“No.”

          Later that evening, there was a controversy among the members. After eating Aheun’s delicious traditional Korean dinner (which Luhan refused to eat but was excessively complimented by Xiumin), the sky was darkening and night was approaching. However, there was one matter that needed to be solved before Xiumin let any of them sleep.

          “Sehun, come on.”

          “No.”

          “Sehun!”

          Jinah snorted in attempt to hide her laughter. Sehun’s stubbornness reminded her of a beginner Pacem-B child. The members of Wolf, excluding the two Prixes, Xiumin, and Tao, were all on the couch, and they were arguing about rooms. The plan was that Jinah stayed at Sehun’s for awhile, and then when Aheun came, Sehun moved out. To Sehun, the plan was that Jinah stayed in his room, and when Aheun came, Aheun would sleep anywhere but his room. Sehun had never planned on moving out, nor has he agreed to doing so.

          Xiumin groaned. “Stop being so immature, this isn’t like you. Jinah was supposed to share a room with Aheun, remember?” Xiumin said, clearly remembering the plan. “Right, D.O? Tao? Lay?”

          All three boys nodded, but Lay was smiling, and Jinah could tell that Lay wasn’t smiling out of politeness. He was amused.

          Kai scoffed. “This is so stupid. Why can’t she just sleep on the couch? She’s the newbie.”

          “Jinah got a room on day one!”

          “So? That’s the past,” Kai said. He wasn’t really taking Jinah’s side; Kai was sick of hearing Jinah’s nagging about his alcohol use and one-night stands, but he was more tired of hearing Xiumin’s complaints and the big fuss about Aheun. Aheun was a cute girl and he’d hit on her any day, but if they had more conflicts like this in the future because of her, her prettiness won’t be enough to appease his anger, unlike Jinah who had queer charms and the favor of Luhan. “Just get over it. Or give her your bed.”

          Xiumin wrinkled his nose. “She’s a female.”

          Jinah’s jaw dropped at that blunt ist remark. However, Aheun seemed completely unaffected by it, which enraged Jinah. “What the hell?” Jinah shouted. “You did not just say that!”

          Xiumin crossed his arms. He replied calmly: “I did.”

          “Are you an idiot? That’s your damn sister—and you won’t give up a bed for her because she’s a female? Are you jacked in the head? If you can’t give up your bed for her, why are you making Sehun give up his? Wow,” Jinah took this time to scoff at him, “you’re worse than I thought. Not only are you rude and narrow-minded and dumb, but extraordinarily selfish. How did Wolf endure you for two years?”

          “I think you just crossed the line,” Tao said, his tone serious. “Jinah, I know you’ve been receiving special treatment and everything, but this is DE. Honestly, get your together.”

          “No, Tao, you get your together,” Jinah snapped before Baekhyun or Chanyeol could say anything. “Do you think this makes sense? Making a commotion about where Aheun sleeps, trying to kick Sehun out of his own room, but not be willing to give up his own? What kind of logic is that?!”

          “If you’re so selfless, why don’t you give up your space for Aheun?” Xiumin countered. “That bed was originally Aheun’s, you know. You just got in the way.”

          “I never asked Sehun to leave his room, and Aheun’s not my sister. She’s not my responsibility,” Jinah clearly stated. Her argument was flawed in the sense that she wasn’t willing to do what she was implying the other should do—but this wasn’t a thesis to be marked by a Miss, and Xiumin was probably too dumb (or heated) to notice her flawed logic. “I didn’t start this. You did.” She paused for a split second before adding, “And I never said I was selfless!”

          “If you admit that you’re not selfless, then that means you accept the fact that you have no right to talk about who’s selfish and who isn’t,” Xiumin retorted.

          Damn, thought Jinah. I thought he was stupid? Then she said bitterly, “Freedom of speech is still legally granted to both genders, you know. It’s just that some idiots are too scared to say what’s on their mind—the so-called ideal submissive girls, I mean. I can call you a selfish, doltish, stupid, rude, and a narrow-minded -prick-, and I really –”

          Jinah wasn’t sure what exactly happened, but the result was an icicle floating in midair right in front of her face with Xiumin’s hand outstretched and a standing Luhan. Unlike Jinah and Aheun, the other gang members knew exactly what happened. They had trained to not only interpret moments like these but also to respond in time to it. Xiumin had used his ability—freezing—by using the moisture in the air to create the icicle and had thrown it in Jinah’s direction. Luhan, reading Xiumin’s movements, had used his ability—telekinesis—and held the icicle in place, preventing it from moving.

