xxiii. Alone Never Again

He couldn't stop here. He simply couldn't. He simply wasn't supposed to. But, what could he do? What could he do when he was met face to face with a buckling over Jaehyo whose eyes gleamed, filled with determination he didn't know the definite meaning behind. Determination he could deduce however had something to do with the fact that he stood alone, Sungyeol nowhere in sight.

The tall werewolf had gotten out. That's what he had deduced. That's what Sungjong figured was the reason behind Jaehyo's unwavering will to fight the surprisingly bloodied and bruised Hoya, not that Jaehyo was any less so. In fact, Jaehyo was the one who looked worse for wear.

Yet still, he held his stance as sweat left his fringe stuck to his forehead. As his left leg trembled, adrenaline pumping through him to stop the pain of his broken bone by sheer will. As his narrowed, fox-like, hooded eyes met with Sungjong's wolf form's own.

And while he had contemplated it, while he urged his legs to keep moving, to get to Hyunjoo and Myungsoo as fast as he possibly could, he couldn't.

He couldn't leave.

Especially after Jaehyo's voice echoed through the air, resounding a statement directed at Sungjong.

"You're not leaving me here. Not alone."

And it hit him.

That one word.

Alone.

It hit him and he no longer found himself stuck between a rock and a hard place. No longer did he even have to ponder whether he would go to Hyunjoo and Myungsoo or stay.

He took steps forward until he was there, right at Jaehyo’s side.

Now, neither of them was alone.

Despite their partners being gone, they had each other.

Despite the odds looking as though they were still leaning in Hoya’s favor, they had each other. That was enough of a confidence boost. That and the words hidden beneath Jaehyo’s statement earlier. The underlying message that made Sungjong even more sure of this decision he was currently apologizing in his mind to Hyunjoo, Myungsoo, and Zico over and over for.

Jaehyo had a plan, as always.

A plan he could only put into action if he wasn’t alone.

And now that he wasn’t, he was certain he wasn’t going to let Sungyeol’s sacrifice go to waste. Lest he never hear the end of it after this was all over.

“I need to stop.” She chanted to herself as though it were her own personal mantra. “This can’t go on.” She half-screamed at her phone as she buried the lit up screen beneath her clenched fingers. She didn’t want to look at it again. She didn’t want to be hooked by it again. Despite what she told herself she wanted though, she knew her unspoken desire.

She wanted to call Kim Myungsoo.

It was dumb.

She felt dumb.

But, she wanted to. The message he sent her this morning was there, like a defibrillator to her dying feelings. The message that read a simple, "If anything happens, call me." She knew he was referring to her dad when he wrote that. She had actually received a text message from the used-to-be-blonde twin Daeryong that said something similar. Something like, "Little sparrow, if papa sparrow shows up, first run. Then, call me, okay? Okay." As though she had answered the question already.

Afterall, her father was not exactly handled by the twins. No, they had handled him, they just handed him onto someone else. The situation was complicated, they had told her at the last party her mother held before she had had her accident and Myungsoo showed up again along with all of his other friends. And she was fine with such a lacking explanation.

Her father scared her. He always scared her. She loved him, she didn't want him to die, but she also didn't want him around her. She wasn't sure how her mother felt but she knew how she felt.

And she knew that if she saw her father again, she would run.

She would run as fast as her legs could carry her.

But, she wouldn't call Daeryong.

She'd call Kim Myungsoo.

Kim Myungsoo, who still had no idea what happened to her father after the hell he put Myungsoo through. Hell being that underground place Minah still didn't know the explanation of either.

Not that she knew much about where her father was either, but she at least knew more. She knew more about the mirror images that you hung out with before Myungsoo showed up again. Minah had considered tattle-telling on you, only for a second, before she found herself not wanting to. Before she found herself feeling as though she shouldn't.

"He'll find out sooner or later." Minah whispered to herself as she looked back down at her phone, Myungsoo's message flashing there as clear as day. "Can I call you even if nothing happens?" She mused, pursing her lips before she sighed, groaned, and then yelped.

