shotaro's eyes fluttered open as something lightly tapped his cheeks, allowing him to regain consciousness. the first thing he noticed as he dozed off his unconscious state was the heavy smell that was still present and that he recalled being the cause of his fainting.

in the air, shotaro could feel a mix of powerful musky scents that made it hard for him to breathe and slowly suffocated him.

"guys, back off."

a voice stated a few seconds before the air became a bit more breathable for the japanese male. and once he could breathe properly again, the pastel boy let out a small cough before sitting up - with the help of a hand on his back - and rubbing his eyes.

"hello, are you okay?"

shotaro's vision for clearer and he was met with a man he was familiar with but didn't remember where he had met him before.

"y-yes..." the omega replied with flushed cheeks, embarrassed for the scene he had just caused.

"do you want something to drink? i think you should drink something." the man stated. "please! can we have a drink for- "

"don't do questions and answers, namkyu." another voice interrupted them.

after this sudden interjection for the deep voice that has caused shivers to run down shotaro's spine, the omega realised he hadn't even paid attention to his surroundings. shotaro lifted his head and almost gasped when he finally understood from where he knew the male that had helped him up, namkyu.

in front of him were standing five members of nct, hikari and hawoon's favourite kpop boy band. and even more than being a simple kpop boy band, nct was a boy band composed of 22 alpha males without a mate.

"i-i..." shotaro stuttered, his cheeks flushing beet red as his eyes switched between the five males and their manager that he recalled having seen three days ago, at the studio where he worked at, and where they were filming a reality show.

"everything alright here?" a female voice rang through shotaro's ears. "oh my god! sho!"

the omega's world brightened when he recognised his co-worker slipping past the five nct members who were shielding the omega from the rest of the people inside the bar.

the pastel boy felt his insides being all jittery as the alphas growled loudly when the girl approached him and released angry pheromones, making the air stuffy and heavy again. but of course, the beta girl couldn't care less about it because she had no idea how menacing the pheromones released by the alphas were to her.

"here, i'll help you getting up, sho." the girl said, placing an arm around shotaro's petite waist and lifting his light body up with ease. "please, get me a chair to sit him." she asked the beta manager.

namkyu obliged, pulling a chair towards them and allowing the girl to sit shotaro on it.

"are you hurt somewhere? do you need me to call the hospital?" she asked, examining shotaro's face carefully.

"n-no, i'm fine..." the omega replied.

"okay, i'm still calling that boy that brought you here this morning. wait a second for me to grab his number."

once again, shotaro was too weak to refuse anything, and so, he let his co-worker calling hawoon and taking care of himself in the meantime.

his sister's boyfriend arrived at 'sweet delight' in a matter of minutes, and as soon as he had slammed the door open and located shotaro in the room, he ran for his life to the petite boy, cupping his cheeks as soon as he was close enough.

"oh my god, shotaro, i was so scared... i thought something bad had happened to you..." he gasped, inspecting the boy's pretty face.

"i-i'm..." the omega stopped talking to cough. "i'm good..."

effectively, the arrival of a slightly older male in the café had irked the five neos present in the room, and if this wasn't enough, the fact this beta was carrying the omega's sweet lavender scent on his clothes was sure enough to make the alphas snap and release anger pheromones once again - and of course, the way the beta babied the omega only made everything worse.

"come on, sho, we're going back home. it's too dangerous for you." hawoon declared, not giving a glance at his surroundings and thus not noticing the five members of nct.

"b-but..." shotaro's eyes fluttered close for a second, his body starting to get overwhelmed again by the musky scent of the alphas' pheromones.

"you're dozing off again... i'll carry you."

and with that said, low growls slipped past the nct members' teeth as they watched the boy picking the pastel cutie up and bringing him out of the café, leaving behind them the addictive lavender scent that the neos had taken so much interest in.

"order for nct?" the girl behind the counter asked, making the manager turn around to look at her. "sorry for the delay. have a nice day."

"thanks a lot." he spoke to the girl before facing the five members again, finding them standing silently side by side, with their eyes glued on the outside of the café, where the pastel purple boy was disappearing in the busy landscape. "boys."

the interjection made the five neos turn around slowly, almost scarily as namkyu wasn't used to such calmness in nct's actions. the manager gulped at the sight of the five idols staring at him with dark eyes.

"i'll definitely need some help to bring those 23 drinks back to the dorm."

and once again, namkyu found himself gasping when the five boys' faces lighted up simultaneously.

"sure!" they exclaimed before taking all of the drinks out of namkyu's hands and exiting the café.

α

"what the hell is wrong with them...?" namkyu frowned as he watched the five neos he had taken to the café with him entering the dorm one after the other instead of fighting to get inside first.

"drinks for everyone in the kitchen!" taeyong exclaimed before namkyu could do it, and in a matter of seconds, the rest of nct were there, fighting for their lives to get a grip of their drinks. but surprisingly, neither sungchan nor renjun, donghyuck, sicheng or taeyong joined the on-going fight. instead, the five boys were leaning against one of the counters, staring in the void while exchanging words that namkyu couldn't hear because of the ruckus the other neos were making because of the drinks.

however, after a few more curse words and punches - note that namkyu didn't even bother trying to stop them since je knew perfectly that fights for food or drinks weren't legitimate and solved on their own - the fight was interrupted by a very loud gasp coming from johnny and which caused the other members to stop fighting to stare at the american boy with interest. needless to say, namkyu was also genuinely curious to why one of the tallest members had had such a reaction.

"you met him?! again?!" johnny exclaimed, his eyes darting between the five calm boys who had accompanied namkyu to the café.

the manager frowned, trying to understand who they could be talking about.

"hell yeah." taeyong smirked.

"are we talking about that cute assistant who put the mics on us at the show a few days ago?" taeil raised a brow as his eyes lit up.

"who else...?" sicheng's smirked matched taeyong.

"no?!" "really?!" "fuck!" "you guys are lucky!" the members all exclaimed at the same time.

it took a few seconds to namkyu to realise what they were talking about and gasp himself in realisation.

it was true that the assistant that he had seen at the reality show a few days ago was wearing pastel purple, in the same way the waiter that fainted wore pastel purple today. and now that namkyu thought deeper about it, it was true that the two boys looked alike a lot, and it would be logical for them to be the same person.

so this was who they were talking about...

"and you wanna know the best part?" sungchan asked, raising a brow while looking at the other members who hadn't been lucky enough to meet the cute assistant again. "he's the one who made our drinks, so i'm sure that if you concentrate enough, you guys will be able to smell his divinely mesmerising lavender smell."

and so, namkyu almost choked on his own drink as the 17 neos who hadn't accompanied him to the café plunged their noses into their drinks to inhale the hint of lavender smell that the pastel purple barista had left there.