The Unnies were away on vacation that week so it had just been Hyejin and Wheein the last couple of days. There was a nice sense of kinship and belonging that Hyejin felt around the werewolf, different from her own relationship with the Unnies. Which was why, when Hyejin arrived back home from the Blue Cosmos just a little before dawn, she instantly knew something was wrong. There was a sense of wrongness in the air inside their apartment, and an uneasiness she couldn’t quite place settled deep in her gut.

Despite it being the dead of summer, with an unbearable heatwave outside, even at night, Hyejin felt an unwelcome chill spread down her spine. The apartment was dark and it seemed as if not even the usual night sounds of Seoul could be heard through the windows.

“Wheein?” Hyejin called out, abandoning her bag by the dining table and making her way toward the stairs that lead to the bedrooms.

“Wheein, I’m home.” She paused right outside Wheein’s bedroom, already feeling a little silly. Chances were, Wheein was most probably asleep, and here she was making a racket. Still, the uneasiness persisted. Hyejin took a deep breath then turned the knob.

The first thing that registered for her was a prone shape in the darkness, lying on the floor. The next was that Wheein’s bed was empty.

“Oh my god, Wheein?” Hyejin was on her knees in an instant, slowly reaching out a hand to her roommate. Most of Wheein was covered by a blanket. She had probably fallen from her bed and taken the sheets with her as she did so. When Hyejin placed a hand on what she thought was her friend’s shoulder, however, she felt the coarse fur of Wheein’s wolf pelt beneath her fingers.

On instinct, Hyejin looked around the room for a calendar. When she didn’t find any, she dashed to the window and pressed her face against the glass until she could just make out the waxing half-moon already sinking past the horizon. The sky around it already turning from a velvety blue to lavender and grey. Behind her, she heard Wheein give out a whine, her snout peaking past the sheets that had gotten tangled around her legs.

She wanted to call the Unnies, but she wasn’t sure if they’d be awake at this hour. With no alternative left, Hyejin walked back to where Wheein was, gathering the wolf in her arms and slowly lifting her back unto the bed, leaving the sheets pooled on the floor. After checking twice to make sure that Wheein was indeed breathing, if a bit labored, Hyejin climbed in beside her, pillowing the wolf’s head on her lap, and leaning back against the headboard. 

She didn’t even realize she had fallen asleep until she felt Wheein’s snout sniffing at her neck, paws digging painfully into her lap and her stomach. When  Hyejin opened her eyes, the bright summer sun streamed in merrily through Wheein’s window. The resounding headache was instantaneous. All she wanted to do was crawl into her own room with the blackout curtains and sleep until dusk, but she had a roommate to see to. So instead, Hyejin groaned once, rubbing a hand through her face that still had the previous night’s makeup on it, and sat up a little straighter.

Wheein was up, which was a good sign at least. Her front paws balancing on either of Hyejin’s laps. Her eyes looked worried though, and she whined again, huffing before poking Hyejin’s face with her nose.

“What happened to you?” Hyejin said, voice low and gravelly with sleep. “Are you sick?” Briefly, she wondered if she should feel Wheein’s forehead to see if she had a fever, then remembered that werewolves naturally ran hotter than most beings, so it would be a moot point anyway.

As a response, Wheein hopped down the bed, grabbing the sheets from the floor and flinging them at Hyejin’s head before running to the window and barking.

That was easy enough to understand.

“You’re worried about me?” Hyejin asked, standing up herself and ignoring the wobble in her knees, “Worry about you! Why are you a wolf?”

If wolves had eyebrows, she was pretty sure Wheein would have raised one of hers. Hyejin rolled her eyes, “I mean--I know why you’re a wolf but why now? It’s not the full moon, you shouldn't be fully transformed right?”

Wheein barked once, turned around in a circle, before lying down on the floor, staring up at Hyejin with her big wolf eyes.

“I don’t speak that.” Hyejin replied flatly. The sunlight really was bothering her now. She reached down to usher Wheein out the bedroom. Outside Wheein’s room wasn’t much better, but at least the living room had blinds that could block out most of the light. Hyejin got to work, pulling down blinds one by one until only a muted light remained. She breathed a sigh of relief. Beside her, Wheein barked twice and made her way to the sofa, resting her head on her front paws.

“You must be sick.” Hyejin murmured to herself before clearing and kneeling in front of her roommate, “Wheeinie, I’m just going to change out of my stage clothes and wash off this make-up okay? Will you stay here?”

