"Maybe he... got angry about something else, hm?"
As Luce stuck his fork into his dessert, he looked at Damien with unease. "Ah, come on... stop sulking. He still treats you the same, anyway!"
Damien stopped biting his coffee straw and parted his lips. "He does that because he wants things to stay the same. And no, he was only angry at me."
Luce finally put his fork down on the table, crossed his arms, and looked seriously at Damien. "Then... what do you plan to do?"
"Of course, what he wants," Damien said with a bitter smile. "When he's made it so clear he doesn't want anything else... Hu... Really, was it that obvious... that I liked him?"
"Well..." Luce pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose with a helpless smile. "Since you two were so close, I can't say it was always obvious, but after he came along and Aksel shouted at you in front of everyone that day... maybe."
Damien buried his face in his hands and let out a troubled sigh, his ears turning red. Yes, with that person who had become part of their lives, Edme, Damien had lately been so lost he didn't even know what to do with himself.
And that day... seeing Aksel try so hard for him was maybe what made Damien lose control completely.
Now the whispers from the back table reached his ears. Damien lowered his hands and started eavesdropping. He had the sense it was about him, and he held his breath.
"Haha, I told you. Alphas and omegas can't be friends! One of them always screws it up. In this case..."
"It was obvious anyway, their closeness was always kind of weird, wasn't it?"
"Hey, so... he was trying to get close to Aksel by doing things he didn't want, huh? Judging by Aksel's rejection of him."
"If an omega kept interfering in my business and getting up in my face, I'd be pissed off too..."
"I think Aksel likes that new omega..."
"Really? Haha, just imagine. After getting rejected in front of everyone, then seeing them together... I'd probably die of heartbreak."
As the things he heard grew heavier, Damien lowered his head further, his dark brown bangs hiding his reddening eyes.
When Luce suddenly stood up from his chair and fixed his gaze on the back, all the voices behind them stopped, and Damien, startled by his abruptness, mumbled to let it go.
While pulling a cigarette pack from his back pocket, still staring at the back table, Luce lowered his eyes to Damien. "Want a smoke?"
Damien glanced for a moment at the familiar pack of cigarettes he used to smoke. Ah... how long had it been since he quit? About two years.
Damien shook his head. "No, but I'll come with you."
"Then let's get out of here," Luce said, still staring at the people at the back table. Damien nodded quickly as if that was exactly what he wanted.
Luce started walking to the register to pay the bill. Damien got up from the table, and without so much as a glance back, he opened the café door and slipped outside, just as his phone vibrated in his pocket.
It was Aksel calling. Damien took a deep breath, looked at the name on the screen for a few seconds, and, as if Aksel could see him, put on a "no problem" smile before answering. "Aksel?"
"...Dam, where are you?"
Hah, the oddness in his voice made Damien even more uneasy, but he kept the smile firm on his face so it would carry through his voice. "Ah, I... met up with Luce."
There was silence for a moment between them. Then Aksel's voice. "I didn't see you with your team during lunch break..."
Before Damien could answer, he swallowed. He worked at one of the so-called big four advertising agencies, and Aksel was the heir of that company. Aksel was in the management department, and Damien worked in human resources, so their workplaces overlapped.
At least, Damien thought it would be better if he stopped seeing him during lunch breaks or tailing him after what happened that day. Just as he was about to speak, Luce came out the door and leaned toward Damien's phone, calling out to Aksel.
"Hey, Dami's with me today. He owed me lunch."
"Ah, I see, hey Luce!" Aksel replied right away. "Well then, Dam, I'll see you after work."
"See you." Damien answered with a smile, and when he hung up, Luce smirked at the smile on his face. "Cut it out. Let's go."
Luce knew all too well that this smile, which had been stuck on Damien's face for days, was fake.
---
"Have you prepared the job ad for the new sales consultants we're hiring for the marketing department, Damien?" The HR leader, Sybille, with her bag slung over her shoulder, called to him between the office desks as she was about to leave.
Damien pushed back his chair and lifted his head from the desk partition with a smile. "Yes, I handled it this morning."
"You're the best." Sybille flashed the same smile she always gave whenever she appreciated Damien's thoroughness at work. "Come on, let's head out together, then!"
Sybille flipped her black curls back, pushing her glasses up onto her head, grinning. "Drinks are on me. I imagine you've got things to tell me."
Damien and she could be called friends, or rather, with someone as cheerful and good-natured as Damien, it was almost impossible not to be.
Damien smiled, glanced at the clock. The management department always left work more punctually, and they still had seven minutes before they were off.
Damien shut down his computer, grabbed his phone, and stood up. Sybille's eyes lit up—though without exception she always found a drinking buddy every day—while Damien raised a finger, grinning. "I'm coming, but I won't tell you anything."
Sybille's steps faltered as Damien kept walking down the corridor, "Hey, if you don't tell me anything, how are we supposed to drin—"
Damien called back in a playful tone. "There's nothing to tell!"
"Agh! Fine." Sybille stomped her heels hard on the floor as she caught the elevator, and the cabin began to descend. In the brief silence, just as she turned her head toward him, Damien turned his back with a comical motion, and before she could even open her mouth, he said, "Don't you dare ask me if I'm okay."
"I wasn't going to," Sybille replied with a smile.
Damien turned to meet her gaze and clicked his tongue. "You were."
Hah, though he rarely heard that question, Damien now realized he hated it. Who would ask someone with a perpetually mischievous face if they were okay?
"It's just..." As they got into Sybille's car, she paused before Damien sat down, leaned her elbow on the roof, and sighed. "Don't listen to what people say, okay? When a bigger scandal breaks out, they'll forget anyway."
