{exo ; kai/sehun} c'mon, let me in (i'm going to bite)
title: c’mon, let me in (i’m going to bite)
pairing: were!jongin/sehun, side fem!kyungsoo/yixing, hints of future pairings
rating: pg-13
word count: 6884w
summary: sehun starts high school discretely, under the freshman radar-everything’s going fine until jongin finds new friends and almost rips his throat out. with his teeth. or the teen wolf au.
warnings: brief description of a panic attack, unbetaed
disclaimer: i don’t own exo or tw, just my ideas.
a/n: this pretty much started out as a self-indulgent tw au with “omg jongin can be scott mccall and sehun can be stiles and kris can be the growly lacrosse captain alpha” but then morphed into a whole mess of an “everyone and their mom attending high school” au. with werewolves.
***
“Fuck, I woke up late,” is the first thing Sehun hears when his call connects and right after, running water and the sounds of brushing teeth.
“It’s the first day of school, we’re going to be late, I swear to god Jongin, I’m going to kill you.” Sehun grumbles into the speaker of his phone when there is a bang in the background, followed by muffled cursing. He’s a couple of streets down, listening to rushed rustling and a staircase being abused before ending the call.
Some crinkling comes from the backseat as Chanyeol stuffs his whole breakfast down his throat, and then some. “Don’t you dare get anything on the seats, so help me,” Sehun warns, glaring at him through the rearview. Crumbly fingers wave him away, “Mhm, mhm.”
Sehun pulls up in front of a house, impatiently jiggling his leg and tapping the wheel. Glances at the clock. Bad idea.
Moments later, Jongin slides into the passenger seat, shirt askew and smile sheepish, “Morning, morning, sorry ‘m late, go, go-“
Sehun feels his eyes roll back into his head but he steps on the gas anyway because there’s five minutes until the first bell. And Chanyeol’s still wolfing down his food and getting it everywhere.
It’s the first day and predictably, all the teachers are only handing out syllabuses and giving instruction on how the rest of the year will go. Seats are assigned in some classes and most of the time, Sehun is near the back, a few rows too far from Jongin to easily communicate. They end up being chemistry partners though, thankfully, and he can poke the back of Jongin’s neck in history when the teacher-lacrosse-coach isn’t looking.
There’s a band junkie that sits next to him in math and a cute know-it-all with full lips and doe eyes to his right across the aisle. He glances to his left and sees music notes scrawled in the margins of the introduction papers; the guy looks up with a lazy smile and nods, “Yixing.”
Sehun tips his head and whispers his name in greeting when the teacher pauses to take a breath. They walk to lunch together and are joined by “Kyungsoo,” she informs them, lips pursing as she flips her braid at the boys staring by the doorway. Sehun thinks it’s a brilliant alternative to saying fuck off and sits his tray down next to her with a bit of awe.
Jongin and Chanyeol slide into the empty seats across from him, and the rest are quickly filled.
“Math is gonna blow this year,” Jongin groans around a mouthful of french fries, “I already don’t understand what she’s saying.”
Chanyeol makes a sound of agreement as he tries to pluck food from Sehun’s tray and yelps when his hand gets slapped away. Rightfully so, because, “Dude, you have like twice the amount of food any of us have.”
Out of the three of them, Chanyeol would have the least to worry about regarding grades, Sehun thinks. He’s already in National Honor Society, and Sehun’s not sure how because the invitations didn’t even get sent out yet.
“But I’m a growing boy, ‘m always hungry,” Chanyeol whines, then lets out something like a yip when Kyungsoo gives him her pretzels. Her packed lunch is arranged around her, almost like an art, each food in a different container. She’s also a member of NHS, unsurprisingly. (Sehun had asked and her eyes had glinted in a way he would like to never see again. Yeah-he left it at that.)
Sehun eyes Yixing’s food and they end up trading sides, much to his delight. When he eats, he tries not to stare at Jongin across the table, eyes crinkling at a joke, lips wrapped around a straw.
Jongin looks up at him and grins before going back to antagonizing Chanyeol’s attempts at eating his lunch in peace. If this is what he’ll being looking at for the next four years, Sehun can’t complain.
He vaguely hears Kyungsoo correcting one of Yixing’s music notes and the choked surprise that comes from Yixing. As Sehun looks over at them, Yixing’s eyes are a little wider, like he’s been woken up, and Kyungsoo has a lock of hair falling into her eyes as she murmurs approvingly at his scribbles.
Yixing has a look of wonder etched onto his face, and Sehun belated suspects if that’s what he looks like when he watches Jongin.
