Pretending to Be an Alpha in an All-Alpha Boy Band - Chapter 24
Chapter 24 Cruise
Sunlight slipped through the gap in the curtains, casting mottled light and shadow on the floor.
The pink-haired Alpha lay on his stomach, sleeping soundly, a long plush toy tucked between his legs. His clothes were rumpled, the blanket twisted around his waist, faintly outlining a narrow waistline.
Yuan Shize didn’t expect Yuan Shiyuan to still be asleep when he pushed the door open.
He walked into the room on tiptoe, squatted at the edge of the bed, and let his fingertips hover over Yuan Shiyuan’s head, barely brushing the smooth pink hair.
A faint scent wafted into his nostrils.
It was very fragrant.
This aroma was stronger than he remembered, coupled with a natural, instinctive pull.
Yuan Shize thought perhaps it was because Shiyuan was about to go through a shift (heat), that he was letting his imagination run wild.
He stared at Yuan Shiyuan’s sleeping face, so engrossed that when Yuan Shiyuan suddenly turned toward him, he froze.
Yuan Shiyuan rolled over abruptly, kicking the plush toy to the foot of the bed. Mistaking Yuan Shize’s hand for the toy, he groggily clenched his wrist. His cheek, flushed from sleep, rested in the palm; finding the warm plush more comfortable, he slowly rubbed his face against the hand.
Yuan Shize kept his arm stiff, not daring to move.
He watched Yuan Shiyuan’s long lashes and breathed in the scent on him…
Suddenly Yuan Shize regretted taking time off school in earlier years.
He was just over a year younger than Yuan Shiyuan, but because he had been bullied in the welfare institute and then abandoned by his first adoptive family, he had long struggled psychologically.
Yuan Xing believed a child’s mental health mattered more than academics, so she arranged for him to take a leave of absence. Father Yuan also took special leave to travel with him, help him unwind, and wait until he was ready to open up to the family.
It was during that time he learned to cook.
The married couple bought a house in the school district so the children could go to school nearby. Yuan Shize’s happiest moments each day were finishing cooking and then picking his older brother up from school. Or he would perch on the windowsill watching the playground ahead, scanning the crowd for a chance their eyes might meet.
“When did you get here?”
The face in his palm lifted slightly, then rested back down. Yuan Shiyuan wasn’t fully awake; after murmuring something, half asleep and half awake, he tried to get up.
“Don’t move, bro,” Yuan Shize said. “I’ll help you up.”
Half supporting him, half holding him by the waist, Yuan Shize took Yuan Shiyuan to the bathroom to wash up.
Helping Yuan Shiyuan was something Yuan Shize had done countless times.
He knew how to wash him clean when his brother was unconscious and what positions would be most comfortable for him.
After washing up, Yuan Shiyuan was about awake. He lay on the sofa with his feet naturally resting on Yuan Shize’s legs, letting him put on his socks.
He scrolled his phone.
[Group Chat: Scepter Family Group]
Zhuang He: Thanks for your hard work lately, everyone! Let’s have a meal together this afternoon. Meet at the company at six. [grimace]
A message sent at eight in the morning—now it was one in the afternoon—and no one had replied.
Yuan Shiyuan couldn’t help smiling.
These S-rank Alphas really had no sense of giving face.
Yuan Shiyuan: Got it. [salute]
Soon the other S-rank Alphas replied one after another.
Bo Jin: 1
Jiang Heng: .
Pei Yanbing: Okay.
Ying Mingxi: Received.
Ying Mingche: [salute]
“When aren’t you going to the base or school today?” Yuan Shiyuan nudged Yuan Shize’s hand with his toes.
Yuan Shize grabbed his foot back and said, “I took half a day off. I’ll go back tonight.”
“Perfect, I’m going to the company tonight too,” Yuan Shiyuan said matter-of-factly. “You help me pack.”
Yuan Shize finished making lunch and immediately helped Yuan Shiyuan pack his backpack.
He put some disposable items into the bag—things like disposable underwear.
Normally Yuan Shiyuan didn’t do housework at home; Yuan Shize had always been the one to wash his socks and underwear, from childhood through to now.
