"Why are you all so touchy?" Somi couldn't help but ask this question as Changkyun kept his arm slung over Somi's shoulders. He was proud of the fight he had put up earlier and he couldn't wipe the smile off his face as the four of them strolled towards Somi's dorm room, moving quietly down the hall just in case there was an adult patrolling the halls, because it was still school hours and all of them should have been in classes right then, but there were wounds on their bodies that Somi was adamant about taking care of.

"We're somewhat animals, it's like pack instinct to keep other people close to us" Hyunwoo followed behind them with Hyungwon's arm hanging over his shoulder and his feet dragging against the ground as Hyunwoo forced him to the dormitory and in the elevator until they were at Somi's door and entering the dorm so that he could dump Hyungwon on Somi's couch.

Hyungwon's legs hung over the arm of the chair when Hyunwoo put them up. He took the blanket that was folded over the back of Somi's couch, covering Hyungwon's body with it as his puffy eyes finally stayed closed and with a groan of what Hyunwoo took as appreciation, he fell asleep on the couch.

"So does anyone want to say what that was?" Somi put her first aid kit down on the coffee table and crossed her arms over her chest, but she regretted it, hissing and looking at her raw wrists. She didn't even remember how it happened, but they were raw and it was painful.

"It's really something he should talk about if he feels up to it" Hyunwoo looked down at Hyungwon, putting a hand over his forehead to check his temperature. He just looked absolutely exhausted in Somi's eyes, so she moved forward, checking Hyungwon's temperature when Hyunwoo stood up straight again. He was warm and his breathing was heavy with sleep, Somi clucked her tongue brushing the hair back from Hyungwon's face as she shook her head.

"He can stay here until he feels better again. For now, we need to patch ourselves up" Somi made herself comfortable on the coffee table next to her first aid kit and Changkyun scoffed, slowly moving to sit on the ground.

"Such etiquette you have" He mocked and Somi shot him a narrow eyed look that told him to cut it out. She threw an ointment for his forming bruises for good measure and Changkyun laughed. Somi dug through the first aid kit, pulling out a familiar bottle of brown liquid before moving towards Hyunwoo.

"Not this stuff again" He complained and Somi nodded, shuffling forward and putting her legs on either side of one of Hyunwoo's and squeezing so he wouldn't be able to escape her.

"Yes, it's this stuff again" She nodded with a wide smile and Hyunwoo wiggled in his seat.

"That stuff stings" He protested, trying to push Somi away from him, but Somi fought back, pushing his hands away and leaning in close.

"But it cleans your wounds, and you have a nasty one right on your cheek. Let's not forget the scratches on your arms, what about this one I see here?" Somi took Hyunwoo's chin between her fingers, raising his chin and poking a nasty looking scratch on the side of his neck. Hyunwoo hissed, pulling back and pinching his brows together.

"That hurt" He slapped Somi's thigh in another attempt to make her back off but she just laughed with the lid to the bottle of disinfectant in her hands. She pulled the q-tip from between her fingers, dipping it in the bottle, swirling it around and pulling it back out, waving it around for Hyunwoo to see.

"Are you ready big boy?" She grinned and Hyunwoo groaned.

"I'd rather die instead" He muttered.

"Please stop , it'll make me think you're doing something else with Somi's legs" Changkyun spoke in an innocent voice of plea and Somi looked back, throwing her chin up as she laughed.

"It's about to get noisy Changkyunie!"

"NO!"

------------

"You know I don't like you as much as I like the others right?" Kihyun smirked, looking at Hyunwoo and shrugging as he leant against the locker that was next to Hyunwoo's.

"That doesn't bother me" He told him just as honestly as Hyunwoo had spoken to him and Hyunwoo couldn't help the way his brows then pinched in confusion as he opened the door to his locker. 

"Then why have you been following me around all day? You're being a pest" Hyunwoo continued with his blunt words and Kihyun's shoulders bobbed up and down again.

"Well, I just thought, after hearing what you were willing to do for Hyungwon yesterday, and after not being his friend for very long as well, maybe I could learn something from it" Kihyun admitted, talking slowly and Hyunwoo's hands lowered, momentarily forgetting the books he was grabbing for his next class.

"Yoo Kihyun, you're trying to be a better person? I find that hard to believe" Hyunwoo scoffed, actually taking his books from his locker this time and slamming it shut, he walked away and Kihyun stood up straight, looking at him with his eyes growing in determination.

"You're all stepping up and achieving things, you're becoming better people. So why can't I?" He spoke down the hall loudly. Hyunwoo paused, looking over his shoulder uncertainly before turning to face Kihyun again.

