Warning: Non-explict violence

It was so bizarre to be the one coming back to Clover. Every time before now, Minseok had been there already to welcome someone, cleaning and moving furniture around and waiting. This was a journey he had only made once before, coming here for the first time. Every other time had been with Mr. Sanchez and there was a definite change in the mood when he was driving as opposed to the lady, Claire. Mr. Sanchez talked or, when the radio signal was good, played music. With the lady, Claire, there was a distinct dampener over the mood. Minseok and Lu Han talked in the back, quietly, leaning into each other to watch as they took turns on Mario levels. They didn’t speak to her and she didn’t speak to them, save to ask them if they were getting enough air, or if they were hungry.

At some point late at night they stopped at a rest stop to sleep, but Minseok woke up a few hours later and they were already on the road again, with the lady, Claire, still looking like it was the first hour of driving and she couldn’t possibly be tired.

Lu Han leaned into Minseok to watch out Minseok’s window when they reached the mountain that Clover was located on, turning onto the dirt road that led ever upward. Even though there was less light coming in through the trees once they were on the path, they could still make out the little shacks that dotted up the mountain, just barely within sight of the road and only for a moment.

Lu Han looked at him, silently asking.

Minseok could only mouth “I don’t know.”

He started giving Lu Han a drive-by tour, like Junmyeon had for him, once they got to the clearing where the campus was.

“And here’s where we live,” Minseok said as the lady, Claire, pulled up to the dorm.

He watched Lu Han’s face as he looked up at the dorm building, and he thought that Lu Han probably had the same expression Minseok had had on his face when he’d first seen it.

“It’s…”

“I know,” Minseok nodded. The unspoken ‘a little creepy’ was obvious.

Within no time, Lu Han was introduced to the rest of the boys. Minseok couldn’t help but be a little bit jealous of just how fast Lu Han was a part of the group: Yixing and Zitao almost immediately started talking to him for forever in Mandarin, and by the end of the night Junmyeon looked like he was completely won over.

But then again, Lu Han was more outgoing than Minseok was, it was only to be expected, even though the group was much much bigger now.

Life went on. Minseok shared a room with Lu Han and Yixing, and they made a good trio. Lu Han crowded into his bed still when the wind would sound far too much like howling or deep voices to ignore, and both did happen just often enough, sometimes on the same night, and even though Minseok was used to the noise, having Lu Han close with Buttons squished between them did make him feel better.

October came, Halloween passed safely, and they were still left to their own devices. They played soccer, they went hiking, explored caves, swam in the creeks under Mr. Sanchez’s watchful eyes. But most importantly, they learned.

The lady, Claire, said they wouldn’t start going on missions until they were eighteen, but already they were beginning to learn about the creatures and things Clover did have information on. Minseok and Junmyeon were the first to start, since even though Kyungsoo had been there longer than Minseok, he was still young enough.

It didn’t make them feel better. They had hoped that knowing more might give them a sense of preparedness, a sort of peace of mind. But while some things were easier to deal with, for instance, the factory by the sea that Yixing had grown up visiting; harmless really, just weird, but not anything that would leave the single location, others were not. Humanoid creatures, some more on the human side than others, which they had records of but no tracking on. Some that they did have under lock but were extremely dangerous. The lady, Claire, told them (with far too much visible excitement on her face even if she kept her voice distressingly even) about a creature which was docile and dormant most of the time, but whenever the north wind blew in the winter it would become enraged and go after anything with a heartbeat.

“It’s only known weakness is sage,” she smiled. “Fortunately we have it locked away.”

“Where is it?” Minseok hoped that she would stop sounding so excited the more she saw the nervous looks on their faces but the lady, Claire, had a fantastic talent for completely ignoring human emotion.

“In one of the sheds at the base of the mountain. You two don’t have enough clearance yet to know which one.”

Minseok and Junmyeon did not look forward to Creature Lessons.

In late December, they found themselves with another sudden addition to their group. Like when Yixing had joined, the news came as a total surprise, but the whole group couldn’t help but be worried with the look Mr. Sanchez had on his face when he came to tell them.

“What else is going on?” Junmyeon asked.

