Track 151 | GET YOU (feat. Kali Uchis) by Daniel Caesar

“I’M PREGNANT, YOU IDIOT!”

Unconsciously, Baekhyun put his hand on his chest. It was as if a huge bolt of thunder struck him. Even if he put all the synonyms for ‘shock’ together, it wouldn’t be enough to express his feelings at the moment.

“What...?” Baekhyun muttered. “But you can’t...” Suddenly, he grew furious at the thought of Rara bringing another life in her belly. He knew he couldn’t get her pregnant, as he was a werewolf. But Haoran was a pure-blood, like her, and they were compatible just like that. “And who’s the father?!” He hissed. “Is it Haoran?!” Rara was taken aback by Baekhyun snarling at her. “That was what he meant by ‘you and I both know that we always got stuff covered’, isn’t it?!”

Rara’s eyebrows furrowed, her facial expression all scrunched up. “What the hell’s wrong with you?!” She retaliated. “Of course, you’re the father, you !” She grabbed Baekhyun’s collar violently and said, “Before you assume I’m cheating on you with Haoran, will you please just let me explain?!”

When Baekhyun looked into her eyes, he noticed something different. When Rara got angry, they usually turned red. Rara was furious as she could be right now, but her eyes were the same dark brown color. He reached for her crumpled fists, and he was surprised to find them at the same temperature as him—warm. And Rara was always freezing cold.

“Okay. I’m sorry.” He apologized silently. “Can we talk by the fireplace?”

As soon as they settled in the living room, Rara retold Baekhyun about getting the letter and the flowers from Haejung, and how Haoran and her devised this plan to leave without Mei and Baekhyun’s knowledge of this voyage. She recounted to him about his secret underground passageway, and her two peculiar companions, Nari and Taejoon. She was telling Baekhyun about the part when they suspected someone was following them—two stalkers.

“On my last minute at the tunnel, before Nari blew the sleeping powder on me, I considered that those two stalkers they were referring to might just be themselves—Nari and Taejoon, and that I was being framed, and that Haoran was in on this whole scheme too. But it was impossible because the stalkers were supposed to be pure.” Rara explained. “I woke up Haoran’s basement. He reversed the effect of the sleeping powder. Sleeping powders are not supposed to work on vampires, but we’ll look into that later. Anyway, the first thing I remembered was Nari crying before putting me to sleep.”

“She was crying?”

Rara nodded, and told him about the effects of the bean Nari ate. “She was crying because I was carrying twins, and she knew how I felt about children.”

Twins.

Twins.

That meant there wasn’t just one baby in there, there were two. “You’re having...twins...?” Baekhyun asked in astonishment.

“Yes. We’re having twins, Baekhyun.” Rara corrected. Nari detected two beings, and those beings happened to be the twins she’s carrying; and because they weren’t born yet, they were pure and faultless, and that very purity, was the one that bothered Taejoon to no ends.

“But why?” Baekhyun asked curiously. “How’s that even remotely possible?”

“Had Gran not warned you, I’m sure things would have fallen apart.” Rara commented. “Thank God, she got her powers back.” She said. “After she told you to stall, she, along with Luhan and Byul went to Haoran’s. On the way there, she brought along one of her vampire best friends, who was a doctor, who also had abilities of her own—enhanced vision. She can see through solid objects or people.” Rara said. “It comes in handy in her profession because she can trace ruptured organs or tumors by just looking.” She added. “The explanation’s actually really easy for me to understand, because Dr. Choikang and I share the same language—biology. But since you’re on the opposite side of science, let me break it down for you.” Baekhyun looked at her attentively. “You ever heard of Charles Darwin’s Theory of Evolution?”

“Organisms evolve to survive?”

“Yes, that’s basically the simple explanation of Darwinism but,” Rara stood up for a while and reached for a couple of books on a nearby bookshelf. Baekhyun stared at the book that Rara opened—General Biology. “to expand further, all species of organisms arise and develop through the natural selection of small, inherited variations that increase the individual's ability to compete, survive, and reproduce. It originally included the broad concepts of tranation or of evolution.” Rara looked up to Baekhyun, who was reading the same paragraph as she was. “Are you with me, Baek?”

The terms seemed difficult to Baekhyun but more or less he understood the gist of Darwinism. “Yeah, so in order to adapt to changing times, organisms change themselves through mutation, right?”

“That’s it.” Rara agreed. “So there are four basic concepts under Darwin’s theory.” Rara pointed to a section in the book. “Here.”

Baekhyun’s eyes trailed on the four numbers under Darwin’s Theory, printed clearly for him to read.

“Ignore the first three; focus on the fourth one.” Rara opted.

“When reproductive isolation occurs new species will form...” Baekhyun read. “What’s reproductive isolation?”

“It’s the inability of a species to breed successfully with related species due to geographical, behavioral, physiological, or genetic barriers or di