"Fuck, my head... Ugh…"

A skull-splitting hangover greets Yoo Jonghyuk as he wakes up after a night out of drinking with his companions. The ray of sunlight that beamed from the gap of the curtains blinded him, and the wide and soft mattress he rested on relieved his body aches. He finds himself inside the hotel room that he hastily checked into yesterday.

"Ah… that's right, I went to dinner with them last night." Jonghyuk sits up as he massages his head. "Hmm… what time is it?"

His eyes scanned around the room for his phone, he spotted it on the night table and its screen faced down. Jonghyuk picks it up to check, but it was dead as its batteries had run out.

"Shit."

He gets up from the bed and staggers towards the wardrobe where he kept his luggage. "Where the hell did I put the charger…" Jonghyuk opens the cabinet and rummages through, eventually, he finds the charger and plugs it to the power outlet to charge his phone.

"The quick charge should take a couple of minutes…"

Jonghyuk squints as he sniffs the faint smell of grilled meat and alcohol reeking from his clothes. 'I guess I should freshen up while I wait for it to charge.'

He sighs and strips off his shirt, exposing his robust and contoured torso that was littered with scars. Jonghyuk opens the wardrobe and collects an olivine wool henley shirt, a pair of black selvedge jeans and his innerwear. He laid them neatly on the bed and went off to the bathroom for a warm shower.

'I think I might have overdone myself last night.'

Yoo Jonghyuk thought to himself as he stripped off his remaining clothes. He folded his laundry neatly and set it by the bathroom counters, with his change of clothes. He then goes inside the shower and shortly after, the soft squeaking of the knobs echoes through the bathroom as he turns the water on.

The warm downpour relaxed his tense and aching muscles, the steam fogged up his vision and the smell of mild soap helped him sober up. Jonghyuk recalls the conversation he had with his companions last night.

--

Kim Namwoon's brows arched in anger and his mouth quivered in disappointment. His fist slams on the table causing the plates and the utensils to rattle.

"What do you mean you won't be able to celebrate Kim Dokja's birthday?! Didn't we agree on making his 20th year a special one?" Namwoon's chair screeches as he hastily stands from his seat.

Lee Hyunsung, Lee Jihye and Uriel glanced nervously at Yoo Jonghyuk. It was shocking news to all of them that he will be absent and wouldn't be able to contribute to Kim Dokja's birthday celebration this year.

"Calm down Namwoon! I'm sure the captain had a reason for it! Lee Jihye grabs Namwoon's right arm and pulls him down back to his seat.

Uriel looks at Jonghyuk with a worried expression. "Captain, did something happen? Or...are the scenarios-"

Jonghyuk interjects. "It's not that."

"Then what is it? What's gotten into you for you to chicken out on a special day?!" Namwoon clicks his tongue.

Jonghyuk contemplates for a bit, he then takes another swig of soju and slams the bottle on the table.

"My rut landed on Kim Dokja's birthday." Jonghyuk groans and stares at the bottle with a rueful face. "It will be risky for Dokja to be around me from now on too…" Jonghyuk grabs the bottle and guzzles its remaining contents.

Hyunsung's jaw drops. "W-wait! C-captain, you knew Dokja was an Omega?! Then you should tell him! Did you know that he's-"

Namwoon cuts off Hyunsung. "Hold up! Hold up! I thought Dokja was a beta? We all saw his results on his gender exam, right?"

Jihye grabs Namwoon's right shoulder. "That was on the first exam… Dokja had his secondary exam last Friday." Jihye sighs and looks at Jonghyuk who was slightly flushed after downing an entire bottle of soju.

"Did you at least… inform Dokja about your predicament?" Uriel stares at Jonghyuk with a concerned face. "I'm sure he would understand if you speak to him about it."

"Uriel is right! This is the first time such a thing happened. What if he takes your absence badly?" Jihye taps her hand on the table. "What if he gets upset by-"

"He's not upset." Jonghyuk scoffs. "I texted him earlier after I left the apartment... He sent me a reply an hour ago." Jonghyuk takes out his smartphone and shows Dokja's reply.

{Thank you for the food and the allowance. I've tidied up the house so you don't need to deep clean the kitchen when you get home. I'll see you at the weekend then. (・▽・) Stay safe and have a nice trip.}

{Kim Dokja - 5:57 PM}

"In fact… I'm even more bothered that Dokja sent such a nonchalant reply." Jonghyuk grabs another bottle of soju from the trolley and opens it.

"That brat didn't even tell me about his results last Friday too…"

Jonghyuk's face darkened and his mood turned sour, he then chugs down half of the soju and sets it on the table after.

"It's a clear sign that I'm being avoided and possibly hated too. So what's the point of me telling him the real reason for my absence?" Jonghyuk scoffs.

Lee Hyunsung glares at Yoo Jonghyuk with a disgruntled face.

"Captain… Please, talk it out with Dokja." Hyunsung's stern voice stood out.

"What if Dokja is just afraid to tell you? What if the reason why he didn't inform you about it is that he's scared that you'll hate him after?" Hyunsung scratches his head in frustration. "I spoke to Dokja earlier... about his results, and he's shocked and terrified of being an Omega."

Hyunsung groans and glances at Uriel with a worried expression. "After all… the Omegas in our society are being discriminated at and being treated unfairly."

"I mean, put yourself in his shoes captain! Five years ago, at the subway station, Dokja had been alone all his life." Hyunsung grits his teeth and clenches his fist.

"We taught him how to live like a normal person in this world line! We raised him with the best of our capabilities for the last five years!" His eyes had become downtrodden and Hyunsung's lips quivered.

