I ate my ice cream sundae like a person that was not hungry: slowly and without an appetite, dragging time between my fingers like I owned it, while watching Baekhyun, who was across me.

Contrary to fiction beliefs, werewolf males who are the main protagonist of the story do pout and sulk childishly. They do not just growl, scowl, and pretend to be hot when they’re just being unreasonably possessive. The pout in Baekhyun’s lips was so adorable, like plump strawberries. The fact he was also avoiding my eyes, aiming his laser, reprimanding eyes to the table he was putting his entire weight on; didn’t help cease his gentle childishness. He was seriously being the pettiest person I’ve ever seen and he still managed to make it look delightful to watch.

“Are you not going to talk to me?” I dare to speak, putting the plastic spoon of the ice cream sundae I was eating between my teeth, nibbling on it softly.

“I’m angry still.” Baekhyun grumbled, now hiding his face between his arms across the table and continuing to look petty. Damn, alright, that wasn’t cute at all.

“At this point, you’re just sulking.” I pointed it out, taking the spoon out of my teeth to speak properly and direct the plastic usefulness to his face. He released another growl, this one muffled due to the fact he was suppressing his beautiful face with his arms. 

“I’m not sulking, I’m not a child.”

“Come closer, let me check.” I joked, smiling a little, and Baekhyun raised his face to give me a dark glare, the piercing on his lips clinking with his chin as he curled his lips into a snarl.

“It’s not funny. I’m upset.”

“Okay,” I agreed. I already knew he was upset, but that made it even funnier. “Can you talk to me so that you’ll feel better? I’ll tell you everything you want to know.”

He raised his eyes to lock them with mine as if he was contemplating on my offer, knowing that I was serious and that I was going to tell him everything that he truly wanted to know, this time without secrecy and without lying (not like I lied, but hiding things tends to become the same as lying).

“You’ll tell me everything?” He asked curiously, dubiously. “Even where he is?”

“Sure,” I shrugged. “But I’ll have you promise not to hurt him first.”

Oh, how red his face became so quickly. The anger that trickled up his skin as his rage manifested was ridiculous, and he resembled a round, ugly tomato. But he was still cute.

“Oh, I will hurt him. I’ll probably cut his arms out of his body, his legs too, and then snap his neck after he suffered much from the pain of living without limbs.”

“Why do you hate him so much?” I asked, even though I knew the answer. 

Many, many decades away, a war between all species broke out, and the werewolves instantly decided to create a trinity since mages and elves made their own, and everyone knows how hard to kill a magical being that could control the very air your breathe, or your own body if they wished. They decided to ask the vampires to come along, especially those with abilities of their own. But since vampires were beings that preferred to stay alone, they declined, and it was fine with the werewolves.

If they hadn’t went and partnered with the mages.

Their hate was instant, and it lasted decades after. The vampires didn’t hate the werewolves, even if that’s what is being taught in the werewolves’s schools (because they didn’t understand why they’d refuse their alliance but agree with the mages, everyone’s mortal enemy) but they had to reciprocate the feelings once they got out of hand and their fights started to bloom.

It was all so childish and stupid to be honest. They didn’t even hate mages and the elves now but they still hate each other. 

“If you’ve seen the amount of helpless families the doctors had to transfer to a far away hospital - outside my land, mind you - you wouldn’t have said that.” Baekhyun explained passionately, and I had this really big urge to roll my eyes. Of course he’d try to pull the sympathy card. “You didn’t see the look on their faces while they raced with time of blood loss their loved ones had to go through because our hospitals didn’t have enough blood. A hospital, Hana, a God damn hospital without blood supplies. Guess whose fault it is?”

“I understand that,” I really did, even if the argument itself was repetitive. “But did you wonder why he did what he did?”

“Why would I?” Baekhyun spat, as if the idea he’d put himself in their shoes disgusted him. Why was he even that angry? It wasn’t like he lived long like the vampires and had had personally witnessed the war. History was easily fabricated and the reason of their hate could be absolutely different than what they think they know. “They’re vampires! They live off of it. It’s like an elixir of life or some to them. He’s probably stealing our blood to satisfy his blood lust.”

“That’s not correct.” I said simply, taking another scoop of ice cream and putting it into my mouth. Let him rage by himself.

“Whatever it is, Hana, I don’t care. You can’t support bad actions with good intentions. The thing is, he stole blood that people desperately needed, humans, probably for a ty reason like all vampires do, and let how many people suffer.”

