Hide and Seek isn't only a children's game.

Settled into the dark depths of the corners of a room, a man continuously stares at the screen of his computer, tied to his spot with rooted rage. He leans back in the black leather chair, causing its joints to squeak out in protest as he stretches his entire body to its full potential. His legs, wired with cords of muscle from years of running, extend from underneath the desk into the front area of the room.

Grunting, he lets his hand rest on the mouse, his finger a dormant beast ready to click. He uses his other hand to support his chin as his calculating eyes run over the screen for the hundredth time.

Suddenly, like the gates of Hell itself have opened, a door swings backwards to reveal the scorching wavelengths of light that he has been trying to avoid all day.

Hissing, the man snaps on his comrade, “Close the ing door before I close it on your head.”

“No need to be rude,” the other one replies, his hand pulling away as he lets the heavy weight of the door settle back into its place. “I have more information for you.”

“What is it this time? I’m busy,” he dismisses, his finger lightly carressing the scroll button.

His comrade walks over to the desk, peering over the tall back of the chair to catch a glimpse of what the man is studying. Pulling back in surprise, he asks, “You’re still on that?”

The silence that echoes in the room answers his question.

Leaning in closer, the other man taps the screen. “You’ve already watched it a million times. Nothing new is going to surface at this point.”

“No,” the one at the computer hums. “It won’t.”

His eyes track the movement of the girl whose case was reported about a week ago on local news. The man watches as she treads in front of her house and comes to stand in an affectionate position with another male, their sad gazes looking at something beyond the border of caution tape.

A cloud of darkness passes over the man’s face. “Where are you… Where are you hiding…,” he whispers under his breath, an unheard taunt at the missing girl.

Sighing, the comrade drops a manila folder with leaking papers to a spot between the keyboard and the edge of the desk so that it comes to rest in front of the man.

Irritated, the darkness of a color begins to seep into his eyes. “What is this?”

“New information.”

Not taking his finger off the mouse or changing his position, the man simply averts his eyes upwards to his comrade in expectation.

“She’s moving in with EXO.”

The man’s eyes narrow, his gaze shifting back down to the manila folder. “Is that so?”

“Yes. It’s going to make it a lot more complicated for us to make a move.”

“Yes, it will,” the man hums again, “but the situation will also be a lot more memorable.”

A malicious glint swirls in his eyes, taking formation. His comrade takes that as a cue to leave, and shuts the door to enclose the thoughts of a monster.

Once he leaves, a small smile graces the lips of the man, causing the corners of his mouth to turn upward behind his hand. His hums increase in volume now, on the brink of erupting into a full song. The eerie sound of a children’s rhyme fills the air, splintered by unexpected sharp notes.

    “Oh where, oh where has my little dog gone?

    Oh where, oh where could she be?

    With her ears cut short and her tail cut long

    Oh where, oh where is she?”

Fighting laughter, the man reaches over to finger a broken picture with a wooden frame intact but broken pieces of glass and spidering cracks spread across its depth. The fissures in the glass distort the figures behind the opaque material, making them, too, look broken in a way.

Just like how his scar makes his face look broken.

His eyes locking on the small child’s, his laughter finally bubbles over into what sounds more like coarse, heavy breathing.

“You have to love karma.”

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Sehun’s hiding behind the curtain of the front wall of the house when he hears tires grinding against the gravel pathway of their house. A sudden excitement fills the pit of his stomach at the sight of their arriving guests, causing him to exclaim in a stage-whisper, “Chanyeol, noona’s here!”

Sehun’s eyes track the black SUV as it approaches closer to the front entrance. Still caught up in his welcoming fever, Sehun exclaims for Chanyeol again. Yet, there is no response again. Sehun turns around to find the cause of his hyung’s silence only to discover that the giant is splayed across the couch in a rather unattractive position as he snoozes away.

Darting from under the curtains and across the room like a silent ninja, Sehun takes a pillow off one of the sole chairs and uses it to aim at Chanyeol’s face. The effect of the action is quick to take place, and immediately, Chanyeol falls off the couch and onto to the floor in a fumble of limbs.

