Track 141 | I WANT YOU SO BAD by GLADES

Haoran sat on the couch in front of her. “What’s up?” He asked. “Just so you know, I’m not a therapist so I can’t promise to help alleviate your burden.”

Rara looked at her intertwined hands and smiled all too eagerly. “So it seems.” She said quietly, as she looked up to him. Her face lit up suddenly, as an idea supposedly popped inside her head. “But instead of words, I thought you might want to comfort me with songs!” Rara remarked with enthusiasm.

As Rara pulled out the music book, for a fraction of a second, Haoran’s eyes widened and might have even shown the slightest bit of fear, before his expression returned normal. Gotcha. Rara thought, catching the nervous look on his face. “These songs are really lovely, Haoran. I particularly like Wildest Dreams, but Ghost is nice too!” Haoran flinched as she mentioned these titles. Goddamn. He cursed in his head. “My ghost, where’d you go? I can’t find you in the body sleeping next to me.” Rara said, reciting a lyric from the song entitled Ghost. “It’s got sad vibes, but I like it.” She commented. “I’m guessing you wrote these, right? It’s a breath of fresh air for a guy to write from a female point of view.” Haoran felt the skin on the back of his neck prickle as he took notice of Rara’s anger underneath all that fake energy and over-the-top interest.

She figured it out. There’s no point hiding. Haoran sighed. “I didn’t write those.” He admitted silently.

Rara’s hand flew to her chest swiftly, and she was quick to act shocked at his reply. “Oh, really? And here I am thinking I unraveled a part of you that’s musically inclined. Shame.” Haoran felt the guilt slowly eating him up. She’s good. “So who wrote this? Luhan? Tao? Xiu—“

“The guys didn’t write any of that.”

“You know, I’ve probably stepped a foot on every single tile of your house these past five months. The person who owns this must have visited recently, and accidentally left it, because I didn’t notice this until now. She ought to be cautious; this stuff seems personal and private, something not to be left unattended, especially that it looks like a normal music book to me.” Rara said. “I expected classic songs but I found myself playing self-composed songs.” Haoran was about to say something but then Rara interrupted him. “Oh wait, did I refer to the owner as a ‘she’? Sorry for assuming the gender—this gifted songwriter could be a guy, for all I know.”

Haoran’s jaw clenched at her words. She’s clever as hell. “Get to the point, Rara. You need not to act so damn petty.” He said in a serious tone.

Rara looked at him, her eyes deliberately gazing at him. Haoran’s mouth pressed into a thin line as her stare intimidated him—she already came off mean and scary but right now, she was terrifying. It was as if God did more than just sprinkle horror when He was creating her. The wolf boy put up with this one for more than seven decades? I’ll be damned...he’s mighty brave. Haoran thought.

“Please do the honor of introducing me to this musical genius, Mr. Tall and Handsome as hell, uh, namely,” Rara flipped the book and pretentiously tried to read the name written on the lower corner of the book. “Xi Mei.” She said. “I feel like I’ve heard of her, you know?” Sarcasm was overflowing from the tone of her voice.

“Yeah, I think you might have been attacked by her once in your life.” Haoran answered bluntly. “I don’t know, I’m not sure.” He said with irony.

“Oh.” Rara scowled unsatisfactorily, nodding her head, as if she was trying to get a clear view of that time Mei attacked her. “So all this time, I’ve been stuck with the person whose partner is responsible for my great grandfather’s death?”

Haoran was pretty sure that Rara was reaching her boiling point and that he didn’t want himself or his home to be engulfed in flames in the next minute, so he asked, “Before you attempt to burn me and my house down, would you be willing to hear me out?”

“Okay.” Rara shrugged nonchalantly but her deadly expression begged to differ. “The floor’s all yours.”

“Just…just ask me anything.” Haoran said in a heavy tone, not knowing how to begin.

“Okay, well, first off, your Mei is the same Mei that killed Gramps and almost had a little girl for a snack?”

“Yes.”

Rara ran one hand through her hair and laughed with disbelief. “Wow. You’re dating a criminal. Fascinating.” She complimented, amused by the lunacy of the situation. Haoran kept his mouth shut, knowing his place in the conversation. He didn’t need to be degraded any more than this, and if he spoke, his ego will surely take a hit. “So if you were with her last night during the blood moon...does that mean she’s not imprisoned and being punished for murder like she’s supposed to be?” Rara asked with curiosity and malice.

“No.” Haoran looked at her straight in the eye. “But, like you and Baekhyun, we’re not allowed to have any form of communication. Some days we’re able to abide, some days, especially with a blood moon, we can’t. I don’t need to explain that further—you know that’s how it works.”

Can’t oppose to that. Rara thought. “Why did your partner kill Gramps? Did they have some kind of bad blood?”

Haoran’s expression hardened, clearly thrown off guard by the question. He whistled, and Chongwu appeared at once. “Hey, boy. The music. Please.” He ordered, then the dragon went to the stereo and softly pushed the play button with its pointed claws.

The music that blocks telepathy started playing.

“Precautions.” Haoran said. “I trust Luhan but this is really classified information.” He leaned forward, folded his arms, and rested his elbows on his thighs. He put his hands together, covering half of his face, looking really disturbed. “You gotta promise me you won’t go on a rampage.”

Rara felt her heart threatening to break free from her rib cage. Staring at Haoran, it was obvious that this was huge. How bad was this quarrel that it led to her great grandfather’s death? Has Jaehyun done something unforgivable? What was so damn horrid about the whole thing that it drove him to exhale his last breath?

“Okay.” She finally said.

“Let’s start from the beginning, my blood moon episode.” Haoran said. “I was already recruited by Aima Lamia advisors when I experienced mine. Mei was one of my schoolmates in high school; we’re in the same year. She was more than appealing; she was sharp. She was the kind of student you’d want to represent the class for pageants.”

Rara smiled a little. “There were a lot of reasons why Baekhyun was really the best the universe could give to me as a partner, except he was a werewolf. And even a bigger bummer for me, he was my best friend.” She said. “I’m not really keen on the idea of losing that friendship someday if something were to happen to our relationship.”

Haoran snickered at her remark as if she just said something that shouldn’t sound too negative. “Baekhyun’s an exceptional wolf. He’s gifted. He knows you on a le