by Thea Chin
“I’m a busy man, alright?” he huffs and clears a spot on the couch for her to sit. “Don’t move, and I’ll be back with the ice cream.”
“Okay!” Tsukiko sings, and he takes his leave.
Of course, the girl is not about to sit still doing nothing with euphoria running through her veins. She tiptoes around the papers and files to his desk to sit in his big, fancy chair. She spins around dramatically, pretending to be CEO of some great corporation. After about thirty seconds of this, her attention shifts to the different trinkets on his desk. Aside from some figurines, he also has three pictures. One is of Terena in a red ball gown, one is of the frat boys after the older ones have just graffitied over his and Jaiden’s faces with markers, and the last is of him as a toddler, staring at his father’s bearded face as the older man points at the camera, trying to get the boy to look forward.
“Cute,” she coos, picking the last one up for a closer look.
A paper slips out as she does so. She picks that up as well and reads the calligraphy on it.
It’s ripped, so she can only read “—vity of His Grandness.”
Not understanding its message, Tsukiko tucks it back behind the frame and returns her focus on the picture. The man in it does not look much older than Chan. The wrist he is pointing to the camera with, his right, peaks out of a well-tailored cuff. However, unlike Darren’s baby white one, it is unmarked.
An uneasy feeling about Darren’s mother makes Tsukiko set down the picture and clear her throat uncomfortably in the silence.
While Tsukiko is probing around in his office, Darren is facing a dilemma. After spending more time than necessary deciding what to buy her in a nearby ice cream parlor, he finally settles for a cookies and cream macaron sandwich thanks to a much agitated and underpaid employee’s suggestion. He quickly makes his way back to his office, slides his badge through the security lock, and pushes open the door open only to find with great worry that the girl is no longer where he left her.
Thankfully, his panic soon subsides when he locates her at his desk with her head between her arms, breathing softly with the setting sun shining through the floor-length windows behind her.
With a sigh, Darren walks over to put his purchase in the mini fridge beside his desk.
“Mama…” the girl mumbles. “… where are you?”
Darren freezes at her words. They are words he knows better than anyone else. Words he has uttered from his own lips countless times. The beeps of the refrigerator from being opened for too long is the only thing that brings him back from his daze.
He isn’t the only one disturbed by the beeps though. The girl stirs awake from the desk. He watches her lift up her head groggily as her blue-tipped hair falls over her shoulder.
“Where am I?” she whispers.
“My office.”
Tsukiko nearly jumps out of the chair when she sees him standing up next to her. Recollection of what she did earlier starts rolling into her brain like an unwanted storm, making her hands fly over her mouth as it and her eyes widen in horror.
“Oh goodness, I’m so sorry!” she exclaims.
“So you remember what you did, huh?” Darren sighs tiredly to himself.
She hears him. “I’m so sorry!”
“It’s alright. I should apologize for the mismanagement of the nitrous oxide tanks in my building. Do you still want the ice cream? No one’s going to eat it if you don’t.”
“S-sure. Thank you.” Her now-logical mind questions if she should stomach this after having cheesecake, but it feels even worse to reject his kindness.
Darren opens the fridge again and presents her with the dessert. “Is this flavor okay?”
“Yes, yes. It’s perfect; thank you so much.”
The male can’t tell if she is just being polite or not now that the gas has worn off. Even if she is, she makes a convincing enough show to make him feel at ease.
“Well um, now that you’re okay,” Darren says, unable to look at her as he speaks, “I’m going to um, take a surveillance walk around the office. You know, management stuff. When you’re done, you can call a cab to take you to your dorm. Here’s my card.” He slides a black piece of plastic towards her. “I’d drive you, but I have a motorcycle. Just um, try not to walk back and text Jaiden when you arrive. I promised him you’d do that.”
“I will,” she agrees.
Darren sends her a quick nod before leaving the increasingly suffocating room.
* * *
“Are you sure?”
