by Thea Chin
“Hey, Ki. Ready?”
The girl looks up from organizing the pile her supervisor just gave her. “Yep! What is your stomach thinking of?”
Jaiden laughs. “I don’t know. Sandwiches?”
Fifteen minutes later, the two end up sitting by a palm tree with club sandwiches that Jaiden bought.
“I wanted to treat you!” Tsukiko complains.
“Maybe next time?” Jaiden suggests, carefully leaving out the fact that he knows the owner. “This is your first paycheck ever; save it for something for yourself.”
“But I really wanted to thank you,” she frowns slightly.
“It’s no big deal. I sometimes drive Darren here when he’s too.”
“Not just for that, but also for being such a good friend. You’re the first person who’s talked to me and the one I can count on the most since I’ve been here for the past month,” she sulks into her bread.
How can Darren resist someone so adorable, Jaiden wonders to himself.
“Alright, alright. Next time, I promise,” he agrees.
“Really?” she smiles contagiously.
Jaiden feels a smile forming on his own face. He sticks out a pinky which she intertwines hers with.
“Bloody moon, you’re cold!” Jaiden exclaims.
Tsukiko is quick to take her hand back. “Sorry!”
“That’s not what I meant,” he says with a shake of his head. “Maybe I should have suggested something warmer. Wait here.”
Jaiden rushes into a nearby store and returns with a cup of hot tea. “Give me your hand,” he tells her, reaching for them and holding them against the cup with his own.
“Thank you,” she breathes in relief.
“You should have told me you were cold,” Jaiden scolds.
“I didn’t even realize until you mentioned it.”
He tosses his jacket off his shoulders. “Take this too,” he insists, but Tsukiko quickly puts her hands up.
“There’s no need for that,” she assures him.
“Why not?” he questions. “It’s what guys do in the movies all the time.”
“What they don’t show is the guys getting sick afterwards,” she shoots back, helping him readjust the outerwear on his frame.
“But you’re cold,” he states plainly.
She thinks for a second before suggesting, “How about we eat in your car instead?”
After another moment of consideration, Jaiden nods along. “I can drive back to the office first so I don’t have to refill the meter too.”
“It’s a plan then.”
“So how are you liking Lynford?” he asks once they’re both buckled in.
“It’s nice,” she replies. “Pre-concussion me knew what she was doing, I guess.”
Jaiden chuckles, “And how’s working at Destiny Enterprise? Are your chemistry skills transferring over?”
“Not yet,” Tsukiko giggles along, “but maybe one day. They do support a lot of research, and the school makes you business majors take chemistry for a reason, right?”
“Still better than calculus,” Jaiden sighs dramatically.
“I’m just glad to have a job,” Tsukiko continues. “It’s good to have a little footing after my scholarship runs out.”
“Valentine Memorial Fund, right?” He turns his blinkers on and pulls onto another street. “That’s like the one private hospital Zeng’s family doesn’t own.”
“The more time I spend with you, the more it seems like your whole fraternity is full of heirs.” Tsukiko eyes the striped hood of the white race car she is currently in.
“I guess you can say that,” he agrees. “I think the only exception to that is… Matthews? Yeah, Lee’s in entertainment, Finley’s in athletics, and Chan’s in basically everything.”
“Matthews?” she repeats.
Jaiden scratches his head tentatively. “Yeah… I don’t think it’s my place to share, but he was in a rough spot when Chan first found him. He’d just lost his brother then too.”
Tsukiko rubs her hands together and decides to change the subject. “Anyway, what trade are you in, if you don’t mind sharing?”
“Hotels! Destiny Enterprise actually holds a lot of the stocks for some of them, so Darren and I have known each other for a long time now; we’re like actual brothers at this point. Say, you should come along the next time Mu Alpha vacations in one of them!”
“I don’t know. I don’t want to keep intruding on your fraternity events.”
“What do you mean? You’re already practically one of us,” he says, pointing at her left wrist and taking a left into the parking lot at the same time.
