“It’s ridiculous,” YoungJae grumbled as he begrudgingly took a sip of his bubble tea. “We’re one of the top squads, if not the top squad, of all the mages in the city! It doesn’t make any sense that we don’t have familiars.”

“You do have familiars. Do you still not give Bummie any credit for all the hard work he does?” HaNa glared at YoungJae while patting the loyal canine on the head. The German Shepherd dog nuzzled his head into HaNa’s hand affectionately. “YoungJae, I know how much getting a familiar means to you, but you know exactly why YongGuk-oppa will not tolerate you getting one.”

He saw the sadness in HaNa’s eyes and asked semi-rhetorically, “Has it been a year already since she passed away?”

“Maybe…” HaNa sighed, “I’m sure YongGuk-oppa still blames himself for Jieun’s death, so don’t you dare bring this matter up in front of him. Besides, if it wasn’t for YongGuk-oppa, you guys wouldn’t be as successful as you are right now, right?”

He nodded silently, unable to really argue with her point.

“Good, now can we please move on from this topic? You’re ruining our date with your grumpy attitude!” she pouted playfully to make YoungJae smile. It worked. The edges of the young mage’s mouth curved up into a small grin as he sat up straighter to ask HaNa what movie they should watch after their lunch. While YoungJae left money on the table for lunch, HaNa called out to thank the waitress. The waitress came out with a smile and sent the couple on their way, thanking them for their patronage.

Once they had left the restaurant, the waitress sighed a breath of relief. She picked to work at this restaurant on purpose because most mages don’t eat at dinky little restaurants. Why would they with the wage they earn? Serving mages always made her nervous, especially ones with familiars. At least that mage’s familiar was a dog…strange, but she wasn’t going to question her good luck.

“SuMi! Order up for table 3!”

“Neh!”

SuMi continued the rest of her shift with a bright smile on her face. She joked around a few of her regulars, asking them about their day and wished them a good weekend. When her shift was over, she bid her farewell to her employer and ran off to a night lounge she enjoyed going to when she had the time. She took her usual spot, a table in the dark, far in the back, before ordering herself a light drink. She really enjoyed winding down from her week with some music. She grew up without music. Well, her people had songs, but she had never seen these instruments before that could make such beautiful sounds. SuMi smiled as the soothing sounds of the piano began playing. She had found it wasn’t normal to come to this particular lounge just to hear the pianist play since the music was just accompaniment for most people hanging out. But this particular lounge also happened to be the place she had ever heard music from an instrument.

A few months back, she was coming back from a bad day at work. When she was about to take her frustration out on some poor bystander, she heard the soothing sound from a piano. She had thought the music put some sort of magic spell on her because of how quickly her anger dissipated. She later found that conclusion silly and swiftly dismissed the idea. That didn’t stop her from returning to the lounge every week or so after work to enjoy the music. Granted, the purpose of the lounge, she concluded from observation, was to meet with friends, coworkers, etc. in a peaceful environment in order to relax. She never came with friends because she didn’t have any. Having friends was too dangerous. Even if she was friendly with her customers at the restaurant, she refused any invitations (mostly by males) to “hang out” after her shift.

But that’s okay.

This place was nice, and she liked it, especially because it was nice and dark.

After an hour or so of relaxing to the music, she paid for her drink and left.

“Ah~ what a nice way to end the day~” she sighed in content. Her stomach growled. She should have ordered some food at the lounge. But she never did though, since anything more than one drink was too expensive for her wage.

‘Oh well, might as well go home and whip up a salad or something,’ SuMi thought to herself as she began her walk home.

“Hey!”

She blinked. Weird, that voice sounds like it was directed at her.

“Excuse me, Miss?”

There’s no way someone would be talking to her.

And with that thought, SuMi began to panic. So she did the first thing she could think of when she panics.

She ran.

“Hey, wait!”

Goodness, this guy was persistent! It’s late and dark! Why would anyone be chasing her at this hour?! Unless…

“!” she screamed as she turned a corner into a dark alley.

“No, w-wait! You got it all wrong! I’m not a ! I just-” the guy turned into the alley after her and stood at the entrance in confusion. She was gone. He blinked a few times, and turned around quickly, looked down the road, turned back around to the alley, and scratched his head. He cocked his head, quite mystified as to how she managed to disappear like that. He could have sworn she ran down this way…

With a sigh of defeat, he looked down at the scarf in his hands and turned to leave. “I guess I’ll get this back to her later then…”

“Is that my scarf?”

“AH!”

“AH!”

“Wha-but…you just…down…I saw you go-” he stuttered as he started turning all which ways, trying to figure out where she came from while pointing down the alley that he seemed so sure she went down, despite the fact that she was standing in front of him in the middle of the street. He stopped his spastic searching when he realized that the girl looked a bit scared at his strange behavior.

“Sorry! I didn’t mean to scare you,” he apologized immediately and took a breath to regain his sanity. Maybe he was just imagining things. “You left your scarf behind. The waiter picked it up while he was cleaning your table.”