Leaning down in front of a blinking Chanyeol, Sehun takes his hyung’s face in his hands and shakes it roughly to fully awaken him. Now alert, Chanyeol slaps Sehun’s hands away as he abruptly stands up.

“Chill! Why are you slapping me?”

With eyes filled with delight, Sehun points at the front door. “She’s here.”

Chanyeol rubs the remainder of sleep out of his eyes as he inquires with a simple who. But right after, the sound of a car door slamming splits into the air, and Chanyeol’s eyes grow wide. He looks to Sehun, who only nods his head in confirmation. At the same time, both boys rush back to the curtains, pulling them slightly aside to watch the action but not enough to expose themselves. With curious eyes, they watch as Ae Sook stands in front of the passenger door of the car, one hand on her hip and the other raised to shield her eye as she surveys the house.

“Wait, why is she on the passenger side?” Chanyeol whispers to Sehun.

“I don’t know, maybe she came around the car to-”

But the sight of another male rounding the hood of the car causes him to close his mouth and open it with another question. “Who is he?”

They continue to observe as the male comes over to Ae Sook, touching her on the elbow so that she turns around. His mouth starts to move, and obviously he’s smiling at something because the corners of his mouth are quirked up at the edges. What he said must’ve been funny because soon enough, there are bells of laughter floating up into the air and around the werewolves’ ears.

Chanyeol continues to critically exam the man with narrowed eyes. Somehow the guys seems familiar.

Then a moment of realization hits him once he sees a full profile of his face. “He’s the detective.”

“Ohhhh,” Sehun says, drawing out the vowel in affirmation. “Okay, that makes sense.”

But the puzzle doesn’t seem to be solved yet as the back right door of the car opens, letting out a tall brunette with a messy bun piled on top of her head. She rushes from the door and to Ae Sook and the detective, jumping up and down for no apparent reason.

“But who is she?” Sehun asks, now utterly confused.

“That, my friend, I have no answer for,” Chanyeol answers while he watches the brunette push at the detective with a giggle. This irritates Ae Sook for some reason, because she walks back over to the passenger seat and climbs in, locking the door from the inside.

In response, the brunette turns to look at the window, and Chanyeol can swear that she looks at them. They both duck for a few seconds before coming back up hesitantly to resume watching. The brunette is now pulling at the door handle, begging for Ae Sook to come out. After a few moments of futile persuading, the girl goes to the back of the car, and takes a box of things that is sitting on the floor. With that, she starts for the front door, almost jogging to reach it.

Ae Sook, now with wide eyes, starts pulling on the handle on the inside, but she can’t get it open. Raising her eyes to the brunette, Ae Sook sees that she’s holding the keys now, and continuously locks it with incessant beeps.

The brunette now rings the doorbell, and Chanyeol and Sehun flutter about the curtains in panic. They push at each other, trying to get the other to get the door so that they can continue watching what will unfold. Instead, as a clueless bystander, D.O walks into the living room, looking at the two idiots perched by the window. As a second ring echoes throughout the house, he catches the attention of Sehun and Chanyeol while he points to the door.

“Is anyone going to get that?”

They shake their heads no and return their gazes to the action proceeding outside. In the time that they were distracted, Ae Sook had escaped and is now barrelling up the steps to tackle her friend out of the opening of the door.

On the other hand, D.O, oblivious to Ae Sook’s scent that is masked by the brunette’s, sighs and pulls back the heavy wood on its hinges to create an opening into the house.

At that exact moment, Ae Sook barrels into her friend, causing Da Bin to stumble to the side whereas she stumbles through the space where the door should have been and straight into D.O.

From the force of her attack, both Ae Sook and D.O are knocked to the floor with D.O acting as a buffer to Ae Sook’s fall.

The impact of the fall vibrates through D.O, and on instinct, his arms come up around Ae Sook, holding her tight to his chest. He closes his eyes as he winces in pain, and he uses Ae Sook as a sort of stress ball as he clutches tighter to her when a wave of discomfort passes over him.