Wheein huffed out once before leaning forward and at Hyejin’s face.

“Gross!”  She pushed Wheein’s snout away from her, as she rubbed at the trail of saliva from  her chin to her nose, “I can do it myself, thanks. You stay here.”

The moment she shut the bathroom door behind her, Hyejin was tempted to curl up inside their bathtub and go to sleep. Instead, she set the tap water to  just a little shy of scalding and began to scrub at her face until the make up was gone and her skin felt raw. Then she changed into a tank top and pajama bottoms, pulled her hair up into a messy bun at the top of her head, and made her way back to the living room.

Wheein was right where she left her, lying on the couch and looking a bit forlorn, but leagues better from the unconscious, wheezing state Hyejin found her in last night.  She ignored the dull ache at the back of her head and the weariness in her limbs in favor of heading to the kitchen under the guise of preparing herself a glass of blood to drink.

She knew she should call the Unnies, Hyejin’s knowledge on werewolf illnesses and how to treat them were close to nothing after all. But even as she had her phone in hand, waiting for the microwave to finish heating up her drink, her thumb hesitated over Byul’s contact number. 

The Unnies had been looking forward to this trip for the past month. In the light of day, now that Wheein didn’t look so sick, she felt a little foolish troubling them. After all, who’s to say Wheein wouldn’t turn back later in the day?

With a sigh, Hyejin pocketed her phone,  poured her blood drink into a thermos, and joined Wheein on the sofa.

The wolf’s ears immediately perked back up once Hyejin situated herself on the sofa. Wheein gave out a whine, nosing at Hyejin’s knee with her snout before gesturing towards the upstairs, where her bedroom was.

“I told you, I’m fine,” Hyejin said, taking a sip and relishing the warm path as the blood traveled from and down , settling nicely in her gut. She felt a little better already. She looked back down at Wheein, who was looking from her to her thermos. 

Wheein barked twice.

She realized, belatedly, that it was only easy to hang out with Wheein while she was a wolf because either Yong or Byul was there to act as translator. Hyejin sat up, looking her friend dead in the eye.

“I’m not as good as the Unnies at this but I’m going to try to understand okay?” She said, slowly, like talking to a child. Wondering if the gesture was insulting or not. Wheein stood up on the couch, her tail wagging. 

“Okay that’s a good sign. Are you sick, Wheenie?”

Wheein barked once.

“Is that a yes?”

Another bark.

Hyejin sighed, feeling the headache flare up again. “Okay, how about you bark once for yes and twice for no. Bark once if you understand.”

One bark.

Hyejin nodded, feeling a bit more secure in that, at least, they were communicating.

“Are you alright?”

One bark.

“So you’re not sick?”

Two barks.

Hyejin paused, thoroughly confused now. She tried again. “Are you sick?” Wheein’s head tilted to the right, then to the left, before she let out a single bark.

“Okay, so you’re sick, but you feel alright right now?”

One bark.

She felt an unknown weight lift off her shoulders. At least she didn’t have to worry that much about Wheein. She gave her roommate a scratch behind the ears, a gesture that seemed greatly appreciated, while she thought things over.

“Is there anything I can do to help?”

Two barks.

Hyejin deflated a bit at that. She wanted to help Wheein out, even if it wasn’t too serious. 

“Would the Unnies know what’s wrong with you?”

One bark.

“Should I call them?”

Two barks. So, not serious enough to need the Unnies. That was, perhaps, the biggest relief of all. She moved on from scratching to running her long nails down Wheein’s spine. “I’ll call in sick from work today,” Hyejin said out loud, apropos of nothing. Wheein barked twice but she shook her own head in response.

“I want to take care of you!” She insisted, pinching at Wheein’s side. “Besides, without me here later, who’s going to feed you, huh?”

Wheein huffed once, defeated. She let out another whine, this time gesturing towards the clock by the kitchen. It read 11 in the morning. Hyejin sighed, tilting her head back against the sofa and closing her eyes.

“I’m over a hundred years old you know. I’ve gone through days without sleep before.”

Eventually, she found just enough energy to amble off the couch and into the kitchen to prepare brunch, which involved around fifteen minutes of staring at the open refrigerator wondering if Wheein as a wolf ate normal food or if there was raw meat somewhere that she just hadn’t been aware of. 

She thought about Wheein being sick and pulled out her phone instead.

