The Spicy Omega
Translator: hasr11
Editor: Shard, Katnip
Read at Watashi wa Sugoi Desu!
Chapter 5 (Karasawa POV) [R-15]
I sat down at the desk in my room and flipped through the textbook, penning notes down in my notebook. In school, I needed to work twice as hard to physically keep up with Betas. When it came to the exams, it took even more effort than physical exercise usually did when I was preoccupied. More than once, I was told to take it easy and aim lower with my first-choice school. Even if others opposed it, even if they worried, I still wanted to attempt to get into my first-choice school, no matter what. If I had to go out into society as an Omega, I would be less likely to have trouble as an educated Omega. At the moment, I felt like I didn’t have enough experience to live how I wanted to without someone else taking care of me and to stand on my own.
When it was almost midnight, I put down my pen and left my desk. My heat, which arrived a few days back, had still not ended. It was lasting longer than usual this time. When the suppressants wore off, there were times like this when my brain became fuzzy and I couldn’t control my body. I decided all I needed to do was sleep and not take additional suppressants, so I cleared off my desk and crawled into bed.
My body felt hot. My insides were throbbing. Although my heat symptoms were usually mild, I was once again reminded that I was an Omega after all. No matter what happened, I would never be a real Beta, and I realised that this act of mine would also eventually reach its limit.
(Let me go to sleep already…)
I didn’t want to deal with the heat building up inside me, so I tried to crawl under the duvet to make it through. At that moment, the faint ring of a message notification alerted me. With my mind still hazy, I grabbed the smartphone on my headboard and brought the screen close to me. There were these two messages.
‘Are you still awake?
Doesn’t this look like Kijima?’
Amami had sent me a message.The short text was accompanied by a photograph of a chicken sporting a sharp expression and a dignified red crest. I let out a chuckle despite myself. Even though the chicken had a cool expression for the camera, its somewhat stupid face oddly reminded me of Kijima. I replied to the message, saying it was funny no matter how you looked at it and then sent a sticker of a character laughing hysterically. Amami immediately read the message and, perhaps he was satisfied with my response as I received a sticker of Amami’s favourite character sleeping in bed. What a self-centered guy. He casually sent a sleeping response as if he hadn’t just woken me up just as I was about to fall asleep. I sent back a sticker saying ‘goodnight’ and put my smartphone back where it had been.
My depressed mood disappeared like it had never existed in the first place. My misery just before his message felt like a lie. Lamenting over my body wouldn’t accomplish anything. I hadn’t had any problems so far, and even if people found out I was an Omega, it was hard to imagine a future in which I, with my unattractive appearance and Beta-like personality, would have someone display unwanted interest in me. I needed to focus on what I could do at present and take it one day at a time.
I had a more pressing concern: the fact that I would be reminded of Kijima every time I looked at a chicken from now on. I chuckled again, remembering the picture, and my consciousness gradually faded.
—My body felt unbearably hot.
When I opened my eyes, there was someone on top of me. I was instinctively terrified of someone much larger than me holding me down, and I tried to flee. Yet, as if to pacify me, the stranger gently kissed me.
(Ahh, if it’s him, I’ll be fine. I’m not scared anymore.)
As his soft lips pressed against mine, strength left my body, and the smouldering heat within me grew unbearable. The man’s face was shrouded in darkness.
(I don’t even know what he looks like, so why do I feel at ease?)
As if trying to let the heat escape, the man’s palm slowly traced my body. Even though I didn’t feel a clear touch, I was surprised by the loud moan that escaped my lips.
(What am I doing…)
My insides felt feverishly hot. I needed to quickly do something about this heat.
I want—an Alpha.
The man nodded at the words I shamelessly said (I couldn’t even see his face, so why did I think that), and something pressed against me in my private place that even I had never touched.
(Stop, I don’t want that. I don’t want an Alpha!)
Contrary to what my mind was screaming, my body greedily sought the man. My beloved and irresistible Alpha. As ‘I’ stretched out my hand to beg for another kiss, the one who accepted me was—
“STOP!!”
I woke up to my loud voice and jumped out of bed. I was sweating all over as if I had just been exercising. My breathing was erratic; my temples throbbed with pain. I was asleep in my own bed in my own room, and I was alone. The clock showed that it was still early and I had hours before my alarm.
(A dream…)
I wrapped my arms around myself involuntarily. My sweat-laden palms felt uncomfortable.
There were Omegas who had heats so severe they could not be treated with suppressants. Those Omegas were said to seek out Alphas at random and, when desperate, even seduce Betas on their own. Up until now, I had only thought of it as someone else’s problem. They were a painful and pitiful existence that I only heard about from others. Even though it had only been a dream, that figure of me taking pleasure in being dominated by an Alpha overlapped with the images of the pitiful Omegas I heard about. I felt sick.
(What a miserable existence. Why is my body like this…!?)
