The Office for rules and safety regulation that Ren once was taken to with Masanori was passed in the upper floors of the school, and instead Ren was carried directly into a different office, a teacher's office for disciplinary.
He placed him into the chair and clicked his tongue scornfully. "Aruki-sensei, gone again…"
Akagi Naoto leaned against the desk and glared down at Ren. Ren stared back unflinchingly, which made him raise an eyebrow.
"... you really are… nevermind. We're staying here until he gets back."
"So that's it?" Ren said under his breath. If that was all he could do then he really wasn't that big of a deal after all. He was just a kid, like Masanori.
Akagi- No, Naoto turned and scoffed at him. "Unbelievable. Expecting something, are you? Is that how it is?"
"I don't want anything except to leave, actually," Ren responded immediately. "I didn't do anything."
"D-Didn't do anything?!" Naoto hollered, suddenly flustered. "You were hiding in the bushes outside the beta dorm! You were planning something." He scowled. "I only caught you because Hinaguchi keeps trailing you. Ha, the freak must be stewing in regret now."
"Hey! Don't call him a freak! It's you that's the weirdo! I wasn't planning anything, I was looking for a friend because I can't enter the beta dorm to look for them anymore!! Is that a crime!?" Ren shouted, voice rapidly increasing in volume. "I was only hiding because everyone hates me and keeps giving me weird looks! What did I do wrong, huh?"
These were real genuine questions he had, bursting out of him. Akagi Naoto was beginning to come off more like a pest than a real threat or enemy. And if he couldn't actually do anything to him, then he was just getting in his way.
Naoto clicked his teeth dismissively. "You act so clueless. You put yourself into this position. Try your hardest to figure out what you should have done instead, little omega."
"I figured it out alright. You're just eccentric and insane," Ren flopped onto the desk. "I found out, you just don't like me! Why do you care, you only said to stay away from Alphas, right? Why do you have such a bone to pick with me?"
"Maybe ask why you're such a nuisance to begin with. Poor scent, no manners. Did you grow up in some isolated beta village and haven't learned modern etiquette? That would explain a lot!" He laughed like it was an insult, but Ren just shrugged his shoulders at him.
His face flushed in anger. "You think this is a joke, huh? But you should know, I'm in charge of the wellbeing of all of the students here, but you keep playing games."
Ren grit his teeth and shouted up at him. "Well I'm not playing around! Ha! And it's you and your stupid rumors that think they can stop me that's the real joke! Watch me: I'm gonna get my mate bond, then I'm gonna get out of this crazy school and there's nothing you can do about it!"
That was the wrong thing to say. Akagi Naoto's face darkened and he snarled, grabbing Ren by his clothes and lifting him off the chair.
"Like hell you are!" He roared.
"Just try it!" Ren shouted back. Naoto slammed Ren against the bookshelf against the wall in a rage.
The momentum sent a shock through Ren's still somewhat sore body, but more so the shelf shook, and things began to fall. Ren was dropped unceremoniously and Ren watched as leaned over him and shielded him, gritting his teeth as a book corner hit him square in the top of the head. He grumbled and pushed away, rubbing his head.
"Um…t-thank you." Ren said, from a loss of what else to say.
Naoto glared down at Ren in responde, and Ren gulped. Naoto reached down, past him and started picking up things off the ground, grumbling. Ren, still in shock, suddenly realized he had the opportunity to run while he was busy.
He was caught by the scruff of his collar right away.
"We aren't finished yet, Omega." Naoto's dark look made Ren very uncomfortable, and Ren forgot where all of his dismissive confidence went. He forgot this guy could use mind control! His breath hitched and a shiver ran up his spine.
Then, very faintly, Ren could… smell something. A scent. Like a tropical breeze wafting in, but like it was caught up in a bad storm where the winds of the ocean were rough and carried the cool ocean water like a weapon. With a salt that stings your eyes.
In that sudden splash, Ren flinched. Akagi's eyes grew wide, and for a moment, he let him go. Ren glanced at Naoto's released hand, before bolting for the door.
"Hey! You fucking- shit!" Naoto tripped on something that had fallen on the floor. By the time he recovered, Ren was long gone.
Naoto scowled further. 'Damn it. Who knows where he'll go hiding now, I only tracked him from that omega that's been following him. I have a damn strong nose in this school, how can this guy possibly be an Omega? Even with inhibitors on, he was so close yet I couldn't smell him at all!'
Naoto looked to the floor at the mess. If he didn't pick this up before Aruki Sensei came back, then he'll have hell to pay.
'I'll find him later. If he's not giving up, then I'll find him again, one way or another.'
