The air was cool as the rain drizzled before gradually turning into something else. Timothy quickly pulled out his umbrella from his bag, the nylon snapping open with a soft thwack. His eyes scanned the deserted street as the umbrella shielded him from the heavy droplets pouring from the dark sky.
Timothy wasn't alone at the bus stop, at least.
A couple of university students gathered under one umbrella, their laughter echoing loudly and clearly over the downpour.
Timothy's fingers tightened around the handle of his umbrella. It was a nice one his mother gifted him on his last birthday, back when she had been trying to make him more presentable. As if a good umbrella would somehow transform her son into someone the relatives didn't whisper about.
His free hand slipped into his coat pocket, as his fingers found the familiar shape of his phone. The screen lit up at his touch, casting blue light onto his face, then it went off. His reflection stared back at him from the darkened glass of the bus shelter. Curly dark hair plastered to his forehead despite the umbrella's protection, hazel eyes whose brightness had dulled by late-night shifts, his brown skin glistening with a fine mist of rain.
Twenty minutes until the bus, the transit app notified him. Estimated arrival: 11:47 PM.
"It's ten thirty already!" one of them sighed.
"I know! This is insane. This street is usually packed, where is everyone?" another one complained, shifting the umbrella to shake off some water.
"Seriously. And the bus is never this late. Maybe we should just trek? It's deserted enough right now."
The others sighed collectively, but none of them made a move as they expected better.
Timothy's thumb hovered over the app for a moment before muscle memory took over, swiping it away to reveal his reader app underneath. The cover of his current read stared back at him. It was some generic omegaverse romance with an alpha's silhouette looming protectively over a smaller omega figure. The title was forgettable. But the plot was... well.
A slow smile tugged at his lips.
'Might as well,' he thought, tapping the screen. 'That cliffhanger was absolutely criminal for a story like this.'
The story loaded. Chapter 47. Right where he'd left off. It was at the moment when the protagonist had just discovered that his childhood friend, the alpha he'd been pining after for six years since they presented, had been scent-marking him in his sleep.
The sexual tension was unbearable. And Timothy had been forced to close the app for 12 plus long hours just because he had been the only available cook today at the restaurant.
And even when he got paid higher than usual, he still felt choked from being away from his novel.
He shook his head, grinning despite himself.
It was ridiculous, really. Six months ago, Timothy's reading library had consisted entirely of cultivation novels and court political fantasies. Dense, plot-heavy narratives where characters spent three hundred chapters learning to fight a great cosmic war or overthrow empires through being overpowered. He'd prided himself on his sophisticated taste, and his ability to follow seventeen different character arcs and keep track of complex magic systems.
Then his friend Anna had shoved her phone under his nose during lunch one day.
"Just READ it," she'd insisted, eyes gleaming with evangelical fervor. "Trust me. It's life-changing."
Timothy had rolled his eyes, taking a skeptical bite of his food. "A Love Scented With Peppermint? Anna, are you serious? That title sounds like something you find next to the knitting patterns."
"It's smut, Timmy," she'd whispered, leaning in. "High-quality smut. And the world-building is actually amazing! Just try the first chapter. I dare you."
He'd tried to resist. He'd really, truly tried. He'd even pulled up his current read, a book where the main character was currently trapped in a spatial rift fighting a sentient demon, just to prove his literary superiority.
But Anna's grin had been infectious, and the bus ride home was long. He'd clicked the link, intending to read two paragraphs, laugh, and delete the bookmark.
Instead, he'd read thirty chapters in one sitting, missed his stop, and spent the next week sacrificing sleep, social interaction, and proper nutrition to mainline omegaverse content. It had been an omegaverse romance. Pure fluff, and a truly excessive amount of domesticity, and erotica. The kind of story where the entire conflict revolved around two idiots who were clearly in love but couldn't communicate to save their lives.
Now, here he was, hunched under a nice umbrella in the pouring rain, counting down the minutes until he could get back to a story where the main conflict was whether the Male Lead, who was a brooding alpha billionaire with muscles and a tragic backstory, would finally stop protecting the Omega Lead from his own attraction and just knot and claim him already.
His friends, Anna especially, had been absolutely delighted by his conversion. They'd created a group chat dedicated entirely to screaming about their current reads, sharing recommendations, and drafting increasingly unhinged theories about fictional characters' relationship dynamics.
Timothy had gone from the friend who recommended political thrillers to the friend who sent twelve paragraphs analyzing why a particular alpha's possessive behavior was actually a trauma response and needed to be addressed before the relationship could be healthy.
Almost all those analyses usually came after a smut scene.