“Ouch…” Jimin winced due to the pain. The sudden noise made you look back at him and you gave him a sorry look.

“Who are you the more worried for? Me or that wolf over there?” he whined in a childish way, stomping his feet to the floor as a five years old. The view somehow managed to make you smile amusedly.

“Saja is unconscious.” You remembered him while looking back at the laying animal still in between Yixing’s hands.

“What about me?” he complained with an unexpected cute pout. “I’m right in front of you and look! My arm is bleeding so much that I think I’m gonna die from blood loss! Are you going to be responsible for that, Kim Seyi? Huh?”  He threatened while waving his injured arm in front of your face with a betrayed expression.

“Will you stop complaining like a cry-baby?” You asked rhetorically, raising an eyebrow at him in disbelief. “And seeing the way you still have the motivation to whine with such energy, you must not be at death’s door yet…”

“But still… it kind of hurts” he mumbled whilst looking down. You softened immediately and patted his head affectionately. You knew it hurt. You clearly felt the throbbing pain too.

“Then Baby Jimin should give me his arm already instead of throwing childish tantrums, this way the pain will be gone even faster” you said, purposely entering his game as you took a hold of his arm again to lay it on the table. With a piece of cotton, you resumed disinfecting the wound delicately. The blood was completely removed and you realized how deep it was. A shivers escaped you. You dropped the cotton and putting your hands on your thighs, you tried to come up with a solution to heal him. As you stared at the wound in wonder, you deduced the fangs went too deep for your liking and some disinfectant wouldn’t suffice. Your eyes suddenly landed on his upper arm as you spotted a scratch partly hidden by his half rolled up sleeve.

“Wait, what is that?” your eyes narrowed a bit as you reached out for the fabric. You rolled it up a little bit higher but the scratch still wasn’t totally visible. Your heartbeats began to speed up in panic.

“When did you plan on telling me?” you seethed, still keeping your anger locked up because it would just worsen the state he was currently in.

“Ah… that.” he rubbed the back of his head sheepishly “It’s nothing, just a minor scratch. It doesn’t even hurt.” he tried to reassure you.

“Take it off” you ordered with crossed arms due to the frustration. He complied without talking back and took off his shirt. He mentally counted the seconds until your outburst. Three, two… one and…

“Holy , Jim’! This is what you call a ‘minor scratch’?!” you shout at him, pointing at the large diagonal scratch decorating his entire torso from the upper left side to the lower right one, without forgetting his injured arm. The others, alerted by the sound, turned around to discover the obvious damage the wolf made to his now bare upper body.

“You told me to shut up if I wanted to survive this night though” he gave you a playful crooked smile, obviously proud of his repartee. Seeing you didn’t have any reaction and that you were back to crossing your arms stubbornly, raising an eyebrow with a pointed look, he simply shot you an innocent chubby smile, contrasting sharply with his toned, muscular body. At the scene, you cleared your throat and looked away awkwardly.

“Stop doing that, it hurts my eyes” you mumbled but you knew he heard you. You shot a last glance at his scratch and then at Saja. He was still lying unconsciously on the couch and Yixing, who felt your stare, looked up at you with sorry eyes as he wiped the thin layer of sweat on his forehead with the back of his hand. He let his other one fall helplessly to his side and you realized the animal’s wound remained the same as earlier.

“I already tried to heal animals before and it worked rather well. I really don’t understand...” he admitted with narrowed eyes due to his confusion before he looked down at the wolf’s eyes, still closed.

You quickly made your way to them and kneeled down in front of Saja. Reaching out, you placed your palm on the animal’s forehead but quickly removed it after a few seconds because of the awful heat he was emanating.

“Fever” you whispered.

Yixing shot you a quizzical look before doing the same.

“What the—” he stopped himself before cursing out loud in your presence. Without removing his hand, he reached out with his other one and placed it on your own forehead to compare your two temperatures. You looked at him with round, surprised eyes.

“He is… burning” he gasped, his eyes wide. To speak the truth, he was even surprised the animal was still alive. A normal living being could never survive such a fever.

