DEFIANT EYES, ANGRY MOUTH: 11. Metamorphosis PART A
”I can’t find it!”
”Well search better, it has to be there somewhere.”
“Dear god, I’m searching for a damn DICK here. Is this really a job of a guardian?!”
“If you cannot find the dick, you can give up the dreams of finding the prostate.”
“Oh dear god….”
It was well past afternoon and Sungmin had been standing in the stuffy classroom since 8 am, digging a plastic model of a wolf. Kyuhyun had proven himself to be a very efficient and smart teacher, but as Sungmin’s patience had worn thin, so had his.
“There are exact replicas of every organ there, it’s your fault for spreading them everywhere.” Kyuhyun said with a dry voice and Sungmin growled and dug in deeper to the model-wolf.
“Why does the model wolf have two penises when the real one has only one?!” Sungmin snarled while scrambling through two plastic spleans, the whole intestine system and the other heart. Kyuhyun didn’t even lift his eyes up from his notes.
“Because that’s the cheapest model I could find and it was cheap because it had a mistake there. I think you can guess already why I gave that one to you.” The male turned a page and Sungmin rolled his eyes and continued to look until his hand curled around something and his whole face lit up.
“Thank god, I found it!” The male let out a victorious yell and pulled the plastic appendage out of the wolf and Kyuhyun rolled his eyes.
“And it didn’t even take 45 minutes for you to do that.” Sungmin packed up all his books and waited for Kyuhyun to get his stuff together and together they left the classroom. The corridors were completely empty as almost all the students were still on lessons. Sungmin had gotten a free lesson because he had tutoring with Kyuhyun.
And he was about to get all the profit from being tutored by the genius of the whole school
“Is it possible that when the wolf transforms from his or her human form to the wolf form or vice versa and the organs won’t switch places like they should? What if the wolf is left with a human intestine or something?” Sungmin asked with a silent voice and Kyuhyun cast him a look.
“It’s not possible. The wolves are a result of many years experimental work, and they are functioned so, that nothing simply cannot go wrong from the inside. The whole process of the human organs shrinking when the wolf organs take their place in the transformation and vice versa is practically like blood flow. Only external disturbances can do something and if You’d wish to disturb the movement of the organs, You’d have to make a full surgery of the wolf to achieve that.”
“What if a wolf is shot? That would definitely cause some troubles.”
“The wounds would have to be treated in the form the wolf was in when it was shot. If he tried to transform from form to other while the wounds are still unhealed, the pain would be extremely unbearable, but it would partially disappear when the wolf transforms.” Sungmin was about to open his mouth, but the younger male beat him to it. “However, the wounds won’t disappear. If they are left untreated, slowly the damage from the wounded organs will spread to the healthy organs and make both of the forms suffer the equal pain. If organs in the other form fail, so does the organ in the other form too.” Sungmin furrowed his brows at this.
“So it the other form can’t just…die without the other?” The male asked and Kyuhyun shook his head.
“Not possible. The forms are part of one big entity. That’s why it’s extremely important for you to learn to treat both forms equally. It doesn’t help if you have information only from the other form.” Kyuhyun continued to lead them on the empty corridor and finally they arrived to the almost empty cafeteria where several students and their wolves were sitting and chatting casually.
Kyuhyun walked straight over to one of the groups and sat down, immediately engaging in a conversation with some of them. Sungmin, not understanding what they were doing there, stood beside the table awkwardly, shuffling from feet to feet.
Finally, a man with toffee colored hair, twinkling eyes and a dimple turned his face towards Sungmin, openly curious expression on his face.
“Are you acquaintance of Kyuhyun’s?” He asked politely and Sungmin nodded.
“He was tutoring me.”
“Are you his guardian?” The man asked with a surprised tone, and before Sungmin could deny anything, Kyuhyun had turned his attention to their conversation, eyes narrowed.
“The chance of me getting a guardian as stupid as he is zero.” The male said with a dry voice and Sungmin just rolled his eyes.
“Yeah, and the chance of me standing a wolf with that big log stuffed inside his ass is zero.” the male said and Kyuhyun lifted his eyebrow.
“Oh, look who’s talking.” Kyuhyun said with a scoff and Sungmin didn’t even answer him, but turned his attention back to the male still looking at them with a slightly amused expression on his elegant face.
“I’m Hankyung’s guardian. Kyuhyun is just tutoring me because Hankyung saw it would be for the best.” Sungmin said with a calm voice and recognition flashed in the man’s eyes.
“Oh you’re Sungmin, right?” He smiled encouragingly. ”I’m Leeteuk. I have heard a lot about you.” the male extended his hand and Sungmin grabbed it without hesitation. He already liked this new man very much, it seemed like he wouldn’t have to worry about being unwelcome. A man beside Leeteuk looked at their exchange and scoffed when he saw Sungmin’s happy expression.
“I still can’t believe that Hankyung didn’t just kick him out. It would’ve been a lot easier to kick him out than start to train him after he already made it clear that he doesn’t want to have a shit to do with the wolves.” the man said with a bored tone and Sungmin grit his teeth together. Leeteuk turned around and hit the man’s arm painfully.
“Kangin! I told you to keep your mouth shut!” the man growled, his smile long gone. Sungmin looked at their exchange and moved his eyes slowly to the other people around the table, feeling a pang in his chest when he noticed the identical disgusted expressions on each face there. Kyuhyun stood up calmly from the table and walked over to Sungmin.
“Come on, let’s go. We don’t have any business here.” the younger male started to yank Sungmin towards the exit and Sungmin stared at him confusedly.
“But we were there barely two minutes!” The male said incredulously as they left the lunchroom and were striding once again along one of the biggest corridors in the school.
“I was hoping to find someone from there but he wasn’t there and above everything else, they were douchebags, so I decided our business there was done.” the man said dryly and continued his long strides and Sungmin rolled his eyes.
“I can fight my own fights you know, I don’t need you to plan my escape routes.” Sungmin muttered and fixed his backpack with a grunt. This time Kyuhyun rolled his eyes.
