“What are you even doing here?”

Sunggyu blinked blankly a few times before pointing to the nametag pinned on his chest, “I work here.”

You narrowed your puffy eyes at him, an effect of bawling like a baby moments ago. You had hid it away from him, no matter how many times he tried to coax you into lifting your head. Only when you were sure your eyes were done shedding tears did you look up. And now, you stared at him with a look that spoke for itself, conveying to him a silent “You know that’s not what I mean.”

He answered with a small smile, “I know.”

Yet, he didn’t answer your question. He stood there, leaning against the the counter of Snack n’ Go as he looked down at you in the stool he had pulled out for you. You suddenly could have cared less about your question. And it wasn’t fair. Just as you had said earlier, he wasn’t fair. Just with one of those wry smiles of his, you were at his mercy. You mumbled a complaint against it and looked away from him down to your lap.

He was the only one you hadn’t seen before they left.

That’s what caused you to feel weak towards him. What made your knees turn to jelly and caused you to squat onto the floor in the first place. And that’s why you were unfair to him. Because seeing you like that was the cutest thing he had seen in the past almost three months he had spent with thirteen other males.

“I missed you guys.” You spoke up at last, looking up to lock eyes with him again.

What he said next left you at a loss to how to reply. What he said was normal, an expected response. It was the way he phrased it that caused you to feel your heartbeat tremble in your chest.

“I missed you too.”

He said I.

Not We.

And that gesture was what left you stunned. His reply was specific to him. He missed you. It was personal to him. It was intimate. And it set your face aflame as you felt his gesture knocking on the door which was unsealed by Sungjong back on that cold day in December.

You cleared your throat, not breaking the eye contact you were making with him.  The eye contact you weren’t sure how long you maintained after he spoke that sentence of his.

“Your hair is red.”

It was an observation. One of many you had. The most obvious observation for you to notice. He had lost weight. Perhaps not that though. He looked more toned. More poised than the last time you had seen him, if that were even possible. He held himself with charisma, one of his feet holding up his weight while the other bent slightly as he leaned against the counter. His demeanor was the same as always though. A demeanor that always made you feel safe. That always made you feel calm.

Except, while his demeanor had not changed and had even seemed to project itself more since last you saw him, you didn’t feel safe or calm. You felt anxious. Your nerves felt like they were on fire, burning bright red just as you were sure your cheeks were as he leaned over and tugged at his hair.

“I was thinking of changing it to a dark brown.” He stood up straight again, looking at you once more, “What do you think?”

He smiled then. He smiled and you felt your anxiousness fade away. It were there again, that calming feeling. Your nerves still kept you on edge but there was something addicting about this feeling. This feeling of being both calm and nervous at the same time.

And your lips curved, your puffy eyes creating slight bags under your eyes as your cheeks hitched up, “I think it’d look great.”

And Sunggyu made a mental note to get it changed tomorrow morning as he smiled right back at you.

You closed and locked the front door behind you, making sure not to slam it. You held the pack of red twizzlers in your hand as you kicked your shoes off of your feet and slid them next to the door. It was quiet inside the house. You didn’t hear the sound of the television in your mom’s room nor see a light on upstairs. You pulled out your phone and checked the time. It was fifteen minutes to ten. You had spent way too long at the Snack n’ Go with him.

With Sunggyu.

He told you he’d call you tomorrow. That he’d explain everything then. You were willing to wait until then. You’d like to say you learned something about where they had been all this time. You’d like to say that. But, you couldn’t. He didn’t give away a single detail regarding where they were or what they were doing. He let you do most of the talking. He showed interest in Niel and Ricky. In your mom. In your daily life. You didn’t tell him about Tiffany though. He never knew you were friends with her. You never told them anything about her and as far as the werewolves knew, she was all human. As a result, you left out Daeryong and Soryong.

You wanted the conversation to remain light hearted. You hadn’t seen him in so long and talking about things like Elites and the Mayor was the last thing on your mind. But, you told yourself though that you’d tell him everything tomorrow. Everything and anything. You’d tell him before he told you a single thing. Before even a single syllable let his throat.

“Mom?” You questioned as you reached the top of the stairs and approached her room. When you peeked into the doorway, you found the room to be empty. Your phone beeped in your hand and you looked down, finding that you had received a text message just now. Not from your mom but from an unknown number.

You opened it and read it out loud.

