"why are we having a double date again?" hikari asked, breaking the – slightly awkward – silence that had taken over their table at the restaurant a few minutes ago.

the three other males sitting around the table looked at her before all eyes diverted on namkyu who was taking a sip of his drink.

"well... you two feel abandoned..." he started, pointing at hikari and hawoon. "...i feel abandoned..."

"i don't feel abandoned." daeho interrupted, raising a brow at his boyfriend who had dragged him here without an explanation.

"yes, but you love me." namkyu explained, bopping his boyfriend's nose. "so, you feel abandoned as much as i do."

daeho rolled his eyes. "yeah, alright." he stated before focusing back on his plate of food.

the table became silent again, none of the betas sitting around it knowing what to say.

they barely knew each other, and yet, namkyu had come to get hikari and hawoon to their house after shotaro had explained to him how sad they felt that shotaro had abandoned them.

so, considering namkyu felt rather useless with nct now that they had found their mate, he had decided to have a double date composed of people feeling abandoned. but for a double date, he needed his boyfriend, so, he had dragged daeho with him, after telling exo to 'manager themselves for a few hours'.

and so, here they were, still not really knowing each other and eating together awkwardly.

"so... you are exo's manager, is that right?" hawoon asked, trying to get rid of the death silence that was making things even more awkward than they should be.

"huh... yeah. i am." daeho replied, nodding his head.

"and... are they easier to manage than nct?" hawoon continued, already dreading the moment he would need to ask another question to keep the conversation going.

"oh, god. you have no idea what you're talking about." daeho chuckled loudly. "they have absolutely nothing in common. exo are betas, so they are much easier to deal with. they don't always try to kill each other when there is a minor disagreement, and they listen to what i'm saying most of the time."he explained. "so, sure, they are chaotic from time to time, but it's nowhere near as chaotic as nct. and not in the same way."

"you see..." namkyu stated once his boyfriend had finished talking. "the company gave him an easy group to deal with because daeho doesn't have the authoritarian vibe much." he finished, grinning at his much smaller boyfriend.

"excuse me?!" daeho gasped. "i can be authoritarian!"

"have you seen yourself? people mistake you as an omega all the time." namkyu ruffled his hair lovingly.

"no, they don't." daeho pouted and crossed his arms over his chest, looking like an angry kitten and making hikari and hawoon think of shotaro immediately. he acted like that when he was angry at something too.

namkyu, hikari and hawoon chuckled at the boy's behaviour before going back to eating with smiles on their faces. the frown that had appeared on daeho's face soon faded, leaving its place to a smile as well.

"so, you are shotaro's relatives?" daeho asked after taking a bite of his food.

"yes. i'm his sister." hikari nodded. "and hawoon is my boyfriend. he's known shotaro for five years and started living with us three years ago."

"and, wasn't it too hard to see him leaving your house?"

"it was." hikari nodded, recalling how pained she had been around a week ago when shotaro had left the house. "but he said it right; he has mates now, and it's not our duty anymore to take care of him."

"yeah." hawoon nodded. "we can still care for him. but his mates are the one who should take care of him. and it seems like they're doing a very good job."

"oh, trust me, shotaro is between good hands." daeho nodded. "i've never seen nct like that."

"like what?" hikari asked.

"completely lovestruck." daeho laughed.

"yeah, the difference between 'before meeting shotaro' and 'after meeting shotaro' was huge, but it's nothing compared to 'before being shotaro's boyfriend' and 'after being shotaro's boyfriend'."

hikari and hawoon laughed for a few seconds before gasping in realisation.

"wait! boyfriend?!" they exclaimed at the same time.

"oh... he didn't tell you?" namkyu raised a brow. "they asked him the day he moved-in with them."

"this little naughty otter!" hikari growled. "i'm going to scold him for not telling us! i had him on the phone yesterday!"

"calm down, babe." hawoon patted hikari's thigh under the table. "he surely had a lot on his mind and didn't think it was important. we already knew they had claimed and marked each other, which is more important than being labelled as boyfriends for them."

"yeah, you're right." hikri nodded. "but i don't want them to take advantage of him now that they are boyfriends. shotaro is still the same innocent omega."

"yeah, and nct are still the same horny alphas..." namkyu sighed.

"damn, poor shotaro..." daeho stated. "finding himself in the middle of 22 alphas who can't keep their dicks to themselves when he's as innocent as an angel."

"don't worry about it, i had a pretty clear conversation with them on the subject." namkyu assured, speaking both to his boyfriend and hikari.

