The letter was straightforward. It contained an explanation of why he hadn't been there when Illian was at rock bottom.
It was quite simple: he couldn't.
A youngest son of a military family, Jude basically lived and breathed by his family's order. Making a bond with Illian was his second act of defiance--the first being secretly meeting Illian before they got engaged. When he heard about his fiance's situation, Jude almost committed his third act of defiance, because his parents decided the engagement should be broken and prevent him from seeing Illian.
He truly, sincerely, almost ran away from home at that moment. He would already, if it wasn't for his aunt.
You can't do anything for him even if you go now--was what the aunt told the alpha. Indeed, Jude was still under the influence of his family. He almost ran away with only the clothes on his back and a small savings. If he left just like that, his family would come after him, and he might put Illian in danger. Thus, his aunt told him to be patient and gather some power to help his fiance in the future.
Of course, he had steeled his heart to be hated in the process.
A devoted alpha. Arthur exhaled slowly, releasing his initial hatred for Jude the way Illian probably shed his own. Of course, there was a matter of loyalty through bond, but alphas could always make a new bond, unlike omegas.
A first love who persisted through raging storms and blazing fire. It was indeed a romance.
It was only fitting when the star-crossed lovers were reunited in the middle of a raging storm. Quite cliche and rather dramatic, in Arthur's opinion, but that was what made the audience's hearts thump loudly, wasn't it?
This time, Illian was willing to listen, and they had their deep talk after a session of steamy reunion. The alpha had collected some wealth and built some connections, even ready to defy his family. Jude had prepared a lot to support Illian, whatever the omega wanted to do. Be it revenge or just living a peaceful life, Jude would be there.
It seemed that Illian had made peace with himself and was ready to choose a peaceful life. Alas, the story would be quite boring if that were the case, wouldn't it? Arthur groaned when he read about the 'cousin' finding them in that secluded place, and started to make trouble because of his own paranoia.
In the end, Illian had no choice but to leave the town, realizing that peace could only come after he got rid of the thorn on his side.
That was when the third act finally kicked off. With Jude's support, it was easier for Illian to realize what he had prepared himself. He had found out that the accident was orchestrated by the family, and the medical report about his condition wasn't true.
Basically, it was a happy ending with sufficient cider to satisfy the readers. The villains got thwarted, and the protagonist got his peace after finishing his revenge.
Arthur, however, couldn't take his eyes off one single section in the book. It wasn't about the revenge, or even about the protagonist's self-acceptance--which was pivotal to the book.
It was about the alpha, Jude.
And no, it wasn't about how kind and gentle the alpha was--which was probably created by the collective dream of most omegas. Actually, it was about something that most alphas would find to be loathsome.
In the middle of the revenge sequence, in order to mess up Illian and Jude's relationship to weaken them, the cousin revealed that Illian wasn't actually infertile. The medical report, however, was true; they just changed the registered name. The real medical report belonged to none other than the seemingly perfect alpha, Jude. With the cooperation of Jude's family, who were ashamed of having a 'flawed' alpha and wanted to hide it, Illian's family used it to frame Illian instead.
It was meant to be a wedge point, an attempt to separate the protagonists and wound them. Jude himself thought Illian would leave him. But the omega who had matured in that mountain couldn't care less about such a thing, merely thinking that they had two targets now.
All creatures are meant to be flawed. That does not mean they don't deserve love.
Arthur, a 'flawed' alpha, took a deep breath as he read that sentence. Even after finishing the whole manuscript, he returned to that section and stared at the passage for a long time.
There's no such thing as a perfect alpha; after all, aren't we all just human beings? We're not special, so let's not make the mistake of thinking that we have to pursue perfection.
Arthur, who had always been plagued with the thought that an alpha shouldn't show weakness in public, leaned back and stared at the ceiling in silence. All this time, he always hidden his affliction--his face blindness--from others because he thought it was unbecoming for an alpha to have. Aside from is family, no one knew about it. He tried hard to overcome his 'defect' by developing a keen sense of smell to pheromones that became an even bigger hindrance in his life, but...
Was it actually alright to just...tell the world that he couldn't register people's faces?
The people who tried to take over the company might take advantage of that, though...ugh--how irritating! Arthur exhaled harshly, blowing the stray hair off his face and let himself collapse on the couch.
"How envious, you lucky alpha..." Arthur whispered to the cold apartment. "It's so nice to have an understanding partner..."
