The Spicy Omega - Chapter 3

“I also have moments when I try to act cool…”

“Ah, yeah, yeah. How many times have we had this conversation? My ears are going to bleed.” I took a bite out of the bread I had for lunch and was fed up with the person in front of me who was sighing at the blue, spring sky.

I’d say I was pretty satisfied with my high-school life, except for the fact that the spring of my youth had yet to come and I didn’t have a lover.

The person who stood out the most in my life was the alpha, Amami Ren.

In our second year when we changed classes, I had hit it off with the kid sitting in the seat in front of me. That guy, Karasawa, gave off the impression of being absent-minded with his mild temperament, but he was surprisingly good at studying.

Because I had lost any motivation to study during my second year, Karasawa became a good and caring friend, if somewhat annoying at times.

I started having lunch with him and was soon introduced to Amami as well.

In contrast to Karasawa who was a beta and didn’t really stand out, Amami was the stereotypical alpha. The only non-typical thing about him was that he hung out with the betas Karasawa and I without looking down on us and treated us as equals. No, more importantly, he treated us as his precious friends.

You couldn’t say anything bad about him.

It was hard not to like him.

Karasawa, Amami, and I became fast friends, close enough that people started referring to us as a trio.

One day, this suddenly changed.

Since Karasawa and I were good friends, the sense of distance between us shortened and one day, we began walking shoulder to shoulder.

As our shoulders touched as we walked, we talked about a music video where a band sang . The tension grew, we got excited, and the rhythm naturally came to us. With only a vague memory of how the song went, we started singing as we walked and laughed hysterically at how bad we both were. We were having so much fun I didn’t care about the stares of the people around us.

When we got to the nearest station, I waved goodbye to Karasawa who went to the other side of the tracks. I walked through the ticket-gate and waited for my train home when someone forcefully gripped my shoulder from behind. When I turned around, Amami was standing behind me.

“Are you aiming for Karasawa?” Amami said before I could even ask what was up.

His gaze was cold and his voice so low you wouldn’t guess he was usually such a gentle person.

His blank expression had incredible force behind it.

I may not like studying, but I wasn’t an idiot, and in that moment, everything clicked.

After finding out that Karasawa was an omega, I started observing him in a new light and came to understand that Karasawa was in a very vulnerable position. It made me anxious.

I guess it was only natural since he was hiding the fact that he was an omega, but he didn’t wear a choker or anything.

If an omega is bitten on the neck by an alpha when they’re in heat, they will become that alpha’s mate. To make matters worse, there are omegas out there who are bonded without their consent, which was usually a disaster since the omega can’t break the bond once it’s established.

Because of that fact, it was recommended that omegas, from the time they get their first heat and thereafter, wear a collar or a choker that isn’t easy to remove.

Karasawa should have known this, too.

One time, I tried to bring up the topic indirectly, but it didn’t seem like he had the slightest intention of wearing one.

Karasawa was a very un-omega-like man.

Even if someone was a beta, that didn’t mean they couldn’t feel an omega’s strong pheromones. It might not affect them as much as it would an alpha, but at point blank range, the pheromones can influence a beta to the point they get dizzy.

In that respect, Karasawa’s pheromones were weak. Even bringing my face close to his neck, where the pheromones emanate from, I couldn’t feel anything.

They didn’t seem to get any stronger even when he was in heat.

After I brought my face unnecessarily close to Karasawa’s neck, I got scolded by Amami.

Above all, Karasawa’s pheromones had that irritating scent unique to spicy food.

Until Amami told me about it, I just thought that that spicy smell that sometimes came from Karasawa was the lingering remnants from the food he ate.

Even though I’m a beta, I’ve smelled the pheromones of an omega in heat before. I would have generally described it as a sweet smell. So, when I was told that Karasawa’s smell, the one that made me want to eat stir-fried shrimp in chili sauce, was actually pheromones, I didn’t immediately believe it.

Karasawa himself had declared his love for spicy food, so even if he suddenly went into heat, no one would find out about it as long as he drowned it out with the smell of the condiments he carried around with him.

According to Amami, who had been Karasawa’s stalker for several years now, the people who experienced Karasawa’s pheromones from up close had their appetite stimulated rather than their sexual desire, and even an alpha would just say – “I’m hungry all of a sudden.”

‘Honestly, speaking from the perspective of a beta, wouldn’t pheromones like that be considered a huge defect for an omega?’ I thought, but the omega in question didn’t seem aware of this and had no sense of danger so I wasn’t able to bring it up.

“Well, as for me, I want to kill any alphas who get hungry from Karasawa’s pheromones.”

“Don’t interrupt when I’m thinking.”

Another major factor was this guy, the alpha Amami.

Apparently, up until now, Karasawa had never had a friend who was really close to him.

I had suddenly shortened the distance between us and Karasawa didn’t seem to dislike it, so Amami panicked and ended up doing something out of character by threatening me.

Ashamed that his own actions had led me to discover that Karasawa was an omega, Amami tried to dominate me both physically and socially.

I had somehow managed to clear up the misunderstanding and convince him that he and Karasawa were my friends and that I’d support his love. I managed to keep my life by being in a position to give Karasawa a push in the right direction, if need be.

Alphas are scary.

The reason Karasawa has managed to stay out of trouble until now, without anybody finding out that he’s an omega, is all thanks to this overprotective alpha, right?

Amami kept the dangerous alphas away from Karasawa but didn’t fully stop him from having relationships with people, continuing to look after him just like fine livestock.

Afterwards Amami got super angry when I used that expression.

The two of us seem to be a fated pair, but, for some reason, Karasawa isn’t aware of it.

Amami being shy while telling me this was so foreign to me and pathetic that I ended up laughing. Then he hit me on the back with more force than I expected. He’s unreasonable.

Perhaps because Karasawa didn’t want people to find out about his secondary gender, he was quite well-built for an omega, and I’ve never seen him struggle with his studies or with sports.

Generally speaking, an omega’s physical ability isn’t at all inferior to a beta’s, though they are said to be stupid and weak.

Karasawa overcame such prejudices through his own efforts.

Honestly, I think he’s amazing.

That doesn’t mean I’m going to start studying though.