𝐒𝐔𝐆𝐀𝐑 | 𝐬. 𝐚𝐢𝐳𝐚𝐰𝐚 𝐬𝐦𝐮𝐭

๛ ¹ 𝑝𝑢𝑚𝑝𝑘𝑖𝑛 𝑠𝑝𝑖𝑐𝑒

~𐀔chapter one 𐀔~

There was a small cafe near your favorite convenience store that you always went to after school. Moments into picking up five of the normal flavoured lollipops from the display, you realised a new flavour being advertised.

Pumpkin spice.

You've never really heard of the scent or flavor yet you really wanted to try it. You were curious. You could only afford five at the moment. Which one would you trade out?

to ichika:

Blueberry? Cherry? Strawberry? Watermelon? Grape?

Pick one. (*'-')

It wasn't until you had gotten to the front of the line with the six lollipops in your clutches that your phone began to vibrate under your arm again.

from ichika:

Eh....blueberry.

At cafe waiting. Hurry up (￣^￣)ゞ

Not happy with putting either down, you switched the blueberry with the pumpkin spice one . Eventually you parked your bicycle infront of the cafe and you got inside only to be dragged into another useless conversation that made no sense to you.

"I'll be bonded with him as soon as we graduate! Our parents are already helping us to find a decent honeymoon villa." One of the girls, yua, said happily and you looked at her as she accidentally poured too much milk into her coffee and giggled at whatever wild thought had derailed her.

"Eh really? And you're already engaged at eighteen." Ichika said cutting a piece of her cheesecake then casually passed it to where you lazily laid your head on the table, feeding it to you.

"Yes age doesn't matter when you've found the one!" Yua grins as you chewed with closed eyes, slightly furrowing your brows when she said that phrase.

'The one'

They'd mentioned it over and over again in friend groups, in classes, in dramas and your parents mentioned it at home too. Yet you still couldn't quite understand it.

Omegas and alphas were different, finding each other through scents and pheromones as if they had matching LED signs on their foreheads.

You were just a beta after all, oblivious to all the things that made romance easier.

Heats, mates, ruts, pheromones, fated ones . The phrases held no significance to you.

"What about college?" You found yourself voicing as soon as you stopped chewing and her lively light brown eyes found you.

She fanned her hand and laughed nervously with flushed cheeks "I'm going to be a housewife. his father plans to hand down their business to him so everything will be okay. I'm going be the sexy at home secretary"  She smiled at the idea and brought the cup to her lips.

Housewife you repeated in your mind and immediately began to think of your parents who were both employed.

people have choices whether to work or not?

Was it really that easy?

"Hey you guys. maybe your mates are in this group coming in." A favourite waitress of yours that had been listening in teased as she walked by with orders for close-by tables.  "Hmm yea sure." The other girl who had barely spoken said as they eyed the group of boys from the neighboring school came in.

Out of curiosity you watched them step to the counter also. They were average to good looking guys and they immediately looked to your table as if scouting prey.

maybe it was the fact that both your groups had on uniforms that they immediately locked eyes on the table.

Then they acted like they didn't see and exerted just enough pheromones to perfume the air,  at least that's what you figured from when ichika and the other single girl were whispering about, guessing what the pheromones smelled like to them and if it really had any impact.

Somehow it turned you off whenever alpha males did that. It was as if they disregarded betas entirely. Then again maybe you were bitter. Either way, you weren't much of a fan of school boys. Uninterested, you averted your eyes to the paper bag from the convenience store and rummaged through it for the lollipop without lifting your head.

When you had unwrapped it and stuck it in your mouth, the sweetness seemed to have been watered down since you ate piece of ichika's pastry before.

'I should've waited until I got home.' You couldn't help to think miserably and underwhelmed as you glanced to the door again. There was another person in line, towering over the teen boys.

Your eyes followed him, an older man with dark hair and a neat charcoal suit and coat fitted to his body. You couldn't see his face well but you could tell he had a handsome face from his side profile. Your heartbeat picked up a little just from seeing him.

"Your lollipop's scent overpowered those wack assholes' scents, is that pumpkin spice?" Ichika chuckled and you hummed in response.

While watching him you didn't realize but slowly you couldn't help but to realize how intense the scent from the lollipop was. It overpowered its taste. when did that intensity build up?  For some reason you felt like the scent wasn't entirely from the lollipop but any other thought was inconceivable so you didn't spare it any doubt.

"hey, y/n really does like older men doesn't she." Yua giggled and you glanced away from him in shock, not realizing how long you had been staring at the older man at the counter.

"That's a lie!" You denied immediately though you were already conscious of your affinity for mature men.

Your ears heated up as the other two girls joined into the teasing and giggling.