“Can I have a cell phone?”

Myungsoo stopped cooking and Woohyun looked up from the newspaper he was reading. I was sitting at the kitchen island, chugging down a glass of water when the thought came to me. I didn’t really have any reason to getting a phone; I was kind of testing the waters on how our family atmosphere was doing.

Woohyun gave me a funny look, but didn’t ask why I wanted or needed one. He ruffled the paper in his hands and looked back down at it. “I’ll go into town tomorrow and get one.”

He knew there were no reasons for me owning one, but agreed to it almost instantly. I wasn’t sure where the idea came from, but I thought communication would be easier with certain people. Not that I had too many people to talk to anyways, but the accessibility would have been nice. Maybe there was only one person that I wanted to talk to more than anyone else, but it wasn't like I'd ever tell anyone that.

Woohyun actually did buy a phone for me, but he left it on the floor in front of my room without giving any type of instruction. I’d like to say I was tech savvy with all of the cameras that I had acquired over the years. Cameras are not cell phones.

It was hard enough figuring out which button turned it on and unlike my cameras, this button was a lot smaller and way less obvious. And I could only think of one person who owed me any kind of favor for teaching him how to use something. 

Sehun seemed pretty content with the spot that he picked on campus and I found him immediately when I got to school. He had this gravitation toward the tree, just like I had to mine. I knew right when I saw him. Something was seriously off if Oh Sehun looks like his old bully self again.

The scowl on his face was something else I had almost forgotten how bad it actually was. I tried my hardest to ignore it as I was walking up to him, but I was having serious flashbacks about everything awful he had ever done to me. I wanted to forget, but it was hard when he looked just like he did for all those years. Mean.

I sat down next to him, hopeful that his face would soften a little. Maybe it would be because I was there. I held out the phone to him and he was unresponsive, so I nudged it at him again. “Teach me how to use this.”

To my luck, he softened just a little and took the phone out of my hand. I watched him touch the screen repeatedly with light taps. He handed it back to my and went back to staring off into the distance. Nothing was different to me about it; the dumb thing looked exactly the same.

Sehun got up and walked away, without telling me what he did to my phone. I was a little surprised that he didn’t have any reaction other than that. He made such a big deal of me not having one before, or at least implied that it was a big deal. I wanted to see more acknowledgement that I was trying to become more of a normal person.

Something put him in a bad mood, and I had a pretty good idea as to why he was having attitude issues. Whoever called him the other day really put him off. It was the first time I had acknowledged this, but I was grateful for sitting next to Sehun in Mythological Creatures. I could interrogate him effortlessly.

Good thing he liked to be early now; I sat down next to Sehun and put the phone on his side of his desk, “What did you do?”

“Put my phone number in it.” He mumbled, getting out his notes. It was one of our last classes of the semester before we were on our summer break. It was kind of weird thinking that we might not be in the same classes once then next school year starts. At least I would have his number now.

I sighed and gave in. “Ok, what’s with you?”

Sehun scrunched up his face and slid the phone back over to me. His tensed body deflated as he opened up to me. “My brother is in town. He’s staying at my place for a couple of days.”

His voice was laced with hatred, just like how I heard him before, only this time a full sentence changed the way Sehun looked. This was worse than the way he talked to me in the past. And that scared me.

“All we have left is some last minute editing on our paper. We can do that in the library after class. I don’t want you going back to my apartment.” His index finger tapped against the desk as he spoke, anxiety driving all of his words. He didn’t want me meeting his brother, for whatever reason I wasn’t exactly wanting to find out.

Since we had so many distractions last time, this time was for sure. We had to finish this paper on werewolf mates and give it to our professor in a couple of days. I met Sehun in the library, another tragic flashback of how mean he was to me. But I guess I understood, it’s how I must look when I get all upset about Woohyun.

He already had his laptop out and was furiously typing away, I assumed adding any last minute things to this exhausting essay. I sat down across from him and pulled out my work to see what he was doing.

To be fair, the paper we had was ideal of what I wanted as far as mates. Sehun wanted to focus on the romantic aspects of mating, which in the end surprised me less and less. And now our final paper had a positive look on the whole thing, a couple, or relationship where creatures just as humans loved one another. Isn’t that hopeful?

