“See you later.” Hoya waved as he ascended the stairs to the fourth floor of the school. You waited for Dongwoo to do the same, however, he stayed rooted by your side. A girl who was walking up the stairs saw the two of you standing together and dropped open. She scurried off farther down the hall to where a group of girls were gathered. Thus it began again, the rumors.

“Are you not going to class?” Dongwoo asked as he pointed down the hall. You flinched and looked away from the group of girls.

“Aren’t you?” You asked, an equally confused expression on your face. “Don’t third years have their home room on the fourth floor?”

“We do.” He nodded his head, straight-faced as he readjusted his backpack on his back.

“Then why?” You started but were greeted by a smile. His lips had curved themselves into an amused smile.

“I’ll walk you to your classroom?” He said as though he was asking permission. You pretended to think about it for a moment just to see the expectant expression on his face a bit longer. After pretend-poundering, you nodded in acceptance. It felt good to see him smile like he was now because it had taken you a long time to finally be able to see this smile. You could still remember his rudeness when he asked you what your name was on multiple occasions. Now, the word “rude” was far from what you would use to describe Dongwoo.

As the two of you walked side by side, Dongwoo inspected you. He had no idea why he had become so attached to you as everyone else was. Sungjong would often boast about how pretty you looked, how cute you were, but all he saw was a normal girl. Sure, a girl who was thick-headed to a fault but also a girl who cared about others more than she did about herself. Maybe that’s why he had become attached. Every time you looked at him, it was as though he was the only thing in your eyes.

You felt Dongwoo staring at you and glanced at him. He caught it and smiled again. You looked away and gulped down.

“Are you going to eat lunch with Sungjong again?” He asked after not saying anything for a few good seconds or so.

You nodded, seeing no reason to not eat lunch with Sungjong like you used to.

“Can I reserve you for lunch?”

You looked back towards him immediately. You didn’t understand his meaning and pinched your lips together to avoid laughing at the way he had sounded saying such words.

“That’s not what I mean,” he quickly covered up upon realizing his misuse of words and his usual goofy expression showed itself, “I mean, have lunch with me.”

His proposition was unexpected. You had never eaten with the others before, only Sungjong or by yourself. The idea of eating with Dongwoo today was thus very tempting.

“Okay.” You agreed, the two of you arriving at your classroom now. “Though I can’t exactly say no to Sungjong you know.”

“I didn’t expect you to.” Dongwoo showed you one last smile and waved before departing from your side. You watched him walk back down the hallway and waited for him to disappear up the stairs. When he did, you let out a breath and leaned onto the wall beside the door to your classroom.

“Lunch with Dongwoo.” You laughed to yourself before lifting your body from the wall and walking into the classroom. A few people were murmuring and you knew it had been about the exchange between Dongwoo and you a moment ago.

You ignored it and instead made your way to your seat. As you put your backpack down, you saw a head of dark brown hair looking out the window. Myungsoo had actually arrived at school early today. Usually, he would arrive just as the bell rang, giving you no chance at all to even look in his direction. Another odd thing about today was that Minah was nowhere to be found.

You closed your eyes and breathed out before deciding to approach him. As you walked nearer, the mumbles in the classroom got louder. There was no doubt he knew you were coming over to talk to him but still he stared out of the window as though it were the most interesting thing in the world.

You sat down in Minah’s desk and turned to face him, you body sitting sideways in the chair. Even with you in front of him, he didn’t bat an eyelash. You took another deep breath to suppress yourself from yelling at him.

“Thank you for helping out with B-Bomb.” You played with your fingers in your lap, knowing this conversation you were trying to have was hopeless. Still, you felt like he deserved a word of thanks after helping you out of a rough spot. When he remained silent, you sighed. You moved your hands to the desk, about to stand up.

“It was no big deal.”

You couldn’t believe you actually got a response out of him. You stared at him, wide-eyed, still not believing he spoke to you. Not only that, he wasn’t looking out of the window anymore. He was looking straight at you, something you had expected to happen with even less chance than you did for him to talk to you.

Myungsoo’s eyes fell from your face down to where your hands lay in your lap. As you intertwined your fingers, his eyes shifted to your wrist.

You decided to take advantage of his sudden attentiveness and bring up a topic you wouldn’t have otherwise, “For last night, listening to me ramble on,” you paused, gauging his reaction. His eyes left your wrist now. You cursed inwardly at your heartbeat that sped up due to his eyes on yours. Talking to his wolf form was much less unnerving than this. “I want to say thank you for that too.”

He blinked a few times before once more turning his head towards the window. You let out a breath you didn’t know you had been holding. You were starting to second guess yourself about ever coming over to thank him in the first place. All it did was serve to make your heartbeat race and ultimately embarrassed of your actions. You stood up from Minah’s desk, scolding yourself, and walked back to your own.

Myungsoo glanced at you from his peripheral, watching your every move as you took a seat down at your own desk. He quickly averted his eyes when you turned to hang your backpack off the back of your seat. As he once more looked out the window, he saw Minah and her friends approaching the front of the school and instinctively scowled.

“That’s all you’re eating?”

You froze mid-bite into your sandwich. You looked to your right at Hoya who was sitting next to you on the bench. The courtyard was filled with students having lunch as opposed to in the cafeteria. This meant there were many other things to pay attention to. However, that didn’t keep Hoya from paying attention to the insignificant fact that you were having only a sandwich for lunch.

You nodded slowly at him, feeling as though you were being scolded. What was wrong with having a sandwich for lunch? When you went home, you always ended up cooking a filling dinner for yourself. Sure, it didn’t taste all that good but it was getting better due to you having to continue on doing so.

“Eat this too.” Hoya rubbed a red apple onto his sleeve and inspected it before placing it in your lap.

