Tao was still grumbling as he stormed through the front door of the farmhouse. Minseok and Jiyeon were watching a movie in the front room along with Yixing and Ming. No way he was stopping in there. His older members glanced at his stomping figure, but said nothing as he passed on to the kitchen.

But it wasn’t empty either.

Kris and Junmyeon were talking in hushed whispers while Evie and Kita fretted over Mei at the table. When the little baby saw her favorite uncle, she squealed with delight, waving her tiny hands in excitement. No matter how sour Tao’s evening had gone, one smile from that little girl melted it away.

Using those super mom powers she had now, Evie narrowed her eyes at Tao before checking her watch.

“You’re home early,” she noted. The alphas stopped talking, turning to look at the young wolf.

Sliding into the empty chair beside Mei, Tao kept his attention on her, letting her play with his fingers as he shrugged. “I wasn’t feeling it tonight.”

“Since when do you not ‘feel it’?” Kris scoffed.

“From what it sounded like earlier, you were very excited,” Junmyeon commented. Tilting his head to the side, he kept a steady gaze on Tao. “What happened, Tao?”

Tao scowled up at the alpha. “Nothing happened. I just got bored.”

Slapping the breakfast booth table, Kris stood up and marched over to Tao, towering over him. “Look up at me.”

Tao rolled his eyes, but obeyed, making sure the most annoyed expression was reading loud and clear in his eyes.

“Who is she?”

Great. Was it really that obvious? “She who?”

Kris didn’t appreciate the sarcasm. “Don’t play dumb with me. It’s written all over your face.”

Junmyeon laughed. “You’re right. It really is.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Tao stood up to his feet, no longer able to keep his frustration at bay.

Kita, with her eyebrows furrowed in confusion, asked, “Why are you guys hounding hi-” then she stopped, the realization finally hitting her. “Oh.” She pressed her lips together tightly to keep her thoughts to herself.

“Thanks for ruining my evening for the second time,” Tao growled before he bolted towards the back door.

He barely heard Kris grumble, “Oh, no you don’t’,” before he was in the backyard, sprinting for the trees. If only he wasn’t wearing this expensive jacket and could shift, he’d be faster on all fours.

Just as he was able to break through the forest border, he felt a yank on his hood, stopping his momentum and landing him on his backside hard in the dirt. Great. Now he was going to have to scrub these pants when he washed them.

“As someone who tried to do a similar thing, take it from me,” Kris rounded Tao, staring down at him with crossed arms and a teasing smirk, “running away doesn’t really do you any good.”

Still scowling, Tao leaned back on his palms. “I’m not running. She’s just not my type.”

Kris laughed. “Not your type? Seriously, Tao, do you even have a specific type?”

“Ha, ha, ha,” Tao bit back. “I do, in fact. She’s not it.”

“How do you even know?” Kris countered. Crouching down, he made himself eye level with Tao. He hated it when Kris did that. It made him feel like his kid. “Did you stop and talk to her?”

Tao moved his jaw back and forth before setting it out to show his irritation. “No….”

“So, you’re judging her by how she looks?”

Pushing himself up off the ground, Tao headed back towards the house, wiping off the dirt from his pants. “No, I’m not. You know I can’t. I just-”

“Don’t want a mate,” Kris finished for him. Coming up beside him, Kris placed a hand on his shoulder. “If this is about what Lyn said-”

“Lyn doesn’t matter anymore,” Tao admitted reluctantly and harshly. He hated how true that was. Ever since he saw your face, that involuntary change to his emotions took place and now he had no control over what feelings he had for who.

Even though he’d only caught a small glimpse of you, only a second or so of eye contract, it was enough. It was enough for him to no longer be interested in Kendall, the poor girl he’d convinced to go out with him after one bar run-in. The confusion in her eyes when he abruptly told her he needed to get home and paid for the check was so easy to read. And it wasn’t like he could say, “Sorry, just saw my mate and now I need to go home and pout about it.” He knew exactly how this night was going to end, too, if he hadn’t seen you. And yet… he felt… guilty? .

“Do me a favor, Tao,” Kris said just before they reached the back door. “Find a reason to get to know your mate. You never know, you just might like what you discover.”

Tao sneered at Kris’ back as he disappeared into the kitchen, but the look of contempt quickly faded as the door closed again. Kicking at the dirt, he grumbled to himself while looking up at the sky.

Kris was right, he shouldn’t be dismissing you so quickly; it wasn’t your fault that you were into this mess. But Tao was serious earlier. You really didn’t look like the girls he normally took out. Not that he ever had any real feelings for them, but he was always initially attracted to them. Could he say the same about you if you weren’t “destined” for him?