He decided our paper was done, therefore the paper was done. He closed his laptop while I went online to print the paper. It felt like he wanted to talk about something else anyways.

“Do you use photography as a stress reliever?”

I laughed, a solid, legitimate, way-too-loud-for-the-library kind of laugh. “All the time.”

“How bad would it be to have a lesson this weekend?”

Come to think of it, it’s been a while and I had honestly forgotten about lessons for the time being. Also, I wasn’t sure how much left I had to teach him, not that I was going to bring it up. If he wanted lessons then I could probably make something up as I went. “I’m not sure. Not up to me. I’d have to ask Myungsoo or Woohyun.”

His head nodded toward me, “Text him.”

I scoffed, easier said than done in my case. I pulled out my phone and started looking for the texting…whatever it was. After touching a few buttons that may have looked like messaging my face scrunched up in frustration.

“What are you trying to do?” I could hear the playful mockery in Sehun’s voice, eyes staring down my phone.

“Trying to send a text.” I grumbled.

He reached over to the phone and tapped one thing, and handed it back to me. He snickered, a cute little high-pitched whine coming from his mouth. Show off…

I would have rather talked to Myungsoo in person than over text. It seemed weird to communicate if it weren’t in person. Also, I wouldn’t want him misinterpreting anything and getting mad. So I asked him if he could come closer to us.

Myungsoo sat down next to me and was glaring at Sehun. I had no idea where this sudden dislike came from and I definitely hoped that it wouldn’t affect what I was going to ask him. “How bad would it be to go out in the forest?”

Instead of glaring at Sehun, he looked at me. “You know the answer to that already. No.”

“But if you come it would be fine right?” It might have been one of the first times I was trying to argue back. I agreed with Sehun though, I wanted to relieve end of the year stress. There’s no other way to do that for me, other than photography.

Myungsoo tapped his fingers on the desk. “I have a lot of bad feelings about this.”

Sehun scoffed. “Maybe if you told her the truth it would make a difference.”

My eyes popped out, whipping my head to look over at his kind of angry face. I get that he’s upset too, but even I felt wary talking back to Myungsoo, and Sehun was being much more direct.

Myungsoo pushed himself up off the chair, and grabbed one of my bags. He leaned over and brought his face just centimeters away from Sehun’s. Sehun kept his composure, but I could tell that part of him was fearful. Myungsoo pointed at him, some kind of warning to Sehun. “Just this once, got it?”

I was pulled away from the library, and getting a much too boring scolding about how I can’t just do things because the man I am crushing on, in Myungsoo’s terms only, wants to go off and do it as well. Life lesson not learned, I couldn’t see the point of being lectured for wanted to take pictures.

Sehun texted me the time and area that he wanted to meet on Saturday, and like always I went early. Even though Sehun’s skills at using his camera were improving greatly, sometimes I liked having a few minutes of quiet without him asking me questions.

Especially since those questions were lately about my werewolf self.

Myungsoo was quietly following me from a distance behind me. The words he said were coming back to haunt me; I had a bad feeling about being in the forest. My stomach was tied in knots and it felt cold, as if someone else was watching me as well. That hasn’t happened since I was shot. “IN HYE!”

I didn’t hear Myungsoo yelling fast enough. I hand pushed me back against a tree with significantly more strength than me, and whoever stood in front of me was human. Something round, cold, and made of metal was pressed into my skull. I kept my eyes closed, fearing my life would be over if I kept them open.

“Stay there, you dog! Move a step and the she-wolf gets it.”

What crude language to be used by a human. A human hunter. But that thick voice sounded much too familiar for me to just sit here and wait to see how long he would take to kill me. I didn’t even know there were hunters in our town to begin with.

Daringly, I opened my eyes to lay eyes on the potential threat to my death. The likeness was almost uncanny; same shape in their face, same harshness in the eyes, the height. All of the physical traits were the same, only one hated me and one tolerated me.

My mouth hung open as my stomach decided to do flips around my insides. Did Sehun lie to me? He could have known this whole time and decided not to tell me anything. 

“What?” He hissed. Oh God…even that sound the same. That same hatred he had towards the one he called on the phone was an exact replica of the tone coming from this hunter in front of me.

“You’re Sehun’s older brother.”

