beta
I’ve literally read BLs with worse content than this with a straight face but this manhwa rlly gets me going Idk if it’s intentional from the author’s part but it was so similar to my own experiences and also of other women’s realistic dilemmas that I genuinely put myself in Juhyeok’s shoes for a moment and nearly blacked out in rage.
Juhyeok’s struggles accepting his secondary gender was so so so relatable and raw to the experiences of many women I KNOW. Him being in an alpha-dominated space is just the same as a woman being in a man-occupied field, and him wanting to be stronger and more masculine presenting as an omega is a woman trying to fit into the standards of a man just to not get objectified and sexualized. Him hating his secondary trait is a woman hating her own gender, because she thinks that’s all she’ll be ever reduced to, even in a professional setting. Because Juhyeok is an omega before he is an athlete, and a woman is a woman before her credentials.
Him being so unwilling to accept the Alpha’s pheromones and yet having to give into it at the end to “live normally” was just so heart breaking. It reminded me of women having to rely on a man’s permission just to open up a bank account or even divorce. The Alpha’s pheromones is basically the same thing. It’s permission for an omega to exist.
The Alpha lowkey pissed me off sm because im reminded there are guys like him irl. The kind who do things without your knowledge and insist it’s “for you” when you had never even asked, nor knew about it in the first place. Then they get all self-victimizing and deprecating even because you’re “ungrateful” for the work they did that you never asked them to do. As hot as Juhyeok rubbing the cum into his big tits was, I was lowkey more repulsed than aroused because all I saw was Juhyeok having to cave into the societal pressures surrounding the status of omegas, and because I put myself in his shoes for a moment, that moment was so horrifying to me. It also pmo because I’m tryna read about gay men & then im hit with back flashes of the hardships of my own gender
Basically to put it into perspective, Alpha one-sidedly scenting Juhyeok to protect him is like a man with a loudspeaker going around “She’s my wife. Don’t touch her” to other guys in your workplace when you’re not around. Does it work? Maybe. Could it prevent unwanted accidents? Probably. But is it really annoying? Yes, because he’s going around telling everyone at your workplace you’re his wife and it’s kind of embarrassing.