Some people over look the simplicity of walking next to someone. It’s supposed to be normal, something that happens every day. By now, it’s safe to say everyone knows that I don’t have someone walking next to me. The last person on the face of the planet they’d think would fit that position is Oh Sehun.

I’m sure I had some sort of confused look on my face when we walked through the door to Interpersonal Communications. It probably matched the faces of the other students in my class as well. This time was different though. Sehun was the one that got the dirty looks.

I walked over to my seat and almost head-butted the desk. My head was just that heavy with exhaustion. I normally really love this class, but the mixture of my sleep depravity and a boring lecture made me want to leave as fast as I entered.

Once we were dismissed I trudged along to walk over to my Chem lab. I felt someone tug on my denim jacket. “Did you finish the questionnaire yet?”

Baffled. Just baffling that Sehun is casually walking up to me and starting a conversation. Maybe he hit his head or something when we were out. He could have fallen off a cliff and recovered while I was asleep.

I shook my head, tugging my arm out of his grip and continued to walk away. Honestly, its weird how the tables have turned. He used to be the one to blatantly ignore me, and now its like I can’t get rid of him.

Sure, his attitude can go on itself. But there is a vast difference in how he used to treat me to the way he’s treating me now. I’m not quite sure how I feel about it just yet. “Finish it by today. I want to start writing that paper.”

“Okay…” There was a skeptic underlying to my tone that he definitely caught. He was instantly annoyed and left me to walk by myself, letting me finally get a sense of normalcy. Yet, there was also a strange emptiness. I was secretly starting to hate everything normal. Normal was him hating me.

I was getting this strange sense from Sera, all throughout my Chemistry lab. The look that she gave me this morning was so different and off-putting. It felt like she was a wolf, marking the territory that was strictly hers. Guess that’s what happens when you see your boyfriend walking with another girl. Jealously itself was the beast.

Our experiment was a daunting one. We were warned that it was going to take an incredible amount of patience. I had patience…Sera…did not. We mixed chemicals for the first part, and had to wait a few minutes for it to sit. Easy for me, I just went through my camera and edited again.

“In Hye, I think our time is up. Can you get the next ingredient?” She smiled. I looked over to the beaker, at this point it was boiling. I set my camera down on the counter and walked over to our professor’s cabinet to gather the next chemicals.

From behind me, there was a loud crash and students gasped. I turned around and saw my camera lens smashed to the ground, the glass scattered all over. I dropped everything in my hands and rushed over to pick it up before anyone else touched it.

“Oh my God, In Hye. I’m so sorry. It was an accident!”

My throat was lumping up in different places but I tried to remain as calm and collective as I could, slowly picking up the shards of glass and plastic that broke off. My favorite camera was shattered. And the numbers were calculating in about how much I couldn’t afford replacing it.

“In Hye, I’m so sorry.” Sera tried picking up the other pieces, but I snapped at her, jerking them away. I didn’t mean to be harsh about it, I’m sure she didn’t mean anything by it.

I packed all of the pieces into my camera bag and turned into this zombie like state. The experiment was a blur. The rest of the day was a blur. All I remember was making my way to the forest, completely forgetting to meet up with Sehun for our projects.

As I walked through the forest it dawned on me how completely useless it was for me to walk out here. My camera was broken. My stupid camera had to stupidly break.

“Hey, can you slow down for a minute?”

Slow down? I just stopped altogether. Sehun once again had followed me out here, but instead of me getting more upset it was calming me down. Almost like I needed him to be here to control my anger.

I turned around and faced him. It was weird that he kept doing these things to me, making me feel better. But I didn’t say anything.

“Well what are you waiting for? We don’t have all day.” He signaled for me to follow him, but I couldn’t just waltz into town anymore.

“I can’t go back into town. I’m not allowed.”

He scoffed. “Not allowed? What are you 5?”

A new type of annoyance was forming in the pits of my stomach. He won’t get it. I don’t even get it, but that’s beside the point. He pointed in the direction of the town. I almost laughed, he’s actually getting to know his way around the forest. Not so helpless anymore.

“I told you I’m not allowed. My brother changed my curfew, ok? I’m screwed if I don’t listen to him.”

