Yixing liked to drown in his music.

He was a really talented writer and producer, and he usually posted all his completed songs and covers on his social media accounts. He would be sung with praises and compliments whenever he did so, and Yixing would be lying if he said he didn't take pride in that. He would say that the inspiration behind most of his songs was his mate, his significant other. While he liked to make songs that highlighted his growth, most of his songs were created with thoughts about her. She made him happy, and always filled his mind and heart with positivity.

Ever since she was gone, however, Yixing felt like his soul had been ripped apart. His imagination had skidded to a halt, and even if he wanted to write songs, he could never find himself completing them. He was hardly ever satisfied with his tracks anymore, and the music-loving side of him seemed to die down. All that was left was just a shell that was fuelled by his passion for dance.

Yixing was also an amazing dancer, and he often found himself pouring his feelings and thoughts through his moves. He needed to keep himself distracted, to get his heart pumping with adrenaline so that he could feel it, so that he wouldn't feel that his heart had died. He often liked to stay behind at school even after school hours, just so he could utilise one of the spare practice rooms to dance his heart out. Usually Hyorin would be the one to remind him to go back for dinner, or to force him back when he overestimated the time. But now that she was gone, Yixing found himself unable to return to such a gloomy place till well into the night.

It had been such a day for him, and it was a typical Friday night. He was drowned in his choreography even when it was already six in the evening, and even then, he wanted to squeeze in one more hour of practice. His muscles burned and yelled at him to stop, and his mind knew that he was overworking himself. But he couldn't stop. His heart wasn't beating hard enough.

He had been repeating the same move over and over again, like a broken record. He just felt that it wasn't perfect enough, and he was a little bit of a perfectionist. His lower back ached, but he pressed on. That was until he collapsed, his hand on his injury.

"Oh my god, dude! Are you okay?"

Yixing could hear a feminine voice call out to him, but he was too concentrated on his back to register who the voice belonged to. He soon heard footsteps approaching, and his arm was thrown around a much smaller shoulder. A gasp was heard as he was hauled up.

"Dude, wait...Yixing?" the voice called out unsurely, and the boy raised his head only to be met with the face of the girl he currently despised the most. His face pressed into a scowl, partially because of the pain, but mainly because of the identity of the person helping him. He tried to move away.

"Get away from me."

The boy tried to retract his arm from her shoulder, and in the process, almost collapsed on his knees due to the sharp pain that shot up his back. He frowned. This was not the time.

"You can continue with your little hate party once you're better," Mina rolled her eyes, having half the heart to just dump his body on the ground and leave. But she didn't, and instead strengthened her grip on his wrist while her other arm wrapped around his waist. "Now let's get you some rest."

His body was much bigger than her own, and Mina tried her best to support his weight while the two walked to the couch where his stuff was at. Once she was sure that the boy was properly settled on the couch, she flung his arm away from her shoulders. The boy was in a lot of pain, and Mina couldn't find the heart to just leave him there. She sighed. She wasn't going to like this.

"Yixing, turn around," the boy just gave her a look of confusion, and she could feel the heat rush to her cheeks at what she was about to do. "Just do it."

Yixing was still very much baffled, but he did so anyway, his pain overcoming his dislike for the girl. "What are you-"

The boy's words were stuck in his throat as soon as he felt small fingers rub the small of his back, and he resisted to urge to sigh in content. Soft, soothing circles were being drawn all over his back, and he felt his muscles relax. Mina was applying just the right amount of pressure to soothe his tensed muscles, and Yixing wondered where she learnt it.

As if hearing his unasked question, Mina decided to speak, trying to dissolve the awkward silence. "My grandma always had back problems. This is a technique that I have practiced for years," a small, prideful smile lit up on her face, seeing as how the boy in front of her had relaxed almost immediately once she started massaging him.

Yixing nearly purred in delight, but he didn't, because that would hurt his pride. He was a canine, not a feline for goodness sake, and he refused to show what the girl did to him. So he closed his eyes instead, opting to keep quiet and let his mind relax.

His mind may have been too relaxed, however, as the moment Mina was done, he didn't even feel her fingers break contact. Instead, his body tingled with the feeling to be massaged again, and with a hazy mind, his body leaned backward, as if gravity was pulling him. His brain didn't even register Mina's surprised squeak, and he didn't realise that half of his body was now on her. He just wanted the relaxing touch again.

Mina blushed all the way to her neck at their close proximity, her skin tingling as the back of Yixing's head lightly brushed the skin of her heck. Her whole body was frozen, and she was afraid that he could hear her hammering heartbeats with how good his hearing was. He didn't wake despite her efforts to get him off once she regained control of her limbs. Instead, it was because of her constant squirming that Yixing unconsiously gripped her arm and buried his face into the crook of her neck. A sweet lavendar scent immediately invaded his nostrils, and he took a deep inhale.

Mina wasn't sure that it was possible to get any redder, and her breath hitched as soon as she felt the content sigh against her skin. She dared herself to look down, only to be met with Yixing's relaxed face. He was sound asleep.

