~ Jung DaeHyun ~

DaeHyun hurries back to the precinct, worried that the kids will run from town now that they know that not only does an officer in the law suspect them of…something, but also that a government official is after them. What had GDragon meant in giving Hyuna her life back?

DaeHyun shakes his head and quickly runs into the precinct, not stopping for happy hellos to those at the front desk.

“Officer DaeHyun!” Lee Kiseop, a regular for the front desk calls to him as he rushes by.

“I don’t have time,” DaeHyun huffs as he reaches for the next door to the loud, busy room in the back.

“I was just going to tell you,” Kiseop continues, “That GDragon guy came looking for you again…I just let him in this time.”

DaeHyun pauses and turns to face him. “What?”

Kiseop looks up to him, “GDragon…that guy with the dark glasses that you’re working on a case with.”

“What about him?” DaeHyun pants, turning to him.

“He came by looking for you…saying he needed to pick up something that you had.” Kiseop shrugs.

“And you let him in?” DaeHyun exclaims.

“You said that we should just let him in from now on…” Kiseop pouts, looking back to Kevin, another front desk regular.

DaeHyun stares at them for a single beat of his heart, and then rushes inside, pushing people out of his way as he reaches his desk. He yanks open the first drawer and rummages through, finding nothing that he needs. He moves on to the next, pushing aside papers and pens, and then the next, removing old files and old cases. Finally, he digs through the last one and sighs in relief as he pulls out the file on the robberies. He looks back down…but his file on NATAS is missing.

DaeHyun shouts in aggravation as he slams the drawer shut, causing people around the room to glance his way.

“Jung DaeHyun!” the chief calls to him from his open office door. He looks to him in shock at DaeHyun’s frustration and motions him inside.

DaeHyun sighs as he hurries in, not bothering to shut the door.

“What’s the meaning of that?” the chief growls, standing from his chair and placing his hands on his hips.

DaeHyun breathes, “There’s a problem, chief. We were right…this GDragon guy is not a good character. He’s after these kids…JunHyung and…”

“Enough, enough!” the chief waves his hands and then points a finger at him, “I told you not to bother with this stuff, Jung…”

“Chief he stole my file! GDragon walked in here and took it! I was recording the information that we needed in that file!”

“Stop it!” the chief thunders, “You just stick to your own business and concentrate on your other case or so help me I will remove you from this one!”

“Chief!”

“Jung!” the chief screams, “You are one word away from being removed! I should have seen the signs when your father started to obsess about it but I was too late…I won’t let another cop of mine end up like that! You leave this governmental crap to the higher officials!”

“Jung DaeHyun!” Kevin calls from the other end of the room, “We have a call concerning some robberies near the other end of town! They think it’s your clothing bandit!”

DaeHyun glances back to the chief, still trying to control his breathing.

“Get your out there and do you job,” the chief snarls as he sits back down and turns to his computer.

DaeHyun holds his breath and nods, rolling his eyes as he turns to leave. “I plan on doing just that,” he mumbles as he grabs his keys and exits the precinct.

~ Kim HyunA ~

JunHyung, Hyuna, and YongGuk walk back towards the bakery, but Hyuna’s sure that all of their minds are traveling to far off places in hope of finding safety. Yet again, Hyuna feels as she had earlier in the year, when she and BoHoJa…or YongGuk, would travel from town to town just trying to find a small, safe place to stay. Little did Hyuna know at that moment, that she would wind up feeling at home in the city of Chinju with so many wonderful people.

“Where do we go now?” Hyuna asks quietly.

“Far from here,” YongGuk replies.

JunHyung sighs, “I don’t know…maybe it would be better to have DaeHyun on our side than…”

“We can’t trust the guy!” YongGuk exclaims in anger.

JunHyung scoffs, “Listen, I know him and I trust him! He’ll keep his promise.”

“What do we tell the others?” Hyuna whispers as they near the bakery.

