• One year post pt. 1 •

Izumi's POV:

I had for two weeks been composing a song which my voice wouldn't fit with for the life of me, but even so, I was dead-set on the instrumentals being on point. I could sing, but I wasn't talented as a singer. I was an instrumentalist to the core, not a vocalist. I normally got by fine using my own vocals, but this time, my voice just wouldn't do.

"Fuuuck!" I yelled, causing Shirayuki to flinch in his seat across me as we were sitting in the classroom by my bench, eating our lunches.

"What's up with you all of a sudden?!" He yelled back as I'd managed to startle him.

I sighed, impatiently tapping my fingernails on the bench.

"I'm composing this song, and my voice sounds horrible with the instrumentals. I need a voice with a darker vocal range than mine to pull it off." I complained, groaning in displeasure.

He slowly nodded, seeming to consider something.

"Um.. I-.. I might... No- Never mind..!" He mumbled, trying to suggest something, which I had a fair idea of what it was.

"Do you want to try?" I boldly asked, not really expecting much, but it was worth a try.

He averted his gaze in discomfort, but nodded in reply.

"Just send me the text and melody..."

I arched my eyebrow.

"I can just show you if you tag along to my place after school. Stop making it so complicated." I sighed, stealing one piece of fried chicken from his bento.

"Hey! Don't steal my fried chicken, jackass! And fine! I'll tag along!" He grumpily exclaimed.

• After school •

"Alright, so what I'm going to play on the piano is the melody of the vocals. Let's go through it a couple of times. Here's the note sheet. As you can see, the lyrics are written underneath the notes." I said as I handed him the papers.

He quickly skimmed through the paper.

"I've got it, so let's start."

I raised my eyebrows, impressed by his confidence as I started playing. Soon after, Shirayuki came in with the vocals.

What I heard, had me in shivers. His voice was so incredibly beautiful. It fit perfectly with the song, and the amount of feeling he expressed in his voice was insane.

Listening to his singing, I didn't ever want to stop playing music with him. I wanted to create more songs for him to sing.

I was surprised by how my heart was fluttering inside my chest as I looked at him. I'd never experienced that kind of feeling before. Suddenly, I even started to notice things about him which I previously hadn't paid attention to. How did I never notice how long his pure white lashes were, or how smooth his skin looked? Strange...

• Nine months later •

Izumi's POV:

It was a rather warm Saturday evening. Shirayuki, Ayato and I were currently on our way back to his house after having spent the whole day at a karaoke bar. I still didn't get along with Ayato, but I could put up with him as he was Shirayuki's best friend. However, I really hated the way Ayato looked at Shirayuki. He was constantly clinging to him as if he was trying to convey some kind of twisted monopoly on him, and it bugged the shit out of me. I was painfully aware of Ayato's feelings for Shirayuki; he certainly wasn't trying to hide them, but for some reason, I didn't want Shirayuki anywhere near him. I didn't want Shirayuki to realise how Ayato felt about him.

"Hey, Yuki..." Ayato suddenly said as he stopped walking.

Shirayuki and I stopped as well, both of us turning around towards Ayato.

"Yeah?" Shirayuki casually replied, raising an eyebrow.

I had a very bad feeling about whatever he wanted to say, and I was growing more and more uneasy with each second that passed by.

Ayato closed in on Shirayuki, his vermillion eyes staring straight into Shirayuki's crimson ones.

"I guess you've already noticed at this point, but I want to tell you anyway in case you haven't... I love you; not as a friend. I love you as in I want you to be my partner. You're already mated with Aizawa, I get that, but since you two aren't romantically interested in each other, I want you to be mine instead; mated or not. I've always loved you." Ayato confessed, closing the distance between himself and Shirayuki.

Before I knew it, the little rat's lips were pressed against Shirayuki's.

Shirayuki's eyes were wide open in shock. He tried to back away, but Ayato slid his arm around Shirayuki's waist to prevent him.

I felt how my blood started to boil inside my veins. I had never in my life been as furious as I was now, while watching someone else kiss Shirayuki right in front of my eyes.

Out of pure rage, I approached Ayato with hatred in my gaze. I grabbed a hold of his collar and ruthlessly ripped him away from Shirayuki.

"Do you have a fucking problem?!" Ayato angrily yelled.

Without thinking, I swung my fist at him, hitting him right in the face.

"What the hell do you think you're doing, you disgusting fucking vermin?! Who are you to kiss him like that without his consent?! He sure as hell doesn't belong to a psychopath like you, so back the fuck off before I crush you!"

Ayato spat a fair amount of blood on the ground before he charged in to hit me back, delivering a terribly painful punch to my stomach. I felt how the air was knocked out of me, but with no time to recover, he grabbed me by the hair and a second punch towards my face followed. He'd undoubtedly managed to bust my lip as I felt how the blood streamed down my chin, the taste of iron filling my mouth.

