“I’m starting to hate you, you know.”

         Luhan laughed. “Because I made you come with me for soda? Come on. The least you can do is keep me company when I give you everything else.”

         Jinah scoffed surly. “And what is it that you give me?”

         Luhan raised his eyebrows at her as if asking, ‘Are you serious?’

         Jinah rolled her eyes at his face. Of course Wolf gave her everything. Well, not absolutely and utterly everything, but she couldn’t expect everything from them. Of course, there were other things that Jinah didn’t have or wasn’t pleased with, but after hearing from Liha, Jinah told herself to stop being such a princess and learn to appreciate what she had now. She had more than enough, even things that couldn’t be bought or grasped physically, things like privacy, things like decent rest. Wolf was generally nice, too. Even Kai could control his hormones. They didn’t abuse her at all and never ordered her around like a house maid. While most gangs would have sent their Prix alone to do all the shopping, all Luhan asked was to accompany him. Thinking on it, thid didn’t seem that big of a deal.

         But I have to shower again, Jinah thought. Luhan picked up a jug of fizzy brown liquid. “This is Coke,” he explained to her. He picked up a second jug. This one was orange. “This is orange pop. Choose one more.”

         Jinah chose a clear one with lots of bubbles. This one was called Sprite. “What does soda taste like?” Jinah finally asked as they arrived at the cash register. She hated asking questions like this one because it made her feel dumb, but she couldn’t help it.

         “Hm?” Luhan said as he put the two jugs on top as the cashier snapped out of her daze and quickly began checking the items out.

         “Soda. What does it taste like?” Jinah asked again as she placed both jugs on top, too.

         “Oh. Um… sweet and prickly, I guess.”

         “Twelve dollars,” the cashier said.

         Luhan had his wallets ready as he took out the bills. Jinah noticed that it was exactly like Baekhyun’s and Chanyeol’s, only the gold letters were ‘Wolf – LH’ instead. The cashier put the four jugs into two plastic bags. Jinah debated whether or not to take one bag too, but Luhan picked both of them up before she could say anything. When they were outside, the light wind hit their faces. Ever since DE, the sun decided to stay hidden for longer periods of time. It didn’t shine brightly as it did in the 2010s, but it didn’t completely shut itself away either, which had its benefits. Heat weren’t a problem, and neither were frostbites. It never snowed and there was no such thing as a tornado in DE. The climate was moderate and mild. It would get warm and cool, sometimes chilly and windy with rain, but the apricity always made up for it. It seems as if the sun was scared of this era, too.

          “Wow, it’s a lot colder now,” Jinah commented before letting herself shiver at the unwelcome cold that was newfangled to her. It was evening now and the inky sky was dark with no stars. She rubbed her arms, and asked, “Can’t you feel it?”

         Luhan shrugged, already used to the very slight temperature difference. Over the two years or so he spent as a Wolf, temperature was never a hindrance, especially not after the Journey. “It’s not a big deal. Why, is it never cold in your dwelling?”

         “Y-Yeah,” she said as she involuntarily shuddered violently again. She frowned at herself for such a jolting and uncontrolled movement. Why was her body reacting this way? It was never this strange before. “It never gets cold,” she added after the thought.

         “You’re probably just unfamiliar with the wind,” Luhan concluded simply. It was understandable. A certain female had been fascinated by wind when she had first encountered it. The protection walls of dwellings blocked the girls from majority of the cold and wind, too, Luhan guessed.

         “Well, I don’t like it,” Jinah bluntly stated, surprising Luhan a bit. “It feels weird. It always did. It was as if an invisible large hand was just touching you, and that’s creepy as hell, but right now, it’s even weirder. It feels like… like the insides of my bones are freezing.”

         Luhan’s eyebrows flinched a tad at that. Could she be…? He shook his head. It was impossible. Getting sick from just a little wind? Jinah would have had to have a really crappy immune system. “Don’t worry about it,” Luhan said, flashing an amiable smile at her. “It’s just how the cold feels. Besides, we…” Luhan trailed off and stopped walking. Jinah followed suit, her face hardening. Something had perked Luhan’s sensitive ear, the sound of a dangerous click. Suddenly, both pairs of eyes widened.

         An image of a threatening black item flickered in Jinah’s mind. Jinah pushed Luhan away instantly. Something whizzed by between them in the next millisecond, the sharp whistle of the material tickling their ears. Only then did the two process the loud “bang!” of a gun. A bullet had passed right between them. If Jinah hadn’t pushed Luhan, it would have hit him.

         Jinah took a shaky, unstable breath. “What the hell was that?”

         “A gunshot. What the hell was this?” At ‘this’, Luhan gesticulated to the distance between him and her. He stared at with such intensity, Jinah was rooted to the spot.

         A second click interrupted their moment. Luhan immediately grabbed Jinah’s wrist and ran back into the markets. The gunshot quickly followed, but fortunately, missed. The markets was loud and crowded, so the offender wouldn’t dare to try and shoot them anymore. Actually, he might. It was DE. People weren’t exactly kind in nature, so they weren’t exactly safe in the markets, either. Anyone could carry a knife and slip into the crowd. Luhan and Jinah exchanged a look.

