LVIII

Springfield

 

You took a deep breath as you sank into your desk at school. It felt good to be back again. No matter how much you might have disliked Springfield High before, mostly due to the rude teachers and even ruder classmates, you were glad to be back. You actually liked school and the thought that you would go to college in two years.

The first bell rang and students started piling in quickly and taking their seats. You pulled out your notebook, the very same one that Taeil had given you example problems in. He told you you hadn’t missed much. That if you just grasped the topics he taught you, you should be fine. A smile of content came onto your face. You closed your eyes and made a silent promise to yourself to not miss school again. When you looked up from you desk, you saw someone standing in front of you. You followed their body up until you reached their face. You blinked a few times in surprise. Of course you should have known that going to school meant this. That it meant meeting up with the werewolves again. Of course, the one whose face you were looking at now was none other than the most volatile of them all.

Myungsoo.

Your voice stuck in your throat. Honestly, even if you had the ability to speak, you wouldn’t know what to say. You couldn’t help but feel as though his eyes saw right through you. Like he knew all of your secrets and lies without even asking you. You don’t know how long the two of you stared at each other. You did know when it ended though. As soon as your homeroom teacher walked through the door, he yelled at the two of you.

“Song Hyunjoo, you finally decided to show up and you’re already causing your fellow students to cause trouble on your account.” Of course the man would twist the situation in a way so that it would be your fault. Myungsoo turned to the teacher and bowed respectfully before wordlessly walking to his desk, the last desk in the first column that lined the windows, and taking a seat. 

“I’m sorry.” You apologized to the teacher with a light bow of your head after noticing that he was still angrily glaring at you.

 

 

 

Two more weeks had passed since then. You were now nearing the end of your third month in Springfield. Luckily, despite having to train every night you got home, Taeil and P.O would help you study right after. The topics Taeil taught you were indeed all you needed to know of the two weeks you missed. In fact, with the help both him and P.O gave you, you were doing much better in school. B-Bomb, as always, was able to make you feel the most at home. Rather than talking, he would silently watch over you as you did your homework each night.

Kyung held an even bigger grudge against you ever since you head-butted him during the training exercise; it didn’t help that U-Kwon and P.O kept on teasing him about the fact. U-Kwon would always keep you up late at night after studying to talk to you. It was a bit painful to know that he would joke with you despite you still not being able to openly smile in front of him. However, you were more than grateful to him. Jaehyo actually cooked instant ramen noodles for you two nights ago. He said it was because there was an extra bowl but at least he it didn’t seem like he disliked you as much as he used to. Zico had started to teach you more seriously. He told you that you were improving much faster than he expected though you still had no chance of being able to get lucky and actually knock Kyung down the way you did before again.

Despite your wants to not become attached, you couldn’t help but start to feel comfortable around the hunters. After all, you went to school, went home and quickly grabbed a change of clothes before driving to the hunters place and staying there until the early morning when you had to drive to school. You practically lived there. In fact, for the past week or so, you had skipped going back home altogether. You went straight to the hunter’s mansion after school.

While that situation was going smoothly, your situation at school was not. Sure, you were getting good grades, however, the werewolves had no idea what you were doing. They constantly tried to talk to you. Dongwoo would always try to drag you away every morning before class. Hoya would wait for you in between class periods. Sungjong would try to ambush you during lunch break. Sungyeol would be waiting by the bike racks after school. Woohyun would practically try to hitch a ride with you. The first time you encountered them, you wanted to tell them but their questions were so numerous you couldn’t even get a single sentence out. Ever since then, you have rushed past them and ignored their existence. You even started to run or sneak towards your car after school to avoid being caught by them; the fact that Zico had trained you rigorously on those two things helped immensely.

The only one who didn’t try to do anything or say anything was Myungsoo. He would always be with Minah. He pretended you weren’t there just as much as you pretended he wasn’t. And of course, upon seeing that you were no longer hanging out with the werewolves, Minah spread the rumor that you and Sunggyu had broken up. That your so called ‘annoying, needy, whiny’ self was leading the rest of the werewolves in circles. You even heard rumors that you cheated on Sunggyu with Hoya, then proceeded to cheat on Hoya with Woohyun, then seduced Sungjong into becoming your play thing. The rumors were so numerous at this point that you decided to not even keep track of them anymore. 

The lunch bell rung, making you look away from the teacher and towards the clock. You were so deep in thought during the math session that you hadn’t even noticed the time. The teacher dismissed you all and you stood up and bowed. Students went to their respective places for lunch and you quickly gathered your things. If you had been paying better attention, you wouldn’t have to be rushing like this. The reason being, if you didn’t rush, Sungjong would catch you. Sungjong was one persistent boy. You couldn’t help but feel the need to tell him your feelings and you couldn’t risk that. If you showed up at the hunters’ house with werewolf stench, you would not be in their good graces. You would be one step farther from finding out more about the necklace.

You glanced towards the door as you shifted your bag onto your back. Sungjong wasn’t there yet. You quickly pushed in your chair and turned, deciding to take the back door out of the classroom.

