By the time he’d full turned around, the humanoid creature that had dropped down from the roof of the building beside him had already crashed into him forcefully, knocking him to the ground. He twisted his already slightly-damaged ankle as he fell. There were tiny shards of broken glass littered across the dusty ground and a significantly larger, sharper piece tore at his leg as his trouser leg pulled itself up, exposing his calf. He could feel a trickle of blood seep out of the cut and make its way down his leg, towards his ankle. But that was the least of his problem right at that moment.

Tilting his head back and looking upwards, Luhan found the humanoid creature that had just attacked him after surprisingly elegantly jumping down off a roof hovering over him, glaring down at him with his mouth contorted into a smirk and a look of distain in his eyes. Its eyes were yellow and glistening, its hair was a reddish colour - the colour of a fox’s fur - and so were its furry, pointed ears with black tips. As he scanned its body, he realised that it also a tail, which was the same reddish colour as its hair and ears, and looked just like the tail of a red fox.

“Scared, human?” it growled menacingly, placing one foot on his chest to hold him down. Luhan didn’t dare move. He didn’t even dare to nod or shake his head - in fact, he was afraid he was breathing too loudly. “This may come to you as a surprise, human, but I don’t particularly like your kind…” It glanced at the corner of the alleyway momentarily before turning its attention back to Luhan. “And if I could have my way, you’d be dead already. But…” It looked up again and growled while Luhan was left waiting for it to finish its sentence.

But before either of them had the chance to do or say anything, the ground Luhan was lying on suddenly decreased in temperature, literally sending shivers down his spine. He knew before he’d even glanced at the floor that it was frozen. How it had happened was something he couldn’t explain, and it seemed like the fox-creature was just as bewildered by the sudden change.

“Unfortunately, I’ll have to deal with you later,” it snapped, growling to itself as it lifted its foot off of Luhan’s chest. “See you around, human. Oh, and a friendly word of warning… Watch your back.” With that, the creature its heel and gracefully climbed back up onto the roof it had previously jumped down from, swiftly running across the red slates with its tail swishing from side to side behind it.

A cold hand touched Luhan’s shoulder, startling him, but he quickly changed his opinion of the monster now standing behind him when he realised that without this monster’s help, he would probably have already been attacked, if not dead - that’s what the fox had told him, wasn’t it?

This new monster, the one that had saved him, was humanoid just like the others, but was covered from head to toe in snow and ice. Even his clothes were frozen. But he seemed kinder than the fox so he accepted the ice monster’s hand and allowed him to pull him to his feet, smiling gratefully. The monster smiled back for a moment but then frowned at him, asking if he was really a human. When he replied that he was, the monster grinned.

“I knew it,” he said, his grin widening and his eyes shining. “There were rumours that another of you had found your way down here - a friend told me about it - but now… Well, this is my first time seeing one of your kind up close. It’s… interesting.” He paused for a moment, thinking, while Luhan scanned his surroundings in search of any more danger; he wasn’t sure whether the fox creature would come back to finish him off or not, but he definitely didn’t feel safe. He was about to excuse himself - he was worried that either Junmyeon or one of the other monsters he was staying with would have noticed he was missing when the ice creature spoke up again.

“So, are you really staying with Yixing?” he asked, gazing at him intensely. Luhan nodded and smiled at the realisation that the monster he was with now must have been friends with Yixing, or at least had some sort of connection with him. “I thought he was lying,” the ice monster told him. “I’m Minseok, by the way - vice-president of the CBH.” Luhan blinked at him. “The Clandestine Board of Health, that is,” Minseok explained, though he was still unsure of exactly what the CBH. Regardless, he was still impressed with Minseok’s title of vice-president.

When he told him he needed to be getting back to Junmyeon’s house, Minseok offered to walk him back even though their destination was only a few minutes away. During their extremely short walk, Luhan asked about the fox creature that had attacked him. Minseok didn’t tell him much, though he did inform him that it was considered impolite to refer to the underground’s residents as “it” and “things” (following his acknowledgement of the way in which Luhan had phrased his enquiry), and also that the monster that had attacked him in the alleyway was a notorious for his hatred of humans.

The fox creature was in fact the first thing Minseok mentioned when speaking to Junmyeon. He knocked on the door of the cottage and as soon as Junmyeon opened it (noticeably shocked to see the two of them standing outside together) he urged him not to be too angry with Luhan for going outside to explore on his own. “Sehun attacked him,” he suddenly blurted out the second Junmyeon frowned in the human’s direction. “I don’t think he’s been hurt badly, but I only just got there in time.”

“This is exactly why I didn’t want you going out alone,” Junmyeon sighed. “Sehun’s feral,” he groaned, opening the door properly to allow Luhan inside. “I understand why you did it, but please… just trust me from now on.” Luhan nodded, apologised and promised to never do it again - though he couldn’t help feeling like a child who had just been grounded for disobeying his parents - and hurried inside.

Jongdae was half-asleep in the living room, spread out across the sofa as he used the armrest as a pillow. He snickered as the human entered the room, having just overheard the conversation between Minseok and the owner of the cottage at the door. “Someone’s in trouble,” he cooed, sitting up so Luhan could sit next to him. “Seriously though, are you alright? I’ve never met him, but I hear he can be pretty harsh on your kind.”