          Xiumin threw a ferocious glare at Luhan. “What the , Luhan?!”

          “She’s our Prix,” Luhan said. “Our Pure Prix.”

          The emphasis on the word ‘pure’ hit Aheun hard. She was speechless from the random icicle that appeared out of nowhere, and now it was just hanging there as if held by an invisible string. None of these things made sense, and she wanted to cry because that was the pacifying solution taught by Pacem, but she couldn’t cry now. Tears didn’t come out. She was just in too much shock, but the personal pain from Luhan’s cold words brought her partially back to reality.

          Jinah, who learned to be resilient through Suho’s tips, talked on as if nothing had happened. “Pathetic. I should add that and ‘impatient’ to the list of traits you have.” Fortunately, she had her voice with her because she knew about the abilities, but she suddenly felt really sorry for Aheun. When Jinah first witnessed their crazy abilities, she felt mentally unstable—like she was seeing things wrong, like she was going crazy—all in the midst of gang slang, DE realizations, and gender pressure. Limited. Small. Trapped.

           She could, very accurately, imagine what Aheun was going through.

          “It’s okay, I c-can sleep on the c-couch,” Aheun stammered out. She was so helplessly scared. Things just didn’t make sense. A floating piece of icicle? There was so much coarse language, too, along with foreign slang.

          “Do you want my bed?” D.O asked Aheun, his voice soft. “Maybe we can take turns sleeping on the bed or something.”

          “Aheun in a room full of guys?” Xiumin snorted. “No ing way.”

          Jinah noticed the way Aheun flinched at the swear word. They weren’t friends or anything, but in Dwelling Studies, she remembered that swear words and insults were less tolerated in Pacem. In Callidum, swear words were just words; letters strung together to mean something vulgar. They were considered to be rude and unpleasant, therefore inappropriate, but the consequences weren’t as severe as Caritatis’ or Pacem’s. However, before Jinah could say anything, Baekhyun spoke. “Jinah’s with a guy and nothing happened. Let’s say Sehun moves out. Aheun will be alone with Jinah. We all know that you don’t think highly of Jinah for the dumbest reasons ever, right? How are you okay with that? If you’re scared the guys will hurt Aheun, aren’t you scared that Jinah will, too? Not that you would,” Baekhyun quickly said, looking at Jinah, who looked like she couldn’t care any less. “But it’s a valid point, ain’t it?”

          “That bed in Sehun’s room was supposed to be Aheun’s!” Xiumin exclaimed. “If Jinah didn’t come, we wouldn’t be having this problem!”

          “We wouldn’t be having this problem if Aheun didn’t come today, either,” retorted Suho. “Seriously, bringing her when we already have enough in our hands… for jack’s sake, you didn’t even tell us!”

          “Dude, it’s no one’s fault that Jinah caught our attention. Chillax,” Chanyeol said.

          “That’s because you guys are idiots!” Xiumin cried.

          “No, it’s because it’s true,” Suho said.

          “I don’t think it’s a good idea to compare Jinah and Aheun,” D.O said, clearly aggravated by the noise level. “They are two different people and they are standing right in front of us. Can we sort this out another time?”

          “Who the cares? They’re females!” hollered Xiumin.

          “If you haven’t noticed, this whole altercation is about a female,” Suho pointed out. “This is so tedious. I’m going to go sleep.”

          “Same,” chorused Kris, Chen, and Kai, finding the opportunity to leave. They all got up and went to their own rooms.

          There was a moment of silence before Sehun got up and walked to the door to his room. Just when he opened the door, he turned around to look straight at Jinah, who was still standing by the couch. “Aren’t you coming?”