After school, when Sehun’s stretching his hamstrings, he watches as the lacrosse team take warm-up laps around the field. Everyone is haphazardly clustered in their own groups around him.
“Okay, listen guys, the next meet is in two weeks and I need you all to be in top shape by then,” the cross country coach says, pulling out his clipboard, “I made a bet with the soccer coach, ugh, damn him.” His name tag says Jonghyun.
They quickly find out he doesn’t like it when someone points out his shortness; one of the other freshmen stands a few feet away, traumatized.
Attempting to get up from the ground, Sehun is surprised when a hand is reached out to him, and hesitates for second before taking it. He looks up to see someone with brown hair falling over his face and brushing across his glasses who introduces himself, “Lemme help you with that. I’m Jongdae, looking forward to running with you.”
“Sehun,” and he twists his mouth into a grimace, “but first, we have to mentally prepare ourselves for a whole season with that.” Sehun nods his head at the coach, who’s currently in the process of flipping off the soccer coach with no attempted discretion.
Jongdae covers his mouth and snorts. Tries to play it off when Coach swivels his head over to look at him-when he looks away, Sehun uses Jongdae as some sort of support because he’s laughing too hard to stand straight. It’s difficult because Jongdae’s about to be an inch from the ground, glasses slipping from his nose.
They’re still gasping for breath when they straighten up and Jonghyun gives them the run for the day, 6 miles, “Easy,” he reassures.
It’s anything but.
The weather is sizzling and there’s little to no wind the whole time. Sehun regrets not finishing his milk at lunch.
After the run, Sehun feels like a dirty towel, sweat soaking through his shirt and sticking his bangs to his forehead. Jongdae is in a similar state, huffing next to him and guzzling water between each inhale.
Sehun wipes the sweat from his face. Looks back to the lacrosse field and spots Jongin cycling through a drill, running headfirst into the defender.
At the last second, he pivots and gets the defender’s feet stuck, who’s a second too late at reacting. The whoosh of the ball hitting the net has Sehun grinning and when Jongin’s gaze meets his, he waves excitedly.
“So, lacrosse players?” Jongdae asks, leaning his forearm on Sehun’s shoulder as he waves back. “Good choice.”
His mouth opens in response, but it closes. Opens again, “Have you seen under all that padding? Who wouldn’t, to be honest.” Jongdae sagely nods in agreement.
During this exchange, the two of them watch Jongin get reprimanded by the coach and may or may not continue to ogle the team for a few minutes after.
It’s long enough for Jonghyun to place his heads between theirs and ominously whisper, “Time for stretches,” cackling as they both jump away, horrified.
A notification pops up on the screen of Sehun’s phone and he idly flips to the screen, reading the message. He debates with himself for a while, side-eyeing his undone homework spread on his bed.
Then he calls Jongin.
Sehun honestly doesn’t know what had prompted them to go to a party being thrown on a weeknight especially since the invitation was sent through a series of chain texts. He has a test the next day and some work left to do, but he pushes it to the recesses of his mind when they pull up in front of the house.
It’s tucked away from the main roads, about ten minutes into the woods deep. There are dim lights streaming from the windows and people milling about in the front yard, undoubtedly intoxicated.
“C’mon Jongin,” Sehun says when he gets out of the car, “the party don’t start ’til we walk in.”
Jongin rolls his eyes, but the motion goes unseen, lost in the darkness of the night. They come up to the front porch, and before they can knock, someone opens the door.
“Captain-” Jongin starts to stutter, jaw slack. The guy laughs lightly.
“Don’t worry, we’re not at practice anymore. Just call me Junmyeon,” he steps inside, “come in.”
When he walks through the doorway, Sehun nods his head at Junmyeon, “Hey, I’m Sehun, nice to finally meet you.”
“Likewise,” Junmyeon smiles and he looks nothing like what Sehun would imagine a lacrosse captain would look like-too soft.
Suddenly, there’s a crash and he straightens up, cocking his head and listening. After a while, he sighs and distractedly claps both of them on the shoulder, “Enjoy the party and don’t hurt yourselves too much, boys.”
“You too!” Jongin calls awkwardly at Junmyeon’s retreating back. Sehun gives him a judging look and Jongin blushes in embarrassment.
“Smooth.”
Jongin points out the other captain, Yifan, across the room, watching the rest of the party-goers. He’s leaning against the wall, leather-clad arms crossed against his chest. When Sehun glances at him, Yifan’s eyes snap up to meet his, almost like a greeting, before sliding away. Sehun shivers and they mingle their way into another room.
