Friday was a day that Suga did not really look forward to, he had a night shift at a restaurant that turned into a bar at night. Today—a day that was more annoying than usual, college students who rented apartments close to this area came in droves, making this place a place for their party.
Suga was standing in front of the ordering table with a deep frown.
The loud music made his heart pound, the screams of youths made his ears tingle, this was no different from a slow torture.
A young man asked for another bottle of alcohol, and Suga brought them several of bottles. Men and a women kissing in the back of a dimly lit room, trash and spilled alcohol strewn on the floor, the room reeking of cigarette smoke. He preferred a normal night shift without brats like this, at least if they were not here, the night was more tolerable.
A hand pressing on his shoulder, Maria, his shift mate seemed to have the same thought.
"They say someone has a birthday but I don't know which one."
"I don't give a damn, seriously," he replied, genuinely did not care about the information of someone's birthday here.
They both sighed in unison. Trying to hold on to a hellish job like this.
The doorbell rang again, and again, some customers came in and Suga smiled professionally at them. It seemed that the people who had just arrived were also wondering why the atmosphere at the bar was noisier than usual, they decided to sit at a table further away from the group of noisy youths, choosing to sit near the ordering table.
Seeing the young man laughing with his friends, screaming 'happy birthday' many times. Danny— the face of his younger brother returned to Suga's mind. Yesterday was the first time he saw Danny talk to him like that, they had never fought, maybe because their age gap was quite far so there was rarely conflict between the two of them, but still, Danny suddenly changing his mind was very strange. Suga wondered why he suddenly acted like that.
"Hey dude, the customer is waiting for the cocktail he ordered."
Thank you for that, Maria's voice brought his thoughts to a halt. Suga blinked a few times, then looked at the clock on the wall which showed two o'clock, his head hurt and he felt sleepy, years of working here should have made him accustomed to guarding the night shift, but tonight his head hurt incredibly, a terrible headache. Actually he had experienced it almost as long as he had lived, but it was rare for him to get distracted by this.
Maria, nudged his arm, Suga quickly bowed apologetically, then rushed to make cocktail orders from a customer who chuckled at his rapid movements, saying "It's okay, no need to hurry." but still he felt bad because he was daydreaming at work .
After the drink he made was finished, the customer received it with a faint smile, taking a look at this man, Suga guessed that he was probably new here, even though Suga's brain was not too smart in memorizing things but sometimes he knew which were the regular customers and which were the customers who were not used to the bar atmosphere.
"Are you a beta?" the man opened his mouth, Suga's eyes widened briefly, he nodded. Then he replied jokingly.
"Is it obvious that I'm boring?"
The customer denied and laughed, he took a sip of his drink, cupped his head in his hands, his eyes looked straight at Suga, "It's just that I've been releasing my pheromones and you didn't notice."
Suga looked the man up and down, flawless skin, very attractive face looking like a celebrity, very healthy looking hair, pretty enough as a man but full of intimidation aura, he had met many customers like this— an omega.
Not that Suga could not smell their pheromones, as a beta who should not be aware of this, it was kind of strange that Suga could smell alpha and omega pheromones though he had never been affected by the scent, unlike alpha who could get affected by omega or vice versa, in his nose the smell of the pheromones were no different than smelling high quality perfume.
He once asked his other beta friends about this strange condition, but instead getting a weird look from his fellow beta friends, 'Is there something wrong with your nose? How can you smell pheromones?! beta can't smell it.'
--And it turns out to be stupid, beta is just like a normal human, an ordinary creature with no special biology.
He never asked that question again, and pretended he could not smell pheromones, after all, it did not affect his life, maybe he was just a beta born with a keen sense of smell.
"Are you an omega?"
"Haha, is it that obvious?"
Suga nodded, "You look like a celebrity."
"Really? You're not saying that to lure me so I will always buy a drink here?"
The omega laughed again, the man's mood seemed to improve. Earlier, if he didn't see wrong, this man came with a frown and pouty lips, a dark aura surrounding him.
"I mean, it would be good for the bar if a pretty omega keep coming here."
Suga replied jokingly, the omega then let out a chuckle, "I didn't expect such a cute beta to be in this bar, I should have come to this bar earlier."
His head was throbbing, Suga clicked his tongue, his head had not stopped twitching, the sweet aroma from the omega burst out and it did not help his headache at all, seeing Suga's face turn pale, Maria raised an eyebrow, she looked a little worried and told Suga to sit down.
"Is it your headache again?"
"Ugh, I'm fine, damn it—"
The omega raised his head, he also had a worried face, Suga massaged his temples slowly, hearing a bell ringing of a new customer entering, Maria took the initiative to serve the customer.
The omega man opened the black bag he was carrying, a vial filled with green liquid came out of a small purse, he handed the small vial to Suga, "Take this ... an essential oil."
Suga thanked him then rubbed the oil on his head.
"Do you always have a headache at night?"
"Not specifically at night..."
Suga tried to think again about this annoying headache, thinking about it again, he had a headache every time he was in a crowded place, or when he smelled the alpha and omega pheromones wafting in his nose, or the only thing he could think of was— the weird quirk he had always experienced from childhood.
Feeling pain— whether it was a headache or a stomach ache, was always a sign that something bad would happen, Suga suddenly snorted a little, mystical things like that were impossible.
