If I had to pick one day in my life in which everything just seemed so odd and out of the kind of ordinary that I’m used to, today would place as one of the finalists. The school day’s almost up and the hands of the clock hanging on the studio wall seem to be taunting me each passing second. We’re all carrying on with our vocal exercises, singing notes we don’t particularly care about, but all I can think of is the fact that ever since the little newbie Wolves incident this morning, I haven’t been once called again for Prey duty. I could be wrong considering this is the first time they’ve brought in recruits while I was around, but I start wondering if I’m forgetting to do something I may have been told earlier and that’s the reason the whole day’s been quiet since.

“Louder!” Ms Jung has us trying our luck out on harmonising, and I’m thankful I’m just a background voice today. Jinae too, I’m guessing. I sneak a peek at her and in a moment, she flashes me a comfortable smile and I smile back. Lee Minah has won herself the position of main vocals of the day, so both Jinae and I are gladly hiding our voices amongst everybody else’s. I like her voice. Minah’s, I mean. It’s one of those that are just real clean and easy to listen to. I notice it suits her personality almost perfectly too. She’s the type to get along with everyone pretty well.  Popular, I guess. Like her voice.

Ms Jung claps her hands a total of three times and everyone knows to completely stop. She nods her head in approval, clearly indicating her satisfaction with our effort. “Nice one.” We both look back to the clock at the same time, and noticing that there are about fifteen minutes left of class, Ms Jung turns back to address all of us. “Alright, class isn’t over yet so don’t go anywhere,” looking around, I figure that everybody knew that already. “I’m just going to go and get some things to prepare for the next exercise, so stay put.” She half-runs to the door, quickly grabbing on the handle and opening it before glancing over her shoulder to glare at all of us, “And no talking.”

We don’t break the rule until we know for sure that she’s gone. I plop myself down on the wooden floor, sitting cross-legged while Jinae collapses on her ankles alongside me. Everyone else seems to find comfort in gossiping with one another. I groan about being tired because generally, I am exhausted, but then Jinae moans about how high-maintenance Luhan is. And that’s when it hits me again that the Sehun guy hasn’t gone looking for me once.

“Hey, should I be worried that I haven’t been called to do, you know, Prey stuff at all today?” I’m pulling on the hem of my skirt ever so slightly just to make sure it’s covering my thighs.

“Depends,” she answers. “Your Wolf is new so he’s probably still just trying to figure it all out. Some can be pretty slow on the first try, just think of it like that.” I take her word for it, hoping that none of them will use this as an excuse for making things even harder for me.

I spend the next while sulking and staring into space, tapping my fingertips against the wood and slowly building up a rhythm. The beat has me mesmerised for a moment. It almost drowns out all the chattering and laughing that would otherwise distract me, up until a tap on my own shoulder makes me flinch. My first suspicion is that Jinae is messing with me, but a simple twist of my neck proves me wrong.

“Hi,” Minah greets me, smiling. As far as I know, it’s the first time she’s directly spoken to me, but I utter my own hello soon enough. She bends down on her knees as if she’s about to beg, but I know her only intention is to get down to eye-level. “Hey,” she begins again. “Do you mind doing me one little favour?” I wait a while to reply, noticing everyone beginning to gawk at the both of us. They’re not used to people other than Wolves confronting Prey, I’ll bet, nevertheless a popular.

“What is it?” I shrug, in the most polite way possible. She seems happy I asked at all, rather than giving her a downright “No,” on the spot, and scoots closer.

“Well, you see,” I don’t really realise I’m nervous of what she’s about to say until I hear the rhythm start back up again and notice that it’s being caused by my shaking hands. “Ms Jung asked me to sing for her demonstration in a little bit, but my throat’s beginning to act up. And I thought, hey, since you’re one of the only ones who haven’t had a solo in class yet that you’d be interested in taking my place.”

I’m sure as hell not interested. I want to tell her that, I plan to say no this time. But unknowingly, I start nodding slowly, and before I notice what I’m doing, she beams at me. “Great! You’re familiar with the lyrics to Falling Slowly, right?” Again, I’m nodding in a way that just can’t be helped, and I wonder if Jinae is nearby, aware that I’m in the process of sabotaging myself.