The company certainly wouldn’t provide a live-in helper for their artists, right? At most they’d provide a washing machine.
Even if there were a helper, Yuan Shize didn’t trust anyone else with Yuan Shiyuan’s clothes, and he was even less comfortable with Yuan Shiyuan putting intimate garments in a shared machine. So he’d bought a lot of disposable supplies.
After making sure the daily necessities were all packed, Yuan Shize didn’t forget to clip a pink bow onto the little plush keychain.
When the time was about right, Yuan Shiyuan slung the backpack over his shoulders without feeling the need to check it. “I’m heading back to the dorm. You should go back early too.”
“Come here, give me a hug.” Yuan Shiyuan spread his arms toward Yuan Shize; a wide, warm embrace descended, and he held him tightly.
Before leaving, Yuan Shiyuan reached out to touch his piano, hummed a cheerful tune, and snapped a photo to post on his social feed.
Caption: From Xiao Ze. [proud]
“Who’s Xiao Ze?”
Just as Yuan Shiyuan reached the company gates—he hadn’t even fully seen the other person’s face—he felt a fierce gust of wind slam him against the door.
The glass reflected two figures. When he looked up, he saw Ying Mingche’s face twisted with anger, hurt, and a touch of disbelief.
“Why do you smell like an Omega?” Ying Mingche, like a husband returning from a business trip suspecting his wife of infidelity, kept sniffing at Yuan Shiyuan. “What did you do? Are you dating someone?!”
“Do you know our contract forbids dating Omegas!” he added. “Betas aren’t allowed either.”
Why only Omegas and Betas—what about Alphas?
Yuan Shiyuan found himself puzzled. What was Ying Mingche doing? Launching into a barrage of accusations, suspecting him of dating?
“Xiao Ze is my brother.” He’d barely pushed Ying Mingche away a little when Ying Mingche pressed back in closer. Yuan Shiyuan gave up. “Don’t release pheromones around me.”
“You allow Omegas to put pheromones on you but you won’t let me?” Ying Mingche ground his teeth. “That’s unfair!”
Yuan Shiyuan: “When I was on the subway, an Omega suddenly went into heat. The pheromones on me were probably transferred then.”
Ying Mingche’s expression softened. “Really? You weren’t secretly meeting an Omega behind my back?”
“Xiao Ze really is your brother?” he asked to be sure. “Like brothers—me and my brother—not that kind of ‘little brother,’ right?”
On his day off, Ying Mingche hadn’t been idle—he’d scoured Yuan Shiyuan’s forum profile and read popular fanfics circulating in that circle.
In those fanfics, Yuan Shiyuan’s role varied between being an older brother and a younger brother; the only constant was that whether he was the younger or the older, he was unsafe—always the object of someone’s desire.
A popular trope among them was the younger-brother pairing.
“Obviously—what other kind of brother could he be?” Yuan Shiyuan shot back, speechless. He grabbed Ying Mingche’s collar and tugged down. “Smell again. Is Omega pheromone on me that obvious?”
Yuan Shiyuan sniffed carefully and could only faintly detect a trace of pheromone. He’d been some distance from the carriage where the Omega had gone into heat, so even if he’d accidentally brushed against them, the amount should be small.
Was Ying Mingche a bloodhound? He could smell that?
Caught off guard, Ying Mingche’s face was nearly flushed against the side of Yuan Shiyuan’s neck. He looked at the close-up of the pale skin; his Adam’s apple moved for a moment.
“It’s obvious.” He took a deep sniff, and the pleasure made his eyes narrow slightly.
Then Ying Mingche, his face full of rapture, buried his face in it.
Unfortunately, Yuan Shiyuan didn’t indulge—he grabbed Ying Mingche’s hair and mercilessly pulled his head away.
“If it’s that obvious, I’ll go back and spray some pheromone neutralizer,” he said. “I’m going back to the dorm first.”
It wasn’t appropriate for an Alpha to have Omega pheromones on him. When Yuan Shiyuan returned to the dorm, it was empty. He rummaged through drawers looking for the neutralizer.
Where had he put it last time?
Yuan Shiyuan searched the wardrobe and, the moment he opened the door, froze like a statue.
The once-empty wardrobe was now packed with all kinds of summer clothes!