“Health nut.” Sungyeol mumbled from next to Hoya. You stifled a laugh and bit into your sandwich. Hoya turned and pursed his lips, his eyes daring Sungyeol to say that again. Sungyeol went back to eating as though nothing had happened.

You looked to your left and found Dongwoo chomping down on a strawberry Sungjong gave him. You originally thought you’d be eating with Dongwoo alone but of course Sungjong found you as soon as the lunch bell rang. So you figured it would be only the three of you but of course you were wrong again. When Dongwoo had asked you to eat lunch with him, he meant with him, Woohyun, Sungyeol, and Hoya. This meant that all six of you were crowded together eating lunch. You were thankful the six of you sat where two stone benches had been put together. There was more than enough space for you to sit comfortably.

The amount of attention the six of you got was expected. Like you had done this morning, you ignored it. Let them say what they want to say. Think what they want to think. That wouldn’t change the fact that once more, you were with the werewolves. You froze at that thought and reached down to your wrist. You needed to find that bracelet. That along with the fact that you had not one single call nor text from the hunters served to bring down your day quite a bit. This was what had to happen for B-Bomb’s sake. And ultimately, for the sake of all of the hunters.

“Hyunjoo.”

You whipped your head to your right at the sound of your name. Woohyun was leaning over in his seat, looking past Sungyeol and Hoya.

“Did you sleep well last night?” He asked, genuinely curious.

“Well considering I was neither kidnapped in the middle of the night nor have anyone come storming into my house out of nowhere, yes. I did.” You answered back. You had slept well after talking to Myungsoo. Or rather, babbling to his wolf form while he sat there. Woohyun smiled in response though it didn’t seem completely real. You leaned forward more, a teasing smile forming on your face, “Why? Did you think I’d say I didn’t because you weren’t there?”

This time, a real smile appeared on his face, “You said it, not me.”

Sungjong’s upper lip curled up. He shoved another strawberry into Dongwoo’s face. Dongwoo moved away from the fruit, giving a look towards Sungjong. He took the strawberry slowly even though he didn’t feel like eating another one.

You swallowed the last piece of your sandwich and wiped your hands together, getting rid of the crumbs. The sudden appearance of something red in front of your eyes made your vision blur. When they focused again, you realized it was a strawberry. Dongwoo was using one hand to eat an apple while his other hand held the strawberry in front of you.

You picked it from his fingers and bit into it. “Thank you.” You mumbled as you shoved the last part into your mouth. Dongwoo started laughing at your cheeks filled with strawberry.

“No one said you had to down it in one shot.” He continued on laughing at you.

“Eat slowly.” Hoya scolded again and you turned to him, chewing deliberately slow.

“Not exactly a very attractive face.” Sungyeol puckered his lips together in disgust as he mocked you.

“So?” You said through your strawberry filled mouth. Sungyeol laughed along with Dongwoo.

“Hyungs! Stop picking on Hyunjoo.” Sungjong complained as he held himself back from reaching over and smacking both Dongwoo and Sungyeol. He knew the beating he would get in return and instead ended up just fidgeting in his seat.

“You still have to eat the apple.” Hoya pointed down at it and you frowned, almost unaware of the situation currently going on.

Woohyun watched all five of you interact and sighed. He knew it would be like this from now on but he still couldn’t help but be jealous. Who told you to be so good at not only making him happy but also at making him boil over with jealousy? He shook his head and continued to eat.

Myungsoo growled in frustration as he finally made it home after school. After fighting off a rather tenacious Minah to get here, he was ready to collapse immediately. She just didn’t want to give up on asking if he could come over to her house after school. He had to hold himself back from simply telling her he didn’t want to go because he’d rather not spend another waking second with her. He simply told her he’d go next time and left. He was glad she didn’t pursue further after that.

He heard noise coming from the kitchen and he quickly dismissed his Minah based thoughts. When he arrived in the kitchen, B-Bomb was going through the cupboards with a rather conflicted expression on his face. B-Bomb turned his attention to the fridge and opened it, still looking as though he wasn’t in his right mind.

“I don’t know what the hunters’ meals are usually like, but mostly we settle for noodles or rice.” Myungsoo slightly laughed as he took a seat down at the kitchen island.

B-Bomb turned, not startled by Myungsoo’s sudden appearance, “Yeah, we usually settle for the same. I just thought it was a joke when I opened the fridge and only found eggs and apples.”

“Opening it again will not change what’s inside. I know that from experience.” Myungsoo joked and B-Bomb couldn’t believe the guy actually had a sense of humor.

“So it’s real then? The contents of the fridge? I thought you all had left me to starve.” B-Bomb said back. Myungsoo actually cracked a smile at that.

“Leave you to starve? Well you’ve certainly come to the right place to do just that.”

B-Bomb never thought Myungsoo would actually be one to laugh and smile. From the image he projected before, he seemed like the kind of guy to give judgmental looks and intimidating glares. B-Bomb reached into his pocket as he slouched over, his consciousness slowly become more comfortable with Myungsoo. His fingers skimmed over something solid and he finally remembered the reason he had been busying himself in the kitchen in the first place.

He had been waiting for Myungsoo to get home.

He pulled the object from his pocket and placed it down onto the kitchen island. Myungsoo’s smile faded slowly as he took in what it was. 

B-Bomb cleared his throat, not sure how to go about saying what he wanted to anymore. He was going to just lash out on Myungsoo earlier but after Myungsoo just openly joked with him, he didn’t feel up to being so straightforward.

“I didn’t mean to go through your things, but I couldn’t exactly just pretend to not see this. Why do you have it?”

B-Bomb pointed down to the silver bracelet with a single gun charm attached.

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A/N:

So the questioning begins.