He clenched his teeth, dissipating any growing anger. “Fine. We’ll go to your house.”

Sehun started stomping off like a child, but there was no way he was going to be able to get to my house. “It’s Monday, you can’t!” I was so panicked I actually blurted that out. Kind of embarrassing, and completely out of character, but it was Monday after all.

“Why the hell does that matter?”

Oh it matters. If he showed up to my house even if only Woohyun was there, Sehun would be dead. If the both of us showed up when the entire pack was invading my living space, goodbye Oh Sehun and Nam In Hye.

“You know what? I don’t care, let’s just go to my apartment.” Sehun retaliated, and this time stomped off and didn’t look back. I wish I didn’t have to make things difficult for him, I genuinely did. But I also wish that the person I am meant to be with forever wasn’t awful to me. I wish I could get along with my family. There’s a lot of things I wish…

The same green house that I spotted not too long ago felt different for some reason. I couldn’t explain it, but maybe it was the fact that I had never gone into someone else’s home before. I’ve only ever known my house. I’ve never even been to Myungsoo’s family house.

The outside contrasted so greatly with the inside.It was a nice apartment, a bachelor pad in its looks. More than something a college student could afford. It contrasted greatly with that homey look of the exterior.

“Yes, I live alone.” Sehun came up right behind me and pushed beside me, going straight to the kitchen. I stood in the entryway for a moment, and noticed he took his shoes off, which I followed.

“I didn’t say anything.”

“You were thinking it. Everyone does.”

I sat down on a somewhat uncomfortable black leather couch. It seemed…unused. I mean considering he had a girlfriend. Wait, no ew I don’t want to think about that. Stupid In Hye.

I put my bags on the glass coffee table and dug out my textbook. A cup of water was set down in front of me, to my response I raised an eyebrow at the surprisingly good host.

“My parents bought me this apartment when I was 17 because they said I was a brat and kicked me out of the house.”

My confused look didn’t change. In fact, my eyebrow cocked higher than before. He gave me a dumbfounded look and sat on a large white chair adjacent to the couch. Needless to say, I think Sehun had a for black and white interior.

“Again, people ask why I have such a nice place. As for the water, eventually you would have asked. I saved myself the trouble.”

“Gee, how courteous.”

“You have a house, we could have done it there.” He griped, opening up his own book.

“Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t think you’d want to be around all of my brother’s drugs.” My tone seeped deep sarcasm, to that which I was proud of. But I was avoiding telling him the reason why we couldn’t go to my house. He wouldn’t have wanted to be there anyways.

He groaned, rubbing his eyes. “Can you just forget about that for just one second?!”

He disappeared off into the hallway and came back with an armful of books and his laptop.

I couldn’t help myself. My eyes lingered on him with curiosity. I was almost immediately attracted his arms. At first glance, you would think that Sehun is really skinny and somewhat weaker among the masculinity in this world. He had muscles, really defined muscles.

With the loose grey tank top he was wearing everything that I already would be attracted was exposed. His collarbones were perfectly straight and prodded out, not too much…flawless. At this point the color in his hair was almost entirely faded, with a few peaks in the direction his hair swooped back. Why does he have to look perfect without even trying to look perfect? Or is that just me?

“What?” I was pretty sure I had avoided being caught staring at him, so his snappy attitude surprised me for once.

“What?”

He raised his eyebrow, “You just sighed. Like a pissed off sigh.”

“I did?”

He looked annoyed, to that I was also annoyed. Why can't he just explain himself when he says something confusing? An hour went by with him typing the essay, and I going back and fixing the many grammar mistakes he made along the way. Tag teaming it made the writing process go a lot smoother than I thought…and it made us a good team. Who would have thought?

He started the next paragraph on the romantic side of having mates. How being destined with another person is literary fantasy, but he was also making seem like a good thing.

“It’s not romantic at all.” I folded my arms and watched as he typed new sentences on the document.

“And why not?” He stopped for a second and looked at me with those mysterious brown eyes. I’m not good at reading him, I feel like it’s getting a lot harder.

“It’s purely physical attraction. Clearly shown in all of these literature books, the main characters are attracted by a physical pull, and then fall in love.”

