You might want to know the differences between being an underclassman in college and an upperclassman in college. The first thing is lower division classes are more general education like math and history. Once you reach junior and senior year it is more about taking classes towards your major. The second thing is that once you become an upperclassman, it is less about exams and more about projects. I.E. group projects.

Exhibit one: my project in Interpersonal Communications with a certain person called Oh Sehun. Exhibit two: my Mythological Creatures group project with another certain person called...Oh Sehun. Fate would have it that we had every single group project together during our junior year, apparently.

Yes, Mythological creatures is a Communications class. It’s probably the only class that I will have where the teacher is so strict that he enforces assigned seating. Me having the last name Nam, and him having the last name Oh made my life . A lot.

The way the class worked was simple. Twice a week, every Monday and Wednesday the class would meet. Every week we would study a different creature, which only meant we could study 16 of them.

It was more of a hypothetical class, studying beliefs and origins of where the stories came from. But…come on, 16? A bit narrow minded for how many things exist in this world. While I recognized a lot of the communications majors in my class, Oh Sehun repeatedly showing up in all of my  classes still baffled me.

If he wanted to declare a major, then he should have declared a major by now. Otherwise he was an idiot for not knowing what he wanted to major in at this point. This week…well the topic happened to make me very uncomfortable. Professor Yun had the knack of challenging his students with this particular topic. He was a rather young professor, smart and enthusiastic. A lot of the girls here thought he was handsome, and I could kind of see it. But once finishing a topic, he’d asked the infamous question that got my insides boiling.

At first it was more amusing for me. Hearing all of the conspiracies that humans had come up with was kind of hysterical, and keeping my composure throughout class was a bit of a challenge. To be fair, you guys got most of it right; it was really the little things I thought were funny.

But now, I wanted to leave. I wanted out. The discussion of existence always made me uncomfortable to begin with, but more so when it was about my own kind. Imagine if people were discussing the possibility of humans existing. Of course, humans exist. But taking things further into fantasy somehow scares humanity. 

“Which brings us to the controversial question: Do you think werewolves exist?” Professor Yun paced the room, eyeing every single one of his students to get an answer.

I shifted uncomfortably in my seat as he laid his eyes on me, and then my seat partner. But from him, I heard a scoff, and I prepared myself for a sassy answer. “Why would they?” Called his voice, tinting with annoyance for todays topic.

“There are a lot of things in this world that make people uncomfortable, Oh Sehun. Why not?” Professor Yun challenged, eyebrow rising in intrigue. Honestly I didn’t want to hear Sehun’s argument, but apparently the rest of the class was interested in what this popular boy had to say.

A rather intelligent answer came out of his mouth, and that actually surprised me. He’s never really spoken up in this class, but something about this topic riled him up. “One: if werewolves exist, that means things like vampires, unicorns, and mermaids exist. Realistically if all four existed there would be more evidence to their existence.”

The class was spreading with impressed whispers from his answer, and a short nod from Professor Yun for Sehun to continue. We had already talked about all of those other creatures before, and he’s never said anything about them. But now, of all topics, he decides to give us his full opinion? “And second?”

He continued, by this point I really, really wanted to leave. That was a thing about humans that made me uncomfortable. They tend to only believe in things that they understand and see for themselves. What doesn’t make sense simply doesn’t exist.

“Second, assuming that they did exist, either they’d be extinct by now because they were killed off by humans. Or, werewolves killed off all humans as food and hunt and had completely taken over earth. Clearly, neither fit todays current situation.”

I swallowed back every sassy remark in me from his second point. Maybe we don’t eat humans as humans have previously assumed for themselves. Maybe we’re just really good at hiding.

Professor Yun nodded again more impressed than before. But it seems like Oh Sehun wasn’t done talking just yet. Another bitter scoff left the man’s mouth. “Please, if werewolves existed, they’d just be ruthless monsters waiting to be killed by humans.”

Professor Yun stopped pacing the room and full on turned to face his student. The class watched as our own professor continued to challenge his student. “Werewolves are often translated as romantic in current literature, are they not? Not always as monsters.”

“In fantasy. Literature is meant to be fictional.” The student answered.

“Why not in real life then? The concept of a mate to werewolves is a life partner of love, according to researchers. Sort of the same concept as marriage to humanity, if you would. Theorists believe that there are a lot of common things about the two species.” Professor Yun leaned against his desk, arms crossed. I think he was enjoying this conversation more than he needed to.

I rolled my eyes. Romantic? What does he even know about it? There’s nothing romantic about being physically attracted to someone against your own will.

“Is there something you would like to add, In Hye? Your attitude tells me there is.”

…I was tempted to give a sassy remark…but I’d probably get a bunch of unwanted attention and hate because of it. So I shook my head in response. I couldn’t exactly pinpoint the glint that left Professor Yun’s eyes, but I think he was disappointed that I didn’t say what I was thinking. If he thinks that we are a romantic creature, he probably wouldn’t have liked my thoughts. I thought the exact opposite.

