It was one of the rare occasions that the boys had decided to study and put effort into their homework. The local town library was empty of dilligent students on a school evening. When the school had opened a large study hall for students at a cost of a fiver a night, the library's regular crowd moved.

Luhan couldn't wrap his head around it. The only thing that he could deduce was that Koreans were weird - full stop. Why would you pay for something that you could get for free?

However, the pack of twelve boys had taken advantage of the opportunity and dedicated one night to study every fortnight. It wasn't a lot, but they got by.

Three others were at Luhan's table, the other eight were spread around the study area. Some were sitting together, like Chanyeol and Baekhyun, who were playing with a paper football, but some of them, like Kyungsoo and Kris had their noses an inch from the book, studying. 

"Goal!" Chanyeol hissed as the paper ball launched between the makeshift pen goals. Chanyeol punched his fists in the air, temporarily forgetting where he was.

Zitao aimed his pen at Chanyeol's head and managed to hit him square on the back of the head. He grinned and gave Luhan a highfive. The librarian, however, was that impressed. She swooped down on them, and pinched Zitao's ear.

He whimpered and stood up, his head inclined towards her.

"I thought I told you the last time, you do not throw things in my library!" she growled.

Zitao complained that he was ear was going to fall off. His ear was already red and throbbing. She squeezed harder for a moment before letting him go.

"Ah!" he exclaimed and gripped his ear. He glared at her.

"Out!" she commanded in a no-nonsense tone and pointed a red taloned finger at the door. Zitao grumbled as he uncermoniously shoved his books into his bag and zipped it up.

Watched under the librarian's hawk eye, he swung his bag on his back and strolled casually out, whistling as he went just to annoy her. He pulled the door open with so much force that it slammed against the wall. He walked out, leaving it open.

He lingered outside, waiting for someone to come out and was cheered when his friends didn't delay or dawdle in the library and came out straight away.

"Did you see what she did to me?" he asked indignantly. "That's got to be illegal!"

"Zitao, relax, you're just too y that she can't keep her hands off you," Chanyeol winked.

"y?" Zitao cocked his head to the side, contemplating the thought. Were they lying to him? Or did the fifty-odd year old actually think that he, Huang Zitao, was y?

"Of course you are!" Baekhyun chimed in, wrapping his arm around Zitao's shoulders. "You're just so y, that even I like you!"

Baekhyun gave him a wink, and Ziao gave him a strange look. "Anything you want to tell me?"

"Oh, yeah, I'm staying at your house tonight," he told him seriously, all traces of humor gone.

"Your sister?" Zitao asked, already knowing the answer.

"What else?"

*~*~*~*

Jimin stomped down the stairs in annoyance. It was late and she couldn't sleep. She looked up at the ceiling as she walked and muttered in annoyance about the injustice of it all.

She padded into the kitchen in her slippers. Just like with the laptop, they'd also been given to her by Sungmin. However, unlike with the laptop, they'd been given to her for a reason that wasn't so she'd accept him as a father figure and her mother's boyfriend. They'd been given to her for her birthday because as nice as Sungmin was, unless he knew exactly what a person wanted, he couldn'y buy gifts. He was awful at it.

She filled up a glass from the cupboard with water from the tap and drank it greedily. The cool water missed slightly, and a drop of water ran from the corner of her lips to her chin. She finished the drink and wiped the run away water off of her with the back of her hand.

She blinked, rubbed her eyes and yawned. She dumped the glass in the sink and walked out of the kitchen, switching off the light. She was about to go up the stairs when she heard a noise coming from the front room. Jimin frowned. It was late at night - two in the morning, according to her alarm clock - why would her father be up?

She crept to the living room door, trying to stay as quiet as possible. She walked close to the wall, imitating the spys in a movie she watched with her mother and brother when she was younger. Her dad had been too busy to watch with them.

She got to the door and was slightly thankful to find it ajar. She wouldn't have to open it and be caught. She pushed it open more and cringed when it squeaked. She squeezed her eyes shut and lightly hit her fist against her forehead.

To her intense relief, her father never noticed the noise and continued watching his programme.

Jimin stuck her head around the door and her eyes rounded when she saw what he was watching.

"Dad!" Jimin exclaimed in shock.

*~*~*~*

At a house down the street - ten minutes away if you walked, two if you drove - there was five boys arguing over the sleeping arrangements. Neither Luhan, Zitao or Yixing wanted to give up their bed to Baekhyun (Kris hadn't been asked).

Baekhyun was insisiting that since he was the guest, he should be prioritised, whereas the other three were saying that since Baekhyun was the guest, he should just sleep on the guest. No one had asked him to stay over.

"But that's not fair! Have some hospitality, will you?" Baekhyun told them in annoyance.

Luhan, who had heard the word “hospitality” in a hotel advert, was the one to answer Baekhyun. "If you don't like it, go home! No one, and I'll repeat it for you, Princess, no one sleeps in my bed, touches my bed, goes within ten feet of my bed - heck, don't even look at my bed!"

Baekhyun stood up straighter and blinked. "Luhan," he said slowly and Luhan grimaced, he was going to get an earful now, "your Korean is getting really good! Keep it up!"