“That’s how it works with humans too.”

I leaned myself back on the couch and crossed my legs, tired of working. “People aren’t that shallow to go out with someone based off of looks. If the girl was a complete or the guy was a jerk, obviously a relationship isn’t going to form after that.”

“You think that way because you’ve never been in love.” He griped, folding his arms into each other, mimicking my movements. In the animal world, mimicking can be considered a challenge.

It was more than that. Never been in love, never had received love. The concept was foreign to me. “Just because I have never been in love doesn’t mean I don’t know what to expect.”

“And you really think you have the slightest idea of what to expect?” Don’t be so judgmental of me, Oh Sehun. You still don’t know me yet.

“Yes.”

“Enlighten me then, ignorant one. Let’s just see how much you actually know about being in a relationship.”

I stayed quiet, gnawing at the inside of my cheek. “There’s only one thing isn’t there? Happiness. It’s not just being in a relationship either. Any relationship there has to be happiness…” 

I think he knew I was right, judging by the way he face went blank, thinking off into the distance. We sat there in silence. I had no words, and he had no answer. On top of that he didn’t admit that I was right.

“Get your questionnaire out. Let’s trade.” He dug through his backpack and found the packet and I did the same. I wrote down my answers very honestly, but I wondered if he only did it as some sort of joke.

I took the packet from him and immediately started looking through his answers. Some were long; some were short like the question. But I didn’t get very far after he cleared his throat.

“Do that later.” He said uncomfortably. Maybe he was embarrassed. Maybe he genuinely answered the questions. Suddenly I was really excited to go home and read them.

“How much will your camera cost to repair?”

I cringed, remembering that it broke in the first place. My bag was resting on the ground, and I tried to picture the camera inside wasn’t in a million pieces. “I would be able to fix it myself, but the lens is beyond repair. I’d have to get a new one. Probably thousands.”

I started tapping my finger against my laptop, holding in the frustration of having to buy something. I didn’t have money of my own. Everything was handled by Woohyun and Myungsoo, so asking them for something…I wasn’t exactly willing to do that.

The biggest mistake I could ever make is losing track of time. I seem to be doing that a lot more than I intend to. We were so engrossed in finishing the first paper that looking at the clock on my computer slipped my mind. And I only had about 15 minutes left until 7.

“Oh …” I jumped up and shoved my laptop in my book bag. “Um, I have to go!”

I ran out of his apartment so fast I couldn’t even hear him say ‘wait.’ It didn’t register fast enough. I took a short cut through the forest, barely making it with 5 minutes to spare. I was expecting the boys to be done with their meeting when I walked into our house, but I got a strong suspicion that they were all waiting for me. All eyes fell on me, and I sort of froze in my spot at the doorway. I suddenly felt incredibly small.

“Sit down…please…” Dongwoo patted the seat next to him on the couch. The 7 pairs of eyes followed my every movement as I planted myself between Dongwoo and Myungsoo. I looked over to Woohyun, who had a glint of worry in his eye. Something bad must have happened. 

“Sorry about this In Hye. We have to do the test.” Dongwoo held his hand out for my arm. It’s a blood test, to make sure a wolf isn’t going rogue. That's what this is...because I lost control? 

Dongwoo is in charge of everything medical related in the pack. We can’t go to a normal hospital because normal hospitals don’t know how to treat werewolves. In every pack there has to be a doctor. And I hate it.

Not that I can’t handle the pain but the concept of needles freaks me out. That’s probably why they seated Myungsoo next to me seeing Woohyun has no ounce of comfort in him. Dongwoo took out everything he needed and as soon as the tiny metal needle hit my skin I grabbed onto Myungsoo’s thigh. He pried it off and wrapped his hands around mine, keeping me from moving.

“Just tell her Woohyun.” Sunggyu snapped abruptly. The leader was glaring directly at my brother, but Woohyun was more occupied glaring at me.

“That’s none your concern, Sunggyu. Keep her out of it.”

“You can’t seriously-“

“I’m her brother! Not you! So I suggest you drop it!” An awkward tension filled the room, because no one just snaps at the leader. Myungsoo squeezed my hand a little bit harder, probably in attempts to keep me from saying anything.

