Thirty
What Lurks
Breakfast is surprisingly comfortable. Well, it is for Jongin- he can’t say the same for his mother, who keeps looking around as if expecting huge monsters to jump out of each corner. She probably does, he reasons.
He sits between Kyungsoo and his dad to eat his cereal, and opposite a wolf he doesn’t know. Well, he presumes she’s a wolf, based on what Kyungsoo has told him about this place. He tries not to look at her, and just eats instead, but she seems intent to strike up a conversation with him, and Kyungsoo isn’t helping him at all.
“It’s quite rare, these days, to find a same-gender imprint,” she comments, not condescendingly, but slightly patronising. Like she’s talking to a puppy.
“Mhm,” he nods, still not looking up. He barely even knows what she looks like, too nervous to make eye contact after first spotting her. All he knows is that she has dull ginger hair, tied up in a no-nonsense ponytail.
“Is he always like this?” she asks, and Jongin looks up to see who he’s talking to in time to see Kyungsoo shake his head,
“No, Leanne, he’s just shy. When it’s just me, he’s a lot louder,” he clarifies, moving his knee so they’re touching under the table when Jongin flushes deep red into his cereal bowl, so he knows he’s only teasing.
“Mm, that’s good. It’s good that you’ve moved in so soon, too. It’s easier to protect people when they’re close,” Kyungsoo agrees, and she takes a bite of her toast, and chews thoughtfully.
Why must they talk about him like he’s not there? He gripes to himself, teeth clanking on the metal spoon. He’s being so messy with his eating, that Kyungsoo has to step in, “Jongin, Jongin, stay still,” he holds his face steady with his finger hooked underneath his chin, and then uses a tissue to wipe away the milk dripping down his face.
Kyungsoo just looks loving and caring, but Jongin feels so embarrassed. Not only did his mother see him acting like a brat, now everyone else at the table probably thinks he can’t even feed himself properly. He jerks away and glares at the table as he eats.
He finishes his bowl first, and gets up to wash it and leaves the room before anyone else, making a beeline for Kyungsoo’s bedroom, where he hides himself away in his bed, only his phone for company. It’s probably a good thing he doesn’t have hearing as sensitive as Kyungsoo’s, he thinks, because then he’d be able to hear them laughing at how childish he is.
He goes on facebook on his phone, not having spoken to Sehun or anyone for longer than a few minutes for a few days now, not that anyone normal is going to be properly awake yet, it’s barely nine in the morning.
He has a few notifications, a few are just the usual ones- invitations for games he doesn’t play, but there’s one that catches his attention,
“Sehun, you little ,” he mutters to himself,
“What’s he done this time?” Kyungsoo’s voice is way to close, and it makes him jump, and yelp. He breathes heavily for a moment before he can respond,
“He got himself a girlfriend, and the little asswipe didn’t tell me,” he moans, gesticulating at the screen irately, “It was like two days ago as well.” He comments ‘u lil <3’ on it then checks the other notifications to see if there’s anything else interesting going on. There isn’t, and Sehun has responded with a weird little smiley face. Jongin grumbles again, about needing to embarrass him in revenge,
“Who’s the…um...lucky girl?” Kyungsoo asks, making himself at home on Jongin’s back. The profile picture is of a girl with a fair amount of well put on eye makeup that makes them look huge, but in a good way. She has light blonde-brown hair which probably has a specific name which Jongin doesn’t know, and she’s posed like one of those Asian people that take photos of themselves too much, probably with her phone held above her head.
Hell her whole style is Asian-cutesy,
“I dunno her, probably someone from one of his clubs. ‘Jad-wigg-ah? it’s foreign, I have no idea how to pronounce this,” Kyungsoo scoots further up his back to look over his shoulder, and then swears,
“; I know her,” “You what?” Jongin turns his head as far round as it can go, and stares at him aghast, “I mean, I know of her; Jadwiga Wilk.” He says it like ‘yad-veeg-ah veelkk’ “Yes that means what you think it means. Oh god,” he moans, rolling off him, and onto the floor, “we need to tell someone, now,” he exclaims, already out the door before Jongin even has time to blink.
