Sooyeon was still in a daze by the time assembly was over and she was sitting on her seat in the classroom with Jeonghan in his female school uniform as usual. Even when the tutor for the subject that lesson, it was the second or third, which one it was Sooyeon could not remember clearly, walked in, the girl was barely able to greet properly. Her mind had been revolving all around the weird feeling that had pulsed within her, travelling to every part of her body when she exchanged eye contact with the new student earlier right before assembly.

It was really unusual, the feeling of meeting someone she knew from before finding her once more, though this time, it was different from how she felt when she first met Jeonghan and the boys. The feeling this time could not be described by words alone and she was desperate in wanting to find out what the feeling was. Something poked into her arm, finally breaking her out of her daze as she looked down to see what was the thing that had poked her.

You alright? Jeonghan's handwriting was scribbled all over the small stack of notepad that had poked her arm. She looked up at the boy, nodding with a small pout, turning her attention towards the blackboard at the front of the classroom with her head tilted. Her concentration was threatening to leave the classroom, and into her thoughts that had taken her away from reality. She heaved out a sigh in annoyance, it was usually easy for her to focus. Her head leaned towards the boy sitting next to her, and the boy leaned his towards the girl, though they did not touch of course. Unimaginable things would happen if people were to see them leaning against each other, but the good thing was that they were sitting at the back of the classroom, in the last row, so no one could see them unless they had turned their heads purposely. Jeonghan took the notepad from her, scribbling something on top before pushing it till it poked her arm once more. Did you see the new transferees?

Sooyeon nodded her head grumpily, the boy just had to remind her of the transferees when it was starting to get out of her head. Her arm propped her head up, as she continued to try to focus in class. She could see everyone of her classmates from where she was sitting at, and majority were already trying hard not to fall asleep. The class was a subject that discussed about one's 'well being', something similar to a health education class. It was usual that people were struggling to stay focused, even the angelic Jeonghan. Sooyeon could hear him shuffling in his seat, doing anything to keep him awake right beside her, including the messages that the boy had kept sending to her.

Another notepad poked her arm, this time was Jeonghan asking about how she felt about the transferees. Sooyeon finally picked up a pencil, wanting to reply the boy next to her when the tutor at the front of the classroom suddenly changed her topic, "Okay, since most of you are dozing off. Let's talk about something more interesting." The class groaned, watching as the tutor wrote a word on the blackboard that all of them were familiar with. The tutor turned around to faced the class when she was done, continuing her discussion, "Mates. Now, I know all of you know about mates, but how many of you have actually met them? The proper ones, the ones that you were destined to meet, not ones that you found pleasant enough to face the other for the rest of your lives. Yes, I'm talking about the real meaning of Mates."

The tutor, a young lady merely in her late twenties that had only entered the school earlier in the year, was pretty much fearless since she was touching a topic that most tutors would avoid. They were in an institute owned by the clan who supported the idea of taking people they had taken a liking to by force for mates after all, be it if the other party was their destined one or not. The topic of proper mates thus became sensitive throughout the institute, with many of the tutors fearing that they would get into trouble if they were to talk about it in class.

Luckily for this tutor, Sooyeon and Jeonghan's class did not have many people from the Hwang clan, two would be the most. Most of her avent followers had been requested by Tiffany to have them transferred to her class or the ones around her's. Sooyeon's class was quite far away from her's, making the tutor slightly more bold in her lecturing. The tutor took a short pause, smiling as she noticed the class perking up in interest at the topic, "And I'm not going to talk in detail about the boring part that every single one of you know by now, so be assured that you'll learn something new by the end of this lesson yeah?"

"The whole mates thing is a process, so let's first work backwards. First thing first, the heat that every pair of mates would go through. It's not something I'm supposed to go through, since I think most of you know what it is about anyway. But to summarise it shortly, the heat occurs once in awhile, making the mates exceptionally needy of their other half. The only way to get through it, is to satisfy those needs. Next, in order to become mates with the other party, all you have to do is exchange your blood, to have a part of each other in yourself. I'm sure many of you have heard that just a drop of blood is enough," many students nodded.

