**LONGEST CHAPTER YET!**

Christmas ties, crumbling lies.

Ae Sook didn't leave her room nearly the entire day following the wolf incident.

Every time the girl contemplated going outside, her mind worked to convince her that she wasn't frightened by the prospect of her friends’ shifting forms. On the other hand, her heart couldn't help but shudder with the recollection of red eyes and scarlet blood.

The vivid images seemed to mock her everytime she thought of going to D.O and his warm amber eyes, and if she concentrated on them too long, the memories blurred and soon the happy ones created with D.O became corrupted with the horrible ones issued on the awful night.

However, she didn't believe she could forget about D.O’s kindness. With every rushed trip to the bathroom, Ae Sook came back to find a dish sitting on her table with fresh food.

She had to admit, the smell was alluring. Rich and seasoned, the food’s scent wafted throughout the entire room to the point that she thought she could envision each separate element of the dish as a color.

But no matter how good it smelled or how curious it made her to try D.O’s work, the sadness in her heart robbed her of her appetite and filled her up so that she didn’t need food. She left each dish untouched and trying to get rid of the colors, she buried herself in the corner of her room until they started to fade away.

And soon, the daylight started to fade, too. With the end of the steadily approaching, the last remaining natural light in Ae Sook’s room began to wean off, leaving her only with the bright, gentle glow of the moon. But just as the day had its own challenges, the night presented a different type of mental torture that she didn’t know of she was strong enough to face alone.

Tomorrow was Christmas, a mere 12 hours of anticipation before the celebrities that would have filled her with a giddy joy any year before. It just seemed like a slap to the face now. A holiday that was supposed to be filled with family and familiar surroundings was so empty and void of the usual promise of happy moments.

Ae Sook just wished she could sleep through the day, but that most likely wasn’t possible with all the company in the house and with her waking thoughts. Especially with the fall of darkness, the feeling that someone was watching her invaded her personal space and made her feel on edge.  

While sitting on her bed, Ae Sook tried not to think about that fact too much, but her paranoid mind had her eyes endlessly searching the borders and dark corners of her room. As she was sweeping over her opened closet, something caught her eyes.

Throwing the blankets off herself, Ae Sook approaches the closest like a person obsessed, her eyes trained on only one thing.

Reaching out with hesitant arms, she picks up a thin, white leather bound book that she got for Christmas last year. Filled with timeless poems and aphorisms, it was one of her favorite gifts ever.

As she flipped through the aged pages and antiquated print, the corners of lifted in a heavy smile that made her heart sad. It was such an ironic message to have found this tonight, the gift her parents gave her nearly a year ago that was meant to be part of a sequence that would never be fulfilled.

It made her sad to think that there would be a future without them in it, and Ae Sook could only hold onto this tiny book and be thankful. As she was trying to fight off the possibility of tears leaking, her finger caught on a natural part in the book. With a force unbeknownst to her, the book split down the middle, revealing a poem that Ae Sook has yet to read along with a bookmark that most likely caused the book’s weakened binding in this spot.

Flipped on the back, the bookmark was a small rectangle that was glossy to the touch. Immediately recognizing what it was, Ae Sook flipped it over to find a paranoid picture of her family with her parents and her. Taken last fall, Ae Sook remembers the exact moment when this picture was taken. The crisp air, her mother's laughs, her father's complaints and her own enjoyable annoyance at the whole undertaking. Ae Sook loved how this picture captured just those emotions.

Her mother, a tad bit smaller than herself, was gripping Ae Sook by the shoulders while throwing her head back in a laugh as she was trying to dodge her husband’s lunge. Her father was looming over his wife and his daughter and was trying to grab at his wife who was hiding behind their daughter. And Ae Sook, with an evident laugh on her face, was still rolling her eyes at her parents foolishness that was occurring around her.

Ae Sook’s smile begin to grow as she continues to stare at this picture. Nothing was ever wrong in this picture, and she liked to revel in that feeling of rightness. With a chuckle, Ae Sook sets aside the picture on her bed as her eyes move to read the poem. But as she skims the first verse, her smiles begins to fade off her face.

Within the inky blackness that shares her heart,
her last shreds of sanity are being slowly being pulled apart

She is here but she is not real,
Only pain and suffering she can feel.