All seven of them were circled around the couch Mr. Sanchez was sitting on. Kyungsoo had stuffed himself into one of the corners, the throw pillow abandoned on the floor, with Zitao next to him, his legs in Mr. Sanchez’s lap. Sehun had been playing a game on the floor in front of Mr. Sanchez, but his console sat turned off off to the side, and he was now leaning against Junmyeon. Yixing was perched up on the other arm of the couch and Minseok and Lu Han had managed to stuff themselves onto the same beanbag chair, just close enough to still be in the circle. Minseok had been playing Pokemon but now his trainer icon stood still in the grass as he listened.

Mr. Sanchez let out one of the most depressed sighs they’d ever heard him make before he spoke.

“His parents were killed by a creature.”

The room was completely silent, and Minseok could feel his heart break for the kid.

“His name is Jongin, he’s just a little bit older than Sehun,” Mr. Sanchez continued. “Claire called to tell me the two of them will be here in about a week. But I wanted to tell all of you now so that you know to…” Mr. Sanchez trailed off for a moment before he finished. “Just be good to him.”

As if they would have been anything else, but the warning did make sure that they didn’t say something insensitive and make for a poor welcome. Jongin was quiet for a long time, but they made room for him like they had everyone else. After a few weeks he could be consistently found cuddled up next to Kyungsoo. The two of them were both quiet, but they were often joined by Zitao, who was loud enough for all three of them when he felt like it. But even with their company, it was obvious Jongin was still hurting. Of course he would be.

Jongin retreated again when Junmyeon was called away. All of them tried to do different things to help him settle in, but they knew that it was difficult even when someone wasn’t grieving. Jongin had barely left his room, and had only left the dorm building a couple times since he’d been at Clover. Knowing this gave Minseok an idea a few weeks later, but he had to wait for nice weather before he could see it through.

“Jongin, will you come on a hike with me?” Minseok asked as he slipped into the room Jongin shared with Kyungsoo and Zitao. “No one else wants to, and I really don’t want to go by myself.”

That was a lie, but Minseok doubted that would matter.

“Okay,” Jongin said, his voice quiet. It surprised Minseok, he was expecting to have to try and convince him a bit more, but that just made this easier. “I don’t have any hiking boots, though.”

“Your sneakers will be fine,” Minseok told him. “We’re not going far.”

Minseok put a few things in his backpack while Jongin got dressed, and before too long, they were making their way through the clearing towards the trail to the overlook. Minseok had long gotten used to the eerie quiet that covered everything once they made their way into the trees, and if Jongin was bothered by it he didn’t say anything.

He’d gone over the Rules of Hiking with Jongin before they’d left, and Jongin hadn’t said anything about those either, although he’d given Minseok a Look.

1. Always take water with you.
2. If you get lost stay in one place so an adult can find you.
3. Don’t take anything from an animal’s resting place.
4. If you go out by yourself, come back before dark.
5. Don’t go into any caves without an adult.
6. If you have a bad feeling about going down a certain path, don’t. You’ll avoid whatever is waiting for you at the end of it.

Minseok had made sure to add in the parts about never, under any circumstances, going down the mountain from the Clover campus on foot, and about not turning around to look behind you.

“Even if you feel like there is something right behind you, just keep walking. Do not look back, or even turn your head.”

“Are you sure we should be going out, then?”

Minseok nodded. “That’s what I said at first, too. But it’s okay. I’ve gone out by myself a lot, everyone has, except Kyungsoo, Zitao, and Lu Han. The overlook is really easy to get to, and the only time we’ve ever had any problems along here was when we did a night hike on Halloween.”

They walked the rest of the way in silence. Even though it was the Clover woods, Minseok felt a sort of contentment wash over him: they’d been stuck inside for several days straight because of the rain, but now the weather was nice. A little cold even with his jacket, but then again it was January, and this was the mountains, not Texas. The weirdest thing was that there was no snow on the ground, in fact the path was almost suspiciously dry, especially after it had rained for so many days. Still, Minseok relaxed, letting the breeze whispering through the trees cool the sweat on the back of his neck.

The path really was too dry.