They make their way through the house, music blasting in the background and drunken teens stumbling around. There are a few couples taking up space on couches, looking like they’re determined to suck their partners’ faces off.
The punch on the table looks questionable, with the purple flower petals scattered in and around it.
Sehun shrugs and pours a cup for the both of them. He looks over and sees Jongin grimacing into his cup and laughs, throwing an arm around his shoulder.
“Cheers to the start of an awesome high school career.” They clank cups jovially.
Later that week, Jongin’s sitting cross legged on his bed, furrowing his eyebrows at some of the homework when Sehun comes out of the bathroom. They both had just finished practice and are taking turns to shower, so when it’s Jongin’s turn, Sehun pointedly focuses on his work, cranking out answer after answer.
He doesn’t imagine the water trickling down the planes of Jongin’s body, down the crevices, down-
Sehun presses harder onto the paper, willing his body to calm down and breaking the pencil in the process.
As Jongin walks out of the bathroom, Sehun occupies himself with picking imaginary splinters out of his hand. When Jongin’s back is turned, he shuffles onto the bed with the remainder of his homework and lands face first; that way, he won’t have to worry about the thin fabric of his pants and how it covers nothing. Just in case.
Jongin scrutinizes him suspiciously before taking a towel to his hair, picking through the contents of his bag at the same time. He types a text to someone and his mouth quirks up before coming over to Sehun, whining dramatically.
“You gotta help me with this math, Sehun, please, I’m dying.” Sehun flips through his notes, laying them out in front of him and clicking his tongue.
“Maybe if you didn’t sleep-“
“I wasn’t! I was…resting my eyes,” Jongin protests halfheartedly, setting down his notebook in front of Sehun and jutting out his lower lip. “Please.”
Sehun frowns but doesn’t really mean it, “Fine.” He rolls his eyes when Jongin hisses a yes and jumps on the bed, settling himself on the sheets.
Their shoulders knock into each other and they laugh about how the bed won’t be able to accommodate them soon enough, especially with the rate they’re growing. Jongin looks down at his paper and Sehun can see his eyelashes flutter, can feel his body pressed against his side.
He doesn’t get to dwell on it because soon enough, Jongin complains about how he doesn’t understand what he’s doing. Sehun corrects his problems with some snark and gets a playful elbow to the ribs and he’s never been more content.
Later, Sehun can’t help the fond smile that spreads across his face when he looks over and Jongin eyelids have drooped closed. He takes the papers, dangerously close to being covered in drool, from under Jongin’s face and organizes them into piles of relevance.
After getting up and turning off the light, Sehun wraps them both in the comforter and falls asleep to the sound of Jongin’s soft breathing.
When Sehun catches Jongin in the hallway a few days later, in between classes, he’s a little surprised because Jongin looks over his shoulder in anticipation and he cuts off mid-sentence.
Jongin spots someone and waves them over, but Sehun grabs his arm, “Wait! Wait, what about the movie night?”
The girl is headed towards them and Jongin steps towards her, carelessly tossing his response behind him, “Next Friday, right? Got it. I gotta talk to Luhan noona about something-I’ll see you later, Sehun.”
After a moment, he’s gone, and Sehun’s left gripping to nothing but air. He doesn’t really think much about it, only that their time together has been scarce recently.
It’s not actually anyone’s fault since Sehun is suddenly swept up with team dinners and events, along with the ever-growing piles of homework; he doesn’t have much time to relax at all. Jongin has been the rising rookie of the lacrosse team and attending all the varsity games as a substitute has become a necessity.
Slowly, their homework hangouts get less and less frequent, due to conflicting game nights and cross country meets. Chanyeol also develops the habit of dragging Sehun to his NHS meetings to double as help with the attendance and his own personal driver.
It’s nearing the end of the first month of school, the night Sehun and Jongin had planned. They’re even busier and don’t have time to see each other at all besides the occasional head nod in the hallways, so Sehun just assumes Jongin remembers like he always does.
Sehun picks up pizza on the way home and pulls into his driveway, eager. Going inside, he cleans up the house a little, washing dishes and fixing the throw pillows on the couch.
Except, instead of showing up on Sehun’s porch for their movie night as scheduled, Jongin texts him.
From: Jongin [6:57pm]
> shit shit shit i totally forgot
> sorry can’t make it tonight
> :(
Sehun waves it off and types an it’s okay back, settling on the couch with his popcorn and remote in hand. The Avengers play in front of him and he watches in subdued silence, scrolling through his social media absently on his phone. The pizza box is hot and sits in front of him, unopened.