The barrel of the gun dug deeper in my skull as I mentioned his brother’s name. The interrogations started there. “How do you know Sehun?! What have you done to him? Stay the hell away from my brother.”

I thought Sehun had a problem with his anger, but this was tenfold. And yet it was still sad that they looked so similar even when they were steaming furiously. Their estranged relationship wasn’t stopping me from saying what was necessary. “I can’t stay away from him. It'll be bad for both of us. I think you’ll know what that means.”

His hand was around my throat immediately. I wasn’t able to tell Sehun just yet but I could tell this brother not to get in the way of our business. A hunter had no place to interfere with a werewolf; his job was to kill innocent beings for doing absolutely nothing.

“Seyoung, what the ?!” Sehun came stomping in and ripped his brother away with a surprising amount of strength. His hand came off my throat, but once he regained his composure he kept the gun pointed at me. I gasped for air as I regained my composure, watching as Sehun started to protect me.

The man in front of me was not having it; he pushed me behind him, holding his hand out to his brother. Even though he was putting on a brave face, his voice wavered. “Put that down.”

“This isn’t your business Sehun. Shouldn’t you be off with your girlfriend? Where is she?” I got the whole “older brother was being all judgmental about the little brother’s relationship” but for some reason his brother’s voice sounded a lot more than judgmental than it should have been. It was delicately lined with disgust for Sera.

“You’re pointing a gun to her head.” Sehun lying might have been one of the most confusing things yet. Why would he lie about me being his girlfriend? The only one who could really protect me was Myungsoo, and I could feel him trying not to pounce this hunter.

“Do you even know what your protecting Sehun?” That felt like a stab to the heart. I wasn’t even a person in this hunter’s eyes. But the man didn’t stop at Sehun’s shock; he just kept going like it was making things better. “You do know. I’m surprised, finally coming to your senses about the family trade.”

Seyoung’s eyes looked so demeaning towards Sehun, his own brother. They reminded me a lot of Woohyun’s. If my relationship with Woohyun was bad, then I wondered how horrible Sehun’s relationship with his brother was.

“Family trade?” Sehun began his awful mumbling again. Over and over, just “family trade.” His whole family were…hunters. Usually it was unheard of to pass on that kind of task to children. Hunters understand their burden in our supernatural world, and his parents passed that onto their oldest son. And left their youngest in the dark…just like me.

Sehun must have learned the habit of never keeping his mouth shut from Seyoung. “She’s not much of an improvement.”

I broke down my barriers and snared my sharp teeth at him, but it only made him sneer in a mocking way. I didn’t care if he might have been right or not, he was rude. My dislike for him was practically immediate. Sehun took a step forward, continuing to bubble up with anger.

“What the hell does that mean? Sera is—was perfect.” Sehun might as well have ripped my heart out and torn it to shreds. No matter what, he had lied for the sake of the moment and Sera was still his girlfriend. Of course he’d defend the actual one he loves first, even when Seyoung’s comment was more directed towards me.

His brother’s face twitched, picking up that Sehun shouldn’t have said something like that if he weren’t with her anymore. The distraction alone was Myungsoo’s cue. I had never seen Myungsoo fight like this before, but he pounced on the hunter and drove him into a tree, just like I had been.

“Touch her again and I swear to God I will end your pathetic life! UNDERSTAND?” Myungsoo was so close to turning into his wolf form, and if he did that while he was angry he probably would have killed Sehun’s brother.

Sehun didn’t know what to think about anything. He grabbed my hand and yanked me away from my cousin and his brother. His hand was hotter than mine and he had a death grip around my fingers.

“Sehun, slow down!”

“Slow down? Slow down?!” He turned around and let go of my hand. His eyes were threatening tears. “In Hye, my brother had a gun to your head!”

He started pacing back and forth, rubbing at his eyes. He was confused. He had no idea about his brother, and that was after all of the hatred he displayed for the man. Myungsoo’s rapid footsteps came from behind, running up to Sehun with just as much anger as he had before. “Is this some kind of game to you?!”

Sehun faltered and took a step back, letting his mouth hang open. “I had no idea, man! I swear!”

“Stay the hell away from In Hye.” Myungsoo growled, turning around to lecture me. “You, stay away from this…hunter.”