“This is my new number. I’ll call you tomorrow. Sleep well.”

You didn’t need to read the name that was printed next to that last sentence to know who it was from.

“Sunggyu.” You laughed as you read the last line in your head again. You saved his number to your phone, and you were about to put in back into your pocket when you saw that you had one more text message. You opened it to find that your mom had written it to you around eight thirty. You didn’t hear it then because you were at that current point in time crying your eyes out at the Snack n’ Go down the street.

When you opened the message, it stated that she had to leave the house for an emergency call. This was probably the reason she didn’t call you to figure out why it was taking you so long to get home.

“Sorry.” You apologized to her, even if she wasn’t there to hear it. You were apologizing for not bringing her her twizzlers before she had to leave, yes, but you were mostly apologizing for not regretting it one bit. You slipped your phone back into your jacket pocket and walked to your bedroom door, opening it as you shifted your jacket off of your shoulders.

You went wide-eyed at what you saw as the pack of candy in your hand fell to the floor. You closed your eyes shut, thinking you were seeing things again. When you opened your eyes however, what you saw remained the same.

In front of you, on your bed, sat a boy. A young, werewolf, cheesy smiling boy. It was déjà vu of a day that occurred near the end of August. Except this time, you knew the name of this boy. And this time, he knew yours.

“I take it that you’re happy to see me?”

“So, what is it that you’re asking?” Her finger twirled around the opening of the glass cup that she held in her slim fingers.

“What do you mean?” A high-pitched voice rang through the air, the woman who spoke obviously displeased with having to repeat herself.

“You say you have a canine problem. I ask you what you intend for me to do about this problem.” She leaned forward, placing her glass on the table in front of her, her short brown locks shifting to cover her current expression from view. Her current expression which if the woman speaking to her had seen, then she would have ended this conversation would long ago. “Because, I see no reason to go after prey I didn’t come here to catch.”

“But, that’s why I called you here.” The woman answered back, her nagging complaint digging itself into the other’s patience.

“But, you see,” she sat up again, moving one of her legs to cross the other, “that’s not why we came.” The older woman tried to speak again but she stopped her, holding up one of her hands, her nails painted a shimmering black, “You believe yourself to be giving me an order but an order is by definition an authoritative instruction given to someone of lower rank. You do not hold authority over me. You may be able to own a mutt, but you cannot own me. You cannot own us. As such, your words are nothing to me. Your desires are not my own. Not our own. What you want and what we want are two different things and if these desires of ours happen to coincide then call yourself lucky that what we did effectively acted in your interest.”

The older woman stood without moving a single muscle. She could tell she had gotten under her skin. The very fact that she could see the shaking of the older woman’s eyes in anger caused her lips to break out into a smile.

“I extend my thanks for allowing us to discover this town. Beyond that, unless there is something I’m somehow forgetting to thank you for, our business is done here.” She uncrossed her black, sheer tight covered legs and stood up from the couch she was sitting on here in this office. “Do have a nice day. It’s a day of celebration after all.”

Without looking back, she grabbed her jacket and walked to the door, her heels clicking on the wooden floor as she left the room. Her smile broke out in full fruition on her face as she walked down the hall, her fingers on her left hand skimming the wall as she did so. As she stepped down the stairs, she pulled something from the pocket of her jacket before hanging it off of her shoulders. She arrived at the front door and opened it without a care, slinging it backwards before stepping through and shutting it behind herself.

Her legs parted slightly as she stood in front of the house now, her phone that she pulled from her jacket in her hand. She ran her finger across the screen, unlocking it with a series of clicks before making a phone call.

“All done, Hyosung?”

“Yes, everything’s been sorted.” The woman with short brown hair, Hyosung, answered as she looked up towards the night sky above her, the stars twinkling in the distance. “She wanted us to get rid of the twin stars that are shining down through her window. Apparently, they’re keeping her up at night.”

“How did you even resist it? You’d like to be the one to do it, wouldn’t you?”

Hyosung laughed to herself, “That I would. But, it’d be fun to toy with them a bit before then. Besides, we have other things to be concerned with. Today is a day of celebration.”

“That it is. The return of the hounds to Springfield is quite the cause for celebration. Should we break out the wine tonight?”

Hyosung shook her head, her smile not fading from her red stained lips, “Should we?”