I clasped my arms even tighter, and my knuckles turned white. No matter how hard I tried to lie and pretend to be a Beta, the truth wouldn’t change. My body was reminding me what I should never forget: I exist to be claimed and sexually exploited.
(I will never become like that… I won’t live my life trapped by my secondary gender!)
I despised that the disgust I felt after that nightmare lingered no matter how many times I showered, no matter how much I scrubbed my body in hopes to get rid of it. Naturally, my mood took a dive, and even if I forced myself to think about other things, my mind kept circling back to the nightmare. My heat was finally over. Usually, I would feel refreshed. Instead, all I did was make my parents worry.
“Shinya, it’s fine to skip school if you’re not feeling well.”
“That’s right. Should we go to the hospital?”
“No, absolutely not! My heat is over; I’m just a little sleep-deprived from staying up all night to study.”
“Is that so? You shouldn’t study too hard.”
“Please don’t overdo it.”
My parents took turns in comforting me as I struggled having my breakfast. Both of my parents were Betas. Omegas could also be born to two betas, just like how recessive genes work. My parents did not discriminate against me as an Omega and they weren’t overprotective either. I really was blessed. I hoped to someday stop being a burden, stand on my own two feet, and repay them, all while worrying them as little as possible. I smiled apologetically at them both and got ready for school.
The signs of spring had all but disappeared as the rainy season arrived. The daily rainfall made me feel even more crestfallen. Students on their way to school passed each other with slightly downcast looks on their faces.
I didn’t have much time to study yesterday, and this morning, I couldn’t go for my daily jog because of the rain. On top of that, the dream stayed on my mind. They say “When it rains, it pours,” and it seemed literal with my life. The raindrops dripping off the tip of my umbrella felt heavy. Perhaps because there were a lot of things going on in my head, I couldn’t quite concentrate on the lecture today.
“Sigh…”
“What’s wrong, Karasawa? You seem down.”
Just like always, the three of us sat around the desk and ate lunch. Amami had his usual sugary sweet bread. Kijima bit into a yakisoba sandwich and munched on two convenience store rice balls. Oddly, I hadn’t felt like eating anything since this morning, so I sipped on a small jelly drink. It was advertised as being very filling despite its size.
“Hey, Karasawa, is that enough food?”
“I’m sure you’ll be starving by this afternoon. Do you want me to get you something from the school cafeteria?”
“No, it’s fine. Thanks, Amami. I just have no appetite today.”
Sure enough, when I rested the side of my face on the desk, the two looked at me with concern. The reason was obvious, but I could never tell them. It was pathetic that a stupid dream made me physically ill.
“Hey, Karasawa, you always have mustard with you, right? Can I borrow some?”
A voice called out to me within our loud and crowded classroom. I looked up at the source: one of my classmates, who was holding a hotdog in his hand.
“This hotdog really needs some more mustard.”
“Okay, wait a minute.”
I’ve always kept spicy condiments in the inside pocket of my student bag. I took seasonings out of the fridge at home every morning and brought them with me. Mustard… I should have some. I took out a yellow tube and handed it to my classmate, who froze.
“Isn’t this mayonnaise?”
I hesitated for a moment. “I’m sorry, looks like I mistook the mayonnaise for mustard and brought it with me instead.”
This time, I sank onto the desk. The tube of mayonnaise, which didn’t even resemble mustard, flopped over on its side. Mustard was my favourite spicy flavour, and the mere fact that I’d forgotten it was enough to shock me into thinking that I couldn’t do it anymore. My hotdog-loving classmate laughed and told me not to worry about it. He left, but the two staring at me stayed.
“You’re kidding me. For Karasawa to mess this up… What do you think, Squad Member Amami?”
“This is a serious situation, Captain Kijima.”
“Yeah. We have a serious problem at hand. What do we do, Squad Member Amami?”
“Hmm… Did something really happen?”
The two boys, who had been joking around until halfway through, became impatient since I didn’t move my head off the desk and became serious. I should brush it aside and say that I, too, forgot things sometimes, but I didn’t even have the energy for that.
“I really am a failure…”
My true feelings spilled out, and I really felt like a failure. Above my head, I heard them saying, “It’s serious.”
“Karasawa, if you have a problem, why don’t you talk to us about it? It may not necessarily solve your problem, but sometimes just talking about it might make you feel better.”
“Yeah, yeah, they say three heads are better than one.”
When I turned my head sideways to face them, Kijima had a pacifying smile while Amami had an expression on his face that had “worry” written all over it. I got a bit of my energy back. How nice it would be if I could talk about everything.
(Even though I said I didn’t want to be tied down by my secondary gender, in the end, I was the one most tied up with it, after all.)
The more self-aware I was, the more helplessly stuck I felt. Since I couldn’t talk about my situation directly, perhaps I could confide in my friends in a roundabout way—blur and change the specifics. Tell them it was merely theoretical and nothing else.
“…Then I want to ask you something.”
“Yeah, sure!”
“What?”
“Have you two ever been pursued by an Omega?”