“Comparing his temperature with mine is not really reliable.” You saw his lost expression and continued your explanation “Even when he is healthy, Saja already has a rather high temperature, around 102-104°F [equal 39-40°C in European countries]. It is quite high, even for a wolf. It surprised me at the beginning but I eventually realized it was normal.”

“I see… this is kind of strange though…” he agreed with you on this point.

“I do admit his fever is quite serious, but this is not what is worrying me…” you frowned heavily and put your ear against the wolf’s chest, where his heart was. When you only heard a weak and irregular sound, you began to mentally freak out. You pulled your head away and remembering your mom’s skilled gestures, you put your index and middle finger on his left side, on the joint at the very beginning of his front leg, near what would correspond to the animal’s armpit. That’s what your mother did when the both of you took care of him a few years ago.

“What are you doing?” Yixing asked, obviously curious.

“I’m checking his heart’s pulsation. Dogs and wolf aren’t like humans; you can’t do it with their wrists” You replied almost mechanically, too absorbed in counting his low pulsations while watching the clock.

“Oh shoot… that’s not good.” You shook your head in panic. You didn’t even reached half of the normal amount. You ran a trembling hand through your hair, clasping a fistful of it in frustration. Suddenly, your fist unclenched and your eyes widened as an idea gladfully popped in your mind. You snapped your fingers together before you stood up with precipitation.

“His heartbeats are weak which means his fever is going to drop. His body will cool down really fast so you need to make sure to cover him with some blankets to keep him warm.” You said, your words almost bumping into each other, while dashing out of the living room, taking your leather jacket hanged in the hall, totally oblivious of the curious stares you were receiving. You hastily twisted the front door’s knob and as you began to open it, someone interrupted your hurried self, most to your frustration.

“And where do you think you’re going like that?” Ravi inquired, firmly closing the door back with his palm. He then leaned against it and casually crossed his arms, preventing you from going outside.

“I’m not exactly in the best mood for a childish bickering right now so… can you just move over?” you said in between your teeth, trying to ask as politely as possible.

“Kim Seyi, I asked you where you were going” he reiterated his question, leaning forward way more than necessary.

“And I asked you to move over” you replied mulishly, totally unfazed by the sudden closeness and his authoritative tone.

Until now, he thought you didn’t change, not even a tiny bit since almost a year ago. And indeed, you were still as stubborn and independent, disliking to be ordered around. You were never afraid to stand up against someone or something when it bothered you and you were not scared to say what you thought out loud. Your challenging eyes never ceased to entertain him and in this instant, he knew he had missed them. A lot. But as he looked at you, he saw it now though. The striking difference which he had decided to ignore until right at this moment. The only difference between the past you and the current you was your hair. Yes, as futile as it sounded. Because your now red hair constantly remembered him you were even more different from each other than before. Despite your unchanged personality, you were not the same anymore. It did worry him for half a second but he eventually realized he didn’t care. Despite you not being human, you were still the girl he fell in love with. The girl he was still in love with, no matter how hard it had always been for him to express his feelings openly. This is also why, a year ago, he had promised himself he would not inflict his heart the cruel, stinging pain of seeing you again.

But do you know what? He usually never made promises. Because honestly, what was the point in making promises when he had never been able to keep them?

After a long minute of intense staring, you saw in his eyes the moment you were about to win the battle. You gave him a knowing look to which he responded, slightly shaking his head at your confident attitude before affectionately flicking your forehead. You smiled at his reaction and rubbed the skin his fingertips came in contact with. He made a step aside, giving you access to the door once again. You quickly reached out again and opened the door.

“Be careful” he simply said.

As you looked up, surprised by his sudden words, you caught a soft sparkle flashing through his eyes. You stared at him silently for a few more seconds, curious. The others too were looking at the both of you with attention. You then avoided his gaze and your attention went back to your hand, still grasping onto the knob. You decided you would make an effort this time. Because he just made one too. You would eventually grant him an answer. Because you were no longer able to ignore people’s feelings.

“I won’t be long. Just picking up a few things” you explained while tilting your head towards Saja and Jimin’s direction. He didn’t need you to precise what you were talking about to understand what you meant. He nodded with the gentle smile you hadn’t seen since a long time ago. But it had something strange. In the positive way of the word. You didn’t have the time to think of it any longer since he turned around to walk away.

