"That f***ing bastard—he… he thinks everyone is like him?!"
Souta Tachibana slammed his keyboard with all the fury of a man one email away from turning feral. A few nearby desks flinched. Someone peeked over the cubicle wall but quickly ducked back down like a prairie dog sensing danger.
No, Souta wasn't having a mental breakdown.
Not yet, anyway.
But his manager had just "voluntarily" asked him to work overtime for the fifth time this week. Again. With no bonus. No dinner break. Not even a fake "thanks." Souta was one caffeine crash away from legally qualifying as a war criminal.
"I hope that bastard stubs his toe," he muttered. "Thrice. No—ten times a day. On the same corner. Barefoot."
He hunched over, typing like he was hacking into the Pentagon purely out of spite. "Slave labor should be illegal. I'm gonna throw this whole company into—"
"HEHEHEHEHE… they're gonna bond~!"
The giggle came from his left. A high-pitched, devil-possessed noise that made the hairs on his arms stand up.
He froze. Slowly turned.
Aya Nakamura—his coworker, best friend, and chaotic demon in human skin—was sitting at her desk, cackling like she'd just been personally proposed to by a 2D anime man with abs for days.
Souta squinted at her. "Oi. Did someone possess you?"
Aya looked up, completely unbothered. "Huh? Possessed? What are you talking about, Souta?"
"You're smiling like you just sacrificed a goat in the break room. It's disturbing."
She ignored that and shoved her phone in his face like she was showing off a baby photo. "It's just my book!" she said way too cheerfully. "The Alpha just bit the Omega during her heat, and now they're soul-bonded—forever."
Souta recoiled like the screen was infected. "What the hell are you even saying? What, Alpha? What, Omega? Are you having a stroke?"
"It's an omegaverse story."
Souta stared at her like she'd started speaking in tongues. "…A what-a-verse?"
"Oh, right. You don't know," she said, smirking like she was about to reveal the meaning of life. "Don't worry. I'll give you the beginner's guide to fictional biology."
Souta's face twisted in horror as he slowly backed his chair away. "It's okay, Nakamura-san. I don't need it. Really, I'm fine—"
But Aya, looking like a devil in a graphic tee, yanked his chair closer like she was about to unlock the deepest mysteries of the universe. "Oh, you will. I know you will love it."
Souta felt the unmistakable sensation of impending doom.
"So the thing is," she began, practically glowing, "in this world, people aren't just male or female. There's Alpha, Beta, Omega—and there's heats, ruts, bonds, scenting, biting, suppression pills—blah blah blah…"
Souta sat there, blinking slowly like he was dissociating. His mouth opened. Then closed. Then it opened again.
Heat? Bonding? Scenting? Suppression pills? What the hell is happening?
He stared at her, a horrified expression stuck on his face, as if he were trapped in a nightmare he couldn't wake up from.
Aya was still going. "And the Alpha just bit the Omega during her heat, and now they're bonded for life—"
"WHAT IN THE ACTUAL F**K ARE YOU READING, NAKAMURA-SAN?!"
He looked genuinely traumatized, like someone had just told him his coffee was decaf.
Aya casually slapped a hand over his mouth before he could scream louder.
Around them, the entire office had frozen. A pen clattered to the floor. Someone gasped. One guy peeked over a cubicle wall like, "Wait… did she just confess to him?"
Aya offered a quick, apologetic bow to the confused onlookers. "Sorry! Sorry!"
Then she yanked Souta out of his chair by the collar. "Let's go, Mr. Judgmental. Time for an education."
"I DON'T WANT AN EDUCATION! I WANT HR, A PRIEST, AND A NEW JOB! —Hell, I'll take a new country—just get me out of here!"
But Aya was already pulling him toward the door, grinning like the devil herself.
"Don't worry, you'll thank me later."
"I won't, but you will need an exorcist and a restraining order!"
***
Souta slumped face-first onto his bed like a corpse finally laid to rest.
His soul had been drained. Not by work, not entirely—but by the unholy Fictional Biology Crash Course delivered by none other than Aya Nakamura, the human embodiment of chaos in a ponytail.
