chapter three; 

                 Mi  rae?   mia?

Mi Rae POV

My alarm rang, forcing me to get up and attend another dreaded day in school. I looked at my nightstand, where a picture of my mom and I stood. It was taken before her accident, when she was still alive. It was when I was 15. I felt a pang in my heart. It was the guilt that was embedded deep into my heart for I was what caused my foster mother to die. She had treated me as if I was her own child. But instead, I repaid her by sending her to heaven earlier then she was supposed to.

I shook my head, trying to get rid of the images in my head, the screeching of the tyres, the fire at the metal frame of the car, the blisters on my hand, my attempt to force my way out of the mangled piece of metal that was once a car, before falling onto the gravel road, tears streaming down my face, the wailing of the sirens, the shouts of the paramedics, the blackness that engulfed me. A tear trickled down my cheek, as I recalled waking up, yelling for my mother, only to find that she died. The grief that had came over me. I had killed her. If only I wasn't so selfish...

"YAH YOU WHERE IS MY BREAKFAST?!" I heard my foster dad yell out. I wiped away the tear that had escaped my eyes, preparing to face my foster father. After my foster mother's death, he had blamed me, using me as a way to let out his agony, his despair. At first I had swallowed it down, because I knew that I deserved such punishment. But it had only gotten worse. A few name calling became slaps. Then it became throwing of beer bottles, before finally becoming full out abuse. But he was careful. In the sense that he made sure to only harm me where my uniform could cover it.

He couldn't afford to lose me. After all, I was his piggybank. He survived on the money the government sends him for taking care of me. He had been fired a year after the accident for he didn't even attend work, always at home moping and beating me. I could call the police, but then what? The death of my mother would still haunt me. There was no use. Maybe I am as useless as he says I am. I wasn't even able to save the person closest to my heart. What could I do?

So I turned to pain. Physical pain. I had always scoffed at those people who self harm. I had always thought how bad could it be? How bad could it possibly be for you to slice open your own wrist? How bad could it be for such immense amount of pain to be craved at? How bad could it be?

Hah. How utterly hilarious. Looking back, I was a naive little girl who was utterly clueless. How bad could it be?! Indeed, how bad could it be. To be despised upon, to have caused the murder of the only good thing in my life, to have caused such heartbreak to my foster father, to be beaten up daily, to have bottles thrown at me, to have the experience of stitching up my own arm, to have to pick out glass shards from my body using tweezers. How bad could it be?! How bad could it be?! It could be this bad!

The feeling of being unwanted, unloved, uncared for was the worse thing that I have ever experienced. In school, I was the loner, the pale freak, the need who always wear long sleeves, the girl who sits alone in the cafeteria, the loser. Even at home, I was nothing. I was a waste of space. I was nobody.

With all this, you would have thought I would have tried to die right? The truth is, I did. I saw my blood flowing out of the four horizontal cuts along my arm. I felt myself being swallowed up by the darkness. But somehow I am alive. It was as if I was unable to die. I just couldn't. No matter how many times I tried, everytime after I succumbed to the darkness, I would be pulled back into the light by something. No, someone. Every time, right before the blinding light engulfs me, I looked up and caught a glimpse of his face. Tanned skin, plump lips, eyes so captivating that it seemed to draw me in. When he smiled, I felt warmth surround me, holding me tight in its embrace. That would always be what all I get to see before I blinked and was faced with the pools of blood flowing out of the four slits.

Before i knew it, slowly, day by day, my urge to die started to subside. I didn't know what was the feeling that my heart was trapped in. That was, before I realised. Hope. It was hope. Hope that one day someone would save me, hope that that someone would love me, hope for a new life. Most of all, hope for that somebody to be him.

Mi Rae POV

I was staring out of the window when I felt someone next to me. I gave him no thought and continued to stare out of the window. At the people walking along the street, outside the school gates. I saw families walking past, the occasional working adults, couples, and wondered if I ever would be like them. Have a boyfriend, a job, a husband, a kid. I was I my own dreamland, floating about, fantasizing of my dream life. I tuned out the drone of the teacher'a lecture, the occasional whispers between my classmates, the feeling of someone staring at me. Wait. What? Somebody staring at me...? Then I felt stupid. As if anyone would be interested in me. They were most probably making fun of me behind my back. I went back to my dreamland before anything else could distract me, where I lost myself in impossible dreams.

The bell rang, popping the bubble I had enclosed myself in. I stood up and raced out of the classroom, in hopes that I would be able to avoid Hye Rim and her lackeys. It wasn't that I was afraid of them, oh trust me, I can totally own them. But I knew my place. I was at the bottom of the social chain. I was in no position to challenge the queenkas. Even if I emerged victorious, I would be instead scorned upon further, for everyone would side with the queenkas, in fear of them making their lives a total hell. Which was why I was rushing to my locker, hoping that they weren't already there to cause unnecessary trouble for me.