___

Jongdae liked to help others.

It was always in his personality since he was younger, and he didn't mind going out of his way to make others happy. When Hyorin had entered his life, he was ecstatic to know that his mate shared the same desire to help others as he did, and he always considered their dates to be a little special. 

One of the traditions that the both of them had adopted was to visit the hospital's children ward at least once a month, so that they could accompany the sick kids and help them lessen their pain as much as possible. They would always bring food and toys to the wards when they visited, and Jongdae brought it upon himself to continue their tradition even when Hyorin was gone. It was painful the first time he went without Hyorin, since the kids would keep asking where the 'other pretty lady' was. But he had grown desensitised and numb about it over the years, and it gradually got easier to greet the kids with a sincere smile. 

The kids that were there during the period when Hyorin still visited had slowly recovered and gone home anyway, which meant that there became fewer and fewer patients that remembered her. The newly admitted kids had little to no idea that she used to visit, and Jongdae became the only person that the kids recognised.

Jongdae guessed that it was better that way, because kids remembered stuff really well. And if they had known Hyorin, he had the feeling they would have loved her as much as he did, and missed her as much as he did. He wouldn't have had the courage to continue visiting then.

The werewolf had just finished his visit and waved goodbye to the children when he spotted a familiar presence round the corner. The faint scent that she had left behind confirmed his suspicions, and he scrunched his eyebrows.

What is she doing here?

Mina had left early in the afternoon, without informing anyone on where she was going. Not that they bothered to ask, because it was none of their business where the human went. Yixing had been sitting on the couch twhen she came down the stairs, and Jongdae noticed that Mina's cheeks had immediately flushed red once she was aware of his presence. She had hastened her steps then, her eyes widening a fraction before she quickly stepped out of the house.

Jongdae had been curious as to what happened then, and now he was even more curious about the girl.

So he decided to trail slowly behind her, spotting her just a few feet in front. She seemed to be quite familiar with the hospital's surroundings, and the werewolf wondered why. Did it have something to do with her supposed 'deal'?

"Oh, noona!"

Jongdae immediately stopped in his tracks when he saw a young boy approach Mina. His head was wrapped in a bandage, and he was supporting himself with crutches. The werewolf immediately recognised the boy as Minho, one of the kids that was admitted to the ward he volunteered at a few weeks ago due to a car accident. Minho was a sweet and independent kid, often insisting that he did things himself despite his condition. Jongdae wondered how he knew Mina.

"Minho!" Mina greeted with a fond smile, her smile reaching her eyes. "I see that you're out of the wheelchair now."

"Yup! It was so troublesome moving that bulky thing around," the eleven year old responded with a pout. But his smile immediately returned as his face brightened, his wide eyes staring up at the girl. "By the way, the doctor says I'm recovering really fast because I've been taking my medicine and resting properly."

Jongdae let a small smile curl up his face upon hearing the boy's words. Minho had been throwing tantrums and refusing to take his medicine during the first few days of his admission, always crying and begging to go home. It was a bit of a headache, because he had refused to talk to him as well, even though he wanted to help the little boy. But then, by the first and second week, Minho had been increasingly cooperative, even willing himself to talk to him. 

The boy's voice then dropped to a whisper, and he beckoned Mina to come closer. The girl bent down and swept her hair to the side, her hands cupping her ear. "And I finally found out who had been hogging all the chocolate," Minho looked side to side, as if afraid someone would hear their conversation. "I caught Eunmi with a chocolate stain on and even more on her little grubby fingers."

Jongdae chuckled at the little boy.

"That's great! You know what that means," Mina winked and placed her hand on the boy's head, his hair. Her other hand reached into her bag and she pulled out a handful of multicoloured sweets, and the boy's eyes twinkled in delight. She then raised her hand and gave him a salute. "Great job, detective."

Minho returned it with a salute on his own, trying to balance his weight on his one good leg. He accepted the sweets with a grateful smile. "Soon, I'll be able to catch all the bad guys that do bad things," the boy's eyes went somber for a while, and he peered up at Mina with a pair of unsure eyes. "Noona would be proud, right?"

Mina gave the boy a small, encouraging smile. "I'm sure your noona wouldn't be more proud."

The car accident had unfortunately killed the boy's older sister, Jongdae remembered one of the nurses telling him. It was another case of reckless drunk driving, and the boy was only alive now because his sister had used her body to shield him. Any younger sibling would have been traumatised by the accident, which was why Jongdae was super understanding of the boy's earlier tantrums.

He watched as the smile returned to Minho's face, and he almost jumped out of his skin when Minho suddenly dropped his crutch to give Mina a hug. The little boy snuggled into the girl's stomach, and Mina returned the hug with a smile. "Thank you, noona."

"No problem."

Mina waved the boy goodbye after picking up the crutch on the floor and helping to place it under Minho's arm. Minho returned it with an enthusiastic wave before he was on his way. The girl smiled to herself out of fondness for the kid, and soon, she was out of the hospital.

Jongdae felt his heart soften, his gaze lingering at the place Mina stood at for a while before going on his way.