Omega Complex Novel (Completed) - Chapter 16

However he interpreted my reaction, Kim Dohyun smiled and put a cigarette in his mouth. Actually, this wasn’t my private property, and there was no reason to tell him to leave if he wanted to smoke in the smoking room. I was planning to smoke just one or two more anyway and then leave.

“Could I borrow a light?”

Kim Dohyun took the lighter and approached the chair by the wall. The way he crossed his legs and lit the cigarette showed he was no stranger to smoking. He must have just turned twenty, so when on earth did he start smoking?

“Yoonwoo sunbae.”

“Go ahead.”

A faint smile returned to the half-hearted reply. As he flicked away the burnt-out cigarette, Kim Dohyun’s gaze followed the butt.

“What’s Senior Choi Taegyeom’s alcohol tolerance?”

It was a terribly abrupt question. He really is curious, I thought, pulling out another cigarette.

“Well… Oh, you have the lighter, don’t you?”

“Right, here you go.”

Our fingertips brushed slightly when I took the lighter. It was similar to when he handed me the water glass earlier. Kim Dohyun clenched and unclenched the hand that had brushed mine, muttering softly.

“He seemed to be a heavy drinker…”

So what? I didn’t ask aloud, but he seemed to have caught my thought. He shrugged and looked towards our table. Of course, due to the distance, not even a shadow of the table was visible.

“Are you okay taking him home alone? Senior Choi Taegyeom is tall, too.”

“It’ll be easier than taking Park Seong-jae.”

Choi Taegyeom was just tall; at least, he wasn’t built like a mountain. I’d only know for sure once I saw him walk, but calling a taxi wouldn’t be too difficult. Though, mentally, it might be several times harder.

“Still, I’m a bit worried.”

“You worry about everything.”

I let out a hollow chuckle. He seemed to have drunk quite a lot earlier too; he should worry about himself instead of me. When he goes back to the drinking party, he’ll probably drink for a long time again, so I just hope he doesn’t get too drunk.

“More importantly…”

Kim Dohyun shrugged and began. He exhaled a long stream of cigarette smoke, looking up at me.

“You really don’t know about Senior Choi Taegyeom, do you?”

“About what?”

Before I knew it, the smoking room was thick with cigarette smoke. The tension that had enveloped my entire body had also significantly eased. Choi Taegyeom would hate the smell if it clung to me. How do I get rid of the smell? It was the moment I exhaled a puff of cigarette smoke, lost in thought.

“That Senior is an Omega.”

Thud, I stopped moving. My mind went blank, and for that moment, I even forgot that I had a cigarette in my mouth. Slowly, I turned my head, and our gazes met in mid-air.

What did he just say?

“I thought you were pretending not to know, but it seems you really don’t.”

Kim Dohyun’s voice was relaxed. It was as casual and calm as if he were talking about having kimchi jjigae for lunch. So much so that I wondered if I had misheard him.

“…What did you just say?”

I didn’t feel like smoking any more. Kim Dohyun, with his eyes lowered, felt unreal, and my heart seemed to lurch, as if it had come undone.

“I said Senior is an Omega.”

Cigarette ash fluttered down from the cigarette I was holding. Kim Dohyun followed the ash with his eyes, taking a deep drag from his cigarette.

“Senior is an Omega, and Senior Choi Taegyeom doesn’t know that.”

His tone was confident. It didn’t sound like he was making a gamble, nor did it seem like he was trying to gauge my reaction. If it were merely suspicion, he wouldn’t have such a calm expression. Kim Dohyun was asserting that I was an Omega, as if explaining a ‘fact’ he truly knew.

“Are you… smoking because of pheromones?”

Instead of answering immediately, I held the burnt-out cigarette in my mouth. The glowing tip, burned down close to the filter, flickered before my eyes. Crunch, crunch, as I bit the filter, I tasted a slightly bitter flavor.

“…Why?”

My breath felt constricted. Was it because I had been in an unventilated place for too long, or was it because Kim Dohyun’s pheromones had unconsciously seeped out? My heart plummeted endlessly, making it hard to breathe. Kim Dohyun stared at me intently.

“Why do you think that…?”

“It was obvious.”

It was obvious.

It had been five years since I’d hidden the fact that I was an Omega. I smoked, took suppressants, and never left the house when I had a heat. I had deceived everyone for years, and yet this guy, whom I’d known for less than a month, said it was obvious.

“Hmm, Senior hid it well. I’m just quick-witted.”

Kim Dohyun’s words offered no comfort. I knew, without even checking, that my face must have turned pale. Seeing me like that, he clicked his tongue briefly.

“I’m sorry if that expression makes you feel bad…”

What a hypocrite. It was even more absurd that he actually looked sorry. If he were truly sorry, he would have pretended not to know. Why bring it up and then pretend to be concerned?

“I’m very good at smelling pheromones… no, scents.”

I slowly leaned against the glass wall, arms crossed. I was worried about Choi Taegyeom outside, but first, I needed to hear Kim Dohyun out. There must be a reason why he suddenly brought up the Omega topic with me.

“You had a good scent, so at first I thought you were using a good perfume. As for pheromones, it was a bit…”

Kim Dohyun chose his words carefully, observing my reaction. However, when I showed no particular response, he blurted out what he had originally intended to say.

“Too faint in presence.”

It was exactly what I had expected.

“But Senior kept showing strange behavior.”

“…”

“At the freshman welcoming party, as soon as Senior Choi Taegyeom entered, your face changed color, didn’t it?”

Strictly speaking, it was because someone called Choi Taegyeom’s name. I reacted to the three syllables of Choi Taegyeom’s name, not to Choi Taegyeom’s pheromones. Instead of pointing that out, I simply lowered my eyes.

“And then you reacted noticeably to the word ‘Omega’…”

Kim Dohyun, deep in thought, squinted his eyes. As if something had occurred to him, his dark eyes momentarily sparkled.

“Oh, do you know this? If you tell Betas that pheromones are on them, they usually smell it first. They think pheromones are like smells or fragrances.”

At the freshman welcoming party, Kim Dohyun told me that Alpha pheromones were on me. He then observed my reaction, and when I casually dismissed it, he made an expression as if he wanted to say something.

“But Senior didn’t do that.”

So that’s what he wanted to say. My head felt numb, as if I had been hit.

“So I thought it was strange.”

This wasn’t so much that I gave myself away, but rather that Kim Dohyun’s perceptiveness was abnormally developed. Most people wouldn’t suspect someone was an Omega just because they didn’t smell something. They wouldn’t doubt someone who claimed to be a Beta, nor would they react sensitively to constantly changing complexions. No, they probably wouldn’t even sense Omega pheromones from me in the first place.

“The most confusing part was at the Japanese restaurant. I tried spilling pheromones to check, and Senior just ignored it, didn’t you?”

It was an incident from a week ago, at a restaurant. Kim Dohyun suddenly released pheromones, and I pretended not to notice, composing my expression. As expected, his strange behavior at that time was to confirm that I was an Omega.

“I’m an Alpha, too, but when there was no reaction, I thought you weren’t.”

My head felt cold and clear. I had been overly surprised earlier, but now I felt nothing at all.

I’ve been caught. Yes, I was finally caught.

“But after Senior Choi Taegyeom came… Senior, you got hard, didn’t you?”

I had always thought I would be caught someday. It was true that I felt a little stifled seeing everyone except my parents think I was a Beta. I had always been mentally prepared, and I had simulated it every day, preparing for the day I would reveal it. That time had simply arrived.

“That’s when I was sure.”

“…”

“Ah, Senior Yoonwoo is an Omega.”