They all fall quiet on that…no doubt wondering how to let Chaelin and BiRain know that they’re just leaving all of a sudden in the best way.

“Chaelin will be alone with the bakery again,” Hyuna sighs, looking down.

“BiRain will have to run the music company on his own,” JunHyung adds.

YongGuk sighs, obviously aggravated enough that they haven’t left yet.

Hyuna opens the door to the bakery and they enter, pausing in the middle as they search for the words to say.

“Where did you all just run off to?” Chaelin scoffs, trying to hide her disappointment behind a forced smile.

“To look at apartments,” Hyuna voices first as she walks towards the counter. “I found a place that I can stay in town, not far from here. I’m going to get my bags.”

“You went apartment shopping…with the boys?” CL raises and eyebrow and then looks to her with a hurt expression, “Why wouldn’t you want to go with me?”

Hyuna looks back to her, trying to control her own emotions. “I’m sorry, Chaelin,” she offers a tentative smile, “We had made the appointment when you were out of town but I forgot about it until YongGuk reminded me just now. We just looked at it and came straight back.”

YongGuk and JunHyung exchange glances, nodding in approval at Hyuna’s adlibs.

“Well, you don’t have to move out…right away,” CL huffs with a hurt smile.

Hyuna pats her shoulder, “I don’t want to be a burden to you. I just think it’s time for me to do some things on my own. Don’t worry.”

CL nods, but turns away to do her work, trying to hide her upset feelings from them all, although they can feel them seeping out of her.

What now? Hyuna asks the boys with her eyes as she looks to them, We pack up our things and disappear?

~ Jung DaeHyun ~

DaeHyun hurries with the cop car screaming through the town. He heads towards the last call of a suspicious character sneaking into the top of a clothing store through the fire escape. Although the description of a young girl and the time of day seems off to be his clothing bandit, a robbery is a robbery and DaeHyun needs to do his job.

DaeHyun turns off the sirens but leaves the lights to his cruiser on as he runs inside the bottom level of the store, making sure his handcuffs and gun are still attached to his belt. He wishes that he had Kim SooHyun by his side…this is his first time handling a situation on his own…something the chief would have frowned upon.

He pauses inside the store, a clothing shop for teenagers. On one side hang girly pink clothes, and on the other, preppy styles for men. He looks to a woman behind the counter who stares at him with wide eyes and a hand over . She quietly points towards the back of the store, to a set of stairs that lead up to the next level. DaeHyun nods and tips his hat to her as he rushes through.

He quietly ascends the stairs, hand lightly touching his gun out of nervousness. He creeps down the hardwood flooring of the upper hall, leading to another open room where light streams in from windows all around. He glances around the room to see that it’s full of jewelry and dresses for women.

He silently breathes in and out, and then holds his breath so that he can hear better. He walks in, carefully looking each direction, wondering if the thief has already left upon hearing the sirens. He turns to find the window on the side left open, which leads to the fire escape, from which the thief had entered…and most likely left. DaeHyun sighs as he straightens up and looks around for any signs of something out of place.

He turns to leave when he catches a quick movement out of the side of his eyes, a young girl making a dash for the open window.

“Freeze!” DaeHyun shouts, turning to her and pulling out his gun in order to convince her not to move.

“Ah!” The little girl shrieks, dropping an armful of clothes to the ground.

She stares at him for a moment with wide eyes. She has short, reddish brown hair in a pixie cut and giant, clear eyes and soft lips. Suddenly, the description of the fourth missing person from YongGuk comes to mind, and DaeHyun recognizes her from the photographs on GDragon’s list, only she had seemed younger and had black hair in the pictures.

DaeHyun’s eyes widen as he lowers his gun and his mouth drops open. She couldn’t be over the age of sixteen.

Her eyes dart from him to the open window, and she darts for it.

“Wait!” DaeHyun exclaims, reaching out to her with his hand.

He grabs hold of the back of her shirt as she tries to squeeze out the window.

“Ow!” She squeals as she pulls on his grip.

