For future reference, here is what the other EXO members look like in this story: Xiumin (note: he's like Kris in EXO Showtime, trying to be cool and collected but from time to time completely losing his manliness) , Luhan (crazy eyes) , Chen (trololololol) , Lay (way too sweet but then in a split second y/scary), Tao (really scary but sweet to Kris) , Kris (cool city guy, distanced, nicer to Tao, occasional losses of manliness) , Chanyeol (really friendly and energetic until he's mad, in which case, uh oh, quick-tempered), Baekhyun (super hyper like Chanyeol but quick to sadness) , Suho (professional ajumma, caring and hard to anger but very hard to calm down) , Sehun (similar to Kris in that he is distanced but when he is warmed up to people, very outspoken, only one who can calm Suho down when he's mad)

Happy reading!

It was a little scary how much more Jongin saw Kyungsoo, now that he knew the latter existed.

He's catching glimpses of fiery red and china skin and orange-white ears in hallways he never saw them in before, hearing gentle velvet words, seeing gold eyes from across the hall that disappear in seconds. Jongin is convinced that he's gone crazy.

That is, until someone else tells him he's not.

"So how are you doing, Kai?" Suho asked, head propped up on one hand and a lazy smile stretching across his face. 

The older boy was the epitome of perfect: patient, smart, hard working, handsome, kind, perceptive...he was one of the handful who weren't afraid of Jongin. It wasn't often that Suho bestowed his presence, though, even to Jongin, whom Suho treated like a son. Not that it was his fault. Suho was extremely busy with...G-d knows what.

The jealous looks of the students filing in to biology class served to inflate Jongin's meager ego.

"I'm doing well," Jongin replied, scratching at one of his ears. Suho might be nice, but he was still intimidating, especially since Jongin knew of the few terrifying times the collie hybrid had gotten mad. "And you?"

The smile got bigger. "I'm fantastic. Thanks for asking. Other people are taking over the project for a little while, so I don't have to run so much."

Jongin nodded, like he knew exactly what the project was. Besides, wasn't Suho supposed to be in physics?

Suho frowned for a second, then leaned in towards the wolf hybrid. "Hey, Kai. You know that kid, Dongwoo or Kang-koo..."

"Kyungsoo?" Jongin offered, a little surprised.

"Kyungsoo. Yes. I won't forget that name." Suho's brows furrowed in concentration as he mouthed the words to himself. Then he focused back on Jongin, his eyes carrying an aura of secrecy. "About Kyungsoo. Do you notice that he's...always looking at you?"

"Where?"

Suho nodded his head towards the lab table in the far corner behind Jongin, where a student with a blue beanie, khakis, and a black button-down open over white tee sat hunched over an open binder, pen tapping rapidly on the black tabletop. A familiar fluffy black tail curled around the leg of the stool.

"I didn't know Kyungsoo was in my bio class," Jongin said. "Was he actually looking at me?"

Suho glanced back. "He was. That is Kyungsoo, right? Gold eyes?"

"Yeah."

"You don't see that often around here." Suho smiled dazzlingly and stood up. "Anyways, I have to get to class."

Jongin huffed a quiet laugh. So Suho was in physics. 

Chanyeol and Baekhyun dropped down on the seats across from Jongin, both of them carrying hot chocolate from the dining hall. "Kai!" Baekhyun said, too loudly. As usual. Chanyeol, Jongin's roommate and possibly the only person capable of making Baekhyun more energetic than usual, yanked on the shorter one's floppy labrador ear, eliciting a squeak.

Jongin waved a hand, suddenly relaxed, as he always was with these two noisy wierdos. "Guys, stop. Mr. Kim's here," he said, trying to get the two to shut up.

Baekhyun and Chanyeol only jabbered on even more loudly, if that was at all possible.

Suddenly, someone slid onto the chair next to Jongin, and the Loud Ones on the opposite side quieted.

There was an awkward moment of silence before Baekhyun spoke.

"Satansoo!" he said, a devilish look appearing on his face.

Jongin looked over at Kyungsoo, who had taken off the beanie and was smoothing down his red hair. "Satan...soo?"

"That's what he called me after I threw hot water at him in seventh grade," he replied, completely nonchalant.

Chanyeol and Jongin were both silent, and their hesitations must have been question enough.

"We were both here in middle school," Baekhyun sighed. "He loved me."

"I hate you," Kyungsoo deadpanned.

"As long as you don't take him away from me," Chanyeol said, hugging Baekhyun into his chest and tucking the younger one's head under his chin.

