Chapter 10

The glaring sunlight bit sharply into his skin for the first time in days.

The previous downpour must have been the final monsoon before the true onset of summer, leaving the sky an impossibly brilliant, eye-watering blue. Thanks to the intense heat, he was entirely drenched in sweat less than an hour into the session. After finishing their grueling warm-ups, the team seamlessly transitioned from passing drills into high-intensity dribbling and shooting exercises.

While the coach stepped away for a brief meeting with the junior squad to outline the upcoming summer holiday football camp, a supposedly light practice match kicked off. With the official league games looming in August, the atmosphere on the pitch had grown noticeably hostile as everyone fiercely competed to break into the first string, desperate for even a minor substitution slot. Though his physical condition was hovering around average, just running on the grass after several days of miserable stagnation lifted his spirits.

The moment the match concluded, Alex collapsed onto the bench, grabbing his water bottle as Liam unceremoniously dropped into the seat beside him.

“Heard you were sick?” Liam asked casually.

Squinting against the blinding sun, Alex turned his head. While Alex took a long, steady drink, Liam leaned down to re-tie the laces on his football boots. Swiping a stray drop of water from his chin, Alex finally spoke. “Did the coach tell you that?”

“Nah, David did.”

David Mack? Alex furrowed his brow in blatant confusion. While he wasn’t particularly close to anyone on the squad, it was impossible not to know his own teammates, especially since more than half of them attended the exact same school. Liam, a fellow mixed-race player of Libyan and British descent, was the only person his own age that Alex regularly conversed with.

Society loudly claimed that racial discrimination was a shameful offense punishable by police action, but the grim reality was that bigotry thrived constantly across the UK. Consequently, it was a perfectly common, unspoken rule for the mixed-race and second-generation players on the team to naturally segregate themselves from their white peers.

“Why the hell would he know about my business?” Alex muttered suspiciously.

David Mack, securely anchored in the first string, was a notorious celebrity for a multitude of reasons. First and foremost, he was the son of a close acquaintance of the club owner. Beyond his nepotistic ties, he was undeniably a highly skilled striker, and vicious rumors circulated that he had already received offers from several major, world-renowned clubs. Due to his entanglements with the owner, he would likely remain at Vans FC until his official professional debut, but his dazzlingly successful future was virtually guaranteed regardless. Yet, despite David’s glittering credentials, Alex found the boy deeply, inexplicably unsettling.

“Beats me,” Liam shrugged. “But hey, it wouldn’t hurt to get on his good side, right? He’s practically the one running things around here.”

“I’d rather not,” Alex replied flatly.

The toxic dynamic was glaringly obvious whenever Alex observed the first string’s practice sessions. David Mack possessed a dominating, aggressive compulsion to seize absolute control of the entire match. While star players undeniably created spectacular scoring opportunities, football was fundamentally a cooperative, multi-player sport. Alex vividly recalled numerous instances during practice where David, usurping the actual captain’s authority, would scream at his teammates. Judging someone before genuinely knowing them was undeniably a character flaw, but Alex was absolutely certain that their personalities were fundamentally incompatible.

“Come on, you’re way too good to be rotting in the second string,” Liam pressed, oblivious to Alex’s discomfort, adopting a pragmatic, opportunistic tone.

“Sucking up to him isn’t going to magically change my placement,” Alex shot back.

“You know,” Liam sighed, shaking his head, “for a guy who looks as intense as you do, you act so fucking naive sometimes.”

The accusation of being naive caused Alex’s frown to deepen. While it was entirely true that he acted like a stuttering, clumsy fool exclusively in front of Nathan, he was widely known as a stoic, unapproachable wall to everyone else. The word ‘naive’ didn’t fit him in the slightest.

“What kind of bullshit is that?” he scoffed.

“When you’re stuck in a borderline, ambiguous position like ours, it ultimately comes down to who you impress,” Liam explained. “This place is a massive political chessboard, mate. Think about it. Is Jonathan from the first string actually better than you? Your tactical awareness and passing stability run absolute rings around him. If his uncle didn’t work over at FIFA, he’d be scrubbing the bottom of the second-string barrel.”

Alex let out a faint sigh and set his water bottle down. The sweat-drenched hair plastering itself to his forehead was becoming unbearably irritating, and he wanted to shower and head home before the smell of stale sweat set into his skin. Neglecting his physical maintenance only ever punished him in the end. “And what exactly does that have to do with David Mack?” Alex challenged.

“If he casually mentions that he wants to play with you, the coach is going to seriously consider it,” Liam pointed out. “David always gets whatever the hell he wants, no matter what. Even the coach wouldn’t dare oppose him.”

Do people who spend their entire lives getting exactly what they want always turn out with that kind of arrogant personality? Alex mused cynically. Whatever the case, it had nothing to do with him.

“Then you go suck up to him,” Alex retorted dismissively.

“You idiot, I’m a striker too!” Liam barked.

Ah, their positions overlap. Alex merely shrugged in apathy. Clapping the shoulder of the boy who stood half a head shorter than him, Alex pushed himself up from the bench. “I’m out,” he announced.

As Alex moved to leave without a shred of lingering interest, Liam sidled up to him. “Hey, there’s a huge party with the girls from St. Wood’s Academy tonight. Wanna come? There’s going to be a ton of gorgeous Omegas.”

So this was his actual goal. It perfectly explained why Liam was acting exceptionally friendly today. Maintaining his flawlessly blank expression, Alex ignored the invitation and started walking away.

The moment he neared the heavy wire fence bordering the grassy pitch, a loud, excited murmuring rippled through the gathered crowd. Alex’s gaze naturally drifted toward the commotion.

“Hey, come on, let’s go together! If I just bring you, we can do a two-on-two—woah, what’s going on over there?” Liam broke off, his attention snagged.

“No idea,” Alex replied curtly.

Thanks to his gruff demeanor and notoriously blunt manner of speaking, Alex was frequently subjected to harsh misunderstandings. While Liam, who only ever interacted with people when he had a specific motive, generally ignored Alex’s abrasive edges, it was still a massive stretch to genuinely call them friends. However, despite his dismissive response, Alex found his own gaze irresistibly locked onto the source of the sudden uproar. As he drew closer to the fence, the excited whispers grew distinct.

“Damn, he’s seriously beautiful. Is he an Omega? Looks like he’s waiting for someone.”

“Nah, one of the guys just walked past him and confirmed he’s a Beta.”

“Ah, what a waste. He looks so fucking hot, too.”

Alex’s footsteps halted at those words. The word ‘Beta’ snagged in his mind, and driven by a sickening suspicion, he crept closer to the crowd, Liam trailing behind him.

“Do we even have anyone on the team who dates Betas?” Liam muttered in confusion.

In the world of competitive football, where unpredictable biological complications could derail a career, the overwhelming majority of players were Alphas. Omegas existed but were incredibly rare, and the remaining slots fell to Betas. The Vans FC youth team, however, currently counted zero Beta players among its ranks. Since Betas almost exclusively sought out other Betas for relationships, the only conceivable reason a Beta would deliberately show up at a training ground saturated with Alphas was…

The horrifying conclusion hit him like a physical blow. Alex froze, his heart plummeting into his stomach, his insides lurching with the sickening force of a brutal, unexpected tackle on the pitch.

“…Nathan?”