A broken plant pot serves no purpose. You could find the most beautiful flower in the whole world, buy the most expensively rich soil known to man, and it would never bloom to its full potential living inside a broken plant pot. To cherish is to care, but a lack of care doesn't equal, not cherishing what you have. It's simply not fair to let something beautiful be encompassed by something broken. And there's a solemn kind of mercy in accepting that.
Matthew stood idly to the side of the old beta male. His eyes fixated on each shaky sweep of his brush. How it gathered up all of the ceramic shards, dry soil, and tattered roots, soon to be discarded, and never seen again. The path that was once lined intactly, now mourned the loss of one of their own. The withered rose lying lifelessly in the shadow of its peers. It was strange to say, but Matthew felt some semblance of a connection to that grim scene. Unable to walk away until the beta had left with the body bag.
The rose had wrongly put its faith in that plant pot, but Matthew knew better than to lean on feeble promises. A week had passed since the confession, and he still hadn't decided on an answer yet. In the moment, he asked for time; time given to him without a second of hesitation. There was no pressure, no impatience. Jiwoong was his usual understanding self. Though Matthew wasn't sure if he deserved it. To love someone, is to give them your everything, and he didn't doubt for a second that Jiwoong would give him the world. But he severely questioned whether he could do the same. The alpha didn't even know his true identity, let alone what a life would entail having to deal with the complicated mess of his existence. Maybe it was for the better to cut things off now, before Jiwoong had the chance to see the real him. The him that was far more broken then he let anyone realize.
"What the hell is wrong with you?!"
Matthew froze in the center of the path, his ears stung by that deeply familiar voice. He gazed ahead of himself to where a small crowd was forming, just outside the journalism department. Two tall figures stood at odds, one visibly fuming, whilst the other had his eyes to the ground. And in a matter of seconds, a loud slap echoed through the campus.
His heart sunk.
"Tell me why you did it?! Tell me you fucking coward!" Hao screamed, his fists clenching around Gyuvin's collar, forcibly shaking him for an answer.
The alpha remained silent.
Matthew wished his confusion could have lasted for longer, that his mind didn't automatically jump to the worst conclusion imaginable, but the anger in Hao's eyes was for too telling. Gyuvin had been gone all week for his rut, and Hao had never had a problem with the younger before today. If there was anything that could cause a rift this big, then it had to be linked to Ricky.
"I can't believe you're being like this!" Hao suddenly shoved him back, sending the alpha stumbling into another student.
There was something deeply deeply wrong here. As Hao pressed forward, continually jamming his fist into Gyuvin's shoulder, the younger didn't make a single effort to fight back. For a tall, well-built alpha, he could have easily stopped Hao if he wanted to. Yet, he didn't. He just stood there taking the punches.
"You have the audacity to do all that, but you can't even look me in the eyes huh?! Look at me!"
Matthew couldn't bare to watch this any longer. The safe space he'd coveted so dearly, falling apart right in front of his eyes. They were supposed to be unbreakable. They were supposed to have each others backs. Fighting under the intrusive eyes of all these alphas felt unsettling, as if that level of solidarity had washed away. Anything could come out in anger, but neither showed any interest in taking this somewhere private.
So he had no choice but to intervene.
"That's enough!" He raised his voice assertively, his gaze firm on the beta, as he physically pushed himself between them. "Let's deal with this in the club room."
"But Matthew-"
"I said that's enough!" Matthew gritted his teeth, stance unwavering. He couldn't care less about the details of the situation, he solely focused on getting them away from this crowd.
It didn't take long for Hao to come to his senses, but as Gyuvin remained unchanged, the omega had to drag him there himself. The walk to the club room was unsurprisingly uncomfortable, but not for the reasons one would assume. The tension between them was undeniable, but the increasing amount of eyes on them was completely unexpected. It felt as if everyone they passed was looking at them, or more specifically, looking at Gyuvin. The alpha even received a few vague praises throughout the journey, but refused to acknowledge any of them, his gaze still stuck to the ground.
Hao slammed the door shut the second they got into the club room, wedging a chair under the handle to make sure no one would be able to come in. Maybe Matthew had expected his next move, because he was already latching onto him before he could go storming towards Gyuvin again.
"Can we please just talk this through?! I don't even know what's going on!"
"Wait-" Hao broke himself free of Matthew's hold, swinging around in utter disbelief. "You don't know what he did?"
A silence lingered between them, one that exposed something far more telling than the truth. For the first time since he had stumbled upon his friend, he witnessed that fire dwindle. The spark of anger in his eyes, dulling under the intense wave of devastation, that truly inspired his rage.
"He exposed Ricky."
Matthew's mind went blank.
"He what?"
The fire reignited. "He fucking exposed Ricky- The whole school knows he's an omega."
It would have been impossible to describe how Matthew felt in that moment. His head and his heart battling out for claim of his reaction. He desperately wanted to believe that he had expected this. That he never really trusted Gyuvin to begin with, and saw this coming from a mile away. He wanted to believe he knew better than to put his faith in an alpha again, but that just wasn't the case. His heart ached in ways in hadn't in years. Gyuvin was supposed to be one of the good ones, he wasn't supposed to be capable of something like this. So how had this happened? How could he hurt the person he loved? Matthew may not have been the victim of Gyuvin's betrayal, but it hurt all the same. It hurt him as an omega.
