Sulli is twitching in her seat. Her eyes are closed, brows furrowed, and she keeps on jerking her head to the side, as if listening to something. You know that she actually is hearing things right now, that she's trying to gather some information, and you feel uncomfortable seeing how nervous she is. She makes some kind of a weird, cut-off sound and opens her eyes just to make a grimace and turn away from whatever she just saw. 

"Okay, stop," you say. Sulli doesn't even protest, she puts the bracelet you've made for her a while ago back onto her wrist, letting out a relieved sigh once it starts working her magic and holds back the visions and voices. She opens her eyes to look at you apologetically. You sigh. "It's okay." 

"They tend to keep quiet if it's about magical beings," Sulli says. "Especially the ones that can enter their world. And the shadow you told me about seems to be such a creature." 

"Yeah," you say, nodding. "That's true. Thanks for trying." 

*

"Here," Kai says, handing you a lollipop. 

"Thanks," you say, frowning down at it. You start unwrapping it. "It hasn't broken any wards. That creature, I mean. It must be something from the other world. It probably showed up already inside the city, that's why I didn't feel it cross the borders." 

"Someone from Mabeob?" Kai wonders out loud.

"I don't think so," you say, the lollipop and then taking it into your mouth. "I'm not sure what we're looking for, too. Not something I've met before." 

"At least nobody died yet," Kai says with a shrug. You send him a look as you cross the street and head for Heejin's bakery. You feel your triangle tattoo warm up the closer you get, and when you focus on it, you get surprised. You glance at Kai, confused and happy at the same time. Kai just looks at you questioningly as he opens the door for you.

Heejin is standing by one of the tables, talking to some customers, and there's Suho by the counter. He turns in his seat when he hears (scents?) you two coming, and smiles brightly. 

"You're in town?" Kai asks, surprised. You approach him. Kai greets him with a pat on the shoulder. "You didn't say anything." 

"It was a last-minute decision," Suho explains. You  walk over to him and pinch his cheek. "Aww, you missed Heejin, didn't you, you complete sap?" 

Suho blushes. Of course he does. He grabs your hand to withdraw it from his face just as Heejin comes back, smiling widely at you. She's wearing her light green apron today and has her hair down. 

"Hey," she greets. 

"Hi," you and Kai say in unison. Then you say, "We came for coffee," and Kai follows with a "We found Suho instead." 

"Suho is not my cup of coffee, though," you say quickly, nodding seriously. Kai elbows you lightly. Heejin laughs out loud because she loves lame jokes (she started getting along with Chen so fast it was scary) and then you order coffee and banana cupcakes.

"Why did you come?" Kai asks Suho while Heejin is out the back. Her dad comes out in an apron, waves at you three and goes to serve some customers. 

"Tao told me Heejin is having trouble sleeping," Suho explains. "I wanted to visit her. See if she's alright." 

You squint at him. "Did you pull a Edward Cullen on her?" you ask. Suho stutters. Before he can reply, Heejin re-appears with cupcakes. 

"He did not," she says, putting the goods in front of you. "Suho, stop talking," she adds, flustered. Suho looks at her and gets that stupid look on his face that makes you feel like throwing up and singing odes of joy at the same time. Kai voices his discontent by grunting. 

"Suho, stop being a cheesecake," he asks. 

"Oh!" you yell. "Nice! Gonna set that as his new nickname." 

And then you proceed to look for your phone.

"What's his nickname now?" Heejin asks curiously. 

"Vanilla Cupcake," you reply absent-mindedly. 

"What's Kai's?" 

"Angry Alpha," you say without thinking, unlocking your phone, and then you feel panic pool in your stomach. You look up to see Heejin squinting at you with a soft, confused smile. "Uh." 

"Why 'alpha'?" she asks, chuckling a little. She flushes a little, God knows why. "Do you have weird names for everybody?" 

The conversation somehow goes from there. Thankfully, the rest of the names you've given your pack members don't involve any werewolf or magic business. 

*

It's the middle of the night. You wake up with your skin crawling and immediatelly use your magic to turn on all the lights. Your eyes snap up towards the window and you see a pair of yellow eyes behind the glass. It doesn't even last a second. Once you look at the thing, it's gone, it runs away quickly. You know that it can't get into the house because you've covered it with wards and protection spells and circled it with ash, but knowing that it watched you from afar makes you lose your cool. You're shaking a little when you're calling Kai.

