That Beta Is Back

Advance notice: Will an Honest Straight Guy Have a Love Rival Showdown?, blurb at the very end~~

Flirty, seductive bottom Beta x rabid, devoted Alpha, reunited after a breakup

Song Shi was once swept up in a passionate romance when he was young, but that relationship eventually fizzled out after the person he loved treated him cruelly.

He left in a huff without saying goodbye, spending six years abroad. He spent six years forgetting, six years hating, and six years loving. He could never forget the person who had once brought him happiness, pain, and pleasure. Every time he thought of that person, it hurt like hell.

So he spent six years striving to catch up, until at last he had the confidence to keep that person all to himself.

-

Wen Di had a black rose tattooed over his gland. Everyone said it was an Alpha's way of showing off his strength and ruthlessness, the arrogant bravado of a wild youth. The rose had been with him for six years, and every year he had it painfully re-inked and engraved anew.

But nobody knew that every petal was densely carved with someone's name: the name of the person Wen Di wanted to tear apart with his teeth and devour alive.

Wen Di hated him so much his teeth ground together. From the day that person left, his hatred had grown year after year, sinking deep into his bones.

He had made every preparation to drag that person back, but he never expected him to return on his own.

“Betas never stay for anyone, no matter their gender. They are always free.”

“That's fine. I'll make him stay for me.”

Will an Honest Straight Guy Have a Love Rival Showdown?

Shi Qiu had recently started to find things strange. His belongings kept disappearing. Sometimes it was an ordinary ballpoint pen, sometimes a T-shirt, and sometimes something even more private.

His usually peaceful life had also changed dramatically. It all began when three outstanding suitors suddenly appeared around his beloved younger brother, and Shi Qiu became their only way to learn what the younger brother liked.

The warm, sunny campus heartthrob loved asking him about his younger brother, then taking his hand and asking whether doing this or that would offend him.

The brilliant, aloof upperclassman also approached him and struck up conversations to learn more about the younger brother. Every time they parted, there was a polite hug, though the difference in their strength left Shi Qiu feeling a little suffocated.

Then there was his gloomy, unapproachable supervisor at the company where he interned. To better curry favor with his younger brother, the supervisor pulled Shi Qiu, whose build was similar to the younger brother's, into measuring him and having clothes made to order. But why did they need to measure even that little bit of fabric?

Thinking carefully, it seemed like his things had started going missing right around the time these people appeared.

They had perfectly good reasons for hanging around Shi Qiu, but for some reason, he felt that something was off. So he told his younger brother about everything that had happened lately.

His younger brother listened, smiled, and leaned against him, wrapping an arm around his waist and rubbing his chin against Shi Qiu's shoulder. “Big brother, they're trying to court me. Learning what I like, knowing my measurements, and making sure I'm comfortable are the bare minimum. Otherwise, why would I get together with them?”

His younger brother continued, “Big brother, they're practicing on you so they'll know how to treat me better in the future. You're all I have, so you want me to be happy, right? That means you'll personally choose the person who's best for me, won't you?”

Then he added, “Big brother, it's fine if you're straight. Just help me check them out, so I don't get taken advantage of without realizing it.”

Shi Qiu still felt like something was wrong, but he wanted his younger brother to be happy, so even though he wasn't entirely comfortable, he continued to cooperate.

But

After waking up in the dorm, he would find little red bruises on his body.

After drinking the milk his upperclassman handed him, he would become terribly drowsy.

The intimate apparel his supervisor bought for him always felt a little damp, for some reason.

When his rivals met, they fought over his water cup and coveted the half popsicle left in his mouth. The looks they exchanged were almost murderous, brimming with uncontrollable malice.

Even as a straight guy, he could tell these things were seriously wrong. Terrified, he told his younger brother about his unease. His younger brother handed him a glass of milk, and he sank into a bizarre, fantastical, distorted dream.

In the dream, his younger brother was no longer pure and innocent. Something strange seemed to writhe behind him as he gritted his teeth and cursed the three familiar figures beside him:

“Idiots! Big brother almost found out!”

Shi Qiu saw four pairs of identical eyes, cold and cruel, yet filled with overwhelming obsession and desire when they looked at him.

The next day, he woke up in his school dorm. His younger brother said he hadn't come home the night before, but Shi Qiu found evidence in his room that he had.

Now even his younger brother was acting strange.

Shi Qiu stumbled away in a panic and accidentally fell into the arms of the newly appointed head of the Lu family. The man was refined, dignified, and dependable, and gently soothed his distress. The four figures haunted him like nightmares, and only at Lu Jingbai's side could he feel safe.

Until one day, he accidentally saw four familiar figures twisting in the shadow of the man as he showered.

Theme: Though separated, they will meet again in the end