"It's more than having someones back and doing favours Kihyun, we're actually friends here. And to be that is more than just following people around, you have to fix your own problems to" This time, Kihyun had nothing to say. He stood on the spot, his bag in his arms as he stared through Hyunwoo, zoning out to somewhere that Hyunoo couldn't see.

"Let's go, we have our next class together" Hyunwoo stalked down the hall again and Kihyun shook his head, snapping back to earth and looking around. He moved quickly on his feet to catch up to Hyunwoo, reaching his side as Hyunwoo opened the door to their next class and entered the room.

"If you fully intend to be our friend, I suggest you google the definition as a starting point" Hyunwoo spoke again as he made himself comfortable in his assigned seat for the lesson and Kihyun did the same, releasing a gentle scoff as he responded.

"I'm pretty sure I know what friendship means"

"What is friendship defined as?" Hyunwoo questioned him and Kihyun froze, his mind going blank and his face going blank, why did Hyunwoo need him to know that?

"I suggest you do some research first" Hyunwoo nodded, taking in the sight of Kihyun's frozen self before turning to his books sitting on his desk. Kihyun awkwardly lowered himself the rest of the way into his seat, his head looking from left to right as he swallowed. He pulled out his phone from his pocket, hiding it behind the height of his bag on the desk as he unlocked it and went straight to the internet. Hyunwoo watched him, smiling knowingly as he went into google definitions, looking up friendship and reading the blurb google provided. Hyunwoo looked away again, unable to help the smile on his face when he looked to the front of the class.

------------

"Hyungwon, if we could, I would like to talk about what happened back in the hallway earlier" Hyungwon was still on her couch, tired beyond belief and warm to touch and Somi knew that if this was a regular occurrence for him, the Great Race wasn't going to go well for him. Hyungwon took in a deep breath and let it out again, slowly opening his eyes and turning to look at the concerned Somi who was crouched before him. His whole aura radiated groggy and hardly able to comprehend, but there was still a look in his eyes because of her question.

"I know now is really not the best time to ask, not when you're in this state. But I just now you're going to work hard to avoid it when you're up and moving again" Hyungwon's arms slinked out from under the blanket as he let out a soft chortle. They wrapped around Somi, pulling her down on the sofa next to him, most of her body ended up over his, but Hyungwon didn't seem to mind as his arms tightened their hold on her and she squealed, squirming to get away from him.

"You have to go back to school soon, so I'll make this quick, make sure you listen" He spoke and Somi's whole body went stiff when his fingers delicately travelled up and down the space of her arm. She looked up at him, he was staring up at her ceiling, a soft smile pulling at his lips.

"This is awkward for me to say, but the biggest reason everyone here calls me so many names is because I really am different to them. Everyone here was born as what they are, but I was born as a human, it wasn't until the age of five that I knew about this world. My parents had taken me for an appointment to find out what was wrong with me, I had fallen extremely ill and they couldn't figure out what it was. A few months before that, I had been in hospital after breaking my arm playing with some friends. A doctor had come in, telling me and insisting I needed a needle to numb the pain. The effects started a few months later, I had only seen that doctor when he gave me the needle. The next time that I saw him was when the doctors decided to keep me for a few nights to figure out what was wrong, doing x-rays and such. Then that same man would come to my room during the night, sometimes I was awake and sometimes I wasn't but either way he would take me to a secluded room and do his experiments on me" Hyungwon gulped, Somi rest her chin on her hand over his chest, watching the way his face twisted and contorted with his words, remembering the painful memories.

"It was when he told me I was succeeding that I somehow realised that the needle he gave me had done something to me. I don't know how I remember, but I would toss and turn, seeing him put the needle in my skin most nights after that. After a couple of weeks, my symptoms went down and my parents were able to take me home. But that doctor had been boasting to himself, saying I could be anything I wanted to be, anything he needed me to be. I don't know why he never took me back to use me for whatever he needed, because when I was twelve, I got the angriest that I had ever been, it was painful and I was confused, but somehow I had run home, causing a fright to all of my neighbours because they witnessed a wild lion jumping the fence to my backyard. I don't remember how I changed or when I changed back, but I woke up with my parents looking over me. I could tell they were scared, but it didn't stop them from being concerned, they looked into things, meanwhile I was getting angry about things and turning into animals and wanted criminals to replicas of the children I played with in our neighbourhood" He chuckled bitterly and Somi's thumb unconsciously followed the soothing motion that Hyungwon's was making on her arm, rubbing small circles over his chest.

"So, you can't shift forms without it hurting you and leaving you like this?" She questioned and Hyungwon shook his head.

"I used to fall sick after random shifts, my parents discovered that it was only when I shifted out of anger that all my symptoms from when I was a child would return. So they dug around until they found this school and they sent me here to help me learn how to control what I am, normal shifts are fine, I just can't feel strong waves of emotions, I never learnt h