He comes over and you spend the rest of the night reasearching black creatures with yellow eyes. Curiously, you find the most informative stuff on the Internet.

*

"Have you ever met a Mare?" you ask Siwon the next day. He's watering his weird plants and you're watching him do so. 

"A Mare?" he asks. He glances at you to make sure he heard that right. "As in, a nightmare?" 

"Not exactly," you shake your head. "It has a few names, actually. Pesanta, Batibat, Lietuvēns, Karabasan—"

"Ah," Siwon interrupts. "Yes. The spirit that visits at night. What about it?" 

"We think it might be in town."

Siwon puts the watering can away, crosses his arms over his chest and looks at you attentively.

"I saw it," you say. "Black body, yellow eyes. It ran away when I the lights. I saw it before, at the park, a day earlier."

"That's not good," Siwon admits, humming. 

"Why? I thought they feed on dreams. And fear. I found something about them in one of your books, it said they're unpleasant, but not actually dangerous."

"Most of them aren't," Siwon admits, "but if you've seen the same Mare twice, it means that this one is more stubborn." 

"As in?" 

"It's probably found itself a victim it really likes." 

"And?" you ask, frowning. "They don't do any harm, do they? Except for being creepy, stealing dreams, and causing temporary insomnia." 

"Some people say they steal bodies," Siwon says before you can continue on. You close your mouth with a click. "They immbolize one's body and wait until their soul, panicked enough, leaves the body. That happens sometimes when the Mare is around. Then they jump in, stealing the body. But it's only a legend. I'm not sure if it's even real."  

"That is seriously the creepiest thing I've heard in my life," you gasp out. "But we don't know if the Mare that I saw is this bad, right?" 

"It's definitely set its mind on something, or someone, if it's still here. They usually show up from time to time and disappear after they feed; they don't need much to survive. Whoever it is that became their victim might be in danger." 

"How do we find it then?" you ask. "Sulli couldn't."

"They're not permanent creatures," Siwon says. "Sulli wouldn't be able to find it." 

"Who would, then?" 

"Nobody, probably," Siwon replies and pinches the bridge of his nose. "Hm. Light scares them off. Light and ash. I think there was a ritual that could scare them away for good, too," he adds, his voice suddenly getting louder. He pushes himself off the wall and all but runs into his office, probably in search of the right book. You follow him inside; he's already knocked down a few books and is making a mess in his library.

*

"Have you slept at all?" Minjoon asks Heejin. She shakes her head, tired. Her eyes are tiny and she's as pale as ever. "Heejin, I think you should go see a doctor." 

"I know," Heejin admits. "My mom said she'll take me this Wednesday." 

"That's two days away." 

"That's the soonest she could make an appointment." 

Minjoon sighs. Then he grabs at Heejin's backpack straps and takes it off her shoulders. She barely even notices, that's how sleepy she is. 

"Have you tried taking some sleeping pills?" he asks. 

"I can sleep," Heejin points out. "I'm just scared to. It's getting out of hand." 

"Are you going grocery shopping today?" Minjoon asks. Heejin nods, yawns, and stumbles over nothing. Minjoon makes a worried face. "I'll go with you. Just call me when you're off work. Are you going to be okay?" 

"I'll live. I'll drink some coffee and I'll be alright, I'm sure," Heejin says, smiling up at him. Then she takes his hand into her own and squeezes once. "Thank you for worrying about me. And for going grocery shopping with me. I appreciate that." 

"Of course," Minjoon says, taking his hand away from her only to give her a half-hug. He's only a few centimeters taller than her and it's always nice to hug her because of that. "I didn't get the best friend title for nothing."

He goes home. Heejin calls him around six. The sky is pink and orange when he leaves the house. They go shopping together. Heejin looks a bit more lively during that; they buy everything she has on the list from her parents and lose track of time in the sweets section because Minjoon can't decide if he wants strawberry or raspberry chocolate. Once in the queue to the register, Minjoon swears under his breath. 

