Chapter Fifteen

The first thing Yoomi heard when she walked in the door was Baekhyun’s loud, boisterous voice throwing curses at Jongdae. She chuckled at their rowdiness, having grown used to expecting it. She had to admit that she enjoyed the lively atmosphere that typically surrounded the twelve boys she now called her housemates.

“Hey kitten,” Jongdae greeted, abandoning whatever he had previously been doing while speed walking past her, apparently running away from a fuming Baekhyun. She didn’t have enough time to greet him back before he disappeared. She noticed that Kyungsoo was in the kitchen again, probably making an afternoon snack for everyone, and that Luhan left her side to walk into the game room, which had loud gun noises coming from it when he opened the door.

When she went up to the second floor, she found Jongin spread out on the long couch with his head resting on Yixing’s lap while the elder read a book, Xiumin sipping coffee in his armchair, and Tao doing some kind of martial arts moves on the balcony. She greeted the boys that were awake and put her bag down in a chair by the long table where she usually sat and did her homework. Chanyeol, Sehun, Junmyeon, and Yifan were nowhere to be seen, so Yoomi assumed some of them must be in the game room or their own rooms. Right then, Junmyeon and Yifan came out of one of their rooms together, answering her unspoken question on their whereabouts. She immediately greeted them, and in return, Yifan gave her a curt nod while Junmyeon sent her a heart tumbling smile, which caused her to smile back shyly.

“You got home okay, Yoomi-ah?” He asked while walking towards the girl.

“Neh, oppa. After all, you were the one who sent Luhan oppa to go get me so I wouldn’t get lost, which you didn’t have to, because I am perfectly capable of getting home by myself!” He chuckled at her pout and playfully accusing glare, then gave her a gentle pat on the head as if to appease her. The action caused her to unconsciously puff out her cheeks even further and pout harder, but she couldn’t deny that her heart skipped a beat at his show of affection. Yoomi had realized after a while of receiving pats on the head that the ones she got from these boys felt different from the ones she got from Sumin and Jinwoo, though she might’ve also looked into it too much.

“I just wanted you to get home as soon as possible,” he told her, trying to assure her that he didn’t think her completely hopeless with directions without actually saying it. That, and the fact that he was actually worried that trouble would fall upon her again, as the unassuming girl was quite the magnet for trouble. “I have to go to a Student Union meeting with Jongdae right now, so I’ll see you later, Yoomi,” he explained before turning to Yifan with a sigh. “And Yifan, make sure the kids behave and do their homework.”

Yoomi watched him leave, but was surprised when he suddenly stopped in his tracks and turned around again. “Oh, Yoomi. Don’t you and Jongin have a history project you should be working on? Why don’t you wake him up so you two can get started on it?” With that said, he gave her another kind smile and left. The girl was left to swoon from his smile again, but on a more important note, how did he know about their project and the fact that they hadn’t even started yet? She was honestly a little ashamed that she had purposefully been putting the project off, avoiding it just as much as Jongin seemed to be. Given everything that had happened in the past week or so though and the fact that she was still adjusting, she thought her reluctance to do her homework was justified. Before she could voice out her questions about how he knew or give any excuses on her behalf, a voice answered her unspoken thoughts.

“Don’t be creeped out. Junmyeon hyung keeps tabs on all the younger members to make sure they are keeping their grades up in school. They tend to get lazy, as you can see from your project partner over here. Try not to fall behind like him, okay?” Yixing said, lightly weaving his fingers through Jongin’s hair, the younger boy still sound asleep on his lap. “Why don’t you go change into comfortable clothes while I wake him up for you? Jongin gets a little touchy feely whenever somebody comes close to him in his sleep.”

Giving Yixing her thanks, Yoomi made a mental note not to go near Jongin in his sleep, and climbed up the stairs to her room. Once she had changed out of her uniform and into a comfortable t-shirt and shorts, she went back down to the second floor. There, Kyungsoo was giving everyone a glass of what looked like strawberry smoothie coupled with a big piece of homemade chocolate chip cookie. Kyungsoo seemed to have a certain liking for strawberries, as almost all of the snacks he made that Yoomi had had since moving in contained at least some kind of the berry in them. The freshly baked smell of the cookies was wonderful and she felt water a tiny bit. Jongin was awake by now and already gobbling down his snack.

“Yah, Jongin-ah. We have to work on our project today. Junmyeon oppa found out we haven’t even started yet.” Jongin immediately choked at what she said and Yixing patted him on the back gently until his coughing fit stopped. “Which is why we have to start already. Come on, Jongin,” she urged her far more reluctant partner— and that was saying something since Yoomi knew nothing about vaeli history and mates and was not looking forward to the assignment herself. She wanted to learn more about vaeli of course, but at the same time she already felt overwhelmed and didn’t want to deal with school work at the moment.