“Can you eat chicken baeksuk in that state?” she called out. There was a single bark reply. She nodded to herself, tapping in the order on her app and choosing the Express Delivery option. Once the food arrived, they ate in companionable silence, with Hyejin only pausing every so often to refill Wheein’s bowl, or help her separate the chicken meat from the bone.

“This isn’t so bad right?” She said, after the plates and the scraps of lunch were cleared. Beside her, Wheein looked just about ready to doze off, and Hyejin couldn’t agree more. She situated herself more comfortably, propping her feet up on the sofa and snuggling into the softness of Wheein’s fur. Hyejin closed her eyes.

She woke up to the sound of Wheein’s cries and immediately sat up.

“Wheein? Wheein what’s wrong?”

Wheein was back on the floor, yelping and occasionally spasming. Her claws were scratching at the floor and her eyes were clenched tight. Hyejin reached out a hand to smooth out the fur on her head and was rewarded with an angry snarl, and Wheein snapping at her with her jaws.

At that point, enough was enough, she reached for her phone and called Byul. It rang a few times before the demon’s face came into view.

“Yo, miss your Unnies already?”

“Unnie!" Hyejin scrambled with the camera, flipping it so that she could show them Wheein, “Something’s wrong with Wheein but I don’t know what it is.”

On the screen, Byul immediately turned serious, face coming close to the camera. “How long has she been like that?”

“Just now, I mean--I don’t--we were napping after lunch and I woke up to her like this.”

Byul’s frown deepened, she looked at someone beside her--Yongsun probably--before turning back to Hyejin. Hyejin could just make out the angel’s face squeezing into the screen. On the ground, Wheein kept yelping in pain. At the risk of losing her fingers, Hyejin began petting helplessly at her hind leg.

She could hear Byul and Yong muttering something back and forth, but between the static of the call and Wheein crying, she couldn’t make out much of it at all.

“What should I do?” Hyejin said, helpless and worried and confused all at once. The headache from before was back, but she barely noticed it. ‘

“How long has she been in this form?” Byul asked.

“Since last night--er, this morning. I came home and found her on the floor of her room that way.” Hyejin said

“Ah!” Yong clapped her hands once, her eyes widening in realization, she clutched at Byul’s arm. “Could it be--? This is the same time last year right?”

Byul blinked for a few beats before she caught up. “Aah!”

At this point, Wheein was still crying, but softer now, her breathing turning heavy like how it had been when Hyejin had found her last night.

“What? What is it? What’s wrong with her?”

“Hyejin-ah,” Yongsun’s face came into full view now, apparently having wrenched the phone away from Byul, “Just take Wheein to her room and let her ride it out. She should be fine by tomorrow night.”

“Make sure you feed her though! Leave food outside her door and knock so she knows it’s there!” Came Byul’s voice.

“What’s going on?” Hyejin was already stuffing her phone in the pockets of her pajamas. She planted her feet firmly on the ground so she had leverage to lift Wheein into her arms and bring her up the stairs.

“Well--” The sound cut out briefly, and Hyejin didn’t know if it was because she had accidentally hung up on her Unnies or because they were hesitating.

“It’s a wolf thing,” Byul said, at length, “But don’t worry! Wheein’s fine! It probably isn’t good for you to be up during the day caring for her like this. You might be the one to end up sick. Yong and I will head home as soon as we can.”

“No it’s fine!” Hyejin insisted, grunting under Wheein’s weight as she slowly trekked up the steps back into Wheein’s room, thankfully, the sunlight wasn’t streaming in through the window anymore, but it was still several degrees brighter than the living room. “I can take care of Wheein, just promise me she’ll be okay here like this.”

“We promise!” Yong and Byul said together.

“She should probably be the one to explain it to you when this boils over but don’t worry. She’ll be alright tomorrow evening!” Yong said. 

By the time, Hyejin had deposited Wheein into her bed and had closed the door behind her, she felt downright fatigued. While it was true that she had gone on days with no sleep before, the last time she really stayed up during the day was back in the forties, when the Jeonju coven had to keep moving around the province due to the war. And even then, she couldn’t remember exerting herself this much. 

“Hyejin-ah?” Byul’s voice now, still coming from her pocket, “Are you alright?”

“Yes,” she gasped out, still panting from the exertion. It felt like her limbs were going to fall off and her headache was a full blown migraine now. She winced as a wave of nausea hit her. When she finally got the phone facing her again, Yong and Byul were staring at her, concern in their eyes.