"We just missed your bus," he announces, glancing at Heejin with panic. The girl groans and throws her head back in annoyance. 

"Nooo," she drawls out. "Urgh. The next one is in, like, two hours."

"I'll walk you."  

"No, you've already come all the way here." 

"Yeah, but there's a bus to my place every half an hour," Minjoon counters. "I'm not gonna let you wander around like a zombie." 

"I don't look like a zombie," Heejin sulks, trying to elbow him. She misses him by good five centimeters and sways to the side. 

"You do," Minjoon says, nodding seriously. "Right now you totally do."

*

"What's that?" Suho asks, stopping short in the middle of the room. You're drawing a circle on Kai's floor using white chalk. There're weird symbols inside it that Suho recognizes as Slavic - really pretty and very detailed - two bowls containing weird-colored fluids, some dried flowers, and a branch of some tree. "Should I be worried?" 

"We're kicking an evil spirit out of town," you explain, adding a symbol that looks like a flower to the circle. "It's lurking somewhere. This is supposed to drive it out." 

"Of course. Wait, what evil spirit?" Suho asks, confused. "There's some evil spirit?" 

"Yeah. I saw it yesterday."

"Has it done something wrong?" 

"Not yet, but we don't want to risk it." 

Tao enters the loft then. "Hey, hi, hello," he greets and stops next to Suho. He looks down at you drawing the symbold. "Whoa. What are you doing?" 

"She's driving out an evil spirit," Suho explains. Tao looks at him wide-eyed, then starts trashing around in search of the said spirit, scared to the bone. 

"Where?!" he all but yells. 

"Not here, captain dumb," you say, rolling your eyes. You enter the circle, careful not to destroy the drawings, and take the dried flowers. You set it on fire and let the ashes of it fall into one of the bowls inside the circle. Whatever it is, it smells and looks like blood, and you don't really want to ask Siwon if it is, in all actuality, blood. You cringe a little when you feel the fire touch your fingers and you throw the entire burning flower into the bowl. Then you exit the circle, take some elm tree ash from your kit, and add an additional circle of it around the already drawn white circle. 

"What does it do?" Tao asks. 

"It'll scare the spirit—"

"I know what the circle does, I meant the spirit," Tao interrupts. "What is it, even?" 

"A Mare," you explain. "It comes to people at night. They say it evokes sleep paralysis. This one is particularly nasty. It looks like it has set its mind on someone in particular. Siwon says it's possible it wants to steal their body. That's why I'm getting rid of it." 

Tao blinks at you. Next to him, Suho's heart rate reaches the roof, and they both look at each other with pure panic in their eyes. 

You look up at them. They're both pale and you feel coldness envelop you because you know what these faces mean. 

"What is it?" you ask. 

"Heejin," Suho says, snapping his head at you.

*

It's the third time Minjoon has heard some weird noise next to them and he feels weird. He feels like someone is following them, but every time he looks over his shoulder, nobody's there. Except for that one time they walked past a couple going home. 

Heejin is too exhausted to talk. He tried to make small-talk, to which she replied with half-words or tired laughs. Minjoon gave up at some point and is now trying to fight off his unfounded fear. Still, he holds his phone in his hand, just in case. He feels weirdly endangered. Maybe he's getting paranoid. 

They reach the parking lot near Heejin's house. They're completely alone; there's not a soul around them, and that's what makes Minjoon worried out of his skin. The hair on the back of his neck stand up, God knows why, and when he looks at Heejin, she looks like she's about to pass out. 

"Heejin," he calls. "Hey." 

"Hm?" she looks at him, her eyes half-lidded. He opens his mouth to say something when he sees a black shape show up behind the girl, just looming next to her, almost melting with the dark background. It looks like a shadow, like it's barely there. Breath hitches in his throat, blood rushes in his ears, and he blinks.

Adrenaline hits. Then something else hits; it feels like air pushes him back. Suddenly, he's flying, as do Heejin's groceries, and he hits the ground with a surprised grunt. He looks at Heejin to see her staring at Minjoon with a shocked expression; she's about to call his name and run towards him when the creature, whatever it is, stretches its arm towards her. It's a long, human-like arm that doesn't look normal at all. When she notices it, her scream gets stuck in in a wave of terror.

