RCKS 11

12 Years Old Spring

Lee Yoonsan found out the reason why he could no longer meet Hwang Haekyung after he turned 12 years old, in the spring. It was because the manifestation period had also come to Lee Yoonsan, who had become a fifth grader.

“Teacher, my stomach….”

“Oh my, kid! Yoonsan!”

Lee Yoonsan, who had been diligently taking the class, suddenly complained of abdominal pain and collapsed. Lee Yoonsan, who had become a fifth grader this year, now had a build that went beyond chubby, and his height reached 170 cm.

Adults sometimes asked about such Lee Yoonsan’s height whether he had manifested as alpha, but upon seeing Lee Yoonsan’s body type, they quickly closed their mouths.

The child who had grown rapidly was closer to an ugly duckling whose feathers had not yet settled rather than being cute like before. The weight that had gone beyond childhood obesity to severe obesity also played a solid role. In short, it meant that since he had not become handsome like a typical alpha, there was no way he would be alpha no matter how good his development was.

Such Lee Yoonsan had suddenly collapsed during school class. There was no precursor at all, and it was a symptom without any warning. And the cause for a child of this age group collapsing with such symptoms was mostly one thing. Lee Yoonsan lost consciousness while clutching his stomach, and the homeroom teacher, who was an ordinary beta woman, called an ambulance first in the bewildering situation.

From entering the fourth grade of elementary school, transfers become frequent in the majority of schools across the country. It is because it is around that time when the second gender, alpha and omega, starts to manifest.

Alphas and omegas, whose bodies including reproductive organs settle into place and whose sex hormone secretion is rapidly promoted, are usually separated for management and education in immature periods.

Since the majority of the population is beta, as soon as manifestation happens, they transfer to the corresponding school according to the second gender. If manifested as omega, to a school that accepts only betas and omegas, and if manifested as alpha, to a school that accepts only betas and alphas.

It was unavoidable. For the second genders alpha and omega, pheromones exist, and heat cycles caused by that make it inevitable. Since judgment is immature, and the manifestation period is practically the start of puberty, mixing the two genders would easily lead to indiscriminate accidents. Since the level of hormone secretion was on a completely different dimension from the general beta population, separation had to be done in advance.

Lee Yoonsan had also seen classmates transferring in such an environment. All of it had been last year’s events, and all were cases where the secondary gender had manifested and they had to transfer suddenly. Of course, they were not Lee Yoonsan’s friends.

As the years passed, Lee Yoonsan’s confidence had gradually diminished, so he had no friends now. Rather, this year, from the beginning of the semester, there were even kids who openly avoided or teased Lee Yoonsan. That was a very upsetting thing for Lee Yoonsan.

Anyway, because Lee Yoonsan had spent the previous year like that, both Lee Yoonsan and his adoptive parents had expected that the manifestation period would pass without incident. They had hoped that without any manifestation, he would not have to go through a harsh manifestation period due to hormones, and that he would remain an ordinary happy child who did not have to take inhibitors for life to suppress some hormones and control pheromones and heat cycles.

As if mocking such their hopes, Lee Yoonsan’s manifestation period had begun. Lee Yoonsan, who had collapsed complaining of abdominal pain, was immediately taken to the emergency room by the homeroom teacher and paramedics, and there, after receiving examinations from the endocrinology department and the secondary gender medical department that deals with the second gender, he received the notification that he had entered the manifestation period.

Lee Yoonsan had manifested as omega.

“Mom….”

“Yes, baby. Mom is here.”

Lee Yoonsan’s adoptive parents, who had rushed to the hospital upon receiving the call from the homeroom teacher, could not hide their faces that had turned pale. Cases where a boy manifested as omega were rare but existed. However, in such cases, it was known that the manifestation period was particularly severe.

It is the period when the reproductive organ (uterus) that had been hidden as if degenerated between the organs rapidly grows and settles into place while going through secondary sexual characteristics and the manifestation period.