Damien smiled in defeat, tossed his bag onto the backseat, and nodded as if to say, of course. "They don't even matter to me," he muttered, while Sybille was kind enough not to call out the lie.
Besides, a bigger scandal, huh? So this... was a scandal, was it? Damien laughed again. "Like... your omega fling on the marketing floor kind of scandal?"
Sybille's face went pale, and soon her shriek echoed through the parking lot. "Hey, you—who told you that!"
---
Hours later, though Sybille had drunk maybe two or three times as much as Damien, she wasn't drunk, probably because she was an alpha, while Damien was practically turning into warm sugar jelly, about to doze off at the table.
Sybille, amazed at Damien's stubbornness in not letting a single word slip, poked his shoulder. "Hey, Damien. Your phone keeps getting notifications. If I check, will you file an HR complaint against me for meddling in a coworker's private life?"
"... " Of course Damien had no energy to respond. Sybille laughed, reached for his phone, and muttered smugly, "Wait, I'm the HR leader anyway, haha!"
Without Damien even hearing her joke, Sybille unlocked the phone. On the screen was a wallpaper: under orange light, two pairs of beach slippers were visible in the corner.
Sybille immediately realized they belonged to Damien and Aksel. "Ah... this'll hurt..." she muttered, then looked up to check the notifications.
Aksel had called twice and left a message for Damien. Sybille hesitated, thinking it wouldn't be right to read them. Maybe... if he called again, she could pick up, hm?
Sybille had never been to Damien's house and didn't know where it was, and now that she had a fling—yes, that omega on the marketing floor—there was a place she preferred to return to instead. At least she wouldn't have to spend the night alone.
So she had to find someone to hand off this sleepy omega to.
Then, suddenly, a tall, slender figure approached their table, leaning toward Damien, and Sybille reflexively jumped forward. "Hey."
"Hey to you," said the one across from her... an omega. Hah, so he really was an omega. Tall for an omega, slim, but not bad-looking at all for one.
Sybille frowned, scrutinizing him, while Luce looked irritated by her stare and turned to Damien, muttering. "What kind of coworkers do you even have..."
"I'm his leader, hey—" Sybille stood and grabbed Luce's arm. "Do you know Damien?"
Though Luce flinched at the touch out of pure omega instinct, he roughly shook off her hand. "Of course. But I doubt you know him well enough," he said, his anger plain on his face. "Why did you let him drink so much?"
"I..." Sybille, unaccustomed to dealing with people as quick-witted as herself, hesitated, watching as Luce gently pulled Damien up by the arm and lifted his weight onto himself.
Even if Damien wasn't completely frail and typically omega-like, this other one had a presence that could almost match an alpha's. "What's your name?" Sybille blurted out.
As Luce's face showed a mixture of irritation and disbelief, Sybille also stood up and grabbed Damien's phone. "I don't know you, I can't let you take him."
"Hey." Luce sized up the alpha in front of him. "For your information, I'm gay—"
"Hey! I don't care about your damn name, okay!" Sybille shouted, her glare just as sharp as his. "Just say your damn na—"
"Luce...?"
Damien opened his eyes, and when he recognized who was carrying him, he started grinning. "Luce... how did you... get here?"
"You texted me to come get you, idiot," Luce answered, while Sybille, now certain the two omegas knew each other, felt a bit embarrassed. After all... an omega harassing another omega... was a bit uncommon.
"...Alright then." Sybille, flustered by her earlier yelling, grabbed her bag and gave Damien two light flicks on the cheek. "If you're late to work tomorrow, you're dead, Damien, got it?"
Damien smiled vaguely into the void, while Luce and Sybille exchanged a comical look and reluctantly said goodnight to each other.
When Luce settled Damien into the passenger seat, Damien's phone rang again.
It was Aksel. And the moment Luce picked up, Aksel immediately realized it wasn't Damien.
"Luce... it's you, isn't it?"
"Yeah," Luce said as he got behind the wheel. "Damien drank with someone from work, texted me to pick him up, so I've got his phone."
Aksel made a few sounds of understanding, though the place he was in was clearly crowded and noisy. From behind him came the sound of classical music. Rich brat, Luce muttered to himself. "Why did you call?"
"Is he... okay?"
Their questions collided in the air and fell to the ground. Luce paused with his hand on the key, not starting the car yet, hearing that question.
"...Of course he's fine," Luce murmured. "Just had a little too much to drink. Like everyone does sometimes."
"You know that's not what I was asking," Aksel's deep voice now came through clearer than ever. He had moved into a quiet room, it seemed. Luce turned to look at Damien.
Damien, whose eyes always smiled when open, now, asleep, looked the opposite—brows furrowed as if troubled. With this silly guy, it was hard to tell when he was acting and when he was showing his real face.
But... when his heart was truly broken, you could tell by the way his smile tried to cover things up—if you looked closely enough.
Luce leaned back in the seat, and his hand rose almost on its own, placing his palm on Damien's warm cheek. As his fingers brushed across Damien's face, he spoke into the phone. "You shouldn't be asking that."
"If until now you believed he was fine no matter what, then from now on you should keep acting like he is."
"His well-being means everything to me," Aksel said after a moment, his voice drawing a line that should not be crossed. "That's exactly why I acted the way I did. And that's how I'll continue to act. Even if I didn't want your advice, thank you." His tone carried a suppressive energy, strong enough to be felt even from far away.
"Get him home safely and before he goes to bed... make sure he eats something. Nothing spicy. And a glass of water." That was Aksel's next instruction.
Luce let out a laugh, his nerves frayed. "I'll do it. Don't worry."
Hah, this alpha didn't even know what it meant to truly act in a way that would be good for Damien.
"Stupid bastard." Luce started the car.
Beside him, Damien's lips moved soundlessly. "Aksel..."