun's pheromones as the latter passed by, putting a bowl of radish. The omega pretended that he didn't see anything. However, he felt flattered that at least once, the alpha looked at him differently. Jeno flinched and whipped his head to the omega. He seemed shocked.
Renjun sat down, locking his eyes on the table and patiently listening to Jaemin's warm words just because Jeno successfully participated in a meeting. The omega clapped with the beta and then glanced at the pureblood, noticing that the latter appeared flustered and didn't know where to look.
"We are having a special dinner in your honor, Jeno," Jaemin talked, not noticing the atmosphere as he couldn't feel the pheromones. "Renjun and I made many different meals. Let's dig in!"
He looked at the alpha, expecting to see the latter's enthusiasm for literally every single dish, but instead, he saw Jeno's weird behavior. Not only did he know where to look, but he also appeared to be sweating excessively. Renjun was surprised by the pureblood's reaction. It was only his first day, and he was reacting like this. But let's not forget Renjun was also a pureblood.
"What's the matter?" Jaemin got concerned.
"Uh... just..."
Renjun enjoyed watching Jeno reacting to his pheromones. It seemed that after all, the omega's nature did something to him, waking up his instincts, unlike before. He was unsettled, his face had gotten quite red.
"Don't you have anything to take?" Jeno asked, suddenly looking at Renjun and, surprisingly, talking to him.
The omega tilted his head, faking confusion.
"Your pheromones..." Jeno said, trying not to breathe it in. "I don't like them. You need to use your suppressants."
With the edge of his eye, Renjun noticed the exact moment Jaemin realized what was going on. And he smiled.
"I-I don't have them," the omega said, looking away.
"Why don't you have them?" Jeno asked in a demanding tone.
"No one gave me..."
That was true. Renjun came to this house with his own spare pills, but no one gave him more.
"Jaemin, call the pharmacy and order him suppressants," Jeno requested calmly, though his hands were shaking.
"Right now?" the beta grumbled.
"Yes," Jeno stood up, stepping away from the table. "Because I can't eat anymore. It perplexes me."
"But I'm eating..."
"Right now!" Jeno demanded. "It makes me uncomfortable! I don't like it."
"Okay..." Jaemin mumbled, shifting his eyes to Renjun. "Could you tell me a little bit about your medicine? I don't have a clue..."
"There are a few types. You'd need a receipt... I don't know what I was taking..."
"Excellent!" Jeno scoffed.
He said he didn't like what was happening, yet he remained in the room and continued feeling the omega's stronger scent and pheromones. Renjun looked at him weirdly. He appeared like a kid throwing tantrums.
"Okay," Jaemin took a deep breath. The omega could tell that he was getting affected by Jeno's mood and seemed nervous. "Could you follow me to the living room, Junnie? We'll make a call and let Jeno eat."
Renjun rose and tried following Jaemin out of the room, but, unexpectedly, Jeno grabbed his arm and pulled him back. The omega's heart fluttered even when the action was harsh, while Jeno frowned, surprised why he even held Renjun. Both were confused about what was happening to them. It wasn't hard to see Jeno didn't know what to do. He wanted Renjun to leave and not bother him with his scent, yet he didn't let him leave.
Jaemin stood aside and observed them. He didn't intend to interfere, and maybe that's why Jeno did something even more unexpected. The alpha pushed Renjun onto the table, the plates, dishes, and cutlery spreading around, and falling to the floor. Renjun gasped and tried to get up, but Jeno bent over him and inhaled his scent. Their faces were only a few inches apart, closer than ever. The omega's heart pounded because of the proximity, the alpha's scent made him dizzy, and for a second, he thought he'd submit even if Jeno would want to mate there, in the middle of the room, with his home economist watching. That was how desperately he desired to connect with the alpha.
But then he realized how stupid it was. Renjun panicked—these things had to be done in the bedroom, where only the two could be. Privately. But even worse than this mess had to be the feeling the omega had. Renjun knew Jeno would retreat as hesitation and confusion about his actions were still visible in his eyes. Fearing to be rejected, Renjun did it first.
He slapped Jeno.
It was a loud and strong slap—Renjun put all the hatred into it, avenging the mess he had to deal with and Jeno's secret love for Jaemin. The house owner didn't anticipate it and froze, giving the omega time to get away. Renjun barely could as Jeno had caged him in between his arms, still holding him in place. However, Jaemin was there for him. He stopped observing and stepped in when he realized Renjun was uncomfortable.
Jaemin harshly pushed Jeno away and assisted Renjun so he could stand back on his feet. The omega glanced at Jeno, getting angry the alpha didn't try to get him back. What a weak alpha, he thought. Even when he received a slap, he should've opened his mouth to explain himself, if he wanted Renjun. The omega gave him time, too. He didn't rush to leave, even when Jaemin pulled him and called him to go to the other room. But as Jeno didn't react, Renjun listened to the beta and walked away.