“I didn’t plan you an escape route. I left them there because they were annoying and couldn’t provide me with the right information.” they entered one of the biggest libraries and Kyuhyun continued to walk determinedly forward, practically dragging Sungmin beside him. “However, they at least gave me instructions to where I can find the best man to teach you anatomy.” They continued to crisscross between the bookshelves and made their way deeper and deeper into the library, until the shelves got dustier and stacked with heavier books.
Kyuhyun was staring to the upper parts of the shelves with sharp eyes, and when Sungmin was already sure, that he was looking for a book of sorts, the younger male let out a mocking scoff and lowered his gaze with an exasperated sigh.
“I can see you, you know.”
Sungmin furrowed his brows as some panicked shuffling was to be heard and the male almost got a heartattack as somebody suddenly landed beside him on the floor with a reasounding thump.
“We weren’t doing anything.” Siwon motioned panickedly with his hands and Zhoumi appeared beside him, cheeks flaming. Kyuhyun rolled his eyes and Sungmin tried to get his breathing back to normal rhythm.
“I need the help of you two. I haven’t been in contact with the human form of a wolf in a while, and I think you two have the experience I’m seeking at the moment. The two males before them shuffled embarrassedly on their feet. Sungmin was finally recovering from his shock, and that was when he realized the state the two males were in.
Siwon’s hair was tousled as if somebody would’ve been gripping the fine strands of hair just minutes ago. his cheeks were still flaming with what most likely was pure embarrassment. Zhoumi was in a similar state, but Sungmin noted how Zhoumi’s eyes were dilating furiously, and his every movement was jerky, almost alert in their suddenness. Sungmin also noted the way his hand was constantly in touch with some part of Siwon’s hand and side. Sungmin blurted out the whole train of of his thought before even processing properly what he was doing.
“Zhoumi, are you a wolf?” The male asked incredulously and all the eyepairs in the group were turned to look at him. Kyuhyun rolled his eyes with an annoyed expression, but the other two males were gaping in shock.
“How…did you know?” the Chinese male asked with a shocked tone and Sungmin fell silent before his whole face flushed scarlet. The pair waited for the answer patiently and finally Sungmin managed to open his mouth again.
“It’s just…I just…your eyes. They are dilating the same way as-“ Sungmin snapped his mouth shut, scrambling for a proper answer. “-wolf’s eyes do.” He finally breathed out and Zhoumi scratched his head awkwardly, chuckling.
“Umm, well yeah. You got it right.” the man laughed a bit. “Man, you really surprised me there.” Sungmin mentally slapped himself: he had almost blurted out how Hankyung's eyes had dilated the same way when Sungmin had been in his first heat.Way to make the discussion awkward. Kyuhyun let out an annoyed sigh
“Okay, we didn’t come here to change greetings. I need the help of you two.” The younger man said with an exasperated tone and Sungmin frowned.
“But didn’t you say we were searching for somebody to teach me anatom…” Sungmin lifted his gaze to the two flushed men before himself, realization dawning on him like a dagger.
“Oh dear sweet jesus.”
_______________________________________________________
“It’s for the best to learn the basics with somebody else’s body than your own wolf’s as it may get really really awkward at first…” Siwon said with a conversational tone as he put some of the normal hello-I’m-a-machine-you-need-at-doctor’s-appointment -stuff on the nearby table. Sungmin was on the verge of dying out of embarrassment and Kyuhyun didn’t spare any of his biting comments while they waited for Zhoumi to emerge from the dressing room of the ball room.
“Why so nervous Sungmin? Never seen a man’s body before?“ Kyuhyun mocked and Sungmin grit his teeth together in attempt to calm his nerves and his thirst to strangle Kyuhyun.
“Kyuhyun, shut up and let him be.” Siwon gave the younger man a glare and Kyuhyun just scoffed. Siwon turned to Sungmin. “Kyuhyun wasn’t always like that. He is kinda cool when you spend time with him properly.” Now it was Sungmin’s turn to scoff.
“Your ability to see something good in him is really astounding.” Sungmin muttered under his breath and Siwon let out a small laugh.
After a while Zhoumi finally emerged from the dressing room, wearing only his boxer shorts, looking a bit awkward. A moment of silence ensued, until Siwon finally collected himself.
“Okay, I think we can start from the spine where the clearest signs can be felt.” Siwon walked over to Zhoumi and turned him gently around so that the man’s back was to Sungmin. The brunet looked at Siwon with a bewildered expression and patiently the tall man guided Sungmin’s hands to Zhoumi’s spine and assembled the fingers so, that the thumb was put to one side and the rest of the fingers to other.
“Start to travel downwards, you’ll feel the funny parts quite easily.” Siwon instructed, and after a moment of fumbling, the brunet started to do as Siwon said, and as he had made his way almost halfway through the whole spine, he froze.
“What the hell….? How many vertebrae do humans usually have?” Sungmin asked with an incredulous voice and Siwon smiled.
“Humans have 24 vertebrae, sometimes even more. However, wolves have 39 of them. The two spinal cords have fused together and change a bit when transformation takes place. The extra vertebrae serve as so called 'spare pieces' of the skeletal system and can transform into any other bone, depending on what's needed.”
Half an hour later Sungmin didn’t even remember his awkwardness. Siwon instructed him in feeling around the rest of the back for differences and then they traveled to the front of Zhoumi’s torso. They didn’t go through the facial features, as they were different for each wolf, but Sungmin felt around the ribcage with surprising enthusiasm and scrambled through every joint in Zhoumi’s almost delicate hands.
The time was nearing to five in the afternoon when the door to the ball room opened and closed without the group noticing. Sungmin was steadily going through the footbones in Zhoumi’s feet and didn’t notice the new presence stopping behind him.
“Foot massage? I want one too!”
Sungmin jumped up and twisted around so fast that he hit the back of his head to Hankyung’s nose. With a pained howl Sungmin scrambled backwards to the nearby bench and tried to calm his rabidly beating heart and the throbbing pain in his skull. Hankyung wasn’t in any better state as he held his nose with both hands, eyes screwed shut in pain.
