The atmosphere was awkward at best as Mark brewed a cup of tea for himself and Renjun, and warmed up milk for Donghyuck. The omega and maybe beta stared at him with somber expressions, and Mark got so distracted by the holes they were burning into his back that he burnt the milk.

"Just give me tea," Donghyuck said, and Mark nodded, finding three mugs and setting them out before adding an oolong tea bag to one, and camomile to the other two.

When the pot whistled, Mark poured the water into the mugs and brought the oolong over to Renjun, then one of the camomiles over to Donghyuck before awkwardly sitting on his armchair, facing the two on his couch.

For once, Mark considered himself lucky to have a suite to himself.

"So," Mark managed awkwardly, coughing lightly as he took a drink of his scalding tea and burnt his tongue. "You're an omega."

"Yes," Donghyuck replied, looking at him evenly over his mug.

"And you're in school?"

"Yes."

"That's illegal."

"I'm aware."

"So is everything I found in your backpack."

"I know." Donghyuck hadn't broken eye contact with Mark, and Mark felt himself somehow being scared of the smaller boy. Maybe it was the knife Renjun had placed next to his mug, but it was also Donghyuck's piercing gaze.

"So here's the deal," Renjun said, and Mark looked at him. "And you can't really disagree with it."

"You do realise you're a beta talking to an alpha right?"

"Correction, I'm an omega talking to a sub-alpha who's the forgotten middle child." Renjun replied, and Mark winced a little at that. It's not like it wasn't true, but it still hurt.

"Don't be mean," Donghyuck said. "Mark could have turned us over immediately but he waited."

"Wait. Wait wait wait Renjun, you too?"

"Yes, I'm an omega."

"What's uh, what's your scent? Because you smell like burnt molasses?"

"Peru balsam." Renjun replied, taking his tea and gently rubbing it slightly on his arm, taking away the lotion and making the smell of peru balsam waft our before Renjun reapplied the lotion he had in his pocket. For some reason, Mark wasn't as attracted to Renjun's scent as he was to Donghyuck's, but it was still entrancing.

"I like Donghyuck's better." Mark blurted, and Donghyuck chuckled lightly. Renjun rolled his eyes slightly, looking at Mark.

"You can't tell."

"He's not going to!" Donghyuck whined, nuzzling into Renjun while looking at Mark. "Right?"

"I still need to talk about the deal. One, you don't tell. If you do, my knife will find a new home in your stomach. Two, you help us."

"With what? You two seem to have it under control."

"You're an alpha right?"

"Sub-alpha," Mark responded, and Renjun nodded.

"Still an alpha. Can you keep Donghyuck safe?"

"Like what?"

"Walk him around campus. Pick him up from classes. I have a busy schedule coming up and I can't protect him like I need to."

"I can protect myself!" Donghyuck whined, and Renjun gave him a look.

"I'd feel better if you had someone to be with you. Can you do that Mark?"

"Like a bodyguard?" Mark asked, and they nodded in unison. "Okay."

"It's that easy?" Renjun asked, and Mark was struck with the realisation that Renjun and Donghyuck had probably spent their entire lives trying to hide and being willing to fight to protect themselves.

Male omegas were rare, rarer than gemstones. Mostly because when they occurred, it was a small blurb in the regular zero. Klinefelter omegas usually occurred every generation, but true male omegas usually held off, until up to ten were born in one to two generations.

More often than not, they were hidden from the world or sold into sex slavery, no matter what kind of omega the males were.

"Which type are you?" Mark asked, and Renjun smiled at him warily.

"Both of us are true male."

"Whoa," Mark's eyes went wide, and Donghyuck smiled widely. "Is there anyone else I should look out for? Like, omega wise?"

Donghyuck looked at Renjun, their gazes saying very different things. Donghyuck was saying to tell Mark something, and Renjun's face was screaming no.

"Park Jisung," Donghyuck said, looking at Mark. "He's a true male too."

Mark tried his best not to choke on his tea - he honestly did - but that name wasn't one he was expecting. "Seriously? He gives me strong beta vibes."

"He is." Renjun muttered. "You shouldn't have told Mark though Hyuck."

"I feel like I can trust him!"

"It's because your omega is latching onto him!" Renjun argued, and seeing another question arising in Mark's features, he sighed. "Yes Mark?"

"When your scent is blocked, does it stop this stuff from happening? Because usually Donghyuck would be making sarcastic remarks."

"The combination of the suppressors and the scent altercations have the effect of dulling our omega senses to next to nothing when put together. But take one out of the equation and it's harder to resist. And Donghyuck's not in a good state to resist."

"So I just give in," Donghyuck hummed.

"But Mark, you can't tell Jisung you know. Or anyone."

"Why not Jisung?" Mark asked, and Donghyuck looked at Renjun with pleading eyes.

"We're already spilling everything, might as well Hyuck."

"Our families all acted differently when we were announced. I was, well, I ran away. Renjun was kicked out. And Jisung's family, well, they went into full protection mode."

"They were always peculiar," Renjun said, shrugging. "When we did some research, we realised they are the infamous Park family."

"You mean Park Jimin?"

"Someone paid attention in class." Donghyuck murmured, and Renjun smiled. "And Park Chanyeol."

"Park Sunyoung, Park Junghwa, Park Jungsoo, Park Jinyoung to name a few more." Renjun absentmindedly ran his fingers through Donghyuck's hair, making the omega hum contentedly. "They all have three things in common. They all were omegas, they're all related to Park Jisung, and they all died before the age of thirty."

"So his parents went batshit." Donghyuck hummed.

"If they knew, they'd go insane and Jisung would be terrified." Renjun said simply. "So please, keep this safe."

"I will," Mark smiled, and Renjun looked at him as Donghyuck slowly fell asleep on his lap.

"I'll trust you until I have reason not to."

•• ━━━━━ ••●•• ━━━━━ ••

Mark's an angel, but unfortunately not everyone is like that around here.