Tsukiko nods, her lips pressed into a thin line.
Mark lets out a low noise and slumps on the wall beside his bed. His eyes slide over to the girl seated on his questionable beanbag.
“Darren said you were the only one there when he arrived though.”
“The person went through the emergency exit.”
“Don’t those things make a huge ruckus when you open them?”
“They could have disarmed it.”
“And the dude used laughing gas. Like a dentist?” Mark lets out another noise, this time into a pillow. “I want to believe you, I really do, but at the same time, I don’t want to believe that someone is out to kill you!”
“They might not be trying to kill me; maybe they just—”
“They knew your name, released nitrous oxide on you, and disappeared as soon as a witness appeared. My theory is that there’s something in those blood samples that you should not have been looking at.”
“I—”
“And now they’re after me too ‘cause you told me!” he cries out, hurling a pillow at her.
Unfazed, she just swats the projectile away.
“Noooo! I’m too handsome to die,” he gasps dramatically with one hand on his chest and the other grasping at air.
After his dramatic display, the man sits back up.
“But all jokes aside,” Mark continues, now with a different demeanor, “if you really weren’t hallucinating—and nitrous oxide isn’t much of a hallucinator—this is very serious. Do you want to call the police?”
“I thought werewolves try to keep away from secular authorities.”
“Yeah, but this is your safety we’re talking about. What if Darren doesn’t get there in time next time?”
Still, Tsukiko declines. “I think the situation itself might have something to do with werewolves.”
“What do you mean?”
“I can’t remember… I just have this feeling I was thinking about soulmates or something when I think about those numbers.”
“Fine, but you have to be either at Destiny with Darren or with one of us at all times.”
“I can’t ask you guys to be my bodyguard,” Tsukiko protests.
“With the semester ending, you’re either at work or in our library all the time anyway, so it shouldn’t be a problem,” Mark points out. “Han or I can take you to and from places until we sort all this out.”
“Darren is going to be taking more time off from Destiny with Terena’s due date approaching, and we agreed to leave Jaiden out of this.”
“Which I don’t see why; he cares a lot about you.”
Tsukiko looks at her lap. “That’s exactly why. He gets so emotionally invested, I feel awful making him worry.”
Mark frowns. “He’s not going to be happy when he finds out his new best friend’s been keeping stuff from him.”
“If he finds out.”
“Oh, come on, little mouse. I don’t know how many YA novels you remember reading, but they always find out. Besides, shouldn’t you be more worried about this whole thing? Someone’s after you.”
She flinches, acknowledging some truth in his words. “I am,” she admits, “but there’s nothing that can be done realistically, and no, bodyguards are not the solution.”
“Fine,” Mark huffs. “You can be the lab rat for my experiment then.”
“What do you mean?”
“It’s not ready yet, so you’ll still have to hang out with
Han for at least a few days for me to grade your finals and put on some final touches, okay?”
“O-okay? Wait, no. Before I agree, what are you even talking about?”
Mark smirks. “It’s a secret, so you’ll find out later.”
“What if I don’t agree to it?”
“It’s this or living in constant fear of being gassed and maybe kidnapped.”
“Touché.”
“Anyway, let’s first see what we can find out about our killer dentist.”
It turns out Mu Alpha can do anything including hacking Destiny’s CCTV system. At least, that is what Mark is trying to get Cain to do.
“No.”
“Why,” the beta whines.
“Can’t we just ask Darren?” Tsukiko hisses softly.
“This is more espionage-y,” he replies.
“I can’t tell if you’re taking this seriously or not.”
Cain looks up from the array of colorfully lit knobs on his soundboard. “I’m a Music Hacker as in I hack rhythms and beats to make them sound sick, dude. I’m not a security system guy; That’s boring.”
“That’s not what you said when we had that rave at our school that you couldn’t get tickets for.”
“That’s ‘cause FANCY was there, okay? Differences, Matthews. Know ‘em.”