"Ayato! Stop it! Are you fucking crazy?!" Shirayuki shouted at Ayato as he tried to pull him away from me.

Ayato let go of me with a sardonic grin on his lips and let Shirayuki put distance between us. Thankfully I could trust Ayato to never even consider causing Shirayuki any physical harm; there was no way he'd raise his hand against the absolutely gorgeous omega we both treasured so dearly. Frankly, I doubted he realised he'd hurt Shirayuki by forcing his feelings onto him by kissing him without his consent. He was jealous of the steady improvement in my and Shirayuki's relationship, so he'd been too desperate, adrenalised and caught up in the moment to have reflected on his unacceptable actions.

As soon as I was out of Ayato's reach, Shirayuki flashed him a furious glare and hurried over to my side.

"Are you okay? You're bleeding a fuck ton... I'll call dad; you need to go to the hospital as soon as possible." He worriedly stated as he lifted his shirt over his head and gently brushed my hair away from my face before pressing the plain black, long-sleeved shirt against my lip in an attempt to stop the bleeding.

His shirt smelled just like him, well- to no one's surprise, but it was a pleasant and comforting scent.

"Can you keep it pressed to your lip while I call dad?" He asked, and I finally looked up from the ground to meet his concerned gaze.

I nodded in reply as I took over and pressed his shirt against my bleeding lip. He picked his phone up from his pocket and called Shōto-san.

He was clearly more shaken up than he implied to be, judging by the way his whole body trembled.

Suddenly a snort was heard from the distance. I looked up to see Ayato looking back at Shirayuki with an annoyed, yet hurt expression on his face before he turned around and took his leave. Shirayuki completely ignored him, not even batting an eye as the black-haired alpha left.

Shirayuki put the call on speaker as soon as he heard the first signal rung out, then he went back to attending to my still bleeding wound, refusing to let me do it on my own.

After a few signals, Shōto-san casually answered the phone.

"Hello?"

"Dad! Izumi's lip is busted and she needs medical attention! Can you, mom or Onee-chan please pick us up on Takeshita Street and drive us to the ER?!" Shirayuki almost shouted as soon as Shōto-san picked up.

Efore Shōto-san had the opportunity to reply, Katsuki-san's loud voice was heard.

"Huh?! Izumi-chan's hurt?! Then what the hell are we dragging our feet for, Shōto?! Let's get a fucking move on!" Katsuki-san exclaimed.

"Just hold on for a moment; we'll be there before ya know it!" Katsuki-san reassured us, deciding to hang on to the call until they found us.

• Four hours later •

Izumi's POV:

Over the past two and a half hours, I'd been reflecting on the situation I'd found myself in earlier during the night. I certainly wasn't the kind of person who'd throw fists and put myself at risk for another individual. Heck; I tended to avoid conflict to the point where it seemed like my life depended on it, but for the first time in my life, I had stepped in to protect someone.

I just remembered the rage I felt when I saw that rat, Ayato, kiss Shirayuki. It was a nasty type of rage which unfortunately was based on the most toxic emotion that existed; jealousy.

At this point, I had realised I'd gotten jealous and possessive when Ayato kissed Shirayuki earlier. They were both familiar emotions that would typically make their appearance whenever I saw Ayato cling to Shirayuki, but I had never faced a situation where those truly ugly feelings had gotten so overwhelmingly strong, to the extent where I'd refer to them as explosive.

In any case, now that I finally had the perfect opportunity, the courage and the will to reflect on my relationship with Shirayuki, I'd after a lot of thinking, figured out that my feelings for Shirayuki had developed into more than those of a friend. I'd spent plenty of time debating on whether my romantic feelings for him only existed because of the soulbond, or if I, Izumi Aizawa as a person, genuinely loved him for who he was. I couldn't help but speculate on how things would look if there was no such thing as the soulbond, or if everyone in the world were betas; would I still have loved him if we didn't share a soulbond? No matter how I looked at it, I came to the same conclusion every time.

The answer was that there simply was no way to tell if I loved him because of the soulbond or not, so I decided to create my own, probably romanticized hypothesis to fulfil my desire for a proper answer until I was proven wrong. My theory was that I loved Shirayuki as a person, not because he was an omega or my soulmate. I wanted to love him for who he was, and therefore, that was exactly why I decided to believe I did.

I glanced over at my parents who were sleeping in the chairs next to the hospital bed I was laying on, dad's head resting on mom's shoulder as I waited for the doctor to arrive so he could do the final touches. Once that was done, we could go home after approximately four hours at the ER. Luckily, the cut on my busted lip wasn't deep enough to need stitches, but according to the doctor, I should expect heavy swelling.

Well, my lip was definitely starting to swell up, and it was getting really damn annoying, but on the bright side, I at least didn't feel the pain anymore due to the anaesthesia...