“Thank you,” she mumbled politely with a slight bow of her head as he handed her scarf back to her. The guy looked like he wanted to say something else, but SuMi wasn’t really all too interested in small talk. However, she wasn’t able to escape quickly enough because he spoke up just before she could turn away.

“Um…you…come to the lounge quite often, don’t you?”

She froze at his question. How did he know that?

“I-I guess…”

He seemed to smile at her affirmation, making her feel that much more uncomfortable about this whole conversation.

“I knew it! You sit in the back by yourself, right?”

Was he a stalker?!

When he noticed the slightly terrified look she was giving him, he quickly explained, “I play the piano at the lounge! And I always see you sitting in the back by yourself. Ahhh…sorry, we got off to a bad start. My name is Henry. What’s your name?”

“I’m…SuMi,” she whispered out quietly as she wrapped the scarf around her neck, hiding most of her face.

“SuMi, huh?” he smiled brightly at her. “Nice to meet you, SuMi. I play every day at the lounge, so I hope I see you next week!”

He waved and began walking back to the lounge before realizing it was pretty late.

“Do you want me to walk y…ou…home…?” he asked, but his offer became a question of his own sanity as he was no longer talking to SuMi. There was no one behind him. Again, his eyes searched his surroundings for where this girl keeps disappearing to, but he found nothing. With a shrug, he ran back to the lounge, shivering in the cold from being underdressed.

Once he was gone, a black-shouldered kite flew down from a nearby building. As it landed where Henry had just been standing a few seconds ago, the bird transformed into a person.

“Whew~ that was close,” SuMi sighed as she dusted a few feathers out of her clothes. She pouted, “I guess this means I can’t go back to the lounge again…”

Such a shame. She really enjoyed hearing that boy play, but she wasn’t going to risk being found out she wasn’t human.

~

“OW!”

“Hold still.”

“Ow, ow, ow, ow, OW!”

“I told you to hold still.”

“But it hurts!”

“Well, who told you to go bother Mr. Porcupine? Maybe this will teach you a lesson not to stick your nose into things you’re not supposed to. It’s a wonder you’re not dead yet. Now hold still!”

“Waaah! Ji-ahjumma is mean!” whined the child.

“Do you want these quills out?”

“Yes…”

“Then sit still and be quiet.”

The child pouted once but fell into silence. Jihye sighed in relief. Just as she thought she was getting some peace and quiet while treating her patient, a loud voice boomed through her entrance.

“Yo, Ji! I got an injured idiot I need you to treat!”

“Kira. I have a door. Do you not know how to knock?”

Kira laughed loudly, “Ah, you’re funny. No, but seriously. I need this guy alive or his colony will me dry.”

“YAH!” Jihye roared out in irritation when Kira threw a bat at her face. “Don’t throw patients in my face! That is extremely rude!”

“Kira-unnie!”

“Oh, Jae, how’s it going? Getting into trouble again?” smirked the fox as she grabbed an apple from Jihye’s fruit bowl. The kappa rolled her eyes at the ill-mannered fox and went back to removing the quills from Jae’s arm (right after she placed the unconscious bat to the side over a heating pad). Kira chortled (nearly spitting out pieces of her apple) when she saw the predicament Jae seemed to have gotten herself into. “Did you get into a fight with a porcupine?”

Before Jae could defend herself, Jihye answered, “Porcupines are hibernating right now. So guess what Jae did? She unburied a den of porcupines, reached in, and got her arm covered in quills.”

“Wow, you really aren’t smart, are you, kid?” Kira applauded as she took another bite of her apple. “What exactly were you trying to accomplish?”

“…Ren-oppa said there were delicious groundhogs in there…” Jae mumbled quietly, a bit embarrassed by how easily she was tricked.

Kira could only sigh, “You really are a moron.”

Jae pouted childishly at Kira.

“Done,” Jihye announced.

Immediately Jae pounced on Kira with a growl. As the two started wrestling on the ground, Jihye shook her head and turned to her next patient. The heating pad worked its wonders as the bat Kira carelessly threw at Jihye woke up. Jihye assumed that Kira had probably kept him warm against her body while coming over here.

“How you feeling, child?” Jihye asked as the bat took his humanoid form, still fairly out of it.

“Like I’ve just been tossed around like a baseball…” he moaned out in pain as he stretched out his wings.

“That’s probably because your lovely companion threw you at my face earlier.”

“Well that was kind of her,” he answered half-heartedly. Jihye couldn’t tell if he knew he was saying or not anymore. Maybe he was delirious. She should check his reflexes.

“Oh, Ji! You probably want to check his back. He might still have a few of the Stymphalian feathers in his back,” Kira called out as she sat comfortably on Jae’s stomach.

“You know, these are IMPORTANT things to tell me,” Jihye grumbled as she turned Luhan around gently. She winced at the feathers embedded in his back. While there weren’t many, each of the feathers carried venom and extremely painful when removed. This was going to take some time…and concentration. Jihye glared at the rambunctious two rolling around on her ground.

“Kira, why don’t you be a dear and take Jae back to her pack?” Jihye asked politely despite the glare she was sending Kira that said, ‘Get the out, I’m working here.’