“I swear, I’m going to kill you if you scare me like that again!” Sungmin growled and Hankyung pressed his nose gingerly with his long fingers before sniffing expertly.
“Maybe I won’t risk it next time. My nose is too valuable for me.” The Chinese male turned to Siwon and smiled.
“Anatomy lesson? Did you go through everything else but the feet already?” Siwon nodded at this and gave his hoodie to the shivering Zhoumi beside him who smiled gratefully.
“I think you two could go through the facial structures, because Sungmin couldn’t do them with Zhoumi. Also the torso should be revised with you.” Siwon lattered out with a professional sounding tone and Hankyung smiled at this.
“Sounds about right. I think We’ll just free you guys from your duty. I can instruct Sungmin through this.”
Sungmin felt the pang of jitters hit him again. Previously it had been a person who was remotely strange to Sungmin. What if it would be Hankyung? A person he knew a bit better than he would even like to?
Before Sungmin could protest, Zhoumi and Siwon had walked to the dressing room and Kyuhyun rose up from the bench he had been sitting on during the lesson.
“Remember that this is a public place. Don’t vent all your frustrations on him.” the male smirked at Sungmin’s dumbstruck expression and avoided the punch aimed to his direction. With a resounding click the ballroom door closed behind him and Sungmin was left alone with the Chinese male in a pressuring silence. Hankyung was stripping himself of the thick coat he had been wearing and Sungmin gulped loudly. It had been awkward between them even when Hankyung had his clothes on, what happens when he doesn’t have them at all?
Sungmin grit his teeth together, trying calm himself down enough to turn around to face his wolf and act like a reasonable human being.
He’s a man. Just a man. Kyuhyun was right, he had seen a man before, right? Right.
Hankyung looked at him expectantly in his pale denim jeans and Sungmin gulped before opening his mouth.
“Aren’t you going to take your jeans off?” the male asked with a quiet voice and the Chinese male lifted his eyebrows.
“We aren’t going to go through my nether regions, are we?” Hankyung smirked as Sungmin grit his teeth together in anger, cheeks flushing scarlet, but after a moment of silence the Chinese male walked over to his guardian, forcing the man to look at him.
“We’ll start with the face. We’ll go with the pace you give us and the whole point of this is to get acquintanced with my facial structures. You’ll need the information later on.” Sungmin lifted his eyes to stare the wolf. The tone change from the normal teasing one to this teacher-like was so abrupt that the younger male was left slightly dumbstruck. However, after a few seconds the male managed to collect himself enough to lift his hands and carefully place them on Hankyung’s forehead, starting to press the digits carefully to the skull, trying to discern something abnormal with his fingertips.
The silence which fell between them was surprisingly comfortable. Hankyung had closed his eyes and seemed to relax to Sungmin’s ginger touch. He gave brief instructions here and then to help Sungmin to memorize the different features with his fingers, but otherwise stayed silent. Sungmin was actually quite glad about it, as he was way closer to Hankyung than he felt comfortable and didn’t want to deal with the knowing stare from the taller male.
“Is your hand okay?” Hankyung suddenly asked and Sungmin barely refrained from jumping at the sudden sound. Then he relaxed.
“Yeah, I got to take the bandages off almost three days ago. Actually it was when you left for hunting.” Sungmin answered and let his fingers travel down the back of Hankyung’s skull and took them steadily forward, taking a feel of the pointy jaw.
“I guess the fingers are working just fine then?” Hankyung opened his eyes to look at Sungmin. “He didn’t do any permanent damage, did he?” It was like an unsaid rule between them: Heechul’s name was a taboo in their conversations. For Sungmin it brought up unpleasant memories, like pain, whereas to Hankyung the name gave the memory of the cruel present time.They had also learned the routine of avoiding Heechul when they encountered him somewhere in the school.
“No, all the fingers are working just like they should. As you said, luckily nothing was broken.” Sungmin said, bringing his fingers to knead on the high cheekbones, just under Hankyung’s dark eyes. Sungmin frowned as he looked at the skin there and lifted his eyes to look at Hankyung properly.
“My problems aside, when was the last time you slept?” The male asked with a worried tone and Hankyung closed his eyes, a small sigh escaping his lips.
“It’s not a big de-“
“Don’t ‘It’s not a big deal’ to me. Your whole face screams of sleep deprivation. What’s the problem?” Sungmin continued to move his fingers on to Hankyung’s nose and pressed carefully at the bone there. The Chinese male stayed stubbornly silent and Sungmin narrowed his eyes. “If you won’t tell me, I’ll-“
“I’ve been on night watch.” The man said with an exasperated tone and Sungmin frowned.
“What for?”
“To watch out for you.”
Sungmin was particularly glad that Hankyung had his eyes closed, as the male felt a slight sheen of red dust his cheeks and he huffed mockingly.
“That’s not a reason to tire yourself out. I’ll manage just fine on my own, so you can leave your post-” This time Hankyung opened his eyes and looked at Sungmin with a stony expression on his pale face.
“I don’t want to scare you, but I have been doing this since the whole incident with him, and every night since then, one of his henchmen have checked whether they’d have access to your room.” Hankyung’s eyes were glazed with smartly contained rage as he looked at his guardian. “So as long as you won’t allow me spend the night at your dorm room, I’m not stopping my guard duties.” Hankyung closed his eyes again but opened them again when Sungmin’s fingers had stopped their movement completely.
The younger male was looking at the wolf with a frown marring his forehead and he worried his lip.
“You look sick, Hankyung. I won’t let you stay there.” Sungmin finally said with a low voice and Hankyung lifted his eyebrows.
“And what exactly are you planning to do to stop me? As I said, the only option for you is to let me sleep in the same dorm room with you, or let me guard your door.” the Chinese male looked at the huge array of emotions dancing on Sungmin’s face with interest and waited for the answer patiently. However, he sure as hell didn’t expect the answer Sungmin provided him with.
“…You are going to sleep on the floor.”
Hankyung openly gaped at his guardian who was determinedly avoiding the wolf’s piercing eyes. It took the taller male a moment to collect himself enough to give an answer.