He pockets his phone and follows him downstairs, slipping once and landing on his because he was going too fast until he reaches the living room, where everyone else is congregated. “- imprinted on someone from our territory. I think he goes to a sports club just on the edge of the border, so that’s probably where they met.”
“Kyungsoo what’s going on?!” Jongin gasps, out of breath from the run down here.
“Jadwiga whatever, she’s like the enemy’s equivalent of me. She’s their next in line from the alpha, and I’m pretty sure she must’ve imprinted on him. Wolves don’t often date for the sake of it. There’s just no point,” Kyungsoo explains for Jongin and his mum’s benefit, before turning back to his own parents, “so the question is whether we should actually do anything about it or not,”
“They wouldn’t hurt him, though, would they? If she imprinted then he’s basically safe, right?”
“He’s physically going to be safe, but she’s going to tell him stuff. I don’t know, like, we’re evil and won’t share space with them. That we’re evil in some way,”
“Oh,” he slumps against the doorframe, “We can still be friends though, right? Just because he’s going to be uh, affiliated? with another pack doesn’t mean we can’t talk to each other anymore, does it?” Kyungsoo beckons him over, and invites him to sit next to him,
“No, not yet anyway. It’s slightly…uh…unstable? At the moment, we’ll have to see. My guess is that Sehun doesn’t know yet. It’s hard to say it, and they’ve only been ‘together’ what was it? Two days, so,” Kyungsoo shrugs, and looks at his dad for guidance, “Yes, we’ll just have to wait and see,” he confirms, unfolding his arms and walking forwards to turn on the TV, “Aren’t we going to college today?” Jongin asks bewildered, looking around for someone to reply,
“No, we discussed it, and we all thought you should have a day off today.” Kyungsoo’s mum says pleasantly.
“Where’s the remote?” Kyungsoo asks, checking under the sofa cushions next to him, and the ones next to Jongin, by way of leaning across him. Jongin swears he’s doing it on purpose, making him all flustered like this so that everyone can see it and hear it.
“It’s here,” Leanne holds it out for him, and he takes it, flopping back next to Jongin. He flicks through the sky TV guide quicker than either Jongin or the screen can keep up. He finally selects some obscure sci-fi thing and kicks his feet up over his lap to watch it,
“No, pick something better than that,” Jongin complains reaching for the remote, climbing over his body,
“No, we’re watching this,” he sneers at him, and moves his hand as far away from Jongin as he can make it go,
“I’m the guest, shouldn’t I get to pick?” Jongin tries, but Kyungsoo just laughs at him and tosses the gadget out of arms reach of both of them. Jongin lunges after it and after a brief hysterical, struggle with his boyfriend manages to grapple the little black machine, and changes the channel to some random number, which turns out to be a sports channel, “better than whatever that other thing was,” he comments,
“Lacrosse? Do you even know the rules of lacrosse?” Kyungsoo scoffs, manoeuvring Jongin so his head is more comfortably on his lap, or so he can actually reach the remote and change it back should he so wish,
“…No?”
“Well then,” Kyungsoo gives him an over-exaggerated smile, and carefully pries each of Jongin’s fingers off the remote, and changes it to some cartoon, which they end up watching all morning, only interrupted by Haejin offering to bring them drinks, which Kyungsoo jumps at, not used to being waited on. Jongin’s mum sits on the other sofa, with her laptop, glancing surreptitiously at the pair of them every so often. After lunch- oven chips and sausages –they head to Kyungsoo’s room to lounge around in relative privacy.
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you guys are catching up lol i only have like 9 more chapters saved up after this i need to hurry up and write ><
i wont be updating next week at all- i'll be in france (dont kill me laurie)
i have some promos to do hehe im sorry
baekyeol agnstfluffthingy: the art class
kaisoo awkward : curing shyness (don't hide away)
also please do comment, makes me feel happy ^^
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