It’s never really the same without Jongin’s snide remarks punctuating every scene and Sehun puts his phone away after he sees an Instagram of the movie theaters, Jongin included in the tags.
He can feel himself being pushed away slowly, filed to the back of Jongin’s mind, down the list of priorities. It’s not the first time, he recalls Jongin distractedly saying he needed to be somewhere and disregarding everything Sehun had told him in a rush. It’s also not as uncommon anymore, when Jongin cancels plans in favor of hanging out with his new friends. It comes with being busy, meeting new people, of course.
Sehun can hardly blame him; the lacrosse guys are cool and can definitely provide some boosts up the social ladder. A freshman starting at a brand new school needs connections. He gets it. Really.
Sighing, Sehun picks his phone back up when the credits roll and opens a new message to Jongdae.
From: Sehun [8:02pm]
> hey wanna marathon spiderman at my house
He gets a reply not a minute later.
From: Jongdae [8:02pm
> did you even need to ask is the question
> should i bring anything
From: Sehun [8:03pm]
> just yourself
Jongdae arrives in sweats and his glasses, dropped off by his dad, and steps into the living room. “Is that pizza I smell?” He makes a dive for the box and emerges with two slices, smiling widely as he offers one to Sehun unabashedly.
They watch Spiderman together, Jongdae cracking puns across the couch cushions. He doesn’t ask why the pizza is cold, but he does shove popcorn down Sehun’s shirt and complains when it’s returned to him, conveniently sprinkled in his hair.
Sehun forgets his phone, tossed haphazardly on the coffee table, as he sleepily puts on the third movie and doesn’t watch a minute of it before he’s knocked out.
The following day, Sehun finds himself facing Yixing and Kyungsoo’s ridiculous metaphoric dancing-around-each-other-avoiding-the-UST at lunch. It’s disgustingly cute.
They’re at the tail end of the table, sitting next to a some lacrosse guys who look way too ripped to be in high school. It’s all because of Jongin, who insisted on sitting with his friends on the team and Chanyeol just likes any environment with more potential food to steal.
He recognizes a few people from the party they attended, but no one really gives him a second glance. Jongin, on the other hand, is ensnared in a conversation with Luhan, captain of the soccer team. She sends Sehun a smile and flicks a lock of her pink hair behind her before refocusing on Jongin.
Sehun can tell that Jongin is a little smitten, but he ignores the pang he feels in his chest. Even after years of experiencing Jongin’s little crushes, it never gets easier, and Sehun just gets better at acting. At least to Jongin, because Chanyeol eyes him with something close to sympathy.
Waving Chanyeol off with a piece of the saddest fruit he’s ever seen, Sehun looks over to see Jongdae slide himself into the remaining seat in front of him. There’s a few affirming greetings exchanged with some people occupying the table and he grins toothily.
Chanyeol and Jongdae fist bump, ecstatic. “Didn’t know you knew each other,” Sehun remarks, in the process of figuring out how to eat his lunch in the least painful way possible.
“We’re music bros,” Jongdae says, puffing out his chest. Chanyeol does the same and laughs, “This guy has the voice of angels-has he told you?”
“No way,” he protests, but it’s halfhearted, “you flatter me so.” Sehun shakes his head in fake disbelief because of course these two would get along the moment they met.
He turns his head to say something to Jongin, but finds himself facing Jongin’s back still. Faltering a little, but composing himself just as fast, Sehun turns back to Jongdae, “And Chanyeol here, can play almost anything known to man. Plus his voice, ugh, to die for.”
Chanyeol sputters indignantly at his mocking and Jongdae manages to keep his milk down, but how he does remains a question to Sehun.
Kyungsoo looks over, expression mixed with curiosity and a hint of disgust at Jongdae’s wavering control over his body fluids. Yixing follows, because if there’s one thing he can do nowadays, is follow after Kyungsoo. He looks like a puppy, leash wrapped tightly around Kyungsoo’s hands.
She peers at Jongdae, “You can sing?”
“Just on my spare time, m’lady,” he replies, eyes twinkling as Yixing glares at him a little.
He takes the time she spends contemplating to stuff his face with pizza, eyeing the clock. Yixing tugs at her sleeve, mildly disgruntled, “I can sing too, you know.”
Kyungsoo indulges him a smile and starts to place her trash in a plastic baggie, ready to carry it to the garbage. She fixes his hair primly, patting him on his head, “Of course you can.”
