Chapter 17

Taehyung and Jungkook practically wiggled with excitement when Sehun came in and sat in the seat in front of him. After leaving the library the day before they hadn’t spoken much about what they had seen but now that Sehun was right in front of them they couldn’t help but say something.

Jungkook leant forward in his chair. “Hey, Sehun?”

The other wolf looked around.

“You get tutored for history right?”

Sehun blinked a couple of times before managing to answer. “Y-yeah. Why?”

“It’s just,” said Jungkook unable to stop himself from smiling, “Tae Tae wants to pick his grades up a little and we were wondering if your tutor could help him out.”

Taehyung flashed him a bright grin.

“But aren’t you getting B’s and stuff?”

“Yeah but I’m competing with Mr Straight A’s over here,” he said, nodding at Jungkook. Honestly he didn’t really care but if tutoring with Lay meant the same as it meant with Sehun then he might just give it a go.

“He’s in your pack, right Tao? The guy who tutors Sehun?”

Tao turned around, paying full attention to the conversation for the first time. “Lay? Yeah, he’s in my pack.”

“You think he has time to tutor Taehyung too?”

Taehyung batted his eyelashes at Tao and gave him his cutest expression but it was Sehun who answered.

“W-well, he might be busy. He said he has a lot of stuff on.”

“Does he do it for free?” Jungkook asked with an expression so innocent it was practically angelic. “Or do you pay him?”

Taehyung bit his lip and had to cover his mouth to stop himself frm laughing. Sehun’s cheeks started to redden.

“For free,” he mumbled.

“But he must get something out of it.”

“Lay’s just nice like that,” said Tao. “He likes to help people.”

“Wouldn’t mind him helping me,” Taehyung muttered under his breath.

“What?” Sehun turned to him, looking a little alarmed. Kai frowned at them from where he was sitting at his pack mate’s side. He hadn’t missed the looks that kept passing between the two wolves. He recognised when Sehun was feeling uncomfortable too.

“Nothing,” smiled Taehyung too brightly. “I just don’t know how you concentrate with him teaching you.”

Sehun’s throat bobbed as he swallowed.

“I would probably get too distracted by how cute he is.”

Jungkook laughed too loudly, drawing a few looks from around the room. Sehun’s cheeks turned even more pink and he ducked his head, turning back to face the front. Luckily at that point their teacher walked in and called for them all to be quiet so the lesson could start.

“You okay?” Kai whispered to his friend. The maknae nodded quickly and gave him a reassuring, but half-hearted, smile.

Suho and Chen had met the past two evenings after school in one of the music rooms to help learn to control his shifting. He hadn’t managed to do it yet but at least he was showing willing. Suho was more used to helping younger wolves stop themselves from shifting whenever they got angry but Chen had worked so hard to control that side of him that he was now scared to shift at all. Suho had to teach him to do it without feeling like he was losing control and that wasn’t easy.

He had shifted himself on the first day to show him how easy it could be but no matter how much Chen relaxed he just couldn’t make himself do it on command. Still, when he left on the second day he was in a good mood and assured Suho that he was getting closer.

When Suho stepped back into his dorm late that evening he hadn’t expected to see Xiumin looking worried on the couch. No one else was around.

“What’s up?” he asked, sitting beside him. “You look serious.”

Xiumin sighed. “I heard something today,” he said, “and I think it’s going to cause trouble.”

“What?”

“Well, I was talking to Onew and he said Taemin was coming back soon.”

Suho tensed. “Soon? Like, how soon?”

“Like, in the next week or something. Do you think we should warn Kai?”

Suho thought for a moment, weighing up the pros and cons, and then shook his head. “No, he’s been so happy lately. I don’t want to ruin that.”

“But when he sees him again…”

“Maybe he won’t. Maybe they can just avoid each other.”

“But they’re at school together now,” Xiumin argued. “I just don’t want him to suddenly see him and be surprised.”

Suho sank down into the couch. “Not yet,” he said quietly. “We’ll find out when exactly he’s coming back and warn him then. At least give him and Kyungsoo a few more days to be happy.”

Xiumin slipped down so he could rest his head on his alpha’s shoulder. “Maybe Kai really is over him. They’ve been apart for months.”

“Hope so.” Suho let Xiumin comfort him and cuddled into his elder’s warm body. “I just wish I had never let them be together. I should have known it would only end badly with them being in different packs.”

Xiumin tensed but Suho didn’t seem to notice. “It can’t always turn out badly,” he said.

Suho sighed. “It does. Sooner or later someone has to end it. You just can’t make the time for each other unless one of you is willing to switch packs.”

“But what if you’re really in love?”

“Then someone leaves their pack, I guess. It’s better to just not get involved to start with. I mean, don’t you have everything you could want in your pack to start with?”

Xiumin opened his mouth but quickly closed it again. He couldn’t think of an argument. He didn’t want to leave his pack, not even for Luhan. He loved how good of an alpha Suho was and how sweet the maknae’s were when they wanted to be and, hell, even how irritating Chanyeol and Baekhyun were sometimes. He couldn’t be without that. But he didn’t want to be without Luhan either.

He closed his eyes and tried not to think about it but Suho’s words wouldn’t stop going around in his head. He had to make a choice before things got any more complicated. He had seen what happened to Kai after Taemin broke his heart and how long it took to put him back together. But not being with Luhan… just the thought of it hurt him already.

“Suho?” he whispered.

“Yeah?”

He didn’t know what he wanted to say. He didn’t know what to ask to get the answer he wanted. “Nothing,” he said and was thankful that Suho didn’t question him any further.

He imagined seeing Luhan tomorrow, finding somewhere they could be alone and telling him that they should stop. He could see Luhan’s teary eyes in his mind and could hear the way his voice would crack when he realised what was going on. And he knew. He knew that if they broke up he would just go after him again. Even if Luhan didn’t want him, even if he hated him he would still try and fix what he had done.

Xiumin sighed softly. He was already too far gone. Luhan was his now and none of this was going to end well.

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