Of course, me being the lucky person I was, I crashed into someone who was standing in the middle of the corridor, three lockers away from mine. I shook my head, trying to clear the stars floating about in front of my eyes. Seriously, did I crash into a stone wall or something? I was broken out of my thoughts when I felt someone kicking me. I was all ready to glare at the owner of the foot that kicked me, right at where my father had hit me with a baseball bat the night before.

"What are you doing?" I heard an unfamiliar voice voice out. I looked up and saw a dude towering over me. I couldn't exactly see his face given the angle I was at. I gritted my teeth, all ready for the hitting to begin. I squeezed my eyes shut, as I heard the s all clamouring to their "oppa" about how they would punish me for him. Blah blah blah. I winced as I felt the heels digging into my ribs.

"Did I tell you to call me oppa? Do es like you deserve the right to call me oppa?! Do witches like you have the right to look down on others?! This girl is human too! She. Is. Not. A. Toy. For. You. To. Torture."  Someone growled out. I was stunned. Someone stood up for me? Has the world ended? I sat there for a while, before realizing how stupid I must look, having fallen into a kneeled position. I hurriedly picked up my books before standing up. I was about to thank the dude when I realised he was holding onto a drawing of mine. Somehow my sketchbook and flipped open to the exact page where I had sketched out the wolf which appears in my dreams numerous times. I was a bit embarrassed for no one has ever seen my drawings. I refused to show this new guy my emotions though, no matter if he had "saved" me just now. I glanced at his name tag, before clearing my throat. "Kai-ssi, my books." He was staring at me, and I was honestly starting to feel awkward for my hand was outstretched waiting for him to pass me my books. He scanned at my book before passing it back to me, and running towards this group of boys standing around as if waiting for him. "Weird" I thought before making my way to my next class. Boy oh boy, had I wished I examined his face more closely.

Jongin POV

I entered the classroom, the girls in the front row immediately squealing when I stepped through the doorway of the classroom. I winced and scanned the classroom, trying to find an empty seat. I blatantly ignored the seats that were vacanted by the girls who I recognised to be the queenkas from the other. Who the hell would want to sit next to those plastic es honestly. Well, beside from 90% of the male population in the school.

I walked past those desperate and disgusting girls, finding myself standing next to a vacant seat. I didn't give much thought about it before sitting down. I looked to my right and to my surprise, I saw Mi Rae beside me. I stared at her in surprise before really taking note of the student activity around me.

"Why is he sitting with the nerd?"

"Even Hye Rim kicked her lackeys out of the seat for him!"

"I know right."

"What's so special about the nerd?"

I rolled my eyes and just ignored the majority of the class population that was honestly too nosy for their own good.

"CLASS" Mr. Lee shouted from the front of the classroom.

"As you know, there is a project coming up in replacement for your mid-years. This will constitute up to 50% of your total English grade this year. This project will be done in pairs."

"Mr. Lee! I want to partner myself up with the guy sitting next to the nerd."

"Talk about idiotic and desperate. She doesn’t even know his name. Psh.” Mi Rae muttered under her breath that was obviously not supposed to be heard, but blame my enhanced hearing. I inwardly smirked. It was nice to know that my mate wasn’t going to take this bullying from such es silently.

“Hye Rim, it will best if you don’t try to interupt me while I'm talking." Mr. Lee glared at Hye Rim. It seems like he disliked the girl. But who won't?

I heard Mi Rae stifling a small giggle beside me. Her laughter wasn't like what those sappy romance books said. It wasn't like bells tinkling, it wasn't music to my ears, but it made me happy that she was amused from the whole issue. Seeing how the other students treat her, I don't doubt for a second that her life in school was everything but enjoyable.

"As I was saying before I was rudely interrupted, the project will be done in pairs, and the pairs are already fixed. I will talk more about the project before announcing the pairs." Mr. Lee cleared his throat before continuing on.

Mr. Lee then passed out this stack of papers. I tapped the table lightly, waiting for the stack to get passed to our table. I finally got mine and my eyes widened in disbelief upon seeing the picture printed on the paper I was holding. It was a wolf. But the thing was that the wolf looked exactly like Baekhyun hyung when he was transformed.

"The upcoming project will be on, as you can see, wolves. Wolves are said to be territorial and protective of their mates and pack. They are however majestic looking beings and has been researched by many. Now many of you must be thinking along the lines of copying off the internet. However, what we will be doing will be a 3,000 long report on the wolves behavior and their environment. For this, you are required to collect data from the woods along the outskirts of this town. Along with a 3,000 long report, I want you to write a 5,000 long essay on your thoughts on the myth of werewolves. I'm not talking about the werewolves you see in the cartoons, where a werewolf is a man bearing a muzzle, sharp teeth and paws, but I'm talking about man fully transforming into a wolf."

I was frozen in my seat. How did Mr.Lee come up with this idea?! If we get found, the humans wouldn't hesitate to kill us. Although we are hard to kill, we can be killed if the wounds and injuries inflicted are major. I looked up, and stared right at Mr. Lee to find his gaze piercing into me, his stare unwavering. A chill went down my spine.