Sehun locks gazes with Chanyeol and mouths, so whipped. Chanyeol guffaws into his lunch and replies, like a dog, before the bell rings and dismisses them. They all stand up and start to shuffle towards the door, heading to their next class.
When Sehun turns to look for Jongin, he finds that he’s gone, along with Luhan, lost in the flow of high schoolers.
After that, Jongin misses a whole week of school. Sehun tries to text him and gets no response in return, so he goes to all the teachers after class and asks for an extra copy of work.
He drops Chanyeol off after practice and drives to Jongin’s house, work and notes compiled in an old folder. When he tries the door, it’s open and no one is to be seen in the house-it’s a regular occurrence with the multitude of people swinging in and out.
Making his way up the stairs, Sehun peeks into Jongin’s empty room and sighs, placing the folder on the bed. It’s unmade and has dirty clothes peeking out from underneath it. On the table next to it, there’s a framed picture of them. They have their arms around each other and they’re not looking at the camera, more focused on each other.
Sehun remembers it well; Jongin had just won a dancing competition, and when Sehun went up to congratulate him, Jongin had swept him into a suffocating hug. He had made some kind of joke and they both laughed until they could barely stand straight, not letting go of the other. Jongin’s mom had taken the picture from the side and Sehun touches the glass, tracing over Jongin’s face fondly.
He remembers the way Jongin’s body had moved on the stage, free and seemingly without any effort at all. He remembers Jongin showing him how to dance, how to listen to the music, feel it reverberate through his body. He remembers when he first started to realize he was in love with his best friend.
“What are you doing here?” Sehun draws his hand back and turns, facing a slightly ruffled Jongin. His hair looks like someone ran their fingers through it and his breathing is a bit labored. “Just dropping off your school stuff. Where have you been?” Sehun asks, ignoring the all-too-familiar pang.
“I was sick, and thanks,” Jongin’s eyes fall to the floor and he scratches his neck, “Sorry, I missed the movie night, it totally slipped my mind.”
He moves forward until he’s a foot away and bites his lip-Sehun wants to reach over and lean in and-
“It’s cool, you had plans,” he swallows thickly, “Just-just don’t forget I exist too, okay?” Jongin looks at him and for the first time in his life, Sehun can’t figure out what’s behind his mask.
Jongin mutters a “yeah” and Sehun has to restrain himself from doing anything stupid, because he doesn’t want to ruin anything, doesn’t want to risk.
“Hey, I’m heading out, I’ll see you later?” He gets a nod and Sehun drives home, palms tingling against the wheel from wanting to pull Jongin in, close.
He doesn’t risk and this is what he gets in return.
Despite saying otherwise, Jongin still doesn’t answer any texts Sehun sends him. It’s frustrating as well as disheartening, that he feels like he’s losing his best friend for no reason.
Jongin sometimes doesn’t show up to class either, and Sehun knows for a fact he isn’t sick-but he knows one thing and it’s that he’s being lied to. And when he does show up, he’s attached to either Luhan or Junmyeon or Yifan, always busy, always occupied.
“It’s so frustrating,” Sehun says one night, hands running through his hair, “it just feels like he keeps avoiding me, you know?”
Chanyeol sighs and shifts his eyes down, shuffling the papers into neat piles as Kyungsoo dutifully files them away. Another NHS meeting had just ended and Sehun slumps in one of the vacant chairs, chin resting on his chest.
“Just try to talk to him,” Chanyeol loosens his tie and proceeds to lock up the room. Kyungsoo clicks her tongue and Sehun vaguely feels like he’s done something wrong.
“It’s obvious he’s avoiding Sehun, get on the page Chanyeol.” She turns to face Sehun, “Look, if he’s avoiding you and not talking to you, bring it to him. Find him, corner him, get him to talk to you. If you keep this up, you’re only going to get more distant.”
They walk out of the school, into the parking lot and Sehun looks at her, eyes wide, “You’re a genius.” Chanyeol mutters under his breath in disbelief and reluctant acceptance.
“Of course she is!” Yixing says, pushing himself off his car and taking a few steps towards them before throwing an arm around Kyungsoo’s shoulders. She looks up at him, gaze softening slightly. When Sehun and Chanyeol start walking away, she calls out: “Don’t forget what I said!”
Sehun turns and walks backwards to give her a salute and Chanyeol yells, “YES MA’AM.”
After Kyungsoo’s pep talk, Sehun finds himself in front of Junmyeon’s house one night. He knocks on the door and Yifan swings it open, surveying him distastefully, “What do you want.”