“Y-you’d actually let me sleep in the same room as you?! In the same ROOM when you normally don’t even let me hug you?” Hankyung’s voice was completely shocked as he stared at Sungmin who rolled his eyes.
“At least then we’d be risking ourselves at equal rates. I won’t let someone risk his life for me when I myself am not allowed to risk my life for me.” The male said dryly and lifted his hands again to touch Hankyung’s face, and the Chinese male just continued to stare at him, completely shell shocked.
“…Who are you and what have you done to Sungmin?” He finally muttered and the younger man snorted.
“It’s called growing up.” He moved his fingers along the strong jawline and dropped them downwards to press at the strong neck with his fingertips. Hankyung laughed a bit before closing his eyes again and concentrating on the patterns Sungmin’s fingers made to his skin.
“Last time I checked, the Lee Sungmin I knew was stuck on the area of homophobes, refusing to step outside.” Hankyung said with a conversational tone and Sungmin sighed heavily.
“I told you it’s called growing up.” The younger male said with an exasperated tone and let his fingers feel around the pointy collar bones of Hankyung.
He was actually kind of relieved to realize that the awkwardness from the beginning was going away and he could actually forget the fact that he was touching a half-naked man in the middle of an empty dance studio. This was work. He could work with that.
“You could handle the back from this position also.” Hankyung exclaimed and grabbed Sungmin’s wrists, gently guiding them to rest on top of his shoulder blades, bringing the two males to disturbingly close. Sungmin didn’t even realize what was happening until he was face to face with Hankyung’s neck and his hands were placed on the shoulder blades of the older man. Every single warning signal went off in Sungmin’s head at the same time. Fuck the comfortable-with-a-half-naked-man-before-him -speech.
TOO DAMN CLOSE.
“You can travel the spinal cord this way, it will give you easier access to the shoulder blade area and gives you more strength to traverse the vertebra.” Hankyung said with a nonchalant voice, but Sungmin’s previous calm state had evaporated completely and his heart was beating somewhere around one million beats per millisecond.
REPEAT: TOO.DAMN.CLOSE
Sungmin sucked in a sharp breath and closed his eyes to calm himself. It was work. It was work. It was work. It was work.
He started to traverse the lean back with his fingers and started to make his way steadily down the vertebrae there. His concentration was slowly slipping away from the task at hand even though he desperately tried to gain his composure.
Hankyung smelled like forest.
Like the moss after rain. Like the hard softness of the bark in the thick pinetrees, white trunks of the graceful birches. It floated in the air like warm air on a hot summer’s day. It was the scent of memory, the scent of the days when Sungmin had ran away from his life and sought cover from under one of the big spruces in the heart of the forest.
It smelled like home.
Hankyung lifted his eyebrows as Sungmin’s whole posture froze in its place and tilted his head a bit to see under the long bangs of the shorter man.
“…Sungmin?”
“What?” the answer was immediate, almost panicked and the Chinese man still couldn’t see the eyes of the shorter man. He had to smirk a little bit to himself before he stepped backwards and peered under Sungmin’s bangs, receiving a sharp glare from under them.
“I’m not allowed to have a break?” the male said with a growling voice and stepped forward, but Hankyung just laughed with an incredulous voice and stepped backwards, keeping the distance between them.
“Dude, you reek of fear.” Sungmin’s eyes widened at Hankyung’s words and his tense posture tensed further. The Chinese male followed his every movement with sharp eyes, and was very surprised when after a while Sungmin’s shoulders slumped noticeably and his defiant expression melted. He let out a defeated, shuddering sigh.
“I wouldn’t say it’s fear…It’s just….” the man lifted his hand to scratch at the back of his head awkwardly, forehead crumpled in thought. Then he lifted his eyes to look at Hankyung. “…okay, maybe it is fear, but It’s not anything I can’t handle.” Sungmin stepped forward again and Hankyung took step backwards again, lifting his arms to stop his guardian.
“Sungmin. You are forcing yourself to do this.” The younger man lifted his eyebrows in question and Hankyung sighed. “We will go at the pace you are ready to explore my whole body. We are still ways from you being completely familiar with every part in me. That’s why this won’t slow us down much You’ll eventually get used to this as we work further together.” The Chinese male smiled a bit. “I’m glad that you’re trying but you’re not going to learn a thing if you are scared of being close to me.” the man said with a amused voice, and Sungmin lowered his gaze.
“We will never get anything done if I don’t force myself to do these things, scared or not.” the male finally said with an annoyed tone. Hankyung just shrugged.
“But now you actually can touch me without being completely repelled.” Sungmin lifted his eyes to look into Hankyung’s dark orbs and frowned.
“You do realize that that doesn’t really make feel any better?” the male said quietly and the older male just rolled his eyes.
“In my books we have travelled quite damn far from the Sungmin I met the first time who was scared of everything regarding man-man interaction. Now look at you.” Hankyung waved his hand to Sungmin and the shorter man frowned further and Hankyung actually laughed a bit. “You finally decided to grow up.” The taller male walked over to his pile of clothes and started to pull his t-shirt back on. Sungmin rubbed his face tiredly and looked at the clock, groaning when he realized that dinner had already passed and he hadn’t eating a thing since he woke up.
Hankyung pulled on his hoodie and lead them out of the dance studio, shutting the lights on his way out. Sungmin followed, his feet dragging noticeably with a surprising amount of exhaustion. They didn’t speak a word as they made their way forward. Sungmin walked without really paying attention to his surroundings, but when they walked through some of the living quarters, Sungmin started to pay attention to the other students and also the surprising amount of wolves trotting in the corridors. He frowned and picked up his pace to walk beside Hankyung.
“Why are there so many wolves in their phased forms?” Sungmin muttered under his breath and Hankyung glanced at him but continued to make his way forward.
“Let’s just say that we are not the only ones who are wary of the military forces.” the Chinese man whispered, looking proud for some reason. “Eunhyuk was very fast in spreading the word about the military groups coming here and this had made it extremely hard to work properly inside the school as everyone is giving them the cold shoulder.” Hankyung opened the door to his dorm room and Sungmin entered without a question.