"oh, i'm not worried." the girl shook her head. "i sent them threats myself."

"yeah." hawoon nodded. "and they may be our favourite idols, if they break shotaro, we break them harder."

namkyu and daeho stared at each other for a second before looking back at the couple.

"fair." daeho replied.

"we're with you on that one." namkyu added. "shotaro is too precious for their shit."

α

"so, how has been this first week living with us?" sungchan asked, making the omega chuckle.

"technically it's my second week." shotaro replied. "i lived here for one week before we became mates too."

"so, how has been your second week living with us, then?"

"very good." shotaro answered thruthfully. "i love living here surrounded by all of you."

"we love it too." sungchan assured as a smile decorated his face.

the two males had been alone in the dorm for around two hours now as the other nct members had to go to the yearly medical visit every idol needed to go to. thankfully, sungchan had had his medical visit a few days before – when he had hurt his foot during practice – and so, he could stay home with shotaro who didn't really feel motivated to wait for his 21 other mates and boyfriends on uncomfortable seats. and so, sungchan had kindly proposed that they stayed home together.

they had started entertaining themselves by playing videogames, sungchan teaching shotaro the basics of smashbros before they spent a good while playing it. and when shotaro had had enough of it, the two boys had simply sat down on the sofa side by side, their thighs and shoulders touching as they talked about random things.

one night, after shotaro had gone to bed, jaehyun had asked the others to stay behind so that he could tell them about shotaro's loss at his young age. the boys noted that this immense trauma that the omega had lived at 13 years old had surely had a great impact on his mind, and that it mostly explained his innocence and his naivety on certain mature subjects such as sex for example.

after learning about shotaro's dark past, the boys had been twice more careful with their omega boyfriend, taking care of him like the most precious gem and making sure he was always at his ease, and never reminded of what could have happened to him in the past.

at that moment, they also realised that they barely knew their mate, but that none of them had much information on his past or his life.

that was why sungchan had used this time alone with the boy to create a comfortable atmosphere around them to ask shotaro more about his hobbies and the things he liked doing. sadly, he soon figured out that since young, the boy had been overwhelmed with work and so, that he barely had had any time for himself. but now, things had changed. he was under nct's wing, and none of the 22 alphas would leave him alone or let him overwork himself. now, all he needed to do was enjoying his time with his mates, and everything would be perfect that way.

"sungchan?" the omega asked after a while, making the korean male turn his head to look at him.

"yes?" he replied, wrapping an arm around shotaro's shoulders to pull him against his side.

this didn't fail to make shotaro's heartbeat accelerate – it never did, even after one week of having all the alphas hugging him, kissing his cheeks or simply carrying him from place to place.

"have you ever kissed someone...?" shotaro questioned, looking up at sungchan with curious eyes.

the alpha was a bit taken aback by the question, not really knowing where it came from or why he would suddenly be interested in this.

"h-huh... yeah, look." sungchan spoke before leaning forward and pecking shotaro's cheek.

"n-no, i meant... kissing... here..." shotaro specified shyly, lifting his hand to brush sungchan's lips with his finger.

"oh..." sungchan gulped, trying to contain his horniness – which was hard considering how amazing shotaro looked right now. "h-huh... yes, i guess."

"really?" shotaro gasped. "how was it?"

"well..." sungchan thought for a while, trying to find a plausible answer. the only kisses he had shared were with the other 21 alphas, and were mostly out of lust, meaning they involved tongue and teeth and often led to a powerful release. but shotaro couldn't be talking about those kinds of kisses. no, he was surely referring to the kiss princes did to princesses in disney movies, it had to be this. "i-it was... amazing..." sungchan finally said, not lying, but not saying the whole truth either.

"yeah... that's how i imagine them to be." shotaro nodded dreamily.

"have you never- "

"no." he shook his head. "never ever."

"oh."

there was a small silence, but shotaro broke it quickly.

"did you kiss one of the others?" he asked.

"s-sorry?"

"like, another of our mates." shotaro explained.

"huh, yeah. they're the only ones i ever kissed actually." sungchan admitted.

"and..." shotaro looked at his mate again. "who's the best kisser?"

this time, shotaro almost choked on his saliva, absolutely not expecting such a question from the omega. how could he guess that shotaro had seen a movie a bit too mature for his liking the night before and that now, he was asking himself lots of questions on kisses? right, he had no way to know.

"i-i don't know!" sungchan's cheeks became pink. "w-why are you asking all of those questions?"

