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Donghyuck hasn’t been to a race in the Dream District in years—not since he moved down into Neo City. It wouldn’t necessarily be wise for him to do so, god forbid something recognizes him as a member of Taeyong’s crew. Not really that they would, because Donghyuck is kind of a hidden member, which is what happens when you’re the only beta member of an alpha gang…

Alright, moving on. He navigates through the crowd, looking for a somewhat friendly looking face to ask a question. Most of these people are rough looking alphas, and it’s not like Donghyuck is scared of alphas, because he’s not, but he’s interested in talking to someone who won’t tell him to fuck off before he can get a sentence out.

And Donghyuck finds that person when he sees a head of pink hair standing out against the crowd. He decides that they’ll be a good choice, mainly because once the guy turns around and they make eye contact, the person’s eyes remain soft, as if they’re inviting Donghyuck to come and speak to them.

“Hey,” Donghyuck says, approaching the guy. The man smiles softly.

“Hi.” 

Donghyuck’s eyes rake down his body, taking in the man’s full appearance. The main thing that catches his attention is the ink peeking out from under his shirt, what looks like a rose with red writing next to the stem. He can’t really make out what it says, but maybe that’s a sign for him to mind his business.

“Is Minhyung here tonight?” The real reason Donghyuck even dared to show his face around here. 

He has a job, which is to infiltrate Lee Minhyung’s crew, and then kill him.

“Why? You know him?” The man asks.

“Not really, but I’m interested in doing business with him.”

The guy cocks his head to the side, before leaning into Donghyuck, sticking his nose into the crook of his neck. Donghyuck takes this as an invitation to sniff him back, softly resting a hand on his waist as he’s pulling away, before sniffing the stranger’s neck. He smells like milk candy, and sweet scents more often than not mean omega.

“You’re a beta,” the omega says.

“I am,” Donghyuck confirms.

“Minhyung doesn’t like to work with betas. He says your weakened scents make it harder to tell when you’re being deceptive.”

Yes, exactly. That’s exactly why Donghyuck was chosen to do this.

“Not my fault that I couldn’t choose how I was born.” Donghyuck shrugs. “I would’ve been an alpha if I had the choice.”

“Why not an omega?” 

Donghyuck shrugs. He won’t answer, because he doesn’t want to offend him. The real reason that he wouldn’t want to be an omega is because he honestly doesn’t like being told what to do, and the thought of an entire secondary gender being able to command him into doing stuff just unsettles him. Also, because mating cycles seem hard enough, and even the pre-rut and pre-heat seem terrible. Especially pre-heat, because imagine having slick dripping out of your ass all day and still being expected to work. 

He shudders at the thought. 

“Because–” He draws out the word, tapping the omega’s nose, because his motto is, ‘When in doubt, just flirt.’ “They’re so cute that I’d rather be with them instead.”

The omega scrunches his nose cutely. “Forward, are we?”

Donghyuck’s about to respond, until he looks down to the omega’s neck and realizes that there’s a pretty obvious mating bite.

Oops.

Donghyuck draws his hand away from the omega’s waist. “Sorry…”

Of course he’d flirt with a mated omega. 

“It’s fine.” The guy laughs him off. “I see Minhyung’s bike coming this way.”

And indeed, a bike parks just a few feet away. The person hops off their motorcycle and then takes off their helmet, and Donghyuck immediately recognizes that face, having seen it in many snapshots of blurry security footage before. 

Lee Minhyung himself. 

He approaches the two of them, looking at Donghyuck suspiciously. That part makes sense once he wraps his arm around the omega’s waist, and then pulls him in for a kiss. 

Wow. Donghyuck not only flirted with a mated omega, but with Lee Minhyung’s omega. He certainly knows how to pick ‘em.

“Who’s this?” He asks the omega.

“He said that he wants to work with you. He’s a beta, by the way.”

The last part seems to displease Minhyung, and it’s not like Donghyuck expected Lee Minhyung of all people to be a stand up guy, but in his book it’s okay to be an immoral biker gang leader; what’s not okay is being discriminatory in this here day and age!  