She's gonna die. Minjoon is gonna die. This is all a nightmare. It can't be real, can it? It's Minjoon's mind playing tricks on him. 

This is not real. 

He remembers the time he saw a shadow behind his window and was sure it's a person. He saw it moving like a person, he was sure that person spoke. But when he called his mom and she pushed the curtains away, it turned out it was just a tree and wind playing tricks on his mind. It wasn't real. Just as this isn't real. Some part of his brains tells him so. It might be to protect him, he doesn't know. He does know that when he stands up and sees the creture touch Heejin's neck, he's sure it's not real. 

It all feels like a dream. 

He hears someone shout. He can't make out the words, though, and he sees someone run past him in a blur. A weird growl pierces the air.

Heejin's head is tilted to the side. She's staring into the monster's yellow, hollow, inhuman eyes now, and is trembling all over. She's frozen in place, unable to move. She sees the monster now, in its full, pure form, and she knows that she's not dreaming. It's real. It's touching her. It's making her skin ache and bruise with its delicate touch alone. Tears well in her eyes. 

She sees movement in her peripheral vision and her eyes snap to the side. She sees Suho behind the monster, his face furious but confident. He lets out a weird, growling sound that's in sync with a swing he takes with his arm; Heejin sees claws. Actual, shining claws. They swish through the air and pierce into the monster's body. It lets go of Heejin immediately, arching back, and Heejin stumbles over her own feet, landing on the concrete.

Suho throws the monster to the side with strength she didn't know a human could possess. The creature's body goes smoke-like for a short second as it hits the ground; Suho makes an abrupt movement and throws something onto the ground next to his feet. Whatever it is, it bursts with bright light and lots of noise. A weird sound echoes in the parking lot; it's like a torn-out scream. Heejin has to close her eyes at the brightness that blinds her momentarily, and then she feels warm hands touch her arms.

"Are you okay?" Suho asks, pulling her up without any help from her. She's numb right now, like a doll, and Suho embraces her so tight it hurts. He turns her in his embrace to take a look at her face. She's as pale as ever, her eyes are all over the place, shining and scared, and there's a huge bruise blossoming on her neck where the Mare touched her. Tears show up in her eyes. Suho is literally holding her up by squeezing her shoulders. "Stand. Try to stand," he says. Heejin clutches at his jacket, trying to force her feet to move and hold her up. 

"What's going on?" she asks. She looks at Minjoon, who's sat down and is as dumb-founded as she is. 

"Don't worry," Suho says, rubbing his thumbs on her shoulders. "It's gonna be alright. You're safe now. It was just—" 

He doesn't finish because he suddenly lets go of her and bends away from her, his whole body flexing back as something black flies right between their faces. It swishes through the air and jumps over, lands on Heejin's left. Suho's clenched fist flies right by Heejin's head and she hears the sound of it meeting something. 

It all happens too fast for her to see. She's too scared and tired to see. Her body is fighting to stay awake, adrenaline is filling her veins. She needs to get out of Suho's way. She takes a few steps back and takes in the scene before her; Suho with his eyes shining blue and the yellow-eyed creature attacking him. It doesn't feel remotely real. 

She stumbles and falls, and crawls back as far away as she can, watching as Suho growls and throws punches at the creature that moves by sliding from side to side, under Suho's feet, next to his head, everywhere. It moves however it wants. 

"Incoming!" someone yells and then literally flies above her head.

Tao lands on the top of the creature, legs first, of course, and literally pierces through it with the balls of his feet. His aim is spot-on. When he meets the ground, the concrete cracks and breaks under him, and Suho jumps back, way too far for a normal human being to be able too. Heejin looks at his eyes, at the two blue, shining orbs, and swallows hard. 

The Mare screams under Tao and he feels shivers run down his spine. He lets out a disgusted sound when he feels the creature slither through his legs; it gets out, but when he does, Suho is there to grab it by its neck. It's tangible. Its touch is painful; Suho realizes that bruises are forming around his fingers when he squeezes the creature. It's too-long arms stretch out towards Suho's face, but before it can touch him, he throws it over his shoulder, yells, and hammers it into the concrete. 

