“Why do you assume I'm human?

I wasn't born; I was created just like this.

First I was an idea.

Then I came into being, charged with a very important task.

I've come to find the monster.”

Tinn and Rin walked together through the woods on their side of camp, following the trail Tinn had taken to get to the dojo. Tinn could faintly hear the sound of the river that bordered the far side of the camp. She knew that if she followed the river far enough, she would eventually find what she was looking for.

She had expected Rin would be confused and ask where they were going, but the younger girl stayed uncharacteristically quiet. At least, uncharacteristically compared to the past several hours.

“Rin, why did you decide to come to this camp?” Tinn asked.

The girl looked at her strangely, then pursed her lips quizzically. “I don’t know, really.”

What?

“I was originally going to ignore the invitation,” she continued. “But then I kept living my daily life, and thought, hey, why not. I needed to change something in my life, and I guess I saw my chance here.”

“So you’re saying you decided to come to a camp designed to change you forever on a whim?” Tinn asked, bewildered.

“Sweetheart, I can’t even keep my name straight. Does it seem like I have my together in life?”

“You act it. The other day with the boys you looked like you had everything under control.”

“That was a situation I knew,” Rin quickly snapped, then her face softened, and she looked down.

“You really don’t know how to handle people, do you?” Tinn asked her, trying to keep her voice gentle.

Rin nodded. “I prefer watching them from a distance. I don’t know how to be close with people. To be honest,” she took in a sharp breath, “I think people scare me a bit.”

“Why’s that?”

Rin stopped walking and looked at Tinn, her face completely expressionless. “Because I know of the horrors humans are capable of.”

Tinn opened to respond but was cut off by the sound of a boy yelling through the trees. Tao, probably, from the sound of it.

The girls glanced at each other and shrugged, following the voice, which turned to voices the closer they got to the source. The source being the fire pit close to the river the majority of their ground went to each night.

Tinn expected Rin to react somehow, but the girl seemed just simply curious.

“You’re weird,” Tinn muttered.

“I know.” Tinn was surprised at her response, then abruptly stopped walking as she realized Rin wasn’t. She turned to see the girl smiling softly, her head tilted to the side curiously.

“What?” Tinn asked.

“Listen.”

Confused, Tinn focused her hearing on the voices of her teammates. They sounded like they were having conversations, but their voices were a bit too loud and and sounded thick and slurred.  “Are they drunk?”

Rin laughed. “Clearly you don’t go to a whole lot of bars,” she said. “Yes, they sound quite drunk.”

She walked past Tinn and went closer to the fire. “You’re seventeen years old!” Tinn called to her. “Why do you go to a lot of bars?”

The girl turned and smiled, not answering.

The two walked into the clearing of the trees, illuminated by the orange light bouncing across the branches, shadows quickly falling.

To Tinn, it looked like everyone in their group was there, many of them attempting to open beers cans in a way that looked out of a movie. Rin laughed lightly.

“Oh, all you smart and good boys and girls don’t know how to drink.”

Tinn flinched, expecting her teammates to panic. To her surprise, however, most of them didn’t seem to mind that Rin was there.

Luhan looked at her and smirked. “All right then, let’s see you try.”

He handed her a full can and a switchblade.

“Alright,” she said in a nearly mocking tone. Expertly, she sliced the can open on one side and drank out of it before dropping it, the empty metal clanging on a rock on the ground. “There.”

Tinn realized she had been too busy staring at Rin to notice that everyone else was staring at Rin.

“Where’d you learn to do that?!” Suho asked, looking amazed.

Rin smiled at him. “Ireland. Except there the... beer, you could call it… was a lot stronger.”

“Really?” Chen asked shyly.

Rin nodded, then sat next to them and began talking.

Aw, my little girl’s all grown up and talking to people, Tinn thought, smiling and sitting next to Echo and Jess.

Some time went by before Xiumin said something that caught Tinn’s attention. “By the way, Katana… Kai, Lay, ‘n me… we’re really sorry about messing with you the other day. We-”

“It’s okay,” Rin cut off, taking a sip of liquor from a bottle someone had given