He looked over to Gyuvin, it all sinking in. The person he once considered a friend, was now nothing but a familiar stranger. The alpha he didn't know, yet knew all too well. He was rotten to the core just like the rest of them.
"Why would you do this?"
Gyuvin finally raised his head, his whole demeanor doused in shame. Matthew wasn't sure what he would have preferred. The gloom that came with self loathing, or the audacious nature of someone completely unremorseful. It sure as hell would have been easier to hate him with the latter, but to see him so upset was irritating in its own right. The choices he made, led to this outcome. He was in no position to feel sorry for himself.
"It wasn't me." He muttered out, "I didn't expose him."
A loud scoff filled the room, Matthew consciously tugging at the back of Hao's shirt to keep him in place. "Do you really have that little respect for me? I'd rather you go mute again, then to blatantly lie to my face."
"I'm not lying, it really wasn't me."
The sincerity in Gyuvin's voice did not go unnoticed, but due to the circumstances, it was hard for either of them to believe a word he said.
"So who was it then? Everyone's saying it was you." Hao questioned impatiently.
The alpha took a deep breath to compose himself, his shaky gaze flickering between Hao and Matthew. "It was Yoon Jongwoo."
"Yoon Jongwoo?" Matthew repeated under his breath, the fabric of Hao's shirt slowly slipping from his grasp.
Of course that bastard had to be involved.
"His mum works in the infirmary; he saw the visitor forms..." Gyuvin grew more agitated throughout his explanation, his fidgeting hands finding their way to his brown locks. He squinted his eyes shut as he scratched the back of his head, clearly struggling to relay what had happened. "I shouldn't have said what I did in class, because he- he put everything together. Then he spread that rumor, and now everyone thinks...they all think I had this master plan. That I was always planning on exposing him."
"Do you think that makes anything better?" Hao spat bitterly. "I don't give a fuck who spread that rumor. You should be denying it."
Gyuvin threw his arms down in frustration. "Hao I can't!"
"Why can't you?!" Hao raised his voice, moving in the same kind of frenzy. "News flash Gyuvin, that's your boyfriend! You're supposed to protect him!"
"I know! But I-"
The room abruptly fell into silence. Gyuvin accepting defeat. He couldn't keep defending himself, when there was something he was clearly holding back.
"Melting point called me this morning."
"What does that have to do with anything?" Hao asked, his voice shockingly quiet.
"They offered me the internship." Gyuvin replied hesitantly, "The rumor somehow got back to them, and they were impressed with me...That's why I can't come clean, I can't lose out on this internship."
Matthew honestly didn't think he could feel anymore disappointed in Gyuvin than he did already, but that response was so incredibly selfish, he could hardly look at the younger. He had such a disturbingly twisted opportunistic attitude towards the situation. To use Ricky's suffering as a way of getting what he wanted. No decent human would do that to anyone, let alone someone you supposedly love.
"You seriously sold out Ricky for that internship."
"It's not like that Hao, this is good for me-"
"Of course it's good for you! It's always good for you!"
"Ugh! You're impossible!" Gyuvin groaned, "At least try to understand!"
"Understand?" Hao gasped, his jaw dropping. Matthew had never seen him look so disappointed. He took in one sharp inhale, and marched across the room, backing the alpha against the wall. "Okay, you want me to understand? Well I understand you very well Gyuvin. You may be an alpha, but no amount of genetic advancement, could make up for the fact you're a weak person. You know fair well you don't deserve that internship, and once they realize how talentless you actually are, they'll kick you to the curb just like you did to Ricky. Then, when you're all alone, thinking about how pathetic your life turned out, all you'll have to comfort you is that letter A on your birth certificate, because you sure as hell won't have any of us by your side." One final shove, and Hao was leaning into his ear. "Stay the hell away from us."
With that, he was gone, having nothing left to say. Not that there was anything more he could have said. The pain in Gyuvin's eyes made the impact of Hao's words evident, his posture reminiscent of a bird with a broken wing. If the circumstances were different, Matthew may have pitied him, but his mind quickly centered itself on the person who really deserved his sympathy. He needed to find Ricky.
"Wait- Matthew please!" From the whimper of his voice, Gyuvin was clearly begging, darting across the room to stop Matthew from going. He desperately clawed at the omega's arm, sinking to his knees as if he was about to pray.
Matthew simply stared at him.
There weren't many times in his life, where he had seen an alpha be truly vulnerable. So much so, he wondered if alphas were even capable of such an emotion. Seeing Gyuvin like this, a shadow of his former self, was so strangely intriguing, he felt compelled to listen.
"I need you to tell Ricky I'm sorry...and that I- that I never wanted this to happen."
He couldn't help but think about how is mother would tell him to handle this. She'd say that alphas like it when omegas are compassionate, and to have an easy life, you should just give them what they want. He might have listened to it in the past, but now more than ever, he realized the importance of breaking that cycle. The idea of a perfect omega came straight from the fantasy of an alpha. Submissive, calm, and kind; Someone they could walk all over. But Matthew had lived a life unlike any normal omega. No matter what he had been told about his true self, he'd learned a lot about living as someone else. And he was done bending to the will of alphas.
"The last thing you should be doing right now is asking an omega for a favour."
_____
I feel bad posting this on Matthew's birthday, but yeah, that's how it worked out. Anywayyyyy, strap yourselves in for the turbulent chapters ahead, and don't worry, everything shall be explained and there is good stuff to come I promise.
Thanks for all the support so far, don't forget to vote/comment if you're enjoying it!