Chapter 20

It really wasn't intentional. Changmin hadn't been looking for Xiumin but he had found him and as soon as he saw him hunched over with his head buried in his folded arms on the desk he knew something was wrong.

“Xiumin, what's wrong?”

The other boy didn't even lift his head but he slumped towards Changmin as soon as he felt his arms wrap around him.

“Baby, talk to me. Tell me what's wrong.”

It took a while for Xiumin's tears, which had become stronger now that Changmin as holding him, subsided a little. He reached out and slipped his test paper out from under a textbook. A big red D marked the front cover.

“Oh, sweetie, that's not so bad. You can always resit, I'm sure.”

Xiumin rubbed the tears from his eyes and sobbed, “That was the resit.”

“Oh.” Changmin his back soothingly.

“I'm so stupid. I tried to revise and I tried really hard on the test. I thought I had done okay. I don't know what went wrong.”

Changmin pulled him closer, letting him bury his face against his shoulder as he rocked him gently. “You're not stupid,” he insisted. “I'm sorry I've been distracting you so much lately. Maybe you can still take it again. You almost had a C.”

“What's the point? I'll just fail again. I need a C, at least, to pass this class. I've never failed a class before, Changmin.” He looked up at him desperately.

While everyone at the school had their strengths and weaknesses there were rules about keeping to a certain academic standard. Failing one class wouldn't hurt Xiumin's standing too badly but if he was being honest his studies had taken a back seat to spending time with Luhan lately and his grades were slipping all over the place.

“Baby, you'll be alright.” He the hair back from Xiumin's face and looked down at him lovingly. “You're smart, okay? This is just one test in one class.”

“But Luhan knows I got my results today. He'll want to know how I did.”

“Just tell him the truth. If he loves you he won't care about that. I don't.”

Xiumin wiped away the cold tears clinging to his eyelashes. “It's so embarrassing,” he whispered.

“You've never been embarrassed of anything with me,” Changmin said. His voice dropped to a low and intimate tone. “You know you're safe with me, right?”

Xiumin nodded. He had always felt safe with Changmin, right from that very first night when he hadn't taken advantage of him while he was in heat. Maybe that was why he hadn't hesitated to show him the test result. But Luhan made him feel safe too, didn't he? So why was he scared to tell him? He knew Luhan wouldn't think any less of him he just didn't want to have to deal with it right then.

“Is there anything I can do to make you feel better?” Changmin asked. He his thumb over Xiumin's cheek. Worry showed in his eyes.

“I'll be fine,” Xiumin said in a soft voice. He shrugged. “There's nothing much I can do about it now.”

He leant forward, inviting the other wolf to wrap his arms around him again. They sat like that for a while, Xiumin resting his head on Changmin's shoulder with his eyes closed.

“Xiumin?”

He lifted his head quickly, a little stunned to be interrupted. Luhan was looking at him worriedly, his big eyes wide and round.

“What's wrong?”

Xiumin pulled back and looked down, blinking rapidly to clear his eyes. He tugged his sleeves down over his hands and felt his cheeks turn red when Changmin answered for him.

“He didn't do so well on his test.”

Luhan came closer and saw the front of the test. “That's okay,” he said cheerfully. “You did better than last time, right?”

Xiumin nodded without looking up. He felt Luhan wrap his arms around him and went limp in his embrace.

“Sweetie, it's alright. Don't get upset about this, okay?”

Even though he could feel Changmin's eyes on him he let Luhan gently help him up from his seat and collect his things. He felt the other wolf rise behind him but didn't dare look back. It was only when Luhan gently kissed him that he couldn't help but glance at his ex and saw the stiffness in his shoulders and the way his eyes narrowed. Taking a shaky breath he went with Luhan.

“I'll see you later, okay, Xiumin?”

He looked back to return Changmin's smile weakly and saw his eyes flick to Luhan. His boyfriend's grip tightened on his shoulder as he steered him out the door and he didn't get a chance to reply.

“Is Xiumin feeling any better?” asked Kai when Luhan collapsed heavily onto the couch beside him. He had made sure Xiumin ate something and then let him shower first but his boyfriend had been quiet the whole time. His mind seemed to be somewhere else entirely and he definitely didn't want to talk about his results.

“He's watching something on his laptop in bed. He wants to be alone for a while, I think.”

Kai glanced up from his video game for the briefest of moments before swearing at the screen as his character was hit.

“Shame about his test. He revised really hard. He stayed late at the library almost every day.”

Luhan grunted and something about the sound made Kai glance over again.

“What?”

“Nothing. It's just, when I found him he was with Changmin. He was comforting him about the test but something about it...”

Finally Kai paused the game and turned to look at him directly. “You haven't asked about how they know each other?”

“He said they were friends.”

Kai quirked an eyebrow and went back to his back. “If you say so.”

“Why would he not tell me if they were exes? I know he's been with other people.”

His packmate shrugged. “Beats me. I get a weird feeling about them though. I've seen Changmin looking at him before at school, whenever they're near each other. Maybe he just had a crush.”

Luhan shifted uncomfortably. The way Xiumin had jumped away from Changmin when he had walked in on them today… had that just been because he was surprised? He had the strange feeling that it was something more than that.

Maybe tomorrow he would have to mark his territory, so to speak. If Changmin had a crush on his boyfriend then he needed to make things clear that he was off limits because God knows Xiumin was too nice to do it.

I feel like I'm having to wade through some un-fun chapters to get to the drama and angst. Hang in there with me, ok?