"And then last Friday... Dokja discovered that he is not a Beta but an Omega instead." Hyungsung clicks his tongue and raises his voice.

"Can you imagine the anxiety Dokja felt when the doctor told him that a normal life won't be possible for him anymore? Were you aware that Dokja felt useless when he heard about his results? His voice was trembling so much and he was panicking a lot…" Hyunsung slams the table with both of his hands.

"Captain, Dokja was scared to death… and it was unbearable for me to see him looking like that. It was as if he reverted back to the kid we found in the station." Tears started to swell from Hyunsung. His eyes were imbued with sorrow and his lips held a bitter smile.

"Kim Dokja cried."

---

Yoo Jonghyuk slams his fist on the bathroom's wall as he recalls Lee Hyunsung's sharp words. The feelings of frustration and guilt inundated his thoughts. The fact that he chose to stay away from Kim Dokja instead of speaking to him properly and assuring him weighed greatly on his mind.

After all, it was easier for him to run than to face the problem head-on.

'I won't be able to avoid the issue after this… I'll need to settle this and call Dokja later.'

Jonghyuk rinses off the soap from his body and turns off the water. He then walks out of the shower, dries himself with a towel, puts on a bathrobe and walks out of the bathroom.

He grabs onto his phone and turns it on. The time displayed on the launch screen was 3:47 PM.

“Damn… was I out for that long?”

Suddenly a multitude of SMS pings flooded onto the notification bar. All of them were from his companions last night. Jonghyuk was stunned to see the sheer amount of notifications. He tapped on his inbox to check the contents and briskly scrolls through them.

“Why are they spamming me with their shit?”

He groans as he clears the notifications on his phone. Jonghyuk then notices the call logs, he had 43 missed calls and 9 voice messages that were left by Lee Hyunsung and Lee Jihye. Most of which were missed and were noted three hours ago. The latest one was thirty minutes ago, from Lee Jihye.

Suddenly, Jonghyuk felt his phone vibrate and its high-pitched ringtone echoed through the room. It was an incoming call from Hyunsung.

Jonghyuk answered it and was stunned by Hyunsung’s booming voice.

[C-captain! T-thank god, you finally answered! We’ve been trying to reach out to you since lunch but you were unavailable.]

“I just woke up a few moments ago, somehow… my phone ran out of battery. I’m sorry Hyunsung.”

[W-well… you don’t have to apologise, Captain! Y-you did drink more than you can handle last night! And I’m also at fault for not stopping you after I gave you an earful too.] Hyunsung's voice became apologetic.

A slight grin forms on Jonghyuk’s face.

“No, actually I deserve to be scolded at that time. After all, I avoided the problem instead of solving it…” Jonghyuk sighs and scratches his head. "You were right, I should talk to Dokja about it too. That brat would probably struggle without us."

[... I guess you've mellowed down ever since you took him in. Is this the sign of ageing? Haha!] Hyunsung snorts. [Captain, if we hadn't met the two Dokjas back then… we wouldn't be experiencing this normalcy.]

[It was all thanks to the both of them that we became real. What took you so long to realise that?]

Jonghyuk's face became rosy as he remembered the first time that the Oldest Dream saw the world outside of the 4th Wall. He recalled the young Dokja's happy face and his timid voice calling out his name.

Yoo Jonghyuk was thankful that it wasn't a video call or else, Hyunsung would've witnessed his embarrassed face. He swiftly collected himself and changed the topic.

“Anyhow, why did you guys spam my inbox and my calls earlier?”

[About that… Did Dokja call you by any chance?]

“Let me check, give me a sec.”

Jonghyuk puts Hyunsung on hold and quickly searches through his phone’s call and message logs, there were no messages or calls that were recorded. The last message he got from Dokja was from yesterday. Jonghyuk then returns to Hyunsung’s call.

“Nothing from Dokja today. I only have the text message from last night.”

[I see…] Hyunsung’s voice sounded anxious, he paused for a bit and asked Jonghyuk. [Did Dokja inform you about his scheduled hospitalization today?]

“Hospitalization?!” Jonghyuk’s voice thundered, his eyebrows furrowed, his mood turned sour and his grin was replaced by an angry snarl. “He never told me anything since Friday! Also this admission you were saying, what was it for?!”

[I-it was a c-comprehensive examination for r-recessive Omegas! C-captain, calm down! I also just learned of this a few hours ago!] Hyunsung’s voice became shaky, he felt intimidated by Jonghyuk’s deafening voice.

[The school doctor notified us three hours ago that Kim Dokja missed his slot. He tried to contact Dokja to check if he would like to reschedule but Dokja wasn’t answering his phone.]

Jonghyuk massaged his forehead, it felt like his hangover was coming back to him. “That brat might have forgotten to charge his phone, have you tried ringing the landline at home? He would answer it if he’s at home.”

[Captain… We've been doing that since two hours ago! No one was answering so we left a voice message instead.] Hyunsung groans. [I sent Kim Namwoon to check on your house an hour ago, but he said that there was no one answering the intercom and the neighbours mentioned that the flat had been awfully quiet since morning.]

“Then he must have left and went to school, have you-”

Hyunsung cuts off Yoo Jonghyuk. [We already checked here in the campus if he attended homeroom, but his class advisor said he hasn’t seen him since lunch break yesterday... and his classmates said that they don’t know where he went.]

Yoo Jonghyuk’s face turned pale and his vision became blurry. Cold sweat dribbled from his neck and an overwhelming feeling of dread overcame him.

[Captain… I think… Dokja is missing.]