Jongin felt a little pang of jealousy, then pushed it away. He should be happy for his roommate and friend, not envious.

Mr. Kim tapped the whiteboard with his marker and cleared his throat for attention.

"I didn't know you were in my bio class," Jongin noted as he and Kyungsoo wove their way between people on their way to the dorm building.

Kyungsoo shrugged, fiddling with a piece of orange paper. "I try not to talk in class."

Clearly.

"Why?"

There was a pause. "Well, I just don't want to," is the eventual response.

Jongin didn't pry. "What floor are you on? In the dorm, I mean."

Kyungsoo gave him a strange look, equal parts disappointment and amusement. "We're already three months into the school year, and you don't know who's on your floor?"

"What?"

"I'm in the room at the end of the hall. 308."

Jongin let that information turn over in his head. "You room with Sehun?" He tried to picture his childhood lion hybrid friend hanging out with Kyungsoo and couldn't. Then he tried to picture Kyungsoo jumping into Sehun's arms at the sight of a spider and cringed.

"Yeah. You know him?"

"I've known him since I was in preschool."

"Wow, pre-dyed hair Sehun."

Jongin smiled. "He was such a nerd before his heats started."

"Really? What was he like?"

"A nerd."

"Real specific."

"I mean, he still is. All aegyo-y and sassy and a drama queen."

The two of them stopped at the entrance to the dorm building, Kyungsoo peering at Jongin through narrowed eyes. "Are you sure we're talking about the same Sehun?"

"Oh Sehun, right? Rainbow hair and an attitude like a b----?"

Kyungsoo looked away, in deep thought. "I don't--the only time I've ever seen him do aegyo was for Tao, and that was when Sehun was trying to flirt with him."

"Flirting with Tao?" The Doberman Pinscher hybrid's sharp, serious face floated in Jongin's mind, and he tried to connect it to gwiyomi and fluff. In vain.

"Tao, yeah. The two of them looked like they were going to go at it right on the floor in front of me." Kyungsoo grimaced. "Well, that was at the beginning of the school year, before we all found out Tao was gay and going out with Kris."

Jongin sputtered. "Tao and Kris are--they're--"

"How much don't you know?" Kyungsoo laughed and stretched up to pat Jongin's head. "Hasn't Sehun gone to cry to you about how his love life is a disaster and he'll never find anyone as good as Tao? Because if you're really his friend, then he would've told you."

Jongin flushed. "Well, we have really different schedules, so--"

"No, I know. He told me he wished you guys could meet more. But he's also really happy that you're doing so well with dance."

A warm, fuzzy feeling bloomed in Jongin's chest. "He said that?"

"Well, no, he said that you're a talented d--- that he wants to steal all the skill from, but I got the message."

That sounded more like Sehun.

Kyungsoo gave a satisfied huff and held up his piece of paper. It had been transformed, folded into a carambola flower. "Here," he said, holding the flower out to Jongin. 

"For me?" Jongin asked, pointing at himself.

Kyungsoo took the wolf hybrid's hand and pressed the flower into his hand, folding his fingers over the delicate origami creation. Their eyes met, and Kyungsoo's had a shine to them.

"For you."

Jongin sat at his desk, the chair tipped back onto its back legs, eyes closed, basking in the rhythm of BTS's new album that throbbed through his set of panda speakers.

Chanyeol was sprawled across the bed on his stomach, trying to listen to his own music and read his book at the same time. He pulled his earphones out every few minutes to glare at Jongin, as if that would get his roommate to stop.

The straw that broke the camel's back was when Jongin started singing out loud.

Chanyeol ripped the earphones from his ears and pushed himself up. Jongin slammed the mute button. An angry Chanyeol was the last thing he needed, any time.

"J---s f---ing--" Chanyeol roared, grabbing a fistful of his hair and taking a shuddering breath in. "Just keep it down, won't you?!"

Jongin put his hands up and leaned away. "I'm sorry, Chanyeol. My bad."

"Yeah, your d-mn fault it is," the leopard hybrid growled, stuffing his earphones back in.

Jongin sighed. It was probably bad to be used to Chanyeol's hot temper, but that's why the boy was at a rehabilitation school anyways.

What can you do? Jongin thought, shaking his head. He pulled his history textbook from his backpack and flipped to where his bookmark was.

A few minutes passed when a sudden thought came.

"Hey, Chan," he ventured, wary of another potential outburst from the leopard hybrid. "You know Kyungsoo? DO Kyungsoo?"

Chanyeol glanced up, seeming to have completely forgot his anger from earlier. "The guy Baekhyun called Satansoo? Yeah, I have. He's in math with me." He smiled his familiar bright smile. "Why?"

