Her ears perked once she heard the sound of the front door opening, and she immediately flickered her eyes back to the TV in front of her, paying no heeds to the boys she knew were coming inside.

One by one, she heard their feet padding in a soft rhythm over the thick rug laid across their floor. The TV wasn’t even playing something she was interested with; but the fact they were coming inside made anything else exciting. She’d be joyous about everything if it didn’t include them.

“Where’s Yixing?” One of them spoke to her, his golden eyes flickering like two torches of flames, and when she looked at him, the golden glimmer intensified, and for a wholesome second; she thought of the golden snow globe she once had that erupted in chaos when she shook it. Then, the golden disappeared into naturally dull brown iris. Involuntarily, her heart raced.

“Don’t know,” she tried keeping her voice small, which she succeeded because she was naturally calm when there’s nothing in her mind. “He doesn’t exactly share his life with me.”

The boy’s eyes, Sehun’s, twitched in annoyance, and before she could think about how annoyed she was about him, he was gone, just like that. His werewolf speed was an advance against her normality, and he appeared like a blur to her. She looked at the stairs with a strange set of eyes, the same stairs that lead to the second floor she was sure Sehun had ventured into, and she didn’t know she was having this look on her face. She never knew what sort of look flashed in her eyes when her mind was clear, when she wasn’t thinking of anything.

A large body sat beside her, and in instance, the rest scattered around. She was sure Baekhyun was going to take his lip-piercings off and join Yixing with his activities – alongside Sehun – which included a lot of smoking (she did know where Yixing was, but he wasn’t the one to tell her that. She just started to memorize their patterns, especially since she has been living here for over five months now. She knew what Yixing was going to do) Chen, whom she secretly liked calling him with his real name, Jongdae; was heading to the kitchen with Joonmyeon, getting themselves something to eat after their run. She was sure Kyungsoo didn’t bother coming through the front door, and jumped through his room window easily. Chanyeol, whom was radiating warmth; was the one who dropped himself beside her in a careless manner, his eyes never straying from the TV. Both of them knew he wasn’t focused on the show it was airing itself.

She wanted to crawl further away from Chanyeol because she hated physical contact, but Jongin’s eyes from the door were on her in a fierce intensity she couldn’t exactly think about doing anything besides looking back at him, hoping he’d look away.

But he didn’t, and she knew he wouldn’t have anyway, but she still wished he wouldn’t do it so blatantly. Jongin was like her, straight-forward and bold, but she didn’t exactly understand why he was looking at her as if she had personally offended him.

Or like he wanted to swallow her whole.

He walked closer, the silver locks of his hair glistening with sweat. She would have been a bit scared of the predatory look flashing in his eyes if it wasn’t by the heavy eye bags surrounding his eyes. He was more tired than he was in a mood to scare her.

“You should have came with us in our run,” he told her, his tone soft and gentle like usual, but his lips were curled and there was a flash of something in his eyes. All werewolves looked at humans the same way, condescendingly, like they’re nothing but a pray. “You could have been a nice rabbit to run after.”

“He shredded our prays into pieces before we get to taste the feeling of having them run away from us.” Chanyeol mumbled before she could comment on Jongin’s words, and when she looked at him with a scowl, he allowed his red lips to curl into a cunning smile.

She wasn’t afraid of them.

“I ordered chicken,” she told Jongin. He raised an eyebrow at her, and she rolled her eyes, pushing the small couch pillow she had in her lap away. “There are still a lot of pieces I wasn’t able to eat. Do you want them?”

“I like your no-nonsense attitude,” Jongin snickered, walking further inside, passing by her couch and daring to ruffle her hair; a gesture she told him many times she loathed. “Chanyeol, you want some?”

“No, i’ll take a shower.” Chanyeol mumbled, giving her a small look – there weren’t any expressions she caught on his face, but his eyes held a strange gleam in them, and it somehow managed to break her heart – before standing from the couch, his full 186 frame standing tall and proud. When she first saw him, she was a little intimidated by his figure, but then he opened his mouth and she decided he wasn’t much of a scare.

“You should sleep,” Minseok, the only one shirtless – he never bothered wearing a shirt after their run – came forward, passing by Chanyeol and taking the remote from the couch to turn off the TV. She found herself growing annoyed with his commanding tone, especially when she knew she couldn’t say no to him as he was the oldest and the scariest. “How many times should I tell you not to wait for us while we go for a run?”

“I wasn’t waiting for you.” She mumbled half-heartedly. It wasn’t exactly a lie, but it wasn’t exactly a truth either. The house always became so utterly calm when they are not around, and she doesn’t particularly like to sleep knowing no one is home except her.

“I believe you,” his tone clearly didn’t. “But sleep, now, you have school tomorrow.”

“I don’t care.”

“So do I,” she hated how truthful he suddenly was, and how scarce his eyes were, how calm, how burning with indifference. “But there are rules in this household and you agreed to abide to them.”

“I’m not coming home tomorrow.” She told him, eyes squinted as if trying to evoke a reaction from him, and Minseok’s naturally blank eyes flashed with a small emotion, an emotion she couldn’t read when she was an excellent eye-reader herself, only because Minseok was great with hiding how he feels.

“Why are you telling me this? You know you can do whatever you want.” He said, his brown eyes falling from her own eyes down to glance at the remote in his hands. He dropped the device on a place near her thighs, staying still for a complete second when he saw she wasn’t wearing anything under her oversized shirt, revealing more of her skin than what he liked because his wolf wasn’t exactly the best in controlling himself when it came to his mate.

And Minseok hated it, because he didn’t have anything with this girl. No connection, nothing, he didn’t even knew she exited five months ago. He hated the sole idea his wolf was ready to crawl on his knees for a speck of attention from this girl, he hated how separated he becomes with his wolf because of her, like they’re different entities. It wasn’t something personal, he had told her, because it was him that didn’t agree to this whole mate thing before meeting her, and having such a reaction to her like this was to be expected.

Thankfully for him, she was human, which made it a lot more easier to hate her. If she were a werewolf, she wouldn’t have taken their disapproval so easily.

Noticing his stiffening shoulders at the sight of her legs, she rolled her eyes and stood up. He immediately locked their eyes together and straightened. He was a lot taller than her, even if he was small compared to the rest. He was also an Alpha, and she could feel his sheer strength just by an eye-contact, only because she had a bond of ‘mate’ to him. Any normal human wouldn’t have felt the feelings she was feeling for him at the moment, both the attraction and the strong sense to be submissive.

She gave him a look of absolute disheartening, before walking away to her room with a heavy heart. She didn’t exactly know why she always end up falling asleep like there’s a fist up in , despite having such an eventless life.

-

She ate her food quietly, like usual, not because everyone were still sleeping and there was no one to talk to so early in the morning; but more because she didn’t have anything to say, even if everyone were around her.

A small heat glowed in the right corner of her collarbone, and right away, a boy emerged from the stairs and headed to the kitchen with a wince to his face. It was Yixing, and he reeked of smoke.

They didn’t bother greeting each ot