Full of sadness, lost and utterly alone,
Is this because of some sin she must now atone

Deaths long arm is something she will never fear,
Her soul is screaming, can you hear?

Although her heart walks along with the dead,
Visions of another place fill her head.

Take my hand and you will see,
This girl I speak of is truly me.

Here I sit, here I be,
Waves of sadness pouring down on me.

The heart of a child, many times stabbed,
The joys of life from me have been grabbed.

Chasing rainbows with empty pots of gold,
I so wish they were here for me to hug and hold.

Alone without them I must walk
I know they love me, but the dead can't talk.

Words of wisdom he once gave,
absorb them, keep them, try to be brave.

Tears of sadness for a love that's lost,
my heart tries to evade the inky blackness,
at all cost.

Shattered images life can be,
in this reality I'm only me.

Ae Sook pauses after she reads the last words.

This poem, so utterly true and indicative of these moments in her life, bring moisture to Ae Sook’s eyes.

Not believing some of the words that read, Ae Sook skims it again. And again. And again. With the fourth time, Ae Sook’s in disbelief. It's like her parents knew. This poem with this picture, they're such a paradox it's ironic.

The happiness contrasted by the loss, the girl without a family. Staring at the two items, Ae Sook’s mind begins to whirl.

“Alone without them must I walk”...“Is this because of some sin she must now atone”... “Deaths long arm is something she will never fear”

She knew what she had to do.

She had to find the wolves, no matter what it took.

Even if it meant death.

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As soon as her mind was resolved, Ae Sook put the weighted thoughts away. There was nothing she could do about it right now, and her mind was too tired to try anyways. With fried synapses, all Ae Sook felt was a deep emotional tiredness that went all the way down to her core.

She just wanted to get out of the room and look at something normal for a while. Glancing at the clock on her wall, Ae Sook saw that it was nearly 2 AM in the morning. She knew that everyone would be asleep and nestled in their rooms by now, and that fact made her laugh. If she was at home, she would be up till 3 or 4, wrapping gifts, making cookies, and blasting holiday music. But in a house of werewolves, literally not even a mouse was stirring.

With this knowledge, Ae Sook proceeded into the hallway without any caution, with arms full of presents and stockings. Going down the stairs, she felt at ease as if the house was empty and she was all alone. She was too tired to even consider the possibility that the rogue werewolves were outside and could be potentially watching her.

Not like she even cared anymore with her previous determination.

Once she reached the bottom step into the living room, Ae Sook peered from behind the boxes to take notice of any obstacles, but her mind failed her as surprise washed over her.

Bathed in a warm glow surrounding the Christmas tree in the corner, the living room looked amazing just like something taken out of a Christmas magazine. Soft, white fairy lights adorned the tree and spidered all around the room like drawn out fibers. With each string of lights that wrapped around the room, a different decoration was found at the end of it. Wooden deers, snow frosted branches with tiny green leaves and red berries, clusters of golden bells. The many accessories blended together beautifully, and Ae Sook was drawn to it light a moth to a torch. Gently placing the stack of presents at the bottom of the stairs, Ae Sook weaved around the multiple poufs that replaced the single chairs that were normally there. The coffee table was also swapped out for a smaller, more holiday-based center that had golden leaves wrapped around it. She let out a small laugh at the new furniture, touched by the coziness of it all. Finally, and thankfully without tripping over anything, Ae Sook arrived in front of the tree. If she wasn’t surprised before, she was bewildered now.

All across the tree, from the base to the very top, were her family’s very own ornaments. The glass beads, the small sweaters and bulky snowmen, and the golden deers all resided on their own branch, happily nestled amongst the pine needles. Her gaze drifted, and sure enough, the god-forbidden antlers that she had stepped on before rested by the TV right next to a few portraits of Ae Sook as a child all the way up to one from her friends gathering from a few weeks ago. A small angel even rested next to a picture of her parents.

A fire light in her eyes at the sight, and it began to burn once she saw the dove ornament that she received from the man from the tree lot.  

She tried to calm it, tried to keep it from spilling onto her cheeks by fanning at her face, but it proved to be futile. Just as one spark landed on her skin and scorched her cheek, a voice sounded from behind her.

“Do you like it?”