Honestly, Arthur had tried it once: telling his date about his condition, since the person looked kind and didn't seem to be the kind of person who would blabber to someone about their date's condition. The person did seem to be considerate, and accepted his condition with grace. It was just...
When the next date came and Arthur lost the person in the crowd, getting overwhelmed by all the overstimulating scents, that person said they didn't think they could continue.
Arthur decided to hide his condition forever after that.
If he had someone like Illian...
No--in the first place, Jude also accepted Illian's condition without knowing the truth. Perhaps Illian's response was influenced by this.
You accepted me when I was at my worst, so how can I leave you when you are simply always in your best?
Right. Relationships shouldn't be a one-sided affair after all. Arthur sighed. Deliberately looking for someone 'flawed' just because he wanted to be accepted, however, was of poor taste. Impure.
Letting out another sigh, Arthur lay on the couch while clutching the manuscript close to his heart, as if it were his new emotional support book.
It took him about three minutes to realize what he had done and gasped, chucking the manuscript to the other side of the couch as if it were a cursed article.
"What the fuck?" Arthur sat up in alarm, eyes widened in shock. "I should have criticized it!"
Not only was the manuscript free of annotation, but Arthur had also actually stayed up until the morning to read everything in one sitting. He groaned in disappointment with himself, but also...
"Ugh..." Arthur picked up the manuscript again, carefully took it to his bed, and placed it inside the drawer of his nightstand like some kind of amulet.
No matter how annoyed he was, no matter how petty he could be, Arthur couldn't lie: the manuscript was good. It might be just a normal story for other people, but it spoke to him in spiritual level--even if the alpha wasn't the main character.
And the bit about them not being special...it reminded him of a certain person he met in a bar six years ago.
* * *
"So, why do you think Eugene Kim said he's an alpha-hater?" Arthur tilted his head in confusion.
After reading the manuscript, Arthur could see that Eugene Kim--or rather, Y.J Gabriel--didn't harbor any extreme hatred toward alphas in general. He crafted Jude carefully, as if using a real person as a model. Sometimes, the way this fictional alpha talked even felt familiar to Arthur.
If the author hated alpha so much, rather than having an alpha helping the protagonist, he would have made Illian bulldoze everything alone, or had the omega employed the help from fellow omegas--just how those omega movement extremists loved.
But, then...why did Eugene Kim do that on the first day?
Beside him, Ashley let out a heavy sigh. "You do know that my wife is currently having a C-section, right?"
"Yeah, but you do know talking among us won't shorten or prolong the process, don't you?" Arthur shrugged, prompting his cousin to roll her eyes in exasperation.
He wasn't wrong, though. All they could do was wait nervously outside the operating room anyway. Their grandparents even brought Sammy outside to play until the baby was born.
Shaking her head, Ashley leaned back and crossed her arms, stopping them from shaking. Perhaps it would be better for her to distract herself with some idle chatter.
"Did he really say that he's an 'alpha-hater' as you put it?" she asked his cousin.
"What do you mean?" Arthur frowned. "He clearly--"
Arthur paused, recalling what exactly transpired that day. If his memory served him well, Eugene was looking alarmed upon seeing him, and after a while, asked harshly. Why is there an alpha here? Or something like that? And then Arthur said...
"Oh," Arthur blinked. He was the one who asked if Eugene was an alpha-hater, and the omega simply said yes. "Huh..."
Ashley shrugged. She had already received the report from her assistant, and although she didn't know what compelled Eugene Kim to reply affirmatively to Arthur's accusation, she did not believe the omega was a hater of anything.
Rather, the man looked like someone who was too tired to care for anything other than his child; certainly too tired to spare any energy on hating a group of the opposite gender.
"But...why?" Arthur groaned in frustration. "It doesn't answer the 'why'--why did he lie about it? What for?"
"How would I know?" Ashley scoffed. "You know it's easier to just ask the person himself, right?"
Ugh--that was true, but...the last time Arthur talked to that man, they ended up having a verbal war. Could they actually have a real civil conversation?
Arthur lamented inwardly, massaging his temple before he remembered something he also wanted to ask Ashley.
"But, hey--" he leaned forward and turned his head to his cousin, looking at her with a frown. "Why do you change the alpha's condition in the script?"
In the complete script that Arthur read afterward, there was one glaring change for him.
There was no scene disclosing that the alpha Jude was infertile.