He smirked to himself.

You were actually really pretty, so he lucked out there. He didn’t know what kind of person you were, but he hoped you were kind and had a good heart. He’d gotten frostbite from a cold heart before and preferred not to repeat that experience.

Okay, maybe he would do what Kris had said and get to know you. Besides, he was Huang Tao. Who could resist his charms?

**

Kendall was still a little down when you met her in the courtyard on Monday. She kept insisting that she was fine, but you could see the remnants of disappointment all over her face. Wyatt didn’t really help with his constant offering to set her up with someone else as the three of you walked together.

“It’s fine!” Kendall snapped at him. Huffing out a sigh, she said, “I’m fine. He’s just a guy. So he didn’t like me? Fine, whatever. I’ll get over it. Now can we please talk about something else?”

“Okay,” Wyatt sighed. Glancing over at you, he asked, “Well, (y/n), did your Sunday turn exciting at all?”

You snorted. “Yeah, right. I sat around and did homework.”

Really, you could say that Sunday was a very productive day. You did, in fact, get caught up on your homework and also managed to mostly get that jerk out of your head. All it took was focusing on how he abruptly dumped your friend and bingo! You were (again, mostly) home free. Every once in a while, his face would creep back up in your mind. A few metaphorical swats would erase it again, leaving you in peace.

“At least one of us might actually graduate,” Wyatt laughed.

“Hey!” Kendall barked, clearly offended. “I do my homework!”

Snickering, Wyatt muttered under his breath, “At the last minute.”

It wasn’t missed by Kendall in the slightest, who flicked the side of Wyatt’s head, making the loudest thunk due to her acrylic nails. You couldn’t help cringing at the scene, thankful that it wasn’t you feeling Kendall’s wrath. But, Wyatt did kind of deserve that.

Arriving at the math college, you took that as your escape, quickly saying goodbye to your friends before dipping into the building. You still had about half an hour before your class was scheduled to start, so you decided to stop by the lab and check your tutoring schedule.

“Hey, Jae!” you greeted when you approached the service desk.

Jae had started in the tutoring center around the same time that you had, both you a little nervous about whether or not this whole ordeal was even a good idea or not. Eventually, you both got the hang of the job and became good friends in the process.

“Hey, (y/n)!” Jae greeted back with a smile. He turned away from the computer, moving his focus to the large date book that sat on the counter.

You leaned forward to get a better view of the schedule.

“It doesn’t look like anyone’s signed up for your times,” Jae sighed, “but, then again, we’re only halfway through Monday.”

You shrugged. “I guess that means more free time for me, then, huh?”

Jae smiled up at you and said teasingly, “Free to get a cup of a coffee on Wednesday?”

Before you could reply, a low, rumbling growl reached your ears. You whirled around, half expecting to find an escaped lion out in the hallway. “Did you hear that?”

Jae stretched his neck to see behind you, but there wasn’t anything to be found. “Hear what?”

Shaking your head, you turned back to the counter. Maybe you were a little sleep deprived. Or maybe it was the fact that you’d opted to skip your usual shared coffee pot with your mother, thinking you could survive the day without it. Typically, caffeine withdrawals revolved more around headaches, but maybe delusions were an unknown and rare side effect?

Either way, you decided to brush it off, deeming it unimportant. Instead, you focused on Jae’s offer. Part of you was tempted to accept, if only to show Wyatt that you weren’t as closed off as he said you were. And Jae was a nice guy, smart and sweet. The two of you had exchanged favorite music plenty of times and you often caught him writing something that suspiciously looked like song lyrics, but you never actually able to confirm it.

Yes, Jae would seem like just the right guy to get a cup of coffee with. However, a part of you was saying no, he wasn’t. And you couldn’t figure out why. Most of his personality created little tally marks on the “pros” side. But you couldn’t ignore that small part, so, rather than flat out saying yes, you replied, “We’ll see what my schedule looks like.”

“Fair enough,” Jae nodded.

Happy that you hadn’t hurt his feelings too much, you waved goodbye and headed out for class.

Once your school day was over, you headed out to the parking lot, an excited skip in your step that was always present whenever you were scheduled to work at the shelter. It was a bright part of your day when you didn’t have to think about class or graduating or anything else that bombarded your daily adult life.

Pulling into a parking space, you smiled at the sight of the kids running around the fenced in playground with giggles and smiles on their faces . You walked inside the shelter, signing in at the front desk before heading to your designated room.