———
"So nothing went wrong while I was away?"
Masanori was talking to Yukihiro in between classes.
Yukihiro shook his head. "As if. I'm a man of my word. Worst he did was get a little loud on sports day - nothing anyone couldn't handle."
"Really… well that's good." Masanori gave a long sigh of relief. "And he hasn't been acting differently? Maybe gone to see someone…"
"Ugh. Is this all you wanna talk about?" Yukihiro grunted. "It's always about him with you lately," He held up a hand mocking a mouth flapping. "All the time, so annoying."
"I'm only asking. I was just… you were always making fun of me for being obsessive now you're just mad at me?" Masanori asked, more annoyed than confused.
Yukihiro remained silent. In truth, he was a little pissed off. He wanted Masanori to have fun with a little possessive Alpha fawning, but he didn't expect he'd go too far and get himself suspended. One thing he knew Masanori cared about more than anything was his reputation and public image, so to risk losing that to an omega, it really made him reconsider things. Yukihiro knew his family. If his father cracked the whip down, he'd never see him again.
All that for an omega that had a scent so weak it was practically nonexistent.
Yukihiro skipped class after lunch and took an afternoon nap instead. When he awoke he felt like taking a walk to the lake.
He stood at the fence looking down at the water.
'Why for that omega? Before it was interesting, but now that you've ended up like this…'
Yukihiro felt a sudden tap on his shoulder and glanced back, startled. He relaxed. "Oh. It's you."
Ren looked at him nervously. He glanced around, paranoid. He looked Yukihiro straight in the eye. "I need to talk to you."
Yukihiro turned his head back to the water. "Unfortunately I'm busy today. Come back some other time."
"B-But I've been trying to catch you leaving your dorm," Ren tried to explain. "Did you know they won't let people visit the beta dorm anymore, Yuki-kun?"
'My dorm? Oh right, he thinks I'm a beta. Maybe I should have thought this through better.' He thought. He tried to catch his scent, bemused by how impossible it was to do so.
"C-Come on, not you too…" Ren deflated. "Everyone avoids me… I thought you'd be different."
Yukihiro took great offense to that. He was very different to everyone. His reasons for avoiding him were completely special, in fact, but he wasn't going to explain that to him.
"...Alright," Yukihiro turned around to lean on the fence. "What is it?"
Ren glanced around some more. "Not here. There are eyes everywhere."
Now Yukihiro was really bemused, bewildered even. Quickly it grew to a humorous curiosity, as it usual did with interestingky bizzare things.
"Sure?" He then grinned. "Alright then. Follow me."
Yukihiro quickly grabbed onto Ren's wrist and pulled him off. He sped down the path and into the trees with him.
"Wait! Slow down!" Ren cried out, and Yukihiro did so. They stopped in a somewhat dense part of the trees, not enough to cover over the sight or the lake or even the school buildings, but enough that anyone not there would have a hard time spotting them. Yukihiro planted his butt down near the closest tree, leisurely placing his hands behind his neck and grinning wildly.
"Good spot huh? All the privacy you need, my favorite spot in the school."
Ren looked around. "You come here often?"
"Often enough. Only people that use it is in the evening to mess around. So we're good for now." Yukihiro waved nonchalantly.
"Mess around…?" Ren questioned with a frown.
Yukihiro shrugged. "You know. Sex."
Ren felt a blush rise to his face when his imagination went on its own, fun sized roller coaster of things.
He held his hands up flusteredly. "I-I didn't, w-well it's a little... y-you sure know a l-lot about this school don't you?"
"Been here all of three years - there's not a lot I don't know," Yukihiro shrugged. "Where else are they going to go when the dorms are covered in security?"
'So he's a third year. I didn't realize...' He, briefly, thought of something. Where would the students go once they left high school?
Yukihiro noticed, but just sighed, already getting bored. "What is it then? I think you're neat but this is my free time here." He wasn't in the mood to deal with the fancies of troublesome omegas and whatever they wanted all the time, like Masanori.
Ren nodded enthusiastically. "Of course!" Then, to Yukihiro's complete surprise, Ren got down on both knees and bowed heavily into a dogeza until his head hit the grass.
"Please! Tell me ways that I can improve my instincts, Senpai!"
Yukihiro was frankly gobsmacked, sitting upright in shock. "What?"
"Please! You're the only one I can turn to! I must get revenge for my fallen comrades who have fallen for this devil's trickery." Ren looked up at Yukihiro with fire in his eyes. "Yukihiro Senpai! You seem to know the most, so please teach me!"
Yukihiro eyebrows furrowed. "Ok ok, hold the phone here. What the hell are you talking about?"