Suddenly, the girl yells and the sound of something breaking mixes with her shout. DaeHyun worries that they have broken the window, but when he looks, he finds that the girl is gone and a red fox drops to the fire escape below, leaving the shirt dangling from DaeHyun’s grasp. DaeHyun’s eyes widen and his breath gets caught in his throat as he stares down at the animal in disbelief. The fox looks up to him with bright eyes, and then runs down the escape towards the ground.
“W-wait!” DaeHyun screams down to her, tossing the shirt away and climbing out the window, “Wait, please! I know more people like you!”

The fox pauses at the end of the street and looks back up to him, one foot raised, poised to make a run for it.

“Yes!” DaeHyun yells to her, half laughing at the absurdity of it all, “I know three other people like you! Don’t run, I’m coming down!”

The fox glances down the road and kneels lower to the ground, its body shaking with each ragged breath. DaeHyun grunts as he swings over the escape and climbs down the ladder, having to drop an extra eight feet to the floor. He groans as he picks himself up and hurries toward the fox, the animal lowering to the ground and looking to the street. DaeHyun slows his pace and holds up his hands, “Easy,” he says as calmly as he can, “I’m not going to hurt you…and I’m not going to tell anyone, trust me,” he laughs, “Everyone would think I’m crazy,” he mumbles, “But I know three other people that…that are like you? Come with me…and I’ll have you meet them,” he pants.

The fox looks to him in terror, scooting away from him. DaeHyun breathes and searches for some sort of proof to what he’s saying. “They have dreams!” he hears himself speak before he comprehends, “Dreams of fire and explosions and running.” He shakes his head as he hears the ridiculousness of it all, “Trust me…I’m not going to do anything to you…but I think you might be in trouble with them if you don’t come with me.”

The fox’s breath slows and she straightens up. “Ssit” the fox squeaks, its lips and it’s face distorting in discomfort.

“Did…did you just speak?” DaeHyun blinks.

The fox nods and turns to face him. “Ssit!” it says again.

“What…what’s that?” he asks.

The fox looks up to the window, the shirt dangling from the windowpane. DaeHyun looks back to the animal and nods in understanding.

The fox gives him a single nod, “Ssit!” she says again.

~ Kim HyunA ~

Hyuna stands in the middle of JunHyung’s living room as YongGuk lounges on the couch, watching JunHyung as he hurries around his apartment, gathering the things that he wants to take with him.
“Dude, could you take any longer?” YongGuk whines.

“I don’t know what to bring!” JunHyung huffs as he pulls coca cola out of the fridge and tosses it into an old gym bag.

“We travel with next to nothing,” YongGuk states, “You only need what you can carry on your back! Why…why are you bringing pop? We can get pop…anywhere!”

Hyuna smiles and shakes her head, but she feels a pain in her chest with the idea of just abandoning Chaelin like this. She wishes that there could be some way to stay here.

Suddenly, there’s a knocking noise on the door to JunHyung’s apartment, and everyone freezes and looks to each other.

“It’s your door,” Hyuna whispers to JunHyung, and he nods as he walks to answer it.

Hyuna and YongGuk peer down the hall to watch him open the door.

“Officer DaeHyun!” JunHyung exclaims, looking back to them over his shoulder as DaeHyun moves into view.

Hyuna feels her heart beat stop all but a second before exploding into palpitations of anxiety.

“What are you doing here?” JunHyung turns back to the officer.

DaeHyun pants, “You’ll never believe what I found…”

DaeHyun shrugs past JunHyung, leading a young girl in by the wrist. She looks up to JunHyung as she’s pulled inside to the living room. JunHyung shuts and locks the door and then follows them in.

YongGuk stands with wide eyes and raises a pointed finger to the girl, “Is that…”

DaeHyun nods, “Guys…this is IU.” He lets the girl’s wrist go and she lightly clasps her hands together in front of her.

