Random Rambles: FML my wifi decided to quit on me which caused me to take longer to write/update this chapter than usual xD I've seen a few of the biases you guys sent me! I'll think of a few ideas for upcoming chapters and hope it won't disappoint ;) thanks again guys!! <3

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 "What if I said that I didn't want any of this? That you can take my gift back and I can go home and just play?" he had asked the first day he had arrived. 

"I'm afraid it's not that simple. You were chosen and you responded," the voice laughed. He didn't know who put that voice in charge to begin with. By the sound of things, the voice was just about as young as he was, if not younger. 

"Well, what if I take it back?" he retaliated, his hands on his hips to show that he was serious. 

He didn't like how his heart fluttered upon hearing the voice laughing again. "You can't take back an oath, silly. It's a promise you've made with your heart and soul, a pledge that I have made to you as well. We are forever connected this way." 

"So you're forcing me to stay?" he then prompted, feeling angry at such an injustice. 

"I'm not forcing you to do anything, I'm explaining how this works. You may leave, but only if you really want to. If you don't really want to leave, than you won't be able to." 

He scoffed at this and crossed his arms over his chest. "Yeah, well, I really, really, really want to leave!" he said solemnly. "So can I go now? I don't want any of this!" he yelled, completely depleted of his patience. The mere thought of what it meant for him if he wanted to stay was making his skin crawl. Responsibilities? What sane child would want to have that?

"Then I am sorry and sad to see you go. I know your brothers will be very sad as well." 

The furrow in his brow deepened upon hearing this and he stomped his feet. "They're not my brothers! We've only met each other today! They wouldn't care if I stay or go!" he argued, hearing the voice sigh softly. He couldn't see it, but something told him that the voice was smiling at him. 

"Yes, they would. I am not the only one you are connected to now. Your brothers will feel your absence and they'll miss you, and so will I," the voice said. He didn't want to show that the words affected him. He just wanted to go home. 

"Well. Sorry to hear that. I'm leaving now. Bye!" he said and disappeared into swirls of black mist. It took him exactly three minutes to return again, pouting and sulking. 

"Back so soon?" the voice asked in mirth. This made him pout even more. 

"I don't like you," he stated bluntly, his arms firmly crossed across his chest. 

"That's okay. When you're ready, maybe we can learn to be friends." 

He seriously doubted whether that would be possible, but despite of this belief, he stayed and found, to his own surprise, that he was happy to do so. 

That was a new memory. In his moment of weakness, Kai allowed himself to be caught off guard and that was what he got in return, another vague memory that made absolutely no sense. What startled him was the fact that this new memory had suddenly emerged. It was the first time he'd seen it in his mind, the first one that was solid and clear. What situation was he in that he wanted to leave? What responsibilities had he refused at first? Why did this suddenly started to matter to me?

His eyes wandered over the cafeteria while he was slowly eating his meal and he nearly lost his appetite when he caught sight of her. There was still a part of him that refused to believe and acknowledge that she was a wolf as well. That the reason he felt uneasy when she was near, the reason that he wanted her to stay far away from him was the mere fact that she was a wolf, a female wolf that threw him off his game. Kai didn't understand how it was possible that there was another person like them. It didn't make a of sense to him. 

There shouldn't be another. It had always been the twelve of them, thirteen just didn't sit well with him. It was true that amongst his brothers he was most likely the one that still had his doubts, the one who didn't really trust this girl. He didn't doubt her honesty, but he doubted her existence. When he met his brothers, he knew right off the bat that they belonged to each other. He didn't have that feeling with her. Was this his instinct telling him to keep an eye on her? To be wary of her? Or, was this something else? 

Kai had no interest in the trivial matters his brothers were discussing at the table. They were arguing about something stupid again, something about Chen zapping Chanyeol when no one was looking, Baekhyun pulling a prank on Chen and Sehun blowing Baekhyun away. He admitted that the latter was rather funny, but he didn't participate in the conversation. His eyes were fixed on her and he didn't care if anyone noticed or not. He zoomed in on her, watching how she ended up standing in line at the register next to Suho and he noticed how his hyung stiffened in tension beside her. He smirked to himself because he found the sight rather amusing, but then he wanted to know more and strained himself to listen what they were saying. 

"...How are the hunger pangs?" Suho asked quietly, barely noticeable. Kai watched Jae freeze up as well, trying to shrug casually, but he could tell that Suho interacting with her made her tense up. He couldn't blame her for that. 