It would be an understatement to say that that sentence scared the living day lights out of her.

Very ungracefully, Ae Sook turned towards the direction of the voice with a jump, only to have her foot catch on a damned poof, causing her to spiral downwards in a flurry of limbs. Like a fool, she landed between two poofs, one leg elevated as it rested on the small chair while her head rested by the base of another. Wincing from the sharp pain in her skull, Ae Sook tried to decipher the features of the person in front of her.

Seeming to sense her confusion and pain, the individual leaned in farther, his face only a few inches from hers. Only then could Ae Sook see that it was D.O with a jolt. With additional surprise, she somehow banged her head yet another time on the coffee table as she tried to lift her head in a haste to stand up. Whimpering, she just let her head rest on the floor as lights, which she was sure didn’t have anything to do with ones strung across the room, floated across her vision, creating a universe of starbursts.

“If you keep doing this, you’ll off yourself before the other werewolves get a chance,” D.O says softly as he leans over to pick up Ae Sook into his arms.

With her vision still swimming, Ae Sook stumbles when D.O sets her down on her feet next to the couch. Smiling, D.O stands against Ae Sook, placing his hands behind her head on either side of her face so that she can look at him straight. However, her eyes travel, still not completely stable with her surroundings. Concerned about her condition, D.O lowers his head so that he can stare into her eyes.

“Can you see me?”

Ae Sook’s head is still spinning when she pushes him away from her. “Of course I can! I didn’t hit myself that hard.” But despite her words, she starts to sway right without D.O’s support.

“Oh, no you don’t,” D.O comments as he takes Ae Sook into his arms yet again. Running his fingers along the base of her skull, Ae Sook hisses when he touches a particular spot.  

“And you said you didn’t hit it that hard?”

“I could’ve hit it harder,” Ae Sook whispers, not quite sure what's loud and what's quiet anymore.

“Okayyy,” D.O breathes out, a bit alarmed at Ae Sook’s condition, “I think you need to sit down.”

Quickly placing one arm under her knees and the other against her back, D.O picks up Ae Sook with his werewolf speed, leaving Ae Sook even dizzier than before.

“Why am I upside down?” she mutters as the room tilts before her. Suddenly, the world dips as D.O sits down on the couch with Ae Sook in his lap. Slipping her off him, he places a pillow behind her head before he gets off the couch and sits on his knees on the floor beside her.

Prodding her hairline and the base of her neck a bit more, D.O continues to question Ae Sook’s state of health. “Does it still hurt anywhere?”

Ae Sook, somewhat aware now, slaps off D.O’s hands. “I’m fine. Just go get me a bag of ice and stop nagging. You’re making my head hurt even more.”

Using his speed, D.O is back in under a minute with the requested items. Ae Sook simply sits up and presses the cool bag to the back of her head. Shaking her head a bit, she blinks to focus on her surroundings. Shockingly enough, the first thing she sees when she opens her eyes is D.O who is kneeling in front of her with what she assumes is concern in his eyes.

“I told you I’m fine. Stop looking at me like that,” Ae Sook chastises as she pushes D.O’s shoulder, just hoping a tad bit that he would fall back on his . Sadly, werewolves have good balance, and her touch barely affects him. He even leans in closer afterwards.

“You sure are crabby towards a person who just saved your life.”

Ae Sook narrows her eyes at him as much as she can before another sharp stab of pain runs down her spine. “If you weren’t down here, I wouldn’t have fell in the first place! You scared the bejesus out of me!”

With her enthusiastic reproach, the bag of ice slips from her fingers and Ae Sook turns around to try and reclaim it. But D.O, seeing her struggle, quickly snatches the bag only to place it to the back of her head again and hold it there.

With a laugh in his voice, D.O comments, “Well a good scare every now and then is healthy.”

“Don’t sell me that,” Ae Sook snaps. “Why were you here in the first place? I didn’t even see you when I came down.”

D.O taps his index finger against Ae Sook’s temple. “Did the fall make you forget things? I was sitting on the couch the entire time.”

“I didn’t forget! I never saw you down here. And why was it exactly at that moment when I was by the TV, surrounded by a myriad of obstacles of death, that you decided to voice a question out of the darkness like from a scene in a horror movie?”

