Expectations [양정원/이희승]

《chapter 5》

The next morning, Jungwon laid in bed, his own this time around, and thought about the past week's events.

He almost felt like laughing when he thought about how fate decided to royally screw him over, after he thought he got everything he ever dreamed for when he won ILAND with his pack.

Now, every morning, he felt like a drug addict that secretly had to take pills to function.

A bottle of suppressants was buried in his bag and one hidden in his room. Scent neutralising spray and patches right next to them.

His bandmates, and roommates unfortunately, were still fast asleep.

Jungwon tried to be quiet as he sat up and opened said bottle to take one of the blue round pills without being seen.

They tasted slightly bitter on his tongue, but he tried not to think about it as he washed it down with a little water from the bottle he had prepared last evening next to his bed.

His skin around his neck still felt slightly irritated, itching every now and then, but it didn't burn on touch anymore. So this time, when he went to the bathroom and sprayed the neutraliser on his sensitive scent glands, the Omega didn't hiss. He didn't even make a face as the cool mist slowly absorbed into the skin.

He probably shouldn't find pride in something like that, but he couldn't help but feel a rush of adrenaline run through his body, as his face stayed impassive. If he kept this up, no one would suspect a thing.

So he was a little proud. And maybe he was a little too hopeful.

Because when he sat down next to a tired Sunghoon on the couch, he felt his Omega stirr anxiously.

While his cycle had been oppressed, his hormonal reactions to his everyday life definitely hadn't succumbed to the medicine.

The hyung line was looking at him. All of them held a cup of something hot in their hands, likely coffee - though he suspected that Jake was actually drinking hot chocolate, but he wouldn't call him out on it - and fiddled with it nervously until Jay finally took it upon himself to break the silence.

"Did you sleep well?" Jungwon knew it wasn't what he had meant to ask, but he also couldn't figure out why they had cornered him on the couch like this.

Jay, Jake and Heeseung were sitting in front of him on chairs they had stolen from the kitchen table, and Jungwon almost felt like a kindergartener, sitting in a circle with his kindergarten friends.

With the exception that the little circle felt more like an intervention about to happen, rather than the beginning of a children's game.

"Just like always." Jungwon answered warily, eyes switching from one face to the other as he stared at the olders.

Wasn't it his job as the leader to scold them If they did something wrong? So why were they looking at him like that?

The probing eyes made his skin crawl.

"Are we having a team meeting that I didn't know about? Do I need to get the others?" Jungwon asked, still worried about how nervous they seemed.

Besides not liking being stared at like a science project, he was starting to get worried about whatever was worrying them so much.

"No, no there's no meeting." Jake reassured him.

"We just wanted to talk to you a little." Sunghoon elaborated and awkwardly tapped a hand on Jungwon's knee, in what was probably meant to be a calming gesture.