They reached the overlook after a short hike, and Minseok watched Jongin look around.

“It’s pretty,” Jongin said after a moment.

Minseok nodded. “I come up here to think sometimes. A bunch of us come up here for various reasons… just to think, to read, to get away from the adults… sometimes just to yell.”

“Yell?”

“Yeah,” Minseok nodded. “No one knows why, but when you’re up here, no one can hear you on campus. You can yell anything, say anything, and no one will know.”

Jongin looked skeptical.

Minseok brought him to a spot on the edge of the rock where they could see the Clover campus. Lu Han and Yixing were playing soccer on the field outside, and the overlook was just close enough that they should have been within yelling distance, especially given how a shout would echo.

Minseok cupped his hands to the sides of his mouth like a megaphone for good measure, and yelled out Lu Han’s name, then Yixing’s. They didn’t react, they didn’t even look their direction.

“Woah…” Jongin said quietly.

Minseok nodded. “When I say you can yell anything, I mean it.”

He and Jongin spent a good hour yelling. Sometimes random stuff, sometimes things that they were desperate to say but didn’t dare voice out loud on campus. It wasn’t that long before they started yelling thing to the sky about their parents.

By the time they were walking back to the dorm building, they were wiping tears off their cheeks. But it was a good hike. It was a very good hike.

Everything wasn’t always smooth sailing, but Jongin did start to open up, spend less time in his room alone, join them in games both outside and inside, and was more willing to go to lessons. When things did get bad, over time he wasn’t as quick to retreat, or would retreat with Kyungsoo or Sehun. Minseok knew that Jongin would likely never be exactly willing to talk about what had happened, likely never be completely at peace, but at least he could rely on the group of them, rather than feeling like he had to face everything alone.

In late January, Junmyeon finally came back. It was late in the day when the lady, Claire, pulled up in front of the dorm building, and Minseok could see from Junmyeon’s smile that he knew they were all waiting in the window like puppies, and his smile only grew when they ran out to meet him. He introduced the boy who came with him as Yifan. Yifan was tall, a little intimidating to look at, and quiet at first, but any intimidation that came with his resting face was dissolved completely the second he laughed.

Like the rest of them, he was eager to fit in with the group, and it wasn’t long before he and Lu Han were playing game after game of basketball on the rec court. He was easy-going, and fun, and Minseok couldn’t help but like him immediately. It didn’t take Yifan long to adjust to the schedule, and he was as excited about learning new material in lessons as the rest of them were (Minseok might not like Creature Lessons, but he still very much enjoyed the rest of it.)

As always, it seemed like the group had just adjusted to the new member, just found their rhythm again, when Mr. Sanchez asked him to stay late after Minseok and Junmyeon had finished up one of their lessons. It was early April, and a few days ago, Minseok had been able to have a good birthday weekend with his mother. But it felt too short, and Minseok knew without having to think about it that probably all his birthday weekends would feel like that: too short. Mr. Sanchez would barely be pulling out of the trailer park entrance before he was coming back again to whisk Minseok away, after Minseok had soaked up as much time with his mother in his hometown as he could. Whisked away back to Clover, back to everything weird, but also back to his friends. It was a weird feeling, and he didn’t like the way it settled in his brain. It made him grumpy, even toward Mr. Sanchez, who was easily his favorite adult in the entire campus.

The lady, Claire, hadn’t called for anyone in a while, and Minseok knew without Mr. Sanchez even saying anything that that’s what this was about.

Mr. Sanchez got straight to the point:

“Claire needs your help recruiting another student,” Mr. Sanchez was smiling.

Minseok was not. The last thing he wanted to do was end up in a town that he didn’t know for both too long and too short a time. He knew that he’d make a friend in the end, probably, bring someone back with him who could help them eventually sort out all the mess, probably, but the lady, Claire, was… Minseok didn’t want to be anywhere near her.

A simple ‘I don’t want to’ was on the tip of his tongue, but he didn’t say it. He knew that if he said no, then Mr. Sanchez would ask Junmyeon. Kyungsoo wasn’t ready to leave again, his anxiety had been getting worse, and no one else was really ready to convince anyone else to come back with them. And Minseok knew Junmyeon was tired. It was still all over his face.