“This hardly means anything.”
“Haven’t you seen the other guy’s bracelets? They’re all missing a piece on their inner wrists, and your ink looks like it perfectly compliments—”
“Darren’s,” she finishes for him. “Terena told me.”
“Ah, Terena.” Jaiden shakes his head and parks the car. “I can’t believe she tossed you into the pool.”
“I was the one who ultimately fell,” she shrugs. “I’ll have to be more cautious.”
“She’s a character, honestly. But, she makes Darren happy, so what can I do?”
Tsukiko looks down at her sandwich after Jaiden’s words cut a little deeper than expected. The male immediately feels guilty but does not know what to say to comfort her without giving out too much.
“So the Mu Alpha vacation?” he transitions after stuffing his cheeks with bread. “I’m putting your name on the invite list.”
“I still don’t think—”
“What if Chan agrees to it?”
Tsukiko lets out a small laugh at his persistence and gives in. “Fine.”
“Wooh!” Jaiden pumps a fist into the air. “You’re not going to regret it. I promise!”
* * *
Tsukiko sighs as she watches the last bus pass by while she is still in the lobby of the office building. Even the sun has gone home for the day, but as a student, she has to work fewer days with extra hours to cut down transportation time. Oh well, she supposes. The night has been no stranger to her for the past few weeks.
During her idle walk back, she examines the shape on her wrist. It looks like a sideways ‘S’ with decorative dots and hooks on both ends that seem to connect to something, probably Darren’s design. Darren. Despite his cold exterior, she remembers it was him who rescued her in her drunken haze. The thought brings an unwarranted warmth to her chest. Then she frowns. There is something else she is beginning to remember about that night the more she stares at the design. It had been glowing, right? She shakes her head at the thought; that can’t be possible. She must have mistaken it for Darren’s yellow ink while under influence.
Still, the thought keeps creeping into her mind. So much so that she doesn’t realize someone calling her from behind.
“Hey! You think you’re all that by ignoring me, huh?” The owner of the voice grabs her by the shoulder and spins her around.
Tsukiko’s heart begins racing once she’s noticed the man. He isn’t anybody she knows, nor does he look like he wants to be friends.
“I said ‘how much!’” he repeats.
“What?”
“Don’t play dumb. A young girl like you walking alone in the middle of the night? Let me guess, you can’t figure out how to pay off those college loans, can you? Now tell me how much you’re asking for, or I’ll just take the service for free!”
“I’m not what you think I am!” she tries again.
Tsukiko darts her eyes left and right to see where she can escape to.
“You asked for it!” he growls, pulling her roughly by the collar before forcing her to her knees.
Tsukiko takes this chance to connect her fist to his jewels, but it seems as though the man has been in this situation before. He jumps behind her and pins her to the floor with her hands behind her back.
“You think you’re so smart,” he mocks.
&nb
sp; Tsukiko grits her teeth but has one more trick up her sleeve. Literally. Jaiden gave her a pen-shaped pepper spray upon their second meeting. It’s strong enough to keep wolves away, he had said with uncanny certainty. With a mountain as the fraternity’s backyard, she didn’t question it then, and she certainly doesn’t have time to question it now. All she has to do is figure out how to slide it down her arm where she always keeps it on walks like these.
Luckily, the man solves the problem for her.
“What the—?” he exclaims, sharply retracting his grip on her hands. “Why is your skin glowing?”
Tsukiko takes this moment of surprise to roll over and aim the spray at him. Before she can though, something big and brown throws her predator off of her. Instead, she sprays right into the eyes of her rescuer.
The brown thing whimpers and staggers backwards. To her dismay, Tsukiko soon comes to realize that she is staring at a wolf. On the bright side, her assaulter has also noticed this and takes off running.
Tsukiko, on the other hand, is too entranced by the beast to flee. She stares at how it moves with such elegance and strength even as it struggles with the chemicals shot at its face. Most of all, she is drawn to the ring of gold on its right arm. It’s too bright to make out its shapes, but by the way her ink is unmistakably glowing too, there’s only one name she wants to call out.