Turning on the light, he noticed gift boxes scattered on the floor, ribbons still intact—clearly never opened.
What’s going on? Had Bo Jin gone on a shopping spree? Bought this many clothes?
But even if he bought a lot, he couldn’t have used up his wardrobe space, could he?
Yuan Shiyuan checked his backpack—he didn’t have many private clothes; most of the time he wore the company’s garments. With that in mind, if Bo Jin wanted to use his wardrobe, fine.
When he needed the space, Bo Jin could clear it out then.
Yuan Shiyuan found the pheromone neutralizer in the corner of the wardrobe. Just as he sat down on the bed and was about to unwrap it, his expression suddenly grew somewhat uneasy.
He stared ahead, his brows knitting seriously, then he lightly rubbed his leg.
Wasn’t Yuan Shize the one who’d applied anti-itch ointment for him last night?
So why did it still itch?
Yuan Shize wouldn’t have been lazy—maybe he hadn’t used enough.
Alone in the dorm, Yuan Shiyuan separated his knees and used his phone’s flashlight to inspect the irritated area.
It looked normal, just a little reddened. But he’d just come back from outside; some redness was expected.
For some reason he couldn’t explain, Yuan Shiyuan suddenly reached out and rubbed the irritated spot.
He didn’t go gently—the force landed, without any cushioning, on the fragile, allergic skin. He flinched like a startled animal; his spine tightened like a bowstring, and he couldn’t help but fall face-first onto the bed. When his nose brushed the bedding he let out a very soft sound.
Under the messy curtain of pink bangs were a pair of tear-wet, bewildered eyes.
So strange.
Yuan Shiyuan was completely bewildered—this was a feeling the eighteen-year-old little novice had never experienced before.
He turned over in a daze and stared blankly at the ceiling.
Tears welled at the corners of his eyes, glistening mistily. He widened his eyes slightly and stared off into nothingness.
Bo Jin came back and immediately saw this expression.
“Still not awake?” He had just closed the door when the Alpha’s instincts caught the trace of Omega scent.
The smell was faint, but it curled up in threads—it was coming from Yuan Shiyuan.
Bo Jin’s gaze hardened. “Why do you smell like—”
“Like Omega pheromones?” Yuan Shiyuan propped himself up with his hands at his sides and slowly sat up, one leg naturally bending.
“Just now Ying Mingche said the same thing—that Omega pheromones were obvious on me. I must have brushed against someone.” He explained the sequence of events.
Bo Jin was skeptical. “You mean you picked it up from another Omega?”
Yuan Shiyuan: “Or could it be mine?”
“That’s not it,” Bo Jin said. “You’re an Alpha—there’s no way you’d be secreting Omega pheromones.”
“Besides, your gland scent doesn’t smell like this.” He glanced instinctively at Yuan Shiyuan’s gland.
That was the place Bo Jin had buried his face in before; he knew it well and knew what it smelled like. It was indeed pleasant, but different from the current scent—not as sweet.
He glanced down as if almost not noticing.
As one leg naturally lifted, his shorts rode up and folded, casting a shadow.
Maybe it was Bo Jin’s imagination, but he kept feeling that this fragrance—
—was coming from there.
After Yuan Shiyuan sprayed the pheromone neutralizer, he grabbed his shoulder bag.
“Is it heavy?” Bo Jin walked over. “I’ll carry it.”
“No need.” Yuan Shiyuan said oddly, “I’m not your wife; you don’t have to carry my bag for me.”
Bo Jin: “……”
Yuan Shiyuan patted his shoulder. “Come on, let’s head to the meeting point. Brother Zhuang’s been urging us.”
When the two reached the gathering spot, the rest of the team had mostly assembled.
As Yuan Shiyuan walked, the strap of his sling bag slid down to his elbow, and the pale forearm brushed into a faint red.
He waved to greet his teammates, and the charm dangling from his backpack swung along.
Jiang Heng’s pupils widened in surprise. He stared fixedly at Yuan Shiyuan and was about to speak when Yuan Shiyuan said,
“Do I have Omega pheromones on me?”
Jiang Heng fell silent.
That wasn’t what he wanted to ask.