“Awesome. Thanks for doing this, Mouse!” I’m a little disappointed at how she failed at calling me by my real name, though I shake off the thought and focus on the giant weight on my shoulders as of now. Minah scurries off after offering me her last grateful grin to continue a conversation with a whole group of her friends or fans, and my first instinct is to drag myself back over to Jinae.

Although, as soon as she opens to ask me something along the lines of: “What happened, now?”  Ms Jung bursts into the room looking kind of annoyed. “Everybody shut up.”

Classy, Ms Jung, classy.

Despite the bluntness, it’s super effective and all the talking hushes down while everybody turns their heads to Ms Jung. She’s leaning a hand on the door to keep it open, though her other hand is empty, and I’m getting curious as to what she meant by ‘preparing for the next exercise.’ I don’t have to wait long before it’s revealed.

“Student, please come in,” And in strolls Park Chanyeol clutching onto his favourite guitar, long legs striding over one another with an innocent grin plastered on his face, and all I can think of is Mother of-

A sort of loud, continuous screeching interrupts my thoughts when Ms Jung drags a chair towards the centre of the studio, its metallic plastic legs grazing against the floor. Chanyeol thanks her too kindly with that smile of his and sets himself down on it before carefully sitting his guitar to rest on his lap. Though unasked, he strums a single chord as if to show off, and I almost swear I can hear the butterflies flutter in every other girl’s stomach (excluding Jinae and myself).

“So, up until now we’ve been working on harmonising on a larger scale, kind of like a choir,” we all nod our heads, half of us actually paying attention to Ms Jung, and the other half focusing on the way Chanyeol’s trying to keep himself from fiddling with his guitar strings again. “Now though, since we still have a few minutes to spare I’d like to give you all an example of harmonising on a smaller scale. I’m talking about duets. Minah, can you come up here now?”

“Actually, Ms Jung, Kyungeun’s going to fill in for me for now. I feel a sore throat coming on,” Minah’s voice seems particularly hoarse compared to earlier. I have a feeling she’s exaggerating but I understand she must be in some pain.

“Really? Wow, okay, that’s new. Feeling brave, I see, Kyungeun.” I’m afraid to take the first step forward. I’m scared to know what happens when I look up and all their eyes stare me up and down like I don’t belong here. I don’t realise it, but I end up cowering behind Jinae, trying to ignore the unpleasant shivers down my spine.

“Kyungeun,” it’s Chanyeol’s voice, and I notice it’s the first time any Wolf’s called me by my name, so I’m forced to glaze my eyes over at where he’s sitting. “Come on up here, then.” There’s this something in his eyes, something that tells me exactly what he’s thinking. He’s expecting I’ll go on up there, and my voice will crack, I’ll bet. He’s probably thinking I won’t be any good.

I’m still kind of hesitant when I stand up but my footsteps, though small, are already dragging me to Ms Jung’s side. I don’t look at Chanyeol again, not this time. Seemingly happy I ‘volunteered’, Ms Jung lightly grabs me by the shoulders and continues explaining.

“This’ll be a little of a challenge for you, Kyungeun, but I think you can do it anyway.  Harmonising can be a challenge as it is for anybody. All of you, you might think you sing really well, or you might be the opposite.” I hear a snicker right after that. “But it doesn’t matter what you think of yourself. In a duet, your main goal is to complement the other person’s voice, make it seem better than it is. A team effort is necessary here, guys.” She lets go of my shoulders, deciding to talk with her hands as well. “And even if you don’t think your voices will go well together, try to make them fit nicely. Guide your voice and be passionate about it too, that’ll help improve your performance a little. Listen to each other too. I don’t want to see one voice overpowering the other, I want voices blended together in perfect…well, harmony.”

Her speech ends with an awkward silence in which I spend gazing at the floor, and the others spend exchanging looks I don’t see. Eventually, she gives Chanyeol the go sign, and as soon as he begins to strum the melody, so suddenly comes this feeling of wanting to prove him wrong.

