Wrong body

I live on the Isle of Reading*.Reading is located in the highland area of ​​country B, one of the islands on the west coast.This place is very small, with no more than a hundred residents, and only two roads, which cross the entire island in a cross shape.

Very ordinary, very remote place.The only unusual thing: the island is rich in whiskey.

Reading is extremely cold, especially in winter.Resources are scarce in the highlands, and peat is traditionally used instead of fuel.Peat is a type of coal that is formed when vegetation such as moss and fern decomposes.As well as keeping it warm, we also roast the malt over peat to make our whiskey.The peat reserves in Reading are high, so the whiskey produced will have a very unique flavor.

If you ask me what exactly does peat smell like?I gotta say, it's hard to describe.Because it smells one kind of smell alone, and another kind when it comes into whiskey. Those who like it will like it very much, but those who don't like it will find it weird, like mud, and like disinfectant, a bit smoky, very choking.

I can accept it, after all, I grew up here, and I am used to smelling the same air every day.But I know one guy, I can't say I like him, he is almost obsessed - I see him, I raise my hand to greet him, and I grin at him.

It's Yik!

My favorite Yik!

Yik has been in Reading for almost four years.Four years ago, he broke in and appeared at the train station in a big way. Since then, there has been an East Asian in the town.He is a beta, but he has a very keen sense of smell. He wrinkled his nose when we met for the first time, and stretched out his hand and said to me that your fig smells very sweet.

I looked at him sheepishly. Yik is good-looking, I don’t know many East Asians—to be precise, Yik is the first—but in my opinion, he has short hair, good looks, and always has a faint smile on his face.

He found a job in my family's winery as a peat worker, shoveling coal in the swamp with a big shovel every day.This job is hard and tiring, and the locals are not willing to do it, but Yik is very dedicated, or he enjoys it.

Although Yik is a beta, he has a disease. I didn't know it at first, but I only knew that he would respond to alpha pheromones. Yik dispenses medicine at the clinic in town. The doctor at the clinic, Arthur, is a neighbor of my mother's best friend. Reading is very small and everyone knows each other.

I asked Arthur what disease Yik had. The old man with the white beard said that there was a confidentiality agreement between me and the patient, so how could he tell you.

I was shocked, thinking that Yik had some terminal illness, and tearfully said what to do.Arthur was intimidated by me.I won't die!He said, but Yik needs an alpha, that's all I can say.

I ran to ask Yik, what does it mean that you need alpha with tears and snot in your eyes? Yik can't hold me back, so say okay, okay, I'll tell you, but you are not allowed to tell others.

I nod.So I know Yik's secret.

I was sad all day when I found out.I think Yik is so pitiful, why should I encounter such a thing as a beta?Is there any way to make him feel better?I thought about it all night, and the next day I went to Yik, stood in front of him and said loudly, Yik, I am alpha, use my pheromone, I can be your supplement!

Yik looked at me and laughed out loud. After laughing, he waved to me and said no.

I was very wronged and asked him why he didn't want it.I'm always ready to help Yik if he wants to, after all... I really like him.

Seeing me disappointed, he patted my head and said don't feel bad Freddie, your figs have turned bitter.

I thought he thought I was too young to take responsibility like a real alpha, so I secretly vowed to grow up quickly.I want Yik to like my pheromone more, since he doesn't like bitterness, I'll always be optimistic and make myself sweeter.

Yik is a very determined person.His problem is good and sometimes bad, but no matter how uncomfortable he is, he will not find other alphas for convenience.When he was really uncomfortable, he would go to the peat area to sit for a long time.I went to him once and even saw him lying on the ground, his limbs sprawled, embraced by Mother Earth, his eyes closed and his mouth gasping for breath.

He really likes the taste. Yik himself said that he has traveled to many places in the world, but Reading is his favorite.I ask why, is there enough peat here?He thought for a while and asked me, do you believe in fate?

All my understanding of the word fate comes from dictionaries and movies, so I don’t believe it, I just think it’s amazing. Yik said yes, it is indeed amazing.He took a shovel and drew a circle on the ground. I thought he was drawing an apple. Yik likes to eat apples. Once I saw his apple fall on the ground, he didn't dislike it. He picked it up, wiped it and put it in his mouth.I said it was already dirty, but he said he didn't mind, as long as it returned to my hand, it would be a whole apple.

I don't get it, looking at that circle and asking what is Yik drawing?apple?are you hungry?

He smiled at me, flattened the circle with a shovel, and changed the topic to chat with me about what to eat tonight.I was a little annoyed that I couldn't catch up with Yik's words—oh, it's too complicated, the philosophy of East Asians is too difficult to understand.

