C h a p t e r   37

F o u r   Y e a r s   L a t e r  … 

          A  e    S  o  o

“I’m back!” I hurry to the kitchen after getting back from the Dragon Clan’s territory to visit Dad and the others. It’s been a while ever since the tragedy four years ago. It was nice being in Dad’s home but I live in the Wolf Clan now because I am Sehun’s wife. Both of us got married a year after the tragedy and everything’s going well. Dad and Ae Ryu had been getting  along well but not that quite well. I just wish they get everything sorted out already.

“Oh, you’re back Ae Soo?”

“Yes Mom.” I smiled. Ahjumma had been insisting for me to call her Mom instead since I’m a part of their family now. “Oh, and I grabbed some flowers on my way back. Here you go. Irises, they’re you’re favorite right?”

“Yes! Thank you Ae Soo!” I hand Mom the flowers and we’re about to put it in a vase when...

“Stop chasing me damn it!” I saw something pass through me just now and that voice, I think it’s very familiar.

“Just one more brush please??”

“Baekhyun?” I look at Baekhyun as he chases the wolf in front of me. Oh, we’re at that again. I guess Sehun still hasn’t come back to his usual form huh? I guess the reversion process takes time for him. As for me, I went back to my usual form hours ago.

“That scent-” The wolf stops half-way and comes back running to me. “You’re back Ae Soo! You’ve been away too long!”

I chuckle seeing Sehun’s wolf form as he talks. I smile reaching up to him and pats his head. “I’ve been away for just two days you know?”

“That’s long enough for my wife to be away.”

“You’ve been too clingy to me ever since we got married haven’t you? Oh-” I noticed Baekhyun sneaking up behind him again and gestured for me to stay quiet but I think Sehun got enough of this. I sigh and stared at his feet and freeze them slowly.

“Wah! Ae Soo!”

“I guess that’s enough playing for today Oppa. It’s just six thirty in the morning you know?”

“Psh! And just when I’m too close to brushing that silky fur of him! I swear I’ll get you next time!” I chuckle and undo my magic on him and then he left. The sun ray is now coming up and Sehun is now coming back to his usual form.

“Welcome back.” I smiled at him and touched his cheeks.

“Thank you, I’ve been waiting for this since forever.” He stepped close to me and scooped me up. I let out a squeal and he carried me on his arms. “Since I can now do this and this.” He leans for a kiss and I kiss him back. “I missed you.”

“I missed you too. You haven’t slept well did you?” I asked noticing the bags under his eyes and his tired face.

“Not really. Since I’ve been running away from Baekhyun hyung and I’ve been missing my wife.” I smile and kissed him on the forehead.

“I appreciate the thought but, I’ve got to help for the breakfast preparations you know?”

“You can be excused from that.” He faces behind us and looked at his Mom. “Hey Mom, we can have breakfast late right?”

I hear Mom chuckle. “Do as you like. Ae Soo needs to rest from her trip anyway.”

“What? But I-”

“You heard her. Let’s go.”

“Wait! Sehun-“ It’s too late because he’s not listening to me already. His carrying me back to our room and he’s not even paying attention to any of the words that I say. When we’re alone, he carries me all the way to the bed and lays me down gently.

“Now we’re alone.” He leans for a kiss. Oh my god, we’re doing it this early?! His lips meet mine as he slowly kisses me. I feel his hands move from my shoulders down to my legs slowly parting them.

“Wait, Sehu-” Just when I was about to stop him, his head falls on my chest and I can hear him breathing peacefully. I slowly move to look at him and find him asleep. I chuckle and move him properly at the bed then removed his shoes. “I guess you’re too tired to make a move on me huh?” I move next to him and hugged him as I rest my head on his chest then I pulled the covers on for us. “Goodnight Sehun…”

          S e h u n

I fell asleep. Just when I can hold her close again, I FELL ASLEEP.