I don’t know you, but I want you…

Chanyeol sings the first few lines. And I’m really not sure how it happens, but I manage to open my mouth when it leads to the girl’s part, and I sing. I decide to close my eyes sometime in the middle of it, and I don’t hear any whispers or snickering that may have happened. All I try to focus on is my voice and Chanyeol’s all throughout.

Take this sinking boat and point it home. We’ve still got time…

It’s weird. How I’m only paying attention to the song and the way Chanyeol’s deep voice almost paves the pathway for mine, and I don’t seem to know where we’re going but suddenly I don’t mind getting lost. I don’t look at him. I don’t think about whatever he could possibly be thinking. But this way the lyrics leave my lips so easily and I don't know how but I can hear every breath he takes as well as my own and for a moment the barrier between Wolf and Prey doesn’t exist. I can’t hear cruelty or manipulation in the lyrics he sings, and there’s no weakness in the tune I’m carrying. It’s almost as if we’re just voices with no names finding home in the song. And it's cheesy, on any level, but it's the embarassing truth, 

The first thing I hear when the music stops, after I’ve opened my eyes again and Chanyeol’s put his guitar down by his side, is a single clap. Then I look to everybody else and realise they’ve all started clapping too. It’s not a dramatic applause, but more like an acknowledging one. I breathe out a deep sigh, thankful my voice didn’t crack at least once. Ms Jung slides over and pats me lightly on the back, then gives Chanyeol a thumbs up.

“That’s what I’m talking about!” She tries her hand at the heavily accented English again and I actually manage to laugh a bit this time. “That was great, you two. Take that as your example, all of you. I’ll split you into groups of two next time and we’ll start a little project.” We all anticipate as she glances at the clock again. “But for now with one minute left of class, I’ll let you all go.”

After another sigh I hover over to Jinae, caught between wanting to smile like an idiot or vomit because I can’t believe I just got out of that alive.

“Nice one,” she says, gripping onto my shoulder. I roll my eyes and chuckle, pretty sure that right now I just want to get out of here. We start walking towards the door when most of the others have left and once out, Jinae starts waving me goodbye. At first, I’m about to ask her where she’s going, but then she does me the kindness of reminding me she’s got to go tend to Luhan again, and I go “Oh,” and she goes off to wait by his classroom door while I spin on my heel and bump into my second someone-tall of the day.

“Sorry, I don’t think I was watching where I-“

“Mouse,” I feel like I should’ve expected running into Chanyeol. I don’t have to look up to know that it’s him, his voice tells me that already but I end up doing it anyway, eventually growing scared of what he’s about to say. My eyes meet his, but I don’t try to read them this time. “Just wanted to give you a heads up,” the way he’s talking is different. It’s slower and quieter, and less obnoxious. “Sehun’s been asking for you all day. I don’t think he understood that he’s supposed to tell you what he wants you to do. I told him, and he said he tried looking for you at lunch but he couldn’t find you.”

“Oh, that’s why.” It’s all I say and I don’t know why, but Chanyeol lets out a chuckle.

“That kid, really. He’ll be getting out of Dance soon with Kai, Yixing and Minseok. Maybe if you wait there for him, he can tell you what he wants you to do for tomorrow.” Chanyeol grins a little too widely, and I only nod my head.

“Okay, thanks, I’ll do that.”

“Oh, and don’t worry, I’ll tell him to go easy on you,” I raise an eyebrow at him. This really doesn’t seem like something any of them would say or do, for that matter. I blink twice because there’s no hint of sarcasm in his voice either, but then he leans down closer towards me and starts whispering in my ear. “We need you and your voice in good condition if we want to get a good grade on that project, now don’t we?”

^.^

A shoutout to all the singers out there who also wish to duet with Chanyeol T.T (cry cry).

I was quite unsure of this chapter in the beginning, but hopefully it's okay. Also, just wanted to thank all the new subscribers if I haven't thanked you guys personally. Enjoy~ (Hopefully)