“You heard right,” Luhan replied, lifting up his trouser leg to show him the gash across his calf. “But it wasn’t that bad - I’d probably be dead if it hadn’t been for Minseok though.”

Nodding in agreement, Jongdae mentioned that Minseok was vice-president of the CBH, to which Luhan replied with a small nod of the head and told him that he already knew about that. According to Jongdae, Yixing had once applied for the board of health and had even been recommended by the vice-president himself, along with many other civilians that he’d helped recover from both minor and severe injuries, but had been rejected nonetheless, apparently due to some kind of family feud between his own and the president of the Clandestine Board of Health. Yixing apparently had the ability to heal other creatures, and even himself, due to being the particular sort of monster he was, and so it seemed obvious to most creatures that he be made president of the CBH (in spite of this, the current president remained dismissive of both him and his application).

This was also what prompted Jongdae to call him down from his bedroom and as soon as Yixing caught a glimpse of the open wound on the back of Luhan’s leg and the blood smeared across his hand, he rushed to his side - even though the cut didn’t seem as serious as many of his other patients - and had healed the injury completely within a few seconds. Luhan marvelled at the empty space where the gash used to be but neither of the two monsters seemed to think it was a noteworthy experience. Yixing shrugged and sloped off to his room again, politely asking him to wash the blood off his hand as he left.

Once he had washed away the small patches of dried blood glued to the palm of his hand from where he’d tried to wipe it away before and the back of his leg, Junmyeon called to him through the bathroom door, inviting him out to dinner with him and the other two household residents. He told him they were planning on going to the restaurant where Yixing’s friend, Byun Baekhyun, worked as the head chef. Luhan gladly accepted his invitation, happy to hear that Junmyeon wasn’t too annoyed with him for leaving the cottage unattended, and at least now he was letting him go outside and explore the city, even if he wasn’t allowed to do it unsupervised.

The restaurant in question, known as Monster Fodder, was one of the most popular restaurants in the entire underground, along with its main competitor, Knives and Freaks.

Luhan was struck by two things when he stepped into the restaurant: the first being that he could see no other customers due to the large wooden partitions that surrounded each table, and the second being that he and his companions were immediately whisked off to the table closest to the kitchen, presumably because of Yixing’s connection with the head chef.

Byun Baekhyun, the head chef, came out to greet them personally whilst Luhan was scanning the menu he’d been given by the waiter, though he didn’t notice him at first. It was as if he materialised in front of him out of thin air, teleporting from the kitchen to the table. It made sense later on, when Junmyeon explained to him that while Baekhyun looked just like an ordinary human being, he actually had the ability to become invisible at will. After greeting them and welcoming Luhan to the underground as well as welcoming him to the restaurant, he returned to the kitchen and resumed ordering his sous chef and other colleagues around in order to prepare his customers’ meals.

He didn’t come back for a while after that - at least not to Luhan’s knowledge - and when he did, it was only to personally deliver their food to them. He stayed for longer this time, though, because just when he was about to leave another monster crashed through the doors of the restaurant and ran towards him, leaving clouds of tiny embers fluttering in his wake. The floor beneath his feet turned to black when he walked on it. He flashed a mischievous grin in Baekhyun’s direction before settling his gaze on the human a few inches to his right.

“They said another of you had found its way down here,” he purred, his gaze momentarily intensifying. “But I’m not here for you, human - not this time, anyway.” Then he fixed his gaze on Baekhyun, and Baekhyun fixed his on him. “I’m here because of something you did, Baek.” The chef took a step back, a tremor running up his leg, but he refused to cower.

What was particularly curious about this new monster, Luhan thought, was that it wasn’t quite as human-like as the others he’d seen so far. This one, whilst still appearing relatively humanoid, was built completely out of red hot fire, hence the scorching of all the floor tiles he walked across.

“So guess what I found snooping around my place earlier?” he asked nonchalantly, casually leaning against one of the partitions. “Go on, Baek. I think you know.” He paused again, expecting a response, but Baekhyun still didn’t reply. “Okay then. I’ll tell you, since you’re refusing to play the game. I found that beastly little fox, sniffing around my kitchen! And guess who he said sent him? You!” With every word, he took a small step towards Monster Fodder’s head chef until his face was a mere inch away from Baekhyun’s.

“And you really believed him?” Baekhyun smirked. “You really trusted that mangy fox? I knew you were stupid, Chanyeol, but I didn’t think you were that stupid.”

The smile disappeared from Chanyeol’s face and he took a step back in defeat.

“He’s pure evil, Yeol,” Baekhyun pointed out as if Chanyeol hadn’t been embarrassed enough already. “He wants us to be mad at each other. But honestly, I didn’t send him to your restaurant. Besides, it’s not really my style.”

Baekhyun was sick and tired of his rival’s constant accusations and false claims. He was perpetually blaming him for countless crimes that he’d never committed. And that’s why - as soon as Chanyeol left his restaurant - he gathered his favourite customers and the human they’d brought with them together to discuss potential methods of exacting his revenge on the restaurant owner.

And of course, as Luhan pointed out to him, revenge was a dish best served cold.