I sigh watching her sleep and I can’t believe that she’s my wife already. We’ve been through a lot and here we are. All is perfect and I can’t ask for more. “Sleep well Ae Soo.” I carefully crawled off the bed to get some water and I noticed that her bag fell down. I reach to pick it up seeing a book fall over from her bag. I smile. “She does love reading huh? What are you reading this time-“ My eyes fall over the words. It’s not a book but a diary passed on from their clan and everything is all about having a child. At the back I can see all the notes she has taken. The possibilities of giving birth to a child with the mother living on but these are all theories that have been tried but none of the fox heirs lived. I turn back to Ae Soo. She wanted to have a child. I sigh at the dilemma. I wanted to have one too but, I can’t just lose her. We both wanted to start a family but her being a fox just hinders everything. I put the book down and return it back to her bag and get dressed for breakfast.

“Why didn’t you wake me?” I hear Ae Soo’s hoarse voice behind me just when I finished showering.

“Hey.” I smile kissing her a good morning. “You’ve been sleeping well so I didn’t.” I can tell that she’s still sleepy because she’s resting her head on my chest and I hug her. “And I can tell that you need more. Just stay here and I’ll get us breakfast okay?”

“Mhm…” She mumbles and slowly fell back to bed. I smile at her cuteness.

“I’ll be back Ae Soo.” She mumbles before I leave the room. “Hey Mom- Oh, Hyung.” I was about to ask Mom for breakfast when I see Chanyeol hyung in the kitchen.

“Hey.I haven’t seen you for breakfast. Did Ae Soo came back?” he walks to my direction as he drinks his water. He must’ve finished his morning work-out huh?

“That sharpness of yours never fails to surprise me.” I grabbed a tray from the shelf and started to put rice on our bowls. Chanyeol hyung chuckles and I noticed that he seemed different today. “Something wrong?”

“Hm? No, I’m good.” He says so but his face says otherwise. I wonder what is it?

“Ae Soo~~” I hear a familiar voice call from the corridor. I turn back to Hyung and he shrugged. “Oh! The husband is here!”

“Minah.” She enters the kitchen and smiled at me. “I didn’t know that you’ll be coming.”

“That’s because it’s a surprise! Where’s our girl?”

“She’s asleep.” My eyes fall to the girl behind her, Jisoo is here too. “You both came.”

“Duh! Of course! It’s Ae Soo’s birthday!”

The next words to swirl my head right now are ‘Oh damn.’ And ‘Shoot. Did she just say birthday?’ I can practically bang my head against the wall because I totally forgot what today is. I am so preoccupied with her being gone for two days and I’m too impatient to think of anything. I just want her to come back so we can spend time together again but this is too much. I just forgot my wife’s birthday!

 A  e    S  o  o   

He’s taking too long…

I sat up because I’m fully awake now. Sehun just told me that he’ll be out to get us breakfast and I think it’s almost half an hour ever since he left. Now I’m starving. I glance at the clock and it’s eleven fifteen already. Where is he anyway? I scoot at the end of the bed and then towards the vanity table to tie my hair up. When I got out, it’s practically quiet and it’s scaring me. It’s never quiet in here. What is happening? I started walking to find out and find no one around. Where is everyone?

“Hm? Is that Jisoo and Minah?” I turn to my right seeing my two friends and Jisoo’s car. It is them. “What are you both doing in here?”

“Oh god.” “Shoot.” They both mumble in unison and their bags fell from their hands. I eye them weirdly and we continue the staring game.

“Um?”

“We’re here to visit you silly!”Jisoo finally talks and hang her arms around my neck.

“Oh, but why didn’t you call?”

“That’s because it’s a surprise! Happy birthday Ae Soo!”

“Happy B- Oh…” Right, today is my birthday. Why do I always forget my birthday? Well, not that I look forward to it anyway. I always hated this day.

“Don’t tell me you forgot?” Minah exclaimed.

