Chapter 13

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The seating arrangement at Math was about the same with how it was when you stepped into Chemistry. Kris, very much like Baekhyun and Chanyeol, was immediately greeted by the sounds of dreamy, girlish exhales from the females the second he entered the classroom. Him emerging from the door of the classroom was like a cool breeze of air in the middle of dry, hot desert for them.

It wasn’t until Kris walked further into the room that the sighs had turned into sharp intakes of air. The girls saw with wide eyes, noting with pure envy that his large hand was connected with a smaller one. Then a much smaller form appeared behind him. The slim arm was connecting the hand Kris was holding and the form of a girl whose head was ducked very low to avoid their glares.

With quiet alertness you could almost feel every single female in the room shooting daggers to the top of your head right now, you could practically smell their compulsion, which generally consisted of making you dissolve into thin air and ripping your hand away from Kris.

The thought made you shiver and for the umpteenth time in the past five minutes you tried to pry Kris’s hand away from yours. Except he didn’t even budge with your movement, as if you trying to yank his hand away was only your little attempt to make your hand comfortable in his. You scowled at him in the scary angle that only ghosts in scary movies could do, thankful that your hair was covering your facial expression from the murderous gazes of the girls you’d call classmates.

With alarming gracefulness Kris walked on the aisle, tugging you along with him, and stopped at the last row of the seats. He dropped his bag on one of the desks and gently pushed you to sit down on the seat beside his. From his no-nonsense quietness you could tell he wasn’t going to hear your protest, so you didn’t. Instead you sat reluctantly, your shoulders shrugging off the straps of your bag.

You were still keeping your eyes down and avoiding any pairs of eyes when a pair of pretty, kitten-heeled shoes appeared in your vision. It was polished, the shiny black color a sharp contrast to the dull grayness of the floor, and you unconsciously looked up to see the owner. First you saw the purple strands of highlight in between the dark brown locks spilling over her shoulders – it was just something anyone couldn’t miss – and then to her piercing eyes and finally to her caked up face. Your eyebrow lifted up almost invisibly, she looked somewhat familiar to you.

“Um,” you said when a few seconds passed without her saying anything. She was just staring at you, a perfectly shaped eyebrow arched. Then a point of a flawlessly manicured finger. You trailed the direction of her slim index finger and saw a hot pink colored bag stood on the floor, the weight of it supported by the legs of the seat you were sitting in. “Oh,” realization dawned on you.

“Oh,” came the mocking sound from . When you looked back up at her she was plastering a winning smile over that generously madeup face. She folded her arms over her chest, chin lifted high. “My seat. Get up.”

You blinked at the shrilly voice, and the scene where a girl with her three friends came to you and asked whether you were one of the twelve new students played back in your head. Then it hit you. She was the queenbee you met on your first day here.

You quickly stood up to steer clear from having the catfight she seemed to be seeking. “Ah, um, sorry. I didn’t see your bag.”

“Sure you didn’t.” She sneered, causing a few low snickers to erupt.

You saw her flip her hair over a shoulder as she sat on the seat you vacated, her eyes immediately left your figure to rest on Kris’s. He looked mildly amused to the whole situation, but didn’t make a move. You decided you were actually thankful to the girl, it was better that you wouldn’t have to sit beside him for the period. You sat yourself on the far side of the classroom. You could just guess the whole year would be like this, you being steered away from any of the twelve mesmerizing boys that had same classes with you.

“Hi,” you heard the same voice coming from the back of the class, except it was now filled with sultry tone and not meant to pierce the ears of the one she was talking to. “Kris, right?”

Kris didn’t make a movement that told her he was even listening to her, just staring at her with blank eyes. The amusement had disappeared from his face, but she took none of it. Just the sight of him staring at her was making her feel giddy.

She stretched out a hand and smiled. “I’m Seolbi.”

“You could actually be polite.” Kris glanced down at her hand, before replying her sickeningly sweet smile and looking back up at her face. “But honestly, your impoliteness was quite upsetting as well.”

Seolbi raised her eyebrows, her smile turned hesitant. “Sorry?”

“You could say that to her.” Kris shook his head and got to his feet, slinging his bag over a shoulder and staring ahead of him.

You knew he was gesturing at your back. You were listening to the whole conversation but refused to turn around, trying to appear deaf and oblivious to it.

Seolbi’s jaw dropped unattractively as Kris strolled from his seat to where you were bent over your desk. Your head was bowed really low your chin nearly touched the second button of your shirt, and it was really obvious you were trying to make yourself as small as possible. The sound of bag falling to the chair next to yours was heard before you felt someone sitting on your desk. Then a pat on your head.

“There, there. Where was your backbone, little one?”