Jaemin called the pharmacy, twisted the wire on his finger, and kept glancing at the other room. He tried to find the best suppressants for Renjun. The omega got weird questions, a little too personal, so he refused to answer, making the process even harder.
At first, Renjun thought the beta was very confused about this whole thing, but as he looked at Jaemin more closely and analyzed his responses, the omega noticed that he wasn't even putting in that much effort. At some point, he stopped questioning Renjun and just threw the answers at the poor pharmacy guy to confuse him. It appeared to the omega that Jaemin didn't want to buy the suppressant at all.
Jeno stepped into the living room and laid his eyes on Renjun, sitting on the sofa. He looked intimidating, but confident, casting a bit of hope to the omega that maybe the alpha came there to fight for him. Jaemin pulled the phone away from his ear, didn't say a thing to the pharmacy specialist, only proving he didn't care, and ended the call.
"Everything's so confusing," he complained to Jeno. "I don't understand a thing, and the specialist asked weird questions..."
"Then lock him inside his room," Jeno said, earning a laugh from Jaemin.
"What?"
"I don't want him to walk around my house smelling like that! It makes me do weird things..."
Renjun wondered what was going on. Jaemin seemed not to have anything against Renjun's heat, and he was glad it occurred. Jeno, on the other hand, appeared scared and didn't like being attracted to the pheromones. He must've not liked losing control. Both of them had very strong opinions, but Jaemin had a soft spot for Jeno and gave in, turning to the omega and asking him to go to his room.
"I'll bring you the food," he smiled, and Renjun learned to hate that smile.
Late at night, locked in his room, full of a mess of many beddings he expected to sew to the alpha, Renjun heard them at the end of the hallway. They did it. Jeno did it with Jaemin but had the omega locked inside his room like a prisoner. They did it on Renjun's bedding.
The omega's face turned red, he covered his ears and ran to the bathroom. There, he stripped and washed up for a whole hour until there was no slick between his legs. Renjun felt disappointed in everything and thought that the next day, he could change something.
But what could he change?
Jaemin brought him food but didn't intend to let him out, following Jeno's orders. He held the keys all the time he was in Renjun's room, trying to form a conversation with the omega, but the latter was mad. He didn't even turn around and greeted Jaemin. He was angry about last night and could just sit at the table and stare at the wall. He didn't even bother dressing up.
"Oh, come on, Junnie," Jaemin cooed, approaching the omega. He patted the latter's left shoulder. "Jeno needs time. It happened so suddenly. He was never so aggressive like this... I know he was shocked."
"You always have something to excuse him."
"Jeno is a complicated alpha. That's all I can say," the beta uttered softly. "He needs to get used to you, your pheromones, and then he'll be fine. I know I said it'd be better if you get closer during your first heat, but it seems like Jeno would do better on your second."
Renjun gritted his teeth.
"Why is he complicated, Jaemin?" he demanded an answer to the question that always emerged in his head. "Why can't he trust me?"
"Jeno's a pureblood alpha. He's born in a family of alphas where loyalty and trust are treasured the most. They taught him to analyze and not trust just anyone," Jaemin elaborated. "He's especially wary of alphas, and when it comes to omegas, he has a very low knowledge of them. You're one of the first omegas in his life. That's why he can't let you get close to him. He doesn't know many things about you, but he needs you."
"Everything that's happening here..." Renjun trailed off. "No one taught me to be prepared for any of this."
"Reality is always different from theory," Jaemin said with enthusiasm, though the exhaustion in his voice annoyed Renjun, especially when he knew why the beta was like this. "Alphas are hard to understand, but learning about them is worth it."
The omega didn't say anything. Jaemin took that as a sign to end the conversation. He didn't seem to have much energy to chat when he had to cover for the omega. Soon, he left and locked the door. Renjun was left alone with his pheromones and pressure in his stomach. If he knew Jeno didn't try to get him, he would've saved those pills from flushing them down the toilet. Enduring the heat wasn't that easy. Renjun started getting bad thoughts.
The second day of his heat was hard, but the third turned out to be a literal nightmare. Renjun tried to keep his mind away from everything by cleaning his room, sewing, and finally sleeping, but his desperate demeanor and hot body kept reminding him he desired the alpha. Jeno appeared in his dreams, and when the omega woke up and caught the pureblood's scent slipping under his door, Renjun thought he'd go crazy. If it happened any longer, he would start crawling walls.
No one in Aquamarine House had told him how wild his desires would be and how much the alpha's scent could strongly affect him. Renjun guessed that he earned such reactions because Jeno was a pureblood, just like him. He was naturally attracted to the alpha because of his intense representative smell and strong presence.
As a pureblood omega, he fought with it, though. Renjun hated that he wanted the alpha who ignored him and even locked him inside. So, the suppressed anger against Jeno, which he couldn't say the alpha to the face, he released on Jaemin, whom he disliked for having a secret relationship with that alpha. He acted rudely toward the beta, and when Jaemin wanted to know what exactly was dissatisfying Renjun, which was obvious, the latter never said it to him and made foggy remarks, punishing the beta this way. Until the evening of the third day.
