Chapter 8

You are My Destiny

Hanging out with Tae was always fascinating. 

Nara could never understand how she was able to socialize so easily with such a vast group of people, belonging to such diverse cliques and yet never come across as awkward or fake. 

She'd skipped her research class in favor of hanging out with Tae, who'd been taking what appeared to be a trip around the university in an attempt to gather more information about her 'love interest'. Nara wasn't sure if she'd call Chanyeol that but as Tae had pointed out, ARS – Acoustics Research Subject – didn’t sound too friendly and since Nara was all about friendliness these days, so she wasn't objecting. 

After talking to a baffling number of people – mostly girls – in a language that consisted primarily of mutually shrieking over Baekhyun's awesomeness, Chen's sassiness and Chanyeol's iness, Tae had somehow managed determine their present location and was dragging them over to the old girls' gym where, apparently, a strip show was underway. 

'There're so many abs, you'll go blind!' One excited shrieker had assured them, moments prior to their departure, and Nara was still trying to determine if it was a literal or metaphorical statement. 

Could one really go blind by looking at too many abdominal muscles? How precisely? Since she couldn't come up with plausible, logical explanation, she concluded it was just a figure of speech. 

Only to retract her deduction when they stepped inside the building – teeming with an alarming number of girls, seemed like the entire university had pooled here – and peeked inside the basketball court. 

That was quite a lot of abs… and s and pectorals and sweat. She may not be Tae-level crazy when it came to guys but even she knew the basics of the ideal male prototype and wow, who were these people? 

'Holy hell, Nara!!!' Tae shrieked in her ear, shaking her violently, 'Look at that!!! I think we died and went to hottie heaven! Oh, I don't know what I did to deserve this but I love you, superior deity, for sending me here!!!!' 

Nara blinked, completely lost. What? There was a place called Hottie Heaven?

Tae ignored her, joining the rest of the screaming crowd and Nara wondered if that was some sort of a mating call… the louder you screamed, the more chance you had of getting noticed by these wondrous but limited specimens of the opposite ?

'You have your research face on,' Tae commented, lightly poking her side with her elbow. 'How can you even think when we have them to ogle at?' She gestured at the players rather aggressively engaged in a basketball match – sort of.

Nara supposed Tae had a valid point. Then again, she hadn't exactly seen Chanyeol, so…

'Of course,' Tae shook her head, leaning against the railings to scream a little before smiling at her. 'We're actually here for you.' 

Nara shrugged. It was fun – she mentally patted herself for finally understanding the word's connotations – looking at Tae go crazy. Gave her ample time to make notes and stuff.

'Stop thinking about your research and look,' Tae told her, forcing her head to the court, 'for your ARS.' 

Smiling a little, Nara focused on the crowd and immediately singled him out. She supposed she should be considering that in romantic terms – that's probably how

Tae would approach it – but he was actually pretty easy to pinpoint, given his height and he was one of the few guys still wearing their shirts.

He really is cute, she thought, smiling for some reason. 

Even dressed up in the rather tacky tank and adorned in an unnecessary amount of chains which appeared to be pulling him down in slouch, sunglasses resting on his nose, a toothpick in between his teeth and ruffled hair, presumably to give him a sufficiently 'bad' look – thanks once again due to Tae for teaching her about different looks - he just managed to look cute like a puppy. 

Maybe it’s the ears…

Otherwise, he had all the characteristics that would define what Tae called 'hot' and what Nara understood to mean ually desirable. 

One of the players ran past him, cutting through her vision in a cloud of tan skin and pheromones so potent, she could feel them all the way up here and she suddenly found herself wondering. Did Chanyeol have abs too? How would he look shirtless? 

Good, she decided, trailing her eye over his torso, taking in his well-defined arms, biceps bulging where he'd crossed them. 

Looking at his hands made heat rise over her neck for some reason and she swallowed through her suddenly dry throat, dragging her eyes upwards instead, briefly resting on the veins standing out in his neck as he turned his head before she went higher, taking in his lips, nose and finally, eyes. 

Eyes that met hers and suddenly flashed red. 
……………………………
Luhan had no idea how he ended up being part of this chaotic anarchy being touted as a basketball match but he'd be damned before he let anyone else take possession of the ball or score more points than him. 

He had a wife to impress after all. 

