"So are all of you actually brothers?" I asked Luhan as we walked downstairs, Lay trailing right behind us. "Because honestly, you don't look similar enough to even be related."

 

I heard Lay chuckling a few feet behind me after I said this, and Luhan glanced at me sideways, grinning, before replying.

 

"No, not technically. It's a long story, but none of us are related by blood. We've just gotten so close that we might as well be family, and so we call each other 'hyung' and 'dongsaeng'."

 

When we got to the living room, Luhan stopped and nodded to the two boys lying down, each on a separate couch. They looked exhausted, both sprawled out face down, a sheen of sweat glistening on the backs of their necks. I wasn't completely certain, but I thought that they were probably the two boys who had been practice-fighting outside, the two I had yet to meet in person.

 

"That's Chen on the left and Tao to the right," Lay said, moving to stand so I was between him and Luhan. "They're the two youngest, and they're trained in Kuk Sool Won just like the rest of us, but they also chose to learn Taekkyon before we moved here. I'm pretty sure that's what they were doing outside, since they seem to enjoy beating up on each other."

 

Luhan laughed a little at that and said, "Maknae, I hope you didn't headbutt Chen too much!"

 

The one on the right, Tao, lifted his head after hearing Luhan's voice and said, "You know I did, hyung." A wry grin crossed his face before his gaze moved to me and his eyes widened in surprise.

 

Luhan saw his reaction immediately and said, "Chen, Tao, this is Elle, from school. Abeoji has decided that she's going to stay with us for a little while."

 

"What? Why?" Chen said, scrambling to get off of the sofa.

 

"Because she knows," Lay replied calmly.

 

"That can't be the only reason," Tao said before turning his gaze on me, inspecting what he saw, almost as if he was looking for something in particular.

 

Suddenly, I realized that the entire conversation that had occurred in Abeoji's room was still confidential information between myself, Kris, and the old man. No one else in the house knew that he had gone on and on about how I was somehow "different," though he had never explained how I was different or who I was different from.

 

"Well, it's Abeoji's reason, so I figure we probably shouldn't question what he says," Luhan said.

 

Tao looked at me curiously again, but he dropped the subject and didn't mention it again.

 

"Alright, so aside from that, are we going to eat dinner or not?" Chen said, trying to look around us into the hall as if he was planning how he would get from where he was to the kitchen. And I had no idea where said kitchen was, I thought to myself.

 

"I'm sure it's ready by now, Chen," Lay said very brotherly. "We may as well all go to the dining room and find out."

 

~

 

Although all of the boys kept trying to downplay the food, dinner was absolutely delicious. Luhan explained that Abeoji had hired out a single chef to cook their meals for them and that, not only was he extremely well paid, they allowed him to eat whatever was leftover for them, which was usually a lot. None of them ever ate raw meat, at least in their human forms, which he said made sense since human bodies aren't actually made to consume raw meat; they lack the proper bacteria to fight all the germs that raw meat carries. Instead, they enjoyed normal food like any teenagers, but they also liked having traditional Korean dishes occasionally so they could remember home more. But that night, the chef had prepared burgers for the boys, an since he always made so much extra, there was enough for me, even on such short notice.

 

I looked at mine, cocking my head to the side just slightly as I held the top bun to the side so I could see the patty. "So, beef or not?"

 

"Hm?" Luhan mumbled as he chewed a bite of his own burger.

 

"The burger; is it beef or not?" I asked again, looking at him.

 

"What else would it be?" he asked when he had swallowed his food. He looked at me with wide eyes, clearly trying to figure out what else I could possibly mean.

 

"Well, I wasn't sure if it was deer or not, since they make such good burgers," I replied, placing the bun on top of party and concluding that it must have been beef from the way he had reacted.

 

"You can do that?!"

 

I looked up to see a group of five boys staring at me with wide eyes; only Kris kept his cool, collected expression, trying to act as if he wasn't impressed with the information.

 

"Well, um, yeah," I said, twirling my finger around the rim of my glass of water. "You ground it up just like you do beef, and it's healthier than beef since there's less fat. Plus, it tastes better."

 

Suddenly, three pairs of eyes, excluding Luhan and Kris, moved to look at Lay, and I couldn't help but follow their gaze. He had his head down, his gaze glued to the table, and he looked guilty again.

 

"You don't say..." Tao said, before adding, "Did you hear that, Lay? She said it tastes better than beef."