Your body suddenly skidded backwards. Your backpack was being yanked from behind you, stopping you from moving further. You turned in reflex, figuring to find Sungjong behind you. However, it wasn’t Sungjong.

Again, it was Myungsoo.

He let go of your bag as he stared at you. By now you had found out that the glare you thought he would sometimes give you was just his normal facial expression. Thus, you wondered why he interfered now when he didn’t before.

“Eat lunch with me.” He said, though it sounded more like a threat than anything.

“No.” You said with a shake of your head as you glanced towards the doorway again. Any longer and Sungjong would show up.

You heard whispers from around the two of you now. The rumor mill started up again and you could just imagine the next story, ‘Myungsoo fights with Hyunjoo because she cheated on his best friends.’ Yep, definitely newsworthy in a small town like Springfield. You frowned in frustration and turned to leave but he grabbed onto your bag again. You spun around, “Quit it.” You almost yelled at him. When you turned to go again, he didn’t grab your bag.

Instead, he grabbed hold onto your wrist and started to drag you out of the classroom. You were stunned for a moment. It had been awhile since you had felt his pheromones try to take over your common sense. You hadn’t come to your senses until the two of you were already outside of the school. He was dragging you towards the soccer field down a dirt path with benches near the fountains. Students saw the two of you and all immediately stopped what they were doing and watched.

You growled as you writhed away from him. He turned to you, eyebrows furrowed. For some reason, he couldn’t hang onto you. You were stronger than he remembered.

“What do you think you’re doing right now?” You sternly reprimanded him as you readjusted yourself.

Myungsoo immediately shot back at you, “What do you think you’re doing right now?” You looked up at him while you rubbed your wrists. Your silence only further angered him.  "If you don't tell me why you're acting this way, I won't ever know." By that you knew he meant why you’re acting the way you are towards the werewolves. If only it was so simple as to just tell him. If only you could just tell him and be done with it. You could wake up in the morning, go to school, hang out with your werewolf buddies at lunch, pretend you knew nothing of their activities, and then go home peacefully. But that’s not how things were anymore. There was a time when you were able to answer him, that time he was looking down at you as you hid next to the bike racks, but it had been a month since then. That time was past now. Now was the time for you to be able to act on your own; without being constantly “protected” from the truth.

So, no matter how much you wanted to just tell the truth to the dark eyes that now looked down at you, you couldn’t. You couldn’t tell Myungsoo. But he wouldn’t take that for an answer. He was persistent in a different way than Sungjong. Myungsoo actually had the ability to make you tell him things you thought you would never say out loud. That was the problem. Thus, you could only think of one way to divert him from the truth. 

"Suddenly you care enough to not insult me in every single sentence you say to me?"

Heavy sarcasm.

“You're so hard-headed. Why can't humans just say what they feel instead of having to sneak around about it?" He responded quickly, just as you thought he would.

"Just leave me alone. I know what I'm doing." You raised your eyebrows at him defensively before turning to go.

Myungsoo grabbed onto your arm forcibly and pulled you near him again, "Yeah, you always know what you're doing don't you?" He lowly whispered, making your body tremble. You shook free from him again and pushed him away. His eyes widened as he got another taste of your newfound strength. You snarled at him once more before leaving without another word. His pride didn’t let him follow you. Instead, he ignored the whispers around him and walked back to class.

 

 

 

Myungsoo arrived home two hours earlier than usual. The reason being? He ditched Minah today. He told her he was busy and couldn’t go to her house to “study.” By “study” he meant the act of listening to Minah’s “self absorbed lecture on her inner and outer beauty.” He set his bag down onto the couch and plopped down next to it. He was physically and mentally tired. His brain was constantly preoccupied with thoughts of what he should do about you and he was tired of it. He wanted to stop thinking altogether at this point.

He wiped his face with his hands and sighed, “What exactly did your parents feed you to make you so stubborn and hard-headed?” Myungsoo thought back to the day he visited your house. One of the two moments of his weakness, the other being the day he cornered you in your room. Your mother seemed rough around the edges, which explained a lot about your personality. Days with your mother must have made you the way you are today, at least that’s what he thought.

He flipped his head over to look at his bag. He only paused for a moment before reaching for it and pulling open the zipper. His hand went inside and felt around for a moment before he found what he was looking for. He pulled out his phone and slumped back down into his previous position. He didn’t have your number, no. But he did have Sunggyu’s. As well as everyone else’s in the pack. He unlocked the phone and began to type a message addressed to Sunggyu. After all, it was Sunggyu that somehow convinced you to believe in werewolves and join them in the first place.

Sunggyu, something is wrong with her. She’s hiding something that she can’t tell us. You should talk to her an|

Once he read over what he was typing however, he quickly erased it. He tossed it back beside his bag and buried his face in his hands. Why did he have to be the one to fix everything? It was always him that found a way to bring you back to their side. Not this time. He wouldn’t fall for it again. No more dragging you back.

