Old Clothes and Stale Coffee

Chapter 50

Chapter 50 – That Was Years Ago 

“Professor, wake up, or we’re gonna be late for work again!”

“Mmm... five more minutes” moaned the professor who turned to snuggle against me.

“Hey, I mean it,” I hold his face and kiss his forehead, “I still have to work on something when we get to the lab.”

“Sandali lang, gusto ko pang magsumiksik sa `yo.” He rubs his face on my bare chest. I sigh and stroke his shoulder length hair.

It’s been four years since we started living together, and still, the professor is as hard to wake as the day I first moved in.

“Hey,” I pull away from him, “you really need to get up now.”

“Ughn, Habibi naman, walang patawad...”

“There you go again, calling me Habibi, when you wouldn’t even tell our colleagues that we’re sleeping together,” I mumbled as I put my underwear on. 

“O, nagtatampo ka nanaman?” he gently kissed my shoulder, “Alam mo naman na ayoko lang maging komplikado ang mga bagay-bagay sa trabaho... `di ba’t ikaw na rin nagsabi noon na ayaw mo’ng kung anong balita ang lumabas tungkol sa `tin?”

“That was years ago,” I answered back. “Besides, everyone already knows that we’re in a relationship, They are just waiting for us to confirm it.”

“O, `yun naman pala, eh, so `di na kailangang ipamalita pa.” He stood up and went out the room before I did. “Ang importante masaya tayong nagsasama.” he told me with a grin.

He always walks out on me when I try to talk to him about our relationship. I don’t know if he’s just shy about it, but seriously, we’ve been living together for four years now, what is there to be shy about? Even Pedro and Pilar have started calling me Mrs. Antonio when the professor is not around.

It’s not like he’s hiding it, since he calls me Habibi publicly, and even flirts with me in the open, but the mere fact that he refuses to tell everyone that we’re actually a couple, irritates me sometimes. 

“Habibi, paubos na ang toothpaste natin,” he called from the bath room. “Paalala mo mamaya, mag-grocery tayo.”

“Don’t call me Habibi.” I called back.

When we get to our work place, the first thing I did was to make some coffee. I placed some in the professor’s kalabaw mug, the one that his niece gave him on his 27th birthday. The old one is currently resting on a shelf back home, right next to a picture of his deceased brother. He refuses to get rid of it.

“Ahh... Habibi, salamat sa napaka sarap mong kape!” he said as I handed him the cup.

“Kamusta ang follow up sa mga test subject natin sa SGT Kit project? Wala pa rin bang lumalabas na secondary gender?” he asked me, “Mag-aapat na taon na `yan, may mga magpaparamdam na sa mga `yan, kaya bantayan n’yo.”

“Of course, professor, Pedro and Pilar are checking on the families on a regular basis,” I replied.  “I have also mentioned it in the monthly meeting you refused to attend last  week. I am now in touch with the finance division to talk about the additional budget we requested.”

“Ah, salamat, ang galing talagang magtrabaho ng Habibi ko, kaya tama lang na sa `yo ko pinapaasikaso ang lahat nang `yan!” he told me with a grin.

“Don’t call me Habibi,” I answered back. “Now, if there isn’t anything else...”

“Sige, sige, tatawagin na lang kita `pag naubos na ang kape ko!”

I glared at him. He chose to ignore me as he sipped his freshly brewed coffee. I left his work station, then, thinking that nothing much has really changed in the past four years.

Sometimes I think that the professor is allergic to change.

He’s still the same lazy, bossy, obnoxious slob he has always been. In fact, because of this attitude, no other researchers have stayed long enough to be part of our team, and only Pedro and Pilar have ever been good enough for him.

It helps that they have worked with the professor long enough to know that he is not as bad as he seems. Their generous salary is also a factor, plus the fact that working with the professor has given them the same amount of fame that he enjoys.  

Or rather, tries to run away from.

The professor is a very private person, after all, and prefers to let Pedro, Pilar, and myself get most of the lime light.

So, what am I still doing here, running errands for this sociopath?

Well, a year after releasing his new improved omega suppressants, he shared with me a formula for neutralizing the harmful effects of alpha pheromones on omegas who are not in heat. The formula has the ability to cancel the effect of forced heat resulting from illegal drugs as well as from dominant alphas who release their pheromones to prey on omegas.

“Isa ito’ng injectible formula na parang suppressant,” he told me excitedly.

“but instead of suppressing o pagtigil sa reaction ng katawan sa pheromones, kina-cancel nito ang mismong epekto ng alpha pheromones, kaya hindi nagiging groggy ang pasyente. Para s’yang antivenom for alpha pheromones!”

I was impressed with his discovery. But the heads of office said that not all omegas get attacked by dominant alphas, so only a small market was set for it, with the prize so high, that only elite omegas can afford it.

They had to produce more of it, though, since it sold out in less than a week, making the professor millions.

But he was still disappointed, since only the rich were able to buy it.