She yelped as she saw from the corner of her eyes a head of dark brown hair peeking over her shoulder. She almost fell off of the railing she was sitting on if not for the owner of said hair reaching out and stopping her before she could.

"What? Are you not going to text that back?" Said owner of dark brown locks, Yura, asked as she caught sight of Minah's phone again. Minah buried it beneath her fingers again, pulling it out of Yura's sight. Yura hit her shoulder with her free hand, "Why are you embarrassed? It's a legitimate question to ask him." Minah only downcasted her eyes in response, hiding the blush that she felt creeping up her cheeks.

Minah had been waiting for Yura to finish grocery shopping for the past fifteen minutes or so. The latter said she only had a few things she was craving and there was no reason to go inside with her. Which, Minah found odd, but accepted before planting herself onto the short railing in front of the crosswalk of the town's grocers.  

"Well, suit yourself." Yura rounded the metal railing Minah was sitting on, causing Minah to follow her movement with her eyes. And it was then that she realized the reason Yura did not want her to join her inside. The reason being a certain black haired male who was being accompanied by his shorter best friend.

"He's nice, you know." Minah spoke up before Yura could start off down the sidewalk. The latter froze in her tracks, meaning that Minah's realization was correct, "Niel, I mean."

Yura pivoted on her heel, her lips forming a slight smile as she nodded just once, “I know.”

Minah stepped down from the railing and walked closer to her, her eyes trained on Niel's image through the glass windows of the grocers, “He’s your type isn’t he? Good-looking, nice, witty, and smart. He’s become even funnier ever since,” Minah paused momentarily, not finishing her thought that would have ended with, ever since Hyunjoo started hanging out with him and Ricky.

You had that effect on people. The effect in which you were able to accentuate certain traits a person had just by being them. For Niel, it was his humor. For Ricky, it was his rarely seen serious side. For Myungsoo, it was everything. In Minah's eyes, everything about Myungsoo, his disposition, his personality, his laugh, his smile, all of it, all of him, was so much more breath taking only when you were around. And this is why she didn't finish her sentence. Because no matter how much she knew she didn't hate you, it was hard not to feel as though she did whenever she thought this way. This way in which jealously would cause her past self which didn't question her father, which spread rumors, which disregarded others due her selfishness, and was someone she never wanted to be again, would attempt to resurface.

“Well, isn’t the sarcastic type the kind you like?” Minah finished, ridding herself of her wayward thoughts as she casted one last fleeting glance at the duo before they disappeared from her view.

“It’s interesting.” Yura shrugged her shoulders whimsically, her smile still there on her face.

“But, what?” Minah questioned, hearing the hitch in Yura’s voice that suggested there was something more to this. Something more to the reason she didn’t like, couldn’t like Niel. “It’s interesting, but what?”

Despite popular belief, Yura had noticed Niel. She had noticed him first back in middle school, the boy whose surname was similar to her first name. It’s the reason she came up with her self-imposed nickname. She didn’t want to have her attention drawn every time someone would begin their sentence with “Ah” and end with a harsh “n” sound instead of the second syllable of her name, “young.” She didn’t want to pay attention to the boy named Ahn Daniel then as a middle school girl just discovering boys. It made her uncomfortable and flustered in a way she had never been before. She didn’t want to think about him that way. About the boy with red full lips, clipped black hair, and long limbs and fingers that she often wondered the exact length of.

And well, shortly after entering high school, she didn’t have to daydream any longer.

Because that’s when Kim Sunggyu entered her life.

And her attention was captured by him then as it was now. 

“It’s not that easy getting over Sunggyu.” Yura sighed, her eyes forward as she felt Niel’s image wash away in her mind, taken over with ease by Sunggyu’s instead.

“Hyunjoo told me they’re not dating.” Minah blurted, causing Yura to look to her with curious eyes. Minah cleared before nonchalantly continuing on, “We talk sometimes.”

Yura pursed her lips as she swung the plastic bag of groceries in her hand, “They might as well be.”