          “I—” Jinah stopped short. This was her chance to sleep in that room and claim it. Sehun, the devil of the gang, the silent one, spoke up to help her indirectly. She wasn’t going to waste this opportunity. She knew it was selfish, and mean to Aheun, but she did not feel like letting Xiumin win—or, truth be told, sleeping on the couch again. She nodded and followed him inside.

          Just when the door was about to click shut, Xiumin opened his mouth to say something, but Aheun held him back. She finally got some more sense into her system. Someone will explain what the icicle was about, she assured herself. “Xiumin-oppa, that’s enough. I can sleep on the couch, it’s alright.”

          “See, the girl says she’s fine!” Chanyeol exclaimed. “Can we go now?” Chanyeol, despite being lazy and clumsy, knew better than to disobey their leader’s rule. If Luhan said they had a meeting in secret at the Headquarters when the clock strikes three, it was to be attended. Chanyeol wanted as much sleep as possible before then. “Go sleep, Xiumin. You’re too loud. It’s bedtime for Aheun.”

          Xiumin scoffed. “It’s only eleven!”

          Tao, who feared Luhan more than he valued Aheun’s comfort, went to his room, officially giving up on the fight. He, too, knew it was going to be a long night, considering the meeting was underground at dawn. A part of him wished that Kris hadn’t told him about the meeting, but another part knew he should. He knew the meeting was going to be about Jinah and Aheun.

          In Sehun’s and Jinah’s room, Jinah took her time to thank Sehun. He remained mute and just shook his head. He slipped into his bed and picked up the fact book from the wallsill and began to read. She raised her eyebrow at the familiar cover. “Hey, didn’t I lend you that?” she asked, and he nodded in response. He must like it, Jinah thought. Jinah half-smiled at him before she went to go shower and strip off the temporary bandages.

          When Sehun heard the water turn on, he looked up at the closed door. It’s not locked anymore, Sehun noticed. Since when did she stop locking it…? His expression didn’t change on the outside, but it would have been a lie to say that he felt nothing about that. The so-called cold Callidum Jinah trusts me. How amusing.

          Luhan sighed as he leaped onto his bed. Baekhyun, Kai, and Chanyeol were there, too. The blonde buried his face in his pillow and said absolutely nothing.

          “You know sometimes, I think Sehun should be in this room, too,” Kai whispered to Chanyeol and Baekhyun, only trying to be half-cautious. “That devil’s the only one that can talk to Luhan when he’s in that depressed state.”

          “I can hear you,” Luhan snapped at Kai, his words muffled by his pillow.

          “I know,” Kai said, louder this time. “What’s up, Leader Deer?”

          Luhan said nothing.

          “I have a feeling if Sehun comes, they’ll just do nothing for a hundred days or so,” Chanyeol whispered to the other two, as if Luhan couldn’t hear him. “But like, if Chen was here, he and I could annoy Luhan to death, and then maybe Luhan would—”

          “One of you is annoying enough,” Luhan countered, his face still in his pillow. “Just get me a peach soda.”

          “Why’d you call a meeting, anyway?” Baekhyun said in regular volume, changing the subject in a different direction.

          Luhan did nothing for a couple more seconds but then he sighed as he took shoved his hand in his team jacket pocket. After scrambling it for a couple seconds, he found the plastic bag with the note. Even if Luhan didn’t see where Baekhyun and the others were, just by hearing their voices, Luhan could tell where they were. He tossed it in that direction, and surely enough, Baekhyun caught it. The other two leaned over to see what it was—and Baekhyun gasped.

         “That’s just the beginning,” Luhan murmured.

-----------------------------------------

A/N:

   SORRY I KNOW I'M HORRIBLE. Not only is it a super late update but it's ANOTHER CLIFFHANGER. I'm cruel, I know, sorry my loves! T_T... But it does keep things interesting, doesn't it? In return, a slightly longer update than usual. Also, I'm doing my best to respond to comments, but please don't be disappointed if I don't get to yours! ;; As always, thank you for all your support and encouragement <3 And another thank-you to those who still continue to upvote this story! As many of you mentioned, I too, am quite confused why this story has never been "featured," considering the upvote # is far more than what I deserve. Nonetheless, I am honoured that you guys consider this story worthy of a gold star, even if it doesn't have one. Thank you for your kind words <3

-deardeerhan