“I don’t work with betas.” Minhyung doesn’t even spare Donghyuck a second glance as he hands his omega his helmet.

“Trust me, you’ll wanna work with me.” Donghyuck doesn’t mean to toot his own horn, but he has something that a lot of people in their sector would want. “I have a connection to Lee Jeno.”

Lee Jeno, the biggest brick supplier in their neck of the woods. 

“Really?” Just as Donghyuck suspected, this gets Minhyung’s attention. “How?”

“We go way back.” Donghyuck and Jeno have known each other since they were in diapers, and coincidentally have gone down similar paths in life. 

“Who are you?” 

“My name’s Donghyuck.”

“Never heard of you.”

“I would hope not.” Donghyuck chuckles. If he had, then that’d be a big, big, issue. “I’ve never done anything to be on your radar.”

Minhyung looks at his omega, who just looks back at him. He then turns to Donghyuck again. 

“What do you want in return?” Minhyung asks. 

Donghyuck shrugs. “Not much, I just want in.”

Minhyung looks at his omega again, who just shrugs. Donghyuck has to stop himself from laughing. Yeah, this is Lee Minhyung’s gang, but he’s making it pretty obvious who’s really calling the shots around here. 

“Alright,” Minhyung answers. “We can arrange that.”

How easy! Donghyuck would say that he has to thank Jeno the next time that he sees him, but he technically already did thank him. He got him some good business! It shouldn’t last very long, but he got it for him! Some money is better than no money.

“Meet me here at some time tomorrow.” Minhyung hands him a business card, and when he looks at the thing, he realizes that it’s a strip club. “You should also start packing.” 

Start packing? “Why?”

“You’re gonna be on a probationary period, which means that I need to keep my eye on you.”

“What?”

“You’re gonna stay with me.”

Donghyuck is at a loss for words. He’s never heard of any gang leader making the new recruits move in with them. Why would you even want a virtual stranger in your house? Well, at least this may make Donghyuck’s job easier. He can just kill Minhyung in his bed or something instead of making some elaborate plan. 

“You live in a mansion or something?” Donghyuck jokes. “Lodging strangers.”

Minhyung just shrugs. “Something like it.”

Minhyung looks down on his watch, before sticking his finger through his omega’s belt loop. 

“We have to go. Show up to that location with your belongings tomorrow evening. We don’t open until seven.” Minhyung turns around, walking off. 

The omega smiles at Donghyuck one last time, before being dragged off by his partner. 

“Interesting…” Donghyuck whispers to himself, looking down at the business card. “Kitty Kat’s Gentlemen’s Club.”

Donghyuck stuffs the card into his pocket once he returns to his bike, grabbing his helmet and placing it on his head. 

✢

“Is he giving you a hard time?” A familiar voice says from behind Donghyuck. 

Donghyuck rubs his forehead, sick of explaining to this bouncer why he’s bringing all these bags into the club. He swears that he’s been trying for the past thirty minutes, but this dude is just not hearing him. 

“You know him?” The bouncer asks. 

“Yeah, he’s mine.” Minhyung’s omega loops his arm with Donghyuck’s. 

“Oh, apologies then.” The bouncer moves to the side, allowing both to come through. Donghyuck picks up his bags, following the omega into the building. 

“Sorry, he’s just kind of protective,” the omega chuckles. The place looks pretty nice, and it’s a full house. This club probably makes bank despite likely just being a gang front. “You wouldn’t believe how many shady people come in here trying to start shootouts.”

Oh, Donghyuck could believe that. Minhyung isn’t exactly well liked. 

“You can leave your stuff in here for now.” The omega unlocks a door, leading them into an office. “Minhyung isn’t here yet, so for the meantime, you can either just enjoy the club, or you can hang around with me.”

Donghyuck takes a moment to think about it. Watch hot omegas dance on stage, or hang out with the cute omega in front of him? Both are compelling. 