         “How’d you know?” Luhan asked, cracking the ice fairly quickly.

         “Know what?” Jinah was breathless and her mind was in a daze. A gun. She could have died!  Who was it, and why? That was a near-death experience, and Jinah felt a dark knot in her gut from vulnerability and fear. Suddenly, her safety felt invaded. Was there even a sure sense of safety in the first place?

         “That we were going to get shot,” Luhan said sternly. He took short glances at Jinah, but at other times, he was nervously looking around. Luhan was calm, but even he couldn’t hide the fidgety feeling.

         “I heard the gunshot,” she said shortly and honestly, a bit out of breath.

         “Yeah, same, after I got pushed. Jinah, how did you know where the bullet came from?”

         “I don’t know…” Jinah mumbled. She didn’t know the answer. Why had she pushed Luhan anyway? She tried to reason through her action that had eluded them from the dangerous, piercing bullet of a gun. “Reflex, maybe?” she tried. “Luck?”

         Luhan narrowed his eyes and Jinah didn’t say anything else. She didn’t know why he was taking this so seriously. After awhile, he nodded slowly. It makes sense, sort of, Luhan told himself. Whenever Luhan sensed danger, he pushed the nearest person around him away. Only he did it with purpose and was aware of what the danger was. Even if Jinah hadn’t pushed him, he would have pushed her, or pulled her behind him, but she was faster. How?

         But then Luhan realized something else, something that was more important. He grinned cheekily at her, who blinked in confusion and suspicion. “So you care more about my safety than your own, hey?” he teased.

         Jinah replied right away, playing it cool, “It’s one of the only human’s altruistic instinct. For most people, anyway. I would have done the same if it had been Baekhyun or Chen. Don’t get full of yourself.”

         Luhan chuckled and Jinah cracked a small smile at this lighthearted moment, but then her face darkened and so did Luhan’s. “What do you think that was?” she asked. “Why did they try to shoot us?”

         “I don’t know.”

         “Does this happen a lot?”

         “I don’t know, does it?”

         Jinah sighed. She had been a part of Wolf for a good two months now and she knew for a fact that hearing gunshots wasn’t a normal thing. Heck, they were hardly even attacked. Just their gang name was feared in the streets. Even if the people couldn’t match the face to the gang name, just the word “Wolf” was terror. Wolf was neither a killing gang nor an unfair one, but they sure as hell was a powerful and intimidating one.

         “Come on, let’s go,” Luhan said softly. “It’s probably just cowards wanting revenge. Wolf doesn’t lose, you know. And if by some chance we do, we get them back soon. Let’s go.”

         Even if he sounded relaxed, Jinah knew very well that he wasn’t relaxed at all. On the way to the base, it was quiet. They talked a little, but she was aware that he was alert. He seemed to be considering the possibility of using his ability. Jinah had gotten used to their abilities now. She truly endeavored to construct a method to either unlock or strengthen an ability by reading and reading and reading books, taking notes, staying up, thinking, and more, but to no avail. Her hypothesis couldn’t be tested because there was always a missing variable. The computer was of hardly any help. She was missing a keyword, she knew it.

         Within the six weeks after Sehun’s memorable words, Chen had installed Jinah’s handprint onto the recognition list for the jade statue, so she could open it up too. Kai thought this was giving a female one too many privileges. He was grumpy about watching his words and thinking so much lately, but Lay though it was appropriate, now that Jinah was a Wolf. Suho that that now that Jinah could get in and out of the base on her own, he could have her do more errands, but Baekhyun was against it, saying it wasn’t safe. That discussion led to another, and another. Jinah was always a debate topic within the gang, and Xiumin was never on the positive side.

         Luhan and Jinah put the soda bottles in the refrigerator. When Jinah asked if Luhan wanted a drink, he replied by saying he liked his soda cold. So then the two decided to watch TV for awhile. It was quiet between the two, and the TV was the only sound, other than a sneeze from Jinah once in awhile. It’s been like this ever since the gunshots. To Jinah, the silence felt weird. Luhan wasn’t a talkative Chanyeol, but he wasn’t a silent Sehun either. He was like Kris, only without the scary eyes and insurmountable height. Their sense of humor differed a bit as well.

         “So how about a movie tomorrow?” Luhan asked after twenty minutes of watching the dull TV. It seemed as if he didn’t like the silence either.

         Jinah raised an eyebrow at him. Hopefully he’s not talking about the Casper Johnston series… does that mean it’s a…? “At the theater?”

         “Yeah. Want to?”

         “Um,” Jinah gulped quietly. “Sure.”

         Luhan nodded at her response as if satisfied with it, and there was a trace of a smirk on his face before he faced the screen again. It was a spontaneous event. Things like this happened a lot with Luhan. He had sudden urges to do things, the way Jinah had abrupt cravings for sweets. Sweets. Jinah got up to get one from the basket, which had been placed on the kitchen counter by the key plate and telephone since a few weeks ago, after a certain incident had took place.