011: Can You Hear My Heartbeats?

Hearts Aflame
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A/N: A CHAPTER TODAY AS PROMISED

YAY!

I said I’ll dedicate a chapter for Kyungsoo but I just had to add the others. ‘Sob’

 

“Woah, Mina, you will not ing believe what I just heard!”

Mina’s heart skipped a beat at the sudden yelp of Jongdae, taking his hand out of her cheek and looking down at her as if she shifted into a freaking donkey or something. She crawled backwards on her away from him, lifting her legs comically up and snapping her head sideways, searching for ‘this thing’ that Jongdae heard.

“, Jongdae, you’re scaring me,” She mumbled, eyes wide and looking around, the skips in her heartbeats suddenly more prominent in her ears. “What did you hear with your freaky werewolf hearing?”

Jongdae didn’t even seem to understand (or see) her terror – highly exaggerated one too — for his whole face was contorted into excitement, oddly misplaced considering her fear, but there nonetheless. His feline-like lips were fighting to curl into a smile, whereas his eyes where wide, anticipant; and joyous (for whatever damn reason) even though he hadn’t noticed how brazenly scared she was. She, on the other hand, could easily catch on to his exciting facial features. 

“Heartbeats,” he whispered in awe, voice throaty and low, amazed; “Mina, your heartbeats.”

Okay, Mina thought, relaxing a little in her place and then zoning out, eyes going unfocused. Someday, I’m going to murder Jongdae and call the police as an eyewitness. Really, what does that mean? And why did he make it sound horrifying when it was just her heartbeats? 

And Goddamn it! Will she be unable to fantasize about her gorgeous men in front of him because her heartbeats will flare and react, exposing her pathetic ? What about when she’s spazzing about Suho, will he hear her then too? She was already obvious about her crush on him, and Jongdae already knows; she doesn’t need her racing heartbeats to tell on her even more. 

“Mina,” Jongdae called, worry in his face. He even waved a calloused hand over her face. Where did she go? “Did you not hear what I just said?”

“I perfectly did, Jongdae,” she replied, not looking at him; her eyes still perfectly zoned out, glancing at the bushes and trees the park provided. Her heartbeats were normal now, and she didn’t have to worry he’d hear her inner panic. “I perfectly did. A thought just suddenly jumped through my head, do you wanna take a guess?” She turned to him, eyes suddenly ablaze.

“Uh,” Jongdae took the remaining space to the end of the bench to sit his on, her eyes scaring the out of him. “Your face doesn’t seem very guess-worthy right now.”

It really wasn’t. She was half-scowling half trying to suppress a growing grin at his scared face, her eyebrows narrowed down and meeting in the middle like an animated villian’s face on those cheesy comics Minseok secretly liked to collect. There was a fire in her pupils too, a fire that the glassy surface, threatening to break through and eat him like actual flames. Jongdae didn’t think he want to risk his life by guessing falsely and then die.

Nope.

Not a chance. 

“Well,” Mina sighed sadly, theatrically. “Let me just outwardly say it then. I’m thinking of how I can think about Suho or any hot guy and not have your creepy ears hearing my reactions. Or, when I’m watching—“

“Your sappy K-Dramas and crying over them?” Jongdae hopefully completed, his eyes twinkling with poorly hidden mischief. Mina shot him a glare, lips curling without her consent and revealing her equally playful emotions.

“I was going to say . Do girls not watch or something? Why wouldn’t you even consider guessing it, you ist . We get too, you know.” She wasn’t really into . It was disgusting and unethical, not that she cared much about to form an opinion about it anyway; but she knew that in order to press on all of Jongdae’s button, then she’d have to mention everything he is not comfortable with. 

“Ew,” true to herself, Jongdae looked extremely uncomfortable. “I didn’t need to know that!”

“How does it make me feel whenever I see your Playboy magazines hidden under your bed, huh?” She retaliated, now frowning. It was true, she had caught a few Playboy magazines that she had been itching to burn when he wasn’t aware; but then again, she was the only one that showed disdain towards the thing whereas everyone else simply didn’t care. Jongdae would have easily been able to point his fingers at her. She was also the only one who played with fire for revenge. “Do you ever think about my feelings? No, of course not. You men only think about your own needs and desires, giving absolutely no care for others’ feelings. And Jongdae, those magazines are extremely improper and ist against women. They objectify us as if we are plays or things to enjoy and see on paper walls. It is extremely disrespectful.”