"Well, that's not really case, though it works to give a temporary bond between the mated couple. Many people have assumed that it was the actual mating bond, since the feeling itself is hard to explain to anyone - every couple feels differently when they mate, but most of times it is pleasure. Back to the bonding part, the most effective and correct way of forming the bond is to have a continuous flow of blood between the couple, like a circuit. This is why for most of the times, we see a stronger bond between mates that had bitten off each other at the same time before, compared to the mere exchange of a drop of blood, be it the couple destined to meet or that the mating was forced. These couples usually last longer in their relationship, an example of a couple I know had stayed with each other for more than fifty years together. Are you guys clearer about the bonding process now?"

The class nodded, the students bursting into small murmurs as Sooyeon nudging Jeonghan quietly at the same time, the girl giving the latter a teasing smirk that had disappeared within a few seconds. The boy pouted, but nodded with a blush creeping up his face when he noticed the questioning expression from the girl next to him. Sooyeon grinned, glad that her older brothers, she had already treated them as her older brothers in her heart, had a stronger bond amongst them, though it was already evident from how the two had always acted around each other. The two were the couple that everyone dreamt to be, and most of the times, even the boys who were already mated, aka everyone but Chan and Sooyeon herself, were jealous how of close the two were. Then again, the two had been together since they were kids, not like the others were not, but it seemed as though both Seungcheol and Jeonghan knew that they were for each other right from the beginning.

Jeonghan and Sooyeon returned their attention back to the tutor, who had continued with the topic that she had been going about for the past ten minutes, "Now now," the tutor tried to calm the students down, catching their attention once more, "It's time to talk about the next part, what comes right before bonding with your mate? That's right, it's the meeting process. There are many people in this world who takes almost forever to meet their one and destined mate, some even don't meet them at all in their lifetime. Like I mentioned earlier, and from the many old sayings that had existed from many years ago, mates exist so that people could meet, to stay connected with one another and most importantly, to meet their other half that will stay together with them for the rest of their lives. Now, do any of you know how the old stories explained about the process of meeting a mate that you were destined for?"

A student sitting near the front of the class raised his hand, and the tutor nodded at him, allowing him to make his response to the class, "I'm not sure if I remember clearly, but the old stories said that it felt like you were finally complete, that when you meet the right person, you'll just know."

The tutor nodded, the smile on her face widening as she continued, "That's right Changseob, good job. Like Changseob had just explained, majority of the old stories that had any relation to mates had all mentioned that when you meet the right person, you would know almost right away. The feeling that you feel when you do meet him or her, is hard to explain as it differs for everyone else. I've read of people feeling like they've been electrocuted, on a sugar rush, like all the life had been out of them, or even just the feeling of meeting someone that they feel extremely familiar with, when they met the one. There are many circumstances as to when and where you would meet that right person, some might have met when they were young, some might have met as passing strangers on the street, some might have met through mutual friends, some might have met on a trip overseas, and likewise, some might never meet. To meet a mate that had been destined for you from the start of your life means a lot, everyone, but even if you do not, it is alright. I have friends who had found solace in their best friends, after all, isn't the whole idea of mates just having someone that you can depend on for the rest of your lives?"

Sooyeon found herself paying her full attention to what her tutor was talking about, her brows slowly furrowing when the feeling she had felt when she had exchanged eye contact earlier before assembly started returned to her once more. A small pout found her lips, shaking her head slightly to get rid of the distraction that was starting to occupy her mind once more. She felt Jeonghan turning to look her, her pout deepening as she nudged the boy's sides to get the boy to focus to the lesson. The boy chuckled with his ethereal laugh, it was merely loud enough for the two to hear, and the two returned their full attention on the lesson, like everyone in the classroom was.