Minah wasn’t at all satisfied with that kind of reply and reached out, stopping Yura not with her words but with a hand on her shoulder, making Yura turn around and face her, “Why are you so depressing today?”

Yura blinked. Once, twice, a third, and a fourth time. And she remembered as she stared on at Minah’s worried expression the glances stolen in her direction just earlier. The glances she couldn’t help but notice. That she couldn’t help but wish, somewhere beneath where Sunggyu’s image scorched the surface of her mind, permanently burning himself there, that he’d look again. That Niel would keep looking. And with another shrug of her shoulders, a sigh left her lips once more, “There weren’t any good strawberries today.”

And Yura wondered what Kim Sunggyu was doing right at this very moment. What was he doing as she felt herself wavering at another’s glance?

How did it start?

Zico remembers making the first move, but how did it start?

Zico remembers landing the first hit, but how did it start?

How did such a fight start not between enemies but between friends?

What were the means to this end?

The necklace. The Mayor. The full moon battles. The hatred.

Then, the situation changed.

Because of a girl named Song Hyunjoo, you, the situation changed.

From enemies to compromise.

To coexistence. 

To existing together, not just cooperating.

To Sunggyu and to Zico, this was one of many outcomes of their situation but never did they imagine how much they would desire it if time were to rewrite itself.

But, they did imagine how much they desired this moment.

The moment in which Zico made the first move. The moment in which Zico landed the first hit. The moment in which Zico charged towards a standstill Sunggyu and socked his jaw without a single ounce of regret or remorse. Because he knew he would feel that even more unmerciful jab right into his abdomen soon after.

Because they both couldn’t have been more excited to test each other. As though a scuffle between two pups, the two’s hits only intensified from then on.

As Zico buckled from the strike, only for a single second, only showing weakness for one short moment, he felt two hands press down on his shoulders and a subsequent knee to his jaw. And he went falling backwards, landing onto the plush, snowy ground as though it welcomed him. As though it knew such a thing would happen so quickly. As though it knew that Sunggyu wouldn’t fail to impress Zico within the first five seconds of their fight.

With his jaw still stinging yet the pain subsiding quickly, Zico, despite his position on the ground, smiled. He smiled up at Sunggyu over him and was met with a fist crashing down onto where his head had just been had he not rolled out of its range.

Just as he dodged it however, Zico saw it. He saw the similar smile on Sunggyu’s face. And faster than he ever knew himself able, Zico sprang to his feet and went storming right into the older werewolf, causing the both of them to go tumbling down onto the ground. Sunggyu was the first to react to the turn the fight had taken as he was quick to block the incoming punch from Zico above him. Excitement reflected in Zico’s eyes and exhilaration in Sunggyu’s own as white condensation poured from their mouths while they wrestled against each other.

It was a fight that Sunggyu was ultimately winning.

A small battle he won as he tossed Zico from him using brute force, sending the latter onto his back. With a swipe of his legs while he sat up, Sunggyu was standing once more. Only to be pummeled once again by Zico who had gotten up much faster than he. Because it was taking over. That part of Zico which yearned for a fight. Which yearned for this fight.

Sunggyu didn’t let himself be taken down so easily however, and sent his elbow jabbing down into the base of Zico’s spine as soon as Zico’s arms wrapped around his torso once more. Zico roared something incoherent and unearthly, pain mixing with his words and the guttural abilities of his other half to form a sound which would have caused any camper who happened to be wondering the woods on this particular Saturday to feel a chill run down their back. Zico wasn’t down and out just yet, he was simply a bit put off by the fact that he felt as though someone had attempted to cut his head off with an axe.

Sunggyu remembered a time when such a hit would have sent the used-to-be-hunter, pre-Wolfsbane Zico toppling over like a Jenga tower. Now, however, it just made Zico angry. Angry, frustrated, and even more motivated.

And even more dangerous.

So, the fight between the two pups escalated to new heights as neither one held back a single punch or kick or tackle, for that matter. As though they could see nothing else, as though they could hear nothing else, they fought.