”Well search better, it has to be there somewhere.”
“Dear god, I’m searching for a damn DICK here. Is this really a job of a guardian?!”
“If you cannot find the dick, you can give up the dreams of finding the prostate.”
“Oh dear god….”
It was well past afternoon and Sungmin had been standing in the stuffy classroom since 8 am, digging a plastic model of a wolf. Kyuhyun had proven himself to be a very efficient and smart teacher, but as Sungmin’s patience had worn thin, so had his.
“There are exact replicas of every organ there, it’s your fault for spreading them everywhere.” Kyuhyun said with a dry voice and Sungmin growled and dug in deeper to the model-wolf.
“Why does the model wolf have two penises when the real one has only one?!” Sungmin snarled while scrambling through two plastic spleans, the whole intestine system and the other heart. Kyuhyun didn’t even lift his eyes up from his notes.
“Because that’s the cheapest model I could find and it was cheap because it had a mistake there. I think you can guess already why I gave that one to you.” The male turned a page and Sungmin rolled his eyes and continued to look until his hand curled around something and his whole face lit up.
“Thank god, I found it!” The male let out a victorious yell and pulled the plastic appendage out of the wolf and Kyuhyun rolled his eyes.
“And it didn’t even take 45 minutes for you to do that.” Sungmin packed up all his books and waited for Kyuhyun to get his stuff together and together they left the classroom. The corridors were completely empty as almost all the students were still on lessons. Sungmin had gotten a free lesson because he had tutoring with Kyuhyun.
And he was about to get all the profit from being tutored by the genius of the whole school
“Is it possible that when the wolf transforms from his or her human form to the wolf form or vice versa and the organs won’t switch places like they should? What if the wolf is left with a human intestine or something?” Sungmin asked with a silent voice and Kyuhyun cast him a look.
“It’s not possible. The wolves are a result of many years experimental work, and they are functioned so, that nothing simply cannot go wrong from the inside. The whole process of the human organs shrinking when the wolf organs take their place in the transformation and vice versa is practically like blood flow. Only external disturbances can do something and if You’d wish to disturb the movement of the organs, You’d have to make a full surgery of the wolf to achieve that.”
“What if a wolf is shot? That would definitely cause some troubles.”
“The wounds would have to be treated in the form the wolf was in when it was shot. If he tried to transform from form to other while the wounds are still unhealed, the pain would be extremely unbearable, but it would partially disappear when the wolf transforms.” Sungmin was about to open his mouth, but the younger male beat him to it. “However, the wounds won’t disappear. If they are left untreated, slowly the damage from the wounded organs will spread to the healthy organs and make both of the forms suffer the equal pain. If organs in the other form fail, so does the organ in the other form too.” Sungmin furrowed his brows at this.
“So it the other form can’t just…die without the other?” The male asked and Kyuhyun shook his head.
“Not possible. The forms are part of one big entity. That’s why it’s extremely important for you to learn to treat both forms equally. It doesn’t help if you have information only from the other form.” Kyuhyun continued to lead them on the empty corridor and finally they arrived to the almost empty cafeteria where several students and their wolves were sitting and chatting casually.
Kyuhyun walked straight over to one of the groups and sat down, immediately engaging in a conversation with some of them. Sungmin, not understanding what they were doing there, stood beside the table awkwardly, shuffling from feet to feet.
Finally, a man with toffee colored hair, twinkling eyes and a dimple turned his face towards Sungmin, openly curious expression on his face.
“Are you acquaintance of Kyuhyun’s?” He asked politely and Sungmin nodded.
“He was tutoring me.”
“Are you his guardian?” The man asked with a surprised tone, and before Sungmin could deny anything, Kyuhyun had turned his attention to their conversation, eyes narrowed.
“The chance of me getting a guardian as stupid as he is zero.” The male said with a dry voice and Sungmin just rolled his eyes.
“Yeah, and the chance of me standing a wolf with that big log stuffed inside his ass is zero.” the male said and Kyuhyun lifted his eyebrow.
“Oh, look who’s talking.” Kyuhyun said with a scoff and Sungmin didn’t even answer him, but turned his attention back to the male still looking at them with a slightly amused expression on his elegant face.
“I’m Hankyung’s guardian. Kyuhyun is just tutoring me because Hankyung saw it would be for the best.” Sungmin said with a calm voice and recognition flashed in the man’s eyes.
“Oh you’re Sungmin, right?” He smiled encouragingly. ”I’m Leeteuk. I have heard a lot about you.” the male extended his hand and Sungmin grabbed it without hesitation. He already liked this new man very much, it seemed like he wouldn’t have to worry about being unwelcome. A man beside Leeteuk looked at their exchange and scoffed when he saw Sungmin’s happy expression.
“I still can’t believe that Hankyung didn’t just kick him out. It would’ve been a lot easier to kick him out than start to train him after he already made it clear that he doesn’t want to have a shit to do with the wolves.” the man said with a bored tone and Sungmin grit his teeth together. Leeteuk turned around and hit the man’s arm painfully.
“Kangin! I told you to keep your mouth shut!” the man growled, his smile long gone. Sungmin looked at their exchange and moved his eyes slowly to the other people around the table, feeling a pang in his chest when he noticed the identical disgusted expressions on each face there. Kyuhyun stood up calmly from the table and walked over to Sungmin.
“Come on, let’s go. We don’t have any business here.” the younger male started to yank Sungmin towards the exit and Sungmin stared at him confusedly.
“But we were there barely two minutes!” The male said incredulously as they left the lunchroom and were striding once again along one of the biggest corridors in the school.
“I was hoping to find someone from there but he wasn’t there and above everything else, they were douchebags, so I decided our business there was done.” the man said dryly and continued his long strides and Sungmin rolled his eyes.
“I can fight my own fights you know, I don’t need you to plan my escape routes.” Sungmin muttered and fixed his backpack with a grunt. This time Kyuhyun rolled his eyes.