"Uh, I guess they're okay. Why? Do I have suspiciously too much on my plate or something? You want to reprimand me for it?" Jae shot back and Kai couldn't help but admire her sarcasm, only just a little. He could nearly tell that Suho was flinching. This hyung always was a bit lost when he had to deal with fiery girls. 

"That's not it, I'm just saying that the hunger pangs can get really bad. Especially since you've only recently...you know- changed," Suho said, his tone still quiet, but Kai could recognize the embarrassment in it. 

"Well, thanks for the concern, but I'm fine," she replied steadily. When it was Suho's turn to pay he whipped out his card and Kai squinted his eyes slightly in suspicion upon seeing him gesture at his tray and that of Jae. Was he paying for her?!

"Whoa, wait! Why are you- I mean, you don't have to! I have money, I can buy this myself," Jae protested, absolutely dumbfounded. 

Suho shrugged like it was no big deal, but Kai knew him well enough to know that Suho was probably glowing with pride right now. Nerd, Kai thought to himself. 

"That's not the point," Suho replied steadily. 

"You put something in my food, didn't you?" Jae pointed out, the suspicion obvious. 

"See it as a tentative peace offering for starting off at the wrong foot," Suho retorted instead. "Enjoy the meal, Jae," he greeted and walked over to their table, his cheeks colored pink. Jae herself seemed rather flushed, the way she just stood there, watching Suho leave. Honestly that girl was weird and completely obvious. He could see right through her, but she still made him feel uncomfortable. Suddenly, upon seeing Suho's smug grin, Kai was in the mood for another can of coke and got up from his seat, if only if it was to postpone having to see Suho's smiling face. 

He did his best not to look at Jae who was waiting for one of her friends to join her in looking for a table to sit at. He quickly bought two more cans and walked steadily back to his table when the unexpected happened once more. He had just turned around and bumped against Jae, who startled at the sudden touch. Kai remained calm when the sweet scent of jasmine overwhelmed him and he looked down at an astonished Jae who quickly mumbled a string of apologies at him. He realized then that when they crossed paths they either bump in to each other or one of them gets hurt. He briefly scratched his nose when he remembered how she had accidentally slapped him. He figured it was okay though, considering that mere moments before that he had every intention of disposing of her. But now- that wasn't the case anymore, and it frightened him slightly. 

"It's okay- noona," he said, looking at her worried face. "No need to apologize," he assured her and saw that his polite answer brought a shock on her face. "Here," he handed her one of the two cans. "You have to drink a lot," he said before walking away and leaving her. 

Stop gawking at me, he thought to himself since he felt himself getting warm at sensing her gaze lingering at him. He sighed quietly in relief when he saw that she finally joined her own friends to eat. Why did you do that, Kai? Was that really necessary? What is she going to think now? Argh, why do you care?! he slapped himself mentally and agitatedly focused his frustration at his food. 

"So. Is anyone going to explain what the hell happened the first period?" Kris suddenly interjected, looking at his brothers. Kai himself followed the gaze since he wasn't sure what he was talking about. 

"What happened the first period?" Tao asked, bewildered. 

"Were you sleeping? Everyone here started to sing a little chant to back away from the new girl," Xiumin clarified, smirking at his embarrassed brothers. Kai froze a moment since he had heard it as well, though he wasn't sure what it was about. Now that he thought about it, he hadn't heard Xiumin's voice, or that of Tao for that matter. He had kept quiet too, but the message made his blood boil for whatever reason. It was obviously a challenge and he didn't like to pass that up. 

"Hey- I was not singing along," Kris argued, pointing at him while lifting his glass. 

"Yeah right, your voice was one of the louder ones, hyung!" Chen immediately accused. 

"What? I didn't even know what was going on!" Kris didn't relent and by the look on his face, Kai was inclined to believe him. 

"Well, then it must've been your subconscious oozing right through," Luhan quipped, unable to prevent from smirking either. 

"Speaking of which, were you the one that channeled that message to everyone?" Suho asked, looking at Luhan. The older student smiled again, his fingers combing through his hair before he took a bite from his sandwhich. 

"Maybe. Honestly I thought it would be funny to push some buttons since I saw what happened in the hallway this morning. Very smooth, by the way, guys," he grinned, Xiumin suppressing his laughter right beside him. 