So he agreed.

The trip was weird from the start. An eighteen hour drive, but Minseok barely registered any of it. He talked with Mr. Sanchez, he played Pokemon, he avoided looking at yet another man in the rest stop who was almost too generic to be real, and yet stared at him with a too-friendly smile, like he knew that he was the only thing Minseok could look at whenever he looked out the window. It wasn’t the same man as before, but somehow Minseok knew they were connected. He registered that they were passing through mountains, headed towards the west coast again, but it didn’t seem like the journey took nearly as much time as it should have. But any time he said something, Mr. Sanchez just made a light comment and changed the subject.

He didn’t like it.

They reached the city, and Minseok had no idea if this was a Big City or not, but it was bigger than anywhere he’d been to and he couldn’t help but look out the window in open-mouth awe. Mr. Sanchez drove through it, taking seemingly random roads but acting like he knew exactly where he was going, and finally took Minseok to a hotel; not quite shabby enough to be a motel, not quite nice enough to attract very many people. Despite all the other hotels they’d passed having parking lots full of cars, with a few circling desperately in search of a spot for good measure, the parking lot of the hotel Mr. Sanchez pulled up to was barely even half full.

Minseok found his escape from the lady, Claire, almost as soon as he could. She gave him the file of Kim Jongdae, and Minseok read it as fast as possible (he’d wanted to take it with him and read it somewhere else but the lady, Claire, had given him such a sharp, almost angry look, and he’d left that alone) before taking the information on his “new school” and leaving for the nearest coffee shop.

As if the drive over, and the hotel, hadn’t been weird enough, his first meeting with Jongdae went nothing like he thought it would. Not the actual school part, that was normal: Jongdae went to a fancy private school (complete with uniforms that probably cost a week’s worth of tips for his mother) and even though he hadn’t been volunteered to help Minseok find his way around, he stuck to him until the other boy left. He was friendly, and sweet, going out of his way to help Minseok to a point that it would have been almost suspicious if Jongdae wasn’t so genuine about it.

No, the weird part came after school. They were walking out of the building when Jongdae turned to him:

“Come on, there’s a park just down the street. My mom usually picks me up there and I’m sure you don’t want to go back to Claire yet.”

“What?” Everything in Minseok’s brain just stopped.

“She didn’t explain?”

“I probably didn’t let her.”

“I’ll fill you in,” Jongdae said, and took his hand to lead him towards the park.

As it turned out, Jongdae already knew quite a bit about Clover. He’d talked to the lady, Claire, already, and had been talking to her for a while. He’d found out what information he’d wanted to know, but he found her as creepy as Minseok did.

“Just be glad you don’t have to share a hotel room with her,” Minseok grumbled.

Jongdae made a face, and Minseok couldn’t help but laugh.

“Anyway,” Jongdae continued after a minute. “I know I can’t trust her, she’s just not…”

“Not right, whatever that means?” Minseok said as they sat on two lone swings.

“Exactly.” Jongdae nodded. “I like the idea of Clover. The things I’ve seen freak me out and the idea of helping to get a handle on them, help other people not have to deal with them, sounds good. And as for schooling… I’m sure you’re miles ahead of the school system here, aren’t you?”

Minseok nodded.

“But I didn’t want to take Claire’s word for it.”

“I see. So how long do I have to convince you?”

“Hmmm… end of the school year? We only have a few weeks left, and it seems silly to deal with that much paperwork.”

“And you’re okay with it? Leaving your family?”

Jongdae’s smile got a little sadder.

“No, no I’m not. But I talked to them about it. My dad thought it was a load of crap at first, but they know what I’ve seen, and after I kept talking about it, he agreed. If I can help people, it’s worth it, as much as I’ll miss them.”

It was very mature, especially since Jongdae wasn’t even eleven yet, but it seemed like something he’d think.