They fought until they had not even enough energy to smile as they racked their minds for every way they could land a hit on the other. Excitement, anger, frustration, and motivation were the winners. Zico was the winner of this small battle as Sunggyu felt himself tiring out more and more, the desire to transform washing over him like a flood. But, he held it back, because Zico hadn’t yet. Zico hadn’t transformed because he was already half-way there. He was already half-way to transforming, his moves raw and untrained, so unpredictable and so powerful, that he didn’t need to transform fully.

This is what Sunggyu had worked to achieve.

A Zico who didn’t need to transform.

A Zico who could channel his other self without feeling the need to.

He felt proud.

But, his pride was being beaten. Or rather, his body was as Zico landed an uppercut into his gut. He felt the tang of iron gather in his mouth, ready to come sputtering out should he receive another hit like that. As he swallowed down the metallic taste, Zico was planning an even more damaging attack as he sent himself upwards with one small jump.

With one small jump, Zico’s fist came colliding down upon Sunggyu’s temple, hitting him like the unforgiving waves of the ocean.

It pounded against him, Zico’s momentum as he came drifting back downwards from his jump which served to amplify his offensive attack. Sunggyu stumbled, his center of balance thrown off by the sudden attack from above. As soon as Zico’s feet touched the ground, he took advantage of Sunggyu’s current disadvantage, sending his leg up and out to ram against Sunggyu’s ribcage.

It would have been the end right then and there if Sunggyu hadn’t lifted his hands, blocking the attack that sent him sliding backwards, his heels digging into the snow and dirt, at the last second.

Heavy footsteps echoed through the forest. Zico’s heavy footsteps as he came running towards Sunggyu again, readying his clenched hand for another attack. Sunggyu couldn’t take another hit like that. If he did, he’d fall. He knew he would. And if this were real, it would mean his death. He had no intention of dying whether it be figuratively or literally, as he was sure Zico felt as well.

Which meant this could go on forever, this back and forth.

Which meant he had to end this.

Now.

And with one last spurt of energy, using one last waning reservoir of strength, Sunggyu reared back his clenched fist before sending it sailing towards Zico whose own punch was making its way towards him. And as Zico’s fist clashed into Sunggyu’s temple once more, sending his whole world abuzz and blurry as though he were hungover from alcohol, a feeling werewolves don’t experience unless a large amount is ingested according to his grandfather, Sunggyu’s own unfurled. His fingers uncurled and sprawled outwards, diverting their course just as Zico’s jab landed itself.

As fast as a person would see lightning flash across the sky, Zico went down. Zico went down as a result of the chokehold Sunggyu caught him in before Zico was swept off his feet and sent down, a thunderous pain coursing through his body as he met the ground with force.

And just like that, as Zico laid on the ground with Sunggyu’s fingers wrapped tightly around his neck, it ended.

It ended quickly, as it should have. There was no holding back. There were no games to be played or tricks to be performed. There was no transformation needed. There was no reason to expect anything less.

Sunggyu won.

Silence passed between the two as this revelation hit both of them at once. Sunggyu retracted his fingers from Zico’s neck, bringing his hand back to his side. And before a single word of congrats could leave Zico’s lips, Sunggyu landed on the ground as well.

He flopped down right next to Zico, gaining himself an annoyed, “What are you doing?” in response.

“I’m out.” Sunggyu lifted his arms, resting his intertwined hands behind his head, propping himself up on nature’s cushion. Before Zico could say another word, he interrupted, “You think I can beat anyone like this?” He stifled a laugh only to groan right after, his abdomen clenching, screaming at him as soreness overwhelmed his body, the effect of Zico’s hits on him just now setting in.

Zico growled in response, dissatisfied.

This only caused Sunggyu to laugh in return, his breath white smoke against the even whiter landscape surrounding them.