“The girl group band? Hey, the killer dentist might be one of the members. You never know.”
“My girls are not murderers,” Cain scoffs. “Besides, there’s a good chance that there wasn’t even anyone there.”
“What if I bought you coffee for a week?” interjects Tsukiko.
Despite the dark lighting in the room, she can see him thinking about her offer.
After a while, Cain finally nods. “And pastries. Delivered.”
“Deal, but you should come to the cafe the first time.”
“Why?”
Tsukiko responds right away. “So you can look at the menu and see what you like.”
“Fair enough,” he agrees. “The week starts now, and I’ll have the video files for you by the end of it.”
Tsukiko nods. “Let’s go then. Mark, do you want to come?”
* * *
The whole time, no one’s wrist glowed, so Tsukiko is not only disappointed, she is also a whole week’s worth of coffee in debt, a problem she could have avoided if they had just asked Darren for the footage. She must admit though that Darren has been wary of her since news of Terena has been exposed, so maybe it wouldn’t have worked after all.
The amazement on Jaiden’s face when she told him she brought two of their four suspects to the cafe might have made the whole thing worth it though.
“You got both Matthews and Lee to Yellow Brick?”
“Neither of them are her soulmate though,” Tsukiko grumbles. “I couldn’t even get a closer look at her mark to guess which of you she matches with.”
“No matter. We’re already halfway to finding out anyway. I’m surprised you got Lee to go,” he continues.
“I guess a week of free delivery is worth one trip to him,” sighs Tsukiko.
“What do you mean?”
“I promised him a week of coffee and pastries delivered.”
“You promised him a week of coffee just to get him to go?” Jaiden gasps.
“Well, there was another thing too…” Tsukiko’s voice trails off. Keeping her best friend in the dark doesn’t mean lying to him, and what if he does find out as Mark said?
Jaiden is uncooperative, however. “What else is a week of coffee getting you?”
“Um, uh… I’ll tell you when it’s over,” she decides.
“Ooh, a surprise?”
“Not really,” she says in a small voice, glad Jaiden is too distracted by the prospect to process her words.
“Still, I can’t believe you’re buying Lee coffee and not me,” he pouts jokingly.
“That’s because you never let me!” she defends. “Even though you promised me you would after that sandwich thing. You always have some sort of trick up your sleeves whenever we eat out together.”
Jaiden laughs as they reach her dorm. “How can I have someone who works so hard staring at spreadsheets all day waste her precious doubloons on me?”
“I feel slightly offended right now.”
Jaiden laughs again and pulls open the door for her. “Anyway, since you’ve worked so hard to get those two to Yellow Brick, I’ll handle Zeng.”
“You have a plan?”
“Something like that. We’ll join you for your next coffee run,” he winks and lets the door swing close between them.
* * *
“We’re werewolves. ‘Food’ is literally our favorite word.”
“Still no.”
“Why not? You owe me for that time I sat through an entire physics lecture for you just so you can get points for attendance. It was ninety minutes of torture.”
“Then ask me to sit through a lecture for you or some other physical task. This is a matter of pride,” Xie Ming dismisses, focusing back on his anatomy notes.
“Pride?” Jaiden scoffs. “What do you have against Yellow Brick? It barely opened.”
“It’s not about the cafe.”
“Then what? Coffee?”
“No, what? My blood is basically coffee at this point.”
“Butterflies? Cheesecake?” He gasps. “Don’t tell me it’s cheesecake, you fiend.”
“It’s the girl, Han. Tsukiko Tsujii,” the other male deadpans.
Jaiden freezes at his words, unable to process them. Slowly, he manages to will his body off of his brother’s bed and walks towards him.
“What do you mean it’s Tsukiko Tsujii?”
“I mean what you think I mean. I’m sorry if I insulted you by insulting your friend, but that’s just the way I feel. As a matter of fact, I don’t understand how you manage to even be friends with her.”