Kai saw Chanyeol, Chen and Baekhyun blushing furiously all of a sudden, causing him to snort at the sight of it. Sehun looked a little flushed himself and refused to look up from the bubble tea he was sipping. "Whoa, what happened this morning?" he then asked when he saw his younger brother this quiet. Usually, when Chanyeol, Chen and Baekhyun were caught redhanded doing something embarrassing, Sehun would have been one of the first to add oil to the fire and make things worse to tease them, so his suspicious silence piqued Kai's interest. 

"Let's just say that there were a few dongsaengs that tried their very best to catch the new girl's attention," Luhan mused teasingly. "And a few others that got jealous in the process," his eyes suddenly directed themselves to Suho and Kai's eyes widened, his brothers following suit. Lay had started laughing whilst pointing at Suho and their fearsome leader turned a deeper shade of red. 

"W-what? What does that even mean? I mean, pff, n-no, I don't know what you're talking about- did eh...Did anyone finish the science homework?" Suho stammered, trying a bit too desperately to change the subject. 

"Whaaat?! Suho-hyung?!" Tao's shrill laughter blasted through the air, his brothers bellowing along with him. Kai clapped his hands laughing seeing the tortured expression on their leader's face. 

"Shh!" he hissed. "Don't be stupid, I'm not jealous, I don't even care, just- just stop!" he spewed, completely flustered. 

"Ah, be honest, Suho! You like the girl, don't you?" Luhan coaxed mercilessly. "All this tough talk and saying you don't like her is all just an act, admit it. Speak honestly, you're amongst your brothers," he said, a devilish grin appearing on his angelic face. Suho groaned and planted his face against the table, which only made matters worse for him. Kai was laughing just as hard, but he couldn't help but notice the light tension amidst the elated atmosphere. It was hilarious to torture Suho with this, but then the thought of his hyung actually showing an interest in the new girl made him feel a little uneasy. Another thing that Kai noticed that the others did not, was a very silent D.O., quietly eating his meal with barely a smile on his lips. Yikes, what's with him?

"Suho-hyung is right. What reason would he have to like Jae when he was the one that wanted everyone to stay away from her?" D.O. interjected in that quiet but strong way of his. "If anything, he's the one that still would want to stay away from her, right? And he'd be right to do so." The table became quiet at this, but D.O. didn't look up at anyone. Could it be...? Kai cautiously glanced at D.O. before exchanging a look with Sehun, who shrugged. He looked up at his other brothers and he winced a little when he saw the look of mischief in Baekhyun's eyes. 

"What's this?" Bacon-hyung started in a singsongy voice. "Is our Kyungsoo-sshi afraid that he might have a little competition from now on?" he purposely cracked his knuckles to push D.O.'s buttons more, but since Kai was rather close with D.O. he could immediately tell that his brother was not kidding around. Baekhyun was hopelessly useless at reading the mood. Waiting for the inevitable bomb to explode, Kai played with his soda can, hoping that D.O. wouldn't have an outburst here. He knew how this hyung would keep everything bottled up until he couldn't take it anymore. And when that happened- poof! Goodbye Baekhyun, hello bacon!

"Why would I be afraid?" D.O. asked in a calm voice, slowly directing himself to Baekhyun, looking straight at him, even making their hyung look a bit uncomfortable. Then D.O. scanned all of his brothers before boldly saying, "I see no competition."

The table was quiet amongst the rowdy cafeteria noise, all eleven brothers stupefied at D.O.'s confident statement. But what shocked Kai the most, was the fact that D.O. didn't look angry at all. He's smirking?! 

Seeing the lopsided grin on his face, Baekhyun laughed, more out of relief, Kai believed, and clapped his hands. "Well, well, well, look who's still more wolf than boy?" he quipped, but D.O. remained unfazed. There was a challenge in his eyes and it seemed that his brothers were appreciative of that, but Kai was just wondering what the heck everyone thought they were doing. It was one thing to joke around regarding the new girl, but if they were serious... 

"Do all of you really believe that she's one of us?" his thoughts had apparently removed the filter from his mouth and he'd blurted out the question before he gave it a second thought. "I mean, sure, she's a wolf," Kai spoke more quietly, "but I can't recall there being thirteen of us. Doesn't that feel weird to anyone?" There. He'd said it. 

"Well to be fair, none of us can recall that much to begin with, right? Maybe she's the last one and now our pack is complete?" Baekhyun answered easily, not seeing what the potential problem could be. 