“Sorry, I did. I was just supposed to go to Mom’s grave today.” Now that I remembered it, Dad insisted that I have to go back today. Is this why? Because it’s Mom’s death anniversary? “Sorry! I’ll take to you later okay? If you need something just ask the guys!” I ran back to our room and then searched for my phone to call Ae Ryu.

“Hello?”

“Happy Birthday!”

“What?” I chuckle. I think he forgot what day it is today too. “Oh right, it’s the thirty-first of July. Happy Birthday to you too.”

“Mm! So I was wondering, can both of you and Dad go here today?”

“What? You’re asking me to bring him?”

“Mm! Let’s spend the day together. If I remember what day it is, I should’ve stayed just one more day but I didn’t.” I hear Ae Ryu chuckle from the other end of the line.

“I would’ve liked to, but I heard that he left this morning just after he sees you leave.”

“Really? But he walked me all the way to the car. I wonder where he went- Oh.”

“What? What is it?”

“Hey, can you meet me half-way? Let’s meet four stations from here okay? I’ll be there in an hour and a half!”

“What? Wait, Ae Soo-” I hang my phone and then headed to the bathroom to get ready.

          S e h u n

Thanks to the intense and fast planning of the girls, we all managed to come up with a plan for Ae Soo’s surprise birthday party. Now I just to get her to the dining hall and we’re all set. I open the door to our room to call her. “Ae Soo- huh?” I stop on my tracks realizing Ae Soo’s gone. Her scent is also gone. “Where could she have gone to?” I decided to search for her but I can’t find her inside the wolf compound.

“Hm? Sehun? Where is she?” I turn hearing Jisoo’s voice. And she’s already holding her gift for Ae Soo.

“I have no idea. When I got into our room, she’s not around. I’ve been looking for her for a while now.”

“That so? Then we should tell the others.” I nod and we both head back to the dining hall where the others are. I told them what happened so we all decided to search in groups. I don’t have a good feeling about this. She’s becoming quite good at disappearing without me knowing since three years ago and I could give her something for being good at making me worry!

          C h a n y e o l

“I wonder where she could have went?” I decided to search in the woods for Ae Soo because the last time she got lost, she’s in the woods or something. This is starting to look like the time when we searched for the little ram back in the Dragon clan’s territory and at that time, it was Ae Soo’s voice that was missing. I chuckle at the thought. Our princess is really good at making people worry for her huh? “Hm?” stopping on my tracks when I hear the bushes behind me move, I turn to see what it was.

“Ugh, I really hate this place.. Uh-” I stare at the person in front of me as she crawls away from the bushes. Jisoo. “Tsk.”

She hates me that much huh? She clicked her tongue at me just now. “Um, here.” I extend my hand for her to help her up but she ignored it and stood on her own. Okay, she really hates me. She turns scanning her surroundings and sighed. “Are you lost?”

“I am not!” She exclaimed and started walking on her left.

“Oh, I wouldn’t go there if I were-” I was too late before I can tell her there’s a stream ahead because I just heard a splash. “you… I was about to tell you there’s a stream but-”

“Tell me sooner!” she glared at me while drenched in the water. I chuckle and walk close to help her.

“Here, let me help you.” I grab her hand to help her up. “It’s getting dark because the sun is almost setting, we should get back so you can dry yourself-”

“Ouch.. damn it.”

“Oh no, let me see-”

“Don’t touch me! I can do it by myself so just leave me already!!” she slapped my hand away but her knee is bleeding because of her fall. I just can’t leave her alone.

“I know you hate me, but I just can’t leave you all alone here Jisoo.”

“I can manage so go. It’s just a small scratch.” She pushes me and sits on the rock behind us. She’s already limping too much and she’s cold because she got wet, how can I even go now? I sigh and removed my jacket putting it on her. “What are you doing?”

“Just ignore me.”

“What? Hey!” I grab her leg to look at her wound. I scoop her up to wash the wound on the stream. “PUT ME DOWN YOU CRAZY GUY!”