Ren rose from his bow slowly. "Well, the other day, you taught me about the powers of the genders, and now I must learn how to wield its power. I don't know if you're in league with them or not, Yuki Senpai, but I've already spoken to their lackey so asking you cannot possibly hurt. Please! I have to undo the curse evoked onto the student body by the wicked forces that run this place!"
None of that made any more sense to Yukihiro. He tried to digest it in chunks.
"You're trying to master your instincts?"
Ren nodded.
"And you want me to teach you?"
"That's right!"
"And you want to… undo a curse?"
"They turned everyone against me!"
"The… wicked forces." Yukihiro sighed, then face palmed. 'Nori, you told me crazy, but this…'
But then, he started to chuckle.
"Well I don't know what kind of trouble you're in, but why do you need my help? There isn't much you can do about instincts."
"I… I can't?" Ren asked weakly.
"Well, what can I say? Looking at you…" He stood back up and walked around him, glancing over him. "Hm, you're just not much. What grade are you?" He asked.
"The… second?" Ren slowly answered, thinking it was about his school year grade.
Yukihiro exhaled. He did not want to get involved with whatever he had going on, but him deflecting answering his question gave him pause.
'An omega with a scent impossibly weak, there must be a reason why he captured Masanori's attention so aptly.'
"You're an odd one… alright," Yukihiro said after consideration. "I'll try to help you the best I can. No promises though." He added, wagging a finger.
Ren's eyes lit up. "Thank you so much! I'll do my best!"
Yukihiro mused. 'Well, at least this will be interesting. Perhaps his issues with his instincts are related to his scent?'
Ren grinned broadly. 'Yes! I got him to work with me! I had to amp up the dramatics a little, but it seemed to have worked out!'
Yukihiro had already tuned out the nonsense about wicked forces and evil spells. He was only interested in the scentless omega.
In a private study room, Ren glanced around nervously. He was expecting more of a training montage of physical activity and not…studying.
Ren glanced at the door. "You sure we weren't followed?"
Yukihiro raised an eyebrow. "You think I wouldn't notice a tail? We're in the clear…."
Ren nodded. "My name is.. um, Takura Ren," He winced. "O-Omega." He bowed. "I didn't tell you before but it's important now, so… P-Please take care of me."
Yukihiro rolled his eyes. A fake name?
"Um, whats… yours?" Ren asked.
"Mine?" Yukihiro loudly snorted. "What about it?"
"W-Well… You told me your name is Hirabayashi Yukihiro, but I found out that name belongs to the secret student council member, and he's 100% an Alpha but you're not," He turned red. "Y-You don't have to give me your real name, but it'll be weird to keep calling you the name of someone else…"
Yukihiro smiled, one that grew just a bit too devious.
"Is that right? Not an Alpha… I guess that works," He crossed his arms and lofted his head. "Let's just say my name is pretty close to that, so it's easy to mix up."
He wanted to keep him from getting scared at him being an Alpha, but he was bound to find out eventually. A half lie was only the best solution.
Ren squinted. "Really? Why would you pick a name that's so close to your real name, even if he is an elusive student? And why pick–?"
"Just sit down already," Yuki pushed him further into the room. "Let's stick to Yuki for now, Ren-kun."
Ren stopped. He turned back and gave Yukihiro a weird look.
"What is it?" Yuki asked.
"N-Nothing…" Ren wouldn't say that he was the first time in a long while that someone had called him by his real name.
As Ren sat at the table impatiently, Yukihiro waited. His interest in the omega only growing more intense, as his released pheromones directly at Ren elicited no reaction.
'Is he built like a wall? These pheromones might not be the strongest since I'm masking my Alpha musk, but he is far too resilient to it. Is it his inhibitors?'
"If you're an Omega here, then you must wear inhibitors, right? Take them off for me."
Ren frowned. "Take off what??"
Yukihiro didn't believe what he was hearing. "Inhibitors, Takeshita. Even Betas and Alphas wear them sometimes. Have you lived under a rock?"
Ren stared, then shrugged. He hadn't had time to examine the one given to him before so he knew it in only vague terms, much less its function.
Yukihiro took a silent breath to relax his nerve, having far greater patience than his fellow Alphas and remaining calm even, though he felt he wasn't getting anywhere.
"No inhibitors, yet no scent? Are you sure you're an omega?" Yukihiro questioned.
Ren struggled to answer. "... maybe? Akagi Naoto calls me that everytime he sees me and I live in the omega dorm..."
"He really does, doesn't he?" Yukihiro leaned over a little. "Akagi Naoto. And… what do you think about him?" He suddenly asked.