The few weeks that passed were surprisingly relaxing. Jongdae knew Minseok didn’t like the lady, Claire, and so after not too long he invited Minseok over to stay with him. It was less Minseok convincing Jongdae, and more about Minseok telling Jongdae about his experiences at Clover. Jongdae’s mother was relieved to hear about the “normal” parts of his experience; Minseok told her about their teachers, especially Mr. Sanchez, since he checked up on them the most, and life up in the mountains. He told her how it compared with life in Texas, and getting to go home on the weekend of his birthday. He talked about the rest of the group, telling both of them how Junmyeon had recruited him, although he didn’t mention the find in the library’s backlog of newspapers. He saved that for when he and Jongdae were supposed to be asleep. He saved a lot of stuff for then, and didn’t hold back. He told Jongdae about the weird stuff in his town, and about the weird stuff at Clover. He didn’t talk about the Creature Lessons because something in his brain told him that the lady, Claire, would somehow know and wouldn’t be happy.

Minseok didn’t want to see her mad. She was creepy, and intimidating, enough as it was.

Minseok also got to know Jongdae. At first he didn’t know what to make of him: he thought Jongdae was crazy to even remotely consider leaving his family and his (pretty nice, by anyone’s standards) home life. Helping people or no, Minseok hadn’t had any plans to until he was worried about his mother. It had to be fanciful, him not thinking things through.

But then Minseok got to know Jongdae, and he realized that Jongdae had thought it through. Jongdae thought everything through, almost as much as Kyungsoo did. Even at ten years old, Jongdae rarely did anything without thinking about it. If he had an impulsive bone in his body, it wasn’t a large one, and he certainly didn’t have a mean bone in his body. Honestly, Jongdae was probably the most genuinely sweet person Minseok had ever met. It made Minseok want to protect him.

Minseok was loathe to take Jongdae away from his family, especially since he knew life would only get weirder, that Jongdae would see things that he couldn’t do anything about, but at the same time… Jongdae wanted to help. All of them wanted to help. And he already knew Jongdae would fit right in.

A week after school ended, Minseok and Jongdae left for Clover. Jongdae’s mother cried, and his father and brother were quieter than they’d been in a while. Minseok hugged Jongdae’s mother goodbye, and then got in the car so the family could have their privacy. The lady, Claire, just smiled far too cheerfully with too many teeth.

Minseok knew what Jongdae was likely feeling, and knew he likely wanted a little bit of space to be upset, as he had every right to be, so Minseok didn’t try to make any kind of conversation until Jongdae started it. The drive back was surprisingly normal. They linked their Game Boy’s and had Pokemon battles, battled for who could complete a Mario level the fastest, talked about various landmarks that passed by the window, and occasionally got the lady, Claire to pull over at a gas station or diner by the side of the highway.

She ate the same way she did when Minseok had first met her. Almost robotically, not weird enough to be anything but human but not normal enough to be completely human. Like she got no enjoyment from the food whatsoever.

Minseok and Jongdae shared Looks but said nothing. The lady, Claire, just smiled with too many teeth, which shone out at them straight and perfect, and abruptly reminded Minseok of headstones at a military cemetery.

When they got back to Clover, Jongdae fit in, like Minseok knew he would. He roomed with Minseok and Lu Han, and didn’t complain when they made him take the top bunk on the bunk bed, while Lu Han took the bottom and Minseok got the single bed. He put glow in the dark stars on the ceiling, and Minseok couldn’t help but love them.

Just as predicted, as soon as they’d gotten into the rhythm of having another person in the group, Junmyeon was called out again, but this time came back with no one. Weeks turned into months, months to a year. Junmyeon was called away a few times, but came back with no one. Kyungsoo was called out twice and came back with someone each time: Baekhyun and Chanyeol.

Life went on. Years passed. One by one, they all hit puberty and got The Talk from Mr. Sanchez, which was traumatizing. Minseok and Lu Han had already gotten The Talk before they’d ended up at Clover but Jongdae hadn’t and he gave them a play by play of what Mr. Sanchez had said. His voice cracked in the middle of it and he threw his pillows and Minseok and Lu Han when they laughed.

“Your first voice crack!” Minseok cooed at him to , and Jongdae could only whine at him.