“You can’t tell me what to do Myungsoo. Sehun didn’t know.” I had to believe that Sehun didn’t know he had a history of hunters in his family. He was so upset over the fact that I didn’t tell him what I was, that if he really were a hunter he would have known from the start like his brother.

“What…are hunters?” Sehun interrupted the stare down between Myungsoo and me.

“Let’s just say if you didn’t show up, Myungsoo and I would be dead.” I made my statement vague because I don’t think Sehun was in the right mindset to hear that his brother wouldn’t have hesitated to kill us. The only reason he did was because I mentioned Sehun’s name.

“I need to talk to you.” Sehun directed towards me. “Alone.”

“Fat chance—“

“Myungsoo, please.” I didn’t care how protective Myungsoo was being. Even if there were a gun pointed to my head, if Sehun wanted to talk to me I would let him talk. I looked at my cousin with pleading eyes, and eventually he gave in, letting us talk for one hour only. I didn’t tell Sehun that alone would mean Myungsoo was going to stay a short distance from us.

He did that thing again. Sehun grabbed my hand and pulled me off into a different direction from before, heading straight to school. It was the only place I could go with all of this protection and tension.

Sehun stopped by his tree, but didn’t let go of my hand as he turned to face me. “I’m sorry. I had no idea about Seyoung or my family or that he’d—“

“Sehun, it’s fine. I believe you.” I used a calm voice to reassure him. He didn’t need to worry so much about me, just my family and his family. We were the victims.

He let go of my hand and collapsed onto the grass, propping up his knees and burying his face into his hands. “Jesus Christ…”

I sat down next to him and patted his head once. “I’d say I know what you’re going through but I actually don’t.”

He didn’t even make a sassy remark or anything. I was being honest though; something like growing up and finding out you were a werewolf was something I had no idea about. I was born a werewolf and already knew there was another side to this world. Sehun didn’t, but apparently he was supposed to. This was one of those “my life is a lie” kinds of moments.

“When you think about it, it’s not all bad.” I completely understood why he gave me a look and asked if I were crazy. In what universe would this be considered a good thing? He didn’t let me finish before jumping to conclusions. “If you knew then we probably wouldn’t be friends.”

I at least intrigued him; he looked up at me with red eyes, puffy from trying not to break down in an emotional fit. He was struggling with this more than I thought. “How so? We’d still be friends.”

I explained a little more the life of his family profession. “Hunters learn to hate all the mythical creatures and are only trained to kill. If you had grown up a hunter you would want to kill me instead of talk to me.”

He started tugging at the blades of grass again, face going dark. He started talking about something else entirely, I guess to distract him from thinking about his brother. He told me he asked for a slight extension for our paper in Interpersonal Communications. He told me he didn’t like how his paper was turning out and that he needed more time figuring…me…out.

Our professor gave him a month extra, which to me sounded like Sehun was supposed to learn more about me for the next month. In other words, we’d be meeting over summer as well. Was this personal gain? Or did he really not know me?

“In Hye…there’s something that scares me.” He suddenly confessed.

“What?”

“My brother has been in town for a couple of weeks and he didn’t tell me. He only started staying at my place the past couple of days.”

A couple of weeks? That doesn’t make sense, where would he have been staying? Sehun was trying to imply something but I couldn’t figure it out. His hands were balled up in a fist, veins popping out as they shook. “It can’t be anyone else…it had to have been him.”

“Speak up, Sehun. You’re not making any sense.” My patience was running thin. Either he spit it out or else it wasn’t as important as he thought.

“It must have been him. That…shot you.”

I knew it would be jumping to conclusions, but logically that makes sense. Sehun’s brother could have been the one who gave my brother’s pack issues like what they had told me before. Seeing Seyoung acting so rash would explain why I was so easily shot.

It was sad to me that Sehun jumped to conclusions so quickly after discovering what his family does. Accusing his brother of that must have been biased because of his hatred toward Seyoung. Still…something didn’t seem right. I wanted to believe Sehun. I didn’t know what was stopping me.

The drama never ends does it? In other words I'm preparing for Exo in LA this Sunday!! XD 

Also I have posted the playlist in the foreword! Hope you all check it out and I'm still open for suggestions <3 <3 <3 <3