"can i do something to help you?"

"i just need to wait for it to die down, don't worry..."

"but i hate seeing you like this, shotaro..."

"i know, but that's how omegas are like..."

hikari heaved out a sigh. "would you like me to grab you something to drink? a glass of water perhaps? or some violet syrup?" she said, knowing how obsessed her brother was with anything purple.

"yeah... some violet syrup please..."

"sure, i'll get you that."

hikari left shotaro's small bedroom to head towards the kitchen. there, she met hawoon who had just came back from the grocery store and was placing the vegetables in the fridge.

"hello babe." hawoon smiled as soon as he noticed his girlfriend.

"hey." hikari pecked his lips before opening the cabinet and taking a plastic glass out of it - shotaro was more likely to faint or lose consciousness on his heat, and giving him a glass made of glass would be too dangerous.

"you look down. something's wrong?"

another sigh left hikari's lips. "yeah... it's shotaro... he's in his bed and his heat is hurting himself so much..."

hawoon sighed as well.

it was true that heats were painful for omegas and that most of the time, they tired them out so much that it was hard for them to leave their room.

shotaro was no exception, and considering he didn't have a mate, the symptoms were even harsher on his body, and they also seemed to get worse with every heat he had.

"i hate seeing him like this... and i want to help, but i don't know how..." the beta girl continued whining while she prepared the violet syrup that shotaro had asked her.

"well, if you really want to help, maybe getting him a big dildo could help him -"

"hawoon!" hikari gasped, hitting her boyfriend's shoulder. "shotaro is too young and innocent for that!"

"babe, he's 20. lots of omegas already have found their mate at that age. and many of them also have had sex, because it is common knowledge that omegas need release."

"b-but shotaro... i'm sure he doesn't even know what sex is, he's so innocent..." hikari stated.

"babe, you do know he will find a mate, right? he will end up having sex with someone." hawoon told her gently. "and i know you don't like that idea, but maybe giving him something to help him release could make his heat less painful."

hikari pouted. the sole idea of tainting her brother's immaculate innocence with something like sex made her sick. but hawoon was right, one day or another, he'll find a mate, and they will have sex. shotaro wouldn't stay her innocent baby brother forever. he was already 20, and he needed to discover all of those things like other people of his age.

"i'll think about it." the girl said.

"take your time." hawoon patted his girlfriend's head. "but not too much, because shotaro's hurting."

the japanese girl pushed these thoughts aside for a second as she brought the glass of violet syrup and a cookie to her brother's room.

"sho, i brought you the violet syrup and something to eat." she said with a smile.

"thank you." the omega replied, sitting up on the bed and taking a small sip of the purple liquid before biting into the cookie.

hikari stared at her brother while he took some forced by eating and drinking. she stayed silent for a while, simply thinking about hawoon's words and how they could help her brother in pain.

"say, sho... where does it hurt when you have a heat?"

"e-everywhere..." the omega answered tiredly. "but mostly around here..." he added, motioning to the bottom of his stomach and his genital area.

"and... do you have particular needs?" she tried.

shotaro's face immediately became red, as if the omega knew that he did have particular needs that he was embarrassed to share.

"h-huh..."

"tell me, sho, i really want to help you..."

"b-but it's... it's awkward..." the pastel boy told timidly.

"shotaro, you know that i don't care about how awkward it can be... tell me what's happening to your body so that i can help you find a solution."

the omega male heaved out a sigh as he lowered his head to hide his red cheeks.

"m-my huh... m-my pee-pee is... huh... i don't know if it's normal but it's... it's hard, and it hurts..."shotaro stuttered, shyer than ever. never in his life had he imagined he would be sharing such intimate details with his sister.

"and... okay, i apologise in advance for what i'm about to ask but... what do you do to... huh... to relieve the pain...?" hikari asked, her own cheeks reddening as well.

"i wait, what else could i be doing...?" the omega male shrugged before heaving out a sigh and placing his hands over the bottom of his tummy.

"d-don't you have omega friends to share your experiences?" the beta girl questioned, quite amazed to realise how innocent shotaro really was.

shotaro pouted. "i know one omega but she's a girl, so she doesn't have a pee-pee like me."