 

I was nervous, because I honestly thought that they were mad at him for the deer incident, but then I saw a wicked grin flash across Tao's face, and I knew that they were messing with him.

 

~

 

After dinner, the boys retreated to their respective rooms to change before they went on their late evening run. Luhan claimed that it was to exercise their human forms and not their wolves, but I wasn't sure I believed him. Then again, I still wasn't completely sure I believed the wolf story; it almost seemed like it could have been a cover-up for something darker and less fantastic.

 

Somehow, I found myself on the back porch of the large house, and I looked up at the stars from underneath the eaves of the part of the roof that sloped down over the porch. Luckily, the clearing behind the house was very wide, and a lot of the dark sky was visible, the stars dotting the darkness like pin-pricks of white. It was a beautiful sight and something I had always loved to admire, especially since I was used to living away from town where the stars were truly visible at night. Out here, where there were no streetlights and no other houses, they were ten times more distinct than even I was used to.

 

As I was lost in my personal reverie about the view, I didn't notice someone step out of the back door and approach the porch railing beside me. When my gaze moved over to the person to my right, I was surprised, almost to the point of shock, to find Kris's towering figure beside me. 

 

He was wearing sweatpants and a jacket over a hoodie, and I suddenly realized that, although it was only September, the temperature had dropped since the sun I had set. I was still dressed in what I had worn to school; a graphic racer back tank top tucked into a pair of velvet shorts with black leggings underneath, and brown boots that came halfway up my calves. I shivered, finally feeling the cold of the night creeping around me and chilling me quickly. Kris glanced at me for only a moment, sensing my shivers, and reacted by speaking.

 

"I've realized that we don't have any clothes for you here, and it's probably too cold at night for what you have," he said very formally. Without saying anything else, he pulled his jacket from his shoulders and held it out to me.

 

I stared at it for a moment, too surprised for words. He was offering to let me wear his jacket because he knew I must be cold; it was entirely too much to ask for, and I wasn't sure I would be able to repay him anytime soon.

 

Taking it from him and slipping it over my own shoulders, I said, "Wow, um, thank you. Really." I tucked my hands into the pockets that hung nearly to my thighs since it was so long.

 

"You're welcome," he said, his tone seeming to soften just the tiniest bit. Perhaps he and I could somehow be friends, despite how things started off between the two of us.

 

~

 

The boys were to be out fairly late, so after they had departed for their run -- none of them even attempted to comment on the jacket; they knew to whom it belonged -- I wandered back upstairs and into the room that I would be staying in.

 

Sitting on the bed, I kicked the boots off of my feet and laid back on top of the bedspread, still wrapped up in the jacket. It smelled like wood and pine needles with the vaguest scent of cologne, so I could only assume that this was what Kris smelled of; I found myself blushing in the dark, for seemingly no reason. Rolling over onto my side, I forced my eyes shut and hoped that sleep would come quickly.

 

It did, but it brought with it the visions.

 

~

 

In my dream, there were flashes of a creature, one with red-brown fur and extremely canine eyes. It wouldn't have been so terrifying if the creature -- the wolf, or so I assumed -- didn't seem to be covered in bright red blood that matched the color of its fur. At the same time, the wolf seemed imprisoned in some sort of stone cage and was viciously trying to escape between the strong stones that kept it in.

 

It was the same dream that I had quite often, one I had been having for as long as I could remember. The only difference was that, in the past, the wolf hadn't been trying so desperately to escape. Only now did it rip at the natural bars, tearing out its own claws and causing itself to bleed in the process.

 

Suddenly, from where I was standing on the safe side of the stones, I saw a hairline crack begin where I was and splinter off, moving toward the stones that held back the bloodthirsty wolf. Before I could react, the stone pillars were covered in cracks, and I knew that the barrier would shatter at any moment.

 

 

 

( Weeee, finally updated! It took me a while to write this chapter because I had to figure out exactly what I wanted to do with it, but I finally was inspired and decided on a little foreshadowing, yay! So yes, if any of you are wondering, this story is basically fantasy/thriller/romance and won't be all lovey-dovey all the time. There will be moments, even certain chapters for it, but yeah, disclaimer, blah blah blah. Love you all! )

 

( UPDATE: I put in a graphics request, and look at the results! Credit to X_JasielleAle at AEX Review Graphic Shop for the absolutely gorgeous main image and background. I'm honestly in love with all of it. And I hope all of you love it as much as I do! )