As the organ that had been completely degenerated and useless rapidly grows, takes its place, and matures, sex hormone secretion becomes rapidly active, and body changes also become prominent. Since a reproductive organ capable of bearing children settles into place, it is also the period when hormones generated from that organ create the unique external features of omega.

The hormone helps the ‘appropriate’ skeletal and bone maturation of omega, which is different from alpha, and creates smooth skin and appearance. In the case of a girl manifesting as omega, it might feel not much different as a result of female hormone action, but for a boy, it is also a change that feels a bit unfair.

Unlike alpha boys who, although the same boys, have their skeletal structure, nose, and jawbone mature to form the so-called ‘manly’ appearance in popular terms, it makes them have a smooth and soft appearance.

However, it is not a problem that can be defined as having the commonly expressed ‘feminine’ appearance. It is just receiving the influence of the hormone due to the development of the reproductive organ (uterus).

Just because a boy manifests as omega does not mean he suddenly speaks in a soft tone, becomes gentle in personality, or undergoes changes like breasts growing or hips widening.

However, due to the relative difference in internal reproductive organs and hormones, he just ends up with a soft appearance. Even that varies in hormone levels and degree of influence from person to person, so it cannot be defined definitively, but on average, it was like that. Therefore, boys manifesting as omega naturally harbor dissatisfaction from this period onward.

Because the probability of skeletal development being less developed than the same class beta A or alpha B who grew the same increases. If they play soccer, they will be pushed in stamina, and they will also be pushed in arm strength. Reviving and settling the reproductive organ that had no function in the body consumes an enormous amount of energy, and the energy metabolism rate also increases due to that. It means that all the stamina that could be used externally is consumed in reviving the internal reproductive organ.

All of these are valid until the child who started the manifestation period becomes an adult. Moreover, the abdominal pain that comes in that process will also be enormous, so for Lee Yoonsan’s adoptive parents, their son’s omega manifestation was just heartbreaking.

After the IV fluid attached to their son was fully administered, Lee Yoonsan’s adoptive parents took the child and returned home. The first thing they did upon returning home was to hug Lee Yoonsan, who was still asleep, tightly, and to look into the transfer procedures for Lee Yoonsan.

“Mom….”

“Yes, son.”

“Haekyung went through this too…?”

After a long time, Lee Yoonsan, who had woken up from sleep, mumbled without being able to open his swollen eyes from crying properly. It seemed like he was reminded of Hwang Haekyung, whom he had seen for the last time two years ago.

After the summer vacation two years ago, Hwang Haekyung did not participate in camping. Even when Lee Yoonsan subtly asked ‘What about Haekyung?’ during the camping that started in the winter of that year, Hwang Haekyung’s parents just answered ‘Haekyung does not come to camping anymore.’ It seemed that in their opinion, Lee Yoonsan was too young as a baby, so they judged it difficult to explain their son’s situation.

“Yes. Haekyung has been going through the manifestation period since the summer when he was 11 years old.”

“Haekyung hurts like this too…?”

“Probably so?”

Hwang Haekyung, who had entered the manifestation period two years earlier, also seemed to be going through a tough time. To the extent that even Lee Yoonsan’s adoptive parents, who only heard it secondhand, felt heartbroken.

Alphas also have to live with pain different from omegas due to rapid growth. —Of course, in their case as well, female alphas whose primary and secondary genders cross suffer even more severe pain.— The pain they experience is close to growing pains. Because both the reproductive organs and the overall skeletal structure of the body grow more rapidly than general betas. Since bones grow every day and muscles develop, the accompanying pain follows.

There is even a saying that it is like experiencing pain close to about 100 times the growing pains that betas usually experience throughout the manifestation period, so compared to omegas, the suffering cannot be said to be small at all. Due to that, they have to take prescribed painkillers along with inhibitors as needed, and enter education on the body, hormone and pheromone management. Hwang Haekyung was also going through such a process.

It was all news heard indirectly from Hwang Haekyung’s parents, but Hwang Haekyung had lived with growing pains so severe that he could not even walk properly for a while after the summer vacation camping two years ago.

