Baekhyun taps his fingers impatiently against the desk he's sitting at. The lecture lasts forever, his British history professor still mumbling from his pulpit and switching slides, not even looking at the students as his eyes are locked on the sceen of his laptop. The leture hall is big, prepared for almost three hundred people, but Baekhyun's group is less than one hundred, making the room feel empty. Only half of the desks and chairs are new, the ones the closest to the front, and Baekhyun's own chair sqeaks underneath him when he wiggles to get more comfortable. His desk is decorated with the ever original drawings of , with the exepction of two penguins, two ducks and an elephant among them and he snickers every time someone tries to erase them. The ink is too deep into the wood by now.

He looks at his phone for the nth time and to his dispair, there are still 10 minutes left. Baekhyun thinks it's suspicious, how slow he time passes during this class. 

The weather is amazing; the very last bits of summer are still hanging in the October air, warming up the first days od his second year and letting him leave his coat at the back of his closet for a few more days. As a person who hates the cold, Baekhyun is thankful. 

He sighs and leans back on his chair (the loud squeak attracting attention of the students sitting near, but he only crosses his arms on his chest and sends them a challenging look). How can a person even make something as fascinating as British history so boring? Baekhyun questions the world.

"See you next week." is what he catches finally and nearly springs off his seat to the exit, books and his pen long packed.

Baekhyun makes a bee line to his locker and stuffs all his school books inside, leaving himself with the novel he has to read due next week. He smiles softly, fingers running against old paper and black ink.He's about to put the book back into his backpack when he's pushed against the locker.

"Loser."

He doesn't even look at the guy, glaring at his history book instead. 

"Come back when you grow a !" he yells back, shuts the locker and turns to exit the building, hyena laughter echoing behing him.

Sunshine greets him outside, chilly autumn breeze messing his hair and he smiles again, feeling refreshed and forgetting about the event from a minute ago. He takes a familiar path across the lawn to the woods behind the campus. People around him walk slowly and laugh with their friends or run around like chickens without heads, late to their classes. But Baekhyun just strolls slowly, alone.

Just like he's always been. Him and his books.

He reaches the forest in no time and feels excited. The peaceful aura surrounds him when he passes familiar trees and bushes, his steps confident and steady. The souds of civilisation are decresing as he makes it deeper and deeper inside and the silece puts his mind at ease, chasing out negative thoughts and worries. Dry sticks break under his weight just the way he loves it and Baekhyun breathes in the scent of fallen leaves and sunlight, the latter barely making it's way through the crowns of trees. It's perfect, he thinks.

Then he hears it.

A soft whine, pained and tired, followed by a weak howl. 

He halts his movements and listens, before looking in the general direction of the sound. He catches it again.

A dog? A wolf? 

Cautiously, he creeps closer to where he thinks the animal is, whines ringing between tree trunks. His heart swells with compassion at the noise.

Baekhyun doesn't really know why he's apporaching the source of the feeble howls, for all he knows the animal might be well enough to harm him, fearing for it's own life, but the misery resonating in its voice pulls him closer. Baekhyun doesn't like people, but animals are a different story.

At first all he sees is ginger-gold fur, a deep amber and red colours mingling together in a beautiful mix. But as he gets closer, the estimated size of the animal gets bigger and bigger, until Baekhyun can't believe his own eyes.

"A dire wolf?"

A bit bigger than a dire wolf, actually, but Baekhyun is not an expert. Extinct is the first thing that comes to his mind when the words slip his mouth. But there he is, standing in front of a wolf that could easily reach his shoulder if it was standing.

It's not, though. Baekhyun takes another step forward and a particularly thick stick breaks under his foot, the sound echoing painfully loud.

The wolf's head snaps from the ground and it growls, noticing