I don’t like to be talked about. Whether it’s because people are making fun of me or staring at me like I am a freak, I hate it. But what can a girl do when her arm starts gushing blood and looks like it went through the garbage disposal…and she doesn’t scream like a normal person? Not much, I supposed.

That lab was cancelled immediately, and Professor Song had managed to get everyone to leave, despite the fact that they were all staring at me. I said before that I hated Chemistry. But nothing got me by in college more than Professor Song.

She knew about me, you see. She knew what I was. The only reason was because, like my brother, my cousin, and their pack, Professor Song was the only other one in this town that was like us. So in total, there were 9 of us. Small numbers makes it easier for us to get by. I know that the city is a completely different story. Suspicions are always rising over there. Maybe that was the thing that I actually liked about living in this small town. Who knows? She sat me down and wrapped my arm with gauze.

“For a human, this burn would take about a month to heal.” She explained, wrapping my already healed wound. “Keep this on that long, avoid suspicion.”

This was as far as Professor Song could help me. She shouldn’t have been in the first place, but exposing would expose us all together, and none of us could have that. Even so, a burn like this would have a serious scar. I came out unscathed after just a few moments.

I don’t have many opportunities to change. Woohyun hated when I was in front of him, and truthfully I don’t think Myungsoo liked it either. My time was restricted to the forest, and I rarely had any time for that. I always got carried away with my pictures that I’d forget that other part of me existed. Being forcefully reminded of my healing powers, I wanted to change more than ever. So I did.

The difficult part was I had to deep in the forest; otherwise I could risk someone seeing me. Also, I had to strip down, didn’t want anyone seeing that either. I basically had spots in the forest for everything. Special places to do homework, the best areas for taking pictures, and the best places to change. One of those places was by a large river deep within my domain. Because the terrain was uneven and bumpy, there were a lot of nooks and crannies where I could stow all of my stuff.

The trees were all pulled up in weird places, and I stuffed my bookbag and camera underneath a large gap of an exposed root. I tucked it away out of sight, and started taking off articles of clothing one by one, shoving those in the gap as well. Technically I didn’t have to take all my clothes off, but then I’d have destroyed clothes and have to go buy more. I hate shopping for clothes.

There is a misconception that changing hurts. Probably because it looks like it hurts to humans, our bodies are literally changing from one thing to the next. But it’s more natural than humans think it is. Well, of course it’s natural for us. I don’t really feel anything anymore.

I both loved and hated changing at the same time. You see, there is a legitimate reason why my family in particular hates me. There is a reason why our entire race hates me. There are hierarchies within us, obvious one being the alpha, and thank God it's not Woohyun. Most people who study mythology don’t know that there is another factor that deems you worthy or not.

It was here in the lonely part of the forest where my particular status could not be judged. Some would think it was eerily quiet. Not me. I let my form take over me, but my mind was still in the exact same place. Just…my senses were a little enhanced. I enjoyed that a lot too. I trotted along the terrain by the river.

The slight glimpse of my reflection drew me closer to the river itself. I forced myself to look, though everything in me wanted to recoil. It was the color of my fur that they hated. White always meant peace, but not among us. White meant weak, because it meant pure.

You can’t be pure if you want to be strong. You can’t look innocent when you need to be fierce. It’s just not possible. And coming from a family whose lineage runs deep black, I’ve tainted our reputation. Even our parents looked at me like Woohyun does now, when they were still alive.

Which is why I came out here by myself. Alone was where I could try to make myself believe I wasn’t anything that they said I was. Sometimes that was hard, but I tried to escape by enjoying time alone, if that was even possible anymore. Because every time I looked at that white reflection I got disgusted.

I decided to just lie down by the water, in the dirt. I did like running too, when I had the energy to do it. After the whole fiasco in chemistry, I wasn’t too fond of taking a run. More like sitting here and sulking for as long as I could, and contemplating all life choices up to this point. Wondering when in my life I would start to accept things the way they actually were. Basically the life of every college student who isn't studying. 

My ears twitched at the sound of a branch, followed by tiny pattering of feet. I recognized the sound, distinct from any human noise or scent. A doe came in sight, wanting a drink of water. She made eye contact with me, fearful at first, but steadily made her way to a shallow part of the river, and took a drink.

Truthfully, she should be running away from me. But none of the animals were really afraid of me. They all knew what I represented.

I know I wasn’t supposed to have a soft heart, but baby animals were really cute to me. This whole ravenous side I was supposed to have just didn’t exist. I find it quite contradictory. I would have whipped out my camera if I was in my human form. 