At that time, he had to stop camping due to the sudden outbreak of manifestation fever, and even after the vacation ended, he could not go to school for several days, he had heard. Lee Yoonsan’s adoptive parents also could not convey such the child’s situation to Lee Yoonsan, and like that, their camping gatherings gradually became loose.

Hwang Haekyung’s family did not participate in vacation camping after that winter, and Lee Yoonsan’s adoptive parents also lost enthusiasm for camping gatherings without Hwang Haekyung’s family. Especially from this year, they were thinking of formally asking for understanding and not participating in the camping gatherings, but at this timing, Lee Yoonsan’s manifestation period had come.

Lee Yoonsan’s mother hugged Lee Yoonsan with all her strength and slowly stroked his back. The child in pain from growing was heartbreaking, and in the midst of this, the child’s heart worrying about Hwang Haekyung he had seen two years ago was admirable.

“I’m still a little bit hurting….”

“It’s because you’re growing. What to do with our son hurting? Should mom rub your stomach?”

“No… Mom, but then I become omega?”

“Yes. You become omega like mom.”

“Is it okay if it’s me…?”

The head of the mom who had been hugging and soothing the child lying on the bed lifted up. Lee Yoonsan’s omega mother reacted as if puzzled while looking at Lee Yoonsan’s dejected face. That was because he was already speaking as if the second gender that had already entered the manifestation period and been decided was something, which was puzzling.

“I’m chubby and ugly.”

“Yoonsan.”

“The kids will tease me….”

At the son’s words coming in a dejected voice, Lee Yoonsan’s alpha mother, who had finished looking into the transfer procedures and was coming with even the porridge boiled, stopped her steps. The expression of Lee Yoonsan’s omega mother, who had been stroking his body, also hardened. They swallowed a sigh inwardly while looking at their son’s dejected face.

Half of the reason for being neglectful of the camping gatherings was also because the two had become busy with work from last year. Lee Yoonsan’s adoptive parents were people managing a venture capital firm, and their work was always busy.

Nevertheless, the reason they could enjoy camping every vacation and flexibly commute from there was because they were the owners and managers of the company. Their startup investment skills had shone quite a while ago, but from last year, the scale of the money they handled had become much larger. The couple had more days not at home, and even before that, they had no time to participate in the parents’ community.

It was a bit different from the affection for Lee Yoonsan. For Lee Yoonsan’s sake as well, it was necessary to solidly build a career and economic foundation. Moreover, since the secondary gender had manifested, it was a situation where hormones and pheromones had to be managed for life.

Of course, costs would be incurred for that, and those costs were parts unnecessary for ordinary betas. One of the realities they had realized while living was that money could never be ignored in raising a child.

For such reasons, they provided everything their son wanted. Including the foods he wanted to eat. They thought that even if he gained weight, since he was a child in the growth period, it would go to height anyway, and since there were no findings of high blood pressure or childhood diabetes or fatty liver in the health checkup, they did not feel the need to restrict no matter how much weight he gained.

They sufficiently supported toys and games so that the child who had to be alone at home until late at night after school would not feel lonely, and gave him whatever he wanted to eat.

They thought there would be no problem even if there were no exercise or outdoor activities in that. Anyway, during vacation periods, they went on long-term camping, and rather, they were worried what if the child got hurt while doing outdoor activities alone in a situation where the adoptive parents could not look after him. Of course, it was also the result of the adoptive parents’ feelings of not being able to properly take care of him except during camping season.

However, whether that had acted as poison, the child they had not paid attention to had his self-esteem greatly lowered. Clearly, until two years ago, he had not talked about appearance.

He was a child who would smile lovably when they said his plump arms were cute. Why was he suddenly saying such things? Lee Yoonsan’s adoptive parents dry-washed their faces, not knowing what to do with their one and only son’s upsetting remark.

“Yoonsan, you are pretty now too. You are our son who is so, so handsome.”

“Nooo…. I’m not pretty like moms or handsome…. But why am I omega….”