“I didn’t plan you an escape route. I left them there because they were annoying and couldn’t provide me with the right information.” they entered one of the biggest libraries and Kyuhyun continued to walk determinedly forward, practically dragging Sungmin beside him. “However, they at least gave me instructions to where I can find the best man to teach you anatomy.” They continued to crisscross between the bookshelves and made their way deeper and deeper into the library, until the shelves got dustier and stacked with heavier books.
Kyuhyun was staring to the upper parts of the shelves with sharp eyes, and when Sungmin was already sure, that he was looking for a book of sorts, the younger male let out a mocking scoff and lowered his gaze with an exasperated sigh.
“I can see you, you know.”
Sungmin furrowed his brows as some panicked shuffling was to be heard and the male almost got a heartattack as somebody suddenly landed beside him on the floor with a reasounding thump.
“We weren’t doing anything.” Siwon motioned panickedly with his hands and Zhoumi appeared beside him, cheeks flaming. Kyuhyun rolled his eyes and Sungmin tried to get his breathing back to normal rhythm.
“I need the help of you two. I haven’t been in contact with the human form of a wolf in a while, and I think you two have the experience I’m seeking at the moment. The two males before them shuffled embarrassedly on their feet. Sungmin was finally recovering from his shock, and that was when he realized the state the two males were in.
Siwon’s hair was tousled as if somebody would’ve been gripping the fine strands of hair just minutes ago. his cheeks were still flaming with what most likely was pure embarrassment. Zhoumi was in a similar state, but Sungmin noted how Zhoumi’s eyes were dilating furiously, and his every movement was jerky, almost alert in their suddenness. Sungmin also noted the way his hand was constantly in touch with some part of Siwon’s hand and side. Sungmin blurted out the whole train of of his thought before even processing properly what he was doing.
“Zhoumi, are you a wolf?” The male asked incredulously and all the eyepairs in the group were turned to look at him. Kyuhyun rolled his eyes with an annoyed expression, but the other two males were gaping in shock.
“How…did you know?” the Chinese male asked with a shocked tone and Sungmin fell silent before his whole face flushed scarlet. The pair waited for the answer patiently and finally Sungmin managed to open his mouth again.
“It’s just…I just…your eyes. They are dilating the same way as-“ Sungmin snapped his mouth shut, scrambling for a proper answer. “-wolf’s eyes do.” He finally breathed out and Zhoumi scratched his head awkwardly, chuckling.
“Umm, well yeah. You got it right.” the man laughed a bit. “Man, you really surprised me there.” Sungmin mentally slapped himself: he had almost blurted out how Hankyung's eyes had dilated the same way when Sungmin had been in his first heat.Way to make the discussion awkward. Kyuhyun let out an annoyed sigh
“Okay, we didn’t come here to change greetings. I need the help of you two.” The younger man said with an exasperated tone and Sungmin frowned.
“But didn’t you say we were searching for somebody to teach me anatom…” Sungmin lifted his gaze to the two flushed men before himself, realization dawning on him like a dagger.
“Oh dear sweet jesus.”
_______________________________________________________
“It’s for the best to learn the basics with somebody else’s body than your own wolf’s as it may get really really awkward at first…” Siwon said with a conversational tone as he put some of the normal hello-I’m-a-machine-you-need-at-doctor’s-appointment -stuff on the nearby table. Sungmin was on the verge of dying out of embarrassment and Kyuhyun didn’t spare any of his biting comments while they waited for Zhoumi to emerge from the dressing room of the ball room.
“Why so nervous Sungmin? Never seen a man’s body before?“ Kyuhyun mocked and Sungmin grit his teeth together in attempt to calm his nerves and his thirst to strangle Kyuhyun.
“Kyuhyun, shut up and let him be.” Siwon gave the younger man a glare and Kyuhyun just scoffed. Siwon turned to Sungmin. “Kyuhyun wasn’t always like that. He is kinda cool when you spend time with him properly.” Now it was Sungmin’s turn to scoff.
“Your ability to see something good in him is really astounding.” Sungmin muttered under his breath and Siwon let out a small laugh.
After a while Zhoumi finally emerged from the dressing room, wearing only his boxer shorts, looking a bit awkward. A moment of silence ensued, until Siwon finally collected himself.
“Okay, I think we can start from the spine where the clearest signs can be felt.” Siwon walked over to Zhoumi and turned him gently around so that the man’s back was to Sungmin. The brunet looked at Siwon with a bewildered expression and patiently the tall man guided Sungmin’s hands to Zhoumi’s spine and assembled the fingers so, that the thumb was put to one side and the rest of the fingers to other.
“Start to travel downwards, you’ll feel the funny parts quite easily.” Siwon instructed, and after a moment of fumbling, the brunet started to do as Siwon said, and as he had made his way almost halfway through the whole spine, he froze.
“What the hell….? How many vertebrae do humans usually have?” Sungmin asked with an incredulous voice and Siwon smiled.
“Humans have 24 vertebrae, sometimes even more. However, wolves have 39 of them. The two spinal cords have fused together and change a bit when transformation takes place. The extra vertebrae serve as so called 'spare pieces' of the skeletal system and can transform into any other bone, depending on what's needed.”
Half an hour later Sungmin didn’t even remember his awkwardness. Siwon instructed him in feeling around the rest of the back for differences and then they traveled to the front of Zhoumi’s torso. They didn’t go through the facial features, as they were different for each wolf, but Sungmin felt around the ribcage with surprising enthusiasm and scrambled through every joint in Zhoumi’s almost delicate hands.
The time was nearing to five in the afternoon when the door to the ball room opened and closed without the group noticing. Sungmin was steadily going through the footbones in Zhoumi’s feet and didn’t notice the new presence stopping behind him.
“Foot massage? I want one too!”
Sungmin jumped up and twisted around so fast that he hit the back of his head to Hankyung’s nose. With a pained howl Sungmin scrambled backwards to the nearby bench and tried to calm his rabidly beating heart and the throbbing pain in his skull. Hankyung wasn’t in any better state as he held his nose with both hands, eyes screwed shut in pain.