A glance in her direction and he resisted the urge to smirk. Even in this positive sea of shirtless boys, her eyes were tracking him unblinkingly and he wanted to preen; instead, he focused on jumping to throw the ball in the basket, his hand hitting the steel hoop with the force of his smack before he landed on his feet. 

Even through the loud shrieks of their unexpected audience, hers was the loudest. To his ears at least and the constant running commentary over his hotness in his head was more than enough to keep him going – Mei's excited thoughts were too cute… no, Mei was too cute and he wanted to just go over and cover her in his sweat so every damn guy in the area would know to whom she belonged. 

No Luhan, her thoughts screeched to a halt as she heard his, shaking her head in warning, don't you dare…

Luhan merely grinned before suddenly breaking out in a sprint to capture her. She yelled and took off in the opposite direction but he was fast when he wanted to be and before she'd gotten a couple of steps, he was on her, wrapping his arms around her and pulling her into his chest. 

'Aargh, let goo!!!' she smacked his chest, trying to get away but he laughed and rubbed his chin all over her hair. 

'Luhaaan!!!' she whined, stamping her foot. 

'Meeeiii…' he cooed in response, chuckling when she whined about getting stinky. He waited for her to stop grumbling before dropping a peck on her lips and backing off. Despite her protests, she tried to follow him on tiptoes to reclaim his mouth. He could feel eyes boring into his back and he had feeling he knew who it was but he ignored it, lowering his head to kiss her again. 

'Wish me luck, dear wife…' he muttered in her ear, making her blush and glance around secretively. 

'Not here,' she muttered, looking scandalized but he knew she liked it when he called her that. 

Before he could say anything else though, a ball hit his head, making his brain rattle inside his skull. Mei let out a frightened squeal, pulling him down to examine his head and rubbing it tenderly. Luhan glared at the culprit from between her arms. 

'What?' he asked aggressively. While he liked having his head rubbed by his wife and mate, there was no way he was going to leave this uncalled for attack unaddressed. He had to show her he was capable of defending her and himself. 

'Oh hush…' Mei muttered, rolling her eyes but Luhan was still glaring at the guy, who glared right back, looking highly pissed off. 

'Stop making out and get back here.' Minho bristled, 'We're in the middle of a match here!'

'I'll do what I want,' Luhan snapped back, even more annoyed. 

Minho was taking his marriage way too seriously – he still hadn't forgiven him for getting hitched before his senior and captain and he'd warned every member of their team to not even think about following Luhan's footsteps.

Luhan suspected part of the reason he was participating so eagerly in this match was to impress the huge crowd of girls gathered around because otherwise, Minho was as lazy as any of them after practice. Luhan had finished early today because one of their key players had gotten injured and the coach had called off practice and he'd thought it was the perfect time to surprise Mei. 

He just hadn't expected her to be surrounded by shirtless guys when he did. She'd seen him and rushed to meet him but Luhan had been sizing up his rivals – any man, cub or elder, who tried to impress Mei was his rival, brotherhood be damned. 

He also hadn't expected his entire football team to join him in the fight for his 'wife's honor' – Doojoon's words, not his and Minho had bristled even more – but he kind of suspected they all wanted to show off in front of Mei's pretty friends. 

Luhan had caught Minho making googly eyes at Tiffany and Sehun, who'd been lounging against the wall casually, next to a weirdly silent and brooding Chanyeol, had stepped in front of her, making a show out of taking off his shirt before handing it to Tiffany and glaring at Minho challengingly. 

They'd been at each other since then because Minho had thrown his shirt in Tiffany's direction as well and she'd caught it with a surprised yelp and even though she'd dropped it immediately, Luhan could tell they were going to fight over it later. Right now, Sehun was busy impressing his mate – as he should be – and Luhan was going to do the same. He didn't think he needed to work too much though – Kai may have been shirtless, like Tao, Lay and Chen but Mei only had eyes for him. 

And now, he needed to show her he was perfectly capable of taking a headshot and still beating everyone's on the court. Basketball had nothing on him. 

Narrowing his eyes threateningly at Minho, he turned and pecked Mei again before heading back into the court. Let the games begin. 
…………………………………
Chanyeol was itching to join Kai and the rest because they were getting slaughtered by Luhan's team. Everyone was taking it far too seriously for a friendly match and there were no rules, so people were getting hurt; pushing around or pulling someone down or doling out football tackles was being done in the name of body play and he'd seen someone wielding brass knuckles and metal-tipped boots as well. And that guy, V, was carrying what appeared suspiciously like a butterfly knife. 

