Chapter Text
Asahi woke up slowly, and the first thing he noticed was his pillow was moving. He blinked a few times to clear his vision, and looked up to see his pillow was actually Yoshi.
He was content to settle back down to sleep, and was about to do so, but then he registered the third scent in the room with them.
"Mashi."
Said male looked up from his phone at him, smiling at the younger omega.
"Hey, 'Sahi. You sleep ok?"
Asahi made an affirmative noise, cuddling back into Yoshi's chest, intent on going back to sleep.
Then he realized where they were.
Asahi threw himself up and backwards, accidentally using Yoshi's stomach as a springboard to do so. The older omega groaned, curling onto his side with his face scrunched up in pain, while Asahi was trying to meld himself into the wall to make himself disappear.
Mashiho sat up to check on Yoshi, then looked up to the terrified omega across the room.
"'Sahi, what's going on?"
Asahi started to shake his head, breathes picking up speed until he was hyperventilating, entire body shaking with how fast his head was moving back and forth.
"'Sahi, Asahi. Asahi, calm down! Stop before you hurt yourself!"
Mashiho and Yoshi had both made their way over to Asahi, Mashiho hesitantly holding his hands out towards the youngest omega, Yoshi sticking his hand behind Asahi's head when he got to close to smacking it against the wall.
There must have been too many hands in his general vicinity, because Asahi started thrashing around, sobbing and shoving at both the older boys, slamming back into the wall.
"Ok, ok, ok. Backing up now. No hands, no touching, 'Sahi, look. We're backing up."
Yoshi and Mashiho were quick to jump back and put space in between them and the panicking omega against the wall.
"You can't- cant- can't know. Why do you know!? No one was supposed to know! What- what- what am I supposed to do now!? Mama's gonna be so disappointed, Papa's gonna be so angry. So much trouble, I'm gonna be in so much trouble. I don't wanna get locked in the bad kid closet again."
Asahi devolved into heart wrenching sobs, then further into almost soundless sobs as he sagged into himself, then suddenly flung himself away from the wall and into the pair across from him, causing all three to topple to the ground.
"Don't let them take me. Please don't let them take me, I promise- promise I'll be good. I'll be good, just please don't let them."
Mashiho regained his ability to function first, wrapping the arm Asahi didn't have pinned to the ground around the shaking boy, not saying anything while he gently rubbed his hand up and down his back.
Yoshi rolled onto his side, running his fingers through the hair on the back of Asahi's head, murmuring unintelligible words in both Japanese and Korean to the still babbling youngest.
They let him be, doing their best to silently comfort him while not overwhelming him like they had not even fifteen minutes ago.
There wasn't a way to gauge how long they laid on the floor, Mashiho doing his best to ignore the prickly sensation once his arm fell asleep underneath Asahi, when they realized that Asahi hadn't just stopped crying, but had cried himself to sleep.
"That's a lot to unpack in a forty-five minute window."
Mashiho snorted at the suddenness of Yoshi words, agreeing with the older male wholeheartedly.
"It's more like a lot of luggage but exactly no unpacking of said luggage." Mashiho stopped talking when Asahi shifted on top of them, twisting enough that he was no longer laying on Yoshi and was resting most of his weight on Mashiho. "I have no idea if we'll be able to unpack any of it without causing another panic attack though."
They agreed not to bring it up, instead choosing to let Asahi cross that bridge first when he was ready. Instead they rearranged themselves as gently as possible, shifting Asahi so he was no longer pinning Mashiho's arm to the ground and the older boy was able to wrap him in a hug. Yoshi sat up by their heads, alternating combing his fingers through Asahi and Mashiho's hair gently.
They stayed that way for quite a while until Mashiho's phone ringing loudly in the otherwise silent startled Asahi awake. Mashiho just hugged the younger boy tighter as he pulled the phone out of his pocket, completely ignoring the caller ID and just pressing answer.
"Hello?"
"Hey Mashi," Hyunsuk's voice sounded far away, like the phone was on speaker and he was standing away from it. "We just wanted to check on you guys, see if there was anything you needed since we're not sure how long you'll be there."
Mashiho looked down at Asahi, the younger boys eyes wide and full of fear, but he wasn't shaking like the first time he woke up, so Mashiho took that particular piece as a win.
"We're... ok as can be. Waking up was a bit rocky, but other than that we've been laying around not doing much."
"Do Yoshi or 'Sahi want anything from the dorm? Or do they think they'll be ready to come home soon? If y'all do, just let us know and we'll bring them by the building."
"Do y'all want or need anything from the dorms? Hyunsuk Hyung says they'll drop stuff off downstairs if you guys do."
Yoshi gave the customary clothes answer, considering that they had none here, Asahi agreeing silently with a nod, but the look on his face made it clear he wanted to ask for something else. Mashiho didn't say anything, just waiting on Asahi to decide if he wanted to ask for something else.