“Did they die?” I asked, raising a single eyebrow up, and Baekhyun’s lip piercing released another clank once he whipped his head to face me, eyes on fire.

“Do they need to die before I have to take actions?”

“His mom will.”

His eyes widened a fraction, not expecting this answer from me seeing how casual and less furious than him I was. I continued to slurp my now half melted ice cream, putting his anger aside. 

“Yeah, Baekhyun. His mom will die if he didn’t take what he did. She’s wounded. She’s been bitten by an Alpha from the territory she had ran away from.”

Would he really not help a person in need because of their species? That seemed extremely superficial of him to do. I could help someone I hated if I thought the help was needed. My actions reflect no one but myself and my morals, I don’t care enough to debate if the other person needed it or not.

Unless you are a psychopath, or a serial killer, or both.

“That’s why I asked for your blood, to save her.” I spoke gently this time, guiding my eyes away from my ice cream that turned into cold milkshake to him, gauging the slow tension building up between his jaws. He obviously didn’t want to hear what I was going to say, knowing exactly what that was. “An Alpha blood verses an Alpha blood. I bet this place isn’t even where they intended to settle in. He didn’t precisely tell me, but I think they’re on the run.”

“They’re running and he registered himself to school?” Baekhyun spat confusingly, and I shrugged again. There were endless possibilities to why that would’ve happened.

“Probably his mom’s wishes.” I said, calmly, trying not to trigger the already annoyed boy. “No parent wants to be a burden on their children. She wouldn’t let him waste a whole school year on her.”

It made sense to me, at least. Although my mom wasn’t the best mom in the universe; I did understand how other mothers were (are) to their children. Vampires or not, a mother wouldn’t want to become nothing more than a responsibility to her child, unless she had to, and even then she’d fight to give her son what he mostly needed: education, in Jongdae’s case. Or at least that’s what I believed happened. I wasn’t one hundred percent sure.

“How terrible is her condition?” Baekhyun asked, sounding and looking a little shaky and taken aback with what I said. I can’t blame him. He believed vampires to be evil in his mind that an idea of one of them being sick or close to death broke his shackles apart.

“I don’t know, but guessing from the amount of blood he steals for her consumption, I’d say a lot badly than we think, but enough to allow her to speak at least.”

Again, I was merely speculating. I could get the valid informations with magic but as long as I’m not yet threatened with my lack of knowledge, I’d rather wait for Jongdae to tell me himself.

“I have a spell to save her,” I completed, dragging the plastic spoon around my bowl rather inconspicuously. “I just need your help, after that, you can be the Alpha that you are and talk to them.”

I wasn’t lying. I truly would give him his rights as an Alpha to act in the way he deems necessary right after I heal Jongdae’s mom. The biggest thing he could demand of them is to leave, so they’d stop stealing their blood, and leaving is something the vampires won’t argue about, because no one wanted to live somewhere with their enemies, or where they’re not wanted. Leaving is the best choice for them too, especially if they have a destination in mind from the beginning.

“I’m not going to talk to them.” Baekhyun declared, leaning back on his chair and clicking his fingers on the table. His piercing glinted under the soft yellow lights of the ice cream parlor, and the causality of that gesture made his decision seem final. Wow, I smiled a little, the curl on my lips demolishing his air of superiority away, I’d be so happy to change his mind.

“What if they were just a normal family running from some kind of problem?” I told him, rather nicely and tenderly. He instantly recognized my tone, and rolled his eyes. “What if they’re in need of help? Are you going to ignore all of this just because you can’t accept their species?”

“Yeah,” He was going great with his indifference game. “I hate vampires, and not for no reason.”

“Honestly, for now I think that’s exactly what’s going on. Why won’t you give them a chance?”

“Because they’re vampires?” He gave me a look as if I was an idiot for not understanding his point. “Because we’ve been enemies for ever? Because they’re merciless? Because they’d have ed us all and left us to die if this situation was in reverse? Face it, sweetheart, our animosity is infinite.”

Oh. Oh, that sweetheart of his was condescending, and did I not warn him about equality in this relationship?

“And stupid too.” I said, feigning the same nonchalance in his words. I even leaned back on my chair the same way he did, and I caught the twitch of his eyebrows. “Idiocy always tends to be infinite.”

He glared, and I sighed, realizing that my smart mouth won’t really work in this situation.