He wondered if Baekhyun really thought it was a good idea to call in gangsters for this one – Rapmonster and his boys, while well meaning, could be a handful at times. Like did they really need roller-skates, skateboard and a Scootie? Wasn't that cheating? – but he'd assured him it was just to 'level the field'.  

Messy as it sounded – and it was – Chanyeol still wanted to join them. He wasn't used to being on the sidelines, observing and doing nothing. He wanted to be a part of the action but Baekhyun and Chen had strictly forbidden him to move. He was supposed to sit still and make leery faces every time someone met his eyes because he was the Beagles' right hand man and right-hand men had fake tattoos, messy hairstyles, too many chains and they chewed on toothpicks. 

He didn't know how any of that was related to his impressing the librarian but he was going to trust his best-friends. He needed their help on this one – after all, he'd never lost his tongue before, nor experienced the sickening gut twisting that started when he was near her. Butterflies, they called it but it felt like snakes uncoiling in his tummy. 

And now, he had to sit still when she could possibly be watching him and everyone in the damn court was shirtless except for him and Baekhyun and all he was supposed to do was stare and look bad. 

How was he supposed to do that? He hated frowning – it gave him a headache – and he wanted to laugh because the game was actually rather funny and he had no idea what to do with his hands. He settled on crossing his arms and resisted the urge to kick his feet, leaning against the wall instead. 

Good thing he did because moments later, he caught whiff of an intoxicating scent – the one he associated with her. He turned his head around, eyes scanning the bleachers to find her in the crowd and found her talking to someone. A familiar twisting sensation rose in his stomach and his throat went dry. This was it, then.

Baekhyun seemed to sense his nervousness and was beside him a second later. 'She here?' Chanyeol nodded, feeling heat rise to his cheeks when he cackled, clapping his hand. 'Go get her, tiger!' 

'Stop it…' he muttered, feeling his palms sweat. The scent, her scent, was beginning to get thicker the longer she stayed here and worse, he could feel her eyes on him. Combined, they made him feel his skin was being stretched too tight, the twisting sensation in his stomach beginning to make him a little nauseous.

He thought he knew what was going on; after all, he'd been expecting the fever to set in ever since he'd found her. 

Quite by accident, really. He'd been looking for Baekhyun for some reason and after being unable to locate him in anywhere else, he'd headed towards the library and felt like he'd been hit with a bolt of lightning, when he'd been bombarded with her scent. He'd followed it and found her, sitting primly behind the reception desk, a laptop placed to one side while she dealt with the students. 

He'd dashed out, then and had sworn to himself not to go back there because with Evil on the loose and everything falling apart, it was the absolutely worst time to find her. He wasn't going to drag her into this drama, no siree.

Except, he'd been unable to resist, the memory of her heady scent making him restless, like an addict deprived of his daily dose. His feet had led him to the library again and he'd slipped inside, pretending to browse through the comics while he tried to catch glimpses of her. 

She daunted him as much as she fascinated him. There was just something so… reserved, so mysterious about her. She was just so prim and proper, hair neatly swept back and her loose, full sleeved dresses made him fantasize – a bit guiltily because she didn't know he was thinking about her and it was kind of embarrassing – about the sort of curves she was hiding. And her voice…  

He gulped, feeling like his head was on fire. Given his powers had returned, it was actually a pretty possible scenario and he shook his head, trying to focus on something other than his possible mate – whose name he'd yet to find out and he could better understand how D.O had felt, trying to find Kyra with nothing but a faint memory of her scent to go on. 

The game sounded like a good distraction. 

It had escalated to a whole new level and it seemed like they were all barely restraining themselves from breaking out into an all-out fistfight – probably waiting for the first person to crack to start the brawl. Sehun and Minho were sporting bleeding noses and lips, having deliberately targeted each other's faces while shooting and Luhan had been glaring daggers at Kai and Tao for a while now – probably because they'd been the closest to Mei… and shirtless when Luhan had appeared. 

Was that stupid or what? This entire thing had started to help Raina impress Tao, which had evolved into getting Tao shirtless to make Raina swoon (Mei's words) and then, somehow escalated to everyone getting shirtless. 