Jongin gave himself a moment to marvel at his bipolar roommate. "Do you know why Kyungsoo's here? You know, at this school? He doesn't seem like a guy who'd need rehab."

Chanyeol pursed his lips contemplatively. "You know...I'm not sure. Want me to ask Baekhyunnie?"

Jongin cringed internally at the nickname, but he was too curious to object to what could be valuable information.

Not that it mattered; Chanyeol was already tapping at his phone screen, and a quiet ding filled the room. "Why do you want to know, anyways? In case he asks."

"...I don't know. He just doesn't seem like...I mean, I only knew him for like two weeks, but--" Jongin's face was heating up again, as it did so much recently. 

"Hey man, I'm not asking if you wanna bang him on a table," Chanyeol said, noticing the wolf hybrid's discomfort (and making it worse, but that's just how Chanyeol did things). "Just curious."

His phone buzzed, and Chanyeol read the message with a quirked eyebrow and bizarre expression. That look changed very quickly when his phone vibrated again and became something that Jongin rarely saw on Chanyeol's face: shock.

"I--um," Chanyeol stuttered. "S-so he's not here for violence."

Jongin felt something in him drop.

There were two progams at the school. One was for the hybrids with violent tendencies or predispositions, like Jongin and Chanyeol. It was the larger of the two. The other was a rehabilitation program for those who had suffered abuse and trauma as a result of them being hybrids. It was smaller, mostly due to the fact that it was much more selective and only took the worst cases.

Sehun was of that program--he had been beaten inches away from death by his father at age six and was then passed around among family members, some abusive, some completely indifferent.

And apparently, so was Kyungsoo.

"How bad?" Jongin asked, voice breaking.

There was a long, tense break before the answer came.

Chanyeol read the message and dropped his phone on the bed, a weary look on his face. "So," he started, rubbing his eyes. "Kyungsoo was twelve years old when this happened, okay?"

Jongin gripped the edge of his shirt.

"His mom had an affair with some other guy. So his dad only found out when Kyungsoo was twelve, after Kyungsoo's eyes started turning gold, and no one in their family had golden eyes. He came out at the same time. He...uh, he hurt his mom, and threw Kyungsoo out on the sidewalk, and someone came and brought him to a hybrid orphanage, and...it was a really c--ppy place, and when he finally got adopted, Kyungsoo wouldn't talk. He only started when he met Baekhyun, apparently."

There was a long silence, broken by someone slamming on the door.

Jongin and Chanyeol both jumped, and they exchanged a very pregnant look before the wolf hybrid went to peer through the peephole. "Tao," he said, swallowing. He opened the door.

Tao stood eye to eye with Jongin, arms folded and his usual dagger gaze trained on the other boy's face. Lay leaned on the wall opposite. "Please keep it down, Kai," Tao said, then looked over his shoulder. "You too, Chanyeol. The two of you are being too loud."

He whirled around and stormed off. Lay watched his fellow Dragon disappear around the corner, then pushed off the wall. "Sorry about that, Kai," he said, smiling kindly and patting his junior's shoulder. "Tao's getting jittery."

"Why's that?"

Lay shrugged. "I think it's because your next episode is next week. Am I wrong? Tao's still a little upset that he couldn't beat you, but it's more his pride than anything." He laughed.

Jongin couldn't do the same. "Oh," he managed. 

Lay caught on and shook his head. "Don't worry about it. If I can take care of you while I'm having my heat and he can't, then that's his problem."

Jongin wanted to correct the cougar hybrid and remind him that last time, he had almost ripped his guts out, but he thought that he didn't want to deal with a Dragon while he was still sane.

"Anyways, keep the noise down at a dull roar, okay?" Lay said, giving a pointed look to Chanyeol. "I know it wasn't Kai here."

Chanyeol grinned sheepishly.

"See you around." Lay followed the route that Tao took, throwing a wave back.

Jongin closed the door and sighed. "He's so nice it scares me," he admitted.

November 17th:

Found out that DO Kyungsoo is here for the recovery program today. Didn't know that before. Actually, I feel really guilty because I didn't think someone like him would need it. I don't know him that well though, so I guess it's not totally my fault. Right?

Baekhyun says that Kyungsoo got kicked out of his house when he came out, and his dad found out that he wasn't his biological kid at the same time...then he went through a lot. I feel bad. 

I won't let Kyungsoo know that I know. It would make him uncomfortable.

PS: Baekhyun calls Kyungsoo "Satansoo" because of their love-hate relationship in middle school. Interesting.