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The next few weeks brought cooler weather. Rain fell heavier now, leaving the ground in a constant state of damp. The air, though cool, made you feel like you were inhaling water sometimes, the thickness of it sticking to your skin.

It had been on a day like this, when rain had just finished pelting only an hour before, that Somin found Jaehyun outside. She didn't realize what he'd been doing at first, not exactly. She'd been far too focused on the way his body was moving. This was a strange type of grace she'd never quite seen before; a combination of strength and agility. The muscles in his arms flexed and rolled under his skin, tendons more prominent as he drove one of his arms forward. He was misty before Somin's eyes, steam coming off his overly warm skin in the cool air, another feat Somin had yet to witness until now. He was practicing fighting. Mixed martial arts, perhaps, judging by the mix of forceful punches and graceful turning and kicking.

He'd noticed her only when she shut the sliding door behind her, the wolf looking up and raking his hands through his mop of golden hair that was sticking to his skin wherever it could reach. Jaehyun's chest rose and fell sharply, indicating he was out of breath. Judging by the look in his eyes, he was probably incredibly tired. "Somin," he greeted, one of his hands resting on his hip.

Somin's eyes locked on his forearm, pale, smooth, muscular. Jaehyun noticed, quirking a brow and cocking his head. "You could have kept checking me out from inside. Go back in, it's cold," he said, as if he were just realizing it.

"Are you cold?"

"No. Wolves don't get cold much. I'm sweating, anyway."

"What were you doing?" Somin ventured closer, grabbing his waterbottle from a table and holding it out towards him.

Taking it, the wolf unscrewed the cap and took a long drink, his head tilting backwards. "Practicing, obviously. Working out. Either or, both are correct."

The female took the bottle back from him, returning it to its place on the table. "It's a fighting style, right? Teach me."

"Teach you? Why? You don't need to fight anyone, Somin. Not while you have two werewolf mates--not to mention the rest of us. If you want a workout, ask Winwin to teach you to dance, or something. He knows that artsy as hell traditional Chinese dance."

Somin rolled her eyes. "I don't want to learn how to dance, Jaehyun, I want to learn how to fight. Werewolves or not, I still should know how to protect myself. Even if it's just to keep Johnny from grabbing me."

There was a pause. "You'll get hurt."

"Then don't fight me. You weren't fighting anyone, but you still practice, right? I don't actually need to fight someone. I just want to know how to."

Another long pause of silence. Somin knew she won when Jaehyun sighed and pushed his fingers through his hair again. "Fine. Come here." Jaehyun's arms went to work directing her into a proper stance. To her surprise, his touches didn't linger; instead his brief touches to twist her hips, or to straighten her back, were rigid, as if he were manipulating a dummy, not another human being. Especially not one he'd flirted with before--this was all business, but Somin sensed a strain under the facade.

Somin had tried to her arm forward in what would be a punch, but she only earned a sigh from Jaehyun. "You're all wobbly. Put more of your weight down, or else..." Jaehyun pushed his hip into hers and used one of his legs to hook around hers, easily making her stumble. She would have fallen, if not for the wolf catching her as soon as she tumbled back, one of his hands on her shoulder, while the other wrapped to rest at the small of her back.

The wolf kept teaching her for a while, until Somin felt it was her own sweat, and not the humidity, that made the hair at the nape of her neck stick to her skin. Somin, though eager to learn, was actually frustrated at Jaehyun for how very matter-of-fact he'd been while he taught her, his hands rough and not at all forgiving. Eventually she became annoyed enough that she too, stopped letting herself be gentle.

Jaehyun was behind her, with his arms resting atop hers to guide her arms into proper blows and blocks, but he was taking extra pains to prevent them from touching.