She has short, reddish brown hair, and wears a fashionable white t-shirt and short blue jean shorts with converse shoes. She glances around to everyone with a light smile and an air of confidence. She raises a single hand and smiles, “Hi, guys.” She her head to the side.

“What are you doing, DaeHyun?” YongGuk exclaims.

“I found her in town,” DaeHyun states, “I went back to the precinct to get my file on the symptoms but GDragon took it…”
“GDragon took it?” JunHyung turns to him.

DaeHyun nods, “He took my file because I was researching him. Then I got a call about the recent robberies, and I found her,” he looks to the young girl and she looks to him with her big eyes.

“I wasn’t the one stealing those things though,” she says, looking to YongGuk with a smirk. “I’ve only just arrived in town today.”

DaeHyun shakes his head, “I couldn’t remember the symptoms until…until I saw her…change.” He exhales, “They weren’t joking when they said there would be changes in her appearance.”

“Change how?” YongGuk asks with a raised eyebrow.

“Into a fox!” DaeHyun says with a tilt of his head as he runs a hand through his hair.

Everyone turns to the girl again, but she only smiles and looks around to everyone in turn, pausing on YongGuk. Her smile broadens and her eyes twinkle.

“I saw you in my dream,” she chimes in a sweet voice.

YongGuk stares at her for a moment and then laughs, looking to DaeHyun. “Is this some sort of joke? Some type of trick?”

“It’s not!” DaeHyun holds up his hands.

“He’s not lying,” IU speaks up, “He caught me changing when I was trying to run away, and he told me he knew others like me.” She looks around, “Are you the others?”

Hyuna nods, “I think so.”

IU smiles to her, “My name is IU, and…I think I am sixteen years old,” she shrugs, “I woke up in the forest a year ago and can’t remember anything else. I’ve been traveling around to different places just for fun.”

“I'm Kim Hyuna, and I’m twenty. I’ve been traveling down south towards the beach when I stopped here and met JunHyung,” she points her finger to YongGuk, “And YongGuk has been traveling with me.”

The girl’s eyes flit to YongGuk again and he sighs. “I'm Bang YongGuk, and I’m eighteen…I think. And I was traveling with Hyuna when we ran into JunHyung.” He points his thumb to JunHyung and rolls his eyes and IU follows his direction.

“I’m Yong JunHyung, and I’ve been here for about a year now. I met Hyuna and YongGuk here. I’m twenty three.”

IU smiles and looks between them all. “And you all…shift?”

“Shift?” Hyuna asks.

“That’s what I call it,” she states, “Shape shifting. I shift into a fox.”  She blinks and looks to the others, “What about all of you?”

“Horse.” Hyuna states and looks to JunHyung.

“Leopard,” JunHyung answers, looking to YongGuk.

YongGuk sighs, “Wolf.”

DaeHyun nods, “Okay, we got introductions over with…now what? GDragon took my file and I have nothing on any of you now.”

“We have to leave!” YongGuk speaks up. “This GDragon guy is bad news and you know it now, too! It’s time for us to move on.” He glances to IU, who looks to him with wide eyes and soft expression. “All of us,” he sighs before looking away from her.

“You can’t just leave,” DaeHyun says quietly, “We have so much to do…so much to find out.”

“I agree,” JunHyung says, tossing his bag to the ground, “We have to stay here and find out what this GDragon wants. Get answers.”

IU nods and Hyuna looks to him with worry.

“No way!” YongGuk growls. “This guy is crazy, I just know it!”

“I agree,” DaeHyun scoffs, “But you can’t just leave now…he’s been traveling all over Korea looking for you. He’s not going to give up.”

“And he’s not alone,” IU speaks up and everyone turns to her.

She walks into the middle of the room, looking out the window. “When I was in a town over along the East coast…I ran into a guy that reminds me of the description of this GDragon guy. He called himself VI and he claimed to be traveling around in search of different peoples. I think there’s more of them…and they’ll all come here to look for us.”

The group becomes quiet, staring off and thinking of what to do next.