Yoomi tugged him up from the couch by his arm and then turned around to walk to where her bag was, when she came face to face with Kyungsoo. He ed a plate of the same snack everyone else had into her hands and briskly walked off without saying anything. She yelled a thank you after him before resuming her walk to the table, grinning to herself in delight when she noticed that unlike everyone else’, her plate of afternoon snack also had three pieces of actual red, juicy strawberries. She would be sure to thank him for the extra treats, as well as maybe about favoritism or something, later.

Once Yoomi finally sat her project partner down and got him concentrating on the project and not how y she looked drinking a smoothie— according to him—, they got started.

“Sooo, what do we do?” the girl asked dumbly, blinking a few times at the empty table like it held all the answers.

“Well first off, we need to compile all the information we can get about mates into one place. Then we can put it together in an interesting way after that.” Jongin was surprisingly taking this more seriously than she had thought he would, but that could be because he was aware that Junmyeon knew about this and not because he actually cared. Well, at least he was showing that he could be smart when he wanted to be. After all it was a given, as vaeli had a higher level of mental and brain capability than humans did. Yoomi herself was still getting used to her sudden ability to understand difficult concepts and lessons.

“Okay,” she agreed easily, not knowing a better way to do it. Research sounded good enough to her, especially since she was completely ignorant on their chosen topic. “So where do we get all that information?”

“I already have them all.”

“Woah, really? Where is it?” Yoomi’s eyes sparkled at the boy’s answer, and in her excitement, she unconsciously leaned forward towards her tanned partner.

“I’ll show it to you if you give me a kiss,” Jongin said smoothly, leaning his face closer to hers and presenting her his cheek. Yoomi flushed, her earlier movement added with his made them all the more closer to each other. Despite her blush and embarrassment, she refused to move and simply gave him a blank expression at his so-called condition. And here she was, just thinking a couple of seconds ago that he was finally going to take this assignment seriously. She pushed his forehead away, flustered by his bold request. For some reason, no matter how corny or gross his flirting was, she found herself always being affected by it, and she couldn’t figure out why.

“That’ll be a no. Just get it out already, Jongin!” She narrowed her eyes at him, trying to be intimidating, but with her cheeks still slightly flushed she didn’t entirely succeed. He laughed at her red face and disappeared on the spot, only to be back two seconds later with his school bag in hand. Then he pulled out two giant books from it, setting them down on the table with a loud bang. Yoomi stared at the thick volumes wide eyed, wondering if he really expected them to read all of that right now.

“I went and borrowed these from the library before you came home. They should be enough for us to get all the information we need.” At his words, she continued to stare at the two large books in shock and a little horror, intimidated by their size.

“We have to go through both of these? All of them?” Yoomi asked hesitantly. That was going to be a lot of work, and even though there wasn’t a real due date on the project yet, she was still worried about finishing it if it required this much research. Maybe she should have forced Jongin to focus sooner and not have procrastinated on the assignment herself. At this point it might just be easier for me to find a mate for myself and present him instead, she complained sarcastically in her mind.

“Well, if you’re offering, I’d be more than happy to become your mate,” Jongin chimed in smoothly while, once again, invading her personal space and not to mention violating the privacy of her thoughts. “Besides, that would probably be a lot less work.”

“Sh-shut up!” She pushed his head away again, this time much more violently in her nervousness. There was no hiding her overly flustered nature this time. “And stop reading my thoughts.”

“Then stop thinking so loudly,” he smartassed her without missing a beat. Realizing that if he didn’t change the subject soon, he was going to get hit, the boy returned back to the topic at hand to avoid Yoomi’s wrath.

“And gods, no, we’re not gonna read all of this,” Jongin disagreed, much to the girl’s relief, though she was still glaring at him for all of his unnecessary teasing. “And we can split up the work. I can take one book, and you can take the other. We’ll summarize everything and then go over it, comparing our notes together.”

“Okay.” Yoomi nodded, choosing one of the books to get started. She would easily confess that she snatched it from his hands with a lot more force than needed, huffing as she did so to passive-aggressively let him know she was still upset and he wasn’t entirely forgiven. For now though, the project came first, and so she took a deep breath to calm her racing heart and focused on the pages in front of her. His research plan sounded a lot more manageable than what she had been imagining, and hopefully they’d be able to get this done quickly if they worked hard together. That was the key though, because from the looks of it, Jongin didn’t appear to be pulling his weight at all.

She appreciated the fact that he had gone ahead and found material from the library to help them with their research, but she certainly didn't appreciate the fact that he seemed to just be content staring at her instead of working. Five minutes had passed and she had already skimmed the book’s table of contents to find the section she needed, and he was still staring at her, his own book laying in front of him on the table untouched. The girl flipped to the correct page and then decided to confront him about it before she started her reading, her irritation finally getting the best of her.

