“What about starting from the beginning?” Yixing proposed, finally speaking what was in his mind.

He wanted to know what happened to her. He and his pack’s fellows had never been curious of the outside world as they usually stayed hidden in their part of the forest. They were ashamed of what they were. Not to mention that some of them, him included, had still some problem with their control. The last thing they wanted was to hurt someone by accident. Humans could be reckless sometimes and they weren’t afraid to provoke each other. If they were to provoke one of the Moonstone Pack’s members, nothing could guarantee a good ending. All six of them had learned to remove humans from their list of priorities and concerns. Yet, Yixing was interested to hear her story. The worst was he didn’t even know why. He couldn’t understand this weird, yet warm sensation spreading throughout his body each times she’d look at him with her beautiful, piercing, hazel eyes.

However, there was a thing he was certain of. He wanted to avoid the question she had just asked. He was both embarrassed and afraid. Embarrassed because of what he had done implied for the both of them. What led him to be afraid she would panic and hate him. Of course, he pushed his last thought out of his head as soon as it crashed into his brain. Because it was just too ludicrous. He was being utterly ridiculous. He had met her approximately an hour and a half ago, and even if he and Tao saved her life, he didn’t know her. There was absolutely no reason to be so dramatic over such an insignificant little issue. He assumed she would simply hasten to leave this place that was their home as soon as he would tell her the truth. Because that’s how a normal human would react, right?

It was not a big deal, was it?

But then, why did it seem so hard to draw a line under this girl’s presence in his life? It was just a girl among others, after all. She was nothing special. And yet, in his eyes, there was something different in her. This mysterious feeling, that same hunch that had prompted him to save her from the clutches of darkness. She radiated a kind of attractive, intriguing yet endearing feeling, almost addictive. He must have gone insane for thinking like this. He had never been the type of person to be easily affected, or even interested. Everything seemed dull and despicable to him. At least, his life was.

Sudden movements made him come back to reality as he noticed how she –the ‘walking mystery’ he was craving to solve– wriggled in the bed, her eyes focused onto the dark blue sheets as if she just came to find it really interesting. He instantly translated her body language. She was uncomfortable. Uncomfortable with the question, and with the five boys’ inquisitive stares accompanying it. What struck his attention even more was that she didn’t seem bothered by his own presence, much to his –absurd– satisfaction. She would sometimes even steal a glance at him, silently calling for help. He assumed it was nothing more than the beginning of the permanent side effect he was the cause of. He was still working on hating himself for what he did, but no matter how many times he tried, he couldn’t feel any hint of regret. He was afraid, worried, apprehensive, but not regretful. That was the only thing he disliked about the whole situation. His current state of mind. He hated it because it made him look easy. Usually, he rarely mixed with people he didn’t know because he was like Xiumin: naturally distrustful towards strangers. And yet, she dared to set foot in his own little world, breaking through his –hard, he thought– shell, stepping on his defense mechanism as if it was nothing. Was it really that weak? Was he really that easy?

“You’re all wasting your time and energy” The sixth boy sighed. In her whole life, she had never heard such a snappish voice. Intrigued, the girl immediately looked up at him. He was the smaller one out of them all, and as if it wasn’t outstanding enough, his hair was pinkish-blond. He had beautifully shaped almond eyes, which didn’t miss to give away his apparent annoyance due to her presence.

“I don’t even understand why you’re so interested.” He pursued with his words “Just let her leave already. She’s not going to tell you anything, anyway. She obviously doesn’t trust us enough for that. ” he scoffed openly, shamelessly glaring at her straight in the eyes. Misae didn’t even flinch at his hard words. Tilting her head to the side in wonder, she looked at him curiously, while the other boys tensed up. They were seemingly used to his rather rude behaviour. Old habits died hard.

“May I know your name?” She asked politely, her gentle tone offering a stunning contrasting with his sharp, unfriendly one.

“As if I would tell you” he sniggered, averting his eyes away from hers, slightly shaking his head in dismay.

Misae looked at him as if had just said the most astonishing thing ever. Unable to control herself, she let out an amused chuckle, most to the surprise of the six young men. Even the snappish boy looked back at her, quite taken aback by her unexpected reaction. Usually, humans would be angry, they would certainly not laugh.

“You bark a lot, but you don’t really bite, do you?” Misae slightly smirked at him, whose eyes slightly enlarged. Just for a second. Before he recovered from his surprise and found his hard expression, a deep frown decorating his face.

“What’s your problem, exactly?” He snapped, now angry with her boldness.

“It’s easy to criticize people, isn’t it?” She sighed rhetorically, still looking at him with thoughtful eyes. “It’s easy to mock my lack of trust. However, seeing how you are so reluctant to tell me your name when almost everybody in the room already introduced themselves, I think you’re far from being the best person to lecture me about trust issues.” She shot him an expectant look, as if she were waiting for an answer. He opened his mouth to reply, but after a moment of hesitation, he closed it and released a loud sigh. She was right. He was a naturally distrustful person. It had always been hard for him to get along with strangers.

“Xiumin.” he blurted out after a few seconds of silence, his tone a little less snappish but still oozing annoyance.

