Chapter 5: Out of Control Part 1

He Siheng was stunned by his own words.

Omega?

How could he be an Omega?

He wanted to suspect that Tan Jing was messing with him, but the softness in his body and his dependence on Tan Jing’s pheromones—even with zero ABO knowledge, he knew what that meant.

“The top Omega student in the class, control your emotional fluctuations and rein in your pheromones.”

Tan Jing’s long, strong arm steadily supported him, his fingertips lightly pressing the gland at the back of He Siheng’s neck, trying to suppress the out-of-control pheromones.

The voice above his head was a few degrees lower and hoarser than usual. He Siheng looked up and met his deep gaze.

The moment their eyes met, He Siheng’s hairs stood on end. His primal instincts detected danger—this man wanted to mark him.

Even more dangerous was the instinct in his genes, screaming at him to submit, to willingly let himself be marked.

He Siheng shook his dizzy head and struggled to muster his last bit of strength. He raised a hand to cover the back of his neck, his breathing unsteady. “I warn you, don’t you dare take advantage of the situation, or else I…”

He didn’t finish his warning before the overload on his body made his vision go black.

In the second before his consciousness faded, he fell into a steady, strong embrace. His nose was filled with a crisp, clean scent—like a forest after rain. It felt inexplicably intimate and reassuring.

When he woke again, he opened his eyes to a snow-white ceiling. For a moment, He Siheng thought he’d gone to heaven.

He habitually propped himself up on the bed. As he sat up, pain shot through the back of his hand.

He Siheng looked down and jumped at the IV needle stuck in his hand. “Damn it! Who the hell gave me this shot!”

“You’d better not move. It’ll hurt more if it dislodges.”

A reminder came from beside him, in a familiar low voice.

He Siheng turned his head and saw Tan Jing sitting by the bed. Realizing what had happened, he looked like he’d seen a ghost. “You brought me to the hospital?”

Tan Jing countered flatly, “Or did you sleepwalk here?”

“…”

He Siheng was rarely at a loss for words. He caught a whiff of something sweet and cloying at the tip of his nose. He leaned down to sniff himself and frowned. “Why do I smell like strawberries?”

Thinking of something, he froze. “This isn’t… the smell of my pheromones, is it?”

His mind had been too foggy during differentiation to notice his pheromone scent. Now that he was awake, the first smell he noticed naturally seemed like it must be his pheromones.

He, He Siheng—the invincible tough guy school grass of South Middle School—having sweet strawberry pheromones? If word got out, he’d be done for!

Compared to differentiating into an Omega, the strawberry scent was clearly a bigger blow to Young Master He.

Tan Jing watched the color drain and flush on his face, subtly curling his lip. He deliberately said, “Isn’t strawberry scent good? You liked it a lot as a kid.”

Detecting the teasing, He Siheng bristled like a cat whose tail had been stepped on and glared fiercely at him. “If you dare leak this, I’ll beat you to death.”

“Oh?” Tan Jing stood up in an instant and leaned toward him.

Three inches, two inches, one inch…

The distance between them shrank abruptly. The tall teenage boy’s frame nearly enveloped He Siheng. His dark eyes fixed on him as he drawled, “But you’re an Omega now. How exactly are you going to beat me to death?”

“You—”

He Siheng was furious.

He’d once thought that if he could be with Tan Wan, he’d be willing to differentiate into an Omega. But now that he really had, the anger from Tan Jing’s provocation far outweighed any joy at pursuing Tan Wan as an Omega.

“I’m just teasing,” Tan Jing tossed him a spray bottle and stepped back. “The smell on you isn’t your pheromones.”

He Siheng picked up the thing in his arms and glanced at it. It was a scent blocker.

He let out a breath of relief, suppressing the corners of his mouth that wanted to quirk up. He muttered under his breath, “Buying a scent blocker in this flavor—you’re so childish.”

Tan Jing let out an ambiguous huff of laughter. “I carried your passed-out ass to the hospital for treatment, and that’s not enough? I still had to pick out a scent blocker flavor for you?”

It did sound a bit excessive.

The picky Young Master He coughed lightly and skipped the topic. “Did you smell my pheromones earlier? What did they smell like?”

He really did care.

Tan Jing glanced at him and casually replied, “Didn’t notice.”

“You didn’t notice?” He Siheng furrowed his brow, thought for a moment, then lifted his un-IV’d hand to rub the gland at the back of his neck. “How about I wipe off some of the scent blocker, and you sniff again?”

As he spoke, he was already acting on it, lowering his head to expose his snowy, slender nape.

The strawberry scent had been a false alarm, but he was truly worried his pheromones might be some weird smell. After all, that scent would follow him for life and even affect his future relationships.

But Young Master He, lacking any ABO knowledge, had no idea that inviting an Alpha to sniff his gland could be read as two words—seduction.

Tan Jing’s eyelid twitched, his expression complicated. “Have you ever even taken a basic ABO class?”

It was phrased as a question, but his tone was eighty percent certain.

He Siheng was still exposing his nape, clueless. “What ABO class?”

Tan Jing was about to say something when the ward door was pushed open from outside. A doctor in a white coat walked in. “You’re awake? Perfect timing. Your test results are back.”

“You passed out this time because your differentiation period came too late. Your Omega hormones were too high, and your gland couldn’t handle it all at once, causing the loss of control. Your body’s fine otherwise—just finish the IV and you can go home. But you’ve just gone through differentiation, so your hormone levels haven’t stabilized yet, and your heat period cycle isn’t set. Carry suppressants with you during this time.”

He Siheng took the test report from the doctor. The results confirmed he’d differentiated into an Omega—an S-Rank one.

He hadn’t become an Alpha, but at least his rank matched Tan Jing’s. Young Master He felt inexplicably balanced.

The next second, the doctor added, “Since you’re an S-Rank Omega, there’s one thing you need to pay extra attention to.”

Tan Jing, who had been silently listening, frowned. “S-Rank Omega?”

He Siheng shot him a glance and puffed out his chest. “What, only you get to be S-Rank?”

Tan Jing gave him a subtly odd look.

This young master clearly hadn’t attended a single ABO class.

Hearing He Siheng’s words, the doctor turned to Tan Jing in surprise. “You’re S-Rank too? An S-Rank Alpha?”

Tan Jing hummed in affirmation.

“That’s perfect!”

The doctor turned back to He Siheng. “I was worried you wouldn’t find a matching-rank Alpha to help you through your heat period. But here’s a ready-made S-Rank Alpha—talk about lucky.”

“Wait, wait,” He Siheng said, sensing something off. “What do you mean I’d have trouble getting through heat without a same-rank Alpha?”

“Higher-rank Omegas are rarer. S-Rank Omegas make up just 1% of the world population, so research samples are limited. Current suppressants might not work well on S-Rank.”

He Siheng opened his mouth.

What the hell? He’d never heard S-Rank had to suffer like this.