Donghyuck should be saving money, and the worst thing that you can be in a strip club is broke. 

“I’ll stick around with you, if that’s alright.” 

The omega then grabs his wrist. “Alright, come with me then.”

This is when Donghyuck finally realizes that he’s just been calling this guy ‘the omega’ since yesterday, which is actually kind of rude. 

“You have a name, baby?” He asks. And the baby isn’t him flirting—it’s just a term of endearment. 

“I’m Chenle.”

The omega, now identified as Chenle, brings him to the kitchen, which surprises Donghyuck, because what strip club has an entire kitchen? Like, this is literally a restaurant sized kitchen. Seems kind of efficient, though. 

“Hungry?” Chenle asks, grabbing an apron and rummaging through the fridge. Donghyuck feels kind of awkward just standing in the middle of this fully staffed kitchen, but none of the cooks bother him, seemingly because he has the Chenle stamp of approval to be there. 

“Uh, sure?” Donghyuck answers, more like a question. 

Chenle grabs a bowl of what looks like seasoned chicken, and then brings it over to the fryer. 

Donghyuck still feels awkward as hell just standing around, so he follows behind Chenle, just watching him as he coats the chicken wings in flour and drops them in the frying basket. 

“You work in the kitchen?” Donghyuck asks. 

“I do anything I feel like doing.” Chenle shrugs. “Sometimes I cook, sometimes I bartend, sometimes I do nothing. It’s my club, after all.” 

“You own the place, yet you choose to work?” If Donghyuck owned a successful club, he’d be drinking up all of the liquor and eating all of the food! Okay, just kidding, but he wouldn’t actively be working if he didn’t have to. 

“I get bored. Minhyung handles business most evenings, and I get lonely at the house.” 

Donghyuck suddenly starts to feel really guilty. He’s supposed to kill Minhyung and leave this sweet omega all alone? Maybe his secondary plan can be to help Chenle see the light in betas! Make him fall in love with Donghyuck, then kill off Minhyung, and then the two of them can live happily ever after!

Okay, Donghyuck is dreaming too big. Especially for a guy that he met a day ago.

Chenle drops the basket of chicken into the oil, and then heads over to the sink and washes his hands. 

“I’m sorry,” Donghyuck apologizes. Chenle shrugs, shaking his hands as a means to dry them off, and then going to stand by the fryer again. 

“Don’t apologize, you didn’t say anything worth apologizing for.” 

He didn’t, but he just felt compelled to. 

“So, how’d you end up here?” Chenle asks. “What’s your story? How did you end up wanting to associate with the likes of Minhyung?”

So, it looks like Donghyuck has to lie, which is okay, because he prepared for this. 

“I’ve always been kind of a floater,” he answers nonchalantly. “Place to place, home to home. But I guess I wanted something a bit more permanent, and I knew that because I had a connection with Jeno, I could get in good with any gang, so why Minhyung? He’s the best, isn’t he?”

Donghyuck is kissing Minhyung’s ass so much, but it’s whatever. 

“I see.” Chenle’s expression is hard to read. It’s like positively neutral? Like he’s not really smiling, his face is just normal, but his lips are kinda upturned? Well, downturned, but it’s just because Chenle has a downturned smile. 

Whatever, Donghyuck will just assume that he’s buying the shit that he’s saying. 

“How about you? How did you meet Minhyung? Were you always involved in this lifestyle?”

Chenle laughs. “I met Minhyung while I was working one night. And I guess that I kind of was before I met him.”

“Nice,” Donghyuck says. He kind of wants to ask what Chenle was working as, but since he didn’t offer up that information, maybe it’s just none of his business. “What about racing? Do you race?”

Chenle immediately shakes his head. “Hell no. Do you?”

Donghyuck hasn’t raced in a while, but his incessant need to put on a cool guy act tells him to lie. And he’s been lying his ass off since he’s met Chenle, so what’s the point in telling the truth anymore?

“Yeah, I race.”