However, on Ae Sook’s side, she doesn’t have any recollection of harm, to her surprise. Still in shock, she keeps her eyes shut tight, and rests her cheek on what she assumes is the floor but in reality is D.O’s chest.

As for everyone else, Chanyeol and Sehun stand by the curtains, completely stunned at what transpired, and Da Bin is peeking from behind the frame of the door, her eyes wide at the position her friend is currently in. Hwan, however, is still absorbed in oblivion as he’s carefully extracting boxes from the back of the car.

D.O groans first, shifting under Ae Sook’s weight. Feeling herself move with him, Ae Sook opens her eyes to find herself to be higher off the ground than she expected. She lifts her head to look at her position, and letting out a slight squeak at D.O grimacing face that is directly below hers, her eyes widen at his arms around her torso.

She pulls her hands from their place at her side and places them on either side of D.O’s head as she tries to wiggle out of his grip.

At the movement, D.O opens his eyes.

In silent embarrassment, both of them remain quiet. Neither of them having the courage to move, they just stare at each other until Ae Sook hears a whisper by her ear.

“So, I’m assuming you’re calling dibs on this one?” Da Bin asks as she lies on the floor next to them, her eyes shifting between D.O and Ae Sook with a knowing smile.

<> <> <> <> <> <>

After Ae Sook and D.O untangled themselves rather awkwardly from one another, Ae Sook went to fetch Hwan and D.O went to retrieve the other pack members.

Pulling Hwan through the door and using him as a shield, she follows behind him to make sure that she doesn’t make eye contact with D.O, but because fate likes to screw her over, both of them enter the room at the same time, causing their eyes to meet.

Looking away rather quickly, Ae Sook’s cheeks ignite. Hwan turns around after seeing the obvious eye contact. He leans down to whisper in her ear, “Did I miss something?”

“No, nothing happened,” she says while she pushes on his back to make him move forward. But Hwan is always stubborn and his body mass is about twice of hers, so when he decides to stop, Ae Sook doesn’t really have a choice in physically persuading him to do otherwise.

Turning back again, his face has an enlightened look on it. “Ohhh, I get it. Is that the guy that you thought was cute?”

Ae Sook balks at the question. “No!” Thumping him on the back, she forces him to turn around.

Laughing, Hwan continues forward but whispers jabs to her as he advances.

“It’s okay, don’t be embarrassed. It’s a natural process. See, I have a girlfriend so I know everything about those feelings-”

“Hwan, shut. Up.” Ae Sook hisses, looking to any of the werewolves to see if they overheard their conversation. Judging by the fact that they’re all whispering amongst each other, Ae Sook guesses that they hadn’t, and Ae Sook thanks the gods for it.

Just as Hwan turns around, Suho steps forward from his group to meet him in the middle. Da Bin steps closer to Ae Sook’s side to fill Hwan’s missing place.

Da Bin leans against Ae Sook, putting her arm by the crook of her neck while putting one foot across Ae Sook’s so that when she leans her full body weight, Ae Sook won’t fall over. Like that, she evaluates the boy in front of her with critical eyes.

Suho reaches out to shakes hands with Hwan. “I’m Suho, the oldest out of all my friends.”

Hwan returns the gesture. “My name’s Hwan, appointed caregiver of Ae Sook. Pleasure.”

Suho noticeably gulps at Hwan’s words that hold a double meaning. In the paused moment, Da Bin tilts her head to have her ears hover close to Ae Sook’s ear, something she does everytime when she’s talking about someone who is present in the same room. “Oh, girl, this guy is actually pretty cute. Nice proportions. Something you have to appreciate in guys. Remember that time I dated that one guy who had a nose that literally swallowed his face? And then you found out that he actually had plastic surgery on it because he wanted to look like Liam Hemsworth?” Da Bin whispers, her whole face scrunching up in a grimace. Ae Sook laughs, the pictures of the memory resurfacing. She has to cover with her had to prevent the giggles from escaping.