She was blabbering and she knew that, but it didn’t mean she was shameful about the act. They all blabbered around each other once or twice, even thrice. However, Jongdae knows when or what is the cause of her blabbers, and she was sure he was aware of her overwhelming nervousness that started to overflow her. Why was she nervous?

He ing heard her heartbeats!

The thoughts seemed to register themselves inside her head, and her heart let out another throbbing thump. Damn, Jongdae probably heard that.

“Are you done?” He asked instead, giving no signs that he heard her thumping heartbeats (but that didn’t mean he didn’t). His tone was bored and he crawled back towards her, pulling her legs down on the ground so that she’d sit down properly. Their thighs grazed and even over the clothes; she could feel his b warmth, slightly dimmer than usual but not soft at all. Her body zipped with gentle sort of electricity at the contact, and she on her teeth nervously.

“Yes, I’m pretty done.”

“Did you notice how you were blabbering just now?”

“You know I blabber when I’m nervous,” she sighed, closing her eyes, and when she opened them; she was back to being smug; playful even. “But it doesn’t mean what I say isn’t right in those moments.” Then, she added in an afterthought. “Jongdae, you need to get rid of those magazines.”

“You think I hadn’t the first time you threw a fit when you saw them?” Jongdae rolled his eyes, remembering his precious magazines. He might be disgusted towards , but seeing pretty ladies didn’t count as one, at least the ones he bought, the girls were alone and no one was touching them. He wouldn’t want to see two strangers showing intimacy, it wasn’t hot at all; it was yucky. “Damn, Mina, I’m a nice, obedient boy.”

“I’m a nice and obedient bo—“

“I will kiss you again if you don’t shut up this instant.”

Jongdae’s tone was dark and promising, low pitched; husky, and she shut up instantly, heartbeats once again increasing their pace behind her ribs. ing hell, did he have to say something of that sort now? They were just kissing minutes ago! And frankly, that action still didn’t register inside her mind at all. One second ago, she was just a friend to him, someone who he probably didn’t feel anything romantic about, and she felt the same. 

Jongdae was always her best friend, the sassy; intelligent and absolutely annoying best friend that you love and hate at the same time. He was never more, he was never the cause of her flush, her raced heartbeats; or her shyness. She never felt like she should be.. girlish or soft or anything of those synonyms for him; not like how she felt for Suho, for instance. Unlike the older boy, Jongdae didn’t make her feel like she wanted to give more of herself to, of her heart. He was just a friend, a dear one; but not someone to give everything she owns, body and soul, to. It was strange, how everything switched up, how suddenly, she felt like she wanted more with him, in less than a week.

It was confusing, and worry-inducing. How do people even react in these sort of things?

“Damn,” Jongdae continued to speak when he noticed her pending silence, his mouth slowly turning around the corners into a small smile. Mina wanted to hit him for what he evoked out of her. “I wished you wouldn’t shut up, ‘cause I really wanna kiss you now.”

Her heartbeats raced and raced and raced, a pace that was nauseating in a sense, overwhelming, and she gulped, mentally weeping for the damn muscle to stop and ing focus! 

She shook her head, took a long, deep breath, not caring Jongdae was staring at her, probably mentally cackling at how messed up he could make her with just one sentence. She swore to hit him when all of this ended, that was the least he deserved. After she was done gulping air down her lungs, she smacked her eyes open and narrowed them on the boy, who merely raised his eyebrows up.

“Jongdae, we need to know why you’re hearing my heartbeats.” Then, her determined expression slowly cracked up. “Also, it feels weird how much you want to, um, well, kiss me.”

“Don’t you want to kiss me too?” Jongdae continued to raise his eyebrows incredulously, shameless in every sense of the word. Mina wanted to sock him in the face and then smack her head on a brick wall. Did he not feel a bit nervous at all? “I mean, ever since the party and all of that escapade, I feel like I want to kiss you. To be fair as well, not just kiss you, but do a lot of sinful things to you that I wouldn’t have thought I’d ever feel towards you.”

“Wow, thanks, I feel loved.” She sarcastically remarked, but even then, she was flaming up from within, reacting to him just because of simple words! This was what she was the most scared about, how easily different her feelings became because of a kiss that they didn’t even know what it released upon them. Seriously, what was happening to them?