Chenle raises an eyebrow, as if he’s skeptical, which confuses Donghyuck, because what reason does he have to be skeptical!

“You should race next Friday, then,” Chenle says, walking back over to the deep fryer and checking on the chicken. “Maybe you can race against Minhyung—think you can go faster than him?”

Donghyuck doubts that he can. 

“I definitely could.”

“So you’ll race him next week?” 

Donghyuck isn’t even an alpha, but his alpha pride is telling him to show off for this omega. 

“I will.” They’ll probably forget by next week, or maybe he’ll race for the first time in like two years and be faster than Minhyung. They’ll see once the time comes. 

“I hold you to that.” A timer goes off, and Chenle grabs two paper bowls, before lifting the basket out of the fryer and letting the oil drain. “We can make a bet. What do you want if you beat Minhyung?”

Well, his life is what Donghyuck is really after, but he can’t tell Chenle that. “Money, I guess.”

“How much?” 

Chenle is asking too many questions. 

“However much he’s willing to give up.”

“Minhyung has a lot of money, you should ask for a lot.” 

Note taken. Donghyuck doesn’t really consider himself a thief, but once he gets rid of Minhyung, maybe he can snag a little extra pocket change, you know?

Chenle hands Donghyuck a bowl. “Dinner’s served! Do you want something to drink? Beer is always good with chicken.”

And so Chenle and Donghyuck end up back inside the office, sipping beer and eating chicken wings. Donghyuck’s able to milk a bit more information about Minhyung from the omega. A lot of it is sort of unnecessary for Donghyuck’s cause, but he just wanted to know it. Like he learns that Minhyung is twenty-six, which is way older than he originally thought. He doesn’t know why he was under the impression that Minhyung was younger than him, like around twenty-one, but he knows that’s not true now. He also learns that Minhyung is allergic to pine nuts, which seems like a niche allergy, but can actually be useful information. Maybe if he doesn’t want to kill Minhyung standard execution style, he can just feed him some pine nuts and say that it was an accident. 

And maybe Chenle won’t hate him that way. 

Okay, Donghyuck might once again be aiming just a bit too high for an omega he met like a day ago. 

“Oh, you’re both here.” Minhyung walks in, his helmet in his hand, which Donghyuck finds a little showy, because he could’ve just left it with his bike. 

“Where else would we be?” Minhyung walks over and hands Chenle the helmet, which Donghyuck finds even more extra. He has hands! He can hold it himself!

“I dunno.” He drops down into the chair next to Chenle, huffing and puffing like he just ran a marathon. “What are you guys up to?”

“We were about to kiss–”

“Woah!” Donghyuck holds a hand up, stopping Chenle mid-sentence. “Don’t say that!” Minhyung might shoot him in the head and throw him into the river!

Minhyung chuckles, shooting him a weirded out look. “Relax man, I can take a joke.”

And Donghyuck, like the sassy little beta he is, rolls his eyes. “And how was I supposed to know that?”

“You think I’m a total square?” Now Minhyung is beginning to seem offended. “You don’t even know me!”

“Exactly!” Donghyuck thinks that he might be stupid—starting an argument with the guy he was afraid would see him in an antagonistic light just a couple of seconds ago. “Whatever, man.”

“Can you two stop it?” Chenle moans. “Don’t you guys want to work together?”

“Yeah,” Minhyung says. “Nothing’s wrong though, I was just saying.” He looks at Donghyuck’s bags in the corner. “Is that all your stuff?”

Donghyuck nods. “Yeah, that’s it.” He left most of his things back at home. This mission isn’t meant to take more than a couple of weeks, so he didn’t think that he needed his entire wardrobe.

“I guess we can go, then.” Minhyung stands up. “You and Chenle can take the car; I’ll ride my bike.”

Chenle smiles, grabbing both of their hands and guiding them out of the room. “I’m excited!”

His words fill Donghyuck with a bit of pride. The cute omega is excited for him to live with them!

“Chenle’s fascinated by betas,” Minhyung says. 

“I am.” The omega squeezes