“Don’t cancel your trip!” Hyejin said, feeling the energy leave her bones, “I can handle it, I swear!”

“Aish, look at you, you’re like an inch from death!” Yongsun said.

Hyejin chuckled, darkly. “I’m past death Unnie,” she said. She took a few moments to catch her breath before adding “If the roles were reversed, Wheein would do the same for me. I want to learn to take care of her because she’s my friend.”

She could sense the hesitancy through her screen. Finally Yong sighed, “Okay, but take some time to rest too, Hyejin! You’ll be no good to Wheein if you collapse in the middle of the apartment because you’re skipping sleep cycles.”

Hyejin nodded, already crawling to her own room. “I’ll tell my job that I’ll take a few days off, It should be fine.”

“Call us if anything else happens!”

“I will,” Hyejin mumbled, already halfway up on her bed.

“Good luck Hyejin!”

Right after she ended the call, Hyejin set an alarm for dinner. And then fell back into unconsciousness. This time, when she woke up again, Wheein was by her bedside, staring at her with concern in her eyes.

“I’m sorry if I worried you,” Hyejin  mumbled, reaching out a hand to scratch at Wheein’s ears just like she had that morning. “But you worried me too, you know.”

Wheein ducked her head, repentant, she let out another soft whine. She angled her head so she could at Hyejin’s fingers.

“The Unnies said you would explain things to me, once you’re better. You’ll do that right?”

One bark.

“Good, I’ll hold you to that. In return, please trust me to take care of you as well.”

Another bark. Hyejin smiled and ambled out of bed, “Come on, I’ll get us dinner.”

By the next day, the two of them had perfected a schedule that involved Hyejin waking up at interval alarms to prepare Wheein food, and Wheein staying in her room with the door ajar just in case she needed to relieve herself. 

Later on in the evening, Hyejin felt much better. She could still feel the effects of staying up the day before, but after having slept for most of the day, she felt none too worse for the wear.

At present, she and Wheein were watching a cheesy romance movie on the TV. Every now and then Wheein’s tail would wag, thumping against Hyejin’s waist. She smiled, comforted in the knowledge that they would be okay.

On the morning of the second day, Hyejin woke to the feeling of fingers trailing through her hair. She was back in her room, and although she wasn’t sure, she hazarded a guess that it might be around nine in the morning. She looked up to see Wheein, back in human form, scrolling through her phone, her other hand still running calming lines through Hyejin’s hair. She grunted once, readjusting, Wheein’s hand stilled.

“I’m sorry, did I wake you?”

“Yes, but it’s fine,” Hyejin replied, burrowing deeper into her friend’s side. “I’m glad to see you’re okay.”

“Thanks to you,” Wheein replied, setting her phone down so she could lean against Hyejin’s bedframe, “I owe you an explanation.”

“You do,” She said, sleepily. There was silence after, but this time, she wasn’t worried. She knew Wheein would tell her in her own time. “But you don’t have to if it’s a private thing.”

“Not really, just kind of embarrassing.” Wheein mumbled, looking away. 

Hyejin waited, wondering if Wheein would give the explanation before she fell back asleep.

“It’s a mating cycle,” Wheein finally said, saying the words so fast, Hyejin’s sleep addled brain barely caught up to them.

Well. That was the last thing she was expecting. 

If she were any less sleepy, she probably would have burst out laughing, but she wasn’t, so she just made a noise for Wheein to continue.

“It’s a once a year thing. Werewolves go through a mating cycle. Without the scent of other wolves around to temper it, I get waves of discomfort and it sort of feels like my body is running a marathon and a fever at the same time. I’m sorry you had to go through that.”

“You keep apologizing,” Hyejin said.

“Because I was careless!” Wheein insisted, “Before, the Unnies would help me through it. And I knew they had this trip planned but I got too complacent, and I didn’t plan any contingencies.”

“Wheeinie,” Hyejin said, lifting a heavy arm and using it to hug Wheein to her side, “It’s fine. You’re my friend aren’t you? I was happy to help you.”

She couldn’t see it, but Hyejin was pretty sure Wheein was smiling. The hand that had been at her hair returned.

“Now it’s my turn to take care of you, Hyegi.”

Hyejin smiled, adjusting just a bit so her head was pillowed on Wheein’s lap before she fell asleep again.