It was the kind of crazy only a house full of teenage (or soon to be teenage) boys could be. They argued sometimes, but usually fights or grudges were broken up fairly quickly. Having the woods nearby to, quite literally, run off to for some alone time, or the Overlook where they could make all the noise they wanted to and say anything without fear of being heard helped with that. They learned to live with each other, they learned who could share a room, and who made terrible roommates, even if they were attached at the hip usually.

They learned to live in the house, too. Not all of the rooms were occupied, but with twelve boys there was more than enough noise to chase away most of the creepy vibes. Minseok could finally walk to the end of the hall and look up at the windows, which still had their lacy white curtains, even though all of them agreed that it made the hall look like something out of a haunted house movie. They still felt the need to run to their rooms as soon as all the lights were off, they never went to the bathroom alone for fear of the silent spaces growing too large, and something developed where all of them slowly but surely became too nervous to look up at the kitchen window while they washed dishes and no one knew why. Eventually they figured out that as long as they said “and I don’t need company” before they showered, they could avoid the feeling of something large breathing down their necks while they were inside. Chanyeol said it reminded him of a horse breathing on him, but not at all comforting.

All of them learned to ignore when the wind sounded too much like howling, or singing, or whispers.

They focused on what was comfortable. The sound of Yixing’s fingers on the computer keyboard. The noise that followed Jongdae, Chanyeol, and Baekhyun (and Kyungsoo, since all three of them dragged him along no matter what they did.) The weird smell that filled the downstairs every time Jongin went on a cooking spree, because he didn’t change the foil on the baking sheet before putting chicken in the oven for dinner from when he had made chocolate mint cookies earlier in the day. Lu Han and Yifan softly singing along with Minseok’s CD player while he played TVXQ’s entire discography while he cleaned. They had it memorized, and could occasionally get him to branch off if Lu Han the puppy eyes. When Minseok finally bought an ipod it was easier, since he did actually have other music on it and all they had to do was shuffle it again.

They went through their phases together: there was the summer they had what amounted to a Pokemon war, for which Junmyeon had been the definite winner and they had all found out that Kyungsoo knew more curse words than they thought he had. There was the year when no one cut their hair, leaving it long and, in some cases, feathery, until Mr. Sanchez had begged them to cut it because, in his words “it feels like I’m teaching an emo boyband.” They’d played Linkin Park the entire time he was over to help make dinner to but did, eventually, all cut their hair, or at least style it a bit better. There was the year that Yifan decided he wanted to learn rock climbing and repelling properly, and had gotten several of them (mostly the younger kids) to join him, which gave Junmyeon, Lu Han, and Kyungsoo minor heart attacks for different reasons.  

When they all finally had cell phones, staying in contact with their families became easier. Minseok sent his mother money so that she could get one that didn’t break every time the wind blew a different direction and had actual storage space for more than a handful of pictures, and once she got texting it was even easier. He could send her more pictures, tell her about stuff happening as it was happening, and she loved it.

It also made it easier to stay in contact once they all, one by one, started missions.

Each of them started going on missions once they turned eighteen, and that meant Minseok was first. Mr. Sanchez assured him that he’d learned enough in Creature Lessons that there wouldn’t be an issue. Minseok was at least happy that Mr. Sanchez was going to go with him: he didn’t think he could handle it if the lady, Claire, had been the one to take him instead.

“This is more like practice for when you’re older,” Mr. Sanchez told him. “We have contacts; they’re also creatures themselves, who do a lot of the scouting for us. These first few missions will be to introduce you to some of them, let them get to know your face, and for you get an idea of what goes on.”

That implied that Minseok hadn’t really been told what went on behind the scenes at Clover, but after years of living on the campus, it bugged him less.

“How long until I start doing these on my own?” Minseok asked him.

“What, eager to run off?” Mr. Sanchez .

“Yeah, that’s something I’d do.” Minseok joked back.

Mr. Sanchez laughed, then said: “that’s really up to Claire. I’m not exactly sure.”

Minseok nodded, and wasn’t sure why he had expected anything different. Everything was always up to the lady, Claire, and that still made him wary.