“I swear, I’m going to kill you if you scare me like that again!” Sungmin growled and Hankyung pressed his nose gingerly with his long fingers before sniffing expertly.
“Maybe I won’t risk it next time. My nose is too valuable for me.” The Chinese male turned to Siwon and smiled.
“Anatomy lesson? Did you go through everything else but the feet already?” Siwon nodded at this and gave his hoodie to the shivering Zhoumi beside him who smiled gratefully.
“I think you two could go through the facial structures, because Sungmin couldn’t do them with Zhoumi. Also the torso should be revised with you.” Siwon lattered out with a professional sounding tone and Hankyung smiled at this.
“Sounds about right. I think We’ll just free you guys from your duty. I can instruct Sungmin through this.”
Sungmin felt the pang of jitters hit him again. Previously it had been a person who was remotely strange to Sungmin. What if it would be Hankyung? A person he knew a bit better than he would even like to?
Before Sungmin could protest, Zhoumi and Siwon had walked to the dressing room and Kyuhyun rose up from the bench he had been sitting on during the lesson.
“Remember that this is a public place. Don’t vent all your frustrations on him.” the male smirked at Sungmin’s dumbstruck expression and avoided the punch aimed to his direction. With a resounding click the ballroom door closed behind him and Sungmin was left alone with the Chinese male in a pressuring silence. Hankyung was stripping himself of the thick coat he had been wearing and Sungmin gulped loudly. It had been awkward between them even when Hankyung had his clothes on, what happens when he doesn’t have them at all?
Sungmin grit his teeth together, trying calm himself down enough to turn around to face his wolf and act like a reasonable human being.
He’s a man. Just a man. Kyuhyun was right, he had seen a man before, right? Right.
Hankyung looked at him expectantly in his pale denim jeans and Sungmin gulped before opening his mouth.
“Aren’t you going to take your jeans off?” the male asked with a quiet voice and the Chinese male lifted his eyebrows.
“We aren’t going to go through my nether regions, are we?” Hankyung smirked as Sungmin grit his teeth together in anger, cheeks flushing scarlet, but after a moment of silence the Chinese male walked over to his guardian, forcing the man to look at him.
“We’ll start with the face. We’ll go with the pace you give us and the whole point of this is to get acquintanced with my facial structures. You’ll need the information later on.” Sungmin lifted his eyes to stare the wolf. The tone change from the normal teasing one to this teacher-like was so abrupt that the younger male was left slightly dumbstruck. However, after a few seconds the male managed to collect himself enough to lift his hands and carefully place them on Hankyung’s forehead, starting to press the digits carefully to the skull, trying to discern something abnormal with his fingertips.
The silence which fell between them was surprisingly comfortable. Hankyung had closed his eyes and seemed to relax to Sungmin’s ginger touch. He gave brief instructions here and then to help Sungmin to memorize the different features with his fingers, but otherwise stayed silent. Sungmin was actually quite glad about it, as he was way closer to Hankyung than he felt comfortable and didn’t want to deal with the knowing stare from the taller male.
“Is your hand okay?” Hankyung suddenly asked and Sungmin barely refrained from jumping at the sudden sound. Then he relaxed.
“Yeah, I got to take the bandages off almost three days ago. Actually it was when you left for hunting.” Sungmin answered and let his fingers travel down the back of Hankyung’s skull and took them steadily forward, taking a feel of the pointy jaw.
“I guess the fingers are working just fine then?” Hankyung opened his eyes to look at Sungmin. “He didn’t do any permanent damage, did he?” It was like an unsaid rule between them: Heechul’s name was a taboo in their conversations. For Sungmin it brought up unpleasant memories, like pain, whereas to Hankyung the name gave the memory of the cruel present time.They had also learned the routine of avoiding Heechul when they encountered him somewhere in the school.
“No, all the fingers are working just like they should. As you said, luckily nothing was broken.” Sungmin said, bringing his fingers to knead on the high cheekbones, just under Hankyung’s dark eyes. Sungmin frowned as he looked at the skin there and lifted his eyes to look at Hankyung properly.
“My problems aside, when was the last time you slept?” The male asked with a worried tone and Hankyung closed his eyes, a small sigh escaping his lips.
“It’s not a big de-“
“Don’t ‘It’s not a big deal’ to me. Your whole face screams of sleep deprivation. What’s the problem?” Sungmin continued to move his fingers on to Hankyung’s nose and pressed carefully at the bone there. The Chinese male stayed stubbornly silent and Sungmin narrowed his eyes. “If you won’t tell me, I’ll-“
“I’ve been on night watch.” The man said with an exasperated tone and Sungmin frowned.
“What for?”
“To watch out for you.”
Sungmin was particularly glad that Hankyung had his eyes closed, as the male felt a slight sheen of red dust his cheeks and he huffed mockingly.
“That’s not a reason to tire yourself out. I’ll manage just fine on my own, so you can leave your post-” This time Hankyung opened his eyes and looked at Sungmin with a stony expression on his pale face.
“I don’t want to scare you, but I have been doing this since the whole incident with him, and every night since then, one of his henchmen have checked whether they’d have access to your room.” Hankyung’s eyes were glazed with smartly contained rage as he looked at his guardian. “So as long as you won’t allow me spend the night at your dorm room, I’m not stopping my guard duties.” Hankyung closed his eyes again but opened them again when Sungmin’s fingers had stopped their movement completely.
The younger male was looking at the wolf with a frown marring his forehead and he worried his lip.
“You look sick, Hankyung. I won’t let you stay there.” Sungmin finally said with a low voice and Hankyung lifted his eyebrows.
“And what exactly are you planning to do to stop me? As I said, the only option for you is to let me sleep in the same dorm room with you, or let me guard your door.” the Chinese male looked at the huge array of emotions dancing on Sungmin’s face with interest and waited for the answer patiently. However, he sure as hell didn’t expect the answer Sungmin provided him with.
“…You are going to sleep on the floor.”
Hankyung openly gaped at his guardian who was determinedly avoiding the wolf’s piercing eyes. It took the taller male a moment to collect himself enough to give an answer.