It was another day where the sun had started going down, and I had to head back home. There were minimal pictures taken today, probably because the day hadn’t exactly turned out in the most positive light.

I had one last thing to do for the day before I could return home. My photography professor asked to see my latest prints and wanted me to bring in as many as I could. I had a stack of about a thousand full sized in my arms. Though it wasn’t hard to carry, it was still a pain to walk through the hallways of my campus with that many prints.

Picking the ones I wanted to show her was also a challenge in itself. I had to ask her multiple times what exactly she wanted to see, because I had a lot of different categories of pictures to give her. Unfortunately, she told me everything I had taken in the last month that I liked, she wanted me to turn in. And in result, I was bringing a thousand prints to her office.

It was 5:45 in the afternoon, most students didn’t have night classes, spare the unlucky few. Unlucky for me to run into those unlucky few.

There was a group of boys that turned the corner, evil grins plastered on their faces as soon as they saw me. I kept my eyes on the end of the hall, past where they were. I wasn’t exactly looking at the ground, but close to it, hoping for once they would leave me alone and let me walk in peace. But usually, I never had my way.

However there was one undeniable thing happening as I approached the passing boys. There was this warmness filling me, as my cheeks flushed in heat. It wasn’t because I was shy around them. Definitely not. I kept claiming that I hated them, but recently I had been noticing this sort of sensation every time I was around a certain person. And I hated that. Because that particular person thought it was going to be funny to trip me.

As soon as he brushed up against my shoulder, he stuck out his long leg in front of both of my feet. My body naturally lunged forward, arms unintentionally throwing everything that I was carrying ever so carefully.

I couldn’t brace myself in time with the prints in my hand, and the glossy papers flew all over the ground. I landed hard on my chest, breath escaping my lungs. The boys snickered, and I felt eyes on my back. I didn’t look at them, but at my hard work sprawled out on the floor; some with dirty footprints on them, others now with folds through the paper.

“Sorry, Heuk.” I heard that thick voice mock again. Of course the perpetrator would be Oh Sehun. I wasn’t expecting any other. Tiredly, I pushed myself up and gathered the pile of fallen pictures, my hard work practically for nothing at all. 

What I was expecting was the boys to walk away, which most of them did. One stayed behind a little longer to continue the ridicule. I tried letting the steam die down as I was literally picking up my life in my hands. My eye caught one of my favorites that hadn’t been stepped on and was still in good shape. I reached out for it, but not quick enough for a large foot to step right on it.

He bent down to eye level, his face very close. Much too close for my comfort. With a snobbish glint in his eyes he kept his stupid thick voice for only me to hear. “Next time, watch yourself better.”

For a moment I looked straight into his eyes, glaringly. My hand was still reached out for that one picture I was aiming for. It was a reflection shot, of a lake in the forest. And it happened to be one of my favorites, now covered in whatever was on the bottom of Oh Sehun’s shoes.

Instead of trying to wiggle the picture out from underneath his foot, I shot for his ankle. A normal girl wouldn’t have been able to lift the entire body of a 21-year-old man like I did. The force caused him to fall back straight on his , eyes widened in complete shock that someone like me carried that kind of strength.  Let’s just say I got my picture.

He stared back at me with completely bewildered eyes, well, I’m not too surprised at his reaction. In all honesty, I just wanted the picture. I paid more attention to delicately wiping off the footprint, but I sort of knew I needed to reprint the ones that were soiled. I sighed, one of my favorites and my best work had to be completely reprinted. 

I heard a scoff from him, and fading footsteps. I heard him talking to his friends until he got to the end of the hallway and left the building. Sometimes I hated the super hearing bit. I always heard the awful things he always said about me.

Another pair of footsteps came into my hearing, and another person in my eyesight. He gathered the scattered pictures in a neat stack quickly, while no one was around. One particular senior was still helping me, after all these years.

It was easy to recognize his scent. I was trained to know it. I just didn’t think he’d be willing to help me at school. Without looking me in the eye, he handed me the stack of photos he picked up and stalked away quickly before anyone could see him helping me. I gathered the rest of the pictures in the stack it was in before, softly speaking so he could only hear me. “Thanks, Sungjong.”

Ready for your mind to be blown?

 Older 1993

 Younger 1994

I can't....how is Sungjong a year older than Sehun...

I decided to upload this one since I've had it done for a while. Also...I REALLY don't want to study for exams right now...officially done with school on Tuesday!