There Oh Sehun was, sitting in our Mythological Creatures class…with rainbow hair. A lot of the students were downright laughing, and I suppressed a smile of my own. Rainbow hair. Of the colors, he decides all of them?

“I-I lost a bet!” He defended to the rest of the class. He was just making his situation worse by saying that. The colors even caught Professor Yun by surprise when he walked into his classroom who mumbled something about the sanity of our generation.

Distracting was a subtle word to describe how I felt throughout the length of the class. I tap to focus. I tapped my legs up and down, tapped my pen against my notebook, or my fingers against the desk. I had the slightest feeling that Sehun was staring again, for this time I have no idea why. It’s a habit that had been growing the more we were around each other. Every single time I would curse the mate bond for not letting me know what he was thinking. We’d actually have to be mated for that to work.

Today was the day I would have to begin teaching Sehun how to use a camera, quietly regretting my decision. Teaching require patience, something I refuse to learn for the sake of another. The reasoning behind his desire to learn was still a mystery to me, and I had a feeling that it would remain that way unless I was on my knees begging. I wouldn’t go that far.

Sehun seemed so desperate for this ability that he said he’d be ‘willing’ to skip working on the project for now. Our meeting time was the same, only the place was my choosing instead of his, and there was only one obvious place I could think of to teach a newbie the ways of photography.

My philosophy was nature as the easiest canvas to capture. Nature doesn’t move away from you, it stands still and is already beautiful. Photographers that think they can get away with distorting a picture so much that it is pleasing to the eye, they cheat.

My only mistake was asking for the ‘great’ Oh Sehun to meet me in the woods, because in asking him to do that he ended up getting lost and was a half hour late. Like before, I easily occupied that time in a little more creative way.

I told Sehun to meet me by the lake, not too far from the edge of the forest. I assumed wrongly to think it was easy to get here because apparently it wasn’t. As I was waiting I saw a bird’s nest above me, delicately wedged in between two branches. I hung my camera cord around my neck and securely placed the camera under my arm for safety; climbing the tree wasn’t too difficult. I laid down on my stomach to even out my weight on the branch, and peered into the birds nest where three blue speckled eggs calmly rested.

In fear of disturbing the next, I slowly pulled out my camera with light hands, switching it on. And like perfect timing, right as I was about to take a single picture, I was stopped.

“Hey!”

The sudden noise knocked me out of my focs, and unfortunately off the branch I was lying on. First I jumped, then I swayed and with no attempt to hang onto the branch I slipped off of.

“Oh —“

Two arms sort of caught me as I plummeted to the group, but I still landed with a painful thud. Sehun groaned underneath me, as I shot up to inspect my camera for any injuries.

“Are you seriously checking your camera before me?!” Like he should be offended.

I subtly smirked. “I check what is important to me.”

“You are a mean person.” He muttered, pushing me up, more like off him. He got up and dusted himself off with an aggravated look. In attempts to cover up the loss of his bet he was wearing a snapback that covered everything except the little peaks of red and blue trailing down his sideburns. Those colors alone made me snort, and I wasn’t even looking at his full head.

He raised his eyebrow and watched me as I stood up. “Problem?”

I went over to my bag that I had tossed to the side and pulled out another camera. I handed it to him and he looked at it like it was some alien machine. “Must have been a hell of a bet.”

I got this vibe from him that he was incredibly irate. It wasn’t as strong at first, but I might have sparked further aggravation. “None of your business.”

I rolled my eyes and walked over to the lake. “Ok, go for it.”

He walked up next to me, a good couple feet away. “That’s it? ‘Go for it’? You’re not going to teach me anything?”

I shrugged my shoulders. “This is a lesson.” Pretty simple. Knowing Sehun he was probably going to be really cocky about taking a photo of the scenery in front of us. A common mistake to beginners in anything is to think that it is really easy, or that you can become a pro in minutes. But a baby doesn’t learn how to walk after it’s first step. It’s bound to take a few stumbles.

“Whatever. It can’t be that hard.” He mumbled, pulling the camera up to eye level. A risky move was to give Sehun my first camera, the one Myungsoo gave me. It meant a lot to me, a type of nostalgia you feel for certain items. That was one of them, along with every other camera that I currently own. And now the person I least trusted had it in his large hands.

He tried finding the shutter with his finger, but it looked like his hands were too big for the camera itself. I made a mental note to find him a bigger camera that would fit his hands, probably one that didn’t mean as much to me.

I heard the shutter, and he pulled the item away from his face to see. His eyes fell onto the LCD display and his lips tugged down. I tried peering over but he pulled it away. “Well?”

“No.”

At least he learned his lesson. I half chuckled and held out my hand. He reluctantly gave back the camera and I looked down to see a completely blurry picture that didn’t even look like anything. I honestly didn’t think that I was this bad when I first started, but maybe I was. Myungsoo has all my old pictures, hopefully they don’t look this terrible.

“Lesson one: Don’t be cocky.”

“Seriously? That’t the first lesson?” He rolled his eyes and folded his arms.

“Because I knew you’d be cocky.” I retorted.

He frowned, his lips tugging into a straight line across his face. His head wagged from side to side in a sarcastic mockery. I began to see a bratty side of him that started making more sense the more I thought about it. I had those same qualities, that mockery, the sarcasm. It’s something a younger sibling feels the need to portray.