And with that, Baekhyun ran towards the couch, jumped onto it, hopped over the back of it and was just about to run into Luhan's room, with the former boy chasing after him, hurling insults in Korean, English, Chinese, any language he could think of, when Kris stepped out of his room, blocking Baekhyun's path to Luhan's room.

"What are you guys doing?" he asked, a tad scornfully as he eyed Baekhyun up and down in distaste. "It's two in the morning, you're not still fighting about who sleeps where, are you?"

"Really? Well, I better get to bed then! Night, all!" Baekhyun said and tried to step around Kris.

Kris deliberately put himself in Baekhyun's path. "In Luhan's room? Yeah, when Luhan lets you sleep in his room will be when cats fly."

Baekhyun looked at him for a moment before bursting out laughing. "Cats? Really? Cats? It's pigs, you ."

"Pigs?" Kris frowned.

"Yup, and if you'll all excuse me, I'm going to bed." Baekhyun waved brightly to the two boys standing in the midst of the blankets and walked around Kris, who was still trying to wrap his head around the phrase.

Luhan's eyes widened as he made a grab for the back of Baekhyun's shirt.

*~*~*~*

"Dad," Jimin repeated, too shocked to say anything.

Kyuhyun whipped his head around and stared at Jimin with eyes as wide as saucers. He gulped, nervous.

"I thought that you stopped watching them?" Jimin asked, allowing the disappointment and betrayal she felt to flood and colour her words. "Mum ... Why, Dad? You said that you'd stopped watching them. You said that you'd stop, that you cut off all associations with it. Why, Dad?! You promised me!"

Jimin stamped her foot on the floor like a bratty three year old who'd been refused ice cream.

"It's not that I meant to watch it, it was just that I couldn't sleep and it was on," Kyuhyun protested.

"What documentary airs at two in the morning?" Jimin nearly shouted.

"This one."

Jimin's nostrils flared and fire danced behind her eyes. Her breathing was ragged and harsh. Her heart thundered against her ribs. She balled her hands into fists, her nails biting into the skin of her palm.

She marched over to the television and squatted down, she pulled the stark lead out of the back of the DVD player, and to her unsuprise and disappointment, the television screen went black.

She stood up, her back facing her father. She closed her eyes and tried to slow her breathing down.

Calm down, Jimin, just calm down. Don't flip out. There could be a perfectly reasonable explanation, she thought, chanting it like a mantra to herself again and again.

Ever so slowly, she turned and looked at him. He was wearing an expression of guilt and shame.

"Dad, I'm going to say this once," Jimin said and was pleasantly surprised by how level she sounded. "Mum left you because of them, I didn't live with you because of them, you sought help for them. You went to psychologist, for God's sake! You finally made it over your obession and now your letting it make a comeback?" she demanded.

Kyuhyun looked down at his hands in embarrassment.

"You lost your wife and son because of those creatures, do you want to lose me, too?" she asked, her eyes mad.

"That's not fair, Ji," Kyuhyun muttered, his voice barely above a whisper.

"Get rid of those filthy creatures before you ruin your life!" Jimin shouted, unable to keep her voice level any longer.

That was Choi Kyuhyun's breaking point.

"Choi Jimin! Wolves are not filthy!" he snapped. "Have some respect, will you?"

"Those animals ruined my life! Why should I respect? They're disgusting carnivores. All they do is murder!" she argued. "If you love them so much, go and live with them! Oh, but I forgot, you did that already, didn't you?! And just how did that work out for you, eh?"

"Choi Jimin, watch your mouth! If you want to foul a sentient creature's name, then -"

"Dad!" Jimin cut in. "Get out of the clouds! You love them, but they don't feel the same way about you! You're an outsider in both the human and wolf world. You'll never ever belong to either, so stop trying!"

Kyuhyun stared at her, speechless. Her words were cutting into him deeply. She was taking his own thoughts, words that he had written down in a diary and she was now quoting word for word (truthfully, she had seen the words some years previously, but he didn't know that, he just thought that it was obvious), and she was sending them into his heart like knives.

Both the words and the fact that Jimin, his daughter, was saying them hurt him. It hurt him more than he thought was humanly possible.

"If you continue watching wolf documentaries in the middle of the night, you're going to regret it. Mark my words, Dad, you'll regret it," Jimin warned, before walking out of the room (making sure to slam the door behind her, of course) and running up to her room, silent tears falling down her cheeks.

Choi Kyuhyun just sat staring at a blank television for an hour. He was shocked that his daughter had shouted at him, he would have to have words with her about that. It wasn't acceptable. But, he was more shocked by her words. How could she have said such things to him?

She knew that it would hurt him, but she had said it anyway. She was crueler than he ever knew. Even after her brother's accident, she'd never been this harsh on him, even though that, too, was his fault.

"Argh!" He buried his face in his hands and pulled at the roots of his hair. He needed help, wolves were just something that he couldn't escape - and he wasn't sure he wanted to, either. If Jimin found out the reason that he'd moved here, she'd be fuming, and there was no way that she'd believe that it was a coincidence.

A/N:

Comments are appreciated - especially advice and critisms :)

~* Fighting *~