The Repressed Omega

[Before signing, updates follow the rankings; if I'm not on the list, I'll post 7,000 words a week to keep the word count down, qaq]

[Entire novel completed and in the vault, 235,000 words]

Scheming, deep-plotted older gong x outwardly sensual yet inwardly pure, tender, resilient shou who represses his own desires to the point of abstinence (of Chinese-Japanese descent)

Powerful gong x newcomer, classic Alpha/Omega pairing

Coming-of-age + guiding relationship

[1]

Ai Yueqiu, a new intern at Feiluan Pharmaceuticals, is an omega.

He's exceptionally handsome, even strikingly beautiful, and the beauty mark at the corner of his eye adds to his allure. But despite his appearance, he has a completely blank romantic history. In his twenty-three years, he's never had a heat, let alone fallen for anyone.

Repression is his defining trait.

But then an unexpected incident occurs.

Zhao Tingluan, the company's Chief Strategy Officer and his direct supervisor, is always impeccably dressed in a suit. He's handsome and friendly, and it's only their second time meeting.

The next moment, Ai Yueqiu feels the world spin around him. He's been sent straight into a false heat.

"Are you all right? You look a little strange."

The very person who caused it asks him with apparent concern.

But Ai Yueqiu is good at repressing himself.

"...No, I'm fine," Ai Yueqiu says calmly, his fingernails already digging into the flesh of his palm.

It's nothing. He won't lose to some ridiculous physiological reaction...

That's what Ai Yueqiu tells himself.

But on Mid-Autumn Festival night, he's alone in a room with Zhao Tingluan.

Ai Yueqiu: "Why are the lights off?"

Zhao Tingluan: "The moon is beautiful tonight."

Ai Yueqiu: "That's such an old, tired line."

"Then let me try another one."

In the darkness, Zhao Tingluan looks into his eyes and says, "This scene reminds me of a phrase."

Ai Yueqiu looks up in confusion.

"What phrase?"

"Ai Yueqiu turns off the lights."

His voice seems to have some kind of magic. The next moment...

Ai Yueqiu feels as though someone has kissed the gland at the back of his neck, and it burns. The heat that came more than ten years late arrives at last.

In front of Zhao Tingluan, he always seems to be like this. By habit, he tries to suppress this strange, surging urge, but the heat in his body spreads like a wildfire, growing more and more ferocious until he can't fight it. He can only let himself fall into a strong, gentle embrace.

"You clearly like me."

Ai Yueqiu feels the heavy sigh above his head, tinged with helplessness and tenderness.

"So you don't have to hold back in my arms."

*Ai Yueqiu turns off the lights: Because the moonlight is so beautiful, one can't bear to ruin it with artificial light, so the lights are turned off to simply enjoy the moon.

[2]

In Ai Yueqiu's view, all alphas are savage creatures who can't control themselves.

In his twenty-three years as an omega, Ai Yueqiu has never once experienced a real heat.

He doesn't understand love, either.

When he occasionally experiences a false heat, he forcibly suppresses his impulses. Even when he bites his lips until they bleed and trembles all over, he refuses to give in to primitive, ridiculous urges.

In a hospital room that feels almost like an interrogation chamber, the beautiful omega leans forward slightly in his frail body, as if undergoing the most agonizing interrogation and confession of his soul.

A psychologist is administering a mental health questionnaire to Ai Yueqiu.

But Ai Yueqiu feels cold all over, as though the stark white light of an interrogation room is shining down on him.

"Do you think it's dirty?"

"...Yes."

"Have you ever had a false heat?"

"...Yes."

"Are there still no signs of a real heat?"

"...No."

"During puberty, did you ever have feelings for anyone?"

"...No."

No, that's a lie.

He did.

The upheaval he endured during puberty made it impossible for him to feel anything for anyone, let alone develop feelings for everyone...

Except one person.

When he sometimes wakes from a dream, he remembers the body of the person in it, a tall, warm body wrapped around him, making him feel safe, and...

Wanting to go further.

And in the dream, he wasn't without desire.

But that person's face was always obscured by a veil of mist, impossible to see.

Until one day, the face of the person in his dream perfectly matched Zhao Tingluan's.

The shame and shock from the dream instantly set Ai Yueqiu's body and reason ablaze, and the order he'd maintained for over twenty years collapsed in an instant.

With a deafening crash.

*

Is love like the dry maple leaves that crackle as they fall in autumn,

catching fire once and spreading like a wildfire across the sky?

*

[Reading Guide]

1. Heat = the thing all omegas experience.

2. Classic Alpha/Omega pairing, classic handsome gong and beautiful shou.

3. Workplace + coming-of-age, older gong dotes on shou, guiding relationship, both are each other's first and only.

4. ABO setting. Any place names mentioned in the story have no significance or real-world reference.

5. The shou is of Chinese-Japanese descent (?). It won't affect your reading~

Theme: .