"Junnie, calm down a little," Jaemin chuckled. "I like to see another side of you, but you have to control yourself a little, you know. You're scaring me."
"I'm glad," the omega grumbled, drawing back from the window and turning to the beta. "I'm really angry."
"I think you're just aroused... But I know you can't overcome it. What did you say takes your mind away from everything? Cleaning? Why don't you clean your bathroom floor?"
"No omega gets an orgasm from cleaning the bathroom floor," Renjun barked. "No matter how squeaky clean it is."
Jaemin gasped, as it was a little too much that Renjun said, but the omega felt truthful about his words.
"That was a valid point. I like you," Jaemin grinned right after.
"Jaemin, stop playing with me," Renjun narrowed his eyes. "Why did you pick me? I know you saw me rolling my eyes. Did you think it would be fun to imprison me here, where I can't carry out my purpose? Was it for revenge?"
"You want to know why I picked you? Fine," Jaemin sighed and walked further into the room, pulling on the armchair and sitting down. "Yeah, you rolled your eyes. That's the first reason. The second is your gender."
"I don't understand," the omega huffed.
"As a pureblood omega, you have personality, Junnie. You're not a mindless omega who's willing to be humiliated by their alpha and stepped on. Your outside may look like it, but on the inside, there's a very witty human being who wants to be perfect and, therefore, thinks of their every move rather than following their instincts," Jaemin said, crossing his legs and reaching for a fake flower on the table to play with. "You're not as innocent as they told you, and you know it yourself, right?" he asked, touching the fake petals with his fingers. "That's just a facade."
Renjun looked at Jaemin suspiciously. The omega knew the beta was like this. That's why intuition told him not to trust Jaemin too much. He saw him through.
"Where is all of this going?" he asked carefully.
"I wanted a very strong-willed omega for Jeno. A smart one with a personality, the one who could take care of him instead of hoping to be taken care of," Jaemin went on, a subtle smile showing up on his face as he played with the stalk of the fake flower between his fingers. "Jeno is indeed a very unique alpha. He's way more sensitive than the other purebloods. He needs extra care and isn't as motivated as he should be. He needs someone to push him to do something, so the omega with a short temper was the best choice."
Renjun frowned. Was it really that obvious he was short-tempered?
"I wanted you to charm him and introduce him to the life of alpha and omega and help him out this way. He really needs an omega, but he doesn't know it himself. He's still pretty immature, and he thinks he can deal with it in other ways," Jaemin sighed, making a dramatic pause. "You see, Jeno struggles with his secondary gender. He gets irregular ruts that increase during the spring season. That makes it impossible for him to focus, he gets very moody and sometimes even depressed."
Was that why he and Jaemin had that weird romance? Such a question was on the tip of Renjun's tongue, but he suddenly was mute.
"I'm distressed that he wants you to stay away from him when you're in such good shape. But, as I said, Jeno needs time to learn about you, and bringing you two to mate wouldn't be a good choice right now. He's not prepared, and neither are you. Both of you don't want it. It's just your body."
"What should I do in this situation? Just sit and wait until he starts liking me? What if it takes years?" Renjun said in a hostile tone. "The way he treats me humiliates me. I'd be better with an alpha who picked me himself."
"Don't say that," Jaemin stopped smiling as well as playing with the fake flower. "I chose you with care."
"You came to the shop that day, saw me rolling my eyes, and chose me. There was no care."
"I went in there two times that day. Didn't you see me in the morning?"
Renjun knew it happened, but he didn't see Jaemin.
"Oh, you didn't because I have no smell. Well, I'm happy to tell you that I was there earlier and saw that there was written you're sometimes impatient," Jaemin said, annoying the omega for some reason, especially when he realized that not only jobless alphas came in the morning, but also rich beta economists. "I liked it, therefore, I returned later to check on you, and then I saw more."
The eye roll.
"Thanks to you, I'm stuck in here now," Renjun retorted, smiling sarcastically. "I could've lived way better with anyone else."
"No, you're wrong. Some alphas abuse their mates, and yours just doesn't touch you. It's not the same."
"But some alphas also love their omegas or at least feel something positive about them," Renjun glared at the beta. "Mine is ignoring me, and in his free time, he's fucking his beta home economist."
Jaemin froze. He stopped annoyingly touching the fake flower. Actually, it could've fallen out of his hand if he hadn't suddenly clenched it.
"Where did you get that?" he asked calmly, but his eyes appeared desperate.
Renjun didn't reply on purpose, enjoying it to the fullest that Jaemin seemed to be in the same place as he was all this time, in the abyss of the unknown, and the main point of it was that he could do nothing about it. The feeling of having no control was awful.
The omega just gazed at the beta, until the other started feeling uneasy and rose from the armchair.
"I don't know where you get that, but you're totally wrong," Jaemin said, then tossed the flower and left the room, locking the door right after.