“Jisoo can you please stay still?! I’m just going to treat your wound just so nothing happens to you okay?! After this I will leave you alone!!” Jisoo gasps at my sudden rise of voice and I’m surprised with myself too. “Sorry.. Just please let me help you okay?” she didn’t answer and just let me do as I please.

“Ugh..” she winces when I poured water on her knee with my hand.

“Sorry. It will just hurt for a while. We need to clean your wound.” She turns away from me, not saying anything. I wrapped her knee with my handkerchief and tied it so the bleeding will stop. “Ah-” I look up after feeling a raindrop from the sky then it started pouring down. “Oh no. Get on my back! I’ll carry you up until that shelter.”

“I told you I can manage already!” She stands and started walking but she’s too slow. She’ll be drenched before we even get to shelter. I sigh and scooped her up. “HEY!!”

I set her down when we’re in the shade and sat in front of her. “I know I promised to leave you alone after that but, it’s raining so…”

She turns her back against me and ignored me. “Do as you like.” We stayed silent for a while and the silence is deafening. I could use a little sound- “Kyaa!!” Jisoo shouted in surprise with the sound of the thunder. Well, at least we’re not silent. “H..Hey..”

“Yeah?”

“..over..” She’s mumbling softly that I can’t even make up what she’s saying.

“What?”

“I said move over here damn it!!”

“Oh, okay.” I stand, walking over to her side and sat on her right. She slowly scoots close to me and held the hem of my shirt. Is she perhaps.. “Um, I’m just asking in case.. but correct me if I’m wrong. Are you perhaps scared of the thunder?”

“S..Shut up! I really hate you! Wah!” She flinches when the thunder roars again and I chuckle. “Don’t laugh! That’s really rude you know?!”

“Alright, I’m sorry. Here, move closer.” She frowns but did as I asked her to. She flinches again at the sound of the thunder and I remembered that I still have my earphones and my phone on my pocket. “Here we go.”

“What are you-” I placed both of them on her ear and put the volume up then gave the phone to her. I was expecting her to say something but she remained silent as she listens to the music and I watch the rain pour.

I think it took a while for the rain to stop. When it did, I guess it’s time for us to get back. So I did as I see fit and turn to Jisoo, but when I did, I see her fast asleep. I smile and sighed in relief. It’s good that she got to rest. I just have to carry her back then.

          J i s o o

When I came to, I find myself in a room and in dry clothes. I sit up trying to recall what happened and from my memory, I should be at that cave listening to a song on Chanyeol’s phone but I’m not. How the hell did I get here anyway?

“Oh you’re up?” I turn to my left seeing Minah.

“What happened?”

“Seemed like you got trapped in the woods because of the rain so Chanyeol carried you back here. Oh, and don’t worry. I’m the one who changed your clothes but he’s the one who changed your bandage though.”

“My what?” I look at my knee under the cover and saw that the handkerchief was replaced with a proper bandage.

I clenched my fist because I am so annoyed at him right now. I hate how he just pretend that nothing happened in the past and I hate it that my heart is still wavering because of him. The door opens and he came in. He stopped half way when he sees that I am now awake.

“Oh! You’re here! Good,I’ll just go and get you something to eat okay?”

“I’m good, Minah- Wait!” I sigh when she didn’t even stop. I don’t want to be alone with him of all people.

“Hey so um, I know you don’t want me to be here but I just want to tell you that Sehun found where Ae Soo is. She seems to be visiting her Mom’s grave since it’s her death anniversary and all. I thought you just want to know.”

I look down to stare at my hands. “Alright.”

“Okay. I’m going to go now.”

My conscience is killing me right now. I hate it when I owe people. I sigh in defeat and looked at him. “Hey wait.”

“Yeah?”

“T..Thank you. For taking care of me and for bringing me back here…”

As soon as he heard my words, his eyes went wide but a warm smile grew on his face. I hate how my heart is reacting towards that right now. “You’re welcome Jisoo.”