“I just want to talk to Jongin. About why he’s been missing from school. And ignoring my texts. You know. The unusual.” Sehun tries to peer over his shoulder and is blocked with a grunt.
“You can’t. He’s busy right now.” Yifan brings his hand to his face, suddenly looking too old to be in high school, and rubs his temple, “You can leave a message.”
Sehun hears yelling coming from the house and Chanyeol (Wait, Chanyeol?) pokes his head from a room, frantic. “Yifan-he’s-“ He spots Sehun and his eyes widen, “Sehun, don’t ask, just run.”
“What?” He’s confused but there’s this dark figure barreling towards the door, towards him and he turns away in panic. Tripping a little on the porch steps, Sehun picks himself back up and keeps going, forgoing his car and heading straight into the woods.
There’s growling and snarling coming from behind him and he can’t even look back, too frightened to do anything but run. The leaves crunch under his shoes as he sprints through the forest, avoiding trees and rocks as the sounds get closer.
He reaches a clearing and listens to the sound of his own harsh breathing, the moon acting as the only light that lets him see his hands trembling when he holds them up. His breath comes out shaky and he’s absolutely terrified.
The growling has stopped, but Sehun can’t shake the feeling of being watched. Before he knows it, he’s being pinned to the ground, snapping teeth close to his throat.
Shouts mixed with growls come from all around him and Sehun feels a force pulling at the figure above him. It snaps at him, nicking his jaw and he lets out a surprised cry.
The figure locks gazes with Sehun and he draws back, as much as he can, in shock, before it’s pulled off of him completely. He scrambles to sit up and he’s met with Chanyeol’s apologetic face, holding back his assaulter. Both Junmyeon and Yifan flank Chanyeol, focused more on the thrashing-
Oh, Sehun thinks, everything clicking into place. “Is-is that Jongin?” His voice wavers and it’s not louder than a whisper, but someone steps toward him with a placating hesitance.
“Yes.”
It turns out to be Luhan, the girl who Jongin had seemed so attached to. Yifan shoots her a glare but she ignores it, coming over to Sehun and offering him a hand. He takes it and is surprised when she pulls him up with no effort.
“We’re so sorry, he’s experiencing his first full moon so he’s not really himself right now,” Luhan says in a reminiscent tone, “it'll get better as time passes.” She puts her hand on his shoulder in sympathy and Sehun doesn’t have the heart or energy to shake it off. The gears in his mind are working on overdrive.
Sehun’s throat is dry as his tone when he asks: “Why is he like this in the first place.” He’s tired of all the sympathy and sorry looks he gets, he just wants, just-
Junmyeon looks up from holding Jongin down as Sehun goes through all the events that may have lead to this. There’s nothing he can think of. Sehun is silently freaking out, thoughts too scrambled to sort.
“You’ll have to ask him when he comes to his senses, I’m afraid.” Junmyeon watches Sehun with a little bit of pity and Sehun wants to throw up.
When he starts to back out of the clearing, Yifan’s voice rings clear, “You won’t tell anyone of this, I hope.” A warning.
Sehun hears something like a “yeah” rip out of his throat before he’s running again, leaving behind the clearing, leaving behind Junmyeon and Yifan and Luhan and Chanyeol and-Jongin. No one comes after to him.
He keeps running until his lungs burn and his hair is disheveled from the wind, keeps running until he bursts out of the woods, keeps running until he finds his driveway and porch. Taking the stairs two at a time and closing his bedroom door with a click, Sehun slides against his bed and pulls his knees to his chest. Rests his forehead on his forearms and breathes out.
For an hour, he just focuses on breathing, in and out, and in, and out. When he determines he can function without breaking down (more than he has), Sehun peels his clothes off one piece at a time, haphazardly throwing them into a pile and climbs under his covers.
Pulling them above his head, he waits for sleep to overcome him.
Nothing happens, even though he feels tired down to the marrow of his bones, and Jongin’s flashing eyes burn his eyelids every time he closes them. When he inhales again, Sehun can smell the faint scent of Jongin against his skin and he’s suddenly choking, struggling for air.
He feels like dying.
Tears gather up in his eyes and he can’t, he can’t breathe, everything is-nothing is right, Jongin, his Jongin-isn’t-
Sehun listens his pulse hammering, echoing through his skull along with the muted sound of shaky inhales, punctuated by keening noises. The moonlight streaming in from his window flickers and he realizes it’s his vision, clouding black at the edges. He feels like his world has shifted, like nothing he knows is real anymore, like something-someone has been taken away from him.