"The blanket." Asahi's words were spoken so softly that had Mashiho not been staring at him, he would've missed them. "The one that's always in the living room, that smells like everyone..."
He trailed off at the end of his sentence, ducking his head down so his forehead was pressed against Mashiho's shoulder, but he had gotten the words out, so there was a sense of accomplishment mixed in with the embarrassment he felt.
Mashiho smiled at the boy on top of him, putting his phone back to his ear. "They request clothes, and that black blanket in the living room. I'm sure 'Sahi wouldn't mind at all if you guys decided to scent it some before sending it on the way."
He had to hold back a laugh as he heard several thuds from the other end of the line, having no doubt that some of the others had dove for said blanket were it usually sat thrown on the couch.
Asahi whined at the teasing, but his scent was still even, no hint of distress, so Mashiho gave himself another point for not making the younger uncomfortable.
He bid goodbye to their leader, then shoved his phone back in his pocket, and turned on his side to better squeeze Asahi into a hug. Asahi squirmed just a bit, but ultimately didn't fight to hard to get away.
~**~
The trio ended up falling asleep again while waiting for the group to bring their things, Asahi ending up switching to lay entirely on top of Yoshi to allow Mashiho a bit of a reprieve from being used as a pillow.
Asahi ended up being the one to wake up when Mashiho's phone buzzed, the older omega having put it on silent after the first time it rang. He debated on whether or not to wake the other two up, but ultimately decided against it, wanting to let the two rest after having to deal with him crying himself to sleep twice and having a panic attack.
He carefully got off of Yoshi and silently crept out of the room, waiting until he made it into the hallway to put his shoes on. He used the walk down the hall to take several deep breaths to try and calm himself, though he was pretty sure it wasn't going to work, and he'd probably throw himself into another panic attack on the way back to the room.
He swiped his card in the elevator, squished in the corner as it descended, chanting a mantra of 'They aren't going to hurt you' the whole way down.
He rejoiced silently when the door to the elevator opened, and Jihoon and Junkyu were the only ones stood leaning against the groups van. Neither of them seemed to be paying attention as the doors swung open, to busy arguing about something inconsequential as they usually did to notice him slowly making his way towards them.
Asahi had exactly zero idea what came over him, but he suddenly decided to throw caution to the wind, and threw himself at Jihoon, smushing his face against the alpha's chest and wrapping his arms around his waist.
The action caused the two to pause in their argument, but there was a reason that Jihoon was his favorite Hyung, as the older boy always seemed to know what he needed, and just rested his arm lightly around Asahi's shoulders and picked back up talking to Junkyu.
Junkyu was a bit slow on the uptake, but he too figured out it was best not to say anything to boy who was not at all attempting to be subtle as he pushed his face closer and closer to Jihoon's neck.
It was once Asahi's cheek was resting against Jihoon's shoulder that his brain caught up with his body and he realized what he had done. He shoved himself away from Jihoon, the alpha willingly letting him go, but Asahi did have to force himself to ignore the slight disappointment that was present on his face.
"Well, I'm definitely going to have another panic attack." Asahi could feel the pressure building in his chest, and was tempted to dive back into Jihoon's arms, but the need to go back upstairs to the other omegas was just a little bit stronger. "And I don't want to do that here, can I have the stuff you brought please."
Asahi held out his hand for the duffel bag that Junkyu pulled out of the backseat, and went to turn around to run back to the elevator, but was stopped by Jihoon wrapping the living room blanket around his shoulders, which relaxed almost immediately when he got a whiff of all the groups scents covering it. It got a little easier to breathe, but that feeling in his chest was still there, so he just half smiled at the two alphas then turned and went back to the elevator.
As he made his way back towards Yoshi's heat room, he felt himself falling more and more in the panic, which mainly stemmed from him questioning himself on why he went downstairs in the first place, and then almost scented Jihoon.
He didn't realize the door had already opened when he got there, and he ran straight into Mashiho as the older came out of the room. Asahi let a out a stuttering breath and dropped the bag in his hand, shoving his face against Mashiho's shoulder in the process.
"I went downstairs, and I saw Jihoon Hyung and Junkyu Hyung, and I'm ok, it was ok, but I'm gonna have a panic attack, and I'd rather not do that in the hallway."
With each word spoken against Mashiho's body, Asahi's breathing sped up, and the older just kicked the duffel bag into the room, pulling Asahi along with him to fall into a pile on the floor with Yoshi as the pair cuddled Asahi until he cried himself asleep again.
~**~
The trio ended up sleeping through the day because of the rollercoaster of emotions they had gone through since that morning, and Asahi was tempted to ignore that fact that he was still a human being who needed to do things like eat and drink and use the restroom in favor of going back to sleep.