-

In Reading, on the Saturday night of the second week of each month, we will hold a drink night at the bar in the town center. It is said to be a drink, but in fact, friends from various wineries bring out their own wines and taste them together. carnival.

Yik goes there often, and he loves Reading's single malt whiskey, especially the peaty ones.He has a good capacity for alcohol and can always drink a lot. No one in the town can compare to him.I'd join him as an adult, but I'm a lot worse at drinking and only dared to drink half a pint at a time.

My 20th Bar Mitzvah was spent at the drinking night, and Yik sent me a photo of me to bless me that day.I heard from my mother that Yik told her that he used to be a photographer.That photo was taken very well, I like it very much, even more than the game console that Tony next door gave me.I ran to thank Yik. He was sitting by the fireplace, his face was flushed from drinking, and in the firelight he was like a fireball hitting my heart, or a lightning bolt that made me tremble.

Taking the opportunity of gratitude, I unbuttoned my bulky overcoat, turned up the collar, and breathed his breath closer. Yik's lips were so close to mine, I really wanted to kiss him, but my movements became too slow because of hesitation and politeness, he let go of his alcohol, raised his head to escape from my approach, stood up and stretched , Said it was late, I went home first.

I was depressed for a long time because of this, and asked my mother if I was not likable enough.Mom looked at me in surprise, who doesn't like our Freddie?

I said Yik, Mom, is it because Yik is a beta that he doesn't like an alpha.Mom squeezed my face and said gently that betas are special.She is an omega, married to my alpha father at a very young age.She told me that beta is out of many rules of this society, it is very difficult for you to catch a bird that can take off at any time.

I told Yik exactly this metaphor - after a failed confession.He nodded and said thank you Freddie, your mom was right, I've suffered a lot for not understanding this before, but I'm rejecting you not because I'm a beta and you're an alpha, I'm rejecting you because I don't I can't like you as a lover, this has nothing to do with our second gender.

He was direct and candid, and while it hit me, it lessened my grief a little.So I figured it out, the bird has to fly in the sky to be free.Even if Yik doesn't choose me, it doesn't matter, I still want to be friends with him, as long as he is happy, I am happy, very simple reason.

Yik's fifth year in Reading and I celebrated my 22nd birthday.My mother is ready to move about my marriage, and always introduces me to omega of the right age in the town.I know all those omega friends who have played since I was a child, but I really don't have that kind of thought.

I'm still waiting for Yik.

But I know Yik is not waiting for me.In the past five years, I have become more and more aware that he is indeed waiting for something in Reading.He didn't go, he didn't even take a step out of the island of Reading.I sometimes go on vacation with my parents to escape the bone-chilling winters, but Yik is always in Reading.

So I guess, he was afraid of missing something.

An unremarkable day in February, Yik's fifth year in Reading.

I went to the post office in town to post a letter, and on my way back I deliberately chose an untraveled route.Halfway through the station, my shoelaces became loose, so I squatted down to tie them. When I got up, a train stopped.Reading's station is very small, and there are only two trains a day, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. The one I met was the one at 04:30 in the afternoon.Two people got off the train, one was the conductor Thomas, a big Celtic man with redder hair than his face, and as soon as I saw him, I remembered the last time he lent me two pounds to buy butter at the store.Haven't paid back yet.

The other one is a foreigner with an East Asian face, which I don't know.The face was thin and angular, with a scar above the right eyebrow.I didn't smell his pheromone right away, it should be a beta.He was wearing a thick jacket, dusty, and looked like he had traveled a long distance, with a tired face and an unshaven beard.

He saw me, walked towards me, took out a photo in his hand, and asked me if I had seen this person?

I looked down, the face of the person in the photo was blurry, and I could only see a man with half-length hair.How long has he had this photo with him?It's been like this for many years.

I have been carefully identifying them for a long time, but I am really not good at identifying people, so I have to say sorry, I have never seen them.

The other party showed a wry smile, isn't it here? It's already the last one.

He put the photos away carefully and put them in the inner pocket on his chest, and then asked me where I could lodge.I enthusiastically recommended to him my mother's small hotel, the only and best one in town.

He thanked me.When I turned to leave, I realized that this person was not a beta, but an alpha, because his pheromone smelled so similar to the air in Reading Island!It's almost exactly the same as the smell of peat, but I didn't notice it for a while.

How rare.I ran back to the winery and saw Yik working. I called out his name, and he heard it. He turned around and held a freshly picked thistle in his hand.

It was close to sunset at that time, and there was still the last twilight, shining on this oriental man, like the painting of the Virgin carved on the wall of the chapel in the town, above her head was the holy light of forgiveness.I watched obsessively, thinking whether to tell him what happened just now, telling him that I met an alpha with his favorite flavor.

-

*The prototype of Reading Island is Islay in Scotland, which is a famous Scotch whiskey producing area.