"His dad's a shitstain and his stepmum doesn't care about him," he summarises.

"Inori!"

"Not... not entirely inaccurate," Tōkan says, and now it's his turn to scratch the back of his head awkwardly. "My biological mother was an omega, and my—my father—their relationship was not entirely—consensual."

That was very much not what they were expecting, although Harutsugu seems less surprised than Kuroji.

Figures. "She loved him, and... I think my father came to love her too, after a fashion. But he hid her, I'm sure you'll never hear anything about Kokonoe Tochima and an omega. As far as his image's concerned, his alpha wife is my mother."

"I... see," says Harutsugu. "Your mother... was... an omega?" he asks, carefully.

"She's dead. Died when I was small. And I was raised by the man who—did that—to her—her and who continually told me that alphas are superior to omegas and we should never intermingle, all my life. He got married to a woman who didn't want kids, so it was great that he'd already acquired an heir."

"Like I said. Shitstain."

This time neither of his dads berate him for it.

"So, yeah, it's hard for Kokonoe High to not have that... culture... about alphas and omegas when the headmaster and owner is like that. And I haven't told him about Inori."

This is clearly throwing some of the conversation they had planned for a loop. "And you don't plan to...?"

"He'll hear it from the rumour mill eventually when my relationship with Inori becomes sufficiently public, although everyone at school who even knows we're seeing each other thinks I'm just..." And Tōkan has to stop himself for a second and look down at his lap so that he doesn't show just how angry this makes him feel. "Using him. For his body. For the sex."

Harutsugu squeaks out a strangled noise.

Kuroji on the other hand just nods.

"Your friend thinks I just seduced you with my pheromones to bag a rich alpha or something," Inori adds.

...for some reason it's Kuroji's turn to look somewhat embarrassed.

"...he doesn't. Not really. That's just a story Subaru's telling himself in his head that he knows isn't true. He knows me well enough for that."

"I see that you already have experience with much of what we wanted to talk about," sighs Kuroji after a bit.

Yeah, Tōkan has... more than his share of experiences in that vein, not altogether untraumatically. Though if he's honest with himself Inori's existence is a very effective therapeutic treatment.

"I guess it would be too much to hope for Kokonoe High to have gotten better since I left 😔," sighs Harutsugu.

"I... believe my grandfather is actually not as bad as my father in this respect, though we haven't had much contact. I would give it even odds that Kokonoe High might be worse, now."

Also not what Harutsugu wanted to hear.

"Then forgive me if what I'm saying will sound repetitive," says Kuroji. "This won't really get better. We're... a porn trope, to a lot of people. Alpha/omega couples. Especially with male omegas, for how rare we are. Many people won't take your relationship seriously, will think you're being immature—or that you're just sex-obsessed."

"Kuroji! 😰"

"Haru, this is part of it." He looks at Tōkan again. "Waiters at restaurants are going to always expect confirmation from you, as if you need to give Inori-kun permission to get what he wants—"