With a sigh, Kira picked up the struggling child. “Might as well since this is going to take some time, right? I’ll come pick that one up later then~”

With a wave, she left Jihye to tend to Luhan in peace.

“So how did you get into this mess?” Jihye asked, making small conversation to distract him from the pain that was going to come from the removal of the first feather.

“Let’s just say I’m not cut out for sneaking around like Kira is…” Luhan mumbled as Jihye gently pulled the feather out as slowly as she could. “Probably would have been worse if Kira didn’t burn most of the feathers they fired at us with her fox fire.”

“Well, it’s a good thing Kira got you here as fast as she did. Most of these feathers haven’t activated yet, so the toxicity level in your body is probably fairly low,” she informed.

Luhan’s eyes widened. “W-Wait, I was still flying when I fainted! Kira is probably inj-AHHHH!”

Jihye winced at Luhan’s scream of pain. The wounded vampire began panting as his whole body broke out in a cold sweat.

“She’s fine. I’ve seen that fox for years now. She’s like a cockroach; she just doesn’t die,” Jihye explained as she worked on the next feather.

“Perhaps…but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t feel pain…” Luhan muttered under his breath. He winced and prepared himself for the second feather being taken out.

This was going to be a long and messy process…

~

Aron sighed as he glared at Ren, who had been avoiding him the whole night. Alice came over and nuzzled Aron’s chin with the top of her head.

“You’re worrying too much again, Aron. I’m sure she’s fine. She’s probably at Jihye’s getting patched up like always,” the alpha female reassured. Just as Aron began to calm down a bit, he heard a vicious growl and a whimper.

“How could you lose her?!” JR demanded with his canines dangerously near Ren’s neck.

“JR, enough. I’m sure Ren feels bad about what he did and won’t ever do it again,” Aron commanded while staring Ren down. The subordinate werewolf nodded his head rapidly. Aron watched as JR slowly removed himself from Ren and sat himself on the side, glaring at the younger male.

“Jae!” Minhyun called out as he rushed over and hugged the younger female.

“Minhyun-oppa!”

“Where did you go? We were so worried about you…” Minhyun sighed in relief to see their little one safe. Jae nuzzled herself into his hug with a smile.

“Yo~”

At the sight of Kira, Minhyun took a defensive stance before Jae and snarled at the fox, baring his teeth.

“Whoa, there! Okay…we’re gonna not threaten the very kind and generous guide that brought your little Jae home, okay? Okay. Good,” Kira stated as Minhyun backed down. Aron stepped up and stared Jae down.

“I will speak with you later,” he warned as their youngest pack member scurried off with Minhyun. He turned his attention to Kira and bowed a little. “Thank you for escorting Jae back. We’re glad to see she’s safe. I wish we had something to offer you, but…”

Kira just shrugged, “I’m waiting for Jihye to patch up a friend of mine anyways, so I’m just killing some time.”

“That is very generous of you…and unlike you,” Aron thanked though not void of suspicion. Kira rolled her eyes.

“Hey, I can be nice…sometimes.”

“Indeed, very rare occasions,” Aron smirked as Kira scoffed at him. The two of them watched as Jae tackled Ren and started pulling at his ear with her teeth.

“The Stymphalians are growing in numbers. Infinite may have to intervene soon. Sunggyu might want you and your pack on board,” Kira shrugged. “Depends what the leader feels is necessary.”

“Is that why you’re here?”

“Why is it so hard to believe that maybe I’m just here because I’m paying a visit?” she huffed, sounding insulted.

“Because you’re Kira.”

“…point taken.”

As Jae forgave Ren for his mischievous trick, the two of them cuddled together, ready to go to sleep. Aron smiled softly as he watched Jae fall asleep.

“I can always let Infinite know your pack is not ready for such a strenuous battle,” Kira offered. “Though to be honest, I’m surprised you’ve managed to hide her for so long.”

Aron raised an eyebrow at Kira. “Yes, strange, isn’t it? You’d think news about a human adopted into a werewolf pack be all over the forest by now.”

Kira stayed silent against his accusation as she watched the rest of the pack curl up around the young female human.

“Why are you helping her? I thought you hated humans.”

“I do,” she admitted before continuing. “But I’d also be the last one to tear a family apart. I know how painful that is.”

The fox grinned at the alpha male.

“Take care, Aron. I’ll let Sunggyu know you decline.”

With a sigh, Aron walked over to his pack and wormed his way between Ren and Jae so he could curl himself up around Jae. The sleepy female grumbled in complaint for being woken up, but then buried her face deep into Aron’s fur coat with a peaceful smile. The leader her in the face once before resting his head back down on Baekho’s legs.

=====================================================================

ALL THE CHARACTERS HAVE BEEN INTRODUCED NOW!

…I think…

/ponders/

Well, kinda…XD

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, UNNIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE~

…just for you, I wrote slight LuKi…/sobs/ Luhan wasn’t even supposed to wake up…APPRECIATE MY KINDNESS.

Also for Corny~ :3 I UPDATED LIKE I PROMISE. LAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARVE MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

…long chapters are long…OTL

~Kira :3