“Y-you’d actually let me sleep in the same room as you?! In the same ROOM when you normally don’t even let me hug you?” Hankyung’s voice was completely shocked as he stared at Sungmin who rolled his eyes.
“At least then we’d be risking ourselves at equal rates. I won’t let someone risk his life for me when I myself am not allowed to risk my life for me.” The male said dryly and lifted his hands again to touch Hankyung’s face, and the Chinese male just continued to stare at him, completely shell shocked.
“…Who are you and what have you done to Sungmin?” He finally muttered and the younger man snorted.
“It’s called growing up.” He moved his fingers along the strong jawline and dropped them downwards to press at the strong neck with his fingertips. Hankyung laughed a bit before closing his eyes again and concentrating on the patterns Sungmin’s fingers made to his skin.
“Last time I checked, the Lee Sungmin I knew was stuck on the area of homophobes, refusing to step outside.” Hankyung said with a conversational tone and Sungmin sighed heavily.
“I told you it’s called growing up.” The younger male said with an exasperated tone and let his fingers feel around the pointy collar bones of Hankyung.
He was actually kind of relieved to realize that the awkwardness from the beginning was going away and he could actually forget the fact that he was touching a half-naked man in the middle of an empty dance studio. This was work. He could work with that.
“You could handle the back from this position also.” Hankyung exclaimed and grabbed Sungmin’s wrists, gently guiding them to rest on top of his shoulder blades, bringing the two males to disturbingly close. Sungmin didn’t even realize what was happening until he was face to face with Hankyung’s neck and his hands were placed on the shoulder blades of the older man. Every single warning signal went off in Sungmin’s head at the same time. Fuck the comfortable-with-a-half-naked-man-before-him -speech.
TOO DAMN CLOSE.
“You can travel the spinal cord this way, it will give you easier access to the shoulder blade area and gives you more strength to traverse the vertebra.” Hankyung said with a nonchalant voice, but Sungmin’s previous calm state had evaporated completely and his heart was beating somewhere around one million beats per millisecond.
REPEAT: TOO.DAMN.CLOSE
Sungmin sucked in a sharp breath and closed his eyes to calm himself. It was work. It was work. It was work. It was work.
He started to traverse the lean back with his fingers and started to make his way steadily down the vertebrae there. His concentration was slowly slipping away from the task at hand even though he desperately tried to gain his composure.
Hankyung smelled like forest.
Like the moss after rain. Like the hard softness of the bark in the thick pinetrees, white trunks of the graceful birches. It floated in the air like warm air on a hot summer’s day. It was the scent of memory, the scent of the days when Sungmin had ran away from his life and sought cover from under one of the big spruces in the heart of the forest.
It smelled like home.
Hankyung lifted his eyebrows as Sungmin’s whole posture froze in its place and tilted his head a bit to see under the long bangs of the shorter man.
“…Sungmin?”
“What?” the answer was immediate, almost panicked and the Chinese man still couldn’t see the eyes of the shorter man. He had to smirk a little bit to himself before he stepped backwards and peered under Sungmin’s bangs, receiving a sharp glare from under them.
“I’m not allowed to have a break?” the male said with a growling voice and stepped forward, but Hankyung just laughed with an incredulous voice and stepped backwards, keeping the distance between them.
“Dude, you reek of fear.” Sungmin’s eyes widened at Hankyung’s words and his tense posture tensed further. The Chinese male followed his every movement with sharp eyes, and was very surprised when after a while Sungmin’s shoulders slumped noticeably and his defiant expression melted. He let out a defeated, shuddering sigh.
“I wouldn’t say it’s fear…It’s just….” the man lifted his hand to scratch at the back of his head awkwardly, forehead crumpled in thought. Then he lifted his eyes to look at Hankyung. “…okay, maybe it is fear, but It’s not anything I can’t handle.” Sungmin stepped forward again and Hankyung took step backwards again, lifting his arms to stop his guardian.
“Sungmin. You are forcing yourself to do this.” The younger man lifted his eyebrows in question and Hankyung sighed. “We will go at the pace you are ready to explore my whole body. We are still ways from you being completely familiar with every part in me. That’s why this won’t slow us down much You’ll eventually get used to this as we work further together.” The Chinese male smiled a bit. “I’m glad that you’re trying but you’re not going to learn a thing if you are scared of being close to me.” the man said with a amused voice, and Sungmin lowered his gaze.
“We will never get anything done if I don’t force myself to do these things, scared or not.” the male finally said with an annoyed tone. Hankyung just shrugged.
“But now you actually can touch me without being completely repelled.” Sungmin lifted his eyes to look into Hankyung’s dark orbs and frowned.
“You do realize that that doesn’t really make feel any better?” the male said quietly and the older male just rolled his eyes.
“In my books we have travelled quite damn far from the Sungmin I met the first time who was scared of everything regarding man-man interaction. Now look at you.” Hankyung waved his hand to Sungmin and the shorter man frowned further and Hankyung actually laughed a bit. “You finally decided to grow up.” The taller male walked over to his pile of clothes and started to pull his t-shirt back on. Sungmin rubbed his face tiredly and looked at the clock, groaning when he realized that dinner had already passed and he hadn’t eating a thing since he woke up.
Hankyung pulled on his hoodie and lead them out of the dance studio, shutting the lights on his way out. Sungmin followed, his feet dragging noticeably with a surprising amount of exhaustion. They didn’t speak a word as they made their way forward. Sungmin walked without really paying attention to his surroundings, but when they walked through some of the living quarters, Sungmin started to pay attention to the other students and also the surprising amount of wolves trotting in the corridors. He frowned and picked up his pace to walk beside Hankyung.
“Why are there so many wolves in their phased forms?” Sungmin muttered under his breath and Hankyung glanced at him but continued to make his way forward.
“Let’s just say that we are not the only ones who are wary of the military forces.” the Chinese man whispered, looking proud for some reason. “Eunhyuk was very fast in spreading the word about the military groups coming here and this had made it extremely hard to work properly inside the school as everyone is giving them the cold shoulder.” Hankyung opened the door to his dorm room and Sungmin entered without a question.