He groaned into his pillow. "I have seen things today… Things that cannot be unseen…"
He flipped over, staring at the ceiling like it held the answers to the universe. It didn't.
And then... a shiver ran down his spine. Goosebumps.
"Do all girls nowadays read that kind of stuff?" he muttered to no one, truly unsettled. "Like… willingly?"
He turned on his side, hoping to sleep off the trauma, when his phone lit up with a cheerful ding!.
It was from Aya.
Aya Nakamura 👿[9:47PM]READ IT. YOU'LL FIND IT INTERESTING 😌👉📚
Souta stared at the message like it was a death threat in emoji form.
He scoffed. "As if."
He tossed the phone aside like it was cursed… but curiosity, that traitorous little gremlin, whispered, Just one click.
One. Tiny. Click.
"...Dammit."
He reached over, unlocked the screen, and tapped the link like he was disarming a bomb.
The website loaded. Floral background. Silvery cursive font. Very sparkle sparkle, very romance is pain but also hot vibes.
The title read:
"Bound by Moonlight: The Tyrant Alpha and the Marquess's Daughter"
Souta squinted at the description.
[A spirited Omega daughter of a noble Marquess finds herself entangled with the empire's most ruthless, obsessive—and dangerously handsome—second prince. She runs. He follows. Again and again, fate (and his unnervingly accurate sense of smell) pulls them back together.
When he ascends the throne, he claims her as his fated mate. But she, proud and headstrong, has always despised Alphas… until she doesn't.
This is the story of an arranged royal mating, scorching chemistry, and the twisted, magnetic bond between a relentless emperor and the Omega who refuses to acknowledge him as her husband.]
Souta blinked. Then again.
And again.
He sat up, utterly scandalized. "I see, so the Omega-Alpha thing… it's all just a weird build-up to R-18 scenes?!"
He slapped the phone onto his chest, horrified. "So it's porn. It's just fancy, scented, mate-bonded porn."
His face twisted like he'd bitten into a lemon. "She gave me a sex novel with extra biology?!"
He considered calling the police. Or a priest. Or both. Instead, he tossed the phone away like it was radioactive.
But… his eyes drifted back toward it a few seconds later.
"...I mean, it's not like I have anything else to do tonight and... and tomorrow is the weekend. "
And with that, his thumb hovered over the "Start Reading" button.
Click.
[Chapter 1: The Omega's First Heat Under the Moonlight]
Souta blinked. "…Excuse me?"
Five lines in, someone was already moaning under a velvet canopy while the Alpha "growled possessively" and sniffed her neck like a truffle pig in heat.
"WHAT IN THE BIOLOGICAL NONSENSE IS THIS?!"
But he kept reading.
And reading.
And reading.
"Wait—why is he licking her scent glands? Is this legal?!"
He turned the page.
"Wait, didn't she hate him five paragraphs ago?! Now she's WHAT?"
Another page.
"I'm not judging, but—okay, maybe I am judging."
Another page.
At some point, his ramen went cold. His back hurt. His eyes were dry. But his soul? Absolutely corrupted.
By Chapter 20, he was clutching his phone like it was oxygen.
By Chapter 55, he was questioning every science class he'd ever taken.
And by Chapter 90…
He was lying face-down on his bed, muttering into his pillow, "I think I need holy water. And a therapist. Maybe both."
Aya's message pinged again:"Did you read?"
He didn't reply.
Because he was already scrolling to Chapter 91.
***
It was late now. The neon signs from the convenience store flickered in the distance as Souta trudged out, phone still glued to his hand. His eyes were bloodshot, his mind a chaotic swirl of alpha, omega, heat, ruts, and scent glands—whatever those were supposed to mean.
He muttered under his breath, shaking his head in disbelief.
"I can't believe I spent the whole weekend without sleep... binge-reading some Alpha-Omega romance novel... What kind of sick... biological madness is this?!"
He unlocked his phone again, almost automatically.
"Alright, it's the last chapter. Let's just get it over with," he muttered, tapping the screen.
But he never finished reading.
Just as his finger hovered over the final page, the last thing he heard was the loud HONK of a truck's horn, followed by—
BANG.
And then darkness.