However, both Yoshi and Mashiho decided they cared about his well being more than he did at the present, and forced him to drink half a bottle of water, and when he came out of the bathroom, a bottle of Gatorade was shoved in his hands.
For the first time practically since he presented, he let himself be taken care of, only doing the bare minimum that he had to, which was really just drinking on his own, as Mashiho had taken to feeding him bites of a sandwich unprompted. He found himself half in a daze, just aware enough to shift his weight when one of the others prompted him to.
Asahi wasn't entirely sure how long he was in the hazy headspace, whether it was several days or just a few minutes, however long it was, when Asahi emerged from it, he felt simultaneously well rested and exhausted. He pulled the living room blanket closer to himself, and pouted when the breath he took revealed that his groups scents had faded quite a bit.
He glanced at his half dead phone and saw several texts and calls from his members, the latest being what looked like a selfie from Doyoung, a few angry looking texts from his mother, and a date that showed they'd been there for almost a week.
He half skimmed the messages from his parents, all of them angry he had let the others find out about his true secondary gender (how they found out is beyond him), demanding he come home so they could figure out how to hide this 'incident' and their shame, which then suddenly turned to threats to disown him if he doesn't right this wrong.
He dropped his phone and roll to his left and on top of Yoshi, who just moved his phone to be above Asahi's head so he could see it and wrapped the other around his shoulders.
"My parents are threatening to disown me." Asahi's words were muffled against Yoshi's chest, and the older just tightened his grip. "How they found out everyone found out is beyond me. And the blanket doesn't smell enough anymore. And I'm tired of sleeping in the floor. And I don't want to cry anymore, but I feel like I'm going to cause my parents are being mean. And I want to go home but I don't know if I'll be able to handle it and I really don't want to have more panic attacks. And I-"
Yoshi let him rant, words just seeming to fall from his lips, and it took him a solid several minutes to even begin to slow down. Once he finished his word vomit, and Yoshi let him calm down a bit, he spoke.
"My mother says I'm not welcome at home anymore. She said she'll send all of my belongings here, and if we must play pretend for the cameras we may, but otherwise, she never wants to see me again. I'm not sure if my sister feels the same way or not."
Asahi hugged Yoshi tighter, not saying anything in response, but doing his best to comfort his friend.
Mashiho found them that way ten minutes later when he walked into the room from downstairs with the takeout they had ordered, smiling at the pair cuddling in the corner. Asahi held out one hand in his direction and started making grabby hands at him.
"Food, now. Please."
~**~
They ended up in Yoshi's heat room for almost two weeks, the entire group was happy they were in between promotions and not scheduled for anything in the meantime, and Asahi finally decided that the living room blanket that the others had stopped by to rescent for him was not enough. The need to be around the people he considered his pack far outweighed the fear of rejection based on his being an omega.
That, and he was starting to get a bit jealous that Yoshi had gone to the practice room to see the others a few times, unsurprisingly with less panic attacks than Asahi had.
He showered, packed everything up, wrapped the living room blanket around himself, took a deep breath, then made his way out into the hall and towards the elevator. He was fidgety the whole ride down, even more so the closer he got to the practice room.
When Asahi poked his head into the room, he was (inwardly, he didn't like to admit things) relieved to see that the only one present at that exact second was Jihoon, the other presumably spread throughout the building.
Asahi quietly entered the room and placed the items in his hands down by the door, following suit and sitting to watch his Hyung dance to different groups music in a random dance play style.
When Jihoon finally caught sight of his reflection in the mirror, he slowed to a stop and smiled at the younger.
"Hey 'Sahi, wanna dance?"
Asahi shook his head no, completely ignored the fact that Jihoon was sweaty, and made grabby hands at the alpha to tell him he wanted cuddles. Jihoon snorted, but did walk over to him and grab ahold of Asahi's outstretched hands, yanking him to his feet and then into his arms, the younger immediately melting into the embrace.
"I'm never leaving this spot." Asahi muttered as he turned his head so he was hiding his face in Jihoon's neck, finally giving into his urge to scent and be scented by the older. "I've deprived myself of cuddles for too long."
Jihoon snorted another laugh and tightened his grip around Asahi's waist, beginning to sway the two of them side to side and pressed a kiss to the side of his head.
"You can have all the cuddles, I won't even make you ask for them."
This time Asahi snorted, pulling back enough to see Jihoon's face, but not enough to leave the older's arms.
"Where's everyone else? I've missed out on several years of proper cuddles because my mentality is stupid. There's going to be so many compilations of this crap when I'm done cashing it in."
Jihoon genuinely laughed this time, then told him he'd take him to the others. Asahi took the living room blanket from around his shoulders and folded it, setting it neatly on top of the bag by the door, then took Jihoon's hand and drug him from the room, gesturing impatiently for the older to lead the way.