“Kim Wonsik” you called him out.

“Hm?” he turned around with a surprised look. You usually didn’t call him by his entire name unless you had something important to say to him or were about to scold him. He inwardly wondered which one it was going to be now as he patiently waited for you to speak what was on your mind. You tilted your head to the side in wonder, not really knowing why you had called his name.

“You’ve changed” you murmured unknowingly. He gave you a blank face, obviously as taken aback as you. When another smile stretched his lips even wider, you snapped out of your reverie and quickly stepped outside before you closed the door behind you, escaping the weird feeling setting up in your chest. However, deep inside, you knew that sooner or later, the time when you would not be able to escape it anymore would doubtlessly come.

You breathed out heavily and shook your head to get rid of those thoughts, knowing a certain someone was still able to invade your mental privacy. Ignoring the strong chances for him to be intruding your mind right now, you began to run so you could get what you needed to go back home as early as possible. You promised you wouldn’t be long. Because Saja was in danger. But also simply because you had promised.

Today, for the third time of your life, you had trusted someone enough to make a promise. And you were going to keep it.

***

Six or seven minutes later, you came back at the lair, your hands filled with the precious plants your mother told you about. The most effective ones. You dashed toward the kitchen, not even bothering to close the door behind you. Taking a hold of two deep pans, you half-filled them with water and put them on the fire so the liquid would boil.

“I can help with that” Someone’s deep voice said right behind you. Chanyeol gently pushed you to the side so he could place himself next to you. He felt guilty for letting the poor animal there, not even noticing he had been injured while he had been of a big help to them with the enemies. He wanted to make it up to you and to Saja. That’s why he turned the gas off and instead took a hold of the round copper receptacle with his two hands. His eyes turned red and a few seconds later, the water was boiling. He did the same with the other one and turned to you.

“There you go” he smiled but you caught the worried sparkle shining into his orbs.

“Is Saja alright?” you asked, your voice almost a plea, your hands frantically separating the leaves from their stems.

“He is alright.” He answered while bending forward to be at your eye-level. He suddenly cupped your face with his hands, suddenly stopping you in your task “You need to stay calm. Everything will be okay” he said with soft eyes. You smiled a tiny bit at him to show your gratitude and nodded shyly at his words, which had oddly managed to soothe your worry.

Two weeks ago, you thought the boy in front of you was childish and naive. And sometimes, he sure was. However it seemed like he could also be a caring and responsible person, someone who could be relied on.

All of a sudden, someone cleared his throat rather ostentatiously before stepping into the kitchen. Chanyeol released your face as the other took the floor.

“Did he do something weird?” Yixing raised an eyebrow at the younger while crossing his arms in dismay, a position which was rather surprising for him to display, as well as his suspicious tone. You assumed he was a gentle person who wouldn’t hurt anyone but maybe, just maybe, he was as dangerous as the others.

“No, Chanyeol is a nice person. He wouldn’t do anything inappropriate” you assured the still frowning Yixing who kept on eyeing Chanyeol as if he was delivering him a silent message.

“If he starts to behave a bit too nicely, please just slap him” He answered almost thoughtfully, as if these words were actually meant for himself. The other rolled his eyes, rather annoyed at the elder’s words but didn’t talk back. He patted your head gently and then walked past Yixing as he was about to leave the kitchen.

“Wait, Chanyeol…” you called him out.

“Hm?” he turned his head towards you with a bright smile.

“Thanks” you simply said with a sheepish expression.

“If you need me, don’t hesitate. I’m right here.” he pointed at the opposite direction which corresponded to the living room and winked at you before he resumed leaving the kitchen. As Yixing finally looked at you, his expression softened and he was back to his normal self again.

“Saja momentarily woke up earlier. Sehun somehow managed to put him in an artificial sleep so he would not suffer more than necessary. It will also gain us some time.” He said, making you aware of the situation, a thing you appreciated. “So… do you need help?” He then proposed with a smile, his dimples just faintly visible, as if they wanted to tease you.

Please Subscribe to read the full chapter