"i was just wondering..." shotaro shrugged before cuddling into sungchan's side.

the korean male used the silence to calm down his breathing and try to find another conversation topic that wouldn't involve him imagining himself kissing shotaro and getting hard. yeah, because right now, the situation was totally not under control.

"s-sorry, did i anger you?" shotaro asked, pulling away from sungchan's embrace. "please, don't get mad at me, i didn't mean to."

"w-what?" sungchan frowned, trying to pull shotaro closer again. "i'm not mad at you."

"y-you are..." shotaro pouted. "i can feel your pheromones... they smell the same as when jeno, donghyuck, jaemin, renjun, jisung and you were having a special fight..."

"o-oh..." sungchan bit the inside of his cheek, trying to find a way out of this messy situation. but at the same time, he kind of wanted to know where this could lead them.

"s-so... you're not mad?" shotaro asked again.

"not at all." sugnchan breathed out, staring into shotaro's eyes.

"okay, that's great." the boy nodded with a small smile, looking ravishing in sungchan's mind that was already clouded by those 'special fight' pheromones, known as horniness.

"you still didn't answer my question about who was the best kisser." shotaro pointed out.

"you still didn't tell me why you wanted to know such things." sungchan tackled back with a smirk as his head leant forward, approaching shotaro's unconsciously. "and what would you even do with this information?"

"i don't know..." shotaro shrugged. "maybe keep it in a corner of my mind, and use it when the great time will come..." he added in a lower voice as he looked away.

"so... what if i tell you that i am the best kisser...?" sungchan asked, his face a few centimetres away from shotaro.

by now, their noses were almost touching and waves of horny pheromones escaped their bodies, even though shotaro wasn't aware he could emit such pheromones. the omega's mind seemed to go completely crazy as his scent had completely changed to become much more alluring, and his eyes kept staring at sungchan's lips that were approaching a bit more with every second passing.

"pup." sungchan spoke in a stern voice, making shotaro's eyes shot up to sungchan's own. "what do you do now that you have this information?"

and before shotaro could thing about what to do, his body reacted on his own, causing himself to lean forward a bit more and place his lips over sungchan's.

the feeling that hit both mates square in the face was more powerful that anything the boys had ever felt in their lives. it was electrifying, and made it seem like they were being marked by the other all over again. this rush of adrenaline and power that ran though their veins as their teeth penetrated the virgin flesh could also be felt right now, and this caused the two males to forget completely about their surroundings as they slowly moved their lips together.

they were too engrossed in how sensational the feeling was that they didn't even notice the 21 other alphas entering the dorm, being almost assaulted by the divine smell of horny pheromones, and staring at the two of them with very wide eyes.

they kiss barely lasted twenty seconds, but it was more than long enough for both of them to know that it was meant to happen and that it would be the beginning of something more in this relationship. and god, they were both enjoying this so much...

shotaro and sungchan pulled away slowly, their eyes fluttering open naturally as they went down from their highs.

as the omega realised what he had done, and how he had let his inner omega take control of him, he inevitably flushed beet red in an instant, becoming a stutter mess again.

"h-h-huh... i-i... s-s-sorry! b-bathroom!" he let out nervously before jumping from the couch and running to the bathroom.

sungchan could have been worried by this sudden reaction, but the pheromones being transparent, he knew exactly that this reaction was pure excitation and overwhelming happiness, and nothing like regret or disgust.

the korean male looked at the omega disappearing towards the bathroom before sighing loudly, letting his head rest on the back rest of the sofa before heaving out a deep sigh.

however, before he could breathe out fully, his fellow members appeared in his vision field, frowns evident on their faces.

"oh! guys!" sungchan jumped to his feet and faced his mates. "hey, huh... how did the medical visit go?"

"don't try changing the subject." chenle huffed.

"y-yeah..." sungchan rubbed his nape.

"we saw everything." johnny told. "heard everything too."

it was sungchan's turn to frown.

"so... what if i tell you that i am the best kisser...?" mark mimicked sungchan's voice before laughing.

"pup." donghyuck continued. "what do you do now that you have this information?"

"stop teasing me!" sungchan tsked as the 21 males started laughing at him.

"at least, you got a taste of him, lucky bastard." yuta sighed, patting sungchan's shoulder.

"i did." sungchan smiled proudly.

"and?" taeil raised a brow. "how was it?"

"yeah, we want all of the details." hendery specified.

and sungchan didn't really know what to tell them except: "you wouldn't believe me. you should kiss him to see for yourself. but i promise, you won't regret it."