A year later, he asked for a sample of my anti-dominant alpha perfume, and created a synthetic version of it a month later!

“Mahirap maghanap ng itutumbas sa ginawa mo’ng formula na gawa sa dominant alpha pheromones, pero na re-create ko s’ya, and since dominant alphas lang ang nakakaamoy ng napakabaho nito’ng scent, ay maganda `tong pambugaw ng mga kupal na alphas na puro kamanyakan ang nasa utak!” he proudly told me.

“Please don’t say that during the meeting, professor.” I remember replying to him.

He planned to market it to the public, but then again, the higher ups said that there is only a small number of dominant alphas, and that they are all in high places and are not prone to attack omegas.

The project was also made in small batches and released with an even higher prize tag.

It also sold well, though, debunking their theory that dominant alphas do not attack omegas, but still, the professor was not satisfied.

What he wanted was to make something that the general public could afford,

and so, for last year’s project, he asked me for a sample of my pheromone canceling spray, the one I sampled on Dr. Heathlow years ago.

Two days later, he came up with a synthetic replica of my spray, using all natural, renewable ingredients that could easily be replicated.

I was literally blown away.

He placed it in an aerosol can that could be readily sprayed in areas where an omega have spread his pheromones, cancelling it instantly so that alphas would not be affected by their scent.

“Ayan ang dalhin mo sa susunod na meeting. Ayoko nang pumunta at baka mamura ko na ang mga putanginang alpha na mukhang pera sa kumpanyang `to.” he told me when he refused to go to the meeting.

This time, the company agreed to mass produce it on a price range that could be afforded by the general public. The professor was very pleased with himself.

He was finally contented, and again, our division was given additional funding to start the project.

He just keeps coming up of different ways to make me fall even more in awe of him!

That is why I am still here, infatuated with my professor, and waiting for the SGT Kits to push through, so that I could finally take him home with me to the United Arab Countries of the Middle East.

I get the feeling, though, that he’s doing it on purpose, releasing one fascinating project after another, just to keep the company happy. I noticed this since he usually releases a new project in the first quarter of the year, producing it in time for his birthday, and hardly does anything else for the rest of the year.

I sigh as I sat down on my desk and entered my password on my laptop to check my own pet project.

I released a book a year ago about my findings concerning fated pairs, entitled `The Fated Pair Syndrome: Fact and Fiction’.”

I wrote that the fated pair myth could be scientifically explained. In fact, I did explain it, from an idea of the professor’s.

‘Kung ako sa inyo, sisirain ko na lang ang insula sa hippocampus ko para wala na `kong problema. `Di na ko maaapektuhan ng amoy ng mga alpha.’

He once told me that while I lay sick in bed. It was partly in jest, after he caught me sniffing him, but as usual, even the professor’s ramblings were full of useful information.

You see, the insula is the part of the brain that controls autonomic functions. It is responsible for the body’s addiction to certain substances, as well as the primal reaction of an alpha to go after an omega who is in heat.

But it also regulates the heart rate, respiratory rate, and s****l arousal, which is why you cannot simply destroy the insula like the professor suggested.

No. It is not that simple.

It is true, that alphas and omegas are bound by their sense of smell.

With the use of pheromones, an omega in heat can send an alpha into rut. An alpha, particularly, a dominant one, can also release their own pheromones freely at any given time, which in turn, can make an omega go into forced heat outside their estrus period.

My theory is that by bombarding the insula of the hippocampus with a stronger stimuli, the omega and alpha in a fated pair relationship, would no longer be affected by each other’s unique scents.

Let’s take, for example, test subjects OmegaA and AlphaA find each other’s unique scents irresistible, making them crave for each other, and causing a powerful yearning which they might mistake for passion.

This yearning or obsession is like an addiction, thus, when forced apart, it could turn into a neurotic disorder that may cause both AlphaA and OmegaA to go through  withdrawal and cause depression which may eventually lead to death.

For this experiment, I forced fated pair volunteers to live apart.

During this period, I noted that most alphas and unmarked omegas, try to find s****l gratification through multiple partners.

Marked or bitten omegas, on the other hand, begin to exhibit suicidal tendencies, while a small percentage go through a period of lethargy and spend their days wasting away in bed.

But of course, we always bring the pairs back together before their physical and mental state deteriorates any further.

Needless to say, the book I released was a success. It became an instant best seller in 25 countries and was translated into 108 languages.

Medical professionals started to use the term `Fated Pair Syndrome’ or FPS to diagnose the myth, and some doctors even used my theory to try and cut the fated pair connection.

None of them succeeded, though.

To cut the connection between two fated pairs, you need to overwrite the scent of their pair with a much stronger stimuli. Like I said, you cannot simply destroy the subjects’ insula.

But I have not been given a chance to investigate this further.

No one wanted to be separated from their fated pair, after all. No one wanted their connection severed, or at least, I haven’t found a pair that would be wiling to do so. None the less, coming to this conclusion was enough to earn me my professor’s respect, and that was more than enough for me.