“No, seriously,” Jongdae shook his head, and for once, he was the one freaking out. “It is freaking me out too. I keep thinking about you, not in a friendly, parental way like usual.”

“You think of me in a parental way?” Mina couldn’t help the comment that blurted out of , used to being this cheeky around Jongdae. She may feel different around him now, but that didn’t mean she could change her habits around him just as fast. “That’s creepy.”

“You know what I mean, you —“ Jongdae apparently couldn’t too.

“?” She raised her left eyebrow up. “You’re calling me an ? I don’t think that’s a great start to our relationship.”

“We have a relationship?” Jongdae’s ears perked up like dogs’ ears when they hear their names being called, and he looked incredibly adorable too, especially the twinkling golden his eyes is slowly releasing over his brown. Mina cleared her instantly dry throat, avoiding his eyes.

“Well.. not exactly, but I thought we will, since, well, you know.. things changed..”

“Yeah, you’re right,” Jongdae nodded easily, a sigh slipping past his lips. “But I still want to ask you in a nicer way.”

Mina blinked.

He wants to ask her what? The answer curled around her head but she refused to acknowledge it, merely because she didn’t want to get ahead of herself. What if he meant something different entirely? She decided to ask, albeit with small reluctance swelling in her stomach. 

“Ask me.. what?”

“Do I have to say it?” Jongdae rolled his eyes, huffing, and pure fury invaded her senses. What the hell was he doing? Was he truly pretending like she was annoying him with her ignorance?

“Damn right you do!” She exclaimed, raising her hand to finally smack him on his arm violently. Jongdae, despite his werewolf gene, lurched to the side at the impact, and he released a choked whine. “You see, Jongdae, this is definitely a bad start for whatever it is that is blooming between us! Do you really want such a bad start? Is this how you treat people you’re interested in?”

“Is this how hard you’re going to make things for me?” Jongdae exclaimed back, pulling his torso away from her and eyeing her with shaking pupils, his eyes wide. He was dramatically clutching the arm she smacked, and Mina’s fingers were burning, itching for her to deliver another smack. 

“Damn straight I will!” She huffed in the same patronizing way he had huffed before. “I’m an important person, dickwad, you need to start treating me like one.”

“I swear, that confidence level is—“

“The question, Jongdae, ask it.” She smacked his arm again, absolute annoyance scribbling over her face which he, Jongdae, found himself smiling secretly at. She was always a little hotheaded but she was the most cutest too, which would have been a pretty silly thing to think of if he hadn’t thought about it before, way, way before they had this.. whatever it was they have between them. Jongdae had to admit, it wasn’t that hard for him to get used to the new feelings that attacked him whenever he was with her, maybe because they weren’t exactly new even if they had been subdued before, dimmer than now. He had always found her kinda adorable, cute to an extent. She was just a lot more now.

“Okay,” he let out a soothing breath out to soothe her out. She scowled in response, unrelenting. “I want to ask you to be my girlfriend, but not now! Even though I’m pretty sure of what I’m feeling; we still need to understand from where it’s stemming, what caused it, and why now.”

“How are we going to figure that out?” Mina asked with a frown, trying not to think about the girlfriend part, even though her heart had skipped a beat and she was sure the idiot had caught on to it. 

“I know how, but, I’m not sure you’ll like it.” Said Jongdae with a shrug, peering up at her from under his eyelashes cautiously. She frowned even more.

“What?”

“We have to ask Suho Hyung.”

-

The next morning, Mina had no classes she needed to get to, so she opted with resuming her searches online on this thing between her and Jongdae. Considering he was a werewolf and his werewolf hearing took a part in this, plus his raw instinct to have her smell like the pack again at that stupid party; Mina knew she needed to understand more of their nature if she wanted to make a connection, so she spent the entirety of the previous night googling about werewolves.

It was absolute .

The internet had absolutely no accurate facts – well, perhaps some — and everything she had read thus far didn’t connect with what she wanted to find anyway, so it was pretty useless.

But no, she wasn’t going to give up. If Jongdae himself was oblivious of what was going around despite being what he is meant whatever happening between them was either super rare and not registered online, or used to happen before and ceased to exist now. Jongdae and the boys did mention something about the revolution of their species and how they lost a lot of things they valued once because of time. Perhaps it was relevant to that.