"..."

"..."

"Kim Jong In and Yoon Mi Rae"

Words filtered through my brain, refusing to be processed. It didn't register at first.

* Wait a minute. Kim Jong In and... Yoon Mi Rae. So she's my partner for this project. I must be careful around her. I cannot seem too knowledgable about wolv- wait. Yoon Mi Rae?! My mate is my partner?!*

Mi Rae POV

I turned slightly to see Kai's reaction to the pairing. A tiny part of me wished that he would smile at me and be happy with the pairing. Unfortunately, the tiny part of me was crushed. Although I could only see his side profile, I saw the stricken look on his face. I wasn't really shocked. I knew that he would sooner or later end up like the rest, detesting my existence, although I had wished that he was different with how he stood up for me in front of the es. I was about to turn back to face the front when I saw a glimpse at his eyes. His eyes were wide, pupil dilating, with pure fear swimming through his eyes. I don't know why, but I just knew that something was wrong. I don't know why I didn't assume his fear was due to having to pair with me, but I just knew. Something was wrong. And I plan to get to the bottom of this.

"Er. So how do you want to go about doing this?" Kai scratched his neck, embarrassed that his mate had saw him when he was freaking out.

Mi Rae giggled, seeing the flustered look on Kai's face. She had been forced to smack his cheek, because apparently slapping his forearm did not create enough pain to shake him out of his frozen state. Now, his left cheek was tinted red.

*wait. I slapped his right cheek right? Why is his left cheek getting red too?*

Realization dawned upon her. She smirked at him, amusement running through her at the confused look he had. Her eyes trailed down to his cheeks. He sent her a puzzled look before realising what was going on and had also noticed the blood rushing to his cheeks. If possible, his cheeks became even redder before he hid his face in his folded arms that were resting on the table. “stop looking at me” his muffled reply came with embarrassment evident in his voice.

Mi Rae burst into full out laughter, shoulders shaking to keep down the volume of her chuckles. She immediately stopped upon seeing that the whole class' attention was on her and her solely.

"The nerd laughed"

"She laughed"

"The sky is falling"

"Are you serious?!"

"This is the emotionless nerd we are talking about right?"

Mi Rae POV

Without really thinking of the image I was supposed to portray in school, I glared at the nearest person that I could hear talking about me. A certain airhead called Hye Rim.

Suddenly, I felt braver. Like I wasn't the mentally weak Yoon Mi Rae who despite hating the queenkas who abuse their powers, is afraid of truly standing up to them although she has the capability to do so. Because she was so badly bullied in her old school that no matter what, the fear instilled into her from her old experiences would always be there, not forgotten.

But all will be different now. I was the girl trapped within my dominant self, the part of Yoon Mi Rae that fought against all the discrimination, hate, disgust that was thrown at me! Now, I'm going to make all those es pay. I'm going to make them pay for making my human self suffer!

? POV

I smirked upon seeing the shock written all over her plastic face. The class fell silent.

"You do know calling someone a nerd means that you agree that you are the more idiotic party right?" My smirk grew, for, for once I felt powerful. I was no longer that wounded and pathetic girl. This was my chance. My chance to prove myself. And I am going to take this chance. To show those who look down on me when they are the ones who deserved to be looked down upon. Those hiding behind their hurtful words. Too scared to do anything except of throwing harmless words. They were cowards. Hiding behind their social status to entertain themselves by breaking down another human being. I am going to show them who is Yoon Mia.

Jongin POV

I peeked from my arms, looking at Mi Rae who was chuckling. I smiled for it was the first one I saw her laughing. Turns out I wasn't the only one.

I heard the whispers, every single one of them. I clenched my fists, all ready to defend my mate. I heard the class fall silent. I felt someone glaring. It wasn't even directed at by I could feel fear penetrating me. I sat up, and saw my mate glaring at the queenka. I saw her eyes flash black before turning back into her normal brown eyes.

.

 AUTHOR'S NOTES 

Hi guys! I know that I have been on a hiayus for way too long, and im really sorry about that. i kept on procrastinating and was just so lazy and stuff. im really sorry and i promise i will update really soon again. :(

Thank you to all the subscribers who stuck with me (hopefully)

here's to the newcomers :)

MDV0807, vikKKiBeoMin, InfinteFanGurl, Diinockaa, song-yeon-rin, bluekakao, HONGBIN_VIXX, exoindo, shineeFANt, yoonalovesu, kyunism, MissDevilAngel, LauraB9612, anna90, Cutakemi, Litoxcutie, flxweriches, 13_118, catwoman2448, aileekpop

here's to all my lovely commenters

CorrineluvSnsd4ever9, AB_Got7, Rachael_exostan, Taelin, BunBunny99, Missttmle, WinterKim, 1say16, xXDemiXx

I know i haven't replied to some of the comments yet so sorry :(

for all the awesome upvoters 

HipsterBabe

, » layout credit