“Aren’t you going to start working now too?” She sent him a pointed look to accompany her command disguised as a question, hoping to encourage him to help. When that didn’t work and he did nothing but raise a brow at her with a smirk on his face, she decided to try a different approach. “Junmyeon oppa won’t be happy if we get a bad grade on this. I’m sure he wouldn’t like it if I told him you didn’t help me at all with it either.” At this, Jongin rolled his eyes, but thankfully leaned back in his chair and picked up the book with a sigh.

“Hmph, no need to be a tattle tale, kitten.” He pouted, opening the cover and rifling absently through the first few pages. It didn’t last long though, as he leant forward over the table again, slamming the book closed. “Besides,” he began with one of his typical suggestive smirks on his face, “what if I’m learning more by just looking at you? Our topic is mates, after all. I think we have chemistry, don’t you?” He prodded, seductively biting his bottom lip. Yoomi immediately looked away, burying her face in her book to hide how his teasing was affecting her as he brought up her sarcastic suggestion once again. Honestly, that was a joke meant for only herself to hear, but since she apparently ‘thought too loud’ she was now never going to hear the end of it from the far too confident flirt.

“Just s-shut up and get to work, okay, Jongin?”

“What if I don’t want to, huh, kitten? What are you gonna do about it?” the boy challenged, an evil smirk evident on his handsome face.

“I’ll tell Yifan oppa,” Yoomi glared. Okay, so maybe she was being a bit of a tattle tale, but given that Jongin clearly possessed the mentality of a seven year old, it was the best method she could think of to resolve the issue quickly. Plus, the boys told on each other all the time, so she didn’t find a fault in doing it herself.

“No, don’t,” he immediately protested, actually looking a little worried. Obviously she was right about thinking of Yifan as the stern father able to get his rowdy children in line. “Fine,” he agreed with a half hearted pout of his own, “I’ll work now.” He sighed again, but opened the book in front of him once more and began to actually read it this time. Satisfied after he was silent for a couple of minutes, Yoomi let out a deep breath of her own and focused on the pages she was staring at for real.

Soon, she felt herself becoming interested in the words, finding the information on mates fascinating. She didn’t know a whole lot about vaeli in general, so learning about any aspect of them made her excited.

According to the book, vaeli mates weren’t at all like those cliche supernatural stories everyone knew of. Instead of mates falling in love with each other at first sight and instantly being affectionate— as if they were doused in a bottle of love potion—, they fell in love with each other over time, naturally. Mates were people that felt comfortable around one another first and foremost, and all feelings of love usually came later. In fact, it was up to each party if they wanted to be mates or not, since the bond was only completed when they both accepted each other as lifelong partners.

However, the bond wasn’t as simple and straightforward as that either. Accepting the bond didn’t flat out mean that they accepted each other as lovers or anything that dramatic. It was more like accepting the special connection they had with each other, accepting that the other person was going to be a constant presence in your life from then on. It, of course, implied that you cared for them, but there were many different kinds of love and there were plenty of examples of mates that were best friends and bonded together for years before they developed romantic feelings for one another. However, most of the time it didn’t take that long for feelings to arise, since being bonded was something sacred to the vaeli race— it was considered stronger than even marriage by most.

A completed bond was the final stage to becoming mates, though there were a couple of steps that took place before that. For example, upon their first meeting, once mates met eyes, then their gazes would flash their natural vaeli eye color. That is, so long as both of them were of age. There were other symptoms that helped them to recognize the signs of the first mating bond too, though you could also as easily mistake them as the mere feelings of crushing on someone. Many of these supposed signs were the stereotypical ones one might expect or experience when falling in love, but there were others, like the eye color thing, that seemed specific to vaeli. Overall, it was fascinating, but also sounded a tad bit complicated to Yoomi. It seemed more unexpected than clear to her more than anything, and she found herself wondering if there were ever vaeli who were mates but were unaware of the fact.

The further she read, the more interested she became. Vaeli mates were apparently extremely rare, but the phenomenon occurred more frequently among S-rank vaeli. This was because they were typically lesser in number and much stronger than other vaeli, meaning that they attracted each other more. S-rank vaeli also become stronger after they have completed the mating bond. Their powers were maximized, their physical abilities sometimes boosted when in the presence of their mate, and their wings would appear more vibrant in color, giving off a soft glow that others’ wings didn’t. Their natural vaeli eye colors would also become brighter and more vibrant as a reflection of the increase in the strength of their powers. This was true for all vaeli, but these improvements occurred on a lesser scale for those that weren’t S-rank. What really surprised her though, was the fact that polyandry was a common occurrence between S-class mates, since the ratio of female S-ranks was much smaller than that of their male counterparts.