Finally, the two realize that the rest of the guys in the room are staring at them, and in particular, at the mysterious brunette who has yet to reveal her name. Da Bin seems to notice this fact, because she lifts a hand up in a nonchalant wave (so much for the freak-out she had last night).

“I’m Da Bin,” she says, almost like she expects them to already know it. Lifting an arm to encircle Ae Sook’s neck in what she interprets for a hug but actually looks like a possessive strangle, she adds, “Her wife.”

The boys exchange looks, sensing her overwhelming hold over her friend, but Da Bin doesn’t notice it because she goes back to her whispered gossip. “But, to be honest, he looks too much like a poster child. Usually those types have shrines hidden in the back of the closets of the girls they like. Had it happen to me once. Never again.”

Silently chuckling, Ae Sook looks over to Suho. To her surprise, his eyebrow twitches in annoyance.

So he heard.

Ae Sook feels bad for him, but Da Bin’s commentary is too funny to make her stop. And for sure, she doesn’t, because with each of the 5 guys that step out to introduce themselves to her and Hwan, she has something to say about them.

With Da Bin’s comments, Ae Sook is reminded of the constructive response section that teachers made them complete in highschool: one compliment and two ways to improve. But back then, it didn’t matter how good the praise was because the negative comments always nullified the first statement and added additional burns to your pride after that.

“I’m Baekhyun.”

“His eyes are so pretty! Their color and shape, I’m so jealous. But thing is, when you date a guy, you don’t want to have to compete because you’re afraid your boyfriend will look prettier than you.”

In response, Baekhyun’s eyes roll.

“I’m Chanyeol.”

“Oh my god, he looks adorable, just like a little puppy. He must have such a good personality.” Chanyeol beams while trying to be indiscrete about it, but he nudges his arm against Baekhyun’s, his smile growing even wider. “But he’s probably an awful kisser though. Look like a puppy, kiss like one. Ugh,” Da Bin shudders at the thought of slobbery kisses.

Chanyeol’s smile fades, and Baekhyun bumps his arm into Chanyeol’s stomach, his smile blossoming at the insult thrown at his friend.

“I’m Sehun.”

“Ah, Sehun, Sehun, you are pretty damn fine if I might say so myself,” Da Bin whistles as she looks Sehun up and down. “Just everything about him screams hottie.” Da Bin looks back for a second, trying to let his visually appealing nature set in. Humming to herself, she finally finds something wrong with him. “But,” Da Bin says, tapping her chin, “you could literally set a ruler across his forehead and draw his eyebrows with a sharpie. And that middle part? Too Hitler-esque for my tastes.”

Sehun smooths a hand over the top of his head as he blushes, trying to create bangs to solve the hair situation and also to cover his eyebrows.

Relentless, Da Bin moves on to D.O after he introduces himself, but her words are a double bladed sword because they attack Ae Sook as well.

“Okay, well the height thing is a problem for me, but not for you because you’re basically a midget. See, you guys are perfect!”

Ae Sook doesn’t check for D.O’s reaction and instead turns on her friend, angrily whispering, “I am 5”4’. That is not a midget! It’s average height. Not my fault you’re taller than Jack’s beanstalk!”

Laughing under Ae Sook’s attack, Da Bin relents and listens as the next one voices his name.

“I’m Kai.”

Turning her head back, Da Bin is ready to devise a smart comment about her next victim, but instead, she stops short. Unlike the other guys, Kai stares right at her, their eyes connecting directly. At first, his face is solemn, wiped of expression, but then, like a sunrise, a smile breaks out across his face and it leaves Da Bin speechless.

Even though Da Bin would acclaim herself as a connoisseur of male beauty, the way Kai’s features are constructed bring Da Bin to a new understanding of perfection. And, staring at him, Da Bin lays her voice to rest because she’s not really sure how to criticize something so flawless.

“No dirt on this one?”

Still staring, Da Bin simply shakes her head, trying to muster up some words. “Well, I-”

In the best form of rescue, Suho addresses the entire group to seat themselves so they can get to know one another.

Ae Sook pulls herself out from under Da Bin’s weight, leaving her behind in the assumption tha