I’m sure there’s an uncountable amount of people who curse the shortness of weekends like I do, and we all understand how much harder it is to get up on Monday mornings than any other day of the week. I spent my Friday night at home, and my Saturday also at home, and most of my Sunday also at home. Safe to say, it wasn’t a busy weekend. But even if you haven’t used up your free time so wisely like me, there’s always this death of energy inside you when it goes away. Hence, the arguments with your alarm clock (or your parents) come six a.m. Monday morning.

 I don’t want to get up. I don’t want to get up, no, no, no.

You can plead all you want and I don’t know about you, but I always seem to wind up losing.

Today though, I give up a little later than usual. I don’t know if it’s the Prey switch-up that’s making me that much more reluctant to go to school but it’s very likely that that’s exactly it. Prey switch-ups are more or less always a negative thing. A new Wolf means new commands to have to deal with, a new ego to have to get used to and the least likely; new insults. Sure, I could pray to get assigned to one of the nicer – by that I mean quieter – Wolves like Yixing, but I really never know how they’re going to act unless I’ve been Prey to them before.

Despite all my inner complaining though, I’m sulking into school with my heavy backpack over my shoulders hoping that my answers to Kai’s math homework were good enough. It’s early, which is on time for me. I make my way straight to his locker and dump in his notebooks and answer sheets, dust off my hands proudly, turn around and not-so-expectedly, bump into something large that I’m pretty sure wasn’t there before.

“Crap.” “Dammit.” “What even in the-“

I’m not sure which I end up saying in the process or if I just squeak or yelp helplessly like my nickname suggests but in a moment, I look up and realise that this ‘something-large’ is rather in fact a ‘someone-tall.’ The stranger just stares down at me with a really intense sleepy expression and uncomfortably, I take a step back.

“I’m sorry,” I say.

He says nothing and doesn’t seem to move either.

“Yeah, I’m just going to go now.” I try to walk away but all of a sudden his lips start twitching like he’s searching for the right words but they don’t come out. I stop right away to give him a chance and that’s when I notice the name tag plastered on his blazer.

Name tags mean only one thing at this school- you’re new. And judging from the way he looks kind of different and lost, and how his name tag says “Hello, my name is Huang Zitao,” I realise that he must be an exchange student. So I shake off his intimidating gaze and decide I should help him.

“Do you need some help?”

I catch him by surprise but eventually, he nods. It takes him a little while to put the words together but he gets it soon enough.

“Where…is the Cave?”

He earns a confused look from me. My eyebrows scrunch together and I have to stop to think for a minute or two because nobody new should be able to know about the Cave. And even if they hear about it, they should know more than to look for it. They should fear it, if anything. They’d want no more than to avoid it.

Zitao just stands there silently waiting for me to answer him. He seems innocent to me; neatly ironed uniform, perfectly pleated trousers, straight necktie and combed hair. So I don’t ask him why he wants to know and start leading him there instead, deciding to warn him later. I gesture for him to follow me and he starts trailing behind me like a long shadow. He’s being careful not to fall too behind or rather walk too far ahead since his legs are longer than mine. I crack a smile at his shy attempt and shuffle to his side.

“So, what’s your talent?” I ask, not quite sure if I’m reducing or adding to the awkwardness. In a few seconds he replies, “Rap.” He seems a little unsure to add anything else to his answer so I ask again, “With Mr Lee or Mr Jung?” His eyes never seem to leave the floor when he mumbles, “Teacher Lee.”

“Oh, good.” I give him a thin-lipped smile, glancing at him from an angle I’m finding hard to keep. “He’s the better of the two. Or so I’ve heard.”  I remember Jinae’s Wolf Kris having to pull some hard strings just to switch and get into his class after having grown tired of Mr Jung’s techniques. The silence takes over after a while, after Zitao runs out of answers apart from slow nods and I, questions or any means of small talk whatsoever.

No other word is uttered until we stumble upon the famed Cave on school grounds. It’s this place in the school garden; two rows of six moderately young cherry blossom trees standing across from each other, branches entwined at the top, forming the Cave roof. It truly is a peculiar sight, so I’m not surprised when I hear Zitao muttering “Wow…” in the next few seconds. It’s at its prettiest in the springtime, I’ll bet. Since having moved here last year, I still have yet to see it in bloom. Like everyone else I’ve mostly avoided it, but there have been a few times where I’ve been called here for Prey duty.

Even though the school garden does permit student access, it’s widely known here that the Cave and its surrounding area are purely Wolf territory. I really don’t know why I’m risking being here right now but I’m hoping I can pass an excuse about feeling the need to tell Kai I put his homework in his locker or something. The new kid’s pretty lucky to see such a forbidden thing on his first day, I think.

“Zitao, we really shouldn’t be here.” But of course, I’m the first to chicken out. He kind of just turns to me calmly, hands in his pockets, giving me a double eyebrow raise. “Hmm? But I think I like it here.” His voice is clear and louder now, like he’d found his self-confidence through the wonder of the Cave.

I’m getting more and more scared for the both of us every passing second. All of a sudden it becomes easy for me to notice every detail; the rustling of leaves from trees at least two metres away from where I’m standing, the subtle gust of wind slightly messing up Zitao’s perfectly-combed hair, the crunch of grass under approaching footsteps, and suddenly, I know what’s coming.

“We really have to go, like, right now.” I’d take off and run away by myself but I don’t want to leave the poor kid alone to fall Prey to them. I wouldn’t be able to live with the guilt. But he doesn’t seem to hear me or see my completely helpless state at all, so in the spur of the moment, I find myself having to run towards him, loop my arm around his, and in a lame attempt, drag him away. I struggle of course and I can practically feel his shock as he stumbles over his feet, quickly losing his balance. No, he doesn’t fall on me. Nor do I fall on him. He just…falls. I had lost my grip on him in the middle of it and in surprise I basically just stood there looking at him as he lay on his front on the grass. Soon enough though, my brain registers my fault and I try to help him up slowly until he gets back on his feet.

“I’m so sorry!” I’m panicking because his hair and uniform are a complete mess now, in contrast to their earlier neat states. I try to help him to dust off the tufts and blades of green on his uniform, having to jump up to rid of the ones in his hair while he maintains his expression of confusion. Sometime in between my string of apologies, another voice booms in the background calling my name.

“Mouse, so nice to see you here.” I swear you can smell Byun Baekhyun’s sarcasm from a mile away. The rest of them start appearing right after him, and I can see the same smirk on everybody’s faces. “I see you’ve brought us our new recruit.” Okay that statement, I didn’t expect so much.

Immediately, I drop my hands to my sides and sidestep a couple of times to distance myself from Zitao. I don’t dare to look up at him but I can see him steal a glance at me out of the corner of my eyes. It makes sense now though. No wonder he was looking for the Cave without an ounce of fear. I feel kind of stupid too, how else would you feel after almost injuring a potential Wolf?

I gather up my courage to look up after a while, though instead of looking back to Zitao, I start counting the nearing Wolves. There’re eleven instead of the usual ten, and not including Zitao. I can recognise all but this guy (also moderately tall) trailing in the back, strutting under the huddle of Luhan and Kai’s arms. He seems like he fits in well with the group with his good posture, dyed tousled hair, and an expression that could come off as either bored or arrogant.

“You must be psychic or something.” Minseok peeks through the crowd. “We were just about to gather all you Prey.”