The first mission was easy, a couple hours’ drive away. They had left Clover when it was dark out, Minseok still closed his eyes to keep from seeing anything among the shacks at the base of the mountain: hostile creature storage, he knew now. It was early spring: still cool enough for a sweater during the day, and a little colder than Minseok would have liked at night, making him bury into his father’s old sweater until Mr. Sanchez the heat. Since it was so late, they passed very few cars, either following along the same direction they were, or going the opposite way. Quiet, with the radio on, some easy-listening folk station playing softly as an undertone to the road noise.

“We’re here,” Mr. Sanchez said out of nowhere.

Minseok looked around, and was immediately confused. “Here” didn’t seem to be, well, anywhere. He couldn’t see any lights from any nearby towns, or even any dark silhouettes of hulking buildings against the night sky. He knew he hadn’t seen any road signs proclaiming that they were “now entering” anything.

Mr. Sanchez pulled over to a rest stop. It was a quiet little thing: a few covered picnic tables just barely within the light of the single street lamp, some slightly scary looking restrooms just out of reach of the ring of light the lamp let off, but making their own sort of light with the two vending machines plugged in just outside the doors. Other than the two of them, it was completely deserted.

Wait, no. Minseok realized as he scanned over everything again. The stop had one other person there, but no other cars. Minseok had missed them at first, they were sitting just barely in the shadows of one of the covered picnic tables.

“Remember, Minseok,” Mr. Sanchez said softly. “They work with us.”

They were completely androgynous, but looked human. They reminded Minseok of the people he saw at rest stops: the ones both impossibly generic but weird at the same time. Minseok couldn’t tell why, nothing about them was generic, but his gut feeling told him that they were connected.

“Antonio,” they sounded relatively happy when they called out Mr. Sanchez’s first name as he and Minseok got closer.

“How have you been?” Mr. Sanchez didn’t call them by name.

“Well enough, well enough.” They nodded, and then looked at Minseok. “Who’s the little kid?”

Minseok bristled internally, though he tried not to show it on his face. Yes, he still didn’t fill out his father’s sweater, the sleeves still reached past his hands and the hem almost covered his behind, but it wasn’t exactly comically oversized like it used to be and Minseok liked to think that he looked old enough not to be called a kid.

Still, he said nothing, because he knew very well by now that even the most innocuous looking creatures could be secretly dangerous.

The meeting wasn’t much, the three of them just talked; Mr. Sanchez talked about Minseok and everyone else, letting the creature know what was going on. The creature spoke vaguely, but Mr. Sanchez seemed to know what they were talking about, and Minseok managed to not look confused.

When Minseok and Mr. Sanchez were getting up from the table, the creature stopped Minseok.

“You don’t talk much, do you?”

“Sure don’t.”

They let out a short, loud, bark of a laugh. “Ha! I like you, kid.” They turned to Mr. Sanchez. “Tell Claire I want to work with this one.”

And that was it.

Minseok ended up going on several introductory missions over the years, spread few and far between. Sometimes he had more information, sometimes he didn’t. They never met up anywhere normal. Sometimes it was during the day, but in the middle of a suspiciously deserted mall, or an entire conversation held while sitting on a fence by the side of a vacant one lane farm road. He was always “the kid” and he didn’t really like it but also didn’t say anything.

As everyone else turned eighteen, they started going on missions too. Just introductory missions, like Minseok had been. But nothing really happened until a few months after Sehun became of age.

The lady, Claire, called for him. It was beyond weird, they hadn’t had anyone new join Clover in years, but they didn’t question it. Junmyeon fussed over him, they all did more or less, and Zitao clung until Mr. Sanchez came to get Sehun.

But unlike when they were kids, they could actually keep in contact. Sehun texted pictures from the car, passing through mountains, cool cars he thought Zitao would like, lots of pictures of the sky. At one point he texted a picture of one of the impossibly generic people Minseok had seen with just the caption “the heck?” and Minseok told him to just keep his head down and not look at them too much.