“I was just asking a genuine question. I didn’t think you'd react like that.” D.O says defensively. Ae Sook goes to say something else, but D.O cuts her off immediately. “So, did you like it?” With the question, his voice turns soft and his eyes travel across her features, eager and nervous as to what her response would be.

Ae Sook huffs at not being able to scold him anymore with sharp questions, but with an eye on the Christmas tree, she sighs in resignation.

“It's beautiful but that still doesn’t make me forgive you.”

“And why not?”

Ae Sook’s breath hitches when her eyes come back to D.O’s face. She must have not recognized it before, but his face was literally an inch from hers. Ae Sook could see every feature of his face in detail, from the melted brown of his eyes to the heart shape of his lips.

And she could feel his warmth.

It washed over her in a sudden and unexpected wave that caused her gut to clench with an unfamiliar emotion. It was almost akin to the feeling of being nervous, but it was amplified by 10. The feeling rose up , and it made her want to do things that she's never thought of before, like for example, closing the small gap between D.O and herself.

Ae Sook simply stared at D.O, unsure of where to go from there and what to do, and it seemed to her that D.O was feeling similarly so. He didn't move from his position, and with one arm already around Ae Sook’s head, the other one came to rest beside her, almost boxing her in. He stared at her intently, which caused the feeling in her stomach to spike dramatically. In addition, while Ae Sook’s breathing seemed a bit heavy even to her own ears, it seemed as if D.O wasn't breathing at all, he was so still.

Ae Sook, unable to take the warmth and electricity coursing between them, leaned back into the couch a bit, and suddenly, her hand hit something hard and an eruption of sound followed.

Almost having a heart attack twice in under an hour, Ae Sook leapt from D.O’s embrace and into the far corner of the couch where she sat with wide eyes. As for D.O, he reacted similarly due to the fact that Ae Sook had taken his entire concentration and awareness of his surroundings. But instead of leaping, he simply whirled around to find that the only source of sound was the TV. Quick to act, D.O stood up to shut off the appliance before it could wake anyone up.

When he turned around, D.O’s eyes connected with Ae Sook’s and the two laughed shakily at the event that just transpired. Each of the two remained quiet, not commenting on what each felt just seconds before and after a few moments, they let the potential of the situation fade away.

Instead, D.O came to sit next to Ae Sook on the couch quietly. Completely different from his previous attitude, D.O laid his head against the back of the couch and briefly closed his eyes, not making a move to account for his actions or provide any sort of explanation.

As Ae Sook was the one left out of the pair to establish normality, she cleared before proceeding to comment on something from before. “You know, you never answered my question from before. Why were you down here?”

D.O opens his eyes and tilts his head to the side so that he can look at Ae Sook. “I couldn't exactly sleep. My room was bothering me.”

I felt guilty and it was bothering me because you weren't there, was what he wanted to say.

Ae Sook nods her head at his explanation as she nestles into the sinking corner of the sofa. “Mm, I can relate.”

“So what's your reason?” D.O asks, watching each of her movements.

Ae Sook glances quickly to the tree again. “I guess situational alertness? I'm usually up during this time on holidays and I wanted to place the gifts under the tree.” Now she looks towards the stairs where her presents are all stacked on top of each other in a neat stack. She would normally get up and get them, but she was too lazy to do it now.

D.O hums in response. “I guess there's only two mice who are stirring this evening.”

“Well, this mouse is pretty still. I don't think I'm going to be moving anytime soon off this couch.”

D.O raises his eyebrows. “I claimed this first, you know. I don't know what you're talking about staying here for when you haven't even asked for permission.”

“Oh come on, don't you feel the Christmas spirit? You have to share. Or you're gonna have to drag me off this.”

D.O seems to contemplate her words for a moment, “I suppose I could share for the night. You're too heavy to carry all the way upstairs, anyways.”

“Hey!” Ae Sook exclaims as she makes a mocking swipe at his head. “I am not! You take that back!” Ae Sook tries to kick him with her spread legs, but she fails horribly as her legs are too short to even graze him. However, D.O laughs at her attempts and even scoots closer to her. Almost as a joke, her takes her feet and rests them on top of his lap.