“Sunhwa is getting impatient. Getting her mind off of it tonight would take more than one or two glasses.”

Hyosung heard a car in the distance and she took slow and deliberate steps forward, “Looks like we have no choice then. We can’t start the hunt so soon, after all. That would take all the fun out of it.”

“I’m pulling in front of the house now.”

“I see you, Zinger.” Hyosung hung up the phone and held in in her hand as she approached the 1940, vintage black sedan. Her heels clicked with each of her steps on the driveway cement and created a sound that echoed into the night sky.

“This is where we first met, you know? Can you feel the nostalgia in the air?” 

You walked forward near the black haired male and gave him a swift punch to the chest. Unsurprisingly, it was like hitting a steel wall and your knuckles stung immediately. As the pain traveled upwards, your tear ducts that simply didn’t know the word “quit” started to water.

“You see me after so long and the first thing you do is hit me? You really haven’t changed a bit.”

You wanted to sock that greasy smile right off of his face for making you cry again. That greasy, cheesy, so sickeningly sweet you could gag smile. That smile you didn’t know how much you missed it until you saw it again, right here in front of you.

You reached out to hit him again, only to have him stop you by grabbing onto your clenched fist. He tsked and shook his head, “Violence again?” He peered up to see the look on your face, his smile still on his own, as he shook your hand gently in his own, “Come on, show me a smile.”

A moment went by but when you finally looked up, facing him without turning away to throw a punch, he saw tears escape your eyes and make their way down your cheeks. Your cheeks that were pushed upwards, making way for the smile your lips had curved into.

“You really haven’t changed at all.”

He breathed out, his cheesy smile softening as he looked on at you now. His free hand went up to brush the hair out of your face, away from your now wet cheeks. His fingers combed through it and the feelings you got from him doing such a thing again were fleeting despite your urge to grasp onto and relish in them.

His lips parted as he whispered his next words, “Should I mark you again?” Your tears stopped and your smile faded in an instant at his mysterious request as your free hand winded back and hit him now. He caught that one too, expecting it, and his greasy smile was back now as he tugged you to him, catching you in a bear hug, “You’re still so adorable.” He teased as he shook you left and right while you tried to push him away.

“Woohyun.” You mumbled as he refused to let go.

And for some reason, the mere uttering of his name was enough to make your fists lose their strength.

And you gave into the hug he was giving you.

And he felt you weaken in his grasp.

He, in turn, stopped moving back and forth and let his arms loosen as he held you carefully now. He rested his chin on your shoulder and breathed out, not believing he stayed away from you for so long. Not believing he was actually able to stay away from this. This feeling you gave him.

You couldn’t think of anything as your arms remained limp, your eyes closed. As you felt Woohyun breath out, his chest moving slowly up then down against your own, your mind gave into it as well. You were okay with not thinking about anything.

That is, until you heard an amused voice call from behind Woohyun from the direction of your bedroom window.

“Are we interrupting something?”

In an instant, Woohyun went falling backwards onto your bed, surprised at how quickly you pushed him away. So surprised he couldn’t help but grin, amused with the look of shock on your face as you stared at the person who had climbed through your window and into your room as well as the person who was now in the process of doing the exact same thing.

Kyung and Jaehyo.

“As a matter of fact, you did.” Woohyun looked to them, earning a laugh from Jaehyo and an amused smirk from Kyung. 

A/N: This was almost late. Almost. I would like to thank one commenter for pointing out that Sunggyu's hair isn't red anymore. Like what? It wasn't? Then I watched the SBS 2012 Gayo Daejun Dec. 29th performance of The Chaser (here) and felt like a silly person for not watching it sooner. Thank you Snowbunny for pointing it out. Thanks to you the scene with Hyunjoo and Sunggyu ends as it did. 

On another note, I have some kind cold-sore-throat-thing-ma-bobber-and-it- so I regrettably will not be replying to all of your comments from the last chapter in exchange for some rest. I will try to reply to most though and if I start to get on a roll, I will probably end up replying to all of them. Conclusion, I will most likely reply to them anyway. 

On another, more important, note, this chapter was fun to write for many reasons. The scene with Sunggyu, the scene with Zinger and Hyosung and the mystery woman (can you guess who it is?), and the scene with Woohyun that gets interrupted by Kyung and Jaehyo. Yep, lots of fun writing this chapter. Yep. Off to rest now. 

La la la la la~