Jaiden’s voice is soft, contrary to his usual energetic demeanor. “I don’t understand. What do you mean? What has she done to you?”
“Not to me, per se, but the whole werewolf society. I don’t want to talk about it anymore because I know it will just make you mad, and this whole conversation is pointless anyway. I’m entitled to my own opinions, and I’m not going to Yellow Brick with her, and that’s that.”
“No, we’re not stopping at ‘that’s that,’” Jaiden says in a firmer voice. He takes the other boy’s pen from his grasp. “She’s been spending her time here in our library and hanging out with the rest of us, and you’re telling me now that you’ve had a problem with her this whole time?”
Xie Ming ignores him and grabs another pen from his holder. Jaiden snatches that too and every writing utensils in the proximity.
“We’re not done talking.”
The other boy sighs in defeat and lifts his eyes to meet his brother’s. “I thought she was going to change Dust’s heart too. I had faith in her just like the rest of you. Faith that she would fulfill her duty as a soulmate. Faith that she would not tarnish the sacracy of the mark on our wrists that Grand Councilor Jacque Taylor fought so hard to protect. Still somehow, she managed to lose her wolf even when nature itself had aligned all the stars for her.”
“You blame her?” Jaiden says, his voice small again.
Xie Ming hesitates. “Yes, of course. She lost one of our brothers to a human and caused a rift amongst our pack.”
Shocked, Jaiden stumbles backwards back onto the bed. “I can’t believe it,” he murmurs. “I can’t believe it.”
Xie Ming picks up the pens and pencils Jaiden has dropped in his astoundment and leaves the other wolf to his own devices. He did not want to tell him how he felt anyway, knowing that his opinion is in the minority, even though he feels like it is the right one. Everyone else blames Terena or Darren, but Darren is a wolf, a superior and revered species, and Terena was none the wiser. If it turns out that the child is a wolf, then nothing else matters; the longevity of the species endures. If his child is human, th
en it will just serve as a reminder of Tsukiko’s failure.
* * *
Seeing Jaiden so broken the next morning destroys all of Tsukiko’s intentions of asking him why he is alone and without his promised brother. He gives her an apologetic smile when he spots her to which she returns a sympathetic one.
“Good morning,” she says carefully, sitting in his car.
“Good morning,” he returns. He turns on the engine. “Any finals today?”
She shakes her head. “Just one more tomorrow then I’m done. You?”
“The lab one was my last one.”
“Ah, you must be very relaxed.”
He lets out a hum. “I just have other things to worry about now.”
Tsukiko fidgets in the passenger seat. Should she ask?
“I-is something wrong?”
“Just… thoughts. Nothing we can really do anything about,” he answers.
Tsukiko frowns and reassuringly pats his hand which rests on the center console. Jaiden instantly weakens at her touch. Something unknown in him stirs, almost like a tingle in his wrist. He slides his eyes to the side hoping she doesn’t notice how beet-like his face has become. Luckily, her eyes are fixated on the road. Jaiden leaves his hand where it is for the rest of the ride as if it is detached from the rest of his body. The two share a comfortable silence until they reach the cafe.
* * *
The next day, Jaiden decides to not let his friend down again. If he isn’t able to even stand the thought of Xie Ming right now, let alone drag him to Yellow Brick, he might as well try his luck with Chan.
He raps his knuckles against the alpha’s door twice.
“Come in,” someone from the other side calls.
Jaiden presses the door open into a makeshift home office. The alpha has the largest room in the house, so he has enough space to partition out a space for his bed and still have a living area in front of the door. On the right is his desk. On the left is a couch with accent pillows for the boys whenever they need something from him.
“Hello, Han. How can I help you?” he greets, scribbling something into a binder before closing it and putting it to the side.
Jaiden takes a seat on the couch and hugs one of the pillows. “Do you want to go to a cafe with me and Ki sometime this week?”
“I don’t have a problem with it, but why this all of a sudden?”