~~

"How was class today, Yeonnie?" Wonwoo leaned his head on Sooyeon's shoulder, ignoring the jealous looks his mate had been sending to the two. The two were seated on one of the sofas in the group's rooftop, together with the others with the exception of Soonyoung, Jihoon, Minghao and Junhui. The four were the ones who were on duty to get lunch for the group that day. Despite the crazy amount of blood bags that they had in one of the refrigerators, Jeonghan had somehow managed to convince Sooyeon to stop drinking only blood bags for lunch, having forced the girl to start inhaling proper food for lunch instead. Slowly by slowly, the girl had gotten used to eating solid food instead of just liquid for lunch, and she did not know whether it was a good thing or a bad thing. But the supportive reaction that she had gotten from the thirteen boys somehow meant that it was good right? Sooyeon hoped it was, though she was still slightly skeptical about it.

The ten of them had been waiting for ten minutes now, with Wonwoo and Mingyu having just arrived from wherever they were previously, their hair slightly ruffled and the former slightly ignoring the latter, no matter all the pouting or whimpering the latter was sending to the former. Sooyeon chuckled, patting Wonwoo's hair like a mother to a child, as she eyed Mingyu mischievously. The latter was pouting so badly at his mate, his expression similar to that as a sad puppy while the other boys gloated at his misery. They all had a feeling that the younger of the two had done something over the line, seen from how the couple were late coming from class. With the same mischievous glint shining in her eyes, Sooyeon turned to whisper in Wonwoo's ears.

After a few whisperings, Wonwoo finally looked at his mate for the first time in the nth minutes that they had arrived at the rooftop. Mingyu's puppy eyes perked up, moving towards his mate with his 'tail' wagging happily behind him. The two start to talk, as Sooyeon stood up to leave the two to join her Hannie oppa and Cheollie oppa. The two were discussing together with the rest about how long the four that had went to get the group's lunches were taking, with Seungcheol making everyone even more worried when he mentioned that the four boys were not responding to his telepathy calls. The eight quickly made a haste decision to head down to the cafeteria to see what had happened, most importantly to make sure that the four were alright. Jisoo and Hansol grabbed both Wonwoo's and Mingyu's collar respectively, pulling the couple that was about to start making out in front of everyone along so that they would not get left behind by their 'daddy' and 'mommy' who seemed to had given up on the two. It only took a minute or two before the group of ten had reached the cafeteria. But before they could even step into the huge room, loud voices could already be heard.

"I asked you to be my mate! N.O.W!" Sooyeon recognised the voice's owner to be Tiffany, and she took a huge gulp unconsciously, her nerves starting to hit her. Two hands found her shoulders on both sides, their owners patting Sooyeon as Seungcheol and Jeonghan towered over her. The girl smiled nervously, knowing that the two older brothers were trying to calm her down, and they did, though it was barely. Sooyeon took a deep breath, her fingers reaching out to push the closed doors of the cafeteria open.

More voices were audible now, with people whom the girl remembered was part of her young lady's clique as well as new, unfamiliar male voices talking with each other, the latter mixed with a few voices that Sooyeon, as well as the other boys, were no less familiar with. Jeonghan growled gingerly, moving with a speed that people could barely see, his fingers placed on Soonyoung and Junhui's ears straight away. "Ouch ouch, mommy!" The two whose ears were being twisted shouted in pain, ignoring every pair of eyes in the room that were focused on the three of them now. Jihoon and Minghao, whose hands were carrying full bags of food, tried to stop the oldest of out the three in an attempt to relief their mates of the painful experience, only to be glared with an equal amount of anger from Jeonghan.

As Jeonghan continued to lecture the four about how they, the rest of the group that had been waiting on the roof, were worried and how they, the four of them who were supposed to get the food, were taking so long, with the other eight boys crowding around Jeonghan and the four, attempting to stop the raging Jeonghan, Sooyeon found herself staring at the same boy that had occupied her thoughts the whole morning. One, he turned his head. Two, he looked at her. Three, their eyes were staring into each other, and Sooyeon felt a shudder.

Author's Note: Hello~~ Please enjoy this chapter as usual and thank you all for your support! Until next week where I'll be flooded by tests and Sebeuntin's comeback :3