#my foray into exo a/b/o finally happens doesnt it

[sophluorescentmusing]

TANGERINE!

Junmyeon’s sat through seven chemistry interviews—each with a neutral party present (their lead manager) to ensure that reactions remained subdued. An idol group will always have growing pains, but the company takes extra care when it begins to mix secondary-presentations into all the other considerations. EXO will not be too extraordinary; only four of the members have a secondary presentation. But, they are the first in the company to mix between all three presentations: alpha, beta, and omega.

He twists the ring encircling his thumb. It’s a chunky metal, and he likes it because it has a faint weight to it. Junmyeon would not say it aloud, but the ring helps to ground him. It helps him feel centered in his body, in himself. And he needs centering right now. 

He’s met the beta of the group—Zhang Yixing. 

He’s met the omega of the group—Oh Sehun.

He had not known there would be another alpha besides himself.

The door opens. 

Noh Yongmin slips through the crack in the door, and though he has never had a scent other than the very human smell of clean laundry, or the amalgamation of scents acquired from riding the train system, as he takes a seat he brings with him a new scent. 

Tangerine: a bright, citrus-sour, teasing scent. 

“Baekhyun’s waiting outside. Are you ready to meet him?” Yongmin asks. He’s prodding Junmyeon to give him the reality: are his hackles rising at the scent of another alpha (a strong scent at that)? Or, is he capable of remaining pleasant? Junmyeon’s never been the sort of alpha to get into it with others. He’s mild-mannered, keeps to himself just enough to avoid any misunderstandings. The scent of the stranger—of this Baekhyun—behind the door arouses nothing more than curiosity (bright and simple). 

“Is he ready to meet me?” Junmyeon quips, smiling with the corner of his mouth. He folds his hands over his lap and hides his fidgeting fingers. Without any further preamble, Yongmin calls to the closed door and a beat later, it is being opened.

The scent is far stronger when Baekhyun steps into the room. It might be his gait (slightly awkward in manner, but oh so confident); it might be his expression (cocky, self-assured), but Junmyeon’s hit with the startling, and undeniable realization that Baekhyun is the best thing that could have happened for a group like theirs. He’s what Junmyeon’s been missing in all the previous groups they tried composing around him. Junmyeon sees someone who is going to will himself success one way or another, and he’ll drag everyone attached to his name up into the echelons of fame with him. That’s good to have in an idol group. Loyalty. 

“Kim Junmyeon~” He introduces himself with a slight bow of his head. “EXO’s leader.” 

“If EXO makes it to debut,” Baekhyun quips. He takes a seat—doesn’t sit in the chair straight on; instead he sits crooked, with his legs straddling the corner of the seat and stretching out under the desk comfortably, possessively. “Byun Baekhyun. EXO’s something,” he continues, mirroring Junmyeon’s own introduction. 

His eyes are dark—they don’t have that characteristic alpha glint to them, but they most certainly have a glint of mischief, of calculation. Baekhyun doesn’t feel dangerous, but he feels enigmatic, chimerical. Junmyeon has the distinct sense that this man does not show his real face, his real expression, to a stranger. Again, Junmyeon thinks that this is a man made for fame.

Baekhyun clears his throat: “No raised hackles?”

Junmyeon shakes his head. “You?” 

“I’m scent-blind; they’re never raised.” 

Oh. That explains it all. Why Baekhyun’s pumping out pheromones strong enough for a beta to scent them easily. Why he seems so relaxed in the face of Junmyeon’s own scent. Why the company even bothered to give a group with two alphas a shot. Junmyeon’s surprise shows on his face, because Baekhyun grins (bashful-not quite) and huffs out something of a laugh: “Solves a lot of problems, doesn’t it?”

“I’m sure it creates others.” Junmyeon’s practical enough to think ahead.