That’s when memories flashed back into his mind. Memories he had shut into a tight box and placed in the back of his mind. The night that you first arrived in Springfield, in which him in his beast form caused you to have an accident. The sight of you in the driver’s seat, passed out, for some reason he couldn’t just walk away. He felt a pull towards you. It was so strong that his eyes started quivering. It wasn’t just the rain that fell down his face anymore. He was crying. Crying for whatever reason. He hadn’t cried even while in Thailand, his home, and yet there he was, sobbing. He called the first number in the history on his phone, and it ended up being Dongwoo. The sense of urgency and his frantic feelings at that time were something he had never felt before.

He clenched his shirt over where his heart was. He took deep breaths, calming himself as he felt the feelings he felt then start to wash over him. He wouldn’t let himself fall for your defenseless self again. He wouldn’t think about it anymore. Not about you. Not about that night. He would be ignorant to all of it.

But of course, life seemed to keep on denying him that. Why? Because right at that very moment, Woohyun walked through the door.

Woohyun immediately noticed Myungsoo. “You’re here early.” He smiled as he closed the door behind him. “What happened to the mayor’s daughter?”

“Minah?” Myungsoo questioned, “I didn’t feel like it today. Like faking it again."

“You deserve a break. She’s not the best of people.” Woohyun walked over to the couch and sat down right next to Myungsoo, “I won’t tell Sunggyu.” Myungsoo stayed silent as he closed his eyes again. He knew the topic was coming soon. Any second now, he would have a reason to be irritated again even though he just calmed down. “I heard you talked to Hyunjoo today.” There it was.

Myungsoo opened his eyes and turned to face Woohyun but didn’t say anything. He was waiting for Woohyun’s next question.

“She’s being odd right?” Woohyun frowned, “Really. It’s hard to tell what she’s thinking.”

“Hardly.” Myungsoo interrupted.

Woohyun locked eyes with Myungsoo, who immediately turned away. “So then, what were you able to find out?”

“Probably what you’ve known for a while now.” Myungsoo replied. Woohyun paused. He had known. He just didn’t want to acknowledge it. If only that was all it took to make you talk to him like normal again. Myungsoo saw the look on Woohyun’s face and sighed, “She smells like hunter. It’s basically pouring off of her body. She’s probably avoiding us so that we aren’t able to tell and so that the hunters don’t find out.”

“Again?” Woohyun questioned no one in particular. He didn’t want to feel such a crushing feeling on his chest. It was as if a stack of concrete was compacting around him. He didn’t want to think about you betraying the pack for the hunters again.

“She’s not hard to figure out. You’re just choosing not to acknowledge what’s going on.” Myungsoo said with downcast eyes.

Woohyun was quiet for only one more moment before his teeth gritted together. He reached into his pocket and flipped his phone out. He dialed a number he had long memorized and put the phone to his ear. Myungsoo watched him, figuring he was calling Sunggyu. Who else would it be?

The voicemail picked up, which was odd considering Sunggyu always picked up his phone.

Woohyun began recording his message, “Hyunjoo,” Myungsoo jerked upright in his position on the couch. He stared at Woohyun wide eyed. “Meet me at the watermill. If you don’t, I’m coming to you.” He hung up the phone and shoved it back into his pocket. He spared Myungsoo no glances as he left the house.

Myungsoo stared at the closed front door. He had done it again. He had interfered once more with your situation. He sank back down into the couch and wiped his face with his hands again. He should’ve gone with Minah after all.

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A/N:

This should be my last late update. Tomorrow I will be busy in the morning but my afternoon is all clear~ I'm excited I reached the same number subscribers as I have chapters. :) It feels all mystical and magical. 

About the last chapter, and in reply to the comments, forgetting about B-Bomb definitely was the thing that caused Hyunjoo's demise. Infinite showed up in this chapter! I promise they will be in future chapters and I will never up and forget about them. 

Don't let your lovely self forget to leave a comment below~ 

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lilyemc
Happy Springfield's 2nd Anniversary!

Comments

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MayhemMinutes
#1
It’s been years, but this still hits different
exokexomkai
#2
Chapter 2: i just love the flow of the story
exokexomkai
#3
Chapter 1: came back to reread after 4 years. it feels like just yesterday i finishes it. im just so happy to be back on AFF.
cheonchoni
#4
Came back bcs I forgot to upvote hehe. Your stories are really special compared to others bcs of your writing style
cheonchoni
#5
Chapter 104: Girls are always more attracted to mysterious boys aren't they lol
cheonchoni
#6
Chapter 82: Please be friends and attack that mayor. I don't think I can handle more betrayel. What kind of mess did she get herself into *sigh*
cheonchoni
#7
Chapter 80: That's why they want that necklace...
cheonchoni
#8
Chapter 78: AWWWWW NOOO she'll end up hurting one side either way
cheshire08
#9
After how many years, I'm back here again. Missed your writing style and stories, author-nim ?
KimHyeJoo #10
Chapter 128: I love this so much omg :’)))