“I still think you should give him a chance.” I tried to deliver another point across, seeing how he wasn’t relenting, possibly becoming even angrier. “He’s a vampire, you’re a wolf, I’m a mage. We’re all different, but we’re all part humans, with a beating heart and the ability to think or form thoughts. You can’t judge him because he has fangs and drinks blood. You wouldn’t want me to judge you because you’re half a dog who howls to the moon and stink like a garbage can, would you?”

“I still hate him.” He mumbled sourly. He didn’t even care that I mentioned how stinky his scent was, and that it reminded me of a garbage can. Thankfully; I no longer smell him like that. His scent was of wild roses and berries, rain forest and deep vanilla, sometimes musk. I was glad the stench of a wet dog disappeared. I probably wouldn’t have been able to withstand it.

“You don’t even know him, get real.” I mumbled back.

“I don’t want to—“ I interrupted his whine, or what sounded like a whine to my ears.

“You just said that vampires would have left you and every wolf to rot if this thing was in reverse, but is that enough of a reason to be a heartless beast, exactly like how they think you guys are? You can mistrust him all you want, but you’ll withhold your help too? What if I was in that situation? Would you leave me to die because I’m a mage, a typically long-haired witch with allegiance to vampires?”

I didn’t want to use this method, where I’d make him think about the situation if I was in it, but seeing his unrelenting stubbornness, I found that way to be the only efficient. 

“Of course I wouldn’t.” He replied passionately, unconsciously leaning forward in the seat as if to get himself ready to help me. “I have a bond with you.”

“Yes, but am I really just that?” I completed my mumbles. “Is that why you’re going to save me? You’d be willing throw all prejudices aside, my species, the fact I can produce magic, to help me, right? Because I mean something to you? Well, he means something to me, and whether he was a withering snake, if he needed help I can give, I’d be willing to offer.”

Baekhyun grumbled something indigestible, rolling his eyes away from mine and crossing his arms on his chest with a pout quickly growing on his face. See? He was just a man-child. 

“You should be better than all of this stupid rivalry.” I begun again, seeing that he has no arguments to prepose. “They’re different than you but is that everything to them? Is that everything to you?”

He scoffed, unyielding, and I wondered if he was thinking about how ridiculous my words were (they probably were) in his ears. He probably even wished I’d stop talking. He really wasn’t going to budge, and it didn’t seem like I was going to win this talk - if I didn’t use force or magic at least - so I sighed, and pushed my plate away so that I can place my head there. With a grumble, I said.

“Baekhyun, I’ll give you my consent to take whatever action you desire if he came out to be exactly like what you predicted.”

Almost instantly, he shot to his feet, smacking a few dollar bills on the table and sniffing, giving me a gesture with his hand to move along.

“Fine. Let’s go.”

“Wait, that’s it?” I said, moving along to his feet and standing up myself. I blinked my eyes at him, a small, teasing smile lighting up my face. “Our date is finished? We didn’t even get to that mushy mushy part where you’d hold my hand like the sappy male you are and—“

“Hana, lets go.”

He looked quite serious, against me, and wow, what a first. He presented his hand for me as if I should take it, and I did, although reluctantly after wiping my palms on my jeans, hoping they did not end up to be sweaty. His hand was warm as usual, and the way he squeezed my hand in his was firmly, but not harshly. I traced the veins on his pretty, pretty hand with my other hand, awing in my head and comparing our hands apart.

While we were walking a few steps away from the parlor, my head occasionally turning around to watch it and calculate the distance we crossed; I heard Baekhyun release a small hum. I instantly shot my head up to meet his amused eyes.

“Beside, this isn’t even considered a real date, I’d have been a lot less angry and you’d be a whole lot flustered.”

I gave him back the same smile he was trying to bite away.

-

“Urgh, their stench is everywhere. How did I not notice this before?”

Baekhyun whimpered pathetically, pinching his nose between his fingers and whipping his head left and right, examining the area in which we were walking with a grimace. 

He and I were heading toward Jongdae’s home, and since he hadn’t known of their real identity, he kept mumbling gibberish about them. First, he commented about how stinky the whole place was, and how cheap everything seemed to be. He wondered out loud how there was a place like this in his territory that he didn’t know of. Then, he started to say how the whole place stunk of vampire , which wasn’t even true considering they hid their scent pretty good.

“Honestly? Magic.” I replied sarcastically, and I could feel his glare behind my back as I went toward the front door of Jongdae’s house, his trail quickly following mine. 

“I was being sarcastic, Hana.”

“Are you going to keep that attitude through this whole thing?” I swerved around, glaring at him and placing my hands on my hips. Baekhyun released his nose from his fingers, s