“Why is there nothing about this in the internet,” Mina grumbled, clicking on her mouse and flickering her eyes from article to another, swiping her gaze up and down on the screen of her laptop. “How can there be nothing on the internet? Isn’t the internet supposed to have every single in here?”

She tried searching werewolves, and a bunch of stupid words from probably the first century showed through Wikipedia:

In folklore, a werewolf or occasionally lycanthrope is a human with the ability to shapeshift into a wolf, either purposely or after being placed under a curse or affliction. Early sources for belief in this ability or affliction, called lycanthropy, are Petronius and Gervase of Tilbury. 


Like, what the hell was that? There were no curses on her boys, were there? No, the boys have told her a summery of their species and how they came to be and none of what was written on Wikipedia was correct or mildly connecting to their real being. But, human brain worked wondrously and she couldn’t really blame what they came up with. 

“Ugh, I need a break.” She mumbled, standing up from the desk she was occupying for an hour now and stretching, releasing a deep moan from .

She thought about leaving the house to get breakfast from the nearby coffee shop and then maybe race to the boxing ring. Jongdae would definitely find out if she didn’t finish her registration period fully, and she didn’t really want to know what will happen to her after that. She hated anything physical and having to exert so much energy to do something silly like exercising, so she was thinking of maybe lying around while texting whoever it wa

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BlackWhiskers
Exam month >.<
I’ll try to update in Christmas!
I WILL REALLY TRY!

Comments

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preciousloey61
18 streak #1
Chapter 44: Woah.. finally finished reading this story.. wanted to read this fic for a long while... worth it..really enjoyed reading the whole story from beginning till this chapter..so far loved it so much.. loved the development and ups and downs in their relationships and lives... loved the unity, trust, love, care, support and understanding level for each others whether they were in friendship or in love relationship... felt so bad for mina's past life... but the way mina and the boys handled things were very amazing and appreciated... loved the bonding among them.. haha specially baekhyun, jongdae, suho and minsoek... still curious about her bonding with sehun, kai, kyungsoo, yixing and chanyeol...loved all the detail and descriptive parts... confession parts too.. bickering couple..haha... couldn't stop laughing... loved chanyeol and mina's part... baekhyun's possessiveness...haha... really loved her relationship with sehun, suho, kyungsoo kai and yixing..so curious about her becoming a werewolf... hope authornim come back here one day with the same enthusiasm as before and continue to write the rest of the story.. would love to read more about mina and the boys relationship...thank you authornim for writing such an amazing story ❤️
Shawolgurl
#2
Chapter 44: Hi, dear!! I'm back reading this story again.. i miss Mina and the pack T__T
I hope you are safe, healthy and happy wherever you are <333
Vishi1911
#3
I hope you can find in yourself to complete this beautiful story please, because Kai in this book is just so beautiful inside out... This story has my❤
ButterflySecrets
#4
Chapter 44: Still laughing hard and enjoying the story now that I have reread it. Reall one of the best that I've read. (●♡∀♡)
lisbeth110499
#5
Update soon
oh_freya
#6
Chapter 44: aww, this is very sad... as a writer,, i can relate with you. i completely understand what you're feeling, and i'm so sad that one of my favorite stories in aff will no longer continue to run anymore. i'm still glad i've been able to read such a masterpiece (im still in pain i wont be able to read kai and mina's bond part but oh well what can i do) i hope you have a really nice break and thank you so much for this wonderful story!
oh_freya
#7
Chapter 38: this kai chapter is every i ever needed in life
potatoface7894
#8
Chapter 44: Ok so I'm re-reading this for the third time lmao I know u won't be updating this story anymore but I love it so damn much I guess I can't move on?? Lol Anyways, just kinda missing you here on aff, hun *cries* I hope u come back soon!! ♡
Dyoooo
#9
Chapter 43: ah omg I just spent the last couple of days re-reading this fic bc I loved it so much. This whole book was just a bundle of cuteness and it made me miss exo so mUCHHH (´༎ຶД༎ຶ`) I love how you portray each and everyone of the characters, it depicts their real like personalities really well to me and it just makes the whole thing 10x better. And I just loooove the consistent bickering they have with Mina, it's so cute and entertaining to read!!