Ae Sook simply stares at D.O in curiosity, her previous argument gone. With a bit of surprise on her part, D.O begins to rap his fingers along her ankles as he mindlessly contemplates something. Unsure of what it could mean, Ae Sook doesn't say anything about it and lets him continue.

Then out of nowhere, another nonsensical question appears. “Do you hate me?”

“What do you mean?”

“Do you hate me? From yesterday, I mean. Or are you scared?” D.O briefly glances sideways at Ae Sook before looking down solidly at his hands which rest on top of her ankles. If most of the sense hadn't been knocked out of her, she would say he looked guilty.

Ae Sook squints at him in response, not quite sure if her head injury is making the cognitive portion of her brain foggy. “Why would you think I hate you?”

“For being a wolf. For being ignorant. For messing up every single moment no matter how hard I try to make it a good one.”

He sounds so frustrated and sad that it's makes Ae Sook pause.

“D.O,” Ae Sook calls as she waits for the male to turn his eyes towards her. Even with a second call, he refuses to look at her, causing Ae Sook to pull her feet off his lap and scoot cross-legged towards him until her knees are touching D.O’s legs. Using a hand, she reaches out to grab his chin and gently turn it towards herself so that they are looking into each other's eyes.

“If I hated you, do you think I would be sitting next to you right now? Do you think I would still be in this house?  I may be human, but I have more than a few capabilities in which I could've escaped, and if I truly hated you, or any one of your pack mates, I would've already been gone. Yesterday,” Ae Sook breaks off for a moment to let a passing memory of red eyes leave her, “was an incident and it wasn't your fault. You guys have proved to me that you're not the same and it was my own stupid mistake to think that you guys don't shift. I can't hate you for what you were born with, that's not my place. And I certainly can't hate a friend, so please stop spouting nonsense that makes my brain hurt.”

As Ae Sook drops her fingers from D.O’s chin and into her lap as a sign that this conversation is over, D.O takes her hand into his. At first, he stares at her palm with a shielded expression before turning it over in order to thread his fingers with Ae Sook’s.

Ae Sook’s heart practically stops due to stress from all these shocking events. However, just like before, the girl remains quiet, not quite sure what logical sequence of events this is following anymore.

D.O then proceeds to brush his thumb over the location of Ae Sook’s pulse, which she can guarantee is jumping wildly. “And what about being afraid? You may not hate me but that doesn't mean you're not afraid. I'm still a wolf.”

“But you're not rogue. You're not the one who killed my parents so I have no right to be afraid. I need to stop being childish and-”

“But you're not. You're being rational and you have every ri-”

“No I don't. Listen, if you wanted to kill me, you could have just let me die off with my parents in the first place and saved yourself the trouble. But you didn't so stop trying to plant all these different scenarios of you being the bad guy now. You're not and you're my friend. I don't want to hear anymore of this.” She squeezed his hand for emphasis on her final words.

D.O scanned Ae Sook’s eyes for a few more moments before speaking hesitantly. “So does that mean I'll get my roommate back?”

Ae Sook’s eyes widen at his question but she quickly regains herself. “Only if you stop asking dumb questions.”

“I'll take that as a yes then,” D.O grins, and Ae Sook could swear she could lose her mind looking into his eyes.

And from then on, it's like something shifted in the atmosphere. Ae Sook and D.O continue to talk in low, whispered voices for what seems like hours. The conversation flowed naturally between the two, and it's not until fatigue began to take over the both of them did their voices become hushed by sleep. And even then, they didn't leave each other. With D.O and his warmth and Ae Sook and her sprawling limbs, the two fell asleep on the couch together, enclosed in the others warmth, still connected as they fade away to a world full of joyful warmth and hopeful wishes.

And never before has Ae Sook felt as content and safe as she does beside D.O in this moment.

And never before has D.O felt as thankful and happy that a person wasn't afraid of him as he did now.

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“Well this is…. unexpected.”

“Unexpected? When the hell did this happen?”

“I'm flabbergasted.”

“No words, really.”

The four werewolves, Suho, Baekhyun, Chanyeol, and Sehun, comment as they stand in the living at the foot of the couch where they observe, with much surprise, D.O and Ae Sook sleeping on the couch together. That might not have been as large of a concern as it was if not for the fact that their hands were entangled tog