"Maybe I just need some caffeine," he replied, instantly his mouth went dry and a feeling of craving a coffee hit him.
"Ah, caffeine is unhealthy. Sometimes caffeine addiction is one of the causes of headaches," The omega said, and Suga could not deny that fact. "Um, may I know your name?"
"Akagi."
"Ah, Akagi-san." the omega tested the name on his tongue, Suga accidentally looked at the man who smiled sweetly with sparkling eyes after saying his name, if his hunch was not wrong, this man seemed to be flirting with him.
It was not uncommon for omega to have a preference for beta, Suga had often met someone like this pretty guy, he did not really care about advances from omegas or alphas— just that having a relationship with alpha or omega sounded very troublesome, especially as a beta who was just an ordinary being who did not have special biology like alpha and omega, would not that create gaps in the relationship? everyone— even a child knew that alpha and omega complement each other.
"Suga, is your headache getting better, help me at table number 11."
Maria shouted, Suga headed for the table mentioned, but the loud bang of the table being hit hard made his steps abruptly stopped, he looked at the omega who stared at him with mouth wide open.
"Akagi Suga?!?!!"
The omega put on a face of shock, "Don't tell me, you're really Akagi Suga?"
Suga raised an eyebrow, have they ever met? even though his memorizing ability was kind of bad, Suga was sure they have never met.
"I finally found you here, damn it!"
"Huh?"
The Omega pulled his hand, even though this man was shorter than him, his strength was enough to make Suga's body flinch. Maria saw Akagi who was being dragged away by the omega with a sullen face, the guy screamed.
"This is very important, I borrow this person!"
"... Okay then! Suga, I'll cover for you but at Saturday night I will ask for a barbecue treat!"
When they got behind the bar, right in the middle of an alley with dim lights, the omega let go of his hand.
Suga rubbed his wrist which was a bit sore from being held too tightly, the omega took out a phone from his pants, held out the phone screen which showed a photo of someone with long black hair.
"Is this really you?"
Suga's face immediately turned red, that photo—an old photo that only his close friend had, how come it was on that person?
"You— wait a minute, where did you get that picture?"
"You look very young and look like a girl in this photo so I thought I would look for a girl."
"You have not answer my question!"
"This." The omega showed a black card, an identification card.
Suga squinted at something familiar on the business card.
--Akira Sean, International Human Protection Squad. Australian Headquarters. Omega Male.
'International Human Protection Squad'
This did not sound good. At all.
"What does that have to do with me?"
"Captain Nakajima asked me to find you."
Captain .... What? Captain Nakajima?
Hearing that name his eyes widened for a moment, then he scratched his cheek.
"It seems you have the wrong person, that picture ... that person is not me."
Obviously the omega named Sean did not believe his words. He shoved the screen again right in front of his face. Yes, that was him— Akagi Suga, long hair and wearing women's clothes. The photo had a background story to tell, perhaps because it was also related to Nakajima, his gut feeling decided not to delve into the matter any further.
"Indeed this person looks very different from you, but that name can't be wrong, Akagi Suga, a rare name even in this city. Shinjuku. Even when I was looking for you in Yokohama it was quite rare, but strangely your neighbors don't know where you moved to."
"What do you want? Damn it, I haven't even heard his name in years!"
Nakajima, his childhood friend, disappeared as if swallowed by the earth after graduating from high school, he could not even be reached, many times Suga tried to contact him but his phone number was not available.
Then suddenly this odd omega male pulled him to a quiet place, showing him an embarrassing photo, one he wished he could erase until no trace remained-- Idiotjima, I swear to God, I'll kill you the next time we meet.
The Omega— Sean, sighed, shoving his phone back into his pocket. "You know how long I circled Yokohama just looking for you?"
"What are you looking for me for? That doesn't make any sense!"
"I thought so too, why did the captain suddenly tell me to find someone in Yokohama."
Perhaps, it could be because they had lost contact for a long time, Nakajima might want to meet up again for a reunion, but why did he send an IHPS person to look for his whereabouts? that was kinda fishy.
"You know, I don't trust you."
"Oh, it's only natural that you don't trust me, if I were you, I'd react that way too. Hah." As if releasing his fatigue, Sean took a deep breath. The sweet omega image earlier somehow disappeared when Suga found out that this man was a member of IHPS. "I'll call him, Captain Nakajima—"
When Sean's hand reached for the phone from inside his pocket, Suga quickly shook his head.
"Don't!"
"?????"
"Just give me his number, I'll call him myself."
"Fine, if you say so." Sean, opened his small black bag again, took something out and gave it to Suga. "That's Captain Nakajima's business card. His phone number is on it."
Scratching his head, he honestly did not know what to do about this sudden information. It had been about years since he had spoken to the man called Captain Nakajima. They were very close when they were little, Suga often played with him when they were still living in Yokohama.
However right after graduating from high school his friend's house was completely empty, no one was there, not to mention he could not reach him by phone, so what did this person want from him now?
Sean forced a smile and said he had to go because he still had so much work to do, he gave money to pay for his drinks and at the same time tipped Suga, even though the bar did not accept the tipping system for its workers, Suga still put the money into his pocket.
Money could not be refused.