The whole ground shakes. Tao stands up. Suho lets go of the creature; it goes very small and shapes into something like a ball. It stretches out, yells in a nervous manner, and lets out a cry. It sounds weird. Like a bird of some sort, maybe. It's unpleasant. 

"Come on, Dal," Suho mutters, throwing his right arm to the side and extracting his claws again. He growls, low in his throat, and Tao replies with a growl of his own when the creature stands up from the ground. Its movements are slow and lazy, but Suho can somehow sense its anger and desperation. Its hunger. It looks like Heejin's dreams weren't enough to feed it. "Spell. Cast that freaking spell." 

"Suho!" Tao yells. 

The Mare throws itself at the werewolf, but he's quicker. He spins on his heel, feels the Mare touch his back briefly, and does a full-spin just to pierce through the Mare's throat with his out-stretched claws. He feels blood dripping down his fingers, and it's not the monster's blood. It's his own. 

The monster yells in pain, though. Suho is the one bleeding, but the Mare is the one really hurting. Suho withdraws his hand and throws his left leg out, kicking the creature good fifty meters away; it spins in the air like a spinning top. It hits the ground and rolls on it a few times, letting out torn-out sounds of pain. 

Suho prepares himself for another attack, but then a wave of magic hits his back and he sways on his feet. He sees the same wave touch the Mare, and when it does, the monster goes ape crazy. It lets out a loud yell, shakes all over, and starts crawling away on the ground, running away. It stands up and dissolves into thin air, its scream echoing in the air. 

Kai shows up out of nowhere, Chen in tow. 

Tao plops down onto the ground. "You're a little late to the party." 

"Heejin!" Suho yells, running towards the girl, who's promptly fallen onto the ground. Her heart is beating erattically in her chest. Suho grabs her by the shoulders and shakes her a little until she looks at him. "You okay? Heejin?" 

The girl focuses her eyes on him. For the next ten seconds, she's completely silent. Suho is very close to snapping his fingers in front of her nose just to see if she's still aware of her surroundings when she speaks up.

"I knew you were not a member of an online gaming community battling mystical creatures," she says. It's a very long sentence and it's the peak of her abilities at this point. She passes out.

*

Heejin wakes up in Suho's arms. He's not asleep when she does. She stirs a little, tilts her head back, and sees him staring at her with worry.

"Hello there," she greets, stretching out her legs. She turns away from him, re-positions herself a little against Suho's chest, and sighs contently. Then she realizes what the situation is and gets flustered. She sits up, all the memories coming back to her, and her head spins. She looks to the side; Suho has also sat up. "Wait." 

"I know," he says. "It's a lot to take in."

She frowns at him. "You're not—this is not. What happened. Was. I don't—" 

"Maybe you should sleep some more?" Suho propositions. 

"No," Heejin replies, shaking her head. "And what's even—is it the morning already? Where's my dad?" 

"Downstairs, making toast," Suho says. 

"How do you know that?" 

"I can hear him walking around the kitchen and pulling out bread." 

"And that's because—?" 

"I'm a—you know what, maybe we should leave that for later. If you still want to—"

"You saved me."

He clicks his mouth shut. 

"It was a team effort," he mutters. "It was mostly Dal's doing, but—" 

And then she kisses him. Her lips taste like strong coffee and cookies, and the sudden, still unknown touch makes Suho's skin tingle; his whole body arches towards her and he cups her face. Heejin's kiss is brief and delicate, surprising to both him and her. He feels his eyes shining deep blue and hears Heejin's heart stutter in her chest at the sight. 

She gasps. "Do that again."

Ta-dah! The big reveal finally happened. Minjoon has always been part of the package, so he knows too, now. Oops.
Hope you enjoyed the tiny bit of action I managed to write. Had fun with this one!

Also, I checked Dal's tumblr a few days ago anD WOW YOU GUYS ARE AWESOME XD

I got so many comments about your weird sleeping adventures and dudes. It's really creepy but the black monsters sitting down on you during sleep paralysis is a thing. If you go through the comments under the previous chapter, you'll see lots of similar stories from different people from different places all over the world and it's crazy, lol. Let's unite orz

Love youuu banana cupcakes <3