Ying Mingxi said softly, “There really are, Shiyuan.”
Yuan Shiyuan had already told the group twice about the subway incident. Now that everyone was present, he recounted it once more.
“There was an Omega in heat in the subway car, and their pheromones accidentally rubbed off on me.”
Yuan Shiyuan added in puzzlement, “But I sprayed a lot of neutralizer—how can you still smell it?”
“Could it be because that person is a very high rank?”
The Alphas were quiet.
The scent had been like a flash—gone in an instant; it was hard for them to catch now. Yet they had to admit that in that brief moment when they smelled it on Yuan Shiyuan, they had involuntarily experienced a suppressed feeling of submission.
“What’s with your faces? Were you affected?” Yuan Shiyuan asked. “It can’t be that bad—you’re S-rank.”
Same as him—S-rank.
Ying Mingxi: “Affected, no… not exactly.”
“Are you feeling uncomfortable? I can take a separate car.”
“No need.”
The suppressed submissive feeling lasted only a moment.
Still, at the thought that another’s scent lingered on Yuan Shiyuan, they did feel uneasy and even had the ridiculous impulse to replace it with their own pheromones.
An Alpha wanting to leave his scent on another Alpha—wasn’t that absurd?
–
When the ship reached the port, the sky had not yet darkened.
A huge cruise liner lay on the sparkling water like a sleeping beast.
White-gloved stewards greeted them with smiles as they boarded.
“A dinner on the cruise?” Yuan Shiyuan said. “Brother Zhuang is really generous.”
Pei Yanbing: “Something’s off.”
Pei, who had been walking at the front, unexpectedly stopped. Yuan Shiyuan, walking behind, didn’t brake in time and almost collided forward.
Two large hands pressed down on Yuan Shiyuan’s shoulders from left and right; he wrapped his arms tightly around Pei Yanbing’s waist and only then managed to steady himself.
He clearly felt Pei Yanbing’s body tense and quickly released his hold. “Sorry, captain.”
He turned his head and smiled at Jiang Heng and Bo Jin in thanks, then asked quietly, “What do you mean by ‘off’?”
“There are cameras filming us,” Pei Yanbing said.
Yuan Shiyuan looked around; everything seemed like ordinary tourists and staff.
But… even if their images were blurred, only relatively speaking, among the crowd they were still easily recognizable to fans.
Would Zhuang He really invite them to dine in such a public place?
Ying Mingche: “Could it be our imagination?”
Ying Mingxi thought for a moment and shook his head. “The captain is very sensitive to cameras…”
He casually scanned the nearby tourists and said, “And the tourists’ reactions are too calm—that’s actually abnormal.”
“There you are at last!” At the outdoor restaurant ahead, Zhuang He walked over smiling. “Come on, come on, hurry and sit down. I’ve already ordered the food—take a look and tell me if you want to add anything.”
“This is the menu.”
After sitting down, Yuan Shiyuan watched the surroundings warily.
“Looking for something?”
“Looking for cameras.”
Yuan Shiyuan asked directly, “Brother Zhuang, is this just a meal today? There aren’t any hidden cameras, right?”
Zhuang He laughed heartily and took a sip of his drink. “How could there be? If there were any filming, I would’ve told you in advance. I called you all here purely for a get-together, to reward you for your hard work. Come on, don’t just stand there—start eating.”
“Youngest Shiyuan should eat more,” he said, looking at Yuan Shiyuan with affectionate eyes. “You must be hungry, right?”
His over-friendly manner, however, only made him seem suspicious.
Yuan Shiyuan obliged and picked up his chopsticks—there was no reason not to; it was mealtime.
He was very hungry.
Rather than worry endlessly, it was better to enjoy a good meal now. If something happened later, it would be later’s problem.
Yuan Shiyuan picked up a prepared soft-boiled deluxe shrimp; the roe flowed down the chopsticks like molten gold.
He ate politely; the melt-in-your-mouth delight made him little hop on his toes and lift his lashes in bliss.
The other Alphas at the table also began to eat.
The cruise ship glided on, its stern propellers churning the water. In places they didn’t notice, tiny live-stream cameras dotted every corner of the cabin, their faint red lights flickering almost imperceptibly.