It’s irrational but the thought grips his lungs and he curls into a ball, shaking, telling himself to breathe, and breathe, and breathe.
Sehun eventually falls asleep into a dreamless trance, tears tracking his cheeks, pillow wet.
He doesn’t go to school the next day.
His mom comes in with a worried expression, “Honey, you’re going to be late.”
The covers are pulled up to his nose and his voice comes out muffled. “I’m not feeling so good, can I skip today?” Sehun’s throat is rough and eyes are swollen from crying the night before. She comes over, lovingly pushing back the hair from his forehead, a knowing look in her gaze.
“Of course.” She leans down to kiss him on the forehead and closes the door behind her, leaving Sehun behind to face his ceiling quietly.
When first period passes, his phone dings with a few messages he doesn’t bother to check, wrapping himself tighter within his blanket cocoon instead. It’s frayed and the ends are worn, but it presents him with something familiar in a suddenly unfamiliar environment.
After last night, Sehun thinks he’s living a dream-the lacrosse captains, soccer captain, Chanyeol, they’re all…werewolves. It seems silly inside his head and when he says it out loud, it sounds even sillier.
And to imagine, Jongin was one now too. He was one of them.
Will he-will he try to kill anyone-kill Sehun-like he tried to last night?
Sehun simmers in his thoughts, slowly trying to connect what he knows; there’s not much, he concludes, disgruntled.
He rubs absently at his jaw and his hand recoils from the dried trail of blood flaking down his neck. Oh. Jongin had pretty much tried to kill him last night. The event was still sinking into him, making Sehun feel like he was going through an out-of-body experience and he just couldn’t register what was going on.
Jongin, no longer human, no longer his best friend, no longer himself-
Sehun’s jolted from his thoughts when his phone rings obnoxiously and he lifts it to his face, squinting. It stops ringing and he scrolls down his screen, skimming over the texts.
From: Jongin [8:23am]
> dude where are u
From: Chanyeol [8:31am]
> for what it’s worth, sorry for not telling you
> don’t be mad at jongin, it’s not his fault
From: Jongin [8:37am]
> luhan noona says we have to talk?
From: Jongin [8:42am]
> are u mad. man i’m sorry okay
> no one’s telling me what i did
From: Jongin [8:45am]
> i’ll come after school
So when Jongin hesitantly comes into Sehun’s room, Sehun’s ready. He’s sat himself up, he’s put up a wall, he’s told himself he’s ready (it still tastes like a lie, lie, lie).
Jongin shuffles over, head down, and sits himself on the end of the bed. They sit in silence and Sehun waits for him to start, to look him in the eyes, anything. “Can you just tell me what I did wrong?”
Sehun heaves a weary sigh, “You really don’t know? Anything?”
He watches Jongin shake his head miserably and turns away, facing the wall. Sehun’s voice comes out in a whisper, “That’s how I feel. I don’t know anything anymore.”
His words keep spilling out, slightly broken. “You-you stop answering my texts, stop coming to school. You ignore me and go off somewhere and when I look for you, you’re not there.”
Sehun lets out a humorless laugh and Jongin scoots closer to him, “I’m sorry, I didn’t realize.”
And that’s when Jongin takes a look at him and draws in a breath.
Reaching for his face, Jongin asks in horror, “Did I-did I do this?” He thumbs at the dried blood on Sehun’s skin, “I was planning on telling you when I knew I could control myself.” He sounds angry with himself and Sehun closes his eyes, revels in Jongin’s warmth.
His hand is still on Sehun’s face, but Sehun hasn’t finished listing what was wrong-what else Jongin didn’t realize.
Minutes pass by and they sit in silence as Sehun gathers himself, planning to pour his whole heart into what he says next-he’s planning to risk, risk, risk. He’s planning to be reckless.
“You didn’t even realize how much I’ve loved you this whole time.” Sadness makes Sehun’s voice quiet and he feels it seeped in his veins, deep rooted, spread everywhere.
Jongin drops his hand to his shoulder and squeezes lightly, “Oh, I did. After I was turned, I could-I could smell it. On you. The day you came by my house, the times you spent looking for me. But I didn’t want to believe it was true, because you deserve so much better-better than me.”
Sehun wants to protest, wants to insist against him, but Jongin shakes his head.
He links his fingers together in his lap and Sehun wants them to be linked with his. Jongin sounds small and young when he continues. “I tried to stay away but my, you know, inner wolf kept drawing me back to you. So I’d stay with Yifan and the others to distract me. Still, it took me turning into a werewolf for me to finally figure it out,” he says softly. “Ugh, I’m so dumb.”