Professor Yun walked toward the front of the class to announce the final project for this class. I remember him announcing that’d we’d have a project for the final; he just seemed to let it slip that this one was a partner thing as well.

“Over the course, we’ve been studying all of these creatures. With your seat partner you will pick one of the topics we have discussed and write a report about something that interests you. You can leave after you sign up for a topic.” He handed a clipboard to one of the students in the front. My legs started bouncing rapidly underneath the table as the clipboard got passed around.

The student in front of me handed me the clipboard, but my seat partner immediately snatched it out of my hand. He wrote something down which I couldn’t make out and passed it to the person behind us. I glared at him, and the glare was returned for a short second, with a one worded answer to tell me the apparent subject of our project.

“Werewolves.” He shot up and stalked out of the classroom with his long legs.

My heart sank to the floor. Of all the things he chose to be interested in, it had to be the one he vehemently believed against. My mind was pretending to scream at him as to why he would choose werewolves, but I just sank further in my seat. Of course, werewolves. Just my luck.

I packed up my things and was about to leave when I noticed a tiny folded piece of paper on Oh Sehun’s desk. Clearly not something he forget to pick up. I grabbed the paper and unfold the note. With messy handwriting was a curt demand: Go to the library.

Technically it was the last class of my day, and I really didn’t need to listen to him. If he wanted to talk he should have just done it when he was literally sitting right next to me. But I really had nothing to do, it was Monday and I couldn’t go back and interrupt the meeting at home. Woohyun would kill me.

Lazily, I got out of my chair and made my way to the library. It was smack in the middle of the campus, a two story building with brick exterior. I wasn’t a big fan of the smell of dusk and books, considering I smelled it more than the other students. Books weren't really my style. 

It was a bit stupid of him to not specify where in the library, but lucky for him I knew where he was. Guess that cheap cologne was good for something. Easy to follow. 

He was on the second story, sitting at table in a secluded corner, flipping through his phone. He wasn’t really interested in anything other than his phone, and not the type to wait around for someone. Even when I walked straight up to him he didn’t look up.

I dropped the note in front of him, which did nothing. I crossed my arms and just stood there because he was the one who called me out in the first place. I tried clearing my throat, tapping my foot, all noises were availed. I gave up and forced myself to sit in the seat across from him.

After a minute he started flipping through his notebook and found a blank page. He dug out a pen from his pocket and started quickly writing something I couldn’t make out, but it looked like a list.

“This is when I am free and when we will be doing both projects.” He stated, not looking me in the eye. I looked down to the list, trying to make out his awful handwriting.

I reached over to the pen that was on the table. I crossed out some of the times he had written down, including all the times he scheduled past dark. School work was never an excuse for Woohyun. “I have class during these.” I shoved the paper back at him, receiving a slight growl of annoyance.

I waited for him to say something else but he was giving me a strange look. “Aren’t you going to take a picture of it or something?”

I raised my eyebrow. “Why would I waste film on that?”

He rolled his eyebrows. Oh, to remember it. “I’ll remember the schedule.” I told him.

“Will you? Just take a picture with your phone.” He retorted, like I was stupid. But I stood up, no longer being able to be talked to like I’m an idiot.

“I don’t have a phone.” I shot back, which then gave me a look like I was crazy for not having a cell phone.

“How-“ I cut him off before he said something rude. Probably just to ask me what kind of a person I am for not having a phone in the 21st century. 

“4, tomorrow.” I turned around and made my way for the exit. Once the cool Spring air hit my cheeks, I was able to relax. I turned the corner away from the door and leaned against the brick building. My hands shot up to my burning cheeks, hoping it wasn’t noticeable. I shook it off like it was nothing.

I’ve asked for a cell phone before. But Woohyun had always told me it was completely useless for me to have one. Seeing as we had different ways of communicating.

It was like premonition on Woohyun’s part. It was like he was saying that I wouldn’t need a cell phone because there wouldn’t be anyone that would contact me. I wouldn't have anyone who would want to contant me. 

It was still early in the day, but late enough where I didn’t have any time to go take pictures. That was a thing I didn’t really like about Mondays. Meetings were held in our house because it was the biggest among the seven. Even though it really should have been held at the alpha’s house. I headed toward my tree, figuring I could kill time looking through photos again.

Being a girl…well, it had its ups and downs. For instance, apparently being a female meant wearing really strong perfume. Not necessarily the good kind of smell either. Vanilla was the hardest for me to distinct real and fake. The fake would be perfume. Real vanilla was something I wasn’t very good at detecting, seeing as I didn’t have many encounters with that kind.

But my nose twitched, when a warm vanilla scent filled my lungs. I looked up, trying to follow the smell. But the campus was completely empty. Even though I struggled to tell the difference, for some reason it was easy to tell this was real. And I had never wished to have a cell phone more than this very moment. 

There's a significance to vanilla in the fantasy world, but I'm not telling! haha, University got out so early this year, I'M ON SUMMER BREAK :D