Kai, having just arrived, had overheard Mei asking for Tao's shirt and he was as bad as Luhan when it came to Mei, so naturally, he'd slapped Tao's hand away and handed her his shirt. Lay, who'd come looking for Raina because her teacher was calling her, had asked Chen what was going on and the troll thought it was funny to make Tao insecure by getting Lay shirtless as well (he needs to know Raina isn't easy, he'd reasoned) and then, because Mei and Tiffany had simultaneously let out impressed wows over Lay's abs, almost at par with Tao's, Chen couldn't resist showing off. He'd thrown his own shirt down and had been flexing his biceps when Luhan had shown up. 

Things had gone to hell after that, the guys taking out their frustrations in the name of basketball.  

And all this while, he was sitting here leering at shirtless boys like some dirty-minded ert from that BL comic he'd accidentally picked up the last time he'd gone to the library and actually dared  (more like, was forced by his friends) to step up to her desk...

Wait, crap! She'd signed him out that time… did she think he was into guys??? Holy hell, this was bad! Why hadn't he thought of this before? She was looking at him looking at guys and she probably thought he was checking them out – ew, he had no interest in these sweaty animals!! He had to clear this up. Where was Baekhyun? 

He tried communicating mentally with Baekhyun, hoping his their Legend link would somehow communicate his sense of urgency but all that did was give him a headache because he was frowning so hard. … 

There was a strange tingling at the nape of his neck, goosebumps rising and his skin prickled uncomfortably, nerves getting taut for some reason. He felt like he was being watched, like invisible fingers tracing over him and setting him ablaze wherever they touched. Her scent pressed into him until he could smell nothing else and the court suddenly felt too warm.  

He swallowed, dimly realizing something was wrong but unable to put his finger on it. When he exhaled, smoke flowed out of his nose and he frowned. This wasn't right, was it? 

Kai ran past him, all tan skin and pheromones and it irritated him, pulling at his skin even more. Why was Kai shirtless? Was he trying to impress his mate? How dare he…? He turned his head because he wanted to track his rival before he pounced – a distant part of him realizing something was seriously wrong – and that's when he located the source of the strange, almost tangible gaze. She was looking at him, she had been touching him, setting him afire…

When she lifted her eyes, eyes that had been tracing his body all this time now, he met hers. 

And then, the beast took over. 
……………………………………

A/N: 

Hellooo... so what did you guys think? I did say we'd be revisiting the YWCFTS scene... is it reminiscent? I had fun writing this - lets see what happens next when the beast really takes over :D I hope you're enjoying this so far :) 

I'll see you guys again soon... in the meanwhile, can we talk (or shriek) about Byun Baekhyun's melted chocolate Nutella abs???? O____O what the hell boi? you ain''t my bias, stop ruining meh..

Laterx

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Alisha0074 #1
Chapter 84: Yikes!!
Alisha0074 #2
Chapter 83: What future????? I'm going to reread....
thanks for the update!!!
Alisha0074 #3
Chapter 81: Thanks for the update!!! Its was nice to read this again.
As for the kris may I suggest something??
Alisha0074 #4
Chapter 79: Finally finally xiu can get his girl but now what do we do with kris?????
these elders ....
Crazydork22 #5
Chapter 79: Woohoooo! You go Xiumin! Get your girl!
topgirls
#6
Chapter 77: This update made my morning!! Keep up the great work!!
shenaya #7
Chapter 76: I hope you did not give up on this masterpiece.
Crazydork22 #8
Chapter 75: Oh my GOSH. I was so excited to see a new update on this. I went to read the chapter and I was confused because it didn’t seem to flow with the end of the previous one from my memory so I went back and....somehow I missed an update?!?!!!!! How did I miss two chapters??? And SO MANY XIUMIN LILY MOMENTS???? Ahhhhhhh!!! Okay so loved the Xiu/Lily, her payback was XD also big lol to some of them wondering why it was snowing. This newest chapter, yes! Xiumin! Put a ring on her!



As to real EXOland, oh my gosh I was so so so happy when Jongdae came to Baekhyun’s show! All the pics were LQ, but it was so lovely to see him. AND Minseok and Kyungsoo had their musical live streamed yesterday! I’m so proud of them! Minseok’s character is so adorable and meme worthy!
Alisha0074 #9
Chapter 73: Poor poor minnie!!!!
thanks for the update!!!!
Alisha0074 #10
Chapter 71: Thank you for you're updated!!! Glad to see my 2 lovely ppl falling back in line