A majority, you worked with the five and six-year-olds at the children’s shelter, helping with their math and reading skills. Although you only worked about two or three days a week, you still felt so attached to your kids, getting a bittersweet tug in your heart whenever one of them was adopted or a good relative was found to take care of them. You were elated that they would finally have a permanent home, but rarely did you ever seen them again. Each and every one of them deserved love and you were more than happy to give it when you could.

“Miss (y/n)!”

As soon you stepped foot into the classroom, the children hollered and jumped up to their feet, scurrying to try and be the first one to reach you. Two of them attached themselves to each of your legs while the others surrounded you.

“Okay, children,” Mrs. Choi called out to the rowdy bunch, “back to your work. Miss (y/n) will around to help each of you in a minute.”

Pouting but obedient, the children slowly went back to their tables to finish the work papers in front of them. Slowly, you made your way over to Mrs. Choi and helped her with organizing the children’s folders to be given to the child agency at the end of the month.

“Good day at school?” she asked quietly.

You nodded. “Yeah, it wasn’t too bad. How have the kids been?”

“Well-behaved and no big fights today,” Mrs. Choi giggled.

“That’s good!”

Looking over your shoulder, you spot Daeyoung sitting in his usual corner away from the other kids, noise-canceling earphones placed gently over his ears as he ran crayons over the pages of a coloring book.

With a sad smile on your face, you turned back to Mrs. Choi and asked, “How’s Daeyoung doing?”

Mrs. Choi sighed. “There hasn’t been too much change. He still won’t interact with the other children and he’s been having trouble sleeping at night. But we’ll get there. It’ll just take time.”

You nodded, glancing back to Daeyoung one more time before continuing on with your work.

Once the folders were organized, you went from table to table, checking the children’s work on their addition and subtraction, answering questions and having short conversations that didn’t quite make sense. At a small break, you went over to Daeyoung, who was just running the black crown over the picture of the airplane back and forth in the same straight line.

Slowly, you reached out to touch his shoulder. He jumped at the sudden contact and began to rock in his seat.

“Shh, Daeyoung, it’s just me,” you said soothingly, although it was pointless since he couldn’t hear you. Immediately, you switched over to the simple sign language that Daeyoung could process easier.

Eventually, his rocking slowed and his fingers reached for the yellow crayon. Near the top of the page, he drew a little sun, filling in the circle and drawing off short squiggles that represented the rays.

Though Daeyoung didn’t look right at you, he looked high enough to see you sign “pretty”. He ducked his head, a pink dust covering his cheeks. Unable to help yourself, you gently kissed the top of his head before standing back up and walking away.

Things were calm for the rest of your time at the shelter - until you had leave, of course. The children - save Daeyoung - gathered around you to see you off. Bottom lips and scrunched eyebrows were everywhere as you waved goodbye at the door making you let out a short giggle. However, once you were out in the hallway, the smile slipped and a sigh escaped your lips. You never liked leaving those kids and you were worried about Daeyoung, but there was only so much that you could do.

At home, you ate the dinner your mother had left out for you since it was well past their normal eating time by the time you arrived. You went over the homework that was to be turned in the following day before just relaxing on the couch with an hour or so of TV. Soon, you called it a night. It seemed that life was getting back to normal after the strange blip on your weekend.

**

The following morning, you got up early enough for a good breakfast and a large cup of coffee. You headed off to school, backpack on your shoulder and another coffee in a travel cup in your hand. You didn’t run into any trouble on the drive to campus and you made it to class with plenty of time to organize your supplies and sip on the rest of your drink before the professor arrived.

A few hours later, you had your break before your afternoon classes began. Preferring the much quieter math lab to the student union, you headed there.

“Hey!” Jae greeted from one of the work tables. He jumped up and met you at the front desk. “Good thing you stopped by. After you left yesterday, someone signed up for all your open slots for Wednesday.”

Your jaw dropped. “All of them?”

Jae nodded. “Yeah. No idea why someone would want to focus on business statistics for that long, but to each his own, I guess.” Frowning, he scratched the back of his head. “I guess this means no coffee, then.”

Ignoring that last comment, you asked, “Who was it?”

He shrugged as he walked around to grab the date book. “No idea. Let me find… got it!” Scrunching his face to focus in on the name, he blew out air between his lips. “Alright… it was some dude named Z. Huang.”

“Z?” you repeated?

“I think it’s an initial,” Jae guessed. “Never seen the guy before. I don’t think he’s taken a lot of classes in this building. Must be desperate to graduate, though, if he wants a three hour tutoring session.”

“Let’s just hope he takes it seriously.”

Whoever this “Z” guy was, if he thought he could just goof around or have you do his homework for him so he could pass the class , he was in for a rude awakening.