Sehun laughs shakily, like he’s going to cry, “Yeah.” He reaches for Jongin’s hand and promptly falls back against the pillows, dragging Jongin with him. They lay facing each other and Jongin tentatively smiles. “Am I forgiven?”
“Not really, but we can start with that later. Let me enjoy my moment of peace, Jesus.”
“I prefer Jongin, but you know, Jesus is good, too.” He gets a slap to the arm and gradually, Sehun feels everything start to fall back into place.
After finding out about Jongin, Sehun feels like the metaphoric rug has been abruptly pulled out from under him. Or the door to the supernatural knowledge club has been opened, because everything suddenly makes sense in a weird way.
Half the people he thought he knew, weren’t just people; even Yixing was a werewolf. He had just chosen to join Yifan’s pack the other day.
Sehun was sitting on the couch, listening to Jongin’s murmurs about his new lifestyle, when Yixing had knocked on the door and promptly bared his neck for Yifan to assess. After Yifan had flickered his eyes in acknowledgement, Yixing had come in, flashing his dimple at them.
“Told you, Kyungsoo’s a total genius,” he said to Sehun sagely and laughed when Jongin looked at them both in confusion.
Jongin had just chosen to ignore him in favor of nuzzling Sehun’s neck. “Scent-marking,” he had said, but never really explained-however, Sehun was enjoying it too much to care at the moment.
They all sit at the lunch table together now, joking around as new members get to know each other. Yixing’s in the process of introducing Kyungsoo to a girl named Baekhyun, who’s apparently part of his band as the lead singer. She’s loud and infectious and everyone can tell Kyungsoo’s a little in love with her already.
Yixing pouts and tugs at Kyungsoo for attention and she links their fingers before going back to listening to Baekhyun talk about the band and how it’s like.
Down the table, Luhan drags over a new student. “Minseok,” she announces to the table and sits him down, clinging to his bicep, “and he’s mine.” He looks totally lost, wide eyes and everything, but she smiles toothily at him and he hesitantly returns it.
Zitao sits on her other side and giggles knowingly, whining when Luhan jabs her in the side. Yifan looks mildly distressed when she leans over him to grab a cheese stick from Kyungsoo’s lunch but tries to hide it by taking a sip of his water.
Jongdae joins the fray, slipping into the seat next to Sehun and obnoxiously whispering, “Score, you totally landed the lacrosse dude. Actually you hit the jackpot, damn.” He looks around at the table and Sehun watches as he takes it in. The weres perk up to his unintended compliment and Jongdae happily remains oblivious, stabbing a fork through Chanyeol’s food and earning him a yelp.
He swears he sees Junmyeon preen a little.
Junmyeon later announces there’s a lacrosse game and the pack ends up attending along with the humans. Sehun has watched enough of Jongin to know what’s going on, so he sits next to Minseok and explains some of the fouls to him.
He finds out that Minseok has just joined the soccer team after transferring from his last school and Luhan had pretty much picked him up like a stray. Next to him, Jongdae sits and listens to the explanations, while also attentively watching the game.
Their school leads easily, being able to periodically cycle through all of the alternates and even some of the junior varsity. Jongin’s on field, in the place of Yifan, and he’s weaving through all the defenders like they’re nothing. Right as the timer hits zero, he fires a shot into the goal and the score goes up once more.
Everyone on the bleachers stand up and cheer as Jongin is dogpiled upon and the team celebrates. Sehun makes his way down to the field and is swept into Jongin’s arms like all those years ago.
And then he feels lips on his, warm, happy. They’re kissing.
Jongin kisses like he’s on fire, taking everything with him, fingers searing through Sehun’s skin like it’s nothing but paper. It’s the first time they’re really kissing, and Sehun can taste the blue gatorade slip through his teeth, tangling with his tongue. The people at the bleachers are already filing out when they pull apart, both breathless and dazed. No one on the team even blinks twice, but someone whispers something like: “It’s about damn time.”
Jongin clutches his helmet under his arm and grins at the parents clapping him on the back, congratulating him on the winning goal; Sehun just stares at his lips, the way they curve up at the edges, swollen and pink and mine.
It’s bemusing-when the stadium lights hit Jongin’s eyes just right, Sehun thinks there might be some sort of punchline because no one should be allowed to look like that, especially after an hour of grime and sweat. So as Jongin turns to face him, he braces himself; it turns out there is no punchline, but there’s kissing and hooting involved and Sehun finds he doesn’t mind at all.