“Misae” she answered him, almost as if it were a response to a silent compromise between them. A piece of information against another. His trust against hers.

“A pretty name for a pretty girl. Your parents only did you justice” The male who Luhan had referred to as Chen commented with a charming smile.

“Some sweet-talk for a sweet-looking boy.” The girl retaliated, mimicking his own words. “If I’m Pocahontas, then you’re certainly Casanova.”

“Seems like we have a clever girl, here.” The boy with sharp features laughed. She tried to discard the fact he was currently lying against a tree trunk which sat imposingly in the middle of the bedroom.

He didn’t introduced himself; however, the girl had caught his name when his friend –still sitting on the edge of the bed she was lying in– had referred to him during their little altercation with her pursuers. If her memory was as good as it used to be, the boy who just addressed her was Tao. Now that she thought of it, the only boy whose name remained unknown to her was the one beside her. The owner of the voice. The one she was the most intrigued by.

“Being clever and being discerning are two different things.” Misae answered the boy, a soft and faint laugh escaping her lips. She was more amused than affected by Chen’s flirty behaviour.

“I like discerning girls” Chen answered her statement with one of his homemade smug smiles.

“I like clever boys” she counterattacked, as witty as her mother liked to say.

The others seemed to be thoroughly pleased to see that a girl finally had the guts to silence him. Because that’s exactly how he was right now. Expressionless, and speechless. As if he had himself drawn the final conclusion that he didn’t fit her standards. He was not stupid, though. In fact, he was far from being idiotic.

Honestly speaking, who could really judge one’s intellect when there wasn’t even any clear definition of what being “clever” really implied? Did it mean to always choose right? If so, we would all have been proclaimed ‘brainless’ a long time ago already.

The truth is there wasn’t any clear-cut definition. Everyone was free to build their own. And Chen was curious of hers.

“What’s your definition of ‘clever’?” he tilted his head to the side, almost imperceptibly. For the first time since Misae opened her eyes, he appeared authentic, genuine.

“In my opinion, it doesn’t have to do with intellectual capacity, but with actions.” The young girl replied, mirroring the other’s sudden seriousness. As she saw their confused expressions, she rephrased her idea so they would get her point. “Everyone can be taught and learn through life, but it doesn’t mean they’ll ever act wisely. As to me, being clever is to behave in a sincere and responsible way when it is necessary.” 

“You seem quite mature for a teenage human” The boy whose name was still unknown pointed out. He was thrown a scolding glare by Kris and he suddenly realized what he just said. It was not like he could actually turn back time and changed his words. He would have to admit the truth sooner or later, anyway.

“Maybe because I’m as human as you are?” she shrugged her shoulders.

This conversation could have been perceived as shallow and pointless, however it wasn’t. The more they talked, the more she was coming to the conclusion that they didn’t have bad intentions. She maybe tended to be a distrustful person, but she knew how to recognize evil when it was standing in front of her. Truthfully, if they had wanted to harm her in any way, they could already have done so without even having to lift a finger.

“How did you—” Xiumin began, slightly squinting his eyes, obviously worried about their cover being this fragile, until the taller one, who Tao had previously introduced as Kris, slapped the back of his head before he could finish his question.

“I could already smell you when I was several hundred meters away from the Frontier. So, right now, the question seems somewhat ridiculous.” Misae chuckled, easily guessing the rest of his unfinished question.

“Wait. You said the Frontier? You know what we are?” Tao inquired, curiosity written all over his face. He was perfectly aware that asking such a question would possibly give them away. That was the reason why Kris had stopped Xiumin. Though, it seemed like the girl in front of him was already well-informed.

“Of course. Why wouldn’t I…?” she answered hesitantly, a frown now decorating her face. She was utterly confused. She didn’t understand their astonishment. She was just like them, after all, there was no need to beat around the bush.

“You smelled us?” the male seated next to her asked, repeating her own words as he stared at her right in the eyes. He cautiously laid emphasis on the verb, as to make her confirm something. The question was more rhetorical than genuine, so Misae only nodded her head in a swift movement as an answer. That and the fact that, each time their eyes crossed, she felt weird. Both physically and inwardly. Paradoxically, a warm sensation rose in her stomach, yet goose bumps invaded her rather tanned skin. She had a hard time thinking properly and she forgot the words she wanted to say as soon as the sentences formed in her mind. As if his eyes had the power to make it dysfunctional. That was it. That’s what he was. A mind breaker.

“When you said you were as human as we were, did you want to say that you were or that you weren’t?” The trustworthy-looking angel, Luhan, inquired, always so calmly.

“The latter, of course. Can’t you smell it?” she replied, forced to break the intense eye-contact if she wanted to answer properly.

She was slightly irritated by the fact she had just been mistaken for a human.  Not that she hated Humans. She had nothing against them. But for a werewolf, being considered as ‘human’ was another way to imply being ‘weak’.

“You don’t smell like us…” Luhan assured the girl, shaking his head to punctuate his own statement. It did surprise the girl for a few seconds but she eventually understood why they didn’t point out she was like them.

“That’s because I’m a half-blood. I’m half-human and half-wolf.” She finally explained and their faces practically lighten u