Yoomi’s eyes widened as she kept on reading. So she was rare then, seeing that she was a female S-rank vaeli, the first one in twenty-five years at that. Of course, she had already known that, but it still shocked her. Did it mean something? Yoomi wasn’t anybody’s mate as far as she knew. The idea of it was weird to her, but also extremely fascinating. She tried not to think about it too much, not letting her mind wander and focusing on the project. She wrote down summarized notes on all that she had read and then waited for Jongin to get done with his book so that they could compare their notes and then plan out the rest of their project.

“I hate school,” he grumbled lowly, shutting his book with an over dramatic sigh. He folded his arms overtop of it and then rested his head on them, staring at Yoomi, though this time his eyes looked more tired from all the work than they did amused. “What did you find?” he asks boredly.

In response, Yoomi began to tell him about the material covered in her book, reading off the bulleted facts she had collected on her sheet of notebook paper. He perked up a little when she got to the part about S-rank mates, a lazy smirk spreading across his face as he picked his head up and leaned back in his seat, grabbing his own paper full of notes.

“So, I’d say that the probability of us being mates is high, right? Lucky you, kitten,” he practically purred, lips adorning a handsome smirk as he gazed at the girl. His comment didn’t exactly surprise her— she just knew that he was going to say something like that, especially with her earlier slip-up and all of the teasing it had produced. Yoomi rolled her eyes in an attempt to hide how his words affect her, though the suggestion that the two could be mates left her face feeling hot, and she motioned for him to read her the results of his own research.

“My book mostly talked about the completed bond,” he started, sounding like he was now taking this just the slightest bit seriously. “Like you said, a complete bond forms when both vaeli fully accept the life-long bond they have with each other, and once that happens, the rest just clicks, like it’s instinctual. According to the book, the process of completing a bond starts with acknowledgement on behalf of both partners, then their eyes will change to their natural vaeli eye color for an extended period of time while the bond is taking place.” Jongin sighed heavily, shuffling in his seat a little as he continued, though this time reading the words like it was more of a chore than anything interesting.

“After that,” he read, paper still in hand, “a permanent mark appears on each of their bodies that lets others know that they are mates and belong to each other. These bonding marks are apparently symbols that are unique to one’s partner, though they are usually in some way related to their power. They also appear at random on your body, but it’s normal for mates to have their mark in the same place. For example, they’d both have it on their ankles, or their arms, or their backs, or wherever. The process of obtaining the bonding marks is painful, but your mate’s touch can help with that, soothing it so that the pain goes away a little.”

“Unique symbols?” Yoomi blinked and tried to picture something like the bonding marks Jongin was describing. Out of everything, that piece of information stood out to her the most, a few things about the bond not coming as a surprise since they were included in her book as well. Although hers had only just the basics, while it appeared Jongin’s went far more in depth on the topic.

“It’s just like eye colors,” he explained briefly. “Each vaeli has their own unique eye color that typically reflects their powers. Along with that, they also have their own symbols that also matches with their abilities, though sometimes the connection is extremely vague and takes a little imagination. Most people don’t know what their symbol is though, since not every vaeli finds their mate.”

“Oh.” She frowned, trying to process all of the information. She wondered what her symbol would be. In fact, what color were her eyes? She still didn’t know, but maybe if she did then it would be some type of clue to figuring out her main power. She tried not to think about her unknown ability— since most of the time all that did was make her stressed—, but there was no hiding the fact that she was extremely curious and becoming frustrated, wanting to know her power more than anything. If only there was some kind of oracle that she could just go to to ask about her power.

“Anyway,” Jongin continued, going back to reading off his notes sheet, “once the bond is completed, the natural connection between mates becomes stronger. They are then able to vaguely feel their partner’s emotions no matter how far apart they are. It’s a sort of protective defense mechanism or something like that,” he waved a hand dismissively before putting it in a simpler way, “basically so that they can know when their partner’s in trouble, afraid, sad, etc. and they can help them.”

“Newly bonded vaeli will also crave the physical touch and presence of their mate as it brings a comfort like no other. This urge is always there, but is somewhat more intense at the time right after the bond is completed. ” He sighed, putting his paper back down onto the table as he said the last part of his notes. “Then there was the thing you already mentioned about their powers getting stronger after they’ve bonded. That’s pretty much about it,” Jongin concluded.

“Okay,” Yoomi murmured with an absent nod as she tried to understand everything he’d just said. Between his notes and hers, there was a lot of information there that they were going to have to organize into some kind of paper or presentation. Honestly, the directions for the project were more than just a little vague, so she had no clue what they wer