“Darren Dust?”
The wolf freezes at her voice. Tears still blur its vision, but it can hear her taking a step towards it. In panic, it disappears back into the night so quickly, Tsukiko wonders if it had been there at all.
Well, one thing’s for sure: the spray certainly does work on wolves.
* * *
After that night, Tsukiko earns an earful from Jaiden demanding to know why she didn’t call him to pick her up. Darren has also been avoiding her even more than before. So much so that he has even skipped today’s lab. Tsukiko debates whether or not to tell her lab partner about her strange encounter, but decides it sounds too incredible for her to even believe let alone share. She decides to gather a little more information before taking any next steps, and the next Mu Alpha vacation seems like a good opportunity to do so.
Turns out, their next trip is not at one of the Han Group hotels, but a camping adventure just outside the frat house. Jaiden is surprised to learn how eager Tsukiko is to come along just as she is surprised to find out how easily Chan agreed to have her. Surely, she reasons, if Darren is actually a wolf, they’d want to keep it a secret and her at arm’s length. That is, unless they do want her to find out, or if the secret is Darren’s and Darren’s alone.
She scolds herself mentally for entertaining the thought, thinking how crazy she must have been to call out his name that night. Still, a part of her nags at her to give the idea more attention.
“DNPH under the fume hood!” Mark warns a pair of students. He then turns to Jaiden while his partner is away watching their crystals melt at the heating station. “No Dust today, Han?”
Jaiden extracts a chromatography plate from its solution with the shake of his head.
“He seemed fine this morning. Why isn’t he here?”
“If I had to guess,” Jaiden says, shifting his eyes over to Tsukiko, “it’ll be because of her.”
“His soulmate, right?”
“Yep,” Jaiden confirms.
“How long do you think he can keep this up? Not to mention his girlfriend is a total—”
“Woah, watch what you’re saying there, Mr. Instructor.”
Mark rolls his eyes. “It’s just irritating.”
“Don’t complain; at least you’re not the one suffering from unrequited love,” Jaiden sighs in the direction of the melting machines.
“No, I meant that it’s irritating that he’s skipping my—”
“Unrequited love?” Tsukiko’s voice startles them both. “Whose?”
“Han’s for his grade if you don’t tell him the melting range soon,” Mark recovers before quickly moving along to the next student.
“You can tell me later,” Jaiden coughs. “I’m going to go look at these plates under the UV lamp.”
Tsukiko watches the two boys flee from her, wondering what kind of conversation she had just disturbed.
T-41 Moons
“Car’s running!” Chan yells at his dawdling boys.
Heading to his president’s warning, an orange-head plops onto the seat beside Tsukiko.
“Hi, I’m Finley,” he greets. “We met at the party during back to school.”
Tsukiko nods. “Finley Fischer, right?”
“That’s me. I’m glad you’re coming. My soulmate didn’t want to be the only girl on this trip.”
“Soulmate?”
“Yeah, my childhood sweetheart.”
Tsukiko lets out a small noise of understanding when a redhead sits on the other side of Finley and introduces herself as Faith. As she waves to her, Tsukiko notices a yellow symbol much like her own on the inner wrist of the girl’s left arm. It is the exact shape of a missing piece of Finley’s bracelet of tattoos. Childhood sweethearts, huh? Tsukiko begins wondering if she did indeed have a past with Darren before her concussion. Still, that doesn’t explain the glowing. Maybe she’ll ask.
“How do your tattoos glow like that?”
The two look at her questioningly. “What do you mean? Soul—”
“Hey guys,” Darren interrupts with only his head visible through the window. Tsukiko’s heart rate unknowingly quickens. “Turns out Terena can make it too! Why don’t we have all the girls sitting together, Fischer? I have something to talk to you about anyway.” He adds the last part with special emphasis.