"yeah, of course, she doesn't..." hikari sighed. "do you need anything else?"

the omega looked at the halfway eaten cookie in his hand and the glass of violet syrup in the other.

"no, thank you so much hika. i'm sorry for being sick. i'll make sure to work harder when i'll feel better."

"shotaro, how many times did i tell you that it was okay?" the girl let out an exasperated sigh. "you don't need to work to help me, i can manage both of us."

"i want to. it's my way of showing you how thankful i am for you."

the beta's lips curved up in a smile before she approached her brother and engulfed him in a tight hug.

"thank you, shotaro. i love you." she whispered in his ear as she dropped a peck on his temple.

"i love you too." he replied in their mother tongue.

hikari then pulled out from the hug and walked to the door to leave shotaro alone to rest and get better.

however, before she had fully closed the door behind her back, she asked a question that had been bugging her since hawoon had talked about it.

"say, sho?"

"yes?" the omega looked up at his sister.

"do you know what a dildo is?"

there was a short silence.

"no... what is it?" the omega frowned in utter confusion.

"it's..." the girl hesitated. "...nothing important." she decided to keep this to herself and preserve shotaro's innocence for the moment. "try to sleep a bit, and don't hesitate to call me if you need."

α

"wow, babe! you're eye-bags are huuuuge!"

"don't tell me about it, daeho..."

"what the hell happened for you to look this... this dead?"

"nct happened..."

namkyu hadn't been able to close an eye for the past two days. it seemed like nct had decided to make his life a living hell, and so, not giving him a second of rest since the alphas had started being abnormally annoying again - if not more than before.

and this explained why namkyu was looking like a zombie for the sm managers' monthly meal - a lunch booked in a great restaurant in which all of the sm managers were invited to share their experiences and have friendly talks. 

"hello, hello guys!" red velvet's manager appeared in the restaurant with a few other managers and immediately rushed to take a seat around the table.

"hey!"  daeho smiled brightly and agitated his hand in the air to wave at the newcomers.

"wow, looks like namkyu has had a rough night." shinee's manager noted when he saw how prominent his eye-bags were.

"oh, if only it was just a rough night..." nct's manager sighed, letting his mind wander to the awful past days and nights that he had spent trying to stop nct from killing each other 24/7.

"yeah, namkyu is having quite some trouble dealing with nct these days. their behaviour is getting very weird." daeho approved his boyfriend's words as he leant against his side for a quick cuddle.

"isn't that normal? they're alphas after all..." aespa's manager frowned.

"wait, what do you mean by 'their behaviour is getting very weird'?"

heaving out a sigh, namkyu rubbed his eyes in an attempt to make his sleepiness disappear. "well... it all started a bit more than a week ago, when we were having a reality show at the studio downtown..." he stated, explaining in detail how from one second to the other, he spoke to an employee and when he gave his attention back to nct, they were all calm and peaceful. and he didn't forget to mention how this lasted for a few hours only before they became even more angry than they were before.

"that's super weird..." super junior's manager let out.

"and that's not all..." namkyu added. "a few days after, i went to a café with a few members, and the same thing occurred..." he explained again how their behaviour changed from one second to the other, and made sure to insist on the fact that it was clear as day that something in them was different when they got back to the dorms where the other members were fighting.

the managers stayed silent for a few seconds.

"there has to be something that has an effect on their bodies for them to change like that..." daeho stated after a while.

"something that was there both at the studio and at the café." red velvet's manager hummed as namkyu tried to visualise the two scenes to find common points.

"or..." shinee's manager frowned. "it could be someone. they're alphas after all, it's possible that they got affected by an omega..."

and that's when things clicked in namkyu's mind.

at the reality show, he had noticed one of the assistants wearing pastel purple on set, and now that he thought more about it, his posture and his hesitance to do anything could make him pass for a very submissive beta or an omega...

and at the café, it has been a similar boy wearing pastel purple that has been preparing their drinks. namkyu remembered him coughing and sneezing while nct were present and fighting, surely because he was getting overwhelmed by the pheromones alphas were releasing...

and let's not forget that very-not-manly yelp that johnny had let out before screaming the words 'you met him again!'.

it was all about him; it was the pastel purple omega that had a taming effect on nct.

"oh my god... it was the boy wearing pastel purple..."