“We can’t just run and hide for the rest of our lives,” JunHyung whispers, looking to Hyuna and then to DaeHyun, “DaeHyun…I want to know everything about this GDragon guy. Find whatever you can.”

DaeHyun purses his lips and holds his hands into fists at his side as he nods. “I’ll do what I can,” he looks to the others, “But what about you guys? Where can you stay to be safe?”

They all look to each other.

“I can stay with Chaelin,” Hyuna states and then turns to YongGuk, “You…” she glances to JunHyung, “Maybe you can stay here with JunHyung.”

“What?” Both JunHyung and YongGuk exclaim together as they look to each other.

“Just for now!” Hyuna urges, “It’s not good for any of us to be on our own. GDragon doesn’t know about IU yet…so she’s safe for now. But he knows about me, YongGuk, and JunHyung.”

They both turn away from each other. YongGuk mumbles under his breath and crosses his arms across his chest. JunHyung looks to his feet, his jaw flexing as he grinds his teeth.

“It’s just for now,” Hyuna says again, “Until we come up with a better plan. You two won’t ever be here except to sleep. We just can’t let GDragon find any of us by ourselves.”

JunHyung sighs and YongGuk nods.

DaeHyun sighs and moves towards the door.

“Where are you going?” JunHyung calls after him.

“To do some research of my own!” DaeHyun shouts over his shoulder, slamming the door behind him.

Hyuna turns to IU and smiles, “Do you want to meet Chaelin unnie?”

IU smiles and nods.

~ ~ ~

Hyuna introduces IU as an old friend from a childhood neighborhood to Chaelin. She explains that IU is part of the reason as to why Hyuna had been apartment shopping, upon hearing that her friend was visiting town. She also includes that the apartment isn't ready to move into just yet. Chaelin welcomed IU with open arms and a wide smile. The two talked easily and laughed fast, already feeling comfortable around each other. CL shows IU the store, and IU nods along and asks to help with some of the baking.

YongGuk leans on the counter, watching the two become acquainted. Hyuna looks to JunHyung and notices how he looks down to his feet in quiet defeat. She stands up and lightly touches his arm.

“Can I speak to you for a moment?” she asks quietly, and he looks down into her eyes and gives her a nod.

She quietly leads him out to the alley next to the bakery and then turns to him. She softens her eyes and gives him a light smile, “Please don’t be upset,” she says softly.

“Why would I be upset?” JunHyung mumbles, glancing away, “Because maybe my enemy in life not only is trying to steal something precious to me but he’s also encroaching into my own home?”

Hyuna tries to stifle her laughter, thinking his jealousy as something sweet now. “He’s not your enemy,” she laughs, “And he won’t be any burden to you,” she reaches forward and takes his hand, drawing his attention back to her. “And…he’s not taking anything away from you,” she says quieter, looking up into his eyes.

She can see his chest still as he holds his breath and looks down into her eyes. She smiles back. “But he is important to me, you know. So please…please do this…for me?” she tilts her head a little and he sighs and then nods. She laughs and stands on her tiptoes, “Thank you!” she says excitedly as she kisses his cheek lightly.

He holds onto her hand tighter, keeping her in place, and looks down to her. “Can I give you a kiss too?” he asks softly.

Hyuna’s eyes widen with his question, thinking that he hasn’t tried to kiss her since she ran out that one night. She blinks and nods slightly and he leans down.

His breath is warm against her cheek as his nose brushes along her skin, leaving it feeling warm at every touch. He gently presses his lips against her cheek, and then with more pressure. He pulls away slightly and his eyes glance to hers. She looks to him and feels her heart pound and her breathing still. He closes his eyes and moves to her lips, gentle at first and then with more fierceness. Hyuna finds herself kissing him back just as much, as their lips move in sync and their breathing catches rhythm together.

Out of all the confusion and change, there’s one thing that Hyuna’s sure of…and that’s that she does like JunHyung and that he has been one of the best changes in her life. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~LC~

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