Something hit me that I really didn’t like. I was starting to get used to him, his quirks, his jabs. I noticed that they weren’t as spiteful as they used to be, and people who were closer to him probably took it in a joking matter. For once, I didn’t feel the hate coming off of his like normal.

Getting used to him being around and his actual character was starting to scare me. That alone meant something between both of us was progressing. I didn’t think moving forward was an option. Guess it was.

“Were you actually going to teach me anything today?” He stood up tall, acting like he was being dominating, but I saw right through it. He seemed a little disappointed, but he didn’t want to show it.

“I will if you change your attitude.” Sure, it probably wasn’t fair to push that, but I take photography way too seriously. People devote their entire lifetime for this art, as I plan to. All he wants is a good picture of a wolf, or at least that is what I assume.

“Whatever, let’s just go back to working on the project.” He started stomping off in the wrong direction, hands in his pockets.

“You said we weren’t working on the project today.” I grabbed my bags, made sure he was looking at me, and started walking the other direction figuring he’d get the hint.

“I changed my mind.” I heard behind me. Yes, stupid me for even thinking about the word progress. Yes dictator Oh Sehun, I will willingly do everything you demand. God. I took it upon myself to lead us out of the mass of trees, and let him lead through the town. All the while my ears were perked up at the things he was mumbling that he probably thought I couldn’t hear.

Of course there was something along the lines of being a waste of time, he shouldn’t have asked, what I would have expected him to complain about. “Shouldn’t have made that bet. Not worth my hair.”

I almost stopped in my tracks, thinking I must have heard wrong. The bet, his hair…that was about me? What could have possibly prompted him to dye his hair rainbow? So many things were racing in my mind until we reached the line stopping the trees and entered the town. I shook my head, there was no way it was about me.

He walked straight to the bubble tea shop, like it was some second nature that he knew just how to get there. Throwing his bags onto a table outside, mumbling something about needing a drink. I decided to pass and sat down at the table, pulling out my laptop. The fact that we hadn’t started it at all was starting to freak me out just a little bit. Starting the actual paper would mean we’d have to talk about the idea of mates and come up with a conclusion together, and Sehun’s understanding of what a mate actually was couldn’t have been farther from the truth. He thought it was about love. It wasn’t.

I pulled up all of the research notes that I had, when Sehun emerged from the shop with two drinks. One of them was placed in front of me, and you could guess what happened next.

“What is this?” I eyed the drink, it was my favorite. But what the hell Oh Sehun?

“What you ordered last time.” He avoided eye contact, pulling stuff out of his black leather backpack. I didn’t even think that he would remember my drink from last time, but then I started thinking. He paid for me twice.

“Our thesis should be comparing werewolf mates to human soul mates.”

“I thought I already told you that was wrong.” Sehun was staring right at me, as if challenging me.

“What else do you have? We already agreed on this topic.” He snapped harshly. There go all of my thoughts on earlier today.

“I recall you picking a topic and me being forced into it.” The irritation was rising in both of us, not helping get rid of the tension that has been between him and I for half our lives.

“You wanted to write a paper on existence. And I told you werewolves don’t exist. End of story. Werewolves don’t exist. Who would want to create monsters like that?”

Great, now I’m a monster. Something seriously pulled down my heart with just a single sentence from Oh Sehun. I don’t think anything he has ever said hurt more than that. My insides were curling, but like always I hade to it up and play it off.

“Vampires are just as bad, you know. How are vampires not monsters?” Diverting the topic to another creature was better than talking about me. But then again, he didn’t know he just called the girl in front of him a monster.

“What, all they do is people’s blood.” All they do? Vampires are more vile than werewolves, that is a fact. Or maybe my opinion, but werewolves aren’t bad.

“To feed. They literally live off of humans.” This argument was getting us absolutely no where. I would have preferred teaching a pissed off Sehun how to take a decent picture than argue about something he doesn’t believe in yet.

“Not as bad as killing for no reason.” His mumbling was something I could say I legitimately hated at this point. It was like he was scared to voice his opinion with confidence.

“Werewolves don’t kill for sport, if that is what you are implying.”

“Then why do they kill? You seem to be an expert on the subject.” Damn, I didn’t mean to sound like that. Not a good idea to defend myself when he doesn’t even know I’m defending myself. I mean, a person would defend a show that they liked; it would be kind of the same thing, right?

“I don’t know why do humans kill each other?” Score 1 for In Hye.

He rolled his eyes. I mean, it was a good point to make. Humans kill the most, and kill each other. Werewolves kill to defend themselves, and stupid ones kill humans because they want to. Just a misconception of fantasy. “Look you’re missing the point. You’d be stupid to believe in some stupid folklore like werewolves. Don’t be a child.”

I swallowed hard. A child? I’m stupid for believing that werewolves exist…I closed my laptop in a rush and shoved it in my bags, not ignoring the sudden wave of guilt on his face. This was enough Oh Sehun for me in one day. Enough insults, as I learned from the past.

I thought maybe for a second that stomping off like the child he was insinuating I was might have been a little bit dramatic. I turned around, contemplating going back but I saw something that I didn’t expect. Both of his hands were on his head, his elbows resting on the table in front of him. Sehun looked heartbroken. 

I know I know it's been awhile :/ I tried finishing this early but school happened like 3 weeks ago and school just . I'm thinking of putting a suggested song at the beginning of each chapter to fit the mood. Could be kpop. Could be other things. What do you guys think? Yay? Nay? Lemme know.