They went to Hyunsuk's studio first, and found Doyoung and Hyunsuk inside, the older messing around on the computer and the younger watching him from the couch. Asahi didn't give them time to register his existence, just let go of Jihoon, step forward, and proceeded to tackle Doyoung, which promptly lead to them tumbling off the couch with a thud.
Asahi didn't let go, just burying his face against Doyoung's neck, and the beta realized who was laying on top of him, wrapping Asahi into a hug with a shout of "Hyung!"
Hyunsuk finally turned around when Doyoung yelled, having his concentration broken by the volume of his voice.
"Doyoung, why are you yell- Asahi?"
In lieu of a verbal answer, Asahi just held his hand out in Hyunsuk's general direction, humming happily when he felt the alpha grab it, then yanked him down to join him and Doyoung on the ground.
"He says he's cashing in the cuddles he's missed out on the last few years. I wouldn't put it past him to be clingy like this for a while."
"The fans are gonna eat this up."
The three laughed at Asahi's words, and other than some murmured words here and there, they four of them sat in comfortable silence for the next fifteen minutes until Asahi sat up and swiveled to look at Jihoon again.
"Who's next? I have many cuddles I want today." Doyoung pouted at Asahi's sitting up, play complaining about the omega abandoning him. Asahi rolled his eyes at the younger, but still got up to grab Jihoon's hand again. "We can cuddle when we get home. I've been hiding for two weeks, I just want to hug everyone now."
With that, Jihoon tugged him out of the studio and down the hall towards the cafeteria, which was surprisingly empty, where they found Jaehyuk, Jeongwoo, Junghwan, and Haruto in the corner.
Asahi dropped himself into Jaehyuk's lap when he confirmed they weren't eating, wrapping the silently older boy in a hug while he reached out with his other hand to grab a fistful of Haruto's shirt.
The four boys went quiet at the interruption, visibly curious as to what was going on, and Jihoon just laughed and explained what he had to the other two. He tugged on Haruto's sleeve to get the younger boys attention, dragging him closer once he had it.
"My parents found out. That you guys know." Haruto was confused by the sudden whispered use of Japanese, but nodded anyhow to the others statement to show he was listening. "I don't know how, but they do. And they said if I don't figure out how to cover up the shameful mess I've made, they'll disown me. My family abandoned me."
"Your family didn't abandon you, 'Sahi. We're right here and we're not going anywhere. All of them will tell you that. If the people who brought you into this world are idiotic enough to turn their backs on you over something like this, they don't deserve you. The people who matter are still here, and I can promise, pinky promise, that we won't do that to you, ever."
Asahi really hadn't meant to start crying on Jaehyuk, but it happened, and now he decided he was going to repay him by buying him a new shirt. When he felt stable enough to not burst into more tears immediately, he got up and gruff a chair between Jeongwoo and Junghwan, grabbing one of their arms each, and cuddled them to his chest.
He would've fully cuddled them, but that would've involved tackling them to the ground, and there wasn't a fluffy rug to cushion them here like there was in Hyunsuk's studio, so this was the next best thing. The maknaes let him cling, not doing much other than leaning towards him so it was easier to keep a hold on the both of them.
The four of them sat talking with Jihoon while Asahi scented the youngest, humming happily as he left the scent of rose on the two of them. It was only when they were heading back to the practice room where everyone was gathering that Asahi realized he hadn't taken his suppressants since they had first gone to the heat rooms.
That was his only thought as they walked into the practice room, and it was mindless when he hugged Yedam, squeezing the younger while he was lost in thought. When he grabbed Junkyu as the older walked by, they all ended up toppling to the ground, but Asahi paid no attention to the ache in his shoulder were it had hit the ground.
Yedam and Junkyu tried to wiggle out from Asahi’s grasp, where they laid partially on top of him, but Asahi just whined and held on tighter, so the pair gave up and just tried to shift their weight so they didn’t crush him.
That was how Mashiho and Yoshi found them thirty minutes later, giggling at how clingy Asahi was acting, but they did decide to take pity on the pair stuck in chokeholds on the ground, so they each grabbed one of Asahi’s arms and yanked, pulling him out from under the other two, then promptly shoving him at Jihoon, who Asahi latched onto immediately.
“You two seem to be taking this whole thing pretty well, all things considered.”
“Oh yeah, no. I think this might just be a lull period type thing. We’ve both had several panic attacks about this stuff. There will probably be a breakdown soon once we do the whole ‘oh shit, this is actually a thing that’s happened’ thing hits us.”
“I can promise, I’ll probably have a panic attack when we get home, but I’d prefer to have that panic attack, and the ones that follow when this entire shit show of a situation catches up with my brain. For now though, I’m cuddling everyone of you until you get sick of me.”
Spoiler: They never get sick of Asahi cuddles. Ever.