But I was growing more irritated being left in the dark like this. If it’s so serious that Woohyun snaps at his own friend, then why am I remaining ignorant? Dongwoo took 5 vials and stashed them away.

“We’ll have the results in 3 days. In Hye, make sure to eat something.”

I nodded, while Myungsoo helped me get to my room. I wasn’t very dizzy, it was only a precaution. That and Myungsoo had to talk to me apparently. He gave me a pastry and sat down on the chair to my vanity.

“Where’s your camera?” He said, only holding up my book bag. I shot up and looked around for it when it hit me. I must have left it at Sehun’s apartment. I scrunched up my face and made Myungsoo sigh.

“Take it easy, Hye.” He softly closed my door and retreated downstairs with the rest of the pack. Great, now I had to be the one to approach him.

I didn’t see him for the first half of the day, which I found strange. Usually I see him with Sera at least once or twice on campus. My lightheadedness returned midday. There was a nice snack shop on our campus on an upstairs balcony, and thankfully they believed in the health of the students. I bought myself an apple and sat at a corner table on looking the quad area. I was about to leave…had I not heard the argument.

“Whatever you are accusing me of, Sehun just spit it out.” That was definitely Sera’s voice, and it was the first time I had heard her actually mad. The girl didn’t have a mean bone in her.

I craned my head and saw a heated Sehun and Sera standing off to the side where no one could really see them but me. He had his own backpack on…and my camera bag on his shoulder.

“I know you Sera. How long have we been dating exactly? You’re lying to me!” Sera was about my height, meaning that Sehun towered over her with this intimidation.

“No I’m not! Why can’t you believe me?!” She was trying to control the loudness of her voice, but a few tears rolled down her face.

“You broke her camera on purpose, Sera! I literally watched you knock it down!” My mouth hung open. She did it on purpose?! Wait…is Sehun defending me?

“So what if I did?! Why the hell does it matter? You hate her!” It was kind of scary how anger changed her appearance. Her face contorted and there was this overwhelming power she gained when she yelled. Not to be messed with, that’s for sure.

Sehun bit back on his lip, with nothing to reply. I could have been really delusional, but it looked like he wanted to correct her and say she was wrong. “Sera, do you have any idea what this camera means to her?”

Sera didn’t say anything. I wouldn’t have either. It made me want to ask him the same question. Why does it matter so much to him? Was it because of the whole sunrise thing? Did that really change his whole life?

“Then tell me why you walked to school with her! What were you doing with her so early in the morning that you couldn’t even tell your girlfriend!?”

This was getting awkward. I didn’t know if I should stay and listen to his answer, or ignore it. I wasn’t sure how much of this wasn’t my business and what was my business. All I knew is that they were arguing about me, something that would never have crossed my mind.

“I told you. I want to learn photography. Why don’t you trust me?” The tension of the argument faded as Sehun replied. And after that I wished I could go back in time. I wish I didn’t stay to watch the whole conversation unfold.

Sera practically threw herself at him and pressed their bodies together, instantly connecting there lips. Sehun easily retaliated, wrapping his arms around his girlfriend for this intense make out session. His hands tangled through her hair, hers around his neck. I couldn’t tear my eyes away. I couldn’t stop the burning sensation in my gut.

Though my throat tightened, I got up and walked away from the scene. I would rather not watch Sehun and Sear ferociously kissing each other like their lives depended on it.

Of course, I shouldn’t exactly be surprised when someone I know is following me. But with the way Sungjong was looking at me I knew he must have been watching as well. I walked off into a secluded corner and folded my arms. Sungjong wasn’t very pleased with my attitude, but with what I just saw I think it’s deserving.

“In Hye, be honest with me. Was that your mate?”

No hesitation needed. I was positive at this point. “Yes.”

“You’re falling for him, aren’t you?”

I tried to erase the image of Sehun making out with the one he loved. I tried to ignore the face that fate thought the person I was destined to be with was head over heels for someone else. But I can’t ignore reality. And I didn’t hesitated. Sad, but true.

“Yes.”

I'm bringing in the feels  ;)