"Ugh, he's an Alpha lackey," Ren just groaned. "Just a pawn in the evil forces game! I'd tell you all about it but it's a lot to take in so just trust me, it's bad but with your help I can make it better!"
'I have no idea what he's saying, but Akagi Naoto just targets him because he has a grudge against omegas. Though, he has been a tad too excessive lately. He might continue to be an issue if I'm not careful…' Yukihiro scrunched his brow. "But your lack of scent is striking, and you don't even seem affected by my pheromones. You're like a super beta." Yukihiro continued out loud.
"Is that a bad thing?" Ren asked.
Yukihiro shrugged. "Depends on what you think. But probably, this isn't good for your health. You've seen a doctor about it? School nurse maybe?"
"Doctor? I-I don't…" Ren shook his head, his face turning red at the image of a tall white coated Alpha flashing through his mind.
"No, I-I don't need treatment, I need answers!" Ren yelled aggravatedly. "So how do I level up my instincts!?"
'Touchy.' Yukihiro thought before replying. "To be honest I'm not sure. If there's a problem, then we need to find it first off. When did this start? Are you a late bloomer perhaps?"
Ren didn't really have an answer for those questions. "Uh, maybe? And I don't…. remember."
"You don't remember? Has it been like this your whole life?"
Ren nodded with some hesitation.
Yukihiro leaned back. "Then maybe that's it. Late bloomer maybe? When was your first heat?"
"My heat?" Ren made a face. He didn't want to talk about heats.
"Just answer for me. When did they begin?"
"....two months ago." He slowly answered.
"When you started school?"
Ren nodded, with much less enthusiasm than before. This topic wasn't getting anywhere! Why was this important?
"So it's not irregular… Ok. No inhibitors, no instincts, and you didn't start your heat until school started," Yukihiro leaned against the study desk. "What kind of place did you grow up in? Did you not have a lot of pheromones around you?"
Ren didn't remember where Takeshita Akira had grown up. But he still knew where he did, and it certainly didn't have pheromones all over the place. Ren decided to be truthful and shook his head. "None, I guess."
Yukihiro nodded. "Then maybe that's it. Your lack of pheromones before had you stilted somehow, and now that you've come to an all boys school full of them your body is playing catch up."
'Catch up? He's talking like it's abnormal.' Which meant that he didn't know the truth of this place either.
"Have you ever smelled any pheromones or scents at all?" Yukihiro questioned.
"What about the scent stuff?" Ren grumbled. "I smell things all the time. Why does this matter?"
"Well they have a certain quality to them, different from normal smells… It's not something you normally need to explain, but you'd know it when you do. And I'm asking because, while I'm not sure if it's the same with omegas, Alphas with pheromone issues can be helped with people close to you. The type of person who emit the pheromones are just as important as the pheromones themselves. Have you ever shared pheromones with someone?"
"I… I wouldn't even know how to do that." Ren stuttered. He didn't even know that was something you could do!
"Really? Well I can try to teach you. Then, try to use it around the people who you've managed to smell before." Yukihiro suggested.
Ren was happy to finally get something, but also annoyed. "Why didn't you just say the instincts lie in the pheromones or whatever in the first place? You could have just skipped all the questions instead of wasting time."
Yukihiro twitched, a strong nerve finally hit. "And I think we're done for today," Yukihiro rose from the table. "To start trying to use your pheromones, try visualizing your intent into a physical form."
"A…what?"
Yukihiro tapped his chin ruminating. "How about, try to imagine your feelings taking on a life of their own. Because pheromones can be its own kind of force."
Ren didn't understand what he meant, but visualizing your power sounded like the kind of things people with superpowers do, so Ren was excited.
"Okay I'll try it. Thank you, Senpai!"
Yukihiro nodded. "Hm. And, try to keep quiet about it when you're trying it. Like not screaming proclamations or challenges about using it, alright? Just keep it low key."
"Of course! …I'll, um, never do something like that," Ren laughed nervously. "You won't have to worry about me at all!"
"Yeah yeah…" Yukihiro waved behind him and left without much thought. He'd catch him on the cameras later anyway, and what could go wrong with letting him use his pheromones more? It couldn't get much worse than what happened already, at least what he cared about.
'Should I tell Nori…? He'll get mad if he realizes, so I guess.'
While he texted, a thought drifted in.
'A little jumpy about Fujiwara isn't he? Should tell him there's nothing to worry about, but I'd blow my cover.'
There was little he couldn't find out about in the school after all, and there were some things Masanori was better off not knowing. Case in point, he'd leave out the persnipuous begging and instinct learning for now. He walked off with a notion for a nap on his mind, the lake forgotten.