“Terena Taylor? We didn’t invite—”
The look Darren gives Finley cuts off whatever he was going to say next.
Finley looks at his girlfriend who gives him the nod of approval. He then shoots Tsukiko a quick “catch you later!” before being replaced by the ever-enthusiastic Terena who grins at Tsukiko in such a way, the latter is forced to look out the other window with a sickening feeling brewing in her stomach. After her, Chan hops into the driver’s seat and Cain in the passenger’s, and before long, the SUV takes off with another one filled with the other brothers close behind.
When they reach the first peak of the mountain, the cars are parked around the camping spot for the night. Once they have settled, Chan asks Tsukiko to set up the fish trap at the river and to bring one of the boys along to help her. She looks to Jaiden who is in deep conversation with Darren.
“I told you to stop trying to hook us together,” hisses the latter in a low whisper. “If you try anything this trip—”
“I won’t! Promise! I just wanted my friend to come along,” Jaiden defends with his hands up.
Tsukiko, unaware of the contents of their whispers, is about to approach Jaiden when someone interrupts her.
“I’ll go!” Mark volunteers, already hoisting the metal cage out of the car.
Tsukiko reroutes the direction of her steps and nods. “After you, sir.”
“This is going to be a long two days if you keep calling me ‘sir,’ little mouse,” the lab instructor teases as they break away from the group and wander into the woods.
She raises her brows at the nickname, but decides to ignore it. “Sorry,” she apologizes.
“I’ll let it slide ‘cause you’re adorable,” he says with a comically exaggerated hum.
Tsukiko just laughs at her senior’s flirtation. Soon, they reach the river which diverts their attention to the task at hand.
“We’re going to have to get in the water to set this up,” he tells her.
With pants rolled and shoes off, the two carry the metal cage into the currents and secure it with neighboring stones.
“And the fish just swim right in?” Tsukiko asks.
“Yep!” Mark groans as three joints crack when he straightens up. “There should be plenty by dinner. Oh, and if you’re the one coming to retrieve it, fetch me to come a
long too.”
“Alright. Thanks in advance.”
Mark flops down next to his shoes and begins reacclimating them to his feet. “And uh, even some of the frat brothers don’t know this, but I think I should just tell you to save a little awkwardness for Han. Anyways, it’s best not to invite him to things that include getting into water.”
Tsukiko blinks in surprise at the new request. “Okay…?”
“And um, he’s been feeling awful about not being able to save you from the pool that night at the party, so I apologize on his behalf.”
“The party? That was over a month ago, wasn’t it?”
“Well yeah, but he holds onto things like that,” Mark shrugs. “Could you just like, pretend to walk into oncoming traffic only for him to save your life so he feels better or something?”
“I guess?” Tsukiko laughs. “You sure look out for your little, don’t you?”
“What, me?” Mark scoffs. “Nah, I only have room in this heart for candy like you.”
They both laugh at his wink and finish their task by returning to camp.
As soon as they arrive, they wish they hadn’t. The tent construction team is trapped beneath their project, the fire building team has somehow procured a magnifying glass for the job, and there is another group of people lounging around idly.
“Where’s Chan, Lee?” Mark demands.
“He went back for trash bags to put our recyclables in,” Cain answers, pointing at a growing pile of beer cans the fire building team is using for extra reflection.
“He knew his beta was gone,” Mark grumbles under his breath. “And the rest of you! What are you, five?”
The boys mumble light insults back but take Mark’s following instructions nonetheless. Seeking to be helpful, Tsukiko goes over to one of the tents where Jaiden is. She flips one of the poles he is holding and locks it into the one in his other hand.
“Oh, duh,” Jaiden sighs at the obvious shapes of the pieces. “Thanks, Ki.”
“No problem,” she replies. “Let’s finish this before your alpha gets back, shall we?”
Jaiden is stupefied by her words. “What do you mean ‘alpha’?”
“Oh, I just heard Mark saying something about betas, so I thought I’d go along with it since fraternities use the whole Greek lettering thing.”