It wasn’t easy having Sehun gone, but it was easier with the texting. Sehun was supposed to be recruiting a girl (everyone had a moment of shock) named Seulgi. From what Minseok could gather, she was sweet, a little sassy, and he could tell Sehun was happy. It was only a week or so before they started getting selfies of the two of them making silly faces, clearly only at a coffee shop at first, but what expanded to a park, a movie theater, and a few other places that were probably landmarks that none of them knew in the weeks following.

According to Sehun, she was interested, but didn’t want to leave her grandparents. Sehun was gone for over two months, almost three. Almost three months of texts about Seulgi, pictures of the two of them around the city, and at one point he gave Seulgi all of their phone numbers and she started asking them questions individually. She told Minseok that her grandparents were getting older, and were starting to rely on her more and more. They had pretty much raised her, and even though they were telling her that Clover sounded like a good opportunity, she wasn’t planning on leaving them.

Almost three months, and then Sehun came back. All of them were a little disappointed, they’d all grown to like Seulgi, but they understood. Family was family, and they could see why she wouldn’t want to leave her grandparents; Minseok knew that if he hadn’t thought his mother was in danger, he wouldn’t have left her if he could help it. Seulgi still texted all of them occasionally, but mostly Sehun. She updated him on how college applications were coming, what she was doing, and he told her what he was doing, or took pictures on hikes to text to her. He was a little withdrawn, a little sad, as happy as he was to be back with them, and they all knew why.

It was only a few weeks before it happened. They were all cleaning up from dinner, when Sehun’s phone rang, and he picked it up immediately, a smile on his face.

“Seulgi!” he said happily, but the smile quickly dropped from his face. “What’s going on?” A moment later, “I’m putting you on speakerphone.”

All of them went completely quiet and still; they could hear Seulgi’s quick, almost frantic breathing, before she started to speak. Her voice was soft, and low, but obviously scared.

“I started seeing him a few days ago,” she began. “I’d see him in the park when I walked by. Across the street at the sandwich place while I was in the coffee shop. I knew he was a Weird Thing as soon as I saw him. I can’t put my finger on it, it’s like… he’s too generic to be real.”

Minseok felt a shock of cold run up his spine.

“Today he was on my bus, when I came home from grocery shopping. I lost him while I was walking home, but I’ve felt weird ever since. Grandma and Grandpa are out at the senior center, and I was just cleaning up the kitchen when I saw him across the street. I finished and came upstairs, and he was at my neighbor’s mailbox. I haven’t looked outside since…”

They could hear the sound of creaking, like a mattress, and then Seulgi gasped.

“He’s gone, I don’t see him, but…”

“Get in the closet,” Sehun told her. “Hide in the back.”

“Okay…” Shuffling, like she was getting off of her bed, and then she gasped, and there was the sound of a door closing quickly.

When she spoke again her voice was even lower, and shaking. “He’s inside. I heard glass breaking.”

“I’ll call the police,” Junmyeon said, and Yixing hurried to look up the phone number for the specific station so that they wouldn’t have to worry about rerouting.

They could hear Junmyeon talking in the living room, but their eyes were all locked on Sehun’s phone. Seulgi was whimpering quietly, and Sehun was softly reassuring her that she would be okay. She had to be okay.

They could hear whistling. Muffled, like it was coming from outside of the closet, but if they could hear it then the man was too close. Seulgi was trying to muffle her own sobs, and Sehun’s voice was getting more and more frantic.

The creaking of a door opening.

“Did you think you could hide from me?”

A moment’s pause, and then Seulgi screamed. There was a noise like several cats hissing, but distorted, too deep, and then she screamed in pain.

“Sehun!” Her voice was desperate.

Sehun kept screaming her name, tears already streaming down his face, and Zitao was crying too. She kept screaming, and the man kept hissing. They could hear Junmyeon speaking frantically into the phone in the living room. There was nothing they could do, helpless to do anything but stare at the phone like sheer willpower would save Seulgi. They didn’t know what was happening, but then Seulgi screamed out Sehun’s name one last time, her voice desperate and tired… and then the call ended.

Note: Hey so this chapter took a very long time and isn't as good as I was hoping it would be. I've been working on fests and other fics, also grad school might as well literally be punching me in the face, and my doctor put me on sedatives for a few weeks so it's really pretty good that I have this up at all.