“Can you smell them?” Sunggyu asked out loud as he stared up at the green leaves above them. His dark brown eyes caught sight of a single drop of melting snow sliding down a branch to the end of a single dark green leaf before it went sailing downwards, landing right onto his left cheek. The snow was melting. Spring was coming to Springfield. Slowly but surely, it was. It was arriving late, but arriving nevertheless.

“Can you feel them?” He rephrased upon reminiscing on his thoughts, relinquishing to his lethargy as he let his eyes drift closed.

Zico turned his head to glance at Sunggyu from the corner of his eye. The serene look on his face seemed familiar, felt familiar. And Zico realized then that it was the same reflection of the expression he woke up with everyday since his and Sunggyu’s pack merged. He would always laugh when he saw how he looked in the mirror every bright morning in London. Even now, he laughed.

Because here they were.

A pure bred and a mutt.

A legitimate and an illegitimate pack leader.

A sensible, practical werewolf and an instinctive, reckless werewolf.

Kim Sunggyu and Woo Jiho.

Two brothers.

Zico would laugh now and in the future at how cheesy he sounded. At how scared he was to even bring up the idea he had implanted in his mind for a long time now that Sunggyu wasn’t just his friend anymore, he was like an older brother. He was scared even though he knew Sunggyu wouldn’t reject him. He knew Sunggyu wasn’t the type to do such a thing.

He knew Sunggyu was kind to a fault. And Zico would complain to him about being too merciful. He knew Sunggyu was calculating in every move he made. And Zico would call him a clever bastard for coming up with the plans he did. He knew Sunggyu was willing to give anything and everything to them, to his pack and Zico’s both. And Zico had nothing but an arrogant smile to give in return.

He looked up to Sunggyu, immensely so.

And now, he looked to the sky peaking through the trees above as he turned his head forward once more, breathing in one single deep breath, “I can tell it’s just Sungjong, Jaehyo, Myungsoo, and Hyunjoo left on our side. And on yours, there’s Hoya, Woohyun, and B-bomb. When it comes to Sungjong, Hoya, and Jaehyo, there’s going to be a double knockout without a doubt. As for Myungsoo, Woohyun, and Hyunjoo, I’d say the result of this training exercise is clear. Wouldn’t you?”

“Sorry.” Sunggyu spoke suddenly, causing Zico to turn to him again. Sunggyu’s expression was one of confliction, which Zico would have understood the reason behind, but soon after, it changed. It changed into an expression Zico did not know the meaning of. One he couldn’t even fathom the meaning of. It changed into one of amusement, “But that’s not what I was referring to.” 

And when Sunggyu turned towards him as well, the two locking eyes, Zico’s wide and Sunggyu’s blinking down slowly, expectantly, the light bulb went off.

And Zico laughed again, this time because he found out what he looked up to the most when it came to Sunggyu.

He looked up to his way with words.

“I can feel them fighting like hell.” Zico paused, only for a moment, and his lips curved upwards, feelings of excitement and anticipation whirling through him like a hurricane, “I can feel them fighting against hell. Together.”  

Spring was arriving in Springfield.

It was time for the werewolves to come out of their bear-like hibernation.

It was time for them to strike back.

To strike back against their living hell.

To strike back against the hunters.

A/N:

As a quick recap for those who didn't see my last chapter about updates, this story will be updated every other Sunday. I missed last Sunday's update for this so that's the reason I'm posting it here now. Next Sunday, I will update this and The Devil Next Door.

I spent a lot of time writing this chapter. And by writing I mean just sitting in front of my computer while staring off into space. Why? Because I was thinking. I was thinking and thinking and thinking and well, I figured it all out. All of it. All of what? All of this story. Big things are in store for its future and now that I have more time to spend writing the chapters, I hope to make them more full of well, stuff, in the future. es are abound, the love polygon is beginning to dissolve and it will continue to do so, and most of all, lots and lots of fun twists and turns are waiting to surprise you all. I can't wait. Can you? I didn't think so.  

The Sunggyu/Zico fight was short. But, what else do you expect? 

Also, did you know? Comments are like kisses.
It's a way of showing affection for a story.