Something was wrong in the air. It had a sour undertone, like rot had rooted its way deep into every tree. Momo almost thought it was because of a corpse in the school. Had one of the supernaturals she didn’t know about fed on someone and left them there to die? She inhaled deeper and nearly cringed. No, definitely not a dead body. Even so, whatever it was, it set her on edge. 

When Dahyun walked in, she watched her, trying not to look too obvious. She found nothing out of the ordinary. If something was wrong, she was pretty sure it would show on Dahyun’s face. The girl couldn’t hide it when she was uncomfortable. Yet the scent was coming from her.

“Tired?” Dahyun asked, a small smile appearing on her face. The pungent scent disappeared completely. 

“Yep,” Chaeyoung threw her head back, “this has already been the worst day. Only Biology was okay, right Dahyun-ah?”

The scent came back as Dahyun’s eyebrows rose, her lips parted in a small ‘o’. Momo wrinkled her nose.  “Right. I’m sorry to hear about the rest.” 

“Don’t be,” the other girl rolled her eyes, “something must’ve happened in the teachers lounge for every one of them to be extra difficult. Mr. Jin made me repeat an equation just because he didn’t believe I solved it so fast.” 

“Plus,” Momo said, “Mr. Song didn’t believe me when I said the dates for the Meiji government takeover. Of all the people to doubt.” She sat back with a slump. Sometimes there were days like that. When almost no one could stand each other. She just hadn’t expected it to be so soon in the year. 

Dahyun sat down and the air cleared completely. The knot in Momo’s stomach lessened immediately. She leaned against the table in front of them, finally relaxing her shoulders. How was Dahyun doing this? Clearly she didn't have complete control over it.

“Changed your hair again?” It was grey. Momo hadn’t thought that could look good on a person, but she pulled it off. 

“Yes,” another small smile, “I didn’t like the white.” She reached up to touch it, her eyes far away. Momo’s own eyes caught on her hand. A bandage was wrapped around the palm. Maybe that was why the smell was different. She was injured. Questions flooded her mind about how. She also made a note about that information. Dahyun didn’t heal like a vampire did, or even a werewolf, where one cut could heal in less than a minute. Was she half human?

Chaeyoung must have seen it too. “How’d that happen?” As strange as it was, the girl’s scent wasn’t triggering when it came to their thirst. 

“This?” She glanced at her hand before putting it down. Her scent adopted the strange edge to it again. “Cooking accident.” She looked down at her hands. “Dumb mistake.” A small chuckle. The air cleared of the foul scent again.

She was too emotive. Even when she started speaking again to Chaeyoung yesterday, Momo hadn’t seen her act like this. Her features transformed into something much warmer when she smiled. The expression was always slow to come, though, as if her own muscles were hesitant to smile.

Before she could ask Dahyun if she was okay, the teacher came in. She went to her spot. As class went by, she wasn’t really paying any attention to the talk on nuclear reactions. She could catch up. Instead, she watched as Dahyun took her notes. She was writing with the hand that hadn’t been burned, but from where Momo sat, she saw that the movements were hesitant. Then she stopped taking notes. 

_____
Sana was relieved that their Chemistry teacher was in a good mood. The entire day, classes involved spontaneous questions and intense scrutiny, as if every single teacher had had a bad day. And then there was that smell.

When Dahyun came in, she was smiling. A positive turn of events in itself. Even though her skin had taken on a grey tinge. 

“Ready for the day to end?” she asked as she sat down. 

“Definitely. I hope this class will be chill.” Sana tried not to look at her hands. The girls had already told her and she didn’t want to be caught looking at the girl too closely. She’d try her best to avoid another ear fiasco. 

Dahyun nodded. “I’m sure it will be.” Then her brow twitched, as though she was in pain. 

The teacher stood up, smiling broadly. “You guys in the mood to do some acid-base reactions?”

Everyone nodded. Mrs. Park pulled up a list of what they needed to get. 

“I’ll get it,” she said as she stood up. 

Dahyun paused in mid stance. “You don’t need to do that.” Something about her expression made Sana feel like conceding immediately. 

“It’s a tray of glass. I’ll manage.” She shot her a smile. Then she turned away, not wanting to see that frown for longer than she needed to. 

When she came back, Dahyun was staring out the window, her eyes filled with an intensity Sana had never seen in them before. There were dark shadows under her eyes,