"Maybe we're thrown off so much because she's a girl. I've never met a she-wolf before, and up until last night I didn't think they existed," Chen shrugged. 

"I think it's nice that we have another member, I always wanted a sister to look out for," Tao murmured, smiling. 

"Whoa, wait. She is not our sister, hyung. She's only been here for a week and we basically know nothing about her, other than the fact that she's apparently like us," Kai prompted. 

Sehun nodded fiercely beside him. "I agree. I don't see her as a sister at all," he prompted, but Kai rolled his eyes. That was totally not his point. 

"Will all of you think with your heads for one moment? When we all found each other it felt right, it was comfortable and it was easy. I remember that I always felt like something was missing, until we all got together. Everything was fine then," he tried to explain. 

"What are you saying, Kai?" Kris inquired. 

"I'm saying that thirteen is not right. Do you have any recollections of a thirteenth member? Dig into your memories, use your instincts. If she's really one of us, shouldn't she have memories as well? Shouldn't she have been searching for us? Shouldn't any of us have felt that there was still something missing? She didn't even know what she could do until last night," he continued arguing to plead his case and saw that his brothers were listening this time. 

"Still, it wouldn't do any harm to have another member, though? I mean, Jae-noona must be confused as well. Maybe we can find the answers together," Chen then suggested, but Kai suspected that he just wanted to be around her. He despised it of himself that he still felt suspicion when she was around, but at the same time, he felt like he was being pulled towards her. It was a very unpleasant situation to be in. 

"I just want to know who she is," he finally relented. "If she ends up being one of us after all, then fine, who am I to argue? But if she's not one of us, then I want to know who she is and why she's here. We can't be too careful," he said, looking at Suho, who nodded. These were rare moments, when the two of them agreed with one another without actually having to say the words out loud. "Do any of you recall there being a thirteenth member?" he then asked his hyungs, looking intently at Sehun. 

"I only have the one memory," Suho said softly, and a sad smile played on his lips. 

"I think all of our memories are too vague to be sure," Kris interposed, a comforting hand on Suho's shoulder. "But I suppose you have a point," he told Kai. "We could spend some more time with her to see what she knows. Maybe she has more answers to all our loose puzzle pieces," he suggested.

"Or add more pieces that we'll never be able to solve," Kai replied. 

"Hm," Kris mused, looking over to Jae, a thoughtful look graced over his face. They soon all turned to glance her way and startled when Kris suddenly got to his feet without a word. 

"What are you doing?" Suho asked, watching the blonde adjust his clothes a moment and smoothing over his hair. 

"I'm going to talk to her. Ask if she's willing to meet up again tonight, I'm sure she has questions, too, right? Be right back," he rolled his shoulders but was suddenly stopped by Suho grabbing his wrist. 

"Wait. Why should you be the one to go? I'm in her class, I'll ask her," he said instead, ready to get up. 

"By that definition, we should ask together, hyung," Lay prompted, but that was obviously not what Suho had in mind. 

"Why should any of you ask? You'll just scare her off. I'll ask her," Chen stated, but was stopped by Chanyeol and Baekhyun, and in the end they ended up arguing. Kai heaved a deep sigh whilst rolling his eyes. He turned to look at Sehun so he could mock their brothers, but he was having a discussion with Tao, Xiumin and Luhan, arguing how the maknaes should ask since they had a higher chance of succeeding because of their "aegyo". Kai slumped in his seat, covering his eyes whilst groaning inwardly. Why were his brothers so humiliating?

"Can you believe this, D.O.?" he then commented, but when he looked up, he saw that he was talking to an empty chair. Bewildered, he looked behind him and couldn't help but laugh when he saw that D.O. had snuck off to approach Jae while the others were too busy arguing. He laughed even louder when his brothers caught on and struggled to run after him, pushing and pulling at each other. The girl had no idea what was coming at her. 

As Kai watched in sadistic pleasure at seeing his brothers make a fool out of themselves, he caught sight of Jae, naive and bewildered Jae, whose eyes sparkled when she made eye contact with others and who gave off the annoying impression that she needed to be protected or embraced. When did suspicion turn into fascination? He narrowed his eyes at her, resisting the urge to walk over his brothers to get to her first and just watched her. Was her naiveness an act, or was this her ability, clouding the minds and judgements of others so that they had no choice but be attracted to her? He sighed. 

Who are you, really?