You didn’t know whether to respond him with a glare or a grateful look, but after a moment you decided there was no need for you to feel grateful of him. It’s not like he was trying to defend you from her, right? He was just being his great, sarcastic self, and you were no stranger to that side of him. Right?

You heard him sigh and pat your head again. “So childish. I didn’t know you were afraid of high school’s drama queen.”

“I’m not scared of her.” You half hissed, slapping his hand away.

Kris smirked. “Say it out loud.”

“I’m not-” you stopped yourself and narrowed your eyes at him. “Are you trying to get me into a catfight?”

“No?” He paused, grinning. “On second thought, that would be interesting.”

“Shut up. Get off of my desk.”

“I see you have more backbone with me.”

“How very observant.”

“I do believe it is important to keep my eyes on important things.” You looked up at him just as he was ripping his gaze from something on or beneath your collar. Kris looked strangely like a boy whose hand was caught in a cookie jar, his eyes wide and face tense.

“What?” you asked him.

“Nice necklace.” Kris recovered without missing a beat, clearing his throat. His took a quick glance of your black pearl again. “A little similar to the one I gave my sister last year.”

That was a bluff. He was an only child.

“Really?” you were sidetracked. “I thought Harabeoji said this was the only one in the world.” It came out as a mumble, but due to Kris’s sharp hearing being the werewolf that he was, he caught it clearly.

“What?” Kris asked.

“Ah, nothing.” You shook your head. “This is given by my grandfather. He said this was the only one in the world, but apparently not... seeing that you gave your sister the same item last year.”

Kris didn’t hear the rest of your explanation. The only information absorbing into his head was that the black pearl was given by your grandfather, and then it connected to the memory in the back of his head about your grandfather’s death a few months before.

It clicked with the reason why they came here in the first place. They came here because in the same range of time Baekhyun had sensed a great wave of Supernatural power billowing from this side of the Earth. His eyes blinked, something growled inside of him as he felt the powerful struggle again. He felt as if he’d just found half the pieces of his puzzle.

The sharp gasp from your throat snapped him out of it. He looked down at you and automatically scanned for your black pearl, but soon he felt the breath was squeezed out of him when he saw the bright red color. The black pearl was turning red again. He clamped his mouth shut and felt the sharpening teeth prodding onto his lips; the big, werewolf teeth. . He was getting too excited for it.

He shook his head clear of any thought, just in case you could read him again since the black pearl was turning bright red yet again, and hurried out of the classroom, grabbing his bag as he passed his desk.

You couldn’t concentrate on what Mrs. Kim was explaining the entire period, your mind was occupied with the occurrences that happened before she came in. Your black pearl was heating up yet again and you were convinced it would be up to no good. Black pearls just don’t randomly turn red and heat up like that.

And you heard the growl. It was quite loud but sounded a little distant, restrained, like the sound of a beastly animal that was trapped inside some kind of cage. It roared like an angry lion. Or a dog? It sounded a lot like a dog. A big, dangerous, untamed dog.

But then it was gone as quickly as it came to your ears, and so was Kris. You only caught the sight of his dark blond head rushing out the door with his bag slamming against his back as he darted out of the room. He didn’t show up for the rest of the period, you noted as you glanced at the empty seat beside yours, when the Math period was finally over.

You would like to blame it on account of coincidence. But was it? You couldn't ignore this one. Your black pearl was heating up for the second time, both were when Kris was around. And then as soon as he was gone from your sight exactly one hour and a half before, the growling sound faded away and your black pearl was cooling back up, calming from the raging heat.

It didn’t relieve your uneasiness when lunch came and you found Kris wasn’t present in the group. You sat slowly beside Baekhyun, slightly frowning. The group’s eerie quietness didn’t slip out of your awareness but you didn’t say anything about it. Everything was just weird today, wasn’t it?

“Thanks,” Baekhyun said as an unnatural laugh escaped him, his hand accepting the small lunchbox you handed him. “You really didn’t have to.”

“It’s alright. I ate your lunch yesterday. I hope you’ll like this.” You smiled, then curiosity just moved your mouth to mumble a low, “Where’s Kris?” but you knew you fully intended for Baekhyun to hear it.

Baekhyun shifted from his position. “Uh, he said there was something important...” he trailed off but didn’t bother to finish it.

You just gave it a nod, something still unsettled in your stomach. Everything was alright until the black pearl incident happened. It made your stomach flutter with apprehension. You were now certain that the pendant on your necklace wasn’t just any normal black pearl. Sure, your grandfather wasn’t just a normal human. You knew he was a Supernatural, but never had he said anything special about the black pearl. Just that it was the only one in the world and a warning for you not to take it off.

You didn’t know why you never wanted to find out what would happen if you did. But now you do. You want to find out what was with the black pearl.